It will have been seen, from the foregoing
historical sketch, that Poland has at all times
been fruitful in the production of great men—
especially of men possessing signal military
genius. There has never been any want of intellect,
or of manhood in its most vigorous form, in the
Polish people. Yet the nation has lain for three-
quarters of a century under the feet of empires
which in earlier ages felt the might of its sword,
and one of which, less than two hundred years
ago, was saved from destruction by its valour
and ability. The causes of this change were
indicated beforehand by Sobieski. The
constitution of Poland was radically false. It was
contrived for the benefit of a single class, and
that class used its privileges with cruel selfishness.
On the death of Casimir the Great, in
1370, the ancient dynasty of Piast, which had
held the sceptre from the pre-Christian ages,
became extinct; that of Jagellon succeeded; and
subsequently the monarchy was made elective.
The state was thenceforth called a Republic;
and a Republic it really was, only of the very
worst kind. It was an aristocratical Commonwealth,
headed by a king who was chosen by
the nobles exclusively, and who was little better
than their puppet. The mutual jealousies of
the great lords, which the monarch was powerless
to check, often paralysed the whole forces
of the country when they were most needed.
This, says an old account of Poland, published
in 1701, "was the reason why the King of
Sweden, with an army of forty thousand,
reduced to the last extremity a country whose
least armies generally exceeded two hundred
thousand fighting men. For their misunderstanding
[that of the nobles] is such, and the
authority of their prince so little, that, before
the diet is assembled, and the gentry come to a
resolution, the enemy have time to do what
they please, there being no place of strength to
put a stop to them until they come to Warsaw."
The privileges and immunities of the nobles were
of the most extravagant kind. They had the
power of life and death over their vassals, who
were no better than slaves. The laws were so
ordered as to lead to a constant accumulation
of property in the hands of the great landowners.
The house of a nobleman was a secure asylum
for persons who had committed any crime; for
no one had the right to take them thence without
the consent of the master. The judges
dared not cause a nobleman's serf to be arrested,
or his effects to be seized. Noblemen and their
vassals paid no toll or duty on the cattle,
corn, &c., which they exported. All civil posts
and ecclesiastical dignities were usurped by the
territorial lords, to the exclusion of every other
class; none but noblemen were qualified to
possess estates, with the exception of the burghers
of Cracow and four other cities; and such was
the disrepute of commerce, that the fact of
engaging in trade caused a nobleman to forfeit
the privileges of his birth. The condition of the
lower orders was, of course, proportionately
wretched. Our old friend Peter Heylyn, writing
in 1629, says that the gentlemen were " free,"
but that the peasants lived " in miserable
subjection to their lords." And the account from
which we have already quoted, and which
describes the state of things existing more than
seventy years later than the days of Heylyn,
speaks of the agricultural population as " the
poorest wretches in the world, having not the
least thing which they call their own, and being
subject to their lords, that treat them worse than
galley-slaves. If a neighbour kills a boor, it is but
paying the price he is rated at, and the business
is made up. And whereas in other countries a
nobleman is said to be worth so much a year,
here he is said to be master of so many slaves,
who work hard, live on little, and dwell in pitiful
cabins, daubed with mud, and covered with straw.
Their children play, sleep, and eat with the pigs,
whilst the father makes use of the hog-trough,
and cow-rack for table and bed."

Such was the lot of the Polish peasantry up to
the time of the partition; it goes far to explain the
fall of a country once great and powerful. The
nobility wrangled over their dishonest privileges
while the enemy was at the gates; and, when the
struggle came, the masses had no heart to strike
manfully for the preservation of an independence
from foreign rule, which meant only " miserable
subjection" to native oppressors. Of all forms
of despotism, the aristocratical is the most
debasing and cruel —the most devoid of reason and
of conscience. It was that which opened the
door of Poland to Russia, Prussia, and Austria;
and, if the vanquished nationality could be
restored to-morrow, it would be ruined a second
time, unless the Polish nobility (as we have
reason to hope) have at length learnt wisdom
from the humiliation and sorrow which their
tyrants have forced them to endure.

             MR. CHARLES DICKENS'S READINGS.
HANOVER SQUARE ROOMS. On Tuesday Evening, April 21,
               MR. CHARLES DICKENS will read his
                           DAVID COPPERFIELD,
                                           AND
        MR. BOB SAWYER'S PARTY FROM PICKWICK.
                   On Thursday Evening, April 23, his
            NICHOLAS NICKLEBY AT MR. SOUEERS'S
                                        SCHOOL,
                                            AND
                    BOOTS AT THE HOLLY TREE INN.
                   And on Tuesday Evening, April 28, his
                 CHRISTMAS CAROL, AND THE TRIAL
                                   FROM PICKWICK.
               Stalls, 5s. Centre Seats, 2s. Back Seats, 1s.
Tickets to be had at the Office of All the Year Round, 26, Wellington-
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