as high as they please. Everyone has the right
to sell spirits, but there must: be paid to the
lessee an immense excise. The brandy lessees
Utin, in St. Petersburg, and Janatch in Warsaw,
have both become millionnaires. The
brandy excise has apparently been abolished,
but it exists factitiously, and the management
of it has passed into the hands of the Russian
officials—Tchinovinks, or Russian locusts.

There are in Poland a vast number of sources
of revenue, showing the barbarian mode of
government. As an example, take the day-ticket,
a tax laid upon the Jews; every Israelite is
compelled to pay from fifteen to twenty kopecks
a day if he goes on a journey or enters another
town than that in which he resides. Foreign Jews
are also subjected to this impost. Thus, when
Rachel came to Warsaw, she was negotiating
with the director of the theatre on the subject
of giving some representation, when one of the
police entered her lodgings and demanded
head-money. An hour afterwards she left, the city.
The lottery is another demoralising source of
revenue, which returns a million and a half to
the Russian military treasury, after deduction
for an immense amount of peculation. The
only regular source of revenue is that derived
from tobacco; but it is difficult to explain why
people should be forbidden to smoke out of doors.
The punishment for the first offence is a fine, and
imprisonment for the second.

Beside the theatre stands the post-house,
which extends into the Cracow suburb. From
here the diligences start. For the present, the
letter-post is under the management of the
police: every letter being opened, and then
daubed together again without ceremony. In
this condition I found a letter which awaited
me at Warsaw. Deceit is now the rule; and
the revenue from letters is diminished by
three-fourths. The city post, in fact, was almost
annihilated whilst Muchanow was minister. One
day; he received about a thousand letters, in
which was merely the single word miau, written
to indicate cat-music.

The cathedral of Poland stands in a narrow
street. It is rich in old monuments, and
possessed of some fine pictures. In consequence
of the sorrow of the church, the altar is now
hung with black. The bells are never rung,
and no festival is celebrated. And all this is
observed by the whole Polish nation as by
common consent.

Of the immediate object of my journey to
Warsaw I have already spoken; secondary to
which I determined, if possible, to obtain some
information regarding the three young Swedes
who had voluntarily entered the insurgent army.
On the second day of my being in Warsaw, I
presented myself to my superior, whom I had
already informed of my arrival by means of the
organisation. Among other business, I
communicated to him certain matters of importance,
the decision upon which required the consent
of the National Government. My superior undertook
to lay these before the national council of
the interior, by whom they would be submitted
to the supreme council. Once satisfied that
these important matters were in proper train, I
was at liberty to take available steps on behalf
of the captive Swedes. .My plan of action was
simple. I would present myself as a Swede to
the English consul, and request his co-operation.
Two days after the Zamoyski tragedy,
I set off to call at the British Consulate,
which is situated in the alley. Scarcely had I
entered this beautiful promenade, when I saw a
gentleman in a French hat advancing towards
me. A moment's reflection convinced me that
this could be no other than the consul himself,
because no Pole would wear a cylindrical hat, or
be otherwise than in mourning. At all events, I
was sure it was an Englishman, and as we met,
I said, " Can you direct me, sir, to the English
consular-house?"

"I myself am the English consul," he replied.
"In what can I serve you ?"

I related the object of my journey to Warsaw,
as regarded the Swedes. The consul
heard me with attention, and taking paper and
pencil from his pocket, handed them to me,
saying, " Write me the names of your three
countrymen. It will be necessary for those
Russian generals whom I know, and from whom
I may make inquiries. Come to me early in
the morning, and you shall have your answer."

He left me in a cheerful state of mind. I
continued my way to the Belvedere, and he
went on towards the town.

On my return, I found a man waiting for me.
He brought me a letter from the National
Minister of the Interior, informing me that the
general council had, on the previous day,
favourably received and considered my
proposals; that they had been immediately
submitted to the supreme council; and that it now
merely remained for me to await their reply.

I felt so happy that I hardly knew what to do
next. Had I been in Paris or Stockholm I
should have taken a carriage and driven round
the Champs Elysées, or to the Djurgard, but
here the wisest thing was patiently to confine
myself to a promenade in my own room. In
the afternoon I went out to buy a book,
and chance led me to the publisher of the
Polish translations of Fredrika Bremer's and
Andersen's works. Scarcely had I, in
conversation with the shopman, mentioned my
false nationality, than he was immediately sent
by his principal to fetch ten volumes, the works
of my highly esteemed friends, in the Polish
tongue, which I was requested to convey to
their authors in Stockholm and Copenhagen.
It was indeed an agreeable day for me, and in
order to celebrate it fitly I bought a little
lantern, with which I went into the streets
after sunset; I soon returned home, however,
because I was unwilling to risk the going out
of the little light. I had, at first, the intention
of going to a coffee-house and looking through
the newspapers, but then I remembered the police
regulation, which forbids any one to remain in
a public place for more than ten minutes, and
threatens any breach of this law with deportation.