Who bestowed on them a magnificent palace?
Was it not Staszic!"

"Oh! yes, because he is as greedy of praise
as of gold."

"Poland esteems, as her chief glory, the
man who discovered the laws of the sidereal
movement. Who was it that raised to him a
monument worthy of his renown—calling the
chisel of Canova to honour the memory of
Copernicus"

"It was Staszic," replied the priest, "and
so all Europe honours for it the generous
senator. But, my young friend, it is not the
light of the noon-day sun that ought to
illumine Christian charity. If you want
really to know a man, watch the daily course
of his private life. This ostentatious miser,
in the books which he publishes, groans over
the lot of the peasantry, and in his vast
domains he employs five hundred miserable
serfs. Go some morning to his house there
you will find a poor woman beseeching with
tears a cold proud man who repulses her.
That man is Staszic—that woman his sister.
Ought not the haughty giver of palaces, the
builder of pompous statues, rather to employ
himself in protecting his oppressed serfs, and
relieving his destitute relative?"

The young man began to reply, but no one
would listen to him. Sad and dejected at
hearing one who had been to him a true and
generous friend, so spoken of, he went to his
humble lodging.

Next morning he repaired at an early hour
to the dwelling of his benefactor. There he
met a woman weeping, and lamenting the
inhumanity of her brother.

This confirmation of what the priest had
said, inspired the young man with a fixed
determination. It was Staszic who had placed
him at college, and supplied him with the
means of continuing there. Now, he would
reject his gifts—he would not accept benefits
from a man who could look unmoved at his
own sister's tears.

The learned minister, seeing his favourite
pupil enter, did not desist from his occupation,
but, continuing to write, said to him:

"Well, Adolphe, what can I do for you
today? If you want books, take them out of
my library; or instruments—order them, and
send me the bill. Speak to me freely, and tell
me if you want anything."

"On the contrary, Sir, I come to thank you
for your past kindness, and to say that I must
in future decline receiving your gifts."

"You are, then, become rich?"

"I am as poor as ever."

"And your college?"

"I must leave it."

"Impossible!" cried Staszic, standing up,
and fixing his penetrating eyes on his visitor.
"You are the most promising of all our pupils
—it must not be!"

In vain the young student tried to conceal
the motive of his conduct; Staszic insisted on
knowing it.

"You wish," said Adolphe, "to heap favours
on me, at the expense of your suffering family."

The powerful minister could not conceal
his emotion. His eyes filled with tears, and
he pressed the young man's hand warmly, as
he said:

"Dear boy, always take heed to this counsel
—'JUDGE NOTHING BEFORE THE TIME.' Ere
the end of life arrives, the purest virtue may
be soiled by vice, and the bitterest calumny
proved to be unfounded. My conduct is, in
truth, an enigma, which I cannot now solve—
it is the secret of my life."

Seeing the young man still hesitate, he
added:

"Keep an account of the money I give you,
consider it as a loan; and when some day,
through labour and study, you find yourself
rich, pay the debt by educating a poor,
deserving student. As to me, wait for my
death, before you judge my life."

During fifty years Stanislas Staszic allowed
malice to blacken his actions. He knew the
time would come when all Poland would do
him justice.

On the 20th of January, 1826, thirty
thousand mourning Poles flocked around his bier,
and sought to touch the pall, as though it
were some holy, precious relic.

The Russian army could not comprehend
the reason of the homage thus paid by the
people of Warsaw to this illustrious man.
His last testament fully explained the reason
of his apparent avarice. His vast estates were
divided into five hundred portions, each to
become the property of a free peasant—his
former serf. A school, on an admirable plan
and very extended scale, was to be established
for the instruction of the peasants' children in
different trades. A reserved fund was
provided for the succour of the sick and aged.
A small yearly tax, to be paid by the liberated
serfs, was destined for purchasing, by degrees,
the freedom of their neighbours, condemned,
as they had been, to hard and thankless toil.

After having thus provided for his peasants,
Staszic bequeathed six hundred thousand
florins for founding a model hospital; and he
left a considerable sum towards educating
poor and studious youths. As for his sister,
she inherited only the same allowance which
he had given her, yearly, during his life; for
she was a person of careless, extravagant,
habits, who dissipated foolishly all the money
she received.

A strange fate was that of Stanislas Staszic.
A martyr to calumny during his life, after
death his memory was blessed and revered by
the multitudes whom he had made happy.

Now ready (with a copious Index,) Price Three Shillings,

THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE

HOUSEHOLD NARRATIVE OF
CURRENT EVENTS.

Being a complete Record of the events of the year

EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY.