LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY 
 OF F. VON BOSCHAN
 
 V 
 
 /WL^T^I
 
 ..NX

 
 <s f / 
 
 REVELATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 AUSTRIA. 
 
 M. KOUBRAKIEWICZ, 
 
 EX-AUSTRIAN FUNCTIONARY. 
 
 EDITED BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 T , I T. REVELATIONS OF RUSSIA/' "EASTERN EUROPE. 
 AN*D THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS," ETC. 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 T. ( NEWBY, 72, MORTIMER St., CAVENDISH S<j
 
 r.'l 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The Editor has been induced to append a few notes, 
 and these prefatory remarks to this translation 
 of Mr. Koubrakiewicz's " Revelations of Austria/' 
 (or, Mysteres d'Autriche,J because, whilst it throws 
 light on one of the despotisms of Eastern Eu- 
 rope, it is calculated to mislead the public as 
 to others. It derives importance from the fact 
 that there exists no work by any competent writer ; 
 nor, indeed, any work whatever which enters into
 
 11 PREFACE. 
 
 detail on the subject of which it treats. Mr. Koubra- 
 kiewicz held office for many years under the Austrian 
 government, in Gallicia, or Austrian Poland, which he 
 principally describes. No writer has therefore yet 
 appeared better qualified to depict its administra- 
 tion and condition. The general agreement of his 
 statements with the private information furnished 
 from that country to the Editor, are to him a gua- 
 rantee of the good faith of his author's statements. 
 Mr. Koubrakiewicz's work is, therefore, the best on 
 a country which recent events have invested with a 
 painful interest. He affords us the best evidence to 
 be obtained respecting the character and effects of 
 the Austrian despotism, since born and bred under 
 its rule, and long initiated into its service. 
 
 As long as he describes what he has personally 
 seen, and treats of those subjects with which his 
 position has given him intimate acquaintance, his 
 testimony is peculiarly valuable, and we may attach 
 to it all the weight due to the narration of a straight- 
 forward eye-witness. It is in this point of view 
 that the Editor especially recommends this book ; 
 though he sees reason to differ, both in matters of
 
 ritEFACE. Ill 
 
 fact and of opinion, with its author, wherever mak- 
 ing any departure in his work from direct tes- 
 timony, whether to indulge in speculative reflec- 
 tions or in political remarks, respecting countries 
 beyond the sphere of his personal observation. The 
 Editor has no wish to identify his sentiments 
 with those expressed by the author, especially when 
 diverging into religious or political discussion, or 
 entering upon questions of political economy. In- 
 deed, the notions of Mr. Koubrakiewicz on all 
 these subjects, but especially the latter, appear to 
 him, crude and jejeune. 
 
 Political economy is a science, it should be remem- 
 bered, of which the fundamental truths are only 
 now beginning to be popularly disseminated amongst 
 ourselves ; — a species of knowledge in which France 
 is still twenty years behind us, and Eastern Europe 
 twenty years behind France. 
 
 The bitter hostility of Mr. Koubrakiewicz to 
 Catholicism is not unnatural in a Polish patriot, ac- 
 customed to see Rome itself, and the dignitaries of 
 its Church in Austria, conniving with its Roman 
 Catholic Prince to keep his subjects in misery
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 and subjection ; but this author does not do jus- 
 tice to the patriotism of the inferior clergy ; and 
 in the inferences which he draws from his parallel 
 between the Greek and Romish Churches in favor of 
 the former, he is historically unjust, 
 
 Catholicism has been used as an instrument both 
 to oppress and to uphold civil liberty and national 
 independence. The Greek persuasion has almost 
 always been appropriated by despotism. If we 
 judge of the influence of both from their results, 
 with the single exception of the kingdom of Greece, 
 and the hills of Montenegro, all traces of freedom 
 have been obliterated wherever the Greek faith is 
 established ; whereas the great majority of the Ro- 
 man Catholic populations have secured representa- 
 tive forms of governments. 
 
 The dignitaries of the Roman Church sink, in 
 Austria, into tools of its despotism ; but its humbler 
 members, at least in Austrian Poland, conspire 
 against its oppressors in defiance of their superiors. 
 
 In Russia, the Greek Church is a still more pas- 
 sive instrument in the hands of power ; and if less 
 formidable from want of life and energy, it shews
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 the same spiritless submission through all its grades. 
 The Editor does not mean to argue that the 
 Greek Church is inimical to the existence of free 
 government ; on the contrary, he knows of no form 
 of the Christian Faith which is not congenial to it ; 
 but only to point outthat there exists no evidence to 
 shew that it is more so than the Roman Catholic. 
 
 It is true, paradoxical as it may appear, that the 
 ultra-Catholic feeling of the Poles may prove one 
 of the most powerful instruments of the regenera- 
 tion of Eastern Europe ; yet at the same time seri- 
 ously threatens to retard its progress. That is to 
 say, that the profoundly religious feeling of the 
 masses in Poland offers the most powerful lever for 
 raising the Polish people against the three op- 
 pressing despotisms ; and that hence its existence 
 amongst the lower classes is, in a political point of 
 view, a most fortunate circumstance. This feeling 
 should, therefore, always be appealed to in directly 
 addressing the Polish people ; but wherever it per- 
 vades, to any exclusive extent, the more enlightened 
 classes, or the organs of their opinion, it cannot 
 fail to have an unfavourable effect upon the pre
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 judices of their follow Sclavonians, suffering, as the 
 Editor has shewn elsewhere, a common oppression, 
 and constituting one vast brotherhood united by 
 successive shades of assimilation, as regards their 
 language, character, and customs, and which nothing 
 but difference of religion interrupts. It unfortu- 
 nately happens that Polish patriots are apt to regard 
 the political utility of Catholicism from one or other 
 of these points of view, making it their exclusive 
 sheet-anchor, or considering it solely in the light 
 of an apple of discord thrown between the suffering 
 populations of the Sclavonic countries. Mr. Kou- 
 brakiewicz has adopted the latter opinion. 
 
 The Editor has next to remark upon a feature 
 characteristic of Polish writers in these days of 
 national oppression, but which, without comment, 
 would go far to deceive the reader. 
 
 Mr. Koubrakiewicz, when denouncing the Austrian 
 government, whose misrule and duplicity he has 
 personally witnessed, continually exclaims, that 
 things are better even in Russia (which he does not 
 know) than in Austria, which he does. There ex- 
 ists no sort of doubt as to the place to be assigned
 
 PMFACE. Vll 
 
 in the scale of evil to the three despotisms, which 
 afford a sad illustration of the comparative degrees. 
 If we brand the rule of Prussia as bad, we must unques- 
 tionably take that of Austria as worse, and of Russia 
 as worst of alL Yet it has never happened to the 
 author to hear any Pole, whose knowledge was only 
 local, whether from Prussian, Russian, or Austrian 
 Poland, give any detail of the oppression of his 
 portion of the country, but what he declared it to 
 be worse than in the other states. These people 
 remind one of the untra veiled inhabitants of north- 
 ern climates, who are always telling you in the dog 
 days, that it is hotter than on the coast of Africa, or 
 than in the East Indies, whose sun they have never 
 tried. 
 
 Mr. Koubrakiewicz, in the hostility which, as 
 a Sclavonian, he evinces to the Germans, who, either 
 in the form of dynasties or as the tools of despotism, 
 so much oppress his people, speaks only the feeling 
 common to the Sclavonians throughout Eastern 
 Europe. After shewing that the partition of Poland 
 was effected solely by sovereigns and ministers of 
 German origin, when he alludes to Russia, ho treat*
 
 Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 of it as an unhappy Sclavonic country governed by 
 a German family and its Germanic satellites ; and 
 this distinction between the governing and the 
 governed, he does not subsequently specify, so that 
 an English reader may be often led to refer his ob- 
 servations about Russia or the Russians to their 
 government, which all the while he classes with the 
 German objects of Ids aversion. 
 
 This anti-German feeling is peculiarly character- 
 istic of public opinion at the present day throughout 
 the Sclavonic countries, and cannot excite surprise 
 if we consider the ostensible foundation which facts 
 afford to this prejudice in a hasty people, who do not 
 reflect that the system under which they suffer, 
 though chiefly upheld by Germans, is the offspring 
 not of Germanism but of despotism. 
 
 In the historical disquisition and allusions into 
 which the author enters, he is often incorrect 
 and injudicious. The array of historical facts 
 which have taken place beyond the memory of 
 the present generation, in which he indulges, is as 
 unfair against the Austrian, Russian, or Prussian 
 governments as it would be against the French or
 
 PREFACE. IX 
 
 English, and constitutes no valid argument, because 
 affording no proof of their present character and 
 spirit. 
 
 With regard to the conduct of the last Diet, 
 which ever assembled for the whole of independent 
 Poland, and respecting the reception given to the 
 Cossac or Ruthenian populations, by the Russian 
 government, when alienated from Poland by religious 
 persecution, his impressions appear to be wholly 
 erroneous ; and as respects their present treatment 
 no less so. Amongst the appendix will be found, in 
 illustration of this remark, the account of the con- 
 stituent Diet and of the behaviour of Russia to the 
 Cossacs, from several sources, but chiefly from the 
 pen of Lelewel, the most erudite of Polish his- 
 torians. 
 
 Notwithstanding the imperfections of this book, 
 which are of little consequence — since no one will 
 probably open its pages in search of religious, philo- 
 sophical, or general political knowledge — it perfectly 
 fulfils its object in giving a minute and trustworthy 
 picture of the administration and condition of tin- 
 Austrian Empire, and the Editor considers himself
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 justified in introducing it to the notice of the reader. 
 as adding fresh light to the darkness which has so 
 long envelopped the condition of those fair and popu- 
 lous regions oppressed by the three great European 
 despotisms. 
 
 The author of " Revelations of Russia," 
 "Eastern Europe and the Emperor Nicholas," d'c.
 
 REVELATIONS 
 
 AUSTRIA. 
 
 DYNASTY AND EXTERNAL POLICY OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Oct of twenty-one dynasties which govern 
 and oppress Monarchical Europe, or that 
 reign and do not govern, there are eighteen 
 of German origin. 
 
 Amongst these the first place is occupied 
 by the dynasty of Habsburg, from which 
 proceed the Sovereigns of Austria since the 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 2 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 13th Century, of which Adolphus, Count of 
 Habsburg, was the founder, and which 
 reckons in all, according to the genealogi- 
 cal almanack of Saxony, forty-five legitimate 
 members, of whom twenty -seven are Princes 
 and eighteen Princesses. 
 
 Absolute sovereigns formerlv bore the 
 title""" of Despotf, and after that of Kaiser,J 
 the two first of these titles became rather a 
 detestably ignominious, than an honourable 
 epithet, in consequence of the abuses com- 
 mitted by absolute Monarchs ; the title 
 of Kaiser, on the contrary, was sanctioned 
 
 ^. Tyrant is derived from the Greek word Tv^dwo, 
 and signifies King or Prince. 
 
 t Despot comes from lurvorm and signifies Sove- 
 reign Ruler. 
 
 X Kaiser comes from the Greek word Kan*, 
 which is translated into French by Ccesar, into Polish 
 by Cesarz, into Russia by Tsar, into German by 
 Kaiser.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 3 
 
 by the French, Polish, and Russian Scripture, 
 which enjoined to render up Kaiser, (Ccesar, 
 Cesarz Tzar) that which is Kaiser's, and to 
 render up to God that which belongs to 
 God, thus the Austrian sovereigns have 
 taken, and retained up to the present, this 
 latter title of Kaiser ; and their wives that 
 of Kaiserinn, the princes and princesses 
 bearing that of Archdukes and Arch- 
 duchesses. 
 
 I must beg leave to differ from the French 
 usage respecting the title given to the 
 sovereigns of Austria, and to bring it nearer 
 to its proper etymology and signification, 
 both because these Austrian sovereigns them- 
 selves take the title of Kaiser — and because 
 throughout Germany and Austria, where 
 given to them, it is associated with certain 
 ideas which do not attach to that of 
 Emperor.
 
 4 REVELATKIVS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Kaiser has a right over the lives and 
 fortunes of his subjects ; an Emperor has 
 only the command of the army. The 
 dynasty of Habsburg being only national 
 for a sixth part of the Empire, its rule 
 must necessarily be absolute, and all other 
 forms of government, whether monarchical 
 or democratic, are incompatible with its 
 interest and its existence. 
 
 Hence we see with what intelligence 
 and subtilty the Kaisers force the temporal 
 and spiritual governments, to look upon 
 them, not only as the centre of religious 
 and political absolutism, but also as the 
 basis of monarchies in general. 
 
 All the princes in Europe make pil- 
 grimages to Vienna, that they may be in- 
 troduced into the sanctuary of their salva- 
 tion, initiated into the mysteries of their 
 monarchical and absolute government, and
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 5 
 
 led to sign an act which the Kaisers succeed 
 in persuading them is useful and necessary 
 to the existence of all Monarchs, but which 
 only protects and guarantees the house of 
 Habsburgh in Hungary, in Poland, in Bohe- 
 mia and in Italy. 
 
 According to an organical statute of the 
 family of Habsburg all the Arch-dukes are 
 obliged to learn a trade, the Kaiser, Francis 
 the First, was a sealingwax maker, the pre- 
 sent Kaiser, Ferdinand the First, is a turner. 
 
 This statute is intended to maintain in 
 the family a positive and speculating spirit. 
 
 The Kaiser is the chief of his family, he 
 is obliged to maintain all its legitimate 
 members, but on the other hand they cannot 
 contract any legitimate marriage without the 
 consent of their head. 
 
 Alliances contracted by the Arch-dukes or 
 Arch-duchesscs without this consent are
 
 b REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 called Morganatic the children born of 
 these unions bear the titles of Barons or 
 Baronesses. 
 
 The Archduke John married, Morganati- 
 cally, the daughter of a Post-master, by 
 whom he had two little barons. 
 
 The present Kaiser, Ferdinand the First, 
 it is said, displayed, up to the age of 
 eighteen or twenty years, some cleverness 
 and independance of character; it was 
 presaged of him that when he became 
 sovereign he would not follow the immutable 
 system of his father, Francis the First, so 
 much so that he was disliked both by his 
 father and by Metternich, who were de~ 
 sirious that Francis Charles, the second sod. 
 who inherited all the systematic qualities 
 of his father, should succed to the throne. 
 
 Being one day out hunting in company 
 with his father, Mr. Metternich and other
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 7 
 
 sportsmen, the Archduke Ferdinand nar- 
 rowly escaped being killed, by a shot fired 
 at him, but the assassin was never dis- 
 covered. 
 
 Another time an Austrian officer fired 
 a pistol at him, within a few yards distance, 
 but he missed him. 
 
 This man, when discovered, was found 
 to have had an access of madness. 
 
 Different reports were circulated in 
 Galicia as to the true authors of these at- 
 tempts, called Austrian accidents. 
 
 It is said, indeed, that the conjugal im- 
 potence, epilepsy and imbecillity of Fer- 
 dinand, are only the consequences of such 
 accidents. 
 
 Tenacious constancy in good and evil 
 furtune, a thorough knowledge of man- 
 kind, the conviction of human weaknesses 
 and guile — the wisdom of appreciating
 
 8 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 all religions as essential springs of internal 
 and external policy — the total absence 
 of generosity, of noble sentiments of 
 sympathy, tenderness and pity for human 
 nature, or any love of hollow glory ; — the 
 suppression of any ill-regulated spirit of 
 vengeance, beyond what the clear-sighted 
 measures of that cold egotism, called 
 politics, allows — the art of pretending a 
 confidence without reserve, in the fidelity 
 of subjects, and in their own divine right and 
 title thereby dissimulating that general 
 and ever watchful mistrust which results 
 from the intimate conviction that they only 
 govern by the right of strength — these are 
 the hereditary qualities of the dynasty 
 of the Kaisers in general, or distinctive of 
 their system of government. 
 
 The only passion they know, and that 
 which absorbs or replaces all others, is the
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 9 
 
 love of, or rather the rapacious and insatiable 
 thirst for gold, which they look upon as their 
 God, and as the only end and aim of their 
 government and Conquests. The most 
 wretched parsimony, carried to the extreme 
 of sordid avarice, is only the consequence of 
 this predilection. 
 
 The Kaisers themselves keep the key of 
 their treasures ; they alone know the sum 
 total of the millions hidden in their cel- 
 lars. 
 
 The reader will see by the faithful pic- 
 ture I shall attempt to draw of the Aus- 
 trian administration in Galicia, an admi- 
 nistration which almost wholly resembles 
 that of the other provinces, excepting the 
 Archduchy of Austria, how infinitely clear 
 sighted and circumspect the internal policy 
 of the Kaisers is, how favourable to the 
 dynasty, and, in some measure, to the
 
 10 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 German metropolitan provinces, whilst it is 
 burthensome, oppressive and destructive to 
 the non-German provinces. 
 
 The administration of the Austrian 
 Empire, situated in the midst of Europe, 
 is less known than that of those states, 
 separated from Europe by two thousand 
 leagues of sea. Some persons think that 
 the different States which compose the 
 Austrian Empire are governed iu the same 
 manner. Strangers, not even excepting 
 the Ambassadors, who only see Vienna, the 
 German Provinces, and the Archduchy of 
 Austria, believe that the inhabitants of the 
 other Provinces not German, enjoy the same 
 institutions, the same rights ; that they have 
 the same degree of prosperity as the privi- 
 ledged German race, monopolising all the 
 higher grades, the dignities and functions,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 11 
 
 military, civil, or ecclesiastic, and forming 
 the nucleus of the Empire. 
 
 It is scarcely known, in Europe, that 
 from six to seven millions of German 
 Austrians, having a Kaiser at their head, 
 treat, as their slaves, nearly thirty-two 
 millions of human beings, of another race 
 than their own. 
 
 The English Colonies and other States 
 are at least protected, in some measure, by 
 the distance of the mother country, and 
 find a certain independance in the impos- 
 sibility which the goverment finds of un- 
 ceasingly governing them. The Austrian 
 colonies, Galicia, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, 
 Hungary, Transilvania, Dalmatia, Croatia, 
 Italy, have not that advantage ; they are 
 exposed to, and within reach, of the 
 rapacity of the " Austrian vermin" who
 
 12 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 infect and slowly consume them, without 
 interruption or intermission. 
 
 The Austrian oppression in the non- 
 Germanic Provinces, surpasses by very far 
 that of the Sultan or of the Tsar, because 
 it attacks both body and mind, with a 
 superior intelligence, a studied method, and 
 unshakable perseverance. In Russia and 
 in Turkey, only the body — the brute mass — 
 suffers from unintelligent and disorderly 
 oppression, which is often without any 
 premeditated political end : because the 
 government of these countries not being 
 raised to the level of European civilization, 
 and not having any profound knowledge of 
 the intellectual strength which alone governs 
 the world, know only how to reach the 
 brutalised masses. 
 Certain geographers, historian.*, and authors
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 13 
 
 of universal dictionaries, do not hesitate to 
 repeat, after the German works, that Austria 
 is governed by an Emperor who exercises 
 absolute power, but that he generally makes 
 use of that power with extreme mildness. 
 The government of the Kaisers passes, in 
 Europe, for a moderate, absolute govern- 
 ment, so true is it, that the cold, systematic, 
 civilized despotism of the Kaisers, prevails, 
 in the minds of those who do not know 
 it thoroughly, over the ill-regulated despotism, 
 oftimes self-injurious and always impolitic, 
 of other absolute sovereigns. 
 
 The error committed by strangers, pro- 
 ceeds from their not distinguishing the 
 Austrian administration in the German 
 Provinces, from the administration practised 
 in the non-Germanic districts. 
 
 The absolutism of the Kaisers is besides 
 palliated and upheld by the censured Ger- 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 14 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 man press, which, whilst it reproves the 
 Austrian dominion in Germany, as tyranni- 
 cal and unpopular, believes it to be a duty 
 to call it Paternal towards foreigners. The 
 Kaisers in Germanising Bohemia, Moravia, Si- 
 lesia, Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, 
 Italy, &c, — in subjecting more than thirty 
 millions of foreigners to the yoke, thereby 
 serving and defending the integrity of the 
 Germanic Empire, and the despotism of its 
 Princes, whilst at the same time ex- 
 tending the Germanic territory, language, 
 and servile spirit, appears to merit the 
 gratitude of all Teutons. The German 
 Austrians are proud of the dominion of their 
 masters over foreign nations, without re- 
 flecting that they themselves are the first 
 enslaved, forming only an abject dulocracy, 
 whilst these foreigners serve their masters 
 as instruments to keep them in the de- 
 grading servitude in which they linger, and
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 15 
 
 the spoil which their masters tear 
 from the stranger, serving only to increase 
 the means of the despotism oppressing 
 them. 
 
 The Austrian Empire exercises, for many 
 reasons, too great an influence in Europe, not 
 to make it desirable to acquire a complete 
 knowledge of its power and internal 
 policy. 
 
 It is only by ascertaining the interior 
 organization of a state, that a sane judg- 
 ment can be formed with regard to its 
 internal policy. 
 
 A nation like an individual can only 
 learn the degree of its moral or physical 
 strength, by comparison with that of other 
 nations. 
 
 The absolutist governments enjoy this 
 advantage amongst others, that they can 
 study the administration, the power or 
 weakness of constitutional States, the cha-
 
 16 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 meter of their inhabitants, and even the 
 revenues of courts, and the condition of 
 cabinets, and parties, by reading the news- 
 papers, and other publications, or by attend- 
 ing to the parliamentary debates ; whilst 
 the Constitutional Cabinets are either di- 
 vested of such information, or forced to seek 
 it in censured writings, which are invariably 
 either false or inexact. 
 
 The mystery enveloping the springs of the 
 policy of the Kaisers, forms a great por- 
 tion of their power ; they have risen to their 
 present eminence and are maintained there 
 by the sole agency of the political skill dis- 
 played in the management of their affairs. All 
 the conquests made by other people, and 
 sovereigns are due to the bravery of their 
 armies — bought with blood and treasure. 
 The Kaisers owe their numerous acquisitions 
 to marriages, treaties, and for the most 
 part to their perfidies.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 17 
 
 They have rarely been fortunate in their 
 expeditions, when openly combating with 
 military strategy and tactics. 
 
 They have rarely won victories, but al- 
 most always succeeded by calling into play 
 the springs of hidden influences; and by 
 employing a subterraneous strategy have 
 generally triumphed over their adversa- 
 ries- 
 
 They have never despaired, however bad 
 their position. More than once, during the 
 last two centuries their monarchy has been 
 on the point of crumbling in the d^ist, 
 through the loss of unfortunate battles, 
 and more than once they have come out 
 triumphant, by following those tortuous 
 paths, where cunning is of more avail than 
 strength. 
 
 It does not accord with the views of this 
 essay to recapitulate the military exploits
 
 18 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 or the solitary diplomatic acts of the 
 Kaisers ; therefore, I shall only cite some 
 few historical facts in corroboration of my 
 assertions, as to |the nature and efficacy of 
 their political means and resources. 
 
 King Henry the Fourth of France, pro- 
 posed to wage war against Austria, and on 
 the eve of his projected campaign was 
 struck by a hand which some mysterious 
 power had aimed against him, Austria 
 was saved by the blow of a dagger. The 
 people suspected the Kaiser and the Jesuits, 
 
 After the revolution of July, and during 
 the revolutionary movements in Italy, the 
 Kaiser Francis the First conceived suspicion 
 against his grandson, the Duke of Reich- 
 stadt, son of Napoleon, and that grandson 
 died immediately. Reports were spread in 
 Vienna that he was poisoned. 
 
 The Protestant league menaced the ruin
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 19 
 
 of the Austrian monarchy. The celebrated 
 Austrian general, Wallenstein, Duke of 
 Friedland, raised, at his own cost, an 
 army of fifty thousand men, and saved the 
 throne which proved ungrateful, and once 
 freed from the enemy, requited ill his ser- 
 vices. 
 
 Soon afterwards, Gustavus Adolophus 
 the hero of the seventeenth century, and 
 chief of the league, recommenced hostilities. 
 The Kaiser Ferdinand, entreated General 
 Wallenstein to take again the command of 
 his army, and in order to prevail upon him to 
 do so, promised him the gift of an hereditary 
 province, of another conquered province, 
 and of the Duchy of Mecklenberg, 
 
 He accorded him the title of Commander- 
 in-Chief, with unlimited powers in the 
 army. 
 
 "Wallenstein, placing no faith in the pro-
 
 20 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 mises of the Kaiser, fought inertly, and 
 thought only of the means of forcing him 
 to keep his word in case of victory. 
 
 He even proposed to conclude a lasting 
 peace with Sweden and the German pro- 
 vinces, and if the Court of Vienna opposed 
 it, to join himself to the Allies, and as he 
 secretly expressed himself before Arnheimer, 
 " to send the Kaiser to the devil" (Den 
 Kaiser zum teufel jagen.) 
 
 Of this the Kaiser was duly informed. 
 
 His position was most critical ; the de- 
 feat or the victory of his army, was equally 
 dangerous to him. 
 
 Under these circumstances, Francis Al- 
 bert, Duke of Lauenburg, an Austrian 
 general, deserted from the Imperial army, 
 and went over to the inimical camp of 
 Gustavus Adolphus, where he took service. 
 
 By that fawning and hypocrisy, so fami-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 21 
 
 liar to German nobles, Lauenburg won the 
 heart of the hero and became his intimate 
 favorite. 
 
 At the battle of Lutzen, Gustavus-Adol- 
 phus and his favorite the prince Lauenburg 
 lost themselves and fell into the hands of 
 some Austrians in ambuscade, who massa- 
 cred the king with sabre cuts and gun shots, 
 but allowed his companion to pass safe and 
 sound. The prince of Lauenburg, who after 
 this action repaired to Vienna, without loss 
 of time, received from his Kaiser in recom- 
 pense the command of the army of Silesia. 
 
 But with the death of Gustavus Adolphus, 
 the throne of the Kaiser was not secure 
 from all danger ; Wallenstein yet lived, and 
 troubled the repose of Ferdinand. A cap- 
 tain and six Austrian halberdiers, under 
 the command of Butler, a Colonel and faith- 
 ful servant of his Kaiser, entered the bed-
 
 22 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 chamber of Wallenstein at midnight, and 
 murdered him and his companions, the 
 Generals — Kinski and Terzki. They 
 were scarcely out of the castle, when the 
 air resounded with the cries and lamenta- 
 tions of the wives, children and servants of 
 these unhappy victims. 
 
 Ferdinand, upon receiving the intimation 
 of this news, shed tears, conformably to the 
 precepts of Machiavel, to prove his inno- 
 cence, and afterwards ordered three thousand 
 masses to be said in the churches of Vienna, 
 for the repose of the souls of the victims, 
 and recompensed the heroic devotion of the 
 tools, his faithful servants, by distributing 
 amongst them chains of honor, (gnoden- 
 ketten), Chamberlains' keys, diplomas, de- 
 grees, dignities, and knighthoods, (ritter- 
 guttes.) 
 
 Another historical fact no less remarkable
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 23 
 
 and characteristic, is too recent to be ig- 
 nored by any one. 
 
 That, however, which merits the at- 
 tention of the whole world, and which has 
 struck few investigators, is the connection 
 premeditated and foreseen between the 
 events realized in 1814, and 1815, as being 
 natural effects of facts accomplished in 
 1810, their determining causes. 
 
 The friendship of German Princes had 
 always been found more dangerous and 
 disastrous to France and its sovereigns, than 
 their enmity. 
 
 x\fter a thousand combats lost, the 
 vanquished and humbled Kaiser changed his 
 policy. 
 
 From the most implacable enemy, which 
 he was, he all at once became, in appear- 
 ance, the staunchest friend, the nearest 
 relative of Napoleon.
 
 24 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 As it has been said, " amongst the bag- 
 gage taken by assault from the Capital of 
 Vienna, Napoleon found the Archduchess 
 Maria Louisa," daughter of the Kaiser ; he 
 repudiated Josephine, his guardian angel, and 
 married the Archduchess, the devoted politi- 
 cal instrument of Austria, and the cause of 
 his degradation, and of the humiliation of 
 France. 
 
 It would be wholly to misunderstand the 
 nature of man, to suppose that a vanquished 
 enemy could so readily become the sincere 
 friend of his conqueror. 
 
 It was self deception to imagine that the 
 Habsburgs were not seeking the means of 
 revenging their humiliation, or that they 
 sincerely gave up their alliance with Eng- 
 land. 
 
 In Paris there was a great rejoicing over 
 this marriage, which was looked upon as the
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 25 
 
 ultimate and consolidating result of the vic- 
 tories obtained, and as establishing French 
 supremacy on an unshakeable basis. There 
 was rejoicing also in Vienna over this 
 " mesalliance," which was looked upon as 
 a necessary sacrifice, as a political embryo, 
 which was only engendered with the view 
 of undermining the power of France, of bring- 
 ing about her fall, and of raising Austria, and 
 with her despotism. 
 
 Germans were heard, immediately after 
 this marriage, to predict the downfal of 
 Napoleon, and the ruin of France, so fully 
 were they convinced that this marriage was 
 only a snare on the part of their Kaiser. 
 Those who were more immediately about 
 the person of the Emperor Napoleon, and 
 took part in public affairs between 1810 
 and 1815, must agree that without this mar- 
 riage, and without the inspirations, and en- 
 voi.. I D.
 
 26 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 couraging influences, direct and indirect of 
 the Germans, the chivalrous adventure of the 
 Russian campaign of 1812, would never have 
 been undertaken. Buonaparte, as a simple 
 French citizen, representative and chief of 
 the generous French Nation, was the first 
 captain in the world, the first French citizen, 
 and in some measure the defender of all 
 the oppressed. In his enterprises he 
 consulted only his own intelligence and the 
 welfare of France — his country ; he dis- 
 trusted all princes crowned by the grace of 
 God ; and was ever on his guard. 
 
 As son-in-law to the Kaiser, ennobled, 
 metamorphosed, and received within the 
 pale of German aristocracy, he consulted 
 aristocratic appearances, consulted his own 
 interests, personal and dynastic ; consented 
 to restrain France within its former 
 boundaries under Louis the Sixteenth, provid-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 27 
 
 ing he was left upon his Imperial throne. 
 He became the mere paladin of his wife, and 
 sank into the position of the last of legiti- 
 mate princes. To obtain their simulated 
 confidence, he was obliged to accord his 
 own sincere confidence, to render himself 
 worthy of being their chief, or even their equal, 
 he was obliged to become the champion of 
 sovereigns, to surround himself with clergy, 
 and be the faithful companion and zealous 
 defender of all despots. 
 
 After this marriage he appeared no more 
 the vanquisher of Jena, of Austerlitz and 
 of Wagram. 
 
 His genius was effaced, because he ceased 
 after it to exist, or to combat in that 
 democratic element which constituted the 
 strength of the French Nation. Whilst only 
 their tool he imagined himself to be the 
 master, or at least the equal of those six- 
 and-thirty reigning Germanic sovereigns,
 
 28 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 who accompanied by a crowd of non reign- 
 ing princes and princesses, without even a 
 claim to a throne, being illegitimate, as (born 
 of Germatic Morganatic marriages) and sur- 
 rounded by artful nobles congregating from all 
 tha corners of Germany came to bow the knee 
 to tender him at Dresden their homage, and 
 to engage him, by the protestations of their 
 fidelity, to undertake the adventurous enter- 
 prise. He repeated even ingenuously to his 
 wife, and in a strain of gallantry, " we men 
 rule the world, but we are ruled by the 
 women." 
 
 The plan of the Campaign fixed upon in 
 1812, by the Sclavonians of the north, called 
 by the Greek Sarmatians 2 a ^« (sweeping) 
 for their defence, was the same followed by 
 their ancestors, the Sclavonians of the South, 
 summoned by the Greeks, Scythians, 
 ix^m (or fierce men) at the time they were
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 29 
 
 successively invaded by Cyrus, Darius, and 
 Alexander the Great. 
 
 As they struck into the interior of the 
 country, the grand army of Napoleon ad- 
 vanced, burnt their towns and villages ; and 
 thus left the elements, the cold, scarcity, and 
 famine to combat for them. The remainder 
 of the grand army was destroyed by the 
 Austrians, Prussians, and the other coalized 
 states. Charles the Twelfth was vanquished 
 in the same manner, in 1709. 
 
 The Austrian monarchy having been re-es- 
 tablished in its ancient splendor, and the 
 Archduchess Maria Louise having played her 
 part, she returned to Vienna, to receive from the 
 holy alliance, the Duchy of Parma, as a recom- 
 pense for her generous devotion. To prove 
 that her marriage with Napoleon was a 
 mere diplomatic affair, she sent him, when 
 at the Island of Elba, an act of divorce.
 
 30 REVELATIOJiS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 The ennobled Napoleon had not sufficient 
 pride, moral courage, or self-love, to repay 
 contempt by contempt. He had boldly de- 
 manded a divorce from the chaste and virtu- 
 ous Josephine, the French citizeness, whose 
 love was past all proof, and who died over- 
 whelmed by grief at the misfortunes which 
 fell on her ex-husband ; yet he refused to 
 accept the divorce from the Austrian subject 
 Maria Louise, who despised him, and who was 
 so anxious to offer her charms to another. 
 
 Alexander the Great perished a victim to 
 his debaucheries ; Charles the Twelfth to his 
 generous temerity ; Napoleon succumbed to 
 his insolent pride. 
 
 Besides the millions which France had 
 paid to the Coalition under the title of mili- 
 tary contributions and indemnifications of 
 all kinds, of which Austria had its part ; 
 the Kaiser Francis had secretly demanded
 
 RKVFLATIOSS OF AUSTRIA. 31 
 
 of Louis the Eighteenth, and of Prince Tal- 
 leyrand, and had received the sum of twenty 
 five millions. Princes have been known to 
 betray their relatives, and even their own 
 children, but they had never before been 
 seen betraying them from mere mercenary 
 considerations. It is to be hoped therefore 
 for the honor of Princes and Kaisers, that 
 these twenty-five millions demanded and 
 paid were so in satisfaction of some other 
 secret claim.* 
 
 In general, the outward policy of Austria 
 is patient and exempt from passion. It 
 neither attempts to defend humanity, nor 
 disinterested friendship, nor national dig- 
 nity or honour. 
 
 The Kaisers only fight to augment or pre- 
 
 * History of the Treaties of 1815, by Cretineau 
 Joly.
 
 32 Revelations op austria. 
 
 serve their treasure ; and even then they 
 very rarely act alone, ostensibly, or directly. 
 
 They possess the gift of exciting other 
 more ardent or vain sovereigns and 
 people, by insinuations of their im- 
 potence, and above all by their own 
 simulated poverty, to fight in their interest ; 
 whilst they only interfere publicly to di- 
 vide or to take exclusive possession of the 
 prize. 
 
 To possess themselves of Ancient Poland, 
 the Kaisers made use of their daughters, 
 whom they gave as wives to the Kings of 
 Poland ; of the Pope, and Jesuits, whom 
 they disposed of as suited their purposes, 
 and afterwards of the Poles and their Kings 
 in like manner. The most fearful period of 
 the Polish history is that when an Austrian 
 Archduchess sat upon their throne. By 
 turns, the unhappy Poles were excited.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 33 
 
 sometimes to attempt the conquest of Sweden, 
 sometimes to that of Russia, sometimes to the 
 murder of those of their brethren, who re- 
 mained faithful to the religion of their 
 fathers, and would not recognize the sove- 
 reignty of the Pope and the Jesuits. 
 
 In order to invade western Poland, the 
 Kaisers inspired the Poles with the prospect 
 of identifying themselves with Lithuania, 
 by removing their capital towards the East, 
 transporting the government seat to "VVarso- 
 via, and abandoning Cracow, the cradle of 
 Poland, the birth-place of its hereditary 
 Kings, and the Polish cradle of art and science, 
 in fact, the Polish Pantheon, full of the histo- 
 rical memories of the past, and mysterious 
 destinies of the future. 
 
 Schiller, the celebrated author of the 
 Thirty Years' War, says, that Sigismund, who 
 waged war against Gustavus Adolphus, son-
 
 34 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 in-law to Habsburg, and aided with his ships 
 ,the Austrian General Wallenstein, during the 
 siege of Stralsund, was only a tool in the 
 hands of the Kaiser, wherewith to bear down 
 German liberty. 
 
 As soon as the Poles had become accus- 
 tomed to look upon Lithuania, as a prin- 
 cipal and component part of Ancient Poland, 
 the Kaisers placed a German Princess, 
 of Anhalt-Zenbst, afterwards know by the 
 name of Catherine II. upon the throne of 
 Russia, and then excited the Russians to 
 reclaim Lithuania, and the Russian provinces, 
 exciting at the same time the Poles to defend 
 them by promising them succour in case of 
 need. 
 
 Meanwhile they persuaded France and 
 England that Poland, united with Lithuania, 
 would become too preponderant. 
 
 Whilst the Polish noble Militia (Schlachta)
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 35 
 
 commanded by the Jesuits, went forth from 
 their country to dispute Russia with the 
 Russians, the Germans themselves made an 
 inroad into ancient Poland itself, and oc- 
 cupied the two capitals of Cracovia, and 
 Warsovia, to the great astonishment of the 
 Schlachta Sovereign, who believed them to 
 have come to aid him, and who looked upon 
 them as his most faithful allies. They how- 
 ever succeeded in persuading the Schlachta 
 that the existence of Poland was absolutely 
 necessary to the equilibrium of Europe, and 
 that anarchy was the principle of life. 
 
 The Abbe Mably,in that part of his works in 
 which he speaks of the condition of Poland 
 in 1726, says to the Poles with much saga- 
 city and judgment : " The King of Prussia, 
 and the Empress Queen Maria-Theresa, rule 
 over you, no less than Russia, and these two 
 powers would make you feel the weight of
 
 36 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 their authority if the Czarine had not taken 
 upon herself that noble employment. She 
 is only the tool of her two allies, who are 
 very glad that another should commit for 
 them the injustices and vexations which they 
 deem useful to them.*' Bernardin de St. 
 Pierre says also that Catherine II. was only 
 a tool of the German Courts of Austria and 
 Prussia. This Sovereign only disembarrassed 
 herself of her Russian husband, that she 
 might be able the more easily to deliver 
 over the whole of Ancien; Poland to her 
 countrymen at the expense of Russia. 
 
 Some German and also Polish authors 
 pretend that it was Russia who first con- 
 ceived the project of dividing Poland. 
 
 But this assertion is entirely void of foun- 
 dation and rejected by history. 
 
 In the Seventeenth Century (1658.) the 
 Swedes invaded a portion of Poland. The
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 37 
 
 Kaiser, a declared ally of the Poles, immedi- 
 ately occupied the ancient capital town of 
 Cracow. Whilst the Schlachta Sovereign 
 was felicitating himself on Austrian fidelity, 
 and never doubting but that the Kaiser his 
 ally had entered Poland on purpose to 
 save him — the German Count Stippen- 
 back, who served under the King of 
 Sweden, proposed by secret negotiation to 
 the Kaiser, the King of Sweden, and to the 
 Duke of Prussia, better known as the Elector 
 of Brandenburg, (a faithful vassal of 
 Poland,) that they should by way of putting 
 an end to their quarrels, divide those coun- 
 tries which were the theatre and occasion of 
 them, and form a league mutually to main- 
 tain cacli other in their occupations. 
 
 They accorded to Russia no participation 
 in the dismemberment. Russia had not the 
 vol. i r.
 
 38 KEVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 slightest knowledge of the plot formed 
 against Poland. 
 
 This negotiation when discovered by the 
 French Ministry filled with alarm the repub- 
 lican Court of Warsovia, which hastened to 
 announce to the Militia Sovereign, that the 
 anarchy of his government would deliver 
 over Poland a prey to its neighbours, as soon 
 as they could agree amongst themselves 
 about the division of so rich a spoil.* 
 
 Fonfrede in his exposition " of the repub- 
 lican Institutions of the Monarchy," page 
 306, says also : " It was Leopold, Emperor 
 of Austria, who principally intrigued to 
 prevent the crown of Poland from becom- 
 ing hereditary with the view of keeping that 
 
 * Rulhifcre's History of the Polish Anarchy.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 39 
 
 valiant nation in a state of misfortune and 
 anarchy. Thus, absolutism protected re- 
 publican Institutions." And page 317, the 
 same author says : " Russia and Prussia, fol- 
 lowing the example of Leopold of Austria, pro- 
 tected the republican Institutions in Poland 
 that they might end by taking from that un- 
 happy country all means of resistance." 
 
 It is thus a well attested historical fact, that 
 it was the Kaisers who first conceived the 
 project of politically murdering Poland, and 
 they will be the last to fight for its resur- 
 rection, because they know, and are well 
 convinced, that the existence of their 
 monarchy is incompatible with the existence 
 of independent Poland. Many causes hin- 
 dered and turned aside for a time the 
 committal of this crime. But the indomita- 
 ble courage of the Schlachta Militia, and 
 their patriotism which showed itself even
 
 40 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 through their political and diplomatic ignor- 
 ance were the principal obstacles. The 
 Germans understood perfectly, that to pos- 
 sess themselves of Poland, they must com- 
 mence by corrupting, enervating, and de- 
 moralizing the Schlachta, the Pretorians, 
 Dr Janissaries of Poland. This they effected 
 in the course of the Eighteenth Century 
 by placing successively on the Polish throne 
 two German Princes of Saxony, under the 
 names of Augustus II. and Augustus III. 
 They gave as wives and comptrol- 
 lers to the first a German named Eberhard 
 Marchioness of Brandenburg, and to the 
 other an Archduchess of Habsburg. It was 
 an easy matter for the German Sovereigns 
 to corrupt the manners of another nation. 
 Germany governed by thirty-six despots, has 
 thirty-five times as many vile mercenaries, 
 and servile, cringing Barons without
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 41 
 
 dignity or morality, than any other monarchy. 
 To avoid suspicion and calm the disquietude 
 of the Poles, the Germans persuaded them 
 that the independence of Poland is abso- 
 lutely necessary to the well-being and balance 
 of all the states of Europe, and that anarchy 
 constitutes the vitality and strength of re- 
 publican government. 
 
 The free election of the kings of Poland 
 was one of the principal causes of its anarchy 
 and weakness. 
 
 On this account the treaty of alliance be- 
 tween Catherine the Second, and Frederick 
 the Great, contains, amongst other things, the 
 following clause. " As it is in the interest 
 of his Majesty, the King of Prussia, and her 
 Majesty the Empress of Russia, to use 
 every means and effort in their power, to 
 maintain the freedom of election in Poland, 
 and that no one should be allowed to render 
 the said kingdom hereditary in his own
 
 42 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 family, his Majesty the King of Prussia, 
 and her Majesty the Empress of Russia, 
 have mutually made the most solemn pro- 
 mise to each other, by this secret compact not 
 only that no one shall be permitted to strip 
 the Republic of its right of free election, or 
 to make the Kingdom hereditary, under 
 any possible circumstance, but also to im- 
 pede by one common accord, the views and 
 designs of any party, tending to produce 
 this result, as soon as they shall be disco- 
 vered, and even to have recourse, if neces- 
 sary, to armed force, to guarantee the re- 
 public from the overthrow of its constitu- 
 tion and fundamental laws. 
 
 The constitution, therefore, and the re- 
 publican spirit of the Sovereign Schlachta 
 had no terrors for crowned heads, since a 
 German prince and princess undertook to 
 support and maintain them. 
 
 Poland having become enfeebled by cor-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 43 
 
 ruption, and exhausted by wars with Russia, 
 the Empress Maria Theresa commanded the 
 literati of Vienna to examine the books and 
 diplomas, to discover what claims she could 
 make to this country. 
 
 At the same period the Austrian engineers 
 were surveying the Polish territory about 
 Novytarg and Czoroztyn, drawing lines, and 
 setting up posts bearing the imperial arms. 
 
 These operations caused so much alarm to 
 the Polish king Poniatowski, that on the 
 20th October, 1770, he wrote in the follow- 
 ing terms to the Empress Maria Theresa — 
 ' : Honored sister ! 
 
 " The sentiments of 
 loyalty that I have at all times professed 
 for the House of your Imperial Majesty, 
 and I may also add the personal esteem 1 
 have for your Majesty's private virtues, are 
 too well known for you to be ignorant of 
 them, and as I have always hoped to find
 
 44 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 one of the staunchest friends of Poland, in 
 an Empress whose own equitable, firm, and 
 yet mild government has always excited 
 deep sentiments of admiration in me, it is in 
 the spirit of mutual confidence, that I ad- 
 dress myself especially to your Royal and 
 Imperial Majesty, because the maintenance 
 of the privileges of my crown, oblige me to 
 demand of your Majesty, why your generals 
 and engineers have ordered lines to be 
 drawn in the environs of Novytarg, and 
 planted stakes, bearing your Imperial Ma- 
 jesty's arms, in a territory which has be- 
 longed to Poland from time immemorial, 
 and been conceded to her without giving 
 rise to the slightest dispute." 
 
 To this letter Maria Theresa replied on 
 the 26th of January, 1791, that as soon as 
 the re-establishment of peace between the 
 Turks and the Russians, and the total extinc-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 45 
 
 tion of the interior disturbances of Poland 
 had taken place, she would -willingly turn 
 her attention to, and endeavour to decide 
 the limits of this republic, and of her king- 
 dom of Hungary ; that they would then 
 finally settle these notoriously uncertain and 
 long contested limits ; that, nevertheless, she 
 would now, at once, declare her resolution 
 to claim, by virtue of her legal right, and 
 the conditions stipulated at the time, the 
 district of Tips, with all its dependencies ; 
 and, as far as concerned the rest, that for 
 the maintenance and the guarantee of past, 
 present, and future rights, the operations 
 already mentioned in his Polish Majesty's 
 letter had been of necessity commenced, and 
 must, by the same necessity be continued.' 
 
 Rulhiere, in his History of the "Anarchy 
 of Poland," remarks, that this line of con- 
 duct in so conscientious a Queen, appeared
 
 46 REVELATIONS OE AUSTRIA. 
 
 bold to the Empress Catherine, and, if Frede- 
 rick can be believed, it contributed 
 mainly to its final partition. 
 
 Thus it will be seen, that it was still the 
 Kayser Habsburg who was the first to in- 
 vade Poland, with the predetermined and 
 eventually realized intent of dividing and 
 appropriating it. 
 
 Frederick, of Prussia, and Catherine the 
 Second hastened to imitate the Empress 
 Habsburg. Each seized on that part of 
 Poland which best suited him. Here is the 
 declarations of the three German Sovereigns, 
 signed by the German Baron Stackelberg, 
 the lasting monument of an unparalleled 
 crime in history, which even shook to its 
 foundation European policy. 
 
 " The neighbouring powers of Poland have 
 " been so often led into disturbances ex- 
 " cited by insurgents in that kingdom, that
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 47 
 
 " the remembrance of the past had already 
 " determined them, when the throne became 
 " vacant by the death of Augustus the 
 " Third, to occupy themselves very seriously 
 " with the internal affairs of that kingdom. 
 " Influenced by this consideration, aud at 
 '' the same time anxious to prevent the fatal 
 " dissensions which might arise through this 
 " last vacancy the Court of Petersburg used its 
 " utmost endeavours to effect an unanimity 
 " of opinion in the choice of the candidate most 
 " deserving of the throne, and most likely 
 " to promote the happiness of his fellow 
 " Citizens and of the neighbouring states. 
 
 " At the same time, the Court of Peters- 
 " burg took upon itself to amend several 
 " abuses in the national constitution. The 
 " Court of Berlin has seconded the steps 
 " taken by its ally, and the Court of Vienna, 
 " wishing to unite its efforts in the success of
 
 48 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 "such praiseworthy views, and in order to 
 " avoid the danger of perhaps increasing 
 " difficulties, by increasing the number of 
 " those mixed up in the interior affairs of 
 " Poland, lias thought fit to observe a strict 
 " neutrality, not only in this respect, but 
 " with regard to the war which has just been 
 " kindled between Russia and the Ottoman 
 " Porte. From the combination of these 
 " measures, the satisfactory result of the 
 " free and liberal election of the reigning 
 "king Stanislas Augustus, as well as many 
 " other useful regulations has been pro- 
 " duced. 
 
 " Every thing appeared concurring to ensure 
 " a future peace to Poland and her neigh- 
 " bours based upon the most solid founda- 
 " tion. Un fortunately, just as every thing 
 " might have been hoped from the present 
 " state of tilings, the spirit of discord.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 49 
 
 arising anflJng a part of the nation destroyed 
 in a moment all these auspicious hopes. 
 The citizens armed against each other ; 
 factions usurped the place of legitimate 
 authority ; abuses, contempt of the laws, per- 
 version Of order, and of public safety arose 
 on every side. 
 
 Justice, the police authority, trade, and 
 even the cultivation of the soil ceased to- 
 gether. 
 
 So many great and important causes will 
 not allow his Majesty the King of Prussia, 
 her Majesty the Empress of Hungary and 
 of Bohemia, and her Majesty the Empress of 
 Russia, to postpone any longer taking deci- 
 sive steps in so critical a juncture. 
 
 These powers have therefore taken on 
 themselves without further loss of time, and 
 with one common accord, to restore tran- 
 quillity and order to Poland, and to esta- 
 vol. i i
 
 50 BEVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 blish on a solid foundation, the ancient con- 
 stitution of the state and the liberty of the 
 nation. 
 
 But in preventing, as they are now doing, 
 by the well-timed and friendly interference 
 caused by the good understanding which at the 
 present moment exists between them, the 
 ruin and the arbitrary division of this king- 
 dom, they may not however always be able 
 to count on a similar degree of success, and 
 they therefore make claim to several consi- 
 derable possessions of the republic, as they 
 cannot abandon them completely to the 
 chance of events, and they have therefore 
 decreed and determined among themselves 
 to turn to account their ancient and legiti- 
 mate pretensions, which each of them is 
 prepared to justify in its proper time and 
 place. 
 
 In consequence, his Majesty the King of.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 51 
 
 Prussia, her Majesty the Empress of Hungary 
 aud of Bohemia, and her Imperial Majesty 
 of all the Russias, having communicated 
 mutually to each other their pretensions 
 and claims, and mutually verified them, will 
 take each an equivalent proportion, as also 
 immediate possession of those parts of 
 Poland, the most convenient for establishing 
 through the future, between them, a more 
 safe and natural boundary, each of the 
 three powers purposing to give subsequently 
 an account of their share of the partition 
 in consideration of which their Majesties re- 
 nounce all rights, claims, pretensions and 
 accumulations of interests. 
 
 The following words attributed to Cathe- 
 rine explain satisfactorily the division of 
 Poland, and delineate fully the character- 
 istics of the European Cabinets. 
 
 She observed to the Prussian Prince
 
 52 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Henry, " / Will frighten Turkey ; I will buoy 
 up England with the hope of an advantage- 
 ous treaty of commerce — do you try to 
 bribe Austria to keep France quiet."* 
 
 In thus glancing at the dismemberment 
 of Poland, one is led to think that the 
 three despoiling powers mistrusted the 
 aboriginal and native Russians. All the 
 principal actors in it are purely Germans, 
 who rivalled each other in their trickery 
 and rapacity. 
 
 Russia merely furnished soldiers to fight, 
 and money wherewith to corrupt the sove- 
 reign Schlachta. Here are the names of the 
 principal actors ; the Emperor of Hapsburg, 
 the Electors and the Kings of Prussia, and 
 
 * See the Memoirs of the Revolution of Poland 
 found at Berlin. (Paris, 180G.)
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 53 
 
 Brandenburg, the German Princess Anhalt 
 Zerost, known by the name of Catherine the 
 Second, the Baron Stackelberg, the Count 
 Stippenback Igelstrom, the two Kings of 
 Saxon y, miscalled Poles, Augustus the Second 
 and Third, the Count Bruhl, &c, &c. 
 
 The evident aim of the Germans was to 
 deliver over Ancient Poland bound hand and 
 foot to Austria and Prussia ; therefore, this 
 iirst division did not satisfj r the cupidity of 
 the King of Prussia, who wished to become 
 master of the mouth of the Vistula, and to 
 seize on the commercial towns of Gdanisk, 
 surnamed Dantzic, and of Torun, surnamed 
 Thorn, &c. 
 
 To attain this end the Prussian manifested 
 to the insulted republic of Poland his sincere 
 desire to contract a more strict alliance with 
 it. The ambassador of Prussia, Mr. de Luc- 
 chesiiii, haughtily disavowed, in the name uf
 
 54 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 his master, the idea of a new partition ; he 
 maintained, that the intention of Frederick 
 William was to restore to Poland its former- 
 splendor, glory and freedom ; and to guaran- 
 tee Europe from the ambitious designs of 
 the barbarians of the North. He even in- 
 sinuated that now was the time to throw 
 off allegiance to Catherine, during the wars 
 in which she was engaged with Turkey, and 
 threatened by Sweden."" 
 
 King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski, 
 and a few other Poles formed the resolution 
 of uniting with Russia, and of accepting the 
 offensive and defensive alliance which she 
 proposed to the Polish monarch. In aban- 
 doning to Russia, Lithuania and the Ruthe- 
 
 See the tableau politique, <kc, by Air. de Segm
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 55 
 
 nian Provinces, the Poles might with ber as- 
 sistance have torn from the Germans the 
 Polish Provinces of which they had taken 
 possession, thus re-establishing ancient 
 Poland. 
 
 This policy which was good then does not 
 cease to be equally so in our own time. 
 The Poles ought only to attack and disquiet 
 the two German powers, Austria and Prussia, 
 who will loosen their hold on Poland when 
 they perceive on the one hand the impossi- 
 bility of keeping the Polish Provinces which 
 they have overrun, and on the other, the 
 possibility of the fusion of the Russians and 
 Poles.'-" 
 
 * The bitter feeling- common to the Sclavonians 
 of Eastern Europe is manifest in this passage, but 
 M. Koubrakiewycz, if speaking- the sentiments of 
 his race, in alluding to a fusion between the Poles 
 and Russians, refers to Russia under a free and 
 national government. Editor.
 
 56 REVELATIONS OE AUSTRIA. 
 
 Excited however by the hypocritical de- 
 claration of the King of Prussia, placing too 
 much confidence in German sincerity 
 (Deutsche Biederkeit) 'and consulting only 
 their passions, the Poles rejected all the pro- 
 positions of Russia, and delivered over 
 Poland by the constitution of the third of 
 May, 1791, to the German dynasty of 
 Saxony, stripped the Polish peasants, who 
 are the only basis of Polish nationality, of 
 their property in land which they cultivated 
 and possessed — adjudicated this land to the 
 Schlachta, and flew against the Russians." 
 
 The Empress Catherine, at war with the 
 Turks, and threatened by Sweden, was 
 
 t The reader may by reference to the appendix 
 and to the splendid eulogium pronounced on the 
 constitution of the third of May, by Burke, judge 
 the extent of the above misrepresentation of the 
 passage of Polish history alluded to. Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 57 
 
 forced, or affected to be so, by the Poles 
 themselves to consent to a fresh dismember- 
 ment of Poland which the Germans coveted. 
 I say that Catherine affected to be forced 
 to this fresh dismemberment because it 
 would appear that she had secretly engaged 
 herself to deliver the whole of ancient 
 Poland to her two compatriot accomplices. 
 
 As soon as she announced her intention 
 of diminishing the Polish territory, the King 
 of Prussia, who formerly declared his inten- 
 tion of maintaining its integrity, who 
 had congratulated the Poles on their choice 
 of the Saxon dynasty, and on the courage 
 they had displayed in resisting the Russian 
 yoke, hastened to secure a share in the spoil 
 and announced the entry of his troops into 
 Great Poland by a declaration of the 25th 
 of March, 1793. In this manifesto 
 Frederick reproaches the Poles " with their 
 resistance to his councils, and to the well-
 
 58 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 intentioned views of the Empress Catherine ; 
 he pitied the misfortunes of a country ex- 
 posed to anarchy, and affected to experience 
 lively fears for the safety of his own states 
 through the expansion of French principles 
 in Poland. 
 
 " These motives obliged himto take salutary 
 precautions by provisionally taking posses- 
 sion of Thorn, Dantzic and a part of Great 
 Poland, to insure its tranquillity and pro- 
 tect all well intentioned Poles." 
 
 After the partition of Poland the Kayse- 
 rinn Maria Theresa took care to propagate 
 in Poland that she had come to a sense of 
 the enormity of her crime and had con- 
 fessed it to her almoner. She excused her- 
 self by saying that she had been drawn 
 into it by Catherine, but that she had 
 asked forgiveness and wept burning tears 
 for the offence. 
 
 There is still some christian feeling in
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 59 
 
 this dynasty of Habsburg," exclaimed, in 
 their simplicity, some of the Polish nobles, 
 who learned this royal and imperial confes- 
 sion. 
 
 It is well said by Machiavel, that man- 
 kind is so simple, and so accustomed to 
 yield to the times, that he who seeks to 
 deceive will always find dupes willing to be 
 deceived. 
 
 During the Congress of Vienna in 1815, 
 the Kaiser Francis, to gain the confidence 
 of the Poles, said openly that he was ready 
 to restore the Polish Province termed Gal- 
 licia. on condition that Russia and Prussia 
 would restore the parts they possessed of 
 Poland. He said this because lie knew 
 beforehand that he would not be taken at 
 his word. He did not hold the same lan- 
 guage in 1812, when Napoleon asked of him 
 the restitution of Gallicia to re-establish
 
 60 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Poland — nor when the Poles seriously de- 
 manded it of him in 1830. 
 
 The taking of Adrianople by the Russians 
 in 1828 spread terror throughout Austria 
 and re-awakened the hypocritical sympathies 
 of the Kaiser for Poland. A secret society 
 was formed in Gallicia to deliver Poland 
 from the Russian yoke. M. Poninski, Pre- 
 sident of the Semi Secret Society, came to 
 ask of the Austrian Governor, Prince Lob- 
 kowicz, a Germanised Bohemian, if in case 
 of an insurrection breaking out against 
 Russia he might count cm the active support 
 of the Kaiser — the Governor affect- 
 ing to be surprised and embarrassed, replied 
 that in so grave a question it was necessary 
 that he should make a report to the Kaiser 
 and took eight days to give his answer. 
 At the expiration of this delay the Governor 
 announced to M. Poninski that the Kaiser's 
 Government, notwithstanding its sympathy
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 61 
 
 for the Poles, could not and would not have 
 any knowledge of this secret society, that 
 the Austrian Government even advised the 
 conspirators to dissolve it. This negative 
 answer confirmed the Poles in the confidence 
 they had in the Kaiser because it was an- 
 nounced in such a manner as left it to be 
 understood that propriety and diplomatic 
 reservation alone forbade one more formally 
 favorable. 
 
 The Polish insurrection of 1S31 was 
 aroused by the French Revolution, of which 
 it came in aid, for Poland was not ripe for a 
 successful disengagement from the Foreign 
 yoke. This insurrection was simply one 
 more Polish sacrifice in favor of France. 
 
 Austria sold the insurgents several thou- 
 sand muskets at CO francs a piece, allowed 
 the emigration of all the Gallician enthu- 
 siasts who went to the assistance of Russian 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 62 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Poland, and sent to its frontiers a corps of 
 observation of from twenty to twenty-five 
 thousand men. 
 
 At St. Petersburg, Austria said that the 
 destination of this corps was to make the 
 Austrian territory and Monarchical princi- 
 ples respected by the insurrectionary Go- 
 vernment of Warsaw. Elsewhere it caused 
 it to be understood or rather guessed that 
 this corps was destined to act against the 
 Russians as soon as the opportunity ar- 
 rived. 
 
 The evident object of the Austrian 
 Cabinet was to force the Russian Emperor to 
 return to the partition of Poland of 1795 
 before the Treaty of Tilsit, that is to say, to 
 cede to the Sovereigns of Austria and 
 Prussia the whole of ancient Poland on the 
 left bank of the Vistula, and to attain 
 this end, the Germans advised the Poles to
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 63 
 
 remove the theatre of war to Russia, and 
 to send the Polish army to Lithuania. 
 
 General Chlopicki opposed this insane 
 plan of those amongst the Poles under the 
 influence of the German Courts ; he foresaw 
 and defeated the Prusso-Austrian snare, 
 laying before his antagonists this objection : 
 '• Whether I am beaten by the Russians, or 
 whether I beat them, Poland will be equally 
 destroyed, because if I am beaten Russia will 
 destroy Poland. If on the contrary I beat 
 the Russians, then Poland will be invaded 
 and destroyed by the German Courts of 
 Vienna and Berlin." The dictator Chlopicki 
 demanded from the Courts of Vienna and 
 Berlin, a frank and explicit declaration with 
 regard to Poland, but only received evasive 
 answers. It would appear as if all interven- 
 tion on the part of France direct or indirect 
 at the Court of St. Petersburg, in favor of
 
 64 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Polish nationality, is rather hurtful than 
 beneficial to Poland ; and only of advan- 
 tage to the German courts of Berlin and 
 Vienna, who with this aid get the better of 
 the liussian Cabinet. 
 
 As long as the Germans continue, in spite 
 of the treaty of the congress of Vienna, to 
 extirpate the Polish language in the Polish 
 provinces, of which they have taken posses- 
 sion since 1771, to smother the Sclavonian 
 spirit, they must be considered as a 
 more hurtful enemy to Polish nationality 
 than Piussia. Since the introduction of 
 Catholicism into Poland, the Germans have 
 exercised and still exercise a most pernicious 
 influence over Polish prosperity and nation- 
 ality. 
 
 On the one side is arrayed a corrupt civiliz- 
 ation — positive and practical intelligence, a 
 speculative and mercantile spirit — mean and
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 65 
 
 avaricious opulence — hypocritical frankness 
 — disciplined coolness, and the national pro- 
 testanism of Germany ; on the other hand is 
 arrayed blind confidence, frivolous imagina- 
 tion, chivalrous spirit, ardent but blind and 
 disorderly passions, prodigal indigence, in- 
 genuous hypocrisy, the foriegn Catholicism of 
 Italy, and the privileges of favored classes. If 
 the faith of the Poles in the German and 
 Papal Courts should cool, England, the faith- 
 ful ally of Austria, is there to re-kindle it.* 
 The German censured press exaggerates 
 now the dangers which threaten the liberty 
 and independence of Europe from the Ku.s- 
 
 * As long as our government bonds with cabinets 
 against race3, and as long as through ignorance and 
 indifference the organs of our press allow themselves 
 to be unwittingly made instruments of the former 
 we must expect such reproaches. Editor.
 
 66 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 sian Collosus — it tries thereby to alarm 
 England, but more especially France. 
 
 Austria and Prussia employ all diplomatic 
 means to excite France against Russia, and 
 Russia against France. It is through the 
 animosities of these two countries that the 
 German Courts hope to obtain possession of 
 the remainder of Ancient Poland and Italy 
 without striking a blow. They do not fear 
 the power of Russia, where there are 
 many generals and other high func- 
 tionaries or agents, Germans b_y birth or 
 origin, and where they can dispose of the 
 Poles, assured of their sympathy ; but they 
 fear the political power of France : they 
 have got sufficient resources and influence, 
 as well as a sufficiently firm footing to be able 
 to repel all aggression or danger which might 
 really menace them from that quarter. 
 After all it is intelligence which governs the
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 67 
 
 world ; and the intellectual power of Russia 
 is nothing. In this quarter there is perhaps 
 only to be dreaded the facility with which 
 the German Princes allow themselves to be 
 bought, and the corruptive liberality of the 
 Russian Court. 
 
 The German sovereigns, bound together 
 by a federative bond, united by relationship, 
 assist each other mutually, whenever it is a 
 question of invading, Germanising, and op- 
 pressing a foreign people, or of seizing a 
 foreign throne. 
 
 They have filled the whole of Europe 
 with their aristocratical dynasties : they are 
 to be found in England, Portugal, Italy, 
 Greece, Poland, Russia, etc. ; they seat their 
 princes and princesses on all foreign thrones, 
 but they do not allow strangers to ascend 
 the thrones of Germany. 
 
 They look upon themselves as the nursery
 
 68 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of hereditary absolute royalty, of which the 
 foundation is the Court of Vienna. The 
 dynasty of Habsburg being anti-national to 
 live-sixths of the population of the whole 
 Empire, could not maintain itself upon the 
 throne, nor could the Empire exist, unless 
 by the maintenance of an absolute govern- 
 ment. Every sentiment of humanity, patri- 
 otism, nationality, or liberty, must neces- 
 sarily frighten this dynasty and its paternal 
 government. The Austrian Government is 
 the only one in Europe the existence of 
 which depends entirely on the maintenance 
 of despotism ; and for that reason it is looked 
 upon by all Princes, as the centre of 
 royalty. We may daily witness with what 
 address and perseverance Austria knows how 
 to interest all the legitimatists and all the 
 Princes of Europe in the maintenance of the 
 paternal Government, which is useful and
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 69 
 
 necessary solely to itself. For this purpose 
 these Princes make pilgrimages to Vienna, 
 that they may be duly instructed in the prin- 
 ciples and mysteries of this said paternal 
 government, sign an act and take an oath 
 of fidelity to the Holy Alliance. It is not 
 without reason that Vienna is called Spelunca 
 Latronum. 
 
 In the Monarchial Congresses, the German 
 Confederation is sure to have the preponder- 
 ance, and the bulk of the booty ; because 
 the number of crowned German heads are 
 far greater than any others. The Germans 
 absorbed to themselves more than half the 
 indemnities extorted from France by the 
 Coalition of 1814 and 1815. 
 
 At that time, multiplying themselves to 
 the number of forty independent states, they 
 first demanded war imposts, as sovereigns of 
 Germany ; secondly, an indemnity for their
 
 70 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 subjects, as the protectors and fathers of 
 their people ; and lastly, personal presents ; 
 whilst all the time standing towards 
 France in the position of traitors to 
 their engagements. The struggle of the 
 Greeks, and the naval combat of Navarino. 
 won by the French, the English, and the 
 Russians, has only up to the present profited 
 the German Princes, that is to say, to the 
 Bavarian Germans, who colonize and plunder 
 Greece. All the money supplied to Greece 
 by the non-Germanic protective powers, 
 served solely to augment the royal and 
 dynastic treasury of Bavaria. If, by giving 
 to Greece a German Prince as King, the 
 three protective Courts had in view the 
 corruption of Greek manners, the im- 
 poverishment of the Greeks and the sup- 
 pression of their patriotism, they acted with
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 71 
 
 perfect consistency, and could hardly have 
 chosen or succeeded better. 
 
 Germany is the only civilised power in 
 Europe which extends its yoke over and 
 keeps under its orders thirty-six millions 
 of different races to its own ; — strangers 
 to its own whom it nationalizes, and im- 
 poverishes. Disciplined destitution, ac- 
 customed to suffer hunger, thirst, cold and 
 heat, to support patiently fatigue and blows 
 inured to hopeless labour, become a terrible 
 army in the hands of a wealthy and 
 intelligent Court. The selfishly mercantile 
 spirit of the Germanic Sovereigns, and 
 especially of the Sovereigns of Austria 
 and Prussia, their coolness, their insatiable 
 avidity of gain, their profound knowledge 
 of religious politics, makes them infinitely 
 more dangerous to liberty and humanity 
 than the Sovereigns of Turkey and Russia.
 
 72 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Besides which, Germany is essentially com- 
 mercial, and the Germans, from the effects 
 of their demoralization, and their servile 
 spirit, are voluntary tools and slaves of their 
 sovereigns ; whilst the Russians and all the 
 Sclavonians are essentially and almost exclu- 
 sively agriculturists ; and are only tools to 
 their sovereign because forced to become so, 
 and through the absence of civilization. 
 
 We are poor, say the Brandenburgs, and 
 Habsburgs, to their subjects ; and, whilst 
 hiding their millions, they persuade them 
 that they are so. We are rich; we have 
 
 two hundred millions in the bank ; we do 
 not fear all Europe put together, exclaimed 
 a statesman, a French minister, in 1840. 
 Take care, gentlemen of France and hide 
 carefully your two hundred millions, if you 
 possess them. 
 
 The despots of Austria, of Prussia,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 73 
 
 Bavaria, will only have to repeat your words 
 to their half barbarous, hungry, and well 
 disciplined Italians, Hungarians, Illyrians, 
 Dalmatians, Bohemians, Moravians, Tyrolese, 
 Silesians, Croatians, Poles, Austrians, Ger- 
 mans, Bavarians, &c., whose blood they never 
 spare, and whose numbers they never reckon. 
 It was not the rich who devoured the 
 Roman Empire, but the ragged Germans, 
 (Goths.) Carthage was attacked and perished 
 only on account of her wealth. Sixty thou- 
 sand poor Greeks or Macedonians, con- 
 quered gilded armies, numbering one million 
 of Persians, commanded by Darius. It 
 was the poor French republicans who de- 
 fended the soil of their country, and re- 
 pulsed the invasion of the innumerable 
 armies of the banded slaves of the whole of 
 Europe : who made the despots tremble on 
 their thrones, encircled as they were by faithful 
 
 VOL. I. II
 
 74 REVELATIONS OJf AUSTRIA. 
 
 legitimatists, the body-guard of despotism. 
 It was they who raised France to the highest 
 pitch of fame and prosperity, who caused its 
 name and glory to resound throughout the 
 whole universe, and gained for it the esteem 
 and admiration of all nations as well as of all 
 despots. It was the French millionaires, the 
 titled royalists, who abandoned the soil of 
 their country in the hour of danger ; it was 
 they who raised foreign despots, against 
 France and introduced them into it in 1814 
 and 1815 ; it was they who destroyed, 
 and abased their country ; who made the 
 whole universe resound with their mean 
 spirited pusillanimity, and who drew down 
 upon France the contempt of all nations. 
 
 Those who pretend that peace is necessary 
 to Europe, are right if they mean 
 internal as well as external peace ; but 
 they are wrong if they mean only the
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 75 
 
 absence of war between one power and 
 another, Exterior peace is useful and neces- 
 sary only to the despots of Austria, Prussia, 
 and Bavaria ; it is disastrous to all sub- 
 jugated people, and it is even hurtful to 
 people who govern themselves like France ; 
 because it is during the period of external 
 peace that the German despots make use of 
 their armies against their subjects, from 
 whom they mercilessly extort money ; heap- 
 ing up treasures and encompassing France by 
 ragged and servile mendicants, who inun- 
 date and infest it. It is only during an ex- 
 ternal war that they accord them a little 
 respite, and that they draw upon their own 
 hoarded millions. 
 
 The system of the sovereigns of Austria, 
 Prussia, and Bavaria, is to keep their sub- 
 jects always poorer, than those of their 
 neighbouring states. By this system they
 
 76 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 prevent foreign importation, smuggling, lux- 
 ury, and the desire for foreign travel ; ex- 
 citing them to foreign exportation, where 
 every thing is dearer than with them. 
 
 Whilst in France an effort is made to raise 
 the home consumption, the German sove- 
 reigns only endeavour to augment the ex- 
 ports, and to diminish the home consumption, 
 because it diminishes the net revenue of the 
 treasury. 
 
 Hence, the resources of France, without 
 taking into account its enormous debt, are 
 scattered, and more apparent than real ; 
 whilst those of the Germanic confederation 
 are concentrated and more real than apparent. 
 In Austria, it is the State, that is to say 
 the Kaiser, who is rich, who possesses mil- 
 lions in gold and silver ; it is the subjects 
 who are poor, and who possess nothing but 
 paper money, the value of which depends
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 77 
 
 entirely on the will of the Sovereign. The 
 Germans are in general, cold parsimonious 
 calculators, and unfeeling egotists, who un- 
 derstand much better how to preserve, than 
 to acquire wealth, and are better pleased at 
 being rich, than with appearing to be so. The 
 French, on the contrary, are prodigal, enter- 
 prising, humane, full of generous and ex- 
 pansive sentiments. They have sympathies 
 with all the world, and for all that is beau- 
 tiful, grand, humane, fantastic, or chimeri- 
 cal. Their delight is to appear rich, even 
 when they are poor. This difference oi 
 character joined to the confidence which the 
 French have in their constitutional govern- 
 ment, and the perfect equilibrium betwixt 
 the revenue and the expenses of the State 
 causes nearly all the specie, to be in cir- 
 culation, and the same sum circulating in 
 France, with three or four times the
 
 78 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 rapidity with which it does in Germany, 
 appears to be three or four times greater 
 than it really is. 
 
 Money is only a representative of the 
 value of necessaries or conveniences of 
 life. The more abundant money, the less 
 merchandise it represents. Now the 
 Sovereigns of Germany Austria, and Prussia, 
 whose revenues far exceed their expenses, 
 gather together treasures during the time of 
 peace, but hide the specie from circulation 
 and withdraw them from the commerce of 
 the world. 
 
 By this abstraction of specie, they make 
 all merchandise cheaper in their own States 
 than in France or England. Their impover- 
 ished subjects must always oiler merchan- 
 dise to foreigners, and are never able to buy 
 any themselves, because they arc in want of 
 money. Exportation therefore naturally
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 79 
 
 very much surpasses importation. Hence 
 money, which being all in circulation, 
 and consequently more abundant in France 
 or England, finds there, like a fluid, its own 
 level, flows in Prussia and Austria, slowly 
 but unceasingly into the treasures of 
 Austrian and Prussian and other treasure- 
 hoarding governments. 
 
 The sovereign of Austria may be com- 
 pared to Tantalus, or Croesus, as to wealth, 
 though they propagate both abroad and in 
 their own States the report that they are 
 poor : firstly because voluntary poverty 
 gives an appearance of nobility of character 
 and sentiments, and secondly that they 
 can with impunity, under the pretext of 
 state necessities, extort from and oppress 
 their loving subjects, palliate their avarice 
 and dispense with furnishing assistance 
 to unfortunates, suffering from fire or
 
 80 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 other calamities : and lastly because they 
 know it is dangerous to hoard up or ac- 
 cumulate millions amidst pauper popu- 
 lations of regimented slaves. All would 
 be lost in Austria if the Landesknechts 
 (military), who are only paid in paper 
 money, learnt that their Kaiser hid millions'* 
 in gold and silver. The Kaiser Francis 
 the First, who died in 1835, must have 
 left to his son and successor to the throne 
 crown, property to the value of more than 
 four hundred and fifty millions of florins, 
 currency (fifty millions sterling) in gold and 
 silver, without reckoning the hereditary 
 portions of his other children. 
 
 * The author here repeats, and gives credit, to the 
 rumour occasioned by the oppressive rapacity of the 
 Austrian Government. In reality these sums are 
 greatly exaggerated. 
 
 Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 81 
 
 The King of Prussia, who reigned be- 
 fore the last, must have ' left to his legiti- 
 mate and illegitimate heirs thirty three 
 millions of thalers (about five millions 
 sterling), without reckoning the crown 
 treasure. 
 
 Instead of proclaiming — " We have two 
 millions in the bank — we are rich." It would 
 be more in conformity with the truth, and 
 more politic for the French to say " we are 
 poor, because the neighbouring despots, by 
 oppressing their subjects, render them 
 beggars in contact with whom we can only 
 lose." 
 
 The Germanic agents of despotism write a 
 great deal against French love of conquest 
 at the present day, and exalt the mildness 
 of paternal German absolutism. 
 
 They call upon the inhabitants of the left 
 bank of the Rhine and others to become or
 
 82 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 remain Austrian, Prussian, or Bavarian 
 slaves. 
 
 There is nothing surprising or astonishing 
 in these manifestations. 
 
 Slaves are proud of the riches of; 
 and of the possession of a large number 
 of slaves by their masters. 
 
 They therefore call upon the whole world 
 to unite itself to them ; but what proves 
 the venality and corruption of these German 
 writers is their bad faith, and an utter 
 want of conscience. 
 
 In one sense to appropriate a territory 
 or nation is to make it one's property, to 
 draw from it all its resources to augment 
 one's own. Italy, Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, 
 Bohemia, Poland, Dalmatia, are conquests 
 of the German sovereigns, who looking upon 
 these Provinces as farms, and the subjugated 
 populations as a flock whom they have a
 
 REVELATI05S OF AUSTRIA. 83 
 
 right to drive, tax, and take advantage of to 
 their own uncontrolled and exclusive profit. 
 But liberal France with its half democratic 
 government cannot make any such conquests 
 in Europe, she can only unite herself with 
 the Belgian Luxemburghers, the inhabitants 
 of the left bank of the Rhine and others, for 
 the general safety of persons and property. 
 The German despots would lose, but the 
 German people would gain by such an 
 event. From slaves that they are, the 
 Germans, by their union with the French, 
 would become free citizens. 
 
 The mercenary and venal writers them- 
 selves, the German non-reigning Barons and 
 Princes, who, as we shall see, in the article 
 on penal justice, are subject to the blows of 
 the stock (stick), would be happier united 
 to France then they are under Kayser or 
 Koenig.
 
 84 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The German sovereigns keep under their 
 civilized yoke thirty-six millions of people 
 belonging to foreign races, not German, it 
 therefore ill becomes the German sovereigns 
 to cry out against the spirit of conquest of 
 France. 
 
 France would never send to Brussells, 
 Cologne. Venice, or Milan, a Satrap under 
 the name of Landes-Gouverneur, Lands- 
 vogt, Landrath, Landsknecht. 
 
 The civil list of this constitutional King 
 of France would never be clandestinely 
 augmented, fifty or sixty millions a year to 
 the prejudice of allied countries. 
 
 France does not wish for conquests in 
 Europe, she does not want them — but she 
 desires and ought to desire to unite her 
 moral, political, and physical strength 
 with that of adjacent countries to aug- 
 ment her means of defence against the
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 85 
 
 tyranny and avidity of despots. The geo- 
 graphical, social, and political position of 
 France, is such, that she must either undergo 
 the influence of absolution and become 
 tributary to German despots, as the whole 
 of Sclavonia is become without excepting 
 the Russians governed and worked upon to 
 the profit of the Germans, or she must force 
 the absolute Sovereigns to enfranchise their 
 subjects.* 
 
 The liberty and prosperity of France 
 depend on the liberty and prosperity of 
 other countries, and this is the reason why 
 all popular movements in France find so 
 much sympathy amongst the subjugated 
 
 * The reigning family of Romanoff is really the 
 House of HoLstein Goltorp, whilst the majority of 
 Russian empolyes are degenerate Germans. 
 
 Editor. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 86 REVELATIO.NS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 countries, and are received with such hatred 
 by their sovereigns. 
 
 This is why French royalty, exposed to 
 the pernicious influence and suggestions 
 of the crowned despots — and otherwise 
 established, as we shall shew elsewhere, on a 
 false basis, had always an inclination to 
 become despotic. 
 
 The position of England is quite different, 
 the reaction of the Continent on her, (with 
 the exception of commercial action) is 
 deadened by the British Channel. Her 
 government, whether absolute or constitu- 
 tional, is less interesting to continental 
 sovereigns. 
 
 The liberty and prosperity of the 
 English people are more independent and 
 isolated, from those continental nations, and 
 less reciprocal. 
 
 The policy of the British government.,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 87 
 
 whether uiider a deraoeratieal, aristocratical, 
 or monarchical form, will never be towards 
 other states anything but commercial, and in 
 this capacity it will become the interest of 
 England, sooner or later, to impede the cul- 
 tivation of the land by the white slaves of 
 Austria and Russia, for the advantage of her 
 land-holders, in the same manner that she 
 opposes herself in her commercial interests 
 to the manufactory of sugar by black 
 slaves.
 
 88 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INTERIOR LEGISLATION AND GENERAL ADMINIS- 
 TRATION. 
 
 Moral as well as physical laws are not 
 to be given or imposed, but emanate or are 
 derived from the individual, the society, or 
 object to whom they relate. 
 
 Whatever an absolute Sovereign or society 
 may prescribe, without my authorisation or 
 consent, is the law of this Sovereign, or of this*
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 89 
 
 society, but not mine, since not emanating 
 from me. 
 
 Man is an animal endowed with reason 
 — an organized state or world within himself. 
 Reason, which alone distinguishes him from 
 animals, is his legislative— will, his executive 
 power-~and the limbs of his body are his 
 subjects. Man as a state, as an organized 
 world, may be in communication with other 
 men his equals, but he is not intended by 
 nature to be absorbed by, or subjected to 
 them ; all subjection of one man to another 
 is contrary to nature, and either proves 
 violence exercised or defective intellect. 
 
 If we consult only practice, it would be 
 difficult to give a general definition of law. 
 In France and England law is a rule pre- 
 scribed by the electors, the Houses of Par- 
 liament, and the sovereign. In Switzerland 
 and the United States, it is a decision of the
 
 90 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 whole people ; in Russia, law is an Ukase 
 of the sovereign ; in Austria a Befehl 
 (command) of the Kaiser, duly promulgated 
 and intended to serve as a rule only to his 
 subjects or agents. Before promulgating a 
 Befehl, the Kaiser generally consults his 
 Council of State, or commission instituted 
 for legislative affairs, in order to give to the 
 befehl an appearance of law and justice. All 
 possible eventualities are foreseen, and the 
 tribunals of justice, civil and criminal, are 
 ordered not to deny a decision on account 
 of a fault in an obscurity of a befehl, but 
 to resolve the doubtful case from analogy to, 
 or from the spirit of other befehls. 
 
 In Austria, there is no aristocracy of 
 birth or fortune ; those who are called lords 
 form only a miserable doulocracy — they are 
 only the first slaves, or titled and paid 
 agents of the Kaiser.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 91 
 
 There are few writers who in comparing 
 the Austrian Government with the Turkish 
 or Russian, would not give the preference to 
 the former on the score of humanity and 
 liberty ; this is, however, a gross error. 
 
 In Turkey, the Sultan's Government is 
 controlled in its power by the corporations 
 and by the franchises of cities ; the admi- 
 nistration of justice is independent. 
 
 The judges have the power oi stopping 
 the execution of fresh laws which it declares 
 contrary to the old. 
 
 The Grand Muphti may oppose by his 
 veto an order of the Sultan ; but in Austria 
 there is no independent institution existing 
 of itself, no social force erected into public 
 power ; nobody has the power of limiting or 
 contradicting the will of the Kaiser. Reli- 
 gion itself, with its priests, is only a branch of
 
 92 REVELATION'S OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the Government High Police. The absolutism 
 of Russian Sovereigns is bridled sometimes 
 for good, but much oftener for evil by the 
 senate ;* and is rather personal than dynas- 
 tical, rather arbitrary and disorderly than 
 methodical and systematical. 
 
 The Czars, by personally interfering in 
 affairs, and causing decisions to be given in 
 their name, expose their passions and weak- 
 nesses ; and by their violence compromise 
 the prestige of their infallibility and sanc- 
 tity ; but they shew sometimes compassion 
 for distress, and nearly always generously 
 remunerate military services and devotion 
 to their person. In Austria, on the contrary, 
 
 * The Author is mistaken in this point. Neither 
 at the present or at any period since its institution 
 has the Russian Senate, in the faintest degree, in- 
 fluenced the conduct of the Tsars or their ministers. 
 
 Editor,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 93 
 
 despotism is dynastic and legal ; the name 
 of the Emperor is not pronounced in any 
 decision ; everything is done in the name 
 of the law ; the Kaiser himself is hidden 
 behind his befehl. The most atrocious cru- 
 elties are committed in the name of the 
 law. The Kaiser never shews clemency 
 because not he, but the law condemns. 
 
 Pereat mundus, fiat justitia, let the world 
 perish, but let justice be done, says the 
 Kaiser. He is never generous, because every 
 thing is owing to him, and no one owes him 
 anything. In Russia they teach that the 
 Czar has the right of doing whatsoever he 
 pleases ; in Austria the people are taught 
 and persuaded that the Kaiser can only do 
 what the law ordains. 
 
 The absolutism of the Kaisers is more 
 methodic and prudent than that of the Sul- 
 tans or Czars ; thus, the revolts which break
 
 94 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 out in Austria, are always suppressed before 
 they acquire consistency. There is, how- 
 ever, no part of Poland where misery and 
 oppression is so great as in Austrian Poland ; 
 nor is Polish nationality any where so ill 
 treated as it is in Austria. It is true that 
 the Austrian Government enjoys this ad- 
 vantage unknown to other governments, 
 that in all its undertakings to oppress a 
 foreign country, it is powerfully aided by 
 the Germanic press, and by the Germans, 
 who are disseminated throughout all coun- 
 tries and classes, and who, under different 
 disguises, introduce themselves into every 
 public and secret society, in order to betray 
 them to their despots. Hungary, which is 
 the most fertile country in Europe, and 
 which has a sort of constitution, enjoys little 
 greater happiness under the Austrian rule 
 than either Gallicia or Bohemia without any .
 
 BEVELATIOXS OF AUSTRIA. 95 
 
 The Russian government permits the ex- 
 istence of the social, democratic, organization 
 of the Cossacks of the island of Rovno* 
 near Riga ; he endows the German uni- 
 versity of Trappau, and allows privileges to 
 the Germans of Courland and Livonia, where 
 they introduced themselves in the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries in the disguise of 
 christian missionaries, but in fact to carry 
 on their various trades ; and where they 
 ended bv rendering themselves the masters 
 
 * Only as long as the Cossacks were, or continue, 
 instruments useful in extending the dominion of 
 Russia. The priveleges of the Cossacks are already 
 undergoing constant abrogation. The Don Cos- 
 sacks, for instance, have been deprived of all their 
 franchises by Nicholas, who has introduced slave 
 colonies of Muscovites into their territory. 
 
 Editor. 
 
 t Britannical Review, July, 1842.
 
 96 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 and oppressors of the Sclavonian people.* 
 In Austria, all is despotically organized 
 after the servile Germanic mode. The 
 Polish noblemen Zaboklicki Vincent, Za- 
 lewski Leon and others who freed their 
 peasants from the yoke, were looked upon 
 by the Austrian government as rebels, con- 
 demned, ad corcerem durissimum, and sent 
 to Spielberg. The Russian government 
 engages the nobles to grant freedom to their 
 serfs, f 
 
 * The population of these provinces, termed 
 * Balhe provinces," — as the bulk of it continues to 
 be— was not Sclavonian but a mixture of the Fin- 
 nish with another people, a distinct race from either 
 the Finns or Sclavonians, and of which the Lives, 
 Kurr.s, and Letti are supposed to have been branches, 
 
 Editor. 
 
 + But without ever permitting them to do so. 
 Russia introduced slavery amongst the eight millions 
 of the Russo Polish provinces. Nicholas has intro- 
 duced serfdom amongst the five millions of fre<s 
 peasants in the Polish Kingdom (Editor).
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 97 
 
 In order to be more sheltered from all 
 attack, and all reproach of absolutism, the 
 Kaisers transfer the charge of the manage- 
 ment of the government mechanism, to a 
 minister who bears the title of High Chan- 
 cellor, and who is commonly styled in Poland, 
 Austrian Visier, in consequence of the 
 analogy of his functions and authority with 
 those of the Grand Visier in Turkey. 
 The two other ministers of police and 
 finance, as well as all the presidents of tri- 
 bunals and chanceries, are mere clerks of this 
 Grand Chancellor. 
 
 The administration of all political and 
 judicial affairs is concentrated in Vienna. 
 Political affairs, comprising those of the 
 clergy and of religion, are managed, or de- 
 cided without appeal, by the Chancellor of 
 the court (Holfkanzelei). Financial affairs 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 98 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 are managed by the Kaiser himself, and by 
 the chamber of accounts (Hofkammer). 
 
 The Austrian empire consists of divers 
 people, and provinces. At the head of each 
 province, excepting Hungary, there is a go- 
 vernor, who has his council, called Guber- 
 nium. The counsellors, the secretaries, and 
 other officers which compose the Gubernium, 
 are named by the Kaiser or by his chancery. 
 The governor has a right to decide on all 
 matters even against the advice of his council. 
 He is the political representative; and in 
 cases of necessity or of danger, the absolute 
 muster of the province. 
 
 The chiefs of the temporal and spiritual 
 army, the generals and officers, the Arch- 
 bishops, Bishops, and Priests, the officials 
 employed, and all his subjects owe him a 
 blind obedience. In consequence of this
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 99 
 
 absolute power, he is called in Gallicia 
 the Kaiserial Satrap. 
 
 As to the management of the affairs and 
 political administration, Gallicia is divided 
 into nineteen circles. At the head of each 
 circle is placed an agent, who has the title of 
 captain of the circle. He has five or six 
 commissaries under his orders, a doctor of 
 the circle, an engineer, a secretary, a proto- 
 colist, an accountant, two or three 
 counsellors, five or six landsdragons, 
 and five or six aspirants, who labour gratis 
 for four or six years, in the hopes of an 
 eventual employ of one or two hundred 
 florins (10/ or 20/) a year. 
 
 Every circle has a treasury, composed ui 
 a cashier, a comptroller, and two subaltern?. 
 This treasury receives all the contributions, 
 exactions, penalties, tributes, etc. 
 
 For the arrangement of Political matter-
 
 100 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 there is a Burgomaster named by the Guber- 
 nium, and paid by the town ; in the village 
 there are also noblemen who are government 
 agents, and who, by way of recompence, 
 enjoy the unprofitable toil, of which they 
 and the Kaiser divide the revenue. 
 
 The general administration of Gallicia is 
 so directed that none but Germans, and 
 German Jews, are to be seen in the towns. 
 Almost the whole of the Polish population, 
 divided into tyrannic nobles, and enslaved 
 peasants, is confined to the rural districts, 
 The Polish peasantry are forbidden to estab- 
 lish themselves in the towns without the con- 
 sent of their lords, and as it is the peasantry 
 who constitute all the wealth of the nobles, 
 these latter are especially careful not to 
 grant them this permission. 
 
 To extirpate the Polish race, and Ger- 
 manize Poland, there are stations of German
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 101 
 
 colonies placed from distance to distance, 
 and more especially towards the Russian 
 frontier. All the colonists, without exception, 
 are of the Protestant religion, and enjoy 
 many priveleges, amongst others, that of 
 not being subjected to the military conscrip- 
 tion. The Polish population alone furnishes 
 soldiers to the Kaiser. Having myself been 
 a member of the Austrian government, I 
 had an opportunity of convincing myself by 
 the authentic documents of 1775, called 
 Fassions, that the aboriginal population of 
 the country was much greater in the year of 
 the Austrian invasion, 1772, than in 
 1 829. The government, by means of the con- 
 scription, selects and carries off the hand- 
 somest and most robust of the Polish youths 
 for the military service ; the nobles are per- 
 mitted to cruelly ill-treat a portion of them, 
 a great many are allowed to perish from
 
 102 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 want and inanition, and only those are suf- 
 fered to live in the country who are absolu- 
 tely necessary for the cultivation of the 
 land. With good reason, therefore, the German 
 Press felicitates the Austrian and Prussian 
 governments, on their extension of the Ger- 
 man frontiers, and says, that the Germanic 
 elements begin to prevail in Poland. Galli- 
 cia, after seventy-three years of the paternal 
 administration of Austria, is found at this 
 moment to be in an infinitely inferior state, 
 with regard to national wealth, than it was 
 in the Seventeenth Century, after the ra- 
 vages of the Tartars, Turks, and Swedes. 
 These barbarians, at least, respected the 
 Catholic Churches, whilst the Austrian- 
 have pillaged them. 
 
 Commerce, which is a source of riches t i 
 free nations, is in Polish Austria but an ex- 
 cuse for misery, the government favoring, 
 by QYQry possible means, foreign exportation.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 103 
 
 because it can, with greater facility, take 
 possesion of the money. 
 
 No prohibition exists against the estab- 
 lishment of any kind of manufactory in 
 Gallicia ; on the contrary, every Austrian 
 subject is permitted to establish them, but 
 permission must be obtained from the govern- 
 ment, and this permission is rendered nearly 
 unattainable by the numberless conditions 
 imposed upon it. The requisite formula 
 are protracted by the obligation of, first, 
 presenting a petition to the Burgomaster, 
 then to the circle, after that to the Guber- 
 nium, and at length, after having bought the 
 support of all these offices, to the Aulic 
 chancery at Vienna, 
 
 The peculiar tax of which the Kaiser 
 exacts payment before the establishment 
 can be opened, is so high and arbitrary that
 
 104 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 since the Austrian invasion, no manufactory, 
 of any kind whatsoever, has been established. 
 The paternal policy of the Kaiser demands 
 that Poland should be an agricultural 
 country, and that it should be dependent 
 on the German provinces for its manu- 
 factures. In the whole of Austrian Poland, 
 there is only one manufactory of coarse cloth, 
 at Mikulince. The proprietor of this 
 manufactory, Mr. Konopka, in the year 1821, 
 or 1822, demanded of the Kaiser Francis, 
 at the time of his visit to Gallicia, the loan 
 of 40,000 florins, for the purpose of extend- 
 ing his manufactory. The Kaiser promised 
 the loan, at five per cent., on mortgage, 
 accepted the breakfast M. Konopka offered 
 him and his suite, consisting of an immense 
 number of German Barons, and induced his 
 complaisant host, to address a petition to 
 him on his return to Vienna, Mr. Konopka
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 105 
 
 did not fail to conform to the orders 
 of his Kaiser, and to strengthen his 
 petition, produced all the titles and docu- 
 ments, to prove that the value of his property 
 and manufactories were more than sufficient 
 to cover the mortgage of 40,000 florins de- 
 manded to be lent ; and feeling certain, as 
 the Kaiser had given his word, of succeeding 
 in his request, commenced the works of 
 extension and embellishment. But what 
 was his astonishment, when he received a 
 negative answer. He still, however, thought 
 in his simplicity that the Kaiser had for- 
 gotten his promise, or that he had not read 
 his petition ; he therefore addressed himself 
 again to the Kaiser in person, when a second 
 refusal convinced him that the Austrian 
 system was more powerful than the word of 
 the Kaiser. As the Kaiser does nothing 
 without first consulting his council of state.
 
 106 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 this council had at once exposed the danger 
 which might accrue to the throne, from the 
 agglomeration of a multitude of workmen, 
 in a conquered country, and also to German 
 industry from the establishment of so large 
 a manufactory in Poland. Mr. Konopka 
 was therefore obliged to content himself, 
 with the satisfactory reflection, of having 
 given an imperial breakfast, at a cost of 
 2000 florins (£200). The Polish noble- 
 man Miaczinski, after enormous expen- 
 diture, obtained permission to establish 
 a cloth manufactory at Zalosce. He con- 
 structed work-shops, store-houses, and 
 magazines. lie brought his instruments, 
 tools, and mechanism from England, engaged 
 his workmen, and according to Belehl 
 informed the government that he was 
 going to open a manufactory ; the government 
 took note of this intimation, but reminded
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 107 
 
 him that, under a heavy penalty, he was bound 
 to pay to the government 10,000 florins 
 (£1,000) a year, as the price of its per- 
 mission. M. Miaczinski, alarmed at the 
 enormity of this tax, and uncertain as to 
 the eventual returns of his speculation, first 
 adjourned the opening, and finally abandoned 
 the enterprise, not having been able to obtain 
 a diminution of the tax. To be allowed to 
 establish a pharmacy, or any warehouse foi 
 the sale of ironwork or colonial produce, 
 etc. etc., permission must first be obtained 
 from the Aulic Chancery at Vienna, and 
 these concessions are almost exclusively 
 reserved for Germans. As, in France and 
 England, capital is chiefly possessed by in- 
 dividuals who govern, in the former but 
 especially in the latter country instead oi 
 increasing the amount of taxation on the 
 rich to cover the expenditure of the State,
 
 108 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 debts are contracted in order that they 
 may find investment for their capital — the 
 citizen legislators are rich, the State is poor 
 — Austria is the precise converse. To increase 
 the net revenue of the Treasury, taxation 
 is increased, debts are only apparently con- 
 tracted, and as a speculation. The State, 
 that is to say, the Kaiser, is rich, his sub- 
 jects — there are no citizens — are poor. The 
 indigence of the people renders useless the 
 prohibitory laws put in force in England and 
 France. Rich Austrians are not seen tra- 
 velling for pleasure abroad, nor buying 
 French wines, but many poor Germans 
 and German beggars are seen in all rich 
 countries. In constitutional monarchies 
 the very soul of finance is the system of 
 debt, in the absolute government of Austria, 
 on the contrarv, it is economy,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 109 
 
 There is not a single town in Gallicia 
 whose corporation has debts, all being 
 economical, and lending out their money 
 to the nobility and rich citizens, at five 
 per cent on legal mortgage. The Emperor 
 being at once guardian, trustee, and the 
 supreme administrator of the churches, 
 towns, and every other community, as soon 
 as a town has contrived to scrape together 
 some savings, these are gathered into his 
 treasury. It is thus that the Emperor 
 Francis, having learned, during his visit to 
 Gallicia, in 1817, that the town of Leopol, 
 had saved four hundred thousand florins 
 in Dutch ducats, (forty thousand pounds) had 
 this gold immediately seized and carried 
 to Vienna, under a strong escort. 
 
 All these transactions are enveloped in 
 greatest mystery. The government 
 
 officials, acquainted with the fact, would be 
 vol. i i
 
 110 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 cashiered and sentenced to condign punish- 
 ment, if it could be proved that they had 
 disclosed this state secret, as it might be 
 construed into an accusation of avarice 
 against the sacred person of the Empeior, 
 which tended to estrange the love of his 
 faithful subjects. 
 
 Money being the sole aim of the internal 
 and external policy of the Emperors, they 
 do not hesitate to employ any means for its 
 acquisition, or in their endeavours to 
 economise it. 
 
 The arrival of the Emperor in Gallicia. 
 was announced several months previously. 
 A month before- hand the hostel of the 
 the black eagle at Jaroslau, where the 
 Emperor and his suite were to sup, sleep, 
 and breakfast, was ordered to be prepared 
 for the occasion. 
 
 The governor gave the order to the
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. Ill 
 
 captain of the district, he again to the 
 burgomaster, and finally the burgomaster to 
 Madame Piekna, (the landlady of the hotel, 
 a widow with five young children,) to em- 
 bellish and refurnish her hotel for the re- 
 ception of the august guests. 
 
 Madame Piekna was unanimously con- 
 gratulated by her fellow citizens on this 
 distinction. 
 
 It was even currently reported that his 
 Majesty had chosen this hotel in preference 
 to any other, for the purpose of assisting 
 this poor widow, whose fortune was in a bad 
 state, and who was deploring the death of 
 her husband ; this was the more readily 
 believed that she was generally known 
 for her piety and exemplary exercise 
 of the duties of the Catholic Religion. A 
 fortnight before the arrival of his Majesty, 
 the Hotel was surrounded by police, cavalry, 
 and infantry — no one was allowed to enter.
 
 112 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Madame Piekna did not hesitate at any 
 expense, and caused all the embellishments 
 to be executed which had been recommended 
 by the burgomaster, engineer, and captain of 
 the Circle. At last, on the day named, his 
 Majesty, accompanied by M. Metternich and 
 a numerous suite of courtiers, arrived — 
 supped — slept — breakfasted, paid twenty 
 five florins (three pounds sterling), and left 
 for Leopol. Madame Piekna went to the 
 burgomaster and threatened to bring him 
 before the judge as answerable for the ex- 
 pense and loss which the Kaiser's visit had 
 occasioned her. The burgomaster had the 
 Order of the Court ot the Circle read to her. 
 She addressed herself to the Court of the 
 Circle, which proved to her that it had only 
 acted in conformity with the command of the 
 gubernium, and lastly, applied to the Emperor 
 himself, and was informed that she had 
 the right of citing the imperial treasury
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 113 
 
 before a court composed of the creatures of 
 the Emperor. The poor widow was conse- 
 quently ruined and reduced to beggary. 
 
 The emperors being absolute masters over 
 the fortunes of their subjects, are at great 
 pains to induce foreign princes to visit 
 Vienna, to take the baths of Karlsbad, and to 
 spend their money liberally. They have more 
 interest than constitutional governments 
 generally, in making advantageous treaties 
 of commerce ; they are less inclined to 
 make concessions than constitutional govern- 
 ments, because although always appearing 
 to act for the interests of their subjects, 
 they only do so in reality for their own. 
 
 All the money earned by their subjects 
 from strangers, finds its way little by little 
 into their treasury, whence it only emerge- 
 in times of the utmost necessity. 
 
 It is severely forbidden to make subscrip-
 
 114 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 tions for foreigners who may have suffered 
 by conflagrations, inundations, or earth- 
 quakes without the consent of government. 
 It is likewise forbidden to play in foreign 
 lotteries, but the Austrian citizens are al- 
 lowed to gamble away their manors or es- 
 tates, and to sell the tickets to foreigners, 
 because the seller is obliged to pay the 
 emperor in advance, 10 per cent, of the 
 price set upon it, which often considerably 
 exeeeds its real value. 
 
 It is also in consequence of a financial 
 speculation, that provisions and rent are 
 considerably dearer at Vienna, than in any 
 other town in the empire, because Vienna is 
 the city where the ambassadors and the prin- 
 cipal foreigners reside. In this it is the con- 
 trary of Paris, where provisions are cheaper 
 than in the provinces. It was equally the 
 effects of a financial speculation which drew
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 115 
 
 to Vienna the congress of all the European 
 Sovereigns in 1815, enriched with the booty 
 of France. 
 
 The Austrian policy is ooo greedy and too 
 timid to endure many wealthy private indi- 
 viduals. Therefore there are hardly any 
 capitalists in Gallicia. There is however no 
 rule without an exception, Monsieur Alex- 
 ander Starzynski inherited from his father 
 considerable landed property, and one hun- 
 dred thousand Dutch ducats. 
 
 As soon as the Emperor became acquainted 
 with the fact, he gave Monsieur Starzynski 
 the title of Count, with its tax of 
 £600, made him his chamberlain, and 
 called him to Vienna, to deliver into 
 his hands the keys of his new chamberlain- 
 ship. 
 
 Madame Starzynski had a son ; the Em- 
 peror stood godfather to the child. The
 
 116 REVELATIOaS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 fortunate favorite did not perceive the snare 
 laid for him ; he let himself be seduced by 
 the German Barons, spent his money with 
 princely magnificence, borrowed at five, then 
 at ten, and lastly, at twenty, thirty, forty, 
 per cent ; till at length, he became insol- 
 vent, and was obliged to return to Gallicia, 
 there to meditate in silence over the vanity 
 of human greatness. 
 
 To economise the expenses of a representa- 
 tive, and at the same time to ruin Prince 
 Esterhazy, he was sent as ambassador to 
 England. 
 
 Esterhazy, being a Hungarian, is too 
 high-minded to accept .a salary from his 
 Emperor, and undertook to defray the ex- 
 penses of his ambassadorship out of his 
 private fortune ; but, as Austrian policy 
 mistrusts Hungarian, Italian, and Polish 
 patriotism, care is taken to have him
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 117 
 
 accompanied by an adviser of pure German 
 origin, who watches over his actions, and 
 reports them to the Government. 
 
 Conviction, the fear of consequences, 
 love, and religion, are the chief incentives of 
 all our actions. As it is almost impossible 
 to establish general and identical conviction, 
 the Government, in order duly to exercise its 
 functions, has recourse to fear, through the 
 severity of the law, and to religion, through 
 the intermedium of the priests. Professors, 
 tribunals, soldiers, and priests, all contribute 
 towards rendering sacred the person of the 
 Emperor, and to causing his commands to 
 be at once loved a:id respected. Blind obe- 
 dience is required to the ordinances of all 
 public functionaries, even when diametrically 
 opposed to higher commands, because these 
 agents have alone the power of interpreting 
 and applying the laws efficaciously.
 
 118 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 We take care of things according as we 
 love them ; love is alike the cause, and soul 
 of preservation. The Emperor loves his 
 subjects and the soil of his empire, because 
 they are either useful or necessary to his 
 preservation or to the increase of his 
 treasures. 
 
 For the preservation of a republican state 
 or constitutional monarchy, the legislative 
 body of citizens must love their country 
 above every thing. 
 
 Those citizens who prefer the preservation 
 of the head of their government, to the pre- 
 servation of their country itself are unworthy 
 of the name of citizens ; they are more the 
 tools of this royal chief, than the legislators 
 of their country, they would not hesitate at 
 placing themselves at the head, or in the 
 ranks of a foreign and mercenary army, to 
 light against their country, for the preser- 
 vation of their Idol.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 119 
 
 A great statesman, a minister of France, 
 and at the same time a great writer, Mon- 
 sieur Guizot, observed in the House of 
 Deputies in 1845, 
 
 " Our position is not straightforward, we 
 have nut a truly representative govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Yes, the real elements and basis of 
 a representative government are wanting 
 in France. It is in vain for this heroic 
 and generous nation to overthrow the ab- 
 solutism of the throne, and to proclaim 
 a free government, as long as the hierarchy 
 of the Romish clergy exists, whose organi- 
 zation is eminently despotic, and which 
 is governed by a foreign despot, resident 
 at Rome — as long as the priests look upon 
 themselves as the ministers, or rather the 
 grand visiers of God, and absolute masters 
 over the fate of those whom they call, in 
 derision — children of God, as loner as one half
 
 120 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the electors, and the elected shall be com- 
 posed of those so called French citizens, who 
 seem always happy to sacrifice the happiness 
 of France, for that of their new made King, 
 France will never enjoy, for a continuance, 
 the blessing of liberty. 
 
 The catholic clergy can never give its 
 spiritual support to any but an absolute form 
 of government, because it is only an absolute 
 government that would cause its exorbitant 
 and preternatural power to be respected as 
 accorded by revelation, (viz.) miraculous 
 transubstantiation, arbitrary and definitive 
 remission of sins, &c. 
 
 The freer a people, the more the authority 
 and the execution of the laws should be 
 punctually and severely observed ; because 
 the citizens, the framers of those laws, would 
 think themselves authorised in infringing 
 them at the caprice of the moment ; or when
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 121 
 
 the laws imposed too much restraint, or 
 when they were not executed in accordance 
 with their notions. In Austria, the legis- 
 lation is, as we are prepared to "show, inhu- 
 man, its authority barbarous, its execution 
 pitiless. In France, the legislation is gene- 
 rally equitable ; authority mild ; but the 
 execution of the laws is often paralysed, 
 either by the pernicious influence of the 
 electors and elected, or by an opposition 
 often entirely devoid of principle, and of 
 the political information alike necessary to 
 a journalist, or a member of the legislation. 
 At others it is blinded by passion or actuated 
 by sordid or selfish feelings ; and com- 
 posed, in a great measure, of a party, who 
 will only recognize an absolute monarchical 
 form of government. 
 
 If ever Protestant Germany should be- 
 come constitutional, its government will be 
 
 vol. I. M
 
 122 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 established on a more solid basis, than that 
 of France, because its evangelic form of 
 worship is more national and more demo- 
 cratic than the catholic ; its priests are 
 citizens and fathers of families, and obey 
 a national and temporal authority. 
 
 It will struggle to eclipse France, whose 
 government wants a spiritual foundation, 
 and to become the centre of European civi- 
 lisation. 
 
 The Austrian censorship is far more sys- 
 tematically arbitrary than that of any other 
 of the absolute states. 
 
 The introduction and reading of news- 
 papers and Polish books, printed in Russian 
 Poland, were, until the insurrection of Po- 
 land, in 1830, even more strenuously for- 
 bidden than French books and newspapers. 
 In order to persuade and force the Poles in- 
 directly to learn German, a little more liberty
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 123 
 
 is accorded to German than to the Polish 
 authors. 
 
 All that is destined to appear in print, 
 all drawings, engravings, and paintings, must 
 pass a censorship, and meet with its ap- 
 proval. 
 
 It is forbidden for Austrian subjects to 
 have their books printed by foreigners, 
 without the permission of the aulic chancery, 
 at Vienna. Constantine Slotwinski, an 
 ex-officer of the French Empire, Chevalier of 
 the Legion of Honor, Imperial Commissary 
 of his department, Librarian to the Polish 
 library at Leopol, a celebrated jurisconsulist. 
 and a distinguished writer, had received a 
 small prayer book, printed in Paris, and 
 sent to him in secret, either by a friend or 
 by an Austrian agent. 
 
 He had been long suspected by the police 
 of patriotism and love of Polish nationality.
 
 124 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 At midnight his house was surrounded by 
 dragoons, and he was dragged from his bed. 
 His wife, just out of her confinement, was 
 torn from the embraces of her husband, and 
 clinging desperately to him, was stunned by 
 the butt end of their guns, which caused her 
 to expire upon the spot. 
 
 Slotwinski was sentenced to twenty years 
 hard labour (ad carcerem durissimum) by 
 the imperial delegated commission of Vienna, 
 which is composed of three faithful German 
 agents, who alone have the authority of 
 judgment in political offences, is now ex- 
 piating his sin of potriotism in the dungeons 
 of Spielberg, if he has not already been 
 poisoned, as is frequently the case in Austria, 
 if the delinquent is intelligent, and conse- 
 quently obnoxious. 
 
 In all Austrian Poland, there are but 
 five printing establishments, three at Leopol.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 125 
 
 one at Tarnow, and one at Przemysl. 
 This last belongs to a Pole, and only prints 
 religious songs ; the four others to Germans, 
 to whom this privilege is almost exclusively 
 accorded. In all Austrian Poland there is 
 but one newspaper, in German and Polish, 
 this last is composed of four pages in quar- 
 to, and is only allowed to print news un- 
 connected with politics, as contained in the 
 Austrian journal, the "Observer," edited 
 at Vienna by the private secretary of the 
 High Chancellor. The censors of the news- 
 papers are at the same time the functionaries 
 or paid agents of the Emperor. 
 
 No Austrian subject is allowed to emigrate 
 without the permission of government, and 
 this permission is only granted on a high 
 ransom being paid to the Emperor — the ran- 
 som being regulated according to the rank 
 of the party. The Austrian frontier is
 
 126 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 guarded by foresters, provided day and 
 night with a loaded gun, and they are 
 authorised to shoot upon the spot any indivi- 
 dual attempting to emigrate or even to 
 pass the frontier, without having paid this 
 ransom to the Emperor. 
 
 Neither tailors, shoemakers, nor carpen- 
 ters, &c., are allowed to establish a workshop 
 or to work, either publicly or privately, for 
 others, without first obtaining the permis- 
 sion, and paying the tax to the Emperor. 
 The workmen who transgress this order, are 
 punished with the confiscation of their tools 
 and blows with the cane. All the police sol- 
 diers, and all the provincial dragoons, are pro- 
 vided for this purpose with canes, which 
 they always carry about them. 
 
 The servants of both sexes, workmen and 
 workwomen, and in general all persons who 
 have no tangible property, or establishment, 
 or workshop, are liable, for any infringement
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 127 
 
 of the police regulations, to corporeal pun- 
 ishment, the men to blows with canes, the 
 women to whipping on their bare backs. 
 
 The Burgomasters, the police agents, 
 those of their district, and all nobility, and 
 their agents have the power of administering 
 this punishment without any enquiry, or 
 without any written decision. 
 
 The emperors never carry out their de- 
 signs by straightforward means, but obtain 
 their ends by subterfuge and cunning. 
 
 To ascertain the number of his subjects 
 who manufacture gold and silver articles, and 
 to be enabled to seize upon them, the em- 
 peror ordered by an edict of 1802 and 
 18U3 what follows. 
 
 ' : His Majesty having heard with horror 
 that many articles are sold pretending to be 
 gold and silver, but which either are not so 
 at all, or contain considerable alloy, to pre- 
 vent this public imposition, his Majesty
 
 128 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 in his paternal solicitude for his dearly 
 beloved subjects, commands as follows. 
 Firstly " All persons, churches, and com- 
 munities, who may have in their possession, 
 administration, or said keeping, any articles 
 whatever, of gold, or silver, shall be 
 obliged, under pain of confiscation of the 
 articles, or of fine, or imprisonment, to 
 bring them, within two months, to the officer 
 of the district, who will cause them to be 
 stamped with the gold and silver mark."' 
 Secondly. " Those to whom these arti- 
 cles belong shall pay to the government, by 
 way of retribution, either in gold or in silver, 
 but not in paper money, one kreutzer for an 
 ounce of silver, and one kreutzer for a drachm 
 of gold. The district agents have received 
 strict orders to keep the registers of 
 this operation, and to expose the article, the 
 metal, its weight, the name of the owner, 
 and of his dwelling, and to send the dupli-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 129 
 
 cates of them to the chamber of finance. 
 Every one recognised in this proceeding the 
 paternal solicitude of the Emperor, and every 
 manufacturer, depositor, or proprietor of 
 gold and silver articles, hastened to have 
 them stamped, and to pay this trifling 
 fine. But a few months had scarcely elapsed, 
 when another edict appeared, which com- 
 manded, under the same penalties of fine 
 and imprisonment, to have all gold and 
 silver articles stamped, and to pay to the 
 government twenty kreutzers an ounce for 
 silver, and the same sum for a drachm of gold. 
 Those persons who had no gold or silver 
 monies, chargeable the stamp duty, were 
 bound to give up to government other 
 articles wrought in those metals instead ; and 
 the government took upon itself to pay the 
 over-plus back again, in paper money, accord- 
 ing to the course of exchange on the day 
 of payment.
 
 130 BEVELATI03S OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Emperor being at once the guardian, 
 the trustee, and the supreme administrator 
 of the churches, ordered all their gold and 
 silver articles to be delivered up to him, and 
 he paid back the money in notes, of which 
 mention will be made under the article finance. 
 
 An edict of the 30th of December, 1814. 
 runs as follows . — 
 
 "In order to give the nobility of Gallicia 
 proofs of our paternal affection, and to main- 
 tain her ancient prerogatives, it is herewith 
 ordained that no citizen shall either be able 
 to purchase, to inherit, or to acquire in any 
 manner whatsoever, those landed estates be- 
 longing to the nobility; the nobility alone 
 shall be entitled to purchase and to retain 
 them. The Polish nobility, flattered in its 
 pride by this distinguishing privilege. 
 
 thanked his Majesty for this proof of pater- 
 nal solicitude.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 131 
 
 In 1818 another befehl announced that 
 the landed estates, the towns and villages 
 of the state would be sold by public auction 
 and that all the inhabitants alike, Jews or 
 Christians, Patricans or Plebeians, would 
 have a right to purchase them — the real 
 object of the first befehl of 1814, was to 
 increase the number of buyers as well as 
 to fill the coffers of the State, or in other 
 words, of the Kaiser. 
 
 Notwithstanding this deception, the Po- 
 lono Austrian nobility is sufficiently attached 
 to the House of Habsburg, because, firstly, 
 the Kaisers easily grant the title of Count, 
 in consideration of the payment of a tax of 
 6000 florins, (about £600) and secondly 
 because they maintain more strictly the 
 Robot (or service due from peasants to their 
 lords) of the Polish peasantry, than other 
 absolute Monarchies.
 
 132 REYELATIOXS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Polono Austrian Counts shewed fre- 
 quent signs of respect towards the Kaiser Fran- 
 cis, particularly during his journey through 
 Gallicia in 1817. It is well known that 
 the Kaiser Francis, like almost all the first 
 born of the House of Habsburg had a fall- 
 ing under lip, a wide mouth, the head 
 bowed towards the chest, and hollow cheeks 
 and eyes. 
 
 The disciples of Plato, to imitate their 
 chief and master affected to have round 
 shoulders, and in Ethiopia when the 
 Sovereign had any deformity the courtiers 
 maimed themselves to resemble him. 
 
 A few Austriaco -polish Counts not wishing 
 to appear less civilized than the Ethiopians 
 affected, in 1817, and subsequently a falling 
 lip, gaping mouth, and lowered head — 
 though their zeal and devotedness did 
 not lead them quite so far as to make 
 them hollow their eves and cheeks.
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA.. 133 
 
 There are turnpikes every two leagues 
 on all the high roads of the Austrian empire, 
 with the exception of those in Hungary, 
 where two kreutzer are paid for every head 
 of yoked and one kreutzer for all unyoked 
 cattle. Three drains crossing the road 
 within the distance of a couple of leagues 
 gives the Kaiser the right of increasing the 
 toll one kreutzer per head. If there is a 
 bridge a separate tax is paid. 
 
 Turnpikes are farmed out in Gallicia, the 
 farmers being obliged to repair the roads, by 
 which means the Kaiser derives a net revenue 
 from them. 
 
 This system of levying toll allows the 
 Kaiser to adopt towards foreign countries a 
 system of policy, apparently liberal and 
 disinterested, by granting a free transit for 
 foreign merchandise, more particularly to- 
 wards France, where this toll eve: 1 , does not 
 
 vol. i m •
 
 134 BEVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 exist, and where consequently the French 
 government derives no benefit from the 
 transit of Austrian merchandise. 
 
 The further from Vienna, the capital of 
 Austria, the more rare does specie become, 
 and the greater the general poverty, though 
 it is to be found in its greatest extreme in 
 the proximity of the frontiers. In Gallicia, 
 only paper money, copper, and pieces of 
 silver, of twenty kreutzers (eight pence) 
 are known. Out of ten thousand persons, 
 hardly one has ever seen a two florin piece, 
 (four shillings) or an Austrian ducat, but 
 everybody knows the Russian roubles, and 
 Dutch or Russian ducats, which the Kaiser 
 gradually draws into his coffers, a fact which 
 proves that the exportation to Russia and 
 Russian Poland, is greater than the impor- 
 tation from those countries, and that the
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 135 
 
 Russian Poles are richer than the Austrian 
 Poles. 
 
 Saxony, next neighbour of impoverished 
 Bohemia, vainly endeavours to protect itself 
 by prohibitive laws against the Bohemian 
 beggars. 
 
 In Gallicia the wretchedness of the 
 Burghers, Jews, and particularly of the 
 peasantry, surpasses all that can be con- 
 ceived. The Polish peasants can afford even 
 black bread only during three or four months 
 of the year : they live the remainder of the 
 time on potatoes, with the exception of 
 three or four months in the Spring ; when 
 driven to subsist on green meat, extreme 
 privation renders these poor wretches sallow, 
 their bodies swell, and fever carries away 
 thousands — particularly children and aged 
 persons — every year. Out of a hundred 
 children born, at least sixty die before the 
 age of six, and it is rare in Gallicia to see a
 
 336 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 peasant seventy years of age. At the same 
 time Gallicia produces three times as much 
 corn as would properly support its popula- 
 tion, which amounts to "upwards of four 
 millions, but the taxes are so high, and 
 money is so scarce, that very often the 
 whole crop does not suffice to pay the Kai- 
 ser his direct taxes. 
 
 The wily German has taken for basis of 
 taxation the price of corn in 1792, because 
 there was at that time much more money 
 than at present, and that the price of corn 
 was higher on account of the war. 
 
 Thus the peasants and the lords them- 
 selves pay the direct taxes at the rate of 
 eight shillings the Hectolitre, but when the 
 government seizes corn in payment of taxes 
 it sells it at the rate of ten pence, or even 
 as low as five pence for the same measure. 
 
 The grower, that he may be able to
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 137 
 
 satisfy the imperial rapacity is allowed to 
 export, that he may find money abroad. A 
 year of plenty and a full crop does not alle- 
 viate the misery of the agriculturists, because 
 then either the price of corn diminishes, or 
 the»Kaiser increases the rate of taxation. 
 
 A Polish nobleman who has but a single 
 village, consisting of forty or fifty peasants' 
 huts, with three or four thousand acres, with 
 mills, ponds, and public houses upon them, 
 is often not able to pay the schooling of his 
 two sons. 
 
 Out of one hundred proprietors the 
 property of ninety is seized, sequestered, 
 or eventually sold to pay the taxes. 
 
 A body of the landholders made a written 
 declaration in which they assigned over their 
 property to the Kaiser on condition of his 
 granting them subsistence, but the Kaiser 
 refused to accept their offer ; he even de- 
 sired the authorities in future not to trans-
 
 138 REVELATIONS OF AUSTKIA. 
 
 mit to Vienna such declarations of which he 
 could not take cognisance. 
 
 Up to 1815 the Kaiser made the wars 
 with France a pretext for extortion. 
 
 After that war, that is to say in 1817, 
 direct taxation was doubled, and even 
 trebled, and the befehl which announces this 
 increase contains these words, ' k that it is 
 during war that wounds are received, and 
 that peace is the proper time for curing them. 5 '" 
 
 * There is no aristocracy properly so 
 called in Gallicia or even Austria. The 
 Kaiser is absolute master, his agents only 
 the first of his slaves. They do not even 
 form a bureaucracy, because they have no 
 
 * The author here loses sight of Hungary, per- 
 haps the only European country besides England in 
 -syhich an aristocracy in any thing but name can 
 still be said to exist. Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 139 
 
 power excepting to execute the will of their 
 master. 
 
 The diet of Gallicia, established in 1817, 
 is convoked every year in the month of 
 October. 
 
 It is composed oi four estates ; Firstly, the 
 Ecclesiastical ; Secondly, that of Magnates ; 
 Thirdly, that of Szlachta ; and Fourthly, the 
 Burgher estate. The first estate is repre- 
 sented by all the Archbishops, Bishops, and 
 two Delegates from each chapter ; the second 
 estate comprises all the Princes, Counts, and 
 Barons ; the third estate contains all the 
 Szlachcis or ancient Polish Militia which the 
 Kaiser had assimilated to the Germanic 
 Knights (Putter.) In order for a Szlachcic 
 to appear at the diet and bear the title of 
 Nuncio, he must be acknowledged as Knight 
 by the Emperor, and pay to the Kaiser 
 
 75 florins ( £ G ) yearly, as Seignorial 
 tax.
 
 140 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 That is to say for the right of exacting 
 forced labour from the Polish peasantry. 
 
 The German peasants are not subjected to 
 forced labour — they are free. 
 
 The fourth estate comprises two deputies 
 from the capital, Leopol, one of whom is 
 always Burgomaster of Leopol, and the other a 
 citizen of Lepol, chosen by the Burgomaster. 
 The Burgomaster is always a thorough bred 
 German, and a stranger not only to the town 
 but also to Gallicia ; he is besides a secret 
 councillor of the Kaiser's (Geheimrath.) 
 
 The Diet, thus composed, meets and dis- 
 perses on the day fixed upon by the Kaiser. 
 It is expressly forbidden the Diet to inter- 
 fere in all matters relative to public ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 It is only allowed to occupy itself with 
 the means of augmenting the productions of 
 the country. 
 
 The right of petition is granted to it on
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 141 
 
 condition that the petition be signed by 
 the Governor. 
 
 This parody is enacted with great mock 
 solemnity. 
 
 The whole garrison is drawn out in line 
 and presents arms to these legislators, who go 
 in carriages to the Diet. The Catholic 
 Archbishop, Primas Regni, drives in a gilt 
 carriage, surrounded by twelve lacqueys or 
 chasseurs, drawn by six horses and preceded 
 by a Canon mounted on a white horse, and 
 holding in his two hands a crucifix about 
 nine feet high. 
 
 To increase his consequence, the Arch- 
 bishop, who calls himself the most humble 
 servant of God, thus causes his horses, 
 coachmen, huntsmen, and lacqueys to be 
 preceded by an effigy of his crucified Saviour, 
 who opens the procession of his servant the 
 Archbishop. 
 
 The Pagan Pontiffs carried with their
 
 142 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 own hands the emblems of their divinities, 
 but the haughty Austrian priests use the 
 image of their Maker to lead the train of 
 their equipages and servants. 
 
 The government rewards and marks of 
 distinction are orders and titles. 
 
 Orders are very rare and therefore much 
 esteemed. 
 
 The title of Baron is only granted in 
 Poland to Jews and Neophytes. 
 
 The Germans themselves pretend that 
 the origin and etymology of the title 
 is judaical. 
 
 The Poles are only ambitious of and only 
 purchase the title of Count. 
 
 All subscriptions for the sufferers by in- 
 undations or fire, whether native or foreign, 
 entered into without the permission of the 
 Circle of the Gubernium or of the Aulic 
 Council, are severely forbidden, under pe-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 143 
 
 nalty of confiscation of funds, and imprison- 
 ment of persons. 
 
 The arts and trades are united in distinct 
 bodies (Zunft.) 
 
 Each guild or company has its master, 
 deputy master, and assistant. 
 
 The period of apprenticeship is fixed from 
 three to seven years, according to the trade, 
 and after the expiration of this legal term, 
 the apprentices obtain the certificate of 
 their freedom and companionship. 
 
 After three or four years companionship, 
 the companion has a right to present him- 
 self for examination, and receives a diploma 
 as Master, on payment of the legal taxes 
 and stamps. 
 
 To entitle a master to exercise a trade 
 upon his own account, he must buy a li- 
 cence from the Kaiser. 
 
 The sum which may be placed by an in-
 
 144 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 dividual in the savings bank at once or 
 several times, is neither fixed nor limited. 
 
 The reimbursement takes place 8, 10, or 
 80 days after the demand. 
 
 Fireworks and the illumination of houses 
 is forbidden without the permission of 
 government. On the arrival of the Kaiser 
 Francis at Leopol, the police had ordered 
 the inhabitants to illuminate their houses 
 for three consecutive nights. The good 
 Raiser having learnt this the day after 
 the first illumination, forbade it for 
 the next two nights, observing to his 
 governor, the Baron Dauer — " It is better 
 for my subjects to make money by export- 
 ing and selling abroad the tallow which they 
 would uselessly burn." 
 
 In the whole of Gallicia there are only 
 two or three insignificant gratuitous hos-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 145 
 
 pitals for the sick; admission requires special 
 interest and government sanction. 
 
 At Leopol it is a gubernial councillor 
 who grants permission of admittance. 
 
 The expense of these hospitals is de- 
 frayed by the revenue derived from the tax 
 on forced labour of the Polish peasantry. 
 
 It is needless to say that the Germans 
 have the preference of admission. The hos- 
 pital called General, only receives the 
 sick, in consideration of payment ; it is a 
 joint-stock speculation of which the profits 
 are shared between the town corporation 
 and the Kaiser. 
 
 Begging is forbidden, but there is no 
 provision made for the poor and aged. 
 
 As there is however no rule without an ex- 
 ception, mendicity is allowed in the Kaiser's 
 own family. The Kaiser's wife has the 
 privilege of asking pin-money of the 
 
 vol i. o
 
 146 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Poles. The Kaiser Francis married suc- 
 cessively four wives. The last, a Bavarian 
 Princess, now the widowed Queen Mother, 
 came to Gallicia with her husband in 1822, 
 to beg of the Poles her pin-money. 
 
 Having learnt that the Polish noblemen 
 proposed to offer 75,000 florins (6000£) in 
 paper money, the Kaiserinn graciously ex- 
 pressed her desire to have the present 
 changed into Dutch ducats, and also im- 
 pressed upon them the propriety of present- 
 ing these ducats in a gold box. 
 
 The Poles generously offered her fifteen 
 thousand Dutch ducats enclosed in a gold 
 box. 
 
 The Kaiser and his family are not ac- 
 customed to leave even a few florins for the 
 poor, 
 
 There is even a German proverb which runs 
 — " the Kaiser takes but never gives." 
 
 The Kaiserinn, on the occasion in question,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 147 
 
 briefly thanked the Poles (hab dank, " you 
 are thanked,) and departed. 
 
 In Hungary the Queens have a custom of 
 demanding a present for shoes — a noble 
 Hungarian, who did not like the Germans, 
 in paying his quota of the present, observed 
 to the soliciting Baron. — " Your Kaiserinn 
 might go barefoot, it is warm weather now." 
 It was the month of July. 
 
 The bankruptcies of the Vienna Bankers 
 are generally believed to be mere commercial 
 speculations. 
 
 None but foreigners, unlucky Turks, 
 Frenchmen and Russians, lose their millions 
 by them. 
 
 The Empire, that is to say, the Kaiser 
 and the members of the Imperial family, 
 place their savings advantageously with 
 these Vienna bankers whose credit they wish
 
 148 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 to raise, withdrawing their capital a few days 
 before their bankruptcy. 
 
 The Austrian Germans unharness the 
 horses belonging to the carriage of a cele- 
 brated actress and drag it themselves, but 
 they decline attending paid concerts. 
 
 Prince Metternich understands the art of 
 drawing to the Capital rich strangers, and of 
 inducing them to spend large sums. He 
 personally knows how to make a great show 
 at little cost. He is in the habit of inviting 
 artists, and particularly foreign artists, to 
 play and sing in his drawing-rooms, and 
 rewards them with six or twelve bottles of 
 Johannisberg. 
 
 The sordid parsimony of the chief of the 
 house of Habsburg, and of Metternich, is 
 proverbial in Gallicia. 
 
 They do not travel to foreign countries to
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 149 
 
 avoid expense, and never display either 
 charitable generosity or liberality in re- 
 warding services. It is the chief aim of 
 their policy to draw to Vienna all the trea- 
 sures of the earth. 
 
 The inns and -hotels are very scarce in 
 the large towns and watering places of the 
 Austrian Empire, frequented by strangers. 
 
 To found these establishments permission 
 must be obtained from the Gubemium, and 
 is only granted to a few privileged persons, 
 who agree to pay, as tax, a certain sum 
 to the Kaiser. 
 
 The government, on its part, undertakes 
 not to allow any one for a certain period, to 
 set up any rival inns or hotels ; and in this 
 manner the Kaiser, and those who divide 
 with him this monopoly share its profits. 
 The same process takes place with regard to
 
 150 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 all manufactories, printing establishments, 
 &c. &c. 
 
 Nomade Royalties, who bring with them 
 millions, and wealthy strangers, are treated 
 with the greatest attention and respect, and 
 are enticed by every imaginable means. 
 
 The poor, on the contrary, are not even 
 admitted. 
 
 The free and independent press of France 
 protects fifty thousand unfortunate Prussian 
 and Austrian mendicants in Paris, and re- 
 serves the shafts of its wit for wealthy 
 travellers. 
 
 This is laudable on the score of humanity, 
 but decidedly at variance with the interests 
 of the country. 
 
 If we narrowly examine the internal ad- 
 ministration of the Austrian Empire, it is 
 not difficult to perceive that M. Ochsen- 
 hausen von Metternich governs the Austrian
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 151 
 
 States rather according to German interests 
 than in accordance with interests of the 
 House of Habsburg. Futurity will inform 
 us whether it will be the dynasty of Habs- 
 burg or Brandenburg that will be driven 
 from Germany. 
 
 It may be recollected on the occasion of 
 the firing of a gun or pistol at the 
 Czar Nicholas in the Prussian States 
 at Posen in 1839 or 1840, the German 
 writers gave out everywhere that the assassin 
 was a Pole.'" The commission appointed 
 to investigate the matter discovered nothing ; 
 on the other hand persons, high placed in 
 Austria and Prussia, say, underhand, that 
 the shot was fired at Nicholas bv a 
 
 * In St, Petersburg it is commonly believed that 
 the shot was fired from one of the carriages of the 
 Imperial suite, 
 
 Editor.
 
 152 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 German, a secret agent of the Cabinets of 
 Vienna and Berlin and of their policy ; 
 and with the view of rendering the Poles 
 hateful to the Tsar, and of forcing him 
 to abandon to them the left bank of the 
 Vistula.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 153 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Peasants. — National Militia Szclachta — Proprietors- 
 Nobles — Burghers— Germans. 
 
 To enable the reader more readily to un- 
 derstand and appreciate the befehls, which 
 actually influence the condition of the 
 peasantry and landholders, it is necessary to 
 lay before him the relative position in which 
 they mutually stood before the invasion,
 
 164 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 which the Austrians call revindication of the 
 kingdoms of Gallicia and Ladomeria. 
 
 To make the Poles, as well as Europe, 
 lose all traces of Poland, the Germans only 
 give the title of Poland to the portion oc- 
 cupied by Russia. Whilst they were masters 
 of the whole of ancient Poland, and of its 
 two capitals, Cracow and Warsaw — that is to 
 say from 1795 up to the treaty of Tilsit, con- 
 cluded in 1807, they gave it the title of 
 oriental Gallicia, and Poland was effaced from 
 the geographical map. 
 
 * In ancient times, the only distinction 
 
 * This historical assumption as to the origin of 
 the Szchlacta, is rejected by the modern authorities, 
 whose recent investigations have brought to light 
 evidence, that the noble or military class both in 
 Poland and Lithuania was a distinct and conquering 
 race, or a compound of successive conquering races, 
 like the admixture formed by the amalgamation of 
 Saxons, Danes and Normans in the British Isles. 
 
 There appears however always to have existed a
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 155 
 
 amongst tbe inhabitants consisted in their 
 different occupations. 
 
 Those who cultivated the soil were called 
 labourers. 
 
 Those who defended it against foreign 
 invasion were called at first Szlachcic, from 
 the German word, Schlacht, which signifies 
 battle. A small number of Burghers were 
 artizans or traders. 
 
 Viscounts, Marquesses or Barons were un- 
 known in ancient Poland, until the end of 
 the tenth century ; and even afterwards the 
 government of Poland was of a democrati- 
 cal character. 
 
 tint, rather of appropriating merit by admitting it 
 into its ranks, than of any aristocratic exclusion in 
 the Szchlacta, so that, after all, it may chiefly have 
 been recruited from the aboriginal pop\ilation. It 
 is also indubitable that the servitude of the peasantry 
 >v;».M a comparatively recent abuse. 
 
 F.DITOR.
 
 156 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Russian provinces retained it till the 
 end of the fifteenth century. 
 
 There are neither in Poland, nor in the 
 Russian provinces, Feudal castles, nor old 
 names. 
 
 All the names terminating in ski are ad- 
 jectives, taken from the names of parishes, 
 animals, plants, or the imagination ; and 
 those names date only from the sixteenth 
 century. The Polish names terminating in 
 wicz, are derived from families, and have an 
 earlier origin. 
 
 The throne being elective, the King could 
 not create an hereditary nobility, and had 
 not even the right of conferring any title. 
 
 With the exception of those of Prince and 
 Duke (Woiewodea) all others are of German 
 or Russian creation, and consequently exotic 
 and anti-Polish. 
 
 The Poles bearing these titles, who ac- 
 quired them at the cost of Polish inde-
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA, 157 
 
 pendence, are Counts or Barons, but not 
 Polish Barons or Counts. The Szlachta forms 
 what is now called the second rate nobility. 
 It is essentially Polish, and notwith- 
 standing its ignorance and vices it is attached 
 to Poland and identified in interest with 
 its destinies. It is still mindful of the 
 original of its institution, which was the 
 defence of its country's independence and 
 nationality. Hence the noble pride and 
 intrepidity of a good Polish Szlachcic. 
 
 The Kaiser sees it ; he therefore gradually 
 transforms the Szlachcic into Austrian 
 
 nobles. Counts, Vis-counts, Barons, Mar- 
 
 quisses, and similar creations illustrative of 
 
 the darkness of despotism and slavery form 
 
 the court and ignoble train of the house of 
 
 Hapsburg, and of other sovereigns and 
 
 dynasties. 
 
 They are the liveried slaves and cham- 
 
 VOL. i p
 
 158 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 pions of a dynasty rather than the defenders 
 of the country. 
 
 Such mercenaries have never hesitated 
 and never will hesitate to fight in the ranks 
 of a foreign soldiery against their country 
 and in favour of a dynasty. 
 
 The Polish Szlachta only expatriates it- 
 self to fight for its country — the Counts and 
 Marquisses expatriate themselves to fight 
 against it. 
 
 There exists therefore a great distinction 
 between the Polish Szlachcic nobility and the 
 monarchial nobility of other countries. The 
 Pole who fought for his country was its true 
 national militia its Szlacheu. Amongst the 
 Polish Princes, the Princes Czartoryski are 
 distinguished by their patriotic efforts to 
 maintain the Polish language and nation- 
 ality. The president of the Polish insur- 
 rectionary government of 1830, Prince Adam
 
 BEVELATIOKS OF AUSTRIA. 159 
 
 Czartoryski, surpasses all the other nobles as 
 as the cypress tree surpasses the white 
 briony. Quamtum lenta solent inter viburna 
 cupressi. 
 
 All the Polish lands belonged to the 
 republic. Government had no right to 
 alienate a single inch of its territory, and 
 could only bestow its usufruct. 
 
 The lands of each parish were divided 
 into three classes. 
 
 First the lands of the court termed 
 dworskie. Second : The free lands whose 
 revenue belonged to the national militia. 
 (Szlachta) as a reward for its military 
 service in time of war ; and Thirdly : The 
 taxed lands. 
 
 The peasantry settled on these lands were 
 obliged, instean of pecuniary taxes, to cul- 
 tivate, gratis, the lands of the court. 
 Burghers occupying these lands being 
 obliged to pay their taxes in money.
 
 160 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 What the Szlachcic were in Northern 
 Poland the Cossaks were in Southern. It 
 was these same Cossacs, called Scythians, 
 who resisted the invasions of Cyrus, Darius, 
 and Alexander the Great ; and who gained 
 the famous battle against the Amazons, of 
 which Herodotus speaks in his History, 
 bookiv. c. 110—116. 
 
 Much has been said of the Cossaks though 
 they have been little understood. Up to 
 the period when the civil, political, and re- 
 ligious tyranny of the Polish Szlachcic, in- 
 spired by the Jesuits, forced the Cossack 
 nobles to detach themselves from Poland 
 and seek the protection of Russia, they had 
 quite a democratical organisation. 
 
 Even now they enjoy perfect equality 
 amongst themselves. They are virtuous and 
 hospitable, free of all taxes, but obliged to 
 furnish to the Russian government an equip- 
 ped and mounted horseman.
 
 REVEL ATIOITS OP AUSTRIA. 161 
 
 By degrees the Polish militia (Szlachta) 
 seized the government, disposed of royalty, 
 which it sold, like the Roman Praetorian 
 bands, and degenerated into tyrants to- 
 wards their labouring brethren. 
 
 The Polish government had not a right to 
 alienate the landed property, but it could 
 grant to the citizens, for life, the national 
 revenue, wholly or in part, of one or more 
 parishes. 
 
 The government made extensive use of 
 this privilege to recompense its partizans 
 and favorites ; and those who enjoyed the 
 usufruct for life found means, more particu- 
 larly at the election of kings, during an 
 interregnum, of transmitting this usufruct 
 to their successors, and even to become he- 
 reditary proprietors and lords of parishes. 
 
 As all those who enjoyed the usufruct 
 were, at the same time, military men, and
 
 162 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 legislators, they illtreated, oppressed with 
 imposts, and abused at pleasure, by the 
 right of the strongest, the labourers who had 
 no share in the government. 
 
 The duty of cultivating the national do- 
 mains (dvorskie) instead of the taxes and 
 military service, was changed into segnior- 
 ial forced labour. Everything was preca- 
 rious, and nothing was regulated in this 
 government of the sword. 
 
 There is no Polish law which reduces the 
 Polish labourer to a state of slavery ; they 
 were only illtreated by cruel lords because 
 they were weak, unarmed ; and they were 
 weak because they lived despised in the 
 country. 
 
 When their lords were killed in 
 battle, or died without posterity, the la- 
 bourers were free and happy, and even en- 
 joyed for a period the revenue of the lords.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 163 
 
 History tells us that the Austrians seized 
 upon the most fertile part of Poland with- 
 out striking a blow, and under the mask of 
 friendship. 
 
 The Poles, under the command of their 
 king Sobieski, only went to Austria to de- 
 liver it from Turkish slavery; in offering 
 this assistance the Poles were only actuated 
 by a humane and religious commiseration 
 for the misfortunes of the Germans. 
 
 The chivalrous Poles did not even ask 
 reimbursement of the expenses of their 
 expedition. 
 
 In return, the Germans came into Poland 
 to root out all vestiges of liberty and pros- 
 perity, to render the Polish lords labourers, 
 and the Polish Burghers slaves. 
 
 If the policy by which Austria gained 
 possession of Poland was Jesuitical, that 
 which it employed to maintain itself there
 
 164 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 might be termed diabolical. Firstly to de- 
 moralise, corrupt, and seduce the all- 
 powerful Szlachta, which had delivered up 
 Poland without striking a blow ; the Kaise- 
 rinu Maria Theresa assimilated it to the 
 petty German nobility, and granted to these 
 Polish praetorians and their legitimate de- 
 scendents the hereditary title of knight, 
 (Ritter) with the prospect of becoming an 
 Austrian Count on payment of a tax of 
 600£. 
 
 This concession turned the heads of the 
 Polish republicans who did not expect so 
 much generosity from the Germans, and who 
 looked, and still look upon the title o( 
 Count, as the height of honor and human 
 felicity. Maria Theresa then exempted the 
 Szlachcic from military service, not in order 
 to spare them, bnt because she feared their 
 turbulent spirit and love of independence.
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 165 
 
 Austria besides maintained the statu quo of 
 landed property without enquiring too much 
 into the title." 5 ' She maintained forced 
 labour, but at the same time obliged the 
 labourers to do military service, and to pay 
 direct and indirect taxes, from which they 
 had been exempted at the time of the 
 Polish republic. 
 
 The Austrian yoke, therefore, fell most 
 heavily on the peasants and burghers. 
 
 The substance of the befehl of 1786, 
 which regulates, until the present day, 
 the mutual intercourse of landlords and 
 peasants is as follows. 
 
 Firstly, the peasants must work gratis 
 
 * The last act of the last Diet which ever sat 
 for the whole of independent Poland, had struck at 
 the root of the abuse of forced labour, as well as 
 many others by the article of the famous constitution 
 which it proclaimed on the third of May 1791, 
 
 Kditou
 
 166 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 for their lord. This forced labour* 
 called robot, is stipulated at three days at 
 most, per week. If the peasant possess a 
 plough, a waggon, and a team, he must 
 furnish a waggon, team, and two men, ex- 
 clusive of the three days weekly labour. 
 The peasants who have neither cottages nor 
 land, and who living on the lands merely as 
 tenants, work only twelve days a year. 
 
 The befehl fixes the duration of this 
 labour from sunrise to sunset. 
 
 Those subject to forced labour work 
 therefore, in summer more than seventeen 
 hours a day, They are only allowed one 
 hour's rest, and as they must present them- 
 selves every evening to the agent, called 
 econome, to obtain his counter-mark, and 
 rise long before dawn, particularly when the 
 seignorial lands are far from their cottages
 
 RETELATIOKS OF AUSTRIA, 167 
 
 they cannot in such cases obtain more than 
 three or four hours rest at the utmost. 
 
 Every year the Polish proprietors in a 
 body present a petition to the Kaiser, pray- 
 ing him to concede four days a week forced 
 labour during harvest time. 
 
 The Kaiser always grants the fourth day, 
 and he makes them pay for this concession 
 six kreutzes (five pence) per team with the 
 labourers. 
 
 The Kaiser is thus interested in the 
 maintenance of ordinary and extraordinary 
 forced labour, because he divides the profit 
 with the lords, or rather he absorbs it 
 altogether. 
 
 The lords are only imperial jailers, and 
 only possess the right of striking with im- 
 punity the Polish labourers. 
 
 They are obliged to pay, firstly, to the 
 Kaiser under the head of Seignisrial tax, as
 
 16'8 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 much as eighty per cent, of produce of the 
 forced labour ; and secondly, to maintain at 
 their own expense two functionories, a jus- 
 ticiary, and mandatarius, whom without 
 forced labour the Kaiser would be obliged 
 to pay out of the state revenue. Secondly, 
 the lords who beat or ill-treat their peasants 
 pay to the Kaiser a fine of ten-pence for 
 each blow given. This fine is itself a sort 
 of tax. 
 
 To take away from the lords the desire of 
 ill treating their peasants it was proposed to 
 the Kaiser to grant the peasantry permission 
 to defend themselves, or to raise the fine to 
 ten florins per blow : " But then the lords 
 will not ill-treat their peasants at all, and my 
 treasury will gain nothing," answered the 
 good Kaiser. Besides the concession to the 
 proprietors of the right of striking their 
 peasantry on the payment of ten-pence per
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 169 
 
 blow, has the appearance of a prohibition, 
 but a Jesuitical one, very likely to foment 
 hatred between the peasant and his lord, 
 and to keep the labourers, who still pre- 
 serve — and indeed chiefly constitute Polish 
 nationality — in a state of degradation. The 
 cruelty of the Polish lords to their peasantry 
 surpasses all that can be imagined. 
 
 The Polish Kanczuk is more cruel than 
 the Russian knout or German stock. 
 The lords and their agents tear out their 
 ears, put out their eyes, shave their heads 
 with reaping hooks, break their ribs, their 
 arms, their teeth, and illtreat them with 
 blows of the fist, stock and kanczuk. The 
 Polish noblemen, Andrew Nuwakowski, John 
 Szeptycki and others surpassed in cruelty 
 the most savage brigands. 
 
 It must however be admitted, that for 
 some time past a reconciliation is beginning 
 
 VOL. I. <A
 
 170 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 to take place between the lords and pea- 
 santry ; humanity is beginning to dawn 
 even in Austrian Poland, * 
 
 Thirdly, the Polish peasantry pay to the 
 Kaiser a direct tax on the lands which they 
 possess and cultivate for their own account. 
 Without taking into account the forced 
 labour and tithe they pay already, they are 
 in the distribution of taxation looked upon 
 and rated as free proprietors. 
 
 Relatively to the robot, it is however the 
 lords who are considered as proprietors of 
 these same lands, the peasants only as serfs- 
 In 1820 or 1821 the gubernium asked of 
 the Aulic Chancellery, to whom belonged 
 the proprietorship of the lands possessed by 
 
 This in evidently what the Austrian cabinet 
 dreaded. 
 
 Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 171 
 
 the peasants 1 The Kaiser only gave an 
 evasive answer, and this was to be expected, 
 because if it had been decided that the 
 proprietorship of these lands belonged to 
 the peasants, their forced labour must have 
 been abolished, and the Kaiser would have 
 lost more than three millions of florins of 
 seignorial direct and indirect taxes. If the 
 proprietorship had on the other hand been 
 adjudged to the lords, the peasants could only 
 in justice be forced to pay the direct land tax 
 which they now pay, and the Kaisers would, 
 equally, have lost the seignorial tax of 
 three millions a year. This iniquitous 
 impost does not exist either in Russian 
 or Prussian Poland. 
 
 The lords have not a right to disposess 
 or drive away the peasants unless they neg- 
 lect the service of forced labour or cannot 
 work.
 
 172 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA, 
 
 The peasants have not a right to abandon at 
 will their cottages or lands, but are obliged 
 to present, and get the lord to accept, an- 
 other substitute capable of performing the 
 forced labour. 
 
 The Polish peasants in Austria are there- 
 fore serfs attached to the Glebe. 
 
 They are not so in Russian or Prussian 
 Poland.* 
 
 * Here, as usual, when speaking of Russian or 
 Prussian Poland, the author falls into error. In 
 nearly half of Poland, inhabited by eight millions of 
 people and incorporated with Russia proper, serfdom 
 cannot be said to exist, because the Russians have 
 introduced actual slavery. In the Russian kingdom 
 of Poland, serfdom was abolished by Napoleon. 
 Nicholas has gradually re-introduced it. In Prus- 
 sian Poland (Grand Duchy of Posen) the peasantry 
 are free as Napoleon made them, but in the adja- 
 cent Prussian Sclavonic province of Silesia the pea- 
 santry are still serfs, and have revolted on several 
 points during the present year. 
 
 Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 173 
 
 Every estate which possesses forced la- 
 bour, constitutes an indivisible and perpe- 
 tual entail in favour of the eldest son. The 
 father has not a right to divide an estate 
 subject to forced labour amongst his children, 
 but is obliged by the befehl to leave it entire 
 and without any diminution to his eldest 
 son, and having no son, to his daughter. 
 
 When the actual possessor wishes to cede 
 his estate to another qualified person he 
 can only transfer it intact and undivided. 
 This befehl originates in a view of prevent- 
 ing the increase of the Polish population, 
 of hindering increase of consumption unfa- 
 vorable to the imperial system of extortion, 
 and at the same time of facilitatir.g pay- 
 ment of the taxes. The peasants owe to 
 their lords unlimited obedience. 
 
 They must execute the most unjust and 
 iniquitous commands, and it is only after
 
 174 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 having executed them that they are allowed 
 to bring their complaints before them, and 
 to await their decision. 
 
 Without this previous decision of his lord, 
 the peasant has not a right to make any 
 complaint to the authorities of the Circle or 
 gubernium. 
 
 This law accustoms the lords to slavish- 
 ness towards the Kaiser and his agents. The 
 lords argue thus : " Our peasantry owe us a 
 blind obedience ; we therefore owe the same 
 to the Kaiser, who is our lord." The 
 Polish noblemen imitate their sovereigns, 
 they call the peasants their subjects — their 
 house, which very often is only a cottage, 
 court (dvor) ; and the title of your majesty 
 (Jego Mosc) is given to all noblemen, bur- 
 ghers, priests and szlachcic in Poland. 
 
 Formerly all szlachcic were eligible to the 
 office of King of Poland.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 175 
 
 The republican militia has therefore 
 taken the title of Majesty by anticipation. 
 
 The peasants who offer the least resist- 
 ance to the arbitrary commands of their 
 lords are guilty of rebellion and cannot 
 hope for either justice or pity. The pea- 
 sants of Podkamien, in the circle of Zloczow, 
 refused to work a greater number of days 
 than was ordered by the befehl. 
 
 Their lord, Mr. Cetner, an Austrian Count, 
 caused Mr. Charles Sacher, Commissary of 
 the Circle, to be sent for, who presented 
 himself with a squadron of dragoons. 
 
 Mr. Sacher called before him the deputies, 
 who are always the elders of the village, 
 and advised them to obey their lord without 
 comment, and to execute his orders without 
 delay. The peasants remarked that the de- 
 mands of their lord were unjust and contrary 
 to the befehl of his Majesty. "You have a
 
 176 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 right to complain to your lord," rejoined the 
 Commissary. 
 
 " We have complained for the last thirty 
 years," answered the peasant deputies, " we 
 pray to be allowed to quit our village with 
 our families, and be allowed to seek another 
 master." 
 
 The Commissary thereupon ordered the 
 deputies to be stretched one after the other 
 on the ground, and beat with the stock by 
 two corporals. 
 
 Notwithstanding the advanced age of the 
 deputies, the youngest of whom was seventy 
 years of age, they suffered patiently and with 
 resignation the first six lounds apiece. 
 
 During the execution, the peasants, book 
 in hand, chaunted Litanies. 
 
 The second round of twenty strokes each, 
 by two corporals, they could no longer en- 
 dure, but declared themselves guilty, and
 
 -REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 177 
 
 •submitted to the arbitrary will of their 
 lord. The observation was made to them in 
 cruel jest, " You see that you must not in 
 future trust to your Saints, Saintesses, and 
 Virgin Mothers." 
 
 This instance is one out of a hundred 
 thousand which I could have cited, because 
 one I happen to remember as having taken 
 place beneath my own eyes. 
 
 It is strictly forbidden the lords to 
 free their peasants in a body from forced 
 labour. 
 
 I say the Polish peasantry, to distinguish 
 them from the German peasants, who are 
 not subject to forced labour or to military 
 conscription. 
 
 It is however allowed to enfranchise any 
 individual peasant, but then the permission 
 must be obtained of the authorities of the 
 Circle of the Gubernium, and of the tribunal
 
 178 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 of justice. Enormous taxes must be 
 paid on stamps, and the travelling expenses 
 of Commissaries, etc., etc., defied. So that 
 since the revindication of Poland * by the 
 Austrians in 1 772 up to the present day a 
 single instance of enfranchisement has per- 
 haps not occurred. 
 
 The towns, burghs and villages which at 
 the period of the Austrian Invasion were 
 free, that is to say had no lords, fell a prey 
 to the Kaiser, who declared them to be part 
 of his property and domains. 
 
 * So termed because Austria like the other spoli- 
 ating powers in seizing portions of the Polish terri- 
 tory, which it appropriated, set forth claims to it, 
 more preposterous, than if the Roman Pontiff, or the 
 King of Saxony were to claim the British Isles, be- 
 cause formerly in the possession of the Roman Em- 
 peror, or the Saxon Heptarchy . 
 
 Editor,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 179 
 
 The Kaiser sold by degrees to private 
 persons these towns, burghs, and villages, 
 includiug the lamds and inhabitants. 
 
 In 1826 or 1827 an extraordinary in- 
 stance occurred. 
 
 For the first time since the establishment 
 of the Austrian government in Poland, an 
 entire village, the name of which I do not 
 recollect, being put up to auction by the 
 Kaiser, offered him the price at which it 
 was valued, and requested permission to 
 purchase itself. Prince Lobkowicz, Gover- 
 nor of Gallicia, submitted this extraordi- 
 nary case to the decision of the Kaiser 
 Francis, who answered, that it was impossible 
 to grant any parish the right of purchasing 
 itself. The village was therefore put up to 
 auction like many others, and sold to a pri- 
 vate individual, who became its proprietor. 
 The Polish nobles, Vincent Zabolicki,
 
 180 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Leon Zalewski, and others, who in 1S34 and 
 1835 emancipated of their own accord the 
 peasantry, their countrymen* and serfs, were 
 arrested and condemned ad carcerem duris- 
 simum, as guilty of rebellion. 
 
 They now expiate this misdemeanor in 
 the Fortress of Spielberg. 
 
 The Russian government since 1808 has 
 ordered the emancipation of the slaves and 
 invited the lords to endow them with landed 
 property, but found opposition on the part 
 of the Russian Polish and German proprie- 
 tors.*' 
 
 * The only emancipation of slaves which the Rus- 
 sian government has ever sanctioned lias been their 
 transference from the bondage of individuals to the 
 Imperial domain, which comprises one-and-twenty 
 millions of slaves, the emperor's private property. 
 
 Euitoh,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 181 
 
 Besides the forced labour of 150 days 
 a year to the Kaiser's advantage, and 
 besides the tithes to the Roman Catholic 
 priests, the peasants are obliged to work 
 gratis five days a year, to repair and make 
 the roads called Kaiser Strasse. the revenue 
 of which goes to the Kaiser. This forced 
 labour is called Sehar,werk. During the 
 moDths of April, May, June, and July, 
 nearly all the Polish peasantry without 
 exception live upon roots and herbs — it is 
 only those amongst the peasantry who are 
 termed rich who can afford to eat bread 
 made of buck-wheat, oatmeal, barley, and 
 sometimes rye. The poorer people live 
 upon potatoes without any grease. 
 
 Gallicia exports annually more than two 
 
 millions of Hectolitres of wheat, but does 
 
 not know anything of wheaten bread. The 
 
 proprietors themselves, without exception, 
 vol. i. ft
 
 182 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 eat rye bread. The cakes and small 
 wheaten rolls which are made in the more 
 considerable towns, are highly taxed, looked 
 upon as articles of luxury, and as such not 
 submitted to the tariff regulations as to 
 price. On the other hand, the surplus of 
 exports over imports, which constitutes a 
 clear revenue to the Kaiser, is facilitated 
 and allowed even during a period of famine. 
 Scarcity is thus the normal state of Gallicia. 
 The habitations of the Polish peasantry 
 who are under the Paternal Austrian govern- 
 ment since 1772, are cottages thatched with 
 straw, sometimes constructed with a few 
 deals, or trunks of trees placed one on the 
 other and bound at the corners with osiers ; 
 at other times they are made of wattles 
 plastered inside and out with mud. Light 
 is admitted into their cottages through a 
 hole furnished with green glass from three 
 to six inches iu diameter.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 183 
 
 Generally speaking there are no chimneys, 
 but in the centre of the room there is an 
 oven or hearth, on which the fire is lit to 
 warm the room in winter, and to cook the 
 family victuals all the year round. 
 
 The smoke escapes through the interstices 
 of the door. 
 
 The locks of the cottage, barn, and of all 
 other rustic buildings are of wood ; iron is 
 very dear, and is only sold by confidential 
 Germans. 
 
 Permission to sell iron goods, or establish 
 a magazine or shop for the sale of tools or 
 any iron instruments, must be asked from 
 the Aulic Chancery at Vienna, and as a 
 precautionary measure these establishments 
 are only allowed in the chief places of the 
 circles and towns where there is always a 
 garrison and well organized police. In win- 
 ter, the swine, calves, fowls, and men. live
 
 184 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 together, and sleep on the ground promis- 
 cuously. 
 
 The peasantry, and in general all servants, 
 even those of noblemen, and all workmen, 
 have neither beds, coverings, nor pillows. 
 
 They cover themselves at night with the 
 clothes which they wear in the day time, a 
 little straw serves them as a mattress. 
 
 Austrian Poland does not want either 
 wool, cloth, or leather ; but the paternal 
 government forces the inhabitants to work 
 for exportation, and not for their own neces- 
 sities or benefit. The costume of a Polish 
 peasant consists in summer of a shirt and 
 trowsers of coarse canvass, completed by a 
 peculiar hat of wheaten or rye straw. In 
 winter, the peasants wear above the shirt a 
 brown woollen, felt, seamless wrapper, a 
 sheepskin cap, and thin, cow-hide boots. The 
 wealthiest array themselves in sheepskins in
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 185 
 
 this season. The kitchen utensils consist of 
 two or three pots in baked clay, one or two 
 earthen pans, a tripod, and a few spoons in 
 
 common wood. 
 
 This is the state of three millions, -five 
 hundred thousand Austrian Polish peasants, 
 who are without question — more unfortunate 
 than the Prussian or Russian peasants, more 
 miserable than the negroes brought up or 
 suld in Africa. Yet there exists in Paris an 
 association of generous Frenchmen for the 
 emancipation of the negroes, but none for 
 the emancipation of the Polish peasantry, 
 white slaves of the paternal Austrian 
 Government. These white Polish slaves 
 who exist only on roots and herbs give to 
 the Kaiser a clear revenue of from seven to 
 ten millions of florins a year. 
 
 I call a clear revenue what remains to
 
 186 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA, 
 
 the Kaiser after deducting all expenses for 
 the administration of Gallicia. 
 
 The Austriaco-Polish Diet of 1844, on 
 the motion of Alfred Potocki, Polish Duke, 
 (Waivode) and Austrian Count, addressed a 
 petition to the Kaiser, requesting to be 
 allowed to enfranchise the Polish peasantry 
 from forced labour and to grant them a 
 property in the lands which they had culti- 
 vated for centuries. This was culled a 
 coup d'etat, a rebellion ! Before the revolu- 
 tion of 1830, Potoski would have expiated 
 his humane sentiments in the dungeons of 
 Spielberg. * 
 
 * This indicates at least a diminution of the evil 
 of despotism. In Russia on the contrary, an indi- 
 vidual would be sent to Siberia in 184^ for the ex- 
 pression of opinions which would only have drawn 
 down a reprimand in 1830. 
 
 Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 187 
 
 Since that period, however, the German 
 has been obliged to dissimulate his anger, on 
 account of the danger threatening his des- 
 potism and throne. The immediate result of 
 the abolition of forced labour would, however, 
 have been to cause a diminution of two and 
 a half millions of florins net revenue which 
 the Kaiser levies on the lords as seignorial 
 tax, and also have had the effect of uniting 
 the peasantry and landholders, who, at 
 present, hate each other. The financial in- 
 terest, and Machiavelian policy of divide et 
 impera are opposed to the abolition of 
 forced labour. 
 
 The Kaiser knows the force of public 
 opinion, and endeavours to give every act 
 of his government a varnish of justice. 
 
 lie therefore, to color his refusal, instituted 
 a commission to enquire into the means of 
 indemnifying the Kaiser for the loss of
 
 188 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 2,500,000 florins a year, his share of forced 
 labour, and also the lords for the loss of 
 2,500,000 or 3,000,000 florins yearly, and 
 the Catholic priests for about 1,000,000 
 worth of tithes which they would forfeit by 
 this emancipation of the peasantry from 
 the robot. The easiest solution of these 
 questions on the Kaiser's part, would be to 
 exact from Poland under the name of taxes 
 or imposts merely the sums necessary to net 
 a revenue to the Kaiser of from 7,500,000 
 to 10,000,000 florins, and to indemnify the 
 Polish proprietors by means of the sums 
 which arise from the sale of national pro- 
 perty, which amount to more than 4 millions 
 sterling, accumulated in the Imperial coffers 
 under the denomination of savings. 
 
 The Diet dare not say to its Kaiser that 
 he plunders from seven to ten millions 
 florins a year, and any other plan must re-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 189 
 
 main without result because the peasantry 
 and their lords are exhausted and indebted. 
 
 The Germans in Austrian, Russian, and 
 Prussian Poland may be divided into three 
 classes. Firstly, the German who only come 
 to drain, to spy upon, or enslave it, in 
 the form of traders, lacqueys, and civil, 
 military, or spiritual agents of the govern- 
 ment. It is this refuse of the German po- 
 pulation and of its penniless and vagabond 
 nobility which is known in Polond and 
 Russia under the name of " German Vermin." 
 
 The Czar Nicholas himself gives them 
 this title. 
 
 Nothing can be more servile, abject, and 
 devoid of all dignity and humanity than a 
 German in Poland and Russia in the service 
 of the Czar or Kaiser. Unfortunately all 
 the children of a German Baron or Count, 
 are born Barons or Counts.
 
 190 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Poland and Russia are infested with these 
 ignoble pests. Secondly, the Germans who 
 are engaged in arts or trades either as 
 masters or workmen. 
 
 These as a class are useful and honest. 
 
 The greater number of them become even- 
 tually Polish in feeling and even patriotically 
 Polish. The Germans and Jews who become 
 proprietors in the towns and villages are, 
 in general, milder and more humane to- 
 wards their Polish peasantry than the pro- 
 prietors of Polish birth and origin. To 
 the third class belong the German peasants 
 vulgarly called colonists. These colonies in 
 Austrian Poland form strategic points, and 
 are situated more particularly towards the 
 Russian frontier. These establishments have 
 German names even in the heart of Poland. 
 All the colonists without exception are of
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTEIA 191 
 
 the Evangelical persuasion, and each has its 
 pastor and German school. 
 
 To induce the German peasants to estab- 
 lish themselves in Gallicia the Government 
 gives them gratis a' waggon, two horses, 
 agricultural implements, a wooden hou-e, a 
 barn, and thirty or forty rnorgen of land. 
 
 The colonists are exempt from all taxes 
 lor twenty years, they and their descendents 
 are free of the conscription that is to say- 
 military service. 
 
 These colonists are generally speaking in 
 easy circumstances. They do not connect 
 themselves at all with the Polish Catholic 
 peasantry who are subject to forced labour 
 and whom they despise. 
 
 The Catholic religion is thus apparently 
 dominant : all external and political 
 honours are rendered to it, but in reality it 
 is the Evangelical faith, and the Austrian
 
 192 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 .subjects belonging to it, who enjoy all 
 moral and material advantages and emolu- 
 ments. Protestantism is in fact identified 
 with German nationality. 
 
 Mr. Ochsenhauson von Metternich and 
 the Ilabsburgh Kaiser cannot act otherwise. 
 
 To comfort the Catholics under this in- 
 feriority the Evangelical Germans say to 
 them ironically, " You Catholics are bur- 
 dened here below with tithes, forced labour, 
 taxes, military service, etc., etc. From these 
 we Protestants are exempted, but be of good 
 cheer, after death, you will be for ever ex- 
 empted from these charges, and we shall 
 be oppressed and burdened with them 
 through eternity ! What are the miseries 
 of this terrestrial life compared to the celes- 
 tial joys of eternity V
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 193 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Jews. 
 
 The establishment of the Jews in Poland 
 dates from the fourteenth century. The 
 persecutions they endured in Germany, 
 and the privileges accorded to them by the 
 government of Poland, naturally drew them 
 towards this latter country ; and thus it is, 
 that the Jews speak no other than the Ger- 
 man language more or less corrupt, and,
 
 194 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 that all, like the Germans, occupy themselves 
 in commerce or trade. They exercise 
 in preference the profession of general 
 dealers, tailors, jewellers, goldsmiths, money- 
 changers, brokers, sellers of spirituous liquors, 
 horse jobbers, watchmakers, and usurers, but 
 it is rare to meet amongst them with either 
 shoemakers, masons, blacksmiths, locksmiths, 
 or labourers. Their number amounts in 
 Gallicia to 340,000 souls. The men uni- 
 versally read and write Hebrew. They are 
 all active, laborious, religious, and intelligent, 
 and notwithstanding this political and re- 
 ligious slavery, notwithstanding the poverty 
 they suffer, a degree of which no idea can 
 be formed in any other part of Europe, 
 still they retain sentiments of humanity 
 and liberty. I never in my life saw 
 an Austrian German, either catholic or 
 Protestant, give alms or any other succour to
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 195 
 
 a poor Pole, whilst on the contrary I have 
 often seen the Jews assist, lodge, and en- 
 tertain unfortunate Poles. Their love of 
 liberty is so great, that they prefer dying of 
 hunger to cultivating the land, and becoming 
 subject to the blows of the Polish Signors 
 (Kanczuck,) and to the degrading toil which 
 deadens all human feeling, and brutalizes 
 the masters even more than it does the 
 peasants. But the extreme want under 
 which they languish renders them knavish, 
 and easily corrupted by the oppressive 
 government, and therefore they in common 
 with all the other Austrian Germans in 
 Gallicia serve as spies. 
 
 They are forbidden to possess or farm 
 mills, ponds, breweiies, or distilleries, or to 
 sell spirituous liquors with the exception of 
 wine. 
 
 They are only allowed to live in the
 
 1.96 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 country as labourers and they have quarters 
 assigned to them in the town. The town of 
 Brody, situated at about one hundred yards 
 from the Russian frontier, is the only 
 European town, the whole of whose inhabi- 
 tants are Jews, the Austrian functionaries 
 being only Christians. It is the most com- 
 mercial town in Gallicia — and it possesses 
 the right of importing free, all merchandise 
 and indigenous or foreign produce, and im- 
 porting them into Russia either by legal 
 means or otherwise. 
 
 Relatively to Austria, it is looked upon as 
 a foreign town and surrounded by custom- 
 houses and offices of the customs. The Jews 
 are subject to military service, but, like all 
 other subjects, are allowed to redeem 
 this obligation on paying to the Kaiser 300 
 florins, (about £30). It is forbidden the 
 Jews to have Christians in their service
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 197 
 
 They cannot marry without the permission 
 of the Circles, who only give the permission 
 to Jewish men and women, who, after hav- 
 ing been examined by the Captain and 
 Secretary of the Circle, can obtain cer- 
 tification of being able to read, write, and 
 reckon in German. Marriages contracted 
 without this permission are looked upon as 
 illegal. 
 
 The extreme poverty of the greater part 
 of the Israelites neither allows them to 
 learn to write or read in German, to pur- 
 chase the permission, nor to pay the stamps 
 and taxes. 
 
 Out of one hundred marriages, ninety- 
 nine are illegal. 
 
 The Austrian government nevertheless 
 proceeds with a degree of cruelty unheard 
 of in Europe against these hapless wretches 
 married without the sanction of the Circle,
 
 198 REVELATIONS OF AUSTKIA. 
 
 It orders administration of blows of the 
 stock (cane) to the men, and the women to 
 be flogged with rods. 
 
 They are then separated, and each are 
 sent back to the place of his or her birth. 
 
 The children of these marriages are con- 
 sidered as illegitimate, and being abandoned 
 die of hunger and misery. 
 
 The Jews, who, contrary to the befehl of 
 the Kaiser, are found in the country as pro- 
 prietors or farmers of inns, mills, or ponds, 
 are condemned by the Circle to a consider- 
 able pecuniary fine, and to blows of the 
 stock. 
 
 The Mosaic worship is tolerated, and the 
 government grants to the Israelites, on 
 payment of a tax, permission to build syna- 
 gogues ; but the Catholics are forbidden 
 under pain of death to embrace the Jewish 
 persuasion.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 199 
 
 The Jewish priesthood are all equal 
 amongst themselves ; and their form of 
 worship, being divested of the hierarchical 
 character distinguishing the Catholic clergy, 
 is less favorable to the exigences of absolu- 
 tism than the Roman faith. The Hebrew 
 clergy is paid by the Jewish parishes. The 
 Mosaic religion only acknowledges one God 
 and Moses as his prophet ; it admits eternal 
 life, but does not recommend love to one's 
 neighbour of a different persuasion. It does 
 not acknowledge male or female saints. 
 
 This religion, which is the basis and 
 source of the Christian faith, whose founder 
 was the countryman of Christ, and which, 
 notwithstanding the persecutions it has en- 
 dured from heterodox monarchs and nations, 
 has maintained itself through four thousand 
 years, deserves in this enquiring age the 
 scrutiny and attention of philosophers and 
 statesmen.
 
 200 EEVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The clergy is not a body which does 
 not blindly obey a chief, but reasons and 
 does not abandon its individuality in favour 
 of a sect, is less dangerous for a free 
 government and individual liberty. 
 
 Those religions or forms of worship Avhich 
 are divested of intellectual or moral strength, 
 endeavour to crush or terrify reason by the 
 array and compactness of their submissive 
 and degraded priesthood. It is allowed the 
 Jews of the other Austrian provinces to 
 transfer their domicile to Gallicia, but on 
 the other hand permission is only granted 
 those Polish Jews to establish themselves at 
 Vienna or in the German provinces, who can 
 prove themselves in possession of ten thou- 
 sand florins, ready money. 
 
 Besides the taxes and imposts of all des- 
 criptions which the Jews pay in common 
 with other Austrian subjects, they are sub-
 
 REVELATION'S OF AUSTRIA. 201 
 
 ject besides as Jews for the toleration of 
 their religion to the imposition of a million 
 of florins a year, (without reckoning the 
 expences of levying, which amount to 
 more than half a million). This tax is 
 raised on meat of all kinds, and on the 
 candles which the Jews burn on their 
 sabbath. 
 
 It is known in Gallicia, under the title of 
 Koskerfleich aufschlag, und LicHerzund- 
 ungs-aufschlag. 
 
 The re- partition and levying of this tax 
 takes place in the following manner : — The 
 Gubernium allots every year the sum re- 
 quired by the Kaiser to the 19 Circles, and 
 the quota of each Circle is farmed by 
 auction to the highest bidder. 
 
 The Circle and farmer then make a re-par- 
 tition of the quota part on the Jewish par- 
 ishes of the Circles.
 
 202 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 The Burgomaster, farmers, or sub-farmers 
 allot to individuals, and then they proceed 
 to the levying. If, after the first re -partition 
 and exaction, persons are found who cannot 
 pay all or part of this ransom money, a 
 fresh re-partition is made of the portion of 
 the insolvable on those who are solvent. A 
 third, fourth, and even tenth re-partition 
 thus extends to the wealthiest individuals, 
 until the sum demanded by the Kaiser is 
 raised, as well as the expense of levying 
 is defrayed. 
 
 When the assessed individuals do not pay 
 exactly to the time the farmer submits a 
 list of the defaulters to the Circle and asks 
 assistance. 
 
 The Circle then sends soldiers whom the 
 defaulters are obliged to lodge, feed, and pay. 
 
 This is called a military execution. 
 
 A fortnight after, the Circle sends a com-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 203 
 
 missiary who presents himself at the habi- 
 tation of each defaulter — carries off all that 
 he finds upon the premises and sells the 
 effects by auction. The parish then pays 
 the commissary four florins a day and the 
 expences of the journey, for which he is al- 
 lowed a private carriage and four horses, 
 which are rated at about a florin and a half 
 per league. 
 
 When an entire parish becomes insolvent 
 the deficiency is laid to the charge of a 
 richer parish ; "let justice be done," say 
 the Germans, " though the world perish/' 
 for the Kaiser cannot be the loser. On 
 the day of these exactions nothing 
 is heard but lamentations — men women and 
 children nearly naked in the midst of 
 winter, with twenty or twenty five degrees 
 of cold, are to bo seen running after 
 the commissary carrying away the dis- 
 trained goods. In vain do these miserable
 
 204 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 victims of Austrian rapacity, deprived ot 
 their linen and most necessary portions of 
 clothing, implore on their knees pity from 
 the unfeeling German. " My Kaiser cannot 
 loose," he repeats at every moment. 
 
 Let it not be imagined, that the com- 
 missaries seize mere articles of luxury. 
 The Austriaco Polish Jew is a stranger to 
 these. 
 
 The commissary opens the cupboards, 
 chests and trunks ; searches the rooms and 
 seizes counterpanes, pillows, sheets, bedding 
 saucepans, chairs, benches, etc., etc., selling 
 for half a florin what is worth five or ten. 
 
 A quarter of a pound of bread and one 
 or two onions, with a little salt, constitute 
 the daily food of nineteen out of twenty of 
 the Austriaco Polish Jews. 
 
 In Russian Poland there are Jewish capi-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 205 
 
 talists, and the Jews in general are at their 
 ease. 
 
 In Austrian Poland, on the contrary, 
 there is not a Jew to be found who can dis- 
 pose of four thousand pounds, and yet the 
 Franckfort Jews, and the Messrs. Rothschild 
 themselves intercede with the Autocrat of 
 Russia in favour of their co-religionaries, 
 who are oppressed in Russian Poland, and 
 abandon those oppressed by the German 
 Autocrat in Austrian Poland. The Kaiser 
 Joseph II ordered the Israelites to shave 
 their beards, and wear the Polish dress of 
 the Austrian Christians. He allowed a pe- 
 riod of three years to effect this metamor- 
 phosis. 
 
 It did not however take place ; firstly 
 because the Israelites bought back from the 
 government the liberty to wear a dress for 
 which they had such a predilection, also be- 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 206 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 cause the government perceived that this 
 change would confound the Israelites with 
 the Germans, both speaking the German 
 language, having the same habits, the same 
 commercial occupations, and differing from 
 each other only by these outward signs. 
 
 The Austrian government has powerful 
 reasons for not confounding these homogeneous 
 classes, and for not keeping before the eyes 
 of the Poles this outward distinction. 
 
 The Israelites are precluded from exer- 
 cising Public functions.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 207 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Public Instruction. 
 
 Man does not come into the world by 
 his own free will, neither voluntarily as a 
 Pole, Christian, or Musulman. 
 
 He becomes these by the will and com- 
 pulsion of others, by education, instruction, 
 law or befehl. 
 
 An individual who is now a good priest oi
 
 208 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Austrian agent and thanks heaven for it,, 
 might have been a good mufti or mandarin, 
 and would thank heaven equally if he had 
 been born in China or in Turkey. No go- 
 vernment knows better than the Austrian 
 the art of denationalising and reducing to 
 servitude a people by the force of the stock 
 and through the intermedium of instruction, 
 
 The Austrian schools are divided into 
 three branches. Firstly, the German schools, 
 subdivided into Trivial and Normal. Se- 
 condly, Classical schools called Gymnasiums, 
 And thirdly, Universities. 
 
 The German schools called Trivial are 
 found established in nearly all the Gallician 
 towns, and are gratuitous. The scholars pay 
 nothing. 
 
 Formerly the parents were forced, under a 
 heavy pecuniary penalty to send their sons 
 to the German schools ; but for some time
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 209 
 
 virtues, to obey the most sublime Kaiser, 
 past the government is less strict. 
 
 The course of instruction at the German 
 Trivial schools lasts four years. 
 
 In the German Normal schools, which are 
 only established in the principal towns, 
 geography and lineary drawing is taught. 
 
 In 1844 the government promised that 
 the teaching Polish grammar should be in- 
 troduced. 
 
 The professors of all three branches be- 
 long to the laity, excepting the professor of 
 catechism, who is always the parish priest 
 or his vicar. 
 
 They are appointed and paid by the go- 
 vernment at the rate of 100, 200, and 300 
 florins a year. All priests and professors oi 
 public instruction are obliged to teacii from 
 their pulpits, confessionals or chairs, that it- 
 is the holiest dutv, the Catholic of Catholic
 
 210 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 his befehls and agents, and to denounce 
 either to the priests, professors or magis- 
 trates, all evil-disposed persons, their pro- 
 jects and illegal proceedings, and finally to 
 be discreet. 
 
 Instruction keeps pace with the befehl of 
 the Kaiser Francis, which says — " / do not 
 want prating functionaries but executors of 
 my befehls — submissive, obedient, and silent 
 with regard to public affairs!' 
 
 There is no European government which 
 brings up spiritual and temporal function- 
 aries and spies so obedient, so prompt at 
 denunciation, so taciturn as the Austrian 
 government. 
 
 Austrian subjects are forbidden to educate 
 their children out of the country. To be 
 able to send their children to Cracow, they 
 must pay the Kaiser a fine of two hundred 
 ducats a year for each child,
 
 REVELATION'S OF AUSTRIA. 211 
 
 The course followed at the gymnasium 
 lasts six years. 
 
 Latin, Greek, German, Arithmetic, the 
 elements of geometry, a little Algebra, 
 geography, the history of Austria, and 
 religion are' taught there. In Austria, 
 eleven gymnasiums exist, two of which are 
 at Leopol. 
 
 All the pupils are day scholars. 
 
 The superior of the gymnasium bears the 
 title of Prefect, and enjoys a pension of 
 800 florins a year ; the professors of the 
 gymnasium are paid at the rate of 400 or 
 500 florins a year. 
 
 The scholars contribute, unless they pro- 
 duce a certificate of poverty, signed by the 
 Burgomaster and curate, in which case they 
 are exempted. 
 
 All classical books belonging to the Ger- 
 man schools and the gymnasiums are printed
 
 212 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 at Vienna, in the Kaiser's office, for printing 
 of which he enjoys the exclusive monopoly. 
 
 The course of philosophy is separate from 
 the gymnasium, and takes two years. 
 
 The first year, Psychology, Logic, Arith- 
 metic, Geometry, Algebra, Universal His- 
 tory, Religion, and the Greek Language are 
 taught. The second year, Natural Philo- 
 sophy, Mechanics, Experimental Chemistry, 
 Universal History, and Religion. Sometimes 
 when the government is not in want of 
 functionaries, and that the number of stu- 
 dents is too great, they add to Philosophy a 
 third year, during which they teach Meta- 
 physics, Literature, and Religion. 
 
 No one is admitted to the gymnasium 
 without a certificate of success at the Ger- 
 man school, or to philosophy without a cer- 
 tificate of success at the gymnasium. Ex- 
 cepting History and Mathematics, which are
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 213 
 
 taught in the German language, all the 
 other branches are taught in Latin ; up to 
 1830 mathematics were also taught in Latin. 
 The professor of psychology and logic, called 
 professor of philosophy, in treating of God 
 and of the soul, makes an exposition of the 
 reasons for and against ; but he has an ex- 
 press order always to conclude with the as- 
 surance that the soul is immortal, that God 
 governs the universe and men in particular, 
 that he recompenses the good, and punishes 
 the wicked after death. Amongst other 
 reasons, the professor dwells upon the fol- 
 lowing — that without the hope of reward 
 after death, the unfortunates and peasants 
 would not submit to forced labour and suffer 
 misery, that they would revolt to be able to 
 enjoy here below the fruits of their labour. 
 On the other hand, the professor of philo- 
 sophy announces, and often repeats, that
 
 214 REVELATIOKS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 the pupil who would reveal to others an 
 opinion contrary to the conclusions at which 
 he, the professor, had legally arrived, 
 would be brought before the police and de- 
 clared incapable of filling public functions, 
 or of acting in any public capacity. This 
 mode of treating philosophy by exposing 
 the arguments, pro and con, is good, be- 
 cause it exercises the judgment of the audi- 
 tors, who weigh the motives for and against, 
 and leaves to the conscience of the pupil, a 
 free and duly balanced option. 
 
 The professor of philosophy ought not to 
 teach like a priest any specified religion, 
 but ought to furnish the pupils the means of 
 forming an independent opinion . 
 
 The most indolent and sluggish minds 
 adopt the legal opinion of the professor 
 without examination. The more intelligent 
 and active, examine and form an indepen-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 215 
 
 deiit opinion, which, according to the befehl, 
 they keep to themselves ; but the prohibi- 
 tion of revealing an opinion contrary to the 
 legal conclusion, has the inconvenience of 
 making hypocritically prudent, or impru- 
 dently incredulous, professors and pupils, 
 because the prohibition seems to confirm the 
 idea that the opinion which is contrary to 
 the legal conclusion is conformable to rea- 
 son and truth, and that the conclusion com- 
 manded by the government is only in con- 
 formity with its policy. 
 
 The philosophical conferences in full class 
 were permitted up to 1810, but since that 
 period they have been forbidden for the fol- 
 lowing reason — 
 
 A student of philosophy aspiring to holy 
 orders, maintained the existence of Provi- 
 dence, and the immortality of the soul. 
 His opponent, Casimer Z., maintained the 
 contrary, with such logical power and
 
 216 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 sophistry that the greater part of his young 
 auditory composed of more than 250 pupils 
 applauded and embraced his opinions. 
 
 The government, which obtained cogni- 
 zance of this, forbade all subsequent 
 conferences, and delegated M. Lawrowski, 
 a learned canon, to bring back to the 
 right path the thoughtless youth, and 
 to signify to him that he would be 
 expelled the school and brought before 
 the police, if he did not retract. 
 To show how far youth may be led by its 
 inconsiderate rashness, I will here attempt 
 briefly to recapitulate his argument, of 
 which my readers will duly appreciate the 
 value. 
 
 * The substance of this argument is omitted as 
 it is unfitted for the taste of the British public. 
 
 Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 217 
 
 To be admitted to these courses it is ne- 
 cessary to have gone through a course of 
 philosophy, and be provided with a certifi- 
 cate of success. 
 
 The first year is taught natural law, the 
 laws of man, the penal code, and the sta- 
 tistics of European states. 
 
 The second year, "Roman law. 
 
 The first and second quarter, ecclesiastical 
 or canonical law. 
 
 The professor of ecclesiastical law is always 
 a layman, and at his lectures not only do 
 the students of law of the second year at- 
 tend, but also the students of the second 
 year of Theology. 
 
 The canonical or ecclasiastical law is ex- 
 posed after llechtberger or Doliver's Jus 
 Ecclesiasticum. These teach that the church 
 cannot form a state within a state, that the 
 
 clergy owes an absolute obedience to the 
 vol. r. u.
 
 218 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Kaiser, that the Bishop of Rome, called 
 Pope, has no supremacy over the other 
 bishops, and that all bishops are equal, that 
 the deference and priority accorded to the 
 Bishop of Rome arises only from custom, 
 and that it is severely prohibited to corres- 
 pond directly with the Pope of Rome, or to 
 receive an answer from him without a 
 Placitum Regium. 
 
 The Polish villages are without any kind 
 of school. 
 
 In 1817 the Austrian government invited 
 the noblemen to establish in each village a 
 trivial school, to raise funds for that object 
 and to advise the government of their hav- 
 ing complied with its wishes. 
 
 Three years after came another befehl, 
 ordering that the funds collected should be 
 secured and deposited in the treasury of the 
 Circles. As soon as this deposit was effected
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 219 
 
 there came another secret befehl to prevent 
 the establishment of rural schools and to 
 retain the collected funds in payment, of the 
 taxes that were in arrear, and as in Gallicia 
 there is not a village without arrears, (be- 
 cause the tax absorbs more than three 
 fourths of the net revenue,) all the fund col- 
 lected devolved to government. 
 
 The greater part of the Polish and Ger- 
 man, proprietors rejoiced, because they pre- 
 tended that the Polish peasantry after hav- 
 ing learned to write and read would not 
 submit to forced labour. 
 
 It is forbidden the lay professors and 
 priests to discuss the transubstantiation, 
 that is to say, the authority and power of 
 the priests to transform bread and wine 
 into a living God, the Bulls in Gccna Domini, 
 on original sin, on the necessity and efficacy of 
 auricular confession — on the immaculate con-
 
 220 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 ception of the Holy Virgin, &c. &c. The 
 professor of Ecclesiastical Law, after having 
 read the befehl of the Kaiser, Joseph, adds 
 with Austrian gravity, "that these things are 
 too clear and true to require discussion/' 
 
 The third year of the course the Civil 
 Code is exposed ; and the fourth year Political 
 Economy and Civil Process. 
 
 A befehl only allows the professors of 
 Gymnasiums and German schools to chastise 
 the indolent and disobedient scholars in the 
 presence of their parents ; but the professors 
 do not adhere to this, and arbitrarily punish 
 them with a rod on the naked back. The 
 catechising priests vent their spleen more 
 particularly on those children who cannot 
 understand the Trinity and other transcen- 
 dent doctrines which are above their age 
 and capacity. 
 
 The children having been once punished
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 221 
 
 and intimidated, afterwards always answer 
 in the affirmative that they understand, and 
 become learned and religious slaves, but 
 without conviction and consequently without 
 sincerity. 
 
 In former times only adult and 
 intelligent men were introduced into the 
 mysteries of religion. At present it is 
 children of eight or ten years who learn, 
 like parrots, the most transcendent dogmas 
 
 and the sublimest mysteries. 
 
 Formerly also religion was revered and 
 produced virtue and patriotism. It is now 
 treated with contempt, and produces only 
 hyprocrisy and egotism. 
 
 The servile Austrian spirit is not belied 
 even amongst the professors. Monsieur 
 Bohrer, professor of political economy, 
 every time that he meets a Gubernial
 
 222 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 councillor in the street and more particu- 
 larly the Baron King, Aulic councillor, stops, 
 uncovers himself, and stands like a Russian 
 soldier on duty as sentinel before his officer, 
 waiting in this attitude until the councillor 
 is past. 
 
 The Austrians call this " German civili- 
 zation." 
 
 The distinctive character of the Austrians 
 is, that they are servile to the strong and 
 insolent towards the weak. 
 
 The professors and priests in the schools 
 and confessionals strongly forbid the scholars 
 to reveal anything that takes place in the 
 school or confessional. 
 
 The spy system is so well developed in 
 Austria that children denounce their parents 
 and parents their children. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Archbishop, Count 
 Ankwicz secretly denounced to the general 
 commanding in Gallicia, Count Fresnel,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 223 
 
 a captain who had the misfortune to loose 
 at cards the pay of his company. 
 
 The Catholic Archbishop, and the Burgo- 
 master of Leopol are always secret councillors 
 (Geheimrath) of the Kaiser. I say secret 
 and not private councillor in order to pre- 
 serve the German signification of Geheim- 
 rath to which from its functions of spy it is 
 entitled. 
 
 The secret councillors have a right to ad- 
 dress their complaints direct to the Kaiser. 
 All the other authorities address them to 
 their superiors. 
 
 It is forbidden to teach the French 
 language in the public schools. 
 
 In general the Austrian Germans do not 
 like the French language and hate France. 
 
 The priests and royalist emigrants of 
 1789 contributed considerably to this 
 hatred by representing the French people as 
 impious and anthropophagi
 
 224 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 It is severely forbidden the professors and 
 Priests to make or speak about any fresh 
 miracles. The Austrian government which is 
 anti-national for five-sixths of the population 
 fears as much the light of reason as all that 
 exaggerates or corrupts the imagination and 
 produces fanatical stupidity. On the other 
 hand the repetition is often ordered of that 
 passage in the gospel which says " render 
 unto Kaiser that which is Kaiser's/'' The 
 book which bears the title of Commenius and 
 which is taught in the German classes repre- 
 sents the Kaiser as head of all the sovereigns 
 in Europe. 
 
 It is on this account say the professors 
 that the Czar and all Kings present their 
 homage to our Kaiser at Vienna and that he 
 does not return their visits.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 225 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Religion — Form of Worship — Ecclesiastical Govern- 
 ment — Holy Austrian Religion — Jesuits. 
 
 Religion consists in respect for, and fear of 
 God. Its seat is in the heart of man. 
 independent of all lay or ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment, and of all forms of worship. 
 
 A form oi worship is the manner of show- 
 ing by acts that respect and fear — and de- 
 pends on the customs and habits of a peo-
 
 226 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 pie, and on the policy of the lay or ecclesias- 
 tical governments — religion may exist 
 without an outward form of worship, and 
 vice versa, the outward form without 
 possessing religion. 
 
 The principles of real religion are the 
 existence of one God and eternal life ; the 
 end of real religion is the perfection of 
 man, that is to say. the rendering man as 
 virtuous and happy as possible. All religion 
 which is not based upon these principles is 
 either false or falsified. The religion of 
 Austria has for its exclusive end respect and 
 fear of the Kaiser and obedience to his befehls. 
 True religion, forms of worship, and the 
 priesthood are only the instruments of Aus- 
 trian religion. Persons professing the same 
 religion or form of worship, compose a so- 
 ciety called Church.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 227 
 
 Churches have their government or legis- 
 lative and executive body. 
 
 These ecclesiastical governments democra- 
 tic, oligarchical, or monarchical, are more 
 or less dependent on the lay government. 
 
 In Austria, the ecclesiastical government 
 of the priests depends in everything on the 
 lay government of the Kaiser. 
 
 Every government and form of worship 
 has its object, which is not always in the 
 interest of true religion. 
 
 The laws which arc made and the cere- 
 monies which are introduced to attain this 
 end constitute the ecclesiastical policy known 
 in the hidi region of the Austrian bureau- 
 cracy under the title of Holy Policy. 
 
 The Divine laws are open for the whole 
 world- — this code is the universe. God never 
 dictated his laws to any mortal man— all 
 written laws, all traditions are onlv human
 
 228 BEVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 laws, and mere copies of a Divine law, more 
 or less false or faithful. 
 
 The criterion of the conformity of a 
 copied law with its Divine original, the 
 universe, is its popular emanation. 
 
 That law which is deciphered and inter- 
 preted by the people itself is the most 
 authentic, and is almost Divine, because the 
 voice of the people is the voice of God. 
 
 The promulgation of the Austrian catechism, 
 and all ecclesiastical laws of Austria are 
 under the superintendence of the Kaiser 
 government. * 
 
 It is forbidden the bishops, as well as all 
 other subjects, to publish anything without 
 the approbation of the censorship. 
 
 In the same manner that self-conserva- 
 tion is the chief motive of human societies, 
 public bodies and assemblages of men in 
 most of their actions, in a like manner wc
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 229 
 
 share in common with animals a vivid feel- 
 ing of self-preservation — a feeling which 
 being instinctive predominates over all 
 others. 
 
 The chief aim of all governments is self- 
 preservation. 
 
 A democratical government emanating 
 from the people will have in view as its 
 object the preservation of the people — an 
 oligarchically sacerdotal government the 
 conservation of the sacerdotal hierarchy of 
 which it is the organ, and an absolute mo- 
 narchical government will have for principal 
 and exclusive aim the preservation of its 
 throne. 
 
 The absolute throne and absolute altar 
 will only look upon the people and upon 
 God himself as useful and necessary in- 
 struments of their own conservation. 
 
 Those states in which the ecclesiastical 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 230 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 government is absolute and independent of 
 their faithful subjects, and in which the civil 
 government emanates from the people and 
 is subject to its control, are in a most 
 anomalous position, 
 
 The ecclesiastical absolute government 
 will never lend its spiritual assistance to the 
 civil constitutional governments, which either 
 will or cannot in reciprocity abolish the 
 liberty of the press and the progress of 
 enlightenment the chief bugbears of all 
 usurped authorities and of all despots tem- 
 poral or spiritual. 
 
 The French who in 1830 overthrew the 
 absolute throne and allowed the absolute 
 altar to exist, appear to have rendered them- 
 selves amenable to the charge of inconsist- 
 tency which could only be palliated on the 
 plea of there existing insurmountable ob- 
 stacles to anv other course. The Catholic
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 231 
 
 religion may be the true religion but the 
 Catholic hierarchy and its form of worship 
 are incompatible with liberty. In the same 
 way as the physical, so does the intellectual 
 world and all civil, political, or ecclesiastical 
 societies exist and manifest themselves by the 
 equilibrium of their physical, intellectual, 
 civil, political, or ecclesiastical strength. All 
 that is not a force in itself is the instru- 
 ment of some controlling force. In states 
 and societies this is exercised and manifested 
 by the power of making, interpreting, and 
 executing laws. Now as in Austria the 
 Kaiser only has the power of making, inter- 
 preting, and executing the civil and eccle- 
 siastical laws, it follows that the Austrian 
 priests and their flocks are only the religious 
 instruments of the throne. It is blasphemy 
 to confound religion with religious 
 government or God with the priest — •
 
 232 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 the written law of God, or that which 
 is manifested throughout the universe with 
 the holy policy written in a catechism or a 
 befehl. It is only men, virtuous, studious, 
 and enlightened by the light of pure reason 
 who penetrate the sanctuary of Divine 
 legislation. Those who like owls only 
 see clearly in that darkness which the 
 brilliancy of the Divine light darkens for 
 them, have never penetrated and 
 never will penetrate the depths of the 
 Divine code. The indolent who reclining 
 voluptuously on their couches wait for 
 the Almighty to descend from heaven into 
 their cabinets, and reveal to them his 
 laws and commands, and talk of having 
 inspirations, are but shameless and blas- 
 phemous impostors. 
 
 God is just,and He has laid His code open 
 for all the world to look therein. He would
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 233 
 
 be unjust and partial if He only revealed in 
 secret, and only to a Moses or a Pope, the 
 precepts, the knowledge and observances 
 which are necessary to the salvation of the 
 whole world. 
 
 The principles and end of true religion 
 cannot and ought not to change. But 
 the laws and dogmas of religious policy, or the 
 means of teaching its principles, as well as 
 of arriving at the supreme end, may, and 
 must necessarily change and be adapted to 
 the state of civilization of the period and 
 people. The form of worship, that is to 
 say the expression of our sentiments to- 
 wards God, may differ, vary, be modified and 
 improved. 
 
 The celebrated philosopher Kant thus 
 defines religion. 44 ' " Religion is nothing more 
 
 * Die religion ist nicht anderes, als gesetz-ge- 
 bung der vernunft, urn der moral Durch, die nm
 
 234 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 than the legislation of reason acting through 
 the moral feelings arising from the self -pro- 
 duced idea of God, influencing the human 
 will to fulfil its duties'' 
 
 Religion is one of the four agents, which 
 the temporal government employs, in order 
 easily to govern the people. 
 
 It is impossible to govern conveniently 
 without the aid of religion, which ought to 
 form our hearts and render us virtuous. 
 
 The more free the administration of a 
 country the more is virtue indispensable in 
 its citizens. France is therefore more in 
 want of real religion than the absolute 
 Austrian Government which can replace it 
 by the befehl or the stock. 
 
 The Christian religion in general, and the 
 
 dieser selbst erzeugte idee von gott auf den men- 
 schliehen willen zur erfullung aller seiner Pflichten 
 Einfluss zu s'eben.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 205 
 
 Catholic more particularly, is a true religion 
 because it has for basis the existence of one 
 God and eternal life, as well as the object of 
 rendering man virtuous ; but the ecclesiasti- 
 cal, Catholic, and A-catholic governments, 
 and their policy, are destructive to liberty, 
 and consequently to the virtue of the people, 
 because these oligarchical or papistical 
 governments being absolute and not emana- 
 ting from the people, treat and look upon, 
 and use, as their servile instrument, that 
 God whose will and precepts can only be 
 truly manifested through the voice of multi- 
 tudes — Vox populi vox Dei. 
 
 The newspapers in the interest of the 
 absolute thrones, and the priests themselves 
 who complain that morals are becoming 
 weak and corrupt, and that religion is not 
 observed, confess and establish their own in- 
 efficacious inaptitude, and the pernicious in-
 
 236 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 fluence of their holy policy and of their 
 forms of worship, which no longer keep pace 
 with the civilization of the age. 
 
 There are in Catholic countries thousands 
 of priests, pulpits, and confessionals, which 
 cost the people millions, and these priests, 
 well fed and paid, proclaim in the face of 
 the world that morals are corrupt, and that 
 there is no religion. It is therefore now the 
 duty of the temporal government and of 
 those legislative bodies composed of fathers of 
 families, and consequently more interested, 
 than the unmarried priests, in the happiness 
 and virtue of legitimate posterity, and in the 
 eternal life of their country, to deliberate, 
 discuss, and decide in the name of the peo- 
 ple, that is to say, of God. Not on reli- 
 gion, or the necessity of worshipping God, 
 but upon the mode in which He shall be 
 worshipped, on the necessity, the number,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 237 
 
 marriage or celibacy of the priests, on the 
 form of the ecclesiastical government, on 
 the authority and power of priests operat- 
 ing such miracles as condemning or absolv- 
 ing sins ; on the present necessity or utility 
 of auricular confession, instituted in the 
 Fourteenth Century, on analogy and con- 
 nexion existing on the one hand between 
 religion and its chief end, morality, and on 
 the other, upon the authority of the priests 
 arising from secret revelation and disap- 
 proved by the public revelation of God. 
 
 In Austria all forms of worship and all 
 the attribution of the priests depend upon 
 the good will of the Kaiser. 
 
 Crime and falsehood only have cause to 
 hide themselves and tremble when reason 
 speaks. The Christian religion does not fear 
 but on the contrary seeks enlightenment or 
 liberty of the press.
 
 238 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 True religion as an intellectual force dis- 
 dains the support of a temporal despotic 
 government. 
 
 It does not oppose bayonets, the stock, 
 the knout, or papal bulls to reason — it 
 does not require secret revelations or 
 miracles to render man virtuous and teach 
 him to do unto others as he would that 
 others should do unto him. 
 
 It is our blind faith and our ignorance, 
 our genuflections before the priests which 
 gave birth to their pride and unmeasured 
 audacity and which are the source of all 
 human calamities. 
 
 The Austrian priests are, like all the other 
 officials, inhuman and haughty towards the 
 people, servile and truckling to the Kaiser 
 and his government, to whom they denounce 
 all generous and virtuous men. 
 
 They preach every Sunday and prove by
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 239 
 
 their conduct that servile submission to the 
 despot and his befehls is the first of all 
 Catholic virtues. * A learned German 
 observed to me that in Catholic countries 
 the women confessed by unmarried priests 
 have more personal and social dignity than 
 the acatholic women, f English, German, 
 or Russian ; but they, at the same time, mix 
 
 * Though the higher clergy in Gallicia has proved 
 itself servile to the Kaiser, the great bulk of this 
 body has recently proved its humanity and patrio- 
 tism. The clergy interfered between the peasantry 
 and Austrian agents and other victims. One of 
 these solemn processions was fired upon by the 
 orders of the Austrian authorities and several 
 hundreds of the inferior clergy are now imprisoned 
 and being deliberately punished by Metternich, for 
 this interference. 
 
 Editoe. 
 
 t The particle A. is derived from the Greek and 
 signifies non. The word Acatholic is commonly used 
 in Austria.
 
 240 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA, 
 
 themselves more in politics and intrigues. 
 They have more dominion over their hus- 
 bands than the acatholic women under the 
 spiritual care of married priests, fathers of 
 families. 
 
 " In England, Austria, Germany, and Rus- 
 sia, it is men of a cold and severe policy, 
 married laymen or ecclesiastics who give the 
 religion and dictate the national form of 
 worship to the women ; on the contrary, the 
 Italians, Spaniards, and you Catholic Poles/' 
 said he, " receive the Latin faith from your 
 Women directed by unmarried confessors." 
 In the Catholic mode of worship there is 
 nothing for the mind — all is sensuality 
 materialism, luxury, etc. etc., because all 
 that pleases the women who lead their hus- 
 bands to the confessional. 
 
 The Marquis of C , Catholic member 
 
 of the Chamber of Deputies, author of
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 241 
 
 several pamphlets, appears to confirm this 
 opinion of the learned acatholic, he says in 
 his pamphlet entitle'd ' Feu I Feu /' " the 
 " women have preserved that virility of soul 
 " which men have lost in the debaucheries 
 " of materialism and doubt. 
 
 "Women have obtained that sort of in- 
 ,( fluence which strong always obtain over 
 " weak minds." 
 
 The Marquis, under the surreptitious 
 title of Timon, says furthermore, that the 
 French Bishops are powerful because they 
 are poor and do not frequent the courts of 
 constitutional sovereigns, but of despots. 
 But the Marquis does not say whether it 
 would not be better if the Marchionesses, 
 Countesses, and Viscountesses were to take 
 their seats in the legislative chambers in- 
 stead of their husbands. Counts, Viscounts. 
 and other illustrations of despotism and 
 vol,. 1 >
 
 *242 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 legislative authorities, who do not even 
 suspect how they are led. 
 
 The people must be distinguished from 
 the lay and ecclesiastical aristocracy. If 
 the reproaches which the Marquesses and 
 Jesuits make to France are addressed to the 
 French people, they are revolting calumnies ; 
 but if only to the capitalists, of the eccle- 
 siastical hierarchy, and the soi disant 
 royal French nobility, then such reproaches 
 may be just and merited. 
 
 In the same ratio that the French people 
 in as regards virtue, morality, and love of 
 country, above all the other countries of 
 Europe, are the antinational nobility, and 
 French Jesuits below the nobles and priests 
 of other countries. Never did the Polish, 
 Russian, German, or English noblemen 
 set themselves at the head of foreign 
 bands to fight against their country. The
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 243 
 
 real French national nobility, since 1789, is 
 the French people. Whilst the Catholic 
 clergy of the country, driven by the 
 courtiers of the noraade court, by the abso- 
 lute sovereign of Rome, by Austrian agents 
 and creatures, and by the Jesuits, will not 
 submit to a constitutional or democratical 
 government,' and seeks to form a state 
 within the state a government within the . 
 government. 
 
 The Austrian clergy, including the Jesuits, 
 submit willingly to the despotic temporal 
 government and to the befehls of the 
 Kaiser, who protects all inhuman abuses 
 and libertuide institutions. 
 
 The Kaiser is the visible head of all 
 Religions and sects in his empire — to ac- 
 custom his clergy and subjects to look upon 
 him and venerate him as Pope, he exercises 
 the functions of Pope.
 
 244 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Amongst other things he washes, himself, 
 every Holy Thursday the feet of his twelve 
 Apostles, and by a happy innovation inspired 
 by revelation and approved of by the Jesuits 
 and other gallant priests, his wife, the 
 Kaiserinn washes the feet of twelve feminine 
 Apostles. The authors of this last innovation 
 are the Kaiser Francis First and his Vizier 
 Metternich. 
 
 The Christian Religion is professed in Gal- 
 licia by the following different sects ; Firstly, 
 the Catholic ; Secondly, the Greek called 
 Orthodox ; Thirdly the Protestant called 
 Evangelical. The Catholic faith is subdi- 
 vided into three branches : Firstly, the 
 Roman Catholic or Latin : Secondly, the 
 united Greek Catholic : Thirdly, the Arme- 
 nian Catholic. All these sects are called 
 Catholics because they acknowledge in the 
 form at least the primacy of the Roman
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 245 
 
 Pontiff which is essential in order to merit the 
 title of Catholic or universal signified by the 
 Greek word k^ox,k» but there exists however 
 a remarkable difference between these forms 
 of worship. 
 
 The Roman Catholic resembles very 
 nearly that of the French Catholics. The 
 Austrian Priests wear black surplices and 
 ordinary hats like laymen, off duty 
 a dark coloured dress. Count Ankwicz, 
 Archbishop and Primas Regni, only duns 
 his ecclesiastical costume in church, and 
 when he walks out wears a fashionably cut 
 coat, knee breeches, silk stockings, shoes 
 a la marquis, and rouges his cheeks. 
 
 The Prolate is accompanied by a Deacon, 
 and followed by one or two lacqueys or 
 chasseurs ; the passers by salute him by un- 
 covering their heads. 
 
 The Catholic Priests of other countries
 
 246 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 have therefore reason to say that the Catho- 
 lic religion is respected in Austria. 
 
 The Greek form of worship is divided into 
 two branches ; Firstly, the united Greek or 
 Catholic, and Secondly, the Greek not united 
 called Schismatic. 
 
 The priests of the orthodox, united or 
 Catholic branch, only differ from those 
 of the non-united by acknowledging 
 the primacy of the Roman Pontiff, whereas 
 the priest of the non-united branch do not 
 acknowledge it. 
 
 Both have a right founded on the gospel 
 of contracting marriage, but only once, 
 with a young person not a widow. 
 
 They both say mass in the Sclavonian 
 language, and communicate with wine and 
 bread cut into small pieces. 
 
 They have the power of transubstantiation. 
 The Armenian Catholic Priests are all un-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 247 
 
 married and say mass in the Armenian 
 language. 
 
 In all else it resembles the Roman form. 
 Each of these three Catholic sects has its 
 Archbishopric at Leopol, so that there are 
 three Catholic Archbishops in the. same 
 town, of which is afforded no other in- 
 stance in the Catholic world. 
 
 The Catholic united Greek Bishop bears 
 the title of metropolitan : the Roman Arch- 
 bishop the title of Pritnas Regni. 
 
 A Befeh i of the Kaiser declares the 
 Roman Catholic religion to be dominant 
 (herrschende) and the enemies of Catholicism 
 hence infer that the Catholic religion 
 best suits despotism. 
 
 The Roman Catholic priests for this rea- 
 son alone enjoy tithes or forced labour 
 from the Polish Catholics or Acatholics. The 
 Germans are not subject to this charge.
 
 248 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 The Austrian Catholic catechism especially 
 orders by the fifth church commandment the 
 payment of tithes to the Roman Catholic 
 Priests. Formerly the Christian religion was 
 persecuted by the Kings, they now protect it, 
 it is therefore no longer the same. 
 
 The Evangelical or Protestant religion is 
 professed by Germans established in Poland, 
 and protected by the government. 
 
 It has its ministers who are all married, 
 and equal amongst themselves. They do not 
 assume the power of transubstantiation. All 
 the Evangelical ministers of the Austrian 
 Empire depend upon the Evangelical Con- 
 sistory which has its seat at Vienna. 
 
 The doors of their places of worship may 
 not open into public streets. 
 
 All members of Protestant congregations 
 can read, write and reckon.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 249 
 
 Their schools are directed and superin- 
 tended by the pastors themselves. 
 
 The Evangelical religion requires that 
 every believer should be able to read and 
 interpret the gospel of his own accord. 
 
 I was employed two years iu the office of 
 Ecclesiastical aftairs, at the gubernium, and 
 we received no complaints or denunciations 
 on the part of ministers against their flocks 
 relative to religion on ; the other hand, M. 
 Ziegler, ex Jesuit, Catholic Bishop of Tarnow, 
 and M. Patocki, Roman Catholic Bishop of 
 Przemysl, loaded us with complaints against 
 their flocks, and even against the subor- 
 dinate priests. 
 
 The congregations and priests made re- 
 reprisals. 
 
 A priest who had been persecuted and 
 denounced by his Bishop, for living in the 
 married state witli a pompadour called
 
 250 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 housekeeper, as is nearly universally prac- 
 tised in Austria, denounced, out of revenge, 
 amongst other complaints to the Gubernium, 
 that his Lordship Patocki was member of 
 a family of a nomade and vagabond tribe, 
 which is called in Polish, Cygan, and in 
 German, Zigeuner, the greater part of whom 
 are robbers ;* unfortunately his Lordship, 
 to whom this complaint was communicated, 
 could not give satisfactory explanation 
 to the Gubernium. His physiognomy, 
 accent, bearing and character gave con- 
 siderable plausibility to the priest's accusa- 
 tion. To prevent the scandal which 
 might have ensued, his Lordship was re- 
 called to Vienna by the Aulic chancellery. 
 M. Ziegler, confessor to the Empress Mother, 
 
 * Gipsies. 
 
 Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 251 
 
 who used to denounce in a mass all patriotic 
 and honest Poles, met with the same fate. 
 I have already observed that all the Arch- 
 bishops aDd greater part of the Bishops are 
 intimate (secret) councillors of the Kaiser 
 and his government. 
 
 In that capacity they are obliged to de- 
 nounce to the Kaiser himself and his govern- 
 ment all that may appear to them, or that 
 they may deem detrimental or dangerous to 
 his temporal or spiritual policy. 
 
 The Austrian Bishops never preach, they 
 are rather instruments of the temporal 
 policy and police rather than good clergy- 
 men. 
 
 The Bishops are therefore chosen from 
 amongst the priests who have gone through 
 a course of lour years' theology, or rather 
 hierology at Vienna, were they are taught 
 how to give religions their just political value,
 
 252 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 according to the expression used in the higher 
 circles of the Austrian government. The 
 orthodox Acatholics have a Bishop at Czer- 
 niowa, and a few churches in the circle of 
 the same name. 
 
 The Israelites, the number of whom in 
 Gallicia amounts to 300,000, have their syna- 
 gogues and priests called Rabbis, distributed 
 according to the parishes. During his journey 
 through that province inl8l7theKaiserFran- 
 cis successively visited all Catholic and acath- 
 olic churches. On entering the Jewish syna- 
 gogue the Kaiser uncovered himself, but it 
 was remarked to him that the Jews remained 
 with their heads covered ; the Kaiser then 
 covered himself, presented himself before an 
 altar prepared for him, and assisted at the 
 Jewish ceremony for more than three quar- 
 ters of an hour. The greater part praised 
 this conduct of their sovereign, and said 
 that all the kings of the earth ought to
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 253 
 
 imitate this example — that all religions, 
 Jewish, German, Anglican, Roman or Greek, 
 may be equally good, and that God under- 
 stands all languages, but the more fervent 
 Christians were shocked, and the report was 
 even spread that the Habsburgs were of Jewish 
 origin, that they emigrated from Africa in 
 the ninth or tenth Century, and established 
 themselves as traders in Switzerland, where 
 they became rich, and acquired the favour of 
 the German Sovereigns who made them 
 Counts. 
 
 When a living is vacant, the patron lord 
 has a right of presenting a candidate to the 
 bishop, but he is also obliged to furnish 
 materials for the construction and repairs of 
 the church and glebe house. 
 
 The parishioners furnish the work — the 
 
 government contributes nothing. 
 
 Since the Austrian Invasion, many churches 
 VOL. i. l
 
 254 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 and convents have been suppressed, or con- 
 verted into storehouses of hay and straw, or 
 into barrack's. 
 
 All the Christian priests receive salaries 
 from the government — the archbishops re- 
 ceive £600, bishops £400, canons £100 a 
 year ; the curates, from £30 to £40, and 
 the vicar, from £14 to £20 a year. All the 
 Roman Catholic bishops, and most of the 
 canons and curates are in the enjoyment of 
 tithes, and possess towns and villages subject 
 to the robot. The Roman Catholic arch- 
 bishop of Leopol enjoys a clear income of 
 £8000 per annum. 
 
 The government only pays to the clergy 
 the portion which is wanting to make up 
 the above mentioned salaries. The tithes, 
 forced labour, voluntary offerings of the 
 parishioners, such as bread, honey, pay- 
 ment for masses, marriages and burials, fees,
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 255 
 
 etc. etc., are reckoned up in a niggardly man- 
 ner by the authorities of the Circles, esti- 
 mated higher than the real value, and sub- 
 stracted from the incomes of the clergy. 
 
 When the amount of these tithes and per- 
 quisites exceeds the stipulated amount of 
 salary, then the clergyman is obliged to pay 
 all the direct and indirect taxes. 
 
 The income of a vacant curacy returns to 
 the Kaiser, under the denomination of reli- 
 gious or intercalary fund. The archbishop- 
 ric of Leopol was only given to M. Ankwicz 
 several years after the death of his predecessor, 
 by which delay the Kaiser gained nearly 
 £40,000. All the property of the suppressed 
 churches and convents belong to the Kaiser, 
 as supreme guardian of religious creeds. The 
 curates keep the registers of births, deaths, 
 and marriages. They are looked upon as 
 public functionaries ; other bishops have
 
 256 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 also the right of forbidding a curate to offi- 
 ciate, but the gubernium decides when it 
 is a question of suspending his salary or 
 emoluments. In all the Catholic and Acath- 
 olic churches there are benches. They do not 
 let out chairs for hire during mass, as in 
 other Catholic churches. In general the 
 Austrian clergy is, past comparison, better 
 instructed than the Catholic clergy of other 
 countries, who are abandoned soul and body 
 to the bishops, who make of them the most 
 docile, ignorant, superstitious, and fanatical 
 instruments. The Catholic clergyman of 
 other countries makes no other answer to 
 political, or philosophical objections than 
 signing the cross, turning his back, or taking 
 to his breviary or catechism, which, like 
 the Pharisee, he carries at all time? 
 and everywhere. The Austrian priest, on 
 the contrary, who has studied mathematics.
 
 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 20 / 
 
 natural philosophy, and rhetoric, under lay 
 professors, holds more with the world than 
 the body of priests ; he is more indepen- 
 dent of the bishop, than the priests of other 
 countries ; he does not seek, but if he meet 
 he boldly struggles with the difficulties of 
 religion. He disposes of his arguments and 
 sophisms, according to the rules of logic, 
 puts them into the form of a syllogism, then 
 launches didactically forth his sorites, and dex- 
 terously envelopes his opponent or interlocu- 
 tor in his terminology and his dilemmas, as 
 a spider envelops a fly in its web and al- 
 ways gains the victory over a less' skillful 
 antagonist. 
 
 The priests of other countries, instead of 
 reasoning, find it more convenient to anathe- 
 matise and excite against you, women and 
 fools whom they have fanaticised. The blind- 
 ness, and error of the Catholic priests vi'
 
 258 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 foreign countries arise from the fact of 
 their religion having the exclusive end of 
 maintaining their own hierarchy, whereas 
 the end of the Austrian religion is the con- 
 secration of the despotic throne. 
 
 The Austrian priests who speak and act 
 in the interest of others, show themselves 
 calmer and more disinterested, and find by 
 these means more credit with the faithful. 
 
 It is remarked in Gallicia that the united 
 Greek Catholic priests are distinguished by 
 their profound erudition, and that they value 
 more the liberty and happiness of the people 
 than the legitimacy of despotism, because 
 they are married and have children, whose 
 happiness they have more at heart than the 
 interests of the throne. They even pretend 
 to prove by experience, that those sworn to 
 celibacy ought to be excluded from professor- 
 ship and legislation.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 259 
 
 The Austrian Government therefore makes 
 use of the Jesuits to convert them to Roman 
 Catholicism. 
 
 The Austrian government has, above all, at 
 heart the wish of abolishing in the Greek 
 church the Sclavonian language and sub- 
 stituting the latin tongue, that ske may 
 ultimately replace the Sclavonian priests by 
 Germans, as it has long since practised in 
 the Roman church. 
 
 The Poles instead of seconding this Ger- 
 man and Jesuitical tendency ought rather to 
 request the Pope to allow the marriage of 
 Roman Catholic priests and the introduction 
 of the Polish language in the liturgy instead 
 of the Latin tongue, which renders their 
 religion autocratical, and separates the 
 people, who do not understand the latin 
 tongue, from the priests and lords. 
 
 To make proselytes, the Jesuits and Roman 
 Catholics do not fail to set forth that the
 
 260 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 united Greek religion is only a religion of 
 the lower orders, whereas the Roman Catho- 
 lic is professed by so many Princes and 
 Kings, and by the Kaiser and his court. 
 Almost all the Poles who are become 
 fashionable, embrace the religion of the 
 Austria court and abandon that of their 
 ancestors — in fact experience proves that 
 there is more aristocracy of feeling in con- 
 stitutional France than in absolute and 
 Protestant Germany ; and there was and is 
 more aristocracy and tyranny towards the 
 people in Catholic Poland than in Ecclesias- 
 tical Russia/'" 
 
 * Bad as may be the condition of the Sclavonic 
 peasantry under the Roman Catholic government of 
 Austria, and in Silesia under the Lutheran govern- 
 ment of Prussia, it is far worse under the rule of 
 Russia which belong to the Greek faith. The 
 peasantry are only serfs in the two former states, but 
 slaves in the latter. 
 
 Editor.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 261 
 
 It is generally pretended that the province 
 of the Jesuits is to maintain the Catholic 
 religion in its purity, or to re-establish it, 
 and also to maintain the supremacy and 
 infallibility of the Pope. 
 
 Their assertions and conjectures are re- 
 futed by reason and by facts. Jesuitism is of 
 Austrian invention, and the Jesuits are only 
 agents of the Kaisers of Habsburgh and 
 of despotism in general. It was during the 
 reign of the Austrian Prince's that the in- 
 quisition lit its funeral piles in Spain. 
 It was also under the reign of Charles the 
 Fifth of Habsburgh, Emperor of Germany, and 
 King of Spain, that Ignatius Loyola iounueJ, 
 in 1534, a new institution; after some slight dif- 
 ficulties, which were smoothencd by the Kaiser, 
 Pope Paul III. approved it, under the name 
 of clerks of the company of Jesus. Certainly 
 at that period of Austrian Despotism in
 
 262 REVELATIONS OP AUSTRIA. 
 
 Spain, Loyola would not have dared or been 
 able to establish this institution without the 
 consent of his sovereign. At the time that 
 this institution was founded, the religion, 
 that is to say the power of the Popes and 
 Priests, was at its apogee. 
 
 The inquisition or holy office and supre- 
 macy were in full vigour. Religion, as 
 Priests understand it, did not require the 
 assistance of this institution, it must there- 
 fore have been founded from motives purely 
 temporal and political. 
 
 In fact, to lower Catholic France the 
 Jesuits have opened the road in the East to 
 schismatical England, the natural ally of 
 Austria ; to deliver over to Austria and the 
 Germans the Poles, generous but imprudent 
 defenders of Catholicism, the Jesuits lit the 
 torch of civil war. 
 
 They fanaticised the Catholic Poles and
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 263 
 
 excited them against the Protestant and 
 orthodox Poles, but what proves that the 
 object of the Jesuits was not the propa- 
 gation of the Catholic religion is that, at the 
 time they were exciting the Poles against 
 the Poles, they tolerated and favoured the 
 German Jews in Poland. 
 
 They were merely the servile instruments 
 of the Kaisers whose policy with regard to 
 Poland required the establishment of Ger- 
 man Jews and the extirpation of the Poles 
 of the Greek faith. 
 
 We will descend to the origin of Catholicism 
 in Poland, that our readers may judge by 
 themselves of the pernicious influence ex- 
 ercised by the Kaisers, Popes and Jesuits 
 in the political and religious affairs of this 
 country. 
 
 Catholicism, that is to say Papal supre- 
 macy, was introduced and acknowledged in
 
 264 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 
 
 Poland, in 965, by the Polish Woiwode, 
 Duke Mieczyslas, who, as a recompense, re- 
 ceived from the Pope and Germanic Sove- 
 reigns, the title of King. 
 
 Before the introduction of Catholicism, 
 and even before the birth of Christ, the 
 Polish Sclavonians, comprised by the 
 Greek and Roman historians, under the de- 
 nomination of Scythians, or wild men, pro- 
 fessed and practised the Christian precepts ; 
 but they had no priests, because it appeared 
 to them more proper to pray to the Al- 
 mighty, and to worship him personally. 
 
 They thought that the most important 
 affair, the salvation of the soul ought not 
 to be treated by mercenary priests, or by 
 hirelings, but by themselves. 
 
 They had no temples, because in their 
 .simplicity they looked upon the entire uni-
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 265 
 
 verse as God's temple : they believed that 
 God was everywhere, and that he sees all 
 things. They were hospitable and virtuous, 
 Herodotus, Justinian, Horace, Plutarch, 
 Lucian, Strabo, and others render justice to 
 thera on this point, under the denomination 
 of Scythians. 
 
 The Sclavonian inhabitants of the Volga 
 asked for Christian Bishops from the Em- 
 peror Michael the stammerer, who sent 
 them, in 858, Constantine of Thessalonica, 
 known by the name of Cyril. 
 
 The Sclavonian Prince Ratislaw or Rastiz, 
 Sovereign of Moravia, summoned from Con- 
 stantinople the Bishops Methodius and 
 Cyril in 863, and drove away the German 
 Catholic Bishop, who only preached the 
 Catholic religion amongst the Sclavonian.', 
 to render thera tributary. 
 
 vol. I. A A
 
 266 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA, 
 
 Louis the German had the eyes torn out 
 of the Sclavonian Prince Ratislaw, who en- 
 deavoured to throw off the German yoke, 
 and his treasure was pillaged and trans- 
 ported to Bavaria, (870). 
 
 Under the reign of Arnulie, the German 
 army overran Moravia, overthrowing, burning 
 or destroying all that crossed their path 
 (893). Wishing to augment the influence 
 of the Latin Bishops, by increasing their 
 wealth, Otto had rendered them odious 
 to the Sclavonian nations, the sweat of 
 whose brow paid the cost of this display — 
 and Catholicism, which rendered them 
 tributaries of the priests, inspired them with 
 the same hatred towards the German nation, 
 which took this religion under its direction 
 and patronage — " for the Saxons had more 
 at heart to receive tributes than the salva.
 
 REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA. 267 
 
 tion of souls, and though born of Christian 
 ancestors they were found vain and sterile 
 in the work of the Lord/' Helmodi Chroni. 
 cap. 12 et 22.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 (note to tage 56.) 
 
 The constitution decreed by the last Polish 
 general diet. 
 
 Already on the 7th of September, 1789, 
 a deputation was appointed which was to 
 draw up the constitutional charter. The 
 opposition, not ceasing to annoy the diet, 
 originated the discussion on the fundamental 
 laws (Kardinalne) which were distinguished 
 from the constitution as the vital principle
 
 272 APPENDIX. 
 
 of the republic's existence. On this occasion 
 the conservation of the integrity of the 
 country, without the least infringement of 
 the limits of the republic, passed without 
 opposition. The other fundamental articles 
 underwent great discussion. It was asked 
 in the month of December, 1789, that 
 the deputation, charged with the new con- 
 stitution, should submit to the deliberation 
 of the diet, the basis of the future charter. 
 
 This basis was presented in the form of 
 eight articles and the debates which followed 
 became complicated by intermixture with 
 the discussions on the fundamental laws. 
 
 At the sitting of the 29th of March, 1 790, 
 the eight articles were however unanimously 
 agreed to and sanctioned. A question was 
 mooted as grave, as delicate, that of changing 
 the elective into an hereditary throne. It 
 silenced the prolonged debates on the fun-
 
 APPENDIX. 273 
 
 damental laws and was sent from the Diet to 
 the Dietines in order that the whole nation 
 might participate in a decision of such high 
 importance. 
 
 Length of the Debates — their Publicity. 
 
 The debates of the Diet, constantly main- 
 tained since two years, more solemn than 
 all those preceding them, by their great 
 length, drew from the whole of Poland and 
 Lithuaina towards the capital an immense 
 concourse of citizens, anxious to follow 
 closely the important work of saving their 
 country. The population of the capital 
 increased about one third.
 
 274 APPENDIX. 
 
 Every day numerous crowds assembled 
 in the halls of public discussion. They 
 bore the title of arbitrators, as if they had 
 been sent by public opinion to hear and 
 appreciate the deliberations, and to be 
 reporters of what was passing in the interior 
 of the chambers. They did in fact dissemi- 
 nate the different opinions given by the re- 
 presentatives of the nation, and their debates. 
 Through the voice of these auditors, and 
 that of the public journals, the tribune found 
 everywhere an echo. 
 
 The press, at the same time, greatly as- 
 sisted the civic work, as the intermedium 
 through which the statesmen and other 
 citizens whose thoughts were pre-oc- 
 cupied with questions of moment, anxiously 
 scrutinized them, and communicated to 
 the public their own ideas and views 
 which were sought with avidity. Every 
 important project that was to be pre-
 
 APPENDIX. 275 
 
 sented to the Diet was previously weighed, 
 supported or opposed in the private conver- 
 sations of families, in civic meetings, and by 
 numerous writers (51). The subjects of dis- 
 cussion were always multiplying, and kept in 
 activity the general attention. The clergy and 
 its property, the starosties, towns, their form 
 of government, the hereditary nature of the 
 throne, the elections, the form of the 
 debates of the Diet, jurisdiction, relations 
 with neighbouring courts, their intrigues, 
 the policy of Europe in general, gave rise to 
 numerous discussions, as much in inferior 
 as in more considerable publications, which 
 came to the assistence of the serious deliber- 
 ations of the Diet. Public opinion was 
 previously forcibly pronounced on each 
 project which was to be submitted to the 
 decision of the representatives, thus their 
 opinion was the opinion of the nation.
 
 276 APPENDIX. 
 
 Wybicki Staszic the Rzevuskis, Francis 
 and James Jezierski, Makulski, and many 
 others devoted themselves to the task 
 of preparing, informing, and instructing 
 the public mind. Bars, Mendrzecki, and 
 other authors, by their historical lucubra- 
 tions on the ancient rights of towns, power- 
 fully contributed to the acceptation of the 
 law concerning towns and burghs. The writ- 
 ings of Severin Rzevuski, and Albert 
 Turski advocates of an elective throne, 
 were refuted by Hugh Kollantai, Thadeus 
 xVIorski, and others who maintained the 
 hereditary principle. The nation read all these 
 publications, because familiar with the con- 
 tradictory opinions and prepared themselves 
 to deliberate and decide on the most deli- 
 cate question concerning a prerogative which 
 had been preserved, with an extreme, 
 jealousy, since several Centuries,
 
 APPENDIX. 277 
 
 New Diet re-united to the old h-ereditary 
 nature of the throne. 
 
 A decision had been again come to, on the 
 proposition of Michael Zaleski, Nuncio of 
 Troki, on the 29th November, 1778, that 
 the Diet would be prolongeo'. as long as 
 was necessary ; when, however, the two years 
 of the sitting had expired, and that the 
 period of an ordinary Diet, which must have 
 been as usual preceded by the Dictines, 
 approached, the question of the time of 
 duration of the Diet was resumed. The 
 opposition wished to profit by this op- 
 portunity in order to dissolve the Diet, 
 that the one which was about being called 
 together might have an open field. But the 
 confederates of the Diet found an expedient 
 
 VOL. I. B B
 
 278 APPENDIX, 
 
 which frustrated the efforts of the opposition 
 and the proposition was put to the vote ; 
 one hundred and fifteen votes against six- 
 teen declared for the continuation of the 
 confederated Diet until the 7th of Feb. 
 1791, in order to leave the newly elected 
 IS T uncios sufficient time to unite themselves 
 to the old ones, who were to give them use- 
 ful and necessary information on the march 
 of affairs — and better to prepare their minds 
 for the important decisions which were to 
 be made before their separation. The Dietines 
 therefore occupied themselves with the choice 
 of Nuncios to the Diet, and then took 
 into consideration the hereditary nature of 
 the throne. They approved of all the 
 decisions of the confederated Diet, they 
 accepted the hereditary propositions, 
 and chose Frederick Augustus, elector of 
 Saxony, and grandson of Augustus the
 
 APPENDIX. 279 
 
 Third King of Poland, as presumptive suc- 
 cessor to the King and chief of the dynasty 
 who in his person was to occupy the throne 
 on the death of Stanislas Augustus. It 
 was declared that in the event of his being 
 without male descendents, his daughter, the 
 Infanta, should be looked upon as successor 
 to the throne of the Republic. The election 
 being terminated, the new Nuncios arrived 
 at Warsaw the 16th of December 1790, 
 and united themselves to the members of 
 the sitting Diet. The grand confederated 
 Diet thus prolonged its debates with a 
 double number of members, because the old 
 ones continued to sit, even after the 7th of 
 Feb. 1791. They began by doing away with 
 the fundamental laws of the 20th of Dec. 
 1790, and the old question of the Dietiues 
 was resumed, the discussion of which re- 
 commenced on the 7th of May 1790. It was
 
 280 appendix. 
 
 only terminated three months after its re- 
 sumption the 24th of March 1791. At the 
 same time another law on the towns and Bur- 
 gesses was resolved on the 18th of April 1791. 
 
 Burghers admitted to the enjoyment of Po- 
 litical Rights, 1791. 
 
 The Burghers in reclaiming the re-establish- 
 ment of their ancient rights, proved by 
 documents that they were formerly in the 
 enjoyment of representation, and appealed 
 to the intelligence and the judgment of the 
 legislators, before whom they were certain 
 of finding justice. The deliberating nobility
 
 APPENDIX. 281 
 
 understood very well that it had before it 
 the high mission of repressing anarchical 
 abuses, of correcting the institutions estab- 
 lished in its favour to the detriment of other 
 classes of the nation — it therefore undertook 
 this task with calmness, and though anxious to 
 preserve its own immense prerogatives, did 
 not show itself jealous of the Burghers. A law 
 was in consequence promulgated, by which 
 not only the ancient prerogatives and 
 privileges of the Burghers were re-established 
 in all their plentitude, but which equalised 
 also representation of the Burghers with that 
 of the nobility in the chambers, and which 
 admitted gradually and partially the Burgher 
 classes to the civic prerogatives of the nobility. 
 In order to attain this object with greater 
 facility it was suggested to Suchorzevski, 
 .Xuncio of Kalisz, how much benefit his 
 party would derive from appropriating and
 
 282 APPENDIX. 
 
 supporting this project of law. He was in- 
 duced seriously to take it up, thinking 
 by this step really to gain the Burgher class 
 and its representatives for the Branicki 
 party, and to turn, at the same time, the 
 public feeling against the patriots, who 
 would not fail to attack this proposition, 
 if he charged himself with it. This clever 
 deception of a declared partizan of Russia, 
 contributed considerably to the success and 
 acceleration of the decision. In virtue of 
 this law the deputies of the towns took 
 their seats in the Diet directly, and seated 
 themselves at the side of the noble Nun- 
 cios. The national representation in the 
 confederated Diet, already doubled, thus saw 
 itself still further increased.
 
 APPENDIX. 283 
 
 The Constitution of 1791 agreed upon. 
 
 The substance and basis of the constitution, 
 drawn up by the deputation appointed for 
 this object, was known, but the following ar- 
 ticles remained unknown to the deputation. 
 In the mean time the exterior political 
 changes in diplomacy which were taking 
 place began to alarm Poland. 
 
 The friendly courts assumed an unquiet 
 attitude, with which the unknown project of 
 a republican and charter had inspired them. 
 At this period the debates were carried on 
 with slowness and languor. 
 
 In consideration of the external relations 
 of the state, it became necessary to accel- 
 Icrate the march of events, and clear up this
 
 284 APPENDIX. 
 
 gloomy state of things by the promulgation 
 of the projected changes. 
 
 The King was of the same opinion and 
 the 5th of May was agreed and definitively 
 fixed upon to this effect, without the oppo- 
 site party being informed of it ; but Stan- 
 islas Augustus, confiding the secret to those 
 in whom he placed trust, informed Hyacinth 
 Malachowski, chancellor of the crown, he 
 communicated it to the partisans of Branickis, 
 who spread the alarm. At this crisis their 
 party took upon itself to disturb the de- 
 liberations. To this end it ordered its 
 agents to arm the multitude. The patriots 
 and King being informed of this, and in 
 order to prevent the scandal which would 
 ensue, anticipated, by two days, the ceremony 
 of the proclamation of the new constitu- 
 tion. On the eve of that day, that is to
 
 APPENDIX. 285 
 
 say, on the evening of the second of May, when 
 they were assembled in the Radzivil palace, 
 to read through confidentially this act, parti- 
 sans of the opposition, and strangers to the 
 Diet, surreptitiously obtained admittance. 
 When the perusal was finished they learnt 
 that these individuals were endeavouring to 
 indispose public opinion by blaming and 
 calumniating every where the act which they 
 had just heard read. In order to baffle any 
 sinister attempt which their adversaries 
 might have prepared, and not to compromise 
 the public tranquillity, they at night again 
 assembled in the house of the venerable 
 Marshal Malachovski. The assembled mem- 
 bers, after having assured themselves of an 
 absolute majority, following the example 
 of Adam Krasinski, Bishop of Kamienice, 
 signed the declaration of abstaining from all
 
 286 APPENDIX. 
 
 superfluous motions, and to remove all in- 
 cidents, which might tend to retard the ac- 
 ceptation of the constitution — 
 
 On the morning of the third of May, 
 1791, the avenues, passages, staircases, and 
 court yard of the royal castle, where the 
 Diet assembled, were filled by an immense 
 concourse of people. Each one went im- 
 bued with a religious sentiment of confi- 
 dence in a happy issue ; Marshal Mala- 
 chovski, and the Nuncio of Cracow, Stani- 
 slas Soltik, invited the deputation of foreign 
 affairs to render an account of the exterior 
 policy of the republic. Its report did 
 not pass without observation ; Suchorzevski 
 nuncio of Kalisz, interrupting the perusal on 
 several occasions,succeeded in making a sceni- 
 cal demonstration ; having at his side a son 
 hardly six years of age, he dragged himself
 
 APPENDIX. 287 
 
 to the foot of the throne on his knees, de- 
 claring that he would rather sacrifice his 
 son than allow the immolation of national 
 liberty. Having obtained a hearing by this 
 theatrical step, he felt obliged to accuse the 
 party who were about to propose the con- 
 stitution, of sedition and plotting against 
 his life. When he had terminated his dis- 
 course, the reading of the report of the 
 deputation was continued. Its contents 
 were full of sinister augury. Peace was 
 on the eve of being concluded between 
 Russia and Turkey. The bad faith and 
 perfidy of a powar which called itself the 
 friend of Poland was manifest, and traces 
 were discovered of the degeneracy of certain 
 Poles in the pay of foreigners. 
 
 Ignatius Potocki, Marshal of the court, 
 addressed himself to Stanislas Augustus and
 
 288 APPENDIX. 
 
 called upon him to propose the most effi- 
 cacious means of saving the country, the 
 King indicated it by the publication and 
 acceptation of the prepared constitution. 
 
 After a short debate its perusal was im- 
 mediately proceeded with. 
 
 The Constitution is proclaimed and accepted 
 the 3rd of May 17 91 
 
 When the perusal was completed the opposi- 
 tion broke out into murmurs, and in arguing 
 against the project, lost several hours of valu- 
 able time. It was answered laconically and 
 with precision ; a few dissentient voices only 
 were feebly heard when Zabiello, Nuncio
 
 APPENDIX. 289 
 
 solicited the king and assembled states to 
 take oath to the new constitution without 
 delay. This proposition was received with 
 universal acclamations, and at the same time 
 all the members of the Diet threw themselves 
 spontaneously at the foot ol the throne, in 
 order to testify their respect for the majesty 
 of their chief. The king immediately called 
 the Bishop of Cracow, Turski, to take 
 oath ; having sworn, he descended from the 
 throne, directing his steps towards the church, 
 with him the Senate, the nuncios, dig- 
 nitaries, employes, the court, and an im- 
 mense crowd of people hurried towards the 
 Altar of the Most High, where the represen- 
 tatives of the nation solemnly took oath. 
 Hardly a dozen amongst them hesitated, 
 and remained in the hall, which was aban- 
 doned by every one. But even these gave 
 in their adhesion by a particular uct ; when 
 vol. i. c c
 
 290 APPENDIX. 
 
 in the sitting of the 5th of May, Joseph 
 Kossakovski, Bishop of Livonia, proposed 
 to pass the new constitution by a majority 
 of voices. Conformably to his request it 
 was three times put to the question (ad 
 Turnum), and three times sanctioned unan- 
 imously, without any voice being raised 
 against it. The joy and happiness of the 
 capital spread with rapidity throughout the 
 whole country. The hearts of all Poles were 
 filled with the most elevated sentiments at 
 the accomplishment of such a work, which 
 was to demonstrate to Europe, and the en- 
 tire world, that the Polish nation was able 
 to effect its political regenerationof its own 
 accord, that it perfectly understood its 
 rights and knew how to maintain and pre- 
 serve its liberty in harmony with the 
 monarchical principle, to which it seemed 
 inclined to render homage, for such was the 
 (•pinion of the moment.
 
 APPENDIX. 291 
 
 After a lapse of nine months since 
 the epoch of the proclamation, a period 
 devoted to mature examination of the 
 general opinion, the citizens united on 
 the 14th of February 1792, at the Dietines, 
 accepted everywhere unanimously the new 
 constitution and swore to defend it. 
 
 Hugh Kollontai, Vice Chancellor of the 
 Crown, and Ignatius Potocki, Marshal of the 
 Court of Lithuania, had contributed, the 
 most actively, not only to the drawing up 
 of this constitution, but also to influencing 
 opinion as much in the interior of the Diet 
 as with the public and also in directing the 
 execution of this great act.
 
 292 APPENDIX. 
 
 Government Charter \ 1791. 
 
 The constitutional charter known by the 
 name of constitution of the third of May 
 bore the title of fundamental law. According 
 to the dispositions of this law the Catholic 
 remains the religion of the state ; other forms of 
 worship are exercised freely, but the King must 
 be of the Roman Catholic faith. The throne 
 is considered hereditary. The nobles pre- 
 serve their ancient privileges and there exists 
 between them a perfect equality. The royal 
 towns are free and send their deputies to 
 participate in the deliberations of the Diet. 
 These deputies at the expiration of the 
 second year of their functions are ennobled, 
 The same favor is granted to the inferior 
 grades of the public service civil or military 
 enjoyed by the burghers.
 
 APPENDIX. 293 
 
 The agricultural class of peasants is taken 
 under the especial protection of the law, in 
 order that its individual liberty may be re- 
 spected and guaranteed against arbitrary 
 proceedings. The legislative power rests 
 with the two chambers of the Diet which 
 assembles every two years. At this period 
 it must assemble without being convened, 
 but it must also always be ready to assemble 
 wherever its marshal may convoke it in any 
 urgent cases pre-determined by law. The 
 chamber of deputies composed of landed 
 nunicos and deputies from the towns represents 
 all the national sovereignty. The laws whicli 
 are there deliberated upon and decreed pass 
 to the deliberation of the senatorial chamber, 
 composed of Bishops, palatines, Castellans, 
 and ministers at the head of whom is the king- 
 as president. The plurality of voices decides 
 everywhere. Certain laws are sanctioned by
 
 294 APPENDIX. 
 
 the united suffrage of both chambers. Thus 
 they conjointly decide. Others are sent to 
 be sanctioned by the senate who can stop 
 their promulgation until the votes of the 
 next Diet. In case of parity of suffrages the 
 king has the casting vote ; the executive 
 power confided to the King is divided into 
 administrations of national education, police 
 war, and treasury. There is for the King's 
 supreme executive power a council called 
 the law-guard (straz) composed of six min- 
 isters wherein the King presides and decides. 
 His decisions are there countersigned by 
 one of the ministers. The King possesses the 
 right of appointing senators for life, and 
 other dignitaries, employes and ministers, 
 without the power of removing them from 
 their functions, because they are responsible 
 to the nation. During the interval which 
 elapses between one diet and another,
 
 APPEHPIX. 295 
 
 the King, conjointly with his council, is 
 invested with the power of making tempo- 
 rary regulations and of concluding provi- 
 sional treaties. 
 
 The separate and independent judicial 
 authority is exercised by elective judges. 
 Territorial, justice belongs to the nobility. 
 The referendary jurisdiction for the pea- 
 santry and towns preserves its particular 
 administration of justice. The tribunals 
 of appeal for the nobility, and the assesso- 
 rial tribunals for the towns constitute the 
 supreme courts. State crimes and accused 
 ministers are judged by the High Court of the 
 Diet ; which High Court is permanently ap- 
 pointed between the sittings of the Diet. 
 The liberum veto and the confederations 
 arc suppressed for ever. Every live and 
 twenty years a revision and amelioration 
 of the constitution will be discussed in a
 
 296 APPENDIX. 
 
 Diet extraordinary convoked for this es- 
 pecial purpose. 
 
 The republican democracy restricted to the 
 noble masses experienced in its institutions 
 a great shock in the 17th and 18 th Cen- 
 turies. The sovereignity of the ennobled 
 masses had to struggle with monarchical 
 pretensions. Its principle of equality 
 with aristocralical exceptions, its spirit 
 of fraternity, with religious animosities 
 and intolerance, its independence with 
 foreign influence. Those institutions which 
 were guardians of liberty became disfigured. 
 The Rokosh, the veto, the confederations, 
 and even the Diets and the whole body of the 
 nobles lost their vigour, and saw escape from 
 their hands all the powerful instruments of 
 their sovereignity — cries were raised on all 
 sides against the monstrous situation of the
 
 APPENDIX. 297 
 
 republic, against the vices which tyrannized 
 over it. This state of things was deplored, 
 and preparations were laid made to remedy 
 the evil ; plans were down for this 
 object ; some wished to correct what 
 was bad, others to reform and sub- 
 stitute good for evil. To correct was to 
 support the republic and its institutions, 
 substitution of another order was to overturn 
 the republic and establish a monarchy in its 
 stead. Parties gathered in these two opinions 
 and each one approached more or less 
 towards its object without being able to 
 attain it. In the mean time all the springs 
 of the republic were loosened and distended. 
 During this perplexity the confederation 
 of Bar was formed, it had in the beginning 
 no other aim than the national independence 
 — but the confederates having taken refuge on 
 a foreign soil at Teschen and Eperies, watched 
 at a distance, the destinies of their country.
 
 298 APPENDIX. 
 
 with an attention which induced them to 
 reflect on its future organization. In the 
 hope of some day triumphing they formed 
 plans and discussed whether it was necessary 
 to correct only or to re-organize or transform. 
 For this end they sought the assistance and 
 councils of foreigners. Vielhorski repre- 
 sentative of the confederation in France, in 
 order to enlighten foreigners on the state of 
 his country's institutions, communicated to 
 several of them a picture of the Government 
 of Poland, and he asked in the name of the 
 confederates the advice of distinguished 
 writers, amongst others Mercier de la Riviere, 
 the Abbe Mably, and Jean, Jacques Rousseau, 
 wrote their reflections on the government of 
 Poland. The confederates having succumbed 
 these works remained in possession of the 
 Poles, and served them for guidance and 
 council. Two of these documents are
 
 APPENDIX. 299 
 
 peculiarly worthy of the notice of those 
 who investigate the question of Polish legis- 
 lation. Their writers have an immense in- 
 fluence on the destiny of Poland, their works 
 on its government became the point of de- 
 parture of the diverging opinions, which 
 were disputed in the national legislative as- 
 semblies, Jean Jacques Rousseau, author of 
 the social contract philosopher and writer, was 
 citizen of a small republic. The Abbe 
 Mably, a scrutinizing historian and writer, 
 the subject of a despotic monarchy. 
 They passed their opinions on the repub- 
 lican institutions and communicated their 
 observations and councils towards 1771, 
 at the request of Vielhorski. The philoso- 
 pher's diction is more energetic, animated 
 and concise, without regarding the person 
 of the Count Vielhorski whom he wishes 
 to obey, he analyses the subject and 
 discusses it. The Abbe Mably acquits him-
 
 300 APPENDIX. 
 
 self of his task more like a courtier. Full of 
 politeness, he addresses himself continually to 
 the Count what he has the honor to tell him, 
 and he takes the liberty of representing it to 
 him without avoiding numerous repetitions. 
 He is diffuse and, notwithstanding the interest 
 of his subject, feeble. They both agree that 
 Poland must remain a republic and become 
 consolidated into an aristocratical republic. 
 They both wish to restrain the royal authority 
 which appears to be too preponderating in 
 Poland, and establish the election of Senators. 
 They both pray for the enfranchisment of 
 the humiliated people — at the same time they 
 allege, as an excuse of any imperfection in 
 their view, an insufficient knowledge of the 
 country. 
 
 The republican of Geneva admiring the 
 grandeur of the curious spectacle which 
 presents itself to him of the reflection of old 
 ideas on such a gigantic scale, admiring the
 
 APPENDIX. 301 
 
 depth of thought of institutions adapted 
 his theory of the social contract, he remarks 
 a few imperfections in the details, and 
 seeks to maintain and ameliorate these in- 
 stitutions, and to animate and inforce energy 
 into their actions. The other finding a re- 
 public will not derogate from its existence ; 
 he however sees all the vices of its insti- 
 tutions, and is continually attacking its per- 
 nicious laws, customs, and prejudices. He 
 discusses, combats, and traces by gradual and 
 easy steps a plan of general amelioration. He 
 shows transitory means, he invents plans 
 which are to produce a radical metamor- 
 phosis, and saps the national basis in order 
 to remodel and organize a representative 
 mornarchy. 
 
 The writer, Mably, establishes an here- 
 ditary throne, wishes absolutely to divide the 
 powers and to centralize the motion of tho 
 
 VOL. I. 1) D
 
 302 AFfENDIX. 
 
 machine. He abrogates the veto, abolishes the 
 confederation, reduces to silence the anti- 
 comitial Dietines, and seeks to dispel dis- 
 sension, and to repress the passions. The 
 republican philosopher, on the contrary, likes 
 liberty, incompatible with rest. He maintains 
 the election of chief of the state, he wishes to 
 organize and strengthen the confederations, 
 he seeks to utilize the veto, he is inclined to 
 decentralize the administration, he neither 
 fears what is called anarchy nor the 
 result of passions to which he deems that 
 useful direction may be given. The Abbe 
 conceals a rigid morality under a very un- 
 assuming form, but he is inconstant and 
 without fixedness in his political conceptions 
 —bitter against political crimes he endea- 
 vours to silence the wicked without thinking 
 of the consequent loss of that liberty which 
 he so highly prizes, The philosopher, full of
 
 APPENDIX. 303 
 
 vice and incontinence cherishes the human 
 species, rejoices at its flexibility, admires its 
 elevated sentiments, and leaves free scope to 
 human passion, good and evil, thereby to 
 ensure that liberty of which he is enamoured. 
 The Abbe, organizing the machine ac- 
 cording to his own doctrine, desires to have 
 good inns for travellers, a flourishing com- 
 merce, he investigates the diplomatic relations 
 of the day, and arranges the external affairs. 
 Rousseau dissuades from having strong places 
 which are the nests of tyrants, is pleased 
 with national rusticity and descends to the 
 elements of primary education, morals, and 
 the appreciations of the springs of civic 
 action. The first speaks with coolness and 
 reflective, the other with a warm and 
 courageous heart ; the first subjugates the 
 man to the law, the second makes his virtue 
 act.
 
 304 APPENDIX. 
 
 Jean Jacques Rousseau advised only to 
 correct, Mably to transform. Unfortunately 
 Poland was too much disposed to this latter 
 measure. The voice of the philosopher, the 
 love of old institutions did not suffice any 
 longer to calm the fear which caused, 
 and noihing but the march of events since 
 the fall of the confederation of Bar has 
 better proved the assertion, " that the Poles 
 will reject with indignation a law which in 
 ten or twelve years they will receive with 
 acclamations, if their prejudices are respected, 
 if they are conducted with prudence, and 
 encouraged not to fear, but rather seek the 
 truth" (Mably t 10). After twenty years 
 (1771-1791), the abuse of vain precept 
 gaining possession of the minds of the 
 creators of the constitution of the third of 
 May, gained the upper hand and seduced 
 the whole nation which abjured its belief
 
 APPENDIX. 305 
 
 and vigour before the new forms which were 
 to save the existence of the country. The 
 two foreign writers who had been consulted 
 on the subject were not living when 
 the constitution of the 3rd of May was 
 decreed. In more modern times (1787), 
 Bentham went through Poland, and was 
 flattered at being also consulted on the ques- 
 tion of national legislation j I do not know 
 what his advice was — or whether it was fol- 
 lowed — whether he was satisfied with the 
 results which the said constitution offered. 
 Perhaps if he had lived the Abbe Mably 
 might have approved its composition 
 — perhaps he might have considered it a 
 transitory model, useful to ulterior reforms ; 
 under this point of view at least this model 
 found admirers and apolugists. " Of all 
 the constitutions established since fifty years, 
 this is, with the exception of the North
 
 306 APPENDIX. 
 
 American the oldest ; faults would therefore 
 be more excusable," said Reumer, professor 
 of the university of Berlin in 1830, " than 
 in those cases where a long experience have 
 been afforded, more favourable circumstances, 
 or where peop.e were more advanced in 
 civilization. T'hat glory is it not therefore 
 for the Poles to have been able to extricate 
 themselves fron the most unfavourable and 
 horrible position, to the remedying which, 
 the adoption of the most desperate means 
 would have demanded our indulgence, to 
 have known how to give itself a consti- 
 tution in which, more than in any more 
 recent essay, the true principles of reason 
 and political science appeared to be realized, 
 by reconciliating the past, present, and 
 future/' 
 
 The moderate men of that epoch rendered 
 homage to that legislative work, the cele-
 
 APPENDIX. 307 
 
 brated orator of Great Britain, Burke said, 
 on this subject, " Humanity may rejoice and 
 glorify itself when it considers the change 
 which has taken place in Poland. Nothing 
 is mean in it. This change is of so high a 
 nature that it will prove the greatest and 
 most noble boon ever granted to the human 
 species. We have seen the throne strength- 
 ened by the love of the nation without of- 
 fending liberty," — and he proceeds to give 
 his approbation in detail. 
 
 Fox called the constitution of the third 
 of May a work which all the friends of 
 rasonable liberty ought to regard with sincere 
 attachment. The Prussian ex-minister Ilert- 
 zerg in a treatise which he read to the Berlin 
 academy the sixth of October, 17.00, praises 
 its wisdom. Volney in his Ruins felicitates, 
 with good faith Poland, with being the only 
 eastern country which on the thirty-first of
 
 308 APPENDIX. 
 
 May escaped from the reproaches consequent 
 on the incorrigible oppression under which 
 the peasantry groan. The merits of this 
 constitution were of less importance in the. 
 eyes of other observers. Thomas Payne, 
 considering the Polish constitution as an 
 insignificant act, admits that the Polish 
 government and citizens wished to give an 
 example of reform made of themselves by 
 themselves. Other orators and writers, whose 
 sweeping ideas demanded a radical trans- 
 formation of the social state, were "violently 
 incensed against the Polish legislation. Those 
 of France in particular, then shaking the whole 
 fabric of society, and operating in their own 
 country that enormous change, the result, 
 nor ulterior consequences, of which they 
 could neither calculate nor foresee, severely 
 reproved this movement of moderation and 
 concession. A member of the convention,
 
 AITENDIX. 309 
 
 Garrande Coulon, Recherches Politiques, son 
 la Pol. v. J 4. saw only, in 1793, in Mably's 
 work on the government of Poland, miser- 
 able projects of repairing an edifice, de- 
 fective in its foundations, which will cer- 
 tainly cover with its ruins the short-sighted 
 architects who shall undertake to repair it. 
 After all he says the system of the Abbe 
 Mably was not better calculated for the 
 nobles themselves than for the Polish 
 people, and what he says of Mably's work 
 relates to the constitution of 1791, which 
 has principally adopted these bases. This 
 diversity of opinion depended on the views 
 taken of the constitution by these writers, 
 and it may be remarked that they formed 
 their judgment according as they sought 
 the completeness in the rude and sudden 
 amelioration of the social state of the whole 
 population, or the best mode of rcforma-
 
 310 APPENDIX. 
 
 tion. None of them have considered the 
 principles they were about to establish 
 relatively to those they were about to 
 abrogate, certainly the constitution of 1791, 
 relatively to the social state, presents only 
 narrow issues, distant expectations, and 
 vague promises ; on other subjects it is more 
 explicit and well merits closer examination. 
 Macintosh admired the quiet and majestic 
 reform of the government. In fact it is 
 almost impossible to find anything similar 
 in the annals of the world. This grave, 
 and long-matured step in which the whole 
 nation participated with a unanimity and 
 conviction proof against everything — this 
 dexterity of the framers of the constitution 
 in directing the national conscience are as- 
 suredly so imposingly extraordinary, that it 
 is impossible not to be astonished — not to 
 bow one's own conceptions before this major
 
 APPENDIX. 311 
 
 force which directs toward a common end 
 the whole nation, its Diet, Dietines, writers, 
 legislators, and all its classes. A more 
 rigorous investigation indeed may perhaps 
 serve to shew us that this general assent of 
 the nation is derived rather from resigna- 
 tion. One is, however, moved at the sight 
 of so many sacrifices, so much grandeur, 
 and disposed to excuse and pity the errors 
 into which they fell. 
 
 It is always with a feeling of pain that I 
 contemplate this deviation from the ancientf 
 principle which the nation and the represen- 
 tatives sanctioned by their supreme will. 
 For it is a fact that the republic was 
 metamorphosed into a mornarchy, they 
 made the republican institutions subordinate 
 to dynastic dominations. " An hereditary 
 throne and liberty for the nation are incom- 
 patibilities," cried the philosopher in warn-
 
 312 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing the Poles of their danger. Many argu- 
 ments were, however, exhausted at this 
 epoch, many sophisms circulated to sap the 
 foundations of this high maxim. The dan- 
 gers of disturbances, and of foreign influence 
 at the elections was the argument which to 
 the reason of the nation appealed most for- 
 cibly ; as if the annals of the world of all 
 periods did not offer a picture of greater 
 calamities, and disorders of longer duration, 
 on the occasion of dynastic quarrels which 
 are perpetuated from generation to gene- 
 ration. 
 
 end of vol. i.
 
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