1855 1855 sons; we complain that all situations in the government and administration of our own country are filled by foreigners many of them ignorant of our language all of them disgusting to our habits. Above all, we complain of the administration of Justice." individual glory. She did great acts, but drag on a sickly unremunerating existence. produced few great men. Her jealousy We complain that no career is open to our seems to have forced her heroes to aim at obscurity rather than distinction. But the people were happy and contented under her sway; even the towns of the Terra Firma, though they were in what has generally been thought a painful situation, subjected to a distant aristocracy, cherish affectionately the remembrance of her empire. Venice allowed them to manage their own affairs under a podesta, whom she sent to them, every year. She taxed them lightly, she protected them; in fact, she treated them as you treat your colonies. When Austria goes she will leave no such recollections." ""And what," I said, "are your principal complaints against Austria ?" "I thought," I said, "that the adminstration of Justice in the Austrian dominions had been pure, though severe." "It is not pure, "said Manin, nor is it possible that it should be so, while the salaries paid to those who administer it are so miserable, that they cannot live on them; and even if it were purely applied, the law itself is intolerable. In all criminal cases the old German procedure by inquisition is "Our principal complaint," answered adopted,-a procedure of which you know Manin, "is, that the Austrians are Germans, nothing except what you read of in the reand that the Venetians are Italians, and that cords of the Holy Inquisition,-a tribunal these races are separated by absolute anti- which has suffered unmerited obloquy as pathy. We think them our inferiors in in- the inventor of a system which, in fact, telligence, our inferiors in morality, our existed long before it, and has long survived inferiors in civilization, our inferiors even in it. Under this system a man is tried in his courage; in short, in everything but mere absence; he does not know what is the brute force. We despise them as much as the English despise the Irish, and if you were governed by the Irish you would hate them as we hate the Austrians. We feel, too, that their seizure of us was a mere robbery: such a robbery as is committed by a slave-trader who buys a kidnapped negro. Austria never conquered us; Austria never had any quarrel with us. Austria has no right over us. France thought fit to seize us, simply because she was strong, and we were weak: she did not want to keep us, and so sold us to Austria. It was a mere gold-coast transaction. charge against him, he does not know who is his accuser, or who are the witnesses; all that the Court tell him is, that he must be aware of his guilt, and that he had better confess. To have obtained a confession is the triumph of an Austrian judge, and every means of moral torture, and the physical tortures of years of imprisonment, insufficient food, and sometimes blows, are habitually employed to force one out. As to civil justice, the intricacies are innumerable, the delays, and the expense never ending; the evidence is all written; the judge, a mere German, seldom understands it, often "This is the foundation of our objection to does not read it; and a suit, after lasting for Austrian rule. If I am to go into particu-years, generally ends by both parties being lars, we complain of a heavy conscription, wearied into a compromise." which takes away every year the best of our "It is remarkable," said N., " that Auspeasants, to waste their youth under a Ger- tria has always been anxious to employ man sky, in a German uniform, and under Italians in Germany and Germans in Italy, a German cane. We complain of a heavy with about equal detriment to the people in taxation, to be devoted to purposes with each case." which we have no concern. The public revenue of a free country, or rather of an independent country, is merely a portion of "What we preferred," answered Manin, each man's income employed by the Gov-" was to be an independent republic, in conernment for the good of all. The 100 mil- federation with the other Italian states. lions which Lombardy and Venetia send What we would have accepted was to be every year to Vienna, go to pay and feed come a portion of one great kingdom, comthe 400,000 men who are keeping down prising all Italy. If Charles Albert had Hungary and Galicia. The town of Venice come forward disinterestedly, if he had not is a free port, but the Terra Firma com- made a selfish war for the aggrandizement plains that its commerce is interrupted, and of Piedmont, if he had proposed nothing its consumption kept down by prohibitory more than the driving the barbarian out of duties, imposed to enable a few miserable Italy, leaving the Italians to settle their own Bohemian and Tyrolese manufacturers to affairs, I even now think that we might have ""What," I asked, "was the real object of the Venetian insurrection?" ""Why," I said, "of republics? Why not some monarchies ?" succeeded. But my hopes faded as soon as I not "Because," he answered, "monarchs would not submit to the diet." he proposed to incorporate Milan. The "Lombardy," said N., "would have been a troublesome acquisition to Piedmont. When I left Milan a few weeks ago, the general opinion was, that, if the Austrian garrison were withdrawn, neither property nor person would be safe. The lower population of all the towns is furiously socialist, and the Bourgeoisie is republican." "What are the country people?" I said. "The country people," he answered, " are indifferent; they have been so long under foreign domination that they have lost all nationality. During the few months that Lombardy was annexed to Piedmont, they did not seem to feel that they had an Italian sovereign, or had become a portion of an Italian kingdom: they inquired principally whether the taxes would be increased or diminished, and, so far as they felt at all about the matter, felt degraded at having become as they thought, the subjects of their little neighbour Piedmont, instead of the great Austrian empire. Radetski was much better supplied by them with provisions and information than Charles Albert was." "I am quite ready," I said, " to tolerate them. The experience of the last six years shews them to be safer members of the community of nations than monarchies, at least absolute monarchies, are. But what do you do with Savoy?" ""Give it to France," he answered, "to which it belongs by language and position." "What do you do with Sicily?" ""Not let you have it," he replied. "We cannot afford to lose a foot of real Italian soil. We cannot allow any exception from the Italian unity on which our whole system reposes. Sicily will be a republic, unconnected with Naples, except as a co-confederate." ""What is to become of the Roman states?" ""A republic," he answered, "for which they are eminently fitted. They have old traditions, municipal habits, and no royal family." "What is the Pope to be?" "Bishop of Rome," he answered, "and as such, a better and more independent head of the Church, than as a secular prince." "Where would you put your capital?" ""I would build one-an Eastern Washington. I do not wish the seat of the federal government to be in a city exposed to local influences and dangers. A town or a large village, capable of accommodating the diet and the foreign ministers, is all that is wanted." Early in February, while the war was still a matter of conjecture, the traveller met the Polish General Chrzanowski, whose name we shall in future write, as it is pronounced, ""There appear to me," said Manin, "to When it fell a victim to its own defects, and to the treachery of Ramorino, Shanowski retired to Paris, where the traveller found him. We extract the report of their first interview the reader will perceive that we go back about three months: 'February 13. dom of Poland. He had attained the rank | generals, and, indeed, the greater part of the of major in that army when the insurrection officers, were divided into hostile factions, on the accession of Nicholas broke out. Absolutists, Rouges, Constitutional Liberals, About one hundred officers belonging to and even Austrians, for at that time, in the the staff of the properly Russian army exaggerated terror occasioned by the revoluwere implicated, or supposed to be impli- tions of 1848, Austria and Russia were looked cated, in that insurrection, and were dis- up to by the greater part of the noblesse of missed, and their places were supplied from the Continent as the supporters of order the army of the kingdom of Poland. Among against Mazzini, Kossuth, Ledru Rollin, and those so transferred to the Russian army was Palmerston. The Absolutists and the AusShanowski. He was attached to the staff of trians made common cause, whereas the Wittgenstein, and afterwards of Marshal Rouges or Mazzinists were bitterest against Diebitsch in the Turkish campaigns of 1828 the Constitutional Liberals. Such an army, and 1829. In 1830, he took part with his even if there had been no treason, could not countrymen in the insurrection against the have withstood a disciplined enemy. Muscovites, and quitted Poland, when it was finally absorbed in the Russian Empire. A few years after a quarrel was brewing between England and Russia. Muscovite agents were stirring up Persia and Affghanistan against us, and it was thought that we might have to oppose them on the shores of the Black Sea. Shanowski was attached to the British Embassy at Constantinople, and was employed for some years in ascertain- 'I dined with Count Z., and sat next to ing what assistance Turkey, both in Europe General Shanowski. All the company, exand in Asia, could afford to us. In 1849, he cept myself and another Englishman, were was selected by Charles Albert to command Poles. The conversation turned on the the army of the kingdom of Sardinia. European armies, almost all of which GeneThat army was constituted on the Prus-ral Shanowski has had an opportunity of stusian system, which makes every man serve, and no man a soldier,- a system which will expose every country that adopts it to defeat by a regular army. It was in fact a militia. The men were enlisted for only fourteen months; at the end of that time they were sent home, and were recalled when they were wanted, having forgotten their military training, and acquired the habits of cottiers and artisans. They had scarcely any officers, or even any sous-officiers, that knew anything of their business. The drill-serjeants required to be drilled. Four-fifths of the men with whom Charles Albert marched on Milan in 1848, and perhaps a larger proportion of his troops in 1849, were married men with families, who had not carried a musket for years, and had not seen fire in their lives. They did well enough when they were advancing; but at the first check they lost heart: and when they had to retreat through their own country they disbanded and took refuge with their families or friends. Other circumstances were unfavourable to discipline. The Turin Radicals told the privates that "None, he answered, "on a great scale. their officers owed their rank to the accidents Luders is their best: I would trust him with of birth, which was not quite true, since a 30,000 or 40,000 men, but not with more. man cannot rise in the Piedmontese army Their regimental officers are ignorant and without professional knowledge, but it was bad. The men are good, the best, perhaps, plausible, and there did not exist between the in the world, after the French, the English, officers and men the confidence which is pro- and the Turks." duced by having long served together. The dying. "What is your estimate," I said, "of the Austrian army?" "The officers," he answered, "are excellent, perhaps the best in Europe. Like yours, they are gentlemen. They have the spirit and the influence which belongs to gentlemen, and they know their duties, which is not the case always with yours. The men are strong and well trained, but they hate the service. They are not volunteers like yours, or conscripts like the French. Each commune has to furnish a certain number of men. The Government officers select them arbitrarily. Those who are chosen feel oppressed, and never have the good will of a volunteer, who has taken to the army as a profession, or of a conscript, who is paying his debt to his country. "The generals are good. Hesse is fit to command 200,000 men, and I know of no one else in Europe who is so." "Have the Russians any good generals ?" I asked. ""Do you put the Turks so high?" I asked. ""I put them," he answered, "at the very | sians are striving to absorb them, and might top. Not the officers, still less the generals, be roused to assert their separate nationalibut the privates have every soldierly qua- ties. The conduct of the Russian Governlity. The Turk is strong, he is docile, he ment towards its neighbours has always is sober, he is intelligent, he has a contempt been such as to excite deadly and permanent for life which is both fatalist and fanatic, hatred. It has always striven to make them and he can live on nothing. When their poor, and miserable, and divided, in order military organization was at its best, two to make them weak. Her conquest of centuries ago, no European armies could them has generally been the last act of censtand against them. But their officers are turies of injury and treachery. The Great detestable, ignorant, conceited, idle, and cor- Russians themselves are in a state of disrupt. The very best people that I know content. The persecution of the Dissenters, are the Turks of the lower orders. The that is of two-thirds of the people, which very worst people that I know are the began under Alexander, has now become Turks in office. Power is gained and pre- constant and irritating. The Clergy, of all served there by bribery, treachery, and ex- opinions, have been disgusted by the extentortion. Every man in authority is a rogue. sion of the conscription to their sons, who If you ally yourselves to Turkey, against until the present reign were exempt from it. Russia, and place any reliance on a Turkish The peasantry were excited by the Ukase of corps d'armée, with Turkish officers and a 1842, which abolished serfage, and made Turkish commander, you will be disappoint- indignant by the explanation of it, published ed. Train and officer them as you did the only three days after, which virtually rePortuguese, and you will make them the pealed the Ukase, and has retained them in best troops in Europe: as good as your servitude. The middle classes are anxious own-perhaps better. But I never should to throw off the tyranny of the Government feel comfortable in action if knew that agents, and the aristocracy to throw off that any important part of my line was held by of the Emperor. a purely Turkish force, however strong the ""But nothing is to be done, until the post or numerous the force. I should be prestige of the Emperor has been destroyed constantly expecting to see the officers run- by a succession of defeats. Taking Sebasning and the men following them. But to topol and taking Cronstadt will be good Turks, as privates, and to Englishmen, as offi- beginnings, but their first effects will be cers, I would intrust the key of my position." only to irritate. Russia will fight as long ""If the war once breaks out," he added, she can stand. You must break her army 66 you are much mistaken if you think that before you can pull her to pieces." you will end it by destroying the Russian fleets and arsenals, or even by occupying the Crimea. It will be a war in which Russia will not yield while she can fight. The "Certainly I do," he answered. old Russian party, which is now in power, Little Russians are probably of the same and possesses with the Emperor the greater stock as the Great Russians, but they are part of the wealth of the country, will con- dissenters in religion and hostile in feeling. tribute their serfs and their money, and They acknowledge the Patriarch of Constankeep on the struggle as long as the Empire tinople, and consider Nicholas an anti-Christ. holds together. There are villages in which half the popula"It is only by breaking the force of tion are Muscovites, the other half Little Russia that you can finish such a war, and Russians; they never meet if they can you can break her force only by destroying avoid it; the drinking houses frequented by her coherence. Of the 80 millions that one party are never entered by those who form her European and Asiatic population, belong to the other. Not one-fourth indeed not above 20-that is to say the Great Rus of the Russian people, even in Europe, is of sians are truly Russian in feeling. The the faith which acknowledges the Emperor Great Russians are a formidable people, as the head of the Church and calls itself proud, vain, ambitious, bold, unscrupulous, Orthodox. All the others hold his usurpaand self-devoted. Nature and education tion of this character an abomination." have formed and trained them for war and ""Are the Cossacks disaffected ?" I said. conquest, but they are comparatively few. "Deeply so," he answered. "The The Tartars, the Cossacks, the Little Rus- growth of the Empire has been too rapid, sians, the Poles, and the Fins, who are and its administration is too oppressive, and three times as numerous as the Great Rus- too corrupt to allow its parts to be coherent. sians, all hate the system of assimilation But it will take three years of unsuccessful and centralization by which the Great Rus-war to break it up." "You make a marked distinction," I said, "between the Great Russians and the Little Russians." "The "There was some general conversation | more enemies than friends. You must give about the results of the war. us a foreigner: and, unless you give us back ""Of course," said the Poles, "you are our old royal family of Saxony, he must be not going to incur all this expense and dan- an Englishman or a Frenchman. We are ger, and to leave Russia as strong as you jealous of the Germans, and we despise all found her, ready to make a second aggres- the weaker nations. We should be ashamed sion as soon as she sees a second opportu- to be governed by a Spaniard, or an Italian, nity. You must make the Crimea an Eng- or a Belgian, and not be proud of a Dutchlish colony." man, or a Dane, or a Swede; but we would willingly take our king from France or from England." I "Even if we wanted more colonies," said, "the Crimea, without the whole of the Straits of the Dardanelles and of the Bosporus, would be a prison.' "Then," they said, "you must join it to Poland. The Turks could not defend it." "To Poland ?" I said. "I have reason to believe," said Shanowski, "that Austria is thinking seriously of the resuscitation of Poland. Ever since she joined in destroying that barrier, she has felt Russia pressing more and more "Yes," they answered; "of course, Po- heavily on her. It is said, too, that the reland must be reconstructed. You cannot construction of Poland is one of the threats leave the bulk of it Russian, if you seri- held out by Russia to Prussia. It is pos ously mean to destroy Russia's preponder- sible that both Austria and Russia feel that ance. You cannot divide it between Austria their Polish provinces are now sources of and Prussia. We had rather side with danger and weakness, and that either of Russia than endure a fourth partition. You them will make a good exchange, if she must re-unite us, and we shall form a barrier behind which Europe will be safe for ages. "But how," I said, "are we to beat Russia, if we make Austria and Prussia our enemies ?" "It is easy," they said, "to idemnify Austria. You could transfer to her the protectorate over Servia, Bosnia, Wallachia, and Moldavia; or you might give to her, instead of to Poland, Bessarabia and the Crimea. She would have access to the Crimea by the Danube." "What," I said, "is to be done to reconcile Prussia ??? can substitute for them a separate kingdom, owing to her its existence, and relying on her for support. The advantage of such a move would, of course, rest with the sovereign that began it. A quasi-independent Poland, created by Russia out of her own, the Prussian, and the Austian Polish dominions, and governed by her nominee, would be more valuable to her, and more dangerous to the German powers, than even her possession of the Principalities. Such a kingdom created out of the same materials, but by Austria and Prussia, would weaken Russia more than any injury that we can inflict on her in the south." ""She must have Saxony," they answered. "I am inclined to think," said the Eng"The Saxons will be glad to become a part lish guest, "that, if I were a Pole, instead of a powerful monarchy, to be reunited to of struggling for an independent nationality, the Saxon provinces taken from them by which would probably be as difficult to keep the Congress of Vienna, and to exchange as it is to get, I should try to make the best their Roman Catholic royal family for a of the government to which I was subjected Protestant one; and you might provide for educate my children in Berlin if I bethe house of Saxony by giving to them the longed to Posen, or in Vienna if I were a new kingdom of Poland. They have al- Galician; imitate, in short, the people of ready ruled over Poland. It would be only Alsace and Lorraine, who, though they are a restoration." Germans by race, by history, and by language, are French in feeling. ""If," I said, "we reconstruct Poland, what do you propose as its limits ?" W. answered, "That that might be well, Precisely the limits," they answered, if the Austrians treated Galicia as the French "such as they were before the first parti- treated Alsace. But what would you do," tion. All that is within that frontier still he said, "if you lived under a government remains Polish in recollections and feelings. which was your enemy? If the very instituYou must give them a king and a consti- tion which is supposed to assist you, and to tution; but beware how you consult the raise you, directed all its efforts to weaken and Poles as to either. They will be acquiesced to depress you? If it ground you by excessive in if they are imposed by an external force; but we could not agree on them. Beware, too, how you select a Pole for our king. There is no great family that has not far taxation, and denied you the protection for which taxes are paid? If it strove to break the peace instead of keeping it? If it armed the tenant against the landlord, the rural |