were taken for the spread of education among the mass of the Polish people, together with the guaranty of rights to every Pole, which this constitution contemplated, would have made Poland one of the first countries in Europe. Surrounded by difficulties which their enemies were continually raising, the Poles never slackened their efforts to devise means to keep up their nationality, their literature, and the spirit of improvement; and they have been so eminently successful that they in consequence drew upon themselves greater persecutions from their oppressors. As an instance of liberality and enlightened policy on the part of the Poles, we must mention the fact that in 1818, the Lithuanian nobles asked the Emperor Alexander to give perfect freedom to their peasantry, stating that they were willing to waive their own prerogatives. They received a delusive hope for an answer from this Emperor. And when the same request was repeated by the Polish nobility at the Congress of Laybach, they were plainly refused, and forbidden to mention the subject again. Facts like these are sufficient proofs of the progress the Poles have made; and yet their enemies would persuade the world that they do not deserve freedom! Is there a country whose nobility are or ever have been willing to divest themselves of their prerogatives in favor of the lower orders of society? Why should then the Poles be judged by a more elevated standard of morality than other nations in their minor faults, when not only they are not in this respect inferior to others, but they set an example of such lofty virtues? Previous to the revolutions that took place in Europe, in 1830, the confidence in purely democratic institutions was not established in the convictions of many of the most liberal minds, and the talent displayed by the writers upon the constitutional monarchical form of government, contributed much to the mistrust. The best of men hesitated to trust themselves to the rule of democracy, (as was evinced in the French Revolution of the Three Days,) believing that a Constitutional Monarchy would prepare the mass of the people by degrees for a more enlarged freedom. Plausible as the argument may seem, it is futile, nevertheless; sad experience has taught us that much. To expect that a king willingly will take measures to prepare a nation for self-government is preposterous: the best of kings will be but a Citizen-King-a deceiver. Power is the god of kings, and double-dealing and treachery, under the name of expediency, their religion; honest and simple. hearted people, therefore, should not trust them. Civilized nations have already reached the period when they should be left to go alone, without such tutors. People must be trusted with power before they can learn to use it. Europe was in this state of hesitation and mistrust of popular institutions at the time of the Polish Revolution of 1830, which, in consequence, partook of the same undecided character. Although during that Revolution there were partisans of a constitutional monarchy, and of a pure democracy, yet the subject of a form of government did not much occupy the attention of the Poles; because their first and all-important aim was to secure the independence of the country, afte the accomplishment of which they would have had more leisure to decide upon the form of a permanent government to be adopted. The unfortunate termination of that Revolution prevented the discussion of the question by the people in their political capacity; but, as individuals, the Poles in silence have reflected upon the subject, and have expressed their opinion in the pending insurrection. The Poles, to the number of at least fifteen thousand, who, in consequence of the Revolution of 1830, found themselves under the necessity of seeking an asylum in foreign countries, have become abroad the organ of their oppressed countrymen at home, and they have taken up the question of the form of government, agitating it all the while, and not without success. The Polish exiles, among whom there are some of the first names of their land, and whose centre of action is France, divided themselves upon the question of the form of government into two parties: one being in favor of a limited monarchy, and the other of a pure democracy; hence they go by the name of Aristocrats and Democrats. It is not to be inferred that one party has more patriotism than the other, because they do not agree on this question; they differ, because some of them believe that only a limited monarchy can save their country, while others see her salvation only in pure democracy. It is very natural, that among such a number of men, there should be found some who are timid, pusillanimous, sticklers to precedents and traditions, and they, though honest, would favor monarchical power in some form; they would be Aristocrats. Those, however, who are hold and frank, hating the tortuous ways of sceptred rulers, would, naturally enough, rather trust the good sense, however inexperienced, of the mass of the people, and be Democrats. : The Polish exiles, agreeing in their aim the restoration of Poland-have been using all the means they could com mand for the purpose; and thus the interest of the Polish cause, as well as that of freedom in general, was watched over and promoted their voice was heard by civilized nations and responded to, although the organs of despots never ceased to abuse, misrepresent and endeavor to overpower them. By their reprints of valuable books of their language, they essayed to make up, in a measure, for the loss the Polish literature has suffered at the hands of the Northern autocrat; by their writings in foreign tongues, they aimed at an exposition of the history of their country to other nations; by their political discussions among themselves, they tried to solve the difficult problem of the future of Poland. Thus they have been toiling in the midst of the persecutions of power, lukewarmness of friends, and of hardships incident to the life of an exile, full of hope that time will crown their efforts with success. They have not been entirely mistaken; the pending Polish insurrection is the best commentary upon the success of their labors. Whatever may be the issue of the present insurrection, it has determined one point, viz., that the Polish nation has made immense strides in advance, and will not, and cannot fall back; that she feels the power of her own arm, and the courage of her heart to defy, at once, all her despoilers. With a conviction of the justice of her cause in her breast, confidence in her own arm, and immovable resolution to run all hazards and sacrifices without flinching, she will sooner or later gain her independence. The character of this Polish insurrection is seen from the Manifesto of the Provisional Government, a translation of which from the original we here subjoin, as a satisfactory proof of the progress of the Poles, and a sure guaranty of their ultimate success. MANIFESTO OF THE NATIONAL GOVERN MENT OF THE POLISH COMMONWEALTH, TO THE POLISH NATION. "Poles, the hour of insurrection has struck. The whole of mutilated Poland is rising and growing great. Already our brothers of the Grand Duchy of Posen, of Russian Poland and Lithuania have risen, and are fighting against the enemy. They from them by force and fraud. You know are fighting for their sacred rights taken what has passed and is continually passing. The flower of our youth are languishing in dungeons. Our aged sires, whose counsels sustained us, are treated with contempt. Our clergy are deprived of all respect; in a word, all who have thirsted by act, or even in thought, to live or die for Poland, have been destroyed, or immured in prison, or are in danger of being so at every moment. The groans of millions of our brethren, who are perishing under the knout, or wasting in subterranean cells, who are driven into the ranks of the soldiery of our oppressors, submitting to all the suffering of which humanity is capable of enduring, have deeply struck and moved our hearts. They have taken away our glory, prohibited our language, interdicted the profession of the faith of our fathers. Insurmountable ration of our social condition; brother has barriers have been opposed to the ameliobeen armed against brother, and the most honorable men of the country have been calumniated and persecuted. Brothers! Chil one step more, and Poland exists no longer, nor a Pole is to be found there. Our grandchildren will curse our memory for having left them nothing, in one of the finest countries of the world, but deserts and ruins; for having allowed chains to forced to profess a foreign faith, to speak a be put on our warlike nation, and to be strange language, and for having permitted them to be reduced to be slaves of our oppressors. The ashes of our fathers, martyred for the rights of our nation, call to us from the tomb to avenge them. dren at the breast implore us to preserve for them the country that God has confided to us. The free nations of the entire world invite us to resist the destruction of our nationality. God himself invites usGod, who will one day demand an account lions! Let us rise as one man, and no of our stewardship. We are twenty milforce on the earth can crush our power. We shall enjoy such liberty as has never been known on this earth. Let us endeavor to conquer such a social condition, in which each shall enjoy his share of the fruits of the earth according to his merit and his capacity, and in which there will be no more privileges under any disguise; where each Pole shall find full security for himself, his wife, his children; and where he body, shall find without humiliation, the inwho is made inferior by nature, in mind or fallible aid of the community; where property in land now possessed conditionally by the peasantry, shall become theirs by ab 、 solute right. All forced labors, and other burdens cease without indemnification, and those who shall devote themselves in arms to the cause of their country shall receive a compensation from the national estates. Poles! from this moment we acknowledge no distinctions. Let us henceforward be the and thus give a new impulse to a farther development of the principle of liberty in Europe; for the voice of a nation, however feeble, is never lost whenever heard terance of liberal views by the Poles, in the cause of justice and truth. This utwhile showing conclusively the total inability of power to check the spirit of freedom with its most stringent measures, demonstrates the indomitable courage and perseverance with which the Poles are working in order to attain the independence of their country. sons of one mother, Poland-of one father, God, who is in heaven. Let us invoke his support; he will bless our arms, and give us victory; but, in order to draw down his blessings, we must not sully ourselves by the vice of drunkenness or plunder. Let us not soil the arms raised in a holy cause by outrages and murders committed upon The indefatigable spirit of this people Dissidents and defenceless foreigners; for working to the same end, is also seen in we do not struggle against nations, but their literature, as it will be made appaagainst our oppressors. In token of unity, let us mount the national cockade, and rent from the testimony of a writer in one take the following oath: I swear to serve of the numbers of the Foreign Quarterly Poland, my country, by counsel, word and Review: "The language and literature action. I swear to sacrifice to her my of Poland," says the writer, "have adpersonal ambition, my fortune and my life. vanced to their present degree of perfecI swear absolute obedience to the national tion, in equal ratio with the increasing government, which has been established at misfortunes of the country, during the Cracow, the 22d of this month, at eight last fifty years. This phenomenon is so o'clock in the evening, in the house under extraordinary, that it deserves a serious the name of Krystofory, and to all the authorities instituted by the same governconsideration of every reflecting mind. What, indeed, should seem more unfament. And may God help me to keep this yow. This manifesto shall be published Vorable to the progress of a nation's lanin the journal of the government, and in guage, than its political annihilation, and the supplementary sheets sent throughout the incorporation of its dismembered proPoland, and shall be proclaimed from the vinces with several foreign States, each pulpits of all the churches, and in all the respectively intent on destroying every parishes by placards in public places." vestige of its former nationality? Yet it (Signed,) is a fact, that Polish literature is actually now reaching its zenith, and at no former period could Poland ever boast of more distinguished men in every department of science, learning and political emi LOUIS GORZKOWSKI. From this document it will be perceived that the Polish nobility are willing to waive their prerogatives in favor of the lower orders, and remove all the burdens that time and their enemies have forced upon the peasantry, giving them in fee simple the land which they hitherto culvated, but not owned; that all distinctions of birth should cease, and that every Pole should have equal rights and claims to happiness. History has never before witnessed such a sacrifice of self-interest for the good of the mass of a people. While this act reflects great credit upon the hearts of the Poles, it affords to the world an encouraging proof that the sense of justice and the spirit of freedom are powerfully agitating civilized society. The opinion of the Polish nation, thus expressed through the Manifesto of the Provisional Government, cannot but make a deep impression upon other nations, nence." When a language becomes the repository of what is the noblest in the human heart, it is one of the most indestructible elements of national existence: it becomes an adamantine urn into which the nation throws its dearest recollections for safe keeping, and as each successive generation is adding to its treasure, the nation is the more vigilant in guarding it. The Poles are aware of the treasures their own language contains, and they will guard it with the most religious care: no power on earth, short of one that can cut them down to the very last, shall be able to destroy that vessel which enshrines the most glorious memories of their sires, and some of the noblest sentiments that ever passed human lips. Such are the unfailing guaranties, within the nation itself, of the future regeneration of Poland; it matters comparativly little when it will come, but it is sure to come sooner or later. These guaranties, taken together with the events that are in progress throughout the civilized world, cannot fail to bring the conviction that every year brings Poland nearer the bright days that are in store for her and for mankind. What if crowned heads are straining their power to the utmost to crush the spirit of freedom among the people, when these people are conscious they are acting under Heaven's decrees? What if a free Briton, the unpunished and infamous Sir James Graham, do succeed in betraying to their executioners the noble sons of Italy Italy is not so poor in virtue and devotion to the cause of freedom, as not to be able to double the number of patriots after each new sacrifice, till she be free. What if the Citizen King is mean enough to stoop to the despicable office of the spy for his royal brothers of Prussia and Russia, and report to them the movements of the noble Mieroslawski, who was to direct the Polish insurrection, and who was arrested immediately on his arrival at Posen ? Despotism only has gained a delay, but its fate is not averted; every new victim at its shrine will raise ten avengers on the Polish soil; and although the plans of the Polish patriots have this time been thwarted in a measure, yet their hope and courage have not diminished; and Poland, Italy, and humanity, shall win their victory notwithstanding. The Poles may be baffled by their enemies ninety-nine times in a hundred, but their patience and perseverance will not be exhausted by defeat, and they will finally triumph on their hundredth effort. They swore to wage war with tyrants to the knife, and they will keep the oath good;-they are fired by the prophetic vision of the poet, who never was more inspired than when he said: "Freedom's battle once begun, Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, Though baffled oft is ever won." NOTE. It would be premature on our part, to attempt to give a sketch of the pending Polish insurrection, since neither all its details are sufficiently authenticated, nor is the last act of the drama finished. The European press (and especially that of the nations surrounding Poland) speaks what despots put in its mouth; the public therefore hear that the insurrection is put down and order restored, and many sapient heads take the opportunity to deliver themselves of sage comments upon fruitless sacrifices, and the rashness of the attempt. But it is very cheap wisdom that judges a measure, when it has proved unsuccessful; every attempt at a revolution that failed was before this pronounced untimely, rash and foolish; nay, even wicked. We would advise those wise persons to wait a while before they decide, for all is not over yet, notwithstanding that kings are proclaiming the return of "old order." Although the French government denounced to the Prussian and Russian authorities the patriotic Mieroslawski, and thus the plans of the Poles have been deranged and their success put in jeopardy, yet it will prove but a temporary check to the great Slavonic cause. FINANCE AND COMMERCE. THE political occurrences of the last month have been of more than usual interest to, and influence upon, business affairs. The uncertainty which had measurably paralyzed the enterprise of England, by reason of the great changes proposed by Sir Robert Peel in the jealous commercial policy of that country, has now given way to the reality. Sir Robert has carried his measures, and both for information and for future reference, we annex the substantial portions of the Tariff laws now in force in that country-as well in respect of grain, as of merchandise generally : THE NEW BRITISH TARIFF. The London Times of July 3d, gives in extenso the text of the Corn and the Customs Bills, which have now become part of the law of Great Britain. The "Act to alter certain duties or customs" contains six sections, of which the following is the substance: 1. It is declared that instead of the duties now levied upon the articles named in the schedule, those named in the subsequent sections shall be collected. 2. From April 5, 1847, the duties upon timber are to be levied according to the rates laid down, viz., Onion, 66 1 3 5 26 2/ 10 Other seeds per 100 51 4. No duties whatever are to be charged upon the following articles: "Animals, living, viz., asses, goats, kids, oxen and bulls, cows, calves, horses, mares, geldings, colts, foals, mules, sheep, lambs, swine and hogs, pigs, sucking; bacon, beef, fresh or salted; beef, salted, not being corned beef; bottles, of earth and stone, empty; casts of busts, statues or figures; caviare; cherry wood, being furniture wood: cranberries; cotton manufactures, not being articles wholly or in part made up, not otherwise charged with duty; enamel; gelatine; glue; hay; hides, or pieces thereof, tanned, curried, varnished, japanned, enameled ; Muscovy or Russia hides, or pieces thereof, tanned, colored, shaved, or otherwise dressed, and hides or pieces thereof any way dressed, not otherwise enumerated; ink for printers; inkle, wrought; lampblack; linen, viz., plain linens and diaper, whether checkered or striped with dye-yarn or not, and manufactures of linen, or of linen mixed with cotton or with wool, not particularly enumerated, or otherwise charged with duty, not being articles wholly or in part made up; Magna Græcia ware; manuscripts; maps and charts, or parts thereof, plain or colored; mattresses; meat, salted or fresh, not otherwise described; medals of any sort; palmetto thatch manufactures; parchment; partridge wood, being fur. wood; pens; plantains; potatoes; pork, fresh; pork, salted, not hams; purple wood, being fur. wood; silk, thrown, dyed, viz., singles or tram, organize or crape silk; telescopes; thread, not otherwise enumerated or described; woollens, viz., manufactures of wool, not being gool, or of wool mixed with cotton, not particularly enumerated or de Bandstrings, twist, per 100%. of and from a Br. possession, 5 00 Barley, pearled, the cwt. of and from a Br. possession, per cwt. Bast-ropes, twines and strands, per 1002. of and from a Br. possession 500 Beads, viz., Arango, coral, crystal, jet, per 100%. others, per 100%. Blacking, per 100l. Brass, manuf. of, per 100. powder of, 66 Brocade of gold or silver, per 100%. Bronze, manuf. of, per 100%. powder, Buckwheat, the qr. meal, the cwt. Butter, the cwt. 66 of and from a Br. possession, Buttons, metal, per 100. Cameos, per 100%. Candles, viz., 66 spermaceti, the lb. Canes, &c., per 100l. value, of and from a British possession, the cwt. Catlings, per 100%. value, Cheese, the cwt. of and from a British possession, the cwt. China or porcelain ware, per 100, Cider, the tun, Citron, preserved in salt, per 100%. 010 006 10 0 0 10 0 0 10 0 0 |