did this avail them? Did not the Italian bishops decidedly express
complete concurrence with their brethren?
It is still more surprising that the Emperor Napoleon took no warning from
the words of the Turin parliament, and went so far as to conclude an
agreement with them for the preservation to the Pope of the Holy City.
(M91) It is difficult to understand how a people numerically so weak as
the inhabitants of that portion of the once great kingdom of Poland, which
fell to the Russian Empire at the time of the unfortunate partition, could
have undertaken a rebellion against so great a Power as Russia. But
provocation, patriotism, the sense of nationality, together with the
ardent love of liberty, set the laws of prudence at defiance. That
provocation must have been of no ordinary kind which could excite, in
Russian Poland, a third rebellion, which had no better prospect of success
than the two former, which resulted so disastrously for the unhappy Poles.
And, indeed, what could be worse or more calculated to cause insurrection
than the cruelties, crimes and sacrilegious acts which the Russian
government was guilty of throughout Poland in the years 1861 and 1862? The
churches of that ill-fated country were seized and profaned, divine
service interdicted, and the bishops arraigned before courts-martial and
cast into prison. Such atrocities, instead of crushing, only increased the
patriotism of the people. Russian policy, baffled as was to be expected,
in its design of establishing tranquillity by such barbarous proceedings,
had recourse to a rigid conscription intended to have the effect of
forcing all the patriotic youth of the country into the ranks of the
Russian army. This violent recruiting was first attempted at Warsaw, at
dead of night, on the 15th of January, 1863. When the news of this
violence spread throughout the country, all the young men capable of
bearing arms fled to the steppes and forests, and, in eight days, all
Poland was in rebellion for the third time, in order to break the yoke of
the foreigner. A word from the great Powers, or any one of them, would
have restored peace. But they all alike refused to speak this word. The
British, after having encouraged the Poles to resistance in public
speeches, were on the point of intervening in their behalf, when a hint
from M. de Bismark suddenly cooled their zeal, and determined Lord John
Russell to recall by telegraph threatening despatches which were already
on their way to St. Petersburgh. It need scarcely be said that Prussia,
which was an accomplice of Russia in the iniquitous partition, made common
cause with Russia in the work of repression. Austria was at the time
paralyzed, as Italy was threatening Venice. Italy simply expressed to
Prince Gortschakoff, the Russian Chancellor, “its confidence that the
Emperor Alexander would persevere in the reforms so unfortunately
interrupted by the rebellion.” Innocent Italians! They, of course, were
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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