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by Alexander II came too late. The leniency of his rule, the Italian war, hopes based on the nationalistic tendencies of Louis Napoleon aroused the imagination of the nascent Połish middle class which raised the old ery for complete independence. The attempt at liberation which flared out in January 1863 failed disastrously and the vengeance of the Russian govemment expressed itself in savage destruction of all aspects of Polish national life. Wielopolski, a broken man, had to leave the country but the short spell of his rule showed what a group of determined people could do for their country even when their plans had to find the approval of distant Petersburg.

CONTENTS.

I. The Failure of the RevoIutionary Ideas in Poland (1831-48), p. 88. II. The State of the Kingdom of Poland on the Accession of Alexander II (1855), p. 109. III. Expectations of Reforms, p. 135. IV. Wielopolski in Office (1861), p. 154. V. The Year of Trial and Eailure (1862-63), p. 180.

I. THE FAILURE OF REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS IN POLAND

(1831-1848)

The ultimate goal of Polish political aspirations throughout the period of foreign rule was to restore a United, independent Polish State; but the various political groups and individuals followed different paths each believing that his own would lead to this finał object. This was only natural, as the Polish national leaders had derived their ideas from the divergent social and political programmes of the West.

The years from 1831 to 1863 stand out in the post-partition history of Poland as a period rich in political plans for a restoration of Poland. They varied from clandestine plots to the solitary attempt of Marąuess Wielopolski who aimed at an open reconciliation with Russia based on a set of reforms in the Kingdom of Poland alone, as the key to his far-reaching idea of a Slavonic state under the Russian sceptre. That he was at all able to succeed in the partial realization of his immediate task and that his reforms found some support was largely due to the complete breakdown of the two main programmes worked out by the leaders of the political parties in exile after the November Revolution of 1830-1831.

The exodus of the former insurgents embraced about 8 to 9 thousand people: ”the majority were military men, (in a ratio of three officers to one private). According to their social origin three ąuarters of the emigrants belonged to the gentry class, and one fourth to the peasant and plebeian classes”.¹) Yet the officers and other ranks did not

1) Historia Polski 1795-1864. ed. by T. Mencel, T. Lepiowski, W. Łukaszewicz, and S. Kieniewicz, p. 102.

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