part in Polish history. At the same time Boleslaus zealously exerted himself for the propagation of Christianity, and for the firm establishment of a national church; inasmuch as it was through the latter alone that he could hope to secure his new conquests and the stability of his empire, a circumstance which there is frequent occasion to recur to in Polish history. With this view he invited foreign clergy into the realm, fortunes of Poland must be sought on the one part in the difficulty of her position, she having to contend on all sides against heathens-the Prussians, the Lithuanians, the Jadzwingi or Jazygoe, and the Picezyngues; and our author justly remarks that as far back as the eleventh century, Poland was already the most advanced guard of Christendom against the barbarians of the east. On the other part, the grand fact proclaimed erected new bishoprics, and founded Bene- by all history should be kept in view, namedictine monasteries at Tyniec, Sieciechow ly, that the moral, no less than the physical and Lyca Gora (bold mountain,) so that constitution of nations requires time to arwhere once stood pagan altars, the cross now shone on the highest mountains of Poland. In the evening of his life Boleslaus gave a suitable appellation to the power he had acquired, by crowning himself king at Gnesen in 1025. Whilst the Polish chroniclers make express mention of the coronation of Boleslaus by Otho during his visit to Poland, the Germans preserve absolute silence on this point, so that we must conclude either that the report was incorrect, or, which is more probable, that Boleslaus would not owe his regal title to any foreign potentate, and consonantly to his character, chose to be as independent in name as he was in reality. However this might be, this act was a worthy conclusion to his career, and he died the same year ou the 17th of June. He was buried at Posen. rive at maturity, and that the seeds of the institutions of Church and State, sown by the genius of Boleslaus, required ages for their full development. The latter circumstance should be considered only as beneficial, in accordance both with the experience derived from history, and with the law of nature, that states and productions have a more durable existence in proportion to the length of time they take to become mature. But Poland once impregnated with lifegiving Christian truth, soon found strength within herself to rise from her humiliating position. Boleslaus the Bold (Imialy) humbled all the enemies of his country; and interfered as the defender of thrones in the affairs of Bohemia, Hungary, and Russia. Still his views of policy were inferior to those of his great namesake, and he appears to have carried on war merely from the love of war. He however maintained his full independence with respect to Germany, and in spite of the emperor caused himself to be crowned in 1057, but he quickly lost both his regal title and his kingdom by the murder of Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow. The cause which induced him to commit this act is still wrapt in obscurity. Gallus, who is the best authority on the subject, merely says, Such men as Boleslaus are like pillars of fire going before their contemporaries destined to grope again in darkness the moment they cease to be guided by them. This remark holds true particularly with respect to his two immediate successors, who neither followed up his policy of promoting the union of the western Slavonians, nor inherited his powerful arm by which to keep in awe the neighbouring nations, jealous of the power to which he had raised his people. During the short reign of his son, all his conquests except Pomerania were lost, and during the minority of his grandson the people returned to the worship of idols, and thus his second grand work, the establishment of the church, was put in extreme jeopardy, and the country became a prey to anarchy and foreign invasion. The Bohemians were foremost in pillaging and carried off immense booty; amongst Whilst Gallus thus mentions the treachother spoils, they took from the Cathedral ery of Stanislaus, Kadlabek, who 200 years of Gnesen, the body of St. Adalbert, their countryman, man, whom in his lifetime they had banished. The Poles pretend that another body was substituted for it, and that the true remains of the saint are still preserved at Gnesen, and up to the present day this point is still undecided. The cause of those mis "In what manner king Boleslaus was expelled from Poland, it would be long to relate; only this it is allowable to say, that a Christian should not have inflicted corporal punishment upon a Christian. Because this did him most harm that he used sin against sin, and punished the bishop for treachery by cutting off his limbs. For we excuse neither the traitor bishop nor praise the king who took such shameful re venge."* afterwards was bishop of Cracow, states that the disorderly conduct and tyranny of the king drew upon him the ecclesiastical bann. It would appear however that the opposition of Boleslaus to the legates of Pope Gregory VII., who had shortly before | Church alone which ultimately secured the arrived in Poland with the mandates of the conquests of Boleslaus the Great. BolesVatican, was the real cause of his excom- laus Krzywousty, however, committed a munication, and of the subsequent assassi- great political mistake, and such it has ever nation of the bishop, who refused him ac- been considered, by dividing, shortly before cess to the Church. * Gallus, p. 109. The whole country having in consequence fallen under papal interdict, and the nobles and clergy having united against him, Boleslaus, after a year's resistance, went into exile never to return. This was but another scene of the same drama, enacted at that very time by the same pope with the German emperor Henry IV. How or when Boleslaus terminated his life is very uncertain. According to some accounts he committed suicide, in a fit of madness, whilst he was in Hungary, and others say that he became a penitent in a monastery of Karinthia and died there. Some again will have it, that he was torn in pieces by his own dogs whilst hunting. The second account seems to be the most probable, and an epitaph lately found in the monastery of Ossya in Karinthia, which by its character indicates that it belongs to the twelfth or thirteenth century, goes far to remove all doubt. It runs thus: Rex Boleslaus Poloniæ, occisor S. Stanislai. As to the latter, he was canonized in the thirteenth century, and adopted as the patron saint of Poland; and it became a custom that all the kings on their coronation day should make an expiatory procession to the church of St. Michael at Cracow, where he was assassinated. After the expulsion of Boleslaus, his brother, Ladislaus Herman, was called to the throne. His reign presents no remarkable feature, except that during its course the Jews first made their appearance in Poland, destined, as has been said, to become their paradise, and they one of her plagues. This prince was the father of Boleslaus Krzywousty (wry mouth), a worthy successor of his great namesake. The whole life of this monarch from nine years of age was consumed in perpetual struggles with his neighbours, especially with the emperor of Germany, Henry V., over whom he completely triumphed. But the most remarkable of his achievements was the conversion of Pomerania to Christianity, which he effected with the assistance of St. Otho, bishop of Bamberg. We regret that we cannot quote at length the acts of unwearied self-devotion and true Christian charity exhibited by the prelate in his apos tleship, and which form one of the most interesting episodes in the work under consideration. But here we must remark, as we have done elsewhere, that it was the his death in 1139, the empire amongst his four sons. The regal title having been lost since Boleslaus the Bold, the right of exercising supreme authority over the other princes of the reigning family, in order to preserve the unity of the state, was vested ed in the grand duke of Cracow, (monarcha maximus dux), and this dignity always belonged to the eldest member. This partition of the empire was in accordance with the ancient custom of the Slavonians, but it had in this instance the effect of producing a civil war for the seniorate of Cracow, which lasted one hundred and fifty years, and of bringing Poland into a new stage of her political development. We cannot follow our author in his narrative of that struggle during which the nation, both from internal discord and external invasion, was many times brought to the verge of total destruction. It seemed, to use the expression of a national poet, "that Poland was about to be drowned in the ocean of misfortune." Dr. Roepell's narrative, besides, loses itself in minute and unimportant details, and neither do "his thoughts breathe nor his words live," as they should have done, whilst he was portraying a nation shaken in the inmost recesses of her existence, both natural and spiritual. Indeed this is the defect of his work in general, and not only of his, but in those of his fellow labourers, who have respectively undertaken to write these histories of the European states-life, the deep Christian life, so characteristic of the middle ages, breathes not in any of their works. The principal recommendation of the one now before us, is that it gives an accurate statement of facts, and this up to the present day has been a great desideratum in foreign literature as regarded Poland. We must limit ourselves to pointing out the general results, both external and internal, which the partition of the empire by Boleslaus entailed upon his country. As to the first, they were all disastrous; one of them was the loss of the important province of Silesia, ceded in 1163 to the sons of Ladislaus, the first Grand Duke of Cracow, who had been expelled by his brothers for attempting to deprive them of their paternal inheritance. This proved a severe loss not only to Poland but to Slavonia at large, as Silesia became Germanized in the course of time, owing to the consanguinity of her princes with those of Germany. How These having subsequently become Elec must the shade of Boleslaus the Great have mourned over it! The next loss sustained by Poland was Pomerania, a duke of this country having rendered himself independent of her, whilst the Prussians, the immediate neighbours of Pomerania, were prosecuting their devastating inroads upon Poland. A crusade was preached against them by the pope, and the Poles joined the Germans in their endeavours to exterminate their brethren in blood, an occurrence deep tors of Brandenburg, by their artful policy emancipated themselves from Poland, and finally, as Kings of Prussia, took part in despoiling her. Dr. Roepell remarks with truth that there is not an inch of Prussian territory possessed first by the Marquisses and then by the Electors of Brandenburg, which was not acquired by some kind of treachery from some of the Slavonian races. In addition to this narrowing of her territory, Poland suffered incredibly from the ly to be lamented by all the Slavonian race. incessant invasions of the heathens, and parAt length when all efforts to subdue the ticularly from the Lithuanians and the TaPrussians had failed, Konrad, duke of Ma-tars led on by the descendants of Genghis sovia, the greatest sufferer by their incur- Khan. sions, called in to his assistance, 1225, the knights of the Teutonic Order, who had shortly before distinguished themselves in After a victory obtained by the latter over the Russian army on the banks of the river Kalka in 1222, followed by the sub Syria and Palestine against the Saracens. jugation of all Russia, they advanced into With the consent of his heirs, he offered Poland, preceded by magnifying terrors, them in perpetuity the territory of Culm, which spread all over Europe, not exceptas well as all the booty they should gain ing England. Historians relate that even from the heathens. The deed of gift was the price of herrings rose in the London drawn up in the form usual in those days market, because they could not be brought for donations made to churches, monasteries, as usual from the coasts of Norway, owing or families favoured by princes. The to the universal consternation inspired by knights on their part engaged to defend these invaders. They traversed Poland, Konrad from foreign invasion. The Grand converting her into a desert, until their pro Master of the Order, Hermann von Salza, most willingly accepted the offer, but his conduct towards the Polish duke was from the very beginning marked with treachery. In 1226 he induced the emperor of Germany to issue a diploma, by which the latter, according to his self-assumed right that all sovereign power on earth emanated from him, granted the Grand Master by anticipation all the land that he should conquer gress was at length in some degree arrested by the united forces of the Dukes of Silesia and of Great Poland. The conflict took place in 1244 in the vicinity of Lignitz, and, though it was only a drawn battle, the Tatars, whose name fear had changed into that of Tartars-the sons of Tartarus or hell -made their retreat through Silesia, Bohemia and Hungary, to fix their abode in Russia, over which they held dominion during from the Prussians, to hold as a fief of the the two following centuries. The Polish German empire. It is evident from this historians state that no less than ninety-five document, kept secret from Konrad, that incursions, though on a smaller scale, were the intention of the Order was to found a subsequently made by the Tatars into Poterritorial sovereignty, to separate it from land. all connection with Poland, and to bring it into close relation with Germany. Thus at the commencement they assumed a hostile position towards the first mentioned country, and after a sanguinary struggle of a hundred years they partly exterminated the The melancholy state and weakness of the country, brought about by the dissensions of her princes, at length induced Przemyslaus, Duke of Grand Poland and of Pomerania, to make an attempt to reunite her disjointed parts, in order to make Prussians. The remnant they forced to head against her foreign enemies. In 1295 embrace Christianity, or to retire beyond the Niemer into the then Pagan Lithuania. Another war equally long and fierce then broke out between the knights and the Poles, and this lasted until the former were completely defeated by Casimir, the son of Jagellon, when Prussia became a province of Poland. The eastern portion of it, how ever, with its capital, Konigsberg, was left in the possession of the Grand Masters of the Order, as vassals of the Polish crown. he was crowned king of all Poland by the Archbishop of Gnesen, and the regal title, which had been lost for upwards of 200 years, was again restored, though only for a short time. Przemyslaus was assassinated in the course of the same year at Posen by the Marquis of Brandenburgh, who coveted the possession of Pomerania. With his death terminates the first portion of Dr. Roepell's work; and whilst waiting for the second and concluding part of it, we hope he will profit by the above remarks, and, as | ing the main privilege of nobility, and is common amongst the authors of his country, improve it in a second edition. these latter preserved so absolute an equality with the former, that it was wont to be said, that a noble in possession of thirty acres was equal to a palatine. They all adopted distinct family arms, though it is not unusual to see 200 or 300 families having the same armorial bearings, owing to all the sons inheriting the paternal distinction, and to its being customary to confer on newly-created nobles the arms of the family that patronized them. Beyond their substantial privileges, the nobles had no titles of any description, such as those of baron, count, &c., to distinguish them amongst each other, or from the other classes of society. The adoption by any one of them of such a title would have been high treason according to the Polish law-eques Polonus par omnibus, nemini secundus, was its maxim. The inferior or poorer nobility (ordo equestris) afterwards constituted the large body of electors, amounting to about two millions, and the nuncios (posel) chosen by them, form again another independent power of the state, or the lower house. During the period in question the church perfected her organization, and achieved her independence as one of the powers of the state. The higher clergy, by interposing their spiritual power between hostile princes, and by proclaiming the refractory to be under the ban of the church, delivered the domains of the latter from being arbitrarily disposed of by secular authority, and With respect to the internal results consequent upon the civil anarchy of the period in question, however strange it may seem at first, they were on the whole beneficial. In thus speaking we by no means intend to say anything in favour of anarchy, or to imply that those same results could not have been otherwise produced. We merely wish to draw attention to this moral and political phenomenon, and to explain it as briefly as we may be able. During the preceding period the whole strength of the nation, subject to an absolute central power, was chiefly expended in foreign wars, the consequence of which was, that Poland became powerful abroad and weak at home. Now the case was entirely reversed; the internal discord of the princes weakened the external power of the country, and the national strength was split in various directions at home, and thus a more intensive life and spirit was engendered in the nation. In other words, the vigour of the nation, left to its own free action, gradually developed itself into the several distinct functions of the body politic, and the seeds of the institutions of church and state planted by Boleslaus the Great began to bring forth their fruits in the appointed time, whilst his simple organization of the country into Castellanies gave way to a more complex and perfect state of society. Originally the nation was divided into schlacta, nobility, or the land proprietors; at the same time secured to themselves into kmiecie (emetones) or farmers; and the simple peasants, employed as labourers by the latter. Neither slavery nor servitude was known amongst them. This state of things continued until the partition of the country by Boleslaus III., when the rich landowners, in return for the support which they alternately offered to one or other of the contending princes, acquired not only immunities and privileges for themselves and their posterity, but also an influence in public affairs. From that period the princes of the land never took any important resolution without their consent, and the words cum consensu baronorum became the usual form of their edicts. These barons were no other than grand officers of state, in whose families certain high offices became perpetual, and they subsequently constituted one of the independent powers of the state, namely, the upper house or senate; at the same time their privileges were in no degree derogatory to those of the inferior nobility, or the great mass of landed proprietors, the possession of land ever remain an active part in public affairs. Polish bishops, in virtue merely of their dignity, were members of the senate. There arose at the same time a middle class, between the nobles and the clergy. In consequence of the great waste of the native population through foreign and domestic wars, the princes encouraged the immigration of German colonists, granting them the enjoyment of their national municipal privileges, known in Poland under the name of the Laws of Magdeburgh. By the industry of these settlers the fallen cities rose again, and contributed to the general prosperity. The more considerable towns used to send their deputies to sit in the lower house, and the inhabitants of some, Cracow, for instance, were considered as nobles. The only sufferers, as is usual in similar cases, were the weaker party, the peasants, who, from having formerly been free, were now reduced to servitude by individual oppression, though this was not sanctioned by the law. Subsequently it became the policy of the monarchs to restore to the latter their rights, and Casimir the Great having effected his object, the nobles in derision bestowed upon him the appellation of King of the Peasants. He was the restorer of order and peace at home, as his father, Ladislaus Lokietek (elbow, so called from his diminutive stature), was of the external integrity of the state. ment in 1791, when, by the constitution of May 3d, the hereditary succession was re-established, and the nation at large restored to her normal condition. The same form of government was sanctioned by the diet during the late war for independence, and the majority of the Poles now wandering in foreign countries follow this principle. It is well known that they look also to Prince Adam Czartoryski, whose family is a branch of the Jagellons, as to the future king of Poland. Let them remain true to the conservative principle embodied in The elements of a free government, which we have just noticed, were fully developed during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in the regular organization of an hereditary constitutional monarchy. This form of government, the most comprehen- their history, and "He who maketh nasive and the richest of all-for it contains tions" may grant them a return into their all others in itself-was so far in accordance beloved fatherland. "Yes! thy proud lords, unpitied land! shall see ART. IV. Wilhelm von Humboldt's gesammelte Werke. 2. Band. Berlin: G. Reimer. 1841. on the one part with the whole previous history of the Poles, the substance of which it expressed, and on the other with the grand principle of Christianity, liberty, which has its surest guarantee in a constitutional monarchy. Besides, by the full development of the said elements, a firm foundation was laid for supporting the weight of power which it pleased Providence to confer next upon Poland. By the union of Hedwiga, queen of Poland and grand niece of Casimir the Great, in whom the dynasty of Piast became extinct, with Jagellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania, Poland became again a predominating power of the north. For centuries her authority was acknowledged from the Black Sea and the Karpathian Mountains to the Baltic, and from the Dnieper and Dwina to the Oder; the dukes of Prussia, Courland and Livonia, and the Hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia being her vassals. The existence of this power was, in a political view, of great utility to Europe, for Poland never employed it except in the defence of Christendom against the Turks, the Tatars and Tatarized Russians. On the other side the extension of the Polish dominion far in the east, was a great victory gained by the western civilisation of Europe over barbarism, and the struggle between the two, kept up for ages on the banks of the Bug and the Dniester, was thus at once carried to the banks of the Dnieper. Russia was either not heard of at that time, or the Poles were masters at Moscow as the Russians now are at Warsaw. The power of Poland began to decline when, after the extinction of the Jagellon dynasty in 1572, the crown became elective, which paved the way for the interference of foreign powers in her internal affairs, and ultimately led to her partition. But at the same time we must render justice to her conservative spirit, shown by her return previous to the partition to the true principles of govern- kind of sample from that bill of fare which IT is very possible that some of our readers may have heard of a book, "De omnibus rebus et quibusdam aliis"-a title which has been quietly translated "A Treatise concerning everything, &c., &c." Now, whether in some marvellously enlightened period of the middle ages some pantologist, before whose lustre even that of Dr. Dionysius Lardner must grow pale, did really concentrate the essence of human learning on all possible subjects into a thin 32mo. (for a folio with such a title would be inconceivable), we know not. Yet if such book be in any way a desideratum, it is at all events pleasing, and perhaps profitable, to know where a substitute for it may be found; and we should have little hesitation in recommending therefore to the inquirer the collected works of William von Humboldt. "The Objects and Qualifications of Historians"-" The Bhagatvad Gita"-" Jacobi's Woldemar""The New French Constitution"-" The Odyssey of Homer" -" Foreign Policy" Basque Etymology"-" Sonnets and other Poems" - "An Essay on the Male and Female Figure," such form some |