FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343  
344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   353   354   355   356   357   358   359   360   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   368   >>   >|  
t popular songs at the beginning of the Revolution (1789), said to have been suggested by Benjamin Franklin, who, in speaking of the progress of the American Revolution, said: "Ca ira" meaning, "It will succeed."--ED. THE DOWNFALL OF POLAND A.D. 1794 SIR ARCHIBALD ALISON That the French Revolution was not more actively interfered with by the powers of Eastern Europe was largely due to the fact that they were all busy with a spoliation of their own. When Kosciuszko, the great Polish patriot and hero, failed in his endeavor to rescue his country from foreign thraldom, the doom of the ancient kingdom was sealed. In the following year (1795) the third and final partition of Poland--between Russia, Austria, and Prussia--was made. This destruction of a heroic nationality was bewailed by the friends of liberty throughout the world, and it was told in passionate regret how "Freedom shrieked, as Kosciuszko fell." Although brave and liberty-loving, the people of Poland had not kept pace with political progress among the more advanced nations. In the fourteenth century Poland had risen to her greatest power. Her political character, from ancient days, was peculiar, being at once monarchical and republican. But she had a feudalism of her own, which survived long after the European feudal system was outgrown by other nations. Her political system was cumbrous and lacking in unity. The first partition, by the powers above named (1772), left her in still worse disorder. A new constitution proved unsatisfactory, one party favoring it, another seeking to overthrow it. Russian interference was invoked, the Polish patriots resisted, but in 1792 they were defeated, and Russia, with Prussia, made the second partition of Poland in 1793. In 1794 Kosciuszko was made commander-in-chief and dictator of Poland. The insurrection began with the murder of the Russians in Warsaw. But the Poles suffered from their own dissensions as before, and met with the disaster that led to their national extinction. There is a certain degree of calamity which overwhelms the courage; but there is another, which, by reducing men to desperation, sometimes leads to the greatest and most glorious enterprises. To this latter state the Poles were now reduced. Abandoned by all the world, distr
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   319   320   321   322   323   324   325   326   327   328   329   330   331   332   333   334   335   336   337   338   339   340   341   342   343  
344   345   346   347   348   349   350   351   352   353   354   355   356   357   358   359   360   361   362   363   364   365   366   367   368   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Poland
 

partition

 

Kosciuszko

 

Revolution

 

political

 

greatest

 
powers
 
Russia
 

Prussia

 
liberty

system

 

ancient

 
nations
 

Polish

 

progress

 

glorious

 

lacking

 

enterprises

 
constitution
 
disorder

monarchical

 

feudalism

 
Abandoned
 
reduced
 

republican

 

survived

 

outgrown

 
proved
 

feudal

 

European


cumbrous

 

extinction

 

dictator

 

insurrection

 
commander
 

national

 
Warsaw
 

suffered

 
Russians
 

murder


disaster

 

defeated

 

favoring

 
seeking
 

courage

 

unsatisfactory

 

dissensions

 

reducing

 

overthrow

 
Russian