derstand the advantages of free labor.

But these considerations do not, by any means, comprise all the
difficulties in which Russia is now placed. The dependencies are
constantly in revolt. Constant troubles are going on in the remote
districts. Nine millions of the population--the old believers who do
not profess the prevailing religion--have their secret conferences,
their plans and purposes, all antagonistical to the existing form of
government. A reign of terror exists in Poland. The Finns detest their
rulers, and are only kept in a partial state of quietude by a total
subversion of the liberties guaranteed to them under the Constitution.
The municipal franchises existing in the various provinces of Russia
are a mere mockery; mayors and corporate officers are imprisoned or
banished without cause or process of law. The councils of the
government are secret, and nobody can conjecture how long he may be
permitted to enjoy his personal liberty. The exchequer is annually
deficient from thirty to forty millions of rubles. Public credit is
growing worse and worse every day, and the whole country is falling
into a condition of bankruptcy. It is evident, even to the most
superficial observer, that a great crisis is at hand. The Poles are
united in their resistance to the despotic sway of the government.
Witness the late bloody massacres in Warsaw (1862), against which the
whole civilized world cries aloud in horror! They will not now be
satisfied with empty professions and still emptier concessions. They
demand a Constitution--not a mere paper Constitution, like that of
1815, made to be violated by every lackey of the government sent to
coerce them. They demand civil, political, and religious liberty. Can
the emperor grant it to a dependency, and withhold it from the body of
his people?

This has been tried for nearly half a century--ever since 1815--and
what has it resulted in? Are the Poles any better satisfied now than
they were then? Are they benefited and enlightened by being cut down
and hacked to pieces by a set of drunken and bloodthirsty Cossacks in
the name of the great Russian government?

The Emperor Alexander must adopt some other system. He will never
reduce the Poles to submission in that way. Overpowered and cut to
pieces they may be, but not conquered. They belong to the
unconquerable races of mankind. The blood that heroes, and heroines,
and martyrs are made of runs in the veins of every man, woman, and