agistrates,
nominally elected by the peasants, but in fact imported from Saratow,
Kazan, Penza, etc., for the purpose of teaching liberty and Siberian
civilization in Warsaw and Wilna.

Common sense and the ordinary rules of logic force upon us the
conviction that writings of the above stamp are gotten up to produce
certain effects. Can any be found simple enough to believe that a whole
people would be aroused, armed, and taught to what end and how to use
the given arms, as was done by the manifesto of the Polish National
Government, January 22d, 1863, only to be deceived and in the end
deprived of that for which they had fought? By what right can bad faith
be imputed to land owners whom experience, a sense of justice, and even
interest, had already impelled to get rid of a useless and burdensome
relation? These land owners, even under the Rossian Government (in
1818), had solemnly begged the uncle of the present czar, Alexander I.,
to allow them to be freed from the onerous responsibilities caused by
serfdom under Rossian surveillance and severity.

The letter from Paris further states, on what authority we know not,
that the condition of the peasant or serf in Poland was dreadful until
the seventeenth century. This is going very far back, and probably at
that period, if facts could be found to sustain the writer's allegation,
the condition of bondmen--_vilains regardants_--boors, _Lebeigenschaft_,
_manans_, etc., was not better elsewhere. But here again we must differ
in opinion, and beg leave to state, not only to the author of the
letter, but to all other self-constituted authorities, whose knowledge
of Poland is derived from _The London Times_, _Chambers's Magazine_, M.
Hilperding, Kattow, or M. Morny, etc., that, with all due respect to
their social positions, we must deny them the title of well-informed
historians and profound judges of Poland and the Slavonic races. Up to
the seventeenth century, the peasantry (Kmiec, Ziemiamin) had its
_representatives in the diet_, and could find entrance into the ranks of
the nobility, which had no divisions into classes or titular
distinctions. Said nobility had the right to serve their country during
war, and a peasant providing himself with a horse and suitable arms, was
not excluded from that class. They could also take orders among the
clergy, and hence rise to high dignities in the church. Public schools
in Poland were never shut to the peasants, nor were any distincti