f any acts of oppression. The local authorities were bidden to
see that the farms of those who joined Kosciuszko's army should be
tended during their military service, and that the soil, "the source of
our riches," should not fall into neglect. The people were exhorted, in
the spirit, always inculcated by Kosciuszko, of mutual good-feeling and
a common love for Poland, to show their gratitude for the new benefits
bestowed upon them by loyalty to the squires, and by diligence in "work,
in husbandry, in the defence of the country." The dictator then ordered
the clergy of both the Latin and Greek rites to read these decrees from
the pulpit for the course of four Sundays, and directed the local
commissions to send emissaries proclaiming them to the peasants in every
parish and hamlet. Thus Kosciuszko took up the work that the
Constitution of the 3rd of May had more vaguely initiated, and that had
been terminated by Russian and Prussian interference. He could not at
this juncture push his reforms further. Had he brought in a total
reversal of hitherto existing conditions while a national insurrection
of which the issues were uncertain was proceeding, the confusion
engendered would have gone far to defeat the very object it was his
desire to bring about.

Kosciuszko promulgated these acts from camp on May 7, 1794. About the
same time he issued a mandate, requesting the churches and convents to
contribute all the church silver that was not positively indispensable
in the Divine service to the national treasury. Fresh coinage was
stamped, with on the one side the device of the old Polish Republic, on
the other that new and sacred formula: "The Liberty, Integrity and
Independence of the Republic, 1794." The term "Republic" as applied to
Poland was, of course, no subversive title, such being the time-honoured
name by which the Polish state had been known through its history.

To Kosciuszko the war was a holy one. Its object was, together with the
restoration of national independence, that of conferring happiness and
freedom on every class, religion, and individual in the country. Take,
for example, Kosciuszko's manifesto to the citizens of the district of
Brzesc, directing that the religion of the Ruthenes of the
Greek-Oriental rite should be respected: words that in the light of the
subsequent history of a people who have been, with fatal results, the
victims first of Russian, and then of German, intrigue, read with a
startling