CHAPTER V.

CRACOW.

"The city of Cracow and its Territory shall be considered in perpetuity as free, independent, and strictly neutral, under the protection of the three High Contracting Powers."

"The three Courts bind themselves to respect, or cause to be respected, at all times, the neutrality of the free town of Cracow and its Territory. No armed Force, under any pretence whatsoever, is to be introduced there."-Treaty of Vienna.

The Powers who signed the Treaty of Vienna were not content with constituting the Duchy of Warsaw into a Kingdom of Poland-they also judged it necessary to fix upon another spot of ancient Poland, in which to preserve the remains of Polish Nationality, and they raised the territory of Cracow into an independent State. They, by a solemn treaty, gave a Constitution to Cracow, which could not be violated without a declaration of hostility against them. By that Constitution the right of choosing a President was vested in a Representative Assembly. It provided that there should be twelve Senators. It provided for the establishment of a University, in which, among a number of Professorships, one was devoted to the teaching of Polish Literature and Law.

In direct violation of the Treaty of Vienna, a Russian force, in 1831, entered the State of Cracow, and refused to pay the expense of the occupation, alleging that it was a just punishment for their disaffection, while there was no disaffection whatever that could be proved against them! The Agents of Russia laboured unceasingly in Cracow to excite tumult, to foment conspiracies, and to exasperate the inhabitants against their own Government. Russian Agents distributed seditious books among the students and endeavoured to inflame their passions. The cabinet of St. Petersburgh then denounced to Austria and Prussia, Cracow, as a hotbed of

disaffection, as a Depot for revolutionary Principles, and a place of refuge for intriguing Characters. In 1832, the troops of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, poured into Cracow, without any notice of the violation of the Treaty of Vienna being given to France or England; and directly afterwards they took on themselves to abolish the Constitution guaranteed by it, and to establish a new one! By the new Constitution, the three Powers vested the appointment of the President in themselves. They reduced the number of Senators from twelve to eight, and Russia has, since then, contrived to place her own protégés in office. They abolished nine Professorships in the University, among which was that of Polish Literature, for the purpose of annihilating every vestige of Polish Nationality.

Every pretext alleged for the violation of the neutrality of Cracow, and the subversion of its Constitution, have been found to be false. Notwithstanding the utmost exertions of a rigorous police, and numerous arrests, no evidence of any plots or of any disaffection could be traced. The seditious books were discovered to have been placed in the hands of the Students by the Professor of Russian Literature, who was allowed to continue in his Office! No refusal, on the part of the Authorities of Cracow to deliver up the Polish refugees, could be alleged against them, for the moment that application was made by the three Powers on that subject, it was immediately complied with, and 300 were dismissed the City. The act was a wanton outrage-an act of deliberate rapine without a pretext. But, by this violation of the Treaty of Vienna, the commercial Rights of Great Britain were also violated, for Cracow was a valuable and most important depot for British Commerce, which was suddenly destroyed. It is an important point in our investigation, to know what was the line of conduct pursued by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in this transaction; did he watch over the interests of England-did he baffle the policy of Russia—or did he neglect the one, and make his Office of British Minister subservient to the purposes of the other? Let us examine.

On the 1st of March, 1836, SIR STRATFORD CANNING

called the attention of the Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons, to the intelligence that a violation of the neutrality of Cracow had taken place on the part of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, by the illegal occupation of that City by their troops, and that Proclamations had been issued by them, and Acts of authority exercised, which were in contravention of the Treaty of Vienna, and in violation of the Constitution there guaranteed to the Republic of Cracow. The Honourable Member reminded the Foreign Secretary of the ninth Article of the Treaty, which was violated by the interference of the three Powers, and formally demanded whether his Majesty's Government had received information on the point, and if so, whether it was their intention to take any notice of the transaction.

LORD PALMERSTON stated, in reply, that his Majesty's Government had not received any official account of the entrance of the troops of the three Powers into Cracow; that it was probable the Austrian troops might have entered the place; that it might be a violation of the Treaty of Vienna, but that he was not then prepared to give an opinion on the subject. His lordship promised that it was a matter to which the Government would direct its attention, but that the House could not expect him to state what steps the Government might deem it expedient to take. The subject then dropped.

It does not appear to me that if a Russian Minister were holding the Office of Foreign Secretary in England, he could by any possibility have acted more for the interests of Russia, and for the destruction of the interests of England, than Lord Palmerston did on this occasion. For, if his Lordship had denied the truth of the Occupation and violation of the Constitution of Cracow, its proof was so easy that his displacement from Office was sure to result from such a course; if he had stated the Occupation not to be a violation of the Treaty of Vienna, there was every member of the House, and the most eminent Authorities on International Law, including the Law Officers of the Crown, all ready to declare that it was a violation,* and thus would his overthrow have been cer

* Which was subsequently done. The case of Cracow was formally

tain; if Lord Palmerston had defended the occupation of Cracow, and stated at once that his Majesty's Government intended to permit the sacrifice of the independence of Cracow, and of British Rights there, his overthrow, and with him the overthrow of the cause of Russia in Europe, was equally sure; because the whole Nation, and every member of the House of Commons agreed on the necessity of a contrary course; but more than this, the late revered and patriotic Monarch held opinions so decided on these points, that his attention was absorbed by the means of arresting the progress of Russian encroachment, and Lord Palmerston only held his Office on condition that he would direct the Policy of England to this end, having several times threatened his Lordship with expulsion if he acted otherwise! It is clear, therefore, that the only means by which the interference of England could be prevented from upholding the Treaty of Vienna, and the preservation of her own Rights in Cracow was, for the Minister entrusted with the direction of her affairs to decline making any statement of his opinions or intentions, and to leave the country to infer that he intended to take the course in accordance with the feeling of the Nation, without doing this, but by appearing to sanction the violation by his acts (inaction in such a case becomes a positive act) prevent the interference of other States.

Finding that there was no intention on the part of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to attend to the act of rapine in course of being perpetrated in Cracow, Sir S. Canning found himself under the necessity of bringing the subject at full length, and in a formal manner before Parliament and the Nation, and he therefore gave due notice of his intention. On the 18th of March, 1836, that Honourable Member put

submitted to the Law Officers of the Crown, who decided that the Russo-Dutch Loan ought not to be paid by England, because Russia had violated her engagements. The interest on that loan has been continued to be paid, and Lord Palmerston, four years after, defended the act of Russia in Cracow, as we shall presently see. This transaction is to me utterly inexplicable, and must doubtless be referred to our “increasing civilization!"

this intention in execution, and at great length entered into every particular of the violation of the Treaty of Vienna-of the violation of the Constitution of Cracow-of the violation of the Rights of England, by the Three Powers; he proved them by documentary evidence, and warned the House of the danger that would accrue to his Country by submission to an act of outrage like this. He concluded his able speech by " contenting himself for the present with placing the question in the hands of his Majesty's Government, reserving to himself the right of hereafter putting his Motion, should he find it necessary to do so."

In reply to this, Lord Palmerston made a speech of much greater length than his Lordship is wont to do, but to seize the meaning of any portion of it is a most difficult task. Each sentence in that speech is so nicely balanced by a succeeding sentence in an opposite sense - each tangible point brought forward is so beautifully annihilated by a vague "generality" which follows on its heels, that the subject of Cracow, of the Treaty of Vienna, and of British commercial Right, is liable to be wholly lost in admiration of the ingenuity with which a web of language has been woven, on so plain a subject, purporting to say intelligible things, and ending by rendering every portion of it unintelligible!

After much labour, however, I have come to the conclusion, that the following points may be set down as coming within the signification of the words used by Lord Palmerston, if they have any signification at all :

1st. That it was perfectly natural the House of Commons should take the important subject of Cracow into its most anxious consideration.

2nd. That "the State of Cracow had been created and established by a Treaty to which England was a party."*

3rd. That "Government had not received any official communications from the Three Powers, either as to the causes of the military occupation, or as to the fact of its

*The precise words of his lordship.