Page:Constitutional Charter of the Kingdom of Poland, In the Year 1815.pdf/63

 of consideration: and their Imperial and Royal Majesties, in order to complete the work, to mark out and settle definitively the limits of their respective territories, and to make such stipulations as may be necessary to the welfare of the inhabitants, do hereby name as their plenipotentiaries.”

The third article of this treaty is as follows:

“The Duchy of Warsaw, with the exception of the free town of Cracow and the territory annexed to it, the tract of land on the right bank of the Vistula, which is to return to the emperor of Austria, and such provinces as are otherwise disposed of by the articles of this treaty, is united to the empire of Russia. It shall be irrevocably bound to it by its constitution, to be enjoyed by the Emperor of all the Russias, his heirs and successors, for ever. His Imperial Majesty reserves to himself the power of determining the extent of that part of his States which is to be separately administered, as he shall deem fit. He will take with his other titles that of Czar, King of Poland, according to the customary formula for his other possessions.”

“The Polish subjects of the contracting powers shall enjoy such institutions as will secure the preservation of their nationality, modified into such forms of government, as the powers upon whom they depend may judge expedient to grant.”

Nor was this all; the fate of the Poles was considered so important that stipulations on their behalf were repeated, in the general act of the Congress of Vienna, in 1815. Let us first attend to the preamble of this act. “In the name of the holy and united Trinity, the Powers who signed the treaty at Paris on the 30th of May 1814, being assembled at Vienna, according to the 52d article of the treaty, together with the Princes and States in alliance with them, to complete the arrangements of the said Treaty, and to add to it such other arrangements as may be necessary in consequence of the state of Europe since the termination of the last war; wishing now to comprise in a single act the results of their various negociations in order that they may receive the ratification of all the contracting parties, have authorized their plenipotentiaries to