Page:Constitutional Charter of the Kingdom of Poland, In the Year 1815.pdf/67

 The letter which KosciuzkoKosciuszko [sic] addressed to prince Czartoryski soon after the Congress at Vienna, shows what an impression this crooked policy had made upon his great mind. In a letter to the Emperor Alexander, dated the 10th of June, 1815, he solicits the execution of his promises on behalf of the Polish provinces in Russia. The emperor did not reply to this letter. Kosciuszko wrote to Prince Adam Czartoryski in these terms, on leaving Vienna.

Vienna, June 13, 1815.



Your friendship is very dear to me, and as your way of thinking is similar to my own, you are no doubt convinced that my most ardent desire is to serve my country. The emperor’s refusal to answer my last letter from Vienna, (of which I subjoin a copy) renders it impossible for me to accomplish my wishes. I will not act without some guarantee on behalf of my country, nor will I be lured by false hopes. I have weighed the interests of my country and those of the Emperor in the same scale; for I know not how they can be separated; and finding I could do nothing else I have offered myself as a sacrifice for my country, but not to see it restricted to that little portion, emphatically called the Kingdom of Poland. We ought to thank the Emperor for having revived the name of Poland; but ''the name alone will not make a nation. The extent of the territory, and the number of the inhabitants is something to the purpose. I hardly know what warrant I have but my own ardent desires, for the expectation that he will fulfil his promise to me and to so many of my countrymen by extending the frontiers of Poland to the Dwina and the Borysthenes; such an arrangement would establish some sort of proportion in strength and numbers, between ourselves and the Russians, and so contribute to mutual respect and firm friendship.'' With a free and distinct constitution of their own such as they had promised themselves, the Poles would think themselves fortunate in being, together with the Russians, under the protection of so powerful a monarch. But I perceive, from the outset, a different order of things; the Russians vie with the Poles for the highest places in the administration. This is not likely to inspire