Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/20

xvi honourable and useful labours. But a still more conspicuous proof of public respect awaited him. The Royal Society of the Friends of Sciences at Warsaw, after the death of the learned philanthropist Starzyc, elected him their President; and it was in this capacity that, in 1829, he conducted the imposing ceremony of the inauguration of the statue of Copernicus, from the chisel of Thorwaldsen, which was erected before the mansion of the Royal Society, in one of the principal places of the capital.

The day after the revolution of the 29th November 1830, he was called into the Council of Administration of the kingdom, which surrounded itself with justly popular names. In the stormy times which followed, Niemcewicz contributed more than once to preserve the national movement from excesses which might have weakened its force and tarnished its purity. When he was afterwards elected Senator Castellan, the Diet, by a special bill, dispensed with the proof of his eligibility.