t this force, though
highly honorable to the patriotism of the Poles, was inconsiderable when
compared with the vast armies which Russia and Prussia could bring up
for their subjugation. Small as the army was, its maintenance was too
great an effort for the resources of the kingdom, which, torn by
intestine factions, without commerce, harbors, or manufactures; having
no national credit, and no industrious class of citizens but the Jews,
now felt the fatal effects of its long career of democratic anarchy. The
population of the country, composed entirely of unruly gentlemen and
ignorant serfs, was totally unable at that time to furnish those
numerous supplies of intelligent officers which are requisite for the
formation of an efficient military force; while the nobility, however
formidable on horseback in the Hungarian or Turkish wars, were less to
be relied on in a contest with regular troops, where infantry and
artillery constituted the great strength of the army, and courage was
unavailing without the aid of science and military discipline.

The central position of Poland, in the midst of its enemies, would have
afforded great military advantages, had its inhabitants possessed a
force capable of turning it to account; that is, if they had had, like
Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War, a hundred fifty thousand
regular troops--which the population of the country could easily have
maintained--and a few well-fortified towns, to arrest the enemy in one
quarter, while the bulk of the national force was precipitated upon them
in another. The glorious stand made by the nation in 1831, with only
thirty thousand regular soldiers at the commencement of the
insurrection, and no fortifications but those of Warsaw and Modlin,
proves what immense advantages this central position affords, and what
opportunities it offers to military genius like that of Skrynecki to
inflict the most severe wounds even on a superior and well-conducted
antagonist. But all these advantages were wanting to Kosciuszko; and it
augments our admiration of his talents, and of the heroism of his
countrymen, that with such inconsiderable means they made so honorable a
stand for their national independence.

No sooner was the King of Prussia informed of the revolution at Warsaw
than he moved forward at the head of thirty thousand men to besiege that
city; while Suvaroff, with forty thousand veterans, was preparing to
enter the southeastern parts of the ki