d to these important subjects. It was not until 1807, or
the foundation of the duchy of Warsaw under the administration of the
king of Saxony, that the lower classes obtained their rights as men;
and unfortunately even then without the power of availing themselves
of these rights. Stanislaus Augustus, however, and some of his
advisers and counsellors, acted in this respect with an honest will
and noble intention; and by promoting the general interests of mankind
in literature and science, did much for the social improvement of
their own country.

Meanwhile, this unhappy country was the scene of the most violent
party struggles; during which the heads of the parties conducted
themselves with the most revolting selfishness, and an entire
forgetfulness of all political consequences and of their own moral
responsibility. The fanaticism of the bishops of Cracow and Warsaw
refused to the dissidents the restoration of their rights; and Russia
thus acquired the first pretext for intermeddling with Polish affairs.
In the course of a few years, Poland was reduced to that torn and
broken state, which induced Catharine II to consider it as a country
"where one needed only to stoop, in order to pick up something." For a
short time this course of things even seemed to be favourable to
literature. The minds of men were in a state of excitement, which gave
them power to produce the greatest and most extraordinary things. But
a reaction very naturally followed. After twenty years of mental and
political struggles and combats, to sustain which claimed the whole
united powers of mind and soul,--twenty years numerically productive
in every department,--there followed a mental calm, an intellectual
blank, of more than twelve years.

It was, as if with the political dissolution of the kingdom, with the
annihilation of the unity of the nation, this latter had sunk back
into a state of intellectual paralysis. The interval from A.D. 1795 to
A.D. 1807, in comparison with the years which preceded and have
followed, was remarkably poor in productions of value. The literature
of translations rose in an undue proportion, and the purity of the
language suffered considerably. The government of the duchy of Warsaw
acted on wise and truly humane principles; and during the short period
between 1807 and 1812, all was done for the improvement of the
country, which the unfortunate circumstances of the case permitted.
Under this administration the number o