was dissolved; and in that
way thousands were compelled to join the Russian church. In the higher
schools prizes were set forth for the best essays in the Russian
language; and in 1833 a law was made, that after 1834 no Pole could
hope for employment in the Russian service, without a complete
knowledge of the Russian language. In the White Russian provinces, so
called, that is in Lithuania, Podolia, and Volhynia,--countries which
formerly had been under Russian dominion, and are still inhabited by a
Lithuanian and Russian peasantry, while the nobility is Polish,--these
severe and arbitrary measures were surprisingly successful in respect
to the youth then in training; and the minister of the School
department, Ouwarof, in his report of 1839, expressed his satisfaction
in the strongest terms.

But Poland as a whole was far from giving satisfaction to the
government. There was indeed a certain stoppage of mental life, which
seemed to favour its views. Literary productions were few in
proportion to the former productiveness. In the year 1837, not more
than 118 books were published in the whole kingdom; and of these only
75 were Polish; the rest in Hebrew. The press and all other organs of
public feeling were under the strictest control. Yet the very topics,
which were chosen by the literati for their researches and
commentaries, proved best of all that the love of their country was
not extinguished. The history of Poland became more than ever a chosen
study. Private libraries and archives were searched for materials; and
detached parts of the past, and single branches of history, were made
the subjects of a closer examination and research, than had ever
before been devoted to such topics among this active and restless
people. One of the most important works, issued immediately after the
revolution, was Prof. Maciejowski's History of the Slavic
Legislatures.[69] It was well received by the numerous German and
Slavic scholars, who devote themselves to similar pursuits; but they
soon found that it did not fully satisfy the claims of the deeper
criticism of our days. It has come finally to be considered rather as
a preparatory work, which was shortly afterwards partially completed
by another production of the same author: "Contributions to the
History of Slavic events, literature, and legislation." [70] A work by
J. Hobe, "On the Slavic rights of inheritance," appeared about the
same time; also, a publication of the oldest Sl