time be held in
contempt, and that the Russians will treat us as their conquered
subjects, for such a scanty handful of a population will never be able
to defend itself against the intrigues, the preponderance and the
violence of the Russians. And can we keep silence on those brothers of
ours remaining under the Russian government?" [Lithuania and Ruthenia.]
"Our hearts shudder and suffer that they are not united to the
others."[1]

[Footnote 1: T. Korzon, _Kosciuszko_.]

Again Kosciuszko's unerring single-mindedness and high patriotism had
pierced through all illusions and foretold the truth. His words were
literally verified. Fifteen years later Europe saw his nation driven
into an armed conflict for the rights that had been promised to her by
Alexander, that were trampled upon by him and his successor, and the
man, to whom the above warning was addressed, outlawed by the Russian
Government for the part he played in the insurrection.

Kosciuszko also wrote to Lord Grey to the same effect. Grey replied:

"To that first violation of the sacred principles of general liberty
which was effected in the partition of 1772, and those that followed in
1793 and 1795, we must refer all the dangers to which the whole of
Europe has been subsequently exposed. ... No real safeguard can exist
against the return of these dangers, if Poland remains excluded from the
benefits of a general deliverance, which, to be perfect, must be
guaranteed by the solemn recognition of her rights and independence. If
the powers who sought to profit by injustice and who, in the sequence,
have suffered so much because of it, could learn the true lesson of
experience, they would see that their mutual safety and tranquility
would be best preserved by reestablishing among them, as a genuinely
independent state, the country that a false policy has so cruelly
oppressed." (Portman Square, London, July I, 1814.)[1]

[Footnote 1: d'Angeberg, _Recueil des Traites_.]

This was written a hundred years ago, and the Nemesis of history is
still with us. The Congress of Vienna was a fresh partition of Poland.

If, so Kosciuszko wrote to Alexander, he could have returned "as a Pole
to his country," he would have done so. As it was, he refused to return
to what he knew was treachery and deception. With the aspect of a man
who had suffered shipwreck, he left Vienna, and retired for good and all
from public life.

He was now sixty-nine, with his health, that he ha