riends! Brothers! We receive your shouts of
sympathy in the name of Poland; not for us, but for our country. Our
country, though distant, claims from you this sympathy by its long
martyrdom. The glory of Poland, its only glory, truly Christian, is
to have suffered more than all the nations. In other countries the
goodness, the generosity of heart, of some sovereigns protected the
people; as yours has enjoyed the dawn of the era now coming, under the
protection of your excellent prince. [Viva Leopold II.!] But conquered
Poland, slave and victim, of sovereigns who were her sworn enemies and
executioners,--Poland, abandoned by the governments and the nations,
lay in agony on her solitary Golgotha. She was believed slain, dead,
burred. 'We have slain her,' shouted the despots; 'she is dead!'
[No, no! long live Poland!] 'The dead cannot rise again,' replied
the diplomatists; 'we may now be tranquil.' [A universal shudder of
feeling in the crowd.] There came a moment in which the world doubted
of the mercy and justice of the Omnipotent. There was a moment in
which the nations thought that the earth might be for ever abandoned
by God, and condemned to the rule of the demon, its ancient lord. The
nations forgot that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to give liberty
and peace to the earth. The nations had forgotten all this. But God
is just. The voice of Pius IX. roused Italy. [Long live Pius IX.!] The
people of Paris have driven out the great traitor against the cause
of the nations. [Bravo! Viva the people of Paris!] Very soon will be
heard the voice of Poland. Poland will rise again! [Yes, yes!
Poland will rise again!] Poland will call to life all the Slavonic
races,--the Croats, the Dalmatians, the Bohemians, the Moravians,
the Illyrians. These will form the bulwark against the tyrant of the
North. [Great applause.] They will close for ever the way against the
barbarians of the North,--destroyers of liberty and of civilization.
Poland is called to do more yet: Poland, as crucified nation, is risen
again, and called to serve her sister nations. The will of God
is, that Christianity should become in Poland, and through Poland
elsewhere, no more a dead letter of the law, but the living law of
states and civil associations;--[Great applause;]--that Christianity
should be manifested by acts, the sacrifices of generosity and
liberality. This Christianity is not new to you, Florentines; your
ancient republic knew and has acted upon