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master of the house in which Konarski was concealed, and conjured him to care for his friend's safety, as in a few hours his house was to be rigorously searched. In vain the landlord protested that he had no stranger concealed; the officer repeated his advice, adding the mysterious words-'I am one of the followers of Mouraviëff: you understand me; save your friend!' It need hardly be said the search was unsuccessful. At last, at Prussian-Eylau, when he thought himself out of all danger, his ignorance of the technicalities of clock-making awakened the suspicions of the local police; but they only sent him to Dantzic and put him on shipboard for Antwerp. Mazzini and the Italian patriots were then organizing the expedition into Savoy; and Konarski, quitting Belgium without a passport, hastened to join their standard. Again unsuccessful: but failures could not dishearten him. His holy zeal seemed to be inflamed with new ardour at every obstacle; his courage grew with the danger. He immediately considered of fresh endeavours; and to secure himself against the recurrence of such a dilemma as that at Prussian-Eylau, he set himself seriously to learn, as an ordinary workman, one of the branches of clock-making: so preparing himself for the apostolic mission for which he was destined. As a member of the association of Young Poland, which confided to him a most important duty, he proceeded, in 1835, by London, to Cracow, in order to confer with the coreligionists there; and thence, toward the end of the same year, he passed into Russian Poland, traversing, under a variety of disguises, with death ever at his side, Volhynia, Podolia, Lithuania,-in a word, all the Polish provinces subjected to the Muscovite knout. His activity was wonderful: everywhere he spread the writings containing the Gospel of the future and the sacred promises of the faith of which he was the apostle; everywhere he organized subscriptions for the national work; everywhere he knew how, by the fire of his eloquence, to kindle the most apathetic souls. At his voice the believers crowded from far and near; the youth of the Universities of Kiew and Wilna entered into the new holyalliance, and placed in his hands their solemn oath to undertake everything, to dare and to endure, for the salvation of their unhappy country. At his appeal the magnanimous Polish mothers taught their nurslings the love of liberty and of their country, and inextinguishable hatred of the foreign tyranny. Full of an audacity that despised the dread of death, he penetrated to the very ranks of the Russian army, and even there, in that seemingly sterile soil, so irresistible is the admirable power of a real enthusiasm, he saw the seed which he sowed take root and germinate. If the experience of passed ages is not an illusion, from this grain we shall see arise the beneficent growth of liberty for the slave people of Russia. It is remarkable, as an indication of the spirit which even now animates the Russian army, that among the numbers of soldiers whom Konarski admitted to his confidence, not one betrayed him. Even the consummate spy-system of Russia failed against him, for it had to cope with a man uniting never-failing coolness and presence of mind with a genius always fertile in resources.

b One of the Russian Republican Martyrs.

For

three years he baffled the most skilful of the numbers who continually dogged him, till at last in May 1838, in the neighbourhood of Wilna, he was denounced by a German who bad overheard his conversation, and arrested. Conveyed to Wilna, the Governor, before whom he was brought, had the baseness to strike him. Konarski had strength enough to heave up his ponderous fetters and smite his cowardly assailant. For nine months the hero languished in a Russian prison, detained so long in the vain hope of extorting confessions from him, to implicate his friends. All he endured during this terrible period was never known; it was ascertained however, that when found to be mute under the lash, he was fed on salt provisions, and tempted to speak, in the fever of burning thirst, by having liquids placed before him. He was deprived of sleep. Incisions were made in his back, and melted sealing wax dropped in, drop by drop; then spirits of wine poured in and set fire to. In vain. They could draw nothing from him. The Russian governor could not withhold his admiration; called him 'a man of iron.' Two Russian officers successively refused to shoot him. One, a Captain Koravieff, even plotted to set him at liberty; but was discovered. At length sentence of death was passed upon Konarski; that he should be shot. His mother hastened to Wilna to embrace him for the last time. They refused her admittance. Three days before the execution she was brutally driven out of Wilna, The 27th of February, 1839, was a severe winter-day. Konarski, to whom they had only left his summer trousers, intreated the jailer to procure him others. 'My shivering limbs may tremble,' said he, 'and I would not even seem to fear death.' The jailer could do nothing without authority, and contented himself by assuring him that the way was not long. A few hours before his death Konarski received a visit from a monk. Taking his hand, he said—'My good father! I am sure that God will remit my sins, for I have bitterly expiated them;-I have suffered much both for my Country and Humanity. Though I am a Calvinist, your benediction will be as welcome to me as that of a minister of my own faith. Bless me, then, as thy son, one like thyself a believer in the Cross, and I shall die happy.' The monk wept and blessed him. He had not the heart to try for his 'conversion.' Afterwards a Protestant minister was sent to him. With him he calmly took his tea, and conversed of God and immortality, till he had to mount the sledge, to be carried to the place of execution, beyond the walls. All the streets were densely crowded. Children, strong men, and aged, all were in tears. But he, lifting his fettered arms, eried-'Weep not for my lot, in a little while I shall be free; weep, weep for your own!' Then, turning to the clergyman, he said, 'How many monarchs might envy me a funeral procession, so numerous, and so spontaneous !' His only request was that his eyes might not be bound. And so to the last he looked death in the face, not merely with firmness, but with the assured serenity of one who saw beyond death into the future, and whose unshaken faith prophesied to him of his Country's liberty and certain glory.

The Governor died of the consequences of this blow, two years afterwards.

His death, and the manner of it, shook like an earthquake, the souls of friends and enemies. Even the 'Augsbourg Gazette' let slip the phrase-Konarski has been shot, and has died with a firmness worthy of a better cause.' Ah, if better, holier cause than Poland's regeneration, could be found. A Russian General,

present at his execution, cried out in his conviction-From this moment I abhor the epaulettes that weigh upon my shoulders.' And later, the Russian Officers procured the Martyr's chains, forging them into rings, to be worn in secret-in memory of his sufferings, and of his cause. But the Polish population waited not. Hardly had he fallen, when the agonized crowd burst in, the Russian ranks broken, all eager to touch the body of the Saint, to possess some relic of him who had so loved, and dared, and suffered. Even a handful of the earth upon which he had fallen was a treasure in their eyes. resurrection of Poland?

Who will doubt of the

CHARTISM.

I.

A MATTER OF HISTORY.

b

a

HE Reform Bill of 1832 was never accepted by the People. Based upon property-only property to a certain amount,' even Lord Brougham did not claim for it the support of the mass of the people; but assured their Lordships that he excepted the mob, or the populace. When he said the People, he spoke of the middle-classes.' Indeed, from the first, the mechanics, true to the principles of the earlier Whigs, declared against the sham reform. At the close of 1830, a document, drawn up by Henry Hetherington, became the basis of the National Union of the Working Classes and Others, whose object was to obtain Universal Suffrage. This example, set in London, was soon followed in the country, and unions were extensively formed. The Working Classes were becoming a power. lest they should be forced to go too far. by keeping political knowledge from the And when, at the end of 1831, the Lords flung out the Bill, Burdett and Hume,

The Whigs saw this with trembling, Every endeavour was made, specially People, to prevent their opposition.

a Lord Brougham on the Bill, in the House of Lords.

b The same.

and other of the Whig-Radicals, started the Political Unions to counteract the working men.c While the Whig reformers boasted of their 150,000 armed followers to support the ministerial scheme, the working classes were hindered by Government from their peaceable meetings, in order to stifle their protest; were denounced in the House as 'insatiable wild beasts,' even the reforming Radicals not caring to rebuke the accuser. In the unstamped newspapers, which the Government could not put down, may be found ample evidence of the real state of popular feeling. Advantage was, however, taken of the universal indignation against the Tory Peers, to smuggle in the half-measure. The People were invited to forget differences, to unite against the common enemy; general resolutions (vague as those of our new Parliamentary Reformers) were proposed for their adoption; the state trick told again, an appearance of combination was obtained, and the Ministers were triumphant. In June, 1832, the Whig Bill became law, and before the year was out, the working-classes, thoroughly awake to the treason of their late allies, were denounced by Attwood and his Union, and stigmatized as 'atheists, robbers, and incendiaries.' So the Reform Ministry and their friends, with the additional aid of spies and police instigators, prepared for the memorable 13th of May, 1833, when the working men of London were brutally assailed by the Police, at Calthorpe Street, for daring to reiterate their demand for equal justice. Cheated, baffled, and disheartened, however exasperated, the People gave way. From the passing of the Reform Bill their associations declined. Reports of the Committee of the 'National Union' ascribe the falling off to the dissipated habits of some workmen, the apathy of others-the steadier and more stirring men being occupied with the Trades-Unions, then rapidly arising, with the agitation against the New Poor Law, and the endeavour to obtain a remission of the sentence of the Dorchester labourers. Many, also, seem to have been taken away from endeavour at further change by their exertions in the elections, led by false hopes of some practical' good yet to be done with the 'Reformed.' About May, 1834, the 'National Union' was dying out; and little seems to have been attempted till the formation of the 'London Working Men's Association' in June, 1836. Early in 1837 this Association convened a Meeting at the Crown and Anchor, where resolutions and a petition for universal suffrage were carried by a crowded audience. The Association next requested a Conference with those Members of Parliament who professed liberal principles, and after a discussion of two nights, at the British Coffee House, the following resolutions were passed on the 7th of June.

1st. That we agree to support any proposition for Universal Suffrage made on the

At the meeting in Leicester Square, Lovett and Cleave were refused a hearing; and Burdett retired from the Union when he found that working men were 'inadvertently put upon the Council.'

d By Mr. Croker in the House of Commons; and no one answered him.

• On account of a protesting meeting of the Working Classes at Birmingham, October 29th, 1832.

In a speech of the Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk, 7th of November, 1832,

Petition emanating from the Working Men's Association, when presented to the House of Commons by Mr. Roebuck.

Proposed by Daniel O'Connell, Esq., M.P.
Seconded by Charles Hindley, Esq., M.P.

2nd. That we agree to support and vote for a Bill or Bills to be brought into the House of Commons, embodying the principles of Universal Suffrage, Equal Representation, Free Selection of Representatives without reference to Property, the Ballot, and Short Parliaments of fixed duration, the limit not to exceed three years.

Proposed by Daniel O'Connell, Esq., M.P.
Seconded by Charles Hindley, Esq., M.P.

3rd. That we agree to support and vote for a Bill or Bills, to be brought into the House of Commons, for such a reform in the House of Lords as shall render it responsible to the People.

Proposed by Daniel O'Connell, Esq., M.P.
Seconded by Sharman Crawford, Esq., M.P.

4th. That a Committee of twelve persons be appointed, to draw up a Bill or Bills, in a legal form, embodying the principles agreed to, and that they be submitted to another meeting of the liberal members of Parliament and the Working Men's Association; and that the following be the persons appointed

DANIEL O'CONNELL, Esq., M.P.
JOHN ARTHUR ROEBUCK Esq., M.P.
JOHN TEMPLE LEADER, Esq.

CHARLES HINDLEY, Esq., M.P.

THOMAS PERRONET THOMPSON, Esq, M.P.
WILLIAM SHARMAN CRAWFORD, Esq., M.P.

Signed,

Mr. HENRY HETHERINGTON
Mr. JOHN CLEAVE

Mr. JAMES WATSON

Mr. RICHARD MOORE

Mr. WILLIAM LOVETT
Mr. HENRY VINCENT.

Proposed by John Temple Leader, Esq.
Seconded by Mr. Robert Hartwell.

DANIEL O'CONNELL, M.P. for the City of Kilkenny.

CHARLES HINDLEY, M.P. for Ashton-under-Lyne, except 3rd resolution.
WM. SHARMAN CRAWFORD, M.P. for Dundalk,

JOHN FIELDEN, M.P. for Oldham, except 3rd resolution.

THOMAS WAKLEY, M.P. for Finsbury.

I cordially concur in the 2nd and 4th resolutions, D. W. HARVEY.

T. PERRONET THOMPSON, M.P. for Hull.

J. A. ROEBUCK, M.P. for Bath.

I am friendly to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th resolutions, JOHN BOWRING, M.P.
for the Clyde Burghs.

The work, however, fell almost entirely upon Mr. Lovett and Mr. Roebuck. Every
clause was carefully discussed in the Working-Men's Association, and the
Association ultimately submitted the Bill to the Public. This bill was

THE PEOPLES CHARTER;

"Being the outline of an Act to provide for the just representation of the People of Great Britain and Ireland in the Commons' House of Parliament: embracing the principles of Universal Suffrage, No Property Qualification, Annual Parliaments, Equal Representation, Payment of Members, and Vote by Ballot.

On the 6th of August, 1838, at a meeting at New-Hall Hill, Birmingham, the People's Charter was formally approved, even, after some reluctance, by the

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