Roman blood, a despot by birth and a tyrant by race, to strike a blow against his colleague at Petersburgh. He has too much need of him. Besides it is not for kings, our enemies, to work for us. Let us work for ourselves, and join our forces. 'When'-wrote to me, some days since, my venerable friend Michelet-the Poles unite with the Russians, what hate can hold out? To our union, Citizens!-to Poland so great in her unequal struggle, so persevering in her heroism, so sublime in her misfortunes! But also to the revolutionary minority in Russia! Permit me to exclaim in Russian-Long live Poland independent and Russia free! Why are we Englishmen here to-night? Why does an Englishman stand among the Refugees to speak his word for European hopes? Because, while there are Englishmen who are not ashamed of the faith of Milton and of Cromwell, England shall not be divorced from Europe. Because, while there are Englishmen who desire to be worthy of England's old republican glories, it is their duty to stand by the republicans of other lands and guarantee their promises of the Universal Republic. Therefore we Englishmen listen tonight to the chiefs of the European army; therefore I am bold to speak my English word for England: and one word methinks ought to be enough- -War! (cheers) If England as one man would earnestly and distinctly speak that word, the hopes of Freedom would be as swift as they are sure. War! War against the Tzar, war against despotism, war against wrong. What other can be the duty of England, the duty of every nation-a people organized to serve God, to worship the True and the Everlasting? There was a time when England was so organized: when Vane sate at her council-board, when Milton spoke her will, and Blake and Cromwell did it. In the day when England had an honest government and men for rulers, a far less wrong than this invasion of Turkey had kindled such a beacon on her white-faced cliff's as should have lit the remotest lands along their path of vengeance. Now, if Richard Cobden's word is to be taken, we ought to be heedless of injury to others, neglectful of honour, abandoners of Duty. And indeed such cowardice might be but consistent beneath the rule of all those creeping things called statesmen now hiding in the crown that once was worn by an Elizabeth and an Alfred. With a Court (I have nothing to do here with private respectability) which is kin and kind to every rascal royalty in Europe (cheers),—with such vice-royalties as Aberdeen and Palmerston and Russell, the petty intriguers who have not the manliness to be anything else than the tools of Austria and the Tzar (cheers),—it might be but consistent that the whole country should be cowardly to the core. But Hampden's England can not be so vile. The self-seeking, commercial, diplomatic, peace-mongering shabbinesses that have made England seem but as a nest of vermin are not natural to our life. We are not a people of dastards. There is a heart, I believe, even under the sleekest broad-cloth; I know there is under the worst coat of the workingman. I am here to-night to say that the true-hearted honest working-men of England have but one wish in this matter,-that their word is mine,—that their voice is unanimous for war. War against the Tzar. War for European freedom. I believe that every patriot soul in England is eager for this righteous war. (Loud cheers) I believe that if our government dared ask the people's will-that word War would be so thundered back, the very reverberation would shake them from their seats. They do not ask it, for it might drive them too far and spoil the game they intend to play the game of Nicholas and Gallician Metternich, the game of the tyrants everywhere, to whom, whether it be arms or armistice, they are plotting to betray at once the liberties of Europe and the honour of this England. They are base enough for that while we are fools enough to leave them power. 'Why do we leave them power ?'- Why are not all men honest? Why is Wrong crowned, and Apathy easily bribed, and honester Thought so circumspect, so cautious, and so constitutionally afraid? Need I say more? I would not blush too deeply for my countrymen in the presence of the leaders of insurrectionary Europe. But believe that, however slow-thoughted we may be, England at length begins to know her duty-to perceive that interest is but the follower of duty. Her wrath is rising at the shameful tricks that have been played in her name, dishonouring her through Europe; she begins to see that these treaties of Vienna were a conspiracy against England too; that even into her own side pierced the dagger that murdered Poland. No! not murdered. Poland can not be murdered. The mangled limbs shall be found and brought together, and the life that now lingers in these noble remains reanimate a living and a mighty nation. War with Russia. I know as well as Cobden and Aberdeen what that means. I know that it means war against Austria and Prussia too. I know that, honestly carried out and no sham war to procure a despots' peace, it means the resurrection of Poland, the insurrection of Italy and Hungary. I know that it means convulsion in Europe; the shattering to pieces of the Tzar, and the Pope, and the imperial tyrant of whatever name. I know too that in their fall all the lesser tyrannies will be dragged down both at home and abroad. No wonder it is dreaded by old women and whigs and waiters on providence and hangers-on at courts. I know it means a new arrangement instead of the present dismemberment of Europe. It means the enfranchisement of the peoples. It means a Polish nation and a Russian nation, a Germany rid of her hydra-headed monarchy, an Italy with Mazzini again at Rome, a France gloriously avenged of her present ignominy, an England worthy of what England was. Let it mean all this. And if all this was calamity, still we would say-let justice be done, though the heavens fall.' As it is, however, I say-let justice be done and these glad heavens descend swiftly upon our sad and storm-bewildered earth. War with Russia must include the real means of making it successful. It must mean not only a fleet in the Black Sea, but in the Baltic also. It may mean the bombardment of Petersburgh, the sending subsidies and men to clear a way to Warsaw. It means every honest boldness which can be serviceable for the utter prostration of continental despotism. That is what the war is for. It is so understanding it, that in the name of the Democracy of England, in the name especially of the Republicans who would organize that democracy, I am bold to add one English voice to your battle-shout:-War against the Tzar! Down with the Emperor and the Pope! War to the death against Wrong! Life and freedom to Poland and Italy! to France and Germany! to Russia and to England! Many an English heart pours forth its prayer through me; and would that my voice was trumpet-toned to rouse the deadest sleeper in the land, till the whole people rose as one man to echo it, a practical people to pray fervently and effectually-God speed the European Republic! Here in London we celebrate once more the anniversary of the Polish Insurrection. May the next be kept at Warsaw! The first feast of European Redemption. The ties which bind England to Poland are not but of yesterday. Two hundred years ago our greatest Englishman dedicated his work on Education to a Polish friend. Now Poland is one glorious lesson dedicated to us and to the world. Her martyrs tread our honoured streets. Let us pave their homeward way with help such as may suit their worth. If we can not give them national, let us at least give personal help. Let it be said in the future: the English people always deserved well of Poland. God speed her certain triumph! - Again I say God speed the European Republic! DR ARNOLD RUGE (the German Member of the European Central Democratic Committee) spoke next in German: Our friends, the Poles, have wished me to say a few words to-night in the name of the Germans. In the name of those disgraced and debased Germans who have betrayed both themselves and their dearest interests to the Russians, I have nothing to say: but in the name of history, and those eternal principles of freedom which indissolubly unite us to the Poles, I am about to speak; for it is the duty of every one to do so, if he can. The relation in which the Germans and the Slavonians stand toward each other is of such importance to the continent that every difficulty rises from its perversion; while every political question may be settled as soon as the Germans and the Slavonians come to a proper understanding. The first relation was that of the Germans as conquerors, extirpating the Slavonians, their language, their manners, and their traditions. From the Elbe to the Baltic the Slavonians have entirely disappeared. A later and more friendly relation was that of the Germans and the Poles in the middle ages, which lasted so long as their religion and their institutions remained similar. But when the Poles preserved both their aristocracy and Catholicism, and the Germans introduced their Reformation and their despotism, an estrangement took place; the Polish Republic fell under the weight of its own errors, and under the blindness of the German cabinets, which through the partition of Poland lost their only friends among the Sla vonians. Since then the Germans find themselves opposed by the combined force and hatred of all the Slavonians directed, if not commanded by, Russia. When the Revolution of 1848 occurred, the Slavonians-Russians, Croats, Chekhssupported the counter-revolution: thus avenging on the Germans the oppression they had experienced at their hands. The Germans, even those bragging Nationalists, understand now that they are indeed the slaves of the Slavonians. Their Emperor resides at Petersburgh. It is true the Germans have organized the Russian tyranny, and are at this moment the real springs of the army and the police, the Tzar's only means of government. But now the question is no more a national one, it has become a party-question. The parties are either for the revolution or for the counter-revolution. For her own freedom's sake, then, Germany should not only have freed the Poles from the prisons of Berlin, but likewise redeemed the revolutionary Polish nation from the reactionary Russians. If by their education the Chekhs, Croats, and Russians-slighted as they always have been-have sided with the reaction, the Poles have been reared for revolution. Their fate has deprived them of all other hope, and it is only through a revolution that they can expect the regeneration of their republic. Hence, wherever there has been a struggle for liberty, the Poles have been found in the foremost ranks. Why then did the Germans of 1818 mistake their duty and their interest?-Because car revolution was only a half one, and our people only nationally and tyrannically minded. The great nation of forty-four millions was determined not to lose a single village in which the German tongue was spoken: a rage for declaring war against the Poles, the Italians, and the Danes, a fear of dividing these forty-four millions by losing the Chekhs and other small populations, dominated the parliamentary majorities, and, judging from the absurd Schleswig-Holstein question, the public opinion of that period also. The majorities, and that public which could be enthusiastic for Radetzky at Milan, for Father Colomb in Posen, and for Wrangel in Holstein, have had time to become conscious of all their stupidity. Freedom perished, and tyrannical Germany, the great nation of forty-four millions, with all its German-speaking villages, is now nothing but an appanage of Russia. The linguistic and geographical policy of the national German fools has extended the frontiers of Russian tyranny to the North Sea and the Rhine. The Polish question is a question of European freedom. The whole counter-revolution conspires against the Poles; it is therefore only a general radical revolution which can solve the problem of a free Poland. The democratic and social republic alone has no geographical and territorial interest, but a human one. That interest alone is the interest of every free man, and consequently the right policy of the German nation. And indeed the Germans will not become free until they learn to understand this: not to possess a large territory, but to consist of free citizens makes the greatness of a nation. But for that reason also may the Poles confide in the German democrats. When the Germans shall thoroughly understand their own interest-and they are daily learning it in a terrible school-then they will perceive that it is one and the same with that of the Poles: namely, to be members of a free commonwealth. We, who already in 1848 declared this against all national and tyrannical desires, are now in exile; and our opponents of that time-where are they? All of them remain under the old yoke. But we shall return; our principles will once more move the peoples; and then we shall solve the Polish Question. DR PAUL DARASZ (a Pole, and brother of the late Albert Darasz) spoke in French. It was less to excite sympathy for the Poles that he appealed to the meeting, than to assert the immortal and unquenchable spirit of Polish nationality. (cheers) He then quoted some eloquent passages from an address made in the French Chamber of Deputies, in 1816, by Victor Hugo, on the subject of Poland; and referred to the writings of Salvandy, minister of Louis Philippe, for analogous sentiments in favour of the independence of that country. The whole of Europe, for nearly a century, had been crushed under a semi-savage state like Russia; Austria and Prussia were but its tools; and Poland now supposed to be overcome, Turkey was to be the next prey. It was no moment for diplomatic accommodations, when throughout Europe all was anarchy, revolution, and war. Passing under review the position of the European states, he showed the need of Polish freedom for the sake of European civilization, pointed out the duty and interest of England to take part with the peoples against despotism, and bade his countrymen be ready for the approaching combat. DR RONAY (a Hungarian clergyman) addressed the English part of the audience in their own tongue. After some preliminary remarks, he said:— On the shores of the mighty Danube, in the beautiful valley of the Carpathian mountains lies Hungary, my dear and ever memorable father-laud!—and beyond the Carpathian range, lies Poland, united centuries ago with Hungary by an alliance sealed with the blood of its noblest sons! There live the people of Hungary and Poland; their hearts, although darkened by misfortunes, still foster the smouldering fire of freedom; their arms, although chained, are still strong to break their fetters, to forge them into weapons and to level to the ground the impious chain-manufactories of Austria and Russia, where the crafty forgemen are crowned tyrants. There on both sides of the Carpathians still exist our races, and amongst the ruins of their homes, and amongst the ruins of their broken hearts, rises once more the hope of freedom, the hope of future glory and happiness. The noble Padisha, the only European prince who does not profess Christianity, and yet the only one who faithfully and fearlessly fulfils the injunctions of Christianity, has drawn his victorious sword. What will be the result? The Sultan can stand against his enemies, but he can not stand against his friends. The greatest difficulty in the arrangement of the Eastern affairs is, that the Sultan has only one Constantinople instead of five; had he five, each of his faithful friends, and each of the spotless defenders of the Christian faith, would take one, and drive him back, no matter where, perhaps into the barren wilds of Siberia. However you may confide in diplomatic sincerity, I hold the firm conviction that in our days, more harm, more insult, more injustice has been done to humanity by the pen of ministers than by the sword of soldiers. I have no faith in diplomacy, but I have a strong and unswerving faith in destiny; and the destiny of our race can not be slavery, and the destiny of the human mind can not be darkness; it must be light, it shall be the sacred light of civil and religious freedom. The day of retribution is not far off; and when that day shall come, when the star of freedom shall rise, I trust there will also rise a man from amongst the people of England, who, with the few words of your immortal Nelson, 'England expects that every man will do his duty,' shall join the great struggle for universal freedom, shall gain the victory over the tyrants, and secure freedom and happiness all over the civilized world! Then turning to the Poles, and speaking in Latin, he concluded:— What should I say to you, brethren! on this solemn day? Whilst with one hand we perform the funeral rites for those who fell gloriously for their country, with the other let us uplift the arms and ensigns of liberty, that, inspired with the heroic spirit of the Turks, we may lay down our lives and give our blood for our country. What should I say to you? I have one word, and this word is written in the pages of the Bible:-'Put not your trust in princes!' (cheers) I have one word, which more than once hath made the sceptres of the tyrants to tremble; and this word uttered from a manly breast is:-Let us die for liberty! I have one last word, the expression of my whole soul, and this word is:--- Fatal catastrophe of servitude and sarcophagus of liberty, that on which was inscribed the end of Poland (Finis Poloniæ'). The record of that day of loss be obliterated, and on the banner of liberty be inscribed in characters of flame-The beginning of Poland!—the beginning of Hungary! Mr Linton then read the following letter to the Chairman of the Meeting, from Mr MAZZINI: My dear Friend,-Nothing but illness could prevent me from attending at your anniversary meeting. I am hoarse, neuralgic, feverish, coughing. Unable to take the least part in your proceedings, I would only prove a trouble to the bystanders. I, however, am the loser. Soul, mind, affection, you have me all. We have stuck our flag to the mast, some twenty-two years ago, since the first days of our proscription. Old in years, not in spirits, we still hold by it-brothers as ever, brothers for ever. Poverty, deceptions, betrayals, schisms and feuds, |