the midst of you, and with which I express my thanks to you for the firm and cordial support you have given my Government, for the welfare of the nation.

"Gentlemen, let us not separate from this building without again thanking Divine Providence for its goodness, of which the nation becomes daily more worthy. Let us rejoice at the improvement which has taken place in our agriculture, and in our commerce. Sooner or later, we shall leave no doubt in anybody's mind as to the success of our efforts for the prosperity of the nation, and for the payment of our debts to the protecting Powers. "I open the third Session of this Parliament."

CRACOW. In the month of February an insurrection broke out in Silesia, which is memorable as having ultimately caused the extinction of the last remnant of Polish nationality. This has hitherto been represented by the existence of the republic of Cracow, the independence of which was solemnly guaranteed by the treaty of Vienna, when Russia, Austria, and Prussia were constituted its three protecting Powers. The peasantry of Silesia rose in arms, and on the 22nd of February the Austrian troops, under the command of General Collin, were driven from Cracow by the insurgents, and a Provisional Government was installed. A manifesto was then issued, setting forth the cruelties and oppressions inflicted upon the Polish nation, and calling upon every member of it to join the standard of revolt. On the 23rd, a decree, signed by Louis Gorzkowsky and two others, required, under pain of death, obedience to the orders of the Provisional Go

vernment, commanding all persons capable of bearing arms to place themselves under the orders of the local authorities, forbidding pillage and violence, the establishment of illegal clubs, &c. Another decree appeared on the 24th, and among the names attached was that of Count Potulicki, one of the richest citizens of Poland.

On the 24th of February, two days after the evacuation of the city by the Austrian troops and authorities, the victorious insurgents crossed the Vistula at Siespolomize, where they were joined by numerous partisans, and then marched to Wieliczka. General Collin was not prepared to meet this movement, and fell back on Mogilani and Wadowice, where he expected reinforcements. A fall of snow rendered military communication difficult.

The insurgents next advanced into the circle of Tarnow, where it appears that the nobles had made an unsuccessful attempt to induce the peasantry to join the revolt. The latter remained faithful to the Austrian Government, and, rising upon the nobles, massacred upwards of 200 of them. Colonel Benedetti, one of the principal officers of the army of Galicia, finding that the peasants could be trusted, organised them into military array, placing them under the command of officers of the regular army. The first engagement took place at Gdow, and terminated in the retreat of part of the insurgents in the direction of Wieliczka and Podgorze. General Collin, who had received some reinforcements, took advantage of that circumstance, and on the 27th marched upon Podgorze, which is opposite Cracow, on the right bank of the Vistula. The insurgents,

organized in haste and badly armed, made an attempt to retain possession of Podgorze. The combat on both sides was obstinate and sanguinary. After two successive attacks the Austrian troops obtained possession of the town, the insurgents taking refuge in Cracow.

In the mean time the forces of the three Powers began to concentrate on Cracow, and the persons who still remained in the city, finding that further resistance was hopeless, opened a communication with General Collin on the subject of surrendering Cracow ; but while it was going on, the Russian corps moved forward, and marched into the town without striking a blow. The city, however, was found to be nearly deserted, none remaining but old men and women and children, the young and able having gone into Galicia. The three principal leaders, Colonels Gorzkowski, Wodzicki, and Brinski, after an interview with the Prussian General, De Felden, laid down their arms on the 5th of March, and surrendered at discretion. The insurgents delivered up to the Prussian General in all 200 horses and 600 scythes, but not a single musket.

This ill-starred attempt was seized upon by the three Powers as a pretext for destroying the separate nationality of Cracow, and in the month of November the following imperial proclamation announced to Europe that the last shadow of Polish freedom had departed:

but, subsequently to the events of the war of 1812, the Russian arms having reconquered them, our father, the late Emperor Francis I., concluded with the allied Courts of Prussia and Russia, on the 21st of April and the 3rd of May, 1815, a treaty, containing the following stipulation:- Cracow, with its territory, will form in future a free and independent city, under the protection of the three Powers. The express condition, and the necessary supposition of the arrangement, however, were, that the free city should observe the strictest neutrality-refuse all asylum to refugees, subjects of the three Powers-and deliver them into the hands of the competent authorities. A sad experience of sixteen years, however, has demonstrated that Cracow has not fulfilled the conditions of its independent existence, and that, since 1830, it has been the constant focus of intrigues against the three protecting Powers. Finally, in the month of February of the present year, it became the theatre of more violent and dangerous scenes than ever. After the Government and constitution had been overturned, and when the fate of the city was abandoned to a handful of conspirators, who had assumed the name of Revolutionary Government of Poland, and excited to revolt against the existing authorities the inhabitants of all the ancient provinces of Poland, an armed horde invaded our dominions from the territory of Cracow, and it was necessary to replace it under a provisional Government, subject to our military law, and to have it occupied by the troops of the protecting Powers. Those events having precluded the possibility of restoring liberty and in[X]

dependence to Cracow, after their overthrow by the enemies of the order, repose, and tranquillity of Europe, and deeming it our duty to secure both our faithful subjects of Galicia and the peaceable inhabitants of Cracow against the attacks and intrigues of that anarchical party, we have, together with His Majesty the King of Prussia and His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, taken into serious consideration the future fate of Cracow.

"With that view deliberations have been entered into with the special plenipotentiaries of the Courts of Berlin and St. Petersburgh, the result of which has been the conclusion of a convention, signed at Vienna, on the 6th of November of the present year, and in virtue of which the three protecting Powers of the city of Cracow revoke and suppress the treaties of the 3rd of May, 1815. That city and its territory consequently return under our sceptre, as they belonged, previous to the peace of Vienna, of the 14th of October, 1809, to our late father and our ancestors. We have, for that reason, taken possession of the city and its territory. We annex them for ever to our Crown, and declare them to form an inseparable portion of our empire, with which we incorporate them.

"We charge Count Maurice de Deyme, our Chamberlain, Councillor of Regency, and Governor of Prague, in the capacity of Aulic Commissioner, to take possession thereof; and we earnestly invite all the inhabitants of the city of Cracow and its former territory, in their own interests, to obey the said Aulic Commissioner appointed by us, as also the authorities whom we confirm and re-establish in their

posts. We recommend them, moreover, punctually to conform to the ordinances enacted or to be enacted.

"On the other hand, we promise them the maintenance and protection of our holy religion, impartial justice, an equal assessment of taxes, and a full and entire guarantee of public securityto those who shall render themselves worthy of our grace by submitting immediately to the present measure, which will prove beneficial to them, and by their loyalty and devotedness to our family. They will ever find us a mild Prince and a gracious Emperor, and we will exert ourselves strenuously to procure to them the blessings which their annexation. to a great and mighty monarchy is calculated to confer on the inhabitants of Cracow.

"Given in our Imperial Palace, at Vienna, on the 11th November, 1846, in the twelfth year of our reign. "FERDINAND."

This edict was countersigned by three of the great officers of State.

On the 16th of November Cracow was taken possession of by the Austrian General Count Castiglione, as military governor, while at the same time the civil Government was placed in the hands of Count Maurice de Deyme. As it is important that the reasons alleged by the three great Powers, to justify this violation of the treaty of Vienna, should be fully known, we subjoin a document signed by Count Castiglione, and publicly read in the Palace of the Senate in the presence of all the authorities, when he formally assumed the government of the city.

Inasmuch as the conspiracy which, in the month of February, 1846, produced the events which

occurred in the Grand Duchy of Posen, in Cracow and in Galicia, was a plan long prepared, with the assistance of numerous accomplices in the country; inasmuch as this criminal faction took arms at the appointed time, commenced hostilities and published proclamations which excited the people to a general revolt; inasmuch as Cracow became the seat of a central faction, which assumed the name of Revolutionary Government; inasmuch as all those circumstances have placed the city of Cracow in a miserable state of war, which would have authorized the three Courts of Austria, Prussia, and Russia to use all the rights conferred by war; inasmuch as, for that reason alone, the three Courts might dispose of a territory which had assumed a hostile attitude towards them; but inasmuch as the intention of the three Powers is not to submit the city of Cracow to the law of the strongest, inasmuch as where there is so great an inequality of force that law could not be applied; inasmuch as it is not intended to commit any act of vengeance against that city or to punish it, but that the high protecting Powers wish only to reestablish order and peace in the territory of Cracow, and have no other object than to protect the inhabitants against events which have SO much disturbed their tranquillity; inasmuch as by a treaty concluded between the three Courts, on the 3rd of May, 1815, the city of Cracow, with its territory, was declared a free, independent, and strictly neutral city, and placed under the three high contracting parties; and that the three Courts have wished to carry into execution, by this convention, the articles relating to Cracow in

the different treaties of the 3rd of May, 1815, of which one was concluded between His Majesty the Emperor of Austria and the Emperor of Russia, and the other of the same date, between the Emperor of Russia and His Majesty the King of Prussia; but inasmuch as the existence of the free city of Cracow, far from responding to their intentions, has been a source of disturbance, which during twenty years has not only menaced the peace and the prosperity of that free city, and the safety of the adjoining country, but likewise tends to overthrow the order of things established by the treaties of 1815; inasmuch as numerous facts of this nature, which are too generally known to render it necessary to examine them, have entirely changed in its essence the mode of existence of the city of Cracow, and that by proceedings contrary to treaties Cracow has several times disengaged itself from the duties imposed on it by strict neutrality, that those proceedings have several times induced the armed intervention of the three Powers, and that all the changes effected in its constitution to give more force to its government have not prevented a repetition of those deplorable facts; inasmuch as even the forbearance manifested by the friendly ordinances of the three Governments, in place of attaining the object, have served but to fortify the irreconcileable enemies of order existing in their plans, and that the free city of Cracow is become the focus of a new and vast conspiracy of which the ramifications embraced all the ancient Polish provinces; inasmuch as to this culpable and disloyal enterprise was joined an armed attack,

and that Cracow formed a centre whence the spirit of revolt endeavoured to undermine the basis of the internal tranquillity of the neighbouring states; inasmuch as that subsequently Cracow was evidently too feeble to resist the continual intrigues of the Polish emigants who hold that city in moral slavery, so that it offers to the Powers no further guarantee against the return of the attempts at revolution frequently renewed; but inasmuch as enterprises of this nature are an evident violation of the treaty of the 3rd of May, 1815, as well as of the 2nd article of the constitutional statutes, framed for the free city of Cracow, the 30th of May, 1833; inasmuch as the conventions above mentioned, relating to Cracow, between the three Powers, have only been repeated in the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th articles of the general Act of the Congress of Vienna, of the 9th of June, 1815, in order that this Act should embrace the different results of the arrangements concluded during the private negotiations between the Cabinets; inasmuch as that, consequently, if the three Governments at present

change with respect to Cracow, an order of things upon which they voluntarily agreed in the year 1815, they merely exercise an undoubted right; inasmuch as in consequence of all that precedes, and having taken into serious consideration the security of their States, so frequently menaced by the free city of Cracow, the three Courts of Austria, Prussia, and Russia have agreed on the following resolutions:-1. The three above stated Courts of Austria, Prussia, and Russia, revoking the articles of the treaties relating to the city of Cracow concluded, the one between His Majesty the Emperor of Russia and the Emperor of Austria, and the other between the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia, and signed the 3rd of May, 1815, in the same manner the additional treaty between Austria, Prussia, and Russia, of the same day, is revoked and suppressed. 2. The city of Cracow and its territory are, in consequence, restored to Austria, and reunited to the Austrian monarchy, to be held in possession by his Imperial, Royal, and Apostolic Majesty, as before the year 1809."