The conquests of Napoleon made great changes in Poland; and at the great settlement of 1815 the Emperor Alexander I. proposed to form the whole of ancient Poland into a constitutional state under the Russian crown; but it was ultimately arranged that Galicia should be given back to Austria, Posena to Prussia, and that the rest of the Napoleonic Duchy should be formed into a constitutional state, with the Emperor of Russia as king — provinces acquired by Catherine 1L at the portion of 1772 remaining incorporated with the Russian empire; and it was governed accordingly. It had its diet, its national administration, and its national army. In 1830 an insurrection broke out. When this was suppressed all that was changed, and measures were taken to Russianise the country if possible. A second insurrection broke out in 1863, and this also was suppressed.
Ths population is reported as about five millions of souls. I presume of inhabitants, though in Russia that term is applied to males alone. According to one estimate reported to me, about two-fifths of the inhabitants are Jews, and something less than that proportion are Poles. According to a Russian estimate, the Russians are under 10,000 males, and the Jews number upwards of 600,000 males.
The serfdom of the peasantry was comparatively restricted, but it could be made very oppressive. In the insurrection of 1830 the leaders sought to secure their cooperation by promising them emancipation and a freehold possession of lands in their occupation; and a similar arrangement was adopted by the Russian Government.
I have not the information necessary to enable me to form an opinion in regard to the propriety, expediency, or the justice of subsequent proceedings, which brought ruin and exile upon many noble-minded natives of Poland, males and females, nobles and peasants, alike. In the minds of many, Poles and Siberia are closely associated. I have not the means of either verifying or disproving any of the allegations which are current in regard to the number of Poles who have been expatriated by exile thither. But to this I cau testify: for about seven years — from 1833 to 1840 inclusive — every male going to Siberia was supplied with a copy of the New Testament scriptures. All of these passed through my hands; and in no one year did the number of New Testaments in Polish appear to be disproportionate to the numbers required in other languages spoken in the provinces — Finnish, Lettish, Estonian, Swedish, German, and French.
Of the Polish exiles on their journey to Siberia, Michie, in his volume entitled The Siberian Overland Route from Pekin to St. Petersburg, mentions that the number of Polish prisoners met with on the road at some places threatened seriously to impede his journey. Between Kazan and Perm he encountered companies of them on their way, and this at almost every station. This was in 1863 or 1864, and he writes: — ' The resources of the posting establishments were severely taxed to provide horses for so many travellers at once, and we had frequently to wait till the Poles were gone, and then take the tired horses they had brought from the last station. The Poles travelled in the same manner as we did, in large sledges, containing three or four people, sometimes more. Those who could not be accommodated with sledges had carts or telegas, which \yere more or less crowded. None of them travelled a-fooU All were well clothed in furs. On the whole, I was surprised to find such a number of people travelling with so much comfort. The prisoners were invariably treated with kindness and consideration by the officer in charge and by the gensdarmes. They are under close surveillance, but I did not see any of the prisoners in irons, though I was informed that some of them were so.... They ate well, and talked loudly; the din of their voices at a post-station was intolerable. Many joked and laughed a great deal, by way of keeping up their spirits, I suppose; but no indication whatever was given that they were exiles undergoing the process of banishment. If one might judge from appearances, I should say they rather liked it/ Of the passage of the Volga, he writes: — ' The ferryboats were engaged the whole day in conveying Polish exiles across the river bound for Siberia. It is a sad sight to see so many people in captivity, and still more so to see a number of women accompanying the exiles. It is quite common for the wives, daughters, and mothers of the politician convicts to follow their relatives into Siberia. This is not discouraged by the Russian Government; on the contrary, every facility is granted to enable their families to emigrate, and they have always the means of travelling in company. The object of the Government is to colonise Siberia, so that the more people who g > there the better.
Besides, the residence of families in exile offers some guarantee against any attempt at a return to their native country.' Describing then two old ladies, well dressed in black silk and warm fur cloaks, he says: — ' They were treated with great kindness by the soldiers, who lifted them carefully out of the boat, carried them to their sledges which were in waiting, and put them in as tenderly as if they had been their own mothers. After carefully wrapping them up with their furs a Cossack got in beside each of the ladies, and they drove off to Kazan. A girl who was with them was equally well attended to by the officer in command of the part}', who seemed to consider the Polish maiden to be his especial charge.'