ART. XIII.-Les Polonais et les Polonaises de la Revolution du 29 Novembre, 1830: ou Portraits des Personnes qui ont figuré dans la dernière Guerre de l'Independance Polonaise, avec les Facsimile de leurs signatures, lithographiés sur dessins originaux, par les artistes les plus distingués, MM. Grévedon, Maurin, Vigneron, Belliard, Devéria, Bazin, Desmadryl, Lecler, Desmaisons, Kurowski, Officier Polonais, &c. &c.; accompagnés d'une Biographie pour chaque portrait. Par Joseph Straszewicz. Liv. I. folio. Parîs, 1832.

THIS publication is honourable alike to the talent, the patriotism, the enterprise, the spirit of independence, and the industry of the Polish exiles. It is a biography of such Poles as have most distinguished themselves during the recent attempt at emancipation, written in French, by one of their number, and illustrated by portraits from the pencils of Polish and French artists, as also by fac-similes of every portrayed biographee's autograph signature. Or perhaps, did we ourselves belong to the class of cognoscenti instead of that of literati, we might, more correctly, say, it is a collection of the portraits of such personages, illustrated by biographical sketches. Under either point. of view it is an interesting production. The prints are as creditable to the artists, French and Poles, as are the biographical sketches to the author, an unpractised one, we presume, and writing in a foreign language. And those who may be tempted to subscribe by the charitable wish of aiding destitute refugees, will find, we think, that in addition to the gratification of their benevolent feelings, they have got their money's worth for their money.

A work of this slight kind is, however, neither a meet occasion for politically discussing the Polish question, nor entitled to occupy many of our pages; we shall therefore try briefly to give our readers some idea of the degree of interest which M. Straszewicz possesses opportunity and talent to awaken. His first number, the only one yet published, presents us with the lives and likenesses of V. Lukazinski, the Countess Potocka, J. N. Üminski, P. Bielinski, and the Count de Paç-the last being, it should seem, the Sclavonian form of Pazzi, of which noble Florentine family the Polish patriot is a descendant. Of these five the first two most touch our fancy, and of them we shall speak.

Valerian Lukazinski, the son of a noble but reduced family, was born in 1790. In his very infancy Poland was blotted from the list of nations, and like almost all aspiring and gallant spirits amongst his countrymen of that generation, he pursued a military career under the auspices of Napoleon, to whom the crushed and divided Poles looked for the resuscitation of their country. Upon the downfal of the French empire, Lukazinski entered the army of the kingdom of Poland, as constituted at Vienna, and subjected to the Russian autocrat. He was appointed major in the 4th regiment of the line, which he so trained and formed, that the Grand-Duke Constantine loved to call it his young guard: this regiment has since peculiarly distinguished itself in the insurgent army.

But whatever military skill Lukazinski had acquired in the mighty Napoleon school, it was not as a soldier that he was destined to assist his country's struggles. Early dissatisfied with her inthralled condition, and perhaps with Alexander's mode of fulfilling the engagements under which he had obtained Poland, Lukazinski began to meditate emancipation from Moscovite sovereignty, and for that purpose turned his thoughts to secret associations, a course, as our author assures us, peculiarly adapted to the Polish character. Lukazinski, according to Straszewicz, founded a national freemasonry, in outward form not differing from ordinary freemasonry, and inculcating lessons of loyalty to the czar, blended with patriotism, upon all members below the fourth grade of initiation; but the real object of which was insurrection and independence. This national freemasonry-we are not told of what grade-spread throughout Poland, including her still dismembered provinces, and numbered amongst its disciples most of the army. But such secrets are hardly to be kept for years impenetrable. In 1821, just as Lukazinski was beginning to deem himself ready for action, Alexander prohibited all freemasonry in his dominions.

The timid now took fright and abandoned their schemes. The more ardent "undertook," says Straszewicz, "to transform the prudent work of Lukazinski into Carbonarism." They sought a new mask, a new organization; but the police was now upon the scent, and in the following year very many were arrested, including Lukazinski himself, who had previously incurred Constantine's displeasure. His biographer tells us :

"A superior officer had been brought before a court-martial, of which Lukazinski was named a member. The grand-duke, according to his usual practice, sent a verdict ready drawn up, to which the members were, as a mere matter of form, to affix their signatures. I will not sign,' said Lukazinski. 'If I am a judge, it is my right and duty to judge for myself; if I am not, my signature is useless.' His firmness awoke scruples in his colleagues, and the grand duke's order remained unavailing."

For this act of disobedience Lukazinski had been exiled to a country town, where he remained under police surveillance-thank heaven an untranslatable word!-when the discovery of his machinations offered better grounds for punishing him. From this period he was a close prisoner, secluded from all intercourse with friends and kindred, condemned to hard labour, and, it is alleged, periodically subjected to the knout, an increase of severity which he is averred to have provoked by constantly detected and constantly renewed attempts to escape and revolt. When the insurrection did break out, Lukazinski was anxiously sought by his friends in every Polish prison; but in vain! Neither the living mau, nor any record of his death, could be found; and it is asserted that the Russians dragged their captive away with them in their retreat. Lukazinski's portrait is by a Polish officer, whose graphic abilities it places in a very favourable light. We should like to know whether it be painted from the life, or from memory.

We have already bestowed upon M. Straszewicz as much space as we had originally allotted him; but we cannot expose our gallantry to

such reprobation as must follow our omission of the one lady whose striking countenance graces this number; and we are the better inclined to exceed our limits in her favour, as her patriotic enthusiasm appears to be of that genuinely feminine kind which we love to commemorate in the gentler half of the species.

Claudine Potocka, sprung from one of the oldest and noblest houses of Poland, that of the Counts Dzialynski, married at sixteen into another, that of the Counts Potocki, and had lived six years of wedded happiness, when, in November 1830, Poland rose against Russia. Count Potocki instantly left his quiet home in the Grand Duchy of Posen, and flew to Warsaw to share the dangers of his countrymen. His wife followed, not, like some of her fair compatriots, to battle in the Polish ranks, but to devote her blooming youth to the service of the hospitals, where, for seven months, she consecrated herself wholly and unremittingly to tendance upon the wounded, and upon the victims of the cholera. When Warsaw surrendered, she accompanied the army to Modlin, and upon the retreat, resigned the single truss of straw procured for her own bed, to a sick officer destitute of even such wretched accommodation. When all was over, she made use of the passport granted her in consideration of her sex, to rescue those most implicated, most hopeless of escape, by passing them as her servants; and when danger threatened the party, she pledged her person and property to the Prussian government for their conduct. The Countess Potocka is now living at Dresden, where, we understand, the residue of her fortune, her trinkets, her personal attentions, and even the produce of her manual labour as a copyist, are still dedicated to the continuance of the same work of patriotic charity, in relieving the distress of her exiled and indigent countrymen.

ART. XIV. Considérations sur les principaux moyens d'améliorer le sort des Classes Ouvrières. Par M. Arrivabene. Bruxelles, 1832. 8vo. THE author of this pamphlet is known as the compiler of a valuable account of the philanthropic institutions of London, and as the writer of several papers on subjects of public economy. He is the descendant of one of the most ancient families, and the inheritor of one of the largest estates in Italy, and, having been driven by the unhappy course of political events from his native land, has derived from his exile the consolation of turning his leisure to far more useful account for his fellow men than, under other circumstances, could have been expected of him. The present pamphlet is the result of considerable observation, much reading, and long reflection, and will be especially useful on the Continent, where few economists are more conversant than M. Arrivabene with all that has been said, written, and done in this country of late years, for the reformation of the poor laws, and the amelioration of the condition of the poor.

The author is strongly opposed to all fantastic schemes for the prevention of pauperism, and especially to that chimerical theory of the

equal partition of property, upon which the system of Mr. Owen and the St. Simonian religion appear to be in a great degree founded. The conclusion at which he arrives is, that "whether we consider the augmentation of the revenues, or the diminution of the expenses of the working classes, as the means of the improvement of their condition, it is the establishment of good laws, political, civil, and commercial, and the diffusion of education, that present themselves as the chief modes of effecting the desired improvement."

We apprehend that there are few sound economists, at least in England, who would not be disposed to agree with Count Arrivabene in this conclusion. Those classes which are dependant on their labours for subsistence cannot, in the nature of things, have separate interests from those of the other orders of society. We entirely concur in the author's opinion, that civilized society cannot exist without the stability of property, and, moreover, without the inequality of fortunes, which the new theorists so stoutly oppose. After a patient examination of the St. Simonian doctrines, to say nothing of Mr. Owen's, it is hard to conceive the possibility of the existence of a community passing its life in such a state of modified predial slavery as the practice of those doctrines would establish. We are not in such despair of the fortunes of the world-even of the old world of Europe as to have lost all hope of the permanent reformation of social abuses, in spite of all the obstacles that frustrate that reformation, and we had rather wait with patience the progress of the change, however tardy, than, by the adoption of such systems as the St. Simonian, destroy Persepolis cleanly and utterly, and erect an assemblage of mud cabins upon its ruins.

In this country the labouring classes have many subjects of just complaint, but every year is bringing them nearer to the period when their interests will receive from the legislature the attention they deserve. We may say to them in the meanwhile, that "in quietness and in confidence shall be their strength." The progress of sound legislation and the increasing spread of knowledge will be the best securities to the many, for protection against the oppression or misgovernment of the few. But if men once abandon those great landmarks of social order, the institutions of property and of marriage, as recommended by the St. Simonians and other fantastics, it is to be feared their posterity will long and dearly regret the vain delusion which shall have prompted the sacrifice of the best-known securities for the exercise of tranquil industry, and the enjoyment of domestic peace.

ART. XV.-Annales de l'Hygiène; pour 1832.

THESE Annals consist of numbers, published quarterly, containing valuable contributions on the subject of Hygiène from men of science, official persons and philanthropists. They embody every discovery, every new application of art and science which has for its object the preservation of the health and the improvement of the physical condition of the community. They contain also the enactments of the legis

lature, and every expedient of the government and the police for the attainment of the same important object. Nor are there wanting in this useful "recueil" those statistical reports which show the effects. of laws and institutions-of seasons, climate and habits, &c. on the - life of man—those sterling facts and results which are essential to the enlightenment of governments. To appreciate the full value of the latter object, we should reflect that we have fallen upon one of those occasional crises in the history of mankind,-one of those periods when an eagerness if not a necessity for a change in their situation seizes on many nations; a moment when the philosopher may observe an agitation among the human species approximating to that which the instinct of the lower animals inspires in them at the approach of some convulsion of the elements, or at the eve of some planetary phenomenon. Unlike them, however, man, when governed by this impulse of change, has no such natural and unerring laws to guide bim to a new haven of rest and security.

The facts reported by general statistics-a compilation to which statistical medicine contributes an important share-may be now, however, considered as valuable guides in the changes going on around us in the political conditions of the countries of Europe. Without some such beacon, those who venture on the stormy ocean of politics, with a view to benefit their fellow creatures, pursue only a phantom and must suffer wreck.

The science of political economy, we may venture to assert, will further and chiefly improve by a knowledge of statistical facts. Many efforts have been inade to establish a secure system of political economy on the basis of undeniable truths, but hitherto the clashing opinions of the most celebrated authorities, the dreams of enthusiasts, and the confessions of men who to candour add superior abilities, prove that at present no certainty has been obtained in this science. One great resource then, we repeat, may be found in that statistical knowledge, of which so gratifying a view is presented in "Les Annales de l'Hygiène."

The introduction of statistical reports in "Les Annales" is, however, by no means their highest merit, as it is far from being the main object of the work. It is to the promotion of the science of public health that the efforts of its contributors (and their names alone must give those efforts a current value) are chiefly directed.

"L'Hygiène publique," or the Science of Public Health, is nearly unknown, under that comprehensive form, in this country. The English are more accustomed to contemplate Medicine in its warlike character alone, as a Briareus with many hands, each furnished with a weapon whose destructive power is only tamed down into beneficence by the skill with which it is managed. The science of public health, on the contrary, embraces a variety of objects of a very opposite and specific nature; objects too numerous to specify here, but whose aim is generally the prevention rather than the cure of disease; and we may venture to affirm, that the educated man who makes this study his pursuit, whether influenced by the gratification of a laudable