The state of the country on the whole in the beginning of 1830 was not unprosperous.  The cruel wrongs inflicted on the Poles since 1815 were all in express violation of a constitution, which met with the approbation of Kosciuszko and the best of the nation.  A noble individual, or a high-spirited people, can more easily submit even to unjust laws, than to arbitrary despotism. Legally the Grand Duke had no right to keep a single Russian soldier in Poland; by the terms of the constitution they could be there only as foreign guests. Legally the press was free. Legally Poland could have defended herself by her charter against any arbitrary act of her sovereign or his viceroy.  It would seem, however, that even the repeated infringements of the constitution, and the direct violation of the laws by the government, did not contribute so much to induce the Poles to insurrection, as the fierce and brutal behaviour of the Russian generalissimo, and of the Russian civil and military officers high and low, whose profligacy had long made them the objects of deep contempt.  The annals of Warsaw indeed present, during the Russian administration, one of the most revolting pictures which history exhibits.  And the idea, that it owes its darkest shades principally to the reckless despotism of one individual, serves only to make them appear still darker.

The war, which called into exercise all the mental faculties of the nation, put a stop of course to all literary activity; but even during the more quiet period which immediately succeeded it—­the quietness of a cemetery—­the dejected spirits of the nation, whose noblest sons an interval of two years had rendered prisoners, exiles, or corpses, are easily to be perceived in the results of their intellectual pursuits.  A small volume, containing three poems by Niemcewiecz and Mickiewicz was printed in 1833 at Leipzig.  It is the swan-like melody of the aged poet; whilst the younger celebrates the exploits of his valiant brethren.  To the poems of the latter, (three volumes, Paris 1828.) a fourth volume was added, containing the riper productions of his manhood.  The late vice president of Warsaw, Xavier Bronikowski, published at the same time Polnische Miscellen in the German language at Nuremberg.  A number of Polish literati were gathered at Paris.  A work, intended to contain about twelve volumes, with the title Souvenirs de la Pologne, historique, statistique, et literaire, was announced in that city; for the printing offices at home were of course closed against the expression of all patriotic feelings.  The fifteen printing establishments at Warsaw issued in the year 1832, from March to December, only sixty-three works.