228 KONGRESOWKA
and Prince Xavery Drucki-Lubecki. Although there were plenty of people, espe-
cially in the Catholic camp, who harboured reservations of One sort or another
about the Constitution and its supporters, the only person to oppose it actively
from the start was the Tsar's personal plenipotentiary, Nikolai Novosiltsov
(1761-1836). It is significant that Novosiltsov's office, though of prime political
importance, had no legal standing in the Constitution. Here, from the outset,
was an agency which could be used as the channel for all manner of arbitrary
and extra-constitutional assaults and stratagems.
Education proved a matter near to the liberals' hearts. For five years under its
director, Stanistaw Potocki, the Commission for Religious Denominations and
Public Enlightenment strove to build on the achievements of the old National
Education Commission and of the Duchy of Warsaw's Education Board. In
1816, Warsaw University opened its doors to five faculties. The Mining School
at Kielce, the Agronomic Institute at Marymont, and the Preparatory
Polytechnical School in Warsaw, were all designed to train a new scientific and
professional elite. In 1821, over one thousand primary schools were in opera-
tion. Inevitably friction arose with the Church, which resented the growth of
secular education under state patronage. Potocki was attacked from all sides.
When, in retaliation, he dared to propose the dissolution of the Catholic teach-
ing orders, he was forced to retract. Then in 1820, when he published an anti-
clerical satire entitled Podroz do Ciemnogrodu (A Journey to Ignoranceville),
he was forced to resign. Thereafter, reaction set in. The next Director of the
Commission, Stanislaw Grabowski (1780-1845), closed two-thirds of the
Kingdom's primary schools. Jewish schools were also discouraged. Priority was
given to the secondary Gymnazia with their predominantly upper-class clien-
tele. Potocki's history textbooks eulogizing the democracy of ancient Athens
were replaced by more conservative volumes which extolled the virtues of impe-
rial Rome. It was a sign of the times.^3
Economic life experienced similarly acute swings of fortune. At first, an over-
enthusiastic government so squandered its meagre resources that by 1821 it faced
bankruptcy. The Tsar threatened to incorporate the Kingdom into the Empire if
the budget were not balanced immediately. Thereupon a remarkable recovery
was staged by Prince Lubecki, who served as Minister of the Treasury from 1821
to 1830. Tax evaders were promised the death sentence. The deficit was elimin-
ated. Tax revenue trebled. Prosperous state monopolies were re-established in
salt and tobacco. In 1828, the Polish Bank was founded to manage fiscal affairs,
and to co-ordinate state-backed credit operations. Large sums were earmarked
for investment in trade and industry. In this decade, Lubecki - 'Le Petit Prince'
as Alexander called him - proved to be the most successful of Polish
'Conciliators'. Grimly determined to preserve the link with Russia, he brooked
no opposition and laid the foundations of a modern and viable economy.^4
The army remained the chief guarantee of the Kingdom's independence. With
permanent cadres of 30,000 men, capable of rapid expansion in wartime, it was a
force which no neighbouring power could easily ignore. Assigned 40 per cent of