248 CRACOVIA
Opposition sought to re-establish the Constitution, the revolutionaries planned
a new rising. The servile President, the Revd Jan Schindler, sought only to curry
the favour of his Austrian patrons.
The long-awaited Rising went off in February 1846, at half-cock. Misplanned
by Mieroslawski, it proved to be a nine-day wonder. Co-ordination with the
other partitions was obstructed by preventative arrests. Co-operation with the
nobility of Galicia was interrupted by the outbreak of the Jacquerie. Concerted
action was hampered by divided counsels and by the entry of the Austrian Army
under General Collin. Even so, on 20 February 1846, riots and demonstrations
in the City quickly led to the erection of barricades. General Collin beat a hasty
retreat, taking the Bishop, and the three Residents with him. On the 22nd, a
manifesto, 'To the Polish Nation', announced the formation of a National
Government headed by a revolutionary triumvirate:
Poles!
The hour of revolt has arrived. Poland, rent asunder, is rising again and uniting. Our
brothers have risen in' revolt in the Duchy of Poznan and in Congress Poland. They are
fighting with the enemy in Lithuania and in Ruthenia. They are fighting for holy rights
taken away either by fraud or by force. You know what has happened already, and is
happening even now. The flower of our youth rots in the prisons; the elders who gave us
their advice have been dishonoured... Brothers! One more step, and Poland and the
Poles will be no more. Our grandchildren will curse our memory, for leaving a beautiful
country in ruins, for allowing valiant people to be put in chains, and for the fact that they
must profess a foreign religion, speak a foreign language, and be the slaves of those who
infringed our laws... All free nations of the world are calling on us not to let the great
principle of nationality fail. God himself, who someday will demand an account, is call-
ing us.
Our number is twenty million. Let us rise up in arms as one man, and no one can
destroy our strength. This will bring such freedom as has never been known on this earth.
We will construct a social system in which every individual will enjoy material goods
according to his merits and his talents; in which no privilege of any sort will have a place;
in which every Pole will find security for himself and his family; in which everyone not
blessed by nature will find without humiliation the unfailing help of the whole of society;
where the peasant will become the owner of the land which today is his only condition-
ally; where tenant dues and labour services will cease to exist; where service for one's
country will be rewarded with grants of land from the national estates.
Poles! There is no class distinction among us. From now on, we are all brothers, sons
of one Mother, our native land, and of one Father on high... Let us call on him for aid,
and he will give us victory.
J. Tyssowski
L. Gorzewski
A. Grzegorzewski.
Government Secretary Karol Rogaski.^2Two days later, in view of irreconcilable differences of opinion, Jan Tyssowski
(1811—57), an Adjunkt (Reader) of the University, declared himself Dictator. On
the 26th, the National Guard, which sallied forth into Galicia with six thousand