THE CONGRESS KINGDOM 2.2.7million by 1864, and over 13 million by 1910. It contained the largest single con-
centration of Poles of any state in Europe, and was the natural focus of Polish
cultural life. In Warsaw, it possessed the historic capital of the Republic; and its
title successfully revived the forbidden name of 'Poland'. As the eastern frontier
with the Russian Empire had been declared open to future modifications, there
were hopes that at some future date a benevolent Tsar might extend the
Kingdom's territory eastwards and reunite it with the former Grand Duchy of
Lithuania.
The Constitution of the Kingdom gave little room for complaint. Designed in
haste by Prince Czartoryski, it none the less provided the widest possible free-
doms within the framework laid down by the Treaty. It is true that the Tsar, in
his dignity as King of Poland, reserved strong executive powers for himself. He
was to nominate all officials, from the Viceroy and the Commander-in-Chief
down. He was to appoint the Administrative Council. He had the prerogative of
convoking and of proroguing or dissolving the Sejm. He had the right to veto
and to amend legislation, and to insist that Foreign Policy was conducted in
common with that of the Russian Empire. He was to act as the supreme court
of appeal at law, and was to control the civilian police through the Ministry of
the Interior in St. Petersburg. Even so, the Kingdom possessed many of the
marks of a genuine constitutional monarchy. It had its own Government, its
own judiciary, its own elected Assembly or Sejm, its own civil service, and its
own army. The Napoleonic Code, the freedom of the press, the principle of reli-
gious toleration, the personal liberty of the subject, and the peasantry's right to
acquire land, were all formally guaranteed. Polish was to be the language of all
official business. In view of the fact that the Constitution was drafted with the
approval of the reactionary Holy Alliance, it must be regarded as a surprisingly
liberal document. On paper at least, it was one of the most progressive consti-
tutions of Europe.^2 The leading personalities of the Kingdom reflected the
Whiggish liberalism of the day. The Viceroy, General Jozef Zajaczek, had mel-
lowed considerably since his Jacobin days; but a veteran of Kosciuszko's
National Rising and of the Napoleonic campaigns was not the sort of man one
might expect to encounter as the chief Polish lieutenant of the Russian autocrat.
The Commander-in-Chief, Grand Duke Konstanty Pavlovitch (1779-1831), the
Tsar's brother, was one of very few figures with independent influence in
Russia. His morganatic marriage to a Polish woman, Joanna Grudziriska, had
denied him the right of succession; and his sentimental attachment to all things
Polish contrasted sharply with his delight in all forms of brutal military disci-
pline. He was a man suspended between two worlds, and not infrequently in
two minds. Most of his subordinate generals - Dabrowski, Kniaziewicz,
Chlopicki - had served Napoleon and the Duchy of Warsaw rather than in the
Russian Army. Civilian circles were still dominated by the great figures of the
Enlightenment, notably by Stanislaw Kostka Potocki and by Stanislaw Staszic.
The Administrative Council could call on a number of Polish magnates already
experienced in the Russian service, among them Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski