forms. The four years when the constitution was discussed and drafted constituted the finest example of wisdom and integrity, patriotic duty and devotedness to principles that ever animated a national assembly. And Poland achieved her reforms under the greatest external disadvantages, but yet quietly and without the rattle of the guillotine and the clash of fratricidal swords. While the last partition had not yet taken place, Poland was the most liberally governed country in Europe.

One of the most encouraging phases about the Polish life for last century or more is the fact that the Poles have lived and developed in the spirit of their Constitution of the 3rd of May, that they increased numerically by half, and that they developed economically and industrially. Conformable to the Constitution which paved the way between the nobility and the peasants, and, of course, as an offset to the exterminative policy of their enemy, the Poles developed a middle class that constitutes a real backbone to their national and economic life.

It is a compelling fact that in the more recent history of dismembered Poland, that the Poles retaliated every political deprivation with economic and industrial organizations. This is especially true of the Poles under Prussia, where the anti-Polish pressure was heaviest. Every drastic measure the German government advanced against them, the Poles answered by organizing more co-operative societies and starting a more thorough boycott of German goods. The war Prussia waged on the Polish nationality for the last century and more resulted in a phenomenal growth of Polish co-operative stores and co-operative societies. The Province of Posen presents one network of well-organized and efficient Polish co-operative societies. The agricultural circles are especially remarkable for their numbers, as they exist in almost every village. The Polish organizations in the Province of Posen form one large union, having a central bank, which opened business with 6,000,000 marks. Enough to say, the development of the middle class and the cooperative movement in the Province of Posen have been considered, even by Prussians, the

healthiest symptoms of the Polish social life. Galicia and the Kingdom followed suit and built up numerous co-operative societies and corporations, modeled after those in Posen. They proved of immense advantage in dealing with the relief of hunger and suffering in the war.

Modern Poland is no longer the country of knight-errants, of excessive idealism and of freedom, and too ready to give up her industry and her business into foreign hands. She is she was before the war-a thickly populated and industrially prosperous-a thoroughly modern nation with a middle class that is to play an important part in her future.

With their progress in industry and agriculture, arts and sciences, wealth and numbers, the Poles have developed a strong middle class. The Polish middle man came into prominence in town and village. Deprived of land, the Pole went to the city and made good there. Excluded from official positions, he took to business and made success. He held the struggle to a successful issue.

In their struggle for existence and conformable to the spirit of the Constitution of the 3rd of May, the Poles have replaced their superfluous idealism by a practical materialism. They have adopted much of the Saxon practicality.

Along with their numerical increase and their tenacity in remaining a persistent national type, the Poles have progressed materially, and have adapted themselves to the commercial spirit in an effort to improve their prospects. The young and well educated generation of Poles today forms the finest asset to the nation and presents healthy symptoms of national and economic strength and vigor.

CHAPTER XII.

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR IN POLAND.

"The star-spangled banner was thrown to the breeze from every public edifice, from every church steeple, and almost from every house; and from the mighty heart of all the free states rung out the battle cry: "The Union must and shall be preserved."

-Brownson in July, 1861.

The history of the American Civil War is the history of the partition of Poland. Periods of great patriotic activity were followed by periods of inactivity and disorganization. The crises inevitably followed. In Poland, the partitions; in the United States, the Civil War. They were truly fatal blows to the respective countries. But, again, they were salutary blows, as they gave rise to strong patriotic awakenings and vigorous national regenerations. There is this notable difference, however, that, while the causes which led to the American Civil War, were inter