THE new constitution of the third of May, 1791, was hailed by the Polish people with delight. A new era had commenced -the citizens were placed on a level with the nobles, and they proved themselves worthy of the trust reposed. Their expectations of public happiness and improvement were, however, crushed in the bud by a perjured king, who had joined the worst enemy of his native country, in a conspiracy against its independence. The Polish capital, at this time, exhibited a singular spectacle. The second iniquitous division of Poland had been perpetrated, and what remained nominally independent, was little better than a Russian province. The faithless king, shunning the public eye, had retired with his mistresses into the recesses of his palace. Summoning, for his protection, a body of Russian troops under General Igelström, he dismissed the Polish regiments then in Warsaw, and intrusted the command of the small remnant of troops called the Polish army, to Ozarowski, a pliant and contemptible courtier. Meanwhile the brave General Madalinski had raised the standard of revolt in a province swarming with enemies, and Kosciuszko had issued at Cracow, a proclamation, calling upon all Poland to rise against its oppressors. The Russian troops in Warsaw, now found themselves in a situation of imminent peril; being hemmed in by a large and hostile population, and dependent on a treacherous and vacillating king for sanction and support. Conscious that they could only escape destruction by prompt and vigourous measures, they determined to avail themselves of the Empress's orders, which authorized them, in case of need, to fire the city, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. Before, however, their intention became public, a master shoemaker in Warsaw, named Kilinski, to whom the murderous scheme was revealed by an accident, determined to intercept it by a revolt. He lost not an instant, but, diffusing his own energy amongst the people, accomplished a gene ral insurrection in Warsaw, two days before the intended plunder and destruction of the city. General Igelström and his Russians were compelled to make a hasty retreat; the constitution of the third of May was re-established, and the honest shoemaker, who had been the head and front of this timely revolt, relinquished his command to another, and declining all distinctions and rewards, contented himself with becoming an active member of the upper council of the regency, appointed at that time. At a later period, when the enraged people demanded the head of their perjured monarch, the shoemaker again interfered, and saved the king's life at the risk of his own. He did morefor he shielded even the king's minions from the fury of the people, and prevailed upon the multitude to patiently await the event of a regular trial before the appointed tribunal. In after times the patriotic and highminded Kilinski experienced much persecution, and was often taunted with his occupation by the oppressors of Poland. His fellow countrymen, however, revered him for the genuine nobility of his soul, and the patriotic shoemaker, who died about 1816, was lamented throughout Poland. A memoir of this extraordinary man, drawn up by himself, was circulated by numerous copies in munuscript, but never published, in Warsaw, until lately, having been forbidden by the censor. From the printed work, which is accurately copied after the original manuscript in the handwriting of Kilinski, we have made the following extracts: Having been informed against by some spies of the Russian general, I received one morning a peremptory summons to attend him. The bearer was a Russian officer, who told me I should be dragged through the streets by horses if I did not readily follow. I immediately dressed myself, and put a dagger into my boot unobserved. I found the general Igelström waiting for me in the hall of audience. Thou art Kilinski?' he began. Yes, your excellency!' Syndic of the municipality? Yes, your excellency!' Accursed rebel, villain, traitor,' &c., he pursued, until he had exhausted his catalogue of abuse, and at length he told me that he would have me hanged upon the new gallows before the Capuchin monastery. This torrent of abuse made me so indignant, that I felt strongly disposed to plunge my dagger into the tyrant's breast. Recovering, however, my self-possession, I told him, that I had mistaken his spies for real Polish traitors, and had designedly drawn them on to get a knowledge of their intentions, with a determination to apprize him of the conspiracy. I reminded him too, that the municipality had received his express orders to visit all places of public resort, and to report all suspicious words or appearances. This explanation pacified him considerably, and when I assured him that all the syndics were well disposed towards Russia, and determined to preserve order, his anger vanished, he brought a bottle of brandy from his closet, and made me drink with him. Growing more cordial with every glass, he put many questions to me about the state of public feeling in Warsaw, which I answered to his satisfaction. At length he inquired if I had many friends in the city. Seeing no danger in a frank reply, I told him that even a rumour of my arrest would soon shew him how many friends I had; nor did I hesitate to say, when farther questioned, that, through the workmen who had chosen me as their syndic, I could in a few hours raise 30,000 men. The Russian smiled at this intelligence, but I could see that he was startled, and, indeed, he almost instantly dismissed me, fearing probably that my arrest had transpired, and would collect a numerous body of my adherents around his hotel. Thus did I escape from a situation of imminent peril. "Soon after my return home, I received a visit from the patriotic Abbé Meier, who came to concert with me a rising of the people against the Russian garrison. Without loss of time, we drew up the form of an oath to be taken by all who joined our sacred cause. Then, after an earnest prayer to the Almighty for assistance, we sallied forth. I called upon many citizens and artizans on whose patriotic feelings I could rely, while the Abbé undertook to sound the nobles resident in Warsaw, amongst whom were many brave and high-minded men, and of these, one only refused to join us with heart and hand. After detailing many instances of oppression and cruelty inflicted by the savage Russians upon the citizens of Warsaw, the narrator thus proceeds : "Meanwhile the festival of Easter was at hand, and our preparations were far advanced, when accident revealed to me a diabolical conspiracy, which was almost ready for explosion. I had some time been acquainted with a brave and warm-hearted Russian officer, who seemed to take pleasure in NO. II. S conversing with me, and occasionally we took a glass of brandy together. On the Tuesday before Easter, he called upon me to buy a pair of shoes, and after some conversation on indifferent matters, he exacted from me a pledge of secrecy, and then earnestly advised me to take my wife and children out of Warsaw without any delay, and not to return until a fortnight had elapsed. I entreated farther explanation, and heard that the Russians intended to plunder the city, and massacre the people, on the following Saturday evening, at eight o'clock, when most of the inhabitants would be collected in the churches, to celebrate the resurrection of the Saviour. Thunderstruck at this intelligence, I plied my Russian friend with brandy; he became more communicative, and informed me that the infamous Bishop Kossakowski was the contriver of this plot, and that the dastard Ozarowski, commandant of Warsaw, had received instructions from the King to join the Russians as soon as the massacre commenced. He added that preparations for the attack were in rapid progress, that many Russian soldiers, out of uniform, were already in the city, and that they would be provided with arms from the depot in the suburb of Praga. "Soon after the Russian officer had quitted me, I hastened to every man upon whom I could rely, and happily there were very many Poles who could trust each other. I apprized them of the approach. ing peril, and as they were too numerous to be concealed in my own dwelling, I told them to meet me at four o'clock on the following morning at the artillery barracks in the suburb. I knew that the Polish soldiers would join us to a man, but I doubted the superior officers, many of whom were young nobles of cowardly and effeminate habits. I did not hesitate, however, to trust the subalterns, who readily engaged to bring the privates over to us in the hour of need. "When the conference took place at the barracks, the assembled master tradesmen and subalterns offered to me the command of the Polish troops and people. Doubting much my capacity to undertake the charge, I hesitated awhile to consent. Pressed however by the whole assembly, and recollecting the bright example of the Roman shoemaker, who, without military science, had defeated the enemies of his country, I took heart and accepted the command, trusting that courage, patriotism, and reliance on the aid of Providence would supply the want of military tactics. "After having appointed another confer ence at eleven o'clock the following night, and arranged various preparations, I went home, and, the better to qualify myself for so great an enterprize, I received, after confession, the holy sacrament from the Abbé Meier, and then joined him in fervent supplication to God, to bless our patriotic undertaking. "At the appointed hour of eleven at night, I went to meet my friends at the barracks, and gave them final instructions to be on the alert all night, and to apprize all their adherents to be in readiness to repair to their posts at the report of the first cannon, after which all the fire-bells in the city were to ring up the entire population. The lancers of the royal guard had arrived that day in Warsaw. They knew nothing of the intended insurrection, but I was enabled by God's mercy to obtain their hearty co-operation in our sacred cause, as will presently appear. Not having a sufficiency of horses for the artillery, I gave orders to my friends to have 150 cart horses in readiness for this purpose. I then concealed 6000 ball cartridges and as many flints in my own cart, and proceeded homeward. On my way I met a party of lancers of the guard, taking the nightly round through the city. Knowing the men to be true Poles, and right willing to aid an attack upon the savage and lawless Russians, I got out of my car, addressed the commanding officer, and begged him to give me a hearing in a tavern close at hand. He consented, and there, although I knew him not, I revealed to him our intention and our resources. He was a true Pole, his eyes flashed as he listened, and he swore to assist our great purpose by every means in his power. In short, this brave man promised his best endeavours to bring over the whole regiment, and assured me of his gratitude for the trust I had reposed in his honour and patriotism. "After my return home I made my will, and placed it under the pillow of my wife, who was fast asleep, and had no knowledge of the impending struggle. Two hundred of my adherents, for whom I had room in my house and workshops, now successively arrived, and I provided them with ballcartridge and fints. Folding up the remaining flints and cartridges in two napkins, I carried them to the soldiers of the city-guard, who were as yet ignorant of the intended rise. These brave fellows instantly and joyfully promised their assistance, thankfully accepting my offer of ammunition, and promising to defend the entrance into one of the main streets. During the night, however, a subaltern of the city-guard, who had been panicstruck when he heard that a struggle with our savage oppressors was close at hand, hastened to the president of the city, and betrayed all he knew. The president proceeded instantly to the king, who dispatched an aid-de-camp to General Igelström, and thus our purpose was revealed to one who lost no time in preparing for resistance and aggression. Happily, however, this intelligence did not reach him until within an hour of the time appointed for the signal gun, and the Asiatic slowness of the Russian soldiery was greatly in favour of the citizens. While my friends and I were arming for the strife, the report of artillery pealed over the city, and I rushed out, armed with a musket and a short huntsman's sword given to me by the Abbé Meier. A Russian captain was passing at the moment; I levelled and shot him dead. A Cossack then attacked me with his long pike; I succeeded however in parrying his thrust, closed upon him and dispatched him also. My wife, roused by the cannon, had from her window seen me kill these men, and immediately ran out into the street. ، Dearest husband' she exclaimed in breathless terror, 'Why expose your own precious life by killing those Russians? Ah, Kilinski! remember our children!' In vain I besought her to return into the house. If you are determined,' she said, 'to die for our country I will die with you.' Her presence in this scene of peril, and her refusal to leave it, were painfully embarrassing. Instead of attacking the common enemy, I had to contend with one who was dearer to me than life, who was the mother of my six children, and again advanced in pregnancy. For a moment my heart failed me; recollecting however the urgency of the occasion, I compelled her to retire into the house, locked her up in her bed-room, and left her sinking and half dead with apprehensions for my safety." COLLOQUIAL DICTIONARY. of the indignant Poles, with signal intelligence and bravery; and when the strife was done, this Polish Washington immediately resigned the military command of Warsaw to General Mokronoski, who had hastened to join him: then, after re-establishing the popular constitution of the third of May, he resigned the presidency of the city into the hands of Zarzewski. FIRST APPEARANCE AND PROGRESS OF THE CHOLERA AT MOSCOW. During the summer of 1830, the Tartars, who frequent Moscow for purposes of traffic, predicted the approach of a pestiferous malady, which, however, the inhabitants, relying upon the local advantages of their city, would not credit. Suddenly, however, the atmosphere was filled with dense masses of small green flies, which in Asia are the forerunners of pestilence, and are called plague-flies. The streets swarmed with these insects, and soon as the inhabitants quitted their houses, they were covered from head to foot. For a time, however, no attention was paid to this phenomenon, nor were any preventive measures against the cholera even thought of, until intelligence arrived that this formidable disease had appeared in Nischin-Nowgorod. At the same time a considerable number of fugitives arrived in Moscow, principally from Saratoff, and amongst them was a student, whose parents, brothers, and sisters, had been destroyed by the cholera, and who went to lodge with a friend in the University. Quarantine regulations were now immediately enforced, but too late, for the cholera was discovered in the university, which was instantly closed for three months, also the academy attached to it. The consternation was now universal, and every one who had means to travel, fled hastily from Moscow. A coachman, who had driven a noble family the first stage towards St. Petersburg, reported, that on his return he met more than five hundred carriages. The panic now became so intense, that even medical men were almost incapacitated by terror from paying due attention to the infected. They could not agree in opinion as to the nature of the disease, some asserting that it was not the disease called the Indian cholera. Great distress now appeared amongst the labouring poor. Many families lost their head, on whose labour they depended for support, and in the confusion which prevailed, many undertakings were discontinued, and employ ment was not to be obtained by those able It was observed that those who were the least timid, and pursued their outdoor avocations as usual, generally escaped. With rare exceptions, the physicians, nurses, and even the soldiers who conveyed the dead to the place of interment, continued in perfect health. In some instances, entire families were destroyed; but, in very many cases, individuals in close attendance upon sick relatives, from the first attack to the moment of dissolution, escaped all infection. The symptoms of this disease were precisely the same as those of the cholera in India, and yet remedies, which had been successfully applied in Southern Asia, were found fatally injurious at Moscow. Many patients were destroyed by bleeding, while many were saved by fomentations, and other provocatives to perspiration. This mode of treatment was first suggested by an uneducated citizen of Smolensko, named Chliebnikow, who tried fomentations with hay-dust, and with such obvious success, that the physicians abandoned lancet and leeches, adopted his suggestions with some modifications, trying also vapour baths and other means of promoting copious perspiration, From this time the recoveries were much more numerous than the deaths, while under the remedies first applied the ma. jority of cases were fatal. 2 JOURNAL OF LITERATURE. WE are mortal, and invested, we fear, with a liberal share of mortal frailties; but if there be a place wherein our spirit shakes the dust of a cankering and contentious world from its wings, it is in this hallowed corner of our beloved Magazine. In this quiet nook, sacred to the emanations of the general mind, after a well-foughten field, in which the enemies of human happiness have yielded testimony to our prowess, we ungird our weapons of war, and, reclining in the shade of the tree dear to Minerva, surrender ourselves, heart and soul, to the impression of whatever is good and beautiful, come from whom it may. Why should the sons and daughters of immortality who win their unfading laurels by making men wiser and more contented with their lot, waste a moment of time all too precious, in miserable squabbles, beginning in error and ending in humiliation? Posterity will concern itself little about the political faith or publishing alliances of Coleridge, Southey, Byron, Scott, Rogers, Lockhart or Wilson. Posterity will care as little about these mighty matters of the hour, as the present generation cares for the history of a displaced statesman of the days of Queen Anne. The children of the future, when they unroll the records of our contemporaneous intellect, will feel just as we do, gratitude for the enjoyment they receive; and will hope as we hope, that the measure of benevolence has not been less abundant than the measure of genius, in the writers of their choice. Rugged is the path of life to the shrinking sensibilities of those on whom the creative principle has showered its mystic gifts. It is decreed that he whose frame is patent to earth's most thrilling delights, should be affected in an equal proportion by the rude visitings of the angry storm," would it not be nobler then in the genus irritabile," to journey together in brotherly kindness and plain-dealing, lending each other a helping hand in the hour of difficulty, rather than to scatter the flints and brambles of reciprocal annoyance over their clouded path? The delusive complaisance of flattery is in the last degree contemptible, but the manly acknowledgment of merit places him who volunteers it in honourable fellowship with the subject of his praise. Whence comes envy? From a secret consciousness that we are deficient in something desirable, which is eminently the property of another. The poor man envies the opulent; the pauper in intellect envies him whom Providence has enriched with a mental cornucopia. When therefore an author's ink is continually descending in torrents of virulence, on one to whom the world does fitting homage; the scale of that individual's capacity may be considered as being in an inverse ratio to the extent of his indignation. Perhaps, reader, you are what is called a man of the world, and probably you will say with a derisive smile, that we are young, and carried away by the high-flown generosities of youth. If so, we reply as Pitt replied to Sir Robert Walpole," that the crime of being young we neither attempt to palliate nor deny," and farther, that rather than discard the ingenuousness characteristic of the opening stage of existence, we should prefer playing the suicide with our periodical being. Somebody has said or sung, that "the post of honour is a private station." Had he said "the post of pleasure" he had been nearer the mark, and our poor testimony should have borne him out; for already have we felt how- "Uneasy is the head that wears a crown." Old Oxensteirn, who moralized on the petty machinery which regulates the movement of governments, and the ease with which that machinery is wrought, would have expressed himself very differently regarding our perilous sovereignty, had he witnessed the intricacies and embarrassments of our course. Could any modern Prime Minister act as proxy to the Englishman? No. The least of our contributors would foil every member of Earl Grey's administration, except the Lord Chancellor. What's in a name?-far more than we anticipated. You may perceive, Reader, that we have changed the title of our favourite department, since you and we last met. The love of tranquillity has forced this measure upon us, for even as a maiden in the lustre of grace and beauty is beleaguered by hosts of impetuous swains, so have we been beset by a crowd of sup |