This brings me to the second point touched upon by the previous speaker, the two races living together peacefully.  I believe that many of you have in your employ laborers and servants who speak Polish, and that you are of the opinion that no danger comes from this lower social stratum of the population.  Living together with them is possible, and no disturbance of the peace starts with them.  They do not promote any movements hostile to us.  I do not even mention the fact that they are possibly of another race than the nobility, whose immigration into the Slavic districts is lost in the obscure past.  The statistical numbers, therefore, of those opposed to a peaceful communion of both races must be lessened by the large number of laborers and farmers.  The lower classes are, in the bulk, satisfied with the Prussian government, which may not be perfect always, but which treats them with greater justice than they were accustomed to in the times of the Polish republic of nobles.  They are satisfied with this.  It was not part of my programme that the commission on colonization should pay special attention to small holdings of German-speaking settlers.  The Polish peasants are not dangerous, nor does it make any difference whether the laborers are Polish or German.  The chief thing was to create crown-lands among the big estates, and to rent them to men whom the State could permanently influence.  The desire for quick sales and colonization emanated from other competent quarters than myself.  It was impossible for me to supervise these measures after I had instigated them.

The difficulties which I met in the forty years of my Polish diplomacy did not start with the masses of Polish laborers and peasants, but were, I believe, occasioned largely, if not exclusively, by the Polish nobility with the assistance of the Polish clergy.  Perhaps this latter term is too narrow, for I know of instances when German priests assisted in the Polish propaganda for the sake of peace.  This is a peculiarity of our race—­and I do not exactly wish to condemn it—­that we often place our religion above our nationality.  The very opposite is true of our opponents, the Poles and the French people, who regard their nationality more highly than their religion.  We are suffering from this habit.  We possess, however, a certain material counter-weight, provided the State government unreservedly supports the German element.  The religious element has great weight in the family circle and among women, especially the Polish women, whom I have always greatly admired.  The minister has a freer access to them than the local governor or the judge.  There will, however, always be a powerful weight in the scales, when the Prussian government exercises its influence with firm determination and so clearly that doubts for the future are impossible. Vestigia terrent! we may say, when with 1848, no—­not 1848, I mean 1831-32—­the attention paid to the Polish nation became almost more pronounced in Germany