from the subaltern ranks, and who in virtue of his office commands in the most despotic manner the greatest noblemen of Poland.  The police, which in the present times has replaced the secret tribunal, authorizes the most oppressive measures.  Now let us only imagine what the police can be, namely, the most subtle and arbitrary power in the government, entrusted to the rude hands of the captain of a circle.  At every post-house in Gallicia there are to be seen three descriptions of persons who gather round travellers’ carriages:  the Jew traders, the Polish beggars, and the German spies.  The country appears exclusively inhabited by these three classes of men.  The beggars, with their long beards and ancient Sarmatian costume, excite deep commiseration; it is very true that if they would work they need not be in that state; but I know not whether it is pride or laziness which makes them disdain the culture of the enslaved earth.

You meet upon the high roads processions of men and women carrying the standard of the cross, and singing Psalms; a profound expression of melancholy reigns upon their countenance:  I have seen them, when not money, but food of a better sort than they had been accustomed to was given them, turn up their eyes to heaven with astonishment, as if they considered themselves unfit to enjoy its bounty.  The custom of the common people in Poland is to embrace the knees of the nobility when they meet them; you cannot stir a step in a village without having the women, children, and old men saluting you in this manner.  In the midst of this spectacle of wretchedness you might see some men in shabby attire, who were spies upon misery:  for that was the only object which could offer itself to their eyes.  The captains of the circles refused passports to the Polish noblemen, for fear they should see one another, or lest they should go to Warsaw.  They obliged these noblemen to appear before them every eight days, in order to certify their presence.  The Austrians thus proclaimed in all manner of ways that they knew they were detested in Poland, and they separated their troops into two equal divisions:  the first entrusted with supporting externally the interests of Poland, and the second employed in the interior to prevent the Poles from aiding the same cause.  I do not believe that any country was ever more wretchedly governed than Gallicia was at that time, at least under political considerations; and it was apparently to conceal this spectacle from general observation that so many difficulties were made in allowing a stranger to reside in, or even to pass through the country.