Page:Sarolea - Great Russia.djvu/164

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148
GREAT RUSSIA

as Prince von Bülow, the German Chancellor, graciously put it, the Poles breed like rabbits. He might, perhaps, have added that they have often been shot like rabbits. Russian Poland, with the ancient capital of the Kingdom, Warsaw (population, 850,000), is one of the busiest centres of the Russian Empire. But this extraordinary industrial and commercial expansion has brought neither contentment nor real prosperity to the people. Not only has Russian Poland more than her share of the industrial unrest, prevalent all over Europe, but that industrial unrest is complicated by constant political and religious troubles, by the conflict between conquerors and conquered, between Greek Orthodox and Uniats and Roman Catholic. Warsaw, once the gayest of cities, is now one of the saddest. Occupied by a Russian army corps, she gives the impression of a beleaguered city. Any autonomous political life, or even any free expression of political opinion, are paralyzed. The writer of these lines was invited not long ago by a group of leading Liberals in Warsaw to give a lecture describing his impressions of the country. He accepted the invitation, but was given to understand that it would be safer for him not to deliver his ad-