IS THE POWER OF RUSSIA TO BE REDUCED OR INCREASED

BY THE PRESENT WAR?

THE POLISH QUESTION

AND

PANSLAVISM.

BY

COUNT VALERIAN KRASINSKI,

AUTHOR OF

"THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN POLAND," "PANSLAVISM AND GERMANISM "
"SKETCH OF THE RELIGIOUS HISTORY OF THE SLAVONIC NATIONS," ETC.

"I cannot discover the policy of not hitting one's enemy as hard as one can, and in the most
vulnerable place."-Despatch of the Duke of Wellington, 21st March 1814.

"I know no more striking anticipation of public events than has been offered by Count Valerian
Krasinski's work on 'Panslavism and Germanism,' published at the beginning of last year."—
Letter to the Marquess of Lansdowne, by R. Monckton Milnes, M.P., on the Events of 1848

BIBL

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, PICCADILLY;

DETTKENS, DAVIES STREET; GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW.
EDINBURGH: JOHNSTONE & HUNTER. GLASGOW: J. R. MACNAIR,
DUBLIN: JOHN ROBERTSON.

M.DCCC.LV. 1855.

246. a. 115.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER,

HIGH STREET.

TO THE

PEOPLE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

It is said that the present war is essentially a people's war. If this be the case, it is of the greatest importance that the people should know with precision in what consists the real object of this war, whether it is such as to warrant all those heavy sacrifices which they so nobly bear, and whether the means employed for the attainment of this object are the best calculated to bring about this desideratum. I have, therefore, ventured to submit to you some views on this subject; and I conscientiously believe that the object which I have endeavoured to explain in this essay is the only one which may justify all those immense sacrifices of blood and money which this country is so cheerfully submitting to, and that the means which I have exposed in the same place are such that to neglect them in the present war is exactly the same as to undertake by manual labour a work which may be easily accomplished by the application of steam power at an immense saving of time and expense. The views which I have expressed on these subjects are not my

own, but those of the most eminent statesmen of various countries, who, however differing amongst themselves on various other subjects, have entirely agreed on this question. I do not want, therefore, to impose them upon a credulous public, but I demand for them the most searching investigation; and I think that a subject in which all those are interested who have the loss of a dear relative or friend to apprehend or already to deplore, as well as all those who begin to feel the burdens of an increased taxation,-in short, every family in the land,-deserves at least to be examined. A single glance at the detailed summary of its contents, which I have prefixed to this essay, may, however, convince my readers of the importance of its nature.

EDINBURGH, Dec. 10, 1855.