[Anon.], Contradictions of Lord Palmerston in Reference to Poland and Circassia et caetera (London, Hardwicke, 1863)

The Polish people had laboured under foreign domination from the end of the eighteenth century when the country was divided between Prussia, Russia and Austria. In February 1836 the independent Republic of Cracow collapsed, following the Tsar’s announcement in November the previous year that Polish national independence was finally over. Early in 1863 the Russian government tried to introduce conscription into Poland, which resulted in an attempted revolution stirred up by Polish exiles in Britain and France. Both the British and the French governments expressed public disapproval of Russian policy, but in real terms did nothing to help the Poles. The First Minister of the Crown was deliberately charged by Mr. Cobden with three falsehoods. The three falsehoods had all been told in the House, and one was a wilful perversion, after his death, of a speech delivered by a rival.