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.
I return to the manner in which the Austrian police behaved to me to
hasten my journey. In this road it is necessary to have your
passport examined by each captain of a circle; and every third post
you found one of the chief towns of the circle. They had put up
placards in the police offices of all these towns that a strict eye
must be kept on me as I passed through. If it was not for the
singular impertinence of treating a female in this manner, and that
a female who had been persecuted for doing justice to Germany, one
could not help laughing at the excess of stupidity which could
publish in capital letters measures of police, the whole strength of
which consists in their secrecy.
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