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continuously against all his Russian advisers and thegreat bulk of Russian opinion.Russians distinguished sharply between 'the westernlands' and ' Congress Poland.' The former, as not beingPolish, must never return to Poland and must be governedquite differently from it. As regards 'Congress Poland'opinion differed. Many would have preferred thatRussia should have stayed on her frontiers when Napoleonhad been driven out in 1812 and should have left thegrand-duchy to its fate and washed her hands of the Poles.This solution was later wistfully contemplated from timeto time even in the very highest quarters. It had twogreat defects: after 1815 it meant abdication on the partof the tsar as Polish king, an almost impossible step; andit meant also the almost certain aggrandizement ofPrussia and probably Austria and incalculable internationalcomplications.To most Russians the constitutional regime given to'Congress Poland' not only opened the way to mostdangerous influences in 'the western lands,' but wasincompatible with the position of the tsar in the rest ofhis dominions. Most, though not all, Russians were notprepared for a transformation of tsarism into some kindof constitutional monarchy along Western lines. Norfor that matter was Alexander himself. The rising tideof conservative nationalism, which found full expressionunder Nicholas I, was already by 1815 very strong wherePoland was concerned. The only antidote to the anti-Polish chauvinism current in most sections of Russiansociety that counted for anything could have been agrowfng liberal movement in Russia. But this solesupport for his Polish policy Alexander no longerencouraged. In his own way as much an autocrat ashis father Paul, he was sympathetic towards liberalreforms only in so far as he himself granted them; andthey must be gratefully received without criticism. Thelast of the enlightened despots, and therefore fundamentallyat odds with the spirit of liberalism, hesubstantially agreed with Madame de Stael when shesaid to him: " Your soul is the best constitution for yourpeople." At home, and in Poland, he swung more and216