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Franklin's Free Will; or, Optimism in Cracow, 1798

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2009

David A. Frick
Affiliation:
Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley, 94720.

Extract

On January 7, 1796, two days after Austrian rule came to Cracow in the wake of the Third Partition of Poland, Jan May resumed printing his recently established newspaper, the Cracow Gazette (Gazeta Kra-kowska), with a lead article brimming with enthusiasm for the new order: “Finally, the wishes of all have been fulfilled. The City of Cracow, destined for the rule of His Majesty, the Most Illustrious Roman Emperor, has, as of today, after the withdrawal of the Prussian armies, with the greatest satisfaction, seen within its walls the army of the desired Monarch.” Some of May's readers may indeed have been pleased to see Prussian troops leave. There may also have been a few aristocrats—if we credit accounts of a “Jacobin” fear—who were happy to see the Austrians come to Cracow. Probably many were relieved at having some sort of order after years of unrest. But many were also unhappy to find themselves under Austrian rule in those early days of the partitions. If readers recalled May's quite recent Jacobin leanings and his role as chief printer to the Kościuszko Uprising, they may have read his front-page effusions as a sudden servilism, a strategic response to political necessity, a bleak contextual joke in the form of excess flattery, or some combination of all these things.

Information

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota 1997

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