Your constant reader and admirer,

AN ANTIQUARY.

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POLAND.

(_For the Mirror._)


The following account of Poland, may be acceptable at the present
time, when this heroic people are making a noble effort to throw off
the yoke of Russian despotism.

As a kingdom, Poland is swept from the map of nations; but when
geographically considered, is of no small importance: it lies between
forty-six and fifty-seven degrees of north latitude, and between
sixteen and thirty-four degrees east longitude; and is bounded north
by Russia, south by Hungary and Turkey in Europe, east by Russia, west
by Prussia and Germany. Poland is in general a very level country, (if
we except the Carpathian mountains,) fertile in corn, having long
furnished Sweden and Holland; its horses are some of the finest in
Europe, and its salt-works are very productive; the towns collectively
are built of wood; the appearance of the villages very mean.

This was the country of the ancient Vandals; it was made a duchy about
the end of the seventh century; in the tenth, Christianity was
introduced, and Boleslaus erected it into a monarchy in 999. The form