KRASINSKI, COUNT VALERIAN, was a native of the ancient Polish province of White Russia, and was descended from a noble family. The branch to which he belonged embraced at an early period the Protestant faith, to which he adhered. He received a supe rior classical education, and while yet a young man was appointed chief of that department of the ministry of public instruction in tho kingdom of Poland which was charged with the superintendence or the various classes of dissenters. He was zealous in his endeavours to promote instruction among them, and especially exerted himself in the establishment of a college at Warsaw for the education of Jewish rabbis. In order to lessen the expense of valuable works, especially those on scientific subjects, he was the first to introduce stereotype printing iuto Poland, and this was not accomplished without a con siderable diminution of his own income. When the Polish revolu tionists of 1830 had proclaimed the throne of Polaud vacant, and organised a national government, with Prince Adam Czartoryski as president, a diplomatic mission was sent to England, of which Count Valerian Krasinaki was a member. When tha Russian armies in 1S31 had overpowered the revolutionary movement of his countrymen, he was still in England, where he then became, with many others of his countrymen, a penniless exile. After having instructed himself in the
English language, be attached himself to literature as a means of support, and became the author of several valuable works. He resided in London during the first twenty years of his exile, and during the last five in Edinburgh, where he died December 22ud, 1855. He was a man of varied learning, and possessed extensive information, espe cially on all matters connected with the Slavonic races. His conversa tion was instructive and his manner elegant, and ho was admitted to the best society.
His most important works are the following The Rise, Progress, and Decline of the Reformation in Poland,' 2 vols. 8vo, 1839.40; 'Penslavism and Germanism,' 12mo, London, 1848; ' Lectures on the Religious History of the Slavonic Nations,' 8vo, London, 1949; 'Sketch of the Religious History of the Slavoniau Nations,' 8vo, Edinb., 1851; 'Montenegro and the Slavonians in Turkey,' 8vo, Edinb., 1853 ; `A Treatise on Relics, by J. Calvin, newly translated from the French Original, with an Introductory Dissertation on the Miraculous Images of the Roman Catholic and Russo-Greek Churches,' 8vo, 1954. Ile published also some smaller works and pamphlets on recent political subjects, especially on those connected with the restoration of Poland.