CZACKI, TADEUSZ, an eminent Polish statesman and author, was born in 1765 or 1766, at Poryck in Volhyuia, where his father was a large landed proprietor. Czacki'a life has been written by two of his personal friends—by Stanislas Potocki in a funeral paucgyrio read before the society of 'Friends of Science' at Warsaw in 1317, and by 3Ioatowski iu the supplement to the ' Biographic Universelle' published in 1836 ; and it is curious to observe how frequently they differ in the facts of his biography. According to Potoeki ho was "educated under the eye of his father, and was the consolation and support of his old age;" according to Mostoweki ha was "deprived from iufancy of the assistance of his father, who was kept for seven years a prisoner iu Russia." Again, at a later period of life lie war, according to 3lostowski, for some years a professor at the university of Cracow ; Potocki does not allude to the circumstance, but speaks in the portion of his narrative relating to that period of his life of his eminent services in re-establishing the banks at Warsaw. It is agreed by both that Czacki, unlike most of his countrymen of the same rank, received his education in Poland alone ; that ho was early distinguished by his consummate knowledge of Polish affairs ; and that at the ago of two- or three-and.twenty he became one of the most active minis ters of the cabinet of King Stanislaw, Pouiatowski, reforming tho system of weights end measures, proposing improvements in the watercornmuuication, drawing up a map of the rivers of Poland, and finally taking a part in the construction of the new constitution of the Third of May 1791, which was followed by the hostilities terminating iu the final dismemberment of Poland. Czacki took an active part in these disastrous times as an adherent of the patriotic party, and his estates were in consequence confiscated by the Russian victors. The accession of the Emperor Paul to the throne of Russia led to the liberation of Polish captives, and the restoration of Polish estates, and among others Czacki received back his large possessions in Volhyuia, and from this period he became known as the munificent patron of Polish education. He was allowed to found a high school, which was
opened at Krzemieniec in 1805, to which he devoted almost the whole of Ilia property and his time, and in which he introduced instruction in the fine arts and in bodily exercises, as well as in the sciences and the languages, with so much success that it speedily became the most popular school in Poland for both sexes, and numbered about six hundred pupil& The suspicions of the Russians were excited that the iostruction given was of too patriotic a character, and a commission was appointed in 1307 to inquire into the management of the school, when Czacki vindicated himself so much to the satisfaction of the Emperor Alexander, that he was appointed deputy of Prince Czar toryaki, superintendent of public instruction. These suspicions how ever revived, and it is perhaps doing no injustice to Czacki to suppose that he was not extremely anxious to inculcate into the minds of the youth of Poland the principle of unlimited submission to Russian away. He again cleared himself before a second Russian commission in 1810, but the school was broken up for the time by Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, and in the following year, ou the 8th of February 1813, Czacki died rather suddenly at Dubno.
A collection of Czacki's works was issued in three volumes in 1843 at Posen by the indefatigable Count Edward Raczynski. He states in the preface that many of the single books had at that time become rare, and were eagerly bonght at high prices. The best however and moat extensive is that 0 Litewskich i Polskich Prawach' (' On Lithua nian end Polish Laws'), which is not a work of legal learning merely, hut of miscellaneous information on subjects to which the laws relate, Czacki inserting for instance, when he comes to speak of the coinage, one of the completest treatises extant on Polish numismatics. His shorter works, On the Jews," On the Gypsies," On the Statistics of Poland,' &c., are all rich in information on the subjects treated, and arc written in a concise and entertaining style, which has been censured for the unusual fault in an antiquary of being too condensed.