Abstract
With one exception, Lord Acton did not write anything that is entirely
devoted to Poland. On the other hand, the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth
and Poland in general are mentioned many times in his writing. The article
collects those scattered remarks and attempts to explore Lord Acton’s
views on Poland, beginning with Poland’s origins in the tenth century and
ending with the January Uprising of 1863. The conclusions are somewhat
disappointing and surprising. Knowing Polish history in detail, Lord Acton
did not go beyond standard Western clichés about it, proving he did not
reflect much on the nature of gentry’s democracy and Polish liberties. The
most surprising of his views on the uprising, in turn, is his cold, realpolitik
approach, far from his usual dogmatic love of civic liberty. In this respect,
the article in a way revises what we have known so far about Acton’s theory
of liberty and his view on liberalism.