He studied law and philosophy in Kraków and Vienna (1854-1860). In 1860, he was one of the Galician correspondents of the Polish Bureau of the Hôtel Lambert – a conservative political camp of Polish émigrés in Paris gathered around Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, who were engaged in wide-scale efforts towards Poland’s independence. In the years 1861-1862, while in Paris, he worked for the Bureau of the Hôtelu Lambert under the leading publicists of the Polish émigré community – Walerian Kalinka and Julian Klaczko. During the January Uprising, he was active in the Kraków Bureau of the “Czas” daily and at the military section of the Civic Committee of Western Galicia, for which he was imprisoned in Olomouc by the Austrian authorities (1863-1864). In 1866, he became a co-founder of the conservative journal “Przegląd Polski”, and three years later he co-authored the famous political pamphlet Teka Stańczyka (Stańczyk’s Portfolio), and a co-owner of the conservative “Czas” daily. He was one of the leaders of the Stańczycy political movement in Kraków. From 1867, he was a deputy to the Galician Sejm (Polish: Sejm Krajowy), and from 1885 – a member of the Vienna Herrenhaus (House of Lords). In 1871, he received the title of professor of Polish literature at the Jagiellonian University, and a year later he became member of the Academy of Learning to become its president in 1890. He was rector of the Jagiellonian University twice (1886 and 1899). In 1909, he resigned as head of the University Chair. His writings include: Pisarze polityczni XVI wieku (Political Writers of the 16th Century) (v. 2, 1886), Z doświadczeń i rozmyślań (From Experience and Thoughts) (1891), Zygmunt Krasiński (v. 2, 1893), Studia polityczne (Political Studies) (v. 2, 1895), and a four-volume collection entitled Rozprawy i sprawozdania (Treatises and Reports) (1895-98), and 7-volume Historia literatury polskiej (History of Polish Literature) (1900-07).