  We report spectropolarimetric observations obtained with the W.M. Keck
Telescope of the high redshift z=1.824 aligned radio galaxy 3C256. Our
observations confirm that the spatially extended UV continuum emission from
this galaxy is polarized (P_V = 10.9% +/- 0.9%) with the electric vector
perpendicular to the aligned radio and optical major axes (PA = 48.0 +/- 2.4
degrees). This strongly suggests that a significant fraction of the rest frame
UV continuum emission from the galaxy is not starlight, but is instead
scattered light from a powerful AGN which is hidden from our direct view. The
narrow emission lines, including MgII, are unpolarized. The percentage
polarization of the continuum emission and the polarization position angle are
roughly constant as a function of wavelength. The present data do not permit us
to discriminate between cool electrons and dust as the origin of the
scattering. But scattering by hot (T > 10^7 K) electrons cannot be the dominant
process, since such a population would overproduce X-ray emission. A large
population of cooler T ~ 10^4 K electrons could be responsible for both the
line emission and the scattered light, but would require that the dust to gas
ratio in the scattering cones is 0.001 times smaller than that in our Galaxy
and would imply that a large fraction of the baryonic mass in the galaxy is in
the ionized component of its ISM. Dust scattering is more efficient, but would
result in detectable extinction of the emission line spectrum unless the dust
distribution is more highly clumped than the line emitting gas. Finally, we
detect a strong (EW = 12A) broad (FWHM=6500 km/s) absorption line centered at
1477A. We conclude that the most likely explanation is that the absorption is
due to a high velocity BAL cloud near the nucleus of 3C256.
