The Press.
London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

follows, therefore, that war for the indepen-
dence of Poland is war waged by England and
France against the whole of Eastern Europe.
Nay, it is an impossibility,
be the ret ,perations what it
114 t of c, l
(e ji - e terms origin
1 td humanity
forbi e who, if unsucc
ful, c of of war, and whos
enge, i: ld, if unsuccessf
be p f :his is no light
sidertition the British armies
withdrew line of retreat was

everywhere _ _ most frightful maw
sacres of those natives whom fear or preference
had attached to the cause of the invaders. In
France, after the campaign of Waterloo, the
adherents of NAPOLEON had ample cause to
repent of their devotion to the fallen con-
queror. And in Spain, as province after pro-
vince became relieved from the pressure of
French armies, the unsparing retribution in
flicted on the "Afrancesados" by their patriot
countrymen is recorded in the pages of
NAPtsit. Once, then, that the Polish cause is
t Ikea up, there can be no hesitation, no
drawing back ; the war must be universal and
internecine—Russia must crush England,
or England Russia. We confess ourselves not
to be among the number of those philosophers
who can contemplate such a prospect with
calm approval, solacing themselves with the
idea that the condition of humanity 100 years
hence will be benefitted by the struggle.
But let us go a little deeper into the ques-
tion. Which form of government do the
liberators of Poland propose there to set up ?
Not a republic. Englishmen do not much
believe in republics on this side the Atlantic,
and the Emperor NAPOLEON has seen enough
of them at home. Not a despotism ; that
would be a lame conclusion indeed to our
glorious efforts in the cause of freedom. Well,
then, a constitutional monarchy it must be;
although somehow constitutional monarchies
have not hitherto flourished on the Continent.
Spain has not been a successful experiment in
that line—nor yet Greece; and Greece, by the
way, furnishes the nearest parallel to the
future Poland; for it is admitted on all hands
that native jealousy would compel the selec-
tion of a foreigner to fill the throne. But
what will the Polish patriots say to such an
arrangement ? All refugees have a way of
quarrelling among themselves—it is a sad,
but not singular effect of misfortune and in-
action combined—but the Polish emigration
has contrived to acquire even an exceptional
reputation for incompatibility of opinion among
its members. Many are republicans; made
so, perhaps, by the prevalent absence of sym-
pathy for their wrongs among other classes of
politicians ; many, by lapse of years, have
become little more than adventurers, without
home or country ; some are domesticated
abroad, neither expecting nor wishing to
return ; neaily all, by absence and time, have
lost whatever hold they may once have pos-
sessed over the minds of their countrymen.
Doubtless in Poland there are many whose
long-continued submission to Russian rule
has only confirmed their patriotism, without
destroying their capacity of self-government;
but are these the rule, or the exception ?
In dealing with the wrongs of nations, we
must not forget that time enters as an element
into the calculation. Eternal resentment and
undying constancy are found only in the pages
of novels. Some parts of Poland have been
Russian since 1772. What reminiscences of the
past freedom can there survive, except in the
form of antiquarian tradition ? The consti-
tutional government of ALEXANDER lasted but
a little while ; at his death, only the shadow of
it remained : since 1826, Poland has known
only the anarchy of civil bloodshed, or the
stagnation of despotism. There is not in
existence a young Pole who has exercised in
his own land the rights of free citizenship.
Are these promising materials for a revived
nationality ? Yet further—what was the state
of Poland, socially and politically, in its days
of greatest prosperity? Take the testimony
of friends and advocates. The Westminster
Review in an article of this year, written ex-
pressly to promote the cause of Polish nation
ality, describes the " populus " of the country,
i. e. the privileged class, exercising political

SATURDAY,

rights, as composed of " some hundreds of
" thousands of large and small landholders,
" the remainderof the nation lying underneath
" these, of ; mass of most
" filthy ridit;.• ~,. •V g, eating, drinking,
" oleo i and d Asiuredly a model
com !
A £ll4l. nolt Ail' ELI' partisan, Count
KRA sbuji in n, p hlet not long ago
pub I edi thu de b e ruling class:—
" Au bligdfehy, mbled no species of
" arivacy known in this world, and which
" had thii.Pculiari ty, that instead of indirectly
" supporting the Throne, and at the same time
" checking its abuses, it unceasingly sapped
" its foundation, to the detriment of the
" nation, intrigued abroad against every Polish
" Government, and had nothing so much at
" heart as the abasement of its rivals and its
" own elevation."

Space fails us to show how exactly this
remarkable description is borne out by the
history of the nation to which it applies.
But one other obstacle to the projected
restoration may be suggested—that of mili-
tary weakness. If Russian Poland alone
be raised into a monarchy, Austria and
Prussia being consenting parties, the total
population will fall short of twenty millions,
who, without a defensible frontier (a point in
such case of no slight moment), must hold
their own as they can against the forty
millions of Russia. If the entire kingdom of
the last century be reconstituted, no doubt
its numerical strength becomes greater; but
in that ease the hostility of Austria and
Prussia, as well as of Russia, must be guarded
against. The new empire alone could not
hold its own ; for protection against the three
military monarchies it could look only to its
founders, France and England; whence, for
us, a new system of continental alliances, the
necessity of maintaining a vast standing army
in time of peace, and the perpetual probability
of a quarrel in which no English interest was
involved.

We have said nothing of the internal dis-
sensions of independent Poland, of the fierce
religious quarrels, the intolerance on all sides
displayed, the factions which divided the
nobles, the miserable slavery which weighed
down the peasants. the want of foresight and
public spirit exhibited by all classes. These
things form part of the history of Europe;
but it is only the necessity of protesting
against a Quixotic enterprise that could lead
us to recal public attention to faults so long
forgotten, and so cruelly expiated.

THE CRIMEAN RECKONING.
Tan cumulative and criminating testimony
against the late Government is becoming
perfectly appalling. A journalist who peruses
the Sebastopol evidence with a view to ana-
lysis, and who comes upon such charges as
have been wrung from reluctant witnesses
during the past week, hesitates over the terms
which naturally apply to the guilt described,
and, recollecting that the accused persons
await a yet more formal and formidable inves-
tigation, is inclined, from the very magnitude
of the offence, to adopt an arid, passionless
phraseology. Yet the common instinct of
humanity renders it difficult, in the presence
of such damnatory detail, to preserve that
tone which befits the preliminary stage of the
inquiry. It is with no surprise that we, in
common with our contemporaries, receive in-
cessant communications in which a just and
righteous indignation of the people breaks
forth in demand that the brand of guilt, amply
earned, shall be at once affixed. Still it, is
well that the inquiry should pursue and com-
plete its fatal course. There is no fear lest
En land should forget her army of martyrs.
We said, last week, that the disclosures of
the present one would, as revelations of me-
lancholy wickedness, probably exceed even
anything that had already been elicited. How
promptly that anticipation was fulfilled let the
evidence taken on Tuesday tell. The first
witness on that day was an Assistant-Surgeon,
FLOWER, who deposed to the murder of the

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MARCH 31, 1855.

63rd Regiment. This regiment embarked from
Ireland in July, being then upwards of 1,000
strong. By the last accounts this number had
been reduced to thirty. The means by which
they have been killed are, exposure, against
which no adequate precautions were taken,
and absence of medical assistance, of hospital
provisions, and of arrangements for transport
—all of which are the necessaries of life to a
regiment on foreign service.
When the 63rd landed in the Crimea they
had with them a large regimental medicine-
chest. But this had to be left behind as there
were no means of transport for it. The regi-
ment, with the exception of two nights, was
without tents for three weeks, the night dews
being very heavy, and the cold severe. They
took a small supply of medicines with them
on the march, but they had a large amount of
sickness, and some of these medicines were
exhausted in three or four days. The large
chest was not landed up to the 12th of Decem-
ber, when the witness left the Crimea. The
bedding for the sick remained on board the
Avon. There were no means of transport
provided for the sick during the march. The
above sentences are a condensation of Mr.
FLOWER'S evidence—the next hideous question
and answer shall be given verbatim. Mr.
LAYARD asks:
Did you kare any sick men on the road to die
A great many.

The next inquiry is :
If you had had waggons would you have been able to
save those men whom you left behind?
yes, if we could have brought them on.
The witness goes on to state, that when the
wet weather set in the condition of the sick
before Sebastopol was " most wretched." The
tents were not waterproof even when new. No
preparation was made for the sick, who had to
lie on the bare ground in their wet clothes.
The chief medicine required was opium, and
of that they were frequently short. In answer
to Sir JOHN PAKINOTON, the witness added that
the nurnbez of deaths on board the transports
which conveyed the sick to the hospital was
increased by the state of neglect in which,
there also, the sick were left

Thus much for Mr. FLOWER. The next wit-
ness is Dr. MENZIES, the Deputy-Inspector-
General of Hospitals. We shall limit our-
selves to mere quotations from the evidence,
with difficulty wrung from this unfortunate
person by Mr. LAYARD, because it is evident
that Dr. MENZIES will have to answer else-
where. His business was to attend to the
condition of the hospital at Scutari. In pre-
paring reports for his superiors he made
favorable statements that were not reconcilable
with fact. The Doctor is, no doubt, one of the
old school, who stick to routine and have a
servile reluctance to intrude anything " un-
pleasant" upon the notice of their betters.
Had he made to Lord STRATFORD the report
which he has been forced to make to the
Committee, good would have been done. But
it is not with a narrow-minded underling, but
with the state of things to which he testifies,
that we have to do. He alleges that there was
a want of shirts in the hospitals, that the
men were in a filthy condition, that there was
a difficulty in obtaining linen, that the ar-
rangements for cooking were inadequate (other
and revolting evidence touching the sending
up raw meat to the poor bedridden soldiers
has been given), " one kitchen to cook three
" meals a day for the men in three wards of
" an hospital, each a mile long," but he does
not think that any death occurred from the
privation of food. To other still more revolt-
ing details elicited from this witness we can
scarcely allude—suffice it to say, that Mr.
STAFFORD'S terrible description of the hospital
was more than verified out of the mouth of
this man MENZIES.
Here are two companion pictures, the one
showing how the soldiers were dealt with in
the field, the other how they were treated in
hospital. Here are two illustrations of the
merits of that War Department which even
Set can find Peelite defenders, though national
execration attends every mention of its name.
But not even upon that miserable department,
chargeable as it individually is for the wanton
waste of life and the cruel sufferings described
by the Sebastopol witnesses, must the entire
weight of popular indignation descend. The