The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-07 00:00:00

[Stamped, id. Additional.]

POLAND.

(fox oua snail. cox's:own:arr.)

POSES, JAL 2.

With Berlin in the north and Vienna in the
south of Germany, the region known to the British
tourist may be fairly assumed to end. The land
of guide books ends, and that of find-out-for-your-
self begins. You feel for the first time the teasing
sensation of travelling. Henceforth your mental
food will be human nature, which after a surfeit of
picture galleries, palaces, and churches, will prove
a highly refreshing diet. In countries infested by
tourists, the simple nature of the country people
has been fairly studied away, but there is plenty of
picking as yet, on the Polish peasant. I may here
observe, for the benefit of such persons as may be
anxious to extend their knowledge of the nationali-
ties of Europe, that for the sum of one guinea, and
in the space of eight hours, the railway will trans-
port them from Berlin into the centre of an en-
tirely different civilization. A brief sojourn in
the Grand Duchy of Posen, spent in observing
the German and Polish peasant working side by
*ins would/IRV highly
wide field of study. I may also remark en paw, ,
that that large class of unhappy individuals whose
highest ambition is to pass for something better
than they really are would find their wishes grati-
fied to their hearts' content, for in Poland every
one who wean a black coat passes with the pea-
sants not only for a gentleman, but for a nobleman.
On my return from a tour of several days in the
country, during which I scarcely heard a single
word of German spoken, I was considerably amused
by the conversation of a Prussian officer whom I
chanced to meet at dinner. Having ascertained
that I was an Englishman, be proceeded gravely
to inform me that a Polish nationality had long
ceased to exist in the Grand Duchy of Posen, or
any other part of the Prussian dominions Now,
considering that out of 29 members returned to the
Chamber of Deputies by the Grand Duchy, 22
are Poles, the statement of my military friend,
whose Gospel is the liras: Zeirang, must be looked
upon as somewhat hasty. It is a fact significant
of the iucreasing force of the Polish nationality
that this number shows as increase of three on the
number of Polish members returned at the pre-
vious election, while not longer than twelve years
ago there were but six Poles elected in the whole
Grand Duchy of Posen. In addition to this, in
the province of West Prussia, where a considerable
portion of the peasantry is Polish, whereas
formerly not a single Pole was elected, at the last
election six Polish members were returned. After
this display, either of remarkable ignorance or wil-
ful misrepresentation of facts, I was not surprised
at the next statement of the same officer, who went
on to inform me that the cost of the fortifications
of Posen had not exceeded four million thalers.
Now, as it is notorious that for the last thirty years
Prussia has spent on an average a million thalers a
a year on rendering Posen impregnable, I left the
table with a not very elevated opinion of my friend's
love of truth. Seeing that the fabulous sums spent
on this very work supply the Prussian government
with an argument against the possibility of ever
surrendering the province, a major in the army
could hardly plead ignorance of a fact so commonly
known even among civilians.
The increase in the number of Polish deputies
returned to the Chamber at Berlin naturally
caused the goverument considerable uneasiness,
and the authorities accordingly set to work to du
their best to prevent a recurrence of the circum.
stance. It appeared to them that the result was
mainly attributable to the influence of the catholic
priesthood, but they failed to discover that the evil
was seated far deeper. It never occurred to the
government that, though they might throw a priest
or two into prison, it was quite out of their power
to arrest the impetus imparted by the Italian
movement towards unity to the other oppressed
nationalities of Europe. By way of making an
example of one of the leaders of the patriotic party
in the church, the police authorities arrested some
time since a priest named Tomicki, on the charge
of high treason. Tomicki was brought to trial,
firstly for having inserted in a journal, which
circulates chiefly among the peasantry, and of
which he was editor, a passage copied from
another journal, wherein it is stated that, in certain
districts, the peasants had beaten their ploughshares
into weapons ; and secondly, for adding, as a com-
mentary to this passage, that national independence
was the greatest blessing a people could enjoy. The
ingenuity of M. Bareusprung, the Minister of
Police at Posen, construed these words into high
treason, for, he argued, be who aids and abets in
setting fire to my neighbour's house is implicitly
guilty of setting mine on fire. Tomicki was found
guilty of the charge, and logically should have been
oondemned to death, but the government showed
their conviction of the weakness of their case by
merely sentencing him to two years' imprisonment.
Though, as compared with Russia and Austria,
qualified praise may be bestowed on Prussia, espe-
cially (in respect of the education of the peasantry)
for her administration of that part of Poland which
was assigned to her by the treaty of Vienna, yet in
many respects her mode of dealing with the Grand
Duchy of Posen will not bear close inspection.
The aversion displayed by Russians of unblemished
character towards accepting a post in Poland
exists in a less degree among the anperior class
of Prussians with regird to Posen. The result is
that the government is obliged to put up with
the best men that can be got to do this disagree-
, able service, and this would appear to account for
the continuance of such a man as Barensprung in
his post as head of the police at Posen, after being
convicted of forgery before the house of represen-
tatives at Berlin. As the particulars of the con-
spiracy which Barensprung and his assistant Post
attempted to get up in Posen in the year 1860 may
not be iu the recollection of your readers, T will
briefly recapitulate them. Desirous of getting a
handle against the Poles of the Grind Duchy,
Barensprung bethought himself of the plan of
entering into correspondence with the revolu-
tionary agencies in London and Paris in the
name of certain inhabitants of Pawn. After
the exchange of several letters the matter was
satisfactorily arranged, and Barensprung get
printed in Posen a number of revolutionary
circulars, which he caused to be distributed
all over the duchy, intending to institute revisions
in the houses of the persons implicated. Before, how
ever, the plot was ripe,an agent of the revolutionary
party arrived in Posen from Paris and waited on the
individuals, whose names Barensprung had forged.
These persons then, for the first time, beard any-
thing of the projected conspiracy, and when the
circulars arrived took them, one and all, to the

[TWOPENG

police, and denounced the affair to the authorities.
Thus Barensprung's ingenuity was turned against
himself, and when the matter was investigated
before the Chamber of Deputies, and his guilt es-
tablished, the Polizeimaster had nothing for it but
to hang down his head, and trust that the whole
affair would soon be forgotten. In this expecta-
tion M. liirensprting has not been disappointed,
and he was holding his head as high as ever when
I passed him in the street yesterday.

As I believe it is doubtful whether M. Biiren-
sprung himself, or Lis assistant Post, was most
instrumental in the affair, I will just touch on the
past career of the latter, to show how worthy he is
to be placed in a position of confidence. Having begun
life as a Roman catholic priest, he soon got tired
of that, and leaving the church of Rome, married
and started on Lis own acoounj as minister of a
Deutsch-Katholik commune, a sect which was
popular for twelve months in the Grand Duchy,and
then died a natural death. Being now thrown out
of employment, Post cast about him for some means
of getting his bread, and got employed on some
secret police service, iu which he acquitted himself
SO much to the satisfaction of the authorities that
triiiit.s promoted-to the lucrative position which he
now occupies. These particulars will suffice to show
that the Prussian government is, like its neighbours,
driven to employ persons of at least doubtful cha-
racter in the administration of a province so unpo-
pular with the better sort of employiis as Posen.
I chanced the other day to stroll into the criminal
court, where an amusing trial was taking place.
The prisoner at the bar—a most garrulous peasant,
who constantly interrupted the proceedings—was
accused of stealing his neighbour's poplar tree,
and being found guilty, got off with one week's
imprisonment. As the tongues of the peasants
clattered at a great rate, I should not Lavisunder-
stood a word of the proceedings had not the evi-
dence been carefully translated into German for the
benefit of the procureur royal, who, to my astonish-
ment, did not understand a single word of Polian.
After the departure of the interpreter one of the
peasants considerably embarrassed this learned in-
dividual, by addressing himself pointedly to Lim,
and would not allow himself to be silenced at any
price. It is difficult to see how justice can be im-
partially administered where the government prose-
cutor dues not understand a word of the evidence
in the oiigival, and is entirely dependent on the
services of au interpreter.

The Culope Ga:.,lt4 says that such of the Jewish
inhabitants of Warsaw as did not wait on the
Director of Police to sign the address of loyalty to
the Czar have beeu visited by policemen in their
own houses and requested to sign duplicates of the
address. They were informed that there was no
compulsion iu the case, but a " friendly" warning
was given them not to expose themselves to unplea-
sant consequences, as the musses of those refusing to
sign would be noted. As there are 50,000 Jews in
Warsaw, an address signed by them all would give
Russia a certain triumph, if the means used in
obtaining signatures were not so generally known.
Six hundred more prisoners have been transported
into Russia from the citadel of Warsaw. A
decree signed by General Berg has ap-
peared establishing " military police" in the
kingdom. The powers of these authorities are of
a very extensive character. At their head is a
general with the rank of a minister, and in addition
to the ordinary duties of policemen, they are in-
structed to take under their protection the com-
plaints of peasants against their masters. In the
preamble to this decree it is stated that the revolu-
tionary authorities are extending theirorgauiestion,
and embracing all the provinces in their action.
The Srislessische Zeitrolg observes that it hears
with satisfaction that not only French merchants
and manufacturers have taken the necessary steps
to protect their rights, through the French govern-
ment, in consequence of the closing of the commer-
cial establishments of Warsaw by General Berg, but
that the German creditors of oppressed Warsaw
firms have taken similar steps, with a view to the
interference, in their behalf, of the governments of
Prussia and Saxony.
The government of Lnnza, which has Pent an
"address of loyalty" to the Czar, is one of the most
terribly persecuted districts of Poland. A Russian
ensign, named Gust, who is the leader in every
species of atrocity committed by the Russians in
this district, has ordered a nobleman named
Pulawski, au old man of 110, to be flogged by the
Cossacks, which was done so effectively that the
victim died on his road to Bielsk from the scene of
bis sufferings. His two daughters were also
flogged ; one of them died a short time after, and
the other is dangerously ill. Floggings take place
daily, and many perish under the whip. In the
district of Bielak, JI. Dombrowski, a gentleman of
Bvbyski, was flogged in his house. and afterwards
taken to the place where the court-martial was
sitting, but died on the road. In the town of
Bielak, the wife of a steward miscarried while she
was being flogged.