The Express.
London, England, 1863-09-03 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 8, 1888.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

When the insurrection broke out, his peasants came to
him and asked him what it meant, And what course
they ihad better adopt. Owing to his care for their
welfare, a truly patriarchal state of things seems to
have existed iu this particular case between the pro-
prietor and peasant. I may add that the proprietor
is a well-known patriot, and has given two of his
sons to the insurrection. However, much to his
honour, when the peasants came to him, this
gentleman, not feeling himself sufficiently sure of
the success of the movement, could not bring
himself to tell them to join it, knowing the
dreadful retribution awaiting them at the hands of
the Russians if the insurrectionshould be put down.
"1 could part with my sons," said he, "but when
those simple fellows came tome, I had not the heart
to tell them to go and fight." In general he assures
me that the peasantry are good Poles, but haters
of disorder. They have no notion of any govern-
ment which is not embodied in the person of the
sovereign. Therefore it is that the national govern-
ment has so little influence with them. "We live
in a terrible state of things," added this gentle-
man. "One day a messenger arrives with a rues-
seri bspia, the national government forbidding
'ua to pay taxes to the Rinsdane ;oder psis of
death. The next, the Russians threaten to place
ns before a court-martial if we withhold payment.
Our nerves will not stand it much longer ; we shall
lose our reason soon." On the Lt of September
the Russians are going to commence the following
system of collecting the taxes :—Parties of 300
infantry and 60 Cossacks are to be appointed tax
collectors, and will receive orders to quarter
themselves on the proprietor till the taxes are
paid.

(ls= OUR anew. coasseroinnsr.)
CRACOW, ACIOUST 29.

As it will probably be some weeks before I have
another opportunity of writing freely about the
Polish question, the Russians not permitting any
correspondence which does not tell in their favour
to issue from their dominions, I avail myself of this
last chance to send you a few lines. Owing to the
continued interruption of traffic on the Cracow
and Warsaw line, I am compelled sithee to give
up my journey for the present, or to run the risk
of travelling to Warsaw with posthorses by the high
road, which passes through Miechow, Kielce, and
Radom. As two other English gentlemen are in
the same plight as myself, we have arranged to
make the journey together. We are variously
informed as to the probable reception we
shall meet with, but on the whole we do not look
forward tea very savoury journey. That it will be
highly instructive is beyond a doubt, and we are
certain to gather some interesting details. I be
lieve that the country through which we are
about to pass has not been traversed by and
English traveller since the days of Ocrx, who
visited Poland in the end of the last century.
We shall, no doubt, be subjected to every sort of
annoyance, but we shall be amply repaid by view-
ing with our own eyes the true state of that
country which at present occupies the attention of
Europe. In the Russian commandant at Miechow,
I am told, we shall have a gentleman to deal with ;
but if report speaks true, we shall find General
Czengery, at Kielce, a very unpleasant customer.
It may turn out that in indulging in these specula-
tions, we are " counting our chickens before they
are hatched," for it is quite possible that we shall
not be permitted to pass the frontier.
I was yesterday introduced to a gentleman who
has distinguished himself very much in the present
insurrection, but whose name I dare not give, as it
would compromise him with the authorities. I
bad beard high praise of his bravery and noble
character, and was much struck with my inter-
view with him. The story of his escape is excit-
ing to the last degree. Severely wounded in an
engagement near Warsaw, he was only rescued
from the Cossack slaughtering parties by the
heroism of a few of his men, who succeeded in
conveying him to the house of a neighbouring
proprietor, where he was secreted for some days,
till a message was brought by a mysterious indi-
vidual, who declined to give his name, that the
premises would that night be subjected to a most
rigorous revision. No time was to be lost, and the
chief, in an almost dying state, was conveyed to an
old pavilion in the woods, long since untenanted,
except by rats, and there hidden among cobwebs
and old lumber. Scarcely was this operation safely
accomplished when a troop of Cossacks arrived,
and surrounded the dwelling-house. It was now
about midnight, and the order was given to search
the premises. Happily nothing of a compromising
nature was discovered, and the Cossacks were
baffled of their prey. It is only fair to add that, as
far as lam aware, no violence was committed. It
would take up too much space to give the details of
my hero's history till he got safely across the Galician
frontier, but I cannot abstain from noticing a very
painful incident, which happened in his presence at
Warsaw, before he put himself at the head of his
detachment. A certain lady—l have her name
but I dare not give it—suspected of being connected
in some way with the national government, was
visited two days after her confinement by
the police, and her house subjected to •
revision. It appears that their suspicions
were confirmed, or even Russians could not
have been guilty of the inhuman barbarity which
followed. Were I not convinced of the credibility
of my informant, whose character is such that it
entitles him to the fullest belief, I should not
venture to give the painful details, which I feel it
my duty not to withhold. The suspected lady, in
a fainting condition, was dragged from her bed,
and down the stairs, which were marked with a
I stream of blood which flowed from her body.
In this condition ate was conveyed to prison,
and thrust into a cell, which contained a
wooden bedstead, without any sort of bedding.
The gentleman from whom these particulars are
derived, after obtaining permission from the
authorities, himself supplied the lady with a
mattress and pillows. Is it surprising that, with
scenes like this enacting under his eyes, he should
have hastened to join the insurgent ranks. He
added, that one of his sons had been shot like a dog
by the Russians, and the other was fighting against
them. When he spoke of his sons the tears came
into the eyes of his wife, who showed me the photo-
graph of his favourite boy, whom she Would eec no
more in this world.

PUBLIC FEELING IN ITALY.

(now AZ OCCUSONAL

LEOHORN, Aoautrr 29.

Several months of absolute inertia in the pro-
gressive movement of Italy's political enfranchise-
meat have brought the malcontent of all classes to
a culminating point. The popularity of the King
and ministers is most seriously involved ; there is
a general voice of grumbling and regret, where
there was hopefulness, cheerfulness, and joy. In
fact, the government, through tie inertia, has fallen
into contempt. There is deplorable failing in the
initiation of any firmly marked line of policy in the
realm • there is a deplorable lack in Italy of repre-
sentative men, in whom the interests of this
(would-be) great country are stoutly blended in the
very heart's being and substance, and in every
public and private act. The policy of Count
Cavour has found no successor to carry
it into execution with an iron hand, a
cool judgment, and an argument made elo-
quently plausible to the whole world by a
statesman of the first order, and self-awakened
Italy becomes every day more and more alive to
the irreparable loss she has sustained. She is
every day more disquieted as to her present posi-
tion and future fate in her newly acquired position
as one of the chosen kingdoms of the earth. In
this one year of interval between the deplorable
fight at Aspromonte and this day—that fight in
which brethren took arms against each other—when
Italy arise as a single man to side with the mode-
rate party 'even against her princely soldier
Garibaldi—ltaly bee awakened to a sense of
soreness and wrong, of petty injustice and
misgovernment, whiub has broken the bouds of
unity, and opened the eyes of the country
to the miserable fatuity of the governing
majority; and the new malcontents have come
over from the opposite side to thicken Garibaldi's
ranks, if by Garibaldi be meant that stirring spirit
of freedom which, at the risk of any self-sacrifice,
aspires to the real liberation of the Italian laud.
After a bitter pause, and galling rumours, and an
appalling silence, in these latter times, there has
lately been a threatening of general outburst in the
opinion of the democratical party of Italy. This
outbreak was to have taken place this day, 29th of
August, the anniversary of Aspromonte. The
movement was to have been simultaneous in Flo-
ream, Leghorn, Genoa, Milan, etc. It was to have
been a red-shifted movement, with " Viva Gari-
baldi," and we know not what else. Here in
Leghorn, however, the police had bad timely
warning ; thus measures have been taken to pre-
vent a disturbance of the peace.
It is said that several of the leaders have been
arrested. Many hundred red shirts have been
found secreted, together with firearms, in several
private dwellings. Amongst others, some 300 red-
ahirts are said to have been found in the house of a
certain S. Garoglino, brother to the Garibaldi=
officer of the same name, who was lately ar-
rested at Constantinople (by order of the Italian
ambassador, the Marquis Bella) on suspicion of his
agency in the enrolment of free troops at Bucharest.
Reit forcements of troops have been sent to Leghorn,
and up to the present moment the most perfect
tranquillity reigns at the surface ; but the storm
of passionate protestation, long pent up, is not
quelled—nay, this threatening attitude of the popu-
lation, which has given as yet no outward signs
wofoulid scarcetaexiSty existence, save
beene
wboyri4silzinttionre;nppag
ercep
ea a token of sae present attitude of the popular
mind in Italy, worn out and wearied as it is by the
inane government which is at its head. The people
sicken at the palpable languor discernible iu every
department of government. Decrees are first
issued ; then often countermanded, or allowed to
fall into contempt. At times application is made
of these decrees in some few of the Italian pro-
vinces, whilst in others the law is modified or
evaded. This fact of evasion is applicable in Tus-
cany to the law issued (throughout Italy) for the
suppression of the monastic orders. At Naples the
decree has been carried out de facto, whilst in the
Tuscan provinces these orders continue in most
instances to thrive unmolested, whilst in others
the inmates of monasteries which are required
as localities for other uses, are thrust out
of their comfortable quarters, and for want of
proper subsidy are forced to seek asylum with the
inmates of other conventual houses. Thus the
inmates of three nunneries are suffered sometimes
to brood together in one single monastery, not cer-
tainly for their own edification, nor to that of
lookers-on who cannot help being impressed with
the flagnuicy of the fact. Besides this wanton
irregularity in the action of the government and its
many arbitrary acts, there is a galling tendency to
centralise the action of government at Turin.
Everything, from the most important to the most
tedious detail and minutia, of government, issues
from Turin, and this causes great disgust. Before
a street-sweeper or the pettiest einploy4 can be
engaged in the subsidy of public employment a
ratification of the charge must be issued
from Turin—every petty detail must emanate
from headquarters. No wonder that the
mention of the very name of Turin his become die-
tasteful throughout Italy. The very paper used
in the publio offices of Italy must issue from the
Turin office. ; and the absurd farce is enacted of
sending the stationery back to Naples, where
it was originally fabricated, after it has
in the first instance passed at Turin through
the government bureaux. The loss of time and
surplus of expenditure accruing from all this trifling
is infinite. There are rumours of a change in the
ministry, which are every day repeated, to be every
day contradicted. There is nothing certain as yet,
save the fact of a general disquietude and dissatis-
faction in the mind of Italy, which harbours
change, and it must be hoped amelioration of
the present state of things. It is impossible to

I was also informed by this gentleman that twelve
ladies of his acquaintance, suspected of being con-
nected with the insurrectionary movement, bad been
lately seized and carried off to the citadel, where
they were detained till an order arrived to send
them off to Siberia. Before starting on their
journey, the authorities directed that the hair of
the ladies should be cropped abort off, and their
hands put in irons. This order was carried out,
and, with their arms so fastened that they could
not move them night or day, the unfortunate
victims were sent off on foot to Siberia.

There is a province in the kingdom of Poland, to
the east of Warsaw, called Podlachia. Here since
' the commencement the insurrection has always
flourished, and I have at length found the explana-
tion. In the kingdom Lithuania and the Ruthe-
nian provinces, which made up the Poland of 1772,
there is a very large class of petite noblesse. A tra-
veller unacquainted with its history might pass
through the country without perceiving that the
petite noblesse differed in any way from the ordinary
peasantry. For in outward appearance there is nothing
todistinguish these villagers from those of their neigh-
bours. But on a nearer inspection, a certain
amount of neatness and a greater love of cleanliness
will be found to characterise their dwellings. But it
is in its traditions that the petite noblesse
takes the greatest pride. In the palmy days
of Poland this class was distinguished from
the rest of the peasantry in enjoying the
title of citizen, and consequently voting at the
Diet. Now that all this his departed, only the
memory of the put remains to them. Without
exception they are patriots to the backbone, and
the insurrection his found a powerful support
among them. Now this province of Podlachia is
the head-quarters of the petite noblesse, so it is not
surprising that the movement should hold its
ground there.

A proprietor, who is on excellent terma with his
peasants, related to me yesterday an interesting con-
versation he had with them before leaving home.