The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-22 00:00:00

THE LOSS OP THE SCREW STEAMER GEORGIA.

cavalry, of whom the riflemen alone were actively
engaged. The Russian force consisted of 1,000
infantry, 50 cossacks, and two guns. The defeat •
was complete and disastrous ; 500 rifles, the two!
guns, and the money-chest, containing about 140,000 i
silver roubles, fell into the bands of the Poles,
who further inflicted on their enemy a lose of 181 I
killed, 132 wounded, and 150 prisoners. The day
after this conflict took place in the south-east of
Poland, a more desperate but leas successful one
was fought in the interior, in the vicinity of the
capitaL Grabowski, with his gallant band of 180
horse, finding that a flying column of 1,000 Rus-
sian cavalry was in pursuit of him, attempted to
join his forma with those of another insurgent
leader named Zychlinski, but before be could come
up with him was overtaken by his pursuers at
Rokitno. The Poles retired in skirmishing order,
and after killing a few of the Russians and wound-
ing 20, succeeded in escaping them, with a loss of
five killed and 14 wounded. Among the latter was
a youth of 18, named Antony Korewo, who during
the retreat kept the Russians at bay with his
revolver, but was at length captured, thrown off him
horse, and pierced with fifteen bayonet wounds. As
he lay apparently dead, the Russians stripped him,
and left him naked on the ground, where he was
afterwards found by a peasant of the neighbour-
hood. When the battle was over, large numbers
of these peasants assembled with carts on the field
to take up the wounded: but while they were
engaged in this charitable task, the Russians
rushed furiously upon them, and after wounding
several of them, and killing one, drove them from
the spot.
The most desperate of the late encounters was
that which took place on the 14th at Warsaw, in
the palatinate of Cracow. The Poles who took
part in this engagement consisted of 300 men under
Colonel Tetera, who bad crossed the frontier
from Galicia the same day under the fire of the
Austrian patrols. They had halted for rest on a
woody elevation near Warsaw, when 500 Russians
fell upon them. Whether scared by the sudden-
ness of the attack, or because they were raw levies,
one half of the Polish band immediately fled upon
the first shock of the enemy ; the rest, however,
bravely stood their ground for more than two
hours, and inflicted a loss of 20 men on the
Russians, who were five times their number. At
length it became impossible to continue the contest
on open ground. The Poles then retreated into
the woods, and for three hours longer kept up the
unequal streak. Whim bet fifty of them re-
mained it was determined to go back to Galicia, as
it was evident that so small a band would be
worse than useless for any military purpose. The
usual result followed. Scarcely did they reach
the frontier when those who had escaped the Cos-
sacks were captured by the Austrians, and even of
these, five were killed by Cossacks on Austrian
territory. Notwithstanding this disaster the Poles
were in no way discouraged ; another body of them
crossed the frontier the same night, several of them
falling under the shots of the Austrian troops, and
their band is reported to be at this moment engaged
with a large number of Russians. In the west, in
the palatinate of Lublin, there is the news of a
great Polish victory at Chelm, and of another in
the north, at Kiejdany, in Lithuania.
That the insurrection progresses it is, therefore,
impossible to deny. But it may well be a question
whether, so long as it is not recognised by the
Western Powers, it can attain its object. During
the last six months the Poles have done
wonders ; they have had against them not
only Russia, but the whole world. Being treated
by all other nations as rebels, they have had to
contend both against the moral effect of the
recognition by the world of Russia as the lawful
possessor of Poland, and against the material ob-
stacles placed in their way by the necessity, forced
upon them by Europe, of smuggling arms and
troops into Poland, not one•fifth of which are
allowed to pass the footles. Can it be doubted
that if this moral and material opposition were
removed—if Poland had to struggle with the power
of Russia alone—she would come victorious out of
the contest. A recognition of their belligerent
rights would supply, with abundance of war
materials, ten times that military force which,
scantily armed and insufficiently fed, has already
for aix months braved the whole power of Russia,
aided by the indirect support of Europe. Let this
support be withdrawn, and that recognition be
declared, and who can doubt the issue I