The Express.
London, England, 1863-03-16 00:00:00

LYCZMI.

Tan Imps, A 6trDsiN ATTACK. Mews. Shore and
rnddiaricb MY. Hounds and Mn. lid.—. And THE CRAM
MOTTO. Werra. Pechter, 0. VL Bmeghain, end aarapod ;
Mama C. Lecieron. I. Tarry, and II worthy.
-

BRITANNIA.

Tail Ems. THE ISPIFEEEOI THE ELL )I.w
ternokla Cranford, Eliwood. Dnuemood : IL remold sad
Yin 666466 Mita -JUNIUS MAIM lbs. Mn..-
And ELLEN AND SUSAN.- Carasieses at W!-ped 0.

HIGH WATLI AT LONDON 111.11)68.
W eorjw—lforatni. II h. 40.A....Altarmoslik 501 a.
—Meath& Oh. 04.....Ab0n001. OA. no.

LONDON, MONDAY. MARCH 16.

THE most important struggles of the last half-
century have been between the popular and the
military powers. The struggle has been carried
on with varying fortune—at one time the people and
at another time armies being triumphant. At last
it seemed decided that in the great military mo-
narchies the numbers and warlike appliances, espe-
cially the artillery, of regular armies rendered them
superior to any popular insurrection, however
brave the nation. The question, however, is not
decided. At the present moment the armies of
the two greatest military Powers are held in check
and baffled by resistance which is essentially that of
the people.
We would not do the Poliah patriot the injus-
tice of putting the Mexican on a level with him.
But the military phenomena on the other side of
the Atlantic are even more striking than those
which claim attention in Europe, and strongly
demonstrate the superiority which popular defence
Buy acquire over military attack. Although the
Mexicans should be beaten, they have established
what it was necessary for them to prove—the
hopelessness of their definitive subjugation ; and
the French are believed to be merely aiming at
that amount of success which will enable them to
withdraw with honour fiom an enterprise under-
taken in rash and ignorant presumption.
Over the Polish insurrection military men in
general shook their heads. What could men do
with scythes t Yet experience has shown that
victories may be gained with those rude weapon
Scythemen cannot fight at a distance, or engage
for hours in that murderous yet resultlese
fusillade which is the characteristic of so many re-
cent American engagements. They must rusk
on their foe or fly from him ; they have no
alternative ; and we know which of them the gal.
lent Poles universally choose. The results, hitherto
in favour of the insurgents, have bees as startling
to military men as the hesitation of General FORXT
before Puebla.

It was given out with authority some time due,
that the Polish insurrection would be speedily
put down ; that, in fact, WIELOPOLIZI had foreseen,
and in part provoked it, for the sake of getting
rid of thoee unquiet spirits who prevented any
acceptance of Russian concessions ; that the
Musson was prepared to grant all that
rational Poles could ask ; and that their pacifi-
cation and the restoration of the Polish lring•
dom and constitution were events to be looked for.
The tidings of successive days seem to belie
such assertions, and to demonstrate the futility of
such hopes. If W1114P0147.1 and the Rassiaoa
believed them, we should see some trace of the
expectation in their conduct. if the Cossacks
persisted in burning the thatched homestead of
the peasant, they would at least respect the chateau
of the Polish proprietor and noble. Because if
accommodation is to take place between Poland
and Russia it must be through the upper duns,
and if the cabinet of St. Petersburg had conceived
the idea of conciliation it would not have taken a
course which drives the Polish gentlemen into the
ranks of the insurgent&
But the Rind= commanders have ev:dently
got no such order. Their rale is not only war
to the cottage, but war to the palace. They
burn villages and destroy country man-
sions, slaying as many of the inmates as they
conveniently can. It is a war against the whole
Polish people, and with such atrocities that con-
ciliation or compromise is out of Vie guess-ion.
London has contained numbers of Polish gentlemen
who pride themselves upon being Conservatives,
and eschewing revolutionary modes and revolu-
tionary men. But at the report of the universal
devastation which the Russians are inflicting on
their country, these gentlemen fling their pre-
ferences end aversions to the winds, and declare
any amount of popular excitement not only jus-
tified, but inevitable. The conduct of the Russian
officers and soldiers during the last six weeks has
removed all difference of parties amongst the Poles.
The desolating character of the warfare waged
by the Roan= armies in Poland is evidently no
chance result, proceeding from the exasperation or
ruthlessness of the Russian soldiers. What is done
is universal, and so regular that it must pro used from
a plan to mush and reduce Poland by famine, due
armies ars unequal to the teak. The chateau and
its lord, the cabin and its store of provisions, are
systematically levelled and destroyed. Fortu-
nately the time of year does not permit the de-
struction of the harvest. Ent it is to be feared
that the Polish peasant can neither cultivate nor
sow this spring, and the result must be a
most fearful famine. To aggravate sad steels-
rate this constitutes the aim of the Remus
gourd', who might be thought to be merely
wreaking vengeance on a country which they
were speedily about to quit. They have, how-
ever, no idea of going away. The numerous
and dense columns of the Russians will be nou-
rished from Posen, Silesia, and their own pro-
vinces, whilst the insurgents, unconquerable by
armies in the woods, must, it is thought, succumb
to starvation.

The puzsuit of rush a policy se this, so directly
contrary to tire promisee and profeerions of the
Russian Government, gives Europe at least the
opportunity and the right to interfee►
For it requites time fee completion ; it is,
a slow torture, and must produce an ammtni
of human misery to which the Nolo it]