The Express.
London, England, 1847-01-14 00:00:00

CRACOW.

OCUMENTS COMMUNICATED BY THE MINISTER
OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
parsca DE METTERNICH TO M. LE COMTE D'•PPONT.

VIENNA, FEB. 20, 11146.—1 despatch the present courier,
in order that you may inform the French government of a
fact which teems about to be realised, if, indeed, it is not so
already at this moment. You will see by the annexed,
that a military occupation of the town of Cra-
cow has become a matter of absolute and urgent
necessity. The extensire conspiracy of the Commu-
nists which spreads over the Polish tetritory, seems to have
made choice of this free city (which has become a haven for
adventurers and conspirators), for the theatre on which they
intend to strike a blow, long meditated and prepared by the
Polish emigration. The arrestations which have recently
been made in the grand duchy of Pawn and in Galicia, were
provoked by discoveries which place beyond a doubt the ex-
istence of a conspiracy, the extent of which cannot be esti-
mated as yet. It is only very lately that Cracow seems to
have been chosen by the chiefs of the enterprise. The senate
and the peaceful inhabitants of Cracow are, as you will
perceive by the annexed, threatened with death sad
pillage, and if the enterprise bears the impress of madness,
sti is not the less the practical result of the plans adopted by
the conspirators. The conspiracy is evidently conducted
according to the ideas of communism, and invokes to its as-
sistance the arms of terror. The Polish emigrants, who
were for a long time divided into two factions, the aris-
tocratical and democratical, now exporience the common fate
of revolutions the moderate faction cannot get the better
of the wore violent; and the latter will. in its turn, fall
under the law which governs those who deaire to go far-
ther still. What may surprise is, that the chiefs of the
aristocratic party at present enter into the views
of the communists. Democratic ideas not being applicable to
a Slavonic population, such as the people of Poland, these
ideas, promulgated by a fraction of the emigration, have'
necessarily turned to communism that is, to proiects of
plundering property and murdering the landholders.
Please to forward the present despatch without di lay to M.
Ouizot, and to give him the assurance that he will run no
risk, if in his answers to questions that will be put to him,
he takes upon himself to assert that in the military occupa-
tion of Cracow, the Three Protecting Powers do not act
with any political view, but merely from a sentiment of duty
in order to prevent the peaceful population and the govern-
ment of that city from becoming the victims of a conspiracy,
one of the chief elements of which is a thirst of pillage.
P.S. On the 18th, in the morning, a battalion of infantry,
a squadron and a half of cavalry, and a half battery of
artillery, crossed the Vistula, and occupied Cracow. Public
order has not been disturbed in the city.

DOCUMENT ANNEXED TO THE DESPAICH OF FEBRUARY 20.
VIENNA, FEBRUARY 20TH, 1846.—F0r some time past 1.0-
ports from Cracow speak of • secret movement in that town,
between the adherents of the revolutionary party, the young
men, even of the best families, and a great number of indi-
viduals of the lower classes; this movement daily increased
in intensity; no one any longer doubted that some blow
was being meditated in Cracow which was to serve as a signal
to the revolutionists of the neighbouring provinces, whose
connexion with those of Cracow WAS too plainly proved by the
evidence gathered in Galicia and Posen. Well-disposed men,
those who possessed any property in Cracow no longer dared
to show themselves lest they should be the first victims of the
rebellion. Even the authorities and men in place were inti-
midated by threats uttered publicly, and addressed directly to
them by persons well known for their revolutionary senti-
ments, that they' would be the first objects of the peoples'
vengeance if they durst offer any resistance, or go about to
take measures for preventing the movement. Such a state
of things spread • panic throughout the city, and even
paralysed the government of Cracow, which could no longer
be under any illusion as to the insufficiency of its means of
repression. The residents is the protecting courts
at Cracow, ever informed of these intrigues,
received in the end positive notice that two chiefs
of the Polish revolutionary party were concealed in
Cracow, ready to place themselves at the head of the insur-
rection which was to break out between the 20th of Febru-
ary and the last days of the carnival; that all young men in
Cracow, even those who belonged to the most distinguished
families, had received a summons to hold themselves in
readiness to join at the first signal the chiefs of the revoln-
tion, who were shortly to make themselves known ; and at
the same time those who did not answer the call werethreat-
rued with ignominy, and such as presumed to give informa-
tion to the authorities, with death. Such positive notice,
and of so alarming a nature, no longer permitted the resi-
dent, of the protecting courts to remain quiet spectators
of what was passing before their eyes, and what was
in course of preparation to be acted at • period so
near at hand. In consequence, they addressed to the senate
of Cracow the question, whether the latter deemed their own
strength sufficient to put down the revolutionary movement I
which seemed imminent, and to maintain public security
and legal order ; and it was only when the senate had made
the declaration that they had not the means of so doing, and
must consequently leave to the protecting courts the care of
taking the measures they might deem most proper to attain
that end, that the representatives of the three pro.ecting
courts summoned the commander of the imperial and royal
troops at Podgorx t, opposite Cracow, that being the nearest
point, first to keep himself in readiness, and then to enter
the city with a sufficient force for whatever might happen,
since the ice on the Vistula threatened to interrupt all com-
munication for several days.

OUIZOT TO COVICT DE nAmAvvr.
PARIS, MARCH 23, 1848.—Monsieur le Comte,-1 have
received the letters, by which you have successively in-
formed me of the events which have afflicted the repub-
lic of Cracow and the kingdom of Galicia. Count d'Ap-
PM) had communicated to me a despatch of Prince Metter-
aseh, the object of which was to prove the necessity of a
military occupation of Cracow. and to establish that that
measure imperiously demanded by the obligation to protect
the peaceful inhabitants and the government of that town,
was :n nowise connected with any political views. I need not
tell you what a painful sensation wu moved to the govern-
ment by the dinettes which a mad attempt called down upon
the unhappy population of Cracow and of Galicia. Public
tranquillity was only disturbed for a moment, and in that
tad struggle the strength was too unequally proportioned for
it to lie supposed that order would not be speedily re-
est°44ated ; the evils of every description engendered by so