The Express.
London, England, 1862-06-03 00:00:00

LETTER FROM A POLISH =ILE TO
SIBERIA.

The following letter Will written by a Polish gen-
tleman sent to Siberia by the Russian government

" Siberta.—Kurgaa, sth (17th) March, 1882.
"My dear Friends,—We have arrived at last
at the town of Kurgan, on the river Tobol, 500
vents south of Tobolsk. I wrote to you before
leaving Tobolsk, and now I write from my present
quarter* in Siberia. I arrived here the day before
yesterday, in the evening, in the company of two
gendarmes, worn out with my journey, and perish-
ing with cold, for of late we have had as much as
35 degrees of frost, to say nothing of a fearful
snowstorm. There was not even a place to pass the
night in, for we travelled through the steppes, where
the only inhabitants are Tartars, who live in poor
and dirtypovels ; no stoves, only badly built chim-
neys, where they keep up • fire day and night.
They use no beds, or furniture of any kind, but
sleep all together on a board raised half a foot
from the ground, covered with a dirty fur.
On this board they lie, sit, eat—in a word,
pass their lives : filth and uncleanness are visible
everywhere. It is strange that in so cold a climate,
where there is sometimes as much as 40 degrees of
frost, and the winter and snows last for more than
nine months in the year—it even snows sometimes
in the summer—this people should wear so little
clothing. The women have for their only covering
• dirty brown shirt, which they do not take off by
day or uight—woree than our gipsies.
They are a neglected people, with scarcely any
idea of religion, with very moderate wants, and
dragging on their wretched life from day to day,
neither knowing nor desiring anything better.
But even the life of the Siberian Christians
is quite different from ours. How difficult will
it be to become accustomed to it, if I have
to remain here long ! It is fortunate for me
that I shall not be alone in this place of
exile, for a month ago the Rev. M. was sent
here from Grodno, and to-night came the Rev. N.
We three are now seeking a common lodging, and
perhaps we shall manage. Our greatest trouble
will be the food, which is here prepared in such a
manner that it is impossible for us to eat it. How
sorry I am that I did not learn cookery, for now I
shall have not only to cook for myself, but also to
build a stove, for here everything is cooked in a
stove after the fire is put oat, as our bread is ma&i
and no other stove is here known. Yesterday I
tried to cook some pieces of meat, which I got at'
Tobolsk, and will make some more attempts ; but
here comes another difficulty, for there are no con-
diments but pepper and salt—no butter, no eggs ;1
the potatoes are frozen • the flour, of the caw
tuonest land ; and the bread so bad, that it is mere
like clay. In • word, everything for the
table is bad. In Tobolsk we did not
find this, because we were invited nearly every
day to dinner to the many worthy Polish and
Ruthenian resident families; but in this Siberian
Italy, where scarcely anything grows, I do not know
bow we shall manage. A cookery book would be wig
useful to me ; but where to get it ! There is not
a book shop for thousands of vents round. Far
Heaven's sake send us some newspapers as soon as
you can, for we know nothing of what is going en
among you, and the idleness to which I am has
condemned doubles my anxieties. But Providence
in assigning this residence for us has not done so
without an object. I am now endeavouring to dis-
cover it, and busy myself with some useful work.
" As yet my almost ceaseless travel has not al-
lowed me to consider my sad situation, exiled
so far from my dear fatherland and relations ; but
what will be our further fate in these wild steppes,
in the midst of people so different from us in cus-
! toms and ideas, I cannot conceive. There is no
Roman catholic church here : we cannot, therefore,
even have the religious consolation of celebrating
mass. We shall, however, request the Archbishop
of Mohilew, at St. Petersburg, to give us the neon-
! Nary permission, to establish • chapel at home. Bat
when will this be done I The oorres_pondence in the
matter will 000upy some months. With what
patience do I await the smallest scrap of news
from you. What are you doing I Do prey
write to me, as this will be my only
consolation. To the Revs. N. and R. I beg
to be remembered most kindly ; ask Mr. 0. and
others to send us a line now and then, as well as the
French journals. Tell Mr. B. to sell my little
carriage for what it will fetch, or have it raffled, se
I want money very mach, no allowance being given
us either for food or lodging, and the price of pro-
visions is most exorbitant. I left reedy some
1 tickets prepared for the raffle, and if you apply to
Mr. C., he will help you, for he is an excellent man.

" Yon need not be anxious about my health. The
climate: here is milder than in the north—even my
eyes are not so bad as when I was in the citadel
When lam settled and become familiar with all
around me I will write to you again, for nothing
can be more soothing or agreeable to my feelings.
But the thought when you shall receive,
if at all, my communication written from
another part of the globe distresses me beyond
measure. Oh ! how sad and dreary is the life of
an exile—at least if he could be cheered by the state
of his own native land ; but alas ! you are equally
:2711by an intolerable despotism, and God
lea
knows when it shall cease. May He have you
and all our dear friends in His safe keeping, is the
constant prayer of your loving brother.

MEXICO.

(Per La Plata oUt Southampton.)
MEXICO, APRIL 28.
The Mexican papers have published the follow-
ing documents :

NIFESTO OF GENERAL ALMONTE.
OESKILLL JOAN ALMONTS TO TUE lIICLICLIM.

Cordova, April 17, 1862.
• &lbw etrastmlover weal days I haws his de!
eine of aderwreing you, to inform you of the object of my
arrival in the republic ; but the circumstance that an
armistice we pending, and that I found myself =der the ,
MIT:of the Freeeb flag, did not allow ors to speak,
obliged to await the opportunity
i for doing so.
Now that the representatives of takteg
_charge of
the estate; display the true wide of the allied goirere-
meats, I believe it my duty to break the Zee which I
had maintained against my will, and which has afforded an
oppodunity for the enemies of order to take advantage of
it- by the publication of apocryphal proctrinations.
In returning to the bosom of my country, I may tell you
that lam animated by no other sentiment than that of
contributing to the pacification of the republic, and of
cooperating in the establishment of a nationalgovernment
truly of order and of morality, which shall for ever put an
sad to anareby, and which shall give sufficient guarantee
for the life and property of natives as well me foreigners.
A stranger to the sanguinary refs which for so many
years has tom our beautiful country, and has scandalised
the entire world to so pet a degree as to mu seriously for
the astentioa of the Great Western Powers of
my efforts will always be directed towards promoting
remmailiation of our brothers, and d causing hatred sad
dined to deppear from among this. Happily, to fulfil
so noble an object I have no vengeance to desire, no re-
annease to sik. Sufficiently rewarded by the nation for
the wee which it was my duty to render has before and
sine her independenee, ray only aspiration at present is to
be able to offer her the LA and mad important of ease
aseviees, eke (Weeding to the grave, L procuring for
her that pease of which ohs hen keg bees depend
On the other band, haver neon to know, as I do know
thee, the desires of the allied governments, and esperially
these of his Majesty the Emperor of the Freush—desies
which are no other than to see established in oar
country (and by ourselves) • stable governmentr=
upon peace and morality—to cane the pillage and Vanda-
lism which reign at present in every portion of the
repabtsc, to disappear—to enable the commercial world
to obtain the immense advantages offered to it by the
natural riches and geographical position of our fertile coun-
try ; knowing these dales I repeat it was incumbent upon
me to hasten to explain to you these wholesome intentions,
which include, further, the philanthropic idea of securing
for ever the indsprodence, the ' and the integrity
of the Warm territory.
For the establishment then of a new order of things, you
shoed true in the OffIOICiOUS co-operation of France, whose
illustrious sovereigns always causes his beneficent influeoce
to be felt wherever it is nemeary that a just and civilised
ewe should prevail.
Meier I if my bonciamble antecedents, if the Helms
rendered by me to the country, am well in the glorious strug-
gle for our indeed/mos. em in the direction of political
desire at the differeat periods in which I have formed pert
of the cabinet, or have represented the nation in foreign
countries—if, I repeat, all these things can make me
deserve your confkienoe, join your efforts to mine and look
upon it as certain that we shall most rapidly obtain the
eetsbbshasest of a government such as is suited to our
character, to our needs, and to our religious creed.
This is the aserece of your fellow-countryman and best
(Bldded) Joan N. ALMONTIL
'
REPLY OF THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT