The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-15 00:00:00

"Carriers (probably drivers of arabas) who were return-
ing from the Crimea through Podolia, narrated in the
neighbourhood of Mohilew that the French, although
they were fighting with the Russian troops, were by no
means ill-disposed to the Russian people, and wanted to
do away with all forced labour (villain socage). On this
a deacon (a Pope not yet in full orders), in the village
of Moguslau, near Mohilew, having observed how little
effect the appeal of the Russian Synod in St. Petersburg
had had in rousing the people in the provinces of
Irolhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine (formerly
Polish) to take up arms for its faith and its co-reli-
gionists in Turkey, made the peasants believe that the
Synod bad, in fact, addressed another appeal to the
people, in which the abrogation of the corvee was
proclaimed, and the fee-simple of the lands conferred on
the peasants who cultivated them. lie assured them
that the great men who stood nearest the Emperor
had caused this address to be suppressed, but
that he had a copy of it. This document, of his
own concoction, he read to the peasants that were
already excited by the French news from the Crimea.
They proceeded at once to their Pope, and demanded
to have the genuine address of the Synod published,
and were of course informed there was no other than
the one already made known. In a number of villages
the excited peasantry began to maltreat their Popes,
and assembled together tumultuously, armed with scythes
and pitchforks ; but in no case were any threatening
demonstrations made against the land proprietors, the
lords of the manors. With the assistance of military,
acting energetically up to the very sharp orders they had,
the disturbance was quieted-40 of the rioters lost their
lives, and. about 200 of the more prominent were taken
prisoners and sent to Siberia—the less prominent got off
with a pla-itiful dose of knout. The villages in question
remain oc,Jupied by soldiery, and the whole state of
feeling in Lesser Rus,ia is described as sultry and
threatenin g."
The Pq cussische Correspondenz favours us with
the following statement, which flavours strongly of
official inspiration :
"The disturbance vi-al confined to the estates of the Po-
lish Counrtßranicki, and some ofthe neighbouring domains,
and is principally traceable to the hatred of the peasants to
some of the lords of the manors. The people had misunder-
stood the recent manifesto of the Emperor; they rose en
masse for the purpose of entering the ranks of the Militia,
declaring they would rather serve the Emperor as
soldiers than continue to serve their lords. The
movement caused the greatest apprehension among
the landed proprietors of those parts, whose
religion, language, and race differ from those of the
people. As no conciliatory and pacific means availed
to bring back the misguided people to their work,
military force was obliged to be called in, if a repeti-
tion of see nes that took place not so long back in Galicia
was to be prevented. This proves that they are perfectly
in error NNho, in the above-mentioned disturbances, re-
cognise a .Polish rising against Russian dominion."
The Gesterreichische Zeitung has another version,
different from any as yet given, viz., that a large
number o f the noble proprietors of land, to in-
demnify- themselves for the sacrifices thrust upon
them by- the Government under the name of war
taxes an 4 " voluntary contributions," had laid un
usually heavy burdens on their serfs, and required
of them oxcessive services ; in consequence of this
oppression, the otherwise inexhaustible patience
of the la.i.ter had failed them. The appeal of the
Government to the people to co-operate in the de-
fence of the country, and to flock to the support of
their standard and the cross, afforded them a
welcome opportunity of escaping from their oppres-
sors ; to. this was added a very sensible dearth of
salt, which raised their excitement to the highest.
The peasantry left their villages, and repaired in
troops to the towns, where they demanded to
be admitted into the militia, in order that they
might "serve the Czar and get salt to eat." Under
the twofold pretence of love to their country and
to salt they strove to free themselves from their
feudal shackles, but the authorities refused to enrol
anybody that did not produce a written permission
to that effect from his lord ; all those unprovided
with such a document were sent back to their
homes -under military escort and admonished.
This version, however, concludes like the first—
In spite of every trouble and precaution the au-
thoriti.es have not succeeded in quieting the ex-
citemeat in the Ukraine."