The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-22 00:00:00

POLISH NATIONALITY.

(From the Daily News of this day.)
The vague oracular language in which Lord Palmer-
ston hinted, on Tuesday, nt a possible resuscitation of
Polish nationality, affords matter for serious reflection.
We have already adverted to his words, in our yester-
day's publication, but they must also be viewed in con-
nexion with his actions. We learn that Count Zamoiski
is organising, at Shumla, a second regiment of Ottoman
Cossacks in which Poles will be incorporated. This is
very grave intelligence,. It appears to be a portion of
one of those half-measures in which our Government so
especially delights. It is seeking for the odium of rous-
ing the subject nationalities with scarcely any of the
profit.

Count Zamoiski is one of the most able, important,
and energetic men in Poland. In right of his wife, one
of the most remarkable ladies in Europe, he possesses
extensive landed estates ; and the large fortune thence
derived, added to the prestige attached to one of the
stateliest and most ancient names in Poland, is likely to
have as much influence among his countrymen as it is
still possible for any single individual to exercise. But
it is to be feared that the iron 7 knuckles of the Russian
Government, energetically exercised as they have been
so long upon unhappy Poland, have at last almost suc-
ceede.d in lonading it into part and parcel of Russia.
We must not judge of the Poland of to-day by the Poland
of romance. It can no longer furnish forth the intrepid
legions of free chivalry which John Sobieski led to the
relief of Vienna ; and a quarter of a century has now
pa,sed away ince the unfortunate and ill-organised
struggle of 1830. Our Government have withheld their
assistance and ceuntenance from the Liberals of Poland
till it is doubtful how far the present generation are
prepared to receive or able to act upon it. The
Polish Liberals who have been tempted by their ma-
terial interests to remain in their country are dis-
heartened and dispirited to a degree. They will not
venture to act with energy likely to compromise
them with a Power which has hitherto shown
such determined sternness in the punishment of the
disaffected. They will not lay themselves open to
be decimated by official murders and ruined in crowds ;
they will not incur certain disgrace and misery for their
children and themselves without some positive pledge
that we will support them to the end, that we will ob-
tain political justice for them at the conclusion of peace,
and absolutely engage to protect all individuals who
may engage with us in the struggle from the
awful vengeance of their present masters. We must re-
' member, also, that most of the youth and valour of
Poland are already enrolled in the ranks of foreign armies.
Go and seek for them among the hosts of Russia which
are opposed to us, and you will often find that the arm
which strikes strongest in the battle, the eye of the engi-
neer who points the deadliest gun, belong both to a Pole.
You will find them in the paralysed legions of distracted
Austria. You will find them spurring to the front
among the French in Algeria, wherever courage maybe
displayed and distinction won.'

Ana we must remember that the spirit of Polish
inslependence which Lord Palmerston appears dis-
posed to invoke in a half-hearted, nervous, underhand
way, is an agency to be employed with the utmost deli-
cacy. We waive the question how his coquetting with
the Poles may be relished at Vienna and Berlin ; but
ought he not to reflect that in giving exclusive coun-
tenance to the Poles he runs the risk of rousing the bit-
terest envy and heart-burning among the other nationa-
lities ? The principles of Count Zamoiski are well known.
They are pure and patriotic, but they are exclusively
Polish. He has written, and wrought, and intrigued as
perseveringly against Austria and Prussia as against the
Czar. He has toiled all his life with indefatigable
energy at the resurrection of Poland as a kingdom. He
has sacrificed his peace, comfort, and fortune in her
cause. One of the most polished and refined men in.
Europe, he is consenting even at this time to bury him-
self and his family in the wretched town of Shumla, in a,
cause that presents the merest shadow of a chance of,
being useful in the furtherance of the great object on
which he has set his heart. But Austria scarcely looks
upon his presence there with more resentment and sus-
picion than the liberals of Hungary and Wallachia. In
a very clever (too clever) pamphlet which has been attri-
buted to Count Zamoiski, he has openly advocated the
permanent cession of the Principalities to Austaia as the
price of the liberation of Poland. He has openly advo-
cated the continued subjection of Hungary rather thaw
raise a question which might interfere with the settle-
ment of Poland. These are the political sentiments
which Count Zamoiski represents ; and though we speak
of him with all honour as a brave and patriotic soldier,
who has poured out his blood like water, and given all
his energies to a noble cause—though we respect him
as a man of genius, and admire him as an accomplished
gentleman—we must venture to hazard an opinion that
it is a moot point how far it is prudent for us to accept
his exclusive services at the present crisis. And what
is more to our purpose, is it worthy of a British Ministe.
to awaken in the breasts of the weake'st of European
nationalities hopes which, it is evident from his language,
he does not himself entertain or warmly sympathise
with ? Is it wise in him, while doing this, to repudiate
all sympathy with the aspirations of nearer and stronger
nationalities ?

ADDRESS OF THE POLSHI CENTRAL DEMO-
CRATIC COMMITTEE TO THE FRIENDS OF
POLAND IN THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

36, REGENT-SQUARE, G 1 A.T'S-INN-110AD, LONDON-.

GEN TLEMEN, Mr. Phiun's motion concerning the
restoration of Po!and is, on Thursday next, March 22d,
to be trought before Parliament.
Whilst there is not the slightest doubt that the Ge-
venni-mill, who have a'ready furnished Lord John Rus-
sell, England's Envoy to the Vienna Conference, with
instructions relative to that question, will answer it with
an assertion of untimeliness, and require to be allowed
to wait for the result of Lord John Russell's miss:on,
we should net he cxcmnble in the eyes of our country--
whose virtual represtntalives among you during her
enslavement we are—if we did not lay before you the
necessary consequences of such postponement, amount-
ing to a complete defeat of the object in view.
The object of the Vienna Conference is the conclusion;
if possible, of a peace based on an interpretation of the
four points, on Lord John Russell's statement that tho
integrity of the Russian empire will be respected ; and,
therefore, of a peace without the restoration of Poland..
The object of Mr. Phinn's motion—the object of so many
petitions since the middle of 1854—your object, and the
sense of the country is, that no peace shall be concluded
without a material guarantee for the future against the
encroachments of Russia—that is to say, without the
re-establishment of a strong and independent Poland.
Your object, therefore, is in open contradictionwith that
of the Conference; and if the latter is allowed to pre-
vail yours falls to the ground, and the chains of Poland.
are rivetted again for an unlimited time, with the sanc-
tion and help of Great Britain.
This is the effect which any dilatory answer of tin
Government to Mr. Phinn's motion will produce ; as it
will give the Conference time to conclude a peace, mur-
derous to Poland, fatal to English power, supremacy,
security, and best interests
Against such an effect, which only the most strenu-
ous and united efforts of all the friends of Poland in
Parliament on the present occasion can avert, we do not
invoke the blood of our martyrs, the sufferings of our
prisoners, the miseries of 25 years of exile, the groans of
23 millions of inhabitants, the moral and intellectual de-
basemut of several generations to come, as arguments
in our favour—they are merely incentives for us—our
justification in appealing to you, who are too well ac.
quainted with them to require their long enumeration ;
but we appeal to your sense of jusCce, to the interests
of liberty on the continent, to the moral axiom that evert
an insular nation cannot prosper by favouring opprcE•
sion, and suffering wrong inflicted on others.
What we want is, not only to be suffered to exist
again as a nation, and to work at our own welfare and.
prosperity—we want to be allowed to interfere as a
nation in the present struggle, to throw our own weight
into the balance of your victory—to secure your tri-
umph—to put a speedy and glorious end to the war ;
and therefore it is we want to avert for the moment a,
shameful and iniquitous peace, concluded, not under the
influence of the victories of Alma, lialaklava, and In-
kerman, but under that of crow-swarms hovering over
the deserted cainp before Sebastopol.
In Poland only can the Crimean disasters be re.
venged ; and to revenge them Poland offers her scythes ;
but, overwhelmed with Muscovite troops, she is spell-
bound, until she hears the war-cry of England and
France, and sees her oppressors diverted from their task
of gaolers and hangmen. Let Parliament speak oat to
the Government the word of Poland's salvation ; let the
Government revert to a legitimate and salutary war po-
licy, and Poland is up and joins your armies, with such
weapons as she can muster, and both are triumphant,
and free to work at their own and the world's progress.

We reckon, gentlemen, upon your energetiC support;
of Mr. Phinn's motion.—We have the honour to be,
with high consideration, Gentlemen, your most respect-
ful, &c., the Members of the Polish Central Democratic
Committee, ST. WOROELL, L. ZIENKOWICZ,
L. BuLEWBEI, A. •ABICIEL
March 19th, 1855.