The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-16 00:00:00

THE INSUE,RECTION IN POLAND,

..-..-...-,f?.-

(Fr)in tite Sycc,:al CO2

ooncle;d of the Times)

,ow, Jar, S

'Alose

The news received 'here from Poland gives bat

Ettie iJoa of tbe -exact sate of the Polish !nEarrec-
tiQu. In Lithuania, now that Mackicwicz's band is

debtroyed and Maeltiewiez himself hanged, there

can scarcely be much further t&istance to the legiti-
mate Government of the countrv, which in all the
disturbed districts has exiled or imprisoned the

landed proprietors, taxed the estates more than they
can bear, made roads through the great woods, and

cut down or burnt the smaller ones.

, The Lithuanian insurrection appears now to have
been a mistake from beginning to end. Nobody de-
sired it, and it is even difficult to determine who the
insurgents really were. Not the nobility ; for we

read every day of fresh addresses having been pre-
. __

sen ted in which the mobility of this or that district
in Lithuania condemn the insurrection as a move-

ment got up only by a few misguided and perverse
men. Not the peasants ; for except in the Catholic
districts, where the priests are men of some cultiva-
tion, and, apart from their religious authority, have
a natural influence as teachers which the Russian
"orthodox" priests, knowing nothing themselves,
cannot be expected to exercise ; except in the
Catholic districts of the Wilna and *Kovno Govern-
nients the peasants have been either completely
passive or have allowed themselves to be armed
against their masters. Almost the only positive
outrages on the part of the peasantry in Lithuania
appear, it is true, to have been those committed at
the very beginning of the insurrection by the Russian
sectarians (rask,olniki), whose ancestors, after being
driven oat of Russia, had been hospitably received
in Poland. But, as a general rule, the peasantry in
Lithuania, as in all other parts of Poland, except
the Grand Duchy of Posen (where the serf of
former times has long been a landed proprietor)
are too degraded to have any notion of patriotism,
and they can, if necessary, be raised up against the
actual owners of the soil as easily as in Russia
itself. In Russia previous to the Emancipation Act
numbers of proprietors were murdered every year
by their peasants, of course without any incitement
On the part of the Government, which on its own
natural territory cannot desire to see societyentirely
disorganised.
But what proves beyond doubt the hatred of the
Lithuanian peasantry for all ideas of Polish nation•
ality is the fact that they, like the nobility, disavow
with honest warmth all participation in the late
criminal attempt to replace the established Russian
Government by a government of Poles. The pea-
sants' addresses are very explicit on this point.
,Besides the peasantry, who cannot be supposed to
care much for anything not immediately connected
with their daily wants, and the country gentry and
small freeholders, who are represented in secret
official reports as detesting everything Russian, and
in public official addresses as filled with the highest
veneration for the Russian Government, there are
also the Jews, who form a greater part of the tract,
ing classes in the towns. They also are very fond of
the Russians, but nothing is astonishing on the part
of the Jews of Lithuania, for it appears that they
have a high admiration even for Christianity, espe-
cially of the Russian pattern. A number of poor,
humiliated, persecuted Lithuanian Jews had to pre-
seat an address the other day, in which devotion was
expressed for that Government which, until within
the last few years, made it penal for a Jew wearing
his ancient traditional costume to remain more than
three days in the holy city of Moscow, and abhor-
rence for the nation which gave an asylum to the
Jews when in all other parts of Europe they were
cruelly oppressed. The Jewish deputation having
expressed a wish to make some sort of gift (appa-
rently by way of peace offering) inquired, according
to the Journa? de St. Petersbourg , what would be
the most appropriate thing for them to offer. "An
orthodox church," was the reply; and it is stated in
the foreign official or semi-official organ of the Rus-
sian Government that the orthodox church required
is really about to be built with Jewish money.
Dan any one imegiso that the Jews of Lithuania
do not really desire to increase the number of Chris-
tian places of worship ? They desire it quite as
much as the Lithuanians in general do to perpetuate
the Russian Government in their unhappy country;
and the gift of an orthodox church comes as spon-
taneously from the Jews as the presentation of
loyal addresses does from the Poles, whether in
Lithuania or in the kingdom.
Just about the time that Mackiewiez, already a
fusitive, was disbovered in his hiding-place and
made prisoner, Chmelinski, one of the three prin-
cipal leaders in the kingdom, was taken, and before
now has prob ably, like Mackie wiez, been executed.

At least it was announced, immediately after his
capture, that having been conducted to Radom he
would there be " punished for his crimes." Chme-
linski had commanded for some months past in
what the Poles call "the palatinate of Cracow"--that
is to say, the district adjoining the Cracow territory,
on the other side of the frontier, which before the
partition .Tormed, with the co entry around Cracow,
hat one province. Chmelinski's district was said
to be held by as meny as 15,000 Russians, and con-
sidering that the Russian army in the kingdom now
numbers 180,000 men, this estimate does not appear
at all exaggerated. Since Langiewicz's time the
Palatinate of Cracow—the scone of that leader's
principal exploits—has always been occupied by the
Russians in great strength. It is not only an easy
country for an enemy well acquainted with the
ground to defend, being thickly wooded and broken
up by a chain of hills, but the frontier is only four
miles distant froTn the city of Cracow. It was essens.
till for the Rtiusians to prevent the Poles from este-
lishing themselves in a district whence they could
kespup a close and constant communication with
the place from which they i'ave hitherto drawn the
grouter pert of their supplies, and the bands in the
Pelatinete have usually" been defeated forthwith
when they have entered from the neighbourhood of
Cracow ready formed, while they have seldom main-
tained themselves for many weeks together even
when they have been organised in the country itself.
Chmelinski had been acting some time in the Pa-
latinate when in the month of October " '2ossak"
came to the city of Cracew and began to send across
the frontier, in parties of four and five, the detach-
zeta with which Chmelinski's afterwards co-ope-
rated. Chmelinski, after the two detachments had
joined, for ultimately they formed but one, appears
to have done duty as chief of the staff, " Bossak"
assuming the general command.
Chmelinski and " Bessak" have done as hard
fighting as any leaders who have appeared in Poland
since the beginning of the insurrection, and have
had to fight against better troops than those who
took the field during the first few months. Both
had been officers in the Russian army, which they
only quitted to join their own countrymen in arms.
Chmelinski was a lieutenant in the artillery.
tc Bossak" had the rank of colonel, and had served,
I believe, in the guard and on the general staff.
Ile had also seen active service in the Caucasus,
where ho was twice badly wounded.
The affair in which Chmelinski was taken has
been represented in Polish telegrams as a victory for
the Poles, and in Russian printed reports as a vic-
tory for the Russiane. It appears, however, from
a letter of tolerably veracious aspect in one of the
Russian newspapers that there was no battle at all
on the ocewion. The Russians, under Gen. Czengery,
coming np from several polnts and in great force to
attack the insurgent band, Bossak led his men across
a river. Chmelinksi, atteneed by cne aide-de-camp,
waited behind to see the rear-guard safely over the
bridge, and the last of the cavalry were just cross-
ing, when the Cossacks and dragoons composing the
advanced guard of the Russians made their appear-
ance. The two Polish officers dresv their revelvers
and fired, but the Russians firing at the same time,
she aide-de•cemp's horse was brought down, and
Chmelinski received a wound in the head. The rest
cf the story is not likely to be true. The dragoons,
we are told, having made a rush at the chief of the
staff, and having seized him, he exclaimed," Do not
kill me, I am Chmelins.i.
It is not at all improbable that the wound
Chmelinski received in the head was from his own
hand. The Rassians would have endeavoured to take
him alive, in order to have the pleasure of heeeging
him, and he knew the fate that inevitably awaited
him if alive he fell into the power of his enemm•