The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-16 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
CRACOW, Sept. 10.

The insurrection has received a severe blow in the
Government of Lublin, where it was known to exist
in greater force than in any other parts of Poland.
hear from a person who took part in an action
fought by Lelewel on the 6th against an overpow-
ering force of Russians, that the detachment was
beaten with great loss, and that the gallant chief,
who for months past had made " Lubelski," or
Lublin country, such terribly unsafe ground for the
enemy, is now among the slain. Ido not think my
informant belongs to that class of insurgents who
mistake their own private fears for general danger,
and fancy that when they run those of their com-
rades who are fighting, not from passing enthu-
siasm, but from a profound sense of duty, are
likely to follow them. There were few, if any,
such men in the detachment of Lelewel, who seems
to have known how to choose his followers and to
have caused it to be generally understood that
with him there would be no skirmishing on the
frontier, but on the contrary, the hardest possible
fighting in the heart of the contested country. No
chief, probably no two chiefs together, had met the
Russians so often as Lelewel, and he generally con-
trived to attack them with all the chances of success
in his favour. The rapidity with which he moved
and the certainty with which he took advantage of
the slightest imprudence or mistake committed by
the enemy, rendered him a more formidable oppe-
neat than other leaders who had forces thrice as
numerous under their command. He is said, more-
over, to have understood the art of conciliating
the peasantry otherwise than by hanging them.
Nevertheless, it was in all probability his great
and lasting success that made the peasantry in the
scene of his operations inclined to give him the
assistance which as a rule they avoid giving until
they are driven into fair dealing towards their fel-
low-countrymen, either by threats or by actual com-
pulsion.

Since the defeat of Taczanowski, the principal
commander in the west of the Kingdom, the great
object of the Russians has of course been to surround
and crush Lelewel, the principal commander in the
east. The Russians, with all their weaknesses, have
since the time of Langiewicz succeeded in encircling
and destroying every Polish detachment which has
once gained a particular reputation and become an
object of interest and attention in Europe. Lelewel
for some months fought without attracting much
attention, and without risking any great battle. At
times his men, or a portion of them, were engaged
almost daily, but he never humiliated the Russians
by inflicting upon them such a defeat in regular
combat as 3,000 Russian troops sustained at
Kobylanka from Jezioranski, Smiechowski, and
Waligorski, with a force of only 700 insurgents—
insurgents, however, of the best quality, known to
one another, knowing their officers, and many of
them known. at least by name, throughout the
whole country. But, although Lelewel fought no
great battles—at least not until his last action, of
which the details are not yet known in Cracow—he
found himself twice in such a position that he was
obliged to break up and disperse his detachment,
though not in such a position that he was unable to
save his men, as one would imagine they ought
always to be saved when an evidently irresistible
force is being brought against them. It is highly
probable that the military spirit of many of the
Polish chiefs may have done more harm than good
to the Polish insurrection. They sometimes refuse
to retreat when retreat is necessary, and save their
military honour at a cost which they cannot afford,
the still greater expenditure of men to which the
Russians may at the same time be put being as
nothing compared to the inexhaustible numbers‘still
at their disposal. Lelewel, however, seems to have
decided that it was his business to worry his enemy,
make his life intolerable, and only strike a blow at
him when he saw that, if aimed with proper force
and skill, it would do him an injury, while leaving
him unable to return it.

After breaking up his band for the second time,
Lelewel re-formed it in Galicia, principally from old
and well-tried materials, but partly also from new
ones. He took back with him in all 800 men, fight-
ing his way into the Kingdom at their head. These
entries from Galicia are seldom successful. Indeed
I do not now why I should say seldom, for out of
the numerous detachments that have crossed from
Galicia into the Kingdom during the last six months
not one has established itself for more than a few
days. Jezioranski, after gaining a most brilliant
victory, remained in the Kingdom for about a week
—that is to say, long enough for the Russian gene-
rals—urged and threatened by an indignant officer
in
.the Imperial Guard and aide-de-camp of the
Emperor, who had witnessed the battle from the
Galician side—to bring overwhelming forces against
him. But out of upwards of 20 detachments, great
and small, which have left Galicia for the Kingdom
since Easter, very few have been able to exist, even
for a day, on the other side of the frontier. Gene-
rally they have retired without being pursued, after
fighting a drawn battle. Sometimes they have
beaten the Russians, but have found it impossible
to advance into the interior. More than once, and
always when they have entered in great force, they
have suffered great losses, and their retreat has been
most disastrous. It is true that the Polish papers
in ;dealing with these affairs have mentioned the
entries without saying anything about the exits;
or :they have simply chronicled the return of " a
portion" of a detachment. Unfortunately the re-
turning " 'Nations" have included all who were able
to get back.
Lelew el's successful entry the other day was looked
upon, until the news was received this evening of
his defeat and death, as a great triumph. I fancy
now that Lelewel was caught in a trap, and that
this time the Russians fell back at his approach—
they who had so often fallen back before him for
more direct reasons—that they might draw him into
the country and surround him.
The Poles in losing Lelewel have lost their best
guerilla leader, the man who was always pointed
out as the model chief for carrying on the Polish war
Ile it was long since determined it ought to be carried
On. But no system has yet been devised by which
l'°oo -armed and undisciplined, or imperfectly
Poles, fighting as if in a foreign land,
can he
made to beat 10,000 well-armed, well-dis-
ciplined
Russians, fighting as if on their own soil.
It is verb
easy to say that the Poles ought to avoid
formal et
%linters with the Russians; but the
views of the it •
lumens on this subject must also
be taken into account. The Russians, of course,
desire as many battles as possible, knowing the
fighting power of -Poland to be limited, while theirs
is, comparatively
speaking, unlimited. The Polish
chiefs, whatever their
Own
particular intentions
may be, are sure to find themselves compelled
some ,
day or other, to —4l the
Meet superiormse numbers in
battle, and hitherto
regularst chief has only had to
gain a certain amount of celebrity for the Russians
at g
to bear down upon himonce in overwhelmin
C arfar
numbers. Another and a pzire..Y de in Poland
difficult in
keeping up the guerilla mode of
is found in the contemptible, or at least
pitiable,
character of the peasants. Degraded "
they are
by foreign rule, they have long ceased to feel that
healthy lhatred for foreign intruders which arti.
• •
mates the peasantry of other civilised and tt amyl.
lised lands, and by their notorious attitude have
caused the Poles to invent the perhaps consoling
but certainly untrue saying that the peasant in all
countries sides with the strong. "Le paysan est
toujours du cede du pouvoir," "Le paysan partout
n'obeit qu' a la force," are sayings that every one
who has been in Poland during the present insurrec-
tion must have heard over and over again. This
fallacy of these pretended truisms can be proved
without going out of Poland, for in Posen, where the
peasant has long been his own master, and
has more-
over received a certain measure of education,
he has
the feelings of a true Pole; and in the districts
of the
Kingdom bordering upon p
osen the peasants have
joined the insurrection in comparatively largo num-
bers, whereas in the districts bordering
upon Ga-
licia it has been necessary to treat them with great
severity in order to deter them from rendering un-
due assistance to the Russians and from
betraying
the insurgents into their hands. On the whole, the
Russians, if it suited them to do so from a military
point of view, could carry on a guerilla war in
Poland more advantageously than the Poles. As