The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-12 00:00:00

The Great Polish Trial at Berlin,

It will be remembered that in the early part of last year
a large number of Poles, many of th em particularly dis-
tinguished by their talents, patriotism, or high station,
was arrested in Posen by the Prusiiian authorities on the
charge of having participated in the in surrection in Russian-
Poland, and were taken to the Hansvo gter prison in Berlin,
where they have been confined ever si ace. These gentle-
men, nearly 200 in number, are all Prussian subjects, and
although accused of no offence against their own Govern-
ment, are now being prosecuted at Berlin on a charge of
high treason, for having assisted their fellc,w• countrymen.
in Russian-Poland in their insurrection age inst the Cza c.
Groat preparations have been made for this t. rial, which is
so interesting both in a legal and political p oint of view,
and both the Poles and the Government have spared no
effort to secure the triumph of their own side. The
proceedings were commenced with great ceremony on
the 7th of this month. Nearly all the prisoners were pre-
sent, together with their counsel, Messrs Janecki, Lisiecki,
Brachoogel, Deycks, Holthoffi Elven, Lent, Lewald, and
Gneist. The prosecution is conducted by Messrs Adlung
and Mittelstaedt. The president of the tribunal (M. Bach-
termann) opened the trial by briefly announcing that, be-
sides the 10 judges who legally constitute the tribunal, five
more had been appointed to act in the place of the ordinary
judges should it be necessary, 'He then read the names of
11 gentlemen who had given themselves up to be tried by
the Prussian authorities, and also of those who had sen ,t
in certificates of sickness to account for their absent v.
Fourteen of the accused were found to be m lasing. I .)r.
Lisiecki then asked that his client, Dr. Niklia wski, wlAoso
illness was evident to all, might be relieved fro m the duty
of being present while the trial was going .on. After
some discussion, in which the Crown prosect ttor stated.
that if any of the accused absented themselves they
could not be incladed among those now under trial, the
tribunal gave the required permission. Each prisoner was
next called upon to name his counsel, after whi ch the
president announced the programme of the proceedings.
The judges are to sit only on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednes-
days, and Thursdays, between the hours of nine and: three,
with half an hour's interval of rest between 11 and 12. The
trial is to be conducted in the Polish and German langsiages)
and all the prisoners aro to be present every day for cross -
examination, The only prisoner who elected to act. as his
own counsel was Dr Henry Schumann, of Posen. Thi:.so
preliminaries having been settled, M. Holthoft pr oposed
that the tribunal should authorise M. Sosnowski and Dr
Cybulski to be translators for the defence. This pi op oes
gave rise to a hot discussion between the counsel o n both
sides, the prosecutor declaring that the official translators
of the court were quite sufficient. The judges decided, hog'
ever, that the gentlemen in question should be summoned
to act as translators, with the proviso that their services
should only be called in requisition when they may be found
necessary, The proceedings closed with a motion from the
Counsel for the prosecution, that those of the accused who
were not present should be fried in their absence, on which
point the tribunal reserved ite judgment.
The next sitting takes place on the Bth inst. The Polish
press, which is of course most interested in the trial, has.
been refused permission to send its reporters to the court.