The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-27 00:00:00

" Over the tombs of 50,000 heroes slain in battle
along roads furrowed by the wheels of the hibitkas
which have borne 100,000 of our martyrs to Siberian
snows, above the ruins of thousands of burnt towns
and villages, the invader intones a hymn of triumph
and redoubles his barbarian rage. He intones a
perfidious and a lying hymn, the chorus of which is
applauded by the accomplices of Russia, conspiring
for our fall, who all repeat, The struggle is ended,
and Poland is no more!'
"In this terrible and supreme moment, we, the
Government, strong in our faith in the power, the
rights, and the future of the nation, full of confi.
dente in its devotion, feel it our duty to raise our
voices to you, the Polish people, to refute and con-
found those who desire to make you again descend
into the tomb—to unveil to you, without shrinking,
your most hideous scars—to bring you face to face
with the faults that have been committed—to show
you the still untouched elements of your strength—
to mark out for you the road along which the Na-
tional Government—the faithful guardian of your
imprescriptible rights—has resolved to guide you,
and at the end of which are independence, liberty;
(quality, and fraternity.
"In taking up arms upon the 22d of January,
1863, Poland neither reckoned upon foreign assist.
ante nor upon diplomatic measures which should
not be supported by any effective force.
" The nation knew that its right and its duty is
to be independent. It felt that there is no power
in the world capable of riveting 40 millions of arms
in eternal chains. The nation had faith in its own
strength, and it arose.
" The first act of the national authorities was to
restore to the people its own property, and by that
act the Government at once showed the source
whence the insurrection ought above all to derive
its strength and its resources. But before the in-
surrection, unprovided with arms, had succeeded in
developing itself, before it was able to bring into
action the masses which burned to enter the lists,
those who had first given the signal for the contest
were no longer in existence to direct it.
"For the spirit of devotion and the burning faith
of these heroes and martyrs, their successors substi.
tuted wretched expedients to make head against the
enemy and direct the insurrection. They doubted
the power of a nation of 20 millions of men—they
doubted the patriotism of the Polish people !
'The insurrection was changed into an armed
demonstration ; the nation was asked to expend its
property and to shed its blood with the sole object
of bringing about and obtaining foreign interven-
tion by force of pity.
" Then began that sirgular direction for which it
would be difficult to find any other explanation.
Every hope and every plan was based upon the
intervention of the We.st, upon the fantastic alliance
of the perfidious of our neighbours, who, by bring-
ing forward the six points, was to negotiate with
the Czar, not the liberty of the country, but a
partial and monstrous autonomy, in which it would
have been equally impossible for the nation to live
and to die.
" Within the country the conflict degenerated
nto a struggle deprived of plan and aim, prolonged
'tom day to day, abandoned to individual efforts,

without the intention or desire of transforming it
into a great and powerful national war, as it it had
been desired to convict the nation of impotence,
bee :use its real force was not believed in.
" The act of the 22d January soon became nothing
more than a vague and illusory horc, either because
it was not known how, o: because it was not desired

t) call to arms all the people of Pinsk, following
the traditions of our ancestors. Now, the AI usce-
vites are transporting this same people by thou-
sands
to Siberia. Either our leaders did not know,
or they did not dare to ask, of the people the sacri-
fices required for a great national war which should
decide upon its life or death, and now the Musco-
vite is ruining it and wresting from it millions.
They did not believe in the people ; they distrusted
the people. The fault was terrible. And yet the
people have repulsed the treacherous favours of the
Czar, and wait only for direction and command.
" Men with sinister voices would like to persuade
the nation that it is crushed and annihilated ! Let
them look at the gibbets upon which the corpses of
fresh martyrs to liberty are suspended daily; let
them look at the tombs, whose numbers every day
increase, which testify to the self-styled domination
of the oppressor; let them say the struggle is at an
end !
" People of Poland, the struggle cannot cease. To
ask pardon of the Czar would be infamy ti n d base-
ness of which you are not capable.
" The struggle must continue because the Czar has
sworn to exterminate our nationality, our religion,
and language. The more our arms are humbled the
more the Mus_covite redoubles his rage. No war could
cost us as many victims as the interruption of the
conflict. The Czar does not make war; it is the
annihilation of our indomitable nation he pursues in
his insensate fury.
" Death upon the field of battle and liberty—were
it only for our children—or death upon the gibbet,
a slow agony in the Siberian snows and misery in
exile ; this is the choice which remains.
" We have suffered great losses, endured great
sorrows; but the work of redemption can only be
accomplished by great sacrifices. On the other
hand, we have grown in heart and in soul ; we have
acquired experience, we know henceforth whence
arises impotence, whence strength. The groans of
onr sisters and mothers beaten by our executioners,
the tears of our brothers dragged indiscriminately
into eternal exile, the creaking of the gibbets which
bend under the weight of the corpses of the noblest
sons of Poland, resound in the ears and in the heart
of the nation like the trumpet calling to battle, des.
perate battle, battle for life and death !
" He who wishes repose and remains deaf to the
call is infamous or a traitor ! But you, 0 Polish
people I you hear and you will rise ; you must rise
for the final combat, and the day when the Polish
nation rises in its might victory will ba secure.
"In this difficult situation the National Govern-
ment only sees a period of transition ; the second
portion of the war is about to commence—the
popular war. To fulfil its mission it will display
all its resources, it will recoil before nothing, it will
neglect nothing ; and this is, consequently, its admi-
nistrative duty. It will not hesitate nor slacken in
this course, and woe to those who shall dare to op-

pose it!
" In applying all its efforts to the accomplishment
of its task, the Government only reckons upon the
forces of the nation, but it will accept the fraternal
support and the sympathies of the peoples.
" The Holy Alliance of despots and civilisation,
the old rule of brute force, and the eternal right of
humanity are now face to face. Polish people, you
who were foremost in the breach for defence clChr's-
tianity, arc now once more the first to avenge the
rights of humanity and of libElty, outrageously
violated in you. Your mission comes from God ;
your salvation is iu your own hands. Polish people,
people great through the brotherly love by which
you are inspired, you must not now chastise the
faults of the past, but found and secure the future.
" Gad will not abandon you, bee :use you are called
upon to be the ramparts of liberty against the bar-
barism of the North. it is acros3 your ruins, your
fragments, Russia desires to march to the conquest
lof Europe. But you will not perish; immure,
therefore, and be of good Leart."