The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-14 00:00:00

The Great Polish Trial at Berlin.

The question of the admissibility of General
Langiewicz as a witness at this trial was reopened
by M. Janecki, at the sitting of the Uth inst. He
pointed out that the grcuud alleged by the Court,
at the last sitting, for refusing to take the general's
evidence—viz., that he is in the same position as the
accused—was incorrect. The fact of his having
fought against Russia was no evidence of any trea-
sonable intent against Prussia; and several of the
witnesses called by the prosecution, at this very
trial, had acknowledged that they had fought
against Russia. If any ground existed for sues
petting him of any treasonable act against Prussia,
nothing would have been easier than to claim him
from the Austrian authorities, and it would have
been the duty of the prosecution to do so. As,
however, the Court had rejected General Langie-
wicz as a witness, he submitted that he be examined
in writing, informationis causa, only. The evidence
of a gentleman of such high character, and one so
thoroughly informed of everything relating to the
insurrection, must be especially valuable for the
purpose of throwing light on the present matter.
M. Holthoff added that the business of the defence
would be at an end if a witness was rejected when-
ever the prosecution accused him of being an insur-
gent, declaring that it would have prosecuted him
if it had thought proper. The Crown prosecutor
opposed the motion,but did not prosecute Langiewicz,
because he supposed the Austrian Government would
do so. As regards the insurgents brought forward
as witnesses, they were too illiterate to know the
objects of the insurrection. After a sharp and
somewhat desultory discussion, the President said
the Court would shortly announce its decision.
Zaleski, a student, and Michalski, a labourer, wore
then proposed as witnesses by the defenoe. It ap-
peared from their evidence that neither of them
heard anything of an intention to take Posen from
Prussia while they were in the insurgent camp.
The decision of the Court respecting General Lan-
giewicz was then read. It rejected the general's
evidence in any shine whatever.
A labourer ngened Palezewski was next examined.
lie admitted he had been convicted of theft, and
added that ho had been with the insurgents and had
received three thulers from Z He could
no', however, point him out among the accused.
The accused M. Jaroczynski was then examined.
He said he nas drawing master in the
Posen
school. He denied having belonged to any COlL-
tuittee—he could not explain how it was his name
was mentioned among Count Dzialynskt's me-

morands.
J. MatuEzewski, tailor's foreman, was the IIEI
among the accused, the witnesses against him being
two men, Samolic and Przybylski, whom M. Lisieck
proved to be untrustworthy. Palezewski was then
again brought up to give evidence against 11
Roman Pilaski, who, he said, had warned Polish
volunteers of the approach of Prussian troops. After
M. Lent had indignantly declared that tLis nitneet3

S PAP E R

NEI
seu
in for Ktituii-ja.)
ad been Ar

it--,*4\ •
•
totally untrustworthy,
proofs, the sitting.was
On the 6th M, Lent )trrit e
• •
witness Palczawski h, bnonest the
accused to say, on the prec: ng evening, to one of
the gaolers, "I almost think I would rather Jlave
spoken differently; " to which the gacler rep:ied,
"If you had, you would have got--." The Pre.
sideut said he would take a note of the fact, and
then called the witness Faugeret.
Faureget said he wes a Frenchman, and had pro-
ceeded to Posen as a volunteer for the insurrection,
for which purpose he bad received 100 f. from the
Polish Committee at Paris. The ohj.2cL of the
committees and the subscriptions at Paris was to
restore the whole of ancient Poland, including the
province of Posen. After a long cress-examination,
in which the above were the only important points
elicited, the witness requested that he might be
allowed time to rest.
The accused W. Loncki was then examined on a
charge of having collected taxes in the district of
I3ukow, founded on the following memorandum of
Count I)z;alynski 800 thalers, receipts, Bukow
district, from W. Loncki." It appeared, however,
from the evidence of Miss E. Szeztuteeke, a lady
known and honoured throughout Poland fur her
patriotic devotedness, and on whose appearance all
the accused stood up, that this sum had been sent
by herself to the Count through her nephew, Sigis-
mund Loncki.

M. Brachvogel then read some letters from the
witness Faugeret, in which the latter offers to act
as a spy and a witness for the prosecution, adding
that " he will henceforth serve the Prussian autho—
rities with the same zeal as he did on the other side
before he knew the Poles." In another letter he
says that "he will not spare even his own country
men," and concludes with these words—" You may
trust my vengeance, which will never be equal to
the evil which has been done me."

Sigismund Nitzalawski and F. Molinks were
examined on the charge of being functionaries of
the National Government, their names being men.
tioned in the Dzialyneki memoranda. Nothing,
however, was established against them, and they
were at once liberated, together with W. Loncki.
A policeman named Jordens having been brought
up to give evidence respecting the revision in the
Dz:alynski palace, M. Elven proposed to put some
questions to him respecting certain police abuses in
which he had taken part, but the Court declared
such questions irrelevant, and then closed the
sitting.

The sitting of the 7th was entirely occupied with

the examination of witnesses in the cases of King,
Ohnstein, and Hoffman, tradesmen of Posen,
charged with having sold arms to the insurgents,
and ended with the liberation of Hoffman, Ohnstein,
Oberfelt, Kiniewski, and Jaroczynski. Oberfeles
shop, however, is still to remain closed.
On the Bth two witnesses, named Samolik and
zbylski, deposed that the accused Matuszewski,
tailor, had incited them to join the insurrection.
When cross-examined by the President and M.
Lisiecki, however, the former admitted that he had
been in prison as a roguo and a vagabond, and the

latter that he had robbed Prince RAdZiWiii of a pair
of pistols.
The President then called the witness raugeret,
who admitted that the letters which had been read
at the last sitting were his.
The Crown prosecutor said that, of course, his
proposal to be employed as a spy was rejected by
the Prussian authorities.

The witness then said he had offered himself as a
witness from motives of revenge, he having received
no pay from the Poles. A letter from M. Kruger,
a high Prussian official, was read, in which ho
states he cannot make the witness any offer until
he knows the nature of the evidence which would
be brought forward, The witness added that at
ngth he came to an agreement with M. Kruger,
by which all his expenses were to be paid. He had,
however, only as yet received his travelling ex.
pense2.

M. Elven and Professor Guist submitted that this
witness be no longer heard. To take the evidence
of such a man was mere less of time.

The President then said it appeared from a letter
from the Foreign Minister to M. Kruger that the
witness had been paid during his first visit to
Berlin his travelling txpcnses and 10 thalers for
five or six days' living ; and ;he Court decided that
he should be at once dismissed.

The Court then adjourned to the 12;1 inst.

The Perfect Partiality of itussellism,

From the Dublin Evening Mail.)

The last London Gazette contains a notice which, accord-
ing to the editorial apologists for Earl Russell's mingled
craft and weakness, supplies additional and powerful evi-
dence to the perfect impartiality (sic) observed by her
Majesty's Government towards the belligerents in America.
What that impartiality has been the public do not need to
be told; and wo venture to say that the additional evidence
will lead them to a very different conclusion from that which
the writer hastens to bespeak, with a suspicion that his case
is hollow. The words of the Oazittc notfficattin are these :
—" Foreign-office, Sept. B.—lt is hereby notified that hex
Majesty has been pleased to order that for the future, tie
ship of war belonging to either of the belligerent Powers of
North America shall be allowed to enter, or to remain, or
be, in any of her Majesty's ports for the purpose of being
dismantled or sold ; and her Majesty has been pleased to give
directions to the Commissioners of her Majesty's Customs,
and to the governors of her Majesty's colonies and foreign
possessions, to see this order is properly carried into effect,"
The making of the order applicable to both of the belli.
gercnts is altogether too fine a stroke of Russellism. Tht
Federals are under no necessity to enter our ports to dis.
pose of ships which may not suit their purposes. They wil
not be placed under any disability by the regulation. Thei
own ports are open, and they can sell ships suitable fo:
warfare in British harbours, after dismantling them in thei
ow,n, or purchase them in England, and equip them else.
where. The Confederate Government are differently cir
cumstanced, and the Foreign °Moo order is a burden or
them alone. Our Ministers have already denied them thi
right to buy unarmed ships in British dockyards; now the;
are forbidden to sell ships in British ports that have becom.
peaceful merchantmen. It is Confederate ownership tha
constitutes the offence I If we honestly recognised the right
of the parties as belligerents, we should make no distinctio:
between dismantting or arming a ship at sea, and goini
through those operations in a port belonging to the county,
whose flag was carried, The lawyers have been fertile it
sophistries to shelter Earl Russell's perfect partiality an
will doubtless atempt todefend the new order by some involves
ratiocinative process,but the public cannot be mystified abou
a matter so palpably capable of ono construction only
There is xet another trick in this artful Gazette sentence
The regulation is to be applicable " for the future." What,
then, about the case of the Georgia? We are BEllli-Offi
cially informed that the notification has been put in thi
form in order not to bar the " legal rights" of the Britis
owner who purchased that vessel in a British port, frox
Confederate vendors. It is not at all meant, however, tilt
those rights will be recognised by the Government, and
demand preferred for the restoration of that vessel. Tb
Times is authorised to state that they have "declined t
interfere in the case of the steamer Georgia, seized off Lit
bon by the Federal frigate Niagara. It is difficult to under
stand what legal rights remain to the owner under thes
circumstances, The Americans have seized his ship; the
have taken it to New York ; they will condemn it on thei
own principles ; and what remedy will the British purchase
have, now that the Government deny him that protectice
to which he had a double claim in consequence of the pre
cautions he took when applying. for a British register ? I
will be remembered that Mr. Bates before completing th
purchase, wrote to the Custom-house authorities at Livet
pool to ascertain whether he would be proceeding legally i
cbuayriancgtrt
th atverse),fo ant ohernddinisamry inantelerdchaanndt rsehsitp. Theoredto
collects
h te
consulted the Government, and on their being satidie
that the purchase was bona fide, and tl:o vessel to be cm
PloYed in Peneclul "'wee, t hey auth.alsoi the !mottle
f a register. The Foreign-di :e now turns its back ups
all this, and with au effrontery unparalleled even in Ea
Russell's administration, " declines to interfere." Ti
"new order" is intended to make that prostration before tt
Federal Government more completely satisfactory to II
oljeets of his unworthy timidity. It is thus that E:1
Itll'S;;11 practises " neutrality," and resents insults to tl
Ilriti. 'a flag I We hardly thought there was a lower del
ter his American administration, but this last exploit en
,008 all former disgraces. It, remains to be seen wheth
,he chipping interest will sulmit, as tate Ay to Earl Russ(
as Earl Russell has done to Mr Seward. While ewaitiz
their action in the matter, we may add that the combine
exertions of our Foreign Minister and Mr Line u's Cat
net are not likely to drive the Confederate fl ig the sea
A telegram arrived at Lloyd's on Saturday hich le
caused a flutter among the Anglo-Federal party.' Capta:
Semmes is said to have re-appeared in the noighbourho(
of Bremer-haven, comman,f'ing a frigate pierced for 40 gun
and having 300 men on board; and that daring officer wil
doubtless, soon exact reparation after his own fashion fi
the seizure of the Georgia as well as the loss of the Alabam,

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14, 1864.

While the Prince and Princess of WALES seem to
be prospering in their visit to Denmark, and joie
proved in health and spirits on their projected
ceerae, it cannot but be felt by many how different
it might have been. It is generally a sad task to
compare what is with what has been, and the lost
chances of the world fill many a gloomy page of
its history. Still in this instance of the visit of the
Princess of WALES to her own country, it cannot
be denied that we have a particular proof of the
instability of human greatness, and the insecurity
of prosperity under the brightest auspices and most
flattering promises that the world can give. While
it is a graceful act on the part of the Prince and
Princess to visit the spot which is endeared to one
by remembrance and the other by associations, the
considerations that will henceforth attach to the
place must in a degree be fraught with gloom. It
must be painful to rt fleet upon the disappointment
of the Dines as regards the benefits that they hoped
would accrue from the Englieh alliance. It was
not thus that they had hoped or expected to welcome
back their Princess, and to receive the heir of the
English Crown, who had signalled their land by
choosing the daughter of their King to be his
Queen. It cannot be that the a filleted people of
that ill=used and forsaken country can entertain the
same feelings towards England now as they experie
enced a year ago. They have been taught a bitter
lesson of the want of good faith on the part of Eng-
land, and learned the unwelcome truth that Ger.
many, in the hour of her most extreme aggression,
is considered more worthy of our support and
countenance than they are. The Treaty of
1852, which was expected to do so much good
to Denmark, has been given up altogether, and the
brave people of the independent little country are
to see their possessions torn from them, and their
treasures seized, while the English, compelled to
acknowledge the injustice of the acts, will not lift
a
finger on their behalf. Such recollections as these
u,t unquestionably cast a blight over the recep.
tion of the Prince and Princess, and it is quite idle
for the devotees of Germany to say otherwise.
Deep sorrow is ever abiding, it exhibits not the
wild untutored expressions of excitement, but it
knows not the sudden reaction of evanescent de'.
pvession. In this generation at least Denmark can
never be the some in heart or sentiment as she
w ,s when she took leave of ALFX ODRA, on the
eve of her bright and promising wedding. It is
well to contemplate the subdued pleasure with
which the D Ines now meet her whom they parted
from under such different circumstances. In many
countries it would not have been practicable for
this visit to have been performed at all, and cer-
tainly not during this year. The feeling of dis-
appoin'ment at false expectations, the sense of mis.
placed trust, and the thought of abused confidence
would have been all too strong and overpowering,
but the Danes resemble the English in their honest
and hearty appreciation of character. They feel
that thtic young Princess has never forgotten in
the midst of tur triumphs in England that she was
the daughter of Denmark, and that the Prince,lead

The details of the Chicago Convention prove that
its proceedings were the effect of no mere local or
sectarian influence, but the expression of the long-
suppressed feelings of the great mass of the
Northern people. The enthusiasm of the assembly
knew no bounds, and found ready expression on
behalf of any allusion to the restoration of peace
and the recognition of civil rights. It was no in-
significant assembly in point of numbers, for it is
said that never before has there been so great a
concourse. As ono of the American journals de-
scribes it, writing on the day of gathering—" In
numbers, enthusiasm, sincerity of purpose, aad true
patriotism, the great Convention which met here at
noon to-day is without precedent in the history of
American politics." From every side the people
came pouring into the town until the streets were
thronged, and the great hotels almost impassable
inside. On the Sunday, the day before the opening
alone, no less than 27,000 people poured into the
town, brought by the eleven different railroads
which centre there. Large delegations were con-
tinually arriving with bands of music, firing salutes
in answer to the cheers with which they were
greeted. It was calculated that more than a hun-
dred thousand visitors were in Chicago, and, in ad-
dition to the regular meeting, large mass meetings
were held throughout the day at the chief hotels
and in the streets. At night, on the 29th of August,
the day of the opening, four immense meetings
were held, and slaty thousand persons were in the
streets listening to the speeches. The Missouri and
Illinois delegations held mass meetings, and " en-
dorsed M'CLELLAN in the warmest manner." So
that the verdict of the great West is unmistakably
for peace; but it is not the verdict of the Western
States alone, since the New York delegation held
a meeting to vote for a nominee, at which the
names of four candidates were brought forward,
leaving General M'CLELLAN 53 votes; Judge NELs
SON, the next in number, 11 ; CHARLES O'CONNOR,
2; and JAMES GUTHRIE, 1. So that the risk' of
rivalry from these gentlemen is not a very serious
one for M'CLELLAN. Meanwhile, the interior
of the great hall was no less animated than
the streets of Chicago. The presentation of the
credentials by the delegates gave rise to vivid
demonstrations of enthusiasm, especially when the
representatives of the Western States came forward.
But when the delegates from Kentucky advanced
to the platform, the whole assembly rose to their
feet and cheered for old Kentucky. The recollec-
tion of the martial law established in that province
gave fresh zeal to the cheers that rung to the roof
at every allusion to the rights of the people. In
recognition of one of the most valuable of those
rights—a free press—the Chicago limes received
the compliment of a serenade from an immense
crowd, and speeches were made in answer to it'
declaring that the freedom of the press would here-
after be maintained at all costs, The address of
Governor SEYMOUR was in harmony with his openly
proclaimed opinions, and was straightforward,
manly, and explicit, It expressed the convictiona
which the people of this country earnestly desire
to see brought home to the heart of every Aureri.
can, and which have been long silently but surely
gaining ground, until we see their full strength
evidenced in the assembly at Chicago.Fouryeaorws
ago, said Governor SEYMOUR, the party which now
rules the states had its birth on this opal; let it
die where it was born. Fuur years ago a con-
e ention met in the city of Chicago when the country
was peaceful, prosperous, and united. " Its dele-
gates did not wish to destroy our Government, to
overwhelm us with debt, or to drench our land with
blood, but they were animated by an ignorance of
spiritppoeioele.
of our institutione, the character of our
and the condition of our land." Al these
direful results havo been brought about, and, as
Governor YMOUR truly said, the party in
power
rhave
,
marched on step by step to con.
elusions which at the outset they
the
dhoaLvNe
shank from in horror. The refu3ai of LINCOLN
Party to entertain the idea of a compromise was
especially censured by all
ti
conditions, it was declared,which '1 hey demand
par es
have nothing to
do with the Constitution, and which they have no
right to ask. They put obstacles in the Way of all

terms of reconciliation, and by the expression of
their own vindictive passions have hampered their
own cause so much that it is equally impossible for
them to restore the Union or to make peace with-
out it. No word was breathed at Chicago of recog-
nition or separation of the States. The Union was
everywhere spoken of, but peace and conciliation
and compromise were upon every one's lips. And
conciliation and compromise must lead to that end
which we are all hoping to see. When once the
sword is sheathed, and the smoke of the battle•
field is allowed to clear away, men will look round
and count the cost of the war. They will recog-
nise the utter hopelessness and futility of their
efforts to subdue a people as brave, as determined,
and far more united and singleminded than them-
selves. They will see, too, the inconsistency, we
might almost say the absurdity, of WASHINGTON'S
descendants fighting to enforce the very principles
which he spent his life in opposing. It is the
principle of independence, the recognition of the
rights of States which has made America a nation,
and it is those principles which the North must
acknowledge in the inevitable recognition of
Southern independence, to which the Chicago Con-
vention is the first decided step.

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

No. IV.

Its Peerless Capacity as a Music Hall.

The Diameter of the Handel Orchestra has
already been spcken of as exactly double the dia.
meter of the Dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. From
that one consideration alone, it will, upon the in-
stant, be recognised that, in the mere scope of the
arrangements permanently made within the edifice
for its various musical performances, the Crystal
Palace, as a melodic arena, regarded simply as a
Illusio Hall, stands forth, here also, as it does in so
many other particulars, altogether unrivalled.
The magnitude of the area set apart thus for orches-
tral purposes—upon a scale so gigantic and hitherto
unexampled—is attributable to the gradual after-
expansion of what was originally a very grand
enterprise on the part of the designer. And the drop•
ping of the pebble, as one may say, from the which—
ring upon ring—there has subsequently expanded,
circle upon circle, tier above tier, this magnificent
choral and instrumental amphitheatre, was—the
carrying out of the project of the First Great Handel
Festival in 18371 Since that occasion, the enter-
prise then happily set on foot has been developed to
its present vast and unrivalled dimensions. The
Orchestra—thenceforth to be known as the Handel
Orchestra—grew and grew until it came at last
to oxupy, as it does now, permanently, the
whole of the western portion of the Great
Central Transept. It has contrived at last to
assume such dimensions, there, in fact, that it
can be said of it (not by any means extravagantly
or hyperbolicall3 ) that, if need were, it could
contain within it, and that comfortably seated
before their music•stands, the six largest orchestras
in the United Kingdom. It could so accommodate
those six largest orchestras, and yet, even then, have
elbow-room ! In point of fact, no farther back
than in 1862, at the Great Handel Festival—then
given with a pomp that a pagan might have
said must for a certainty (shall we say, for a dead
certainty ?) have soothed the manes of the giant
composer, nay, that that pagan might almost in
the old heathenish classic times have regarded as
Handel's Apotheosis—more than Four Thousand
vocal and instrumental performers were ranged to.
gether, there—immediately below and upon either
hand of the great organ—upon the benches of the
Handel Orchestra.

That superb instrument just mentioned, The
Organ—so to speak, the palpitating heart of the
whole Orchestra—an organ, expressly built for the
Crystal Palace by the Messrs Gray and Davison—
it should here be remarked at once at this first
mention of it assumes high rank among the
noblest specimens yet fabricated in that im-
perial class of instumentF. It is worth mak-
ing a journey, indeed, round the upper gallery,
inamediaGoly at the back of it, to peer in
through an obscure looking door, which there some-
times stands ajar, at the throng of men standing in
a cluster there, working away for the bare life of
them at the bellows which give it breath ! Breath
to those glorious sounds rolling out day after
day, at an appointed hour (according to the
varying announcement in each day's programme),
under the touch of the master-hand of
Mr. James Coward, the Company's Organist.
Glorious sounds rolling forth at that touch
under the every movement of the accomplished
performer's hands from en instrument having an
array of Four Rows of Keys—an organ containing
within it upwards of Seventy Stops, and consider.
ably more than Four Thousand Five Hundred
Pipes ! The Stops of this Mammeth Organ,
in point of fact, number exactly 74—the
Pipes of it no less than 4,598. Hearkening
at times to the enormous volumes of sound
pouring forth from the instrument, sounds
reverberating under the arch of the great
transept, and rolling in re-echoing peals, to the right
hand and to the left, down the long perspeetive of
the Nave, it seems almost incredible that they can
emanate from the momentary touch of that one
isolated performer. Ranging, as they do, from treble
to diapason, varying from trumpets to flageolet,
breathing now with the dulcet tones as of a solitary
hautboy, now as with a very tumult of horns and
ophec:eides, it seems more like.the performance of
a whole orchestra than that of a single instru-
mentalist.

Reverting, however, to the mere mechanical
arrangements of the interior structure here raised
in this western portion of the Great Centre Tran•
sept, it is especially noticeable among these, how it
has come to pass that so signal a triumph has been
there won over a world of acoustic difficulties.
The secret of the success thus achieved may be
increeicloinggnisaerdo,hed in a single Epa over
truth, at s theglsance—ien wooden
r the whole
vast area of this unrivalled orchestra. Remem-
bering that, in the clear span of it, this immenee
wooden arch—about the largest timber arch
ever constructed—remembering that this spas
cions arch is in the clear span of it upwards of
One Hundred Feet—that it has a depth of
considerably more than Two Hundred, and that,
besides this, it rises more than thirty feet in
the centre, where it reaches an attitude of upwards
of eighty feet from the floor of the Orchestra—it
must be allowed to have been very exquisitely
adjusted, indeed, in its component parte, vi hen ii
comes to be added, after all this, that no lateral
pressure whatever has been thrown from it upon
the edifice of glass and iron within which the whole
of this supplementary framework has, with such
wonderful ingenuity, been contrived. That, in
other words, it is self-sustaining, upon its own
foundations.

Here it is, in effect, under this stupendous sound-
ing-board, that between Four and Five Thousand
Performers, vocalists and instrumentalists, can
interpret, as nowhere else can be interpreted, nay,
for that matter, here it is that they hays so inter-
preted the sublimest imaginings of the demigodb
among our musical composers—a Handel, a
Beethoven, a Mendelssolin.
As a music-hall in quite another sense, the
Crystal Palace is no less, than in the one in which
we have been here examining it, wholly and entirely
without any competitor. Men aviary of song
birds—it is altogether unrivalled. Loitering within
the Crystal Palace, of an evening, when the sun is
verging westwards, and when the who!e glittering
lane, nave and transepts and wings, kindles under
the horizontal beams—one may listen there
—among the statuary and the verdure—to
the notes of all the various song birds that make
the Crystal Palace their perpetual haunt, flitting
about, hither and thither, free as air under its
transparent roof, nesting among the boughs 01
that indoor garden—melodious singers as varied in
their skill as the thrush, the robin, the blackbird,
and the nightingale.

The Prtachership of Archbishop Tenisox'a Chapel,
Regent-street, hls been conferred on the Rev, C, R, Gor-
don, M.A,

LATEST IN'TELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

SPAIN.
RESIGNATION OF THE MINISTRY.

MADRID, SEPT. 13.

The Correspondenciz announces that the whole
of the Ministry, after holding a conference, deter-
mined yesterday evening upon tendering their re-
signation to the President, who has instructed the
Queen of their resolution.
Her Majesty's acceptance of the resignation is
still problematical.
The Madrid journals put forward lists for the
new Ministry in accordance with their political
opinions.