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 Yeer
a large number of Poles, many of them particularly
tinguished by their talents, patriotism, or high eh:tilt/4
was arrested in Posen by the Prussian authorities on tlin
charge of having participated in the insurrection in Russia't
Poland, and were taken to the Hansvogter prison in Berl'
where they have been confined ever since. These gentle-
men, nearly 200 in number, are all Prussian subjects, ttP4
although accused of no offence against their own Goverai
ment, are now being prosecuted at Berlin on a char,
°
high treason, for having assisted their fellow• countrymen
in Russian-Poland in their insurrection against the Cief:
Great preparations have been made for this trial, which
k !Jo interesting both in a legal and political point of vie*
and both the Poles and the Government have spared I
effort to secure the triumph of their own side. Tn:
proceedings were commenced with great ceremony e'"
the 7th of this month. Nearly all the prisoners were Pre:
sent, together with their counsel, Messrs Janecki,
Brachoogel, Deycks, Holthoff, Elven, Lent, Lewald, an
Gneist. The prosecution is conducted by Messrs Adlitrie'
and Mittelstaedt. The president of the tribunal (M. 131.1°Y
termann) opened the trial by briefly announcing that, Pe:
sides the 10 judges who legally constitute the tribunal, °l-
more had been appointed to act in the place of the (0091
judges should it be necessary, He then read the names
11 gentlemen who had given themselves up to be tried b_ti
the Prussian authorities, and also of those who had oe'
in certificates of sickness to account for their absence"
Fourteen of the accused were found to be missing. 91.,;
Lisiecki then asked that his client, Dr. Niklewski,
illness was evident to all, might be relieved from the dmi
of being present while the trial was going on. Aft!ta
some discussion, in which the Crown prosecutor ste'ev
that if any of the accused absented themselves 0%
could not be included among those now under trial) b". -
tribunal gave the required permission. Each prisoner It
next called upon to name his counsel, after which th
president announced the programme of the proceed/a'.
The judges are to sit only on Mondays, Tuesdays., Wedner
days, and Thursdays, between the hours of nine and tbreet
with half an hour's interval of rest between 11 any' 12. /11:
trial is to be conducted in the Polish and German la.ngueg"
and all the prisoners are to be present every day for croooo
examination, The only prisoner who elected to act 1/10
own counsel was Dr Henry Schumann, of Posen. TileAei
preliminaries having been settled, M. Holthoff pr oPeBn-r
that the tribunal should authorise M. Sosnowski and
Cybulski to be translators for the defence. This pr op eel
gave rise to a hot discussion between the counsel on b° rs
sides, the prosecutor declaring that the official translai°o,
of the court were quite sufficient. The judges decided, hp A
ever, that the gentlemen in question should be suramenes
to act as translators, with the proviso that their servie 4
should only be called in requisition when they may be follle
necessary. The proceedings closed with a motion trona le
counsel for the prosecution, that those of the accused 110
were not present should be tried in their absence, on Whi
point the tribunal reserved its judgment.
The next sitting takes place on the Bth inst. The P 4511
press, which is of course most interested in the trial, 1381
been refused permission to send its reporters to the court'