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

T HE 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.
I 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 eorq..
rades who are fighting, not from passing enthn-
iasm, but from a profound sense of duty, are
likely to fallow them. There were few, if any,
ho seems
such men in the detachment of Lelewel,

to have known how to choose his followers and to
have caused it to be generally understood that
with him there would be no shirmishir.g on the
frontier, but on the contrary, the hardeA 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-
nent than other leaders who had forces thrice as
numerous under their command. Be 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-
luw-countrymen, either by threats or by actual com-

pulsion.
Since the defeat of Taczenowski, the principal
commander in the west of the Kingdom, the great
object of the Russians has of course been to surronnd
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. Lele esel
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 numberkestill
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 ho 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,
Letowel 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 arc 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" portions" have included all who were able
to get back.
Lelewel'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
alit as the model chief for carrying on the Polish war
as it was long since determined it ought to be carried
on' Bat no system has yet been devised by which
1,000 ill-armed and undisciplined, or imperfectly
GlSCiplined, Poles, fighting as if in a foreign land,
can be made
to beat 10,000 well-armed, well-dis-
ciplined Russians, fighting as if on their own soil.
It is very easyto say that the Poles ought to avoid
formal encounters with the Russians ; but the
views of the Russians on this subject must also
be taken into account. The Russians, of course,
desire as many battles as possible, knowing the
fighting power of Pohlad to be limited, while theirs
is, comparatively speaking, unlimited. The Polish
chiefs, whatever their own 4 themselves
particular intentions
may be, are sure to a
lves compelled,
some day or other, to
meet n crier numbers in
regular battle, and hitherto chief has only had to
amount of celebea
gain a certain Y for the Russians
upon him at once i
to bear down overwhelming
numbers. Another and a
PT-111", diflic lt
keeping up the guerilla mode of warfare in y Polandin
contemptible, or at least
is found in the pitiable,
character of tho peasants. Degraded as
have long ceased to they are
by foreign rule, they feel that
intruders... which ani-
mateshealthy , hatred for foreign
civilised and lent' •
the peasantry of other tea-
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 cote dx poueoir," "Le
2U' paysan partout
n'obeit
h 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 bo 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 Posen the peasants have
joined the insurrection in comparatively large 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 edvantageously than the Poles. As

it is, their object, of course, is not to worry, but to
destroy the Poles, in order to avoid being worried

themselves, and the death of the brave L,,,lewel and

the dispersion of his gallant band will undoubtedly
be a great relief to the Russian troops acting in the
palatinate of Lublin.
Once more, now that they have struck down Tac-
zanowski on their right and Lelewel on the left,
the Russians may be expected to announce that the
insurrection is inppressed, and that they have at
present nothing to do but to give out the constitu-
tion. Humanity would seem to demand that if the
document in question is to be published at all it

sb.ould be produced at once. But the fact is it

would have no more effect in stopping th© insnr-

rection—which, as the Russians know, still exists,

and may soon have a fresh impetus given to it—
than the amnesty had two months ago. Poles and

Russians seem quite agreed on one point—that, as
long as the insurrection lasts, no concessions need

be offered to Poland. The Russian Government is,

no doubt, influenced by a false and pedantic notion
of quite modern origin, that it is impossible for a
Sovereign to treat and make terms with revolted

subjects. The Poles, on their side, aro not fighting
for a constitution—they have not asked fora con-

stitution—and they will attach no value to the one
which it is proposed to give them as soon as the
massacres and execution are quite finished.
As to the course which the insurrection will now
take, I may mention that a general levy
is expected
to be proclaimed in the course of the month. It is
easier, however, to call all the population to arms
than to make them come, and it would be easier to
make them come than to find arms for them after
their arrival. It is said that the National Govern-
ment will issue no more permissions to leave the
kingdom, and it is a faot that absentee proprietors
are ordered back, and are commanded to bring their
families back with them. Why the wives and
children are to be exposed to danger is not very
clear ; but the husbands, fathers, and brothers are
wanted, if not for immediate service in the field, for
the transmission of Government orders and news,
for receiving insurgents, for guiding detachments
through their particular districts, for hiding them
in the woods, and arranging to supply them with
giving confidence to the people in
tfohoedn;eifignhabinlyu' for giving
especially those in their employ.
The National Government still enjoins all Poles
payment of taxes to the Russians, and the
toR refuseussin s
are beginning to levy for the two quarters
Russians
now due. The insurrectionary or revolutionary edict
on this subject seems to have been framed for the
express purpose of ruining the proprietors. It
would have been condemned throughout Europe
bad it been the work of Berg or Mouravieff,
coming as it does from the mysterious whereas
power which
the Poles recognise, and willingly or unwillingly
obey, it is generally looked upon as a model of
cleverness. The National
Government, it may be
remembered, ordered some four months ago that no
if
one should pay taxes, and that the property of
defaulters were seized and offered for
sale no one,
under the severest penalties, should bid for it. I
suggested at the time that it would be difficult to
i prevent the Cossacks from making bids, and that as
there would be no other competitors the lots would
be knocked down to them very cheap. I hear now
of cows being sold at a few Polish florins (sixpences)
a head, and there is no reason why cavalry regi-
ments should not be mounted at the rate of a penny
a horse if the auctioneer and the purchasers so
arrange it between them. It may be inconvenient
o the Russians to have to take cattle and agricul-
ural produce in lieu of money, but this inconve-

nience is compensated for by the privilege which
the National Government virtually allows them, of
taking as much of everything as they please. I
heard a " mixed subject"—a Pole who has the ad-
vantage of living under two foreign Governments,
instead of only one—complain bitterly the other
day that he was not permitted to pay his taxes in
the kingdom of Poland. " I pay more than a third
of my income in Galicia in taxes to the Austrian
Government." he said :
" I pay 30 per cent, on the Austrian tax to the National
Government of Poland. I have subscribed the sum appor-
tioned to one as my contribution towards the forced loan,
and all I want now is to be suffered to pay the taxes due for
the last two quarters to the Government of Russia."
This unpatriotic and wicked wish proceeded from a
conviction that if the Russians proceeded to execu-
tion they would sell property to the extent of fifty
times the amount claimed. In some instances the
Russians, when the taxes demanded by them have
not been forthcoming, have quartered soldiers on
the defaulter without proceeding at once to a sale.
But on the great majority of estates the proprietors
are ruined, and cannot possibly pay, however much
time may be allowed to them.
Before seizing property it appears that the
" sequestrator," who travels about accompanied by a
guard of soldiers, inquires what rent is duo from the
peasants. The peasants are then ordered to pay up
within a certain time, and thus the Government
gets its taxes in money, while the peasants receive
a practical proof that, whatever the intentions of the
proprietors may be, they cannot even give away
their own property without the permission and
sanction of the Government. When the insurrec-
tion is at an end, the farm land will doubtless be
given back to the peasant. But the Government
wishes him to understand that he can only receive
it as a gift from the Russian Emperor, and some
day we shall perhaps be told (as the peasant most
assuredly will) that the Polish nobility wished to
maintain serfdom in Poland, and that it was only
through the unexampled generosity of the Czar that
they were set free and endowed with land.
Sanguine persons think that the demands now
made upon the peasant by the Russian Government
may cause him to turn towards his fellow-country-
men and join the insurrection in earnest. Despon-
dent persons, on the other hand, are of opinion that
the Russian Government understands very well what
it is about; that its attitude towards the peasantry
is a proof that it does not fear them in the least,
and that this attitude is indeed calculated to inspire
them with respect, though not of course with love,
which, however, is a sentiment not particularly
valued by the Government in question. If the Polish
peasant can only be persuaded that the Polish pro-
prietor is his enemy, and has always wished to keep
him a slave, it matters very little whether he likes
the Government or hates it. The one great object
is to divide the country against itself.
According to the Czas, Warsaw is about to be
shut up for ten days, no one under any pretext being
allowed to enter, and no one under any pretext
allowed to go out. If this unhappy city could be
closed, like the caves of Dahra, and the inhabitants
stifled, one great step towards the pacification of
Poland would have been taken. There is nothing
which forbids such a measure in the Treaty of
Vienna, and the destruction of Warsaw—but by
fire, not by smoke—was one of the Emperor
Nicholas's favourite threats. The present object in
shutting up the capital of Poland is probably, how-
ever, to discover whether the Secret Government
resides there or not, and what the effect on the in-
surrection will be of cutting off all communication
between it and the country outside.
The paragraph in the Constitutionnel stating that
for some months past Prince Czartoryski has not
been received by the Emperor has caused much sur-
prise here. The Poles have been under the impres-
sion that Napoleon 111. was constantly giving as-
surances to some member or members of the Polish
emigration in Paris that—first, when Puebla was
taken, then when Mexico was taken, then when the
Mexicanoo,v. question was settled, then in the autumn,
ti the spring—France, supported or unsup-
ported, would positively intervene on behalf of
Poland. ProbablythtehechPooolceess of Poland beenaPnoilnatnedrvheanvteion,
as
misinformed asto
the Poles of London and Paris have certainly been
misinformed as to the
magnitude and general cha-
racter of the insurrectionary War.

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