The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-16 00:00:00

Thus Czachowski shot himself when escape from
the Russians had become impossible, which did not
prevent a Russian officer from claiming the merit
of having administered to him his death-wound.
According to the Russian newspapers Chmelinski
was concerned in the attempt made upon the life of
the Grand Duke Constantine immediately after his
arrival in Warsaw. The party least guilty in that
shameful affair was the half-witted fanatic who
actually fired the shot, but, according to Polish
accounts, it was not Chmelinski, the chief of in-
surgents, but some relation of his who prompted
the act of which the well calculated political effect
was to render impossible the work of conciliation
undertaken by the Russian Government (at least
a couple of years after the proper time), and to
leave the extreme party—the party bent upon in-
surrection at all hazards—face to face with Russian
repression. Chmelinski, like so many of the Poles
who have served in the Russian army, was among
the extremest of the "extremes ;" and when he first
appeared in the field his harsh and overbearing
conduct to the Polish proprietors of his district was
much complained of,—a fact, by the way, well
worth the consideration of those Russians who
speak of the Polish insurrection as an aristocratic
movement. But when Chmelinski had won a few
fights and had proved himself one of the most
skilful as well as one of the most daring of the
Polish Chiefs, no one said anything more about his
exactions, nor about the roughness and violence of
a man who in common with all the revolutionary
party was convinced that nothing but a general
rising would suffice to drive the Russians out of
Poland; who had no faith in a partial insurrection
, kept up in order to give foreign Governments an
opportunity of interfering in a struggle for which
they have no taste ; and who thought no sacrifice
too great to enforce from the landowners who, what-
ever else they gave, did not, like himself and his
comrades, give their blood.

Patriotism is the one cardinal virtue in Poland,
and the man who fights for his country may do or
leave undone whatever he pleases without incurring
the smallest reproach. On the other hand, if a
Pole shows himself devoid of patriotism, it is a sin
against the Spirit, for which there is no atonement.
Neither he nor even his children can be forgiven,
unless, indeed, the latter give some striking, un-
questionable proofs of not having inherited the
paternal stain. Now "B3ssak," or Colonel
Hauke (to give him his real name, already well
known to the Russians), inherited from his
father the title o► Count, but not the reputa-
tion of a Polish patriot. General Hauke was ene
of the five officers who, during the outbreak of
the 29th of November, 1830, which was the prelude
to the general rising, endeavoured to prevent the
troops from joining the insurgents, and were, in
consequence, torn from their horses and massacred.
This incident does not by any means prove that the
officers in question did not love their country.
They perhaps wished to save it from the ruin which
they may have foreseen awaited it if it engaged in
a struggle with the whole force of the Russian Em-
pire. But however that may be, the Emperor
Nicholas settled their reputation for them by erect-
ing a monument to their memory in the principal
square of Warsaw, and inscribing their names upon
it as faithful servants of the Rtisian Crown. He
erected a similar monument at Tsarskoc Selo to a
horse—the one that carried him safely through the
affair with the St. Petersburg insurgents in 1825;
bat the officers whose infidelity to their country, or
at least to their countrymen, is commemorated on
the gigantic tea-urn that stands in the Saxon
Square, are looked upon by the inhabitants of War-
saw and by all the Poles as something much lower
than the Emperor's horse.

As for the present Count Hanke, the " Bossak"
of the Cracow Palatinate, he sez:nas perscnally to
have had nothing to complain of from the Russians.
The Emperor• Nicholls took charge of his education,
and'itis path was made pleasant in the Russian army.
It was not, however, the path of peace, and his
friends say that by the wounds he received in the
Caucasus he may be considered to have paid off his
debt to the Russian Imperial firnily (with which,
by the way, he is also connected by the marriage of
one of his nearest relations to a member of the
Hesse Darmstadt family). He will be accused all
the same of ingratitude, and he certainly cannot be
grateful in the Rochefoucauld sense of the word,
for he has henceforth no favours to expect, and
already the Russian newspapers are publishing the
most malicious and at the same time stupid CAIIIID-
11i01 against him, and are representing a h L;.llly-
eclucatr..el and accomplished gentleman who has left
fortune, position, and every worldly advantage for
the sake of his country, and perhaps also for the
honour of his own family, as abrigand and cut-throat
of the vilest description.

To " 13 asak" and "Kruk" (whose real name is
still not generally known, but who, it may be men-
tioned, was also an officer in the Russian service)
the duty of keeping up the insurrection in the king-
dom during the winter seems chiefly to have been
assigned. " Boseak," though ho is always moving
about, still has his headquarters in the Palatinate
of Cracow. " Kruk!' has the general direction of
several bands in the Lublin country, but, by the last
reliable accounts that have reached me (not very
recently), had not yet entered himself. "Kruk,"
it may be remembered, gained a few months ago the
best regular battle that the Poles had fought since
Jezioranski's victory at Kohylanka last May, and
one of the very few that have been fought in the
whole course of the insurrection. It was he who
sent some 200 prisoners with a letter expressing a
vain hope that the Russians would profit by the
example set them, and at last behave with some
mercy to the Poles who fell into their hands. This
has, of course, not prevented the Russians from
sending all their Polish captives to Siberia, with
the exception of those who are thought distinguished
enough to be abet or hanged. •
After his victory (which would have attracted a
little more attention it the Poles had not been is the
habit of representing all their defeats as victo-
ries) "Kruk" had overpowering forces brought
against him; and ultimately he was obliged to re-
tire to Galicia, where ho began to organise new
bands, the proprietors of Lublin having got up a
special subscription of a million Polish florins
(.£25,00G) to enable him to equip them in a suitable
manner.

Of the four leaders who a month ago would have
been named as the main supporters of the Polish in-
surrection, in the kingdom and in Lithuania, two
only remain. Besides " Kruk" there are several
minor chiefs in the province of Lublin, and " Bos-
sak " is said to have good lieutenants in his Cracow
detachment. There are smaller bands, too, in other
parts of the country; but " Bossak " and " Kruk "
are regarded—or were (for life is remarkably uncer-
tain among the Polish insurgents)—as the chief on
whom fell the special and difficult duty of keeping
up the insurrection during the winter months.

The Russians say once more that the insurrection
is at an end. It might be better for the Poles were
such really the case, for it is difficult to understand
what they can gain—easy to see that they must lose
—by prolonging the unequal struggle. The object
of the Poles is, of course, to keep the Polish sore
open, in the hope that Western doctors will feel
compelled to attend to it should they find it still
unclosed in the spring. That this sore irritates the
whole European body is undeniable; but it is
equally certain that it has proved terribly enfeebling
to Poland. It is evident that the Russians are now
more anxious than ever to make short work of the
spring as of something not under any circumstances
to be tolerated. Unless, however, they can cut it,
burn it, or fuze it out during the nest two months
there will be thousands of volunteers ready to take
up arms again in the spring—supposing al iv that
the arms are to he had. The losses of Poland in
men have, after all, been nothing compared to its
losses in money and in property of all kinds, and if
material resources were not wanting its personal
reseurcca would be almost inexhaustible.

[AnvnwrismsENT:l Ointment. -- Cold
Weather.—Turn which way you will, go where you please,
persons will be found, who havearca
scalds,dywer bruises word ofpBreasi,seefnod
sprains for
thisOhi
its ' tien an t i e
r invaluablechalr'sm' chafes,
remedy ; for bad legs, caused by
accident or cold, it may be confidently relied upon for
effecting a sound and permanent cure. In all cases of
swelled ankles, erysipelas, gout, and rheumatism, Hollo-
way's Ointment gives the greatest comfort by reducing the
iatkmmation, cooling the blood, soothing the nerves, ad.
jusing the circulation, and expelling impurities. This
Ointment should have a place in every nursery. It will
cure the long list of skin affections which originate in child-
hood, and gain strength with the child's growth,