The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-06 00:00:00

National League for the Independence of
Poland.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—l have the honour to enclose a copy of the
address forwarded by the committee of the above
league to the Franco-Polish Central Committee of
France. The favour of its insertion in your jonrna
will oblige, yours obediently,
JOHN ROBERT TAYLOR, Hon. Secy.
13, Brownlow-street, Bedford-row,
W.C., February 4.

" Messieu'rs,—We rejoice that there aro Fronch
as well as English hearts, incapable of remaining
passive and inert whilst Poland is being abandoned
to extermination, and the signatures of France and
Great Britain to the treaties guaranteeing her
national and political existence are being washed
out in her life blood.

" Is tho record of the wrongs and sufferings of
Poland to be still the record of the shame of France
and the dishonour of England ? Not with our con-
sent; we rejoice to add—not with yours. We
rejoice to unite our voices with yours in demanding
the recognition, by our respective Governments, of
the belligerent rights of our Polish brethren—as
warring against a Power which, by the violation of
treaties, and by half a century of misrule, has for-
feited all claim to dominion over them.
" If within a few weeks after the revolt of the
Confederate States of America against a native and
legitimate Government, a Government based on the

broadest foundations of political, social, and indi-
vidual freedom, and under which
as great an
amount of human happiness has been enjoyed as has
ever bean the lot of man under any form of
government, if, within a few weeks after that
revolt, France and Great Britain spontaneously
recognised the belligerent rights of the insurgent
States, is it possible, is it conceivable that the
same recognition should be refused to the Poses
after, not a few weeks, bat many months of one
of the most righteous and patriotic struggles in
the history of the world ? The Poles, who are

in revolt, not against a native and legitimate Go-
vernment, not against a Government founded upon
free institutions and diffusing far and wide abun-
dant physical and social happiness, but against a
foreign_ and usurping Government, a Government

founded upon brute force, trampling upon treaties,
treading under foot all right and all law, steeped
in the blood of its subject victims, known only
by its oppression and misrule, the chains it had
forged, the misery it had caused, the lives it had
sacrificed, the property it had plundered, the atro-
cities it had perpetrated.
" Driven and tortured into insurrection by the
most cruel and exasperating tyranny and insult,
and after they had in Christian fortitude and pa-
tience employed and exhausted all peaceful methods
of endeavouring to obtain any real redress of their
intolerable wrongs, the Poles are now being deli-
berately subjected to a wholesale process of extir-
pation. The horrors which have been inflicted
upon them during the last twelve months will
have enlisted all men in whose hearts the love of
freedom and of right and the hatred of oppres-
sion and wrong are not utterly depraved or
deadened, in an open crusade against the Musco-
vite barbarism which, in revenge for the mere loss
of prestige in the Crimea, degrades, insults, and de-
files Europe ; against the fiendish cruelty which
spares neither age nor sex; rebels in indiscriminate
confiscation, depopulation, and massacre; outrages
the holiest feelings ; delivers to the bullet or the
gibbet men whose only crime is that they have loved
and fought for theirs country; condemns to the
hideous lash, or to hopeless imprisonment or exile,
the daughters of Poland, whose only crime is that
they have loved and mourned for their country,
"Such are the fruits of the negative but san-
guinary rupture of 1854, having stopped short of
its legitimate result—the deliverance and restora-
tion of Poland.

" Surely, surely it is time, if the stamp of inde-

lible eternal shame is not to be branded upon the
banners, the history, the character of Great Britain
and France as faithless and dead both to solemn
obligations, and to all the promptings of justice and
humanity and national dignity; it is time that the
vacillations of diplomacy should cease, and that, at
least, there should go forth the full, clear, and
honourable recognition of the belligerent rights of
the patriots of Poland struggling so long for their
country's independence, for their most undoubted
rights, for all that is worth living or worth dying
for, with a devotion of self-sacrificing heroism that
exalts virtue, and ennobles mankind.—By order and
on behalf of the committee of the league,
" EDMOND BEALES, President.
" JOHN ROBERT TAYLOR, Hon. Secy.
"London, Jan. 27."

WILLS AND BEQUESTS.

(From the Illustrated London News.)

The will of the Right Hon. C. Compton Caven-
dish, Lord Chesham, was proved in London on the
23d nit., the executors nominated being his relict,
the Dowager Baroness Chesham ; his nephew, the
Duke of Devonshire ; and his son, now Baron
Chesham. The personalty was sworn under L 40,000.
The testator was the fourth son of the late earl of
Burlington, and married Catherine, daughter of the
ninth Marquis of Huntly, K.T. His lordship had
on four separate elections been returned to Parlia-
ment, and represented Bucks from 1847 to 1857, for
which county he was Deputy-Lieatenant, His
lordship attained the age of 70, and executed his
will in 1850, and two codicils in 1858 and 1863. A
very liberal charge is made upon the family estates
in Bucks and Herts for the Dowagerttl
e Baroness, a
nd be-
quests as
well as a provision by mareiagese
m
by the will. The residue of the personal pro-
perty is left to his son, the present Lord Chesham.
The will of Sir Henry Martin, Bart., of Tun-
bridge Wells, was proved in London by the sole
executor, Vice-Admiral Sir W. Panshawe Martin,
K.C.8., the personalty being sworn under £35,000.
Sir Henry succeeded to the title in 1842, having
married, in 1825, Catherine, daughter of Sir Thos.
Byam Martin, G.C.8., late Admiral of the Fleet.
The testator died at the age of 62, and had executed
his will in 1858, leaving the whole of his property,
real and personal, to his relict, Lady Martin, for
her own absolute use and disposal.

of Muswell-
hilTi,hemwiidlldolefsßexi,chwarads Mpraorvshedall,iEn sq.,
London under
£70,000. The testator was the last surviving part-
ner of the eminent firm of Simpkin and Marshall,
publishers, of Stationers'-court and Paternoster-
row, originally founded by Mr. Crosby.
The will
bears date October, 1863, and the testator died the
month following. The executors and trustees are
Benjamin Crosby Marshall, the son ; Joseph John-
son Miles, the son-in• law ; and George Chater,
wholesale stationer, Cannon-street. The testator
has directed that his estates, called Warwicks, in
Devonshire, as well as his estate at Hornsey, should
be sold, and, together with his shares in the New
River Company and all other property, applied for
the benefit of his son and daughters in certain pro-
portions and shares, as specified in the Will. There
are legacies and annuities to servants, labourers,
and clerks, which are to be paid free of legacy
duty.

THE SHAISPERE DEMONSTRATION IN LONDON.

—ln spite of Punch's prognostications that the
National Shakspero Committee is moribund, and that it will
be found difficult to obtain £30,000, we are happy to say
(observes a weekly contemporary) that the Executive of
that body is doing more than it ever did before, and that,
in answer to a circular appeal to the members of the com-
mittee, subscriptions are pouring in apace. All that is
wanted now to bring the matter into full activity is a de-
finite proposition from the memorial and site committees,
whereupon to base a tangible appeal to the public. We are
persuaded that, so far from there being any danger of the
money not being forthcoming, the sum would be subscribed
in the City of London alone, provided it were understood
that the monument would be erected within civic precincts.
The Stratford committee proceeds very actively with its
work ; and on all sides we see good reasons for hoping that,
all petty differences laid aside, the tercentenary celebration
of our great Bard's natal day will be celebrated both in the
place hallowed by his birth and in the great city which was
the arena of his fame, in a manner worthy of his great name
and of the mighty nation which will that day essay to do
hat lion aur.