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

THE INSURRECTION IN POLAND,

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
Moscow, Jan. 8.

Th e news received here from Poland gives but
little idea of the exact state of the Polish insurrec-
tion, In Lithuania, now that Mackiewicz's band is
destroyed and Mackiewicz himself hanged, there
can scarcely be much further resistance to the legiti-
mate Government of the country, which in all the
disturbed districts has exiled or imprisoned the
landed proprietors, taxed the estates more than they
can bear, made roads through the great woods, and
cut down or burnt the smaller ones.

The Lithuanian insurrection appears now to have
been a mistake from beginning to end. Nobody de-
sired it, and it is even difficult to determine who the
insurgents really were. Not the nobility ; for we
read every day of fresh addresses having been pre-
sented in which the nobility of this or that district
in Lithuania condemn the insurrection as a move-
ment got up only by a few misguided and perverse
men. Not the peasants ; for except in the Catholic
districts, where the priests are men of some cultiva-
tion, and, apart from their religious authority, have
a natural influence as teachers which the Russian
" orthodox" priests, knowing nothing themselves,
cannot be expected to exercise; except in the
Catholic districts of the Wilna and Kovno Govern-
ments the peasants have been either completely
passive or have allowed themselves to be armed
against their masters. Almost the only positive
outrages on the part of the peasantry in Lithuania
appear, it is true, to have been those committed at
the very beginning of the insurrection by the Russian
whose ancestors, after being
sectarians (raskolniki),
driven out of Russia, had been hospitably received
in Poland. But, as a general rule, the peasantry in
Lithuania, as in all other parts of Poland, except
the Grand Duchy of Posen (where the serf of
former times has long been a landed proprietor)
are too degraded to have any notion of patriotism,
and they can, if necessary, be raised up against the
actual owners of the soil as easily as in Russia
itself. In Russia previous to the Emancipation Act
numbers of proprietors were murdered every year
by their peasants, of course without any incitement
on the part of the Government, which on its own
natural territory cannot desire to see society entirely
-disorganised.
But what proves beyond doubt the hatred of the
Lithuanian peasantry for all ideas of Polish nation-
ality is the fact that they, like the nobility, disavow
with honest warmth all participation in the late
criminal attempt to replace the established Russian
Government by a government of Poles. The pea-
sants' addresses are very explicit on this point.
Besides the peasantry, who cannot be supposed to
care much for anything not immediately connected
with their daily wants, and the country gentry and
small freeholders, who are represented in secret
official reports as detestingeverything Russian, and
in public official addresses as filled with the highest
veneration for the Russian Government, there are
also the Jews, who furm a greater part of the tend.
in g classes in the towns. They also are very fond of
the Russians, but nothing is astonishing on the part
of the Jews of Lithuania, for it appears that they
have a high admiration even for Christianity, espe-
cially of the Russian pattern. A number of poor,
humiliated, persecuted Lithuanian Jews had to pre-
sent an address the other day, in which devotion was
expressed for that Government which, until within
the last few years, made it penal for a Jew wearing
his ancient traditional costume to remain more than
three days in the holy city of Moscow, and abhor-
rence for the- nation which gave an asylum to the
Jews when in all other parts of Europe they were
cruelly oppressed. The Jewish deputation having
expressed a wish to make some sort of gift (appa-
rently by way of peace offering) inquired, according
to the Tourna' de St. Petersbourg, what would be
the most appropriate thing for them to offer. "An
orthodox church," was the reply; and it is stated in
the foreign offieial or semi-official organ of the Rus-
sian Government that the orthodox church required
is really abaut to be built with Jewish money.
DJes any one imagiNe that the Jews of Lithuania
do not really desire to increase the number of Chris-
tian places of worship ? They desire it quite as
much as the Lithuanians in general do to perpetuate
the Russian Government in their unhappy country;
rind the gift of an orthodox church comes as spon-
taneously from the Jews as the presentation of
loyal addresses does from the Poles, whether in
iithaania or in the kingdom.

;feat about the". time that Mackiewiex, already a
fugitive, was cliseovered in his hiding-place and
made prisoner, Chmelinski, one of the three prin-
cipal leaders ins the kingdom, was taken, and before
now has probably, lika Mlekiewiez, been executed.
At least it was announced, immediately after his
capture, that having been conducted to Radom he
would there he "punished for his crimes." Chme-
liniiiti had commanded for some months past is
what the Poles call" the palatinate of Cracow''—that
is to say, the district adjoining the Cracow territory,
on the other side of the frontier, which before the
partition formed, with the co intry around Cracow,
but one province, Chavlinski's district was said
to be held by as many as 15,000 Russian; and con-
a'dering
that the Russian army in the kingdom no iv •
numh,rs 130,000 men, this estimate does not appear
at all exaggerated. Since Lan,giewiez'a time th©
Palatinate of Cracow—the scene (at that leader's
principal exploits—has always '-aeon occupied by the
Russians in great strength, It is not only an easy
country for. an enene: well acquainted with the
ground to defend, l),eing thickly wooded and broken
up by a chain 'id hills, but the frontier is only four
miles distar,c from the city of Cracow. It was essen-
tial for 'she Russians to prevent the Poles from esta-
lisb:kng themselves in a district whence they could
deep up a close and constant communication with
the place from which they have hitherto drawn the
greater part of their supplies, and the bands in the
Palatinate have usually baen defeated. forthwith
when they have entered from the neighbourhood of
Cracow ready formed, while they have seldom main-
tained themselves for many weeks together even
when they have been organised in the country itself.
Chmelinski had been acting some time in the Pa-

Luinate when in the month of October " Bossak"
came to the city of Cracow and began to send across
the frontier, in parties of four and five, the detach-
', ent with which Chinelinski's afterwards co-ope-
rated. Chwelinski, after the two detachments had
joined, for ultimately they formed but one, appears
to have done duty as chief of the staff, " Bossak"
assirning tee general command.
Chmelinski and "Bossak" have done as hard
fi,;Ming as any leaders who have appeared in Poland
since the beginning of the insutrection, and have
had to fight against better troops than those who
took the field daring the first few months. Both
had been officers in the Russian army, which they
only quitted to join their own countrymen in arms.
Chmelinski was a lieutenant in the artillery.
" Bossak" had the rank of colonel, and had served,
I believe, in the guard and on the general staff.
Tie had also seen active service in the Caucasus,
where he was twice badly wounded.

The affair in which Chmelinski was taken has
been represented in Polish telegrams as a victory for
the Poles, and in Russian print©d reports as a vic-
tory for the Russians. It appears, however, from
a letter of tolerably veracious aspect in one of the
Russian newspapers that there was no battle at all
on the occasion. The Russians, under Gen. Czen gem
coming np from several points-and in great force to
attack the insurgent band, aissak led his men across
a river. Chmelinksi, attended by ono aide-de-camp,
waited behind to see the rear-guard safely over the
bridge, and the last of the cavalry were just cross-
ing, when the Cossacks and dragoons composing the
advanced guard of the Ilvsians made their appear-
ance. The two Polish officers drew their rev3lvers
and fired, but the Russians tiring at the same time,
the aide-de.cernp'a horse was brought - down, and
Camelinski received a wound in the head. The rest
of the story is not to be true. The dregoons,
we are told, having made a rush at the chief of the
staff, and having seized him, he exclaimed," Do not
kill me, I am Chmelinski."
It is not at all improbable that the wound
Chmelinski received in the head was from his own
hand. The Russians would haveencleavoured to take
him alive, in order to have the pleasure of hanging
him, and ho !new the fate that inevitably awaited
him if alive ho foil into the power of his enemies.