The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-03 00:00:00

The Great Polish Trial at Berlin.

Several interesting incidents have marked the progress of
this trial since our last report. The testimony of official
witnesses that a ticket with a red seal, on which was an
appeal from the Posen Committee for payment of the
national taxes, and which the prosecution alleged was found
among M. Moszozenski's papers, was not among them when
that gentleman was arrested, has caused considerable sensa-
tion, and the evidence of M Jackowski, formerly an agent
of the National Government, afbrded much valuable ma-
terial for arriving at a correct es.timate of the political ten-
dencies of the insurrection.

The sitting of the 22d October was chiefly occupied by
the examination of i%l, N. Sulerzycki, aged 62, formerly a
councillor of the Credit Foncier Society, and a member of
the Chamber of Deputies at Berlin. The accused com-
plained that he had been detained 16 months in prison with-
out cause. He had devoted the greater portion of his life
to agricultural pursuits, in which he had b en unusually
successful ; subsequently he was elected by Germans and
Poles as their deputy; but his attachment to his country
had always brought down upon him the persecution of the
Prussian officials. He had opened his house to all his
countrymen, not with the object, however, of exciting them
to insurrection, being opposed to all unnecessary bloodshed.
The documents found in his house were purely of an histori-
cal character, and many of them were left there by chance
by his visitors. A great number of persons had called
upon him, but he had never had any political relations with
them,

The matter of the ticket with a r3d seal, stated to have
been found among the papers of M. Moszozenski, came up
on the 21th.

The first witness, a gendarme named Freiwald, deposed
that he had conducted the revision iu M. MoszJzonski's
house, and that ho had collected ad his papers, and looked
carefully through them. Ho was :certain there was no
ticket with a red seal among them, as ho would have no-
ti;;; d the seal; and, moreover, he'had numbered all the
papers, whereas the ticket had no number upon it.

Laskowski, a clerk who was present at the revision, con-
firmed the testimony of the former witness in all respects.
Z,Lubrowicz, formerly steward to =the accused, said he
was in the constant habit of arranging his papers, but had
never seen the ticket in question.
ii•Jrr LeiAt, awn. rho Prosecutor whothta he
still held to his assertion that the ticket was found among
the papers of the accused.
The Crown Prosecutor evaded the question.
_ _ _

M. J. Illowiecki was then examined on the charge of
having acted as military commissioner to the National Go-
vernment. lla denied the charge, and deposed that the
Court should summon certain witnesses, who could prove
the truth of his statements.

The court consented, and then adjourned to the 25th.
On the 25th, after some unimportant evidence relating to
M. Sulerzycki, M. lialkEztein was brought up for exami-
nation, Ho admitted that he had purchased arms of the
insurgents, but only with the object of promoting an in-
surrection against RuEsia.

The AbLtiJ. Lebinski acknowledged that he had acted as
organiser of the district of Ostrolenka for the National Go-
vernment, Ho had chiefly resided in insurgent camps, and
his duty was to obtain provisions for the troops. There had
never been any intention of attacking Prussia. He was
pursued, with a few others, by the Russians into Prus-
aim territory, where they murdered his companions, and
ghe was dead. In
et
ivoenr e lhyo
wa s woundta ekde,n t
bhyi ntkhi
en
lteht its hciomn dsi
Prussian troops, and
cared for only to be thrown into prison,

M. Theodore J.ckowski, aged 33, late agent of the Polish
National Government, was then called, and addressed the
Court as follows : Gentlemen, permit me to precede my
answer to the charges of the accusation by a few remarks.
In 1854, after, the accession of the Czir Alexander 11., it
was generally thought in Poland that better times were at
hand. These hopes, however, were Boon destroyed by the
memorable words of the Czer to the nation, Point de reveries!
I will not go far back into history, but begin ir
whin the nation expressed its wishes in adeflonm the timeiteshape,
viz., from the year 1861, These wishes tended to the union
otthe kingdom of Poland with Lithuania and the provinces
seized by Russia, to the regulating of the relations of the
peasants, to the amelioration of the schools, and to the de-
velopment of commerce and material prosperity. At that
time the nation divided itself into two camps. The first still
believed in the good intentions of the Russian Government,
the second had abandoned that faith; and thus were formed
the White and Red parties. I must here, however, also
allude to two other parties, which, though anti-Polish,
created no slight difficulties by their violence and activity
—I mean the party of
cosmopolitan revolution and that of
panslavism. 1 do not here wish to name the leaders of
these parties, I. will only add that tho latter was in fact
nothing but a Government party. Every possible means
were taken to neutralise the action of the party cf cosmo-
politan revolution, and the leaders of the National Govern-
ment were at length forced publicly to declare in their
official organ Ruch (movement) that they repudiated all
participation in the tendencies and objects of that party.
Meanwhile all the steps taken by the law party of the
Whites were unsuccessful. The address to the Czar was
not received, the attempts to regulate the peasant question
produced no result, and the schools were closed. In the
Government of Warsaw alone 160 schools were closed in
one year. Tho White party began to be convinced that
it would not succeed in attaining its object by the course it
bad selected, and the ranks of the Reds were consequently
greatly increased in numbers. The last blow was given to
the Whites when, in Aug. 1862, tho proscription was an-
nounced, instead of the expected reforms. The recruiting
lists were destroyed with the object of preventing the levy,
but the Russian Government determined to execute it with-
out the lists. This intelligence soon spread in the country,
increasing the agitation which already existed in a high
degree. The Central Committee determined, in order to
avoid useless conflicts with the Russian troops, to remove
those who were threatened by the levy from the districts
where they lived. This was begun in Jan., 1863. About
3,000 young men succeeded in escaping from Warsaw, but
when this became known to the police, it surrounded the
town with a dense chain of sentries, so that it was extremely
difficult to send individuals out of the capital. At length, in
the night of Jan. 14, the first levy began in Warsaw—re-
cruits wore nut taken, only young men—and, when these
could not be found, old men and even women were torn from
their families and sent to the citadel. The struggle began in
the palatinate of Plock. Tha Central Committee seeing that
the war, for which it was not prepared, had begun,was forced
to take some steps to organise the combatants. It was then
that appeared the well-known address of Jan. 22, )863. In
it the Central Committee said :—" We require the Poland
of 1772," i.e , within the frontiers of Russian Poland, where
alone the Cen' ral Committee had relations—in Posen and
Galicia it had no relations—and in those provinces no one
knew the insurrection would break out. In the address above
alluded to the Central Committee clearly says the struggle

is to be with Russia alone, and that the inhabitants of the
other Polish territories were not to believe in any other
statements. The second question was the introduction of
arms. Three roads were open to the Central Committee—
through Austria, Prussia, or by sea. It was determined
to use them all. Shortly after the committee was informed
that two convoys of arms had been seized in Prussia. It
then issued strict orders to its agents in Paris, London,
and Liege to use the utmost care in transporting arms,
Were we not charged with high treason for having sent
these arms, I could give you many names of Germans who
assisted us, and are not in the least suspected of high trea-
son. Our many failures could not induce the committee to
stop the struggle, which once begun could only be continued
to the end. The war spread, and with it the sympathies of
Europe for the combatants; and thus arose committees in
Paris, London, Rome and Potsdam, Hamburg and Cologne.
Could it be wondered at that in Posen, also, a committee
was established ? I must, however, here admit that although
the Poles will not cease to be grateful for the sympathies
expressed for them, these committees, in fact, brought little,
if any, assistance to the insurrection. The National Govern-
ment, therefore, determined to send agents abroad in order
to organise the transport of arms and volunteers. Then came
the sad intelligence of the arrest of our countrymen in the
Grand Duchy of Posen, Let me be permitted, gentlemen,
here to inform you of the views of the National Govern-
ment regarding this measure. It regarded it as a political
step of short duration and slight importance, forit believed
in the feeling for justice of the Prussian bench, who must
at length have been convinced that this was simply a ques-
tion of showing sympathy for our brethren in the field, and
not of high treason. I will not further describe the mea-
sures of the organisation in the country, but will pass to the
consideration of what were the hopes entertained by the
National Government. What hopes could they have, but
hope in God ? None. They never reckoned on active help
from any Power. They thought at one time of diplomatic
help, and with this object sent me in October, 1863, to
Dresden, with instructions to ascertain whether King John
of Saxony would be disposed to accept the Polish crown,
and act as mediator in our behalf, in order to obtain the
neutrality of Prussia and Austria. It, then, gentlemen,
the National Government intended to offer the Polish crown
to an ally of the Prussian monarch, it seems to me clear
that they could have no hostile intentions with regard to
Prussia and Austria.

The accused, in reply to questions addressed to him by
the President. said that no money was collected in Prussia
and Austria, the National Government having forbidden it.
The sitting then closed.