The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-29 00:00:00

THE POLISH PATRIOTS.

(Abridged from the Devonport Independent.)
A public meeting in aid of the Polish refugees was held
at Devonport on Thursday evening. About half-past sir
o'clock, the Mayor, Edward St. Aubyn, Esq., appeared on
the platform, accompanied by many of the most influential
inhabitants of the town ; and having taken the chair, im-

mediately opened the business of the evening, by reading
the call of the meeting. After which he said, that having
read the requisition, he could not but consider it a gratifying
circumstance that the first meeting over which he should
have been called to preside, should have been one for assist-
ing the unfortunate Polish refugees. Many gentlemen
were perhaps better qualified for the situation of Chair-
man, but he yielded to man in his detestation of the
tyranny exercised by the Russian Emperor—(Hear, hear)
—towards that unfortunate nation. It had been some-
times made a matter of reproach to them that they were
not satisfied with the intentions of the Emperor towards
them. He should say it would be extraordinary if they
were.—(Cheers.) In his humble opinion there was not a
single person present in that hall, but must feel that the
conduct of the Russian Despot was one of the greatest
blots in the history of the human race.
Mr. T. WOOLI.COMBE said he could not commence the
few observations he should address to them, without first
congratulating the Mayor that the first public occasion on
which he should be called on to preside over a meeting of
his fellow-citizens, should be one so connected with the
best interests of humanity, as one for the expression of the
abhorrence they must all feel at the injustice and oppres-
sion practised towards the Poles. There was no language
strong enough to express the execrations of a free-born
people against the actions of a despot like the Emperor of
Russia. He should not detain them longer, but beg leave
to move the first resolution.
Mr. L. TRIPE said—Mr. Mayor, Ladies, and Gentle-
men, your charity is asked on behalf of the poor Pole, who
driven an exile from his country has found an asylum in
our own, whose brethren are now pining amid the wilds of
Siberia, under the tyranny of their remorseless foe, whose
Church and whose altars are desecrated by the forms of a
faith and worship almost idolatrous, whose language and
whose name are alike proscribed. He asks your charity,'antt
surely I shall not ask it in vain for him, who—even if he
is denied the plea of need—has yet another claim on us,
in having fought bravely in the cause of Liberty, and
an appeal . made for those who have fought in such. rt
cause, I know will find a response in the bosoms of every
one present. When the seventeen millions of the Polish
people were divided between the three powers of Russia,
Prussia, and Austria, Poland, single-handed, resisted the
whole of her oppressors ; nothing that heroic devotion could
effect against a bloody tyranny, was left untried% assd ever
~ince the disastrous year of that partition, 1774 tate Pole
has wandered an exile banished by tyranny from his native
land ; for sixty-three years have they striven to regain their
rights, during which period struggle has followed struggle,
and revolt has succeeded revolt—but all in vain.
The speaker then proceeded to pourtray in a powerful
manner the revolting cruelties of which Russia had been
guilty towards the Poles, and concluded a long and ani-
nated speck: pregnant with the eloquence of heart and
head, in the following words :
" The Czar has just placed the topmost stone on the
fabric of his cruelty by ordering a levy of six hundred
Polish women for the use of his camp. They are to be
young women—they are to be good-looking—they are to
be attired in English, and French, and Tyrolese costumes
and to be placed on a sort of fancy form for the amuse
went of the Imperial Monster and his companions.