The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-27 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(from the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
LEMBERG, Aug. 18.
It is very difficult to know how the insurrection
is really going on in the kingdom of Poland_ As
regards Galicia, expedition atter expedition is sent
forth, and always meets with the same fate. But
if these expeditions do no other good, they at least
have the effect of keeping an immense cordon of
Russian troops constantly occupied, and they must be
regarded as positive proofs that the energy of the
Poles and their determination to hold out until the
last possible moment have in no way abated. What-
ever Prince Gortschakofl's answer may be to the last
new note, the Poles will not lay down their arms,
and preparations are already being made for con-
tinuing the war against Russia throughout the
winter. The Poles are probably no more on the
point of expelling the Russians from Poland now
than they were four or five months ago ; but, what-
ever may be the exact position and prospect of the
armed insurrection, it is certain that the power of
the National Government has gone on constantly.
increasing from the beginning. Like most other
Governments, it has its admirers and its detractors,
but, unlike most other Governments, it is promptly
and universally obeyed. I have heard a few com-
plaints as to the forced loan from persons not anxious
to subscribe to it. On the other hand, a proprietor
living near Cracow is known to have put his name
down for 100,000 Polish florins at the very earliest
opportunity. The sum required from each proprie-
tor is calculated on the amount of taxes payable by
him to the National Government, which amount, by
the way, in Galicia, is now equal to 50 per cent. on
the taxation levied by the Austrians.
The National Government now goes through its
operations with great regularity, and, by way of
making its organisation and mode of action as public
as possible, has lately printed in its official journals
a:series of laws, with a list (not nominal, of course,)
of judges and officers comprising its tribunals. The
" penal law," first put in force in the month of
June, declares, by its first clause, that all acts tend-
ing to weaken the National Government, to check
the progress of the revolutionary movement, and
generally all acts injurious to the national cause are
to be considered State crimes.
The second clause sets forth the various punish-
ments to be inflicted for State crimes. They are as
follows :--1• Death; 2. Public disgrace, to be noti-
fied through the journals ; 3. Banishment from
home or from the country generally for a longer or
shorter period. In cases meriting, by the terms of
the law, capital punishment, if the punishment
cannot be inflicted the offender is to be outlawed.
"It is adopted as a principle" (says clause 3)
"that every citizen has a right to accuse and de-
nounce another. This rule, however, admits of ex-
ceptions. Thee the Commissioners of the Govern-
ment, military as well as civil, the chiefs of Palati-
nates, and the officials employed at Warsaw, can
only be brought before a tribunal by order of the
National Government. District officials can be
brought to trial on the accusation of the Govern-
ment Commissioner on the spot. It is for the tri-
bunal to decide whether the trial be proceeded with
or not. 'Every person accused enjoys the right of
defending himself.' "

The fourth clause enacts that all sentences be
announced in the public prints.
As to the organisation and functions of the tribu-
nals, the National Government directs :
" 1. That revolutionary tribunals be established
in every district and in the city of Warsaw.
"2. The jurisdiction of,the district revolutionary
tribunals to extend only to those districts in which
they were established. The revolutionary tribunals
of Warsaw has jurisdiction over all the inhabitants
of the town and suburbs without exception.
" 3. The revolutionary tribunals have no autho-
rity over officers and soldiers on active service for
whom separate courts-martial exist.
" Each revolutionary tribunal to be composed of
a president and two members. Judgment to be taken
according to the decision of the majority.
" 5. On the presentation of the Government Com-
missioners, the National Government will appoint
to every district tribunal a president and two mem-
bers, to be confirmed on being sworn. The appoint-
ment of the members of revolutionary tribunals to
depend exclusively on the National Government.
" 6. A procurator will be appointed to each tri-
bunal by the National Government. In Warsaw
the National Government will select a procurator
from two candidates to be presented by the ' Insur-
rectional Organization' of the city. The procurator
is the public accuser, and it will be his ditty to see
that the law and its sentences are strictly executed.
The revolutionary tribunals will pass sentence ac-
cording to the provisions of the penal law as con-
firmed by the National Government."
A " complementary law" just published directs
that the punishments ordered by the penal law al-
ready in force be only inflicted after the fullest in-
quiry, and in virtue of a sentence issued by the
proper tribunal.
Besides the punishments named in cause 2 of the
penal law, the revolutionary tribunals have the
power of inflicting other punishments to be indi-
cated by special decrees.
The punishments named in clause 2 of the penal
law may be inflicted on the author of an unjust and
calumnious accusation which may have brought
pain upon the accused or have subjected him to ju-
dicial proceedings.
The discovery and denunciation of crime are, above
all, the duty of the political and administrative
authorities.
Every denunciation must be submitted, in the
first instance, to the consideration of the procura-
tor, who is authorised, even without instituting an
inquiry, to declare it unfounded and leave it with-
out action.
The defence to which every person accused has a
right may either be written or spoken. A defence
by word of mouth is allowed whenever the accused
can be summoned to appear in person without ex-
poking the members of the tribunal to danger. It
is for the procurator to decide, subject to the ap-
proval of the tribunal, what sort of defence is to be
permitted.
The decisions of each tribunal are final. The
judges must pronounce as to the sufficiency of evi-
dence against persons accused, " according to their
conscience and moral convictions." In case the
guilt of a person accused cannot be established, a
sort of Irish
verdict is permitted, and he may be
warned "to avoid in future even the shadow of
crime."

AVithin2o
24 hours of the 'passing of the sentence the
tribunal
es mates it to the procurator, who
it
must order execution immediately.
In addition to the
e revolutionary tribunals in the
palatinates, three
courts have been ap-
pointed—one for rill°
Crown " (i.e.; for Poland
proper), one for LithuEtn:aa,:taad one for " Ruthenia "
(i.e., Volhynia, Podolia,
is
composedthe Ukraine). Each
of the higher courts
president
and four judges, with a procurator
of a
oriattached ; presi.
dent, judges, and procurator to be named
directly by the National Government.l
of its
that the
of these courts are irremovable Members
.members,
be forthwith. All
Court itself may at once remove one
and in that case must replace him f„:
subsequent vacancies in the court to
the same manner by the Court itself, filled up in
The supreme courts, after a preliminary and go u
fled decision of the National Government, -haa;
nuthoi ity to judge-1. The members of the National
Government; 2. The members cf the committees in'
Lithuania and Euthenia ; 3. The State Secretaries;
4. The Commissioners Plenipotentiary ; 5. The Go-
vernment Commissioners, military and civil; 6. The
civil chiefs of the palatinates and of the city of War-
saw; 7. The directors of the committees; 8. The
judges and procurators of the supreme court, and of
the revolutionary tribnimis.
The supreme courts decide according to the majo-
rity of votes. Their sentences are final and without
appeal.
The revolutionary tribunals perform their duties
in the chief towns of their particular palatinates.
Nee'ertbeless, within the sphere of its authority, a
tribunal may move from place to place, and go to
the very scene of the occurrence to be investigated
in order to institute an inquiry en the spot.
It appears that the National Government has also
adopted a law for the press, /741-ien• in a spirit of

delicate flattery, it has imitated fr om France, The
editors of the Polish national journals published at
Warsaw, if they mistake the policy of the National
Government, or in any way forget thomselves, re-
ceive a " warning," and after tT,to warnings their
newspapers may be suppressed. Thus, not long
since, the Prawda (Truth) hav4.ng stated, as if in
justification of its name, that the Polish insurrec-
tion, unless aided from abroad, •m:ust ultimately fail,
was warned so severely that it soon afterwards died.

The system of press warnin,gs, by the way,-is not
the only modern French idea, which, on various pre-
texts, has been introduced o r attempted to be in-
troduced into Poland; ind d, almost every great
injustice that has been recently committed in
that unhappy country has found defenders
to argue that, after all, the same thing has been done
and may be done again imperial France. The
Marquis Wielopoiski is ki 'own to entertain a great
admiration for Napoleon 3.11.—n0t perhaps for his
system, but for the manner in which he has main-
tained it. Nothing is more probable than that when
the Marquis determined to execute the conscription
by designation he was thinking of the French Em-
peror and of what that Sovereign would do under
similar circumstances; at all events, those of the
Marquis Wielopolski's former friends who still seek
on occasions to justify or explain away the one
crime of his political life, do so by asking whether,
after all, a measure of forced recruitment, which
would have taken away those subjected to it from
their homes for a few years, can be compared for
cruelty to the wholesale system of " deportations" to
Lambessa and Cayenne put in force by the third
Napoleon after the coup d'etat. The Russian Pogo-
din, proposing to " annihilate the Polish element"
in the Russo-Polish provinces, openly avows that
he takes the Emperor of the French as his model;
and as the latter gives the Italian proprietors of
Nice the privilege of leaving their birthplace if they
do not like the French Government established
there, so the former wishes that the Polish proprie-
tors of Ruthenia should be told to consider them-
selves Russians and stop or remain Poles and go
away to the Kingdom.

To address these arguments, hoNiever, to the
Poles !- to jest with them in a very unbe-
coming manner. They hope for a French in-
tervention, and cannot be expected to examine
too closely the life of the Sovereign who, sooner
or later, is sure to render them assistance of
some kind. That the National Government, which
may now bs said to represent Poland, is no friend
to an arbitrary irresponsible system of rule is suffi-
ciently shown by the fact that in the midst of all
its difficulties it proclaims a regular legal system,
and subjects even its own members to the authority
of a tribunal whose judges are irremovable.