The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-26 00:00:00

THE :POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Tunes.)
NEAR CRACOW, Aug;.. 16.
Prince Gortschakoff's account of the circunistances
under which Archbishop Felinski was arrested is
one of the most ingenious pieces of misrepresenta-
tion that Russian diplomacy has put forth feir some
time past. Several notoriously true statements
seem to have been purposely introduced into the
document in order to give it a colour of voracity ;
and the false ones which it contains in abundance
are so well put together, and are made with ,such an
air of candour, that the whole is admirably calcu-
lated to deceive persons not well acquainted with
the facts of the case. According to Prince Gorts-
chalreff the Archbishop was arrested for playing the
part of a political agitator, and in particular for
having written a letter to the Emperor, in which, es
your readers may remember, he urged his Majesty
in the strongest terms to unite the Russo-P Polish
()I.pro-
vince to the Kingdom of Poland and govern this
new Polish State as constitutional King. Prince
Gortschakoff would have the world believe that the
Archbishop was punished for this terrible crime
simply by being confined, with all the respect due
to his position, in the Imperial Palace of Gatchina,
not far from St. Petersburg. But the truth is that
M. Felinski is detained at Jaroslaw, in the interior
of Russia, having been sent there, not for presuming
to offer advice to the Emperor (in a letter published
without the writer's knowledge or consent), but for
protecting indignantly against the illegal, and in all
respects unjustifiable, execution of the priest
Konarski.
Readers of Prince Gortschakcff's clever fictions
would perhaps like to know how it has really hap-
pened that an ecclesiastic who was named only two
years ago to the Archbishopric of Warsaw for his
supposed devotion to the Imperial Government
should now find himself in the same position that
the patriotic bishops Rzewuski and Soltyk occu-
pied when a few years before the first partition
they were taken from their places in the Diet, and
for their determined opposition to the interference
of Russia in the affairs of Poland sent into exile.
It will not have been forgotten that when Arch-
bishop Fijalkowski died in the autumn of 1861 the
churches of Warsaw remained closed in consequence
of the outrages committed in one of them on the
occasion of the Kosciusko anniversary. The great
question at St. Petersburg was how to get them
opened, and it was resolved in nominating a new
archbishop to choose a man who would be able to
arrange the matter to the satisfaction of the Govern-
ment. It was not astonishing that M.Felinski should
have been selected for the work, for it was known
that in his youth he had been a refugee and a red
republican, and that when the aristocratic and de-
mocratic parties of the Polish emigration were per-
forming their political farces in Paris, he was named
by the latter one of the three dictators to whom the
Government of the future Poland of the democracy
Was to be intrusted. A Polish red republican exile,
who had suddenly resolved to become a Roman
Catholic priest, and had come to Russia to prepare
himself for holy orders, was, indeed, not likely,
whatever his other merits, to be a man of strong
character.

It was at the Roman Catholic Seminary of St.
Petersburg, under the direction of Archbishop Ho-
lowinski, of Mohiletv, that the ex-revolutionist com-
pleted his theological studies. The Government, with
a keen eye for human weakness, saw that he was a
man peculiarly amenable to persuasion, and in fact
persuaded him first to become Archbishop of War-
saw, and secondly, or perhaps simultaneously, to
open the Warsaw churches and write a pastoral
letter forbidding patriotic manifestations, and espe-
cially the singing of the national hymn in places of
worship. The pastoral letter was written, shown to
the Emperor and sanctioned ; but the Archbishop,
weak though he might be, had not sold himself to
Russia; and when he arrived in Warsaw, and saw
for himself what was going on, he became touched
by the enthusiasm of his countrymen, and refused
to issue an epistle which he felt would not only be
unavailing, but would jar upon the feelings of the
whole land.
But nothing—except the organisation of the Na-
tional Government—can be kept secret in Warsaw,
and the Archbishop's pastoral was stolen from him
and sent for publication to the Czas of Cracow,
where in due time it appeared. Its contents excited
general indignation, and Archbishop Felinski was
from that time until quite lately regarded as the
enemy of his country, and as a mere ecclesiastical
agent in the hands of Russia. He had really be-
come a convert to the doctrines of the Marquis
Wielopolski, and the Grand Duke, the Marquis, and
the Archbishop were supposed to form a most har-
monious trio. Felinaki's destiny may be said to
have been fulfilled. He was now member of a triple
dictatorship, the only remarkable difference between
the dream of his youth and its realisation was that
instead of becoming the Minister of revolution he
had become the servant of despotism.
All went well between the members of the trio,
and ill between the trio and the people of
Poland until the insurrection broke out. But in the
month of March Archbishop Felinski, shocked at
the atrocities committed by the Russians, and con-
vinced that his countrymen would not yield, and
that the land would be devastated if the struggle
continued, wrote to the Emperor to entreat him to
pecify the country by the only means possible short
of declaring Poland an independent State. He begged
his Majesty to unite the Polish provinces to the
kingdom of Poland, to grant this new Poland a con-
stitution, and to let a common dynasty be the only
political tie between Poland and the Russian
Empire. This letter shared the fate of the pastoral
in so far that it was stolen, sent to the newspapers
and published, either immediately after or at the
same time, or, acrordieg to Prince Gortschakofl;
even before it was placed in the hands of the
Emperor. No one can think that it was right to
print such a letter ; and I heard personal friends of
the Archbishop complain bitterly of the indis-
cretion as soon as it was known to hove been com-
mitted. This time, however, the prelate lost no
Popularity by having his secrets betrayed. On the
contrary every one said that Felinski's Polish nature
had [Token out at last, and that what he had pre-
viously done must be forgiven for the sake of his
letter
to the Emperor. That Archbishop Felinski
himself
communicated it to the press is untrue, and
had not prince Gortschakoff known this to be the
case he would
not have waited three months to
bring the /sem
sati?n against him.
In the
taeanwlaile, however, the Archbishop had
offended in other
Ways.
tg he had refused to forbid a
He had resigned his seat
in the Council or
ate,
religiousproceasiotn, a
his
and finally, after he had been
already
confined ooiwn residence at Warsaw
he protested, Its it
Was h
duty to do, against the
judicial assassination (for it
Was lees) of the
Abbe Eonarski. This last matter has apparently
escaped Prince Gortschakofes memory altogether.
It is such a trifling thing to haveeecuted a priest
t in
h
in holy orders, whose only offence
consisted
Government
having given religious consolationto
ver
and dying. It is true the Russian
accused the Abbe Konarski not only of joining
the
insurrection (which as a combatant he /ley
loined)
but also of getting intoxicated. If all the prirs a
"
Russian empire who got intoxicated eser;ttos
in the
be hanged, gibbets would be as plentiful in the
of Russia Proper as signposts
country districts in
England ; but whether drunkenness ought to be
is
regarded as an offence worthy of death or not it
ono which ceuld never have been proved against
the Abbe Konerski, who is known to be a man of
perfectly sober habits.
As to the punishment inflicted on the
ten,Arhbishop
of Warsaw Price° Gortechakoff cannot bu dtuit to
himself that he has been guilty of a suisterfuge un-
worthy of most persons in pretending that the
Palace of Gatchina was the final place of retirement
assigned to him, when he knew that it was only the
temporary one. Archbishop Felinski was detained
long enough at Gatchina to give the Prince an op-
portunity of telling all Europe that he was there,
end to enable him to eeplaiu afterwards, it any ex-
planation should be found necessary, that he was
there when his letter was written, or at least at the
date which the letter bears.
A'l this is worse than the system of Nicholas, -who
never would have allowed one of his ministers to
pretend that a political Offender actually in Siberia

was staying in the Winter Palace—though many of
Nicholas's victims did enter the Winter Palace to
be examined by the Emperor himself, before being
sent forth on their sorrowful journey. Ever since
the commencement of the Polish insurrection, the
Government of Alexander 11. has shown itself more
ferocious, and at the same time infinitely weaker
and more perfidious than that of his predecessor.
Nicholas was very frank on the subject of Poland.
" Je la roulerai !'' he exclaimed with savage rage
when he heard that the country was in arms against
him. He denied the right of foreign Powers to
interfere in Polish affairs, and, to save trouble, said
plainly that he would not accept their advice.
Count Nesselrode states in one of his despatches of
the year 1831, that it would be better for the Em-
peror to give up the kingdom of Poland to no
matter what Power than be obliged to govern it
with a constitution of which advantage had been
and would again be taken to undermine his autho-
rity. The parchment constitution was then put
into a box, and sent in a cart to Moscow, where it
is still kept in a museum of antiquities. The pre-
sent Russian Government, however, pretends to
recognise the right of the Powers that signed the
treaty of Vienna to "exchange ideas" with Russia
on the basis of that treaty ; but it will no more
accept their recommendations in conformity with
its stipulations than Nicholas did. Nicholas, when
he granted an amnesty to the insurgents of the
kingdom of Poland, observed it, but the amnesty
granted to the Poles last May was not observed for
an hour. Some few who accepted it were let off
with commuted punishments, but scarcely anyone
asked for pardon, and of those who did ask none
obtained it. Finally, Nicholas had too great a
horror of socialism and of anarchy of all kinds, and
too much confidence in his own military power, to
think of putting down the Polish insurrection by
arming the peasantry against the proprietors, and
inciting them to pillage and "murder. The present
Government of Russia has acted more basely as well
as more cruelly than that of Nicholas, while as re-
gards mendacity, it can be backed against any
Government that ever existed.