The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-02 00:00:00

the soil is rather a difficult one, and, viewed fry
itself, it would probably be decided by most Eng I
lishmen against the peasant. Nevertheless, a
proprietors, under special and pressing eirehr n.
stances, have admitted his claim, and one wrplid
imagine there ought now to be no differer of
opinion on this most important point between
,'them
and those whom six months ago they used t
stig-
inatize as "communists."

The extreme men, however (the late " commu-
nists" maintain that numbers of the pr oprietors,
especially those belonging to the aristc ,cracy, are
not sincere, and that though they have received no
rent for the last •two quarters, they I lave not yet
solemnly and in pereon sworn to their peasants that
the land for which, under previous arrangements,
rent or work could be claimed is Do vcr theirs in free-
hold. By not making his declaration in the only
manner in which it could have, the desired effect,
the aristocratic proprietors are accused of checking
the national cction, and are therefore called " mac-
tionists ;" and the men who aim above all at pro-
moting and extending the national action with to
propose this alternative to them—that they shall
leave Cracow, Lemberg, the German be.ths, or
wherever they happen to be, come into Russian
Poland, explain matters to their peasantri, and en-
deavour by generous dealing, by patrio tic advice,
and also by setting a courageous example, to make
them fight the Russians, or that they ball b
i e de-
clared traitors, dispossessed, outlawed, and, f pos-
sible, killed. There can be no mistake as to the
revolutionary character of this policy, and its advo-
cates would certainly not object
thtte "cosmopoliteobeaidedin
carrying it out by the members of,
revolution."
The position of those numerous proprietors wbo
have left the scene of actual strife in order to avoid
all risk of being massacred, and to escape the double
pressure sure to be exercised, on the one hand, by
the insurgents, on the other by the Russians, upon
all who remain, is compared by the extreme party
to that of the "emigres at the commencement of the
French Revolution. The comparison is not at all
just, but it at least lets us into the views of those
who make it. If, however, " the true insurrection"
were once to begin, many Polish proprietors would
really be very much in the position ofthe emi-
grantsay from revolutionary France, though
be doubted whether the insurgent chiefs would find
themselves in the position of the French revolu-
tionary Generals.
Of course, the so-called democratic party is mis-
rseop.craeisieendteadrisbtoye,raantidc ipnarittys
.turTnhemfiosrrmeperresiesnatcse,usthede
of aiming at a social revolution, and of adopting a
national cry only as a pretext ; while the latter is
charged with preferring large estates and foreign
domination to smaller estates and national inde-
pendence.
The extreme men not only declare that to look
abroad for assistance is useless and unbecoming,
and that if Poland was to be free it must conquer
its freedom for itself ; they also taunt the moderate
men, whose only hope is in foreign intervention,
with " want of confidence" in the Polish nation, and
deny their patriotism. Oa the other hand, the
moderate men, who do not believe that the feelings
and character of the peasantry can suddenly be
changed, and who are quite opposed to all that
savours of terrorism and revolution, will not allow
any merit whatever to the extreme men, and say
that all their talk about appeals to the peasantry
merely means that they want to get up a Jacquerie.
Probably the sad truth is that one party is right
in hoping nothing from foreign intervention, and
the other equally right in hoping nothing from the
Polish peasantry. Hitherto the difference of opi-
nion between these two parties has not prevented
hem from acting in concert, and it is to the credit

of both that this has been the case. Mutual con-
cessions have been made, mutual forbearance has
been shown, and if some of the measures of the ex-
treme party have been adopted, the men who have
been appointed to carry them out seem, for some
time past, to have belonged to the moderate party.
Even at! this moment there is a common pro-
gramme, which consists in keeping up the insur-
rection and seeing what Europe will do. Bat, in the
absence of an intervention, a change must come over
the movement before long. Besides the insurgents
actually in the field, there are too many men com-
promised by their connexion with the National
Government to render it possible to cop the insur-
rection it the extreme party wish to carry it on, and
it is evident that when once all hope of foreign aid
has ceased the plan of the moderate party, which
was built on that hope, must be at an end.
If the negotiations on behalf of Poland should lead
to a war, then undoubtedly every Pole capable of
bearing arms would be ready to fight. I do not speak
of the peasantry, who are Poles only in so far that
they happen to have been born in a country called
Poland; but at least the peasantry would do nothing
hostile to the cause of their patriotic countrymen if
the latter once had force on their side. Indeed, the
probabilities are that they would assist them as they
now assist the Russians, for they seem to be guided
in their actions not by likings and dialikings, but
simply by fear.
In the more probable event, however, of peace
being maintained, there is good reason for believing
that the energetic and unscrupulous men who first
commenced the Polish insurrection will make a
desperate attempt to get its direction once more into
their hands. Then, as a first step, they will call upon
all Poles to join the movement personally and execute
the orders of the National Government strictly, and
in spirit as well as in letter, or submit to be regarded
as traitors, and placed beyond the pale of the law.
I know members of the extreme party who assure
m e that at thecommencement of the insurrection they
formally, and by word of mouth, as well as by writ-
ing, gave up the farm land on their estates to the
peasants, and that after much trouble they succeeded
in convincing them that the gift was genuine, and
even persuaded a good proportion of them to take up
arms on behalf of Poland. How many men have
behaved in this laudable manner it would be hard
to say, but that some have done so is certain ; and
if the proprietors in general did not mean to
imitate them one cannot help thinking that they
would have done well to leave the insurrection
alone. The obj( et in endowing the peasant was not
to make him happy but to make him fight. As it
is, the proprietors have given np a third of their
income without bringing the peasant (as a general
rule) any nearer to their way of feeling than he was
before. It is evident that they should either have
refused to make a cession which the great majority
of them regarded as unjust, or should have made it
in a direct or special manner to the persons who
were to profit by it and by whose good will they
and the whole country might have profited. The
Hungarian peasants (at least those of Hungarian
race) fought in 1848 9 on behalf of the proprietors
who had just emancipated them with all their land,
and it is possible that the Polish pietatsafnrteselmiagnhdt
also have proved grateful fora g y
frankly made. The men of the extreme party in
Poland have certainly a basis for their general
argument, and the proprietors admitted them to be
mainly in the right when they consented to adopt
their favourite measure. NV here they are wrong is
in attributing base motives to men more cautious,
and perhaps also better acquainted with the real
state of Poland, than themselves, and, above all, in
threatening to carry out their scheme by the
bloodiest and most revolutionary means that can be
conceived. The extreme party may yet bring
greater ewrih ruin upon their country than al! the Mourn-
vic,ffa and Bergs of Russia. They say plainly that
terrible
national
the question:of life or death for Poland
th
ohe decided once, and that the result of their
ment would be something very like
depthexper
can scarcely be doubled.
Full hi

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