The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
LEMBERG, Aug. 7.
_ _

Count Mensdorff returned here from Vienna a
few days ago, and must now be astonished to find
that a portion of his functions have been assumed
by an anonymous gentleman calling himself
" Chief of the Town." There is a great deal that is
sublime and much also that is ridiculous in the
Polish insurrection, and it is ridiculous and some-
thing worse for any Pole or Poles to claim publicly
the direction of affairs in a province belonging to
Austria, with which Power it is conventionally
supposed that all Poland is on good terms. The
firet address issued by the " Chief of the Town" is
printed in the form of a handbill, and is marked
" No. 1," from which it may be inferred that a
series is meditated. Few nations have shown such
an aptitude for political blunders as the Poles; but
I think it is generally felt by the most influential
people in Lemberg that a mistake of no ordinary
magnitude has now been committed, and that the
" Chief of the Town" had better hide his head as
soon as possible. This is a case for the interven-
tion of the Poles themselves. They should inter-
vene between the Lemberg " Chief of the Town"
and his folly, or between the Lemberg Committee
and their folly. I have heard it suggested that
it would be a good idea to attribute the composi-
tion and circulation of the address in question to
Russian agency, and certainly the Russians could
not injure the general prospects of the Poles more
effectively than by setting the Austrian Govern-
ment against them. The address is as follows :

Fellow•citizens,—The present moment, so important for
the national cause, is one in which all our ardour must be
maintained.

"The enemies of the movement would, to the injury of
the nation, check that readiness to make sacrifices which is
our only strength. It is our duty, then, to take care that
the national enthusiasm be allowed to work, and through
the proper channels. To this end, having been appointed
by the Committee for Eastern Galicia, I now assume my
functions and take upon myself the heavy responsibility of
watching your conduct and directing the manifestations of
your patriotism.

" From this position I invite your respect. Citizens, re-
main peaceable and pay no heed to provocations from what-
ever quarter they may come. Do not take part in any move-
ment in the streets, for this would be to act in the interest
of our enemies. Preserve a dignified tranquillity, and re-
member the loftiness of the cause which we all serve.
" I know your readiness to make sacrifices of money.
" To increase and strengthen this readiness to the extent
of our present necessities is one of my main duties.
"I must warn you against all abuse of confidence. De-
posit money and other offerings in the hands of those per-
sons only who are authorised by me.
" On my demand only, and only in the way indicated by
me, you must give active support, with men and with
money, to the war now waging in the provinces held cap-
tive by Russia.
" Patience and subordination must be your motto. Im-
plicit obedience is now your first duty. Indifference is a sin,
and opposition a crime.
"CHIEF OP TILE TOWN or ',EMBER G.
(Naczelnik Miasta Lwowa.)"

It is an error to suppose that there is a " revolu-
tionary" committee in Lemberg, as some German
newspapers have hinted, and as a Bohemian journal
of Panslavonian tendencies, and therefore bitterly
hostile to any movement that may have the effect of
weakening Russia, has openly asserted. The Com-
mittee for Eastern Galicia, sitting at Lemberg,
like the Committee for Western Galicia, sitting
at Cracow, is in correspondence and in union
with the Central Committee of the National Go-
vernment sitting at Warsaw. It was formed for
the purpose of directing the efforts of the Galicians
on behalf of their countrymen in Russian Poland,
and in aiding the movement against Russia in every
possible manner. It has committed an act of great
imprudence in sanctioning the circulation of an
address in which one of its officials claims openly to
exercise authority over the Polish subjects of
Austria, but it can be seen from the address
itself
that the committee desires most earnestal
authority of the Austrian Government
the same time respected.
One word as to the "enemies of the movement,"
" check that readi-
ness are described as wishing to shall a thatl b the
authority a
et
ness to make sacrifices which
is
A great deal has been said aboutthe existence of
our only strength."
two parties in Poland, and it might
that the persons againstwhom the "be imagined
Chief of the
Town" of Lemberg cautions his fellow-citizens are
his political opponents. It
is easier, however, to
say that there are two parties in Poland than to
say what separates them or what different views
they entertain. A great abuse is made of the
words "aristocratic" and "democratic" here, as in
other countries. I asked a distinguished Polish
"democrat" the other day (who, by the way,
would be very much annoyed if any One 'were to
question the antiquity of his family) whether he

STAMPED ....sd.

desired the future Poland to be governed by an in-
tellip,;eut minorits or by au ignorant majority, to
which he at once replied, "by an intelligent mi-
nority," and seemed astonished that I could think
him capable of giving any other reply, I have not.
yet been able to find a Polish " democrat" unwise
enough to maintain that the Polish peasants ought
to have votes, or a Polish " aristocrat " unjust
enough to deny that all classes ought to be equal
before the law. What really did divide the two
parties until the insurrection broke out was the pea-
pea-
sant question; the proprietors of the so-called "aria.
tocratic " party wishing to cede to each peasant a
portion of the land which he had been in the habit
ina profit,
democratic" white p
at
rhtey
wn oe nr
generous enough to ma
nin that the whole of such
land should be given up.
opfr oprietors cultivatingof thef°r so-calledh isowt

The democrats, however, were not " socialists," as
it has been the fashion to call them. They never
proposed to rob the proprietor, nor did they want
over as absolute
property to the peasants and that the proprietors
athneytpheieneganfotr-ltehneamesheolvoelas.
bAellmtheedye desired was that
should be indemnified by the nation. Their scheme
mtoarsy
adopted it. " If," the so-called " democratic"
ohaanvesehaaredealycsoamymsounnioswtic, lfooork,thbeuyt
them-
selvesthhaevperoprie
party used to say, " the peasants are not disposed
to join the national movement, that is because the
proprietors did not long ago give them up the
ground for which, until the present insurrection
broke out, they had either to perform task work or
to pay rent. If the proprietors had been more
patriotic, and had only sacrificed a portion of the
land which belonged to them for the sake of the
land to which they belong, the peasant would have
had something to fight for, and would have taken
up arms with the rest of the country." " Why,"
observed a highly democratic insurgent to me cue
day, " I saw a peasant near Olkusz go under fire to
save his calf. What would he not do if he pos-
sessed a field really his own, and the Russians were
going to ravage it ?" It is difficult to say what he
would or what he would not do, but, in the mean-
while, it is certain that the land question can give
rise to no more dissensions among the Poles, for the
peasants have had their farms formally and finally
ceded to them by the National Government, and the
April and July quarters have passed without rent
having been received or claimed in any part of
Poland. The peasants, always anxious to be on the
safe side, have in some places in the Kingdom taken
their rent to their late landlords and begged them
to accept it ; and I am told that they were at first
very much mystified, and afterwards very grateful,
but still rather perplexed, when they were told
that they had nothing to pay, and that their land
had been given to them by order of the Polish
National Government.

Nevertheless, there are two parties in every coun-
try in which discussion has long been a habit, and
the mode of conduct pursued in connection with the
insurrection, while approved by the educated part
of the nation in general, is at the same time stigma-
tised by one section as " reactionary.' Here, again,
there is an abuse of terms. No one in Poland
(excepting always the peasants, who form a class
apart, and want simply to be let alone) is opposed
to " action" on behalf of Polish independence;
but the majority have throughout been in favour of
moderate, sustained action, and the general plan
has been to keep up a good continuous blaze in as
many parts of Poland as possible, while taking care
not to burn up everything at once. According to
this party the object of the Polish insurrection is
to keep Russia at bay, and to give the Western
Powers the opportunity of intervening on behalf of
Poland under favourable circumstances.

The par 4 of extreme action, on the other hand,
maintain that half measures have been and may be
again the ruin of Poland. They have no faith in
diplomacy, and say that, instead of counting upon
foreign aid, the Poles should rise in all parts of
Poland, and stake everything on ono great trial.
The men of the moderate, otherwise the "aristo-
cratic," " diplcmatic," and " reactionary" party
believe that if this great experiment were made it
would be unsuccessful, and then everything would
be lost, whereas, under the system hitherto pursued,
the insurrection may at least be kept up long enough
to allow the Western Powers to come to the aid of
Poland if they really wish to do so.
Of course, reproaches are interchanged. The
leaders of the moderate party are accused of think-
ing too much of their estates and of fearing too
much the penalty of confiscation, while the leaders
of the extreme party, who have for the most part no
estates to think about, and who laugh at the pen-
alty of confiscation, as the penniless traveller laughs
at robbers, are accused of being " the enemies of
property," of wishing to raise themselves on the
ruins of the aristocratic class in Poland, and so on.
It seems to me that these recriminations are not
I deserved on either side. The great proprietors, so
immense
sums from being selfish, have contributed
sums towards the expenses of the insurrection, and
without their personal aid not a single detachment
of those that are formed in Galicia would be able to
reach the frontier. On the other hand the lower and
middle classes (counting in the latter small proprie.
tors, students, and the managers, stewards, &c., of
estates) have done nearly all the fighting, and allow.
antes ought to be made for them if they sometimes
hastily condemn those who from a commendable pru,,
dence, and not from any want of patriotism, have
hitherto abstained from joining them in the. field.
Doubtless on both sides there are some bad men.
There are aristocrats so selfish as to think of nothing
but their own private interests, and democrats so
envious as to wish to destroy the most ancient and
honourable families of Poland, from mere hatred of
social superiority. But the only democrats in Po-
iand, in the proper political sense of the word, are
the Russian and Austrian Governments, who para-
lyse the influence of the educated classes by raising
up the peasantry against them. There is no poll.-
heal democratic party, and consequently no politi-
cal aristocratic party to oppose. Every so-called
Polish democrat knows—what the real democrats
of France and England seem to be ignorant of—
that by far the greatest class in isPoland utterly
opposed to the notion of Polish independence.
in
The two parties, then, existing Poland consist,
on the one hand, of those
Who hitherto have wished
only to keep up a slow,
steady fire in the country,
with the view of attracting foreigners and foreign
intervention, and, on the other, of those who have
of a general blaze, to
desired, by meansburn out
the Russians at once with out thinking of foreigner
at all.
But at the present moment the poliejy of
the moderate party, or at least of a Poriion
of it
seems to be changi
ny persons—
Whir and I hear 1119..
shocked at the terrible losses whie'a the Poles have
already experienced, and it is
rain—say that the to -be hoped not in
insurrection has done its work,
and that no fresh expeditions need be sent either to
Volhynia or to the Kingdom. " The object," they
allege, "of the Polish insurrection was to bring
about a diplomatic
not lead to intervention, which may or may
an intervention by arms. The diploma-
tic knot having now been tied, it remains to be seen
whether or not it • •
will have to be cut with the sword,
and the solution or scission does not," they main-
tain,
"depend upon the possibility of Russia and
the Western Poi ers coming to an understanding.on
the subject of Poland."
It is against the men who argue in this manner
that the "Chief of the Town of Lemberg" warns his
" fellow-citizens," and not, might
against any political party. There is no split in the
Polish camp, but a minority of the Poles seem to
be of opinion that the nation ought now to reserve I
its strength as much as possible ; while the National
Government, supported by the majority, is evi-
dently convinced that it is most essential at the
present critical moment, not only not to check the
movement, but even to give fresh impetus to it.
In the meanwhile, numerous fresh detachments are
being formed, and the Russian Government will