The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-10 00:00:00

ERE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
WARSAW, Oct. 3.

A Polish friend of mine who thinks, with reason,
that Warsaw is not a nice place to stay in just now,
begged me when I was leaving Cracow, to take up
my quarters at some distance from the city, and to
enable me to do so agreeably gave me a letter to
one of his relatives living near Piaseczno, at about
14 m=ales distance from the capital. But tLere is no
place in Russian Poland where you :nay not be
mradered at a moment's notice, and I could not help
indulging
in some reflections on the peculiar uncer-
tainty of human life under a barbarous government
on hearing yesterday that my supposed place of
-safety had been the scene of one of those infamous
outrages so common in Poland that a correspondent
ceases at last to mention them, as a eorrespondent
in Dahomey would no doubt cease at last to speak
of the "customs" of Dahomey's "well-intentioned"
Bing. I was vaunting, at second hand, the tran-
quillity of Piaseczno, and meditating au excursion
there, when I was informed that two days before a
proprietor of the neighbourhood, Baron Dangiel,
had been cut to pieces by the Russian dragoons as
he was standing in one of his own fields, quietly
superintending some farming operations. There is
no reason why I should mention this most ordinary
incident, except that, with the egotism for which
Englishmen are so notorious abroad, I could not,
no
t
having cannot still, help congratulating myself on
having been present when it occurred. A slight
skirmish between Russian dragoons and Polish gen-
darmes had taken place close to Piaseczno, and
when it was at an end the former committed nume-
rous acts of violence on unarmed and perfectly in-
offensive persons. The dragoons cut at the head
Dangiel,
and arms of Baron and, as I said before,
chopped him in pieces.
ill-informed journals are full of explanations, and
better informed ones of speculations as to the mean-
ing of Mieroslawskt s recent appointment. The C:as
must know as much about the
matter as any o
of Cracow, whichf
the French or German newpapers,
has not a word to say
on the subject. The Indepen-
dance, tho recognised g.
or an of the National Govern-
eat, has not appeared since the Bth of last month.
The last proclamation of the National Government,
printed as a handbill, and now circulating in War-
" W, is dated the 26th of September, and says no-
thing about Mieroslawski. It shows, however, that
there has been some change in the Government, for
it speaks of " the Government of today," and an-
nounces that this Government will follow in the
steps of the preceding one. It declares that it repre-
sents no party, and that its object is to " unite all
parties in one revolutionary movement." How anti-
revolutionists are to be brought into a revolution-
ary movement is not explained ; but it must be re-
membered that the same words have not the same
signafication in Poland as in England, and if you
ask t. Pole who calls himself a revolutionist what
he means by the name, he will, for the
most
part,
repily that he does not think of social revolution,
but; simply wishes that the insurrection against
Russia shall be carried on with the energy that has
characterised successful political revolutions every-
where. A Polish democrat is often an aristocrat
'who thinks it a fine and novel thing to demand that
all men shall be equal before the law—which I have
frequently been assured in Poland is a peculiarly
l"rench idea, dating from the revolution of 1789.
Ho does not dream of applying French democratic
principles generally—for the sufficient reason that
the first effect of such a step would be to sanction
the existing state of things in Poland, whieh does
not afflict the Polish peasants any more than it
afflicts the Polish horses and cows. As the Polish
democrats are a tone higher than the democrats of
the west of Europe, so also are the Polish revolu-
tionists ; and the curious notion of " uniting all
parties in. one revolutionary movement,' is not ne-
cessarily a revolutionary notion in oar sense of the
word. Nevertheless, as I had occasion to remark a
month ago, when Mieroslawski had just been
offered the appointment which he has now publicly
accepted, the moment of despair for Poland—if it
arrives—is likely to be a moment of great danger.
Ter:orism has been threatened, and in connection
with terrorism Mieroslawski's name is always men-
tion.ed. He has been the bugbear of the National
party for some time past. If anything bus gone
wrong, the discontented people (who in times of
national trouble naturally form no small class) have
s, dd, " Why, any one, even Mieroslawski, could do
better than that." " It' this sort of thing lasts much
Jongor we had better get Mieroslawski, and finish
it one way or the other," and so on. Ho has been
so much attacked that people have got to look upon
him as a sort of recognised " opposition," and to
take it foe granted that on the first change of Go-
vernment the said " opposition" must naturally
come into power.
It seemed to me that as soon as Russia refused
in a direct manner the proposition of en armistice
and a conference, and as soon as it became evident
that the Western Powers would take no steps to
forefa its acceptance upon her—then that the Poles,
finding themselves abandoned to their own re-
beaurces, would have recourse to the most desperate
maeasures, and that these measures would naturally
be carried out by the only men who really in
their hearts approve them. But the extreme
pasty, the "red" party, the revolutionary party,
irk the generally accepted sense of the term, is
less numerous than it reckoned itself to be, and
I believe it understands that if, after getting into
Power, it goes too far, the supplies will be suddenly
stopped. The worst of it is that not a month nor a
week is necessary for playing the great coup that
has long bean meditated. Another danger is that
the extreme party has nearly all its adherents in
the towns, so that whatever its forces may be they
are at least not dispersed, and may easily be called
into action.

I know nothing more about the new nominations
of the National Government
gave taken place, and are stilland the changes that
composition of the National Government
dtakinmerie place, in the
itself, ex.
gar has been ap-
pointed, that a new chief of
g t
pointed, whose first act was
to issue a
accepting the responsibility attack on Gen. proclamation
of h
Berg; that Mieroslawski is named not organiser of
the detachments of the National a
but " organiser of the detachments OflYthell Poland,
National
army abroad," and that the five Mini •
sters (of war,
of the Interior, of Justice, of Finance, and of Public
chan
ged
at are reported not to have been
at all. It cannot be said positively that the extreme
party has as yet come into power, nor that it will
come into power at all to such an extent as to have 1
the general direction of affairs ; but if an attempt
is being made to mix the " red" (or violent revolu-
tionary) party with the " white" (or moderate, and
above all National) party, th© colour of the mixture
must at least be reddish. As to the very " red" pro-
clamation of the new chief of the gendarmerie, I
may mention that that functionary did not enter
upon his office until after the attack on Gen. Berg,
and that there is good indirect evidence in a pro-
clamation issued b his predecessor on the ISth,the
daY before the attack that nothingthee of the kind was
'leditated—that is to say, not by the
meat. In short " Govern-
National ,it appears from papers issued by the
as publicly Governmentas can and distributed iD Warsave
the attack onec.cl,l well be, that within a week after
powered, that then
chan e 1 ero.l Ber the Government was
power coincide,
with
oft he new Government to
place uwhitethh the acceptance by Mieroslaw-
ski of a
'was offered to himb het had not accepted when it
old Government a month
before ; and that the Y new
National
held
it
tv
tGoverument has at least
one officer who wishes
an act of which the responsible for
composed on Sept. 19, was Government, as it was
of o.ver fruitless. It
may be said that the NationaeintuirelY
bound by the proclamations nment is not
ganiee detach-
Mteroslawski, being appointed tol,tasr officers ; that
relents abroad, when there are no
organise, is in the position of e bishop"hpraents to
and that Whites
a
it may even be said that it is a fortunate thing trtzbus
tor.,,etherhitels
coalition should have been formed,
end Beds should now be working
seems to me all the same that the new Governmentt
has a decidedly ruddy complexion.
On the other hand I may mention on behalf of
the new Government that it has suggested to the
gendarmes the propriety of not exposing the inha-
bitants of Warsaw to the peualtirs to which per-