The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-10 00:00:00

to an act of despair, and caustd the present insur-
rection, which hes extended through all parts of
the country. Whichever place the insurgents seize
they immediately proclaim the National Govern-
ment,
in virtue of a decree of the Central National
Committee, who now take the name of the National
Provisional Gov nment. The peasants are by no
means opposed to this outbreak, and in some places,
like the districts of Podlachia and. Augustow,
they joined the insurgents. But owing to the un-
settled state in which they are kept by the Govern-
ment with regard to their property, they seem to be
waiting, and sometimes say that if they had arms
they would willingly fight, In no place, however,
have they yielded, in spite of the insinuations of
the Cossacks, to any communistic movements,
which the insurgents would soon put down
on the contrary, they have afforded to the
defenders of the national taupe every assis-
tance in their power. The insurrection appear-
ing to be an active opposition of the conscripts
against the tyrannical measure which compels them
to end their lives in the Russian army, is not yet
fully developed, and chiefly limited to the two
populations, who took refuge in the forests and
organised themselves in something like military
order. They form compact bodies, with comman-
ders whose names are purpose:y assumed, and are
terribly worrying the Russian soldiers, having even
several times worsted them. Among other serious
conflicts is the one near Lachow, where half of a
battalion of the Russian troops was posted to guard
the bridge on the river Linsic, and which, on the
27th, was dispersed, some of the wounded soldiers
having been brought here. The troops sent out of
Wyszogrod came in contact with the insurgents at
Cinckow, and,•after a fire, which lasted two hours,
they returned, bringing with them two insurgents
as prisoners. In the early part of the outbreak, and
before the railway had been broken up, two Rus-
sian officers, coming from St. Petersburg, had been
disarmed by the insurgents, among whom was Gen.
Tajchner.. After having been offered some tea by
the insurgents and conversed with them, he was
permitted to proceed. If then the conduct of the
insurgents has been so civil to the distinguished
officers, how could it have been otherwise to-
wards the soldiers who are represented as hav-
ing been treacherously murdered in their beds. This
fully nisproves the story invented of the massacre
of the Russian soldiers, which is also contradicted
by the official organs. That the insurgents returned
fire whenever they have been attacked is true
enough, but they never showed themselves guilty of
the crimes of murder brought against them by the
Journal de St. Peterebourg, crimes which the jour-
nal itself had to deny afterwards. Unarmed, and
with scythes only in their hands, they rushed on the
Russians—having previously received the benedic-
tion of the priests—and singing the National
Hymn as they approached the enemy. Thus they
continue now, and the numbers of the insurgents
increase every day. It appears the Grand Duke
Constantine—who has sent for more troops to St.
Petersburg—is determined to put down the insur
rection, and has ordered the forces at his disposal to
attack the insurgents at all points. The railway
station at Warsaw is occupied by a battalion of the
Guards, and two battalions have been despatched
across the Vistula. The Russians take care of their
wives and children, whom they bring from the
country and lodge safely in Warsaw. Of those who
have been seized and confined in the citadel, to be
sent to the Russian regiments, some, by a sort of
unaccountable mistake, have been released from the
citadel, but the proscription (branka) con-
tinues still at Warsaw, but in the provinces it was
carried out unsuccessfully during the nights of the
26th and 27th, for not one of those designated in
the list were found at home when the police
and the military appeared to claim them. In the
town of Waski the proscribed offered resistance to
the soldiers, by dispersing them. Near the town of
Skierniewice, a detachment of the proscribed num-
bering 60, conducted by the Cossacks, has been at-
tacked by the insurgents and released, to swell the
ranks of their countrymen.

General Ramsay, commanding the Russian
forces, has published an order by wilich the con-
scripts taken in the provinces are to be set free, but
nobody will trust such a Government, and the re-
venge of the Poles will be the same. The insurgents
seem to lack no funds, they discharge their liabilities
wherever they buy anything—how long, however,
this will last God only knows. Hemmed in as the
Poles are by the three despotic powers, all inte-
rested in keeping her partitioned—it is impossible
for them to obtain any material aid, or even
to procure arms Prussia is watching closely the
frontier, and it is rumoured that her authorities in-
tercepted a transport of arms near Thorne, destined
for the insurgents. It is even surprising how the
insurgents possessed themselves of the present arms
and weapons, knowing that hardly any one was
suffered to keep a gun.
Warsaw is filled with 50,000 troops, ready at
one moment's notice, and now and then called to
arms during the night, as if to alarm and frighten
the inhabitants. Great fermentation reigns in the
minds of the people, and such is the feeling of all,
that if there were any chance even of moral sup-
port from France and England, you would see the
whole country rise at once. And, yet, it should be
the duty of those powers to, at least, remonstrate
with the Emperor of Russia for his barbarous con-
duct towards the Poles, in defiance of the treaties
by which he is bound to govern as a constitutional
monarch. The acts of atrocity daily performed by
his Government are only; worthy of an Asiatic
tyrant, and a scandal to the age we live in.
At the moment I write, martial law is the only one
in existence here,and the military governors,who are
empowered to shoot the insurgents without refer-
ring to the Grand Duke Constantine, exercise those
powers to their heart's content.

Mr. Wiliam Howitt on the Emancipatio
Society.

TO VIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

In a letter on the above subject from Mr. Howitt,
which appeared in your paper, and reprinted in the Western
_Nay Press, of 6 h inst., published in Bristol, there is the
following clause :

" I do not feel bound to reply to anonymous correspon-
dents. Whenever I have anything to address to the pub-
lic I put my name to it, and I have no hesitation in saying
that I entertain a very poor opinion of any man who fears
to adopt that example. ' Truth, with her open face,' has
no alliance with men who hide behind masks and initials.
As this is the case, I do not intend in future to notice any
communications which come in this questionable shape.
Whoever, therefore, has anything to say to me let him come
out openly, unless he thinks his cause is a disgrace to him
or he a disgrace to the cauf..e."
As the editor of the Western Daily Press alluded to Mr.
Howitt in the following highly complimentary terms,
namely,—" We direct the attention of those people among
us who are clamouring for the restoration of the American
Union to a letter in another column, by one of the most
thoughtful of living Englishmen, Mr. William Howitt, '
may I be permitted the liberty of asking that gentleman,
through your columns, not for myself, but on behalf of
those to whom such a question applies, what is to become
of the thoughts on public questions (if the anonymous sys-
tem were to be put aside as bad and contemptible) of many
newspaper correspondents who are r. ot in the position of
having their own choice, however much they may like to,
or however manly they may otherwise wish to be, on
ac-
count of some overruling or controlling power (it may be
even to the deprivation of their livelihood), and who are
therefore hindered, against their own will, from allowing
their names to appear to what they publicly write ?
The opinion of Mr. Howitt on this point would be most
valuable, if he would kindly give it.

R. D. ROBJENT.
Stuart Villa, Lydeard-place, Durdham Down,
Bristol, 7th Feb., 1863.

AMERICAN STEAMERS DUE THIS WEEK.—The
following steamers are due in Liverpool this week :
—The Hibernian, from Portland on the 31st ult., is duo at
Londonderry to•day (Tuesday); the Kangaroo (st.), from
New York on the 31st ult., in Queenstown on Wednesday;
and the Arabia, from Boston on the 4th and Halifax on the
Gth, due at Queenstown ou Saturday.
LAMENTABLE OCCURRENCE AT SADLER'S WELLS
THEATRE.—Just before the close of the pantomime
last night at Sadier's Wells Theatre, Miss Fenton, one of
at
the corps de ballet, while standing near a fire-pan placed
the side of the stage, entangled her gauze skirt in the ma-
chinery, and in an instant was enveloped in flames. The
poor gill rushed screaming for help across the stage, and
was received by one of the scene-snifters, who after some
difficulty extinguished the fire, but not before the unfortu-
nate creature was much burned. She was conveyed to the
hospital, where she remains in an almost hopeless condi
tion. The excitement on the stage and in the theatre was
intense.