The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-19 00:00:00

wounded, and afterwards slaughtered as he lay
upon his sick bed ; Padlewski, taken prisoner and
shot ; Prankowski horribly wounded and left for
dead, then recalled to life, imprisoned for weeks in
the Warsaw citidal, and ultimately shot ; and the
unhappy Sierakowski, wounded, captured, half-
cured in the hospital of Wilna, and then dragged
to the scaffold to be hanged like a criminal.
The loss of the greater part of Lelewel's detach-
ment and nearly all its arms is probably not such a
great blow to the insurrection as the loss of Lelewel
himself. Other chiefs as good as he will no doubt
arise; but they cannot all at once gain the prestige
which attached to his name, and which inspiredsuch
L. iii wilowers ana such rear to his ad-
versaries that with a very small body of men—if
they had only eaten a little and slept a little the
day before—he could cut his way through almost
any number of Russians. I am told, but have no
particular reason for believing, that on the morning
of the 6th Lelewel had 1,400 men under his com-
mand, and that the force immediately opposed to
himincluded oneregiment of infantry, several squad-
rons of cavalry, and six pieces of artillery. However
many troops may have been present on the Russian
side, I am perfectly sure that my informant did not
count them. The public here seem to expect the
newspapers to speak out without hesitation as to the
number of combatants engaged in battles of all kinds
and the expectation of the public on this point is
seldom disappointed. The truth is, nevertheless,
that the insurgents are seldom able to form any just
numerical estimate of the forces opposed to them,
and their calculations often vary according to their
own particular temperaments. One large-eyed man
sees a whole army where his comrades see only a
regiment. On the other hand, a man who is
anxious to avoid all exaggeration will sometimes
reckon the number of troops with which his detach-
ment has been actually engaged, without taking
any account of these held in reserve. Thus I have
heard the same force estimated at 500 and 5,000
strong.

It seems certain, however, t"rtat in this last battle
of Lelewel's carrion vvas employed. It is remakable
how little 119 C the Russians have hitherto made of
their artillery. They have seldom brought guns into
action at all (for fear, as the Poles will have it, of
losing them), and have never done much damage
with them. I am assured that scarcely half a dozen
men have been touched by cannon shot since the
beginning of the insurrection.

Among the officers who fell in the action of the 6th
was a Hungarian gentleman named Nyarri. Nyarri
was at Kabylanka with Jezioranski, to whom he
acted as aide-de-camp; and before Radziwilovv with
Wysocki, who had appointed him to a command in
the cavalry. In Nyarri the insurgents have lost one
of their bravest and most brilliant cavalry officers,
and a man who fought as earnestly for Poland as if
Poland and not Hungary were his native land.
On the very day that the news reached Galicia of
Lelewel's defeat and death Waligorski crossed the
frontier and entered the Lublin palatinate at the
head of a large detachment. Why the Curiatii sys-
tem of fighting is deliberately and systematically
adopted by the Poles cannot well be explained. One
band enters, a second follows as soon as the first has
been destroyed, while a third hesitates about sup-
porting the second, and perhaps finds it judicious in
the end not to go in at all. May Waligorski fare bet-
ter than his predecessor, and Waligorski's successor
better than Waligorski himself is likely to do !

IMMENSE WASTE OF PETROLEUM AT ROTTER-
DAM.—A correspondent of the Grocer writes from
Rotterdam on the 15th inst, :—" During the last few days
the holders and speculators in petroleum have been thrown
into a state of the utmost consternation and excitement—
amounting almost to a panic—by the announcement—which
turns out to be 2erfectly true—that the surface of the water
in the river and canals is covered with petroleum, that
must have escaped by leakage. During the months of
May, June, and July, large quantities of this commodity
were imported here, and duly stored in the bonded ware-
houses of this city, without showing the least sign of leak-
age of the casks. But it is now ascertained that there must
have been a frightful quantity escaped, for not only are the
rivers and canals covered with it—as above stated—but it
has penetrated into the wells, and impregnated the water in
them with a most disagreeable and unpleasant taste. Not
only is there no good water to be had for drinking, but the
populace expect a general conflagration of the city from the
incautious application of a lighted candle, or even a match
falling into the water anywhere. Every holder of petroleum
is naturally afraid that his stock has severely suffered from
the leakage. the price of the article has already risen 20
per cent. in consequence, and a further advance is confi-
dently expected, as it is now well ascertained that the leak-
age amounts to 40, 50, and in some cases even 60 per cent.,
which will entail a severe loss on the holders. An exami-
nation has been made, but though not pet completed, enough
has been ascertained to show that the liquid sunk deeply
into the ground underneath the warehouses where the casks
were stored, and then spread out in a lateral or horizontal
direction till it escaped into the water, on the surface of
which it is still seen floating,