The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-23 00:00:00

Prince Czartoryski and the Poles.

The following speech was addressed by Prince
Czartoryski at the meeting in London, on the 21st
inst., of the Committee of the National League for
the Independence of Poland :
Gentlemen,—Being in England for a few days I consi-
dered it my duty, as well as a great pleasure, to attend this
meeting of the Committee of the National League for the
Independence of Poland, in order to tender to you and to
your president, for so many years past the devoted and
talented friend and champion of my country, my own grate-
ful acknowledgments, and the grateful acknowledgments of
the National Government, for the warm and useful interest
displayed in our cause by the establishment of the League.
While I deeply thank you, I do not hesitate to claim for my
country, and with honest pride to say that we deserve and
are entitled to, your best services. Our cause, however courts
or cabinets or diplomatists may trifle with or undervalue it,
pGeoadndantod
is emphatically your own suss—the cause. of. order and
civilisation, of all that is precious in the institutions and
geehststowEinachro
principles of the West. Poland is in arms for. the vindica-
tion of her inalienable
her history. and,
Christendom, have conferred upon her. Those rights re-
amblaey raidgdb,tecertilseervni
re-
present individual liberty, political and religious equality
before the law, justice rendered to all classes of the po-
pulation, to Poles of all religions and persuasions, free-
dom of commerce, respect for the rights of property,
and, in our relations with other nations, respect for
the same rights as those which we claim for ourselves. Such
are the principles of which the National Government has
proclaimed itself the representative ; and I need not remind
any one who has closely followed its conduct, and realness
yourselves, gentlemen, how strictly it has acted in accord-
ance with its professions. By so acting, though anonymous,
it has become strong, and gained prompt and universal
obedience, as expressing the aspirations of the country, and
it is because it represents the idea of right and justice that
the oppressor, notwithstanding his brutal power, strives in
vain to destroy it. These, gentlemen, are facts which it is
difficult to reconcile with the statements of our enemies and
their supporters—few, lam thankful to say—in England
calling in doubt the identification of the policy of the
National Government with the principles to which alone it
owes its existence, and which it has loudly and repeatedly
proclaimed to the world. Having neither right nor truth on
their side, they have recourse to perfilious insinuations, and
especially to such as are most capable of deluding popular
England.
opinion in The assertion that our struggle for in-
dependence is not without an Ultramontane colour, is evi-
dently a
of such an insinuation.manceuvr Our enemies know well that
eof this kind. It is easy to perceive the
object
most
tinrig ighstlsyo
sot eras tore
religious
eous Englishfreedomp. England'seople—an
das Inotbblienskt
sons have shed their blood for this precious good. To
blacken the Polish cause from this point of view, and to
represent our struggle for national, political; and religious
freedom as a war of religion, seemed to them a cleverly de-
vised stratagem, Fortunately their accusations have fallen
dead against the sound judgment of public opinion. The
English people has as yet received no complaint of perse
cution by the National Government from any Pole who
does not profess the Catholic religion. On the other hand,
it still remembers the recent cruel imprisonment of the
spiritual and temporal representatives of the Protestant and
Israelite communities in Warsaw by the Muscovite autho-
rities. The English people has never heard of proselytism
by the Poles, but knows well that 5,000,003 of Poles were
forced by the Czar Nicholas, by means of every species of
tortures of body and mind, to enter the so-called orthodox
Greek-Russian Church. Finally, it knows that the very
people who in England dare to speak of religion
s freedom,
at home strictly maintain a barbarous decree which imposes
most severe penalties on those who abandon the Greco-Rus-
sian faith, and force parents of different religions to bring
up their children in the orthodox Church. .
Gan tlemen, let
us no longer waste time on these accusations, which it
is difficult to say which roost moves our disgust—the
groundlessness of the assertion or the audacity with which
it is made. Let us rather hope that these brief remarks,and
a reference to undeniable facts, will suffice to undeceive
those who accepted the statements of our enemies in good
faith. Let us hope that the statement of the truth in this
matter will be accepted as affording a true measure of the
general accuracy of the accusations of our enemies, Should