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

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

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(Fi ow the 'Special Correspondent of tho Times.)
NEAR WARSAW, Sept. 26.
Tim throwing. of the so•called Orsini shell, the
sacking of the Zlnaoyski house and a palace, the ex-

asperation of the inhabitants of Warsaw, the savage
attitude of the Russian soldiers, and the possible

cousequences of this species of collision between
Russians and Poles in the Polish capital, are still
almost the only subjects of conversation among

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Poles. Of the 300 persons arrested in the two im-
mense buildings belonging to Count Zamoyski, one
of which is inhabited by the Count's family, a few
have now been set at liberty. Among the number

is Prince Thaddeus Lubomirski, President of the
Benevolent Society of Warsaw, and author of seve-

ral highly esteemed works on the early history of

Poland. The Prince was engaged in preparing a
new eaition of Dluosz,—better known by his

latinised name of Dlugossins, and by the Latin
equivalent for his name, Longinus—and had in his

possession all the most celebrated manuscript copies
of the work, These manuscripts, independently of
their literary importance, as having been made
directly from the original, were magnificent speci-
mens of illuminated writing, and invaluable as
heirlooms to the families from whose libraries
Prince Lubomirski had borrowed them. They
were of no use to the Russian soldiers, who could
neither make them into papirosses nor into
pipe
lights. Could they have understood their value
they might of course have kept them back, and ul-
timately have sold them for
e can be found
gitimate owners; but as it in,
large sums to their le-
of them, and it appears certain .
no trathcat
they must
have been the
consumed ill glorious. bonfire the
flames of which were fed by Chopi.n's p.ianFoe,laannddiwnatos
which the best numismatic collection in
thrown. A whole museum o.f ancient coins and
medals, a whole library of ancient manuscripts, and
the favourite instrument of one of the most graceful
and poetical of composers, afforded such a variety of
materials for destruction as barbarins have seldom
been fortunate enough to
dwelling-houses. Teetwith i n two ordinary
Chopin 's piano had become the
property °f his sister, whose husband is now in the
citadel-
The numismatic collection belonged to
prince Lubomirski, whose suite of apartments has
been completely emptied of all its literary and
artistic treasures.
Count Andrew Zamoyski's two sons are strictly
confined in the citadel. The Count himself, as every
one knows, has been in exile since the time when
he was convicted of intending to present an address
which he had been specially requested to draw up
and present by the Grand Duke Constantine. The
papers of the Agricultural Society, of which Count
Zamoyski was President, have been destroyed. So
also have those of the Vistula Steamboat Company,
which was founded by Count Zamoyski, and of
which, since his exile, the affairs have been carried
on under the general superintendence of his son,
Count Stanislas. A large sum, in bank notes and
other securities, was taken or somehow lost during
sacking of the Zamoyski palace. The notes and
bills are supposed to have escaped the flames, for
the numbers are advertised in the Warsaw papers
and payment of them stopped—by whose authority
does not appear. The value of the two vast edifices
confiscated, which cover an immense space of ground
in the very heart of the city, and contained 2,000
residents (1,500 in the " house" and 500 in the
" palace") is estimated at 8,000,000 Polish florins,
or, in English money, £200,000.
Another great loser by the sacking of the Zamoy-
ski house is Professor Kowalewaki, whose losses

will not be felt by himself alone. Professor Kowa-
lewski was one of the most learned Orientalists of
the day, and the manuscripts of which he has been
plundered, and which in all probability shared the
fate of the Dlugosz histories, are said to have been
of the highest importance. Almost every man of
distinction in Poland has been exiled or imprisoned
for proving himself a Pole, and the eminently Polish
part of Kowalewski's life began when he was quite

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a child. He wa3 one of the companions and inti•
mate friends of the poet Mickiewicz at the Univer-
sity of Vilna, and with Mickiewicz was arrested
and thrown into prison, charged with belonging to
a society formed by the students for tho maintenance
of the Polish language and literature. In the drama
in which Mickiewicz has portrayed the sufferings
of the Willa students, under the mild government
of Alexander 1., the young Kowalewski figures as
" Joseph"—his Christian name, When Mickiewiez
was sent to the Crimea and began to write his Cri-
mean sonnets, Kowalewski was exiled to the ex-
treme east of the Russian Empire and applied him-

self to the study of the Siberian languages. He
was then entrusted by the Russian Government
with a mission to China, and was afterwards ap-
painted to a professorship at the University of
Kazan, where the Oriental languages are specially
cultivated. When the University of Warsaw, after
having remained closed for 30 years, was reconsti-
tuted and reopened in accordance with the plan
presented to the Emperor by the Marquis Wielo-
polski and recommended for adoption by the Grand
Duke Constantine, the Russian Government cer-
tainly did its best to collect at Warsaw the most
eminent Polish professors until that time attached
to the various Universities of Russia. The Russian
Government's attempts at good, however, are never
successful, probably beeause it has no real faith in
them, and, therefore, cannot persevere in carrying
them out. It could bring together a few learned
men in Warsaw for the instruction of the Polish
youth, but it could not desist from irritating the
Polish population in general until it had at last
produced a general feeling of exasperation, in
the midst of which it was next to impossible to in-
troduce reforms in themselves highly beneficial.
All that has resulted from the arrival of Kowalew-
ski in Warsaw has been the destruction of his valu-
able manuscripts and books.
Great havoc was also made in the suites of rooms
occupied by the Countess Potocka, M. Jakouloweki,
one of the marshals of the nobility, Dr. Rosenblum,
and M. Barcinski,one of the directors of the Vistula
Steamboat Company. The whole of the library of
the Zemoyski palace was burnt,and pictures, pianos,
looking-glasses, and generally whatever objects of
furniture, decoration, or art that the soldiers were
unable to carry away were thrown out of window
and the fragments heaped together and set on fire.
The flames rose so high that the firemen of the town
hastened with the engines towards the scene of
incendiarisrn, but were not allowed to approach.
Besides arson, the defenders of order and property
indulged largely in robbery, the favourite objects
of theft being plate, jewelry, furs, tea, sugar loaves,
and of course wine, brandy, and cigars. The most
convenient booty was to be fund in the various
811°'Pil in which the whole of the ground floor of the
,7n'
—e'"`etilei house is let out. Here the brigands
o the Itassian army found all they wanted, ready
to
baud, and the goldsmith's, the g
erocer's, the
innto'ee,eatll°atltehf%) and the wine-dealer's were broken
e Property of the unfortunate trades-
men stolen e„,, - the momentary desires
of the mere or t less intoxicatedsoldiery; for,
with jewelery,allheit work of plunder began
hideous sort of banl'eteenl to have ended with gin, A
fore it was abaneZdtftook place in the house be-
not have been astonishior night, and it would
had concluded with a gearil this feast of Vandals
owing no doubt to the
which the house had been s
eole°"egration. It was
nt:.eientioue manner in
that this otherwise most prolbPabld of all furniture
avoided. Among the shopkeeper: zenclusion was
named
lost most in
the general 'Allege a jeweller,
asosaid to
mentioned. The poor man was robbed tfuPeeki' is
to the value of 30,000 roubles. Re is°?reeperty
have suffered violence at the hands of those
were robbing him ; but, however this may have"
been, he was thrown into such a state of excitement
as to bring on an attack of apoplexy, from which nhte
died the same night. I have not yet seen any one
who can corroborate of his own knowledge the re-
ports circulated as to personal outrages committed
upon men, and worse still upon women, living in
the upper part of the house, which from the first to
the firth floor was divided into suites of apartments.
It is not very probable, however, that the 300 per-
sons arrested and taken to the citadel were con-
ducted there with any ceremony.
The Russian officers are said to have led their
soldiers pliantly to the tittiick of the defenceless