The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-28 00:00:00

of the proverbially patient British policeman, for
the sympathy and applause of the public are re-
served here for those who break the law nd the
transgressor of the most necessary polic,• regulation
is a popular hero so long as he is act .ally trans-
gressing, and a popular martyr if h , transgression
entails punishment upon him. I cannot, as a cold-
blooded Englishman, see the slightest patriotic
merit in disregarding orders issued with the view
of saving a national building from destruction ; but
on the other hand, in the present state of the public
mind in *Warsaw, it is not to be expected that in a
conflict or simple dispute between a Russian and a
Pole the former will, under any circumstances, be
Pole
allowed to be in the right. A light-he
may dodge an infantry soldier,
a lightheaded one
defy a Cossack ; in either case the
Pole insures the
approbation of his countrymen, who, nevertheless,onpolice,
had they the direction of their own
could not fail to treat such offenders with
epoles
contempt. In short, everything is for the
worst in the
Russianswn
rst-egayovetrhna th
ecountry possi-
ble.he Thehave
no notion of obedience even of the most in-
dispensable kind, and the Poles retort that the Rus-
sians have no conception of any rule except that of
brute force. The truth is that the Russians, for the
30 years which preceded the present movement, had
governed the Poles without any reference to their
national character, or to the institutions which for
centuries had formed part of their national life.
They put a ready-made Russian collar on the neck
of a nation not fitted to wear it, and never thought
for a moment that if the collar were rendered less
galling the nation condemned to support it might
prove more tractable. The notion of governing
either man or beast without considering the nature
of the man or beast to be governed is so preposter-
ous that if there were no despotisms in Europe, and
if it were not found necessary to keep up Societies
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, one might
imagine that it was no longer entertained. The
Poles, however, have, and will probably now have
for many a year, to take such government of the
true Russian pattern as Russia chooses to give them,
and if they only submit to it as long as they are
exhausted, and endeavour at the first favourable or
unfavourable opportunity to shake it off, that will
no doubt be looked upon by the Russians as a fresh
proof that the Poles are a naturally ungovernable
race.

At the present moment, however—a moment of
exasperation and madness—the less that is said of
the conduct of the Poles in Warsaw, if they are to
be judged by their National Government, which of
course claims to represent them, the better for them
it will be. I do not know what the National Go-
vernment will say to the burning of the Town-hall,
nor whether it is really responsible for its destruc-
tion. I; may have been set on fire without orders,
but it was certainly fired with intention. I have
mentioned one explanation of this act of incendia-
rism which seems probable enough. It is also said,
however, that it was not intended as alO demonstra-
tion" against the 8 per cart. war-tax—far less as a
signal for a disturbance; but that the building was
burnt simply because there was no other way of
getting rid of certain compromising papers which
were concealed among papers belonging to the
Russian Government, and could not with safety
have been carried past the sentries at the gates now
that every one is liable to be searched. The Rus-
sian official report merely states that the fire broke
out in more than one place, without accounting for
it. No Polish official report has yet appeared.
At 6 o'clock on Sunday afternoon, when the fire
was at its greatest height, hunger and an engage-
ment to dinner induced me to pass the Town-hall,
which, by placing myself under the protection of a
Russian officer, I was enabled to do without impe-
diment and without danger from the Cossack whip.
The contents of the building, including records,
portfolios, bundles of paperasses of all kinds, with
tables, chairs, sofas, and such furniture of a lighter
kind, were piled together in the middle of the square.
Several companies of infantry were looking on, and
the side streets were kept clear by Cossacks who
rode backwards and forwards, and hit a man now
and then when they had a good chance. At the
beginning of the day Isaw many persons threatened
and several struck with the whip, and this, for the
most part, without the least necessity, and in mere
wantonness. Certainly, I saw no severe blow given,
but the great objection of the Poles is to being
treated like dogs, and such is the treatment offered
to them on the smallest provocation, and sometimes
without any provocation at all. It being Sunday
the streets were:crowded, and I had an opportu-
nity of judging whether the population of -Warsaw
generally had been terrified or not by the recent
measures of the Russians. If they had beaten the
Russians in a dozen engagements they could not have
worn a more confident and independent air than
they presented in face of the troops. On the other
hand, all the troops, with the exception of the
Cossacks, were as quiet and well behaved as London
policemen, so that, as far as the proceedings of the
day were concerned, there was no occasion for any
serious alarm. As for the Cossacks, their whipping
propensity seems to be a disease, but as it is a dis-
ease of a very malignant nature it ought to be checked.
Like boxers preparing to give a blow, these whip-
sters are perpetually practising the use of their long
leather thongs. Sometimes they strike in order to
drive back some one who has transgressed the
bounds beyond which he ought not to have passed,
but others, also, as if from mere habit, and from a
wish to keep their band in. The Pole who is struck
grins with a contemptuous grin, and those around
him mutter execrations; and I saw no blow taken
except with an expression of disdain from the re-
ceiver, which, I must add, seemed entirely lost upon
the giver. The Cossacks rode along the pave-
ment as well as down the middle of the streets,
and appeared to enjoy their wild liberty—with the
exception of one whose horse, to the astonishment
of no one, slipped beneath him and fell close to the
scene of the flre.

As I was leaving the neighbourhood of the Town-
hall, I noticed a gentleman wearing the" cylinder"
hat of a respectability engaged in an animated dis-
cussion with a Cossack, who wore the Circassian
csp of the Kouban.
"I was brought here by one of your own offi-
cers," said the proprietor of the cylinder hat:

UNIMINIIAI
"Then," replied the Cossack, " it was his duty to
,ake you to the house you were going to, put you
nside, and shut the door atter you. Our orders are
not to allow civil people to walk about here."
" But," pursued the cylinder-wearer, " I have a
big hat ; you ought not to mind me."
_o'n' There are very big hats worn by very big func-
tbianaries, ' continued the disciplinarian of the Kott-
the B,rae if I
"Well, what
"but I should flog them as civil persons just
caught them here now."
are you going to do with me ?"
inquiredcylinder theattt gentleman finally, to whom neither the
Rassiat :_cenor the recent companionship of a
,g 1114718 hr was any guarantee of safety.
but not precise! 11 flog you, that's all," said the stern
intervention itstavage Cossack, when suddenly the
have reason to
under some slight eve
the discussion to
beliseoond cylinder hat, to whom I
aBpaetz. tuhneial:eyroobolfigthaetiolinosu, bbaronuwghast
isfset
ce in Warsaw during the
One feels almost ashpanalaeoarYtltcofinnedliunsgion.
in anything that takes
-resent deplorable positi
I' "of that .
lishmen have always been acca amusement
riEsi,Wand there is a
to an alter-
city ; but Eng-
eB
eantoeteed
nation of tragic with comic
grim humoar about the Cossack
despotis ,
Nor are the Cossacks,
wheill as absolute
ferocity.
ilf neiltapart,
more ferocious than the other troops
service, nor the Russian troops generally tnoreustsi"
of civil society -
cious tLan the 591diers of other military
in all of which the army is looked upon, not as ulti:,,
I must
and in
protector, but as the enemy,
all of whieh no truly legal discipline (Ices or can
exist.
To complete my
add the common-place intelligence that since I lest
budget of Warsaw news
wrote two men on the national side have been
hanged, and three on the Russian side murdered, or
stabbed almost to death. The hanging was done on
Monday. One of the men was a " national gen-
darme," in other words, an assassin at the cpmmand
of the secret Government, which if it doesnot mend
its ways, the honest men of Poland
will have to
Q.l'"-vow, as one of the noblest among them die.
avowed it, almost publicly, some months ego. Lill('