The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-12 00:00:00

mitted at -Warsaw, and above all at Vilna, are not
felt in the kingdom of Poland and in Lithuania
alone.

I can scarcely pity those who have lost even their
dearest friends on the field of battle. These are
losses that can be spoken of, and are spoken of,
almost with pride; and before long, as the ardour
of the nation goes on increasing, it will be those
families whose relations have not fought at all who
will find themselves in the least enviable position.
I confess I reserve all my commiseration for
the unspeakable sufferings of those whose friends
have been executed, massacred, wounded, and hor-
ribly mutilated, sent with criminals into exile or
imprisoned in some Russian fortress and very pos-
sibly tortured. Many doubt and many more dis-
believe that the Russian authorities still use torture
as a means of forcing Polish prisoners to divulge the
names of their associates and chiefs. I cannot say
that they torture all prisoners whom they suspect of
having some connection with the National Govern-

ment ; but that they tortured one last January in
the %Var3aw citadel, under the impression that he
could and would tell the secret of the great Polish
conspiracy, this I can assert most positively. I not
only know the victim, and have heard the story of
hia sufferings from his own lips, but two friends of
mine in whose house the poor fellow lay wounded
after Jezioranski's last battle, saw the marks of the
bloody operation on his back. This unhappy young
man first attracted the notice of the Warsaw

police by being among the wounded after the
massacre of April, 1861, on which occasion he
occupied a foremost place, in the crowd (he re-
jects, by the way, with scorn the notion that any
additional warning on the part of Prince Gortscha-
koff could have caused it to disperse). Nine
months afterwards he was arrested and accused of

being connected with the " Central Committee,"
since transformed into the " National Govern-
ment." A Russian General came to him in the

citadel, gave him tea and cigars, and asked him in
a polite and friendly manner to tell him what
the Central Committee really was. The pri-
soner replied that he knew nothing whatever
about it, and as he persisted in his assertion the
general flew into a violent passion and ordered him
to receive 50 lashes, which were instantly applied.
He was then again entreated and commanded to
tell all he knew about the Central Committee, or at
least to mention the names of his associates and
(alleged) fellow-conspirators. Still refusing, and
pleading absolute inability to give the desired infor-
mation, he was ordered to be flogged again. Under
the second punishment he fainted, and remembered
nothing more until he found himself in the hospital.
Some weeks afterwards, as there was no evidence
against him and no information could be got out of
him, he was set free, and thereupon hastened to the
Galician frontier, and joined the army of Gen. Lan-
gieuricz. After Langiewicz's defeat he remained for
some time at Cracow, and then, being appointed to
the detachment of Gregowicz, took part in the ac-
tion fought on Easter Sunday at Szkiary, where he
received a flesh wound in the thigh. II was treated
for this wound at the Hospital of the Holy Ghost at
Cracow, and was well enough at the beginning of
M►lay to take service under Jezioranski, and to fight
on the Bth of the month at Kobylanka. Here he
was shot in the back as he was calling on his men,
and since then has been almost a cripple, though
he is now beginning again to walk and is already
looking out for another detachment.

It is certain, then, that since the beginning of
the present movement in Poland men have been
tortured in the Russian prisons, as they have been
mutilated in Russian battle-fields, and mas •
sacred by Russian soldiers, even when no battle
was going on. Any one visiting Poland who has a
eufliciently large acquaintance among the Poles can
convince himself of such facts as these beyond a
doubt. Even Prince Gortschakoff knows, and has
in fact admitted, that the Russian soldiers in one
instance at least (and in these matters one instance
is enough) barbarously wounded an unoffending
English subject. I find from the correspondence on
Polish affairs recently laid before Parliament, that
when the Prince's attention was called to a letter in
an English newspaper giving an account of an attack
made by Russian soldiers on Mr. Finkenstein, he
replied that the account was "either incorrect or
exaggerated." But in this, as in other matters, the
acts of Russian Ministers are more important than
their words, and as the Russian Government has
since had to make heavy compensation for the out-
rage in question, it may be presumed Prince
Gortschakoff is now aware that it was really com-
mitted. For my part, wherever I have stated posi-
tively that such :ind such acts of cruelty have been
committed by the Russians, I have always done so
on the strength of private information, obtained
from the best and nearest sources. Accounts of
greater atrocities than any that I have related ap-
pear from time to time in the Polish newspapers.
Unfortunately they are not incredible, but I have no
means of ascertaining whether or not they are true.
Finally if the foreign investigator wishes to see ,
how the Russians have governed Poland for the last
three years, in principle for the last 33, he should
go to Warsaw, when he will find the streets occupied
by soldiers of all arms, as though the city had just
been taken by storm. But from the wild rumours
perpetually flying about Warsaw he mill get no ac-
curate notion of what is going on in other parts of
Poland, If his chief aim be to study the Poles
themselves, their sufferings, their aspirations, and
their projects, and to hear the latest Polish news, he
should stay for some time in one or both of the two
chief cities of Austrian Poland, when he will find
not only Galicians, but Poles from the Kingdom,
from Lithuania, from Volhynia, and, indeed, from
all parts of the territory of the ancient Republic,
many of them waiting only for the word ofhcaonna.•
mend to return to meet the Russians arms in d
If, however, he should wish to see the insurrection
in the Ukraine, then he must take care not to go
to the Ukraine itself, but must buy the Gazeta Na- I
rodowa, in whose columns alone (at least so far as
Poland is concerned) this insurrection is to be I
found:

In the general position of affBEaiPrTsEl‘'ilnEEPitosla.nd
there has not been, and is not likely to be, an
change for the present, nor until after the Western
Powers and Russia shall, between them, have
arrived at some solution of the Polish question.
We shall then see this solution rejected by those
whom it chiefly concerns, and the Polish insurrec.
tion will probably enter on a new phase. It may
sicken and die, or it may be frozen out of the
country by a hard winter, but for a time at
least it will rage more furiously than ever.
While diplomatic notes are being exchanged with
a view to the pacification of Poland, the Polish
insurgents are getting their winter coats ready.
"It is not the Six Points, it is that accursed snow
that we are afraid of," said an energetic chief to me
a fortnight ago, as he pointed to the highest peak
in the Carpathians already clothed in white. It is
now notorious that the Six Points- signify nothing
to the Poles. The only point they care to •try is
whether or not they can tire out Russia, or, by
giving a lasting character to their insurrection,
tempt or force some foreign Power to intervene on
their behalf. The motive of the intervention is to
them a matter of secondary importance. They
know well enough that no one will ever help them
for their own sake. But their position cannot be
worse than it is now, and if any Power could on any
pseeetweextto them,
geomt,into a serious quarrel with Russia it
ight be most materially improved. Submission, it
and t would be the worst of all policies,
force.ilfwailli Europe
submit except to overpowering
terms, that wouulrdop: were to entreat them to accept
reason for coutinuin
asl p:si
viewed_ only as an additional
say,
btr ui_:agndthe le. " E u r op e," they
" looks oo
app
upon
t P
goa the ti
in its present position as
a constant source of danger. We
ll
w Imoremake
Ettp
the this
truth a
is troubled on our oe„unt:
more it shall have
cause to be troubled and to be alarmed.” The Poles
perhaps over-estimate their importance in Eur
but if the European nations may be rermrded o
family living in one largo house, then there
iPes°on"
e
member of this family 'ho for some time past has
been pinioned in his own room, and who is always
endeavouring to set the house on fire, in the hope
that during the general conflagration he may have
a chance of getting free. This, I suppose, is the real
danger to Europe from the PoUl (Fluter; though

—if, as the Poles say, it can only be averted by restor-
ing Poland to the independent position which she
occupied some considerable time before the first
dismemberment—the danger is at least as great on
one side as it is on the other. In the meantime, how-
ever, Poland, with national independence, and not
material prosperity under a foreign Government for
her object, has nothing to hope as long as she
remains quiet, while as long as she remains in arms
there is at least a chance that she may have the
opportunity of profiting by the ambition, jealousy,
or fear of some foreign power or powers.
As to the actual prospects of the insurrection it
certainly is not decreasing. Poles just arrived here
from Warsaw—men who have the very best sources
of information open to them--assure me that the
detachments in the kingdom are not less numerous
than they were, and that they fight better than
ever. indeed, when the insurrection began the
Poles had nothing but their courage to depend
upon, whereas now they have many thousands of
experienced soldiers among them, broken in to all
the hardships of a campaigning life, and well ac-
quainted with the weak and strong points of the
enemy. A hundred well-armed men who have
been fighting the Russians off and on since January
must be worth a thousand of those who first com-
menced the struggle without preparation, without
skill, and often without even the most ordinary
implements of war. The most sanguine of the
insurgents say not only that they will be able to
last through the winter, but they can even make
the winter tell against their foe, if they confine
their operations entirely to cutting off his supplies.
It is said once more that the peasants in several
districts and throughout Podlachia aro beginning
to help the insurgents, and that they do outpost
duty at night while the fighting men sleep. We
know that they cannot like the Russians, and now
that the insurrection has lasted so long they may
consider, here and there, that there is really some-
thing in it, and that the Russians, since they are
unable to suppress it, cannot, after all, be so very
powerful. It is an axiom in Poland, accepted
equally by democrats and aristocrats, that the
peasant can be influenced only by force; and as
regards the Polish peasant, so long accustomed to
foreign and despotic rule, this is probably the truth.
Now, the Polish insurrection has in several districts
been for many months a permanent force, and to
some thousands of peasants such a chief as Lelewel,
who since the beginning of the insurrection has
fallen upon the Russians, on an average, about once
a week, and has seldom failed to beat them, is as
much the representative of power as the Emperor
of Russia himself.
The Russians in Warsaw declare that the insur-
rection is virtually at an end, and that the Emperor
has now only to declare a constitution for Poland and
for all Russia in order to silence the Western
Powers, tranquilise Poland, and at the same time
satisfy his own Russian subjects. It is said posi-
tively it is with reference to this project that the
Grand Duke has gone to St. Petersburg, where it is
believed that the Marquis Wielopolski will be sum-
moned to meet him. The proclamation, however,
of a Constitution for all the Russian empire, includ-
ing Poland, would not tranquilise the Poles. The
Poles wish to separate themselves from Russia, and
the proposed measure—which if introduced before
the national hatred between the two countries had
been roused might have been attended with success
—would have tho effect of binding them to Russia
more closely than ever. Moreover, the Poles share
the opinion expressed last session by Lord Russell
in the House of Lords as to the value of Russian
promises. A parchment Constitution, which may be
solemnly granted to them at Warsaw one year, and
the year afterwards rolled up, put into a cart, and
driven off to Moscow, is, according to their settled
conviction, not worth having. They may be right
or wrong, but the present plan is to go on fighting
until they are either assisted from abroad or uu
the insurrection is crushed out by brute force.

The Polish and German papers have been pub-
lishing contradictory accounts as to Saczanowski's
recent exploits in the neighbourhood of Czensto-
chan. It appears certain, however, that ho has
sustained a very serious defeat, and that the insur-
rection has received a great blow in the west of
the kingdom.

It is thought certain that, whatever motive may
have taken the Grand Duke to St. Petersburg, he
will not—at least not under present circumstances
—return to Warsaw. The position was as unten-
able for him as for Count Lambert, General Souk-
hozanett, and Prince Gortschalioff, and he will not
again attempt to hold it.