The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-20 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Berlin correspondent of the Times.)
BERLIN, FEB. 17.
The Polish insurection is decidedly the topic
of the hour, and much curiosity is felt as to
the terms of the convention believed to be concluded
between Russia and Prussia. Information on the
subject was sought to be extracted from this Go-
vernment by questions addressed in yesterday's
Chamber to the President of the Council with re-
spect to certain recent precautionary measures of
the authorities of Posen, but the attempt failed, al-
though adroitly Enough made by Deputy Kantak,
M. von Bismark read a guarded reply, which his
colleagues, it is said, fearful lest his impetuosity
should carry him too far were he left to his own
unrestrained eloquence, had drawn up for him.
Some of the German deputies, however, propose
questioning him further to-morrow. What we learn
on the subject from semi-official sources is little and
vague, and a fine field is thus afforded to rumour
and conjecture. One of last night's papers con-
nected with Government, points out that interven-
tion has already begun, since Russian troops are
allowed to cross the frontier, retaining their arms
and receiving facilities and assistance from the
Prussian authorities; but the same journal declares
that the intention of sending Prussian troops into
Russian territory exists only in the apprehensions
of the partisans of Poland, and adds that such a
step could hardly be taken on the basis of a mere
convention, but must be the result of a regular
treaty, of which nothing has yet been heard. On
the other hand M. Bismark, some think, in his great
desire for a foreign complication, would be quite
capable of risking an irregular and violent step, and
then falling back upon the fait accompli. It lies
not, however, in his power. to do all that he wishes
or his imagination may suggest. Unsupported by
the Chamber, the people, or the press, he depends
entirely on the King, whose clerk he de facto is,
and without whose support he must instantly fall.
It is understood to be his Majesty's aide-de-camp,
Lieutenant-General Alvensleben. who has just re-
turned from St. Petersburg and Warsaw, who con-
cluded the convention, in consequence of which a
Prussian officer, Col. Treskow, has left for Warsaw,
while a Russian officer is to reside for the present
in Berlin. Meanwhile an order issued by the
Minister of Finance prohibits the export of arms
and ammunition, lead, saltpetre, and the like, from
Prussia into Russia and the kingdom of Poland.
According to a report which obtains some credit,
an article of the convention stipulates that Polish
insurgents who may be driven to take refuge on
Prussian soil shall, after they have been disarmed,
be delivered over to the Russian authorities. Only
the most positive evidence should induce us to be-
lieve that a Prussian Government (even the present
one) would
.thus constitute itself purveyor to the
executioner and to Siberia. To refuse an asylum,
or at least temporary security, to unhappy fugitives
driven across the frontier by the Muscovite
bayonets would indeed be inhuman and disgraceful,
and it is impossible to believe that such cruelty can
be contemplated.
The Nord Deutsche Zeitung contradicts a report
that England had made very energetic representa-
tions against Prussian intervention in Poland. Some
said a protest, others a casus belli. There are
people here who will swallow anything in the way
of a canard. It appears to be also entirely un-
founded that the Berlin Cabinet has communicated
to foreign Powers the probability that two army
corps will shortly be marched into Poland. The
Kreuz Zeitung mentions the arrest in Silesia, hard
by the frontier, of Russo-Polish emissaries. Con-
siderable agitation is said to exist in West Prussia—
the province of that name—and from Elbing comes
news of a large seizure of arms. The telegraphic
communication with Warsaw has been cut off on
Russian territory. Two battalions of the 7th Pome-
ranian Regiment are being made up to 1,000 men
each, and will march with two batteries to watch
the frontier near Thorn and Kulm.

Of the progress of the insurrection itself no news
of very great importance has been received here
since my last, but from various sources some inter-
esting details may be gleaned. The insurgents have
begun to publish printed sheets entitled News
from the Battlefield. The first number announces
their intention to make the public acquainted with
the deeds of arms of the Poles, often misrepresented
u
by the Dznnik, and other Russian newspapers.
Then follow accounts of the fights at Rawa and
Wengrow, representing the losses of the Russians
as considerable and those of the insurgents as tri-
fling, but otherwise containing little that is not
already known. A letter from Warsaw, unfavour-
able to the Poles, describes the fear of the Revolu-
tionary Committee as great and general, and adds
that subscriptions for the national army are being
everywhere collected, while the ladies prepare lint
and render other assistance to the Gray Sisters who
betake themselves to the insurgents. Lukewarm
patriots are incited to action, and the lower orders
of the clergy are particularly active, preaching rebel-
lion and giving absolution for all sins that have
been or may be committed for the good of the
national cause. The convents are open for the
reception and fabrication of arms, and the priests
assist in forwarding them when ready. The
letter represents the sufferings of the rural dis-
tricts and small towns as very greet, both from
the insurgents and from the Russian troops, and
says that many large and small villages have
been destroyed by fire. It adds that the peasants,
who suffer most, are generally favourable to the
Government. Frankowski, it appears, was really
captured in the fight near Sandomir, but one ac-
count speaks of him as the youthful Polish hero,
while another mentions his having a married
daughter, which implies rather a contradiction. He
is said to belong to one of the oldest noble families
of Poland. The Dziennik of the 13th says that, on
the 10th Last, Casimir Wolski, who had come from
Italy, and Markiewicz, a former officer, who bad
led a band cantured at Unieck, were shot at Nowo-
georgiewak by sentence of court-martial. A letter
from Warsaw describes the Russian authorities
there as living in great apprehension, and the gar-
rison continually on the qui vive. There was a re-
port of an insurrection to take place last Sunday,
the 15th inst. "As soon as it is dark," says the
letter—
"All the superior officers residing in the city go with
their wives and families, to the citadel, there to pass the
night, returning to their homes in the morning. So far as
I know, their fears are unfounded ; the outbreak does not
seem so near at hand. Last night 500 conscripts from the
citadel were put on board 10 small vessels, and sent off to
the fortress of Modlin. Others remain in the citadel. Cur-
rent reports of the fight at Siemiatyce describe it very
differently from the official account, and speak especially of
heavy losses sustained by the troops. During the whole of
the first day, Friday, the 6th inst., the insurgents kept up
a murderous fire of musketry, and evacuated the place only
early on Saturday. The Russians occupied it, butchered
the greater part of the inhabitants, and burnt the town.
Most of the cannon shots were directed against the man-
sion of General Fanshawe, an old servant of the Russian
Imperial family, and the building, in which a hospital for
the sick had been established, was totally demolished."
The first number of News from the Battle-field,
dated the 10th of February, says, with reference to
the action at Wen grow :
" The enemy (Russians) lost 450 killed. We lost 130. The
Russians occupied Wengrow, and plundered it, after de-
stroying the greater part of it with cannon shot. TheyrTul•-
dered unresisting inhabitants—women and old men. heir
own dead they buried—ours they threw into Ft heap, and
forbade their interment."
On the 14th inst. the men and horses of the
Warsaw Fire Brigade were taken into the J
to
.oin
citadel.
in
'Phi men are nearly all Poles, and sure
any insurrection that might cccur.

---
The latest accounts received in Paris of the Polish
insurrection have come through Cracow, and are
dated the 14th inst. They state that on the Bth inst.
a Russian corps passing through the town of
Pnlawy attacked the unarmed inhabitants with the
bayonet as they were coming out of church after
- men
n
lire
Divine service, and that a number of young.
were put to death and several women and
wounded. The attack was the more unjustifiable as
there was not an insurgent in the town. Among
the victims was a gentlewoman named Gobhard
and her husband, a man above 60 years of age.
M. Oktinski, the governor of the Polytechnic