The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-24 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Times' Correspondents.)
BERLIN, Feb. 21.
Between Polish accounts and Russian bulletins

it is not easy to get at the truth, or to reconcile
their often very conflicting reports. The Dziennzk
continues to announce Russian victories, very com-
plete and almost costless. Thus we read that, near
Mlawa, great success was obtained by a Russian
detachment, which killed 30 rebels and took 46, and
had only two men wounded. Colonel Eingieri
routed Langiewicz's band, killing 100 and taking
their baggage and three wooden guns ; only three
Russians fell. Such reports disagree strikingly
with the desperate bravery the insurgents are said to
show. As regards the wooden cannon a letter from
Warsaw gives an explanation. In the Hungarian war,
Bem, deficient in metal artille, y, had wooden guns
made, which were mounted and transported on the
front or back of a country cart, instead of a regular
carriage. Such cannon will bear firing five or six
times, after which they are worthless and thrown
away, and of such do the Poles now make use,
abandoning them when spoilt. Those the Russians
lately took are said to be three that had thus been
left behind. The reports from the Polish side are
extremely favourable to their cause, but must of
course be received with a considerate grain of
allowance. In Warsaw it was said that Langiewicz
had already 15,000 men completely armed and
uniformed, including a large number of cavalry.
Great subordination and implicit obedience were
asserted to prevail among them. The same letter
mentions a skirmish to have taken place near the rail-
way from Warsaw to St. Petersburg, between thefirst
and second stations. The insurgents got the best
of it, and took a detachment of Cossacks prisoners;
but, not knowing what to do with them, they
stripped them to their shirts and let them go.
Several of them, wounded, had been taken into
Warsaw. The sithe (set straight on its handle) is
described as a frightful weapon in the hands of the
Poles against the Cossacks, whose lancepoles it cuts
through in a moment. Double-edged and sharp
as a razor, in skilful hands—and the Poles regu-
larly exercise themselves in its use—it will take
a man's head off at a blow. On the 16th detach-
ments of the Hussars of the Guard reached War-
saw by the St. Petersburg rail. The Grand
Duke Constantine drove out to meet and receive
them at the station. Notwithstanding his orders
of the day, there are proofs that the Russian
troops commit excesses against peaceable inhabi-
tants. Some of them on their march through
destroyed the property of Count Poletyllo, in the
Hrabieszower district, and completely plundered
his palace. The Count himself was wounded, as
were also many of his people, in resisting the
ruffians. The same outrages are said to have been
committed on the estate of Collet Walewski,
bi other-in-law of Wielopolaki. A letter of the
19th, from Myslowitz, speaks of a large body of
insurgents, chiefly young men, having established
themselves in a regular intrenched camp at Ojcow,
and says that their numbers increased, many
Italians, Hungarians, and Poles from distant places
going to join them. At Smolin, about seven miles
from Myslowitz, deserters stated that guns and
shot were being cast, and the rebels sought to pre-
vent the export of corn, straw, and oats. There is
mention made of a collision near Michalovice,
between Cossacks and Austrian Hussars, in which
some of the latter were wounded and a number of
the former taken prisoners to Cracow, but if there
be any truth in this, you will doubtless hear of it
from Vienna. A despatch of last night's date, from
Warsaw, says that the insurgents have been badly
beaten at Rudka, on the Bug, and that 400 fell,
also that at Miechow 200 were killed and many
prisoners made, tile Russians losing only 30 men.
To-day's Czas tells of fresh fights in the neigh-
bourhood of Miechow and Wodzislaw, and that on
the 19th Langiewicz had cut off the retreat (near
Stobnica) of a Russian force, and was driving it to
the Austrian frontier.

VIENNA, Feb. 19.

In my letter of the 12th inst., which appeared in
your first impression of the 17th, it was said that
preparations were being made at Kielce for an
attack on the insurgents collected on that part of the
Austrian frontier which is nearest Cracow, and we
now learn that the expected blow has been dealt.
On the 10th inst. two Russian columns, consisting
of 4,000 men of all arms, left Radom and Kielce and
marched in the direction of the Galician frontier.
On the following day one of the columns appeared
before a small place called Swienty Kt zysz (Holy
Cross), which is the so-called Polish Switzerland.
As the Russians advanced the outposts fell back and
hastily joined their fellow partisans, who were
posted in the convent of Swientyaryzysz, which
stands on the summit of a high hill. An attempt
was made to take the convent by storm but it failed,
and the Russians, after having had about 100 men
put hors de combat, retreated in the
direction of
Kielce. While the Russian troops were before

...4d.
STAMPED ....Bd.

Swieuty-Krzysz an insurgent corps tried to get
possession of Miechow, where there is a garrison of
about 800 men, but they were repulsed with great
loss. On the 14th inst. the other Ruseian column
took possession of Sandomierz. a town en the right
bank of the Vistula, and forced the insurg'entsunder
Langiewicz, which consists of about 3,500 men, to
fall back on Staszow and Stobnica. In Craaow it
is related that Lan giewicz had taken two guns from
the Russians, but it is here known that there is no
foundation for the report. On the 16th inst. the
Russians marched in two columns in the direction
of Staszow, which is to the south-east of Kielce
and Ojcow (this place is at a short distance from
Cracow and Olkusz), which is to the south-west of
that town ; and they must have put the insurgents
to flight, as they are now in possession of Michalo-
vice (the Russian customhouse on the frontier, near
Cracow), Ojcow, and other places-of importance.
During the night of the 17th very many insurgents
crossed the Austrian frontier near Czerna (close to
Cracow), where they were at once disarmed. From
Poland we learn that Langiewicz has had 100 men
killed, and loit 11 baggage waggons and three
wooden guns ; but the news being of Russian origin
requires confirmation. It is, however, certain that
the insurgents in the south-west part of the king-
dom of Poland have received a very severe check,
inasmuch as they have been forcibly ejected from
the natural fortress of Ojcow. Two or three days
ago the Russians shelled the convent of Swienty-
Kzysz, but they did no great harm to the insurgents,
who managed to escape into the surrounding woods.
Swienty-Krzysz is now a heap of ruins, as are almost
all the places which the Russians have retaken
from the insurgents. On the 13th inst. the mili-
tary authorities at Warsaw ordered the commanders
of the troops to maintain better discipline, but
since that date sad excesses have been committed by
the Russian soldiers, who are plied with raw spirits
until they are as fierce and unmanageable as wild
beasts. Kurowski, the leader of the insurgents in
that part of Poland which is to the north-west of
Cracow, has sent very many youths who proved to
be unable to bear the tremendous wear and tear of
guerilla warfare to their homes. The Polish Cen-
tral Committee has agents in Paris, Cracow, and
Posen, but the revolutionary faiseurs in the two
last-mentioned cities have received orders to remain
passive for the time being. It has long been known
that there is a widely-spread conspiracy in Galicia,
but the Austrian Government is not afraid that there
will be an outbreak, "as the peasants, being well
satisfied with what has been done for them, cannot
wish for a change." We are without news from
Volhynia, but there must be disturbances in that
province, as the Russians in Poland have lost the
line of the Bong, and have no direct communication
with Ostrog, Zitomirz, &c. Official despatches from
the western part of Volhynia are now sent to Wilna
instead of Warsaw, although the last-mentioned
city is not more than 100 English miles from the
Bug, which divides the kingdom of Poland from
the above-mentioned province. On the 15th inst.
it was expected that there would be a general rising
in Warsaw, and during the whole of the day strong
detachments of cavalry moved through the streets
with sword in hand, or lances in rest. Infantry,
artillery, and Cossacks were encamped in front of
the Palace, and orderlies continually galloped from
one part of the city to the other, but the great pre-
parations for maintaining " order" were useless, as
the Poles could not be induced to walk into the trap
which the Grand Duke Constantine and the Mar-
quis Wielopolski had laid for them. It is evident
that the breach between Austria and Russia is
widening, as the Ministerial Donau Zeitung to-day
says that the St. Petersburg Cabinet brought about
the insurrection " by changing the conscription in
Poland into a proscription." During the night of
the 14th inst. eighty students were arrested at
Warsaw, The Nord Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung
says there is no mention in the PrussO•R,ussiau con-
vention "of an eventual movement of Prussian
troops into Russian Poland," but it is in error.
This Government received from' St. Petersburg a
summary of the contents of the convention, and was
at the same time asked whether it would accede to
it. For the benefit of persons who may be inclined
to write a history of our times, it may be stated
that the Russo-Prussian convention was signed at
Warsaw on the Bth inst. Since the outbreak of the
revolution 1,600 persons have gone to Russian
Poland from the district of Cracow, and about half
that number have crossed that part of the frontier
which is to the north of Lemberg. In 1831 about
18,000 Russian Poles took refuge in Austria, The
Russian Government demanded their extradition,
but Prince Metternich so managed matters that
they were allowed to emigrate to America. From
Southern Russia we learn that the 4th military
division will march from Bessarabia to the north-
western part of the Russian empire if it should re-
ceive orders from the Governor-General of Kiew to
do so. At the beginning of the month six or seven
Poles, who were suspected of being revolutionary
agents, were arrested at Odessa. The Don Cossack
regiment " Kameniev" is now on its way from
Southern Russia to Poland.