The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-26 00:00:00

THE. POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the
.Special Correspondent of the Times.)
NEAR CRACOW, Aug. 16.

Prince Gortschakoff's account of th.e circumstances
under which Archbishop Felinski was arrested is
ono of the most ingenious pieces of misrepresenta-
tion that Russian diplomacy has put forth for some
time past. Several notoriously true statements
seem to ha,'re been purposely introduced into the
document in order to give it a colour of veracity ;
and the false ones which it contains in abundance
are so well put together, and are made with such an
air of candovr, that the whale is admirably calcu-
lated to deceive persons not well acquainted with
the facts of the case. According to Prince Gods-
chakbff the Archbishop was arrested for playing the
p.irt of a political agitator, and in particular for
having written a letter to the Emperor, in which, as
your readers may remember, he urged his Majesty
in the strongest terms to unite theltasso-Polish pro-
vince to the Kingdom of Poland and govern this
new Polish State as constitutional King. Prince
Gortschakoff would have the world believe that the
Archbishop was punished for this terrible crime
simply by being confined, with all the respect due
to his position, in the Imperial Palace of Gatchina,
not far from St. Petersburg. But the truth is that
Felinski is detained at Jaroslaw, in the interior
of Rzssia, having been sent there, not for presuming
to oiler advice to the Emperor (in a letter published
without the writer's knowledge or consent), but for
protesting indignantly against the illegal, and in all
respects unjustifiable, execution of the priest
lionarski.

Readers of Prince Gortschakoff's clever fictions
'would perhaps like to know how it has really hap-
pened that an ecclesiastic who was named only two
years ago to the Archbishopric of Warsaw for his
supposed devotion to the Imperial Government
should now find himself in the same position that
the patriotic bishops Rzownski and Soltyk occu-
pied when a few years before the first partition
they were taken from their places in the Diet, and
for their determined opposition to the interference
of Russia in the affairs of Poland sent into exile.

It will not have been forgotten that when Arch-
bishop Rjelkowski died in the autumn of 1861 the
churches of Warsaw remained closed in consequence
of the outrages committed in one of them on the
occasion of the Kosciusko anniversary. The great
question at St. Petersburg was how to get them
opened, and it was resolved in nominating a new
archbishop to choose a man who would be able to
arrange the matter to the satisfaction of the Govern-
ment. It was not astonishing that M. Felinski should
have been selected for the work, for it was known
that in his youth he had been a refugee and a red
republican, and that when the aristocratic and de-
mocratic parties of the Polish emigration were per-
forming their political farces in Paris, he was named
by the latter one of tho three dictators to whom the
Government of the future Poland of the democracy
was to be intrusted. A Polish red republican exile,
who had suddenly resolved to become a Roman
Catholic priest, and had come to Russia to prepare
himself for holy orders, was, indeed, not likely,
whatever his other merits, to be a man of strong
character.

It was at the Roman Catholic seminary of St.
Petersburg, under the direction of Archbishop Ho-
lowinski, of Mohilew, that the ex-revolutionist com-
pleted his theological studies. The Government, with
a keen eye for human weakness, saw that he was a
man peculiarly amenable to persuasion, and in fact
persuaded him first to become Archbishop of War-
saw, and secondly, or perhaps simultaneously, to
open the Warsaw churches and write a pastoral
letter forbidding patriotic manifestations, and espe-
cially the singing of the national hymn i❑ places of
. .

worship_ The pastoral letter was written, shown to
the Emperor and sanctioned ; but the Arclbishop,
weak though he might be, had not sold himself to
Russia; and when he arrived in Warsaw, and saw
for himself what was going on, he became touched
by the enthusiasm of his countrymen, and refused
to issue an epistle which he felt would not only be.
unavailing, but would jar upon the feelings of the
whole land.

But nothing—except the organisation of the Na-
tional Governmtnt—ean be kept secret in Warsaw,
and the Archbishop's pastoral was stolen from him
and sent for publication to the Czas of Cracow,
where in due time it appeared. Its contents excited
general indignation, and Archbishop Felinski. was

from that time until quite lately regarded as the
enemy of his country, and as a mere ecclesiastical
agent in the hands of Russia. He had really be-
come a convert to the doctrines of the Marquis
Wielopolski, and the Grand Duke, the Marquis, and
the Archbishop were supposed to form a most har-
monious trio. Felineki's destiny may be said to
have been fulfilled. He was now member of a triple
dictatorship, the only remarkable difference between
the dream of his youth and its realisation was that
instead of becoming the Minister of revolution he
had become the servant of despotism.
All went well between the members of the trio,
and ill between the trio and the• people of
Poland until the insurrection broke out. But in the
month of March Archbishop Felinski, shocked at
the atrocities committed by the Russians, and con-
vinced that his countrymen would not yield, and
that the land would be devastated if the struggle
continued, wrote to the Emperor to entreat him to
pacify the country by the only means possible short
of declaring Poland an independent State. He begged
his Mejesty to unite the Polish provinces to the
kingdom of Poland, to grant this new Poland a con-
stitution, and to let a common dynasty be the only
political tie between Poland and the Russian
Empire. This letter shared the fate of the pastoral
in so far that it was stolen, sent to the newspapers
and published, either immediately after or at the
same time, or, acrording to Prince Gortschakoff,
even before it was placed in the hands of the
Emperor. No one can think that it was right to
print such a letter; and I heard personal friends of
the Archbishop complain bitterly of the indis-
cretion as soon as it was known to have been com-
mitted. This time, however, the prelate lost no
Popularity by having his secrets betrayed. On the
contrary every one said that Felinski's Polish nature
bad spoken out at last, and that what he had pre-
letter
°lady done must be forgiven for the sake of his
to the Emperor. That Archbishop Felinski
ultimo"
had _
_communicated it to the press is untrue, and
not Prince Gortschakoff known this to be the
case he would
not have waited three months to
bring the aln the c,cusation against him.
zn
d ontwhile, however, the Archbishop had
in thee ceniert4c; ways. He had resigned his seat
.State, he had refused to forbid a
religious pr I
already eehfine:tc: and finally, after he had been
he protested, as it wan
own residence at Warsaw
judicial assassieetionrf duty to do, against the
Thin
Abbe Konarski.
matter has apparently
escaped Prince Gortselmakeat
It is such a trifling thing
to 8. memory altogether.
otacave executed a priest
in holy orders, whose
Rpti
having given religious Consol:trenee consisted in
and dying. It is true the to the wounded
oil Government
accused the Abbe Konarski notauan
insurrection (which as a combatan'lttl°lj°ining
pr
the
but also of getting intoxicated. if e
tz theoined),
in th© Russian empire who got intoxicated
ere t°
ests
be banged, gibbets would be as
plentiful w
in the
country districts of Russia Proper as sianpoms
in
England ; but whether drunkenness h
ug t to be
tt
regarded as en offence worthy of death or not •iK
ono which could never have been proved against
the Abbe Konarski, who is known to be a man
of
perfectly sober habits.
As to the punishment inflicted on the Archbishop
of Warsaw Prince Gortechakoff cannot but admit to
himself that he has been guilty of a subterfuge un-
worthy of most persons in pretending that the
Palace of Gatchina was the final place of retirement
ft signed to him, when he knew that it was only the
temporary one. Archbishop Felinski was detained
long enough at Gatchina to give the Prince en op-
portunity of-telling all Europe that he was there,

and to enable him: to explain afterwards, it any ex-

planation should be found necessary, that ho was
there when his letter was written, or at least at the
date which the letter bears.

A 1 this is worse than the system of Nicholas, who
never would have allowed one of his ministers to
pretemd that a political offender actually in Siberia