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 8 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
allowed to be in the right. A
.light-heeled.haeded one
may dodge an infantry soldier, a light
defy a Cossack ; in either case thePolneeivnesrutrheesletslase,
approbation of his countrymen,
~who,
t
ehoaudldthenyot thfeailditroectitorneatofwater
offendersown
with
police,i h
everything is for the
contempt. In short,
worst in the worst-governed country possi.
ble. The Russians say that the Poles have
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 1
national character, or to the institutions which for
centuries had formed part of their national life. I
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 1
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. It may have been set on fire without orders,
but it wee 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 a" demonstra-
tion" against the 8 per cell. 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
aussian Government, and could not with safety
have been carried past ihe 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 todo 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 I saw 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 hand 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 fire.

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
cap of the Kouban.

"I was brought here by one of your own offi-
cers," said the proprietor of the cylinder hat.
" Then," replied the Cossack, " it was his duty to
take you to the house you were going to, put you
inside, 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."
" There are very big hats worn by very big func-
tionaries," continued the disciplinarian of the Kon-
ban;
; "but I should flog them as civil persons just
the
same if I caught them here now."
" Well, what are you going to do with me 9"
inquired the gentleman finally, to horn neither the
cylinder hat nor the recent companionship of a
Russian officer
,c \N, hy, I
abllrawas any guarantee of safety.
flog you, that's all," said the stern
but not
Prectifyasavage Cossack, when suddenly the
have reason to
intervention second cylinder hat, to whom I
under some believeslight• the hero of the Kouban was
satisfactory conclusion,
ashamed Place inat findin—
the discussion to
One feels almost
a .13 e 2i 11
i"
Y obligations, brought
in anything that takes g amusement
city; but Eng-
resent deplorable position Warsaw during the
lishmen have always been accustomed to an alter-
negitapart,
nation of tragic with comic scenes
grim humoar about the Cossack
ferocity. Nor are the Cossacks, whiuiptplai
more ferocious than the other troops
service, nor the Russian troops generally/nor:i"
fero-
cious than the soldiers of other military despotim
in all of which the army is looked upon, not as
the 9
protector, but as the enemy, of civil society and iia
all of which no truly legal discipline does or can
exist.
___

To complete my budget cf Warsaw news I must
add the common-p!ace intelligence that since I last
wrote two men on the national side have been
hanged, and three on the R,us.:.-iian side murdered, or
stAbed almost to death. Tho hanging was done on
Aloaday. One of the men wa3 a " national gen-
darme," in other words, an assassin at the c)rnmand
of the secret Government, which if it does not mend
its ways, the honest men of Poland Will have to
caavow, as one of the noble6t among them dis-
nrowed it, almost publicly, some months ago. Like