The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-10 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION,

_
(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
WARSAW, Oct. 3.

A Polish friend of mine who thinks, with reason,
that Warsaw is not a nice place to stay in just now,
begged me when I was leaving Cracow, to take up
my quarters at some distance from the city, and to
enable me to do so agreeably gave me a letter to
one of his relatives living near Piaseczno, at about
14 mites distance from the capital. But there is no
place in Russian Poland where you may not be
murdered at a moment's notice, and I could not help I
indulging in some reflections on the peculiar uncer-
tainty of human life under a barbarous government
on hearing yesterday that my supposed place of
safety had been the scene of one of these infamous
outv.ges so common in Poland that a correspondent
ceases at last to mention them, as a correspondent
in Dahomey would no doubt cease at last to speak
of the " customs" of Dihomey's " well-intentioned"
King. I was vaunting, at second hand, the tran-
quillity of Piaseczno, and meditating au excursion
there, when I was informed that two days before a
proprietor of the neighbourhood, Baron Dangiel,
had been cut to pieces by the Russian dragoons as
he was standing in one of his own fields, quietly
superintending some farming operations. There is
no reason why I should mention this most ordinary
incident, except that, with the egotism for which
Englishmen are so notorious abroad, I could not,
and cannot still, help congratulating myself
having been present when it occurred. on not
A slight
skirmish between Russian dragoons and Polish gen-
darmes had taken place close to Piaseczno, and
when it was at an end the former committed nume-
rous acts of violence on unarmed and perfectly in-
offensive persons. The dragoons cut at the head
and arms of Baron Dangiel, and, as I said before,
chopped him in pieces.
111-informed journals are full of explanations, and
better informed ones of speculations as to the mean-
ing of Mieroslawski's recent appointment. The Czas
of Cracow, which must know as much about the
matter as any of the French or German uewpapers,
has not a word to say on the subject. The Indepen-
dance, the recognised organ of the National Govern-
ment
has not appeared since the Bth of last month.
,
The last proclamation of the National Government,
printed
as a handbill, and now circulating in War-
saw, is dated the 26th of September, and says no-
thing about Mieroslawski. It shows, however, that
there has been some change in the Government, for
it speaks of " the Government of today," and an-
nounces that this Government will follow in the
steps of the preceding one. It declares that it repre-
sents no party, and that its object is to " unite all
parties in one revolutionary movement." How anti-
revolutionists are to be brought into a revolution-
ary movement is not explained ; but it must be re-
membered that the same words have not the same
signification in Poland as in England, and if you
ask a Pole who calls himself a revolutionist what
lee means by the name, he will, for the most part,
reply that he does not think of social revolution,
but simply wishes that the insurrection against
Russia shall be carried on with the energy that has
characterised successful political revolutions every-
where. A Polish democrat is often an aristocrat
who thinks it a fine and novel thing to demand that
all men shall be equal before the law—which I have
frequently been assured in Poland is a peculiarly
French idea, dating from the revolution of 1789.
He does not dream of applying French democratic
principles generally—for the sufficient reason that
the first effect of such a step would be to sanction
the existing state of things in Poland, whieh does
not a ict the Polish peasants any more than it
afflicts the Polish horses and cows. As the Polish
democrats are a tone higher than the democrats of
the west of Europe, so also are the Polish revolu-
tionists ; and the curious notion of " uniting all
parties in one revolutionary movement,' is not ne-
cessarily a revolutionary notion in our sense of the
word. Nevertheless, as I had occasion to remark a
month ago, when Mieroslawski had just been
offered the appointment which he has now publicly
accepted, the moment of despair for Poland—if it
arrives—is likely to be a moment of great danger.
Terrorism has been threatened, and in connection
with terrorism Mieroslawski's name is always men-
tioned. He has been the bugbear of the National
party for some time past. If anything has gone
wrong, the discontented people (who in times of
national trouble naturally form no small class) have
said, " Why, any one, even Mieroslawski, could do
better than that." "If this sort of thing lasts much
longer we had better get Mieroslawski, and finish
it one way or the other," and so on. He has been
so much attacked that people have got to look upon
him as a sort of recognised "opposition," and to
take it fo,: granted that on the first change of Go-
vernment the said " opposition.' must naturally
come into power.
It seemed to me that as soon as Russia refused
in a direct manner the proposition of an armistice
and a conference, and as soon as it became evident
that the Western Powers would take no steps to
force its acceptance upon her—then that the Poles,
finding themselves abandoned to their own re-
sources, would have recourse to the most desperate
measures, and that these measures would naturally
be carried out by the only men who really in
their hearts approve them. But the extreme
party, the "red" party, the revolutionary party,
in the generally accepted sense of the term, is
less numerous than it reckoned itself to be, and
I believe it understands that if, after getting into
power, it goes too far, the supplies will be suddenly
stopped. The worst of it is that not a month nor a
week is necessary for playing the great coup that
has long been meditated. Another danger is that
the extreme party has nearly all its adherents in
the towns, so that whatever its forces may be they
ere at least not dispersed, and may easily be called
into action.

I know nothing more about
the new nominations
of the National Government
and the changes that
have taken place, and are still taking place, in the
composition of the National Government itself, ex.
cept that a new chief of gendarmerie has been ap-
pointed, whose first act was to issue a proclamation
accepting the responsibility of the attack on Gen,
Berg; that Mieroslawski is named not organiser of
the detachments of the National army
in Poland,
but organiser cf the detachments of the
but National
army abroad," and that the five Alinisters (of W
of the Interior, of Justice, of Finance, and of Pul:lric,
Instruction) are reported not to have been changed
at all. It cannot be said positively that the extreme
party has as yet come into power, nor that it will
come into power at all to such an extent as to have
the general direction of affairs ; but if an attempt
is being made to mix the " red" (or violent revolu-
tionary) party with the " white" (or moderate, and
above all Natianal) party, the colour of the mixture
must at least be reddish. As to the very " red" pro-
clamation of the new chief of the gendarmerie, I
may mention that that functionary did not enter
upon his office until after the attack on Gen. Berg,
and that there is good indirect evidence in a pro-
clamation issued •
day before tla attby his predecessor on the 18th,the
then meditated—that
e ack, that nothing of the kind was
is to say, not by the Govern-
ment. In •
National o ,a, °", lt appears from papers issued by the
shepublily Zerhment, and distributed it Warsaw
t attack on General well be, that within a week after
changed, that Berg the Government was
power coincided
the advent
which he
itthe acceptance with
of the new Government to
ski of a place by MieroslaW-
was offered to himby
the old
not accepted when it
before ; and that the new
old Government a month
one officer who wishes il't7tGoverument has at least
an act of which the National held responsible for
composed on Sept. 19, Was enernment, as it was
ely fruitless. It
may be said that the National Government c.vernment is not
bound by the proclamations
ganiae detach-
o detach
Miercslawski, being appointed to its
ments to
officers ; that
ments abroad, when there are n
organise, is in the position of a bishop in
it may even be said that it is a fortunate ,
hites?'";
coalition should have been formed, and that -W
and Reds should new be working together. It
seems to me all the some that the new Government
has a decidedly ruddy complexion.
On the other hand I may mention on behalf of
the new Government that it has suggested to the
gendarmes the propriety of not exposing the inha-
bitants of Warsaw to the penalties to which per-