The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-03 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION,

(FM a the Special Correspondent of the Times.)

WARSAW, Nov. 19,

The telegraph continues to be in such a hurry
that it. does not give itself time to verify the news
ths.t re aches it. Accordingly, we are perpetually
being informed in Warsaw, via Paris and London,
of things having taken place in Warsaw of which in
Warsaw itself we had not heard, though we hear of
terrible things enough in the shape of sudden and
arb;Ltrary arrests on mere suspicion every night, and
exe cations every three or four days.
There have been on the average two lives per week
take n on the part of the Government sinca I have
been in Warsaw, and hundreds of political prisoners
.have been sent into exile every Sunday morning.
It is not true that 50 of the female prisoners from
the citadel have been sent into exile, but quite true
that two have been exiled. It is said that of the
suspected political prisoners sent out of the country
none are to go further east than the Moscow pro-
vince; though in the first instance, and when they
left Warsaw, many of them, and all those who had
incurred the displeasure of the Government before,
Were under sentence for Siberia.

The early Warsaw news received in several Ger-
man cities, and forwarded thence further west, is
said to be obtained from imaginative Jewish tra-
vellers, who, on their arrival on the other side of
the froutier, love to relate the rumours of the Polish
capital, slightly Orientalised. Some of these ru-
mours, as reproduced abroad, must
strangers to Warsaw, but they astound surprise
residents.
What really occurs here is bad enoughl and too bad,
but nevertheless it is exaggerated in most of the
foreign newspapers, and especially in those which
sh sources.
derive their information from Polish
It is the curse (or rather °one of the curses)
of this country that no one cares what hap-
pens to it unless it be some
particularly sanguinary highly dramatic and
calamity. The suppression
of high wahools and universities throughout Poland
for 30 years was of course an incomparably greater
Evil wait an incomparably greater crime on the part
of the "Russian Government than the dispersion 01
a cro ard, by armed force, and with considerable loss
of Wee, on the lawless principle pursued by military
Governments in all parts of the continent of Europe.
But there is nothing at all dramatic in a plan for
depriving a whole people of national education. It
does not appeal to the eye, and it cannot be made
the subject of a picture in an illustrated newspaper.
The Poles have often of late felt themselves com-
pelled to get their misfortunes presented in a dra-
matic form, for they have thought it necessary,
above all, to consider what would strike this used
np Europe. "Europe," they have said to them-
selves, "does not mind a people being gradually
extinguished if it will only die out quietly, but the
massacre of Sinope roused the indignation of France
and England, and the massacres in Syria led to
armed interference. If we resist the Russians, as
at any ti'aie during the last 30 years we have had a
right to do, we too shall be massacred, and then
Europe"--that is to say, France and England,
which 'constitute Europe in a moral sense in the eyes
of the Poles—" will perhaps inquire what ails us."
" What will Europe say to this ?" is a question
the, 'Poles put to themselves at each fresh cruelty in-
flicted upon them. Hitherto Europe, for all prac-
V,eal purposes, has said to their sufferings what the
'world said to the paradoxes presented to it by the
Vicar's son, " The world said nothing to my para-
doxes," and Europe has said nothing to the suf-
ferings of the Poles; or rather it has spoken
a great deal, but without uttering any of those
words that signify future action. Still, Europe is
appealed to, and it has now been appealed to so
often that it seems to be thought impossible to touch
it except, by tales of the most horrible and heart-
rending character. There is, unhappily, no need to
invent such narratives; but, at the same time, too
much stress is laid on the severities committed in
the Polish, towns, and they are often exaggerated,
while- the terrible position of the inhabitants of the
count a, is left almost unnoticed. Whatever be the
disad vtratages of Warsaw as a place of residence, I
find 'lu it Poles are very sorry to leave it to go into
the col. :ntry, that they are very glad to get back
again. 'here, and that their friends are very anxious
about them while they are away. A proprietor who
has just returned from his estate uninjured and
free s.ys that as Paris and London are to Warsaw,
so is Warsaw to the country districts in Poland.
The double, terrorism which renders life so intoler-
able in tl-,e country, is scarcely felt in Warsaw, for
here the .3-';assian Government has reasserted its
power, an d the National Government has ceased to
be obeyeil in all cases where its orders are in direct
and 01.y!,n contradiction with those issued by the
BUSSi o.na. This, it may be said, signifies the failure
of VrieJ Polish insurrection. But it will not fail if it
be assisted from abroad, and without foreign assist-
ar ice it was evident that it would fail from the very
IJeginning. In the meanwhile, and considering that
the insurrection has done its work and that the
question of intervention or non-intervention
scarcely depends any longer upon the Poles them-
selves, I fancy that a considerable number of the
inhabitants of Warsaw are by no means sorry to
find that they are now subjected to only one
tyranny, instead of two.

..,oFor SUMO time it must have been a most trying
g for the porters to be told by the Russians
that they would be beaten if they did not keep the
onott,daud by the National Government that
they
; for be stabbed if they did not keep them
open
other househeald,. proprietors to be threatened, on the
they persioulith fiscal execution and forced sale if
the other,
vithin not paying their taxes ; and, on
them. The isTovexecution by the knife if they paid
instantly to I,ll'enal
w Government, however, has had
without wishingitaY whenever it has put itself, or
conflict with theore;443 been brought, into direct
receive its own taxeserament of Russia. It may still
fro
tit possesses the means from can prevent no one who
special taxes to the Rnsarying both ordinary and
-were to last long eneught4his• If the insurrection
,
national parse would ultitaotedieuble draining of the
paying altegeth er, for the exeollYe put
eaan end to
would be be no money left, at leoantt tea that there
n
Who have hitherto been itoowlito tt among those
classes," and who are now being
speedily the
richer
bankruptcy. I have already mentioned to
the 3,000 house proprietors ordered tn"_
atyaaat cut of
income tax of 8 per cent., all
but a
ftec
hundredsspecia
obeyed the order on or before the appeinte.,
Defaulters are now sentenced to pay 12 13::
edeanyt..
before the 20th of this month, after which, in ,me
•of further default, 16 per cent• will be claimed.
By payment of the 8 per cent. tax nearly 3,000
house proprietors have rendered themselves liable to
capital punishment at the hands of the National Go.
-vernment, but it is hoped they will not be executed.
By the way, are any members of the National Go-
vernment themselves house proprietors, and, if so,
have they disobeyed their own commands ? And
how does it happen that the National Government
knew so little of the views and intentions of the
house proprietors as a class as to imagine they would
observe an injunction which, if it was not likely to
be attended to, ought never to have been issued ?
I read in the foreign newspapers that the order
" of the National Government" to take off mourn-
ing has been obeyed by the ladies of Warsaw—which
is true ; and that ladies have been insulted by the
soldiers and police in consequence
of something in
their costumeeaulearn,
not being approved—which, as far as
Z, is entirely untrue. As often as the
National
the order, ntthrnm ent contents itself with endoning
obeyed. e 0 Russian Government it is sure to be
of
colour:1'10.0ra an/ Journal says that the adoption
nothing but
moue: hy the ladies of Warsaw, after
nearly three Sears, had been worn by them for
animated appearance:B gliven the streets a gay and
do not see it myself. A
grotesque and sad appearance
sented. "It was time to put
is what is really pre-
put an end to this mas-
querede " says the correspee
'ent of a Russian
journqi ; bet the fact is, the true
masquerade has
only just begun ; for you may now seeprsons
are grieving for their nearest relations
ed who
dressed as
though they had no such loss to d
ep
ral looking (if it were not for the noin;liiune-
k
shabby wedding procession, and women cryiegtbe.a
r
eyes out at a secretly ordered service for the dyad,
at.
tired in kill the colours of the rainbow. To the met,
it does not matter mtrh ; but the women who have