The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-30 00:00:00

THEPOLiSH INSURRECTION.

_,s,--

(Front the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
St. PETERSBURG, Dec. 21.
The Abbe Mackiewicz has at last been taken by
the Russians, and from this it may be inferred that
the principal detachment of insurgents in Lithuania
laasbeen broken up. mackteseicz's band was formed
out of the remains of the one commanded by Siera-
kowski, and had been mainly recruited in the Go-
vernment of Kovno. The Russian papers, after re-
peating day by day and week by week that the
Lithuanian insurrection was at an end, are now
making a
great fuss about the capture of this well-
known Lithuanian chief. If some other chief suc-
ceeds in re-organising Mackiewicz's detachment we
shall still be told that there are no insurgents in
Lithuania, and the statement will be persisted in
until the Russians may happen to find it to their
advantage to admit once more that they have been
mistaken. Io any case, however, the capture of such
a chief as Mackiewicz must be a great blow to the
Lithuanian insurrection.
I do not know whether English readers have ever
asked themselves how it is that Wilna and Kovno
have shown themselves so much more Polish in feel-
ing than all other parts of Lithuania. In an ethno-
logical point of view neither of these provinces is
eminently`,Polish and the number of Poles by race in
the Government of Kovno does not amount to three
per cent. on the entire population. But, on the other
hand, if we classify the inhabitants of this Go-
vernment by religion, we find that the enemies
of Poland—that is to say, the members of what
the Russians call the " orthodox " and the Poles
the " schismatic" Church—are scarcely more
than three per cent. strong (3.33, according ..to
Busching's statistical tables) ; and when the
Russians ask, with real or affected indignation, how
a province in which less than the thirtieth part of
the population is Polish can be claimed as forming
part of Poland, the answer to make to them is—
because, with the exception of one thirtieth part of
the population, the whole province is Polish in feel-
ing. This calculation is perhaps unduly favourable
to the Russians ; for it is more than doubtful, as I
will afterwards show, whether the members of the
orthodox Church in Kovno, Wilna, and, indeed, in
Lithuania generally, do
not regret their foreaeddnisiet:
se-
paration from the Latin Communion.
R muunsisooree
Russo-Greeks of the
n. But,
admit-
tin even that the 30,000
Kovno provinces, which contains altogether about
1,000,000 inhabitants, are mainly attached to the
Russian Church, the fact remains that in Kovno the
movement in favour of Polish independence has
as difficult to suppress as in
been as general and
any of the provinces of the kingdom of Poland
where the Russians are Willing to admit that a Pole
is really a Pole.
As the inhabitants of England do not as a rule
know whether they are of Celtic or Germanic race,
but feel all the same that they are Englishmen, so
the inhabitants of Poland and of Lithuania, wher-
ever they have not been brought under the influ-
ence of Russian priests, feel that they are Poles,
without knowing or caring under what ethnological
heading they may be classed in statistical tables.
134 where the Russian Church and Russian teach-
ing predominate, and when hatred of Poles is in-
culcated as a primary virtue, then the cause of
Poland is hopeless ; and in accordance with this
incontrovertible theory we find that the Polish in-
surrection broke out first and in greatest force in
the Catholic kingdom of Poland; and that it broke
out secondly and :in less force in Lithuania, where
the Russo-Greeks are slightly in the majority; and
that it broke cut thirdly and was at once suppressed
by the inhabitants themselves in the Ruthenian
provinces (Volhynia, Podolia, and Kieff), where the
Russo-Greeks are to the Roman Catholics in the

proportion of ten to ore.
What holds good of the whole territory of the
ancient Polish republic holds good also of Lithuania
in particular ; and thus it happens that the rising in
favour of Polish independence has been most formi-
dable, and has lasted longest in the Government of
Kovno which is the most Catholic, but, in an ethno-
logical sense, the least Polish of all the Lithuanian
governments. The Russian Government has suffi-
ciently Russified the Ruthenian provinces for all
fighting purposes, and if it had any spare civilisation
to introduce there they might in time make the
peasants Russian in the full sense of the word; bat
it has no hold whatever on the inhabitants of Kovno
and Wilna or of any districts in the other Lithu-
anian Governments where the Russo-Greeks arc not
greatly is the majority. e In Lithuania, generally,
it is easy to stop any demonstration on the part of
the educated classes—who, with scarcely an excep-
tion, are Catholics—by raising up the Russo-Greek
peasantry against them ; but this creditable plan is
not found to answer in these regions, where all
classes are bound together by a common religious
faith, and receive the same religions teaching.
It would be an error to suppose that only the
Catholic inhabitants of Poland feel as Poles; but
there is a positive anti-Polish feeling among all the
peasantry who belong, of their own free-will, to the
Rassian Church, and are under the influence of the
Russian clergy. In Lithuania, however, whatever
may have been the case in the Ruthenian provlnces,
it seems by no means certain that the peasants,
forced to quit the Greek-Uniate for the Russo-Greek
religion, have ever become sincerely attached to the
latter. Russian evidence on such a subject as this
aof the highest value, and in the secret report
r%vrt by up General Nazimoff, Governor-General
or
n
ua, in October, 18.60, the following important
Twzneu,r
by the re'aof tgion was re-established in Lithuania
faith. Th,a the united Greeks to the orthodox
and even not 4.9•C5, weak in the principles of that faith,
religion of .th.te.:4tderstanding that they were returning- to the
sible ant, indetatic.relathers, required the guidance of sen-
edaca'aion (i,e., itte pastors Their want of
devrAopes an inattetAt rural clergy of the orthodox faith)
tl'in of their duties, ;land even carelessness in the emu-
treme poverty of their 4ongh ;itheir cupidity and the ex-
dent by adequate salarieeta,veetic life, not rendered indepen-
placed exclusive relation Whil© they are at the same time
necessarily dependent on thtu,.the impoverished peasants.
reduced to the level of the lower the,,r village riests are thus
114 which should appertain to ja,,air :fa, and, losing. the dig-
exercise no moral
or religious influence over their pa,„%hi
nus. With ragged
to the outward condition O. the
"les it is impossible
not to perceive that they are at Pr!sow. 3
for I a
state of neglect and poverth especially
Cher mer y,
districts. The contrast which the ortho4
psuthouuss
present in their exterior to the of the R. omen
Catholic faith, to which all the nob.ilitysaiil:.
gentry of the
Western lirovinces (i.e., polish provinces
nrr rmed ia with
the Russian Empire) belong, and which
.`"
alike 'oy their external grandeur and their inLerutahl,,,„
fiance, naturally suggests to the lower orders
time, it
macy of the Catholic religion. At the same,
h
impossible for the poor peasant to add to the splendour
the orthodox Churches."
T-General
" During 30 years," says the Govern,T
of \Vilna, in another part of the same report :--
" Notwithstanding the severe measures adopted towards
the local population, which were a constant inducement to-
wards reactionary movements—notwithstanding various
privileges granted to Russian nobles in the leasing of estate 3
and other advantages extended to them,—these measures
have, nevertheless, not had the effect of drawing Lithuania
closer to Russia, of confirming among the Greek uniates the
orthodoxy which has so feeble a hold on them, of spreading
a knowledge of the Russian language, or of increasing in the
country the number of native Russians. The latter con-
sideration is more especially important, because the chief
authorities of the province are reduced to the necessity of
confiding the execution of all administrative measures,
whether official or secret, to functionaries belonging to the
local population, and connected with it by their religion,
their families, their language, and their relations generally."
"It would appear, in short, from this report, as well
as from the one drawn up two years later on the
al4e
411'"*P t 1• •of - •
those 11,12.- the Minister the Interior, that
midi the
who have the best sources of infor-
With the p,ieto them agree to a considerable extent
of Litlitr.nia aela not regarding the forced converts
~,,h very steadfast adherents to the Rus-
sia generalle that the r' ISM
• Lc •
ithu-
ania on behalf of the J I
independence of all ent
Poland was a movement
for which the Russian Go-
vernment most have been fully prepared. Russia's
title to Litlitte'llia is rteegnisea
at least as • by every State in
Europe, ga' when valid as that of Austria
to Venetia. But Russian writers, and even
vernni ent, prote
the Rassiru 'Mthat Russia holds
e of the will Of the
Lithuania in sirnn.l,3 1/IDi lrity of its
/tient m
inhabitants, that :,,tar€ 'ttyis ba fairly gam,
tioned ; while any aeFartio.n
effect that it is
supported in any part of its
nvritil:tniod_oluinions by
any portion of the eduegte- P-- ,1_
testimony
be met
by a positive denial, based on t "t'51157 of e

Lithuanian Governor-General, and of the Minister
of the Interior for the Russian Empire.
Nevertheless, the Lithuanian bands of insurgents
appear, at last, to have been destroyed, and with
them a considerable portion of Lithuania itself—its
social organization, its resources in capital, and here
and there its forests and its crops ; and addresses of
loyalty are still being signed by the nobility and
gentry of these provinces, though the Minister of
the Interior describes most justly the," Polish mino-
rity" of the population as "consisting of the most
educated classes of society—of the nobility, the
clergy and the Government officials, of the teachers
and the taught."
It is not astonishing that insurgents taken in
arms in a country on which Russia has so slight a
hold as on Lithuania should be very severely pun-
ished. I hear now that insurgents who surrender
under promise of pardon meet with but little better
treatment. They escape with their lives, but are
required to give evidence against their comrades,
and, refusing to do so, are told that their repent-
ance is not sincere, and thereupon are sent into

exile.
As to the armed insurrection in the kingdom, the
Russians seem to be of opinion that there also it is
virtually at an end. They have been of that opinion,
frinioonm,
however, for
nfionrgniofanthye7m movement epnataitt, and lm
has been as much
a matter of course-in the Russian papers to re-
cord its gradual decline as it has been in the Polish
ones to announce its continual increase. In the
meanwhile it is quite certain that the insurgent
bands have hitherto not suffered very much from
the cold, on which the Russians counted so con-
fidently for aid. The Russians could prevent the
importation of furs and sheepskins into Poland, but
they could not command the frost, and even in St.
Petersburg, in the second week of December, the
mercury still stood several degrees above freezing
point, the Nora was as liquid as in the month of
August, and the thin ice which for a few days had
covered the canals seemed to be melting away much
more surely than the Polish insurrection. The
weather was detestable, no doubt, but until
within the last week it has not been cold. some
10 or 12 days ago the firing of signal guns from the
Admiralty, by night as well as by day, informed
the inhabitants of St. Petersburg that the river was
rising. Already a portion of the old town was inun-
dated, and, apart from Polish affairs, a sharp frost
was much wanted here, if only to stay the inunda-
tion of the Neva.
In another month the Poles will have shown whe-
ther or not they can hold the woods all the year
round ; but that they can maintain themselves in
small bands now until the return of spring is scarcely
to be doubted—as regards, at least, the physical part
of the question. They will not allow themselves to
be frczen, out ; but Europe's indifference is more
cutting to them than the snow, sleet, and wind of
the sharpest winter ; and they must be somewhat
weary of looking out for an intervention which has
been such a long time coming, and of the approach
of which there are now fewer signs than ever. But
until all prospect of war breaking out in Europe
has passed away hope will not entirely abandon the
Poles ; and to live in the woods even during the cold
of a northern winter, however difficult and painful
it may be, is after all not impossible.
On the other hand, however, the Russian troops,
well hatted, well clothed, and now actually well
fed, will not suffer from the cold at all. Hitherto,
according to their officers, they have had much
better health under canvas than in the barracks of
Warsaw and other Polish towns. They have been
accustomed as peasants to live in the open air, and
it is only confinement that really does them harm.
In the meanwhile measures of the utmost severity
are continued in the Kingdom of Poland, as in
Lithuania.
The _Russian Invalid of a few days since reports
in one number as many as ten executions for poli-
tical offences in the Kingdom. It is remarkable
that of the ten persons executed six were Poles
who had deserted the Russian army to join the
ranks of the insurgents. At the present moment the
three leaders on whom the Poles principally rely for
maintaining the insurrection throughout the winter
are all officers who quitted the Russian service:for
the express purpose of fighting against the Russians.
It world be difficult to justify, but it is easy to ex-
plain, and even to excuse, such conduct. Under the
reign of Nicholas the landed proprietors in the Polish
provinces incorporated with the Russian Empire
were forced to send at least one son from each family
to the Russian army. Men thus impressed into a
foreign and hateful service cannot be expected to
distinguish themselves by their fidelity. They have,
doubtless, no right to disregard their oaths; but as
men in general, and especially as Poles are consti-
tuted, it would be ridiculous to imagine that under
actual circumstances they would invariably observe
them. _

To deserters and to Poles who, without deserting,
have broken the promise required from officers quit.
ting the Russian army never to take arms against
Russia, no mercy is shown if they once fall into
the power of the enemy. Not, as far as I can learn,
that mercy has yet been shown to any chief of a
detachment, whatever his previous career may have
been ; but the life even of the humblest insurgent
is not spared if he has ever been in the Russian
service. This distinction between ordinary insur-
gents and insurgents who have violated their word
as Russian officers :,is intelligible enough. Some
further distinction, too, ought certainly to be ob-
served in the treatment of insurgent chiefs, as for in-
stance, between those who have acted in conformity
with the rules of civilised warfare, and others who
(according to Russian accounts) have behaved
cruelly to prisoners or to the Polish peasantry.
Of late there have been so many small detach..
aunts in the kingdom, that to sentence every chief
to death would almost amount to condemning
every insurgent doing the duty of an officer. This
is certainly not the time for increased severity, now
that the insurrection is dying out ; and the Rus-
sians would do well to avoid measures of a merely
vengefal character, or, at least, having that appear-
ance in the eyes of the Poles and of all foreigners.
When the insurrection is at an end, and with it the
frenzy of those who are now such ardent devotees
at the shrine of St. Michael Mouravieff, the Russians
will be glad to be able to say that at least they had
some generals and general-governors who did not
display the savage qualities supposed at the pre-
sent moment to be peculiarly characteristic of
" archangels." I remember Prince Schachoffsky,at
the beginning of the insurrection, sending back
several Galician prisoners who were wounded—and
others, I believe, who were not wounded at all—to
Cracow. Only the other day General Annenkoff
l'‘l'vwera,ted some score of the prisoners taken at Rad-
thetotLl w during the Volhynian expedition, and if
at Jetzt-Mem have had no other reward, they have
Mus-
covite Zexeaped the praise of M. Tucheff, the Mus-
ineectie:
e:atti, who reserves his ridicule and his
enough t() jo4tilhose of his countrymen who are weak
14 cruelty.
I spoke
agaitu Previous letter of a satirical poem
directed
Mouravieff and the Mouravieff
worshippers. It teems
however, to have had less
success than an
0_
who first velrue, written specially against
the man Wi-03
to express in suitable
indignation he Ile felt at an executioner
terms the in
being compared to a saint. prince Souvaroff, how-
will not always be
ever,
and feel,ig,tea to with scorn
as the degenerate
"energetic" warrior
d 13,000 men,
who slaugZandson of the
women, and chil.dren in. the Pragit
taMEla
iialipresent
it is, is
reproach, such as/ deserved,snot
the
• The
Governor-General of given
St. Petersburg
by actions well ns
proofs of a humane disposition "
by words. Thus, it is owing io his intes -CeStlion
• Si ,rakowski,
that the mother of Captain "uted
West the
at Wilna by Mouravielr, is nOW in of
Europe, and not in Siberia.
As to Sierakowski's wife, his enother.in-;aw, and
his two sisters-in-law, it must be satisfactory to the
Mouravieff worshippers to reflect that they have
received worse treatment than could have been es'
pected for them even had old Souvaroff been their
judge. We have heard of insurrections been sup-
pressed with cruelty in every country in Europe;
but, except in Lithuania, and under that Mouravieff
regime, no one ever heard of the offonce of an in-
surgent chief being visited upon his wife and his
wife's relations. It is a fact, however, that Madame
Sier air
—owska's mother and two sisters (the mother,