The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-30 00:00:00

THE POLISH QUESTION.

Last night the correspondence of the English
government with the European powers relating to
the Polish insurrection was laid b lore Parliament.
The papers are very numerous, and extend over
nearly 200 pages of the blue book. Several of them
have already been made public. Among the most
important of those hitherto unpublished is the fol-
lowing dispatch of Earl Russell calling on Russia
to fulfil her treaty obligations towards Poland :
EARL RUSSELL TO LORD NAPIER.
Foreign Office, April 10, 1863.
My Lord,— Her Majesty's Government think it incum-
bent upon them to state once more to the Government of
his Majesty the Emperor of Russia the deep interest which,
in common with the rest of Europe, they take in the
welfare of the kingdom of Poland.
The general sympathy which is felt for the Polish nation
might of itself justify her Majesty's Government in making,
in favour of the Polish race, an appeal to the generous and
benevolent feelings of his Imperial Majesty,who has of late,
by various and important measures of improvement and
reform, manifested art enlightened desire to promote the
welfare of all classes of his subjects. But with regard to
the kingdom of Poland, her Majesty's Government feel that
the Government of Great Britain has a peculiar right to
make its opinions known to that of his Imperial Majesty,
because Great Britain havir g, in common with Austria,
France, Prussia, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden, been a party
to the treaty of Vienna of June, 1815,
her Majesty's Go-
vernment are entitled to interpose with regard to any matter
which may appear to them to constitute a departure from
the provisions and stipulations of that treaty.
By the first article of that treaty the Grand Duchy of
Warsaw was erected into a kingdom of Poland, to be in-
separably attached to the empire of Russia under certain
conditions specified in that article; and her Majesty's
Government are concerned to have to say that, although the
union of the kingdom to the empire has been maintained,
the conditions on which that union was distinctly made to
depend have not been fulfilled by the Russian Government.
The Emperor Alexander, in execution of the engage-
ments contracted by the treaty of Vienna, established in
the kingdom of Poland a national representation and
netionai institutions corresponding with the stipulations of
the treaty. It is not necessary for her Majesty's Govern-
ment now to observe upon the manner in which those
arrangements were practically administered from that time
down to the revolt in 1830. But upon the suppression of
that revolt by the success of the Imperial arms those ar-
rangements were swept away, and a totally different order
of things was by the Imperial authority established.
Prince Gortschakoff argues, as his predecessors in office
have on former occasions argued, that the suppression of
that revolt cancelled all the engagements of Russia in the
treaty of Vienna with regard to the kingdom of Poland,
and left the Emperor of Russia at full liberty to deal with
the kingdom of Poland as with a conquered country, and
to dispose of its people and institutions at his will. But
her Majesty's Government cannot acquiesce in a doctrine
which th. y deem so c ,ntrary to good faith, so destructive
of the obligation of treaties, and so fatal to all the interna-
tional ties which bind together the community of European
states and powers
If, indeed, the Emperor of Russia had held Poland as
part of the original dominions of his crown, or if he had
acquired it by the unassisted success of his arms, and un-
sanctioned by the consent of any other power, he could
have contended that might was equivalent to right, and,
without listening to the dictates of' generosity and justice,
he might have punished a temporary revolt of a portion of
his Polish subjects by depriving the whole of them and
their descendents for ever of those privileges and institutions
which his predecessor bad deemed essential to the welfare
and prosperity of the Polish kingdom.
But the position of the Russian Sovereign with regard
to the kingdom of Poland was entirely different. He held
that kingdom by the solemn stipulation of a treaty made
by him with Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Per-
tugal, Spain, and Sweden; and the revolt of the Poles
could not release him from the engagement so contracted,
nor obliterate the signatures by which his plenipotentiaries
had concluded, and he himself had ratified, those engage-
ments.
The question, then, having arisen whether the engage.
ments taken by Russia by the treaty of Vienna have been
and are now faithfully carried into execution, her Majesty's
Government, with deep regret, feel bound to say that this
question must be answered in the negative.
With regard to the present revolt, her Majesty's Govern-
ment forbear to d well upon that long course of action,
civil, political, and military, carried on by the Russian
Government within the kingdom of Poland, of which the
Poles so loudly complain, and to which they refer as the
causes which occasioned, and in their opinion justifiA,
ther insurrection. Her Majesty's Government would rather
advert to the much wished for termination of these lamen-
table troubles,
What may be the final issue of this contest is is not in-
deed for her Majesty's Government to fort-tel; but whether
the result shalt be the more extended spread of the insur-
rection, and its assumption of dimensions not at present
contemplated, or whether, as is more likely, that result
shall be the ultimate success of the imperial arms, it is clear
and certain that neither result can be arrived at without
a calamitous effusion of blood, a great sacrifice of human
life, and an extensive devastation of property; and it is
evident that even if Poland shall be reduced to subj sc
tion, the remembrance of the events of the struggle will
long continue to make it the bitter enemy of Russia ;
and a source of weakness and of danger, instead of being
an element of security and of strength.
;
Her Majesty's Government, therefore, most earnestly
entreat the Government of Russia to give their most
serious attention to all the foregoing considerations and
her Majesty's Government would beg, moreover, to submit
to the Imperial Government that, besides the obligations of
treaties, Russia, as a member of the community of Euro-
pean states, has duties of comity towards other nations to
fu fit, The condition of things which has now for a long
course of time existed in Poland is a source of danger, not
to Russia alone, but also to the general peace of Europe,
The disturbances which are perpetually breaking out
among the Polish subjects of his Imperial Majesty neces-
gorily produce a serious agitat.on of opinion in other cents,-
tries of Europe, tending to excite much anxiety in the minds
of their Governments, and which might, under possible
circumstances, produce complications of the most serious
nature.

Her Majesty's Government, therefore, fervently hope
that the Russian lovernment will so arrange these matters
that peace may be resbred to the Polish people, and may
be established upon lasting foundations.
Your lordship will read this despatch to Prince Gortscha-
koff, and you will give him a copy of it.—l am, &c.,
(Signed) RUSSELL.
A second despatch of the same date contains the follow-
ing important conversation between Earl Russell and Baron
Brunnow

Baron Brunnow asked me some questions as to the nature
of the representations about to be made at St. Petersburgh,
andwhenl toldwas
chieflyhi mthfaotunded
the despatch
the non-observance ofpatch of her Majesty's
Government
the stipulations of the treaty of Vienna, he expressed some
satisfaction that we still founded our demands on the basis
of that treaty. But there was one question he felt he was
entitled to ask, and that was whether the communication
her Majesty's Government were about to make at St.
Petersburgh was of a pacific nature.
I replied that it was, but that as I did not wish to mislead
him I must say something more. Her Majesty's Govern-
ment had no intentions which were otherwise than pacific,
still less any concert with other powers for any but pacific
purposes.

ment might he rejected as the
March had been rejected by the
Jim; the state of things might change. The present over-
insurreci ions in Poland might
rtl uempr
pier
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efi
Imperial
t her i
Governments jro
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hye 'ens
tG.
2d ooTv
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continue and might assume larger proportions ; the atro-
cities on both sides might be aggravated and extended to a
wider range of country. It in such a state of affairs the
Emperor of Russia were to take no steps of a conciliatory
nature, dangers and complications might arise not at pre-
sent in contemplation. _ _ _

Baron Brunnow said he could not call our former dis-
patch an overture. The intentions of the Emperor to-
wards Poland were most kind and benevolent. But there
were projects afloat for altering the map of Europe. In
these p ojects compensation to Russia were included.
Russia entered into none of these projects; she wanted no
compensation; Fhe held by the present territorial arrange-
ments of Europe, and he (Baron Brunnow) trusted Great
Britain would do so likewise.

into effect territorial changes. I
the present case the Emperor of
I said it was the wish of her Majesty's Government to do
so. But Russia herself hadin some cases ben active in
amnesty to those who would lay
down their arms, and the benefits of free institutions to
Rtprru: ssptsoei
asdi,,nbhgyo wagnerdvaenrct,ai r
irt hrgya it:
ngi n
Poland, would put an end to the insurrection.
The following contains the views of the English Govern-
ment on the Russian amnesty :