The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-27 00:00:00

THE POLISH QUESTION.

The following is the text of the despatch sent by
the Government of the Netherlands to its Minister
at St. Petersburg relative to the Polish question :
" The Hague, April 28th, 1863.
" Monsieur le Baron,—The events which are actually
taking place in Poland have created a sensation throughout
all Europe. Various Governments, fettling more serious
complications, have addressed themselves to the Govern•
ment of his Majesty the Emperor Alexander, appealing to
the magnanimity and benevolence of which his Majesty has
given so many striking proofs during the whole course of
his reign. The Gdvernment of his Majesty the King of the
Netherlands has received communication of the Notes
which have been presented to that effect to his Excellency
Prince Gortschakoff by the representatives of the Courts
of France and of England, and it entertains the conviction
that they were only dictated by the interest which every
fr;endty Government must take in the prosperity of the

reign of the Emperor Alexander. The relations of friend-
ship which have always happily subsisted between the Cabi-
net of St. Petersburg and that of the Hague impose upon
us the du y, M. le Baron, of acquiescing in the requests of
the Cabinets of Paris and of London to communicate to that
of his Majesty the Emperor the views of the Government of
the King as regards the painful events in which
all mankind takes an interest. We think we
cannot better explain those views than by asso-
ciating ourselves to the ideas suggested to the Govern-
ment of his Majesty the Emperor of the French
by the state of affairs in Poland, and taking our ground
upon the spirit of conciliation which animates us, we flatter
ourselves that this step will be fully appreciated by the Go-
vernment of his Majesty the Emperor Alexander. The
Cabinet of Cue Hague has thought it advisable not to Ce-
lay making •Ws communication, which is a new proof of
the good relations existing between the two Courts. The
recognised benevolence of his Majesty the Emperor Alexan-
der gives us the certainty that these considerations will be
agreeable to the Cabinet of St. Petersburg at a moment
when, in his high wisdom, his Majesty purposes taking
measures necessary to assure the happiness and the pro-
sperity of his subjects.

" You are requested, M. le Baron, to read this despatch
to his Excellency Prince Gortschakoff, and, if requisite, to
leave him a copy of it —I am, &,3.,
" P. VAN DER MAESEN DE SOMBREFF."

The Memorial Dtplonzatique publishes the fol-
lowing as the substance of an autograph letter ad-
dressed by the Pope to the Emperor of Russia. The
full text has not yet been published
"According to information we have received from our
private sources, the letter of the Sovereign Pontiff, which
bears the date of 16th of April, was presented to Prince
Gortschskoff a few days after the Notes of the three Powers,
through the intermedium of the Austrian Charge d'Affaires
—the Holy Father, as it is known, not having an official
representative at the Court of Russia. If we are rightfully
informed, Pius IX. says in this letter, which is elaborately
written, that considering the terrible spectacle now offered
by Poland, he should be wanting in his most sacred duties
if, as Father of the great Christian community, he did
not raise his voice in favour of his children, plunged
into the deepest misery, and a prey to all the evils con-
sequent upon war. That the duty to do so was the more
binding upon him, as the evils which have now be-
fallen that unfortunate people are to be attributed solely
to the Russian Government itself, which has never kept
the promises contracted by treaties; therefore, he followed
the example of his venerable predecessor Gregory XVI.,
who, in the secret consistory of the 22d July, 1810, ad-
dressed to the Sacred College a very explicit allocution on
the odious persecution then suffered by the Church in
Poland, in which that Sovereign Pontiff reminded the Czar
of the Concordat of 1847, the prescriptions of which have
never been observed. His Holiness concludes by appealing
to the sentiments of humanity, of justice, and of clemency
of the Emperor Alexander, and urges him to restore at
length to the Catholics of Poland freedom of religion and
of their faith as the only means likely to put a ter
and term to the
effect
actual troubles, to stop the effusion of blood,
reconciliation between the Poles and the Russian
a Govern-

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