The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-16 00:00:00

THE INSURRECTION IN POLAND,

(Front the qvecia! Correspondent' of the' Tinzcs.)
LEMBERG, July 11.
The Galician expedite ion to Volhynia is now ccm
pictely at en end. Rumour says that it is about to
be renewed, and the men who ran away declare
thet ac long as they have a drop of blood in their
veins they will strike the Russians wherever they
find thorn on Polish soil. In the meanwhile I may
saw a few words about the late failure, which need
not have been an utter and instantaneous failure
bad the expedition been properly directed. It is a
fortunate thing for the Poles of Volhynia that the
long prepared invasion was checked AS soon as it
wa;.—just as it would have been a fortunate thing
for the Galicians if the insurrection of 1846, which
led to the Gal'keen maesecres, had never been at-
tempted. Nevertheless, if the leaders of the na•
Corral movement really thought it worth while to
take Radziwilow, that, remerkably unimporant
town might, with a little foresight, hare been taken,
or the 1,600 Poles who were ready to march into
Volhynia on the morning of the Ist might have
passed Redziwilow with the certainty that the 800,
900, or perhaps even 1,000 Russians who occupied
the place would not follow them. They could have
executed that march into the interior which evi-
dently was contemplated, and which, according to
some of the Polish telegrams, was actually per-
formed by Wysocki the day after his return to
Galicia, and by Horodykci the day after his death.
In spite of terrible proofs to the contrary, the
Poles still maintained that the Ruthenian peasantry
would join them in the end, and that in order to
gain their sepport it was only necessary to appear
among them in great force. The insurrection in
Volhynia had, it was said, failed in the first in-
stance simply and solely because the long me-
ditated expedition frara Galicia had not been ready
to enter the province (as according:to the plan of the
Netional Government it should have done) while
the insurrection was going on. It was resolved to
try again, and this time to begin from without. The
entrance of a strong, well-officered corps from Gali-
cia was to be the signal for all the intending insur-
gents in Volhynia to rise, but the rising was, of
course, not to take place until the Galician corps
had advanced some distance into the interior.
The scheme for invading Volhynia from Galicia
was in some respects well-conceived. The frontier
was to have been crossed simultaneously at three
points. Wysocki, with 1,200 men, was to have
marched upon Radziwilow in front, while Horo-
dycki and Minniewski, each with 650, were to have
attacked it on the right and left. A day or two
afterwards Wiszniewski was to have entered Vol-
hynia further north than Minniewski, and close to
the right bank of the river Bug, while Rozycki,
one of the best leaders who has yet appeared, was
to have penetrated into the same province further
south than Horodycki and near the frontier of
Podolia. Finally, Goluchowski was to have taken a
detachment of cavalry into Podolia itself, and thus
from Podolia to Lublin, and along the whole line
of the Galician-Volhynian frontier, the Russians
would have been attacked ; and though some of the
detachments were sure to be destroyed it was
thought certain that others would succeed in ad-
vancing far into the interior of Volhynia, and that
once there they would either gain the active sup-
port of the peasants or at least show themselves
strong enough to insure their respect and, to a cer-
tain extent, their assistance. The chief appointed
to direct the combined- movement was General
Wysocki, formerly the commander of the Polish
Legion in Hungary, and the title given to him by
the National Government was " General Com-
manding in the province of Lublin and in the Ru-
thenian provinces."
On the day fixed for the commencement of this
important movement, in which, had all gone well,
some 4,000 men would have been. engaged, it was
found that only two detachments, those of General
Wysocki himself and of Col. Horodycki, his imme-
diate supporter on the right, were ready to start.
This unreadiness can be attributed to no want o
foresight on the part of the commissaries of the ex-
pedition. Arms had been purchased and confis- I
cated, purchased and confiscated again, for three
times the number of men composing the expedition,
and although many of these men were arrested and
imprisoned, it turned out at the last moment that
there were more insurgents than there were arms
for them to carry. Fresh seizures of rifles, bayonets,
and revolvers were made on Sunday night and early
on Monday morning; and on Monday afternoon,
when Wyeocki's and Horodycki's detachments were
summoned to the woods, it was found impossible to
equip for the field more than 750 of the former and
450 of the latter.
Staying in Eastern Gallacia, I bad witnessed the
preparations made for the departure of these detach-
ments for some weeks beforehand, and was much im-
pressed by the unanimity and mutual confidence ex-
isting among and between all classes except the very
lowest, without which it would have been impossible
ever to have got them to the frontier. I knew be-
forehand that the orders of the National Government
were obeyed by the Poles in all parts of Poland, but
it was something to see them obeyed, and some-
thing more to see the national cause systematically
aided without any orders on the subject being trans-
mitted at all. The rich have given willingly and
unwillingly a great deal towards the expenses of the
insurrection, but es for as my observation goes I am
inclined to think that ;,ho poor, according to their
means, have given more. I have never heard any
poor man make such a remark, but ou the contrary,
I have heard it
great proprietors in Nikita hese
generally • achnowledged that the
l*done their beet, as
far as money contri
)attons are concerned. Hoeccea rf
1 found insurgents staying in the houses of the poor
as well as in those of the
rich, and treated with a
sort of paternal affection everywhere. Indeed, the
kindness and hospitality 8h
shown to all classes and
conditions of men who called themselves insurgents
were, if anything, carried to excess for many per-
sons received and entertained strangers on the un-
derstanding that they belonged to the Volhynian
expedition, but without having any positive proof of
the fact. Even the 0 -
erman officials in some places
were touched by this general confidence, and when
ordered to institute a e revision" would give a hint
beforehand that at such anhour their arrival might
be expected. Then the
men would
go into the woods,
the horses would b 3 taken
oat of
the stables and
sent into the fields, while the saddles and bridles
were buried in the garden. I have seen paoaets of
saddles and boxes of arms left at a house without
any notification as to where they came from or
whither they were to be sent. In such cases the man
who took them in put them in a place of safety, and
a few days afterwards would receive aline of writing,
or, more generally, a message by word of moutt
telling him to forward them to some house a few
miles nearer the frontier. If the whole country (with
the exception of the peasants) did not form one gene.
ral association for promoting the interests of Poland,
this unbounded trust from Pole to Pole would soon
lead to the exposure and frustration of all the
national schemes. As it is they are carried out up to
a certain point, and have never once broken down
from any bad faith or want of faith on the part of
those called upon to assist in executing them.
The district in which I was staying was filled with
appointed for the most part to the
insurgents,
central detachment under the immediate command
of them belonged to the emi-
of -Wysocki. Many
gration, and
ha
d abandoned the little positions
s etrivinn., they had cved
which, after many year s„
more generally in France,
to obtain in England, or rn
©more and strike
in order to see their country OL
" The young men
one more blow on its behalf.
*d "sacrificing them
here are admirable," they sal
solves for a cause which is a very nesperate one if
we are never to be assisted from abroad. As for of
would
it does not matter. We are old fellows, and
rather die in Poland than anywhere sate; and then
we have not led the eort of life which attaches men
to this world." One, an old soldier of the Polish
army, told me that he had been for thirteen years
working at a desk in an insurance office, and that
he was not sorry to get a little fresh air and have
an opportunity of riding on horseback. Another,
an °facer of the same army, had been keeping a
shop, and was making humourous speculations as to
how •
his absence the business would be carried
on, A third laaw his native land for the first time,

and was saying " what nice people the Poles were."
This gentlemen was full of the historical remi-
niscences of Cracow, whence he had ju,. rrived,
and I ventured to ask him how he felt on seeing
that the funeral mound of Kosciusko h )d been con-
verted into a fort. He said that ne tilt pleased,
for if ho found himself growing wAc in battle
he should only have to think of such insults as
these to be able to give one more thrust.