The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-21 00:00:00

~Lc v~i`~r~ a~—J

ferent parts of Poland we learn hat the reports re-
lative to the barbarous cruelty the Russian troops
are not exaggerated. As y put unarmed men,
women, and children to the sword, the high mill-
dial. authorities are enabled to inform the foreign
world "that thousands of insurgents have bit
•
the dust." Among the persons put to death in
cold blood at Tomaszow,* on the Galician fron-
tier, were a military surgeon named Dombrow-
sky, a Russian officer of the same name, who
was ill in bed ; M. Muchern, a captain in the
Russian general staff; Dr. Zelkowski, who was
tossed alive into a fire ; M. Chmielowsky, who
was bayoneted while at prayer • M. Lewkowitz and
his daughter, a girl of 18 ; Messrs. Czartoryski,
Raszew ski, Brzesky (a man of 70 Years of age), and
Jaruchowsky ; two citizens whotried to extinguish
the fire which was consuming their houses, and four
Jews. Almc•st all the towns and villages in the
south-west corner of Poland are in the hands of the
insurgents under Kurowski. In the east of the de-
partment of Radom is M. Langiewiez, who appears
to be one of the most sk;lful leaders of the insur-
gents. The Russians are now in force at Miechow,
Kielce, Kouskie, Szydiowice, and Czenstochow,
places which are marked on all the better maps of
Polan.l. Kurowski, who is at the head of 6,000
men, has his head-quartets at a place called Dom-
brava, which is not far from Olkusz, near Cracow.
A few days ago a corps of insurgents marched to a
place called Hrubietzow, on the frontier of Vol-
hynia, which is on the high road from Lublin to
Vladimir. From Augustow, which is in the nor-
thern part of the kingdom of Poland, we learn that
the insurrectian is "still spreading." It is possible
that the Russians did really kill a thousand per-
sons at Semiliczy, in the department of Grodno, in
the province of Lithuania, as "they put the peace-
ful inhabitants of the town to the sword after they
had routed the insurgents." From Lemberg we
learn that a Russian detachment has been " anni-
hilated" by the insurgent corps which is posted at
Biala, near the fortress of Brzese-Litewski. M.
Langiewicz haslagain posted his corps near Wous-
chock, which is between Radom and Kielce. Drum-
head law has been proclaimed in the provinces of
Volhynia and Podolia ; and in Wilna, the capital of
one of the departments of Lithuania, General Nazi-
moff has made the proprietors of the houses respon-
sible for the conduct of their tenants. The Rus-
sians do not allow the Poles to bury their slain, as
the Grand Duke Constantine has declared
that they shall be food for ravens. The troops
which the Russian Government now has in
Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine
amount, on paper, to about 140,000 men. Eight
regiments of the line are in the military district of
Kisw, 12 regiments of the line in the military dis-
trict of Wilna, with Grodno and Mitau, and 20
regiments of the line in the other, parts of the above-
mentioned provinces, where there are also from 20
to 24 cavalry regiments.
A letter from Cracow of the 15th inst. states that
the journal the Czas of that city has been prose-
cuted for having endeavoured to disturb public
tranquillity. The last accounts from the Polish
insurgent provinces state that at the approach of
any Russian troops to a town the entire population,
including the Russian functionaries, take flight, to
avoid the fate of the inhabitants of Tomaszow. On
the Bth inst. about 50 insurgents, armed with sithes,
and who were escorting two carts laden with arms,
stopped to hear mass at the village of Karmiewo,
near Maliow. Having been attacked by a party of
Cossacks, they defended' themselves bravely, and
finally routed the Cossacks, who lost 17 killed and
15 wounded. Unfortunately, the sithemen, on quit-
ting Karmiewo, went astray. They were again at-
tacked by Cossacks, reinforced by infantry, and
again fought desperately. The Russians lost 70
men in this affair, and the sithemen 20, be-
sides 18 severely wounded. Among the killed
are two young men of noble family, one named
Steinkeller and the other Pomaski. The latter
was a pupil of the Polish Military School of
Genoa. General Nazimoff, Governor-General of
Wilna, forwarded a despatch to St. Petersburg
announcing that the insurgents had been dispersed
at Siematyche, with the loss of 1,000 killed, while
the Russians lost only one killed and a few
wounded. The insurgents say that Gen. Manion-
kine summoned the commander of Siematyche to
surrender on the 7th. This proposal was rejected
with disdain by the small band of 300, who resolved
to fight and sacrifice themselves for their country.
The General then advised the women to quit the
place with their children. They replied that in
Poland women never abandoned their husbands un-
der such circumstances, and that they would die
with their children beside their natural protectors.
The Russian General then commanded a discharge
of Congreve rockets, which sat the town on fire. At
the same time the the assault was commanded, and
after an unequal contest, which lasted four hours,
the gallant defenders were exterminated. Then
began the murder of the unarmed inhabitants and
the pillage of the town. The Russians commenced
with the castle of the Senator Baron Fanshawe,
whose family has supplied the Russian army with
many generals. These horrible scenes lasted all
night. Nothing is to be now seen of Siematyche
but a heap of ashes. The insurrectional force in the
Government of Plock is very much reduced. It is
commanded by Segismond Padlewski, late an officer
of artillery in the Russian army. The Russian
journal the Invalide contains the following
" It is announced from Radziwilow that a corps of Poles
from Galicia, more than 1,000 strong, and well armed, have
entered the kingdom of Poland. This corps destroyed on
its passage all the Russian guard-houses on the frontier.
Two Russian officers and some privates were killed. Some
agitation was being observed in the districts of Iwientziany
and Lida, in Luthuania. A despatch was received at Wilna
on the 10th inst., from Sutientriany, announcing that a
band of about,lso insurgents had shown themselves in the
neighbourhood of the Podbrodzo Railway. The Governor
had adopted measures to disperse them."
The Monde publishes the following observations
on the question of Poland :--
"The ever-living Polish question is the most striking
symptom of the instability of European Governments. The
treaties of 1815 only very imperfectly reconstituted Europe;
they reconstructed a part of the ruins which the Revolu-
tion had made, but they allowed the more ancient iniquity
which tore Poland into shreds to subsist, and long before
1789 established a revolutionary right of nations by the par-
tition of 1772. The journals of Austria plead extenuating
circumstances in favour of that country, and declare that it
was unwillingly that she joined Russia and Prussia, and
simply to maintain the proportions of the European balance
of power. Austria has taken part in two great iniquities—
the downfall of the Jesuits and the partition of Poland. She
has repaired the first by the Concordat, but the second is
still flagrant. Here it is that the dissensions of Christian
nations, and especially of Catholic ones, must be regretted.
These dissensions brought about the catastrophe of 1772,
and philosophic Kings trampled under foot the rights and
interests of their subjects. The act of complicity united the
three Northern Courts, and was the germ of a permanent
coalition against France. We now feel how prejudicial our
,isolation may be to the cause of European society, and how
mush that state of things would tend to diminish our influ-
ence if it allowed two great Powers to join themselves to-
gether by a dose solidarity. The right of intervention is
pregnant with grave events. If Prussia interferes in Poland
with the consent of Russia, she legitimatizes all the inter-
ventions which France and England may oppose to her.
Thus the question becomes generalised, and would soon
result in a European war. The coalition of 1772 became
strengthened in 1792, and attained its apogee in 1815.
Since then the different interests have moved for-
ward; and the tendencies of the divers Governments
have become more clearly defined. Prussia has at-
tempted to Germanise the portion of Polish territory which
fell to her lot; every one knows with what craft and vio-
lence Russia has prosecuted Polish nationality. Austria
alone has preserved a measure of moderation and. justice,
which in the end proves to have been a good and wise policy.
She has respected the nationality and religion of Poland.
Being made up of different nationalities, she could easily
receive another into her family ; as a Catholic country she
natarally left to the Poles of Galicia the free exercise of the
Catholic religion. That religion is the most living qty
Polish nationality, and it has preserved to the nation unity
of feelings, of remembrances, and of hope& eachssm sad
ove:
ment of Poland the religious element prefeadint. .
thus it is that Austria finds herself detachea from policy
thus pr?jects of plavism.
tah
alitftrleeshhorhorror contributed
oof re-
rteo: of 1772. Muscovite ambition and
so insolently put forward, h a
jiv eec
e:s. ow
it
cool the Austro-Russian _fql The Revolution of 1848
in°P
like Russia, wander in search of
cannot, like
and stability, for upon that
in shaking Austria,
volution. Sheee
equilibrium reposs
iatdivsenthatutre.Bs
ropean
The Sleek affirms that no cause can possibly arise
so calculated to rouse the feelings of the French
Itnet
saasnetehsaht
ooufldPnoolawndin.terlftersuggestprevent i n
Ru additionssia
/from again accomplishing her purposes of oppres-
sion. The remarks of our contemporary are in this
wise :
" In France this noble cause has the rare privilege of ral-
lying all opinions around it. Except the Constitutionnel, the
time of which is not yet come, all the journals welcome the
resurrection of the Polish nation. The clerical journals, asto-
nished to find themselves side by side with the Democratic
organs, take care to make the sign of the cross, and declare
that they are marching to the assistance of a Catholics
nation ; that in this case there is no question of revolution
after the fashion of Mazzini or Garibaldi, and that they
protest; beforehand against any concealed democratical idea.
Those are questions which may be raised after the victory;
for the present let us be contented with preparing it. We
have succeeded on one great point, since we have arrived
at triumphing over public indifference, and never, during
the last 12 years, have we seen public opinion interest itself
as it now does • it is the:outburst of 1831, which, from a
party, seems to have communicated itself to the entire na-
tion. In 1831 we saw the generation which had been
formed in Poland since the downfall of the Empire perish
by bullets, by the knout, in dungeons, and in Siberia ; a
new generation now presents itself dettianding the same
rights and ready for the same sacrifices, and so long as
Pcland shall be a living nation the same will constantly
recur ; every 20 years it must be regularly mowed down.
Shall we allow the Northern Sithemau this time to accom-
plish his bloody task? Policy and feelin,
the head and
the heart, are in accord in saying No lo

4' There are two places of the name in Russia Poland ;
the one io near Petrikow, the other to the north of Lem-
berg. •
__

Importing Tea 'without colour on the leaf pre-
vents the Chine,,e passing off inferior leaves as in the usual
kinds. Hornintan's Tea is uncoloured, therefore, always
flood eilcc. Sold in packets by 2,280 agents.