The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-01 00:00:00

RUSSIAN ATROCITIES,

- 4.-
WILNA, Aug. 25.
At length the Mina Courier has officially an-
nounced that the author of the attempt on M.
Domejko has been discovered. His name is Bien-
kowski. The Courier says that he has acknow-
ledged his guilt, and that his two accomplices have
been also captured and are undergoing their trial.
It appears, therefore, that the two Rewkowshis,
Jablonski, and Sipowicz, who were hanged without
trial for the attempt on M. Domej ko, were innocent
—a fresh proof, if such were needed, of the unscrupu-
lous tyranny of the savage Mouravieff. This faithful
agent of the policy of Russia in Poland has recently
added to his many crimes by another deed worthy of
a Timour or a Tamerlane. In the village of Djika,
near the town of Bialystok, two of the peasants,
seized by the insurgents, and, abundant proof of
their guilt having been obtained, hanged by order
of a court-martial. The peasant guard of the
village, knowing that the sentence was a just one,
took no notice of the matter. Unfortunate:y it
came to the ears of Mouravieff, who immediately
ordered the whole village to be burnt to the ground.
The order was executed to the letter ; the village is
in ashes ; all the inhabitants, without exception,
have been sent to Siberia, and their land has been
sold to raskolinks.

That these terrible deeds are not to be ascribed
to the savage character of one individual, but to
the system adopted by the Russian Government, is
proved by the fact that in nearly every district of
Poland the Russian governor treats the inhabitants
in accordance with the same barbarous policy. The
Mouravieff of Suwalki is Prince Wittgenstein,
an officer who bears the character of being an
amiable and humane man. The events lam about
to relate that the mere fact of his having become
an in instrument of Russian policy hee transformed
him into a cruel tyrant. Some days back the Rus-
sians captured seven peasants whom they suspected
of being Polish gendarmes. In order to compel
them to acknowledge their guilt, the usual expe-
dient of torture was resorted to; and, when they
fainted iu consequence of the sharpness of their
sufferings, cold water was thrown over their mangled
bodies in order to prepare them for fresh torments.
At length they yielded, and Wittgenstein con-
demned them to die without the consolations of reli-
gion. Some members of the inquisitorial committee
having interceded in their favour, this sentence
was commuted, with regard to three of the accused,
to hard labour in the mines of Siberia. These three
men, condemned to a punishment perhaps even
more terrible than death itself, were bound hand
and foot and thrown into a cell, where they passed
the night before their dreadful journey on the bare
ground—insulted, kicked, and spat upon by the
soldiers who guarded them. The remainder were
similarly treated. Next morning the four victims
were taken in a cart to the gallows. The first
three met their fate with a noble indifference; the
fourth, a youth of 17, named Wysocki, seemed to
feel more deeply the dreadful fate that awaited
him. As he stood on the steps of the gallows,
he raised his eyes to heaven, and exclaimed, in a
voice which impreesed conviction of his innocence
on all who were present, " Brothers ! God is my
witness, I die innocent." Seeing his mother near,
he burst into tears. The soldiers called out to her
to go away, but she refused, declaring she would
look on her son to the last. But the sight was too
much for her; as the fatal noose was being draw, o
round her son's neck she fainted, and was varied
away by the people. During the execution Witt-
genstein had cannon brougnt out into the streets,
fearing a popopular tumult. As he signed the
decree sentencing them, he said, " I will show that
I am no worse than Mouravieff." Such s the
example presented by the Russian Government to
its employes in Poland.