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 inscrrcetion was laid bJore 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important of those hitherto unpublished is the fol-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 an 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 having, 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 Boland a national representation and
nitiona, 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 ell 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 they deem so c Alta ary 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 ho had
acquired it by the unassisted success of his arms, and un-
sanctioned by the consent of any other power, ho 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 descendants for ever of those privileges and institutions

which his predecessor had 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, Por-
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 hare 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 dwell 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 justified,
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 it is not in-
deed for her Majesty's Government to foretel ; but whether
the result shall 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 subjec
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 securit, and of strength.

Her Majesty's G ,vernment, therefore, moat earnestly
entreat the Government of Russia to give their most
serious attention to all the foregoing considerations ; an
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.fil. 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-
sarily produce a serious agitation of opinion in other coun-
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 Government will so arrange these matters
that peace may be restored to the Polish people, and may
be established upon lasting foundations.
Your lordship will read this despatch to Prince Gortacha-
koff, and you will give him a copy of 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,
and when I told him that the despatch of her Majesty's
Government was chiefly founded on the non-observance of
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. .
But the state of things might change. The present over-
ture of her Majesty's Government might be rejected as the
representation of the 2d of March had been rejected by the
Imperial Government. The insurrections in Poland might
continue and might assume larger proportions ; the atro-
cities on both sides might be aggravated and extended to a
wider range of country. If 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.
e or
an overture. The intentions of theEmpu
Baron Brunnow said he could not call our former dis-
patchß rt
there
to-
wards Poland were most kind and benevolent.
of Europe. In
were projects afloat for altering the
esmsiaap were included.
these p ojects compensationh to
projects;
nteorrwi)totrruialtadrrange.
she wanted no
trusted
nu
activetl
dt o Greatl
daionoy
Russia entered into none of
the
ee
wish of her Nes y,,G 0 v etlicoei
mcoemnptsenosfaEtiounro;pseh, eanhdeldbebymaron
Britain would do so likewise.
xi . t ,
Russia herself had in some cases been presentßrun
into effect
those
w
I said it was the
so. But
trusted, however, that in the present case the geei I
Emperor
downs ,
proposing angrdance:argYiangn
their arms, and thebenefitse of free '
Poland, would put an end to the insurreet io • institutions to
n.
The following contains the vi •
ews of th
ment on the Russian amnesty :-- e English Govern-
No. 170.

• -•
EARL RUSSELL TO LORD NAPISR.
Sir,---I
Foreign-offs April 24, 1863.
have received and laid before the Queen your
excellency's despatch of the 12th inst., enclosing a copy of
a manifesto on Polish affairs issued by the Emperor of Rus-
sia on the 31st of March (April 12).
Her Majesty's Government have carefully and anxiously
considered the contents of this document, in thehope to find
in it the germ of the restorationof peace, and a hope of good
government to Poland.
I have to make to you the following remarks as the result
of their deliberations.

An amnesty may lay the foundation of peace in two
cases :

1. If the insurgents have been thoroughly defeated, and
are only waiting for a promise of pardon to enable them to
return to their homes.

2. If the amnesty is accompanied with such ample pro-
rains of the redress of the grievances which gave occasion

to tho insurrection as to induce the insurgents to think
that their object is attained.
It is clear that the first of these cases is not that of the
present insurrection.

It is not put down ; it is, on the contrary, rather more
extensive than it was a few weeks ago.
Let us, then, examine the amnesty with ieference to
the second of the supposed cases.
The Emperor, referring to the institutions which he has
conferred (" ectroyees") on the kingdom of Poland, says:—
" En maintenant encore aujourd'hui ces institutions
dans leur integrito, nous nous r6servons, lorsqu'elles
auront ete ep7ouv6es dans la pratique, de proceder a lcur
developpement ultei ieur selon lee besoins du temcs et crux
du pays."*
This promise can hardly be satisfactory to the Poles. For
it must be observed with regard to the institutions already
given that it was during their existence that 2,500 young
men were seized arbitrarily in the night, and condemned
to serve as soldiers in the Russian army in defiance of
justice, and even in violation of the law of 1859, so recently
enacted. So that it is evident no security w• uld be obtained
by submitting again to the same laws. AVith those institu-
tions in full force and vigeur innocent men might be impri-
soned as criminals, or condemned to serve as soldiers. or
banished to distant countries, without a trial, without pub-
licity, without any guarantee whatever.

As to the promise held out for the future, it must be ob-
served that it is made to depend on the practical working of
these institutions and on the wants of the time and of the

country.

The first of these conditions alone destroys all reasonable
hope of the fulfilment of this promise. For the practical
working of the institutions hitherto given depends on the
cooperation of native Poles of property and character as
members of the Council of State, and of provincial and muni-
cipal assemblies. But the recent conduct of the Russian
government in Poland has deprived them of the confidence
of all Poles of this description, and forced all such Poles to
withdraw from the bodies in which their functions, were to
be exercised.

There are wanting, therefore, in this imperial manifesto
the first elements of success, namely, a guarantee of secu-
rity on the one side, and the feeling of trust and confidence
on the other.

In a dispatch of Lord Durham, then ambassador at St.
Petersburgh, dated in August, 1832, Lord Durham says
—" There has long been a jealousy, nay, hatred, existing
between the Russians and Poles." Her Majesty's Govern..
ment had hoped that the present Emperor, by raising the
social position of his Russian, and securing the political
freedom of his Polish subjects might have united both by
the link of loyal attachment to the throne.
This hope has been unfortunately disappointed, and it
is with great pain that her Majesty's Government observe
that the feelings of hatred between Russians and Poles have
not in the lapse of 30 years been softened or modified.
The present amnesty does not appear likely to di►jfnisk
the intensity of the insurrection, or give any solid security
to the most moderate of Polish patriots.—l am, &c.,
(Signed) RUSSELL.

* Translation._« In maintaining, at this day, these in-
stitutions in their integrity, we reserve to ourselves, when-
ever they shall have been practically triel, to proceed to
their further development in accordance with the require-
ments of the age and of the country.