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

THE INSURRECTION IN POLAND.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
LEMBERG, July 11.
The Galician expedition to Volhynia is now com-
pletely at an end. Rumour says that it is about to
be renewed, and the men who ran away declare
that as long as they have a drop of blood in their
veins they will strike the Russians wherever they
find them 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

-- ...
had 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
was—just as it would have been a fortunate thing
for the Galicians if the insurrection of 1846, which

led to the Gallician massacres, had never been at-

tempted. Nevertheless, if the leaders of the na-
tional movement really thought it worth while to

take Radziwilow, that remarkably unimportant
town might, with a little foresight, have been taken,
or the 1,600 Poles who were ready to march iato
Volhynia on the morning of the Ist might have
passed Radziwilow 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 support it was only necessary to appear
among them in great force. Tha insurrection in
Volhynia had, it was said, failed in the first in-
stance simply and solely because the long me-
ditated expedition front Galicia had not been ready
to enter the province (as according:to the plan of the
National 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 Volbynia 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-
bynia further north than Minniewski; and close to
the right bank of the river Bug, while Rozycki,
one of the host leaders who has yet appeared, was
to have penetrated into the some 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

dttachments were sure to be destroyed it was
thought certain that others would succeed in ad-
vancing far into the interior of Volllynia, 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 reapeet and, to a cer-

tain extent, their assistance. The chief appointed
to direct the combined movement was General

Wysocki, formerly the commander of tho 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 purcLased and confis
cited, 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 et 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 Wysocki'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 had 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 as far as my observation goes I am
inclined to think that the poor,
according to their
means,
have given more. I have never heard any
poor man make such a remark, but on the contrary,
I have heard it generally acknowledged that the
great proprietors in Poland have done their best, as
far as money contributions are concerned. However,
I 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 show
conditions of men who called themselves tO a
ms e l
vl all
se classes
insurgentsss and
were, if anything, carried to excess,
sons received and entertained strangerfosromn atnhye per-
sonsun-
derstanding that they belonged to the Volhynian
expedition, but without havingry positive proof of
the fact. Even the German ofam
ale in some places
were touched by this general confidence, and when
ordered to institute a " revision" would give a hint
beforehand that at such an hour their arrival might
be expected. Then the men would go into the woods,
the horses would b 3 taken out of the stables and
sent into the fields, while the saddles and bridles
were buried in the garden. I have seen packets of
omor
saddles and boxes of arms left at a house without
fr any notification as to where they came
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 a line of writing,
or, more generally, a message by word of mouth,
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
insurgents. appointed for the most part to the
central detachment under the immediate command
of Wysocki. Many of them belonged to the emi-
gration, and had abandoned the little positions
which, after many years striving, they had contrived
to obtain in England, or mere generally' in France,
in order to see their country once more and strike
" The young men
one more blow on its behalf.
here are admirable," they said, "sacrificing them-
selves for a cause which is a very aesperate one if
we are never to be assisted from abroad. As for us
it does not matter. We are old fellows, and would
rather die in Poland than any where else; and then
we have not led the sort 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 officer of the same army, had been keeping a
shot), andwas making humourous speculations as to
how in his
absence
the business would be carried
on. A third saw hisnative land for the first time,