The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-20 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
WARSAW, Oct. 8.
A barbarous scene was enacted here yesterday
in the courtyard of a private house which the Rus-

sians took upon themselves to turn into a place of
execution. A workman employed at the iron fac-
of Messrs. Evans
tory and Co., had been arrested

in the street and found to have in his pocket some
hollow knobs of iron, one inch in diameter, and
which, according to some, were screws for iron bed-

steads, and according to others cases for grenades,
but which, by all accounts, would not, hod they
been filled with fulminating powder, have been at
an formidable missiles. Having positively refused,
after numerous interrogatories, to state for whom

hese possible bed screws and probable grenade

cases had been made, he was ordered to be
shot, and at 10 o'clock yesterday morning
was deliberately executed in presence of his
fellow workmen, who were summoned by the police
the night before and forced to attend. The poor fel-
low had contravened a Russian police decree, and it
is likely enough that he may have meant the bits of
iron which he carried in his pocket to be used against
the men with whom his country is at war. But,
however that may have been, every Pole who can
read and write has aided the present insurrection
against Russia in some form or other, and hence the
workman convicted of having carried grenades in
his pocket is justly looked upon by his fellow•citi•

zens as a man who, in the fullest sense of the word,
has suffered for his country—as a man who had done
the same sort of thing that every other Pole has
done, and will continue to do, but who, having been
found out, had to bear the penalties consequent upon
detection. The courtyard of Messrs. Evans's factory
for some hours before the execution was occupied
and guarded from the outside by as many as 2,000
troops,
and no one was allowed to go in or out of the
pafter 8 o'clock. The prisoner, who has left a
res ,
widow and several children, put on the condemned
shirt himself, and died with the greatest firmness.
Where, I wonder, will the Russians do their hang-
ing and shooting at last? In the dining room of
an hotel before the frequenters of the table d'hote,
summoned to be present under pain of being hanged
or shot themselves? or in a private apartment, in
presence of the family and intimate friends of the
accused ? They began at the Citadel, and executed
prisoners as, after due conviction, they are executed
in other countries. After the infamous attempt on
Gee. Berg's life (of which, by the way, it is idle to
attempt
to exculpate the National Government,
n
National Government wishes to be held
e
for it), they made five of the National
since
tphte
suffer death in the principal places of
the Y
Afterwards
rgesnpdoanrsini
Afterwards, as if in consequence of the
asse
assassination of a Russian agent called Ber-
tholdi, at the Hotel de l'Europe, they change their
scene of execution from the public square to the
courtyard of a private establishment, and appa-
rently fail to perceive that their punishments have
no longer the character of terrible acts of justice,
but of horrible acts of vengeance and retaliation.
They are not able to convict one of their recent vic-
tims of murder or of an evident intent to murder.
The offence for which they had executed so many
persons of late has been that of carrying deadly
missiles supposed to be deadly. The
weapons or
Russians have numbers of men in the Citadel against
whom there ere is similar presumptive evidence of their
haemviirialig committed
by
been connected with the insurrection, and
h
plan seems now to be to take the blood of one
or more of those in return for every act of violence
co
the Poles. For the murder of Ber-
ld one man; for the injuries done to the Cos
sack,
t
cavalry horse, the two carriage horses and
General Berg's paletot, five.
tho i
the
Moreover, the strange principle that heads of
families are liable for the acts of their servants, and
owners of factories and shops for the acts of their
workmen and apprentices, is now being introduced
by the Russian Government in Poland. I know
cases
proprietors of estates in Lithuania being
imprisoned in consequence of their servants having
joined the
of
insurrection; and three days ago a fine
of 15,000 roubles was imposed on Messrs. Evans and
Co., in V arsaw' on account of the aforesaid un-
happy workman of theirs having been found with
supposed grenade cases in his pocket. As this
fine was demanded in virtue of no law (though a
special edict, applicable to Messrs. Evans'
as
published after the demand had been
made), payment of it was, of course, refused. This
probable result had been foreseen, and
cep alone, police
ee
was
the Government than
urnment had deigned to command that until
was paid the works should be closed. The
then arose as to what would become of 400
questionteeh
workmen fine
rkmenthrown idle upon the streets of Warsaw,
and exasperated at the execution, in their forced
presence, one of their fellow-workmen, whom they
looked upon, not as a criminal, but as a martyr ?
The proprietors of the factory were told .that
unless paid the fine they must close their
doors, h
that if they decide to close their
must still
doors they pay their workmen. The
reply
was that the fine being
tanedy
unjust and founded
upon no conviction, or even accusation, it would
not be paid ;
that the factory might be shut up, but
that in that case the men would receive no wages.
Finally,
Mr. Evans, who is in England, having been
consulted by telegraph, desired that a formal pro-
test against the whole proceedings should be en-
tered on his behalf as an English subject, and to-
night a very becoming notice appears in the War-
r saw Police Gazette, to the effect that there has been
some mistake, and that Messrs. Evans and Co. need
not pay the fine of 15,000 roubles unjustly imposed
upon them.
This result leads one to ask how it happens that
the Zamoyski Pelage, which the Russian Government
must now be convinced has no connection with the
Zamoyski house, is still held as confiscated property?
If bombs were thrown from the Zamoyski house
(and Poles who witnessed the explosion say that the
smoke was so great and such general confusion wase
caused that it is impossible to say where they nani
from), then it is not astonishing that in accordance
Governments
with a police edict published last January the house
should have been confiscated. Indeed,
pretending to be more civilised than
Government have before now, and without
bom any
barded houses
pre-
vious regulation on the subject, the Russian
t, have c
from which it had been asserted that slots ha caused
fired upon soldiers, and, more than tßhaut this sort of
been
every inmate to be put to death.
F
tFrance,
ia the face of
nh
si
un
grect is only done, even
d n
insurrection;
he possibility of any rising
Russians do not admit t
•seized the Zamoyski Palace under
rion, or pre pretended and the
in Warsaw. They .
They must know by this
point, Can such a
time that
the belief that it formed one building with the Z
moyski house.
in error on this
Government as that of Russia be only capa-
blestrorg
they have been
of admitting that it has committed en injustice
when it has acted unjustly towards an English sub•
j eet ? OCT.
It appears that the affair between the Russian Go-
vernment and Messrs. Evans is not yet at an end.
As if annoyed at having had to rescind one of its
orders (though a Government so equitable as that
of Russia ought to remember that it is never too
late to be just), it has now published a formal edict
by which all proprietors of factories and workships
are made responsible for the acts of their operatives
b-
and srvauts, and condemned to have their esta