The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-23 00:00:00

THE INSURRECTION IN POLAND.

(born. the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
CRACOW, May 17.
Since Jezioranski's last battle there has been a
general calm along the Galician frontier, disturbed
only from time to time by some rapid and sudden
attack upon the Russian outposts, under the direc-
tion of the übiquitous cavalry chief called " Bonza"
—the name not of a family nor of any living crea-
ture, but of a heraldic symbol. The conflicting re-
ports that have reached Cracow as to Jezioranski's
latest movements have doubtless been transmitted
by telegraph to London. One day we were told that
he had been beaten and had sought refuge in
Galicia, with all his army—another that he bad not
even been engaged, and that he was still in the
kingdom. I learn from a friend who has just left
Jezioranski that these statements, apparently so
impossible to reconcile, are nevertheless both of
them true as regards the main points, for Jezioran-
ski is still in the kingdom, and nearly all his troops
have crossed over into Galicia. This is what is
called " dividing the army into two detachments"
—one detachment consisting of the army minus
the commander, the other of the commander
minus the army. The only battle in which Jezi-
oranski's corps had been worsted was a battle with
hunger. It had had no meeting with the Rus-
sians since the great fight at liobylgnks, but the
Russians appear to have been on the point of
encircling it, and they had certainly succeeded in
cutting off its supplies. General Jezioranski, with
General Waligorski, and a great band of followers,
made his way to Czerwinski's detachment, in which
he is now serving, at some distance in the interior.
As to his men, very few of them have fallen into
the hands of the Austrians, and the arms are, for
the most part, in safety. It cannot be said, then,
that Jezioranski's army has been destroyed. It has
been temporarily dissolved, but its elements can, '
and will, be combined again in some form or other.
I❑ estimating the forces at the disposal of the
Polish National Government, it would be a great
mistake to count those insurgents only who are
actually in the field. At present every one who
joins n detachment organised by the National Go•
vernment becomes a soldier of the Polish national
army and must obey orders, not only as long as
his detachment remains in the field, but as long as
the insurrection lasts. If the corps to which he
belongs is driven in he has to report himself at
headquarters, and to hold himself in readiness to
start again for the frontier at the shortest notice.
The soldiers of the insurrection receive regular pay

(if they happen to want it), and owe the same obe-
dience to their chiefs which would be required from
them in any other army. A national police, too,
has been organised, and has been found very useful
in the Kir.gdom. Its action, it is said, will soon be
extended to Galicia, and especially to Cracow, for
the benefit of a number of insurgents who are tem-
porarily unattached, and who in the meanwhile do
not seem to know exactly what to do with them-

selves.
Besides its police, properly so called, the National
Government employs a body of commissioners for
collecting taxes and giving and receiving informa-
tion of various kinds. The war tax amounts to 10
per cent. on clear income, and is, or ought to be,
paid by every one except the peasants, who are not
allowed to Fly anything to any one, and who are so
petted by both Governments—national and anti-
national—that they would be quite spoilt were they
not already far beyond the possibility of spoiling.
Will the Russians succeed in making the Polish
peasant fight against his late master, or will his
late master succeed in making him fight the Rus-
sians? Probably, after taking what he can get
from both sides, he will remain quietly at home,
doing no work, paying no rent, and enjoying him-
self after his own fashion. The proprietors are
convinced that he will never take up arms for the
Russ;an Government, whatever inducements it
may offer him; and hitherto he has certainly not
given the slightest sign of an intention to strike
a blow in its favour. He has shown himself ready
enough to earn a dishonest penny by sellingesbies
but,
rule, to his country's enemies,
insdtirde: )
rule, ho has carefully abstained from actihvueetv:ienvteerr:
ference on either side. In no
do battle
has the Polish peasant been
ally fought well for
on particular estates he hasnperecrearuta districts and
ain
e
seem to im
TOa-
for the Russians, where as i
his own people. If, as many p
• were all peasants there would be
labourers
thousands of peasa
already under arms—not only
,ntfawrinith the class
gine, the kossunierntts
in Lithuania, but in the Kingdom itself ; but the
eastmpoamret
domestic
of peasant proprietors), workmen, and
(notkss utno iebr:caornefo ufonrdethdefon:
servants. When a commander has not ' rifles enough
for all his men he arms a portion of them with
sythes; if there were an adequate
military weapons we should supply of proper
sythemen at all. probably hear of no
Travellers from 'Warsaw
excite-
ment prevailed there on thesay that great
been brought from the . l3th. Cannon had
bridges, so citadel and posted on the
as to
There was a command
citadel was mined, rumourandamong
and 25 of the houses f the suburb of Praga.
the soldiers that the
was. about to be blown up,
facing it had been searched
throughout. Fresh o
had been formed at all posts of infantry and Cossacks
barriers, and. detach-
ments were moving about in ever
of insurgents, who had shown every
directionmsel in search
the city. The whole of the district ofveßsacwas,9thoe
centre of which is about 50 miles to the south or
south-west of Warsaw, was in • the
hands of the in-
surgents, and under the civil as well as military rule
of the Polish National Government.