The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-11 00:00:00

FRE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 11, 1863.

Of what importance is it to learn that Smith com-
mands the right, Brown the centre, Jones the left,
while Robinson presides over an army that cannot
move ? A general of Louis XIV. of France once
forwarded to the King a precis of a hundred reasons
why the army under his command was unable to
bombard a certain town, the first on the list being
that he had no guns. The King was satisfied with
this, and did not read the remainder. Now there
may be many weighty reasons to hinder the army
of the Potomac from advancing once more against
the enemy. We read, however, that " the snow is
six feet deep at Falmouth, and the roads are im-
passable," and this is quite enough for us. Mean-
while, the discontent of the Democratic party of the
North is gaining ground. Gold, which was at 57
premium on Jan. 30, had risen to 59 on Jan. 31,
and there was a perfect panic among the monied
and mercantile class at the financial crisis that
seemed to be impending. The legislative and judi-
cial authorities of the middle States are assuming
an attitude of open hostility to the Government.
Resolutions have been proposed, and are likely to
be accepted in the New Jersey Legislature, which
amount to an expression of want of confidence in
the Administration, and call for a sort of dictator-
ship under M'Clellan. The judge of quarter ses-
sions of Philadelphia having instructed the grand
jury to postpone all other business to the considera-
tion of the arbitrary arrest of the editor of the
Evening Journal, the grand jury have investigated
the circumstances and returned a bill of indict-
ment against the officers concerned in it. This
is an arraignment of the Government of Pre-
sident Lincoln in the persons of the subordinates
who acted under his command, The State of Ken-
tucky has refused to allow negro regiments to
pass across her frontier, and the people of Mary-
land and Missouri have been alienated from
the Northern cause by the proclamation of slave
emancipation. The difficulties of the Federal Go-
vernment are increasing hourly, and the fragments
of the old Union that still claim to hold together are
so rending apart by reason of their diversity of
feeling, that some day, when ripe for the final dis-
integration, they may fall asunder in pieces with
one accord, and Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet be left
alone at Washington.
DAILY News.—The first words which Alexander
11. addressed to the representatives of the Polish
nation after his accession were, •‘ No illusions,
gentlemen ; above all, no illusions." The commen-
tary on this language is now being written in
blood. It would have been well for the Emperor's
reputation if ho had some one to tell him that the
hopes which a brave nation draws hom history,
contemporary experience, and its own conscious-
ness of great qualities are not entirely at the mercy
of a phrasemonger, even though he be Imperial.
The Emperor must by this time have become con-
vinced that the illusion was quite as much on his
side as on that of the Poles. The man would be
very rash who should venture to predict the course
of the great movement of which we are spectators
It may be that this insurrection may be trodden
out as former insurrections have been. It would not
be at all wonderful if insurgents who have few
arms save such as they have taken from the enemy,
and whose bands are for the most pa rt composed of
pikemen and scythemen, should be overcome by the
well-organised and fully-equipped brigades of the
Czar. On the other hand, it is to be observed that
elements tire present in this conflict which have not
affected the issue of former insurrections in Poland.
The internal state of Russia is not what it was in
1830. The social condition of Russia in Europe
was then comparatively settled and compact. Now
all is in a state of transition. Through the mea-
sures which the Government has taken for the
emancipation of the serfs the old bands have been
loosened, and the great mass of the people are
moving onwards to a new position. The recent
speeches of the Czar to the peasants prove that he
is aware that he has awakened expectations which
his measures have not satisfied. And those mea-
sures he has solemnly declared to be final. Under
these circumstances the issue, by the Polish leaders,
of the Proclamation, which we give in another
column, and in which the cause of the political in-
dependence of Poland is bound up with the promise
of new rights of property in land, may have an im-
portance reaching beyond its effect on those to whom
it is immediately addressed. In old countries, Go-
vernments have uniformly found that no revolu-
tionary movements are so difficult to compress as
those which are connected with a struggle for the
ownership of land. The Central Committee, which
have declared themselves the "only legal Govern-
ment of Poland," and which in that capacity de-
mand the zealous obedience of every Pole, have con-
nected the national came with this powerful incen-
tive. They say :—" From this moment the land,
which the agricultural population possessed on con-
dition of paying rent or giving task work to their
masters, is unconditionally their property, and that
of their heirs. The families of all labourers who
join the ranks of the defenders of the country, or
die in glorious death while serving, shall receive a
share of the land won from the enemy out of the
State property." We are of course unable to esti-
mate the influence which these promises have actu-
ally had upon the peasantry whom the Russian Go-
vernment believed it had effectually detached from
the national cause by exempting them from the re-
cent conscription ; but we know as a fact that the
peasants who were at first reported as standing aloof,
are now heartily with the movement. The conse-
quences have been such as the Russian Government
could never have looked for. By the latest ac-
counts, the number of personsjoining the insurrec-
tion was continually increasing, and extensive dis-
tricts had been entirely cleared of Russian troops,
who had taken refuge in bodies of 500 at a time
within the Prussian frontier. Hitherto the suc-
cess of the insurgents has surpassed the expecta-
tions of Russia and of Europe, probably it has
exceeded their own hopes. Still it may prove but
transitory if the Russian Government be permitted
to organize and advance its forces at leisure. It
may be otherwise if the contagion of agrarianism,
as embodied in the Proclamation of the Polish Cen-
tral Committee, should extend to Russia and excite
agitation among the peasantry, whose situation, as
we have seen, renders them peculiarly susceptible
to influences of this order. in that case the Russian
Government might find too much employment for
its forces at home to be able to subdue Poland. We
shall not, however, speculate on the course of events
it will be:better simply to observe and understand
them from day to day. As to opinion, there is no
reason why we should not speak with the utmost
freedom. Certainly, we need not hesitate to do so
from any fear of contributing to inflame a sangui-
nary war. Journalista sometimes, in speaking of
their responsibilities, employ a language which be-
tokens an exaggerated estimate of their influence.
The moral forces which are called out in wars of
nationality, religion, or opinion, are too powerful
to be seriously affected by the likes or dislikes of
inactive bystanders, however gracefully expressed.
We most ardently wish the success of the Poles in
their unequal conflict. By history and religion
they are clearly marked off from the Russians.
Russia has had plenty of time to establish her
moral ascendancy in Poland, and has utterly failed.
For her own credit, therefore, as much as for the
sake of the Poles, we should be glad to see her
abandon an experiment which is hopeless. No
Power in Europe could so well afford to rectify its
position. Should the prudence of the Government
secure internal peace and tranquillity, Russia will
receive in the rise of a numerous middle class, and
in the rapid increase of wealth and population, the
reward of the wisdom which dictated the emanci-
pation of the serfs, and will be more powetul than
ever to fulfil its true mission—the development of
civilisation among the peoples and tribes of its
Eastern territories. Experience, however, bids us
look for the establishment of national independence
to the valour of peoples rather than to the reason-
ableness of governments.

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