The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 9, 1863.

because they only care for the quantity, and not
for the quality of their conquests. To infuse a
gradual improvement among their own possessions,
and to soften down the harsh outlines of conquest
into something more genial and gracious, is quite
beyond the ken and above the wishes of the nation.
The humiliating position that is occupied by the
largest country in Europe is aptly alluded to in
this reply. After stating that it is threnquarters
of a century since the nation have advanced with
great steps towards freedom, the speakers earnestly
declare—" You alone have remained encrusted with
the rough barbarism of ancient times and the Tar-
taric wildness of the steppes." This is plain speak-
ing, at all events, and, if it answers no other pur-
pose, it may take down the pride of the assuming
dictators who presumed to lecture the patriots
struggling for their birthright and the citizens
pining for their social rights. It is melancholy to
dwell on the passage that refers to the suffer-
info that have been endured for the cause
of liberty on the soil of Poland. The in-
domitable energy that has held up the patriots
and the sublime endurance that has maintained its
ground despite all obstacles, and notwithstanding
all attack, are illustrated in this reply—_"a spirit
stronger than the sword, and mightier than
despair" has animated and informed these heroes
and martyrs, and now the sentiment shines
through these words, and imparts to them a life
and lustre. The stirring memories of the past
arouse these men when they declare to the Rus-
sians that finding it impossible to make them
adopt a civilisation far inferior to their own, they
have perpetrated heathenish cruelties against
them, and by endeavours to annihilate them, have
planned to call their native land their own. There
is the prescience that a long course of injustice
and deceit generally imparts to the oppressed
when it is said, " We mark a satanic smile upon
the lips of our oppressors when they hail us as
brothers." Considering the circumstances of the
case, the term is an insulting one, and it is not
surprising that it should be rejected with scorn
and contumely. Of what avail is it that a tor-
tured and tyrannised people should be made game
of, which they certainly are when the represen-
tatives of the soil of their oppressors thus salutes
them with the sacred title of affinity bearing
evidence of cordiality and goodwill. It has failed
in making the Poles think they were being ad-
dressed by those keenly alive to their welfare.
It will fail in making any of the nations of
Europe believe iu the sincerity of the framers of
the appeal. "We shall never be decoyed again
by the honey of your deceptive words," declare
the Poles in their reply. For often has the fatal
mistake been made for the lesson to need learn-
ing again, and forewarned is forearmed we may
be sure in this instance. The absurd proposition
that was made by the Russians, that the Poles
should join them in attacking their natural
enemies, the nations of Western Europe, is scouted
with the scorn it deserves. On the contrary,
they distinctly declare that if they occupy any
position it will be to join the enemies of Russia,
not the other nations, who are their friends.
Then, as to the prospect of culture held out in the
appeal, it is shown how the devastators have
crippled education, suppressed schools, and stolen
the treasures of art and of science. Finally, they
say, " Not unto us, then, but to your CZAR, call
loudly. Bow to the unalterable course of history.
Of one thing let him ba assured, only he can obtain
peace who is willing to leave others unmolested ;
and only then will the Russian people be happy
when they permit us to enjoy our happiness undis-
pat uda rtdbrrieeodsts.s:
ms ao mouthpiece
hopr
to
eohcye representitp r conclusionofprofesses
s ses
the t
to
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nation
ieo.noblen
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i
more uncalled-for and inconsistent thing than this
appeal of Russian patriots to the Polish people has
scaroely been heard of, and it is most satisfactory
to peruse so good an answer. Nothing is more
difficult than to concoct answers to these awkward
messages, and it is creditable to those who framed
the reply that it in every way enters into the ne-
cessary detail, and aptly represents the spirit of the
nation. At all events
it cannot be said that this
arduous struggle, this unequal conflict, and this
dreadful suffering has been all in •
vain. Through
the gloom of the reign of terror which
is established
oa her soil, Poland has beheld some signs of a
brighter dawn and a better
day of freedom near at
hand. The Russian EMPEROR cannot for shame
accord privileges to that nation that he withholds
from his own people, and hence it may yet turn out
that the Russians themselves are benefited
by the
noble efforts made by the patriot sons of Poland.
It is a tribute to courage and constancy of which
history can record no more signal instance or strik-
ing example. Those who have perished on the
battlefields, or who endure the harder lot of a
foreign prison, might rejoice if they
knew that in
some measure their work was not profitless, nor
their labour thrown away. The fact
is that the
Poles have held out so bravely, and resisted so in-
cessantly that the whole of Europe joined the cry
of their wrongs. If unable to assist by armies, the
voice of public opinion, and the concurrent test

mony of witnessing nations is sometimes more
- • •

powerful than armed hosts. One urges and excites
to opposition, the other overawes and impresses.
If only good result accrue to the heroic nation that
has been so long the shame of her tyrants, and the

grief of her friends, it will be one of those world
wide blessings that attract universal acclamation,
and form the source of thanksgiving to all be-
holdcrs in divers nations and of many races.

OUR IMPORTS.—The imports of foreign and
colonial goods into the United Kingdom are of four
classes. The first comprises articles of food. The corn puted real value of these in the returns for 1862 was no less
than £93,027,988, a sum equal to three-fourths of the value
of the entire export of British and Irish produce and manu-
factures. By far the largest item is for corn and flour, the
imports of which in that year reached the enormous amount
of £37,755,060. The import of grain, meal, and flour never
reached 12,000,000 qrs., until the bad harvest of 1860, in
which year it was 14,494,976 qrs., but in 1861 it was
16,094,914 qrs., and in 1862, 18,441,791 qrs. The average
price on which the value of the wheat imported was
computed in 1862 has not yet been stated ; in 1861 it was
53s 9d for Russian, 60s 2d for Prussian, 39s 9d for Egyp-
tian, and 55s 2d for American. There were other im-
ports of food of astonishing amount. Not to speak of strong
drink, nor of tea, coffee, and sugar, we imported in 1862
cattle, sheep, and swine, and salted meat and lard, to the
amount of more than £5,000,000 (the oxen and bulls were
put is 1861 at an average of £l7 lls, and the sheep at 455) ;
butter, nearly £5,000,000; cheese, £1,600,000 ; rice,
£2,400,000; eggs, £500,000; poultry, £85,000. A second
class of our imports consists of raw manufac-
turematerialisnofls64ws
; and the value of these was
arrivalst
as
£91,984,804. The
£96,513,530. In 186,0 thesatmheo
largestWiiisovheyr rneceeimveeda.nsle'lize.
import
rthe value of the imports ; the riss
ex-
pressed by a Pstatement of
borne in mind. quantity fell fromin pike must be
fillingi eap o impost ooffi, wool
in
the Thheiun2ipwat of cotto
computed valuo from £
60s. 4d,
cotton at
12,419,096 cwt. in 1860 to 43,56,7785,63,38389 c wtte. ixn311,806923;,0t4h5e.
In 1866 the computation wason American
per cwt.; in 1861 at 725. 51.
A third class
sists of articles used in manufacture or g
articles reached
raw materials of manufacture; and these
inthis
class
£16,643,572 in the year 1862. The chief items
ic of
ur importse, net
beingconaruh:
are wood, sawn or split, planed or dressed ;
guano,
re
he remaining
copper partly wrought, and iron in bars.
or.
of
dT
class comprises manufactured articles, and the imp t
these in 1862 amounted to £17,196,463; a few unenume
of
rated articles bringing the whole amount of the imparts
1862 up to £225,716,974. The chief manufactured articles
imported were silks of the value of more than £6,000,000;
woollens, £1,574,218; cottons, £899,738 ; leather goods
(chkitY gloves), £851,256 ; clocks and. watches, £464,000 ;
manufactures of hair and goat's wool, £397,454; and glass,
£108,388.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

GERMANY.

THE QUEEN'S RETURN TO ENGLAND.

GOTHA, TUESDAY.
Her Majesty Queen Victoria left Coburg at half-
past ten last night. Her Majesty will remain a
day at Darmstadt.

Prince and Princess Louis of ILsse left before
the Queen on Friday last.
King Ferdinand of Portugal has arrived.

LITERATURE.

CHAMBERS'S HANDY GUIDE TO THE KENT
AND SUSSEX COASTS.
One Vol. pp. 172. W. and R. Chambers.

A Shilling Guide-Book, capitally illustrated,
admirably well compacted, gossipping but not
garrulous, instructive in regard to what we want to
know, and interesting throughout—has just been
published by the Messrs. William and Robert
Chambers, of Edinburgh and London. It conducts
the reader or consulter of it, as its very title shows,
along those pleasant coasts so delightfully familiar
to us all—the coasts of Kent and Sussex. A beau-
tifu' little, delicately coloured, folding map (all the
better it would have been if backed by linen) is pre-
fixed to the volumette as a sort of frontispiece. A
map skirted along its northern margin by the
meandering line of the River Thames from beyond
Reading in the west, circuitously eastwards past
Gravesend, the Medway and Sheerness, until its
fresh waters are lost in the rolling salt waters of the
Channel and the German Ocean. A map skirted along
the south quite as waveringly from Portsmouth in
the west, to the Forth Foreland in the east, confront-
ing the terrible Goodwin Sands. As to the interest,
ing character of the various scenes traversed by the
tourist who may take this Handy Guide-Book
as his circerone that may perhaps be
the most readily indicated by a passing
reference to the subjects selected for the twelve ex-
cellent woodcuts distributed among the letterpress.
Here Tilbury Fort, here Earl Amherst's lovely
seat of Kuole near Sevenoaks. Yonder grand old
Roehester Castle, looking down in ruins upon the
stately old Cathedral. Yonder, again, at one while,
Fort Pitt, Chatham, and at another Kit's Coty
House, `he hughest Cromlech in all England. Mar-
gate is the subject of two illustrations, one of the
town, one of the pier. Canterbury Cathedral meets
our glance, a little later on in the very readable nar-
rative or descript:on here put together by one evi-
dently no novice at these kind of compilations. After-
wards we have a peep, successively, at Dover Castle
and at that other airy castle overlooking Hastings.
Near the latter fashionable watering-pluce, we are
led, not un willingly, back, in fancy, by the draughts-
man, to Lovers' Seat, at Fairlight. The closing
illustration, making up the round dozen, showing
us the well-known bit. of Brighton, seen from the
Chain Pier. In the form of an appendix there
will be found grouped together, also, in this little
Guide Book, all kinds of use ful information, such
as the names of the owners of the bathing machines
at the different watering-places—the dates of the
various local races—the principal angling streams
in the two counties, and a mass of useful statistics.