The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-31 00:00:00

into two-edged swords, is more than he ever bar-
gained for, and he won't stand it.

On the other hand, the scythenien are said to have
become quite unmanageable when they were ex-
posed for any length of time to the fire of the Rus-
sians, to which they were of course unable to
reply. Accordingly, as a general rule, they have
been kept out of sight—either in ambush or behind
ordinary infantry—until the moment arrived for
them to rush forward and strike terror into the
ranks of the Muscovites. All the victories gained
by the insurgents under the command of Langie-
wicz (and I cannot think of one instance in which
they were really beaten) have been decided by the
sithemen, or the Zouaves, or the sithemen and
Zouaves in combination, and generally by the sithe-
men alone. At Skala Langiewicz not only led the
sithemen in person, but himself carried a sithe,
which he took up at the last moment before giving
the order to charge.
In spite of the success which attended the efforts
of the Kossanieri, almost invariably the general
opinion seems to be that the corps was too nume-
rous, and that in reforming it only picked men must
be included. The perfect sithetnan must be strong,
or he will not be able to wield his weapon. He
must be skilful, or, in making a downward cut, he
runs the risk of burying his sithe in the ground, and
exposing his head and neck to the blows of the
enemy. He must, moreover, possess not only cour-
age enough to rush to the charge under a fire to
which he cannot possibly respond, but also, under
certain circumstances, the courage to remain under
fire until the moment arrives for him to be called
into action.

However, under the new system of organization
—or rather the old system, to which it has now been
determined to return—it is not likely that any corps
of 2,000 men will be formed either of sithemen or of
any other arm. Every one is convinced that Langie-
wicz made a great and fatal mistake in attempting
to create a regular army, though, of course, every
oue thought it a very fine thing to do, until the utter
impossibility of keeping it in the field was demon-
strated by facts. It is said now, with much reason,
that the Russian Empire, though weak, was sure
to be able, sooner or later, to overpower a force
of 6,000 men, ill clothed, ill fed, ill armed, and
without any means of procuring ammunition ; while,
on the other hand, 6,000 men, divided into bands
of 500 each, might have kept 20,000 Russians in
a perpetual state of anxiety, and have so harassed
and " demoralized" them us to have secured fre-
quent opportunities of cutting them off in detail.
Probably, however, the Russians are quite right in
saying that Langiewicz's plan was to gain posses-
sion of some town, and that he desired, above all
things, to establish his headquarters at Czensto-
chowa, the site of a celebrated monastery which
has served more than once as a fortress, and has
played the same part in the history of Poland that
the Laura of the Troitza, near Moscow, has in that
of Russia. Czenstochowa is but a small town, but
at certain festivals it feeds as many as from 50,000
to 100,000 pilgrims; and all Langiewicz really
wanted for his army was food. He could have had
as many men as he wished, and they could have
taken their arms and ammunition from the Russians
as they have already done on several occasions.
As to the mode of obtaining arms it appears, at
first sight, not a very practicable one ; but if the
Polish cavalry do not mind going into action with
only sticks in their hands, and taking their chance
of being shot, or of riding down a certain number
of Russians and disarming them, such a manoeuvre,
executed without hesitation, is sure to meet with
some amount of success. Many of the students of
the Cracow University (which furnished Langie-
wicz with about 250 men and boys) are known to
have obtained their weapons in no other manner.
Most of the accounts that I have read of Lan-
giewicz's army as it stood at Goseza are not only
highly coloured but painted in false colours. The
numbers, the strictness of the discipline, the ex-
cellence of the organisation, the brilliancy of the
music, the richness of the banners, have all been
exaggerated, not to say entirely invented. One
thing which has been noticed but not sufficiently
dwelt upon, and which it would be impossible to
exaggerate or to desoribe fairly without being
suspected of exaggeration, is the enthusiasm which
animated this army of farm servants, house ser-
vants, workmen, students, schoolboys, and a cer-
tain number of the young nobility. Thousands
of volunteers were sent back by Langiewicz,
not because they were unfit to serve, but because he
knew that it would be impossible to arm them or
even to feed them, Numbers of young men, too,
werk kept back by their parents. I am told that all
who did join went with the full consent of their
families, and were regularly equipped by them for
the camp. One lady of my acquaintance had four
sons with Lan giewicz, she herself with her daughters
superintended the preparations for their departure;
and the mother and sisters did all they could for the
young men, by seeing that they were armed to the
teeth when they left their home. There are hun-
dreds of boys of 15 and 16 now walking about the
streets of Cracow in their:fighting costumes who had
money given them by their fathers and mothers to
enable them to go and fight the " Muscovites
just as in England boys of the same age have money
given them to buy cricket-bats. They are now
" home for the holydays," but it is certain they will
not remain long, and that they are burning with
desire to get back to their appointed tasks. One
party starts to-morrow, before this letter will be
confided to the care of the post-office authorities.
Seventeen were arrested last night to prevent them
starting. They declare that they will all be off be-
fore another week.

I should like some one who believes in the story
of the insurgents having been routed at Busk, and
afterwards driven e cross the frontier by the Russians
to have just a glimpse of these insurgents, either
those who are at liberty or those who are in con-
finement. Without looking at the map, without
listening to the statements of honourable men who
took part in the recent battles, and who know
whether these battles were won or lost, it is suffi-
cient to see those who are said by the German and
Belgian papers to have been beaten to know at
once that they were victorious. Such a teat as this
cannot, without doubt, be always depended upon.
Nevertheless, people who are just returning from a
funeral do not generally wear the same expression
as people who are just returning from a wedding ;
and the insurgents who came over the frontier the
other day of their own accord (because they had no
chief, and because they had no head) look very like
the former, and not at all like the latter. If these
Poles were beaten, they must enjoy being beaten.
It puts them in excellent spirits, and they will cer-
tainly go and get beaten again as soon as possible.
" If they were
not worsted, why did they come
away ?" is a
question which has no doubt been
already asked.

They came away because they had fired off their
last cartridge, and eaten their last loaf, and worn out
the soles of their boots, and lost Langiewicz and
Rochebrune, and the other officers who in so inex-
plicable a manner deserted them. The insurgents
were hungry enough at the battle of Busk (other-
wise of Grcchowitza) on the 180, and many of them
from that time had scarce anything to eat until
they crossed the frontier early on the morning of the
22d. In fact, if they can be said to have been
beaten at all it was not the arms of the Russians,
but the famine caused by the new frontier regula-
tions of the Austrian Government, that van-
quished them. Without getting supplies from
Gallicia, or gaining possession of some town, it
was impossible that Langiewicz could maintain an
army of 6,000 men. The 6,000 men found .them-
selves more than once in want of 6,000 loaves in a
village which at most could only supply 1,000.
There was, to be sure, Langiewicz's train, which the
Russians pride themselves on having cut off, and
which, in fact, was left behind when the bridge 1
over the Nida was burnt after the passage of Roc he
brune's Zouaves. But this was about
as cleverand-
as important an operation (if it can be said to have
been performed at all), as it would be to stop the
banking account of a merchant who had a balance
of Bd. at his bankers. Langiewicz carried scarcely any
supplies, and when he captured artillery from the
Russians was oblige:: to abandon it, that nothing
might impede the rapidity of his movements. The
artillery which he did drag about with him may now
be seen in the Castle of Cracow, and .is certainly light

and portable enough. Two long thin eight-ouncers
on one-horse carriages formed the whole of his siege
train. Of course a half-pound ball would.hurt a man
if it hit him, and it is said these guns carried a con-
siderable distance, and were found very eerviceable
on many occasions when the Russians, having to
move quickly over difficult ground, were obliged to
leave their cannon behind. But the title of " Chief
of the Artillery" becomes as comic when onP has
seen the field-pieces as that of "Director of the Civil
Government" did, when it appeared there was no-
thing for Langiewicz to govern, except his own
troops.

General Langiewicz's independent Poland was of
a far more moveable nature than the heavy Russian
columns which followed it as it shifted its locality,
and which re-established Russia by fire and sword
wherever Poland had once more ceased to be. For
about a week before its fall the Polish Government
had no power outside the Dictator's camp, though
before Langiewicz's last march it really exercised
full sway over all the territory between the camp
and the Galician frontier—a much smaller extent
even than that of the little republic of Cracow,
created in 1815, and swallowed up in 1846. Any
person properly recommended to one of General
Lsngiewicz's agents in Cracow could obtain a pass
signed in the name of the Provisional Government,
but many went without any pass at all, and no one,
unless openly and conspicuously bearing arms, was
prevented from crossing the border by the Austrian
soldiers or police. I fancy the barbarous manner
in which Mr. Finkenstein or Finkenstone was
treated by the Cossacks must have bad a powerful
effect in stopping all commercial visits and cer-
tainly all visits of pleasure to the Polish camp.
For nearly a week, however, before the battle of
Zaposice (fought on the 17th) the difficulty of
conveying provisions, clothing, and ammunition
across the frontier had been gradually increas-
ing, and this not owing to the alertness of the Cos-
sacks, but to the formal prohibition, strictly en-
forced, of the Austrian Government. That there
might be no mistake about the matter Count Mena-
dot ff on the 15th published an order which may
now be seen on all the walls of Cracow, and which
forbids the transit of food, cloth, and ammunition
from Galicia to the kingdom of Poland. Bread,
brandy, boots, and gunpowder were all that the in-
surgents wanted, and these articles of prime neces-
sity would have been liberally supplied to them had
not the frontier been closed.

BRESLAU, March 27.

The defeat of Langiewicz was no sooner known
at St. Petersburg than the Russian Government,
in a ❑ote addressed to its representative at Paris,
expressed a willingness to improve the condition of
Poland, and bestow another batch of liberal conces-
sions upon the unfortunate country. Now that the
rebellion might be expected to subside, Prince
Gortschakoff added, the Czar had no compunction
in announcing his benevolent intentions towards a
province he had always wished to raise to a higher
degree of prosperity and wealth. The communi-
cation was immediately transmitted to M. Drouyn
de Lhuys, who recommended a lenient treatment of
the recusant dependency. So says the Vienna cor-
respondent of the Cracow Czas, one of the best
informed contributors to the leading organ of
Poland.

AFFAIRS OF PRUSSIA.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
BERLIN, MARCH 28.

Au hopes of a reconciliation between the Government
and the Chamber, that may have been based on the King's
friendly reception of the President and Vice-Presidents on
his birthday, must now be considered completely dissi-
pated. MM. Grabow, Behrend, and Borkum Dolffs were
received by the Cour officials with anxious courtesy, and
by his Majesty with a benevolence and kindly affability to
which they cannot be said to have been of late accustomed.
Some persons were inclined to argue thenco that a change
had come over the Royal mind, and to attribute it to un-
easiness at the aspect of foreign affairs. It was but a few
who indulged in this belief, and they, by this time, are
despoiled of their illusions. M. von Bismark's officious
organ took an opportunity of damping any hopes that may
have been aroused of an acceptance by Government of the
Forckem.b.ok a.ounuAnt prnaeeding from
the Ministry of War, and published last night in the official
Auzeiger, finally dispelled them. The Royal smiles on
the Royal birthday were due solely to the entirely non-
political character of the occasion; the Government is as
resolved as ever against the two years' service, and it nails
to the mast the flag of army-reorganisation, with the
motto of "No concession." In the form of a refutation
of Deputy Barou Veeret (the author of a counter project of
army reorganisation, of which mention has already been
made to you), the War-office confirms the unfavourable
auguries which had been drawn from the tone of the Go-
vernment commissioners in the Committee of the Chamber.
It will evidently abate nothing of its demands in respect of
time of service, and therefore continues in opposition to
every section of the constitutional party in the Chamber of
Deputies. This certainly naturally diminishes the general
interest which might attach to the proceedings of the Com-
mittee and to the discussions now going on in evening
meetings of the combined Left and Left Centre. In the
Committee, it may be added, the Ministers seem to have
entirely discontinued appearing,

In quarters usually well-informed a belie? is expressed
that M. von Bismark, who has lately undergone so many
reverses, will shortly play a card of sufficient value to efface,
or at least to weaken the memory of them. What trump
it is that he thus holds in reserve can for the present only
be subject of conjectures, but these point to the treaties of
commerce, navigation, &c., concluded last year with France
and an intention is again supposed of putting them into
force so far as it can be done without infraction, on the part
of Prussia, of the Zollverein Treaty. Such a step would
be at once a drawing near to France and a triumph over
Austria, and would doubtless give to this Government
some portion of that prestige in which it is now so entirely
wanting, and of which it stands so greatly in need.

The question which, at this moment, most engrosses the
attention of Prussian politicians and journalists is that of
Poland. Notwithstanding M. Billault's speech (generally
considered of so pacific a tendency), the war party maintain
their apprehensions. The Cologne Gazette of to-day's date
brings a telegram from Vienna to the effect that "France
wishes the complete independence of Poland, with the
Duke of Leuchtenberg as its King,and that she has already
communicated this programme to the Ambassadors of the
great Powers in Paris." A letter which follows this start-
ling announcement, and which one might suppose to come
also from Vienna were it not dated from Paris (26th inst.),
contains similar information. The present Grand Duchy
of Warsaw, it says, is to be a Sovereign kingdom. Russia
is to retain her old Polish provinces ; the Polish posses-
sions of Austria and Prussia are not to be interfered with,
This, we are told, is the will of France. From the same
source we are informed, equally authoritatively, that the
British Ambassador in Paris, when returning to his post,
a few days ago from England, took with him instructions
from his Government to declare in favour of a Congress
of all those European Powers which signed the
Treaties of Vienna. There has been much talk
lately in Berlin of a coming Congress, but hitherto,
it would seem, with exceedingly small foundation, and,
notwithstanding the recent article in La France, such a
project obtains little credit in the quarters usually best in-
formed. The Cologne Gazette, however, guarantees the
essential correctness of its information, and triumphs in the
confirmation it considers a portion of it to afford to its re-
cent warlike warnings. It will very likely have been justi-
fied in doing so if its statement be correct, that France is
determined to leave no connexion subsisting between Russia
and the new Polish kingdom beyond the purely personal
one arising from the relationship between the Sovereigns of
the two States. If such were the determination of the
Emperor Napoleon, which he was resolved to carry out at
all hazards, Europe might very well expect to hear the
sound of cannon again at ne distant data. Before believ-
ing, however, that we are on the brink of a great war, likely
enough to become a general one before it had long con-
t'nued, it may be prudent to await confirmation of the dis-
quieting intelligence, which to-day reaches us from the
banks of the Rhine.

A provincial journal having announced that M. Vincke
had seceded from that small fraction of the Chamber which
has generally been designated by his name, the Berlin
organ of that party has confirmed the intelligence, adding,
that the separation in fact took place before the debate on
the Convention with Russia, that it is only temporary, and
that Vincke will again be seen in full vigour at the head of
the Liberal party—meaning, we presume, the "old" or
moderate Liberals, from whom he has just detached himself
This may be so; it would be most imprudent positively to
deny the possibility of any political changes in Prussia—
where events so strange and unforeseen occur that one
would hardly have a right to wonder if M. von Bismark
himself were to come out some day as a Fortschritt -man ;
but M. Vincke's arrogance and overbearing disposition
have sadly impaired his chances of playing that prominent
part in the political history of his country to which, in the
opinion of many, his talents fairly entitle him. His aggres-
siveness and general pugnacity have made him many ene-
mies, and although the organ of the little knot of deputies
(including several men of high standing in the Chamber) to
which he until lately belonged, thinks it only becoming to
,i
spread a cushion for his fail from their head, and to predict
areturno
atconcealingceorstelastain the
few
tex e factntth
ad-
mitted friends
whot
he e nowst laltoasfutodhosdairsbnioanht estrangedthereo,
ds from h
and,
to
his leadership. As a specimen of the style he thinks