The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-02 00:00:00

THE SIM LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 2, 1863.

Itri leeerantsi Es hei ad
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part in it, though only a small minority believed
that, unassisted, it could ever succeed.
People in England have probably a very faint
idea as to how the Kingdom of Poland is actually
governed at the present moment otherwise than
that it is generally subject to military law. A little
information on the subject may be interesting, if
not important ; for the probabilities are that the
existing system will not last very long, and that
in the end Poland will have to abandon many of her
demands upon Russia and upon Europe, and that
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absolutely by General Berg, Lieutenant of
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A d forces.
in is
tration, the members of which are M. Fundurkley,
Controller-General of Finances ; the four directors
of departments (Interior, Finance, Justice, and
Public Instruction), M. Masson, Postmaster-Gene-
ral; General Kierbedz, Chief of Public Works;
and M. Niepokoyczycki, formerly the manager of
the Bank of Poland. The Council of administration
meets under the presidency of General Berg himself.
The members of the elective municipal councils
resigned some months ago; so also did the inde-
pendent members of the Council of State, though
the Council of State, composed as it is now of
official members exclusively, still meets occasionally.
The principal members of the executive are Gen o-
rals Trepoff, Chief of the Gendarmes; Roznoff,
Chief of the Secret Police ; and Lowszyn, Over-
Policemaster. The precise difference between the
functions of these three officials would not be easy
to explain.
The President of the Town, the successor of
Count Sigismund Wielopolski in that office, is Gene-
ral Witkowski, who has to superintend the distri-
bution and collection of local taxes, to direct all that
concerns the supply of water and gas, and so on.
The administration in political matters of what is
called justice is confided to " commissions," of which
there are now some half-dozen or more ; or, rather,
the questioning of prisoners and the drawing up of
reports as to their culpability, are intrusted to these
commissions—the right of passing sentence belong-
ing solely to the Lieutenant. One commission occu-
pies itself with real or supposed discoveries relating
to the National Government ; a second with the exa-
mination of insurgents taken in arms and with all
matters bearing upon the insurrection in the field, a
third with the affair of the Zamoyski-house, a fourth
with that of the Hotel de i'Europe, a fifth with the
burning of the Town-hall, and a sixth with the rob-
bery of the Treasury.
A special and unofficial commission was impro-
vised for the preparation of detailed rules on the
subject of ladies' dress. The officers who composed
it are accused of having shown great want of taste
(and even, according to some ladies, of common
sense) in proscribing black veils, as if a black veil
constituted mourning, or as if any other sort of veil
could possibly be worn during winter ! For the pre-
sent, by the way, veils are discarded altogether in
Warsaw.

The Military Club is also said to exercise great in-
fluence on the general policy of the Russian Govern-
ment in Poland. That it considered the rule of the
Grand Duke too mild is notorious, and I think I
may add that it regards that of General Berg as not
sufficiently severe. As to the Grand Duke the club
is probably not wrong in one respect, inasmuch as
it the insurrection was to be suppressed at all it
ought to have been suppressed at once, when only
a very small part of the population, and that the
least influential portion, had taken part in it. The
spectacle of a small nation contending, not with-
out promises of aid, but without assistance, against
an immense empire would have been lost; but, on
the other hand, Poland would not have been devas-
tated and ruined, and its position under the Russian
Government would not have been made more in-
tolerable than before, without its liberation being
rendered more probable.
There is a special diplomatic department at War-
saw, directed by Count Osten Sacken. Of foreign
representatives nothing need be said, except that
Prussia alone, of all the European Powers, has here,
besides a Consul, two military commissioners, Col.
Treschkow and Captain Davernoy.

in town or country, locked my own doors at night.
They have always been locked by one of the negro
servants, and the key carried out with him that he
might get in early in the morning; and this prac-
tice I have continued uninterruptedly, nor do I
know of any one who have made the slightest
change in their mode of life in these respects. We
can easily imagine your feelings of sympathy for
your friends in this country, and particularly those
of Charleston. There is necessarily much suffering,
but we help one another and make light of all priva-
tions and sufferings we endure, being free. We get
letters from friends in the enemy's country, both our
own people and Lincoln's, and not all the depriva-
tions we suffer would induce us to change places."

THE CONGRESS.

(From the Paris Correspondent of the limes.)

Pamphlets, as I anticipated in my letter of Satur-
day, are beginning to flow in upon us. Three have
appeared on the Congress and the Treaties of 1815.
One only is anonymous ; the others have the name
of the authors on their title-page. The anonymous
one, which is decidedly of the " liner" character, is
for war, and that promptly, if the Powers do not
accept the Congress. I quote no more than the
concluding passage :

" Let people reflect well. The elected head of a nation of
40 millions of souls does not address himself in vain to the
civilised world. A statesman of the Emperor's genius dis-
dains expedients without grandeur and without frankness,
and does not allow himself to be caught in the toils of an
obsolete diplomacy. If the great Powers will not or cannot
come to an understanding—if they make the Congress im-
possible or powerless—if they shut up, or allow to be shut
up, the only path which leads to peace—if, out of obstinacy
in maintaining a past which is crumbling in pieces, they
enter on that which sooner or later must lead to war—then,
war for war, France and the Emperor have a decided inte-
rest that it should commence before the impression produced
on the public by the speech of the sth November be effaced.
War for war ; reason as well as pclicy requires that it should
be declared in the spring.

The title of this warlike production is " L'Empe-
rear Napoleon 111. et le Congres."
The faith in the efficacy.of the Congress is grow-
ing weaker every day. If any illusion existed after
the Emperor's letter, it is almost entirely dispelled.
There are, however, a few persons who still seem to
cling to the hope of universal pacification. One of
them is M. Henri Dron, the writer of the second
pamphlet, which bears for title, "L'Europe au
Vingtieme Siecle." M. Dron gives a very compre-
hensive interpretation to the Speech from the Throne.
He takes the political map to pieces; and in 50 pages
of small print constitutes a Europe in a fashion
which only wants the concurrence of its diplomacy
to be perfect. He proposes to dismiss kings, give
unlimited leave of absence to rulers of the inferior
class, and set up ten " potentates with the title of
emperor. When all the princes aro sent about their
business, France is to begin by absorbing Belgium,
Holland, and the banks of the Rhine. Germany,
disembarrassed of its kings, dukes, landgraves, and
electors, will have Dresden for its new capital ;
while Vienna is to be made the chief seat of the
Greek empire, and Stockholm that of the Scandi
navian. Portugal is to melt into Spain. Russia is
to be cut into two equal parts, one of which is to be
erected into a State under the name of the Empire
of Cireassia I

The third pamphlet is from the pen of one who
was once but too well known, and who startled the
public some time back by his vindication of the
Papacy—M.P. J. Proudhon. M. Proudhon cannot
produce anything completely unattractive ; and
this, whether he be serious or in jest. To which
of these categories the present little book of 108
pages belongs it is not easy to discover. The title
is a question—" Si Les Traites du 1815 ont cesse
d'exister ?" to which he says he anxiously awaits
an answer from the Emperor's speaking Ministers.
In the meantime he himself tries to give it such
answers as he can :

If the Treaties of 1315 no longer exist, there is no
longer any public European law ; the gentlemen of the large
journals have first of all drawn that inference. If the treaties
do not exist, on what does the existence of nations depend ?
Where are their guarantees? Without public law Europe
falls into a state of war. Nothing can prevent States from
collision with each other, and what is to become of the small
ones in that shock of the great ? If the Treaties of 1815 are
annulled there are no longer any legal frontiers. Where do
Prussia, Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, and
Sweden end ? Whose is the Rhine ? -Whose the Vistula ?
And NI hose the Danube, Constantinople, Gibraltar, the
Adriatic ? If the Treaties of 1815 are abolished, nationali-
ties about which we hear so much will, no doubt, appear in
the integrity of their origin. Everywhere the aboriginal
will separate from the stranger. It will be like the Day of
Resurrection, the children of the country on the right and
the others on the left, If the Treaties of 1815 are abrogated,
there will be nothing left but force. The European system,
such, good or bad, as it is established by treaties, is to be re-
constructed. But by what right ? By the right of war natu-
rally, since either creation begins with antagonism, and since
by the destruction of the treaties we are made to revert to
the beginning of the world—to the time when force alone
was the law. To arms, then; and remember, my good
people, that to form yourselves into States, the first condi-
tion being to measure themselves, your duty is to fight
heartily with each other ! But what do I say ? If the
Treaties of 1815 exist ao longer, let us carry the matter out,
and declare that the Civil Codes no longer exist, that the
Commercial Code is abolished, that the Penal Coda is at an
end, Are there not people who every day violate the laws
as well of person as of property ? Abolish the custom-house
and you have no more smuggling. Abolish property and
you have no more thieves. Abolish capital punishment and
the hangman's occupation is gone, So the infraction of the
laws, the contempt of treaties, should have justly this result
if this reasoning be pushed to an extreme—the abolition
of laws and the annulling of tt eaties Persons and property
remaining without guarantee, justice without sanction, vio-
lence and crime would prevail and would take their revenge I
What a singular policy that must be which leads to such
consequences."

It the Treaties of 1815 no longer exist, of course it
is intended to remodel the political map of Europe.
" What, then, ho asks, " will be the maxinzs and minima
of the Powers in population and territory ? Shall Germany
preserve all her circles, or shall she form only one ? Is Europe
to be composed of 200 States, or only a dozen ? Are these
States to be equal between each other, and in this case how
is it meant to reconcile equality with nationality ? Or is the
principle of nationality, wiihout regard to equilibrium, to be
preferred ; and, if so, how are limits to be fixed ? What is
meant by nationalities ? Are there as many as races ? Is the
characteristic of worship and language to be taken with race?
Is the form of Government to have any weight in the mat
ter ? Do you consider as making part of a nationality th
fractions of foreign nationalities which it has assimilated to
itself? What constitutes race? What is the influence of
religion and language ? Now, really, if a little chance, or
a little even of the arbitrary is to slip into the acts of the
future, what reproach can be made to the Congress of
Vienna ? . . The Treaties of 1815 have ceased t o
exist. You have, therefore, another pact to propose to
Europe—a new law, more rational, more complete, more
efficacious, and more intelligible. You appeal to a Congress,
and the Powers have already received their letters of convo-
cation. Most assuredly there is not one among us French-
men who would not be proud of the honour to be conferred
on our country in receiving within our capital an assembly
so august. But that is not the question. I ask if these
Sovereigns, as the Imperial speech calls them, shall be
really proper plenipotentiaries ? What shall be their com-
petency ? Shall they be bearers of a commission ? For, in
truth, with the exception of the Emperor of Russia, whose
authority rests on the patriarchal principle, and the Emperor
of the French, whom the nation allows to do nearly what h
pleases, there are no longer absolute rulers in Europe. A 1 1
have seen their prerogative more or less modified by the
new constitutional regime. How, then, shall these high
functionaries,iwho of themselves have not the right to raise
a farthing of tax in their countries, have the right of treat-
ing of their possession, and readjusting the map of Europe ?
Victor Emmanuel incurred universal blame in 1859 for
bartering against Lombardy, which Napoleon 111. handed to
him, populations to whom ho was bound by patriotic and
patrimonial ties. Are we going, under pretence of revising
the treaties of 1815, to renew the scandals of them ? Is it so
certain that the nations will not consent, as in 1815, to let
themselves be given as property to the first that bids for
them ? And, if they do not consent, if they refuse their
ratifization, of what use, I pray, is the convention of the
Sovereigns ? ' All's well that ends well.' I love to believe, as
I willingly hope that the future Congress, that this Amphic-
tyonic Council of Europe, speaking in the name of law and
of the liberality of nations, voting by a majority of suffrages,
acting sovereignly, will be animated by the most generous
feelings ; that it will impose pacific institutions on the
world, silence the ambitious, and constrain the refractory,
But it may be otherwise. It may be that the Sovereigns
shall meet in Paris, as in 1823 at Verona, to erect barriers
against the revolution,' and that under pretence of inter-
national order they shall form a league against the liberties
of the world. What reason have we to believe that the new
law of nations, amended by a majority of Sovereigns more
or less well-meaning, shall be more favourable to civilization
than that of 1815 ? You say you hope it will ; but I prefer
the certainty of it; and without the certainty I see no
necessity to run after a new law, or to raise up an authority
which may be changed from night to morning into a counter
revolution."
From the foregoing it will be seen that M.
Proudhon is not favourable to the notion of
Congress for the remodelling of Europe.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE,
Nov. 30.
(Before Mr. Justice Wightman.)
His lordship sat this morning at the Moot-hall and tried
the county prisoners.
Jacob de Koe, a Dutch sailor, aged 28, was indicted for
cutting and wounding John Donald, at Tynemouth, on the
2d of October last.
Mr. Campbell Foster appeared for the prosecution, and
Mr. Maule, at the request of his lordship, defended the pri-
sonery.
It appeared that the prosecutor, who is a blacksmith, at
midnight on the 2d of October last was proceeding with a
man named Storer upWooden-bridge-lane to North Shields,
the prosecutor being the worse for drink. They saw the
prisoner and another man talking to a girl named Coe. The
prosecutor and his friend thereupon went and talked to the
girl, and the prisoner pushed the prosecutor away. This
led to a wrangle and scuffle between the two men, in the
course of which the prosecutor knocked the prisoner down
and cut his nose. The prisoner, on getting up, was seen
by a witness (who came up in consequence of the cry of
" Police" having been raised by the girl Coe) to draw his
sailor's knife from the sheath and strike the prosecutor a
blow with it on the neck. Storer then cried out, " Donald,
you are stabbed," and the prisoner ran away. The prose-
cutor then found that he had received a wound on the tem-
ple, and also at the back of the neck and in the side, the
wound in the neck being a serious one. The prisoner, on
running away, was stopped by a witness to whom he offered
sixpence and a halfpenny to let him go.
The defence urged was that the prisoner inflicted the
wounds on the prosecutor in his necessary self-defence ; or
at any rate, that the wounds, when inflicted, were not done
with the intents charged in the indictment.
His Lordship having summed up,
The jury found the prisoner guilty of unlawful wound-
ing, but strongly recommended him to mercy on the ground
of the provocation he had. received.
His Lordship said the case was a peculiar one ; the pri-
soner was a foreigner and was first attacked, and although
not justified by any necessity in using the knife, he had
used it on great provocation and without any premeditation.
The sentence of the Court was that he be imprisoned for
two calendar months.
Peter M'Enaney, aged 22, was indicted for cutting and
wounding Charles Dorley, with intent to do him grievous
bodily harm.
Mr, Campbell Foster prosecuted, the prisoner was not
defended.
It appeared that the prosecutor Dorley was a seaman on
li board a ship called the British Empire, which on the 11th
of October last was lying in the Northumberland Dock, at
Hendon, near Shields. The prosecutor and three other sea-
men had been in Shields and were returning to their ship
at night across some fields, when one of them, named
Gallantley, stopped behind for a short time, and was then
heard shouting for help, The prosecutor looked back and
ran to his assistance, and then found the prisoner on the
top of Gallatley and apparently trying to rob him. The
prosecutor immediately pulled the prisoner off him by the
collar of his coat, and then found himself attacked by two
men who came up to assist the prisoner. He turned round
to defend himself from the attacks, and immediately re-
ceived a stab in his back behind from the prisoner, which
rendered one side powerless, and he fell on the grass. The
three men then ran away. He was taken to a cabin at the
Northumberland dock and a doctor was sent for, who
found that he had received a dangerous wound in the back,
which subsequently confined him to the infirmary for three
weeks. The prisoner was met by a policeman, who having
heard of the attack on Gallatley, and seeing that the pri-
soner exhibited signs of having been in a scuffle, took him
into custody and to the cabin where Dorley and Gallatley
were, and both immediately identified him.
The jury found him guilty of unlawful wounding, and
His Lordship sentenced him to be imprisoned for 18
calendar months, with hard labout.
Michael M'Cartey, Edward Smith, and John Smith
were indicted for arson.
Edward Smith and John Smith pleaded guilty, Michael
M'Cartey pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Gainsford Bruce appeared for the prosecution.
It appeared that Mr. Brown, a farmer living at Hope
farm, near Berwick, had several ricks of corn in one of his
fields near to a turnpike road passing by the farm. On the
28th September last, about midday, Mr. Brown, who was
engaged on his farm, saw smoke proceeding from one of the
ricks, and at the same time he sa v the three prisoners going
from the ticks towards the turnpike road. Brown ran after
the prisoners, and with the assistance of his sons took them
into custody. The prisoner Michael M'Cartey, when taken
into custody, said that he had done it by accident. He was
lighting his pipe, and threw the match down, and the flame
rose up. It appeared from the evidence that the prisoners
had raised no alarm, and none of them had pipes with them
at the time Mr. Brown came up to them. All the prisoners
were found guilty, and sentenced to seven years' penal

servitude.
A charge of attempted rape concluded the business of
these assizes this afternoon.
The commission day for Durham is Wednesday, and the
Court will sit on Thursday morning.