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

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(From the Special Correspondent of the limes.)
WARSAW, Nova 4.

Tfi.e Russians have lately gained various advan-
tagos, more or less important, over the National
Government. For several months after the begin-
n.;,ng of the insurrection the National Government
-was obeyed on some points, the Russian Government
on others; but the two did not come into collision
so much as was generally supposed. The National
taxes were, to be sure, paid up with great regularity,
while the Russian taxes were not paid at all; and
thus the Russian Government was set doubly at de-
fiesce, for its subjects in the Kingdom of Poland not
only left undone what it ordered them to do, but also
did precisely what it ordered them not to do. How-
ever, the Russian Government managed to get its
taxes in when it at last proceeded to distrain for
them, and the mere threat of execution suffices now
to screw money out of the Warsaw householders. I
believe the first direct trial of strength betw.aen the
tv.vo rival powers in Poland took place some three
months ago; when the National Government com-
manded all persons employed on the Warsaw Rail-
way to quit their occupations, they were afraid to
obey the order, and remained. A second challenge
Was offered to the Russian Government at the be-
ginning of September, when all writers, compositors,
and printers engaged on the Official Journal were
called upon to abandon their posts, on or before the
Ist of October, so as to render the existence of the
paper after that date impossible. The Officio/Journal
still appears, though it has lost nearly all its sub-
scribers, and leads a miserable life in Government
bureaux, and in such places of public resort as are
chiefly frequented by Russian officers.
The Russians, finding that the National Govern-
ment was, after all, not omnipotent in Poland,
and having already received proof that taxes would
be paid everywhere if they were only sufficiently
pressed for, determined now in its turn to attack
the National Government, and in the very centre of
the secret organisation called for the immediate
payment of an 8 per cent. tax, levied with the
openly avowed object of providing fresh funds for
the suppression of the insurrection. The National
Government, as had been expected, forbade payment
of the tax under the severest penalties. It publishes
the names of the first house proprietors who, never-
theless, did pay, and summoned them before one
of the revolutionary tribunals to answer for their
offence. In spite of these precautions and warnings,
however, the war contribution has been paid by the
great majority of the 3,000 house proprietors of
Warsaw, the only class from which it was required ;
and it seems to be the general opinion that if a
few days' grace be given there will be no defaulters
except those who are absolutely unable to pay.
The chief arguments among the Poles for paying
and for not paying this tax were, on the one hand,
that if it were not forthcoming at the appointed
time, the Russian Government would, according to
its proclaimed intention, levy, not for 8 but 12 per
cent., by which the taxpayers and, indirectly, the
National Government also, would lose, and the Rus-
sian Government alone gain. On the other hand, it
Was maintained that the citizens of Warsaw should

not, while their fellow countrymen were exposing

their lives in the field, supply the Russian Govern-
meat with means for suppressing the insurrection.
The anomaly pointed out by those who maintained
the latter argument was just what the Russians
wished to render as evident as possible.
In Lithuania it forces proprietors to sign ad-
dresses disavowing the insurrection ; in the King-
dom of Poland it compels one portion of the popu-
lation to pay a special tax for making war upon
another portion. There is not less unanimity than
there was before among the educated and all but the
utterly uneducated classes of Poland; but the Rus-
sians are now determined to resort to all possible
measures for bringing the present state of things to
an end. They cannot, in spite of innumerable arrests,
discover the directing members of the National Go-
vernment, but, by inventing new, curious, and,
from their point of view, appropriate measures,
they can prove that it is powerless when brought
into direct and open collision with the Russian Go-
vernment ; anti they can so drain the country of
money and resources that for the National Govern-
ment there will soon be nothing left.
Of the officers and agents of the National Govern-
ment several have fallen into the hands of the Rus-
sians and have been hanged. Others are now under
arrest, and their fate probably depends less upon

what can be proved against them than upon the ne•
cessity that may be thought to exist for making
fresh reprisals for acts of violence and bloodshed
committed in the streets of Warsaw. It was gene-
rally reported the other day that a young lady who
had been proved to have taken a most active part
in circulating newspapers, addresses, and official
correspondence for the National Government, was
about to be beheaded, but it is said now that the
sentence has been commuted into exile to Siberia,
and it may be hoped that the atrocious intention
generally attributed to the Government in respect
to this unhappy young girl was never seriously en-
tertained.

In the meanwhile, however, young ladies are
continually being arrested. Fifty, for the most
part girls of from 17 to 19 years of age—some of
them even younger—were taken one night last
week, and are now shut up in prison. Old and
young, men and women, are all treated alike
in the matter of arrest, and are invariably
Seized in the middle of the night. These
nocturnal visits may cause some unnecessary alarm
oat it is not the Russians who feel it ; and, on the
other
taichat hand,lt the scandal that would be caused by
umber of innocent young girls through
the streets in
is
ociaeas the daytime in the custody of soldiers
ing are the ItFrom 10 at night till 4 the next morn-
not bear the light
official hours for deeds that will
time for
getting
of day. Though 9is the regu-
lationgetting home, a few stragglers fa-
voured with
be seen here angertnah
e
L for stopping out later may
until 10. These " permits"
do not save you froca.rhehig arrested and marched to
the nearest post by a
patrol of soldiers unable to
read, nor from being
au
large
knocked down if you do
not keep sufficiently
in passing a sentinel,
who, however, is not obligea
know that you do
not mean to assassinate
gat after making all
fair allowances the fact remains that permits" are
not safeguards, and accordingly
snb_stantial pro-
°At after 9
one who has not
besides the " permit" the far more
or 10
tection of a private carriage stays
at the very latest. Then the arrests b,
one bears the next day from the frient of which
times of those taken. Then, too, begins the rela-
ing off into exile, of which, perhaps, one eanArch.
hear at all, though it may be reported few
a,note
afterwards that such and such persons are already
'
on their way Siberia.
Towards 9 o'clock at night a ring at the bell will
produce in a private house at Warsaw a most alarm,
ing effect. It is too late for a visitor, and only a
little early for the police. No one is safe, and it
is easy to see that every one feels the dan-
ger, though without shrinking from it. Thou-
sands of men and women—some of them almost
children—are not only in continual danger of being
arrested, for lately some of the most unlikely per-
sons in all Poland to take part in a conspiracy have
been seized, but are daily exposing their lives by the
hazardous duties they undertake in the service of
their country. One would think it sufficient for
the Russians to confine their pursuit to the men.
This would give them more occupation than enough
for many a long month to come, and they surely
cannot pretend that if they once defeated the con-
spiracy of men, the women of Poland alone could
keep up the insurrection. But as long as they make
their blows
feltit is all the same to them where and
whom they strike. They are not afraid of disgrac-
ing themselves ; all
they fear is the continuance of
the insurrection th
ghoul-, the winter. They utter
an obvious truth whenrouhey state that every other
Government
would endeavour to put down an in-
surrection in its provinces ; but they deceive them-
selves grossly if they really believe
for a moment
that ally civilised Government wouldit resort to such
weans as Russia is now
both sexes and of every clase,Yeougdiatrinst Poles of
", and age.
The Russ:ens arrest their victims .
denunciation •
night, on the of spies ;
in the dead of
question
and
convict
convict tiztuie
before secret tribuuals;
and do not
even the sentences, unless the sentence be