The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

~~~~~~~~

THE SUN, LONDON, SA FURDAY EVENING, AUGUST 15, 1863.

N°. 22,194.

Now ready,
DUBLIN BE VIE W.
New Series. No. I. Price 65., post free.

Mr' ArF:iage's Frescoes at Islington.

horse power, by Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field,
may be ready in the course of a month to be passed
into the hands of the Government. They were
tried successfully on Monday last. The bottom of
this ship is covered with some prepared metal con-
taining copper. In several places where it ap-
proaches the iron-plates galvanic action has com-
menced. From the Prince Consort Admiral Robin-
son proceeded to No. 2 dock, where the screw steam-
ship Ocean, 35, is receiving her casing of iron.
Although launched at Devonport on the 19th of
March last, and removed forthwith to Keyham,
there is on her port side a section of only one layer
of plates, which extends from the bow to a few feet
abaft the foremast, and on her starboard side a
similar layer with some plates on her waist. About
20 are ready in the store. Some delay has occurred
in the supply on the part of the manufacturer.
About a fortnight since the hydraulic machine at
Keyham, while at work, broke, in consequence of
the defective state of a cylinder.

CONTENTS.
L Popular Devotion in Spain.
11. The Abyssinian Schism.
111. Intrinsic End of Civil Government.
IV. Ro Ferrucci.
V. Catholic Church in England.
VI, The Tractarian Movement.
VIL The French Elections.
VIII. Notices of Books.
IX. Foreign Periodical Literature.
London : Burns and Lambert, 17 and 18, Portman-street,
and 63, Paternoster-row, to whom all Works for Review and
Advertisements should be sent.

(he revival t fresco-painting in Europe and its introduc-
tion ill England were fairly looked upon as the most hope-

ful symptoms of recovery from a long and death-like sleep,
during the continuance of which the lesser qualities of art
had usurped the place of the greater in public estimation,
and finish, softness, and delicacy had been accepted as bet •

ter and more comprehensible things than composition,

drawing, and expression.

Fresco-painting is the test of a great painter as it is the
confusion of a weak one. When Michael Angelo declared
it to be the only manly style of painting, or, as Vasari
says, "truly the most virile, most sure, most resolute
and durable of all modes," he stated a conviction
rather than uttered a sneer. He knew that the

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practice of fresco can derive no help from the inferior
beauties that lend a charm to oil-painting; and that the
painter who should seek to express his thoughts in this,
the most difficult language of his art, must rely on a perfect
knowledge of it, directed by courage, skill, and consum-
mate judgment, and thus must be endo wed with a mind

London : sold by Simpkin and Marsh Stationers' Court,
and at all Booksellers and Railways,

CRITIQUE'S on the NEWSPAPER PRESS in
the LITERARY TIMES, every week

nobly to conceive a subject, and a hand able unerringly to
execute it.

THOXF O R D,
6, OXFORD STREET, W.
THIS EVENING, will be performed Operatic Selections
from Sir Henry R. Bishop's THE SLAVE and Halevy's
MUSKETEERS (first time in England).
Principal Artistes—Miss Russell, Miss Ellison, Messrs.
Green, Bernardi, Etuish, &c., with full band and chorus.
Conductor, Mr. F. Jonghmans.
Flute Solos by Drew Dean, &c.
Comic, by UNSWORTH ("or any other man"), Eugene,
W. Randall, E. Righton, and A. Lloyd.
Also, a Performance by Herr SCHALKENBACH on his
won.derful instrument, the PIANO ORCHESTRE, contain-
irkg a full baud of 40 instruments.

The practice of fresco-painting in England dates
From the destruction of the Houses of Parliament and

she erection of the New Palace at Westminster. A royal
• •

commission was appointed to consider and advise upon the
decoration of the new building ; and English artists were
invited to prepare cartoons, in the first place,and afterwards
to submit for a prize competition specimens and trials in
fresco, An impetus was thus given to the introduction of

a mode of painting already flourishing in Germany under the
encouragement of the late King of Bavaria. English
painters threw their energies thoroughly into the work, and
the various exhibitions in which the competitive cartoons and
frescoes were displayed were eagerly thronged, and the
designs thoroughly appreciated by the public—rich and
poor. Probably no exhibitions in England have ever
created so much interest, or been visited with so much
favour.

The BALL has just been newly Decorated and Ventilated,
and is one of the most Beautiful in the Metropolis.
Open at 8 o'clock. Admission, 6d. ; stalls and balcony, ls. ;
private boxes, 10s. 6d.

NOTICE.—The GHOST! GHOST!! GHOST!!!
AT CANTERBURY HALL.
Two representations of Professor Pepper's startling Illusion
will be given on Mondays. Wednesdays, and Saturdays. at
Nine and a quarter. past Eleven o'clock ; other Evenings at
Eleven only ; and produced with all the newest improve-
ments by Mr. A. Silvester, which can be seen only at this
establishment.
Dramatic Readings by Mr. Graham, in addition to Grand
Operatic Selections. Cantatas, Glees, Songs, Comic and
Sentimental, and UNSWORTH, the Stump Orator.

Unfortunately, however, there were but a few spaces
in one public building to which the new mode
of painting could be applied. The Government
had neither means, nor probably any strong in cli-
nation, to cause other buildings to be decorated ;
and, as the large spaces available for fresco-painting can be
found, with rare exceptions, only in public edifices or in
churches, the stimulus which had awakened so mueh
ability and so many new hopes was withdrawn, and the

Open every Evening at half past Seven.
Admission, Sixpence.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. The
FAIRY FOUNTAIN.—The Risarelis (last week pre-
vious to their departure for the Continent)—The Brothers
Conrad—Les Petit Monstres—The Francesco Family, from
La Scala, Milan, &c. Grand Operatic Selection :—Miss
M`Gregor. Albert, Georgini, supported by Chorus and Band
of Sixty Performers.

Notice.—The Proprietor has much pleasure to announce
that he has an eng,gement with Mdlle. Taccani, from Her
Majesty's Theatre, who will appear every evening.

'ESTABLISHED 1831

BOWDEN'S IERATED—GINGER BEER, in
glass or stone bottles, warranted to keep good twelve
months. Lemonade, Soda-water, Potass, Seltzer, and every
description of Mineral Waters.—Manufactory, No. 3, White
Hart-street, Drury-lane, W.C.

THE LAUNDRESSES to her late Majesty
Queen Adelaide say, that " BRIGGS' AUSTRALIAN
STARCH needs but to be tried to be approved." Sole
Wholesale Agent, Harper Twelvetrees, Bromley-by Bow,
London, E.

CARD PLATES ENGRAVED.
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T".—MOORE BROTHERS respectfully inti-
mate that their New Prospectus is now ready. They
especially recommend their improved Family Tea, reduced
to 3s. 2d. ; Souchong-, reduced to 3s. 6d. ; mixed Assam, re-
duced to 3s. Bd. ; and the finest Assam, reduced from 4s. 4d.
to 3s. lid. per lb.

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PROTECTION AND COMPENSATION OFFICES,

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Passengers by Rail, Road, or Water, and others suffering
from loss or injury to themselves or property, should apply
for redress and compensation at the above Offices ; established
to render prompt assistance to all classes upon the most ad-
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Advice on application gratis. Letters must be addressed
to "The Manager," enclosing a stamp for reply.

ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, Gray's-inn-road,
in the immediate vicinity of the Great Northern Rail-
way Terminus, at King's-cross.
Patron—The QUEEN.
President—The Duke of BUCCLEUCH, K.G.
Treasurer—Edward Masterman, Esq.

only apparent results of the Westminster Hall competi-
tions have been, generally speaking, incomplete and expe-
rimental efforts on the part of these artists who were
selected to cover the spaces considered to be most eligible
for decoration.

The chief prizes of the first competition were of equal
value, and were awarded to Mr. Armitage, Mr. Watts, and
Mr. Cope. Each of these painters has executed frescoes in
the New Palace at Westminster, and in the performance
of the work entrusted to him has probably well quali-
fied himself for the practice of this difficult branch of art.
Unfortunately, however, in the ripeness of their powers
the demand for their exercise has ceased. Mr. Watts has
since painted, for love, the noble fresco in the hall at Lin-
coln's Inn; and Mr. Armitage undertook, for a nominal
price, to paint, and has now completed, the frescoes in the
Catholic Church of St. John, in Duncan-terrace, Islington.
Mr. Armitage's work in St. John's Church
consists of a mural painting in the apsis, repre-
senting our Lord and the Apostles, and of a large fresco in
one of the side chapels, representing Francis of Assisi sub-
mitting the rules of his new order to Pope Innocent the
Third. The young man stands in front of the kneeling re-
presentatives of his confraternity, before the Pope and his
Cardinals. Unabashed by the splendour of the court, yet
with no lack of modesty, he waits, with his hands crossed
on his breast, while the Pope reads the rules by which the
order just founded is to be governed. The eyes of all are
fixed upon his calm, earnest presence. The painter has put
aside all the picturesque elements which might encumber
or endanger the unity and simplicity of this idea ;
but, having rightly done so, his difficulties, on the
other hand, are very great. As he can get but little
aid from strong contrasts of light and shade and colour, it
becomes of the highest importance that his drawing and
composition should be thoroughly good. Mr. Armitage
has been well trained ; he is a good draughtsman ; and
perhaps there is no English painter who is better ac-
quainted with the rules of composition. His strength is
best seen in such work as these frescoes represent.
The " St. Francis" has been completed about three
years, and is at this moment in perfectly good condition ;
but we understand that the painter has made some change
in his practice, and that he considers his lately completed
work in the apsis to be more purely and simply alfresco
painting. The custom of painting colossal figures of
Christ with his Apostles on the wall behind the high altar
is of the earliest date. When the Basilicas were converted
into Christian temples, the effigies of the Cmsars, which
had become almost the only objects of adoration in the
Pagan world, were removed, and in place of them mosaic
representations of the Saviour and his Apostles were dis-
played in the semi-cupola above the high altar. As might
be expected, we find a pagan stamp upon these early
works—the head of the Saviour bearing some resemblance
to the Jupiter, and the costume being generally that of the
period, consisting of the tunic and the pallium, with
sandals. The early impression has never been completely
effaced—and we may trace in the cartoons of Raphael, and
" The Last Judgment" of Michael Angelo, ten centuries
later, the influence of the earliest representations of the
sacred characters of the Christian religion upon all subse-
quent Christian art.
Mr. Armitage has adopted, in its greatest simplicity,
this earliest type. The figure of our Lord—colossal in
size—is represented seated in the centre of the apsis, and
directly behind the high altar. On either side are ranged
the Apostles in pairs—St. Peter and St. Andrew being
foremost on one side, St. John and St. James on the
other. The great merit of the fresco is its simplicity.
The painter has justly estimated the advantages
and the limits of his materials. He has given his
attention chiefly to the drawing and expression of
the heads. The colour is merely suggestive—rich-
ness of effect being attained by means of the gold ground
upon which the figures are relieved. The first impression
conveys a sense of coldness, which gives place, however, to
the admiration and approval which all good work inspires
in true lovers of art. With the exception of the principal
figure, in which, we think, Mr. Armitage has preserved too
much of the character of the ideal Jupiter, the heads are
true in character to the idea we form of the several Apostles,
and rightly varied in expression. The drawing in general
is masterly, and the draperies are well composed.
An inexperienced observer has but little idea of the diffi-
culties involved in the successful accomplishment of such
works as these frescoes, and would probably be surprised to
learn that a very clever painter of cabinet-pictures would
stand before a large space of wall as helpless as a child to
cover it with design. Besides the necessary training,which
must be of the highest order for him who aspires to be a
fresco-painter, there are difficulties inherent in the process
itself, and the uusucceseful battling with which has re-
sulted in the deterioration or ruin of so much good work in
Westminster Palace.
In reference to the above, we have been permitted to
make the following extract from a letter written by the
artist to a friend, relative to the frescoes in St. John's
Church.
" For the fresco of St. Francis of Assisi, I followed, as
closely as I could, the precepts of Cennino Cennini. This
old author and artist (himself a pupil of 1:1'-iotto) recommends
the preparatory modelling of the flesh with a greenish tint
—terra verte, umber, &c.—and the, subsequent addition of
the carnation hues applied in a -!ery fluid state. He never
theless says that a small o- be mixed
with these carnation r-' ...4antitY of lime should
,lours. With the exception of the
use of terra verte. -
For the terra - followed his instruction to the letter.
and oxide vait I substituted a mixture of raw umber
any other calm.
our e of Chromium, experience having taught me that
-..tentmen's terra verte is a easy compound, which
a.as had more to do with cue ruin of English frescoes than
and less of the lime
colour. The wall is a a when I undertook
the large fresco of thaesaa pigment; and, .
t
As my ork proceeded, I got to use less
altogether. Accordin
method offers a great advantage ;3 the flesh tints of the "Christ
and Apostles" there u!, I resolved dispense with it
as the colours do not change from
tohfe orto anythe body
the work has every ratherelement
tstamed than painted. I think
wet
themselves,
We believe that these works Wduerraebility;
undertakenand myby ni‘eiw
r.
a& over the old, inasmuch
state."
lucrative employment of his time. and with a view to a
independent of the cartoons,
e actual time spent
uponArmi Armitage
as
frescoesexperimental
tracings, &c., was four months for the "St. Francis" and
seven months for the apsis.— The .Reader.

This was the first hospital to introduce the principle of free
and instant admission to the destitute sick, without the for-
mality of governors' letters. It is entirely devoted to desti-
tution in its most pitiable form—viz., that which is accom-
pcnied by sickness and disease, and is now of sufficient
magnitude that, with adequate support, it may be rendered
capable of admitting into its wards a very large proportion of
the casual sick of this great metropolis. It requires but the
funds in order to have 500 beds available for the reception of
these the most wretched of our fellow-creatures. Moreover,
it gratuitously affords medical advice and medicine to more,
on the average, than 3,000 out-patients a week.
The Weekly Board feel it their imperative duty to make an
EARNEST APPEAL to the public for continued support,
to enable them to admit and relieve the distressing cases that
daily present themselves.
Contributions are received by the Treasurer, Edward
Masterman, Esq.' Nicholas-lane; also by Messrs. Coutts and
Co. ; Drummond and Co. ; Herries and Co. ; Ransom and
Co. ; Prescott, Grote, and Co. ; Smith, Payne, and Co. ; GI
on
and Co. ; Jones Loyd and Co. ; Barclay and Co. ; Denis
and Co. ; W illiatas, Deacon, and Co. ; Overend, Gurney, and
Co. ; Nisbet and Co. ; Messrs. J. Barned and Co., Liverpool
and at the HospitaL
STANFORD S. SMITH, Secretary.

ROYAL NATIONAL LIF E-B OAT
(Incorporated by Royals
Majesty Charter).
PAntolass—Her Most Gra—outhe Queen.
1 IMESIDENT—Vice-Admiral the Duke
ofNorthumberland,
er and,
K.G., F.R.S.
CnArnmAN—Thos. Baring, • Fsq M.P. F. 8.5.,
DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN—Thomas Chapman,
APPEAL.
The Committee of Managementhave +.O state that, since
the beginning of the year 1860, the fat National Lifeboat
_pr
Institution has expended £32,000 e:
various Lifeboat Estab-
lishments on the Coasts of Eng'.and, Scotland, and Ireland.
The number of lives sawr,„a by
the Life-boats of the
Society, and other means, 'since its formation, is 12,800;O Cl
ipr which services 82 G_
Medals, 718 Silver Medals, and
216,480 in cash have
The ..reen
a
tion has also a ppended £67,000 onrewards Life-boats, Life-boat
Transport. and Boat-houses.
th
lid in . Institu-
The kJommittee desire to express their grateful sense of
e,- generous support which they have received from the
British public during the past few years, a support which
has enabled them to establish their present magnificent fleet
nt' 123 Lifeboats on the shores of the United Kingdom.
Deeply sensible, however, of the great responsibility that
rests on them to maintain their fleet in a thoroughly efficient
state, and its Crews practised in the management of their
boats, which can only be effected by a large and permanent
annual income, they earnestly appeal to all classes of their
countrymen to aid them in upholding and perpetuating so
great and truly national a work.
The ComPaittee gratefuhy acknowledge the following
tributions con-

....13:,-V.P.

.. annual 540 08. do
Her Majesty the Queen • • • •
Campbell, the Hon. Mrs. G. ..
• • - • annual 5 0 0
Clerk, Colonel, R.A. .. . .. .. annual 11 0
Coutts and Co., Messrs., Bankers .. .• annual 10 0 0
2:6250
:00
2,00
Currie, Wm., Esq., . • • • • • • • 4th don.lo 0 0
Erie, Lord Chief Justice • • • • • • don. 10 10 0
Panshawe, Vice-Admiral Sir A.,K.C.R. . • 2d don. 25 0 0
.. • • .. 7th don. 10 0 0
sporting Carriage
... •••• 11
Fenwick, G. J., Esq., cost of a Life.b.oat a..nddTonra.tt-
-3Airoaortiren,,lzSeivr.HGenßr.y, Bart.
Harvey, Rev. G. G. and Mrs.
3 0 0
1 ..
don..
tir Smith,Sirs.li ,Col.Gseiorr
Anthony,g e, Greenwich . . . . . . . 30 0
Thom ii s, Lady, Weston-super
K.C.B. .. .. annual 20 0
t. e d
abnyvt herua l
Ladyship
Willoughby d'Eresby, Eord 7.
Donations and Annual Subscriptions will be thankfu_lly re-
.eived by the Bankers of the Institution, Messrs. Willis,
Percival, and Co., 76, Lombard-street ; Messrs. Coutts and
Co., so, Strand ; Wears. Herries, Farquhar, and Co., 16, St.
James's-street, London ;
tr by al the Collectors of Customs
and Bankers in the nitedKinodom; and by the Secretary.
Richard Lewis, Esq., at the Bffice of the Institution, 14,
John-street, Adolph!. London. W.C.

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_
gill 4.

The iron screw frigate Tamar, 2,812 tons, 500-
horse power, in No. 3 dock at Chatham, having
been surveyed by the master shipwright's staff,
and a favourable report made to the Admiralty, has
been taken over from the private firm by which she
was constructed. Orders having been received for
her to be fitted for the first-class steam reserve, in
readiness for the service for which she is intended
—that of a troopship, similar to the sister iron
steamer Orontes, yesterday the dockyard hands gave
the last coating of the anti-corrosive composition to
both sides of her hull, which had previously been
payed over with a mixture of coal tar and naphtha,
two coats of which were applied to the iron in its
erude state. Over this again was laid two coats of
the anti-corrosive composition invented by Mr.
Hayes, the Admiralty chymist, which bears the
character of being the best of the several anti-foul-
ing compositions yet brought into use. It may,
however, be at once stated that all of the many
anti-fouling mixtures which have hitherto been in-
troduced to the notice of the Board of Admiralty are
more or less failures, none of them possessing in an
invention of the kind—namely, the property of pre-
venting the growth of marine incrustations and
other accumulations on iron ships' bottoms, and of
preserving the iron itself from the destructive chy-
mical action of the water and marine animalculw._

The old line-of-battle sailing ship Duncan was
yesterday towed into Chatham harbour from Stan-
gate-creek and moored alongside the dockyard, in
readiness to be placed in the first vacant dock, for
the purpose of being taken to pieces in consequence
of her unfitness for further service. A notice was
yesterday posted at the dockyard gates for the entry
of hired shipwrights, to be employed in breaking
her up.
Her Majesty's iron steam storeship Industry
yesterday went up to the Victoria-yard, Dept-
ford, from Woolwich, to load with victualling
stores for the Isle of Ascension. After receiving
her cargo she will be fitted with a new foremast,
now under construction at Woolwich, to replace the
one eaten throughout with dry rot, and which fell
over the deck in three pieces a few days ago on the
vessel leaving the dock at Woolwich.

STAMPED ....sd.

desired the future Poland to be governed by an in-
telligent minority or by an ignoranth majority, to
'. which he at one replied, ~ an intelligent mi-
nority," and seemed astonished that I could think
him capable of giving any other reply. I have not
yet been able to find a Polish "democrat" unwise
enough to maintain that the Polish peasants ought
to have votes, or a Polish " aristocrat" unjust
enough to deny that all classes ought to be equal
before the law. What really did divide the two
parties until the insurrection broke out was the pea-
sant question; the proprietors of the so-called "aris-
tocratic" party wishing to cede to each peasant a
port ion of the land wtaich he had been in the habit
of cultivating for his own profit, while the non-
proprietors of the so-called " democratic" party were
generous enough to maintain that the whole of such
land should be given up.
The democrats, however, were not " socialists," as
it has been the fashion to call them. They never
proposed to rob the proprietor, nor did they want
anything for themselves. All they desired was that
the peasant-land should be made over as absolute
property to the peasants and that the proprietors
should be indemnified by the nation. Their scheme
may have had a communistic look, but the proprie-
tors can scarcely say so now, for they have them-
selves adopted it, "If," the so-called'` democratic"
party used to say, " the peasants are not disposed
to join the national movement, that is because the
proprietors did not long ago give them up the
ground for which, until the present insurrection
broke out, they had either to perform task work or
to pay rent. If the proprietors had been more
patriotic, and had only sacrificed a portion of the
land which belonged to them for the sake of the
land to which they belong, the peasant would have
had something to fight for, and would have taken
up arms with the rest of the country." " Why,"
observed a highly democratic insurgent to me one
day, " I saw a peasant near Olkusz go under fire to
save his calf. What would he not do if he pos-
sessed a field really his own, and the Russians were
going to ravage it ?" It is difficult to say what he
would or what he would not do, but, in the mean-
while, itis certain that the land question can give
rise to no more disscusions among.the Poles, for the
peasants have had their farms formally and finally
ceded to them by the National Government, and the
April and July quarters have passed without rent
having been received or claimed in any part of
Poland. The peasants, always anxious to be on the
safe side, have in some places in the Kingdom taken
their rent to their late landlords and begged them
to accept it ; and I am told that they were at first
very much mystified, and afterwards very grateful,
but still rather perplexed, when they were told
that they had nothing to pay, and that their land
had been given to them by order of the Polish
National Government.

Nevertheless, there are two parties in every coun
try in which discussion has long been a habit, and
the mode of conduct pursued in connection with the
insurrection, while approved by the educated part
of the nation in general, is at the same time stigma-
tised by one section as" reactionary.' Here, again,
there is an abuse of terms. No one in Poland
(excepting always the peasants, who form a class
apart, and want simply to be let alone) is opposed
to " action" on behalf of Polish independence;
but the majority have throughout been in favour ot
moderate, sustained action, and the general plan
has been to keep up a good continuous blaze in as
many parts of Poland as possible, while taking care
not to burn up everything at once. According to
this party the object ot the Polish insurrection is
to keep Russia at bay, and to give the Western
Powers the opportunity of intervening on behalf of
Poland under favourable circumstances.
The party of extreme action, ou the other hand,
maintain that half measures have been and may be
again the ruin of Poland. They have no faith in
diplomacy, and say that, instead of counting upon
foreign aid, the Poles should rise in all parts of
Poland, and stake everything on one great trial.
The men of the moderate, otherwise the "aristo-
cratic," " diplomatic," and " reactionary" party
believe that if this great experiment were made it
would be unsuccessful, and then everything would
be lost, whereas, under the system hitherto pursued,
the insurrection may at least be kept up long enough
to allow the Western Powers to come to the aid of
Poland if they really wish to do so.
Of course, reproaches are interchanged. The
leaders of the moderate party are accused of think-
ing too much of their estates and of fearing too
much the penalty of confiscation, while the leaders
of the extreme party,who have for the most part no
estates to think about, and who laugh at the pen-
alty of confiscation, as the penniless traveller laughs
at robbers, are accused of being " the enemies of
property," of wishing to raise themselves on the
ruins of the aristocratic class in Poland, and so on.
It seems to me that these recriminations are not
deserved on either side. The great proprietors, so
far from being selfish, have contributed immense
sums towards the expenses of the insurrection, and
without their personal aid not a single detachment
of those that are formed in Galicia would be able to
reach the frontier. On the other hand the lower and
middle classes (counting in the latter small proprie-
tors, students, and the managers, stewards, &c., of
estates) have done nearly all the fighting, and allow-
ances ought to be made for them if they sometimes
hastily corademn those who from a commendable pru,
deuce, and not from any want of patriotism, have
hitherto abstained from joining them in the field.
Doubtless on both sides there are some bad men.
There are aristocrats so selfish as to think of nothing
but their own private interests, and democrats so
envious as to wish to destroy the most ancient and
honourable families of Poland, from mere hatred of
social superiority. But the only democrats in Po-
land, in the proper political sense of the word, are
the Russian and Austrian Governments, who para-
lyse the influence of the educated classes by raising
up the peasantry against them. There is no poli-
tical democratic party, and consequently
no politi-
cal aristocratic party to oppose. Every so-called
Polish democrat knows—what the real democrats
of France and England seem to be ignorant of—
that by far the greatest class i
in Polands utterly
opposed to the notion of Polish independence.
The two parties, then, existing in Poland consist,
on the one hand, of those who hitherto have wished
os seand
who
ho foreign
have
slow, steady in the country,
only to keep up a
with the view of atntrat
intervention, and, 0
means of a general blaze, to burn out
chtei ng
otherforfi,e irogefntehr
desired, by
once without thinking of foreigners
the Russians at
at all. But at the present moment the policy of
the moderate party, or at least of a portion of it
to be changing,
seems and I hear many persons—
shocked at the terrible losses which the Poles have
already experienced, and it is to be hoped not in
vain—say that the insurrection has done its work,
and that no fresh expeditions
need be sent either to
Volhynia or to the Kingdom. .‘ The object," they
allege, "of the h Pal'
is insurrection was to bring
about a diplomatic intervention, which may or may
not lead to an •
intervention by arms. The diploma-
tic knot having
now been tied, it remains to be seen
whether or
no, it will have to be cut with the sword,
and the Sol • ution or scission does not," they main-
tain,
"depend upon the possibility of Russia and
the Western Poo era coming to an und.erstanding:on
the subject of Poland."
It is against the men who argue in this manner
that the "Chief of the Town of Lemberg" warns his
" fellow-citizens," and not, as might be supposed,
against any political party. There is no split in the
Polish camp, but a minority of the Poles seem to
be of opinion that the nation ought now to reserve
its strength as much as possible ; while the National
Government, supported by the majority, is evi-
dently convinced that it is most essential at the
present critical moment, not only not to check the
movement, but even to give fresh impetus to it.
In the meanwhile, numerous fresh detachments are
being formed, and the Russian Government will

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