The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-31 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(F> oar, the Szkela4: Correspondent of the Timm)
LEMBEKCT, JULY 23.

There still seems to be some doubt in England as
to whether the concessions proposed by the Western
Powers to Russia on behalf of the Poles will, if
Russia consents to make them, be accepted by the
Poles, Not only the insurgents, but the men who
direct the insurrection, the men who look on and
approve the insurrection, and even the very few
who look on and disapprove it, and who have whis-
pered from the beginning that no good could come
of such a movement,—all agree in saying that no
measures based on the Six Points will ever satisfy
or even tranquillise Poland. The Poles may, and
in the absence of an intervention doubtless will, be
shot and sabred into submission; but the Six
Points wi 1 not, cannot, and ought not to have any
effect whatever upon their resolutions; for they
possessed quite as much as is now asked for them
before the insurrection began, and they know that
they could have it all again, with a great deal more
added, if they would only lay down their arms of their
own accord, and for once admit the right of Russia to
govern them. Ttie Poles of the Kingdom had re-
presentative institutions, a Polish administration,
and entire rel gious freedom before the insurrection
broke out. Tney had, moreover, just received an
educational system immeasurably superior to any
that had ever been known before in Poland, except
during the period of fifteen years that elapsed be-
tween the formation of the Kingdom and the rising
which led to the withdrawal of its constitution ;
and there was even some probability—at least the
project was entertained—of establishing a Polish
University at Wilna, the capital of Lithuania. If
the Russian Government were to abolish once more
the University of Warsaw, close the eight new
gymnasiums, and abandon, with the rest of the
Marquis Wielopolski's scheme, his plan for founding
village schools, it might then grant all the English,
French, and Austrian demands, and, turning round
to the Poies, say to them, " See what a position
your friends have placed you in. There was some
hope for you before, but there is none now ; and
you have brought all this on yourselves by looking
for sympathy and assistance to the west of Europe."
The importance of the Marquis Wielopolski, s re•
forms was called attention to in the Times when
they were first introduced, but they had no effect in
checking the progress of the insurrectionary move-
ment, and when once this movement had taken the
form of open resistance it was out of the question
to think of appeasing it by reforms of precisely
the same character as these which had been already
tried without success. The immediate cause of the
insurrection was, as every one knows, the conscrip-
tion, or " proscription but as since 1831 the
conscription in Poland has never been anything but
a " proscription," they alone would not have pro-
voked the rising, which had been long in prepara-
tion, and was not a protest against any particular
act or acts of tyranny, but rather against repeated
attempts at conciliation made by a foreign and
generally tyrannical Government.
As long as the Poles suffer in pace no one cares
what happens to them. It is only when they rise
in arms that Europe begins to ask what ails them ;
and Europe has been informed this time that their
great grievance is bad government, and, in par-
ticular, an unjust system of recruitment. The
Poles, however, wanted, and want now, to shake
off the Russian rule, which they hove never sub-
mitted to, except from compulsion, and which
would be hateful to them even if it were very
mace milder than it has ever been or is likely
to be. The government of Alexander 11. may
hive been very bad, but until the commence-
ment of the Warsaw demonstrations, and for some
time afterwards, it was incomparably less severe
than that of Nicholas, under whom, as was well
understood on both sides, the slightest attempt at
a " demonstration" would at once have been checked
by artil.ery. Moreover, whatever the absolute
value of the reforms introduced by the Russian
Government may have been, it is quite certain that
reforms as important as those now recommended by
the. Western Powers were introduced, and that they
did riot cause the demonstrations to cease for a day.
Indeed, the Government was told fairly and openly
by Count Andrew Z imeyski, the representative of
the moderate party, that nothing less than the full
execution of the promises made by Alexander I. in
1815 could give peace to Poland, while the extreme
party announced with equal candour, through the
publications of the Central Committee, that it would
mike no terms whatever with Russia, and that its
sole object was to liberate Poland from foreign op-
pression.

Lord Russell's reference to the Emperor Alex-
ander's project for uniting the Russo-Polish pro
vinces to the Duchy of Warsaw has caused many
persons here to entertain a hope that the " Poland"
on whose behalf the three Westerns Powers are
writing Notes may, after all, be something more
than the kingdom. Indeed, if Lord Russell thinks
only of the kingdom, it is impossible to understand
what he meant the other night in the House of Lords
by saying that Russia had "attacked the religion
and language of the Poles," and that the Poles
might be induced to lay down their arms by the pro-
spect of obtaining an amnesty, free institutions, and
" the use of their own language in their courts of
,justice." A formal law establishing "a legal and
regular system of recruitment" already exists in the
Kingdom of Poland, though, like other laws, it is
not observed; but in the courts of justice the Poles
of the kingdom not only have a right to use their
own language, but, as a matter of fact, never use any
other. In the newly established University, in the
gymnasinoas, and schools and in all the public
offices, Polish is the official medium of communica-
tion. Even during the reign of the Emperor
Nicholas the national tongue was never seriously
interfered with in the Kingdom, and since the ac-
cession of the present Emperor its use in all public
affairs has been legalised and rendered obligatory.
IS for the Ca holic religion it is no more " at-
tackedlan in the Kingdom of Poland than in Eng-
land. The ministers of that religion have recently
been subjected
übjcted to shameful persecutions for political
but no attempt has ever been made to
force the Poles of the Kingdom to abandon their
faith.
Even, the Greek Uniates in the Ruthenian
districts of the
lngdom are suffered to remain
Greek Umate,
still,
of their religion;
provinces and enjoy the free exercise
whereas, in Lithuania and in
the Ru henian
they have all been driven
Russian into the fold of the
tan Caurch. In short, to
ask the Russians to sei3 e
ett the
national religion and
language of the Poles in b kingdom of Polani is to
make a superfluous and reallyunmeaning request ;
but it would be a request of
the
made in connection highest moment it
Lithuania and the pro
vinces of tL the
e South. There language and reli •
attacked, ;ion of the Poles are really
diontatic notes are to
:d, but there (if
ie to be made to
Lord Russell's speeches and
be ready literally) no attempt
defend them.

Unless the English, French, and Austrian
—,
addressed
tn
be ragarded as only the preludes to furth r
ano`ases
the most important of the comunications
to the Russian Government on behalf
of Poland is
ot
the letter from the Pope, which recommends quited
a new state of things in the provinces incorporated
with the Russian empire ; whereas the diplomatic
Notes seem only to recommend the adoption in the
Kingdom of what, in principle, has been already
adopted. The religious question in the Russo-Polish
provinces is of the highest importance, for there
every member of the Latin Church is a Pole, and
every member of the Greek Church a Russian. Pro-
fessor Salavieff, of the University of Moscow, lays
it down as a principle in his " History of Russia,"
that Russia and Poland are separated only by re-
ligious frontiers—that as far as the Russian re-
ligion extends Russia extends, and that where the
Catholic religion ceases to be in the ascendant there
Poland ceases. Accordingly Russia advances her
frontier towards the west whenever she compels
Greek Uniates to abandon the union with Rome and
to embrace " orthodoxy," and it is with a view to a
rectification of frontiers that the Pope wishes to see
full religious liberty introduced into all -the pro-
vinces of ancient Poland.
The Pope declares that all the evils from which
the Poles suffer arise from the persecution of the
Catholic Church by the Russian Government; and