The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-16 00:00:00

THE INSURRECTIONIN POLAND,

(From the Special Correspencknt of the Times.)
LEMB6P.G, July H.
The Galician expcdit:on to Vulhynia is now coin•
plotely at :.n end. Rumour says that it is about to
be renewed, and the men who ran away declare

that as long as they have a drop of blood in their
voizls they will strike the Russians wherever they
find them on Polish soil. In the meanwhile I may

- _
eaw a few words about the late failure, which need
not have been an utter and instantaneous failure
_ _ .

bad the expedition been properly directed. It is a
cortnuate thing foe the Poles of Voihynia that the
Zuni; pzepred invasion was checked as soon as it
was—just as it would have been a fortunate thing
for the Galicians if the insurrection of 184(3, which
led to the Gallieian massacres, Ind never b2:-m at-
tempted. Nevertheless, if the leaders of th© DU -
tiotvd movement really thought it worth while to

take Radziwilow, that remukAbly unimportant

town might, with a little foresight, gave been taken,
or the 1,600 Poles who were ready to march into
Volhynia on the morning of the Ist might have
passed Itleziwilow with the certainty that the 800,
900, or perhaps even 1,000 itut:sians who occupicd
the place would not follow them. They could have

executed that march into the interior which evi•

dently was contemplated, and which, according to
some of the Polish telegrams, was actually per-
formed by Wysocki the day after his roturn to
Galicia, and by Horodykci the day after his death.
In spite of terrible proofs to the contrary, the
Poles still maintained that the Ruthenian peasantry

would join them in the end, and that in order to

gain their sr.pport it was only necessary to appear
among them in great force. Th 2 insurrection
in
Volhvnia had, it was said, failed in the first in-
stanca simply and solely because the long me-
ditated czpedition from Galicia had not been ready
to enter the province (as according'to the plan of the
National Government it should have done) while
the insurrection was going on. it was resolved to
try again, and this time to begin from without. The
entrance of a strong, v;e11-officered corps from Gali-
cia was to be the signal for all the intending insur-
gents in Volbynia to rise, but the rising was, of
course, not to take place until the Galician corps
had advanced some distance into the interior.
The scheme for invading Volhynia from Galicia
was in some respects well-conceived. The frontier
was to have been crossed simultaneously at three

points. Wysocki, with 1,200 men, was to have
marched upon Radziwilow in front, while Horo-

dycki and Minniewaki, each with 650, were to have
attacked it on the right and left. A day or two

afterwards Wiszniewski was to have entered Vol-

hynia further north than Minniewski, and close to
the right bank of the river Bug, while Rozycki,
one of the best leaders who has yet appeared, was

to have penetrated into the same province further

south than Horodycki and near the frontier of
Podolia. Finally, Golnchowski was to have taken a

detachment of cavalry into Podolia itself, and thus

from Podolia to Lublin, and along the whole line
of the Galician-Volhynian frontier, the Russians
would have been attacked ; and though some of the
dAachments were sure to be destroyed it was
thought certain that others would succeed in ad-
vancing far into the interior of Volhynia, and that

once there they would either gain the active sup-

port of the peasants or at least show themselves
strong enough to insure their respect and, to a cer-
tain extent, their assistance. The chief appointed
to direct the combined movement was General

-Wysocki, formerly the commander of the Polish
Legion in Hungary, and the title given to him by
the National Government was " General Corn-

tuanding in the province of Lublin and in the Ru-

thenian provinces."

On the day fixed for the commencement of this
important movement, in which, had all gone well,
some 4,000 men would have been engaged, it was
found that only two detachments, those of General
Wysocki himself and of Col. Horodycki, his imme-
diate supporter on the right, were ready to start.
This unreadiness can be attributed to no want of

foresight on the part of the commissaries of the ex-
pedition. Arms had been purchased and confis-
cated, purchased and confiscated again, for three
times the number of men composing the expedition,
and although many of these men were arrested and
imprisoned, it turned out at the last moment that

there were more insurgents than there were arms
for them to carry. Fresh seizures of rifles, bayonets,
and revolvers were made on Sunday night and early
on Monday morning; and on Monday afternoon,
when Wycocki's and Horodycki's detachments were
summoned to the woods, it was found impossible to
equip for the field more than 750 of the former and
450 of the latter.

Staying in Eastern Gallacia, I had witnessed the
preparations made for the departure of these detach-
ments for some weeks beforehand, and was much im-
pressed by the unanimity and mutual confidence ex-
isting among and between all classes except the very
lowest, without which it would have been impossible
ever to have got them to the frontier. I knew be-
forehand that the orders of the National Government
were obeyed by the Poles in all parts of Poland, but
it wee something to see them obeyed, and some-
thing more to see the national cause systematically
aided without any orders on the subject being trans-
mitted at all. The rich have given willingly and
unwillingly a great deal towards the expenses of the
insurrection, but as far as my observation goes I am
inclined to think that the poor, according to their
me,ths, have giwn more. I havc never heard any
Poor man make such a remark, but on the contrary,
I have heard it generally
acknowledged that the
proprietors in Poland have done their best, as
great
far as money contributions arc concerned. Ho Wes-er,
1 found insurgents
staying in tile houses of the poor
as well as in those of the rich, and treilted with a
sort ol paternal affection
every where. Indeed, the
kindness and hospitalit ' classes and
conditions
of
racm y snown to ad
Who called themselves insurgents
were, if anything, Cairid t'o for eper-
sons received and entertained xcess, many
strangers on the un-
derstanding that they belonged to the Volhynian
expedition, but without having any positive proof of
the fact, Even the German officials in some places
were touched by this general confidence,
and when
ordered to institute a " revision" would give a hint
beforehand that at such an hour their arri •va lmight
be expected. Then the men would
the horses would b 3 taken go into the woods,
out of the stables and
sent into the fields, while the saddles and bridles
were buried in the garden. I have seen packets of
saddles and boxes of ,
arms left at a house •
without
any notification as to where they came from or
whither they were to be sent. In
such cases the man
who took them in put them in a place of safety, and
o
a few days afterwards would receive aline writing,
or, more generally, a message by
word
0r
mouth,
telling him to forward them to some house a few
miles nearer the frontier. If the whole country (with
the exception of the peasants) did not form one gene.
ral association for promoting the interests of Poland,
this unbounded trust from Pole to Pole would soon
lead to the exposure and frustration
of all the
national schemes. As it is they are carried out up to
a certain point, and have never once broken down
from any bad faith or want of faith on the part of
those called upon to assist in executing them.
The district in which I was staying was filled with
insurgents, appointed for the most part to the
central detachment under the immediate command
of Wysocki. Many of them belonged to the emi-
gration, and had abandoned the little positions
which, after many years striving, they had contrived
to obtain in England, or more generally in France,
in order to see their country once more and strike
one more blow on its behalf. " The young men
here are admirable," they said, "sacrificing them-
selves for a cause which is a very desperate one if
we are never to be assisted from abroad. As for us
it -lees not matter. We are old fellows, and would
rather die in Poland than anywhere else; and then
we have not led the sort of lite which attaches men
to this world." One, an old soldier of the Polish
army, told me that he had been for thirteen years
working at a desk in an insurance office, and that
he was not sorry to get a little fresh air and have
an opportunity of riding on horseback. Another,
an officer of the same army, had been keeping a
shop, and was making humourous speculations as to
ho•
w in his absence the business would be carried
U. A third saw his native land for the first time,