The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, SEPTErBER 8, 1863.

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

(FT on the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
NEAR CRACOW, Aug. 31.

The facts of the Polish insurrection, as seen from
Galicia, have recently been so much of the same
character that a formula might serve to describe
them all. Expeditions go into the kingdom. fight a
first battle, with or without success, and in either
case get overpowered later or sooner by superior
numbers. The Galician frontier is so guarded by a
double line of troops that for a small force to cross
it and penetrate into the interior, unobserved, is
impossible. The task of crossing is equally difficult
for a comparati%ely large force which cannot be large
enough to hold its ground for any length of time
against the host of Russians who are sure to be
poured on it from all sides as soon as its position
becomes known. Nevertheless, detachments do pass
the border from time to time, and take their chance
—which, unhappily, is less a chance than a cer-
tainty of being driven back or destroyed. If the
detachment is strong, the first line of Russians
usually falls back and only accepts battle when the
second line is near enough to act as a support. Or
else, if the attack is sharp and sudden, messengers
are sent to the second line, who are then driven for-
ward in peasants' carts kept always in readiness.
When the attacking force of Poles is known to be
weak it is sometimes _allowed to-pass the first line;
Its fate is then terrible. It is enclosed between the
two lines, and in this manner several small and
gallant companies have been cut to pieces.
In the interior of the kingdom the Poles are in
a better position. In mcny districts they are esta-
blished in great force, and if the Galician expeditions
do no other good they, at least, keep an immense
number of troops occupied on the frontier, and thus
facilitate the operations of the bands formed in the
heart of the country.

In Volhynia and Podolia nothing is being done
just now. In Lithuania so many families, once
well-to.do and even wealthy, have been reduced to
destitution by confiscation, devastation, and the
stop put to all payment of rent, that the pro-
vince abounds in men who, as a mere matter of
prudence, had now better fight the Russians than
starve quietly. Hitherto, Lithuania had suffered
more than any other portion of ancient Poland,
and the manner in which all classes in the
Catholic districts, from the principal proprietors
to the peasants, have joined in the national war
leaves no doubt as to the thoroughly Polish senti-
ment which animates the Lithuanians. If it were
permissib:e in such cases to cite names, I could men-
tion several Lithuanian families, well known
throughout Europe in connection with recent tragic
events, so completely ruined that their relations say
openly that, if left to their own resources, they
would be without bread. It has formed part of the
plan of the Russian Government to starve the
Lithuanians into submission, and by its system of
confiscations and forced contributions it certainly
has enfeebled the Lithuanian insurrection. But, on
the other hand, it has created a class of desperate
men who, whatever be the general prospects of the
war against Russia, will go on fighting from pa-
triotism, from a spirit of vengeance, and also
because there is nothing else left for them to do.
From day to day, to judge by the Polish news.
papers, the opinion in Poland varies as to the
chances of an intervention. One morning all le
despondency. Europe is accused of looking on
calmly and even complacently at the struggles of
Poland to save her life from Russia; and the
Western nations are compared to fatigued Romans
at a circus, vie wing with shameful interest " the
contest of a Christian gladiator against a wild
beast." Then the Poles are assured that, do what
they may, the Western nations cannot avoid coming
to blows with Russia before long; that they may
hope to escape, but can only postpone the war
which next spring will for a variety of reasons be
inevitable.
It is difficult to say who is to blame, but it is quite
certain that the Poles have been led to believe that
sooner or later they would be assisted from abroad,
and that the great object of diplomatists now seems
to be to avoid giving them assistance. The Poles
complain that they have been deceived, and that too
much has been said on their behalf if speech was not
to be followed by action. But, on the other hand,
what indignation would they not have expressed,
and with reason, if Europe had preserved a strict
silence on the subject of their misfortunes, on the
injustice with which Russia has always treated
them, and the horrible cruelties inflicted upon them
systematically since the very beginning of the pre-
sent insurrection !

As far as I have been able to observe, the people
who have talked least and done most for the Poles
hitherto have been the Hungarians. Daring the
insurrection of 1830 several Hungarian comitats
asked permission to send troops to the aid of the
P lles, and a willingness and readiness to assist them
were also expressed by the Hungarian Diet. I have
met Hungarian ladies who are almost as enthusias-
tic as the ladies of Poland on behalf of the Polish
insurrection. If it be said
i that this social enthu-
siasm bears no great fruits, t must be remembered
that in Poland itself the number of insurgents is
veryth
and small
smalla
ass comparedcompared withwith
thee
educated entire
portion
alone, for the plan of the Polish insurrection has
hitherto been to make the war of independence not
short, strong, and decisive, but long, tedious, and
exhausting for the colossal clay-footed enemy.
Volunteers are actually kept back, so that when
there is really a want of fresh victims there is always
a supply forthcoming in superabundance.
However, of the few foreigners who have gone to
the help of the Poles, the Hungarians have cer-
tainly formed the majority. They have not sent
many well qualified to act as officers, but a great
many who cannot have failed to prove themselves
good soldiers. It was thought at one time the Hun-
garians would come in large numbers to Poland.
This notion was, no doubt, based on the ancient
political sympathy and social connection which
existed so long between the two nations, and also
well-knownoHfonromtwheeed7ra,nd,
n fact that the Polish legions of
Dembinski and Wysocki rendered most important
aid to the Hungarians during their war of 1848 -9.
Polish-Hungarianoasarulethemselves at the service;i
only
Hungarians
t
belongingto the emig the
whoorfattihosn';olish am
Government
dt
have been students f ' rem the gymnasiums of Kas-
mark, Leutschme, and E • eries—all towns in Up-
per Hungary, bordering P upon Poland. I suppose 1
no people in Europe know and understand the
Poles nearly so well as the Hungarians. The
Poles and Hungarians had, for centuries, insci•
talons almost identical, and quite identical in
principle ; and whatever abuses may have crept
into the Constitutions of Poland and also of Hun-
gary, the political life in both countries kept up
and developed a genuine love ' of liberty which dis-
tinguishes them in the present day from all
other
Catholic countries. The suff • erings of Poland have
been so infinitely greater than those of Hungary,
that an exaggerated and morbid
religious feeling
has been generated in the former country, which
is not to be found in the latter; and thus se-
N eral devout and warlike Poles were found
at :Castel Fidardo fighting in the spirit of
ancient crusaders, and mistaking General de
Lamorieiere for Godefrai de Bouillon, while alt the
Hungalians who took part in the Italian war seem
to have regarded it entirely from a political point of
view, and, therefore, fought naturally on the side
of Italian independence, as the Polish volunteers, if
they could separate religious from political ques-
tions, must also, without exception, have done. Of
course there were very many Poles who fought on
behalf of Italian unity, but these were person - not
to be spoken of in polite society except with a
shudder. The men of the moderate and 5,,-called
/
aristocratic party, whose names are generally con-
nected in England and Franca with the cause of

liberty in Poland and in other countries, regard
Victor Emmanuel as an unprincipled invader
doing the same work in the south of Eu-
rope that the Empress Catherine, Frederick of
Prussia, and Maria Theresa did in the North. Men
of this way of thinking look upon Garibaldi either
with horror as a sort of Antichrist, or with effected
pity as a simple-minded republican, engaged on ac-
count of his notorious virtue to give dignity and re-
spectability to the democratic movement in Europe,
and upon the express condition that, in order to keep
up his character, he should retire from time to time
to an island and plant ..abbages. One Polish officer
who (under a rtom de yuerre)has rendered important
services and performed br:lliant exploints in conduct-
ing expeditions and detachments of expeditions from
Galicia to the kingdom, fought heroically on the
wrong side at Castelfidardo ; but 1 am convinced
taat the great majority of the fighting men engaged
in the Polish movement, though not of the diplo-
, matixers, are full of sympathy for the Italians.
Were it otherwise, we should not find so many
Italians of the Garibaldian party in the ranks of the
insurgents.

But more Hungarians than Italians have joined
the Polish insurrection, and they have been, for the
most part, men who cannot be suspected of being
revolutionists for the sake of revolution. The en-
thusiastic interest taken 14 the Hungarians in the
Polish movement—a movement, be it remembered,
which, as it has hitherto been conducted, can in no
way help Hungary—is a valuable testimony to the
generally noble qualities of the Polish nation; for
the Hungarians are really the only people who
have an intimate and traditional knowledge of
the solid virtues of the Poles, and also of their
national defects—such es their want of fore-
sight, their extreme but perfectly intelligible and
excusable sensibility under oppression next to in-
supportable, but which, nevertheless, they ought
for a time and for their own sake to have supported,
and their political imprudence, as manifested in a
atiety of ways during the last two centuries of
their history.
However, most of the Hungarian volunteers en-
gaged in unsuccessful expeditions from Galicia to
the kingdom of Poland have, after falling into the
hands of the Austrians, been sent back to their
homes under bail; and it does not appear likely now
that Hungarians or any other foreigners will offer, in
large numbers, to go to the help of the Poles un-
less an armed intervention should be resolved upon
orehe
rHungarians,eiitgn governmentgovernments. In
o n r
perhaps, even
thatby
somecase,f
neither
these Poles themselves who have hitherto abstained
from joining the insurrection in the field, and who
may also be accustomed to the use of arms, would
be wanted. Nevertheless, it must not be supposed
for a moment, that there are any men in P )land,
ore of the most warlike countries in an Europe,
who want foreigners to come and fight their bat-
tles for them throughout. It is against the pos-
sibility of such a thing happening, that the Poles
of the extreme party, who quite reject the idea of
their country being restored through foreign aid,
desire to guard. Wild as these brave, desperate
Law may be—and certainly are--they have never-
theless reflected enough on the modern history of
their own country, especially on the Napoleonic
period, from 1807 until 1812, to understand that it
is habitually made use of to weaken and frighten
the Russians, and abandoned when there seems to
be a good chance of bringing Russia to terms.
" Every one has made use of Poland, no one has
re,Wy assisted her," says M. Guizot in his me-
moirs ; and the opinion of that experienced Minis-
ter and calm, philosophical writer is shared by
many despondent patriots who now seem on the
Point of becoming revolutionists, and who have
arrived at what some will think a judicious, others
merely a cynical conviction that no one will ever
help Poland from admiration of the Poles, or from
indignation at the unexampled manner in which
the Polish nation is being tortured and murdered.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

The Recruit, 6, 160-horse power, Commander
C)ee. F. Cottam, iron paddlewheel steamer, was put
out of commission yesterday in Chatham harbour,
and her officers and crew turned over to the Speed-
well, 5, SO-horse power. The paddlewheel steamer
Medusa, 4, 312-horso power, Master-Commander J.
Loane, steamed into the harbour at an early hour
yesterday morning and received on board the officers
and crew of the Recruit for conveyance to the
Speedwell at Woolwich. Commander Cottam hauled
dojo his pennant yesterday afternoon. Upwards
of :t12,000 have been spent in repairing the Recruit
and fitting her for sea. She goes into the first-class
steam reserve until final orders respecting her have
been received from the Admiralty. Her internal
fittings, bulkheads, &c., are undisturbed.
The paddlewheel steamer Salamis, 4, 250-horse
power, fitting at Chatham, has a considerable num-
ber of hands employed on board, in order that no
time may be lost in completing her for sea, though
uo to the present time no definite instructions have
been received at the dockyard as to the particular
services for which she is intended. Her internal
fittings and decorations are on a scale of great
splendour.

_
The Bloodhound, 3, iron paddle vessel, Lieut.-
Commander John E. Stokes, which has just returned
to England from the West Coast of Africa, will
shortly be paid off at
iVoclwich. This vessel was
commissioned at the
latter port by Lieut. F. lir.
Bennett, Julie 25, 1860,
with a complement of 55
officers and men, and leftt for Greenhithe on the 14th
of the following month
arrived at Plymouth July adjust compasses. She
T2O, was at the river Niger
in Nov., and at Lqges ori
the 10th of December.
'le Enterprise end
Favourite screw steamvessela,
now building at Deptford Dockyard, on the plan of
Mr. Reed, Chief Construct
or of the Navy, are now
in a forward state, and have commenced receiving
their 4i inch armour
plates, manufactured by
Messr3. Brown, of Sheffield, The Enterprise has
peen fitted with her machinery and her cupola,
which will be armed with four
The Dwarf and Fidget heavy guns.
gunboats, built by con-
tract for the Government d
but which were never broughtring the Crimean war,
into service, having
had their boilers and machinery removed, have been
Woken up at Deptford Dockyard,
and the timber
appears to be in sound condition.
The Adventure, screw troopship,
Commander T.
,
B. Lethbridge, is ordered to embark detachments of
troops at Portsmouth for cony,
Mr. Stansfeld, M.P., on, of the
to Canada.
Lords of the Ad-
miralty, visited Portsmouth e
Dockyard yesterday,
and went on board the iron frigate
Hector, and other
vessels in progress at the port.
Yesterday a public trial was
made at Chatham
of dockyard of a new descriptiontraction engine
invented by Messrs. Aveling andporter, of Roches-
t,,,i, which has been brought into
use at the dock-
yard for conveying the machinery and other heavy
materials used in the improvements now in progress
at the establishment to and from
the dockyard
works. The experiments Were
carried out under
the Bes.
inspection of Professor 0. lich, of Kaiser-
lautern, and a party of foreigners, who have been
specially deputed to visit this country to re-
port upon the invention
previous to its
introduction into Bavaria. Shortly before two
/ o'clock three of the engine,
-, each having a

henvy load attached, started frwn Messrs Aveling
and Porter's works, on the Strood side of the Ro-
chester-bridge. The first engine weighed 12 tons,
and was one of several On the eve of being shipped
to Kingston, Jamaica, to be employed on the sugar-
growing estate of Messrs. Salomon and Co, At-
tached to the engine were two lorries, each con-
tiining three cast iron girders, to b, used in the
works now in progress at the dockyard. The uni-
ted weight of the girders was 18 tons, and of the
two trucks 5 tons. To the second engine were at-
tached five empty lorries, each weighiog 24 tons,

and constructed to carry 7 tons each. The last
engine was one which had taken three prizes, and
to this was attached a large steam-thrashing ma-
chine, and some other agricultural machinery, The
three engines with their loads started away over
Rochester-bridge, and through the narrow streets
of the town towards the dockyard, the speed vary-
ing from two to four miles an hour. The ascent
of Star-hill, which has an incline of 1 in 12, was
made by all three engines, with their respective
loads, without the least apparent difficulty, and
without any stoppage, the rate being two miles
and a half per hour. In the passage through the
crowded roads at Chatham to the dockyard no in-
convenience whatever was experienced, the engines
adapting themselves to every variety of road, and
travelling with an uniform rate of speed. Attached
to one of the engines is an appliance for loading
and unloading heavy weights, and on the train of
trucks being stopped, the engine was detached and
brought round to the trucks conveying the girders,
when, by means of the lifting apparatus, the latter
were lifted from the lorries and deposited in the
spot selected for them. Each of the engines tried
yesterday started from the factory with a stock of
10 cwt. of coals, which is sufficient for eight hours
consumption. The trials were pronounced in all
respects satisfactory.
The following appointments and promotions were
made yesterday at the Admiralty :—Capt. Henry
Boys to the Pelorus ; Capt. F. H. Stirling to the
Cumberland, for service in the Tamar ; Dr. Walter
Reid, John P. Way, John A. Macdonald, Dr. John
Craw, and Dr. John Walsh, acting assist.-surgeons,
to the Victory, as additional for service at Hasler
Hospital ; John T. Comerford, Isaac Waugh, Dr.
Robert Hay, and Dr. Wm. M‘Mahon, acting assist.-
surgeons, to the Royal Adelaide, for service at Ply-
mouth hospital ; Geo. Park, chief engineer, to the
Indus, for the London ; Edwd. Barrett and Josh.
Brand, assist.-engineers, to the Cumberland, as
supernumeraries; John M'Laren in the Cumber-
laud, E. Carling in the Indus, M. M'lntyre in the
Adventurer, A. B. M'Luckie in the Victoria and
Albert, T. Pringle in the Wye, W. Gentles, of the
Cumberland, for the Wildfire, D. M'Vean of the
Fisguard, for the Bann, and T. Spence in the Sup-
ply, are promoted to be first-class assist.-engineers ;
J. Bannatyne in the Centaur, D. Storrar in the
Cygnet, D. M'lntyre in the Argus, and R. Findlay
in the Cormorant, are promoted to the rank of acting
first-class assist.-engineers.
The undernamed gentlemen were yesterday no-
minated to naval cadetships W. Newell,
Charles G. Prater, Edward H. Geen, Charles M.
Luckraft, Ernest James Seymour, Arthur Target,
and George T. Hall.