The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-02 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION,

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)

NEAR WARSAW, Sept. 26.
T b e throwing of the so-called Orsini shell, the
sac.k ing
of the Zamoyski house and a palace, the ex-
asp oration of the inhabitants of Warsaw, the savage
attitude of the Russian soldiers, and the possible

co. osequences of this species of collision between

uasians and Poles in the Polish capital, are still
airsost the only subjects of conversation among
Pales. Of the 300 persons arrested in the two im-

manse buildings belonging to Count Zamoyski, one
of which is inhabited by the Count's family, a few
have now been set at liberty. Among the number
is Prince Thaddeus Lubomirsid, President of the
Benevolent Society of Warsaw, and author of seve-
ral highly esteemed works on the early history of
Poland. The Prince was engaged in preparing a
new cciition of Dluos:,—better known by his
Latinised name of Dlugossiais, and by the Latin
equivalent for his name, Longinus—and had in his
potisession all the most celebrated manuscript copies
of the work, These manuscripts, independently of
their literary importance, as having been made
directly from the original, were magnificent speci-
mens of illuminated writing, and invaluable as
heirlooms to the families from whose libraries
Prince Lubomirski had borrowed them. They
were of no use to the Russian soldiers, who could
neither make them into papirosses nor into pipe
lights. Could they have understood their value
they might of course have kept them b'ek' and ul-
timately have sold them for large sums to their le-
gitimate owners ; but as it is, no trace can be found
of them, and it appears certain that they must
glorious
have been consumed in the bonfired
intoth e
flimes of which were fed by Chopin's piano, an
which the best numismatic collection in Poland was
thrown. A whole museum of ancient coins and
medals, a whol-e library of ancient manuscripts, and
the favourite instrument of one of the most graceful
afforded such a variety of
and poetic-Al of composers,
materials for destruction as barbarians have seldom
been fortunate enough to meet with in two ordinary
dwelling-houses. Chopin's piano had become the
property of his s.s-
ter, whose husband is now in the
citadel. The numismatic collectionbelonged to
Prince Lubomirski, whose suite of apartments has
been completely emptied of all its literary and
artistic treasures.

Count Andrew Zamoyski's two sons are strictly
confined in the citadel. The Count himself, as every
one knows, has been in exile since the time when
he was convicted of intending to present an address
which he had been specially requested to draw up
and present by the Grand Duke Constantine. The
papers of the Agricultural Society, of which Count
Z iuoyski was President, have been destroyed. So
a.) so have those of the Vistula Steamboat Company,
-which was founded by Count Zamoyski, and of
which, since his exile, the affairs have been carried
on under the general superintendence of his son,
Count Stanialas. A large sum, in bank notes and
other securities, was taken or somehow lost during
sacking of the Zamoyski palace. The notes and
bills are supposed to have escaped the flames, for
the numbers are advertised in the Warsaw papers
and payment of them stopped—by whose authority
does not appear. The value of the two vast edifices
confiscated, which cover an immense space of ground
in the very heart of the city, and contained 2,000
residents (1,500 in the " house" and 500 in the
" palace") is estimated at 8,000,000 Polish florins,
or, in English money, £200,000.

Another great loser by the sacking of the Zamoy-
ski house is Professor Kowalewski, whose losses
will not be felt by himself alone. Professor Kowa-
kwski way 0110 of the most learned Orientalists of
the day, and the manuscripts of which he has been
plundered, and which in all probability shared the
fate of the Dlugobz histories, are said to have been
of the highest importance. Almost every man of
distinction in Poland has been exiled or imprisoned
for proving himself a Pole, and the eminently Polish
part of Kowalewski's life began when ho was quite
a child. lie wai one of the companions and inti
mate friends of the poet Mickiewicz st the Univer-
sity of Willis, and with Mickiewicz was arrested
and thrown into prison, charged with belonging to
a society formed by the students for the maintenance
of the Polish langusge and literature. In the drama
in which Mickiewicz has portrayed the sufferings
of the Wilna students, under the mild government
of Alexander 1., the young K9walewski figures as
" Joseph"—his Christian name, When Mickiewicz
was sent to the Crimea and began to write his Cri-
me,n sonnets, Kowalewski was exiled to the ex-
treme east of the Russian Empire and applied him-
self to the study of the Siberian languages. He
was then entrusted by the Russian Government

with a mission to China, and was afterwards ap-
pointed to a professorship at the University of
Kazan, where the Oriental languages are specially
cultivated. When the University of Warsaw, after
having remained closed for 30 years, was reconsti-
tuted and reopened in accordanee with the plan
presented to the Emperor by the Marquis Wielo-
polski and recommended for adoption by the Grand
Duke Constantine, the Russian Government cer-
tainly did its best to collect at Warsaw the most
eminent Polish professors until that time attached
to the various Universities of Russia. The Russian
Government's attempts at good, however, are never
successful, probably beeause it has no real faith in
them, and, therefore, cannot persevere in carrying
them out. It could bring together a few learned
men in Warsaw for the instruction of the Polish
youth, bat it could not desist from irritating the
Polish population in general until it had at last
produced a general feeling of exasperation, in
the midst of which it was next to impossible to in-
troduce reforms in themselves highly beneficial.
All that has resulted from the arrival of Kowalew-
ski iu Warsaw has been the destruction of his valu-
able manuscripts and books.
Great havoc was also made in the suites of rooms
occupied by the Countess Potocka, M. Jakoulowaki,
one of the marshals of the nobility, Dr. Rosenblum,
and M. Barcinski,one of the directors of the Vistula
steamboat Company. The whole of the library of
the Zamoyski palace was burnt,and pictures, pianos,
looking-glasses, and generally whatever objects of
furniture, decoration, or art that the soldiers were
unable to carry away were thrown out of window
and the fragments heaped together and set on fire.
The flames rose so high that the firemen of the town
hastened with the engines towards the scene of
but were not allowed to approach.
incendiarism,
the defenders of order and property
Besides ars°n'
largely in robbery, the favourite objects
indulo.ed
latejeWelry, furs, tea, sugar loaves,
of theft being P
and of course wine, brandy, and cigars. The most
convenient booty was to be found in the various
shops in which the Whole of the ground floor of the
Here the brigands
of the
Zama is let out. aki house
found all they wanted, ready
Russian army
to hand, and the grocer's, the
were bro's.en
the goldsmith
confectioner's, and the
unfortunate trades-
into, and they wine-dqaler's
5 Property of the ....
43,,-✓_ momentary desires
men stolen according to lea for,
of the more or less
plunder began
if some in their work of • A
with jewelery, all seem d with gin'
intoxicated soldiery ;
ended
n the house be-
hideous sort of banquet took place in
have
would
fore it was abandoned for the night, and it
vandals
not have been astonishing if this feast of Va_
.
bad concluded with a general
conflagration.
it was
owing no doubt to the conscientious wanner in
which the house had been stripped of all Null lure
that this otherwise most probable conclusion Was
avoided. Among the shopkeepers who lost most in
the general pillage a jeweller, named Krupecki, is
mentioned. The poor man was robbed of property
to the value of 30,000 roubles, He is also said to
have suffered violence at the hands of those who
were robbing him; hut, however this may have
bean, he was thrown into such estate of excitement
as to bring on an attack of apoplexy, from which he
died the same night. I have not yet seen any one
Who can corroborate of his own knowledge the re-
ports circulated as to personal outrages committed
.ion men, and worse still upon women, living in
the upper part of the house, which from the first to
the filth floor was divided into suites of apartments.
It is not very probable, however, that the 300 per-
sons arrested and taken to the citadel wore con-
ducted there with any ceremony.
The Russian officers are said to have led their
soldiers gallantly to the attack of the detenctiees