The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-11 00:00:00

THE INSURRECTION IN POLAND.

(From the Times' Special Correspondent.)
CRACOW, MAY 4.
Whether the Russians are not exerting them-
selves at the present moment, and are allowing the
insurrection to assume at once its full dimensions,
that they may have an opportunity of crushing
their most determined opponents in Poland at one
groat blow, or whether they are really unable to stop
the movement, equally certain it is in either case
that the insurgents during the last ten days have
gained numerous victories, especially in the pro-
vince of Kalisch, in the west of the kingdom, and
that of Lublin, in the east. Without mentioning
too many names in "ski," I may remind the
reader briefly that Taczanowski is the great man in
the Kalisch country, and that the principal chiefs
in the Lublin country are Jezioranski, Smiechowski,
and Waligorski—a trio concertante of Generals,
with Jezioranski for leader. During the last few
days, however, Taczanowski has found a worthy
rival in a French officer calling himself " Faucher"
(or faucheur—a sitheman ?) and the performances
of the Jezioranski trio have been quite equalled by
those of a soloist named Lelewl in the neighbour-
ing province of Sandomir. In the South a number
of new detachments are first beginning to act in
the vicinity of Cracow, and far to the north of War-
saw and far to the east of St. Petersburg the
Lithuanian bands are holding their ground ad-
mirably, under the command of Narbutt and others.
The railway between Warsaw and Cracow and
between Warsaw and Wilna is threatened at various
points, and there are a few insurgent camps in close
proximity to the capital; but, speaking generally,
it may be said the insurrection keeps as far as
possible from Warsaw, without ever going too much
in-the direction of St. Petersburg, Moscow, or even
Kieff. It prefers the south of the " Kingdom" to
the north, the west to the east, and the south-west
to the north-west. In Volhynia and Podolia the
insurrection has scarcely made its appearance, and
the tranquillity of the province of Kieff has not been
for one moment disturbed.
Letters from Posen are delivered here very irre-
gularly just now, and sometimes not at all. The
true explanation of this, no doubt, is that they are
not allowed to leave the Prussian dominions until
they have been examined to see whether they con-
tain any news of Polish victories. The Berlin
telegraph-office has notified to the telegraph-office
of Cracow in a formal manner—with citation of

chapter and verse from some telegraph statute--
that it will not receive messages relating to the
affairs of Poland. It has not, however, hitherto
found means of suppressing objectionable Polish
news in the journals of Posen. The ordinary mode
of persecuting Polish writers in constitutional
Prussia is by forbidding publishers, through the
police, to sell their books, and by threatening prin-
ters who undertake to bring out their newspapers
with the suspension of their printing licences. The
Posen journal, Djennzk Poznanski, being already
legally established, and being conducted in a legal
manner, cannot, however, be suddenly put down,
and all that can be done to injure it is to seize the
number from time to time and to institute sham pro-
secutions against the editors, which, if they cannot
be maintained, at least have the effect of keeping
the defendants for a time in prison, and impeding
them in the performance of their duties. We learn
from private letters and from the correspondence of

the said Djennik Poznanski what you have probably
already heard, that the Russian soldiers driven over
the frontier during the action of the 27th were taken
care of by the Prussians in the most subservient
manner. The Itr perial troops were conducted back
to the kingdom of Poland between two bands of
Prussian infantry. While they were on Prussia❑
territory the Russians were kind enough to frater-
nise with their feudatories. The Russian soldiers
are said to have complained that they had not
changed their shirts for three months, and their
Prussian hosts seem to have reasons for believing in
the truthfulness of the lament. Some of the letters
from Posen speak of the " naff" astonishment caused
by the Russians taking cigars from the mouths of
their ignoble allies as they passed along the streets.
The Prussians seem to have half fancied that their
intrusive visitors would treat them with some sort
of respect.

The Cracow police continue their domiciliary
visits. Every night, or early every morning, some
hotel is broken into by a commissary, attended by
a guard of soldiers. Two or three persons are
generally arrested—probably, in most cases, as a
mere matter of form, and for the sake of showing
that the Austrian Government does not consider
itself bound by its own laws. Sometimes, how-
ever, the police come with special orders for the
arrest of such and such an one. In these cases
no accusation is made, and the prisoner is
kept in confinement in defiance of the sta-
tutz, passed last session in the Reichsrath, which pro-
vides that no one shall be arrested without a war-
rant, nor deprived of his liberty for more than 24
hours without being brought before a tribunal. It
may be argued that these are exceptional times, but
it is with a view to such times that laws for the pro-
tection of the subject are passed, Every one knows
that neither the Austrian nor the Russian, nor any
other Government, is likely to send soldiers to break
into bedrooms and take people out of their beds
without assigning the least reason in periods of pro-
found quiet. Such things have, it is true, been done
in Russia any time during the last 38 years; but
ever since 1825 the Russian Government has met
with a persistent opposition from a certain number
of educated Russians who had not been Germanised
and demoralised by bureaucratic service. We have
heard very little of this opposition in the west of
Europe, but we may judge what it has been from
the energy with which some eight or ten Russians
of various degrees of literary merit have kept up
unceasing attacks upon their Government from
abroad—attacks which, from the publication of M.
Ivan Tourguenkff's work on Russia, in 1826, until
the issue of the latest numbers of the journals edited
respectively by M. Herzen and Prince Dolo•oroukal
have never ceased. In Cracow, however, at the pre-
sent moment there is not even a thought of oppssing
or in any way annoying the Austrian Government. Moreover, the subjects of the Austrian empire are
supposed to live under a constitutionalsystem,
though it seems to be a settled thing that this system
is only to be tolerated as long as it does not interfere
with the designs of the Executive ; and accordingly
the ;nhabitants of Cracow are now ruled with all
the arbitrariness of a pure despotism. Although
the town is as quiet as the most quiet of London
suburbs, and although even when it was full of
insurgents it was never the scene of any disturb.
ances, a couple of patrols are marched about the
market place all day long, as though the authorities

wished to persuade themselves that there was some
danger of a popular outbreak. One of these patrols
killed a refractory fireman a few nights ago
(in accordance, I believe, with the Austrian rules of
war) for objecting to be arrested. The poetical
version of the story, which has already taken a le-
gendary form, is that the patrol seized an insurgent,
that the insurgent seized a sergeant's sabre and
broke it, and that the soldiers then rushed upon
the offender, pierced him with their bayonets, and
finished him by beating his head on the pavement.
The facts, however, are simply as I have stated
them above.
It is to the credit of the Viennese journalists that
many of them have protested, and lose no opportu-
nity of protesting, against the present state of things
in Austrian Poland. Such protests would not be
permitted, however, on the part of the well-known
Polish journal published here, for which a special
set of laws would seem to exist. I observe that
the Czas has not ventured upon the publication of
Count Mensdorff's circular to the officials of Galicia,
though it has been printed and commented on in
befitting terms by several of the Vienna journals.
The Czas, too, was condemned and fined the other
day for having published Langiewicz's first procla-
mation as Dictator—a document which has appeared
in every journal in Europe, and for which no jour-
nal published in the Austrian dominions elsewhere
than in Galicia has been prosecuted.
The Poles are not at all inclined to submit quietly
to the illegal violence of which so many have already
been the victims. Ido not mean to say that there
is any thought of a rising or of a demonstration of
any kind against the Government, but simply that
several Poles have complained to the superior au-
thorities of the unlawful conduct of the police, and
that they claim justice, though justice is not granted
to them. One curious case has occurred, in which
a gentleman from Polish Prussia, who has been re-
sident here for some time, was knocked up in the
night and obliged to let the police examine the con-
tents of his trunks. Early in the morning he laid
a complaint before the police master, and pressed it
with so much vigour that he was ordered to leave
Cracow. He refused to do so, appealed to his Am-
bassador at Vienna, and ultimately received per-
mission to remain It seems strange that a Pole
should have an Ambassador or possess recognized
rights of any kind, but in this instance the repre•
sentative of Prussia at the Austrian Court stood up
fairly to see justice done to the native of Posen.
Another Pole, until lately an officer in a foreign
army, came home a few mornings since at half-past
5 (driven, no doubt, to late hours by the persecu-
tions of the police),i'and found that the commissary
and his guard had already paid their visit, so that
he could at length go to bed without fear of being
disturbed in his repose. His domiciliary visitors
had not left their cards, but they had broken open
his boxes and stolen his uniform, which they con-
cluded, on wholly insufficient grounds, to be that of
an insurgent General !
Among the foreigners recently arrested here I
may mention M. de Rolland, the correspondent of
the Courrier de Lyon. The arrest of this gentleman
will he a serious blow to General Mieroslawski, as
:t deprives him of his one supporter in the press of
Europe. But, whatever M. de Roland's political
views may be, his imprisonment is a grossly illegal
act, against which his Government ought to protest.
M. de Rolland is being treated very much like a
criminal—l mean an Austrian criminal—and I hear
from comparatively disinterested sources, that the
account of his place of confinement which he has
contrived (thanks to the venality of his gaolors) to
forward to the Courrier de Lyon is by no means
highly coloured, and that it is indeed a foul, ill-ven-
tilated, unfurnished, overcrowded hole. The rations
served out to him consist of bran in the form of a
loaf and broad beans ; but he is allowed to order his
dinner from an hotel. There are only enough beds
for half the prisoners, so that one half walk about
while the others sleep.
Still worse is the position of M. Chrzanowski, the
late editor of the Czas, of General Kruszewski, and
a number of Polish gentlemen (altogether nearly
100), who, without being formally accused, are de-
tained in deep cells, on the ground that they are
" suspected of having wished to assist the insurrec-
tion." Why, there is no one in Cracow who does
not wish to assist the insurrection, with the excep-
tion of the German officials, whose sons, neverthe-
less, have in many cases actually joined it !
Fresh stories of atrocities committed by the Rus-
sian troops arrive here from time to time. These
acts are exasperating the country people, and in
many places have driven them to take up arms
against the Government, though in some others they
have inspired a feeling of terror and utter helpless-
ness. A belief seems to be gaining ground that
after the 13th—the last day for the acceptance of
the amnesty—the Muscovite hordes will be let loose
to do their worst, and that the horrors perpetrated
at Tomaszow and Bialaszew will be repeated in all
the towns and villages of Poland. Not, however,
that this idea has the least effect in damping the
ardour of the insurgents. On the contrary, every
exertion is made to get as many men as possible in
the field during the next fortnight, and there are
plenty of indications to show that the insurrection,
much as it has increased during the last month, is
❑evertheless far from having yet attained its max
mum of force.

Detachments will continue to leave Cracow every
day this week, and the last companies of the one
formed and to be commanded in person by Gene-
ral Mieroslawki move for the frontier to-morrow
night. Much, no doubt, will be pardoned to the
would-be Dictator if he fights much and gains many
victories; but at the present moment he holds no
command under the national Government, and is
acting entirely on his own responsibility. There
are said to be a great many foreigners in his corps,
which is variously estimated at 200, 300, and 400
strong. The precise number is difficult to ascertain.

The Franco-Italian " legion," formed under the
auspices of Garibaldi's son-in-law, is also, it ap-
pears, to act independently, whereas the Zonaves

and several other detachments which have already
left, or are on the point of leaving Cracow, will be

under the general direction of the distinguished
officer who has just been appointed to the command
of the military division of Cracow and Sandomir.
Altogether, I do not think more than 2,000 insur-
gents at the utmost will have started from Cracow
in the course of the present week, but they reckon
on their numbers being greatly increased as soon as
they set foot in the kingdom. Already I hear of
Jezioranski's forces in the palatinate of Lublin
having been trebled, and it is certain that they
have been considerably augmented, and that many
estates in the province have been quite deserted by
the farm•labonrers and servants, who have gone to
join the insurrection under the guidance, for the
most part, of the stewards.

Servants are also leaving Cracow in large num-
bers. A lady engaged to dine yesterday with a
friend sent to excuse herself on the ground that her
coachman had suddenly gone off to fight the Rus-
sians. She received a reply to the effect that it was

or no consequence, as the cook had started on the

same mission the night before, leaving behind a
bill of fare for the following day, and an apology
for not being able to carry it out.
I spoke in a recent letter of children having
joined, or attempted to join, the insurgents. A band
of 17 boys, of from 12 to 15 years of age, started
for the frontier yesterday, and it is feared that
they have already come to grief of some kind,
as three have already returned without being able
to give any account of the others. The story cur-
rent on the subject—which, however, like so many
others circulated here at this period of excitement,
seems to be based on no positive information—is to

he effect that the band of children net with a Rus-

Sian picket, when three of them took to their heels

and the 14 who remained were cut to pieces. If the
parents desired it, and the notion were not utterly

absurd, there would be no trouble in getting up a
child's crusade in Poland against the Russians. As

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_
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