The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-08 00:00:00

THE INSURRECTION IN POLAND.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
CRACOW, May 30.

Count Alexander Branigki, the proprietor of
Bialocerkiew, and of immense estates in other parts
of the Ukraine, has been arrested and sent to Sara-
toff, in the east of Russia. The insurgents had
taken 240 horses (magnified by journalistic licence
into 600) from his breeding stables, and he is, of
course, accused of having assisted the insurrection.
Bialocerkiew appears to be the great centre of the
movement in the province of Kieff or the Ukraine,
as Zaslow—the property of that Prince Esman San-
guszko who 30 years ago was sent to Siberia on
foot among felons by the Emperor Nicholas—is its
chief focus in Volhynia.

lip to this moment I do not think more than half
a dozen direct communications have been received
in Cracow from either Volhynia, Podolia, or the
Ukraine since the outbreak of the insurrection in
those regions. Several of these letters are written
in a very enigmatic style, but on the whole, in a
sanguine tone. However, in a letter received here
to-day direct from Dubuc), in Volhy nia, it is said
that the rising has hitherto been confined to three
districts in that province, and the writer evidently
cannot tell nearly so much about the Volhynian
insurrection as is known, or at least confidently
stated, about it in the west of Europ?.
There may be 15,000, or any greater or smaller
number of insurgents under arms in the three
south-eastern provinces, only the number cannot
be calculated, and people deceive themselves who
think they can tell for certain whether there are
more than 5,000, or less than 20,000.
As to the unfortunate insurrection near Kieff, a
traveller from that:city confirms the accounts pub-
lished a few days ago by the Polish newspapers. A
hundred and fifty students of the University rode
out of the town in broad daylight. Sixty of their
horses aresaid to have been procured from a dragoon
regiment, which is just possible, inasmuch as Rus-
sian cavalry soldiers, with or without permission,
often let their horses out for hire. It seems strange,
however, that they should let out 60 at a time, espe-
cially in a city like Kieff, where repeated demon-
strations on the part of the Poles against the Go-
vernment have taken place during the last twoyears.
According to one account, Oleszankski, the chief
of the band of students, did not hire but took the 60
dragoon horses. However that may be, the 150 in-
surgents rode out of the town in the middle of the
day, and soon after had regular cavalry sent after
them. The Russian troops were accompanied by po-
lice agents, who called on the peasantry to protect
themselves, for that the Poles had taken up
arms and wished to dispossess them of their land,
to massacre a portion of them and reduce the re-
mainder to slavery. It may appear idiotic on the
part of the peasantry to believe such statements as
these, but for some time past they have heard no-
thing else from the lips of the Russian function-
aries employed to deceive and corrupt them. Tales
and pamphlets have been manufactured and given
away among them; as tracts are given away in
England, in which Polish landholders are repre-
sentedand defrauding
as having obtained their property by robbing
first time bythttrheoeapeasants, and in which serfdom
(which was
the Poles of a slans
Russians
into the Ukraine for the
when the adoption by
abolished had led toConstitutionth by which serfdom was
represented
eentsecond partition of
is re
their country)
independent
tion inseparable from a free inetitu-
eivneassurreacntio
oPtolaa ns
serf
f k
nEovwe
sr Russian
the position
means, and if any Russian is particularly really
the fact that the peasantry of Poland can bestruck. by
on the subject let him remember that 1
Bdcra,ceived
ago the workmen of Moscow were easily °liths
ywbat a Polish
hb and
persuaded
that the students of the Moscow University were
the enemies of serf-emancipation, and that under
the guidance of the police they fell upon them, beat
them, and wounded many of them very severely,
In the same way the peasantry about Kieff, armed
and led on by the scalers, fell upon the Polish

students of the Kieff University and about 20 of
the unfortunate young men were killed, and a
great number badly wounded.'
In spite of the precautions taken by the Austrians,
150 insurgent horsemen passed the Galician frontier
on Whit Sunday, and are now in the Kingdom. The
frontier being specially guarded at one point, they
crossed it at another,

Three nights ago a troop of 60 cavalry assembled
here in a stable where horses, uniforms, and arms
were awaiting them. At 12 o'clock they rode out
of the town iu regular formation ; had the compli-
ment paid them at the Warsaw barrier of being mis
taken for Hungaria❑ Hussars; passed a patrol of
infantry coming from Wengrze .the Austrian fron-
tier station facing Michalowice), which fraternally
saluted them ; and at a little to the right of Wengrze,
at about five miles dithtance from Cracow, entered
the Kingdom. This daring practical joke, not likely
to be repeated, was no doubt suggested by the simi-
lar exploit performed a fortnight since by the
students of Kieff.

The mail train from Warsaw comes in now at all
sorts of times. Twice this week we have had no
letters from Warsaw, and it appears that the rail-
way is destroyed over an extent of eight English
miles between Rakocin and Pietrkow.
A correspondent of the Czas states that after the
battle of Ignaeztw, in which Taczanowski's little
army was defeated, with a loss of some 250 killed
and wounded, Gen. Brunner ordered the wounded
Po;es to be wrapped in straw, strewed with gun-
powder, and set on fire. The order was executed, to
the disgust of the Russian officers, who (as the cor-
respondent of the Czas states) make no secret of their
indignation, and tell every one who arrives at Ignac-
zew of the hideous barbarity of their chief—appar-
ently one of the Russianized Germans of Courland, so
notoriously worse in all respects than the Russians
themselves. Nevertheless, if this story be true—and
it is not very much nearer the incredible than some
other stories of cruelties known positively to have
been committed—the Russian officers, whatever the
rules of the service may say, need not in such an
extreme and quits unprecedented case have re-
frained from remonstrating with their commander.
On the 18th of May the torch of Russian military
incendiarism seems to have been applied to an im
mense wood near Tarnogrod in the South of the pro-
vince of Lublin, close to the Galician irontier. As
the wind was blowing from the north, the fire spread
to the forests on this side of the border, and in
Galicia alone some 80 acres of useful cover for in-
surgents, and of valuable property, were destroyed.
The greatest exertions had been made by the
authoritits of Cieszanow and the peasants of the
surrounding villages to confine the flames within a
narrow compass. In the kingdom, however, those
who had deliberately kindled the fire were not
likely to put it out, and there it is said to have ex-
tended over a space of nearly a thousand English
acres.

On the Cracow and Vienna Railway all the dis-
posable waggons have been sent to Vienna (it is
supposed) in order to fetch troops. Preparations
are also being made for the reception of troops at
Tarnow and elsewhere on the Galician frontier.
The end of all this perhaps will be that two or
three extra companies will be sent to Cracow and
the two principal towns between Cracow and Lem-
b3rg, but as the Civil Governor of the district of
Cracow and the Gwernor-General of Galicia have
both gone to Vienna, it is assumed here that some
important decision is about to be taken, and that the
Austrians, if they are not going to enter the king•
dom as armed pacificators, are at least resolved to
declare Galicia in a state of siege, and to occupy it
in sufficient force to prevent the departure of fresh
detachments for the "kingdom" and for Volhynia.