The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-30 00:00:00

whatsoever place he thought proper." That the progress
of Reform was afterwards arrested by foreign invasion and
internal dissensions,ll freely admit ; but the Constitution of
1791 must, ever remain as an imperishable monument
of the spontaneous efforts of the Poles to improve their
institutions. Of this Constitution Charles Fox declared
that it was " a work in which every friend to reasonable
liberty must be sincerely,interested," and, in his own glowing
language, Edmund Burke said, that " humanity
must, glory and rejoice, when it considers the
change in Poland." Again, in 1807, when Napoleon
created the Duchy of Warsaw, and gave it a Constitution
suited to the wants and wishes of the people, the 4th
Article was in the following words :—" Serfage is abo-
lished. All citizens are equal in the eye of the law. The
rights of persons are placed under the protection of the
public tribunals." It is not to be supposed that the par-
ties assembled at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, would
force upon Poland a Constitution more liberal than they
themselves required ; yet in that Constitution—as aristo-
cratic as could possibly be made—the personal liberty of the
subject was guaranteed—the courts of justice were made
independent of the Czar—and an Elective Diet was intro-
duced. By some it is nevertheless asserted, that the
mild, impartial, and benignant sway of the Czar would
he preferable to the restoration of Poland, unless a
cf)tnparatively few emigrants in France and England, who
profess an unbounded admiration of equal rights, be per-
mitted to dictate to twenty millions of their fellow-country-
men in Poland, who can by no possibility be parties
to the arrangements—the precise form of Government
which, in the opinion of a few, is best adapted to the
customs, the manners, and the wishes of the many.
Beware, I say, of those who give such advice, for it
Is precisely that which every reasonable man would ex.
pact to emanate from the Russian Chancellerie, and it
would be extraordinary indeed if that cunning diplomacy,
which successfully acts the part of a Carbonaro in Italy
and an Absolutist in Spain, did not in some unknown
sliape make its appearance at such a meeting as
the present. And now, Gentlemen, what is this Russian
Power? Its northern boundary stretches to the Pole ; its
southern provinces rest upon the Euxine Sea ; in the west,
when its armed battalions were assembled at Tceplitz, they
were nearer to Paris .than to Petersburgh, the capital of
their own country ; and its gathering cohorts in the east
I even now press upon the northern bouticlaries of our Indian
empire. Would you enquire of its internal policy ? Go
count the Polish victims in the mines of Siberia—the Rus-
s:an captives which the jealousy of despotism has consigned
to the same destiny. By a refinement upon tyranny, this
power has even established military colonies, where
people are not only slaves themselves, but are trained
up to be the means of inflicting slavery upon others. Here
all the kindlier links which bind man to man are rudely
rent asunder—paternal affection and filial love are stifled,
as feelings opposed to a eystem which seeks to root out
all the nobler attributes of humanity—the " strong muscle
and the pliant will" are sedulously cultivated, " ignorance
is cherished, and knowledge denounced as treasonable,
to the Czar." In her foreign policy this Government is
aggressive and encroaching in every direction. In the
words of an eloquent writer, her " shadow lights before
the substance of her power is felt—the light fall of the
footsteps of tyranny awake no echo—the chains
she carries do not clank ; but, where she comes
it is to abide." And has she not come, and has she not
abode in unhappy Poland ? Bear. Witness the mas-
sacre of the Ukraine, where a Pole, a minister of religion,
and a dog, were suspended on the same gibbet, with the
inscription, " They are all one !"—where cruelties were
perpetrated which even the madness of the French Revo-
lution cannot parallel. Bear witness the massacre of Praga,
.ind the helpless Polish women and children consigned to
the sword by the brutal Suwarrow. Bear witness, in our
own times, the Polish maidens dragged from their honoured
homes, over the murdered bodies of their friends and rela-
tions, and consigned to all the pollutions of a Russian
camp. There is a hope, however, that these atrocities
shall be brought to a close. The British drum is heard in
our far distant Indian camp. The Red-cross of St. George
floats on the Banks of the Indus, and in every fold of the
gallant old flag that for a thousand years—

" Has braved the battle and the breeze"
is inscribed, Defiance to the Russian Despot—Peace,
iz aim), and commercial prosperity to the nations of Cen-
tral Asia. And shall not the Circassian hear of this on

native mountains, and his arm be nerved for new
trials and future conquests? Will not the British sailor,
who saw the flag of his country trampled upon on board
t.L! Vixen, believe that the time has at last arrived when
Cie honour and the material interests of the country shall
both be vindicated ? Above all, will not these glad tidings
convey hope and consolation to the Pole, and will not the
g:.nius of his country call aloud to her sons, that the day
and the hour hare at length arrived when Poland must be
raised from the tomb. In the mean time, it is at such
nt,:etings as the present, where we may testify our respect
or the brave men who have sacrificed everything for the
sahc• of their native land. We have around us those who
ari covered with honourable wounds received in defence
of national and European freedom, and with all the respect
due to patriotism in exile and•virtue in misfortune, let us
hail them as the true representatives of Polish nationality,
for—

What constitutes a state ?
Not high rais'd battlement or labour'd mound,
Thick wall or moated gate ;
Not cities proud with spires and turrets crown'd ;
Not bays and broad-arm 'd ports,
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starr'd and spangled Courts,
Where low-brovv'd baseness wafts perfume to pride.
NO:—Men, high-minded men,
With powers as far above dull brutes endued
In forest, brake, or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ;
Men, who their duties know,
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain.

The Hon. Gentleman was loudly cheered throughout,
and at the conclusion of his speech.
M. KoZMIAN, a Polish refugee, next addressed the
following observations to the meeting :—I rise to ex-
press my concurrence in the opinions 'of my friend, Mr.
Young. I thank him for the vindication of the Polish
name, of Polish history, from unjust aspersions. But
above all, I beg to return him my sincere thanks for
the lesson he has given us. If; indeed, we call upon
Englishmen to sink their party animosities, whenever Po-
land is in question, and to rally, one and all, round the stan-
dard
that w
ofoureare u
faith and our liberty,
wety are,weo regugshtttogle
show
as oneowthem
mass—for the attainment of our sacred purpose.—(Cheers.)
I am a democrat ; I hate aristocracy as much as my coun-
tryman
sof
far
rhaos stpoo kgie,
give
ewfoarye m
toe ;
partybut I
spirit,s a l tameyde rd faorrkgeent
tmy-
selfthe
recollection of such an event as the glorious Polish re-
volution, by the effusion of rancorous feelings against
-t theGothose whom privately, amongst ourselves, I may consider
as o
As a Pole, I cannot trust my
feelingstt t
the never-ceasing atrocity of Russia. But I must mention a
circumstance forcibly illustrative of the means by which
Russia intends to carry on war in Poland. After the fall
of Kosciusko, Souvaroff besieged Praga. A handful of,
,and e fitteste
Itrust.—General
ashalll
a p personspforego
rtie sgeo.) to lead, and not the best to
the enumeration of the proofs of
patriots resolved to defend that last stronghold of liberty,
and to arrest Hope ia,her flight, whom Campbell so poeti-
c illy describes as " bidding the world farewell," after the
fall of our hero. But vain was their resistance. Souvaroff
stormed and took Praga on the 4th of November. He
ordered immediately the town to be set on fire, and doomed
the whole inoffensive population to brutal carnage, 19,000
) tas,hdl aa
latelyor humli;yg hbtrapantiniotdhaef heart
forward
thda
the
re-awakening(mi
,n asoomn gem toahnfayßt cus l savage ho
rde.
It
tiotr
erctidovheii
ll
men, children, women, old men—all were mercilessly slain.
h
No one escaped, none remained to attest the existence of a
It is over this event that your fathers shed bitter tears, and
history
siegl
eoh wiaansbhg v
e
above
indelible mark of ignominy.—(Hear, hear.) It seems that
displayll itro—s tsws
hooietf:
gloriesms
surroundedu iel
il
tiai ty rioo ef
oisroubeueyeshsp
awc itnasss.
s,
exploits.Bh iuc ht,
orderedac
onf
fooobra;yd she
ee
coitakesEeeenlantspsi aeop
roadocerea-.
IVa
for the evolutions of the largest army in the world. But,
no ; it would not answer their purpose. They chose to
make a sham assault on the ramparts of Praga—and which
was the day they selected for that military fete ? It was the
4th of November—that day of blood-stained memory—as
if they wanted to hurl defiance in the face of public opinion
—as if they wanted to affront all humanity—as if they
dreaded not to rouse from their tombs the shades of the
12,000 victims they had so mercilessly slaughtered half
a c century ago. People of Great Britain, people of the
civilized world, cry shame upon such effrontery of crime—
cryj •
shame upon such wantonness of cruelty.—{Shame,
shame.) Now let us turn to the Poles. Have they ever
wantonly put to death one single Russian, though pro-
voked so often beyond the limits of all possible endurance ?
—( Hear.) Have they not, on the contrary, in the first days
of the late revolution, against the dictates of retributive
justice, against the warnings of sound policy, have they not
magnanimously granted a free passage to Russia to the Duke
Constantine—that man who, during 15 years of his govern-
ment, had exhaused every species of tyranny on Poland ?
—( Hear, hear.) We hate the Russians. All our feelings,
all our aspirations all our affections, are absorbed in that
burning thought of hatred. But our hatred is of that lofty
kind which becomes a nation of Christians and of freemen.
We have enlisted powerful and devoted friends in our
cause. But among those friends, powerful and devoted as
they may be, we shall miss a voice which has been hushed
by death within the space of this fortnight. A tomb has
been opened,
over which alike the Englishman and the Pole
mourn in mutual grief. It is beyond my power to offer
anything like an adequate tribute to the memory of Mr.

protection, commend more especially the restoration of Po.
land to the zealous attention of Great Britain, whom the
Court of St. Petersburgh hates and fears as the chief for-
tress of freedom throughout the world, and principal obstacle
to its schemes of rapine and universal despotism ; and
whose commerce, alliances, and possessions in the Mediter-
ranean, the East, and India, are therefore the constant ob-
ject of that Court's concealed or open hostility ; and that,
deeply impressed with the truth of the above statements,
this meeting requests and authorises the Chairman to sign
in its name a petition to both Houses of Parliament."
Before it was possible for any of them to hope to see the
restoration of Poland, one first and great step was to be
taken to prevent Russia from making any further aggres-
sion.—(Loud cheers.) They had already seen, as had been
beautifully described, Poland entirely disappear from the
map of Europe—Moldavia and Wallachia become almost
Russian provinces—Circassia attacked, and Turkey and
India menaced, and he was sorry to say England re-
mained a quiet spectator ; and although he had himself
spoken and written strongly upon the evils arising from
Russian influence to this country, he had written with-
out causing the slightest feeling on the part of the
Government. They were afraid to quarrel with Russia;
and they asked why should they quarrel with Russia?
what ground was there for a quarrel ? They might be
assured that a ground of quarrel would be easily found
when it suited the purpose of any great and over.
whelming foreign Power. They might recollect that
when Russia declared war against Turkey, it ix a,
thought that the Russian army could never pass the
Balkan or injure Turkey. They saw her lay siege to
Varna, and saw her defeated ; but her armies still came
forward more powerful than ever, she got possession of
this important fortress, and obtained an immense supe-
riority over all the Powers of Europe by the treaty
of Unkiar 'Skelessi, which excluded the vessels of all
other European nations from the Dardanelles.—(Cheers.)
He said, then, that before they could hope to see the resto-
ration of Poland they must stop the aggressions of Russia.
—(Cheers. How? it might be asked. He would furnish
the means.—(Cheers.) It was, perhaps, not generally
known that during the last summer Russia had twenty-
seven sail of the line in the Baltic ready for sea at a mo-
ment's notice with four months' provisions on board, fully
manned, the men being drilled to act as soldiers as well as
seamen. She had at the same time from forty to fifty
thousand men ready to embark, and at that time there
was not one man of war in England ready to oppose them.
At that moment treat Britain, the pride and fear of
the world, would be compelled to yield the empire of
the sea to Russia. There would be no difficulty what-
ever in Russia carrying into the Thames an army of
50,000 men and destroying the city in which they lived,
without this country being able to bring forward a
single ship to prevent it, and at the same time there
were not more than 20,000 troops in England at
large. He wished to discuss and examine the
means of stopping Russian aggression and restoring
Poland.—(Cheers.) The only good which their Foreign
Minister had done for many years was the sanctioning
the treaties between Turkey, Austria, and this country.—
(Cheers.) This alone was what would enable them to
stop the career of Russia.—(Cheers) But why was it
not followed up ? Why was our squadron ordered
back to Malta, and the Turks left to see whether
Russia or England was to protect them, if we in-
tended to maintain the treaty.—(Cheers.) This country
must be prepared for war in order to preserve peace.—
(Cheers.) We must fit out a fleet of thirty sail of the
line if we wished to be safe. We were only safe now
because the Baltic was nearly frozen over, and the
Russian fleet was not able to leave it ; or Russia was
not prepared to take the decisive step.—(Hear, hear.) He
said, then, that they ought immediately to fit out a fleet
of thirty sail of the line, and, having possession of that
fl-et, we might say to Russia, " Your progress you must
stop ; your fleets must be dismantled and disarmed, or we
will disarm them for you."—( Loud cheers.) He was con-
fident that when the day of trial came, it would add to
vie honour and glory of England.—(Cheers.) We were
beset with difficulties. In Canada there was great diffi-
culty, as it was doubtful whether or not there would be a
second invasion this winter ; and if America should assist
Canada, who could tell that France and Russia would not

be ready to join America, and destroy this country at
once ? Had they not signed the Quadruple Treaty with
France in order to stop the shedding of blood in unhappy
Spain, and had France acted up to or performed a single
article of that Treaty ? He felt convinced that it was to
that unfortunate Treaty that all ' the miseries of Spain
were due. He said, then, that they could not trust France
—(Cheers.) Let them put their trust in themselves.
Let them come forward with their fleets ; let them send
one to the Baltic and another to the Black Sea, and tell
Russia that they would no longer be menaced by her fleets
or her troops ; that she must dismantle the one and dis-
arm the other, or Cronstadt and Sebastopol would be in
flames.---(Load and continued cheering.)
Mr. S. BEALES seconded the resolution, and read the
proposed petition.

Previously to the resolution being carried, a scene of
great confusion was created by the appearance on the plat-
form of an individual, a foreigner, who desired to address
the meeting. He styled himself a Pole, but on his coming
forward all the Poles present, to a man, gave vent to ex-
clamations of the strongest indignation, calling him a Jew
and a Russian spy. Some of them even attempted to drag
him from the platform, and in the scuffle which ensued his
clothes were much torn. Lord D. Stuart attempted several
times to obtain a hearing for him, but his presence appeared
to be so offensive to the Poles, that it was apparently with
difficulty that they restrained themselves from expressing
their feelings in a more violent manner than by hooting and
contemptuous cries. At length, after braving for about
twenty minutes the storm of disapprobation, which raged
from all quarters, this individual retired, and order was soon
afterwards restored.
Mr. N. F. ZABA (a Polish exile) came forward amidst
loud cheers. He said, put us in possession of means to
re-appear with arms in our hands on our national soil, and
Poland and the Polish Legions will vouch eternal grati-
tude to England, and England will be handed down to pos-
terity as the guardian of liberty and of all social improve-
ments.—(Cheers.) This enthusiastic response of your
fueling. 4 is welcome on this occasion; it bears a noble testi-
mony that there is a spirit in England ready to break forth
and uphold the cause of the oppressed. Yes, in the present
:st ate of things there are two countries we look to as the
only nurses of the moral energies of man—England, where
the love of freedom and knowledge grows daily stronger ;
and Poland, where the hatred to tyrants makes her blood

The resolution was then carried unanimously.
Colonel THOIIIPSON proposed the third and last resolu-
tion :—" That the feelings and motives which have in-
duced this meeting to adopt a petition to Parliament in
favour of Poland urge it to request of its fellow-country-
men throughout every county and town in Great Britain
and Ireland to adopt similar means of manifesting their
sense of the iniquitous and aggressive policy of the Court
of St. Petersburgh ; and their sympathy with the fervent
patriotism, inextinguishable scorn of oppression, and just
and generous views of personal and political freedom which
animate the mass of the Polish people at home and their
brethren iu exile, supporting them under all their grievous
sufferings, and rendering them impatient to once again ac-
tively dvote themselves to the salvation of their country,
and the re-establishment of its power and independence
upon the firm basis of equal rights, extended to all, and
embracing all its inhabitants, without distinction of Note,:te
or Peasant."
Mr. RIDER seconded the resolution, which wt carried
unanimously.
Thanks were then voted to the Chairman amidst the
loudest demonstrations of approbation.
Lord D. STUART then addressed the meeting in the
following terms :—I rise to return you my best thanks for
the vote lust passed, acknowledging my services in the
chair. Your approbation thus expressed forms some con-
solation for the pain which I have experienced at several
periods of the meeting. We have to-day witnessed a scene
of violence and confusion, I fear very ill calculated to im-
press the British public with a favourable opinion of the
Polish refugees. In opening the business of the day, I
pointed out the propriety of abstaining from all party topics, and of avoiding all personalities. The lamentabl tion of this day has illustrated the danger of disregarding
such advice, and instead of harmony and union e•
the Poles, we have seen a contest of vociferation, andamon even'
of personal strength, carried on bentdwweeon
would
I would
hem.
not mention these things publicly,
a
bury them in oblivion, but that I well know most willinglyour procn
ed-
ings in this room will be recounted by t e public press to
the inhabitants even of the most distal parts of the world,
and, as all attempts at concealment must be useless,
let it at least be known
that if such things e.c-
curred, they were beheld with grief and sorrow
by
the Cnairman, as I trust they were by the majority of the
audience. There is another
matter which I am compelled
for a similar reason to
mentionad which has occasioned me
the severest pain. Every Pole present well knows, lam sure,
to what I allude—it is to the attack made by a gentlemen
who spoke early upon a distinguished statesman, Prince
Cz tryski. The character of public men is, no doubt,
public property, and proper subject of discussion at public