The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-09 00:00:00

INSURRECTION IN RUSSIA.

prom the Warsaw State Gazette of the2Bth ult.)
We hasten to publish a proclamation just found
on on officer, decorated with the order of St. George,
who was killed in a recent attlir, dated
" SAMARAD, Jan. 29, OR the hanks of the Wolga.

" It is an old man, seventy years of age, who has
lived during the reign of four Sovereigns, and who
now, towards the end of his life, disgus!ed with the
despotism with which he is surrounded, revives in
your hearts sentiments of national liberty, and will
die free. Raise your heads, 0 Russians ! All
Europe, and particularly that part which is the most
civilized and enlightened, acknowledge that there is
nothing so despicable as to support slavery, and the
yoke of despotism. Have you not vigorous arms,
have you not souls inaccessiide to fear, why then
should you not be able to shake the chains with
which you are fastened ?

" Russia, the Queen of the North of Europe,
having saved the liberty of others, will not fail for
herself : why do you tremble without the daring of '
courage, you slaves of a despotic Czar ? you tremble
at the very name of liberty, and the idea of it is, in
your eyes, the greatest of crimes. Is it then possible,
that theme Who here the tenor of the world, can
suffer to reaiain the slave of prejudice and ignorance ?
" Russia, the eyes of all Europe are turned
towards you : the world knows the bravery of Rus-
sian heroes ; the- straightforward labourer and the
11*h-spirited noble are known ; but of what use are
these qualities, where. despotism reigns in the name
of legal power,—there where pride raises its bold
front, treats its neighbour with disdain,and, spreading
its wing=, tries to smother litre; ty and honour ? What
is it that stops your course ? Why do you not fly to
obtain inestimable liberty ? Is ir, perhaps, prejudice
which prevents you. Your ancestors were born and
died slaves. Oh ! may the light of liberty now
disperse the- clouds of slavery ! There are now uo
Russians in any class who do not understand the
true value of liberty; but they look for an impulse
they cannot give themselves ; they sigh in silence,—
they await the moment to conquer their liberty.
" There is not an example in the history of any
people, that those who are firmly determined to ob-
tain their liberty do not succeed. God protects
their efforts. Look at the happiness of other people
while 3on remain the victims of an increasing des-
potism. You see even at borne the love of a people
for a Sovereign who commenced his reign with jus-
tice and clemency; but, alas! it was only the com-
mencement; for at length, blinded by pride, nou-
rished by vile &acre's, he cruelly deceived the
hopes which he raised. Look to the fruits of that
justice and clemency. We must suffer punishments
till then unknown ; victims of his suspicions, but
neither tried nor convicted ; and all this only in
order that he might reign despotically. Our war-
m's are returned from Turkey covered with new
laurels; all are not come buck; many arc mis-,ing.
Where are they ? They are btyond the Bateau ;
their ashes repose in a foreign land, if at least the
Russians in their misery could say they have pe-
rished, but they have perished for their country.
But alas! no,„they are sacrificed, offered up to pride
arid the barbarism of two de-pots. Where are our
fathers, our brothers, our childnn? They will never
return;
.but in their just vengeance they send the
comramons of their tombs—sickness and the plague,
which, as auxiliarie=, will end in giving the death-
blow to those who would obtain their liberty. You
will see the vengeance of an offended and insulted
God : these insults increasing, in an awful degree,
even in our holy Church, from the reign of the Czar
Alexander Federowitz.

" Oh, Russians, fear that each minute will rake
your situation more terrible ; every thing proves
that the wisdom which is the dawn of national hap-
piriess is smothered amongst us. Commerce is left
without protection, the merchants oppressed with
enormous taxes, the cultivator is almost forced to
purchase his subsistence, as if it was the gift of the
Czar; the ancient Russian citizens are despised, and
strangers fill the principal places in the State ; it is
not, therefore, astonishing that they oppress and ruin
us, for they are not our brethren. And what has
become of our martial spirit ? where are the ancient
.Russian heroes ? where are those who armed them-
selves in the name of God, the nation, and the
Czar ? They have all perished, and now we have
been chosen to be the vile instruments of despotism.
Wo, wo, to us ! And are we to •be blindly obe-
dient ? We all complain, we shed bitter tears in
vain ; are these, then, the arms the brave children
of Russia ought to use ? No ; it is with swcrd in
hand we must go into the centre of the capital,
into the midst of the field of battle ; we ought to
demand our national liberty. What can oppose our
courage ? The idols of despotism will fall before
us, the Czar will become a father, and we shall cease
to be orphans : we shall again find a country, and
like our brethren in Jesus Christ, the Greeks, we
shall become free and immortalize ourselves. Nations
less warlike arid less populous have risen with suc-
cess, although surrounded by empires interested in
ti eir destruction. The hour has struck. God, who
has in his hands the fate of Kings and of people,
will protect us also. Tear asunder, omy country-
men, the bonds of fanaticism. You have sworn to
be faithful, but the Czar, ha; he not also sworn to
be your rather ? He has broken his cath, we are
free from ours. Let us, notwithstanding, respect our
Czar as the representative of God, as the highest
authority. Change only the form of Government,
and demand a Constitution.
" Russians, let all those who desire their happi-
ficss, and that of their descendants, profit by the
present moment, and hasten to the banks of the
Wolga ; there the flag of liberty already floats—
there the work has commenced. Citizens and
warriors have taken the oath, in the face of the
whole world, to die, or to be free. Those whom
distance prevents from joining us, have only to rouse
their sleeping souls, and, sword in hand, demand on
the spot which they inhabit liberty and a Constitu-
tion. But-it is principally to you, Russian warriors,
that I address myself, and it is towards you that
the country holds out-its arms ;it is from you that
it expects deliverance ; do not allow that it will be
any longer the plaything of savage despotism. The
throne has no other defenders than the slaves that
surround it. They will betray for money in the
field of battle as they have done in the council.—
We must be free: rise, and the throne will tremble;
but if the despot will arrest our enterprise, and that
by the aid of those accomplices on whom he bestows
all favours, in forgetting that he is our Monarch and
not theirs,---in forgetting that he is the father of all
the Russians,—then the whole world will see that
the Russians are not made for slavery,—that they
must have their liberty : they can be free, and the
will be free.

" General JERMOLOFF."

The hat makers and finishers in the employ of
several of the London manufacturers, to the number o.
200 and upwards, struck work on the 25th of March last.
The case is briefly this. These masters employ a body of
makers in the West of England, who, for 11 or 12 years
past, have been members of a club, called the Waterloo
Fund, for maintaining their sick and other purposes.
This fund the Undon men demand of them to break up,
and to pay 2s. per week each man into the London
Fund, managed by a committee of 21, and to place them-
selves in all trade affairs under their controul ; threatening
them at the same time, in the event of their non-compli-
ance, that they (the London men) would strike work
against those masters who did not discharge the country-
men so refusing to comply. This demand of sending
adrift 300 industrious and valuable men, being so arbitrary
and unjust, the masters are determined to resist it, and
they retain them accordingly. The public should know,
that the greatest part of these turn-outs were earning, on
average, from 2/. 10s. to 3/. 10s. per week.
A letter from Messina, dated March, says,
" after having for several days experienced several shocks
of an earthquake, of more or less violence, we have wit-
nessed a new opening in the crater of Mount Etna, which
was followed by a considerable eruption. As this opening
did not take place towards Catana, in the direction of the
sea, as has usually been the case, but towardi the west,
the stream of lava took a direction to the interior."