The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-09 00:00:00

THE POLISH INSURRECTION

The Austrian Observer publishes the following official
document :
The moment is arrived 'when it becomes possible to
take an impartial view of the late events in Galicia,
and in the Grand Duchy of Posen, and to examine
their cause. We shall complete this task in a point of
view purely historical, and we shall confine onr obser-
vations within as small a space as possible. When the
revolution of Poland, which was attempted in the years
1830 and 1831 failed, a number of Polish emigrants es-
tablished themselves in i?rance, in England, and in Bel-
gium, who used all the means in their power to disturb
the country which they had quitted either voluntarily or
by necessity. The emigrants divided into two factions,
who were in accord as to an attack, and postponed
until a successful result should be accomplished the
triumph of their particular opinions. Thus each party
pursued a double direction—first, that which was com-
mon to both, the overthrow of the existing Government;
and next, their particular tendency, which may be
termed aristocratic, democratic, or communist, according
as we are enabled to indicate the course of their efforts.
The late attack, however, may be regarded as the work
of the democratic faction. It was supported by parties
in a higher and in a lower rank—the aristocratic party.
which above all desires the overthrow of the Govern-
ment, and the communists, who thought they might gain
their own ends. In order to prepare the explosion they
calumniated all the Government officers ; they sent
emissaries through the country to excite the popula-
tion to revolt ; they distributed 100,000 revolutionary
pamphlets, under the form of democratic catechisms, dis-
sertations, appeals to revolt, and instructions as to the
mode of carrying on a guerilla war. Everywhere the
assembled parties placed in the first rank of their pa-
triotic actions the massacre of all who were not Poles,
recommending that they should be exterminated by the
sword and dagger, and, if necessary, by poison, as has
been incontestably proved by the instructions given by
the leaders of the insurrection. A council was held at
the latter end of the month of November last, at which
figured the self-styled deputies of the five districts repro •
senting the ancient kingdom of Poland, for the purpose of
facilitating their operations. These districts were the
Grand Duchy of Posen, Galicia, the kingdom of Poland,
Lithuania, and the territory of the free city of Cracow.
In their military plan they bad placed in the first
line of their operations the capture of the fortresses of
Posen and of Thorn, if it were possible, and of a third
fortress, situate in Old Prussia. The revolt was in•
tended to commence simultaneously through the entire
extent of the territories of Posen, of Cracow, and
through western Galicia. According to the antici-
pations of the conspirators, an insurrection through the
rest of Poland would be the inevitable consequence of
the first movement. The explosion of the insurrection
was fixed to take place between the 17th and the 21st of
February, and the instructions given to the leaders in
the different districts were to that effect. The success
of the first part of the enterprise was to have been fol-
lowed by an attalik on the kingdom of Poland. A
certain lucky chance, of which the Prussian Government
took advantage, caused the attack to fail on the for-
tresses which were to have served as the base of their
future operations, and the insurrection in the Grand
Duchy of Posen was consequently suppressed. The
instructions of the Central Committee prescribed, in
case the enterprise should fail in the Grand Duchy of
Posen, the explosion should, nevertheless, be attempted
in the territory of Cracow and in Galicia. The Senate
of Cracow, and the residents of the three protecting
powers, were apprised that a revolt in the territory of
the republic of Cracow was on the point of commencing.
The explosion was fixed for the 18th of February, and
the conspirators were at their posts. The unexpected
appearance in Cracow of the small garrison of Podgorze
defeated the intentions of the conspirators for that
day, and deranged the calculations made of a responding
movement in Galicia. The events which occurred in
Tarnow on the 18th and 19th of February demonstrated
with what scrupulous accuracy the conspirators in that
circle executed the orders received by them, and how
they accepted as true the false accounts propagated of a
successful rising in Posen, and that the grand duchy was
up in arms. The facts relating to Tarnow have been
published, and are sufficiently known. The attempts
made by the conspirators to raise the people of the coun-
try failed in consequence of the fidelity of the popula-
tion, and not in consequence of a reward said to
have been promised for every insurgent surren-
dered, living or dead—a falsehood as perfidious as ab-
surd, and invented by the insurgents to disguise the
truth, that the attempts of seduction, in a democratic
and communist sense, had failed even amongst the pea-
sant!. Conspirators and assassins are hired with money
but it is not by such means that a Gevernrnent can pur-
chase an entire population ; it is by advantages confer-
red, and by fulfilling its duty with fidelity. When the
account was received of the failure of the attempt at
Tarnow (upon which the Polish refugees depended most)
and the neighbouring districts, fresh attempts at insurrec-
tion were made, but they failed in consequence of the op-
po. sitionoffered by the peasants. Those attempts, however,
did not produce the sanguinary results which followed
at Tarnow, where the violence attempted by the conspi-
rators against the peasants was the cause of what
ensued. In the latter circle the people used no violence,
until the conspirators had shot some peasants who re-
fused to follow them. In the other districts the insur-
gents were more moderate, and the population was
content with capturing Them and surrendering them to
the authorities in the chief towns of the district. Some
insurgents, who endeavoured to propagate the move-
ment in the district of Sandecz by forming isolated
bands, by organising a system of plunder, and by
exciting the peasants against their masters, were
quickly subdued by some detachments of troops,
aided by the men whom the insurgents endea-
voured to seduce. The peasants whose masters were
opposed to the insurrection have been seen, of their own
accord, to defend the approach to their castles, and to
repulse the insurgents on their arrival. The attack upon
Cracow, which was intended to form an important part,
as an example of what might be done, became but a
simple episode in this criminal drama, in consequence
of the occupation of that city. With respect to
the imperial troops, if we exc pt the night of the
21st of February, in which they were obliged to sup-
port the attack of the conspirators in the city of Cracow,
and subsequently the attack of Podgorze and the affair
of Wieckzka, they had no opportunity to prove
their bravery and their fidelity, except by their perse-
verance in supporting forced marches in the worst wea-
ther, by severe discipline, and by privations of every
description. The troops had not occasion to fire a
single shot against the insurgents in Galicia. What re-
mains of this criminal enterprise? On the one hand,
the social condition of the country Is disturbed, a con-
siderable mass of private fortunes compromised, a great