The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-31 00:00:00

ADDRESS OF THE POLES TO COUNT
WALE WSKI.

The following is the address presented to Count
Walewski by the Polish deputation :
" Excellency,—The Paris Congress, by the con-
clusion of the treaty of peace of the Ist April, solved
unexpectedly the Eastern question ; and in this
treaty, of which the principal object was the re-
establishment of the balance of Europe, the West-
ern Powers stipulated nothing with respect to
Poland, and thus sanctioned by an inexplicable
omission all the spoliations committed on that na-
tion since the fatal period of its partition. We,
the refugees and representatives of Poland, being
delegated to maintain in all its integrity the prin-
ciple of its independence, feeling the sacred nature
of our duties, strong in the justice of our cause,
make a last appeal before the chiefs and plenipoten-
tiaries of the allied States of France, England,
Austria, Sardinia, and Turkey, protesting
earnestly against the abandonment of our
national rights, confirmed and guaranteed in
the last instance by the acts of the Congress
of Vienna on the 3 1 of May, 9th of June, and 27111
of November, 1815, and which up to the Treaty of
Paris of the present year, have not been abrogated
or modified by any other convention between the
Powers of Europe.
" Since the raising of the Eastern question, in
consequence of the pretensions of the Emperor
Nicholas over the Christian subjects of the Otto-
man empire, we have never ceased to entertain the
hope that Poland would be called to take an active
part in this great judgment of the interests of
Europe against the lawless ambition of Russia, and
which, according to general expectation, was to
have restored our independence.
"After the invasion of the Danubian Principa-
lities and the massacre of Sinope, to which France
and England replied by a declaration of war, we
offered our co-operation, and proposed the forma-
tion of an auxiliary Polish corps, even in the ter-
ritory of the Sultan. The proposal, which at first
seemed to be accepted, encountered opposition in
the Cabinet of Vienna, which, at a later period,
by the Convention of the 2d of December, 1854,
joined the Anglo-French alliance. Since that day
we have been in constant expectation of being
called upon by the allies, and God knows with
what inexpressible anxiety we awaited the arrival
of the moment when we should unite our eagles
with the banners of France and England. That
happiness was not granted to us. We have been
forced to keep shut up in our bosom all our pa-
triotic hopes, but they are not the less lively and
lasting from being postponed.
"During the course of the negotiations opened
at Paris for the conclusion of peace we did not raise
our voice in the name of Poland, for we could not
believe that in a Congress assembled to re-establish
the ancient relations between the Powers of Eu-
rope the question of Poland would have been
totally set aside. We left to France and her allies
the task of pleading our cause at the same time as
that of Turkey, and we thought that our silence
ought to entitle us to this consideration. The de-
liverance of oppressed nationalities would, we
thought, be the necessary consequence of the Wes-
tern alliance. But now, when the treaty of peace,
ratified by the Powers, has been made public, and
as neither in that official instrument, nor in the
protocols of the Conferences which preceded it, have
we found the name of Poland, we cannot, without
denying the past, without abandoning all regard
to the future, remain silent, and thus renounce
the rights which even our enemies and those of
France had recognised as legitimate.
" France and England, by declaring war against
Russia, have, it is true, assumed no new engage-
ments with regard to Poland ; and this Eastern
war—for reasons which it does not belong to us to
discuss—has terminated without her participation.
But was that a reason why nothing should be sti-
pulated in her favour by the Congress ? Such is not
our opinion. If the treaties of 1815, imposed by
force, are to servo for ever as the law of Europe for
all other questions besides those of Turkey,
the strict observance of those treaties, approved in
common, ought clearly to be demanded in all
that concern Poland. We only speak of tho law
of Europe, for that which we rely on is Poland
before 1772. The sth clause of the Austrian
propositions, which permits the Plenipoten-
tiaries to require guarantees for the security of.
Europe, gives them on this point complete latitude
—it purports, in fact, the maintenance of Polish
nationality, and such, we trust, is the meaning
attached to that article in the final meeting of the
Congress. Moreover, the present peace would. not
have been concluded without the moral influence
which Poland, though unrepresented in the Angie-
French alliance, exercised en the resolutions of the
Cabinet of St. Petersburg ; and the admissions of
Russia herself have been too explicit on this point
for us to have recourse to any other proofs than
those taken from the Times, the principal organ of
public opinion of Europe.
"The Plenipotentiaries have, consequently, the
power—we may add that the obligation is imposed
on them, always reserving our national rights—to
demand from Russia the re-establishment of tee
kingdom of Poland as it stood in 1815, and which
has never been considered as forming an integral
part of the Muscovite empire. Pursuant to the
sense of the Treaty of Vienna, it ought to have its
Government, its representatives, and its army ;
its territory ought not to be occupied by any foreign
troops ; and the re-establishment of Poland ought
to be accompanied by that of the free city of Cra-
cow, as the inviolable sanctuary of our historical
recollections.

" All these guarantees have been comprised in
the general act of Congress, dated the 3d of May,
from which we quote the following passage
6" Art. 1. The Poles, subjects of Russia, Aus-
tria, and Prussia respectively, will have a repre-
sentation and national institution.'

" Art. 6. The city of Cracow, with its territory,
is declared for ever a free city, independent, and
strictly neutral.'
" Art. 9. The Courts of Russia, Austria, and
Prussia bind themselves to respect, and cause to be
respected, at all times, the neutrality of the free
city of Cracow and its territory. No armed force
shall ever be introduced into it under any pretext
whatever.'
" We are bound at the same time to remind your
Excellency of the solemn premises made to us, re-
lative to these different points, under the preceding
regime, during the period which elapsed between
1831 and 1848, by ail the legislative assemblies ; of
the sympathetic echoes which they have ever found
in the English Chambers, and the unanimous vote
of the National Assembly on the 23d of May, 1848.
These promises become, in our opinion, obligations
for the present regime which has emanated from
the will of France, and which is bound up with the
Imperial traditions, for to establish it, in order to
continue these traditions, to raise it from its poli-
tical decline and fall, was also to demand from it
the re-establishment of Poland. From that mo-
ment we felt assured of our independence, based on
the general interests of Europe ; we have hailed the
accession of an era of glory for France, of an era of
reparation for Poland. ; for we could not, and we
cannot now, separate those two great prin-
ciples which for us are embodied in the immortal
name of Napoleon I. We served too well the
first Empire to entertain any doubt of his lie!r ;
we appeal to his personal sentiments, which
are in conformity with those of the nation ; to
his words, if necessary, addressed on more than
one occasion to our countrymen. France wishes
for a pacific reign, but a glorious one ; but the
glory of a Napoleon is in the deliverance of Po-
land.
" We have by the preceding sufficiently esta-
blished the right of Poland to the intervention of
Europe, represented in Congrem for the atainten,

mice of the principle of its independence. There
remains, then, the question of interest which Europe
❑iay have to sustain it.

"The Eastern question, the definitive solution
of which no one has dared to indicate, cannot be
detached from the question of Poland. Any cons-
, hination the object of whose solution would be the
exclusion of Poland would be at once marked by
weakness and fragility, and of this we see the re-
cent proof in the additional treaty of the 15th of
April, annexed to the act of Congress, and pur-
porting to consolidate it by a guarantee indepen-
dent of its original basis. Such must be the case;
for Russia only negotiated with the view of delay,
her traditional policy is in every respect the same;
and the interposition of Poland is still the only lo-
gical and rational means of arresting her progress
towards the west and south. From the present
late she declares war against the Circassians, who
by their religion are connected with the Sultan.
To-morrow it will be the turn of the Persians; the
eastern road of the Black Sea remains always open
to her. There is an inexorable necessity in the life
of nations as of individuals, which cannot be
avoided by any expedient. One of two things--
.either Poland will be freed, or Turkey and Aus-
tria will, sooner or later, pass under the Musco-
' vite rule. Let the Greco-Slave empire be not for-
gotten—that empire planned by Peter 1., and rea-
lised by his descendants, would be composed of
near 100,000,000 men ! Tzarogrod,' the city of
the Czars !—suck has been for centuries the Rus-
sian name of Corrstantinople. Napoleon has said,
The assimilation. of Poland would render Russia
all powerful !' Time Plenipotentiaries we feel sure
will take these things into consideration in order to
secure for their work the character of solidity and
durability.
" We disclaim tae absurd calumnies which con-
nect the cause of Poland with anarchy and agita-
tion ; these are cslious insinuations in which no
one believes, not erven those who propagate them.
England, Switzer3and, and even Austria have
always shown themselves disposed to aid in our in-
dependence ; but surely those Powers have no
interest in serving the cause of disorder. In this
act of reparation and of justice they only see the
accomplishment of: a groat political necessity, and
we cannot supposta that their initiative would be
rejected by Franosa We aro ituld that the Con-
gress recoiled from the question of a general recon-
struction of the in ap of Europe ; that it feared the
occurrence of a di 33as3ion on Poland, as if it could
be a danger more grave than that we have just in-
dicated ;—as if th a,t reconstruction, the inevitable
result of every i a iportant war, was beyond the
power of France 'and its allies. But, in truth,
there was no need .of reforming the map of Europe,
of tracing new div isions of territories between the
nationalities which. compose it. Quite the contrary,
it was only necessary to guarantee those which
were found alread, r traced in the beginning of the
European struggl e.. It was precisely the task of
the Congress, and ;that task it cannot avoid accom-
plishing.
"Is Poland des tined to undergo this last out-
rage—to see the last shred of its independence
torn ; this supren to iniquity—to see its very name
effaced from the snap of the world, because, 25
years ago, it did not wish to march against the
West, and serve :as the vanguard to Russia—be-
cause it coastal- nay hoped the intervention of
Europe, and den landed a term to its martyrdom ?
" And why, t twai, should Europe refuse to fulfil
its engagements towards one of the most ancient
of valiant nations in Christendom ? Europe has
taken an interest in the fate of the Greeks, the
Roumains, the Servians, the Scandinavians, the
Tartars, the agaros, and other heterogeneous
populations who so existence is scarcely known.
Can it do less ii t favour of the Poles—of a nation
of 20,000,000 mien, kept by the common enemy
under a yoke a hundred times more painful and
intolerable ?

"Is Europe ashamed to pronounce our name
because that name calls to mind the crime of the
partition, the most disgraceful act of modern times ?
We cannot beliew.e it, for this last injustice would
prove the ruin of its moral dignity by sanctioning
the right of de.sp atism and Asiatic barbarity ! The
blood of our sobEers too often mingled on fields of
battle with that of France not to secure to the
latter a right to defend and protect her sister
among Christiaa ilations ! Her honour is at stake,
and in France Iron our is a principle that does not
admit of discussion.

" Being persrmded that the regeneration of our
country can alone insure to Europe a constant and
solid peace, the re gular development of its liberal
tendencies, and complete security ; that it can
alone put a period t •eo the violent commotions which,
since the close of the last century, have agitated
the West, by exhai isting in incessant and always
sterile struggles the. vital forces of its civilisation ;
that it can alone aci iequately retrieve the immense
sacrifices made by 'Prance and her Allies during
the war in the East. ;
"We, emigrants and representatives of Poland,
beseech the chiefs and plenipotentiaries of the
allied States of Prance, England, Austria, Sar-
dinia, and Turkey, and particularly your Excel-
lency, our natural defender and president of the
Congress, to repair that omission of the name of
Poland, in the interest of all Europe aggrieved at
her abandonment, and to require at least in her
favour, conformably to previous engagements, the
fulfilment of the stipullations which France, although
disarmed, obtained for her in 1815, and which
France, to-day victorious, is the more authorised
to insist upon, namely :
" That our national institutions be for aver re-
stored and guaranteed to us ;
" That the kingdom of Poland and the free city
of Cracow, created by the Congress of Vieni la, and,
since 1831 and 1846, illegally absorbed by Russia
and Austria, be re-established on the bases stipu-
lated by the act of the Congress, and asseitted to
by the three Courts which shared in the partition ;
and

"That the Code of Napoleon, abrogated in 1832,
and replaced by organic statutes imposed by force,
should be again put in vigour throughout the en-
tire of Poland.

"Confiding in the wisdom of their views,, in the
uprightness of their intentions, we await their de-
cision in that respect, with a certainty that events,
prepared by Divine Providence, will justify our
anticipations : that we shall find a generous sup-
port in public opinion, the supreme, arbitrator
in all great national causes, and which, at this
period of enlightenment and progress, ultimately
comes off triumphant.
" Count CHRISTIAN OSTROWSKI,
Together with several thousand.
Members of the Polish Emigration.
" Paris, May 3."