The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-20 00:00:00

THE POLISH AND HUNGARIAN

REFUGEES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Literary Association of the Friends of Poland, Sus-
sex-chambers, Duke-street, St. James's, March 19.
SlR,—The public has lately been startled by hear-
ing of the arrival at Liverpool of some two or three
hundred Polish and Hungarian refugees, eoming From
Turkey, and has been still more astonished to learn
that an offer made to them by the British Govern-

ment of a free passage to New York, with some
further assistance, has been refused by all but a few
of the number. Much indignation has been expressed
by the local press of Liverpool, as well as by some
of your contemporaries in London, at the rejection
of this offer. I confess, for my part, that I deeply
deplore it. At the same time, I think that much al-

owance should be made for men in their position,

now arriving in this country, after long detention in
Turkey, whose habits are those of soldiers, who have
no means of being accurately acquainted with facts,
and who must necessarily be guided by those who
have acquired their confidence. But I can make no
excuse for those persons who, being men of education,
perfectly versed in the affairs of Europe and of this

Country-, have counselled them to their unhappy
course. Admitting, however, that such persons justly
incur severe censure, in order to be just we must in-

quire whether some part of the blame ought not to
attach to others who have been instrumental in
placing these men in a situation to be guided by such
counsel.

Not long after the arrival of the refugees at Shumla,
;be Turkish Government, through Achmet Pacha,

offered to receive them into its army, with the same
rank which they held in their own, and without any
stipulation as to their embracing Islamism ; or to give
such as might prefer it employment in the civil
service of the state. Those offers, however, though
gladly cccepted, were never carried into execu-
tion ; and it is understood that the Turks were

dissuaded from giving effect to their intentions
by the advice of some of the ambassadors resi-
dent at Constantinople. If it should appear that the
British Government has been instrumental, in any
degree, in preventing these unfortunate men from ob.
taining employment and an honourable subsistence in
the country where they first found a refuge, that Go-
vernment must be held responsible, to some extent,
for the misfortunes and even for the errors into which
they may have subsequently fallen. The refugees,
tired of a life of inaction, and wearied by the
disappointment which constantly followed their
repeated applications for the fulfilment of the
hopes which had been held out to them, na-
turally became discontented, and disposed to
follow the advice of those who urged them
to leave Turkey. The Turks were not sorry to
be rid of the expense of maintaining men whom they
could not, without disregarding the wishes of
powerful allies, employ for any useful purpose • and
they solved the difficulty by offering to the refugees
the means of proceeding to some other country. The
refugees chose England, and were accordingly for-
warded to Liverpool. It does not appear that in thus
quitting Constantinople they came under any engage-
ment to proceed to America. Nevertheless, they must
still be considered as very ill-advised in not adopting
that course. For it is quite clear that men in their
position can have no reasonable hope of obtaining a
tolerable livelihood here, while it is certain that they
may, without difficulty, procure employment in the
United States. Yet, strange to say, there are per-
sons in this country who complain loudly of those
who would give them such advice ; and the Literary
Association of the Friends of Poland has lately in-
curred the severe displeasure of a weekly contempo-
rary of yours of the highest respectability for coun-
selling men in a precisely similar position to
take that course—nay, that journal even goes so far
as to charge us with being the enemies of Hungary
for that reason. The journal in question, after
drawing a melancholy picture of the condition
of certain Hungarian refugees now residing in Turn-
mill-street, Clerkenwell, and after an appeal to the
public to assist them by patronising a performance at
Astley's, which it represents "as their last resource,
as their only dependence," attacks the association in
the following terms :
" The Literary Association of the Friends of Po-
land seem dissatisfied with these poor fellows because
they prefer Europe to America—because they prefer
England to the prairies, to the savannahs, and to the
swamps of the New World. Why should this be so ?
They allege nothing against them but their poverty
and their political opinions. Do the ' Friends
of Poland' suppose that the Hungarian refu-
gees will stop the stream of the public bounty
which has now been nearly twenty years running
into their own coffers ? One would think it was not
necessary to be an enemy to the Hungarians to be a
friend of Poland ;' but such, nevertheless, would
seem to be the case in this instance. Or do those
Hungarian exiles of the aristocratic class, who also
live under the shelter of the power of this country,
deem their poor fellow countrymen what the French
term de trop, and seek, like the popinjay courtier
in _Henry IV., to remove the slovenly, unhand-
some corse' from "twixt the wind and their
nobility ?' Whichever of these suppositions be the
true one, or whether they are both wrong, is not now
argued ; but one thing is certain—that airier palrice
has always been stronger among the poor than among
the rich; the severest sacrifices have always fallen
upon those humble heroes, who neither sell their
country nor thank God they have a country to sell,
like the Irish Member of Parliament; and the people
of England will not, with God's help, recognize any
superior claim of the Polish over the Hungarian emi-
gration in the view of active benevolence, nor lend
themselves to the selfish sensitiveness of any—even
a Hungarian aristocracy—in respect of the ostracism
of the plebeian sufferers in the cause of their common
liberty.'
The impression which it is evidently sought to
make on the mind of the reader by this tissue of in-
sinuation, and of ill-defined and vague charges is,
that the association has endeavoured for some sinister
purpose, to persuade the refugees, contrary to their
own interests, to proceed to America. The writer
seems also desirous of creating some jealousy between
the Hungarian and Polish refugees. I reply by the
following facts:—
The refugees, whose cause is thus pleaded, and who,
though termed Hungarians, are chiefly Poles, of'
whom only a portion served in the Hungarian war,
might all have been forwarded to New York during
the last twelve months, had they thought fit to accept
the offers of the association to that effect. If they had
done so, they would not now be in the wretched state
of indigence so feelingly described by the
journal in question—they would not now, " having
parted with every article of clothing, and even their
bedclothes," be still in want of work, and reduced to
the humiliating necessity of appealing, " as their last
resource, as their only dependence," to the public
through a performance at Astley's ; but they would,
on the contrary, have good employment, and be in
receipt of good wages—and they would stand in the
proud position of men earning a competence by their
own labour.
Last summer about one hundred Polish refugees,
who had served in Hungary, arrived in this country
from Turkey. The Government, which was deter-
mined to make to them no grant of public money for
their permanent support in this country, at the instance of
the association offered them, on their arrival, a free
passage to New York. About half of them embraced
the offer. The other half declined it, notwithstand-
ing the earnest remonstrances of the association,
which warned them that they would not be able
to obtain a tolerable livelihood in this coun-
try. They would not, however, be persuaded,
and these are the identical men whose situation
the writer above quoted so truly describes , and
who, after a trial of more than six months, are
unable to meet with employment. Their com-
rades, however, who went to America all obtained
work at good wages, two days after they landed at
New York, and many, who have since proceeded
there, have been equally fortunate. This statement
is founded on letters received from the refugees in
America, now in the possession of the association,
extending from last summer to the present time, and
from the oral testimony of persons recently arrived
from that country.
It is, then, perfectly true, that the association is
dissatisfied with the refugees for not going to Ame-
rica—for not preferring a country where they can
eat the honest bread of industry to
they, must owe their subsistence t
It is dissatisfied with them for being reshwarityso
character.
blind to their own interest and their
s"tnhe But it is perfectly untrued.
associa-
tion has been impelled by that
d tistesitisfaction to treat
its counsels, with
the refugees, even while repudiating
has always, on the
any degree of
contrary, been unkindness.ready to them relief in sick-
ness where they could show any
ness ; and in
reasonable plan cfoasres
obtaining employment in this
country it bag not i
hesitatedinsinuated,
to
promote
s hsinuates, their objeFt.
Still less is it true, it
, that
the associa-
tion, in the advice it has given to the refugees., has
been guided by any feelings funded on distinction of
class or political opinion. It has simply advised those
who have applied to it, whether Poles or Hungarians,
of whatever grade, faith, or party, and who could not
support themselves here, to proceed to countries offer-
jog them better prospects, and it has been glad to
be instrumental in furnishing to many of them
the means of doing so. Amongst whom are some
of those Magyar aristocrats so undeservedly sneered
at in the above article, who are now enjoying the best
consolation that can be tasted in exile, while eating
the bread of independence producedby their own
toil. The association may be blamed, we see it is,
for endeavouring to persuade men to such a course as
this. I cannot, however, but think that they incur
a heavy responsibility who urge them to an opposite
one ; and who, Without being able to provide them

with any certain means of subsistence in this coun-
try, seek to deter them from proceeding to ano-
ther, where they may be sure of obtaining that w hich
Englishmen, at least, are accustomed to consider
sufficient to satisfy the wishes of every reasonable
man, viz., "a fair day's wages for a fair day's work."
The article above quoted makes some observations
respecting the amor patrite, and seems to think that
this noble feeling is evinced by the refugees in their
reluctance to proceed to the United States. But the
amor patrim is the love of a man's own country, and
is not evidenced by his disinclination to remove from
any other country. It may be said, however, that
America being farther from Hungary or Poland than
England, Hungarians and Poles may naturally be
averse to go there, as they may be unwilling to
move one single inch farther from their native
land than they can help. Even in a sentimental
point of view, this is hardly worth arguing ; yet it
will be conceded that as a matter of feeling it can
signify little to a man whether he be separated from
his home by a hundred miles or ten times that dis-
tance. Looked at practically, it will be found that
the refugee, so far from interposing obstacles to his
return home by going to America, is actually remov-
ing them, and that, in this instance, the old English
saying, " that the farthest way about is the nearest
way home," is likely to be verified to the letter.
Should any event occur likely to make the pre-
sence of Pole or Hungarian desirable in his own
country, he, who has, by labouring in the field
open to his indnitry iu America, amassed even a
small amount of earnings, will command the means
of returning to his native land at bis own pleasure,
and will be in a position to render good service on his
arrival, while he who has languished a miserable de•
pendant on English charity in Turnmill-street will
be without the means of reaching his home, if re-
quired there ; or perhaps, broken by the misery he
has endured, be incapable of rendering any effectual
assistance, should he, by any good fortune, be able to
find his way there.

In 1848:when there appeared some chance for the
destinies of Poland—when some of the sons of that
unhappy land had actually taken up arms in her
cause, this association was besieged by applications
from Poles in London, whose only desire was to be
forwarded to their native country. They had no
funds for the purpose themselves, the association
could supply none ; and thus they were compelled to
remain spectators of what was passing, as little able
to take a part in the struggle, though not above a few
days' journey from the theatre of it, as if they had
been, not in America, but in another planet.—l have
have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
DUDLEY COUTTS STUART, President.