The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-12 00:00:00

%PIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

In spite of the remonstrances which we arf
willing to believe have been made by the oni.
two powers of Europe that still remain undis-
tempered by the pestilent influence of Russia
the work of confiscation is still carried on ii
Poland with an unsparing hand. The greedi
'less with which the barbarous oppressors of tha
ill-fated land pursue their course of rapine.
shows that their appetite for Polish plunder
as inordinate as their thirst for Polish blood. I
is now nearly three months since the publicatioi
of an official notification of a Russian Governor.
specifying in detail the estates and prcperty 01
every description confiscated in the single govern-
ment of Volhynia. Recent 'disclosures of an
sufferings of the Polish refugees in this country.
and the consequent appeals made on their be-
half to the generosity of the British people,
have brought this document once more untie,
our observation, and we re-produce it here :-
1. Peasants, 37,218, estimated, agreeably
to the custom of the country (where, in
selling estates, they are valued according to
the number of self-peasants inhabiting them,
and who are attached to the glebe), at 25/.

a-head
£930,000
L. Moveables, cattle, manufacturine and
agricultural machines, articles confiscated

along with landed estates, computing them

at one-eighth of the value of the.eltatee..

3. Roubles (in silver), 266,853
4. Ducats, 16,738

115 000
50 000
9,000

Amount of the confiscations in the single
government of Volhynia £1,104,000
The civilized world has not been outraged by
a second official record of the progress made by
the Commissions anpointed and authorized to
superintend the spoliation of a land which the
sword, the scaffold, and the deserts of Siberia,
have already nearly depopulated. That the mem-
bers of these commissions, however, have not
been idle,—that they have been unceasingly oc-
cupied in the prosecution of the objects of their
disgraceful mission, is unhappily but too well
known by the raggedness and poverty of their
victims, who, but for the charity of strangers,
would have wandered naked on foreign shores
until sheer starvation put an end to their mise-
rable existence. Nor is there any great difficulty
in forming something like an estimate of the
gross amount of plunder which these Commis-
sioners will purvey to the Imperial coffers at Sr.
Petersburgh. " Let the amount of the confisca-
tions in Volhynia be a criterion, and then,
In the six governments (namely, those of
Podolia,Volhynia, Kijen, Wilna, Gro
and Minsk) the amount will be.... ...... £6,624,000
The kingdom of Poland, in which the in-
vurrection was almost general, will fur-
nish about an equal amount of confisca-
tions, making altogether shout £12,000,000
Whether this sum of 12,000,0001 be destined
for the support of new attempts to bring freedom
and civilization beneath the yoke of barbarism
and tyranny, it is not our present purpose to in-
quire ; all we were desirous of showing was the
. probable amount of gain which will accrue from
the subjugation of Poland, besides blood-guilti-
ness, the widow's and the orphan's curse, the
hostility and hatred of every honest heart, and
all else that follows in the train of wanton ag-
gression on the land, and liberty, and life of a
brave and deserving nation.— Times.
The disturbance at Frankfort, described in
yesterday's Times, may be looked upon as a
pretty intelligible symptom of the state of popular
feeling among an immense portion of the Ger-
mans. Ever since the patriotism of that great
nation was appealed to, and, though for selfish
purposes, eagerly fostered by its native . rulers
from the close of 1812 to that of 1815, a' moral
power began to show itself throughout Germany,
which those who raised it have never yet been
able effectually to put down. Among the Pro-
testant states more especially, instruction of every
kind has made, since the peace, unexampled and
admirable progress. In Prussia, and others of
the north-western countries, the people have
been everywhere enjoying the advantages of a
well-directed education, and the intelligence and
spirit resulting from it have overflowed, in a
sensible degree, upon the population of neigh-
bouring territories, less favoured 'by the genius
either of their religion or their Govern-
meta. In Prussia, the principle and form of
the monarchy may be that of a military des-
potism ; but the subjects of the Prussian
Crown are universally instructed in public schools,
and the army being in all respects national—
that is to say, composed by successive influxes
of all classes and denominations of Prussian
citizens—there is so close a connection between
the civil and military functionaries, between the
soldier and the citizen, throughout every pro-
vince, as to insure a general and solid harmony
between the action of the sovereign power, and
the prevailing sentiments of the community.
Prussia, indeed, is a country where the virtuous
and enlightened spirit of the Administration has
for some years veiled from public view the
hideous form of the " monarchical principle,"
in apparent defiance and contempt of which the
domestic policy of the Government has pro-
ceeded, and where the confidence of the nation
in its own strength, as well as in the long-tried
integrity and mildness of the reigning Sovereign,
has superseded, by tacit but universal consent,
the necessity of any effort to enforce those poli-
tical theories which are elsewhere held to be the
only sure foundations of good government, the
substance of that blessing having been already
brought home to every man in Prussia, without
them. It is not so with other German states.
In Bavaria, Wirtemberg, Hesse Cassel, for
instance, where certain forms of political freedom
have been established, and representative assem-
blies been introduced, it was soon found that
" Court and country" were animated by far
different feelings. The Diet at Frankfort, under
the dominion of Metternich, has watched with
anxious and feverish apprehension, lest these
popular institutions should make approaches,
however. slight or distant, towards the fulfilment
of their ostensible ends. Not a motion was
made, not a speech was uttered, by any indepen-
dent member of any one of these petty Parlia-
ments, that did not become the subject of angry
comments .and sinister despatches between VI-.
• enna, St. Petersburgh, and Frankfort. The
public voice of Germany began to echo loudly
the hopes and sentiments of the most zealous
patriots. The press concentrated, and then gave
them circulation. But this would not suit
the Diet. So manifestoes, protocols, and sundry
other modes of reprobation were thundered out
against all conceivable forms and modes of free
speech or action, and the collective might of
the whole federation was brought to bear upon
the Reformers of each individual kingdom,
duchy, or principality, by promising to crush
them without mercy. The legislators of the
secondary states were first contumeliously threat-
ened, and next. resentfully dissolved. The press
—the tongue of the world—was silenced ;
foreign Powers—France and EEngland,with
weak and shortsighted, if not criminal, apathy—
looked on and saw .the parent spirit of their own
most precious institutions barbarously outraged.