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

few months he dies, and so the tale concludes.
Much may be found to instruct and interest the
reader. There are no doubt several points which
may provoke criticism ; but the main object of the
book is set forward openly, and the story told
with a simple straightforwardness, and a total ab-
sence of lecturing or sermonising, which must im-
press the most censorious. The complete impar-
tiality of the writer cannot be too much com-
mended. He sets forward no particular creed—no
especial sect ; the plain truths of Christianity
are his stronghold. His work will attract
the thoughtful, and may serve as a warn-
ing to some against the dangers that await
them. In a very brief preface the author attributes
infidelity to three causes. In the deliberately
wicked it originates, he considers, in a desire to
throw off all moral restraints, in better natures, in
the inconsistency or hypocrisy of those who call
themselves Christians, and sometimes in a sceptical
understanding and its inherent difficulties. , The
consequences, moral deterioration and loss of hap-
piness, he considers, alike in all. In this list he does
not include those theories of the German school
which have of late years exercised such a pernicious
effect, which dazzle and mystify the understanding,
though they never satisfy the heart. Some of these
theories are shown in their true colours, and also
the principles of the Mormons, of which, however,
few people have any doubt. The book is on a sub-
ject which is likely to attract attention, and its
interest, and the ability it displays will maintain
its character, and should it convince any reader
that the hypocrisy he sees around him is a proof of
the absence of the Christian religion, rather than
of its presence, and to warn him not to judge a
whole Church from the absurdity of .one or two
members of it, and above all, should it show him
in their true light the brilliant sophisms of would-
be philosophers, the author will have achieved a
merited triumph.

ADDRESS OF THE POLES TO COUNT
WALEWSKI.

The following is the address presented to CouLt
Walewski by the Polish deputation :
" Excellency,—The Paris Congress, by the con-
clusion of the treaty of peace of the let 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 31 of May, 9th of June, and 27th
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 serve 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 con'cern Poland. We only speak of the 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 Anglc -
French alliance, exercised on 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, conzequently,,the
power—we may add that the obligation is imposed
ou tfiem, always reserving our national rights—to
demand from Russia the re-establishment of the
kingdom of Poland as it stood in 1815, and which
has never been considered as forming an integral
uart of the Muscovite empire. Putsuant 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
" ' Art. I. 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 promises made to us, re-
lative to these different points, under the preceding
regime, during the period which elapsed between
1831 and 1848, by all 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 heir ;
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 Congress for the mainteu-