The Sun.
London, England, 1833-08-20 00:00:00

MEETING IN SUPPORT OP THE POLISH

EXILES IN SWITZERLAND.

A Public Meeting was held yesterday evening, at Exeter
Hall, for the purpose of appealing to the humane of all
classes of society for pecuniary assistance in behalf of the
brave, oppressed, and suffering Poles, who fled to Swit-
zerland at the close of their late renewed struggle for the
recovery of the liberties of their country, rather than
submit to the yoke of the Russian Despot.
Besides the Noble Chairman, Lord Dudley Stuart, we
noticed among the numerous company on the platform,
the following gentlemen :--Lord Morpeth, Colonel Lei-
cester Stanhope, Mr. Buckingham, M.P., Mr. Hume,
M.P., Mr. H. 13ulwer, M.P., Mr. Frederick Mansell,
Mr. Charles Attwood, Mr. The!wall, the Rev. Dr. Wade,
Count Anast mins Dunin, a Polish Officer, Monsieur
Julian, a native of France, Mr. Arnold, &c. &c.
Two Polish standards, composed of white and crimson,
. .

were unfurled on the platform, the one exhibiting the motto
For our and your liberty,"
and on the other was the Polish E igle, surmounted by a
Crown.

On the motion of Mr. Hums,

Lord DUDLEY STUART took the chair. The object of
the present meeting was to assist the Poles now remaining
in Switzerland-470 in number, all of them gentlemen by
birth and education, with the exception of 15, who were
private soldiers. When these brave men went into the
c triton of Berne, from France, they were received by the
p.'ople of that land of freedom with all the hospitality they
had in their power to bestow.—(Applause.) The Diet
of Switzerland, however, did not second the patriotic in-
habitants of Berne, and they were reduced to see those
unfortunate men suffering from want. Those brave men,
if they would stoop to swear allegiance to a tyrant whom
they abhor, to a tyrant who has sacrificed every thing that
they held dear, might return to their country, and to their
rank as officers, &c. ; but they nobly declined to do so,
and it is because they refuse to swear allegiance to him,
and to renounce a country to which they are proud to be-
long, that they are now in exile, and appealing to the
charity of the British nation.—(Loud cheering, and cries
of " Bravo !") Whatever offers may be made to a Pole,
be will be satisfied with nothing short of the restoration
of his country to her freedom.—(Cheers.) Numbers of
those brave men, he (the Hon. Chairman) was sorry to

say, were at this moment, not only in want of the necessaries
of life, but, unfortuirttely, of raiment to cover them. The
Noble Chairman then read a series of letters respecting
the Poles who were compelled to leave France, and who
fled into Switzerland for shelter, and having illustrated,
said be was sure he need not say more in their behalf.
His Lordship then resumed his seat amidst loud cheers.
Lord Monrz•rs could assure the meeting that, in pro•
per time and place he would not fail to brand the op-
pressors of Poland in all the colours of their most flagrant
conduct.--(Applause.) He would not now go into the
conduct of the French Government, which made those
unhappy men quit France, and go into Switzerland ; it
was enough for him, in their present situation, that the
Poles are brave and virtuous men, and that they are dis-
tressed.—(Cneers.) It it were not melancholy, it would
be an interesting part of history to see those brave men
seek shelter in the land which at one time formed the
cradle of liberty—(Cheers)—to see the descendants of
Sobieski fly to the land which holds Cie ashes of William
Tell.—(Cheers.) Russia may sit upon her icy throne,
and with her iron threat endeavour to keep down the
spirit of the Poles ; but Pol ind, he would say, will
again, despite those base threats, become a nation.—
(Cheers.) Poland appeals in the present instance not to
the vengeance, but to the charity of Great Britain.—
(Cheers.) Trusting that that appeal would not be made
in vain, his Lordship concluded by moving the following
resolution : _ _ _

" That this meeting has heard with feelings of the
deepest sympathy the touching appeals of the Polish
refugees in Switzerland, and their countrymen in Paris,
to the friendship and generosity of the British nation."
Mr. Hintz seconded the resolution, advocated the
cause of charity in favcur of the brave Poles, and re-
marked that we lived in times when the political horizon
was obscured ; but as the sun of freedom rose, those
clouds would disappear before it.—(Cheers.) There
were atrocities in the conduct of Russia, which in time
would bring down the vengeance of Heaven on their
enactors.—(Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Hume) looked to
Great Britain and to her Councils, to denounce the base
conduct of the Autocrat ; and to tell him that he cannot
much longer pursue his iniquitous cruelties with impunity
--(Hear, hear)—and he hoped, through the alliance of
France and England, that Poland would again be regene-
rated.—(Loud cheers.) He hoped also through that pow-
erful engine—the British Pleas—that the autocrat would be
made sensible of the base and dangerous course which he
is pursuing.—(Renewed cheers.) Let not any man sup-
pose that England will not be a party to the regenera-
tion of Poland.—(Enthusiastic cheers.) Yes, England,
pledged through her Parliament, to save to Poland her
institutions, her laws, and her language, will, when she
shall be is a condition, redeem that pledge—(Loud
cheers.) While, then, he (Mr. Hume) asked the charity
of the people of England, be hoped, as an Englishman,
that he might call upon the meeting to express its indig-
nation at the brutal and abhorred conduct of the Russian
Autocrat.—(Cheers.)
Mr. DUFFEY, a member of the Metropolitan Union of
the Working Classes, addressed the meeting at considerable

length in support of the resolution, and by censuring the
conduct, in this affair, of the British Government; and
by observing, that the cause of the Poles is the cause of
the people of Europe, and of the working classes of this
country; and remarked that " hereditary bondsmen to be
free, themselves must strike the blow."—(Cheers.)
Mr. H. BULWER. hoped, with the last speaker, that
the cause of Poland would be the cause of the working
classes—of the aristocracy—and t.f the people in general.
—(Year, hear.) He would tell that gentleman that there
were men in the House of Commons at present, who felt
deeply for the situation of the Poles—(Hear, hear)—and
who cared not one straw for the Government of this coun-
try (to whose conduct he had alluded), nor for the Go-
vernment of any other country which attends not to the
Just interests of the people.—(Cheers.) He could not
but say that it was a disgrace to the Government of this
country that the nationality of Poland had been destroyed.
—(Hear, hear.) He thought there were other and better
means of fighting the battle of freedom than by the sword,
namely—by intelligence, public opinion, and the expres-
sion of noble and exalted feelings ; and he called upon his
countrymen now, while the Northern Sovereigns were as-
sembling at Toplits, to meet together, and let them know,
that their proceedings and their injustice were being watched
by the people of England and France, who were also ready
to relieve the victims of their oppression.—(Cheers.) The
Hon. Gentleman concluded by moving—
" That this meeting cheerfully and fervently respond to
the prayer of Poland for relief of her noble-blooded and
high-minde dpatriots, who have sacrificed their all to main-
tain their liberty and national existence."
Mr BUCKINGHAM, M.P., seconded the resolution.
Who that had read the account given of the noble defence
of Warsaw, would not have been proud to have had a
eon or a brother fighting there ?—(Cheers.) Who did
not admire the bravery of the Polish women, as evinced
on the same occasion ?—(Cheers.) They admired the
valour of the three hundred Greeks under Leonidas.
Those brave men are dead and gone ; but the Poles (not
less brave) still live.—(Cheers.) Let the meeting, then,
extend their sympathies and succour to the gallant Poles.
Such a meeting as this, consisting of more than 2,000 in-
dividuals, debating and peeing resolutions, could not he
without its effect ; its proceedings would be borne on the
wings of the press throughout the civilized world, and
would be translated into the language of the French, read
at Vienna, discussed at Constantinople, and penetrate the
recesses of the tyrants themselves, until they would be
shamed down to hold out the olive branch—(Long and
continued cheering)—and he (Ilr. Buckingham) hoped
that be should not go down to the grave until he saw
Poland, by the force of public opinion, and of united in-
telligence, restored to her former position of an independent
nation.—(Cheers.)
Mr. F. MANsELL, the barrister, in a very animated
speech, which was much applauded, supported the reso-
lution.
Before putting the resolution, the NOBLE CHAIRMAN
begged to draw the attention of the meeting to a letter
which he bad received from Mrs. Sutherland, of Lisson
Grove, with an enclosure of 501. for the poor Poles.—
(Immense cheering.) This, to the honour of that phi-
lanthropic and charitable lady, was her second subserip-
n--1 Renewed cheers)—and he hoped her noble conduct
d (be imitated all who had the power, throughout
the country--(
, hear.)
The resolution was then put and carried unanimously.
Mr. CHARLES ATTWOOD rose to move the next resolu.
Lion, which he introduced with a series of appropriate oh.
worst
Herod tyrant
who m
i n thea s
world, do, ne
w of
o theh
eavations. He then proceeded to remark, that he was
subscrip-
tion—(Renewed
oouhdwboyrs
it atrocities
o ut. H ero odfedt the
the
sorry to perceive that Sir R. Peel had attempted to pal-
a s
icred the innocents.—( Hear, hear.) He (the Russian
Autocrat) had taken the young Poles, with treacherous
,leaign, from their parental schools,
and sent them to
school among the snows and deserts of Siberia ; and to
attempt to palliate such a crime, he (Mr. Attwood) could
not but say, was, in itself, a crime of great magnitude.
a
.--(Hear, hear.) Having made some very lengthened
o.,ervatione, Mr. Attwood concluded by moving "That