The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-29 00:00:00

ANNIVERSARY OF THE POLISH

REVOLUTION.—(This Day.)

To-day, being the 26th anniversary of the Polish
Revolution of 1830, the Polish Exiles attended the
funeral service, which was performed by the Rev.
Emeritus Podolski at the R)inan Catholic Chapel,
Sutton-street, Soho, for their countrymen who fell in
that and other national struggles.
Later in the day, a meeting was held in commemora-
tion of this event at Sussex-chambers, Duke-street, St.
James's.

Colonel B. WIERCINSKI was called to the chair,
and observed :—lt is now for the 25th time that we
,meet in exile to celebrate the anniversary of the great
national event which proved to the astonished Europe
for the fourth time, that though half a century had elapsed
since the first partition of Poland, yet she rose in 1830
more powerful than at any previous occasion ; this proves
that our nationality cannot be annihilated, even by the
combined action of the three more powerful monsters
that took pars in the great crime of the partition. Gen-
tlemen, although thousands of cannons are pointed at
us, although three millions of spies, employees eat into
the vitals of Poland, and although two millions of army
encircles and presses upon her. yet she lives gigantic in
the heart of her true sons. Persecutions, confiscation,
banishment, imprisonment, bayonet, lance, cannon.
Siberian mines, knouts, and executions employed
; yet in spite
against us for 84 years, have not quelled, have not
oafnnithhiilaaterdemtahrekablPeolfiashnt,
many
patriotism
persons have been
persuaded to think that Poland is no more because she
has not shown any great signs of her life during the late
war. Now, I take this opportunity to explain this appa.
rent contradiction to the great fact which I just announced.
The Allied Powers, upon the retirement of the Rus-
sians from before Silistria, have not followed the Czar's
army into Podolia, and the Allied fleet has not gone in
the first place to the Baltic, with the object of counte-
nancing a Polish movement, but all the chief power was
directed towards the Crimea and the Black Sea. This
false direction proved to Poland that the Allies did not
think of attacking Russia through Poland, and that,
therefore, we should be abandoned were we to originate
a movement in our own country, and that Poland ran
a great chance of being abandoned again. Under these
circumstances the Poles were justified in not increasing
uselessly the number of their sacrifices.
Major GINLIIUD then moved the first resolution :

." That the Polish exiles, ever faithful to the cause
which has called Poland to arms 26 years ago, continue,
and will never cease to protest before Europe against the
partition and oppression of their country by the three despo-
tic powers of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, and are ready
whenever a proper time arrives to shed the last drop of
their blood for her national independence ; but they also
protest against ,the cause of Poland, resting as it does on
the most incontrovertible principles of international law,
being mixed up with questions of internal Government
on which opinions are much divided, and which have
uo immediate relation to the question at issue between
the Polish nation and the.partitioning powers."
Captain R. CLIODASIEWIEZ seconded the resolution,
which was carried unanimously.
Major C. SZOLCZEWSKI moved the second

"'That in spite of the disappointment which the conclu-
sion of the recent war has spread among the Polish exiles,
they feel in duty bound gratefully to acknowledge the
employment of Poles, however late, nudes the name of
Cossacks of the Sultan, by the British Government, as
part of the English contingents, and they bag to express
their thanks to the British nation for the asylum and
hospitality afforded to them, as well as to the British
press, and to the Literary Association of the Friends of
Poland for their sympathy with the Polish cause, in ad-
vocating the immutable truth, that without the re-estab-
lishment of an independaut Poland, no peace, civilisation,
and liberty can be secured to Europe."
lie said time and circum,tances have no, thinned our
numbers, the
,conjunctures of the moment are so little
favourable to us, and our hopes for the future are so
vague, that we cannot claim for this meeting the same
political weight as formerly; yet, to hearts far and near
throbbing with disappointment, there is always some
consolation that we have assembled on this our national
aenivs.rsary in the discharge of a patriotic duty.
Brothers, though once more hope has dawned
upon us, and once more it has sat in gloom,
we do not despair, but Lwait and are ready ; and
should ever again the heart-stirring words resound,
Polish exiles, your country wants you ; come to the
battle !—should ever another day come, when arms are
put into our hands, to combat the enemy of our country,
we will seize them with the same alacrity as we evinced
last year, in responding to the call of England,
hoping that we may not again be made to lay them
down before we have had an opportunity of using
them. We, whose hearts, for years, have been pants
ing for the hour of deliverance, cannot be expected
to approve of the hesitation and diplomatic
subtleties which during the recent war have so long de-
ferred an appeal to the Poles, nor can we whose every
hope is bound up with the destruction of despotism, that
weighs like an incubus on the best energies of Europe, be
expected to admire the policy which stopped short of
this achievement when success was all but certain. But,
however, grieved and disappointed, we can appreciate
even the tardy call of the Poles by the British Govern-
ment under the name of the Cossacks of the Sultan, to
form a part of the valiant English army in the recent
war, and no political errors or features can make us
forget the debt of gratitude we owe to the members of
the Literary Association of the Friends of Poland, whose
noble and unremitting efforts in our behalf are above
praise—to the British Press, the palladium of English
liberty, for the defence of our just rights ; and, above
all, to the British nation, that affords a shelter to every
exile, and which, amidst the gloom of almost universal
despotism and oppression, stands there a living wit-
ness that liberty, is not merely a name, and that in
the light of her presence, prosperity and well-
being are developed, which can never flourish in the
murky atmosphere of political slavery, however many
artificial means may be employed to raise a crop which
the soil refuses to boar. In other places some of our
countrymen may possibly, on this very day, be heard
confounding lilngland with the despotic and oppressive
governments of the worlq, because she does not make
herself the champion of all revolutionists in all coun-
tries. But we have never participated in the revo-
lutionary mania of a few deluded individuals among
the Poles, whose aberrations have afforded our enemies
a pretext for identifying our cause with that of commu-
' nista and socialists, and other visionary and unruly
spirits of the world, and we would be distinctly under-
stood, as disclaiming all participation in the thoughts and
feelings of those who, unwittingly, taking their cue from
the very enemies they are so anxious to combat, by their
accusations and imputations, tend to spread hatred and
distrust of England. On the contrary, England the home
of liberty, the land of progress and self-government, ought
to rally the hopes and the sympathies of all oppressed
nations, and when she sees the tower of strength these
sympathies have built up for her—when she learns that
in the hearts of the peoples she has allies whose fidelity,
based upon attachment to the same ideas and the same
objects, will be secure against the waverings of personal
am
lb iatti o n
length and
understand political
th
am
tshe
haays hope that
mission
she
in
Europe as well as in America and Australia—that she
is called upon not, only to plant the tree of liberty
in the virgin soil of new worlds, but also to help the
nations to root out the weeds that impede its growth in
the more cultivated territories of the old, and that,
though she may leave the former task to the individual
enterprise of her sons, for the latter she needs the arm
of her Imperial Government ; and that not only
justice and humanity, but also self-interest de-
mands that she should not wield it in this cause.
For great and mighty as she is, Britain cannot stand
alone against the world, and the despots may for a
while seek her friendship, as a counterpoise against each
other. When they no longer fear each other, the time will
have come for a coalition against her who must ever be
a stumbling block in their path.
Lieutenant JULIUS WitibucKi seconded the resolution,
which also was carried unanimously.
Severalafter other Poles addressed the meeting, which
separated,
Passing a vote of thanks to the Chair-
man.