The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-18 00:00:00

THE LATE

rEY STUART.

Yesterday, being the fourth anniversary of the
death of the late Lord Dudley Stuart, a meeting of
the Polish Historical Society was held at Sussex-
chambers, Duke-street, St. James's, to commemo-
rate the loss of Poland's best friend and benefactor.
In the absence from London of the President
(Colonel Szyrma), the chair was occupied by the
Vice-President of the society (Major C. Szulc-
zewski), who, in the course of an address on the
public character and the private -virtues of
the departed nobleman, observed :—For the first
time since we hay: met to commemorate the
anniversary of the day on which our never-
to-be-forgotten friend and benefactor, Lord Dudley
Stuart, was called away from this world of strife,
in which he was always to be found among the
ranks of the combatants for justice and liberty.
Europe is sunk in a calm so profound that not a
political event presents itself to which I can attach
the memory of that for which our lost friend lived
and worked. And yet, beneath this calm, we know
that the great work must still be going on, for
the combat between good and evil, whatever may
be the form it assumes, can never cease
on earth, and God is ever on the side
of right, though His ways are not ours, and
He often conducts our struggles to issues which wo
have not foreseen. The noble friend, to do
honour to whose memory we have once more
assembled, devoted his life to" the cause of our be-
loved country, struggling to reconquer our national
life, the right to speak the language God has
planted in our lips, to develop freely the qualities
with which He has endowed us, and by which He
has marked us as an individual nation, called upon
to play our own peculiar part in the great concerted
harmony of the world. Upwards of a quarter of a
century our generous champion hoped against hope,
and at length laid down his life in the cause, just
as a new hope (soon, alas! to be extinguished like
those that had preceded it) was dawning upon us.
Yet the war that failed to achieve the longed-for
restoration of Poland so weakened Russia that her
power of external aggression being checked for a
time, her ruler has been obliged to turn his atten-
tion to the development of the inteinal resources
lof ,his empire. Finding slavery weighing
down all its best powers, he has seen that
to break the fetters of the serf is the
first work that must be accomplished, and we have
every reason to believe that the' Emperor Alexander
has set about his task in earnest and in sincerity.
The Polish Constitution of the 3d May, 1791--that
honourable monument of what Poland might have
been, had time been allowed her to work it out
the Polish Constitution of May 3, proposed
the very measure which, after more than 66 years,
the Emperor of Russia is now carrying out, and
which is earning for him such well-deserved praise ;
and, therefore, whatever our detractors may say,
we may be sure that in Poland the emancipation
of the serfs has been hailed with heartfelt satisfac-
tion. But a free peasantry, a free working popula-
tion of any kind, cannot, in our day, be held long
in abject ignorance. The necessities of their posi-
tion will call for education ; and upon millions thus
awakened to the promptings of a higher life, n o go-
vernment will dare to force a language not their own
as the medium of the education for which they crave.
Emancipation and education in Poland cannot, then,
but develop and strengthen the feelings of na-
tionality, and add many millions more, inspired
with an eternal hatred and vengeance against
foreign tyranny, to the number of those who are
silently working for national emancipation. Thus
Providence seems to have brought about by other
means than those we have contemplated, an event
fraught with the most incalculable consequences to
for the cause which-the life of Lord Dudley Stuart,
like that of the Polish emigrants, had been devoted ;
and if the Polish people be wise and persevering,
and prepared to profit by the opportunities that
will always occur, it may again become great and
independent, and worthily fill its place in the
family of European nations.
Colonel WIERCIN SKI, in a forcible speech, dwelt
on the gratitude due by the Polish nation to the me-
mory of the late Lord Dudley Stuart, whose character
even the enemies of Poland respected, and whose
services he trusted will be duly recognised by an

independent Poland.
Several other gentlemen having also expressed
similar feelings, the meeting separated, after a
vote of thanks to the Chairman.

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, TUESDAY MORNING.
LEGAL APPOINTMENTS.

Saunders of this morning gives currency to ru-
mours to the effect that the Right Hon. F. Shaw
is about to retire. and that he is to be succeeded as