The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-14 00:00:00

RUSSIA AND POLAND.

(From the Correspondent of the Times)
WARSAW, MARCH 3.
A week of great excitement has just come to a
close. Events have succeeded one another in such
rapid sequence that they have allowed scarcely a
moment's interval for reflection. Now, however,
there is a temporary lull in the political atmo-
sphere, and it is possible in some measure to gene-
ralise one's observations and deduce inferences. It
may be interesting to you, therefore, to have a
somewhat more detailed account of what has been
occurring here than you have probably hitherto
received. Moreover, the sacred interests of truth,
no less than those of liberty, require that such de-
tails should be no ex parte statvment ; and such, I
conceive, can only be furnished by a foreigner
acquainted with the country by residence in it,
but having no other interest than a general one in
the issues involved.
Ever since the Emperor's visit -to Warsaw last
autumn, and his interview here with the Sovereigns
of Austria and Prussia, there has been a gradually
increasing feeling of dissatisfaction on the part of
the Polish nation with the existing state of
things. This has manifested itself in many ways.
The Polish costume—the pretty four-cornered white
or red cap and the braided coat—has re-appeared
in the streets. Anonymous letters, threatening
the demolition of shop windows, have been received
by tradesmen whose signs were in other languages
than the national one. Warnings have been re-
ceived by private persons who had issued invita-
tions for balls or evening parties, that it was no
time for Poles to amuse themselves; and the guests
assembled on such occasions have been alarmed by
the sudden crash of a window and the unexpected
entrance of an unbidden visitor in the shape of a
large stone. At the schools, too, there have been
empty forms where Russian professors were for-
merly in the habit of meeting and instructing full
classes. The most overt act, however, was one
on the 29th of November last, the anniversary of
tha commencement of the Polish revolution of
1830-1. On that occasion several hundreds of the
inhabitants of Warsaw attended a mass in one of
the churches, and subsequently sang national songs
in the street on their departure from the church.
To the astonishment of every one, there was no in-
terference on the part of the police,—whether from
ignorance of it or from policy, it is difficult
to say. There is, however, no doubt that this was
the origin of the demonstration of Monday last,
February 25, the anniversary of the battle of Gro-
chow, the first collision between the Poles and
Russians in the revolution of 1831.
It was well known in the town and by the Go-
vernment some time previously that such a demon •
stration was intended. It was not, however, for-
bidden. The question arises, why did not the
Government forbid it ? To this question, from all
I can learn, I fear there can be only one answer,
There was going on at the time the annual meeting
of the Polish Agricultural Society, composed of the
great majority of the Polish proprietors, and pos-
sessing an organisation with such ramifications all
over the country that, if used for political purposes,
it would be very formidable to the Government.
In fact, it has always been regarded with consider-
able jealousy by the Government ; but, having oc-
cupied itself exclusively with agricultural matters,
it had given no pretext for the withdrawal of the
original permission for its establishment. It appears
then to have been the policy of the Government to
allow the demonstration to take place, in the hope
that one or two alternatives would be the result—
either that the national feelings of the members of
the Agricultural Society would lead them to join
the demonstration, and so an excuse would be fur-
nished for the closing of the society, or that the
populace, or Red party, not finding themselves
joined by the more Conservative party of the nobi-
lity and proprietors, a state of antagonism might
be established between the two classes of Polish
society. Ido not attribute this plan to the Prince-
Viceroy of Poland. He is too honest a man and too
humane to have formed it ; but his advisers are far
less scrupulous, and are constantly intriguing to
obtain a paramount influence in the Council of
State. However, the committee of the society saw
through the plan ; and one of the principal mem-
bers of the Government, who was present at the
meeting of Monday, was publicly warned by the
President that if the demonstration was not
stopped, the society would denounce him to the
populace as an agent provocateur. This was at 3
o'clock, and though a promise was given that it
should be stopped, it was found impossible,to do so
before 6 o'clock, the time appointed for the mass
for the souls of those killed at Groehow. At this
hour many thousands assembled in the old Market-
place with flags and torches. Government had iu
the meantime placed two squadrons of gendarmes
so as to intercept the direct communication between
the market-place and the Palace in which the Agri-
cultural Society held its sittings, and had further
placed a cordon of gendarmes in front of the Palace
itself, a proceeding which still favoured negatively
the ipea of antagonism between the people and the
more aristocratic element of Polish society. The
cro ovd increasing, after a time an order was given to
one of the squadrons of gendarmes to disperse it by
advancing into it in line, but without drawing their
sabres. An idea seems at this time to have seized the
crowd that the members of the Agricultural Society
had played the traitor, and I am told by a gentle-
man who was present that the cry of "To the
Agricultural Society" was raised. Anyhow, the
gendarmes were met by flaring torches and waving
flags, and the horses refused to advance. Many
reared, some threw their riders, and all retreated
helter-skelter upon the second squadron. The
second was then ordered to advance and to draw
their sabres, though, I am assured, only to strike
with their flat side. The result was, as might
have been anticipated, that many were wounded,
some severely trampled upon, and, it was said next
day, two killed. This appears to have been an
exaggeration, though a woman did certainly die a
day or two after from injuries received in the
charge. The crowd was dispersed at length, but
not before the Chief of Police had received a very
severe wound from a horse-shoe thrown at him,
and been otherwise very roughly handled. The
next day (Tuesday) there was, of course, much ex-
citement in the town; many stories, grievously
exaggerated, were rife ; and by common consent
mourning was put on for those supposed to have

been killed and those actually wounded. The day,
however, paesed over without any breach of the
peace. Next morning (Wednesday, the 27th) it
was arranged that a mass should be performed in
one of the churches for the (supposed) killed and
wounded of Monday evening, and that afterwards
a procession should take place through the town.
All went on peacefully till the procession found its
further progress stopped at one point, near the
residence of the Viceroy, by a cordon of Cossacks

thrown across the street. *Without violence, by
mere pressure of numbers, the line was, however,
broken, and the Cossacks were surrounded, when
they received an order to charge with their peculiar
whips, consisting of a handle and a piece of cane,
or some similar material, suspended from the end
of it, lilt a small threshing flail. These they used
freely, and for some time were successively able to
advance and obliged to retire. While this was
going on, unfortunately, a funeral 3 procession
preceded, as usual, by priests and a cross,
came along the street in the opposite direction.
To avoid the blows of the whips the crowd
now retired to the leeward of the funeral, but

the priests continued to advance in order to protect
them. The Cossacks then attacked the priests, and
in the struggle the cross was broken. This instantly
roused all the religious prejudices hitherto dormant,
and the crowd, retiring to the front of a new house
that was building, furnished themselves with stones,
and :utterly discomfited the Cossacks, wounding
many. A woman, I am told, threw the first stone,
fiercely indignant at the profanation of the Cross,
and believing, in common with many of the more
uneducated, that the Cossacks were Mahommedans.
At this point the Cossacks received an order to re-
tire, and some detachments of Infantry, who had
been kept all day in the court of the Castle in case
of need, were ordered to disperse the crowd with
the bayonet. They were received with stones, and
one haying struck the General in command, by

name Zablockoy—a name to be held up to Euro-
pean obloquy—he gave the order to fire. Only one
soldier obeyed the order, and it had to be repeated
three times before the soldiers delivered their volley,
and even then, from the marks of the balls near the
top of the opposite house, they must have purposely
levelled too high to hit the crowd. I counted. my-
self 15 marks at this elevation, the distance of the
house from the place where the volley was fired
being no more than 30 yards. On the order being
given to fire, one sergeant threw down his musket,
and went over to the crowd. He was a Pole, and a
large subscription has been raised for him, and •he
has been sent across the frontier into Germany.
But the effect of the volley has yet to be told. Five
fell dead, among them one of the members of the
Agricultural Society, which just then had closed its
session for the day, and was dispersing. Many
more were wounded, and have since lost limbs by
amputation. It is the popular belief that four or
five more were killed, and that in the confusion
their bodies were borne off by the infantry and
secretly interred. I have been assured by good
authority that there are several persons missing
from their homes, whose absence can be accounted
for on no other supposition than that they were
killed. After this the crowd dispersed, but
public indignation was at its height. The bodies
were carried to the president and committee of the
Agricultural Society, the instincts of the crowd
having disabused them of any temporary idea of
want of good faith on the part of that body, and
action of some sort was demanded. One body—
that of a Frenchman--was also taken to the resi-
dence of the French Consul-General, the crowd re-
questing him to report the slaughter to his Emperor.
Before the society had finally decided what line of
conduct to adopt the President and Vice-President
were summoned to the Castle, and were informed
by the Viceroy that force would be used if any
further disturbances occurred. They bowed and
withdrew, but before they had left the Castle they
were recalled, and asked whether there would be
peace, and what the people wanted. An assurance
was given that there would be no disturbance if
proper means were taken to prevent it by making
timely concessions, such as the dismissal of the chief
of the police and the withdrawal of the military,
At first there was no appearance of yielding on the
part of the Government, but, a Committee of Public
Order having been formed, consisting of represen-
tatives of almost all professions in the town, a
deputation waited on Prince Gortschakoff represent-
ing the imminent danger from popular indignation
at the attack on an unarmed crowd, and again
urging concessions. This was late on Wednesday
evening ; and on Thursday morning another depu-
tation from the committee of the Agricultural
Society proceeded to the Castle with an address to
the Emperor, which, after several refusals, the
Prince consented to receive and forward to St.
Petersburg, the committee undertaking to do all in
their power to preserve order. All the military
were immediately withdrawn, and even the police,
and the town was handed over to the two Committees
to pacify and keep peaceful; Special constables were
immediately appointed from the students and others,
who patrolled the streets. The Prince published an
address to the inhabitants, in which he promised an
investigation into the conduct of General Zablockoy
threatened any disturbers of the peace, whether
Russians or Poles, with instant punishment, and
ordered the dismissal of the Chief of the Police,
appointing in his place a General Paulucci, who as
former head of the Secret Police had gained the
popular confidence. By these wise concessions peace
was secured pending the arrival of an answer from
the Emperor to the address ; and I believe there
never was such a unanimity of wish, or such an
earnestness of effort, under great provocation, as
on the part of all classes of Polish society to pre-
serve order. Meanwhile it was arranged to have a
public funeral for the victims of the 27th. An im-
mense collection was made for the purpose, and
Friday was spent in preparation. The streets were
crowded all day, but there was no disturbance and
no insults were offered. A former spy and an old
officer were discovered in the act of offering arms
for sale in the crowd, as if to give a pretext for the
use of force on the part of the Government. They
were quietly arrested and carried before the Muni-
cipal Committee, who published an order of the day
to the effect that any one foand with arms would be
considered an enemy of his country. Friday night
passed undisturbed, and Saturday dawned. It was
a splendid morning—the sun bright, the air spring-
like. The streets were filled with crowds, but all
quiet, orderly, and dressed in deep mourning. A
nation was going to the burial of its murdered sons.
Precisely at 10 o'clock the procession moved away
from the church, where the bodies had been lying.
Special constables, with their tickets of authority
on their hats, and members of committee with a

distinguishing white badge on theirs, were busy
_ .

keeping order and giving directions. First came the
charity schools, then the guilds of merchants with
their banners, then the students of the academies
and schools, then a body of mountain peasants known
by their peculiar costume, and all of them itinerant
workers in wire (Drahtmauner), then all the monks
of all the orders in the town in their various robes,
then the officiating bishop and the priests, accompa-
nied by the principal nobility and merchants, then
the Protestant clergy of the town, then the corpses
—five simple, plain black coffins, all alike, each
with the martyr's crown of thorns and the martyr's
palm branch upon it, and each surrounded by the
friends of the deceased,—then (most significant fact
of all, perhaps, to ono who knows the utter hos-
tility of Pole and Jew) the chief Jewish r..bbi and
the principal officers of the various synagogues, and
then the mighty mass of national mourners, all obe-
dient to a word from authority, halting, checking
their speed, advancing, as the necessities of the
route and the breadth of the streets required. An
idea may be formed of the length of the procession
from the fact that it took exactly 40 minutes to pass
any one point from the first charity school children
to the empty hearses (which followed the Jewish
rabbi and officers), and without reckoning the
crowds behind, who only followed without forming
an organised part of it. In the procession and along
the line of march there must at least have been pre-
sent 100,000 persons. Arrived at the cemetery, dis-
tant two miles from the point of departure, all five
bodies were deposited in one grave, with one reli-
gious ceremony, without distinction of creed or
ritual; and, having seen its victims deposited in their
final resting place, the people, wither.; noise, with-
out utterance of reproach, without expression of
other feeling than that of deep sorrow, passed back
again to their homes.
There was something sublime in the quiet self-
control of such a mighty mass. It was said, and
said truly, that the Polish nation was passing its
examination, prior to receiving its remove upwards,
as worthy of a higher place; and it passed its exa-
mination right nobly ! Oh ! that its governors,
from the Emperor downwards, could have seen it.
It was a simple thing, but shows the animus of all
present,—the reply which I heard an artisan who
had placed himself at a very tempting corner of the
cemetery wall, in order to prevent irregular attempts
at entrance, give to a man who tried to scale it,
" They have ruled us with whips ; show that we
don't need them." Here order triumphed, as it did
everywhere. Russian officers and soldiers, of course
without mourning, mingled among the crowd, and
were not insulted. And then the unanimity ! Poles
and Jews forgot the bitter animosities of years, I may
say of centuries, and formed one united people, pro-
bably for the first time during their history. There is
no doubt a rouge party in existence here, as in other
countries; but the spirit of order was so strong
that it durst not show itself, and has dwindled away
to an insignificant faction.
But I must also do justice to the Russians.
There is among them a large physical force party,—
men who personify the dominant Russian idea
prior to the Crimean war,----who sigh for the reap-
pearance of Paskiewicz from his grave, who under-
stand no other method of proceeding but the
launching of columns of infantry and cavalry against
whatever opposes them. Their cry is repeated in
every circle, "Les canons ont gagne la Pologne ;
les canons la doivent conserver;" or slightly varied
in words, "Il n'y a rien que la severite." They
long for, and, I fear I must add, endeavour to pro-
voke a breach of the peace directly and indirectly,
in order that an excuse may be given for the use of

force. Happily hitherto the Viceroy, Prince Gods-
ehalroff, has not yielded to influences from this
party ; he has made wise and timely concessions.
He has recognised the existence of the municipal
council referred to above, and advised an increase
in its numbers ; he has conceded the point that no
political arrests shall be made without the privity
of the Council, and that the person arrested shall be
tried within 48 hours by a military court, with two
of the Council as assessors, a civil advocate being
allowed to defend the accused ; and for the time he
has left the maintenance of order in the hands of
the citizens. In these conciliatory measures he has
been ably seconded by the new Chief of Police,
Paulucci. As an instance, I may mention that on
the day of the funeral an order was given to all
military guards and sentries to present arms while
the procession was passing, as is usual with all
funerals in ordinary times, though the funerals of
Saturday was a national demonstration. As I said
above, I believe the Prince to be a most humane
man ; still there is no denying the fact that the
Russians are very much afraid. All the principal
ladies have already left the town. The Govern-
ment finds itself opposed to a new power that it
cannot comprehend—the power of order, self-con-
trol, patient endurance, with an ultimate appeal to
the public opinion of Europe. The system of
material force, founded on military organization,
has fallen powerless before this new power.
" What is to come ?" will be asked in England
and elsewhere. I can only reply that the present
position of the Polish nation is one of waiting, of
expectation. They are waiting to see whether the
Viceroy's concessions will be confirmed from St.
Petersburg ; they are waiting for the Emperor's
reply to their address.

The right minded even among the Russians them-
selves admit the necessity of reforms. The system
of education is so devised as to throw every impedi-
ment in the way of intellectual development. Pub-
lic justice is under the influence of Government and
private dictation. The country is utterly demoralised
by the venality of Government functionaries, from
the highest general to the lowest Custom•house
clerk. This dishonesty is openly defended, so much
has it beconaelt habit of society. And, above all the
governed have no right of direct access to their So-
vereign, which, in a country where the press is not
free, is the only means of redress. If, then, the Em-
peror confirms the concessions already made, and
grants these necessary reforms, all may yet pass
over peacefully. But if he does not, there will pro-
bably first be an entire disorganisation of the Ad-
ministration by the resignation of the thousands of
Polish Government employes all over the country;
and then, possibly, the non-payment of taxes will
follow. But force will not be resorted to; it will
be the patient, persevering, untiring application of
a power that bayonets cannot disperse and cannon
balls cannot crush.

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