The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-18 00:00:00

RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans 1325 .. 1326 25
Northern
New, ditto 9OO
Lyons and Mediterranean 1020 .. 1022 50
Geneva.. 335 .. 335
Southern 625 .. 626 25
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard 521 25 .. 621 60

POLAND.
FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
WARSAW, OCT. 9.

The elections for the district and municipal
councils are almost concluded. They were carried
out in such an orderly and business-like manner
that the people seemed to be performing a cus-
tomary formality in the midst of full constitutional
freedom. And yet for more than a quarter of a
century, no one was even permitted to speak of the
rights of a citizen, and all the array of cruel and
vindictive oppression and persecution under which
the country has been groaning for the last 30 years
is there, watching an opportunity to regain the
ground it has lost.
The truth is that notwithstanding the self-pos-
sessed and calm appearance of the population, and
the passive bearing of the Russian authorities,
during the elections, a heavy storm is hanging
over this country. Rumours are in circulation
about an impending military reaction which the
Council of Administration is said to have been or-
ganising secretly for some time.

The Council of State held its first geu.eral assem-
bly on the Ist of October. It was opened by the
Viceroy General Count Lambert, who, according to
the statute, is its permanent president. The Ger-
man newspapers hastened to put into circulation an
apocryphal document, purporting to be the opening
speech of the Lieutenant General. The following
is the exact translation of that which is published
in the official Dziennik Powszechny :
" Gentlemen—l feel very happy in being able to
open the first sitting of the General Assembly of the
States on the day fixed by the new regulations
issued for the kingdom.
" The shortness of the time since the Council of
State has been created, the changes which have
taken place in the administration, and in the per-

sons composing it, and finally the situation of the
country, requiring at every moment the interference
of the authorities for the maintenance of order,
have retarded the final elaboration of the projects of
laws, as well as their transmission to the Depart-
ments of the Council.

4, The reports, however, of the chiefs of all the
branches of the administration for the year 1860,
the budget for 1862, and some other projects of
laws, made up in committees, will be submitted for
your deliberation.

"I must especially call your attention, gentlemen,
to the important project for the conversion of the
corvee into tenant's rates, which will have great
influence upon the peace and prosperity of the
coup try.

" I conclude, gentlemen, in expressing the hope
that you will exert yourselves firmly and con-
jointly in getting acquainted with the real wants
of the country, in order to enable me to lay them
at the foot of the throne, as the legal expression of
well-matured wishes."

It will be seen that the whole speech contains
nothing but generalities, and carefully avoids any
mention of the vital questions of public education,
reform in the judicature, and financial affairs. As
regards the regulation of the question of rural
duties, it is mere derision to put it as a matter of
deliberation to the Assembly as any project emanat-
ing from local sources, and is sure not to meet ideas
of the Government, whose principal object, at least
in the Polish provinces, is to keep this important
question unsettled, and thus to keep up uneasiness
and mutual distrust between the peasants and the
upper classes.

Simultaneously with the opening of the session
of the Council, and whilst the elections were pro-
ceeding, a circular, signed by Mr. Wielopolski,
Director of the Home Department and of Public
Instruction, has been sent to the chiefs of the Ad-
ministration in the provinces, increasing the rigour
of the state of war, and giving greater latitude
to the power of the military commanders. As is
generally known, the state of war proclaimed in
1833 has not been since suppressed. On the con-
trary, General Suchozanet has republished the
ukase instituting it. There is, therefore, no ques-
tion of proclaiming a state of war, but of strength-
ening it.

After the lapse of five weeks, during which some
organic, practical, and satisfactory work was ex-
pected from General Lambert, we learn, without
any surprise, we confess, that those who surround
him, men belonging to the old system, have advised
him, as the only means of pacification, to put the
country under the heavy repression of the soldiery,
and to entrust such men as Zaycow, Wagner,
Roznow, Fenshave, Petrow, with unlimited
and irresponsible power. lam one of those who
never put any reliance or hope in fine words,
and pompously-announced reforms, and who see-in
them but a veil covering the old brutal and demo-
ralising oppression and despotism, which, in the
present general state of Europe and Russia's own
weakness and embarrassments, it is rather dangerous
to prosecute openly.

According to the ukase of 1833, proclaiming the
state of war, the Viceroy had only the right to
qualify whether the persons inculpated were to be
delivered up to the courts-martial or to the
regular tribunals. But in accordance with the
above-named circular, this right is not only ex-
tended to the military commanders of the provinces
and districts, to the commanding officers of the
garrisons, and of smaller detachments, but in minor
localities even to the majors of towns and officers of
gendarmerie, who can thus rule with exceptional
laws, institute courts-martial, and decide whether
an action is to be qualified and dealt with as a poli-
tical offence.

Such a measure can but open a wider field to the
arbitrariness of the military and its chiefs, often
men utterly ignorant and unprincipled, and in-
crease, on the other hand, the agitation and un-
easiness of the country, and thus paralyze the work
of legal organisation for which the country is
striving with all the strength at its command.