The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-23 00:00:00

AUSTRIAN POLAND.

The following is a translation of the memorial
presented on the 4th inst., at :Vienna, to M. de
Schmerling, by a deputation of the inhabitants of
Austrian Poland

In the circular which your excellency has just
addressed to the governors of the provinces, you an-
nounce a resoluCon to receive with good will eves v
loyal manifestation of public opinion, and deign to
acknowledge that complete freedom in the expres-
sion of the actual state both of affairs and opinioias
is the first condition of a manly tone of feeling.
The citizens of Gallicia and Cracovia who pre-
sent themselves to-day before your excellency
bring you the living expression of the public opinion
of their country. Sinoe the annexation to Austria
of this part of ancient Poland, the ill wilt of the
local authorities has too frequently deprived of
their real character the protests addressed to the
Emperor and his ministers, and has marred the
effect they should have produced. We hasten then
to answer the appeal which your excellency's cir-
cular contains; bat having been deprived for some
years of every legal organ which could put us in
communication with the supreme authorities of the
state, in default of formal mandates we present
ourselves, strong in the unanimous adhesion mani-
fested by our fellow citizens.
Your excellency's circular declares that in a short
time the institutions indicated in the Emperor's
manifesto shall be completed by organic laws. To
anticipate the promulgation of these organic laws
—as far as they e-e to relate to our country—by
seCing forth the fundamental bases of the political.
faith of the immense majority of our fellow citizens,
Is a duty which seems eemanctect oz us by the very
sentiments and phrases which in your excellency's
noble programme are a prelude to the future con-
stitut;ona I government of the empire.
And, first, we have the honour of representing to
your excellency that the inhabitants of our pro-
vince, Poles and Ruthenians, have formed for
some centuries by a voluntary act of union one and
the same nation, and that in spite of the destiny
which has overtaken the unity of their ancient coun-
ty, they have never ceased, and never will cease, to
claim the long established and impresciiptible
rights of their nationality, which Providence itself
has consecrated. For as Poland, dismembered as
sbe is at this day, remains still the mother country,
a Pole, whatever sovereignty he acknowledges, is
fo7 us a brother. To a minister of a catholic sove-
re:pi whose illustrious house has given nine queens
to the throne of Poland, the avowal of these senti-
ments will doubtless be permitted us. Vainly
should we desire to conceal them ; the world would
not believe us, and in our misfortunes would refuse
us even its esteem.

If, then, your Excellency will be good enough to
take account of the ancient and. often glorious his-
tory of our country,- you will recognise, we are glad
to believe, that we also are one of those historically
and politically national individualities, in which, re-
cently, a majority of the council of the empire ad-
mitted the right of being maintained in the new
organisation of the monarchy ; that we also possess
that legal and historical character to which accordin g
to the words of the last manifesto of his Imperial
and Royal Majesty, distinctive institutions, and
special laws, are due.
Our fathers, like ourselves, more than once set
_ _ .

for al their claims to the predecessors of his Majesty
They had no effect, and silence was for a long time
imposed upon us, but, like our fathers, we grasp at
eery occasion of renewing them. It is above all
our duty to present them to your excellency before
the promulgation of the new organic statutes. For
if formerly the Empress Maria Theresa, end more
recently the Emperor Francis, admitted us to pos-
sess tights amounting to a full and complete auto-
nomy it is evident that we cannot be satisfied with
an autonomy so incomplete as that which the gene-
ral terms of your excellency's circular seem to re-
serve foe us. On the other hand, the European
treaties, in sacrificing the political existence of
Poland to the vain hope of insuring perpetual
peace, in deciding on our fate without consulting
us, rover intended to annihilate us as a nation;
they have, on the contrary, guaranteed to the three
parts of dismembered Poland their nationality, and
the institutions which were to ensure its preserva-
tion.
Your excellency must admit that no other pro-
vince of the empire finds itself in a similar situa-
tion ; and this fact alone will serve to prove to you
the necessity of an essentially self-governing orga-
nisation for our country, as well as the injustice
there would be in breaking up, by a new political
division, the integrity of Gallicia, and submitting
the part of ancient Poland, which has passed under
the rule of Austria, to a fresh dismemberment, with
the idea, no doubt—though the vain idea—of effac-
ing every trace of that Poland whose powerful in-
dividuality is gloriously distinguished in history.
It is then for the whole of Gallicia, including
Cracovia, that we declare necessary a single pro-
vincial diet, composed of elected representatives—
not a consultative assembly, or one merely admitted
to express its views, but a deliberative body, pro-
nouncing on every question of the moral and mate-
rial. interests of the inhabitants.
If, on the contrary, we were called to form part
of a united parliament of the empire,whatever might
be its functions, if that assembly had to pronounce
on matters concerning Gallicia and Cracovia, on
vital questions, such as the maintenance of our
nationality and our customs, instruction, the public
revenue, and, generally, all the interests of the
country, in that case we must declare that the
political tendencies of the German part of that Par-
liament would meet on our parts, as on those of the
other nationalities which are not German, an oppo-
sition as energetic as it would be legitimate.
At the same time, even if it were endowed with
aprovincirl diet under the conditions we have enu-
merated, Gallicia could not be called sel f-governirg
unless thenceforth Polish aid Ruthenian citizens
alone should ha admitted to Government employ-
ment, the magistracy, and publlc instruction ; and,
above all, unless the ecclesiastical dignities of the
two religions which divide the population between
them should be exclusively reserved for the,
Your excellency und tersiands—you havehmi d,
the
clearly expr-sseel it in your circulat—onfi-
na.tdee
strength of a Government depends on
the
c You
dente which the citizens have in its organs.
will not doubt, then, that such confidence, which
has been refosed hitherto to organs that despised it,
if granted in future in our province to fellow-
countrymen invested with
order.
authority, would be a
fresh guarantee of public
But it is notsufficient that the national language

7//_

PRICE 4D, STAMPED, SD.

should be employed by the functionaries only solely
when they address the population ; it is necessary
that this language should be employed in all grades,
and all parts of the administration of the country.
The Polish language,, we may affirm, is not inferior
in richness to any ; its literature for several centu-
ries has been illustrious in all its branches. Already,
in execution of the Sovereign will, the Minister of
state, your excellency's predecessor, has given US
reason to anticipate that our language should be re-
sumed in all the institutions of the country as the
language of instruction, its own rilhts being re-
served to the Ruthenian language. It is accordingly
permitted us to hope that the accomplishment of these
hopes will follow closely on the circular in which
your excellency declares that one of the first duties
of the Government is to leave each of the nations
that compose the empire to deveiope, even in the
h;ghest spheres, its intellectual resources, as the
sure means of seeing them enrich themselves vs:th
all that the other languages contribute to human
knowledge. And since your Excellency makes a
point of declaring that the Imperial Government
purposes to favour in every way the development
of intelligence, you cannot fail to admit that for
our nation to respond to these elevated views it is
above everything necessary that its young people
should receive instruction in their mother tongue.
What we have just laid before your Excellency
is the summary of our political faith, and the
essence of the public opinion of our country. Its
expression has not been dictated by a vain opposi-
tion to resolutions with which the Government has
not made us acquainted. Our object is to enlighten
the sovereign power at a moment when it is of such
great importance that we explain ourselves frankly.
Deign to examine in a spirit of good will and to
take into consideration all that we have had the
honour to respectfully submit to you. We dare to
hope that in accomplishing the political work
which the sovereign will has entrusted to you, in
the care which you will devote to improving the
lot of our nation, you will always give first place to
what is of all things dearest to us—our nationality.
We hope this, for Austria and Christianity owe
to Poland a service which, at Vienna at least, will
not be disputed.
Cracovia, Dec. 31, 1860.
It will be remembered that M. de Schmerling
made a verbal reply to this address, referring in
vague terms to certain decrees which were to appear
in a month or two, and begging the deputation to
have confidence in the intentions of the Government