The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-07 00:00:00

AMERICA.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND
MARYLAND.

The Secretary of State at 'Washington has ad-
dressed the following letter to the Governor of
Maryland:—

Deportment of State, April 22.

Sir,—l have had the honour to receive your communi-
cation of this morning, in which you have informed me
that you have felt it ie be your duty to advise the Presi
dent cf the United States to order elsewhere the troops off
Annapolis, and also that no more be sent through Mary-
land, and that you have further suggested that Lord
Lyons be requested to act as mediator between the con-
tending parties in our country, to prevent the effusion of
blood.

The President directs me to acknowledge the receipt of
that communication, and to assure you that he has weighed
the counsels which it contains with the respect which he
habitually cherishes for the chief magistrates of the several
states, and especially for yourself. He regrets as deeply
as any magistrate or citizen of the country can, that demon-
strations against the safety of the United States, with very
extensive preparations for the effusion of blood have made
it his duty to call out the force to which you allude. The
force now sought to be sent through Maryland is intended
for nothing but the defence of this capital.
The President has necessarily confided the choice of the
national highway which that force shall take in coming to
this city to Lieutenant- eneral Scott, commanding army
of the United States, who, like his only predecessor, is not
less distinguished for his humanity than for his loyalty,
patriotism, and distinguished public service.
The President instructs me to add that the national high-
way thus selected by the Lieutenant-General has been
chosen by him upon consultation with prominent magis-
trates and citizens of Maryland, as the one which, while a
route is absolutely necessary, it is further removed from
the populous cities of the state, and with the expectation
that it would, therefore, be the least objectionable one.
The President cannot but remember that there has
been a time in the history of the American Union when
forces designed for the defence of its capital were not un-
welcome anywhere in the state of Maryland, and certainly
not at Annapolis—then, as now, the capital of that patriotic
State, and then also one of the capitals of the Union. If
80 years could have obliterated all other noble sentiments
of that ago in Maryland, the President would be hopeful,
nevertheless, that there is one that would for ever remain
there and everywhere. That sentiment is, that no domestic
contention whatever that may arise among the parties of
this republic ought, in any case, to be referred to any
foreign arbitrament, least of all to the arbitrament of an
European monarch.—l have the honour to be, with distin-
guished consideration, your Excellency's most obedient
servant, 'WILLIAM H. SEVARD.
Thomas H. Hicks, Governor of Maryland.

IHE INSURRECTION IN POLAND.

(From the 2imes Correspondent.)
WARSAW, APRIL 27.

As if it had not enough to contend with in the
strong national feelings of the Poles, the Govern-
ment, or M. Wielopolski as its chief adviser, has ven-
tured upon a most needless and impolitic attack on
their religious feelings. My last letter was dated
Saturday, the 20th, and in that I mentioned that
communications had been made by the Minister of
Ecclesiastical Affairs to the Archbishop on the
subject of certain religious hymns, which were sung
during the time of Divine service in the churches,
and which the people made use of as an expression
of their patriotic wishes and prat era. On that very
day an official prohibition of such hymns appeared
in the local papers, accompanied by some clever
special pleading by the Minister (all that he writes
is clever enough), as to the abuse which evil dis-
posed persons made of religious services to excite
popular passions. In the abstract it n:ay be true
enough that politics under the garb of religion is
an abuse; but when a people has no other way of
expressing its longings, no representative assem-
blies, no free press, no right of access to its rulers,
no power of peaceable demonstration, not even the
unwatched liberty of colloquial discussion, is it a
wonder that it uses its very prayers and praises, pro-
tected as these are by the ceremonial of religion and
the sacredness of the sanctuary itself, as the only
means of utterance for its heart's dearest wishes ?
Surely there is much to palliate such an abuse under
such circumstances. It appears that in reply to
M. Wielopolski's communications, the Archbishop
informed him he could only give a definite answer
after conferring with the ecclesiastical tuthorities.
He summoned together, therefore, all the rectors of
parishes and heads of conventual establishments,
and their unanimous decision was that they could
not interfere with what the people sang during the
time of Divine service; they would adhere to the
ritual themselves, but they could not compel their
congregations to do so ; and so the Minister took
upon himself the prohibition of these hymns. But
to what purpose? Next day (Sunday) I am in-
formed that there was hardly a church in the town
in which they were not sung, some member of the
congregation commencing them at some momentary
pause in the middle of the service. Several students
were arrested in consequence, and the same prohi•
bition has since been repeated in the papers. But
this is not the only ground of contention and angry
feeling. Prince Gortschakoff has addressed a letter
to the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs—in other
words, M. Wielopolski, the private adviser of the
Prince, has written to M. Wielopolski, the Minister
(for the Prince is said to be reposing on the laurels
he won on the evening of Monday, April 8, and to
have entirely given up the civil government into
the hands of M. Wielopolski and M. Piatonow, who
has been sent from St. Petersburg as his adviser),
a letter which he commences by saying that " it
has come to his knowledge that certain Roman
Catholic priests have mixed up politics with reli-
gious offices," and in which he proceeds to declare
that " the Government would bri lg disgrace upon
itself if it delayed t o t ake the necessary measures
prescribed by the law to put an end to the hatred
thus systematically excited against it." He then bids
the Minister call the attention of the bishops to the
conduct of the clergy, warning them that " the civil
and military governors hare received an order to
arrest every ecclesiastic, without distinction of rank
or dignity, who shall be guilty of the offence named,
in order that he may be punished with all the rigour
of which the laws admit. Now, there can be no
doubt that the Polish clergy have very strong na-
tional sympathies. They are better patriots than
churchmen, for the most part, having very little
ultramontanism in their body. But their chief
offence has been that in the country parishes they
have endeavoured to thwart the measures of Go-
vernment, to set the peasants against the proprie-
tors. lam told upon authority that I cannot hesi-
tate to receive, that by means of the soldiers quar-
tered in the rural districts, who have talked freely
of the Emperor's goodwill in emancipating the serfs
in Russia, the Government has endeavoured to
spread the notion that it wished to abolish the pre-
sent system, whereby the peasants pay rent for their
holdings in compulsory labour, and to give them
the freehold of the land in their occupation, while
the proprietors were opposed to these measures.
The clergy, then, whose influence in an uneducated
country is naturally very great, have tried, and in
' many cases successfully, to show the peasantry the
real state of the case—namely, that in the discus-
sions and by the resolutions of the Agricultural
Society the proprietors themselves bad taken the
initiative in this. matter. Su endeavours on the
part of the clergy may have their political aspect,
but they certainly may be the side
of truth and charity.viewed also from
Individuals among the clergy
may have even given strong expression to the warm
feelings of patriotism within them ; but surely such
conduct could hardly warrant a Government in
stirring up the acrimony of religious animosity by
an announcement that " orders had been given to
arrest every ecclesiastic guilty of such an offence,
without distinction of rank or dignity." It must
be remembered, too, that the Government is of a
creed regarded as heterodox by the Polish nation,
of a church whose pretensions are rival to those of
the Church of Rome.

Among the official measures and announcements
of the last few days I must not omit to mention the
withdrawal of that measure of freedom from censor-
ship which the press enjoyed during the few first
days of M. Wielopolski's administration of office.
The French and German papers have many of them
been entirely suppressed since the occurrences of
the 8111, The Times of the 17th was given rut
with two-thirds of the ninth and tenth pig(.,
ruthlessly shorn off by the censor's sci•,sors, ant,
that of the 18th with its second leading article
iudelibly effAced with printing .1;1—i• The
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