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, resolution to receive with good will every.
loyal manifestation of public opinion, and deign to
acknowledge that complete freedom in the expres-
sion of the actual state both of affairs and opinions,
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 will 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; but having been deprived for some
years of every legal organ which, could put As 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 are to relate to our country—by
setting forth the fundamental bases of the political
faith of the immense majority of our fellow citizens,
is a duty whiCh seems demanded of us by the very
sentiments and phrases which in your excellency's
noble programme arc a prelude- to the future con-
stitutional 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-
try, they have never ceased, and never will cease, to
claim the long established and imprescriptible
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
for us a brother. To a minister of a catholic sove-
reign 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 according
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
forth 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
every 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, and more
recently the Emperor Francis, admitted us W p?s-
sees rights amounting to a full and complete auW-
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 for 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, r ever 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
divi▪
sion, 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-
divi▪ duality 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 questians, such as the maintenance of our
nationality and our Zl isteme, instruction, the public
Nyenue, and, generally, ~-21 the interests of the
country, in that case we musi,' declare that the
pan; ?f that Par-
political tendencies of the German
liament would meet on our parts, as on thos: of the
other nationalities which are not German, an opc,e
sition as energetic as it would be legitimate.
At the same time, even if it were endowed with
a provincial diet under the conditions we have enu-
merated, Gallicia could not be called self-governing
unless thenceforth Polish and Ruthenian citizens
alone should be admitted to Government employ
' meat, the magistracy, and public instruction.. ;
fanth-cle
above all, unless the ecclesiastical dignities otween
two religions which divide the popul.ation between
them should be exclusively reserved to.r tbemin.deed,
Your excellency understands—y
clearly expressed it in your cirdrsularaveihat the
on the confi-
strength of a Government &pen.
dence which the citizens have in its organs. You
will not doubt, the.n, that such confidence, which
organs that. despised it,
has been refused hitherto to
ca ir province to fellow-
if granted in. future
lwnith authority, would be a
countrymen invested
fresh guarantee of public ordLer.
But it is not sufficient that- the national language