The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-25 00:00:00

FRANCE.

BOURSE, Oct. 24.—The market continues in-
animate as regards transactions, but the limited
amount of business to-day has been transacted at
a slight improvement on the closing quotations of
yesterday. Threes, for the Account, are now at
68f. Railway shares quiet, but firm.
The following are the last quotations :-
4t per per Cents ... 95 95, Credit Fonder
Do. end month.... 96 Belgian 4f lOl 25
3 per Cents
Do. end month 6B 2} IRoman
Bank Shares 2910 Austrian
Credit Mobilier.... 703 75 Spanish Threes 491
Do. Account 705 Home Debt

RAILWAYS.
Cash. Account.
Orleans 1327 50 .. 1330
Northern
New, ditto
Lyons and Mediterranean 1023 75 .. 1022 50
Geneva.. 340
Southern 631 25 .. 632 50
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard ' 525 .. 623 75
POLAND.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

WARSAW, OCT. 16.

The streets of Warsaw are again deluged with
blood. The troops are in undisturbed possession of
the town—which looks like a vast camp—and any
one who attempts to stir from his house does so
on peril of being robbed and half killed with the
muskets and pikes of the soldiery. To save ap-
pearances, and enable the Government to parade
their merciful conduct in the eyes of the world, not
a shot is fired ; but for every:other species of injury
and outrage the soldiery have:a carte blanche ; and
lavishly do they use their privilege, any faint
dawning of reason or humanity which they may
have possessed having been completely darkened
with gin.
It is said that the proclamation of the state of
siege, which was the precursor of all the horrors,
was the consequence gf a rumour which had reached
the ears of the Government that the newly-
elected members of the municipal councils were
about to present a petition embodying the wishes
of the Poles, asking for an autonomy. This is very
probable, as the Government has always persisted
in asserting that the movement in the country is
not a national one, but only the work of a few tur-
bulent individuals. The same gross falsehood is
repeated in Count Lambert's address proclaiming
1 the state of siege, and I am surprised at his be-
lieving that any one could be deceived by so pal-
pable a distortion of the facts, unless, indeed, he
trusts in the ignorance which prevails pretty gene-
rally on the Continent and in England regarding
Polish affairs. There was never a more unanimous
movement in any nation, or at any period of the
world's history, than that in Poland at the present
moment. This must indeed be evident to anyone
who will take the pains to study the events that
have taken place in this country during the last
nine months. In the face of the most peremptory
orders of the most tyrannical and unscrupulous,

Government in the world, and of the experience of
such an oppression as would have completely
crushed the spirit of any nation less penetrated
with patriotism, the Poles have been unanimous in
repeating over and over again, by every means in
their power, their demands for the removal of a
Government which had become intolerable to them,
and in proving, by the display of every quality
which constitutes the capability of a people for self-
government, that nothing short of an autonomy
will satisfy their legitimate wishes. The Council
of State, and other reforms promised by the Govern-
ment, were much too scanty and insufficient for
wants ; and the delay which occurred in the fulfil-
ment of these promises gave rise to natural and
well-founded suspicions as to their sincerity, Indeed,
what was to be expected of a Government which,
after taking to itself all the credit of that noble
scheme of the emancipation of the serfs—a scheme
proposed and elaborated by the Polish nobility
—sends secret agents among the peasants, with in-
structions to stir them up against their landlords ;
which makes protestations of moderation and
humanity at Warsaw, while it allows a state of
things, far more atrocious than in the worst days
of Nicholas, to exist in the provinces; and which
sends to Prussia for secret agents to provoke the in-
habitants of Warsaw to insurrection? And, after
all, what was the crime of the Poles that it should
meet with such a punishment, almost unexampled
in its severity ? The quiet, orderly, and, so far as
possible, legal expression of their polititical wants,
without the slightest symptom of riot or disturbance
of any kind. For this they have been made liable
to all the consequences of what is called a state of
siege, viz., the trial and punishment by military
law of all such offences as may be construed by the
military authorities as being of a political character
—any meeting in the streets of more than three in-
dividuals, on any account whatever, and the wear-
ing or sale of emblems, or thick sticks, coming under
that category; and the investment of the soldiery
with full powers to take any steps they may think
fit to suppress what they may consider disturbances.
This is equivalent to placing the whole country at
the mercy of a ruthless and drunken soldiery ; and
the consequences of such a course have not been
tardy in making their appearance.
Yesterday being the anniversary of the death of
Kosciuszko, a man loved and honoured alike by
Poles and Russians, and whom even the Emperor
Paul knew how to appreciate, funeral services took
place in all the churches of Warsaw. All the shops
were shut, although the day previous the Director
of Police had issued an order forbidding tradesmen
to do so on penalty of 100 roubles. The churches
were crowded, particularly those of the Holy Cross,
the Bernardins, and the Reformers, and the cathe-
dral, in which the catafalque of the archbishop was
still standing. While the prayers were going on
the churches were surrounded by the soldiery, who
attacked the people as they came out with their
pikes and muskets. Troops of Cossacks and Cir-
cassians were at the same time let out into the
streets where they seized and ill-treated every one
they met. Numbers were wounded as they came
out of the churches, and many were nearly trodden
to death under the horses' hoofs. The people who
still remained at their prayers, hearing what was
going on outside, did not venture forth, and were
shut in by the soldiery till four o'clock this morning
when the latter broke open the doors, rushed into
the churches; cut and stabbed the people with their
swords and pikes, without distinction of age or sex,
and in many instances even tore the dresses off the
ladies' backs and robbed them of their money. In
the cathedral the archbishop's catafalque and chair
of state were overthrown, and the blood of the
wounded people stained the pavement. The ladies,
many of them stripped of all their valuables and a
portion of their clothing, were then turned into the
street, and the men sent under an escort to the
citadel. Upwards of 4,000 men were arrested in
this manner, and there not being sufficient room for
them all in the prisons, the barracks were turned
into a prison for the occasion. Some of the pri-
soners who were old men were liberated this after-
noon, and presented a most pitiable spectacle, being
all in tatters and covered with blood and wounds.
The rest will, it is reported, be sent to the Caucasus.
The agitation and confusion in the town baffles
description ; numbers of people are looking about,
at the risk of their lives, for their missing friends
and relatives ; the oaths of the soldiers, who, as usual
with Russians, whether they are going to fight an
enemy or massacre an unarmed crowd, have been
made drunk for the occasion, are to be heard at any
time and in almost every street, mingled with the
cries of the wounded ; and no one is safe, even in
his own house, from the brutal attacks and rapacity
of the troops. Burglaries, thefts, and rapine of
every description have become common ; in fact, we
have now in Warsaw a repetition of what has been
going on for the last six months in the provinces.
As for the spirit of the Poles, it is higher than ever.
The heel of their oppressors, instead of crushing the
fire of patriotism in their breasts, only makes it
flame up a thousand times more brightly.

The desecration of the churches has excited the
greatest indignation among the clergy of all deno-
minations, who have determined to close all the
places of worship in Warsaw, including the Pro-
testant churches and the synagogues, to prevent the
possibility of any further desecration taking place.
The Council of State, too, have suspended their
sittings, declaring that it is impossible for them to
expect any beneficial consequences to result from
their deliberations, so long as the present outrages
on the State continue; and two deputations from
the nobility are preparing to ask for an audience of
Count Lambert, to complain of the abuses of the
soldiery. The following letter on the subject has
been addressed to the Government by the Rev. Mr.
Bialobrzeski in the name of the clergy :

" The Administrator General of the Arch-diocese
of Warsaw to his Excellency the Director General
of the Government Commission for Religion and
Education.

" Your Excellency has, doubtless, been informed
of the extraordinary events which have taken place
in some churches at Warsaw, and the disrespect
shown to the sacred office and the houses established
for the praise of God, and therefore to the Roman
Catholic religion. I consider it my duty to state,
that yesterday, at the conclusion of the service, the
Cathedral, and the churches of the Bernardins and
other missionaries, were surrounded, with all the
people in them, by the soldiery, and closed. In the
night, however, the two first named churches were
forcibly broken open and the whole of their congre-
gations turned out after having been subjected to
the most unmerciful treatment As our churches
have been profaned by these unheard-of abuses, I
have ordered, having regard to the letter and spirit
of the ecclesiastical law, the churches of St. John
and that of the Bernardins to be sealed up; and
fearing lest any similar desecration of our holy reli-
gion should take place, and with the view of ensur-
ing the faithful against similar attacks, I find it
necessary to stop the performance of religious
services in any other church, until I be properly
assured of their being able to go on with safety.
" P. BIALOBRZESKI,
" Administrator of the Arch-diocese of
Warsaw, Prelate and Archdeacon."