The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-03 00:00:00

Poland so strictly that the production was diminished. In

many places it was not grown, because it was not allowed to
be sent out of the country. Russia did this to develope the
resources of other portions of her corn-growing dominions.
The interest of England went beyond the preservation of
treaties ; and she had had several opportunities of support-
ing Austria and France in procuring the independence of
Poland ; but England had purposely evaded those opportu-
nities, and they now saw:the state of Poland. He did not
wish to encourage revolution. He did not regard this as a
revolutionary question in the slightest degree ; it was rather
Conservative. If the preservation of the faith of public
treaties was Conservative so was the question of Poland ;
if the preservation of the ancient traditions of a kingdom,
and, above all, if the preservation of right against despotic
force and truth as opposed to fraudulent diplomacy, was
Conservative, so was this question. He asked the noble lord
to give him the despatches that passed between the Govern-
ment of England and that of Russia in 1831 and 1832. He
had said that England had been to blame throughout the
whole of this business. When Lord Clarendon touched the
Polish question he did it damage. Lord Aberdeen and
others rather injured it. But the Minister who had from
the beginning to this hour done the most against Poland
was the present Premier. It might surprise the house to be
told that when other great Powers were anxious to assist
Poland the noble lord stepped in and prevented them. Had
he himself heard such a statement some time ago he should
have been surprised also. But this session he had seen
what he thought should lessen the confidence the country
reposed in the noble lord. He had seen him rise in his
place and lose his temper when accused by one of his own
supporters of falsifying Sir A. Barnes' despatches. Proofs
as to the Polish question were thickening; he asked the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs to supply the links that were
wanting. He particularly asked him to give the correspond-
ence between France and England in 1831 and 1832 ; and
any between France, England, and Austria relating to Po-
land at the time of the Crimean war. He also wished to
ask whether a circular letter addressed to the Cabinets of
Europe, in April last, by Prince Gortschakoff,was authentic?
He did not ask the noble lord to produce it ; he knew the
answer would be the stereotyped one, that it referred to
recent events in Warsaw, and that it would be inconvenient
to give it. He only asked, therefore, whether the circular
was authentic ? Having said so much of the past history
of the question, he would now ask the house whether the
recent events in Poland and the present attitude of the
people did not justify some consideration of the subject ?
If England was a party to the oppression of Poland,
if England did not avail herself of the oppor-
tunities there had been for giving Poland its in-
dependence, did not these facts justify the house
in showing that country some consideration ? Some
members of that house seemed to have a fear of Russia, but
if an independent kingdom of Poland was formed it would
be a curb upon Russian ambition in the East and Russian
intrigues in Europe. Probably on another occasion some
member of greater influence and position than himself
would make some important motion on this subject. If they
did not he should himself take that course. At present he
confined himself to moving that an address should be pre-
sented to her Majesty, praying her to direct that certain
correspondence, which took place in the year 1831 and 1832
with reference to Poland, should be laid on the table of the
house. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. M. MILNES—I rise to second the motion of my
hon. friend opposite. I need hardly say that there was much
in his speech with which I by no means agree; but in the
substantial part of it—viz., as to the importance of from time
to time directing the attention of this house to the condition
of Poland, I entirely concur. No one feels more than Ido
the impolicy of interfering captiously with the administra-
tion of foreign countries, even if it be wrong; but if treaty
rights are to be respected we have certain responsibilities
with reference to the condition of Poland which we cannot
altogether set aside, and certain duties to perform which
we cannot altogether neglect. That the independence of
Poland formed a substantial part of the Treaties of Vienna,
and that if those treaties are to be appealed to at all that
independence must be respected, are facts upon which it is
not necessary to expatiate; but at this moment I think it
would be well if the great Powers of Europe who rest so
much upon the treaties of Vienna would remember that if
this question of the independence of Poland is to remain
unsolved, and if such as outrage as the destruction of the
Republic ot Cracow is to continue unremedied, it is impose
aibla fnr those Powers with an unfaltering voice to ask
France or any other Power to respect those treaties. If we
are, as it is said, upon the eve of great changes ; if French
ambition, not, perhaps, eo much that of the Emperor as of
the nation, is likely to lead that country to endeavour to
recover its natural frontiers, I cannot see how England
could be called upon to assist those Powers in protecting
what they consider their legitimate rights, unless they each
do what they can to remedy the infractions of the treaties
which have taken place. I cannot agree with my hon. friend
that the conduct of England towards Poland has been such
as he has described. The question of the nationality of
Poland has always excited deep and permanent interest in
the minds of the people of this country—(hear)—a singu-
larly permanent interest, considering how little intercourse
there has been between the two countries, and how little
material interest we have in the fortunes of Poland. There
woe, however, about the disruption of Poland in the last
century a cold-blooded immorality which shocked the con-
science of Europe, and the feeling of which, despite the
great events which have since occurred, the shock of the
French Revolution, the wars of the Empire, and other im-
portant and stirring movements, remains now as strong,
and perhaps stronger, than it was when that act of spolia-
tion was committed. The interest which is taken in the
affairs of Poland is entirely disproportioned dither to the
political importance of that country or to the political con-
tingencies which might occur upon its disruption, because
it rests upon a deeper basis than anything connected with
political circumstances. The events which have lately ea-
curred at Warsaw have greatly shocked the people of Eng-
land, because we thought we had reason to believe that the
Government of Russia under the new Sovereign would do
nothing to shock the opinions of the nations of Europe.
We saw the Emperor of Russia engaged in one of the most
noble and, at the same time, one of the most difficult opera-
tions that have ever been undertaken by a Sovereign—de-
termining, almost in the face of a hostile aristocracy, to
liberate his people from serfdom. I only wish that that
Sovereign could be made sensible of the feeling of deep dis-
appointment which was shed over this country when we saw
that while with one hand he was labouring in this great and
glorious work, with the other he was striking cruel blows
of physical force upon the defenceless population of Poland.
All that we can do is to implore the Sovereign and rulers of
Russia to remember that the great social questions which
they are agitating do in a certain degree require for their
settlement the moral confidence an I the moral assent of the
people of Europe. Russia is no longer separated as she used
to be from the rest ot Europe. Every day by railways and
other means she is brought into closer physical contact with
oilier European nations, and it will be impossible for her to
maintain much longer the sort of almost Chinese exclusion
which at one time separated her from the rest of the world.
The Russian Government, enlightened and w ell informed as
it is, cannot fail to perceive that the one question which is
now agitating the public mind of Europe is that of the
orderly direction of the national spirit of peoples. They
must see what an effect the feeling of nationality produced
in Italy, and what results it is slowly working out in Ger-
many. In the face of that feeling of nationality, rising even
in places where it was supposed to be extinguished or o eer-
laid by other intellectual processes or moral feelings, can
the Russian Government suppose that any good is to be
done with Poland, which has maintained that feeling um
broken and unshattered through such a series of years,
except by in some degree recognising and regulating it?
It there is one country which owes more than another to
national feeling it is Russia. When the events of our time
become the history of the world, the defence of Sebastopol
by the Russian nation and the Russian army will be re-
corded as one of the most glorious instances of national feel-
ing and national sacrifice which have ever been witnessed.
Let not, therefore, the Russian Government, which owes
so much to that feeling, believe that it can, with the appro-
bation and assent of Europe, continue and keep down and
utterly destroy the national feeling of Poland. There is no
reason why these nationalities should be antagonistic or re-
pulsive, or why one should lead to the destruction of the
other. On the contrary, if they are to be properly recog-
nised, and duly regulated, they may be advantageously
united and prove a source of strength where now there is
only weakness. (Hear, hear.)
Lord J. RUSSELL—I cannot say that lam surprised
that the hon. gentleman should have brought forward the
question of Poland. (Hear, hear.) it is a country which,
after all its vicissitudes, has preserved its national spirit,
which must cause every one to respect it. At the same
time, by some unhappy fate, it seems impossible—almost
impossible—that she should be able to unite her scattered
provinces under one Government, and with a national Go-
vernment of their own. The hon. gentleman has alluded to
various points in the history of Poland. It seems that there
hasbeen always something which has prevented the recogni-
tion of an established Government—of the independence of
Poland. One might have thought that the first Napoleon,
who disturbed so many countries, who gave away provinces
and:crowns,
that he might have thought it an object of ambi-
tion worthy of his great powers and extended fame to re-
store the national existence of Poland. We know well that
his opinion was, that although he might raise a legion of
Pole; yet that as Russia, Austria, and Primata were all
possessors of Polish provinces, it was beyond even his