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

RUSSIA.

A letter from St. Petersburg, 21st, says :—" Great
activity at present prevails in the port of Cronstadt.
A squadron composed of corvettes, clippers, and
other small vessels, is being fitted out to sail for the
Russian colonies in the Pacific, ur:der the orders of
Rear-Admiral Popoy, one of the most brilliant heroes
of Sebastopol. The ilia-Mourometz, a frigate, which
formed part of the squadron sent to Syria, has
within the last few days arrived in the roadstead; she
accomplished the voyage from Beyrout to Cronstadt
in less than two months without any grave accident.
No official report having been received for a long time
of the frigate Svellana, Captain Boutakov, which
ought to have arrived from the Pacific, disquietude
is felt about her. The last date at which she was
heard of was the 20th June. A fine new frigate,

the Dmitri Donskoi, was launched three days back
from the new Admiralty dockyard. She i 4 built of
oak, on the model of the Grand Admiral, one of
the largest frigates constructed in the United States,
and which was greatly admired by the English and
French sailors at Beyrout. The length of the new
vessel is 270 feet, and her breadth 51 feet. In
about fortnight or three weeks navigation may be
considered as closed, as the thick fogs which are
then sure to prevail will render access to the Gulf
of Finland more difficult than ever."

POLAND.

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.

WARSAW, OCT. 3.

Marquis Wielpolski has made himself very un-
popular with the Poles by many narrow and anti-
national measures, but never did he make a greater
mistake than when he shut up the schools for so
long as the demonstrations should continue. A
more absurd and suicidal policy was never adopted.
The consequence was that the students turned all
their energies to the national movement, and that
demonstrations became more frequent than ever.
Mere boys, ardent patriots, but actuated by a mis-
taken sense of zeal for their country, entered upon
rash undertakings which threatened to defeat and
baffle all the efforts of their more mature country-
men, and so far to deprive the Poles of the charac-
ter for moderation and order which they had, after
so many heroic sacrifices, obtained in the eyes of
Europe. The Polish Minister, vacillating and fond
of compromises as he is, is still not Russian enough
to play into the hands of the Government. The
closing of the schools is simply a gross blunder on
his part, which he will no doubt soon endeavour to
correct. Meanwhile great anxiety is felt in many
Polish families with brave and enthusiastic boys on
their hands. Some who can afford it endeavour
to make up for the education, which cannot now be
had at public schools, by private tuition ; but the
training and discipline requisite to manage a num-
ber of high-spirited youths is of course wanting,
and in many cases they have abandoned their homes
and launched themselves on the troubled sea of
politics, often only to be led to their own destruction
and that of their friends. Some boys have been sent
to the German schools; but this course meets with
universal reprobation, it being rightly thought that
a German education is not the one to develope either
the patriotism or the practical mental activity of
the young generation. The only institution which
seems to be unobjectionable is the University of
Cracow; but the University of Cracow is not large
enough to educate all the Polish youth. The matter
will no doubt come before the Council of State ere
long.

The condition of the provinces does not seem to
mend in the least degree. The troops at Kovno,
Lithuania, consisting of a regiment of infantry from
Esthonia, some artillery from Vilna, a detachment
of Cossacks, and a squadron of Hussars, have per-
petrated all sorts of atrocities on the Polish inha-
bitants. The most patriotic of these have been
picked out by M. Nazimon, or Massacrov, as he is
nicknamed there, to board and lodge the soldiers.
Eight or ten are packed in one small room, without
the slightest regard to the sex or age of its previous
occupants. Many poor widows have thus had
numbers of soldiers forced upon their cottages, who
occupy every available corner in the place, leaving
the occupier to shift for herself. A poor labourer,
Milewski, was called up in the middle of the night
by six soldiers, who broke into his house, bayonetted
his wife, who was enciente, and turned his daughter
out of her bed. The matter is now undergoing
judicial investigation ; but no satisfaction can be
obtained in those parts where soldiers are concerned.
It has now become dangerous to walk the streets ;
patrols are constantly on the look-out for people in
respectable attire, who are seized and robbed where-
ever they show themselves.
The Government pretends to look upon these
outrages as the work of a few revolutionists, and
has actually called upon " good citizens" to aid in
arresting and bringing them to justice. Fourteen
of the lowest blackguards in the town were at last,
after infinite pains, got together by the colonel of
the Gensdarmes and Wasiljen, the Director of Police,
to represent
names
a theeso
.. gaud vitizena!" in question. Here
are them f some of them, with their charac-
ters, so far as known :

Charles Kopf, a German. who appears in the
criminal records as having been convicted of issu-
ing false passports ; Ferdinand Banrath, who has
changed his religion as often as the Vicar of Bray.
having recently become a convert to the Russian
Church, after having been, first, a Protestant, and
then a Catholic, and who has just been turned out
of the Post-office ; Gregory Kwiatkowski, late of
the Commissariat, from which he was dismissed as
a defaulter; Francis Engelmann, a German, con-
victed of bribery when a town magistrate; Alex-
ander Karpunzko, a bootmaker, under trial for in-
cest ; Simon Wysocki, also under trial, for stealing
a watch ; Cyprian Wysocki, convicted of a similar
offence ; and so on.
These "good citizens" are simply Government
spies. They go into the churches to take the names
of those who sing, denounce people to the police,
and even go about with Cossacks to arrest their
victims. Seven persons, among whom are four
ladies, were thus brought before the police court on
the accusation of the "good citizens" in question
some days ago; and their statements in contradic-
tion to those of the police were not believed, the
testimony of a policeman on oath being considered
superior to any other. The penalties for singing or
wearing any national symbol are very severe: For
the first offence three days to a fortnight's imprison-
ment, together with a fine of ten to two hundred
roubles; for the second, the fine is twenty to four
hundred roubles; and for the third, forty to eight
hundred. If this fine is not paid within seven days
the property of the culprit, if any, is sold by
auction; and if the amount realised is not sufficient
to discharge the debt, it is wiped off by five years'
imprisonment !
Letters from Galicia state that great agitation
prevails on the Polish frontier in consequence of
the discovery of secret police agents, who are en-
deavouring to persuade the peasants that their land-
lords are getting up a conspiracy in concert with
the Jews to massacre them. In one village the in-
habitants were actually so terrified that they left
their houses and bivouacked in the woods adjoin-
ing, stationing pickets on the Cracow road, by
which their adversaries, the Jaws and nobles, were
supposed to be advancing. The author of all this
evil has, however, been caught and exposed, and
the greatest cordiality now prevails between the
landlords and their peasants. This amicable feeling
was particularly shown at the recent Church ser-
vices " for the prosperity of the county." At
Bukovina, a village on the frontier, the peasants
were invited by the nobles to a banquet, at which
all classes fraternised and showed the greatest
good feeling towards each other.
At Warsaw the subject which now engages most
of public attention, is the petition addressed to
General Lambert by Archbishop Fijalkowski and
the other Polish bishops. This document has been
very unfavourably received by the Government,
which has always, in its efforts to denationalise the
country, looked upon the National Church as the
greatest obstacle to its endeavours. Nor have these
obstacles come from the National Church alone ; the
ministers of the Protestant and other religions, and
above all the Jews, have shown great patriotism
and courage during the late demonstrations. The
Greek or Russian Church is the only one to which
the Poles have really an antipathy, and the only
one which is countenanced by the Government.
Under these circumstances it will be easily under-
stood that the Church in Poland does not enjoy
many favours from the Government ; indeed, ill
their petition, the bishops comp
itsheesi their rviegnh ttsh eanin d privileges would be re-
after
complain tlhasatt,
rienvsaplaitteiooof
they have been gradually denuded of the
sthat Pt
era promises
n:l
greater part of them and reduced to the mere tools
of the Government, dependent upon the caprice of
some subordinate official. They complain bitterly
of the proselytism of the Russian Church, and the
persecution to which their co-religionists are sub-
jected, such as compelling a Roman Catholic who
marries a member of the Russian Church to sign an
_
the latter faith,
undertaking that his children will be brought up
.iOl
and bringing matters purely

e re-
f the
tools
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