The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-23 00:00:00

Few Englishmen who have not lived a great dual
on the Continent arc aware of the effect which dis-
cussions on international topics in the British
Houses of Parliament produce on foreign nations.
Such discussions are eagerly read by the educated
classes in every country in Europe, and by no
people more than by the Poles, the Russians, the
Hungarians, and the Italians. Every word spoken
in St. Stephen's is eagerly canvassed and pondered
on at Warsaw, Wilna, and Moscow ; at Presbnrg
and Pestli ; at Genoa, Florence, Rome, and. Naples.
The educated classes of these countries know well
that among the aristocracy of the British nation
there are no levellers, no men who desire revolution
for revolution's sake, or to better their own ruined
fortunes. The members of the Upper House of
i Parliament n England are, for the most part, like
the Esterhazys and Lichtenstens of Austria, or like
the Czartoryskis and Sapiehas of Poland, men of
large fortune; and are above lending themselves to
any factitious cries got up for the purpose of annoy-
ing or disturbing any foreign Government or Go-
vernments, whether friendly or unfriendly. It is
because this is so that theirutterances are regarded
with hopefulness and trust by the people and
aristocracy of foreign nations. The English Houses
of Lords and Commons have long been, in this sense,
the safety-valves of Europe. When what the King
of Sardinia well called a grido dolore is felt in any
corner of Europe, it instantly finds an echo in both
houses of the English Parliament. From 1814 to
the present day the ease of Poland has never
wanted defenders among men of all parties in the
English Legislature. - The late Earl of Harrowby,
an accomplished Conservative, thoroughly under-
standing foreign affairs, was as strenuous an advo-
cate of the case of Poland as the late Earl Grey ;

and Lord Castlereagh himself, the impersonation,
as it was erroneously believed, of absolutist doe-
trines, made as strenuous a battle for Poland at
Vienna, in 1815, as might have been made by the
late Lord Dudley Stuart had he been our Plenipo-
tentiary. English noblemen and gentlemen, no
matter to what party they belong, entertain a strong
sense of right and justice; and it is for this reason
we hear of noblemen and gentlemen of all shades
of opinion pronouncing themselves in favour of the
provisions of treaty law shamelessly broken in the
case of Poland. No man can with greater propriety
invoke the provisions of these broken treaties than
the Earl of Harrowby. His late accomplished father,
the early friend and associate of Mr. Pitt, was a
distinguished member of the Cabinet of 1814-15, in
whose period of office the decisions of the Congress
of Vienna were ratified; and who can more properly
appeal to that instrument than his son and suc-
cessor, who is old enough to remember the transac-
tions in which his sire took a distinguished part
six-and-forty years ago ?
Lord Harrowby truly says that the arrangement
and distribution of Poland was made with express
stipulations. The fact is so; and these conditions
and stipulations were violated, not by the people
of Poland but by their Viceroy, the late Grand
Duke Constantine. He inaugurated a reign of
cruelty and terror, of universal espionage and de-
tection. Instead of governing by the charter and
the constitutional and municipal laws of Poland, as
he swore to do, he governed by martial and prevotal
courts, and by what, in military phrase, is called
tuck of drum. Spies were employed in every por-
tion of the public service ; and even in colleges and
schools young men of Liberal tendencies were de-
nounced to the police. No Pole possessing public
confidence was promoted to office in his own coun-
try, and none but Russians or Germans secured
advancement in the public service of Sarmatia.
The military secret police was worse than the civil,
and if any officer fell under the displeasure of the
myrmidons of the Grand Duke he was safe from no
contumely or indignity on parade. Sometimes
Constantine struck at officers on parade, sometimes
he spat in their faces, or ordered them into arrest
in the field out of his mere wanton caprice. The
Polish people, military and civil, rose against the
unheard of severities of this military monster in
1831, but we cannot agree with Lord Harrowby in
thinking, if he really so expressed himself, which
we doubt, that by this insurrection, though unsuc-
cessful, the Polish people forfeited their rights.
The Polish people, be it remembered, were not the
aggressors or the violators of the charter, but the
Grand Duke; and had not England and France
in 1831 been, the one in the throes and labour
of an uncomphted Reform Bill, and the other in
the effort to consolidate a Government sprung
from a sucoessful insurrection, a great legal and
constitutional stand might have been made on
the basis of treaty law for Poland, for the British
and French people intensely sympathised with an
oppressed and noble country. But though the op-
portunity offering in 1831 was not seized as a golden
one by the public men of that day, still there is no
international statute of limitations in the comity of
nations against the payment of an old and just debt,
and an occasion may yet arise when Poland may
obtain redress for the past and security for the
future. Why should not the Poles be sanguine and
hopeful in 1861 ? The liberties of Italy had been
confiscated for centuries for the profit of half-a-
dosen families and one great empire, and yet the
best part of Italy is now free, enjoying the blessings
of a constitutional Government. The Poles, as re-
nowned for brilliant bravery as the French, and
as renowned for intelligence and mental aptitudes
as the Italians, may, nay, assuredly will, by pro-
testing and struggling and proclaiming their
wrongs, improve their political and social condi-
tion. It is no doubt to be lamented also that Rus-
sian Poland is studded with fortresses, and that
Austria, Prussia, and Russia are interested in hold-
ing their ill-gotten spoils; but nevertheless, though
might is now with the partitioners, a day may
come when right and justice shall prevail. The
resuscitation of Poland, though improbable, is
yet not wholly impossible. Who can say that
anything is impossible, looking at what has
occurred in Italy since 1859, and in Naples
since 1860 ? The internal state of Russia
itself affords a guarantee for the almost certain re-
generation of Poland. Russia is now herself on the
eve of great social, financial, moral, and political
changes. The whole frame of society and of Govern-
ment is loosened and out of gear; and under such
circumstances of internal weakness it is impossible
that Russia can continue to misgovern and oppress
Poland. An enlightened public opinion is every-
day rising up in Russia, and a party is hourly in-
creasing which does not wish Russia to play the
tyrant, or Poles to be their slaves. Poland is now the
weak place of Russia ; she would be her rampart,
her spear and shield, if she were well governed.
Nobody is better aware of this than the Emperor
Alexander; but he bas to fight against the Tchinn
and the corrupt and powerful bureaucracy. But
Alexander is backed up by some of the ablest men in
his empire—by Russians who do not wish to oppress,
to use the words of Lord Ellenborough, a noble
people who have undergone more than a century
of unmerited suffering. It would doubtless be an
improvement i f Warsaw or Wilna were as well
governed as the Duchy of Posen ; but when Lord
Malmesbury talks of introducing the German ele-
ment into Warsaw, the ex-Secretary for Foreign
Affairs proves that he does not understand the
elements of the Polish question. If Lord Malmes-
bury had lived but a month in Poland he would
have known that the Poles dislike the sway of Ger-
mans even more than the sway of Russians. Poles
do not desire Prussian or German red-tapeism, for-
mality, corruption, or officialinsolence. They desire
to enjoy good government and reasonable freedom
without license ; such freedom as their great patriot
Adam Czartoryski struggled for throughout his
long and honoured life. It is well sometimes to re-
vive the memory of the past in reference to men
and to nations. When a diplomatist of the mode-
ration, experience, and sagacity of Lord Stratford
de Redcliffe proclaims that the treaty of Vienna
was violated by Nicholas and Constantine, the
Poles may still think that their cause is not wholly
ost.—/Iforning Post.

ENFIELD FACTORY.—The balance-sheet of the
Enfield Small-arms Factory for the last financial year has
just been laid before Parliament. It states that there was
a saving of £116,290 in the year, deducting the expenses
(including 5 per cent, for depreciation of buildings, machi-
nery, and tools) from the price which would have been paid
to manufacturers for the 99,000 rifles issued in the year, if
they had been bought instead of being made at Enfield.

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