The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-12 00:00:00

ments, or presentations, being without this validity
required by law, and therefore invalid, fall to the
ground.
4. The Chapter, according to Art. 17 of the Con-
cordat, has not even the right of election without
the sanction of the Government; this election,
therefore, not having been thus sanctioned, would
have been null and void even if the Rev. Mr. Bial-
obizski had not been appointed.

5. In this state of things, there is no necessity
either to require of the Rev. Mr. Bialobizski his re.
signation of an appointment, his election to which
has no validity, meaning, or existence, nor does the
Chapter therefore require any authorisation from
the Holy See to proceed to a new election. It is on
the contrary its duty to proceed to an election
which shall be valid according to the law above
stated, in the place of one which has no validity or
existence.

This reasoning is sound, and the conclusions may
be admitted if the premises are correct. I will not
enter here into the subtleties of a discussion on
points of law ; suffice it to say that I have good rea-
son to believe that M. Hube's interpretation of the
law and the so-called Concordat, which, it appears,
is not a Concordat at all, but merely a preliminary
to what was to have been a Concordat, is false and
untenable. The clergy are preparing an answer,
which, it is said, will prove this in a convincing
manner. At any rate we have now a pretty clear
and definite statement of the claims of the Govern-
ment in religious matters in Poland ; they have de-
termined to carry it with a high hand over the
clergy, and to have entirely abandoned their former
policy of conciliation. The Rev. Mr. Bialobizski is
treated in the most barbarous manner in his dun-
geon in the citadel, and this, combined with his
great age, inspires grave fears as to his health,
which has already become considerably impaired
since his confinement. He is now on trial before
the military tribunal for an offence as impor-
tant in its consequences as it is novel ; the
closing of the churches of the country. That his
sentence will be a severe one is undoubted; Siberia,
and even death, have been spoken of as probable
contingencies.

The funeral of the Suffragan Bishop of Warsaw,
the venerable and much lamented author of the last
letter of the Chapter to the Government, to which
that above alluded to is an answer, was a failure, in
consequence of the interference of the Government,
which would not permit anyone to join the proces-
sion unless provided with a ticket from the police.
Not more than 150 people attended, among whom
were a great number of women and one or two
Government employes.
The acceptance by the Czar of Marquis Wielo-
polski's resignation has been the subject of much
talk among the people here. For some time, in-
deed ever since the proclamation of the state of
siege, which came on the Poles like a thunder-
bolt, after a long season of treacherously calm
weather, there have been signs that the policy of
the Government had altered, and that violence and
lawless outrage were to succeed soft speeches and
delusive reforms. The only advocate of modera-
tion left was Marquis Wielopolski. For a short
time it was supposed that to him would be given
the task of restoring Poland to quietness, and recon•
ciling it to its Government. People said that he
had been called to St. Petersburg as the object of
the peculiar favour of the Czar, who looked upon
him as the only man in the Government at Warsaw
who during the late events had not lost his head.
The long interviews he had with the Czar, the flat-
tering manner in which he was received by him,
the laudatory terms in which the Czar spoke of
him, all appeared to point to the appointment of
Wielopolski to the Viceroyalty of Poland. His
fall was as unexpected as it was sudden, and cer-
tainly seems to show that the only rule which
Russia will henceforth allow in Poland is that
of fire and sword.

General Luders has already had enough of the
Viceroyalty. It is said that he will abandon his
thorny post very shortly, and be succeeded by
General Bezak. No wonder that this situation so
often changes hands : to be the tool of the authori-
ties at St. Petersburg, and the object of envy
among the ministers and dislike among the people
at Warsaw, is a position which to no man can be
long endurable. The policy of severity and law-
lessness now adopted will throw additional odium
on the Viceroy, whoever he may be ; and it will be
a daring and cynical mind that does not shrink
from the prospect of the disgrace and universal
hatred which will surely fall on the occupier of the
post. Our present viceroy certainly does not sin
by doing anything on his own account. He has
authority direct from St. Petersburg for every one
of his actions, and these are confined to orders,
most of ,which testify to his excessive prudence,
Private houses are being daily searched by the sol-
diers for muskets, ammunition, and numbers of
other impossible articles ; and these gallant warriors,
if they do not find what they look for, at least
carry away something valuable as a memento of
their presence. Preparations are being made on
a grand scale for new arrests and new deportations.
Eighteen towns have been directed to find funds
for the erection of prisons for women; and 2,000
travelling cloaks have been ordered, no doubt for
future travellers to Siberia. The military tribunal
of Warsaw has its hands full at this moment.
Eight hundred persons are now under trial before
it, and it only manages with extreme difficulty to
keep down the occupants of the citadel and other
prisons to the proper number by sending them to
Siberia and the army.
The 29th November, the anniversary of the
Polish revolution, passed away in complete silence.
Addresses had been circulated among the people
during the preceding week, recommending them
to abstain from any manifestation in the streets on
that day, which might give a pretext to the sol-
diery for another massacre. The advice was, as it
turned out, a good one. On the 29th the streets
and squares were even more crowded with
troops than usual, and mounted Cossacks moved
about ready to charge on the slightest sign of an
unusually large concourse of people. The only
demonstration, however, was one which even the
police and soldiery could not find fault with-1
the streets of the town were almost deserted, and
the day was passed by the inhabitants in their
houses in prayer and fasting, the money saved by
their abstinence from food being devoted to chari-
table and national purposes. This, indeed, is, under
present circumstances, the only demonstration pos-
sible, for there is no doubt that the slightest at-
tempt at anything more public would be crushed
by the Government at once, without mercy or
scruple. General Luders, who derives all his in-
spiration from St. Petersburg, actually said publicly
that " the Poles must be worried, everything must
be done to vex them, and the process of crushing
them must r.ever be allowed to cease, even for a
moment"—a characteristic instance of the unblush-
ing audacity with which Russia boasts of her un-
scrupulousness in obtaining her ends.

The anarchy in the provinces has come out in a
new form at Plock. Two Russians (Ponomaren
and Raznow) are wrangling in that city about the
Governorship. Each of them says he is the Go-
vernor. One holds his appointment from the Coun-
cil of Administration, the other from the Emperor
himself. The consequences to the poor inhabitants
of their having two tyrants, each opposing the
other's orders, over them, instead of one, may be
easily The
imagined.
e attempts on the part of the Government to
demoralise the peasants still go on, and secret
agents are constantly being discovered. A band of
men calling themselves foresters have for some
months infested the woods in the province of
Augustow. They had no arms, and went among
the peas ants, pretending to be patriots, and filling
their heads with ideas of communism and resolution.
The winter has nosy discovered the true character
of these "foresters," in whom the peasants have re-
cognised Russian soldiers, who have, during the
summer, assumed this disguise with the object of
gaining the ears of the peasants. It is indeed both
remarkable and gratifying to the patriots that the
peasantry have not succumbed to these diabolical
machinations on the part of the Government, but
have, on the contrary, always exposed these agents
when they have caught them. It speaks well for
the intelligence and patriotism of the peasants that
they thus discern true from pretended friends to the