The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-20 00:00:00

been trembling thus precariously in the balance.

Austria upon one side—France upon the other—
the Reactionists in the centre of Italy sending their
emissaries southwards—these and other causes of
disquietude have perpetually jeopardised the for-
tunes of the Popular Movement, ever since NAPO-
LEON 111. [the Liberator of Italy—rather let it be
said more accurately the Absorber into Franco of
Savoy and Nice] abandoned that magnificent pro-
gramme set forth in the Milan Proclamation. It
has alone been the calm resolve of the population
which has guarded off the peril ever since then
threatening to put an end (beyond the frontiers of
Italy) to the policy of non-intervention. GART-
BALDI'S magnanimous withdrawal to Caprera has
done much, of course, by depriving foreign nations
of any pretext for interference. CAYOUR'S
resolute persistence in kis policy at Turin up to the
time of his lamented death, achieved, if possible,
still more. There is also a great deal owing, no
doubt, to the personal prestige of the " King of
ITALY" himself, the Re Galantuomo. But, above
all, the quiet, resolved bearing of the people, from
the north to the south of the Roman Peninsula—

that especially, that emphatically, has tended most
securely to forward the steady advance of
23,000,000 towards the consolidation of their poli-
tical independence. That attitude of the nation it
has been which has hitherto "held the hands," so

to speak, of those surrounding and observant
nationalities who have pledged themselves in
Italy's regard to a Policy of Non-intervention.
Yet, all the while—there cannot be a doubt of it—
that policy of non-intervention has been trembling
precariously, is still trembling precariously, in the
balance. This—for reasons, moreover, at once
internal and external. The Italians themselves,
remembering how it is that the northern part of

the Peninsula is divided from the southern, and

remembering also that the German soldiery still
hold armed possession of one of the finest provinces
of Italy (Venetia) still garrison the most foriaidable
cluster of the Italian fortresses (the Quadri-
lateral)—the Italians themselves remembering all
this (or how can they ever cease to forget it ?) have
had before them, around them, in the midst of them,

perpetual incentives to the completion of their
but half accomplished war of independence. The
surrounding nations again, the very nations pledged
to the policy of non-intervention—have not they
also had many visible and appreciable incentives to
fling down once more the gage of battle and to cast
to the winds this very policy of non-intervention ?
Austria—to prevent the further consolidation of a
Power threatening the last remnant of her posses-
sions to the south of the Carpathians. France—to
enhance the military prestige of the Lower
Empire, to extend if possible her dynastic influence
to the goal tonards which the MURATIST aspira-
tions are ever tending, above all to develop if prac-
ticable in the direction of Genoa or of the island of
Sardinia, or of both, that insatiable NAPOLEONIC
lust of territorial aggrandisement. The prudence
of the Italians, the 7caution of contiguous races
like the people of France, like the people of Aus-
tria—those chiefly, under Heaven, have been the
securities for the maintenance of the balance of
this still exquisitely-poised policy of Non-Inter-
vention.

And now, as to the passive resistance to which
the Poles, but especially the inhabitants of Russian-
Poland,have pledged themselves. That also has all
along been trembling in a state of absolute uncer-
tainty. The question there has been from the first—it
still is—the vital and momentous question, as to
whether the people of Poland, particularly the people
of Russian Poland, can by any possibility much longer
persevere in this course upon which they have so
wisely entered, yet one so difficult to pursue under
the circumstances, the course marked out for them
by the policy of passive resistance ! Their provo-
cations to break through it are so frightful and so
ever-present. Hitherto for the most part they
have throw aside those provocations. Yet at any
moment there may come—at some moment there
undoubtedly will come—a time when the term of
their long suffering will have been reached.
We have already premonitory hints of the
advent of this period—a period that we be-
lieve to be in truth at this present juncture
now fast approaching. Premonitory hints
they are that vibrate through Europe like those
precursive shocks of earthquake that herald the
possible outbreak of a volcanic eruption from some
apparently extinct crater—some crater, the cold
lava and ashes of which have been clothed
with the luxuriant vegetation of a century. Is
it not precisely and literally thus with re-
gard to Poland at this time, particularly with
regard to Russian Poland ? Have we not had flashed
to us this very forenoon, through one of our latest
telegrams, one of the last and one of the most signi-
ficant of these premonitory symptoms, these vibra-
tions as of a coming political earthquake ? "Serious
disturbances," we read, have broken out at Kalisch !
And out of circumstances so trivial—the arrest of

an apothecary ! "et owds of people," the telegram
adds, " assembled and insulted the patrols." And
further—" A great number of women wearing the
national colours surrounded the colonel, and de-
manded the release of the prisoner, which was
thereupon granted. The number of people, how-
ever, gradually increased, and their attitude
became more threatening, until the whole gar-

rison assembled under arms, and threatened to fire
on the people. Numerous arrests have been
made." So ends the telegram. Brief though it is,
it is enough. It shows how bitter is the popular
feeling just now throughout Russian Poland, even
at a period when the people are pledged (so far as
human endeavour can be pledged under circum-
stances of such terrible provocation) to a policy
of passive resistance! In spite of which policy—
an incident so apparently trifling could lead to so
formidable and unpremeditated a demonstration.
While we are yet musing over these last sinister
intimations from lialisch—it is profoundly interest-
ing, we may, without any exaggeration of phrase,
go so far even as to say, it is profoundly affect-
ing, to turn for a while at this imminent crisis in the
history of Poland to that masterly epitome of her
sufferings during the chief part of this last century
—that eloquent and touching record of her wrongs
and of her woes, which will be found expressed
elsewhere in our impression of this evening in the
address delivered yesterday to his exiled compa-
triots, by Major CHARLES SZELCZEWSKI in honour
of the memory of Prince ADAM CZARTORTSKI.
From the date of the recent close of the pro-
tracted life of that illustrious and venerable
Prince and Patriot, the• Future History of the Poles,
we doubt not, will show to have mysteriously
sprung forth new and brighter hopes for the three
divisions of Polan d —Russian, Austrian ,an dPrussian
Already in Russian Poland we are satisfied there is
even now kindling the name of the reviving inde-
pendence of the whole Polish nationality.

We have had all kinds of celebrated cases of late
years, but the last case at Bristol yesterday is one
that comes home to, or perhaps we should say goes
abroad with, every family. The QUEEN V.
MATHIAS. We know who the QUEEN is, but who
is MATHIAS ? Why, Mr. MATHIAS is a gentleman,
advanced in years, it seems, who had assaulted Mrs.
IVlms, and the QUEEN, as became her, took up the
I cause of Mrs. MAis and indicts Mr. MATMAs for