The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-15 00:00:00

GLASGOW.

The analysis of the Census of the city of Glasgow
has been published. The population of the "ancient
burg" of Glasgow amounts to 403,142, of whom
189,220 are males, and 213,922 are females. The
population of the district known as the " ancient
burg" and the suburbs is 446,395, of whom 209,999
are males, and 236,396 are females. The amount
of the population in 1851 was 360,138, thus show-
ing an increase in 1861 of 86,257. In 1861 the
number of inhabited dwellings was 82,609, and of
uninhabited 4.002, compared with 63,153 and 1,547
in the year 1851, being an increase in 1861 of in-
habited dwellings to the extent 0f,19,06, and of
uninhabited 2,455. The population is composed of
326,374 Scotch, 10,809 English, 63,574 Irish, 827
foreigners, 1,440 colonists, and 118 not ascertained.

POLAND.

(From the Times Correspondent.)
WARSAW, MAY 4.

It will not be uninteresting, I imagine, nor with-
out its real use in enabling you to understand the
actual position of things here, if I attempt to give
you some idea of the existing relation between pro-
prietor and peasant, appending to my sketch an
outline of the plan proposed for the substitution of
money payments for compulsory labour, and for
the purchase of the freehold of his holding by the
peasant.

The Polish peasant is not a serf, nor has serfdom
existed in Poland for many years. It was first
abolished by the Constitution of 1791, framed by
the enlightened Zamoyski, ancestor of the present
Count Andre, who so worthily upholds the traditions
of his house. Up to the right bank of the Bug it
was, indeed, re-established by the Empress Cathe-
rine, but to the westward of that river, in the por-
tim which Prussia received in the partition of 1793,

it has never existed since its first abolition. It was,
however, finally abolished throughout the whole
country on the erection of Poland into a grand
duchy in 1807, by the introduction of the " Code
Napoleon" as the basis of its legislation and admi-
nistration. Since that time the Polish peasant has
ceased to be a portion of the estate (adscriptus
glebe); he has been able to remove from place to
place, and wherever he has been he has been simply
a tenant at will. But he has paid his rent, not in
money, but in compulsory labour. The labour of
one, two, three, or even four days a week has been
paid, by arrangement with the landlord, for his
cottage and piece of land. If he has had horses or
oxen and carts, the labour of these has been re-
ceived, in certain adjusted proportions, in lieu of his
own personal labour. The advantage of this system
has been, that the landlord has not been obliged to
keep a large amount of capital invested in
agricultural plant for the cultivation of the im-
mense surface of land, sometimes amounting to
many thousands of acres, which he farms him-
self; but, though the legal serfdom of the
peasant has long been abolished, there still exists
what I may call a traditional serfdom, a sort
of patriarchal relation between himself and his
landlord, having much in it that resembles the
old Roman clientela. When ill, the doctor of the
estate attends him gratis; he has medicines, also
gratis, from the estate dispensary ; in bad years,
seed corn or corn for family use is given him from
the landlord's granary; he has the right of collect-
ing fuel from the waste wood felled in the forests
of the estate, and often the right of pasturage for
his cattle and horses.

Though, therefore, he is not free master of a cer-
tain portion of his own time •and labour, he has
considerable advantages from his state of semi-serf-
dom. The landlord is also magistrate for his own
estate, and settles all disputes between his peasants
and himself. Where the proprietor is an unjust,
cruel man, this power is, no doubt, often abused, as
also where he is non-resident, and leaves the ma-
nagement of the estate, along with his magisterial
powers, to his steward. But, on the whole, the
worst that can be said of the relation between land-
lord and peasant in Poland is that it has not en-
couraged a spirit of enterprise in the latter ; it has
placed him, like his Irish counterpart on his plot of
potato ground, in a sufficiently easy but dependent
position, unfavourable to his mental, moral, and

industrial progress. Money he seldom has in any
great amount, but he rarely suffers from want.

Such is the actual condition of the Polish peasant.
But this semi-serfdom, it must be remembered, is
by no means universal. On many estates it has
been abolished many years, and, in the place of com-
pulsory labour, a fixed money payment substituted.
But, it will be asked, what is the difficulty in such
a substitution ? It is one at which I have virtually
hinted above. It would necessitate the imme-
diate outlay of a large amount of capital on the
part of the proprietors in beasts of burden, in
agricultural implements, in vehicles of all de-
scriptions; and, with the exception of the
larger proprietors, the owners of the soil of Poland
are not in command of any large amount of ready
money, They live up to their incomes, if not
beyond them ; and, moreover, the greater portion
of their revenues is received in kind, and not in
money—viz., in the products of the land farmed by
themselves. Moreover, if this substitution were
made at one and the same time the demand for all
kinds of farming stock and plant would be so great
that the difficulty I have adverted to would be
greatly aggravated by the increased price that must
be paid for them. And, further, it is very question-
able whether the comparatively small sums the land-
lord would receive as rent would be sufficient to
pay the wages-of the new class of labourers.
But this is not the only difficulty. From long
possession a strong notion of tenant right to the fee
simple of their holding has sprung up among the
peasantry, which has been very considerably
strengthened by the Russian Government. Partly,
perhaps, from the small value of land in Russia,
partly also from its being almost entirely an agricul-
tural country, to be possessed of no portion of soil,
however small—to be a protetaire, is not only a dis-
grace, but almost a crime in a Russian's eyes. Hence
it was that by an Imperial edict, published I believe
peasant a
tes2toosrif
ntirnoce :of
scliohnepealthit
connection
holding.dlrveeli n.t
in 1846, no Polish proprietor has the power off.
jr,ei
le
taking into his own hands those portions.
estate which he has once let out to peasants
il,yb:uot; in
case of failure of heirs in the peasant's family, he is corn-
his bankruptcy or voluntary departure,
pelled to put some other
. years, \\
The peasants are, therefore,
.
the proprietor having
tai in some cases The difficulty, then, of
others it is fixed
tenure and this tenant right
this quasi copyb.
in lieu of com-
pulsory it was that
claim to
0
the Agricultural Society, with the written permis•
the substitution
bou r possession.o° fdc
And
deao erdnYtst eotehoyr2et bhi el
gost paymentsnrh
sion of Prince Gorts.chakoff, had given its serious
attention. The value of land in Poland is about 20
years' purchase. The recommendation, then, of the
society was that „,
for 16i years' payments, calculated
at this rate,
or at a loss to himself of one-sixth of
the real Taw
eof the land, the proprietor should