The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-27 00:00:00

EVENI,W4, 'DEOMMBER 27, 1861.

abroad by it is sufficiently luminous and sufficiently
ominous to startle all Christendom into renewed
attention as to the actual state of things now dis-
cernible, not only in the interior of the Russian
Empire, but in Poland also, and especially in
Russian Poland.
The insurrectionary flame we are hero alluding
to broke out, it may be remembered, at Warsaw as
far back as the 12th (24th) of October last, in con-
nection with the students—many of them Polish
Students—at the St. Petersburg University. The
tumult which then took place was thought at the
time to have been very lamentable, to have been
flagrantly wanton, to have been painfully and
cruelly unprovoked. It was a lawless outbreak—
not of the students, but (shameful to relate) of the
constituted authorities—police, gendarmerie, infan-
try, cavalry. The light cast by those incidents of
the 12th (24th) of October was sufficiently power-
ful at the time of their occurrence to show some-
thing, at least, if not all, of their real bearing and
significance. Very recently, however, these have
been flashed back upon our recognition with
yet greater intensity, as it were by the aid of every
powerful reflector —to wit, the "Narrative of
Facts" but just now published. That Narrative
has either already been laid or is immediately about
to be laid before his Imperial Majesty the Czar
ALEXANDER 11., by M. VOIEKOFF, the marshal of
the Moscow nobility. From the circumstance of
this record of events having been entrusted to the
hands of M. VOIEKOFF, it must not be imagined,
however, as was not unnaturally at first coujec-
) tured, that the document goes to the EMPEROR as
the utterance of the whole Moscow nobility collec-
tively. It appears to have been signed
merely by almost a score of the stu-
dents of the St. Petersburg University at
Moscow, those twenty students having been se-
lected to that end:because they were not only mem-
bers themselves of the Moscow nobility, but that—
patricians by birth—they were among the number
of those who on the day specified were sub-
jected to the disgraceful and inhuman mal-
treatment complained of. It reads like truth
this Narrative of Facts. There is no special plead-
ing about it. No specious gloss is endeavoured to
be thrown over the statement. It is, from first to
last, a simple and candid recital of occurrences.
Errors of judgment are admitted here and there—
but anything at all like a hostile demonstration is
utterly denied. And, indeed, the reasonableness of
this denial becomes, during the perusal of the Nar-
rative, very distictly and unmistakeably apparent.
It is intimated at the outset of the Narrative
that the whole of the misunderstanding, ending
so tragically with the catastrophe of the 12th
(24th) of October originated in the arbitrary and
peremptory closing of the St. Petersburg Univer-
sity. That was the first provocation. It produced
a very comprehensible and considerable amount
of irritation among the young students of the Uni-
versity. That irritation manifested itself in effect
in the "turbulent scenes" of the 27th of September.
After those regretted scenes came the additional
irritation produced by the closing of the two first
classes of the Juridical Faculty. Things thus went
on, for a time, from bad to worse ; but eventually a
petition was resolved upon by the students, pray-
ing that several of the more harsh and arbitrarily
repressive regulations should be set aside or consi-
derably modified. Pending the completion of this
petition—all agitation ceased. When—as ill luck
would have it—" NICHOLAS VASSILIEVITCH 'SSA-
KOFF, the curator of the Moscow educational dis-
trict, arrived, and refused not only to sign the
petition, but even to read it." Comprehensibly
enough, we find it added immediately in the
Narrative,— " This refusal caused renewed
irritation among the students, which they
manifested in a thoughtless and abrupt
manner." How—the narrative goes on to relate
very succinctly. A large number of tare more ener-
getic students having been arrested on the night
of the 11th (23d) of October—that additional inci-
dent did not tend of course to allay the indignation
already excited among the members of the Univer-
sity. Immediately upon learning the fact of
the arrests which had taken place over night,
the students upon the morning of the fatal
day (as it proved for them) collected to-
gether en masse in the courtyard of their
university. While they were there "standing
deliberating, in the court-yard, not knowing what
steps to take, an order arrived from the General
Governor to send him a student named GISEMSKI.
Some of those present called out, ' Let us go with
him, and ascertain the fate of our comrades ;' when
the whole body, without reflecting on the conse-
quences, proceeded towards the General• G-
overnor." It is admitted at once, in the narra-
tion, that " this was very imprudent ;" still—as it is
there added—no one, for a single instant,
imagined at the time that that mere act of

L imprudence would be misconstrued into anything
at all like a Demonstration. The narrative from this
point is worth following closely and literally. It
proceeds thus :—‘,/‘,To sooner had they (the students)
left the court-yard of the University than the police
and gendarmerie, who had been concealed in the
Excise-house, followed them. The students walked
with all possible order up the Makhovaia and the
Iverskaia, and none of the authorities, either of the
University or of the city, asked them to disperse;
nor did the police attempt to impede their progress.
At last they reached the Iverskai square, and stop
ped before the house of the Governor Genes al. Four
students were sent to inquire the reason of their com-
rades having been arrested." While the expectant
students are there still waiting to hear the upshot
of their companions' inquiries—enter upon the
Iverskai Square—the police and gendarmerie! The
latter adroitly surround the students and hem
them in—one of the principal officers in
command retreating a few paces to watch the
result of his orders, gives the signal for
the attack, with the words " Seize them !
Beat them !"—and the onslaught commences. " Some
of the students," we read, " ran away, some sub-
mitted ; the remainder, irritated by the brutality
of the police, who had not once given them notice
to disperse, resisted the onslaught. Now came
forward infantry and cavalry, who hitherto had
been concealed in the Tverskoi police-station ; and,
at the whistle of the khazals, (1. e. of the inspectors
of house porters) porters and peasants, who had
been told beforehand what to do, rushed
out of the Courtyards, and with oaths and
shouts, fell upon the fugitives. The students
were now hunted through all the streets of the
city. Wherever a student's cap was seen the police
and gendarmerie fell upon their unhappy victims
and illtreated them in the most inhuman manner.
The gendarmerie pursued them at full gallop, seized
them by the collar, or by the hair of the head, and,
continuing to gallop, dragged them after them,
with their legs and feet beating on the stones."
Enough has assuredly been tuld of the
events of the 12th (24th) of October to show
the wantcn brutality of the whole of these
proceedings. And, when it is added, that the ru

mours set afloat at the time of their occurrence, in-

eluded among them conspimously one to the effect
that the students thus maltreated were Poles

who had risen against the EMPEROR, the
deliberate combination of falsehood with

brutality, of calumny with butchery, brings
to view, as in the flask of an instant, the execrable
animus of the whole of these truly deplorable inci-
dents. It is the last lamentable indication of the
pitiless manner in which Poland and the Poles, and
all things Polish, are regarded, and treated, and
maligned, and trampled under foot, and spat upon
by the insolent emissaries of the arbitrary Govern-
ment of the Autocrat.

Though we hardly expect now that we shall be
called on to defend our Canadian frontier, we ought
to be thoroughly prepared to do it. We have
to do in the United States with a population
which is at the same time the virtual Go-
vernment of the country, and the least amenable to
reason, and the most excitcable of any in the
world. It is impossible to predict that what they
may do when exasperated by finding that they
cannot conquer the South and its slaves, while they
yet loathe the thought of permitting 4,000,000
negroes to be American freemen. In their rage
they may turn against Canada the army which
could not overrun the South, and may serioualy-
attempt to carry out the old threat, renweed by
Mr. SEWARD himself, of annexing Canada, and so
compensating for Southern losses.

Now, though we cannot fear the ultimate result
of such a war, though we do not doubt, a 3 indeed
we have remarked elsewhere, that it would end in
the rectification of the Canadian border on the side
of Maine, we must not forget that our long line of
defence leaves us open to successful attack at
some parts of it, unless great vigilance be used.
Perhaps do what we would, nothing could prevent
successful casual inroads; but the advance of a
considerable army for any time into our territory
is an occurrence on every ground to be rendered
as impracticable as possible. We have inserted
to-day a letter addressed to a contemporary on
this subject, which apears to be written
with forethought and knowledge, the most
remarkable suggestion being the concentration
of a small army at Halifax, in the highest state
of equipment and efficiency, ready to co-ope-
rate with a blockade of the North American coast,
by its adaptation to be landed at any time, at
any of the principal American ports—Boston,
New York, or Baltimore. Such a step would, as
he observes, compel the retention of a considerable
number of the American army to watch
over their seaports. In fact it would place
them in the same position as that in which the
naval expeditions of the Federals now place the
Confederates.

The difficulty is chiefly that of the winter months.
The freezing of the mouth of the St. Lawrence,
while Upper Canada is comparatively open, leaves
that part of the country open to American attacks,
while we cannot throw reinforcements into it
through the river. There is little danger
comparatively when the St. Lawrence is wider
and even at Montreal the ice is of a kind which
would make the crossing of an army no easy task.
Further west it would seem that their railways and
the nature of the position would render it easy for
the Federals to get across a considerable force, and
to make some advance before the spring opened
sufficiently for a relieving force from England to
take the field. When that time arrives, all further
danger would be over. England would not allow
herself to be beaten in a loyal and attached colony,
and the Canadians would assuredly do their part
to give the Yankees a lasting lesson.

On two things the "British officer" lays stress—
justly it is plain—on our placing gunboats on the
lakes when the navigation is opened, and our se-
lecting an officer thoroughly versed in defensive
warfare. No mere Court favourite—no General
ANSON—no able though unexperienced man ought
to have the chief command against the Federals.
It would be folly to underrate them. They are
certainly as doggedly brave as ourselves, for they
inherit that from us. They do, we know, surpass
us in astuteness ; but we do not think their
officers surpass ours, or even equal them, in
military skill and knowledge. If the South
holds them in check so easily, English officers,
if chosen like those of the South, for their effi-
cieency, will not be behind them. Canada too will
prove from the nature of the country, very difficult
to invade for any distance. The roads running for
miles between forests, will offer means to Canadian
sharpshooters which they will not be slow to use
and an invading army may find itself decimated be-
fore it can see an enemy.