The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-05 00:00:00

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NEWSPAPER

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be prejudicial to their national hobo tadignity. Mere- \e..le
over, this hybrid alliance of civilise drrnany with bar-
berous Russia can only produce fatal Its for G e.neey
herself. Russia, grown larger and re peaverrteli lelesee
turn against her neighbour, and already ehnetre-in-
German provinces, what system she will pirlue tardiS
the German race ea soon as she can dispense with its aid.
As for us, we have now in Galicia both the opportunity
and the means for a noble revenge. Let us prove by a >)
wise administration of our affairs that we are perfectly
capable of goveruiug ourselves; let us show It our
conduct that wo are not without political feeling ;
let us establish harmony between all the classes
of society, elevate and instruct the masses, and labour
ardently to develope the 'tutorial and moral resources of
the country; so shall wo triumph over the prejudices of
sincere men. As for those who, from dislike for us, at-
tempt our humiliation, our conduct will silence them. NQr
let us forget that our national life is concentrated in Guy
and that we ought to use the rights and liberties
which the Austrian Government restores to us in order to
refresh and fortify the national spirit, so as to prep ire it
for a higher and better fate. That province is the centre
round which the other parts of Poland will group them-
selves. Far from opposing the interests of the Austrian
monarchy, or exposing it to danger, or even to weakness
we should, on the contrary, become an element of strength
to her. And here, gentlemen, we return to the ancient
tradition of our history, and resume our position as the
advanced guard of western civilisation. Our cause is now
no longer simply a question of pure sympathy and senti-
ment, a question of abstract right and justice, as people
have hitherto regarded it. It has become a question of
general interest for civilised Europe, a question of practi-
cal necessity and political utility. It has ceased to bo
sort of island in the midst of other questions—isolated, ex-
clusively Polish, and attached to no other. We are no
longer alone in this world ; we have natural allies ; our
interests are bound up with other interests which are
threatened by the same enemies; we enter like a link into
a political system which must be defended and maintained.
It is beginning to be pretty generally understood, in con-
sequence of the events of 1866, that the intimate union
which has subsisted for a century between Prussia and
Russia ; the former power absorbing Germany, and the
latter attracting the Slavonians, is a menace and a
danger for the rest of Europe. People are beginning to
see that, in order to dissolve this fatal union, in order to
separate for ever these two powers, it is necessary to dis-
join them territorially, and place between them an inter-
mediate state—either a powerful empire which would re-
unite in a single group the nations between the Vistula
and the Adriatic, or two States firmly united to each other,
one on the Vistula, and the other on the Danube. But
the danger which comes from Russia is more immediate
than, the distant consequences of the fatal union of that
Power ;with Prussia. The unexpected revelation of a
Russian propaganda among the Slavonians of Austria and
Turkey, the Panslavist manifestations of the ethno-
graphical congress at Moscow, have suddenly exposed to
the West the aggressive designs of Russia. We have long
been aware of them, and anxiously followed their alarm-
ireg progress. But people would not believe us ; we were
charged with exaggeration, and laughed at as a politica
Cassandras. Emboldened by success, Russia no leapr
conceals her idea of a Slavonic centralised agglomeration,
uniting in a docile mass more than a hundred millions of
people under a single hand—that of an absolute despot,
A light has also fallen on the tendencies of the "young
Russian party," which urges the Government to expand
the empire abroad, and on its hostility to all Western
civilisation. In presence of these threatening symp-
toms, it is beginning to be understood that the neot-
t mince and consolidation of a powerful empire on the
Danube is a political necessity of the first importance for
Europe, and for the civilisation of the West. It is not
surprising that in these circumstances the Poles, seen-a-
ciled with Austria, and secured by her iu the free develop-
ment of their natural life, should find it their duty au•l
wish to maintain that empire sincerely, and by all Oa s
means iu their power. In seeing them so useful to her
common interests, Europe will be necessarily led to con-
sider in the rest )ration of their country the in lispenseble
complement of the preservation of Austria, and the most
efficacious guarantee against Russian invasion. In order
to accomplish this high and eminently European task the
Pules ought frankly to assist their natural allies ; they
ought to unite intimately with the nation on which hence-
forward must chiefly rest the fortunes of the great E tsts,rn
Empire. Hungary, that illustrious and noble nation, has
been conquered an.] has suffered like ourselves, but it
has risen again greater than ever, and seams called to a
high position iu that part of Elrop s S:l3 has lead a past
as glorious as ours, and an historical mission sim:lar to
ours. She has had to fight Elio same enemies and to de-
fend the same interests as ourselves, and her fate has
more than once been bound up with that of our country.
A natural and instinctive sympathy always attracted, and
stil attracts, one of these nations to the other. Though
different in origin they are singularly alike in character,
in customs, in.social organisation, and in their ancient in-
stitutions. Both have been from time to time iminena )rial
animeted with an ardent love for liberty —that liberty
which Christianity has given us -a noble and just liberty,
that fertilises society and elevates the individual —that
liberty of which we may say that we are the representat rues,
and, in some sort, the incarnation ; for it is for her that
we fight and suffer. United in the past, and mixines,
barely twenty years ago their blood on the same battle-
fields, the Hungarians an 1 the Poles aro now again
united by the same interests, threatened by the same dan-
gers, and enveloped in the same hostility of their common
adversaries. The Russians and their friends always unite
these two names in their attacks and invectives. It seems
that Providence now calls Item these two nations to re -
sumo their former mission, again to become the bulwarks
of Europe and western civilisation against Russia. It is
on this basis, and for this cause—that of a common means
of defence against Russia—that we should offer our air-
ance to the Hungarians, and come to au intimate under-
standing with them. But this union neither can nor ought
to be unconditional ; on the . contrary, it should be made
on precise and well-defined terms. We should frankly lay
down our condition; for we cannot forget that we aro
Slavonians, and that we have duties to perform to th
peoples who are our brothers. The Russians do not cease
to disparage us as enemies of the Slavonians, as traitors
to their cause, as Judases in the midst of the great Slavo-
nic family, but we can affirm that we are their true and
disinterested friends. We have the right to say so, for we
wish for their real prosperity, and we are the implacable
adversaries of their absorption ; we alone among the Sla-
vonians know what Russia is, and what destiny awaits
those who trust in her promises. Like the siren of ancient
fable, she seduces them by her honeyed words, and hid-
ing her snares, attracts only to destroy. Taking advan-
tage of their political inexperience, their impatience, and
their animosities, she urges them to that unhappy sys-
tem of political abstinence, of absolute negation and of
extravagant demands, which impedes the work of
the consolidation of Austria; flattering their atnbition
and their self-love, she promises them a Czech kingdom, a
Servian kingdom, a Bulgarian kingdom, and cajoles them
with dreams of a future greateese, which they are to find
in their union with the northern Colossus. She wishes to
persuade them that they belong to a new and distinct
world, bettor and greater than that of the West ; that they
are, together with herself, the representatives of a new
civilisation ; that under her direction they are called upon
to regenerate Europe, which is now in her dotage. She
tempts them by brilliant prospects of universal dominion,
which, she says, will be theirs• if they will accept her as
their guide. Our duty, as Poles, is to withdraw byall the
means at our command the Slavonians from the snares
which surround them, to tear them from the arms of Rus-
sia, to preserve them for the civilisation of the West. We
should endeavour to reconcile them with the empire
whose members they are, and to induce them to aban lon
the barren policy of abstention. We should undertake
the task of mediating between them and the Hungarians,
and of reuniting thorn to the civilisation of the West. But

in order to do this, and to fulfil the duties imposed upon
us by such an undertaking, it is necessary that we should
raise on high the flag of provincial and national autonomy.
Without asking for political conceSsions, which might in-
jure the unity, integrity, or strength of the empire, we
should firmly insist, both on our own b3half and on that
of the other Slavonisms, on a frank and extensive a,,lini-
nistrative autonomy, comprising all that is indispensable

for the free development of national life. *hat we
desire for ourselves in Galicia we loudly and resolutely
demand for the Czechs, Croats, and Servians. We
do not doubt that the Hungarians will find those condi-
tions perfectly natural and accapta'ale. Wo believe them
to be sincere in their promises to the Slavonians. They
do not possess the absorbing and denationalising spirit of
the Germans, that minuteness of mind which descends to
details, penetrates everywhere, and attaches itself to lan-
guage, education, and petty local matters in order to Ger-
manise and occupy everything. The Hungarians are more
liberal and generous in their conduct; they will know how
to give frankly and without arriere-peaae, and will not
think of withdrawing by degrees what they have given .
We can therefore hold out our hands to them without
scruple, and without fear of being wanting in our duty to
our Slavonian brothers. We can and ought to join them,
in view of the struggle which may any day commence. In
not t only
Europe,th e politicalbu but
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gloriously; and ainfd"t-eh3fnallitussia would no longer find any
obstacles in her path. Austria destroyed, the victors would
soon encamp on the shores of the Adriatic and at the foot
of the Alps. Here, gentlem3n, I must stop. Far be it
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from me to give another thought to such a disaster. On
the c ntrary, as I told you when I began, our faith and our
confidence are unshaken ; and if hitherto God has sent us
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Sub3equently the meeting was addressed by the E3g-
lish friends present, who all paid >t high tribute to the
memory of the late General Count Z tinoyski ; and after a
vote of thanks to the Prince and the chairman, separated