The Portland daily press., 1863-04-09
Thursday Morning, April o, 1863.


A generation has passed away since the
breaking down Of Poland ard the fall of War
saw. .Twenty-nine years have elapsed since
the Emperor Nicholas told the Poles assembled
under the guns of the new citadel of Warsaw,
that he was glad the time had come when he
addressed them no longer as King of Poland,
but as Emperor Of Russia. No other expecta-
tion could have been formed at the time than
this, that though the generation then living
might give, for a period, trouble to the Rus
sian Government the next one would yield to
circumstances, and submit to its fate.
This expectation appeared likely TO be full
filed. The very language and religion of the
Poles having been made subject to persecn-
tion, It seemed probable that the younger men
would lose the tradition Of the former inde-
pendence OF their country, would suffer them
selves to be absorbed into the Russian nation,
and would thereafter supply the Cabinet of
ST. Petersburg with military power for the
ultimate prosecution of her designs against
western Europe. ksaa az
The conduct Of the Poles at two distinct
epochs appeared TO confirm this view. When,
In lS4S, the revolutionary spirit broke out,
and swept over 90 large part Of Europe, it
might have been expected, that with Rus
sian army engaged In hungary, the moment
had come for Poland to arise and assert her
sindependence, unless the spirit Of her sons was
absolutely brok en- but not q sound was
heard from Poland Again, in 1854, when
Russia declared war against Turkey, and the
fleets and armies Of England, France, and Sar-
dinia were accumulated in the Black Sea and
the Baltic, not sound was heard from Po-
land. And yet this very silence, this appa-
rent apathy, was more significant than any re-
volt would have been; and the explanation is
4 10 be found in that well-known greeting which
so often passed under the walls Of Sevastopol,
when Poles in the Russian regiments hailed
their countrymen in the Turkish service with
the words, Brothers, is it time p and the an
swer was given, Brothers, is not yet time"
That II was not tme-that If Poland had
risen, 1t would have been only to find her.
self again betrayed, as she had been in 1915,
and as she had been In 1882 by the Cabinets
OF Europe, was plain by the the events Of the
war, by the absence of all mention of her in
the negotiations in 1856, on the peace; and
finally, by the words Of the English Foreign
Secretary, Lord Clarendon, in the House of
Peers, July 18th, 1856: "The Emperor of Rus
sis Is just and benevolent l cannot but be-
lievc that Poland has something more to hope
from him. / fear the cause Of Poland will
derive no benefit either from complete dis
cussion, or from merely the expression of an
individual opinion in Parliament"
Since that period the persecution of the
Poles has been constantly increasing; and
their mute and passive endurance has amount
ed to absolute heroism. The question to be
now considered is, whether that endurance
has been tried too far, and that torture has pro-
duced absolute madness or whether the pres
ent insurrection is not merely a contrivance of
the secfet police Of Russia, through the instru-
mentality OF the revolutionary agents in its
hands. A few words on the actual position of
Russia at this moment are necessary as expla-
nation.
exists between the Russian Cabinet and the
Russian people must be clearly understood.
The former consists of body of men wholly
disconnected from the nation, in most instan-
ces foundlings or renegades, without family
or country, but brought up and trained in the
most careful, elaborate, and strict manner, SO
as TO love their own identity, and TO bring to
the diplomatic body, of which they become
members, capacities and faculties educated to
the highest degree, and no inconvenient SYM
pathies with the rest Of the world. That
rough sketch of political action, known as the
VIII OF Peter the Great, gives an outline Of
the system which this body of men, so formed
and 50 recruited have !. as their task to carry
out
But the Russian, noble, trader, or peasant,
out OF the diplomatic service, has none of
the enjoyments of power or of management
which fall to the share Of the initiated. There
is, to be sure, the sense that Russia is boiler
and better than other nations, and so is ult-
mately to possess the earth. This is carefully
child throughout the Muscovite dominons
But the process OF acquisition is by no means
agreeable to those who are but the tools and
puppets TO work out the card and the discon-
tent has arisen to an extent very alarming to
the secret machinators. The peasants have
been recently subjected to process which
has been called in Europe their emancipation,
but which has, in reality, had the effect of
depriying them Of all hold or claim on the soil
Of their country, and made them mere zeros
to swell the numbers Of regiments; much as If
our parochial system were suddenly abolished,
on the pretext of putting an end to pauperism,
and then the applicants for relief were told
There is none for you; you must enlist in
the "army." The MOBILES have by this opera
tion not only lost what slight means they pos
sessed OF resistance to arbitrary power, but
have been, as body, absolutely destroyed.
Among the soldiery, and those from whom
the sOldery are taken, there Is this aspiration
would to God the Gar would have done
with these Governors who are always tempt
ling him 10 conquer other countries, and let us