The Placer herald., 1864-02-13
SHOCKING SCENES IN POLAND,

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hours, and the authorities were so careful
that the invitation should be accepted that
they caused him to be accompanied TO the
railway station by an officer of the Imperial
Guard and a member OF the Warsaw police.
The following is recent letter from Poland
correspondent of the Times:
WILMA, November l4th.-It would re-
quire volume to describe all the cruelties
of the Mouravef system in detail, and any
one attempting to do so would be charged
with exaggeraton. Yet, notwithstanding
the overwhelming superiority in strength
possessed by Russia, notwithstanding the
terrible consequences which hang over this
devoted land, the insurrecticn, strange to
say still keeps its vitality, IA fact which even
the Invalide Russo is tain to admit. Mar
butt, the terror of the Russians in Lithuania,
has died the death of the brave with the
Polish flag on his breast. Jabonowski, the
valiant leader of the Kowno insurgents, who
at Popielany thrice defeated 1900 Russians
with 27O Poles, has disappeared; Stanewicz,
the warrior of Algiers and the Caucasus, is
no longer heard of. Kosejwa, Sierakowski,
Kolysko, and many other heroes have per-
ished on the gibbet off Mouravief; yet Mack
jewcz, Ludkiewcz, Krasowski, Lukaszunas,
Wyslouch, WrobIewski, and Others do not
lay down their arms, often effectuay hinder
the Russians in their crueltes, and continue
to dispute with them the possession Of
Lithuania. This, added to the fact that
Lithuana provinces have sent the addresses
of which you have no doubt already heard,
signed by nearly 25O,OOO persons, to the
National Government at Warsaw, clearly
proves that Lithuania will continue the
national struggle for independence TO her
last breath. The whole of the nobility and
the landowners are, with few exceptions
either in prison or in exile; their estates are
destroyed or sequesraled, and the Russian
Government cannot now with any show of
credibility say that the insurrection is the
work of the mobiles only.
Prince Gortschakoff has frequently re-
peated in all his dispatches to the Western
Powers, that it is the greatest wish CT the
Government to introduce peace and order
in the whole of the insurgent territory
Peace and order, as 1t is understood, by the
Russian Government, consists in the desola-
tion of the land and the determination of
the Polish race. Mouravietf's DEGREES fall
much more heavily on the peaceful popula-
tion than on the insurgents. The latter at
least sell their lives dearly in the woods and
marshes where they take refuge. 1t is the
defenseless landowners, the intelligent peasl
antry, the officials and servants ofthe estates,
the local functionares the priests and stu
dents-all in a word who can be suspected
of any tendency to political or national
feeling, that are most hardly treated.
The property Of the accused is partly
plundered, and the rest destroyed or seques
tered. Detachmens of savage soldiery de.
vastate the lands; corn, brandy, and other
provisions, are seized for the army; plate,
clothes. dresses and cattle are taken to the
nearest town, and there being but few pur
chasers, are sold at nominal prices. If no
purchaser is to be found, all is destroyed,
and the furniture and other articles which
are not easily moved are broken to pieces or
burnt on the spot.
The greatest seventies of the Russian
Government are now directed against the
women of Poland About 90 women linger
in the prisons of wilma alone from mere
children like Julie Misiewiez, who is barely
IA, to venerable matrons like the mother OF
the late insurgent chief Narbutt, who is 90
years old. Among others, Theola Kwiat-
kowska a young lady of 20, belonging to
a wealthy and distinguished family, was
seized at night on the estate of one Of her
relations, taken to wilma under escort, and
shut up in the stationhouse with the scum
of the town. 1t was only after much interest
had been used on her behalf that she was
to hut hn had
scarcely been there three days when she was
sent off alone to Siberia.
The fate of Theola Kwiatkowska has been
also that of ldaia Lopacnska, Michelin
Countess Platter, Adela, and ldaa lIorod-
kerska, Micheln Richter and other ladies'.
Although masses Of the prescribed ale
sent out of wilma on these fatal Fridays
0he train of 23d October alone containing
357 exIes,) all of the prisons and many of
the monasteries and private houses, which
are turned into prisons, are overcrowded.-
In the town of wilma alone there are about
1900 prisoners; in that of Grodo 800; in
the palatnate Of Kowno $500, and the
estimates of Dunaburg, Minsk, Brzesc and
other places are equally full. Not only is
the food given to the prisoners disgusting,
but the air in which they live is literally
poisoned, for fifteen or twenty persons are
huddled together on the bare boards in
narrow cells. Many have persisted under
their sufferings; and Others have become
insane.
Among the cloud of prisoners is Count
Victor Starzyniski, whose fate appears not
yet to have been decided on. lie will, it is
said, be sentenced to twelve years hard labor.
You will perhaps remember that during the
last two years, before the outbreak of the
'nsurrection, he had labored with the most
TO- 7al intentions to effect reconciliation
between the Government and the Lthuann
| Provinces.
The son of Mouraveff, who has been ap-
pointed Governor of Kowno, does not yield
to his father in cruelty, and even exceeds
him in Dettv atrocities He draws up the