The Sun. — 1848-12-04 (London, England)

RUSSIA. The Kolniche Zeitung gives the following letter from Posen, dated 25th November:— " A traveller, who has just arrived from Warsaw, assures us that the strength of the Russian army, which is already assembled on this side the Weischel, amounts to nearly 400,000 men. The head-quarters of their artillery, which numbers some 300 pieces of cannon, is at Kresniewise, thirteen miles from the Prussian boundary, on the high road from Kalisch to Warsaw, and which is the connecting point of the roads to Thorn, Posen, and Breslau. Warsaw and the surrounding places are also full of troops. Up to the departure of our informant, the guards had not arrived from St. Petersburgh, as had been reported for several days; neither had any commander-in-chief been yet named. The arrival and appointment of one was expected when war should be declared. Upon the affairs of Germany generally the most complete ignorance prevailed at Warsaw and nearly throughout the whole kingdom of Poland. The official papers give in their reports the most frightful accounts of the prevailing anarchy, of the desecration of churches and murders; and, in short, they state that the struggle is not one for the political freedom of the people, but a purely religious fight, in which a parcel of wild, hot- headed pagans and blasphemers were striving against the believers in Christ. These assertions are not generally credited by well-informed people; but it is considered that they are put forth for the purpose of exciting the common soldiery, in whom they have created the wildest fanaticism. The strictest observation is kept on foreigners. Every one must, on his arrival, declare the object of his journey; and if he is a workman, he must at once go to the person by whom he is engaged, and even then the strictest surveillance is exercised towards him. My informant himself had perfect experience on this point; because he had, immediately on his arrival, changed some foreign money for Russian silver coin, before he had reported himself to the police-office for foreigners, he was compelled to undergo the strictest examination, which lasted for eight days; and, as long as he remained, he was compelled to report himself daily to the police, and to give an account of his doings. _  "But If the foreigner is merely travelling for amusement ho is immediately regarded with suspicion, and everybody is more or less suspected, and he is conducted back over the border, unless he is provided with the recommendation of same influential party. If that is the case, he is allowed, with the greatest precautions and civilities, to proceed to Warsaw with a companion, who appears in the character of a friend, but who makes a daily written report of all circumstances and people to whom he may speak, which report is daily forwarded to the highest authority in the district, and his companion never leaves him night or day, but eats, drinks, and sleeps in the same apartment with him until he takes his departure. From such policy towards strangers, and from the prohibition of all German papers, it is only natural that the grossest ignorance should prevail as to occurrences in the other parts of the world. Nevertheless there are several amongst the higher classes who are perfectly well-informed of what is going forward here and in Germany. They obtain news personally and at great risk even to the greatest and most important personages. We know of a Magnate from the neighbourhood of Sandomierz, who has been no less than six times here, to inform himself of what is going on."