The Sun. — 1863-03-31 (London, England)

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.  (From the limes' Special correspondent.) CRACOW, March 24.  Po or Langiewicz, after asking in vain to be allevsed to go and settle in England, was taken off yesterday to Vienna—or, at least, to the terminus of the Cracow and Vienna Railway,which is all that is really known about the matter here. I happened by some strange chance to be in the street leading to the castle as early as a quarter to 8 o'clock in the morning, and, seeing an empty carriage guarded by four Hussars at the entrance to the church of the district, waited a few minutes to learn who its occupant was to be. Out came the General, gloomy :and black. No one saluted him or noticed him, because no one at the time was quite certain who he was. It was evident, however, that he was a State prisoner, that he had just come from the Castle, and that he was starting on what he conceivad to be a momentous journey. Langiewicz is not an Austrian, but a Prussian subject, and he has been making war, not upon Austrians, but upon Missions. Accordingly Austria is in no way called upon to sit in judgment upon him. She has, of course, the right to send him oat of Austrian territory, but it is to be Loped that she will not deliver him up to Prussia, as those who have the worst opinion of the Austrian Government fancy she may be tempted to do. There is not the slightest chance, however, of Austria taking such a step as this, if we may judge by her conduct to those Polish insurgents now in I,er hands who are subjects of Russia. Not one has been surrendered to the Russians (as in old times all would have been), and the best informed persons here say that all are sure to have their liberty before long, though in the meanwhile they will be confined for a time at Olmutz or elsewhere. All the Government has done to them hitherto has been to shut them up in various public buildings, where they sing, smoke, and enjoy them. selves as best they can. O❑ the other hand, it has saved many of them from dying of hunger, or by the lances of the Cossacks, who would infallibly have murdered them had they caught them unarmed or sinking from starvation on Russian territory. If there were any Russian deserters among them, Austria, by the terms of the extradition treaty, would be obliged to give them up, but they all wear the Polish costume, and the only cases of desertion one hears of among the Russian troops arc those in which soldiers left their regiments under fire to go and plunder, and could only be induced to return by the officers holding revolvers to their heads, threatening to shoot them, and occasionally doing so as an example. Infamously as the Russian officers have in many cases behaved, I have heard from eyewitnesses of some few who did their duty and, disgusted at the excesses committed by their men, and finding their orders utterly disregarded, shot the worst of the malefactors with their own hands. More than one house in the kingdom was thus saved from pillage. I make the statement, not on mere hearsay, but on the authority of the proprietors of these houses, who, however, could not remain on their estates, and took the earliest oppor. tunity of flying to Cracow, now a city of refuge for Poles from all parts of the ancient kingdom. As a rule, whatever the Russian troops have done elsewhere, I have been able to convince myself by the best evidence that near the Galician frontier they have behaved like hordes of savages. The night before last thousands of persons close to Cracow saw villages in flames just on the otherside of the border, and every one knew at once that the Cossacks had been there. The Cossacks have even crossed into Galicia, and a skirmish—of which the full particu lars have not yet reached me—took place the other day at Czulic, on this side of the frontier, in which an Austrian officer was taken prisoner and an Austrian soldier killed.