THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 626, 28 November 1863, Page 8

THE POLISH INSURRECTION.

In Warsaw the superior power of the unseen national government continues to make itself felt. Its behests are obeyed with singular completeness by the officials of the Russian Government, who resign their offices at once when told. The poor tailors accused of making national uniforms having had a turn, the printers are in for it next. If any men should be patriots they are the printers, nor have the Polish " typos" proved recreant. In consequence of orders from the national government, it is thought that the official journal of Warsaw must cease to make its appearance, for no printer will undertake to produce ir. From day to day, to judge by the Polish newspapers, the opinion in Poland varies as to the chances of an intervention. One morning all is despondency. Europe is accused of looking on calmly and even complacently at the struggles of Poland to save her life from Russia; and the Western nations are compared to fatigued Romans at a circus, viewing with shameful interest "the contest of a Christian gladiator against a wild beast." Then the Poles are assured that, do what they may, the Western nations caunot avoid coming to blows with Russia before long ; that they may hope to escape, but can only postpone the war which next spring will, for a variety of reasons, be inevitable. However of the few foreigners who have gone to the help of the Poles, the Hungarians have certainly formed the majority. They have not sent many well qualified to act as officers, but a great many who cannot have failed to prove themselves good soldiers. No people in Europe know and understand the Poles nearly so well as the Hungarians. The Pok s and Hungarians had, {or centuries, institutions almost identical, and quite identical in principle ; and. whatever abuses may have crept into the constitutions (f Poland and also of Hungary, the political life in both countries kept up and developed a genuine love of liberty which distinguishes them in the present day from all other Catholic countries. The Polish question is still without an answer. It can hardly be doubted any longer that the hopes recently entertained of a liberal policy on the part of the Emperor of Russia were little better founded than the innumerable canards which fill the continental papers on the Polish insurrection. We now seem thrown back again on the old scene of incessant bloodshed iv Poland and endless diplomatic correspondence in Europe, and are naturally led to reflect on the condition and prospects of each side of the drama. As to the insurrection itself, whatever m*y be the daily exaggerations which reach us from Polish sources, there is no doubt that it continues, and that the Russians have not yet betn able to check it with any considerable success. The insurgents are gradually acquiring skill, and though numbers of them have perished, those who remain are more dangerous to the Russians than the untrained masses who met them at first. They appear to have found out that they can harrass their enemy more by cutting off his sup plies than by direct fighting. The different bands are occasionally caught m a trap and overpowered, but the remnants, though their leaders may be slain like the gallant Lelewel, reappear in another part of the country under another leader, and the insurrection falls and rises from day to day like the successive waves of the sea. Their bands only exist by help of the protection which the forests give them. If they were obliged to leave the woods and maintain themselves in the open country they would soon be annihilated by Russian troops; and it is well known that the Kuesian rechon on the winter to drive the rebels from their fastness, and thus bring them within reach of their forces. Winter, however, is atill aome way off, and it the Emperor of the French choose to do do more than remonstrate, he has time to give the Pcles some material assistance before they are frozen into submission. It is certain that some such foreign interference is the direct object which the Poles keep in view. They have no hope whatever of achieving their own independence. The bands who are wasting the best blood of Poland day by day, on the frontier of Galaciaor in the heart of the kingdom, are working to produce a distant stage effect before the eyes and consciences of Western Europe. The exaggerations and deceptions oi the Polish papers are prompted by the same purpose. Thejr know that all Europe is one body, and that Poland in perpetual insurrection would be a sort of open sore. The only object for which the Poles expect the Western Powers to intervene is one which, it is certain, is absolutely unattainable, ;and even if it could be attained it is very doubtful whether matters would be improved. A kingdom of Poland established on the frontier of Russia, separated from it by no natural barriers, and facing it with the inextinguishable hatred which has been inflamed by half a century's oppression, would be almost a worse element of confusion in Europe than a nation in a perpetual state of insurrection. We are not going to weaken the protest ; but we must say that such, an interference entails the gravest responsibility. Civilised nations are certainly bound to protest publicly agains!. the horrible cruelties which the Russians contemplate and are already executing. But if the i Western Powers do not under any circumstances ! intend to go further than protesting, if they are resolved not to interfere by force of arms, they are bound to let the Poles know their determination at once. We have done tris. We hive declare,! that we v>iil use every influence sltort of war to induce the Emperor of Russia to treat Poland with justice, humanity, and genenmty ; but our ministers have stated at the same time, in the , plainest; language, that they will not, under any circumstances, plunge this country into, a war for an objeot,uncertain, unattainable, and dangerous. We trust' that the other Powers will take an equally direct course. The last words of the Grand Duke Qonstautine

upon Quitting Warsaw were :— The Czar wishes well to Poland, and regrets the measures adopted by General Mouravieff, but recogni-es their necessity. The Grand Duke expressed a hope that he should find the country trancjuilised upon his return. Two hundred inhabitants have been transported to Siberia. The action of the 3rd was terminated by the retreat of the Russians. The insurgents pursued them for a distance of five English miles and then halted. On the 4th the Russians appeared at a new point, but no fighting took place. There were several skirmishes on the afternoon of the sth, and on the 6th Lelewel found himself surrounded and had to attack the enemy iv order to fight his way out of the circle which was gradually closing upon him. The insurgents were drawu up in a wood, and on issuing from it marched against the body of Russ'ans which stood between them and the Gallicism frontier, distant abont 40 English miles. Lelewel broke through the intercepting force, and then, before he could coramen.e his retreat, had to do battle with the whole of the Russian army which had been menacing his position, and which now bore down upon him from both sides of the wood. Lelewel, after being wounded in the left arm at the very beginning of the battle; re-eived two shots in tiie body as he was leading his infantry to the charge, the action having at that time lasted for about halt an hour. The unequal contest was maintained for another hour, and the insurgents had then nothing to do but to retire as be>t they could. The loss of life was comparatively small, but a great many prisouers were taken Although the detachment was dispersed, yet the insurgents kept together in troops, and contrived to bury the spare arms which they had carried with them throughout. The following facts respecting Lelewel's life are full of interest :— When on the 22nd January of the pre sent year, the nation, under intolerable oppression, took up arms in defence of its violated rights, a handful of young artisans, under the command of a Cracovian, named Martin Borelowski. known by the pseudonym of Lelewel, left Warsaw, and proceeded into the Palatinate of Lublin. With an undaunted conviction of the ultimate success of the cause to which he had devoted himself, he more than once bravely and successfully engaged the Russians, which led the national government to promote him, and finally to appoint him colonel in command of the Palatinate of Podlachia. Lelewel, by profession a tin manufacturer, and afterwards in business in WarsaT, was one of those rare men who, penetrated abore all with a self-sacrificing love of country, never allow themselves to think for a moment of personal elevation. Honest, truthful, of spotless character, he sacrificed his position and his life to his country, whose freedem from its intolerable yoke was his only thought and desire. Lelewcl's sensible conduct towards the peasants and the simplicity of his manners earned him universal favour. His death is a sad blow to the national cause. He diad the death of the brave— an indefatigable worker for his countrymen : and posterity will number ldm among the bravest, defenders of the country. His loss but few will be found able to replace. He was apparently about 50 years of age, was a tall, powerful-looking man, with black hair, a large black beard, and eyes which announced all the energy and determination which he showed so plentifully iv action. A telegram from Warsaw states that the Marquis Wielopolski's leave of absence is made pennant-nt, and that he has been definitely relieved of his functions as Civil Governor and "Vice-President of the" Council of State. According to a despatch received from Thorn, an attempt has been made upon the life of General Berg, as he was driving through one of the suburbs of Warsaw. An Orsini bomb was flung at him from a window. The general is reported to be wounded, ned a Circassian in his suite was killed. The person who flung the bomb has not been discovered. In consequence of the attempt made upon the life of General Berg in Warsaw, the two palaces of the Zamoyski family, from a window of which the bomb is alleged to have been thrown, were entirely plundered by the soldiers. All the male inhabitants of both mansions were carriel off to the citadel. The two Counts Zamoyski and Paince Lubominski are in chains, and it is added that the palaces have been condemned to be henceforward used as barracks. Tne public library, the offices of the Vistula Steam Navigation Company, and a valuable Oriental col lection (that of Professor Kowalewski) are stated to have been burnt. The Cms of Sept. 21 publishes a leading article energetically protesting against the attitude of tin official French press, and reproaching it with unworthy derision of the misfortunes of the Poles News received in Cracow from Warsaw announces that Count Pustowski has been wounded by the Cossacks. Hanging and butchering are going forward in Poland with spirit ; and vigorous skirmishing, in which the Russians usually are reported to have the worst of it. ,