AN AVENGER OF BLOOD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 194, 15 December 1876, Page 7

AN AVENGER OF BLOOD.

»The Times we ('Westminster Gazette) know, is too clear a reader of political signs to put its trust in Russian policy. It cannot forget its own records of Russian atrocities. For the benefit of those who have short memories, or who have political designs to promote in now supporting Russia's Dolicy, we give the following extracts from the < Times' of 1863, from which we may learn how Kussia in its sanguinary fanaticism treated the Catholics of Jroland : — ovZ™i s*' 21 ' I 863'""I 863 '" " They P ut warmed men, women, and children to the sword. . . . They put the peaceful inhabitants of the town to the sword after they had routed the insurgents. . . r™? nT"^ ° no * allow ihe Poles to bury their stain, as the S?ens^ me declared th &t they shall be food for lation of outrages unparalleled in these times." March 2B.— "lnstead of every person being free from arrest except by form of l aw , thousands Ire kidnappe^in a singS nght ' «."■ ; JV fields anotb er party of insurgents, unarmed and entirely defenceless, were killed on neutral ground by tTe Russians. A man who sought refuge under a crucifix was shot down Hi l^tr^t °l* 1S ?e? c ? eemel ' Mother, defending himself with his fists, after being belabored with the butt-end of £ musket eventually succumbed to the ball of a more merciful enemy But the worst outrage was enacted at Karniow, where an Austrian picket was repeatedly fired at while disarming some fugitive Xsu£ gents. On tins occasion a civilian was wounded, and several rounds discharged into a house. The Cossacks returned to Russian terriSSiSit% e imf lltOf the 2 ! ad ' and I>6Sting themselves iStSr laboisatßiurkow, resumed operations on the 23rd, when half-a-dozen villages were burnt, and ' order ' restored in the district It appears that all the way from Wawrnczyce to Igolomia not a human dwelling has been allowed to survive their martial entni£ April 14.— "From the Austro-Polish frontiers there is no other ?SEfC^f b«b «f c . a " ?w* the Asians murdered the wounded Poles after the affair at Skylary, near Olkusz " ww^l;! 3^ ma & isfc »te, * ame 2 Swederski, thus described what he himself witnessed : ~«The Imperial troops attacked the house with a hailstorm -of shots; I, a quiet inhabitant, bein- in the house at the time. At length the soldiers entered, killed my daughter with two bayonet stabs, wounded with two shots my son-in-law, . . . and began to plunder. . The Imperial troops, after killing four insurgents, whom we buried, murdering my daughter and wounding my son-in-law, killed six servants of the household^ [their names are given]. The above were first mutilated, and then twice stabbed with bayonets." ("Other outrages are mentioned at the same time.] ZL. May 11.--" A band of Polish children were met by a Russian picket, who allowed a few to escape, and cut the remainder to pieces. May 15— "It appears that the RaskolniH (Russian religious banditti) went about like madmen, bearing hammers and axes, with which they beat out the brains of all the Poles they found in their way. They broke into country houses, and, after plundering them, set them on fire. They were led by regular commanders" and as they plundered and murdered, called out, ' This we do in the name ot the Emperor. " May 22.-" They bind the Polish inhabitants and drag them before the Russian authorities. The Governor, without consideration for their age or position, sends them to the Fortress of Dunabourg, half-naked and bleeding. Numbers of these unfortunate Persons arrive every day m that town, for the most part frighttully mutilated. The last "batch of prisoners brought from KuchWa consisted of three judges, twenty-nine landed proprietors, two clergymen, and an officer of engineers, all horribly mutilated." • fl . M*y2s.~[AnM *y2s.~[An official report is g iven <>f the horrible outrages inflicted on the Poles by tne Raskolniks who had been called in toassist the Russian troops. It is too long to quote, but the details are shocking. J June 24.— " After Hie tattle of Lubar, the Adjutant-General IMsaioff, gave orders that the prisoners and the wounded should age, some of them even younger, were taken one night last week and are now m prison Old and young men and iomtn aTe aU S* -^ k % m +1 thems tt t jj e r of arrest, and are invariably seized* the middle of the night. From ten at night till four the next mornmg are .the Russian official hours for deeds that will not bear