14 NOVEMBER 1863, Page 1

The Poles have accepted the Emperor's speech as a promise

of war in the spring, and the National Government is therefore about to redouble its efforts. Its presses have lately been seized, and in Warsaw the Russians have exacted their war tax in spite of the Regulator's prohibition, but the Poles have now an armed force in every palatinate. General Berg keeps their zeal at fever heat, for he baa begun to make wholesale arrests of young girls, who are sentenced in batchesto transportation into the interior, sent off with- out warm clothing or communication with their friends, and usually without being informed of the charge against them. It is stated that some have been whipped for wearing sad-coloured clothes ; but there are limits to the barbarity even of men who have once owned serfs, and we distrust the story. The truth is bad enough without exaggeration, and we trust the first act of Napoleon, when he has once acknowledged the Poles, will be to hold General Berg person- ally responsible for his acts. A year of Cayenne might teach him what Siberia really means.