RUTHENES AND POLES.
(To vas BDITOIL OF VIII .sexcrieron."] Sru,—In your issue of March 2nd you gave the contents of the article in the Times about the "Polish tyranny in Galicia." As a Pole, I was deeply hurt by this notice, which throws a shadow on the character of my nation, and gives to the English people a false idea of the relations of the Poles with the Ruthenes. The regrettable occurrence in Lemberg sprang up through the request of the Ruthenes to have their own national University. The Polish people are not against this demand ; but the Galician Legislative Assembly, in which we have the majority, can do nothing in this matter, because under the Austrian Constitution legislation in regard
to the Universities is nob in the hands of the Land Assemblies, but of the Central Parliament in Vienna. Only the Austrian Government and Parliament can fulfil these wishes. But the Ruthenes do not require in Vienna from the central authorities a separate Ruthenian University. Having no sufficiently developed soientific language, no appreciable quantity of professors and students, they know that both the Government and Parliament would not give material means to satisfy their request. Therefore they have chosen another way by which they think they can more easily obtain the sup- port of the Government. They require the conversion of the Polish University into a Ruthenian-Polish University.
The twenty-two millions of the Polish nation have only two Polish Universities, one in Cracow, the other in Lemberg, which are not really enough for their own needs. The University in Lemberg was originally German. After the introduction of a Constitution in the Austrian Empire we had to fight very hard to change it into a Polish sanctuary of soienee. This is, then, one of the results of our fight to regain elementary national rights. The conversion of the Lemberg University into a Ruthenian-Polish University, and the intro- duction of the Ruthenian as the second official language, would take away the character of the heart of Polish culture, and would practically mean for us the loss of one of our two Universities. A nation which is under such condition as ours cannot suffer it. Therefore we must guard our legal rights, and cannot allow the Ruthenes to stamp their language as official by taking oaths in it, &c. The Ruthenes, by means of violence and terror, would take from us the University in Lemberg, a town of which the Ruthenian population is only seven and a half per cent. The Ruthenian students broke into the University with axes and revolvers in their hands; they smashed the furniture, cut up the portraits, took away the rich vestments of the Rector, and badly wounded one of the professors. For committing a criminal outrage the offenders were arrested. But the judicial authorities not only refrained from ill-using them in any way, but gave them special rights and privileges. Visitors had free access to the prisoners in the gaol, they held meetings, and before they started the "hunger strike" they had a banquet in the gaol, at which a large quantity of wine and beer was consumed. Then, against the rules and customs of the Austrian criminal proceedings, they were released from prison for political
MAME.
In the Galician National Assembly the Polish Deputies of all parties moved an interpellation mentioning the above facts, because such a misuse of power by the Justices injures the authority of the Courts and of the laws. The position of the Justices is the result of the influence of the Austrian Govern- ment. This bureaucratic Government, ruling under the old motto Divide et impera, as in the years 1846-48 and 1861-67, now uses the Ruthenes against the Polish national move- ment, in order to check the extension of our rights. The centralistic Government in Vienna, and also the Austrian Pan-Germans, who raise in the Vienna Parliament cheers for the Prussian house of Hohenzollern, incite the Ruthenes against the Poles, to cause disunion between the two neigh- bouring people with the aim of more easily maintaining German supremacy.
Therefore it cannot really be said that there is any "persecution of the Ruthenes by the Poles." We protect our Polish University in Lemberg, but we give in it place and refuge to Ruthenian science as far as it exists. The lectures on theology for the Greek Catholics are in the Ruthenian language, and besides that there are several other Chairs of History, Philology, and Literature. In every other respect the Ruthenes have quite equal rights in regard to schools, language, and official position. Lastly, the Galician Legis- lative Assembly, in which we have the majority, never made difficulties, but, on the contrary, always supported the national development of the Ruthenes. The Polish nation appreciates highly justice and liberty, and the thought of using tyranny is repugnant to us. The nation which gave Mickiewicz, Koaciusko, Pnlawski, which not only appealed to the humane world, but fought and spent its blood for the freedom of other nations in all parts of the world, is not unfaithful to the idea of freedom. We bate persecution, fight against it, and never use it towards others.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Gamma Goscrosx.
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