The Russian Government in Poland. With a narrative of the
Polish Insurrection of 1863. By W. A. Day. (Longmans.)—" The Russian Theory of Government in Poland" would have been a better title for this pro-Russian narrative. We cannot help looking on Mr. Day as an advocate rather than as a judge. In his view, Russia is to be blamed. for weakness and inconsistency, if she is to be blamed at all, and the- cruelty into which she was occasionally betrayed was the truest mercy. If Lord Russell wrote against Russia, that shows Mr. Day that Lord Russell endorsed the worst and vilest of circumstantial falsehoods ; but
when Mr. Day attempts to expose these falsehoods, we find them more circumstantial and more truthful than before. Thus, Mr. Day tells us- that in order to profe to the Russian Government that it had committed excesses in Poland, Lord Russell proposed to cite the London newspapers. as authorities (Nee p. 234). When we turn to Lord Russell's own despatch (p. 298), we find these words addressed to Lord Napier :— "Your Lordship has sent me an extract from the St. Petersburgh Gazette, of the 7th (19th) of May. I could send your Lordship in return extracts from London newspapers giving accounts of atrocities equally horrible committed by men acting on behalf of Russian authority. It is not for her Majesty's Government to discriminate between the real facts anct the exaggerations of hostile parties." We see, then, that the suggestion of newspaper proof came from Lord Napier, and was rejected by Lord/ Russell. But if we had space to follow Mr. Day into the details of his. narrative, whether taken from secret State papers of "undoubted. accuracy," or from Government accounts which are "more consistent and probable," we could point out similar misrepresentations. It is. perhaps sufficient to observe that he considers the brutal sack of the Zamoyski Palace most beneficial in its effect on Warsaw.
Previous page
