THE INSURRECTION IN POLAND.
FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)
Cracow, April 13. THIRTEEN weary hours of railway travelling have to be endured in accomplishing the 230 miles which separate Cracow from Vienna. At a station called Trerau, about half way, we caught the first glimpse of Polish insurgents, some 40 of whom were under- going the process of being "intermit," or sent into the interior, to be there kept in durance till the insurrection is put down. I had an opportunity of examining a list of a second batch of these prisoners, and as it will give you an idea of the sort of people who take part in the movement I will give it in extenso. Out of 31, there were 5 domestic servants, 5 shoemakers, 1 landed proprietor, 4 sons of landed proprietors, 5 labourers, 1 cook, 1 needlemaker, 1 smith, 1 pianoforte-tuner, 1 doctor's assistant, 1 student. This list, you will observe, includes every class, with the exception of the peasant proprietors, who, all through the insurrection, with some remarkable local exceptions, have held quite aloof from the move- ment. It is only fair to add that the Warsaw Committee never for a moment reckoned on the support of the peasants. It expected to find them neutral, and that has been in general the case up to the present time. It requires but a very slight acquaintance with the peasant proprietors — a distinction must be made between the peasants who are, and the peasants who are not, proprietors—to be convinced that they are utterly destitute of anything like patriotism ; they are too badly educated, and altogether too low in the scale of humanity, to entertain any other ideas than how to provide them- selves with their daily bread. They are, of course, utterly unac- quainted with the history of their country, and are about as unpromising raw material for regenerating a country out of as you could well find. The great hope for Poland seems to me to lie in the surprising intelligence and energy to be found in that ever- growing body—the middle class, the non-existence of which hitherto has been the ruin of Poland. For a country to hope to attain to any degree of prosperity without a middle class were as hopeless as for a body to exist with only head and legs. It is well known that the Jews have represented this middle class in Poland, but by the side of this Jewish community a very considerable Polish middle class has sprung up. Here in Cracow, for example, it is untrue to say that the whole trade of the town is in the hands of the Jews. In a future letter I shall go into this point more in detail. I must now proceed to give you a brief account of what has come under my own observation during the last fortnight, for I shall always endeavour to confine myself as far as possible to my own experience. It was night when I got my first impression of Cracow, and the streets were quite deserted, except that here and there knots of four or five insurgents, dressed in their comfortable brown braided tunic, Polish fur cap, and high boots, were hanging about waiting for a good opportunity to evade the vigilance of the police and make their way out of the town. It is thus by fours and fives that the insurgent bands leave Cracow, having appointed a rendezvous just across the frontier, where the Austrians dare not arrest them.
Their arms are secretly conveyed to the woods some days pre- viously and carefully buried, and so, leaving Cracow unarmed, the insurgents excite less suspicion and provide themselves in the wood. At some risk of Cossacks I took the opportunity of visiting one of these insurgent camps, which was formed less than half a mile across the frontier. It is a great mistake to think of low marshy woods, surrounded, perhaps, with bogs, for, at any rate in the country I have as yet visited, such woods are not to be found. The country known by the name of Poland in England is here called indifferently the Kingdom, or Congress-Poland; but no Pole means anything else by Poland than his country as it existed before the par- tition. This " Congress-Poland, " also called, from its resemblance, by theslang name of " the ham," is divided from Galicia at its western extremity by a rocky range of low hills, intersected by a perfect network of wooded ravines. The frontier line is extremely irre- gular, and resembles a line of natural fortifications with its redans and curtains. The result is that if you follow a straight line you are one moment in Russia, and the next in Austria, which precisely at this moment is equivalent to saying that you run a very fair chance of feeling the prick of a Cossack lance.
On the sloping side of one of these wooded ravines, with spread- ing pines overhead, the insurgent camp extended for some 200 or 300 yards, consisting of a succession of tents roughly constructed with pine branches, the stem of the pine acting as a tent- pole. Were they not afraid to light fires for fear of attract- ing the enemy, there would be nothing so pitiable in passing the night in such a situation. Especial caution is necessary when the camp is close to the frontier, because both Russians and Austrians have to be guarded against. For the first camp which is formed by a fresh band of insurgents issuing from Cracow is always occupied for some days before it is broken up—for this reason. The whole body, say of 600, dare not issue from Cracow and the neighbourhood at the same time, so they manage in this way, somewhat like a swarm of bees. The captain, or queen bee, is the first to repair to the rendezvous, and the camp swarms round him. If either Austrians or Russians get wind of the situation, they first prevent fresh insurgents joining, and the last make a sudden attack on the half-formed band, and drive them across the frontier. This was the object of the Russian attack on Easter Sunday at Szklary. But 250 of the 600 insurgents had as yet made their way into camp, when suddenly a force of at least 700 Rmsians bore down on them, but owing to the splendid posi- tion of the insurgents in the pine forest, whence they could take a quiet aim at the Russians crossing the little stream in the valley, being themselves perfectly sheltered, the enemy was compelled to retire after three hours' fighting, with the loss of at least 70 killed and some 50 wounded, while the insurgents lost but 4 killed and 18 wounded. Each of the insurgents had two, and some, three guns, about half of which were Minis rifles, the arms and officers for the whole force of 600 men being already in camp when they were sur- prised by the Russian attack. The extraordinary disparity of the killed and wounded on the Russian and insurgent side is accounted for by the advantageous position of the latter, who reserved their fire till the Russians showed themselves in some confusion scram- bling up the banks of the brook. Though the fight at Szklary was a decided victory for the insurgents, yet the Russians gained their object in breaking up their half formed camp, for Gregowicz, the leader, having been taken prisoner by the Austrians after the battle, the insurgents no longer held together, and after burying their arms went asunder across the frontier. I have reason to believe that a fresh detachment, under a more expe- rienced commander, Dombrowski, will make its way into Russian Poland in the next few days, issuing from Cracow, while already in the end of last week a large force crossed the frontier near Tarnow.
Of the movements of the insurgents at a distance from Cracow we probably hear less than you in England, as when you are close to an object you only see that part of it which is close to you, whereas you see the whole of it from a distance. You are much better able to form a just idea of the proportions of the whole revo- lution, though we get here a more vivid idea of a small part of it.
The engrossing subject of conversation here in Cracow at this moment is the alarming extent to which the activity of the Austrian police has increased. There is not a house in Cracow but it is subject to the nocturnal visits of the commissioners of police, and not a night passes without a fresh batch of unfortunates being collared in their beds and marched between two soldiers with fixed bayonets to the lock-up. The silence of the night is only broken by the tread of the armed patrol pacing the streets, and happy is he who is utterly fearless of the visits of the authorities. My room was entered on Friday morning at five o'clock by three commis- sioners of police, who, without apologizing for intruding, coolly demanded my passport. Of course they were at once satisfied ; but if they treat an Englishman so, it is easy to guess how they would treat a Pole. I have been fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of several Polish landed proprietors, who have all the refinement and manners of an English gentleman, and I cannot express how painful it is to me to see the manner in which the employe's behave towards them.
Conceive our country gentlemen having to pay continual visits to the police, and being submitted to continual petty insults by officials who are really only fit to black their shoes. Yet these Polish landed proprietors of whom I am speaking are quite the equals of our landed aristocracy in education and manners. Is it to be wondered at, then, that they give the revolution their sup- port, when their whole lives are passed in dreaming of the possi- bility of one day being able to breathe that freedom which is the birthright of every man who respects himself ?
If the condition of the landed proprietors in Galicia, to whom I was ptincipally referring above, is deserving of pity, what are we to say to the case of the proprietors in Russian Poland, in the face of the following proclamation, which has just been circulated among the workmen and peasants 2—" Your masters, after ruining your ancestors, seized their lands and turned them to their own use, and only look upon you as beasts of burden, destined to slave for them. For us, we but sum- mon you to reclaim the rights which are yours. For see, your masters have already introduced labour from abroad to drive you from home as soon as possible. Let us see you, then, set about doing that which has already been concerted, and burn to the ground the chateaux of every one of your oppressors, so that they never rise from their ashes ; and for the masters, cut their throats—pigs as they are. Then their lands will become yours, as they were your ancestors, and the King will live in 'peace, and with authority established all the world will be happy." The proprietors in Russian Poland have from day to day been expecting this proclamation, and those of them who could possibly contrive it, have already escaped with their families across the frontier. Cracow is swarming with them ; but, alas ! far the greatest number remain behind, and we shall probably feel our blood curdle at the account of the horrors which will soon come to pass. The butchery of helpless women and children, of which we have already had instances enough, perpetrated by the Cossacks, will sink into insignificance in comparison with the massacres which, if they do not take place, it will not be the fault of the
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