THE SECRET GOVERNMENT OF POLAND. THERE must be high political
talent somewhere among these
Poles. The secret Government in Warsaw, which faces death every hour, and meets an efficient despotism with decrees better obeyed than its own, is apparently succeeding in a task no such association has hitherto ventured to attempt. Hitherto secret societies have devoted their power almost exclusively to restraint and destruction, the nearest approach to affirmative action being that made in Germany in 1814. The Vehme gericht, even if its success has not been exaggerated by romance, only essayed to punish crimes which the law was too feeble to reach, and was probably, if not certainly, supported by one independent power, and by the higher ranks of the priesthood. The societies of the middle ages only governed and defended themselves, and the associations which honeycombed Europe under the feet of Napoleon directed their energies solely to preparation. They acted, more- over, with the consent of the legal if not of the virtual authorities, and succeeded in the end only in driving the kings into promises which produced a levde en musse, but which the associations had not the power to enforce. The secret societies of France, however powerful, establish nothing, and have usually for practical aim only a redistribution of property. The Marianne, the strongest of these societies, is supposed, but only supposed, to cherish ideas even " redder " than those involved in the project of an agrarian law. The Carbonari and Illuminati of Italy did much to prepare the way for 1860, but their tactics did not involve open administration, and even the National Committee of Rome, by far the most perfect of the Italian secret organizations only attempts to guide and to restrain the people. That of Venice simply lives to save sufferers from despair, by pointing, as some new outrage is committed, to that future of which all Venetians dream, and which enables them to endure a monotony stirred only by a taxation which, on all but the highest fortunes, amounts to plunder. The Polish Committee alone essays to turn the weapons of despotism against itself, to found a subterranean Government working with all the moderation and all the severity of a legitimate despotism, sanctioning conscription, levying taxes, raying out ambassadors, and concluding treaties with foreign powers. The experiment is a new one in history, and its success will place in the hands of the Revolution a weapon of new and almost immeasurable force. It gives to the Revolutionists, in fact, precisely the agency which makes established governments so strong, the organization which enables a weak king like Frederick William, and a powerless class like the Prussian junkers, to defy the rage and hostility of an entire people, though educated, drilled, and armed.
As yet the Warsaw Committee has been successful, for it has com- bined the energy of a Committee of Public Safety with the modera- tion which regular governments are usually compelled to learn. Its theory is the convenient or necessary one that it is the sole legal Government, sanctioned by the obedience everywhere paid to its behests. It does not, therefore, confine itself to acting upon opinion alone, but, like all other Governments, considers disobedi- ence an individual offence which must be punished by the collective State. It claims, therefore, the right of inflicting death, but, with unusual moderation, inflicts it only for cases of open "treason," i. e., efforts to overset it by forcible resistance to its officers, or the betrayal of its agents and plans. A curious instance of its self- restraint lately occurred in Warsaw. The correspondent of a Prussian journal, with the usual contempt of a German for every civilization but his own and the English, quizzed the revolt and its leaders. The ridicule seemed an atrocity to men fighting for their lives, but the Committee only warnedlhim to abstain from insult. He was at liberty to attack them as much as he pleased, and "express his political convictions as he chose," but not to make fun of dying heroes. Fortunately for its authority, the Committee possesses, though without prisons, the means of inflicting a terrible secondary punishment. It can sentence a man to infamy, and, from the strange devotion of Poles to the national cause, he is thenceforth infamous. He had better be dead, for the excommu- nication of the Catholic Chnrch had not in the middle ages a more deterrent effect. Life under the sentence is life under the scorn of all you love—is but the endurance of one protracted insult, and the Pole, like the Frenchman, is a man to whom insult is simply unbearable, who would commit suicide rather than endure to be pointed at with the finger. Armed with these weapons, and the ready obedience of the mass of the upper and middle class, who, like Italians, seem to have had moderation instilled into them by tyranny, to have hardened under it like clay under pressure, the Committee have been enabled to organize an administration as effective as that of the Russian Archduke. They appoint, without question, to all commands, and the officers selected quote their commissions as irrefragable claims to authority. They ordered a general a fortnight since to be tried by court-martial for retreating, and his officers brought him to trial. They have threatened all insurgents who retreat into Galicia with death as deserters, the opportunity of retreat diminishing the energy which springs from despair. They have ordered Warsaw to "wait," and that boiling populace is as quiet as the people of London. They recently issued a decree, dividing Poland into one hundred districts, and ordering a conscription of 400 men per district, and the order has been obeyed. As they name the commandant of each, and in each some few of the 50,000 youths enrolled in the society stand ready to execute their orders, an impulse given by them spreads immediately over the kingdom. The mode in which they spread orders and news with such rapidity, seems to puzzle the Germans, but will surprise no one who has ever travelled in the East. People forget that a steady five miles an hour is 120 miles a-clay, that runners relieved at each village can always keep up this pace, and that in Poland, where horsemen abound, the rate is for much of the distance doubled. They forget, too, that, with the exception of the telegraph, there is no instrument of communication so rapid as the human voice ; that London, for example, if awake and attentive, could, by a pro- perly managed system of repeats, be informed of a short piece of news in twenty minutes. The Committee, however;work evidently through relieved couriers, and generally reach the confines of their authority in less than three days. It is more difficult to ascertain how they transmit instructions beyond the confines, but they "reward" service pretty liberally, and Russians have an insatiable thirst for perquisites other than pay. Passports, regularly signed by the Archduke, are not infrequent among the agents of the Com- mittee, and there are German and Austrian Poles. With an army, a system of communication, ambassadors, and allies, the next step was to raise a revenue, and for this purpose the Com- mittee have issued a decree wholly without a precedent in history. They have from the first had considerable command of money, possibly French, but much more probably collected by private sub- scription from the landowners, by terror from Jews, and by the use of a credit based partly on patriotism and partly on fear. This resource, however, has proved insufficient, and on the 8th inst. the Committee, which now calls itself the Provisional Government, issued a decree imposing an income-tax on Poland. Under this decree all men with 2501. a year and upwards—corresponding, say, to 1,000/. in England, necessaries being exceedingly cheap—must pay two shillings in the pound, persons with 100/. one shilling, and all below them fouipence. Peasants and day labourers are duly exempted, partly because the expense of collection would make the receipts worthless, but chiefly to avoid irritating the masses who have just paid Russian taxes with the idea of a double impost.
But surely, remarks the reader, this must be a paper measure. A people may subscribe most liberally, but who can believe that an income-tax, established by an invisible authority, will be paid up on demand. That objection would be just, were the Commit- tee without the power of coercion, but it is in their possession of this power that they differ so widely from all other secret autho- rities. In each district there is already a local chief controlling the force ordered by the conscription. He is to appoint five residents known to be patriotic, and in nine cases out of ten members of the society. They draw up the lists from personal knowledge, and have no more interest in making blunders than similar officers in Great Britain. Those lists are laid before the chief, and if confirmed by him, a warning to pay within five weeks is sent to the householders named. The majority, being devoted to the movement, will, if they can, pay up, and how are the rest to resist ? If they denounce the tax-gatherers they are declared guilty of "high treason," and infallibly put to death. If they passively decline to obey, the tax is simply taken in kind and in pro- perty by the guerillas, with a cess for the expense of transport, and the names of the delinquents published in the secret press.
Thenceforward, besides losing their property, they are regarded as doubtful, and while the lluesians will not protect them, the
guerillas will select them first for every requisition. The peasantry, too, whose pay for supplies depends on these collections, will regard them with special hostility. It strikes us that an English landlord thus urged, and sympathizing intensely with the object for which the money is to be spent, would, un er this pressure, do as he does under similar pressure from the State, grumble, but pay. The Committee, with a moieration whicla impresses us more even than their administrative skill, have given, the taxpayers every advantage consistent with the necessity of the- case. Time is granted to all who are willing to pay, but tempo- rarily unable, and the receipts previously given for supplies for- voluntary donations, or for any other demands, are all received as. cash. All other taxes heretofore levied are abolished, and the. people instructed to resist any claim made in the name of the nation, save this single tax, which again, except when expended for the absolute needs of the army, is to be collected in the district treasuries, and then forwarded to the "secret provincial exche- quers." The money will be collected, and the Committee, witit the Russian Government in possession of the capital, of all for- tresses, of most towns, of all railways, and of all telegraphs, hafa succeeded in levying a conscription, framing a civil Government, and raising a national revenue. The whole strength of Poland in money and men is fairly arrayed for the national defence. And yet the Germans, who cannot even organize themselves so as to resist Von Bismark, pronounce a people now giving these proofs of high political capacity, noble but still uncivilized ; and the Quar- terly Review declares that the oppression which has induced the- nation to support such efforts is but the result of an ancient house- hold quarrel, in which the Poles are as much to blame as the- Russians.
But surely these decrees imply, as the Austrian Government. says, a system of terrorism ? Certainly, and so do the English revenue laws. The Committee do not, except in the single case of betrayal, in which they cannot help themselves, inflict cruel or- unusual punishments. They do precisely what the British• Government does, levy the tax by distraint ; and the additional punishment, advertisement in a newspaper, shows a morbidly high, instead of a demoralized, condition of public opinion. The only moral question involved in the matter is the right of the subterra- nean Government to levy taxes at all, and that seems to be settled by the mere statement of facts. There are modes of election other- than balloting, and the Government which originally without a soldier, raises troops, keeps excited cities quiet, decrees a con- scription, appoints, dismisses, and shoots Generals, and levies an income-tax of two shillings in the pound, must be pronounced by all impartial men an elected Government.
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