The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
Religion
The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
The friends of Poland believe that they serve the cause of progress by
aiding in the reestablishment of the Polish nation. We presume there are
plenty of men in France who know that during the last thirty years
Rossia has spread her dominion in Asia over twice the area of Germany
and France together, that she is only eighty miles from Peking, and as
far from India as Vienna is from the Black Sea. Moreover, Asiatic
people, always dreaming of plunder in Europe, once armed with European
Minie rifles and rifled cannon, may repeat anew the incursions of
Attila, Tamerlane, Battu, etc. The end to be gained and the booty will
create the temptation, and offer superior inducements.
The effort to palliate Rossian cruelty, skilful as it is, by the alleged
necessities of war, by denials, or by asserting it to be mere revenge
for similar atrocities committed by Poles, must be appreciated according
to the sources whence it emanates. What the letter writer or similar
twelve-hour visitors saw in Poland, particularly in Kracow, of people
sharpening knives or preparing deadly poisons, need here be merely
referred to by saying that in times of general confusion we have no
means to foresee or to control personal revenge, and also that we will
not here cite the reports of Polish papers or accounts of Germans. We
will take our data from the Moscow _Invalid_, the czar's _Universal
Journal_ at Warsaw, and the _Journal de Petersbourg_. From these we find
it stated that the number of men hanged in three hundred and sixty-five
days of insurrection was eight hundred and fifty, besides many others
whose names were not given because it was simpler and more profitable to
ignore their origin, class, and religion.
From Kiow alone Anienkow sent away fourteen thousand men, chiefly of
Greek or other non-Roman-Catholic religion, over whom the Catholic
priest had neither control or influence. From Warsaw, every Saturday
during fifty-two weeks, an average of four hundred men, women, and
children were deported, all separated from their natural guides and
protectors. From Liefland, north of the Dwina, were sent off, in one
month, thirty-five hundred of the better educated and comfortable class
of people. A Government paper rejoices that Polish and Catholic
principles, growing there during five centuries, were in a fair way of
extinction, since, as it itself admits, forty-five thousand men had been
transferred to the governments of Samara, Orenburg, Kazan, and similar
localities. To burn the villages of Ibanie, Szarki, Hrodki, Smoloy,
Zabolocie, etc., to destroy the furniture, horses, cattle, and all other
property, to send the inhabitants on foot, only allowing for the aged
and young children a few small wagons, far away into a cold, strange,
savage country, without tools, means, etc.--was all this done merely as
a military necessity, and was it excusable, or, at most, merely
_blamable_?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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