LORD KINNAIRD,pursuant to notice, asked whether the Government had received from their Minister at Berlin any communications relative to the late transactions in the duchy of Posen; and, if there were any such, whether there was any objection to lay them on the table of the House? His object was, to take the best means of disproving some grossly false statements which had appeared in the public press of this country, principally copied from the German newspapers—statements imputing acts of great cruelty to that unfortunate people, the Poles—statements which had misled not only the public generally in this country, but many of their friends, and among them a noble Baron (Lord Beaumont) who saw reason afterwards to retract the observations he had made. The papers for which he (Lord Kinnaird) intended to move would give such a contradiction to those statements, that it would appear that instead of it being possible to accuse those unfortunate Poles of cruelty, their conduct had been most praiseworthy under the circumstances. The House would remember that on the partition of Poland a part of the territory known as the duchy of Posen was made over to Prussia. He was not prepared to say that that country had not exercised its jurisdiction in a far more humane manner than another Power which obtained another part of that territory. The system had been adopted by the Prussian Government of inducing the German population to migrate and settle there, and some jealousy had consequently arisen between the Germans so settled and the Poles. Until the 1051 recent occasion, however, that jealousy did not exist; it was only lately, when it had been fomented by interested parties, that there had been opposition the one to the other. It would be in their Lordships' recollection that on the 13th of March a revolution broke out in Berlin, and by the 19th of that month the revolutionary party had expelled the troops, and obtained a triumph over the constituted authorities. These occurrences in Berlin naturally created considerable excitement in the duchy of Posen; and on the 20th of March, when news arrived that the revolutionary party had succeeded at Berlin, there was a general rising throughout the whole of Posen, and in the course of a week from 20,000 to 25,000 of the people were armed, some with scythes and others with better weapons. A committee of safety was formed, and a deputation from that committee was sent to Berlin, in order to obtain from the King of Prussia equal liberties with those which had been granted to his other subjects. At the same time, a deputation from the committee of German residents in Posen also arrived at Berlin; and the King of Prussia referring the matter to his Ministers, they granted all that was asked by these deputations. The deputations found, on their arrival at Berlin, that the Polish prisoners confined in that city since 1846 had been liberated, and that they, in conjunction with the Polish students, had been formed into a guard, to which was intrusted the duty of protecting a portion of the city of Berlin. He (Lord Kinnaird) mentioned this fact to show the cordiality which existed between the Poles and the Prussians. It must be borne in mind that the rising in Posen was not with a view of throwing off the yoke of the Prussian Government, but merely to obtain equal privileges with Prussian subjects. Up to that time the utmost cordiality prevailed between the Poles and the German residents in Posen. The conditions proposed by the deputations being acceded to, the deputations returned, and the people of Posen were perfectly satisfied. But during the interval, when the details were being carried out, the minority of Germans, to whom had been intrusted all the offices in Posen, feeling that by the proposed alterations they might be deprived of those offices, intrigued at Berlin to prevent the conditions which had been agreed to with the Polish deputations from being observed. There were at that time in the duchy of Posen about 45,000 1052 Prussian troops, many of whom had been driven from Berlin—the number of these troops in the city of Posen alone being not less than 20,000. The officers commanding these troops, without the sanction of the Prussian Government, proclaimed martial law, and proceeded to scour the country, burning houses, and committing the greatest atrocities upon the unfortunate Poles. In consequence of these events, General Willisen was sent to Posen in order to ascertain what were the real facts of the case, and to endeavour to prevent further bloodshed. That officer found, upon his arrival, that the Prussians were on the point of attacking the Polish population; he was in time to prevent that attack; and after three days of the utmost anxiety he was enabled to get a convention signed with the Poles. This was one of the papers which he (Lord Kinnaird) was anxious to see laid on the table. Immediately after that convention was signed, the Poles, in accordance with its conditions, laid down their arms—a very small proportion of their number being allowed to retain arms; but after having conveyed their arms to the Prussian quarters, and while passing through one of the villages, a body of the unarmed Poles were fired upon by the German population and by the Jews. Now, statements had been circulated that the Poles had been guilty of the greatest cruelties towards the Jews in Posen, and that on several occasions a number of them had been massacred; but he could state to their Lordships, on information he had received, that only five Jews had been killed by the Poles. Calumnies of this kind had been repeatedly published against the Polish people; and he (Lord Kinnaird) thought, therefore, that if any proof could be afforded of the falsehood of such statements, their Lordships would be doing service to the cause of humanity, and an act of justice to the unfortunate Poles, by aiding in the production of that proof. The Prussian authorities had put forth statements that several Polish officers who were shot while mediating between the parties, were shot at the head of the insurgents. Inquiry had, however, been made on the subject, and the Prussian general had been obliged to admit that this statement was altogether erroneous, and that they had been erroneously and accidentally shot by the Germans. Under these circumstances, a large body of the Polish peasantry refused to lay down their arms, and in one of the 1053 encounters which took place, such was the enthusiasm of the peasantry, that, though they were only armed with scythes, they beat the regular troops. The most frightful atrocities were committed upon the unfortunate Polish prisoners. They were bound, and driven along like dogs; they were knocked down with the butt-ends of muskets—in preference to wasting powder upon them—and were then savagely butchered; they were subjected to every species of indignity and cruelty; and to such an extent was this carried that the Prussian authorities were obliged to reprimand in the strongest terms the excesses of the Prussian soldiers. The Judge-Advocate, in a proclamation he had issued, stated in the strongest terms that the cruelties of the Prussian soldiers were of the most horrible description. He (Lord Kinnaird) hoped the noble Marquess would consent to the production of a proclamation of General Willisen, to which he (Lord Kinnaird) referred in his notice, and in which that officer stated that the conduct of the Poles, in carrying out the convention, had been most meritorious. Such facts as these had been studiously suppressed in German papers, while everything that could tend to throw discredit on the Polish people had been greatly exaggerated. He had seen a letter from a lady who was the proprietress of a large domain in Posen, who stated that accusations had been made against the peasantry of committing great atrocities; that these statements were false; but that, on the other hand, the Prussian troops had committed the greatest excesses. The writer of that letter stated that her own house had been ransacked and the whole of her furniture destroyed by the troops; and that for writing on the subject to the German press, she had been exposed to the greatest insult and prosecution. He hoped that, if the papers to which his (Lord Kinnaird's) notice referred were not forthcoming, the noble Marquess would have no objection to obtain some further information on this subject from our Minister at Berlin; for, unfortunately, we had no agent or consul in the Polish provinces, from whom any information could be gained. He (Lord Kinnaird) might add, that at the time the revolution broke out in Posen, it had been suggested that subscriptions should be made by the friends of Poland in this country, to enable the Poles resident here to join their brethren in arms; but that measure was strongly objected to, and was 1054 at once abandoned. So determined and systematic had been the persecution of the Poles in Posen, that General Willisen had himself become the object of attack; but a deputation had waited upon that officer from a public meeting of the inhabitants of Berlin, expressing their shame and indignation at the treatment he had received from the German inhabitants of Posen; and the general in his reply bore favourable testimony to the conduct of the Poles. He (Lord Kinnaird) begged to ask the noble Marquess the question of which he had given notice, "Whether a copy of the convention, signed by the Prussian Royal Commissary, General Willisen, at Jarostaweie, with the Poles, on the 11th of April, and proclamations by the same general subequent to that period, had been communicated to the Government by Her Majesty's Minister at Berlin?"
§ The MARQUESS of LANSDOWNEwas understood to state that the papers to which the noble Lord referred had been received by Her Majesty's Government; but he was not prepared to say that he could sanction their production. Those papers related to a transaction with which this country had no concern, in which it could take no part, and in which it ought to take no part. The Government had no moans of contradicting or verifying the statements which had been transmitted from Berlin, and therefore no object would be answered by their production. He considered that it would be extremely inconvenient to have it supposed that the Government or Parliament of this country intended to take any part in the affairs to which the noble Lord had referred; for they were matters with which, in his opinion, neither the Government nor the Parliament had any right to interfere, unless they clearly affected the policy and interests of this country, and he, therefore, must beg to decline producing the papers to which the noble Lord had alluded.
§ The EARL of HARROWBYobserved that he believed very gross misrepresentations had been made respecting the conduct of the Polish people. He agreed with the noble Marquess that it would not be right to produce these papers, although he could not admit that the state of a country whose constitution was regulated by treaties agreed to by England at the general settlement of Europe in 1815, could be a matter of indifference to us; but he was glad that this opportunity had been afforded him of expressing his dis- 1055 belief of the representations which had been made with reference to the conduct of the Poles. If there had been atrocities committed by those people, they were in retaliation of atrocities committed by the nobles.
§ LORD BEAUMONTsaid, that, as he had been referred to by the noble Lord who had brought this subject under the notice of the House, he might be allowed to make a few observations. He felt some unwillingness to intrude himself on their attention, because he was aware of the indifference with which their Lordships regarded questions of foreign policy which did not immediately and directly affect the interests of this country. He must say that he did not blame their Lordships for that indifference, for he believed it was perfectly right that neither their Lordships nor this country should take any particular notice of events in other countries which were purely of an internal nature. If he (Lord Beaumont) could regard this subject as one of purely internal administration, he would readily admit that the noble Marquess was quite right in the reasons he had assigned for declining to lay on the table the papers referred to by the noble Lord. But he (Lord Beaumont) considered that any man must be profoundly ignorant of the state of Europe, and of the position of the eastern portion of Christendom, who imagined that what was now passing among the population of Poland, and the tribes located in that portion of the Continent, would not eventually affect the interests of this country, and might not possibly involve us in a European war. He was afraid that their Lordships' silence in reference to Continental affairs had already, in more than one instance, done injury. For example, if their Lordships had come to some resolution with respect to the rights of Denmark, in reference to the lawless invasion of that country which had taken place, it would not now be the case that a destructive and dangerous war was left to be put an end to by mediation only now commencing. He knew not whether they were not at the present moment exposed to danger in the Baltic in consequence of their silence; and for this reason he thought his noble Friend was perfectly justified in asking for the papers. Had the recent attempts in Poland been successful, the nucleus of a new kingdom would have been formed in Europe, and it would therefore be impossible to suppose their Lordships could be indifferent to a 1056 circumstance producing so great a change in the balance of power on the Continent. He differed from the noble Marquess, who thought that this was not a matter affecting England; for he (Lord Beaumont) conceived that anything likely to effect a change in the balance of power, and the relative importance of nations, concerned this country. But his object in rising was to explain how it was that elsewhere he had made certain observations to which his noble Friend had alluded. At the time he made those observations he was under the impression that the Polish portion of the population of Posen had not only committed errors, but crimes; but since that time he had received so many communications, both personal and written, from indviduals in Germany, or who had been there and witnessed what had occurred, that he had altered that opinion, and, relying on the information afforded him from so many quarters, he was convinced that the unfortunate events which followed as soon as the Poles imagined the convention entered into with General Willisen would not be fulfilled, did not justify their being stigmatised by the use of the phrases which had been used towards them, and which he also had been induced to apply to their conduct, and he was happy to have the opportunity of retracting, as he now did, those phrases. While he acquitted them of having committed crime, he would not exempt them from the charge of having fallen into very grievous errors; and he believed the Committee of Public Safety in particular, had not acted with tact or judgment. At the same time the convention should have been carried into effect, and many of the evils that subsequently arose would have been avoided.
§ The EARL of ELLENBOROUGHbelieved the rule of the House was to permit a question to be asked only for the purpose of preventing the necessity of a Motion, it being assumed that the answer would render any Motion unnecessary. The only inconvenience of making a Motion was, that it entailed long speeches; but if the House were to be obliged to hear long speeches, it would be infinitely better that a Motion were made. Nothing could be more inconvenient than to touch upon circumstances connected with the existing convulsion in Europe in the present irregular and incidental manner, for the consequence was, that those who entertained matured opinions on this important subject were unwilling to produce them to 1057 their Lordships, because there was no question before the House. Thus a false impression was produced of the opinion of the House, as silence appeared like an acquiescence in the observations made. He never knew the indulgence of the House more abused than on the present occasion.
§ LORD BEAUMONThad thought that the noble Lord possessed a good memory; but he found himself deceived, or surely the noble Lord would have been aware that nothing had been done to-night further than to imitate the example of the noble Lord opposite (Lord Stanley) on the Spanish question.
§ Subject at an end.