Debate on Gallician affairs.
FORTY-THIRD SESSION OF THE HOUSE OF DEPUTIES.
In the session of the deputies to-day the budget of the minister of police came up for discussion. Two speakers of the Polish faction embraced the opportunity to discourse upon the condition of things in Gallicia.
Dr. Dietl.In the seventeenth session he and his political friends touched! generally upon the illegal acts of which various executive officers, especially in connexion with Polish affairs, have been guilty in Gallicia. At that time the minister of police replied that not a single fact was produced as a basis of the charge. Now, in this reply of the Polish minister lay a challenge, and this the speaker to-day accepts, and declares that he and the members of his party, on the first of the month, placed in the hands of the minister of state a memorial upon the illegalities in Gallicia, to which document were appended, in ample numbers, the facts not produced on the former occasion. This memorial presents essentially five subjects of complaint, which, in the main, are matters relating to the police, viz: illegal arrests, illegal house-searches, encroachments of the imperial military and gens d’armerie, the employment of peasants as guards and assistants at house-searches in the country, and inhuman conduct on the part of executive officials.
After having proved by such facts that justice in Gallicia has been variously and seriously invaded, it is then shown that these infractions of the law can be justified neither by the bearing of the population, which is in all respects peaceful and loyal, nor by international considerations; for state laws, when not expressly declared inoperative, must under all circumstances retain their efficacy and be obeyed by the organs of government. It is finally intimated in the memorial that since the illegalities in Gallicia can be justified neither through the conduct of the people nor from international considerations, these acts can have foundation in no other motive than the intention of making in Gallicia common cause with Russia in repressing the Polish insurrection, but that such a complicity with Russia stands in the strangest contrast to the position which the government has assumed upon the Polish question in common with the western powers. Based upon the facts so presented, the petition was offered, “that justice, thus invaded in Gallicia on the part of the officials, be restored through the checks imposed by the laws relating to personal freedom and house-right; that humane conduct be strictly enjoined upon the imperial officials, and especially upon those intrusted with arrests and house-searches; that the employment of the police be not allowed to the military, but intrusted only to authorities legally constituted for this purpose; and that, finally, peasant guards and an organized peasant police be given up, and for the future be most strictly forbidden.”
Now, up to this moment no answer has been vouchsafed to this memorial— nay, not a hint in relation to what has become of it. He (the speaker) and his political friends see themselves under the necessity of offering to the police minister the well-grounded petition, that the action of the police in Gallicia may be regulated in the sense of the memorial in such a manner that it may correspond to the demands of the law and humanity.
V. Schmerling, minister of state. The gentlemen deputies to the Reichsrath from Gallicia have in fact, as just now stated by the last speaker, handed me a memorial which treats upon these asserted illegal assumptions of power which during some months past have taken place on the part of executive officials in Gallicia. I have given this memorial an attentive examination, which has led [Page 124] to further action upon it, in conjunction with my honored colleagues the ministers of police and justice, and precisely this attentive examination of the memorial has afforded me the comforting assurance that on the part of the imperial authorities, in the face of just such a condition of things as has now for nearly a year existed in Gallicia, their course has in fact been one of great moderation. For if, under the circumstances which in fact now prevail, it is only shown that a number of the inferior executive officials have, perhaps, here and there in particular cases, somewhat overstepped the strict forms of the law, this must certainly be called, on the part of the authorities, a thoroughly satisfactory attitude. I have to-day no call to go into details upon the condition of things in Gallicia. I should have no difficulty in laying before the house a mass of documents which exhibit, in the clearest light, the views of a certain party in Gallicia, I need not produce these documents. Those gentlemen who only read the newspapers are, I have no doubt, sufficiently informed how it is in general with this very highly loyal attitude in Gallicia; I say in general, because I gladly admit that the great majority in Gallicia are opposed to the doings of this party. Without declaring what course the government really intends to take in respect to these events in Gallicia, and whether its efforts are really intended to aid the Russian government in repressing the insurrection in Russian Poland, I confine myself to the simple declaration that what the imperial government is now doing in Gallicia has this for its object, viz: the repression of a revolution in that dependency of the crown, the object of which is in the end to separate Gallicia from the imperial state. (Applause in the centre and on the left.)
Deputy Dr. Zyblikiewiozopposed the assertion of the minister that the authorities in Gallicia had executed the laws with great moderation, and said: It is a legal condition of things in Gallicia that during the past half year nightly visitations have been made, as in the time of the French revolution; that the bed-rooms of the women have not been spared; that their bed-clothes have been stripped from them, and they driven half naked from their beds; that their mattresses have been tumbled up and down, as though to find recruits against Russia under them, as did actually take place in the Solnowsky house with the wife of a citizen; that in such visitations bloodhounds—as in the American style against negroes—have been brought into the houses, as was the case not long since in Count Wodjicke’s house in Cracow! Is that a legal condition, when a man in his own neighborhood does not go out of his own room into the street without taking a card of identification? Is it a legal transaction when, as was the case last Thursday in Lemberg, the entrances to a coffee-house are beset with bayonets, when the police pushes into the halls and examines the visitors there, and drags away whomsoever it pleases? Is that a legal condition of things, when young people dare not come out of the cellars, like the early Christians in the time of Diocletian; when in the garden of Count Potocki a gun was fired at his cousin, as she was walking there in the evening; when above the heads of the mother and sister of Kirchmeier, deputy of the Reichsrath, bayonets and sabres suddenly flashed as they entered the front yard of their own country-seat? Is that a legal state of affairs, when they take from the people clothes, linen, bread—yes, even oranges and the like, and declare them contraband of war; when the police agent is allowed to cuff the ears of an innocent man, because he did not take off his cap to him, and still retain his place; or when it is free for a police officer to open the cells of the prisons, throw the inmates into chains, box their ears, and mishandle them in other ways?
Whether the government is responsible for all this the speaker did not know, but the provincial authorities act thus, and as proof he would cite various regulations of the Gallician authorities, from which it might be seen whether in fact the administration of justice was the rule in Gallicia. Immediately after the outbreak of the Polish insurrection the president of the Gallician stadtholderate [Page 125] issued an order to the effect that the Gallician boundary should be lined with gens d’armes and police guards; but they did not confine themselves to the gens d’armes and police, but called upon the communes for aid. This circumstance roused great anxiety among the country people, who believed that the order was one touching their property and lives, because they could not believe that such a regulation could be adopted for the safety of Russia. However, that was not all, for in an order of April 10, relating to stopping emigration into Poland for the revolution, the agents of the government were ordered to take every possible step to put an effectual stop to this emigration. “To this end,” so says the order, “the local guards are to be strengthened; the local magistrates to be instructed to communicate every piece of information in the quickest possible manner to the authorities, who are, with all circumspection, immediately to seize upon the Polish recruits. With intelligent leaders, where no other aid is to be obtained, the necessary help may be demanded of the country people.” (Hear, hear.) Through this order the men of property among the country people also had their fears excited, and seized their weapons, and the peasant populace seized their arms also, with a suddenness and wrath characteristic of the populace. In the Bochmia circuit eleven communes have thus risen, armed themselves, and rung the alarm bells. They everywhere believe that it is a matter involving their own property and lives, and none can see that it is a question of the safety of Russia. A further order commanded the strengthening of the night-watches in the villages, because in the present extraordinary times those who may be travelling at night must put up with being stopped and called upon for their papers of identification. Thus the passport system has been introduced and put under the charge of the night watchmen. Now, nobody in the land could provide himself with the proper travelling documents, because these instructions remained secret; nor could such documents protect any one, because the agents appointed, belonging to the rudest class of the people, could neither read nor write. (Sensation.) The stadtholderate, which had produced this state of things, then saw itself forced to take some action against it, and so appeared a stadtholder order as to how these acts of force of which the peasant guards had been guilty should be remedied. So long as the more substantial part of the population formed part of the police so organized, there was nothing to complain of; but as this industrious class observed that the only object was the safety of Russia, and therefore returned to their own occupations, none but the roughest portion of the people remained in the guard; and now the pot-house became a sort of tribunal, where the worthiest citizens who had occasion to travel were stopped, brought before this tribunal, and thereupon treated just as it happened to please these roughs. Many were mishandled; many were let off on payment of money. Evil passions threw off restraint to such a degree that women were stopped, and, under pretence that they might be disguised recruits, were actually subjected to bodily examination. Soon after a new regulation was adopted, that of the district patrols. This regulation hitherto in Gallicia was only in force in desert places and against robbers or wild beasts; but this year it is enforced against those people who are only suspected of being recruits, by which again great abuses have been engendered. Soon, too, the stadtholderate found itself compelled to regulate these patrols, and so it was declared in an order in what manner it should be decided whether these patrols should be made; that is, the country to be patrolled must first be spied out, for it says in the order “that trustworthy herdsmen and field watchmen, if they are rewarded when successful, may well be considered as proper persons.” That is, to please Russia the spy system has been offered to the innocent masses as a business. Still, the provincial authorities were not satisfied, and the question came np, how, during these patrols, to bring the houses successively under revision. But it seems that many an agent of government found such harsh regulations offensive, and especially those relating to the protection [Page 126] of personal freedom and house-rights. So, now, this was the question, how to give the officials a dispensation from those laws; hence, to this end, a commentary upon the laws for protection of personal freedom and house-rights was actually promulgated in Gallicia, in which it is said that these two laws offer no impediment to the proposed house revision. It also says such revisions shall only be undertaken in due and proper form. This form, however, according to the commentary, is, that the official who is to undertake such an examination must have beforehand a warrant from the authorities, not, however, directed against any specified house or person, but general, and for all unforeseen cases—a sort of carte blanche. But all these regulations seemed to the provincial authorities insufficient still, and hence patrolling columns of soldiery were introduced, which seem to have been clothed with extraordinary authority. Such patrols, led by under-officers, stop any traveller, enter houses, make examinations, and carry off any person or thing which to them has a suspicious appearance.
The speaker now turned to the remark of the minister of state, that the public feeling in Gallicia was not such as had been pictured by Dr. Diett, and said: In fact, since Austria has held Gallicia in her possession there has never been a period in which the feeling there was so favorable to the government as during the present year. Every ill feeling had disappeared; the most imbittered had laid his hate aside, and not only in Gallicia, but the Poles in all lands, looked with full confidence up to Austria. The government needed not repress inimical demonstrations against itself; we would ourselves be the first to crush them in the bud. What has made the government uneasy is the reports which have come to it from the provincial authorities. The character of these reports may be seen from a single example. At the time of Orsini’s attempt against Emperor Napoleon, a road-builder in Gallicia had obtained a license from the authorities to purchase at an auction powder for the blasting of rocks. Having obtained his license to purchase a hundred pounds of powder, he took it to the proper officials, the same who had had charge of the sale. Now, what did the head of this office do? He wrote to the government that a quantity of powder had been discovered; that a revolution was on the point of breaking out, and that it stood in immediate connexion with the attempt on Emperor Napoleon. Well, committees were sent out and the entire province put in commotion. But nobody found any store of powder, or discovered any revolution; but the official had gained his point. In Vienna it was believed that it was impossible to discover the plot, and yet through this report the central government was convinced that Gallicia stood on a volcano.
After adding two other examples, showing how certain persons are determined to convince the government that Gallicia is undermined by revolution, he said, in closing, What to-day are the circumstances of Gallicia? Perhaps the feeling towards the government may have changed, and possibly may not now be as at the beginning I have painted it. That is possible; but judge ye whether the oppression which I have just pictured has been of a character to sustain the good policy for Austria? Nevertheless, we defend ourselves from any charge whatever of there having been any attempts against the Austrian government. These are only to be found in the officious correspondence—they exist only in the reports. We have not the right to demand that you believe us on our own word, but what is a right of ours and a duty of the government is that you listen to us and examine. If the government would “only for once examine into the condition of Gallicia! The commissioners whom the government has sent have applied to just those persons whom we point out as guilty; but that a guilty person should pronounce his own sentence, that has never occurred. Another sort of inquisition must be made. I, for instance, will only remark how I urged upon his excellency, the minister of state—when I proved to him that an intimate correspondence existed between Cracow and the secret [Page 127] police in Warsaw—to send commissioners to Cracow and convince himself that Russian spies were not merely tolerated in Cracow, but even protected by the officials; how I gave the minister a copy of a document, which stated that the infamous Hermann—he was stabbed at Warsaw—was living in Cracow; that the chief of the stadtholderate had taken him under his protection, and that he made him the subject of a correspondence with the secret police at Warsaw; how I entreated the minister to send a committee to Cracow to examine the papers of this political commissioner, and see whether he was in fact in correspondence with the Russian police. Such examinations, although I pressed them upon the minister, were never undertaken; but when the object is to make us suspected, and to place the illegalities of Grallicia in another light, then there is no hesitation in making them. I had more to say upon this matter, but, alas! my physical powers fail, and my moral strength is also in such a position far too much enfeebled. (Applause in the house and galleries.)
Vice-President V. Hoffnerdesired the galleries to refrain from expressions of applause.
V. Mecsery, police minister. The gentleman who has just spoken has noted certain facts, and painted them in very lively colors, which, in his opinion, amount to infractions of the laws on the part of certain agents of the government in Gallicia. As to facts, there is no other mode of treating them than to examine and prove them. Precisely these facts are doubtless recorded in the memorial to the minister of state, and their examination will first place the government in a position to judge of their importance. As to the general picture which the speaker has drawn, and which represents Grallicia as a land in which pure arbitrary will rules—to this general picture I allow myself to oppose an equally general one of the actual condition of things, and my assertions are based upon documents which have been obtained in the several cases of arrest, and are now in the hands of the authorities. When a secret government exists in a country, and extends its branches over all the land, [hear, hear,] and reaches with its organs even into the communes; when this government, in every sense, assumes to act like the legitimate one; when it imposes taxes; when it sends out the printed forms of these taxes; when, in particular cases, it proceeds to threats of punishment; when in Cracow a military headquarters exists, a command which, together with its entire and very extensive registry, has been but lately abolished; when this command divides the city into districts, each of which had its supervisor; when the dwellings were conscribed; when the quartering of troops and the furnishing of draught-horses were ordered; when reports made to these headquarters are in our possession in which the national gens d’armes report upon persons whom they hold for suspicious, of course suspicious in the sense of the national government; when communications from military leaders of the insurgents to these headquarters are in our possession which demand that this or that person, for this or that offence, shall be brought before the Cracow court-martial—when such a condition of things obtains, I am of opinion it is an absolute duty of the government to meet it with all the means which the laws afford; and that those laws have been transgressed is a point to be first proved in each particular case. The bare narrative of the honorable deputy—notwithstanding I place all confidence in his words— is not sufficient to enable me, at least, to form a well-grounded judgment. If we now survey the condition of Gallicia, as it has for some time appeared to any unprejudiced person, there appears, at the first glance, an immense concourse of strangers—a multitudinous congregation of suspicious foreigners without passports, and from all quarters. On the other hand there are the strangers’ police and the registry regulations, which are the, means given the authorities of meeting such an evil; and an evil it certainly is; but these legal regulations are certainly not made merely for the normal condition of things, just to enable us to read in the papers that this or that person has come to town; these [Page 128] registry rules are laid down precisely for those moments in which it is of the highest moment for the public authorities to come to a knowledge of these strangers, who exert no unimportant influence upon the peace of the country. When, moreover, experience has shown that of ten such persons arrested eight at least are most certainly provided with false legitimation papers, I am of opinion the provisions are completely justified which have been made by the authorities, who sternly put in execution this branch of the administration of the laws. It has been stated that houses have often been, searched, and that these examinations have been made in the night; yet, what shall be done under such circumstances, when it is clear that by day the individuals sought are not to be found? The process must take place in the night if the desired end is to be reached. I have thus, in general, and in few words, hinted that the condition of Gallicia is by no means as rosy as it has been depicted by the honorable deputy. When, however, he says that the reports of the provincial authorities are as darkly colored only for the sake of frightening the central government, I can most emphatically utter the assurance that the government has no fears. It will not be scared from its duty to sustain, under all circumstances, the authority of the legitimate government, and to protect the peaceful portion of the population against the oppression which, should it long be continued, will plunge the land into ruin. (Bravo, from the centre and left.)
Dr. Zyblikiewiez, deputy. I fear to trouble the house longer with this debate. I might, however, answer the minister of police instantly with my own paper, that which I have sent to the ministry of police. I shall find an opportunity to discuss the matter further.