THE LADIES BATTLE AT BIARRITZ.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 40, 8 February 1864, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE LADIES BATTLE AT BIARRITZ.

../Biiirril/j ha* been the scene of a new Vlivsiou of- L tlit; <" Ladiet? BaUie. M Tlie pjiasanfc little watering-place which the- Empress Eugenie has raised to i'cimo, jus i. as George 111. conferred a short-lived celebrity on "Weymouth, is about the la?.i" spot in the world where the first outbreak of open war between the two empires of Prance and Russia might Lave been expected to take place. Xo doubt the Emperor himself was of our opinion. When, he took himself to that out-of-the-way nook of France he fancied — and all the politkia'i^ ha Europe fancied — that, for the time, there was an end of the Eusßio-Pohoh difficulty, It is a far cry from \\ ar«s.i\v to Biarritz ; and Napoleon Til. m .y well have counted on a slight breathing' time from the constant complaints- of the Poles and the repeated expostulation of the v -.Russian Government. Alaa ! it was not so to be. Man — if, without profanity, we may slightly alter a French proverb — proposes, b'ut woman disposes. It was useless to order ivj dispatches to be forwarded: to leave i instructions at the French Foreign r Office that nothing was to be done >e PoLuid till- the battling' season should be over ; to request that the name of "Warsaw should not be alhidr'd to at Biarritz ; the irrepre.sfuble conflict was destined to break forth under 'the very eye& of royalty. It sterns that ainidbt' the victors to the Imperial restingplace; there was a French lady recently 1 returned from Poland, and ardently enthusiaslie-in the cause of Sobieuki's countrymen, The freedom of thifc lady's language, the outspoken manner in which she dwelt upon bes horreurs committed by ce.t mjuine Mouiuvieli, excited the indignation of the Muscovite community at Biarritz. Russians hold the same opinion about their own land as Moore expressed about Ireland, namely, that it is the finest, country in the world to live out of; but in spite of this spcvi.il view, or perhaps by reason of it they resent, with bitter hostility, any forei >,n confirmation of their opLiion. Femi.iinc patienc^ i» notoriously bhortlived, and at hist the equanimity of a certain Russian lady of high rank gave way before the repeated insults heaped upon Holy Russia by the enthusiastic French woman. The knout was the punishment due ;foY such profanity ; but as it was impossible, in these degenerate days, to administer that penalty in France; it' was necessary to invent a novel adaptation of the knout principle. The two female champions of Russian empirs aucl Polish independence met the other day in the streets of Biarritz. The Imperial cortege wa* in view, and the faithful daughter of the Czar felt that the hour was come to vindicate her claim to the nationality of Molumvieff. Then and there she struck her enemy in the face with her para-sol, and retired flushed with the pride of .victory. . . Her triumph was destinedto be short-lived. Conduct 1 audible in Russia is reprehensible in France, aud Frenchmen have never learnt to submit to a blow with orthodox Russian, patience. Complaints were made, and the name of this Muscovite heroine, together with those of her friends and countrywomen, were struck oif the visiting list of the fair and devout Eugenie. Great was the indignation of the Russians, and greater still their wrath when they found that a. Polish countess was exempted from the general baud, and permitted still to enjoy the Imperial favor. The ladies' battie wa-j now carried to another stage ; the arms of nature were exchanged for those of art ; and powder supplied the place of the primitive" parasol. Why a Polish countess, who rejoiced in the utterly unpronounceable name of Przezdiecka, should have been selected as the object of Muscovite vengeance because a French lady had talked impertinently about the Czar is hard .to understand, War, however is seldom strictly logical, and in the hands of a female combatant is not Likely to acquire a character for rHriet- consistency. At any rate, the fountf- 1 - was fixed, upon as -:V,r of .•^■■•ligr/ punishment. On ■■ ■■ '''-inn souie so?, v.'- —where. • p. \?>~:*a !iu--s'itii": sub-'

height before it could display itself in the refined circles of high 'society. jESTo doubt a duchess and a are botli women alike j and if you can once cause either of them to forget her manners,, she wil) behave much after the same fashion. The difference is, that the provocation which • cao. induce a lady of elevated rank to lose v all sense of decorum must be far greater than that required to put an ordinary woman out of her senses. It may be true that the Tartar is always hidden, beneath the Russian's\skin, but stilithe Musco\ ite nobility when abroad are painfully anxious to establish a character for good breeding and refinement. To do them justice,- they are generally successful in the attempt; and if a Russian lady, uiid.^r the very eyes o^ that Court whose approbation in social matters her countrymen value most highly, cannot restrain the bitter hatred . she entertains towards ' the Poles and their friends, we may f^ncy, what must he the feelings and conduct of the'" ignorant Cossack soldiers placed in a position where he can. give vent to his Late and passion without; restraint or -censure." "We believe that m no-tenths of tlie cruelties perpetrated in Poland are due to the personal animosity entertained by the Rufcsian soldiery towards the Poles. not to any orders of the G-overnment of St. Petersburg. But though^ this facu somewhat lessens the odium attaching to the Czar and his advisers, it only .increases the difficulty of the Polish question, If the brutal barb'U'ity with which the Poles are treated were owing solely or chiefly to the cruel -policy of the Russian Government, . we could hope that hope that a change of policy might bring rel ief to Poland. As it is, there can ne\ev be content or comfort for that wretched country while it is ruled over by a race to whom its religion and language and existence arc hateful alike. It is- possible, as ethnologists are fond of explaining, that the Poles are virtually of the same race as the Russians ; it ia concei\ able that in centuries to come they may both be merged in the great Pan-Sclavonic empire of the future ; but as far as practical men caai see forward, there is no. fusion possible between the two races ea*t and .west of the Dnieper. Man, women, and .child in Poland hate the Russians \vith that bitterness which the oppressed feel for the oppressor and the Russians return the feeling with the yet bitterer hatred of the oppressor for tlie oppressed. Whathas passed at Biarritz is'biit-a cabinet specimen of what is passing, at "W^r- ; saw on a vast scale, without restraint, and amid endless provocatives and exasperations. - . . , A'/;.