Russia and the Poles. The Moscow Gazette publishes a curious dialogue between a Russian official and the peasants of a Lithuanian village, which strikingly illus trates the means emi loyed by the Russian Government for introducing the Russian language into Polish churches. The official, says the Gazette, entered the village with a detachment of troops, and summoned the wealthiest of the peasants to meet him. “ I have assembled you,” he said, “ in order to aunounce to you a new Imperial favour. Listen !” He then read the ukase of the 6th of January last, which “ permits ” the Russian language to be used at divine service in Roman ( attiolic churches, aod proceeds as follows: —“ Hitherto you were forbidden to pray in your Russian mother tongue (sic); but now the Emperor has graciously permitted you to do this, and it is no longer necessary for you to learn Polish prayers and call yourselves Poles. Do you rejoice ?” The peasants (we still quote from the Russian paper) were silent. “In that case,” pursued the official, “you must ask the Government for permission to hear Russian sermons in your church.” The peasants looked at each other in confusion and still remained silent. “ Tf then, you wish to pray in Russian,” the official went on, “ you must sign this paper” (taking a written document from his pocket). During this speech most of the peasants had quietly slunk out of the room. “ Wei',” said the official, losing patience, “ what do you say ?” “ Gracious sir,” an swered the few peasants that remained, “ this is not our affair, and we will not sign.” “You rascals,” screamed the official, “you yourselves said the Imperial ukase had made you rejoice.” “If the priest will preach in Russian,” said the peasants, “ we will listen to him, but we will not sign, for (who knows ?), perhaps if we sign, that may mean that we renounce the Catholic religion ? Upon this the official, after making a few more attempts to persuade them to sign, pro ceeded, cursing their obstinacy, to the next village, where, says the Moscow Gazette, a similar scene awaited him, as also in the other villages and towns he visited on his tour.
