The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-09 00:00:00

INDEPENDENCE OF HUNGARY.

MEETING AT EDINBURGH.

A public meeting of the citizens of Edinburgh was
held in the Music-ball, on Monday, for the purpose of " ex-
pressing sympathy with the Hungarian nation la their
glorious straggle for constitutional freedom."
On the motion of Mr. /LTA's, the Lord Provost was
cell. I upon to preside.
The LORD PROVOST, on taking the chair, said they
were met that day in the meted eawe of liberty ; and he was
delighted to see so large a meeting of his fellow-eitisens
assembled at a time when, as a friend neer him hat re-
marked, Edinburgh might be said to be out of town. At
ere time he entertained some doubts about the propriety of
a meeting of this kind, lest it might have been found to do
evil rather than good; but, after the speech of Lord Pal-
merston in the Honer of Commove—(applanm)—and the
effect which that speech had already produced, all doubts
bad been removed from his mind ; and remembering, as
they must ell do, that this was not the. ant time
that Britain had interfered in the muse of Hungary,
he thought they would be far behind their pnede-
Miners were they not on this occasion to take some
notice of their struggles for liberty, and to express
towards them their cordial sympathy and good will.
(Cheers.)
Mr. HARRISON stated that he had received letters of
apology for absence from Lord Dudley Stuart, the Rev. Dr.
Candlish, the Rev, Mr. Geoid, the Provost of Leith, Bailie
Tullis, sad others. He also anaoanosd a donation of 61.
from Mr. John (Dant.
Mr. COWAN, M.P., then gross to move the first emir
Hon. Referring to the lama's and enthusiasm if she
meeting, be said there was no place more likely than las
capital of Scotland to respond heartily to the cell semis en
them to sympathise with the persecuted and cruelly treated
subjects of Hungary. Their forefathers, in former days. had
nobly vindiesW their national existence in the face of fear-
ful odds. He need only refer in proof to the 11131111-11011
household words—of Bruce and Wallace, who, five hundred
years ago, in the tea of English power and English tyranny,
maintained eacesedully the national existence of the king-
dom of Scotland, (Cheers.) He was sure the hearts of the
descendants of these men, and the inhabitants of the country
for which they had fought and bled, would be filled with
indignation when they read the accounts which were re-
ceived day after day through the newspapers, garbled
as they were, of the injuries perpetrated on the
sale Hungarians by those cowardly tyrants, Rue-
sia and Austria (hear, hear) for he hardly knew
whether the execrable cowardice of these mighty tyrants
did not exceed the outrages sad barbarities which they were
*dotting against that brave and sable people. He trusted
such a shout would be raised by the mated voice of Europe
and of Christendom as would speedily put a stop to such
tyrannous proceedings. (Applause.) After expressing his
sat-sfsetion at the peaceful tendency of the recent foreign
policy of the government, the hon. member concluded by
proposing the following resolution :
" That this lasting heartily sympathies with the Hangs-
riaa nation in the noble and determined efforts which they
are now making to maintain their constitutional indepead-
*ace, and to secure the permanent .njoymeot of civil and
religious liberty ; which efforts, the meeting ardently hopes,
may soon, by the blessing of God, be crowned with a glotions
sucoess."
The Rev. Dr. ALEXANDER seconded the resolution.
They were called together, he said, to maintain a great prin-
ciple is the.. science which had been justly denominated the
ethics of mations—they were called to maintain the faith of
treaties and the sisaty of oaths—they were called to lift up
their protest, in the spirit and accordant with the deepest
conviction of this nineteenth century, that might was not
neht, and that the attempt to wrest by brute force
from a free people their chartered and cherished inde-
pendence, we. an oakum upon humanity, and an offence
in the sight of Ood. (Cheers.) They were met to offer
their sympathy tea free people struggling for that which was
the dearest possession both of individuals and of nation,
and, ea far es they had the power, to aid thing in bringing
their straggle to a glorious and successful
(Renewed apples's.) It was of great importance that they
should have distinctly l-efore them the cause as it exactly
stood which had brought them together. They bad met not
foe the purpcse of contemplating the ease of two great
maven attempting to settle a quarrel between them by an
appeal to era, nor of taking part with any body that had
braes loose trim former restraint, and was seeking to
am apart from legitimate authority; but they were met to
look at the ease of a free people—of a people who had
always, in historie,l memory, been a free people—who were
seeking nothing but what they had always been aceortomed
to poser, but from whom a great power was seeking to
wrest their ancient independence, and for this purpose had
called in the aid of another, perhaps a greater, certainly a
more despotic, power, in order that they night trample un-
derfoot the treaties which many centuries had sancimetl,
and might bring under bondage and slavery a people that
had always called themselves free. From the time that the
crown of St. Stephen passed into the possession el the house
of Hapsburg, at every demise of the crown, and every sue-
emotive catenation, the independence and freedom of Hun-
gary had always been secured in the most solemn and im-
pressive manner. It was, therefore, in the fart of every-
thing that went to establish the freedom of the people, that
Laurie and Ruaaie were now waging war on tali plains of
Hungary, sad they had, therefore, before them a eat so
el, ar and simple, that he could conceive of no man hesitating
to give an expression of his sympathy towards the
struggling party, resisting that argresinue on his rights. If
it was asked what
right had they to lunches at all in the
matter, be would say at once, if they had no right before,
Kuria had given them an unquestionable right. (Lied
chem.) He believed there was such a thing a•
just and siomeary war, and that when war was so
it was honourable, and might be commended. He saw
nothing in religion or ia morale which forbade a man
to defend the sacredness of his own hearth and home,
even by an appeal to arms, against the plundering invader—
(hear, hear)—and when he read in Scripture that the magis-
trate was not to wear the sword in vain, he inferred that if
he might employ the sword against one of his own subjects
for the protection of the whole, much more might he
employ it for the protection of hie country spilt a
foreign foe. (Cheers.) He would not be understood as apo-
logising for war, for he could cordially say he hated It; but
he hesitated not to say there were worse evils than war—
there were long years of tyranny, 'injustice, and wrong—
there were fortresses filled with a foreign, a lawless, a line-
Mons soldiery—there was commerce interrupted, letters sus
pended, the seeredne s of domestic rights invaded,
honest eitisees interrupted in their vocations, the
dignity of matron, insulted, the chastity of vir-
gins our-reed ; dungeons filled with innocent victims
and scaffolds netting with noble and virtuous blood. These
were worm than war with all its hateful horrors, and when
he looked to the character of the powers that were now
waging weir against Honesty—when be thought of the
policy of !Metternich, of toe dungeons of Speilberg and the
vast wastes of Siberia—when he remembered they had to do
with men who spared none from their revenge, and who
had, even within his own memory, violated evay sense of
decency, outraged every feeling of humanity by lacerating
the flesh of virtuous and noble women by the degrading
anl torturing scourge —when he saw they were the peril
seeking to obtain dominion over Hungary, he said at one.,
tan thousand times give him war with all its horrors,
with its quick despatch, and with its hasty but deci-
sive agonies, than this long-continued, des dating, dis-
tract's' pl quo, which, like the fatal epee tree. in-
fects the very air with death, and under which
all truth, virtue, and honesty languishes and dies.
(Auntie's.)
The resolution was then put to the meeting, and enthu-
siastically alerted.
Mr. ALEXANDER DUNLOP, advocate, said he re-
joiced that they had not left the Hangman people to
struggle on without their sympathy, as they had left the
Romans till they were tramp'ed under foot by the despotism
intake, under the garb of a friend. (Hear, bear.) He
=, too, that their government bad taken the position
rlit had done is expressing the ',aliments of the poople
OEMs& ; but, even though no expression of their opinion
bed been ghee, he held that it would have been equally
ingeoade• s the people of this country to have raised their
wagielnerielpMfge with the Hungarians. The resolution
kile ha psers• was to the following effect:—
: er sag shoggdng deeply deplore the war willed by the
Angina adlawkiss, tad that with each barbarous cruelty,