The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-23 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

%PORTING LNTELLIGENCF.

A !ate edition of the Express is published every
evenisq during the racing season, containing the
results of the day's races.

Tim Hungarian Diet has completed its difficult
and arduous teak with the same unfaltering pru-
dence, liminess, and patriotism that have so nobly
marked its proceedings from the first. The repre-
sentatives of the nation had to defend their con-
stitution, the charter of their rights and liberties,
against the most insidious and dangerous attack
that has e%er been made upon it. And at first
the contest seemed sufficiently unequal. The
despotic ruler, who had for twelve years governed
them by the sword, suddenly changed his policy,
professed the most friendly feeling towards the
nation, and sought to obtain by large promises
and liberal professions what he had failed to secure
by force. The Emeseida was supported by acute
and determined councillors, who well knew
how to disguise their scheme for the de-
struction of Hungarian freedom and indepen-
dence. All the arta of flattery and intrigue
were industriously employed to secure its success.
The new Constitution of the Empire was landed
as a triumph of Imperial wisicnn and liberality,
and no means were left untried in order to per-
suade the Hungarians to accept it. First they
were cajoled, and flattered, and caressed. The
new scheme, it was urged, would secure their
freedom as effectually as their own constitu-
tion, while it would indirectly confer upon them
even greater power. On the other hand, they
were warned against the consequences of rejecting
it If they held out against the Imperial plan,
they would inevitably, it was said, lose all. At
length, indirect threats and menaces were re-
sorted to by those who had the power to execute
them. On the other hand, the Hungarian Diet
was an untried and comparatively inexperienced
assembly. It included indeed some of those who
had fought the constitutional battles of 1848 ; but
there had been no meeting of the national repre-
sentatives for twelve years, and many members of
the Diet were new to the work they had to do. But
the action of this deliberative assembly showed no
sign of haste, or rashness, or inexperience. Their
proceedings indeed afford the best proof of the
value of the Hungarian Constitution by display-
ing
in the most striking form the love of liberty,
the attachment to law, and the capacity for political
action it has produced. The Diet had the saga-
city to recognise at once the true nature of the
Imperial proposals—that they would inevitably
destroy the constitution, and were designed to effect
this object. But it had too much dignity and self-
commaud to be betrayed into any expression
of impatience or indignation at the treachery
which had been attempted. The members
of both Houses showed their respect for public
law and established rights by resisting the pro-
posed innovation on purely constitutional grounds,
and presenting their protest to the Earinimi in •
strictly legal form. They used the most moderate
language, and carefully kept the negotiations open
to the last, in the hope that the Eurraot might
be advised to adopt • more legitimate course.
And when all hope of this was over, they re-
peated in even more decisive language their noble
declaration of constitutional rights, and threw the
whole responsibility of breaking off the negotia-
tions on the EMPEROa and his Government. They
knew perfectly well what might be involved in
this serious step, that it would probably be fol-
lowed by the dissolution of the Diet, the suppres-
sion of the Provincial Assemblies, the collection
of taxes by military execution, in a word,
government by the sword, with all the well-known
hardships and miseries it inflicts. But both Houses
of the Diet not only embraced these results
promptly and unanimously, but with the stern
resolve and suppressed enthusiasm of men who
knew the worth of what they were defending, ani
were determined never to surrender it. Only one
step more, one final resolution, remained to be
taken, and that was adopted on Wednesday
last. It was known that the Diet would be im-
mediately dissolved, and at its last sitting on Wed-
nesday afternoon the Lower House accordingly
passed by acclamation a motion proposed by M.
Demi, pledging the House, in the event of • dis-
solution, "to enter an energetic protest against the
" violation of the Constitution and the arbitrary
" acts committed by the Government." The
Upper House at once adopted the resolution of
the Lower, and both have thus appropriately closed
their patriotic labours by formally declaring the
dissolution of the Diet to be an illegal act.
We may safely anticipate the impartial verdict
of history in pronouncing the action of the Hun-
prism Diet from first to last one of the noblest na-
tional struggles, as well as one of the most complete
constitutional triumphs, ever recorded. This is in-
deed the verdict already pronounced upon it in every
free country of Europe. Liberal and Conserva-
tive organs have alike recognised the true signifi-
cance of the struggle as one of clear constitutional
right against arbitrary power, and have combined
to celebrate the wisdom, firmness, and moderation
that have marked it throughout. In this country it
may be safely asserted there is noquestion of foreign
politics on which such unanimity of feeling pre.
veils. Public opinion has spoken in favour of
the Hungarians almost without a dissentient voice,
and with only one dissentient snarl The one
adverse note is that so persistently barked by the
Member for Sheffield. But this, in fact, but con-
firms and completes the triumph of public opinion.
Mr. Borst:ex is never happy except in • passion,
never perfectly satisfied except when outraging the
opinions and convictions of his countrymen. His
inordinate vanity and self-esteem drive him with
irresistible force into the regions of paradox and
political isolation. When advanced opinions had
no chance of success he was a savage democrat ;