The Express.
London, England, 1861-08-28 00:00:00

TO OUR READERS.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE

A late edition of the Express is published every
eveniag during the racing mammon, containing the
results of the day's races.

Tae few and isolated partizans of Austria still
to be found in this country have rather a hard
time of it just now. In the first place, with the
single exception of the Member for Sheffield,
whose snappish self-conceit destroys all sense of
shame, they scarcely venture to confess the strong
HAPSBVItI; partiality that really animates their
breasts. They slander the Hungarians by stealth,
and blush to find it fame. They just hint a fault
in the conduct of the Hungarian patriots, and
hesitate dislike of the constitutional position they
have maintained, with all the delicate solicitude
and decent regret of the candid friend. They
covertly sneer at the notion of a Hungarian
Kingdom, and would insinuate that the Diet re-
presents only a small fraction, little more than
four millions ..-indeed, of the populations united
under the Austrian Crown. It need scarcely be
said that this is simply a malignant fiction. The legal
Hungarian Diet represents a population of about
fifteen millions, at nearly half the entire popu-
lation of the Empire. while the imperfect Diet just
dissolved represented upwards of ten millions--;
considerably more than the aggregate population
of all the purely German provinces. And whatever
difference on minor points of constitutional right
may have existed, or may still exist, between
Hungary proper and the outlying territories of the
Hungarian Crown, the recent constitutional
struggle against despotic usurpation was backed
from first to last by a united and enthusiastic'
nation of more than ten millions. And it is with
the determined though passive resistance of this
nation—the only nation to be found amongst the
polyglott H Arsons° possessions—that the Imperial
government has now to deal.

tin the other side, in relation to the Imperial
Government, the championship of the English
Austrians is squally guarded. Instead of running
into vulgar eulogies, it takes the softer shape of a
sincere and anxious desire to do the young EXPO..
MO it and his advisers justice. He is comparatively
inexperiessed, at least in constitutional ways, and
deserves the utmost consideration. His advisers
have a difficult task to perform, and they must not
be judged too severely. The last dieeevery of these
apologists is that the severe condemnation of the
insolent Rescript dissolving the Diet arose Irma *
mistake u to its terms, and is therefore "quite
" unmerited." The terms were reported by tele-
graphic summary, and " in that summary " we are
told "the iseesaos was made to say that he die-
" solved the Diet because it had not ' obeyed'
" his ' commands,' aa well as because the demands
"of the Diet were inadmissible." "No one could
" be surprised," adds the apologist, "at the sager
" of a representative assembly which was told that
" it had not obeyed commands, nor at the feeling
" with which such a message was resolved in all
" free countries. Constitutional monarchs do not
" issue commands to legislative assemblies, and do
" not dissolve them for disobedience. It was natural
" to infer that the benison, as well as the Diet,
" had mistaken his mission, and, moreover, that he
" had a thoroughly mistaken idea of the duties of
" a constitutional monarch." The EMPEROR, we
are assured, however, has not sinned to the extent
implied in the terms of the telegraph, there being
nothing in the text of the Rescript about com-
mands or disobedience. " The &mace simply
" states what is true, that the Diet had not done
" what it was invited to do." I this is all that
can be said for the Limos' we fear his ease
must be abandoned as hopelees even by his best
friends. The defame is absolutely nugatcey and

worthless—a paltry verbal quibble. In the first
place the telegraphic message said nothing about
commands, the words mead being requests ; but
everybody know■ that an Imperial request i■ a
command. There is no difference of meaning
whatever between the terms of the roes age and
the text of the Rescript, and no difference in ex-
pression except what would naturally occur in the
translation of the same document by different hands.
Who but a faltering partition or a special pleader at
his wits' end could imagine for a moment that it
made the slightest difference whether the Hungarian
Diet is dissolved because "it has not obeyed the
" requirements which have been addressed to it,"
or because " it has notreepooded to the invitations
" addressed to it." There is nothing in the text
of the Rescript to mitigate the severe condemna-
tion it has most justly received, or to abate in
the least the honest feeling of indignation it hes
excited in every free country of Europe. So far
from this being the use, the further information
we have now received unfortunately proves that
the adverse judgment of the Euraaoa's coodnet,
founded on the mere terms of the Rescript, wee
only too lenient. The dissolution of the Diet wee
accompanied with details of gratuitous insult and
menace unparalleled in the history of legislative
assemblies. The Royal Commissioner, in summoning
the beads of both Houses to reosipt the Rescript,
officially informed them that, unless the Diet
immediately obeyed, he would be compelled to
employ military fares. Count CAMOLY was amply
justified in pronouuring this threat of forcible dis-
solution " a perfectly unmerited menace." The ,
conduct of the Diet throughout might have pro-'
tected it from this outrage. However firm its
opposition to illegal demands, it has shown no dis-
position to resist the arbitrary acts of irresponsible
authority. So far from this, the leading speakers
of the Diet had formally declared that no such
resistance would be attempted. The Dist had
notoriously made all the preparations for its own
dissolution, and was waiting for the event at the
very moment when the threat of force was con
veyed to it. Under these circumstances such a
measure was a wanton insult, a vindictive abuse

of power, that recoils at once on the govern-
ment and ita Imperial head.
This violent act, however, is not the only
evidence to show how seriously the EIIPZP,OR has
mistaken his rdle, or how much he has to learn
before he can hope to play with success the part of
a

Monarch. The Eurraoa's NM-
sage to the Reichsrath shows, if possible, a more
complete and glaring ignorance of the new duties
he has assumed. The Message is full of
arbitrary assumptions, sinister inconaistenciea,
and fatal contradictions. At the outset, for in-
stance, the Emrtsoa, after declaring that the
ancient Hungarian Constitution was abolished in
1848 by a revolutionary power, blames the Diet
for not applying itself to the revision of the laws
established by the same authority. Then, while
urging that everything should be sacrificed to secure
the unity of the Empire, the Message attempts in
the same sentence to stir up the ancient feeling
of rivalry between Hungary and the adjacent
provinces. Hut one sentence of the Mea-
nie wholly destroys the new Constitution.
" The non-participation," says the Imperial mes-
sage, " of a portion of the empire in the Reichsrath
" cannot be hurtful to the rights of the other
" portions of the monarchy. No change can be
" made in the constitution of the empire without
" the consent of the Reichsrath." This is, per-
haps, the coolest, as well as the most suicidal state-
ment ever made by a would-be constitutional
monarch. It comes to this, in fact, that under the
new constitution, it makes no matter how much or
bow little of the empire is represented in the
Reichsrath. The phrase "a portion "is no doubt
vague, but the list of the provinces of the empire
that have sent no deputies to the Reichsrath tends
to define its meaning. In addition to Hungary,
Croatia, Dalmatia, Transylvania, and Venetia have
refused to send representatives. In fact, the
Reiebsr•th has never represented more than a ,
moiety of the Empire; and of the deputies ,
actually ainembled, • large section have simply
protested against the illegality of the whole pro-
ceeding, the injustice of such an assembly attempt-
ing to legislate for the Empire at all. Yet, ac-
cording to the Message, even if the Reichsrath
should become still smaller, if other important
portions of the Empire refused to send deputies, it
would still be competent to legislate for the whole.
That is the notion of constitutional government
entertained at Vienna, and it is for • representa-
tive phantom like this that the Hungarians are
invited to abandon their ancient constitution, with
the freedom and independence it guarantees.