The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-19 00:00:00

nu SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 19,

LONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 19, 1865.

Taking all things into consideration it must be
confessed that the Emperor of AUSTRIA has suc-
ceeded pretty well in his expedition to Hungary,
and so far satisfaction seems to prevail. He was
very well received everywhere, which circumstance
formed a striking contrast to the silence with which
the Queen of SPAIN was met on her recent return to
her capital after five months of absence. Whatever
may be the errors which the Imperial Government
have committed in point of policy, and however
insincere may be some of their most high-flown
professions, it cannot be denied that great confidence
has been shown to the llungarians, and that they
have met it in a similar spirit. The EMPEROR did
not make his way through the streets of Pesth
surrounded by military and guarded by police, but
he relied on the good-will of the people, who
thronged to greet his arrival. An imposing cere-
mony took place upon the occasion of the EM-
PEROR'S delivering his speech, and altogether the
affair was very impressive. The EMPEROR was
declared to have read his discourse as well as if he
had been born in Hungary. It cannot be said—
although the speech seems most comprehensive in
its details and most ingenious in its construction—
that
it really removes any of the obstacles
which impede the progress of affairs, or that
it renders the solution of the problems so
any the more likely of occur-
difficult to solve
The EMPEROR does not appear willing
to give up his previously concerted plans, and when
the excitement consequent upon his visit is over
witness anew the unsettled con-
we shall do4tless
dition of affairs and the angry clamour of debate
which have already given rise to so much confusion,
and marred all progress worthy of the name. The
silence of Herr VON DEAK during the delivery of
the discourse was most significant, and if the EM-
PEROR cannot yet persuade and almost convince this
influential personage, he will find on his return that
his visit has been lost labour, and his efforts of no
avail. The EMPEROR sets out by stating that he
desires to remove those obstacles which interfere
ith the "solution of the pending political questions."
In order to do this the more effectually he announces
that the intended understanding can never be arrived

rence.

at if plain contradiction is the order of the day.
" Perversion of right upon the one hand, and stub-
born assertion of right upon the other, could lead
to no agreement." This is true in theory, but still
we doubt if the object in view can be achieved by
the plansproposed in this speech, which is, after all,
but a resume and exposition of the policy long since
promulgated by the Imperial Government. The
Pragmatic Sanction is the great point of departure,
upon which the Hungarians are now told all
the reconstruction of the Empire depends.
This appears to be of a very elastic nature, for we
find in studying its definitions that it guarantees
the independence of the bare right of the Kingdom
of Hungary, and yet upholds the inseparable and
indivisible tie of the kingdom and countries " under
the rule of our House, and therefore their solidity as
a great Power." This may sound very well to those
who regulate their notions of government, and seek
to conform their views to the doctrines of German
mysticism, but to English ears it seems very like a
contradiction in terms, or at any rate to be an
attempt to carry out a scheme of government which
is illusory in its advantages, and practical in its
evils. How can a kingdom be independent in
itself, and yet be under the necessity of conforming
to the rules laid down and the policy pursued by
another and more powerful State?

When we consider the fluctuations to which ar-
bitrary Governments are subject, it seems perfectly
impossible to realise the idea conveyed to us in this
Imperial discourse, and certainly the late events in
Hungary do not encourage us to make the attempt
in a sanguine spirit. We now come to a stumbling-
block even in the fair-sounding descriptions here
given, for even as the rights are to be without any
reserve within the limits there exists a necessity
for the " necessary and legallimitation of that inde-
pendence." Again, further on it is declared that it is
necessary to take into account the events of recent
years, even while every care will be taken to pre-
serve those clauses which refer to the integrity of
the Hungarian Crown. The EMPEROR lays great
stress upon the efforts which have been made in
various directions to afford the Diets an opportu-
nity of " serious and earnest consideration" respect-
ing the points in dispute, so that there may be
established an understanding which is real and
lasting. It seems to result, after all, in this—that
the several Diets and Assemblies which are con-
voked, and are aboat to be so, are to say all they
like, and propose what they require, and that they
must entertain a delightful uncertainty as to whether
or not their thoughts will be as the thoughts of the
Imperial Government, and their ways tend in the
same direction in which the Councils of State are
tending in Vienna. If we could see one decided
principle of action laid down, if we could hear one
positive assurance of the rights of nations being
ranked high above the necessity of limitation and
the changes and chances of passing events, we
should entertain a far more sanguine expectation of
a happy result than we can now possibly do with
the whole weight of the arguments so dexterously
put before us, and the combination of expediency
and subversion which seem to be the order of the
day. With all due respect to the EMPEROR, we
cannot put faith in these complieated and contra-
dictory arrangements which are based upon the
spirit of the Pragmatic Sanction. They may pass
muster at a State ceremonial, but they will never
stand the test of time, nor the trying events of
political changes.
It is difficult to reconcile the apparent incon-
sistency which has prevailed in the councils of the
Empire, and which also seems to rule the spirit of
this discourse. There have been so many and such
various diplomas and patents that it might fairly
puzzle the most astute to decipher, or discern their
influence on affairs. The chief result of all
this has been that want of faith exists
in a great degree to an alarming ex tent
among the kingdoms and States which are to
form the solidarity of the great Power so empathically
referred to by the EMPEROR. Towards the close of
his speech the EMPEROR intimates the impossibility
that exists of putting into effect in full force the
laws of 1848. They are to be modified, we learn,
and doubtless rightly interpreted. This expression
may seem to inform us that they are to be robbed
of half their value at least. Reciprocal rights and
duties are to be settled, and that will necessarily
entail an endless succession of difficulties. The
EMPEROR declares his readiness to take the inaugu-
ral oath to the Hungarian Constitution " modified
in accordance with the times, and perma-
nently established for remote posterity." The
first of these predictions is much more likely to
be verified than the other. Nothing is of a lasting
character that is not founded on a right principle ;
and, turn it over as we may in our minds, no
principle exists in all this tirade on Hungarian
affairs, but the desire of obtaining absolute sway
under the specious pretence of conformity to national
rights, and an adherence as far as possible to estab-
lished customs. This may succeed for a time, but
in the long run it will be found that the Emperor
FRANCIS JOSEPH has built his house upon sand, and
not upon the enduring foundation of a people's
trust and confidence, which alone can withstand
the storms of fate.

The opening of the Federal Congress, on the 4th
of December, was an event which excited the
deepest interest throughout the States. After a
great constitutional struggle, no matter for what
end, after even a severe political campaign, the first
meeting of the popular Representatives, when quiet
is restored, is always an important and eventful
matter. How much more so is it then when, after
so long and momentous a crisis, after years, when
every other consideration was secondary to the
necessities of the war, the American Congress once
more assembles to deliberate only on matters of
internal legislation and of social reform. The
calm, however, is only superficial, for many a battle
must be fought in the political arena before any-
thing like confidence or prosperity can be restored
to the people; that is to say, if we may judge from
the reckless and intemperate conduct of the Repub-
lican party on the opening. The first great ques-
tion which presented itself for settlement was a
momentous one, being no other than the
Congress.
Unfortunately the Southern States to representation in
Unfortunately this inevitably came up on the very
first day, on the reading of the roll of members, and
the Radical party, who had carefully laid their
plans, carried the disputed point by a coup
de main. At the formal meeting of the House
of Representatives on Monday, the 4th, Mr. EDWARD
APPEIERSON, the old Clerk of the House, proceeded
in due form to read the roll of members elect in
alphabetical order by States. It was very soon
evident that the exclusion of the Southern States
was decided upon by the Radicals, for the roll
began at California, with the ominous omission of
Alabama and Arkansas. The same order was fol-
lowed throughout, and an impartial observer, if any
such were present, might have smiled, remembering
the fierce denunciations of American patriots against
the tyranny of Emperors and Kings, the
eloquent declamation respecting the rights of
the down-trodden peoples of Europe to full and
free representation, when he listened to the
reading of the roll of members, and found that
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,

-Mississippi, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Texas
might claim no right to be heard in the popular
Assembly of the Union. When Tennessee was
passed over, Mr. MAYNARD of that State rose and
asked permission to make a remark. He was over-
ruled by the Clerk. Again he rose at the end of
the reading, but the Clerk again silenced him.
After the motion for the election of a Speaker, Mr.
MAYNARD renewed his attempt to speak with the
same success, this time being called to order by
TH.ADEUS STEVENS, of Pennsylvania, a prime leader
in the Republican movement. But the South was
not without an advocate, for Mr. BROOKS, of New
York, in defiance of incessant interruption, boldly
brought up the question of Southern representation,
and, speaking of the loyalty of Mr. MAYNARD, asked
why he was not to be allowed to present Lis creden-
tials, and why the Virginian delegation was ex-
cluded ; asking, while he moved that Mr. MAY-

NARD'S name be placed upon the roll, if Tennessee
were not in the Union how it was the President was
in his place at the White House ? Mr. STEVENS
interposed by declaring that this debate was out of
order, the motion for the election of the Speaker
not being decided upon, and the House passed on
to elect 'Mr. COLFAX. Immediately afterwards a Radi-
cal member proposed that the officers of the House
should be appointed, and the names determined
upon by the Radicals were at once announced, in-
cluding, of course, that of the Clerk who read the
roll, the other party not being even allowed to
nominate candidates. The next move was to carry
a resolution, referring the great question of the
admission of the Southern Representatives to a joint
committee of fifteen members of the Senate and the
House. THADEUS STEVENS, who moved this reso-
lution, will be the chairman of this committee, and
the majority of the members will of course be
Radicals, so that it is not difficult to guess what
sort of a:chance the most loyal Southerner will have.
It is worth notice that this ingeniously framed reso-
lution provides that pending the report of this illus-
trious committee no member shall be received into
either House from any so-called Confederate State,
and " papers relating to the Representatives of the
said States shall be referred to the said committee
without debate." Apparently the Radicals are afraid
of any more home truths and searching questions
such as found a place in Mr. BROOKS'S address,
and so they provide, as far as they can, against
hearing any one's voice than their own.

And this is the end of the boasted American
freedom of speech, of thought, of individual action !
This is the result of those democratic principles
which secure to every man a voice in the govern-
ment of the country ! Truly the most prejudiced
upholder of an absolute despotism could hardly have
devised a more bitter satire on the political adminis-
tration of the great Republic than that an all-
important question like the representation of vast
States, whose population is reckoned by millions,
should be virtually left to the decision of a petty
Clerk ! It was well known prior to the meet-
ing of Congress that Mr. APPHERSON had de-
clared he would not enter a single State on
the roll, and though such a course would have
been impossible without the concurrence of the
Radical majority, yet the omission itself took the
other party at a disadvantage, and was eminently
favourable to Mr. STEVENS and his friends. Of
course, his re-appointment as Clerk rewards this
patriotic servant after the manner in which Ame-
rican Radicals best like to be rewarded, and the
party he has so signally served reap the fruits
of their labours in securing their large majority.
The Southern Representatives, if admitted, would
naturally have strengthened the hands of the
Democrats, but the Radicals will have it now their
own way, and may proceed to appropriate Southern
estates to the payment of the Northern national debt,
according to the memorial to Congress, adopted at a
recent Radical meeting, held at Dr. CIIEEVER'S
church in New York. Ac this meeting the PRE-
SIDENT was strongly denounced, and the memorial
is violently opposed to his reconstruction policy,
especially as regards the negro suffrage. The
great object of the Radicals, in spite of
the experience of Jamaica, is to put the
negro at once on a complete equality with
the white man; and so far do they go that Mr. SUM-
NER, at the opening of the Senate, presented a bill
providing that in sections where one-sixth of the
population are Africans, all grand juries shall
consist to the extent of one-half of negroes. The
fact is that the Radical and professedly Abolition
party are far more anxious to irritate and
incense the Southern people into opposition than to
induce them to agree to their plans. Everyone
admits that slavery is dead. Why then should these
men persist in the attempt to galvanise the corpse
and perpetuate the subject of dispute? The South
have had emancipation forced upon them. Let the
people therefore have time to get reconciled to it
before pushing on the questions of negro suffrage
and equality. Nothing can be less calculated to
benefit the negro himself than to thrust him into
political prominence before he has fully realised the
fact that he must work, whether bond or
free, if he would live. The Radicals hope to re-
tain their influence over the negroes, so that
they would gain whatever political strength could
be got from the suffrage of the blacks, and this,
probably added to their desire to keep down the
South for their own interests, makes them so loud
and vehement in insisting upon the perfect political
equality of the two races.

It remains to be seen whether the great
body of the American people will submit to
see the fundamental principle of their constitution
thus overridden by a violent and self-seeking fac-
tion, and how far the PRESIDENT, who is certainly
capable of better things, will yield to their clamour.
In the interests of right and justice it is to be
hoped that they will be arrested in their
course, while, as a matter of national policy,
their rashness is at once apparent. It is impossible
for a professedly free nation to keep down six
millions of their countrymen by force of arms, and
if the embers of discontent and injured feeling are
left smouldering there will be a magazine full of
danger in the very heart of the Union, to which a
foreign enemy need only apply a torch to rekindle
a conflagration that shall lay the whole fabric in
ruins.

yesTlTt eh,r‘e Chancellor of the Exchequer left town
dna
c:lt‘ovrra
nas Ncav,ta‘ rr n Castle.
NARROW
e—LOonndtohne-barrridivgael
ToferimheinNuso,rtaht
half-past eight o'clock last night, a man, attired in the
garb of a labituwrviehrai,lys,itn attemptingas
stvolljump from a third-
atnnde,trbayinsome extrainorindiotlroyn,mfeelalnusi,)ninn
tchlaesspecramrraiange
such a position that he got completely under the carriages.
The utmost alarm prevailed amongst the
dhun-
dreds of whom remained, expecting that the nniagne:al,
re-
mains of the incautious man would be found ; and 'thee rail-
way officials, with lamps, after some search, discovered
him as described. The carriages were then uncoupled,
and the man extricated from his perilous position, when it
was found that he had sustained no other injury than a
slight abrasion on one of his logs.
KEEP THE LUCIFERS FROJI THE CHILDREN.
Yesterday morning information was received by Mr.
Carttar, coroner, of the death of William Waters, aged five
years, son of a bricklayer, residing at 11, Essex-place,
Blackheath-hill, Greenwich. The deceased, it appeared,
had obtained possession of a box of Lucifers, with which he
set fire to his clothing, and was burned in so frightful a
manner that although surgical aid was at once procured
death resulted from the injuries sustained.

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(RELTTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE PRINCE OF WALES IN
GERMANY.
COLOGNE, DEC. 19.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales arrived
here yesterday afternoon from Brussels, and imme-
diately continued his journey to Mayence. His
Royal Highness will visit Darmstadt to-day.

THE ROMAN STATES.

ROME, DEC. 18.

A Pontifical decree has been published, according
to which a tonnage tax will be levied upon all
vessels entering Roman ports.
Pontifical vessels will pay one bajioccho and
foreign shipping two bajioccho per ton.
Cardinal Ciacchi is dead.

The Government has granted to a company the
concession for bringing water to Rome from the
ancient spring at Marcia, near Subiaco.

PRUSSIA.
BERLIN, DEC. 19.

The news published by the Berlin papers of the
death of the Vice-President of the Chamber of
Deputies is incorrect.
The mistake arose from a cousin of the same
name, a Government official, commi;ting suicide in
a fit of despondency.

BONN, DEC. 19.

Count Eulenburg, who was accused of being
concerned in the death of M. Ott, has been sen-
tenced to confinement for five months and a half.

THE CAPE MAIL.
PLYMOUTE, Dec. 18.

The mail steamship Cambrian arrived here to-
night with 91 passengers, including Colonel White,
R.E., and family. The mails were landed and for-
warded by special train to Bristol, to leave there
early on Tuesday morning for Londor and the North.
The Cambrian left the Cape on tie 14th ult., St.
Helena on the 22d, and Ascension cn the 26th.
At the Cape the Basuto war continued, and was
likely to last, through the confirmed cowardice of
both belligerents. Another engagement took
place between them on the 25th of October,
resulting in the death of 40 Basutos, and
the capture of 7,000 oxen and sveral thousand
sheep and horses. After the engagement the Free
State and the Trans:aal Boers quarrelled about the
booty captured. The Transvaallers left the allied
camp, and returned to their homes on October 30.
Eleven of the Cape Corps had deserted from the
camp at Drakensberg, and were gone to the Free
State, taking with them their horses and accoutre-
ments.

The deserters met with a hearty reception from
the people of Harrinnuth.
The Basutos had published a manifesto charging
the Boers with publishing fals3 statements as to
their successes, and declaring tint the Basuto army
had not been in any way imperiled, also charging
the Boers with barbarity in killing women and
children.

Another Basuto raid on British territory was
alleged to have been made.

Measures were being continued to provide for the
unemployed in the colony. 'Trade was but little
improved. The importation cf sheep to the Cape
was strictly prohibited, through fear of the cattle
disease.

Preparations were being made at Natal to receive
Dr. Colenso. A congratulatory address to him had
been signed by 130 persons of all denominations and
shades of belief.
The Saxon arrived out on the 13th November.

ADDRESS TO DR. COLENSO.
PLYMOUTH, Dec. 19.

The following is the text of the Address to be pre-
sented to Dr. Colenso upon his arrival at Natal :
" My Lord,—lt is with singular pleasure that we
hail your return to Natal after an absence of three
years, during which period your lordship has been
engaged in the arduous task :of combating ancient
prejudices and loosening the tenacious hold of
mediaeval traditions.

" We heartily congratulate you on the successful
result of your sojourn in England, and that you
have added one more name to the illustrious cata-
logue of those who, without fear and with single-
ness of heart and honesty of purpose, have main-
tained the inalienabie right d all men to exercise
their own mental powers and freely investigate all
subjects, whether scientific or religious.
" Let us hope, my lord, that although your re-
turn may be threatened by the powers of that dark-
ness you have happily assisted to disperse in the
mother country, it will be the harbinger of a new
era in the land of our adoption, and that your
example, both moral and intellectual, may impel us
onward in the fulfilment of our mission.—We have
the honour to be, your lordship's obedient, humble
servaits."

(Here follow 130 signatures, and the number is
daily increasing.) _

The Bishops of Cape Town, Graham's Town, and
the Free State had publicly pronounced that to join
the communion of Dr. Colenso would be to separate
from the communion of the Church of England, and
recommended that the clergy should elect another
Bishop, the choice to be approved by the faithful
laity.

OPENING OF THE HUNGARIAN DIET.

SPEECH OF THE EMPEROR.

PESTU, Dec. 14.

Yesterday, as the day succeeding his Majesty's
arrival in this capital, was chiefly devoted to the
reception of the authorities and various dpputa-
tions.

To a deputation from the City of Pesth, consist-
ing of 40 members, partly officials, partly deputies
of the capital elected in 1861, his Majesty replied :
" I am glad of the opportunity to tell you, the re-
presentatives of the city of Pesth, how rejoiced I
am to have been able recently to convince myself
of your loyal sentiments." The Emperor continued
in German : "It is very agreeable to my paternal
heart to convince myself of your fidelity here in the
heart of the country. I consider it a favourable
prognostic for the future, that, amid so much
patriotic enthusiasm, you have so well understood
how to maintain order, coupled with seriousness and
calm. lam the more rejoiced at this, as I hope
that, pending the duration of this highly important
Diet, upon which the future of the nation and of
the country, indeed of the whole monarchy, de-
pends, you will maintain a similar line of conduct,
and thereby give a helping hand to the solution of
existing difficulties." After the presentation of the
members of the deputation, his Majesty was about
to withdraw amid the cheers of those assembled,
when he turned back at the door, and said in Hun-
garian : "I shall shortly come among you with the
Empress, and confidently hope that we shall then
experience the same hearty and loyal reception as
now."

Shortly after two p.m. the Emperor left the
Castle on horseback in a marshal's uniform, and,
followed by a brilliant suite, held a review of the
garrison of Buda-Pesth upon the Generalwiese.
His reception by the crowds of spectators was ex-
tremely good. A Court dinner was given in the
Castle at five, attended by the officers in garrison,
the Hungarian Ministers, and the chief notabilities
of the Diet. At seven in the evening the Emperor
and suite visited the National Theatre. All the
streets through which the Imperial carriages passed
were filled with dense crowds, which cheered loudly
as the cortege went by.
The solemn opening of the Hungarian Diet took
place this morning in the Castle of Buda, in the
presence of about 600 magnates and deputies. The
Emperor, who wore the uniform of an Hungarian
general, read the following speech in a firm voice :
" While we welcome with sincere joy the Estates
and Representatives of our beloved kingdom of
Hungary assembled in parliament, we announce to
you at the same time the intention which has
brought us amongst you with that frank candour
which forms the indispensable condition of confi-
dence between monarch and people.
" We came to complete what we began in the
persuasion of our duty as a ruler. Our object is,
by our personal intervention, and therefore the more
successfully, to remove those obstacles and set aside
those hindrances which have hitherto opposed the
solution of the pending political questions.
" Among those we place in the first rank the plain
contradiction that lay in the various points of de-
parture of the intended understanding. Distortion
of right upon the one hand, and stubborn continuity
of right upon the other, could lead to no agree-
ment.

" We now ourselves set aside the obstacle of
selecting a commonly recognised basis of right as
our point of departure, that of the Pragmatic Sanc-
tion.

" While this state fundamental law has guaran
teed the independence of the home right and the
administration of the kingdom of Hungary and its
adjacent countries, it at the same time upheld the
ever inseparable and indivisible tie of the kingdoms
and countries under the rule of our house, and
therewith their entirety as a great Power. Equally,
therefore, as we find therein the necessary and legal
limitation of that independence, so do we also re-
cognise the rights of the same within these limits
without any reserve.
"In the same way we wish to uphold undimi-
nished those clauses of the Pragmatic Sanction re-
ferring to the integrity of the Hungarian Crown,
and although we are obliged to take into account
the events of recent years we have directed our
paternal care towards rendering possible the re-
presentation of the lands belonging to our Hungarian
Crown at this present Diet.
" For this purpose we have convoked the Diet of
our Grand Principality of Transylvania, in order
that it may subject Article 1 of 1848 respecting the
union of Hungary with Transylvania to serious and
earnest consideration, and we now also call upon
the Estates and representatives of our kingdom of
Hungary in Parliament assembled to take a similar
course with regard to Article 7 of 1847-48, in order
that this question may not meet with an apparent
and dubious solution, according to the mere letter
of the law, but may by their confiding agreement
encounter lasting and permanent settlement in
harmony with all the elements conducive to life
and strength.

" In the same manner we have desired the assem-
bled Diets of the kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia
to see in due time that the same be fittingly repre-
sented at this Diet, and while we communicate the
resolution of the Croatian Diet, passed in 1861, and
affecting the relation of Croatia to our kingdom of
Hungary, we feel assured that agreement as to the
relations of right of the kindred nations, united for
centuries, will be established in the way of mutual
concession, and in the spirit of that fair method of
view to which the Estates and representatives of the
kingdom of Hungary in Parliament assembled, gave
in this respect unequivocal expression in their ad-
dress upon July 6, 1861.

"As the first labour of this Diet we must charac-
terise the method of the treatment of affairs common
to all our kingdoms and countries. The existence
of such affairs finds its basis in the spirit of the
Pragmatic Sanction, even if greatly altered circum-
stances demand considerable change with respect to
the nature of their treatment.

" The transformation of the political, commer-
cial, and social elements which has in the meantime
taken place occasioned us, in the conviction of our
high mission, to grant our remaining kingdoms and
countries constitutional rights ; and the affairs com-
mon to all the countries have therefore, in future,
only to be treated with the constitutional co-opera-
tion of those kingdoms and countries.

" These were the motives which actuated us when
we Issued our diploma of Oct. 20, 1860, and we are
still firmly convinced that the common constitutional
treatment of the affairs characterised as common in
that document forms an unavoidable requirement
of the united existence and position of our realm as
a great Power, to which every other consideration
ought to be subordinate.
" Regarding the method of this treatment we have
laid down a form in our patent of February 26, 1861,
which, however, has encountered various and im-
portant hesitation. Being, therefore, unable to
exclude the conviction that this question is not to
be finally and permanently solved with the weapons
of material moral pressure, but only by the course
of general understanding and the recognition of
necessity, we have, by our manifesto of September
20th last, temporarily suspended the operation of
the statute as to the representation of the realm,
and now lay before the Estates and representatives
of the kingdom of Hungary, in Parliament assem-
bled, our diploma of Oct. 20, 1860, with the patent
of Feb. 26, 1861, for mature consideration, serious
discussion, and acceptance.
" The well-understood interests of our kingdom
of Hungary, equally with the welfare and security
of our entire realm, require the speediest possible
settlement of this matter, in order that the consti-
tutional rights of the various kingdoms and coun-
tries of our empire may be permanently assured by
the intimate union of all our peoples, may develope
themselves upon a firmer basis, and rejoice in fruit-
ful prosperity.

We expect, therefore, from the Estates and
representatives of our kingdom of Hungary that you
will submit the measures laid before you to an ex-
haustive examination in a spirit of mutual conces-
sion, and in case the objections entertained towards
them appear invincible, that you will only propose
to us such modifications of the sane as can be made

to harmonise with the conditions of life of the 'entire
monarchy.
" In close, indeed in indivisible connection with
the settlement of this question, is the revision, or
probably the transformation, of that part of the laws
of 1848 referring to the operation of our rights as
ruler, and to the limitation of the attributes of the
Government. Things which are closely connected,
and which exercise a reciprocal influence, cannot be
separated in practical realisation. Considered with
reference to the position of our realm as a great
Power, to the undiminished exercise of our rights as
ruler, and to the well-founded claims of the adjacent
countries, the unchanged putting in force of these
laws does not lie within the bounds of possibility.
Although, therefore, no objection can be raised to
their legality in point of form, our duty as regent,
and conscientious regard for the protection to
be extended equally to all peoples of the realm,
forbid us to promise by our Royal inaugural
oath the maintenance and application of these
laws prior to the simultaneous settlement of th 6
relations of reciprocal rights and duties. It is thus
necessary that the clauses of these laws—which
either limit our rights as ruler, or refer to the alte-
ration of the form of government, without bringing
either into accord with the conditions of the exist-
ence of the monarchy and with the internal institu-
tions of the country based upon ancient foundations
—should be carefully examined, and modified as
may be found advisable.

" In this manner it will be rendered possible that
we also with a quiet conscience may take our royal
inaugural oath to the Hungarian constitution modi-
fied in accordance with the times, and permanently
established for remote posterity. Thus we shall be
able to receive the crown of St. Stephen, our apos-
tolic predecessor, that sacred crown in which it is
our desire to set the welfare of our kingdom of Hun-•
gary and the uninterrupted affection of its people as
our most precious jewels.
"As crowned King we shall not fail in commu-
nicating to the Estates and representatives in Parlia-
ment assembled our royal propositions with regard
to numerous other matters in addition to those mea-
sures we have already laid before the Diet convoked
on the 2d April, 1861. These are subjects affecting
moral and material interests in the most comprehen-
sive degree, and whose successful settlement could
hardly be exposed to further delay without serious
disadvantage to the country.

" The will of Divine Providence has marked out
for us great and difficult' tasks. Not less serious,
and• looking at the suspension of constitutional
life in a great portion of our realm, no.t less
pregnant with grave responsibility, is the task of
this country. But they are not impossible of ac-
complishment if the country, in conjunction with
its monarch, and following the traditions of our
ancestors, takes them in hand with self-denial and
readiness to make sacrifices.

"We hope this the more because the country
by lending strength and weight gains those qua-
lities itself, by coming forward to remove the
difficulties raises itself, by guaranteeing the exist-
ence of the whole preserves its own existence ;
and if, after an arduous epoch, we should succeed,
with the assistance of this country, in carrying
our realm happily through the critical events of a
difficult position to the desired end, we shall bless
the moment that ripened our determination to
revive and permanently cement confidence between
ruler and people.

" With confident assurance we look forward to
the frank representation of the views of the as-
sembled Estates and representatives of the coun-
try, and while we now solemnly declare the Diet
of our kingdom of Hungary open, we close with
the fervent prayer that we may be permitted, with
God's help, to bring the great work of reconcilia-
tion, with the content of all our peoples, to a
prosperous end."
His Majesty's speech was received with extreme
enthusiasm, and repeatedly interrupted by cheers
lasting several minutes.