The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-10 00:00:00

.)*Xlvi.tillri Itlt

LONDON, TUESDAY. JULY 10, 1849.

Immediately the Hungarian Revolution first com-
menced, namely, when the Austrians under WIN•
DISCHGRATZ, and the Croatians under JELLACHICH,
were drivi g back the Provisi.nal Government from
I'esth to Debreczin, there appeared in the reactionary
journals of Germany, and in the Conservative journals
of England, a series of the most infamous calumnits
upon Lunwia KOSSUTH. According to these anony-
mous calumniators KOSSUTH was mad—was ambi-
tious —was a Communist, a Red Republican, a
Socialist, an infidel, a debauches, an adventurer
without principle, a politician without a policy, a
mob •oratorwithout any of the graces of rhetoric,
a demagogue without genius, without character,
without patriotism ! Directly the tide of calamities
began to yield to the deep under-current of national
feeling, the tone of the organs of the aristocratic faction
in this country betrayed a disposition to vascillate in
opinion even to the extent of actual recalcitration.
Doubts gave place to convictions, rumours were trans-
formed iutorealities, and by the time the cavalry troops
of the BAN were dispersed, and by the period the grand
army of Imperialists had fallen back to the gates of
Presburg—many of our contemporaries (previously
the most bitter in their allusions to what my Lord
Joni RUSSELL has called a Rebellion, but what we
and millions of our fellow-countrymen designate a
great and glorious Revolution) dropped their tone of
slander and disparagement, found virtues where they
had only seen vices in the Provisional Cabinet of
Debreczin, confessed that BEM was heroic, that
DEMBINSKI was gallant, that GEOBGET was
not without some of the nobler characteris-
tics of a soldier, and acknowleged indeed, that
KOSSUTH was a great man, and, what was more, a

great patriot, and the liberator of an illustrious race.
Such has continued to be the language of the
principal among: the Tory newspapers of England
throughout the successes of the Magyars. The ma-
• jeatio attitude assumed by the Hungarians extorted
respect ; their, victories demanded admiration ; their
renowned leaders by their lenity and their valour, by
their generalship, and by their extraordinary capa-
i.ties for administration, called forth the eulogiums
even of their Most violent antagonists. Those
sentiments had reached their meridian on the day
when the capital of Hungary was reconquered by
GEORGEY, and when that lion-hearted captain sur-
passed the memorable exclamation of Jumus CIESAR,
Veni, vici Iby his equally epigrammatic and more
Government—the
ran
thrilling dispatch to the the dispatch
,comprised in those three emphatic and
words, " Hurrah ! Buda, GEORGEY." Since
ethat
startling
immortal victory, that victory which was the con-
summation of the campaign of liberation, the tone of
our Conservative contemporaries has again changed.
As COBBETT said of a certain ecclesiastic, in that

caustic diction which branded its object to everlasting
infamy, we might say of these ratting,• and re-ratting,
journalists that, in regard to Hungary and the Hun-
', garians, they have " recanted their recantation." The
reason for their reverting to their original opinions,
4.t0 their obsolete doctrines, and to their previous
.calumnies was, from the very first indication of the
'change, sufficiently obvious—the Austrian Emresos
vvas seeking the aid of the Russian AUTOCRAT.
:Speaking with a reverence the most profound and
awful, we should say that the course pursued by the
Imperialists bore some resemblance to the most
solemn and terrible of all the holy Parables. The
realm of the Hungarians had been cleansed of the

demon of tyranny. That tremendous " exorcism "
which was first spoken of by THOMAS BABINGTON
MACAULAY in his ingenious essay on MACCHIAVSL LI
had been accomplished. Then—to carry out the
resemblance suggested to our imagination by the
phraseology of the great annalist—the Devil
of Despotism taking with him other Devils
of a congenial atrocity returned to render, if possible,
the last state of that people worse than the first.
Such was the origin of this second recalcitralion on
the part of the journalists of aristocracy, of autocracy,
and of tyranny. Seeing the united legions of Austria
and Russia pressing down upon the unaided Hun-
garians, they regard the position of the latter as
altogether desperate, and hence they resume their
calumnies against the Provisional Government of the
Magyars, and endeavour, with the utmost assiduity,
to vilify the character of KOSSIIT IT.

As indicative of this execrable re-recantation we
may allude to a slanderous letter, published this
morning, and to which the writer has dared to ap-
pend the signature of "An Hungarian." Let us be
plain with this mendacious assassin of reputations—
let us assure him that no such flagrant forgeries as that
of his signature can blind the observation of the dis-
cerning—let us impress upon him the fact
that no disguise can screen his identity.
The character of a great tribune like
KOSSUTH is not to be whispered away by a person
whose nobility is only the nominal nobility of the
descendant of an ancient family—one reputable
among horse-jockeys—illustrious among the insolvent
frequenters of the turf—stale in name (even like
fly-blown meat) in the nostrils of every hell-
keeper. What is his charge against LUDWIG
KOSSUTH ? In meaning, if not in words, it is identi-
cal with the accusation made by so many other of
that great man's calumniators. He is a Red-Com-
munistic-Socialist ; an enemy of property ; a ter-
rorist in policy; an ambitions adventurer under
the colour of a disinterested patriot ; a
tyrant in the masquerade of a demagogue.
These things are mere assertions, mind ! Now let us
rebut them—not by mere assertions—but by FACTS.
Those facts we will not proffer on our own unassisted
authority ; we will give them on the authority of a
continental contemporary, on the authority of a dis-
tinguished journal, the Augsburg Gazette. That
journal, by no means fascinated by the principles of
ultra-democracy, after insisting that the Hungarian
Revolution, so far from being the ebullition of the
avarice and other evil passions of a spoliative mob,
is the outbreak of the national feeling of all classes
of the community, the noble as well as the pea-
sant, proceeds as follows in testimony of the
truth of its statement :—" The whole Ministry of
KOSSUTH, all his administrative commissioners, all
the Hungarian generals, even most of the staff
officers, are noble. GEORGET belongs to an old
noble family, and one which is proud of its nobility,
in the county of Zips. KLAP/CA. (born at Temes
var) was a guardsman in the Royal Hungarian
Noble Guard. DAMIANICK is a noble Servian ;
KOTZTOLASYI (who commands on the Waal), the
scion of an ancient family in the county of Nograd ;
Count OTTO ZICHT commands at Raab; Pk:RCZ EL
belongs to a noble house, numerous and possessing
large property in the county of Tolna; Count PAUL
ESTERIIAZY is at Comorn, with the rank of colonel;
ERNIST KIS, Hereditary Lord of Ellemer, is one of
the richest noblemen in the Banat. He was colonel
in the Hanover Hussars, and commands a corps of
insurgents in Hungary. At any rate, the
gentlemen of the Reuttingen meeting hope in
vain when they believe that the nobility of
Hungary sheds its blood for the cause of democracy.
The list above given might be easily extended.
Count CASIMIR BATBYANT, one of the richest Meg
nates of Hungary, is Minister for Foreign Affairs ;
Count LADISLAS TELEEI is envoy of Kossurn's Go-
vernment at Paris; Count MICHAEL ESTERHAZY
and Baron SIGISMUND Psalms are the strongest
supporters of KOSSUTH in the House of
Peers. The aristocratic names in the army
are Legion—Count Bwrsarang, Count YEssET, &C."
And yet there are men who have the foolish-
ness, not to say the mendacity, to declare
that KOSSUTH is ultra-democratic in principle, a
Terrorist, a Communist, and a red-hot Revolutionist.
So far is the Liberator of Hungary from being a
subverter of order, and law, and property, that
he might, with more show of justice, be
taxed with having a predilection for aris•
tocratic influences. With the Hungarian Pre-
sident KOSSUTH, however, the only passport to
power and office is earnestness and sincerity of
patriotism. Nobles may be true patriots, as well as
members of the commonalty. Such is the disinter-
estedness of the illustrious man at the head of the
Hungarian Government. Such is our answer to the
slanderers of KOSSUTH. Such is our assurance to
Lord Joux RussEnn that the present movement in
Hungary is no Insurrection but a Revolution.

The important subject of intramural interment was,
last night, brought incidentally under the notice of
the House of Commons by a question from Mr.
MACKINNON. This question and its answer, brief
though they are, are possessed of a sad signiticancc•
At the present moment, when the terrible ravages of
the cholera help to swell the already crowded lists
of the dying and the dead, at the present moment,
when another scourge is added to the many ills inci-
dental to humanity, and more especially to the in-
habitants of our crowded streets and ill-ventilated
dwellings, the subject of the public health is become
more than ever worthy of attention ; its claims
are indeed of paramount importance. The justice
of those claims is generally admitted, but, nevertheless,
the necessary attention is not awarded to them. A
spirit of procrastination, we might almost say of
wilful negligence, is, unfortunately fur all parties,
too much in vogue with governors and governments
generally. They seem unacquainted with the truth-
ful maxim, " short accounts mall e long friends."
Their reiterated reply to all troublesome claimants,
the justice of whose demands they cannot deny, is
" call again." If some necessary reform be unavoid-

able, at least, say they, it shall be delayed as long as
possible. If some popular boon must be conceded,
the grace of the concession is obliterated by
the reluctance with which it is vouchsafed.
It would be remarkable, if it were not, unhappily, a
common occurrence—this delay, this unwise and
impolitic delay in carrying out reforms, and adopting
measures concerning the vital interests of the com•
munity. The advocates of a good cause can always
find comfort in the assurance that ultimately it must
prosper. Nevertheless, this is but sorry consolation
when all others are denied. Quousque tandem, &c.
they ask again and again, with almost the bitterness
of despair. So it was with all the popular measures
within our recollection, and so it will be, doubt-
less, till the end of the chapter. How many great
measures are now generally required and generally
approved, yet as far from realization as if they had
never been conceived. In some cases, it is true,
political opinions vary as to the manner and often as
to the matter of proposed innovations ; and those
differences of opinion are, on the whole, save when
exercised from purely factious considerations, of a
beneficial tendency. While we entirely disapprove
of the antagonism of factions, we are forced to ac-
knowledge that the struggle of parties exerts the
same vivifying effect on the political world as the
ebbing and flowing of the tides of the ocean.
However beautiful in theory, we almost fear that in
practice (but when and Ns bore could the experiment
be tried ?) unanimity would subside into inanity.
We admit, therefore, that " her MAJESTY'S Opposi-
tion " constitutes, in fact, an important branch of the
Legislature. They are the spur to Ministerial in-
action, and the drag on the wheel in the rarer in-
stance of Ministerial impetuosity. In some cases,
therefore, a difference of opinion necessitates a cer-
tain delay, and it is far from being our wish to
diminish in any degree the due consideration of all
important matters. But what excuse can there be
for delay a deathful delay— in cases which
admit but of one opinion ? We might enume-
rate many such : e. g., nearly three years have
passed since the terrible death of HAY..
DON excited universal horror and commiseration.
A great deal was then spoken about the miseries of il
men of genius, and the national duty of making some '
provision for them was strenuously set forth. Much
was said; . public feeling was unanimous. Three
years have elapsed, and what has been done 1 Again
may we exclaim with Czcsao, Quousque tandem—
until how long shall the public patience be abused ?
In no case, however, is the dilatoriness of the Legis• • '