The Sun.
London, England, 1849-09-17 00:00:00

personal disadvantages, and cannot but fear that
the cause which he has at heart may suffer from
the insufficiency of its advocate. In two respects,
however, Sir, I do not yield to my abler and more
favoured colleagues. As a native of Norfolk, and
familiar with many now around me, I am glad and
proud that Norwich is not behind other great com-
munities of this land in expressing its sympathy with
the Hungarians, and its interest in the welfare of
other nations. In the next place I give place to no
Otte in my earnest desire to serve, to the utmost of
my ability, the Hungarian cause. In all other re-
spects I feel and acknowledge my inferiority, and
trust to your kind construction and plenary indul-
gence for the few remarks I may offer in connexion
with the resolution just read and moved.—(Cheers.)
The Hungarian struggle has now for some months
occupied no ordinary share of the thoughts and in-
terest of the English people. The eyes of Western
Europe have been drawn to its eastern barrier by an
attraction only less powerful than that which absorbs
all high-principled and reflecting men, where their
own rights are invaded, or their own institutions en-
dangered. Even the opponents of the Hungarian
cause, by the space it has occupied in their
journals, and by the pains they have taken to
mike the worst appear the better reascn,
have shown that the late movements in Eastern
Europe have awakened in them an engrossing and
lively interest. Indeed, it is not too much to say, that
Englishmen, whether solicitous for the tate of Hun-
gary, or for the issue of continental affairs in general,
have, as it were, instinctively fe't that the question
debated on the banks of the Theiss and the Danube,
bore no distant resemblance t,) conflicts and contro-
versies happily settled long ago in this country, and
was fraught with most momentous consequence to
the future relations of England and Europe gene-
rally. By our own revolution of 1688, we showed to
Europe that England would not succumb to the
collossal monarchy of France. In the Hungarian
revolution of 1848, when it was shown it was in-
tended to make Hungary bow to Austriawhen it
was seen that a nation accustomed to self-govern.
ment was about to be deprived of it—when a people
by the wisdom of their councils, by their armies and
their valour in the field, showed themselves
to be a fraternal race, could the conquest and
degradation of such a people be allowed to be
accomplished, and neither aid given them, or our
detestation of their oppressors be shown ?—(Cheers.)
It has become necessary that the great problem should
be solved whether Europe is to become in tyranny
and ignorance a portion of central Asia, or whether
abe shall be allowed unchecked and unopposed to pos-
sess, enjoy, and expand, the fruits and blessings of
civilization.—(Cheers.) These are some few features
of the case brought before the meeting in the consi-
deration of the Hungarian question.—(Hear, hear.)
The particular mode in which these circumstances
bear on our own political and social state have been
well presented and brought before you by the Noble
Lord. Sympathy was due to Hungary—it has been
shown, and that sympathy is truly legitimate.—
(Hear, hear.) This sympathy abundantly proves
that England is not, as has been said, a nation
of shopkeepers. It shows we hold a great interest
that the principles of truth, justice, and honour
shall be well preserved and sustained, whether
between Sovereign or people.—(Cries of " Hear.")
Hungary, like England, possesses a Constitution, and
that Constitution is 300 years old. I will go no
further back than this, for it sufficiently proves the
antiquity and the value of her Constitution, although
I could, if necessary, speak of the constitutional his-
tory of Hungary for two centuries beyond the period
mentioned. But the point is the relation of these
Immunities, and the connexion they have with the
House of Hapsburg. During the whole of this first
period at least, though with differences existing on
the oi;e hand, and the effects of insiduous oppres-
sors on the other, Hungarian liberties have been
maintained, enforced, and rendered stable by re-
peated and fresh guaranties. The Noble Lord has
already explained to the meeting that the disregard
of these guarantees had forced the Hungarians
to call their councils together, and extend their
armies in March, 1848, but before that period, the
Government of Hungary was the only form of go-
vernment in eastern 'Europa which could assimilate
with our own. We ask this evening, whether a nation
accustomed to self-government—a nation so deserving
of our sympathy, and the sympathy of all other free
countries—a nation so deeply alive to the interests of
commerce and civilization, shall ;se allowed to enjoy
the blessings which mu,t flow from freedom, or to be
destroyed and to perish by the fratricidal hands of one
or two selfish despots.—(Cheers.) And by what
'specious process has Russia contrived to justify her
eaterference ? I will call your attention to the
document which preceded Russian intervention. It
sets forth that the Emperor of Russia could not allow
his subjects—the inhabitants of Poland—to take
up arms, or that this insurrection should be
allowed to exist so near the confines of
his own d.)minions. What could be more insidious or
fallacious than this. Why, of the 200,000 who came
into the field, 4,000 only were Poles, gathered
from Gallicia and other places, and who had been
driven there from their own homes by the tyranny of
the very man who denounced them, Of the six
generals, but three were of Polish extraction—Bern,
Dembinski, and Vitter.—(Cheers ) This plea to put
down the rights of another people, because a few Poles
were in arms, is in my opinion more inconsistent,
since one-fourth of the Austrian army were foreigners.
—(Cheers.) Because a number of officers are foreign
to a nation which is said to be in a state of revolt,
an I it was feared the revolution would spread—was
this a reason why the liberties of a neighbouring
people should be destroyed ? Yet I admit the fear
that the insurrection would extend itself was a just
fear, as, considering the outrages of Russia to
Poland, this might naturally be expected. But
as regards. the question of Hungarian freedom,.
the plea was nugatory, as none of the confines of
Hungary touch on Russia immediately. Still the
Czar thought that the flame might extend itself.
" C ,min-k events" might be said to " cast their
shadows before ;" and therefore he would make the
attempt to smother it. Conduct and policy such as
this, we, as Englishmen, ought to resist. For this
purpose we are met here this night. The people, as
a body, have no means of expressing their feeling but
by such meetings as I now see assembled.—(Cheers.)
It is said, the effect of these meetings will not be
great. I do not think so, for my opinion is, that
coming from so large and important a city—this
meeting expressing the voice and the opinion of so
influential a community—will produce an impression,
and so help to swell the general voice of England, so
that at length it will reach the Foreign-office, and
induce the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to
oppose with vigour the design and the attack of Rus•
sia against truth, justice, and the recognised princi-
ples of international law.—(Cheers.) As regards
ourselves, although the cause of the Hungarians is a
high and righteous cause, considered on its own par-
ticular merits, yet as the Noble Lord has well said,
this question is one which closely concerns Europe
itself.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") Wherever liberty is
supplanted, there also will other restrictions prevail,
and commercial restrictions and hostile tariffs are no-
where found so numerous as in the Austrian Empire.
What is the truth on this point? why, that Austria
has prohibited commerce under restrictive tariffs, and
most particularly English manufactures. The people
of Hungary, however, are so desirous to obtain the
manufactures of our country, that they effected an
entrance for these articles in defiance of the Austrian
custom houses, by means of smuggling. Would it be
believed that by an evasive commerce of this kind
the value of the goods conveyed into the Hungarian
kingdom reached nearly a million sterling ? Such,
however, is the fact, and therefore reflect how exten-
sive might he the market for our manufactures if the
restrictive laws of the Austrian custom-houses and
tariffs in Hungary did not exist.—(flear, hear.)
The city of Norwich can well understand a
question like this. She has manufactures of her

own, and no doubt the fabrics of the English
loom would find their way into Hungary, as well as
other productions of skill and industry, were Hun-
gary free.—(Hear.) But I do not like to place the
question of Hungarian independence on this ground.
The Hungarian question is a question of general
civilization. The people of England have long been
and are still for intellectual culture among the fore-
most nations of the world. But would or could this

be the condition of our reputation if this nation had
been placed under a Government such as Austria ?
(Heer, hear.) Should we, as Englishmen, have been
enabled from age to age, or even from year to year,
to assert our rights, and advance in moral culture, in
Fivilization, if the Austrian had been among us, and
if we had been kept down by Jesuits ? The system
followed by Russia, as the principle on which a nation
should be governed, is identical with that of Austria.
Depend on this, that if Hungary be kept down
under the feet of two despotic powers, the whole
South of Europe will become but mere
rovinces of
one or both of them.—(Cheers.) It is incumbent
that Hungary should he sustained in order that a na-
tion should exist capable of counteracting the oppres-
sion of Russia, the somnolence of Germany on the one
hand, and the restlessness of France on the other—
(lipar.) It is said that the Secretary for Foreign
Affairs in this country possesses no power of remon-
strance on the affairs or Hungary, as Austria, like
other countries, has the right, to govern Hungary as
she pleases. I deny this. The question is not so
unimportant
as this. W hat, let me ask you, would
have been the consequence to the world if this country
had been kept down as it was hoped she would have
been by the united powers of France and Spain, at
the period when we were led in our; opposition by
Chatham ? We know what was done by Chatham.
Can we forget what Cromwell did ? When the
puke of Savoy desired to crush the Huguenots and
the people of the Vaudois, did he not become their
protector, and refused to complete his treaty with the
French monarch until the Vaudois were released j