The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-03 00:00:00

allithla :74 Mt

LONDON, TUESPAY, JULY 3, 1849.

About half a hundred Hungarian Hussars are now
encamped in the neighbourhood of Folkstone.
Travel-stained, impoverished, and emaciated, they

are still described by those who have seen them as
" fine soldier-like men, who would do credit in their

bearing to any of our crack regiments." The his-
tory of these gallant fellows, of their misfortunes and
vicissitudes, is very simple and touching. It is this.
\Vhen Austria was fighting simultaneously below the
Carpathians and on the banks of the Danube, against
the Magyars and against the Sardinians, several of
the Hungarian regiments, fired by a hatred of the
odpressors of their country, deserted from the army
of RADETZKY, joined the forces of his
Majesty King CHARLES ALBERT, and fought
valiantly against the German soldiers on the fields of
Mortara and Novara. Oa the close of the last brief
but disastrous campaign, when the conquerors re-
quired, among other terms for an armistice, the
delivery into the hands of RADETZILY of all the
Lombards and Hungarians who were recently num-
bered amongst his antagonists, the latter received a
friendly intimation which enabled them to seek safety
by a sudden departure. About two hundred on that
occasion left the territories of Savoy—some seeking
shelter at Grenoble, and others traversing the
mountains of Switzerland. The former division,
supported by a bounty from the French Govern-
ment, amounting to three sous for each individual
during every hour of march, crossed the intermediate
departments of the Republic, and having been con-
veyed over the channel, ultimately reached the i
suburbs of Folkstone. Their object is, if possible, to
arrive by some means at the glorious country which
gave them birth, and to dedicate the remainder of
their lives to the service of their fatherland. To
gratify this patriotic intention they have already
gone through many severe difficulties, and voluntarily
subjected themselves to many bitter privations. Be-
fore they can place their good swords at the
service of Hungary, before they can lay
their credentials at the feet of LuDwlo
KOSSUTH, the illustrious tribune who at present
rules Hungary in the character of ber first Repub-
lican President, yet greater difficulties must be over-
' come, and yet greater privations endured. Mean-
, while their spirit remains unconquered, even though
they are standing on a foreign shore without a copper
coin in their pockets, and though they know the
immense distance which remains to be traversed.

Here then is an opportunity afforded to Englishmen
of showing the sympathy with which the people of
Britain regard the struggle of the Magyars against
the legions of Despotism ! Hitherto we have been pre-
vented, from the remoteness of our position from the seat
of war, from offering more than the words of encourage-
ment and the voice of admiration to the heroic sol-
diers who have gained so many victories under the
banners of BEM and DEMBINSKI. At last we have
the opportunity of doing something more than this to
testify our solicitude for the triumph of Hungarian
liberty. Fifty-six members of the race .of the
Magyars are at this moment on the soil of England,
ill-clothed, without food, and penniless—yet re-
solved, at all hazards, to shed their heart's blood if
necessary in defence of their beloved nationality. Shall
England witness their arrival and departure with
apathetic indifference ? Will not Englishmen, on the
contrary, avail themselves eagerly of this golden
means of revealing their true sentiments as to the
aggression of the combined forces of Austria and
Russia upon the armies of the Hungarians ? A tes-
timonial for a band so small, yet so heroic, would not
only recruit the strength of these refugees from the
legions of despotism—it would not only carry these
fifty-six Hussars, fully equipped, and in admirable
condition, to the troops assembled near Raab, or in
Transylvania, it would not only be the per-
formance of an act of humanity and of generosity,
but it would carry into the very heart of the
race of the Magyars the conviction that in
sympathy, if not in fact, England is with them in their
sublime endeavours. Such an assurance would be
better to them than a park of artillery or a regiment
of mercenaries. It would stimulate the bravery, and
prolong the endurance, and heighten the enthusiasm,
and confirm the patriotism, and strengthen the ambi-
tion, and exalt the aspirations of the illustrious men
who are fighting unaided against the colossal empires
of the Czaa and KAISER! It would be an announce-
ment to them that, isolated as they have been to all
appearance, they have still retained for friends and
brothers the people of Great Britain.
As an additional inducement to aid in some mea-
sure, however slight, the cause which is threatened
simultaneously by the Governments of Vienna and
St. Petersburgh, the ghastly intelligence arrives of
the novel and wholesale atrocities perpetrated in the
name of Austria, at the city of Presburg, by HAY.
NAU, the successor of W ELDEN and WINDISCHGRATZ.
One of the latest of the diabolical acts of cruelty
which are day by day adding fresh infamy to the
name of HAYNAU, is the dastardly and untimely
execution of the principal member of one of the
noblest families of Hungary—Baron LADISLAUS
MEDNIANSZKY. On that scaffold which has
been permanently raised on a hill visible
from nearly all parts of Presburg, on that gibbet
which has reeked with blood almost as copiously as
the guillotine on the Place de Greve, perished prema-
turely, in his thirty-second year, the husband of a
once happy lady, the father of two young children,
the head of an illustrious house, the heroic com-
mander of the garrison of Leopoldstadt. Our heart
leaps up within us when we hear how the young
noble at the foot of the gallows addressed himself to
the assembled multitude, and how, when the hangman
endeavoured to stop his mouth with his hand, MED.
NIANszKY struck the executioner a blow in the face,
saying, " Your duty is to hang me, but I will not suffer
your hand to touch me beyond the performance of that
duty. In three weeks the Hungarians will be in
Presburg; they will then avenge my death !" How
probable that prophecy is as to its fulfilment may be
learnt from the enthusiasm at present animating all
classes of the Hungarian population. Religious dif-
ferences, as well as social and political, are forgotten
in the common resolve to save the freedom of the
country, and to vindicate the outraged glory of the
realm of St. Stephen! And in thii sympathetic mood
the broth r of the young nobleman whose ‘l,-ath v<e
have just recounted, although an ecclesiastic, a
Catholic canon of Erlau, could march to the
field of battle with the cross in his- hand, and alto.