The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-02 00:00:00

ledgment from the first of the monthly organs of
English Conservatism. In the current number of
Blackwood the course pursued by the population of
Hungary under the instigation of the eloquent
journalist, Louis KOSSUTH, now the first President
of the Hungarian Republic, is commended with an
energy and a heartiness which do infinite honour
to this distinguished magazine. We have
latterly observed an indication on the part
of Blackwood to condemn the counsels re-
cently adopted by the Ministerial advisers of the
Austrian EMPEROR, in regard to the political rights
and territorial integrity of Hungary. But in the
present masterly vindication of the Hungarians, our
expectations of the ultimate decision of 'Maga in their
favour have been altogether surpassed. Infected no
doubt by the same genial sentiments which have
latterly been ripening the judgment of Blackwood, in
regard to the merits of the question at issue between
Austria and Hungary, Fraser has this month, in a
kindred temperament of candour, pronounced an
almost unexceptional panegyric upon the Pro-
visional. Government, which, from the midst

of the inaccessible morasses surrounding De-
breczin, ruled over the ancient dominions of St.
STEPHEN. Both of these eminent periodicals, with a
natural predilection for the Imperialists, have never-
theless pronounced boldly and honestly their sympathy
for the conquerors of the Imperialists. Neither the
partialities or prejudices inherent in the political
doctrines of Blackwood have prevailed over its equally
inherent love of truth. An intense distaste for revo-
lutions has failed to warp the opinion of Mara in
reference to the Revolution of the Hungarians ; and
the same honourable subordination of taste to justice
has rendered itself conspicuous in the pages of Regina.
Let any impartial student of history take into
consideration the recent proceedings of the Austrians
and the Hungarians, and they must perforce be driven
to a similar conclusion with our contemporaries.
Through the whole of the intricate negotiations, the
;sternly contentions, the proclamations, the skirmishes,
and the bombardments ; from that November morning
in 1848, when JELLACHICH, crossing the Drave, first
polluted the sacred soil of Hungary with the foot-
steps of his Croatians, down to that evening in May,
1849, when, after the rout of the Ban's irregular
horsemen at Kanisha, and after the ignominous defeat
of one of the foremost of the lieutenants of Wm:ascii-
aaTz at Weitzel], the remnants of the Imperial
army, under the command of WELDEN, were driven in
panic and confusion beyond the frontiers of the illus-
trious land they had been endeavouring to enslave ;
through the whole of these extraordinary occur-
rences, one fact beams fcrth with undiminished and
inextinguishable brightness, the fact that in their
separate attitudes; Austria has assumed the aggres-
sive and Hungary the defensive—the fact that
Austria has been striving to achieve an unjustifiable
conquest and Hungary has been struggling to defend
her inalienable liberties.

Since 1687, when the Ceown of Hungary became
hereditary with the descendants of RODOLPHE, the
rights of the nation have been sedulously preserved
in independence, in spite of the repeated
efforts of the Austrian Government to ab-
sorb her territories into the Imperial do-
minion. Not only is this indisputable, but it is
equally indisputable that this tacitly acknowledged
independence was solemnly proclaimed by LEOPOLD
11. not less than sixty years after the signing of the
Pragmatic Sanction, namely, 1790, when it was
declared—" That Hungary is a free and independent
nation in her entire system of legislation and adminis •
tration, and not subject to any other state or any other
people ; but that she should always have her separate
existence and constitution, and should consequently be
governed by Icings crowned according to her national
laws and. customs !" In direct defiance of these
venerable realities, these realities graven with an
iron pen on the adamantine tablets of history, the
Austrian Government has of late endeavoured, at first
by cajolery and intrigue, but at last by an armed in-
vasion, to subjugate Hungary, and to effect its annex-
ation to the other integral portions of the, Imperial
territory. To prevent this Hungary has risen.
Nobles, peasants, artizans and merchants, have all
with one accord united for the salvation of their na-
tionality. That glorious cause received at the very
outset the benediction alike of the Protestant clergy-
men and of the Catholic ecclesiastics. The
details of the struggle are already known
to all Europe, and have fixed the admiration
of Christendom upon the heroic and patriotic
Hungarians. After a variety of vicissitudes, the
Provisional Government has proved triumphant over
the Councils of Vienna and St. Petersburgh. JEL•
LACHICH, the redoubtable Ban of Croatia, has been
shorn of all his vaunted glory as a military chieftain.
WISDISCHGRATZ, once regarded as the unconquerable
veteran who was to prove the buckler of the Aus-
trian dynasty, has been defeated so signally as to
have been deprived of his command with every token
of disgrace and degradation. WELDEN has proved
not one jot more successful. The old soldiers of Aus-
tria and of Russia have been successively and simulta-
neously overcome by the new but valiant recruits of
the Hungarians. Pitched battles have been fought
and gained by the latter among the mountains of
Transylvania, and in the- districts irrigated by the
Danube and its tributaries. Fortified places have
been stormed and taken, one part of the invaders
have been chased across the boundaries of Mold°.
Wallachia, and the other has been beaten back by
main force to the gates of Vienna and of Presburg.
Hungary has freed hertelf from the presence of her
invaders, and has proclaimed herself a Republic
through the bravery of her noble children, guided by
the Polish Generals, and incited by the voice of
KOSSUTH—KOSSUTH ! that illustrious patriot, " with
the halo of a martyr surrounding his sickly frame and
shining from his eyes, to which the slow fever of an
incurable consumption has imparted an unnatural bril-
liancy, feverish in thought and passionate in language,
combining in his character and addreis an almost
womanish softness, with the sternesa of the prophet,
and the ravings of the maniac." At the
first sound of the trumpet of battle blown by
the lips of the invader, that extraordinary man
rose and spoke to the Parliament and to the popular
of Hungary. " Pale, haggard, ghastly, like a
spectre from the grave," he maddened the enthusiasm
of the people to frenzy with what has been called
his " demoniacal fascination." The inspired priestess
upon the tripod of Delphos could not have uttered
more thrilling words than KOSSUTH. "lam a
prophet," said he. " I shudder at myself. I see the
book of fate open before me. Vainly do I close
mine eyes. The light darts through my soul ! It is
lightning in utter darkness. I must even speak,
and let the spell of my words go forth.
Hear me, 0 Patriots ! I stand by the
everlasting laws of the eternal GOD, and I swear by
them that my prophecy shall be fulfilled. And my
prophecy is, that the freedom of Hungary will come
even from JELLACHICH'S invasion of our country."
That was the language of KOSSUTH on the breaking
out of the war of invasion; and the people responded
to the call ; and they arose; and the prediction has
worked out its fulfilment !

After this—after the spirit of Conservatism has
declared itself in favour of Hungary—we can enter.
tain no fear as to the ultimate confirmation of the
triumph of its inhabitants.

Our obituary notices, as we indicated yesterday,
have recently contained some remarkab!e names, and
among them there is one other that we cannot pass
by without a word of grateful commemoration. If
some great conqueror had ceased to exist the world
would resound with grief for his departure, if some
member of royalty passed away millions would put on
a robe of mourning; and, therefore, believing as we
do, intellectual greatness to be in nowise in-
ferior to the might of arms or the pride
of birth, and believing as we do, that genius
rightly exercised is the truest benefactor of mankind,
we cannot suffer, and we would be loth that the
community should suffer an intellectual benefactor to
go to the grave like any ordinary individual,
" unwept, unhonoured, and unsung." Teat such
a public benefactor has passed away is now
well known, for recently the melancholy tid-
ings reached us that MARIA EDGEWORTH
was no more. The death of this venerable lady, her
peaceful death in the calm of her domestic retire-
ment, at an age when lite no longer appears attrac-
tive, and when the friends of youth had preceded her
to the tomb, presents in itself nothing painful.
Nevertheless, the eternal departure of a friend is