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

THE SUN, ----L-ONDON,

to the relief of their distressed brethren—where the
fundholder, the mortgagee, the annuitant, shall be
equally liable to the paramount claim. What
has proved an intolerable: burden, when
imposed solely on the owners and occu-
piers of land, without any allowance being made
for the incum brances by which they are affected,
will be by no means formidable when spread over a
wide surface, and when all parties possessed of accu-
mulated and realised property co-operate together
for the relief of distress, whensoever and wheresoever
It may be found. To this complexion it must come
at last, and when the principle is fully and fairly
carried out we shall have the strongest hope of a
speedy restoration to prosperity in that much
afflicted land. In the mean time we hail
the recognition of a maximum charge and
a rate in aid from the entire kingdom, as a step
in the right direction, that must ultimately lead to
further changes and a decided improvement upon the
existing system.
Another proposition intended to be brought for-
ward is founded on a suggestion made by Mr. RIGA?
WasoN, which first appeared in our columns. It is
to the effect that " when agricultural improvements on
the land take place, there should not, for a certain
number of years, be an increased valuation on account
of these improvements." The period for which the
exemption is to be granted has not been settled.
We regret, however, to find that Lord Jorrx
RussELL states his opinion to be " that
ten years ought to form the utmost limit." He,
however, admits that upon that point " there may be
room for very considerable discussion." We trust
that such discussion may have the effect of materially
altering his views and inducing him to prolong the
period to at least double the period he has indicated,
and thus to afford due encouragement to that active
industry, that improving spirit ley which alone the
regeneration of Ireland can be effected.

With respect to the vexata quastio the area of
taxation, the Noble Lord adduced the most cogent and
unanswerable arguments against the plan that has
found so much favour in the sight of some of the
Irish poor-law reformers, " for individualising the
liability and rendering it, whenever practicable, con-
terminous with property." It is impossible not to
acknowledge the validity of the objections so for-
cibly brought forward against the project, and to
feel that they are indeed " insuperable." There
is, however, some reduction to be made in the
larger southern unions, which are much beyond the
average size. We do not see any great objection
to this change, which, it is said, will be more favour-
able to the development of industry, without being
open to the objections which the Noble Lord urged
with so much truth and power against rendering
the area of taxation conterminous with property.
With respect to incumbrances affecting land, a
distinction is drawn between mortgages and charges
in the hands of bona fide creditors, and what may be
termed family charges. The Government, it appears,
intend to steer a middle course. Mortgages, it ap-
pears, are to be exempted from any contribution,
while, what may be termed family charges, such as
jointures, charges for younger children, &c., are to
contribute in proportion to their amount. As a
matter of equity and good conscience all income
derived from land, by whatsoever name it may be
called, should participate in the burden. It is consi-
dered, however, that mortgagees would be induced to
call in their money if subjected to the charge, and
that thus considerable embarrassment would be
occasioned. Will not the same result, however,
happen with respect to younger brothers
and others in possession of " family charges," 'who
have a right to insist on immediate payment ? In
many instances these charges have been assigned for
valuable consideration, and are now vested in
strangers to their inheritors. The same objections,
therefore, exist that have been felt to be insuperable
in the case of mortgagees. It is equitable and just
that every species of income arising from land should
contribute. Mischiefs, however, may arise from such
an enactment, which can be avoided only by render-
ing every description of property, real and personal,
responsible for the relief of the poor.

Extraordinary movements are taking place in the
northeastern dominions of Europe. Nations are
there striving to maintain their independence against
the insidious machinations or the flagrant assaults of
the arbitrary governments of :the KAISER and the
A trrocnAT. Hungary is still struggling sword in
hand to vindicate her rights and to preserve her na-
tionality. Every hour her patriotic children are
evincing some new but we fear fruitless heroism in
their war with their colossal oppressors. Wallachia
groans under the scimitar of FUAD EFFENDI. Mol-
davia is paralyzed by the destructive presence of
DUUAMEL. Bosnia trembles for the existence of her
institutions. Servia observes with alarm the gradual
approach of her destruction. Nothing but dismay,
carnage, and ruin are ♦isible throughout the
Sclavic population of Turkey. Nothing but
the valour of desperation sustains the vigour of the
Magyars. Nothing but grief, terror, and anguish
are audible in the cities of the great Danubian Prin-
cipalities. And all this is attributable to the princi-
ples of Absolutism presiding over the councils of
011mutz and St. Petersburgh----principles which are
forced upon the reluctant acceptance of the Cabinet
of Constantinople.

Recently we have explained as lucidly as our
command of diction and arrangement of facts would
enable us—the perfect independence of Hungary in
the first instance, and subsequently of Moldo-Wal-
lachia. We proved by reference to the public laws
of Europe that the Danubian Provinces have the
right of autonomy or of self-government guaranteed
to them by a capitulation signed and
sealed between the Sublime Porte and the
Ministers at Bukharest as far back as the reign of
BAJAZET I. We demonstrated, moreover, that the
freedom of the kingdom of St. STXPIIEN was equally.
well guaranteed by the oaths of fourteen monarchs
and the concurrent testimony of three centuries. Yet
it is against those free and independent races that
Austria is dispatching her commanders, that Russia
is sending her soldiers, and that Turkey is obliged to
forward her commissaries. Hungary and the Danu-
bian Provinces find themselves in a more deplorable
position even than the Roman peninsula immediately
anterior to the imperial downfal and dismemberment,
for they are subjected to the irruptions not of one
horde of barbarians at a time, but to the simultaneous
invasion of their territories by the Germans,
by the Mussulmen, and by the Muscovites. Nor are
the latest accounts more satisfactory than any of the
preceding intelligence. One authority declares that
the forces of WINDISCIIGRATZ have obtained posses-
, sion of one-third of the entire dominions of Hungary,
, notwithstanding the brave and pertinacious defence
I made by Beat. Another asserts that a treaty has
been concluded between the Emperor FRANCIS
JOSEPH and the Emperor NicuoLas, ceding the
Danubian Principalities and a portion of Transylvania
to Russia, in exchange for certain provinces situated
in Bosnia and Herzegoin. So that, taking these de-
clarations as authentic, the despotic powers are adding
new infamy to their greatness by additional violations
of the rights of independent states.
In regard to Hungary, it has been most happily
observed by FRANCIS PULSZET (late Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs), that if the Vienna Cabinet
should ultimately prove triumphant by means of the
bayonet, Hungary will no longer continue a source of
power to Austria, but will become, on the contrary,
" her heel of Achilles." She will be the vulnerable
part of that vast and heterogeneous agglomeration
of races—as Poland is to Russia—a province
requiring everlasting military occupatitm. In
speaking of the conflict at present raging
in that unfortunate country, it must not
only be borne in remembrance that the rights and
independence of Hungary have been guaranteed to her
even by the most ancient and sacred laws of the
European international code, but that Austria in the
treatment of her people, and her local administration,
has evinced not only remarkable injustice, but an ex-
,traordinary and unparalleled perfidy. It cannot be
forgotten that on the 11th of April, 1842, the
EMPEROR-KING (since abdicated), attended by his
great Ministers of State, as well as his Imperial
relatives, proceeded with great pomp to Presburg,
and there gave his solemn sanction or ratification'
to the law establishing in Hungary a distinct
Ministerial Government. Since then the power of
the EMPEROR-KING, or rather. of his successor, has
been-strengthened, Asa counterpoise to the rsvolu-

tionary vigour of the Democrats, the Absolutists can
point with exultation to the captured city of Milan,
and to'Jhe victory of Custozza, to the desolated
suburbs and battered walls of the imperial capital
itself—and, re-invigorated by such occurrences, they
can openly avow that the proceeding of the 11th of
April, 1848, was not in accordance with the unity of
the empire, and since then, as PULSZEY remarks, " the
sword of the Ban JELLACHICH has served as a support
of that declaration." Happily the gallant spirit of their
forefathers has not yet deserted the Hungarians : and
experience compels us to regard as lying all those
vain-glorious reports of defeat, which are comparable
only to the rumours of similar catastrophes chronicled
so veraciously in the organs of Madame Murioz in
reference to the civil war in Catalonia. Among these
hyperbolical and rather premature paeans we must
certainly classify the shout of triumph raised by the
Ministerial journals of Austria as to the total defeat
of the Hungarians on the 13th ultimo in the vicinity
of Arad. The correctness of the assertion as to
the good fortune of the German forces in this
instance is rendered somewhat more than
dubious by the acknowledged seizure of lorANovicu
by the Magyars. Everything, indeed, corroborates
the assertion of Count LADISLAS TELEXI, that no
reliance can be placed upon the accounts furnished by
the German newspapers in reference to what is hourly
transpiring in Hungary—an assertion made by that
distinguished Hungarian in the manifesto recently
issued by him in the name of the Hungarian Govern-
meat, which manifesto has within the last few days
been published in English from an admirable transla-
tion, penned by Mr. H. F. W. Bitowris, B.A. At a
time when authentic information as to the situation
of such noble but ill-starred territories as Hungary
and Moldo-Wallachia, are more than required
to counteract the evil effects of the falsehoods printed
in the Austrian organs, it is impossible to receive too
cordially the lucubrations of such patriotic diplomat-
ists as TELEKI and Ba.urramo.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.
The Constitutionnel confirms the account that
Sardinia had protested against the proposed joint in-
tervention of Austria, Spain, Naples, and France in
the affairs of Rome.

The PRESIDENT and Vice-President of the Repub-
lic are, it is said, in favour of making a decided de-
monstration in Italy, a course which is opposed by
the majority of the Cabinet.
BOURSE—PARIS, FRIDAY, Miser' 2.
THREE o'CLocx.—The French Five per Cents. rose to
day to S4f. 10c., the highest price to which they have
arrived since the Revolution; but a number of specula-
tors then rushing in realise profits, there was a re-
action, and they ultimately closed at 83f. sc. The
Italian question gives great uneasiness, and it is feared
that the entry of the Russians into Transylvania will
load to new complications.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, MARCH 2.
_ _

Boulogne and Amiens, 93/4—Central of France (Orlean
and Vierzon), 131,41—Namur and Liege, B%—Northern of
France, 114— Orleans and Bordeaux, 3%—Paris and
Strasbourg, 5 ex in.—Rouen and Hayrs,l3lA—Sambre and
Maus', s—Tours and Nantes, 234.