The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-12 00:00:00

THIS EVENING,

The curtain will rise at a Quarter to Seven o'clock precbely to the
magnificent Spectacle, by Fitzball. entitled
CORA SCO ; or, the Warrior's Steed.
After which the double Tight-ropes.
To be followed by an inimitable display of SCENES IN THE
CIRCLE, supported by the first Equestrian talent of the day.
—To conclude with the farce of THE DUMB DRIVER.:
Box-office open from Eleven till Five.
Stage Manager, Mr. W. West.

THE WEATHER.—SON OFFICE, MARCH 11.
THERMOMETER, Lowest, 30; Highest, 41; Noon, 42,

BAROMETER, 30.49.
WIND W.S.W.—fine, cold, sunshiny weather.
MARCH 12.

TUERMODIETEIt, Lowest, 37; Hizhest, 43; Noon, 55.

BAROMETER, 30.19.
WIND W.-light breeze, and cloudy.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON .BRIDOE.

THIS DAY w °riling, 59 min. after 8 I Evening, 16 min. after 4
To-Moattow—Morning, 33 min. after 4 I Evening, *3 min. after 4

- .

Atlantic to find shelter in the prairies of America.'
VIMARTINE, on the contrary, has insisted that, na-
tnrally,.yhysically, and inevitably, " the slope of
Russia is towards the East. j'" An intermediate
party has wavered between the two extremes,
between the excesses of the mob and the
excesses of the tyrants, and its members
have almost hesitated upon which side
they should place the double homage of their alle-
giance and their confidence. MACAULAY has given
a voice to this indecision, where he exclaims, that
some have, with deep sorrow, owned that "it might
be necessary to sacrifice even liberty to save civiliza-
tion.% The solution of all these difficulties, and of all
this hesitation, may be found, however, in the recent
proceedings of the Emperor NICHOLAS.
On the first evening of the present March we gave
our readers a rapid, but complete and strictly chrono-
logical, narrative of the histories of Moldavia and
Wallachia, commonly called the Danubian Provinces.
We explained that the independence of those princi-
palities was solemnly guaranteed to them by the
written laws of Europe, in compliance with the word-
ing of the capitulation concluded in 1393, between
BAJAZET I. and the Wallachians—the introductory
article of that treaty " resolving and decreeing that
this country (viz., Wallachia) shall continue to be go-
verned by its own laws," and another treaty,
signed in 1513, extending a similar right of
autonomy also to the province of Moldavia. We
showed, moreover, that while the capitulation between
BAJAZET and the Wallachians in 1393 gave the
Sublime Porte the title of Suzerains, or Lord Para-
mount, over the Principalities, the treaty between
PETER THE GREAT and DEMETRIUS CANTEMIR, the
Prince or Hospodar, denied to the CZAR the right,
since claimed by him, of styling himself the Protector
of the Danubian Provinces. We recounted the
illegal incursions of the Russians, the beneficent
supremacy of the Ottoman Sovereign as nominal
chieftain, the peaceable efforts made by the popula-
tion in the cause of constitutional reform and
legislative improvement, the arbitrary interposition
of the soldiers and emissaries dispatched to Bu-
charest from St. Petersburgh, and the deplorable
calamities under which the Danubian Provinces are
now groaning, in consequence of the cruelties
inflicted upon them by their Muscovite oppressors.
'We are now enabled to corroborate those statements,
and to furnish additional particulars, as to the
position of Moldo-Wallachia, from the accounts
which have just been published in the form
of two authoritative and intelligent pamphlets.§
Even without any written statement of the
conduct pursued by the successive Autocrats towards
Moldo-Wallachia, it would be impossible not to per-
ceive its atrocity from a single glance at the map of
the European continent. It is there visible how
Russia on the one hand, and Austria on the other, have
violated the neutrality of those independent provinces
for the aggrandisement of their own immense terri-
tories. One town after another has been absorbed,
and the elastic frontiers of the robber-empires have
continually stretched in a southerly direction—em-
bracing in turns new plains, new hills, new valleys,
new villages, new roads, and new rivers. Nor is this
spoliation any reason for astonishment, considering
the utter want of principle which characterises the
cabinets of Vienna and St. Petersburgh, the rich allu-
vial soil of Wallachia, the fruitful and undulating
ground of Moldavia, their common helpless.
ness, and the impossibility of their liege monarch
the SULTAN defending them against two such stu-
pendous adversaries. Tuns of wine, granaries of
wheat, forests of timber, mines of copper, lead, and
silver excited the cupidity of the CZAR and the
KAlSER—nothing interposed but the qualms of con-
science— mere bubbles to be blown away by the
breath of an edict or a ukase ! The Porte might
issue his firmans to his heart's content, protesting
against the injustice. 'What could that effect against
the gorged exchequers of the buccaneering despots ?
They filched and flourished, annexed and triumphed,
without hindrance or reprisal. And it is thus that
we find Russia in 1812 taking to herself, " at one
fell swoop," nearly the half of Moldavia—namely,
the fine province lying between the Pruth and the
Dneister, called Bessarabia. From all quarters the
unfortunate Wallachians—Roumans as they call
themselves, Vlachs as they are contemptuously desig-
nated by their assailants—experienced a succession of
calamities. Austria availed herself of every oppor-
tunity to benefit by the distribution of her pilfered
fragments. Turkey—mild and generous as her be-
haviour has been in the aggregate—sometimes com-
pelled her to suffer from the incapacity of the Puna-
riots whom she had raised to the dignity of Hospodar
—and sometimes abandoned her to the infamous
assaults of a power too formidable for opposition.
Russia, the most cruel and relentless of
all, allowed no occasion to pass without
availing herself of the advantage to subdue
the nationality of Moldo-Wallachia. From the moment
that the treaty of Karnardji was signed in 1774, the
Autocrat has ground drown the wretched people of
those independent provinces. In addition to all his
preceding harshness, he has assumed to himself the
title of Protector ( !) although the rights of so-
vereignty and interference were expressly reserved to
the SULTAN andirons the EMPEROR, both by the con-
vention of Achermann, and by the treaty of Adrianople.
Besides flagitiously claiming this illegal prerogative
of' interposition, besides incarcerating the patriots of
the principalities in his dungeons, besides abolishing
their laws, violating their habits, suppressing their
language, pillaging their cities, and niassacreing their ,
population, the Emperor NICHOLAS has, within the
last few months, with a matchless and unparalleled
audacity, marched an army of 60,000 men into the
Danubian provinces, and forced Moldo-Wallachia,
already impoverished by his influence and desolated
by his barbarities, to pay for the support of those
very mercenaries who are the instruments of their
ulterior annihilation—

To lick the hand just raised to shed their blood!"
After allowing the officers to extort large sums from
the inhabitants of Bucharest, after, too, permitting the
privates to steal provisions from the farm-
houses, the AUTOCRAT has given his sanction to a
plan, in accordance with which the troops will be
fed and housed—the quasi-Administration of Moldo-
Wallachia opening a credit at St. Petersburgh, and
thereby saddling the provinces with a national debt
to Russia, which can only be paid by the final resig-
nation of the whole country into the hands of the
EMPEROR. So far have the aggressive and spoliative
designs of NlcßoLas prospered, that it is emphati-
cally declared, by the English pamphleteer (p. 23),
that the "Emperor of Russia. reigns no less absolutely
at Bucharest than he does at St. Petersburgh." In
spite of the benignity of the Turkish Government
(for that Government has shown itself not only
generous towards the principalities, but liberal, and
capable of enlightenment, and ready for constitu-
tional improvement, in regard to its own political in-
stitutions, and in reference to its foreign relations),
solicitous
as the young CALlem-SULTAN is to
befriend the Moldo-Wallachians, anxious as the Divan
has proved itself to obstruct the insolent passage of
the AUTOCRAT, eminently noble as were the exer-
tions of SULEIMAN PACRA, anksingularly lenient as 1
FL-AD EIFINDI has of late become, Russia is treading
down all the barriers built up against her dominating
march, and is speeding onwards with a terrible velo- 1
city to the realisation of her vast dreams of ambition.
Numerous, however, as are the inducements to the
seizure of the Danubian Principalities, Russia is
actuated by larger motives than those of despoiling
the Hospodar of his dignity, of reducing the Boyards
to the alternative of servitude or banishment, or of
making even that enormous encroachment upon the
territories obedient to the Sublime Porte. She is
labouring on through Moldavia and Wallachia to the
occupation of the whole of the European dominions
of Turkey. Her goal is the sea of Marmora. Her
prize—the possession of which can alone compensate
the AUTOCRAT for his present enterprise—is Con-

• Ili.stoire du Consulea et de l'Empire. Tom. viii.
Bvo. Paris, 1849. _ _

stantinople. Constantinople affords the only
clue to the heart of that tortuous labyrinth
of chicanery, the ramifications of which commence
in the Imperial Palace at St. Petersburgh. So soon
as Byzantium shall have been declared the second
city of the Russian empire, the principal object of
Russian ambition will have been accomplished. For
when the standard of the black eagle floats over the
dome of St. Sophia, when the fleets from Kherson and
the other ports on the Black Sea are moored opposite
the mole of Constantinople, the Emperor NICHOLAS, to
employ the memorable expression of his predecessor,
will have locked the door of his house I The Darda-
nelles and the Bosphorus will be impervious to the
united naval forces of the other maritime nations of
the world.

Supposing this to be the case—supposing Turkey
to have fallen a prey to Russia—supposing Constan-
tinople to be a capital of secondary importance to St.
Petersburgh—supposing the occupation of Moldo-
Wallachia to have led (as it will inevitably lead,
unless 'Western Europe shall declare to the contrary)
to the advance of the Russian battalions through
Roumelia, and of the Russian men-of-war through
the Bosphorus—what would be the consequence of
all these catastrophes to England ? Why the con-
sequence would be disastrous at once to our
moral strength, to our political predomi-
nance, to our naval supremacy, and to our
mercantile speculations. Russia would have gained
the Archimedian fulcrum, and we should have lost it.
She would have violated the laws of nations without
our interposition,—that would be the mortal blow to
our political predominance ! She would have in-
sulted the divine and eternal principles of justice
without our raising our voice in behalf of her victim,
—that would be the fatal wound to the moral strength
of our Government ! She would have closed the
Dardanelles against our vessels through the medium
of its impregnable fortresses,—that would be the
thunderbolt levelled at our naval supremacy ! And
as to the injury done to our commerce by the cap-
ture of Constantinople,—that can be readily estimated
by the amount of our exports conveyed annually,
through the Dardanelles, to the bazaars of Turkey,
to the markets of Persia, and to the whole of the
central trading places of the Asiatic Continent. In
order to render this clear beyond all contradiction,
we transcribe the following statistical table (" The
Russians in Moldavia," &c., p. 33)—from which it
will be perceived that our exports to Turkey have,
within the twenty years last past, increased by about
400 per cent., while those to Russia, within the same
interval, have increased merely by about forty
per cent.:—

DECLARED VALUE OF BRITISH AND IRISH PRODUCE AND
MANUFACTURES, EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED KING-
DOM TO TURKEY AND RUSSIA, IN EACH YEAR, FROM
1827 TO 1846, BOTH INCLUSIVE.
Years,
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
18''6 1,820,687
1837
1838
1839 ...... 1,452,743
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846

* The exports to the kingdom of Greece are included
in some of these returns; but they are inconsiderable,
not amounting to more than 30,000/. annually.
The real significance of this calculation is, never-
theless, overlooked, if we disregard the circumstance
that, while the population of Russia is 49,000,000, that
of Turkey is merely 1,500,000 ;** that while, moreover,
our exports to the latter country consist of "com-
pletely manufactured articles," those to the former-are
entirely composed of "partially manufactured ar-
ticles"—the superior value of the first being estimated
at " nearly the proportion of five to two 1" Yet it is
Turkey that we are told to abandon to the designs
of Russia, as concerning in no respect either the in •
terests or the honour of Great Britain !

We think the Pxpression occurs in Lamartine's
pamphlet on "The Polity of Reason," but, at any rate,
it is mentioned by M. de Cormeatin.
History of England, Vol. 11., p. 669. iv°. London,
1849.

While the AUTOCRAT is thus assailing the commer-
cial, naval, political, and moral powers of England, he
is bearding this great empire from the very fact of its
insane forbearance towards himself—a British subject
having been recently seized by the Russian authorities
in Bucharest and conveyed away to a remote dungeon,
aotwithstanding the interposition of the English Consul,
Mr. COLQIIHOUN.

Shall these things be permitted to pass unnoticed
—from a contemptible pusillanimity or from a
mawkish subserviency to the paradoxes of the Peace
Association ? GOD forbid ! Or, at that rate civili-
zation and liberty would be sacrificed together, and
barbarism and depotism become in the end victorious.
On the ocean our authority is irresistible, and on
the ocean alone could Russia contend with the
greatness of England. One roar of our guns at the
northern mouth of the Bosphorus, or at the southern
entrance of the Enikaleh—and the nations who are
groaning in Russian fetters on the borders of the
Black Sea would rise simultaneously to effect their
emancipation—the Moldavians and the Wallachians,
the Tartars and the Georgians, the Cossacks and the
Circassians. Nay, the question has been asked
already—" Might not the insurrectionary spirit pos-
sibly extend to Poland or even to Finland ?"
England has the power to command obedience to the
laws of Europe—she has the power to vindicate the
rights of humanity. Will she cause those laws and
those rights to be respected ? We ask Lord PALMERS-
TON—and we ask him with a profound confidence in
his courage, his statesmanship, and his patriotism.

The debate on the Navigation Laws will be
resumed and (we trust) concluded this evening. If
we are to credit the statement of the First Lord of
the Treasury on Friday evening, every exertion will
be made by the Government to bring the matter to
a division without any further adjournment. Much
will, however, depend upon the course adopted by
the Protectionists. If they are still resolved to interpose
vexatious impediments to the progress of the measure,
if they still desire to consume the public time unne-
cessarily, they may avail themselves of the forms of
the house, and protract the discussion, although
without any rational hope of maintaining the ob-
noxious code, with all its mischievous restrictions.
'We cannot, however, suppose that they will so
speedily forget the implied contract entered into at
the commencement of the session—the understanding
that was arrived at, in order to facilitate the dis-
patch of public business. The inconvenience of
having several adjourned debates standing over at
the same time has been admitted on all
sides. It was one of the chief causes that led to the
abortive legislation of last session, which was so se-
verely commented on by the eloquent leader of the
Protectionists on the eve of its termination. Should
the practice again be resorted to; should repeated
motions for adjournment compel a large and decisive
majority to succumb to the will of the minority, some
means must be adopted to abate the intolerable nui-
sance. It will be seen that no reliance can be
placed on the forbearance of Members, and
La Cloture, or some analagous rule, must be
introduced forthwith.

views :

It is not at present necessary to enter into the
details of the proposed measure, or to consider
whether the Ministerial proposition should be modified
in any, and what particulars. Many persons would,
undoubtedly, prefer a complete measure, abolishing
every restriction, and making the shipping trade
perfectly free. The portions of the old law
that have been retained, will not propitiate
the opponents of the measure. Indeed, the
Right Hon. Gentleman the Member for Stam-
ford designated them as; " trifling and insignificant
reservations, which in some respects rendered the Bill
absurd, and in others rendered its provisions onerous,
without being compensatory on those on whom the
burden would fall, but which in no respect tended to
remove his objections to the proposal." These minor
points will more properly be decided when the House
is in Committee. At present the question is whether
any alteration whatever shall be made in the present
laws, or whether they shall be retained with
all their acknowledged defects ? Whether, in
fact, the beneficial results of free trade is

§ The Russians in Moldavia and Wallachia. Bvo.,
pp. 36. Ridgway. London: 1849.
Documents concerning the question of the Danubian
Principalities. Dedicated to the English Parliament.
By 1). Bratiano. Scrip., pp. 32. Detkins, London: 1849.
Greeks resident in a quarter of Constantinople,
called the Panar, who from their talent were selected by
the Divan first to fill the office of interpreters, and ulti-
mately to act as diplomatists.

" No authentic census appears ever to have been made
in the Ottoman empire, but the above is the rough esti-
mate of a writer in the Encyclopadiaßritams‘a; Art.,
"Turkey," act of 1842.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 12, 1849.

goods are to be neutralised by the continuance of a
monopoly in the carrying trade ? This is the only
point to be decided in the present instance, and we
doubt not that an overwhelming majority will pro-
claim their adherence to the principles of free trade,
and declare that it is expedient to buy in the cheapest
and to sell in the dearest market.

It has been usual to quote ADAM SMITH as an
authority in favour of the navigation-laws. His
assertion that these enactments " are as wise, however,
as if they had all been dictated by the most deliberate
wisdom," has been repeatedly cited as a conclusive
argument against any alteration. We are disposed
to attach weight to everything which fell from that
profound philosopher, and we would therefore gladly
examine the reasons upon which he founded that
opinion. It clearly was not upon economic grounds
that he justified the conclusion at which he had
arrived. The entire tenor of his arguments, the tone
of his reasoning, forbid the supposition. We have,
however, even more unequivocal testimony that he
considered them highly injurious in that respect.
He himself says—
The Act of navigation is not favourable to foreign
commerce, or to the growth of that opulence which can
arise from it. The interest of a nation in its commercial
relations to foreign nations is like that of a merchant
with regard to the different people with whom he deals,
to buy as cheap, and to sell as dear as possible. But the
Act of navigation, by diminishing the number of sellers,
must necessarily diminish that of buyers, and we are
thus likely not only to buy foreign goods dearer, but to sell
our own cheaper, than if there was a perfect freedom of
trade."

Here, then, is the direct admission that these re-
strictive laws are highly injurious to the trade and
commerce of the country—that the national wealth is
materially depreciated thereby. There can scarcely
be any controversy on that point, which is perfectly
clear. ADAM SMITH adds—

" As defence, however, is of much more importance
than opulence, the Act of navigation is, perhaps, the
wisest of all the commercial regulations of England."

This, then, is plainly the foundation, and the
only foundation of his favourable opinion of these
laws. Ilis authority may be relied on, and with
even greater dependence, because he is an unwilling
witness who comes from the enemy's camp, but who
is compelled by a sense of justice to make an admis-
sion prejudical to his own side.
Other unimpeachable testimony might be adduced
on the same side to show the injurious results of the
restrictions imposed by these laws. ROGER CoKE,
in his celebrated " Treatise on Trade," published in
1671, when the full effects of the law of 1651 were
perceptible, stated that this Act, by lessening the
resort of strangers to our ports, :had a most injurious
effect upon our commerce. He also asserts, " that we
we had lost within two years of the passing of the
Act the greater part of the Baltic and Greenland
trades." Sir JOSIAH CHILD, who wrote with twenty
years additional experience of the working of the
law, stated that English shipping employed in the
Eastland and Baltic trades had decreased at least
two-thirds since its enactment, and that the foreign
shipping had proportionately increased. With such
consequences it may well be doubted whether
the obnoxious code really augmented the ma-
ritime power of the country, and rendered
the nation better prepared for defence.
If our commerce was really injured, if we had lost
the greater portion of the Baltic and Greenland
trades, if !English shipping were reduced two-
thirds, while foreign shipping was proportionately
increased, our mercantile marine could not serve as a
better nursery for seamen than if no such deleterious in-
fluences were at work. ADAM SMITH, however, in
another part of his great work, materially modifies his
former opinion, and gives expression to very different

" England (he says), it must be observed, was a
great trading country, her mercantile capital was very
great, and likely to become still greater and greater
every day, not only before the Act of navigation
had established the monopoly of the colony
trade, but before the trade was very considerable. In
the Dutch war, during the Government of Cromwell,
her navy was superior to that of Holland, and in that
which broke out in the beginning of the reign of Charles
11. it was equal, perhaps superior, to the united navies of
France and Holland. Its superiority would, perhaps,
scarce appear greater in the present times,
at least if the Dutch navy was to bear
same proportion to the Dutch commerce now which it
did then. But this great naval power could not in either of
these wars be ascribed to the Act of navigation. During
the first of them the plan of that Act had been but just
formed, and though before the breaking out of the
second it had been fully enacted by legal authority, yet
no part of it could have had time to produce any con-
siderable effect, and least or an, that part which estab•
lished the exclusive trade to the colonies."

Hence, then, it appears that the maritime defences
of England could be maintained in full efficiency
without the operation of this boasted law; and the
question with the nation is, whether it is prepared to
pay so high a price for some fancied advantage in that
respect—whether the existing naval estimates,
already sufficiently high, are to be indirectly en-
hanced by the great injury done to our trade and
commerce, and thus retarding the full l develop-
ment of the principles of free trade by the main-
tenance of the obnoxious code.

What is to be done in Ireland and for Ireland ?
The Protectionists have promulgated their scheme :
Lord STINLEY has stated his views in the hereditary
branch of the Legislature, while the Hon. Member
for Buckinghamshire has declared that he is pre-
pared with a comprehensive plan for the ame-
lioration of the country, which he will bring
forward when his present motion is carried.
Even the Right Hon. Member for Tam worth has cast
aside his habitual reserve, and spoken out plainly and
unequivocally. How long, then, are we to wait for
the Ministerial project? As yet, the " rate in aid"
is all that has been carried, and we cannot suppose
that they will remain contented with merely modify-
ing the poor-laws. When are the long-promised
and anxiously-expected remedial measures to be
introduced ? Something must surely be done.
The Government cannot abdicate its functions
and suffer its chief rivals, the most daring aspirants
to office, to bring forward propositions that should
emanate from the Cabinet.

The great want of the sister kingdom is, employ-
ment for the people. It possesses ample resources,
which, if fully developed, would speedily elevate it
in the scale of nations, and make the inhabitants pros-
perous and contented—the creators and producers of
national wealth—in place of being (as at present)
in a miserable and destitute condition, unprofitably
consuming the productions of the country. It pos-
sesses real capital in the thews and sinews of its
labouring population, but that capital is suffered to
remain utterly waste and useless for want of proper
representatives—of a currency suited to the wants and
exigencies of the country.
Mr. RIGBT Wesos, in a letter which will be found
in another column, emphatically calls upon the
Premier fur his plan, and he has himself indicated
the fitting channel, by speaking of the waste lands,
more than six million acres whereof are utterly un-
productive, more than two-thirds of which might
be reclaimed so as to pay at least ten per cent. on
the necessary expenditure, the whole of which would
be applied in paying fairly-earned wages to those
who must now be fed without rendering any return
whatsoever therefor.

, Rector of
interesting lecture to a
w aOr ne h
or Thursdayn e
delivered last the
a edvy. Ji
n.
numerous and highly respectable audience of the mem-
bers and friends of the Ashford and Alfred Mechanics'
Institution, in the Assembly Rooms, Ashford. The
lecture (which was entitled "Glimpses of Science, and
the new Planet Neptune," its object being to illustrate
revealed truths) occupied nearly two hours in the deli-
very, and was listened to with the deepest interest and
attention. The Reverend Lecturer's illustrations were
chiefly derived from certain phenomena of " Sound,
Light, and Electricity." lle then proceeded to refer to
the new planet Neptune, pourtray ing the manner in
which it has been discovered as one of the grand intel-
lectual feats of the age. Mr. Duflon was repeatedly ap-
plauded during the delivery of the lecture, and an earnest
request was made that he would consult to its publica-
tion.—Kentish Paper.
QUEEN'S THEATRE, HULL.—This place of amuse-
ment, in which M. Jullien held his last Monster Concert
here, is announced for re-opening. for histrionic art on
Monday, the 19th inst., under the management of Mr.
Caple, a gentleman well-known in the theatrical circles
of London. Since Mr. Caple arranged for the occupancy
of the theatre, many alteration have been made for pro-
moting the comfort of the audience, whilst the redecora-
Lions by Mr. George Peck, of Hull, bid fair to outstrip
anything of the kind hitherto displayed in the provinces.
NOthing now is wanting but a firs: rate and well se-
lected corps dranzatilue, and this, we doubt not, Mr.
Caple is not only desirous of possessing, but will doubt-
lessly obtain.

SA 'RED hAIEtIiONIC SOCIETY.--A third and final
performance Llaudel's itiblune ()nitwit., Israii in Egy pt,
under the direction of Mr. Costa, is announced to take
place on Friday nest, the 10th instant.

GERMANY

AND

THE NORTHERN STATES

NEW AUSTRIAN CONSTITUTION.
The following draft of the Austrian Constitution
was promulgated on the 7th inst. at Vienna :
" We, Francis Joseph, by the Grace of God Emperor
of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, King of Lom-
bardy and Venice, of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Selavonis,
Gallicis,: Lodomeria, and Illyria; King of Jerusalem,
Archuke of Austria, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cra-
cew, Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, Styria, Karinthia,
Krain, and the Bukowina; Grand Priuce of Transyl-
vania, Margrave of Moravia, Duke of Upper and Lower
Sileria, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, of
Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Foioul, Ragusa, and
Zara; Princely Count of Hapsburg, Tyrol, Ky burg,
GOrz, and Gradiska; Prince of Trent and Briden; Mar-
grave of the Upper and Lower Lausitz; Count of Ilohe-
nernbs, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, &c., Lord of
Trieste, Cattaro, and of the Windish Mark:
" It is now almost a year since our most august pre-
decessor in the empire, the Emperor Ferdinand 1., met
the general desire for political progress by the promise
of free institutions. A feeling of gratitude and of joy-
ful expectation pervaded then the empire. But later
events were ill calculated to answer such just hopes.
The condition of our country on this day fills our heart
with sorrow. Domestic peace has left us. Pauperism
threatens those countries which once were blessed with
plenty. The intrigues of a few disaffected persons force
us still, to our great grief, to maintain an exceptional
state in our capital of Vienna, in spite of the loyal sen-
timents of the great majority of its inhabitants. A civil
war devastates part of our kingdom of Hungary. In
another Crown land the state of war prevents the intro-
duction of organisation—yes, and even in places where
tranquillity is seemingly undisturbed, a spirit f distrust
and hate stalks about in the darkness, gathering crowds
under its standard.

" Such is the melancholy action, not of liberty, but of
the abuse of liberty. To oppose these abuses, to finish
the revolution, is no less our duty than our will.
" In the manifesto of the 2d of December ulr. we pro-
nounced a hope that, with God's assistance, and in har-
mony with our peoples, we might succeed in uniting all
countries and tribes of the monarchy into one grand
State. These words of ours were joyfully accepted in all
parts of our empire; they were the expression of a want,
of which, though it was long felt, people had but lately
become conscious; for in the regeneration of the whole
monarchy, in a closer union of its component parts, did
the people's sound sense find the first condition to a re-
turn of order and wealth, and the surest guarantee for
a blessed and glorious future.
"The Diet, convoked by the Emperor Ferdinand 1.,
has meanwhile framed at Krernsicr a Constitution for
one part of the monarchy. We resolved, though (in
consideration of the position of that Diet, during the
events of October—a position which could hardly be re-
conciled to their duty of loyalty to our house) hesitat-
ingly, to allow the Diet time for the completion of its
great task, hoping that assembly would not lose sight of
the unalterable condition of the empire, and that they
would soon and satisfactorily complete their task.
" We regret that we were disappointed in that expec-
tation. After the debates of many months the Consti-
tution remains unfinished. Theoretical discussions,
containing not only great contradictions to the practical
condition of the State, but also opposing all right and le-
gality within the State, have contributed to remove from
us the return of tranquillity, of legality, and of public
confidence; they have filled the minds of the well-dis-
posed with gloomy apprehensions, and they have im-
parted courage and activity to the revolutionary party,
which, though conquered by force of arms, has still ma-
naged to survive its defeat. This has shaken us in our
hopes of that Assembly, in spite of the very respectable
elements which it contains.

" The victorious progress of our armies i❑ Hungary
has, meanwhile, furthered the great work of the regene-
ration of a united Austria, the accomplishment of which
is the aim and end of our life, and the necessity of giving
a durable protection to the foundation of :that work has
become apparent. A Constitution uniting not only the
countries represented at Kremsier, but also the other
parts of the country, is what the people of the monarchy
expect from us with a just and generous impatience, and
this expectation removes the task of framing the Consti-
tution beyond the limits of the vocation of the Diet.
" We have, therefore, resolved for the whole of our
empire to make to our people a spontaneous gift from
our own imperial power of those rights, liberties, and
political institutions which were promised them by our
august uncle and predecessor and by ourselves, and
which we, to the best of our knowledge and belief,
consider most salutary for the welfare of Austria. We
proclaim, therefore, under the present date, the Charter
of the Constitution for the one and indivisible Empire of
Austria, and we dissolve the Diet now assembled at
Krenisier, ordering its members to disperse after the
publication of this resolution.

" The unity of the whole, with the independence and
free development of its parts, a strong power, protect-
in.-6 justice and order all over the empire, joined to the
liberty of the individuals, of the parishes, of the coun-
tries of our crown, and of the various nationalities—the
foundation of an energetic administration, equally re-
moved from pinching centralization and weakening dis-
solution, and which gives room for motion to the nobler
faculties, while it protects the peace at home and abroad
—the creation of a system of State economy, which is
fragal, inoppressive, and public—the completion of the
disburdening of landed property for a fair indemnity
by the mediation of the State—the assurance of true
liberty by law—such are the principles by which we
were guided iu granting this charter of a Constitution.
" Peoples of Austria ! almost everywln re in Europe is
human society shaken to its foundations ; the criminal
endeavours of a wicked party threaten it on all sides
with dissolution. But however great the dangers for
Austria and for Europe, we do not doubt of a great and
blessed future for our country.
" In this we rely upon the assistance of Almighty God,
who at no time has abandoned our empire. We rely
upon the good will and the loyalty of our peoples, for
the well-disposed form the great majority among them.
rely upon the gallantry and honour of our glorious
army.

" .lPeoph.s of Austria! crowd round your Emperor,
surround him with your affection and active co-operation,
and the constitution of the empire will not then remain
a dead letter. It would grow to be a bulwark of your
liberty, a guarantee for the power, the splendour, the
unity of the monarchy. Great is the work, but it will
be accomplished by the ' united forces.'

" Given in our royal capital of 011muta this day, the
4th day of March, in the year of grace, 1849, and
in the first year of our reign.
" FRANCIS JOSEPH.
" CORDON.
" BRUCK.
" THINNFELD.
" KULNER.

" SCHWARZENI3ERG.
" STADION.
" KRAUSS.
" BACH.

" We, Francis Joseph 1., by the Grace of God Em-
peror of Austria, King of Hungary, &c.,
"Proclaim, for certain dependencies and Crown lands
of the Austrian empire, viz.—For the Archduchy of
Austria on either bank of the Eons ; for the Duchies of
Salzburg and Styria ; for the Kingdom of Illyria, that
is to say, for the Duchies of Karinthia and Drain, the
princely Counties of Gorz and Gradiska, the Margravete
of Istria and the city of Trieste, with the territories ap-
pertaining thereunto ; for the Counties of Tyrol and
Voralberg ; for the Kingdom of Bohemia; for the Mar-
gravate of Moravia ; for the Duchies of Upper and
Lower Silesia ; for the Kingdoms of Gallicia and Lodo-
meria, with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator, and
the Grand Duchy of Cracow ; for the Duchy of Buko-
wina ; and, lastly, for the Kingdom of Dalmatia—in
recognition and for the protection of the political rights,
guaranteed to the inhabitants of these countries by the
constitutional form of state which we have accepted, we
decree as follows :

" Sec. 1. The full enjoyment of political liberty and
the right of domestic exercise of the religious confession
are guaranteed to every one. The enjoyment of civil
and political rights is independent of the religious con-
fession, but that religious confession shall not be allowed
to interfere with the political duties of the citizens.
" Sec. 2. Every church and religious society, if recog-
nized by Jaw, has the right of a common public exercise
of its religion ; it has the independent care for, and ar-
rangement of its own affairs; it remains in the possession
and enjoyment of its institutions, legacies, and funds, de-
voted to objects of worship, instruction, aed charity,
but, as every other company and association, it remains
subject to the general laws of the state.
" Sec. 3. Science and scientific: instruction are free.
Every citizen of the state is entitled to found or conduct
institutions for instruction and education, after having
given satisfactory proofs of his competency. Domestic
instruction is not subject to this limitation.

"Sec. 4. Tho general education of the people is to be
provided for by public institutions, and in parts of the
country which are inhabited by a mixed population is
will be provided for in such a manner, that the tribes
which form the minority shall likewise enjoy the neces-
sary means for the culture of their language, and for
their education in the same. The instruction in religion
in the national schools is to be taken care of by the
respective churches or religious associations. The state
has the supreme control over the affairs of instruction
and education.

" Sec. 5. Everybody has the right of a free expression
of his opinion, by words. by writing, by print, and by
drawings or paintings (hildliche darstellung). The press
is not allowed to be put under a censorship. Repressive
laws shall be published against the abuses of the press.
" See. 6. The right of petitioning belongs to every-
body. Petitions under a joint name shall not be made
utlless it be by authorities or legally recognised asso-
ciations.

"Sec. 7. Austrian citizens have the right to assemble
and to furs associations if the end, or the means and
the manner of the meeting or association, are not opposed
to the law or dangerous to the state. The law will limit
the execution of this right as well as the conditions unifier
which the rights of associations or corporations may be
acquired, exercised, and lost.
" Sec. 8. Individual liberty is guaranteed. The ar-
rest of a person, with the exception of a seizure in
flagrante, shall not take place unless it be on the
strength of a judicial warrant, in which the motives and
reasons of the arrest are stated. This warrant is to be
shown to the arrested person either at the time of the
arrest or within twenty .four hours after it has taken
place.
" Sec. 9. The police are bound to liberate persons
whom they have taken into custody within forty-eight
hours, or to deliver them into the hands of the judge of
the district.
" Sec. 10. A man's domicile is inviolable. Domici-
liary :Hi-;its or ilio yr sQizitro of
only iu the eases and under the furors pro-
♦ided by law.
"Sec. 11. The secrecy of correspondence shall not be

violated, and letters shall not be seized unless in time 01
war, or on the strength of a judical warrant.
"Svc. 12. In the case of a war, or of disturbances in
the interior of the country, the provisions of the para-
graphs 5 to 11 inclusive admit of a temporary and local
suspension. Further particulars in this respect shall be
provided by law.
"Sec. 13. Our Council of Ministers is instructed to
make draughts of provisional decrees for the execution
of these paragraphs, and to submit the same to our
sanction.

" FRANCIS JOSEPZ
" SCHWARZ ENBERG. " CORDON.
" STADION. BRUCK.
" KRAUSS. ‘, jOINNFELD.
" BACH. " KUIZEL
" Olhnutz, March 4."

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