The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-29 00:00:00

eiteuinitfll

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 1849,

O Hungary, how art thou fallen ! Such at least
might be our justifiable exclamation—speaking in the
pathetic and reproachful language applied to the
loftiest of the archangels—in the first flush of the
disastrous intelligence received from the heroic
country irrigated by the waters of the Waag, the
Drave, and the Danube. Our profound dejection at
the calamities which have succeeded the glorious
achievements of the Magyars—and succeeded them,
too, with such appalling rapidity—must not, how-
ever, be permitted to cloud our judgment with the
darkness of indignation. We must estimate at their
due importance the perils by which the Generals of the
armies of liberation were surrounded—the extremities
to which they were driven—the losses to which they
were subjected. We must remember that those perils
were the more enormous, that those extremities were
the more imminent, and that those losses were the
more frightful, in proportion as the bravery of the
Hungarians extorted from the AUTOCRAT the evidence
of his fury, of his cruelty. and of his ambition. For
ourselves, it is consolatory to bear in recollection that
from the very commencement of this atrocious war
upon the rights and independence of the Hungarians
we have protested against the apathy of our own Go-
vernment, while we have exulted in that magnificent
di play of valour, civism, and unanimity, which
enabled those Hungarians to rout the veteran legions
of Austria, and to drive them beyond the frontiers of
their fatherland with every circumstance of ignominy
and confusion. Yes ! if we are overwhelmed with
sorrow at the events which have recently transpired,
we can revert without any sentiments of remorse to
all the preceding occurrences. We can remember,
with pardonable satisfaction, how we remained almost
isohe ed in our appreciation of the noble qualities
which characterised the Provisional Government at
Debreczin, when those patriotic statesmen were else-
where assailed by every ribald vituperation, by every
anonymous slander, and by every dark and damna-
tory aspersion. At the eleventh hour the genius and
the disinterestedness of those illustrious chieftains are
recognised—and not only recognised, but absolutely
eu'ogised—by the lips of their assailants and by the
pens of their calumniators. Even the panegyrists of
the monster Havasu and of the execrable PASHE•
WITCH have been forced to bow the head in homage
to those deeds of heroism an] those revelations of
generalship which they themselves have acknowledged
to be without a parallel. If the annalist, sympa-
thising with that holy cause with which the name
of the immortal KOSSUTH has become for
ever identified—if the annalist, in recording
the details of the recent capitulation bas reason to
weep for the destruction of the golden hopes of four-
teen millions—he has also cause for unutterable ex-
ultation in narrating the memorable and sublime
antecedents of that dismal and abrupt downfal. He
will recount, for the admiration of posterity, the
grandeur of that simultaneous movement of the Mag-
yars which led to the degradation of the bombardier
of Vienna, and, subsequently, to that of his vaunted
successor, and which ultimately conduced to the
expulsion of the legions of despotism beyond the
limits of a violated dominion. It will be
declared in history that the first campaign of
BEM in Transylvania was only comparable to the
finest achievements of MONTECUCULI. It will be said,
and said with truth, that the defence of Comorn in
its prolonged success—that success being the more
remarkable from the contiguity of the fortress to the
Austrian capital, and from the numerical preponder-
ance of the German artillery—is more worthy of
consideration and astonishment than the renowned
defence of Saragossa. After many years have elapsed
the peasants of Hungary will narrate to their children
how the savage horsemen of JELLACHICH were all but
annihilated by the followers of GUT" when the
English captain, on the borders of Sclavonia, crossed
swords with the BAN of the Croatians. Poets will
sing of the military skill of DEMBINSKI, of the daring
of KLAPEA, of the resolution of AULICH, of the assi-
duous devotion of BATH/ANY, and of the glorious
incorruptibility of KOS ,UTEI, as long as there is a
heart to feel, or a brain to think, within the circum-
ference of Hungary. And in after generations, the
demagogues will strive to rouse the dormant patriotism
of the Magyars by a reference to the glory won by their
ancestors, in the great wars of forty-eight and forty-
nine. Yea! and the memory of those great men who
are now overwhelmed by their misfortunes will be a
nobler security fur the nationality of the Hungarians
than ever were to the Gre.ks and the Roman, the
alley& of the Capitol or the palladium of the Acro-
polis.
Circumstances which at present appear enigmatical
will in a few days be unravelled—and then, but not
till then, shall we be enabled to form an accurate
opinion as to the necessity or the culpability of the
recent submission of GEORGEY to PASKEWITCH.
What appears to be incontrovertible already may be
briefly enumerated. To DEMBINSKI had been
entrusted by the Hungarian Dictator the re-
sponsibility of the supreme command of the
ies of liberation. His mind it was which con-