The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-09 00:00:00

THE HUNGARIAN CAUSE.

Our Hungarian Testimonial progresses so much
in accordance with our highest expectations, that
we are more than ever sanguine as to its ulti-
mately reaching an amount worthy of being an ex-
pression of British sympathy.
In answer to an inquiry from the Hon. Member
for Montrose, it will, no doubt, have been observed
that the Prime Minister only the other evening de-
signated the patriots of Hungary, rebels, by speak-
ing of the " revolution " as an " insurrection."
While the English Government, through the me-
dium of the First Minister of the Crown, is thus
stigmatizing the glorious movement made by the
Magyars under K.OISSAJTEL the English people,
through the medium of this Testimonial, are striv-
ing to demonstrate to the Hungarians that the real
feelings of the British population are belied by the
voice of the British Cabinet.

Let the rapid increase of this Testimonial to Hun-
garian Patriotism be an assurance to Lord JouN
RUSSELL and his colleagues that the sympathies of
the inhabitants of these islands are with the heroic
warriors who are fighting against two enormous des-
potisms under the banners of BEM, OfeGEORGEY, and
of DEmisisissi ! Let the Ministers of the Crown
con well the catalogue which testifies that their policy
is contrary to the emotions and to the principles of
all classes of the community—of soldiers and civilians,
of noblemen and artizans, of members of both
Houses of the Imperial Parliament, of merchants
and of magistrates, of the poor as well as of the
opulent I
Our call has been nobly and spontaneously re-
sponded to, not only by all classes of society, but from
all parts of the kingdom. Let every one opposed to
injustice and to tyranny contribute, no matter how
minutely, in swelling this charitable Testimonial.
For the Testimonial to the Hungarians is at once ex-
pressive of England's Love for Freedom, and of her
abhorrence of Despotism ! It is not only indicative
of British sympathy fur the Magyars, but is a defi-
ance from the population of this land of liberty to
the Austrian EMPEROR and the Russian AUTOCRAT

There is one sentence in the protest recently issued
from Debreczin by Kosstyrn and countersigned by
hia Foreign Minister, Count CASIMIR BATTHIANY,
which is peculiarly applicable to us Englishmen. \Ve
here take it as the motto of our Testimonial :--

" The Hungarian nation counts on thesympathy of
every nation which loves right and liberty r
That appeal comes from the mouth of Kosslitti,
the first President of the Hungarian Republic. It
will be heard and answered by the men of England.

One other circumstance should be borne in recol-
lection—ThcaoLAs of Russia has offered a reward of
forty millions of rubles to whoever shall capture and

deliver up Field-Marshal BEM. A prize of no less
than 40,000,000 rubles has thus been set upon
the head of the Commander-in• Chief of the
Hungarian forces. It is a terrible but glo-
rious homage to the military genius and the
formidable valour of the hero whose name (synony-
mous with victory) has been inscribed upon the
crown of St. Stephen by the grateful hand of Hun-
gary ! It is the last dastardly resource of a tyrant
driven to desperation.
Let that fact, as expressive of the magnamity (!)
of the Austrians and Russians, be borne in recollection

—let it impress upon the minds of Englishmen the
knowledge that the foes of Hungarian liberty are as
implacable as they are strong and tyrannous. The
very knowledge of their implacability, of their
strength, and of their despotism, is only the strongest
reason that could be adduced why England should
pronounce her opinion upon the struggle. The Eng-
lish Government has hinted its sympathy for the two
Emperors through the ambiguous phrases of Lord
Jonsi RUSSELL. The English People will boldly
proclaim their sympathy for the Hungarians through
the very comprehensible language of the Testimonial.

[ln fulfilment of our promise on Friday evening we I
reprint, for the perusal of those who may not have;had
an opportunity of reading it in The Sun of Tuesday
evening last, the leading article by which the Hun-
garian Testimonial was originated.]
About half a hundred Hungarian Hussars are now
encamped in the neighbourhood of Foikstone.
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.
When Austria was fighting simultaneously below the
Carpathians and on the banks of the Danube, against
the Mahiyars and against the Sardinians, several of
the Hungarian regiments, fired by a hatred of the
oppressors 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. On 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 RADETZKY 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 individuel
during every hour of march, crossed the intermediate
departments of the Republic, and having been con-
veyed over the channel, ul'imately reached the
suburbs of Folks,tone. Their object is, if possible, to
arrive by some means at the glorious country which
gave them birth, and to deriica•e the remainder of
their lives to the service of their fatherland. In
gratify this patriotic intention they have already
gone through many severe difficulties, and voluntarily
subjected themselves to many bitter privations.
Before they can place their good swords at the
service of Hungary, before they can lay their
credentials at the feet of LUDWIG KOSSUTII, the
illustrious tribune who at present rules Hun
gary in the character of her first Republican
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 en-
couragement and the voice of admiration to the heroic
soldiers 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 sym-
pathy, 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 Cz IR 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 WELDRN and WINDISCIIGRATZ.

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.
NIANSZIET struck the executioner a blow in the face,
saying, " Your duty is to bang 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 thy 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 this sympathetic mood
the brother of the young nobleman whose death we
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 altogether
evince such a noble devotion to the cause as to be
nominated Head Field Chaplain to the Hungarian
army ; while a Protestant clergyman, named
RAZZA, could suffer the puni-hinent of death in the
same cause, and with a serenity so remarkab'e as to
excite the admiration of the beholders. A devotion
which can thus affect persons of otherwi.e sueh
antagonistic opinions, is of a character not to be
extinguished
bj buutgion
bty of many millions of Magyars.the annihilation of an entire
race, hy i
th
Every thing assures us that vast as are the prepare..
ssua
tions made by the congenial Govern:nents of Imperial
Austria and Russia, their end can never be obtained
but through a series of atrocities, the commission
of which must ultimately rouse the most sluggish
nations to an interposition. Those atrocities have

already been commenced—thousands have been exe-
cuted ; prisoners of war have been subjected to into-
lerable cruelties, have been scourged in the public
squares, and incarcerated in terrible dungeons; pro-
perty has been confiscated ; villages have been com-
mitted to the flames ; towns have been bombarded ;
cities have been razed to the ground; a gibbet has
been permanently erected at Pres mirg ; w hols pro-
vinces have been ravaged and deeolated; the green
crops have been trampled under the hoofs of the
cavalry and under the wheels of the artillery ; the
ripe crops have been burnt wantonly ; agriculture,
commerce, religion, all have alike been outraged and
contemned ; and the invaders are at length pressing
forward in such enormous numbers as to threaten to
overrun Transylvania, if not ultimately to overwhelm
the Hungarians. Still the motto of the Alagyare
must be fulfilled—" Parcere subjectis, et debellare
superbos"_and its fulfilment can only be visible in
the fruits of victory.