The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT of th

FP.031 THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIME S.—The financial statement we arc promised
this evening, though it, will lack the interest which has
successively- attached to a war budget, a new tariff, or a
repeal of the corn-laws, will not be without some ex-
traordinary features. It will relate to a country asso-
ciated with a continent wrapt now for a twelvemonth in
war, almost from one end to the other. From St. Peters-
burgh to Madrid there is not one city of Europe which
has not poured its armies into the melee, and which is
not suffering some share in the destructive results.
Trade, commerce, agriculture, manufacture, navigation,
and every form of industry has been disturbed by that
fell power which kills, devours, and spoils the life and
substance of man. The civilised world is now practi-
cally alive to the truth, which humanity and reason have
long taught the good and the wise, that nations are knit
together for good or for ill, and that no member of that
brotherhood can suffer without involving all the rest,
Ent land has adopted that truth, and made it the basis of
Ler commercial legislation. No sane Englishman, there-
fore, can expect anything else than that our commerce
with our neighbours, aad consequently the customs
arising out of that commerce should have somewhat de-
clined. Many of our neighbours hive been too busy,
tee poor, or too frightened to use the products of our
industry. They have nut been able to pay their debts,
or have feared to contract new ones. some instances
our ships have been absolutely excluded by war from
their customary ports. Nor is this all. To war must
be added free trade. We have surrendered a consider-
able though fluctuating revenue from the importation of
grain, and a more uniform revenue from sugar. Ire land
also continues to be a drain on the Imperial resources.
All things considered, we might thank our buoyaut for-
tunes if the Chancellor of the Exchequer should an-
nounce to us no very great deficiency iu our national in-
come. Even in that case we should be favourably distin-
guished from all the nations of Europe. But, instead of
a statement only a little less favourable than last year's,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer will, we believe,
be able to announce a positive and decided improve-
ment. Spite of revolutions, wars, and block-
ades spite of the continuance of famine
and spite of free trade—the revenue now presents an
actual surplus over the expenditure; and but for the
extraordinary expenses wnich the last financial year had
to discharge for its predecessor, we believe that Sir
Charles Wood would now be able to hand over the
greater part of a million to the Commissioners of the
National Debt. England is once more paying its way
like an honest and Christian realm. We owe this agree-
able result in the first instance to the resolute economy
introduced into our expendituro. The improved editions
of the budget last year, the labours of the financial Com-
mittees, and " the pressure from without," begin at last
to tell, and we are actually recovering from insolvency.
When the figures of our condition will be presented to
the world in a few hours, it is sufficient to say that Sir
Charles Wood enters the new financial year with a
respectable surplus in hand, and with every prospect of
making it a good round sum before the year is ended.
What more could be expected than this ? A
modern Chancellor of the Exchequer is not a Prospero,
who can raise storms and lay them. Famines and
wars are neither created nor extinguished by budgets.

If the capitalist of France or of Germany do not venture,
under the terrors of anarchy or of war, to import new
machinery from this country, and if the merchants of
those countries are afraid just now to fill their ware-
houses with articles of British manufacture, it is not
within the power of a Yorkshire baronet, whatever his
virtues and attainments, to warrant Europe against either
cholera or war, or any other natural or social calamity.
Prosperity is a comparative affair. We can only say
we are vastly more prosperous than our continental
neighbours, or any other old established country. At
the present moment the capital of other countries is
Sowing into England, and those philosophers who
were lately predicting the drain of our money are now
at their wits end to account for the fact that there
is a flow, not an ebb of the metallic stream. We
are more likely to suffer a congestion than an ex-
haustion of gold. Foreigners are investing in our
funds from a sense of their greater security, and steadi-
ness. In so doing they contribute to the capital of this
country, and increase that public confidence which is
necessary to the full use of our powers. We have no
objection to see all Europe crowding to our Stock Ex-
change, and by that channel to our railroads, our manu-
factories, and our ports. There are other signs of re-
turning prosperity. The great towns in the north are
regularly if not busily employed. From the returns of
the Board of Trade it appears that the consumption of
necessaries and comforts of life imported from foreign
countries is steadily increasing, indicating of course an
equal export of our manufactures taken in exchange.
W e are not inundated with foreign manufactures,
though even that would have its compensations in the
continual circuit of commerce; but there is every pros-
pect of a healthy trade both at home and abroad; and
though the calamities of Europe should still render her
a less profitable neighbour, we have now a new world, as
Canning said, to rest,)re the balance of the old.
CHRONICLE.—The gradual advance of the Musco-
vite legions towards the scene of operations in Hungary
is masked from the view of Western Europe by that veil
of Cimmerian obscurity which always attends the move-
ments of Russia, and which now enwraps, with impe-
netrable folds, the whole frontier of the Austrian Empire.
If the accounts which we receive of the plan of the cam-
paign are correct, it is clear that much time must be
consumed in bringing to the field the various corps in-
dispensable for carrying the war into the inhosi itable
plains of Central Hungary. For a campaign on the
Pusztas the blaze of the summer sun is almost as unfa.
vourable as the weeping skies and icy blasts of winter.
Little reliance can be placed on the reports which reach
us of the numbers and present position of the belligerent
parties. In numerical strength the combined forces will
probably be interior to the Magyar levies, but superior
to them in effective strength. The Austrian army is a
mere wreck, commanded by an officer of no military re-
putation; and the whole direction of the war must, of
course, rest with the Russian General-in-Chief, Prince
Paskiewitsoh. The approaching struggle will Lot
be so unequal as to abate the interest which
the spectator feels in witnessing a fair fight ;
whilst the vast interests involved, and the
enormous masses of troops brought into the field on both
sides, invest it with an importance which throws into the
shade all the military contests of which Europe has been
the theatre since the days of Napoleon. The brilliant
successes of the Hungarians have raised them up a host
of friends, and inspired the tongue of many an advocate
who was mute during their hour of adversity. For our-
selves, we pay willing homage to the gallantry and un-
conquerable resolution which have triumphantly with-
stood the vast military force concentrated last winter
upon the Hungarian capital. We admire the genius and
perseverance which organized in those remote and
boundless plains, the true home of the Magyar race, the
numerous and well-appointed army which now presents
a defiant and not unequal front to the legions of the
Czar. We acknowledge the strength and fervour of
that national spirit which animates the Magyar race
throughout the length and breadth of the land. Presi-
dent Kossuth, we are well aware, is not so black as be
has been painted, although his most familiar friends
would be puzzled to recognize the features of the Hun-
garian O'Connell, as his admirers used to call him, in
the glowing portraiture of a wise and high-souled patriot
by which he has of late been represented. But our
views of him and of his cause have not been changed by
the unforseen results of the contest which he had the
largest share in originating. We never blinked the real
question at issue between Magyar and Imperialist,
and we need not retract or qualify one syllable of what
we wrote before an unexpected turn of Fortune's wheel
brought it out into a broader and clearer daylight. We
are told, as if it were a great discovery, that the Hun-
garians are only fighting for their " ancient constitu-
tional rights and liberties." So they are, in the literal
sense—or so at least they were, before thtir leaders
threw off their allegiance to their youthful Sovereign.
But do our readers understand what these constitutional
rights import? They import nothing less than the total
separation and absolute independence of the realm of
Hungary—a separation ruinous to the Empire which,
for many centuries, has borne so conspicuous and so
useful a part in the affairs of Europe—an independence
such as the Hungarian nation has never practically en-
joyed since St. Stephen's crown first rested on the brow
of a scion of the House of Hapsburg. Ever since the
date of the fatal battle of Mohicz, the Kingdom of Hun-
gary has been virtually subject to the Crown and Go-
vernment of the Empire. The turn which events have
taken since the Magyar army for the second time
crossed the Theiss has inevitably tended to freeze
the sympathies of every Englishman towards the Im-
perialist cause, and we are told that our hopes and
tears for the result of the war ought to undergo a
corresponding change. It is impossible fur us, of
course, to survey the drama with the same feelings,
now that Russia has become the prominent actor in it.
Without distrusting the uprightness or good faith of the
Emperor Nicholas, we must lament most deeply an in-
tervention which, whilst it lasts, must reduce the Aus-
trian empire to the level of a Russian province; although
we are conscious that, after the treatment which the
former has received from the western Powers, it is not
for us to reproach her for throwing herself into the arms
of her northern ally. Nevertheless, we do not hesitate
to say that we deem it far more beneficial for Europe
that Austria should be saved from destruction. by the
victories of the Czar, than that she should perishndby
thhies
defeat. In the triumph of the Magyars
thae banks
foundation of their projected democracy
of the Danube. certain as it would be to o
precipitate the
decadence of Austria, and almost certain to kindle. the
flame of insurrection in the neighbouring Polish pro-
vinces, we see the seeds of future wars and convulsions
which may indeed change the face of eastern Europe,
but which are not likely to change it for the better.
Should these anticipations be disappointed, none will re-
joice more than we. Should Hungary make good her
claim to an admission into the commonwealth of nations,
we shall be ready, in due time, to bid her a friendly and
cordial welcome. Should she secure a chapter to herself
in the future history of Europe, we sincerely hope that
it may be neither a short nor a melancholy one.
• of

BRITISH AND FOREIGN SCHOOL SOCIETY.—The
annual examination of the Boys' Model School, in the
Borough-road, was held yesterday (Thursday) before a
large assembly of subscribers and friends to the institu-
tion. The chair was successively filled by the Lord
Bishop of Manchester, Sir John Boileau, and Professor
Pillans, of Edinburgh, each of whom questioned the
children in various branches of learning. The attain-
ments of the scholars in geography, history,. mental
arithmetic, and some branches of natural philosophy,
were exceedingly creditable and appeared to give the
highest satisfaction. A large number of beautiful spe-
cimens in drawing were exhibited, and various pieces of
music were well sung. The children wtre thoroughly
tested as to their acquaintance with the sacred Scrip-
tures, and excellent speeches were delivered by the
, respective chairmen.