The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-25 00:00:00

Lt in tut

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1849.

Altlsough conflicting intelligence still continues to
be received from the seat of war in Hungary, it is
impos9ible not to recognise through the shadows of
misrepresentation the gloriouis fact of the continued
successes of the Magyars under, the banners of
BEM, Of GEORGEY, and of DEMBINSKI, guided and
harmonized by the inspirations of KOSSUTH.
According to an article in the Wiener Zeitung,
written on the irregular authority of a communica-
tion from Buda-Pesth, in the Oesterreichische
Correspondent, the combined armies of Austria and
Russia have effected a total defeat of the Hungarians
in the vicinity of Waitzen. Yet, as in a hundred
similar misstatements as to the movement of the
belligerents, the truth creeps out through the very
glorifications of the German newspapers, that the
Imperialists have experienced a reverse instead of
having obtained a victory. Even taking their own
admissions as the guidance to our conclusions, it
is established that on the 15th instant (Sunday),
the army of liberation having made another
desperate struggle to sever the lines of their antago-
nists, the Russians, under Prince PASKEWITCH, re-
treated at noon in confusion to Duna Keesh. So serious,
indeed, was the discomfiture of the Cossacks, com-
manded by the infamous General whose name is the
object ofoxecoation throughout Christendom from hay-
kg caused Hungarian ladies to be publicly scourged
and branded, that even in the words of the official
organ of the Austrian Camarilla, the journal pub-
lished at Olmutz, " the Russians have received a
severe check," having been repulsed as far as the
plain of Kakosh. Together with this confession, it
is explicitly allowed that the Magyars have latterly
extended their field of action very considerably, "if
they have not," says the Wiener Zeitung, " if they
have not broken through our lines and marched to
the North." The reason fur this continued success in
oppogittion to such frightful odds as those presented to
them by the legions of the two Emperors is, beyond
the indomitable valour of the Magyars, the unanimity
with which their heroic leaders act in obedience
to the masterly plan of the Hungarian President.
To secure the effectual defence of the country be-
leaguered by such gigantic antagonists, and invaded
from almost all directions, it has been determined by
LUDWIG KOSSUTH to require the concentration of all
his troops (excepting only a formidable garrison at
Comorn) in the district of the Theiss. To this end
General GEORGEY, commanding the soldiers en-
trenched round Comm', marched down the banks of
the Danube, in the direction of Waitzen, with the
with the
in-
tention of effecting the intended
main body of the army of the Hungarians. Hearing
of thia„ movement, it ap; ears that RAMBERG'S di-
vision on the 3d instant left the capital (Pesth), and
advanced by forced marches to the assistance of the
Russians ; the consequence of which arrangements
was the terrific struggl before Waitzen on the 15th
instant, in which the Imperialists as usual claim to
have obtained the advant;:g:,, and to have driven
back the." rebels" to Coen )rn, although acknowledging
themselves, at the s.tme time, that PASKE.
WITCH had been entirely outgeneralled, and
that the Cossrls had been repulsed as
far as Duna Keesh. Now, if the Russians
on the 15th instant, were compelled to retreat so far
in that particular direction, it kg quite clear that the

Austrian reinforcements under RAMBERG shared in
the disgrace of their repulse—seeing that RAMBERG'S
division advanced (on the 3d) from Pesth, and that
the Russians under PASREWITCH were forced back
from Waitzen towards Pesth—Pesth being only dis-
tant about an hour's drive from the spot to which
they retreated, namely, Duna Keesh. So much for
the last triumph of the Austrians, and their allies the
Russians—a triumph which, on examination, turns
out, like so many of their preceding victories, to hare
terminated in their complete and ignominious dis-
comfiture.

While this satisfactory information is arriving from
the seat of war, we can point with a pardonable
satisfaction to the gradual increase of our Testimonial
expressive of English sympathy for the heroic Hun-
garians. The amount is still, we are rejoiced to
say, gradually accumulating, and we are more than
ever sanguine that in the end it will be rendered
sufficient to enable the hussars at Folkstone to
return to their countrymen to share in the defence of
the noble land of their birth--the land consecrated
by their blood and liberated by their victories.

As the time for her MAJESTY'S visit to Ireland
draws near, public attention, already gratified with
contemplating the event itself, seems t 3 be occupied
with speculations regarding various details of the
proposed expedition. How the QUEEN should be ad-
dressed, an Irish contemporary has already taught
us ; but plausible as his suggestions are, they are, to
our thinking, deficient in tact and good taste, two very
important qualities in political and, indeed, in all
social matters. These suggestions are to the effect,
that loyal, and affectionate, and respectful as the
various addresses to be presented to Queen VICTORIA
by her Irish lieges should be, nevertheless they
should be administered cum gran sails. The long
list of Irish grievances should be gracefully inter-
woven into the hospitable welcome—the lips
of the loyal speakers should be wreathed
with smiles, while their eyes should glance daggers of
reproach. These and similar suggestions are, we
doubt not, inspired by the best of feelings, by a pa-
triotism zealous for the national welfare, and a noble
independence that would scorn to veil with
or o
tha courtier'ssppdose
flattery the indignation excited by real
wrongs. Still, honouring such sentiments, as we
unquestionably do, anxiously solicitous as we are—
to the full as much as any " repaler" or rebel of them
al—for the welfare and happiness of Ireland—we
cannot but consider such suggestions as most un-
suitable and ill-timed. Her Mantsri's visit, like a
Loan MAYOR'S dinner, has "nothing to do with
politics." Political speeches are as out of place and

as mauvais ton in the one case as in the other. If the

(Irish people, or any other subjects of the Crown,
deem it advisable that their peculiar grievances should
be particularly brought under notice of the
SOVEREIGN in her capacity of legislator, the
road is open—let them petition Parliament.
There is, to our thinking, something most un-
courteous and ungenerous in the idea of assailing
her MAJESTY individually with a catalogue of
grievances, which she, individually, is incapacitated
from remedying. It is, however, unnecessary to
enter into an argument against a subject as visionary
as the giants of " Don Quixote." We cannot think
for a moment that the advice alluded to will be acted
upon, and even if it were the public addresses are
the least important part of the national welcome.
That welcome will be proffered to Queen VICTORIA,
not by a few officials, but by an entire people. She
will recognise it in the hearty eloquence of the
untutored brogue and the glad enthusiasm of honest
faces , " albeit unused to the ' courtly' mood."

The facetious Punch has in this, as in many
things, been more !happy in his suggestions than
his (so-called) wiser contemporaries. " Sure, sisther
dear (says Hibernia to the royal Britannia), it's not
what you've been accustomed to exactly, but anyhow
ye're welcome !" If, therefore, the formal addresses,
in accordance with the above-mentioned suggestions,
should remind her MAJESTY that the state of Ireland
is not like that of the country she has been accus-
tomed to " exactly," the unkindly remark will be
drowned in the popular rejoinder, " but anyhow ye're
welcome!" Anyhow her MAJESTY will be welcome,
more truly welcome than any sovereign in those
good old times when kings were kings and The
People existed not. Our QUEEN, the constitutional
Queen of the British empire, which empire though
it be, yields to neither republican France nor
emancipated America in liberty and democratic
blessings our QUEEN goes from one part
of her dominions to another, not, like the absolute
autocrat, to alter laws at pleasure, but she goes—
the type of the unity of the sister kingdoms—to bind
together the broken links of that (hardly to be called) 1

international amity which should, and, we trust, ere
Long, will, constitute the glory and happiness of

England and Ireland. Hoping this, believing this,
we say to the framers of the Irish addresses—we
who, no less than themselves, have the happiness of
Irelanl at heart—for the sake of that happiness, let
bygones be bygones 1 The injunction is, we nifty
be sure, unneeded, and henceforth, after her MA-
JESTY has passed over it, St. George's Channel will,

as commerce teaches us all seas should do—

" But serve to join the kingdoms it divides."

A more mischievous error can hardly be imagined
than the habit of regarding matters which occur in
Ireland as exclusively Irish, and those which occur
in England as exclusively English, merely on account
of the locality in which they have taken place ;
whereas, in truth, there is scarcely an occurrence of
importance in any part of the three kingdoms which
may not justly be regarded as of imperial interest,
and which does not make itself felt in every corner of
the United Empire.
A matter which has lately occurred in the Court
of Common Pleas in Ireland, and which was brought
before the House of Commons, by petition, during
the past week, affords a strong illustration of the
soundness of this maxim. The principle involved
appears at the first view to be exclusively Irish, but
there never was a question mentioned in that House
which more nearly touches the interests and the
pockets of the industrious classes in this country.
The point at issue was the legality of unequal tax-
ation ; whether, in fact, Parliament is still bound, as
it unquestionably was in the earliest times, to tax

every subject of this realm secundum statzan et
facultates. This is a principle which we have
often maintained; it is one in which the
true interests of the industrious classes in England
are probably more deeply concerned than in any
other, it is one also in which the owners of property,
if they understood their own true interests, would,
above all other bodies in the kingdom, be called upon
by self-preservation to sustain.

The legal question was raised in this manner. A
distress having been made for poor-rate, the owners
of the goods " replevied," and commenced an action
in " replevin " against the guardians of the union.
' The guardians put in an " avower," justifying the dis-
' tress under a certain statute. The plaintiff re-
plied that the stotute on which the guardians
relied for justification was void, being in di-
rect conflict with the seventh article of the
treaty of Union, which ordained " that all public
expenses of every kind were to be defrayed indis-
criminately by equal taxes on the like articles in both
countries—that is, by a uniform taxation." The plea
in bar also alleged " that the treaty of Union was
a fundamental law, constituting the Imperial Par-
liament, and appointing and limiting its power of
taxation in a manner which it could not legally
violate; and that having done so by authorising the
levy of the tax for which the distress had been made,
it had inadvertently exceeded its legal powers, and
that a statute so made was to be controlled by the
treaty of Union, which originally constituted the
United Parliament, and marked out and limited its
powers."

To this unusual, but very intelligible plea, the
guardians put in a general demurrer, and issue having
been joined in demurrer, the case was called on for
argument in the Court of Common Pleas i❑ Dublin
in the usual course. The judges, however, of that 1
court refused to hear argument in support of that
plea, because it alleged that Parliament was omnipo- ,
tent. They called upon the counsel for the plaintiff
to show cause why the plea should not be taken off
the file, interrupted him on every occasion that he
attempted to sustain his case, and ended by tearing '
from the files of the court the plaintiff's plea in bar ,
solely because it alleged that there was a legal limit
to the powers of Parliament.
Now, the question of the boundaries of Puha-