The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-11 00:00:00

REFORMS IN HUNGARY.

HungariantBz:lo4:oliLlF,l3Tssul,lo.beosio,l
service,closed
troopssubsidy.
ior
SeveraltDe
jetyvt
riss:
tant Acts have been passed, of interest to you in Eng-
land, particularly one for the advantage of trade, which
will shortly be published. Commercial tribunals are
to be established in nine of the principal towns, and
with a court of appeal at Pesti), and these will afford to
the merchant as speedy and certain justice as he can ob-
tain in other parts of Austria thus one of the great
difficulties which now interfere with commercial tram-
actions between foreigners and Hungarian merchants, is
in a tair way of being obviated.
A great imp:ovement has been cfr cted in the condi-
tion of the peasants. They arc now allowed to free
their land for ever from all services to their landlords on
payment of a sum of money—in fact, to become land-
owners, a privilege hitherto reserved exclusively' to the
nobles, and to have their land clear of entail. About
400,000 farms, at an average of forty acres each, have
thus become disposable property, and nearly hallo. mil-
lion of families have been raised in the social scale.
They are no longer liable to arbitrary punishments, and
cannot. he impiisoned except On conviction before the
proper authorities. It has been decreed that in
mixed marriages all the children shall follow the re-
ligion of their father, and in case of rcfosaleby the
elerl4y of any denomination to perform the nuptial
ceremony, marriage by one religion is to be licld suffi-
cient and binding on both parties. The obstacles for-
merly existing to a change of religion are removed. It
is now necessary merely to go before the civil authori-
ties, to whom a statement of the reasons for the change
is made, and the Royal assent is obtained. This would
in England, certainly, be looked
i upon as a very op-
pressive interference, but here it s an
inimmense allevia-
tion. Concessions have been made favour of the
Jews, but the Bill which had passed both tables of the
Diet, for placing them on an equality with other sub-
jects, not noble, has been refused the Royal assent,
A commission is formed for the revision of the crimi.
nal laws. Arrangements are being made also for a re-
distribution of the land in firms, so as to Five the pea-
sant in one lot an equivalent for what he formerly held
in detached parcels, frequently at ,considerable distances
from cited' other ; the peasants farms will all lie toge-
ther, so as to give the original proprietor his estate
also in one piece, which will much facilitate improve-
ments. An establishment for the manufacture of agri-
cultural machines is much wanted ; they are in great
request, and
as soon as they can be obtained, will
doubtless produce effects on a large scale. Good iron
and coal are abundant, and a few good workmen and
models from England, with a foundry at Pesth, would
help to produce golden eggs.
Whilst I was at Piesburg, trade with England was
alluded to in the Chamber of Magnates. It was on
the occasion of granting the " Indigena.t " (natural-
ization) to the President of the Austrian Commis-
sion of Finance, who has lately organised a strong
and very expensive corps of custom-house officers
on the Hungarian frontier. Count Endody strongly
opposed his admission, on the ground that his system
was bad, and that he was an enemy to the true inte-
rests of the country, which required more freedom of
intercourse, and a more liberal extension of the treaty
.
with England, &c. Counts Andrassy, Carob:
and others were all on the free-trade side, „bieyi
no one would oppose. Count Ve.F.•en,ti)", and others
connected. with Governnhcnt, in the candidate's
favour, that ho was favourable to lowering the duties
t)ut that he wished to do so gradually, and their whole'
line of argument was based on moderate free-trade *trim,
ciples. In the next Diet it is probable
.014 tformatmands will be made for more.liJecC,-44 coillruerce, and.
it is to be hoped that glair. internal 1"a"
of eoniF~ut,t-
patt.rt will have been by that time UtTrOte(.l. S,:veral
trpportant railroads are proleete.d, as also
nett the pantlho with the rh---

..As to COP,'

Lthe upper part of it).
...rough a very productive country.—

UTILI fUL)lling•

Chronicle.