The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-18 00:00:00

4 Inning Oltit

LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 18. 1848.

After two successive and most ignominious flights
from his palace at Scho6nbrurin, it was manifest that
the SOVEREIGN whom the Moravian Diet has re-
eently, with unparalleled folly, inscribed upon its
archives as " FERDINAND the Mild and Good," could
not, with the faintest vestige of grace or dignity,
return to the capital of Austria, and resume the reins
of government. Even the purblind statesmen who
had followed the Imperial fugitive from Vienna were
unanle to close their eyes to this fact. The royal
robe, which had been stained with the blood of BLUM
and MESSENHAUSER, which had been steeped in the
massacres of WINDISCHGRATZ, which had been polluted
by the spoliations of JELLACHICU, and which, infamous
from its association with the vengeance wreaked upon
the metropolis by the hand of mercenary dragoons
a;,d barbarian Croats, still continued to be the symbol
of treachery and retrogression—was altogether too
vile and execrable for further use. FERDINAND must
abdicate, and strength, and youth, and uncompromised
energy be combined in the person of his successor.
Hence arose the retirement of FERDINAND, and the
accession of FRANCIS JOSEPH to the throne of the
Hapsburg dynasty. It was conceived that the change
would aid very materially the progress of counter-
revolution. It was imagined that by setting
aside the weak-minded and abhorred faineant,
by pioclaiming as Emperor an intelligent
and accomplished stripling, by striving to revive
the semblance of popularity out of the super-
stitions of loyalty, and by breathing through the lips
of the• new puppet a few intoxicating promises of
political reform and social amelioration---it was
imagined, we say, that, by these ingenious tricks of
speech and contrivances of policy, the old regime
might be evoked anew, the revolutionary animosities
lulled (and gulled !) into oblivion, and the
various nationalities which formerly consti-
tuted the Austrian empire, bound together
once more by the stringent and complicated
ligatures
of despotism ! Therefore was the Lord
Archduke transformed into an Emperor, and there-
fore did the newly
proclaimed SOVEREIGN say to the
deputation of the Viennese Diet—" Gentlemen, pre-
sent me speedily the project of aincoonrsdtituttihon that my
people expect with impatience,
examine and approve of " Many
daysit may
have
elapsed since these illusory phrases sverye articulated
and the supporters of the dynasty,
ministerial!
legis-
lative, and otherwise, are still scattered in isand hesitation. The Parliament deliberates at lire:-
sier—the administrative Courts are held at Vienna—.
the Eureaoa tarries at 011mutz—and between these
three, the Cabinet of SCHWARZENBIIRG are conti-
nually- flying to and fro at the tail of a locomotive.
The Government has not yet the courage to confront
the Diet, the EMPEROR, and the Law within the
walla of the capital. And why ? Because the diffi-
culties of their position are bewildering, and the old,
anomalous mosaic of nationalities cannot be so easily
patched together.

While affairs continue in this dubious state in the
centre of what was once Austria, matters are pro-
riming rapidly to a crisis on its ancient confines
5,g) ary has begun in earnest to dream of her eman-
cipation, and not only to dream of it, but to struggle
vigorously for its realisation. No sooner, indeed,
had
ti Hungarian Parliament at Pesth received intelli-
Dee of the dynastic changes effected at 011miitz
than it declared :itself for the proclamation of an
I rungarian Republic, asserting the invalidity of the
EMPBROB,'S claim to the regal diadem of Hungary,
I,y reason of the stipulation made in the Pragmatic
::•;I:nction, that no one under twenty years of age
should be capable of succeeding to it. As to the ca-
pacity of the Imperial armies to force obedience
down the throats of the Hungarian population,
at the point of the bayonet, we may judge in a very
great degree by a simple comparison of facts and
bravadoes. Not long ago—scarcely a month ago—
we were assured that the rebels of Hungary would
be conquered before the arrival of Christmas by the
simultaneous incursions beyond its frontiers of the