The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-13 00:00:00

ilatnina

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1851.

KOSSUTII'S signature is subscribed to a letter which
fourteen days after date has reached its desti▪
nation at
Southampton. It will be found elsewhere in this
evening's impression, and will doubtless be perused
with interest by every admirer of the illustrious Hun-
garian. Whether the document be more or less au-
thentic than the last one published under the repute
of the same autograph, it cannot but attract the ob-
servation of the multitude in this country at a mo-
ment like the present, when everyone is looking with
so much curiosity and eagerness for the arriv▪
al. of the
o the Democrats of Marseilles, but to one of the
exiled Dictator of the Magyars. Addressed this time
not
mostt
respected members of the provincial magis-
tracy of England, the letter here referred to will be
found to contain sentiments more generally acceptable
to our variously minded and fastidious population.
It expresses the gratitude with which the ex-Presi-
dent of HUNGARY might be supposed to regard the
generous interposition in his favour of the Republican
Government of the United States, and of the Monar-
chical Government of Great Britain—a gratitude not,
however, so entirely directed towards those; states
as to exclude from his heart a lasting homage
for the magnanimity of the Turkish despotism. It
would, perhaps, have been better for the great
patriot whose name is regarded amongst ourselves
with so much enthusiasm to have preserved a digni-
fied silence in reference to the conduct pursued to-
wards himself by the French Government. But
under any circumstances it cannot but be singularly
gratifying to the generous temperaments on either
side of the Atlantic to have the recognition of their
sympathies pronounced in the name of the once
triumphant liberator of the Hungarians. Against
that distinguished personage there have within
the last few days been directed the most
dastardly calumnies calumnies enhanced in
virulence by the derk and sinister im-
putations by which they were accompanied—but we
rejoice to think that these ungenerous attempts to
depreciate KOSiUTH in the opinion of the English
multitude have only resulted in the extension of the
fame of his pure and glorious reputation.
Frequently as the people of Great Britain have
been pi ivileged to welcome on their shores the expa-
triated victims of continental tyranny, they have
never had the glory of receiving one of those heroes
of patriotism in every respect more fully entitled
than LOUIS KOSSUTH to their homage and admiration.
DUMOURIEZ was received here by a former generation
with the respect due to his military renown—but
DUMOURIEZ, beyond his very splendid abilities as a
soldier, was only remarkable as a traitor to his
country, who had tampered with her enemies, and
ultimately deserted from her banners. Paoli, again,
was admitted to the hospitalities of our metropolis
in consideration of his prowess and his patriotism,
but elevated as both those qualities were, they were
insignificant in the champion of Corsica, when com-
pared with those larger and more resplendent
qualities, of a like kind displayed of late
by the leader of the Hungarians. In the same
manner and with equal accuracy we might maintain
the superiority of the claims of KOSSUTH upon our
homage, when contrasted with those which were of
old associated with such men as ESPARTERO or as
LAFAYETTE. To the ex-Dictator of Hungary be-
longs the glory of having ruled one of the noblest
races of the European Continent during a period of
internecine warfare and of protracted revolution,
without leaving upon the annals of his administration
the stain of a single crime, or the brand of one
solitary act of cruelty. This, moreover, let
it be remembered, when the atrocious and
ruthless bearing of the Austrian invaders might
almost have justified him in yielding to the induce-
ments of a bloody and ferocious retaliation. While
villages were being burnt to the ground, and their
inhabitants were being butchered by wholesale, in
obedience to the commands of the fierce and infu-
riated councils of Vienna, the provisional rulers of
Hungary, headed by the immortal KOSSUTH himself,
inspired by his influence, and infected by his humane
and beneficent principles, were repelling the advance of
their assailants only with the naked weapons of battle,
with the musket and not with the torch, with the
sword and not with the guillotine. Upon KOSSUTH
individually must descend the principal portion of the
glory arising out of this superb and national display
of magnanimity, for KOSSUTH was more than the
leader of Hungary, he was the Dictator over the
Hungarians. In obedience to his bidding, the Mag-
yars might in the passionate ardour of their indigna-
tion have answered crime with crime and cruelty with
cruelty—subjecting the prisoners of war first to tor-
ture and then to the axe, lashing the shoulders of the
Austrian women with scourges as terrible as those ap-
plied to the backs of their own unoffending wives and
daughters. liossiera, we say, might have caused his
fellow-countrymen to act thus towards their antago-
nists, for his influence over them was supreme, and
had he so done he might almost have been pardoned
by the future historian in consideration of the many
dreadful inducements to such vengeance. Yet Kos-
SUTHdid not so proceed in the exercise of his Dicta-
torship; on the contrary, he allowed his policy to
touch even upon the verge of that Quixotic generosity
which is the weakness of revolutions. The tablets upon
which are recounted the deeds of his brief but glorious
government are unblotted by one record calculated
to haunt his memory with remorse. He was guilty
of no spoliation, even while extricating the finances of
his fatherland from embarrassment and filling the
empty coffers of administration with the fruits of his
by the
efiscalv en regulations. He was guilty of no severity,
when transforming anarchy into subordination
o
the time when
ptheleltorfumpet
magical sway of his authority. He was
guilty, in fine, of 1,
when, with hands yetPrellar
exaggeratedtone s
of violence, e
eloquenceo , even h
had
had "let slip the dogs
broken the s
fTwh emaciatedharoa,
mi preparation at t
incarceration,aDt eleba
ar et c zmi nu,stand
hbee
admittedab re mblye s
por febj usurpation.
wa
neadvgearmbsl tnitdheedatdhveaynincinayg
ea atsosalailiasnotather
Forresplendent
admiration,
UTthe-
ethlaeleme sthuirrgosnwoeumr
the homage of the people of England 1:
eels entitled to
because him
may be recognised a hero unsullied by a fault, a
Patriot unblemished by selfishness •
, a liberator wh
could pass from power into exile without one remorse-
ful o
memory in regard to the deeds of his adminis-
tration.

Her MAJESTY returned on Saturday to Windsor,
and her progress from Manchester and Liverpool to
Windsor Castle was to the full as triumphant as had
been her progress from thlmoral to the manufactur-
ing capital of her dominions. There was every-
where the same enthusiastic loyalty exhibited, every-
where the same religious observance of the public
of a few Soldiers at
force, everywhere the 'same absence of military
..._'.", Insomuch, that the chronicler of her MAJESTY'S
in gress records as •
from Weedon barra:Cka
he says,
" there
line, and as her backs
something remarkable the presence
was
the Weedon station. " At Weedon,"
special display. The soldiers
were drawn up along the
arms." At Stafford thelerushed past they presented
.1 up to receive her jsua_4sl Y_ :manry cavalry was drawn
We wonder whether any

LONDON,

of the continental Absolutist Sovereigns would ven-
ture to entrust the guardianship of his precinus per-
son to his own subjects assembled in arms after the
fashion of our own yeomanry cavalry ; and yet, if they
rule in the " paternal manner " which we are told by
their spies and admirers in this country is the pecu-
liar characteristic of their government,they ought not
to hesitate to trust themselves among their
children. We took occasion, when alluding a
day or two since, to the gratifying recep-
tion which her MAJESTY had experienced from her
loyal and devoted subjects during her progress from
Balmoral to Liverpool, to contrast that reception with
the reception which the " angry boy" who tyrannises
over Austria, Hungary, and Italy experienced on his
recent tour. Since that period the glorious welcome
to Manchester of the constitutional SOVEREIGN of
Great Britain and the arrival in this country of the
details of the reception of the Red EMPEROR in Italy,
render the contrast still more marked. Whilst in
Manchester were assembled at least three times the
amount of the ordinary population of the town, who
rent the air with their enthusiastic cheering
wherever her MAJESTY appeared, we are told
that when the Austrian EMPEROR entered Milan,
"the silence was terrific ;" whilst at Liverpool and
Manchester every public place which was visited
by our Gracious QUERN was crowded to excess by
a loyal, devoted, and enthusiastic population, the
announcement that the Emperor of AUSTRIA was
about to visit any public building was sufficient to
cause it to be deserted. On the night of his visit to
the theatre at Brescia, there was but one person (and
that a lady) besides his own suite in the boxes ;
and whilst at Manchester we are informed the eating-
houses and provision shops were almost stormed by
hungry thousands throughout the day—and at one
eating-house, it is stated, that they dispensed at least
half a ton of lef, in addition to upwards of 5,000 veal
pies—at Somma the unfortunate soldiers, the only per-
sons assembled to receive the Emperor of AUSTRIA, were
kept for four and twenty hours without food, and at
length stormed the EMPEROR'S quarters and devoured
the supper which had been prepared for him, uttering
the cries most distasteful to Hapsburg ears of " Viva
KOSSUTH 1" " Viva Italia !" It would be well that the
despots of Europe and their upholders should ponder
upon these things, and should turn from their evil
ways whilst there is yet time.

Lord LUCAN appears to be deeply afflicted with the
cacoehes soribendi. The Noble Earl is decidedly (in
the language of the fancy) " a glutton." He appears
utterly insensible to the "punishment" so vigorously
inflicted by the Ministerial champion, and, although
compelled to shift his ground and alter his tactics to
a certain extent, by the vigorous onslanght of the
PREMIER, he still exhibits the most reckless indiffer-
ence to future consequences, and lays himself open to
new assaults without the slightest appearance of care
or caution.

In his last epistle the Noble Lord chivalrously
assumes the entire responsibility of the arguments
put forward. " The answer has not been submitted to
the meeting of the board of guardians." It contains
merely the notions of the Earl of Luces, a very in •
fluential personage unquestionably, and one who, as
a resident landlord of wealth and respectability, and,
it is but justice to say, possessing many other estimable
private qualities, carries with him considerable weight
to any side that he may adopt. We cannot, however,
permit any private considerations to render us indif-
ferent to the dangerous character of the opinions re-
cently promulgated by his Lordship, or to sanction
objectionable doctrines, no matter from what quarter
they may proceed.
The first effort was, as we have already shown,
neither more nor less than a wilful and deliberate at-
tempt at repudiation. " Base is the slave that pays"
was the sentiment that found favour in the sight of
the assembled guardians of the county of Mayo,
and that found a congenial advocate in the Earl of
LucArr. The process of the law was set at defiance.
They, albeit the persons charged with the execution
of the law, on whom the primary responsibility of
" making the rate" was imposed, set the mischievous
example of resistance to the law. They afforded a
most dangerous example to the less wealthy classes
of their respective vicinities of opposing the
authorities. 'What would the Earl of Lu-
CAN himself say to the instigators or abet-
tors of those who refused to surrender their
humble holdings—to see the roofs under which they
had been born and grown to maturity, consigned to
the flames, and the supporting walls levelled with the
dust ? The feelings of the ejected—of those forced
to sleep under the broad canopy of heaven, without
the slightest shelter or protection—must necessarily
be more intense than of persons merely called on for
a mere pecuniary payment. But Lord LUCAN and his
coadjutors would be the first to preach the imperative
necessity of obedience, of the importance of the majesty
of the law being vindicated in the one CB.3o—they
should not set it aside in the other; they might
possibly be the most serious sufferers from the pro-
mulgation and general adoption of their own doctrines.
The ground has, however, been shifted. In place
of direct opposition to the payment, they are now
contented with endeavouring to put off the evil day.
They ask for " the bill of particulars." The expen-
diture of every single shilling must be proved
to the satisfaction of the sceptical Earl
and his still more sceptical associates. It cannot be
denied that the money was sent over from the Impe-
rial Exchequer, and that it was duly received by the
various relief boards, to whom its due administration
was entrusted. No, the evidence on that point is too
clear and too easily obtainable to be questioned. That
the money found its way to the hands of the most
influential parties in the respective districts is beyond
the possibility of cavil or dispute. The
bodies to whom it was delivered were con-
stituted out of the same material as the boards
of guardians. The very same individuals who are
now demanding " particulars" were, probably, the
persons through whose hands the payments were
made, and who could afford the most unexceptionable
evidence of the outlay ; but they are parties to the
suit, and, as the Ist of November has not yet ar-
rived, are not competent witnesses. Their testimony
cannot be enforced for some fortnight or three weeks
against themselves.

Several issues have now been raised, on which they
require decisions before any question of repayment
is to be mooted.

Ist. The amount of the value given by public
works (if any) is to be ascertained, every road
is to be measured and its utility inquired
into before a shilling can be demanded.
No matter how great the relief, no allowance can
be made unless there is bong fide value received
by the locality. Why, is it not notorious that
no work was entered upon that had not
first been voted by the ratepayers, and
for which the property in the district was rendered
liable; and also that the object, at the time of the
advance, was not to execute works of permanent
utility, but merely to obtain the means
of feeding the starving population ; and that
the " road making" was only resorted to
as a test of destitution ? Its utility or inutility is,
therefore, utterly] beside the question, a colla•
teral issue on which the defendants cannot be suffered
to ride off.

Again, they ask, " What amount of relief has been
afforded ?" They are surely themselves the best
judges on that point also. They have seen their starv-
ing brethren day after day fed at the public expense.
They have seen others perform efficiently
the duties which they were unable to discharge, and
yet, as if in mockery, they now ask " what was the
relief afforded?" Was there ever so ridiculous, so pre-
posterous a demand?
Having put these forward, they raise a third
and. lasting injury ?"
question, "'low far can payment now be insisted
sistent plea with the
on without entire confiscation, or inflicting serious
toi hnneteo
mustaomoue bitdieme
ride
ieoiappealdne.d
beforeLteot
This.former. i s anyouutterclaynniontcona;
t e theza justiceoe
yt andhoer
cto
guardiansnl
be rt
cat Yke token
either course they think proper but let them
stick by it, and not on being defeated en-
deavour to adopt a totally different line.
We venture to assert that the guardians will find the
latter the more tenable plea, and that they will do
well to rest their case entirely thereon before they
are defeated on the others, and forfeit the ground for
favourable consideration which they might otherwise
hare put forward.