The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-12 00:00:00

iIUNG.IRY.

A letter from Pesth, dated March 6, says :
" The Emperor Francis Joseph never reads news-
papers, neither does he care for them ; but his
Ministers cannot afford to ignore the opinion of
Europe, and are therefore very angry to see that the
English, the French, and the German press have
succeeded 'hi getting regular and correct informa-
tion from Hungary. Baron Thierry, the Minister
of Police, is at his wits' end to discover the cor-
respondents, and the means by which they forward
their letters ; unable to get any hint from his detec-
tives, he resolved to have the houses of the persons
most likely to be in connection with the foreign
press searched, and their private papers examined.
Accordingly the day before yesterday the police
suddenly invaded, at six o'clock in the morning, the
houses of some twenty persons at Vienna and here
at Pesth, and carried off their correspondence and
private notes. Among the gentlemen thus surprised
and alarmed we find old Count Stephen Szechenyi,
the veteran reformer ; his son, Count Bela Szechenyi,
whose frequent visits to London have excited suspi-
cion, and his step son, Count Zichy ; Mr. Hellen, a
distinguished officer of the late Hungarian army
and commander of the fortress of Peterwardein in
1849, who has lately published a pamphlet advocat-
ing the re-establishment of the Hungarian consti-
tution ; several German literary gentlemen, and
even Dr. Gutherz, a Vienna barrister, brother-in-
law to General Mayerhofer, commander-in-chief of
the Papal army, were exposed to the same treat-
ment. The search was fruitless, but it has excited
the indignation of the people to a fearful degree,
since all the gentlemen they alarmed belong to the
upper classes of society, and nobody now feels safe
in his own house. The correspondent of the Leipzig
Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung wis discovered last
week, and has been imprisoned. He will lee tried
for some trumped up charge, since he would be able
to justify and to prove every word of his correspon-
dence if his printed letters were to be adduced
against him. Thus, Julius Scirossy, the poet, was
tried and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, ap-
parently for having recited some treasonable politi-
cal poetry, though it turned out to be only on crino-
line; whilst his real offence was, that, he had become
intimate with some French prisoners of war, who
might have written some articles in the French
papers about the misgovernment of Hungary and
the hatred of the nation against their rulers. The
poor fellow hs been carried a way in fetters to a for-
tress in Bohemia, where he will find plenty of fel-
low sufferers from Venetia. About sixty of these un-
happy victims of tyrannical suspicion have lately
arrived at Peterwardein on the Danube, where they
were shut up in the dungeons of the fortress. It
is perfectly impossible to get any information
about their names, they are now designated only
by numbers, and nobody but the commander of the
fortress knows their names and former station of
life. About one-half of them belong evidently to
the educated, well-to do classes; and there are
youths amongst them who have scarcely attained
their sixteenth year. The crime is as unknown as
their names, since they have never been before a
judge, and were even, according to the Government
papers, imprisoned in order to prevent them from
becoming dangerous to the state. I recommend
this fact to the peculiar attention of Lord Nor-
manby. About double the number have been sent
to the fortresses of Bohemia, whilst the prisons of
Innspruck and of the Tyrolese fortresses have been
so completely filled with gentlemen (signori) ofthe
Italian Tyrol, that the sentries had to be doubled,
for fear lest the prisoners should combine for
escape. I take this fact likewise from the official
Vienna papers.
The land tax has again been considerably raised
this year, and the Government officials have got the
order to levy everywhere half a year's taxes in ad-
vance. Since such a measure cannot be carried
otherwise than-by military executiow, all the
superior county officials have got an officer of the
army, either on furlough or half-pay, to help them
to enforce the decree by military distraint. The
middle-class agriculturists—l mean gentlemen who
own between five hundred and five thousand acres,
who form the most enlightened and most patriotic
portion of the inhabitants—are much alarmed by
this measure, and looking to Bohemia, Carinthia,
Styria, and Galicia, where the policy of the Aus-
trian Government has entirely extinguished the
class of independent gentry, leaving but- two classes
in the province, large proprietors, who own from
10,000 to 100,000 acres, or even more, and poverty.
stricken peasants, who iiyo upon 10 to 3t acres—

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at a similar result in Hu 1-n:l*,:ir-7-7qtrnr.?-11 ' "
is reported to have said, entSia'a.l6l; ''et ' ac-
count of the resistance offered, itl- thaPro&tants
in Hungary, " We must destroy this overbearing
people ;" and it is well known that the power of
the Protestants lies chiefly in the independent
gentry.
The Protestants seem to be proof against bribes as
well as against threats. The German and Slavonic
congregations of Presburg, which were expected to
be the first among the greater civic congregations
to yield, have, at a recent meeting enthusiastically
rejected the notorious decree of Count Thur ; and
the Austrian correspondent of the ivangelische
Zeitung, from Oedenhurg, openly avows that there
is no reasonable hope to see the decree accepted in
that province.
A collision has taken place between the Roman
Catholic bishop of Transylvania and the Roman
Catholic congr‘gation of Maros \Tasarhely, the
bishop having appointed an Austrian priest to he
curate. The inhabitants had up to the Concoidat
enjoyed the right of free election, and refuse now to
admit the newly appointed priest ; they have de-
clared that they would_ rather turn Calvinist than
give up their right of electing their own curate, and
bear with a man at the altar and on the pulpit who
has no community of interests and feelings with
them.
The Saxons in Transylvania, who, as a reward
of their attachment to the Imperial house, have
been dein ived by the Government of their political
privileges and Saxen common law, are now among
the most bitter enemies of Austria. The unjust
and unequal- distribution of the ruinonsJand; tax
weighs most heavily upon them, and ten years of '
Austrian administration have destroyed their
wealth,-and reduced them to poverty. In Croatia, _
Istria, and Dalmatia the harvest-has failed in 18.59, .
at.
and people are starving now. The suffering is-said s*:- to haheartrendiog-amonk the peasantry. ..

ALTERED SYSTEM OF PURCHASE.

How such a measure as this will work time only
can show. No doubt it will be a great incentive to
regimental officers to distinguish themselves by
caring for the interior economy and discipline of
their corps, with such prizes as regimental com-
mands in view; prizes which may not, indeed, be
always assigned to the worthiest, but which, in
these days of publicity, will hardly be assigned by
the military authorities to those who have not
proved themselves worthy. That the proposed
change is a moderate one is probable from the
fact that it satisfies neither party ; the aboli-
tionists rejecting it as not going far enough ;
the military party represented by Colonel
North—denouncing it as the thin end of a
wedge which in time will shiver the purchase sys-
tem to its core. Be that as it may, it becomes
our first duty to caution the officers of the army
to look well to its immediate effect, which must un-
doubtedly be to lower the value of regimental com-
missions to the regulation prices. A lieutenant or
a captain of cavalry, called upon by his brother
officers either to pay double the regulation for his
next step, or to stand aside and let a wealthier can-
didate for promotion precede him, has hitherto
been told that such has been the established usage
of the corps in which he has the honour of holding
a commission, and that whenever he retires he will
be entitled to receive from his successor the high
price which he himself has been required to dis-
burse. He has been reminded, too, that in pur-
chasing his steps at such an enhanced price he has
been parchazing ccriaiu and speedier access to the
highest ranks and emoluments of the service.
But the declaration made by Mr. Herbert on
Tuesday night alters completely the position of
purchasing officers, and materially narrows the
advantages which they are likely to obtain by thus
investing their money. As things now are, a man,
having invested, say £9,000, in the purchase of a
majority in a cavalry regiment, has done so on the
calculation, that this payment would secure for
him, at no distant period, the lieutenant-colonelcy
of his regiment, and, in due course, the grades of
colonel and general, and the usual good things con-
nected with those ranks. But, as soon as Mr.
Herbert's plan has been carried into effect,
the purchase of a majority will insure no such
advantages; and it will depend entirely on
the personal merits of the officer, aided perhaps a
little by the interest which he can command,
whether he rises rapidly in the service, or whether
he remains a major till the end of his days ; and,
if he be obviously incompetent, he certainly will
never get the command of a regiment, pay -what
he will. It is clear, therefore, that the prices above
regulation, of which we have lately heard £0 much,
must henceforth be abated; and that in-coining
officers can no longer in fairness be asked to pay
money for which no certain return can be
offered to them. This may be bad news for those
who actually hold commissions for which they
have paid these fancy prices; but the facts are as
we have stated them, and this ought to be fairly
faced; and young officers, who in future choose
with their eyes open to pay the large sums above
regulation which have; up to the present lime, been
asked for and received, can have no reason to com-
plain if they do not get them again when they
retire. However hard Mr. Herbert's measure may
bear upon individuals, if it succeeds in abolishing
the noxious practice of paying large sums above
regulation for promotion, it is impossible but that
it should be beneficial to the working officers of
the army.—Army and Navy Gazette.

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