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

STATE OF .HUNGARY:

The agitation which prevails in Hungary, and
which seems to become more and more menacing,
is remarked on by the Debats at some length. The
democratic party, our contemporary observes, is
every day separating itself with less disguise from
the moderate faction of the Liberal body, Which
had put forth the opinion that it would be vise
to accept the concessions made by the diploma
of October 20, with the understanding that they
should be amended, if necessary by ulterior reform.
The article then proceeds to say :—" The projected
conference of Gran has given rise to a first schism
which reveals, when we come to investigate its
motives and character, the most serious and also
the most irrecencileable quarrel that could now be
raised in Hungary. This conference, as announced,
will be composed of between 60 and 80 persons,
selected by the Emperor from a list of 140, which
was made out at the close of October by the
Prince-Archbishop of • Gran, Primate of Hungary.
The public has been informed that the principal
mission of this conference is to be the elaboration of
a new electoral law. Already the democratic party,
breaking with Chancellor Vay, declares that it will
have no other low of the kind than that voted by
the Hungarian Diet in the session of 1847-48, which
it does not consider to have been legally abro-
gated, and which it refuses to regard as lapsed."
But the law in question would seem to offer nothing
calculated to cause any great affright to Ministers
at Vienna, however conservative they
might be;
nor, on the other hand, to charm very greatly the
democrats of any country. It made the right of
suffrage subordinate—first, to the quality of a
Christian, and next, to a certain small property
qualification, and exempted from the latter condi-
tion all the members of the nobility capable of being
elected. The Debats considers that the Austrian
Ministers are imprudent in not again establishing
the law of 1848 ; not, however, that by doing so
they would find themselves freed from further trou-
ble. " But should the Ministers," says the writer
" accept the law of 1848, there would still b 3
something else remaining. What the demands of
the democratic party really conceal is the absolute
negation of the diploma of the 20th October. That
decision involves a formidable struggle of princi-
ples which almost fatally leads to revolt and war,
while under present circumstances legal right is no
more evident on one side than on the other. The
democratic party will not have franchises as a grant;
it maintains that Hungarian liberty, after existing
for a thousand years, was destroyed in ene day by
violence; there is a tradition of rights interrupted
since that day, after lasting for ages, and which
Hungary insists shall be resumed from the very
day when it was interrupted. Though in general
we have little predilection for political metaphysics,
and all those distinctions sofutilein reality between
what is granted and what is not, the spectacle of a
nation free for a thousand years, and now revolu-
tionary from excess of the traditional spirit, thus, in
the midst of a Europe ten times turned upside
down, appealing to Heaven in favour of its ancient
liberties, has a grandeur and strangeness with
which we must be, now more than ever, and in
our country more than in any other, most particu-
larly interested. Unfortunately, it is almost im-
possible to ascertain the exact time either of the
beginning or the end of that legal state which the
democratic party invokes. The Conservative party
does not want for any arguments, good or bad, to
show that the ancient legality was destroyed in
1848, when a new electoral law was promulgated.
The democratic party, which will not admit that
the legal state ceased in March, 1848, still does not
prolong its existence beyond October, in the same
year, when the movement of March suddenly
assumed a revolutionary character." The writer
concludes by declaring that the diploma of October
20, loyally accepted and honestly carried out, ought
to satisfy the Hungarians, and strongly recom-
mends them to content themselves with that con-
cession, and not to call for more.

THE CONDEMNED CULPRIT, ANNE
PADFIELD.

This wretched woman, who was
of the
convicted on
Wednesday,murder
beforegllmlra.Baro Bramwell,
Baron
of-her ilitito child, two months old,
by strangling it, still remains •
'a 'host distress-
ing state. The painful spectacle that was pre-
sented when she was sentenced, and her earnest
and hearttendin,, c, applications for mercy, will not
be forgotten very easily by those who were pre-
sent, and it appears that after she w
to her cell she was unable to take as taken back
sustenance, and
the night was passed in moaning and grief. The
public is aware that there are at
present
extensive alterations going on in the very
female
wing of the prison, with a view
to con-
fine all the prisoners of that sex separately,
and this has necessitated the removal of the
whole of the women to Holloway, and when the
Central Criminal Court is sitting they are taken
da
backwards and forwards every In the case of
this prisoner, however, it was y.
notN considered advis-
able to send her back to Hono
tion, and a cell was prepared for her ftrecreehpetrioczei convic-
tion,
the infirmary, where she was placed after her trial,
and a female turnkey is constantly in attendance
upon her. The culprit was in such a weak and
miserable condition on Friday evening that it was
considered prudent to send for Mr. Gibson, the sur-
geon of the prison, who administered stimulants to
her, and her condition is now slightly improved,
although she is still very weak and desponding,
It has always been customary for the sheriffs to fix
the day for the execution of the capital sentence at
the conclusion of the session at which the conviction
takes place, but this has not yet been done. In
ordinary course the second Monday after the one
following the conviction would be the day, but it
is believed that the sheriffs, as in the case of Alul-
lins, will extend the period to the third Monday
but although the sheriff's may, as they are bound by
law to do, fix a day, it will be y
satisfactory to the
public to know that the general
i
those acquainted with facts thatmpression among enable them
come to a proper decision, is thatem to
sen-
tence will not be carried out the capital
was not a case for the extreme An opinion that it
to be carried out, it is sentence of the law
-
to was also ex-
pressed by a high authority after the trial, and it
may be stated as a fact that the learned and humane
judge, Mr. Baron Bramwell, who tried the prisoner,
will not oppose a
addition to the Fommutation of the sentence. In
with regard to evidence that was given at the trial
the humanity and kindness of dispo-
sition of the
prisoner, it appears from inquiries that
have since been made upon the subject, that she
always evinced the utmost affection for her poor
child, and there is no doubt that if she could by
any means have done so she would have con-
tinued to support and provide for it without any
assistance from the fellow, who bad deserted
her in her hour of misery and distress, and that
when the act was committed she was in such a state
of mental misery as to be hardly responsible for her
actions. Her grief and agony after the sad occur-
rence appeared to be unbounded, and she never,
as she has stated, had a moment's rest until she
divulged the fatal secret to the witness Miller, who
was examined upon the trial, and there is no doubt
that but for this statement the evidence would have
been totally insufficient to convict the prisoner,
and she would in all probability have escaped
punishment at the hands of an earthly tribunal.
The prisoner has conducted herself extremely
well
'
ever since she has been in Newgate, and pays the
most earnest attention to the excellent advice and
exhortations of the Rev. Mr. Davis, the ordinary of
the prison. A memorial is in course of preparation,
in which a number of facts are embodied in reference
to the melancholy circumstances under
which the
crime was committed, and which will be sent to the
Home-office in the course of a day or two , and
there is every expectation that, coupled with.
the
strong recommendation to mercy of the
will have the effect of procuring the jury, it
remission of
1 the fearful extreme sentence of the law.