The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-16 00:00:00

THE AUSTRIANS IN I.IUNdARY;

4.ne following letter has been addressed to the editor
of the Times :
Sir,—On the 28th of last month an agen';'of Kossuth,
who had been some months in prison, was hanged at
Pesti]. Tots was done so quietly that I only found one
person besides my informanq who was aware of the cir-
cumstance. On the same authority I believe that he
richly deserved his fate. On the other hand, the con-
duct of the Emperor and of his Minister, Bach, is as bad
towards unhappy Hungary as that of the King of Naples
is towards' that wretched country. Hungary is treated
as a conquered country, pillaged and insulted.
To begin with the former. Soldiers are sent into the
villages, who are quartered on all the Inhabitants, ex-
cept on the nobles who are in the employment of the
Emperor. They insult the people, they break all fur-
niture, and throw out of window anything they do
not think good enough for them. If the weather is
cold, they break up the floors and sides of the rooms
for fuel, and take the thatch off the houses to
light the fires ; and for any insults that are offered
to men or women rot the smallest redress whatever can
be obtained. The taxes are levied at the will of the
tax-gatherer. On asking for an explanation of this
my informant, a nobleman in moderate cireumstances,
told me that the last demand made upon him by the tax-
gatherer exceeded that which had ever previously been
made. He remonstrated with the head-office, and the
only answer he received was, that if the sues was not
innuediately paid some of his goods would be seized and
sold ; yet this gentleman has same relatives and friends
connected with the Government, bath in Hungary and
at Vienna. The peasants, and, indeed, all, are com-
pelled to pay a capiti,tien tax for every childi, as well as
for themselves, of a florin a-head. They pay also a di-
rect tax of a florin for every beast used in husbandry,
and for every sheep, and for every pig, while the horses
of luxury which the rich gentry and nobles keep are not
taxed at all. One farmer to whom I -spoke had six
children, tour oxen, 30 pigs, and 100 sheep ; be paid,
therefore, includieg himself and wife, a direct tax of 146
flnrins.

I come now to the insults. The ancient colours of
Hungary are three stripes of green, red, and white. The
first has been erased from their barmen,. At this all
are furious, anl even those in the employment of the
Crown barely conceal their indignation, fur there is pro.
bably no people so madly attached to their country as
the Hungarians. To avenge and resist this insult as
much as they dare they have recourse to all kinds of
ludicrous devices. Among others, iu one town I was
told of three young ladies who walked together arm-in-
arm, one in a green diess,.ont in a pink, and another in
a white, amid the applause of the people and the con-
sternation of the Austrian officers. A lady had just
received from Paris a new bonnet with a wreath of very
small red and white rlses, which_ had, of course, some
green leaves • in this she was at the opera; when au
Austrian offiar stared at her, and at it in so offensive
a manner that her husband took such notice of his
conduct as compelled him to desist.
The best part of Hungary is on the banks of the
Theiss and in the Banat. The remainder, at least all
lying between Bohemia and the Theiss, is one vast
sandy plain, almost barren from the nature of the soil
and the intense heats of summer. Maize and pota-
toes are the hest produce. There are no 'roads nor
inns. Tee gentlemen are hospitable. None•but coun-
try carriages can stand the- roads, and.. only small
peasants' horses can be procured to draw them. It is
useless for any one to mix with the people who can-
not speak Magyar, or at least German, Ftench, and
Italian. Latin also is much spoken, tint-les than it was.
The upper classes all Speak English, but froth them little
information can be extracted. All the peasants who
have served and have returned-home splak.ltalian and
German, and the upper middling bases Whe have tra-
velled speak French or German.
The hatred of all to the Austrians in general, and
especially to the iflmperer- and hies Althieter Bach, is as
inveterate as it is in Italy, and 'scarcely ariyedisguise
their wish that the Russians bad kept possession of the
country, and that they might never have gone back un-
der the hated rule of the treacherous house of .Haps-
burg ; but they are not republicans.
They are not much affecteed at present by the Con-
cordat. Tie effect of it is undoubtedly to put all educa-
tion into the hands of the Romish priests, and to take it
out of the hands of the Protestant ministers ; but all
Protestants will, and do, work the harder to instil
hatred of the principles of Rome into the children ; and
thus the Concordat will work in a manner directly the
opposite of that which the priests intend. Again, one-
fourth of all the lauds in Hungary belong to the Church;
the bishops have immense incarnes—that is, some have
above 50,0001. a-year ; the canons in their cathedrals
having larger incomes than any clergy in England,
while the open profligacy of their lives, their
public orgies,. their barefaced excesses are told with
shame, much more-by the Romaniits than by the Pro-
teetants. In justice, it must be allowed, also, that the
lives of the Protestant clergy in the villages arelittle
better. 'One family told me they would net go to the
Lutheran church because the clergyman was often so
drutik that he did not know what ha was saying, The
strife between the Lutheranaand Calvinists is greater
than that between the Protel4s.nts and the Papists,
while the effect of the whole or this ecclesiastical ex-
hibition upon the morals and the faith of the people is
such as can he as readily imagined as described. Cone
nubial fidelity in the nobles is unknown.
In Vienna there are no Protestants. There are Pro-
testant ministers with congregations, but neither the
one nor the other are Viennese ; they are Bohemian,
Hungarian, Saxon, Prussian, Hanoverian, Dutch, &c.,
Protestant,, who happen to be, for the sake of com-
merce, in Vienna ; and they are protected as Jews or
Mahomedans may be and are, but they are to all in-
aente and purposes, foreigners. .Of course, therefore,
the Concordat can take no effect on these.
The persons who are most angry with the Concordat
aro the Itoteau_Catholic laity,. who.speak of the Emperor
aia. weak, bigoted boy, of whom advantage was taken,
when' be had received a slight wound in the neck, by his
mother's Jesuit and confessor, to vow that be would
give his -empire again into the hands of the Pope,
although his ancestors, the Emperors of the Romaine had
contended against co doing for many centuries. The
Viennese pay very heavy`taxee, and the shops have no
stock in them, every one feeling convinced that the
wrongs of Italy ant, Hungary cannot long go un-
avenged. _ _

The part of the country which is most developing
itself is that part of Hungary which borders on Poland
to the north of Debreczin, where a Dutch company has
lately got a grant of anthracite, iron, copper, and other
mines, which will in their judicious hands turn out to
be a great public advantage, and a new railroad will
connect these works with the Danube.

The Jews are increasing very fast, and spreading into
'the village The gipsies, too, are found almost every-
where, and have laws and customs peculiar to themselves.
On all these grounds, therefore, Hungary is unlike any
other country in Europe, and well worth visiting by those
who can resist the heats of summer during the day and
can sleep in sheds at night. The easiest way is to go
down the Danube, stopping at each principal town,
and making excursions in its neighbourhood. While
seeking for information, however, foreigners must be
very cautious ; a friend of mine in a town was begged
by the servant whom he hired not to ask him to go
with him to many places-, as he was ordered by the
police to render an account of every person his master
visited or who visited him. There are many Greeks,
both schismatic and united, in the countries beyond
Peterwardein, the former of whom are as inveterate as
ever in their hatred of the Romanists, and the latter
fully agreeing with their brethren in their ancient fraud
which produced the separation. Ail these things conspire
to increase the common hatred of and contempt for the
Romish priests, while these have been rendered mbre
insolent by the Concordat, and aggravate the feelings of
the people against the Emperor. I must except, how-
ever, many of the poorer clergy, who are more ilunga7
rians than Romanists.

In some instances the Protestants of Hungary are dealt
with by martial law. The government insisted lately
that the Lutherans and Calvinists should unite, and sent
a stranger from the south to thoQe at Pesth to summon
the ministers for that purpose. One of them, with great
spirit, denied the competence of any lay power to inter-
fere in matters purely ecclesiastical, upon which the in-
truder withdrew; but he who had pro .ested was sum-
moned before a court-martial and admonished to be
more discreet in future.
In Prague the priests refuse to. allow Protestants to
be buried in the cemeteries, hut the Protestants appeal
to the magistrates, who support them.
Troops are continually moving towards Italy, and for-
the present the government dare not proceed to the ex-
tremities of the Concordat, to which the priests are
urging them.

I am, Sir, yours, ,
VIATOR.

Hungary, August.

It is said that the Emperor Napoleon has lately re-
ceived from Russia, through a G,rman diplomatist, the
most solemn assurance that Russia does not intend to
violate the treaty of Paris.
CLARE-MARKET.—A, survey is already in progress,
preparatory to the renovation and alteration of this
market,
which it is the intention of a company or:as-
sociatirm to render a rival to Covent
Garden-market.
TUE SATURDAY HALF HOLIDAY IN TUE LAW ()FPICIS.
—The propoSai to close the law and solicitors' offices on
Saturday at two o'clock is progressing very favourably,
and a memorandum for that purpose has been subscribed
to by kipwards of 300 firms in the metropolis.
TUE RUSSIAN HARVEBT.—The.effic. igurnal of the
Ministry of the Interior at St. Petersburgia has published
rt series of reports as to the state 4'
o_ the crops in .the
different provinc?3 of the Russian
,l,.eiftipire, according t 9
which the harvest will be most
. The Gazette d'Augsbourg etat-eslisth
A ett rlv3i.
A--, the
director of Prince Esterhazy'e picturea galleries,.
arrested. He is accused of having eoklfur hhaiqs been
profit, entire portfolios of valuable engravings,.and also
some rare pictures, uhich he replaced by copies. -
A letter front Sulina, on the Lower Danube, of
the 6th, says that Mehemed Liva Pacha, on arriv-
ing in that place,- received orders to come to an
understanding with the Austrian commander rela-
tive to the execution of the instructions which the
latter was about to receive from .Vienna,- and that
in the meantime Sulina was to remain in the hands
of the Austrians. The works at the mouth of the
i - -
laver were advancing favourably.

great punctuality, and if conipetit6ri ara not at their pmts they will Le Disqualified.
Toe GllaEpers and other noted crews are training at
Salters, the Feathers, Wandsworth.
• The &nth-Western Railway will put on special trains
throughout the two days, from Waterloo and Vauxhall;
and the Sheriff's of Landon have intimated their intezi•
tion of being present at the regatta.