The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-24 00:00:00

HUNGARY.

A new pamphlet on Hungary, "La Hongroie et
!a Crise Europeennne," will appear in a day or two.
[t doubtless awaits the sanction of the " Adminis.

tration," of which there is but little doubt. Much
importance is attached to this publication for more
reasons than one, and the principal is from its
being, as I am assured, the faithful expression of
the opinions and feelings of those who are looked
up to here and in Hungary as the leaders of the
movement against Austria. I have selected the
first and last chapters of the pamphlet, as giving a
fair notion of the aspirations and plans of the
Hungarian party. It opens thus :
Europe is now in the midst of a serious crisis. From
one end to the other disorganisation and reorgani-
sation are proceeding simultaneously. Her old con-
stitutive principles are each in their turn devoured
by the spirit of the age. The pretended Divine
right of monarchs is giving place to the natural
and imprescriptible rights of nations ; the equili-
brium of states remain overthrown, while the har-
mony of nationalities is constituting itself. The
great struggle between the dynastic and popular
elements has now been in progress for 70 years,
Europe, thirsting after peace and for ever harassed
with war, will enjoy no sound repose, no certain
future, until the victory is secured, not here and
there, but everywhere at once, to the rights of
nations over the sovereignty of monarchs.
It was in obedience to this principle that Euro-
pean diplomacy, after the war in the Crimea, en-
dowed the United Principalities with a liberal con-
stitution, and strove to regulate their relations
with the Ottoman Empire in a more equitable
spirit. From this same principle sprang the war
in Italy ; the powerful hand which let loose the
tempest thought proper to arrest it in its
irresistible course, by signing the peace of
Villafranca. Every one is now well aware that
the attempt did not succeed, and that the com-
plications of Italy are still far from a definitive
settlement. The vital problem of modern times
was also the cause of the insurrection of Hungary
1848-49. Though suppressed by the intervention
of 100,000 Russians, whom Nicholas I. sent to the
aid of his brother of Austria, the struggle revives
in the movement, so unanimous, so peaceful, and
yet so firm, of which Hungary for eight or nine
months past has offered the splendid spectacle.
Central and Western Europe watch this move-
ment with a breathless attention—a sympathetic
anxiety to which, if I may be allowed the expres-
sion, Hungary has been but little accustomed.
Before 1848.49—before that revolutionary drama
in which liungary played so glorious a part—that
conntry was for the rest of Europe a kind of terra
ignota. After being admired for abrief interval as
an heroic nation, even by those who allowed her,
in contempt for all international law, to be crushed
by the coalition of the Czar with the Emperor of
Vienna, Hungary was soon forgotten again. Not
a thought was given to her till 10 years afterwards,
at a moment when she was thought ready to re-
spond to the cannon of Solferino—ready to co-
operate in the complete and definitive deliverance
of the Italian nation by recovering her own inde-
pendence. Since the peace of Villafranca, which
appeared to have ruined all her hopes, Hungary has
never ceased to remind Europe of her existence,
and Europe at last takes as much interest in the
Hungarian question as if, from being internal, it
was destined ere long to become external.
From the very beginning of the great movement
which now agitates the Hungarian nation the press
of Germany, Italy, France, and England sympa-
thised with it. That sympathy has gradually ex-
tended to the public, and in the most important of
all the deliberative assemblies of Europe—in the
English Parliament--the name of Hungary has
been heard. At this moment there, perhaps, is not
a single journal which does not acknowledge the
gravity of the Hungarian manifestations, nor a
statesman who does not take a deep interest in
them.

The general situation of Europe, which we have
attempted to sketch in a few words, and the situa-
tion of Austria in particular, sufficieNtly account
for this anxiety. Diplomacy has long endeavoured
to legitimise on international grounds the existence
of that agglomeration of countries and nationalities,
brought together by chance and retained by force,
which is called the Empire of the Hapsburg ;
diplomacy has raised Austria to the rank of a neces-
s4y for the balance of power, by proclaiming it the
barrier of Western and Eastern Europe against

the dangers which threaten both from the North.
The events of 1854 and 1855 must have convinced
the least perspicacious of diplomatists that Western
Europe may safely rely on its own strength, and
that, in any case, Europe cannot leave her defence
to Austria, a Power unable to maintain herself.
The famous barrier is visibly crumbling away,
being attacked at the summit by corruption, and
sapped at the base by the implacable hatred of the
peoples, upon which it weighs with all the inert-
ness of .a dead body.
This agony becomes still more critical for
Europe, owing to the helpless condition of the
" sick man." Only yesterday the Bourse of Paris was
alarmed by a report that a Russian army of 40,000
men had crossed the Pruth. Whether the news be
false or only premature, it is beyond all doubt that
Turkey, and especially the Christian East, is
rapidly approaching a new crisis, and that Russia
begins to think she has waited long enough.
Between these two " dying men"we see Hun-
gary all excitement, watching for the favourable
moment to extricate herself from an insupportable
state. if it is not her lot to give the two patients
tie finishing bloW, she will surely precipitate or
delay the catastrophe; the nature of the solution
that will intervene evidently depends on her.
What, then, can be more natural than to see the
eyes of all diplomatists turned towards the banks
of the Danube and the. plains of the Theiss
That Hungary, though reputed dead, is still
alive ; that Austria, vc hich was supposed to be in
good health, is physically and morally exhausted,
-is the conviction forced upon every impartial
observer.
Surprised or alarmed by this revelation, politi-
cians ask,—Might not Austria work her own
regeneration by satisfying Hungary, and would not
reconciled Hungary become, as in the 18th century,
the firmest support of the Hapsburg-Lorraine
dynasty P
Tf Austria persists in refusing all serious conces-
sions—if Hungary, out of all patience, resolves to
recover what they refuse to restore—what would
be the character, what the result, of that supreme
struggle ?
The pamphlet then gives an account of the rela-
tions subsisting between Hungary and Austria. It
explains how the revolution of 1848 was brought
about; and it quotes the declaration of the Diet
which formally deposed the Hapsburg dynasty as
Sovereigns of Hungary. The following is the con-
cluding portion of the work :
Any reconciliation with that House is henceforth
impossible. We' owe it to the laws of God, to our
country, to morality, to honour, to Europe, and the
interests of civilization, to proscribe this dynasty
from the throne of the Kings of Hungary; to leave
it to the judgment of God and to the abhorrence of
publie opinion, of morality and honour. Hungary
henceforth forms a European state, free, self-go-
verned, and independent.
Are the eminent patriots who possess the confi-