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

ST,ITE 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 wise
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 now 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, whi, h
it does not consider. to hare been legally abro-
gated, and which. it. refuses to regard as lapsed."
But the law in question would seem to offer nothirs,
calculated to cause any great affright to Minister
might be- -
at Vienna, however conservative they
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 ba
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 prinei
pies 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 one 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 fur 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 convicted on
Wednesday,inurder o
of
h e
r ibeforellegi t
ilkn
al ra.t
illegitimate
Baron
Id, two months old,
Bramwell, of the
by strangling it, still
remains iu a most distress-
ing state. The painful spectacle that was pre-
sented when she was sentenced, and her earnest
and heartrending applications for merey,
be forgotten very easily by those who were will not
ere pre-
sent, and it appears that after she was taken back
to her cell she was unable to take sustenance, and
the night was passed in moaning and grief. The
public is aware that there are at present very
extensive alterations going on in the female
wing of the prison, with a view to con-
fine all the prisoners of that sex separately,
and this has necessitated the remove.lof
the
whole of the women to Holloway, and when the
Central Criminal Court is sitting they are taken
backwards and forwards every day. In the case of
this prisoner, however, it was not considered advis-
able to send her back to Holloway after her convic-
tion, and a cell was prepared for her reception near
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
Mul-
lins, will extend the period to the ease
of third Monday ;
but although the sheriffs may, as they tire bound by
law to do, fix a day, it will be
satisfactory
public to know that the general
impression to the
those acquainted with facts among
that enable them to
come to a proper decision, is that the capital sen-
tence will not be carried out. An opinion that it
was not a case for the
to be carried out, it extreme sentence of the law
is understood, was also ex-
pressed by a high authority after the trial, and it
may be stated as
El
judge, Mr. Baron fact that the learned and humane
Bramwell, who tried the prisoner'
will
prisoner
will not oppose a commutation of the sentence. In
addition to the evidence that was given at the trial
with regard to
of the the humanity and kindness of dispo-
sition
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 had 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 he 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 melanchol3 circumstances under which the
crime was committed, and which will be sent to the
Home-office in the course of a day or two
there is every expectation that, coupled with ;and.
the
strong recommendation to mercy of the
jury, it
will have the effect of procuring the remission of
the fearful extreme sentence f o the law.