The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-26 00:00:00

THE IMPERIAL LETTERS PATENT.

A letter from Pesth, dated April2o, says :—The
telegraph will of course have informed yon long
before this that the official journal of Vienna has
published Letters Patent of the Emperor Francis
Joseph on the subject of Hungary. These Letters
Patent were announced to us by telegraph as con-
taining very extensive concessions indeed; and no
doubt, seeing that the Viennese Government is
very anxious to deceive Western Europe as to
the state of this country, they have been presented
in the same light to you. But thus far they
are regarded by all the Hungarian politicians
whom I have had the opportunity of consulting, as
nothing better than " a delusion and a snare"—a
delusion because they contain no real concessions; a
snare, because they are made the pretext of exciting
divisions in the patriotic party. So little is thought
of them that the two Hungarian newspapers, the
Pesti IVaplo (Pesth Journal), and the Magyar Sajto
(Magyar Press), actually reproduce them this
morning without a single word of comment.
The Letters Patent intimate that the five great
divisions into which Hungary has been parcelled
out since 1849 are to be set aside; but they do
not say that the provinces which in that year were
wrested from Hungary are to be restored to her,
and consequently the letters fail to do what the
Hungarians have greatly at heart. The letters
promise, at some future day not specified, the re-
establishment of the Assemblies of the Comitats ;
but Heaven knows when this promise will be rea-
lised—according to all Austrian practice, never.
Even if the Comitat system should be re-established,
it would be so organised as to be more Austrian
than Magyar, and would consequently give offence
to the people. The Letters Patent, moreover, say
that when the organisation of Cousitats shall be
completed, measures relative to the enacting of a
Diet shall be prepared ; but what is the practical
value of such a promise as this ? Evidently none.
What, indeed, is an undertaking to" prepare mea-
sures relative to the meeting of a Diet ?" Who can
tell how many years the preparation will last ?
What assurance is there that measures will be acted
on when the preparation is completed ? Besides
this, is it not notorious that during the last 12
years the -Viennese Government has made dozens
of promises to Hungary, and has not kept one ?
This is the view taken of the Letters Patent
in this city, and I doubt not that it will be the
same throughout the country. If the- Austrian
Government be really sincere in its desire to pacify
this perturbed nation, it must not make such,
trumpery promises as these, but must at once
revive the ancient Constitution and give back to
Hungary her ancient landmarks. Nothing less
will suffice; and if it be withheld long the Hun-
garians will become so exasperated that they will
not be satisfied even with that, but will demand
with a voice of thunder a rupture of the ties.,wl2lch
bind them to the empire of the Hapsburgs.
The Viennese Government has frequently mad('
its newspaper organs, both at- home and abroad,
deny that it has confiscated the estates of the
martyrs of 1849. But the falsity of this denial WO
demonstrated a few weeks since by the official ad'
vertisement that the estates of the murdered Count
Louis Batthyany had passed into the hands of
Count Zichy, on the payment of a large sum by the
latter. A new proof of the falsity is at this moment
before me in the shape of a judgment of the Supreme
Court of Pesth, authorising, by order of the View'
nese Government, the sale of the estates of Mon-
signor Horvath, Catholic Bishop of Csanad, who
was condemned to death for having acted as Minister
of Worship in the Government of 1848-9, but whO,
more fortunate than his friend and colleague, Count
Louis Batthy, any, managed to escape the sanguine*:
clutches of the Austrians. This venerable and revere.sa
prelate is now living, I believe, at Brussels, and
lam sure, poor; and yet the Austrian Government;
after the lapse of twelve years, and after having
had the barbarity, in spite of his sacred character •
to have him hanged in effigy, now put up to auc-
tion the little real property—it was little indeed
he possessed. let°
All the nation is wearing mourning for the_
the steamers on the Danunv,
organised are carrying their flags halfir_
in
whichCountacth
high
hze e
;cohar egnnadyn
theiis;
lions on the magnificent s
pension-bridge at Pesth, which he caused to be
constructed, are decked with crape. The Govern-
ment has at last authorized a searching investiga;
tion to be made into the mysterious circumstance
of his death. As this death followed very closelYo'
ou that of another esteemed patriot, Bar
ed°
Josika, the extraordinary belief has gin
ground among the common people that they 11,4%
both fallen victims to Austrian vengeance. U,
alleged, indeed, that they were both poisoned st
dinner at Vienna, and that Josika died almost
mediately after; but that Szechenyi havinFe re-
covered, was shot in such a way as to x
'o"
appear that he had committed suicide d° n • mai
less, it
absurd _
of course, credit for one moment this tale ;
as it is monstrous. But, nevertheless,
it s a
h
t
has created such prejudice against the A_use hetriia;
Government thethatlatteras been oblig
proclaim its falsify in its semi-official orgoant
it . s
ea at
Augsburg
Wu'
Augsburg Gazette. By the way, must
Government feel that it has fallen very low
in the estimation of its subjects, when it has t° c°ll
, descend to answer such an odious accusation