The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-09 00:00:00

CONSTANTINOPLE (via TRTE6TE), MARCH 3.
Sir Henry Bulwcr will shortly proceed to Eng-
land on family affairs.
The Western Powers have made proposals to
the Porte to assist in the maintenance of its rights
in Servia and the Danubian Principalities should
any complications and an armed intervention take
•
place there.
It is stated that the Porte has requested a treaty
of alliance with them for certain emergencies;

HUNGARY.

A letter from Pesth, dated March 2, says :
Count Thunn, the Minister for Public Worship and
Instruction, has set his heart upon carrying his no-
torious plan for the organisation of the Protestant
Church in Hungary. Not satisfied with the very
questionable honour of having signed the concordat
with the Pope against the wishes of the immense
majority of the Roman Catholic laity and priest-
hood, he wishes to force his obnoxious organisation
upon the reluctant Protestants. At first he be-
lieved that the opposition against it proceeds ex-
clusively from political grounds, and is fanned
by the party of the so-called old Conservatives,
therefore he thought that political persecution
might deter the leaders of the Conservatives
from making speeches in the meetings of the dis-
tricts and taking the lead of the agitation. The
case of M. Zsedcnyi, however, soon satisfied Count
Thunn that prison has no terrors for men of a strong
conviction ; the late imperial counsellor had no word
of apology before the judges, and refused to crave
for mercy at the doors of the Ministers. This
punishment did not prevent the defiance meetings of
the districts, and the interview with the deputation
headed by Baron Vay could not fail to impress the
Count with the conviction that all his threats will
not lead the Protestants to submission. He is now
abandoning his fruitless policy of bullying, which
only increased the agitation ; we do not hear that
he resents the obstinate resistance of all the Cal-
vinists and of the majority of the Lutherans; his
order in council threatening the recusant congrega-
tions, seniorates, and districts with the loss of their
corporate rights, seems to be suspended for all prac-
tical purpose, though it has not been formally modi-
fied or cancelled. But the minister has evidently
no intention to give up his plan of organisation,
which restricts publicity, and practically annuls the
liberty of election, by making the confirmation of
the elections by the political! authorities necsssary
for their validity; he only changes his tactics, and
now tries to bribe the Protestants into submission.
Well aware that the Protestant Church subsists on
the voluntary contributions and bequests of her
members, and that tha clergy in general,
and even the super intendants, are poorly
paid, he now sets aside 94,000 florins a
year (about £9,000) for the use of the Protestant
Church, equally divided between the 800,000
Lutherans and 2,000,000 Calvinists—since the lat-
ter are more obstinate, they get less of the subven-
tion—to better the condition of the clergy. The
superintendents of Pesth, Presburg, Oldenburg,
and Debreeain, are to get a subvention of 4,000
florins a yrar, those of Eperies, Szarvas, New
Verbasz, Komorn, Papa, Sarospatak, and New
Szivacs, 3,000 florins, and each senior 300 florins
a year. Of course this Government subvention
will be paid only to those seniorates and districts
which shall have accented the Ministerial organi-
sation, and will be withheld from the recusants.
A certain time is allowed for the working of this
measure, and if it prove ineffectual the Minis-
ter may resort again to bullying. The Protes-
tants arc thus placed in an awkward dilemma,
ministerial favour and ready money on one side if
they give up the principle of an autonomic organi-
sation of the Church and place themselves under
the direction of the Jesuit ministry of public wor-
ship, and the loss of their corporate rights on the
other side, persecution and martyrdom, if they re-
main true to themselves. The eyes of all Hungary
are turned now to them, and though it cannot be
expected that some poorer congregations should not
be caught by the ministerial bait, it seems certain
that the Calvinist Church remains firm, and that
the majority of the Lutherans will not be reduced
to a minority.

We hear that the plans for the so-called consti-
tuti ()nal organisation of the empire have at last
been matured at Vienna : they amount to a mere
farce. The Council of the Empire—that most
obstructive of all the Austrian institutions—is to
become the propelling engine of the State. Its num-
ber will be increased by about one-half; they are to
be composed of 70 to 80 members, all of them to be

nominated by the Emperor ; but whilst he appoints
one-half of them for life according to his pleasure,
he elects the other half for six years, from lists pre-
sented to him by the provincial diets. Since, however
there are as yet no provincial diets in existence, the
Emperor appoints the first batch for the coming six
years according to his own pleasure. The Council
of the Empire, thus reinforced, has to control the
budget, and to deliberate, without a decisive vote,
the project of laws sent by the Emperor for its dis-
cussion; the first of these projects is to be the orga-
nisation of the provincial diets. In order that En -
lish readers may become fully acquainted with the
bearing of this measure, which in the official and
semi-official papers will be called a constitution, we
must remark here that neither this Council of the
Empire, which is to represent the Senate, nor the
diets will have any legislative power, still