The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-24 00:00:00

HUNGARY.

The following is from a letter dated Pesth, March
15 :—" I write in the midst of great emotion to tell
you what has just taken place in this city. The
revolution which is manifestly impending in this
unhappy land may be said to have commenced, for a
demonstration has been made, and blood has been
shed. It was on the 15th March, 1848, that the last
Hungarian revolution took place, and the young
men of the University determined to take advantage
of the anniversary of that great day to make a national
demonstration. In this they acted entirely of their
own notion, without the encouragement and even
without consulting the leaders of the national move-
ment. But their intention was that the demonstra-
tion should be entirely of a pacific character—that,
in fact, it should be nothing more than the singing
in Catholic churches of a few requiems in honour of
the martyrs of Arad and Pesth, and of the slain in
the battle-field. The police, however, were stricken
with terror, for they know that the country is
like a cask of gunpowder which a spark can cause
to explode. Accordingly, yesterday they began
making formidable preparations, and Prottman, the
Austrian Police-Direct3r, having a tender regard
for his own safety, took the precaution of having his
house strongly defended. This morning, at eight
o'clock, groups of students, consisting of Walla-
chians, Germans, and Slovacks, as well as Magyars,
assembled and went to one Catholic church after
another to sing the requiem, but at each they
were refused admission by the police. At ten
o'clock about 200 of them met and held council
together. The result was that they resolved to go
in a body to the nearest church, and on the way
they were joined by great numbers of the towns-
people. It may be stated that, in accordance with the
solemnity of the occasion, most of the students wore
the black attila, and had crape on their hats. At
the first church they reached they found a strong
body of police, who cried, Be off with you ;
there is no room for you here !' One of the
leaders of the students then said, My friends,
let us go away without having any discussion
with these people !' The young men and the
townspeople then went quietly to three other
churches, but were refused admission to them ;
they next marched to the cathedral but were not
allowed to enter that either. My friends!' cried
the leader, Let us go to the Cemetery ; there at
least we shall be free to pray for the dead !' They
then set out for the Ferenchaz (Francis Cemetery),
and as they walked along the procession was
continually augmented by accessions of towns-
people ; but nothing could be more orderly than
the bearing of the whole ; and the students took
special care to impress on the people to
have no recourse to violence, whatever might
happen. Meantime, however, the troops
of the garrison were under arms in the barracks,
hurrying to and fro to occupy different posts. On
reaching the cemetery the procession found, not'
without surprise, that it was occupied by strong
detachments of soldiers and police. A military
officer cried Go away at once, or we will use our
arms against you.' ' No,' said a student, ' you will
not do that, because you know that it would be
wrong to attack unarmed men who are perfectly
quiet.' The only answer was the arrest of a num-
ber of students. The other students made a rush
to release them, but the prisoners cried, 'De not
interfere. Leave us. Go to another cemetery.'
Thereupon the word was given to go to Kerepes-
Sirhaz (a cemetery), and the procession marched
there in the most orderly manner. On entering the
students and townspeople found themselves in pre-
sence of a strong force of gendarmerie and other
troops; and these soldiers, without saying a word,
charged the mass with the bayonet. Several students
were wounded, and many more arrested. The stu-
dents, exasperated, made a rush at the gendarmerie,
and the latter fired a volley. Either, however,
from accident or design, they raised their muskets
rather high, so that the bullets passed over the
heads of the crowd. Still one man, whose name I
have not learnt, was wounded. The people com-
posing the procession then retired, and 1 am assured
that the gendarmerie again fired at them as
their backs were turned. The whole popu-
lation, on hearing of this affair, manifested
greatindignation against the Austrian autho-
rities ; but, fortunately, they abstained from
violence. In the evening, however, a large crowd
assembled in the Kerepes-Ut, in the vicinity of the
National Theatre; and when some families of Aus-
trian functionaries presented themselves to go to the
theatre the crowd cried, What ! you think of aninsel
ment on a day on which the blood of patriots has been
shed ! Shame on you ! Go home !' And home th!
Austrians went ; but before long two companies
of gendarmerie were marched to the theatre, and
they proceeded, not without a great deal of bru-
tality, tality, to disperse the crowd. Up to this moment
I have not heard of any further conflict between the
population and the troops ; but the people are 17.
are w b
sucha statee
apprehended profound
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