The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-18 00:00:00

amount of change, and even to welcome it as good, troduced into the military system has been done
so long as it can be wrought out by constitutional with the concurrence of the Diet. " This right,"
agency. He tells us that if Pym were to come among the Address continues, "is a vital condition of our
us now he would be thought " too clever for us," , constitution, and generally of all constitutionalism,
and asks, "Is it that wealth too much accum- which the country can never give up. The Imperial
mulated and too little diffused has placed the decree with respect to the defensive system recently
leadership of the nation in less worthy issued is a new positive denial of this indisputable
hands ?" We confess to some amount of seep- right." In this paragraph is comprised the entire
ticism as to the extraordinary oratorical merits of case of the Diet against the Sovereign ; and as the
Pym, who was probably as inferior to Mirabeau correctness of the views therein expressed cannot be
in the art of swaying a popular assembly as he contested, the Emperor is left no choice between re-
was superior to him in the higher qualities of states- sciuding his Patent and declaring that the so-called
manship and moral worth. His speeches are constitution which is to be given to Hungary is to be
pedantic, heavy, and tedious to a degree which subject to conditions which will deprive it of all real
would be intolerable in the less patient times in worth. However excellent a numerous army may
which we live, and it requires all our gratitude for be, the Emperor is told that neither numbers nor
the great services which he undoubtedly rendered valour constitute the true elements of its strength.
the country to reconcile us to a pet usal of such relics " Were the defensive system to remain as it is, the
of him as remain. But, waving this literary ques- strength and enduring determination of the army
Lion, why dues Mr. Smith contrast our times with would be mainly elevated when backed up by the
those of the Long Parliament, as regards the ac- enthusiastic will of the people. But we can only
cumulation and distribution of wealth ? Does he reckon upon this enthusiastic will if the system
really think that wealth was more evenly distributed under which the citizen is bound to defend the State
at a time when England was still in the fetters of meets the confidence of the nation." Hence it fol-
the feudal system, when the middle class was only lows that the method of reorganisation adopted by
just emerging into notice, and when we had ceased the Emperor is as injudicious as it is unconstitu-
to be a great military power, without having become tional ; and in the interests of the empire and of the
a considerable commercial State? Aud even if it kingdom, for whose security he is anxious to pro-
were so, is it any reproach to modern English vide, he is sought to retrace the dangerous step
society, in which the acquisition of wealth is so free which he has just taken. It may with truth be
and open to all, that those who have once obtained said that there is not a word in the Address voted
it have been prudent enough to keep it, that the by the Hungarian Diet to which any one but an
security of our laws and the mildness of our Govern- enemy to the Emperor could take exception. It
ment have saved the rich from plunder, and that no places in a clear light the actual position of affairs,
compulsory law of subdivision steps in to break up i and frankly discloses the dangers to which the em-
our great families, depreciate the value of our lands, pine is exposed by the fast and loose policy which
and reduce the prizes of industry ? " Oxford," Mr. i the Imperial Government are now pursuing. Either
Smith tells us, " which formerly gave us patriots Hungary is to have a constitutional Government or
and statesmen like Pym, now seems by her political she is not ; but if the former, then it must be a con-
bearing to dishonour learning, and, by an ignoble stitutional Government, in the fullest sense of the
choice, did a wrong to the nation which Lancashire term, or otherwise none of the objects with which
was called on to redress." We are to infer from it is established can be realised. If Fraccis Joseph
this that Pym is to be ranked among the champions finds it expedient to maintain a despotism through-
of Democracy, and, further, that the question now out his dominions, then lvt him do so by all means,
at issue is similar in some respects to that which but if he thinks it safer to make those concessions
brought on the great Civil War in the feign which he has promised, they must be made freely
of Charles I. We believe that history might and without reserve. As we have always under-
be searched in vain for a more inappropriate stood the matter, the Emperor resolved on making
parallel. The struggle in the reign of the first Hungary autonomous, because by so doing he
Charles was between the Crown and the Church would conciliate the nation, and be able to reckon
on the one side, and the people and Dissent on the on its loyalty and fidelity in the hour of danger and
other. The question was, not whether there should of need. Expelled from Germany and Italy, the
be a Church, but whether the Church should Kaiser was compelled to attempt the consolidation
inflict cruel and sanguinary penalties on Noncon- of such dominions as were left to him, and this end,
formists in the Courts of High Commission and as we supposed, he thought would be best secured
Star Chamber, carried on on principles of " Crimi- by removing all cause for disaffection in the King-
nal Equity" unknown to the law of England; dons of Hungary. But, judging from the publica-
whether the Crown could levy taxes by its preroga-
tive ; and whether that Parliament which we are tion of the Imperial Patent, it would seem that he
has been actuated by no such motives, or has singu-
now directed to consider as the greatest of our
lady misunderstood the sentiments of the Hungarian
grievances was to meet at all. There is no idea now
people. If the proposed new itary system be a
of exsrcisiug tyranny over any one fur religious good one, there can be no objection to submitting it
e
belief, justice is administered in regular course, taxes
for the sanction of the Diet, since its excellence
are imposed by Parliament alone, and that very Par-
would most probably secure for it the necessary
liament whose existence was then at stake has been sanction. The fact, however, seems to be that
for nearly two centuries the ruling body of the State. Francis Joseph cannot divest himself of the attri-
The abuses against which Pym and the Long Parlia-
butes of a despotic prince. He, perhaps, believes
ment protested and ultimately took arms were
plain, that a country can alone be well governed by au
gross, and palpable. They had eaten into the very absolute monarch. If such be his sentiments, he
heart of the nation ; they were felt round every would do well to ponder on the advice contained in
the concluding paragraph of the Address :---"We
hearthstone ; they were the talk of every market-
place. The momentous issue was nothing less than are convinced that it is only by constitutionalism,as
whether Englandshould be a land of law, of individual well in Hungary as in your Majesty's other domi-
nions, being fully and positively brought into exist-
freedom, of settled Government,--whether it should
continue Protestant, progressive, and Parliament- ence, that the object laid down by the Pragmatic
ary,—or whether it should become the mere toy of Sanction will be able to be attained."
a despot and his minions, blown about by every
breeze of Court caprice, with an enslaved populace,
a degraded middle class, and a servile aristocracy.
" Seldom," says Mr. Goldwin Smith, " has there
been more need of unveiling the statue of Pym than
now." We ask, why now f Which of the causes of
which Pym was the champion is in peril ? What
danger threatens us from without ; what tyranny
from within ? Is there-any one who pretends in
these days that the Crown has too much power,
that justice is not impartially administered, that
Nonconformists are subject to persecution, that
Parliament has not full control over the national
expenditure ? The cries that set men's blood on
fire in the days of the Long Parliament have no
echoes now ; the grievances they complained of
have long since been redressed, and the very memory
of them has been obliterated as a thing that had
never been. Were a Cromwell to come now, his
greatest service would be, now as then, to put down
Democracy with a high hand. The cry for Reform at
present springs from speculative rather than practical
grievances. The complaint is of inequality, not of
injustice ; that poweris.not given to all, not that
those in whose hands it is vested misuse it. There
is not the slightest colour for supposing that Eliot,
Pyin, or Hampden, if they came to life at the pre-
sent day, would feel the slightest sympathy with
those who are trying to reduce the Government of
England tu it Democracy. Mr. Smith asks
umphantly, " Where are the 4,000 freeholders of
Buckinghamshire now ?" as if there were some sin
chargeable to the nation for their disappearance.
We answer, Gone with the irrevocable past ; gone
with many things, some good, some evil, which
cannot exist together with a highly developed state
of commercial and manufacturing prosperity, which
makes the possession of the land the luxury of the
rich instead of the resource of the poor. Mr. Smith
is very indignant with those who tell us that martial
law is the suspension of all law ; and yet this is un-
doubtedly true, and never was better expressed
than by Col. Pride, when he said that he purged
Parliament by no law at all, but only by the power
of the sword. If Mr. Smith were to announce a
lecture on Parliathentary Reform, or any kindred
topic, he would be bound to prove the positions
which he lays down—a task which we have suffi-
ciently shown he would find extremely difficult.
But by selecting a subject more than 220 years old
lie relieves himself from this necessity, and is able
to introduce, by way of illustration, assumptions
with regard to present times which he would find it
difficult to support by arguments. Dr. Temple may
call this "uniting an appreciation of all that is re-
fined and cultivated with a perfect recognition of
the rights of a free people." To us it appears a
rhetorical artifice, singularly favourable to uncandid
innuendo and unjust insinuation.
POST.—The patent issued by the Emperor of
Austria for the reorganisation of the army has eli-
cited, as might have been expected, a strong remons-
trance from the representatives of the Hungarian
nation. Whatever may be the condition to which
Hungary has been reduced, she has never ceased to
protest energetically against every measure emanat-
ing from the Imperial Government which hasignored
the constitutional rights of her people, and now at
a time when strong hopes are held out that she will
again be entrusted with the privilege of self-govern-
ment, and when after a long protracted period of
servitude she bas become conscious of the possession
of a strength which her royal master dares not
despise, it was not likely that she would submit in
silence to a decree as sweeping and as arbitrary in
its nature as a Russian ukase. Into the merits of
the scheme for the reorganisation of the Imperial
army it is needless to enter. They are entirely
beside the question which is now in issue between
the King of Hungary and his subjects. We will
assume, for the sake of argument, that the proposal
of his Majesty is substantially a sound one, and that
the interests of the empire demand its acceptance.
The results of the late war doubtless satisfied
Francis Joseph that, notwithstanding its boasted
excellence and efficiency, his army was by no means
so *ell organised as that of his German foe; and as
it is lawful to learn of one's enemy, the Emperor
has come to the conclusion that he could not do
better than remodel his army after the fashion of
that by which it was defeated. Whatever faults
may be attributed to the Prussian Government, it
cannot justly be said that their military system is
defective, and we may therefore assume that the
Emperor of Austria has exercised a sound discretion
in resolving to adopt it. But a good thing may be
done in a bad way, and this is just the mistake
which the Emperor has committed. Forgetting that
he had just promised to Hungary the re-establish-
ment of her political rights and an autonomy as
complete as was consistent with the interests of the
empire, he by a mere stroke of his pen altered the
laws governing conscription and imposed upon
his Hungarian subjects greater military burdens
than those which they have hitherto borne.
It was just as if the English Government,
having come to the conclusion that our standing
army was insufficient in numbers, or that
the term of service needed extension, increased
the number of troops or extended the period of
their liability to service without consulting Parlia-
ment. If Hungary is to have a Diet, and if her
Government is to be carried on by a responsible
Ministry in the name of the King, it is not unrea-
sonable to expect that on a matter of such vital im-
portance as that involved in the reorganisation
of the existing military system, the opinion and
sanction of the Diet would in the first instance be
asked and obtained. That he acted not as a consti-
tutional Sovereign, butas a despot, is the gravamen
of the charge advanced against the Emperor of Aus-
tria by the Hungarian Parliament. The Address
which, at the instance of M. Beak, has been adopted
by the Lower House of the Diet, very respectfully,
but very firmly, points out to the Emperor the
gravity of the mistake which he has committed.
Dismissing entirely the merits of the proposed
change in the organisation of the army, it simply
contrasts the course of .action pursued by the Go-
vernment in issuing the Patent with the promises so
recently made to Hungary, and the hopes which
those promises served to inspire. Reviewing almost
unnecessarily the basis on which the executive and
legislative power resides in Hungary, the Emperor
is reminded that every ehrge, Inm-fa La-

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