The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-21 00:00:00

STATE OF 11U.NGARY.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
PESTH, AUG. 16.
The wise men of Vienna are understood to have
made up their minds as to the answer to be given to
the recent final manifesto of the Hungarian nation,
popularly known as the Desk address. According
to information which I have every reason to believe
correct, the plan it is proposed to carry out includes,
as its principal points, the early dissolution of the
Hungarian Diet, and also that of the Provincial
Councils, or, as they may be more exactly termed,

the County Committees. The first of these two

weighty measures is likely to be taken within a
very few days ; the second can be only gradually

carried out, and is likely to be a work of time and
difficulty. A Rescript from the Emperor may be

expected shortly to arrive—no long-winded, hob-
bling document, like the last, but something brief
and trenchant. Of its exact contents, of course, no
one is as yet informed, but conjectures are hazarded
which may prove not wry wide of the mark. The
Emperor win, probably, treat the address as an

attack upon the dignity of the Crown (a favourite

phrase just now in the political circles of Vienna),

will declare the. Diet dissolved, and will express a

hope that time and retiectlon may bring Hungary

to a better frame of mind and more practicable
political views. Something of this kind is expected.

It is not known who will come down to dissolve

the Diet. It has usually been an Archduke who

has inaugurated and dissolved these assemblies, but
under all the circumstances, and as the present Diet
was opened by Count Apponyi, it is not thought
that so high a personage will be sent down. We
hear that a Hungarian is to be selected, if one
can be found, and probably he will be a
General. It was desired at Vienna that Count
Apponyi should dissolve it, but he, not unnaturally,
declined. Benedek's name has been mentioned,
but he might refuse also. If no other can be found,
there is a certain General Haller, a Transylvanian
of German extraction, who is old and feckless, and
will do whatever he is bid, and to whom, as a pis-
alter, the ungrateful mission may be confided.
That I have good reasons for considering the dis-
solution of the Diet as all but certain to take place
you will infer from my having telegraphed to that
effect this morning. In the opinion of the majority
of those persons who have the best means of judg-
ing, it is almost as good as a fait accompli. It is
proper to mention, however, that there are other
persons, who must know all that has passed, and
more than I am able to write to you, who still think
it extremely uncertain. They do not doubt that
yesterday the positive intentions of the Vienna Go-
vernment were as above communicated to you, and
that very probably to-day they still remain um-
changed, but they point to the capriciousness that
characterises Francis Joseph's councils, and they
think it highly probable that the Emperor may
change his mind. Viewing the present situation
by the light of past experience, they are at no loss
for arguments in favour of the likelihood of a less
decided line of action being adopted than the one
we know to have been just resolved upon. One of
the most distinguished Hungarian statesmen of the
present day lately remarked, very happily, that the
course of the Austrian Government habitually re-
sembles that of a man who, having a road on his
right hand and another on his left, cannot make
up his mind to take either of the two, but persists
in floundering on through the broken ground be-
tween them, in pursuing a middle track, on which
the obstacles and difficulties are so great that he
has no chance of ever reaching the desired goal.
The two paths now open to Austria, with respect
to Hungary scarcely need indication: They are
absolute concession or complete absolutism. Sup-
posing the Emperor were to send for Deak and to
say to him—" You evidently enjoy the complete
confidence of the Hungarians ; it is equally evident
that nothing less than the Constitution of 1848 will
content them ; I grant them that Constitution, but
I look to you so to shape and modify matters that
the empire shall not suffer, and that I may not have
cause to repent my liberality," this would be ab-
solute concession ; it would be entering upon one of
the two plain and well-marked roads. Francis
Joseph might come down to Pesth the next day and
he would see whether there is loyalty and monarchi-
cal feeling in the country, and whether the Hunga-
rians are susceptible of enthusiasm and gratitude.
My belief is that the past, with its many painful
episodes, would in a moment be utterly forgotten,
and all that would be remembered would be that
the present Sovereign is the descendant of that
Maria Theresa whom the Hungarians so dearly
loved, and for whom they not only constantly pro-
fessed, but repeatedly proved their readiness to
die. In stating the feelings of the Hungarians,
I may not always have sufficiently marked the
difference between those they cherish for the Crown
of Hungary and those by which they are inspired
towards the reigning dynasty. Essential monar-
chical by tradition and tendencies, they hold
strongly for the unimpaired maintenance of the
kingdom of Hungary as composed of Hungary Pro-
per, Transylvania, Croatia, &c.; but their attach-
ment to the House of Hapsburg, once so strong,
has been grievously shaken and weakened by. ill-
usage and breaches of faith. They can no logger
trust that House ; therefore they can hardly re-
spect it, and without some respect there can be
little love on the part of a nation towards its
raters. But I reiterate my belief that with this
warmhearted generous people bygones would quickly
be bygones if once confidence.were shown and jus-
tice done to them. If, however, to this the Emperor
cannot bring himself, the other plain road is that of
complete absolutism. And to something very nearly
approaching it he seems to have made up his mind.
If he dissolves the Diet and the County Committees
he will be compelled to govern the country despoti-
cally. The dissolution of the committees will be
followed by the immediate •
resignation of the Hun-
garian officers ; taxes will still he refused ; he will
have to send in Austrians to carry on every branch
of the Administration, geueral and local, and coer-
cion and distraint will be the Government's only
resources. He might possibly go on in this way for
a year or two, always supposing no war with Italy
or elsewhere. These would be the hard times which
Peak anticipated in his address, and which he de-
clared the nation ready with firmness and fortitude
to encounter. Well, it is just because this is a
decided course that some doubt its adoption. The
Vienna Government, they think, will falter in its
resolve, will temporise and resort to half-measures ;
will, perhaps, prorogue the Diet instead of dissolv-
ing it, and maintain the County Committees—with
which, if it does so, it will find itself in perpetual
conflict. There is so much that is plausible, and in-
def d reasonable, in this view of the probabilities of
the matter, that it would be rash to say that it may
not, more or less, be justified by the event. The
Vienna vane veers often about, and none can fore-
tell its next vagary. All that I can at present
do is to tell you in what direction it most
positively pointed not many hours since. It is
possible that within a day or two there may be
variations, but in the meantime people here are
very properly acting on the latest decision, and as
if no change were to be expected. It is thought that
the dissolution should not be allowed to take place
without some sort of expression of the feeling of the
Diet. This is but a vague intenion at present, but
something will doubtless be done, and the combined
committee of fifteen (the same which deliberated on
the Address) has been summoned for Monday to
consider and decide what that something shall be.
The Emperor's reception of the two Presidents
of the Diet on Wednesday afternoon was not un-
gracious, although, perhaps, rather colder than
when the samee gentlemen went up with Daak's first
Address. R
expressed his surprise and regret that
the Chamber oiai 'agnates should have shown itself
so unanimous infavour of the Address. He had
not expected that those who had invariably been
in opposition should act otherwise, hut he thought
that at least those who had
do with the working
October Dipionatt.t.2
out of the such as Mailath, And
BAb.lrczy, and
rasy, Apponyi himself—would have
taken a diflin-cnt view, and have beendisposed t
stand up in its beha One
the Presidents iso have told his Ma•
understood to 3estY that nothi
in the Ada„e
less than was set down
e's—that is to
Constitution of 1848—Would •
say, the Consti, satisfy the
Hungarians. The Emperor's reply is reported to