The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-13 00:00:00

THE SUN LONDON, WE DN ESDAY EVE TG, NU VEAL BER 13, 1861.

1V ONINA77ON OF SIL6RIPFS.

Yesterday being the morrow of St. Martin, the
ceremony of nominating the Sheriffs for the several
counties of England and Wales for the ensuing year,
Cornwall and Lancashire excepted, the nomination
with respect to which devolves upon his Royal
Highness the Prince of Wales, took place in the
Court of Exchequer after the ordinary business had
concluded. Shortly after 2 o'clock the Lord Chan-
cellor, accompanied by the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, wearing his robes of office, Chief Baron
Pollock, Mr. Justice Erle, Mr. Justice Williams,
Mr. Baron Channel], Mr. Justice Keating, Lord
Granville, Sir G. Grey, Mr. A. Helps, and. the offi-
cers from the Privy Council-office, entered and took
their seats. The Queen's Remembrancer then ad-
ministered the customary oath to the members of
the Council, and the Juelges having presented their
returns of persons liable to serve the office of She-
riff, the Queen's Remembrancer read aloud the list
of nominations as follows :

A 11,1'1114 AND .HUN Al? 1

In assuming his office as-Lieutenant of Hungary
General Palffy made the following speech:—

" Gentlemen, Members of the Council of Lieutenancy,—
His Majesty the Emperor having appointed me his Lieu-
tenant in Hungary, I consequently assume the direction of
affairs, and am happy to find 'myself amidst men whose
loyalty to the Emperor and whose good intentions for the
real welfare of our country do not admit of doubt. Speech
hs.s been much abused of late; the confidence of his
Majesty and the interests of the country invite us to act.
Therefore, in a few words let me say, you will know me
by my acts, as I shall judge you by yours.
"I understand the difficulties you have hitherto had to
contend against, but I expect that while the constitutional
powers of the Royal Council of the Lieutenancy of Hun-
gary are modified, even temporarily, you will zealously fulfil
your duties as devoted councillors and officials of his Ma-
jesty. Moreover, each of you, gentlemen, and every one
who, faithful to the character of the nation transmitted to
us by our forefathers, endeavours to co-operate with me for
the welfare of the Sovereign and of the country, for the
security of our own interests and of the national interests,
can communicate with me personally or by letter on any
subject whatsoever, giving me counsel or expressing a wish,
and every one may confidently rely that he will be frankly
received, and his requests fully considered.
" You will find that in me you will have not only a just
chief but a sincere and a kind friend. By a firm will, sin-
cere intentions, and united efforts, we will succeed, with the
support of the reasonable majority of our compatriots, in
restoring the confidence of his Najesty in this country, and
public order, that has been shaken in a lamentable manner
in the course of a year, to the detriment of numerous p,
vate interests.

" I hope that, under the inspiration of the reasonable
spirit in which enactments will be made, we shall be able to
prepare the ground for the interests of our country to be
settled in a durable manner, with the co-operation of the
Diet, and that I may be able to return to my military duties,
to which I am devoted, and which I have relinquished
from respect to my master and from love to my country.
The welfare of the country has always been, and ever will
be, in proportion to the fidelity and confidence of the people
towards the King.

" Let us then unite our efforts to attain the object I have
just indicated, and let us endeavour to revive, in every class
of the population, the ancient spirit and the staid character
of which our ancestors were so justly proud, for it is only
on those conditions that the paternal intentions of his Ma-
jesty relative to the constitutional regime can be realised."

Bullier's lithographic sheets publish the follow-
ing letter from Pesth of the 7th inst., which con-
tains some particulars relative to Count Palffy, the
new Governor-General of Hungary

" I wrote to you to say that martial law was inevitable
under existing circumstances. From this day Hungary is
placed under that regime. Field-Marshal Count Maurice
Palffy-ab-Erdod, who has been appointed to exercise the
dictatorship in Hungary, is a descendant of one of the most
illustrious families, which has produced a great number of
patriots, statesmen, warriors, and, under the reign f Maria
Theresa, Palatines of Hungary. The present possessor of
the title belongs no longer to the country, except by the
name he bears. Tie has proved himself the enemy of his
country, and he fought against her in 1849, as aide-de. camp
of Prince Windischgratz. He is known to be a man of
a coarse, obstinate, and arrogant disposition. He is hated
by his subalterns for his supercilious conduct. He has
quitted the army twice in consequence of having a difference
with officers of high families, though holding inferior rank.
Although all the decrees of the Government are accepted
by the people with the greatest indifference, because every-
body knows that the present system cannot last long, either
because the Government itself will retrace its steps, or that
a revolution will overthrow the existing institutions, it was
thought that the appears nee of a constitution would have
been maintained ; but the extensive powers granted to the
military governor constitutionally in Hungary was an
empty phrase by the very fact that the positions through
which the constitution might enter are occupied by abso-
lutism. A military dictator with absolute power, not re-
sponsible to any but a dead body, such as the Hungarian
Aulic Chancellery, concentrating, moreover in his hands
the political administration, that of jettice and finance, will
extend his authority to the trial of all offences. The press
likewise, is placed under his jurisdiction. Three newspapers
were seized yesterday."

complete fiasco. There were a great many more
sympathetic calls of " Graziani" than there were
antipathetic shouts of" Preobrajenski;" and so voci-
ferously are the favourite singers summoned before
the curtain by the Russians that a stranger to St.
Petersburg and to the Italian Opera might have
fancied that " Preobrajenski" was the name, not of
an unpopular regiment, but of a very popular
vocalist. In the meanwhile a great many officers
of the other regiments of the Guard are not pleased
at the part played by their Preobrajenski comrades,
and say that, if enacted at all, it should have been
left to the gendarmerie and police.
The official journals of yesterday contain an ac-
count of the attack of the soldiers and police upon
the students, also on the 24th October, at Moscow.

I was not in Moscow on that particular day, but was
there a few days afterwards, and spoke with several
persons who had witnessed the whole affair. The
students of Moscow appear to have behaved less
peaceably than those of St. Petersburg, and this
may partly be explained by the fact that in the for-
mer capital, whether rightly or wrongly, the pro-
fessors did not support them, and, consequently,
could not with any effect advise them. Neverthe-
less, in a country so proud of its order and of the

prestige of its government as Russia, it is scanda-
lous that no means could be found for dispersing a
few hundred young men but such as were em-
ployed on the occasion in question, when from 20
to 30 unarmed persons were wounded by infantry
and cavalry. According to the Government news-
papers the greater number of wounded were found
on the side of the military, and, as if to give some
look of possibility to this most improbable assertion,
it is stated that on the place of conflict tbree swords
or daggers and 58 sticks were found. The police can
find daggers whenever it chooses to drop them, but
it can never make reasonable persons believe that
500 students assembled in front of the Governor-
General's house with the intention of fighting the
army of Moscow, or that, in a collision between an
unarmed crowd and a body of Russian soldiers,
three of the latter to only two of the former could
be wounded. This is like the Wilna story of two
months since, when we were assured that a few
stones thrown by the Poles did more harm than
discharges of musketry on the part of the Russians.

The Moscow Police Journal admits that several
students were arrested on the 24th who happened
to be passing along the Tverskoi, and who had
nothing whatever to do with disturbance in front
of the Governor-General's. The fact is, the police
acted on that day as if seized with a sort of aggres-
sive panic, and went wildly about arresting students
who were quietly walking or driving along the
streets, as if merely to punish them for belonging
to the University.

The official list of wounded at Moscow includes

two students, one of whom was hurt by a horse,
and was sent off to the hospital, and two gendarmes
who were wounded in the face, and of whom one is
also in the hospital." The third of the injured Bend
armes received a severe sword cut on the belt of his
caftan and lost his brass buckle. Hopes are enter-
tained of its recovery.

The number of arrests effected on the 24th
amounts, according to the Moscow Police Journal,
to 340. A special committee was formed the same
day, and decided that 39 of the prisoners, including
22 students and 17 lecture frequenters and persons
not belonging to the University, must to detained.
The remaining 301 were set at liberty after they
had been identified and their names taken down by
the police.

At St. Petersburg it is difficult to ascertain the
exact number of students confined in the fortress.
A placard, bearing the words "University of St.
Petersburg," was posted the other night on the
fortress gate, but the author of the inscription was
caught and shut up in the new University himself.
It is a dangerous game to endeavour to temper
Russian despotism even with epigrams. Accord-
ing to the official accounts, the number of students
removed a few days since from the fortress to the
prison of Cronstadt amounts to 283. There were
about 70 students in the fortress a week before the
arrival of this last batch, who were seized in front of
the University on the 24th ult., and during the last
two or three weeks a great many arrests have been
made privately. Of the 400 students who sent in
their petitions for readmission too late all have had
their names inscribed on the police-books and in a
special register, while a certain number have been
ordered to leave St. Petersburg. Those only are
allowed to remain who have parents, or a married
sister, or a big brother established here, and willing

o become answerable for their conduct. lam told

that this measure will have the effect of sending
away a great many Russians belonging to the pro-
vinces, and nearly a hundred Poles.
There are now two commissions appointed to
examine the imprisoned students, and find out what
they can against them. It is just possible that they
may be all liberated, for it is said to be very diffi-
cult to prove a serious accusation against any of
them. The Cronstadt Commission has shown much
ingenuity in dividing its prisoners into as many as
27 categories. There is a category for students
who, on the 24th ult., went to the University with
the matriculation-books in their pockets, a category

for those who had left them at home, a category for
those who had asked for them and had not yet re-
ceived them, a category for those who had never
asked for them, and did:not want them, &3.
The St. Petersburg Commission has to deal with
three classes of offenders—those who were present
at the last assembly held within the University
after such assemblies had been forbidden, those
who joined in the procession to the house of Gene-
ral Philipson, and those who collected in front of
the University after the University had been
closed. It is said on behalf of the students that it
was never notified to them formally and officially

that the University assemblies were no longer to be
held ; that they went to General Philipson's house
without any pm-arranged design, and simply to
ask him why the lectures were suspended ; and that
the meetings outside the University were at least
very far from being riotous assemblages. lam told
that the students, when questioned as to the part
they took in the procession, answered one and all
that they knew nothing about any procession. " I
found the University shut, and naturally went to
the curators to ask the reason," is what each of
them replies. " A good many of my fellow-students
seemed to be going there at the same time. If we
happen to have walked together it was for the sake
of conversation."

Fortunately, it is quite impossible any longer to
charge the students with the publication of the
journal, or series of " proclamations," called Great
_Russia. A new number of this mysterious, and
now quite revolutionary print, has just appeared,
while the suspected editors of it have for the last
three weeks been in the fortress. From this we
may form some notion of the value of the secret
police in Russia.
The present position of the St. Petersburg Uni-
versity is this :—lt is open, but the majority of the
Professors are too ill to attend. Those who are
perfectly well find the lecture-rooms, for the most
part, deserted, One eloquent Professor held forth
last week to an audience of two. In the midst of
his discourse it suddenly struck him that it was
producing very little effect on his supposed hearers.
He questioned them on the subject, when they both
replied by signs that they were deaf and dumb. Of
the 650 students who sent in their petitions for re-
admission, or whose parents sent them in for them,
at least 200 are now in prison ; and oat of the re-
maining 450 (if so many) not 50 attend or even
make a semblance of attending such lectures as are
still delivered.
The late Minister of Public Instruction, M.
Kavalevski, has been elected by unanimity Pre-
sident of the Economic Society,—a very important
association (founded by the Empress Catherine), to
which are affiliated some of the best charitable and
educational establishments in Russia. This, at the