The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-21 00:00:00

PERSIGNY'S rule, as absolutely as under M. de
THOUVENEL'S, as previously under M. de
WALEIVSkI'S, newspapers have been warned,
have been seized, have been fined, have
been subjected to all sorts of pains and
penalties. The Tribune has certainly been thrown
open once more in the Imperial Legislature—but to
what end ? To the enl that the Councils of France
should in no way be influenced by the force of dis-
cussion—and to the end, at the same time, that such
exhibitions of "malice in power" should be wit-
nessed as that observable in the very speech of
NAPOLEON'S, which elicited from the Due D'AIIMALE
his notable rejoinder. Well—after all this has
been said and done—most lamentable to relate, the
Imperial Ruler and his Minister go yet one step
further in their tyrannous retaliation. A Cir-
cular is issued by M. DE PERSIGNY, of all men !
Ordering the Prefects of France, to the number of
very nearly a hundred, "to watch with care any
attempt at publication which may be made in the
names of persons who have been either banished
or exiled." Meaning, in so many words—the
Orleans Princes ! It is very cruel—but it
is worse in one sense than simply cruel, it is at the
same time wholly superfluous. After the results of
the late prosecution had become known throughout
France—throughout Christendom—it was in the
highest degree improbable that any other exiled
Prince could find a publisher within the boundaries
of France ready to issue across his counter another
such pamphlet as the Due D'AUMALE'S, with a cer-
tainty of having, in return for that, to pass the whole
of the next year in durance vile—with no result
whatever coming of it all but his own twelvemonths'
imprisonment ! •It was, -we repeat, improbable
in the higheet, degree that the incidents
recently witnessed Paris could very speedily
be repeated. Consequently, therefore, that arro-
gant and despotic Circular of the French Minister's
to the ninety-odd Prefects of France, empowering
that numerous body of functionaries to exercise the
right of veto on every political publication through.
out the EMPEROR'S dominions, is recognised upon
the instant by every one to be—quite flagrantly—
a matter of supererogation. It need not have been
done—and, supposing it not to have been done, it
would have saved the Imperial regime from a very
grievous scandal and a very deplorable ignominy.
And this, because from first to last the whole pro-
ceeding may be characterised—to employ one of the
latest of the two-edged antitheses of Mr. DISRAELT
—from first to last the whole of these proceedings
against the Orleans Princes may be eharacterised
as "mean in device and malignant in conception,"
on the part of the Emperor NAPOLEON 111. and
his—we can hardly call them Advisers, we will say
simply then his—satraps in the Imperial Govern-
ment.

A debate which will certainly have a conspicuous
place in European history is now vigorously in pro-
gress in the Hungarian Diet. One who should
have been a leader in it, the noble Count TELEKI, is
now no more; let us hope, sad as even that hope is,
that he fell by his own hand in a moment of mental
abaration, and not by the hand of the Austrian
assassin. His friend, M. DEAR, from whom he
differed only on the question whether the reply to
the Royal Speech should be in the form which re-
cognised FRANCIS JOSEPH as ale facto King of Hun-
gary, or in that of a simple resolution or memorial,
is now probably the most influential leader in this
debate; he is a man of unquestioned moderation,
would in England be classed with Conservatives;
and he therefore concludes that an address in reply
to the speech is the better form, and that the ad-
dress should be to " The Emperor FRANCIS JOSEPH,
who convoked the Diet and has, de facto, Sovereign
powers in Hungary."
But his speech, which occupies eleven columns
in a Vienna paper, is as firm in assertion of all pro-
bably that TELEKI himself would have demanded,
as we should think even the Radicals can wish. It
seems to have been listened to by the Diet with
breathless attention, the applause bursting out voci-
ferously at the close of each important decision. In
the clever summary of it which appeared in The
Sun yesterday his arguments seem very forcible,
and, by the Austrians, unanswerable. His proposals
will probably be carried, though we in this coun-
try can hardly be competent judges • on the ques-
tion, whether the Hungarians would be conceding
too much in admitting that FRANCIS JOSEPH is do
facto King of Hungary. That he has a large army
there and can do what he likes is true. That he
can, as he is now doing, collect taxes, illegally levied ;
that he called the Diet, and that they assembled at
his call, is true, and a more important truth than
that, he has physical force by which he can dissolve
it at any time. The Extreme Party say that they
regard his call not as valid, and as an authority,
but as giving the long illegally-suppressed as-
sembly an occasion or opportunity of meeting
once more. M. DEAR stated their position with
admirable clearness when he said :—" In former
times the disputes between the Sovereign and
the Hungarian nation arose from the two
parties giving different interpretations to laws
the validity of which was recognised by both.
At present the Austrian Government is trying to
force Hungary to accept a promulgated (octroirt)
Constitution in lieu of those fundaments l laws to
which she is so warmly attached. On the side of
Hungary are right and justice; on the other side
is physical force (materielle gewalt). Such being
the state of things, both firmness and circumspec-
tion are necessary. Should the Hungarian Diet
yield in matters of vital importance it would be
guilty of treason to the nation ; should it run unne-
cessary risks it would be equally culpable." M.
DEAR wisely desires to err rather on the side of
moderation than otherwise; he doubtless sees the
importance of retaining the approbation of Europe.
And if he does not press the illegal position of a
Sovereign, whom most of the Powers desire to
support, he may be better able to ask that
Europe shall join him in his demand that that
Monarch shall respect the undeniable rights of
Hungary.

To the question—what shall the Diet say ? M.
DEAK answers without any appearance of conces-
sion. He demands, indeed, what will shake the
Austrian despotism to pieces, and yet with such
evident right on his side that physical force or
complete surrender would appear to be the only
alternatives. lie enters into the history of his
country, proves that the Pragmatic Sanction is the
only basis of the HAPSBIJRG claims, a fact which
the EMPEROR himself admits by appealing to it.
Yet the diploma of October 20th, 1860, is in con-
tradiction to it.
By the Great Historical Docu-
ment Hungary is a separate kingdom, governed
on strictly defined conditions by its own King;
and therefore, the diploma, by convening Hunga-
rian deputies to assemble in a Reichsrath at
Vienna, and there to tax Hungary, and to levy
soldiers from her by the act of an assembly com-
P'ed of a majority of foreigners, would be a direct
violation of thu celebrated treaty by which the suc-
cession pasted to the female line of the lIArcEURGS
in the person Of MARIA THERESA.
With:the exception of JOSEPH H., who was never
crowned, all the Sovereigns who succeeded MARIA
THERESA, entered on their reigns by signing the
coronation doctments up to the last FERDINAND V.,