The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY' 29, 1861.

wanting, ample leisure for reflection. For, Mr.
LAYARD'S failure in the House of Commons—it is
satisfactory to remember this now, and to feel per-
fectly convinced of this—Mr. LAYARD'S failure in
the House of Commons, while sitting there as
the independent member for Aylesbury, arose in
no way whatever from the fact of either his energy
or his ability having been exaggerated—arose en-
tirely and exclusively from his extraordinary lack
of discretion. And this we are disposed in a great
measure to attribute simply to the precipitation
with which the young and inexperienced
M.P. plunged at once into the thick
of the political fight immediately upon his gaining
admission to the arena of Parliament. His position,
we feel satisfied, would have been far more advanced
than it is, bad he been less adventurous, had he been
less eager to win distinction for himself at once
without schooling himself cautiously to the 'win-
ning of it. He thought to fight his way into the
very heart of the stronghold of power by a sort of
coup de main, and the result was almost by ne-
cessity, that those who admired him the most, who
looked forward most confidently to the witnessing
of his early success both as a debater and as an ad-
ministrator, had the anguish here again of beholding
that sorriest spectacle, that wretched bathos
of public life, " the engineer hoist with his own
petard.,, Happily, however, before too late the
electors of Aylesbury came, as we have said, to the
rescue. Cruel only to be kind—they afforded Mr.
LAYARD the opportunity of reviewing calmly th 3
blunders into which he had been hurried by his
impetuosity and precipitation. The hon. gentle-
man's forced absence from the House of Commons,
we are satisfied—if only by reason of his conduct
during the brief interval which has elapsed since
his election as M.P. for Southwark—Mr. LAYARD'S
forced absence from the House of Commons has
proved eminently beneficial. He has returned to
the Legislature to a great extent an altered man—a'
man so far improved, at least, in that he at length
can add the virtue of discretion to the gifts of un-

wonted energy and of very rare ability. However
brief may be his career now as Under Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, we count with some degree of con-
fidence upon his making good during that interval,
be it long or be it short, his right to take rank, and
that conspicuously, among the most gifted of our
rising administrators.

The Imperial Rescript, and the manner of its
reception by the Diet, are now before Europe.
FRANCIS JOSEPH has won for himself fresh laurels
at St. Petersburg and Berlin and at the petty courts
of Germany—and that of Madrid, too, if it notices
him, will give him all due praise. We wish we
could hope that our old Whigs and Tories did not
inwardly rejoice that the Hapsburg obstinacy had
fully resumed its eivay. The document, which we
give in another column, may be described as one
string of legal lies, set off a little by a
series of arbitrary injunctions having no authority
but the self-will of an Emperor of AUSTRIA, who is
certainly not yet, legally, King of Hungary.

In the face of treaties and documents to be found
in every great library in Europe—in the face of
well-known history, this impudent paper asserts
the historical and real union of Hungary with
the German provinces. We may truly say
that it would not have been at all more
in violation of truth and right, had Queen
VICTORIA denied the merely personal union
of the Crowns of England and Hanover, and
insisted on the retention and amalgamation of the
government of both countries. The Rescript does
not even profess to answer the clear statements and
arguments of the address. No doubt, for the best
reasons. Its real meaning is—we will give such a
constitution as we please to this ancient kingdom,
after having suppressed its rightful one for a
dozen years. With unparalleled effrontery it refers
to Imperial acts of violence as proofs of what ought
to be done. Past crimes are to be the unques-
tioned precedents for fresh crimes ! It assumes a
right to pick and choose amongst the lawn of
1848, solemnly assented to by the Monarch of the
day,declaring that FRANCIS JOSEPH had not assented
to them ; as if the continuance of laws duly and
constitutionally enacted depended on the will of a
fresh Sovereign, that Sovereign, too, a usurper, im-
posed by Russian bayonets ! The Russian King of
HUNGARY had never assented to what the real King
of HUNGARY had signed—therefore he would repeal
by his fiat all of those laws he did not like.
The Diet in both houses treated the document
with the contempt it deserved. It could not sup-
press laughter at the demand that it should send
representatives to the Vienna Reichsrath, nor keep
its indignant groans from becoming half audible as
the more imperious and treacherous parts were
read. Of course Austria calculates on two things—
she has kept arms oat of the hands of the Hun-
garians, and Italy is too busy putting down
the brigandage which issues from the Papal terri-
tories to attack Venetia just now. Hungary, how-
ever, can be firm. While she is so Austria must
be weak. A power in Europe she can never be
till she conciliates Hungary by admitting her legal
claims, and relieves herself of the distracting and
costly charge of garrisoning Venetia. She is now
endeavouring to set up treacherously the other
subordinate nationalities against Hungary, and she
may partially succeed, but it will be at the cost of
weakening herself more than Hungary.

Before the 16th of December next, the Turner
Collection must be under the roof of The National
Gallery, or it will be los: to the nation to whom
the great Artist had bequeathed it. Put it how
we may—the dilemma is rather an anxious one.
There is the Turner Collection now-at this moment,
towards the end of July, poked away almost, one
might say, like so much lumber in those wretched
"Brompton Boilers" as they are called, down in the
south east corner of South Kensington. There is
the National Gallery at the same time in Trafalgar-
square—half choke-full with the picturespeculiarly
appertaining to the National Gallery—and the other
half of it still set apart for the convenience of the
Royal Academy. But a few days more, and this last
mentioned moiety of the building will be almost
entirely emptied of its contents. The walls of its
principal apartments—walls hitherto covered
annually for no more than about three months at a
time with the year's collection—the walls of the
principaltpieintNationaln
gs apartments of t
up
willti e he
bt
total t
stripped
ryoi Royal
ptehdeolfBt6hl Academy-half
the various ari
Exhibi-
tion. Then certainly will be the opportunity. That
opportunity for which we have all so very long been
looking forward. Then will be the very occasion,
that is to say, when ( with a reason for doing it) the
nation may claim from the Royal Academy the
space hitherto lent to the Royal Academy in the
National Gallery—to the extent even, that space,
of one full half of the National Gallery. We
have had the assurance very recently of the re-
sponsible administrator, that, whenever called upon
to do so, the Royal Academy will retire from its
present place in tho National Gallery. The Royal
Academy has avowed its perfect readiness to do
this whenever its withdrawal from the building
may be required by circumstances. If ever they
are to be required--by a very urgent necessity—
, surely it must be now, it must be* before the
I approaching 16th of December. By that date the

stipulated period marked down in Mr. TURNER'S
will, the stipulated period of so many years, within
which the Turner Collection must be found a home
in the National Gallery, or be irrevocably lost to
the nation—that stipulated period will by that time,
by the 10th of next December, have expired. The
need there is now for thus recalling to the use of the
National Gallery the suite of rooms hitherto lent
as the building so designated to the Royal Academy
—the need there is for this being done every
one will allow to be at length to be
most urgent, to he at length little else
than imperative. Let the Royal Academy, then,
be at last called upon to withdraw from their pre-
sent position in the National Gallery. Let the
Turner Collection, immediatel: after the with-
drawal of the Royal Academy, be removed thither,
under the roof of the National Gallery, from South
Kensington. Otherwise—if those two changes
be not effected by the 16th of December, the
Turner Collection of Paintings, a collection alto-
gether prileless in value, will be lost to the nation.
Supposing this calamitous loss really to befall the
nation there is but one man, there is at any rate
one man above all other men, who would be held
responsible for it, And that man is Mr. COW PER,
the First Commissioner !

CITY OF LONDON ELECTION.

LAT EST NEW S.

TURIN, SUNDAY.

The Cfficial Gazette of to-day contains a report
from the Minister of Finance to the King on the
result of the subscription among the bankers to
the national loan.

The report is followed by a Royal decree.
Tenders amounting to 564,000,000 f. have been
accepted, but will be reduced 42 per cent.
One hundred and fifty millions are to be offered
to the public at the price of 70f. 50c.
Bankers and subscribers for 100,000 f. and upwards
will be allowed a commission of one-half per cent.
on the nominal amount of their subscriptions. The
public subscription is to be opened on Monday next,
and will be closed on the sth of August.
Count Fleury left yesterday for Paris.

VIENNA, SATURDAY.

In to-days sitting of the Lower House of the
Reichsrath the President declared that the retire-
ment of the members of the Right yesterday arose
from a misapprebensirn of his words. The members
of the Right thereupon resumed their seats.

LISBON, JULY 28.
Disturbances have broken out in the province of
Algarve respecting the new law of taxation.
The insurgents have been in collision with the
military, who are being reinforced.