The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-23 00:00:00

EAST RETFORD.

The prospects of the hop•grawers in this district
are far•from cheering, one-half the plantations being
gone without hope of recovery. The recent weather
—mostly dry, yet cold an ungenial at night—has
done much towards this unfortunate result. On
sonic of the best managed grounds, however, espe-
cially in the interiors, they are doing moderately
well, and a few useful hops may yet be gathered,
but the duty of the district cannot be estimated at
more than £BO to £l2O. The price of hops here for
some time has been stationary, but a slight reaction
has recently taken place. Still, should the duty of
the country reach £140,000 or £150,000, good hops
must realise high prices for some time to come.

MR. ROEBUCK ON AUSTRIA.

(From the Times,)

Nothing is more natural than that any gentlemen
who has once appeared before the public as an advo-
cate of Austria should be only too ready to hail
everybody and everything that promised a momen•
tary aid. If the unfortunate Hayaau in his struggle
with the mob had but caught the eye of a cabman
with whom he had squabbled about a fare, or even
of an Hungarian whose face he remembered, no
doubt he would have sought his assistance against
this new form of danger. We really do not happen
to know under what obligation we lie to Mr. Roe-
buck that he should offer us gratuitous compli-
ments for anything that appears in our columns.
Still less do we. see anything in the matter of what
he is pleased to call a " remarkable article" that
can do him any good, or help him out of the slough
in which he is floundering. That article was the
simplest and barest description of an actual state of
things, without a word to show the slightest lean-
ing towards either party or any event. There was
no "opinion," no " event," designated at all. It
would puzzle any critic to make out whether we
wished Austria to swallow up Hungary, or Hun-
gary to succeed in setting Austria at defiance. The
oniy inference which any impartial reader could
form from the article was that there did not appear
to be any ext*ication from the difficulty, or any
settlement, ueless it should be the rude process of
war, and that, in the event of a war, Austria would
find fearful odds in a conflict with Hungary and
Italy. We stated, indeed, that Hungary had re-
fused an offer which an Englishman could not, in
consistency with his own constitution and tradi-
tions, consider otherwise than a fair one ; but we
did not enter into the peculiar circumstances under
which it was refused. It was a most singular com-
plication of affairs, and we described it as fully as
our space would allow us. To do more, to go into
the reasons, the recollections, the anticipations, on
both sides, would have carried us far beyond our
limits, and compelled us, indeed, to reiterate the
substance of many previous artic:es. All we could
say was that Austria had offered to Hungary a
Constitution exceedingly, though not quite, similar
to our own ; and that Hungary had declined it,
standing out for a perfectly distinct nationality and
State under the Hapsburg dynasty. Mr. hoe-
buck is now known as the advocate of Austrian
predecessors.
policy, character, and pretensicns, insomuch as to
make them the objects of European sympathy and
interest. If he will take the trouble to peruse the
" remarkable article" over again, he will find it as
sympathy for Austria as its
IdeesvAsos,i,dwr
"remarkable"
n
rnky especiala
bo
tl e
,pretendany " opinion" in favour of Austria, so also we con•
fess ourselves still to share the general blindness as
s to be the "forerunner" of
to "coming events." He must indeed be very
sharpsighted who can penetrate through the clouds
and darkness now hanging over the whole Austrian
Empire, The issue of war no man can tell. The
accident of an hour, the panic of a moment, the
slightest cloud on the landscape or the brain, will
change the fortunes of a day, disconcert the plan of
a campaign, and place this side or that under the
heel of its foe. To all appearance, Austria and her
foes, internal or external, are fast drifting to that
terrible arbitrament, and we are forced to regard
the offers of Austria as so many pleas and persua-
sions to stave it off, or throw on the other side its
inevitable odium. At such a crisis it is impossible
to regard the most plausible and reasonable offer as
we should the concessions of a Power to contented
subjects in full security and peace. Hungary has
at least a very good case for refusing the offer of
even a British Constitution at such hands. This is
the case of two parties who do not trust, and dare
not trust, each other. She has trusted and been
deceived. This is proved by the very case put for-
ward by Austria herself. If Hungary has been
indeed part of the Austrian Empire so long, if she
has lost her independence, if she is only a province,
then why is she not Austrian ? Why are they not
both one, as England, Ireland, and Scotland are one
at this moment? If, as we explained, Hungary is
still the separate, alien, and distrustful race which
it is impossible to manage in any way whatever,
but equally impossible to do without, then Hungary
at least enjoys the admission that the amalgamation
' has never been perfected, and Hungary is Hungary
still.

Of course, Hungary is now very much wanted.
Austria feels how important she is, and she very
naturally feels it herself. It is a hard case,
doubtless, and it may occasionally occur to the
Hungarians that, like most of us, they have
done something to create their own difficulty.