The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-26 00:00:00

When, 12 years ago, we resumed' the government of the
monarchy a disastrous civil war was raging in the interior
of our empire ; almost every state, society itself, was shaken
to its foundations. The passion, the blindness, the errors
of many honest and well-intentioned men—the terrorism of
the evil disposed—a series of diverse and unhappy circum-
stances, led to a solution by the sword. It was our will
that this solution should not form the permanent basis of
our political institutions. We did not wish to, and we
could not abandon the interests of our monarchy, which
bad been defended and made secure by so many painful
sacrifices ; nevertheless, as to their definitive organisation,
we have had above all the desire to re-establish, as
promptly and completely as possible, the political institu-
tions of this kingdom, rooted in the nation, to which
they are so dear ; and we found therein, at the same time,
for all our • other peoples a guarantee for the pre-
paration and the establishment of the constitutional regime.
It was in order to accomplish this work, that we published
our diploma of the 20th of October. But peace, the compro-
mise itself, and reconciliation, demanded in return some
good will and a sincere concurrence, without arriere pensee
and without passionate excitement.
We have well considered and recognised the scruples
which are opposed to the partial re-establishment of the
Hungarian constitution before the definitive regulation of
the whole political organisation. However, those scruples
have not prevented us from effecting this regeneration, espe-
cially in the domain of municipal action ; and we were per-
suaded that confidence begets confidence, and that a frank
and loyal initiative would ever find just appreciation, real
agreement, and sincere assistance amongst a noble people,
politically mature. Our expectation has not been completely
realised.

We observe with calmness and indulgence the first
impulses of political life, and attributed them to the agi-
tated current of the time, suppressed passions, and the
effervescence of long-suppressed political activity. Now,
however, that some comitats profit by the election of com-
mittees to admit amongst them individuals who are the
irreconcileable enemies of our monarchy and of our sove-
reign rights ; who, allying themselves to foreign enemies
threaten the repose of our country by perfidious conspira-
cies and insolent appeals ; now that they seek to make use
of the divergence of views relative to the approaching set-
lement of the question of imposts, in the sense of a refusal
which dries up the natural resources of the State, troubles
men's minds, and forced the situation in a direction which
itsb ypocritical and frivolous advocates ought themselves to
consider intolerable ; now that it is sought to cast aside
with feverish impatience the temporary measures indispen-
sable to the maintenance of private rights ; that under the
pretext of maintaining public order, certain committees
re- establish and arm the National Guard, which is a new
expense to the people ; remove, in making the appoint-
ments of the functionaries of the comitats, our authorities,
and do not hesitate to forget their duty and exceed their
legal province. to confiscate to their profit as independent
bodies almost all the authority of the State ; now, we say,
it is an imperative duty upon us to put a barrier to these
criminal encroachments, and not to suffer constitutional
liberty to be so abused as to overturn public order by
revolution. The faith of our peoples in the sincerity of our
intentions to bring back the constitutional system, will be
upset if we tolerate much longer the anarchical tendencies,
the development of which has always caused the ruin of
legitimate liberty.
We hold ourselves unchangeably to our resolutions of
the 20th of October, and we shall preserve to our peoples
the constitutional development which we have guaranteed,
and maintain all that we have promised to our kingdom of
Hungary. But our resolve is not the less firm to oppose
revolution with all our strength, whether it present itself
with an open front, or hide under legal forms ; and our
efforts, we are convinced, will find support in the true pa-
triotism of all good citizens ; they will not suffer obstacles,
provoked by the egotism or passions of certain men, to close
the path of peaceful arrangements ; they will exert them-
selves to prevent authority from being reduced, in the
accomplishment of its most sacred duties, to its material
force, at a moment in which the latter ought only to serve
as an assistance to moral power.
In bringing our intentions and warnings to the knowledge
of all the comitats of our kingdom of llungary, we recall
the Article 3 of the year 1790, the provisions of which, with
regard to our coronation, we expect shortly to fulfil, but
the other provisions of which establish equally the duties
of subjects up to the time of the coronation, and we strictly
ordain-
1. That everywhere, where they have the audacity to
choose as members of the commissions of comitats men con-
demned as traitors to their country, and who, living abroad,
ally themselves to the external enemies of the monarchy, in
order to weave criminal plots against us and the state—
those elections are null and void.
2. We decree, under severe penalties, that all attempts
having for their object to arrest directly or indirectly the
levying of direct or indirect taxes, or arbitrarily decreeing
new ones, be suppressed, that all decisions relative thereto
be immediately abrogated, and that the royal government
be immediately informed of the execution of this order.
3. Also we declare, until the deliberations of the Diet,
and eventually until the provisional measures which we
shall decree, upon the proposition of our judex curio—
null and of no effect all resolutions suppressing the
judicial authorities which we have maintained tem-
porarily by our diploma of October 23, or which fetter
their action, and we severely enjoin upon the tribunals of
the country to maintain the laws and ordinances existing
in it, and the definitive reform of which cannot be validly
effected in the interest of the country and of private inte-
rests, but by the regular 4eliberatiow 0 the Diet and not