The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-05 00:00:00

THE DISTURBANCES AT WARSAW.

The following additional details make the dis
urbances at Warsaw assume a more serious charac
:er.

A letter dated Cracow, Ist March, says :
" I am enabled to complete today the details of
the recent occurrences at Warsaw. After the
manifestation of the 25th February, during the
whole of the 26th and 27th, the Russian troops
were stationed in the public squares and principal
streets. The city was perfectly tranquil, but
had a sad and gloomy aspect. The Agronomic
Society continued its sittings. On the 27th
a funeral procession issued forth from the
Church of the Bernardins. The troops sta-
tioned in the Cracow faubourg attempted to
drive it back into the church. The people, in-
dignant, pelted the soldiers with stones. The
troops charged them and fired a volley. At this
moment the members of the Agronomic Society
were leaving the palace where the sittings are held,
and were crossing the street. Six of them were
struck by the Russian bullets, and fell dead ; they
were well-known and esteemed citizens. At this
sight a general broke out. The prudent and in-
fluential men of the town succeeded in calming
the people and preventing them from desperate
acts. Count Andre Zamoyski, President of the
Agronomic Society, waited upon Prince Gorts-
chakoff; a deputation from the city followed him_
to make a complaint against the military, and to

demand that the safety of the inhabitants should be
assured. The Prince expressed his regret, and said he
would take measures. On the 28th the people seized
thebodies of the citizens,killed,paraded them through
the streets, and took them to the French Consul-
late. The French Consul refused to appear, and
sent word to the leaders that he could not take any
part whatever in the manifestation which had been
made. The Government abstained from using the
armed force, not feeling perhaps strong enough to
meet the fury of the whole population. On the Ist
of March the troops were consigned to their bar-
racks, and the Governor rendered the town respon-
sible for its tranquillity. The people themselves
kept order, and made preparations for the funeral
ceremoly of the victims, which will be attended
by the whole population. The Government is pro-
bably temporising until it has more troops at its
disposal."

Another letter, dated Warsaw, February 28
gives some additional details. It says :
" There was blood shed again yesterday.
About noon a funeral service was performed in a
church in the Rue Lechna, for the victims of the
25th. The police did not prohibit it, so that it
was attended by an immense number of people,
The church could not contain them all, and
more than half remained outside. After the ser_
vice the people proceeded in a dense column to
the Cracow faubourg. Here they met a funeral
procession, which gave rise to a new demonstration,
as it was supposed to be the funeral of one of the
victims.lof the 25th.

" In the Cracow faubourg detachments ofcavalry
and infantry had been stationed to keep order. One
of these detachments, consisting of 40 to 50 Cos-
sacks, endeavoured to prevent the people coming
from the Rue Lechno joining the funeral coming
from the Cracow faubourg; as words were of no
avail, the Cossacks made use of the little leather
whips they carry to drive back the advancing crowd.
The cortege was headed by ecclesiastics, who were
the first struck; this irritated the people, who
began to pelt the Cossacks with mud and stones.
The Cossacks formed, and fired at first blank car-
tridges, but they then fired a volley with ball, and
four citizens fell dead, and many others were
wounded. The crowd dispersed, the shops were
closed, the bodies of the slain were placed on
stretchers and paraded through the streets.

" Shortly large crowds assembled, and proceeded
to the spot of the massacre. Great agitation pre-
vailed. At night the troops withdrew.
" It is whispered that the people act under the
control of some recognised leader. It is, moreover,
said that there are large quantities of arms con-
cealed in the city, and that a great revolutionary
movement may be expected. The people are stirred
to anger, and are ready for it."
A letter in the Patrie throws a new light upon
the affair. It says, that the anniversary of the
battle of Grochow was simply a pretext. The real
object of the demonstration was the resolution
passed by the Agronomic Society in favour of the
Polish peasants. On the 24th of February the
Agronomic Society voted unanimously, in presence
of M. Moukanhoff, Minister of the Interior, and in
opposition to the programme of the Government,
a resolution tending to constitute owners of the
soil those peasants whom the official project wishes
to maintain simply as farmers. The vote was re-
ceived with immense enthusiasm by every class of
the population.,

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)

BERLIN, MARCH 5.

Several letters received here from Warsaw agree
in stating that the Russian General, Zabalkof, who
gave the order to fire upon the people, has been
brought before a court-martial.

The Minister of Police, M. von Trepow, has been
dismissed.

Governor Prince Gortschakoff has received
orders from St. Petersburg to institute a searching
investigation into the conduct of the military
during the recent disturbances.

FRANCIS JoSEPH, EMPEROR OF
AUSTRIA, AND KOSSUTH NOTES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—Aiout a month ago Count Apponyi, the
Austrian Ambassador, requested her Majesty's
Government to stop the manufacture and delivery
of certain notes which were being printed in the
establishment of Messrs. Day and Sons, and of
which a specimen, surreptitiously obtained, was
handed over as a proof.
The body of this note was in the Hungarian
language, and to the following effect :
" One florin.

" This monetary note will be received in every Hungarian
State and Money office as
" One florin in silver ;

" Throe zwanziger being one florin; and its whole nominal
value is guaranteed by the State.
" In the name of the notion,
" KOSSUTH, LOUIS."
At the bottom were the Royal arms of Hungary.
As is customary in such cases the legal advisers
of the Crown were consulted: These notes were
not imitations of any notes in existence, and the
printing and publishing of notes purporting to
be bank-notes of the State of Hungary—a State
which de facto does not exist—would scarcely
be considered as an offence by any existing law.
Even the strictest interpretation of the law could
not bring them under the head of a warlike
preparation against a friendly State. The notes
were worthless waste paper, with which not a pistol
could be bought, and were only available in the con-
tingency that a Hungarian State was constituted,
and that these notes were recognised by the nation.
This would seem to be the natural view of the sub-
ject.

This seems to have been, likewise, the opinion o

he legal advisers of the Crown, for I see from your

law reports that the Austrian Government has
given up the hope of inducing her Majesty's Govern-
ment to meddle in the matter, and that Francis
Joseph, Emperor of Austria, has addressed himself
to the legal authorities of England.
He comes before a tribunal of free and constitu-

tional England, and states that he is King of Hun-
gary, and as such, in right of his Crown, has the
sole and exclusive privilege of authorising the issue
in Hungary of notes for payment of money, to be
circulated in that country as money.
It is a bold step this on the part of Francis
Joseph, Emperor of Austria, to appeal thus to an
English Judge to recognise his pretensions as King
of Hungary, and to call down upon himself and his
past rule the verdict of the public opinion of
England.

The right of succession in Hungary of Francis
Joseph rests on the so-called pragmatic sanction
which was published by Charles 111. (as Emperor
of Germany Charles VII.) on the 13th of April,
1713, but which was only accepted by Hungary ten
years later, in the Diet of 1723. This pragmatic
sanction extends the right of succession to the
female line of the House of Hapsburg ; but when
Hungary accepted the succession it was as a
bilateral contract and in the 1,2, and 3 Articles
of the Statute of 1723.

" His most sacred Majesty graciously confirms
and will maintain all diplomatic and other rights,
liberties, and privileges. laws and approved customs
of the faithful estates of the kingdom and the parts
annexed to it."

Similarly his successors, who must be legiti-
mately crowned asKings of Hungary and the parts
annexed to it, will inviolably maintain the above
said prerogatives, immunities, and laws of the
estates of the kingdom."

The 3d Article of the Statute of 1790 orders
that " the coronation and inauguration of the King
shall inevitably take place within six menthe after
the day of the death of the last King.
The 10th Article of the Statute of 1791 decrees
that " Hungary, with all the parts annexed to it,
shall be a free kingdom, and independent in all
matters relating to its government—that is, that it
should be subject to no other people or State, but
have its own Constitution and Customs, and that
therefore it should be governed by its own legiti-
mately crowned King, according to its own laws
and customs, and not according to the manner of i
the other provinces."
In the inaugural diploma of the last still lilting

King Ferdinand (1830), Art. 1,2, 3, the latter pro-
mises :

" 1. To maintain all laws whicit were made by the con-
sent of the preceding kings and the estates of the realm.
" 2. To maintain the integrity of the kingdom, with all
the parts and provinces annexed to it, and that ho will re-
store all those which have been separated.

"3. That at every change on the throne the heir pre-
sumptive should be crowned in the legally convoked diet,
aocording to the third article of the Statute of 1790, and
should confirm by oath the present inaugural diploma."
Now, Sir, these are some of the laws which
regulate the right of succession in Hungary, and
how has Francis Joseph complied with them ?

The Hungarian Diet, legally convoked by the
still living King Ferdinand V., was sitting at
Pesth when the official Vienna Gazette announced
to the world that Ferdinand V. and his brother
Francis, the heir presumptive, had abdicated in
favour of Francis Joseph. The right of succession
by abdication is unknown to the Hungarian law,
so, before it can be recognized, it must be estab-
lished by the legally convoked Diet. The only
two cases in Hungarian history—Maria in 1385
and Rudolph in 1608—were in consequence, the
first of a resolution, the second of a pressure from
the Hungarian Diet.

Thus, not only was the right of succession of
Francis Joseph never recognized by the Diet,
but it was never even officially announced to the
nation. The first intimation was the attack under
Prince Windisehgratz in December, 1848, with
75,000 men, combined with other attacks from
north, east, south, and west, and when this attack
ended in defeat and the Austrians were expelled in
the spring campaign of 1849, 200,000 Russians
were called in, and Prince Paskiewitsch "placed
Hungary at the feet of his Imperial master."
That foreign Governments, from political grounds,
should recognise a de facto dominion, however
unlawful, is natural enough ; but surely the tri-
bunal of a free people so jealous of its constitutional
rights may be expected to consider the question of
right and wrong, and not of political expediency.
Francis Joseph may be Emperor of 'Austria by the
grace of God, and rule Hungary by the grace of
the Emperor of all the Russias, but an English
court of law can only recognise him as King of
Hungary when he has fulfilled those conditions
which alone can make him King of Hungary.
Neither is he recognised as such in Hungary—for
in all the numerous representations made by the
counties he is never addressed as King of Hun-
gary, but merely as Emperor of Austria.

Equally untenable is the pretension put forward
of " the sole and exclusive privilege of authorising
in Hungary the issue of notes. Were he legally
crowned king, and had he complied with all the
laws, he would have no such privilege. The law
of 1543 gives him the right of " coining money,"
but the only authority of issuing bank notes given
by the Diet is that conferred on Louis Kossuth, as
Minister of Finance, in 1849 ; so that, as a ques-
tion of right—of which alone there can be a ques-
tion before an English tribunal—Kossuth has it
far more than Francis Joseph.

And what is the complaint of Francis Joseph ?
That the introduction of the said notes into Hun.
gary will create a spurious circulation there.
To fix the currency is in every country the pri-
vilege of the authorities. They determine what is
to be a legal tender, and what is not. It is for
Francis Joseph to declare that the notes in ques-
tion shall not be received in any Hungarian State
and pay-office, and he is quite at liberty to impede
their circulation if he can, but surely he cannot
expect a British court of justice to do police duty
for him ? His only claim to be King of Hungary
is based on the 200,000 Russians who placed him
there, and on the large force which keeps him there.
He must appeal to them, and not to a constitutional
judge of England, who will surely not degrade him-
self and his position by recognising the presump-
tions of one who rules by the violation of all that
is most sacred in the eyes of every Englishman.
Here is an opportunity to exercise that moral
Power which is the legitimate boast of England.
Let the world see that there is, at any rate, one
country where might is not right, and England
will have done more to strengthen a nation strug-
gling for its rights than if she had sent a powerful
fleet to their support.
I am, your obedient servant,
MAGYAR. •