The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-29 00:00:00

STATE OF AUSTRIA.

A letter frcm Vienna, dated Jan. 25, says :
The Imperial authorities expected that the Hun-
garians would be intimidated by the Rescript of the
16th inst., but they have already discovered their
error, the standing committee of the General As-
sembly of the county of Gran having forwarded a
memorial to the Emperor in which the grievances of
Hungary are summed up, and their redress insisted
on with extraordinary boldness and pertinacity.
On the 21st inst. the above-mentioned committee—
of which the Primate of Hungary, as Obergespdn of
the county, is President—met, and unanimously
resolved to forward to the Emperor the subjoined
memorial or address,* to which the particular
attention of all persons who take an interest in
Hungarian matters is called :

" Most Illustrious Emperor and Apostolic King !
Our Sovereign Lord !—The Rescript issued by your
Majesty on the 16th inst. has startled us. The
menacing language of our King obliges us to give
expression to our feelings, but while doing so we
will not lose sight of the respect which we owe to
our Sovereign. We will not seek to excuse our-
selves to your Majesty, because we think that the
Rescript is not addressed to us. We do not feel
ourselves called on to express an opinion in respect
to the resolutions taken by the other counties, but,
with all due respect for your Majesty, we assert
that all the Hungarian authorities, however they
may give expression to their sentiments, are moved
by a feeling of love for their country, which, during
the last twelve years, has merely vegetated
(scheinleben fuhren).
" The Creator of all things said,' Let there be
light,' and there was light. May your Majesty say
to us, Nation, thy wishes are granted !' The na-
tion unanimously desires that the laws of 1848 may
be restored. Your Majesty, grant a complete am-
nesty, so that our banished brethren may be able to
return to their homes, for the bread which they eat
in foreign countries is bitter to their taste. Speak
openly, most gracious Majesty, so that there may
be no doubt as to your intentions. Let all half
measures be avoided, and the Prince and his people
may be reconciled.
" The illustrious patriots now near your Ma-
jesty's person have, doubtless, stated that the Hun-
garian nation has suffered greatly during the last
12 years ; but it is impossible that they can have
given a complete account of our sufferings. We
who always live in the country have most felt the
effects of the late system. The foreign (princi-
pally Bohemian) employes laughed to scorn our
dearest, our most sacred recollections. They ridi-
culed our nationality and language, and emptied
our purses by means of taxes and exactions. What
high prices have we not had to pay for justice P At
midnight the tools of an arbitrary Power have en-
tered the houses of our best patriots, and in spite
of the entreaties of their children have loaded them
with chains, and removed them to some distant
part of the empire, where they were placed under
military despotism. 'I he wrongs done to the Hun-
garian nation cry aloud to Heaven (sind hinmel
eehreiend).
" The Hungarian Constitution is a thousand
years old, and a thousand years have the Hunga-
rians had to do battle in its defence. Such a pro-
longed struggle and the continued violation of our
laws have made us distrustful.

" Your Majesty will not take offence that we
speak openly. Illustrious Sir, we are as children
who address a father. In the diploma of the 20th
of October reference is made to the Pragmatic
Sanction, which was a bilateral contract. By the
Pragmatic Sanction, you are bound to uphold the
constitutional rights, privileges, and independence
of the Hungarian nation as the nation is bound to
be faithful to the King, and to recognise his heredi-
tary rights. The diploma, however, violates several
of the rights guaranteed to the nation, rights which
King Charles 111. (the Emperor Charles 3 our.
Majesty's ancestor, swore for himself and his suc-
cessor to uphold. Your Majesty insists upon the
payment of the taxes, but they, in virtue of the
Pragmatic Sanction, must be granted by the Diet.
Illustrious King, there is a story relative to the
levy of taxes by force of arms and without a grant
from the Diet, and the point of it is that King
Francis 1., your Majesty's illustrious grandfather,
said to the nation, Doluit paterno cordi nostro'—
it pained my paternal heart: j- ,
But your Majesty requires money for defraying
the expenses of the State. Might you not appeal
to the generosity of the nation, and say that you
require its assistance, instead of ordering the taxes
arbitrarily to be paid ?
" Shall we speak of the confusion which prevails
n respect to the administration of justice? Your
Majesty. has said that we shall have Imperial
( landesfurstliche ) law courts until the Diet has
settl, d the question relative to the future adminis-
tration of justice, but the nation has such a dislike
to expensive legal proceedings that it would rather
not have justice at all than seek it at the hands of
Austrian judges.
" The report that the Gendarmerie is to be con-
centrated in the capitals of the counties has alarmed
the nation ; but it can hardly •be correct, as, your
Majesty must be aware of the strong antipathy of
the Hungarians to the•Gendarmerie and Financial
Guard.

"Let us now refer to history. Great was the
Sovereign, and great the nation as long as the King
lived in the midst of his people. The renown and
glory of Hungary waned when the last monarch
who resided in the country (Louis II.) was drowned
in the Cselebach.

" Not long since your Nlnjesty acknowledged the
political maturity of the Hungarians—the inhabi-
tants of a country which is three times as large as
any of the other lands belonging to the Crown.
Will your Majesty condescend to reside in Hungary?
Throw a veil over the past, and by governing the
nation in a lawful (pesetzlich) manner, you may be
to the nation what King Matthias formerly was.
The great Corvin (Matthias Corvinus) has been 400
years in his grave, but he still lives in memory of a
grateful nation."
The county of Honth is also preparing an address
for the Emperor. Its principal features are,-1.
The county has never acted contrary to the laws
of Hungary. 2. It will uphold the laws of 1848,
unless they should be revised by the Diet. 3.
There can be no lawful Government in Hungary
without an independent Hungarian Ministry. 4.
The county will readily obey an independent Minis-
try, but never resign its right to complete 3elf-
government.

The Weiner Zeitung states that the alarming
excitement produced in Arad by the Rescript of
the 16th instant has subsided, but it neglects to
say that two guns with ammunition-cars are
standing at one end of the principal street in the
city. Temesvar is being placed in a state of
defence by means of earthworks and palisades.
Artillery is also on its way to the fortress, which
is said to be in the same state as it was at the end
of the war in 1849. The Stadtholderate has ordered
preparations to be made in several of the county
towns for the reception of detachments of gendarmes,
but in every case the local authorities have replied
that the men must be quartered in the houses of
the peasants, " like ary other soldiers." Yester-
day the Cardinal-Primate of Hungary endeavoured
to calm the excitement of his fellow-countrymen,
by stating that as soon as the question relative to
their sequestrated property has been settled, the
Hungarian refugees will be allowed to return to
their homes, but the words of the venerable prelate
produced very little impression, as few persons
in Hungary have confidence in the promises
made by the Government. In spite of the pro-
hibition of the Imperial authorities a "Sedria"
(Hungarian Court of Justice) has been formed
in Pesth, and on the 23d instant a person
was tried by it for sonic trifling offence against
the law. On the same day the Grand Com-
mittee, which has been formed for examininc, into
the question relative to the revival of the Hunga-
rian law, held its first sitting at Pesth, and AI. Beak
greatly astonished his colleagues by declarinr, the
to be a "disgrace"
criminal code of Hungary

* It must be somewhat condensed in the translation, bat
the more striking passages will be rendered literally.
t His Imperial Majesty gave expression to his feelings
after be had got the me.u, and money required.

(schanclfiecke) to the country, inasmuch as it is en-
tirely in favour of the nobility, and admits of
anomalous interpretations. The county of Stuhl-
weissenburg has protested against the alteration
made by the Austrian Government in the electoral
law of 1848, and it is doubtful whether any Diet
can be formed in Hungary which will consent to
meet at Buda under the guns of the fortress. At
present there can be no question of serious dis-
turbance in. Hungary, but it hardly admits of a
doubt that there will be a general rising in the
spring if Austria should be engaged in a war with
a foreign Power. Subscriptions are being raised in
Hungary for the relief of the " Honveds," defenders
of their country who were disabled during the war
in 1848 and 1849.

A person who is well informed of what passes at
Court has given me the assurance that the Emperor
is resolved, " come what may," not to consent to a
revision of the Concordat. A hint has also been
given to me that some of the highest persons in the
realm speculate on being able to return to the old
system at no distant period.

The Minister of Finance has decided that a
dividend of 28f1., instead of 321, shall be paid to
the bank shareholders. The rescript for the raising
of a loan of 30,000,000f1. has had no fewer than
three official emendations. Almost every ordinance
which is published in Austria needs explanation,
the official style being so obscure that the public is
at a loss to understand what is meant.

Mr. Roebuck has to-day left this city for London.
The rate of exchange on London is fls. 151 75.

THE TUNNEL THROUGH MONT CEALS.

A letter from Bardonneche, of Jan. 25, says :
This work, the most gigantic among the railway
achievements hitherto undertaken, has lost much
of its economical and commercial interest, but it is
still of the very greatest importance in a technical
point of view, as it will solve the problem of the
possibility of a direct railway communication
across any other point of the Alpine chain. The
main motive which induced the Sardinian Govern-
ment to give this line the preference over the St.
Gothard's or Luckmanier, which might have
brought Genoa into communication with the Swiss
and German Rhine, the object most immediately
conducive to the development of the Italian trade,
was a desire to establish speedy intercourse between
the capital of the Sardinian monarchy, and its
transalpine possession of Savoy. The treaty of the
24th of March last, by making over those heredi-
tary domains of the reigning house to France, ren-
dered the Mont Cenis tunnel a work of only secon-
dary usefulness. As, however, the Italians now
trust that by opening railway lines from Susa to
Ancona, Brindisi, and Taranto they can open the
shortest route for the Overland Mail through their
country, it is evident that they would be labouring
in vain till they have also facilitated by all physical
means the intercourse between their country and
the great capitals, Paris and London. The tunnel
across Mont Cenis possesses therefore as much a
European as an Italian importance.
The tunnel to be opened through Mont Cenis
from Bardonneche in the Upper Val Susa, or Val di
Dora, above Oulx, and 11odane, on the Ave, in
Savoy, on the old carriage road, is to be 12,600 me-
tres (about 74 English miles) in length. The Sar-
dinian Parliament voted a yearly outlay of
8,000,000 f. out of the budgets of 1857-8-9 ; the
actual expenditure, however, does not exceed one
half of the money assigned for the purpose.
The fears entertained by those who showed dis-
inclination to favour the enterprise were grounded
lon the fact that a hole dug in the earth beyond a
depth of 2,000 metres becomes impracticable on
account of the foul air and high temperature. The
labourers engaged in the present tunnel would, if
only ordinary means were employed, be suffocated
long before they had achieved one third of their
labours, as it was equally impossible to supply fresh
air from vertical shafts or windows, as is done in.
other tunnels, as the shafts would have to be made
several thousand metres deep, and the same diffi-
culty of the mephitic air would have to be encoun-
tered. There are people who still think that the
phenomenon observed in vertical holes would not
liokizontal tunnel, as the whole
work would in the present instance be accom-
plished on a level with the earth's surface; but the
engineers at the head of this achievement flatter
themselves they have found the means of doing
away with the obstacle of the mephitic air alto-
gether.

These gentlemen, Messrs. Grattoni and Sommoil-
ler, have invented boring machines which are set
to work by air compressed by hydraulic power,
whereby they not only have found the means of
hastening the process of excavation, but also of
supplying the labourers with an exhaustible cur-
rent of fresh wholesome air.

The experiment with these machines only began
at Bardonneche, on the eastern side of the tunnel,
on the 14th of this present month. One of the
boring machines, worked by suppressed air supplied
by five hydraulic compressors, established outside
the tunnel, has shown the result of 40 centimetres
(about one foot and a third English), limited to the
boring of the holes for the mines, in five minutes.
From that time to the present day the excavation
upon this new plan has been proceeding favour-
ably, both as to the effect of the hydraulic com-
pressors and of the boring machines.
There has been a delay in the commencement of
the work, for the engineers had intended to begin
their operations towards the end of October last,
and a day had even been appointed for Count
Cavour and the Minister for Public Works to view
the novel experiment at the outset. The delay
was occasioned by the giving way of two of the
compressed air pipes during a preliminary trial,
and the breaking of a piece connected with one of
the water pipes and the valve of one of the air
compressors.

The mishap of the air pipes arose from some flaw
in the casting, and as, as yet, only a four atmo-
sphere pressure had been applied, it was instantly
remedied; but the accident resulting from the
breaking of the valve of the compressor was of a
more serious nature, and depended on some defect
in the system of the valves. The whole of the
month of November and December was spent in
providing a remedy for this defect.

Up to the 14th of January, as I said, the work
was carried on with the usual means of excavation.
At the above period the tunnel on this side by
these means had been opened to the length of 721
metres; of these 528 metres were completely
finished, the remaining 193 metres were only
partially bored through.

At the west, or French end, at Modane the work
is less advanced, as a deal of time was taken dp with
the building of huts, workshops, &c., necessary for
the application of the air compressors ; the excava-
tion on that side has only been effected by the
ordinary means. At the close of December last the
tunnel opened at Modane by these usual means wag
511 metres 50 centimetres, and there were besides
23 metres 50 centimetres not yet thoroughly
finished.

You are aware, I have no doubt, that, besides the
difficulty of the mephitic air which the engineers
trust they have successfully obviated, fears are en-
tertained that the works of excavation may be in-
terfered with and even utterly prostrated by the
breaking in of the water from the almost unfa-
thomable little lakes which are to be met with on
the summit of this mountain, as on almost all the
other Alpine passes and summits. But the engineers
work on with good strong faith, prepared to meet
evil whenever and from wheresoever it may arise.

The usual yearly statistics of the passenger traffic
between France and this country have just been published
by the French Custom-house. It appears that the number
of passengers arriving at or leaving the French ports, tak-
ing arrivals and departures together, Were as follows in the
S
year 1860:—Boulogne, 102,829 passengers; Calais, 74,875;
other
total, 233,537 passengers. In the year
185lais 6
9 p
the
;n1,813:m151;b5,rs had33;been, at Boulogne, 86,579 passengers;
e
Calais,
other ports, 51,506 ; total, 205,456 passen-
gers. There is thus an increase at Boulogne of 16,250 pas •
gers, or 181 per cent. ; at Calais, of 7,564 passengers, or 11
per cent. ; at the other ports, of 4,267 passengers, or 8 per
cent. ; giving a total increase of 28,081 passengers, or 13
per cent. The total number of passengers between British
and Belgian ports amounted to 27,722 in 1860.