The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-11 00:00:00

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The Hungarians do not, however, believe that
ev-en- --137tiie laws of 1847, which would throw
the elections more into the hands of tho.p,bies, the
Diet could be Austrianized. It is a' significant
fact that the Archbishop's speech. was ordered to
be entered on the archives, and to be printed and
circulated throughout the country; and that a vote
of thanks was accorded to M. SMOLK4 the Polish
representative, who made such an effective speech
fo
rthe
Hungarians in the Reichsrath. That speech
was also ordered to be printed for general circula-
tion. With the addresses of the Diet, and the
Arehbishop and M. SMOLKA'S speeches circu-
lating through all the country, enough has been
done to fix in the Hungarian mind the national
principles they naturally cherish so warmly; and
we cannot doubt that Austria, though backed by our
own Germanized Court, will fight in vain against a
whole nation conscious of a noble and a holy cause.
It serves to show how completely the EMPEROR
is resolved to set aside all law by his arbitrary
will, that he has actually to a large extent sub-
stituted perfectly illegal Imperial Commissioners
for the lawful authorities of the country, investing
them with the most absolute powers, and yet put-
ting the most hypocritical cant into their mouths
respecting old constitutional institutions. Let our
readers ponder carefully the following outline of
the work assigned to these agents of pure despotism
—it is contained in a letter from Pesth not spe-
cially hostile to Austria, and needs no comment :

"Each commissioner is furnished with authority to
exact obedience under pain of legal punishment.
This order will be addressed to the jurisdictions,
where these have not been suppressed ; elsewhere
to the principal functionaries, who, on their
responsibility, will be held bound to make
known the contents of the requisition to the
employ-es. The commissioners are enjoined
to act energetically and without regard to per-
sonal considerations, but in such a way as
to give no offence to the sentiment of equity in the
public mind, and to gain over reasonable men who
desire the re-establishment of legal order. They
are to avoid all superfluous rigour. On the other
hand, the commissioners are strictly bound to main-.
tain the respect due to their king and the full
authority of his majesty. When it becomes the
duty of the commissioner to institute criminal pro-
ceedings in any case, he is to cite before him
the persons accused and the witnesses. He dis-
charges disobedient functionaries, includes them
in the indictment, and if necessary replaces them
by other appointments. In case of need he may
assume the administrative direction of the Comitat.
If the persons accused or the witnesses refuse to
appear he may employ forcer but only in case of
necessity. The eighth article of these instructions
justifies the measures laid down in those that pre-
cede. In it we read The commissioner of the
King will declare on each occasion that his Apos-
tolic MAJESTY has no intention of abolishing the
constitutional institution or of aiming a blow at
the autonomy of Hungary in the administration
and the government.' "

That the juries and coroners have done their duty
impartially, patiently, and carefully, no one will
deny. Nor, on the evidence furnished, can it be
doubted that acting, be it observed, only as a grand
jury, they were right in sending to trial in a
superior court the persons whom they found guilty
of manslaughter. There was legal presumptive
evidence against LEGG, the station-master at
Brighton, that he had contributed materially to the
fatal accident by starting the trains within such a
very short time of each other. The vacillating
evidence of the lad RAYNER, in the Hampstead
case, compared with the uniform and consistent
evidence of other witnesses, furnished also a
reasonable presumption that he had failed
in his duty in regard to the danger signal.
The company is much blamed for employing so
young a person at the post; but the public, vvEo
have not personal knowledge of him, must suspend
their judgment on that point, many a lad at nine-
teen being more intelligent and trustworthy than
many men of double age.
With the finding of the Coroners' juries justice
pauses a little in its demands, and takes time to
consider. At the two trials more will come out in
the defence of the witnesses, showing how far the
regulations of -the companies may or may not be
faulty. Counsel for the accused will even go further.
and inquire whether, if the rules were violated, the
violation was not known, and endorsed by habitual
sufferance on the part of the superior authorities
The actual blame attributable to the servants of the
company, perhaps the legal culpability too, will be
decided not only by the rules and the departure
from them, but by the extent to which departure
had been so far sanctioned., as to seem to place much
discretion in the hands of the servants. Servants
cannot of course be allowed to act at their discre-
tion at one time, and rebuked for so doing at
another. To no outsiders considerations of safety
would certainly appear to forbid any discretion
to the minimum interval of time between successive
trains. If five minutes be the least time sufficient,
nothing should interfere with retaining that time
on every occasion.

Pending the final trials, it is as well to refrain
from any minute examination of evidence which
must all be gone over again and sifted with every
advantage. But, meantime, will it not be well for
the railway managers to consider the whole ques-
tion of excursion trains. On the present scales of
railway charges they are a social necessity. The
poor ought to have them. That is, they ought to
have the advantage of being carried about the
country as cheaply as they can be carried, and that
is very cheap indeed. We remember in earlier
railwaye days the decided opinion of Mr. BAXEN-
DALE that passengers ought to be carried as
cheaply as any goods according to the speed
and cost of the vehicles they used. Third-
class passengers, he used to obServe, make less
demand on us than any other articles we carry,
because they load and unload themselves. Luggage
not retained in their own care must be dealt with
accordingly; but the passenger who with his bag
only takes a ticket, walks into the carriage and
walks out again, is certainly the smallest conceiv•

Able trouble to the company, and entails the least
possible expense upon them. It was Mr. BfkICEN
DALE also who strenuously objected to making
,every effort to drive all respectably7dressed persons
into the higher-priced, carriages. He truly enough
observed thtit in theSre days it was utterly impo
sible to tell a =eh's 'means from' his coat. And
who of us has not knowledge, of many persons,
perhaps painful knowledge o' their circumstances,
which corroborates the truth of Mr. BAXENDALL'S
obseivdtion ? .

The question suggested by the repeated -accidents
'to excursion trains is— are excursion trains neces
sail'? S4ting'a'side the exprq'ss trains, might-not
every train
,be an excursion train.? ' Are not the
numbers of the working classes who would like to
• travel ten tirneawhere they now travel sauce, and of
thiise, Just ' above them;eq'tially poor in regard to
what t)iey can spare fur travelling----are nit their
1. numbers so-great, tha, t cheap carriages to any erdi-
nary trainmjiht.profit4blz supplant the, excursion
train. If ilk. BAXENDALE be right, and:we do
not remember, his evidence wits , ever dis 7

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