The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-18 00:00:00

eYieninit

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1850

Unable to extenuate their own horrible atrocities,
the Austrians have recently endeavoured to diminish
the sense of their infamy by exciting feelings of exe-
cration against the fallen Hungarians. To this end
the Cabinet of Vienna has compiled a document cf a
most portentous character, enumerating the rretendei
crimes of their antagonists. During the last fortnight
this catalogue of imputations has been freely circu-
lated both in the continental organs of Ab-
solutism and in those journals which even,
au orgst ourselves, are mendacious enough to
uphold the rrinciples of despotic government
Considering that up to this late period not
a single word bed been whispered charging the Mag-
yar leaders with any such wanton executions, we
cannot but thick it remarkable that acts of such
thgrant ferocity should have been shrouded in secrecy on
occasions when their announcement would have mate-
rially affected the fame and influence of the Viennese
Councils. Here are no less than four hundred and
sixty-nine victims said to have been destroyed in cold
blood by order of the Hungarian Dictator and his
Ministerial colleagues. The list is punctiliously fur-
nished with the surnames and Christian names
of the respective victims. The place of their death,
by the bullet, the sword, or the rope is scrupulously
particularised. The dates are given, and the whole
catalogue is entitled in conspicuous capitals "The
Magyar Bloody Assizes." Yet with this formidable
evidence of the terrorism exercised over the Hunga-
rians by their revolutionary Government, not a syl-
lable had been uttered up to this time taxing that
provisional Ministry either with systematic or inci-
dental severity. It was not so with Judge JEF-
FRIES when be sentenced men and women in-
discriminately to death by the hands of the
hangman. It was not so when the soldier CLAVER-
HOUSE was leading his troopers through the villages
and unfrequented districts of Scotland. It was not
so when CARRIER was desolating the departments of
France with his " republican marriages," while
TALLIEN was wooing the beautiful THERESA, and
ROBESPIERRE was counting upon his nuptials with
the carpenter's daughter. The execrable massacres
with which the chieftains of Hungary are now
charged were, if done at all, not done in a
corner. They were perpetrated either in the
lying imaginations of their assailants, or in
the broad face of day, before earth and before heaven.
Yet until now they have never once been mentioned.
The circumstance is suspicious. Infinitely more sus-
picious, however, is the fact that the list has been
drawn up—how ?By offering bribes for accusations,
by holding out rewards to the impoverished and tine
conscientious !

A careful analysis of ti.e catalogue reveali its
enormous insincerity. A ccsual scrutiny discloses
such anomalous peculiarities as the repetition of
the same charges of bloAl-hed at different times
and in diterent Icca!itif s. Thus, in one
quarter we find a certain shepherd of Bebe
mentioned as having been shot in December, 1848,
and in another flirt in F.-I ruary, 1849, at Szegedin.
Thus, moreover, we End General BEM accused of
shooting a peasant at Ittel:e at a peziod when that
commander was secluded arrong tf'e st-questered val-
lies of Gallicia. As for the assertion that such and
such individuals were quietly sentenced to transporta-
tion, when it is sufficiently notorious that Hungary is
without any pens! settlement, flat we opine is suffi-
ciently,,absurd to re.:lude us Irina the necessity
of its rJutation. hcwevcr, it is learnt
i—which is Actually the case—theis ot4 of the 469