New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1850-12-12

and treasure IN wars foreign 20 her interests
in schemes of personal ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
whose success would only have enabled
them more completely and openly to tram
pie on her liberties. They filled Hunga-
rian Offices with their own creatures, col
lected imposts. &c. prosecuted her Protest
ant population, in plain defiance of the con-
ditions which made them her monarchs.
By nattery by bribery, by promises, by
terror, they finally succeeded in extorting
after centuries of effort, O consent from the
Diet that their Kingship should henceforth
be hereditary, but under the most stringent
conditions as to the supremacy of the Diet,
Hungarian Ministry, coronation in Hun
gary, &C. sc. The concession was clutch
ed, the conditions disregarded. There has
has been no single reign these two centu-
ries in which the usurpations of the Aus
trian Kings in Hungary did not afford
stronger ground Of resistance than our
fathers had for the Revolution of '76.
Take the case of kossuth as an example
of Austrian rule in Hungary. He attend
ed the debates of the Diet, and made min
utes of its proceedings which, being copied
in manuscript, were dispatched to those
anxious to receive them. This was of
course offensive to despotisnl, which did mot
wish to have unmasked the creatures whom
it was impelled to buy, in order to proceed
easily and smoothly in its career of usurpa-
ton and tyranny. There was no pretense
that these reports were unfair or unlawful
the objection was to having any reports
at all. So without word kossuth was
seized and hurried of under cover Of dark
ness to some prison (neither himself nor
any friend being permitted to know where
and there immured for years. There was
no accusation, no arraignment, no trial.
He was simply singled out as troublesome
to Tyranny, and dealt with accordingly
Ought Freemen to stand on ceremony with
such Government as that!
But at length came l848. with its glo-
rious impulses. its magnificent hopes
France regenerated and free-Germany eX-
actly where France was in 1899, except the
total want of unity-Italy coming forth
from her grave-like Lagoons- Austria
asserting the inalienable Rights of Man,
the willy Metternich a fugitive, the Empire
a chaos, the Imperial family hiding their
heads in a secluded fortress, and barricades
rising for Freedom in the streets of Vienna
-noy there was hope for Hungary; but
Hungary had not waited for this. AS early
as February in that memorable year--be-
fore whisper Of the great fermentation in
Western Europe had reached the banks of
the Danube-the Diet, under the lead of
the now liberated Kossuth and other patri-
OTIS, had entered in earnest upon the work
of comprehensive and thorough Reform.
The emancipation of the more depressed
classes, the distribution of lands to their
cultivators, and a number more of the most
important and salutary changes in the fun
damental laws of the Country, give the lie
to the minions Of Despotsm who would have
it believed that the Austrian were
resisted and thwarted in their plans of Re-
form and Progress by the selfshness or ig-
norance of the Hungarian Diet
But let US deal once for all with this
pretense, sustained by citations from books,
of Magyar fanaticism for the maintenance
of their ancient Constitution. 1t is I'M
doubtedly true that the Hungarian Diet
has for ages resisted changes in encroach-
ments upon that Constitution by their Aus
TRAN monurcAs. And for this they had
abundant reason. Defective and antigua
ted as that Constitution might be, it was
the only security they had for any rights
at all. To cling to it was an instinct; to
that they owe the fact that there remains
any Hungary at all
The defamers of the Hungarian Pat
riots have little to say of the Reforms de-
creed by the Diet Of l848-so just, so wise,
so comprehensive. These Reforms refute
all that they assert of Magyar fanaticism
and Magyar oppression of the subject races.
They received at last the requisite sanction
of the Austrian Court-which had then all
it could do to maintain its existence against
the fioodtide of Democracy at home-but
the assent was never given in good faith
The then Emperor was simpleton and cy-
pher but the Court was the same as ever.
An old device, which had served in Gallicla'
was resolved on for Hungary. The recent