The Sun. — 1860-04-26 (London, England)

THE IMPERIAL LETTERS PATENT.  A letter from Pesth, dated April2o, says :—The telegraph will of course have informed yon long before this that the official journal of Vienna has published Letters Patent of the Emperor Francis Joseph on the subject of Hungary. These Letters Patent were announced to us by telegraph as containing very extensive concessions indeed; and no doubt, seeing that the Viennese Government is very anxious to deceive Western Europe as to the state of this country, they have been presented in the same light to you. But thus far they are regarded by all the Hungarian politicians whom I have had the opportunity of consulting, as nothing better than " a delusion and a snare"—a delusion because they contain no real concessions; a snare, because they are made the pretext of exciting divisions in the patriotic party. So little is thought of them that the two Hungarian newspapers, the Pesti IVaplo (Pesth Journal), and the Magyar Sajto (Magyar Press), actually reproduce them this morning without a single word of comment. The Letters Patent intimate that the five great divisions into which Hungary has been parcelled out since 1849 are to be set aside; but they do not say that the provinces which in that year were wrested from Hungary are to be restored to her, and consequently the letters fail to do what the Hungarians have greatly at heart. The letters promise, at some future day not specified, the reestablishment of the Assemblies of the Comitats ; but Heaven knows when this promise will be realised—according to all Austrian practice, never. Even if the Comitat system should be re-established, it would be so organised as to be more Austrian than Magyar, and would consequently give offence to the people. The Letters Patent, moreover, say that when the organisation of Cousitats shall be completed, measures relative to the enacting of a Diet shall be prepared ; but what is the practical value of such a promise as this ? Evidently none. What, indeed, is an undertaking to" prepare measures relative to the meeting of a Diet ?" Who can tell how many years the preparation will last ? What assurance is there that measures will be acted on when the preparation is completed ? Besides this, is it not notorious that during the last 12 years the -Viennese Government has made dozens of promises to Hungary, and has not kept one ? This is the view taken of the Letters Patent in this city, and I doubt not that it will be the same throughout the country. If the- Austrian Government be really sincere in its desire to pacify this perturbed nation, it must not make such, trumpery promises as these, but must at once revive the ancient Constitution and give back to Hungary her ancient landmarks. Nothing less will suffice; and if it be withheld long the Hungarians will become so exasperated that they will not be satisfied even with that, but will demand with a voice of thunder a rupture of the ties.,wl2lch bind them to the empire of the Hapsburgs. The Viennese Government has frequently mad(' its newspaper organs, both at- home and abroad, deny that it has confiscated the estates of the martyrs of 1849. But the falsity of this denial WO demonstrated a few weeks since by the official ad' vertisement that the estates of the murdered Count Louis Batthyany had passed into the hands of Count Zichy, on the payment of a large sum by the latter. A new proof of the falsity is at this moment before me in the shape of a judgment of the Supreme Court of Pesth, authorising, by order of the View' nese Government, the sale of the estates of Monsignor Horvath, Catholic Bishop of Csanad, who was condemned to death for having acted as Minister of Worship in the Government of 1848-9, but whO, more fortunate than his friend and colleague, Count Louis Batthy, any, managed to escape the sanguine*: clutches of the Austrians. This venerable and revere.sa prelate is now living, I believe, at Brussels, and lam sure, poor; and yet the Austrian Government; after the lapse of twelve years, and after having had the barbarity, in spite of his sacred character • to have him hanged in effigy, now put up to auction the little real property—it was little indeed he possessed. let° All the nation is wearing mourning for the_ the steamers on the Danunv, organised are carrying their flags halfir_ in whichCountacth high hze e ;cohar egnnadyn theiis; lions on the magnificent s pension-bridge at Pesth, which he caused to be constructed, are decked with crape. The Government has at last authorized a searching investiga; tion to be made into the mysterious circumstance of his death. As this death followed very closelYo' ou that of another esteemed patriot, Bar ed° Josika, the extraordinary belief has gin ground among the common people that they 11,4% both fallen victims to Austrian vengeance. U, alleged, indeed, that they were both poisoned st dinner at Vienna, and that Josika died almost mediately after; but that Szechenyi havinFe recovered, was shot in such a way as to x 'o" appear that he had committed suicide d° n • mai less, it absurd _ of course, credit for one moment this tale ; as it is monstrous. But, nevertheless, it s a h t has created such prejudice against the A_use hetriia; Government thethatlatteras been oblig proclaim its falsify in its semi-official orgoant it . s ea at Augsburg Wu' Augsburg Gazette. By the way, must Government feel that it has fallen very low in the estimation of its subjects, when it has t° c°ll , descend to answer such an odious accusation