i n d r i g auk Ibigani. — The news from Austria is important. The Emperor

had, as we reported last week, determined on the dissolu- tion oif the Hungarian Diet, and had despatched Count Haller to Pestli to dissolve it. But it was not then known that the decree was accompanied by a formal threat of force, in case the Diet should refuse to obey peaceably. This was as injudicious as all the tenor of the Hungarian policy of Austria. It gave the deputies a triumphant ground for the protest of illegality, with which they dispersed. The terms of the rescript were as follows, but Count Haller was expressly commissioned to add the needless threat to which we have referred: "Francis Joseph I., by the grace of God Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Bohemia, &c. "To the faithful Magnates and Representatives of Hungary and its annexed States- who, on the 2nd of April, 1861, were by-us mu- yoked in Diet, health and greeting.

"Dear and loyal subjects,—Forasmuch as the Hungarian Diet, now for the last five months assembled, has not corresponded to the invitations addressed to it, and the expectations expressed, and as we, to our heartfelt regret, cannot await, from such a Diet, useful activity in the interests of our Kingdom of Hungary,—from is Diet which, in these extraordinary times, and to its own greatest injury, has so greatly mistaken its high vocation; forasmuch as the said Diet has itself declared broken asunder the threads which might. have led to a settlement of affairs,—and that merely because demands have not been complied with the extent and import of which rendered them wholly inadmissible ; we, therefore, feel ourselves compelled to dis- solve the Diet called together on the 2nd of April, and hereby do accordingly dissolve it, and reserve to ourselves to call together a new Diet, according to circumstances, in the course of six months.

"Whereupon we remain, with our Imperial and Royal Grace, &c.

" FRA.NCIS JOSEPH. "Done in our Imperial capital of Vienna, in Austria, August 21,

1861."

The mode in which the Hungarians dealt with the rescript was wise, temperate, and sagacious. M. Deak, who is the object of a feeling approaching to idolatry among the Hungarian youth, pre- pared a protest, in which, after reciting the details of the dispute with the Emperor, he goes on to give reasons why the present de- struction of the Diet is a new infraction of the fundamental laws of the Kingdom of Hungary. It will be observed that the Emperor mentions in his rescript a provisional intention of summoning a new Diet within six months of the dissolution of the present assembly : whereas the Hungarian laws of 1848 (which even the Emperor pro- fesses to respect, except so far as they contravene the new imperial constitution) require that a new Diet should be summoned within hree months.

"According to the 4th article of the laws of 1848, the Diet can- not be dissolved until the accounts of the expired year and the budget for the coming one have been laid before it and been resolved upon by it. But this law is not and cannot be fulfilled until the respon- sible Ministry is re-established and the Diet integrated; for, until that be done, no legal Government exists to lay the budget before the Diet, which itself is incapacitated from passing a budget by the refusal of that integration strictly required by the law. The article of law referred to also orders that the new Diet should meet within three months after the dissolution of the old one. If, therefore, the Diet, after the dissolution, is not called together again within the legally prescribed time, the prescription of the law will hereby be again violated."

For all these reasons, therefore, the Diet regard this dissolution as illegal, and though of course bowing to the threat of force, "de- clare that we firmly adhere to all our legitimately existing laws, and therefore to the laws sanctioned in the year '48, and which have not been altered by the Diet ; that we will regard as a breach of the constitution every act of the authorities that is in contradiction to them."

The deputies voted this protest immediately with enthusiastic unanimity, and voted also a resolution that though the sudden and compulsory dissolution of the Diet prevented them from passing the bills which had been introduced to do justice to the various in- dependent natimialities which form constituent elements in the Hun- garian monarchy, it was their first and most earnest wish to pass these measures into law. This resolution will have a considerable effect in conciliating the outstanding grievances of Transylvania, Croa- tia, &e.

But the result of the policy adopted towards Hungary is ssarcely more important in its bearing on Hungary itself than on the central power at Vienna. The Emperor had no sooner dissolved the Hun- garian Diet, than he communicated this step to his Reichsrath by a message read by M. von Schmerling. The document is long, but so important and characteristic, and is likely to have so considerable an effect on this young constitutional body, that we must give a large part of it in extenso :

"it is with profound grief that his Majesty has perceived that the public affairs of his kingdom of Hungary, since the re-establishment of its ancient institutions, have fallen into a state which the country cannot tolerate much longer, and which it cannot get out of by its own efforts (dumb eigene kraft). Commerce and industry are in a complete state of stagnation; internal and international commercial

* relations are a prey to a lamentable mistrust. Confidence in the ad- ministration of justice is shaken ; the administration of the com- munes, comitats, and of the country, offers in many districts, in con- sequence of an unexampled abuse of autonomy (durch unerhorten missbrach der autonomie), the deplorable spectacle of a sad anarchy ; the so-called legal protestations against the decrees of the Royal Go- vernment enervate the moral strength of the people. "His Majesty did not expect such results when, on the 20th October, 1860, resolving that all his peoples should participate in the legislation of the country, he in his benevolence held out equally a hand of pardon to the kingdom of Hungary, which, in a disastrous insurrection, had been misled to the crime of the 14th April, 1849, and brought back to it duty by force of arms. "Counting upon the wor& of patriots of every class, of the Princes of the Church, and of other interceders, who, assured that the (einsicht) insight into the necessary consequences of the events men- tioned, as regards the unity of the monarchy and the form of con stitutional reorganization, had become clear to every intelligence, his Majesty proposed, as regards Hungary, to revive the ancient institu- tions of Hungary, as organic elements of a political creation more vast, and capable of satisfying the wants of an epoch which has made I the imperious demands of the actual political state of Europe.

"With that proud conscience (Selbsigefiihk) which a benevolent monarch possesses when lie is aware that. he has honourably fulfilled his duties as a regent, his Majesty declares that he has done for Hungary, everything that could reasonably be expected what was allowable in justice towards the other kingdoms and countries— everything which the political development of the empire requires.

" His Majesty has restored the constitution of Hungary, its rights and municipal institutions. His Majesty has done so under the re- serve of one single condition.. "The object of this reserved condition is not to increase the un- limited power ; but, the action of the representation having con- siderably increased, especially as regards taxes and other financial questions, it requires that the constitutional right of voting in matters common to all nationalities shall no longer be exercised se- parately by provinces, but in common. "The national autonomy and development of Hungary are not in any manner whatsoever infringed upon by this reservation, for the constitutional deliberations in common only bear upon questions re- lating to military duties, political economy, and the finances of the empire, while all other gu.estions come under the authority of the Hungarian Diet.

"This reservation does not restrict any of the liberal dispositions of the legislation of 1848, which are the most important part of it— that is to say, the suppression of coredes and service of the peasantry, the abolition of the pnvileges of the nobles, the obligation of military duty and taxes for all, as also the right for all classes, without dis- tinctiou of origin, to enter the public service and hold landed pro- perty. On the contrary, those regulations have been recognized and expressly confirmed at the same time by his Majesty. "Moreover, this reservation does not endanger anything connected with constitutional liberty ; especially, it does not threaten the right of those classes participating in the elections for the Diet who were formerly excluded, and which right was, in fact, exercised at the pre- sent Diet ; it simply „requires the revision and suppression by the Diet of those articles which are in contradiction to the new funda- mental laws.

"It is clear that a reservation of this nature does not rest upon an arbitrary decision, but that it is founded on right, and derives its origin from the very nature of things. It is founded on right, for his Majesty has spontaneously resolved to re-establish the Hungarian constitution. The Hungarian constitution was not only broken by the revolutionary power, consequently legally cancelled, but, de facto, suppressed. His Majesty, therefore, to prevent the recurrence of similar events to those which arose from the laws of 184S, was in duty bound, in fulfilment of his high duties as a monarch, to issue enactments to such effect—enactments required. by the prosperity, greatness, power, and honour of the empire, its present safety, and future welfare."

The Emperor then goes on to recite the struggle of the last three months between himself and the Hungarian Diet. He speaks with burning indignation and something like true regal horror of the pre- liminary refusal of the Diet to address him by his proper title (which it will be remembered was refused on the ground that the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand had never been formally communicated to the Hungarian Parliament, nor their consent, obtained to the succession of Francis Joseph), and seems to have been little mollified by the sub- sequent modification of that resolution. He says he could not have acceded to the requests of their address in justice to the other nationalities over which he rules, because they infringe upon the rights "of the monarchy in its ensemble."

He proceeds to say that the "personal-union" theory of Dcak is a fiction both de facto and de jure, and one which lie can never recog- nize. He hopes, however, that opinion may calm down in Hungary, and permit him to summon a new and more submissive Diet before any long period has elapsed. He explains, in conclusion, the views with which lie communicates this unfortunate transaction to the Reichsrath: "In ordering the present communication to be made to the illus- trious Reichsrath, his Majesty desires again to express to it his firm resolution to shield, consolidate, and accomplish the unity of the empire as well as the legal autonomy of all thelinds and kingdoms within the limits of constitutional liberty. "His Majesty deigns finally to declare that, strengthened by the knowledge of the purity of his intentions, convinced that it is one of the noblest prerogatives of power to exercise necessary severity with a gentle hand, at the same time it is the duly of a monarch to show decided firmness, and fully resolved in this important question to show as much firmness as clemency, lie looks forward with certainty and trust in God to a happy solution of these difficulties."