We have from time to time pointed to the state
of uneasiness which exists in Hungary ; it has evidently attracted increased attention in Vienna ; the Imperial Government has taken steps to prevent the mustering of the Hungarians at political meetings, but without result, or rather with results which show that the Hungarians are de facto exercising considerable independence. The immediate grievance for which the people of the kingdom are moving is the incomplete restoration of Protestant immuni- ties abrogated after 1848 under the Ultramontane policy of which Count Leo Thun was the instrument. Quite recently the
Government issued edicts apparently restoring the right of Pro- testants to manage their own schools. But the right was clogged with conditions and restraints unknown to the constitution of Hungary, and while the 'Pretence of restoration was a concession which proclaimed that the Government dared not maintain its position, the incompleteness of the justice only exasperated the Hungarians. The clergy have made it a matter of principle to call for the support of the laity ; the nobles are evidently ao- tuated not only by a conscientious feeling as Lutherans, but by a sense that they have been slighted, and that the Government of the Emperor has invaded the rights due to the subject of the King. Notwithstanding the prohibition of the Imperial Govern- ment, meetings have been held, and have been freely and nu- merously attended by nobles. In one case, an Imperial officer sent to prohibit the holding of the meeting was not received be- cause he was not in official costume ; in another, a subordinate messenger was admitted after business had been done. There is reason to suppose that other movements have taken place, but that the Government at Vienna is doing its best to conceal what is happening in Hungary in order that it may preserve a better front towards Italy, a better appearance in Paris.
