1361 kuigsrq.—From Hungary there is no important news subsequent to
the dissolution of the Reichsrath, except that the int. perial Government is now launching into the despotic policy with a will. It has suspended the meetings of the committee of the Comitat of Pestle for its protest against the dissolution of the Diet, and it has prosecuted three of the principal members who signed the protest, amongst them Count Carolvi, for treason. The popular feeling in Croatia is also setting strongly against Austria. The Vice-Ban Jellachich has said in the Croatian Diet that he would prefer the rule of a barbarous power like Turkey to the civilized despotism of Austria. For this speech he is banished to Bohemia. He is the brother of the famous Ban who led the Croatian army against the Hungarians in 1849, and who then saved the empire, an act which he lived to repent. Austria's treatment of Croatia was so ungrate- ful, that Jellachich is said to have died a sworn foe to Austria, and to have bequeathed his hatred to his brother. At all events, the Croats now are the friends instead of the foes of the Hungarians, and a resolution has been brought forward in the Croatian Diet deploring the dissolution of the Hungarian Diet.
In the Austrian Reichsrath there have beenwarm debates on the Hun- garian policy, of which we hid only short telegraphic summaries last week. In the Upper House of the Reichsrath, M. Palacky and Count Leo Thun alone, and on different grounds, spoke against the address to the Emperor. Both were silenced by the President, after a short struggle, for alluding to the privileges and duties of the Lower House. In the Lower House the debates have been much warmer and better sustained. Dr. Smolka, the leader of the Poles, resisted the address with much ability. He denied the assertion of the address from the throne as to the anarchy in Hungary ; he quoted a law passed in 1827, sanctioned by the Emperor Francis, and sworn to by Ferdinand in the name of himself and his heirs, to prove that taxes were to be im- posed, and troops raised only by the act of the Hungarian Diet, and that this right was not to be infringed upon under any pretext what- ever, or even under the pressure of the most extraordinary circum- stances. He then went on to consider the allegations of the Govern- ment, that the Hungarian revolution had cancelled all the constitu- tional rights of Hungary. "The Emperor says that, the Hungarians having broken the law by the introduction of a republic in 1849, he is at liberty to look upon his obligations as cancelled, and to establish a new state of things according to his bon plaisir. But in 1849 the views of the Government were far different. In the proclamation then issued, the authorities assigned the guilt of what had taken place to a minority of the Hungarian people, insisting upon the pre- vailing loyalty of the masses. Now, he would ask, if the guilt rested with the minority, why were tire majority to be deprived of their rights simultaneously with the real criminals ? But even this did not exhaust the case. Assuming even the whole Magyar race to have been implicated in the revolution, what right had the Government to abolish the constitutional privileges of the other nationalities in Hungary ? What right had they to su,bject to the same treatment the Slovaks, the Servians, the Croats, and the Wallachians, who had all sided with the Government at that time, and yet were utterly deprived of their former liberties. (Loud cheers from the galleries.) The arguments of the Government, then, prove nothing at all, and are, in fact, unin- telligible. Instead of adducing reasons for their conduct, the Go- vernment might have simply said that, such being their will and plea- sure, the condition of Austria had to be remodelled afresh ; and then, of course, the thing would be clear enough, although in that case there would have been no reason for talking of love, loyalty, confidence, and so on. However, were time necessity for a change in the views of the Government apparent, a far different plan ought to have been followed than the one adopted. They should have recog- nized the legality of the old constitutions, and, treating the repre- sentatives of the people as their equals, propose the alterations they thought necessary. The change in that case might perhaps have been effected, and if not so sweeping as the present, it would, at all events, have been more durable."
The speaker concluded thus :
"I speak in the interest of the Crown as well as in that of the peoples, it being, of course, not a matter of indifference to the Ana- trians what is to be the future of Austria. I also speak from a feel- ing of sympathy with the Magyars, who are a race cognate to my own, and have been always held in high esteem by the Poles. I am aware that you, the German majority of the south, are going to vote the address in spite of all I may utter against the propriety of such a course. But what is the value of your vote? Look at these empty benches around us—empty because the representatives of more than one half of the empire decline to take part in the proceedings of the common Parliament. You may pass a vote of confidence in the Go- vernment, but the want of confidence expressed by these empty benches speak louder than anything you can say." (Cheers from the ' Opposition.) Such was the Polish protest on behalf of the Hungarians. Dr. Rieger spoke, with somewhat less warm sympathy for Hungary, on behalf of the Czechs (Bohemians) "The case of the Poles," he said, "and the Czechians is not unlike that of the Magyars. Although appearing in this House, the repre- sentatives of the first two nationalities, as you are fully aware, did not come save under certain conditions. If this assembly, represent.. ing but one-half of the empire, is to be made to act for the whole, the conditions alluded to would cease to exist. Do not believe yourself to be able to conquer the difficulties of your situation by arguments. The credit of Austria is exhausted, and the confidence of the people shaken. Unless you, the Germans, are assisted by the voluntary co-operation of the other nationalities, you will never succeed in ex- tricating yourself from the dangers of the present. I am against the
address, and leave it for his Majesty to discover the best course to be followed."
Other speeches were made both for and against Hungary, Count Clam-Martinitz (a high Tory, who favours provincialism in the interests of feudalism) delivering one on behalf of the Diet. Baron Schmerling made a great effort to unite the German party in his reel The The attacks directed against the Ministry bear on two principal points. The conduct of the Ministry in transmitting this communi- cation to the Chamber has been condemned as unconstitutional, and the Ministry has been further reproached with having made this communication solely with a view to obtaining a vote of confidence. In the name of the Ministry I formally protest against this double accusation. The course it has taken in making this communication to the Reichsrath is nowise unconstitutional. In calling upon the Hungarian Diet to acknowledge the constitution, the Ministry was in the right. We Ministers, who were in the exercise of our func- tions on the 20th of October, and for whom the 20th of October was an accomplished fact, were indisputably in a position to acknowledge that, on the 20th of October, the men whom his Majesty had charged to draw up that important document (the diploma) ought to have formed an opinion of the attitude which his Majesty had to take with regard to the Diet and the Hungarian constitution. Allow me now to discuss the motives which decided the Hungarian Diet against the constitution of the 26th of February. It is now especially objected against this constitution that it created a representation, an authority dithering from those of the October diploma. I grant the first point, but I absolutely deny the second. The diploma of October contains no provision as to the number of deputies, fixes for the moment the number of members of the Reichsrath at one hundred ; there is nothing definitive, therefore, on that point. If I now consider that perhaps twenty-five deputies elected by the HungarianDiet had taken theirplaces in the Reichsrath, and if that Reichsrath had comprised one hundred members, according to the original arrangement, I think the propor- tion would have been nearly the same as at present if eighty-five Hungarians take their places among 343 deputies. If, gentlemen, you examine with impartiality the situation in which Hungary was when, after the catastrophes of Temeswar, Komom, and Vilagos, it fell into the power of Austria, and in what a situation she was, as well as a great part of her functionaries, who had devoted fileir activity to the administration of the country, when the 20th October arrived, I think that the balance-sheet will not be to the prejudice of the Austrian Government. (6 Hear, hear,' on the Left.) What is re- quired, gentlemen, to make a nation happy ? Two things, I grant : first, forms which respond to its liberty ; and next, that which satisfies its material wants. I admit that a country such as Hungary, which has for centuries, and still longer, enjoyed a political constitutional existence, must strongly regret the absence of it; but we must nevertheless agree that if the Austrian Government has, on the one hand, suppressed liberty in Hungary, it has, on the other, done much for the welfare of the country. Yes, gentlemen, I loudly repeat it Liss done much. As to the situation in which the administration of justice was when the Austrian Government retook the country, you will excuse my not entering into more ample details. As regards instruction, the path of progress has also been entered on. The torch of science has been carried by this abominable Aus- trian Government, as it has been called, into countries where Chris- tianity was previously scarcely known. If the Minister, Count Thum had created nothing more than the schools of the Puestas, he would have merited the gratitude of every Hungarian patriot. (Loud ap- probation on the left.) He was astonished to find Count Clam Mar- tinitz among the partisans of provincial independence, seeint, that, but a few years ago, the noble Count had held office under the Minister Bach, and even made it his duty to rule absolutely and Germanize as much as lie possibly could. (Loud applause.) Gentle- men, the deputy Smolka says, that in order to come to an understand- ing with Hungary we must concede without reserve to that country the position in which it stood in 1848, must complete the Hugarian Diet, and wait to see what portion of its constitutional prerogatives that Diet will voluntarily sacrifice to the central constitution. I, however, confess, gentlemen, that I should hesitate greatly to employ that plan. (A laugh.) I say that the man who is in possession of his house is happy, and that no one has ever been advised to give up possession so long as he could maintain it. (Applause.) I affirm that a general would be blamed by all soldiers if he were to abandon an excellent position with the prospect of being obliged to retake it the next day at .perhaps the cost of ten thousand dead ; lie would do better to remain in the position, and to incur the risk of being attacked and expelled. (Applause.) Such is the point of view which the Austrian Government adopts, and must adopt ; and the Government will not abandon it voluntarily to obtain perhaps part of its prerogatives as a concession and a gift of the Hungarian Diet. (Applause in the centre and on the left.) The second plan recommended to us is to abandon spontaneously our constitution and establish a new one. (Laughter.) Gentlemen, it has often been proved in this chamber that what has brought Austria to the brink of ruin, as is said, was the frequent making of political experiments. And yet a new experiment is recommended ! I regret, both in my own name and that of my colleagues, not to be able to declare that we are disposed to make one, especially as no guarantee can be given that it would cause us to attain the object at which we aim. From all that precedes, gentlemen, I think it right to declare explicitly that the Government intends to maintain the constitution ; that if a portion of the inhabitants of Austria has not yet accepted it, the designs of the Government will not be in any respect changed on that account; and that it will appeal from a nation ill-informed to one which will be more enlightened ; waiting with calm for the moment at which the conviction that there is a place in the Austrian Parliament for all the nations and all the tribes of the empire shall have penetrated every Austrian heart. Such is, gentlemen, the pro. fession of political faith which I frankly make for myself and my colleagues." (Applause.) It is said that the Emperor contemplates proroguing the Reichsrath, and that the English embassy is indefatigable in its exertions to bring about some understanding between Austria and Hungary—exertions which it might well spare.
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