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rrr ^ T ^ seen , repeatedly infringed by trea-S ; and threatened with a violent aubyejwon . We return now to the events of the last revolution The decree of October 3 , 1848 , by Ferdinand I ., as Emperor of Austria , and not as King of Hunfarv- a decree which was illegally countersigned H court tool , Count Reczey , for the consideration ™ nnev of £ 1200—dissolved the Hungarian Diet , ^ nulled all its acts , made JellachichComrnander-in-Chief of all Hungary , placed the whole of Hungary under martial law , suspended all the institutions of local self-government , gave absolute , irresponsible nower to Jellacbich in every matter , ordered all ecclesiastical , civil , and military authorities to obey him , and announced that measures would be immediately tnken for annihilating Hungary for ever , by merging
into one monarchy all the countries and Peoples under the Imperial Crown . This decree , which was " the ultimate subversion of the ancient constitution of the land , " was enacted when the legal Batthyany Ministry , of which Kossuth was a member as Minister of Finance , had ceased to exist in September , 1848 . The Hungarian constitution was , therefore , not annihilated from the time when Kossuth took a prominent part in the Government , but six months after the royal nomination of the stx
Batthyany Ministry ( March 30 , 1848 ) , and again , months before the Hapsburg dynasty was dethroned by the Hungarian Diet in virtue of an old law , which provides that , "in case any King attempts to divide the country , or to incorporate it with his foreign possessions , he maybe dethroned by the Diet , and before Kossuth was legally proclaimed the Protector or Regent of the kingdom during the interregnum ( April 14 , 1849 ) . The annihilation of the ancient constitution of Hungary was , moreover ,
maintained and confirmed by the mock constitution of March 4 , 1849 , which subjected the Hungarians to Viennese bureaucracy , and which swamped their Parliament , without the pretence of law , by the mere stroke of Count Stadion ' s pen , among a host of foreigners , incapable of legislating well for them . This constitution was again abolished by an Imperial decree of August 20 , 1851 , declared as it was by-Prince Schwarzenberg himself , in his official notification to the Australian envoys and
ambassadors , to have been a mere fiction , and Hungary still groans under the naked rule of gibbets and of bayonets , now full two years since Georgey ' s treacherous surrender near Vilagos , and since Kossuth has ceased in a Turkish prison " t <> take a prominent part in the Government of Hungary . ' " ( August 13 , ' 49 . ) As to the Times calling the legally elected Diet of Hungary " an Assembly of the Creatures of Kossuth , " we shall correct tliis mere lapse of the pen by an official quotation . The beforementioned decree of the 3 rd of October , ' 48 ,
commences with the following words : — " We , Ferdinand I ., Emperor of Austria , send our salutation and grace to the barons , ecclesiastical and civil dignitaries , magnates and deputies assembled in the Diet convoked by vx in the Royal free town of Peslh " The Emperor of Austria recognizes , therefore , himself , the legal election of the deputies , and the legal capacity of the hereditary legislators of that Diet ; and it must be a matter of curiosity , by what magic a private individual , poor
and humble like Kossuth , should have succeeded in transferring the hereditary Lords , and the elected Commons , of a population of about sixteen millions of men , into his creatures . These selfsame men , magnates and deputies , proceeded to Debrecz ' m , when Pesth was occupied by the Imperialists under Windischgraetz , in January , ' 49 and they deposed at a later period the Hapsburg dynasty , by a legal majority . Is the limes more Austrian than an Emperor of Austria ?
" lie became the the leader of the extreme ltadicnl party in Hungary , which was undoubtedly prepared for action even before the occurrence of those events , in the Hpring , 1848 , which proved bo favourable to their < lenigu 8 . " It is an established fact that the Prime Minister , Count Louis Batthyany , a great patriot but a timul leader , wasted bin time with barren negotiations at the Court in behalf of the constitutional party , and , never ceasing to trust the false promises and
delusive assurances of that Court , lie refused every purchase of arms in the Mpring 1 84 H , while it could «> o done wifely and on a large scale . Thus he ruined bin country unconsciously . The port of Finnic was occupied on September 1 , 1848 , by Jellaehich , to prevent any ellectual smuggle of muskets ; on the 9 th of the same month , Jellachioh passed the Drave , advancing into the heart of the Kingdom , and poor Hungary , pressed on all Hides by Wallaehs , Serbians , Croatu , unU tl » « regular
Imperial army , was surprised weaponless , and destined to be crushed , unless she could force a passage by unparalleled valour . She forced it , but the Russian intervention and Goergey s treachery accomplished her definitive subjection , and thus far the Austrian Court carried out the great point of its scheme , that only a few muskets could be smuggled at an extraordinary sacrifice through the surrounding armies . Could , however , the Austrian Court even with the aid of Russia have conquered Hungary , if her brave sons had been prepared for action so far back as before the year 1848 ? Only 200 , 000 muskets would have enabled her to stand the invasion of both the Austrian and the Russian despots , Europe would be free , and the Times without orders to write for Austria .
"Before three months had elapsed Kossuth had gradually undermined all his colleagues and subverted those who had brought him into power . They all successively retired in dismay . " The whole Batthyany Ministry was definitely put aside , as we have seen , by the above-mentioned decree of the 3 rd of October , 1848 . Two of its members , Szemere and Meszaros , continued to act with Kossuth till the fatal end of the War of Independence , the former as President of the the
Ministry under Kossuth , the latter in war department . As for Count Louis Batthyany , this noble patriot took an active share , and was even wounded , in the War of Independence , a short time before his imprisonment , against the laws of God and man , as a deputy of peace , sent by the town of Pesth into the camp of Windischgraetz . His ultimate appreciation of the wrongs of his country and of the legitimate conduct of Kossuth may be found , however , in his last letter to his wife , written only a few hours before his execution . of tittle of
" * Leave the country , do not accept one an indemnification , if Austria should ever feel inlcined to offer it for the confiscation of my property ; conceal from our children the cause and manner of my death , as long as they are tinder age ; educate them , however , in the love for their native country and in the hatred against the HapBburg dynasty , and when they are of age enjoin them to revenge the death of their father . " These are last words of a man whom the Times wants to represent as having taken an unfavourable view of the rising of Kossuth and of his country against tyranny : — "No one can examine these events dispassionately
without arriving at the conviction that the true interest of Hungary and of Austria was to terminate the struggle h _ y an equitable negotiation , preserving the rights of Sovereign and of people ; but that Kossuth , chiefly with a view to the maintenance of his own supremacy , in and by the revolution , forced matters on to the last extremity , until he arrived at the catastrophe which has ruined and enslaved his unhappy country . "
Why enslaved ? If it was the true interest of Austria to terminate the struggle by an equitable negotiation , why has she not offered and effected it , vanquished ' as she was , before she called in the Russians ? Why does she persevere in this avowed subjection , which will never terminate , and sooner or later engender a new outbreak of the struggle ? Was not , perhaps , Kossuth farsighted enough to foresee that thus slavery would have been
imposed upon his country with or without a struggle , and that a glorious downfall of Hungary , if such was inevitable , was at least an inalienable inheritance to her children , and an earnest of a glorious resurrection ? Have not a thousand facts borne out the truth of this policy ? Was there no attempt of enslaving Hungary before the struggle ? Was not Jellachioh declared rebel by the Kmperor Ferdinand himself on the 10 th of June , 1848 ?
Was he not confirmed by the same hmpcror in full powers on the 4 th of September of the same year , because Hadetzky was again victorious in Italy ; and was he not declared by the same decree to have proved his unalterable fidelity to the House of Austria ? And the decree of the : ir < l of October , 1848 , wan tho crowning net of a long course of bloodthirsty treachery , nhich compelled Kos-Biith and the Hungarian Diet , it not traitors to law , order , and their country , to take up arms for
the defence of sacred rights , prescriptive and stalutuble . Here we leave the Times for the present . The facts we have mentioned absolutely defy refutation . The " Society of the Friends of Italy" haH done good Herviee in reducing to shame and silence the falsehoods of tho reactionist presH . The friends of Hungary embrace all that is good and true and generous and national in the Knglish People . If wo cannot silence falsehood , we can proclaim the truth , even in the teeth of the hirelings of despotism . The 7 Vpk « sneers a $ tjut portion of thu
press which has placed itself in the hands of the exiles . We would ratlier as Englishmen defend the cause of the exile than pander to the cruelties and perjuries of Despotism .
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ASSOCIATION APPLIED TO MIRACLES . Poor Rose Tamisier , approved by sceptical doctor , and mere official sous-prefet , is repudiated b y the Bishop of Avignon , who having been so long behind , the scenes is blase to the machinery , and doubts the strength of the illusion to an audience of young Voltaires . But mark the fruiifulness of the Associative principle applied to miracles . We extract the following particulars from La Republique . L' Univers as usual has pretended to answer them by mere ecclesiastical abuse . The Virgin is said to have appeared ( without witnesses ) to a novice , and to have ordered a medal to be struck in honour of
her visitation . The medal is struck , to the tune of 18 , 000 , 000 in copper : 2 , 000 , 000 in gold and silver are sold at one halfpenny profit on each . Then comes an historical notice by an anonymous priest relating 111 miracles worked by the said medal : of this " notice " 130 , 000 copies are sold . The net result of the medals and the notice , is £ 48 , 000 translated from the pockets of the faithful into the coffers of the miracle-mongers and medal historiographers . The Associative principle is here in full work . An intriguing woman , accomplice to any common speculator , or a visionary prompted by a knave , declares she has seen the Virgin , and so on : her word becomes an article of faith to extract cash from , believers—for the good of their souls .
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CAPTAIX MACONOCHtE . Birmingham acquired much credit to itself by the appointment of Captain Maconochie to be the governor of its gaol ; it has resolved to cancel that credit and undo its own renown . Captain Maconochie is the author of the only rational system of correctional discipline now before the public . To put his idea ( very inadequately ) into a sentence , it is this : fixed sentences for criminal offences fail to call forth any reformatory motives ; by sentencing the criminal to earn his release you call into play the wholsesome reformatory influences of atonement , hope , and industry . The author of this plan , which has , we believe , obtained the sanction of almost all thinkers on the subject of prison discipline , was appointed to be Governor of the gaol at Birmingham ; a place already distinguished by possessing an enlightened law reformer in its Recorder , Matthew Hill . It soon turned out , however , that Captain Maconochie was not to carry out his own system . Never mind ; the reformer had secured a post at which he might usefully and worthily continue his observations ; and Birmingham had at least the honour of offering a worthy home to the practical philosopher . But Birmingham is tired of its honourable distinction . Captain Maconochie has had his conge , without reason assigned . The local papers allude to the matter as a ' job ; " and we hear in society many references to particular persons who arc to be served by the removal of the truly good public servant ; among them the Deputy-Governor . On these points we await further enlightenment ; only conscious , in tho meantime , that a very clear explanation is due from those who have brought upon Uinningham the disgrace of retracting an honourable tribute to public worth .
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SOCIAL 11 K F O 11 M . " NOTKS OF A SOCIAL daJONOMIST . " TIIK COOI'KKATIVK ASSOCIATIONS OK 10 N G LAND . V . " L' * x ost suinma ratio insila a natura quie jubet ea , quo ; fuciiuda sunt , prohibct qiuc contrari ; i . "—Cickjio . At the end of the Anti-Jacobin War in 1801 , the National Deiit of England amounted to £ 579 , 931 , 447 ; the Taxes to £ Gl , ' 27 H , OS 1 . In 1809 , the Dkiit had increased to £ 8 11 , 898 , 082 , the Taxes to £ 8 ' 2 , 0 ' 27 , ' 2 H 8 . 5 s . r ? t d . Thus the Wah policy of Grange William had been pursued with fatal obstinacy and success , followed hy taxation , pauperism , ignorance , and crime ; when , in 1815 , the intolerable sufferings of the labouring classes were increased , in a geometrical ratio , to starvation pitch , by a heavy tax upon foreign Com : low rents nnd h ' ujh taxes being ruinous to the landowners . This was the condition of tho Knglish People when Robert Owen , the founder of modern " Socialism , " or the Science , or Rational System , of Society , first laid a Report ( " New View of Society" ) before the Coir . uiittce of the House of Commons on the Poor ' s Laws , accompanied by "A plan to relieve the country from , its present distress ; to remoralize , the Ijiuur Orders ; to reduce the I ' oor's Hate ; and to gradually abolish I'aujwrisni , with all Us degrading and injurious conscqunices . " Starvation , the workhouse , the gaol , and the lianginan ( Protection ?) , was the , "Plan" adopted by tho landmonop . ilists .
The live fundamental facts upon which tho rational , or scientific , tsystcin of society i . s founded , art ; these , :- ¦ - " 1 . Thatinan ' iti ; i ( mnf /() irinlb (! ing , w ] u ) mtrhiirnctav in formed of hh ( ioiiHt . itul . ion or organization at birth , and of the effects of external ciicuinstanccH upon it from birth to death ; mub original organization and external influences continually acting and rcuctintf each upon the other .
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OCT 18 , 1851 . ] C » g »»«»»* 993 _
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 18, 1851, page 993, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1905/page/13/
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