right of resisting the Prince by force of arms if he should violate the Constitution. From 1662 up to the present day no king was crowned until he had first signed a deed, called by them a diploma, in which he promised to observe all the articles stipulated by the nation, which articles asserted that the National Diet alone had the right of making laws; that none but Hungarians could govern the State or command the army; that all citizens must be tried within the limits of the kingdom by national tribunals; that the King must maintain the integrity of the territory intact; that he must not permit foreign powers to invade it, nor declare war or negotiate peace without the consent of the Diet; finally, that no one could assume the Crown of Hungary without first signing the said diploma. During three centuries the House of Hapsburg had frequently endeavoured to violate these articles, and wars had always been the result, succeeded by new attestations of the rights of the Hungarian nation-France, England, Sweden, and Holland sometimes acting as mediators and guarantees.

The Emperor of Austria, Francis I., had also confirmed these rights in 1804, yet, nevertheless, the Court of Vienna was constantly attempting to curtail or violate them. The result was, that when the Viennese oligarchy was conquered in 1848, Hungary sent deputies to the Emperor, to request him to restore their rights; on which the Emperor acquiesced in their wishes, and afterwards went to Presburg to sanction them.

But the excitement which the events of 1848 had

produced in the minds of the various races, Magyars, Germans, Slavonians, and Latins, who inhabit Hungary, furnished Austria with the opportunity of employing the democratic movement, naturally adverse to the privilege and pre-eminence of one race over another, to excite the anger of the other races, and specially of the Slavonians, against the Magyars, who are the dominant race. The Ban of Croatia rose to arms, in the name of independence and of the Emperor, and invaded Hungary; the Magyars, in their turn, took up arms, to combat, as they said, the enemies of Hungary and those of the Crown, to which they manifested so much devotion that they assisted it with arms and money to subdue the rebels in Italy.

That same Kossuth, who was afterwards head of the Revolution and Dictator of Hungary, was foremost in counselling all such projects as were favourable to Austria, either because he dissembled, or was so void of foresight as not to see that as soon as Austria had recovered her empire in Italy she would turn her forces against his own country; and so indeed it turned out soon after, for the Emperor sent a powerful army, in the month of December, to chastise the Hungarians. But as he had ascended the throne without observing the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction, the Hungarians, strong in their national right, did not lay down their arms, and a serious war ensued, which lasted many months, with varying fortunes, and cost Austria two armies and the fame of her best Generals. But during the heat of the strife in which the Magyars had humbled the rival races or kept them to their fidelity,

the nature of the Hungarian movement had changed, and Kossuth, the Dictator, had embraced the hazards of democracy and universal revolution. Thence resulted bitter quarrels in the State, bitter jealousies in the army, discords between the Polish and Hungarian Generals, and discussions between the bold innovators and those who would not violate national traditions. Meantime, the Hungarians being victorious, Kossuth reached the height of his power, and sent advices to Venice, encouraging her to persevere in her resistance; he also dispatched envoys, who promised her assistance in money, ships, and soldiers.

Thus the Venetians were animated to persevere; and when the Imperial Minister, De Bruck, wrote to Manin, on the 31st of May, that he had arrived at Mestre with the commission to enter on negotiations for peace, the Assembly, though it gave power to Manin to treat with De Bruck, resolved, by a majority of 97 votes against 9, to hold firm. The attack and defence continued during the whole of the month of June, and negotiations were carried on at the same time with the Imperial Minister in Verona : by the Venetians, with the desire to save their independence; by De Bruck, with the desire to persuade them to submit to a union with the kingdom of Lombardy, which he promised should be governed on liberal principles. The Assembly again resolved, on the 30th of June, by 105 votes against 13, that the offers of Austria, as they did not guarantee the rights of the Venetian people, or respect the dignity of the nation, were promises without guarantees, and conventions

void of honour, and that, consequently, all negotiations were broken off. The war continued, during the month of July, with unabated and even greater violence; carried on by the Austrians with much skill, constancy, and bravery; by the Italians, with much valour; and by the city supported with much magnanimity and fortitude. Venice endured dearth, famine, conflagrations, devastation, the plague of Cholera, every extreme of misery! Meantime, as the forces sent by Austria, and its own intestine discords, had not been sufficient to subdue Hungary, Austria had also broken through her own traditions, and invoked the aid of Russia, her haughty rival; and Russia had come forward promptly, for she was not only naturally averse to popular and national movements, but was also afraid that Poland would assume a threatening attitude, and was anxious to extend her influence over the Slavonic populations and the west of Europe. When the news of the Muscovite invasion, and of the first disasters which had befallen the Hungarians, reached Venice, the Assembly accredited Manin with full power to act, according to the best of his ability, for the safety and honour of the city; but Manin would not consent to surrender, until he had heard that Hungary was subdued. On the 22nd of August he received certain intelligence of the fact; and on the 23rd he published a proclamation, in which he notified that, as necessity enforced acts in which neither the Assembly nor the Government could share, all authority was given up into the hands of the Municipality. Thus the Austrians entered a few days afterwards into silent, de

serted Venice and thus ended all war in Italy! all resistance to the foreigner!

Naples was a prey to furious revenge; any man whatever, who had distinguished himself by love towards Italy, and by fidelity towards the Constitution -ministers, deputies, senators, magistrates, priests, soldiers was either condemned to take refuge in foreign ships from the treachery of the police, and to seek safety in exile, or was thrown into prison in the midst of ruffians, and exposed to all kinds of mental and physical tortures: whoever was hateful to the insolent spies and wretched informers that were allpowerful in the police, was a mark for accusations and examinations; some were vilified from motives of private vengeance, some for the sake of gold; there was no guarantee for the safety of the citizen; no restraint of law, no shame in the Government, nothing but the most barefaced tyranny. The Austrians were all powerful in Tuscany; the Prince morbidly under the influence of the Courts of Naples, Portici, and Vienna; the Government on the downward road of dishonour and despotism. In the Duchies of Parma and Modena, the Austrians were also all powerful; the Government was mild in Modena, but in Parma harmonised with the profligate disposition of the young Duke. Piedmont alone, free from the presence of foreigners, preserved its national banner and its free institutions, whilst it gave hospitality to the Italians who fled thither from the vengeance of foreign foes, or of the factions which were triumphant in their own land. This was the state of Italy.