of the difficulty. To carry on so difficult a warfare, it was understood to be the intention of the Hungarian government to endeavour to raise the effective forces of the kingdom to 200,000 men.

The demands of the Slavonic congress, meeting at Agram, to the imperial government, as conveyed by Count Albert Nugent on the 9th of July, were to the effect that the mediation of the Archduke John could only be accepted upon the condition that the insults offered to the Ban and the whole nation be made good in a manner satisfactory to the national honour; further, the grounds of mediation must rest upon, first, the Slavonian diet being declared legal; secondly, the manifesto against the Ban being recalled; thirdly, the Ban (Baron Jellalich) being declared military commander of this province; fourthly, that the wishes of the Servians be recognised as identical with those of the Slavonians and be fulfilled; and lastly, that all hindrance to the union of Dalmatia be taken away. "Unless these things happen," concluded the Slavonian manifesto, "our heroic nation knows how to defend its honour and fame sword in hand."

In Hungary at the same moment (that is, previous to the 7th) the Slavonians defeated a body of Hungarians near the Wallachian village of St. Mihaly, while on the other hand the Hungarians had taken the town of Varasd by storm. Karlowitz and Neusatz still continued to be the seat of disorders. The Hungarian forces concentrated in their camps were said to amount to 52,000 men, and the free corps (seldom of much use) to the strength of 40,000 combatants, were in course of organisation.

The Hungarian general Count Bechtold obtained a victory over the insurgent Slavonians in the beginning of the same month, near the Roman encampment between Temerin and Jarek; and 300 Slavonians were said to have been killed, while the Hungarians only lost seventeen men. The Hungarians had, however, experienced a heavy loss in a whole battalion of Illyrians quartered at Peterwardein going over to the Slavonians. General Count Harbrowski, commanding at the latter fortress, had proclaimed martial law at Neusatz, and threatened to bombard the town at the first sound of the tocsin or any other sign of insurrection. The Hungarians obtained a further advantage in a successful engagement which was fought between the Uhlans under Colonel Blomberg and the insurgents near Werschetz. The insurgents had sixty killed and wounded, and twenty-one prisoners were taken, among whom was their chief Stanimirvitz, two pieces of cannon, and two colours. The Uhlans are said to have had only two killed and three wounded. Reports of a very contradictory character were in circulation of a serious defeat experienced by the Hungarians on the 14th of July, near Szegadin. It appeared certain, however, that the Magyars had sustained a repulse in an attempt made on the bridge of St. Thomas, and that they had been compelled to retire on Obusa.

Early in August a deputation from the Hungarian Diet waited on the emperor, with the alternative of the emperor's occasional residence at Pesth or the coronation of the Archduke Francis Joseph (son of the Archduke Francis Charles), as resident King of Hungary-a sovereignty which, however, would always succumb before that of the emperor when actually present in person in his Hungarian dominions.

The Archduke Stephen and Count Batthyany having returned to

Pesth early in the same month, after an unsuccessful negotiation with the Ban of Croatia, martial law was proclaimed at Pesth and in the provinces of the Lower Danube. Resolutions were unanimously carried in the diet to effect an offensive and defensive alliance with Germany, and at the same time to empower Count Batthyany to return to Vienna, and to re-open negotiations with the Ban of Croatia.

The Austrian minister Doblhoff refused to take up the gauntlet thus thrown down by the Hungarian minister Kossuth. Acquainted, as he asserted himself to be with the claims of the Croatians, he denied that the latter intended to recede from the Hungarian crown, and expressed his conviction that peace in the interior could only be maintained by giving equal rights to all nationalities.

The central government did not by this proceeding show itself hostile to that recovery of a certain amount of national independence in the institutions and local administration of the various provinces and kingdoms of which the Austrian empire is composed, which had everywhere manifested itself as a result of the general European revolution of February; while on the other hand it became already manifest that if that independence of the crown of Hungary, which was insisted upon by the Magyars, was granted, it could only retain its authority over the southern provinces of the kingdom by conquest, and the result would be a frightful civil war. Yet in the midst of this quarrel both parties alike were invoking the authority of the Pragmatic sanction, which regulates the rights of all the dominions of the house of Austria--the Hungarian and Croatian troops, which would be at deadly feud in their own country, were fighting the battles of the empire side by side in Italy; and the Magyars, who were a short time ago the least disposed to submit any longer to German government, have now found out that the first interest of their national administration is to cling fast to the German connexion. Hence, at the same time that they were demanding an independent sovereignty and declaring martial law on the Danube, they were sending envoys to Frankfort and voting levies for the imperial armies.

The Ban of Croatia published on his part a manifesto or exposé of the circumstances which had led to negotiations having terminated unsuccessfully. The ban states, that his demands were limited to asking for the fusion of the war, financial, and foreign departments with the administration of the whole monarchy, to the security and equality of rights of the Slavonic nationality and language, in the administration of affairs, and at the common diet of Hungary. The ban continued to state that neither the Archduke John, nor the minister, Kossuth, were allowed by the adverse party to listen to these demands, and that nothing remained for the Croatians but to rely upon their own strength and unity, and on the justice of their cause, which he asserted to be acknowledged by the emperor, and the free people of Austria, and of all Europe.

Civil war continued to rage during these negotiations without interruption in the interior of Hungary. The Archduke Stephen having deposed the metropolitan of Karlowitz, the anger of the Slavonians was roused into fanaticism. The insurgents entered into the province of Toronta, and threatened Grand Beeskerek, one of the largest and wealthiest cities of Hungary, with siege. The district of Grand Kikinda was threatened with a similar invasion, and the whole country in the

Lower Theiss and the Danube-the granary of Hungary—was devastated by war. The Banats of Baczka and Baranga insisted upon being united into a Raizish, or Slavonian province (Waywodeschaft), and the waywode to be elected of the Raizish, or Slavonian nation. The nation also demanded the right to appoint a patriarch, and that the religious language of the Raizes should be guaranteed to them.

The Croatians were at the same time making every preparation to assist their countrymen within the Hungarian territory. On the 15th inst. the Hungarian ministry issued a proclamation declaring that the danger of an invasion was daily increasing, that the Ban of Croatia was concentrating his troops on the frontier, and recommending a corps of well-armed militia to be formed in the district between the Danube and the Drave. The ban's united forces were said to amount to some 60,000 or 80,000 men-a terrible force with which to operate in favour of the Slavonians already in arms, and in open rebellion in the interior of Hungary.

In answer to the application made by the Hungarian diet to the Central congress at Frankfort, the congress considering that Hungary had made a decided demonstration in favour of the German Empire, and that Germany is interested in seeing Hungary strong and united, it resolved to petition the Central power to negotiate with the Austrian government in favour of Hungary, and to grant the Hungarians advice and effective assistance against the Croates.

The government commissioner, Baron Szentkikraly, who brought the ill-omened news from the Hungarian camp of the defeat at St. Thomas, was grievously insulted, and the intelligence was received by a display of acrimonious jealousy and charges of treachery of a character quite unworthy of a noble or a highly civilised people.

A corps of 6000 Servians were said to have crossed the Danube at the beginning of August at Orshova. This, if confirmed, would at once prove that the Slavonians of the Turkish empire are also, as has been before surmised, engaged in the forthcoming struggle for nationality. On the 22nd of August a royal letter was read at the sitting of the diet, informing the assembly that the emperor's health having improved, it was his intention to retake the reins of government, and that by these presents the Archduke Palatine was bereft of his plenipotentiary powers.

On the 28th of August a commission of the Banat of Croatia, accompanied by a notary, arrived at Fiume, with the notification that the governor of that place and all public officers must instantly quit their posts and be anwerable that the moneys in the public banks should remain in Fiume, and not be delivered to the Hungarian ministry. Thus this important port on the Adriatic has actually passed under the sovereignty of the Ban of Croatia. The people do not seem to have offered the slightest resistance but rather to be gratified with the new order of things.

The progress of events in the neighbouring principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia has not been so favourable to the cause of national regeneration.

On the 26th of June, Prince Bibesco, the ruling Hospodar of Wallachia, finding that no other alternative remained to him, formed a committee, composed of eight liberal members, to frame a new national constitution. Having, however, shortly afterwards, rendered himself suspected of intri

guing with Russia, he was deposed, and, attempting to make his escape, was fired at by some of the boyards, but luckily without effect. The patriots then made the best preparations in their power to resist the inevitable interference of Russia. They called upon their countrymen to rally round the national flag, composed of three colours, blue, red, and yellow, with a miserable imitation of French political philosophy, in an inscription to Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, but it was soon made evident by the communications made to the resident European consular authorities, that their hopes lay solely in sympathy and aid from without.

Prince Stourdza, reigning Hospodar of Moldavia, had, from his greater proximity to Russian influences, been enabled to weather the storm for a longer time than his brother of Wallachia. The Russians advanced at once to the frontiers, and when, at length, Prince Stourdza was obliged to take flight before the progress of insurrection, General Duhamel did not hesitate to cross the Pruth and occupy the Moldavian territory, while, on the other hand, a body of Turkish troops, composed of a few thousand infantry and cavalry, crossed the Danube at Galatz.

The cholera raged with so much violence in both principalities, as to keep both political and military movements for the time being in abeyance. Previous to Prince Stourdza's flight from Jassy, several boyards had been made prisoners and sent to Constantinople, others had since taken flight voluntarily. The provincial government and the small body of national guards had, however, succeeded in obtaining the confidence of the people. Finding themselves so critically placed, they addressed notes to the consuls of France, Austria, and Prussia, soliciting the intervention of those powers in case the juvenile republics should be attacked. Nor were the movements of Russia without interest to the rest of Europe. At the meeting of the confederated German assembly, when presided over by the Regent, John of Austria, on the 15th of July, Von Auerswald declared that the state of Europe had changed owing to events on the Lower Danube; and at the meeting of the French Chambers of July 17th, a discussion took place in which every sympathy was manifested for Wallachia and Moldavia on their attempt to recover their former constitutions and nationality. These countries were declared to be independent and sovereign states, and it was argued that the treaty of Adrianople did not authorise Russia to exercise what that power designated a protectorate. It is evident, however, that the insurrections of Wallachia and Moldavia must terminate in a transaction. No European power has a right to interfere in the case of provinces acknowledgedly under the control of Turkey and Russia, unless they can establish their right to independent sovereignty, and are prepared to enforce that independence by force of arms, and there is no European power so Quixotic at the present moment as to engage in war with Russia and Turkey for these two principalities of the Danube.

The pasha, Suliman, commissioned on the part of the Sublime Porte, in company with the dragoman, Emir Effendi, to investigate into the political disturbances of the Danubian principalities, commenced his labours by a protest against the occupation of Moldavia by Russian troops, and an energetic remonstrance against their advance into Wallachia. This protest, at least in its latter part, was backed by the consuls of England, France, Prussia, and Austria.

The Ottoman Porte made at the same time the semblance of recognising the new Wallachian constitution.

The St. Petersburgh journal of the 1st of August published nearly at the same time a long exposé, by the emperor, of his motives for intervention in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. The emperor declared that the said intervention had taken place with the consent and concurrence of the Ottoman Porte, and that the Russian troops would act only in accord with those of the sultan. These troops, it appears, are destined to take up their winter-quarters in Jassy.

Suliman Pasha made his entry into Bucharest on the 6th of August, in great state, and as a friend. Instead, however, of ratifying the new constitution, the Turkish commander consented only to confirm three of the members of the new government in their places. But as far as universal suffrage, popular armament, and liberty of the press are concerned, he has peremptorily refused to give the sanction of the Porte to any such demands of the Wallachians. The situation of affairs in the Danubian principalities occasioned, however, a ministerial revolution at Constantinople, and on the 15th of August the enlightened and liberalminded Reshid Pasha was restored to the post of grand vizier, one of the first results of which was the recall of the expatriated Boyards. Still a less promising position of two provinces as mere bones of contention between Russia and Turkey, and their own populations panting for independence and nationality, can scarcely be imagined.

THE NEW ZEALAND QUESTION.

THERE are certain questions, which, although they are difficult of definition in an abstract point of view, are, nevertheless, often universally admitted and practised upon as a matter of course. It certainly appears very absurd, looking at the matter philosophically, that one nation should send out ships of discovery which should claim the lands belonging to another people as a right resulting from their successful researches. To put this question in an extravagant point of view, suppose a Chinese junk on a voyage of discovery to fall in with and claim possession in consequence of Great Britain; it is very doubtful if the Aborigines would admit either the fact of the discovery, although the Chinese might not have been acquainted with the existence of such islands previously, or still less the claim founded upon the said discovery. So it was with the so-called discovery of New Zealand, a discovery in its antipodal relation to Great Britain, but not at all a discovery with regard to the Aborigines, who even in the time of Juan Fernandez are described as a race of white people, well made, and dressed in a kind of woven cloth. According to Vattel, the first authority on the Law of Nations, Navigators going on the discovery, provided with a commission from their sovereign and falling in with desert islands, or other desert lands, have taken possession of them in the name of their nation and commonly this title has been respected, provided that thereupon a real possession have closely followed. But the fact is that between