. The Palatine, as the representative of the
Sovereign in the speech from the Throne, said that, as several districts
were in a state of open rebellion, the principal objects to which, in
the name of His Majesty, he should direct the attention of the Diet were
the finances and the defences of the country, and that bills relating to
these objects would be brought in by the Ministers. He then proceeded as
follows:--"His Majesty has learned with painful feelings, that although
he only followed the dictates of his own gracious inclination, when, at
the request of the faithful Hungarian people, he gave his sovereign
sanction to the laws enacted by the last Diet--laws which the common
weal, according to the exigencies of the present age, rendered
imperatively necessary--there are, nevertheless, a number of seditious
agitators, especially in the annexed territories and the Hungarian
districts of the Lower Danube, who, by false reports and terrorism, have
excited the different religious sects and races speaking different
languages against each other, and, by mendaciously affirming that the
above-mentioned laws are not the free expressions of His Majesty's Royal
will, have stirred up the people to offer an armed opposition to the
execution of the law, and to the legally constituted authorities. And,
moreover, that some of these agitators have even proceeded so far in
their iniquitous course as to spread the report that this armed
opposition has been made in the interests of the dynasty, and with the
knowledge, and connivance of His Majesty or of the members of His
Majesty's Royal house. I therefore, in order that all the inhabitants of
the kingdom, without distinction as to creed or language, may have their
minds set at rest, hereby declare, in conformity with the sovereign
behest of His Majesty our most gracious King, and in his sovereign name
and person, that it is His Majesty's firm and steadfast determination to
defend with all his Royal power and authority the unity and integrity of
His Royal Hungarian crown against every attack from without, and every
attempt at disruption and separation that may be made within the
kingdom, and at the same time inviolably to maintain the laws which have
received the Royal sanction. And while His Majesty will not suffer any
one to curtail the liberties assured to all classes by the law, His
Majesty, as well as all the members of His Royal dynasty, strongly
condemns the audacity of those who v