25 FEBRUARY 1882, Page 3

The Opposition in the Hungarian Diet on Tuesday asked the

Premier, Herr Tisza, whether the Government intended to annex Bosnia, to make it autonomous, or to restore it to Turkey. 'The Minister flatly refused to make any reply, declaring that no statesman in any country would do so. The Government in- tended, for the present, only to suppress the insurrection, and enforce a moderate conscription, a measure which he said had received the consent of the signatory Powers, including even `Turkey. That is probably true, as the Powers considered occu- pation only another word for annexation, but is no evidence -either for the wisdom or the justice of the measure. A conscrip- tion of men who have not the rights of subjects, which in Austria include a claim to a local Diet, is an oppression for which the only precedent is Frederick the Great's conscription in Saxony while that country was only occupied. That has always been considered an extraordinary piece of tyranny, even for him.