Francis Deak, the Hungarian patriot and statesman, died on Friday
week, and was buried on Thursday, his body being fol- lowed to its grave by the representatives of all Hungary, the King included. By birth a Magyar of good family, Beak early comprehended that Hungary, with its half-civilised majority of Slays, would, if independent, only fall into the anarchy prevalent more or less from Buda to Constantinople, and ultimately sink into dependence on Russia. He resisted, therefore, all projects of separate independence, while contending vehemently for the constitutional rights of Hungary, quitted Kossuth when the latter rose, and after twenty years of struggle was in 1867 the leading man in Hungary. He persuaded his countrymen to agree to the dual system, and watched over its first difficulties, which were very great. He enjoyed to the last the confidence of the Magyars, who, like all other. aristocratic castes, placed amidst a more numerous but less civilised population, have an instinct for politics, and are capable, upon most points, of compromise ; and he was respected by the Slays, though the Radical Tisza is more directly their represen- tative. Beak's death is most inopportune for the Empire, as it occurs just when the dual system is sustaining a serious strain.
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