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HUNGARY
AND
K O S S UT T H:
OR, AN
tir'iraa B:ousitiiu nf tih lat'f 2lIngnigr   tunnl:ffn
BY REV. B:. F.' TEFFT,. D.D,
PHILADELPHIA:
J. W. BRADLEY, No. 48 NORTH FOURTH STREET.
NEW 0R1LEADN'S. JOHN BALL,'NO. 53 GEAVtIER ST,
18 5 ).




Entered accordcing to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by
JOIN BALL. AGENT,
inll tlle Clerk's Olffce of  the!)istkrict Court for the Eastern  District of'Pe n syl ania.
PRINT':ED lB   SMITHi & PET'i'l',tS,
FraLkilin Buildings, Sixth Street below Arch, Philadel)hia,




TO
frte Watihnal Rmsemtrlg nf DTtargets
AND TO
r) t Batintr   of te  Iate tt ngngartm  lenlntion
IN PARTICULAR,
THE FOLLOWING WORK
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR.








PREFACE.
THE following work is not intended to be either a history of
Hungary, or a biography of Kossuth; and I indulge the hope,
-that the critical reader will not look down upon it from too high
a stand-point. - Perhaps a frank statement of the circumstances,
by'which: I was led to its composition, will be the best justification:I can offer for its imperfections, as well as the most satisfactory
expositioniiof its design.
In.: the -autumn of 1842, while a resident of Boston, I enjoyed
frequent opportunities of conversing with the well-known Signor
Alvanoia, the Italian revolutionist and refugee, who, on several
occasions, directed my attention to the Protestant Hungarians as
the stanch and powerful friends of popular liberty, and the political hope of Southern Europe.  He represented them  as the
unbending opponents of Austrian despotism, living in the heart
of the Austrian Empire, to whom Italy, as well as several other
of the Southern nations, would owe its ultimate liberation, if it
was ever to be delivered from its bondage. The Hungarians, he
said,. were not only to give political freedom to those countries,
but they were destined, he thought, to become the champions of
the Protestant religion, and to bring about the downfall of papal
Rome.
Such remarks, respecting a people but little known out of
Europe, and unappreciated even there, at once arrested my attention, and caused me to look somewhat into their former history.
From such works as were then accessible to me, several of which
are frequently quoted in the following pages, I have obtained the
fullest conviction, that the words of the Italian patriot were
1-* 5




PREFACE.
undeniably true. From that day forward, I looked upon Hungary as the most interesting country of Southern Europe; and
when the recent revolutions broke out, what Hungary would do,
and what she did do, now her expected day had come, were the
questions that interested me more than any others of the kind.
I watched her carefully, and with indescribable interest, through
her long and bloody conflict. I regularly searched the leading
newspapers of this country, and of Great Britain, to see what
signs might possibly appear, that she would now fulfill the expectations of her friends. I saw the cloud that rose up in the Banat,
then spread over Croatia and Sclavonia, and burst with fury on.
the Magyar land. With every American, I rejoiced to see the
invasion of the Croats broken, and the infamous but talented
Jellachich hunted from  Hungarian soil.  With every American, I rejoiced also to behold the armies of the Austrians, sent
into Hungary to crush the first hopes of independence there, met,
routed, and driven with indignation over the Hungarian frontier.
With the civilized world, so far as that world is free, I suffered
more than I can tell, when I saw the soldiers of two tyrants,
Austrian and Russian, marching down upon three sides of the
ill-fated country, instructed never to leave the land until Hungarian liberty should be no more. When the final struggle came,
in common with the friends of human freedom everywhere, I
became almost absorbed in the progress of the war, seeing, as all
men saw, that republican principles and the Protestant religion,
in the whole south of Europe, would rise or fall with these brave
defenders of the truth; and when, after a hundred battles, the electric telegraph and the foreign journals brought to us the mournful intelligence, that the Magyars had been betrayed, that the
army was disbanded, that Hungary was fallen and Kossuth a
refugee, I felt, as did every American, what no-language can
describe.
The cause of Hungary being thus lost, for that time at least,
my whole interest began to center in that glorious man, who,
with a patriotism almost unparalleled, and with efforts nearly
superhuman, had given himself up to the work of liberating and
restoring his native land. No sooner, however, were the battles
over, and Austrian despotism had again laid its fetters on the
press, than the hireling papers of Vienna began to circulate all




PREFACE.                       7
sorts of falsehoods, not only respecting the late disturbances, but
particularly respecting the part acted by the immortal Kossuth.
They represented him, not as a patriot, but as an artful and ambitious demagogue, who, from the beginning, had wished to take
advantage of the troubles of Europe to put himself at the head of
Hungary, and to extend his hand of tyranny over the provinces
connected with the Magyar realm. In this way, they expected to
blunt the sympathies of the free nations of the world, and thus
pave the way for his extradition by the Porte, and for that ignominious death to which he had been unanimously and barbarously
doomed.
The falsehoods thus put into circulation were copied into the
government organs of Great Britain, because it was found necessary, in order to appease the anger of the people, to justify the
ministry for pledging the good will of the nation to the Austrian
despot, and for turning a deaf ear to the supplications of the
Magyar patriots. From England, the shameful slanders of Hungary and her champion were imported into this country; and
very soon, there were certain writers astir, who, for the notoriety
of being singular, or for some other cause, began to adopt the
falsehoods, and cast a shade upon the patriotic object and glorious deeds of the revolution.
At this point, being called upon to deliver a lecture before the
New England Society of the city of Cincinnati, I took occasion,
with a special object in view, to devote the entire address to the
life, labors, and character of Kossuth. I wished, within my
limited circle of influence, to do what I could in making the
motives and conduct of that great and true man more perfectly
understood._ I wished, also, to direct the attention of my friends
to his condition as a prisoner, that something might be done for
his release. I had no further object in view; but this object,
very far beyond my most sanguine expectations, was welcomed
by a large and enlightened audience. The lecture was repeated,
by request of many citizens of Cincinnati, before the same society
and in the same place; and, in addition to a series of stirring
resolutions, a memorial to Congress was passed by the Society
and assembly in the following words: " To the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembledWe, your memorialists, citizens of Cincinnati, Ohio, and othere




8                        PREFACE.
of the United States, would most respectfully ask your aid in procuring the liberation and freedom of General Kossuth, by appointing one or more persons as an Embassy of Peace, to be dispatched
in one of our best ships of war to the Court of Turkey, to request
of said government the liberation of Kossuth, and to tender him
the hospitalities of our country." This is the course of procedure
that had been laid down, as the duty of this country, in the body
of the lecture.
A few evenings afterwards, by request of the citizens of Springfield, Ohio, the address was read before the Springfield Lyceum,
whereupon another memorial, of the same character with the one
just presented, was adopted by a very large meeting, and at once
put into circulation among the people.  The inhabitants of
Springfield were exceedingly ardent in their efforts to further
the great purpose.
On returning from Springfield, I found a letter from the Hon.
William Dennison, in relation to the same subject; and, that the
honorable position of Ohio may be hereafter understood, respect.
ing this matter, I subjoin the correspondence that at this time
occurred, together with parts of the subsequent proceedings of
the Legislature:
COLUMBUS, January 19, 1850.
REV. B. F. TEFFT, DDD.:
DEAR SIR,-The undersigned, members of the General Assembly of this State, having heard of the high consideration entertained in regard to your lecture on Kossuth, by those who have
had the good fortune to hear it read, will esteem it as a distinguished favor if you will consent to visit this Capital, at your
earliest convenience, and read before us, and such others as may
be disposed to form a part of your auditory, the same lecture.
If your engagements will permit of your acceptance, we will
be pleased to have you, by return of mail, designate the time
when we may anticipate your presence among us.
With great respect,
We are truly yours,
W. DENNISON,
And the Members of botA fouses.




PREFACE.                        9
The following is the reply to this communication:
CINcINNATI, January 21, 1850.
HON. WILLIAM DENNISON,
And the Members of the General Assembly of Ohio:
GENTLEMEN,-In reply to your note of invitation, to read my
lecture on Kossuth before the Legislature of Ohio, and such
other citizens as may be inclined to listen to it, I have only to
say, that I do not feel at liberty to decline; and my anxiety to
see something done, in behalf of the great Hungarian hero, by
the General Assembly of Ohio, and by the Congress of the United
States, would lead me to perform almost any labor, and undergo
almost any Sacrifices. My compliance, in fact, with your kindly
expressed wishes, is only from the strong and fervent hope, that
the Legislature of the State will take the matter under immediate
consideration, and do something, according to its wisdom, which
shall rouse the nation to its duty. Providence permitting, I will
be ready to lecture at Columbus, according to such arrangements
as you may make, on the 29th instant.
With sincere regard,
I am yours,
B. F. TEFFT.
The citizens of Columbus, and the General Assembly, did do
something, and something worthy of them. The former, on
motion of Mr. Lawrence, among many others, passed the following resolution: " Resolved, That this meeting earnestly urge upon
the President of the United States, and upon Congress, to exercise their utmost power to procure the liberation of Kossuth, his
associates and family, at the earliest practicable period: also, to
intercede with the Powers of Europe for the liberation of all
Hungarians in captivity, in such manner as may be most efficient
and speedy, and to provide them an asylum in the United States."
On motion of Mr. Burns, the following resolution passed unanimously: " Resolved, That a copy of the proceedings of this meeting be communicated to the President of the United States, and
to each of our Senators and Representatives in Congress, with
the request that the same be presented to each branch of Con
gress."




10                         PREFACE.
The General Assembly, on the other hand, after a brilliant
discussion of the subject, passed the following resolutions, which
were preceded by a lengthy and able preamble, setting forth the
causes and occasion of their action:
"Resolved, by the General Assembly of the- State of Ohio, That in our
deliberate judgment, the present critical condition of General Louis KosSUTL, and of his family, loudly call for the friendly and peaceful interposition of the American people.
Resolved,'That we believe it to be the duty and privilege of the Congress
of the United States, to send immediately an embassy of peace to the Sultan
of Turkey, in one of our national ships, who shall be instructed respectfully
and urgently to solicit of the Sublime Porte, the liberation of Kossuth and
his fellow captives, in the name of the American people, and to take such
other steps as shall be best calculated to secure the removal of the great
Hungarian, and of his afflicted family, to this country.
Resolved, That our Representatives in Congress be requested, and that
our Senators be instructed, to bring this subject, as soon as possible, before
Congress, and to pursue such other measures as shall most certainly and
speedily carry out, if possible, the objects set forth in the foregoing resolutions.
And be it further resolved, That the Governor be requested to forward a
copy of the foregoing to the President, and to each of our Senators and
Representatives in Congress."
Another step was taken, at the time now mentioned, which,
though it did not lead to the end proposed by it, was the immediate occasion of the composition of the work, here offered to the
public: "On motion of Mr. Perry"-the quotation is from  the
published proceedings —" a committee of five, consisting of
Messrs. Perry, Chase, Thrall, Randall, and Pugh, was appointed
to confer with Dr. Tefft for the purpose of inducing that gentleman to proceed to Washington, and there deliver, in the presence
of Congress, the lecture read by him on the liberation of Kossuth."
To comply with such a request, however, was not only impracticable, but, as I felt, very unbecoming a private citizen having no
connection with public business. The honor was therefore
declined; but, feeling that I might do something in another way,
not only toward the accomplishment of the object, but in preparing the citizens of this country generally to understand the true
character of the Hungarians, and the nature and extent of their




PREFACE.                      11
own duty, should Hungary ever make another effort for her independence, I undertook, at the request of many persons, to expand
the lecture to a small volume. In the mean time, as was expected,
the President of the United States promptly adopted the suggestion of the General Assembly of Ohio, and of the citizens of
Springfield and Cincinnati, and made the overtures to Turkey
that had been thus recommended.
No sooner, however, had the labor of composition been fairly
begun, than it was cut short by a sudden and nearly fatal sickness; and when, after a suspension of nearly six months, a part
of which period was spent in the libraries of New York and
Boston, the work of writing was again undertaken, it was plain
enough, that there was a demand for a very different book than
what had been at first intended. Numerous false statements,
very unjust to Hungary, chiefly from the source already indicated, had been put into circulation in this country. The former
history of the Magyars, their character as a people, and nearly
every thing connected with them, that had any relation to their
late revolution, had been strangely misrepresented by certain
writers. Therefore, though still adhering to the humble plan of
merely giving an exposition of the Hungarian war of independence, I concluded to do so by so enlarging the compass of my
work, as to admit of brief discussions of all those topics, which
needed to be understood in order to a clear comprehension of the
general subject. Not only the character and condition of the
country, the origin and condition of the people, their religions,
their language and literature, their constitution and government,
but the relations of the country to other countries, the numerous
attempts of the Austrians to overthrow its independence, and the
many memorable efforts of the Hungarians in defending the
liberties of their father-land, seemed to be essential, as the matter
now stood, to the attainment of correct ideas respecting the origin
and character of the revolution. When once engaged upon these
several subjects, it seemed also admissible to allow the pen to run
along with them a little farther, in each case, than was strictly
demanded by the main object of the work; for it was supposed,
that, if the unity of the subject was maintained, the American
reader would be willing, while making a special examination of
the great question, to extend his acquaintance with so novel and




12                       PREFACE.
deeply interesting a people as the Magyars. Nearly every reader,
however, will doubtless meet with some pages, and perhaps some
chapters, that he will think it unnecessary for him to read very
closely; but, in general, it will be found, I think, that a due comprehension of the question of the work will require a perusal of
what is written in the text, while the more abstruse and less
popular portion of the matter has been thrown into the margin
in the form of notes.
Finally, after the following pages were in type, conscious of
my want of due preparation for such a labor, I laid the proofsheets into the hands of two well-educated Hungarians of my
acquaintance, requesting them to correct whatever errors they
might detect; and though I received them back again with their
approval, and without marks of correction, I am still conscious
that the critical reader will find many things over which he will
have to lay the mantle of his charity. The truth is, during all
the time while the composition was in progress, I was pressed
with the onerous duties of an editorial office; and, during the
greater part of it, in addition to this burden, I have had the
general oversight of a literary institution, which demanded much
of my attention.
With this frank avowal, therefore, of all the facts and circumstances connected with the preparation of this volume, I commit
it to the public with the hope, that it may contribute something
to a more perfect understanding of the Hungarian revolution, as
well as awaken a more lively interest in the welfare of the most
interesting people of modern Europe.
B. F. T.
CINCINNATI, August 15, 1851.




TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER  I.
CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY:-Position of Hungary-Soil-TilliageMetals-Timber-Rivers-Rail-roads —M aygar population-Security of position-Ease
of living-Intellectual culture-The arts-Literature-Splendor-The picture turned
-The true state of the country and of its population given........... -pp. 17-32
CHAPTER ILORIGIN AND CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE:-The old Cimmerians-The Scythians-The
Sarmatians-The Romans-The Goths-The Huns-The Magyars-Magyar conquest
of Hungary-Portrait of the Magyar-The Magyar peasant-The Magyar shepherd
-The Magyar soldier-The Magyar female-The Sclave-Tho Sclavacks-The Sclavonians-The Serbs-The Wallachs-The Jews-The Germans-The Szeklers-The
Gipsies-Total population of the country............................... pp. 33 —57
CHAPTER III.
THE RELIGION OF HUNGARY:-R eligion as an element of society-Religion ameng
the ancients-Power of religion in Hungary-Pantheism the religion of the Cimmerians-Polytheism-Religion of the early Magyars-They were Monotheists-Believed
in an evil spirit-Immortality of the soul-Oaths-Priests-Conversion of the country
to Roman Catholicism-Independent Greeks-United Greeks-Lutheranism-Calvinism-Religions of the different races in Hungary-Animosity of the sects-Religion in its bearings upon Hungarian politics-Connection between religion and edilca.
tion-Influence of religion upon social life-Equality of the religious parties-Statistics
of Roman Catholicism-Statistics of the Independent Greek Church-Statistics of the
United Greeks-Position and power of the Protestants   -.-.........   pp. 58-78
CHAPTER IV.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE MAGYARS:-The power of language-It is the
receptacle of a people's nationality-Illustrated by the Greek language-Laws of
different countries respecting language-Connection between language and religionLanguage in our own country-Difficulty of rooting out a language —General character of the Magyar-language-It is rich in inflections-Composition and resolution of
words-The Lord's prayer in Hungarian-Its vocabulary analyzed and compared
with modern languages-Affinity of the Hungarian with the oriental tongues-Sound
of the language-The language rich and beautiful-Literature of the Magyars defective-Influence of the Latin on the Hungarian-Influence of the French dynastyInfluence of the German dynasty-Influence of the Lutheran Reformation-Efforts
of the papal party to suppress Hungarian Iiterature-Revival of Hungarian literature-Hungarian poetry-French school of Hungarian poets-The classical schoolThe composite or mixed school-The Hungarian school-The Hungarian dramaHungarian Romance-General reflections-.........................pp. 79-109
CHAPTER V.
THE HUNGARIAN CONSTITUTION: —Original character of the Mayars-Character on
entering Hungary-They were ardently attached to civil liberty-They were not
2                         13




14                     TABLE OF CONTENTS.
prepared for republicanism-First establishment of a constitutional governmentGovernment soon after modified-Form of government on entering Hungary-Regulations of Arpad-Growth of the constitution under Arpad's successors-Conversion
of St. Stephen makes a partial revolution in the form of government-Leading
features of the constitution of St. Stephen-Rise of the, lower nobility to power in
government-Progress of the constitution for five centuries-The National Assembly,
as an exponent of the Hungarian constitution, just prior to the late revolution-The
King-The Palatine-The House of Magnates-The House of Deputies and its President-Manner of opening the Hungarian Parliament-Constitution democraticPowers of the people-Powers of the counties-The kingdom a confederation of small
republics-General remarks -....: *- pp. 80-140
CHAPTER VI.
EXTERNAL. RELATIONS OF THE COUNTRY:-Condition of Europe at the immigration
of the Magyars-The Magyars barbarians-All northern Europe equally barbarous —
1. Hungary under the dukes of the House of Arpad; 2. Hungary under the kings of
the House of Arpad-The limits of the kingdom extended by this race of princes —
Influence of Constantinople upon Hungary-Effect of the Crusades on HungaryCondition of Europe at the extinction of the first dynasty of Hungarian kings3. Hungary under the female dynasty of the House of Arpad-A new era beginsThe French in Hungary —Charles Robert —Louis the Great-Maria —Albert and
Elizabeth-Uladislaus-Matthias Corvinus-Uladislaus Second-End of the female
dynasty-Condition of Europe at that period-4. Hungary under the Austrian dynasty till the death of Francis the First in 1832 —Ferdinand and Zapolyi-John Sigismund and Maximilian-Rhodolph the First-Charles the Third-Francis the First
-Condition of Hungary at the death of Francis the First.-5. Nations surrounding
Hungary-Rise of Turkey-Rise of Russia=-Rise of Prussia-Rise of Austria —General relations of Hungary to all these powers.......................... pp. 141-169
CHAPTER VII.
ATTEMPTS TO OVERTHROW THE HUNGARIAN NATIONALITY:-The anagram of Frederic
the Third-General Policy of the Austrians 6ver Hungary-Hungary originally independent-The independence of Hungary for a long time acknowledged by surrounding nations-Magnanimity of the Magyar rulers to the other races-Local independence of the provinces and counties-Kings sworn to maintain the integrity and
liberties of the country-The Austrian monarchs have all broken this solemn oathPowers of an Austrian monarch in Hungary: 1. The system of taxation established
by the Austrians in Hungary; 2. The Austrian rule in Hungary merely a usurpation; 3. Revolutionary intentions of the Austrians; 4. Opposition to the claim of
Austria-Bethlen-George Rakoczy-Title of Austria to Hungary entirely unfounded
-Policy of several sovereigns-Of Joseph the First-Of Charles the Sixth-Of Maria
Theresa-The doctrine of hereditary succession established-The doctrine of female
inheritance established by Charles the Sixth in favor of Maria Theresa-Attempts to
overthrow the Magyar or Protestant religion-Bloody persecutions-Lamentations of
the National Assembly-Suppression of the Hungarian language-Despotic measures
respecting the national Hungarian dress-Fears of Austria that Hungary might
some day attempt to recover her nationality and independence......... pp. 170-199
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MAGYARS DEFEND THEIR NATIONALITY:-Interview between Haynau and the
children of Kossuth characteristic of the sentiments of the people —Wrong suppositions corrected respecting the late revolution-The first rebellion, which occurred
under the reign of Ferdinand-The second rebellion headed by Transylvania-Intervention of the Turks-Despotism of Austria-Moses Tzekeli-Success of the patriots
-Botskay —Bethlen-Botskay made king of Hungary-Sigismund Rakoczy elected




TABLE OF CONTENTS.                              15
prince of Transylvania-George Rakoczy —Hungary during the thirty years' war in
Germany-Francis Rakoozy-Ill success of the patriots-Emeric Tiiklyi —Absolute
despotism of Leopold the First established-Levelled to the dust by TSkilyi-A truce
asked for by the Austrians-Austria humbled-Austria seeks help from Poland —
Sobieski comes to the aid of Austria-Francis Leopold Rakoczy at the head of the
last memorable opposition to Austria-His character-Romantic early life-Returns
to Hungary after a long confinement by the Austrians-Reasons for his rising —A
man of profound genius-Hungary during the war between Spain and AustriaJoseph the First and his generals-The patriots successful-Base proposals of AuStria
kejected-Continuance of the rebellion-The patriots once defeated-The tide of fortune turns against them-Cause of this ill success stated-Termination of the last
great struggle prior to the recent Hungarian revolution * -. pp. 200 —227
CHAPTER IX.
THE AUSTRTAN REVOLUTION:-Luther the father of modern Republicanism —Rights
and responsibilities go together-Personal responsibility and personal freedom go
together-The doctrine of representation-Protestantism  a denial of it-Spread of
this doctrine of responsibility and freedom-Its appearance in Great Britain-In
America-In France-The French Revolution founded on it-Results of the French
Revolution-Settlement of Europe-Obstacles to the settlement-France and the
minor nations of Europe opposed to it-Congress of Aix la Chapelle-France agitates
the Alliance Russe-Next a revival of the old federative system-Next the Alliance
Ansglaise-Louis Philippe and the Paris Revolution-The Prussian Revolution-Revolution prepared for in Vienna-The University of Vienna a seat of democratic principles-Contiguity of Austria to Hungary favorable to an Austrian Revolution-The
Revolution rises out of Hungary-The National Assembly of 1832 —Revisal of the
peasant code-Foundation of the Hungarian democratic party-Opposition rises from
Austria-Baron W6sel6nyi and freedom of speech in Hungary-The baron tried and
convicted of treason-Several young gentlemen convicted-Trial of Iossuth for
treason-News of these proceedings consolidates the revolutionary party in ViennaThe association of 1834-Release of Kossuth-His overwhelming popularity-Petition
to the emperor for the abolition of the censorship of the press-The tyranny of Metternich openly discussed by the people-Growing popularity of the Hungarian democratic leaders-The Association of Protection-Eloquence of Kossuth-News of the
French Revolution reaches the Magyar capital-Great speech of Kossuth-Impression
on the Assembly —The establishment of the Academic Legion-Petition to the emperor supported by a vast procession of Viennese-Position of Kossuth at this time-A
Federal Empire advocated by Kossuth-Kossuth calls for the restoration of the Hungarian ministry-The National Assembly seconds the call-Kossuth and the deputies
appear in Vienna-The Hungarian ministry appointed-The Hungarian revolution
now considered complete-Influence of it upon the Austrian revolutionists —Ferdinand proclaims a constitution for the empire according to the plan laid down by
Kossuth-First reform ministry in Austria-Second reform ministry-Progress of
the revolution-Flight of the emperor-Europe in a state of revolution...  pp. 228-269
CHAPTER X.
TaE REBELLION OF THE SLAVES:-Provisional Commission in Hungary-The democratic party-They publish a programme of their principles-The Conservative party
-The Radical party-Measures of the democrats carried in the Assembly-Sauctioned by the emperor-Joy of the Hungarians-Intrigues and artifices of the emperor against the Hungarians-Ills accusations unfounded-Laws respecting language just and generous-Trouble among the Serbs-Revolt breaks out among them
against Hungary-It is fostered by Jellachich-Operations of Jellachich reported to.he emperor- -Jellachich summoned to repair to the emperor-He refused to go



16                      TABLE  OF CONTENTS.
Reflections of the emperor-The imperial manifesto against Jellachich,-Jellachich
remains in power notwithstanding-Hungary began to see her danger-Opening of
the National Assembly-Speech of the Palatine-An army raised by the Hungarians
in self-defence-The army treats the Serbs with moderation-Several battles —Efforts
of the Pansclavic party, and the connection of Jellachich with it-The reaction in
favor of the emperor-The emperor returns to his palace-He repudiates the act of deposition of Jellachich-Jellachich marches into Hungary-The Hungarians meet them
-Treachery of the Hungarian commanders-Attempt of the Hungarians at a reconciliation-The National Assembly in great doubt-Kossuth cuts the knot of its difficulties-Fears of the people-Jellachich laughs at the weakness of the citizensBattle of Valemcze-Jellachich defeated-The Hungarians pursue him-Jellachich
Dictator of Hungary-Termination of the Croatian rebellion.........pp. 270-305
CHAPTER XI.
THE AUSTRIAN INVASION:-Appointment of Jellachich regarded as a declaration by
Austria against Hungary-Sentiments of different parties-Of the party of the reaction-Of the Sclavic portion of the democratic party-Of the German portion of itSympathy of Europe inclined toward the Hungarians-Concentration of Austrian
forces about Vienna-First movement of the reaction in Vienna-Favorable opportunity of the patriots neglected-Efforts of Kossuth to get promptness of action-State
of the revolution at this time-Francis Pulsky a messenger to Vienna-Bem reaches
Vienna and takes command of the revolution-Kossuth's letter to Bem-Forces of the
Hungarians-Speeches of Kossuth to his soldiers-Kossuth overcomes all opposition
-His victory is too late-The battle of Schwechat-The Hungarians are defeatedMassacres at Vienna —Address of the Catholics to the emperor-Address of the
Catholic bishops to their church-members-The whole land roused-Treasonable letter of the Palatine to Ferdinand-Abdication of the emperor-Situation of Hungary at
this crisis-A-ustria invades Hungary —Forces of the Hungarians-Kossuth as President of' the Committee of Defence-Plan of the campaign-Council of War under
Vetter —Bold movement of Gbrgey-Heroism of Bem-Victories of Perczel-Splendid
actions of Girgey —The Austrians are humbled, routed, and expelled — - - pp. 306 —338
CHAPTER XII.
THE FALL OF HUNGARY:-Retrospect of the three wars-Gratitude of the citizens to
their defenders-Kossuth's mind troubled-Character of Girgey —Kossuth's plan of
operations-GiJrgey opposes him-Gorgey wins the army-Fall of Buda-General
success of the patriots-The Austro-Russian army concentrating-Position of the
Hungarian forces-Formidableness of this third invasion-Views of Kossuth-Kossuth's labors at home-Kossuth's proclamation to the people-Kossuth's oratory
among the people-His last great effort in the National Assembly-Response of the
country to Kossuth's appeals-Kossuth's unbounded popularity-Kossuth's negotiations with foreign Powers-His address to Europe-Barbarities of Haynau at the
beginning of the campaign-First efforts of the patriots under Girgey unsuccessful
-Obstinacy of Girgey —Change of plan with the Austro-Russian forces-Battle of
Raab, the 28th of June-Battle of the Monostor-GbJrgey removed from the command
-Is partially restored-Battle of the 11th of July-Successes in the south under
General Vetter-Bem, after a score of victories, at last overwhelmed-Retreat of the
main army, under Dembinski, to Szegedin-Strength of the position-Enthusiasm of
the people-GSrgey leaves Komorn on his way to Szegedin-His treasonable conduct
during the march-Gorgey demands of Kossuth the dictatorship-Kossuth yields to
him-GOrgey betrays his country and surrenders the army to the imperialists —Scene
of the surrender-Butcheries of Haynau-The army of the patriots disbandedKossuth flies to Turkey for asylum-Outrages continued by Haynau-Austria and
iRussia demand the extradition of Kossuth and his companions-Dishonorable plan
Of saving the refugees-Glorious reply of Kossuth-Conclusion -... - -pp. 339-378




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
CHAPTER I.
CHARACTER AND CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY.
NOT very far from the centre of continental Europe, and
north of the Danube and the Save, lies one of the most fertile
and fortunate countries in the world.  It consists of two imn
mense plains, northern and southern, lying at different eleva.
tions, and both presenting their broad areas to the sun, by
gently inclining toward the south. The great plains are cut,
in all directions, by ranges of wooded hills, sometimes approaching almost to mountains, by which countless valleys
are formed, each, it would seem, as beautiful as the Tempean
vale.s
The soil of this country, though various in its character, is
everywhere very deep and rich.  Many of its hills are arable;
its numerous prairies are composed of a black, brown, or reddish mold; and its vast bottom-lands, lying on the lower'Paget, in his Hungary and Transylvania, vol. ii. p. 98, Am. ed.,
as in other parts of his work, is in raptures with the scenery of the
country. After climbing a lofty and steep hill, while going from
Vdrhley to Hdtszeg, he exclaims —" Fortunately, we were not without
cause for consolation; for, on getting out of the carriage to walk, and
looking back, our eyes fell on such a scene as I do not think the world
can equal in loveliness." Miss Pardoe, who travelled in Hungary
four years after Paget, while she corrects some of his statements
respecting other subjects, confirms his eulogies on the beauty of its
rural landscapes. City of the Magyar, passinm.
2*                 17




18               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Danube, and bordering its smaller rivers, find their parallels
only in the American valleys of our own great West.2
In a land of such beauty and fertility, husbandry is a recreation, rather than a toil.  Fruits and flowers grow spontaneously, and in great luxuriance, upon the uncultivated hills
and plains. Every vegetable production indigenous to Europe,
from Iceland moss to the rice and cotton plants, from the fir
of the mountains to the olive of the vales, from the fruitbearing brambles of the natural hedges to the loaded vineyards cultivated by the hand of man, springs up to bear, or to
bloom.
The intersecting hills, abounding in the most precious gifts,
iron, coal, cobalt, zinc, alum, salt, antimony, litharge, lead, copper, silver, gold, carry into every section mineral resources
scarcely rivalled in any quarter of the world. The coast of
India, it is true, is lined by banks of the oriental pearl; Brazil
can boast of whole provinces sparkling with the gem of gems;
the mountains of California pour down streams of gold; but
the land here referred to, filled with such a variety of treasures, constitutes a kind of cabinet of nature, where vast
quantities of nearly all the precious and useful metals have
been stored.3,9  The same crops," says Paget, vol. ii. p. 52, " are here repeated
year after year, on the same spots; the ground is only once turned
up to receive the seed; a fallow is unknown; manure is never used,
out is thrown away as injurious; and yet, with the greatest care and
labor in other places, I neve - saw such abundant produce, as illtreated, unaided Nature here bestows upon her children."  The
traveller is describing the'Banat.
8 The country furnishes, also, unknown quantities of precious
stones, such as amethysts, opals, chalcedonies, together with many
varieties of crystals and petrifactions, to all the cabinets of Europe.
The royal cabinet of Vienna, the wonder and glory of modern naturalists, received nine-tenths of its speciniens from this source. City
of the Magyar, vol. i. p. 206.  The Pesth Museumn is more recent. City
of the Magyar, vol. ii. p. 209.




HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTIL.                19
Though a region of innumerable plains, and prairies, and
other open lands, more than one third of it, when its hills and
mountains are included, is covered with heavily timbered forests, which add greatly to its beauty and its wealth. In these
forests flourish the oak, the beech, the pine, and many other
trees important in house-architecture, in ship-building, and in
all the useful as well as ornamental arts. The poorest inhabAtant, who may not be able to supply himself with coal, is
every where surrounded by thrifty woods, and, through the
long evenings of winter, can enjoy the luxury of a warm and a
high-blazing hearth.
Hundreds of streams, great and small, rising in the northern districts, run southwardly to join the Danube, leaping over
the rough and rocky edge of the upper plateau, and rushing
along through many a steep mountain gorge, thus creating a
vast number of the best seats for factories and mills.  The
distribution of these natural powers, so certain to secure the
full developement of the resources of a country, has been the
object of universal admiration to all who have visited this
favored land. Not only where the tastes and tempers of the
people most loudly call for them, but where the raw materials
of manufacturing industry and wealth more especially abound,
and where that industry would most necessarily lead to wealth,
are these ready-made, costless, and available forces most uniformly found.
The four largest rivers, one of them the largest and longest
west of the Euphrates, pass directly through the country,
connecting it commercially with the Euxine on the east,
with the Mediterranean on the south, and, through the straits
of Gibraltar, with all the waters of the globe. The great river,
in particular, broad and deep enough to bear a navy upon its
breast, seems not to be contented with even a diagonal passage
through the land, but wanders and winds about, as if bent on
visiting and uniting the most promising localities, and thus
doubling its value with its increase of length. Its tributaries,




20              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
dashing down from the adjacent Carpathians of the north and
east, or flowing more serenely from the distant Alps on the
south and west, are not more ready to answer the behests of
mechanism and of art, than through the great central thoroughfare into which they enter, to exchange exports and imports,
at the very doors of the people in every district, with the richest and remotest portions of the earth.
A generally level country, with its mountain ranges so frequently cut through by streams, is a country where the modern
railroad, that iron and ever navigable river, speedier and safer
than its predecessor, is sure to undertake its wonders. The
metal of that country's mines, the wood on its thousand hills,
as well as the vast stores of coal deposited in its subterranean
beds, furnish, so abundantly, materials for the construction and
employment of these artificial ways, that they can not fail to
run from valley to valley, to cross and recross innumerable
plains, and to weave the whole region together into a mighty
web of business and of profit, scarcely to be paralleled in any
clime or age.
The dominant population of this chosen land is of mixed
Caucasian extraction, partly descending from the best race of
men. By a very salutary law, which fixes the age of manhood at twenty-four, they have been more successful than any
other people in maintaining the original vigor of their line.
Their pride of birth has prevented them from mixing, so far
as any intermarriage with other nations has been practiced,
excepting with the most perfect specimens of mankind. Thus,
while preserving the general purity of their stock, they have not
failed to improve it, to a very considerable extent, by crossing it
with the best of other stocks, and in this way acquiring that
peculiar versatility of powers, which comes from such a union
of blood with blood. Their dark hair, their black piercing eyes,
their thin and firmly compressed lips, their high bearing, their
perfect symmetry and manliness of form, their quick and nervous action, contrast them strangely with the sallow and slow




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                    21
Sarmatian, as well as with the clumsy and flaxen-headed German, by whom they are surrounded, and over whom they bear
such a legitimate and natural sway.  From the beginning of
their history, they have been celebrated for their physical hardihood, for their intellectual sprightliness, and for nearly every
moral virtue, which strengthens and adorns the character of a.
man. While the female is extremely beautiful, the male is
generally healthy and robust-naturally industrious in peace,
and next to invincible in war. A race remarkable for such
endowments, called to action by such a promising position,
could scarcely do less than cover the land of their inheritance
with every manifestation of wealth, intelligence, virtue, and
universal prosperity and joy.
This national inheritance, filled with so many blessings, is
surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains, excepting a short
distance on its southern border, where it is protected by the
weakness of a neighboring government. It is thus completely
shut out from other nations to the quiet and safe enjoyment
of its own happiness. Lying entirely between the forty-fourth
and fiftieth parallels of latitude, which in Europe are the geographical limits of the most delightful climate within its
bounds, it enjoys all the advantages which the seasons can confer, through all the changes of the rolling year. In its northern sections, during the winter months, it is blessed with that
peculiarly healthful, elastic, bracing atmosphere, so common to
the higher latitudes, which gives such a buoyancy and vigor to
the mind. Along its southern boundary, on the contrary,
which, if extended westward, would leave the best part of Italy
above it,. the flowery and fruitful country is warmed and
lighted by an Italian sun, fanned by Italian breezes, and canopied by the pure cerulean of an Italian sky.4'Paget, vol.-ii., p. 53, says expressly: "The climate of the Banat, in summer, approaches nearly to that of Italy."  Virgil, it is
true, Georg. lib. iii., vv. 849-356, who had never seen the country,
gives a very different description of the Hungarian climate:




22               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Such a country, it will be at once acknowledged, of such
fertility, abounding with such a variety of resources, peopled
by such inhabitants, characterized by such a climate, walled in
by impassable mountain barriers from all foreign trouble, and
left to the undisturbed and grateful task of developing and
multiplying its own means of individual and social happiness,
would seem  to have been marked out by the hand of God for
a second paradise. Here, we naturally infer, a new social
miracle is to be performed. Here, a pure people is to have its
theatre, a pure civilization is to be set in motion, a pure, a
new, a more glorious era is to be begun. Here, agriculture,
so long baffled by the stubbornness of other soils and climes,
is to reach perfection, scatter flowers upon every valley, wind
every hill with vines, pour its cereal treasures around the
hearth-stones of every home, and over all the land. Here,
manufacturing industry, so expensive and difficult in most
countries, so natural and cheap in this, is to outdo itself, call
forth the resources of every productive power, put into requisition every hardy and needy hand, and sit as a presiding and
propitious genius on the skirt of every forest, and by the bank
of every stream. Here, commerce, that higher genius, by
",At non, qua Scythie gentes, Moeotiaque unda,
Turbidus et torquens fiaventes Ister arenas,
Quaque redit medium Rhodope porrecta sub axem;
Illic clausa tenent stabulis armenta; neque ullke
Aut herbae campo apparent aut arbore frondes.
Sed jacet aggeribus niveis informis et alto
Terra gelu late, septemque assurgit in ulnas;
Semper hiems, semper spirantes frigora Cauri!"
Ovid, also, who had seen the country, having spent nine years of
exile near the mouth of the Ister, or Danube, tells us even a worse
tale about the cold of that barbarous region; but it would be almost
too much to expect an exile from the Flaminian gardens, in a land
so utterly uncultivated, to speak the truth of the place of his banishment. The curious scholar will find a touching lamentation in the
poet's Tristium lib. iii. El. 10, but will not trust it.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   23
which the basest products are so magically transformed to
gold, is to lade her trains and ships, send forth to foreign lands
her best works and wares, bring back the choicest commodities
of other countries, and thus crown the physical triumph of this
teeming land.
More than this, however, is to be expected of such a country. History shows, that when a high-minded people have
acquired the means of an agreeable and easy life, they natu
rally turn their attention to intellectual pursuits. It was so
in ancient Egypt and Chaldea.  It was so both in Rome and
Greece. In such pursuits only can a thoughtful and reflecting man satisfactorily employ the leisure thus secured. Here,
then, science is to be stimulated to a more than common life.
The pure, blue sky, by which it is overhung, will invite the
eye of the curious and aspiring to leave the sordid things of
earth, and, like the wise men of Babylon before them, to make
the first beginnings of their national learning, by studying and
resolving the complicated but orderly motions of the stars.
Astronomy, the prolific parent of the sciences, will call into
existence and demand the intricacies of mathematics. Mathematics, as applied to celestial bodies, based on terrestial observations and measurements, will give being to geography.
Geography, though purely mathematical at first, afterwards
becomes descriptive, deals in lines and limits, sketches continents and oceans, describes lakes and landscapes, discovers and
classifies the earth's inhabitants, and closes with a historical and
political exhibit of the nations. Nations, the moment they
are studied, are seen to be dependent upon the hidden treasures as well as the superficial resources of the earth, and
demand the best endeavors and largest contributions of every
science. All the sciences are thus linked together; all, in
every age and country, have followed each other in this natural succession; and in the fair land now before us, they are all
so liberally provided for, that each must flourish beyond all
precedent.




24              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
The arts, moreorver, are founded directly upon the sciencesliving upon their life, and advancing with their success. Science, indeed, is mostly intellective, and can flourish in countries of physical barrenness, if not oppressed by poverty. Art,
on the other hand, is not only in itself creative, but demands
a great wealth of material to supply it with the motives and
the means of growth. Here the materials have been poured out
by a lavish hand. Here, then, among a people of wealth and
knowledge, the arts of social life will be found revelling and
rejoicing in their most happy state.  Nowhere will the returns
of agricultural labor so bountifully repay every outlay of genius in perfecting the implements by which that labor is performed.  Nowhere can the spindles of the factory, or the
hammers of the forge, or the trowel of the mason, or the mallet of the carpenter, or any of the most tiny or gigantic of the
engines and the tools of art, find such incentives to action
-such means to work with, or such rewards. Nowhere can a
model of a ship, or a paragon of a steamer, or a miracle of a
locomotive, be more welcome, more profitable, or more at
home. Everywhere, throughout this wonderful country,
you will behold the demonstrations, everywhere you will
listen to the busy hum, of art. In no region of the world,
will you say, do the sons of toil construct such vessels, such
railroads, such machines to multiply productions, such engines
to lighten labor. In no region do the mill, the foundry, the
manufacturing establishment rumble, and blaze, and thunder
with such enormous efforts, or with such infinite results. It is
because it must be so.  A people so proud and perfect, a land
so fertile and fortunate, will have it so. The soil of every
valley, the growth of every forest, the metal of every hill, the
rush of every water-fall, the broad and placid bosom Qf every
rolling stream, calls out for art.
Literature, it will be added, will flourish among a people of
such physical perfection, of such intellectual sprightliness,
under circumstances so uncommonly propitious. The land




HUNGARY AND ICOSSUTH.                 25
they live in lies almost at the commercial as well as geographical centre of the earth as depicted on the classic map. Their
country is traversed, as we have seen, from corner to corner,
by the great natural thoroughfare between Asia and Europe,
and thus constitutes a necessary portion of the route to be taken
by commerce, civilization, and human progress in their illustrious circuit about the globe. Asiatic in their origin, but
European in their growth and education, like the river on
whose banks they dwell, they form the connecting link between
the ancient and modern condition of mankind. They are the
natural carriers of human knowledge between the prior and the
present world. Their language, ancient and oriental in its
original structure, todern and western in its subsequent developement, embraces all times and places in its mighty scope,
fitting them to read and appreciate, with the least amount of
study, the literary productions of the Semitic, the Scandinavian, and the Teutonic tongues.  The works thus laid open to
them, from the hymns of Orpheus to the tragedies of Shakspeare, from the reveries of Pythagoras to the revelations of
Bacon, and from Shakspeare and Bacon to the passing hour,
contain every thing worthy of the attention of an inquiring or
ingenious mind.  Such a people, allied by nature and prejudice to that mighty family of Caucasians, whose history is the
history of both Asia and Africa for more than four thousand
years, and connected by residence and interest with the
mightiest branches of that family, whose glory has spread
over the whole of Europe, and is now spreading over our own
vast hemisphere, from the Atlantic to the Pacific shore,
must feel such impulses to intellectual action, must be bound
by such chords of consanguinity and affection to the entire
brotherhood of man, that nothing can deny them the possession
of the widest, deepest, richest literature ever enjoyed by man.
But splendor is the legitimate offspring of educated wealth.
The glory of such a people will be visible in every thing on
which the eye can rest.  Gorgeous cities, filled with luxury,
3




26              HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
will here rise on every plain, on the margin of every lake, and
at the confluence of allhthe rivers. Broad and beautiful highways, lined by ornamental trees and hedgerows, and skirted by
rural mansions, will wind through the blooming country in all
directions. Architecture will crown every hill with beauty.
Horticulture will strew roses over every landscape. Painting
will perform wonders with the pencil.  Sculpture will do her
best in marble. Eloquence will make every hall and temple
vocal. Music will burthen every breeze with melody. Over
all the land will throng out the joyous populace-the children
of ease and plenty-rejoicing in the work of their hands, and
thankful for the blessings of the Almighty. Justly did the
Italian poet, living in the happy days of this favored country,
and filled with the vision of its future, rapturously exclaim:
"Beata Ungheria!"
for never, in all respects, since the world dropped in beauty
from the plastic touch of its Creator, has there been seen by
mortals such a land of promise.
Alas! a land of promise only! Such as has been described,
considering what nature and circumstances have done for it, is
what it ought'to be. It is, therefore, only the more mournful
to contemplate what it is. Let us dispel the vision, and look
for a moment on the sad reality, painful as will be the task.5
Not one-third of the available soil of Hungary, rich and easy
of tillage as it is, is at present under cultivation. The northern portions of it, as well as all its hills, are yet covered by
primeval forests, or rendered forbidding to the farmer by the
miserable scantiness of their crops. The southern sections, including one of its largest provinces, are only partially recovered
from the state of nature, which, in that latitude, is characterized by woods, and fens, and swamps.  The middle parts are' Dante himself, as if prescient of coming evil, couples his exclamation with a doubt:
"Beata Ungheria! Se non si lascia
Pih malmenare."




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTT.                    27
cultivated in the most primitive and unproductive manner.
The ground is allowed to fallow  every alternate year.  The
idea of a rotation of crops, and the practice of manuring and
restoring lands, are almost entirely unknown.  Barns and
granaries are seldom  seen.  The implements of agriculture
are of the rudest form, scarcely surpassing the rough instruinents of barbarous nations, and not equalling those used by
the old Romans according to the descriptions of their georgic
and bucolic bard.6  The plough is a one-handled instrument,
heavy, and totally incapable of fitly turning up a soil.  The
fork is a small sapling, or the branch of a young tree, to which
nature has given the proper bifurcation.  The grain, when cut,
is seldom  garnered, or even stacked, but is beaten out undes
the hoofs of oxen in the centre of the field; the wooden flail
is sometimes used; and machines for threshing are just barely
known. Notwithstanding the capabilities of the soil, which is
adapted to the most unexampled variety of crops, wheat and
corn are almost the only grains sown.  Barley, which agricultural England has found so profitable, is rarely seen.  Green
vegetables, and garden esculents, and the savory herbs so important in modern cookery, are generally neglected. The
tables of the people are served by a rude and short list of
dishes to which they are confined through every season of the
year. The vehicles of the farm, so correct an index of the
agricultural condition of a country, instead of having followed the most ordinary improvements of modern times, rather remind the reader of the classics of those barbara plaustra
so despised by Ovid.7 From a land more fertile than Sicily,
6 Virgil's Georg., lib. i., v. 160.' If the reader will compare vol. ii., chap. iii. of Paget with the
tenth elegy of the poet, and see how little improvement has been
made in this particular during the last nineteen centuries, his philosophy may be a little puzzled. He may now see, in any part of Hungary, the original of the picture:
"' Ducunt Sarmatici barbara plaustra boves?"




28              HUNGARY AND KOSSU1TH.
more healthy than Holland, more favored than England, more
densely populated than the great valley of the Mississippi,
scarcely a box of corn, or a bushel of wheat, or a barrel of fruit,
or the smallest- quantity of any other agricultural product, is
exported to any distant country.  Though producing the best
wines in the world, which might be multiplied in amount to
almost any limit, they are so dear at the very places where
they are produced, that the laboring people think no more of
using them than of drinking nectar. So miserable is the yield
of this rich country, when the season is the least unpropitious, that, every few years,, a general famine spreads death
and desolation among the laboring classes, unless their wants
are gratuitously supplied by the hand of charity.  While all
other parts of the world are vieing with each other in the
career of improvement, especially in the profession of husbandry, no improvement, no amelioration ever reaches the populace of this land of poverty. So far as all popular wealth,
and ease, and the luxuries of domestic life are concerned, in
their relations to the masses of the people, the most beautiful
as well as bountiful region of the earth might as well be a
desert.9
If we turn our eyes toward the rivers of the land, and seek
after the mills and manufacturing establishments so amply
provided for and so urgently demanded, we shall suffer an
equal disappointment. The mines, it is true, are here and
there worked by machinery; but beyond a scythe and a soap
factory, all Hungary has nothing, in this respect, more important than two or three large structures for the production of
German pipe-bowls.
Commerce is equally low in this miracle of a country.  Befor not only the clumsy cart of the field, but in Transylvania and the
Banat, the carriages of the highway are yet drawn by these Sarmatian oxen.
8 Madame Pulszky, in her Memoirs, vol. i., p. 64, gives a lively
description of a tHungarian famine.




HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.                  29
tween town and town, or plantation and city, it is often next
to impossible to convey a load. The roads are narrow, unworked, and, in the rainy season, extremely muddy. In sonic
parts they are but little better than mere cattile paths.  There
are but two or three short and unfinished railroads; and, until
the year 1830, in a land of about twelve hundred miles of navigable rivers, not one steamer, great or small, was anywhere
to be discovered. There was not even a Hungarian sail vessel
to be seen passing up the Danube; for the practice still obtained, for which the via Trajana was probably constructed
by the Romans, of tugging the awkwardest of all tow-boats up
the current, by the means of ropes passing fromn boat to bank,
on which two or three scores of peasants were sometimes
tackled:  In 1835, there were thirteen steamboats on the Dan.
ube and its several tributaries; and, though their elegance and
speed have been liberally eulogized by an English traveler, an
American gentleman, whose experience of the world is ample,
and whose word is the limit of controversy on a matter of personal observation, describes them as flat-bottomed boats, propelled with feeble engines, at an average rate, perhaps, of
three miles an hour.10  Hungary, indeed, has really no commerce.  The fact is wonderful.  Lying, for seven or eight
hundred miles, on the banks of the greatest of European rivers,
and almost within view of that inland sea, on whose bosom
the first voyage recorded in history was undertaken and completed, she has no intercourse whatever with foreign nations!1L
So far from  wealthy, the whole country is impoverished,
the very nobles themselves being often bankrupt. The people,
1~ Paget calls the Zrini, one of these vessels, a "remarkably fine
ship," but steamboats in England are not models. Dr. Olin, the
other traveler referred to, made the wMhole voyage of the Danube, il
one of the thirteen steamers built by count Szhechenyi, from the
mouth of the river to Vienna. Paget, it must be adlded, was going
down stream.' The city of Tomi, situated just south of the Danube, where DMe



30               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
generally, are crushed in hopeless poverty. All modes of
industry are at a stand. All enterprise is laughed at as vain.
The largest city contains less than ninety thousand inhabitants, though a portion of it, Buda, was built by the Romans
in the time of Trajan.  The towns are miserably sustained;
while the villages, after all the apparent comfort of their long
white cottages with neatly thatched roofs, are badly built, and
as destitute of business as the places of human habitation can
conveniently be made.
All over this land of promise extreme ignorance prevails.
The dominant people, it is true, are intellectual, sprightly,
full of genius and of action; but all the other races are
heavy, slow of thought, caring nothing for education, showing
nothing, of course, of its influences, and possessing as little of
its power. The best race itself is only beginning to have a
science. If we look for the useful arts, we shall find the oriental gypsy, here called Zigeuner, who carries his blacksmith.
ing kit and forge upon his back, a very fit representative
of them all. The fine arts are almost entirely unknown.
Architecture, beyond the walls of the three larger cities, builds
but rude dwellings for the rural gentry, and nothing but the
long and narrow Hungarian cabin for those who cultivate the
soil. Two or three painters, of no great abilities, are mentioned by the Hungarian writers. In poetry and belles-lettres,
the names of Horvath and - Dbrentei stand almost alone.
In history, the count John Mailath is the only author who
has acquired any universal fame. In philosophy, or rather
in political economy, the count Szechenyi is the only person
known.  Ferenezy is the only sculptor of any note; and Francis Liszt, who, it is true, is acknowledged to be the greatest
pianist of his age, is the only genius ever raised up by Hundea cut up the body of her brother, when she returned with the Argonauts from Colchis, is still called by its inhabitants, Tomiisvar —an
evidence that the region of Hungary is not a land of change.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  31
gary, who could not be repeatedly overmatched by many of the
smallest countries of modern times.A
With resources sufficient for one hundred and fifty millions
of well-fed, well-educated and happy people, a fraction less
than fifteen millions draw out an uncertain existence on Hungarian soil. Each sub-division of its seven provinces, every
one of its fifty-two counties, is capable of rearing up for Hungary a larger population than now occupy the most favored
republic of our own flourishing New England; and yet there
is a spot in that same New England, not much more than ten
miles square, rocky and barren as it is, that contains a tenth
part as many people, and ten times as many successful and
prospering people, as all the counties, divisions and provinces
of Hungary combined. Indeed, the smallest of the New England states, so small that nearly every part of it can be seen from
the highest steeple of its first capital, within fifty years has exported more products, manufactured more fabrics, employed
more ships, accumulated more wealth, printed more books,
educated more minds, done more in every way for the wellbeing and progress of mankind, than the whole of this modern
Eden for the last three centuries of time.  For three hundred
years, which are the years of modern history-the years at
the beginning of which the new era of the world began-a
dense cloud has rested on this unhappy country; and, at this
moment, that cloud is denser, darker, drearier than it has
ever been before.
So strange a problem would, under any circumstances, arrest
the attention of a philosopher or a statesman; but the masses
of mankind become interested in it only when it has formed
some practical connection with the general welfare of man.
Such a connection has really been formed. The cause of
Hungary has become the cause of the human race.  Seated,'a The works relied' on for these statements are the City of the
Magyar, Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, Paget's Hungary and
Transylvania, and the Historical Introduction by Francis Pulszky.




32              IIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
as she is, upon the social centre of the world, with all her
unemployed abilities and opportunities, she would spring with
joy to the work of self-regeneration, then to the larger work
of redeeming and blessing continental Europe, and finally to
a glorious co-operation with universal civilization in the work
of spreading light and liberty over all the globe, were she not
bound, hand and foot, by some mighty and mysterious spell.
Let her become what America now is, and a new age would
spring from her and shed its splendors, not only upon Europe,
but upon Africa, upon Asia, and upon the nations of the seas.
That spell, however, is upon her. Exertions have been made
to break it; but the exertions did not prevail. Sufferings
almost superhuman have been borne and braved to dispel it;
but it binds its victim not less securely than before. Battles
have been fought, victories have followed after victories, yet
this land of the Huns, this natural paradise, this country
chosen for some wonderful destiny and duty by the providence
of God, is now covered with a wretchedness scarcely to be
paralleled in the annals of mankind. The victim, after a
thousand heroic struggles, has just now fallen to the dust.
Amidst the stillness of its sepulchral rites, while the' nations
of Europe are keeping quiet about the grave of their buried
hope, not only the philosopher and the statesman, but the
citizen of every enlightened country, will contemplate its
untimely fate with pitying, if not tearful, eyes. The same
tears, also, that bewail the nation's calamity, will embalm the
memory of the man, who, at the hazard of all things, struggled
to save it from this ruin, and who failed to accomplish his
object only by the treachery of his friends.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   33
CHAPTER. II.
ORIGIN AND CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.
THE original inhabitants of the two tracts of country, Dacia
and Pannonia, now known under the double appellation of
Hungary and Transylvania, were, probably, the old Cimmerians, so often mentioned in Greek and Latin fables, who, amidst
the mountains and the fogs of their native or adopted land,
lived a life of barbaric independence.  Their dark valleys, on
which the sun seldom shone, and where the people dwelt in
perpetual darkness, supplied the poets of the earliest times,
from  Orpheus to Homer, with their most marvellous and
captivating fictions. The soil of their country was so fertile,
as to produce all the necessaries of existence without human
labor; and they are said to have passed their time in idleness
and in sleep. Like the citizens of the Italian Sybaris, they
declared war upon cocks, not wishing to be disturbed, in early
morning, by the cackling and crowing of the fowl; and every
article of convenience, or of luxury, was prized by them in
proportion to its power of contributing to their repose.l'An example of the classic stories may be taken from the pages
of the bard of Scio:
"We reached old ocean's utmost bounds,
Where rocks control his waves with ever-during mounds;
There in a lonely land and gloomy cells,
The dusky nation of Cimmeria dwells,
The sun ne'er views th' uncomfortable seats,
When radiant he advances or retreats.
Unhappy race! whom endless night invades,
Clouds the dull air, and wraps them round in shades!'
This fairy-land would furnish materials for a most amusing boo




34               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTTt.
Such a race could not long maintain themselves in a region
as desirable as the one they held.  About six hundred and
forty years before Christ, a Scythian tribe, driven from their
homes near the Caucasian mountains by the Massagetae, fled
westward and entered the territory of the Cimmerians.  From
fugitives they soon became conquerors. The aboriginal people
were expelled; and their rich vales were occupied by the
invaders.
These Scythians were, probably, not of that royal race,
whose exploits fill so large a place in ancient history.  While
in their original country, they were undoubtedly the conquered
subjects of that higher family; and it is equally supposable
that their expulsion was the result of a servile insurrection.
On taking possession of their conquest, they remained a long
time the same barbarians, that they had been before. They
had no towers or fortified cities. They resided, not in houses,
but in covered wagons drawn by oxen. They were particularly
fond of horses, which ranged in immense herds along the rich
intervals, ready for the demands of war. Bordering, however,
upon the territories of ancient Thrace, which the lyre of Orpheus had rendered a civilized country, they subsequently
borrowed from it many of the arts of social life, and settled
down to cultivate and enjoy the exuberant fertility of their
adopted land.2
About the middle of the first century of the Christian era,
the Scythians were conquered by the Sarmatians, whom Heof Greek and Latin legends. Ovid makes it the dwelling-place of
the god of sleep. Homer's Odyssey, Lib. xi. " There are still to be
found in Scythia," says Herodotus, Lib. iv. c. 12, " walls and bridges
which are termed Cimmerian."
2 We are told by Herodotus, Lib. iv. c. 76, et szpra, that the
Scythians were, nevertheless, opposed to the introduction of foreign
customs. He divides them into two classes-those who ploughed,
and those who did not plough. Though resembling our Indians in
many particulars, they were, apparently, a little more civilized.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.                 35
rodotus makes the natural descendants of the Amazons and
royal Scythians, who dwelt on the northern border of the
Caucasian mountains. In the geographical works of Ptolemy,
these Sarmatians are styled the Metanastae, as if they did not
occupy their native country, but had "wandered" to a foreign
place. By the Roman writers, they are generally called
Jazyges, of whom there were three distinct families.  The
first' family, surnamed Maeotae, remained in their native seat,
between the Borysthenes and the Tanais, north of the present
sea of Azof, where the Cossacks now reside.  The second,
called Basilii, occupied the greater part of European Sarmatia,
of which the modern Russian empire is principally composed.
The third, roused by the desire of conquest, rushed down
upon the plains and into the valleys of their Scythian neighbors, who, after a long and bloody opposition, submitted to
their conquerors.
The territory thus acquired extended westward no farther
than the river Tibiscus, now called by the German name of
Theiss, beyond which was Pannonia, inhabited by a tribe of
Celts. Scythia was first styled Dacia by Ptolemy, who wished
to distinguish it from the Asiatic Scythia, with which it was
connected on the east. Pannonia, at the period of this Sarmatian conquest, was a Roman province, it having been subdued by Tiberius in the reign of the emperor Augustus.  The
Sarmatians, flushed with their recent victories, pushed toward
the Roman camps, but were repulsed with great slaughter.
They made also several hostile incursions into the provinces
lying south of the Danube. Here, again, they were met by
the Roman legions and driven homeward.  Though beaten, at
every such attempt, by the superior discipline of the imperial
soldiers, they were not discouraged, but kept up their preda
tory practices till the days of Trajan.  They compelled Do
mitian, the cruel persecutor of the Christians, to pay them an
annual tribute as a reward for their promised quiet.
Trajan, whose abilities as a warrior have been immortalized




i36             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
by the matchless style of Pliny, could not brook such an insult
to the throne he occupied. In a five years' war, in which he
employed all the resources of the military art, he prosecuted
his great design of making a final subjugation of the barbarous
Dacians.  By the help of his architect, Apollodorus, he threw
a mighty bridge over the broad waters of the Danube, and
marched an invincible army against Decebalus, at that time king
of these wild Sarmatians. A most violent engagement followed.
Such was the spirit of the barbarians, that, in the Roman camp,
there was not linen enough to bind up the cuts and gashes of
the wounded, nor men enough unemployed to attend to this
humane duty. Decebalus, however, at last yielded. His palace,
and his chief city, were destroyed. His army was cut to pieces.
Glad to save himself and his former subjects from utter annihilation, he consented to resign the purple, whereupon Dacia
became, at the beginning of the second century,aRoman province.
During a period of one century and a half, the emperors of
Rome spent large sums of money on this new possession, in
order to make it a safe bulwark against other barbarians farther
north and east. Colonies were sent into it. Towers and cities
were built. Roads were made, and bridges were erected, in
so substantial a manner, that the ruins of them are frequently
met with by modern travellers.3
At the middle of the-third century, a new race of barbarians
arose in north-eastern Europe, who looked with a lustful eye
upon this beautiful country, where nature had been lavish
of her bounties, and which Roman civilization had carried
to a yet higher pitch of splendor. This new race were the
Gotones, or Goths, who inhabited the vast plains lying east
s Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. ii. 35, and many other
places. Some Roman inscriptions, on Roman tablets, have been
deciphered. The one at Drenkova, I believe, is the most perfect.
The ruins of the colonial towns of Romula and Castra Nova are in
Wallachia, fifteen miles above the junction of the Olt and Danube.
At this place, also, are patches of a Roman road.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 37
of the Vistula and along the shores of the Baltic. For a
whole century prior to the period of their irruptions, they had
looked with longing appetites on the wide savannas and grassy
valleys of the south. Led away and onward by this attraction,
they had even left their snowy fatherland, and gradually hovered
along the frontiers of Dacia and Pannonia, and fixed their
temporary habitations on the northern slope of the Carpathians.
Not venturing to attack the Roman garrisons, which had been
scattered all over these important provinces, they had found
means of crossing the Euxine, and pouring down upon the
less protected regions of Thrace and Macedonia. They had
even penetrated the east as far as Asia Minor, where, in spite
of the imperial armies, they had plundered the wealthiest
cities, and burnt to the ground the celebrated temple of Diana
at Ephesus. Sweeping backward, they entered Dacia with a
resistless daring, drove the Roman legions from their strongholds, reduced the garrison at Ulpia Trajani, the provincial
capital, and held the country against all opposition. The
emperor Aurelian concluded a treaty with the victors, by
which he relinquished to them the whole of Dacia, but broke
down the famous bridge erected by his predecessor, that the
barbarians might be the more easily restrained within their
acknowledged borders.4
The reign of the Goths was of brief duration. After spending
a century and a quarter upon the soil of Dacia, where they had
been gradually enervated by the easy blessings they enjoyed,
another nation of barbarians, whose name-was as strange as their
persons were hideous, swarmed in the north-eastern valleys of the
Carpathians, ready for the first favorable opportunity to make
their descent. Born on the barren steppes of northern Asia,
between the snows of Siberia and the silk-growing groves of
China, their history could be traced backwards for about four-'The exact date of the Gothic conquest is A. D. 250. Anthon's
An. & Med. Geog. 233.
4




38             HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
teen centuries. Within this space of time, they had established
an independent empire on their native plains, spread the terror
of their arms from the shores of the Yellow Sea to the confines of Europe, frequently attacked and once humbled the
emperors of China, and erected the largest dominion then
known to man. At length, however, the policy of the Chinese
monarchs was too much for them. Their empire fell by the
undermining influence of bribery and civil wars. A portion
remained as dutiful subjects of China in their northern homes.
A portion emigrated southward to the neighbourhood of
Canton and Sintechou.  The more resolute, however, disdaining to be accounted slaves, seized their weapons, and
undertook a perilous emigration towards the west. Before
reaching a place of settlement, this horde of adventurers
divided into two parts, one of which reached the eastern
banks of the upper Volga, while the other found a more
agreeable resting-place on the productive prairies of Sogdiana,
between the Aral and the Caspian. The first division becoming
wearied with the savage condition of their country, soon took
up their line of march again, andsought for a milder and more
generous climate. Having conquered the Alani in their course,
and swelled their own numbers by the deed, they stood, at the
moment above mentioned, a vast band of hungry robbers, on
the extreme border of their last conquest, and looked greedily
through the mountain passes of the Carpathians upon the
fertility and beauty of the Dacian valleys. The sight was
the signal of attack. They rushed through the defiles. Tho
Gothic population were taken by surprise. The victors, under
the conduct of the brave Rugilas, and afterwards under the still
braver and more formidable Attila, put the inhabitants to flight,
took possession of the homes thus bereft, and settled the name
of Hungary, which they had before fixed upon the regions of
the upper Volga, on the Dacian and Pannonian plains.5
B After a long and laborious examination of the opinions of Gibbon,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTTI.                 39
Tcward the close of the ninth century, when the Huns had
held undisputed possession of their conquest for-more than
five hundred years, their kindred of the Caspian, who, during
their long residence in their new country, had taken upon
themselves the name of Magyars, sent a powerful colony to
the west in search of a wider and better theatre for the nation.
Under the influence of a more temperate climate, and by a
politic mixture of their blood with that of the Caucasian tribes
about them, they had changed their swarthy complexions to
a delicate brunette, become taller and more regular in their
features, put off the barbarous customs and habits of the Tartar,
and assumed the appearance and manners of the European.
Ignorant of the fate of their lost companions, nor knowing
even the route they had taken in their emigration, it is singular
that they should themselves have followed in nearly the same
path, and come at last to precisely the same termination,
They came to the country of their brethren-; but their brethren
were scarcely to be discovered.  During their long occupation
of Dacia and Pannonia, they had undergone many misfortunes,
by which their power had been completely broken.  In the
first place, they had been distracted and weakened by civil
wars, excited by chieftain against chieftain in the struggles of
personal ambition. In the next place, they had been overrun
by the Abares in the sixth century, and almost conquered by
several new northern hordes.  The Goths, too, who had been
expelled their country, had met with unlimited success in the
eastern and western provinces of the Roman empire, after
which many of them had returned in triumph to the homes
they had once abandoned.  The want of genius in the Huns
themselves, however, after the death of their great commander,
1 ad been the principal cause of their disasters. They had cut
Milman, Des Guines, Schlozer, Klaproth, and Malte-Brun, respecting
the genealogy of the Huns, I have been forced to the conclusions
stated in the text.




40              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.
their way to empire by the superior sharpness of their swords;
but those swords could neither make just laws, nor raise up a
civilization, by which the power of the conquerors could be
consolidated and confirmed.  Their decay had been almost as
rapid as their success. When the Magyars crossed the Carpathians, they found a mixed race of people, made up of
numerous unknown tribes, who came out to dispute the progress of the invading hosts. The contest was of short duration.
After the first few battles, in which the title of Magyar had
been rendered synonymous with every martial virtue, the
business of fighting nearly ceased.  iuns, Goths, Sarmatians,
the entire population of the country, now mixed together under
the general appellation of Sclaves, fled in wild disorder before
the foot-steps of this new race of Huns. Some of them, who
had the means of emigration at command, left their native
land altogether, and escaped into the north of Italy, or into
Germany and France. The greater part of the inhabitants,
however, who had dwelt in ease upon their fertile prairies,
ffew to the circumjacent mountains, while the invaders settled
down upon the deserted plains.
The Magyars, however, were not contented with these easy
spoils. Leaving a sufficient number in their new home, to
guard their recently-acquired possessions, they dispatched
large bodies of soldiers to the west, to the north, and to the
south, that the circle of their victories might be complete.
Everywhere they were crowned with the most wonderful
success. At their approach, armies sent against them would
throw down their weapons and basely fly; villages, towns and
cities would either take up their moveable effects, and abandon
their fire-sides and homes, or secure their personal safety by
a submission without reserve; and the people of whole provinces, struck with sudden fear, would hastily assemble their
cattle from the fields and forests, and move in immense masses
to less exposed positions, leaving their lands and houses tc
their foes.  With a daring never surpassed and seldom equaled,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                    41
they penetrated to the most densely-populated regions, crossed
the confines of Germany into Italy and France, reveled in
blood amidst the snow-fields of the farther north, and stayed
their progress only at the base of some absolutely impassable
mountain range, or on the shore of some unknown sea. In
this manner, with their central camp on the fertile prairies,
where their brave descendants yet remain, they overran all
of eastern and southern, Europe, from the Adriatic to the
Baltic, in an incredibly short space of time.6
But, with their rude forms of government, it was impossible
for them to keep such vast possessions against original owners
almost as warlike, and quite as savage, as themselves.  So
soon as their various marauding bands returned to the central
encampment, their distant subjects, conquered only for the
moment, were as free, as independent, as hostile as before; and,
though they were often reconquered, and as frequently punished
for their rebellions, the conquerors at length became weary of
their victories, and gradually gave up those remote regions,
which they found it so difficult to hold.
Though, on the first arrival of the Magyars, the Sclaves
were dispersed to the mountains, which nearly surround this
land, it could not be supposed that they would always find it
necessary to dwell in those rugged fastnesses, unless their new
masters should prove infinitely more merciless and short-sighted
than most -conquerors have been.  So soon as the first heat
of passion had found time to cool, the.terrified mountaineers
gradually descended from their barren strong-holds; and their
children, taking still farther advantage of the clemency of the
invaders, have ventured to occupy most of the valleys in the' The curious reader will find in Sismondi's Literature of the South
of Europe, vol. i. 35, a Latin poem composed about the year 924,
4" which was sung," says the elegant historian, "by the Modenese
soldiers as they guarded their walls against the Hungarians." If
the music was not better than the poetry, the song must have been
as formidable to the Magyars as the weapons of tbe Italians.
4*




42               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.
immediate vicinity of this panoramic mountain range. It could
not be presumed, however, on the other hand, either that the
victorious Magyars would utterly relinquish the rich ariJ
central plains to the original inhabitants, or that those inhabitants would ever cease to look upon their victors with an eye
of jealousy secretly seeking for revenge. Such is the general
position, and such are the feelings, of the two principal races
of Hungarians at this day.7
The Magyar, though Tartar in his extraction, had crossed
his blood so often with the best blood of other nations, that,
on his arrival in Hungary, he constituted a race by himself,
quite superior to most other races.  In the day of his Asiatic
glory, when he could stand against the power of imperial
China, he not only drew from it vast tributes of money and
silk, but an annual contribution of the fairest of the Chinese
damsels. These maidens were given in marriage to those
officers, who, by their high qualities and daring conduct as
commanders, had merited the favor of the nation. In this
way, without appreciating the natural result of such a practice,
the Tartars gradually raised up a new rank altogether above
the highest classes of the people. When the nation finally
submitted to the Chinese, it was that portion of the army, in
all probability, which had not been conquered, that refused
to yield, but grasped their trusty weapons and traveled westward. The army, however, was made up of this superior race
and the common soldiers; and the two grades, when they
ceased to be held together by the necessities of the military' It is a common error to confound the name of Sclaves with that
of Sclavonians. The mistake should be corrected. Sclave is the
generic title for the great race of which the Sclavonians, who
dwell in the provinces of Sclavonia and Croatia, are only one of its
several subdivisions. Paget, vol. i. p. 58, has called the attention
of his readers to this distinction. The Sclavonians are Sclaves; but
the Sclaves are not necessarily Sclavonians. For other subdivisions,
see Pulszky's Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, vol. ii. p. 50.




HIUNGARY AND KOSSITTH.               43
service, would very naturally seek -their fortunes in distinct
companies. If this were so, that portion of the adventurers,
who first conquered Hungary, were certainly the lower soldiery;
The higher, being more particular in their tastes, found fit
companions in the tribes dwelling in the neighborhood of the
Caucasuq, and consequently settled down among them. Ae
their settlement with the Caucasians, however, could not be
effected without conquering a territory on which to settle, they
were compelled to assert and prove their superiority over the
resident inhabitants by force of arms, before any associations
could be formed between the two races. When this superiority
had been asserted and maintained, the friendship offered by
the victorious Tartar -would be extended as a condescension;
and if the Tartar youth, as was most natural, should begin to
be smitten with Caucasian beauty,-which the world has never
rivaled, their hand would be granted only to the highest
specimens of female attraction.  And if this cause of national
improvement were in itself sufficient, the time given to it for
action was certainly ample enough, to work the most radical
changes. Thus, after intermarrying for several centuries with
the best families of China, and the mingling and mixing for
five centuries more with the Caucasians, and in the peculiarly
fortunate manner here mentioned, the high-minded and inde.
pendent Tartar had become the higher-minded and more inde.
pendent Magyar, whose physical, intellectual and moral traits
rendered him almost a paragon of his species.
The present aspect of the Magyar is a living confirmation
of his origin. In support of his Caucasian genealogy, he is
tall and manly in his bearing, symmetrical in shape, easy,
elastic, and yet dignified in movement. In the somewhat
irregular form of his head, and in the lively brunette of his
speaking face, you behold the traces of his Tartar relationship.
His hair, too, is generally very dark, his eye piercing and
black, his countenance grave and full of thought, his speech,
when not excited, slow, impressive, oriental, grand.  When




44               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
roused, there is a spirit, a power, an impetuosity, in his entire
person and action, that declare the brilliancy and fervor of his
mind.  He is naturally a genius.  With his quickness of
perception, his rapidity of thought, his resistless power of will,
his lofty and aspiring disposition, he could be nothing less.
His moral sentiments are of the highest order.  He is too
proud to be dishonest, low, or mean.  He is governed, at all
times, by a high sense of what is right and just. As a master,
he is careful, kind and generous.  As a subject, he is fixed,
resolute, unyielding to what is wrong.  If rich, he is profuse
in his expenses, elevated in his tastes, liberal in his charities.
If poor, his pride will not suffer him  to complain, while his
general demeanor cannot be' distinguished from  that of the
wealthiest baron in the land.  In all the relations of domestic
life, as a husband, father, brother, son, he is unimpeachable
in his conduct, or'llows every aberration with dignified regret.
His hospitality is unbounded. Whether rich or poor, he receives
his visitors with joy, and dismisses them with unwillingness.
In religion, he is sincere, devout, but never contentious or
fanatical.  The liberty which, in all things, he demands for
himself, he freely acknowledges in all others. Freedom, indeed,
is the word which concentrates in itself the whole life and
being of a Magyar.  His physical structure, his walk, his
speech, his modes of thinking, his style of living, all his ways
and habits, proclaim him a man whose soul cannot be fettered.
His very clothing, the style of his apparel, shows him to be a
natural freeman. Dwelling in a climate, where a rather close
dress is absolutely needed, he disdains, nevertheless; to bind
up his free limbs in the contemptibly tight fits of other Europeans. The lower part of his person he condescends to dress
somewhat in the usual French fashion; but his chest, his
arms, his head, he grants a more ample liberty. His Attila,
a loose frock coat, with a light military collar, ornamented in
front with a rich embroidery of gold lace, he wears over his
shirt of genuine linen.  On his feet are high shoes, or gaiter




IHUNGARY AND KOSSUTJI.                45
boots, armed with a silver spur. Over all, when the weather
calls for it, he throws a more ample coat, or robe, resembling
a modern cloak, but decidedly more convenient as well as
ornamental, which is lined with fur and fastened in front by
a chain of gold.  On his head, at all seasons of the year, he
lays his beautiful kalpag, or national cap, made of the richest
fur, from which the white heron's plume, or aigrette, fixed to
it by a costly brooch, nods gaily to every breeze that blows.
Such a being, dressed in his cherished uniform, which is never
complete without a rich sword and belt, and moving in the
majesty imparted to his action by his mind, may very justly
claim, as he always has claimed, the particular admiration of
mankind.
The peasant, it is true, cannot maintain all this magnificence
of apparel; but, in every other respect, he is equal to the
proudest magnate of his race.  The material of his dress
may be plain or coarse; his hair may hang in loose braids, or
long flowing locks, upon his shoulders; his broad-brimmed hat
may throw a shade over a face of rather rustic mold; but,
after all, the marks of a true Magyar are always visible.
Somewhere about his person, there will be seen some token
of his relationship, if he be the poorest countryman in the
land. Either his trowsers will be embroidered, or his vest
will be trimmed with lace, or his cap will have some peculiar
finish, which will distinguish him from every other race of
men. If, as in the northern districts of his country, he mixes
too freely with the lower population, he may, as it is certain
he does, lose a portion of his neatness, of his taste; yet, even
there, he can be easily singled out from his associates, by the
expressiveness of his features and the dignity of his form.
The shepherd, in Hungary, is below the peasant; but he,
also, if a genuine Magyar, will not fail to justify his origin by
his bearing, his spirit, and his dress. While standing upon
the margin of his prairie-pasture, or in the bottom of some
grassy vale, with his white and shaggy-coated w"tch-dogs




46               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
around him, every attitude and turn of his person indicates
that he cannot be a slave.  There is a dignity in his manners,
an air of independence in his action, that can never be mistaken, or overlooked.  He wears h loose linen shirt, black
instead of the ordinary white, which descends but a little
below h'is breast.  His trowsers are of the same color, and
generally of the same material, unless the weather is severe.
Over the shirt he has an embroidered waist-coat, or jacket, of
variegated colors, which covers but does not confine his chest.
On his feet is a curious kind of boot, made of wool, but soled
with leather, with the sides cut down and'laced in the style
of gaiters. His head is protected from the hot sun by a hat
of very ample brim; and from his neck is suspended a sort of
bag, in which he carries the dry morsel that constitutes his
frugal meal. Over all he throws a plain but patriotic imitation of the national coat, which he calls a bunda, around
which he wears a belt, or sash. This bunda, coarse as it may
be, not only serves to keep up the nationality of its owner,
but furnishes him an opportunity of displaying his magnificence, or his taste. If made of nothing better than a sheepskin, with the wool in its natural state, the seams show great
art and beauty of execution, while characteristic scenes of the
pastoral life, surrounded by a wreath of indigenous flowers,
are skilfully painted or embroidered upon the arms and back.
He lives almost a soldier's life. His flock he looks upon as
his people, whom he is bound not only to feed, but also to
protect. To do. so, he is ready to meet a wolf, or a bear, or
any other beast, armed, or unarmed, as he may happen to be
at the moment of attack.  Sometimes he is called upon to
defend his woolly tribe against more formidable antagonists;
but the wandering robber, who attempts depredations, will
learn, before he completes his theft, that a Magyar, though in
the lowest phase in which a Magyar is ever seen, is a warrior,
and generally a victor, by virtue of his blood.8
a Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i. 291.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                    47
The real soldier, however, among this remarkable people,
is the beau-ideal of their life. It is so not because they are
irascible, or quarrelsome, or covetous, as a nation. They are
not even quick to resent an injury. They will suffer any
amount of oppression, so far as it relates to business, without
manifesting much concern upon the subject.  Their honor,
however, their nationality, their ancestral rights and customs,
they watch with jealous determination. Touch the person,
or the reputation, or the sacred liberties of a Magyar, and
you rouse him. Then he is seen to best advantage. His
proud horse is always ready to be mounted. His rich uniform
hangs always in his hall equally submissive to the moment.
Buckling upon himself the one, and throwing himself astride
the other, he is at once the handsomest and the bravest trooper
of all countries.9
The highest physical perfection of a race, so far at least as
symmetry and beauty are concerned, is always exhibited, however, in the female sex.  Woman is ever more beautiful than
man; but, in no country, where the male is himself so superior, is there so great a pre-eminence- of feminine grace and
loveliness, as in the country of the Huns.  Southerp Europe
has been celebrated, by many grave philosophers, and by all
the poets, for the unrivaled charms of its fair inhabitants.
In Spain, the wandering Troubadour; in France, the passionate
Trouvire; in Germany, the profound but susceptible Minnesinger, have risen -up in successive schools to assert the claim
of superiority for their- respective lands. Modern writers
have generally given to the Georgian and Circassian beauties
The reader is of course aware, that the hussar, the most splendid
of all the military companies of modern nations, is only the imitation of the regular Hungarian cavalry. His uniform consists of
breeches with stockings buttoned to them, a doublet, a pair of red
or yellow boots, and a high cap with a plume of different colors.
His arms are a sabre, a carbine, and pistols. He is the most perfect
horseman in the world.




48              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.the contested palm.  Hungary, however, has been a sealed
country, almost from the beginning of its history, to the judges
of female beauty throughout the world. It is now revealed;
and the elegant debate is closed. Neither the dark-eyed
daughters of Castile and Arragon, nor the blue-eyed beauties
of Languedoc, nor the auburn-haired belles of the Suabian or
Bavarian line, can vie with the maidens of the Magyar land.
The country of the Caucasus itself, where the most perfect
of the human races was produced, and where the Turk still
finds the fairest of his concubines and slaves, must yield.
The Magyar beauty, with as fine a complexion as any Georgian
or Circassian, tinged though it slightly is with the' lively brown
of her oriental birth, has an expression not easily to be matched.
Hers is not the face of a mere physical beauty destitute of
thought.  There is a soul beaming through every feature.
Her eyes and hair are -dark. Her head is of the most finished
mold.  Her lips are thin' and delicately formed.  Her chin
is light, or moderate in size, indicative of the acknowledged
elegance of her mind. - Her cheeks are round and full, but
not massive, with that native dimple which always adds such a
peculiar sweetness to the fair. Her figure is symmetry itself.
Tall and slender, her movement is exceedingly easy and dignified, though, in a moment of excitement, her action becomes
at once expressive of the quick and powerful emotion of her
heart. In conversation, she is rather grave, her words are
well chosen, her reach of thought is elevated, her feelings are
earnest and sincere.  She is not inclined to laugh.  Her soul
is too deep for laughter; but there is a remarkable power and
significance in her smile. Her national dress, though not
worn in every-day life, but reserved for suitable occasions, is
tasteful, elegant, and rich. Her bust is exhibited in a tight
bodice, laced in front by pearl-covered bands, from the lower
fringe of which falls an ample skirt of velvet or brocade, terminating in a flowing train.  The head is bare, with its dark
locks, braided and set off with pearls, while the neck, arrm'




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  49
and waist are radiant with jewels, as if sparkling with so many
stars. If the Magyar maidens seldom realize, either in form
or style, the full perfection of this ideal of their race, there is
a decided tendency toward it in them all.10
The Sclave is a very inferior character to the genuine Magyar. How far we are to regard him as the representative of
all the peoples, who have inhabited Hungary from the earliest
times, having the mingled blood of the Cimmerian, the Scythian,
the Goth and the Tartar in his veins, it is not easy precisely
to determine. It is extremely probable, however, that, in
the successive expulsions undergone by these various tribes,
the country was never entirely cleared of any one of them;
and, consequently, the one now known as the Sclavic, which
certainly differs to some extent from the same tribe as seen in
Russia and other parts of Europe, may have received as many
modifications as there have been immigrations to the country
where they dwell. One thing, nevertheless, is certain. To
whatever extent this mixture of bloods may have been carried
in their case, they have not derived the physical and mental
advantages from it, which the science of physiology would
lead us to expect. However indolent may have been the
slumbering Cimmerian, we should presume, from what experience has taught the world, that, by the time the spirit and
fierceness of the other barbaric nations had been thus infused
into his natural temperament, he would have risen above the
slow, heavy, stupid Sclave, who now inhabits the mountain
border of this country. No race of people were ever so entirely
mean. Their very name has been adopted in all languages,
as the word of the greatest possible contempt, since there is
no worse reproach than to call a man a slave.
The Sclave, however, cannot be fully described by any
general epithets, however just the epithets may be, as he'~ The costume of the Hungarian lady is given by Paget, vol. ii.
p. 265. Her beauty is celebrated by all travelers.
5




50               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
differs, not only in his personal traits, but also in his provincial title, in the different -sections where he makes his residence.  The largest division of this great family are denominated Sclavacks, who are found in the barren mountains lying
in the north and west of Hungary. They are a poor, illiterate,
filthy, degraded race, without sense enough to appreciate their
position, or spirit enough to attempt any self-improvement,
could they realize their want. Their persons are of middling
size and hight, with very broad shoulders, coarse features, and
ill-shaped heads, which are rendered still more ugly by a
covering of long, shaggy, flaxen hair. Their clothing is as
unclean, as irregular, as uncomely as their persons. Their
houses are constructed of unhewn logs, laid up in quadrangular piles, with the interstices closed with mud.  One
end of their cabin, not always separated from the remainder
by a partition, is devoted to the larger cattle; while the
smaller ones, such as pigs and goats, are allowed to hold a
more particular intimacy, in every part, with its human occupants.  Drunkenness is a prevailing vice; and, as in other
countries, it brings with it nearly all the other vices.
The Sclavonians, another branch of the great family of
Sclaves, occupy a couple of provinces of their own, which,
however, have been, since the eleventh century, an integral
part of Hungary. Sclavonia and Croatia, the provinces referred to, are always spoken of together, because their population is homogeneous, and their fortunes have been united.
The people are not only very small in. stature, but miserable
in aspect, wearing apparel still coarser than that of their
Selavack brethren, and presenting every indication of poverty
and misery.
The Serbs, though slightly more elevated than the two preceding branches of the great Sclavic race, are still Serbs, or
Serfs, which, from the natural history of the word, can be
nothing else than slaves. The term, a corruption of the Latin
servus, or servant, has been justly applied to them, ever since




HUNGAR Y AND KOSSUTH.                 51
they have been known to Europe, as a mark of their servility
and meanness.  It is the Italian synonym for the German
sclave; and never was a general appellation more characteristically affixed. They are the last remnant of a horde of
Sarmatians, who, like the conquered Britons, retired in a body
from the scene of conquest, and settled in that fertile but
uncultivated tract of country around the confluence of the four
great rivers of the land. A large accession was made to them,
so late as the second half of the seventeenth century, from a
larger body of their tribe in Turkey.  Though now quite numerous,- they are extremely low, poor; and wretched, but little
more refined than the best of our own savage tribes.  Under
the various sub-cognomens of Servi, Illyri, and Rasciani, or
Raczes, they are always the same ignorant, indolent, degraded
beings so graphically described by the name of Serbs. Both
Servia, and the Serbian portions of the Banat, are sufficient
demonstrations of the character of the generations which successively vegetate and rot upon their soil.
The Wallack, who is fastened to the fiefs of Transylvania,
boasts of a descent from the Romans of the imperial times.
He claims to have remained in the country after the Goths
had taken possession of it and the larger portion of the Roman
colonies had retired. His claim, however, can be only partially admitted, as his physical and mental traits indicate as
much of Sarmatian as of Roman blood.  Whatever be his
genealogy, indeed, his abject condition can not be misunderstood. Not only in appearance, or in title, but in fact, he has
always been a slave.  While the Sclavonian himself, insignificant as he is, has received an acknowledgement of his freedom,
and talks loudly about a nationality, the Wallack, until very
recently, has never aspired to a personal recognition by the
government, or dreamed of being free. Bound to the soil on
which he lives, as much as the rude hut in which he dwells,
he seems to have confessed his inferiority with a stupid




52              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
willingness, which nothing but an actual and essential servility
and barrenness of spirit could have brought about.
In Transylvania, also, are found the Szeklers, a singular
race of people, who profess to be the descendants of the Attilan
Huns.  They were found in the country by the Magyars,
living where they now live, and, from their physical aspect,
language, customs and style of dress, were recognised, or at
least acknowledged, as kindred of the conquering tribe.  They
were at once adopted as free citizens, and in return for this
distinction, they bound themselves and their posterity for ever
to guard and defend the eastern section of the Hungarian
frontier. Darker in countenance than their Magyar brethren,
as well as smaller in stature and less symmetrical in shape,
they are evidently below them in a physical point of view;
and their intellectual character, though decidedly more elevated than that of the Selavic tribes, and possessing many
interesting features, shows just brilliancy and power enough
to justify their relationship to the dominant people of the land.
Their moral character, however, entitles them to great respect.
Like the Magyars themselves, they have a high sense of honor,
which would carry one of them to the dungeon, or to death,
rather than to break his word.  In all the troubles of Hungary,
since the final conquest of it, they have been generally true to
their plighted faith; ~and, when any lack of zeal on their part
has occurred toward their kinsmen and benefactors, it has
arisen more from some misunderstanding of their duty, than
from ungenerous design. It would seem, indeed, that, though
their bodies and minds have not been improved by any mixture
with more gifted nations, as their brethren have been, the
common and inalienable characteristic of both races is a great
honesty of purpose, which, without other qualities, will always
secure the good opinion of mankind.
The Magyars, Sclavacks, Sclavonians, Serbs, Wallacks and
Szeklers are to be considered as the native tribes of Hungary_
There are others, however, whose presence in the country has




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI-.                 53
been brought about by various causes, and whose character
and condition must be described.
Bordered on the west and north-west by Germany, and
having been connected with it politically for more than three
hundred years, Hungary has received from it many accessions
to her population at different times.  In the north of Hungary,
but particularly in Transylvania, are the settlements of the
Saxons, who were first invited into the land in the twelfth
century, while Bela the Blind was king. His widow, the
princess Helena, extended the invitation the second time, when
large immigrations took place.  Those settling in Transylvania
were erected into a distinct municipality by Andreas the
Second, who permitted them to elect their own magistrates, to
make their own private laws, to choose and support their own
clergymen, to trade throughout the country without the payment of any tax, and to cut their wood and pasture their cattle
on lands belonging to other tribes.  Such privileges could not
fail to give them prosperity in business. They have consequently thrived. They are the best farmers in Hungary; but,
in every other respect, they are immeasurably inferior to the
Magyars.  In ph'ysical appearance, they are coarse, clumsy,
ill-made beings, with gray and greedy-looking eyes, with large
but irregular and heavy heads covered with flaxen hair, and
with every other mark of stupidity common to such a race.
They have not the first indication of delicacy about them.
They aspire to nothing better than the animal, or brutish, life.
Their women, even, have not the slightest token of refinement
in their habits, or in their dress.  Like the men, they live and
labor in the field, spending their whole time in the coarsest
employments of the farm.  If found in the Hungarian cities,
as these Saxons and other Germans often are, their aspect and
style of life is equally disgusting. The males go about with
their dirty pipe-bowls hanging a foot below their mouths. The
females walk the streets with large burdens upon their heads.
Their dwellings are uncouth, filthy, devoid of every degree of
5*




54              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
taste, while their occupants pass an existence more like cattle
than like men.
Among the alien population, in spite of their long residence
in the country, must be ranked the sons of Abraham according
to the flesh. As is their custom everywhere, they make their
residence almost wholly in the towns, and gain their livelihood
by their ordinary methods of taking usury and selling jewelry
and clothes; and many a Shylock among them  has amassed
his millions, though living among his enemies, and in spite of
oppressions scarcely to be paralleled even in the bloody annals
of his race. Their fortunes have been extremely checkered
in this unhappy land. They were settled in the country, in
large numbers, when it was first conquered by the Huns. At
one time they have prospered to such a degree that they held
the Magyars themselves in a state of financial bondage, governed all the monetary interests of the nation, and claimed
to have mortgages upon many of the crown-lands as security
for large sums of lent money, which the impoverished or needy
monarchs found it impossible or inconvenient to restore. At
another time they have been expelled by public edict from
their possessions, stripped of their natural and civil rights, and
banished from their firesides and homes.  Still, after every
calamity, here they are at the present day, plying their two
trades with unflinching avarice, with sordid energy, and with
that insanity of submission, under every vicissitude, which has
always marked them out as the devoted, if not self-conscious,
children of the second curse. Their condition has ever been, and
is now, precarious. Their character need not be described. It
is enough. to say, that, in Hungary as elsewhere, they never fail
to follow the richest promises, or yield to the heaviest bribes.'l
" Miss Pardoe, who traveled in Hungary in 1839, gives a lively
description of the past oppressions and present condition of the Jews.
City of the Magyar, vol. iii. p. 297. She also states, that, at a recent
period, Baron Sina was the creditor of all the nobles of the land.
Vol. ii. p. 289.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  5
Next to the MIagyars in interest, but decidedly the lowest
and most wretched of all the people, are the Zigeuners, or
Hungarian gipsies, whose origin is entirely unknown.  They
have been the subject of a great deal of ingenious speculation;
but neither their physical structure, their color, their customs,
or their language, has been enough to unravel the mystery in
which their genealogy is involved. Nothing can exceed the
wretchedness in which they live. The- men are slightly
covered by a single garment of the coarsest kind of cloth.
The women are vailed, rather than clothed, in rags. Their
children are not clothed at all.  They have no fixed habitations, but wander over all the country, begging where they
are allowed to beg, and stealing where they can. Their stature
is low, their size is small; and the color of their skin, which
is nearly black, separates them entirely from every branch of
the Caucasian race. They have dark glossy hair, very black
and brilliant eyes, and teeth as white as ivory itself. In form
they are rather graceful, particularly their young women, who
walk with a quick, tripping, elastic step, and show their spirit
by the restlessness of their feet, hands and eyes. They live
in communities, following the instincts of nature, rather than
the dictates of reason, or the regulations of the land.  No
woman knows her husband.  No husband knows his wife.
The children are regarded as the common property of the
tribe. The relation of father, as well as that of brother and
sister, excepting on the mother's side, are utterly unknown.
They have no dwellings, or lands, or property of any kind,
excepting their instruments of music, a few tools of their
tinkering craft, and the rude vessels in which they cook their
food. Sometimes a colony of them will fix their abode on the
confines of a town, or village, where they will remain for
months, rarely for a whole year, after which they will suddenly decamp without giving the slightest notice of their intentions to the inhabitants among whom they dwell. Their
occupation is restricted to a little black-smithing, to the manu



56                HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
facture of certain trinkets, and to the use of musical instruments. In music they decidedly excel. Their ear is acute,
their taste is very fair; and they are consequently employed
as musicians at every festal occasion throughout the land. No
political meeting can be held, no young man can marry,
scarcely can a child be born, without the help of the Zigeuner
bands. When young, the Hungarian gipsies are often comely,
if not beautiful; but, such is the filth in which they dwell,
they become exceeding ugly and disgusting toward the close
of life. They are not all as degraded, however, as they are
here described. There is a wide difference of social character
and position among them. Young men of enviable parts, particularly in their favorite profession of music, have been discovered by travelers in their most miserable colonies; while
the maidens are occasionally not only pretty, but intellectual,
considerably refined in their manners, and really good, virtuous
and benevolent at heart. Such a one, if she sees a wayfarer
in difficulty, will become almost a heroine in his behalf. She
will leave her menial occupation, in whatever place she may
be employed, leap over a fence to the public road, salute her
protege with kindness, mount to the top of his carriage by a
single bound, and never leave him till he is wholly extricated
from his embarrassment, or distress. In all respects, in their
traits of character, not less than in their genealogy, the Zigeuners of Hungary are a mystery, which it would be interesting
to investigate and useful to resolve.12
The total population of the country of the Magyars amounts
1" The example here presented is not an imaginary one. Precisely
such a case of heroism occurred to Paget.  Hung. and Trans. vol. ii.
p. 99. The beautiful and beneficent Lila! The traveler discusses
the gipsy question more at large in another place, vol. ii. p. 150.
See also City of the Magyar, vol. i. p. 167, and Pulszky's Mem. Hung.
Lady, vol. i. p. 48. Madame Pulszky thinks the Zigeuners are outcasts from India, who were expelled by Tamerlane in his celebrated
wars; but they were in Hungary many centuries before that period.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH,                   57
to little less than fifteen millions. This sum has never been
distributed, with any degree of accuracy, to the different races.
The Magyars may have about five millions; the Sclavacks,
two millions; the Sclavonians, including the Croatians, two
millions; the Serbs, one million and a half; the Wallacks,
one million; the Szeklers, one million; the Saxons, and other
Germans, including Moravian and Bavarian Sclavacks, one
million-and a half; the Jews, half a million; and the gipsies,
one hundred thousand.'
It will be seen, therefore, that the Magyars, though not so
numerous as all the other races, are more than twice the
number of any one of them. The superiority, which they
have always maintained, and ever must maintain, is based
entirely upon their character; for, if we except the Szeklers,
their distant kindred, together with certain portions of the
Germans, one genuine Magyar has more of the manly and
ruling elements of humanity, than ten of the remaining people.
In one of the Southern States of our own great Union, the
black Sclaves of America are to the dominant population as
four to one. In Hungary, the ratio between the ruled and
the ruling is only two to one; while there is nearly as great a
difference, in every thing but color, between the Magyar and
the majority of his countrymen, with the exception above
stated, as between the American and the negro. The African
as often rises above the general level of his race, in this country,
as does the Sclavack, the Sclavonian, or the Serb in the country
of the Magyar.
" McCulloch, who follows Paget, makes a lower estimate, setting
down the whole population at about ten millions; but KIossuth, in
the Declaration of Independence and other official documents, declares
it to be full fifteen millions. With his statement I have compared
many authorities, mostly written, but some verbal; and I have come
to the conclusions above stated. We shall never know the truth
exactly till Austria shall dare to take a correct census of her people.




58              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI-.
CHAPTER III.
TILE RELIGIONS OF HUNGARY.
RELIGION, after making every allowance for the hardheartedness and infidelity of mankind, is the most powerful
and the most universal element of the social state. Though
the greatest number of individuals appear to live by sight,
rather than by faith, yet, in all nations and ages, the majority
have had their various ways of closing their eyes upon this
state of being, and of opening them, with more or less clearness, upon another. They have been willing, too, not only
to undergo a considerable degree of self-denial in the practice
of their faith, but absolute losses, deprivations, -and sufferings
in the defence of it.
The wars of the earliest nations, so far as we can now judge
from their scanty annals, were chiefly religious wars, in which
the gods of the conflicting nations were understood to have
acted a conspicuous part, and to have taken a profound interest.
It was not only the object but the fortune of the Babylonians,
Persians and Greeks, in their successive and successful struggles
after universal empire, to spread their several systems of theology over the length and breadth of their world-wide conquests. The hostilities waged by the Egyptians against the
Hebrews, and by the Hebrews against the nations of Canaan,
were also entirely theological in their character. The breaking
up of the oriental countries, first by Confucius, and afterwards
by Genghis and Tamerlane, was occasioned by the same species
of contention. Mahomet, in his sweeping and devastating
marches over a third part of the globe, professed to be only
the herald of a new religion, the prophet of his God.  The
establishment of the Roman empire is almost a solitary ex



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.'                   59
ception, in the history of ancient countries, to the rule now
alluded to; and even this universal government, though founded
from secular and civil motives by the use of merely military
instrumentalities, was at last subverted by religious partisans
and parties.
Nothing, indeed, is considered by a man so vital to his present
and future welfare as his system of divine worship; there is
nothing which a man takes a greater interest in extending;
and there is certainly nothing for which he will make greater
sacrifices, while in successful practice, or for which he will
brave more dangers, when it happens to be threatened with
disasters. To defend his faith, Socrates will die in prison;
and, with an increased ardor in proportion to the superior
value of his profession, the Christian martyr will defy the
dungeon and the rack, and even embrace death with the smile
of triumph.
These things being so, it is not strange, that, in Hungary
as everywhere, the religions successively professed by its inhabitants have been, almost from  the beginning, numbered
among the causes of its revolutions; that, in all ages of its
existence, they have formed important constituents of the
national politics; and that, at this moment, it is absolutely
impossible to present, or to understand, the theory of its recent
effort to regain its liberties and independence, without some
exposition, however brief, of its religious history and condition.
Since the first general aposfacy of mankind from the revealed but originally unwritten will of God, paganism, under
a great variety of phases, has been the primary religion of
every land. It is probable, from the little that is told of the
first inhabitants of Hungary, by Herodotus and two or three
9ther classic authors, that the Cinimerians, like their neighbors
qf Thrace, adhered to that original and simple form of pantheism, so beautiful and yet so fanciful, which, from the
foundation of the eastern nations to the days of Thales and
Pythagoras, reigned over the greater part of the oriental world.




60               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
The visible universe was their God. The one was all; and
all was one. They had no idea of a supreme Being, or allpervading and omnipresent Spirit, distinct from matter and its
attributes. Nature, according to this system of religion, was
a living animal, vast, almighty, uncreated and eternal. The
entire sum of existence was its body; the east and west points
of the horizon were its horns; its eyes, which alternated the
duties of universal inspection, were the sun and the moon; the
winds were its wings; and on its head sat the canopy, like a
glorious crown, ribboned with rain-bows and inlaid with stars.
This was the religion, if it may be so called, of the slumbering
Cimmerians, who passed a dreamy and speculative life amidst
the moantain-shadows of their beautiful, fertile, and quiet
land.'
Polytheism, the child of this early pantheism,' more and
more puzzled with the immensity, variety and intricacy of
material nature, gradually dropped the idea of a unity in this
vast and manifold totality, and began to pay divine honors to
the sun, moon, and stars, and to the different parts of the
world we inhabit. The progress of astronomy, which brought
to light, from time to time, marks of a seeming independence
of one heavenly body upon another, because the motions of
those bodies were not comprehended, contributed greatly to
the transformation of the pantheistic imaginings into polytheism.
Before the Scythians had made their settlements in Dacia and
Pannonia the ehange had completely taken place. All the
tribes inhabiting the country, between the fall of the Cimmerians and the coming of the Magyars, were worshipers of
many gods.  Their theology, it is true, was not as complicated'In the reputed works of Orpheus there is a fragment, strikingly
poetical, which gives the most ingenious and beautiful exposition of
this original pantheism ever written. To the Cimmerians I have
applied only so much of the passage as seems to belong to them.
They were not as cultivated as the Thracians. Orphica, p. 138.
Leipsic edition.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  61
and perfect as that of their Roman and Greek neighbors; but
it was less so merely because they were themselves less civilized,
if not by nature less intellectual. There was a very great
simplicity in their worship. They paid religious homage,
indeed, to all natural objects, whether of the heavenly regions,
or of the earth; out their ceremonies were extremely brief,
though beautiful. A low bow of respect and of entreaty to
the rising sun, or a look of gratitude toward his setting beams,
or a glance of joy at the virgin brightness of the star of
evening, or a wider and weightier consideration of the countless
splendors of the night, were portions of their religious service.
The plain, the river, the hill, the forest, every earthly object
from which they derived advantage, received a peculiar token
of their thankfulness. These, however, were but the immediate
agents, by whose instrumentality the thousand benefits of life
were conferred upon the worshipers. The original causes
of these blessings were out of sight.  Indeed, these early
pagans, no less than the most enlightened and thoughtful
Christians, who have lived under happier circumstances, saw
clearly that the earth, with all its variety of powers, received
its light, and warmth, and productiveness from sources entirely
beyond itself. These sources were gods; they were gods with
the faculties of men; and hence they were adored in humanlike images of wood, of metal, and of stone.
The Magyars brought a new religion to this interesting
land. Like most of the off-shoots of that vast people, which
have dwelt so long on the Pacific shores of Asia, they were
monotheists, paying no religious veneration to any being but
their one almighty, omniscient and eternal God. Their altars
were erected on the loftiest hills, or in the shade of remote
forests, or within the precincts of neighboring groves. White
horses were their choicest sacrifices. The name of their Great
Spirit was Isten, a word of kindred origin, probably, with the
Persian Izdan, or Izana, from whose beneficence they imagined
all human blessings to be derived. They rendered a sort of
6




62              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHI.
grateful respect, not amounting to the lowest style of worship,
however, to the earth, to the air, to water, and to fire, as the
chief ministers of the Supreme Being, but especially to the
sun as the principal messenger of his blessings.
The idea of an evil spirit, the author of sin, the source of
all temptations to what is bad, they designated by the Persic
name of Armany, which, in that language, is the word for
intrigue. The diabolus, or devil, of Christian nations, from
the title given him, is known as the opposer, or antagonist,
of our nature in its upright condition, who performs his
work by an open declaration of hostility. The Armany of
the Hungarians, like the Ahriman of the Persians, whose
Magyar cognomen was Urdung, or Orddg, was a wily spirit,
who prosecuted his wicked purposes by guile.
They believed in the immortality of the soul, and, like all
the oriental nations, indulged in glowing pictures of the future
and better life. They buried their dead by the side of navigable rivers, rather than in the country, as if the passage of the
departed would thereby be facilitated to the spirit-land. No
mournful processions followed a deceased Magyar to his grave;
but his relatives and friends spread their most sumptuous
banquet over his buried body; and they sang over it their
most cheerful melodies, as if the event were not one of sorrow,
but of joy.
Nothing, however, was held more sacred by the Hungarians,
than an oath. They surrounded it with every ceremony, and
association, calculated to awaken awe.  The perjurer was
regarded as the perpetrator of the most daring and abominable of crimes. When about to take the oath, on a solemn
occasion, they were accustomed to open a vein in one arm of
each of the contracting parties, and let the blood flow out into
a common vessel. From this vessel each of the contractors
drank in turn till it was quite empty, and, at the same time,
and in the same words, pronounced a heavy curse on him who
should break the pact.




HUNGARY AND KOSSU'IH.                    63
The priests of this religion, called magi, or soothsayers,
were the counselors of the magistrates, as well as the poets,
physicians and philosophers of the people. "In their festivals, and at the sacrifices, they sang heroic songs, which they
accompanied by the lyre, in order to awaken in the people
the love of glory, to pour strength and fortitude into the
savage breast, or to melt them  to gentler feelings.  The
people showed them unlimited esteem, but, nevertheless,
would not allow them to violate or. abridge the liberties of
the nation, as the priesthood had done with many other
oriental countries."2
When St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary, and the first
princely convert from the religion of his fathers to the Christian
faith, undertook, in the year 1000, to bring his nation into his
new way of worship, he found it no easy task. Those in the
habit of reasoning contended, that their ancestral belief was
as sound, as rational, as useful as the one proposed; that,
while both systems were monotheisms, partaking of the same
general character, and based on the same fundamental principles, the new one was more complicated, more speculative,
requiring faith to supply the deficiency of demonstration; and
that the people professing it, though more contentious and
uncharitable about their dogmas, were not at all more moral,
more honorable, or more religious, than themselves. They
quoted, as a proof of the political value of their religion, the
energy, the good fortune, the unbroken prosperity of their
fathers. They considered the proposed change as an apostasy,' Horvath, Geshichte der Ungarn, Part First, sec. ii. ~ 4.  From
this work, translated from the original Magyar into German, and
recently published at the city of Pesth, I have taken this sketch
of the, Hungarian national religion. The work will be of still
greater use in some of the succeeding chapters of this volume.
Written long after the publication of the great work of Fessler, it has
corrected many of the errors of that well-known historian, and is now
the standard history of Hungary with the Hungarians themselves.




64              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
committed in cold blood, from the faith of the Magyar nation,
involving a total renunciation of their sainted dead. The
whole population clung with filial fondness to the venerable
worship handed down to them from the remotest ages.  They
openly resisted the authority, as they had argued against the
example, of their respected sovereign.  When pushed to extremities, they seized their trusty weapons, fled to the rude
groves of their ancestors, and resolved to die in defence of the
old religion, mingling their heroic blood with the ashes of the
departed.
But the character, rather than the military forces, of their
monarch finally prevailed against them. By nature a most
upright and well-meaning man, in his life a paragon of every
thing good and great, and his kingly heart beating with the
pulsations of patriotism itself, his person was revered, his
example was contagious, his word was clothed with almost the
authority of law. He succored the missionaries sent to him
from the See of Rome. He scattered them over all the
country, gave them  his royal seal and signature as a guarantee of their safety, and supported their influence and minisistrations by all the prerogatives of his throne.  Some of these
apostles being learned, many of them eloquent, and all of them
ingenious in their business, they at length prevailed in persuading the masses of the people to follow the footsteps of
their beloved monarch; and the few nobles, who still persisted in their opposition, and seemed determined to rise or
fall in battle, were met and humbled. The king was perfectly
triumphant; and the banner of the cross was at once seen
streaming upon the Hungarian breezes.3
From the eleventh to the sixteenth century, Christianity, as
s The last battle fought by Stephen against the rebellious nobles
was to put down what is called, in Hungarian history, the conspiracy
of Kupa. It was severe, bloody, protracted, but decisive. Horvath,
Geschichte der Ungarn, Part Second, cap. i. sec. i. p. 31.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.               65
held by the Roman Catholics, was the religion of the Magyars;
but a long time before the days of Stephen, before even the
settlement of the Hungarians in this country, its Sclavic inhabitants had made marked approaches toward the doctrines
and discipline of the Greeks. Charlemagne had made great
exertions to introduce to its population the faith of Christ;
and the -onversion of the Moesians, Bulgarians, Moravians,
Bohemians, and other Sclavic tribes, about the middle of the
ninth century, had almost surrounded the Sclaves of Hungary
with their kindred, who had submitted to the authority of the
cross. Under the reign' of the Greek emperor, Basilius, the
inhabitants of Sclavonia and Dalmatia, jointly with the
Arentanians, sent a solemn and public deputation to Constantinople, offering to renounce the rites and ceremonies of
their pagan ancestors, if the Grecian patriarch would grant
them teachers to instruct them in the truth. The overture
was readily and joyfully accepted; Christian laborers were
dispatched immediately to the fields thus providentially opened
to the gospel; and, almost instantaneously, all the provinces
of Lower Hungary, then inhabited almost entirely by Sclaves,
were received into the pale of the Greek Church. The conversion of the Russians, toward the close of this century, completed the work which had been so promisingly begun.
Nearly all the Sclaves in Europe, from  the Baltic to the
Bosphorus, from the valleys of Bohemia to the shores of the
Euxine, were thus turned from paganism to a profession of
Christianity, and, in company with the Wallachians, whose
conversion happened about the same period, added to the
communion of the Independent Greeks.4
But the schism of the Greek and Roman Catholics, which
began in the fifth century and became settled at the over
throw of Constantinople by the Turks, not only sundered the
Christian world into two grand communities, but raised up
4 Mosh. Eccl. Hist. Pros. Ev., 9th and 10th centuries.




66             IHUNGARY AND KOSSUTTH.
a third party, possessed of no little strength. The Roman
patriarchs, or popes, though legally recognised as the nominal
head of Christendom, could not afford to lose the material
support of all those rich and splendid countries, which, upon
the division of the empire, had been acknowledged as dependencies of the eastern branch.  The Greek patriarchs, on
the other hand, failing to maintain their claim of equality
with the Roman, and prompted to peaceful measures by
several of the emperors, were constrained to offer and to accept,
at different times, proposals for the reunion of the eastern
and western divisions of the Church. As often, however, as
these schemes were brought forward and subscribed by the
high contracting parties, the body of the Greek clergy, supported by a majority of their communicants, would resist them
with their might.  Many large societies, nevertheless, scattered
all over eastern Europe, served by a peace-loving or timid race
of pastors, not only sustained these attempts at union, but,
when the attempts proved unsuccessful, adhered perseveringly
to their principles, and individually connected themselves with
the Roman Church. They were not required to abjure any
of their peculiar ceremonies or doctrines. They still adhered
to the canons of their eight general councils. They still
anointed the sick, as well as the dying, with extreme unction.
They still immersed their converts, in the name of the holy
Trinity, three times in water. They still offered both elements of the communion, mixed in a golden or silver spoon,
to the faithful and devout membership.  They still permitted
their clergymen to marry virgins and rear their own households; and, it may be as truly added, they still fostered as
real an enmity toward the peculiar heresies of their Roman
brethren, as they probably would have done in a perfectly
separate and independent state. With all their professions of
peace, followed by a secret and bitter jealousy of the power
and splendor of both their former and latter friends, they are




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                67
known in Hungary, as in other countries, under the deceptive
title of United Greeks.
The writings of Martin Luther carried the doctrines of the
Reformation into Hungary. His character was exactly suited
to captivate the Magyars. They looked with admiration upon
his boldness, energy, and spirit. Though a pious and learned
divine, there was something martial in him, which the Hungarians knew how to appreciate. His love of liberty, however, was the -trait most attractive to them. He had his
own ideas. He delivered them openly and freely. He would
deliver them in spite of all men. All the rank Catholics of
his city and vicinity combined against him; but he ceased not
a moment in fear of the combination. The rulers of the
church threatened him with an ecclesiastical prosecution;
but he heeded not their threatenings. The head of the
church fulminated a decree of excommunication against him;
but he burnt the decree to ashes- in the presence of his enemies. The emperor himself, who reigned over the largest
and most powerful dominion of modern'ages, summoned the
reformer to stand before him, and before the assembled princes
of the nations, to answer his royal questions at the peril of
his liberty or his life; but, undaunted by every danger, the
reformer went directly forward, met his majesty with perfect
fearlessness, put the royal accusations beneath his feet, routed
the whole body of his assailants, and stood forth to the world
a conqueror, with his heel upon the heart of a corrupt church,
with his grasp upon the throat of a superstitious and mercenary empire. That was the man, that was the attitude, to
command the admiration of the Magyars. The doctrine, too,
of personal responsibility and liberty, had always been their
doctrine. They had contended for the right of private judgment in civil matters; and they were equally ready to accept
it in relation to religious practices and opinions. They never
had been Catholics as other nations had been Catholics. They
had been coirced rather than convinced. Though, by a con



68              IIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
tinued study and observance of the Christian religion for several centuries, they had become strong believers in its divine
origin, and in its great value to the human race, they had
never been very hearty papists. The papal system was too
arbitrary to suit their temper.  The dogma of pontifical
infallibility had been to them an object of contempt. The
custom of delivering up soul and body to the priest had never
been their custom. They had ever been for liberty, individuality, equality.  Luther, in their eyes, had broached no
new doctrines. He seemed only to have espoused their principles. The first word from his mouth was to them the signal
for re-asserting their national position.  They did re-assert
it; and the entire race, with the exception only of the great
magnates, whose alliance with the government has ever been
the means of their personal corruption, raised the banner of
reform, and became stanch and open Lutherans.
The Magyars, however, had to undergo another revolution,
before their religion could be entirely settled. The division
between Luther and Zuingle was at once felt in Hungary.
Luther, while stoutly denying the Catholic dogma of the real
presence of the Savior in the elements of the Supper, by
coining the barbarous word, consubstantiation, had introduced
an unintelligible barbarism into his system of theology. Many
of his warmest friends had declared themselves incapable of
seeing any fundamental difference between this notion and the
notion of the rankest Catholic. The Swiss reformer, in particular, strove manfully against it. Calvin, his successor,
organized in Switzerland a new society of reformers, by
making the bread and the wine of the eucharist merely the
representatives of the body and blood of the Redeemer, and
by purging the theology of Luther of several other halfcatholic superstitions. His doctrine of decrees, which seemed
to be but the revival of the old classic and oriental conceptions
of fatality, was not at all unsuitable to gain credit with a
people of eastern origin.  When Matthias Devay began secretly




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  69
to inculcate among the Magyars the opinions of the Swiss
school, he found a large proportion of them, including the
most intelligent and thoughtful, ready to receive him.  Szegedin, a renowned Calvinistic preacher, quite equal in intellectual ability to any of the reformers, and resembling
Luther in boldness and perseverance, followed Devay, and
halted not in his great enterprise until he had succeeded in
making a deep and general impression.  The Lutherans of
Hungary were divided by him into two great, irreconcilable,
and even hostile parties. Time has not softened, but rather
exasperated, their opposition. The Lutherans remain faithful to the theological system of the great German; but the
Calvinists are, at once, the most liberal, the most enterprising,
and the most powerful.
In the midst' of all these religious revolutions, the Germans
of Hungary, after the most liberal allowance for individual
exceptions, have generally adhered fixedly to the church of
the imperial government.  The government is German; and
they are German. The government is Catholic; and they are
Catholic.  That is the rationale of their position.  It cannot
be said that they dare not think. They do not wish to think.
The government thinks for them.  The priest is the paid
and petted representative of the government.  He sways his
parishioners precisely as he lists. He teaches them to look
down upon their fellow-citizens, belonging to the other communions, as so many damnable heretics, whose lives have been
spared, not from merit, but-from necessity.
Indeed, from this brief historical survey of the various ecclesiastical establishments of Hungary, it.is evident, that, in that
country, religion is by no means a bond of peace and amity,
but a fountain of bitterness and discord. The different races,
sufficiently separate and hostile by national attractions and
repulsions, are rendered still more unfriendly by that which
ought to have pacified and united them. In all countries,
this multiplicity of faiths has ever been, and will always be,




70              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
a source of many animosities; but, in Hungary, the evil is
peculiarly aggravated.  Each race has its own religion.  The
Sclave, to whatever subdivision of his family he may belong,
as well as the Wallachian, is almost certain to be a member
of the Greek Communion. The Magyar, with whom the
Szeckler must always be connected, excepting only their
official and titled nobles, is either a Lutheran, or a Calvinist.
The German, by position quite as much as by preference, is
naturally a Catholic. The remainder of the population is
divided between the Jews and Gipsies, the former of whom
have shown, in all countries and through successive ages, a
memorable stubbornness of will, by which they have been an
isolated people in whatever nation they have dwelt; and the
latter, the mysterious descendants of an unknown race of men,
are a tribe of heathen,. upon whom Christianity has never
made its mark.
In no country of the world, ancient or modern, has the
population been so radically and perfectly divided in respect
to religious faith.  In no country have there existed more
causes to render these divisions perpetual and bitter.  Every
Christian denomination, singular as it may seem, is the
result of a religious quarrel. The Independent Greek Church
quarreled with the Roman, separated from it, and then established both itself and its hatreds among the Wallachians
and Sclaves of Hungary. The United Greeks, after raising
a domestic feud, turned traitors to the Independent Church,
and united with its rankest enemies.  The Roman Catholics
had a natural war with both these sects, and, though receiving
the little band of returned prodigals with an ostentatious
clemency, they have never granted them  the affection and
confidence, which had been promised and expected. The
Protestants, whether Lutheran or Calvinistic, are the offspring
of the bloodiest of all religious schisms; and they look down
with a most hearty but justifiable contempt upon the superstitions, and ignorance, and degradation of both the Roman




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.                   71
and the Greek Catholics.  The Jews, of course, despise all
these rebels to the faith of Abraham, and are as sincerely
hated or pitied by all the rebels in return.
Thus, the Hungarian races are rendered tenfold more inimical
to each other, by their profession of inimical religions; thus,
these inimical religions, sufficiently opposite themselves, are
rendered tenfold more opposite, by the quarrels in which they
had their origin; and thus, from the beginning of its history,
with increasing rather than abating turbulence, has the land of
the Magyar been torn, and rent, and sacrificed by its religious
denominations. An eternal, unappeasable, insatiable hostility
exists between them. No word of love and peace, from one to
another, is ever offered. No such word would be received if
ever so freely spoken. Each is contending for superiority.
The Sclave struggles against all the others, not only because he
is a Sclave, but because he is a Greek Catholic, while the rest
of his countrymen, in his estimation, are worse than pagans.
The German contends for the supremacy, because he is a
German, because the government of the land is German, but
much more because he is a Roman Catholic, while every thing
about him is regarded as the rankest heresy. The Magyar,
though willing to grant equality of privilege to the other sects,
is indignant at the corruptions brought into the bosom of the
Christian Church-the church of his affections-by both Greeks
and Romans. Century after century, while a religious peace
has been gradually settling down upon other countries, the
religions of Hungary, which, in general, are races as well as
sects, have been nearly as distinct, as hostile, as irreconcilable,
as if they had inhabited as many unfriendly -and warlike
countries.
The Hungarian religions have, also, become woven into
the political movements of the several adjacent countries,
whose races are represented in the mixed population of this
kingdom. The present governors of Hungary, as has been
seen, are Roman Catholics. They acknowledge the sovereignty




72               HUNG ARY AND KOSSUTH.
of the Roman pontiff.  The Greek Catholics, on the contrary,
have their own pontiff, whose right of supremacy is not only
maintained by them, but by the entire Sclavic family, over
which Russia is now  dominant.  The Protestants, on the
other hand, while they depend, from religious connections,
upon no foreign people for support, renounce the jurisdiction
of all pontiffs, and make the pure word of God the sole
authority in religion. The state church, in all its ambitious
projects, has been able to rely upon the help, not only of the
Roman bishop, but of his Roman commonwealth. The Sclavic
church, in its opposition to the Roman, has leaned upon the
arm of the Greek bishop, and, through his agency, as well as
by the license of a common interest, upon the more powerful
support of imperial Russia. The Protestant cause, however,
has had nothing to sustain it but its own intrinsic truth.5
Indeed, in their religious character, they have ever been a
peaceable, liberal, tolerant people, desiring the reformation
of their Greek and Roman fellow-citizens, and sufficiently
zealous in the propagation of their faith, but raising no fierce
contentions in their country for religion's sake. The wars of
opinion have been waged, not by their instrumentality or cooperation, but in spite of them and generally against them.
To break them down, or to exterminate them from the country,
Italy has sent swarms of Jesuits into their communities, armed
with secret influences, guided by secret counsels, sustained by
secret but abundant subsidies. With the same foul purposes in
view, Russia has constantly tampered with the Sclavic tribes,
sent political and religious emissaries among them, induced
Once, it is true, the Protestants of Hungary, when suffering a
most cruel persecution from the other sects, who threatened their
annihilation, sought and obtained the succor of Great Britain. But,
at all other times, in all their calamities, they have trusted entirely
to themselves. It is a singular fact, that, at this day, the Bank of
England pays an annual interest on a sum of money funded by
Englishmen for the benefit of the Hungarian Protestants.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                    73
the priests and bishops to acknowledge the Czar as the head
of their ecclesiastical establishment, and turned their hearts
against all the remaining inhabitants of the country, and particularly against the Magyars. In this way, Hungary has
been made the common.battlefield of Austria, and Rome, and
Russia, as well as of all the nations taking part in their respective projects. Three great races, three great religions,
three irreconcilable and indomitable ambitions, have thus
divided and distracted the inhabitants, as well as weakened
the power, of this most unfortunate but most interesting
country.6
These religious feuds have implicated, not only the politics
of the kingdom, and the political designs of the most powerful
and unscrupulous of the surrounding nations, but also the
cause of popular education.  Each race, each sect, each political interest, has made the most strenuous exertions to sustain
itself by the agency of schools and colleges. In many other
countries, in the most enlightened and liberal portions of the
world, sectarian seminaries have existed; but, in no part of
Europe, or of America, is there one educational institution,
which can be compared with the majority of similar establishments in Hungary. Every school is sectarian. In every one
of them, not excluding the schools for the miners, some sectarian theology is forced upon the pupils. The great national
universities are Catholic; and no Protestant can send his sons
to be educated in them, unless at the fatal risk of seeing them
graduate as apostates to their paternal faith. The colleges of
the Protestants, on the other hand, at Debreczin, at Papa, at
6 "As political agents and spies of the Russian court," says Paget,
vol. ii. p. 82, "the Wallach priests are said to be made use of, and
I am fully inclined to believe it; for they regard the Archbishop of
Moscow as their primate, and the emperor of Russia as the head of
their church." Nearly all travelers in Hungary speak of the efforts
of Rome and Russia, upon the Sclavic and German populations, to
unite them respectively against the dominant race of people.
7




l 4             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH'.
Poson, at Kesmark, at Oedenburg, are forbidden by law to
the sons of Catholics. The few seminaries of the Greeks,
Independent and United, are equally under the ban of the
other denominations. By this means, the educated men of
the country are rendered rank partizans of their respective
churches. Education, which, in many other parts of the
world, is a bond of union among the more enlightened and
powerful portion of the population, here serves as an instrument of separation. Sectarianism is formed within the hearts
of the citizens from their earliest childhood. Their toy-books
teach it to them. Their text-books engrave it into their souls.
The authority of the masters, and all those tender and resistless influences, which are felt at school, so weave it into the
texture of their being, that it becomes and continues to- be an
inalienable attribute of their personality.
The same spirit is also carried into social life.  In city and
in country, the people are divided into religious cliques, or
circles, whose members hold intimacies almost exclusively with
each other. In Pesth, in Pressburg, in all the great towns,
and with nearly equal uniformity in the more populous of the
rural districts, Catholics associate with Catholics, Protestants
with Protestants, Greeks with Greeks, Jews with Jews.  All
the little but important civilities of common life run in these
separate circles. Trade is almost equally exclusive. Not
only the aged, whose principles- and prejudices are apt to be
confirmed, but the youth, also, are so settled in their habits,
or governed in their choices, that they seldom transgress this
established regulation of Hungarian intercourse. The consequence is, that few friendships are formed, and few alliances
take place, between the families of opposite religions. Intermarriages, -in fact, have been legally discouraged, and sometimes positively forbidden, to young men and maidens of
Catholic parentage.  The government can not see, at least
with satisfaction, the formation of any social connections,
which would serve to abate the zeal of its adherents. So




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.                   75
watchful has it been to preserve the exclusiveness of its partizans, that, whenever any contraband marriage happened to
occur, they have refused to give legal sanction to it, thereby
throwing the question of inheritance, where there might be
pr)perty  at stake, into a troublesome and terrifying uncertainty; and the priests of the state church, always
obedient to the religious prejudices of their sovereign, because
they were thus but giving succor to their own, have refused
not only to perform the matrimonial service, but to have any
farther intercourse with the family and friends of the recreant
party. The children of these mixed marriages are, by law,
divided between the parents, the father having the charge of
his sons, the mother of her daughters. Thus, this lamentable
spirit of disunion, of separation, of hostility, begins its unholy
business with the cradle. Mournful indeed, in every way, is
the social condition brought about by the religious intolerance
of the Hungarians.  The Magyars are the only people, who,
consistently and perseveringly, have opposed the sway of this
spirit within the limits of their country.7
Perhaps the most embarrassing circumstance, connected
with the religious state of Hungary, is the fact, that, in respect to their power, the parties are so nearly equal. If either
of them had a decided preponderance, though there might be
more oppression, there would' be less agitation, and, consequently, less political imbecility. The Catholics, though a
minority of the whole people, are held up by the authority of
the government; - but the numerous dignitaries of their church,
distributed carefully to all the important places of the king-' The marriage of M. de Beothy, about the year 1839, is an example
of the bigotry and policy of the government. The bishop of the
diocese refused to officiate on the occasion. A Protestant minister
was employed to perform the service; and the enraged bridegroom,
who had been a stanch Catholic, became one of the boldest and most
successful defenders of Hungarian liberty. —City of the Magyar,
vol. 1. p. 288.




76             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
dom, would give their communion a formidable influence without the help of any legal privileges. The king of Hungary
is himself the acknowledged head of Catholicity within his
dominions; but his authority is divided between the bishops
of Erlau, of Kalocza, and of Gran. Under them there are
fourteen diocesan, and sixteen secular, bishops. Below the
bishops there are eighteen metropolitan and collegiate chapters;
two hundred and sixty beneficed and honorary canons; one
arch-abbot, ruling over a hundred and fifty abbots; and,
below them all, a numerous, ignorant, bigoted, intolerant,
sensual priesthood, whose bread is guaranteed by the fostering
government, whose services are always rendered on the side
of tyranny and oppression, and whose lives would be a scandal
to the most degraded classes of any enlightened country.
The Independent Greek Church is governed by two bishops,
who, by the characteristic intrigue of the government, have
been subjected to the Roman archbishopric of Gran. Under
the jurisdiction of these bishops are two chapters, eleven
beneficed canons, six titular or honorary canons, and about one
thousand pastors. Though thus put under the surveilance of
the state church, the Greek hierarchy support the government
only when its measures are leveled against the Protestants;
but, whenever they have any interests of their own to serve,
they look to their natural ally and protector, the Russian
Czar, for whose health and welfare they daily employ a most
impressive and devout supplication, which is not only publicly
pronounced, but openly inserted in their book of ritual. The
priests of this religion, like the. people served by them) are
the most ignorant, debased, and superstitious in the kingdom.
The United Greeks, on the other hand, who are decidedly
more numerous than the Independents, are not very warm in
their attachments either to their German rulers, or to their
Russian patron. Russia, while she bestows her bribes upon
them with a lavish liberality, does so with desire, rather than
with expectation.  The bond of sympathy between the United




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  77
Greeks and the Russians is their common origin and language;
but the ecclesiastical influence of this large body of religionists,
where it is not itself otherwise interested, l-eans toward the
Austro-Roman government of their nation; and they have
been willing, for several, centuries, to submit to the dictation
of the Austro-Roman archbishop of Karlowicz, to whom
Austria has committed the trust of keeping them in subjection.
It must be evident, therefore, that the Protestant Magyars
are the only people of Hungary, whose entire interests begin
and terminate with their country. The Catholics belong to
Rome and Germany. The Greeks, both Independent and
United, are the natural confederates of Russia. Should Hungary fall, the Catholics have a home, a country, a kindred on its
western boundary. The Greeks, in the same event, have a
still larger and perhaps safer refuge just beyond its eastern
limits. The Jews and Gipsies are as much at home, as much
at their ease, in one part of the globe, as in another. The
Magyar alone, of all its population, has no interest, nothing
he can call his own, nothing to which he would lay a claim,
but Hungary. All the others derive their being, or receive
their consequence, or draw their support, from foreign sources.
To these foreign sources they, consequently, fondly look and
gratefully pay their allegiance. The Magyar receives nothing,
owes nothing, pays nothing of the kind, in relation to any
land but Hungary.  The Magyars are Hungary.  All the
rest are foreigners.  These expect all things from Austria,
from Rome, from Russia. The Magyars have no dependence
but God, their country, and their valor.
Their religion makes them, at the- same time, the friends
of personal liberty. It has no hierarchy. Each congregation is wholly independent of every other. Every one of them
is a miniature republic, in which each member has his voice,
his vote, his individual responsibility and importance. Every
one of them is a school for the study and practice of the great
doctrines of human freedom. Every one of them is a place,
7*




78             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
where men learn to think, to resolve, to act, not as other men
may dictate, but as the pure word of God, expounded by reason
and enforced by conscience, may command them. With the
Magyar, indeed, allegiance to God is the first and great commandment. The second is a sincere, perfect, hopeful, unfaltering self-reliance.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 79
CHAPTER IV.
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF THE MAGYARS.
IT has been a question among philosophers, whether a
language makes its people, or a people makes its language.
The Greek, for example, not only contained a civilization
within itself, but it had the power to impart that civilization
to any people, who might adopt it. Such, indeed, is the
actual history of the Greek, as it spread from its native seat
to the many ancient countries, which it successively pervaded.
It can not be maintained, perhaps, that there was any meaning, or potentiality, or creative power in the words themselves;
but those words, when looked upon by the most barbarous
tribes, were seen to be the exponents of human thoughts;
and, therefore, into whatever land they traveled, they became
active in stirring up the mind of its population to realize the
ideas thus represented. In this way, more than by the valor
of all her armies, did Greece gradually and effectually expand
the compass of her nationality, till it was rendered almost
universal.
Not only the Greeks, however, but the population of every
country, convey their national character to their language.
Their language, in fact, is only the receptacle of that character. It is the common treasury, into which they all pour
their thoughts, their feelings, their peculiarities. When thus
full of the mind of a nation, it reacts directly and powerfully
upon that nation, forming the mind of each new generation
as it rises. Their speech becomes, in this manner, the perpetuator of the people, just as the people are the perpetuators of
their speech. Let a certain portion of them lose the use of
their mother tongue, and learn the dialect of another country,




80               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
and they will at once be transformed, in heart at least, and
in reality if they can have their choice, into citizens of that
country. Let them all be led or forced to abandon their
tongue, or let their tongue be annihilated altogether, and the
entire nationality, which they had before, will be laid off, and
a new nationality will come to them from their new language.
Greece, in an early period of her history, happened to communicate her language, by the means of a few colonies, to the
western shores of Asia Minor. The result was, that all that
portion of the world became, in every particular, Grecian.
The inhabitants talked Greek, and read Greek, and transacted
all their affairs in Greek.  To Greece, as their father-land,
they looked, for their instructors in philosophy, their textbooks in science, their models in the arts, their forms of
government, their principles of legislation, and for every thing
which molds the character and creates the condition of a commonwealth.  Colonies equally large, and equally enlightened,
were planted, also, on the plains of Italy and Sicily; but there
were causes in existence, in these countries, which forbade
the propagation of the colonial language within their limits.
The Greek civilization, therefore, was confined to the Grecian
cities thus transplanted in the west, though their political
influence was paramount in south-western Europe, till they
were subsequently overthrown by the towering enterprise of
a native population.1
It has evidently been the conviction of all countries, which
have had any reasons for giving attention to this subject, that
a nationality is more inherent in the medium of a people's
intercourse, than in their laws and constitutions. Spain, to
defend herself against the Moors, fought for centuries to
oppose the extinction of its own tongue by the diffusion of
the Arabic.  The old statute-books of Great Britain are full'This topic has been ably handled by Heeren in his Politics of
Greece.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  81
of legislative efforts, made by successive parliaments, against
the Latin and the French, which Coesar and the Norman conqueror had respectively brought with them. Indeed, it was
for a long period regarded as a hopeless task, by many English
statesmen, to combine all parts of the realm under a homogeneous government, whatever might be the nature of that
government, until the dialects of the Scotch, the Irish and the
Welsh could be melted down into one common language.
Their foresight was almost prophetic. Scotland, at this time,
is divided, not only between the Scotch and English languages,
but, as a consequence, between Scotch and English sympathies,
predilections, and tendencies.  In Ireland, too, the same prophecy has met with' the same fulfilment. In her northern
counties, the English is spoken almost exclusively by the
native population; and it is in the north of Ireland, also, that
the inhabitants look upon themselves, in all respects, as Englishmen, while the southern portion of the island, where the
original Celtic still prevails among the lower classes, has ever
been the hot-bed of Irish independence.2
Not only the governments, however, but the religions of
mankind, have seen and recognised the stubbornly preservative power of language. The Jew, in all ages of the world,
and in every region, has been able to maintain his mode of
worship, against all the influences of all the countries where
he has made his habitation. This he has done by clinging,
with the tenacity of despair, to that majestic speech in which
his venerable religion lies imbodied. Popery is perpetuated
in modern Latin. The destruction of this form of the Latin,
which makes repentance synonymous with penance, and in
which the thousand other peculiarities of Romanism are in~ If England wishes to Anglicise Ireland, let her take such steps
as will effectually root out the Irish dialect, by which the clannish
spirit of the Hibernians has been maintained, and will be maintained,
in spite of all the laws of parliament.




82              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
separably interwoven, would be the annihilation of that ancient
ecclesiastical establishment.  This object, however, will not
be achieved without a struggle; for Rome well knows the
position and importance of her citadel.
Within the limits of the American States we have several
striking illustrations of the great fact now considered. Louisiana, while speaking the French, and employing it as the
legal language, even after her cession to our Union, continued
to be, for many years, as much in sympathy with France, as
with this country.  Her citizens, her science, her philosophy,
her literary influences, even her system of jurisprudence, were
imported from the land to which her speech allied her. Until
very recently, the legislature of this republic enforced the
publication of all state papers in the French, and, so long as
this practice was maintained, in spite of its close geographical
connection and organic incorporation with the other republics
of this nation, it was virtually, in every thing but a general
recognition of our style of government, a foreign state. No
sooner, however, did the English become the authorized language, than the French influences were discarded; and the
old Civil Law, which it had brought from the mother country
in the codes and pandects of Justinian, and which had been
the established common law till that moment, was abated.
So true it is, here as everywhere, that the laws and language
of a people come and go together; while it is the next thing to
an impossibility to destroy a nationality, without first destroying that organized system of social intercourse of which the
nationality is the life-receiving, as well as life-giving, spirit.
It cannot be thought wonderful, therefore, that the language
of every country has been felt and acknowledged as a political
question with those making use of it. Every people, as they
cherish their own identity, must pertinaciously adhere to that,
which, more than every thing else, maintains the identity of
their nation. They will not only choose to think, to feel, to
speak, in the dialect endeared to them from the days of child



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   83
hood, but to read the enactments of their legislators and the
productions of their writers in that dialect. The words and
accents so familiar to himself, every parent delights to hear
his children reproduce, and every citizen resolves to have them
perpetuated in the schools of his native land, and in the intercourse of social life. No reward can bribe, no power can comnpel him to relinquish his vernacular tongue, and to see another
one replace it.  He will war against every such design at
home, and against every effort to contribute to it from abroad,
with that force that springs from a universal instinct.  His
reason, too, will stir up his patriotism against it. To defend
his language, and thereby his nationality, he will submit to
any sacrifice, and impose upon himself any amount of hazard.
Without denying the possibility, however, of one nation's
Amassing over from their own to another language, the facility
of its so doing, nevertheless, is identical with the facility with
which it can pass from its own to another nationality. That
this passage can be made is not a matter of speculation, but a
fact of history. Yet, between nationalities widely different,
and still more where they are exactly opposite, the attempt to
make it will be difficult. Two republics, though characterized
by different languages, may, by a great and mutual effort, run
into each other, and so amalgamate; and either of them, by
a much harder struggle at self-sacrifice, may possibly put off
its personal characteristics, and put on those of its associate
or rival. For a republic, however, to pass into a monarchy,
or for a monarchy to become a despotism, is a feat inexpressibly more laborious and impracticable; while the transition of
a despotism into a republic, or of a republic into a despotism,
has ever been the work of force, and is attended by the terrible
concomitants of war and blood.
In the same manner, the languages in which these nationalities
are imbodied, are equally various in their individuality, their
stubborn self-existence, their ability to resist aggressions, some
falling under a few hostile strokes, others defying every con



84              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTTH.
bination of influences and of powers.  It may be laid down
as a general law, that those have the greatest vitality, which
are the most developed, precisely as a man is less easily destroyed than a little child. They, on the other hand, are the
most developed, which the people speaking them are the most
free to use.  The language, in other words, of a free people,
has not only greater capacity, compass and perfection than
that of a nation, whose mouth is half-closed with fear, but
also a much greater tenacity of life.  A race of men, who,
under all circumstances, can utter exactly what they think,
will think the more. Their more numerous thoughts will
give existence to a more numerous vocabulary of words. The
language of such a race is, therefore, constantly drawing into
itself the elements of strength. With every such language
the time may come, when, like the Roman, it will have the
power to conquer those, by whom the population originally
employing it have been conquered.
In making a reference of these general statements to the
topic particularly under consideration, it must be remembered,
that the Magyar is the speech of a free people, who have never
been otherwise than free, and who, from their constitutional
ardor, would be expected to pour, without restraint, all the
rich and spontaneous productions of their free hearts into
their social conversation.  This expectation, it is said by
those best acquainted with Hungarian, is entirely fulfilled;
but a slight inspection of the language will be enough, so far
as the present purposes require, to justify this opinion.
The Magyars, originally of oriental extraction, have dwelt
so long in Europe, that their language is neither eastern nor
western exclusively. It is both; and it shows the marks of
its twofold parentage in its structure.s Like the Hebrew,
8 La langue Magyare," say Cheuchard and Miintz, in their excellent geography, "n'a de rapport, en Europe, qu'avee celle des
Finlandais, qui sont probablement, ainsi que lea dominateurs de la




HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  85
and its cognate dialects, there is a prevailing tendency to
unite the smaller words, with us called particles, as prefixes
and suffixes to the larger ones; and there is, also, a great
scarcity of abstract terms. We are told by an American historian, that, when the first missionaries to the Indians wished
to translate the Christian doxology into the native tongues,
they found it impossible to come nearer to the original than
to say -"our Father, his Son, and their Holy Ghost"because of the want of words for father, son and spirit to
which the relative particles were not organically affixed.4
This perfectly illustrates what is to be understood of the
characteristic just expressed.  The difficulty here encountered, however, would not be met with in the Hungarian,
because, though born in the east, it has had a long Europlean
education.  Nor, indeed, is any of the Semitic tongues as
straitened, in respect to abstract words, as that of our unlettered Hurons; while the Magyar has not only a clear title
to some relationship with the great family of European languages, but, in the quantity of its abstract words, is nearly
equal to some of them, which have long been accounted copious
and polished.
The Hungarian is rich in inflections, almost every relation
existing between words, or things, being easily and perfectly
expressed by modifications of the words themselves. As, in
Latin, caput means a head, but capitis, of a head; so, in this
language, ki signifies which, and kik, to which; and, in a
similar way, nearly the entire vocabulary submits to the same
changes for the same purposes.  In some words, particularly
in the pronouns, these changes are very marked; my and
mncgam, for example, our and 1; coming from the same root,
Hongrie, d'origine Mongole."-Universal Geography, Paris 1839,
p. 458.
4 Bancroft's Hist. United States, vol. iii. p. 258.  The fact was
first discovered by Brebeuif.




86               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.
which is nothing but the letter m.  In other words, there is
no inflection whatever, the particle te, for instance, being either
yoUg or thou, or thy, as the sentence may require, though the
correlate of our word thine is ti-ed, which is only another form
for te.  The word man is ember; and the dative case is emberhus, which signifies to a man.  The remaining cases are treated
in the same manner.
The Greek and German have long been -celebrated for their
great facility in the composition and resolution of their words;
but neither of them surpasses, nor even equals, in this quality,
the Hungarian.  It would almost seem  to be, not a verbal,
but a syllabic language, whose syllables are capable of -an infinite variety of temporary unions, according to the innumerable requirements of thought, which, when these demands are
met, are again distributed) like a case of type, to be used again
in other combinations as endless as the workings of the mind.5
With all this flexibility, however, it is singular that many
relative words, which, it would be supposed in a language so
accommodating, could be cut into almost any size and shape,
have no abstract forms on which the relatives are based.  The
Hungarian, for example, has a vast'number of modifications
of the root-word assom, woman, embracing all the relations in
which the term, or the being, can possibly be placed; but the
simple word, wife, without qualification or connection, can
never drop from Hungarian lips.  The Magyar can speak of
his own wife, by using the word felesigem, my wife; and, by
certain easy changes upon the word, he can make it represent
the wife of any person he may choose; but, to set aside all
" In consequence of this joining together of words," says Paget,
"the Hungarians can construct a whole sentence in a single word;
and the following is often given as an illustration-not that such a
word would be used in conversation, but as a proof of how far it
may be carried: HIa megy k-penye-ge-sit-te-len-nit-teh-het-ne-lek.  This
signifies, in English-' If I could deprive you of your clothes!'" —
Hungary and Transyivania, vol. ii, p. 277. Anm. Ed.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  87
idea of persons, with whom a wife may be connected, and to
represent her as a being by herself, and yet as a wife, is a
thing that he cannot do. But there is a more singular trait
in the Hungarian than this.  All those languages, which, like
the Greek and German, make the gender of a great number
of their words depend, not upon the objects they represent,
but upon their respective terminations, have been long laughed
at or admired for the marvellous confusion they produce in
the natural division of the sexes. In Greek, a man is masculine, while a little man is neuter.  The German commits the
still greater absurdity of making the wife neuter.  But the
greatest absurdity of all is in the Hungarian, in which the
word is neither masculine, feminine, nor neuter. The language
takes no account whatever of the sexes.
The readiest and simplest way, nevertheless, to get at least
a general conception of a strange language, is to inspect the
style and structure of some passage in it, which, in his own,
is familiar to the student.  It is for this -reason that the Lord's
Prayer, rather than any other passage, should be adopted as
the key to be commonly used for this purpose by comparative
philologists.  That Prayer,. with a sublinear English translation, as near as it is possible, perhaps, to render an oriental
into a western language, is as follows:
My    At-yank        ki    vagi    a       mmennnyecben;
Our    Father    which    art    in          heaven;
szenteltessek    meg    a    te    neved;   jaeijaen-el
hallowedness     be    to  thy    name;    come thou
a   te   orszaged;   legyen   meg   a   te   akeratod
to  thy   kingdom;    let      be   to  thy    will
mint       mennyben        ugi       itt       e-faeldenis;
as       in heaven        so        in        the earth;
ami       mindennapi        kenyerunket         ad-meg;
and        day-by-day         our-bread          give;




88              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTiH.
boksatunk     azoknak      a    kik      mi    ellensunk
forgive    all [things]  to   which   we      ourselves
vetunk;      es  ne  vigy   minket  a  kiferteb6;
return forgiveness; and not  lead    us    to temptation;
szabadies     (meg)       minket      a      gonosztul;
deliver       (be)         us       from       evil;
inert  ti-ed   az   orszag,   az   hatolom,   es    a
for    thine   is  kingdom,   is   power,   added  to
diesaseg,  mind-aeraekke.  Amen.
glory,      all-forever.    Amen.
The European, or Japhetic, relationship of the Hungarian
will be sufficiently evident, by a comparison of the following
twelve words, taken from this Magyar Pater-Noster, with their
correlates in the Latin, German, French, Spanish and English
languages, though the collation might be carried to any extent 
Hung.  Latin.   German.   French.  Spanish.  English
My    Meus       Mein      Mon    Mi         My
Mi    Meus       Mein      Mon    Mi         My
Ki    Qui)                 Que    Que
Ki  u. rformerly pronounced
Kik   Qui )  kee in Europe   Que    Que
Meg   Machinor  Machen                       Make [be]
Ad-meg Do. with ad Do. with ad              Do. with to
Neved Nomen    Name   Nomr  Nombre  Name
Legyen Licet      Lassen  Laisser Licito    Let
A    A            An   i    A               At
Te     Tu         Du      Te       Tu        Thou
Ne     Non        Nicht  Ne        No       Not
Az     Est        Ist     Est    Es         Is
It is evident, therefore, that more than one quarters at least,
of the words of the Hungarian Pater-Noster are European.6' Mr. Sander Tok~tz, a native Hungarian, now a resident of Cincinnati, true to the pride of character so natural to the Magyar,




H-UNGARtY AND KOSSUTH.                 89
Its affinity to the oriental, or Semitic, languages is naturally
more remote, and less easily discovered, just as the character.
istics of the child are apt to lose themselves in the more complicated habits of the man. This is particularly true of the
vocabulary of the language, while its organic laws have been
less liable to change.  There are many striking analogies,
nevertheless, between-the words of the Hungarian and the
Hebrew, with occasional resemblances to the words of other
eastern tongues.  The Magyar kalap, for example, which
means a hat, forcibly reminds the scholar of the Hebrew
kelub, which signifies any thing woven, or plaited, or braided,
as we know the hats of the Hungarian peasantry, as well as
the hats of the common people of the whole of southern
Europe, have been from the earliest times.  The word Szop,
which is our sun, also makes one think of the Hehrew noph,
the term for hight.  The Hungarian childc, star, recals the
Hebrew kilak, an old root with the sense of beating, pulsating,
and hence flashing.  The word for water, wiz, whose European relative is found in the German wasser, and whose Asiatic
connection is plainly manifest in the Arabian wadi, belongs
to that interesting class of words, found in the dialects of all
kindly furnishes books and advice to every one who is curious
enough about his mother tongue to ask his assistance, but will not
let himself out as a teacher of it, while he depends for his livelihood
upon the business of his profession. I feel bound, therefore, to inform my reader, that I am greatly indebted to that gentleman for
the very little that I have been able to acquire of his beautiful and
rich language. Like every Magyar, Mr. Tokatz is a natural linguist.
TIe has traveled extensively in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, and in
America. He speaks with fluency Hungarian, Latin, German and
Italian, and has some knowledge of the Arabic and Coptic, having
spent quite a period in Egypt. In four months he learned to speak
the English. If, as a country, we wish to make the best practical
use of the misfortunes of unhappy Hungary, we should employ her
gifted sons, who have fled to us for shelter, as teachers of language
in our schools, colleges, and universities.
8X




90               IUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
known countries, which demonstrate at once the unity of all
systems of human speech, and of all the scattered tribes of
men that employ them.7
The sound of the language, when pronounced as it should
be, is clear, soft, musical, and yet grand. It abounds in
vowels; nor is the tone of the consonants as harsh as in most
European languages.  The letter s, for example, which renders
all the Gothic dialects so disagreeable, in a large proportion
of their words, in Hungarian is reduced to a firmly enunciated
z, or a moderate sh. The name of the great hero of Ellngary,
for instance, which, in America, is wrongly called Kdssuth,
with the accent on the first syllable, with both the. sibilants
hissingly brought out, and with the rough h at the termination of the word, in the lips of the educated Magyar becomes
Kozzhdot, in which every letter is both soft and sweet. At
the beginning of a word the Hungarian generally repudiates the
doubling of a consonant; and if, in any word, two consonants
do come together, as in szenteltessuk, they are nearly always
such as require a soft enunciation.  Often, as in the adopted
a The Hungarian Pater-Noster I have superficially compared with
the Pater-Nosters of ten eastern languages-the Syriac, Arabic,
Persic, Coptic, Abyssinian, Malayan, Zanguebaran, Siamese, Bengalese, Malabaran,-which, with many others, are now before me.
In spite of a very imperfect acquaintance with the laws of comparative philology, and of a still more imperfect knowledge of most of
these oriental tongues, as well as an absolute ignorance of some of
them, I have been able, by dint of some interest and perseverance,
to make out a general parallel in their grammatical structure, and
an occasional resemblance in their vocabularies.  The common
notion, maintained by recent writers, and particularly by Fejer, that
the Hungarian bears no analogy to any known language but the
Finnish, I trust is shown in the text to be incorrect; but it might
be much more largely and elaborately demonstrated to be false, by
a collation of the tongues above enumerated, were it consistent with
the general object of this chapter to expand upon the discussion of
so erudite a subject.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  91
word iskola, from the Latin schola, a short supernumerary
vowel is employed, as in the Greek and Hebrew, to make the
pronunciation easy and euphonic. In this way the Turkish
kral becomes kiraly.  The simple vowels are seven in number-a e i o U u i —which, to form the prolonged vowel
sounds, are modified by an accent —d e i d Ub' z i-by which it
is indicated that the sounds are lengthened. The addition of
this accent not only affects the pronunciation of all words, and
modifies the sense of many, but of some of them makes a
complete revolution.  The word kar means arm, and has its
analogy in the Greek TElp, which signifies the hand; but kar
with the accent, ckdr, means isijury, which is entirely another
word.  In the same manner, kerek is round, and kerek is a
wheel, while k4rek is the verb to beg. It is this power and
importance of the accent, more than its grammatical structure,
or even the very troublesome composition and combination of
its words, that renders the Hungarian so difficult of acquisition. There are accents enough in Hebrew; but a scholar
can read that language without any dependence on them. In
several of the oriental languages, they are convenient, but not
essential. In the Sanscrit, it is known, they have this Hungarian privilege of making radical alterations in the sense of
words; and, to illustrate their occasional power in Greek, the
wit of Demosthenes may be cited, who, wishing to make the
Athenian multitude call his opponent a hireling, and render
them vociferous in their condemnation, asked them, at the top
of his voice, if the man were not a /iaoeo5.  They, to correct
his pronunciation, as he expected, cried out from every part
of the assembly, ta0rod5, misthotds; upon which the wily
orator, turning full upon his apparently convicted and shuddering victim, but now with the proper accent, exclaimed with
prodigious emphasis-" Did I not tell thee, sir, that thou art
a misthotos?"-a hireling!S
8 It may be necessary to observe that the word xwgcT-roF, which the




92               IIUNGARY AND KOSSUTIt.
The language of the Magyars, indeed, is among the richest
and most beautiful; but its literature is far from being equal
to it. The inequality, however, does not spring from any
want of vigor, or activity, or enterprise in the Hungarian
mind, but from  the force of circumstances.  There was
scarcely ever a people, in this respect, so unfortunate. At
the beginning of the eleventh century, just as they completed
the settlement of their country, and conquered a peace with
surrounding nations, the conversion of king Stephen to the
Catholic faith gave admittance, not only to the priests of Rome.
but to the Roman language. In the court and camp of the
monarch, and, as a natural consequence, in the legislative
chambers of the nation, the new tongue at once acquired the
ascendancy. It soon passed downward to the masses of the
people. In a short time, not only the laws of the land, but
the business of the towns, and the conversation of the populace, were published and carried on in Latin. Thus introduced into the country, its position was secured by the erection
of schools, in which the foreign tongue entirely displaced the
native.  Before the death of Stephen, numerous monastic and
episcopal seminaries were raised up in Hungary; and, in the
thirteenth century, a general institution for the cultivation of
the liberal arts, as well as for theology and jurisprudence, was
established at Vessprim. In the year 1367, Louis the First
founded a new university at Fiinfkirchen, which, in 1388,
was followed by that of Buda.  Matthias Corvinus established
a third at Pressburg. In the sixteenth century arose the
almost numberless schools, great and small, of the Hungarian
Protestants; and, in the seventeenth, the Jesuits built those
of Tyrnau, Pressburg, Kaschau and Klausenburg.  The institution of Tyrnau subsequently became a university, which,
Athenians supposed Demosthenes to be using, might have been confounded by many with,ceGix:cS, which made bad grammar as well as
a bad meaning.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  93
on the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1784, was transferred to
Pesth. The number of minor colleges, with one or two faculties,
brought into existence during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, indicates a general and powerful ambition in the
cause of learning; and the academies of Pressburg, of
Kaschau, of Raab, of Grosswardein, and of Agram are still
popular. It is lamentable, however, that, in all the institutions here enumerated, the Latin entirely displaced the language of the country.
The accession of the French princes, in the year 1307,
began a new era in relation to the literature of the Magyars.
In the court of the king, and in the army, the French language was at once spoken. From these sources it spread over
all the nation. The schools, it is true, still maintained the
supremacy of the Latin, not only in their own halls, but in
the various departments of human learning. The books of the
country, on almost every topic requiring erudition, were still
written in it. The French, indeed, rapidly became the language of fashionable life. The Hungarian, however, yet
slumbered in the low dwellings of the common people; and it
is worthy of remark, that these princes of the house of Anjou,
with all their natural admiration of the French, never made
the first attempt to suppress the vernacular speech of their
Magyar subjects. Several of them, on the contrary, studied,
mastered, and employed it.
On the field of Mohacz, in the year 1526, the French period
came to a sudden and final termination. It was followed by
the ascendancy of the Germans, who, on the elevation of
Ferdinand the First to the throne of Hungary, spread their
language and literature over the whole kingdom. The French,
it is true, remained; but it remained only among the more
genteel classes of society, who still kept up their French
sympathies and breeding through the instrumentality of
books. They sent their sons to the great university of Paris,
which, in those days, was more than what Oxford, or Cam



94               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
bridge, or Gottingen is in ours. In the presence of the king,
however, the German was always spoken. The officers of the
army, also, who were generally the countrymen of the monarch, carried the dialect of the court to the deliberations of
the camp.'Germans, always and everywhere a working and
trafficking people, rushed into the cities and towns of Hungary, and soon made their language a necessity, even to the
natives, in business and in trade. In the sixteenth century,
the introduction of the reformed religion, which, from Geneva
to Wittenburg, was found either in Latin or in German)
gave a new impulse to this lingual revolution. In the seventeenth century the revolution was complete.
Thus, the Hungarian has been three times overwhelmed by
the influx of foreign languages; and, at all times, it has been
surrounded by the Sclavic, which is spoken by three-fifths
of the population of the country. The force with which it
has repelled these aggressions, the obstinacy of its adhesion to
itself, are a proof of great vital energy. No similar example
has been recorded.  In England, the Celtic, the Latin, the
Anglo-Saxon, and the Norman have given way to each other in
succession, until, at this day, the English is almost the only
language. In Spain, the original Basque, and, in central
Italy, the Tuscan, were so entirely subverted by the Roman,
that there is scarcely a word now extant of either. In the
north of Europe, the French and German  have nearly
smothered the Dutch, the Danish, and all the Scandinavian
dialects.  Similar facts exist in all parts of Europe, as well
as in Asia, in Africa, and in our own continent. In Hungary,
however, the language of a single race, which constitutes a
minority of the people, has held its ground in spite of all opposition. The opposition, too, has been more general, more
frequently repeated, and more determined, than ever has been
raised against any other language. Yet, there it is, as vigorous, as obstinate, as fresh for the battles of self-defence, as ever.
The literature of the Hungarians, nevertheless, it must be




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                     95
confessed, is not so flattering. There has been native talent
enough, certainly, to have produced any amount of books in
every department of human learning; but, from causes operating alike in all countries, the Magyar authors have too
generally been compelled to send out their works in a dead,
or in a foreign, language. Had they not done so, at certain
periods in their national history, their productions would
never havw been read.  If not read, they certainly would not
have been sold or bought; and it may be safely presumed,
that authorship in Hungary is not so easy and natural a business, as to have lived without support. The historians of
Hungary have given to the reading public long lists of works,
published since the art of printing was introduced into their
country in 1473, chiefly in Latin and German, as the leading
productions of their press; but not only are the majority of
them  the works of foreigners residing in their land, but a
great proportion of them are destitute of any general celebrity
in the literary world."
The Lutheran Reformation, while it helped to spread the
9 In history and its collateral sciences they give us the following
names: Bonfinius, Galeotus, Ranzanus, Ursinus, Brutus, Taurinus,
Laszky, Werner, Lazius, Ilicinus, Sommer, Gableman, Typotius, and
Ens, all of whom, I think, excepting Laszky, were foreigners.
Among their native authors, on the same subjects, may be reckoned
Jo, Thurotzius, Tubero, Flacius, Brodericus, Zermegh, Listhius,
Verantius, Forjacs, Olahus, Sambucus, Schesaus, Zamosius, Istvansi, Petrus de R6wa, Parmanus, Inchoferus, Nadasi, Fr5lich,
Ratkai, Johannes and Wolfgangus, Counts Bethlen, Lucius, Toppeltinus, Haner and Szantivanyi.
In medicine, and its cognate studies, occur most frequently the
names of Clusius, Kramer, Perliczy, Moller, Jessenius, Torkos,
Molmar, Mitterpacher, Piller, Kileseri, Weszprenyi, Naygar, Parispopai, BenkiU, Poda, Born, Hedwig, Lumiczer, Kietaibele, Grossinger,
J. B. Horvath, Domin, Pauhl, and Ichraud.
In the philosophical and mathematical sciences may be set down
the names of Petrus de Dacia, Peurbach, Dudith, Boscovich, Szenti



96                HUNGARY AND K0SSUTII.
German language among the Hungarians, did still more to
call out the native Magyar. The papal party, not being
acquainted with the language of the people, were compelled
to write almost entirely in Latin; but the Hungarian reformers, taking advantage of this ignorance, addressed their
arguments and appeals to the populace in their cherished
vernacular. The result was, that a new life was breathed into
it.  Discussions, letters, books appeared in it, one after another, in rapid succession. The Bible was frequently translated
into it. The religious struggle soon became patriotic. The
papal party, seeing the power of the vernacular in the great contest, rose with one voice with the determination to suppress it.
The nation rose with equal unanimity to defend it. All manner of works, historical, literary, and religious, poured from
the Hungarian press, and filled the dwellings of the native
population. Reading became a sort of duty; and every Magyar, who could write a book in his mother tongue, was sure
to find any extent of patronage. This, in a word, was the
dawning period of native literature in Hungary.10
vanyi, Berenyi, Segner, Hell, Mak6, J. B. Horvath, Pap Fogarasi,
Handerla, Mikovinyi, Rausch, and Rozgonyi.
In poetry and eloquence the Hungarian student sees oftenest the
names of Janus Pannonius, Johannes Vitez, Bartholemew Pannonius,
Jakob and Stepan Piso, Zalkan, Olahus, Franciscus Hunyadi, Szentgyirgyi, Bekenyi, Schesaus, Lang, Werner, Uncius, Sambucus, Tfiry,
Kassai, Filitzky, Dobner, Bajtai, Zimdnyi, Szerdahely, Somsich,
Nicolaus Revai, Desiffy and Karlooszky.
10 Next to the religious productions of this period, which are too
numerous to be mentioned, orations, histories, codes of law, philological works, as well as popular songs and even epics, are the most
abundant. Among the orators, who appeared between 1558 and
1738, the following are the most noted: Goal (1558), Juhac (1563),
Davidis (1569), Kulczar (1574), Bornemisza (1575), Telegdi (1577),
Decsi (1582), Karolyi (1584), Pasman (1604), Kecskemeti (1615),
Zvonarics (1628), Kopcsanyi (1630), Kaldi (1630), Margitai (1652),
and Alvincszy (1738). The principal historians were Szekely (1559),




HUNG(ARY AND KOSSUTH.                    97
The efforts of the papal party, however, to suppress the
language and literature of the Hungarians, were at length
almost victorious.  The Magyar press was more and more
shackled. Magyar productions nearly ceased to flow from it.
The Latin was revived again. A Latin era followed; and,
what is worthy of distinct observation, it was between 1702
Temesvari (1569), Heltai (1572), Petho (1660), Bortha (1664), and
Lisznyai (1692). The Latin code, written by the hand of Stephen,
was translated into the Hungarian by Blasius Veres (1561), Kaspar
Heltai (1571), and Okolisczanyi (1648). In philology are included
the Pesti Nomenclatura (1538), Ordisi's Grammar (1539), Calpin's
Lexicon with Hungarian notes (1587), the dictionary of Kovacz
(1590), Molnai's Grammar (1610), the grammars of Geler Katona,
Ksipkes Komdromi, Pereszlenyi, and Kovesdi, and the dictionary of
Parizpapai with Tzeczi's principles of Hungarian orthography.  Unnumbered ballads fell from the pens of Tinveli (1540), Kakony (1549),
Valkai (1572), Tzerenyi, Szegedi, Illyfalvi, Szetary, Faszkas, (1577),
Balassa, Illosvai, Gosarvrai, Veres, Enzedi, Sziillsi (1580), and
Tzakoranyi (1592). Epics were produced by Count Nicolas Zrini,
(1652), Ladislaus Listhi (1653), Christoph Pasko (1663)1, and Count
Stephen Kohary (1699). The intellectual efforts of the noted Stephen
Gyingyosi (1664-1734), as well as the lyric attempts of Rimai, Balassa and Beniczky, belong to this vigorous era. Of the several
translations of the Scriptures into Hungarian, the following are the
best known to European scholars: Komjati (1533), Pesthi (1536),
Erdisi (1541), Heltai (1546), Szekely (1548), Juhacz (1565), FelegyhAzi (1586), Karolyi (1590), Molnar (1608), Kaldi (1625), an association of reformed theologians (1661), Kzipkes Komidaromi (1685),
and Totfalusi (1685). Many of these translations, though made in
Hungary, were printed in foreign cities, among which Cassel,
Utrecht, Nuremberg, and Brieg may be mentioned. It is impossible,
in a note, and it would be foreign to the object of the text, to enter
into any criticisms of this list of works, which I have compressed to
its closest form; but a bare inspection of it will be enough to impress the reader with the vitality and energy of the Hungarian language, when once.roused to action, in spite of its having been so
long overwhelmed by the languages of Germany, of France, and of
imperial and papal Rome.
9




98                HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIt.
and 1780, after all these great deeds of the Magyar mind to
disenthral itself, that the Latin reached its greatest purity and
power in HIungary.l'
This Latin period terminated at the accession of Joseph the
Second to the Hungarian throne.  That monarch, falling in
with the Catholics, did every thing in his power to give the
German the ascendancy in political and common life, though
the Latin was still allowed to linger in the schools. Again
the nation stood up against this attempt.  Its patriotic feelings were completely roused.  It resolved, with an energy
truly Hungarian, that its own language, instead of being
crowded down to a third or fourth-rate place, from that moment should hold the first. The resolution was, at the bcginning, merely political, being confined to the National Assembly and the county meetings.  It soon became national
and universal.  In 1781, the noted and talented Matthias
Rdth established the first Hungarian journal at the city of
Pressburg, which, though weak and feeble at the first, grew
at length to great popularity and power.  During the agitations of the French Revolution, from  the rise of Roland to
the fall of Napoleon, this and other Magyar newspapers kept
the Hungarian public well informed of the real state of Europe, while the Austrian journals, according to their character,
mistfiled and misled their German readers.  The successes of
" The works of iidi, Hevenesi, Kzwittinger, Kazy, Tarnozy, Bel,
Prileszky, Huszty, Szegdi, Decericius, Stilting, Bajtai, Timon, Peterfsi, Kaprinai, Kollar, Lod, Thuroczy, Schmitt, Bod, Szaszky,
Schier, Severini, Benczur, Pray, Cornides, Cetto, Ganoky, Novak,
Salagi, Katona, Kerchelich, Palma, Wagner, Schlnwisner, Kovachich, Wespremi, and Hovanyi are regarded as the great ornaments
of this Augustan age of Hungarian Latin. The Magyars, however,
were not entirely idle. The close reader of the literary history of
this era will learn the names of Franz Faludi, Barczai, Lorenz Orczy,
George Bessenyi, Baroczi, Teleki, and of Daniel and Paul Anyos,
who still adhered, with no trifling reputation, to their native language.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTTH.                    99
the French armies in Austria so shattered its imperial strength,
that, with all its subsequent boastings, it has never since had
the power of domineering over its subject provinces and kingdoms, as it had had for nearly all time before. Hungary had
the sagacity to see her day. Without harboring, however,
the remotest intentions of separation or revolt, she again renewed her resolution to protect herself.  Her nationality existed in her language.  This she plainly perceived; and, in
1820, she began to pass laws tending toward its complete
emancipation. It was ordered, that all the acts of the Asscmbly, all the proceedings of the courts, and all the governmental business of the country, should be published and
transacted in the vernacular.  Prizes were also offered for
native literary works of merit; and, by the same authority,
the Hungarian was taught in all the schools, from the lowest
to the highest. Lecturers were also sent out, to traverse the
country, to awaken an interest in the subject, and to deliver
addresses on the language in all the academies and colleges.
Literary periodicals, of no small pretensions, sprang up in
every quarter. A Hungarian theatre was opened at Buda,
and another at Pesth, for the purpose of perfecting the pronunciation of the mother tongue, and of teaching it to the
higher classes, who, in the universities and in their residence
at court, had almost forgotten it.a
The poetic, and particularly the dramatic department of the
national literature has had so much to do in developing the
talents and the taste of Hungary, that it deserves the most'" To this period belong certain names, which, dryly as they may
appear in a simple enumeration, should be given to the curious
reader, who may wish hereafter to make some farther acquaintance
with the language of this newly-opened and interesting nation. On
grammatical and philological subjects, he may inquire for the works
of Izabo, Rtajnis, Beregszaszi, Gyarmathi, Aranka, Hildi, BeukS,
Kassai, Pethe, Szentpali, BSjthi, Versegi, Virag, Revai, Marton, and
Stephen Horvath.




100             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
marked attention.  The oldest poet of the Magyars, so far as
there is any record, was Demetrius Tszanadi, who sang the
conquest of Hungary.13  He was followed by Stephen Szekelyi, Nagy Batzoy, Temesvori, Bogoti, Valkai, and Ilosvai,
who wrote the glorious chronicles of their country in inglorious
rhymes.  Valentine L. B. Balassa is looked upon at home as
the Hungarian Pindar. Erddsi endeavored, but without much
success, to introduce the hexameter into his language.  His
subjects, if there had been no other obstacle, would have defeated him; for they consisted chiefly of foolish attempts, at
the end of each book of the New Testament, which he had
just translated, to give a poetical summary of its contents.
The seventeenth century was quite prolific in poetical composition.  The works of Simon Petsi and of Petrus Benitzky
continue to be read. Stephen Gy6ngydsi, who filled up the
entire space between 1620 and 1704 with his life and labors,
did much to enrich his native language, though his style is
stiff, unnatural, and diffuse.  George Tranowski, who wrote
sacred songs, which were partly original and partly translated
from the German, is reverenced as the Luther of Hungarian
verse. Ladislaus Listhi was an epic poet belonging to this
period.  He treated the defeat of Mohacz, at the same time
that the famous Nicolas Zrini celebrated the deeds of his more
famous ancestor, the defender of Szigeth.  The most of these
poets manifested a crude taste in the'hoice of topics.  The
English Armstrong has been ridiculed for treating the Art of
Health in verse; but George de Vizaka Baracz, a Hungarian
poet, had preceded the Englishman in his folly, and greatly
surpassed him in ill success. His theme was the vascular
system of the human. body; and his poem sets forth the
wonders of the secretory and excretory vessels very much as
a madcap of a medical professor would teach them  to his
class.  At an earlier date, Oroszeghyi had tried his skill in
" Ile flourished about 1527.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                101
rhyming the utility of cultivating the fir-tree; and, with an
equal stupidity, Onadi had made the elements of arithmetic
dance, or hobble, in didactic verse.
The eighteenth century was ushered in by the songs of
Count Stephen Kohary, a lyric poet of some eminence, who
was succeeded by Florinda, in whose works the geography
and history of the modern empires and nations are combined.
Count John Lazar, known as the Dacian Janus, and Samuel
Hruskovitz, a sacred poet, attained no small distinction, among
their countrymen, before 1748.  About the same time, the
popular effusions of George Verestoi and of Benjamin Szdnzi,
who were the Burns and the Berenger of the Magyars, seized
upon the patriotic spirit of the people and carried the nation
in a sort of triumph..The French school of Hungarian poetry was founded by
George Bessenyi, whose career began in 1740 and closed in
1811, and to whom his native land owes a deep debt of gratitude.  In 1773 he established the Hungarian Spectator, in
which he stated and defended his peculiar views with great
eloquence.  His command of language was the wonder of his
generation.  He not only made for himself an undying reputation, as a polite scholar, but fixed his opinions as laws of
taste to a great proportion of his countrymen.
The classical school may be traced to a very early period;
but its power was first felt in the works of Szilagyi, and of
Szentiobis, two recent but successful imitators of the style of
Horace.  The social humor of the great Roman is said to have
been remarkably well mimicked by the latter of these writers,
while his sentimental manner was most conspicuous in the
productions of the thoughtful and melancholy Paul von
Anyos.  The very learned John Baptista Molmar, and the
didactic poet, Kalmar, were in the eighteenth century the
ornaments of this school. They were followed by Alexander
Baroczy and Nicolas Revai, who, in their classical tendencies
pursued the beaten path of the Germans and the French.




102             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Gabriel Dayka, the Anacreon of Hungary, took the erotic
odes of Horace as his models.  The school was continued by
Gideon Raday, and by the epigrammist, Benedict Virag, whose
works were much read and quoted at the beginning of the
present century; while Franz Verseghi, the last of the classical Hungarian poets, died but a few years ago.
After the French and the classic, the composite school of
Magyar poetry arose.  It began with Franz Kazinzy, a native
writer of considerable originality and talent, though not very
deep.  He is celebrated for his skill in versification. He wrote
in the lyric and the epigrammatic style.  He followed neither
the French nor the classic taste exclusively, but whatever
seemed to him best suited to the topic he had in hand; and
generally, indeed, the influence of all the reigning modes was
at once exhibited in his songs. His principal supporters and
successors were Michael Vitez Esokonai, a popular song-writer,
Andrew Fay, the humorous fabulist, Paul Szmere, the delightful singer, Daniel Berzsenyi, a most talented and glowing
writer of high lyric poetry, and Alexander S. Kisfaludy, who,
as a composer of ballads, is regarded by the Hungarians as
their Thomas Moore.  Kisfaludy, like Walter Scott, had acquired a universal popularity in his native country before his
real name was known.  His amorous songs, collected under
the anonym of.Iinmsys, are yet sung by the peasantry, as well
as by the nobles, all over Hungary.  Taken together, they
constitute a sort of ballad epic, in which he sings his unsuccessful love to a certain Lisa, who listens to the soft petitions
of another, and thus drives the poet to the wars. The soldierbard, however, lives to see his Lisa again, after he had passed
through many a bloody battle; she, conquered at last by the
singular perseverance of his devotion, gives him her hand and
heart; and, the moment they are joined in happy wedlock,
the lyre of the lover becomes more sonorous than ever, and
rings with a melody, a variety, a power of expression, which
it had never known before.  The husband becomes more sober.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 103
He studies the legends of his country, and lends them the
charm of his rich verse; and the close of his eventful life is
devoted to another lyrical epic, the " Gyula Szerelme," of ten
cantos, which, with us, may have something like a counterpart
in the Canterbury Tales.
The genuine Hungarian school took its origin, perhaps,
from the works of Daniel Berzenyi, in which is to be found a
tone of decided patriotism, of profound nationality, which
spurns at every thing foreign, not only in the thoughts, scenes
and sentiments, but even in the choice of words.  He was
succeeded and emulated by Andreas Horvath, the author of a
didactic poem in hexameter-" the Recollections of Zirez"which, however, is greatly surpassed by his epic entitled
"Arpad." The cotemporaries of Horvath, and poets of the
same style, were Aloys Szentmiklossy, and G6abriel Ddbrentei,
two graceful lyric bards, one of whom, the latter, has acquired
a European reputation.  The fabulist, Michael Vitkovics, attained to popularity by making the animals, birds, reptiles and
insects of Hungary employ the words of wisdom, while he
seemed to forget that such men as AEsop and La Fontaine had
ever had existence.  After the death of Vitkovics, in 1829,
such a host of patriotic poets sprang up in Hungary, the
greater part of whom are even now just ripening into manhood, that it will be impossible to name them all. Among
the most eminent is Guadanyi, who, in comic narrative, is
surpassed only by Alexander Kisfaludy. Karl Kisfaludy, the
publisher and editor of the "Almanac of the Muses," is a
young writer of decided promise. A young poet of the name
of Kdlcsey, of real genius, has recently made himself known
as the introducer of the romance-ballad into Hungary. To
these must be added the sonnet-writer, Bartay, the high lyrist,
Baiza, a disciple of the German G6the, Szenvey, a philosophical poet after the style of Wordsworth and of Schiller,
and Michael VYr6smarty, a very successful miscellaneous
writer, whose "Foti-Dal" has become one of the national




104             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
ballads, and may be heard from  every hill-top and valley.
Next to'V&rsmarty, Gergely Ezuczor is the greatest epic poet
of the nation: and his numerous works, among which are his
" Battle of Augsburgh," his "Diet of Arad," his "Arpad,"
his " Defeat of the Cumanes," his " Siege of Erlau," and his
" Magic Valley," are at this time the pride and boast of every
patriotic Magyar.  The most popular lyric poet, of the present day, is Sandor Pet6fi, whose several ballads, the "Pearls
of Love,"   Cypress Leaves," and " Starless Nights," renind the American reader of our own Longfellow, though
the Hungarian is scarcely a rival to the author of the
" Voices."
Though the Hungarians have raised up no Shakspeare, no
Corneille, no lRacine, to impart a world-wide celebrity to their
drama, they can mention some names, whose plays would do
no dishonor, perhaps, to the royal theatres of London and
of Paris.  Mimics were known in Hungary at a very early
period.  The oldest national dramatic poem is the " Melchior
Balassa," by Paul Karadi, of the year 1569, which was followed by the Clytemnestra of Bornemisza, a close imitation
of Sophocles' Electra. In the year 1692, the Emperor Leopold gave to a citizen of Klausenburg the privilege of performing melo-dramas at the sessions of the National Assembly,
in the camp, and at all festivals and fairs, with the proviso,
however, that they were first to be submitted to a censorship.
A work of this character is still extant, under the title of
Comico-Tragedia, which treats of the contest between good
and bad principles.  Another, bearing the title of a "Tragedy of the Dispute between Jupiter and Plato," written by
George Felvinczi, is yet read, though seldom performed, in
Hungary.
In the eighteenth century this original drama sank intc
oblivion, and a new era arose, which was not only ushered in
but supported by the Jesuits.  Plays were written for the
colleges and schools; and they were performed by the pupils




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   105
and professors for the amusement of the public at the examinations, as similar trifles are occasionally exhibited, in our own
country, at the present time. Though moral in their tendency,
as works of genius they had no character, and they deserve no
praise. Many of them, however, are still extant; and the
names of their authors are preserved.
In 1790, the first licensed Hungarian dramatic troupe was
organized; and, in 1792, another received the royal sanction
in Transylvania. Just prior to the recent revolution, in addition to the great national theatre at Pesth, there were not less
than twenty companies, perhaps as many as twenty-five, strolling through the country and dragging the car of Thespis front
one village to another.  By the Magyars, they were regarded
with great satisfaction, and welcomed even by the most religious, because, whatever else they may have done, they were
contributing powerfully to a resuscitation of the native language. It was at Buda, that the first building was erected
expressly for the accommodation of a Hungarian theatrical
company; and, in 1834, in spite of the neglect of the National Assembly and the opposition of the imperial court, the
second was reared at Pesth by the enthusiastic patriotism of
the people. In 1839, when visited by an English traveler,
this structure was lighted with gas, well furnished with stagescenery, and occupied by a most successful and artistic troupe,
of which La Schodel, the Lind of Hungary, was the acknowledged queen.14 The pieces acted are chiefly the productions
of their native writers, among the earlier of whom the names
of Simai, Sos, Szentjobi, Endrddy and Dugonicz are the most
conspicuous.  The drama of the present day, if not rivaling
that of England, of France, or of Germany, has certainly'" This traveler, Miss Pardoe, speaks of Schodel as "the very
incarnation of soul;"-and says, in her lofty admiration, that the
cantatrice "pours out her voice as if by inspiration."  And it must
be remembered that the writer was accustomed to visit the best
theatres in the world.-City of the Magyar, vol; ii. p. 143.




106              HUNGARY AND KOSSITI.
been creditably sustained by the works of Bessenyi, Alexander and Karl Kisfaludy, Vtr6smarty, and several others
of almost equal reputation.  The greatest tragic writer of
modern times, among the HIungarians, was Ezako, who died
in 1847, and whom his countrymen compare with Shakspeare;
and his cotemporary, Esato, who, at the last accounts, was yet
surviving, is the author of the finest comedies in the language.
In his " Tiger and the JHyena," Pet6fi, it is thought by critics,
has passed over from the pure dramatic style to a sort of romance; and EMtv6s, who has written some plays, is regarded
as the living link between the fiction of the stage and the fiction of the closet.:5
The Sir WTalter Scott of Hungary, however, is the muchread, much-admired, and justly-celebrated Nicolaus Josika, to
whom even his German critics award the very highest talent.
His skill in technical composition is universally applauded.
He makes his characters speak, not his language, but their
own peculiar dialect. From the shepherd to the prince, he
seems to understand, not simply the passions and principles
of every clan and class of his numerous countrymen, but exactly the words which every one of them would use on every
supposable occasion.  His fancy is equal to his knowledge;
and he works up his materials in a most effective manner.
His predecessors in the same department —Kourgi, Dugonicz,
Guadanyi, Kuthy and Kovacz-have been entirely eclipsed by
him; and Joseph Edtvis, who, in his " Village Notary," has
finely painted the life of a small officer, as well as Ignaz Nagy,
whose " Secrets of Hungary" has vividly portrayed the unchangeable character and habits of the Jews, are not to be
1' Literatur-Geschichte der Welt, von Dr. Johann George Theodore Graisse, Biblothecar seiner Majestat des Ktnigsvon Sachsen.
Leipsig, 1848.  The article on the Hungarian Drama excellently
translated by that elegant scholar, Professor William Wells of Cincinnati, to whose paper, on a kindred subject, in the Feb. No. of the
Ladies' Repository for 1851, I am also somlewhat indebted.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 107
compared with their great rival. Josika is a name to be remembered.
In almost every other country, ballads and romances have
been the earliest of their literary efforts; but, in Hungary,
though songs are ancient, novel-writing is the very latest form,
which has been assumed by the literature of the nation. Late
as it is, however, it has risen rapidly to the first place in
quality, quantity and importance.  Novels are now more read
in Hungary than all other styles of writing. In 1838, there
were two hundred and twenty-one works, from the papercovered pamphlet to the full-bound volume, published in the
native language, of which eighty-five were works of taste and
fancy.16
It must not be imagined by the reader, who has had interest
enough in this new and untrodden field of literature to work
his way through the wilderness of names and dates, which, to
be just to Hungary, it was necessary at least to point out to
him, that the land of the Magyar, in spite of what has been
hitherto said of it, is a land of the highest literary cultivation.
It has produced names and works enough, it is true, to give it
a marked position among the most enlightened countries; but
there is only here and there an individual, out of the untold
number of its writers, whose performances have had sufficient
power to break the barriers of the nation and its language,
and thus pass into general notoriety. Of the first class of
authors, such as Milton, and Shakspeare, and Addison, Hungary has as yet produced not even one. Of the second class,
in which our Dryden, and Pope, and Johnson, and Irving, and
Bryant may be found, she has produced a few. Of the third,
which, in every country, embraces the mass of its respectable
writers, she has produced many of deserved renown. Between
this very honorable class, who deal in books, and the very
lowest, who get their names into the lists of authorship for
16 City of the Magyar, vol. iii. p. 92.




108             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
having published a pamphlet, a play,- a poem, an essay, a sermon, or a speech, she has produced a countless multitude,
who, when taken in the aggregate, show well for the literary
spirit of the nation.
It is not the authorship of Hungary, however, that gives
her the highest claim to regard as an associate in the republic
of letters. It is rather that she has acquired a taste for this
profession and an ambition for this fellowship. If she does
not now produce the first class of books, she has reached the
point next below this lofty elevation. She reads them. The
works of Gothe and Johnson, of Corneille and Camoens, of
Burns and Byron, of Schiller and Shakspeare, are as much
known in Pressburg, and as correctly criticised, as in London,
Leipsic, or Lisbon.  At Pesth there is a grand Casino, or
reading-room, supplied with all the great quarterlies, magazines and newspapers of modern Europe; and on the hights
of Buda, where the soldiery of Trajan were once mustered,
the speeches of Cass and Canning, of Webster and Wilberforce, have been and are yet as commonly discussed, as in
Westminster, or in Washington.
Decidedly the most promising trait, nevertheless, in the
literary character of the Hungarians, is the one which constitutes the salient and closing topic of this chapter. It has
come to see its own political importance. The great writers,
in poetry and in prose, in philosophy and in science, in history
and in belles-lettres, now fully understand, that the existence
of the nation is only a part of the existence of its literature
and language. They clearly perceive, that, should their language ever go out of use, the Magyars would instantly become
Germans.  We shall hereafter witness the connection of this
feeling with the revolutionary history of the kingdom.  One
thing we can easily appreciate at this moment.  We can behold the wonderful vitality of a language, which, in the very
midst of a maelstrom of other languages, and repeatedly overwhelmed by successive waves and floods of them, has been




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                109
able to hold on to life, and recently to put forth the manifestations of unabated activity and strength. As the nation,
also, is now unanimously determined to preserve and perpetuate the language, so, if this determination is successful,
the language will infallibly preserve and perpetuate the
nation.




110             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
CHAPTER V.
THE HUNGARIAN CONSTITUTION.
THE Hungarians, while living in their north-eastern home
among the tribes of the Caucasus, are described by their native historians as a gentle, temperate, pastoral people, giving
offence to no one, and taking it only after sufficient provocation.l Before their emigration from that country, however,
they were compelled to become more warlike by the frequent
attacks made upon them by the natives; and, in their subsequent wanderings toward the west, and particularly by their
frequent encounters with the Alani and other fierce nations of
the European forests, they progressed so rapidly in their military education, that, on their entrance into Hungary, they
were regarded by the inhabitants, as well as by the Greeks,
as the most martial and savage of barbarians.
The Greek emperor, Leo the Wise, has given a very graphic
sketch of their appearance, manners, and spirit at that period.
"The Hungarians," says the imperial historian, "are from
their childhood horsemen. They do not like to walk. On
their shoulders they carry long lances and spears-in their
hands the bow; and they can use these weapons very skilfully.
Their breasts, and the breasts of their horses, are protected by
a breastplate of iron or of skins.  Accustomed to fight with
the arrow and the bow, they do not willingly come into close
contact, but make battle from a distance.  They attend carefully to every thing about them, but keep their own intentions
very secret. They place numerous watches before their camp,
1 Geschichte der Ungarn, by M. Horvath, Pesth, 1850, Part First,
sec. ii. ~ 4, p. 14.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.                 111
one quite separate from another, on which account it is difficult to surprise them.  In battle, they divide their army into
small companies, each containing about a thousand men, to
which they give positions not far distant from each other.
They have also a reserve corps, with which, if it is not brought
into action, they lay snares for the enemy, or give needful
succor to the yielding or thinned battalions. Their baggage
they leave a mile or two on one side of the army, under the
protection of a small detachment. It is a principal care not
to extend their lines too much in breadth. Their single battalions are consequently deep,. their front straight and dense.
Their snares are laid by spreading the two wings of the army,
and encircling the enemy, or by feigned retreats and quick
returns. If the enemy flees, they pursue him as long as their
horses can keep up the pursuit, or until they have annihilated
their antagonist. Afterwards, they seek the booty. If the
flying enemy retreats into a fortress, they watch for the succors to be sent him, and compel him either to surrender or
capitulate.",
When not in war, the Hungarians spent their time in fishing, in hunting, and in pasturing cattle. With agriculture
they had no acquaintance; and they knew only enough of
mechanical trades to make their weapons and their clothing.
When the pasturing grounds at any place were run over, they
abandoned them for fresh localities, taking with them their
tents, their herds, and all their property.3
So true were the ancient Magyars to the spirit of civil
liberty, that, just as they were about to enter upon the subjugation of their new country, they called a general assembly
of the people, discussed the political wants of the nation, and
laid down the foundation of a free and popular constitution.
Tact. cap. ii., Leo Sap.
H torvath enumerates smiths, sword-makers, shoemakers, and
manufacturers of bows. Part First, sec. ii. i 4.




112             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
The whole immigration, consisting of about one million of
souls, had been divided by their first leader, Lebed,4 into one
hundred and eight tribes; and these tribes had been subsequently distributed into seven grand divisions, which, though
entirely independent of each other in their private affairs,
lived together as one people in the form of a general confederation. Each grand division acknowledged the supremacy of
one principal leader, or duke, called a woiwode; and a convention of the woiwodes constituted the highest assembly, and
exercised the supreme authority, of the nation. When met
for the transaction of business, one of their number was elected
temporary Oberhaupt, or chief, to whom this election gave no
new powers as an officer of the government, but whose duty
it was merely to preside in the assembly while in session.
The convention of the woiwodes was not, in the usual sense,
a legislative body; for it could make no laws, or regulations,
binding upon the divisions, which affected their private business. Each division had its own municipal institutions; and
each woiwode, when sitting in council with his equals, represented the predetermined wishes of his constituents. A majority of suffrages, however, in the assembly of the dukes,
always gave direction to the federal operations of the nation,
which embraced every question in which all the divisions were
equally interested.
This republican mode of government, to which the Magyars
seem to have been strongly attached from the very beginning
of their history, with all its high value to a people sufficiently
civilized to enjoy it, needed, in those warlike and barbarous
times, a central power above that of a mere chairman of a
chief assembly, and above the authority of a modern president, to give it promptness and energy of action. Necessity,
4 The Greek historiographers, as well as the Hungarian Thuroczy,
make Arpad the first leader; but Fessler, Horvath, and all the remaining Magyar historians give this distinction to Lebed.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 113
which has been the creator and finisher of all constitutions,
soon taught the Hungarians, that, unless some such central
force was added to their popular confederation, their hoped
success in the great undertaking of the nation, of searching
out and subduing a new fatherland, in the face of vigilant and
powerful enemies, would be impossible.  Accordingly, just
prior to their great irruption into Hungary, in a special convention of the woiwodes, and in the presence of the whole
people, the deficiency was. supplied by the election of a perpetual and hereditary Oberhaupt, or first duke, with whom
the electors made a covenant in the most sacred and solemn
manner. Each woiwode opened a vein in one of his arms.
The blood thus shed, caught in a convenient vessel, was drank
by the contracting parties.  The ballots were then thrown,
probably into the same vessel, for the new officer. The lot
fell on Almos, one of their own number, whose bravery in
battle, whose sagacity as a counseler, and whose virtues as a
man, had marked him out as the one most fit for the enviable
position.  "From  this day," said the woiwodes to Almos,
"we elect you our head-chief and commander; and, wherever
your fortunes lead you, we will follow."3
While the authority of the newly-elected officer was yet recent, and before it could become forgetful of the source from
which it had arisen, the woiwodes took care to mark out distinctly the principal features of this reformed constitution of
the Hungarian nation.  In another convention of their number, with their Oberhaupt before them, they agreed upon and
ratified the following stipulations: 1. That, from that day, the
Oberhaupt should forever be elected from the family of Almos.
2. That, whatever should be acquired in their military expeditions, should be divided among the woiwodes, as the representatives of their respective divisions, according to their
merits. 3. That the woiwodes, who had voluntarily elected' Horvath, Geschichte der Ungarn, Part First, sec. i. p. 8.
10*




114             I-ITHNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Almos their Oberhaupt and commander, as well as the descendants of the woiwodes, should never be excluded by
Almos, or by his successors, from the council of the commander, nor from the government of the fatherland.  4. That,
should any of the woiwodes, or their descendants, break this
covenant with the commander-in-chief, or sow discord among
the woiwodes, his blood should be shed as the blood of the
covenanting parties was then shed, while ratifying the national
compact. 5. That, on the other hand, should the descendants
of any of the Oberhaupts, or commanders-in-chief, or the descendants of any of the existing leaders (Stammhiiupter) of
the tribes, break this mutual pledge, the curse of outlawry
should at once seize them; the curse should never be removed
from such criminals, but rest on them eternally; and, of course,
they were not only to be degraded from their offices, but excluded from the commonwealth by an act of irrevocable banishment.6
Under this modification of the original constitution of the
country, there would seem to have been at least four classes,
or estates, recognised by law.  The Oberhaupt, or commander,
the woiwodes, the officers under the.woiwodes, who were the
leaders of the tribes, and the common soldiery,- are expressly
mentioned.  It is probable, also, from what appears to be inevitable to a nation passing from one country to another, that
the soldiers by no means constituted the whole, if they did a
majority, of the migrating horde; but that, led onward and
defended by the warriors of the tribes, the great mass of the
population, for various disabilities not prepared to fight, performed what other services they could, and were glad enough
to be acknowledged as the useful, though somewhat servile,
kindred of their armed and victorious brethren.  While in
the act of emigration, this portion of the people would feel
themselves sufficiently compensated for any thing they could
Horvath, Geschichte der Ungarn, Part First, sec. i. p. 8.




HUNGARY AND K0OSSUTH.               115
do, by receiving their necessary food, clothing, and protection.
They would not claim any right of giving directions, or making rules and regulations, or performing any of the functions
of government, or of legislation. By the force of their circumstances, without any thought on their part, and without
any design on the part of their superiors, they would naturally
acknowledge themselves to be simply peasants, or countrymen,
who claim none of the rights of sovereignty, because they can
do nothing of consequence for the sovereign.
The National Assembly would, therefore, be divided into
two branches, though, in the transaction of business, they
might mret together.  The commander-in-chief, and the woiwodes by whom he was elected, would make one division.
The leaders of the tribes, who were also officers of the army,
and who were undoubtedly chosen by their military subordinates, would constitute the other. The inferior but more numerous branch, coming more directly from the body of the
people, would naturally be regarded as the popular portion of
the Assembly, while the king and his constituents would be
looked upon as the aristocratic.
Arpad, the successor and the son of Almos, was the Joshua
of the wandering Magyars. He led them into their country.
For five years he fought the natives, and, at last, conquered
them.  He divided the land among his followers. But he
had no sooner taken possession of the subjugated region, than
he saw the impossibility of maintaining the supremacy of his
race, without making radical improvements in the constitution
of the nation. Consequently, calling in all the armies, which
had been carrying the terror of the Hungarian name to the
confines of Europe, he made a grand assembly of all the heads
of the tribes on the Pustza Szeren, a beautiful plain near the
banks of the Theiss, and, after a consultation of thirty-four
days, gave to his people the third revision of the great charter
of their liberties and institutions. Only one ancient author
has spoken definitely of the results of this long deliberation;




116             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
and he is not known by name, though his extant productions
are familiar to modern historians under the signature of the
"anonymous" or "secret writer."  He expressly declares,
that, in the assembly here mentioned, " the rights and duties
of the people, as well as, the relations existing between them,
the nobility and the prince, were more accurately set forth
than they had been; that judges were appointed; and that
the execution of the laws, and penalties for infracting them,
were established."7
Though this account is extremely brief, it is long enough to
convince the native historians of the country, that the division
of the whole territory then conquered, as well as the entire
system of municipal self-government, were at this time particularly secured to the Hungarian nation. It was the special
care of Arpad, also, in the distribution of the lands, to raise
up a class of servants capable of defending him and his successors against the heads of the tribes, and against the woiwodes, who, not forgetting how the commander-in-chief came
by his great authority, had always conducted themselves toward him with too much independence, and sometimes with
insolence.  Without directly breaking any one of the five
stipulations of the national compact, he effectually reduced
the importance of these princes, by giving princely possessions
to the most worthy and faithful of the people, who, not hoping
to rival his influence, but looking to him for protection against
the heads of the tribes and the woiwodes themselves, by whom
the people were more directly governed, would have no interest
opposite to his power and grandeur. All the castles of the
country, with the extensive circumjacent regions belonging to
them, Arpad took into his own hands, as the rightful property
of the commander, whose duty it was to defend his subjects
against domestic and foreign enemies. These numerous and
valuable state domains he could not expect to hold in his own
J Horvath, Geschichte der Ungarn, Part First, sec. ii. ~ 3, p. 12.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   117
person; nor could he deny the justice of the claim set up by
the woiwodes and leaders, that, as the castles were seized by
him as military fortresses, the possession if not the property
of them was rightfully due to themselves, as his representatives in peace, and his adjutants and officers in war; but he
was careful under what title he gave them the occupancy and
management of such vast estates.  He acknowledged them
only as his agents, subsequently called comites ccast'i, empowered to hold these national properties in his name, but
claimed for himself the prerogative to change his representatives at pleasure, whenever he should find a change necessary
to the public good. Thus, without saying so, he made all the
castles of the country really his own property, and the property of his descendants, by which his and their authority was
Cocured and established for all time to come.
If the castles were to be the points d'apni! of the Hungarian system of defence; if the officers holding them were
to be regarded, in a period of war, as the military representatives of the reigning commander, the soldiers ought to be
settled near at hand, that they might be ready when an emergency should arise.  Such was the order of the great Arpad;
but, not satisfied with the existing establishment, which he had
received from his father Almos, he instituted another army,
by granting lands to those of his subjects, who were willing
to become soldiers.  This new army, which received its being
and consequence from him, as well as the means of their individual subsistence in times of peace, though not set off into a
separate corps, was ready to consider itself, nevertheless, not
only as the defenders of their country, but as the special supporters of their prince.
This artful commander raised up another class of personal
friends, whose descendants would be equally friendly to his
dynasty, by giving lands to such worthy foreigners as had been
found in the country at the conquest, and by offering similar
grants to all others, of free and gentle birth, who might wish




118             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
to leave their respective homes and become his subjects.  In
this way, he enriched his fatherland by the introduction of
many thousands of the most enterprising citizens of the surrounding countries, at the same time that he added great
strength and perpetuity to his own position.
Arpad, however, was as just and humane, as he was politic
and ambitious. While engaged in subduing the mountains
and the plains of Hungary, the majority of its population, it
is true, had opposed him; they had fought hundreds of the
bloodiest of battles to break his progress; they had protracted
the struggle to a five years' war, and exercised a ferocious disposition towards the advancing Hungarians. A portion of the
inhabitants, however, had made no resistance. To these, who,
by the undiscriminating victors, were all known as Sclaves, he
awarded personal freedom and their former properties and
possessions. Such of them as had been magnates, were to
be magnates still, whether they were really Sclaves, Goths,
Scythians, or Romans.  None, indeed, were reduced to servitude, but such as had actually fought against him, together
with such persons of his own army as had been convicted of
treason to his authority.,
Such, however, was the extent of the conquered country,
compared with the number of those among whom it was thus
distributed, that each recipient obtained a much larger grant
than he could himself occupy. Nor, in fact, did he need to
cultivate his own grounds; for, by the very side of him,
though below him, there was a numerous class of his countrymen, who, as explained before, offered no claims to the territory into which they had been conducted. The land-owners,
therefore, had only to cut up their respective tracts into con8 When the Hungarians entered the country they found serfdom
in general practice, the serfs being, probably, the subjected inhabitants of the successive conquests.  Fessler's'Die Geschichte der
Ungqrn, Erster Band, sec. 323.




HUNGARY AND KOSSITIT.              119
venient sections, and invite the unlanded population to settle
down upon them. The terms of settlement were not, at that
time, onerous. The doing of a little homage to the landlord,
and the payment of a small rent-tax, gave the poor tenant a
hereditary right to the usufruct of the soil he cultivated.
In the year 907, of the Christian era, Arpad, the most
celebrated of all the Hungarian dukes, was carried to his grave
amidst the regrets of a prosperous and contented people.
Three of his successors, Sultan, Taksony, and Geisa, made no
essential changes with the constitution thus established. The
fourth, however, who was no less a personage than the renowned St. Stephen, may be regarded as the Solon of his
nation. In the seventh year after his election, which took
place in the autumn of 993, he became a convert to the
Christian faith, and acknowledged the supremacy of the reigning pontiff. That pontiff encouraged his disciple to discard
the old name of Oberhaupt, or duke, and put on the splendor
of the regal title.  Stephen was not an unwilling auditor to
the arguments bestowed upon him; and he may not have
seen the papal design of using him as a petted ally of the
Vatican against the unchristian ambition of the German emperors. A golden crown, fabricated by the hands of angels,
and sent to the pious successor of St. Peter by a celestial
messenger, was delivered by human hands to Stephen. The
royal novitiate received the gift with becoming gratitude; and,
supported by the influence of the pope, as well as by that
of his countrymen, who had made a profession of Christianity,
and against a violent opposition set up by his pagan subjects,
he undertook and completed a thorough revision of the HIungarian constitution.
Under his predecessors since the time of Arpad, the power
of the magnates had been greatly weakened, while the royal
authority had become more and more robust and settled.
Still, it was quite evident to Stephen, as it must have been to
any one having to perform his duties, that a yet greater con



120             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
tralization of power was demanded, unless the government
should go back to that unlimited democracy, which, from
actual necessity, had been willingly relinquished to his ancestor, Almos. Such a democracy, in a country the majority
of whose population were ignorant and quite barbarous peasants, would have been certain ruin to every thing bearing the
name of government; and if a monarchy was to exist at all,
or meet the condition of such a heterogeneous and uncultivated people, it must have power enough to command the respect and obedience of all classes.  When it is considered,
also, that the era of this revisal of the Hungarian constitution
was the same as that in which a feudal tyranny was established
in Great Britain, the reader will be prepared to respect, rather
than criticise, the charter of Magyar nationality, of which it
is not difficult to give the leading propositions:
1. The throne of Hungary was secured forever to the family
of Arpad. The king was to be the head of that portion of the
Christian church which had been, or should be, established
within his dominions.  He was to possess the power of vetoing every enactment of the National Assembly, or Diet, without the designation of his reasons.  He was to be capable of
declaring war and peace. He, alone, could grant patents of
nobility; and whatever property fell, by confiscation, to the
state, was to be again given out by him to such persons as he
might select to be the recipients of the royal bounty.
2. The judicial system was very simple.  The king, by
virtue of his office, was to be supreme judge throughout the
kingdom. There was to be no appeal beyond his decision.
To assist him in the administration of justice, as well as to
represent his entire authority where he could not be present,
he created a new officer, unknown to the constitution of Arpad,
called by the Latin name of Palatine, because he was to be
the first minister of the palace. The Palatine was to accompany the monarch, in all his judicial expeditions, to give him
such aid as might be needful; and when the king should be




IIUNGARY AND KOSSUTIf.                  121
otherwise employed, or sick, or too infirm  for active life, his
place on the bench was to be supplied by the presence of his
chief servant.  The kingdom, however, might so increase in
magnitude and population, and the business of this department might be so greatly multiplied in consequence of this
growth, that the Palatine himself would not be sufficient for
the demands of speedy and equal justice.  An assistant judge,
recognised by the German historians of the country under the
name of Ifofr'ichter, but more familiarly known to the Magyar
lawyers by the Latin title of comes czurioe iegifce, was, therefore, appointed for each grand subdivision of the kingdom,
called a county.  For all trivial causes arising within a county,
which were beneath the dignity of the higher judges, or too
numerous for their personal attention, two inferior magistrates,
entitled juclices reycdes, were created.  The course of appeal
was always from  the lower to the next higher court, till a
cause had reached the ears of majesty, beyond whose supreme
tribunal it was impossible to go.  The royal decree was final.
3. The National Assembly, or Diet, originally composed of
all the woiwodes, leaders and officers of the nation, was now
to consist of the nobility, of which there were three orders.
The first rank had been conferred, by the grateful and pious
king, upon the ministers of the new religion, who, as missionaries from Ptonie, had endured incredible hardships in their
glorious work of converting a country of pagans to the gospel.
Next to the clergy were the descendants of the woiwodes,
leaders and officers of the tribes-Volkshiiiupter and Stammhciupter-who are known in the decrees of Stephen, as well as
in the modern nomenclature of the law-books, as seniores
domini, whose nobility descended to them with their blood.9
The third order, called noblies servienles regales, included all
other freemen, who were to exercise the right of suffrage.
9 In Hungarian Latin they are styled johbacgyones regi~s. Geschichte
der Ungarn, Part Second, c. i. sec. i p. 34.




122              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.
The practice of electing delegates to the assembly, however,
was at that time unknown. All the noblemen, of every rank,
could claim' their place, when the nation met for the purposes
of legislation; but it was not the custom, nevertheless, in
that early day, to hold so general a convention of legislators.
Wherever the monarch, or the Palatine, happened to make
any stay, in the course of their official progresses, it was their
habit to call together as many of the members of these three
estates, as lived within a convenient distance, and lay before
them such questions as might have arisen in their respective
neighborhoods. This mode of legislation, though extremely
inartificial, was quite equal to the wants of a simple, upright,
and unsophisticated people; and, under a wise and good king
like Stephen, it was as likely as any other to result in judicious
arrangements, as no decision of the Assembly could become a
law without the sanction of the monarch.
4. To perpetuate the existence and powers of the nobility,
the new constitution protected their persons, by express statute, against all arbitrary arrests, though such arrests might be
issued by the crown itself.  In France, at a much later period,
a royal lettre de cachet could put under custody, for a given
time, the highest nobleman of the kingdom, without carrying
upon its face the reasons of the act. In England, the personal
liberty of the citizen was not secured till the year 1215, more
than two centuries after this right was established in Hungary
by the constitution of Stephen; and, in spite of the Magna,
Charta, by which the immunity was acknowledged to all
English subjects, it was practically nullified by the kings of
England till the beginning of the seventeenth century.  The
arbitrary imprisonments by the privy council, in the reign even
of Elizabeth, have been lamented by modern historians and
civilians.~0  In Hungary, on the contrary, there never was a,
1o Hallam's Constitutional History of England, vol. i. pp. 307-820,
and Kent's Commentaries, vol. ii. part iv. pp. 26-37.




HiUNsGAItY AND KOSSUTIT.              1 2
time when the citizen could be deprived of his personal liberty,
excepting for an open insult to majesty or for treasonable conduct.  The property, also, of the citizen was made absolutely
inalienable, unless forfeited to the state by the crime of treason.  The lower nobility, who had hitherto been subject to
the Volkshiaupter and Stammhdiupter, or leaders of the tribes
and people, were hereafter to be amenable, like the higher
nobles, only to the monarch and his official representatives.
5. The military settlements, which had been made by Arpad
around the castles, were to receive justice from  the hands of a
distinct class of officers, called cosrnites castri, or by the synonyimous but inelegant German appellation of Burggrafcn; and
for the defence of both the castles, and their circuimjaeent
colonies, he raised up an order of knights, which the -Hungarians entitled jobbqygyounes castri, but to whom the Germans
have given the characteristic cognomen of Burgunterthane1n.
They were to be entirely equal, in their privileges, to the other
orders of nobility.  Large properties were assigned them, out
of the lands pertaining to the castles, the usufruct of which
they were to have forever, by the payment of half of the produce to the Burggraf, who, after deducting a third part of this
moiety for himself, delivered the balance to the king."l For
their privileges, this class of noblemen were to be obligated,
for all time, to defend the castles, and the lands and people
belonging to them, from foreign invasion; and the better to
carry out this purpose, they were arranged into battalions of
one hundred, and these into companies of ten, under the
general leadership of the Burggraf, whose subordinate representatives, called comrites parochiani, controlled the smaller
sections, and attended to the details of the command both in
peace and war.
" If the Burggraf cheated the monarch of his dues, he was compelled to pay, as penalty, double the amount of the injury, besides
making restitution. That is, he restored threefold  Stepha.ni Dec.reta II. c. xlii.




1 224            HUNGAPY AND  KOSSUT'II.
6. Under the same jurisdiction were placed all those, who
cultivated the domains belonging personally to the king, and
of whom there were several grades.  One class, denominated
by the 3Magyars U-cvannok, by the Germans Hofdiener, as rentservice for their lands, were to serve the king in whatever
way he might desire, whenever he should visit the districts
where they lived.  Another class were the Tarnok, or Aufbewahrer, who had charge of the king's granaries and magazines, and were bound to pay implicit and perpetual obedience
to his word.  A third class were the royal grooms, or Pferdehiiter, who were to keep the king's stables, and, it is probable,
were to have the general oversight of his flocks and herds.
The last of all were the vinitores, or vinedressers, who, in
addition to the duty of furnishing the monarch with his supplies of wine, were to provide his table with every thing
necessary to a royal board.
7. That portion of the population, which lived on the estates
belonging to the nobility, were to be subject to their own landlords, though the property of the castles and the jurisdiction
of the Burggrafen might, in some cases, extend beyond them.
The nobles, imitating the manners of the king, were to hold
their own courts, try whatever causes might arise among their
tenants, and execute justice in their own way without the
slightest interference from higher powers. Difficulties might
occur, it is true, between the tenants, or peasantry, and the
landlorld himself; but such were to be settled as disturbances
are allayed between a father and his children.  There was no
tribunal established by the monarch for the adjudication of
such causes.  The tenants were to share the produce of the
lands cultivated by them with their masters, attend them in
armIs when commanded to do so, and do many other services,
of a menial character, which might be called for at the courts
and palaces of their manors.
8. Besides those inhabiting the possessions of the king and
nobles, there was a large and respectable class of people, who




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI'.                 125
were denominated freemen.  It consisted of persons mannlnitted from  servitude by their landlords, called duschenie ci,
and of immlligrants from foreign countries, who were regarded
as the guests-hospites-of the nation.  They might hold any
kind or any amount of property, as if they were the highest
nobles of the country, by paying a small tribute —iber'orw,-u
(lenarzi —into the royal exchequer.  Their persons were as
inviolable as that of the wealthiest, or mightiest, nobleman.'hlley were a much favored class.  From the first, a uniformity
of condition, as well as a common interest, induced them  to
settle down in groups, wherever they could find localities favorable to business.  Flrom  these settlements have arisen the
JIunoarian cities.
9. It was the policy of Stephen to propagate Christianity,
not by the sword, or by any open force, but by incorporating
it into the constitution of his country. An outward homage
to it, which passed for a profession, was the basis of the right,
even in the noble, of holding landed property; and the chapters of the various episcopal dioceses were allowed to try certain civil causes, particularly those pertaining to inheritance
and doweries, which properly belonged to the ordinary tribunals.  As noblemen, therefore, the bishops had a seat in the
National Assembly, and had great influence in making the laws
of the land; as judges, they held a most conspicuous and
powerful position, having the prerogative, in the most important topics of litigation, to determine the meaning and application of the laws when made; as large land-owners, with a
vast number of the peasantry directly under them, they were
eq'al to the highest magnates as citizens of the country; and,
as ministers of the gospel, who were then supposed to have
the authority to bind or loose the lofty and the low alike, and
that for time and eternity, they exercised a power over and
above the powers of all the other classes.
10. The mode established for trying causes in all the court;s,
but especially in that where the king presided, was very singu11*




]'20            I-T~CHUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.
lar.  A suit was opened by listening to the private stateencnts
of the parties. The points of agreement between the two statements, when closely compared by the judge, were stricken out.
The next business of the bench was to increase the points of
agreement, as far as it was possible, by putting questions and
cross-questions to the litigants.  The disagreements left, after
this process had been carried to its utmost, were then examined,
each party being allowed to sustain his report of facts by the
testimony of sworn witnesses. The witnesses, however, could
not be picked up at random.  Only a freeman could give evidence against a freeman; against an ecclesiastic, only an ecclesiastic; and the same of every rank of the entire population.
When a suit was acknowledged by the judge to have a genuine
foundation, but, after all the testimony had been rendered, was
regarded as yet doubtful, the disputants were allowed to decide
it by what were then called God's judgments, which had been
recolmmended to the king by the pope's ministers.  He, whc
could hold a hot iron longest in his naked hand, or stand
longest in a cauldron of hot water, or sit longest on some
sharp instrument of torture, was declared victor.  It was an
unusual but perhaps salutary provision, that the lower judges
had to answer for their decisions, if complained of by either
of the parties at any time litigating before them; but, in case
their sentence should be confirmed by the higher court, the
complainant had to pay them a heavy sum of money.
11. Nothing was more singular, however, than the punishments fixed by Stephen for offences.  The general, principle
followed by him seems to have been the lex talionis, which he
had found in the works of Moses, and to which popery had
given a revived existence in nearly all Christian countries.
Some crines, nevertheless, it is impossible to punish by retaliation. It was, there-fore, ordered by the monarch, that traitors,
calumniators of the king and nobles, and thieves who had
been caught the third time in the act of stealing, should suffer
death.  Mourderers,  excepting one class of them, were not




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   127
hung, or punished capitally at all; but they paid the penalty
of their crimes with money. The class excepted were those
who took the lives of their victims by the use of swords; for
the papal missionaries read the mandate to the king, which,
according to their custom, they interpreted literally, " he that
taketh the sword shall perish by the sword." For murdering
his wife, a count paid fifty oxen; a nobleman, ten oxen; a
Burgunterthan, five oxen.  For the murder of a citizen, the
freeman paid one hundred and ten pieces of gold to the nearest relatives.  Incendiarism, perjury, the disturbing of the
public peace, and stealing other men's wives, could be atoned
for by the payment of fines, by fasting, and by passing through
the prescribed penances of the church. The right of asylum,
that bane of civil society in the middle ages, was extended to
all crimes, excepting treason.  The murderer, the robber,
the thief, after perpetrating his iniquities, if pursued by the
officers of the law, had only to flee to a church, to the king's
court, or to some sacred  place, and no law could touch
him?.'2
12. In return for being entirely exempted from taxation,
excepting as the products of the soil contributed by the peasantry were in part the landlord's property, the nobility were
to be wholly responsible for the defence of the country against
internal and external enemies. Every nobleman was by ne-'i This right of asylum is a pagan institution, and was recognised
by the Greeks and Romans, who, when determined to punish the
culprit taking refuge, would starve him to death by cutting off all
supplies of food, as in the memorable case of Pausanias, or even
burn down the building into which he had fled for shelter. With
many other pagan ceremonies, the practice was adopted by the
Catholics, from whom it spread into all modern countries. Pope
Pius the Seventh was compelled to abolish it in his dominions; but
his successor, Leo the Tenth, had the courage and the power to revive it. It was at once banished from most Protestant nations h)
the genius and spirit of the Reformation.




128            IHUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.
cessity a soldier. He was not permitted to employ a proxy.
At the command of the king, he must equip himself, and go
off to the field of battle. While his tenants were tilling his
lands, and procuring the means of his support, he was justly
held responsible for their safety. In this way, and not very
unequally in that martial age, were the burdens of society
distributed. If there was any difference, it was decidedly in
favor of the peasant, who, unless he held lands in connection
with a castle, or under a special military obligation, could expect to live in peace, and quietude, and plenty, even when his
superiors were fighting, and toiling, and starving in the camp,
or perishing by the hand of his country's enemies. The
clergy themselves were bound to the same hard duty. Two
armies, the royal and the national, were established by the
monarch. The royal army consisted of the Burgunterthanen,
led to the field by their Burggrafen, of those immigrants to
whom the king had given lands on the condition of their performing military service, and of all others who had received
substantial favors from the monarch, whether in the shape of
property or of titles, with a similar understanding.  These,
in every way, were the king's troops.  They were bound to
him by personal obligations. They had acquired their social
position from him; and they were, consequently, held under
obligation to defend him and his kingdom from domestic or
foreign injury. The national army, on the other hand, was
made up of all those nobles, who had derived their estates
fiom the national conquest, which, as we have seen, consisted
chiefly of immense districts about the castles, and of all other
noblemen, not belonging to the royal army, who thus paid for
their personal freedom, and for all the privileges pertaining to
their order.  The royal army had for its special duty the internal protection of the country.  The national army was to
defend it against its enemies while they should be beyond its
borders.  Both, however, when an emergency demanmded, w-ere




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIL                   129
to be united into one body, or under one command, of which
the king was to be forever the supreme commander.l3
Such, in few words, was the constitution of Hungary, as
established by the celebrated Stephen.  If, in studying its
details, the American reader should feel disposed to complain
of some of its leading features, let it be remembered, that it
was drawn up to meet the peculiarities of a people, whose
position was without a parallel in the history of any nation;
that, in most respects, it did meet those peculiarities better
than they could have been met by the best constitutions of
more recent and more enlightened countries; and that, in all
respects, it was infinitely more wise, more liberal, more free,
and better adapted to promote the happiness of <the subject,
than any constitution then  existing.  Indeed, in no other
country, in the age now under consideration, can we find a
methodical and written constitution of any kind, or character.
When France and England were feudal monarchies, whose
sovereigns were as absolute as the autocrat of the Russias,
Hungary had led the way, and set the example to Europe and
to the world, by raising up a constitutional state, in which
every man knew his rights and duties, his relations and obligations, his condition and his prospects.  And this knowledge
has ever been considered, whatever be the form of society, as
the chief advantage to be derived from civil governments.
For a little more than two centuries and a half, after the,3 Horvath, Geschichte der Ungarn, Fessler Die Geschichte der
Ungern, Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, Smith's Parallels between the Constitution and Constitutional History of England and
Hungary, together with various articles published in the European
and American magazines, particularly a splendid article in the Christian Examiner by the lady of the Rev. Dr. Putnam, of Roxbury,
Massachusetts, are the principal sources from which I have derived
the materials of this abstract of the Constitution of St. Stephen.
Horvath, however, is my chief authority. Geschichte der Ungarn,
Part Second, cap. i. sec. i. pp. 31-37.




130              IlHUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.
death of Stephen, the Hungarian constitution, as last described,
was administered by the king and higher nobility.  The lower
nobles, including the freemen of the cities, though members
of the National Assembly, by virtue of their rank, never
claimed to exercise their privilege, so far as history can ascertain the facts, till the year 1298, when Andrew the Third, by
the advice of the archbishop of Kalocza, summoned all classes
of the nobility to meet him on the famed Rakos' Field, which
skirts the modern city of Pesth, now the capital of the nation.14
The object of the monarch was to set bounds to the almost
unlimited influence of the Burggrafen, or Grafs, as they had
begun to be called, and of the titled nobility, or Barons, who,
though they had received every thing from the beneficence of
the crown, had gradually settled down into a complete sympathy and union with the Grafs.  This united body of magnates
had exercised too great an authority in the kingdom.  The
constitution of the great lawgiver had all the while been
developing itself, as one emergency after another had presented demands for changes and additions; but the larger part
of this growth was entirely aristocratic, giving more and more
consequence to the higher nobles, but no new importance to
the lower. Both the king and the lesser nobles, indeed, had
been great sufferers.  Andrew, however, at the period mentioned, found himself in a position to raise an open and direct
opposition to this dangerous tendency of the constitution.  Hie
was the particular friend of the House of Hapsburg.  He
had formed a private alliance with Albert, the son of the celebrated Rhodolph.  He had espoused the beautiful Agnes,
Albert's daughter, whose charms were as powerful at court as
14 Engel speaks of a similar Assembly in the year 1061; but all
other historians, so far as I have been able to consult them, regard
the one mentioned here as the first on record, ef whose object and
proceedings we have any definite information. Paget, who seems to
have taken some pains to study the subject, agrees with their opinion
lIungary and Transylvania, vol. i. p. 147.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTh.-                131
the sceptre of her father.  When the Hungarian nation, at
the call of their lawful sovereign, flocked to the field of Rakos,
they found there a prince determined to give the inferior class
of citizens the place of power in the future direction of the
government.  The magnates, it is true, called a separate
council of their order; but the smaller nobility, supported by
the king and clergy, asserted their rights with such emphasis,
that the magnates were compelled to yield, and consent to
share the responsibilities of government with their more numerous and more democratic brethren.  From that moment,
in fact, we are to date that remarkable and indomitable spirit
of democracy, which has shown itself triumphant in all the
subsequent history of the country.  Indeed, at the time here
designated, the three estates of the kingdom-the king, the
magnates, and the gentry-took their independent positions,
and made the first distinctly visible manifestations of the
Hungarian constitution, as it has existed for the five centuries
preceding the late revolution.
During these five hundred years, the National Assembly
has been composed of the three orders, whose powers, prerogatives, and privileges have been, in nearly all respects,
very clearly stated and understood. The general duties and
objects of the Assembly itself have been summed up by a
native writer, whose works, until recently, have formed the
principal source of information respecting the manners and
customs of his country: " To maintain the old Magyar Constitution; to support it by constitutional laws; to assert and
secure the rights, liberties and ancient customs of the nation;
to frame laws for particular cases; to grant supplies and to
fix the manner of their collection; to provide means for
securing the independence of the kingdom, its safety from
foreign influence, and its deliverance from all enemies; to
examine and encourage public undertakings and establishments of general utility; to superintend the mint; to confer
on foreigners the privileges of nobility, together with the per,




132            IIUNGARY AND KOSSUTIt.
mission to colonize the country, and to enjoy the rights of
Hungarians, are the important functions of the Hungarian
Diet."t5
This National Assembly, as it existed prior to the recent
revolutionary struggle, may be studied as the most actual and
reliable exponent of the constitution in its modern form.  Its
supreme head, no longer a Magyar of the house of Almos, or
of Arpad, but an Austrian of the family of the Hapsburgs,
was still known by the title of King of Hungary, whatever
he might be called in any other countries under his dominion.
Though no more, as his predecessors had been till a comparatively recent date, an elective prince, but claiming his seat
upon the throne as a hereditary right, he was, nevertheless,
sworn to administer the government of the nation according
to its constitution, laws and usages.  Though a foreigner, he
was looked upon, in virtue of his office, as a native citizen;
and since, according to the fundamental idea of the government, as held by his subjects, every enactment must be ratified by the whole nation, no act of the National Assembly
could become a law without his approval.  Indeed, the nation
could not meet for legislative purposes without his consent;
as he exercised the power of calling and dispersing the Assembly at his will. Until new laws were made, however, the
king was sworn to administer the affairs of the country according to those already existing; and hence this prerogative
of royalty amounted only to this-that the monarch could
hinder the nation from making progress in its institutions.
WThen the laws were made, he was their sole executor, since
all the executive officers of the government represented him,
and existed by his appointment; and, therefore, whenever any
enactment of the legislative body was opposite to his interests,
1s In this nearly complete enumeration of the powers of the Assembly, Fessler merely transcribes the language of the Assembly
itself, employed at different times and under various circumstances.
Every item mentioned has a separate history.




nUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 133
he could do much to alter, or weaken, if not to annihilate its
sense, by the manner in which he might please to enforce it.
But the meaning of the laws was much more at his disposal,
since, by the theory of the constitution, he was acknowledged
to be the fons et origo jurisdictionis in all the courts of justice. The presiding judge and all the councillors of the Supreme Court, or Curia Regia, received their dignities and the
measure of their duties from him; and the district courts,
which arose from the tribunals of the Burggrafen, and which
are distributed over all the kingdom, were almost equally at
his dictation.  His wishes, therefore, had only to be signified
to his judicial representatives and servants to insure such a
degree of subserviency, in the interpretation of the laws, as
would best support his objects. The people, it is true, in any
such case of royal iniquity and oppression, stood all around
the throne ready to make resistance; but, on the other hand,
by the constitution of the country, the man sitting upon that
throne, as commander of the army, could defend himself by
calling upon the entire military establishment of the nation to
maintain his authority. The support of the army, however,
it may be replied, was in the power of the people, who, by
resolution of the National Diet, granted all supplies and subsidies; but, as if to meet and check this popular reservation,
the king was sole master of the mint, and, for a time at least,
could control the hoarded treasure of the nation.  If he
chose to be an arbitrary sovereign, indeed, he was possessed
of other powers, which could not fail to give him such personal wealth, as would make him a dangerous opponent to the
whole people.  He had the right to nominate every officer of
the government, excepting only the Palatine, who was chosen
by the Diet, the lieutenants of the counties, fifty-two in number, and the two officers into whose hands had been entrusted
the crown and other regalia of the kingdom. As no persons,
besides those thus nominated, could be raised to office, a despotic and peculating prince could secure immense revenues,
I~ C)




134             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
almost enough for his worst purposes, by selling the exercise
of his prerogative, as has often been the practice, to the highest bidders. By the law entitled the jus successionis, the king
inherited all the estates of the nobility, on the extinction of
the male heirs of their respective families; and, if a bad
prince, he could acquire vast pecuniary influence, and indeed
possessions, from another royal privilege, by which he was
made the legal guardian of all orphans. The means of popular intelligence were, also, very much at his disposal; he
claimed a censorship of the press and the entire management
of the post-office system; so that, in the event of any design,
on his part, against the liberties of the people, he could greatly
hinder, if not entirely suppress, all public expression of disapprobation, as well as the general circulation of the facts on
which any disapprobation might be grounded. If, however,
discontent did happen to spread among the population, he had
the means, as lawful head of the state church, of swaying
popular opinion in a manner, and to an extent, at all times
alarming. He gave to every bishop, and high ecclesiastical
dignitary, his position and his bread; and he thereby made
himself felt, and that most effectually, in every pulpit; and.the pulpits themselves, over all the kingdom, constantly
echoed his voice, and taught the masses to mingle his authority with the authority of Him, whom all men are bound
to reverence. At his own pleasure, without even asking the
opinion of the nation, he could, at any time, declare war and
make peace; and all moneys raised by vote of the Assembly,
as well as the ordinary revenues of the kingdom, to whatever
purpose they may have been granted or applied, were, when
raised, completely in his power. He could devote them  to
what ends he would. It is, therefore, plain, that, against an
officer clothed with such manifold authority, it would be generally impossible to make resistance, should he be set toward
despotic measures, without the most evident approaches, at
least, to a revolution.




HUNGARY AND KOSSIUT.                135
The Palatine of Hungary was chosen by the Diet out of
four magnates nominated by the crown.  He was, consequently, as much the officer of the people as the representative of the king.  In all his duties, indeed, as president of
the upper chamber in the National Assembly, and as first
judge of the Curia Regia, he was justly looked upon as a constitutional mediator, at all times of necessity, between the
nation and the throne.  His position, however, was one of
great difficulty. Both parties were liable to suspect him.
I-e never dared to assume any regal splendor, even when
representing the monarch at the seat of government, for fear
of exciting the jealousy of the court; and his prudent submission to the suspicions of the court rendered him an object
of popular distrust. But if really just and impartial, his administration was always successful in winning the gratitude
of the Hungarians, who, in that event, always covered the
memory of his name with their heartiest blessings.
The superior department of the National Assembly, called
the Chamber of Magnates, was composed of the higher clergy,
the barons and counts of the kingdom, and those who were
magnates by birth and title.  Thirty-five bishops and archbishops of the Catholic Church, headed by the powerful and
and princely archbishop of Gran, and one bishop of the Greek
Church, constituted the clerical portion of this chamber.
Fourteen of the highest officers of state, and the fifty-two
official counts of Hungary, sat there with the title of barones
et comites 1regni, and made up the second section. The third
included all titled princes, barons, counts, not holding office,
but whose right to a seat in parliament had descended to them
from their ancestors.  The character of this chamber was entirely regal, since all but three of its proud members —the
Palatine and the two Guardians of the Regalia-were nominated by the monarch, and sat there to watch and defend his
interests. Its powers, however, were quite restricted. It
could initiate no measure, nor propose amendments to mea



136              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
sures, but only approve or disapprove of such bills as came to
it from the popular branch of the Assembly. Though its
prerogatives as a body were well determined, the comparative
rights of its three classes of members had not been entirely
settled, as it was yet disputed whether the titular magnates
had the privilege of voting on certain questions.  By some
of the Palatines, while presiding over its deliberations, the
general maxim had been laid down and observed —vota non,
numrerantur, sed poncderantur-but by what principle this
weighing of votes was to be conducted, or by whom the scales
were to be held, were topics not fixed by any decrees or statutes
of the kingdom.  The positive power of this chamber, therefore, though it represented at least three-fourths of the wealth
and aristocracy of the country, was really small in any great
discussion, which concentrated the attention of the public.
Its reputation, too, had been greatly humbled by the reckless
avarice of the Austro-Hungarian monarchs, who, it is well
known, had not scrupled to fill their coffers, as well as to support their ambitious schemes, by selling patents of nobility to
all those willing and able to pay the price!16
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, called the Personalis, was appointed directly by the king; and, besides his
duties as presiding officer, he was expected to understand, and
to represent to the people, the wishes of the crown.  Of the
remaining members, one hundred and four were the representatives of the fifty-two counties of the kingdom, each'6 Austria has always been fond of selling her imperial honors
without much regard to the previous dignity of the purchasers. All
Europe had the pleasure of laughing, only a few years ago, when
Stultz, the London tailor, was made a Baron for ~10,000. The
common price of the title is only ~2000; but Stultz, poor fellow,
had to pay five prices in consideration of his being raised so high
from so low a rank. It has not been recorded, I believe, whether
Baron Stultz made any better breeches after than before his elevation! Paget, vol. i. p. 244.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 137
county having the right to send two delegates. The boroughs
and towns, also, as well as all the provinces attached to Hungary, had a just proportion of representatives in this chamber.
All came there by popular election. They were bound, by
the oath of office, to express and carry out the wishes of their
constituents, according to such instructions as those constituents had given them.
The National Assembly was generally opened by a speech
from the throne, or from the Palatine, in which the crown
presented such propositions as it wished to have come up for
deliberation. Before proceeding to the regular and official
business of a session, the lower department of the legislature
were accustomed to hold informal meetings, called Circular
Sessions, where the questions to be determined by legal vote,
in its subsequent and constitutional meetings, were discussed
with great freedom. Each deputy had a right to speak, on
every measure, as often as he could get a hearing.  When
these preliminary debates were over, and the affairs of the
nation had been put into some proper shape, the house resolved itself into its more legal form, and undertook the reexamination of each question, under the more stringent rules
which governed its regular proceedings. Upon the passage
of a bill, in this chamber, it was sent to the Chamber of Magnates for their approval.  If not approved in the upper house,
it was returned to the deputies, who might continue to discuss
and pass it, as long and as often as they might hope, by this
means, to bring the magnates to their opinion. It could not,
however, go before the king, until it received this superior
sanction; and when it did receive it, the monarch might reject it, and throw it back upon the Assembly, without assigning any reasons to justify his disapprobation.  If, notwithstanding these obstacles, it obtained the assent of the magnates
and the signature of the king, it had another difficulty to
encounter, before it could be enforced, which, properly to
understand, will require a brief exposition of the last resort
12*




138      -      HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
and absolutely impregnable bulwark of the liberties of the
Hungarian nation.
From the earliest period of its history, beyond which r the
memory of man runneth not to the contrary," the counties of
Hungary have enjoyed all the rights of private municipal
independence. According to the original customs, which were
not disturbed by the constitutions of Almos, of Arpad, and of
Stephen, the one hundred and eight tribes of the people were
entirely independent of each other; and, though it is impossible now to tell precisely how these tribes became fifty-two
rather than fifty-four counties, it is certain that the counties
have always been more like an assemblage of small but perfectly free republics, than merely political subdivisions of one
common country.  The principle by which they have been
held together, under a general head, has been that of a constitutional confederation.  Each of them has ever had a distinct existence, and exercised all the important functions of
an independent state. Within the limits of the county, thus
free as a whole, all the inhabitants, whether noble or not noble,
Magyar, Selave and Saxon, excluding only criminals, vagrants,
and captives taken in battle, which are excluded in all countries, have always stood, at the bottom of the social organization, on one common level. As the kingdom is divided into
counties, so the counties are made up of villages; and the
magistrates of the villages, who have a more immediate bearing upon the daily welfare of the population, than all the
other officers of the government together, have been elected
to their posts, not by the nobles only, but by the universal
suffrage of all the people, from the wealthiest prince down to
the most needy peasant. The peasants, therefore, to a very
great degree, have had the government of their neighborhoods
and homes at their own discretion; and their wishes, conveyed
to the county meetings by their own magistrates, have generally had a due influence upon the deliberations of those larger
gatherings.




IUNGARYt AND KOSSUTEI.                139
The constitution of the country was, consequently, at the
foundation, absolutely democratic; and the aristocratic and
monarchical elements, according to the original theory of the
government, were combined with the democratic with almost
a mathematical symmetry and order.  The officers or representatives of the countless villages were elected by all the
people; the representatives of the fifty-two counties were
elected by those called nobles, who, by this title, were known
simply to enjoy the freedom, or suffrage, of the county; the
representative of the legislature, the centre and executor of
its authority, was elected by a still smaller number, called
magnates, who may be said to have exercised the freedom of
the capital. Originally, all the officers of the country were
elective; and each class of the people appointed its own officers,
or agents. The majority of the inhabitants were simply countrymen, who were to cultivate the soil, and to live in peace,
under the protection of those bound to military service; and
hence only such questions as affected their flocks and herds,
their trades and traffic, their homes and firesides, were submitted to the disposal of their magistrates.  The question of
defense, on the contrary, with all its relations to revenue and
to general legislation, was the question of the defenders, or
noblemen, who could rightly claim to have the management
of their own business. The supreme command of this martial force naturally belonged to the whole body of those having the inferior command; but these soon found it necessary,
or convenient, to delegate this high authority to some one individual of their number, either by frequent election, or for
the term of life.
The whole people, therefore, through their village officers,
could speak directly to the assembled noblemen of the counties; the counties, by their representatives, were listened to
in the National Assembly; and the National Assembly, by
means appointed for the purpose, could address words of
authority to the king.  It was easy, therefore, for power to




140              IUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
run from the many to the few, and from the few to the one,
till, from  the most distant circumference, it had reached the
centre. - It was impossible, however, without the consent of
the different'circles of the population, that power should proceed from the centre to that circumference.  It is to be dislinctly understood, that the king could only lay his propositions
before the National Assembly; the National Assembly could
transform those propositions, as well as its own motions, into
legislative enactments; but, what was the grand security of
the liberties, freedom and happiness of the people, no enactment could become a law, within the limits of a county, until
acknowledged and ratified by its own inhabitants.
Thus, the constitution of the Hungarian nation, at first entirely democratic, successively assumed to itself, to -meet new
wants, aristocratic and monarchic powers; and these, in the
maturity of its being, before it had been tampered with by
foreign tyrants, were more fittingly combined, more nicely
mixed, than in any nation they had ever been before, or have
been since.  It was emphatically a free constitution, because,
though recognising the existence of aristocratic and regal
powers, the -whole people were acknowledged as the last tribunal, before which every wish of the king, and every motion
of the legislative body, had to pass to obtain the authority of
a legal regulation.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.                141
CHAPTER VI.
EXTERNAL RELATIONS OF THE COUNTRY.
WHEN the Hungarians crossed the Carpathians and entered
into their present country, and from that period to the corona
tion of St. Stephen, all Europe was in the act of passing from
under the yoke of Roman despotism, and of creating for itself
new states and empires.
In Italy, the Romans had submitted to the Ostrogoths, the
Ostrogoths to the Lombards, the Lombards to the French, and
the French to the Germans, who, at the beginning of the
eleventh century, took possession of the entire country, as far
south as the States of the Church, excepting the territories
belonging to the Venetian and Genoese republics.  These two
cities, however, were rapidly rising to importance.  Genoa,
shaking off her servitude to France, could not be conquered
by the Germans. Venice, driven from the land by successive
bands of barbarians, had fled to a little nest of neighboring
islands, and was extending her dominion over the bays and
bosom of the Adriatic. The territory of the Church, which
had been usurped by the See of Rome, when the empire was
falling, had been legally recognised by the French, as well as
by the Teutonic, sovereigns. Constantinople, also, was still
standing; but it was standing as a monument to discord, and
tottering to its dissolution.  East of it, on the banks of the
Tigris, sat the city of Bagdat mourning like a captive, as she
beheld the hand of the Turk, whom she had hired as a servant, grasp and brandish the still powerful sceptre of the
Arab, while the glory of her Caliphs was departing.  On the
north-east of the Hungarian fatherland was the country of the




142             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
Rossi, or Russians, but their name was better known to geographers than to statesmen. West of this region of the Rossi
was the land of the Poles, which, in the very year of Stephen's coronation, was erected by Otho the Third into a separate and independent kingdom.  Germany itself, however,
with the spoils of the empire of Charlemagne, and with nearly
as large a- territory as ever cowered beneath the domination of
the Ceesars, was comparatively feeble.  When Arpad set his
foot in Hungary, the name of his race was a terror to all these
nations; his three successors, Soltan, Taksony and Geisa,
compelled both the Germans and the Greeks to pay them
tribute, as a reward for their promised quiet; and, throughout
the west and south of Europe, the liturgy of the churches
taught the devout worshipers to pray-" Good Lord, deliver
us from the Hungarians."'
These Hungarians, it must be admitted, were at that time
very barbarous; -but the inhabitants of nearly all the European
countries were almost as much wanting in knowledge and refinement.  The era of this singular immigration was the
gloomiest period, the very midnight, of the middle ages.
The Catholic religion, corrupt enough in itself, had been still
more corrupted upon the conversion of the savages, by whom
the Romans had been conquered.  The simple rites of the
apostolic church, after their first aggrandizement by being
made to put on the pomp of the Jewish temple-service, had
been degraded by the indecencies and vulgarities of the Celtic,
Teutonic and Scandinavian worship.  Many of the new ceremonies, which had been thus incorporated into the Christian
system, were as scandalous as the mysteries of Elusus, or the
From Almos to Stephen there were six dukes inclusive. Their
reigns were these: Almos, 885-889; Arpad, 889-907; Soltan, 907946; Taksony, 946-972; Geisa, 972-997; Stephen, till he assumed
the regal title, 997-1000. Horvath, Geschichte der Ungarn, Part
First, pp. 2-30.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHI.               143
orgies of the drunken Bacchants.  At the very time, when
the sanctimonious papists were supplicating Heaven's favor
against the savages of Hungary, they were annually celebrating what they styled the Feast of the Ass, in the oldest
and largest of their cathedrals. The object of this festival
was to commemorate the flight of the virgin into Egypt. The
ceremony will serve to manifest the darkness of that epoch.
A beautiful young lady, dressed in a Jewish habit, with a
young child folded in her arms, was seated upon an ass, which
was adorned with the most gorgeous trappings. The animal
had been practiced for the part expected of him.  Going
quietly along, from the place appointed for the gathering of
the people, toward the door of the church, he entered the
sanctuary of God in solemn order, while the assembled thousands followed him in one vast procession. While the multitude were thronging to their seats, below and above, the beast
went forward, bearing the damsel and the child, and stood
before the altar. The services of high mass now commenced.
At the ringing of the little bell, which was the signal to the
worshipers to fall upon their knees, the beast knelt with them.
He arose, also, with the uprising of the people. At the conclusion of the service, which was full of all sorts of blasphemy
and indecency, the priest dismissed the assembly, not by the
usual benediction, but by braying three times like an ass, in
recognition of the three persons of the holy Trinity; the people
brayed three responses; and often the ass himself, either by the
lessons given him, or catching the fit by a spirit of imitation,
united his own bellowings to the inhuman chorus. This was
Catholicism, this the civilization of central and western Europe,
when the Magyars settled down, under their first king, on the
soil purchased by their valor.
The regal dynasty of the house of Almos, or of Arpad, on
She male side, which followed the dissolution of the ducal
sovereignty, lasted from the year 1000 to 1301, when it came
to a close by the death of Andreas the Third, in whom the




144              HUNGARY AND KOSUTH.
male line of his family became extinct.2   Among all the
princes, who filled up this wide space in the history of their
nation, not more than five or six of them did any thing worthy
of special record. Bela the First is celebrated by the Magyars as the king who introduced the coinage of silver into
Hungary. He also made regulations concerning weights and
measures, fixed the prices of the leading agricultural products,
and established a system of internal commerce. It was his
reign, in fact, which transformed his countrymen from a race
of herdsmen to a nation of agriculturists and merchants.
Ladislaus the First, who, in our day, would be recognized as
a statesman, had he not been in his own age canonized as a
saint, is famous for having perfected the civil and social institutions, which Stephen had begun. Stephen, as we have seen,
was the founder of the Hungarian constitution. Ladislaus the
First developed and expanded its various provisions into laws.
He has been almost equally renowned, by the religious of every
succeeding generation, as the royal apostle, by whose piety
and discretion the last remnants of paganism were subdued,'When he died, the country went into sincere and solemn
mourning, scarcely rivaled in the history of any monarch.
For three whole years, there Was not a festival, nor the sound
of any instrument of music, in all the land which he had blest
a This dynasty embraced twenty-one monarchs, whose reigns began and terminated thus: Stephen, 1000-1038; Peter I., 1038-1040;
Samuel, 1040-1044; Peter II., 1044-1046; Andreas I., 1046-1061;
Bela I., 1061-1063; Salamon, 1063-1074; Geisa I., 1074-1077;
St. Ladislaus, 1077-1095; Koloman, 1095-1114; Stephen II., 11141131; Bela II., 1131-1151; Geisa II., 1151-1161; Stephen III.,
1161-1173; Bela III., 1173-1195; Emrich, 1195-1204; Andreas II.,
1205-1235; Bela IV., 1235-1270; Stephen V., 1270-1272; Ladislaus II., 1272-1290; Andreas III., 1290-1301. These dates are
made out by a comparison of several Magyar and German historians.
Horvath, however, where he uses figures, is my leading authority
till the reign of Koloman.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII                  145
and left. His successor, Koloman, a person of very mean
appearance, in intellectual and moral qualities was truly great.
IHe undertook to carry out the unfinished designs of his predecessor. He is worthy of all admiration for his magnanimity,
for his patriotism, and for his legislative talent.  He seemed
to have, in all his efforts, the highest of purposes in view.
He wished, above every thing else, to make the spirit of the
Christian religion the basis of the government, to secure the
independence of the country by guaranteeing the liberties of
the people, and, as a final support to all the blessings of a free
nation, to give all needful power to the requirements, and to
the representatives, of law. In many of his regulations, as
well as in the general tenor of his administration, he was
several centuries before the temper of his times. In one of
his statutes it was decreed, that no more prosecutions should
be made against witches, not because such proceedings were
unnecessary, or inhuman, or impolitic, or beyond the reach of
civil government, but simply because "there were no such
beings as witches in the world."3  Rather than involve his
country in a religious war, he resigned to the pope the right
of nominating priests and bishops, which he had exercised,
without personal benefit, before. Such was the wisdom of his
policy, that Hungary began to be regarded with admiration,
or with envy, by surrounding nations.  He introduced her,
indeed, to the fellowship of the European countries; and, as
a help to the external commerce of his subjects, to which his
own administration had given birth, he levied the first tax
ever known in this tax-hating land.  It was a tax of five percentum  on imports and exports.  It was followed by the
8 It is known, however, that the practice was not entirely abolished.
A witch was burnt, at Szegedin, so late as the reign of Maria Theresa. The son of the unhappy victim of superstition became first a
monk, and afterwards a novelist! His name was Dugoniez. Pulsky's
Introduction, p. 38.
13




146             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
tributum fori, or market-tax, and by direct taxes on freemen
and on foreigners. Such was the honor in which this king
was held, that his very taxes added to his popularity!
The limits of the kingdom were extended by the valor of
this race of princes. Ladislaus the First, whose sword was as
ready as his pen, conquered Sclavonia and Croatia in the year
1089; and, in 1102, Koloman took Dalmatia from the Venetians, who, in that age, were beginning to be one of the great
powers of Europe. The Rossi, who then inhabited the territory next north of Hungary, now known as Gallicia, had
previously been humbled by Salamon and by Ladislaus.  The
people of Moravia, too, who were also Sclavic, in attempting
to foment disturbances between their kindred in Hungary and
the Magyar government, were severely punished by more than
one of these patriotic and powerful monarchs. At the death
of Koloman, in 1114, Hungary had entirely passed the line
that divides the Asiatic from the European style of civilization, and begun to enter into the system and fellowship of the
European states.
This era, however, was followed by a long period of weakness, servility and disgrace. From 1114 to 1205, the country
of the Magyars was ruled by the policy, as well as by the
whims, of Constantinople.  The Greeks, always a deep and
facile people, repining over their eastern losses, wished to
make amends by extending their influence toward the west.
Not daring to attack so brave and warlike a race, as that of
Hungary, they courted the princes and flattered the vanity of
the nation. The Magyars were welcomed to the great metropolis of Christendom.  The schools of the city, the marts
of trade, and the places of amusement, were freely opened to
them.  A young Hungarian looked upon it as the last goal
of fortune, if he could leave the rustic plains of his native
land, proceed to the seat and centre of all splendor, initiate
himself into the graces of some Grecian family, and either
settle down among his benefactors, or return to his home the




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.                1]47
husband of a lady, whose eyes sparkled with the fire of her
proud ancestry, whose lips dropped the accents of Aspasia, and
whose heart claimed alliance with Pericles and Plato.  Hungary, during all this time, turned her eyes as much as possible
from every other part of Europe, and looked to the banks of
the Dardanelles as the El-Dorado of the nation.
Andreas the Third, however, the last of this family of
princes, was an exception to this general statement.  He was
by no means a Grecian. He saw with regret the tendency of
his people toward the temptations held out to them at Constantinople.  Himself nursed by a Venetian mother, and
educated under German and Italian influences, he looked to
Italy, or to Germany, for sympathy, for friendship, for alliances.  HIe formed a close connection with the German emperor, made frequent visits to his imperial residence, and, in
1296, married Agnes, the beautiful daughter of the Austrian
Albert.  The nation, indeed, inclined toward the Greeks.
The government of the nation was rather German.4
During the existence of this dynasty, and mostly between
the reigns of Ladislaus the First and Andreas the Second,
Hungary was united to Europe as it had never been before,
and as it never will be again. The time spoken of was the
period of the crusades. Those vast hordes of men, flocking
from every European country to the Holy Land, took the road,
which all travel and all commerce, between the east and the
west, would be sure to take, were it not closed and guarded by
the jealousy of a short-sighted and despotic rule. They went
to Asia over the plains of Hungary. On reaching the boundaries of the kingdom, they were ordinarily met by an army
headed by the monarch, who undertook to conduct them
across his dominions, as much to defend his subjects against
4 It is a notable fact, not mentioned, I believe, in English history,
that Bela III. married Margaret, sister to the French king, and
widow of one of the Henries of old England.




148             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHo
lawless violence, as to do honor to the object of their enter
prise. This royal escort was not always sufficient to keep in
subordination the rampant soldiers of the cross. Massacres,
battles, encampments, and other military delays, occurred, by
which the inhabitants of every part of Europe gained the
opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with the peo.
ple, position and products of this new Eden of the world.
Many, indeed, tired of their pompous and empty undertaking,
on their return from Palestine, some on their way to it, relinquished a life of religious but bootless chivalry, to settle
down upon the soil of this enchanting land. They brought
with them their languages, their predilections, and their foreign
associations. Having friends in other countries, their epistles
and messages were filled with information respecting their new
home, and their urgent invitations brought many of their
kindred to join them in their new career.'Hungary, so long
an unknown region, a terra incognita, to many countries of
Europe, was in this way revealed to all.
WThen the last of this race of monarchs took his position
upon the throne, Europe was in a very different condition from
that in which it was at the opening of the eleventh century,
when this dynasty began. For one century and a half, it may
be truly said, Europe had been away from home. She had
been abroad in Asia. On the way there, she had mingled her
multiplied populations into one common mass, whose object,
spirit and sympathies were the same. In this manner, Europe
had become acquainted with herself.  While residing in Asia,
she had made the acquaintance of many new people, of people never dreamed of before. She had found, too, that the
Asiatics, including the Mussulmans and Turks, were not the
barbarians she had supposed them to be, but even more learned,
more civilized, more elegant in their style of life than the
Europeans themselves.  Both going and returning, while the
great hordes had marched through Hungary, several of the
smaller and selecter bands, led by some of the first characters




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   149
of that age, had taken their route through Rome, where, by
personal observation, they had acquired a conviction that
popery at home was far from being what popery was supposed
to be abroad. Religious fanaticism had thus declined. The
intercourse thus originated, between the inhabitants of different countries, had given to national fanaticism  a mortal
blow.  The craft of kings had been wounded at the most
vital part. To raise funds for the sustenance of their huge
armies, the princes had sold charters of liberty to many towns
and cities, which, not only by tens and scores, but by hundreds even, had risen up in France, in Germany, in Italy, and
in every European land. Hungary, which had united in the
movement, by which the three known quarters of the globe
had been roused and brought together, shared, also, in its
beneficent results.  At this moment, and by this instrumentality, for the first time in her history, she became strictly and
fully European.5
The third of the several lines of Hungarian sovereigns may
be termed the female dynasty of the house of Almos.  When
the male heirs of the crown became extinct, by the death of
Andreas the Third, who was taken off by poison, the noted
Charles Robert, duke of Anjou, grandson of Bela the Fourth
on the female side, was elevated to the vacant throne; and
eight of his ten successors, who constitute the dynasty he
began, had the blood of the first Hungarian Oberhaupt, derived exactly as Charles Robert himself had derived it, running in their veins.6' The reader, who wishes to trace the influences of this grand
period more minutely, than would be consistent with my limits, may
consult Abel RMmusat's "Memoires sur les Relations Politiques des
Princes Chretiens avee les Empereurs Mongols," pp. 154-157, and
Guizot's History of Civilization, p. 206, where the leading passage
of the great orientalist is largely quoted.' The following are the names and reigns of this female line:
Charles Robert, 1307-1342; Louis the Great, 1342-1382; Maria,
-13*




150             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
With this race of kings a new era in Hungarian history
takes its rise.  By the talents and virtues of her native
princes, Hungary had been raised from a horde of barbarous
nomades to the settled and civilized condition of a state; and
some of the last of these princes, carrying the work of civilization still farther, had made her a respectable member of the
system of European nations. She is now, however, to be
ushered at once into the arena of empires, where she is to
perform  a most conspicuous part.  Charles Robert was the
grandson of the king of Naples; and he was raised to the
throne of Hungary by the influence of Boniface the Eighth,
the Roman pontiff at that time.  He was the son of Charles
Martel, a French duke, who was a reputed natural descendant
of the famous Mayor of Paris of the same name.  His mother
was the beautiful Clementia, daughter of Rodolph, the celebrated founder of the Hapsburgh house.  Thus, the new king
was at once an Italian, a Spaniard, a Frenchman, a German,
and a Hungarian; and he brought with him a debt of gratitude, and therefore a bond of alliance, to the bishop of Rome,
who, in that age, was the centre of the European world. His
policy as a monarch accorded exactly with his origin as a man.
He was not, in his own mind, either a Hungarian, or a German, or a Frenchman, or a Spaniard, or an Italian, but all of
them at once. He was, in other words, a European. The
leading- element of his character, nevertheless, was French.
The French ideal of a government, which is that of glory and
grandeur, rather than that of liberty and happiness, was the
ideal of his life.  He wanted to make his kingdom blaze with
1382-1385; Charles Martel, 1385-1387; Sigismund, 1387-1437;
Albert, 1437-1437; Uladislaus, 1437-1445; Ladislaus Posthumus,
1445-1457; Matthias Corvinus, 1457-1490; Uladislaus II., 14901516; Louis II., 1516-1526. The Magyar historians have been
puzzled to give this dynasty a characteristic name; but I have proposed the one stated in the text, by which a great deal of circumlocution is avoided, for the sufficient reason, as I trust, there assigned.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  51
all sorts of splendor. The throne particularly must dazzle
the eye of Europe. The people are to be transformed, by a
stroke of his magic sceptre, from honorable and high-minded
husbandmen to a nation of gentlemen and courtiers.  The
homely old customs are to be utterly abandoned. The graceful dress of the natives, which flowed most magnificently and
characteristically in rich oriental folds, is to be laid aside for
the narrow dimensions and tight fits of the latest styles of
France.  The French language must be spoken at court and
by the people.  French manners and ceremonies, French
fashions of domestic and of public life, French luxuries of
every sort, and, worse than all, French ideas of the decencies
and indecencies of social life, must be imported for the benefit
of a race of beings, who had ever been renowned for the purity
and simplicity of their habits, for the frankness and integrity
of their conduct, and for the many but nameless minor virtues,
which make up the character of-a natural, rather than an artificial, man.'Vice and fashion came into the country hand in
hand.  So changed was Hungary, at the close of Charles Robert's life, that the natives scarcely knew whether they were
Magyar or French.  Not only the language and books of the
higher classes, but the ideas of the common-people, were entirely French. Simplicity was gone. The old matrons of the
land could hardly tell what was meant, when their daughters
asked them to their own tables to breakfast, or to dine. French
cookery, with all its vocabulary of names, had transformed
the well-known and seasonable repasts of the former ages into
dines, solvps and dejeunbs. The nobility had their balls parv
and their balls masgue. The towns, small as well as great,
boasted of their assembldes and redoutes.  Gentlemen played
at cards with the ladies; and ladies, covered with poudre d le
Marechale, vapored and had fits. Husbands kept an ami de
la maison for their wives; and the wives as pliantly allowed
a fille de chambre to their husbands. Every city, was overflowing with maitres d'hotels and cooks; every hall resounded




152             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIL.
with ballets, operas and comic plays; and, at the same moment, the whole country, covered with true French splendor,
was overwhelmed with degradation, debauchery and debt.7
Hungary was now emphatically European.  Self-development was no longer the doctrine of the country. All eyes
were turned abroad.  Extension, magnitude, magnificence,
were the words most current, even with the masses. Louis
the Great, son of Charles Robert, spread the dominion of the
Magyars to the shores of the three neighboring seas.  He
introduced the doctrine of a standing army into Hungary, and
into Europe.  With his brave-soldiery, and its black flag, he
twice traversed the heart of Italy, twice attacked Naples, twice
conquered it, and twice banished its warlike princes from its
throne. With this same bloody band, he waged war against
the powerful republic of Venice, discomfited her ablest generals, cut down her mightiest armies, and recovered the greater
part of Dalmatia, lost by some of his unfortunate predecessors,
and hung it as a jewel upon his crown. In 1370, as a tribute
to his martial talents, and without any agency of his own, he
was unanimously elected king of Poland by the free electors
of that realm. Hungary, Southern Italy and Poland were
thus temporarily combined.
But the same world-wide policy went on during his dauigh
ter's reign.  That daughter, the fair-haired Maria, had been
married to the German Sigismund, who, after the death of his
father-in-law, became both king of Hungary, by his wife's
right, and emperor of Germany, by the election of his peers.
He brought the kingdom  of the Magyars again before the
world. Under him it was looked upon, though in reality a
distinct and independent country, as one of the great family
of nations, which acknowledged the supremacy of his crown.
After the death of Sigismund, and the assassination of Charles' Riesbeck's Travels through Germany, Letter xxxi., Pinkerton's
Collection.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH,               153
Martel, who was only a pretender to the throne, Hungary
again submitted to Maria, whose alliance with Italy and Germany made her strong.
In 1437, Elizabeth, the daughter of Sigismund and Maria,
had been espoused to Albert of Austria, who, after Maria's
bloody death, was elected king of Hungary through the title
of his wife. He was subsequently created emperor of Germany, but, to present a barrier against the Turks, he made his
Iagyar kingdom the leading member of the empire, to whose
necessities he caused every other interest to bow. That race
of robbers, rising up in eastern Asia, had gradually migrated
westward, spreading death and desolation on every side, till
they had become the dread of every Christian throne. Now,
when they were about to strike their last and most deadly
blow, Hungary became the hope of all the western nations,
the centre of the European world. Albert fell nobly and
bravely fighting the battles of humanity and of man.
Uladislaus, the successor of Albert, was at the same time
king of Hungary and of Poland. His life is only a demonstration that a man, great by position, is not always great in
fact. He was the grandson of Louis the First, in the female
line, and died in battle while waging a Quixotic war against
the Asiatic Turks. He left the Hungarian throne to Ladislaus
Posthumus, son of Sigismund and Elizabeth, a weak and contemptible monarch, but whose reign is immortalized by the
heroic deeds of John Hunyady, the Transylvanian chief, whose
name will ever live in history, in story, and in song. Hie was
the Cid of that martial age. The Turks had now entrenched
themselves in Europe and erected their tents about the walls
of the metropolis of the Christian world. The Roman empire,
reduced to a single city, was a prisoner within that city's walls.
The Greeks could not stir abroad. They had no resource, no
succor, no expectation in themselves. Hungary was almost
their only hope; and Hungary was governed by a feeble and
fickle king.  But the king's general was a general indeed.




154             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
He defended the country against the Turkish hordes; and to
Germany, which basely wished to take advantage of the presence of the infidels, and reduce the country of the Magyars
to a German province, he administered a military lesson, which
the empire had reason to remember for many a year. In 1453,
the followers of Mahomet, assisted by this treasonable diversion created by the German emperor, seized and sacked the
city-of the Coesars. Flushed with victory, the conquerors of
Constantinople rushed to the plains of Hungary, expecting
now to be able to sweep every opposition from their path.
Hunyady met them at Belgrade.  The slaughter of the Turks
was terrible.  They quailed, and turned, and fled.  Christendom had been saved by the prowess of a single arm. But in
twenty days after this memorable achievement, the glorious
chieftain, mourned by the whole nation, was carried to his
grave; and in a few months afterwards, the worthless monarch of the Magyars was deposited by his side.
Matthias Corvinus,8 son of Hunyady, but a youth of only
sixteen years, was raised by the gratitude of his countrymen
to the Hungarian throne.  He was the first of the Magyar
sovereigns in no way connected to the Arpadian line; and he
was, in all respects, the mightiest that ever wielded the sceptre
of his native land. The greatest statesman, the ablest general,
as well as the most powerful king, that his country had ever
raised, his reign was one round of battles, victories and renown.
He condemned the original military system of the Hungarians,
which he considered useful only for defence, and raised up
the nucleus of a standing army, called the Black Legion, whose
valor shed.a peculiar glory on his name. For the support of
this army, he prevailed upon the nobility and clergy to lay
8 When it is remembered, that the v in European words is usually
pronounced like our w, and that the us is nothing but a Latin termination of declension, Corvinus is at once transformed to Corwin-a
name not unfamiliar to Americans.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                155
taxes, not upon the impoverished peasantry, but upon themselves. Pushing towards the east, he gives battle to the
Turks, and imprisons them, as they had the Greeks, within
their city walls. Turning northward, he subdues Silesia and
Moravia, which had been meddling with Hungarian affairs.
Proceeding westward, he declares war against the whole German empire, whose imperial head, Frederick the Third, had
frequently insulted his weak predecessors, captures all the
cities of Austria, and marches up to the entrenchments of
Vienna, and takes the proud capital of the Hapsburgs by.
storm.  Sweeping round toward the south, he settles thle
turbulence of his southern provinces, Dalmatia, Sclavonia and
Croatia, and returns to the seat of government, covered with
glory as with a garment, to raise up schools, colleges and
libraries, and to spread over his country the light of a higher
civilization than Hungary had ever known.
Under the successor of Matthias, Uladislaus the Second,
king of Bohemia, whose election was secured to him as a remote descendant of Almos and of Arpad, on the female side,
Hungary continued to hold a conspicuous position in European
affairs. By his general, John Hunyady the Second, son of
the late king, he prosecuted the war of his great predecessor
against the emperor of Germany, and, by another -able captain, John Zapolya, he punished Poland for certain insults
offered to the independence and majesty of his crown. Toward the close of his administration, however, he committed
an error, which Hungary has had cause to lament for three
full centuries of time. Wishing, after all his hostility to the
Germans, to strengthen his hands by a friendly alliance with
his enemies, and flattered by the promises held out to him, he
consented to form a double union with the House of Austria,
which, from the little ducal principality of Hapsburg, had
begun to stand up as one of the European powers. Actuated
by these motives, he married his son to Maria, and his daughter
to Ferdinand, the grandchildren of the celebrated Maximilian.




156             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
In this way, while linking the fame and fortunes of his country with a branch of the mightiest empire of the world since
the fall of Rome, he ran the risk-the fatal risk-of subjecting that country to the sway of a foreign land. He died soon
after the performance of this unwise and unpatriotic act; and
his son Louis the Second, the husband of Maria and consequently brother-in-law to the emperor Charles the Fifth, was
suddenly cut off while flying from the bloody field of Mohacz,
where, in 1525, he left the Hungarian throne without an heir
having the most distant relationship, by male or female consanguinity, to Almos, to Arpad, or to any of the old royal
line.
For two hundred and seventeen years this female dynasty
of the House of Hungary had continued.  During its existence, Europe had passed from darkness to light, from infancy
to manhood, from the bigotry of the Crusades to the universal
liberty and charity of the Reformation. Between its beginning and its termination, the most memorable events had
occurred, the most wonderful discoveries had been achieved,
the most incredible advancement in civilization had been realized, that the race of humanity had ever known.  The power
of the Romans, which had filled the page of the world's history for more than two thousand years, had expired beneath
the hostile tramp of a nation of oriental robbers. A new
power had been planted, in a world but recently discovered,
which, in no distant period, was destined to throw an eternal
shadow over the glory of the Roman. The Church of God,
purged of its corruptions, had risen up from the depths of its
misery, dashed in pieces the shackles that had bound it, reasserted the design and dignity of its mission, proclaimed freedom to the captive faculties of mankind, and shed the glory
of the Bible upon a multitude of nations. Schools had been
everywhere erected.  The arts and sciences had begun to
flourish. The first paper-mill had been set to work in Germany. Post-offices had been established among the French.




H UNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                157
Painting in oil-colors had been invented by the Dutch. India
had been discovered by doubling the Cape of Good Hope.
Magellan, with the newly invented mariner's compass, had
made the circuit of the globe. Petrarch, by welcoming the
Greeks, had laid the corner-stone of modern literature, and
given the first-fruits of it to the world. The art of printing,
discovered by the Germans, had been carried to all the great
cities of all the great countries of the day. Every thing, in a
word, had been in motion.  Every man in Europe, stirred by
the mysterious impulses of his times, had been roused from
sleep.  Every power of society had been at work.  The secrets of nature, hid since the body of the globe was built,
seemed to have been brought to light. The splendors of a
new era, unrivaled and unapproached, had, broken upon the
countries of modern Europe, with which Hungary had held
the most intimate connections for more than two hundred
years.  Now, at the close of her third dynasty of native
sovereigns, she is about to sink into an insignificance, from
which it will be the object of many a heroic struggle to
reappear.
The last of the Hungarian dynasties, which covers the
course of more than three centuries, made a most ominous
beginning.s  The National Assembly, which had openly remonstrated against the double alliance concluded by the intermarriages between the heirs of Uladislaus and of the German
Maximilian, now resolved not to acknowledge Ferdinand, the
9 The names and reigns of this dynasty, as far down as the year
1832, when a distinct period of Hungarian history takes its origin, are
the following: John Zapolya, 1526-1540, and Ferdinand the First,
1526-1564 (rival kings); John Sigismund, 1540-1571, and Maximilian, 1564-1574 (rival kings); Rhodolph I., 1574-1608; Matthias
II., 1608-1618; Ferdinand II., 1618-1636; Ferdinand III., 16361657; Leopold I., 1657-1705; Joseph I., 1705-1711; Charles III.,
1711-1740; Maria Theresa, 1740-1770; Joseph HI., 1770-1790;
Leopold II., 1790-1792; Francis I., 1792-1832.
14




158             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
husband of their late king's daughter, but crowned John
Zapolya, his general, on the 9th of November, 1526, by a unanimous election. Ferdinand, however, was not to be- set aside
so easily.  Mary, widow of Louis the Second, was his sister,
and zealous in his interest. Charles the Fifth, emperor of
Germany, was his brother, with the will and the means to give
himn a powerful support. Zapolya, too, who had been a valorous and successful captain, became a weak and vacillating
monarch. He was soon driven into Transylvania. Ferdinand, pushing into the country from the west, was elected
and acknowledged on the 16th of December. A war of succession now arose, which, for almost half a century, raged with
unceasing energy. The Turks were called in, by both parties,
to aid in the settlement of- the quarrel; and they, when once
admitted into the country, from which they had been manfully
excluded by the native sovereigns, pursued a double policy,
till they had made themselves masters of the kingdom. For
two centuries, with occasional intermissions, the Turks swayed
the destinies of Hungary.  The Austrian monarchs, who
were generally emperors of Germany as well as kings of
Hungary, were willing.to see the Magyars reduced and
humbled, as they would thus become more subservient to
foreign domination. The introduction of those barbarians,
therefore, as well- as their continuance in the country, were
the result of this perfidious policy. Eight of these German
rulers, from Ferdinand to Charles the Third inclusive, in this
way bled and subdued the nation, and forged the chains for
binding it in eternal slavery at Constantinople.  Germany,
which professed to be the revival of the Roman empire of the
west, and the sworn and sole protector of Christianity, to get
possession of a people, who had ever been the champions of
freedom, stooped to employ the avowed enemies of our religion
through whom to effect its wicked and bloody purpose. Hungary, though nominally connected to an empire, whose history
was the history of Europe during the two centuries in ques



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 159
tion, was really left to sink into obscurity, and welter in its
own blood, shed by the hand of the barbarians.
Charles the Third, thinking that this foul work had been
sufficiently accomplished, raised an army and expelled the
Turks, about a century ago, after a few decisive battles.
Hungary was again brought into notice as a member-a
bruised and bleeding member-of the great Germanic system.
The House of Austria, once the head of a little Swiss principality, now giving successive rulers to nearly one-half of Europe, was again willing to record the name of Hungary on its
proud escutcheon. Hungary, however, during these two ages
of treason and oppression, had acquired no willingness now to
come forth from her long night of suffering, and stand before
the gaze of the world, as a manacled and mutilated slave.
Nor did the monarchs succeeding Charles the Third so treat
her as to inspire her with any greater willingness..The three
sovereigns between Charles and Francis-Maria Theresa, Joseph the Second, and Leopold the Second-though quite unlike in their natural temperaments and personal characteristics,
pursued the one unchangeable policy of their house-selfaggrandizement by centralizing in itself the powers of the
several states;- and when Francis the First expired, in the
year 1832, while the National Assembly was in session, he
left his kingdom just on the point of opening for itself a new
and more glorious career, by reasserting its original constitution, its liberties and its independence.
At that period, Hungary had settled down within the limits,
which nature and necessity seem to have assigned it. It no
longer maintained any organic connection with Italy, with
Poland, or with Bohemia. The old provinces of Pannonia
and Dacia, or Hungary and Transylvania, together with
Croatia and Sclavonia, which had been acquired originally by
conquest, and the Military Frontier, which stretched for nine
hundred and twenty miles between Hungary and Turkey,
completing the chain of the circumjacent mountains by an




160             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
insurmountable but artificial barrier, constituted at that time
the kingdom. Its relations to the surrounding countries, in
the course of more than eight centuries, had become greatly
changed; and many of the nations, flourishing and powerful
when this kingdom was established, had been blotted from the
map of Europe, while others had sprung into existence in a
manner, which, in some ages, would have been regarded as
miraculous. There are several of these neighboring states,
which, though their names have been frequently employed in
the foregoing pages, have so close a connection with the position and prospects of the Hungarian nation, and their histories
are in themselves so marvellous, that some slight memorials
of their origin and strength, at the death of Francis, are essential to a clear and complete exposition of the present topic.
In the sixth century of the Christian era, along the banks
of the Irtish, on the steppes of north-western Asia, dwelt a
small band of robbers, who, when pursued, fled to the steeps
and solitudes of the Altay mountains. While the empires of
Caesar and of Mahomet were in annual conflict, disputing
the mastery of the world, these corsairs of the land sold their
services to the one or to the other party, according to the value
of the bribes offered them. Not far from the middle of the
eighth century, when their power had been humbled and their
territory dismembered by the combined armies of the Chinese
and the Saracens, they professed the religion of the Prophet,
and were at once employed as the body-guard of the reigning
Caliph. From servants they soon became masters. Every
successive convulsion and revolution in Asia served to increase
their power. The Seljooks and the Mongols swept over them
for a time; but, in the end, the robbers were found to have
acquired new strength from the sediments of these vast inundations.  One of the captains of this band, by the name of
Osman, with only about five hundred followers, looking with
a greedy eye on the rolling landscapes, the hills and valleys,
of the lesser Asia, sprung to his horse with a sudden resolu



HUNGARY'AND KOSSUTH.               161
tion, took his course toward the shores of the Mediterranean,
forced the passes of Olympus, and finally made a powerful
settlement on the plains of Bythinia, within the acknowledged
limits of the Roman empire.  He soon conquered a large part
of western Asia. The Greeks and the Romans, divided and
contending with each other, could make no serious resistance.
This daring adventurer was succeeded by eight military leaders, whose genius was equalled only by their triumphs. On
all sides of them, wherever they went, to raise the sword was
the same thing as to conquer. Their successes, instead of
satisfying their ambition, only fed it. The celebration of
every victory was only the sumptuous beginning of one still
greater. Conquest was the road to conquest. Every year,
every day, every hour, they were pressing westward. Europe
trembled.  Cutting off one province of the Roman empire
after another, they finally reduced it to the single city of Constantinople; and this, in the year 1453, they entered and
sacked, thus making themselves masters of the world's metropolis, and planting themselves at the world's centre. This
band of robbers, in 1832, though stripped of some of its fairest dependencies by the Greek and Egyptian revolutions, still
swayed a territory of more than nine hundred thousand square
miles, and a population of over twenty millions. Being of
Tartar origin, they held about as near a relation to the Magyars, in blood, in physical traits, in mental characteristics, as
is held by the Germans to the Anglo-Saxons. The Turks,
indeed, are the most natural friends and allies, which the
Magyars have in Europe.
Such is one nation to which the Hungarians are externally
related. For the rise and progress of another, we turn our eyes
to that long and cold strip of territory, which constitutes the
eastern boundary of the Baltic. There, hovering about the
numerous bays formed by that inland sea, or ranging far out
on its wind~swept surface, arose a race of pirates, whose name
first appeared in history at about the middle of the ninth
14*




162             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
century. Not entirely satisfied with their uncertain and predatory life, a portion of them, under the conduct of Ruric
and his two brothers, migrated eastward into the interior of
the country, conquered the Selavic tribes then inhabiting it,
and formed the nucleus of a kingdom. The government of
this new state was a military despotism. The captain of the
pirates was king, commander, lawgiver, and judicial magistrate.  Every thing submitted to his sole authority, as if he
were still commanding his piratic fleets upon the water. His
successors continued his mode of government and his victories.
In the tenth century, the reigning sovereign, happening to be
at Constantinople, embraced Christianity, and adopted the
creed of the Greek confession. The nation prudently followed
his example. The great-grandson of Ruric married Anna, a
Greek princess, concluded a treaty of alliance with her nation,
and added many tracts of country to his possessions. The
fall of the Greeks contributed more to the success of the
Baltic pirates than their friendship. They had been often
attacked, by the Mangols, by the Teutons, by the Swedes, by
numerous tribes of northern savages, but they had not been
conquered. Every attempt had only rought vengeance upon
the head of the aggressor.  Sometimes, it is true, the freebooters appeased their opponents by a little tribute, but, watching their opportunity, they generally repaid themselves in full
by the most terrible reprisals. At the close of the fifteenth
century, they had annihilated all opposition, excepting an occasional attack from the side of Poland. In 1553, they made
a treaty with Queen Elizabeth of England, when their name
and power first became known in western Europe, through the
enterprise of some British sailors, who had discovered the
passage from England to Archangel.  Treaty after treaty,
with the leading Powers of Europe, followed. On, and still
onward, went the empire of the Baltic pirates. In 1552, they
conquered Kasan, in 1554, the kingdom of Astrakan, and, in
1587, the whole of north-western Asia. Next, they spread




HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH-               16TL
their conquests westward to the boundaries of Norway and
Denmark. The whole of Finland was then added to their
dominions. A third of Poland soon widened their authority
toward the south. From the Turks they took Kinburn, Asoph,
Kabarda, and a large portion of the Crimea. On, and still
onward, went the empire of the Baltic pirates. In 1783,
they took possession of Little Tartary, which made them the
arbiters of south-eastern Europe.  In 1793-7, they seized
nearly another third of Poland, by which this rival was
brought to the very brink of dissolution. In 1800, the Republic of the Seven Islands was erected and occupied by their
garrisons, by which means their power was planted upon the
bosom of the Mediterranean, from which it could menace at
once the shores of Asia, Africa and'Europe. In 1812, they
acquired possession of the mouths of the Danube, with the
adjacent provinces; and, in 1813, they completed their title
to Georgia and to the exclusive navigation of the Caspian.
On, and still onward, went the empire of the Baltic pirates.'In 1815, at Vienna, in 1818, at Aix-la-Chapelle, when the
crowned heads of Europe were partitioning the world between
them, the power of the pirates was predominant; and, at this
moment, it is supreme over the half of Europe, the whole of
northern Asia and north-western America, and one-seventh
of the habitable globe. With a population of sixty millions,
and a standing army of one million, the empire of the Baltic
pirates, whose subjects are different Sclavic tribes, are the
nearest neighbors and most natural allies, not of the Magyars,
but of the Hungarian Sclaves.
The third great nation, with which Hungary has an external
relationship, is equally wonderful in its origin, and in its rise
to power and prominence. Toward the close of the twelfth
century, within the bosom of one of the great armies of crusaders, then occupying the kingdom of Jerusalem, arose a class
of fanatical soldiers, under' the title of Knights of the Teutonic Order. whose exploits are equally famous in history and




164             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
in epic. The order was dedicated to the Virgin, the earthly
dwelling-place of whose Son they bound themselves to rescue
from the unbelievers, and defend against all opposition. Their
purpose was at least a great one; their ambition was very lofty;
their valor was undoubted; and their personal appearance was
attractive. Being all of them noblemen by birth, and possessing. sufficient wealth to support their affectation of magnificence, their entrance upon the stage of public life, as a
banded brotherhood, marks an era in the annals of that
chivalric and martial period. Their under-dress was a suit
of jet black, over which was thrown a cloak of the purest
white, on the back of which was the figure of a black cross
shaded with an edge of silver.  The head-quarters of these
Knights were first at the Holy City; but, when the Turks
had again taken possession of Jerusalem, they retired to
Venice, and thence to Marburg, In the year 1229, they were
invited by the Poles to give them their support against the
Prussians, who were then pagans. After a struggle of fiftythree years, the Prussians were compelled to acknowledge the
supremacy of the Order, which, without stopping to celebrate
its triumph, at once proceeded to spread its power along the
southern borders of the Baltic. Before 1525, a great part of
the central section of northern Europe was held by these
Knights, by paying a nominal homage to the crown of Poland; but, in that year, it was conferred by the Polish sovereign on Albert of Brandenburg, grand-master of these Teutons,-who was to govern and transmit it as a duchy of this
kingdom. In 1657, the republic of Poland acknowledged the
independent sovereignty of one of the successors of Prince
Albert over all the territory at first granted to his house, and
over other large possessions acquired since the grant was made
it.  Frederic, the third of the dukes, in 1701, put upon his
own head the royal crown, having taken the title of Frederic
the First.  The kingdom was at once established.  Its influence was widely felt on the surrounding nations.  Military in




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                165
its organization, and imbued from the beginning with the
military spirit, the end and aim of every enterprise, the object
of every wish, was conquest.  Frederic William the First, the
successor of the first king, established a military government,
with a standing army of sixty or seventy thousand; and the
next successor, Frederic the Great, transformed the little kingdom into one of the great monarchies of Europe. In art, in
science, in philosophy, in all the works of modern civilization,
the small dukedom of the Teutonic Knights has become the
soul and centre of the German empire, wielding an influence
to the ends of the world. That influence has a threefold and
even contradictory relation to the Hungarian kingdom. As a
Teutonic influence, it is naturally allied to- the interests of the
Hungarian Germans. Its opposition to southern Germany,
however, would cause it to take into its embrace the entire
Magyar country; but its constant and close connection with
the empire of the Baltic pirates, the head and champion of the
great Sclavic family, neutralizes its natural affinities, nullifies
its more liberal policy, and makes it the instrument of that
imperial despotism of the north, which, for its own purposes,
incites and supports the Sclave against the Magyar, which
always stands opposed to a nation.having any tendency toward
the doctrine of human freedom, and which resolves, sooner or
later, to crush the last relic of civil liberty in Europe.
There is one more great European nation to be marshalled
into being, and set in its true position, in relation to the Magyar kingdom. Its history is not less wonderful than that of
its three predecessors. On the banks of the Aar, in Switzerland, toward the close of the eleventh century, a Christian
bishop, by the name of Werner, built a fortified episcopal
palace among the broken crags of a very lofty eminence. To
those down in the deep valley of the river, the bishop's residence seemed no bigger than a speck, and reminded the rude
peasants of that Alpine region of what they had often seen
among the mountains. The occupant of the airy dwelling,




166             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
by the manner of his life, may have added something, in the
way of association, to the resemblance. The peasantry called
it, in their own language, Der Habichtsburg, which, in our
tongue, is the Hawk's-Nest. If, at the first, this title was
justly applied to it, it is certain that the successors of Bishop
Werner gave ample reason for the application.  They were as
hawk-eyed, greedy, rapacious a set of priests, as ever rose up
in any country. Seated in their high and inaccessible aOry,
far above the reach of either law or punishment, they watched
the neighboring valleys with the keenest vigilance. Seizing
their opportunities with the vulture's precision and penetration,
they pounced upon every moving object, from which they expected to draw nourishment for their craving appetite.  Power
was the object of their ambition.  Their own particular district was at once reduced to absolute fear, dependance and
subjection. The adjoining districts, or dioceses, next became
the victims of their rapacity. In that barbarous age, when
social distinctions were not nicely drawn, the lines of separation between ecclesiastical and secular authority were very
irregular and faint; and the bishops of the Hawk's-Nest found
it not difficult gradually to annex a civil to their religious influence.  The little town that sprung up under their feet,
which, from the name of their own residence, was also called
Habichtsburg, by the natives corrupted into Hapsburg, was
made the centre of several dioceses, of which the occupant of
the high castle became the count. Still uniting the two kinds
of sovereignty, the counts of Hapsburg, never for one moment
forgetful of the sole object of their existence, and constantly
adding to their power by making themselves the self-serving
ministers of the pope, at the opening of the thirteenth century, began to draw the attention of the German states. The
north-east of Switzerland had submitted to their dictation.,
Commanding the head-waters of the Rhine, as well as one of
the principal passes of the Alps, both Italy and Germany were
often under obligations to their politic generosity, or were stung




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 167
by the severity and obstinacy of their power. Their territory,
small as it was, defended by its Alpine walls, could defy the
proudest barons of the land. Rhodolph, who became Count
of Hapsburg in 1240, spread all over Switzerland the terror
of his name.  He sought to make quarrels with his friends,
that) as in the case of young Hugh of Tuffenstein, he might
have occasion to attack them and get possession of their
estates.  He raised the sword against his uncle and guardian,
and, when the strife was over, demanded and received a strip
from his relative's inheritance to repay him for the expenses
of the war. Having borrowed money from another uncle,
and being denied when he wished to borrow more, he paid the
debt by endeavoring to seize the whole of his kinsman's patrimony and conveying it to himself. Interfering with a civil
tar in Strasburg, he took possession of the city, and compelled its lawful ruler to purchase a restoration to the throne.
As guardian to his cousin Anne, instead of defending and
preserving her vast inheritance, he boldly and openly added it
to his own. Full of all intrigue, he conquered many cities,
among which was that of Zurich, by stratagems and ambuscades. Espousing the cause of the citizens of Basle, who had
risen against their magistrates, he was about to batter down
the walls of the town, when, at midnight, a fleet messenger
brought to him the intelligence, that the count of Hapsburg
had been elected emperor of' Germany by the unanimous suffrage of the states.l~ The emperor by no means put off the
count.  Ottocar, the duke of Austria, refused to acknowledge
the elevation of the new sovereign, when Rhodolph, who could
not be satisfied with any common penalty, grasped the scepter
of his opponent by force of arms. That scepter never was
restored. The provinces adjacent to Austria-Styria, Illyria,
Corinthia and Carniola-were soon annexed, by warlike means,
10 The bishop of Basle, on hearing the niews, is said to have exclaimed-" Sit fast, great God, or Rhodolph will occupy thy throne!"
Coxe's House of Austria, vol. i. p. 16.




168             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
to this ever-growing and ever-ambitious house. Bohemia, with
its dependencies, Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia, soon met with
the same inevitable fate. Hungary was obtained by a marriage supported by the sword. Parts of Poland were acquired
by unlawful force. Always grasping after the imperial crown,
and frequently with success, the Hapsburg sovereigns ultimately reached a height of authority, by the use of which it
became easy for them to settle in their own family the succession to the German throne; and when the crown of the Csesars
had been worn by them for many generations, Francis the First
ostentatiously resigned a bauble, no longer the ensign of power,
declaring himself the emperor of Austria, which, indeed, under
the ambitious rule of a long line of unscrupulous robbers, had
swallowed up the German empire and grown to be almost as
large, quite as powerful, and decidedly more magisterial and
intolerant, than that of ancient, iron-hearted, iron-handed
Rome. The Castle of the Hawk's-Nest had become one of
the capitals of the world.
Such, then, are the external relations of the Magyar nation.
At home, the Magyars are surrounded on all sides by Sclaves,
in the midst of whom, hemmed in and hated as they are, they
have maintained their supremacy for more than nine hundred
years. The four great monarchies just described, Turkey,
Russia, Prussia and Austria, all of them tyrannic governments, constitute another wall-a wall of despotism averaging
a thousand miles in width-by which they are entirely enclosed. Beyond this there is still another irregular circumvallation of monarchical and despotic states, Asiatic, African
and European, the most of which are but partners or dependants of the four, whose historical positions have been portrayed.
Thus imprisoned, at the centre of a vast system of confederated
despotisms, these friends of freedom, the champions of civil
liberty, have borne up. against every influence, have defended
themselves against nearly all aggressions, have maintained at
least the name of their historical and constitutional independ



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTr.                 169
ence, since their original settlement in the land. The name
of independence, however, it must be confessed, is about all
they have been able to preserve. Successful against all nations, by whom their country and institutions were openly
attacked, in the earlier periods of their history, they have at
last been compelled to yield to the perfidy, diplomacy and intrigue of a monarchy, which, from its origin on the banks of
Aar, has known no object but self-aggrandizement, no scruples
but those of ambition, no means better than treachery and
war. If ever they have dared to demand their rights, to ask
for the restoration of their liberties, for the real as well as
nominal acknowledgment of their happy and almost republican
constitution, they have failed of success, for the last three
hundred years, for the want of a sufficient European sympathy
on which to lean in their day of need. Every patriotic effort
was sure to rouse the hostility of the surrounding countries.
Turkey, though their kindred in origin and in blood, could not
favor a country of republican institutions.  Russia, in every
commotion, was certain to take the side of her Selavic kinsmen against the people, whose liberal constitution she additionally despised. - Prussia, ever since the fall of Poland, has
been generally the secret or open ally of the Russian government.  France and England, since the days of the French
Revolution, have been maintaining the balance of Europe by
a close connection with Austria and Turkey against the dreaded
ambition of the Russias. The other states of Europe are no
longer powers. They are nothing but dependants. Hungary,
therefore, for three centuries, has been a forlorn captive,
chained in a mighty prison-house of nations, without the means
of self-liberation, without the hope of foreign interference, but
in no way giving up to despondency, or relinquishing her faith
in a happier and a better day. It is no dishonor, when her
unfortunate position is carefully considered, that she has been
in chains so long. It is her glory, that, in spite of her outward captivity, at heart she has been always and forever free.




170             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
CHAPTER  VII
ATTEMPTS TO OVERTHROW THE HUNGARIAN NATIONALITY.
WE are told by the historian of the House of Austria, that
Frederic the Third was accustomed to employ his leisure in
the composition of a royal diary, and in the construction of
enigmas and unintelligible anagrams. One of these anagrams
was extremely curious. It was based upon the five vowels of
the Roman alphabet. These letters, during the life-time of the
emperor, were engraved upon his plate, and upon all the articles
of his household furniture. His visitors used to be perplexed
in seeing them at the table, in his halls, on the covers of his
books, and everywhere throughout his palace.  Thousands
made the attempt to interpret them. All attempts, however,
proved fruitless. They continued to be, till the day of his
death, an unsolved mystery, the wonder of his generation.
After his demise the riddle was explained. On one of the
leaves of his diary, his executor found the following singular
inscription:
A  ustria -st   -mperare (' rbi          [Tniverso.
lles.I24rdreich.1st.Jesterreich U  nterthan.2
It seems, therefore, that, years before the Hungarian monarchy was united to that of Austria, one of the leading members of the Austrian family of kings had expressed the wellknown policy of his house, though the time for making it
public had not arrived. It did not originate, however, with
Frederic.  It had been the actuating spirit of every one of
his predecessors. It was born in the breast of the first occupant of the Hawk's-Nest. From the priest it had descended
Coxe's House of Austria, vol. i. p. 277, and Fugger, p. 1080.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 171
to the count, from the count to the duke, from the duke to
the king, and from the king of a single nation, and that a
small one, to the sole monarch of half a score of realms. It
had grown with the growth of power. All that can be said
of Frederic is, that hexwished to see how it would look in
words, but, the better to conceal it from the jealousy of other
nations, and still to preserve it in a memorable form, for the
benefit of his own subjects, and especially of his successors,
he vailed it in the manner above mentioned. Whether he
expected, when writing out the resolution of the imperial
riddle, in his secret journal, that it would ever be given to the
world, is not a question.  He evidently intended it only for
those, whom it was designed to prompt to greater energy, in
the only business of his family.  But whoever will now read
the bloody and ambitious history of this family will not need
the riddle, or the resolution of it, to point out to him the one,
unalterable, untiring purpose of every member of it, crowned
and uncrowned, since it was brought into being amoVg the
Alpine crags. This plain and positive declaration of the emperor is proof enough, it is true, of the ruling object of the
Hapsburgs, in all their relations to other lands; but their
recorded acts, through a long line of princes, and through the
space of many centuries, in respect to the race and country
of the Magyars, furnish a better and clearer exposition of that
object, than any royal enigma could afford.
-Hungary, as we have seen, was originally an independent
country, bound by no allegiance to any foreign power. The
conquest, gained by Attila and his Huns over the Sarmatian,
Gothic, and Roman inhabitants of Dacia and Pannonia, was
complete; and the Magyars, by conquering the Huns, acquired
as good a title to the whole land, as had been vested in their
predecessors.
It has been said, however, that, in either case, a military
title is an imperfect tenure; but, should the present generation undertake and effect a revolution upon this subject, not




172         I- fUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
only Hungary, but every other settled and civilized nation, in
America and in Europe, would have to relinquish their existence. It would be utterly impossible, on this or the other
side of the Atlantic, to find the remnants of a people, to whom
the sovereignties of the several enlightened states could be,
with historical and legal accuracy, resigned; for, though it
would not be difficult to discover, in all these states, some
fragments of our nearest predecessors, it is now well known,
that they were themselves the conquerors of other peoples,
who held prior possession of the countries. In England, it
might be possible for the present rulers, who represent the
Norman conquerors, to yield their supremacy to the living
descendants of the original Anglo-Saxons; but, by the same
theory, the crown could not easily pass backward, through the
Danes, Saxons, and Romans, to the present race of Britons.
In America, we should be compelled to dissolve the existing
republic, and call back the red men of our eastern and western forests, to exercise dominion over us; and even these,
before they could take command, would be bound to quit their
claim in behalf of that unknown people, who, ages prior to
their captivity or annihilation, by thb modern Indian tribes,
enjoyed the possession of our hills and valleys. In Hungary,
the task of retro-cession would be still more difficult; and the
Magyars, who have held their country more than three times
as long as we have held our own, and by exactly the same
title, have always been, and are yet, a sovereign and independent people.  Though surrounded by their conquered
countrymen, the Sclaves, they are no more bound to abdicate
in their favor, than the English are bound to deliver their
sceptre to the Welsh, or the Americans to the descendants of
Red Jacket and King Philip. The instincts of humanity,
and the practice of all nations, as well as the laws of necessity, establish the validity of the Magyar claim to all the
territories and dependencies of Hungary.
The land of the Magyar is not only legally and justly his




IIUNGARY -AND KOSSUTH.               173
possession, according to the law of nations, together with all
its associated provinces, but his title has been ratified, in the
usual form, by the surrounding states for a long course of ages.
The supremacy of the dominant race- has been thus legally
established. It has received, also, a still higher ratification.
It has been acknowledged, for many centuries, by the Sclavic
provinces themselves. Not only their constitutions, but their
statute laws, as well as every thing pertaining to their local
governments, have constantly recognised themselves, during
a11l this time, as dependencies of Hungary, of which the Magyars have ever been the ruling people. The French in Canada
might as rightfully throw up their connection with the Provincial Parliament, in which the Anglo-Saxon influence is
justly paramount, or with the Imperial Parliament of Great
Britain, as the Sclaves of Hungary could renounce their longstanding and legally-established relations to the race that conquered them.
Nor can it be denied, indeed, that the victorious people have
granted much greater liberty to the subject race, ever since
their subjugation, than it has been convenient for England to
grant to the French in her North American possessions.  This
is a part of the domestic history of Hungary, which, by nearly
all foreigners, has been too little understood, or too partially
considered. The Sclaves of Croatia and Sclavonia, which are
united in their local administration, have always enjoyed a
municipal independence. They have their own General Assembly, or Diet, which meets at their capital of Agram, where
all their private matters are discussed and settled according
to their own wishes. The National Assembly has ever been
characteristically generous and high-minded in its liberality
toward them. These Sclavonic provinces, in their separate
capacity, have borne about the same relation to the Hungarian
kingdom, that the counties of Hungary, properly so called,
have had to the same general government.  They have been
cordially admitted into the common fellowship of the nation.
15



174             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Transylvania, too, which forms a still larger portion of the
kingdom, has its own Diet at Hermanstadt, its capital, and
there exercises all the functions of self-government, in all
affairs of a merely provincial interest. Never, perhaps, in the
history of conquests, has a conquering race been more magnanimous to the conquered.
This local independence of the provinces and counties is
one of the most remarkable features of the Hungarian constitution, having no parallel, perhaps, excepting in the independent but united states of our own great republic. There is no
difference among these constituent parts of the nation, whether
their inhabitants are Magyars, or Sclaves, or Saxons. Not
only do all of them elect their own officers, in their own way,
and send delegates to the National Assembly to represent their
interests according to the instructions given them, but they
have the sole management of their municipal affairs, in which
the national government has asserted no right to interfere.
They assess and collect their own taxes, make and repair their
own roads, erect their own bridges, cut their own canals, and
perform all other acts of private sovereignty not inconsistent
with their relations to each other as one confederated government.  The king himself can execute the laws of the National
Assembly only through the county and provincial officers, who,
responsible to their constituents only, cannot be compelled to
serve a mandate not acceptable to the people. By the Bulla
Aurea, too, of King Audreas the Second, the legal voters of
the counties have a right to take up arms against a monarch,
who attempts to violate the constitution, without incurring
any legal blame.  So thoroughly democratic is this Magyar
kingdom, that, in one particular, if not in more than one, the
people have retained a prerogative dangerous to the efficiency,
if not to the integrity, of the general government. When a
county sees fit to resist the execution of any unpopular enactment of the Assembly, or mandate of the king, should it know




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 175
of any neighboring states friendly to its private views, it has
the privilege of concluding treaties with those states, offensive
and defensive, as if it had no connection with the monarchy
of which it professedly forms a part. This excess of democracy, however, is a sufficient proof of the republican spirit
of the nation.
According to the fundamental laws of the country, therefore, Hungary has always been a popular government, and, in
every thing but the name, a republic. It is true, in the two
provinces of Upper and Lower Hungary, the Magyars at first
asserted certain political privileges, which they did not grant
to their conquered fellow-citizens; and the same is true, as
we have seen, and with still greater emphasis, in our own
country respecting our aboriginal inhabitants. The distinction, however, has long since been regarded as a dead letter;
while, in no part of the kingdom, has there ever been so wide
a difference as exists between the two races in our southern
States, where no conquest can be quoted, but whose republicanism has always been legally and universally acknowledged.
In all the other provinces, the Magyar has never claimed any
more rights, than he has freely and fully granted to his Sclavic
and Saxon brethren. All over the kingdom, from the earliest
times, the superior state-officers have been almost entirely
raised to their respective posts by popular election; the exceptions to this general custom have been less numerous than
in the states of the American Union; and the king himself,
as well as the duke before him, elevated by the same means,
has not only been thus the responsible representative of a free
nation, but the possessor of less power, by the original constitution, than is- exercised by an American President. The
National Assembly has ever had less authority than our
Congress.  The people of Hungary, always a liberty-loving
people, from the time when their first Oberhaupt was elected
till the total extinction of his lineage, have ever maintained




1.76             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTR.
more of the forms and functions of local self-government,
than have the people of our own republic.2
So jealous, indeed, have the Hungarians always been of
regal domination, and so determined to secure their popular
institutions against every possibility of the centralization of
their powers in the hands of their sovereigns, that, when first
transferring their crown to a foreign prince, they caused him
to swear, in the presence of God, to maintain the integrity of
the country and of its constitution. This oath is one of the
most solemn and emphatic ever taken upon the lips of any
mortal. It is too plain for the least opportunity of misunderstanding or equivocation. It has been pronounced, under the
most open and imposing circumstances, by every Austrian
king of Hungary since the coronation of the first Ferdinand.
Alas! it is the oath by which every one of them, without an
exception, is guilty of the blackest perjury. Let us proceed
to enumerate the several charges, which impartial history has
to bring, in this relation, against this line of princes.  We
shall see whether the anagram of Frederic was an unmeaning
riddle.
It must be remembered, that the same man, who, as king
of Hungary, is a limited monarch, checked on every side by
the constitutional liberties of his subjects, as emperor of
Austria is possessed of a regal authority entirely absolute.
This right of absolute domination is, of course, his darling
attribute; and the provinces of his empire, where his will is
irresistible, are his darling provinces. So far as it can be
possible for such a ruler to confer lasting favors upon a people, so far would the Austrian despots very naturally exert
themselves to give a greater apparent prosperity to the im2 Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i. chap. xviii. _passim,
and J. Toulmin Smith's Parallels between England and Hungary,
pp. 18-58 inclusive. Smith is particularly to be examined on this
subject.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 177
perial, than to the royal and constitutional, parts of their
dominions. Could the subject be made to believe, that his
fortune is easier, that his success in life is more certain, in
those portions of the wide realm, where the emperor is sole
master, than where his prerogatives and powers are restrained
by popular limitations, a decisive work would be accomplished
on the side of tyranny, and a sure step taken toward the ultimate establishment of his despotic sway over the other portions. This, indeed, is the first article in a system of policy,
by which the House of Austria has been endeavoring, for
more than three centuries, to subjugate the Hungarian nation,
and to rob it of its liberties, of its constitution, and of its
independence. A most glaring and iniquitous favoritism, respecting all the branches of human industry, in the encouragement of talent and ambition, and in the assessment and collection of the revenue, has been practised.  In Hungary,
agriculture, manufactures and commerce have been discouraged,
while, in the imperial provinces, such rewards and bounties
have been offered as always develop the resources of a nation.
On those immense tracts of land belonging directly to the
king, particularly on such as were within the boundaries of
Hungary, every mode of expenditure has been lavished, by
which the happiness and contentment of their inhabitants,
and an invidious comparison' with the lands held by the other
part of the population, could be secured. In the Banat, for
example, where whole counties are the personal property of
the monarch, this system of royal partiality' has been carried
to the highest pitch.3 All over Hungary, however, wherever
the Hapsburg monarch has had possessions, these substantial
and powerful though sophistical arguments have been stamped
upon the soil, upon the public improvements, and, as far as
possible, upon the convictions of a poor, short-sighted and
a Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. ii. p. 60, American
edition.




178             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
superficial people. In all other portions of the country, the
iron sway of a foreign rule has repressed all enterprise, discouraged all improvement, and so loaded the laboring classes
with an illegal system of indirect taxation, that they long
since sank into an almost hopeless poverty. The internal taxes
of the kingdom the monarchs could not touch; but they could
make every article imported into Hungary, and every article
exported from it, pay the most enormous duties; and, thus
doubling their malice, they could not only wrench a vast revenue for themselves by the first of these cruel practices, but by
the second actually prohibit and annihilate the productive
operations of the country. The hard-working peasant of Gallicia, beyond the north-east border of Hungary, over the
Carpathian mountains, has been compelled to import his
scythes from the Austrian province of Styria, beyond the
south-western limit of the kingdom, though the Hungarians
have been manufacturing a superior article at G-omlr, almost
within sight of the green valleys where the demand for them
has existed.4 All joiner-work, done in Hungary, has had to
pay a duty of one hundred per centum, while many other
trades and professions have been, by the same means, prohibited. The capital and talent of other portions of the world
have been industriously discouraged from seeking employment in the doomed and desolated country; for not only have
the foreign monarchs, their servants and their subjects, united
to slander the opportunities, which it holds forth to enterprising strangers, but German political economists, like the
well-known List, have been paid for writing and publishing
against it the most false and serious libels. For the last fifty
Pulsky, vol. i. p. 5. The Banat is known to be full of coal; and
yet, owing to this system of partiality, it is as dear at home as that
brought from England by the way of Constantinople I Paget, vol. ii.
p. 54. The duty on salt is a still worse specimen of maladministra.
tion. Paget, vol. ii. p. 170.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  179
years, whenever an inquisitive traveler has arrived at Vienna,
and proposed to visit and explore the interdicted region, he
has been clamorously informed, that Hungary is a land of
wolves and other wild beasts, and of a still wilder and wickeder
population; where there are neither roads, nor bridges, nor
means of travel; whose inhabitants wander, in forlorn groups,
either naked, or clad in the coarsest and dirtiest sheep-skins;
and in which a man's life would be taken for a cup of Karlowicz, or the value of a kreutzer!5
But the Austrian kings have not limited their aggressions,
against the liberties and independence of Hungary, by such a
peaceable though contemptible opposition.  Ferdinand the
First, it will be remembered, acquired the crown of St. Stephen by a long and most bloody war, which he waged against
John Zapolya, the rightful heir, whom the Hungarian Diet,
in 1526, as well as the estates of Sclavonia, had unanimously
-    City of the Magyar, and Pulsky's Memoirs, passim. The newspapers of Vienna are now holding the same language. Paget opens
his great work with the following passage:-" The reader would
certainly laugh, as I have often done since, did I tell him one-half
of the foolish tales the good Viennese told us of the country we
were about to visit. No roads! no inns! no police! we must sleep
on the ground, eat where we could, and be ready to defend our
purses and our lives at every moment! In full credence of these
reports, we provided ourselves most plentifully with arms, which
were carefully loaded, and placed ready for immediate use; for, as
we heard that nothing but fighting would carry us through, we determined to put the best face we could upon the matter. It may,
however, ease the reader's mind to know, that no occasion to shoot
any thing more formidable than a partridge, or a hare, ever presented
itself; and that we finished our journey with the full conviction,
that traveling in Hungary was just as safe as traveling in England!"
The writer subsequently gives us the reason for the circulation of
these fearful stories. "The Hungarians do sometimes talk about
liberty, constitutional rights, and other such terrible things!" Paget's Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i. pp. 13 and 14.




180             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
elected to the throne left vacant by the death of the Second
Louis on the field of Mohacz. To gain the higher nobles of
the kingdom to his cause, he tendered to them a written manifesto, while the fortunes of the day were against him, declaring, that, in the event of his success, "he would preserve
inviolate all the rights and liberties of Hungary," with the
same fidelity as if he had been a native and lawful prince.
Some of the great nobility turned traitors and went over to
the usurper. Zapolya was not at once defeated. In 1538, a
treaty was concluded between the combatants, styled the
Peace of Grosswardein, by which it was agreed, that hostilities
should cease between them; that, ad interim, Ferdinand
should be obeyed in the west, and Zapolya in the east of
Hungary; and that, should Zapolya die during the continuance of this armistice, Ferdinand and John Sigismund, Zapolya's son, were to divide the kingdom between them. In
1540, Zapolya died; and, in the same year, the Turks invaded
and conquered the country as far west as Buda. Ferdinand
died in 1564, after acknowledging the right of Sigismund to
eastern Hungary, leaving the western portion to his own son,
Maximilian.  The death of John Sigismund, in 1571, conferred his right of sovereignty upon Stephen Bathory, one of
the greatest of the Hungarian statesmen; but Rhodolph, the
successor of Maximilian, not only despised his opponent, but
gave existence to that long struggle, now just closed by the
butcheries of Haynau, by which the destruction of the Hungarian Constitution was to be effected by the combined instrumentalities of treachery, stratagem and blood. His successors,
Matthias and Ferdinand, pursued the same determination;
and Leopold the First, by waging a war of extermination
against the free princes of Transylvania, by securing the
elevation of his cruel instrument, John Kemeny, to the
principality thus bereaved, and by the massacre of thousands
of the citizens of Hungary, who had risen to defend the
constitutional liberties of their native land, not only forced




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                181
the election of his son, Joseph, to the succession of St. Stephen, but compelled the prostrate Diet to acknowledge and
proclaim that son their hereditary monarch. The same bloody
weapons, therefore, by which the sacred crown had been
snatched from its lawful owners and laid upon the brow of a
foreign tyrant, now conferred the eternal succession of that
ensign of royalty, with all the majesty it confers, upon the
male offspring of the original usurper.
To illustrate the manner by which this foul work was done,
a single example may be taken from the reign of Leopold.
Immediately after his accession, he had avowed his purpose,
to some of his confidential servants, of "exterminating the
Magyar race," as the people that gave the Austrian monarchy
all its trouble.  He had abolished their Constitution.  He
had governed them, without calling their Legislature together,
by imperial mandates. He had made the crown hereditary in
his family. He had made himself an absolute and irresponsible sovereign over a once free, constitutional and independent
kingdom. Foreseeing that so spirited a people could not be
expected to suffer thus without resistance, he struck out a plan
of keeping them in silence, which would do no injustice to the
character of an infernal spirit. In the north of Hungary, he
erected what has been fitly called the Bloody Theatre of Eperies, headed by the infamous Caraffa, and provided with thirty
executioners. It was the duty of this tribunal to examine
the opinions of the leading Magyars, and to punish such as
were found guilty of harboring any attachment to the prostrate
liberties of the nation. The judge of this wicked inquisition
used to say, that, "if one of his pulses should beat for Hungary, he would cut it out and burn it." Not only men, but
women and children, were haled before this bench, where
thousands of them, as innocent as angels, were tried, condemned and executed, if such a farce can be called a trial,
without a hearing or a witness. The entire land was searched
for patriots. The blood-hounds of the imperial tyrant tracked
16




182             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
the footsteps of every citizen. Spies were employed for every
city. They were planted in every house. No place was so
secret, none so sacred, as to defend its occupants from the
most critical inspection. Men were beheaded for lamenting to
their wives, in their private chambers, the unhappy condition
of their country.  Wives were led to a similar fate for listening to the voices of their husbands. Children of tender years,
whose only crime was that of having an executed patriot for
a parent, were brought before this court, which ordered their
brains to be dashed out against the posts of this Austrian
guillotine. The ill-fated victims, against whom no witnesses
could be brought, were put to the most excrutiating tortures,
and compelled to accuse themselves, or to die as obstinate
traitors, if they made no confession. Such was the determination, such the temper of these despots.  Whoever admires
the subsequent success, and power, and grandeur of the despotism of Austria, or whoever dares defend it, let him remember the means by which that despotism was established!~
The National Assembly, in the year 1620, having become
satisfied of the revolutionary intentions of the throne, met
and lawfully deposed their king, Ferdinand the Second, who,
by breaking his oath and the constitution, had forfeited even
his own unjust pretensions to the Hungarian crown. They
elevated Gabriel Bethlen to his place. For nine years Bethlen
was acknowledged as their legal monarch. On his demise, in
1629, George RIk6czy, whose patriotic spirit was the glory
of the people, received the high office by the suffrages of the
nation. Thus, according to two perfectly constitutional acts,
the line of succession in the Austrian house was broken, annulled, abrogated by the highest authority of the kingdom.
These acts have never been reversed.  From that day to this,
by the fundamental laws of Hungary, the emperors of Austria
have been, when constitutionally considered, nothing more than
6 Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. chap. 66, p. 1083.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 183
successful intruders, whom the nation has been compelled to
receive under martial force. James the Second, in 1688, was
expelled from the throne of England; his crimes were precisely those alleged by the Magyars against the Hapsburgs;
he was deposed exactly as the Austrians were deposed; and,
therefore, if the descendants of the latter have any legal
claims to Hungary, the offspring of the former are, at this
moment, by a much stronger title, the rightful monarchs of
the British empire.7
Right and wrong, however, are nearly synonyms with such
a race of tyrants as the imperial kings of Hungary have been.
The next three sovereigns, Joseph the First, Charles the Sixth
and the celebrated Maria Theresa, changing the instruments
but not the policy of their house, undertook to overthrow the
Hungarian Constitution, not by arms, but by dissimulation,
flattery and persuasion.
In the year 1708, Joseph assembled the Diet at Pressburg,
where he made a great many specious and flattering promises
to the representatives of the nation. His predecessors had
been engaged in bloody wars, the object of which had been
to overturn the popular constitution of St. Stephen. He now
promised the Hungarians a total cessation of hostilities, and a
great many additional blessings, on condition of their yielding
to him the -free election of one of their most important officers,
their demand for the acknowledgment of their constitutional
immunities and liberties under the sanction of certain foreign
powers, and several other things in which was clearly involved
the annihilation of their constitution. The National Assembly
could not be moved by the soft speeches of the monarch; and
he, to secure a temporary tranquility for the accomplishment
of some other purposes, which he had at heart, granted a peace
without conditions.  He died, however, in 1711, before this
-last act of his reign, called the Peace of Szathm'ar, was ratified.'Smith's Parallels of England and Hungary, pp. 40 to 48 inclusive.




18.4            HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Charles the Sixth of Austria, the third of his name in
Hungary, inherited the absolutism and intolerance of Leopold,
his father. His weapon was flattery. He confirmed the Peace
of Szathmar.  He always spoke in the highest terms, in the
presence of the Hungarians, of his " dear Hungary"-" cara
Hungaria"-declaring his Magyar subjects to be the most
magnanimous and grateful of all people.  His predecessors
had governed the kingdom by means of the Hungarian Chancery located at Vienna. He, on the contrary, always expressed
the wish of doing the most important portion of his work in
person. They, by one excuse after another, had evaded their
sacred pledge to spend a part of each year at the Hungarian
capital. He, to show his-paternal love, made no such excuses,
but actually went to Pressburg, at three several times, and
took his place in the House of Magnates.  The magnanimity
and gratitude of the Hungarians were equal to the royal
eulogies. The Magyars forgot their grievances. In the nobleness of their nature they forgot, too, their duty to themselves, to their country, and to posterity. Twelve years of
artful flattery, supported by a very moderate use of imperial
authority, had so far closed the eyes of the whole nation, that,
in the year 1723, they not only confirmed the doctrine of
hereditary succession, but, by the passage of the Pragmatic
Sanction, extended the right of the inheritance to the female
heirs of their Austrian sovereigns.  The grant is made, however, on the express condition, so constantly maintained by
every generation of the people, that the liberties and integrity
of the kingdom be kept inviolate. It is the faithful observance of this condition, placed last in the important document,
that it might always in the perusal of it make the last impression upon king and subject, by which the grant is to be
preserved in its life and force. As in all other contracts, or
covenants, one violation of this essential condition, by any
king of Hungary, absolves the people from the obligation of
continuing the gift; and it must be particularly noted, that,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 185
notwithstanding the fair words of Charles, and the apparent
willingness of the National Assembly to bestow it, the gift
was made by a nation reduced to despair by a war waged by
its kings upon it, and menaced, though not in words, with
still bloodier oppressions in case of a refusail.
The Pragmatic Sanction was proposed and passed to open
the way for the beautiful and accomplished daughter of Charles
the Sixth, Maria Theresa, to the Hungarian throne. Her
right to it was at once contested by a male heir of her house,
the elector Charles Albrecht, who declared the document just
mentioned to be unconstitutional and consequently void. His
position, undoubtedly correct, was supported by all the continental governments of Europe. In her last extremity, the
young queen fled for safety to her Hungarian subjects, who,
struck with her beauty, her accomplishments and her distress,
unwittingly or unselfishly pledged to her their support. They
might now have easily declared and maintained their independence.  They might have recovered, by a single act of
pardonable self-respect, every thing they had lost.  But their
antagonist was an unprotected female. She had trusted to
their generosity in confiding to them  her cause.  With her
little Joseph in her arms, she had presented herself before
the representatives of the nation, weeping in the anguish and
bitterness of her heart.  The tears of a distressed woman are
always eloquent; and they have a sort of omnipotence with
persons of a feeling and generous turn of mind.  Such were
the Magyars before whom she stood. They could not, they,
would not, be selfish in an hour like that. The old cavaliers,
s The present sovereign, Francis Joseph, repudiates the concessions of his immediate predecessor, on the ground that they were
made while under fear and force. Should the Hungarians apply the
same argument to all the grants of title ever made by themselves to
the emperors, on which alone the rights of these emperors are based,
how suddenly the " legitimate sovereignty" of Austria over Hungary
would evaporate!
16*




186       ~     HUNGARY AND KOSSUTTH.
burying the wrongs of their nation in the depths of their
magnanimous compassion, rose up and brandished their sharp
swords. The commons stamped their feet with an outburst
of emotion. Through both chambers, and from the chambers
over all the land, the national watchword-" sanguinem  ct
vitam" —clamorously went forth. The word of the Magyar
was enough.
No sooner had Maria, by the help of her Hungarian supporters, taken possession of the throne of her ancestors, than
she discovered the characteristic trait by which her relationship
to the Hapsburgs was clearly proved. Having reached her
position by force of arms, she resolved to act the part of a
conqueror, by uniting all the subjugated kingdoms and provinces into one glorious realm. With a woman's ardor, she
proceeded at once with her mighty business, forgetful of the
vast difficulties in her way. The independence of several of
these parts of her dominion, and the peculiar rights and
reservations of them all, had been guaranteed by the oaths
of every king before her, as well as by her own. The Hungarians, in particular, by whom she had been raised to power,
deserved a special consideration. But, though not an ungrateful woman, as a monarch she had the gratitude only of her
house. This, whenever it conflicted with the family ambition,
was no gratitude at all. The work of demolition went forward. Centralization was the order of the day. All the
kingdoms, provinces and dependencies, over which she ruled,
must resign their nationalities, and fall into the great nationality undertaken to be formed. The identities of all these
states, and fractions of states, as well as the identities of all
the individuals of which they had been composed, must consent to be swallowed up in a new and unknown something, of
which no one could draw to himself a very tangible idea.
There was to be no longer such a being as a German, or an
Italian, or a Bohemian, or a Magyar, or a Sclave. All were
to be Austrians from that plastic hour. All were to be equally




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                187
related to a common throne. That throne, like a sun in the
centre of the heavens, was not only to govern the motions of
all this complicated system of dependent bodies, but throw out
upon them a ceaseless flood of light, and life, and even liberty,
while all together should fulfil the prophecy or the threat of
Frederic, and rule the nations of the globe.
In the execution of this scheme, Maria had only one race
to fear. The Germans in Austria were then, as they are yet,
few in number. The Sclaves of Bohemia, of Gallicia, of
Hungary, were, as they have been described, but little more
than slaves. The Italians were too much divided among themselves to give her any serious trouble. The Magyars, however, so soon as they should see her object, were sure to, rise
in opposition to her plans. The politic and crafty sovereign
was determined to silence them, to close their eyes, till her
points were gained. She shackled them with her favors and
dazzled them with her smiles. Her whole administration was
a succession of seeming demonstrations, that, whatever might
be the end aimed at by the royal reformer, the Magyar was
winning every thing he desired. She committed her person
entirely to his keeping. Hungarians were almost the only
servants and ministers she employed.'She gave them all the
eclat and glory of her reign. Their Constitution she always
enthusiastically applauded, though, at the same time, she
governed them as if there never had been such a constitution
in the world. Like a serpent, which, fixing his eye upon a
bird, puts forth his gayest colors, his blandest look, his subtlest
and most secret charms, concealing the venom of his tooth
and the flashing of his fiery tongue, till the poor victim of his
lust is lured within the reach of his sudden spring, so the
queen captivated the nation by her charms. Before the Hungarians saw their danger, they were caught; and when, in
1770, Maria was carried to her grave, she had laid down and
established the precedent of governing a constitutional kingdom without respect to its constitution, the place of which




-188           iHUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
had been supplied by the imperial decrees.  When the Magyar, shaking off the spell by which he had been bound for a
period of just thirty years, rose to self-consciousness again, he
found himself stripped of his liberties, despoiled of his country, robbed of his nationality and independence, acting the
part of a favorite footman to that triumphal car, in which
Austrian despotism displayed its glory and its power.
Joseph the Second, son and successor of Maria, carried to
the throne all the ambition, but no portion of the personal or
political suavity of his mother. In the unchanging spirit of
a Hapsburg, he resolved to take up the work of Austrian aggrandizement exactly where his predecessor had laid it down.
She, at the moment of her death, had just reached the point,
where she could have safely avowed the secret policy of hei
house.  She died, in fact, with the declaration of that policy
on her lips. Joseph, feeling his situation to be sufficiently
secure, threw  off the long-worn mask.  The anagram  of
Frederic now came to light. Austria now confessed, that she
determined to rule, at least, a large portion of the world. On
the day of his coronation, the new king offered an insult to
the Hungarian nation,'which was to try its spirit and settle
the question, whether it was ready to acknowledge itself a slave.
He refused to be crowned in Hungary.  He spurned the
coronation oath, by which all his predecessors had bound
themselves to maintain the Hungarian nationality and constitution, and without which he could not be a lawful king. He
positively and openly rejected the constitution. He abolished
the municipal self-government of the villages and counties.
He declared the entire government of the kingdom, legislative,
executive and judicial, to be no part of the business of the
people, but the inalienable prerogative and property of the
crown. That crown was his by hereditary descent; and he
needed no election, no coronation, nothing that the Hungarian
people could do for him, to make him king. They were his
subjects, not his constituents, or his fellow-citizens. The goal,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 189
so'long aimed at, was now attained. The work of centralizae
tion was complete.  Despotism  had nothing more to do.
Austria was all. Hungary was no more i At the death of
Francis the First, in 1832, who had followed the brief reign
of his immediate predecessor, Leopold the Second, Joseph's
successor, with a long course of tyranny, the Hungarian constitution was a thing generally unmentioned. It was not dead,
and buried, but, with the world at large, as unthought of as
if it had never been!
When the constitution of a people is abolished, the next
step toward the total destruction of their nationality is to suppress their religion. It is particularly necessary to do this,
if that religion happens to be on the side of freedom. Such
was the religion of the Magyars at the time when the House
of the Hapsburgs seized the crown of Stephen.  The Magyars
were then Protestants. The first article of their faith'was
that of religious liberty. Religious liberty is the certain
harbinger, at all times and places, of civil liberty. This was
understood by the Austrian tyrants, who, as the champions
of absolutism, could not behold, without a struggle, the establishment of a system of free worship. As the avowed defenders of Catholicism in Europe, they were bound to abet
the efforts of the Roman pontiffs, in their attempt to exterminate the Reformation. Resolved to eradicate the whole Magyar race from Hungary, they could not fail to make their zeal
for Christianity a pretext to cover their malicious purpose.
They clearly saw their position and their interest; and they
were never known to be slack in any thing involving the great
object of their ambition. Their work was undertaken with
their characteristic spirit. No charity was to be exercised toward the Magyars. A foul spot was now upon them, which
rendered them doubly odious to all the other races, which
made it popular to hate them, and which rendered it a piece
of piety in the monarchs to oppress them. Their first movement illustrates the depth and breadth of their despotic spirit,




190              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
as well as the readiness and freedom of its action, when there
is no fear of impolicy in the way to check it. It clearly
demonstrates what they would always do, could they, at all
times, freely act out their nature. The movement was prompt
enough to satisfy the temper of any tyrant. An imperial decree, repeating the words of an older one promulgated by one
of their predecessors, was proclaimed and published. It was
posted, on every thing capable of holding a placard, throughout the kingdom. It was not a lengthy document. Excepting the date, address and signature, two Latin words embraced
the whole of it; and, in our tongue, its brevity is almost as
startling: "The Lutherans must be burnt!"9
It is scarcely necessary to relate with what energy such a
decree, under such circumstances, would be executed by such
a race of despots. The first act of Rhodolph the Second was
a plan for the extermination of the Protestants.  He recalled
the few Catholic nobles of Hungary, whom the doctrines of
Luther had not reached, to resume their places in the National
Assembly. He filled all the vacant committees, as well as
the subordinate offices of revenue and of justice, with Catholics.  He forbade any cure, or benefice, to be conferred upon
any person not openly devoted to the church. He ordered,
that no student should receive an academical degree, and that
no scholar should be eligible to a college chair, who had not
signed the Catholic formulary of faith. He permitted no town
to appoint a secretary, or clerk, without his knowledge and
approbation. He admitted no person to the rights of citizenship, whether native or foreign, who had not undergone a
religious examination, and taken an oath of perfect and unqualified submission to the priests.  He shut up the churches
of the Protestants. He took from them their estates without
the form even of a trial. That no complaints might trouble
him, he caused the Aulic council, another star-chamber, to
Lutherani comburantur! Pulsky's Hist., Introduction, p. 110.




HUNGARY-AND KOSSUTH.:                191
thunder the ban of the empire against every man, who dared
to say a word on the side of clemency. He paid no attention
to the civil government of the country. He refused to fill
the great secular and ecclesiastical offices, or conferred them
on his favorites.  He suffered the important post of Palatine,
which would have stood as a defence* of the people against his
barbarous and lawless persecutions, to remain vacant. He
filled the country with foreign troops, that, while he was proceeding with his persecutions, the population might be awed
into a state of quiet. At his instigation, the mercenary sol.
diers, ready to do any thing for pay, as well as eager to satisfy
their lusts, entered the habitations of the Protestants, usurped
their best apartments and their tables, expelled the fathers of
families from their own houses, and committed the worst of
barbarities upon the persons of their wives and daughters.
Scores of villages, belonging to Protestant cities, were seized,
pillaged and put under military discipline. The peasants of
the country were dragged from their ploughs to answer for
their opinions. The whole land was left to lie without cultivation. Famine, disease, death filled every neighborhood.
In the great capitals of the provinces, Austrian generals and
governors, like Belgioso in the city of Kassau, paraded the
streets with executioners in their train, devoting every individual, male and female, to instant execution, who ventured
to utter the slightest disapprobation of these cruelties.10
It is difficult to tell, by which the heart of a liberal and
compassionate man is moved the most-the enormities practised by these emperors-or the plaintive murmurs sent up
by the nation thus oppressed. The thoughtful reader may
decide this question, by pondering upon a single extract of one
of the decrees of the Hungarian kingdom:
" Sorely grieved and vexed at heart, the faithful magnates
and estates feel impelled-as formerly, so now-to complain,o Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. chap. 40, passim.




l92             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Lo God and the King, that all their entreaties, remonstrances,
and representations have never helped them to obtain even the
slightest mitigation of their sufferings, horrors and miseries,
but that the same have gone on increasing, from day to day,
and from year to year.  When we are told that the Hungarians are in the habit of coming into parliament with tears
and all kinds of wailings and woful lament, and that, when
weary of sighs and of words, they proceed to business, we
will not, indeed, deny, that such is the case. But who is
there that will command the tears of the lacerated and
wounded?  Who will stop the wailings of children, when
they submit their sufferings to their parents?
"Nor are the grievances of Upper Hungary, Sclavonia, and
other parts of the kingdom, less and more bearable. In these
provinces, the soldiery take possession of the cities, market
towns, villages, houses, and noble curias, as if they had come
to them in the due course of inheritance. They divide the
same, and treat the natives of the soil, in their own homes,
not as proprietors, but as vagrants or bondsmen. In many
places, the foreign soldiers attack and plunder the cottages of
the peasantry, and the seats and possessions of the noblemen.
They, by main force, open churches and graves, rob the corpses
and bones of the departed of their funeral dresses, and flagellate, wound and kill the fathers of families. By force and
violence, they bear away wives from their husbands, children
from their parents, infant daughters from their mothers, chaste
virgins from their paternal home, and abduct them to the
haunts of infamy and vice, where —may God pity the bitter
sufferings of the Hungarian people!-they are sacrificed to
beastly violence, and afterwards brought back, if ransomed
with large sums of money!
" Large numbers of dwellers within these realms, scions of
old and honored families, once happy in befitting affluencenow expelled from all their possessions —wander about, naked,
hungry and forlorn, praying for bread at every door!




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  193
"Such is the lamentable condition of the rest of the Hungarian people-a condition which even hearts of stone must
pity. That people was once eminent in martial honors, wealth
and merit; but, at this present time, we are bent with severe
affliction, not on account of the tolerable dominion of the
Turks and Tartars, but on account of the unrestrained misdeeds of foreign soldiers!" How terrible must have been the
despotism, which could wring from the lips of a courageous
and manly people such pitiful lamentations! It was by such
means, indeed, that Catholicism was established in Hungary,
by a succession of tyrants, as the religion of the state!11
The civil and religious liberties of the Hungarians being
thus abolished, the imperious despots next addressed themselves, with a still more open malice, to the destruction -of the
beautiful and expressive language of the nation. That, which
was a region of darkness to the rulers, was supposed to be the
last asylum of Magyar liberty, nationality and independence.
The institutions of the free state, they saw, might be overthrown; the rights of conscience and the resources of a free
religion might be withdrawn; and yet, so long as-the incensed
and insulted race could relate their sorrows and consult upon
measures of redress, in a language unintelligible to the tyrants,
the work of annihilation was not done.  Those tyrants, therefore, now determined to make a final end of that strange
speech, in which the spirit of democratic liberty had so long
been nursed. Edict after edict was thundered from the throne.
With all the presumptuousness of folly and despotism united,
the German language was declared to be the language of the
state. All the laws were to be published in it. The delibera-' This decree (13th Rhodolph, 1602) may be compared with
Klapka's History, Introduction, p. 46, and with Coxe's House of
Austria, vol. ii. chap. 40, p. 657. For an account of Ferdinand's
persecutions, see House of Austria, vol. ii. p. 814-815. The barbarities of Leopold may be found in the House of Austria, vol. ii.
p* 1072, passim.
17




194             I-IUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
tions of the National Assembly were to be had in German.
German masters and professors were sent into all the schools
and colleges of the land.  The Hungarian was entirely excluded.  Hungarian books were, discouraged or interdicted.
Hungarian literature, in all its departments, was denounced.
The friends of a native literature were regarded and treated
as traitors to the crown.  If, in the county assemblies, or in
the gatherings of the villagers, a word of the contraband dialect was employed, the unhappy culprit, who, perhaps, could
speak no other language, had to pay the severe penalty of his
crime. The very peasants, indeed, had to converse about their
lands and crops in an unknown speech, or be entirely dumb.
The 3agyar merchant and mechanic, sailor and soldier, not
less than the peasants and professors, had to talk of their
business and their books in German, or not talk at all. The
mother, deprived of the first privilege of nature, was forbidden
to teach her infant to lisp her own words and accents, and
compelled to hold all her intercourse with the fruit of her own
body in a language, which, as a general thing, she did not
understand. No words, indeed, can exceed the intolerance,
the severity, the madness of this crusade against the Hungarian tongue. Fines and penalties, such as are usually laid
against heinous or capital offences, were fixed for the punishment of those, who persisted in the use of a language taught
them by their parents and once spoken by their sainted dead.
From  the beginning of the Hapsburg sway in Hungary, this
hostility had been at work, first, in discouraging the Hungarian for the Latin, and, secondly, by displacing the Hungarian for the German.  During the Latin era, the work of
extermination was carried on by a thousand artful schemes
of a concealed but consistent centralizing policy; but, at
the opening of the German period, the Austrians had so
gained and grown in power, that they dared to avow their
object, and continue their efforts in the light of clay. For
two-thirds of a generation, from 1770 to 1790, the Germian




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                  195
war of annihilation lasted. At the conclusion of the struggle,
tile work was so far accomplished, that the despots began to
consider Hungary as a German province. For the space of
the next forty years, the language of the Magyar, in all public
places, was almost as dead as Latin; and it survived the imperial tyranny only by clinging, in spite of the Austrian decrees, to the farms and firesides of the common people.  The
magnates had ceased to use, many of them to understand, the
noble and patriotic forms of a speech, which carried within
itself the liberty, the independence, the nationality of the race
that had employed it.12
It has been recently imagined, by some popular writers, that
the late ordinance of the Austrian government, forbidding the
Magyars wearing their collars turned over after the fashion of
the Americans, is an unprecedented piece of despotism. This
supposition is a mistake.  Similar decrees have been sent forth
against the 3Magyars at many periods of their history.  The
one great object of Austria has been, let it be remembered, to
exterminate the 3Magyar nationality. Not only his liberal
constitution, his free religion, his patriotic language, but his
national dress, has frequently been put under the imperial
ban.  More than once has it been made a crime for the
Hungarian to be seen wearing his ka7pay, or native cap.
to Peter Bod, who wrote, during this German era, the Introduction to his "History of the Church Militant," complains that he
could not venture to write the proper names, even, of the Hungarians in their own language, as they would not be recognised by
the nation! City of the Magyar, vol. iii. p. 54. The declension of
the Hungarian, which almost amounted to a loss, is not only stated
but lamented by scores of the more recent Hungarian authors. It
is no wonder, therefore, that Hungary has produced so little of native literature of high rank. It is a wonder, however, in her circumstances, that she has been able, I will not only say to produce
any literary works at all, but to preserve enough of her interdicted
tongue to form for it the beginning of a new existence.




196             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
More than once, to wear that ensign of his relationship to the
hated race subjected a citizen to as severe a punishment, as if
he had robbed his neighbor on the public road. The loose
frock coat, that representative of the original elegance and
freedom of the still looser oriental robes, was forcibly displaced for a German suit, which, to the eye of the patriot,
seemed as ignominious, as for an honorable man, in any other
country, to be clad in a bandit's garb or a prisoner's attire.
It was the dress of his worst enemy. To wear it, at least
willingly, was to cease to be a Magyar, and to become a German. The light sash, or belt, the mark of the universal
knightly independence of the nation, was strictly interdicted.
Austria, despotic in the smallest particulars, as well as in those
of the greatest moment, must not only make the laws, control
the pulpits, bind the language, but cut the garments of her
Hungarian subjects. The noble-hearted and keenly-sensitive
Hungarian must submit to this intolerable oppression.  He
must consent to be stripped of every thing that made him a
Hungarian.  Bereft of his civil liberties, of his rights of conscience, and of his native speech, he must next clothe himself in the apparel of his oppressor, and move about among
his conquerors as a walking monument of their victory, an
object of their laughter.  When the Jews had inflicted every
other indignity upon the rights and person of our Savior, they
stripped him of his own raiment, and compelled him to-walk
about, in the judgment hall, in the habiliments of his royal
persecutor. The cutting keenness of this malice has, perhaps,
never been repeated upon any individual, though a real malefactor, by the most brutal of subsequent oppressors.  Austria,
however, has not only revived it, but multiplied the individual
to a nation, whose only crime has been, that it did not wish
to sink into absolute and eternal annihilation.
When every thing, in which the Magyar nationality could
find a resting-place, had been subjected or overturned, to keep
the race in perpetual bondage, the foreign despots perfected




HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 197
their system of subjugation by surrounding them with the
links of a military chain.  A  standing army of foreigners,
divided into convenient parts, and commanded by Germuan
officers, was ranged all along the western and northern frontiers, under the pretence of guarding the passes of the Carpathians against the Russians and the Poles.  The southern
and eastern border was defended, professedly against the
Turks, by the Military District, a strip of country nearly a
thousand miles in length, whose inhabitants were all soldiers,
who, though citizens of Hungary, were made amenable to the
Austrian government.  The interior of the land was occupied,
at various points, by strong garrisons, which were ostensibly
created as recruiting stations, but which, in fact, were only the
folding end of the chain, that wound its involutions around
the nation's heart.  The other end, of course, was securely
fastened to the throne. Thus, hand and foot, body and spirit,
the race of Magyars, after being robbed of every thing that
made them Magyars, or guaranteed their existence as a nation,
were bound down to a hopeless and everlasting bondage.  So
far as they were concerned, the anagram of Frederic was realized; and, by their subjugation, Austria had taken its position
as the arbiter, if not the imperator, of the European world.
It cannot, indeed, be doubted, even by the warmest apologists of Austria, that, from the very beginning of her history,
it has been the single aim of her despotic rulers to extend
their despotism over all the states acknowledging any connection to their imperial sway. The states were, therefore, by
every means, to be reduced to the condition of imperial provinces. Their independence, of course, had first to be destroyed.  Their national institutions, and particularly their
municipal rights and regulations, had to be overturned. Their
religion, if different from the religion of the tyrants, had to
be extirpated.  Their language, dress, manners and customs,
before there could be a complete amalgamation of the conquerors and the conqueredl, had to be annihilated. All these things




198              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
were necessary to the accomplishment of the one great end in
view.  Such, it is certain, have been the purposes of the
House of Austria in all her subject principalities and kingdoms. In Bohemia, in Gallicia, as well as in the territories
of'the original arch-duchy, the work was not very difficult.
In Italy, there was no limit to the design but a change of
language, which, by reason of its impossibility, has not been
attempted.  Everywhere, in fact, outside of Hungary, the
work of absolutism, of centralization has been effected without
any signal opposition. The people, in all those countries, had
been well prepared for despotism. Italy, for two thousand
years, had known nothing but despotism. Bohemia had always been in bondage to some imperious monarch.  Gallicia,
though animated with the thoughts of liberty, while holding
a connection with the republic of the Poles, had ever been too
weak, or rather too plastic, to offer any serious resistance. In
Hungary, however, the question of liberty, or slavery, was a
very different question.  The kingdom had never been otherwise than free and independent. The nation had always been
the champion of popular institutions. The people had enjoyed, from their origin, the blessings of personal and social
liberty. Their constitution, laws and civilization were all
entirely liberal, if not democratic. The spirit of democracy
was their life-spirit. To take away this democracy was to
take away their breath, their vitality, their very being.  Still,
just as far as the work of annihilating Hungary was difficult,
just so far it was positively essential to the great object.
Austria could not be a safe or a perfect despot, so long as her
largest and most powerful dependancy, larger and more powerful than all the rest of her possessions, should remain free,
liberal and democratic. The time might come, unless this
nation of liberty-loving Magyars should be transformed to a
province of abject Austrians, when, in spite of all the mighty
despotisms about it, this Hungary might not only reassert her
own independence, but proclaim liberty to her sister captives.




fPJNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                199
The time might come, when, fired by her ancestral spirit, and
emulating the bravery of her first inhabitants, she might raise
her keen sabre against the heart of this all-encompassing
tyranny, and strike the fetters from the hands and feet of central and southern Europe. The time might come, after all
their sufferings and reverses, when these unconquered Magyars, rising in their pristine majesty, might resolve to make
their country the centre of a new system of nations, whose
government, like their own, should be democratic, whose religion should be anti-papal, whose civilization should be liberal
and expansive, and whose very beginning should be the end
of European slavery.
The possibility of such a period has pressed, for three hundred years, upon- the forebodings of the imperial despots, and
contributed to make them, what their whole history has proved
them to be, the most determined, the most unscrupulous, the
most unfeeling and relentless enemies of civil liberty, that
Europe has ever seen. Their entire policy has been, so far
as they have had to do with Hungary, to overthrow the nationality and break the spirit of the Magyars, who, in that
quarter of the globe, have been almost the only consistent
and unflinching friends of human freedom, and the absolitely
indomitable foes of despotism, on the battle-fields of humanity
for mere than eleven centuries of time.




200              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE MAGYARS DEFEND THEIR NATIONALITY.
IT has been recently reported in the papers of Vienna, that,
in the spring of 1850, Haynau, the Austrian butcher, had an
interview with the children of the immortal Kossuth.  He
addressed the younger of them  in the German.  The reply
was in Hungarian.  On seeing that the commander-in-chief
did not understand him, the boy spoke French, remarking that
every general must certainly understand that tongue. Neither
of the children could be induced to speak the first word in the
language of their father's enemies. 
It must not be supposed, indeed, that, at the present moment, or in former ages, in the midst of the terrible oppressions of their imperial rulers, the Magyars have bowed their
necks with a Sclavic stupidity to the despots.  Far fiom it.
They have always offered resistance to these oppressions. It
has been only after the most strenuous opposition, in every
instance, that they have finally yielded to the necessities of
their position.
They, therefore, who have charged the present generation
of Hungarians with a morbid sensitiveness; with a mutinous
disposition, unprecedented in the conduct of their brave and
patriotic fathers; with having raised up a revolution out of
trifles, to which no attention has been paid in former ages,
have not studied very carefully, if they have searched at all,
the annals of this manly and spirited race of people. The
history of Hungary, since its connection with the Germans,
The incident was reported by the Pesth correspondent of Lloyd,,and afterwards published in the Vienna Times.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHI.              201
is the history of a constant succession of revolutions.  The
MIagyars have never been contented; and, unless they had
been cursed with a servile temper, contentment could never
have been so much as possible.
The earliest of the Hungarian insurrections, against the
despotism of Austria, was raised by the religious persecutions
mentioned in a previous chapter. At the very outbreak of the
Lutheran Reformation, the emperor Charles the Fifth called
together the imperial Diet, at the city of Worms, "to concert
with the princes of the empire effectual measures for checking
the progress of those new and dangerous opinions, which
threatened to disturb the peace of Germany, and to overturn
the religion of their ancestors;" and, while the Diet was in
session, he drew up and signed that memorable declaration,
which, for thirty years, overwhelmed all Europe with a deluge
of blood: " Descended as I am," said the bigot, "from the
Christian emperors of Germany, the Catholic kings of Spain,
and from the archdukes of Austria and the dukes of Burgundy, all of whom have preserved, to the last moment of
their lives, their fidelity to the Church, and have always been
the defenders and protectors of the Catholic faith, its decrees,
its ceremonies, its usages, I have been, am still, and will ever
be devoted to those Christian doctrines, and the constitution
of the Church, which they have left to me as a sacred inheritance. And as it is evident, that a simple monk has advanced
opinions contrary to the sentiments of all Christians, past and
present, I am firmly determined to wipe away the reproach,
which a toleration of such errors would cast on Germany, and
to employ all my power and resources, my body, my blood,
my life, and even my soul, in checking the progress of this
sacrilegious doctrine!" It scarcely need be added, that when,
in the estimation of a powerful, proud and superstitious monarch, toleration is regarded as a reproach, which must be
wiped off by all the energies of his mind and might, there is
little to be hoped for the object of such a threat; and when




202             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
it is considered, that the power and resources of the rampant
emperor were spread from the shores of the Atlantic to the
borders of Russia, from the -northern limits of modern Germany to the southern borders of ancient Cicily, and into the
New World then recently discovered, it will be seen what
causes the yet unenslaved and unbending nation of the Magyars were to have for opposition.2
Charles the Fifth, however, was too busy with his German
persecutions to leave him time for any particular attention to
the Hungarian nation; and his brother Ferdinand, who
claimed to be king of Hungary from 1527 to 1564, was not
able, for nearly thirty years, so far to settle his authority in
the kingdom, as to give it any special trouble.  In 1556,
Ferdinand was elected emperor; and though, after that event,
he was a much more powerful monarch than before it, the
Magyars maintained their opposition to him with their accustomed spirit. From 1527 to 1540, John Zapolyi, and from
1540 to 1571, John Sigismund, led the Magyar forces against
Ferdinand and his successor, Maximilian; but this latter
emperor was so wise, so kind, so just a ruler, that, in spite of
the illegality of his pretensions, he gradually acquired a high
degree of popularity with those over whom he sought to set
up his sway. Sigismund, however, still heading a very formidable resistance, kept the philosophic and generous usurper
from getting possession of the country; and, when all other
means had failed, he followed the example of his opponents,
and put himself under the protection of the Turks. On the
death of Sigismund, in 1571, the war of succession, which
had raged for nearly half a century, ceased; and the west of
Hungary, which had found its opposition useless, temporarily
submitted to its fate. Thus terminated the first general resistance to the extension of the tyranny of the Hapsburgs into
Hungary.
2 Coxe's House of Austria, vol. i. pp. 410-418




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                203
Transylvania, however, which was farther from the scene
of action, though prudently acknowledging the supremacy of
Austria, soon rose again in arms.  In this act of resistance,
it was undoubtedly encouraged by the Turks, who, having
been invited into Hungary by both parties, and having thus
taken possession of the entire course of the Danube, including
nearly all the national garrisons and forts, wished now to conquel and hold the whole kingdom for themselves. This they
could not, in their own name, do, without rousing the dormant
hostility of the European world. Looking through the country for a fit instrument of their ambition, they found another
Sigismund, son of Christopher Bathori, whom they elevated
to the princely rank, and under whose banner and auspices
they professed to fight. This scheme, ingenious as it was,
would have had no great success, had not the iron-handed oppressions of Rhodolph the First, then claiming the crown of
Stephen, startled every Magyar from his confiding sleep.
Those oppressions, to which the reader's attention has before
been called, brought the entire nation to its feet. Forgetting,
in the moment of their just indignation, that their cause could
receive from a Turkish alliance no honor, nor any lasting good,
they accepted of the proffered services of the Turks, and
rushed to the field of battle to defend their rights. Rhodolph
met them with an overwhelming force. Sigismund was defeated. He was compelled to lay down his power, to cede his
territories to the emperor, and to go into exile on a small pension allowed him by his foe.
At this event the sultan was violently enraged. Raising
an immense army, he marched into the bosom of the ceded
territory, and vigorously attacked the German troops, who, in
Rhodolph's name, had taken possession of the grant. The
Mahometan  was everywhere victorious.  Sigismund was
speedily recalled.  For a considerable time, success crowned
all his efforts; but subsequently, in a bloody battle with the
Austrian army of occupation, he lost so many of his men,




204              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
that he was forced to retire the second time. Rhodolph,
hoping to buy him off, settled on him certain lordships, which,
had the Hungarian not been fighting for his country rather
than for himself, would have been sufficient to satisfy him for
his troubles and his loss.  General Basta, the emperor's commander, took martial possession of the country, and reared
over the heads of the people a military despotism more onerous,
more sanguinary, more brutal than the country had ever
known before.
The rest of Hungary, at the same time, stretching from the
banks of the Theiss to the western borders of the kingdom,
was still more seriously afflicted with the direct, open, galling
tyranny of the Hapsburg monarch. He paid no attention
whatever to the welfare, internal or external, of the nation.
He appointed no magistrates, nominated no pastors, published
no laws, nor manifested the least concern for the civil, social,
or religious prosperity of the country. The entire management of affairs was left to his military chieftains, who ruled
the citizens by the sword, and gratified without restraint every
lust of barbarism and brutality on the lives, properties and
persons of both sexes. When petitions were sent up to the
emperor, such as the one recorded in another place, he is said
to have received them with a hearty laugh. They were proof,
as he thought, that the nation was about subdued; and it
made him merry to look over its pitiful concessions of his
success. Historians have also remarked, that, after the reception of these melancholy appeals to his generosity, he was
always more cruel, more thoroughly despotic, than before;
for, from each new evidence of the probable accomplishment
of his purpose, he acquired a renewal of inspiration for the
prosecution of his work. It is well known, too, that, instead
of restraining the lawlessness of his soldiers, he personally
and perpetually encouraged them in their infamous and reckless life.  Hundreds of estates, belonging to Hungarians,
were claimed and confiscated by the fiscal of the state.  Count




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                205
Illeshazy, the first of the Magyar magnates, both in honors
and in wealth, and a consistent Protestant, had performed
great services for his country, not only as a citizen at home,
but as a general abroad.  For being a Protestant, however,
and because he ventured to express compassion for his countrymen in these dark and bloody times, he was deprived of his
honors, stripped of his property, and sent to be an irreclaimable exile from the land he had dared to love. Endurance
was no longer a virtue. The Magyars rose up in strength.
Choosing Stephen Botskay, the first nobleman of Upper Hungary, as their leader, they raised their banners for their country
and their faith.
The Transylvanian Magyars, in the mean time, after the
defeat and departure of their prince, Sigismund, were industriously searching for another chieftain. Under the terrible administration of Basta, they had been driven to despair;
and, unless they could lay their hands upon a man of the first
order of abilities, they saw nothing before them but still greater
enormities of a licentious, greedy, beastly military power.
Fortune at last favored them. There were, at that time, large
numbers of Hungarians in Turkey, who, after having struggled
nobly against the extension of Austrian despotism over Hungary, had fled for personal safety before the devouring forces
of the Germans. It was not cowardice that impelled them to
this flight; but, not having succeeded in their opposition, they
wished to prolong their lives in a neighboring land, from which
they might watch the vicissitudes of liberty and slavery at
home, and, upon a favorable opportunity, return to resume
the contest against their imperial foes. That opportunity now
seemed to have arrived; and among them there was a hero,
whose valor, whose abilities, whose patriotism, had been severely tried. That hero was the far-famed Moses Tzekeli,
who, at the head of his choice band of exiles, entered Transylvania in spite of all opposition.  His countrymen, glorying in
their great chief, flocked to his standard from all parts. Others
is




206             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
of them, seeing the necessity of dispatch, rushed to the strongholds of the country, took possession of the fortresses, and
expelled the Austrian garrisons from their posts. Battle after
battle was fought. The Magyars were almost uniformly victorious. Thousands of the enemy were slain; thousands were
taken prisoners; and the rest were struck with a panic, from
which they recovered only by their usual intrigue. Distressed
on every side, in their extremity they begged the help of certain hordes of Turkey, and, as has ever been the custom of
Austria when fairly beaten, owed their restoration to the assistance of foreign mercenaries. The bandit Turks, who, in
this interference, contradicted the well-known policy of their
government, could, nevertheless, give the best of bandit reasons for their conduct. In addition to the yellow florins of
their employers, they were promised the "booty and beauty"
of the country. Lust and avarice succeeded. Tzekeli, whose
bravery would not permit him to fly again from peril, was
slain in the hottest of a battle. His followers, regarding him
as their only hope, dispersed to the fastnesses of the neighboring mountains. Basta, the lawless despot of the still more
lawless and despotic emperor, again spread his forces over the
province, again set up his insufferable military sway, again
undertook his task of keeping the people in subjection to the
house of Austria, by every act that can degrade the character
of a tyrant.3
The patriots were more successful in the western portion of
the kingdom. Botskay, whose age, and rank, and purity of
life, and nobleness of character, secured him the veneration
of his countrymen, went to the capital of Bohemia in person,
that he might there hold a conference with the royal persecutcr, and dissuade him, if possible, from farther acts of cruelty
and oppression. Proceeding to the palace of the monarch, he
sent in his name and the object of his visit, but was not at
o Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. p. 90.




HUNGARY AND KOSSIUTH               207
once admitted, as his position demanded, into the royal presence. Sitting hour after hour in the antechamber of the
king's residence, where he was abused by the lowest menials
of the emperor, he at length became indignant at the insult.
Without farther efforts to get an audience, he left the house,
proceeded to his own stopping-place, and immediately returned
to his afflicted and now insulted country. When he reached
home, he found his friends and neighbors in great excitement,
not so much, at that moment, over their own misfortunes, as
his losses. In his absence, and probably while sitting as a
neglected suppliant in the palace, messengers of the imperial
government had been sent to his place of residence, where
they had made public proclamation, only a few hours before
his own arrival, that his possessions were open to the plunder
of his enemies. He found his houses and lands robbed, his
family and friends insulted, and all those nameless atrocities
committed upon his estates, which, however frequently they
may be discovered in the annals of these tyrants, will not bear
to be written out in this country, even for the information of
the public.4
The measures of the great Botskay were taken with becoming spirit. He at once published a manifesto to the Hungarian
nation, in which he stated not only this recent outrage, but a
summary of the grievances of the country. He told the
Magyars, what was very true, that the claim of Austria to the
crown of Hungary was unfounded; that the emperors had
been nothing better than fortunate usurpers; that their object
was to overthrow the constitutional government of the people
and to set up an irresponsible tyranny in the place of it; that,
if they now succeeded in breaking the spirit of the nation,
there might never be a time when it would have courage to
raise up an opposition to the oppressors; that that was its
chosen opportunity, if it wished to declare and maintain its
4 Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. pp. 91-92




208             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
independence, while Transylvania was unsatisfied and unsettled, and while the Turks, the natural opponents of the
Germans, held the course of the Danube and its tributary
waters. The appeal went home to the hearts of the suffering
Hungarians.  The voice of patriotism  roused them as by
magic.  Seizing such weapons as they had, some with swords
and other martial implements, many with forks, and scythes,
and pruning-hooks, they crowded to the head-quarters of their
liberator, which rang with the watch-words of liberty and
independence. The whole kingdom was filled with similar
enthusiasm. The royal army itself, which was posted in convenient stations throughout the country, could not resist the
contagious spirit of the populace. Thousands of them deserted from the imperial standards, and joined the ranks of the
uprising people.
At this signal, the patriots of Transylvania again mustered.
Putting themselves under the command of Gabriel Bethlen,
whose name has been before mentioned, and whose courage
and military skill were equal to his position, they marched
out of their own territory into Upper Hungary, and united
their forces to those of Botskay. The beautiful valleys of
their fair country were thus deserted to the unrestrained
rapacity of Basta. His work of devastation, however, was
about completed. He had little more, if any thing more, to
do. "All traces of human industry," says the historian,
speaking of Transylvania at this period, "were swept away
from its once fertile plains and fruitful hills; towns and
villages offered nothing but the spectacle of ruin and desolation; corn was bought at the price of gold; horses, and
even domestic animals [such as cats and dogs] were used
for food; and, at length, the people were driven to the
tombs to seek a wretched sustenance from the putrid bodies
of their fellow-creatures. The most dreadful disorders were
produced by these execrable aliments; and pestilence swept
away many of those, who had escaped from famine and the




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.              209
sword!"5  Leaving such a land behind him, Basta hurried
after the fugitives, intending to join his troops to those of
Belgioso, who had the command of the king's army in the
north and west of Hungary.
The imperialists and patriots soon met. The Austrians
were routed and driven completely from the country. Botskay
was proclaimed king of Hungary and woiwode of Transylvania. The entire nation supported the proclamation; and
the new monarch was readily acknowledged by the Turks.
The famous sultan, Achmet, sent him a club, a sabre, and a
standard, in honor of his victory, of his bravery, and of his
office. The hero, however, refused the crown, wishing only,
as he said, to give freedom to his countrymen, and then to
enjoy that freedom as a private citizen. His popularity was
unbounded. All Hungary stood ready to obey his wishes;
and the Protestants of the whole German empire, particularly
of Bohemia and Austria, would gladly have marched behind
him to the walls of the imperial capital. Such was the end
of the second war of opposition to the unjust claim of the
Austrians over Hungary.
On the death of Botskay, Sigismond Rakoczy was elevated
to the principality of Transylvania; but Hungary, excepting
a small portion east of the river Theiss, had been recovered
by the emperor. The crown of Hungary was soon after laid
on the head of Ferdinand the Second, son of Matthias, who
had succeeded to the empire on the demise of the hated Rhodolph. Ferdinand was a cruel prince. Under his auspices
commenced one of the bloodiest persecutions, which Protestantism ever suffered from the Catholics. Count Thurn in Bohemia, and Gabriel Bethlen in Transylvania, raised the
standard of resistance. The Magyars of Hungary were not
to- be outdone in patriotic service to their country. With
characteristic ardor, they thronged to the field of battle,
8 Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. chap. 42, p. 687.
18*



210              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
resolved to defend their religion, as well as their homes and
firesides, from  destruction.  Ferdinand repeated, and even
outstripped, the horrors perpetrated by his predecessors. Determined to force Catholicism and absolute monarchy upon his
Protestant Hungarian subjects, and totally unscrupulous how
he effected his purpose upon such a race of heretics, he sent
marauding parties to scour and devastate the rural districts,
confiscated the estates of the wealthy gentlemen and nobles,
impressed the peaceable citizens to fill up his immense military
levies, assassinated, massacred, robbed and pillaged the industrious population, violated the wives and daughters of every
Protestant household, and spread the gloom of desolation and
despair over the most beautiful of all countries. Such pro.
ceedings naturally excited, to the highest pitch, the allied
forces under Thurn and Bethlen. The former, coming down
with the impetuosity of an eagle upon Vienna, carried every
thing before him; and the latter, bursting from the confines
of Transylvania into Hungary, captured all the great fortresses,
scattered the emperor's forces under the command of Homonai,
took Pressburg by assault, swept onward into Austria, and,
joining his troops to those of Thurn, waged battle with the
imperial commander-in-chief, Buckoy, and drove him from the
walls and intrenchments of the city.
Count Thurn returned in peace to his native land; and
Bethlen, as soon as he had crossed the frontiers, was proclaimed king by his victorious soldiers. The people, not only
of Transylvania, but of all Hungary, ratified the choice of the
army, and crowned the successful defender and deliverer of
their country.
Ferdinand, fearing a second irruption of the patriots into
his patrimonial territory, made the most vigorous exertions to
recover by bargaining, by intrigue, by artful diplomacy, what
he had lost in battle. Sending a beggarly petition to the
king of Spain, he assured his Catholic majesty that he had
been fighting only for the honor and extension of the Church,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 211
and concluded his appeal by asking a rich subsidy of gold and
a loan of troops. The money and the men were granted; but
Bethlen had intrenched himself so completely in the affections
of his subjects, that Ferdinand was compelled, at last, to acknowledge the new sovereign and conclude with him a truce
for twenty years. Nine years afterwards, in 1629, a second
truce was signed; and when Bethlen died, he carried with
him to his grave the satisfaction of having saved his country
from the double curse of political despotism and religious
persecution.  With him closed the third war of Hungarian
independence.
George Rakoczy succeeded, in Transylvania at least, to the
throne left vacant by the death of Bethlen; and in Hungary
his claims to the succession were generally acknowledged by
the magnates. During the progress of the thirty years' war
in Germany, from 1618 to 1648, Hungary, including Transylvania, was generally able to maintain its independence; but
the peace of Westphalia, which gave to the emperors of Austria
the opportunity of recovering their old possessions, renewed
the troubles' and sufferings of this interesting country. In
1660, George Rakoczy the Second was raised to the woiwodeship of Transylvania. Soon afterwards he died; and he-was
followed by Kemeny, Barczay and Abaffy, who successively
maintained their country's cause against imperial ambition and
military rule. The Jesuits of Austria, the worst of all Jesuits,
soon began to plot against the Magyar Protestants, and particularly against the great WesselBnyi, at that time Palatine
of Hungary.  They were "the favorites and the counselors
of the emperor; they had wealth, station and power;'but all
this availed them nothing, so long as they saw Mordecai, the
Jew, sitting at the king's gate.' On every opportunity, therefore, they influenced the minister to persecute the Protestants
in Hungary, and unfortunately with too much success."6
o The reader will find a good summary of these cruelties in the




212              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
The barbarities of other years were repeated.  Scaffolds
and executioners were again common.  Murder, assassination,
rape, extortion, and every conceivable crime, spread dismay
throughout the country. The patience of the people was at
last exhausted.  Resistance became necessary, not only to
preserve the last shadow of independence, but to maintain the
peace and purity of social life. The noble Palatine, whose
oath of office bound him to interpose between the oppressor
and the oppressed, raised the standard of opposition, and his
countrymen flocked to him from every quarter. But Wesselenyi suddenly died; and the patriots, by the neglect of the
emperor to appoint a successor, were compelled to choose by
suffrage another leader. The choice fell on the unfortunate
Francis Rakoczy, son of the second George Rakoczy, and a
man of splendid abilities and great influence. The new commander was not successful. The emperor, freed from all his
foreign troubles, had nothing to do but carry out the cherished
design of his house, of crushing the liberties and exterminating the religion of the Magyars.  Rakoczy was forced to acknowledge himself a rebel, in the bad sense of the word, and
to sue for pardon.  The Magyar spirit, however, the indomitable spirit of an indomitable race of men, was not humbled.
It only waited for its opportunity and a new general. In the
mean time, the Jesuits urged their policy, and with unlimited
success, upon the imperial cabinet.  "It was officially announced that the Protestant teachers had fomented the late
rebellion; courts were instituted to crush the obnoxious
heresy; everywhere Protestant schools, and churches were
dispersed and pulled down; and a body of two hundred and
fifty ministers of that persuasion were sold, at fifty crowns
each, to the galleys of Naples."7
Encyclopedia Metropolitana; but, if he wishes to examine the
horrible picture more minutely, he must consult Coxe, Pfister, and
Menzel, but particularly the Histoire des Revolutions de Hongrie..' The sale of two hundred and fifty clergymen, into perpetual




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHT.                  213
The blood of the Magyars was again boiling. The whole
nation arose against its destroyers. It found a worthy chieftain in the person of Emeric T6kdlyi, who, from  his early,
constant, and unsparing hatred toward the house of Austria,
has been fitly compared with Hannibal. If not on his father's,
yet on his country's sword, he had long before sworn eternal
hostility to the Austrians.  He was a brave man, a good diplomatist, a skilful manager, and a most impetuous warrior.
Repairing to Transylvania, and gaining the favor of Abaffy,
whom he had served for several years as a common soldier, he
returned to the southern side of the Danube at the age of
twenty, to take command of the Magyar army of insurrection.
All classes of his countrymen supported him in his measures.
Nobles and peasants, men and women, vied with each other in
giving him assistance. Victory everywhere perched upon his
standard. After expelling the Austrians from every part of
Hungary, and garrisoning all the fortresses of Transylvania,
he pushed his way through Austria to the very gates of the
great capital.
Leopold the First, then emperor, had, on the 21st of March,
1671, claimed his right of sovereignty over Hungary, not by
inheritance, not by the free suffrage of the Diet, not by the
slavery, the worst slavery, too, of the middle ages, would hardly be
credited, had we not received it on the authority of Coxe (vol. ii.
chap. 66, p. 1073) and other credible historians. We are told by
Sacy, (tom. ii. p. 315,) that these enslaved clergymen were afterwards rescued from bondage by the humanity of the renowned De
Ruyter, admiral of the Dutch fleet then stationed in the Mediterranean. After obtaining for them their freedom, by his powerful
mediation with the Neapolitan viceroy, Los Velos, "he took them
on board his fleet, and treated them with the greatest compassion
and beneficence-an act which honors his name no less," continues
the historian, Sacy, "than his most splendid exploits."  Who shall
measure the dishonor, the cruelty, the cowardice of the government
that enslaved them!




214             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIL.
consent of his Hungarian subjects, but by that divine authority under which kings have so long and so blasphemously
asserted the privilege of being tyrants. Never, however, in
the history of all despotisms, had any monarch, autocrat or
emperor, from the times of the thirty tyrants to those of Nero,
so openly and daringly, so needlessly and tauntingly, made
public proclamation of their intended tyranny: "Having, by
our victorious arms," says Leopold, " suppressed a wicked rebellion, in which the principal members of the crown were
implicated, and had seduced the other orders, attacked and
killed our soldiers, assumed a part of our prerogatives in raising troops, levying contributions, calling assemblies and seizing our treasures, and even engaged in a conspiracy against
our life, which was frustrated by the providence of God —And
whereas it is a duty incumbent on us to provide for the safety
of the people, who are committed to our charge, and to prevent Hungary and Christendom from being again exposed to
similar disorders-We, by our absolute authority, have ordered
regulations for the quartering of our troops; and we enjoin
all persons to submit, without excuse or delay, to that power
which we have received from  above, and are determined to
maintain by force of arms. We require our subjects to give
this proof of submission, lest, contrary to our natural clemency,
we should be forced to execute our wrath against those, who
abuse our indulgence!'s
This military despotism, audaciously set up in the name of
God, to be established and perpetuated by the sword, was in a
few months leveled to the dust by the arms and energy of
T6kdlyi, and humbly revoked by the emperor himself.  A diet
being called at Oedenburg, Leopold abrogated his new style
of government, published a general amnesty in favor of the
patriots, granted liberty of conscience to the abused Protest8 This terrible document, so characteristic of the Hapsburgs, may
be seen in Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. chap. 66, pp. 439-440.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 215
ants, and agreed to restore the bereaved magnates of Hungary
to all their estates and rights, which had been taken from
them.  He also annulled his illegal imposts, re-established
the national frontier militia, promised ever after to govern the
land by the letter and spirit of his oath of coronation, and
by the ancient constitution of the kingdom. All, in a word,
was gained, so far as any concession can be called a gain, which
comes from lips of proverbial treachery and dissimulation.
No sooner, in fact, had the vanquished emperor obtained
from T6k6lyi a truce of six months, than he sent a secret
envoy to the court of Constantinople to get succors from the
Turks. The Turks, however, rejected the proposals of the
messenger, but resolved to aid the Magyars. Leopold next
sent a most cowardly petition to the states of the German
empire, calling piteously for help; and, distrusting both his
own abilities, and the abilities of his constitutional supporters,
he dispatched another ambassador, on the same errand, to the
court of Poland, and then fled like a common coward from
his own. Tbk-6lyi, supported by an immense army of his
fellow-citizens and confederates, and fully advised of the artful
but rather unsuccessful intrigues of Leopold, rushed upon the
Hungarian places occupied by the Austrians; captured Szathmar, Kassau, Neutra, and many other fortified positions; and
compelled the government at Vienna to recall the imperial
troops from nearly every part of his hitherto insulted and oppressed, but now victorious, country.
The usual recourse of Austria, however, soon after prevailed
against all this bravery. Sobieski, king of Poland, the greatest
general of his age, seduced by the falsehoods of Leopold,
came to Hungary and partly reconquered it.9 What could
a "My troops," said the emperor, in a letter written by his own
hand to Sobieski —" my troops are now assembling; the bridge over
the Danube is already constructed at Tulsc to afford you a passage"when every word was as false as a falsehood can be. House of
Austria, vol. ii. p. 1077.




216             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
not be accomplished, by open and manly warfare, was effected
by the ordinary methods of bribery and deception. The Turks
were hired to arrest Tkilyi in his career of conquest.  He
was, consequently, captured by his former friends and sent in
chains to Constantinople. There he lived in obscurity and
died in want. The peace of Karlowicz was the termination
of this contest; and, from the year 1699, the period of its
date, it has barred the Turks from meddling in the domestic
affairs of Austria, and secured the kingdom of the Huns to
the house of Hapsburg as an inalienable and hereditary possession. Despotism again raised its banner, at the close of
this fourth and fatal struggle, and waved it in triumph over
the lands and liberties of the Magyars.
The last memorable resistance of the Hungarian nation to
the illegal claims and intolerable oppressions of the house of
Austria is worthy of special record. It was organized in 1703,
and headed by the celebrated Francis Leopold Rakoczy. The
object of it was to oppose the claim of Leopold the First as a
hereditary sovereign.  The doctrine of hereditary succession
was new and strange to the democratic nation. The resentment of the people was still farther roused by the despotic
measures taken by the emperor to impose this doctrine upon
the kingdom; and when, added to these, he commenced that
fierce and furious religious persecution, before mentioned, the
patience of the Magyars was exhausted. They rose as one
man against the tyrant.
Their leader, Rakoczy, was a character of historical repute,
before he had made himself, by the splendor of his deeds, immortal. He belonged to that well-known family of which
patriotism seemed to be the natural characteristic. Left an
orphan by the death of his noble father, and separated from
his mother on the surrender of his native city, lest he should
imbibe too much of the spirit of liberty from her instructions,
he had been educated under the eye of Austrian tutors, who
had done their utmost to bend his mind from the affairs of




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIt.                217
nations and fix it on the disputations of religion. This artful
management had not succeeded. It seemed to be a part of his
nature, of his very constitution, to take an interest in political
and patriotic questions.  While the Jesuits, his teachers, were
industriously giving him their lessons in polemical divinity,
he was thinking of the wrongs of his country and the deeds
of his departed forefathers. After the tasks of the day were
done, he might be seen, when the shades of evening were
gathering around, sitting pensively by his window, with his
eyes towards Hungary, looking with a silent, meditative,
mournful aspect on the blue line of Hungarian hills, which,
in clear weather, are distinctly visible from'Vienna. When
he saw those hills refulgent with the soft rays of the setting
sun, and thought of the contrast between the placid beauty
of those beams and the awful wretchedness to which despotism
had reduced the country thus gorgeously and almost tauntingly
illuminated, he would think, and look, and then start to his
feet with a sudden spring, as if struck by some powerful and
irresistible purpose. On seeing his attendants, however, who
never left him entirely alone, he would as suddenly compose
himself, and resume his quiet posture.  Such conduct, nevertheless, could not be overlooked or mistaken. During the
rebellion, as it is called, of the great Tikdlyi, he was thought
to be an unsafe person to live within half a day's journey of
the insurgent country. Should he escape to Hungary, as he
might possibly do, his name alone, boy as he then was, would
avail as much against the Austrians as an army.  He was
consequently removed into Bohemia and placed under the
strictest surveillance of his old tutors.  At a suitable age, in
spite of the vigilance of his keepers, he fell in love with
Charlotte Amelia, princess of Hesse Rheinfeld, a lady of fortune, accomplishments and beauty.  The history of their
intercourse is itself a romance.  Their stolen interviews,
effected by methods of almost unparalleled ingenuity, at
length prevailed against the intentions of his master and the
19




218              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTiI.
watchfulness of his guardians.  The romantic lovers were
privately but lawfully married; and an end was thus put to
the plan of making him an ecclesiastic. That he might be
still farther removed, however, from the scene of hostilities
between the Austrians and his unconquered countrymen, he
was encouraged by the monarch to spend a portion of his life
in travel. Readily accepting the proposition, he visited the
most celebrated capitals of Europe, at each of which he was
treated with unusual distinction.  Returning, after several
years of foreign residence, he found means of making his
escape into his native land, where, with his beautiful wife,
who had ardently espoused the interests of her husband, he
settled down upon the impoverished estates, which had been
left him by his father.
There is no peace, however, whether abroad or at home, to
a wounded spirit. Rakoczy still brooded, with a melancholy
countenance, over the diminished splendor of his family and
the ruin of his country. The nation did every thing in its
power to revive the natural cheerfulness of his temper. The
people loaded him with honors. W~herever he went, though
he seldom left his dwelling, he was welcomed as the heir of a
great ancestry, and followed by the benedictions of his fellowcitizens.  But these personal regards could not soothe the
heart, nor satisfy the spirit, of one in whose veins ran the
blood of all the Rakoczys.  His country was yet in bondage,
The chains were weightier than ever upon it. Its constitution
had been entirely subverted. A foreigner, by force of arms,
had seized a crown, once the property of his ancestors, now
his own rightful inheritance. He saw the armed troops of his
country's conqueror and oppressor all around him. The cities
and the plains, the hills and valleys, of his illustrious land,
he saw covered with desolation. Every day, almost every
hour, brought to his ears some new outrage of the Austrian
tyrant. Now, half a dozen peaceful villages would be burnt
to the ground, because their inhabitants were suspected of




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 219
friendly feelings toward the annihilated constitution. Next,
a whole county would be almost depopulated, because the
people occupying it dared to worship the God of their fathers
in the manner taught them from their cradles. Then, an
enormous tax would be laid upon a province, because, in spite
of a thousand similar oppressions, the province still seemed
able to discharge it.  All the time, the brutal soldiery, under
the command or connivance of their generals, would enter the
houses of the citizens, rob and plunder their possessions, violate the chastity of their wives and daughters, and spread a
dismay quite as terrible as death all around them.
In the midst of all this general desolation, the personal
recollections of Rakoczy were of a character to aggravate, if
possible, his feelings. His grandfather and great-uncle had
been unmercifully beheaded —beheaded for supporting the
laws and liberties of their country-beheaded because that
country had made them its representatives in misfortune. His
favorite cousin had been condemned to perpetual imprisoninent.  His own father had been stripped of all his authority
and honor, as a prince, and reduced to a state of comparative
beggary.  His father-in-law, or stepfather, had been proscribed, his venerable and noble mother driven into banishment, and the estates of nearly all his relatives and friends
confiscated. Though a portion of his own patrimony had
been restored to him, the tenure was only that of a royal
grant, which might be revoked at the royal pleasure.  His
present and his future were at the mercy of a most cruel and
unscrupulous despot.
It was a still more melancholy reflection to the patriot, that,
in himself, he saw and felt the condition of every liberal, free.
spirited, citizen of ill-fated Hungary. It was evidently the
determination of the emperor, independently of his own avowal,
so to waste and weaken the whole kingdom, that it would never
have the ability, if it could get the courage, to offer any farther
resistance to his claim of hereditary sovereignty. A volume




220              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIL.
would scarcely hold the names of those, from the peasant to
the prince, who were thrown into dungeons, despoiled of their
possessions, sent into perpetual exile, or murdered in cold
blood, because they were guilty of the crime, at all times unpardonable in Austria, of being the advocates of religious
freedom and democratic liberty.  Leopold had resolved, as he
often boasted, to cure the nation of its heresy, both ecclesiastical and political.
Rakoczy, had he been a man of superficial genius, would
never have endured so long the cruelties and calamities heaped
upon him. During all this time, however, his mind was at
work laying the foundations of a future effort.  With the
sagacity of a philosopher, he was surveying and studying his
position.  His hour at length came.  His country could wait
no longer. His countrymen could bear no more. Appealing,
in the most emphatic and patriotic language, to his fellowcitizens, he raised the standard of opposition in the name of
oppressed and insulted liberty. Betrayed, arrested and imprisoned, he escaped from his keepers and returned with renewed zeal to the rising contest.  He called upon the sons of
Hungarian freedom to assist him in asserting the original and
legal independence of the kingdom.  His voice was welcome
to the impatient Magyars.  They sprang to arms with a
boundless ardor. The whole land, on the instant of this appeal, bristled with military weapons, and resounded with martial music. The watchword, at this moment, was " death or
liberty."
Rakoczy was a statesman quite as much as he was a soldier.
His visit to Paris, at a former period of his life, had been remembered in the revolutionary capital.  He had made an impression on the French people.  At this juncture, he found
no difficulty, such were his talents, of forming an alliance with
the French, from which he had reason to expect great assistance. The period of this attempt, however, was not propitious.
It was the unfavorable posture of European politics, in fact,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 221
which had so long delayed his movements and occupied his
profound cogitations.  Spain, at that momnent,-was just break.
ing off from her subjection to the house of Austria.  The
most of the Hungarians considered this circumstance as highly
advantageous to their undertaking. Rakoczy saw the future
with a deeper penetration. He saw that Spain and Austria
would not be the only parties to the coming combat. The
event justified his foresight. France took the side of Spain;
and England, as almost a necessary consequence, espoused the
quarrel of the imperial Austrian.  While the war between
these four powers lasted, the Hungarians were at liberty to
pursue their purpose without opposition; and it may be emn
phatically asserted, that they did not fail to make the most of
this brief hour of fortune.  An army of one hundred thousand followed the footsteps of the Hungarian general. Everywhere, in Hungary and in Transylvania, he was entirely successful. He routed the king's forces in every battle. IHe
stormed and took the strong-holds and fortresses of the country.
He occupied all the cities and towns with patriot garrisons.
At last, such was the uniform splendor of his success, he expelled every Austrian from the kingdom, formed a provisional
government on the basis of democratic liberty, and sent up
the flags of a redeemed nation from every hill-top throughout
the country.
The celebrated battle of Blenheim settled the question, for
that time, between Spain and Austria.  It may be said, also,
that it settled the question between Austria and Hungary.
The Austrian despot, according to his custom, had employed
the troops of a foreign country to defend him in the hour of
peril  According to that same custom, he now made use of a
part of the same mercenary army to secure his authority, and
establish his despotism, over the Hungarians. Sending his
grateful acknowledgments to Marlborough, the English
general by whose abilities he confessed himself saved from
impending ruin, he dispatched the German portion of the
19a<



222             HIUNGARY AND KOSSUITH.
victorious host against Rakoczy.  The end of Leopold, however, was at hand.  He died before he had seen the accomplishment of his enterprise.
Joseph the First, nevertheless, continued the policy of his
father. Herbeville, his commander-in-chief, with a powerfuland well-disciplined force, marched down on the southern bank
of the Danube, hiding his movement, as much as possible,
from the Hungarians, crossed the river at Buda-Pesth, pushed
rapidly forward to the Theiss, forced a passage to Szegedin,
raised the blockade of Great Warasdein, deceived the vigilance
of the Magyars, pressed his way through the fortified pass of
Sibo, and, on the 22d of November, 1705, entered Transylvania with an army flushed with its recent successes and certain of victory before the first blow was given. A few blows,
in fact, were sufficient for that distant and therefore unguarded
province.  After taking Hermanstadt, the capital, he quickly
reduced the whole country, and everywhere raised the standard
of Austrian domination.
In the west of Hungary, however, the fortune of the day
was very different. There the patriots were entirely victorious.
Not only did they hold possession of all parts of the country,
to the exclusion of every man attached to the emperor, but
they made hostile inroads beyond the limits of the kingdom,
invaded Austria, Moravia and Styria, and laid the engines of
war before the walls of the imperial city. The next moment
it was the intention of the Magyars, after securing what they
had thus achieved, to recline back upon the Austrians in Transylvania, meet them wherever they could be found, and free
that province entirely from their presence.
The emperor saw clearly the tide of fortune turning in favor
of the patriots. His soldiers could do nothing with them.
Some other weapons must be employed against them. No
tyrants ever knew better what weapons to use in such an
exigency. Their mode of warfare has been stereotyped for
ages.  First, they endeavor, as the cheapest means, to do wkhed




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIS.                223
is necessary by their own military forces.  When these no
longer avail, they purchase the assistance of some mercenary
ally. Lastly, if they have either gold or honors left, they
spare no pains to bribe the leaders of the opposition, paying
them their own price for their treacherous quiet. Such was
the last resource of Joseph. Sending a minister to Rakoczy,
he offered the chieftain the Margraviate of Burgau, as an
equivalent for Transylvania, the restoration of all his patrimonial estates, and the dignity of a prince of the Austrian
empire, if he would desert his countrymen, and deliver them
to his mercy. To the patriots, at the same time, he secretly
held out the offer of acknowledging the recently-formed Hungarian confederacy, with its democratic basis, the confirmation
of the constitutional rights and liberties of the people, and
all the blessings of their municipal self-government, if they
would desert their leader, or hand him over to imperial
clemency.
It is scarcely necessary to tell the result of such base proposals. They were spurned by the general and by the nation.
Neither party would treat with the despot unless the other
was included in the treaty. Nor was either of them to be
satisfied, whatever overtures might be made, until the Austrian
government should be willing to acknowledge, in the strongest
terms, the absolute independence of their country. They
were ready, it is true, to consider Joseph as their lawful monarch, provided he would abandon his claim of hereditary
succession and submit to the usual and time-honored custom
of election. This, however, was the very point, which Joseph
had studiously excluded from his propositions.
The war went forward. Herbeville was replaced by general
Ileuster.  On the 17th of August, 1708, that able general
crossed the Waag under cover of the hills and forests, sur.
prised the main body of the patriots under Rakoczy, and
gained a decided victory. Six thousand Magyars were left
upon the field, and as many more were captured. Rakoczy,




224              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
stunned by a fall from his horse, made his escape with difficulty from the sabres of his enemies.  The defeat was perfect.
The routed patriots were dispersed to all parts of the surrounding country. The Austrians again planted the ensign
of their oppression.
The loss, however, was only that of an army. The commander-in-chief was saved.  The nation was unconquered.
Other armies rose up, one after another, all over the kingdom,
to fight for the freedom of their country. But it is singular,
and worthy the study of a philosopher, how mysteriously every
thing is inclined to go against a people, or a cause, however
manfully that people or that cause may be defended, after a
single disaster like the one just recorded. The loss, in such
a case, seems not to be in the numbers killed, nor in the decreasing courage of the defeated, nor in any want of determination to do as valiantly as ever.  Generally, after a defeat,
the unfortunate party returns to the combat more nerved than
before it, resolving to redeem its tarnished honor by some
splendid and overwhelming action. Generally, in spite of this
resolution, they find it difficult to equal their usual conduct,
if they are able to stand at all before a new, unseen, unintelligible force, which their own discomfiture has imparted to
their opponents. The moral power of an army is as important
as the physical; and it is the first duty, as well as the highest
policy, of a general, through all vicissitudes, so to interpret
and manage even his misfortunes, as to maintain among his
followers the expectation of ultimate success. This, indeed,
may be the solution of the mystery; for, it is well known,
that, in the affairs of individuals, confidence in one's self is
more than half the battle of this mortal life. Nations, too,
have always acted, more or less, with a view to this fundamental principle. Before every battle, the ancient Romans
used to seek for the sureties of success through the supposed
vaticination of their priests; and it is historically certain, that
more than one of their ablest commanders never failed to




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 225
instruct their prophets what signs of victory to find in the
entrails of the sacrificial animals, in the flight of birds, and
in the visions of the night.  It is remarkable, also, that, at
the very moment now before us, the emperors of Austria, in
addition to the victories of their illustrious general, had much
to say of the heavenly revelations of still greater triumphs.
Leopold professed to have received a presentiment of the issue
of the memorable battle of Blenheim. The prophecy, without
doubt, contributed to the fulfilment of itself. In the first
days of Joseph, too, the figure of an angel, in the Italian
chapel of Loretto, was reported to have moved its wings, as
if waving a salutation to the events then approaching, by which
the cause of the Catholic emperor was about to gain a concluding victory over the heretic nation of the Huns. Even
in England, which was still fighting on the side of Austria,
the most wonderful portents were seen. The clashing of arms
and the shouts of contending hosts were heard in the upper
sky. A singular figure, mounted on a milk-white steed, rode
through the fens of Lincolnshire, on the day of Marlborough's
Austrian triumph, just as the apparition of Castor and Pollux
had intimated to Regillus the fall of the Tarquins and the
establishment of the infant liberties of Rome.10
Whatever may be the reader's opinion of tho question, or
of the intrigues and artifice of the imperialists, it is well settled, that, for some reason, the cause of the patriots, from the
moment of their first defeat, rapidly and steadily declined.
Rakoczy, as bold, as prudent, as sagacious, as patriotic as ever,
saw every thing beginning to work against him.  A misunderstanding arose among the Magyar commanders. Some of
them deserted, with whole regiments of troops, to the invaders
of their country. Jealousy, and other evil passions, demoralized the martial character of several others. Despondency,
when no one could tell the origin or the reason of it, began
Io Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. pp. 513-514.




226              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIt.
to show itself in the hearts and in the countenances of the
soldiers. As the courage of his compeers waned, that of
iRakoczy waxed stronger, and impelled him into the most
prodigious exertions of his great mind and soul. He was
willing to do any thing, to suffer any thing, to take any place,
which could bring any advantage to his nation. Toil, and
travel, and exposure, and danger, were all taken as if they
had been the dainties of a princely life. But all his sacrifices,
all his exertions, all his sufferings, proved unavailing.  The
mining districts of the Waag first submitted to the conqueror.
All Lower Hungary, excepting a single town, was next reduced.
Transylvania soon fell. The last remnant of the patriot army,
under the command of Berezeny, which had kept possession
of the north-eastern part of Upper Hungary, was defeated on
the 22d of January, 1710, by the Austrian forces commanded
by general Seckingen.  Neuhasel, the single unconquered
town just alluded to, surrendered shortly afterwards; and, in
the following spring, Rakoczy, the greatest of the Hungarian
patriots of that or of any former century, was compelled to
shed his tears, in his retreat at the capital of Poland, over
the prostrate liberties of the Magyars. The peace of Szathmxr fastened the chains, which had been so long forging, on
the only truly democratic people of modern Europe.
Such was the mournful termination of the final struggle,
till a very recent period, for the recovery of Hungarian independence. Rakoczy, after a short residence among his Polish
friends, sailed to England. Thence he proceeded to France,
where he was, the second time, received with distinguished
honors. But the French, as is too much their custom, had
disappointed the cause of liberty in its last extremity. They
had done but little, if any thing, after the battle of Blenheim,
to support the undertaking of their ally. The great general,
therefore, was not easy in the society of Frenchmen. In
1718, he went to Spain, hoping to gain the aid of the Spanish
liberals. then led by the famous Alberoni, in a new attempt




HUNGARY AND IKOSSUTH.              227
to conquer the liberation of his country. Last of all, he proceeded to Constantinople, was honorably received by the sultan,
who gave him the castle of Rodosto, on the sea of Marmora,
where he spent the remainder of his days in writing out the
history of the enterprise here recorded. In 1723, while he
was yet living, the Magyars used his name once more, in a
feeble and fruitless attempt then made to regain their independence. From that period we hear nothing of the hero;
nor, until the beginning of the recent struggle, which eclipses
every other in the annals of the nation, do we hear any thing,
worthy of being stated, of a recovery of its liberty and its
glory.




228              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
CHAPTER  IX.
THE AUSTRIAN REVOLUTION.
THE seeds of all the democratic revolutions of modern ages
were sown by the monk of Erfurt. Before his days, the central idea of all human society was, that one man's rights and
responsibilities could be held and represented by another. In
the earliest form of society, the oldest male ancestor of a
family, or of a tribe, was styled the father, or the patriarch,
who, it was conceded, had the natural right of governing his
offspring.  The king was only the high-patriarch of several
of such tribes united. The emperor, in his turn, was the acknowledged head of a number of these kings. Such, in its
idea, was human government till the days of Luther.
According to this doctrine, all the rights of all the individuals of a family, tribe, kingdom, or empire, centred in the
father, patriarch, king, or emperor. Rights and responsibilities, however, always go together. If a person has not the
right to govern his own conduct, he is certainly not responsible
for that conduct. If his rights can be represented by another
individual, so can his personal responsibility be thus represented. Indeed, not only do these two things go together,
but they must go together. The one involves the other.
Where there is no right, there can be no responsibility.
Where there is no responsibility, there can be no right. If,
therefore, one man can represent another man, in the sense
here supposed, then the representative must possess the rights
and responsibilities of the represented. The individuality of
the represented is lost in the individuality of the representative. If the represented can choose his representative, then,
in making the choice, he is a freeman; but, unless he is at




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 229
liberty to change his representative at pleasure, he is no longer
free. Nature has set bounds, a period of cessation, to the
authority of the father, who, during the minority and dependence of his children, justly acts for them; but it is the natural
tendency of the patriarchal, regal, or imperial rule to perpetuate itself, independently of all individual rights and
responsibilities, and independently of the wishes of the
governed.
Although the doctrine, that every individual is personally
responsible for his own conduct, because he is free to govern
his own conduct, is the fundamental principle of the Christian
religion, everywhere inculcated in the Christian Scriptures, it
was not very clearly understood in the apostolic age, and was
totally subverted by the establishment of the papal system.
Popery is the perfection of the old doctrine of representation.
Instead of taking up the great idea of individual liberty, revealed to us in the doctrine of individual responsibility, and
going forward before the world, as Christianity was intended
to do, as the champion of personal and universal freedom, it
espoused the ancient, obsolete, monarchical idea, that, even in
the most private matters, the mass of mankind are not capable
of acting for themselves, and of bearing their own responsibilities, but must be represented by persons appointed for the
purpose. The idea is carried out with the most rigid and
tyrannical exactness. The priest represents the laymen; the
bishop represents the priests; the archbishop represents the
bishops; the cardinal represents the archbishop; the pope
represents the cardinals. The pontiff is the connecting link
between society and God. All the transactions, between men
and their Maker, must take this road.  When the common
man has deposited his sin with the priest, by what is called
auricular confession, the depositor has no farther responsibility
about it; but, as the Roman theory is, it goes before the Judge
as an act to be forgiven, or already forgiven, through the personal authority of the representative. If, on the other hand,
20




230              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
the layman wishes any grant, blessing, or favor from the
Creator and Ruler of the universe, his only recourse is, as
before, to make application to him, whose right it is to receive
from heaven and to dispense on earth the benefactions of the
Almighty.
Protestantism is emphatically a denial of this whole theory
of representation. It is a recovery of the original doctrine
of Christianity. It makes every man, in every act, and under
every circumstance, responsible for himself. It involves, as a
necessary consequence, the immediate assertion of personal
liberty for every human being; because men are not slow to
see, that, if they must answer for what they do, they must be
let to do what they please. Catholicism, therefore, in the very
nature of it, is the religion of irresponsibility and of despotism. Protestantism, on the other hand, is the religion of
responsibility and of freedom. The right of private judgment, the hinge of Luther's movements, has ever been the
terror of both priests and kings.
This grand principle of the Reformation spread rapidly
through the world from  the hour of its announcement; but
the first open and practical declaration of it, as a rule of social
action, was made by the Pilgrim  Fathers.  These were
Englishmen, who, while being taught, by the English kings
themselves, the doctrine of the right of private judgment,
which includes the most absolute liberty of conscience and of
worship, were not permitted to enjoy what was thus theoretically allowed them. Indeed, in their day, the Reformation in
Great Britain was but little better than a favorite abstraction.
The country at large looked upon it as a beautiful speculation.
With the Puritans, however, it was a real substance. They
saw in it the germ of a new dispensation. They made it their
own by giving their whole life, and thought, and being to it.
They resolved to make it, for themselves and for posterity, a
tangible and living reality. It was for this resolution that
they were obliged to leave their country, and, in the heart of




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIr.              231
Germany, to undergo the pains of exile. It was for this resolution, that, while in their place of banishment, where the
native people were. not yet entirely emancipated from the
papal-theory of society, they had to suffer a thousand intolerable inconveniences. It was for this resolution, that, after
their patience was exhausted, and they had nothing more to
hope in Germany, or in Europe, they breasted the billows of
the Atlantic, braved the dangers of an unknown region, and
made for themselves a settlement and a home within the depths
of the American wilderness. It was for this resolution, that,
after a century and a half of oppression by the mother country, which still followed them to their last retreat with her
practical denial of her speculative instructions, they raised and
supported the standard of American Independence. Here, on
this soil of ours, for the first time since the world was made,
the doctrine of individual responsibility and liberty became
the avowed and fundamental principle of human society and
government.
In the great'struggle of our Revolution, France was our
chief ally, to whose assistance we are eminently indebted for
our national existence. The leading motive with the French
government, in granting us its friendship, it cannot be denied,
was derived from its settled and historical animosity toward
England. Still, when the work of the allies was completed,
when the independence of this country had been achieved,
France became directly and personally interested in the cause,
to which she had generously given her support. She beheld
with admiration the image of a free government, which had
risen into being upon our shores, working with a harmony, a
beneficence, and a promise never realized by any government
before. Her sons, who had been pupils in the bloody school
of our Revolution, went home to tell their countrymen of the
first fruits of civil freedom. The French nation, in the progress of more than two centuries since the days of Luther,
had had time to drink deeply at the fountain opened by that




232             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIt.
reformer. It received, with a very general sympathy, the re.
ports of those heralds of human liberty from the fields of
MIonmouth and Saratoga. Lafayette, the leading disciple of
our Washington, became the great apostle of French emancipation. Catholicism, of course, opposed him; but the infidels,
as they were called, paralyzed for the time the arm of popery;
and thus the French sprang up as the first consequence of the
American Revolution.
It is an acknowledged fact, as generally confessed in France
as in any other country, that the French Revolution, begun
for the sake of liberty, grew up to be at last the very worst
of tyrannies. Such, also, is the geographical position of the
nation, and such is the disposition of its possessions, that,
more emphatically than can be said of any other country, it
can never move without imparting its motion to the states
about it. When, therefore, out of the ruins of the democratic
revolution, the Man of Destiny arose to be a commanding
spirit, he had only to stamp his foot to make Europe tremble
all around him.
The result of the French Revolution was seen in the great
Congress of Vienna, where, by their diplomatic representatives, the crowned heads of the nations, after long and mature
deliberation, brought to light their celebrated Settlement of
Europe.  The primary object of this Settlement was to organize the leading European monarchies against the democratic
spirit of their respective populations, and particularly against
the French, who had stepped forward as the champion of republican institutions.
To accomplish this work, it was necessary to reconstruct the
nations, adding to one by taking as much from the others, and
uniting governments, which had always been separate and
independent. Thus, in the first place, Austria and Prussia,
the two leading Powers, must be regarded as the center of the
new system, and they must receive, also, the chief benefits of
the arrangement. All Europe must be so disposed of as to




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                233
maintain their ascendency, and make them  secure in it, without prejudice to the more distant and less interested nations.
France, as the sinning nation, which had caused all the expense and hubbub, must give up to the two central Powers a
large tract of her fine country west of the Rhine.  Holland
and Belgium must be united in order to form a northern barrier to it. Poland must be partitioned for the satisfaction of
the great Russian autocrat, whose influence was predominant
in the congress. Sardinia must be aggrandized at the expense
of the minor and less royal of the Italian States. Saxony
must be confiscated for the gratification of German claimants.
Hanover must be confirmed in its English leanings to win the
support of Britain; and every thing else must be done to
make Austro-Prussian Germany the center of central Europe,
and to guard that center by a barrier of friendly nations.
But the obstacles to this arrangement were very great. Old
national land-marks were to be taken down and new ones
erected. No respect was to be paid to blood, or race, but
people of different and hostile descents were to be united.
The three religions of Europe, the Greek, the Catholic, and the
Protestant, were to be entirely overlooked, and their votaries
crowded together, and made to live in amity.
These were formidable objections to the new Settlement;
but, the Settlement must be made, right or wrong, wise or unwise, for the present safety of European monarchy against the
growing democracy, and particularly against that of the French
nation. It was made; and the result was what a prudent
man, or a philosopher, should have expected.
In the first place, France was more mad than ever. She
had lost her "line of the Rhine," and with it some of her
richest provinces. Next, Holland and Belgium began to quarrel; and the struggle between them terminated in the independence of the latter country. Then Poland raised her voice
against her own destruction, but was soon lost in the grasp of
Russian ambition.  Italy, too, had been unsettled by this
20*




234             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Settlement, and began to agitate herself in behalf of her own
nationality and independence. Neither she, nor the kingdom
of the Netherlands, wished to be merely the sentinels to this
Austro-Prussian domination. Spain was dissatisfied, as her
hereditary claim to Holland had been virtually confiscated by
her superiors; and even Russia was unsatisfied, having received
nothing from this great bargain worthy of her acknowledged
greatness.
Next, the monarchs of these several nations, feeling themselves more than ever secure against domestic popular commotions, began to bear down upon their subjects with an
oppressive tyranny. Though their people might rebel, when
they could no longer endure, the kings had agreed to help
each other against all such democratic struggles. Disturbances, however, did arise; the people were disappointed; some
of the kings themselves, who had not gained all that had been
expected, or who had lost something by the Settlement, were
uneasy; and a second meeting of the Allied Powers was held
at Aix la Chapelle, in 1818, to resettle the Settlement of
Europe.
Prior to this second Congress, in spite of the general treaty
between the Powers represented in it, several of them had
made private arrangements among themselves, and with their
nearest neighbors, which had given great dissatisfaction to the
Alliance. But the meeting at Aix la Chapelle could not
remedy the evil, nor even prevent its continuance and growth.
No sooner had the representatives gone home the second time,
than those brotherly monarchs began their private intrigues
again, bargaining and re-bargaining, plotting and counterplotting, as if no general understanding had been made.
France, mad from the very first, and resolved some day to
have her revenge for her lost "line of the Rhine," and her
fair provinces on that natural border, started several theories
to effect this object. First, she began to agitate what her
political writers called the Alliance Russe, namely, the con



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.              235
elusion of a treaty, offensive and defensive, with Russia, against
the rest of Europe. The idea was a natural one.- It was easy
for the dissatisfied and the unsatisfied to form a league. But
it was never formed. France feared the overbearing absolutism
of Russian politics; and Russia was as fearful of the mercurial spirit of democratic France. The bait, however, on both
sides, was tempting. France offered Turkey to her colleague;
and Russia was to re-establish France in her Rhenish provinces. But fear ruled. There was no love, or confidence, or
even common faith, between them.
The next idea of France was to form a grand alliance between herself and those minor nations of Europe not represented in the Congresses of Vienna and Aix la Chapelle, of
which she, of course, was to take the lead. This was not a
new idea. It was the idea of the old Federative System of
France, which sprang from the fertile brain of Richelieu, and
which had been the support and glory of the Capets. From
the death of Henry the Fourth to the French Revolution, a
period of about two hundred years, this policy had made
France the most powerful of the European kingdoms. It was
now to be revived. The second-rate nations, which had had
no hand in the Congresses, were naturally jealous of their
haughty and powerful superiors, by whom they hid been overlooked; and France was fully able, with their co-operation, to
make head against the world. Every thing was ripe for this
great measure, when, in July, 1830, the Revolution of the
Three Days broke- out, which overturned all prior calculations
by setting Louis Philippe upon the throne of France.
Now, a third idea arose from the selfish and conservative
mind of Louis, and spread by degrees through the kingdom.
It was the idea of the Alliance Anglaise, by which England
and France were to become friends for their common good.
The navy of the one, and the army of the other, could together sweep both sea and land. They were both constitutional monarchies, and hence had a common interest at stake;




236             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
and the commerce and manufactures of the one, and the agriculture of the other, would cause them to harmonize at every
point. Thus, Louis established the English policy in France,
and, by the support of it, intrenched himself in an almost
despotic power. He surrounded Paris with high walls. He
fortified the city, not so much to defend it against a foreign
power, as against the citizens themselves.  When thus
strengthened, he began more daringly to show his hand;
and he seemed determined to kill, before his death, that
democratic temper which the people of France have so long
possessed. But he was unequal to the task. The old mania,
the "line of the Rhine," still survived.  The lost provinces
were not forgotten. The passion for popular freedom and
republican institutions was yet alive. New doctrines, too,
totally hostile to monarchies, of socialism and its cognates,
had risen from  obscurity to power.  The Pope had been
strangely setting to all Catholic nations the example of reform.
His first act, after his elevation, had been to recal all persons
exiled for political offences, who, in general, were the leading
republicans of his dominions.  He had next liberated the
Jews from their social imprisonment in the Ghetto, giving
them the right of choosing their residences in any portions
of the city. He had made himself the friend of the poor and
the advocate of universal progress. By nominating the democratic Mamiami and his associates to the ministry, after the
assassination of Rossi, he had converted his government into
a democracy, which instantly took the lead of reform in Europe.  France, more susceptible than any other European
state, was the first to feel the significancy of this Italian movement. Her people were in raptures over the liberality of the
new pontiff. Her monarch, however, remained what he had
been. His policy was yet monarchical and British. He was
thus separated, more than ever, from the national feeling and
common sympathies of his people. His English leanings, at
a time of popular agitation, covered him with suspicion. The




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHI.               237
eternal antipathy to England, and to every thing English, was
still rankling in every French artery. Meetings of the citizens began to be called. They were so numerously attended
as to excite the apprehensions of the monarch. The monarch
forbade them; and, lo! the torch was set to the train, so long
prepared, and so ready to take fire, when all Paris exploded
like a mine!
Berlin was ready for the match. For more than thirty
years, the Prussian monarchs had been promising their subjects a regular constitution; and for thirty years they had
been deluding them with fair promises and no fulfilment of
their pledges. At last, when the patience of the slowest race
of men on earth, was utterly exhausted, and they began to
demand some tangible acknowledgment of their liberties, the
king called the representatives of the nation together, only a
little time before the events of Paris, and gave them an oral
constitution, declaring that itbshould never be written, as he
would have no mere piece of paper forming a barrier between
him and the people given him of God! The representatives
were astounded. They retired in amazement mingled with
revenge. They made a supper of brilliant lights and empty
dishes, as an emblem of the bright promises and worthless
performances of their king. Being the first men of Prussia,
and not a few of them princes, they found no difficulty in
spreading their discontent among the people; so that, as
soon as the first news of Paris reached them, the masses
of the population, headed lby leading minds, were ready for
their work.
Austria, too, was not less ripe for a revolution. The tyranny
of the Hapsburgs had not spent itself against the Hungarians
alone. It had long been felt at home. It had been acknowledged as well as felt.  From the earliest times, it had been
too open, too daring, too sweeping, to be overlooked. In the
first years of the Reformation, a large proportion of the Austrian people, if not a majority of them, were Protestants.




238              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Under the reign of Maximilian, a secret friend to Luther,
they were protected from Catholic persecutions; and they
came very near getting into their hands their domestic government. The state of things, however, changed. The successors of Maximilian were all rank Catholics.  Still, after all
the harsh measures of all the selfish and unfeeling sovereigns
of that imperial house, the political influences of the Lutheran
doctrine had been preserved from utter annihilation among the
middle classes of the papal dukedom.  While the very rich,
by reason of their ambition, and the very poor, by virtue of
their ignorance, had long since followed the court in its religious intolerance, a highly respectable portion of the independent and enlightened commonalty, by far the most valuable
part of every monarchical country, had retained no little of
the spirit, if not the letter, of the Reformation.:
The schools of Germany, also, had done much to perpetuate, and even to increase, the democratic spirit. Austria had
enjoyed nearly her full share of this tendency of the higher
education.  The imperial University of Vienna has long been
one of the first in Europe. Its faculties have been numerous,
large, learned, and generally patriotic. Its students, always
immense in number, have been extensively from the wealthiest,
proudest, noblest houses of the whole empire; and the remainder of them have been the representatives of the leading
merchants, bankers, manufacturers and mechanics. This body
of young men, the flower of the first families of Austria, by
the time their course of educational discipline is completed,
are carried quite above the narrow, bigoted, selfish policy of
their rulers. It is a singular fact, worthy of observation and
recollection, that a truly liberal education seldom fails to make
a man liberal in his feelings. In all countries, since the cause
of education has had a history, the graduates of the world's' Coxe's House of Austria, vol. i. chap. 25, p. 387, and many other
places in the same volume.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 239
great schools have generally been, at the time of graduation,
stanch republicans. Personal ambition, lured by the corrupting influences of society around them, has too often bought
them off in monarchical countries, from liberty to despotism;
but many of them, in spite of all the temptations of their
position, have remained, in every land, the friends and advocates of human freedom.  It has been so in Austria.  The
thousands of young gentlemen, who, for many generations,
have beenepouring out from her higher seminaries of learning,
and particularly from the University of Vienna, have been
annually filling the empire with enlightened democrats.  To
whatever post they might afterwards be raised, or into whatever circumstances of honor or of influence they might chance
to fall, they were sure to remember, with a lively interest,
though they might seldom mention, the bright visions of universal happiness and freedom vouchsafed to them by the Attic
goddess, and the indelible pictures of social liberty drawn upon
their young hearts, while they were perusing the democratic
pages of the Greek and Roman classics.2
It must be remembered, too, that the capital of Austria lies
less than thirty miles from the lines of Hungary, where democracy is the life and spirit of the dominant population.
Between the two countries, there has always been an open and
general intercourse. While many of the Magyar magnates,
who have made their residence at Vienna, have sold themselves
to their country's tyrants, so far, at least, as to remain silent
at the sight of that country's wrongs, thousands of the Austrians, on the other hand, have learned to admire the people,
and to pity the nation, thus cruelly oppressed. Between the
Austrian and Hungarian democrats, there has always been,
since the death of Francis the First, quite a general sympathy,
~ Since the late revolution, Austria has inserted several of the
more liberal of the Greek and Roman writers in her Index Expurgatorils!




240              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
which needed only some common purpose to render it positive
and strong.
That common purpose was destined to take its origin from
the Magyar land. The Hungarian Diet of 1832, the year in
which Francis died, was a Diet of reform.  Though, by the
constitution, it is the source of all law to Hungary, the National Assembly had not been convoked for full seven years.3
While the French war lasted, the emperor called it frequently
together, because he could not otherwise resist the French.
The Magyars were his chief reliance in the hour of need.
The session of 1807, however, after making an appropriation,
complained severely of the profligacy of the ministers of the
crown, and threatened to withhold further supplies, unless a
prudent expenditure of the revenues should be promised and
maintained. It made a declaration, also, in favor of free trade.
In 1812, as had been foreseen by the Magyar Assembly, Austria declared herself a bankrupt. The Hungarian diet of that
year refused to give its sanction to such an act. It boldly
told the emperor, that, to preserve the honor of the whole
country, he ought to pay his debts. It told him, that if he
would secure a frugal use of the moneys granted, the Magyars
would pay their full share of his liabilities. Such language
could not be pardoned by such a king. The National Assembly was prorogued; and it was not called again, till, in
the very last year of a long and eventful reign, the aged and
dying monarch saw the sceptre about dropping from his hand.
He wished, of course, to settle such questions as related to
the succession before his death.
When called together, however, in a legal manner, after so
long a dispersion, the Assembly resolved to do its duty to the
nation. The first of its bold undertakings was the emancipa8 Paget (Hungary and Transylvania, vol. i. p. 129) says twenty-five
years; but the traveler is in a mistake. There were diets in 1807,
1812, and 1825. See Pulsky's Hist., Introduction, pp. 131-132.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 241
tion of the peasants. The peasants of Hungary, as we have
seen, were originally placed in as eligible a condition as they
had any reason to expect. During the two native dynasties,
male and female, their position was not greatly changed. In
the beginning of the sixteenth century, after Hungary and
Austria had been united, they were reduced to the state of
serfs. They remained in this condition, with several unimportant fluctuations between the years 1547 and 1556, till the
publication of Maria Theresa's celebrated code of serf-laws,
styled the Urbarium, more than two centuries from this latter
date. For two hundred years, they were but little better than
common slaves. In one respect, the lot of the slave is decidedly preferable to that of the Hungarian serf, as held by
the Austrian rulers of that land.  The serf was bound to live
and die upon the spot that gave him birth. He belonged to
the soil, by the Austrian law, as much as the trees that stood
in his master's field. With it he was bought and sold. If his
landlord was a cruel man, there was scarcely the hope of any
remedy, such as is common in a land of slavery, because his
release involved the sale of the entire estate of which he made
a part. In 1764, by the publication of her peasant-code,
Maria Theresa conferred a new condition, almost a new existence, upon this class.  Such was the romantic character of her
despotism, that she published her code without waiting for the
consent of the representatives; but, after the death of Joseph
the First, it was formally sanctioned, "till another and more
liberal one could be prepared."  By this, body of laws, the
peasant was forever emancipated from the soil.  He could
leave his landlord at pleasure, by giving him'due notice, and
by the payment of his own debts. While remaining with him,
a fixed quantity of land was assigned to his personal use,
which, so long as he performed certain duties, he could hold
by law.  The burdens upon him, nevertheless, were very
great.  For a full portion of land, he had to labor for the
owner one hundred and four days of every year. Every four
21




242              HI-UNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
peasants had to furnish a man and a horse, at the bidding of a
landlord, for a two-days' journey. Of all the productions of
the earth, with a few trifling exceptions, in addition to these
duties, every peasant had to deliver up one-ninth to his master
as his lawful rent. Besides all this, the peasants had to make
al the roads, bridges, canals, and other internal improvements
of the country.  They had to feed the army, both in peace
and war, and pay all the expenses of the government of their
country, though they could not act directly in the creation and
execution of the laws. Should they complain, or prove refractory in any'case, the master could inflict corporal punishment, though the lashes allowed him were restricted to twentyfive. Such were the leading provisions of this code. The
single fact, that the landlord could whip his tenant, as often
as he thought proper, is a sufficient proof, that the peasant was
legally regarded, not as a citizen, even ini the lowest signification, but as a slave.
The diet of 1832, acting upon the long-neglected provision
laid down at the adoption of this code, that it should exist
only until a better one could be made, declared, that the time
for that better one had come. This was the beginning of the
Hungarian democratic party.  It was a beginning, however,
to a rapid progress and:rglorious result. It was a noble sight,
a sight never seen before, to behold the parliament of a great
nation, in which chiefly the land-holding classes were represented, debating the propriety and duty of relinquishing a set
of lucrative claims, over a prostrate race, when those claims
were fully guaranteed by the sanctions of custom and of law.
But the democratic spirit had taken such hold of the Hungarian mind, that nothing less than the personal emancipation
of every peasant would satisfy its high demands. Hungary
resolved to be a land of citizens, not of serfs, of freedom, not
of slavery. After determining to make every male inhabitant
of mature age a voter, thus basing the liberties of the country
on the equality of its people, the National Assembly proe




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                243
ceeded to lay down a course of action, for the Magyar nation,
which, if carried out, would make it indeed a nation, and not
a province of a neighboring and tyrannic realm. It restored
the language of the country by new and strong enactments.
It prepared the way for the revival of the native literature, by
incorporating a national literary institution, to which the
cemocrats subscribed the most liberal sums.  It commenced a
series of internal improvements, of which the great suspension-bridge at Pesth is a memorable result, by which the depressed country was to be elevated to the condition of a modern
state.  For four years, without interruption, this body of
patriotic legislators went forward with their work, ever keeping the renovation and glory of the Magyar land in view.
All these measures were steadily opposed by the Austrian
government. It would not do to have a democratic country,
as large and powerful as Hungary, in the heart of a despotic
empire. Every thing was to be done rather than see so dangerous a result. Every thing was done, that could be done,
to quench the democratic spirit of the Hungarians.  When
the ordinary means of opposition had been exhausted, means
the most extraordinary in other countries, but common enough
in this, were at once adopted.  It seems that the baron Wesse6enyi, at that time the leader of the patriots in the upper
Chamber, during the debates, made use of some very strong
but very appropriate epithets of reproach against the course,
which, for centuries, Austria had been taking.  He told the
Magyars, that, in their new efforts to benefit and bless their
country, they should not be troubled by what the Hapsburgs
might do, or say, or think; that it had always been the intention of those monarchs to reduce Hungary from the condition
of an independent kingdom to that of a royal province; that
they had ever pursued a policy by which they hoped so to
weaken the Hungarian nation as to render it incapable of
making resistance to the imperial despots; that, among the
steps taken to secure this end, they had always been opposed




244              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTTH.
to the political and social elevation of the Hungarian peasants;
tnd that their abettors were those Magyar magnates, who,
bribed by the royal favor, under the pretence of maintaining
the privileges of their class, were acting a part in opposition
to their country.4
Such freedom in telling an unwelcome truth was not to be
let pass in silence. It might stand as a precedent for the reestablishment of the liberty of speech in Hungary. That
would be sure to work the downfall of Austrian domination.
W6esselenyi was impeached for treason.  The cause, of course,
went against him. In both the courts, before whose tribunals
he was successively arraigned, the judges were the creatures
and the tools of Ferdinand. The baron was sentenced to a
three years' imprisonment, in some strong-hold or castle, for
what he had uttered in debate, in an open parliament, on a
question legitimately up for discussion I
At the same time, and before the same tribunals, several
young men were tried for treason, against whom the charge
was laid of having held certain political meetings during the
sessions of the diet. By what mode of reasoning the imperial
government pretended to make such an act a crime, and
especially a crime of the highest grade, I am not informed.
The probability is, that no reasoning was made use of, or required.  The act of impeachment was merely an exercise of
power. The young gentlemen were friends of their country;
and that, in the eyes of a Hapsburg, is at all times crime
enough. According to the laws of their land, they could not
be imprisoned for such a cause, as there was a statute positively forbidding it. But laws are no obstacles to a tyrant,
when he has the might. As the civil code could not punish
them, it was expressly suspended in their case; and they were
The language of the baron, respecting one item, was terribly
severe. He said Austria was "sucking the marrow of the Hungarian peasantry." City of the Magyar, vol. i. p. 232.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 245
sentenced, by military law, to a close confinement for three
years in some convenient prison.5
Finally, in the presence of the same judges, and by a silnilar process, another individual was brought up, at the time
spoken of, for treason.  He was a young man, in the prime
of early manhood, whose appearance at once arrested the attention of spectators. He had been lying for several months in
prison, contrary to the statutes.  Of middling size, but of a
most noble bearing, he gave evidence to every beholder, that
he was no common culprit. In color, his countenance was a
lively brunette; his face was round and full; his forehead,
high and open; his hair, black, rather long, glossy, and falling in natural ringlets; his eyes, blue, very prominent, and
full of soul and meaning; his eye-brows, large and black,
overhanging the parts they shaded; his teeth, full in numbers,
evenly set, and as white as ivory; his mouth, small but neatly
formed, the very paragon of this organ; his movement, easy,
dignified, and remarkably prepossessing. An immense concourse of his countrymen, who surrounded the hall of justice,
proved the interest that his previous career had raised for him.
From the evidence and pleadings in the suit, it appeared, that
he was the son of a poor but respectable Hungarian, who resided in one of the northern counties; that, by the energy of
his own character, without the help of any of his kindred,
he had acquired a liberal education, and graduated with
the highest honors of his college; that, still helping himself,
he had completed the study of the law, and made himself a
master in the profession; that, pushing his inquiries forward,
lie had acquired a deep and extensive knowledge of public
matters, and, while yet a youth, had gained the reputation of
being a profound statesman; and that, in consideration of his
marked talents, though still very youthful, he had been selected
to appear in the current session of the diet as the representa.
City of the Magyar, vol. i. p. 233.
21*




246             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
tive of an absent magnate.  Not being allowed, in that capacity, to take that part in the proceedings of the Assembly,
which his great abilities demanded, he had occupied his spare
time in furnishing the Hungarian people with a full and correct account of the transactions of their servants.  Prior to
his day, such a thing had never been attempted, as there was
an Austrian law against it. To effect his purpose, he had
condescended to learn the art of short-hand writing, and had
given himself up to the task of writing out the votes and
speeches of the members. To avoid the law, which forbade
the " printing and publishing" of what was transacted in the
diet, he had gone to the expense of lithographing the matter
thus prepared by him. In this way, he had started a public
journal, at the seat of government, and had gained for it a
prodigious circulation. Soon after its commencement, however, the new journal had been interdicted. The young patriot
had been forbidden to lithograph, as well as to print and publish, a political newspaper for the benefit of the Hungarian
people. Not yet daunted, and not to be foiled in his patriotic
undertaking, he had next devised and executed the plan of
publishing a manuscript paper, against which no law could be
leveled, that would not equally abridge the necessary practice
of writing letters. The new edition of the journal, indeed,
was nothing but an open letter, containing the proceedings of
the National Assembly written out in a perfectly legible handwriting. At first, the copies of it had been folded and sent
by post; but, on discovering that they were not delivered to
his subscribers, but destroyed by order of the government,
the editor, still determined to outdo the machinations of the
despot, had organized a system of private expresses, which
ramified to every town, village and hamlet of the country.
Such had been the demand for his publication, in this form,
that he had circulated an edition of ten thousand, every line
of which had been copied by young scribes employed by him
for the purpose. Thus, in spite of the censorship of the press




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               247
in spite of the tyranny of the post-office, in spite of all the
power of a most powerful and stringent government, a free
paper had been prepared, published, read and felt everywhere,
by the fertile and indomitable spirit, by the energy and courage, of that beautiful young man, who now stood up to answer for his conduct. Foiled in every attempt to master him,
the Austrian tyrant had sent his ministers to apprehend him,
and to stop the paper by throwing its proprietor into prison.
In the dead of the night, while walking for meditation on the
shore of the Danube, he had been snatched up by the myrmidons of the imperial court, blindfolded, and conveyed to a
dungeon of which he knew not the name. After a long confinement, during which the Hungarian people were entirely
ignorant of his condition, he had been released for trial. It
was to defend himself against the accusations of such an
enemy, that he was now permitted once more to appear in
public. It was to witness the issue of this strange proceeding,
that so vast a multitude of his countrymen had assembled.
Every movement of the young patriot was watched with eagerness. As a lawyer, profoundly learned in his profession, he
knew well enough how to manage his own business.  He was
highly intellectual, and could meet the ablest of his antagonists, and annihilate the strongest of their reasons. He was
eloquent; and, when his learning and his logic had obtained
the victory, he could raise the enthusiasm of the spectators,
and turn to a deathly paleness the cheeks of his imperial
judges. Until that day, Hungary had never witnessed so
magnificent a struggle for life and liberty. All the efforts
of the young man, however, proved fruitless. He had been
condemned before his trial; and the judges only souight pretexts by which to give his punishment a show of legality.
He was sentenced to a protracted and solitary imprisonment.
He was at once conveyed off and let down into a deep, damp,
unwholesome dungeon within the castle-fortress of old Buda.
On his way to prison, he leaned his head upon his hands, as




248               HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
if lost in meditation.  Some one asked him how he felt.  "I
feel something nameless in me," was his only answer.  What
was then nameless, however, has since been turned to history.
That young man was Louis Kossuth.6
The news of these tyrannical proceedings flashed with the
speed of lightning to the Austrian capital. The people of
Vienna were by this time fully prepared for action. The
revolution of opinion had become visible among them. Not
only those called democrats, but the body of the population,
were beginning to be excited.  The bond of sympathy between
the German and the Hungarian patriots was now perfected.
They both saw, with no little clearness, a common interest,
and a common object.  From that moment, till the breakingout of the European revolutions, they had acted very much in
concert.7
In the year 1834, an association was formed in Vienna, consisting at first of only twelve members, who held secret sessions for political and revolutionary purposes.  The society
was organized within the walls of the Austrian university;
and the twelve original members were professors and students
of the Institution.  The merchants of the metropolis, together
with the better class of artizans and mechanics, had been so
long and so grievously oppressed, by the imperial system of
taxation, that they had generally become quite hostile to a
City of the Magyar, vol. i. p. 233. The description of Kossuth's
person is given on the authority of the Hue and Cry sent out after
-him by Austria at a subsequent period. There is, therefore, no
flattery in it; and I shall make it a rule, in all that I have yet to
say of that hero, to confirm my language by the statements of his
enemies.  See, for example, Louis Kossuth and Hungary, by an
anonymous, but evidently an Austrian writer, from the press of John
Rodwell, Lond on, chap. iii. pp. 17-32.':-"Thus it appears," says the Austrian tory, "that the more intelligent:amiong the Hungarians acted in concert with the reformed
party ilniGermany; and they had a mind to establish themselves as
a revolu'tionary party."  Louis Kossuth and tIungary, p. 51.




HtUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 249
monarchy, and had even begun to theorize privately about the
establishment of a republic. The students knew the wishes
of the citizens; but the citizens did not, at that period, fully
comprehend the democratic temper of the students.
Kossuth, it was acknowledged, nevertheless, had been sacrificed to the Austrian doctrine of the censorship of the press.
There was no difference of opinion respecting that point. In
Austria, and in Hungary, he was regarded as a martyr. The
liberty of the press, therefore, became at once the salient point
of his increasing party. For the three years that he was lying
in the lower walls of the castle-fortress, the patriots of the
imperial capital, in conjunction with their Hungarian associates, were hard at work infusing into the public mind correct ideas concerning this fundamental subject. In 1841, the
martyr was restored to liberty. His first act was to look about
him for his companions in misfortune. Soon afterwards they
appeared from the cells in which they had been separately incarcerated. But they came not back from prison as they had
entered it. The cruel treatment they had received had been
nearly fatal to all of them. The great Wessel6nyi was entirely
blind. Lovassi, one of the young gentlemen, had become a
maniac.  The three others had contracted mortal diseases and
were about ready for their burial. Kossuth, possessed of a
firmer constitution and of a stronger will than his associates,
by which to resist the natural effects of suffering, came out
without the loss of any faculty, bodily or mental, but with
broken health.  From  the hour of his release he was never
well. He went immediately to the watering-place of Parad,
among the Matra mountains, for the restoration of his attenuated and damaged frame.  His name, his spirit, his high purpose, went to Vienna, while they enjoyed the power of an
omnipresence in his native country.
In the year 1846, a petition to the emperor, for the abolition of the censorship, was signed by the members of the
association, and then circulated among the principal inhabit



250              HIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
ants of the Austrian capital; and when it reached the hands
of the monarch, only a few days after its appearance, it carried
with it the weight of more than two thousand well-known
names.
The next two years did the work of a century against the
absolutism of the Hapsburg house.  In Hungary, the democrats achieved prodigies of labor for the cause of the people;
and the people began to know their friends, and to reward
them for the risks they ran and the deeds they performed.
In Austria, the tyranny of Metternich began to be talked of
openly by the populace; and their secret conversations took
the form of charges against his administration. They complained, and very justly, that he had hindered the empire from
making a development of its resources, lest it should become
strong enough to resist the despotism of his master; that, still
farther to weaken it, he had established the habit of fanning
the jealousy of the races, maintaining the ascendency of the
king in Austria by setting the Sclavic Bohemians in opposition
to their German countrymen, and preserving the submission
of Hungary by pitting the Sclavonians and Croats against the
Magyars; that he had kept the subject realms and provinces
in a state of absolute paralysis, by an interchange of standing
armies, cunningly employing Italian and Swiss troops in Hungatry, Hungarian troops in Italy and in Switzerland, and a
mixture of these foreign troops in Austria, thus holding each
people down by such soldiers as would not hesitate, from any
feelings of kindred or of country, to use the most bloody
methods against any popular demonstrations; that, not satisfied with binding the hands and the feet of his several victims, he had laid his shackles upon the mental and moral
capacities of the empire, by forbidding the pen to write, the
press to publish, or the tongue to speak the first syllable of
remonstrance against this system of oppression, or the first
letter in favor of the slightest freedom of opinion; and that,
as a necessary and fatal consequence the world around them




HUNGARk AND KOSSUTH.                251
was careering onward in the paths of prosperity and of glory,
leaving Austria entirely behind, a standing but decaying
monument of her own stubbornness and folly.  Every word
of these respective charges was as true as the words of a
revelation. They expressed, in the briefest manner, the longcontinued policy of the Hapsburgs. It was the policy, by
which they had maintained their position, as the representatives of an insignificant dukedom at the head of a large empire,
for several ages. The Austrians themselves, the most favored
of the imperial subjects, could bear that policy no longer.
Netternich, the able and unscrupulous supporter of the weak
but equally unscrupulous emperor, had become an acknowledged reproach to the party by which his administration had
been upheld. Not only the untitled gentry, but many of the
highest nobles, worn out by his unpatriotic measures, or tired
of his unpopularity, had deserted his standard and left him to
his doom.  The great barons, Dobblehof and Stifft, together
with the counts Breuner and Montecuculli, had joined the
ranks of the liberals, then headed by professors Hye and
Endlicher, whose influence in the university was supreme.
It had even been circulated, but with very little credit, that
the arch-duchess Sophia, the most influential member of the
famous Camarilla, or kitchen cabinet, was secretly favorable
to the opposition. Nothing, however, derogatory to the monarch was at that time uttered by responsible individuals,
while a thoroughly revolutionary politics was rising into a
most active though noiseless life, and silently spreading among
the people. The hearts of a majority of the citizens had been
perfectly converted to a revolution; from the heart the revolution had gradually ventured to the lips; but, as yet, the
lips had confessed the general faith only in the softest and
most secret whispers. When, at the opening of the great
revolutionary year, Ferdinand the First used to ride, unconscious of his danger, through the wooded parks and delightful
pleasure-grounds of ShMnbrunn, the vast empire, of which he




252             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
was chief, was tottering to its dissolution.  It was held
together by the fears of the many and the hopes of an
ambitious few. These bands were destined to be broken in
a day.
The Hungarian patriots, during the two years now under
consideration, had been heartily at work.  No language can
describe the popularity of Kossuth and W6sseldnyi after their
liberation. Wesselenyi, in other years, had been the great
champion of Transylvania; and the Transylvanians now carried the old patriot in their arms.  Kossuth, though the
champion of the whole kingdom, was a Magyar; and the
Magyars now repaid him for his sufferings by every mark of
honor in their power. Before his imprisonment, he had supported his mother and his three sisters at the expense of hard
labor and many personal sacrifices; and when, in consequence
of his confinement, he could protect them no longer, they were
maintained by the voluntary and abundant contributions of
the people. No sooner was he out of prison, than all men
sought his company, and his name was blessed from one border of the country to the other. Such was his fame, that an
engraver at the Hungarian capital established himself in the
single business of taking impressions of his portrait, and selling them at wholesale in all parts of Hungary. As the two
patriots had been one in misfortune, so, when restored to
liberty, they resolved to be one in their patriotic labors.
Kosbsth, whose talents as a writer were surpassed only by his
sagacity as a statesman, undertook the publication of the Pesti
Hirlap, a political newspaper, the sole object of which was the
advocacy of Hungarian independence.  Wesselenyi, blind and
feeble as he was, commenced a series of pilgrimages over
Hungary, as an apostle of liberty, to preach the doctrine of
Hungarian freedom to his countrymen. The venerable martyr
was everywhere welcomed with enthusiasm; the cause of the
country received a new impulse; and, in 1847, while the two
friends were still at work, in spite of the power and gold of




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.                253
Austria, Kossuth was returned to the National Assembly as
the leading representative for Pesth.
Before going to his place in the parliament of his country,
the young statesman spent a portion of his time, crowded with
occupations as he was, in establishing a political society, called
the Association of Protection.  It was the abject of this
association to defend the Hungarians against the iniquitous
tariff of duties, laid upon all imports and exports, by which
the business and industry of Hungary had been annihilated.
The members bound themselves to wear no garment manufactured from foreign cloth, to use. no raw materials in their
occupations derived from Austria, and to give no encouragement to importations of any kind, or for any purpose, until
the duties should be reasonably reduced.  From among the
members, a company was organized to start several manufacturing establishments for the production, at home, of the most
necessary commodities. A severe blow was thus struck at the
despotism of the imperial government; and Hungary was
opportunely encouraged to repudiate her financial dependence
on a foreign coun-try, and to enter the business world on her
own account.
Hardly had the new representative become accustomed to
his seat, in the National Assembly, before he was acknowledged
by all parties, and by all people, as the greatest orator that had
ever stood there to speak.  "The parliamentary speeches of
Kossuth," says an enemy, "were, even at that time, like
burning arrows, which he hurled into kindred minds, thereby
urging them to a fanatic enthusiasm."  "His oratory," says
the same writer, in another place, " was like a large battery
with heavy pieces of ordnance, whose discharge did the most
fearful execution. The poisonous sting of his interpolations,
his despotic power in the house, and his intrigues out of doors,
formed in themselves a power-so to say, an army —against
the stand-still policy of Metternich."  At another time the
young member is more graphically presented, by this historian,
22




254              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
as the orator "with the flaming tongue," who stood behind his
great friend, Louis Batthiany, "hurling his fiery projectiles"
at the heads of his quailing adversaries, and reveling in his
power to kill and make alive.  There can be no doubt, that,
at this period of his life, Kossuth was the most formidable
debater of modern times. There he stood, planted in the
very presence of his Austrian opponents, advocating the cause
of popular liberty for his country, meeting every objector that
ventured to rise up against him, and scathing and blasting all
unmanly opposition, with a resistless-,sweep of eloquence, which
rendered dumb whom it did not convince.  Such had been his
career during the first year of his incumbency. The Paris
revolution found him at his post.8
The news from France ran to Vienna with telegraphic speed.
On the 2d day of March, the naked announcement of a French
revolution reached Pressburg, where the Hungarian Diet was
in session, but the details were still to come. The next day,
before those details were known, Kossuth arose in his place
and pronounced the most memorable speech, though not the
most eloquent, of his life. Its sagacity, and its boldness, have
never been surpassed.  From  the first words of the introduction, it was manly, decisive and independent: "I am happy
and grateful," said the orator, " in seconding the motion of the
honorable member for Raab, although I am firmly convinced,
that the extraordinary features of the present time compel us
to take our leave of private bills. I second his motion, because I think it a fit opportunity to entreat you to be alive to
the enormous responsibility of the moment, and to raise the
policy of the parliament to a level with the times. The local
question in relation to the bank I will not now discuss. It is
true, Magyars, Austria has embarrassed us enough.  But this
is a secondary matter. What we ought to ask for is the budget
of the Hungarian receipts and expenditure, which have hitherto
8 Louis Kossuth and HIungary, pp. 98-102.




HUNOARY AND KOSSUTIT.                255
been mixed up with those of our neighbors. We ought to
ask for the constitutional administration of our finances. We
ought to ask for a separate and independent financial board for
Hungary; for, unless we have this, the foreign government,
which rules us without our advice, is likely to embarrass our
finances almost to hopelessness. In a recent speech, touching
the relations of Austria to this country, I expressed my conviction, that the constitutional future of our nation will not
be secure, till the king is surrounded by constitutional forms
in all the relations of his government. I expressed my conviction, that odur country was not sure of the reforms it desired
at home; that we could not be sure of the constitutional tendencies of those reforms, and of their results, so long as the
system of the monarchy, which has the same prince that we
have, remains in direct opposition to constitutionalism, and so
long as that privy council, which conducts the general administration of the monarchy, and which has an illegal and
powerful influence on the internal affairs of the country, remains anti-constitutional in its elements, its composition, and
its tendency.. I expressed my conviction, that, whenever our
interests conflict with the allied interests of the monarchy, the
differences thus created can be removed without danger to our
liberty and welfare only on the basis of a common constituency. I cast a sorrowful look on the origin and the development of the bureaucratical system  of Vienna.  I remind
you, that it reared the fabric of its marvelous power on the
ruins of the liberty of our neighbors; and, recounting the
consequences of this fatal mechanism, and perusing the Book
of Life, I prophesy it in the feeling of my truthful and faithful loyalty to the royal -house, that that man will be the second
founder of the House of Hapsburg, who will reform the system of government on a constitutional basis, and re-establish
the throne of his house on the liberty of his people."9
9 Louis Kossuth and Hungary, pp. 102-118.




256              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHI.
These -sentiments, which every Hungarian felt, but which
no other Hungarian had dared to utter, came upon the National Assembly like an electric shock. They constituted the
first open, positive, responsible utterance of a revolution. The
revolution was to be, not of one race against the other races,
as the enemies of the Hungarians have vainly said, but of all
the races, of all the nationalities, of all the integral portions
of the empire, rising up in behalf of a government, which
was to be at once liberal, constitutional and universal. The
words of Kossuth, carried by the wings of lightning to Vienna,
were adopted as the confession of faith of the Austrian patriots.  Two days afterwards, the particulars of the French
revolution, confirming entirely the first telegraphic announcement, were published at the Austrian capital, and read with
general enthusiasm  by a majority of the populace.  The
government, however, was apparently not alarmed. Some of
its officials, like Pulsky, a Hungarian nobleman, foresaw the
future and began at once to speak of it; but their admonitions
were derided, at least they were disregarded, by nearly all the
members of the imperial cabinet.~0
Kossuth's demand, however, for a constitutional government, which was to acknowledge the equality and independence of all the'nationalities, and unite them all in the formation of one great country, continued to resound all over the
Austrian empire. It was particularly accepted and seconded
at the royal university. Clearly seeing, that the work before
them was not to be entirely a bloodless work, the society of
the students organized a military company, styled the Legio
Academica, to which the citizens secretly furnished arms.
The cause of the revolutionists now went forward with accelerating speed. Every man's heart and mind seemed to be
enfranchized.  Every man began to feel and to think for himself. The tongue next resolved to speak without restraint.
~~ Pulsky's Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, vol. i. p. 108.




1UNGARY AND KOSSUTI.                  257
The press soon followed on, in the same spirit, and asserted
for itself the right of putting into general circulation what
had been freely uttered in the smaller but equally responsible
circles of private conversation.  Fetter after fetter was thus
broken, till, before the slightest alteration had been effected
in the laws of the land, statutory or fundamental, the people
had asserted and achieved a constitution, as real as if it had
been written with the point of a diamond, or recorded on a
plate of brass.
The Austrians, however, were not satisfied, because they
were not yet safe. They had claimed their rights as human
beings; but their claims had not been ratified by the still
existing though nearly nominal authority of the state. They
wished to secure the public assent of the emperor to the freedom thus obtained. Unless they could thus entrench themselves behind the forms of law, the imperial government might
afterwards restore its despotic power, and support the restoration by force of arms. The possibility of such a result, however, was immediately cut off for the current time. On the
13th of March, in less than two weeks after the first rumor
of the revolution at Paris had taken wind among them, the
Academic Legion, supported by a vast concourse of Viennese,
marched out of the city in a solid body to the imperial palace,
to echo the demand of Kossuth for a constitution, for a liberal
monarchy, for the immediate abolition of the irresponsible
monocracy. The imbecile and unmanly emperor, a much
weaker man than he was generally supposed to be, is reported
to have fled to an under-ground passage-way behind the royal
residence, which he and his cowardly predecessors are said to
have constructed for their personal security against popular
outbreaks, toward which they were conscious a despotic government is incessantly contributing. Nothing could induce the
feeble old monarch to leave his subterranean strong-hold. All
the assurances offered him, that no one wished to harm his
person, that a hair of his head should not be violated, that
22*




258             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTITH.
his royal sanction to certain political measures was the only
object of this visit, were not enough to recal him from his
place of burrowing. Like a frightened denizen of the ground,
he considered it the safer part not to return to the light of day,
until the game should be given up and the chase abandoned.
The chase, however, was not in sport. While the people
meditated no indignity to their absconded prince, they were
determined he should not thus evade them. No sooner was
their resolution known, than the king capitulated, surrendering
his power, but not his person, at discretion. Ile treated with
his subjects and granted them every thing they wanted.
From his unknown retreat, with the tramp of his people heavy
on the ground above him, he sent forth to them those selfhumiliating but glorious concessions, by which the liberty of
the press, the'publicity of law-courts, trial by jury, the instantaneous dismissal of prince Metternich, and the promise
of a representative and free constitution, according to the idea
before laid down by Kossuth, were secured, one after the other,
to the victorious patriots.  At the close of this eventful day,
in which Austria had been legitimately revolutionized and
emancipated without the shedding of one drop of blood, all
the citizens went home to tell their wives and children, that
the tyranny of the House of Hapsburg was no more to haunt
them. The centre and the south of Europe were that day
redeemed from bondage.
No man of modern history has been more generally or justly
celebrated, for the exact appreciation and improvement of his
time, than Louis Kossuth. His plan of a constitutional empire required, that each country, according to its historical
limits, should become an independent member of the imperial
confederation.  He asserted this doctrine for Hungary, with
a distinct emphasis, because she would thus be recovering what
actually belonged to her. She had been an independent and
sovereign country from the days of Arpad. She had never
resigned that independent sovereignty; and Austria, during




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.               259
the whole period of its domination, had been compelled to
make a theoretical acknowledgment, that Hungary was not
an Austrian province, but a separate kingdom.  This acknowledgment had been made in the most important particulars. Among the Magyars, the emperor of Austria was
never known as emperor, but as king.  His title was entirely
different in the different portions- of his dominions. The imperial Charles the Sixth of Austria, for example, was simply
the royal Charles the Third of Hungary. In the same way,
Ferdinand the Fifth, as the Austrians styled their recent monarch, was known as Ferdinand the First among his Hungarian subjects. The laws of Hungary have always recognised this necessary distinction. The governments of the two
countries, too, in the first years of their connection, were
entirely separate, each having its own cabinet of ministers.
All the officials of the Hungarian kingdom, the vice-royal
Palatine, the lords-lieutenant of the counties, and the judges
of the royal courts, were always regarded, not as the representatives of the House of Hapsburg, but of the House of
Almos, or of Arpad. Joseph the Second, so late as 1770, by
refusing to be crowned king of Hungary, though he was confessedly the emperor of Austria, was never acknowledged by
the Hungarians, but his name has been scrupulously denied a
place on their list of sovereigns. Leopold, his successor, be.
fore he was allowed to perform the first act of sovereignty,
was compelled to submit to the ordinary practice of being
crowned, and to take the customary coronation oath, by which
he bound himself to administer the laws of Hungary, as if he
were simply the monarch of that country, without another
foot of dominion in any other quarter of the globe.1
All -this, however, at the time now under notice, though
still constituting the theoretical government of the kingdom,
was practically null. It was merely a concession in form,, Leopold. Secund. Decret. Art. x. 1790.




260              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.
without the least actual validity. The emperor of Austria,
though he changed his title upon crossing the Hungarian
border, was the emperor still. The officers, judicial and executive, appointed to represent the king, really represented
the imperial will. The cabinet of native ministers, who, in
the first ages, had always resided at the Magyar capital, and
attended to Hungarian questions, had been reduced to a little
bureau of clerks, called a Chancery, which formed an attachment of the Austrian court at Shdnbrunn.  While the name
of independence was thus kept up, the substance had long
before passed away. Kossuth resolved that that substance
should now be restored. This, as he justly thought, should
be the first step toward the creation of a constitutional empire,
because, the moment that Hungary could recover her independence, more than one-half of that empire became subject
to a regular constitution. It would be the first step, also,
toward the instauration of liberty in the center and the south
of Europe, because the Magyar constitution was not only
liberal, but democratic. The course of such a man as Kossuth, under such circumstances, could not be doubtful. The
revolutions all around him were only the outward expressions
of the popular demand, for the restoration of rights once exercised, or for the realization of concessions often made. The
Austrians, too, had just obtained the promise of a general and
liberal constitution. The next thing, as Kossuth thought,
was for each element of the empire, for each distinct country,
to assert its own independence. In this way, when arranged
under one general constitution, they would form a confederation of united states, like that of our own free country. This
was Kossuth's original idea.  At all events, whatever might
be the doctrine or the destiny of the other provinces and
kingdoms, he was positive, that the period had come for the
HIungarians to claim and recover their own separate integrity,
which had been so long and so violently withheld from them.
The claim was made. Like the other, it came from the lips




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               261
of Kossuth. ]By the first rumor of the revolution at Vienna,
he was startled from his seat in the Hungarian diet. With a
promptness, a sagacity, a courage, an eloquence, scarcely ever
found united in the same person, he arose before the assembled
legislators, when all others sat confounded, and openly proposed
to send a deputation of their body to the emperor, demanding
the immediate dissolution of the Hungarian Chancery, and the
restoration of the original and constitutional cabinet, which
should at once take its place in the legislative assembly of the
nation. With a manner equal to the dignity of the occasion,
and with tones of almost superhuman eloquence, pointing to
the ministerial seats so long left vacant, he exclaimed: —" For
six hundred years, Magyars, we formed a constitutional state.
We will, therefore, that, from this moment, ministers again sit
upon these benches, to hear and answer our questions. From
this day forth, Magyars, we wish to have a Hungarian
ministry!"
The speaker sat down. A short period of the most perfect
silence followed. It was a sublime moment. A nation was
considering whether it would assert, or yield up, its existence.
It was Hungary in the act of deciding, whether it would continue as the virtual province of a foreign power, or again be
itself a country. The struggle of thought was not protracted.
The words of the eloquent statesman had gone to the hearts
of his noble auditors. The call, suddenly as it had fallen
upon the diet, was almost unanimously supported. A committee was at once raised, with the originator of the movement at its head, which was to repair at once to the residence
of the emperor, and ask for the creation of a new cabinet of
ministers, composed of native and resident Hungarians, whose
sole business should be to attend to Hungarian affairs. Kossuth, with his deputation, reached'Vienna on the 15th of
March, where his voice was decidedly more powerful than that
of Ferdinand. The poor young man, who had made his own
fortunes, and who had just been the victim of the imperial




262              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
government, had become more mighty than that government.
Wherever he appeared, his footsteps were followed by vast
throngs of Viennese, who covered him with the glory of their
eulogies.l1
Personal glory, however, was not the aim  of Kossuth.
Proceeding directly to the palace, and avoiding as much as
possible all ostentation, he met the ministry of the trembling
monarch, and the monarch himself, face to face. Ferdinand
must have remembered the prisoner of Buda. It would have
been an enviable sight, could the walls of the royal residence
have been rendered transparent for the moment, to have beheld the majestic bearing of the Hungarian patriot, in the
presence of his abashed king, and heard him giving utterance
to his country's high determination, in that magnificent and
overpowering eloquence so peculiar to himself. Though the
scene of that great hour is left to some future poet or painter,
who shall be found worthy of the task, the results of the
strange interview have been given to the world. The king
yielded at every point.  Count Louis Batthianyi received the
royal command for the immediate formation of the proposed
cabinet. That cabinet was created almost upon the spot. It
was composed of men whom Hungary will have reason to remember to her latest day: Louis Batthi'anyi was PrimeMIinister; Louis Kossuth was Minister of Finance, the most
responsible position in the government; Bertalan Szemere was
Minister of Home Affairs; Francis Deak, of Justice; General
Lazar Meszaros, of War; Gabor Klauzal, of Trade; Count
12 Baron Pillersdorf, late Austrian Prime-Minister, and now the
apologist of the emperor, is forced to acknowledge the popularity
of the delegation: "In this conflict, in which every spring was put
in motion, in order to weaken and exhaust the vital powers of the
empire, inflicting, at the same time, the deepest wounds on the commerce and industry of the capital, the majority of the people inclined
toward the Hzungarian leaders." Political Movement in Austria, by
Baron Pillersdorf, London, 1850, p. 55.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 263
Stephen Szechenyi, of Public Works; Baron Joseph Eotv6s,
of Public Instruction; and prince Paul Esterhazy was appointed,to be a sort- of Mediator between the Austrian emperor
and the Hungarian king! The style of his office was that of
Minister of Foreign Affairs, as if Hungary, in her future
dealings with the House of Hapsburg, in its imperial character, had already resolved to treat it as the head of a foreign
government!
The revolution of Hungary was now practically complete.
The constitution of St. Stephen was restored. The patriots,
after giving their blessing to their democratic brethren of
Vienna, returned in high spirits to their expectant country;
and that country, from the walls of Pressburg to the turrets
of Belgrade, applauded the noble and successful daring of the
diet, and particularly the foresight, the courage, the energy,
the persevering and triumphant patriotism of its leading man.
By his personal sacrifices at home, and by the magic of his
name'abroad, he had begun and completed the revolution of
the empire, including both Austria and Hungary, within the
compass of just twelve days, and that without the expenditure
of the first drop of blood. Well might the name of Kossuth,
from that glorious moment, be echoed and re-echoed over
many lands!
The success of the great Hungarian was not lost on, the
patriots of the imperial metropolis. The emperor, it is true,
had pledged his word to them in favor of the measures, which
they had pressed upon his attention on the 13th of March.
But the sight of the Magyars, if not the advice-of Kossuth,
reminded them that no confidence could be placed in the royal
word.  The history of the imperial house was a sufficient
justification of this distrust; and -Ferdinand, in particular,
was evidently too weak, too craven, to be firm., The revolutionists demanded a written document, signed by the imperial
hand, publicly confirming what had been only privately granted
in an hour of dread. On the 16th of March, with the readi



264             HUNGARY AND KOSSIUTH.
est compliance, Ferdinand proclaimed a constitution, which,
after a full acknowledgment and satisfactory sanction of all
his verbal concessions, gave authority to the citizens, not only
to provide themselves with arms, but to organize a national
guard, whose duty should be to maintain a just execution of
the laws. The army, so long the bulwark of Austrian despotism, was now more than counter-balanced by the imperial
grant. The people, in a word, had won the day. Their will,
for ages stifled, was not only perfectly enfranchised, but armed
with the decisive authority of the sword. The revolution was
legally confirmed; and, on that evening, till a late hour at
night, every house in the Austrian capital blazed with a sudden illumination, excepting only the palace of the twice-fallen
king. This was shrouded with perpetual darkness, as if emblematic of the fact, that the glory of royalty had departed
from its halls, and found a more fit resting-place in the habitations of the people.
Until the 21st of March, though Metternich and his ministry had been dismissed, a ministerial interregnum occurred, on
which day count Ficquelmont was placed at the head of the
first reform cabinet. All his associates, excepting only general
Zanini, Minister of War, were noblemen, so ready were the
people to leave to the monarch the enjoyment of every nonessential gratification, if he would only allow them the benefit
of wholesome laws and a liberal constitution.  Although the
new charter was not universally satisfactory, with a due amount
of caution, and with a wise condescension to the wishes of the
better classes, the government might have proceeded, without
farther revolution, to a gradual and final settlement of the
state. ]But the new ministry seemed bent on their own destruction. In direct contradiction to the octroyed constitution,
and in open violation of the public faith, they published, on
the 21st of March, their famous Regulations of the Press,
denying to the citizens the free use of the pen, when they
had wrenched from the fallen monarchy the authority of the




HUN'GARY AND KOSSUTH.                265
sword. The public had conquered the right of doing what
they pleased; but they could give no full and free account of
their own proceedings, not even to themselves. Such a contradiction could not last long.  The citizens again rose; the
government again yielded.; and the first reform ministry, with
the exception of a single member, were hurried into private life.
The second cabinet, with baron Pillersdorf as President and
Minister of the Interior, had no sooner taken its position, than
another error, more flagrant than any of its predecessors, shook
every corner of the realm. In the octroyed or imperial constitution, the immediate convocation of a Constituent Assembly
had been promised.  This body was to be authorized, by the
joint consent of the people and of the government, to prepare
a new and more perfect constitution. The best policy of the
ministers, therefore, evidently was, to call that assembly into
existence as soon as possible, that the excited populace might
have occasion to take their eyes from the king and his cabinet,
and throw the responsibility of meeting the emergency upon
a body to be created by themselves. Thus, several months
of quiet would have been easily secured, during which the
passions of the masses would have had time to cool. But
wisdom had departed from the imperial halls. The Constituent Assembly was deferred by every petty pretext within the
reach of ministerial ingenuity and power.  The President of
the ministry, in the mean time, was daily closeted with the
political theorist and speculator, Hok, drawing up a second
constitution, which was to be foisted upon the country before
the assembly should be convened.  On the 25th of April, this
cabinet document, which was merely an expansion of the wellknown Belgic Fundamental Laws, was published to the world.
All classes of the citizens were astonished. The patriots felt
themselves insulted.  The National Guard arose in arms.
The Academic Legion, always first in the cause of liberty,
tore up every copy of it, on which they could lay their hands,
and scattered the flying fragments to the windsq
2,3




263              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
The folly of the government was still unable, or unwilling,
to receive instruction from these facts. By a third movement,
it perfected the annihilation of its credit with the people,
whom it professed to serve. The National Guard was now
fully organized; and, in its transactions with the throne, it
was represented by a Committee of Public Safety, elected from
its own body by itself. This Committee, necessarily large to
give it proper weight, was too unwieldy to meet the daily
emergencies of the public with suitable dispatch. Out of this
larger body, therefore, a smaller one was chosen, styled the
Central Club, whose duty it was to attend to sudden wants.
The Club held daily sessions, in which the conduct of the
ministers, and the condition of the country, were discussed.
As the cabinet sank lower and lower in the confidence of the
public, this small delegation of the most able and prudent
citizens was compelled to accept of more important duties,
until they became the virtual rulers of the state. The pride
of the ministry was now piqued. They resolved to put this
new power out of their path.  The mode of executing their
resolution was very blundering. In the first place, Baron Pillersdorf called on several members of the Committee of Public
Safety, and inquired into the transactions of the Club. These
gentlemen could very truly say, that they knew little of what
the Club was doing, as the larger body was not called together,
whenever the smaller one could meet the exigencies that arose.
The President of the ministry, therefore, very rashly and
foolishly concluded, that the Club was an unauthorized body,
because some members of the parent Committee were not conversant with its acts.  An edict of abolition next thundered
from the imperial press., Vanity of vanities! Little did the
people care, at this time, what edicts, or interdicts, issued from
the palace of a cowardly, obsolete and imbecile king. The
very next morning after the publication of this decree, the
Academic Legion, supported by a large escort of the Civic
Guards, and followed by crowds of the enraged populace,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIL.              267
marched out of the city to the pleasure-palace of Schdnbrunn,
filled all the courts and corridors with armed men, and clamorously demanded the withdrawal of the interdict upon the Club.
The ministers refused. The agitation thus excited no language
can describe. The citizen-soldiers surrounded the royal residence with a wall of arms. A deputation was sent in to make
the requisition, in behalf of Austria, not only of an instantaneous recantation of the hated interdict, but for the revocation of the April constitution, the immediate calling of the
Constituent Assembly, and a considerable expansion of the
new law of suffrage, by which the elections were to be governed.  "In this dilemma," says Pillersdorf, speaking for
himself, "conscious of having lost the confidence of the people,
the ministry, it order to preserve the inviolable prerogative of
the throne-[that is, to save the king from making the concessions asked for by an outraged people]-tendered their
resignation, and thus transmitted to their successors the decision of the pending demands!" Cured, at last, of their mad.
ness, by the sure results of their impotent attempts at despotic
domination, when the people had become the ruling power,
they were unwilling to meet the storm raised by their own
agency, and, therefore, resigned. Two days afterwards, on
the 17th of May, the poor old emperor, fearing that his subterranean burrowing-place might not now protect him, without
giving the slightest notice of his intentions to his ministers,,whose resignation he had refused, fled from Vienna to Inn-.spruck, the chief city of the Tyrol, leaving his cabinet and
his capital to their fate.
The work of revolution was now done. The old monarchy
had passed away. The citizens had caught the robe of empire
as it fell. The Club, and the Committee of Safety, now took
command. Ferdinand was not only gone; but he might not
be able to come back. Hid among the mountains of the
Tyrol, which nature has made almost inaccessible to troops,
he looked out upon the agitated world, and was glad, amid the




268              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
universal wreck of monarchy and of monarchs, that he could
call his own life his own. Wherever he turned his eye, he
saw nothing but the signs of annihilation to his house.  Not
only was his great capital in arms against him, but, also,
nearly every department of his widely-extended  empire.
Hungary had led the way.  Bohemia had risen for a nationality of her own. The Croatians and Sclavonians, whom he
had excited to rise in rebellion against the Magyars, had given
him much reason to doubt, whether they would ultimately
join with their brethren of Bohemia, or with him.  His
Italian provinces, prepared by thirty-three years of gross oppression, had raised the standard of independence, and defeated all his armies in the bloodiest of fields.  The Tyrol
itself, to which he had confided both his fortunes and his life,
might catch the sparks of the Italian conflagration, through
the passes or over the summits of the Julian Alps, and surround his last retreat with the flames of a devouring fire.
If he looked to foreign countries, he could see no hope of
succor, but a similar ruin prostrating or threatening the monarchies of the European world.  All Prussia was, by this
time, rocking with the heaviest throes of her revolution.
The smaller kingdoms and principalities of Germany had
hurled their petty tyrants from their positions. There was
no longer a king in France.  Norway, Sweden and Denmark
were supposed to be on the brink of a civil outbreak.  Ireland
had demanded an instantaneous repeal of her union with Great
Britain.  Great Britain, which, in the beginning of this universal trouble, had dispatched Sir Stratford Canning to carry
her consolations to her Austrian confederate, was now pale
with the impending horrors of a united Chartist and Hibernian
rebellion. Rumors of a republic had come from the capital
of the Russias, promising to give the Czar so much occupation, that he would not be able to lend a helping hand to his
Austrian cousin. The people of the Roman States had nearly
achieved a liberal constitution.  Sicily had declared her inde



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                   969
pendence of the Bourbon sovereignty of Naples.  Naples was
trembling at the voice of an outraged population; and even
the'valiant queen of Spain, the invincible Christina, on hearing of all this trouble, had sunk in a swoon in the midst of
her warlike attendants. The fearful old emperor of Austria,
concealed among the impregnable crags on the south-western
border of his dominions, beheld nothing, in the day of his
own humiliation, but the rubbish of prostrate thrones, and the
upraised banners of popular revolution, all around him!
NOTE.-It is with pain that I have stated the conduct of Great
Britain in relation to the Hungarian movement; but. the statement
is made on authority, which cannot be disputed:" The English go
vernment," says Baron Pillersdorf, in the work heretofore quoted,
"during the ominous period of Austria's embarrassment and distress, never withheld warm manifestations of sympathy, and assurances
of its spontaneous support!" Political Movement, p. 40. The people
of England were the friends of Hungary. The government was the
ally of her oppressor. After the war was over, the government was
compelled, by the voice of the people, to show its sympathy for the
Hungarian refugees; but, soon afterwards, Lord Lyndhurst and
Earl Graham proposed the reinaction of the infamous alien act,
that the freedom granted to these champions of civil liberty might
be suppressed! Pillersdorf is a competent witness; for he was all
the time a minister, and part of the time prime-minister, at the
period to which he refers; and the proposition of the two British
lords is reported among the published proceedings of the upper
house of parliament for the 28th of March, 1851. Proh pudor!
Such is my respect toward England, that it is mortifying to be
obliged to record such a fact!
23*




270             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
CHAPTER  X.
THE REBELLION OF THE SCLAVES.
ACCORDING to the laws and customs of the kingdom, the
new ministry, which the Hungarians had at last obtained from
Austria, could not go into actual service, until the close of the
existing Diet. The Palatine, therefore, who had been clothed
with regal authority in the absence of the monarch, appointed
a Provisional Commission, to which he gave civil and military power, to conduct the administration of the government,
till the ministers could be qualified in due form. This Commission consisted of four gentlemen-Gabriel Klauzal, Bertalan Szemere, Francis Pulsky, and Paul NyiAry —whose names
have since become familiar in other lands.1
Kossuth and his colleagues, in the mean time, returned to
their places in the National Assembly; and, in connection
with the patriotic party, they resumed the task of redeeming
their country from the condition to which the oppression of
three centuries had sunk it. As they had not, in consequence
of the disturbances of the world around them, raised their
demands on Austria, so, when their long-standing requests
had been granted, they took no advantage whatever of their
new position, but went directly forward to carry out those
measures, and those measures only, which had ever been the
object of their patriotic efforts.
In 1832, but more distinctly in 1847, when Kossuth became a candidate for election to the lower House, they had
published a programme of their principles to the nation.
Touching their relations to Austria, they emphatically de1 Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, vol. i. p. 112.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                271
clared, that they asked nothing new. All they wanted, they
said, was what every Austrian king of Hungary had sworn
to, with a single exception, since the two countries had been
united. They wished simply, that the constitution should remain as it had been for more than eight hundred years; that
the independence and integrity of the kingdom should be
maintained; and that the king should administer the laws, not
through foreigners, but by the hands of native Hungarians,
who could be made to feel their responsibility to the people
over whom they ruled.
Such were the international politics of this party. Their
internal, or national, policy was equally liberal and patriotic.
They set down that policy in a series of brief but explicit
propositions:
1. That all the peasants of the kingdom, whatever might
be their religion or their race, should be at once emancipated
from all urbarial dues and obligations to their landlords, for
which the landlords were to receive a just indemnification from
the state.
2. That, without exception of religion or of race, all the
inhabitants of the country, noble and non-noble, should be
declared equal before the law.
3. That every-inhabitant, whose income amounted to ten
pounds a year, which would include all persons not vagabonds
or state-paupers, should be clothed with the elective franchise,
and thus help make the laws under which they lived.
4. That every inhabitant, who should have this elective
franchise, should bear his equal proportion of the expenses
of the government, by being taxed according to the value of
his income...
5. That the National Assembly, and not the Hungarian
Chancery at Vienna, should decide on the employment of the
public revenue.
6. That the revenue, and other national interests, should
be put into the hands of a cabinet of native minisL-rs, who




272              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
should be responsible, not to Austria, but to Hungary, the
country to which those interests pertained.
7. That the right of heirs to recover property once sold, by
what was called aviticite, which was the Hungarian law of
entail, should be abolished, thus securing the business and
internal credit of the country against the great land-holders,
who, under the old laws, could prevent their estates from
passing out of their families, whatever might be their liabilities, or however fairly they might have once parted with their
possessions in payment of their debts.2
Such, indeed, had been the politics of the patriotic party,
from  1832 to 1847; and the intervening period had been
spent in preparing the nation to receive them. These were
the doctrines preached by the blind old Wesselenyi in his
ceaseless pilgrimages.  These were the doctrines which Kossuth had published and defended in the Pesti Hirlap. These
were the principles which the two leaders of the Hungarian
patriots had breathed into the breasts of a majority of their
countrymen.  On these the newly-appointed ministers, while
still holding their places in the National Assembly, again
planted their feet, resolving to see them enacted into laws,
before they should be obliged to leave the halls of legislation
to accept of their respective positions in the cabinet.
Though, as has just been asserted, a majority of the nation
was clearly on the side of these democratic measures, they
met with some opposition in the Diet. Besides the patriots,
there were two other parties in that body, as well as in the
kingdom. The magnates, headed by Count Stephen Szechenyi,
with all their patriotism, were excessively conservative, wishing to keep all things exactly as they were, and decidedly unwilling to declare for a ministerial separation from Austria, as
well as still more decidedly opposed to the internal policy of
2 Blackwood's Magazine, vol. lxv. p. 628, as well as all the leading
political periodicals of America and Europe for 1848-1849.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               273
the patriots. There was, also, a radical party, in the lead of
which was the powerful and accomplished Baron Edtv's, who
was imbued with the leveling doctrines of the French Socialists.  They regarded their country as a tabula rasa-a newborn country-whose future was to be made, not from the
precedents and institutions of the past, but from the ideas and
aspirations of the present. The patriots, on the other hand,
under the guidance of Louis Kossuth, seeing that things as
they were, at that moment, were only the perversion of things
as they had once been, resolved to recover what was lost, and
so build up the future, according to present light, on the tried
and venerated foundations of the past. The struggle between
these parties, at the time now under consideration, was very
brief. The eloquence of Kossuth carried every thing before
him. Not only the Conservatives, but the Radicals, yielded
to his logic, and declared themselves convinced.  Since the
lays of Demosthenes, there has probably not been such a triumph. Every one of his measures, international and national,
was sustained in both branches of the Diet.  " By unanimous
votes of both houses, the diet not only established perfect
equality of civil rights and public burdens among all classes,
denominations and races in Hungary and its provinces, and
perfect toleration for every form of religious worship, but,
with a generosity perhaps unparalleled in the history of nations, and which must extort the admiration even of those,
who may question the wisdom of the measure, the nobles of
Hungary abolished their own right to exact either labor or
produce in return for the lands held by'urbarial tenure, and
thus transferred to the peasants the absolute ownership, free
and forever, of nearly half the cultivated land in the kingdom,
reserving to the original proprietors of the soil such compensation as the government might award from the public funds
of Hungary. More than five hundred thousand peasant families were thus invested with the absolute ownership of from
thirty to sixty acres of land each, or about twenty millions




274               HUNGARY ANh KOSSUTH.
of acres amongst them. The elective franchise was extended
to every man possessed of capital or property of the value of
thirty pounds, or an annual income of ten pounds; to every
man who had received a diploma from a university; and to
every artizan who employed an apprentice. With the concurrence of both countries, Hungary and Transylvania were
united, and their diets, hitherto separate, were incorporated."3
It was enacted, also, that all real estate should be held responsible for its owner's debts; that the whole tithing system,
by which the poor had been so long oppressed, should exist
no longer; that the nobles, though they had thus generously
given away nearly half of all their possessions, should pay
taxes to the government, according to what remained to them
after this gift was made; that the Jewish and all other foreign
inhabitants should no longer be subject to special legislation,
but hold the rank and enjoy the rights of other citizens; and
that eight millions of the public money should be at once expended in making such internal improvements as the condition
of the whole country at that time required.
8 Blackwood's Magazine, vol. lxv. p. 629. Blackwood, whose political articles are written chiefly by Mr. Alison, would be regarded
as the best of authority on such a question, whatever might be the
circumstances under which its testimony should be given; no journal
in the world is more careful, or more laborious, in collecting and
collating the facts on which its opinions are founded; but, in this
instance, it declares itself to have been in possession of the laws
themselves, translated from the Hungarian, as they passed the Diet
of the nation. Blackwood, however, is not alone in this particular.
Nearly all the other great journals of Europe and America have
made the same statements on the same authority; but I have thought
it best to quote the words of Blackwood, because, in addition to its
high character, its politics give its declarations a peculiar weight in
the Hungarian question. No one can accuse it of leaning too far
toward the popular movements of any country; and, at the very
time, when these concessions were made to Hungary, it was pouring
out its indignation on the general revolutionary spirit of Europe in
a series of most able and effective articles.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               275
It ought to be particularly remarked, that these blessings
were not restricted to any district, or to any nationality, of the
Magyar kingdom, but were freely given to all its inhabitants
of every race, sect and section. They were given, too, without requiring any-thing to be yielded on the part of any of
the nationalities. All the nationalities remained exactly as
they had been. At their capital of Agram, the Sclavic representatives of Sclavonia and Croatia were to continue to assemble, and to transact their provincial business according to
their old customs. They were still to be represented in the
National Assembly by their own delegates; and these, only
three in number before this period, were not only increased to
eighteen, by the magnanimity of this most magnanimous of
all nations, but clothed with powers never enjoyed by them
since their connection with the kingdom.4
On the eleventh day of April, after the National Assembly
had closed its session, all the new enactments of the kingdom
were laid before his majesty, king Ferdinand. To make them
laws, they required his royal signature. That signature was
promptly and emphatically given: "Having graciously listened
to, and graciously granted the prayers of, our beloved and
faithful dignitaries of the church and of the state, magnates
and nobles of Hungary and its dependencies, we ordain, that
the before-mentioned laws be registered in these presents, word
for word; and, as we consider these laws and their entire contents, both separately and collectively, fitting and suitable, we
give them our consent and approbation. In exercise of our
royal will, we have accepted, adopted, approved and sanctioned
them, assuring, at the same time, our faithful states, that we
will respect the said laws, and cause them to be respected by
our faithful subjects." Such were the words of Ferdinand,
signed by his own hand, and countersigned by Batthidnyi,
the Hungarian Prime-Minister just appointed by himself, in
Blackwood's Magazine, vol. lxv. p. 629.




276             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
the presence of the arch-dukes Francis Charles, Stephen,
Francis Joseph, the present emperor, and of the Hungarian
deputation, on the eleventh day of April, 1848. The work
was now done. Kossuth had carried out the patriotic measures of his party; and that party, now including nearly every
inhabitant of the kingdom, could hardly find words by which
to celebrate the glory of their great leader.
Never, perhaps, in the progress of sixty centuries, was there
ever so disinterested a step taken by any nation. The Magyars, the dominant people of a country, at a time when they
could have increased instead of relinquishing their hold upon
their tenants and subject-tribes, gave them all their freedom,
gave them a perfect equality with themselves, and gave them
about half of their own possessions in order to render them,
not only free, but independent.  Well might the nation, the
whole nation, rejoice over such a consummation. The nation
did rejoice, the whole of it, from Belgrade to Pressburg.
There was a perfect jubilee throughout the kingdom. All
the religions, all the tribes, rejoiced together. The Magyars
rejoiced, as all benefactors do, because they had done such an
act, and filled so many bosoms with such an unexpected happiness. The other tribes rejoiced, Sclaves, Germans, Jews
and Gipsies, as men always do, when they receive great and
unlooked-for blessings. It was, undoubtedly, a real satisfaction to these tribes, who had always entertained so unworthy
opinions of the Magyars, to be now compelled to do them
justice.  " Is it possible," said the Sclavonian, the Sclavack,
the Croat, the Serb, " that we have so long misunderstood the
character, and misrepresented the intentions, of our Magyar
countrymen? Let us repay them for the wrong with interest i"
The rich and the poor had their mutual congratulations and
rejoicings. The landlord went home to his tenants, and told
them that they were no longer slaves; that they were his
equals; and that, to make their equality worth something to
them, the land they then cultivated was no longer his, but




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                277
theirs, which they could own, occupy, and then transmit to
their descendants. The peasants, on hearing this strange
news, leaped for joy, and, in a transport of gratitude, kissed
the hands and necks of their former masters. There was joy
in Hungary; and the Magyars, who had before reigned as the
superior race, in mental and military qualities, -now reigned in
the hearts of their countrymen by virtue of a moral superiority.
The individual Magyar, wherever he appeared, was sure to
hear his praise from the lips of all the other peoples; and the
Sclaves of the south of Hungary, in particular, sent a numerous delegation of their tribe to thank the Magyar nation for
its unbounded and unparalleled magnanimity. Such had Hungary become under the legislative management of Kossuth.
No sooner, however, were these things done, while the acclamations of the people were still echoing from the Drave to
the Carpathians, than the old and wicked policy of Austria
was again set in motion.  Metternich, as has been shown, had
kept the empire in subjection to the imperial despot, by rousing the mutual jealousies of the races, thus rendering it impossible for them to unite against their common tyrant. The
same instrument of distraction was again employed. Amidst
all the commotion of the Austrian revolution, in which Bohemia and Italy had heartily united, while the citizens were
revolutionary and democratic, the soldiers had generally remained conservative and monarchical. The army, therefore,
served as the basis for the re-establishment of the old policy;
and a great part of the Austrian standing forces were the
soldier-citizens of the Military District, lying along the entire
south of Hungary, peopled by the Sclavonians, Croats, Serbs
and Wallachians, whose ignorance is unbounded, and whose
national prejudices are the most easily excited. The Sclavic
delegation, who had expressed the gratitude of the Sclavic
tribes to their Magyar benefactors, had scarcely returned to
their places of residence, when the emissaries of the Austrian
party began to swarm through Sclavonia and Croatia, busily
24




278-            HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
engaged, like so many fiends from the world of darkness, in
reviving the dissensions of the races. "Do not be deceived,"
they said, "with these fair pretences. The Magyars are your
old enemies. They conquered you in battle. They look upon
you as a subject people. This great act, which you now
blindly celebrate, is nothing but a trick against you. It is
the beginning of a work of centralization, by which they intend to unite all the races of Hungary, it is true, but only for
their own advantage. They wish you to give up your nationality, to forget it altogether, that they may the more easily
establish their own. They intend to blot you from existence.
If you want proof of this, whatever they have done in other
respects, you have the evidence in their decrees about your
language. Your mother tongue has been abolished. You are
all of you compelled to become lMagyars, by forgetting the
dialect of your fathers, and learning and employing the speech
of your so-called benefactors. Singular benefactors! They
wish to effect your annihilation; and you, Croats, Sclavonians,
Serbs, are so blind as to be led willingly and even thankfully
to the sacrifice i"
Such were the wily falsehoods scattered all over the southern provinces by the party of the imperial court. That very
man, who had just "accepted, adopted, approved and sanctioned" the late laws, pronouncing them "fitting and suitable,"
and promising to respect them himself and to "cause them to
be respected," was now secretly engaged in crushing those
laws by the most malicious, dangerous, and wicked of all
methods. The only truth, on which all these aggravating
complaints were founded, was a former law respecting the use
of the Hungarian language; and, to make that of any service
in the hands of the imperial agitators, its true character had
to be misrepresented. The tribes of the south had not been
forbidden to use their vernacular tongue. They were expressly
allowed and encouraged to use it. Not only in their schools
and families, and in all business transactions, but in their pro



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                279
vincial legislature, the Sclavic was to be the legal language.
It was to be the medium of their private legislation. The
laws of the National Assembly, also, when published within
their borders, were always to be accompanied by a Sclavic
translation for their. special benefit. The only restriction was,
that, in a court of justice, or when used in a judicial manner,
the Hungarian original of the laws should be the legal standard of their meaning. This legal authority had to be conferred upon the original, or upon the translation, as there could
not be two standards; and whether-the original, or a copy, of
any public or private document, is best entitled to this preeminence, can never be made a question.
Another old regulation, however, respecting the legal language, was prominently set forth on this occasion. In 1832
a law had been enacted, making the Hungarian -the only language to be employed in the future sessions of the National
Assembly. Before that time, the Diet had been a babel, where
Latin, German, Sclavic and Magyar were mingled with the
most embarrassing confusion. The speeches, it is true, had
been generally delivered in the Latin, or in German.  The
one was a dead language. The other was the language of another nation.  The Diet of 1832 resolved to correct this
anomaly.  In doing so, could the Magyars be expected to
choose, as the language' of their own legislature, one of the
dialects of their- Sclavic countrymen?  The Magyar was
spoken by twice as many people as used either of those other
dialects; for, it must be remembered, that the Sclavacks of
the north, the Serbs of the east, and the Sclavonians and
Croats of the south of Hungary, speak their respectivepatois,
which differ essentially from each other. The Magyar language, therefore, was judiciously and justly established as the
legal and legislative language of the Magyar nation.  But the
agents of Austria fastened upon this provision as another text
from which to preach dissension. Their success was the first
source of a fierce and bloody insurrection.




280             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
The Serbs, so lately full of gratitude to the Hungarians,
and ever before the allies of the patriotic party in the National
Assembly, were thus separated from their Magyar protectors.
They began to manifest unpleasant feelings about the first
days of June. By the middle of the month, they had assembled in great numbers, at the call of their archbishop,
Rajachich, at their capital of Karlowicz, at Perl'sz, and at
several other towns. The seat of the excitement was in the
Banat, where the Austrian emperor held large landed possessions, and where his personal influence was consequently great.
From the Banat, it spread into the Bacs county, and into the
eastern parts of Sclavonia. The archbishop assembled the
leading members of the Servian aristocracy at Karlowicz,
whom he formed into what he called the Central Committee
of the Servian Nation, which undertook to manage the tempest raised between the Serbs and Magyars. They drew up a
paper, entitled the Demands of the Servian People, which
they forwarded to Pesth by an angry delegation. The Hungarians, and particularly the patriotic party, were overwhelmed
with astonishment.  They might easily have crushed this
budding rebellion; but they soon perceived the origin of these
new feelings. They saw that a common enemy had been sowing discord. They pitied, much more than they blamed, their
Servian countrymen. They hoped that a little delay, giving
time for mutual intercourse and explanations, would open the
eyes and cool the passions of the Serbs. They were mistaken.
There were influences at work of which they little dreamed.
The Serbs went forward with their unnatural hostilities to their
friends. Joined by bands of Servian Turks, they rose in all
their villages upon their Magyar fellow-citizens, rushed into
the neighboring Magyar country, burnt the Magyar towns,
massacred the Magyar inhabitants, and committed such cruelties as had not been seen in Hungary for many generations.
As they advanced in their horrid work, their barbarities became more and more atrocious. Old men, tottering with age,




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 281
were murdered in cold blood.  Matrons, while quietly engaged
in their domestic duties, were cut down by the side of their
infant children. Children, snatched from their little beds,
where they were softly sleeping, were dashed to pieces and
thrown in piles upon the dead bodies of their parents. Pregnant women were ripped open with the Turkish knife; and
the unripe fruit of their wombs were trampled beneath the
coarse feet of the brutal murderers..-The wife and daughters
of thousands of families, after being compelled to receive the
revolting embraces of a whole company of savages, were hacked
and mangled by the swords of the soldiers, then cast upon the
heap of their immolated kindred.  Not only the villages, but
the fields and flocks of the unprepared and unresisting inhabitants, were destroyed by these infatuated rebels.  The
voice of lamentation was spread over many districts. A eold
shudder convulsed the Magyar nation.
While these scenes were being enacted in the east, the
southern portion of the kingdom was undergoing a change,
and putting itself into a hostile attitude. The Sclaves of
Croatia and Sclavonia had always been, as before stated, the
dupes of Metternich.  He had made them his special instruments, for a whole generation, against the dreaded consolida.
tion of the kingdom; and the thousand suspicions of Magyai
superiority, which he had lodged in their bosoms, still remained there, after all that the Hungarians had done to disabuse them. In a period of general distraction, when the
most liberal and enlightened scarcely knew their interest, or
their duty, these people, so long corrupted and misled, were
ready to be an easy prey to some artful and ambitious leader.
Such a leader was now among them. The Baron Joseph
Jellachich, the personage referred to, a Croatian by birth, had
been the colonel of a Croat regiment in the army of Italy.
Possessed by nature of an honest-looking face, and remarkable
for the dignity of his deportment and the insinuating style of
his address, he had been chosen by the friends of the fallen
24*




28.2            HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
monarchy as a fit person to raise disturbances in the south of
Hungary to the injury of the emancipated nation. The emperor, at the advice of the Austrian party at home, who were
in constant communication with their countrymen in Italy,
appointed the colonel to be Ban, or Lord, of his native land.
This office gave him supreme command within the limits of
his province. His first act was to forbid the magistrates of
Croatia from having any intercourse with the Hungarian
ministry, saying, that his countrymen ought to resist the new
state of things in Hungary; that, as soon as they should become fully aware of the intentions of the Magyars, there
would be resistance; and that an open revolt would be, nay
was then, encouraged by the king. This doctrine he circulated, by letters and by personal conversation, all over Croatia
and Sclavonia. The people began to believe what he said.
But there were other things, which the Ban now openly
avowed, but which he had not been employed to say. Though
acting ostensibly with the imperial party, who were doing
every thing in their power to bring on a reaction in favor of
the old monarchy, he was secretly working in concert with the
Bohemian rebellion, the object of which was to set up a Sclavic
government in that ancient and once independent kingdom.
While the cause of the Bohemians was in its most promising
condition, they had proclaimed to the world their intention of
reorganizing the empire, so soon as they should become vic.
torious, on a Sclavic basis; and they had sent forth a warm
invitation to all the Sclaves of Southern Europe, to all of their
tribe, indeed, not included in the Russian empire, to join in
one grand and universal movement for the establishment of a
Sclavic nationality and independence. This was one of the
influences, which had acted so powerfully upon the Serbs, and
which the Hungarians at first did not fully understand. The
Serbs had not blindly lifted up the banner of the universal
Selavic nationality. Jellachich, from the beginning of their
rebellion, had privately encouraged them to proceed. He




HUNGARY AND;KOSSUTH. I28
wished to prove, at their expense, at least by their instrumentality, whether the Sclavic mind was ready for the great
work proposed. His own course was to be shaped by the result. In a letter dated the 4th of June, and addressed to the
frontier regiments stationed in Italy, he declared, that the imperial family, though he does not mention the emperor by
name, encouraged the Servian revolt. The Serbs themselves
professed to be fighting the battles of their king.
The Hungarian ministers, before the insurrection of the
Serbs broke out, had been watching the movements of the
Ban. They were fully aware of his ambition, &f his duplicity,
and of his real leanings, whatever might be his present bearing toward the imperial cause. They knew him to be, in
heart and in life, a Sclave. They knew him to be, at that
time, as at all timers, opposed to the German as well as to the.Hungarian party. They knew that, should he ever see his
opportunity, he would break with the imperialists and desert
to the standard of his Bohemian friends. The true character
and position of the Ban was, therefore, correctly reported to
the emperor.  The emperor was convinced, that, in this
treacherous movement in his own behalf, he was placing too
much confidence, and lodging too much power, in the hands
of one, who might turn out to be as double as himself. On
the 29th of May, just as the Serbs were beginning to assemble,
Ferdinand dispatched an autograph letter to Jellachich, summoning him to appear at Innspruck to answer to his monarch
for his recent conduct. He was to answer, indeed, for that
very course of action, which he had been commissioned to
pursue; but, though his acts had been clearly within the letter
of his instructions, his motives, his ulterior designs, were the
subjects of complaint. A man's motives, however, when his
actions cannot be objected to, can be positively appreciated
only by himself; and the Ban, in the case before us, had only
to deny the charge of Pansclavism, as the enterprise of Bohemia was denominated, to free himself from the anger of his




'284            HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
monarch. It is easy enough to imagine what sort of a, conference would have been held, had the Ban obeyed the call,
between Jellachich and Ferdinand.  "Have you done any
thing more, my dear Ban, than to raise the old jealousies of
the Serbs against the Magyars?"  "Nothing."  "But the
Serbs have been too much excited, and may carry their part
too far, which will be likely to rouse the sympathies of other
nations in favor of the Hungarians?"  "This they will do,
then, on their own responsibility, without my instructions."
"And you are now raising a rebellion in Croatia and Sclavonia,
on the Sclavic basis."  "Well, may it please your majesty,
this was the only basis, on which a rebellion could be raised,
at this particular time, when the fortunes of the monarchy are
so low."  "But they tell me you are doing it in aid of your
brethren of Bohemia, who have elevated the Pansclavic standard, and invited their race throughout Europe to join them in
their attempt." ".May it please your imperial majesty, the
insinuation against my honor is' entirely groundless; and so
long as my outward acts correspond exactly with my secret
instructions, my motives ought to be considered good." Such,
undoubtedly, would have been the substance of the conversation at that time to have been held between the double-minded
monarch and his equally double-minded man. Both were
traitors; and each knew the other to be acting false. There
could have been, therefore, no certain confidence between them.
The Ban would have left the king, determined not to break
with the crown, so long as there was a doubt, whether, in the
reconstruction of the empire, the Germans or the Sclaves
would rule. The king would have dismissed his servant, resolved to watch him narrowly, and settle his own future course
by what his eyes should see.
A few days were enough, though the conference was not
then held, to point out to the monarch, or to his familiar advisers, what policy he should outwardly pursue. He was still
the nominal king of Hungary. It would not then do for him




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH;                285
to encourage one portion of his kingdom  to carry on a civil
war against another portion. This would be the king rebelling against the king. Nor would it then do for the emperor
of Austria to make war upon his Magyar crown.  Such a
proceeding would not only excite the Hungarians to rebellion,
but so compromise his imperial character, that he might endanger the' recovery of the empire, on any basis, whatever
might be the success of the particular duplicity in which he
was then engaged. An open opposition to the movements of
the Ban was called for, as much by his present interests, as
by the appeals of the Hungarian ministers.  The call was
made and answered. He denounced Jellachich as a traitor,
removed him from all his dignities and offices, and forbade the
people of Croatia and Sclavonia from paying any obedience to
his commands.
The imperial manifesto was issued on the 10th of June.
Every word of it is a clear and -unanswerable defence of the
Magyars against the rebellious Sclaves: "You, Croatians and
Sclavonians! who, united to the crown of Hungary for eight
centuries, have- shared all the fates of this country; you,
Croatians and Sclavonians! who owe to this very union the
constitutional freedom, which alone, amongst all Sclavonic
nations, you have been enabled to preserve; you have disappointed our hopes —you, who not only have shared4in all the
rights and liberties of the Hungarian constitution, but who
besides-in just recompense of your loyalty, until now stainlessly preserved-were lawfully endowed with peculiar rights,
privileges and liberties, by the grace of our illustrious ancestors, and who, therefore, possess greater privileges than any of
the subjects of our sacred Hungarian crown.' You have disappointed our hopes, to whom the last Diet
of the kingdom of Hungary and its dependencies, according
to our sovereign will, granted full part in all the benefits of
the enlarged constitutional liberties and equality of rights.
The legislation of the crown of Hungary has abolished feudal




286             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
servitude in Croatia as well as in Hungary; and those amongst
you, who were subject to robot, have, without any sacrifice on
their part, become free proprietors. The landed proprietors
receive for their loss an indemnification, which your own means
could never have provided. That indemnification will be entailed on our Hungarian crown estates, with our sovereign
ratification, and without any charge to you.
" The right also of constitutional representation was extended
to the people in your case no less than in Hungary; in consequence of which no longer the nobility alone, but likewise the
other inhabitants and the Military Frontier, take part by their
representatives in the legislation common to all, as much as
in the municipal congregations. Thus, you may improve your
welfare by your immediate co-operation. Until now, the nobility contributed but little to the public expenses; henceforward, the proportional repartition of the taxes amongst all
inhabitants is lawfully established, whereby you have been
delivered from a great burden. Your nationality and municipal rights, relative to which vain and malicious reports have
been spread, with the aim of exciting your distrust, are by no
means in danger. On the contrary, both your nationality and
your munici'pal rights are enlarged and secured against all
encroachments; not only is the use of your native language
lawfull/y guaranteed to you for ever in your schools and
churches, but it is likewise introduced into the public assemblies, where the Latin language has been until now in use."
The royal document proceeds to demonstrate the magnanimity of the Hungarians respecting the nationality of the
Croatians and Sclavonians, by citing the acts of the National
Assembly for eight hundred years, and then advances to another topic: "Formerly, in Hungary and its dependencies,
we administered the executive powers by our Hungarian
Chancery and Home Office, and, in military concerns, by our
Council of War. To the orders issued in this way, the Bans
of Croatia, Dalmatia and Sclavonia were obedient, just as they




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIt.              287
were bound, in more remote times, to obey the orders of our
Hungarian authorities, issued in a different manner and in
different forms, according to the mode of administering our
executive power." The king then goes on to say, that, with
the advice of Hungary, he had appointed the Palatine as his
lord-lieutenant, clothed with regal authority, to whom the kingdom was to pay the same obedience as to the king's person.
Jellachich, however, had not done this; for, in being summoned to Pesth to answer for his conduct to Ferdinand's
representative, he had refused to obey the mandate. He had
refused, also, to appear before the emperor himself. This, of
course, was open and avowed rebellion. The position of the
Ban could be disguised no longer. The monarch, therefore
as a public vindication of himself, was compelled to close his
manifesto with a renunciation of all the late acts of Jellachich,
besides removing him from his lordship: "No other means
was left, to protect our royal authority against the injury of
such conduct, and to uphold the laws, than to send our faithful Privy-Councillor, Lieutenant Field-Marshal Hrabowszky,
as our royal commissioner, to inquire into those unlawful proceedings, and to indict the Baron Jellachich and his accomplices; and, lastly, to deprive the Baron Jellachich of his
dignity as Ban, and of all his military offices."5
The Ban, thus legally deposed, continued to hold his power,
though the Croatians and Sclayonians, his subjects, had ever
been renowned for their servility, to the king. They were
now, however, no longer Austrians, as they dreamed, but
Sclaves. A new empire, as they thought, on a Sclavic foundation, was about to be raised on the ruins of the German.
The old German emperor, therefore, to whom they had always
before been so obedient, was now of less consequence to them,
than the great military leader, Jellachich, who, without doubt,
was soon to hold a high place in the nationality about to be' Klapka's War in Hungary, vol. ii. pp. 227-237.




288             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
constructed. The Germans, even in the German empire, were
few in number, a majority of whom, at that time, were in
strong opposition to the German throne. The Magyars, however, were still loyal. They were, also, firm in their princi
ples, strong in their attachments, and absolutely unyielding to
their enemies. They must be put out of the way. There
were Sclaves enough about them, could they be induced to
rise, to annihilate the race and blot it from the world. They
were surrounded, even in their own country, on all sides by
Sclaves. Beyond the limits of the kingdom, the Bohemian
Sclaves on the west, the Russian Sclaves on the north, the
Servian Sclaves on the east, and the Croatian and other Sclaves
on the south and south-west, could all be relied on, it was supposed, to aid their kindred in Hungary the moment they should
appear in arms. A constant correspondence, with this unity
of movement all the while in view, was kept up between the
Sclavic revolutionists of every land. Messengers were sent
into every part of Hungary, who~ were secretly to inform the
various Sclavic tribes of the general plan, and to induce them,
on a given signal, to revolt. This signal was to be, as we
now know, the invasion of the Magyars by the Croatian Ban.
The Hungarians, however, began to see their danger.  So
little are they inclined to suspicion, so open and manly are
they in their own conduct, that they were slow to attribute all
this treachery and ingratitude to a -people, whom they had
always treated well. That the king had any connection with
the original rebellion of the Ban they would not believe; and
the false-hearted monarch was careful to take every course to
make them, and to keep them, blind. His manifesto against
Jellacbhich, which was a part of his double game, was soon
followed by a pro-royal speech, in which the duplicity of the
sovereign is studiously maintained. It was the speech delivered by the great Palatine, whose sentiments were dictated
by Ferdinand, as the document itself declares. It was pronounced before the new National Assembly, which, on the




IWNGARY AND KOSSUTII.                29
basis of universal suffrage, had been called together by the
king to take into consideration the revolt of the Serbs, the
rebellious attitude of Croatia and Sclavonia, and the threatening aspect of the times: " In the name, and as the representative, of our glorious king, Ferdinand the Fifth, I hereby open
this parliament. The extraordinary circumstances, in which
the country has been placed, make it necessary to summon at
once a meeting of the estates, without waiting for the completion in detail of all the propositions and administrative measures, which the responsible ministers of the crown were
charged and directed by the last parliament to prepare and
complete. Croatia has risen in undisguised sedition. In the
districts of the lower Danube, bands of armed rebels have
broken the peace of the country; and while it is the sincere
wish of his majesty to avoid a civil war, his majesty is, on
the other hand, convinced, that the assembled representatives
of the nation will regard it as their first and chief duty to
provide all the means requiredfor restoring the troubled tranquillity of the country, preserving the integrity of the Hungarian
realm, and maintaining the sacred inviolability of the law.
The defence of the country and the state of the finances will,
therefore, form the chief subject to which, under these extraordinary circumstances, I call the attention of the assembled
representatives.  His majesty's responsible ministers will submit to you propositions relating to these points. His majesty
trusts, that the representatives of the nation will adopt speedy
and appropriate decisions upon all matters connected with the
safety and welfare of the country. His majesty has learned,
with deep feelings of regret and displeasure-although he, in
his hearty paternal desire for the happiness of this country,
following solely the impulse of his own desire, sanctioned
during the last parliament, by giving to them his royal assentb
those laws which were necessary to the progress of the country to prosperity-yet that, especially in Croatia and on the
lower Danube, evil-minded rebellious agitators have excited
26




290              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTiI.
the inhabitants of those countries, speaking different languages
and holding different creeds, with false reports and terrorism
to mutual hostility, and have driven them, under the calumInious representation that those laws were not then sanctioned
by his majesty's own free will, to oppose the said laws and
the legal authorities-that some have even gone so far in rebellion as to announce that their violent. resistance to the said
decrees is for the good of the royal house, and that his majesty
is privy to their intentions.  For the tranquillization of the
inhabitants of those districts, of all tongues and creeds, I
therefore hereby declare, under the special commission of his
-most gracious majesty, our lord the king, in his nane and as
his representative, that his majesty is firmly resolved to exert
his royal power for the maintenance of the integrity and inviolability of his crown against all attacks from abroad, and
against all discord within the realm, and to assert and enforce,
at all times, the laws he shall have sanctioned.  And as- his
majesty will allow no one to curtail the freedom, assured by
the said laws, to the inhabitants of the kingdom, his majesty
expresses his displeasure with the daring conduct of those, who
venture to assert, that any illegal act, or disobedience to the
lawo, can have taken place with his majesty's knowledge, or in
the interest of his royal house."6
Such was the language of the fallen despot, when he had
reason to suppose, that his own agent had turned a traitor to
his cause. The National Assembly, not yet prepared to charge
their monarch with such deep duplicity, took him at his, word.
An adequate recruitment was at once voted.  A -heavy arpropriation was made to defray the civil and military expenses
about to be incurred. As the royal commissioner, Hrabowszky,
himself a Serb, had not been able to convince his countrymen
of their mistake, there was no alternative but to put down
war with war. It was hoped, however, that, after a few de..
6 Klapka's War in Hungary,.vol. ii. pp. 237-241.




HUNGA.Y AND KOSSUTH.                291
feats, the misguided rebels would be more susceptible of being
brought to terms. It was with the utmost reluctance that
Hungary, so recently emancipated from a foreign tyranny, and
so heartily and enthusiastically occupied with her popular reforms, could be compelled to shed the first drop of blood.
She had hoped, that, by giving equal rights to all her inhabitants, she would infallibly satisfy them all. She had hoped,
that, insteadQf the calamities of war, her people would now
rise up and go forward in a united career of peace, prosperity
and joy. She had hoped to see, in the place of armies, schools
and churches springing up over all the land, and, instead of
hostile vessels, fleets of commercial steam-ships ascending and
descending all her streams.  Instead of the tramp -and neighing of the war-horse, she had hoped to behold the rail-road
locomotive, harnessed to its train of carriages and guided by
the hand of man, rushing around every hill and over every
valley, rampant only with the lofty duties of its mission, and
shouting the advent of a new and peaceful dispensation to the
capitals of every province and to the people of every tribe.
But she was lamentably deceived. The Sclavic excitement
was growing every hour of her delay. Jellachich, the double
agent of the Austrians and Selaves, was perplexing the southern provinces more and more.  At length, when a longer endurance would have been the worst of cruelty to all concerned,
the soldiers of the nation were sent down toward the seat of
the rebellion to quench its flames. They found a large district of country, occupied jointly, by Magyars and Serbs, suffering from cruelties scarcely paralleled in the annals of the
world. The fields were entirely devastated. The homes of
the people were leveled to the ground. A thousand fires, not
yet extinguished, were sending their columns of smoke, from
every plain, hill-side and valley, into the over-loaded air. The
most awful and revolting spectacles, of barbarities executed
upon the Magyar citizens, met them to whatever part they
turned.  The Serbs, exceeding all that is known of the worst




29~2             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.
of savages, had "bored out the eyes of men, cut off their
flesh in strips, roasted them alive on spits, buried them up to
their necks, and so left them to' be eaten up by crows and
swine i" But history need not blot itself with the record of
such things. What is omitted is too horrible for the most
indulgent page.7
The Hungarian soldiers, though fearfully excited by what
they saw, were under instructions, emanating from the cabinet,
of which Kossuth was now more than ever chief, to proceed
with moderation in their treatment of the Serbs. The rebels
were still regarded by the ministers, as well as by the National
Assembly, as a misguided people, whom, it was hoped, a due
mixture of clemency with the necessary punishment might
yet restore to-their former friendliness and faith. Numerous
battles were fought, before the autumn had expired, in which
the Servians were almost uniformly put to rout. Several of
the ablest military leaders then in Hungary, among whom
were Mesz6ros, V~etter, Kiss, Damjanics and Perezel, were
employed against the insurgents. The victories of Szdreg,
Verbasz, Tiirkeese, Ernesthdza, Tomasovcz, Temerin,  Perlasz, Foldv6r, Kikinda, Turia and Tittel, should have taught
a useful lesson to the Serbs. But they were not prepared to
learn. Their prompter professed to know the designs of the
Pansclavic party in all parts of Europe; and he was liberal of
his promises of an ultimate and powerful support. Hurban,
and the apostate Hungarian magnate, Count Moritz Palffy,
aided by such men as Hodsha and Stur, a priest and a schoolmaster, were in the north of Hungary, exciting the Sclavacks
against their Magyar countrymen, and preaching the doctrines
of the great Sclavic nationality.  The Sclavacks, however,' Pragay (in his Hungarian Struggle for Freedom, p. 11,) affirms,
"on his conscience," that such scenes occurred; but he need not
have made the affirmation; for the newspapers of that date (July
and August, 1848) were full of worse barbaritios than he has seen
fit to mention in his work.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTTH.               293
could not be seduced.  "The Magyars," they said, "have
done every thing that could be done, by voluntarily resigning
their hereditary rights and power into the hands of all the
people, without distinctions of sect or race, for the general
good. No purposes whatever could induce them to abuse such
unprecedented generosity; and, though Sclaves, they were
particularly opposed to any Sclavic establishment, under the
shadow of the Russian empire, at whose despotic nod such an
establishment would have to cower and be a slave. No. The
Magyars have laid the fbundation of all the freedom that any
tribe, or any religion, can maintain. Upon this foundation,
as brothers and friends, let us together build, thankful to that
noble race by whose magnanimity we have the opportunity to
be free." Still, though this ill success was discouraging to
the Sclavic party, and particularly to Jellachich and the deluded Serbs, the rebellion, in the Banat spread both east and
west, till the Wallachians of Transylvania and the inhabitants
of Croatia and Sclavonia, at the instigation of the party of the
_Ban, rose in arms."
By the beginning of September, 1848, the time for the
double-minded Jellachich had fairly come. The question had
been decided, whether, in the reconstruction of the empire,
the Sclaves or the Germans were to be in the ascendant.  A
wonderful reaction, or series of reactions, in opposition to
democracy, had everywhere taken place. Taking its origin
in Italy, where the revolutions themselves began, it had spread
like a crystalization from one country to another, till all Europe was governed by its influence.  The flight of the pope
had weakened the power of the patriots, by rousing that respect toward the head of the Church, which, with all its democratic enthusiasm, is found at last to have been-laid, by habit
and education, at the bottom  of every Roman breast.  In
France, the cowardly insurrection of the Socialists, and the' Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady, vol. i. pp. 145-147.
25*




294             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
horrible butcheries of Paris, had taught the nation to fear,
that the deeds of Robespierre and of Danton might soon be
repeated, should the so-called republicanism of the times be
allowed to have its way. In England, the masterly dispositions of the Duke of Wellington, for the defence of the kingdom, whatever occasion for military interposition might arise,
had taken the color from the cheek of every Chartist, and
given poor Ireland a warning which she was sure to heed. In
Prussia, under the wing of Russian protection, the troops of
the king had marched into Berlin playing the old airs of the
monarchy, formed a circle around the forces of the insurgents,
and coolly loaded their arms within thirty paces of their opponents, thus deciding the fate of the Prussian revolution by one
bold and successful step.  In Austria, the ministry of June,
of which Bach was the leading spirit, by coining a few popular
maxims, such as "1 the equality of the rights of all nationalities," and " the democratic empire on the largest basis," had
not only recovered the ground lost by the good-natured despotism of the cabinet of Pillersdorf, but broken the unity of
the Sclavic party, and captivated many of the revolutionary
Germans.  The quarrel in the Constituent Assembly, at
Vienna, between the high and the low democrats, had greatly
demoralized the republican movement. The high democrats,
who were chiefly Sclaves from Bohemia, Gallicia and Moravia,
denounced the idea of a senate in the projected republic, asserting, that such a body would only be a nest of aristocrats,
but really apprehensive of falling in the scale of political
influence, because they were conscious of having but few men
capable of commanding a place in a house, where great talents
and some respectability of rank would be held in consideration.
The low democrats, who were almost entirely Germans, while
they advocated the establishment of free institutions with
great ardor, were more moderate in their ambition, and were
willing to set up such a government as would offer some encouragement to intellectual and moral pre-eminenee, and some




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.               295
chance of consolation to fallen greatness. The Sclaves, however, had finally been humbled.  Windischgrats, by his
memorable achievements in Bohemia, had revived the hope
of the imperialists, that the old order of the government
would ultimately be restored. In Lombardy, where the revo-'lutionists had been triumphant for several months, under the
banners of Charles Albert, the veteran Radetsky, by the
splendid victory of Custozza, had laid down a solid and reliable foundation on which again to raise the dynasty of the'Hapsburgs. That dynasty, from all these turns of fortune,
had resumed so much courage, that, on the 7th of August,
the timid and imbecile Ferdinand had ventured back to his
-mperial capital, and once more taken possession of his palace.
On the 4th of September the emperor dispatched a letter
to the Ban, written by his own hand, in which he repudiated
-the edict of deposition. The letter was immediately printed
in the Sclavic and German papers and published to the world.
The Magyars would not credit what seemed plain enough to
all other men. They would not believe that Ferdinand could
be so glaringly double, as to command them to raise an army
against Jellachich, and, at the same time, support Jellachich
against themselves. They regarded this imperial letter as a
forgery, got up by the Ban to gain him influence at home, and
to weaken the opposition to him abroad. That they might be
certain, however, of the mind of their royal master, they sent,
on the 8th of September, a large and weighty delegation to
him, desiring him to make to them such explanations as the
contradictory character of his attitude required. The king
was taciturn, evasive, and perplexed. The deputies were unsatisfied. They were, indeed, dissatisfied. Their report threw
the new ministry into confusion. The cabinet seemed-to have
lost the confidence of their monarch. All but two of them
resigned at once. Kossuth and Szemere, not daunted by this
strange posture of affairs, resolved, at the request of the National Assembly, to remain in power.  Kossuth was more




296             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
popular than ever. Every thing was coming out exactly as
he had all the while predicted. From the very beginning, he
had told the nation, that the weak but wily Hapsburg would
betray them when he could. His conservative colleagues, and
the court-party in the kingdom, had disbelieved him. The
radicals had believed, but their faith had made them only the
more insane against all monarchy, and particularly against all
connection with the king. Kossuth, standing upon his moderate and middle ground, declared his resolution of adhering
to the sovereign in all his legal acts, and of abandoning him
only when it should become absolutely impossible at the same
time to acknowledge his allegiance and to serve his native
land. He was at once commissioned by the National Assembly, in conjunction with Szemere, to exercise the power
and transact the business of the nation.9
Jellachich could no longer be undecided. Ready, from the
first, to espouse the cause of either party, so soon as he should
be assured whether the Germans or the Sclaves would probably
be victorious, he now saw, that the Sclavic movement was forever lost, and that, if he was to have any place in the government about to be restored, he must do something, and that
speedily, worthy of his ambition. His measures were at once
taken. Still holding the personal command, in spite of his
deposition, of about forty thousand Serbs, Croats and Sclavonians, whom he continued to delude with his theory of a
Sclavic empire, he had begun to make active preparations,
about the last of August, for some sudden undertaking. No
one knew exactly what feat he meditated. The eyes of all
Austria were upon him. The Hungarians watched him with
intense interest. The mystery was soon settled. On the 9th
Klapka's War in Hungary, vol. i. Hist. Intr. pp. 66-68. Madam
Pulsky (Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. i. pp. 130-140) gives a detailed account of the audience between the emperor and the deputation. She
was an eye-witness.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 297
of September, at the head of his own forces, and newly commissionled by his monarch, he crossed the Drave and planted
his hostile foot upon that portion of Hungary, which, by universal consent, has ever been the peculiar territory of the
Magyar nation.  He was here reinforced by six divisions of
Austrian regulars from the Styrian garrisons. The-Rubicon
was now passed.  The banner of the Sclavonic and Croatian
rebellion was at last raised.  The rebel chief, finding the
Hungarians unprepared, with fifteen thousand of his troops,
marched from town to town, without meeting with opposition,
burning, murdering and destroying, till he had approached
within a few miles of Pesth. Another corps, under the Austrian general, Hartmann, according to instructions received
from Vienna, proceeded by Jhafros, Bereny and Kaposvfr, and
joined the Ban at Engeny. A third corps, commanded by
general Rott, another Austrian, remained as a reserve in
Sclavonia, to maintain the rebellious attitude of the province,
but were expected to follow the gros of the army, should their
services be required.
To meet this insurrection, to defend their houses and their
hearths, the Hungarians had only about five thousand men.
The main body of their gallant little army were acting against
the Serbs. No sooner, however, was it proclaimed through
the- country, that the traitor, Jellachich, had invaded the soil
of Hungary, than the nation showed a readiness to rise. The
Ban had asserted, that, on the day when a Sclavic army should
unfurl its standard in the kingdom, three-fifths of the inhabitants would fly to it for protection against their domestic foe.
Presumptuous and vain remark! Not a Sclave, beyond the
direct influence of the invading force, deserted from his country's cause. The constitutional liberties of the nation, restored by Kossuth and his party to their pristine purity, and
the establishment of universal suffrage and personal freedom,
by which every inhabitant had become a citizen and a manw
had given general satisfaction.




29$8            HUNGARY. AND KOSSUTH.
Whether with large or small forces, however, it was with
great embarrassment that the Hungarians proceeded to defend
their country against the Ban.. Several of their own generals,
of German origin or connection, proved traitors. Oettinger,
the commander-in-chief against Jellachich, deserted and joined
the rebel. Teleki, a Magyar in name but corrupted by German blood, had no sooner risen to the command, by Oettinger's
defection, than he followed the example of his predecessor.
The Palatine himself next took the field, but, at a moment
when victory was certain, he abandoned the army and fled in
all haste to Vienna. Three generals in succession, by the
wickedest and worst of all villanies, showed the extent to
which the reaction had now advanced in favor of the monarchy.
They were alarmed by the declarations of the Ban, that, so
soon as the soldiers of the empire should have re-established
the power and tranquillity of the throne, every man, who had
been found fighting against it, would receive his deserts; that,
as every one knew, the Hapsburgs were not the men to make
no distinctions between their enemies and their friends; and
that the course, which he was himself pursuing, whatever the
Magyars might pretend, had been dictated from the beginning
by the crown, and would be ultimately acknowledged as the
work of the imperial will. The three generals were convinced.
General Moga, who succeeded to the command upon the flight
of the Palatine, was also convinced. He saw that Jellachich
was acting for the king. He saw that the king only waited
his opportunity to avow, more openly than he dared then do,
the services of the Croat chief. But this insight into the true
state of the case only enraged his patriotic heart the more.
A Wallachian by birth, but conquered by the recent magnanimity of the Magyar nation, he espoused the cause of the
democratic country, with an ardor and with a power of will,
which soon conferred a lasting honor upon his name. The
duplicity of Ferdinand had stung him to the heart. Retreat



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               299
ing from Weissenburg to Velemcze, a position of great strength,
he awaited thb approach of the invading host.
The Magyars now saw, that, to' avoid an open rupture with
the king and a bloody civil war, an explanation of the present
contradiction, brought about by Ferdinand's double dealing,
must be had. One deputation, however, sent expressly for
this purpose, having been repulsed by the emperor, the Hungarians now sent an equally respectable delegation to the Constituent Assembly, which seemed to be assuming, more and
more, each day, the management of Austrian affairs. Here,
also, they were disappointed. The German patriots received
them gladly; but the Sclaves, as was natural, still dreaming
of their Sclavic empire, in which there was to be no chance
for any German, or Magyar, or Italian aristocracy, as they
said, denied the Hungarians a hearing. Greatly outnumbering the Germans in the Assembly, their will was conclusive.
The delegation returned to Pesth. They brought no sign, no
hope, of a reconciliation. The National Assembly was again
thrown into disorder. They clearly saw, that, if the king had
commissioned Jellachich to invade the kingdom, and if the
invasion should prove successful, those who might oppose his
progress would be treated by Ferdinand as so many rebels to
his authority. If, in this first struggle, they should themselves be victorious, the ~king would probably send other
armies to invade and conquer them. It was a period of
general doubt, hesitation and embarrassment.  There was
only one man in Hungary, whose mind seemed to have positive ideas, and to be clear in its sense of duty. That man
was Kossuth. He was emphatically the man for the crisis.
He told the Assembly, that, whether the letter to Jellachich
was a forgery or not, one thing was certain. The manifesto
of the 10th of June, and the royal address of the 8th of July,
in both of which the kingdom was called upon to defend itself
against the Ban, were genuine. He told the nation to go on
and do what they had been twice commanded by the king to




300              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH..
do; and if there should turn out to be any duplicity, or contradiction, in the conduct of that king, it would be a matter
for him to clear up, in his own time, but was not then a subject for their consideration. The words of the minister cut
the knot.  Every one now saw through the difficulty.  The
resolution of the Assembly was at once taken. They voted
to follow the orders of their sovereign and drive the invader
from their territory.
No one, however, could expect, that, with a force not exceeding fifteen thousand men, most of whom had been rallied
at the moment, general Moga could stand long in the path of
the victorious Ban.  The only hope was, that he might retard
the march of the rebels, till a larger force could be mustered
and the capital put in an attitude of defence.  The ministry
and the National Assembly, both of which were but the representatives of the mind of Kossuth, resumed their tranquillity;
but the population of Pesth, and of the adjacent country, was
alarmed. They expected to see their streets and their villages
in flames, before the government would have time to draw the
sword. They expected to behold the flag of the insurgents
streaming from  the towers of Buda, and the standard of rebellion planted on the field of Rakosz, before the people would
have the opportunity to arm.  Still, with all their apprehensions, they manifested no cowardice.  Courage, on the contrary, was the mark of every countenance, the feeling of every
breast. Every man resolved, against all this inequality, to
keep his position, to defend his home, and rise or fall according to the will of God.
Jellachich, in the mean time, laughing at the weakness of
the government and flushed with the most ambitious hopes,
advanced through the country, confident of being able, in a
few days, to silence all opposition by getting possession of the
capital. His path, broad as it was, was marked by devastation
and death. Though professing to be the friend of the nation,
acting only for the restoration of that order of things, which:




HUNOARY AND KOSSUTH.               301
had been overthrown by the demagogues of Pesth, he supported his adherents by robbery and pillage; and, when the
inhabitants defended their possessions from the rapacity of the
soldiers, he left nothing but the ashes of the houses, and the
mangled carcases of their occupants, to define the limits and
progress of his camp.
On the 29th of September the two armies met. Thousands
of the citizens of Pesth, and of the people of the neighboring
country, had flocked to the scene of action, some to witness
the expected battle, others to fight, if necessary, in the patriotic
ranks. They had begun to realize, that, by a sudden and
decided stroke, Jellachich might determine the fate of the
country.  He might rush from Valemeze to Buda without a
halt. If, however, the little band under Moga could keep
him occupied, till his troops should become too weary to follow
up their expected fortune without a rest, there might be sufficient time thus gained to put the avenues to the capital in
defence.  The whole future of the nation, therefore, was
probably suspended on the chances of a day. Both parties
saw the importance of success. Both understood the ruin of
defeat. When the rebel general led his forces out, each man
was told, that a little energy for an hour or two would open
them a road to the metropolis, where every one of them should
be gratified with the annihilation of his enemies, loaded with
the booty of the public and private buildings, and satiated
with the beauty of the fair inhabitants. As the patriots went
out to meet them, each individual felt, that his house, his
home, his kindred and his country perished or survived in
him.  The bosoms of the spectators beat with a faltering
hope-a hope against hope-and from every heart went up a
prayer.  Deeds of bravery were done that hour.  Deeds
worthy of Spartan valor, of Attic eloquence, were done.
The first onset, as was to have been expected, nearly decided
the question between the combatants. This over, however,
the handful of Magyars had earned a single chance of exist.
26




302-            HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
ence against a thousand of instantaneous destruction.  But
this one chance became the nucleus of success. Around it all
hearts rallied. The roar of the cannon, the clatter of the
smaller arms, the clash of hostile swords, the confusion and
the noise of battle, waxed louder and louder, as the issue of
it became more and more doubtful. The culminating period
at last came. The uproar began to decrease. Every moment
it became less and less. It seemed, also, to incline southward,
as if the hereditary bravery of the Magyars were proving too
much for the Sclavic host, and the insurgents were bending to
the blast. When the firing was done, and the thick sulphurcloud had risen up and rolled off from the field of blood, the
hopes of the spectators were confirmed. The work of victory
was complete. There stood the heroic band, in the midst of
the field, with the banner of their country flying in the breeze.
Heaps of the enemy surrounded them  on every side. The
invading army had retired from the scene of battle, leaving
behind them a bloody proof, that the Magyar, when fully
roused, whatever be the odds against him, is never to be
beaten by the Sclave.
The fate of the rebellion was now sealed. Jellachich, asking and obtaining a cessation of hostilities, broke the conditions of the armistice, and fled toward the Austrian line.
When the Magyar cavalry, which pursued him with all speed,
obtained their first sight of him, he had crossed the Laytha,
and taken up a position on the special territory of his ally in
treachery, the king. His rear-guard, however, which he had
left at Weissenburg to cover his intentions, was captured without a blow. His reserves, commanded by General Rott, who
had entered the kingdom on the east, were met by G6rgey and
Perczel, to whom the rebels surrendered without a word.
Thus, in about twenty days, this remarkable people, in a
manner entirely characteristic of them, at a time when they
were totally unprepared, annihilated a most formidable invasion, which had been gathering, and growing, and boasting of




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               303
its easy work, for about half as many months. The invaders
only learned, what their ancestors had been taught a hundred
times, that, with the advantage of a full preparation and a
choice of time, the treachery of three or four Sclaves is not
enough for the ever-ready valor of one Arpadian Hun.
Jellachich, however, is now in Austria. He is now within
reach of that monarch, who, on the 10th of June, declared
him to be the enemy of his betrayed and indignant king.
Now, if that king was sincere in what he said, is the time for
vengeance. Now is the time to cut the insufferable rebel
down. Now the reaction in behalf of the monarchy has become so complete, that the emperor can again safely act,
openly and avowedly, according to his real will. Now he can
not only carry out his edict of deposition against the Ban, but
hang him, or shoot him, if he chooses, in an hour. If the
Croat has actually been rebelling against the Hapsburg, judging from all the past, death will certainly be his fate. Perhaps, indeed, that royal courier, who, on the 3d of October,
comes riding in gayety across the plain, alighting at the rebel's
tent, is the messenger of the yet angry Ferdinand, whose imperial summons commands the presence of the culprit at the
fatal bar. A package is actually handed to the traitor-chief.
He opens it and reads: "We, Ferdinand I., Constitutional
Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, Croatia, Sclavonia,
Dalmatia, the Fifth of this name, to the Barons, to the High
Dignitaries of the Church and State, to the Magnates and
Representatives of Hungary, its Dependencies, and the Grand
Duchy of Transylvania, in parliament assembled, in our free
and royal city of Pesth, Our greeting: —1. We dissolve the
parliament by this our decree; so that, after the publication
of these presents, the parliament has immediately to close its
session. 2. We declare as illegal, void, and invalid, all the
resolutions, and the measures of the parliament, which we
have not sanctioned. 3. All troops, and armed bodies of
every kind, whether national guards, or volunteers, which are




304             HUNGARY AND KOSSUITH.
stationed in Hungary and its dependencies, as well as it
Transylvania, are placed, by this Our Decree, under the chief
command of oUR Ban of Croatia, Sclavonia and Dalmatia,
Lieutenant Field-Marshal Baron Joseph Jellachich!  4. Until
peace and order shall be restored in the country, the kingdom
of Hungary shall be subjected to martial law; in consequence
of which, the respective authorities are meanwhile to abstain
from holding congregations of the counties, as well as of the
municipalities, and of the districts. 5. Our Ban of Croatia,
Sclavonia and Dalmatia, Baron Joseph Jellachich, is hereby
invested and impowered as Commissioner of our royal majesty;
and we give him full power and force, that he may, in the
sphere of Executive Minister, exercise the authority with
which, as Lieutenant of our royal majesty, we have invested
him in the present extraordinary circumstances!  In consequence of these our sovereign letters patent, we declare that,
whatsoever the Ban of Croatia shall order, regulate, determize
and command, is to be considered as ordered, regulateddetermined and commanded by our royal authority!""0
The Ban was by no means startled by what he read. Had
he not expected this reception, had he not been certain of it,
how would he have dared to come, with a broken army of only
eighteen thousand men, and put himself within reach of the
imperial hand? Every thing is plain, and perfectly consistent, when the Croat and the king are regarded as confederates
in crime. On any other supposition, their motives are as unintelligible, as their deeds were black. Their crime is treason.
History pronounces the verdict; and it is confirmed by the
universal opinion of mankind. Each wears his mask as long
as concealment is essential to success. When this point is
passed, the very man, who, but a little time before, has been
1o The whole document can be seen in nearly every late work on
Hungary. It is very correctly translated and printed in Klapka,
vol. ii. pp. 241-245.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               305
discarded and denounced, is loaded with honors and approbation, though he has done nothing, which he had not been
doing from the very first. By ceasing to act as a Sclave, and
espousing openly the German cause, he has only convinced
the hesitating monarch, that he has been all the while fulfilling his treasonable engagements to the crown. This being
rendered clear, that crown reinstates him in all his former
offices, and adds to them the absolute dictatorship of the country, which the king, against the arms of the rebel, has been
professing to defend.  The imperial veil is now removed.
Ferdinand is himself, a Hapsburg, again. Hungary, invaded
by one of her own subjects, and betrayed by that false despot,
who has twice summoned her to this act of self-defence, at
last opens her eyes and stands forth in astonishment before
the world.  Amidst this maze of double-dealing, she has,
however, the single satisfaction, that, with the now unimport.
ant exception of the Banat, she has vanquished all her ene
mies and driven them triumphantly from her soil!
26*




306             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
CHAPTER XI.
THE AUSTRIAN INVASION.
TIHE appointment of Jellachich to the dictatorship of Hungary, after the disgraceful issue of an invasion, which the king
had officially condemned as an act of treason to himself, was
an open declaration of war against the Hungarians.  Such, at
home and abroad, by the enemies and the friends of Hungary,
it was unanimously regarded; but the act was looked upon
with various sentiments, as the spectators held toward it different relations.
The party of the reaction, including both Sclaves and Germans, considered it a most auspicious movement. The Hungarians, they knew, while as yet perfectly loyal in their
principles and conduct, would be the most unyielding enemies
to the leading doctrine of the imperialists, that, in the reorganization of- the empire, all the nationalities should be
melted into one, of which Austria was to be the head. Hungary, which equaled in size and importance all the remainder of the old empire, would not consent, they knew, to this
annihilation, for the sake of a little dukedom about as large
as one of her own counties. For eight hundred years, it
was known, she had been ardently attached to those democratic institutions, by which she had ever been distinguished.
For eight hundred years, she had contended against all attempts to overthrow her peculiar liberties.  For three hundred years, in particular, she had raised her voice, and frequently her hand, against that very dynasty, which now hoped
to effect its long-cherished purpose of breaking down the
independence of her people, that Austria might be a perfect
despot. For about twenty years, more particularly still, she




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.              307
had been magnanimously struggling within herself, liberalizing her form of government, emancipating her inhabitants,
at the expense of the few breaking off the fetters of the many,
and converting fifteen millions of masters and servants into a
commonwealth of free and equal citizens. For the half of one
year, in spite of two insurrections, she had been rejoicing over
the blessings of universal liberty. Before the work of annihilation could be effected, such a nation, of course, was to be
humbled, or blotted from existence. Despotic Austria had
become weary of democratic Hungary. Now was the favorable moment, for the execution of this Austrian measure; and
every imperialist was glad of the opportunity of employing
such a facile and yet powerful instrument as the Ban, in the
accomplishment of the never-forgotten undertaking.
During the summer, while Hungary was acting against the
insurrection of the Banat, the Sclavic portion of the Austrian
democratic party could not help sympathising, to some extent,
with their brethren by blood, the Serbs. It was through their
influence, it will be remembered, that the second delegation
from Pesth, after the rebellion of the Croats had broken out,
were denied an audience before the Constituent Assembly.
The events of a few days, however, satisfied them of the true
character of the Ban. They saw, almost as soon as he had
pitched his tents in the neighborhood of Vienna, that he was
playing a double game. They saw that he could not be depended on by them. By the 4th of October they were ready to
unite with any party in putting the traitor, as they then loudly
called him, down. When they beheld him in his new appointment, as Dictator of Hungary, actively and openly espousing
the old imperial cause, their resentment exceeded all bounds.
They would have crushed him, had they known how to do it,
with a hearty will. From this cause they became the friends
of insulted Hungary, against which, as they were now bold to
say, the king had declared an unprovoked, a groundless, and
an unnatural war.




308             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.
The German portion of this party, who had allowed their
ardor to cool a little, while the Servian and Magyar movement
was going on, now returned to their former state of earnestness
toward the Hungarian democrats. They had never allowed
themselves to be forgetful of their instructors and predecessors
in the democratic cause. Much less had they shown any hostility to it. They had only ceased to think of it as much as
formerly, occupied, as they were, with their affairs at home.
Whenever appealed to by the Hungarians, however, the German patriots had ever been true to their plighted faith; and
now, when they saw the reaction rolling up against the patriotic
cause like another deluge, and the king resolved to turn the
billows over Hungary, as the source and centre of the democratic spirit, the Germans rose at once, and again offered their
heart and hand to the hated and oppressed.
In Austria, therefore, and particularly at Vienna, the Hungarians had many supporters. In nearly all other parts of
Europe, the majority of the people were their friends. Every
where, the policy of the Hapsburgs was well known. Everywhere, the long struggle of the Magyars, the champions of
constitutional liberty, against imperial despotism, was the
theme of conversation. Everywhere, curses were pronounced
against that monarch, who could profess one thing and do
another, like the meanest villain of his realms. From every
quarter, benedictions upon the heads of the Hungarian
patriots, and prayers for their success, were wafted on every
breeze to the Magyar land.  The friends of freedom, throughout the civilized world, charged the emperor, not only with
having been double in his conduct, but with having needlessly
insulted the nation the second time, by making the avowed
enemy of Hungary its absolute Dictator, clothed with the most
unlimited authority over the laws and liberties of the kingdom, and over the persons and properties of that very people,
to whom he was legally responsible for a most glaring crime.
The man, who, by the statutes of every land, was a malefactor




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTITL                309
and a murderer, as well as a traitor to his country, was made
the irresponsible arbitrator of life and death over those, whose
right it was to arraign him as a culprit at their bar. Their
state criminal, indeed, who had committed the highest offence
known in law, was made the chief magistrate, the maker and
executor of all law, to that very nation against which he had
done the deed. As king of Hungary, Ferdinand had twice
called upon the Hungarians to march out against the rebel,
and crush him, if possible, before he could fairly plant himself on Hungarian soil. As emperor of Austria, that same
Ferdinand, with the duplicity of a despot, had espoused the
interests of that rebel, and, using him as an instrument, declared war against the same Hungarians for doing what he had
commanded and exhorted them to do!1
Such a course sometimes meets with a merited reward. No
sooner had Jellachich pitched his wretched camp at Schwendorf, than the Academic Legion, and the democratic portion
of the National Guards, asked permission to go out and fight
him. The Selaves in the Constitutional Assembly defeated
Ihe proposition, but sent a delegate to the rebel's camp to test
his spirit, and to endeavor to buy him back again to the
Solavic party. The measure was unsuccessful. While this
negotiation was going forward, Windischgrats was hurrying
his troops down from Prague, where he had been perfectly
triumphant against the Pansclavic movement, to unite with
Jellachich in forming the contemplated blockade of the imperial capital. General Auersperg, who commanded the garrison of Vienna, like nearly all the high officers of the regular
army, was a rank imperialist, and watched his opportunity to
raise the standard of the reaction. So long as he remained
within the city, the people considered him as at least neutral,
because he was evidently at their mercy. At five o'clock, on
Pulsky's Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. i. pp. 175-184, and Klapka's
War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 64-65.




310             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
the 5th of October, an order was issued, that, on the next
morning, the garrison should leave their former quarters, and
recede to a position beyond the limits of the city. No one
could misunderstand the object of this movement. It was
the first overt act of the reaction within the capital. The
troops were to go out, of course, in order to join the forces of
WXindischgrAts and Jellachich. Words would fail to picture
the popular excitement of that evening.  The Constituent
Assembly, foreseeing a war and fearing its expenses, was
thrown into a position of open hostility to the government.
It denounced the measure without mercy. On that very day,
the celebrated Dr. Tausenaa, the orator of the people, had
pronounced a splendid and powerful oration in the Odeon, to
ten thousand of the citizens, against the rebel, Jellachich.
His words were still burning in the hearts of his auditors.
No sooner was the military order made generally current,
than all Vienna was broken up into knots, which earnestly
and angrily discussed the common topic. The night passed
away, however, without tumult. At an early hour on the
following morning, a part of the garrison issued from their
barracks, and proceeded across the city toward the dep6t of the
rail-road, on which they were to be carried near the camp of
the treacherous Croat. They complied with the command to
march with manifest unwillingness.  "The Hungarians," said
they, " are our brothers, not our foes." They were accompanied by a numerous escort of National Guards, armed and unarmed, whose feelings were still more patriotic. The populace
rushed from all quarters to the embankment of the railway.
Determined that the troops should not leave the town, they
broke down an arch of one of the bridges of the road. A
student of the university, and a member of the Academic
Legion, arose above the heads of the vast crowd, and made an
effective speech, appealing to General Bredi, the immediate
commander of the soldiers. He implored the general to signify
to Count Latour, then the Austrian Minister of War, that the




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH,               311
garrison was not willing to march out against the Hungarians,
or to the support of the Croat Ban. The appeal appeared to
be successful. The commander promised to notify the minister
of the unwelcome fact. While gone to execute this new and
singular commission, given him by a young man, whose name
was scarcely known, but who had spoken the sentiments of
the people, the throng increased; and, on returning with a
fresh order to advance in spite of all opposition, he found the
masses of citizens so dense, that he could not leave his position, unless the populace should willingly disperse, without
cutting a passage by the sword. The populace would not disperse. They crowded before the troops and bound them fast.
The general commanded the citizens to retire. They told
him to beware of the length to which he pushed the mandates
of a fallen power. The warning was proudly scorned. The
officer informed his opponents, that he was only executing the
order of his sovereign, which had been twice sanctioned by
the imperial ministry. The citizens replied, that, whatever
might be the authority under which the step was covered, it
was looked upon as an open avowal of the Croatian insurrection, an actual declaration of war against Hungary, and an
audacious defiance of the popular cause throughout the empire.
They declared, that, in spite of all orders so glaringly revolutionary and illegal, not a soldier should leave the city. The
issue was now perfect. The Austrian commander, blind to
the consequences of his conduct, and determined to obey the
emperor by going out to the support of Jellachich, pronounced
the fatal word to fire. One or two companies, raised among
the peasantry of Gallicia, discharged their pieces. Several of
the National Guards, with some well-known citizens, fell. The
shot was returned.  General Bredi tumbled from his horse.
The crowd rushed upon the troops and overwhelmed them.
The bruit of the battle spread on every side. The whole city
was shortly in a state of general convulsion. The great alarmbell was rung. Barricades rose, as by magic, in every quarter.




312             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
The whole garrison proceeded to the streets. The people,
armed in haste, flew to the improvisated breastworks. The
carnage on both sides was dreadful. Before the sun went
down, however, the cause of the citizens was triumphant.
Count Latour had been captured in the War Office, on the
Hof, where he was hung as an accomplice of the treacherous
Ferdinand; Ferdinand himself, not daring to trust the second
time to his subterranean strong-hold, had fled to Olmiitz; the
soldiers, overpowered at every point, had surrendered to their
antagonists; the Constituent Assembly, flying into session on
the first rumor of the outbreak, and feeling its responsibility
after the departure of the monarch, had declared itself en permanence, as the only legal government; and the banners of
freedom, of popular liberty, had been again unfurled from
every height, tower, and steeple.2
Now was the time to seal the fate of the Austrian reaction.
Hungary was in the undisputed possession of its own people.
Vienna was in the hands of its patriotic citizens.  The Constituent Assembly, legally created and now vested with supreme authority, had committed itself fully on the side of the
revolution. The garrison of the city had been subdued and
driven to their quarters. The forces of Jellachich had been
reduced and humbled; and Windischgrdts himself, though at
the head of a brave and victorious army, could have been cut
to pieces, as he was concentrating his scattered regiments upon
the capital. At this moment, the Constituent Assembly should
have taken the most efficient measures. It should have organized an army for the occasion. It should have called in the
militia, who, in all parts of the country, were ready to march
at a moment's warning. It should have summoned the help
of Upper Austria, where the patriotic cause had long been
triumphant. If in any doubt of its success, with all these
2 Pulsky's Mem. Hung. Lady, pp. 175-191, and Klapka's War in
Hungary, vol. i. pp. 71-73. The arsenal was not taken till after dark.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                313
arrangements, it should have sent an invitation to General
Moga, who still commanded the Magyar forces, and who had
pursued the Ban to the line of Hungary. The Hungarians,
too cautious of maintaining a perfectly legal course, even after
all law had been annihilated by the despotic measures of the
emperor, would not cross the frontier without an express
invitation. They knew, of course, that Ferdinand had declared war upon them; but they did not wish to take any step,
which could be construed into hostility to the king, until all
men should see, that they were not the authors of the civil
war then evidently impending. All men have seen what they
wished to demonstrate; they have seen, that, at every step,
Hungary acted entirely in self-defence against the aggressions
of a despot; but they have been led, while admiring the forbearance of the nation, to condemn the policy of its scruples.
By one bold and energetic movement, perfectly justified by
the recent proceedings of the monarch, the Hungarians might
have saved to their land, and to the world, many a brave and
noble-heartd citizen, a vast amount of treasure, and perhaps
the liberties they had just established. On their march from
Valemeze to Pressburg, they should have collected thirty or
forty thousand volunteers; they should have rushed upon the
Croat and stopped his further progress; they should have
pushed forward to Vienna, intercepted the approaches of Windischgrats, counteracted the designs of Auersperg, formed an
alliance with the people, held the king as a prisoner in his
palace, and thus, without the shedding of much blood, consummated the most auspicious and glorious of modern revolutions.
Such, however, was not the order of events. Kossuth, it
is said, privately suggested these successive steps; but, having
previously planted himself on the letter of the law, he could
not consistently force the country, had he been ever so clear
in his convictions, from the basis established by himself. He
saw, too, that the National Assembly, in which the conserva27




314             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
tives had still some power, would resist the new policy, till its
eyes should be a little more opened by the developments,
which, he clearly perceived, would soon be made.  Keeping
his own eyes, therefore, fixed on Vienna, he contented himself
with privately urging upon the members a summary course,
hoping, in this way, to gain his purpose before the great opportunity for it should pass away. All he could obtain, however, was the passage of a bill authorizing General Moga to
demand of Auersperg to disarm the retreating Jellachich, and,
only in case of a refusal, to cross the frontier of Hungary in
pursuit of the fugitive. A fatal delay was thus occasioned;
the Ban reached the neighborhood of Vienna without meeting
with opposition; the forces of Windischgrats and Jellachich
were united; and the insurrection of the capital, though it
temporarily confined the movements of the intra-mural soldiers, did not long prevent them from evacuating the city and
joining the troops of the imperial party.
There never was a more singular revolution.  Though in
open hostility to each other, the soldiers and citizens, when
not fighting, met and exchanged civilities with their usual
freedom. No attempt was made, on either side, to derange
the ordinary course of business. Shops were still open as in
the most quiet seasons.  Stages were still running without
molestation.  The telegraph was left undisturbed in its operations. Trains of cars were yet constantly going and returning.
Citizens, taking with them what they wished, proceeded to the
country at their pleasure.  Countrymen, bringing what they
chose, were admitted into the city without a question.  A
revolution had been completed; but there was no hand, no
power, to control, to guide, to use it. The people submitted
their condition to the Constituent Assembly; and the Constituent Assembly, which the Sclavic members had abandoned,
were waiting to be directed, or pushed forward, -by the spirit
and impulses of the people. The Assembly finally resigned
the defence of the city, and of the revolution, to the Common




HUNGARY AND KOSSITH.                 815
Council.  The Common Council, not accustomed to such
bloody business, looked to the National Guards, not only for
protection, but for the initiation of all necessary measures.
The National Guards could not depend upon their commanders.
They changed them  three times in five days.  General Messenhauser, the last one appointed, though true to the popular
cause, was a man of no military genius.  He satisfied his ambition, or appeased his conscience, with useless proclamations
to the citizens.  The citizens, full of animation and as brave
as Spartans, wasted their time and their ammunition in firing
long shots from the glacis, which separates the inner from the
outer town, upon the distant camps of their antagonists. The
Austrians and the Hungarians, having exactly the same ends
in view, were both paralyzed by the same, and a very needless,
scruple. They were both vainly endeavoring to carry on a
revolution in a perfectly legal manner, until one or the other
party should set the example of illegality, by taking some
step not authorized by law and custom. The Viennese were
waiting for the Hungarians to get impatient and cross the
frontier of Hungary.  The Hungarians, on their part, were
waiting for the Viennese to become weary of this tardiness,
and to send a request for their presence at the capital.
While the revolution was in this condition, the Hungarians
sent Francis Pulsky as a messenger to Vienna, to make an
inquiry into the true state of things, and particularly to learn
the wishes of the patriots. He arrived at the capital on the
13th of October.  He first went to the Permanent Committee
of the Assembly, which was then holding its sessions in the
imperial palace. The Committee sent him to the Council.
The Council sent him to the Guards.  The Guards, partly in
the hands of imperialists, and liable to be betrayed at any
moment, would scarcely make an answer to his interrogations,
and gave him no satisfaction. He returned in disappointment
to the camp of the Hungarians.:' Pulsky's Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. i. pp. 197-200.




316             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
At this crisis the world-renowned Bem reached Vienna on
his way to Hungary.  He was a Pole of noble blood, of a
commanding and pleasing appearance, and with the marks of
benevolence and genius on every feature. A patriot from his
birth, and a soldier by trade, he had fought many a battle for
his country, in her last struggle for existence, against the
autocrat of the north. During the whole summer, he had
been performing deeds of heroism, in a private way, for the
cause of European liberty, without even the expectation of
personal reward. He now came to offer his services to that
nation, which, as he thought, was doing most for human freedom, and which needed his devotion most. No sooner, however, was it known to the citizens of Vienna, that the wellknown Bern was among them, than they thronged the apartments of the chieftain, importuning him to take upon himself
the command of the city and the defence of the revolution.
Bem  told the Austrians that his heart was in Hungary.
"'There," said he, "is a people, whose magnanimity, whose
love of liberty, whose hatred to despotism, are unknown in
Europe."  " That," replied the Viennese,'" is very true, but
the Magyars have Kossuth, whose sagacity, and bravery, and
talents are enoug.i for any one nation.  Bem  must be our
Kossuth."  The appeal succeeded.  The Pole agreed to the
proposition; and, in this way, for the first time, there was
formed a perfect understanding, a unity of design if not of
action, between the patriots of the two countries.
By this time, however, it had become nearly impossible for
the two to hold any intercourse with each other. Auersperg
had taken up his position in the park of Schwartzenberg, near
the camp of Jellachich.  Jellachich had collected all his
Croats and fortified himself near the south-western angle of
the city. Windischgrits had brought down all his forces from
Bohemia, and detailed numerous bodies from  Gallicia, Moravia, and other distant provinces. He had been appointed
commander-in-chief of all the imperial forces acting for the




.UNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 817
emperor on the soil of Austria. He had completely surrounded
the capital with his soldiers. tI-e had issued a manifesto, declaring himself civil and military dictator of the whole monarchy, excepting Italy, where the veteran Radetsky was still
in office.  He had summoned all the staff officers of the Hungarian army to make their appearance at his head-quarters,
and answer for their late conduct.  All things were now ripe,
on the part of the imperialists, for action.
The Hungarians were also getting ready.  W}ith a force of
twelve thousand men, and thirty cannon, Kossuth had left
1Pesth, against all the opposition of his undecided and hesitating colleagues, to join the Hungarian camp at Pressburg. He
had waited, and reasoned with his friends, till he could wait
no longer. IHe was received by his countrymen with unparalleled enthusiasm. His first step was to review the army.
His second was to send a letter to Bem, apprising him fully
of the disposition of the Hungarian army, and laying down a
plan of attacking the imperialists before Vienna. He also
invited the Pole to visit the Magyar camp, and confer with
himself on the present emergency, and on the probabilities of
the future.  The letter was not received.  Getting into the
hands of MIessenhauser, who, since being superseded by Bem,
had begun to seek the means of reconciliation with the monareh, it was suppressed by the treacherous German.  The
failure of that epistle was the second failure of the revolution.
H-ad it safely reached the hands of Bem, the two great men
would have met and planned a movement, which, there can be
no doubt, would have been successful.  The imperialists could
have been enclosed between two armies, one of which was safe
within a line of fortifications, which have seldom submitted to
the utmost power and bravery of an enemy. The other, apl)roaching from behind, could have advanced and retired at
pleasure, cut off the sale of food to their opponents, and,
watching their opportunity, rushed down upon them with their
characteristic impetuosity at the most favorable moments.
27*




318             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Union would have been victory; but Vienna had committed
too much of her wavering destiny to a traitor. Several dafys
were given up, by the Hungarians, to the expectation of seeing Bem. No Bern appeared. Little did the Magyars know
what bloody business was occupying the hands of the energetic Pole. On the 27th of October, while Kossuth was addressing a council of the superior officers, the thunder of the
imperial cannon was wafted by a western breeze to the camp
of the Magyars. He had been urging upon his friends the
necessity of marching directly to Vienna, if they wished to
save it. Pausing in the midst of his noble speech, to make
himself certain of the sounds he heard, then assuming an
attitude peculiarly appropriate, and throwing out his finger
toward the capital, he exclaimed: "Magyars, I have said
enough. I have told you the truth. Listen, if you wish to
hear the echo of my arguments!"
Such language could not fail to take effect. It now fell
upon the ears of men prepared to appreciate its meaning. At
the review on the 24th, just mentioned, the faint-hearted of
the army, who had been the chief obstacle to decisive measures, had been wisely, as well as humanely, permitted to retire from the scene of conflict. On that; day, Kossuth had
made one of his most memorable efforts.  His position, his
responsibility, his hope of the great future, the events of the
passing moment, filled him with an unusual inspiration. He
stirred the blood of every true-hearted Magyar. Since the
speecnes of the Roman orator against Cataline, the world had
heard nothing like the address, to which the poorest son of
Hungary was then allowed to listen. The privilege of hearing such a man, on such an occasion-a man not soon to be
paralleled-an occasion never to be repeated-would repay the
meanest soldier, one would think, for many a future trouble.
The soldiers seemed to appreciate their privilege. They had
never dreamed of such power of utterance.  They shouted.
They wept. They gnashed their teeth.  They lifted up their




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 319
clenched fists. They thundered from every quarter —" Lead
us against the traitors-let us grind them  to powder-the
Magyar will defend the liberty and independence of his nation!" At the conclusion of his appeal, Kossuth stretched
out his hand toward the great highway of Hungary, exclaiming with prodigious emphasis-" Magyars, there is the road
to your peaceful homes and firesides." Then turning to trace
it, as it crossed the plains towards Vienna, he added with still
greater passion-" Yonder is the path to death; but it is the
path of duty.  Which will you take?  Every man shall
choose for himself. ]We want none but willing soldiers!"
The scholar may talk of Demosthenes and his philippics.
Greece never heard such a shout as now uprose from the full
hearts of thirty thousand Magyars. "]Death or liberty!"
was the only answer. A few foreigners, about a hundred in
all, with half a dozen Hungarians, threw up their arms and
their commissions. The mass of the army stood fixeda breathing the same breath, burning with the same resolution.4
It cannot be denied, however, that there was still in the
Hungarian camp quite a formidable opposition to aggressive
measures.  It came not from the ranks.  It came not from
the inferior officers. All these begged and intreated to be
led to battle. It came from three men, whose position was
pre-eminent, and whose motives are to this day inscrutable.
Those men were general Moga, the commander-in-chief, colonel
Kolmann, the chief of the staff, and Pazmandy, the president
of the lower house of the National Assembly. The influence
of Kossuth, nevertheless, was superior to their opposition.
His words, when he spoke decidedly, were still laws to every
true-hearted Hungarian.  "Though Hungary," said he, in his
concluding remarks to this military council, " stood in no connection with Vienna, yet it is the duty of honor to hasten to
4Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. ii. p. 26, and Klapka's War of Hungary
vol. i. Int. p. 75.




320              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
the aid of the Viennese, as they have risen solely in opposition to the late despotic measures against the 3Magyar nation.
If we win a battle, it will not only decide the fate of the
Austrian monarchy, but of all Germany.  If we lose one, it
will not discourage the nation, but will spur it to still greater
sacrifices. But to be passive, at the very threshold of the
scene of action, would lower the Hungarians with foreign
countries, and would cool the ardor of Hungary itself." Such
was the logic of the statesman; and it was decisive, his opponents themselves making no farther resistance.
The golden moment, however, had been lost.  Kossuth had
conquered, for the last time, the opinion of his antagonists;
but the victory, with all the honor it conferred on him, was
too late for his country's highest good. On the 27th of October, the day of these deliberations, the details of the march
were settled.  On the 28th, the army crossed the frontier,
and advanced slowly toward Vienna. On the 29th, they still
proceeded carefully, making friends of all the people through
whose neighborhoods they passed. At night they took up
their position on a height opposite to Manneswirth and Schwechat, within sight of the steeples of the capital, and within
sight of the camp-fires of the imperialists. The night was
spent in preparation for the day of battle.  On the morning,
a heavy mist covered both armies, and hid all the surrounding
country. Between seven and eight o'clock, the vapor rose up,
and left the whole land, to the very suburbs of the city, an
open spectacle. "Now," said the Hungarians to themselves,"now, our fiiends in Vienna can see to commence their attack
on our common enemies. Now, according to Kossuth's letter
to Bem, they will soon open their long fires from the suburbs,
and keep the Austrians well occupied in front, while we are
rushing down upon them in the rear. Perhaps, however, they
are waiting for us to turn the faces of our foes eastward, that
our allies may have the advantage of the rear attack."  But
no guns were fired from  Vienna.  None were fired by the




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                321
Hungarians.  It was soon evident, as the Hungarians thought,
that Kossuth's letter had miscarried. The patriots of the
capital, however, would be sure to co-operate, in an effective
manner, it was still believed, so soon as they should see the
Hungarians and Austrians in actual conflict.  At eight o'clock
the first cannon-shot sounded from the army of the imperialists. It was greeted with a thundering acclamation on the
side of the impatient Magyars. A cannonading of two hours
followed. At ten o'clock, Major Guyon made a furious charge
from the left upon Manneswdrth, and took it. The right wing
next pushed forwards against the Croats, who were still commanded by the rebel, Jellachich, and defeated them with great
slaughter. Now was the moment for the patriots of the capital
to make their sortie.  But no sortie was made.  All was still
upon the ramparts and around the gates. Not a gun was discharged.  Not a flag was seen.  There began to be a strange
mystery in all this silence. Still there was hope. The Hungarians pushed onward.  They prepared to storm  Schwechat.
Suddenly, as if by ambuscade, regiment after regiment of the
imperial army began to pour down upon the left of the Hungarians.  The right, perfectly victorious, dared not advance,
for fear of breaking up the line of battle.  Next, other regiments, seemingly without number, rushed from their positions
against the right and centre of the Hungarians.  Their camp
was left completely exposed to the patriots of the city. But
no patriots appeared. Vienna remained as silent as a graveyard. The mystery had become terribly perplexing. Kossuth, who rode continually by Moga's side, exposing his person to all the chances of the engagement, still animated the
heart of the commander, still pushed on the Magyars to battle,
still hoped that the expected aid would come in time to save
the fortunes of the day and crush the enemies of human freedom.'At four o'clock, Moga wished to order a retreat, but
Kossuth peremptorily forbade him.  At that moment, however, as chance would have it, a battalion of peasants from




322'             HUNGARY AND KOSSUT-I.
the county of Komorn, armed with scythes only, who had
stood passively exposed to the fire of the enemy for several
hours, were thrown into confusion by the sudden explosion of
several shells. They turned and fled. The right wing was
thus irretrievably disordered. The retreat was sounded with
the consent of Kossuth. It was completely covered by the
bravery of the left wing, which doubled round upon the retreating right, and, with the help of a small reserve, stood
between the fugitives and their foes. At night, while encamped at a place of safety, it was discovered, that thirty
thousand Hungarians had fought eight hours against seventy
thousand Austrians; that two hundred of the Magyars had
made their beds, on the field of battle, with about five hundred of their antagonists; and, as a sufficient solution of the
great mystery of the day, that, when the first shot was fired
in the morning, the patriotic capital had fallen, and was then
actually occupied by a detachment of the imperial forces!5
The victors did not pursue the fugitives. There was a work
to be done in Austria, before the affairs of Hungary could
receive farther notice from the conquerors. Vienna must be
purged of its patriotism.  The rifle of the court-martial must
decimate the party of German democrats. Each class of men,
who had contributed any members to that party, had to suffer,
as if in a symbolical manner, in one of its most illustrious
representatives; and the death of these representatives was to
be solemnized by the immolation of vast numbers of their
respective associates and supporters. It would seem that
Windischgrits, who hated democracy with a peculiar hatred,
wished to condemn and madden every order of its adherents,
by selecting his victims from each with a degree of system.
Pulsky's Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. ii. pp. 23-34. Francis Pulsky,
husband of the authoress, is the best extant authority for this engagement. He was an eye-witness. He was aid to Moga on the
battle-field. With his account, however, I have compared several
others. There is a general agreement.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 323
First of all, the eloquent Blum, one of the most benevolent
and harmless of men, was obliged to represent the Frankfort
Assembly, of which he was a member, by presenting his noble
and intellectual forehead as a mark to the unerring riflemen.
Baron Stenau represented, in the hour of death, as he had in
life, the republican section of the nobility. The democratic
press was put under the ban by the execution of the peaceloving but patriotic Becher. The Jews were punished by the
death of the youthful, learned and enthusiastic philosopher,
Jellinek, whose *greatest crime was, that he. advocated the
mystical doctrines of his master, Hegel, whose works had long
been legally established as text-books in many of the leading
German universities. The Poles were branded by the murder
of Jelovizki, the aid-de-camp of Bem, who, wounded and disguised, had effected his escape and joined the Hungarian army.
Several Hungarians, day-laborers, who had had no connection
with the revolution, paid the bloody tribute for their country.
The National Guards received a double portion of this foul
resentment. In the first place, quite a number of superior
and inferior officers were shot. These, however, were not
thought to be sufficient.  Messenhauser, whose patriotism,
however sincere, had been of real disadvantage to his party,
and whose course of action had been extremely gentle, had,
nevertheless, gone too far, it was believed by Windischgrts,
to admit of favor. He was tried and sentenced. According
to law and custom, however, in the case of a commanding
general, three days were given him to prepare for death.  A
petition, largely signed by the most noted imperialists of the
city, was sent to Olmiitz imploring mercy for the ill-fated
officer of the people. The blood-thirsty conqueror was not to
be thus eluded.  Messenhauser was executed on the second
day after his conviction, contrary to the remonstrance of the
imperial Judge-Advocate, who pronounced the act illegal;
and, just in time to see the pale corpse before its burial, the
messengers returned from Olmiitz with the general's pardon!




324             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
While such brutalities were being perpetrated at Vienna,
the Hungarians had retreated to Pressburg, where they were
making vigorous preparations to defend the nation. Moga,
having received a fall from his horse, resigned his command;
and Kossuth, as a reward for bravery and talents displayed in
the engagement of Schwechat, instantly raised Gdrgey, before
unknown to fame, to the post thus rendered vacant. The new
commander commenced his responsible career with great spirit.
His sagacity in the selection of agents, his skill in giving form
and solidity to a mass of unpractised soldiers, were soon apparent. Under his hand, the unmilitary volunteer, who had
never seen a battle, was at once transformed into the likeness,
and marked by the characteristics, of a veteran.  The looseness of Moga's discipline was immediately superseded by the
most rigid and systematic order. In less than fourteen days
from the elevation of the young general, the upper army of
defence, as this corps was styled, instead of the waywardness
and weakness of a horde of raw recruits, had become an army
worthy of the work to which they were soon to be devoted.
In the commencement of the Hungarian revolution, so far
back as 1832, the party of the patriots had been composed
chiefly of Protestants. The other denominations, and particularly the Catholics, were generally in the opposition.  The
revolution itself, however, when its character had become fully
known, when the nature of the new laws had been made apparent, when the people had had the privilege of tasting for
themselves the blessings sought after by the establishment of
universal equality and liberty, had conquered nearly all opposition. The whole nation, as has been seen, had rejoiced
together. When the Serbs revolted, when the Croats rebelled,
the Catholics of Hungary and Transylvania maintained their
fealty to the revived and improved constitution. Kossuth,
though a consistent Protestant himself, had gained the confidence of an entire denomination, which, in almost every other
tountry, and in all ages, has leaned to the support of despot



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 825
ism and oppression. At the juncture now under consideration,
the bishops of that denomination, still adhering to their recent love of freedom, after a long and profound deliberation,
addressed a remonstrance to their emperor, forcibly presenting
the cruelty and duplicity of his late movements, the duty of
the Hungarians to resist him, and the dreadful impolicy and
wickedness of a civil war, certainly to be raised by a continuance of his unhappy measures: " Hungary is actually," said
the bishops, " in the saddest and most deplorable situation.
In the south, an entire race, although enjoying all the civil and
political rights recognised in Hungary, has been in open insurrecti.on for several months, excited and led astray by a party,
that seems to have adopted the frightful mission of exterminating the Magyar and German races, which have constantly
been the strongest and surest support of the throne of your
majesty. Several thriving towns and villages have become a
prey to flames, and have been totally destroyed; thousands of
Magyar and German subjects are wandering about without
food or shelter, or have fallen victims to indescribable cruelties; for it is revolting to repeat the frightful atrocities by
which the popular rage, let loose by diabolical excitement,
ventures to display itself."  Their charge of duplicity, however caustic, is expressed in the language of doubt, though the
doubt is burningly ironical: " Yes, Sire, it is under your government, and in the name of your majesty, that our flourishing towns are bombarded, sacked, and destroyed. In the name
of your majesty, they butcher the Magyars and Germans.
Yes, Sire, all this is done; and they incessantly repeat it, in
the name and by the order of your majesty, who, nevertheless, have proved, in a manner so authentic and so recent, your
benevolent and paternal intentions towards Hungary-in the
name of your majesty; who, in the last Diet of Pressburg,
yielding to the wishes of the Hungarian nation, and to the
exigencies of the time, consented to sanction and confirm, by
your royal word and oath, the foundation of a new constitu28




326             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
tion, established on the still broader foundation of a perfectly
independent government i" The resistance of the nation to
these acts of despotism and double-mindedness is defended in
the plainest but most respectful language: "Already, Sire,
have these new laws and liberties, giving the surest guarantees
for the freedom of the people, struck root so deeply in the
hearts of the nation, that public opinion makes it our duty to
represent to your majesty, that the Hungarian people could
not but lose that devotion and veneration, consecrated and
proved on so many occasions up to the present time, if it were
attempted to make them believe, that the violation of the
laws, and of the government sanctioned and established. by
your majesty, is committed with the consent of the king!"
The fearful results of this civil conflict, brought on by royal
treachery, are boldly stated: "But let your majesty also deign
to reflect upon the terrible consequences of these civil wars,
not only as regards their influence on the moral and substantial
interests of the people, but also as regards the security and
stability of the monarchy. Let a-barrier be speedily raised
against those passions excited and let loose, with infernal art,
amongst populations hitherto so peaceable! How is it possible to make people, who have been inspired with the most
frightful thirst-the thirst of blood-return within the limits
of order, justice, and moderation?  Who will restore to the
regal majesty the original purity of its brilliancy, of its
splendor, after having dragged that majesty in the mire of the
most evil passions?  Who will restore faith and confidence in
the royal word and oath?  Who will render an account to the
tribunal of the living God, of the thousands of individuals,
who have fallen, and fall every day, innocent victims to the
fury of civil war i" After this explicit declaration, that the
Magyars were "innocent" of the trouble brought upon their
country, the patriotic bishops conclude their address by an
appeal, that must have gone like naked steel to the conscience
of the monarch: "Sire! our duty as faithful subjects, the




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                327
good of the country, and the honor of our religion, have inspired us to make these humble but sincere remonstrances,
and have bid us raise our voices! So, let us hope, that your
majesty- will not only receive our sentiments, but that, mindful of the solemn oath that you took on the day of your coronation, in- the face of Heaven, not only to defend the liberties
of the people, but to extend them-"that, mindful of this oath,
to which you appeal so often and so solemnly, you will remove
from your royal person the terrible responsibility, which these
impious and bloody wars heap upon the throne-and that you
will tear off the tissue of vile falsehoods, with which pernicious
advisers beset you, by hastening with prompt and strong resolution to recall peace and order to our country, which was
always the firmest prop to your throne, in order that, in the
midst of profound peace, she may raise a monument of eternal
gratitude to the justice and paternal benevolence of her king!"6
The address was delivered to the king by the lips of Fogarassy, one of its signers, in the royal retr6at at Olmiitz. The
bishop was treated with contempt. The emperor, though a
fugitive, felt certain of the ultimate success of the reaction.
The document was read to him on the 30th of October, the
day of the defeat at Schwechat, when the fall of Vienna,
added to all the other disasters of the democratic party, had
made it safe for him  to be again a despot. This, of course,
was his natural character. He acted like himself, and like his
ancestors, in abusing the patriotic bishop. The abuse, however, was useful to the oppressed and insulted country. When
the episcopal messenger returned to Pesth, the news of his
reception at court had preceded him. The clergy of his communion were enraged. The bishops again assembled, and, no
longer hoping any thing from Ferdinand, the imperial head
of their denomination, they prepared and published an address
to the Hungarian Catholics, which made nearly every man of
Pulsky's Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. ii. pp. 40-45.




328             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
them  a patriot: "When, six months ago, our constitution,
eight centuries old, was modified at the Diet of Pressburg,
according to the exigencies of the times and the wishes of the
nation, and its benefits extended to all the sons of our native
land, without distinction of class, language or creed; when the
independent government, sanctioned by the king, received its
powers, no one would have believed it possible ever to attack
that free constitution, or to excite the other races against the
Hungarians.  The good that was obtained having become the
good of all, the sincere alliance of the races ought, on the
contrary, to have been strengthened; barriers and walls between races, as between classes, ought to have fallen for ever.
With what joy we saw liberty and civil rights extended to our
fellow-countrymen-with what eagerness we pressed forward
to facilitate the realization of the wishes of the country-we
have proved by the sacrifices we have imposed upon ourselves.
We were convinced, that, if the liberty of the entire people,
and consequently of our faithful Catholics, were increased-if
they thus acquired the means of ameliorating their lot-our
holy church would become greater through the spiritual and
material elevation of her children, and that they would attach
themselves more closely to her in praising the Lord for the
benefits with which he had covered us, by the hands of the
legislators of our country.  It is for this reason, that we
hastened to make known to the clergy of our dioceses, that
they should point the attention of their hearers to the greatness and liberality of the new laws, in order that the faithful
might conscientiously fulfil their duties, (particularly obedience
to the king and to the legal authorities,) which their new
rights imposed upon them. To our intense sorrow, the peace
of our country has been troubled for several months; but it
is a consolation to us to see, that our exhortations in favor of
obedience and patriotism have not been uttered in vain.
Thanking God for this result, and grateful for the noble conduct of the clergy of our dioceses, we entreat them, as well




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 329
as all the faithful, with the tenderest expressions of fatherly
love, still to observe their indefatigable zeal, their immovable
fidelity to order, to repel the overtures of the anarchists, and
to obey sincerely the commands of the authorities charged
with the defence of the country. We exhort you, dear brethren in Christ, to be of unflinching fidelity to your country1 of
courageous devotion in her defence, of sincere obedience to the
authorities, who, in this hour of danger, are obliged to ask of
you more than ordinary services. Be convinced, that they are
endeavoring to win your liberty, and with it your earthly happiness. Consider it your most sacred duty, to submit yourselves to the legal authorities of the country, to live amongst
them in peace and love, mutually to assist each other, to sustain the weak, to encourage the timid, to punish the enemies
of order!"7
The language of the prelates stirred the heart of the whole
nation. The Catholics were completely committed by it to
the measures about to be adopted. The Protestants themselves, many of whom had still hoped for some possible reconciliation, were rendered more unanimous by it. If the Catholics, said the wavering of every name and order, cannot endure
the conduct of the king, it is time every man should begin to
look narrowly at his lukewarmness. If the Catholic prelacy,
the proverbial supporters of a strong government, the historical
defenders of despotism, cannot brook the severity of the present tyranny, it must be indeed a tyranny. The whole land
was roused. Every citizen began to speak openly and bitterly
of the base and dangerous trick, which, it was beginning to
be generally believed, had been played upon the nation by the
monarch.  No words can do justice to the excitement.  The
whole country was transformed to one universal magazine of
every species of combustible; and there was wanting but a
single spark to give to it a general and terrible explosion'Pulsky's Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. ii. pp. 46-49.
28*




330             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
That spark fell at the fatal moment. Just at this crisis, while
a commission of the National Assembly was in the act of revising the archives of the Palatine Archduke Stephen, a letter
was discovered, written by the Palatine to Ferdinand, and
dated the 24th of March, 1848, which demonstrated the treasonable designs of the emperor beyond the possibility of a
contradiction, It proved, that the king and his representative
were conspiring, early in the spring, in order to defeat the
liberal measures of the patriots, how they might overthrow
the Hungarian nationality and independence. Three plans
were presented and drawn out in detail: "I shall at present
attempt," says the Palatine, " in a few words, to bring forward
the three measures, by which alone I hope to be able to attain
any result in Hungary. The first measure would be, to withdraw the whole armed force from the country, and to leave it
a prey to total devastation-to look on passively upon the
disorders and fire-raisings-and also upon the struggles between nobles and peasants, and so forth." The meaning is,
of course, that, after having roused to madness the different
races against the Magyars, the Hungarian troops should be
drawn entirely from the country, that there might be no obstacle
to a total annihilation of that democratic people. " The second
measure would be," continues the Palatine, "to enter into
negotiations with Count Batthianyi, concerning the motiono
to be brought forward for laws, and to save every thing that
can be saved." The sense of this is, that, if possible, Batthianyi was to have been bribed to desert the cause of the
patriotic party, of which he was then a leader, and to give up
his abused country to the discretion of its monarch. "Lastly,"
concludes the conspirator, "the third measure would be, to
recall the Palatine and send a Royal Commissary to Pressburg,
invested with extraordinary power, and accompanied by a considerable military force, who, after dissolving the Diet there,
should proceed to Pesth, and carry on the government with an
iron hand, as long as circumstances should permit."  This




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHT                331
item in the plan needs no comment. It is simply a proposal
to annihilate the laws and constitution at a stroke and to erect
in their stead a military dictatorship.  So it seens, therefore,
that, from the very beginning, when the liberal measures of
the Magyar National Assembly were only matters of debate,
the king's party had resolved, in one of three ways, to destroy
them in the bud by breaking down the independence and
being of tlhe obnoxious people. No sooner, however, did this
conspiracy, so long kept a secret, get wind among the Hungarian people, than every man, not heretofore irrecoverably
committed-in the opposition, was up in a passion of patriotic
indignation.  The whole mystery of the spring and summer
was doubly solved. It was clearly'seen, that each of the three
ways of suppressing the liberal designs and doings of the
Hungarian nation had been tried, though not in the order
mentioned in the letter of the Palatine. In the first place,
Batthifnyi had been tampered with; but the count had been
too inflexible for the enemies of his country. Next, the races
had been roused to an internecine war among themselves,
while the troops, which should have protected the kingdom
from such a disaster, were employed in Italy in fighting the
battles of the reaction. Lastly, at a most critical moment,
when the desertion of a commander was the most dangerous,
the Palatine had abandoned his supreme post in the Hungarian army, in order to make way for the appointment of
Jellachich, who, as Royal Commissary with the powers of a
Dictator, was now about entering the kingdom to carry on the
government with his hand of iron! 8
When the massacre of Vienna was completed, the army of
the imperialists was ready to follow up its fortune in the
attack and subjugation of the Hungarian kingdom. There
was only one obstacle. Ferdinand, in his coronation oath,
had sworn to maintain and defend the liberties and integrity
8 Pulsky's Mem. Hung. Lady, vol. ii. pp. 95-102.




332             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
of the country. He had recently sworn to observe, as well as
cause to be observed, the late laws of the National Assembly,
by which the nation had been thrown into such a transport of
hope and happiness. It was impossible to deny these solemn
pledges. It was impossible to make the European world forget them. So long as he could carry on a rebellion, like that
raised by Jellachich, by secret intrigues, he had hoped to avoid
public scandal. One open act of perjury, however, would be
sure to ruin him with all people. Indeed, by the revelations
already made, his character for common honesty was gone for
ever. He knew it. Austria knew it. Other nations would
soon know it. He had forfeited his place. Nothing was left
to him but to quit it. On the 2d of December, therefore,
Ferdinand, emperor of Austria, weighed down with sin and
covered with infamy as with a garment, resigned a scepter,
which, for half a generation, he had made the scepter of a
tyrant. His brother, Francis Charles, the first heir to the
vacant throne, renounced his right in favor of his eldest son.
That son, Francis Joseph, a youth of only nineteen years,
without talents, without experience, without a knowledge of
the world, and, consequently, a fit instrument for the use of
other men, was immediately proclaimed. No oaths, no pledges,
no personal obligations, now lay in the path of those, who
were determined, by the bloodiest of means, to blot the name
and being of Hungary from the globe.
The situation of the kingdom was, at this time, very critical.
It was entirely surrounded  by its foes. On the north was
general Schlick, with a strong army, marching down upon the
devoted land. General Puchner, supported by the rebellious
Wallachians, held undisputed possession of Transylvania on
the east. The corps of general Nugent, fresh for any sort of
movement, was advancing northward from the valley of the
Drave. From the west, flushed with victory, poured down
the seventy thousand soldiers of the maddened Windischgrits,
reinforced by the troops of Jellachich, who came down resolved




HUNGARY AND, KOSSUTH.                333
to wipe out the disgrace of his late defeat, by an achievement
worthy of his rage. Between the four cardinal points, other
bodies of no small strength were co-operating with the general
attack.  Nine armies, indeed, at this fearful crisis, constituted
the military cordon, by which the whole land was girded.
The plan of the campaign was the plan of common hunters,
when they go in overpowering numbers against pestiferous
beasts, and when they wish to have a slaughter, rather than a
hunt. The plan was to surround and enclose the game, then,
gradually contracting the circle of their operations, crowding
their victims into the narrowest area, to murder them by wholesale, and so exterminate them at one powerful stroke.
Against this mighty combination, the Hungarians were very
inadequately prepared to act. In the country of the Serbs,
who were still in insurrection, there was an army of twenty
thousand men. In the north of Hungary, under the command
of Dembinski, a Polish general, were about eight thousand
more. Transylvania could not depend upon more than six
thousand able-bodied troops. Under general Gdrgey, on the
west of Hungary, the only defence of the nation against the
combined forces of Windischgriits and, Jellachich, were still
mustered about thirty thousand, who were chiefly volunteers.
Three of the great fortresses of the country-Arad, Temesvar,
and Esseg-were in the hands of the imperialists. There was
but little powder in the country. There was scarcely any
sulphur to be had. Lead was plenty, for the peasant had only
to dig it from the mines; but muskets, rifles, swords, and all
other military weapons, could not be purchased for more than
fifty or sixty thousand men. The rest of the army of defence
had to arm  themselves with hay-forks, pruning-hooks, and
scythes.9
9 They had a large importation of weapons at Vienna, but Messenhausser had refused to let them pass, fearing he might provoke
the suspicions of his enemies, that he was acting in concert with I
Hungarians!




334             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
With all her lack, however, Hungary had one advantage of
her foes. She had a man, who, in peace and in war, has
proved himself to be the greatest genius of his times.  She
had a man, whose counsels were adequate to instruct, whose
lips were eloquent to rouse, and whose hand was ever ready
for its work. Hungary had Kossuth. In the month of October, after the resignation of BatthiAnyi and the appointment
of Jellachich, Kossuth had been made President of the Committee of Defence. In this capacity he was now exerting
himself in a manner to excite the admiration of both his enemies and- his friends. His enemies, indeed, were very few.
His friends were as numerous as the friends of the newlyestablished freedom  of his native land.  His energy, his
purity, his patriotism, had silenced nearly all opposition. His
popularity was almost unbounded. He was the soul of every
movement. Now, when the nation was threatened from so
many quarters, his activity became an astonishment to his
countrymen. To supply the soldiery with arms, he turned the
fortresses, which had not been lost, into armories, where the
~rattle and thunder of machinery were heard continually. To
supply them with ammunition, he extracted sulphur from the
sulphuret of iron. To supply them with their stipulated pay,
he organized a national bank, without capital, but pledging
the faith of the commonwealth, that the paper should be redeemed when the liberties of the country should be won. To
supply them with ideas, with plans, he studied and wrote day
and night, and yet seemed to have no time for study, as he
was always present at every place of special interest at every
time of need. To supply them with enthusiasm, he flew over
the kingdom, in all directions, delivering those wonderfully
eloquent addresses, which, without any other labor, would have
been business enough for any ordinary man.  From  this
period, indeed, Kossuth and Hungary were the same.
The time for the great invasion had now arrived. The word
was given around the whole cordon of the invading armies.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 335
All the armies advanced slowly and cautiously toward the
center of the kingdom.  To that center the forces of the
patriots were obliged to gather. To that center the inhabitants fled for safety. There, on the banks of the Theiss, the
Hungarians prepared to make their great defence of every
thing that God had given them. The National Assembly removed from Pesth to Debreczin.  Kossuth and his colleagues
there established their official sittings.  There factories arose,
as by enchantment, for the manufacture of military weapons.
There, also, the last attempt at a reconciliation with the Austrian government was made, at the instance of the conservatives, and with Kossuth's consent. There the nation heard,
by public rumor, and by the proclamations of WindischgrAts,
that the messengers of peace had been imprisoned by the
proud imperialist, that other gross insults had been heaped
upon the unoffending kingdom, and that no reconciliation was
possible, excepting on the basis of renouncing for ever the
constitution, laws, liberties, and independence of the country.
It was there, too, that the last conservative abandoned his
opposition, and threw himself into the arms of Kossuth, acknowledging and celebrating the sagacity of the statesman,
and swearing to stand by him till Hungary should be a garden,
or a desert. There was need enough of all this resolution.
The invaders daily drew their circle of operations smaller and
smaller, watching a favorable opportunity for dashing through
the lines of the Hungarians, to begin the slaughter of the
nation. Closer and closer the area of free Hungary became
every day. Outside of the military circle there was nothing
but tyranny, confiscations and executions. Within it, there
was that bravery that arises from despair, when a whole people, conscious of the right, are determined to demand and
receive the price of their destruction.  Within that circle,
there was that courage, which, under a series of disasters, remained undaunted. In the south, Perczel lost the battle of
Moor, while hastening to join the general encampment. On




t336            HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
the east, the whole of Transylvania was surrendered to the
Austrians, who, led by Puchner, had been strengthened by a
force of fifteen thousand Russians. On the north, Dembinski,
now the commander-in-chief, was overpowered by the superior
numbers under Schlick.  From the west, the gros of the imperial army pushed forward toward the Magyar capital, driving
Gdrgey before them, who, after several bloody engagements,
was obliged to abandon Pressburg, Tirnau, Kasimir, Altenburg, Raab, Buda, and even Pesth itself. Meszaros was entirely defeated at Kassau. From all sides the patriots retreated
inwardly to the Theiss. As day followed day, the circumference of free Hungary became less and less. But, as the
people and the soldiers were crowded closer together, and their
common fate became more imminent, the hereditary valor of
the nation rose to a higher and higher pitch.  From the 16th
of December, when the campaign commenced, to the 31st of
January, nearly every step taken by the imperialists was a
step of victory, and nearly every order issued by the patriot
generals was an order to retreat. Yet, in the midst of all these
discouragements, there was hourly forming, in the hearts of the
Magyars, a common determination to fall, if fall they must, manfully fighting against despotism the battles of human freedom.
On the 1st of January, a Council of War was held under
the presidency of general Vetter, who, after the defeat and
resignation of Dembinski, had been raised to the command of
the Hungarian army. A halt was ordered to all the patriot
forces. They were to retreat no longer. A plan of operations
was laid' down. It received Kossuth's sanction. Offensive
movements were to be made in different directions. The
circular line of the invasion was to be broken at all hazards.
It was to be broken at various points; and the several segments were to be individually cut to pieces.
In the prosecution of this plan, Gdrgey, with that coolness
of deliberation and impetuosity of movement, which formed
so singular a contrast in his disposition, resolved to burst




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 337
through all opposition, in a northerly direction, and get in the
rear of the invaders.  This brilliant resolution was entirely
successful. Putting himself into perfect preparation, he broke
forth upon the city of Waitzen, repulsed the enemy, with great
slaughter, fought every step of his way from Waitzen to
Ipolysag, thence pushed through the mountains into the
Zips county, turned round and cut the line again on his road
to Eperies, where, after fortifying his position, he opened a
communication, by the help of general Guyon, with the government at Debreczin. Klapka, on getting the news of these
successes, advanced to meet Gdrgey, thus holding the imperialists under Schlick between the two patriot commanders.
Schlick, seeing his danger, fled' for safety to the nearest corps
of Austrians, thus leaving a wide gap in the circle of the invasion, with two able Magyars to defend it.
In pursuance of the same plan, Bem, gathering a little band
of five or six thousand men, dashed through the line of the
enemy on the east, forced his way into Transylvania, reinforced
his troops, attacked the Austrians and Russians under Puchner, defeated him in one engagement after another, till there
was but a miserable remnant left of him, and then chased that
remnant over the frontier.
Perezel, co-operating with the general enterprise, left the
corps of Dembinski, under whom he had been temporarily
serving, marched southwardly toward Szegedin, passed onward
to the attack of Sz. Tfmas, which he took by storm, carried
the celebrated Roman entrenchments, behind which the Serbs
had maintained -a strong position, relieved the garrison of
Peterwarasdein, drove the Servian rebels into Titel, restored
the ascendency of the nation in the Banat, and settled down
to keep possession of his conquest without the fear of successful opposition.
This being done, GOrgey, after taking a little rest, rushed
down through the centre of the common battle-field, defeated
Jellachich at Isaszeg, passed the gros of the Austrian army
29




338             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIT.
near Pesth, the second time attacked and carried Waitzen,
crossed the Gran in the face of a powerful opposition,; thus
drawing the imperialists from the suffering capital, met and
cut to pieces a corps of twenty thousand Austrians at Nagy
Sarlo, drove the main army before him as far as Raab, and
entered the gates of the far-famed fortress of Komorn covered
with the glory of his deeds.
While these feats of unrivaled bravery were being executed,
similar things were done, by several other commanders, near
the center of operations.  General Vecsey had beaten the
enemy at Szolnok. General Gospar, with the little corps left
by Gdrgey in the north, had defeated Schlick, and driven him
to the borders of the land.  General Aulich, pushing into the
capital as the Austrians were retiring from it, was received
with enthusiasm by the entire population, while the Danube
was burthened with the military stores, which the imperialists
hastily floated out of the kingdom upon its bosom. In all
directions, nothing could be seen, but fragments of Austrian
armies, and the friends of the Austrian government, making
what speed they could to effect their escape beyond the limits
of the kingdom. On the 26th of April, 1849, after a series
of victories seldom if ever paralleled on the page of history,
Hungary stood forth before the world, a free, an independent,
and a glorious country.  On the 4th of March, Austria had
published her imperial constitution, by which the Magyar
kingdom was pronounced and treated as a dependent province.
On the 19th of April following, in consideration of this terrible invasion, and because the young emperor openly refused
to receive the crown of St. Stephen in the legal manner, by
swearing to maintain the separateness and integrity of the nation, Hungary had published her Declaration of Independence.
Now, at the conclusion of all these triumphs, she had proved
herself worthy of the declaration. Excepting a few garrisons,
which could not conveniently escape, not an Austrian remained
in Hungary to dispute it!




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 339
CHAPTER  XII.
THE FALL OF HUNGARY.
THREE separate wars had thus arisen against the unoffending Hungarians. The Serbs, assisted by the Wallachians,
had risen upon their Magyar fellow-citizens. The Croats,
aided by the Sclavonians, had rebelled against the Magyar
nation.  The Austrians, the authors of both these feuds,
uniting and employing both, had made their deadliest onset
against the Magyar nationality and independence.  Three
times the Magyars had prevailed against all opposition. Three
times they had defended the cause of European liberty in her
chosen sanctuary. Three times the cause of despotism, upheld by duplicity and falsehood, had been broken.  Hungary,
having defeated and routed all her enemies, had become really
a land of freedom.
As the defenders of the nation, under the command of
Aulich, marched into the streets of Pesth, the whole capital
came out to welcome them with songs and garlands. The
superior officers were loaded with panegyrics.  The lower
officers were overwhelmed with praises.  The rough-looking
soldiers, who had for months seen nothing but the worst of
hardships, were everywhere met by the little children, and
covered all over with the flowers of April. The city had long
been in bondage. -All the people rejoiced and wept, as well
they might, in meeting, for the first time after the close of the
great struggle, their scarred and wayworn relatives-their
fathers, husbands, sons-who, by many a bloody battle, had
saved the free institutions of their common country.  Such,
too, was the joy of the whole kingdom. It was a period of
universal gratitude.




340             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
If there was any person, whose joy was not complete, that
person was the great Kossuth. And what, it may well be
asked, could he want, which he had not received?  He was
now the idol of the nation.  He had recovered, from the grasp
of its hereditary tyrants, its original constitution.  He had so
extended the meaning and benefits of that constitution, as to
make every inhabitant, poor as well as rich, peasant as much
as prince, an equal participant of its blessings.  He had carried the country through three wars successfully, all of which
had been raised against it, merely because it had set out anew
on the path of popular and equal liberty.  The people of that
country, grateful for his services, had raised him to the highest
position in their gift. They had paid him a homage given to
no man, by any people, since the days of Washington. Could
he, in reason, ask any thing more of them?  No, not any
thing. Nor did he ask any thing more of them. Still, he
was not entirely happy. His thoughts were too wide, his
vision was too extended, to allow him to drink from an unmixed cup, so long as he retained a recollection of the historical tactics of his country's enemies.  He knew the character of the Austrians. He knew the resources of a despot,
who has no scruples to restrain him.  I-e well knew, that, if
there was a mercenary army in all Europe, or an ambitious
monarch holding any of its scepters, the representative and
heir of the House of Hapsburg would not fail to subsidize, to
bribe, to promise, till another invasion, fourfold stronger than
the first, should come down to make a final sweep of the laws,
liberties and institutions of the democratic nation.
There was another reason why Kossuth, with all his honors
on him, could not rejoice as freely as did the masses of his
people.  He saw danger rising from the ranks of the nation's
liberators. He saw an unsanctified ambition springing up,
which, unless checked —and he beheld no way to check itwould be sure to bring disaster, should there be another day
of peril.  He saw a man, whom he had himself raised from




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 341
obscurity as a reward for military merit, whose deeds on the
field of battle had indeed been the deeds of a hero, but whose
very successes were pampering a spirit of supreme selfishness,
which was almost certain, under a temptation, to grow up into
the rankest treason.  That man was Arthur Gdrgey, who,
since the defeat of Schwechat, had been the Ajax, or the
Gonsalvo, of the army. His feats of bravery had never been
surpassed in the wars of any period. His daring, however,
had in no case reached to rashness. There was a foresight in
his mental composition, which, added to his courage, had made
him almost invariably successful.  His talent at giving form
and firmness to an irregular body of recruits, such as constituted nearly the whole of the Hungarian forces, was wonderful.  His will was a will of iron.  Nothing could move him
from his purposes. In any undertaking, if the first attempt
happened to be unsuccessful, he would repeat it to the twentieth
time, before he would give up his resolution. Nor would he,
after ever so many proofs of the difficulties of a first plan of
effort, change it for another, however clearly he might be convinced that a change could be effected to his advantage.  Conquer he could, and conquer he would, at any amount of hazard,
exactly as he had at first determined. Such was the imperiousness of his disposition, that, when he had learned his superiority over the ablest of his enemies, his very friends found
it impossible to govern him. Admired, and nearly worshiped,
by the entire body of the Hungarian army, as every great
general is admired and worshiped by his soldiers, he treated
his comrades in command with every degree of contempt from
insolence to indifference; and yet, such is the impunity of
great genius, such the adoration paid it, that this mode of
treating his associates scarcely lessened the amount of deference they showed him.  He soon began to break away from
the orders of the government. He despised the calculations,
as he said, of a set of peaceable gentlemen, who had hardly
ever seen a battle.' Kossuth alone," he remarked in a letter
29*'




342             HUNGARY AND KOQSUTH.
to his friend Klapka, " is a classical and generous character."
But he soon outgrew his respect for Kossuth.  "It is a pity
he is not a soldier!" G-drgey had no abiding admiration of
any thing but military genius; and he saw no man around
him equal to himself as the leader of an army. At that
fearful crisis, too, when' the tactics of the National Assembly
had been mostly superseded by the tactics of the field of conflict, when words had been turned to bullets, he clearly saw
and felt, that the army, and not the legislature, represented
the power of the nation. As the chief spirit of the army,
therefore, he drew into himself the prerogatives of a ruler,
until he considered himself able to cope with the mighty but
unselfish Kossuth. Kossuth, by this time, began to understand the towering and unprincipled ambition of the general;
but he was ready to forget the faults, if he could employ the
abilities, of his self-constituted rival.'He was ready even to
resign his authority, and give it into the hands of Gdrgey, if
the nation wished it.  The nation did not wish it.  It wished
only, that the two great men of the revolution would act in
concert, and so save it from destruction. Kossuth made every
exertion, and every sacrifice, that could be expected of a great
and magnanimous patriot, in order to soothe the temper and
satisfy the ambition of his opponent. He gave him the chief
command of the Hungarian armies.  He made him his Secretary of War, thus clothing him with more than his share of
the sovereignty of the nation. No sooner, however, did the
aspirant get possession of this two-fold influence, thus magnanimously conferred upon him, than he retired to his headquarters and began to set himself up, not as the coadjutor of
the great and generous statesman, but in an attitude or defiance to the civil government.
It is easy, therefore, now to understand the reason, why
Gbrgey refused to co-operate with Kossuth in a scheme of
operations, which has been since pronounced, by all military
men, the only one by which it was at all possible to save the




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.                343
Kingdom.  Kossuth, still adhering to his former policy, advocated the necessity of pursuing the flying Austrians into their
own territory, and even to the ramparts of their democratic
capital.  "They are now," he said, "defeated.  They feel
dispirited and broken.  Windischgrits, satisfied of the hopelessness of his undertaking, has been recalled, and his command has been given to general Welden. Vienna is as full
as ever of devoted democrats. They have been maddened to
phrenzy by the recent executions. They are more than ever
ready to welcome us to their streets as liberators. Now is the
time to press hotly after the disheartened fugitives. Let us
crush our opponents while the panic is yet on them. Let us
rush to the imperial capital, raise the standard of the Austrian
and Hungarian people, and jointly hold the authority of the
state, till we can get our rights legally guaranteed in the most
solemn and satisfactory manner. By the time this great deed
is done, the few garrisons of the enemy still left among us,
kept by the surrounding populations within the cawyon of their
respective fortresses, will be starved into a willingness of offering, instead of receiving, terms of capitulation."
Such was Kossuth's plan of operations; and, as in so many
other instances, subsequent events have demonstrated the
soundness of his reasoning. Gbrgey, however, was not the
man to act upon a scheme laid down for him by one, who, with
all his abilities, was not a soldier.  He opposed the Governor.
" He wished first," he said, "to clear the country of her last
enemy, before he went on a hunt for others, who had fled to
their own lands for safety. The fugitives had been once defeated. They were worthy of no attention so long as they
acknowledged their defeat by flying. At home, however, there
were yet some, who deserved the notice of the patriotic army.
WVhat true-hearted Magyar could consent to show himself
abroad, when his foes were quartered near his own domicil,
bidding defiance to the nation to dislodge them? What
genuine sor of Hungary, what descendant of the heroic




344              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Arpad, can afford to see the soil of his native land polluted
by the foot-prints of a solitary Austrian?  And there is Buda,
the great national fortress, the Gibraltar of the country, the
time-honored capital, full of the renown and glory of former
ages, sacred to the use of Magyar liberty, now trampled by
the unholy feet of our oppressors! Shall we leave the temple
of the nation's independence in the hands of those, who will
boast of the possession so long as they have a historian or a
poet, and go running after wind-mill battles, whose success, it
is true, would be easy enough, but whose results would be
nearly useless! No, my countrymen, no! I am a Hungarian!
I am  fighting in the cause of the Hungarians! The Hungarians -care nothing about the Austrians, except as they are
here to trouble us! And here they are; but here they shall
be no longer! If my blood is wanted, every drop of it shall
be shed, or there shall not be long, in all Hungary, a solitary
foe to our glorious constitution to contaminate the dust he
stands on!"
This superficial but captivating style of argument carried
the Hungarian army.  It revived, also, the old party of the
conservatives in the National Assembly. It was an appeal to
the military vanity of the nation.  Kossuth, though he had
the power to pursue his own plan, hoped that the capture of
the great fortress would satisfy the ambition of his rival, and
that there might still be time to reach the camp of the Austrians, and cut them to pieces, before they could restore the
courage of the hostile troops, or concentrate reinforcements.
tie hoped to re-unite the two great parties, into which the
country was again divided, on one common system of operations. To divide the people, or to leave them thus divided,
he clearly saw, would be to ruin them. His greatness of soul
was such, that he found no difficulty in yielding temporarily
to the stubbornness of an opponent, if he could see any good
to his country coming from a personal concession.  The differ    ene  between him  and his antagconist, was fundamental.




IIUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                345
Kossuth was feady to sacrifice himself, at any moment and a
thousand times, as he was only fighting the battles of his
country for the sake of liberty. Gdrgey sacrificed nothing,
not even his opinion, but was pursuing the bent of his natural
disposition, for the sake of his aggrandizement. Kossuth
needed just such a soldier as the unconquerable Gdrgey.
Gdrgey needed just such a leader as the high-minded and
patriotic Kossuth. The country needed them both. It could
with difficulty survive without them.  But it needed them
united. Had they been united-had Gdrgey's military prowess
been patriotically submitted to a perfect co-operation with the
far-seeing statesmanship of Kossuth-Hungary, at this moment, would have been as independent as Great Britain, as
democratic as America, as free as the winds that sweep over
her.
The Hungarian general, obstinately adhering to his own
plan, relinquished the chance of making a complete conquest
of Austria, for the sake of the renown to be acquired by the
fall of Buda. Three-fourths of the brave little army were
drawn from the track of the imperial fugitives to settle down
around the ramparts of the old Magyar capital.  On the 4th
of May, Gdrgey demanded the immediate surrender of the
fortress. On the same day, general Henzi, the commander
of the fort, returned a peremptory refusal. At one o'clock,
on the 16th of May, a fearful assault was made by the Magyar troops; but they were repulsed with considerable slaughter.
The attack was repeated, precisely as before made, on the 21st,
when Gdrgey had the satisfaction of sending a dispatch to the
new seat of government beginning in the most triumphant
language: "The Hungarian colors are flying from the towers
of Buda castle!"  It was indeed a victory; but it was one
of those victories, which, gratifying for the moment as they
may be, cost too much to the victors. General Henzi, it is
true, had fallen and been trodden beneath the feet of his
assailants. The garrison, after suffering a heavy loss, had




346             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.
submitted; but twenty-six days had thus been sacrificed to a
useless undertaking, while the Austrians had been left to make
all needful preparations for their final and fatal invasion of
the country. They had gathered their flying and straggling
bands together. They had reduced the united army to the
severest discipline. They had obtained powerful reinforcements of native troops, and the first instalment of one hundred and fifty thousand Russian soldiers. They had again
changed their commander, in order to get the man best suited
to the emergency; and now that man, the blood-thirsty Haynau, with an immediate force of about one hundred thousand,
was about to plunge into the heart of Hungary, determined
to awe the nation into a peaceable submission, or butcher the
inhabitants to the very last of those offering resistance.1
Such was the fatal obstinacy of Gorgey.  The other gene.
rals had made the month of May somewhat memorable by a
series of minor victories.  Bem  had defeated general Mal.
kowski, the commander of ten thousand men, and driven him
from the Banat into Wallachia. Perczel had fought several
battles, besieged Temesvar, and reduced Titel, the last place
held by the rebellious Serbs on the lower Danube. Dembinski had kept undisputed possession of the north of Hungary.  Hatvani, it is true, in his ill-starred adventure against
the Wallachians of Transylvania, had been repulsed.  But
this was a solitary mishap in the'monthly calendar. Everywhere else, from east to west, from north to south, the army
of the patriots had maintained its triumphant attitude.
At the end of the first week in June, the armies of the
Austro-Russian invasion had taken their positions on the frontiers of the doomed and unhappy country. In the great camp
at Pressburg were fifty thousand Austrians, and twenty-five
thousand Russians, under the immediate command of Haynau.
In the Styrian city of Pettau, near the south-west limits of'Klapka's War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 33-50




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 347
the kingdom, general Nugent had concentrated a force of about,
twenty thousand. On the north-west, through the pass of
Arva, a body of nearly twenty thousand Russians, commanded
by general Grabbe, had entered Hungary and taken up their
position in the mountains. On the north-east, around the
celebrated pass of Dukla, prince Paskievicz stood with about
seventy-five thousand Russians. In Transylvania, on the far
east, under Riidigers and Liiders, were forty thousand Russians supported by fourteen thousand more, not far away, under
the command of general Clam-Gallas. On the lower Danube,
in south-eastern Hungary, were seventy-six thousand Wallachians and Serbs, in three divisions, which were commanded
by Jank, Rajacsicz and Stratimirovicz.  From the banks of
the Drave, along the southern boundary, Jellachich was
marching with a force of fifty thousand Sclavonians and
Croats. An army, in a word, of about three hundred and
seventy thousand men, the best disciplined troops in Europe,
fully equipped, well paid and fed, and headed by the ablest
generals within the limits of two empires, had formed another
cordon around the land of the liberty-loving Magyars, who
had just been suffering by several expensive and bloody efforts
in the defence of their hereditary freedom. It was a high
compliment to their bravery, unintentional as it was, that,
weakened as they had been by three civil wars, so large a force
was now deemed essential to their subjugation.2
In opposition to this fearful array of soldiers, the Hungarians could offer, at this time, only about fifty thousand
men. These were divided into eight corps, and so distributed
as to face the enemy at every point, where an entrance into
the country was expected. They were so arranged, also, in
2 Klapka, Pragay and other Hungarian writers, without the possibility of any concert, have given almost identical statements of the
forces of the enemy. Pragay's- numbers exceed those of Klapka.
Klapka's War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 70-79, and Pragay's Hungarian
Struggle, pp. 74-75.




348             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
reference to each other, that they formed a circular camp
passing nearly around the entire border of the kingdom, with
the fortress of Komorn, pronounced by Bonaparte to be impregnable, as the point d'apui of operations.  This startingpoint, then occupied by only six thousand men, was commanded by general Klapka. In a north-easterly direction,
along the valleys of the Neutra and'the Waag, the first, second
and third corps had taken up several advantageous situations,
which, by the help of the small corps under colonel Horvath and
major Armin Gdrgey, a brother of the great general, extended
still farther to the north, till they communicated with the
camp of Dembinski, the sentinel of the pass of Arva. Toward
the south-east, the seventh and eighth corps, united by the
division commanded by Kmetty, stretched up the valley of the
Raab, from  the city of that name, near the banks of the
Danube, through Teth, Marczalt6, and other towns, nearly to
the waters of the Drave.  Perczel, with a small force, was
still on the lower Danube, in the Banat, and communicated
with the forces on the Raab, as well as with the troops on the
borders of Transylvania under Bem. In different parts of the
country, but particularly around the margin of the Platten
Lake, and in northern Hungary, the army was seconded by
voluntary risings of the people, who, seeing the impending
danger, had begun to arm and discipline themselves for the
coming struggle.
It was not the numerical superiority of the enemy, however, that rendered the third invasion of the soil of Hungary
so formidable. The races and religions of two despotic nations, thus combined against the race, religion and liberty of
the Magyar, gave it a fearful influence among the sects and
nationalities of the kingdom. It was a combination of the
Sclave and German against the Hun, of the Roman and Greek
Catholics against the Protestants, no less than of the two
champions of absolutism in Europe against democratic principles  The emperor of Austria could march into the country




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                349
as the acknowledged champion of the Roman Catholics; he
could go there as the countryman and defender of the Germans.  The emperor of the Russias, upon crossing the frontier, would be revered as the head of the Sclavic nationalities,
whose existence had been almost deified by the Sclavic Hungarians, whose name had been mingled in their devotions from
the days of infancy. For reasons not otherwise explained,
than by the prejudices of race and a common faith, the Saxons
of Transylvania, as well as nearly all the Germans of the
kingdom, had refused to serve as soldiers during the AustroCroatian invasion; and though the Roman Catholic Sclaves
of the north of Hungary, and the Roman Catholics of every
part of it, had united with the Magyars in driving off the
Greek Sclaves of the southern provinces, in the first invasion,
who could tell what the same populations would do, when the
battle was to be between the Protestant Magyars, on the one
hand, and the German and Sclavic Catholics, Greek and Roman, on the other?  The Hungarian army, indeed, was filled
with Greek Sclaves and Roman Germans; but what man could
tell, whether, when they should find themselves arrayed against
people of their own faith and blood, they would not desert
their standards at the hour of peril? Perhaps, in the heat
of the war, when their help would be the most essential, they
would go over to their kindred and fellow-sectaries, and betray
the once envied and hated Magyar, after all his unexampled
generosity. If the army, therefore, could not be trusted, nothing could be trusted. Hungary must sink; and the cause
of democratic liberty, in the south of Europe, must perish
with her!
Such was the state of things at the opening of the final
contest. Every Magyar saw it. Every Magyar felt, that, at
this fearful crisis, whatever help might be promised by the
other races and religions, the Protestant Magyars alone could
be certainly depended on in the day of trial. The Protestant
Magyars were the fountain-head of democratic principles to
30




8.50            HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
the nation. Their kindred, it is true, of the Catholic faith,
though naturally constituting the strength of the conservative
party, had been nearly converted to the ideas of the more
liberal and enlightened portion of the race. If any thing was
to be expected of the other inhabitants, the expectation was
to be realized by infusing into their souls the same love of
liberty, which the Magyars had just immortalized by the passage of their recent laws. They were to be educated into the
doctrines of human freedom by the powerful exertions of those
already free. This was the creed of Kossuth. On this, he
had acted from the first.  The Magyars by blood, and such as
could be made Magyars, by being properly enlightened, were
his only hope. The work of a century, however, had to be
completed within the compass of a few weeks; and there was
no one so capable of accomplishing it as himself.  He, indeed,
was the main-spring of every movement.  All the business
of the nation had gradually fallen into his hands. Every thing
had to be done by him. His activity was almost miraculous.
It would be impossible for any person, not an eye-witness, to
give a true picture of his daily life at this alarming moment;
and it is fortunate, that one who saw him constantly has given
to the world a minute description of his habits at this time.
The account is worthy of preservation to the latest age:' I
hardly know where to begin," says the writer, who was one
of the governor's private secretaries, " as there is hardly ever
a pause in the course of his activity to start from; but, for
example, I will write down the doings of yesterday. Yesterday morning, after I had breakfasted, I hastened to the chancery-that is, to Kossuth's house —which contains four apartments, his sleeping chamber, a parlor, the chancery where we
four secretaries have our places, and a small room for copyists.
Three couriers with dispatches were in the room as I entered;
and Kossuth sat in his usual place, with a pen in his right
hand, and in the left the dispatches just brought him. I had
come rather late, for it was already a quarter past five o'clock;




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH:                351
and another secretary had prepared, in my place, two dispatches, which had been sent off at five. As I went in, he
was occupied in several ways. His hand was writing; his
month was dictating; his eye glanced at and read the open
dispatches; and his mind directed and followed all the operations of his servants. He looked paler and more sick than
usual. A glass of medicine stood at his side, of which he
tasted from time to time, as if the mixture were the means of
keeping up his physical existence. Indeed, though I have
often worked at his side, from early in the morning till late at
night, I do not remember having seen him stop to take any
nourishment excepting this mixture; and though he does
sometimes eat, I can assure you that the quantity of food
consumed by him would hardly be enough to keep a young
child from starving. One might almost say, that the physical
part of him has scarcely an existence of its own. The man
is nothing but spiritual energy; for, if it were not so, the
perishing sickly frame would long since have been dissolved
in spite of all the wisdom of the physicians. He is perhaps
the only living being, whose mighty will is alone sufficient, by
its own force, to urge forward the wheels of his physical nature and keep them constantly in motion. He will not be
sick; and he is not sick. His- spiritual resources, his resolution, his enthusiasm, endow him with the powers of a giant,
although his bodily strength is not more than that of a boy
of six years. IHe bids defiance to the deaths that threaten
him in so many different forms. His spirit keeps his body
alive. That spirit is still young and vigorous, and can cease
to be so only when the too great tension shall have irritated
the nerves to such a degree, that they will refuse to obey the
will.  Then, and then only, will that organism cease to be.
It will destroy itself."
After this personal sketch, the labors of a single day are
thus set down: "I had scarcely taken my place, when the
governor began to dictate a letter to general Bem; and we




352            EHUNGARY AND KOSSUTIE.
were similarly engaged for about four hours, during which
time I had written two letters, and each of my three colleagues
three, by his dictation. He himself had, in the mean time,
prepared two dispatches, one for Perczel and another for Komorn.  After nine o'clock, leaving us work enough for the
whole day, he went with the ministers Szemere and Duschek,
who came for him, to the National Assembly, taking with
him some papers, on which he had made several memoranda.
He returned at about four o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by several representatives, with whom he held a conference
of two hours, answering their questions and suggestions.
This, however, did not hinder him from examining the documents we had prepared during his absence, or from dictating
more letters. While he was thus dictating to us three or four
letters, with totally different contents, and all coming off together from the same lips, we had to be exceedingly careful
in committing them to paper, so rapid was his utterance.  At
six o'clock came more dispatches, and verbal inquiries, all of
which were answered promptly. The representatives, with
one exception, went away. The one remaining sat down by
the side of Kossuth and began to help us. This made five
secretaries; and to give some conception of the labors of the
evening, I will mention, that, from half-past seven to half-past
eight, he dictated to us, at the same time, five important letters, all of different contents. One of them was to Dembinski,
one to Bem, the third to Paris, the fourth to Gydngy6s, and
the fifth to Vienna. Two were in German, one in French,
and one in Hungarian." Rightly does the secretary exclaim,
as he records these labors-" Is it a man that can do such
things!"
But the toils of the day were not yet concluded: "After
this," continues the witness, " Kossuth was some time engaged
with figures, which he reckoned in a state of almost perfect
abstraction. While he was thus occupied, his friend and
family physician, the doctor and professor Bugat Pal, came in




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.               353
and interrupted him. He greeted the doctor, kindly pointed
him to a chair, and returned to his occupation. The doctor
took his left hand, which was yielded willingly, as if it did
not belong to its owner; and he held it for about fifteen
minutes, feeling the beat of the pulse, after which he retired
without being noticed by the illustrious patient. At eleven
o'clock, the head of one of my colleagues was already nodding;
and both myself, and the one opposite to me, could hardly
keep our eyes open. The clock struck twelve; and the noise
of the departure of the copyists roused him from his refiec.
tions.' What time is it, gentlemen?' he asked us; and when
we told him it was just after twelve, he became unquiet, and
a cloud suddenly passed over his brow. He arose from his
seat, saying,' Has no express arrived from Pesth?''No,'
was the answer; and he began to walk up and down the room.
He did not seem to think, that it was time to be seeking rest;
and, as if to keep us from having such a thought, he said:'Gentlemen, there is work to be done yet!' Finally, after
waiting vainly for another hour, he said to us:'Let us take
a little rest, gentlemen, while we are waiting. I will call you
when I need your help!'" Yes, the tireless guardian of the
nation, with all the dignities of his office on him, goes not to
his couch leaving a command to be called when needed; but,
as if the servant of his servants, he gives them an untroubled
sleep, promising to call them when he wants them!
There was more work, however, on its way to the hands of
the great master-workman: "He went into his bed-room,"
continues the secretary, "and we arranged ourselves on the
benches and slept with our fatigue as soundly as in the softest
bed. But our rest was not of long duration.  Between three
and four o'clock, the dispatches arrived. Still half-asleep, we
took our places, and Kossuth, that Watchman of his country,
dictated to us as before. At six in the morning, we received
permission to go away, while he went for a bath, though we
were to be there again by eight o'clock!"  Such, at this
30*



354             HI-UNGARY AND KOSSUTif.
period, was the daily life of Kossuth, a man whose health had
been broken by his long Austrian imprisonment.  " We,"
says the secretary with good reason-" we are young and
strong; and such a night's watching, now and then, will not
injure us.  But it is not _so~with him.  How long can this
hero of the nineteenth century-this guide of our fatherland
amid the foes that surround it-how long can his spirit sustain
the contest that it carries on with the little of physical nature
attached to it?  If, beyond the ocean, in the free and happy
America, there are men who feel a sympathy for our good
cause, we do not ask their prayers so much for the triumph
of the Magyars as for the life of Kossuth; for Hungary cannot be conquered-[the writer does not dream  of her ever
being betrayed] —so long as this incomprehensible being,
whose name is Kossuth, is spared to us, though Russians and
Austrians enter our country by myriads, and though thousands
of our brethren fall as sacrifices to the cause of freedom. He
is the image of liberty, equality and fraternity. He is the
incarnate spirit of justice.  He is the Washington of Hungary!"3
While thus wearing out his life in the closet, he sent forth
that celebrated proclamation to the Hungarian people, which
concluded with the thrilling and prophetic sentence: "Between Vesprim and Weissenburg the women shall dig a deep
grave, in which we will bury the name, the honor, the nation
of Hungary, or our enemies. And on this grave shall stand
a monument, inscribed with the record of ouri shame-' So
God punishes cowardice!'-or we will plant on it the tree of
freedom, eternally green, from whose foliage shall be heard
the voice of God speaking, as from the fiery bush to Moses-' This letter was published, at the time it describes, in all the
leading political journals of Europe and America; and I know not
to which one of them, in particular, it should be credited. In the
process of abridging it, I have endeavored only to effect some improvement of its style, without the smallest alteration of its facts.




rHUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               355'The. spot whereon thou standest is holy ground-so do I re
ward the brave!'-"
These labors, and particularly this proclamation, were followed up by his incomparable popular addresses. Leaving
his ministers to do what they could at home, and appointing
his own sister, a noble woman, to act as superintendent of the
public hospitals, worn as he. was by toil, he undertook a grand
tour of the kingdom in an open carriage, with his wife and
children at his side, that he might talk with the people face
to face, and rouse the masses by his eloquence. A traveler,
who heard him at this period, has given a brief description of
his style of speaking: " The effects of his oratory are astonishing. When he rises to speak, his features, finely molded and
of an oriental cast, though pale and haggard, as from mental
and physical suffering united, immediately excite interest.
His deep-toned, almost sepulchral voice adds to the first impression. Then, as he becomes warmed by his. subject, and
lanches into the enthusiastic and popular manner peculiar to
him, his hearers seem to imbibe all the feelings that so strongly
reign in his own bosom, and to be governed by the same will.
In his present tour through the provinces to raise the landstrum-all the able-bodied-so great has been his power over
the peasantry, that frequently men, women and even children,
running to their homes and seizing hooks, or whatever their
hands could find, assembled on the spot, and insisted on being
led directly against the enemy i" We read of no effects, more
striking than these, as produced by the eloquence of the
classic ages!
But it was in the National Assembly that his oratory was
the most sublime and overwhelming.  There he had an
audience fit for him.  There he felt the whole weight of his
responsibility. There he was surrounded by those heroes,
who, from the beginning, had sworn to live or die with him.
Generally, after stating clearly and cogently the proposition
to be established, and establishing it by the most cool and




356             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
convincing arguments, he would suddenly, toward the conclusion of a speech, break forth into those incomparable transports of passion, in which his very soul seemed to be gushing
out in supplication for his country's liberty. One of these
wonderful addresses was delivered at the crisis now under consideration. He well knew the, awful importance of the moment.  He knew the responsibility he assumed in giving
counsel to the representatives of the nation. It might be,
indeed it was, his last great appeal in behalf of his wronged,
oppressed, invaded, bleeding fatherland. In a few days, the
Austrians, Russians, Sclavonians, Croats, Serbs, Wallachians,
would be down upon it. There was but a moment left him;
and that moment was to leave behind it either liberty or annihilation. After passing deliberately through a long array
of facts and arguments, by which he carried conviction into
every breast, he ceased to speak, but still maintained his position as a speaker. Raising his large and now watery eyes
toward heaven, he seemed to be making his last petition, at
the throne of eternal Justice, for his abused and afflicted
country. A cloud passed over his countenance, as if he then
saw, by prophetic illumination, a revelation of the future.
Then, lowering his aspect a moment, and looking abroad,
through the open windows of the building, upon the grand
and historical scenery about him-the river, the plains, the
mountains-he again raised his eyes and withered hands on
high, exclaiming with that emphasis of his which no words
can represent-" O Hungary, Hungary, how can I give thee
up! 0 bury me, Hungarian earth, within thy holy bosom,
or be to me a land of freedom 1" Every representative before
him, even the iron-hearted generals, hearing the tones of his
voice, and seeing the tears rolling down his face, wept like
children!
Such patriotism, coupled with such efforts, could not be
otherwise than successful. A regular army of nearly two
hundred thousand men was the result of these unparalleled




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                357
exertions. The noble-hearted sister of the governor, in every
way worthy of her brother, sent out a proclamation to her
countrywomen, calling on them to do every thing in their
power to aid the suffering cause of liberty. They obeyed the
summons. Mothers, possessing Spartan valor, armed their
sons and led them to the recruiting officers. Wives, relinquishing their titles to their husbands, encouraged'them to enlist,
choosing to see themselves widows and their children' orphans,
rather than witness the fall of freedom. Nay, unprecedented
as is the fact, in Grecian or in Roman fame, maids, forgetting
their sex and despising the dangers of their undertaking,
formed themselves into companies, that they might occupy
and hold the fortresses, and thereby release their fathers and
brothers to fight the battles of their country on the field of
blood. One aged matron, from the banks of the Theiss, came
leading her more aged sire, a man of nearly eighty winters,
and wished to be enrolled. They were asked what they could
do in such a business. " If nothing more," they replied, "we
can teach the younger ones how to die for Kossuth and their
country i" The peasantry, who had just been released from
bondage, and who saw that the war had grown out of the
generosity of the Magyars toward themselves, could hardly
be restrained from rushing against the enemy unprepared, and
throwing away lives which might soon be necessary to the
triumph of the patriotic cause. "All they asked for was,"
says the author of the War in Hungary, "whether now the
time had come for the people to rise en masse. Gray-bearded
peasants shook the hands of my soldiers and said, with that
tranquility which characterizes the Hungarian peasant —' Don't
you care! We'll get the better of the Russians too. Hitherto,
we sent our sons only; but now, we, the old ones, will take
horse!'"  When that wonderful man, Louis Kossuth, was
again seated at his desk surrounded by his secretaries and
copyists, in addition to the two hundred thousand soldiers,
more than three times the number of Magyar citizens were




358              HUNGARY AND KOSSUTHT.
ready to rise up, at a moment's warning, in defence of their
country and its institutions. The differences of race and of
religion were nearly all buried.  The nation had assumed an
attitude that rendered it utterly unconquerable. The patriotism, the faith, the eloquence of Kossuth had proved victorious.
On his return to Pesth, on the 4th of June, he was overwhelmed with the gratitude of the citizens. Poets sang his
praises. Orators pronounced panegyrics. Men, women, and
little children, showered bouquets of flowers upon him, from
the roofs and windows of their houses, as he passed through
the streets of the city to his humble lodgings.4
Having thus roused his countrymen, and filled the nation
with his own spirit, he began to turn his eyes more directly to
other countries.  He opened a friendly negotiation with the
government of Turkey. The sultan was understood to refuse
a passage to the Russians through his dominions.  The hero
next looked to the lower provinces of the kingdom, which, in
the beginning of the revolution, had been unanimously against
him. There was now a powerful party in his favor; and they
sent him better promises than he had expected. He then
tried the temper of the Italian democrats. They consented
to assist him. He called upon the patriots of Austria. They
flocked in great numbers to his standard. Through his agent,
Tekeli, he tried the temper of the French.  There he was for
the first time entirely disappointed. Pulsky represented him
in England. The English people were friendly to him. The
4 Pragay gives the number of the patriot forces, at this period,
as one hundred and fifty-seven thousand; but he excludes several
smaller bodies of troops mentioned by other writers. Hungarian
Struggle for Freedom, p. 75. Klapka is extremely indefinite in his
numbers. There is a great deal of confusion, and not a little contradiction, in his figures. War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 61-80. I have
followed the official documents of the War Office and the proclamations of Kossuth. Louis Kossuth and Hungary, p. 319, Eng. ed.
The anecdotes I have gathered from the foreign journals.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                359
English government, the ally of Austria, conducted itself with
the most consummate illiberality. An envoy was dispatched
to our own country. The President of the United States sent
a messenger to Austria, assigning him the duty of watching
the progress of the revolution, that, at the first favorable opportunity, the American government might acknowledge the
independence of the Magyar'nation. Last of all, throwing
his whole energy into a concluding effort, this unconquerable
man sent forth an address to the free nations of all Europe.
There is nothing more powerful, more patriotic, more thrilling
in any language. The concluding sentence of that address
must be read with confusion of face, from this time for ever,
by every people that turned a deaf ear to its entreaties:
"Awake, O ye people of Europe'! On Hungarian ground,
the battle of European freedom is now fighting! With this
country, the free world will lose a powerful member! In this
nation, a true and heroic champion will perish; for we shall
fight, till we spill the last drop of our blood, that our country
may become either a chosen sanctuary of freedom, consecrated
by that blood, or shall form a damning monument, to all eternity, in token of the manner in which tyrants can league
together to destroy free peoples and free nations, and of the
shameful manner in which free -countries can abandon one
another!" With the exception of the countries immediately
about Hungary, Europe was silent at this heart-piercing call
for succor. The noble Magyars, soon seeing that they were
abandoned by the world to fight the great battle of human
liberty alone, went to their bloody task like men of courage.
They were resolved to survive as the champions of freedom,
or to be buried with her!
General Welden, the successor of Windischgrats, had resigned his command on the 1st of June. Haynau, the most
barbarous commander of modern times, began his career with
a series of military executions, in which the Hungarian officers,
Mednyansky and Gruber, and a minister of the gospel, the




86i0          hHUNGARY AND KOSSTIH.
Rev. Mr. Razga, were butchered in cold blood. His next step
was to move his immense army, by slow and cautious marches,
toward the Hungarian battle-line. Gdrgey, tired of his own
obstinacy, began to look for an opening to commence offensive
operations, instead of pursuing that defensive policy by which
he had already sacrificed the certainty of a triumph. The
opportunity, as he thought, soon occurred. His plans were
at once laid. On the 16th of June, three separate but simultaneous attacks were to be made on the Austrian army, from
three different points. The day came and the attacks were
made. From the camp at Mocshanok, on the southern side
of the Danube, general Nagy Sandor moved to Sintau, pushed
a column of the enemy from their position on the Neutra road,
took possession of the neighboring heights, bombarded the
city, expelled the garrison, and was about to collect the fruits
of the victory, when the Austrians, reinforced from their rear,
returned to the fight and carried all before them. The Hungarians retired in disorder, leaving their artillery on the field
of battle. On the same day, colonel Asboth was directed to
make an assault upon the imperialists stationed on the opposite
side of the Danube, under the command of general Pott. He
performed this duty at great risk and with no lack of spirit.
After marching for six hours over a marshy soil, into which
the feet of both men and horses sank every step, he reached
the little village of Kiralyrev, which he took and occupied.
The Austrians retreated to a height between Pered and Zsigord.
They were again driven from their position. The Hungarians
entered the two villages; but just as they were advancing
into the streets, a powerful reinforcement from the corps under
Wahlgemuth, the Austrian commander on that side of the
Danube, took their places in the line of battle and decided the
fortunes of the day against the Magyars. The patriots retreated to their camp, leaving behind them three field-pieces
and five hundred of their comrades. On this same day, also,
colonel Kosztolany engaged the enemy posted on the island




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 361
of Shiitt, between the two principal arms of the Danube, that
the Austrians there might be too much occupied to render
assistance to their friends on either bank of the separating
river. He left his camp at Nagy Megyer early in the morning; but the imperialists were so strongly entrenched on a
broken ground, where the artillery of the Hungarians could
not come into very effective action, that, after a lengthy and
almost harmless cannonade, during which the Magyars suffered
a severe loss of both men and horses, a repulse, a retreat, a
lamentation were the only fruits of the undertaking. On all
sides, indeed, the 16th of June was a day of discouragement
to the patriots. It was the beginning of the final conflict between the enemies and the friends of Magyar liberty; and the
MIagyars, in spite of all their heroism, had been defeated in
every action.5
Gdrgey was in neither of these engagements. They had
been conducted, however, according to his orders. Chagrined
at their ill success, he left the city of Pesth, where he had
been engaged in the business of his ministerial office, and rode
hastily to the camp of Klapka, resolved to turn the tide of
battle by his presence.  Reproving each of the officers for
their several defeats, he at once issued his directions for a
repetition of their late movement. Self-willed as he was, and
flattered by his former successes, he was not the man to take
a lesson from a solitary failure. The older officers assured
him of the difficulties of the undertaking, the hazard he would
run in risking another battle, and the ease with which he could
secure the advantage of the enemy, by altering his plan of
operations. Their reasonings, it is thought, convinced him, of
his error; but it was his nature not to submit to circumstances,
or to take advantage of them, when he had committed himself in any particular direction.  The battle must be fought
over again.  At every risk, Gdrgey must show the army, that
Klapka's War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 82-88.
31




362             HUNGARY AND KOSSTETI.
his opinion was never to be doubted. On the 19th of June
the word was given to repeat the maneuvers of the 16th precisely according to the original arrangements. They were repeated. They all proved unsuccessful. After an almost continuous contest for thirty-six hours, during which prodigies of
bravery were performed by the army of the patriots, they were
forced to retreat from every battle-ground, and fly for shelter
toward the great fortress. Goirgey himself, habited like a
peasant, and driven in an open cart, hastened to the place of
refuge with a downcast face and dejected spirits. The loss
of the two days, in men, was about two thousand."
Immediately after this engagement, the army of the imperialists, finding a greater concentration of their forces necessary to such victories as their cause demanded, returned to
Pressburg, and, crossing the river, proceeded down the highway toward the city of Raab, which was slightly defended by
about nine thousand patriots. The design of this maneuver
was very evident.  Several days, however, were to be thus
occupied, before any attack upon the city could be expected.
Tt is clear, therefore, that G6rgey should have concentrated
the larger part of the armies about the fortress upon Raab.
He should have known, that nine thousand could not stand
long against five or six times their number. Such was the
opinion of his officers. It was not his opinion. He was still
too confident of his abilities. He neglected to augment the
forces of P6ltenburg, who commanded Raab, while he gave
the imperialists every opportunity of bringing down as many
soldiers as they would. The battle was fought on the 28th
of June. It was a terrible struggle. Never, perhaps, in
modern warfare, did a smaller number of men longer hold in
check a larger army.  The dispositions of the defence were
admirable. The valor of the Hungarians was never surpassed
6 Klapka's War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 99-107. The loss of the
Austrians I have not seen reported.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 363
even by themselves.  Not only P6ltenburg, but colonel Kossuth, a relative of the governor, together with several other
officers, as well as all the men, covered themselves with unfading honor. Gdrgey himself, who reached the scene of action
about twelve o'clock, and who immediately took upon himself
the chief command, appeared in all his wonted heroism again.
The Magyars began to give way as Gdrgey came upon the
ground.  He rallied them  to the fight again.  Shock after
shock was sustained by them. Charge after charge was made
upon them. They received every thing, suffered every thing,
braved every thing. Feats of daring, however, could not save
the cause of the Hungarians.  The difference against theni
was too decided. Late in the day, when they saw all farther
resistance to be useless, they retreated from the city, marched
in tolerable order to the Acz forest, behind the Kzonczo, where
they were able to bivouac in safety.7
Resting but a single day in Raab, the enemy pushed onward
upon the retreating Hungarians, who.were obliged to seek
shelter behind the fortifications opposite to Komorn. These
fortifications are situated on a range of hills, on the southern
side of the Danube, the highest of which is called the Monostor,
from which it is easy to bombard both the fortress and city of
Komorn on the Shiitt. It was of the first importance to both
parties, therefore, to command these heights. From the gros
of the Austro-Russian army, which had pitched its camp in
the Acz forest, thirty thousand men were detached to carry
this chain of hills at any cost. Gorgey, who was at liberty,
by the help of two pontoon bridges communicating with the
city and the fort, to throw a still larger force into the fortifications, occupied them only with twenty-two thousand men
His pride would not allow him to meet the enemy on even
terms. It seemed to be his resolution, that, while his victories
should demonstrate his abilities to his friends, his defeats'Klapka's War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 119-126.




364             HEUINGARY AND KOS U.I-.
should carry no encouragement to his foes.  On the morning
of the 2d of July, the hostile columns began to move, on the
right and left wings of the Hungarian works. The first attack
was partially successful. General Piketti, with a strong detachment of hussars, met the imperial legions, but was swept
immediately from their path. A second time he rushed to
the encounter, when he was more fortunate. The advancing
columns retreated; -but the Hungarians, pursuing their advantages too far,. were soon compelled to turn and leave several
of their best field-batteries behind them.  The entire force of
the enemy was now directed against the Monostor.  The combat waxed terribly severe. The Magyars were driven in on
every side. The redoubts and outside breastworks were taken.
The black and yellow ensign of the imperialists fluttered from
the outer walls.  A powerful detachment was sent round the
base of the Monostor, between the mountain and the river, to
cut off the connection of the Hungarians with Komorn. Between the outside and the inside entrenchments, the AustroRussian columns again formed. A few minutes more, and
the Magyars would be flying, and rolling, and tumbling down
the hill to the river's edge, there to meet a certain death at
the hands of the detachment just mentioned, while the flag
of the victors would be proudly flapping to the mid-day breeze.
At this critical moment, Gdrgey reached the threatened point.
His presence had an astonishing effect. It is wonderful how
the bare sight of him would throw new courage into the faintest of his troops. Addressing a few words to his soldiers, in
that martial strain so peculiar to himself, he transformed the
most timid of them to a hero. They rallied to a single man.
They resolved to show him, that they were worthy of his frequent eulogies, if it cost them their last drop of blood; and,
with one simultaneous sweep, they dashed against their opponents, drove them  from  the outworks, broke through their
center, cut their line of battle into three sections, and chased
one of them to the borders of the Acz forest.  The detachment




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTIH.                365
at the base of the Monostor was annihilated by some strandbatteries on the other bank of the river.  At five o'clock in
the afternoon, the right wing of the enemy gave way, and fled
to Mocza.  The left wing yielded twice; but Gdrgey, satisfied
with his day's work, and seeing the night setting in, recalled
the Hungarians to their entrenchments.  He returned to camp
himself with a severe cut upon the head, but in high spirits.
The imperialists had been repulsed at every point; and they
had at last, before nine o'clock, retired to their encampment,
leaving upon the field of battle three thousand of their dead.
The loss of the patriots was about half as great.8
Immediately after this great battle, Gdrgey was removed
from his office as commander-in-chief, in consequence of his
having disobeyed the orders of the government and broken
his own word.  His selfish obstinacy, With all his talents, was
no longer to be endured. The secretaryship was also taken
from him. He was allowed to retain his superior position in
the central army, to which he had been so long attached.
General Lazar Meszaros was elevated to the supreme command.
Orders were at once issued, that, after leaving a suitable garrison at Komorn, the army should retreat by the way of Waitzen
and Pesth to the lower Danube, where a final stand was to be
made of all the armies of the commonwealth, according to the
tactics that had proved so successful in the second period of
the war.  Gorgey openly opposed these instructions. Finding
himself too weak, however, to succeed longer in defiance of
the government, and yet determined to ruin if he could not
rule, he sent in his resignation as a general officer, expecting
thereby to throw discouragement upon the patriotic cause.
He clearly foresaw the disastrous influence of such a step;
and he took it at a time when it was calculated to produce the
most deleterious effect. His pride had been touched. Iie
must have his revenge at any price.  He might, in this way,
8  aKlpka's War in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 129-140,
31*




366             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTMH.
also, compel the government to revoke its mandate, and permit
him, not only to resume his place, but to operate in his own
manner without restraint. His treasonable sagacity was destined partly to succeed.  Though the secretaryship was not
restored, at the request of his officers, he was reinstated as
commander of the central army, the generous Kossuth finding
it necessary, for the good of his country thus betrayed, to
yield once more to the man of the selfish heart and iron will.
Gdrgey, thus flattered, remained in office, and immediately
planned the disastrous battle of the 11th of July.
At the early hour of seven o'clock, the Hungarian forces
mustered behind the breastworks of their entrenched camp,
where they could stand protected and unobserved. At nine
o'clock, the right wing debouched under cover of a dense fog.
The Austrian artillery opened upon the assailants at eleven
o'clock. Colonel Assermann, with a few chosen troops, made
a powerful attack upon the enemy's encampment in the Acz
forest. General Leissingen made several vigorous charges
with the bayonet. General Klapka, leading the third corps,
advanced against the center of the imperialists at Csem, drove
one brigade before him, but was at length stopped by a Russian artillery reserve, which, for one hour, swept off the patriots
with a most fearful slaughter. Leissingen was compelled to
retreat. Assermann was nearly cut to pieces before he could
retire to a place of safety. Klapka, after performing miracles
of bravery, was repulsed. The whole army, covered by the
columns under Nagy Sandor, who had not found an opportunity to fight, returned to its entrenchments, where Girgey
awaited them with a heavy and disconcerted spirit. The
Hungarian loss was over fifteen hundred.9
While such sad fortunes were being suffered at the center
of the Hungarian line, the left wing was enjoying a season of
ouccess. Perczel, whose hot temper had brought him into
Klapka's Walr in Hungary, vol. i. pp. 207-.212,




HUNGARY AND KOSS:TIIT.               367
collision with his officers, had been superseded by general
Vetter, one of the ablest commanders of the war. After the
capture of Sz. Tamfs, this army had been instructed to watch
the movements-of the Ban, and to keep him  from forming a
junction with the Austrians and Russians from the west and
north.  This order was admirably fulfilled.  The Ban was
headed at every step.  On the 14th of July, three days after
the last battle of Komorn, general Guyon, by the direction of
Vetter, attacked the camp of Jellachich at Hegyes, carried it
at the point of the bayonet, drove the Croats to the Fruska
mountains, silenced all opposition in the south, and threatened
the rebellious provinces with that chastisement, which their
crimes deserved. The disasters of the central army, however,
called loudly upon the south for help. Vetter, after all this
success, was compelled to advance northward to Szegedin, to
which, in consequence of the repeated misfortunes of the west,
the government had fled. Jellachich came down from  his
mountain fastnesses, hung upon the rear of general Vetter,
and watched his opportunity to co-operate more directly with
the Austrians and Russians in the consummation of their
bloody and despotic work.'0
In the mean time, general Bem, who, when the difference
was not too great against him, had gone from victory to victory, had been overwhelmed by a combination of Austrian,
Russian and Wallachian hordes. General Puchner, with his
Austrian troops, and supported by the rising of the Wallachians, had found himself unable to stand against the impetuous and unconquerable Pole.  The Russian Scariatin had
been sent by general Liiders to his aid. In five several engagements, the combined armies had been defeated, routed,
and driven over the Hungarian frontier.  Kronstadt and
10 Pragay's Struggle for Freedom, pp. 76-78, and Pulsky's Mem.
Hung. Lady, vol. ii. pp. 233-235. Klapka is singularly defective
respecting the later operations of the south.




368             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
Hermannstadt, the largest cities of Transylvania, had been
stormed.  The rebellious Wallachians had been scattered to
their mountains.  But the tide of victory had at last turned.
Bemrn had been doing these wonders with only twenty thousand
men.  Against him soon marched, from three different sides,
fourteen thousand Austrians, forty thousand Russians, and
thirty thousand Wallachians.  His ammunition at last failed.
He was forced to retire from a contest so unequal.  After
losing several battles, and nearly all his men, he retreated
toward the Theiss. Transylvania was again abandoned to the
ravages of the foe.-1
In the north of Hungary, the right wing of the Magyai
army, commanded by general Visocky, the successor of Dem.
binski from the first of June, had been compelled to retreat
toward the south. Visocky, however, had been removed, upon
which Dembinski again took command. His forces amounted,
at this time, to thirty thousand men.  Marching down behind
the Theiss, where he met with little opposition, he had proceeded to Szegedin in obedience to the general plan. It was
the intention of the government, not only to make their final
stand at this place, but to begin from it a new system of operations, which had every prospect of success. Szegedin was, by
nature, one of the strongest positions in the country. Situated
at the confluence of the Maros and the Theiss, in a rough and
impracticable region, in the midst of a devoted population, it
was capable of holding out against almost any force, should all
the rest of the kingdom be reduced. When Dembinski arrived
there, after incorporating the southern army with his own, and
calling in some scattered garrisons near at hand, he found
himself at the head of nearly one hundred thousand well-tried
troops. He so stationed himself, that he had the Theiss upon
his front, the Maros upon his left, an impassable and unconquerable country upon his right, and the Transylvanian moun-' Pragay's Struggle for Freedom, pp. 79-82.




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 369
tains, whose passes could be easily guarded by general Bem,
to support his position from behind. In a few days, by the
zeal of one hundred thousand of the people, who came to help
the soldiers, he threw up fortifications around his camp, which
could defy three times as powerful an enemy as he had to
meet. That enemy, too, before they could reach him, had to
pass or annihilate general Gdrgey, who, when he wished to
exert himself, had more resources in himself than could be
found in all the generals of the Austro-Russian camp., One
or two decisive victories, such as he had gained at the beginning of the war, and such as he was capable of gaining at
almost any moment, when he would strike for his country instead of striking for himself, would bring the northern and
western armies of the invasion to a final halt. The people
of all Hungary, stirred by the last appeal of Kossuth, and
panting for the opportunity to close the long struggle by one
united and resistless stroke, were everywhere getting ready for
their work. All things were now ready-all things were certain-on the single condition, that every Magyar was resolved
to be a Magyar indeed.
In this critical condition of affairs, on the 13th of July,
Gdrgey finally made a show of submission to the government
and sullenly retreated from Komorn.  Klapka remained to
keep possession of the fort. The retreating army, divided into
three corps d'armee, conducted respectively by Nagy Sandor,
Leissingen and Pdltenburg, proceeded slowly down the northern bank of the Danube on the road to Waitzen.  They
amounted to twenty-six thousand men. They were the bravest
and best troops of Hungary.  They were the heroes of more
than thirty battle-fields. They had never given ground before
an equal foe. They had oftentimes conquered more than
three times their number.  They now looked upon themselves
as unconquerable by any force. They.were attended by seven
regiments of hussars, who were superior to any horsemen in
the world. They carried one hundred and fifty field-pieces,




370             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
which, served by Magyars, were a match for at least three
hundred on the other side. The Russians, whom they were
about to meet, were principally young soldiers of small military experience; and some of them were but little better than
raw recruits. Such an army, with such a leader, surrounded
and seconded by an enthusiastic population, could have marched
from battle-field to battle-field, sweeping every Russian from
its track. But the heart of its commander had grown cold.
He had been superseded in the supreme command.  He was
now meditating his terrible revenge. It cannot be doubted,
that, before he left the fortress, he had resolved to lead his
confiding and patriotic troops, not to victory, but to a dishonor
worse than death. Not daring to show his treason, while the
spirit of the army remained unimpaired, he sought every op.
portunity to sap their confidence, and to demoralize their sentiments, by overstating the forces of his opponents, and by
propagating disparaging falsehoods of every kind. The discipline of his soldiers was permitted to run down. They were
allowed to perpetrate all sorts of lawlessness on the road. On
his arrival at Waitzen, on the 15th, instead of pouring down
upon the Russian division, which occupied the town, as he
would have done-as he did do-less than three months before, he merely pushed the enemy from the city, that he might
not be disturbed in his passage through. The next day, when
the Russians returned upon him with some determination, he
kept them at abeyance with his artillery, while he was making
his preparations to advance. He left the city on the following
night; but his departure was so carelessly managed, that, at
four o'clock the next morning, when the main body was far
on its way toward the Theiss, the rear-guard and the baggagewagons were just moving from the streets. The wagons were,
of course, captured; but a portion of them were recovered by
a few divisions, which had not made much progress in the
march. At Rima-Szombath he was open enough to receive
the present of a suit of Russian arms from the hands of general




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.                371
Riidiger.  He not only accepted the gift, but returned the
compliment by sending to the Russian officer several articles
of his own.  An armistice of twenty-four hours was asked by
his wily antagonist; but Gdrgey, not feeling quite certain, at
that moment, that the demoralization had proceeded sufficiently
far to justify-so bold a step, declined the invitation. At the
next station, however, he removed the chief of his general
staff, and substituted his own brother, lieutenant-colonel Armin
Gdrgey, that he might the more safely carry on his treasonable intent. Hundreds of his soldiers were left to die on the
public road. Hundreds were permitted to desert. At Putnak, in the north of Hungary, he began to speak definitely
of making a surrender to the enemy. At Szolcza, his troops
defended themselves against their pursuers with a portion of
their former spirit; but while they were engaged in the bloody
work of giving and receiving death, their general amused
himself in playing with several of his favorites at a game of
chance. At Szikso, a little farther on, his aunt was apprehended by the authorities of the place; and they found on her
several letters from him to Paskievicz, the Russian commander
of the north, which marked him as a very doubtful, if not a
dangerous, man.  These letters were dispatched, by Nagy
Sandor, to the government at Szegedin. Kossuth, alarmed
at their contents, appointed a conference with Gorgey, which
was to be had at Szibakhaza.  Gkrgey, however, was not willing to meet the patriot, though he knew nothing of the capture of the letters. At Debreezin, the first corps was attacked
by the Russians, and, for the first time in thirty fights, defeated. They fought all day like heroes, against six times
their number, while Gdrgey, who was at Vamospercz, not two
hours distant, never stirred a foot to save them from destruction.  Having arrived at Arad, he sent a peremptory demand
to Kossuth to be acknowledged as dictator, an office but recently conferred upon the great statesman as the last resort of
fifteen millions of trusting and yet hopeful people. Behold




372             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTI.
the difference between a patriot and a traitor! Kossuth,
governed by the idea that the soldier, rather than the civilian,
was the man for such a crisis, and having no object but to
save his country, nor harboring the least resentment to his
rival, resolved to satisfy the heart of Gdrgey.  He hoped by
this measure to bring him to a sense of his responsibility, to
rouse his well-known abilities by touching his ambition as a
leader, and to make him a patriot by setting him a high example. Alas! examples are lost upon such spirits! This
demand to be made the irresponsible ruler of the nation was
only a part of the premeditated plan of treason. It was the
one thing essential, not -before secured, by which to render the
act of betraying his poor country legal.  Having made all his
arrangements with the Russians, and with a sufficient number
of his own minions, Arthur Gdrgey, as Dictator of the Hungarian nation, on the 13th of August, 1849, at the village of
Boros JenO, near Vilagos, surrendered his person, his army,
and the liberties and independence of his country into the
hands of those, who, for three hundred years, had been bent
on accomplishing its destruction!
The scene of the surrender beggars all description. An
eye-witness, in giving some account of it to the Allgemeine
-Zeitung, the great German paper, exhausts the exuberant
vocabulary of his language in the fruitless effort: "After I
had wound my way along," says the writer, "with a great deal
of trouble, I reached a small straw-roofed building, the only
inn in the place. As soon as I entered, I saw the Russian
commander-in-chief and Gdrgey, who, for forty-eight hours,
had been the Dictator of Hungary.  He was dressed in his
simple but romantic costume, which differed very much from
that of his general-staff, who stood around him. In a light
brown blouse, with a golden collar, riding-boots reaching far
above the knee, a round black hat surmounted with a waving
white feather, he was joking with a beautiful young girl, into
whose ear he was whispering flattering nonsense! The generlal



HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.                 8373
staff floated around him, their splendor and magnificence recalling the times of Hunnyadi and Zrini. Every one was
dressed in his most elegant uniform, as if for a festival. The
sun-burnt, youthful, thin figures, in short Attilas with heavy
gold trimmings, hats with waving feathers on their heads,
mounted on fiery horses, galloping to and fro, formed a group
as warlike as the fancy of a painter could describe. In the
midst of this, a general commotion soon took place.  Gdrgey
had thrown himself on his horse. He was followed by his
glittering suite. It was the last act in the grand drama of the
Magyar war. Only a soldier's heart can comprehend the feeling with which a warrior is parted from his arms. Many
seemed torn in pieces in helpless agony. Others wept as they
printed a parting kiss upon the cold steel. A great number
shrieked out with rage to be led against the enemy, rather
than be subjected to this disgrace.  I saw how officers and
men threw themselves into each other's arms, and, sobbing,
bid each other a long farewell. Others raved against their
officers and accused them of selfishness. No pen can describe
the wo, the despair, which prevailed among the hussars.
Many shot their horses; and they, who would have lost a
limb without a groan, sobbed like children. Gdrgey rode
round, proud, and immovable as a marble statue of Mars;
and it was only now and then, that his ringing metallic voice
was heard exhorting the soldiers to make haste!"
Alas! alas! that the anagram of Frederic, and the longfostered purpose of the despotic house of the Hapsburgs,
should be at last fulfilled through the treachery of a Hungarian
soldier! But, from the instant of the treason, the curses of
the world are upon the traitor. The curses of his own conscience are upon him. All these maledictions, with the displeasure of a righteous God, are now upon the man, who, to
revenge himself upon his rival, sold his country to its oppressors, when, by one splendid action, by one patriotic effort, by
one crowning victory, such as the one hundred thousand solt32




374              HUNGARY A1D KOSSUTH.
diers at Szegedin were panting for, he could have annihilated
the armies of the invasion, bid defiance to the Austrian despot,
and given liberty and tranquility to'fifteen millions of his
countrymen. Or if, instead of achieving such a triumph, he
was destined to fall on the field of battle, and to close his eyes
on a subjugated country, he could at least have done his duty
and died the death of a Leonidas, or a Ragoczy.
Immediately upon the perpetration of this deed, the army
of the new capital was disbanded. Many of the men, and
several of the officers, ended their present agony by putting
pistols to their foreheads.  Others fell upon their swords, or
pierced their hearts with the Magyar stiletto.  Hundreds,
whole companies, rather than fall into the hands of their
merciless oppressors, burst through the encampment, flying to
the high hills and deep gorges of the mountains, to terminate
their sorrows by starvation. Kossuth, the spotless patriot, but
now a private citizen-Kossuth, the great orator and statesman-Kossuth, the friend and benefactor of his people, seeing
that all was lost, and loaded with the grief of the whole nation, fled in tears toward the southern borders of the kingdom, to beg a temporary hiding-place in a barbarous but not
an unfeeling country I 12
Hungary was now fallen.  Haynau, the butcher, at once
erected his scaffolds for the execution of the friends of Magyar freedom. Scores of the noblest of the land were ignominiously hung for having defended the liberties of their
country. Other scores had the favor shown them of baring'a It has been asserted, by the slanderers of Hungary, that Kossuth took with him the sacred crown of St. Stephen; but the charge
is indignantly denied by all Hungarians. Adjutant Asboth, in the
London Times for Nov. 1, 1849, says —"As to the crown of Hungary,
it was sealed up by a committee of the diet, and delivered into the
charge of the responsible minister, who duly provided for its safety.
I can solemnly aver, to the best of my belief and knowledge, that
the president-governor never saw it in his life."




IIUNGARY AND KOSSUTII.              875
their foreheads to the rifle. Week after week, the blood of
the patriots ran in rivulets. Month after month, nothing was
heard but the voice of weeping and lamentation. On a single
day, soon after the surrender, thirteen of the ablest generals
of the war were murdered in cold blood, because they had
fought to save their homes from the assaults and abominations
of foreign soldiers. Four of them were dispatched before daybreak. Among these was Ernest Kiss, the richest land proprietor in the Banat, whose brother had been made insane by
the treachery of Gdrgey. He died a most shocking death.
The soldiers fired three rounds before the general fell, though
he was wounded at each discharge. His death struggles continued for ten minutes. Aulich and Leissingen, the oldest
and the youngest of the officers, died next. Leissingen had
had' the opportunity offered him of making his escape; but
he chose martyrdom to a dishonorable flight. As he walked
to the place of execution, one of his guard presented him his
wine-flask. "Thank you, my friend," said the general, "I
want no wine to give me courage-bring me a glass of water."
On reaching the bloody ground, he stooped down, and wrote
upon his knee a few words to a near relative: "I commend
to you, dear brother, my poor Liska and my two children. I
die for a cause which has always appeared to me just and holy.
If, in happier days, my friends ever desire to avenge my death,
let them remember, that humanity is the best political wisdom." Triirk, Lahner, P6ltenberg, Knezich and Nagy Sandor,
fell successively. Vecsey was compelled to stand, and see all
these comrades fall, before he was permitted to share their fate.
At last came the Servian Damjanics, the hero of southern
HIungary, who, in thirty battles, had never turned his face
from an advancing enemy. He had been standing as a spectator of the previous executions from six till half-past ten
o'clock. He had become weary and impatient.  When he
could endure the delay no longer, he stepped to an Austrian
officer and inquired, what could be the meaning of his being




376             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
left so long: "How is it that I, who in battle used to be the
first, am now the last?"  He fell without a murmur or a
struggle; and with him ended the massacre of the 6th of
October, the anniversary of the third and last revolution of
Vienna.
Similar scenes were enacted all over Hungary. Transylvania was given up to the tender mercies of the blood-thirsty
Urban. Not only officers, soldiers and citizens, but defenceless women, for practising the virtues that belong to them,
were led out in crowds to the place of slaughter. Ladies of
the most tender education, whose only crime was that of show
ing pity to a hunted relative, were condemned to the halter,
or to the bastinado. Among others, the wife of a lawyer, of
the name of Csat, was condemned to be flogged for concealing
her own son-in-law, who had served a short time as an officer
in the Hungarian army. When the poor woman was seized
in her own dwelling, she took down a portrait of Kossuth,
kissed it, pressed it to her heart, and then went willingly to
the market-place, where the punishment was to. be inflicted.
On the way there, it was discovered, that her condition was
too delicate to endure the whip; and so the sentence was
commuted.  On the 24th of October, Baron Forenyi, expresident of the upper house, and M. Szacsvray, reperk of the
lower house, and the draftsman of the Hungarilu Declaration
of Independence, together with several of tl. most distinguished of the representatives, were hung like common malefactors by order of the Austrian general.
No sooner was it known, that Kossuth and his companions
had thrown themselves upon the compassion of the Turkish
government, than every exertion was made, by Austria and
Russia, to get the refugees sent back again and delivered into
the hands of their victorious enemies.  Threats and promises
were both brought to bear upon the Turk.  The world looked
on, with the deepest interest, to see how he would dicic a
question, which involved the life of his noble guests. It sa;w




HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.               377
generally believed, that he would not dare to deny what Russia, backed by Austria, had demanded.  While the matter
was in negotiation, however, a benevolent but dishonorable
scheme was -started, by certain Turkish officers, to save the
fugitives. There was an old law, that an alien, fleeing from
justice, and entering the territories of the Sublime Porte,
could challenge and secure the protection of the state, by
abjuring his national faith, and professing the religion of
Mahomet.  This subterfuge was now offered to the Hungarians. A time was fixed upon for them to give their answer
to the proposition. In the mean while, but just prior to the
important day, Kossuth sent his celebrated letter to lord Palmerston, in which he describes his critical condition, and, as
a dying man, entreats the English minister to show compassion to his family: "Time presses. Our doom may in a few
days be sealed. Allow me to make an humble personal request. I am a man, my lord, prepared to face the worst; and
I can die with a free look at heaven, as I have lived. But I
am also, my lord, a husband, son, and father. My poor, truehearted wife, my children, and my noble old mother, are
wandering about in Hungary. They will probably soon fall
into the hands of thoseAustrians, who delight in torturing
even feeble women, and with whom the innocence of childhood is no protection against persecutions.  I conjure your
excellency, in the name of the Most High, to put a stop to
these cruelties by your powerful mediation, and especially to
accord to my wife and children an asylum on the soil of the
generous English people!"
The day at length arrived. The Hungarians were brought
out, by a Turkish officer, where they could stand in each other's
presence, and where the example of one defection would have
its influence upon the company. Many of the poor fugitives,
it must be confessed, loved life too well to stand against the
powerful temptation. The great Bem himself, who was a soldier simply, renounced the creed of his fathers and became a
32*




378             HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH.
follower of the prophet.  Kossuth was called on last.  I;s
reply may well go down to posterity as the sublime response:
"My answer," said the Christian patriot, " does not admit of
hesitation.  Between death and shame, the choice can neither
be dubious, nor difficult. Governor of Hungary, and elected
to that high place by the confidence of fifteen millions of my
countrymen, I know well what I owe to my country even in
exile. Even as a private individual, I have an honorable path
to pursue. Though once the governor of a generous people,
I leave no inheritance to my children. They shall at least
bear an unsullied name.  God's will be done.  I am prepared
to die!"
Such was Hungary; such have been her struggles; and
such were the career and character of her glorious champion.
Though now fallen, and writhing under the iron heel of her
oppressor, she has a future; and when her hour shall come,
as surely it will come, the civilized world will have a duty to
perform. By that time the free nations of the earth will
have learned the rights and the wrongs of this race of selfsacrificing democrats.  The American republic will have
learned them; and, whatever it may be wise and prudent for
the government to do, or not to do, when the next crisis comes,
the people will not fail to show themselves the enemies of oppression, and the friends of universal freedom.
THE END.