Price Three Shillings and Sixpence. 
 
 LOUIS j-v ,)SSUTH 
 
 lad 
 
 HUlNGAEY AND TlUNSfLVANIA. 
 
 JXJ 
 
 A DETAILED BIOGRAPHY OF THE L 
 OF THE MAGYAR MOVEMENT, 
 &c., <fcc., (fee. 
 
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 JOHN U<>,- 
 
 1JONJ; STREKT. 
 
 1S.50.
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY 
 OF F. VON BOSCHAN
 
 HCSB LIBRARY
 

 
 LOUIS KOSSUTH 
 
 HUNGARY AND TEANSYLYANIA, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A DETAILED BIOGRAPHY OF THE LEADER 
 OF THE MAGYAR MOVEMENT. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN RODWELL, 46 NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 1850.
 
 L O X D O N : 
 
 Printed by G. BARCLAY, Castle St. Leicester Sq.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 CHAP. I. FRANCIS RAGOTZY AND THE PRAGMATIC 
 
 SANCTION : ] 
 
 II. MARIA THERESA AND THE PATRIOTISM OF 
 
 HUNGARY 1'2 
 
 III. KOSSUTH'S PERSON 17 
 
 IV. KOSSUTH AT THE DIET 33 
 
 V. KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND THE " PESTI HIR- 
 
 LAP" 48 
 
 VI. KOSSUTH'S MARRIAGE, AMD FURTHER CA- 
 REER 65 
 
 VII. THE MAYORALTY OF THE DISTRICTS . . 74 
 VIII. LIGHTNING ON THE FAR HORIZON ... 87 
 IX. KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND PARLIAMENTARY 
 
 ORATOR 93 
 
 X. MARCH, 1848 119 
 
 XI. KOSSUTH AND THE BAN OF CROATIA 
 
 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS 128 
 
 XII. KOSSUTH'S MOST MEMORABLE SPEECH . 149
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAP. XIII. DEBATES .186 
 
 XIV. THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBEB AT BUDA- 
 
 PESTH 198 
 
 XV. THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER AND 
 
 THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT . .210 
 
 XVI. THE OPERATIONS AGAINST HUNGARY . 226 
 
 XVII. KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN .... 245 
 
 XVIII. THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC . . .261 
 
 XIX. THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION . . .276 
 
 XX. KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH . . 292 
 
 XXI. KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE 324 
 
 XXII. KOSSUTH AND GORGEY THE CRISIS OF 
 
 THE WAR , . . 363 
 
 XXIII. KOSSUTH IN TURKEY 379 
 
 XXIV. CONCLUSION . 392
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 FRANCIS BAGOTZY AND THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 
 
 WHILE Louis Kossuth, deluded by his 
 insatiable ambition and grandiloquence, flat- 
 tered himself that he was capable of towering 
 to the height of Washington, he ranked, in 
 the opinion of impartial critics, rather with 
 the Catilines, the Massaniellos, and Pu- 
 gatscheffs of ancient and modern times. 
 We are moreover convinced that he, the 
 prototype of all enemies of dynasties and 
 leaders of rebel hordes, was, in his own 
 person and in the peculiar event of the 
 time, neither more nor less than a re-
 
 2 FRANCIS RAGOTZY AND 
 
 production of Francis Ragotzy and the 
 stormy period from 1701 to 171 1 ; and we 
 take the liberty of directing the attention of 
 our readers to the leading features of that 
 memorable period. 
 
 Francis Leopold Ragotzy, or, perhaps, 
 more properly speaking, Rakoczy, a stepson 
 of Tokoly, was, when a mere youth, mixed 
 up in a conspiracy against the constitution of 
 the realm, and for the purpose of enforcing the 
 secession from Austria of Transylvania and all 
 the Hungarian countries. Ragotzy found his 
 earliest champions among the robbers, Ci- 
 koschs, and refractory peasants ; but after 
 some time his force was recruited by the ad- 
 hesion of several Magyars of birth and station. 
 Among them were the Counts Alexander 
 Karoly, Nikolaus Bercseny, and Forgatsch. 
 These rebel hordes were called Kuruzzen 
 ( Curonnes), and their raids, accompanied as 
 they were by waste and havoc, seemed to be- 
 long to the darker ages ; for they robbed, 
 burned, and murdered, somewhat in the man- 
 ner of the Huns, Vandals, and Avari. The 
 conspirators relied on the support of France,
 
 THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 3 
 
 but Longueval, whom they commissioned to 
 treat with Louis XIV., revealed their treason- 
 able plans to the Emperor Leopold I., and it 
 was by his intervention that the heads of the 
 conspiracy, and Ragotzy among them, were 
 arrested. But Francis Ragotzy, full of dia- 
 bolic cunning and gifted with the powers of 
 persuasion, found means to bribe one Cap- 
 tain Lehmann, who favoured his escape from 
 the prison of Neustadt. He fled to Poland, 
 for that country seemed to him the most 
 proper spot to prepare his revenge against 
 Austria, a country for whose overthrow he 
 joined the rage of the scorpion to the guile 
 of the serpent. (1701.) 
 
 Nor was it long before he succeeded in 
 assembling an army of 100,000 men, and 
 since it happened that the Emperor's armies 
 were engaged, partly in Italy and partly on 
 the banks of the Rhine, there was but an 
 inconsiderable force at hand to oppose the 
 rebels, and to dam the torrent of destruction 
 which, favoured by the erroneous policy of 
 France, swept its fatal course onward, not 
 only through the greater part of Hungary, but
 
 4 FRANCIS RAGOTZY AND 
 
 also through Moravia, Austria Proper, and 
 Styria, and whose surge beat against the 
 very walls of Vienna.* 
 
 After Leopold I. came his son, Joseph I.t 
 Francis Kagotzy had already usurped the 
 title of Prince of Transylvania, and in the 
 course of the Diet which the malcontents 
 assembled at Seczin, he styled himself the 
 " Duke of the Confederation of Estates." 
 His pride and conceit kept pace with his 
 influence and his power. He had already 
 obtained possession of the whole of Hungary, 
 with the exception of a few cities and strong- 
 holds. The mines and revenues of the 
 kingdom were in his hands ; and a large 
 army, led by Polish and French officers, ac- 
 knowledged him as their chief. Well might 
 he deem his position unconquerable by the 
 whole world, and, of course, by the Emperor 
 of Austria especially, since, in case of need, 
 he could rely on the sympathies and on the 
 Landsturm of all Hungary and Transyl- 
 vania. And since the Emperor's armies 
 
 * At Schwechat. f 1705.
 
 THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 5 
 
 were still engaged in foreign countries, and 
 since Joseph I. desired above all to put a 
 term to this fatal civil war, he condescended 
 to treat with Ragotzy ; by the interference 
 of the Archbishop of Kalocza, a Congress 
 assembled at Tyrnau, and the Ambassadors 
 of Great Britain and Holland, who acted as 
 mediators, attended the sittings and watched 
 the negotiations of this Congress. 
 
 Prince Ilagotzy and his adherents, blinded 
 by their successes and instigated by French 
 agents, dared to make proposals and to sub- 
 mit conditions which were altogether incom- 
 patible with the honour of the Imperial 
 House and the tranquillity of the Empire. 
 The negotiations were broken off and another 
 appeal was made to the force of arms, and 
 although Austria was still unequally matched 
 against a superior power, and although up 
 to the year 1707 she did not indeed succeed 
 in wringing any advantage from her antago- 
 nist, still she preserved and defended her 
 right and her dignity with that majestic 
 firmness which cannot, at any time, fail to 
 paralyse all criminal resistance.
 
 6 FRANCIS RAGOTZY AND 
 
 " It is impossible," says a historian, " to 
 give an adequate idea of the terrible calami- 
 ties which Hungary suffered at this time, by 
 the blindness of ambition and the haughty 
 and overbearing spirit of some magnates, 
 who were partially misled by foreign influ- 
 ence. The more fertile provinces were de- 
 vastated ; flourishing cities and villages were 
 transformed into ashes and ruins. 
 
 At last, in the year 1708, the gallant 
 Imperialist generals prevailed against the in- 
 surgents, to such an extent that Ragotzy was 
 induced to sue for the help of the czar, Peter 
 of Russia, and to appeal to the most high 
 Porte. But, as a meet reward for his flagrant 
 rebellion, help was denied him on either 
 side. Besides the horrors of sword and 
 flame, pestilential diseases were ravaging the 
 country and preying on its inhabitants, who, 
 weary with the unjust and fatal war, were 
 most sincere in their wishes for peace. The 
 brilliant victories of the Imperialist generals, 
 to wit, of Rabutins in Transylvania, of Heister 
 at Trentshin, and of Colonel Baron Sic kin- 
 gen in the murderous battle at Romhaz
 
 THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 7 
 
 (1710), as well as the diplomatic negotiations 
 of the Count Palffy, served to suppress the 
 embers of war to such an extent, that 
 Ragotzy, defeated in the field and in the 
 cabinet, found himself at length unequal to 
 continue the contest. Having lost all his 
 strongholds, except Kaschau and Munkacs, 
 his army having been routed and a panic 
 having spread among his adherents, he, 
 knowing there was no place of safety for 
 him in Hungary, fled into Poland, where he 
 made vain efforts to enlist fresh champions 
 to his cause and to interrupt the negotiations 
 for a peace, which in 1711 were opened and 
 concluded at Szathmar. Soon afterwards 
 (on the 1st of May, 171 1), the Estates of 
 Hungary in parliament assembled at Kavol 
 signed a treaty with Austria, in virtue of 
 which all the conspirators received a full 
 amnesty, while they were entitled to the res- 
 titution of their confiscated property ; their 
 religious sects received a promise of tolera- 
 tion ; and the whole of the Hungarian nation 
 was blessed with the assurance of the restora- 
 tion of their liberties and privileges. For the
 
 8 FRANCIS RAGOTZY AND 
 
 Count Palffy was invested with full powers 
 to conclude a peace on any condition, if he 
 could only insure the succession and the 
 abolition of the famous clause in the decree 
 of King Andreas.* The Estates of Hungary 
 accepted the conditions of the peace, and 
 again tendered their oath of allegiance to 
 their king, Charles II. (the sixth emperor 
 of that name), who had succeeded to the 
 throne after the decease, on the 17th of 
 April, 171 1, of the Emperor Joseph I. 
 
 When the draft of the treaty of peace 
 was sent to Poland for Eagotzy's signature, 
 he most obstinately refused to sign it, and 
 he studied how he might, with the aid of the 
 powers of Hell, succeed in breaking the 
 peace, and relighting the torch of war against 
 Austria, which he hated with all the madness 
 of crime. The treaty of peace was conse- 
 quently ratified without his concurrence, and 
 
 * This clause provides that Hungary is and shall 
 be an independent and elective monarchy, according to 
 the free will of the nation. The Emperor Leopold I. 
 did, however, as early as 1702, declare the country to 
 be an hereditary monarchy.
 
 THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 9 
 
 Ragotzy with his obstinate and maddened 
 companions were declared to have lost their 
 property and to be outlawed. Still thirsting 
 for revenge he repaired to France, and from 
 thence to Turkey, where he died at his seat 
 in Roumelia, in the year 1735. 
 
 We ought here to make mention of the 
 Pragmatic Sanction ; of that important docu- 
 ment, by virtue of which the Emperor 
 Charles VI., the last male scion of the house 
 of Habsburg, assured the succession in all 
 estates to his female descendants, on the 
 19th of April, 1713. This law of succession 
 was published in 1720, and for Hungary it 
 was published in 1722, when Charles ap- 
 peared in person at the Hungarian Diet at 
 Pressburg. The following are the chief parts 
 of this document : 
 
 1st. The whole of the hereditary estates 
 of Austria shall be indivisible and insepa- 
 rable, now and for all time to come. 
 
 2dly. So long as there shall be male issue 
 of the Arch House of Austria, the said male 
 issue shall succeed, according to the right of 
 primogeniture.
 
 10 FRANCIS RAGOTZY AND 
 
 3dly. In default of male heirs the female 
 descendants shall be admitted to the suc- 
 cession in the same order as the males would 
 have been, to wit, according to the right of 
 primogeniture : so that the daughters of 
 Charles VI. shall have the first right, and 
 in their default the daughters of Joseph I. 
 and of Leopold I. 
 
 For the purpose of giving some intro- 
 duction to this fundamental law, Charles VI. 
 convoked Diets in all his hereditary posses- 
 sions, and he received the promise of his 
 Estates that they would at all times stake 
 their blood and their property in defence of 
 this law. And when in the above-named 
 year Charles was crowned at Pressburg with 
 the crown of St. Stephen, the nation insisted 
 on having their privileges again confirmed 
 by a solemn oath ; and when the new- 
 crowned king, with the consent of the re- 
 presentatives of the Hungarian nation, estab- 
 lished the royal Stadiholderaie (Regium Lo- 
 cumtenentiale Consilium), which in the year 
 1748 was removed from Presburg to Buda, 
 and when he negotiated about acceptation
 
 THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION. 11 
 
 of the Pragmatic Sanction in favour of his 
 daughter Maria Theresa, the negotiations 
 were brought to such an issue that the 
 Hungarian nation resigned the right of free 
 election in case their King should die without 
 male heirs, and that the right of succession 
 was likewise extended to the female de- 
 scendants of the family. It was on this 
 occasion, too, that Charles effected some 
 notable improvements in the two highest 
 courts of the Hungarian empire (Tabula 
 Regia et Septemviralis), that he created four 
 distinct courts at Tyrnau, Guns, Debreczin, 
 and at Eperies, and founded a general ar- 
 chive at Pressburg. The Hungarian nobility, 
 too, which is so numerous and so preposte- 
 rously privileged, was declared to be free 
 from taxation, but they were bound to military 
 service in case of need.
 
 MARIA THERESA AND 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MABIA THERESA AND THE PATRIOTISM OF HUNGARY. 
 
 IT is well known how great the sacrifices 
 were at the cost of which the Emperor 
 Charles VI. endeavoured to induce foreign 
 powers to give their guarantee to the Prag- 
 matic Sanction, and what the demands were 
 which in 1740 were preferred against his 
 great daughter and successor, Maria Theresa, 
 by the three powers of Bavaria, Spain, and 
 Saxony, as well as by King Frederick II. of 
 Prussia. It is likewise well known that the 
 Princess, in the last extreme of misfortune, 
 trustfully appealed to the noble Hungarians. 
 In the national costume of the Magyars, 
 though in mourning, the crown of St. Stephen 
 on her head, and girded with his sword of 
 state, she, dazzling with majesty and beauty,
 
 THE PATRIOTISM OF HUNGARY. 13 
 
 burst like the sun of morning upon the Diet ; 
 she ascended the regal throne, and in sweep- 
 ing eloquence she depicted the miseries of 
 her hereditary dominions, the faithlessness 
 of her conspiring enemies, and the salvation 
 of which her only hope lay in the loyalty, 
 the gallantry, and the generosity of the Hun- 
 garian nation. Than this History knows no 
 scene more touching or more grand. The 
 generous representatives of a heroic people 
 seized their swords and half unsheathed 
 them, and loud and unanimous was their cry, 
 " Let us die, let us die for our Queen ! " 
 This solemn promise was renewed when 
 Maria Theresa proposed to her husband, 
 Francis Stephen of Lorraine, to be co-regent, 
 and when, on the occasion of the solemn in- 
 stitution and installation of the latter, she 
 showed her young Prince Joseph, the de- 
 scendant of so many kings, to the assembled 
 Estates. It requires an intimate knowledge 
 of the character and temper of the Magyars 
 to understand the length to which their en- 
 thusiasm will go, and the zeal which, by its 
 own agency, rises into fanaticism. We know
 
 14 MARIA THERESA AND 
 
 of no people on earth which possesses so 
 extensive a share of physical and moral 
 strength, and which can be brought to grasp 
 an object or idea with the burning enthusiasm 
 of a deep and powerful mind. Its feelings 
 once awakened are not easily kept back ; 
 they sweep along like a stream of burning 
 lava ; they break through the firmest dykes, 
 and they require many months and days to 
 return to order and to less violent views. 
 
 When the Palatine with the echoing 
 voice of the Assembly summoned the military 
 power of the Hungarian empire, he found 
 himself surrounded by such crowds of volun- 
 teers that for a moment there was a lack of 
 weapons for them. The whole of the no- 
 bility took the field, and swore to devote 
 their properties and their lives to the dynasty 
 and the country. The Magyars, moreover, 
 vied with the Sclavonians, and Germans, 
 and the Wallachians, in touching fraternity, 
 and they were most liberal in paying subsidies 
 of money and other stores for war. Nay, 
 more, they protested that every one of them 
 was prepared, in case of need, to offer his
 
 THE PATRIOTISM OF HUNGARY. 15 
 
 jewellery and plate as a sacrifice to the 
 country. 
 
 In this period the patriotism of the 
 Magyars showed itself in the most brilliant 
 and praiseworthy light. They showed the 
 same patriotism at an earlier period, in their 
 long and bloody contests with the Crescent, 
 and at a later time in the French wars ; and 
 they gave for more than three hundred years 
 the most eminent proofs that they considered 
 the cause of Austria as their own, and that 
 they were firmly resolved to identify the fate 
 of Austria with their own fortunes. 
 
 The fact that these are some dark spots and 
 shadows in such a galaxy of light is not to be 
 charged on the nation at large, for whenever 
 the nation has been at fault it was in conse- 
 quence of some temporary delusion, produced 
 by the deceptive glare of some will-o'-the- 
 wisp, which among them rose from its 
 sloth of egotism. We might have referred 
 to the egotistical intrigues of Zapolya, 
 Botschkay, or Abethlengaby, but we take 
 as the most striking example the last 
 arch-traitor, Francis Ragotzy ; because, as
 
 16 MARIA THERESA, ETC. 
 
 we hinted before, his destructive course has in 
 these latter days found a repetition ; because 
 his disgusting picture is reproduced in all 
 the chief features of Kossuth ; and last, not 
 least, because, according to the unchangeable 
 progress of History, the consequential result 
 of the former phenomenon allows of our 
 making a conclusion upon the probable 
 results of the latter, and upon the future of 
 Austria and Hungary. But before we pro- 
 ceed to draw a conclusion from the premises 
 thus given us, we must cast a look upon the 
 picture of the modern Ragotzy, and upon 
 the peculiarities of the time which bore it 
 to its surface.
 
 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 
 
 ALTHOUGH there are but very few points 
 in which there is any similarity between 
 Napoleon and Kossuth, and however great 
 the difference is of their path in life, it may 
 at least be said that the man of the sword has 
 in so far been a prototype and teacher to the 
 man of the tongue, since he, too, desired to 
 become great and immortal at the expense 
 of Austria. But the warrior and conqueror 
 had a nobler starting-point than the traitor 
 and rebel ; and while the former shook the 
 whole of Europe with an iron hand, the 
 latter moved nothing in Europe but the 
 tongues of men. Buonaparte, the native of 
 Corsica, used the French as mere tools for 
 his selfish plans, in the same way in which 
 
 c
 
 18 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 
 
 Kossuth, by birth a Sclavonian, made use 
 of the Magyars. Napoleon and Kossuth 
 flattered the deluded people with the cunning 
 of serpents, and sought by endearments to 
 poison, to mislead, and finally to enslave 
 them ; but here again Kossuth has the worst 
 of the comparison, because his hostile en- 
 deavours were directed against his own tribe, 
 against the Sclavonians. 
 
 We will not, however, try the patience of 
 our readers* by following up the weary mazes 
 of this simile, but we will cast a glance at 
 Kossuth's person, such as in the midst of 
 1849 it was introduced to public notice by 
 the Hue and Cry. The following is the 
 laconic expression of the official style : 
 
 Age 45 years. 
 
 Place of Birth Jascperin, in Hungary. 
 
 Condition Married. 
 
 Religion Catholic. 
 
 Language German, Hungarian, Latin, Slovac, 
 
 and French. 
 A Barrister and a Public Writer ; of late, President 
 
 of the Hungarian Committee of Defence. 
 Size Middle and Spare. 
 Face Round and Full. 
 Complexion Brown.
 
 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 19 
 
 Forehead High and Open. 
 
 Hair Black. 
 
 Eyes Blue and protruding. 
 
 Eyebrows Large and Black. 
 
 Nose A little flattened. 
 
 Mouth Small and neatly formed. 
 
 Teeth Full in numbers. 
 
 Chin Round. 
 
 Black whiskers and moustachios. 
 
 Other distinguishing marks his hair has a natural 
 curl and begins to get thin on the top of the 
 head ; his behaviour is flattering and insinu- 
 ating ; it is not possible to state his dress, but 
 he prefers caps to hats. 
 
 Let no man suppose us capable of 
 taking this portrait in enmity and malice of 
 spirit, for the purpose of scandalising the 
 deluded friends and champions of this arch- 
 agitator. If we were capable of doing such 
 a thing, we should be forced to resign all 
 claim to the honourable name of historian, 
 whose first principle ought to be that of 
 perfect impartiality. On the contrary, we 
 promise our readers that we will continue to 
 adhere to the truth, and to draw our in- 
 formation from the most authentic sources, 
 and that steering a middle course, we will
 
 20 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 
 
 keep clear of anything like an apotheosis of 
 the so-called Messiah of Liberty, as well as 
 of libels of another kind in which he is 
 designated as a Judas to his Lord and King, 
 as Antichrist, as an associate of robbers and 
 criminals, as Evil incarnate, and as Satan 
 himself. 
 
 According to the above statements, Louis 
 Kossuth was born in the year 1S04. Accord- 
 ing to another account, he was born on the 
 27th of April, 1806, in a wretched village, 
 Botrog-Szerdahely, in the county of Zemplin, 
 in Upper Hungary. His father was a Slovac 
 nobleman, who at one time had lived in the 
 county of Thurocz, where the people of his 
 tribe used to call him Kohuth, that is to 
 say, " cock." When he changed his re- 
 sidence at the commencement of the present 
 century, he Magyarized his name into Kos- 
 suth, and he became a bailiff on a nobleman's 
 estates, under such hard conditions that it 
 required the greatest economy and labour to 
 keep himself and his family. Louis, when 
 a child, displayed extraordinary talents, a 
 lively fancy, quick conception, and so in-
 
 KOSSUTH S PERSON. 21 
 
 sinuating an address that he was the favourite 
 of his parents, who regretted that their 
 means would not allow them to give the boy 
 a first-rate education, and by his means to 
 raise their house to that degree of comfortable 
 independence which their ancestors had for- 
 merly enjoyed. 
 
 It is a fact of strange and striking in- 
 terest, that the county of Zemplin has at all 
 times been either the birthplace or the scene 
 of action of the greatest Hungarian revolu- 
 tionists. It is as if the spirit of Attila, 
 whose unknown and five-coffined grave is by 
 many supposed to be under the hills of 
 Tokaj, had from time to time some influence 
 on the new-born boys of that district. 
 
 The poorer north is inhabited by Scla- 
 vonians, while the gifted and blooming 
 south has fallen to the lot of the Magyars, 
 of the conquerors of the country who drove 
 the conquered race into desert Pusztas, or 
 sterile mountains and forests, to call them 
 back at a later time to till the land and tend 
 the cattle. This climatic difference and 
 these national relations were not lost upon
 
 22 KOSSUTH S PERSON. 
 
 the spirit of the boy Louis Kossuth. The 
 contrast was too wide and striking, and 
 besides, the senses of the sober poor, such 
 as the family of Kohuth, or Kossuth, are 
 much more sharp and piercing than the 
 senses of the rich, surrounded as they are 
 by the mist of a continuous plenitude, and 
 intoxication of enjoyment. 
 
 From the description which we have 
 quoted above it appears that Kossuth is a 
 Eoman Catholic. This is a mistake ; he is 
 a Protestant, as his parents were before him, 
 and we have no authentic information of his 
 ever having become a convert to the Roman 
 Catholic Church. Since his parents wanted 
 both the time and the means to provide for 
 the education and instruction of their boy, 
 he was for a time left to himself, like any 
 other child of the village. At a later period, 
 he found a friend and a teacher in the young 
 curate of a neighbouring village. This man 
 introduced him to the elements of science, 
 and prepared him for a higher course of 
 teaching. The relations between tutor and 
 pupil were of a brotherly kind ; and for that
 
 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 23 
 
 very reason they were much more favourable 
 to the developement of his reason and mind 
 than the sulkiness and the despotism of our 
 usual schooling, which is much more cal- 
 culated to suppress talents than to wake and 
 foster them. 
 
 The earliest youth of Kossuth passed 
 quickly by like spring, and it vanished like 
 a beautiful dream from which we wake to 
 stern reality. He lost his kind tutor, who 
 was removed to another place, and he found 
 no one to fill up the void thus created. His 
 beloved father died, and he stood alone and 
 orphaned like a young tree whose supports 
 have been struck down by lightning. He 
 stood alone, and he knew not, indeed, he 
 had no idea what trials and what miseries 
 the future might bring. Such trials are 
 severe, but they are also instructive and 
 invigorating. The man that never passed 
 through the school of suffering, will never 
 know the strongest lever of his moral force, 
 for it is the dread conflict of impending 
 misfortune which calls forth the spirit of
 
 invention and resistance, as the steel strikes 
 sparks from the cold stone. 
 
 The poor boy found sympathy and support 
 at the house of some relations, who, though 
 by no means in affluent circumstances, 
 enabled him to attend the Gymnasium at 
 Eperies. We need scarcely inform our 
 readers of the indifferent condition of the 
 Austrian schools ; but the Hungarian Gym- 
 nasiums especially treat their pupils as one 
 would a field, which is but slightly touched 
 by the plough, and on which the seed is 
 thrown in a grudging and niggardly spirit. 
 The boys at the Hungarian Gymnasiums 
 were indeed taught to speak Latin with great 
 fluency, but they were not introduced into 
 the spirit of the classic authors ; and all 
 other branches of learning were taught in 
 such a manner as to exercise rather the 
 memory than the judgment. Little is known 
 of this period of Kossuth's life. Accustomed 
 to the solitude of the country, and thrown 
 back upon his own resources, he was at first 
 rather awkward in his conversation. He
 
 KOSSUTHS PERSON. 25 
 
 was apt to quarrel with his fellow pupils, 
 not only because he was more powerful of 
 mind and quick of tongue than most people, 
 but also because in him there was a spirit 
 of opposition and contradiction, which in 
 his intercourse with his neighbours gave 
 him the character of a stinging-nettle or of 
 a frowsy hedgehog. Great talents are not 
 generally fond of poring over books. Still 
 it is found that a talented youth will take 
 up any subject which strikes his fancy, and 
 that he will devour it with insatiable avidity. 
 It was with this spirit that Kossuth at an 
 early age found his pleasure in historical 
 studies. He read with enthusiasm the his- 
 torical works and ethnological writings re- 
 lating the memorable periods of his father- 
 land, which at the time of the conquering 
 Romans was known as fertile Pannonia, and 
 which still more, during the great migration 
 of nations, became an object of desire and a 
 battle-field for the inhabitants of all coun- 
 tries. But with the greatest predilection 
 Kossuth studied that part of his country's 
 historv which is filled with the deeds of the
 
 26 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 
 
 rebel chief, Francis Ragotzy, and which is 
 especially attractive to a youthful fancy, 
 whose peculiar leanings are much more in 
 favour of men of this kind, and of great 
 bandits and bold corsairs, than of the history 
 of a wise legislator, a great artist, or a 
 learned and distinguished statesman or 
 regent. Kossuth read the chronicles and 
 the legends of which Ragotzy was the hero, 
 and he knew much more of him than the 
 most circumstantial biographies of the time 
 ever set forth. It appeared as if he were 
 resolved either to write a new book on 
 the life and deeds of this arch-enemy of 
 Austria, or of imitating them whenever he 
 found an opportunity for doing so. 
 
 Our readers will now understand why 
 we have given a short sketch of Ragotzy's 
 life, and why, in contradistinction to it, we 
 mentioned the patriotism, of which the Hun- 
 garians gave such brilliant proofs in the 
 time of the great Maria Theresa. Then, 
 as now, to their disgrace and to their glory, 
 to their misfortune and to their blessing, 
 they have unmistakeably shown that in the
 
 KOSSUTHS PERSON. 27 
 
 sphere of political life they are mere babes, 
 which blindly follow the impression of the 
 moment, and the dictates of their lively 
 fancy and touchy temper. 
 
 In 1826, Kossuth became a member of 
 the University of Pesth for the purpose of 
 studying law, although the number of bar- 
 risters who then infested Hungary pre- 
 cluded all favourable expectations for the 
 future. He was still in a manner supported 
 by his relations and friends, but as his wants 
 increased he was compelled to give lessons, 
 and to copy and abstract briefs. But not 
 only was the competition great, but Kossuth's 
 fiery impatience was not made to tend these 
 stony and sterile fields with quiet self-ne- 
 gation and iron perseverance. He became 
 embarrassed in his circumstances, and to 
 alleviate his distress he sought for more 
 comfortable means, which were by no means 
 compatible with the dictates of sound mo- 
 rality, or the requirements of a spotless re- 
 putation. We allude to his gigantic passion 
 for gambling. He was a clever and a bold 
 player, and play became in many instances
 
 28 KOSSUTHS PERSON. 
 
 a source of profit to him, but it spoiled the 
 finest nights of his youth ; it increased the 
 irritability of his nerves, and while it led 
 him to frequent libations, it sacrificed his 
 spirit to the wild storm of ill temper. 
 
 Most extravagant in his political pro- 
 fessions of Liberalism, he took his stand on 
 the foundation of mere natural law, without 
 paying any attention to the results of expe- 
 rience and the guarantees of history. In 
 his discussions on such points he frequently 
 had the best of the argument, for it so 
 happened that he was far superior to his 
 adversaries in sophistic cunning, clearness, 
 versatility of mind, and power of words. 
 He cared little for the enemies which his 
 liberalism and spirit of contradiction made 
 him, for, on the other hand, he gained as 
 large a number of sympathisers and ad- 
 mirers, and this was enough to satisfy his 
 vanity. He used to read the debates of the 
 French and English Parliaments with a 
 zeal which on important occasions maddened 
 into passion. He knew many of the speeches 
 by heart, and he discoursed on them in such
 
 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 29 
 
 a manner that he was always surrounded by 
 large crowds of hearers, who predicted that 
 at a future time he would be a great public 
 writer and parliamentary orator. 
 
 In the year 1830 Kossuth had finished 
 his juridical studies at Pesth, and he made 
 some vain endeavours to find in that citv an 
 
 / 
 
 occupation and a profession suitable to his 
 acquirements. He did not, therefore, re- 
 main long in the capital of Hungary, but 
 he returned to the county of his birth and 
 settled at Zemplin, the chief city of the 
 county, where he had the good fortune of 
 attracting the attention of Baron Nicholas 
 Vay, the high-sheriff of that county. The 
 constitution of the Hungarian counties had 
 originally, as well as in these times, little or 
 nothing in common with the organization of 
 a communary constitution, according to the 
 newest style. It was founded on aristocra- 
 cism. Its functions lay in a narrow com- 
 pass : they comprised the administration, 
 the drawing up and the expedition of the 
 letters plenipotentiary for the Diet, the elec- 
 tion of county functionaries and deputies,
 
 30 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 
 
 and a variety of matters of more parlia- 
 mentary than local interest, since they related 
 more to the other parts of the country than 
 to the requirements of individual counties. 
 Among these was the right to propose new 
 laws and statutes, to assess taxes and imposts, 
 to construct highways, canals, and rail- 
 roads, &c. 
 
 Baron Vay discovered the curious in- 
 tellect, the gift of eloquence, and the fund 
 of legal and historical knowledge, which the 
 young lawyer possessed, and it struck him 
 that such a man might be most useful to the 
 interests of the county, and of the country at 
 large, if he had but an opportunity of turn- 
 ing science into practice, of rounding the 
 rough corners of his opinions, and of tem- 
 pering his fancy by the power of reason and 
 the dictates of written law. He therefore 
 resolved to patronise Kossuth, whom he in- 
 troduced to the principal personages of the 
 town. It was in this manner Kossuth, by 
 the protection of a generous magnate, was 
 established in a certain though limited 
 sphere of action.
 
 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 31 
 
 Kossuth remained in this position to the 
 year 183#, when the Hungarian Diet at 
 Pressburg was opened. His conduct during 
 these two years was again of a kind which 
 procured him many friends and admirers, 
 hut also many enemies and detractors. In 
 the course of his official practice he was 
 guilty of some actions which will always re- 
 main indelible spots on his character. It is 
 proved by the protocols of the county of 
 Zemplin that he behaved in a dishonest 
 manner respecting the property of some 
 orphans which was placed in his hands ; but 
 it appears that he found means to refund 
 the sums which he had taken, and thus to 
 escape the disgrace and the danger of a 
 judicial inquiry. It is also proved that he 
 committed a gross fraud upon a lady of rank, 
 who had made him her steward. The cir- 
 cumstances of the latter case are familiar 
 to almost all the inhabitants of the county. It 
 is likewise said that he disowned the liability 
 of a very large debt (not to mention some 
 lesser gambling debts) in a very ungrateful 
 and dishonest manner. In consequence of
 
 32 KOSSUTH'S PERSON. 
 
 these circumstances he was excluded from 
 many circles at Zemplin. We may add to this 
 his unconscientious and almost thieving, 
 swindling speculations, which at a later time 
 he notoriously committed as Director of the 
 Fiume Railway Company and of the Hun- 
 garian Trading Association. The share- 
 holders of these unfortunate and adventurous 
 schemes are in a position to throw a strong 
 light upon his conduct in these affairs. We 
 sincerely regret that we are compelled to 
 report such things of a man who has at- 
 tained so high a degree of mental cultivation, 
 and whose duty it was to protect his neigh- 
 bours in their personal and civil rights.
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 33 
 
 CHAPTEK IV. 
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 THE Paris Revolution of July, the expul- 
 sion of the elder branch of the Bourbons, 
 the Polish Revolution and the final conquest 
 of Warsaw by Paskiewics, the secession of 
 Belgium from Holland, and other events, 
 filled at the time the columns of the news- 
 papers with such a deal of important and 
 interesting matter, that, in spite of the seve- 
 rity of the " censur" people in Austria began 
 to have serious thoughts about the political 
 condition of the country. They made com- 
 parisons, and allowed foreign events some 
 influence on their own political creed. 
 It was especially remarked that in Hungary 
 a more lively exchange of opinions was 
 taking place, and there was a movement in 
 
 D
 
 34 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 the minds of the people, which seemed the 
 more fraught with danger to the stand-still 
 principle of Metternich, since that diploma- 
 tist was aware of the fact that the Hun- 
 garians, in their plenitude of physical and 
 moral power, in their violent longings for li- 
 berty and independence, and their innate pride, 
 were likely to be much more obstinate and 
 violent than any other people if their minds 
 were once gained over to one leading idea. 
 Such a dangerous ferment of the minds dis- 
 played itself throughout the country in the 
 elections of the Diet for 1832. For not only 
 did the Hungarians wish to sail with the 
 spring-tide of the time, and to rise to the 
 level of the other nations, but they proposed 
 also to do away with a variety of statutes 
 which partly clung to the old constitution of 
 the country, and which partly resulted from 
 the relations between Hungary and Austria, 
 relations which had long been in want of 
 a modification and timely reform. It was, 
 therefore, with great curiosity, not unmixed 
 with anxiety, that the eyes of politicians 
 were directed to the meeting of the magnates
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 35 
 
 and jurates at Pressburg. For the political 
 horizon was sultry and lurid, as though a 
 fearful tempest were impending. These fears 
 increased when it became known that the 
 diplomacy of the Vienna cabinet had not 
 "everywhere succeeded in preventing the 
 election of Liberal deputies. Nay, it was 
 well known that many counties sent oppo- 
 sition members to represent them at the 
 Diet. 
 
 Kossuth, too, who had hitherto acted as 
 Baron Vay's political champion, received, 
 according to his wishes and desires, a man- 
 date for Pressburg, where he was sent as the 
 representative of a magnate, who was pre- 
 vented from taking his seat at the Diet. In 
 consequence Kossuth took his seat, not in 
 the first, but in the Second Chamber, and, as 
 proxy for an absentee, he was only admitted 
 to a subordinate and passive part. Never- 
 theless, there were many young lawyers who 
 thought it a good fortune and honourable 
 distinction to be allowed to attend the Diet 
 as proxies, for not only did the office give 
 them an opportunity of studying the forms
 
 36 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 and the business of Parliament, but, in spite 
 of their subordinate position, they had some 
 chance, at least, of attracting attention and 
 of making advantageous acquaintances. 
 
 There has been a powerful opposition in 
 Hungary at all times, and stormy debates 
 have often been caused by it, but in the 
 present instance their position displayed so 
 much energy and boldness that the Conser- 
 vative Austrian party was almost always in 
 a state of siege. The nucleus of this Con- 
 servative party was formed by the Catholic 
 clergy and by the nobility of the country, 
 although there were many magnates, and 
 among them neither the tamest nor the least 
 well-bred, who belonged to the opposition, 
 which in the present instance was a decided 
 democracy. We need scarcely mention that 
 Kossuth was heart and soul on the side of 
 the opposition, and that he was deeply 
 grieved that his position prevented him 
 speaking. The principal speakers of the 
 opposition were Francis Deak of Kehidda, 
 and that great patriot Stephen Szechenyi. 
 The most important question which Deak
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 37 
 
 moved was the liberation of the enslaved 
 peasantry from urbarial bonds, and the im- 
 provement of their truly wretched condition. 
 Deak's motion was followed by very violent 
 debates, which found their echo out of doors, 
 and Kossuth took a great interest in the 
 cause of the oppressed. 
 
 The most distinguished person was doubt- 
 less Stephen Szechenyi, who at that time 
 sat at the magnates' table with Ladislaus 
 Teleky, Joseph Eotvos, and Count Mailath, 
 where the Palatine and Archduke Joseph 
 presided, and where the Prince Archbishop 
 of Gran, as primate of Hungary, took the 
 first place. Of Szechenyi it has been truly 
 said that he came in time to save the nation 
 from perfect dissolution. The unhappy coun- 
 try wanted a man of his stamp. Nor was it 
 in vain that he spoke, wrote, and acted. 
 His perseverance and activity made itself 
 felt in all circles ; he awoke the slumbering 
 powers of the nation, and he convinced every 
 body that the old and withered work of time 
 must yield to new elements and new forms. 
 It is simply ridiculous that there can be
 
 38 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 people who accuse this great man as the first 
 promoter of the present Hungarian move- 
 ment. As well might we pronounce an 
 anathema over all the great men of history, 
 by making them responsible for all later 
 caricatures of their words and actions. 
 
 Kossuth's studies at Eperies and Pesth, 
 all the results of his reading and of his 
 conversations with learned men and public 
 writers, were eclipsed by what he learned in 
 this parliamentary school, in this moving 
 arena of debating statesmen and men of the 
 people. This Diet was the cradle of his 
 new life, and the opening to a career which 
 he was firmly resolved to enter upon, because 
 he felt within himself that he would run 
 his race with the mobility, which would be 
 sure of the rewards of good fortune if he 
 tempered his progress to the dictates of law. 
 For he never thinks of stumbling and 
 drowning who with all the passion of truth 
 selects his career, and whose eyes are riveted 
 to the splendid goal, but not to the obstacles 
 on the road, and the abysses which yawn at 
 its side.
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 39 
 
 Such was Kossuth's idea. With a child- 
 like veneration he clung to the words of 
 his great master, and each word was a fruit- 
 ful seed in his mind. In the presence of so 
 much majesty and greatness he felt his own 
 lowliness ; still he resolved to shape his flight 
 to that proud height. Next to Szechenyi, 
 his sympathies were especially engaged by 
 the boldest and fiercest representatives and 
 speakers of the Second Chamber, such as 
 Nicholas Wesseleny, the most violent speaker 
 against Austria ; Eugene Beotty of Bittax, 
 who was called the Scourge of the Roman 
 Catholic clergy ; Gabriel Klauzal and Francis 
 Kolosy, whose liberal speeches were distin- 
 guished by their political enthusiasm, and 
 whose words were as many torches in kindred 
 minds. 
 
 Kossuth was at this time too far removed 
 from these gentlemen to be admitted into 
 their confidential circles. He moved in the 
 chiaro-oscuro of a lower sphere, where the 
 superiority of his mind and of his tongue 
 ensured him a flattering tribute of admira- 
 tion. A lawyer who at that time was in
 
 40 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 the habit of seeing him tells us that Kossuth 
 had great weight with men of this kind, 
 whom he used to address in fiery speeches. 
 Nor was it at that time difficult to recognise 
 in him a commencing volcano, which, though 
 still lowly situated and exhaling hot steam 
 instead of lava, gave every reason to fear 
 that one day it would cause a terrible erup- 
 tion. It was at this time that he declared 
 there was something nameless in him. 
 
 The printing and publishing of the de- 
 bates of the Hungarian Diet was at that time 
 illegal. But the Radical opposition endea- 
 voured cunningly to evade the law by clinging 
 to the letter, and they contrived by litho- 
 graphy to publish the debates in the form of 
 a Parliamentary Gazette, of which Kossuth 
 was the editor ; but the business had scarcely 
 commenced when it ended by another decree 
 of the government. Upon this, Kossuth 
 engaged several clerks, and had the debates 
 published in writing. We need scarcely re- 
 mark, that his gazette had a very different 
 tone from that of the newspapers which 
 appeared under the protection of the govern-
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 41 
 
 ment and the " censur," and which published 
 only extracts of parliamentary debates, while 
 Kossuth gave .the whole of the debates and 
 dialogues, and while he accompanied them 
 with the most biting remarks. One should 
 have said that such a paper ought to have 
 had a large number of subscribers. But this 
 was not the case. On the contrary, Kossuth 
 had great trouble to cover his expenses, and 
 his self-conceit or vanity was violently hurt 
 by the indifferent success of his undertaking, 
 while he had good cause for believing that 
 in the Cabinet of the Prince Metternich he 
 had come in for a black mark. 
 
 The difficulties of a literary, artistic, or 
 scientific career are very great in Austria, 
 but they are still greater in Hungary, where 
 mental refinement, generally speaking, is 
 much more rarely to be met with, where the 
 splendour of an overbearing and purse-proud 
 nobility is jealous of emulation, and where 
 a learned man and an artist meets with a 
 favourable reception only when he can bring 
 a brilliant reputation from a foreign country. 
 There is, therefore, a just cause for Kossuth's
 
 42 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 disgust and displeasure, although it sprang 
 from vanity and egotism. His struggles 
 to rise from low places to high ones, to 
 leave the darkness and to soar to the light, 
 were arduous, and continued for years. He 
 had to contend with the overbearing temper 
 and the stupidity of the aristocracy, with the 
 avarice and the indifference of the rich, and 
 with the narrowmindedness, the envy, and 
 the malice of all. In short, as a man of 
 genius, his was the fate of a prophet who 
 finds no believers in his own country. Add 
 to this that a journalist, like Kossuth, was 
 contemned and despised by most people, 
 while others considered him a dangerous 
 character, and hated, despised, and attacked 
 him accordingly. 
 
 Now, as for Kossuth, it cannot be said 
 that he, at the time we speak of, remained 
 free from the usual reproach which affects 
 public writers. He entered into communi- 
 cation with a person of the name of Orosz, 
 and relying on the distance from the Aus- 
 trian frontier, he hoped to employ his litho- 
 graphic press with greater success than
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 43 
 
 ever. He was mistaken. His press was 
 ordered to be seized by the government, but 
 he sold it to the then Chancellor, Count 
 Cyraky, at his own valuation, viz. 150/., at 
 the same time most solemnly pledging his 
 word to the Chancellor, that he would 
 never attempt the like again ; and it was on 
 such promise that all further legal pro- 
 ceedings were stopped by the government ; 
 and although he was indemnified for the loss, 
 it was intimated to him that in case of a 
 second violation of the law, instead of an 
 indemnification, he would be handed over to 
 the courts of criminal justice. This promise 
 was not, however, strong enough to deter 
 him from his former course. Again he pub- 
 lished his newspaper by means of copyists. 
 This course of action was neither more nor 
 less than open defiance of the law, of the 
 will of the government, and of the wishes of 
 the whole Conservative party, whom he op- 
 posed with the greatest violence, and whom 
 he affronted with so much scorn and daring, 
 that those were not far from wrong who 
 protested that in Kossuth there was a dia-
 
 44< KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 bolical spirit of contradiction, and that he 
 had in him a bit of the devil. 
 
 Far more cutting and poisonous than his 
 writings were the words which he spoke. 
 The lightnings of his tongue were like a 
 thunderbolt of Jove, which he hurled against 
 the Austrian government with such extra- 
 vagant expressions and tropes that even his 
 most cordial friends stood aghast. His bold 
 and mad opposition did not indeed rest on 
 firm convictions or on erroneous views ; it 
 proceeded from a desire to attract attention 
 to gain importance, and to turn his notoriety 
 to account. 
 
 He obtained his object, inasmuch as he 
 was able to engage a larger number of copy- 
 ists, for his newspaper increased in popularity. 
 It was sent from the capital to all cities of 
 the kingdom, and in many places it was re- 
 ceived like Gospel. People were surprised 
 to see a public writer at odds with the 
 all-mighty Prince Metternich ; they were 
 amused with the sarcastic additions and 
 remarks, with the signs of exclamation and 
 interrogation, which he added to the decrees
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 45 
 
 and laws of the government and to the de- 
 bates and resolutions of the counties, and no 
 one could understand how this kind of thing 
 
 O 
 
 was allowed to go on, although a free word 
 had a longer tether in Hungary than in 
 Austria. 
 
 Kossuth was an energetic and consistent 
 supporter of Wesselenyi, Kemeny, and other 
 men of the same opinions. He had the 
 sympathies of a large number of the inhabi- 
 tants of Buda Pesth, and he received a 
 promise of defence and protection in case 
 the Palatine, obedient to instructions from a 
 higher place, should suspend his newspaper 
 or endanger the safety of his person. 
 
 The Diet was again to be opened on the 
 6th of February, 1835. The electioneering 
 agitations commenced amidst a sultriness of 
 the political atmosphere which oppressed 
 many a heart, and which filled many with 
 anxiety. People felt that they were on the 
 eve of important discussions and events. It 
 was then that the ultra-Radical, Baron 
 Wesselenyi, became entangled in the net of 
 his too liberal speeches, and although those
 
 46 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 
 
 speeches related to the final liberation of 
 the peasantry from urbarial burdens, and 
 although such a subject ought to have claimed 
 a more tender consideration, the Baron was 
 denounced and imprisoned as a democrat 
 and a rebel. 
 
 The Baron publicly addressed a regiment 
 of Hussars (Szekler Hussars) in the Austrian 
 service, and told them their allegiance was 
 at an end, in consequence of some refusal of 
 the government to give its assent to a bill 
 of the lower house. It was in consequence 
 of this attempt to seduce Austrian troops 
 from their duty that the Baron was arrested. 
 
 This event, which created a great sensa- 
 tion, ought to have induced Kossuth to 
 modify the tone of his newspapers, and to 
 yield to the circumstances of the time. But, 
 relying on the promise of the county of 
 Pesth, he was far from bridling his aspira- 
 tions for liberty ; he scorned to deprive his 
 public writings of the biting acid of sneer- 
 ing irony, and of the poison of open ridicule. 
 On the contrary, he dealt his blows much 
 more largely and severely, and despised even
 
 KOSSUTH AT THE DIET. 47 
 
 a well-meaning warning which the Palatine 
 gave him in asking him to resign the editor- 
 ship of his newspaper. 
 
 Thus it happened one fine morning, when 
 the journalist was promenading in the vi- 
 cinity of Buda, that he was seized by the 
 myrmidons of the law and confined in the 
 lower walls of the fortress, there to consider, 
 in darkness and solitude, how dangerous it 
 is to defy a powerful government, and to 
 swerve from the path of law and of pru- 
 dence.
 
 48 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND THE " PESTI HIBLAP." 
 
 THE Hungarian Diet was closed on the 
 2dof May, 1836, by the Emperor Ferdi- 
 nand, after an unusually long duration of 
 fourteen months. The imprisonment of 
 Kossuth took place fourteen months later, 
 and it was in so far connected with the 
 transactions of the Diet as, in the course of 
 its sittings and afterwards, he had given full 
 vent to his irony and malice. His imprison- 
 ment, which lasted three years, and which 
 certainly was not effected in due legal 
 form, caused a great sensation throughout 
 the country, and gave occasion for expres- 
 sions which we will not here repeat. The 
 almost simultaneous imprisonment of Wes- 
 selenyi, and the arrest of his friend Lovassi,
 
 THE " PESTI HIRLAP." 49 
 
 increased the rage of the opposition, and 
 produced so unfavourable an effect that we 
 are free to confess that the Vienna Cabinet 
 would have acted much more wisely if they 
 had sought to conciliate and to gain over 
 men of such great popularity. 
 
 The spirit hostile to Austria spread most 
 fatally over a considerable part of Transyl- 
 vania, of the interests of which princi- 
 pality Wesselenyi had been the especial 
 champion. They are not, therefore, very far 
 wrong who protest that the late revolution of 
 Hungary had its first germs in those myste- 
 rious days, or that it was like a volcano, 
 which hoards the combustible matter for 
 many years before it vomits its spires of fire 
 and ashes. 
 
 The latter simile applies to Kossuth. 
 According to the letter of the law he could 
 not complain of injustice ; but still, so griev- 
 ously had he been wounded that it would 
 have required much more humility and self- 
 denial than he ever possessed to make him 
 consider the loss of his liberty as a well- 
 deserved punishment, which was to reconcile
 
 50 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 him to the law and to improve him for the 
 future. 
 
 The sympathy with Kossuth's fate was 
 much greater than he deserved. People 
 protested that he was a martyr of liberty, 
 and they pointed out his old mother and his 
 three sisters, whom he had supported by his 
 labour, and who were now without protection. 
 Liberal subscriptions were raised in favour 
 of the family, and since this sympathy vented 
 itself in expressions accusatory of the policy 
 and gloomy severity of Austria, we may safely 
 style it a kind of demonstration, although 
 it was too well cloaked and justified to 
 provoke the interference of the government. 
 Violent speeches were made against the pres- 
 sure of the " censur" which was said to be in- 
 compatible with the requirements of a con- 
 stitutional country, and great anxiety was ex- 
 pressed lest the government should intend to 
 smuggle Sedlnitzky's system of oppression 
 into Hungary. Such a thing would indeed 
 have been a flagrant violation of the consti- 
 tution of the country. But if we go to the 
 bottom of this demonstration we find that
 
 THE " PESTI HIRLAP." 51 
 
 neither more nor less was intended than a 
 total emancipation of the press. Thus it 
 appears that the more intelligent among the 
 Hungarians acted in concert with the Re- 
 formed party in Germany, and that they 
 had a mind to establish themselves as a re- 
 volutionary party. We are not sufficiently 
 versed in the secrets of the cabinet and the 
 police to affirm with certainty that an un- 
 derstanding did exist between the men of 
 progress in Germany and in Hungary, but 
 we have reason to believe that various 
 powers co-operated all around Austria for 
 the purpose of breaking the iron tower of 
 absolutism, of enfeebling the press, and of 
 driving away the cold and gloomy darkness 
 of night by the morning light of popular 
 liberty. 
 
 After what we have said, there can be no 
 doubt but that Kossuth, no matter whether 
 a free agent or a conspirator, was one of 
 the ablest and boldest champions in the 
 ranks which blockaded and besieged Aus- 
 tria ; and this explains why his tragical lot 
 awakened for him the warmest sympathies.
 
 52 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 Those sympathies were even increased when 
 it became known that the three martyrs 
 were in a dark and damp prison, and that 
 they were so badly treated that in a very 
 short time they must perish. Wesselenyi, 
 indeed, lost the sight of his eyes ; Lovassi, 
 Kossuth's friend and companion, was struck 
 with insanity ; and the physicians testified 
 that Kossuth was on the point of falling a 
 prey to a serious malady. 
 
 When three years afterwards, in 1841, 
 an amnesty was granted, and Kossuth was 
 allowed to return to the light, he showed 
 by his debility, by his pallid and spotted 
 face, and by the broken and glassy look of 
 his eyes, the most unequivocal traces of 
 great sufferings of mind and body, which 
 had changed him to a kind of shadow of 
 his old former self. 
 
 A writer of that time says : " In the 
 Matra mountains, near Gyongyos, is the wa- 
 tering-place of Parad, whose mineral fountains 
 have not at present so great a reputation as 
 they deserve. In the season of 1841 a hand- 
 some man, in dressing-gown and slippers,
 
 THE " PESTI HIRLAP." 53 
 
 was seen moving about the place. The 
 yellow spots which marked his face, and the 
 deep langour of his features, proclaimed him 
 an invalid. This man was Louis Kossuth. 
 He was fresh from prison. In the course of 
 his three years' imprisonment public interest 
 in his favour had risen to such a height that 
 large sums were subscribed for the benefit 
 of his family, and that his name was put on 
 an equality with the best names in the 
 country. The latter had indeed cause 
 to be astonished at this, because their 
 struggles for popular favour had been much 
 more arduous ; but still they received the 
 new favourite with great kindness, for they 
 had themselves in the Diet and in the de- 
 bates of the counties spoken so frequently 
 for the ' Martyr of the Liberty of the Press,' 
 that they were compelled to accept the ver- 
 dict of public opinion, and to honour it as 
 their own. 
 
 " Although all the society in the watering- 
 place made a point of treating Kossuth with 
 silent veneration, it was but rarely that 
 he shared their noisy and rude pleasures.
 
 54 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 There was a gulf between their feelings and 
 his own. I, too, had no sympathy with the 
 life and the ways of thinking of the watering- 
 place of Farad ; and as I found myself 
 much attracted by Kossuth, I joined him in 
 his walks to the forest-clad hills and the 
 lonely valleys, where it was but rarely that 
 a resident at Parad intruded upon our con- 
 versations. Nature having given to both of 
 us a large share of fancy and sentiment, 
 I had no difficulty in entering into his feel- 
 ings ; and the song of birds, a group of 
 trees, the strata of stones, and even the most 
 insignificant phenomena of nature, furnished 
 occasion for conversations on natural history." 
 " The beautiful wife of the Lord Lieu- 
 tenant Gy ," continues the writer from 
 
 whom we quote, " the daughter of the Count 
 A. V., was at that time at Parad. She 
 would have liked to have made Kossuth's 
 acquaintance, and she asked me to intro- 
 duce him at her house. I had scarcely told 
 him of her wish when I saw his features 
 assume that mysterious and nervous ex- 
 pression which showed that his passions were
 
 THE " PESTI HIRLAP." 55 
 
 still awake. ' No,' cried he, ' 1 will never 
 go to that woman's house : her father sub- 
 scribed fourpence for a rope to hang me 
 with!' 
 
 " This spirit of revenge often showed itself 
 in the most amusing conversation, when 
 anything occurred which touched a deeper 
 chord of his memory. It was then that he 
 became pathetic ; it was then that he spoke 
 with the fearful earnestness of conviction. 
 But his morals had claws ; his hate was a 
 scalping-knife ; his sentences, most laboured, 
 weltered in phrases, while he, in a fearful 
 manner, imparted to them breath, sound, 
 and passion. The rusty axe was newly set 
 and polished." 
 
 Does not this description recall the pale 
 and weird image of Monte Christo such as 
 Dumas painted him of Monte Christo, who, 
 after a fourteen years' imprisonment in the 
 Castle of If, enters the world as the incar- 
 nate spirit of revenge ? A feature of still 
 greater similarity lies in the fact that both 
 were irreconcileable in their hatred that 
 both obtained fabulous means of wreaking
 
 56 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 their revenge on their enemies that they 
 entered into communication with robbers 
 that they were both dead shots with the 
 pistol and that they both had an opinion 
 that they were instruments in the hands of 
 Providence. 
 
 Kossuth, who, during the preceding ten 
 years (from 1832 to 1842), had been an 
 useful instrument in the hands of the demo- 
 cratic party, now took the lead of the Magyar 
 opposition. That opposition had, after a 
 violent contest at the last Diet, succeeded 
 in establishing the Magyar language as the 
 language of business throughout the country ; 
 and thus the Magyar nation, with all their 
 rights and privileges, with all their historical 
 and deserved prerogatives and traditions, 
 had come to be placed above all the other 
 tribes of the united kingdom. He became 
 editor of the Pesth Gazette (Pesti Hirlap\ 
 which was printed and published by Lan- 
 derer, at Pesth j and he announced this 
 organ with a pomp which was the more 
 certain of its effect, since the very name of
 
 THE " PESTI HIRLAP." 57 
 
 the editor was sufficient to electrify one half 
 of Hungary. This speculation, which had 
 its blood-red focus in the very heart of 
 the country, and which darted its dazzling 
 and burning rays in all directions, was the 
 more successful since Wesselenyi, the old 
 democrat, travelled from one county to the 
 other, preaching the liberation from urba- 
 rial burdens and rural freedom. Wes- 
 selenyi, in harmony with that newspaper, 
 also made speeches, attacking the higher 
 aristocracy, the Roman Catholic clergy, and 
 especially the Austrian government, on whose 
 discomfiture and overthrow he seemed as 
 seriously intent as Kossuth himself. Gene- 
 rally speaking, it was the fashion of the 
 time and, indeed, it was a very profitable 
 speculation to make poor and fettered Aus- 
 tria the butt of all blame and scorn. It is, 
 however, just to remark that, however blame- 
 able the former system of government may 
 have been, still these attack* were for the 
 most part unjust, because Austria's adver- 
 saries took the field with the poisonous 
 weapons of untruth, malice, exaggeration,
 
 58 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 and personal revenge. We need only remind 
 our readers of the numerous books and 
 pamphlets which in the course of these ten 
 years had been published at Hamburgh, at 
 Leipsic, and in Switzerland. 
 
 It was in the same spirit and with the 
 same tendency that the Pesti Hirlap was 
 edited, only that the tiger claws were a little 
 more carefully concealed, the teeth were not 
 so openly shown to the enemy, and the low 
 roaring more resembled a painful groaning, as 
 though a heavy and oppressive weight were 
 bearing down the sufferer. The journal was 
 in a short time enabled to print a larger num- 
 ber of copies, which in many circles were read 
 with great avidity ; and the result was that 
 Kossuth came into possession of an income 
 of from four to five thousand florins. Besides 
 its hostility against Austria, which pervaded 
 it as a leading idea, the journal advocated the 
 supremacy of Magyarism, and no regard 
 was paid to the constitutional equality of 
 rights of the Germans, the Sclavonians, the 
 Wallachians, the Servians, the Greeks and 
 Armenians, the Gipsies and Jews, who were
 
 THE " PESTI HIRLAP." 59 
 
 likewise settled within the shade of the 
 crown of St. Stephen, and whose rights to 
 the soil on which they lived were, to say 
 the least, quite as good as those of the 
 Magyars. 
 
 The articles which emanated from Kos- 
 suth's pen were admirably calculated for the 
 great majority of the Hungarian nation. In 
 the eyes of a thorough-bred public writer 
 they were nothing but froth and foam, the 
 result of passion, egotism, viperous revenge, 
 vain-glory, and ambition. Kossuth boasted 
 of being a lawyer, but certainly nothing 
 could have been more difficult for him than 
 to furnish sound legal reasons and proofs for 
 the assertions which he made in his paper, 
 and in such a tone, too, as though he were 
 dealing with incontrovertible matters of 
 fact only, and as though he were himself a 
 prophet who had a mission to fulfil in the 
 country of Attila and Arpad. The lively 
 sympathies which were engaged in favour of 
 his newspaper, may be explained by alluding 
 to the mental condition of the great majority 
 of his public, and by the fact that he fondled
 
 60 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 his readers like so many children, and that 
 he roused their hopes by showing them the 
 future in the brightest possible colours. 
 
 The advice and example of the Count 
 Szechenyi, had pointed out the direction in 
 which Hungary ought to have proceeded. 
 It was the path of improvement. But 
 Kossuth's journal, from the very day of its 
 foundation, represented the restlessness and 
 impatience of a more youthful party, which 
 struggled to reach the desired goal by the 
 shorter road; and it represented, also, that 
 stubborn pride which the Magyars opposed 
 to the other tribes. 
 
 While this young and fantastic party 
 rushed into one extreme, it itself gave birth 
 to another extreme. Its vagaries produced 
 a stand-still party. Many of those who had a 
 great stake in the country thought, in the 
 Diet of 1844, that Szechenyi's plans of 
 national reform might possibly be fraught 
 with danger ; but since those plans were 
 based on moderate demands, and rested 
 on very exact calculations, they did not 
 at that time produce a reaction. Far
 
 THE "PESTI HIRLAP." 6l 
 
 different was the effect of the Pesti Hirlap. 
 That journal's tendency was clearly directed 
 towards the oppression of all other nation- 
 alities. This was more than sufficient to 
 spread alarm through the ranks of the 
 aristocracy. It was thought that Kossuth's 
 party aimed at the destruction of all exist- 
 ing institutions, and the Pesti Hirlap was 
 very persevering in its demands that the 
 house-tax should be paid by all classes 
 of society, including even those who had 
 the privileges of nobility. It was but 
 natural, therefore, that a party of the other 
 extreme was formed ; and this party, which 
 was leagued together for the preservation of 
 existing institutions, styled themselves the 
 party of cautious progress, for they saw that 
 the government was not averse to moderate 
 reforms. 
 
 The leader of this party was Count 
 Aurelius Desewffy (he died in 1842) and 
 their organ was the Vilag newspaper. There 
 were thus three leading parties in Hungary. 
 First, the original and central party of Count 
 Szechenyi, who looked to the higher nobility
 
 6 C 2 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, AND 
 
 for the protection of the constitution and of 
 liberty, and who, therefore, supported the 
 maintenance and extension of the right of 
 primogeniture and of entails, but who, in all 
 other respects, advocated the curtailment of 
 the peasant nobility, and of the political 
 rights which that class was in the habit of 
 grossly abusing. They were, moreover, in 
 favour of an extension of popular rights, until 
 they merged with the privileges of nobility, 
 of the introduction of a more liberal ad- 
 ministration, and the improvement of the 
 financial condition of the country. Secondly, 
 the extreme party of the Pesti Hirlap, which, 
 with Kossuth as chief editor, tended in a 
 fanatical manner to overthrow all existing 
 institutions, and most maliciously to attack 
 and defeat the government and the dynasty ; 
 and thirdly, there was the ultra- Conservative 
 party, which declared that the best form of 
 government for Hungary was a limited, 
 though absolute government, supported by 
 the privileges of the aristocracy. 
 
 Thus monarcby, aristocracy, and the de- 
 structive elements of the revolution, with the
 
 THE " PESTI HIRLAP." 63 
 
 republic in the rear, were represented by 
 these three parties. Kossuth poured the 
 poisonous cup of his rage over all existing 
 institutions, all sacred rights, and over each 
 royal decree, no matter how well meant it 
 was. His newspaper was a most efficient 
 organ for disseminating his ideas, and for 
 the instruction of his followers. The noble 
 Count Szechenyi, who was highly disgusted 
 with Kossuth's viperous missive, and who 
 was alive to the dangerous views of his 
 newspaper, published in 1842 a pamphlet, 
 which was directed against Kossuth, and 
 which bore the title of The Nation of the 
 East. In this pamphlet he protested that 
 he was in direct contradiction to Kossuth's 
 manner of thinking and acting, and that he 
 feared lest the nation, deluded by the bland- 
 ishments of that demigod, would be led to 
 the brink of the gulf, which was insidiously 
 covered with the most beautiful flowers. 
 By this time we are aware that the great 
 statesman spoke with the words of a prophet, 
 and that his was the fate of Cassandra ; and 
 a reperusal of Kossuth's articles, after our
 
 64 KOSSUTH IN GAOL, ETC. 
 
 late melancholy experience, has firmly con- 
 vinced us of the existence in those days of a 
 secret party in Hungary (perhaps with Kos- 
 suth at its head), which stood in close con- 
 nexion with the most dangerous and the most 
 daring revolutionists in Poland, France, and 
 Italy.
 
 KOSSUTH'S MARRIAGE, ETC. 65 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 KOSSUTH'S MARRIAGE, AND FURTHER CAREER. 
 
 KOSSUTH chose for his bride Theresa Mesz- 
 liny. We cannot say to what conclusion a 
 Gall or a Lavater would have come from an 
 inspection of her head, but a distinguished 
 portrait painter, who for many years studied 
 physiognomies, thus expressed himself in 
 our presence : " The features thus set forth 
 may in the most favourable case form an 
 interesting face, a brown and fiery southern 
 woman ; but they have no claim to female 
 beauty, and such a mask must cover a proud, 
 haughty, and passionate character." This 
 is, indeed, true. From all we have heard 
 of Theresa Kossuth, we gather that she is 
 a bold, imperative, and angry woman, though 
 cold of heart ; and that, though she may 
 
 F
 
 66 KOSSUTH'S MARRIAGE, AND 
 
 accidentally succeed in dazzling and ensnar- 
 ing a man, she is not likely to make him 
 truly and permanently happy. And this the 
 less since she has no higher cultivation, no 
 nohle and quick sense for what is good and 
 beautiful. But in return she has an insatiable 
 ambition, which impels her, like the Roman 
 Tullia, with a flaming scourge to urge her 
 husband on those paths which lead to sen- 
 sual enjoyment, glory, splendour, and dis- 
 tinction, without once thinking whether or 
 not that wild career is compatible with the 
 laws of God and man, or whether it defies 
 all laws and prescriptions. It is, therefore, 
 clear, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that 
 Kossuth, moved by love or by an unmanly 
 spirit of yielding, was weak enough to allow 
 his evil genius to persuade him to actions 
 which militated against his better conviction, 
 and that she hurried him into faults whose 
 bearing and consequences he was unable to 
 understand. For, though not the first, he is 
 in this respect the most remarkable example 
 in history ; for, hand-in-hand with his aspiring 
 wife, he struck into a path which necessarily
 
 FURTHER CAREER. j 
 
 must lead him to the gulf of perdition. We 
 shall have occasion in another place to 
 return to Madame Kossuth. 
 
 The success of his newspaper enabled 
 Kossuth to take the lease of a small farm 
 near the capital, where he intended to imi- 
 tate the life of the great and rich, whom he 
 was so fond of holding up to public odium. 
 He also became dissatisfied with his title of 
 editor or notary, and purposed to practise 
 as an advocate in Pesth ; but though he 
 made all the necessary preparations, he did 
 not succeed so well as he thought he had a 
 right to expect. 
 
 At this time he took a journey to Vienna ; 
 where, it is said, he made violent efforts to 
 obtain a license for a newspaper. But his 
 name was known too unfavourably in the 
 secret cabinet of Prince Metternich, and his 
 efforts proved unavailing. We repeat that 
 the policy of Austria at that time was wrong. 
 Men of Kossuth's stamp ought to have 
 been gained over, so as to make them harm- 
 less, even if there could have been no idea 
 of employing them in situations of confidence
 
 68 KOSSUTH'S MARRIAGE, AND 
 
 Thus it happened that Kossuth left the 
 capital in a much more bitter and revenge- 
 ful spirit than he entered it, and that he 
 studied with more eagerness how to harm 
 and annoy the Austrian empire. He there- 
 fore assisted in the foundation of the so- 
 called Protectionist Association, and his 
 advocacy and incendiary speeches induced 
 many speculators and rich magnates to join 
 the association, which professed a purely 
 patriotic tendency, and which, in case of 
 success, gave hopes of very large divi- 
 dends. 
 
 By this great project it was intended to 
 improve the industry of Hungary, and to 
 raise it to such a point as to enable the 
 Hungarians to dispense with all foreign ma- 
 nufactures, including those of Austria, 
 Bohemia, and Moravia. This Protective 
 Association was created by a company of 
 shareholders, and its members entered into 
 an engagement to use articles of Hungarian 
 industry only, intending thereby to ruin, 
 or at the least to weaken, the industry of 
 Austria. From time immemorial Hungary
 
 FURTHER CAREER. 69 
 
 has been an agricultural state. It was im- 
 possible suddenly to transform it into a manu- 
 facturing country, for so great a change 
 would have required much more preparation, 
 ability, and confidence, than the Hungarians 
 possessed. Thus it happened that the un- 
 dertaking was stifled in its birth. Most 
 of the manufacturers who had established 
 themselves in Hungary left the country 
 much poorer than they entered it, and the 
 sbareholders were compelled to bid an eter- 
 nal adieu to their money, which, somehow or 
 other, had vanished under Kossuth's pro- 
 tectorate. 
 
 A contemporaneous writer has the fol- 
 lowing statements : 
 
 " The money for the support of this Asso- 
 ciation was paid him in a decreasing ratio, 
 and in 1844 it was stopped altogether, 
 and with it Kossuth's sphere of action. 
 But, nothing abashed, he created immediately 
 a trading society of shareholders. His being 
 merely the editor of a newspaper and an 
 advocate, but by no means a merchant, caused 
 him no difficulty. In short, he did not care
 
 70 KOSSUTH'S MARRIAGE, AND 
 
 for trifles ; he fancied that he was fit and 
 proper for anything, and he placed himself, 
 as president, at the head of this mercantile 
 undertaking. The port of Fiume was to be 
 the port of export and import, and as di- 
 rector of this grand undertaking he ap- 
 pointed a certain Paul Szabo, whom the 
 shareholders received with the greatest con- 
 fidence. The Magyars placed their fullest 
 trust in Kossuth, because he had at that 
 time already become the demigod of Hungary, 
 and the morning star of freedom and demo- 
 cracy. Szabo made the most formidable use 
 of this general temper. He falsified the 
 books, took the contents of the money- 
 chest, and started for the New World, 
 where he met with a cordial reception. 
 Happy America, what specimens of the 
 human race are sheltered under thy starry 
 banner ! " 
 
 Some people there were who reproached 
 Kossuth with negligence in auditing the 
 accounts, but this reproach and the voice 
 of suspicion was lost in the noise which he 
 made as editor of a newspaper, as advocate,
 
 FURTHER CAREER. 71 
 
 and as popular orator. Well may he be 
 called the Alcibiades of Pesth, for he always 
 gave new matter for tongues to wag about, 
 while, on the other hand, he furnished work 
 for pencil and lithographic presses ; for his 
 portrait was multiplied in a hundred forms, 
 and met with a large sale. 
 
 As an appendix to our remarks about that 
 unfortunate Protective Association, which, 
 according to the verdict of the great Fre- 
 derick List, was most impracticable in its 
 principles, we will quote the following words 
 of a public writer : 
 
 " When Kossuth saw how his grand plans 
 dwindled away, he took his Protective Asso- 
 ciation to the Pesth County Saloon, where 
 the great battles in public debates were 
 fought, and where the most important ques- 
 tions were brought forward. Taking his 
 withered-up Association in his hand, Kos- 
 suth squeezed as much demagogies from it 
 as the laws would allow. Public meetings 
 were held, at which advocates and agricul- 
 turists gave vent to their profound cogita-
 
 72 KOSSUTH'S MARRIAGE, AND 
 
 tions on the subject of manufactures and 
 political economy, while care was taken to 
 unite agreeable with useful things by attack- 
 ing the Austrian government as the arch 
 promoter of all the sufferings of Hungary. 
 These meetings were attended, not only by 
 the elite of the female world, but also by the 
 delegates of the provincial associations. The 
 natural consequences of the narrow Hun- 
 garian views of their legislation, and of their 
 want of material elasticity, were laid at the 
 door of Austria ; while, on the other hand, 
 the opposition took a delight in representing 
 this very Austria as the original source of 
 all obstacles and impediments, and they 
 crucified it and held it up to the sneers and 
 the hatred of the masses. Still it was in 
 themselves that the Magyars ought to have 
 looked for the causes which impeded their 
 progress. 
 
 Although the influence of such doings 
 did not at the moment exhibit itself in its 
 worst form, still it confused the masses of 
 the people by a violent, irregular, and one-
 
 FURTHER CAREER. 73 
 
 sided instruction. The greater part of this 
 evil seed was cast in the time, from the year 
 184-2 to 1847, when Kossuth endeavoured to 
 realise the motto of Cato, Amtriam esse de- 
 lendam, with the most wretched consistency, 
 and with a diabolical cunning.
 
 74 THE MAYORALTY OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE MAYORALTY OF THE DISTRICTS. 
 
 IT was in the month of March, 1845, and 
 in the County Saloon of Pesth, that Kos- 
 suth delivered an oration, in which he poured 
 out all his irony on the system of mayoral 
 administration, as it existed in Austria. 
 His intention, evidently, was to have a full 
 fling at the Austrian government. He was 
 the more profuse in his rage and passion, 
 since, a short time before, he had slipped down 
 between two stools. Having, in consequence 
 of a quarrel with the publisher of the Pesti 
 Hirlap, resigned the editorship of that 
 paper, and being disappointed in his hopes 
 for the license of a new Hungarian news- 
 paper, he felt deeply hurt, and grievously 
 disappointed j and, in short, his position
 
 THE DISTRICTS. 75 
 
 was such that it would have taxed the pa- 
 tience of even moderate men. His speech 
 was produced by a decree of the govern- 
 ment, which provided that the lord -lieu- 
 tenant of a county should in future be 
 replaced by a royal administrator. Kossuth 
 considered that such a functionary would 
 hold the place of the mayor of an Austrian 
 district, and that such appointments were 
 consequently illegal. The following explan- 
 ations will not, we trust, be considered as an 
 unnecessary commentary to that most famous 
 speech. The lord-lieutenant, who was ap- 
 pointed by the king himself, was the first 
 functionary in every county ; all other offi- 
 cials were subjected to the election of the 
 magnates. It was the lord-lieutenant's dutj 
 to superintend and direct the magistrates in 
 their administration of justice and police, 
 and in the presidency of the county meet- 
 ings. But since it very often happened that 
 a lord-lieutenant, as a high aristocrat, had 
 some other office in the State, and since he 
 was frequently found to want either the time 
 or the inclination to inquire into the affairs of
 
 76 THE MAYORALTY OF 
 
 the county ; nay more, since he was often 
 ignorant of the Hungarian language, laws, 
 and proceedings ; the administration of the 
 county was almost exclusively conducted hy 
 elected functionaries, with a sheriff at their 
 head ; and these men, because they depended 
 upon the triennial elections, offered no gua- 
 rantees whatever for an efficient and just 
 administration. This was proved by a variety 
 of abuses and encroachments, and acts of 
 injustice and violence, which these elected 
 functionaries either suffered or permitted. 
 
 It was at this time that the newly - 
 appointed Hungarian chancellor, Count 
 George Apponyi, took the reins of the 
 Hungarian government. He stood forth 
 with great firmness and courage, and he 
 took a fair view of the interests and endea- 
 vours of the opposing parties, as well as of 
 the real wants of the country. It was his 
 first care to improve the fitful and irregular 
 administration and supervision of the coun- 
 ties, by the legal substitution of adminis- 
 trators. And since these government men 
 possessed great power and influence, they
 
 THE DISTRICTS. 77 
 
 were naturally enabled, not only to act as a 
 firm centre to the Government party, but 
 also to weaken and defeat the forces and in- 
 trigues of the opposition. This policy was 
 the more likely of success, since the agita- 
 tions, which chiefly proceeded from Kossuth, 
 spent their fury almost solely on the city and 
 county of Pesth, while the majority of the 
 nobility in the other counties relied on, and 
 supported, the reforms of the Conservative 
 government. 
 
 Having, as we take it, placed our readers 
 in a position to form a correct judgment of 
 the speech to which we alluded, we quote 
 that speech to the following purpose : 
 
 " Although the future of our country is 
 hidden behind a veil of darkness, still [ pro- 
 test I have hopes of a better future, and a 
 brighter fate. One of those moments of hope 
 dawned before us when the Government ap- 
 peared to concur with our sentiments, and 
 when it seemed to resolve to walk with us in 
 the path of progress which our own endea- 
 vours had cut out for us when it held out 
 its hand to satisfy the wants of the time to
 
 78 THE MAYORALTY OF 
 
 make up for the falls of our fathers, and to 
 save the people from their forlorn condition. 
 The Diet knows it, and the whole country 
 knows it, that at times we are prepared to 
 bury the remembrance of a three -hundred 
 years' mourning, and that, trustingly, we 
 waited for that career of labour which was 
 to take the place of those painful, unremit- 
 ting, but secret contests, which we have 
 fought in defence of our liberties and our 
 
 O 
 
 rio;hts. We were doomed to be mistaken. 
 
 to 
 
 We found that we were left alone and soli- 
 tary on the path of progress. Another step in 
 advance and the combat was to recommence. 
 So let it be. Those who were making their 
 peace with power, are again called upon to 
 defend their rights as freemen and citizens 
 of a free country. 
 
 " I am convinced that the king is not 
 allowed to govern us in any other man- 
 ner than by means of the constitution, and 
 that those statesmen who would attempt to 
 introduce an illegal administration into this 
 country would be certain to lose the con- 
 fidence of his majesty. And as for this
 
 THE DISTRICTS. 79 
 
 system, I will call it by its true name ; 
 I will show you its origin, and I will tear 
 the veil of legality with which some persons 
 endeavour to shroud it. 
 
 " There are certain things which are 
 allowed to happen only because people do 
 not give them their real name. I do not, 
 therefore, hesitate to name this Vienna po- 
 licy, which is neither Hungarian nor con- 
 stitutional, and I call it a system of district 
 mayoralty, for this policy is too Austrian 
 and too despotic. It has no place in the 
 Hungarian dictionary. This name will re- 
 mind you that the same system has already 
 been tried in our country. And who made 
 the trial ? A great prince, who found the 
 nation slumbering, and the nobility intoxi- 
 cated with the atmosphere of the court. 
 And what was the success of that system ? 
 It had no effect whatever, but it prevented 
 all the good which that great king might 
 have done. God be thanked, we are awake 
 by this time ! We have been awake during 
 twenty-five years of war in the king's cause, 
 and not in our own j for what had we to
 
 80 THE MAYORALTY OF 
 
 do with the French wars ? We have been 
 awake, and we have grown up in the time 
 of peace which followed those wars. We 
 have come to men's estate. Let us per- 
 severe, and the system of district mayors 
 will fall, as it fell on a former occasion. 
 
 " The lord-lieutenant has hitherto been 
 the dignitary of the county. The admi- 
 nistrator who supplied his place was the 
 county's servant, and elected by the coun- 
 ty. It is now intended to transform that 
 functionary into something like a French 
 prefect, with the sole, but with the impor- 
 tant difference, that he is appointed, not 
 by a responsible cabinet, but by an invi- 
 sible and unreachable chancellory, from 
 which he receives secret instructions, and 
 to which he sends in secret reports, and 
 upon whose arbitrary power he depends. 
 Such a functionary, under a responsible 
 government, has a striking, but fatal like- 
 ness, to the district mayors of Bohemia 
 and Galicia. 
 
 " Let us add, that this prefect is libe- 
 rally paid by the government, that he has
 
 THE DISTRICTS. 81 
 
 a considerable staff of underlings, that he has 
 the disposal of military power, and that he is 
 likely to usurp the right of marking out the 
 candidates for the elections ; that he has 
 the disposal of large sums of money, that 
 his mighty hand grasps all the means of 
 bribery and intimidation, that he will regu- 
 larly preside over all courts of justice, and 
 that every man's life and property will de- 
 pend upon his influence. Can we, in com- 
 mon honesty, say that such a functionary is 
 an Hungarian dignitary as the lord-lieu- 
 tenant has been? Is he not, indeed, a 
 Bohemian district mayor, who is likely to 
 paralyse our municipal system that pal- 
 ladium of our political existence? This 
 bastard system would in a very short time 
 be as unlike our national institutions as the 
 Postulate Diets of Galicia are to the Par- 
 liaments of the Jagellonen. 
 
 " What is to be the condition of the 
 sheriff? for it is he who, according to the 
 spirit of the law, acts as chief of the admi- 
 nistration, since the seal of the county is 
 kept, not by the lord-lieutenant, but by 
 
 G
 
 82 THE MAYORALTY OF 
 
 him. What is to he his condition at the 
 side of our Austrian district mayor, and sur- 
 rounded hy an Austrian bureau ? And what 
 is to be the condition of the county under a 
 sheriff whose activity has been reduced to 
 nought ? I do not stand here to plead for 
 individuals ; I plead for our municipal or- 
 ganisation, which cannot possibly stand the 
 shock of that destructive system. Never, 
 since the government of Joseph II., has a 
 man been found who attacked our constitu- 
 tion in a more tender point ; for history 
 teaches us that Hungary must descend to 
 the level of a wretched Austrian province 
 whenever our municipal rights cease to be 
 an active truth. 
 
 "It has been said that the opposition 
 is at war with chimeras, and that the power 
 and the pay of the new administrators has 
 not yet come to be an official fact. Well 
 said, indeed ! Let a man see his house in 
 flames, he will certainly not wait for official 
 information before he stirs his limbs to help 
 and to save. It has likewise been said, that 
 the appointment of lord-lieutenants is a royal
 
 THE DISTRICTS. 83 
 
 prerogative. So it certainly is, but let the 
 king appoint lord-lieutenants, do not let him 
 appoint district mayors. And, lastly, it has 
 been said (for I should like to know what 
 has not been said in justification of the 
 government), lastly, I say, it has been said, 
 that these extraordinary measures are re- 
 quired for the maintenance of order. By 
 G , this is the very word of which despot- 
 ism makes such a disgusting abuse ! It was 
 in the name of order that Nicholas murdered 
 Poland ; it was in the name of order that 
 Ernest Augustus annihilated the Hano- 
 verian constitution ; and it was in the name 
 of order that Philip II. turned the Nether- 
 lands into a graveyard. God be thanked, 
 Hungary knows nothing of this order ! God 
 forbid she should ever know it ! Hungary- 
 is governed by her own laws, and when the 
 interests of order require a change in the 
 government it is necessary that the whole 
 nation should meet, and that it should as- 
 sent to the change. Any other measure 
 which might be arbitrarily impressed upon 
 us is not a measure of order, but of des-
 
 84) THE MAYORALTY OF 
 
 potism of illegality ; that is to say, of 
 disorder. 
 
 " In conclusion, I support the motion of 
 Mr. Joseph Patai ; and I join my entreaties 
 with his, begging that you will make a for- 
 mal declaration of the fears which you en- 
 tertain of the Austrian policy, and that you 
 will record these sentiments in the protocols. 
 And I move that you enjoin the sheriffs 
 and exhort them to the energetic defence of 
 the administrative and political independence 
 of the counties. And having said thus 
 much, let me conclude with the words of 
 the poet, * Hungarians, arise! If ^fou 
 sleep, who is to watch over the safety of 
 your country ? ' : 
 
 The parliamentary speeches of Kossuth 
 were, even at that time, like burning arrows, 
 which he hurled into kindred minds, thereby 
 urging them to fanatic enthusiasm. The 
 meeting resolved unanimously to oppose the 
 new arrangements of the Austrian govern- 
 ment, and to resist the installation of a royal 
 district mayor. They considered this in- 
 stitution in the light of a system which the
 
 THE DISTRICTS. 85 
 
 Emperor Joseph II. in his time had at- 
 tempted, and they believed that the govern- 
 ment had the cunning device of murdering 
 the constitution by its own agency. A con- 
 temporaneous writer says they saw in the new 
 system a Chinese contrivance, which was to 
 reach through a centralised machinery into 
 all the crannies of social and political life by 
 means of bribery and favouritism. For the 
 purpose of effectually meeting this dangerous 
 opposition, it was necessary that the govern- 
 ment should be sure of its right, and firmly 
 resolved to triumph over all obstacles. Count 
 Apponyi showed, indeed, so much firmness 
 and energy, that he stood his ground, and 
 disarmed even his most rancorous enemies. 
 Thus was Kossuth defeated, and his 
 defeat was the more painful since many of 
 his friends left him and joined the ranks 
 of the other party. It is said, that in this 
 time of disappointment he suffered greatly, 
 and walked about like a shadow of his former 
 self, and that he avowed his resolution to 
 quit the political arena for the obscurity of 
 private life. He was thus like a tiger,
 
 86 THE MAYORALTY, ETC. 
 
 which having in his predatory excursions 
 struck a thorn in his paw, retires to his 
 cave until his wound is healed, and passion 
 drives him forth again to murder and 
 destroy.
 
 LIGHTNING ON THE HORIZON. 87 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LIGHTNING ON THE FAB HOEIZON. 
 
 THE outbreak of the French Revolution 
 gave birth to the most fatal ideas, which 
 placed the world in a grand conflagration ; 
 which tarnished the splendour of purity ; 
 which, like a destructive rust, devoured 
 the shining shield of virtue, of civic faith, 
 and of religious simplicity ; and which 
 contaminated mankind in all that is most 
 sacred. Still this "pestilence of moral de- 
 pravity was mixed up with something like 
 good, for man the freeborn attained a clearer 
 insight into the dignity of his nature, and 
 the idea of liberty created a yearning for 
 freedom, although those who were more ra- 
 tional could not help acknowledging that 
 the masses had not attained that degree of
 
 88 LIGHTNING ON THE 
 
 ripeness and mental cultivation which en- 
 abled them to plant the tree of knowledge 
 and of life. 
 
 Great anxiety was felt when the atmo- 
 sphere behind the Carpathians and the Alps 
 was obscured by lowering clouds (in 1846). 
 We allude to the late insurrection in Ga- 
 licia, and to the Sonderbund in Switzer- 
 land. The division of Poland was a seed of 
 dragon-teeth in the furrows of the time, 
 from which contest after contest is likely to 
 rise ; nor can, indeed, human sagacity see 
 the end of them. The disturbances and 
 violences in Galicia were not only a kind of 
 Lynch law, which the peasants employed 
 against their masters, and against the arbi- 
 trary power of the Austrian functionaries, 
 no ! these bloody scenes cover a well-organ- 
 ised conspiracy, which was principally esta- 
 blished at Cracow, Lemberg, Warsaw, and 
 Posen, and which spread over the whole of 
 Europe. And the seeming gain which Aus- 
 tria had in occupying the territory of Cracow 
 proved a far greater loss than it would have 
 been if Metternich had resigned the whole
 
 FAR HORIZON. 89 
 
 of the spoils of Poland, and if he had sought 
 to recover the mouth of the Danube. 
 
 Almost as fatal were his sympathies for 
 the Sonderbund of Switzerland, for that 
 association was one of the last frantic move- 
 ments of despotism and religious fanaticism. 
 Their small troop of armed men under 
 Salis-Soglio has, in spite of the Austrian 
 protection, fought against the larger numbers 
 under Dufour ; they opposed themselves 
 to the spring-tide of the time, and like 
 dwarfs fighting against a giant they threw 
 down their gauntlet to the irresistible 
 power of the spirit of the time. But Met- 
 ternich, far from profiting by the defeats of 
 his policy, continued with stubborn obstinacy 
 on the path which he had taken. He 
 induced Louis Philippe to join his system, 
 and by so doing he prepared his fall. He 
 opposed the victorious policy of Palmerston 
 and England ; that old ally of Austria became 
 henceforward her most dangerous enemy. 
 At home and abroad he resisted everything 
 which tended to innovation, and he would 
 not be convinced that time will not be forced
 
 90 LIGHTNING ON THE 
 
 back, and that his fatal stand-still principle 
 had become utterly obsolete. Mastai Ferretti 
 was elected against his will, and with un- 
 exampled rapidity, to be Pope. He assumed 
 the name of Pius the Ninth. And, strange 
 to say, this corner-stone of Catholic Chris- 
 tendom served as a break to the stream of 
 the time, and that stream shattered to pieces 
 the old rotten state vessel of absolutism, in 
 which Jesuitism had served as ballast. The 
 reforms of the Pope were a scandal and an 
 abomination in the eyes of Metternich, who 
 thought proper to make use of the old right 
 of garrison which the Austrians possess in 
 Ferrara and Commacchio, and thus to drive 
 an iron wedge into the Roman territory. 
 Great was the noise which this state-trick 
 made throughout the world, and from that 
 hour Austria lost the sympathies of Italy. 
 
 Still the hydra of insurrection was par- 
 tially at rest. But every now and then it 
 moved and stretched its limbs, like the vol- 
 canos which announce the outbreak by means 
 of thunder and clouds of smoke. The King 
 of Sardinia, the Grand Duke of Tuscany,
 
 FAR HORIZON. 91 
 
 and the King of the Two Sicilies, were com- 
 pelled to break with Austria, and to make 
 important concessions to their people. Aus- 
 tria herself, vexed by revolutionary intrigues 
 in Lombardy, in Galicia, and in Hungary, 
 believed still in the brute power of bayonets 
 and artillery. She prepared to oppose force 
 to force and violence to violence. 
 
 She relied, moreover, on the assistance 
 of France ; while France herself, by her 
 despotic leanings and moral depravity, stood 
 on a volcano. Crimes abounded in that 
 country, and gave evidence of its demorali- 
 zation. 
 
 The corruption and demoralization among 
 the lower classes was still more shocking, 
 and it was increased by the destructive ideas 
 of Socialism, as expressed in the writings of 
 Louis Blanc, Caussidiere, Proudhon, and 
 George Sand. Louis Philippe and Guizot 
 did not profit by the example of Charles X. 
 and his minister, the Prince Polignac, for 
 they believed the best way to avoid the 
 impending danger was to adopt the system 
 of Metternich, and to limit the powers of the
 
 92 LIGHTNING ON THE HORIZON. 
 
 Charter. But this course of action led to 
 the overthrow of royalty ; it produced the 
 events of the 24<th of February in Paris, and 
 of the 13th of March in Vienna. 
 
 But to return to our proper sphere. It is 
 worthy of remark that in 1847 the atmosphere 
 of Hungary was so sultry, so fraught with 
 thunder-storms, and so full of gloom, that 
 every heart was oppressed, and every mind 
 full of bodings. It was but natural that the 
 Austrian government, which had no in- 
 tention of leaving its narrow and tortuous 
 path, should have some serious misgivings 
 about the spirit which prevailed among the 
 sons of Arpad, especially since the elections 
 for the next Diet were at hand, and the 
 electioneering intrigues were conducted in 
 a manner which was most distasteful to 
 the people of Vienna. We need only say 
 that Louis Kossuth was elected, and this 
 event was of such great importance to Austria 
 and to Hungary that we cannot but devote a 
 chapter to its commemoration.
 
 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY. 93 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND PAELIAMENTARY OEATOB. 
 
 > 
 
 WE have already alluded to Kossuth's 
 resolution of retreating into the privacy of 
 private life, but this resolution was not proof 
 against his temper and his ambition. The 
 Diet of 1817 was approaching; the call for 
 the election of deputies sounded from county 
 to county, and found an echo in the heart 
 of every patriot, for fresh hopes produced 
 fresh endeavours, and greater animation pre- 
 vailed in all ranks of society, but especially 
 in the aristocratic and literary circles, for 
 these were the most interested in the debates 
 of the legislature, and every magnate, stu- 
 dent, and artist, relied on advancing his 
 own interests. 
 
 It need scarcely be said, that the capital
 
 94> KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 of Hungary was most excited and most 
 noisy, and those who have a proper under- 
 standing of Kossuth's character, will easily 
 know that he did not possess that degree of 
 self-denial which might have kept him away 
 from the elections. On the contrary, he 
 emerged from the darkness of his retreat, 
 and it is quite certain that he had sufficient 
 reason to become a candidate, although it is 
 difficult to understand how he found friends 
 to support him. We copy here the description 
 of an authentic witness, on whom we have 
 the greatest reason to rely. 
 
 The elections for the Diet of 1847 bore 
 a truly Magyar character. A large num- 
 ber of persons, who had no claim to nobi- 
 lity, took part in the elections, and were 
 admitted on account of their acquirements. 
 They represented the aristocracy of talent, in 
 contradistinction to the aristocracy of birth. 
 The latter, the living representatives of the 
 right of conquest, arrived simultaneously 
 from all parts of the counties, and met in a 
 large square at the further end of the town, 
 where they left their horses and carriages,
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 9-5 
 
 and then proceeded through the streets to 
 the County House. The long street which 
 led to this building was suddenly filled with 
 several thousand men. At the head, on 
 steeds caparisoned in the Oriental manner, 
 rode the Liberal magnates, some in their 
 lordly dresses, and others dressed in elegant 
 peasant costumes. The columns came to a 
 stop before the County House. The music 
 ceased, and the cheers died away, and one 
 unanimous shout, " Halljuk ! " (hear, hear), 
 issued from the crowd, for the Magyars, 
 though usually chary of their words, waste 
 formalities, cheers, and orations on the days 
 of political contest and festivities. The noble- 
 men from the country, who crowded the 
 streets, were aware that they were entitled 
 to hear some doughty things about the coun- 
 try and about the constitution of Hungary. 
 Everybody prepared to listen. 
 
 A table was placed on the pavement, and 
 mounted by the two candidates of the oppo- 
 sition, Messrs. Szentkiraly and Kossuth, and 
 by another Liberal candidate, the Baron 
 Joseph Eotvos. Eotvos, speaking in the
 
 96 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 name of the electors for Pesth, addressed 
 the future deputies, who replied to him in 
 a manner which elicited violent cheers from 
 the crowd. They stated the manner in 
 which they understood their duties, and 
 added, that in the discharge of those du- 
 ties they must be assisted by every citizen 
 of the country if Hungary were again to be 
 free, happy, and independent. 
 
 The people understood this language : 
 it went to their hearts. When the speakers 
 had ended, they were surrounded by the 
 peasants, who showed their satisfaction by 
 gestures and exclamations. Early on the 
 following morning they occupied the Guild- 
 hall. The court-yard at the principal en- 
 trance and the meeting-room were taken by 
 the Liberals; the opposite party had their 
 camp in the back-yard. Large boards, 
 which were hoisted on poles, were painted 
 with the names of the candidates. The same 
 names were written on placards, which were 
 carried about on the points of swords. The 
 stairs and the passages were filled with 
 armed men, who, in anticipation of the mo-
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 97 
 
 ment of the election, shouted the names of 
 Szentkiraly and Kossuth, as though such 
 noisy manifestations were likely to promote 
 the success of their cause. The most peace- 
 ful among the lot stood in large groups in 
 the court-yard, smoking their pipes, which is 
 quite as much an Hungarian as a Turkish 
 custom. Whenever a member of the oppo- 
 site party crossed such a group for the pur- 
 pose of joining his friends, he was received 
 with the most biting witticisms ; but the 
 appearance of a Liberal elicited thundering 
 cheers. When the two Counts, Louis and 
 Casimir Batthyany, entered the courtyard, 
 they were seized and raised by the peasants, 
 who carried them in triumph to the meeting- 
 room. 
 
 At length came the administrator to pre- 
 side over the election. At the very outset 
 he announced the return of Szentkiraly, who 
 was named by either party ; but he also 
 informed them of his intention to have a 
 poll for the election of the second deputy. 
 A large table was placed near the chief gate 
 
 H
 
 98 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 of the house, and every elector in going out 
 put down the name of the condidate to whom 
 he gave his vote. The Liberal party have 
 a great majority in the county of Pesth, and 
 the Conservatives have no chance against 
 them. Nor did they expect it. All they 
 wished was to defeat Kossuth, the most dan- 
 gerous of their adversaries, and to replace 
 him by another member of the opposition. 
 They selected M. Balla, who had already 
 been pointed out by the opposition, and who 
 had resigned in favour of Kossuth. It was 
 in vain that M. Balla protested against this 
 stratagem of the Conservative party. He 
 could not help it, and was forced to submit 
 to the ordeal. But it was he who was the 
 first loudly to applaud the return of Kossuth, 
 which took place after a painful suspense of 
 twelve hours. 
 
 The two Deputies, as well as M. Balla, 
 were in the course of the following night 
 serenaded by the jurates and citizens of 
 Pesth ; the three friends came down to the 
 street, speeches were addressed to them,
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 99 
 
 to which they replied, and they walked arm- 
 in-arm through the crowd, surrounded hy a 
 thousand torches. 
 
 It was in this manner that Louis Kossuth 
 was returned as a representative for Pesth. 
 The opposition had long delayed this step, 
 for they feared Kossuth's impetuosity, ta- 
 lents, and influence with the people ; hut 
 there was no resisting the popular demand, 
 which insisted on Kossuth's return. 
 
 We have been assured that the royal 
 administrator was severely reprimanded for 
 not having found the means to prevent Kos- 
 suth's election. Indeed, the Conservative 
 party had a right to consider this election 
 as a decided defeat, and to entertain the 
 gloomiest apprehensions of the future. 
 
 These apprehensions were the more 
 justified since Louis Batthyany, animated by 
 the same spirit with Kossuth, and unmindful 
 of his high birth and station, took the lead 
 of the opposition, and invested his party 
 with all the power of his authority. This 
 authority, founded as it was upon popularity, 
 seemed like an impregnable stronghold, from
 
 100 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 which Kossuth, with a flaming tongue, 
 hurled his fiery projectiles ; and so unremit- 
 tingly did he attack his adversaries that 
 they were almost always defeated. His ora- 
 tory was like a large battery with heavy 
 pieces of ordnance, whose discharge did the 
 most fearful execution ; and thus there can 
 he no doubt that this antagonist of the 
 Austrian government, this arch-enemy of 
 absolutism and bureauocracy, was one of 
 those great calamities which at that time 
 were preparing to wreak their tempestuous 
 force upon Austria. 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 Met- 
 ternich, whom these things ought to have 
 induced to make large and important con- 
 cessions. And this warning struck upon 
 his ear from the west as well as from the 
 east ; for in the middle of February, 1848, 
 the events impending in France cast their 
 shadows before. They were soon to be fol- 
 lowed by a terrific reality. The news of the
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 101 
 
 outbreak of the Paris Revolution, and of the 
 overthrow of royalty in France, reached 
 Vienna on the 1st of March, and Pressburg 
 on the 2d, and created so general a sen- 
 sation that we dare say the like was never 
 caused by the most important events in the 
 history of the world. Whoever had any 
 knowledge of the condition, andof the political 
 spirit and temper of nations, could not for a 
 moment doubt but that this great fact was 
 the signal for a gigantic commotion, which 
 was likely to rise to a fearful height, if 
 the governments of the despotic states refused 
 to yield to the just wishes and demands of 
 their subjects. 
 
 We will not anticipate the course of our 
 narrative by depicting the effect which the 
 events at Paris produced on the Main, on 
 the Danube, on the Spre, and Elbe, and 
 on the other side of the Alps, where the 
 atmosphere had long been lurid and stormy. 
 We consider ourselves for the present con- 
 fined to the Hungarian House of Parliament, 
 where Kossuth made a speech on the 3d of 
 March. In this speech he does not indeed
 
 102 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 mention the events in France, but he gives 
 us to understand that the Vienna cabinet 
 ought to pay some attention to the East, 
 instead of looking to the West. We cannot 
 but copy this long and important speech, for 
 it is a fearful picture of Kossuth's most 
 secret character, and we cannot paint him 
 better than with his own colours. We ought 
 also to add that this speech touches upon 
 the financial state of the Austrian empire,- 
 the most sensitive point, and the one most 
 open to attack. This speech is couched in 
 the following terms : 
 
 "I am happy and grateful in seconding 
 the motion of the honourable member for 
 Raab, although 1 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 mo- 
 ment, and to raise the policy of the 'Parlia- 
 ment to the level of the times. Taking this 
 stand, as I do, I will not enter into the details 
 of the Bank question, for I am convinced
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 103 
 
 that the prevailing apprehensions concerning 
 the value of the bank-notes, in concert with 
 the motion of the honourable member for 
 Raab, will suffice to make the government 
 understand the necessity of removing any- 
 thing like suspicion from an institution which 
 so nearly affects all the relations of private 
 life, as the bank undoubtedly does. The 
 consequences of such a suspicion are beyond 
 the reach of human calculation. It defies 
 divisions ; it laughs at secrecy. The only 
 way to conquer it is to make a public and 
 candid statement of the state of affairs. I 
 am happy in the belief that the government 
 is prepared to act on this principle, for I 
 understand that the directors of the bank 
 have, in the course of this morning, commu- 
 nicated to several members an official state- 
 ment of the condition of the bank. From 
 this statement it appears that bank-notes 
 to the amount of 214,000,000 are saved, 
 and backed by specie, and that there is 
 a residue of 30,000,000 in shares. I am 
 inclined to believe that the government is 
 alive to the necessity and to the duty of
 
 104 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 officially publishing this very satisfactory 
 fact, and it would be a fatal blunder, indeed, 
 if the publication were prevented by the 
 pretext that the bank is a private affair, 
 and the government is not responsible for 
 its actions. The public are too well aware 
 of the monetary connexion which exists be- 
 tween the bank and the government ; and 
 the bank in its issue of notes is neither more 
 nor less than a faulty, but still an integral 
 institution of the financial system of the 
 monarchy. 
 
 " Another reason why I enter into an 
 analysis of these circumstances may be found 
 in the certain knowledge I have that, as far 
 as the price of the bank shares may be taken 
 in evidence for the condition of the bank, 
 the bank was in a much worse condition in 
 1830 than it is now. Besides, I am con- 
 vinced that the bank is not now in a position 
 of serious danger, but danger might accrue 
 if the policy of Vienna remains unchanged, 
 and if the State, whose finances in their 
 normal condition exhibit one continued de- 
 ficit, whether by perseverance in bad policy,
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 105 
 
 were forced into greater expenses, and conse- 
 quently into another bankruptcy. 
 
 "A radical reform of this policy will 
 calm our apprehensions on the subject of the 
 bank, and it is therefore I desire you will 
 direct your attention to those circumstances 
 which are likely to stem the tide of public 
 danger. For I am convinced that, consi- 
 dering the influence which the Austrian 
 finances has on our monetary and financial 
 circumstances, we cannot stop at the mere 
 desire to have the budget of the bank com- 
 municated to us. This is but a question of 
 detail ; it is a conclusion from the premises. 
 What we ought to ask for is the budget of 
 the Hungarian receipts and expenditure, 
 and the constitutional administration of our 
 finances. What we ought to ask for is, in 
 one word, a separate and independent fi- 
 nancial board for Hungary ; for, unless we 
 have this, the foreign government, which 
 rules us without our advice, is likely to em- 
 barrass our finances almost to hopelessness. 
 
 " But if a responsible cabinet be granted 
 to us we shall be enabled to provide for the
 
 106 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 splendour of the throne, for the wants of the 
 country, and for the discharge of our just 
 liabilities ; and we shall likewise be enabled 
 to protect the finances of our citizens against 
 all dangerous fluctuations. Respecting the 
 condition of the bsnk I will only say, that 
 1 believe steps have been taken to remove 
 all apprehensions. One of these steps is an 
 official statement of the condition of the 
 bank, and the other step is that prepar- 
 ations are making in all parts of the country 
 to exchange the bank-notes for specie. If, 
 in addition to these matters, a change takes 
 place in the policy of the government, I am 
 positive that confidence will return. A re- 
 turn of this confidence is rather in the in- 
 terest of the dynasty than our own, and it is 
 for this reason I will trace the evil to its 
 source, and I will point out the means of 
 salvation. 
 
 " At the commencement of this session, 
 on the motion of the address, I thought it 
 my duty to enter into an analysis of our 
 situation, not only respecting our home 
 affairs, but with special regard to those
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 107 
 
 relations, which, by the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 exist between us and the Austrian empire. 
 
 " I expressed my conviction that the con- 
 stitutional future of our country would not be 
 secured, unless the king was surrounded with 
 constitutional forms in all the relations of his 
 government. I expressed my conviction 
 that our country was not sure even of the 
 reforms which the nation desired ; that we 
 could not be sure of the constitutional ten- 
 dencies of those reforms, and of their results, 
 so long as the system of the monarchy, which 
 has the same prince whom 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 influ- 
 ence on the internal affairs of the country, 
 so long as that council remains anti-constitu- 
 tional in its elements, its composition, and 
 its tendency. 
 
 " I expressed my conviction that, when- 
 ever our interests meet with the allied inter- 
 ests of the monarchy, the differences thus 
 created can be removed without danger to our
 
 108 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 liberty and our welfare only on the basis of 
 a common constituency. I cast a sorrowful 
 
 / 
 
 look on the origin and the developement of 
 the bureaucratical system of Vienna. I 
 have reminded you that it reared the fabric 
 of its marvellous power on the ruins of the 
 liberty of our neighbours, and recounting 
 the consequences of this fatal mechanism 
 and perusing the Book of Life, which, in 
 the fatal logic of events, proclaims the revela- 
 tion of the future, I prophesied 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 Habsburg 
 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. 
 
 " Since I spoke these words the world 
 has witnessed the overthrow of thrones re- 
 nowned for state-craft, and nations have 
 regained their liberty, which, a few months 
 ago, did not dare to dream of that blessing. 
 But we have for three months incessantly 
 moved the rock of Sisyphus, and the sorrow
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 109 
 
 of immovability corrodes my soul with can- 
 kering care. I see with a bleeding heart 
 how so much generous strength and faithful 
 talent slaves in the performance of an un- 
 grateful labour which is like the torments of 
 the tread-mill. 
 
 " Yes, Gentlemen, the curse of a stifling 
 atmosphere oppresses us. The late prisons 
 of the Vienna cabinet send forth a consuming 
 wind, which stiffens our nerves, and which 
 paralyses the wings of our spirit. Hitherto 
 I have been anxious lest the influence of the 
 Vienna cabinet should prevail against our 
 progress, lest our constitutional leanings 
 should be insecure, and lest those differences 
 which exist between the despotism of the 
 government, and between the constitutional 
 tendencies of the Hungarian nation, and 
 which have existed for the last 300 years, 
 lest, I say, those differences should increase 
 instead of lessen, and lest tbere should be 
 any necessity for the annihilation of either 
 one principle or the other. But the last 
 weeks have added to my anxieties. I fear 
 lest that bureaucratical, immovable policy,
 
 110 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 which is fossilised in the Vienna privy 
 council, should lead the monarchy to the 
 brink of dissolution, lest it should compro- 
 mise the future of our heloved dynasty, and 
 lest our country, occupied as it is with its 
 own cares, and in want of all its resources 
 of every kind, should he forced into oppressive 
 sacrifices and endless calamities. This is 
 my view of things ; and because it is my 
 view, I think it my duty to appeal to you, 
 and to draw your attention to this circum- 
 stance, and to the prevention of the evil 
 which is threatening the country. We, 
 whom the nation has commissioned to protect 
 their present time and to secure their future, 
 we are not permitted to sit down, closing 
 our eyes, and to wait until our country is 
 deluged by an ocean of evils. Our task is 
 to anticipate impending evils, and to prevent 
 them ; and I am convinced that if we neglect 
 our duty, we shall be responsible to God, to 
 the world, and to our own conscience, for 
 every misfortune which results from our 
 remissness. If the perversity of policy makes 
 us lose the time of peaceable reconciliation,
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. Ill 
 
 when fate rushes on, and when the die has 
 been cast, and when it is found that we 
 have delayed casting the free and loyal voice 
 of the representatives of this nation into the 
 scale, when the plot has so far thickened 
 that our only choice lies between denial and 
 between sacrifice, of which God only knows 
 the end then it will be too late for repent- 
 ance, and the Almighty Himself could not, 
 if he would, restore us the moment which 
 we lost in idleness and sloth. 
 
 " I for one, though doomed to share in 
 the consequences of this late repentance, am 
 resolved to have no responsiblity as repre- 
 sentative of the people. I would remind 
 you of the French wars. What business 
 had we with the internal affairs of the 
 French people ? Our Diet met in the year 
 1790, but they paid no attention to inter- 
 national policy, and what was the conse- 
 quence ? I will tell you. The curse of the 
 fault, which was not our own fault but which 
 was made our expense, weighed for twenty- 
 five years upon our country, entailing enor- 
 mous sacrifices of the people's blood, pro-
 
 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 perty, and welfare. And amidst these 
 enormous sacrifices our fathers saw the 
 royal house put to flight ; they saw the 
 victorious arms of the far west ; they saw 
 this city, the seat of our legislature, fall a 
 prey to the victor ; they saw the empire 
 crumbling and at the mercy of a haughty 
 conqueror, and they saw lamentable financial 
 embarrassments, which struck our poor and 
 innocent country with the blow of two state 
 bankruptcies. And so great was our mis- 
 fortune, that we had not even the comfort 
 to be enabled to say that we had done all in 
 our power to avert the impending danger. 
 I pray to God that history may not pass the 
 same verdict over this time. God forbid 
 that our minds should one day be oppressed 
 by the thought that we have seen the dan- 
 ger approaching the throne of our kings ; 
 that we have seen it approaching our coun- 
 try, and that we have not stood forth with 
 manly resolution to contend with that dan- 
 ger and to conquer it. May God keep our 
 memory pure from the charge of neglect of 
 duty. I appeal to you. Let us raise our
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. US 
 
 policy to the level of events ; let us find 
 strength in our loyalty, in our responsibility, 
 in our duties as citizens, and let us have 
 that resolution which the temper of the 
 times demands. I will not give you a de- 
 tailed account of affairs at home and abroad ; 
 they are too well known. But I will record 
 my earnest conviction that the Vienna system 
 of government is the real source of the dis- 
 turbance and want of tranquillity in the 
 empire, and of all the evil consequences 
 which result from that disturbance. And 
 it is with an anxious heart that I record 
 my conviction that the maintenance of this 
 erroneous policy, opposed as it is to the 
 interests of the nations and to the claims 
 of rational liberty, will soon endanger the 
 future of the dynasty. Political systems, 
 however unnatural, may be upheld for a long 
 while, for the road is long from the patience 
 of nations to desperation. But these political 
 systems have not gained strength by dura- 
 tion, and, at length, there comes a time 
 when it is dangerous to approve. The very 
 length of their life makes them ripe for
 
 114 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 death. As for death, you can divide it, but 
 you cannot stop it. I am aware an old 
 system is like an old man who clings to the 
 idea of a long life. I am aware that it is a 
 painful thing to see the result of a long life 
 crumbling away hit by bit. But where the 
 foundation is unsound, there the fall must 
 come, sooner or later ; and we, whom Pro- 
 vidence has intrusted with the fates of the 
 nation, cannot be influenced by the weak- 
 nesses of one single man. The nation is 
 everlasting and we desire that this nation's 
 country should be everlasting, that the splen- 
 dour should be everlasting of the dynasty 
 which reigns over us. The men of the past 
 will soon go down to their graves, but the 
 hopeful heir of the house of Habsburg, the 
 Archduke Francis Joseph, whose first appear- 
 ance has gained him the love of the nations, 
 will have the heritage of a splendid throne, 
 whose power results from liberty, and whose 
 former splendour cannot possibly be upheld 
 by the fatal mechanism of the Vienna policy. 
 The choice of the dynasty lies between their 
 own welfare and the preservation of a crum-
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 115 
 
 bling system of government, and I am afraid, 
 unless the loyal declarations of the nations 
 should interfere, that that fossilised policy 
 will sacrifice the fate of the dynasty to a 
 short respite of its own existence, which it 
 may find in a reconstruction of the late Holy 
 Alliance. 
 
 " Those men are not in the habit of 
 forgetting anything, but still they are too 
 prone to forget that it was not this Holy 
 Alliance, but the enthusiasm of the nations, 
 which saved the thrones. That enthusiasm 
 was caused by a promise of liberty, and that 
 promise has been broken. 
 
 "A dynasty which takes its stand on 
 freedom is always sure to command enthu- 
 siasm, for it is only the free man who is truly 
 loyal. If you oppress him he will serve 
 you, because he must. Bureaucracies cannot 
 command enthusiasm. Nations will freely 
 give their blood for a beloved dynasty, but 
 they will not sacrifice a sparrow to uphold 
 the policy of oppressive governments. If 
 there is a man at Vienna who, at the expense 
 of the dynasty, thinks to uphold his power
 
 116 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, AND 
 
 by despotic alliances, that man ought to 
 consider that some persons are more dan- 
 gerous as friends than enemies. 
 
 " Yes, gentlemen, it is my firm con- 
 viction that the future of the reigning family 
 is bound up with the alliance of the various 
 nations of the empire ; and this alliance can 
 be produced only by a respect for the various 
 nationalities, and by honest constitutionalism, 
 which awakes kindred feelings in every pro- 
 vince. Official despotism and bayonets are 
 a wretched means of union. The motion 
 which I have the honour to propose is taken 
 from a domestic point of view, and God be 
 thanked that this point of view is bound up 
 with the interests of the country. Who can 
 calmly think that the people could be called 
 upon to make sacrifices without a moral, 
 or material indemnification ? If we leave 
 this Diet without giving to the people 
 what they justly expect from their legislators, 
 who will take the responsibility of the events 
 which may possibly happen ? Who will 
 dare to guarantee that the enthusiasm and 
 the readiness for every sacrifice, which re-
 
 PARLIAMENTARY ORATOR. 117 
 
 sounds through the walls of this house, will 
 find an echo out of doors ? You must be 
 alive to the force of circumstances, and I 
 will not, therefore, discuss them, but proceed 
 with my motion, which is dictated by my 
 loyalty, by my duty, and by the feeling of 
 my responsibility. I ought to remark, that 
 although I shall recount some of the ques- 
 tions before the Diet, I make no mention of 
 the grievances for instance, of the question 
 of the three counties, and of the religious 
 coalition affairs, I make no mention of 
 these questions, because I propose to move 
 such fundamental demands as, if fulfilled, 
 as I have a right to expect, will carry with 
 them a guarantee for the cure of these 
 grievances. My motion is, therefore, in- 
 tended to advance some great questions 
 especially that of Croatia to a certain 
 solution ; and I am resolved that if that 
 solution cannot be effected in this manner 
 which alone will prevent the tearing open 
 the wounds of the past, I am resolved, I 
 say, and I think it my duty, to embrace the 
 Croatian question with the whole fervour of
 
 118 KOSSUTH AS DEPUTY, ETC. 
 
 my soul, and even to open old wounds if 
 necessity compels me." 
 
 To this famous speech we have merely 
 to add, that Kossuth mentions the overthrow 
 of the ancient order of things with so much 
 assurance that we cannot doubt but that he 
 was not a stranger to the intrigues of that 
 revolutionary party which undermined one 
 half of Europe, and which overthrew despotic 
 Austria. Twelve days after this speech in 
 Parliament, which was received with deaf- 
 ening cheers, we find the celebrated orator 
 and deputy within the walls of the Austrian 
 capital.
 
 MARCH, 1848. 119 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MAKCH, 1848. 
 
 WE are far from intending to try the pa- 
 tience of our readers with a detailed descrip- 
 tion of the Vienna events on the 13th, 14th, 
 and 15th of March. They are well known 
 already. We confine ourselves to saying that 
 the birthday of the great monarch, Joseph 
 II., to wit, the fatal 13th of March, the day 
 which shivered the principle of Metternich, 
 produced a similar commotion and debates 
 of an extraordinary kind in the Assembly 
 House of Pressburg, where the Vienna events 
 were partly anticipated. A stormy debate 
 came off on the separation question, accord- 
 ing to which the kingdom of Hungary with 
 its crownlands was, in spite of the Prag- 
 matic Sanction, separated from the union
 
 120 MARCH, 1848. 
 
 with Austria, in such a manner as to he con- 
 nected in future with that country only by 
 means of a personal union ; that is to say, hy 
 means of a very slender thread indeed. It 
 was the intention of the separatists to obtain 
 a Magyar cabinet, and the supremacy of the 
 Magyar nation ; in short, they wished for 
 the independence of their country. We need 
 scarcely add that this was Kossuth's favourite 
 plan, which he advocated with all the powers 
 of his oratory ; and in spite of the most rea- 
 sonable and energetic opposition of the Con- 
 servative party, his sophisms, his flow of 
 words, and his boldness, prevailed against 
 them, and obtained him a majority. 
 
 Thus was the Hungarian capital, on the 
 13th and 14th of March, scarcely less excited 
 than Vienna herself. Indeed, the waves of 
 the Hungarian tempest were by far more dan- 
 gerous than those which threatened Vienna, 
 where everybody applauded the overthrow of 
 Metternich and the newly-acquired liberty 
 of the press. The young Palatine Arch- 
 duke Stephen, who probably had been con- 
 fused by the late speeches and resolutions of
 
 MARCH, 1848. 
 
 the Diet, and who felt the direction which 
 the surge was likely to take, hastened to 
 the court to anticipate the shock. 
 
 There can be no doubt but that this 
 talented prince was the means to persuade 
 Ferdinand to grant a Constitution to the 
 nations of this empire. We need scarcely 
 say with what transports of joy this gift was 
 received by the inhabitants of the capital, 
 how happy and blessed everybody felt, and 
 how everybody praised the kind monarch as 
 the most generous donor of the greatest of all 
 worldly goods. 
 
 The solemn proclamation of the Consti- 
 tution took place at four o'clock of the after- 
 noon of the 15th of March. The first 
 accents of transport had scarcely ceased, when 
 news arrived of the arrival of 150 Hun- 
 garian deputies and about 300 jurats, who 
 came by steamer from Pressburg to Vienna, for 
 the purpose, as they pretended, of sympathis- 
 ing with the Viennese as brothers and as 
 friends ; for they said, In future there would 
 be no Hungarian frontier. The third even- 
 ing, amidst illuminations and torchlight,
 
 122 MARCH, 1848. 
 
 amidst music and solemn processions, was 
 indeed a festival. All hearts opened ; many 
 wept. Strangers embraced and kissed. 
 There were no Germans, no Sclavonians, no 
 Magyars, no Italians ; they were all brothers, 
 they were all freemen, they were all happy. 
 The barrier of nationalities had fallen, and 
 everybody looked only upon the white 
 ribands, and flags, and mottos of liberty, 
 instead of the dress and colour of his neigh- 
 bour, so that one might really have believed 
 that a heavenly seraph had come down 
 upon Austria and the future that bore no 
 sorrow in its dark womb. 
 
 Among the arrivals from Hungary, Kos- 
 suth was most celebrated. He was the lion 
 among the strangers. Everybody pressed 
 to see him, to hear him ; and most impatient 
 were the ladies, even of the aristocracy, who 
 quite naturally showered upon him nosegays 
 and laurel leaves. The writer of this saw 
 the Hungarian Demosthenes in the open 
 street with a wreath of fresh laurels on his 
 head, and binding the crowd around him 
 with the golden chains of his oratory.
 
 MARCH, 1848. 123 
 
 His public speeches were in praise of 
 Austria and her Emperor, but he attacked 
 men in office, courtiers, and bureaucrats, 
 without, however, quoting their names. He 
 warned the citizens of Vienna to be on their 
 guard against these men, and rather to pro- 
 tect than to rejoice over what they had 
 obtained. He also directed their attention 
 to the army ; for he said, the soldiers were 
 as likely to be dissatisfied with the new 
 state of things as the high aristocracy and 
 the clergy, who in future would be certain, 
 as far as they could, to force things back 
 into their old position. 
 
 In public, he made no mention of the 
 Hungarian deputation, of which he was con- 
 sidered the leader. But it is too likely that 
 he carried on secret negotiations and in- 
 trigues with the numerous friends of the 
 Magyars, with the Hungarian Chancellery, 
 and indeed with all those who even then 
 fostered the diabolical scheme of dividing 
 the empire according to its various nation- 
 alities, and thus of endangering the existence 
 of that empire, as well as the existence of
 
 124 MARCH, 1848. 
 
 the dynasty. This is proved by the bold 
 and even treasonable steps which the De- 
 puties took on this occasion, for they were 
 aware that the Emperor was in a position in 
 which he could not possibly refuse to com- 
 ply with the demands of a nation. For it 
 was in those days that the messengers of 
 evil pressed upon each other's heels. News 
 arrived of the Italian insurrection, of the 
 invasion of Charles Albert, of the revolution 
 at Berlin, and of the downfall of the German 
 Empire at Frankfort. Nor ought it to be 
 forgotten, that not only the Magyars and 
 Italians, but also the Germans and Sclavo- 
 nians, especially the Poles and Bohemians, 
 had long been infected with the desire of 
 separation, and that the troubles of the 
 times gave a voice to their demands. We 
 would also remind our readers of Kossuth's 
 important speech of the 3d of March, in 
 which he says : " What we ought to ask 
 for is the budget of the Hungarian receipts 
 and expenditure, and the constitutional ad- 
 ministration of our finances. What we ought 
 to ask for is, in one word, a separate and
 
 MARCH, 1848. 125 
 
 independent financial board for Hungary ; 
 for, unless we have this, the foreign govern- 
 ment, which rules us without our advice, is 
 likely to embarrass our finances almost to 
 hopelessness." 
 
 Whenever an unrighteous man is resolved 
 to ask for a few pounds, he will, if circum- 
 stances favour his selfishness, ask for a hun- 
 dred weight ; nor will he care whether his 
 demand is extortionate, or what the feelings 
 of the reluctant giver are. This was the case 
 of the Hungarian deputation ; they insisted 
 upon the appointment of an Hungarian 
 cabinet for home affairs, and for the admin- 
 istration of finance and commerce. In short, 
 what they wanted was an independent legis- 
 lative and administrative government for 
 Hungary. They likewise asked for the 
 administration of the military frontier, which 
 had hitherto been conducted by the imperial 
 council of war at Vienna ; for in this manner 
 they boped to bind down the Servians and 
 Croatians, who would not join, or rather 
 subject themselves to, the Magyars. 
 
 The deputation had no idea that the
 
 126 MARCH, 1848. 
 
 concessions which they forced from the King 
 of Hungary were likely to be modified, and 
 even revoked, by the Emperor of Austria. 
 In high spirits with the success of their 
 mission they returned to Pressburg, where 
 their arrival was the signal for a grand 
 national festival. 
 
 The Diet was prorogued at the com- 
 mencement of April, to meet again at Pesth 
 on the 4th of July ; and Count Louis Bat- 
 thyany, whom we know as a member of the 
 opposition, was ordered to form an Hun- 
 garian cabinet, of which he himself was to 
 be the President. He selected the following 
 men : 
 
 Foreign Affairs Prince Paul Esterhazy. 
 
 Interior Bartholomew Szemere. 
 
 Finance Louis Kossuth. 
 
 Justice Francis Deak. 
 
 War Lazar Messaros. 
 
 Public Instruction Joseph Eotvos. 
 
 Trade Gabriel Klauzal. 
 
 Agriculture Stephen Szechenyi. 
 
 Excepting Esterhazy who resigned, and 
 Szechenyi whose mind became obscured by
 
 MARCH, 1848. 127 
 
 the storms and weight of events, we find 
 this cabinet animated by a spirit hostile to 
 Austria, and which gave good cause for the 
 greatest anxieties, especially since Kossuth 
 remained the hinge on which every Hun- 
 garian question turned.
 
 128 KOSSUTH AND THE 
 
 CHAPTEK XL 
 
 KOSSUTH AND THE BAN OF CROATIA 
 
 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 
 
 IN private life it is wrong when a brother 
 robs his younger brothers of their fraternal 
 heritage ; but it is quite as wrong in public 
 life when a tribe endeavours to oppress and 
 keep down its kindred tribes. It is a fact 
 that the Magyar nation, or, more properly 
 speaking, the new Hungarian cabinet, had 
 no other object in view than the subjugation 
 of their neighbouring tribes. We have good 
 reasons for accusing the Hungarian cabinet, 
 for we consider the Magyars, in spite of 
 their national pride and their predilection 
 for old privileges and traditions, as a noble 
 and honest people, which has produced many 
 great men, and which at all times stood by 
 the cause of Austria.
 
 BAN OF CROATIA. 
 
 The Magyars in Hungary and Tran- 
 sylvania amount to something like five mil- 
 lions. Their language is likewise spoken 
 by the Szeklers in Transylvania, who, like 
 the Magyars, are descendants of the Huns 
 (that is to say, of Asiatic descent), and 
 kindred with the Finlanders, the Lap- 
 landers, the Samojeds, Surjens, Mordwins, 
 and Tschuwasches, who inhabit some parts 
 of northern Russia and Sweden. By their 
 language, by their manners and customs, 
 and, in short, by their peculiar nationality, 
 they are isolated in the Austrian empire. 
 The purest of their race inhabit each bank 
 of the Theiss, but they live also in compact 
 masses on either bank of the Danube, and 
 on the banks of the Save and Drave, where, 
 however, they are frequently mixed with 
 German and Sclavonian settlers. 
 
 The proportion of their number to the 
 rest of the population is as one to three ; that 
 is to say, if the kingdoms of Croatia and 
 Sclavonia, and the four departments of the 
 military frontier, are considered as forming 
 part of the kingdom of Hungary. This 
 
 K
 
 130 KOSSUTH AND THE 
 
 proves that the other nations are likely to 
 resist every oppression, and that they will 
 not submit to have the Magyar language 
 forced upon them, instead of Latin, which 
 has hitherto heen the usual official language. 
 Indeed the Sclavonians have a prior claim 
 to the ground of Hungary. 
 
 In the first instance, the honest and ener- 
 getic Servians of the Banat and of eastern 
 Sclavonia boldly refused their obedience to 
 the new resolutions of the cabinet. They 
 protested they would obey no orders but 
 those of the central government at Vienna, 
 and that they would abide by the issue of 
 the sword if Hungary attempted to subjugate 
 them. Rajachich, the Servian patriot, con- 
 voked a Diet at Carlowitz, when it was 
 resolved to protect the Servian nationality 
 against the usurpation and tyranny of the 
 Magyars, to obey no authority but that of 
 the Emperor of Austria and King of Hun- 
 gary, and to rely on his protection and 
 support. 
 
 His Majesty the Emperor Ferdinand 
 had meanwhile, in consequence of the no-
 
 BAN OF CROATIA. 131 
 
 g 
 
 torious petition of the 15th of May, left 
 his capital for Innsbruck, from whence he 
 returned on the 12th of August, 1848. 
 
 The Magyars did their best to make 
 use of this flight, and of the confusion which 
 it created. They cast suspicions on the 
 Servians and the Croats under their Ban 
 Jelachich, and they took upon themselves 
 to enter the field against them, as though 
 they had to fight not merely against their own 
 enemies, but against the traitorous foes of 
 the empire. It has never been ascertained 
 how far Kossuth was mixed up in these 
 affairs, for from the first it was intentionally 
 confused and obscured by the most cunning 
 intrigues. But since he was the leader of 
 the Hungarian cabinet, and since as Minister 
 of Finance he had the means which are 
 most effectual in such cases, there can be no 
 doubt but that he is responsible for the 
 generous blood which the Servians, in the 
 Roman entrenchments, shed in their combats 
 against the Magyar troops, under General 
 Hrabowsky. We grieve to say they were 
 defeated ; they dissolved their central council
 
 132 KOSSUTH AND THE 
 
 at Carlowitz, and they sent a deputation to 
 the court at Innsbruck, while the chivalrous 
 man was restlessly engaged in clearing him- 
 self and his people from calumny and sus- 
 picion by unmasking the cunning intrigues 
 of the Hungarian cabinet, and by proving 
 his honesty and loyalty to the court of Aus- 
 tria. But all his endeavours were of no 
 avail ; the knot was so firmly tied that he 
 could not for a long time succeed in un- 
 ravelling it, and in spite of his innocence he 
 was doomed to learn that, according to the 
 manifesto of the 10th of July, 1848, he had 
 become subject to the displeasure of his 
 Emperor. But for all that he continued 
 perseveringly to expose Kossuth's treasonable 
 intrigues and those of the Magyar govern- 
 ment, to clear up the misunderstanding, and 
 to show the real enemies of Austria in all 
 their native ugliness. 
 
 Everything was done at Innsbruck as 
 well as at Vienna, where the Archduke 
 John, the new Regent of Germany, opened 
 the Austrian Diet, to compromise the dif- 
 ferences between the nationalities and Hun-
 
 BAN OF CROATIA. 133 
 
 gary. It was found impossible to reconcile 
 the Ban Jelachich with the Hungarian 
 deputies who had been called to Vienna, 
 and to calm the fury which devastated the 
 southern parts of Hungary with fire and 
 sword, while a civil war raged in Italy, and 
 while it was found necessary with the strong 
 hand to suppress the Pansclavonic movements 
 in Bohemia. 
 
 The following manifesto of the Ban 
 Jelachich will place us in a position to 
 understand the differences and the state of 
 affairs in southern Hungary. 
 
 " In obedience to the high commands of 
 his Imperial Highness the Archduke John, 
 representative of his Majesty the Emperor 
 King, I have for the third time repaired to 
 the seat of the central government, for the 
 purpose of endeavouring to unite the desires 
 of our home with the wishes and the honour 
 of our neighbours in Hungary, as well as 
 with the interests of the Imperial and Royal 
 House, to whom our own and the Hungarian 
 nation ought to belong, as loyal sons equal in 
 rights.
 
 134 KOSSUTH AND THE 
 
 " Neither the personal danger nor the 
 offensive infamy which threatened me by 
 the continuance of the manifesto of the 10th 
 of July could prevent me from undertaking 
 this new and disagreeable mission, for the 
 object in view was to preserve to my beloved 
 countrymen in Croatia, Sclavonia, Dalmatia, 
 and the Servian Palatinate, the greatest 
 earthly treasures to wit, liberty and peace, 
 to secure to either party their natural 
 rights and reasonable claims, and to maintain 
 the unity of the countries and peoples which 
 are subject to the Holy Apostolic crown : for 
 to that crown we are bound by sacred 
 treaties ; by our love, which has stood the 
 test of evil times and of good ; and by the 
 common interest of our own tribe and of 
 that of every other tribe in the Austrian 
 dominions. 
 
 " As a foundation to the mediation of 
 his Imperial Highness, I, as representative 
 of the nation, was, according to the reso- 
 lutions of the last Diet, compelled to de- 
 mand, firstly, the union of the cabinet of 
 War, Finance, and Foreign Affairs, with
 
 BAN OF CROATIA. 135 
 
 the central administration of the monarchy ; 
 secondly, the protection and equalisation of 
 our nationality and language, as well in 
 the internal administration as in the common 
 Diet of Hungary ; and thirdly, the fulfilment 
 of the wishes and claims of the Servian 
 nation in Hungary. My own convictions 
 would not allow me to abandon this found- 
 ation, nor should I have been justified in 
 doing so by the will of the nation. 
 
 " Neither his Imperial Highness the 
 Archduke Palatine, who received me with 
 the kindest assurances and the warmest 
 interest for the success of peaceful negocia- 
 tions, nor the President of the Hungarian 
 cabinet, with whom I treated on the subject 
 of these unalterable foundations, were in a 
 position owing to the Diet and their party 
 to enter into them in anything like a 
 satisfactory manner ; and the departure for 
 Frankfort, on the 30th of July, of his High- 
 ness the Regent, put a term to this last 
 attempt at a friendly settlement of our national 
 affairs, without giving me the happiness to 
 announce to you the favourable result. On
 
 136 KOSSUTH AND THE 
 
 the other hand, it is with great satisfaction 
 I am able to mention the numerous and 
 decisive proofs of respect and enthusiasm 
 which were given me by the military, by 
 the citizens, and by the national guards of 
 Vienna, Briinn, and Gratz, and even of 
 lesser towns ; for I cannot think that these 
 manifestations were devoted to my person. 
 They were a tribute paid to the conviction 
 of the popular and truly liberal tendency of 
 our course, and its importance for the pre- 
 servation of the Austrian monarchy and its 
 new constitution, of a free developement of 
 the spirit of all nationalities, of a constitution 
 which we greeted with equal transports, and 
 to which we will cling with equal fidelity 
 as the resurrection of our national spirit. 
 Nothing is now left us but to wait for the 
 decision on our last word of Peace of the 
 Diet of Pesth, and to rely on our own 
 strength and union in the defence of our 
 just cause, which is not likely to want either 
 the sympathies of the free nations of Austria 
 and Europe, or the approval of his Majesty, 
 our Emperor and King, or the assistance of
 
 BAN OF CROATIA. 137 
 
 Almighty God, in whom we place our 
 firm and constant trust. 
 
 " JELACHICH, Ban. 
 
 " Agram, the Qth of August, 1848." 
 
 Le style cest I'homme. We find this 
 borne out by the manifesto of the honest 
 Ban, for his actions tally exactly with his 
 words, and thus the contrast between his 
 and Kossuth's conflicting characters is un- 
 mistakeably revealed. But it was a pity 
 that either stood at the head of many thou- 
 sands, and that their conflict was doomed to 
 result in a civil war. 
 
 After the publication of the above pro- 
 clamation, the generous Ban made a tour 
 through the Banat and the Carlstadt fron- 
 tier. He met with a brilliant reception 
 everywhere, and with the most enthusiastic 
 sympathies for his just cause, and he returned 
 to Agram with a conviction that his summons 
 for a general rising had met with uncon- 
 ditional obedience. 
 
 The torch of civil war was meanwhile 
 shedding its destructive glare upon the lower
 
 138 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 
 
 Danube, and the hatred of the nationalities 
 caused, especially in the storms upon St. 
 Thomas, scenes of rage and horror, the details 
 of which our pen refuses to record. It was 
 as if the times of the Huns and Vandals had 
 returned, and it is scarcely to be understood 
 how Christian nations could so cruelly use 
 the fire and sword against their own flesh 
 and blood. Woe to the promoters of this 
 mischief, if they have a conscience ; for life 
 can no more offer them one happy hour : but 
 two-fold woe to them if they have no con- 
 science and no faith, for in that case they 
 will have no repentance and no means of 
 atonement. 
 
 The visitor in the Austrian capital in 
 the year 1848, a listener to the conversation 
 of the various groups, or to the transactions 
 of the Committee of Safety, and to the 
 speeches made at the University, in the 
 Odeon Saloon, in the democratic clubs, in 
 the Constitutional Association, in the com- 
 mittee of the Common Council, in the 
 various national assemblies, and in the
 
 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 139 
 
 coffee-houses ; a spectator of the festive 
 processions and feasts of fraternisation, of 
 the riots by day and the tumultuous assem- 
 blies by night j the man who saw the 
 German banner waving in a thousand flags 
 at the side of the tri-coloured standard of 
 Hungary and Sclavonia, and who did not 
 see the hated Austrian banner of black and 
 yellow; the man who saw the elegant lady 
 democrat standing on the barricades by 
 the side of the dirty wife of the workman ; 
 who saw the well-dressed legionary arm-in- 
 arm with the ragged brothers of Lazarus ; 
 while Imperial functionaries, officers, and 
 priests, slunk by with their heads bent 
 down ; the man who heard the expressions 
 of sympathy for the Italian insurgents and 
 for the perfidious King Charles Albert, for 
 the Magyars and for the Sclavonian nations 
 in the south and in the north ; the man who 
 saw recruitings going on for the Hungarians 
 as well as for the Croatians ; certainly 
 was tempted to fancy himself the object of a 
 delusion, or to believe in the return of the 
 Babel days of general confusion.
 
 140 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 
 
 This state of things was according to 
 Kossuth's wish, and he supported it with all 
 his influence ; which, in a Minister of Fi- 
 nance, was considerable, for the confusion of 
 the capital gave an immense advantage to his 
 agitations. The division of Austria was the 
 victory of Hungary ; the downfall of Austria 
 was her certain resurrection. On this vol- 
 canic basis of affairs he moved all the levers 
 in his power, and he seemed like a demon 
 whom the spirits of the elements obey, and 
 to whom nothing is too sacred for him to make 
 use of as a means. There are various proofs 
 that he was in uninterrupted correspondence 
 with the King of Sardinia, with the republican 
 governments in Milan and Venice, and with 
 the revolutionists in France, Germany, and 
 Poland, and that he co-operated with them 
 for the overthrow of Austria, which at that 
 time was considered to be impending. He 
 sent his ambassadors to Paris, London, 
 Turin, and Frankfort, and he despatched a 
 legion of agents into all countries in which 
 he expected to find sympathies and forces. 
 He connected himself with the Radical party
 
 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 141 
 
 of the Frankfort Diet, and with the Radical 
 party of the Vienna Diet, and he paid large 
 sums to bribe the Radical press, especially 
 the pointed pens of advocates and Jews. In 
 this respect his talents and activity are un- 
 equalled, and the choice of his envoys shows 
 an admirable sharpsightedness. We need 
 only consider how actively he was served by 
 Szalay at Frankfort, Splenyi at Turin, 
 Teleky at Paris, and Pulszky, at Vienna at 
 first, and afterwards in various places in 
 conjunction withFenneberg, Tausenau, Gold- 
 mark, Fiister, Gritzner, and Kudlich. Poor 
 Austria was given up to treason and foreign 
 enmities, and her days seemed to be num- 
 bered. 
 
 Kossuth was however obliged, in spite of 
 his desires for a separation, to keep up at 
 least a seeming connexion with Austria, for 
 the internal affairs of Hungary were not at 
 that time such as to warrant a perfect breach. 
 A large part of the Hungarian army occupied 
 the battle-fields behind the Alps, and though 
 their return was demanded, the demand was 
 not complied with. In spite of his powers 
 of bribery and persuasion, he could not rely
 
 KOSSUTHS AGITATIONS. 
 
 on the Imperial troops which were garrisoned 
 in Hungary ; they occupied the fortresses of 
 Hungary and Transylvannia, and Kossuth's 
 store of arms and ammunition was by no 
 means considerable. Add to this that the 
 political and social differences among the 
 nationalities continued, and that there was 
 no likelihood of a fusion of their views and 
 interests, and consequently of a common 
 insurrection and of a real or artificial en- 
 thusiasm, and we see that it was impossible 
 to do anything great or important with such 
 a want of the elements of action. 
 
 But Kossuth was aware, and experience 
 had taught him, that a popular newspaper is 
 the surest way to circulate ideas, to create 
 sympathies, and to make converts, and that 
 such a national organ, if well conducted, is a 
 power in itself. He founded the notorious 
 Kossuth newspaper, giving it his own name 
 and his own protection. There was not at 
 that time in Hungary one paper which 
 enjoyed a large circulation. There was not 
 one which discussed the affairs of the country 
 in a ministerial sense, and which was likely 
 to reunite the hostile parties. The Augs-
 
 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 143 
 
 burg paper was the most popular, but a 
 foreign newspaper could not possibly satisfy 
 the wants of the country, and the Vienna 
 Gazette was as much hated as everything 
 else which was connected with the Austrian 
 government. 
 
 Need we say that this Kossuth newspaper 
 acquired an unequalled popularity, especially 
 since its founder wrote a powerful introduc- 
 tion, and it was known that he was the 
 author of many of the articles ? It was, 
 moreover, a ministerial organ, and as such 
 people were in a manner obliged to subscribe 
 to it, and even to translate it, because there 
 were many who would not stoop to learn the 
 language of the Hungarian state. Root-and- 
 branch Magyarism was the tendency of this 
 paper, and in this gigantic form it appeared 
 like a thunder-cloud, which cast a dark 
 shadow on all other nationalities, and which 
 often crushed them with its thunderbolts. 
 
 The first number of this paper appeared 
 at the commencement of July 1848. It 
 was assisted by the Radical press at Vienna, 
 and in other towns, and by newspapers,
 
 144 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 
 
 pamphlets, and books, which the Minister 
 of Finance supported, not, indeed, by his 
 own articles, hut by other voluntary con- 
 tributions. We would remind the reader of 
 the Vienna journals, The Constitution, The 
 Freimuthige, The General Gazette, The 
 Radical, The Charivari, The Student 9 s 
 Courier, and The Austrian Gazette. The 
 language and tendency of these papers was 
 disgusting ; the tone in which they spoke of 
 the Imperial house was revolting ; and equally 
 shocking was it to see them trampling on 
 everything sacred, and eulogising everything 
 that is vile and detestable. It was revolting 
 to see them tearing up all historical traditions 
 and treaties with the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 for the purpose of justifying the perfidious 
 conduct of the Hungarian cabinet. Equally 
 worthy of curses were the pamphlets of 
 Bakunin and Teleki, which tended to deepen 
 the mines which Kossuth was making against 
 the throne of Habsburg-Lorraine. Kossuth's 
 motto seemed to be, " Everything is good, 
 so it avails;" and the terrible phrase, "Who- 
 soever is not with us is against us," was
 
 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 145 
 
 frequently heard to fall from his lips. He 
 fancied that everything was to be carried by 
 agitation : but democratic agitations were 
 not his trade ; they were his instruments, 
 for Kossuth was a man of aristocratic lean- 
 ings. But since he was in the habit of ex- 
 aggerating things, he soon took the tone of 
 the common agitators, who discovered in the 
 life of the aristocracy an insult offered to the 
 people. He was scandalised by carriages, 
 hunting-parties, and balls, and he advocated 
 the suppression of all balls, because he pro- 
 tested that mankind ought to be too serious 
 for such frivolous amusements. But since 
 he was too easily ruled by the vanity and 
 temper of his Xantippe, he raised at a 
 later period but few objections against the 
 transformation of his house into a palace 
 which would have been a fitting domicile for 
 a nabob. As a reward for this yielding 
 spirit, his wife assisted him in all his agi- 
 tations ; she excited his ambition and his 
 desire for glory like Tullia of old, who 
 goaded her husband on from crime to crime ; 
 and she made no secret of the fact. "What a
 
 146 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 
 
 blessed woman she should be if she could 
 educate her husband to be an Hungarian 
 Washington, or if she could ever live to see 
 the crown of St. Stephen on his head ! " She 
 surrounded herself with the most influential 
 ladies of all classes and nationalities ; she 
 gave splendid conversazioni, entered into 
 political connexions, and was an important 
 support to her husband's intrigues, especially 
 since the women, who were ever much in- 
 clined to him, exerted a great influence on 
 the politics of the day. Indeed, in these 
 latter days, in which reason and experience 
 have no chance against imagination, women 
 have come to be a revolutionary power. 
 
 Kossuth condescended even to hire va- 
 grant gipsies and musicians as spies and 
 agents for agitation ; and, as apostles of 
 his satanic doctrine, he despatched them in 
 all directions. At this time there was a 
 gipsy- worn an at Pesth, who foretold him 
 disagreeable things ; she protested that he 
 was doomed not to reach the goal at which 
 he aimed, but that his career would be 
 stopped, and brought to a melancholy close
 
 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 147 
 
 by the murderous hands of one of his friends. 
 The same woman gave the following ex- 
 planation of the tricoloured flag of Hungary. 
 " Purple," she said, " is the colour of blood, 
 which will flow in streams, and of fire, which 
 will consume cities and villages ; green is 
 the colour of the grass, which will grow from 
 the graves of the murdered people ; white 
 is the colour of the shroud in which Hungary 
 is to lie, but it is also the colour of peace, 
 which, at length, will bless her plains." 
 This last phrase of the prophecy, which 
 Kossuth interpreted as though it was he 
 who was to bring about the happy future, 
 saved the life of the gipsy-woman ; for 
 Nyary, who had her arrested and brought 
 to Kossuth, insisted on putting her to death. 
 While Kossuth's agitations were attended 
 with success, and while he won the sym- 
 pathies of the world for the cause of Hungary, 
 he gained his most splendid victories and 
 triumphs on the rostrum, for that was the 
 soil on which he was at home. He endea- 
 voured to imitate Lord Chatham, and his 
 imitation was so successful that he may be
 
 148 KOSSUTH'S AGITATIONS. 
 
 considered as a faithful copy of the great 
 Briton. The part which Chatham played 
 in the question of the North American co- 
 lonies, his luxuriant speech, his oratorical 
 thunders and lightnings which he hurled at 
 his adversaries, his hold metaphor, his gusts 
 of temper, his seeming weakness, his fainting 
 fits, in short, the whole external appear- 
 ance of that statesman and actor, had been 
 studied by Kossuth, even in its minutest 
 details, and he reproduced that strange cha- 
 racter with the happy talent of a Garrick. 
 It is true that Chatham's statesmanlike 
 prudence and conscientiousness would never 
 have allowed him to play the part of Kossuth. 
 As a most faithful copy of Chatham, he 
 appears especially in that memorable speech 
 which, in July 1848, he addressed to the 
 representatives of the people, and which 
 created so great a sensation that we shall 
 make no excuse for publishing it. This 
 speech is the signal for the separation from 
 Austria ; it is the culminating point of 
 Kossuth's agitations.
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 149 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 KOSSUTH'S MOST MEMORABLE SPEECH. 
 
 " GENTLEMEN, In ascending the tribune 
 to demand of you to save our country, 
 the greatness of the moment weighs oppres- 
 sively on my soul. I feel as if God had 
 placed into my hands the trumpet to arouse 
 the dead, that, if still sinners and weak, 
 they may relapse into death ; but that they 
 may wake for eternity, if any vigour of life 
 be yet in them. Thus, at this moment, 
 stands the fate of the nation ! Gentlemen, 
 with the decision on my motion, God has 
 confided to your hands the decision affecting 
 the life or the death of our people. But it 
 is because this moment is most important 
 that I am determined not to have recourse 
 to the weapons of rhetoric j for, however
 
 150 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 opinions in this house may differ, I find it 
 impossible not to believe impossible not 
 to feel the conviction that the sacred love 
 of our country, and such a feeling for her 
 honour, independence, and liberty, as to 
 render this assembly ready to sacrifice its 
 last drop of blood, are common to us all in 
 an equal degree. But where such a feeling 
 is common, there no stimulus is required : 
 cool reason alone has to choose amongst the 
 remedies. Gentlemen, the country is in 
 danger! Perhaps it would suffice to say 
 thus much ; for, with the dawn of liberty, 
 the dark veil has dropped from the nation. 
 You know what the condition of our country 
 is ; you know that, besides the troops of the 
 line, a militia of about 12,000 men has been 
 organised ; you know that the authorities 
 have been empowered to place corps of the 
 National Guard on a war footing, in order 
 to establish an effective force to defend the 
 country, and to punish sedition, which is rife 
 on our frontiers. This command found an 
 echo in the nation. How could this have 
 been unless the nation felt that there is
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 151 
 
 danger ? This in itself is an evident proof 
 that the presentiment of danger is general. 
 Nevertheless, gentlemen, I think I ought to 
 give you a general, if not a detailed sketch 
 of the state of our country. 
 
 " At the dissolution of the last Parlia- 
 ment, and when the first responsible cabinet 
 entered on its functions with an empty ex- 
 chequer without arms, without means of 
 defence, it was impossible not to see and 
 to grieve in seeing the terrible neglect which 
 the interests of the country had suffered. 
 I myself was one of the many who for years 
 have called upon the executive power and 
 the nation to be just at length to the people, 
 for the day would come when it would be 
 too late for justice. The feeling for justice, 
 of patriotism perhaps, and general enthu- 
 siasm, may yet avert from our heads the 
 full force of the fatal word, * Too late ! ' 
 Thus much is certain, that the nation and 
 the executive power have retarded justice ; 
 and that by this very delay, the moment 
 when first they became just to the people
 
 152 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 caused the overthrow of all existing insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 " Under such circumstances we took the 
 reins of government, menaced by treachery, 
 rebellion, reactionary movements, and by all 
 those passions which the policy of Metternich 
 leagued to us as a cursed inheritance. 
 Scarcely had we assumed the government 
 nay, not all of us had even assembled when 
 we already received the most authentic in- 
 formation that the Pansclavonic agitation 
 had no other object than to excite the whole 
 of the upper provinces to open rebellion, 
 and that even the day had been fixed when 
 the outbreak should take place in Schemnitz. 
 But I would only furnish outlines I desist, 
 therefore ; and will only add that, for the 
 present, the upper province is tranquil. 
 This quiet, however, is by no means a safe 
 tranquillity ; it is a fire that smoulders under 
 the ashes. In the heart of the country, even 
 amongst the Hungarian race itself which 
 on the banks of the Drave, and in the vi- 
 cinity of the O-Kerer camp, gives proofs of
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 153 
 
 its vitality, with such soul- elating readiness 
 for sacrifices, it was by no means an easy 
 task, after so long a slavery, to familiarise 
 the people with the idea of liberty, and to 
 lay down its first principles. For agitators 
 were not sparing in their efforts to excite 
 the people's fears concerning those I can- 
 not find words gifts, but rights, which the 
 last Parliament had granted them. Nine 
 weeks have since elapsed. In the interior 
 prevails quiet, and the Hungarian race is 
 prepared for sacrifice, and voluntarily not 
 from compulsion it carries its life where it 
 is needed. 
 
 " Croatia is in open rebellion ! Many 
 years have elapsed, gentlemen, when not 
 only one or the other, but numbers, called 
 the attention of the government to the fact, 
 that in encouraging I say not forgiving, 
 but encouraging the Illyric agitation, it 
 would nourish a serpent in its bosom which 
 would compass the ruin of the dynasty. 
 And since the revolutionary state in which 
 we find Europe shaking on her foundations, 
 the gentlemen in those parts fancied they
 
 1,54 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 might with impunity break out in open re- 
 bellion. Had Hungary given any cause 
 whatever for this rebellion, she would, with- 
 out considering the fact that there is a revo- 
 lution, ask you to be just to Croatia, and to 
 subdue the revolt, not with the force of arms, 
 but with the sacred name of justice. 
 
 " Entertaining, as I do, such sentiments, 
 I am obliged to throw a transient glance on 
 the relations between Hungary and Croatia. 
 Gentlemen, you are aware that the nation 
 has granted all its rights and privileges to 
 Croatia, and that already at a time when it 
 only conferred its own rights on the most 
 favoured nationalities. Since Arpad, Hun- 
 gary possessed no right whatever in which 
 Croatia, from the date of her alliance with 
 us, did not participate. But besides having 
 shared with us every right, Croatia obtained 
 in addition, and at our expense too, parti- 
 cular privileges. I find in history, that the 
 large parts of great empires have reserved 
 for themselves certain rights that Ireland, 
 for instance, possesses less than England ; 
 but that the greater part of a whole nation
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 155 
 
 should deny itself rights in favour of a small 
 minority, is a fact which stands isolated, but 
 not the less glorious, in the relations of 
 Hungary with Croatia. Where is a reason 
 to be found that, even if we take up arms 
 to quell the disturbance, we should feel in 
 our own hearts the conviction of having our- 
 selves provoked the disturbance ? In the 
 past no such reason exists ; nor has, per- 
 haps, the last Parliament, which opened a 
 new epoch in the life of the nation, caused 
 any change whatever in the late and so par- 
 ticularly favourable circumstances of Croatia. 
 I say, no ! The rights we have acquired 
 for ourselves, we have likewise acquired for 
 Croatia ; the liberty that was granted to the 
 people, was likewise granted to the Croats ; 
 we extended the indemnity allowed by us to 
 our nobility, at our own expense, to Croatia, 
 for that country is too small and powerless 
 to raise herself the indemnity. 
 
 " With regard to nationality, Croatia en- 
 tertained apprehensions though produced 
 by various conceptions and by erroneous 
 ideas for the Parliament has expressly de-
 
 156 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 creed that in public life the Croats should 
 have the fullest right to make use of their 
 own language in accordance with their own 
 statutes ; and thus their nationality has 
 been sanctioned, by this public recognition. 
 Their municipal rights the Parliament has 
 not only not impaired, but extended and 
 augmented. 
 
 " Is there a greater privilege than that 
 of regulating the election of representatives, 
 which representatives are convoked to frame 
 laws, to grant and to protect liberty ? And 
 the Parliament has said : ' You, our Cro- 
 atic brethren, shall decide amongst your- 
 selves how to elect your representatives!' 
 By this measure, the last Parliament has 
 consolidated the municipal independence of 
 Croatia. If, therefore, in the past, no reason 
 can be found to excuse this rebellion, surely 
 the acts of the last Parliament offer none. 
 
 " Or does the fault lie with the ministers ? 
 We have taken a step, gentlemen, for which 
 we are responsible. Had we succeeded in 
 pacifying the excited minds, I should feel 
 glad indeed to mention it ; as it is, I must
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 1,57 
 
 refer to it with the confession, that the cabi- 
 net in this instance has somewhat exceeded 
 the limits of the law; it exceeded the 
 limits, for it deemed it impossible to allow 
 the natural consequences of the law to pre- 
 vail. If the Parliament has recognised the 
 rijrht of the Croats to conduct their own 
 
 o 
 
 affairs in their own language, the cabinet, 
 on account of such circumstances, believed 
 itself justified to extend this recognition of 
 their nationality likewise to their relations 
 with the government, and decreed to cor- 
 respond with Croatia in the Hungarian lan- 
 guage, with the addition of a Croatian trans- 
 lation, and in this manner to issue all decrees. 
 The Croats attach much importance to the 
 power of their Ban : the last Parliament has 
 not only preserved this Ban's power inviolate, 
 but at the same time insured his influence 
 upon the whole government, by framing a 
 law for the Ban to take part, in the councils 
 of the state. The cabinet, therefore, con- 
 sidered nothing of greater importance than 
 immediately to invite the Ban (whom the 
 power that has fallen under the lash of
 
 158 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 truth and liberty, in the last moment of its 
 existence, forced upon us like a curse, that 
 he might essay whether the demon of dia- 
 bolical reaction could not again be raised !) 
 to take his seat in the councils of state of 
 the Palatine Stephen, and to confer with 
 the cabinet how tranquillity, peace, and 
 order might best be re-established in Croatia, 
 and to state the just demands of the Croats, 
 to a compliance with which the cabinet ex- 
 pressed its ready assent, provided it should 
 be in its power to obtain their sanction ; if 
 not, it would bring before you, the repre- 
 sentatives of the nation, a motion, and stake 
 its own existence on the carrying of the 
 measure. The Ban did not appear : obsti- 
 nately he refused the invitation, confiding 
 not in the law, but in a rebellion, at the 
 head of which he has placed himself, while 
 he pronounced his secession from the Hun- 
 garian crown. 
 
 " I will not deny that Croatia has to 
 complain of special grievances which, up to 
 this day, remained without redress ; but 
 neither the cabinet nor the nation have
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 159 
 
 occasioned them they are simply an heir- 
 loom which the old Government left hehind. 
 The nation, however, has always made these 
 grievances its own, and left nothing untried 
 to amend them, as it would have done if 
 they had indeed been its own. And this 
 was certainly one of the causes why we 
 invited the Ban, on his nomination by His 
 Majesty, to co-operate with the cabinet in 
 accomplishing the speedy removal of the 
 grievances ; for we were conscious not only 
 of our authority, but of our duty to re-estab- 
 lish the law where it is injured. But by 
 his revolt the Ban has prevented the cabinet 
 from communicating its decree to the Croats 
 respecting their petition laid before His 
 Majesty in the Provincial Diet in 1845. 
 Under all these circumstances, the cabinet, 
 nevertheless, has not omitted to do what it 
 considered necessary to pacify Croatia and 
 its fellow-citizens. The past Parliament 
 conferred the franchise on the military fron- 
 tier and thus gave them a right which 
 they never had possessed. To effect its 
 realisation, the cabinet has not only made
 
 160 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 such arrangements as were in its power, but 
 has left no means whatever untried by which 
 the population of the frontiers might be 
 gained. It authorised and empowered the 
 commander, Baron Hrabowsky, as Royal 
 Commissioner, to make the land of the in- 
 habitants of the frontiers their own property, 
 in the same manner as the Hungarian ur- 
 barial subjects have received theirs, and to 
 cause the crown-soccage there to be abo- 
 lished ; it authorised him to confer on them 
 the new privilege of exerting themselves in 
 commerce, trade, and arts ; it empowered 
 him to facilitate in every possible way the 
 free choice of domicile ; it empowered him 
 to introduce into the so-called free commu- 
 nities the communal system, which exists in 
 the localities provided with a regular magis- 
 tracy, on a civic basis, and with free power 
 of the people of electing its own authorities. 
 At the same time it decreed that the people 
 itself should elect, according to communities 
 and districts, men to come to this House, 
 and impart and explain to the cabinet the 
 wishes of the people, that we might, without
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 161 
 
 delay, grant whatever could lawfully be 
 granted. But they these unfortunate, de- 
 luded men replied with sedition, with re- 
 bellion, so that no further opportunity offered 
 itself to realise the benefits which, weeks ago, 
 we felt inclined to bestow. 
 
 " Of their nationality I have already 
 spoken. Concerning its official duties, the 
 cabinet, from the very outset, selected a 
 number of individuals from the provinces, 
 without .making any party-distinction nay, 
 for the Croatian affairs it has, in various 
 branches of the administration, formed dis- 
 tinct sections, which are not yet filled up, 
 because the tie between us has been forcibly 
 torn. One of the loudest complaints was, 
 that in the Litorate, which supplies Croatia 
 up to the Save with sea-salt, the importation 
 of common salt is prohibited. We have 
 allowed the importation of common salt, and 
 lowered the price considerably. 
 
 "In one word, we have not neglected 
 anything whatever which within the limits 
 of integrity, of liberty, and of the rights of 
 the people, we could do to pacify their minds. 
 
 M
 
 KOSSUTHS SPEECH. 
 
 We, gentlemen, can therefore not admit 
 that on the part of the cahinet the slightest 
 cause has heen given to provoke the Croatian 
 rebellion. 
 
 " If a people thinks the liberty it pos- 
 sesses too limited, and takes up arms to 
 conquer more, it certainly plays a doubtful 
 game for a sword has two edges. Still I 
 can understand it. But if a people says, 
 Your liberty is too much for me, I will not 
 have it if you give it me, but I will go and 
 bow under the old yoke of Absolutism that 
 is a thing which I endeavour in vain to 
 understand. 
 
 " The case, however, stands nearly thus : 
 In the so-called petition which was sent to 
 His Majesty by the conventicle of A gram, 
 they pray that they may be allowed to sepa- 
 rate from Hungary not to be a self-con- 
 sistent, independent nation, but to submit 
 to the Austrian ministry. This, gentlemen, 
 is the part of the old Vendee, which no Ter- 
 rorism on our side has provoked, and which 
 under the mask of sham-loyalty spins re- 
 actionary intrigues. Or is it loyalty, I ask,
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 163 
 
 that they refuse to belong to the Hungarian 
 crown, which, as the symbol of the people of 
 these realms, is not only the most powerful, 
 but also the sole reliance of His Majesty and 
 the dynasty ? Or is it a proof of fidelity, 
 not to obey the Hungarian, but the Austrian 
 ministry, which receives its commands from 
 the whims of the Aula,* and which pos- 
 sessed not even the power to protect its lord 
 and king, who was compelled to flee from 
 the house of his ancestors ? Or do they, 
 perhaps, give proof of greater fidelity by 
 expressing the will of depending of the 
 Viennese ministry, which, if it were a minis- 
 try (for at present it is no such thing), and 
 if it were to be asked, ' Who is your master ? 
 whose orders do you obey? the Empe- 
 ror's, the Aula's, the Diet's at Vienna, or 
 the Kegent's at Frankfort?" would be un- 
 able to make a reply ; a ministry which not 
 even knows whether its prince will be sub- 
 ject to the Frankfort Assembly, whether 
 Austria will be drowned in great Germany, 
 
 * Viz. The Academic Legion of Vienna.
 
 164 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 or whether the small Vienna will swallow 
 Germany. But they allege, that from a 
 sentiment of loyalty they oppose King Fer- 
 dinand V. ! I do not, indeed, ascribe to the 
 sentiment of freedom so great an influence 
 on the masses as not to be persuaded that 
 even this sham-loyalty, in its awkward affect- 
 ation, is but an empty pretext under which 
 other purposes are concealed. On the part 
 of the leaders it covers the reactionary ten- 
 dency ; but on the other hand, this idea is 
 connected with the plan of erecting an 
 Austro-Sclavonian Monarchy. They say : 
 * Let us send deputies to Vienna ; let us 
 procure the majority for the Sclavonian ele- 
 ment, and Austria will cease to be a German 
 empire ; and what with the Bohemians, and 
 our people down here, a new Sclavonian 
 empire will rise.' This is a rather hazard- 
 ous game, and Europe will probably soon 
 decide on the question ; for if we should 
 not master these affairs, they will become a 
 European question. Thus much is certain, 
 that this combination (if of any consequence 
 at all) will doubtless involve the ruin of the
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 165 
 
 Austrian dynasty. There can be no doubt 
 about it. 
 
 " His Highness the Archduke John, 
 named Eegent of Germany, took his de- 
 parture for Germany the day before yester- 
 day. In a few days he returns, and then 
 we shall see whether there is any hope of an 
 arrangement. That insane demand, how- 
 ever, of the Croats, that on the part of 
 Hungary, if an arrangement is contemplated, 
 all preparations for war shall cease, we have 
 indignato pectore rejected ; and we have 
 considered it to be our duty to declare that 
 the Hungarians, come what may, will arm ! 
 that the government will concentrate all its 
 power, and has, therefore, convoked the 
 Parliament to be enabled to make more 
 mighty preparations. It would not be ad- 
 visable, and you will not indeed demand, 
 that I should demonstrate by figures those 
 forces which are concentrated on the Drave 
 by the energy of our Commissioner Czanyi. 
 But thus much I can say, that of the im- 
 portance of those forces, sufficient proof is 
 afforded by the circumstance that up to this
 
 166 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 moment the Croats, though long since de- 
 sirous of the bread and the wine of our 
 beautiful Hungarian land, have not dared to 
 enter our territory ; they could not have 
 attempted it without being repulsed, al- 
 though they were prepared, while we had 
 to make our preparations. 
 
 " Another affair is the Servian rebellion 
 in the lower countries. Words cannot trace 
 its motives ! Croatia, although a land bound 
 to the Hungarian crown, which cannot loose 
 the binding tie without committing high 
 treason, is nevertheless a distinct land. But 
 he that wishes to establish on the territory 
 of Hungary a distinct power, is so great a 
 traitor, so arrant a rebel, that he can only 
 be answered with the rope of the * Stata- 
 rium.' But, gentlemen, the shedding of 
 blood is, even in case of guilt, a matter of 
 great importance. Whilst the government, 
 therefore, took into consideration, that to 
 force the misguided masses into the horrors 
 of a civil war, merely on account of the 
 faults of some ambitious criminals, would, in 
 these excited and revolutionary times, be an
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 167 
 
 act for the omission of which we should 
 deserve the approbation of God and man, 
 we have, even in this respect, left nothing 
 untried. We have, therefore, made pre- 
 parations for the realisation of all those 
 wishes which in this case could possibly pre- 
 sent themselves. But I believe, that without 
 an injury to the integrity of the country, no 
 other wish could here transpire except the 
 convocation of the congress for the benefit 
 of the religious creed of the Hungaro- Ser- 
 vians, which the old government had not 
 convoked for many years. 
 
 " This decree has been issued, but the 
 Archbishop Rajachich has thought proper 
 to convene at Carlowitz a meeting of the 
 people, and to proclaim it as the Servian 
 National Assembly ; upon which the assem- 
 bled multitude, amounting, with the hordes 
 of robbers who had intruded from adjoining 
 Servia, to several thousands, usurped a 
 national position, declared the Banat, the 
 Batska, Syrmia, and Baranya, their pro- 
 perty, and elected for themselves a Patriarch 
 and Woiwode.
 
 168 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 " Upon the first signs of these disturb- 
 ances we despatched royal commissioners, 
 while we endeavoured to collect our armies. 
 But, under existing circumstances, to collect 
 troops on which we can rely, is by no means 
 an easy task. It is therefore, I believe, to 
 be considered a great advantage for the 
 country that we have obstructed this rebel- 
 lious insurrection in its upward progress ; 
 that we have repulsed it from the frontier, 
 and have thus preserved the country from 
 an inundation up to the moment when we 
 shall have collected a sufficient force to swoop 
 down like eagles, and to crush the robber- 
 hordes. 
 
 " While we were concentrating our forces, 
 the Royal Commisioner, P. Czernovics, deemed 
 it prudent to try peaceful negotiations, and 
 after having opened a correspondence with 
 the leaders of the rebellion, concluded an 
 armistice of ten days, in which time the 
 leaders have to dismiss their hordes, and 
 they are not only themselves to return to 
 their allegiance, but they have likewise to 
 lead back to obedience the unfortunate and
 
 169 
 
 deluded people. This armistice expires on 
 the 4th of July, and the royal commissioner 
 has concluded it on his own responsibility, 
 without being specially authorised thereto ; 
 but having been empowered, as royal com- 
 missioner, by all requisite means to re-estab- 
 lish peace, he was of opinion that this mea- 
 sure would have that effect ; and this, then, 
 is one of those measures the approbation or 
 condemnation of which depends on its result. 
 At this moment a considerable military force 
 stands under the command of a general, as 
 expert, and as great a tactician, as he is 
 courageous and brave. His plan of opera- 
 tion has been drawn on the spot, and has 
 been communicated to the Minister of War, 
 who approves of it. The actions of a general 
 on the field of battle, being purely strata- 
 getic, ought, in my opinion, to be exempt 
 from publicity, for we will not go back to 
 the time when the Imperial War Council in 
 Vienna directed from its easy chair the 
 Hungaro-Turkish field-battles, and in con- 
 sequence of which, we were either defeated, 
 or, if such was not the case, it only origin-
 
 170 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 ated in the fact of a commander being pre- 
 sent who pocketed the order of battle, and 
 thus beat the Turks. (Cheers.) 
 
 " I will only allude to one topic more. 
 Since yesterday a rumour is current that a 
 renewed armistice had been concluded with 
 the Servian rebels. I and the whole of the 
 cabinet know nothing of this. Our last 
 reports up to the 6th contain not the re- 
 motest intelligence respecting it, nor do they 
 warrant any such conclusions ; on the con- 
 trary, instead of an armistice, we look hourly 
 forward to reports of battle and victory. I 
 will not say how many soldiers we have in 
 those parts, or how great our power is ; but 
 I rejoice in being able to state, that the 
 readiness of the Hungarian nation for the 
 defence of the country has by far exceeded 
 my hopes and confidence. A few years ago 
 I said despondingly, I wished God would 
 vouchsafe to give me one point only, relying 
 on which I could say, This nation knows 
 to feel for liberty, and I would not despair 
 of its future. The Almighty has granted 
 me life to see that dav, and I doubt no
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 171 
 
 longer the future of the nation ! (Loud 
 cheers.) 
 
 " The third of the circumstances, gen- 
 tlemen, which exhort us to place the country 
 in a state of defence, is the position of the 
 countries on the Lower Danube. As I exact 
 from every nation, with regard to Hungary, 
 not to interfere with her internal affairs, so 
 the Hungarian will not meddle with the 
 internal affairs of those nations. I only 
 mention that on the hanks of the Pruth a 
 mighty Russian army has appeared, which 
 can turn to the right and to the left, which 
 can act as a friend and as an enemy ; hut, 
 even because either one and the other is 
 possible, the nation must be prepared. 
 
 " The fourth circumstance is the Bosnian 
 frontier, where, according to the latest in- 
 telligence, the Bosnian Vezier establishes 
 a camp of from 40,000 to 50,000 men, to 
 observe with attention the disturbances in 
 Servia, and to be enabled to act in the in- 
 terest of his government as his duty com- 
 mands. It has happened that Bosnian 
 Rajahs, in great numbers, and armed, en-
 
 KOSSUTHS SPEECH. 
 
 tered Croatia, and pleaded for so doing, per- 
 secution by the Turks and a desire of finding 
 an asylum. According to Turkish custom, 
 some oppressive acts have certainly taken 
 place ; but this much I can say, that on the 
 part of the Sublime Porte no new hostile 
 steps have been taken against the Christian 
 Rajahs, who, therefore, have only arrived 
 for the purpose of participating in the rob- 
 beries and disturbances here in the country. 
 To prevent the passing of the frontiers is 
 the second cause of the Bosnian Yezier's 
 armament ; and at present we have no rea- 
 son to doubt that the position of the Seras- 
 kier of Bosnia is friendly towards us. 
 
 " Finally, gentlemen, I must allude to 
 our relations with Austria. I will be just, 
 and therefore I find it but natural that the 
 government of Vienna feels grieved at its 
 inability further to dispose over Hungary. 
 But, even if natural, grief is nevertheless not 
 always just ; still less does it follow, that 
 from sympathy with grief the nation should 
 incline to permit any of its rights to be 
 alienated. (Cheers.)
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 173 
 
 " Yes, gentlemen, most undoubtedly such 
 movements take place which have for their 
 object to restore to the Viennese govern- 
 ment, if not all, at least the departments of 
 War and Finance ; the rest will soon follow. 
 If, then, they once have the power of the 
 purse and sword, they will soon have power 
 over the whole nation. The Croatian move- 
 ment is evidently connected with this scheme, 
 for Jelachich has declared that he cares not 
 for liberty, and that it is all the same to him 
 whether or not the government at Vienna 
 again obtains possession of the departments 
 of War and Finance. And in the last days 
 the veil of these public secrets has been lifted 
 without reserve. The Viennese ministers 
 have thought proper, in the name of the 
 Austrian emperor, to declare to the cabinet 
 of the King of Hungary, that, unless we 
 make peace with the Croats at any price, 
 they will act in opposition to us. This is as 
 much as to say, that the Austrian Emperor 
 declares war to the King of Hungary ; or to 
 his own self. Whatever opinion you, gen- 
 tlemen, may have formed of the cabinet, I
 
 174 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 believe you may so far rely on our patriotic 
 feelings and on our honour, as to render it 
 superfluous on my part to tell you that we 
 have replied to this menace in a manner 
 becoming the dignity of the nation. But, 
 just when our reply was on its way, a second 
 note arrived, which clearly stated what a 
 horrible man the Minister of Finance must 
 be to refuse a grant of money to the rebel 
 Jelachich. For since Croatia has broken 
 out in open rebellion, I have of course 
 suspended the remittance of money to the 
 Commander-general at Agram. I should not 
 be worthy to breathe the free air of heaven- 
 nay, the nation ought to spit me in the face 
 had I given money to our enemy. But 
 the gentlemen of Vienna hold a different opi- 
 nion : they considered my refusal as a dis- 
 gusting desire to undermine the monarchy. 
 They have put their shoulders to the wheel, 
 and transmitted to the dear rebel 100,000, so 
 they say, but in reality 150,000 florins in sil- 
 ver. This act, gentlemen, might excite the 
 whole House to an angry spirit, to national in- 
 dignation, but be not indignant, gentlemen,
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 17-5 
 
 for the ministry which by adopting such a 
 miserable policy believed for a time to pro- 
 long its precarious existence, exists no longer. 
 The Aula has crushed it. And I hope, 
 whoever the men may be that compose the 
 next ministry, they will understand that, 
 without breaking their oath of allegiance to 
 the Austrian Emperor, who is likewise King 
 of Hungary, and without siding with the 
 rebels against their lord and master, they 
 cannot in future adopt that policy without 
 bidding also defiance to Hungary, which, in 
 that case, would throw the broken alliance 
 at the feet of Austria, which feeds rebellion 
 in our own country, and that we would look 
 for friends in other quarters ! 
 
 " Gentlemen, I have no cause to complain 
 of the Austrian nation ; I wish they had 
 power and a leader, both of which have 
 hitherto been wanting. What I have said 
 refers to the Austrian ministry. I hope that 
 my words have also been heard at Vienna, 
 and that they will exert some influence on 
 the policy of the new ministers. 
 
 " The Austrian relations, the affairs of
 
 176 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 the countries on the Lower Danube, the 
 Servian disturbances, the Croatian rebellion, 
 Pansclavonian agitators, and the reactionary 
 movements all these circumstances taken 
 together cause me to say the nation is in 
 danger, or rather, that it will be in danger, 
 unless our resolution be firm ! And in this 
 danger, where and with whom are we to 
 look for protection ? Are we to look to 
 foreign alliances ? I will not form too low 
 an estimate of the importance of relations 
 with foreign countries, and I think that the 
 cabinet would be guilty of a dereliction of 
 duty, if, in this respect, we were not to exert 
 ourselves to the utmost of our power. 
 
 " In the first moments of our assuming 
 office, we entered into correspondence with 
 the British government, and explained that 
 Hungary has not, as many have attempted 
 to promulgate, extorted rights and liberties 
 from her king, but that we stand on common 
 ground ; with our lord and king we have 
 further entered into an explanation of the 
 interests we have in common on the Lower 
 Danube. On the part of the British govern-
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 177 
 
 ment we have received a reply, such as we 
 might have expected from the liberal views 
 and from the policy of that nation. In the 
 meanwhile we may rest convinced that Eng- 
 land will only assist us if, and as far as, she 
 finds it consistent with her own interests. 
 
 "As for France, I entertain for the 
 French, as the champions of liberty, the 
 most lively sympathy, but I am, nevertheless, 
 not inclined to see the life of my nation 
 dependent upon their protection and their 
 alliance. France has just seen a second 
 18th Brumaire. France stands on the thresh- 
 old of a dictatorship ; perhaps the world 
 may see a second Washington : it is most 
 likely that we shall see a second Napoleon 
 rising out of the ashes of the past. This 
 much is certain : France can give us a lesson 
 that not every revolution is for the interest 
 of liberty, and that a nation, striving for 
 liberty, can be placed under the yoke of 
 tyranny most easily when that liberty exceeds 
 proper limits. It is indeed a most lamentable 
 event for such a nation as the glorious French 
 nation undoubtedly is, that in the streets of 
 
 N
 
 178 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 Paris the blood of 12,000 citizens has heen 
 shed by the hand of their fellow- citizens. 
 May God preserve us from such a fury in 
 our own country ! But whatever form the 
 affairs of France may assume whether that 
 man whom Providence has placed at the 
 head of that nation becomes a second Wash- 
 ington, who knows to reject the crown, or a 
 second Napoleon, who, on the ruins of the 
 people's liberty, erects the temple of his san- 
 guinary glory; one thing is certain that 
 France is far from us. Poland relied on 
 French sympathy ; that sympathy existed, 
 but Poland is no more ! 
 
 " The third is the German empire. 
 Gentlemen, I say it openly, I feel that Hun- 
 gary is destined to live with the free German 
 nation, and that the free German nation is 
 destined to live with the free Hungarian 
 nation, in sincere and friendly intercourse, 
 and that the two must superintend the civil- 
 isation of the German East. From this 
 point of view, then, we have thought of a 
 German alliance, and as soon as Germany 
 made the first step towards her unity by
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 179 
 
 convoking the Frankfort Parliament, we 
 considered it to be one of our first duties to 
 send two of our countrymen (one of whom 
 has now been elected President by this 
 House) to Frankfort, where they have been 
 received with the respect which is due to the 
 Hungarian nation. But just because the 
 Frankfort Assembly was still struggling for 
 existence, and because that body had not 
 developed itself, which with negotiations 
 could have been brought to a result (this 
 can only be done with the Ministry to be 
 constituted after the election of the Regent), 
 there is even now one of our. ambassadors in 
 Frankfort to negotiate, as soon as official 
 relations can with propriety be opened, re- 
 specting the league which we desire to enter 
 into with Germany though with the proviso 
 that we will not abate a hair's breadth from 
 our rights, from our consistency, from our 
 national freedom, for the sake either of 
 liberty or of menaces, from whomsoever they 
 may proceed. 
 
 " The danger, therefore, is great ; or 
 rather, a danger threatening to become
 
 180 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 i 
 
 great, gathers on the horizon of our country, 
 and we ought, above all, to find in ourselves 
 the strength for its removal. That nation 
 alone will live which in itself has sufficient 
 vital power ; that which knows, not to save 
 itself by its own strength, but only by the aid 
 of others, has no future.* I therefore demand 
 of you, gentlemen, a great resolution : Pro- 
 claim that, in just appreciation of the extra- 
 ordinary circumstances on account of which 
 the parliament has assembled, the nation is 
 determined to bring the greatest sacrifices 
 for the defence of its crown, of its liberty, 
 and of its independence, and that in this 
 respect it will at no price enter with any one 
 into a transaction which even in the least 
 might injure the national independence and 
 liberty, but that it will be always ready to 
 grant all reasonable wishes of every one. 
 But in order to realise this important reso- 
 lution, either by mediating, if possible, an 
 honourable peace, or by fighting a victorious 
 battle, the government is to be authorised 
 
 * These words of 1848 are a prophecy and a con- 
 demnation of what Austria did in 1849.
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 181 
 
 I 
 
 by the nation to raise the effective strength 
 of the army to 200,000 men, and for this 
 purpose to equip immediately 40,000 men, 
 and the rest as the protection of the country 
 and the honour of the nation may demand. 
 The expense of raising an army of 200,000 
 men, its armament, and its support for one 
 year, will amount to forty-two millions of 
 florins but that of raising 40,000 men, 
 from eight to ten millions of florins. Gen- 
 tlemen, if you assent to my motion, I pro- 
 pose within a few days to lay before the 
 House a detailed financial plan ; but I here 
 mention beforehand, that nothing is further 
 from my thoughts than to ask of the nation 
 a taxation of forty- two millions of florins : 
 on the contrary, my plan is that every one 
 shall contribute according to his means, and 
 if that will not cover the expense, we shall 
 be obliged to let our credit make up the 
 deficiency. I rejoice at being able to declare 
 that the plan which I mean to propose is 
 based upon an estimate which agrees with 
 the rates of taxation as fixed a century ago 
 by Maria Theresa for Transylvania, and
 
 182 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 which in reality is much more moderate. 
 Should my plan be adopted, and should the 
 House make an especial proviso that the 
 readiness for the sacrifice on the part of the 
 representatives of the nation shall not dwin- 
 dle away without result, the nation will be 
 able to bear the burden, and to save the 
 country. In case the imposed taxation 
 should not suffice for the establishment of a 
 military power such as circumstances ur- 
 gently demand, I claim the power for the 
 Executive to open a credit to any amount 
 which the representatives may deem neces- 
 sary. This credit shaU supply the deficiency, 
 either as a loan, or by the issue of paper- 
 money, or by some other financial operation. 
 " These are my proposals ! (Cheers.) 
 Gentlemen, I am of opinion that the future 
 of the nation depends on the resolution of 
 the House on my motion j and not alone on 
 that resolution, but in a great measure on 
 the manner in which we form it. And this 
 is the reason, gentlemen, why I refrained 
 from mixing this question with the debate 
 on the address. I believe, if a nation is
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 183 
 
 threatened on every side, and if it feel in 
 itself the will and the power to repel the 
 danger, that the question of the preservation 
 of the country ought not to be tacked to any 
 other question. 
 
 " This day we are the ministers of the 
 nation ; to-morrow, others may take our 
 place : no matter ! The cabinet may change, 
 but thou, O my country ! thou must for ever 
 remain, and the nation, with this or any 
 other cabinet, must save the country. But 
 in order that this or any other set of men 
 may be able to save it, the nation must 
 develope its strength. To avoid all misun- 
 derstanding, I declare solemnly and ex- 
 pressly, that I demand of the House 200,000 
 soldiers, and the necessary pecuniary grants. 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 " Gentlemen, what I meant to say is, that 
 this request on the part of the government 
 ought not to be considered as a vote of con- 
 fidence. No, we ask for your vote for the 
 preservation of the country ! And I would 
 ask you, gentlemen, if anywhere in our 
 country a breast sighs for liberation, or a
 
 184 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 
 
 wish waits for its fulfilment, let that breast 
 
 suffer vet a while, let that wish have a little 
 
 j 
 
 patience, until we have saved the country. 
 (Cheers.) This is my request! You all 
 have risen to a man, and I bow before the 
 nation's greatness! If your energy equals 
 your patriotism, I will make bold to say, 
 that even the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against Hungary ! " 
 
 We need not say what enthusiasm this 
 speech created in doors and out of doors, 
 and we will only remark, that the represent- 
 atives of the Hungarian people were unani- 
 mous in voting the troops and the money for 
 what thev considered the salvation of the 
 
 tf 
 
 country. They never reflected that they 
 were hurrying Hungary into danger, that 
 the speech was a case of high treason against 
 Austria, and that their country was unable 
 successfully to wage war, not only against 
 the Servians and Croatians, but also against 
 Austria herself. It is true the condition of 
 Austria was very precarious, her fortunes in 
 Italy had not yet been retrieved by the
 
 KOSSUTH'S SPEECH. 185 
 
 battles of Volta and Custozza, Germany was 
 eager for the spirit of her German provinces, 
 the minds of the Poles were unsettled, and 
 the Austrian Diet itself was a dangerous 
 element of disturbance. Circumstances were 
 thus favourable to Kossuth, and the time of 
 his revenge seemed to be at hand.
 
 186 DEBATES. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 DEBATES. 
 
 THE number of revolutionists and enemies 
 of Austria was great ; and great, too, was the 
 number of those who loudly expressed their 
 wish that " the sword of Italy," to wit, the 
 faithless Charles Albert, might obtain a 
 decisive victory over the Austrian army, 
 hunt the hero Radetsky over the Alps, and 
 restore the liberty and independence of the 
 Italian peninsula. Kossuth made no secret 
 of his feelings. In one of his parliamentary 
 speeches, he said : " I will not deny it ; my 
 sympathies are such, that I have often been 
 very happy on hearing of the victories of the 
 Italians, and I have even managed to forget 
 that their successes were bought by our own 
 Hungarian blood."
 
 DEBATES. 187 
 
 There were 12,000 Hungarian troops 
 under Radetsky's command fighting against 
 the King of Sardinia, and Kossuth's joy 
 may be easily conceived if we consider that, 
 after losing Italy, Austria could not maintain 
 herself in Hungary, and that the dissolution 
 of the empire must follow. 
 
 The dissolution of Austria, which was 
 considered as certain, would have been 
 hastened by the recall of the Hungarian 
 troops, and by their being employed against 
 their legitimate king. But still it ought to 
 be considered that there were 30,000 Croats 
 fighting the battles of Austria and Italy, 
 who, on their return, would have made head 
 against the faithless and hated Magyars. 
 
 This state. of things caused an animated 
 discussion in the Diet at Pesth. Some 
 members, especially Moritz Perczel, were 
 most energetic in their demands for the 
 recall of the Hungarian soldiers from Italy. 
 Others protested that the Pragmatic Sanction 
 authorised the House of Habsburg to em- 
 ploy the Hungarian forces against Charles 
 Albert. Kossuth voted against the recall,
 
 188 DEBATES. 
 
 for he knew that Illyrian forces would like- 
 wise return, and increase the power of the 
 Ban and the dangers of Hungary. His 
 views were adopted by many members and 
 by the president of the cabinet, but they 
 created an opposition which divided the 
 cabinet according to principles and personal 
 interests. For not only was the ministerial 
 party divided into two factions, that it is to 
 say into Batthyany's, consisting of Eotvos, 
 Deak, Klausal, Szechenyi, and Messaros, 
 and into Kossuth's, which was supported 
 by Szemere ; but the former party was 
 upheld by the magnates and Imperialists, 
 who preferred the conciliating policy of 
 Batthyany to the revolutionary intrigues of 
 Kossuth. 
 
 The clubs of Pesth, which at that time 
 had a powerful influence on the nation, suc- 
 ceeded in opposing the names of Batthyany 
 and Kossuth to each other. Kossuth, the 
 man of the people, seemingly kept back by 
 Batthyany, the representative of the no- 
 bility and the clergy, caused much anxiety 
 to the latter. But it was not the question
 
 DEBATES. 189 
 
 of the people of Hungary of liberty and 
 independence which divided the policy of 
 these two men : on that question they were 
 agreed. 
 
 Count Batthyany was the leader, and 
 Kossuth was the speaker of the opposition, 
 before the events of March. The former 
 was the hand, and the latter the sword of 
 that party which rose to power. 
 
 Kossuth had no objection to engage in, 
 or even to provoke, the last struggle for the 
 liberty and independence, as well as for the 
 separation of Hungary. 
 
 Batthyany, on the contrary, sought to 
 avoid and to put off this desperate (let us 
 say, this faithless and treasonable) struggle. 
 He was prepared to sacrifice some advan- 
 tages to the safety of possession. It was 
 afterwards ascertained that he was not in- 
 clined to join the traitors to their country 
 and to liberty, but that he wanted the energy, 
 perseverance, and resolution to carry him 
 through this last struggle for the liberty and 
 independence of Hungary.
 
 190 DEBATES. 
 
 Kossuth's policy provoked, Batthyany 's 
 conciliated. 
 
 In the Italian question Batthyany advo- 
 cated the interests and rights of the mon- 
 archy. 
 
 We know Kossuth's declaration, and we 
 know that it was forced from him. 
 
 Batthyany had some sympathies for the 
 German Parliament at Frankfort, but he 
 upheld the union with the monarchy, for he 
 was of opinion that the power of Germany 
 belonged to the future rather than to the 
 present. 
 
 Kossuth advocated the cause of Frank- 
 fort, and he was pleased to find his sympathies 
 mentioned in that Parliament, and coupled 
 with threats against Austria. 
 
 Batthyany attempted to impress every 
 movement of the times with the stamp of 
 legality. He resisted the revolution to the 
 last. 
 
 Kossuth was by no means so scrupulous. 
 He wanted means for an end, and when he 
 found them, he cared little for their name
 
 DEBATES. 191 
 
 or form ; for, according to his sophistical 
 doctrine, the means were sanctified by the end. 
 
 The two men were aiming at the same 
 purpose, but each in a different direction. 
 The invasion of the Ban of Croatia was a 
 support of Kossuth's policy ; his party in- 
 creased with the danger of Hungary. But 
 illegality and perjury have within themselves 
 the seeds of schism and dissension. The 
 Hungarian government, oppressed by a sense 
 of its wrong, remained at odds with itself; 
 and thus it was like a criminal who, by new 
 crimes, wishes to cancel the consequences of 
 his old ones, who rushes into untruth and 
 treason for the purpose of gaining strength, 
 and of proving that might prevails against 
 right. 
 
 His Majesty King Ferdinand, who had 
 appointed the Archduke Stephen to be Pa- 
 latine of Hungary, was invited to leave Inns- 
 bruck, and to take his residence at Buda. 
 But, presuming that his Majesty's health 
 prevented his removal, the Hungarians asked 
 for his Imperial Highness the Archduke 
 Joseph.
 
 192 DEBATES. 
 
 Kossuth fancied that no man in Austria 
 was cunning enough to discover the wolf in 
 sheep's clothing, or the viper among the 
 roses. But he soon learned better ; for it 
 was but too evident that the Hungarians 
 thought of perpetrating a bold state stroke : 
 that they intended to entice the King, or 
 the heir -presumptive to the throne, into 
 their power, for the purpose of keeping him 
 in security, and of obtaining by cunning 
 what they despaired of gaining by force of 
 arms. 
 
 The Hungarian debates were at this 
 time transplanted to Vienna, without, how- 
 ever, coming to a close at Pesth. The 
 Emperor Ferdinand returned on the 12th 
 of August to the castle of his fathers, where 
 he was received with signal enthusiasm. 
 Victory after victory was reported from Italy. 
 Still the revolutionary intrigues and national 
 dissensions continued in the capital and in 
 the Diet, where a variety of questions and 
 amendments prevented the debates on the 
 charter of a constitution, while the press 
 went to the utmost limits of licentiousness, and
 
 DEBATES. 193 
 
 while recruitings were going on for Hungary, 
 and Austrian subjects were induced to join 
 a hostile army. Nor did the Diet interfere 
 with the vagaries of a republican convention, 
 and with the impertinent behaviour of certain 
 journalists and stump orators like Dr. Becher, 
 Tausenau, Chaises, Eckardt, Frank, Jel- 
 linek, Buchheim, and Falke. The Hun- 
 garian agents, too, like Varga, Tolteny, and 
 Pulszky, took such a tone that it was clear 
 that they were in the service of Kossuth, 
 who evidently strained every nerve to destroy 
 the empire by his treasonable and insane 
 policy. 
 
 On the 6th of September an Hungarian 
 deputation of more than a hundred members 
 arrived at Vienna, and demanded the recall 
 of the Hungarian regiments ; the employment 
 of the Imperial troops in Hungary against 
 all those who resisted the commands of the 
 Magyar leaders ; the liberation of the Croats 
 from the power of the Ban ; the punishment 
 of the reactionary party, and the journey of 
 the King to Buda, for the purpose of sanc- 
 tioning the resolutions of the Hungarian Diet.
 
 194 DEBATES. 
 
 To such demands the only answer was a 
 refusal, and this was given in the mildest 
 form. The deputies left Vienna in great 
 disgust, with threats and with manifestations 
 of republicanism. Many of them put purple 
 feathers in their hats, while they gave vent 
 to curses and imprecations. Upon this, the 
 paid agents and intriguers became bolder and 
 bolder ; they eulogised Kossuth and the 
 Hungarian government, and they made use 
 of the vilest speeches towards what they called 
 the reactionary party, the court party, and 
 especially the Ban of Croatia. 
 
 The embarrassments of the Hungarian 
 government continued meanwhile, and in- 
 creased every day when the preparations of 
 the Ban Jelachich became known. Kossuth, 
 who had brought the vessel midway between 
 Scylla and Charybdis, despatched on the 
 18th of September another deputation to 
 Vienna. In this instance the Magyars vio- 
 lated the law, for Kossuth's messengers ap- 
 pealed not to the king and the cabinet, but 
 to the Austrian people ; that is to say, to the 
 Diet, the Radical and republican opposition
 
 DEBATES. 195 
 
 which had long been in secret connexion 
 with Kossuth. This party strove hard to 
 have the deputation admitted. But the re- 
 presentatives of the people, and especially 
 the predominant Sclavonian party, knew 
 their duty and their position. They refused 
 to admit the Hungarian deputies, and gave 
 an evasive and unsatisfactory answer to their 
 written demands. But the Association of 
 male and female Democrats, the Students' 
 Committee, and all the demigods of the ca- 
 pital, whose name was Legion, complimented 
 them on the evening of the 19th with a 
 torchlight serenade, splendid processions, and 
 high-flown speeches, in which Kossuth's 
 name was mentioned with the honours due 
 to a god. This course of proceeding scan- 
 dalised all honest and upright Austrians. 
 The bust of Kossuth was placed in a win- 
 dow niche of an hotel, covered with flowers 
 and laurel leaves, and cheered as though 
 he were the saviour of liberty and the 
 preserver of humanity. Everybody hastened 
 to greet Kossuth's apostles, and to eulogise 
 the Hungarian cause in pompous speeches.
 
 196 DEBATES. 
 
 This deputation was in itself an attack upon 
 the rights and the majesty of the crown ; 
 it was a fruitful subject of agitation, and 
 might contribute to the downfall of the mon- 
 archy. Among the speakers the most con- 
 spicuous was Dr. Tausenau, that Jewish 
 grand demagogue and ape of Master Kossuth. 
 He was impertinent enough to assure the 
 Hungarians of the sympathy of all Austrians, 
 who, he said, were prepared either to conquer 
 or to die with them. He insolently said that 
 the Pragmatic Sanction was annihilated, and 
 that the nations of Hungary and Austria had 
 become sovereign and independent. 
 
 It is extraordinary that Wesselenyi old, 
 blind, and respectable, as he was, should 
 have stooped to be an actor in the disgusting 
 farce of this treasonable mission, and that 
 he should have associated with adventurers 
 like Tausenau, Eckardt, Chaises, Buchheim, 
 and other scape-graces. 
 
 The Hungarian deputation left the ca- 
 pital disappointed, and with purple cockades ; 
 thereby giving evidence, not only of their 
 sincere disgust, but also of the fact that
 
 DEBATES. 197 
 
 Hungary was at war with Austria. There 
 was in the faces of many such a diabolical 
 sneer that it seemed as though they quitted 
 Vienna with a satanic delight like the mis- 
 creant who leaves his outwitted enemy, whose 
 broth he has poisoned, and whose house he 
 has undermined and furnished with a train 
 of powder, which wants but a single spark 
 to hurl it upwards in fearful ruin.
 
 198 THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER AT BUDA-PESTH. 
 
 IN the latter days of the month of August, 
 the Hungarian army (consisting of 24,000 
 foot, 3000 horse, and 48 pieces of artillery), 
 had been repeatedly defeated in the combats 
 with the Servians. They were beaten at 
 Weiskirchen, Versetz, and on the Roman 
 entrenchments of St. Tamas. The cry of 
 treason was raised at Pesth, and Kossuth 
 insisted on having the traitors identified and 
 handed over to the lavv. He considered 
 these reverses as indeed he did everything 
 which crossed his plans as produced by 
 the action of the court party ; he vilified the 
 Ban of Croatia and the Secretary of War, 
 Latour, as the venal servants of that court 
 party ; and it is said that he secretly wished
 
 AT BUDA-PESTH. 199 
 
 for their ruin, and consulted with his 
 friends as to the best means of getting rid 
 of these dangerous enemies. Letters which 
 were at that time intercepted between 
 the Ban and the Secretary-at-war, and 
 which treat of large remittances of money 
 from Vienna to Croatia, exasperated all the 
 Hungarians and their friends, led to vio- 
 lent debates in the Vienna Diet, and fur- 
 nished the Radical press and the members of 
 the university with new subjects for incen- 
 diary speeches, and for the most impertinent 
 intrigues, which were principally conducted 
 by bold Jews and foreign adventurers. 
 
 When the Austrian government found it 
 necessary to prohibit the exportation of silver 
 and the circulation of the Hungarian bank- 
 notes, Kossuth published two decrees pro- 
 hibiting, in his turn, the exportation of 
 silver into Austria and the circulation of the 
 Austrian notes, for the purpose of increasing 
 the differences between the two countries. 
 The atmosphere was sultry everywhere, and 
 everybody felt oppressed. Riots were frequent 
 at Vienna, but the worst was still to come.
 
 ^00 THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 It was on the 9th of September that the 
 Ban of Croatia, at the head of a large army, 
 crossed the Drave, and advanced towards 
 the Platen. He intended to march upon 
 the Hungarian capital ; but before he exe- 
 cuted his purpose an insurrection broke out 
 at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, where it was in- 
 tended to disperse the German Parliament 
 and to establish republicanism throughout 
 Germany. These riots were suppressed by 
 Prussian and Austrian troops ; but two mem- 
 bers of the parliament, the Prince Lich- 
 nowsky and the General Von Auerswald, were 
 most disgracefully assassinated. The oppo- 
 sition of the Frankfort Parliament, who were 
 acting in concert with Kossuth, secretly ap- 
 plauded this accursed deed ; and they sent 
 Robert Blum and Julius Frobel to Vienna, 
 to conspire with the Austrian and Hun- 
 garian democrats, or rather Republicans 
 and Communists, against the throne of 
 Habsburg. 
 
 We ought also to add that a certain 
 Polish officer, commonly called the General 
 Bern, had been sent for from Galicia to
 
 AT BUDA-PESTH. 
 
 Vienna, whither also repaired at the same 
 time Baron Pulszky, Kossuth's friend, and 
 Under-secretary of State. He was attended 
 by other revolutionists, most of whom were 
 in Kossuth's pay. 
 
 When the Ban of Croatia met the Hun- 
 garian army in the vicinity of Stuhlweis- 
 zenburg, the Austrian cabinet felt .it its 
 duty to prevent the miseries of a war, and 
 they entreated the Emperor Ferdinand to 
 send General Lamberg as Royal Commis- 
 sioner to the camp, with powers and instruc- 
 tions for the suspension of hostilities. His 
 majesty was graciously pleased to consent 
 to the proposal. A manifesto was pub- 
 lished, and a message to the Hungarian 
 Diet, proroguing the Assembly to the 1st of 
 December. 
 
 Kossuth was not at that time in Pesth. 
 He was engaged in seducing the ultra- 
 Magyars from Szolnok to the north-east 
 towards Groszwardein and Debreczin, and 
 to compel them to rise in masses, since the 
 country was in danger. 
 
 The activity of Kossuth's friends is shown
 
 202 THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 by the circumstance that the Emperor's ma- 
 nifesto reached Pesth much earlier than 
 Count Lamberg. Count Louis Batthyany, 
 the President of the Cabinet, assembled the 
 most influential members of the Diet, and 
 agreed with them that the said manifesto 
 which subjected the Ban of Croatia to the 
 orders of Count Lamberg was the only way 
 to save Hungary in this crisis. It was con- 
 sequently resolved, that Count Batthyany 
 should proceed to the Hungarian camp, for 
 the purpose of ascertaining the sentiments 
 of the army, and that up to his return 
 the Diet would not take any decisive re- 
 solutions. 
 
 But Kossuth's agitators and instruments 
 were more powerful than Batthyany ever 
 thought, and his orders passed unnoticed. 
 He had scarcely left for the army when 
 Kossuth was sent for by his friends. He 
 returned by night and assembled the de- 
 puties for a midnight sitting, in which he 
 declared that the royal manifesto, which was 
 not countersigned by any minister, was ille- 
 gal ; that the Count Lamberg and all those
 
 AT BUDA-PESTH. 203 
 
 who obeyed his orders were traitors to the 
 country; and several deputies were at once 
 sent to Count Batthyany to inform him of 
 the last resolutions of the Diet. The Pre- 
 sident of the Cabinet replied that he could 
 not consent to this illegal resolution. He 
 submitted the question to a council of of- 
 ficers, who unanimously accepted the royal 
 manifesto and insisted on the Diet cancelling 
 their resolution. But the officers declared 
 at the same time, that if the Ban of Croatia 
 should decline obeying his majesty's mani- 
 festo, they would lead the Hungarian troops 
 against the Servians and expel the Ban 
 from Hungary. This resolution was the 
 more favourable, since the Count Lam- 
 berg had protested at Pressburg that if the 
 Ban proved refractory he would himself 
 lead the Hungarian troops in their attack 
 upon him. 
 
 While these negotiations were proceed- 
 ing, and at the hour of noon on the 28th of 
 September, Count Lamberg, conscious of his 
 good and just cause, arrived at Buda, at- 
 tended only by one servant ; and he pro-
 
 THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 ceeded to Pesth to present the royal mani- 
 festo to the President of the Cabinet for his 
 counter-signature, so as to insure its legality. 
 Kossuth was just addressing the House when 
 he was informed of Count Lamberg's arrival. 
 He communicated the news to the House, 
 adding that now was the time to take 
 effective measures. 
 
 His friends among the deputies knew 
 what he expected them to do. The rest 
 were paralysed with fear, and none dared to 
 oppose the agitator and to prevent the per- 
 petration of the deed which was present to 
 their forebodings. J. Balogh, the member for 
 Bacs, left the house, accompanied by several 
 persons from the gallery. Zsembesy, the 
 member for the county of Hont, and a rabid 
 demagogue, cried for weapons ; and when he 
 was told that there were scythes on board a 
 vessel in the Danube, he armed a large 
 crowd of people, and hastened with them 
 across the bridge to Buda, for the purpose 
 of executing the motion which Balogh had 
 proposedinthe House, to arrest Count Lam- 
 berg, and to conduct him to the bar of the
 
 AT BUDA-PESTH. 205 
 
 House ; or rather, to subject him to the 
 decision of the bloody tribunal of the 
 Convention. 
 
 The royal commissioner was not in uni- 
 form. He was alone in a hackney-coach, 
 for he had, most unfortunately, intended to 
 proceed to the Commander of Buda before 
 appearing in the Diet, and was on his way 
 when he was identified by some of the mes- 
 sengers. One of them hastened to the 
 bridge and announced that Count Lamberg 
 was in a hackney-coach, of which he pro- 
 claimed the number. A malicious rumour 
 was spread throughout Pesth that the Com- 
 mander of Buda had given orders to close 
 the gates of the fortress, and that he was 
 preparing to bombard the city of Pesth. 
 This false news produced a great sensation. 
 The shops were closed, the generate was 
 beaten in the streets, and the tocsin sounded 
 from the churches. The national guards 
 assembled, and the people armed themselves 
 with everything that came in their way. 
 
 When Count Lamberg reached the 
 bridge, the people stopped him and asked
 
 206 THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 for his name, which when told exposed him 
 to the attack of a fanatic, who wounded him 
 with a dreadful curse.* The party of Na- 
 tional Guards interfered and escorted the 
 Count to the middle of the bridge, in the 
 vicinity of St. John's Chapel. But the rush 
 of the people was enormous, for the boldest 
 among the inhabitants of Pesth hastened to 
 cross the bridge to storm the fortress which, 
 as they were falsely informed, was closed. 
 The escort were pushed back, the Count was 
 torn from his carriage, and killed with 
 many wounds. The people took him by the 
 feet and dragged him through several streets, 
 until the National Guards interfered and pro- 
 tected the mangled body from further indig- 
 nity. Meanwhile, and just when a member 
 of the Diet was moving that the murderers 
 should be arrested and punished, a young 
 man rushed into the house and exhibited in 
 triumph his sword dripping with the blood 
 of the royal commissioner. He was loudly 
 cheered by the galleries, although even 
 
 * His name is Kolossy ; he was arrested in No- 
 vember 1849.
 
 AT BUDA-PESTH. 207 
 
 hyenas might have blushed at the per- 
 petration of such a deed. 
 
 And the Diet, or rather the Convention, 
 or the revolutionary tribunal, what did they 
 say or do ? That house, which forced the 
 Archduke Palatine Stephen to resign his 
 post by placing him at the head of their 
 forces ; the very house which protested 
 against the legal appointment of the Ban 
 of Croatia to the lord-lieutenancy of all Hun- 
 garian counties ; the very house which at 
 that time compelled six Saxon members 
 from Transylvania to vacate their seats and 
 to fly to their homes, and which did not 
 even think it illegal to renounce the throne 
 and to accept a provisional government or 
 dictatorship that very house, we say, con- 
 sidered the accursed assassination of the 
 representative of royalty to be neither more 
 nor less than faulty in form ! 
 
 But let us turn away from this bloody 
 convention, which, two days afterwards, on 
 Gorgey's authority, signed the death-war- 
 rant of the generous Count Eugene Zichy. 
 This martyr was asserted to be a traitor to
 
 208 THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 
 
 the country, because it was said that he 
 forwarded the correspondence between the 
 Austrian Secretary-at-war and the Ban of 
 Croatia. He fell a victim to Lynch law, 
 for he was hanged in the most disgraceful 
 manner on the island of Czepel. 
 
 We leave our readers to judge how far 
 these bloody deeds, which made a cry of 
 horror run throughout Europe, may be im- 
 puted to the hero of our story. To the best 
 of our opinion it is impossible to absolve a 
 man from guilt whose spirit and tendencies 
 have led to the perpetration of a crime, 
 although he may not himself have ordered 
 it or lent his hand to its execution. From 
 this point of view Kossuth is as guilty of 
 these two murders as of the later bloody 
 deeds in the Austrian capital. 
 
 These deeds of violence, which have un- 
 masked the revolutionary party, and which 
 have shown the features of Kossuth, Maz- 
 zini, Manin, Hecker, Struve, Blum, and 
 Ledru Rollin in all their native ugliness, 
 induced the Ban of Croatia to change his 
 plan of operations and to march upon the
 
 AT BUDA-PESTH. 209 
 
 Austrian capital, which he considered as the 
 real focus of revolutions. It is true that, 
 according to the Hungarian bulletins, his 
 army was routed near Velencze in the vi- 
 cinity of Buda; but the fact is, that the 
 left wing of his army was slightly pushed 
 back towards Stuhlweiszenburg, while all his 
 other forces had a decided advantage. In- 
 deed, he was justified in expecting that 
 within a few days he would enter the Hun- 
 garian capital as a conqueror ; but higher 
 considerations induced him to resign the lau- 
 rels of victory, and he hastened straightway 
 to Vienna, where everything appeared daily 
 more threatening and fraught with danger. 
 
 Kossuth, who anticipated the crisis, es- 
 pecially as he was himself its promoter, re- 
 doubled his activity, despatched his agents, 
 and made the most fiery speeches in the 
 House. Nor ought it to be forgotten that, 
 as Minister of Finance, he was sitting by a 
 fountain at which human weaknesses and 
 passions are most eager to slake their thirst, 
 and whose intoxicating draught is fatal to 
 the virtue of the sons of this earth.
 
 210 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER AND THE BATTLE OF 
 SCHWECHAT. 
 
 THE melancholy and memorable Vienna 
 revolution of October has sufficiently em- 
 ploved the writer's pen and the painter's 
 brush. We need not add to the number of 
 its chronicles, although we were eye-wit- 
 nesses from the first to the last. We men- 
 tion these events only in so far as they are 
 connected with Magyar movements and 
 Magyar treasons, and we have no trouble 
 to trace their source to Hungary. 
 
 We have already remarked that Kos- 
 suth's hatred was most intense against the 
 Ban Jelachich and Count Latour, the Aus- 
 trian Secretary-at-war ; that his most poi- 
 sonous aims were directed against these 
 devoted men ; and that nothing could save
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 211 
 
 them but being girt with mail of proof. For 
 while the generous Ban was moving towards 
 the capital, Kossuth was heard to protest he 
 would give a million for some good riots in 
 Vienna. The bearing of words goes further 
 than their sound. Kossuth cared little for 
 a few riots unless they removed his 
 stumbling-block and paved the way of his 
 treason. In harmony with these sentiments, 
 it was at that time said by a correspondent 
 of a Pesth Gazette, "The Magyar cause 
 relies, as a last hope, on the Viennese ; give 
 us, for God's sake, a nice revolution, and 
 Hungary is saved." 
 
 The Secretary-at-war had long been at 
 daggers drawn with the opposition in the 
 Diet, and a letter which he wrote to his 
 son shows that he was aware of the danger 
 which encompassed him. Nor did the 
 clubs, the university, and the Radical edi- 
 tors conceal that the life of the Secretary- 
 at-war was hanging on a very slender thread 
 indeed, and that very little was wanting to 
 overthrow him. It was not difficult to sup- 
 ply the little which was wanted for that
 
 212 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 purpose, especially for a man who had pe- 
 cuniary means at his disposal. 
 
 We beg our readers will observe, that 
 one of the most important agents of the 
 Hungarian Minister of Finance, to wit, 
 Baron Pulszky, his Under- secretary of State, 
 was then present at Vienna, and that 
 50,000 florins in silver, which at that time 
 we understand he distributed in Vienna, 
 cannot, in the common course of things, 
 be without some effect, especially if other 
 levies besides money are brought to bear 
 upon the question. We would also have 
 considered what was afterwards authenti- 
 cated by the examination and by the con- 
 fessions of the Hungarian President, Louis 
 Batthyany, as published by the Vienna Ga- 
 zette after his execution ; it is there set 
 forth that, to justify the verdict of the court- 
 martial held on the Count Louis Batthyany, 
 it needs but the adducement of some facts 
 from a series of crimes, to wit, the treason- 
 able issue of Hungarian bank-notes ; the 
 recruiting of the 26th September, which 
 added 200,000 men to the Hungarian
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 
 
 forces ; the arbitrary appointment of am- 
 bassadors to France and Germany, for the 
 purpose of assisting the Hungarian revolu- 
 tion and fomenting a war between France 
 and Austria ; the bringing about of a war 
 between Hungary and the Croatians, by in- 
 tentional inactivity and disobedience to the 
 Emperor's orders ; the support which he 
 gave to most of the measures which tended to 
 the separation of Hungary ; his established 
 support of the Vienna events of the 6th of 
 October, 1848, by means of bribery and 
 other contrivances, it having been proved 
 that Batthyany having left Vienna for Oe- 
 denburg in the night, between the 5th and 
 6th October, said at the latter place, " that 
 it had given him a deal of trouble to get 
 the Viennese well peppered;" and that on 
 the 7th of October he said to a friend at 
 the same place, " Are you aware that the 
 rascal Count Latour has been hanged ? 
 Things are looking up in Hungary !" 
 Moreover, his voluntary enlistment as a 
 private soldier in the ranks of the insur- 
 gents, and in the corps of a certain Vidos,
 
 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 by which he materially assisted the cause of 
 the revolution ; the publication of a procla- 
 mation to the country, summoning every 
 man to assist in rebellion against his mo- 
 narch ; his entry as deputy for the borough 
 of Savar in December 1848, when the Hun- 
 garian Diet had been legally dissolved, and 
 when it was branded with the stamp of 
 treason ; and lastly, his perjury as President 
 of the Cabinet. 
 
 Count Batthyany owed his position in the 
 cabinet to Kossuth ; his gratitude caused 
 him to yield to the will of his benefactor : 
 but, still more than by gratitude, he was 
 swayed by the softness and weakness of his 
 character, and although he often made a 
 feint of wishing to bridle the impetuosity of 
 the agitator, his position was borne down, 
 and he himself compelled to follow in the 
 opposite track. 
 
 Considering the assassination of the 
 Austrian Secretary-at-war from this point 
 of view, we find that Count Batthyany and 
 others were mere tools in Kossuth's hands ; 
 in those able and cursed hands which distri-
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 
 
 buted money, which exchanged a friendly 
 pressure with the Radical party in the Diet, 
 and which took the life of the old and vene- 
 rable Count Latour for his stanch adherence 
 to truth and justice, to the law and the 
 dynasty. 
 
 It was but natural that this deed of horror 
 should be followed by gigantic consequences. 
 The riotous battalion of grenadiers, which 
 had orders to march to Hungary, joined the 
 revolutionary party, shed the blood of their 
 brethren, were rewarded with wine and mo- 
 ney, and, intoxicated with drink and frenzy, 
 joined the mob in their disgusting dance 
 round the lamp-post which served as a gal- 
 lows to the mutilated corpse of the mur- 
 dered man. They fraternised with the 
 Magyars, Poles, and foreigners, and assisted 
 in the assault upon the Arsenal, which they 
 carried in the course of the next morning. 
 
 The sacking of the Arsenal had a twofold 
 advantage for the cause of Hungary. Kos- 
 suth's partisans, the mob of Vienna, took 
 some of the arms, and many other weapons 
 were brought to Hungary, where they were
 
 216 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 wanted, and where their arrival, and the 
 news of Latour's assassination, caused trans- 
 ports of joy. The revolutionary party had 
 thus carried the day. The friends of the 
 Hungarians had a majority in the Diet, and 
 on the evening of the 6th of October they 
 passed the following resolutions, 1st, The 
 formation of a popular cabinet ; 2dly, An 
 amnesty for the events of the day ; and 
 3dly, the deposition of the Ban Jelachich. 
 His Majesty the Emperor and his court 
 quitted Schonbrunn on the following day, and 
 
 fled to Olmiitz. The honest members of 
 
 
 
 the Diet left the Assembly, and many noble 
 and wealthy persons hastened away, for they 
 foresaw that the criminal capital would soon 
 be punished after the manner of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah. 
 
 There could be no doubt as to the fate 
 of the capital, when two days afterwards 
 General Auersperg concentrated the garri- 
 son of Vienna in the palace and belvedere 
 of Prince Schwarzenberg, where he took a 
 threatening position ; thus separating the 
 military from the civil power. The Ban
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 217 
 
 Jelachich, with 30,000 Croatians, had, 
 meanwhile, arrived from Hungary, and ef- 
 fected a junction with the troops under 
 General Auersperg (about 12,000 men). 
 Poor Vienna was then in the condition of a 
 man on his deathbed, to whom nothing but 
 powerful antidotes, amputations, in short, 
 some dreadful and painful operation, can 
 do good. 
 
 In the course of the night of the 10th 
 of October, rockets were thrown up from 
 the tower of St. Stephen to summon the 
 population of the country, and to attract the 
 Hungarians, who were thought to be close at 
 hand. The Academical Legion had arrested 
 several persons, and among them General 
 Reczey, who was considered to be a most 
 dangerous servant of the reactionary party 
 and of the dynasty, but who, nevertheless, 
 met with great kindness and politeness. 
 
 The democratic, or rather the repub- 
 lican, club, sent a deputation headed by 
 Hafner, Tausenau, and Frank, to the com- 
 mon council, proposing that the Viennese 
 should attack the Imperial army, in con-
 
 218 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 junction with the Hungarian troops, who, 
 with Kossuth, were on the banks of the Leitha, 
 and waited but for a signal, and then they 
 should destroy the Ban of Croatia, or at least 
 put him to flight. The common council 
 sent the deputation to the Diet, and that 
 assembly, in spite of its sympathies for the 
 Magyars, pronounced an equivocal oracle, 
 by which the assistance of the Hungarians 
 was neither asked nor declined. 
 
 We cannot but insert the farewell mani- 
 festo of his Majesty the Emperor Ferdinand, 
 not only, because it is the most important 
 document of those days, but also because it 
 is a balm to the heart of every honest and 
 loyal Austrian : 
 
 " I have sought to fulfil all the wishes of 
 my people. Whatever kindness and confi- 
 dence a monarch can show his people I have 
 shown, and by granting a Constitution I have 
 endeavoured to foster the independence, the 
 strength, and the prosperity of the country. 
 Though once forcibly expelled from the 
 palace of my ancestors, I have never tired 
 in giving and granting* A Diet has been
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 
 
 summoned, on the broadest basis of univer- 
 sal suffrage ; it was the duty of that Diet to 
 agree with me on the charter of a Constitu- 
 tion. I returned to my capital without any 
 other guarantee than the sentiments of 
 justice and gratitude of my people. But a 
 small number of misled and seduced men 
 threatened to annihilate the hopes of all 
 patriots. Anarchy has run the full length 
 of its tether. Vienna is filled with murder 
 and arson. My Secretary-at-war, whom his 
 age ought to have protected, has suffered 
 death from the hands of a motr of assas- 
 sins. I rely on God and on my right, and 
 I have left the capital to find means to assist 
 the oppressed people. Whoever loves Aus- 
 tria, whoever loves freedom, let him rally 
 round his Emperor." 
 
 The Diet, however, would not admit 
 that Vienna was in a state of anarchy and 
 rebellion. It is true that its late Speaker 
 had taken flight, thereby proving that the 
 capital had left the path of legality, or- 
 der, and loyalty, by rushing, like a venal 
 courtezan, to Kossuth's arms. Still thev
 
 220 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 elected M. Smolka to be Speaker of the 
 Diet ; and in the next sitting M. Borrosch, 
 who, it is said, might have prevented the 
 assassination of Latour, proposed to present 
 an address to the Emperor, entreating him 
 to convoke a Congress of the nations of the 
 Hungarian tribes for the solution of the 
 difficult question of the future of Hungary. 
 
 This motion fell to the ground, like all 
 the motions, discussions, and resolutions of 
 the equivocal minority which had been left 
 in the Diet. Nor would the Hungarians have 
 accepted any advice or order from Austria, 
 which they fancied was annihilated, and 
 whose overthrow they celebrated with loud 
 cheers. In their selfish joy they quite forgot 
 their Vienna friends, who looked for them 
 with longing eyes. The Viennese were indeed 
 assisted by certain democrats from Briinn, 
 Linz, Salzburg, and Gratz ; but at length 
 they accused the Hungarians, for whom 
 they had bled and sinned, of the most fla- 
 grant ingratitude, and held them respon- 
 sible for the ills which Vienna was to suffer 
 for her Magyar sympathies. Signs of dis-
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 
 
 tress were day and night displayed from the 
 tower of St. Stephen, and messenger was sent 
 after messenger, at least as long as it was 
 possible to elude the vigilance of the military 
 cordon which surrounded the capital. 
 
 We insert one of the pompous proclama- 
 tions of M. Messenhauser, the commander- 
 in-chief of the Vienna National Guards, be- 
 cause it refers to the Hungarian auxiliaries. 
 It is dated the 16th of October : 
 
 " The Hungarian army, under the 
 Generals Csanyi and Moga, has crossed the 
 frontier this day. Colonel Ivanka, and 
 Perczel the Bold, commanders of the wings. 
 The battle between the two armies will take 
 place under the walls of Vienna. I am in- 
 structed by the Diet immediately to make a 
 camp in the belvedere. All our movable 
 corps were sent there yesterday. This camp 
 will be of imposing strength and worthy of 
 a great capital. Lieutenant-General Bern 
 will command it. His head- quarters are 
 preparing. The troops will be victualled 
 in the camp ; they will each have a pint 
 of wine and a reasonable quantity of
 
 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 tobacco. The various branches of a large 
 corps are organizing ; to wit, the Paymaster's 
 Office, the Intendant's Office, the Hospi- 
 tals, &c." 
 
 It was on that very day that his Majesty 
 the Emperor promoted Prince Windischgratz 
 to the rank of Field Marshal, and instructed 
 him to reduce the Viennese, and to punish 
 the Hungarians for their treason. 
 
 An Imperial manifesto of the 22d of 
 October dissolved the Diet at Vienna, and 
 appointed its meeting at Kremsier towards 
 the end of November. 
 
 We presume our readers are acquainted 
 with the proclamations which Prince Win- 
 dischgratz addressed to the common council 
 of Vienna, and with the history of the siege 
 of that city. We will, therefore, return to 
 the Hungarians, and to the leading traitors 
 among them. 
 
 Before the inner city surrendered to Prince 
 Windischgratz, although they had promised 
 to do so, the inhabitants were, for a time, 
 misled by a hope of support from Hungary, 
 which only served to increase their disgrace
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 223 
 
 and wretchedness. The Hungarians, mus- 
 tering about 20,000 men, crossed their fron- 
 tiers and advanced to Fischamend. They 
 were lead by Moga, and attended by Kos- 
 suth. They were permitted to advance to the 
 ground between Schwechat, Schwadorf, and 
 theNeugebaude ; they were received by a pre- 
 tended attack of cavalry, and it was intended 
 to break their flanks, and to drive them into 
 the Danube. The Ban of Croatia, who con- 
 ducted this operation, was prevented from 
 executing this plan ; but in less than two 
 hours he defeated the enemy, whom he 
 routed, and drove across the Leitha. 
 
 Messenhauser, the commander-in-chief 
 of Vienna, and many other persons, watched 
 the fight from the tower of St. Stephen, and 
 since the roar of artillery seemed to approach, 
 it was erroneouslv believed that the Hun- 
 
 / 
 
 garians had obtained a decisive victory. The 
 commander-in-chief, instigated by Bern and 
 Fenneberg, published a proclamation, an- 
 nouncing the arrival of the Magyars, and of 
 Kossuth their Messiah. Fresh hopes and 
 enthusiasm prevailed throughout the town,
 
 THE VIENNA EVENTS OF OCTOBER 
 
 and the weapons which had been laid down 
 were again taken up. Those who refused to 
 arm were forced to do so. 
 
 Prince Windischgratz, too, published a 
 proclamation announcing his victory and 
 the flight of the Hungarians, and accusing 
 the Viennese of their treason and its conse- 
 quences. But nobody would believe him. 
 The Imperial troops were compared to the 
 Turkish hordes which in 1683 infested 
 Vienna, and it was hoped that Kossuth 
 would be like John Sobieski, who saved the 
 capital. 
 
 But the reducers and the reduced were 
 grievously disappointed, when, in the course 
 of the following day, the University was 
 taken by storm. Many of them atoned for 
 their guilt by losing their lives or their 
 liberty. We are painfully affected in stating 
 that many escaped the strong hand of justice, 
 such as Pulszky, Bern, Tausenau, Fenneberg, 
 Schiitte, Frank, Buchheim, Falke, Maler, 
 Chaises, and sundry others. 
 
 We ought to add that Kossuth attended 
 the battle of Schwechat in his carriage, and
 
 AND THE BATTLE OF SCHWECHAT. 225 
 
 that on his flight he was in danger of being 
 captured. It was afterwards ascertained that 
 one of the wheels of his carriage broke, but 
 he found means to continue his flight. How 
 much misery might have been prevented if 
 the pursuing warriors had succeeded in cap- 
 turing the arch-enemy of Austria !
 
 226 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE OPEBATIONS AGAINST HUNGARY. 
 
 WE commence our history of the operations 
 against Hungary with the following mani- 
 festo, which his Majesty addressed on the 
 7th November, 1848, to the subjects of his 
 Hungarian crown. It is to the following 
 purpose : 
 
 " The impertinent intrigues of Louis 
 Kossuth and of his fellows, who have 
 usurped power in your wretched country, 
 who despise the commands of your King, 
 and who would devote your country to un- 
 heard-of miseries, compel me to an armed 
 intervention. 
 
 "But first I must address you, whom 
 everybody seeks to mislead and deceive. 
 They tell you my troops are coming to con-
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 
 
 quer your country, to ravish your liberties, 
 and to suppress the Hungarian nationality. 
 
 " Threats are employed to goad you on 
 to resistance, and my name even is abused 
 for that purpose. Those who do so, deceive 
 you you are even now deceived. Oh, do 
 not listen to the voice of the seducer. 
 
 " The liberation of the robot and of 
 tithes, which, against a moderate indemnifi- 
 cation of your late feudal lords, has been 
 granted you by the State, will remain un- 
 touched. Your guarantee for this is the 
 law and my royal word. But I will restore 
 tranquillity, for, without it, you cannot enjoy 
 the fruits of my concessions, because an im- 
 moderate service in the National Guards and 
 in the Landsturm monopolises your forces 
 ^ and energies. 
 
 " The inhabitants of your country who 
 belong to other nationalities have likewise 
 wished for an extension of their rights. A 
 civil war was impending. Your King did 
 all in his power to avert the danger, but the 
 traitors who wished to seduce you have foiled 
 my endeavours. They have even assassinated
 
 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 the general whom I sent to save you from 
 the horrors of a civil war. 
 
 " Rely on your King, who ever loved and 
 honoured the Hungarian nationality, without 
 detriment to other nations. Join my troops, 
 and support them in the restoration of order. 
 In all other respects remain quiet. Respect 
 the rights and the property of everybody, 
 and give a constant obedience to the legal 
 authorities, and to the commands which I 
 publish for the welfare of your country. 
 
 " Those who obey will fulfil their duties 
 to the king and to the country ; but those 
 who resist are traitors, and will be treated 
 as such." 
 
 On the ground of this manifesto Prince 
 Windischgratz published a proclamation to 
 the inhabitants of Hungary and Transylvania, 
 in which he summoned them to break the des- 
 potism of treacherous rebels, and to return 
 to the duty and loyalty which they owed to 
 their legitimate king and lord. But neither 
 this nor any of the later proclamations were 
 allowed to enter the revolutionary country, 
 for Kossuth knew how to lock it up, as
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 
 
 well as he knew how to fanaticise and ter- 
 rorise it. 
 
 After the disgraceful defeat at Schwechat 
 Kossuth hastened to Pressburg, where he 
 most cunningly pretended that his failure was 
 owing solely to the cowardice of the Vien- 
 nese ; for that the Imperial troops would cer- 
 tainly have been beaten if, according to 
 agreement and to signals, the Viennese had 
 ventured to make a bold sortie. He added 
 that the conquered city was now groaning 
 under the iron rule of despotism ; that hun- 
 dreds were being executed ; thousands im- 
 prisoned and exiled : but that the cowards 
 deserved their fate, since they did not dare to 
 fight for a better. 
 
 Thus did the overbearing and ungrateful 
 man sneer at his wretched friends, while he 
 was the promoter of all the mischief which 
 had brought so much disgrace and misery 
 down upon Vienna. 
 
 On this occasion he fortified Pressburg in 
 the same manner as, in 1809, it had been for- 
 tified against the armies of the French ; and 
 when he quitted the city for the fortress of
 
 230 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 Komorn he addressed the inhabitants, en- 
 treating them to hold out to the last, and to 
 prove themselves worthy of the confidence 
 and respect of the kingdom. He left Csanyi 
 in command of the place. 
 
 After the conquest of Vienna it was 
 generally supposed that Prince Windisch- 
 gratz would immediately lead his army of 
 100,000 men into Hungary, in order to pre- 
 vent the insurgents from concentrating their 
 forces. This was not the case. The opening 
 of this campaign was preceded by some very 
 important events, to wit, by a change in 
 the cabinet on the 22d of November, by the 
 opening of the Diet at Kremsier, and by 
 the advent of Francis Joseph to the throne 
 of Austria. 
 
 This latter circumstance supplied Kos- 
 suth and the enemies of the dynasty with an 
 opportunity to pour the phial of their malice 
 on the weak heads of a credulous multi- 
 tude. The resignation of his Majesty Fer- 
 dinand in favour of his nephew was repre- 
 sented as a trick of the court party ; and the 
 diabolical lie was inculcated that the kind-
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 231 
 
 hearted Ferdinand had been forcibly com- 
 pelled to abdicate, and that the crown had 
 been placed on the head of a child for the 
 purpose of having an arbitrary, absolute, and 
 despotic government, of revoking all con- 
 cessions, and of punishing, conquering, and 
 tyrannizing Hungary. It was said that 
 Ferdinand was a prisoner at Olmiitz ; and 
 that he would perish like a criminal in gaol, 
 unless the Hungarians liberated him, and 
 restored him to the throne. It was also 
 said that neither obedience nor loyalty were 
 due to the young Emperor, since the Hun- 
 garian constitution did not acknowledge him 
 as King of Hungary ; and that to conquer 
 the Austrian troops was to defend justice 
 and order that it was a glorious and sacred 
 duty to humanity. 
 
 These and similar phrases and expres- 
 sions, which decency and patriotism forbid 
 us to record, were spread by Kossuth and 
 his party, who thus confused the minds of 
 the people, and caused a pestilence which 
 spread over the whole country. The six 
 weeks of delay which occurred between the
 
 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 subjection of the capital to the first attack 
 upon Hungary strengthened the ardour of 
 rebellion, and prepared a gigantic contest, 
 which alone availed to eradicate the upas 
 tree by the roots. 
 
 On the 18th of December, Pressburgwas 
 taken without resistance. The insurgents 
 retreated with great haste and cowardice, 
 but they burned the bridge of boats and 
 sundry pontoons. 
 
 General Simunich meanwhile carried on 
 his operations on the bank of the Waag. 
 He defeated the superior forces of the enemy 
 at Tyrnau, while General Schlick proceeded 
 to the north of the Carpathians, by way of 
 Dukla and Barthfeld, towards Eperies and 
 Kaschau, where he was opposed by 30,000 
 men under Meszaros, who could not, how- 
 ever, prevent him from occupying the capital 
 of Upper Hungary. 
 
 On the 22d of December the head-quar- 
 ters of Prince Windischgratz were at Karls- 
 burg, and on the following day the Ban of 
 Croatia entered St. Miklos, Gorgey not 
 being able to offer any successful opposition
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 233 
 
 to his doing so. Raab was strongly fortified, 
 and a decisive battle was expected to take 
 place in front, of that city ; but Gorgey 
 retreated to Buda, and the Ban of Croatia 
 occupied Raab on the 27th of December. 
 
 On the following day General Ottinger 
 met and defeated the insurgents at Babolna. 
 A still more bloody combat was fought by the 
 Ban at Moor, on the 30th of December. He 
 defeated 12,000 rebels under Perczel. The 
 field of battle was covered with the dead, the 
 wounded, and the dying. The remainder 
 of the rebel corps retreated to Stuhlweiszen- 
 burgh, and endeavoured to effect a junction 
 with Gorgey's troops. 
 
 On the same day the second corps, after 
 some battles in the Island of Schiitt, ad- 
 vanced in order of battle against Komorn, 
 and summoned the commander to an uncon- 
 ditional surrender. This man, Maithenyi, 
 replied that he and his garrison stood upon 
 their right ; that Ferdinand the Fifth alone 
 was their king ; and that they would defend 
 the fortress in his name. The brigade of 
 General Lederer was consequently left to
 
 234 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 blockade this maiden fortress, whose con- 
 struction for many years cost about ten 
 millions of florins. The commander of the 
 blockading force was General Ramberg ; 
 while the brigades of Colloredo, Jablo- 
 nowsky, and Wysz, advanced against Buda ; 
 and while General Simunich besieged the 
 little fortress of Leopoldstadt. 
 
 Field -marshal Lieutenant the Count 
 Schlick had meanwhile advanced as far as 
 Miskolz. On the 24th of January, 1849, 
 the three Imperialist corps took a position 
 in front of Buda. The first corps was at 
 Tetenyi and Promontor, the second at Buda- 
 Oers, and the third in Bia and the sur- 
 rounding country. The field-marshal's head- 
 quarters were at Bia, fifteen miles distant 
 from Buda. 
 
 On the previous day, when the head- 
 quarters were at Bicze, a deputation arrived 
 from Buda. The field-marshal would not 
 listen to them ; he insisted on unconditional 
 surrender. On the 4th another deputation 
 came to Bia, consisting of Louis Batthyany, 
 Bishop Lonovits, the Count Mailath, and
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 
 
 M. Deak, but since they proposed conditions 
 respecting the surrender of the city their pro- 
 posals were at once declined. 
 
 The Imperial troops under Col. Mayer- 
 hofer had meanwhile obtained a brilliant 
 victory over the insurgents at Pancsowa. 
 General Kisz, the insurgent leader, escaped 
 with six horsemen only. General Gotz, after 
 taking Sillein, in the valley of Waag, con- 
 tinued his march against the cities of Krem- 
 nitz and Schemnitz, driving the enemy in 
 wild flight before him. Some rebels wished 
 to surprise Eperies, but Major Kiesewetter 
 pursued them to Kapoczan. 
 
 It was thought that a murderous battle 
 would be fought in the vicinity of Buda, and 
 the news from that city was received with 
 the greatest interest. But it appears that 
 Gorgey, aware that the Hungarian capital, 
 with the mountains near it, could not be 
 held against an army which was provided 
 with a large quantity of battering guns, 
 avoided staking the fortunes of the war on 
 a single cast, especially since discourage-
 
 236 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 ment pretailed, both among his troops and 
 the inhabitants of Buda-Pesth. 
 
 It was afterwards ascertained that his 
 reluctance to fight brought him in violent 
 opposition to Kossuth, who insisted on de- 
 feating the Austrian army, and on keeping 
 up his dictatorship at Pesth. The pas- 
 sionate agitator strained every nerve to 
 force his general to battle, and Gorgey's 
 obstinate refusal induced him at last to offer 
 to take the command of the army himself, 
 in order to drive the Croatian " robber 
 chief" (for it was thus he called the Ban of 
 Croatia) from the soil of Hungary. After 
 long and violent debates, and oppressed by 
 his own incapability, he yielded at length to 
 necessity. But before leaving Buda-Pesth, 
 on the night of the 4th of January, he acted 
 himself the part of a robber chief on a large 
 scale. He carried away all movables and 
 valuables, nor did his hand shrink from holy 
 things. He took the insignia of the empire 
 and of St. Stephen, the crown and the 
 sceptre, and the sword, and other things ;
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 237 
 
 he took his bank-note press and a large 
 sum from the exchequer, church property, 
 and even collections of coins which he had 
 forced from the owners, and sent them to 
 Debreczin ; thus substituting in an unpa- 
 ralleled manner the despotism of selfishness 
 for the name of liberty, which he delighted 
 in quoting. 
 
 We ought also to allude to another im- 
 pertinence, which he committed previous to 
 his departure. He sent bulletins and letters 
 in all directions, describing the victories 
 and advantages which the Magyars had ob- 
 tained in various places. He declared that 
 his departure from Pesth was a stratagetic 
 necessity, which would lead to fresh and 
 decisive victories ; he adverted to the sym- 
 pathies of England, Germany, France, and 
 Turkey, who would assist him in crushing 
 Austria ; boasted of his diplomatic rela- 
 tions with Charles Albert of Sardinia, with 
 Manin in Venice, and with Mazzini in 
 Rome ; and entreated all the inhabitants 
 of Hungary to assist him in advancing the 
 glorious day of liberty and independence,
 
 238 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 and either to rally round his standard, or to 
 offer their properties on the sacred altar of 
 their country. He promised also that he 
 would soon return to Pesth, and make the 
 Hungarian nation the most glorious, because 
 victorious ; and the most blessed, because 
 free and independent. 
 
 It is quite incomprehensible how people 
 could put any faith in such promises, and 
 how they could trust a man who seemed to 
 be the harbinger of ruin to their country. 
 
 But we must return to our report of the 
 events of the war. 
 
 Prince Windiscbgratz, after occupying 
 Buda-Pesth on the 5th of January, made all 
 necessary preparations for his further opera- 
 tions, and intended to occupy Waizen and 
 Szolnok. 
 
 On the 4th of January General Schlick 
 gained an important victory over Meszaros 
 at Barcza, to the south of Kaschau. The 
 so-called Polish legion made a desperate re- 
 sistance, but was at length driven back by 
 the Parma grenadiers. 
 
 In the south of Hungary, especially in
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 239 
 
 the Banat, the insurgents concentrated their 
 most considerable force of 40,000 men, who 
 were successively commanded by Casimir 
 Batthyany, Vetter, and Mariassy. The for- 
 tresses of Peterwardein and Essegg had 
 fallen a prey to the activity of Kossuth's 
 agents and to the treason of their com- 
 manders, and the rebels sought to conquer 
 likewise the fortresses of Arad and Temes- 
 var ; but they were foiled by the firmness of 
 the gallant generals, Rukavina and Perger. 
 Affairs in Transylvania were in a much 
 more melancholy state, for the Polish gene- 
 ral, Bern, whose acquaintance we made in 
 Vienna, excited and terrorised that country 
 in such a manner that General Puchner, 
 with his small force of 10,000 men, could 
 not oppose any effectual resistance to him. 
 The following report is given by a writer 
 whose statements may be relied on : " The 
 rebel chief Bern, the well-known champion 
 of revolutions, who certainly possesses know- 
 ledge of tactics, talents of organisation, and 
 great energy, but who has no character 
 whatever, has quickly collected an army of
 
 240 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 from 30,000 to 40,000 men (and among 
 them the furious Vienna Legion), whom he 
 plentifully supplied with artillery and mar- 
 tial stores ; so that the commanding general 
 was driven into the south, while the un- 
 wearied attempts of brave Colonel Urban in 
 the north of Transylvania succeeded in 
 dividing and weakening the power of the 
 enemy. No pen can express the sufferings 
 of the poor Saxons, who were left at the 
 mercy of the furious settlers and Hun- 
 garians." 
 
 The greatest grievance of the Imperialist 
 generals was the circumstance that, even for 
 large sums of money, they could not, on any 
 account, obtain trusty spies ; that they were 
 surrounded by deceit, ambush, and treason ; 
 while, by day and by night, the insurgents 
 received information with incredible ra- 
 pidity and certainty, from the most distant 
 points. Women, children, and old men, 
 served them in the cities and in the villages, 
 and revived the revolution when it was on 
 the point of being crushed. It ought also 
 to be added that the Jews, whose leanings
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 241 
 
 towards a republican government are noto- 
 rious, gave them material assistance. 
 
 These circumstances explain how it hap- 
 pened that the armies of the rebels seemed 
 to grow up, like mushrooms, in the course of 
 a single night ; and how, when half defeated, 
 they soon afterwards took the field with 
 superior numbers, and appeared in the direc- 
 tion where they were 'least expected. Thus, 
 for instance, Gorgey, after the battle of 
 Schemnitz (21st January), appeared in the 
 county of Gomor as if he had ridden on the 
 wings of lightning. He knew all the move- 
 ments of General Schlick at Tokaj, and 
 took his measures accordingly, for joining 
 Dembinsky and retaking Eperies and Kas- 
 chau ; in which he succeeded, thereby bring- 
 ing General Schlick into a most dangerous 
 
 <-> C5 
 
 position at Keresztur, and compelling him 
 to resign his conquests, and to retreat to- 
 wards the main branch of the army. 
 
 A bloody battle was fought on the 26th 
 of February at Kapolna, where Gorgey and 
 Dembinsky, with 60,000 men and 150 guns, 
 were defeated on all points, and, in spite of 
 
 R
 
 242 THE OPERATIONS 
 
 their superior forces, compelled to make a 
 retreat. On the following day the field- 
 marshal advanced with the whole length of 
 his line, and on the 28th he took up his head- 
 quarters at Maklar, while the armies of the 
 enemy fell back upon the Theisz, which 
 formed a most important point in their plan 
 of operations. 
 
 The following is from a military pen : 
 " The battle of Kapolna, however murderous 
 and decisive, gained us no lasting advan- 
 tages. The field-marshal, who returned 
 to Buda, became convinced that the enemy 
 was much stronger than he expected to find 
 them, and that the great extension and di- 
 vision of our lines, according to his plan of 
 operations, compelled us to desist from offen- 
 sive warfare, unless we were considerably 
 reinforced from Austria." 
 
 We understand that the Imperial War 
 Office resolved, at the very beginning of the 
 Hungarian campaign, to concentrate a re- 
 serve corps of from 30,000 to 40,000 men 
 at Vienna. That resolution would have 
 been most serviceable if it had been exe-
 
 AGAINST HUNGARY. 245 
 
 cuted ; but since this was not done even in 
 the month of May, the consequences of this 
 delay were found to be lamentable and 
 grievous. 
 
 We have no reason to conceal the fact 
 that, in February and in March, the fortune 
 of war was against the Imperial troops ; for 
 although they succeeded, now and then, in 
 defeating the enemy in occupying the small 
 fortress of Leopoldstadt (on the 3rd of 
 February) in blockading and molesting 
 Komorn and Peterwardein and, on the 
 13th of February, in conquering the impor- 
 tant fortress of Essegg, still, on the whole, 
 the turn of affairs in Hungary and Transyl- 
 vania was unfavourable, and suggestive of the 
 most serious anxieties. General Puchner, 
 the commander in Hermannstadt, when hard 
 pressed on all sides, obtained the aid of 
 10,000 Russian auxiliaries ; but even with 
 them he could not, for any length of time, 
 resist the forces of Bern. He was compelled 
 to retreat into Wallachia. 
 
 " The source of the evil," (we quote 
 from the same military pen,) "was behind the
 
 244 THE OPERATIONS AGAINST HUNGARY. 
 
 Theisz. It was there that large stores were 
 collected, that the pressed recruits and in- 
 sane mohs were drilled and prepared for the 
 field ; it was there that spies were brought 
 up to their calling ; that was the meeting- 
 place of all the friends of anarchy and revo- 
 lution in' Europe ; and it was behind the 
 Theisz that the most powerful and mighty 
 means of war were created. Money was 
 made to any extent, and this money was 
 greedily accepted on the other banks of the 
 Theisz and on the Danube." 
 
 Goethe says truly, that a man cannot do 
 much in this world unless he has a bit of 
 the devil in him. Now what an enormously 
 large piece of the devil there must be in 
 Kossuth ! It has indeed been proved that 
 his Christian name, L V Do VIC Vs, con- 
 tains the well-known apocalyptical figure 
 666, which the Bible points out as the 
 number of the prince of all evil that is to 
 say, of Antichrist.
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 245 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 WE are not exactly informed how many of 
 his friends followed the fugitive agitator 
 from Pesth to Debreczin, and constituted 
 his Rump Parliament. He went by steam 
 to Szolnok, and with a barbarous lust of 
 destruction and malice, he broke up the rail- 
 road in such a manner that it took a long 
 time to repair it. 
 
 On arriving in the root-and-branch Mag- 
 yar city of Debreczin, which is also called 
 the Queen of the Heath, he published the 
 following proclamation, of which we give a 
 faithful copy : 
 
 " In the name of the sovereign people, 
 to the inhabitants of Debreczin ! 
 
 " According to a resolution of the Diet, 
 the legislature and the government of the
 
 246 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 country has been removed to Debreczin. 
 It is from hence that Hungary will be saved, 
 and our national liberties secured. Our 
 pledge for this is the eternal justice of the 
 living God, who can never allow that deceit, 
 crime, and breach of faith, unequalled in 
 history, should overcome the just cause of 
 Hungary. Our pledges for this are our 
 gallant troops, who are by no means blind 
 instruments of arbitrary power, but firm 
 pillars of liberty our troops, which hurl 
 the lightning of patriotism against the venal 
 hirelings of tyranny. Our pledge, too, is the 
 great Magyar nation, which by thousands 
 and thousands stand up in the flanks and 
 rear of the enemy to prevent that enemy 
 from taking another inch of the soil on 
 which he stands at this moment. But our 
 especial pledge is the pure-hearted and 
 natural people on the Theisz a people 
 on whose undaunted and mighty heart the 
 arrows of tyranny have always been broken 
 like straws a people, I say, whose heroism 
 has been signal in all dangers to liberty,
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 who have been foremost in the ranks in all 
 sacred combats for liberty, and who have 
 never sheathed their swords until the 
 
 countrv was safe. 
 
 i 
 
 " With these eyes of mine I saw thee, on 
 my journey to Debreczin thee, my manly 
 people on the blessed plains of Rumania, who 
 have never suffered the chain of the slave. In 
 your eyes I saw the scorching lightnings of just 
 indignation ; from the mouth of thousands 
 I heard the thunders of that threat, boding 
 death and destruction to the enemy of the 
 country. I heard your sacred word, that you 
 would never suffer the yoke of the foreigner to 
 press down the free soil of Kumania. I saw 
 you, heroic Haiduks, your breasts filled with 
 glorious reminiscences. I say you, whose 
 fathers held the standard of Bocskay you 
 who have bought liberty with your blood 
 you who may boast that the blood you shed 
 has been fruitful, that it has given the bless- 
 ings of religion and political liberty to the 
 whole of the country. Again you are called 
 upon to defend that liberty for which your 
 fathers fought ; again you are called upon
 
 248 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 to contend with the victims of slavery, and 
 as long as one of you lives never to suffer 
 the country of Hungary to fall a prey to 
 the foreigner and the tyrant. Our victory 
 is assured by the blameless ancient Magyar 
 nature of these lower countries, by your 
 Magyar capital, the glorious Debreczin, 
 which God has chosen wherein to build a 
 temple for the freedom of the Magyar 
 nation. 
 
 " Debreczin ! thou art that rock on 
 which God will build the temple of Magyar 
 liberty, against which the powers of hell 
 shall vainly spend their fury. 
 
 " Inhabitants of Debreczin ! fellow-citi- 
 zens ! The parliament and the government of 
 the country come trustingly to your hospi- 
 table Magyar hearth. They come to you 
 with firm conviction that among you they 
 will breathe the air of patriotism and en- 
 thusiasm ; that in you they will find a truly 
 Magyar character, which knows neither 
 treason, nor craven fear, nor riots and 
 anarchy. They come to you with that 
 sacred confidence that, if need be, the volun-
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 249 
 
 teers of Debreczin will raise the banner, 
 whose fluttering will assemble the people 
 of the Theisz by thousands and thousands ; 
 that, like a ravine thundering down from 
 the mountain, you will fall and crush the 
 enemy, so as not to leave one single man 
 to go and tell the head of the traitors in 
 what place the Magyar people of the Theisz 
 have buried the armies of hirelings who 
 dared to hope to enslave our beloved 
 country. 
 
 " People of Debreczin ! In the name of 
 the nation I proclaim your city as the ark 
 of Magyar liberty, and I place the parlia- 
 ment and the government on the unshaken 
 rock of your loyalty. 
 
 " Louis KOSSUTH. 
 
 ''Debreczin, the Qth of January, 1849." 
 
 It requires a most uneducated people to 
 enable a man thus boldly to play off the 
 juggler and comedian. Some there were, 
 indeed, who saw through the fraudulent 
 and dangerous game, but very few were 
 courageous enough to stand by their cause
 
 250 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 and to be ill-treated and murdered in return. 
 All the well-meaning among the population 
 took to flight or to dissembling. 
 
 The rump which had followed Kossuth, 
 and which sat in the Protestant Church at 
 Debreczin, desecrated God's house by its cri- 
 minal resolutions and aspersions against the 
 dynasty ; but there was little spontaneous 
 power in them, because in all important de- 
 bates Kossuth carried his own selfish will by 
 sophisms, intrigues, lies, bribery, and inti- 
 midation. Madarasz only, and Gorgey, the 
 favourite of the army, ventured at times to 
 oppose his extravagant measures and uni- 
 versal intrigues ; but there was in those 
 days no party strong enough to form a per- 
 severing opposition and to curb Kossuth's 
 gigantic powers. 
 
 He was never at a loss in the choice of 
 his means, so that they served his purpose ; 
 and this reckless indifference increased with 
 his conviction that in his position he must 
 do without a conscience, and that his motto 
 ought to be that of Ovid, 
 
 " Flectere si nequeo Superos, Acheronta movebo."
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 The man who stole the insignia of the 
 emperor, who took the property of the 
 state, who plundered the property of the 
 church and of private persons, who confis- 
 cated the properties of persons executed, 
 who exiled or incarcerated the friends of the 
 dynasty for the purpose of taking their for- 
 tunes, who knew how to make his advan- 
 tage out of everything, such a man was 
 not likely to stop in his career when his 
 power was equal to his wicked inclinations. 
 
 Not only was he the protector of all va- 
 grants and adventurers, but he liberated the 
 inmates of prisons and houses of correction. 
 He placed the famous robber chief, Rosza 
 Sandor, with his band of miscreants, under 
 his standard ; he made the most of the sym- 
 pathies which his agents excited in foreign 
 parts, and he had the pleasure to see that 
 the dregs of the German, French, Italian, 
 and Polish population hastened to join his 
 forces. He imposed contributions, by which 
 thousands of families were beggared ; he suf- 
 fered the most cruel executions to take place, 
 and the poor or refractory, especially in the
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 German and Sclavonian districts, were pressed 
 to their last penny. He robbed the churches 
 of their bells and converted them into guns. 
 He received weapons, ammunition, uniforms, 
 and colonial produce from Germany and Bel- 
 gium, but principally from England, because 
 those island shopkeepers made the most of 
 the continental insurrections ; and in the 
 case of the Hungarians, they gave them the 
 most canting support, so long as it seemed 
 that they would obtain the victory. 
 
 The millions of money which Kossuth 
 thus cast in the greedy maw of foreign coun- 
 tries, and the millions which he egotistically 
 deposited in the Bank of England for his 
 own use, are beyond all human computation, 
 That unconscientious man never considered 
 that every florin he obtained was taken from 
 the country which he pretended to make 
 happy, and which his agency had caused to 
 bleed from a million of wounds, each of which, 
 if God had given it a tongue, would have co- 
 vered him with curses and imprecations. 
 
 But oh ! confusion of intellect ! Oh ! 
 fatal delusion ! Oh ! incalculable folly! At
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 53 
 
 the very time that he was guilty of the 
 worst crimes, when his treason and his wick- 
 edness were most flagrant, he was enthu- 
 siastically cheered, and his amhition, his 
 appetite for glory and command, were in- 
 creased at an astonishing ratio. He was an 
 usurper ; he was an impatient, and conse- 
 quently an unsuccessful, imitator of Wash- 
 ington, whose giant hulk made Kossuth's 
 talents and character appear of dwarfish di- 
 mensions. He followed in the footsteps of 
 Oliver Cromwell, or even of Napoleon ; he 
 wished to raise his family to the Hungarian 
 throne, and the Hungarian republic was to 
 him hut the means to an end. 
 
 His haughty wife urged him on in his 
 wild career, while she assisted him with all 
 her powers and all her passions. As in 
 Pesth so in Debreczin, she lived in a splen- 
 did and princely style as far as her means 
 would allow, and she had some very indis- 
 creet dreams concerning the crown which 
 was to cover her head at the side of King 
 Louis I. We happened to talk to a re- 
 spectable lady who frequently, though invo-
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 luntarily, attended the splendid conversa- 
 zioni of the fair Kossuth, and the details 
 she gave us confirm every one of the ahove 
 statements. 
 
 For the purpose of making this court in 
 a corner appear less desolate and solitary, 
 and of deceiving the credulous Magyars, he 
 hired several foreigners, teachers of lan- 
 guages, whom he provided with the neces- 
 sary funds, and who made their appearance 
 as envoys and consuls of foreign powers. 
 They pretended they came from London, 
 Paris, Frankfort, Turin, and Constantinople, 
 and they were supposed to have presented 
 their credentials and to represent and pro- 
 tect the rights and the honour of their 
 various nations. 
 
 Besides the bank-note press, his favourite 
 instrument, Kossuth had a state printing- 
 press, which printed the parliamentary de- 
 bates, resolutions, and decrees, and an official 
 newspaper, of which he was the chief editor. 
 Those who know his boastfulness can un- 
 derstand how strongly he was eulogised by 
 these means, especially since the liberator
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 255 
 
 watched the productions of his press with a 
 more jealous care than the severest "censur" 
 under Sedlnitzky's despotism. 
 
 Even superstition was made subservient 
 to his use by his paid flatterers, and it was 
 said that Holy Mary, the patroness of the 
 kingdom, had appeared to a poor peasant wo- 
 man, by coming forth from the hollow trunk 
 of a tree, and that she had said the people 
 of the village and all the Hungarians ought 
 to place unlimited confidence in Louis Kos- 
 suth, for that the Lord had sent him as an 
 apostle of liberty and happiness, and that 
 the Lord was delighted with him. 
 
 This anecdote was generally told and be- 
 lieved, and a bad poet wrote a disgusting 
 poem, in which Kossuth was deified, and in 
 which his mother was greeted as a second 
 Mary who had borne the new Saviour of 
 mankind. 
 
 There is no end of the nonsensical anec- 
 dotes which were invented in praise of the 
 man, who was neither more nor less than a 
 deceitful will-o'-the-wisp which leads its fol- 
 lowers into the sloughs and bogs of despond.
 
 256 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 His liberty was anarchy, and what he 
 called happiness in this political and moral 
 anarchy was the rude sensuality of a cynic 
 and a sybarite. Of course, the number of 
 his pupils was legion, for the bait of such a 
 doctrine was too seductive for human weak- 
 nesses and necessities. Many Imperial sol- 
 diers, who for a long time languished in cap- 
 tivity at Debreczin, have been heard unani- 
 mously to declare that it required loyalty 
 and strength of character in the highest 
 degree to escape from this giddy whirlpool 
 of seduction. It is well known that even 
 foreigners in Hungary could not resist the 
 dazzling prospect which was held out to 
 them. It was by far too agreeable and plea- 
 sant, so to say, by steam to travel up the 
 ladder, and to be made a captain, a major, 
 or even a general, and to live in ease and 
 splendour from day to day. Those who obsti- 
 nately resisted were not only sneered at and 
 abused with the words " Cursed Austrian 
 slave ! " but they were even martyrised 
 through all the degrees of torture, and often 
 exposed to the cruelty of the rudest herdsmen.
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 257 
 
 We have it in our power to give the most 
 disgusting examples of such treatment, which 
 remind one of the scenes of horror in the 
 religious wars, where indeed people were 
 fanaticised and so much like men delirious 
 and insane, that they were scarcely aware of 
 what they did. 
 
 It is said, that when Kossuth was in- 
 formed that a Hue and Cry had been issued 
 after him and his friends, his colour changed 
 alternately from the paleness of death to red. 
 and that he said, " I know it. My friends 
 have written from Vienna. It is a mere specu- 
 lation of the bankers, and my name is made 
 use of for the purpose of gain ; for since there 
 is no government at Vienna, and the losses of 
 the so-called Imperial army have brought the 
 national bank to bankruptcy, people are in- 
 venting the most cunning and ridiculous tricks 
 to cheat one another." On this occasion he 
 showed letters and documents, which he pre- 
 tended to have received from various parts 
 of the world, and from which it appeared 
 that France was preparing to make war 
 against Austria that England declined to
 
 258 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZTN. 
 
 consent to the succession of Francis Joseph 
 that Turkey had offered auxiliaries to Hun- 
 gary that another insurrection had broken 
 out at Milan that Radetzky, the assassin of 
 liberty, had fallen in battle that an insur- 
 rection had broken out in Galicia and 
 that Windischgratz was compelled to rein- 
 force General Hammerstein in that province 
 with 20,000 men, for the purpose of retaining, 
 wherever possible, a portion of the kingdom, 
 since Hungary was lost to the Austrians, and 
 was destined to be the grave of the whole of 
 the Imperial rebel army. The above state- 
 ments show the diabolical cunning with which 
 the grand agitator wove the net of deceit and 
 seduction, as a snare to the unwary and a 
 decoy to selfish adventurers ; and we consider 
 it but natural that with such means he 
 managed to organise a truly imposing power. 
 He would be worthy of admiration were it 
 not that he is criminal and contemptible in 
 a high degree, for the mischief which he 
 wrought and the disgraceful means which 
 he employed will not suffer future poets to 
 select him as a hero, as the mover of im-
 
 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 259 
 
 portant events, the honourable champion of a 
 just cause, and the victim of a grand idea. 
 Poesy disowns him and history condemns him. 
 
 But if we are to believe some of the 
 Pesth papers, it appears that Kossuth at 
 times met with determined opposition, and 
 that three parties were then forming in the 
 revolutionary parliament at Debreczin. The 
 first of these parties, says one of the said 
 papers, is the large Kossuth party ; but with 
 all their ability they cannot conceal that 
 they are confused with inward fear and 
 despair, for they know of no means of sal- 
 vation, not even in the extremes of treason 
 and crime. They would make people be- 
 lieve that they are fighting for Ferdinand V. 
 and they pretend to hasten to Prague to 
 liberate the captive Emperor, and to take 
 him to Buda to his faithful Magyars. 
 
 Nyary's party fancy that they stand on 
 legal ground. They recognise Francis Jo- 
 seph as their legitimate king, and are ready 
 to do him homage, but still they delay it for 
 fear of quarrelling with the other party, on 
 whom they depend.
 
 260 KOSSUTH IN DEBRECZIN. 
 
 The party of Madarasz is most disgust- 
 ing. Woe to the man who falls into the 
 
 O 
 
 hands of these miscreants and executioners ! 
 They would be nothing else but Robespierres 
 and Dantons. They doat on a republic and 
 on the guillotine, without considering that 
 they themselves would be the first victims of 
 the guillotine. It appears from the Hue 
 and Cry that the appearance of Madarasz 
 bears a striking similarity to that of a king 
 of the gipsies. He is small and thin. His 
 face is thin, brown, and bearded. His eyes 
 are black and piercing, and his hair black 
 and frowsy. In fact, he is the ugly ideal of 
 a demagogue. 
 
 After all, the man who looks at these so- 
 called Magyar heroes by daylight is likely 
 to be as much disappointed as the novice 
 who leaves his seat in the boxes for the 
 space behind the coulisses, and feels dis- 
 gusted with the actresses whom he admired 
 at a distance.
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 WHEN the perfidious King of Sardinia de- 
 nounced the armistice on the 12th of March, 
 and when, eight days afterwards, he had to 
 meet the heroic marshal on the Ticino, he 
 evidently reliei on the promise of Venice 
 and of the Lombard cities, that they would 
 rise in the rear of Radetzky. He had also 
 cause to flatter himself that friend Kossuth, 
 whose star was then at its brightest, would 
 lead his armies not only against Pesth, but 
 that he would drive the Austrian army from 
 his country and join Charles Albert in dic- 
 tating the conditions of peace at Vienna. 
 
 The unequalled campaign, the war of 
 ninety-six hours, with the battles of Mortara 
 and Novara, gave a different turn to things
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 from what Charles Albert expected and 
 Kossuth hoped. The loyalty and bravery 
 of her sons avenged the cause of Austria 
 and Italy, and Charles Albert was struck 
 down with one blow. We need scarcely say 
 that the greatest anxiety was caused in De- 
 breczin by the defeat of the Italian allies. 
 Almost simultaneously news was received 
 that his Majesty the Emperor Francis Jo- 
 seph had granted a Constitution to all his 
 countries, and that in that Constitution 
 Hungary was spoken of and treated as a 
 crownland, as a mere province and in- 
 tegral part of Austria, such as Bohemia, 
 Galicia, or Tyrol, This was too much for 
 the sons of Arpad ; they felt degraded, dis- 
 graced, and enslaved. It is true they them- 
 selves had broken the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 and crushed all historical right ; but this was 
 not considered. They were far from enter- 
 taining a humble sentiment of their guilt, 
 and their pride and rage considered nothing 
 but the means to widen the gulf between 
 Hungary and Austria, and to remove even 
 the possibility of a reconciliation. So does a
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 263 
 
 gambler stake his fortune and the existence 
 of his family on one single desperate cast. 
 
 There were other reasons for this most 
 criminal of all resolutions and measures. 
 The Frankfort Parliament offered the here- 
 ditary imperial crown of Germany to Prus- 
 sia, and thus aimed a blow at Austria, 
 which was meant to shake and even to ruin 
 our country. 
 
 But Prince Schwarzenberg and his friends 
 found means to avert this lightning from the 
 throne of Habsburg thanks to their diplo- 
 matic relations with Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, 
 and Hanover ; and thanks, too, to our splen- 
 did victories in Italy, which filled the world 
 with astonishment and the enemies of Austria 
 with fear. These victories enabled the Aus- 
 trian cabinet to transfer part of their forces 
 from Italy to the Lower Danube, but before 
 the conclusion of the peace with Sardinia it 
 was impossible to send so many troops as the 
 bad state of affairs in Hungary required. 
 Nor did the revolutionary temper of the 
 times and the sympathies for Hungary, 
 which were owing to Kossuth's agents, admit
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 of our lessening the garrisons of the other 
 crownlands, especially since Austria had to 
 guard against the intrigues of the smaller 
 German states. 
 
 A great deal was, indeed, gained by a 
 change in the command of the Hungarian 
 army, which Baron Welden took in the place 
 of Prince Windischgratz ; but this measure 
 did not serve to recruit our weakened forces, 
 who were everywhere opposed by superior 
 powers and by the most disgraceful treason, 
 which, serpent-like, penetrated to the very 
 head-quarters of the Field-marshal in Buda. 
 
 By this state of affairs, Austria was 
 placed under the disagreeable necessity of ap- 
 pealing to the assistance of her friend, neigh- 
 bour, and ally, Russia ; and the generous 
 Czar promised his help the more readily, 
 since the suppression of a revolution, which 
 in part was but a repetition of the Polish 
 rebellion, coincided with his own political 
 interests. 
 
 The negotiations between the cabinets of 
 Vienna and St. Petersburg took place at the 
 end of March and the commencement of
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 265 
 
 April, and as Kossuth had his spies and 
 informers everywhere, he was soon ac- 
 quainted with the measures which were 
 taken against Hungary. We will, there- 
 fore, not advert to the confused events on 
 the scene of war ; but, as a reply and a 
 countermine to the negotiations of the said 
 two great powers, we mention the important 
 result of the sitting of the Hungarian 
 Parliament at Dehreczin, on the 14th of 
 April, 1849, which the Pesth Gazette, of 
 the 27th of April, published in the following 
 terms : 
 
 " The 14th of April, of the year 1849, 
 will be ever memorable in the annals of 
 Hungary. The representatives of the people 
 assembled to debate on a most important 
 question, and to sit in judgment on the fate 
 of Hungary and of the House of Habsburg- 
 Lorraine. And since it was desirable that 
 the resolutions about to be taken should be 
 taken with the greatest possible amount of 
 publicity and solemnity, the sitting was held 
 in the great Reformed Church, in the presence 
 of many thousands.
 
 266 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 " The President of the Committee of 
 Defence having read his report of the late 
 battles, and of the victorious advance of our 
 gallant army, said the time had come for 
 Hungary, shaking off the fetters she had 
 borne these 300 years, to take her proper 
 place among the European states, and to 
 clear her accounts with the family which 
 most frivolously, though for all times to 
 come, had forfeited the love and the fidelity 
 of this true and loyal nation by their fre- 
 quent perjuries and groundless treason. 
 This resolution of the Parliament is re- 
 quired by the people, which readily, faith- 
 fully, and patriotically bears the burthen of 
 our war of liberation j it is required by our 
 gallant warriors, who sacrifice their lives to 
 the salvation of our country ; it is required 
 by the circumstances of the time, for the 
 next European Congress ought not without 
 our advice to decide on our fate : in one word, 
 this resolution is required by the country, 
 by the world, and by God. After this pre- 
 amble, the Speaker of the House moved the 
 following resolutions :
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 267 
 
 " ' 1st. Hungary, with Transylvania, as 
 legally united with it and its dependencies, 
 are by and in virtue of these presents declared 
 to constitute a free, independent, sovereign 
 state : the territorial unity of this state is 
 declared to be inviolable, and its territory to 
 be indivisible. 
 
 " ' 2d. The house of Habsburg-Lorraine 
 having, by its treachery, perjury, and levy- 
 ing of war against the Hungarian nation, as 
 well as by its violation of all compacts, in 
 attacking the integral territory of the king- 
 dom, in the separation of Transylvania, 
 Croatia, Sclavonia, Fiume, and sundry other 
 districts, from Hungary ; further, by com- 
 passing the destruction of the independence 
 of the country by arms, and by calling in 
 the army of a foreign power for the purpose 
 of annihilating its nationality : thereby vio- 
 lating both the Pragmatic Sanction and cer- 
 tain other treaties concluded between Aus- 
 tria and Hungary, on which the alliance 
 between the two countries depended is, as 
 treacherous and perjured, for ever excluded 
 from the throne of the united states of Hun-
 
 268 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 gary and Transylvania, and all their posses- 
 sions and dependencies, and is hereby de- 
 prived of the style and title, as well as of 
 the armorial bearings, belonging to the 
 crown of Hungary, and declared to be ba- 
 nished for ever from the united countries 
 and their dependencies and possessions. 
 The said house of Habsburg-Lorraine is, 
 therefore, declared to be deposed, degraded, 
 and banished for ever from the Hungarian 
 territory. 
 
 " ' 3d. Whereas the Hungarian nation, in 
 the exercise of its rights and sovereign will, 
 is determined to take the position of a free 
 and independent state amongst the nations 
 of Europe, the said nation intends to esta- 
 blish and maintain friendly and neighbourly 
 relations with those states with which it was 
 formerly united under the same sovereign, 
 as well as to contract alliances with other 
 nations. 
 
 "'4th. The form of government to be 
 adopted for the future will be determined by 
 the Parliament of the nation/ 
 
 " The representatives of the people
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 269 
 
 unanimously adopted the motion of Louis 
 Kossuth, the President of the Government, 
 and the resolutions were received with bound- 
 less enthusiasm by the thousands of the 
 people present, who wept with joy ; and 
 there can be no doubt but that Europe 
 and the world will be glad to learn that 
 the memorable resolutions of this day are 
 a revelation of the will of that God whose 
 wisdom guides the destinies of men and of 
 nations. This thundering acclamation of 
 millions is the first cry of our national in- 
 surrection ; it is the dirge of the banished 
 and perjured reigning family. 
 
 " Respecting the fourth clause of the 
 motion of Louis Kossuth, the House declared 
 that they relied on the patriotism of the 
 President of the Government, Louis Kos- 
 suth ; that they appointed him to be reign- 
 ing President, and that they instructed him 
 to form a responsible cabinet. The procla- 
 mation of the principles contained in the 
 above resolutions was confided to Louis 
 Kossuth, Emerenz Szacsvay, and Stephen 
 Gorove.
 
 270 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 Preliminary Report on the sitting of the 
 Upper House on the 14^ of April. 
 
 " Baron Sigmund Perenyi, the Speaker 
 of the Upper House, thought it his duty to 
 bring the resolutions of the Lower House 
 to the knowledge of the magnates, and for 
 this purpose he deposited copies of the mo- 
 tions and resolutions on the table of the 
 House. The magnates, following the ex- 
 ample of the representatives of the people, 
 accepted those resolutions unanimously and 
 without a debate, and promised to assist him 
 in founding the independence of Hungary, 
 and banishing a perjured dynasty. The 
 Upper House resolved, further, that the 
 committee who are instructed with the pub- 
 lication of the manifesto of independence 
 are to be assisted by two of their members, 
 namely, by Michael Horvath, bishop of Cza- 
 nad, and Anthony Hunkar, the lord-lieu- 
 tenant of Vesprim. The appointment of 
 Louis Kossuth to the post of Governor and 
 President was received with general satis- 
 faction."
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 271 
 
 This is the report in the Pesth Gazette, 
 which contained news equally interesting 
 and surprising. Thus the republic, as a 
 crippled Minerva in a most fashionable 
 dress, jumped forth from the giddy head 
 of our Jupiter Kossuth. This reminds us 
 of an anecdote which Kossuth told one of 
 his friends, as an example of the many 
 errors into which he was led by his want of 
 knowledge, and by his exuberant fancy. 
 
 " While I used the waters at Parad," he 
 said, " I took a walk with a friend up a val- 
 ley until we came to some glass-works, where 
 we stopped for some time and talked with 
 the manager. He told us that he was com- 
 pelled to fetch his pebbles from a distance, 
 because he had used all those which were in 
 the vicinity, and that he wished somebody 
 would invent portable glass-works, which a 
 man might transport after the stones. When 
 we left him we continued our walk up the 
 valley to a spot where we found a large 
 quantity of stones. ' Pebbles, by Jove ! ' said 
 I, for I was happy to find what an evil de- 
 mon seemed to have concealed from the
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 manufacturer. * Let us fill our pocket- 
 handkerchiefs with them/ said I to my 
 friend, who knew as little of mineralogy as 
 I did. We took a good load and carried it 
 to the glass-works, to make an agreeable sur- 
 prise to our industrious friend. But when 
 he saw the stones we had, he turned up his 
 nose and said, * Nonsense, gentlemen ! you 
 laugh at me. I can't do anything with 
 these stones, for they are not pebbles.' 
 
 " I and my friend were very much 
 abashed ; and I am sorry to say we lost our 
 tempers, and so went home." 
 
 Sandstones and limestones will not do 
 for glass-works, and the republican consti- 
 tution which Kossuth's superficial know- 
 ledge of the world and of the life of nations 
 would have forced upon his country, was 
 equally unfitting for the purpose of the 
 Hungarians. It has been justly and well 
 said, that the Hungarian Parliament aimed 
 a death-blow at their own cause. The re- 
 solution of the 14th of April was more 
 advantageous for Austria than a series of 
 victories. It paved the way for future vie-
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 273 
 
 tories, while it weakened, divided, and un- 
 dermined the cause of the Magyars. After 
 this deed of violence it was clear that the 
 Hungarian revolution must be at war with 
 all the lands connected with the Hungarian 
 crown, and especially with Transylvania, 
 Croatia, and Sclavonia, and that Magyarisrn 
 was now proceeding to conquer, to subject, 
 and to enslaje these neighbouring countries. 
 This turn of the question was likely to 
 awaken the apprehensions even of the most 
 furious root-and-branch Magyars. 
 
 Kossuth is a man of extravagancies and 
 hyperboles ; his fancy outran his discretion, 
 and his passion forced him from one extreme 
 to another. His was an unbounded vin- 
 dictiveness, and he fancied he could increase 
 the distance between Austria and Hungary 
 by proclaiming that the latter country was 
 a free and independent state. In the mean- 
 time his personal interests and the ambition 
 of his wife were satisfied, at least for the 
 moment. He was governor and president 
 of a large and wealthy country ; he was the 
 leader of a numerous and mighty people, 
 
 T
 
 274 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 
 
 and a man who rises so high has his own 
 fate in his hands, if fortune favour him and 
 his enemies stand aloof. 
 
 We select one example from many to 
 show how hasty was his judgment, and how 
 unjust his hatred towards Austria. Many 
 years ago he proved, either superficially or 
 deceitfully and maliciously, and he made 
 people believe, that the gold and silver mines 
 of Hungary and Transylvania yielded an- 
 nually about seven hundred millions of 
 florins more than were stated in the sta- 
 tistical accounts ; but when he came to be 
 Minister of Finance he was compelled to 
 declare that, after looking into and exam- 
 ing the accounts, he must revoke his former 
 accusations, and say that the income was not 
 higher than the quotations in the Austrian 
 budgets. 
 
 In conclusion we would draw the atten- 
 tion of our readers to the time at which the 
 Hungarian Republic was proclaimed, and 
 to the circumstance that the mania of free 
 states was then spreading over the Continent; 
 to the connexion between the democratic
 
 THE HUNGARIAN REPUBLIC. 2J5 
 
 conspirators, who relied on support from one 
 another, and to the activity and cunning 
 with which they rallied their forces either to 
 attack and overthrow the thrones of Europe, 
 or to undermine them and prepare their 
 downfall. Rome, Tuscany, and Venice, 
 were still republics, and Sardinia was 
 fraught with democratic elements. It was 
 the time of the insurrections in Baden 
 and the Palatinate ; Frederick Hecker was 
 recalled from America to assist Struve and 
 his friends in creating a German Republic. 
 One half of Poland poured into Hungary to 
 increase Kossuth's forces, in such a manner 
 that the remains of the Austrian army were 
 no longer able to make head against num- 
 bers which five times exceeded their own.
 
 276 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 THE Vienna Gazette published on the 1st 
 of May the following Imperial manifesto : 
 " The insurrection in Hungary has 
 within the last months grown to such an 
 extent, and its present aspect exhibits so 
 unmistakeably the character of a union of 
 all the forces of the revolutionary party in 
 Europe, that all states are equally interested 
 in assisting the Imperial (i. e. Austrian) 
 Government in its contest against the 
 spreading dissolution of all social order. 
 Acting on these important reasons, his 
 Majesty the Emperor's Government has been 
 induced to appeal to the assistance of his 
 Majesty the Czar of all the Russias, who 
 generously and readily granted it to a most
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 277 
 
 satisfactory extent. The measures which 
 have been agreed on by the two sovereigns 
 are now in course of execution." 
 
 It would not, perhaps, be wrong to call 
 the late movements a general transmigration 
 of souls, in contradistinction to the old 
 migration of nations ; and this term reveals 
 the contrast of body and soul, of rude 
 strength and mental cultivation, as well as 
 illustrates the inverse proportion of their di- 
 rections. In the fifth century the movement 
 commenced on the banks of the Theisz, and 
 terminated at Rome. In modern times it 
 commenced at Rome and terminated on the 
 Theisz. Attila and his Huns went west- 
 wards to Gallia, and southwards over the 
 Alps, and his savage force was broken 
 against the walls of the Holy City by the 
 perseverance of Pope Leo III. The present 
 movement took almost the same way back ; 
 it commenced with Pius IX., it proceeded 
 to Sardinia and Tuscany, it overthrew the 
 French throne, it infected Germany and 
 Upper Italy, and was at length lost in the 
 very sand in which the bones of Attila
 
 278 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 rest in the marsh-lands of the Theisz 
 among Kossuth's hordes, who were com- 
 posed of the sweeping's of all Europe. It 
 seems there are phenomena in the life of 
 the world of nature, which, like the streams 
 of the ocean, and like many comets, are 
 turned after hundreds or thousands of years. 
 But whenever Providence admits great evils, 
 God sends the means for the cure. In the 
 present instance, the sound and vigorous 
 East was to be the physician of the diseased 
 West. Russia offered her strong hand to 
 her distressed neighbour, and Austria ma- 
 naged to cure Italy, and as far as possible to 
 arrange the affairs of Germany. 
 
 The Russian troops made their appear- 
 ance in the commencement of May. Prince 
 Paskiewics took the command of the chief 
 army, which marched over the Carpathians 
 by way of Galicia, while General Riidiger 
 entered by Cracow, and the other columns 
 marched into the Bukowina and into Tran- 
 sylvania. The allied Austrian and Russian 
 armies mustered above 300,000 men. 
 
 Kossuth was well aware of the gigantic
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 279 
 
 nature of the combat which was preparing 
 for him, and his talent for agitation was dis- 
 played to such an extent that it makes one 
 give credit to the common superstition which 
 designated him as the Incarnate Antichrist. 
 Lest his friends and soldiers should he 
 daunted by the numbers of their adver- 
 saries, he published a list of the Hungarian 
 army. In this production he boasted, as 
 usual, that it was very easy to raise the army 
 of the republic to the respectable ligure of 
 one million, and he protested that the Mag- 
 yar forces amounted to no less than 400,000 
 men, in thirteen corps, under 160 generals 
 and 270 colonels, and that this force was 
 divided into 67 infantry regiments of the 
 line, 21 regiments of Honveds, 6 battalions 
 of the foreign legion, 11 regiments of artil- 
 lery, 1600 carbineers, 6 regiments of rifles, 
 28 regiments of hussars, 14 regiments of 
 mounted Honveds, and 2 regiments of 
 mounted rifles. 
 
 Other accounts, which, though not in 
 numbers, are perhaps more to be relied on, 
 divide the army of the insurgents, in the
 
 280 ' THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 flower of their strength, in the following 
 manner :-- Two -fourths were Poles, one- 
 fourth Italians, French, and Germans, and 
 the last fourth consisted of real Magyars. 
 This explains how it happened that the 
 Polish interest became gradually predomi- 
 nant, especially since Kossuth bestowed his 
 confidence and favour much more freely on 
 the revolutionary Poles than on his own 
 countrymen, and as he treated Bern and 
 Dembinsky with more attention than Gor- 
 gey, Klapka, or Perczel. He had, of course, 
 the trouble of contending with many jea- 
 lousies and differences, with persecutions 
 and calumnies, and with intrjgues and 
 treason. 
 
 It appears from the evidence of eye-wit- 
 nesses that Kossuth, in this time of apparent 
 prosperity, was neither well nor happy. He 
 looked pale, feverish, and suffering, and 
 at times only, when the consciousness of his 
 power and greatness was recalled to his 
 anxious and repenting mind, a smile of con- 
 ceit was observed to curl his lips. He ate 
 little and slept less j he complained of head-
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 281 
 
 ache, heart-ache, and was afraid of a dan- 
 gerous cough as a natural consequence of his 
 over-exertion. But his complaints were not 
 quite free from a certain acted coquetry and 
 selfishness, because he would have it believed 
 that he sacrificed body and soul to the coun- 
 try. In his struggles for popularity he stooped 
 down to the lowest, and was vulgar with the 
 vulgar ; while persons in high places were 
 treated coldly and even rudely, and while he 
 attacked the aristocracy with hostile and 
 even contemptuous words whenever it suited 
 his temper as democrat and republican. He 
 was madly fond of adoration, flattery, and 
 ovations, and this is proved, since in some 
 cases it is not difficult to guess that these 
 originated from himself or his proud and 
 ambitious wife, arfd as he gloated over 
 them afterwards, by publishing them in his 
 paid journals. His was the inside of a vol- 
 cano, where the lava boiled and bubbled, and 
 threatened to blow up the rocks, unless it 
 found a vent in the crater of his mouth. 
 
 Nor would it be wrong to compare him 
 to a meteor which burns in a foggy and im-
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 pure atmosphere ; this atmosphere was the 
 confusion of intellect and the sensual in- 
 toxication of his deluded and selfish friends. 
 We have repeatedly said that he never cared 
 what the means were, so they but effected his 
 purpose. His principles were adopted by 
 his champions. Bern in Transylvania be- 
 haved on one occasion in the most perfidious 
 manner. A strong division of Austrian 
 troops had been drawn up near Deva, when 
 an infantry regiment, under the orders of 
 Bern, advanced, making signals of uncon- 
 ditional surrender, and offering their stand- 
 ard as a pledge. The standard is to every 
 honest soldier the symbol of honour and 
 faith. On approaching, however, the Impe- 
 rial troops, this regiment at once fell back 
 right and left, and a battery of artillery, 
 which had been concealed behind the said 
 infantry, opened at the same time a most 
 murderous fire, which destroyed nearly 
 400 men in the Imperial regiment Bianchi 
 alone. 
 
 This stratagem, so disgraceful to the 
 victors, was at Debreczin proclaimed by a
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 283 
 
 pompous bulletin, and held up as unequalled 
 in splendour and glory. 
 
 Such tricks, of which we might quote 
 batches, were properly rewarded. We may 
 mention as a rumour, tbough it looks like 
 Kossuth's ways, that his sacrilegious hand 
 took the precious stones from the crown of 
 St. Stephen, and that he presented them to 
 the leaders of his troops. The empty places, 
 we understand, were filled up with gold 
 plates, on which the names of the persons so 
 honoured were engraved. This is the most 
 disgraceful desecration of the insignia of 
 royalty. 
 
 About the end of May, Michael Horvath, 
 minister of public worship, published, by 
 order of Kossuth, a proclamation to the 
 clergy of Hungary. This proclamation is di- 
 vided into the following eight paragraphs : 
 
 " 1. On and after the 27th of May, Divine 
 service is to be held on every Sunday and 
 Thursday for the term of three weeks ; and 
 sermons are to be addressed to the people, 
 exhorting them to make a determined resist- 
 ance for the purpose of saving the country.
 
 284 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 " 2. Afterwards a public procession is to 
 be held. 
 
 " 3. All the bells are to be rung. 
 
 " 4. A prayer is to be read, which was 
 written by the Bishop Horvath. This 
 prayer pretends to inform the Almighty 
 that the Russians had come to crush all 
 liberty, independence, and religion, to en- 
 slave the people, to desecrate churches and 
 altars, to defile matrons and virgins. 
 
 " 5. The 6th of June to be a general 
 day of fasting and repentance. 
 
 " 6. The clergy are to preach that the 
 war has ceased to be a political war, and the 
 heretical barbarians have made it a religious 
 war. 
 
 "7- As the enemy advances, the people 
 are to remove their cattle and other pro- 
 perty into the interior of the country. 
 
 " 8. When the Landsturm is proclaimed 
 the bishops and clergymen shall precede it 
 in pontifical robes, and with the cross, for it 
 is a crusade of the country ; and everybody, 
 young and old, man and woman, shall take 
 arms against the Russians."
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 285 
 
 Many clergymen had scruples of con- 
 science, and remained faithful to the cause 
 of Austria. They refused obedience to the 
 decree ; but they were exiled, ill-treated, and 
 some of them most barbarously murdered : 
 in short, the leaders of the rebels and their 
 hirelings went the whole length of tyranny, 
 terrorism, and barbarism to assemble forces 
 for resistance. The following letter gives us 
 an insight into another of Kossuth's crea- 
 tures, to wit, Moritz Perczol. This letter is 
 written by an Austrian, Colonel Puffer, and 
 bears the date of the 7th of June, 1849 : 
 
 " It is incredible, although but too true, 
 that the Huns of the nineteenth century, 
 especially the hordes of Perczel, are far 
 superior to the followers of Attila in bru- 
 tality, destruction, and cruelty. As an ex- 
 ample, look at the Servian convent of Kovily, 
 which a few days ago suffered from the 
 acts of these miscreants, and which* with 
 the village, has been turned into a hor- 
 rible desert. Fire and sword have done 
 their work on the holy house ; even the 
 graves have been opened, the corpses have
 
 286 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 been taken out, the pictures torn and covered 
 with filth. The wells have heen filled with 
 human bodies, whose hands are stretched 
 out of the water as if appealing to heaven, 
 and the hoary oaks have intentionally been 
 burnt down. The double row of houses 
 which used to stand at the right hand of the 
 convent are now but ruins and ashes ; there 
 is no roof, no hedge, no table, no window, 
 nor is there a single living being left." 
 
 The brave Servian nation, and the 
 Saxons in Transylvania, were generally the 
 object of Hungarian revenge, barbarism, 
 and cruelty. Their very children were 
 killed in the cradle or on their way from 
 school. The Servian women and maidens, 
 pinioned and barefoot, were taken to Peter- 
 wardein and Debreczin ; there abused, 
 starved, and some killed : many of them 
 were compelled to dress as Honveds, and to 
 form the first rank in the battles against 
 their husbands, fathers, and brothers. These 
 revolting inhumanities were principally prac- 
 tised in the Czaikist country by the noto- 
 rious General Rott, who in the preceding
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 287 
 
 autumn betrayed the Imperial troops into the 
 hands of the insurgents. 
 
 Among the most rabid revolutionists, 
 and indeed Kossuth's right hand, was 
 Czanyi, who seemed to be an incorporation 
 of a dozen terrorists from the French reign 
 of terror. It was he and Perenyi who were 
 accused of the barbarous treatment which 
 the Imperial prisoners of war, and indeed 
 all well-disposed families, had to suffer at 
 Debreczin. 
 
 Our space prevents us from quoting the 
 names of other cruelties of the grand agitator. 
 We resume the thread of our narrative of the 
 events of the war, which at this time (?. e. 
 in May) had taken a most unfavourable 
 turn. 
 
 Baron Welden, the new Austrian com- 
 mander-in-chief, found it necessary, before 
 the Russian troops entered Hungary, to 
 make a general retreat, to concentrate his 
 forces round Pressburg, and to allow the 
 Ban of Croatia to conduct his operations in 
 the south. His own plan was to act on the 
 defensive, until, reinforced by fresh troops
 
 288 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 
 
 and by the Russians, he was able again to 
 act on the offensive, and to advance towards 
 the centre of the kingdom ; while Prince 
 Paskiewics marched to the same goal from 
 the north. The Imperial troops were at that 
 time in possession of only Buda, Temesvar, 
 Essegg, Arad, Carlstadt, and Deva ; the 
 rest of the country was a prey to the revolu- 
 tion, which found its principal support in 
 Peterwardein and Komorn. 
 
 When the Imperial army retreated, Buda 
 was garrisoned by 3000 men under the brave 
 General Hentzi ; but shortly afterwards 
 30,000 m^n of the insurgent army sur- 
 rounded the fortress, and a capitulation hav- 
 ing been declined, they prepared to take it 
 by storm. The siege began on the 4th of 
 May, and continued up to the 21st, when 
 the fortress was carried by assault, or as 
 some people say, by treason. Hentzi and 
 many of his gallant soldiers fell fighting, 
 while the bold Col. Alnoch, who would have 
 exploded the suspension-bridge, perished in 
 the attempt. 
 
 The fall of Buda, and the heroic death
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 289 
 
 of Hentzi,, saddened the hearts of all patriots. 
 The enemy paid no particular attention to 
 this fortress of the second or third rank ; 
 they destroyed the works, and proceeded to 
 the Waag, where they prepared to enter 
 Austria and advance to Vienna. 
 
 At that moment, when the minds of 
 people were unsettled with anxiety, the 
 Russian division of Paniutine made its ap- 
 pearance and opposed the progress of the 
 insurgents. While confidence was quickly 
 returning we were afflicted by the melan- 
 choly news of General Welden having fallen 
 ill in consequence of over-exertion. It was 
 found that he was incapable of retaining the 
 chief command. He repaired to Gratz, to 
 restore his shattered health ; and General 
 Haynau, whose name was favourably known 
 from the Italian campaign, succeeded to his 
 command. 
 
 When Kossuth saw that the appearance 
 of the Russian auxiliaries awed and terrified 
 his people, he spread a rumour that the 
 Russian intervention was a mere trick of 
 Austria ; that the Austrians had only dressed 
 
 u
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTFON. 
 
 some of their regiments in Russian uniforms ; 
 for although, he said, the Czar might pos- 
 sibly wish to help his neighbour, the allies 
 of Hungary, and especially England, could 
 not and would not consent to such a viola- 
 tion of the law of nations. In consequence 
 of these rumours the Russian intervention 
 was doubted by many, even when the Rus- 
 sians were in the heart of the country. 
 
 At the same time Kossuth issued secret 
 orders to his generals to put their men into 
 Austrian uniforms, and by these means to 
 impose on their adversaries ; a stale trick, 
 which can deceive no officer who knows any- 
 thing of war. 
 
 His differences with Gorgey were by no 
 means over after the conquest of Buda, 
 although he yielded to the popular voice, 
 and appointed Gorgey to take the head of 
 the War Office. 
 
 Kossuth was not perhaps wrong when he 
 said that Gorgey had lost time in besieging 
 Buda, and that he was strong enough to 
 hunt down the retreating Austrians, to effect 
 a junction with Dembinsky and Aulich, to
 
 THE RUSSIAN INTERVENTION. 291 
 
 invade Austria before the arrival of the 
 Russians, to occupy Vienna, and to dictate 
 conditions of peace. In this calculation he 
 "'relied on the sympathies of the Viennese and 
 on their assistance. He fancied that the in- 
 habitants of the capital, although disap- 
 pointed and deceived by himself, were to 
 be judged according to the standard of the 
 feeble inhabitants of Pesth, who after the 
 conquest of Buda wished for his return, and 
 received him with enthusiasm.
 
 292 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 WHEN the Prince of Windischgratz occu- 
 pied Buda-Pesth on the 5th of January, 
 the magistrates of the two cities presented 
 to him the following official declaration of 
 subjection: "We, the undersigned, the 
 magistrates of the royal free city of Pesth, 
 declare by these presents that we recognise 
 his Imperial and Royal Apostolical Majesty, 
 Francis Joseph the First, as legal King of 
 Hungary, and that we unconditionally sub- 
 mit to his commands." 
 
 If we compare this document with the 
 reception which the inhabitants of Pesth 
 gave to the Governor and President of the 
 Hungarian republic on the 4th of June, we
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 2Q3 
 
 cannot help exclaiming, O mankind ! you 
 are weak, wayward, and hypocritical ; and, 
 without heeding the danger of a serious acci- 
 dent, you blindly rush from one extreme to 
 another ! Indeed we feel disgusted when 
 we think of the senseless cheers and solem- 
 nities which greeted and received the very 
 men who led Hungary on the path of crime 
 to ruin. It is disgusting to think of the 
 flowers and wreaths which covered the 
 houses, and were strewn on the path of the 
 triumphing hero ; of the windows which 
 were hung with carpets and covered with 
 flattering emblems, and at night were splen- 
 didly illuminated ; of the eulogies and 
 hymns of victory, blessings, and promises of 
 fidelity ; of the cynical drunkenness and 
 beastly indulgence and immorality. 
 
 But woe to the prisoners ! woe to those 
 who were known to be friends to the Em- 
 peror ! Some were executed as traitors, 
 and their properties confiscated ; others 
 were thrown into prison, or compelled to 
 work in the entrenchments, or to assist in 
 demolishing the fortifications of Buda.
 
 KOSSUTHS LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 Since the Hungarian bank-notes rose in 
 the market, and there was plenty of money 
 at hand, trade became suddenly very brisk, 
 especially as Kossuth was very liberal with 
 his notes, which he distributed among the 
 people, because he wished to increase his 
 popularity. He did his best to create pub- 
 lic amusements ; he promised the inha- 
 bitants of Pesth he would raise their city to 
 the level of London. He ordered the con- 
 struction of splendid docks, and made ar- 
 rangements to turn St. Margaret's Island 
 into a park for the inhabitants of Buda and 
 Pesth. 
 
 His views respecting the equalisation of 
 the nationalities had undergone a great 
 change, for he declared he knew no differ- 
 ence between Magyars, Sclavoniaris, Ger- 
 mans, Rumani, Italians, Jews, and Gipsies, 
 provided they were stanch republicans and 
 zealous in the defence of the country. 
 
 The impertinence with which his bul- 
 letins perverted the truth and imposed upon 
 the credulous mass of the people is shown 
 by the following Report, which might serve
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 295 
 
 as a pattern for a fantastic hyperbole, and 
 which, but for the seriousness of the matter, 
 might justify people in laughing at it. The 
 bulletin is to the following purpose : 
 
 " On the 12th of June, our troops com- 
 pelled 17,000 Austrians and Russians in the 
 plain of Oedenburg to surrender as prisoners 
 of war. In consequence of this glorious vic- 
 tory, the invading Russians, who eight days 
 ago entered Pressburg, have left that city in 
 great haste, with all the merchants, taking 
 away all objects of any value. At an earlier 
 period of the day the Austrian marshal at- 
 tacked our army, which Gorgey concentrated 
 at Raab ; but he met with such a reception 
 that he was compelled to fly for protection 
 to the ruins of the other army at Pressburg 
 and Tyrnau, for the attack and three skir- 
 mishes cut up the greatest part of his forces. 
 In the last six weeks our outposts have stood 
 no fewer than forty attacks ; miracles of 
 gallantry have been achieved by the Magyar 
 troops ; victory follows our standard ; and 
 the enemy has not been able to gain one 
 inch of ground. The English have made
 
 296 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 common cause with us ; they show us the 
 warmest sympathies ; they assist us in every 
 way ; and our country, freed from the yoke 
 of the foreigner, will soon be a brilliant star 
 in the heavens of Europe." 
 
 Truly, no lies were ever more disgraceful 
 or more impertinent! Every word of this 
 document is an untruth, except, perhaps, as 
 regards the assistance of the English, which, 
 however, was not granted openly by the 
 government, but was supposed to have been 
 carried on by means of Turks and Jews. 
 
 At this time, that is, in the middle of 
 June, the cause of Hungary stood by no 
 means firmly on its legs. Let us cast a look 
 at the positions of their troops. On the 
 Waag and on the Danube was Gorgey, with 
 40,000 men ; 20,000 men commanded by 
 Klapka were at Raab ; Perczel and Guyon 
 had 35,000 men at Szegedin and There- 
 stopel ; Aulich commanded 15,000 men on 
 the Flatten Lake and at Foldvar ; at Te- 
 mesvar and Arad were 20,000 men, under 
 Vetter, Gaal, and Veczey. There were, 
 moreover, 20,000 men under Dembinsky,
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 297 
 
 between Szolnok, Albert!, and Pesth ; while 
 General Bern commanded ,50,000 men in 
 Transylvania, which he occupied. 
 
 We are no judges, but we understand on 
 good authority that the plans of the insur- 
 gents were most faulty ; besides, Kossuth, 
 who preferred the Polish generals, was at 
 odds with the army under Gorgey, which 
 clung to its leader ; and the quarrel between 
 these two men was most fatal to the unfledged 
 republic. 
 
 It was on the 7th of June that the Ban 
 of Croatia, with the body of the southern 
 army, marched upon Neusatz, and compelled 
 that fortified town to surrender. The city 
 was, however, destroyed, by being bombarded 
 by the Hungarians in Peterwardein. Bold 
 Knicanin did wonders of bravery on the 
 Lower Danube, while Rukawina gained im- 
 mortal laurels by defending Tenesvar against 
 Perczel, Bern, and Guyon. 
 
 An extensive and violent contest took 
 place in the middle of June, in the valley of 
 the Waar. General Wohlgemuth gained
 
 298 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 great distinction by opposing his forces to 
 the superior numbers of the enemy, whom 
 he drove back to the walls of Komorn. He 
 then occupied the greater part of the Schiitt 
 Island. 
 
 On the right bank of the Danube, mean- 
 while, the corps of Schlick advanced against 
 Raab, where the insurgents had thrown up 
 entrenchments and a murderous battle was 
 expected to take place. Kossuth himself 
 repaired again to this city, which was his 
 wife's birthplace. It has since been under- 
 stood that he did not find there the sym- 
 pathies he expected, and many of those who 
 cheered him were evidently paid for doing 
 so. He seemed depressed, and in want of 
 that courage and confidence with which he 
 endeavoured to inspire others. His face 
 was clouded ; his eyes wandering and cast 
 down; and his language was neither so free 
 and energetic, nor so impressive and con- 
 vincing, as in former times. In short, he 
 was rather repulsive than attractive. We 
 understand, when he left Raab, that a large
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 299 
 
 box of money was secretly cut from his 
 carriage and stolen. 
 
 The temper of the Hungarian capital, 
 too, underwent considerable changes. En- 
 thusiasm was on the decline, for Kossuth, 
 however able, could not prevent letters and 
 newspapers from -being smuggled into the 
 city ; and thus news was received of the 
 successes of the allied armies, and of other 
 circumstances which were unfavourable to 
 Hungary. People whispered their news and 
 their anxieties ; they shook their heads at 
 the lies and delusions which Kossuth sent 
 abroad, and they became, at length, con- 
 vinced that reason and a sober way of think- 
 ing is better than intoxication and the 
 delirium of the senses. 
 
 Early on the 19th of June, the inha- 
 bitants of Buda and Pesth were startled by 
 a placard, which seemed to defy Kossuth's 
 measures of terror against the political press. 
 This placard was stuck up in a hundred 
 places, and it was printed in the German, 
 Hungarian, and Sclavonian languages. It 
 was headed,
 
 300 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 "An open Letter to Louis Kossuth and 
 his Accomplices. 
 
 " The veil which covered your perjury is 
 torn asunder. The secret of your hypocrisy 
 is patent. Daylight shines upon your in- 
 triguing ambition, which defies all limitations 
 and all laws. That ambition is the propel- 
 ling power of your engines ; it prompts you 
 with sounding and cunning words. You de- 
 ceive, because you wish to mislead ; you mis- 
 lead, because you wish to make war; you 
 make war, because you wish to rob; you rob, 
 because you wish to command ; and you 
 command, only to destroy. Speak out and 
 tell us, What is Hungary to come to when 
 you have robbed her and enslaved her ? 
 What is she come to under Kossuth or one 
 of his accomplices ? What is to be the end 
 of all this, when you take the workman's 
 hand from the workshop and the plough, 
 when you drive her warriors to the shambles 
 where they rot without burial? Do you 
 think our hands and our arms will help you 
 in crushing the respectable house of Aus-
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 301 
 
 tria ? Look around, for it is still time ; 
 listen to the voice of admonition before it is 
 drowned by the thunders of artillery ; con- 
 sider what your madness has brought us to. 
 Hungary has no Jbopes of you, for there is 
 nothing you can offer her ; but Hungary 
 hopes to wrestle with you, and to break your 
 snares. Hungary hopes to find her sons 
 prepared to fight against perjury and trea- 
 son, for her king, for her laws, for her 
 rights. Such is our hope ; what is yours ? 
 Can you expect to conquer Hungary with a 
 strong hand? Are we to consider you our 
 liberator? Tremble, because your horrible 
 doom is approaching ! We know you ; your 
 intrigues cannot deceive us, for you are 
 like unto the black princes of shadows wbo 
 work mischief and ruin in this world and 
 the next. Recollect what were your pro- 
 mises, and see what are your deeds. The 
 fields of Hungary were blooming once, DOW 
 they are deserts ; her cities flourished, now 
 they are devastated. But is our salvation in 
 Kossuth? in him whom hell has sent for our 
 destruction in him whose words are dis-
 
 302 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 sembling, whose treaties are deceit in him 
 who thirsts for blood, who is set forth in the 
 Revelation by the name of Apollyon, a 
 dweller in the abyss of hell, who has come 
 forth to turn our country. into a desert, to 
 destroy trade, art, and agriculture, whom 
 religion abhors, who sows seeds of discord, 
 and who, while Hungary lies in agony, offers 
 her that cup of bitterness which no one 
 dares to commend but yourself? This is the 
 time to break the chains which these mis- 
 creants have slung round a free people. 
 Hungarians, fear not the frowns of the rebel, 
 anticipate the deceitful reward which awaits 
 you ! Consider the grief of your king ! 
 Awake to duty ! Take your arms ; expel 
 the foreign hirelings of these disgraceful 
 tyrants ! Open your treasures, feed the 
 poor, that their hands may grasp the sword 
 of revenge ; crowd together as brethren, 
 and march to the triumph of the country ! 
 Hungarians, you want courage courage 
 against the bloodthirsty tyrants ! Priests, 
 raise the shout of revenge revenge against 
 the desecrators of altars ! Artisans, make
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 303 
 
 weapons and dig into the earth for iron ! 
 Mothers, do not for awhile give your breasts 
 to your babes ; let them feel how unhappy 
 they will be as men, if the tyrants are al- 
 lowed to raise their heads ! Children, fill 
 the air with your wailings, and thus swell 
 the sounds of the song of battle! Up, up 
 to arms ! let the war-whoop sound in other 
 tones from east to west, from south to north! 
 Pull, citizens, pull the ropes of the T}ells, 
 that they may send forth a howling sound ! 
 Raise in your blameless hearts that old he- 
 roic spirit which made your name a terror to 
 the oppressors, and they will soon be anni- 
 hilated, those haughty legions of foreign 
 bloodhounds ; the earth of your fatherland 
 will soon be freed from these imps of hell ; 
 you will have conquered peace, and avenged 
 your king, your religion, and your country. 
 
 " THE ASSOCIATION OF THE HUNGARIAN 
 VEHME FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED 
 THOUSAND MEMBERS." 
 
 These were evident signs of a counter- 
 revolution, and the enemies certainly were
 
 301 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 at hand ; but they were neither so numerous 
 nor so bold as this proclamation seems to 
 imply, for Kossuth was nowhere exposed to 
 an attack, although scarcely any soldiers 
 were left in the two cities. We ought, in- 
 deed, to add that the Governor and Pre- 
 sident was aware of the dangers of his posi- 
 tion, and that he grudged no amount of 
 money, if he could but gain the traces of his 
 enemy and extinguish every spark of disaf- 
 fection before it burned up into a confla- 
 gration or caused an explosion. 
 
 On the other hand, he made equally con- 
 vulsive efforts for the execution of his dia- 
 bolical task, and he had a number of letters 
 printed, which were addressed to the ser- 
 jeants of the Austrian army, whom he ex- 
 horted to perjury and desertion, by abusing 
 the Austrian government and the Emperor, 
 the discipline, the smallness of the pay, and 
 the favouritism, and in pointing out the 
 financial condition of Austria, while he 
 painted the life in the Magyar army in 
 the most glowing colours, and promised to 
 increase their pay three times, and even six
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 305 
 
 times, in comparison with what they i*eceived 
 in the Austrian army. 
 
 Another proclamation convoked the re- 
 presentatives of the people to the opening of 
 the Hungarian Parliament on the 14th of 
 July. In this proclamation Kossuth had the 
 impertinence to state that the splendid vic- 
 tories of the Hungarian army justified him 
 in saying, that in a very short time no bar- 
 barian and enemy would defile the sacred soil 
 of his country. 
 
 Besides the crowd of flatterers, eulogists, 
 and venal poets, who sang his praise in bom- 
 bastic trash, and who daily invented new 
 victories ; his pay, or fanatic smoke, like 
 that which intoxicated Pythia on her tri- 
 pod, produced sybils and prophets, who, from 
 chronicles and ancient legends, pretended 
 to depict the future in colours of such 
 surpassing beauty, that the golden age, as 
 described by Ovid, seemed to open in the 
 clouds. But as the Austrian and Russian 
 West army occupied the valley of the Waar ; 
 as, on the island of Schiitt and on the left 
 bank of the Danube, they had proceeded 
 
 x
 
 306 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 to the vicinity of Komorn, while on the 
 right bank of the Danube they had ad- 
 vanced to Raab, and their strength and posi- 
 tion left no doubt that victorv after vie- 
 
 I 
 
 tory must follow their attack ; since Prince 
 Paskiewicz advanced from the north with 
 forces which the Hungarians could not op- 
 pose, and the Ban had gained consider- 
 able advantage in the south, while even 
 Bern failed in conquering Temesvar and in 
 preventing the Russians from entering into 
 Transylvania ; in short, as bad news was 
 received from every quarter, people began at 
 length to be alive to the horrors and dangers 
 of their situation, and to forget the empty 
 bubbles of their brains. 
 
 Kossuth did not go abroad ; the anxious 
 and suspicious, who asked at his palace-gate 
 whether he was still in town and what he 
 was doing, were told that he was very busy 
 working the salvation of the country that 
 he was an Archimedes, and was meditating on 
 some effectual means of destroying the enemy 
 at one blow. It was, however, but natural 
 that, in this stormy and anxious time, he
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 307 
 
 should be visible only to his most confidential 
 friends and conspirators, and that he should 
 use the privilege of every despot and tyrant, 
 by having all the doors of his house provided 
 with sentinels. We have been assured that 
 it was not he who either wished or asked 
 for those guards, but that they were fur- 
 nished by the inhabitants of Pesth, who, 
 under pretence of protecting his life, sought 
 to prevent his escape, lest he should fly and 
 leave his wretched and ruined country un- 
 punished and unavenged. From certain in- 
 quiries which we have made, we have learned 
 that in those days large crowds were conti- 
 nually watching the street in which he lived ; 
 and this reminds us of Count Szechenyi, 
 who, when Kossuth offered to resign his post 
 as Minister of Finance, said, " No, you shall 
 stay ; you shall eat the broth of your own 
 making." 
 
 Kossuth was in those days literally on 
 the rack. We have been informed that the 
 news of the occupation of Cronstadt and 
 Bistritz by the Russians affected him so 
 much that he all but fainted. His was the
 
 308 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 condition of Wallenstein, and well might he 
 say " Can I stamp soldiers from this sullen 
 earth ? or does a corn-field grow within my 
 hand ?" and shudder to think that the fate of 
 Wallenstein the traitor might be his any day. 
 
 The Pesth Gazette, of the 27th of June, 
 published a proclamation of the revolu- 
 tionary government, which we are induced 
 to compare to a crater vomiting fire and 
 flames. Several Vienna newspapers have 
 thought proper to publish this document, 
 and we therefore see no reason why we should 
 not do the same. It stands as follows : 
 
 " The country is in danger. 
 
 " Sons of the country, to arms ! to 
 arms !" 
 
 " If ordinary means could save the 
 country we would not proclaim its danger. 
 
 " If we had the lead of a craven and 
 childish nation, of a nation which prefers 
 ruin to defence, we would not sound the 
 tocsin from every steeple. 
 
 " But we know that you are a manly 
 nation, and knew your mind when you re- 
 solved to defend yourself against wicked op-
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 309 
 
 pression. We will not, therefore, represent 
 things as they are not, and candidly and 
 freely we tell you the country is in danger. 
 
 " It is because we are positive that the 
 nation is capable of defending itself and the 
 country, that we proclaim the danger and 
 its extent, and that in God's name we ask 
 you rise and to arm. 
 
 " We will not condescend to flatter and 
 to comfort. We say that, unless the nation 
 rise as one man to hold out to the last, the 
 blood which has been shed has been shed in 
 vain, all our struggles have been in vain, our 
 country and our nation are lost, and the soil 
 which covers the ashes of our fathers, which 
 Heaven destined to be a freehold for their 
 sons that soil will be inhabited by the 
 miserable remains of an enslaved people. 
 
 " Again, we say it openly, that unless 
 you rise like one man you will be starved 
 with hunger. Those that escape the enemy 
 will be the victims of hunger ; for the savage 
 Russians do not only mow down the fruits of 
 your labour, the corn-fields that are ripe for 
 the harvest, but we tell you, with a bleeding
 
 310 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 heart, that the savage Russians, who with 
 great force have invaded our country, cut 
 and trample down the green fields, and that 
 they make their heds in the young corn. 
 They advance with murder and destruction, 
 and murder, flames, famine, and death re- 
 main behind them. 
 
 " Wherever they come you have vainly 
 broken the ground, vainly sown your seed ; 
 foreign robbers feed on the fruits of your 
 labour. 
 
 "But because we trust and place our 
 confidence in the God of justice, we tell you 
 the danger can be fatal to our country only 
 if you are faithless to yourselves : but if you 
 rise to defend your country, your hearth, 
 your families, your harvests, and your own 
 life ; if you take a scythe, a pickaxe, a 
 cudgel, or only a stone, you will exult in your 
 strength, and the avenging arm of the free 
 Hungarian people will kill the very last man 
 of the Russian hordes which the Austrian Em- 
 peror has brought to our beautiful country. 
 
 " We might conceive the danger, but by 
 so doing we could not lessen it.
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 311 
 
 " But since we tell you candidly of things 
 as they are, we give your own fate into your 
 hands. 
 
 " If there is any energy within you, you 
 will save yourselves and you will save the 
 country. 
 
 " But if craven fear possesses you and 
 binds your hands, you are lost. 
 
 " Unless you help yourselves, God will 
 never help you. 
 
 " By these presents, therefore, we inform 
 all inhabitants of Hungary that the Austrian 
 Emperor has indeed invited the Russian 
 barbarians to invade the country. 
 
 " We inform them that a Eussian army 
 of 46,000 men has entered Hungary, by way 
 of Galicia, and that they are advancing, 
 fighting battles as they proceed. 
 
 " We inform them that in Transylvania 
 the Wallachian rebellion, relying on Rus- 
 sian help, has again broken out, and that the 
 Austrian Emperor has collected his last 
 forces to exterminate the Hungarian nation. 
 
 " We further inform our fellow-citizens 
 that, although it is quite as certain as that
 
 312 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 there is a God above us, if ever the Russians 
 should succeed in conquering our country, 
 the result would be that all nations of Europe 
 would fall a prey to slavery ; but still we 
 cannot expect any help from foreign parts, 
 for the sovereigns suppress the sympathies 
 of their peoples, and make them inactive 
 lookers-on, while we are fighting our combat 
 of justice. 
 
 " There is nobody to whom we ought to 
 look but the God of justice and our own 
 strength, and if we do not use our own 
 strength, God will certainly abandon us. 
 
 " Days of sorrow are approaching, but if 
 we meet them boldly, they will turn into 
 liberty, happiness, prosperity, and glory. 
 The ways of Providence are shrouded in 
 darkness. God lead us on to happiness in 
 the paths of trials and suffering ! 
 
 " The cause of Hungary is not our cause 
 alone. It is the cause of liberty against 
 tyranny. 
 
 "Our victory is the victory of liberty ; 
 our downfall is liberty's dirge. 
 
 " We are God's chosen people, for by our
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 313 
 
 victory we save the nations from the slavery 
 of the body ; like unto Christ, who worked 
 the salvation of the spirit. 
 
 "If we conquer, the bondsmen of the 
 tyrant, the Italians, Germans, Bohemians, 
 Poles, Wallachians, Sclavonians, Servians, 
 and Croatians, will share our freedom. If 
 conquered, the star of liberty sets for all 
 nations. 
 
 " Let us, therefore, feel that we are the 
 sacred champions of general liberty. May 
 this. feeling steel our will and strengthen our 
 arms ; may this strength preserve to our 
 children their country, and to the nations 
 their liberty : for if our cowardice leave free- 
 dom unprotected, it will never again take 
 root and flourish, 
 
 " Hungarians ! are you prepared to fall 
 under the sword of the savage Russians ? 
 Unless you are, defend yourselves. Are you 
 prepared to see the Cossacks of the north 
 trampling upon the desecrated corpses of 
 your fathers, of your wives, of your chil- 
 dren? Unless you are, defend yourselves."
 
 314 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 " Are you prepared to see your fellow- 
 citizens dragged into Siberia, or butchered 
 in the foreign wars of the tyrant, while others 
 wear away the wretched remainder of their 
 lives under the scourge of the Russian ? 
 Unless you are, defend yourselves. 
 
 " Are you prepared to see your villages 
 burnt down and your harbours trampled into 
 the dust? Are you prepared to starve on 
 the very soil which you cultivated in the 
 sweat of your brows ? Unless you are, de- 
 fend yourselves. 
 
 " We, the government of Hungary, 
 elected by the free will of the nation, adjure 
 you in the name of the eternal God that 
 you rise to defend the country of your 
 fathers ; and in obedience to our duty, and 
 in virtue of our power, we decree and com- 
 mand that: 
 
 " Istly. A general crusade shall com- 
 mence against the Russian invaders, and 
 against the Austrian Emperor. 
 
 " 2dly. The crusade to be proclaimed on 
 Tuesday and Wednesday next, in all churches
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 315 
 
 and meeting-houses, and that the bells be 
 rung throughout the country. 
 
 " 3dly. After this proclamation, it is the 
 duty of every able-bodied man, within forty- 
 eight hours, to provide some sort of weapon. 
 He who has no musket or sword, let him 
 take a scythe or pickaxe. The scythe is a 
 dangerous weapon in assault, and the pick- 
 axe can be made to do good service in a 
 bold hand. He who makes a choice of 
 weapons, instead of taking the first thing he 
 lays his hand on, is not an Hungarian he 
 is nothing but a wretched Czudar. 
 
 " 4thly. Wherever the Russians advance 
 watchmen shall be placed on the steeples, and 
 tops of the mountains, by day and by night, 
 to announce the approach of the enemy, 
 when the tocsin is to be sounded from all 
 the churches of the county. Upon this the 
 people are to assemble in their parishes, and 
 proceed to the appointed places, which are 
 to be pointed out by the functionaries in the 
 various counties. But when the wild hordes 
 have passed onwards, there shall be a general 
 rising in the rear to exterminate the Cos-
 
 316 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 sacks and other irregular troops. Every- 
 body ought to think it his duty to give the 
 enemy no rest, either by day or by night ; to 
 surprise them suddenly ; to retreat, and to 
 attack again ; to disturb them by ringing of 
 bells, so as to give them not a moment's rest 
 on the soil which they have wickedly invaded. 
 
 " 5thly. As the enemy advance, all cattle 
 and provisions ought to be hid in caverns, or 
 behind swamps, that our foes may perish 
 with hunger. 
 
 " 6thly. Before the enemy march into a 
 village all living beings shall leave the place, 
 and after they have entered it, bold men 
 will be found to fire the roofs above their 
 heads, so as either to burn the enemy, or at 
 least to prevent them taking rest. 
 
 " In the commencement of the present 
 century, when Napoleon invaded the Russian 
 empire, the Russians saved their country in 
 this manner. For, after all, we see that the 
 enemy burn and devastate everything; cities 
 and villages are consumed by the flames as 
 they pass. Even now, the Austrian soldiers, 
 when they attacked the defenceless inhabit-
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 317 
 
 ants of Bosarkany, in the county of Oeden- 
 burger, burnt down all the houses, from the 
 first to the last. If your homes must burn, 
 you may as well let them burn while the 
 enemy are in them. If we conquer we shall 
 have a country, and our villages will again 
 rise from the ground ; but if we are con- 
 quered, no house nor hut will be left in the 
 country, for it is a war of extermination 
 which they wage against us. 
 
 " ythly. Cities and villages, whose posi- 
 tion allows of their being barricaded, are at 
 once to be placed in an efficient state of 
 defence, to prevent the Cossacks from passing 
 through them. 
 
 " Sthly. The priests ought to take the 
 cross, and lead the people in defence of their 
 religion and their liberty. 
 
 "9thly. Meetings shall take place through- 
 out the country, to consult about the ways 
 and modes of defence. 
 
 " lOthly. The counties of Borsod, Gomor, 
 Abauj, Zemplem, Heves (on this side of the 
 Theisz), Neograd, and the counties of Fiilek 
 and of Jazyg, shall at once organize the
 
 318 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 crusade, under the superintendence of the 
 commanders of our gallant army at Miskolz. 
 Szabolsk, the district of the Hajduk, Great 
 Rumania, Heves (on the other hank of the 
 Theisz), and the lower parts of Bihar and 
 Debreczin, shall especially watch and pro- 
 tect the line of the Theisz, and endeavour to 
 prevent the enemy from crossing. And 
 the counties of Pesth, Csongrad, Lesser 
 Rumania, Weiszenburg, Tolna, Gran, and 
 the lower part of Neograd, are to organize 
 the troops of the crusade, and on the first 
 summons they are to assemble on the plain 
 of Rakos. 
 
 " llthly. The execution of this decree 
 is herewith entrusted to the magistrates and 
 functionaries in the various counties, who are 
 to send reports of their proceedings to the 
 Home Office. 
 
 " Whoever attacks our country with force 
 and arms, is an enemy. Whoever neglects 
 his duty in its defence, is a traitor, and as 
 such will be treated by the government and 
 by the country. 
 
 " One struggle more and the country is
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 319 
 
 saved for all time to come ; but it is lost if 
 the people neglect their duty. 
 
 " The country is in danger. 
 
 " We have a gallant and devoted army 
 of almost 200,000 men ; they are heroes 
 enamoured of liberty, and removed from all 
 comparison with the hirelings of slavery, for 
 God's face radiates down upon them, while 
 the bondsmen are but the guardians of dark- 
 ness : but this contest is not a contest of 
 two hostile camps, it is a war which tyranny 
 wages against liberty, barbarism against 
 civilization. 
 
 " The very people, therefore, must rise 
 with the army ; and when these millions sup- 
 port our army, we shall have gained a vic- 
 tory, not for ourselves, but for Europe also. 
 The country is in danger. 
 
 " Mighty and giant people, rise and 
 arm ! 
 
 " Citizens of the country ! rise, rise ! 
 arm, arm ! Thus we shall have victory, 
 but thus only. 
 
 "And for these reasons we decree and
 
 320 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 command a general crusade for liberty, in 
 God's name and the country's. 
 
 " Louis KOSSUTH, Governor. 
 BARTHOLOMEW SZEMERE. 
 LADISLAUS CZANYI. 
 ARTHUR GORGEY. 
 SOLOMON VUKOVICH. 
 CASIMIR BATTHYANY. 
 MICHAEL HORVATH. 
 FRANCIS DUSCHEK. 
 
 " Buda-Pesth, %7th June, 1849." 
 
 Whoever has entered into the spirit of 
 Kossuth's style must see that this proclama- 
 tion issued from his pen. It is clear, even 
 to a common understanding, and yet it 
 is written in a high tone, which tells upon 
 the masses ; but it has all the faults of style 
 which we find in Kossuth's other works, for 
 he is a very clever speaker, and but a 
 middling author. 
 
 The effect of this proclamation was not 
 so great as Kossuth had expected, for despair
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 321 
 
 was visible in every line ; and when a man 
 from that height complains to the people, 
 and confesses that many things have been 
 concealed and misrepresented, they are 
 apt to become suspicious, especially when 
 there are voices among them who advise 
 them to avoid all useless and criminal re- 
 sistance. Very few showed themselves pre- 
 pared for the combat, but the majority were 
 discouraged, confused, and inclined to curse 
 the author of all this mischief. 
 
 When on the second day it became known 
 that Raab had been occupied by the Im- 
 perial troops, and that Gorgey had been 
 thrown back on Komorn, the greatest 
 anxiety and distress prevailed in the Hun- 
 garian capital ; and although Kossuth en- 
 deavoured to mask the defeat with the news 
 of fictitious victories at Sered and on the 
 Lower Danube, nobody would believe him 
 or give credit to his representations. 
 
 A decree was issued, threatening the se- 
 verest punishment to those who mentioned 
 the victories and advantages that were 
 gained by the enemy. This republican ter-
 
 322 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 
 
 rorism produced the deepest silence, and 
 people resigned themselves to the fate which 
 they could not avoid. 
 
 On the 29th of June Kossuth published 
 another call to arms, summoning all able- 
 bodied men between the ages of fifteen and 
 sixty to rally round the blood-red banner of 
 the Revolution. He added, that every man 
 should have a right to kill his neighbour 
 if he refused to join the crusade. In an- 
 other proclamation he said, " Hungary is 
 not yet lost ; inhabitants of Pesth, banish 
 your cares. It is now the Hungarian 
 people who will show what they can do. 
 Two millions of Magyars rise like a single 
 man ; the country will be one large camp ; 
 every house will be a fortress, and every cot- 
 tage a battery." 
 
 The organs and hirelings of the govern- 
 ment worked hard to persuade the inhabit- 
 ants of Northern Hungary that the whole 
 of the south had risen against the enemies 
 of the country, while in the south they made 
 the same statement concerning the north. 
 They added that large masses of Russian
 
 KOSSUTH'S LAST VISIT TO PESTH. 323 
 
 troops were deserting to the Magyars, that 
 8000 captive Austrians were at Komorn, 
 that Vienna was in a rebellion and the 
 Emperor was put to flight, and that the 
 Vienna cabinet had made the most advan- 
 tageous offers of peace : but still the Hun- 
 garians became gradually aware of the real 
 state of things ; they mistrusted Kossuth 
 and his words. 
 
 About the end of June, when the fear of 
 the Russians had become an epidemic at 
 Buda-Pesth, and when the general ferment 
 threatened to break out in a counter-revolu- 
 tion, it was pretended that England and 
 France had at length resolved to interfere 
 in favour of Hungary, and that they had 
 offered Russia the alternative of either 
 withdrawing her troops from Hungary or 
 being at war with the European powers. 
 
 Truly the Hungarian nation was dealt 
 with in the most insolent and criminal man- 
 ner. Kossuth treated them like imbecile 
 children, and by his leading-strings he led 
 them wherever he liked.
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE 
 
 THAT even the Magyars on the Theisz had 
 no intention whatever of joining Kossuth's 
 crusade, is most clearly proved by the inha- 
 bitants of Debreczin, on whom Kossuth 
 probably relied with the greatest confidence. 
 
 When the Prince of Warsaw in his vic- 
 torious progress despatched his left wing, 
 under General Czeodajeff, by way of Tokaj 
 to Debreczin, the citizens of that town went 
 eighteen miles to meet the advancing Rus- 
 sians, and humbly presented them with the 
 keys of their town as a token of submission 
 and sincere repentance. 
 
 At the same time, that is, on the 2d 
 and 3d of July, the allied Austrian and 
 Russian troops under Haynau, Wohlge-
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 muth, Schlick, Benedek, and Paniutine, 
 fought some splendid battles at Acz, and 
 under the walls of Komorn, by which they 
 embarrassed and discouraged Gorgey's 
 troops ; while in the north the Prince Pas- 
 kiewicz defeated the rebels under General 
 Dembinsky, and drove them back upon 
 Pesth. 
 
 The panic which these bad news created 
 at Pesth, and the state of mind of the great 
 agitator, defies description ; but nothing 
 served to discourage the population so much 
 as the following proclamations : 
 
 I. 
 
 " According to a resolution of the Im- 
 perial Minister of Finance, the notes on the 
 income of the kingdom of Hungary shall be 
 circulated in categories of one and two 
 florins. According to the proclamation of 
 the 10th of April, all the public offices in 
 Hungary are bound to receive these notes 
 at their full value, instead of gold and 
 silver, and private individuals are bound 
 to accept them on the same conditions.
 
 326 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 According to the proclamation of 2d of 
 May, they shall likewise be received in the 
 public offices of the neighbouring crown- 
 lands. 
 
 " HAYNAU. 
 
 "Head-quarters at Raab, 1st of July, 1849. 
 II. 
 
 " The Hungarian notes, which are 
 usually called Kossuth's notes, no matter of 
 what kind, are declared to be illegal, and 
 of no value. Whoever possesses them, 
 whether as public or private property, shall 
 give them up to the nearest military com- 
 mander. Such notes as are not given up 
 within forty-eight hours after the publication 
 of this decree shall be confiscated if found ; 
 and the possessor of them is liable to be 
 tried by court-martial. 
 
 " HAYNAU. 
 
 " Head-quarters at Babolna, %d of July, 1849." 
 
 These were thunderbolts, against which 
 Kossuth knew of no conductor. The great
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 327 
 
 marvel is that Pesth, which, on the 5th and 
 6th July, showed all the symptoms of anar- 
 chy, did not witness a fearful explosion of 
 the hostile feelings which its inhabitants 
 entertained against the authors of their 
 miseries. Rage and despair were scarcely 
 bridled ; imprecations followed the name of 
 Kossuth, and his paper money was offered 
 at 60 and 70 per cent without finding any 
 purchasers. 
 
 Nevertheless, this coiner of bad money 
 continued to work his bank-note presses for 
 the peasantry and the army, to enforce con- 
 tributions, and to rob the churches, under 
 the pretence that the gold and silver vessels 
 from the churches should be coined into 
 money. 
 
 So he took from Kaschau a silver ewer 
 of above 300 Ibs. weight ; a porphyry co- 
 lumn, with a golden lamp, of 20 Ibs. weight; a 
 silver statue of the Virgin, of 140 Ibs. weight, 
 was taken from Groszwardein ; in Waizen 
 he took four silver angels, of 150 Ibs. each ; 
 a golden lamp, a golden box with thirty-two 
 jewels ; four golden crowns, of 20 Ibs. each ;
 
 328 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 a silver chain of 40 fbs., and four silver 
 altar ornaments, were taken from Buda and 
 Pesth ; he took 500 Ibs. of silver from Szath- 
 mar, and the same quantity from Yesprim 
 and Stuhlweiszenburg. In this manner it 
 is easv to be believed that he collected a 
 
 / 
 
 considerable sum of money. 
 
 He saw at length that he could not re- 
 main in Pesth, The ground was shaking 
 under his feet ; the air around him trembled 
 with imprecations, and with the thunder of 
 the enemy's artillery ; his friends deserted 
 him, and he, accompanied by a numerous 
 body-guard, left Pesth on Sunday the 8th of 
 July, and proceeded to Debreczin. 
 
 Three days after his departure, Major 
 Wussin, of Ramberg's division, entered 
 Buda without meeting with any resistance ; 
 and immediately afterwards the Russians 
 occupied Pesth, but they found not the 
 slightest sign of a crusade. 
 
 Kossuth was deeply moved and pain- 
 fully affected when he left the capital of 
 Hungary, and he expressed a hope that he 
 would return in two months, for by that
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 329 
 
 time Hungary would be freed from the Cos- 
 sacks and from all other enemies to her 
 liberty. In the present instance the people 
 of Pesth were not inclined to think him a 
 prophet. A rumour, for which, however, 
 we will not vouch, states that an infernal 
 machine was placed for him on the road to 
 U116, which exploded when he had passed 
 the spot, so that the explosion wounded 
 only some people who were following in the 
 rear. 
 
 In the bloody fight on the 1st of July, 
 between the Russian troops and the insur- 
 gents under Bern, and in which the former 
 had the advantage, the victors took posses- 
 sion of Bern's travelling carriage, with a 
 variety of important papers. From these 
 we take some letters which Kossuth ad- 
 dressed to Bern, for we think it but fair to 
 let him speak for himself. The four first 
 letters were written in the course of the last 
 days of his residence in Pesth.
 
 330 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 I. 
 
 " The Governor of the Country to Field- 
 marshal Lieutenant Bern. 
 
 " SIR, Gorgey's corps being oppressed 
 by superior numbers, retreated without com- 
 bat to Miskolcz. 
 
 " The leaders, fearing lest the enemy's 
 cavalry of 18,000 men should worry and rout 
 them, will not engage in a battle ; they have 
 a fixed idea of effecting a junction with the 
 bulk of the army, and they do not consider 
 that by so doing they draw the Russians 
 down upon us ; that we shall have no time 
 to strike a blow against the Austrians ; and 
 that they bring us between two fires. I in- 
 form you of this, because I am firmly con- 
 vinced that nothing but a speedy concentra- 
 tion of all our forces under your command 
 can now avail us. 
 
 " For, after all, the Russian army will 
 be in Pesth within a week's time ; and, 
 what is worse, it is in the rear of our chief 
 army.
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 331 
 
 " I will do my best, but I am anxiously 
 looking for news from you. 
 
 (Signed) " KOSSUTH. 
 
 " Pesth, the 28th of June, 1849." 
 
 II. 
 
 "Pesth, 28th of June, 1849. 
 At night. 
 
 " SIR, I have just received your letter 
 from Klausenburg, of the 23d June. The 
 news which it contains of the Russian in- 
 vasion in Transylvania had already reached 
 me from another quarter. The death of 
 Colonel Kisz, in Cronstadt, is a source of 
 great grief to me. 
 
 " I am sorry to say I can now under- 
 stand that you cannot get out of Transyl- 
 vania into the Banat. 
 
 " There, too, the danger is very great ; 
 as, indeed, it is everywhere. Our darker 
 stars are drawing near. May God bless 
 our struggles ; truly, we are in want of his 
 blessing.
 
 332 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 " The commanders in the Banat are 
 continually quarrelling. There ought to he 
 order, co-operation, and unity; if not, we are 
 lost. 
 
 " We have taken the following measures 
 for the counties of Bacz and Banat, since 
 you cannot go there yourself. 
 
 " There are three corps in those parts. 
 
 " First, Vecsey's corps ; present com- 
 mander, Guyon. 
 
 " Secondly, Perczel's corps ; present com- 
 mander, Toth. 
 
 " Thirdly, Those troops which you 
 yourself will bring out in exchange for the 
 auxiliaries which I sent you to Deva ; com- 
 mander, Banffy. 
 
 " The commander-in-chief of all the 
 corps and divisions in the Bacs and Banat 
 is Lieut.-general Vetter. 
 
 "I have already got over some differ- 
 ences, but Colonel Banffy protests he has 
 your order to obey no one except yourself 
 and General Perczel. I have given him his 
 instructions, but I must ask you, as far as 
 lies in vou, to inform the commanders of
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 333 
 
 detached corps in the Banat, that during 
 the period of their detached operations they 
 have to receive their orders from the men 
 whom the government appoint for that pur- 
 pose ; and that man is Lieut. -general Vetter, 
 since you yourself are prevented from pro- 
 ceeding to those parts. 
 
 " But I must candidly and openly tell 
 you, that if we can concentrate our forces 
 quickly, and very quickly indeed, the coun- 
 try is saved ; if we cannot, it is lost. 
 
 " With a bleeding heart, though with a 
 firm conviction, I tell you I am prepared to 
 give up entire provinces, and, indeed, four- 
 fifths of the whole country, to expedite the con- 
 centration of our forces. For thus we defeat 
 the enemy, and the enemy once defeated, the 
 provinces we have lost can be easily regained ; 
 but if the bulk of our power be crushed, if 
 the nation be politically annihilated, those 
 provinces are of no use whatever. There- 
 fore I wish that you should come forward 
 with your whole strength, that you should 
 join the other corps and take the chief
 
 334 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 command ; thus we shall defeat our enemies 
 and conquer the liberty of the world. 
 
 " But if this cannot be done, I fear the 
 crisis will come on in fourteen days. I am 
 resolved to defend the country to the last. 
 I have summoned the people of Hungary to 
 arms. 
 
 " I have forwarded instructions to Grosz- 
 wardein immediately to send you the two 
 batteries, which are being mounted and 
 manned, this week and the next. I do not 
 know whether they will be horse or foot- 
 batteries ; but it is better to have a foot- 
 battery to-day than to have a horse-battery 
 in a fortnight's time. God only knows how 
 long we shall be in possession of Groszwar- 
 dein. 
 
 " Again, I entreat you to send your in- 
 structions respecting Vetter's command to 
 the troops in the Banat. This matter is 
 very pressing, in order to prevent confusion 
 in that province. 
 
 "Louis KOSSUTH, Governor."
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 335 
 
 III. 
 
 " I hasten to inform you that a battle 
 was yesterday fought at Raab. Our troops 
 were compelled to evacuate that city; this 
 makes it the more necessary that you should 
 join us with your gallant troops. The coun- 
 try is saved if that junction can be effected 
 in time. 
 
 " KOSSUTH. 
 
 " Buda-Pesth, %Uth June, 1849." 
 
 IV. 
 
 "Pesth, SQthJune, 1849. 
 
 " SIR, General Gorgey was attacked 
 and defeated at Raab by 50,000 Austrians, 
 with an enormous artillery force. In conse- 
 quence of this battle it has become impos- 
 sible to execute our plan of advancing against 
 Austria, and concentrating the lower armies 
 on the Upper Danube. 
 
 "We have now resolved to leave a 
 strong garrison at Komorn, and to concen- 
 trate the rest of the army in the lower 
 countries, so as to draw the armies of Tran-
 
 336 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 sylvania and of the German Banat, with the 
 upper army and Visoczky's corps, to Szege- 
 din, for the purpose of effecting a junction 
 with the army of the Bacs and Banat. 
 
 " I inform you of this, adding that the 
 Russian army has advanced a strong divi- 
 sion of 8000, or, as others say, of 20,000 
 men. They have crossed the Theisz, and 
 this day they are at Nyiregyhaza. It ap- 
 pears from this movement that the enemy 
 will take your rear, and cut you off below 
 Debreczin and Groszwardein. It is our 
 object to prevent this, and for this purpose 
 the troops will be concentrated as stated 
 above. 
 
 " It is midnight, and M. Csaki and the 
 Generals Kisz and Aulich are just lea\ 7 ing 
 for head-quarters, in order to compel Gorgey 
 to concentrate his troops towards Szegedin. 
 I tell you, confidentially, that the seat of 
 government is being removed to that place. 
 
 " Persevere, and hope for the victory 
 of our just cause. 
 (Signed) 
 
 " Louis KOSSUTH, Governor."
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 337 
 
 V. 
 
 " Pesth, th July, 1849. 
 
 " Gorgey's conduct within the last 
 days proves that he intended to make in- 
 dependent operations, and to emancipate his 
 army from the orders of the government. 
 After the battle of Raab, he expressed his 
 opinion that the government ought at once 
 to remove to the countries across the Theisz, 
 for he would not guarantee the safety of 
 Pesth for a term of twenty-four hours. 
 Under these circumstances I thought it my 
 duty to provide for the safety of all move- 
 able public property, especially of the bank 
 ammunition, and of the factories of uniforms 
 and muskets. As for the government, it will 
 remain at Pesth as long as it possibly can. 
 
 " There must be some error about the 
 reports of the enemy's march upon Grosz- 
 wardein. Nevertheless, Vysocki has been 
 instructed to cross the Theisz on the 7th ; 
 and as for Perczel, he will cross to-morrow 
 with 10,000 men.
 
 338 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 " On the 2d a bloody battle was fought 
 at Komorn. It lasted from nine A.M. till 
 late at night. The enemy was defeated and 
 pursued by our troops.* 
 
 " The government then is still at Pesth, 
 where we hope to remain. As for me, I 
 shall pass part of the time at Szegled. Ko- 
 morn will have a garrison of 20,000 men, 
 who will occupy the enemy while the rest of 
 the army marches down upon the Russians. 
 After joining the army of the Bacs-Banat, 
 they will occupy the line of the Maros and 
 Theisz. 
 
 " General Kmety advances from Stuhl- 
 weiszenburg to Pacs, where he crosses the 
 Danube upon a pontoon bridge, and joins 
 the army of the Bacs-Banat, for the purpose 
 of attacking Jelachich and relieving Peter- 
 wardein. 
 
 " Arad is in our hands, and we must 
 provide for hastening the fall of Temesvar. 
 
 * We mention this battle ; it ended in the defeat 
 and flight of the insurgents, who sought protection 
 under the batteries of Komorn. Kossuth deceives his 
 most intimate friend.
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 339 
 
 Vysocki and Desewffy have bad scouts. 
 They never know where the enemy is. 
 The last news is that they have crossed 
 the Theisz at Polgar. If this news be 
 confirmed, we will take their flank with 
 180,000. This is a short sketch of our 
 operations. Have the goodness to inform 
 me of what is going on in Transylvania, and 
 to send me daily reports, however short, by 
 way of Deva, Vanya, Meso-Tur, Szolnok, 
 and Szegled. 
 
 (Signed) " KOSSUTH." 
 
 VI. 
 
 " Szegled, 9th July, 1849. 
 
 " I hasten to inform you of the state of 
 affairs in this part of the country. 
 
 " Komorn has a garrison of from 18 
 to 20,000 men to detain the Austrian 
 army. 
 
 "20,000 to 24,000 men are marching 
 from Waitzen to Hatvan. 
 
 "General Perczel has the command of 
 two corps on the Theisz j the first is to-day
 
 34>0 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 at Abony, the second at Tortel. They will 
 either cross the Theisz, or they will move 
 up the river as the army advances from 
 Hatvan. 
 
 " 15,000 Russians had crossed the 
 Theisz and advanced to Debreczin, but they 
 have fallen back upon Miskolcz, where the 
 bulk of the army is quartered. The Aus- 
 trians advance on the right bank of the 
 Danube upon Buda. Their outposts were 
 yesterday at Vorosvar. The bridge between 
 Buda and Pesth has been broken up. The 
 government is leaving for Szegled. 
 
 " General Vetter, and under him Guyon, 
 command the troops in the Bacs-Banat. 
 
 " That is the state of affairs. I am con- 
 fident of the future if we have but an effi- 
 cient and energetic general to take the com- 
 mand. For this reason, sir, I offer you the 
 command in chief of all the Hungarian 
 armies, and I entreat you to inform me at 
 your earliest convenience whether you will 
 take that command, and under what con- 
 ditions, and whether you think Transylvania 
 will be safe without your presence.
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 341 
 
 " Please to send me your answer to 
 Szegedin. 
 
 " Louis KOSSUTH, Governor." 
 VII. 
 
 " Szegedin, 16th July, 1849. 
 
 " I have received your despatches of the 
 8th and 9th of July, and I hasten to inform 
 you in reply that there is no danger of a 
 Russian attack upon Transylvania from De- 
 breczin and Groszwardein. 
 
 " The army of Upper Hungary has been 
 placed under the command of General Perc- 
 zel, who has besides 12,000 fresh troops. 
 He has advanced 24,000 men from Szegled 
 to Szolnok ; and he is prepared either to 
 cross the Theisz or to attack the Russians 
 on the right bank of that river. 
 
 " Colonel Korponay has, moreover, raised 
 large levies near St. Agata ; and for the pro- 
 tection of Groszwardein we have despatched 
 two battalions of foot, two divisions of 
 hussars, and eight guns, with some levies 
 from the country, making a total of 9600
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 men, who are encamped at Piispoki. In con- 
 sequence of these movements the Russians 
 have made a hasty retreat from Debreczin, 
 and evacuated the line of the Theisz, so that 
 we are in possession of the countries on the 
 other banks of the Theisz. General Perczel 
 is in the camps at Szolnok and Abony, with 
 instructions to protect the right bank of the 
 Theisz and the country between the Danube 
 and the Theisz, together with Szegedin, the 
 present seat of the government, and to ope- 
 rate in the flanks and the rear of the Rus- 
 sians, whose main force advances upon Hat- 
 van, Pesth, and Waitzen. 
 
 " The Austrian General Ramberg occu- 
 pied Buda on the llth with 6000 men, but we 
 understand he has since left that place ; and 
 after we have demolished the walls of Buda, 
 neither Buda nor Pesth can be considered as 
 being of any military importance. We might 
 have remained in Pesth, but in that case I 
 ought to have sent for the array of the 
 Theisz or that of Bacs ; and in so doing we 
 should have evacuated countries from the soil 
 of which armies rise spontaneously after
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 34<3 
 
 every battle which we lose, while Pesth has 
 no resources whatever. It is my principle 
 not to adapt the operations of the war to the 
 safety of the seat of government, but vice 
 versa ; and this I know is a good principle. 
 To-day we are at Szegedin ; next week we 
 shall perhaps be at Arad, or at Groszwar- 
 dein. The latter place I should like best. 
 As for me, I am preparing to proceed from 
 village to village in search of volunteers. I 
 am going to organise a new reserve force of 
 30,000 men, and to take the command of 
 that force. I think I shall have the 30,000 
 men within a month. 
 
 " General Vetter has commenced his 
 operations against Jellachich. Brave Guyon 
 has defeated Jellachich, who fled to Tittel. 
 Guyon is gone in pursuit, while General 
 Kmetti is relieving Peterwardein. Colonel 
 Banffy is attacking the columns in Ecska- 
 Lukacsfalva; and Aradocz, on his forced 
 march, is hastening to Perlas for the pur- 
 pose of taking Tittel before Jellachich can 
 reach it. I do not think he will succeed, 
 and Tittel will be a sore point to us.
 
 314 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 Vederemo, the troops are brave, and so are 
 the generals. 
 
 " The upper army (alas, I have a great 
 deal to say about it ! ) is still at Komorn. 
 On the 12th they had a great battle, without 
 any result ; they kept their position in the 
 entrenched camp : the loss was enormous on 
 either side, but the enemy's was the greater ; 
 their horse suffered severely. 
 
 " One circumstance is very disagreeable 
 to me, to you, and indeed to the country. 
 On the 28th of June, General Gorgey wrote 
 me a letter from Komorn, saying that the 
 battle of Raab was lost, that the enemy was 
 taking our flanks at Bicske, and likely to be 
 in Buda within forty-eight hours ; and that 
 the government ought to remove the stores, 
 bank, &c. 
 
 " I had no garrison at Pesth, and I could 
 not expose the bank-note presses to be taken 
 by the enemy. I was compelled to take 
 them to pieces (there is about 6000 cwt., 
 presses and forms), and to transport them to 
 Szegedin at the very time when the ap- 
 proach of the Kussians forced me to remove
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 345 
 
 the presses of Debreczin. We wanted at 
 least a fortnight to put them up, and within 
 that fortnight not one florin was issued. 
 That is the reason why I send you no money, 
 except the 125,000 which I sent to Szolnok 
 on the 9th. 
 
 " I do what man can do ; but I am no 
 God ; I cannot create. 
 
 " For the last year I have had no money 
 coming in ; I found the treasury empty ; and 
 there was war from the first to the last. At 
 this very moment I have the following troops 
 on my hands : 
 
 Transylvania 40,000 men. 
 
 Upper army and Kornorn 45,000 
 
 Southern army 36,000 
 
 Army on the Tlieisz 26,000 
 
 Peterwardein 8,000 
 
 Groszwardein, Arad, Szegedin, &c. &c. ... 10,000 ,, 
 
 Total 165,000 men. 
 
 " Besides, there is the reserve squadron of 
 eighteen regiments of hussars, and seven bat- 
 talions now forming. We have also to main- 
 tain 20,000 men in the hospitals, with 60,000
 
 346 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE, 
 
 men, train-bands, besides powder-mills, can- 
 non foundry, manufactories for muskets, 
 swords, and bayonets ; 24,000 prisoners of 
 war, and over and above all tbis, tbe civil 
 brancb of tbe administration. These are no 
 trifles, General, and the presses bave not 
 worked for tbe last fortnight. I crave your 
 patience. I am no God. I can die for my 
 country, but even for my country I cannot 
 create. The presses will be at work in 
 three days, and I shall be enabled to send 
 your treasurer 200,000 florins a-week. You 
 ask me for 800,000 florins in thirty and fifty 
 kreuzer pieces. Please to consider that this 
 takes 9 5 400,000 impressions, which can only 
 be done by hand ; and take it that twenty 
 presses are at work, that each press makes 
 470,000 impressions, and each minute ten 
 impressions, and that they work day and 
 night, still we want thirty-three days to pro- 
 duce that sum ; and this sum is one-tenth of 
 our monthly expense. This will explain our 
 difficulties. I will do what man can do, but 
 I can do no more. 
 
 " I am now going to talk of important
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 347 
 
 matters. Messrs. Boleres and Bolliak, emi- 
 grants from Wallachia, have offered to or- 
 ganise a Wallachian legion. I approved of 
 the principle, and for the details, I have sent 
 them to you ; I recommend them. The 
 case is of great importance. If you were to 
 enter Wallachia, which I should like you to 
 do, this battalion might form your forlorn 
 hope. The consequences would be incal- 
 culable. 
 
 " If you think of marching into Wal- 
 lachia, I wish you would take these gentle- 
 men into your council, that they may prepare 
 your way, for it is desirable that the inhabit- 
 ants of that province should consider us as 
 friends. In the proclamations it ought to 
 be set forth that we come as friends to the 
 Turks and to the Wallachians, to liberate 
 them from the yoke of the Russians. 
 
 " The Turks have an equivocal policy, 
 they ought to be compromised. The news- 
 papers publish your proclamation suspending 
 all civil jurisdiction. The consequences of 
 this step may be very different from those 
 you look for, and it ought not to be taken
 
 348 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 without my sanction as governor. One-half 
 of the country is in flames at the mere idea. 
 Why do you place me in a false position, my 
 dear general ? Believe me I have plenty of 
 cares, and my friends ought not to add to 
 them. Your measures suspend the constitu- 
 tion ; and even the cahinet, if it were to take 
 such a step, must ask the sanction of the 
 Diet, or run the chances of an impeachment. 
 This may turn out an awkward crisis. Assist 
 me in preventing the dangers of this confu- 
 sion. I entreat you, assist me ; and I re- 
 mind you of our conversation at Groszwar- 
 dein. I have hopes that we shall conquer if 
 we are of one mind. My health is very had. 
 
 " Louis KOSSUTH, Governor." 
 
 In explanation of these statements we 
 ought to add, that on the llth of July, the 
 day on which the Imperial troops entered 
 Buda, which they never afterwards evacuated, 
 a desperate sally was made from the fortress 
 of Komorn. The insurgents were repulsed ; 
 but in the course of the night Gorgey and 
 his corps escaped on the road to Waitzen,
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 where he hoped to effect a junction with 
 Perczel, who endeavoured to advance from 
 Szolnok to Jasz-Berenyi and Alberti. 
 General Klapka was left in command of 
 the fortress of Komorn. 
 
 Gorgey and the Russians fought a battle 
 at Waitzen, in which the latter were at first 
 defeated ; but, being reinforced by fresh ar- 
 rivals, they in their turn attacked and de- 
 feated the insurgents on the 16th of July. 
 On the following day General Rudiger pur- 
 sued Gorgey to Vadkert, capturing several 
 thousand prisoners and some guns on the 
 road. 
 
 Prince Paskiewicz meanwhile commanded 
 the Theisz, and the roads to Debreczin and 
 Groszwardein. Gorgey however found means 
 to cross the Theisz with 40,000 men, and he 
 did this with so much expedition that the 
 Russians could not come up with him. He 
 reached Losoncz, where General Grabbe 
 vainly endeavoured to cut him off; and he 
 soon attained the left bank of the Theisz. 
 On the 22d of July he arrived at Miskolcz, 
 but being defeated in a battle at Debreczin
 
 350 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 he directed his forces upon Arad, for the 
 purpose of joining the insurgent forces in 
 the south, against whom Baron Haynau was 
 marching from Pesth with the bulk of the 
 Austrian army. The rebel hordes were 
 on the 1st of August totally routed by 
 Prince Paskiewicz at Debreczin ; and this 
 splendid victory was celebrated by Divine 
 service in the very church in which Kos- 
 suth and his parliament on the 14th of 
 April, 1849, had decreed the expulsion 
 of the family of Habsburg-Lorraine. On 
 the 8th of August, General Rudiger oc- 
 cupied Groszwardein, where he captured 
 large stores of arms, ammunition, and 
 provisions. 
 
 As for Transylvania, in that province, 
 too, the sword of justice gained one victory 
 after another. A junction was formed be- 
 tween the Imperial troops on the Theisz and 
 the Maros and the Russian corps in Tran- 
 sylvania. General Liiders occupied Herr- 
 mannstadt on the 21st July, after defeating 
 and routing the insurgents under Bern. 
 The Russian General Grotenhjelm obtained
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 351 
 
 similar advantages in the north. He drove 
 the rebels back upon Maros-Vasarhely, the 
 principal city of the Szelders, whose dis- 
 graceful perjury, savage temper, and cruelty 
 brought so much misery into their country, 
 and wrought so much grief to the poor and 
 loyal Saxons. 
 
 It is stated in the above letters, and it is 
 quite true, that 6000 insurgents invaded 
 Moldavia on the 23d of July, but not 
 meeting with the sympathy they expected, 
 they were compelled to make good their 
 retreat. 
 
 On the 31st of July the insurgents suf- 
 fered another defeat at Schasburg, where 
 General Liiders obtained possession of the 
 letters which we quoted above. The Hun- 
 garians had 1000 men killed, and lost 500 
 prisoners and several guns. The Russians 
 complained of the loss of the gallant General 
 Skariatin, the chief of the staff. 
 
 About this time the chivalrous Ban Jel- 
 lachich left Ruma, and proceeded to the 
 north to join the Imperial troops, which 
 advancing, approached the south for the
 
 352 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 purpose of taking Szegedin and relieving 
 Temesvar. 
 
 A writer of great authority says, " The 
 march of the allied armies from Pesth to 
 Szegedin and to the south of the Theisz, 
 through endless plains and deserts of sand 
 in a scorching heat, and in a remarkably 
 short time, stands prominently forward 
 among the greatest achievements of our 
 army, while it proves the efficiency and the 
 excellent temper of our troops. The want 
 of water (for the retreating insurgents had 
 filled up the wells,) was but one of the pri- 
 vations which the Imperial army suffered." 
 
 Amidst the press of matter, by which we 
 are all but crushed, we cannot enter into 
 details ; we cannot expatiate on the circum- 
 spection and restless activity which the Ban 
 displayed in the organisation and command 
 of the southern army; we cannot eulogise 
 the gallantry of Knicanin or Mamula on the 
 Theisz, or of Rukavina in the defence of 
 Temesvar ; we cannot paint the admirable 
 rapidity of the progress and the manoeuvres 
 of Schlick, and the heroism of Benedek. All
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 353 
 
 we can do is to give a general account of the 
 heroic deeds which were enacted within 
 those few weeks. 
 
 On the 29th of July, Baron Haynau's 
 head-quarters were at Felegyhaza, while the 
 third corps at Melikut, and the first at 
 Szegled, kept up uninterrupted communica- 
 tions with the Russian auxiliaries ; and 
 the armies of the insurgents, especially Dem- 
 binsky's corps of 40,000 men were so closely 
 watched that they could neither unite nor 
 obtain a footing for decisive tyattle. They 
 waited for the arrival of Gorgey, who mean- 
 while was held in check by the Russians. 
 
 About the end of July, Kossuth, although 
 protected by a large army, felt so confined 
 and threatened that he sent his presses and 
 bank-note paper to Arad and Szegedin for 
 the purpose of again seeking his safety in 
 flight. 
 
 On the 2d of August, Baron Haynau 
 sent Simbschen's brigade to reconnoitre the 
 entrenchments of Szegedin. It was generally 
 expected that this fortified city would hold 
 out to the last, but it was occupied without 
 
 A A
 
 354 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 any resistance, and large stores of gunpowder, 
 ammunition, and corn fell into the hands of 
 the victors. 
 
 On the following day the combat com- 
 menced at old Szegedin, and the Imperial 
 troops, under the careful guidance of the 
 General Prince Francis Liechtenstein, dis- 
 played unequalled bravery in crossing the 
 river and storming the enemy's batteries. 
 
 On the 4th of August, the combat was 
 renewed at the tete du pont, until the enemy 
 was thrown back and driven upon Szoreg 
 and St. Iwan, where the insurgents effected 
 a junction under the commmand of Dem- 
 binsky, Meszaros, Desewffy, and Guyon. 
 They mustered 35,000 men, with from 
 fifty to sixty pieces of artillery, and made 
 frantic endeavours to arrest the progress of 
 the allied armies. On the following day the 
 rebels were defeated on all points ; they were 
 compelled to quit Szoreg and to beat a gene- 
 ral retreat. On the 4th of August our first 
 corps was at Mako, while the third forced 
 the crossings of the Theisz at Kanisa. 
 
 We now publish the eventful bulletin
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 355 
 
 which Baron Haynau wrote in his head- 
 quarters at Temesvar, on the 10th day of 
 August. 
 
 " After the victorious battle at Szoreg we 
 pursued the enemy unremittingly. In spite 
 of the great fatigue which the army had 
 suffered in the forced march from Nagy- 
 Igmand to Szegedin, our troops entered on 
 the 7th of August the line of St. Miklos, 
 Albrechtsflur, O-Besenyo, and Mokrin ; and 
 on the 8th they occupied Sajteny, on the right 
 bank of the Maros, Racz, St. Peter, Peszak, 
 Lovrin and Csatad to Hatzfeld. In the course 
 of this pursuit the enemy attempted to re- 
 sist on some points, but were quickly driven 
 on by the 3d corps and a division of Wall- 
 moden cuirassiers. We took many prisoners, 
 one standard, and one piece of artillery. 
 The train-bands were in complete dissolu- 
 tion, and of the regulars we had many 
 deserters, most of whom had formerly served 
 in the Austrian army, and who, as prisoners, 
 had been compelled to fight against us. 
 The deserters and prisoners mustered about 
 3000 men. From Mako I sent General
 
 356 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 Schlick to Mezohegyes, where he secured 
 the government offices and 3000 horses. 
 
 " I have been informed that the whole 
 of the enemy's forces have gone from Sze- 
 gedin to Temesvar, where they joined Vet- 
 ter's corps from the Lower Theisz. The 
 insurgents seemed resolved to fight a pitched 
 battle near Temesvar, and they were justi- 
 fied in so doing ; for they had large masses 
 of troops, with more than 100 pieces of 
 artillery. 
 
 " On the 9th of August I advanced with 
 the third corps and with the Wallmoden 
 cuirassiers from Csatad to Kis-Becskerek ; 
 and the Russian division under Paniutine, 
 with the artillery reserve, marching from 
 Lovrin by way of Sillet, made likewise an 
 advance upon the same place ; while our re- 
 serves were sent from Pezsak, by way of Knez 
 to Hodony and Karany, in order to turn the 
 enemy's right flank. I had sent the first 
 corps, with some side-flanks on either side 
 the Maros, to Pecska and Foulak, and to 
 Racs, Monostor, and Vinga, to cut off the 
 enemy's communications between Temesvar
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 357 
 
 and Arad, and to take their artillery, for I 
 knew that they had raised the siege of 
 Arad. 
 
 " At Kis-Becskerek the enemy had taken 
 a rear-guard position, but the third corps 
 dislodged them very quickly. When I pro- 
 ceeded from Becskerek with the third corps 
 and the cavalry, for the purpose of seeking 
 an advantageous and encamped position, the 
 enemy (who were retreating) developed enor- 
 mous strength of artillery and cavalry. I 
 sent my troops against them, and had them 
 driven across the cutting which is formed 
 in the road hy the ravages of a mountain 
 stream. On the other bank of that stream 
 they came to a stand, and, covered by thick 
 forests, endeavoured on either side to turn 
 our flanks ; and for a time they succeeded 
 in preventing our advance. 
 
 " Meanwhile I brought the Russian divi- 
 sion and batteries, and the artillery reserve, 
 to bear upon the enemy, and when their 
 artillery was partly silenced I effected a 
 general advance of my forces. 
 
 " The cavalry brigade of Lederer covered
 
 358 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 my right flank, which the enemy threatened 
 to turn ; while Simbschen's light horse did 
 good service on the left wing. About this 
 time, at four o'clock P.M., the reserve corps 
 arrived in front of Hodony, and General 
 Prince Francis Liechtenstein advanced im- 
 mediately upon the enemy's right flank near 
 St. Andras. 
 
 " The enemy made a general retreat and 
 were pursued by our troops. Behind the 
 Beregszo stream they held out in the forest 
 until nightfall. I could not pursue them 
 with my horse, for the rivulets and swamps 
 impeded the movements of the cavalry ; be- 
 sides, the horses were knocked up with 
 forced marches and perpetual skirmishing. 
 
 " As the evening approached my scouts 
 informed me that the enemy had quitted the 
 forest, and that they were in full retreat. 
 Upon this I resolved to reach the gates of 
 Temesvar that very night, and taking two 
 divisions of cavalry, and some battalions, I 
 started off for that place. The enemy en- 
 deavoured, indeed, to prevent my advance, 
 but half a battery which I sent against them
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 3,59 
 
 drove them back, and the relief of Temesvar 
 was executed in an incredibly expeditious 
 manner. I was received with shouts of 
 transport. In the course of this battle, 
 which I call the battle of Temesvar, the gar- 
 rison of the fortress made a sally, and did 
 much execution upon the enemy. 
 
 " I owe this signal success to the great 
 devotion of my troops, who advanced from 
 the Danube to this place with unequalled 
 rapidity, and who after a march of three 
 German miles on the 9th of August, when 
 they had had no dinner, fought with courage 
 and perseverance until nightfall. The cavalry 
 did wonders, and I ought also to return my 
 thanks to the artillery of my army. The foot 
 were not properly engaged, for the battle 
 was nothing but a violent cannonade of six or 
 seven hours, diversified by a few successful 
 cavalry attacks. The coming up of the re- 
 serve decided the battle. The advanced 
 guard of this corps took four 24-pounders, 
 several ammunition carts, and large quan- 
 tities of baggage, and their appearance pro-
 
 360 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 duced the greatest confusion among the 
 enemy. 
 
 "General Count Schlick, with his corps, 
 advanced to Monostor, and pushed his ad- 
 vanced guard forward to Vinga, where he 
 took 300 prisoners and a magazine of uni- 
 forms. With the exception of the first corps, 
 which is going to blockade Arad, I have con- 
 centrated the army near Temesvar, and ad- 
 vanced some troops to Remete and to the 
 river Temes. The enemy have fled to Lugos, 
 with baggage, guns, and ammunition carts, 
 in the wildest confusion. Their foot were 
 altogether disorganised, and if darkness had 
 not set in, and if I had had the least idea of 
 this great confusion, I would have sent the 
 cavalry after them, though fatigued. In the 
 neighbouring forest, and in the musket fac- 
 tory which the insurgents destroyed, there 
 were, at nine o'clock that very night, Dem- 
 binsky, Guyon, Kmety, Vecsey, and Bern ; 
 the latter arrived at noon on the 9th instant, 
 with some forces from Transylvania, and 
 took the chief command of the rebel army.
 
 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 36 1 
 
 "On the battle-field we found large 
 masses of weapons ; deserters and prisoners 
 were brought in in crowds. Of prisoners we 
 have 6000. The enemy's bombardment has 
 almost wholly destroyed the fortress of Te- 
 mesvar the city is a mass of ruins ; and I 
 cannot sufficiently praise the constancy and 
 perseverance of the commander, Baron Ru- 
 kavina. 
 
 " In the course of the siege 2400 of the 
 garrison died of typhus and cholera ; 300 
 men were killed by the enemy's projectiles ; 
 1400 men are in the hospitals ; and 600 in- 
 valids are with their companies, since there 
 was no room in the hospitals. The works 
 have not suffered much, but three detached 
 forts have been considerably damaged. 
 
 " In spite of the violent cannonade on 
 the 9th, our loss is very small. To the best 
 of my knowledge the Austrian army had 
 fifteen men killed and thirty-six wounded. 
 Major Baron Broetta, of the Ferdinand cui- 
 rassiers, was killed ; and Captain Prince 
 Taxis, Count Palfiy, and Baron Simbschen 
 of the lancers ; and Lieutenant Caravaggio,
 
 36'2 KOSSUTH A FUGITIVE. 
 
 of Liechtenstein's light- horse, have been 
 wounded. The Russian division had eight 
 men killed and eight men wounded. 
 
 " The garrison of Temesvar were so 
 hard up for meat that they have eaten horse 
 flesh for the last eighteen days. 
 
 " Field-marshal Lieutenant Glaser has 
 been killed by a fall in the course of the 
 siege."
 
 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY. 363 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. 
 
 WE have already alluded to the differences 
 which had sprung up between the men of 
 the people and the men of the army, and 
 had become all but irreconcileable. Kos- 
 suth's letters to Bern show too that he 
 was not satisfied with Gorgey's manoeuvres, 
 and that he would have liked to appoint the 
 Polish general to the chief command of the 
 army. Kossuth, in fact, favoured the Polish 
 revolutionists at the cost of the native Hun- 
 garians ; he gave them larger pay, and 
 sometimes even in gold and silver, while the 
 Hungarians received bank-notes and pro- 
 mises. 
 
 He fancied the foreigners were the better 
 soldiers, and more adapted to his peculiar 
 purposes ; he considered Gorgey as his most 
 dangerous rival, whom he would have
 
 364 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY : 
 
 ruined, had not necessity compelled him to 
 recognise the merits of the victor in many 
 battles and the favourite of the Magyar 
 troops. 
 
 The reason why Gorgey opposed him 
 may be found less in his jealousy of Bern 
 than in the circumstance that Kossuth's in- 
 sane policy was tottering on the brink of an 
 abyss, into which he was likely to drag the 
 country, unless it were possible to find an 
 expedient for the purpose of saving the 
 better part of the population from certain 
 destruction. It is now sufficiently proved 
 that Gorgey was a stranger to Kossuth's 
 diabolical sentiments, and that his heart was 
 never against Austria ; on the contrary, that 
 he had long looked for an opportunity to 
 come to an understanding. He would have 
 succeeded but for Kossuth's madness. 
 
 The battle of Temesvar served not only 
 to break up the physical power of the revolu- 
 tion, but it also crushed its moral power. 
 It caused the insurgents to lose their confi- 
 dence, and thus led to a crisis. For two 
 days after the battle (on the 1 1 th of August) 
 the insurgent chiefs assembled at old Arad,
 
 THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. 365 
 
 and held a council of war, of which it is 
 stated that it was like unto a furious tor- 
 nado. We cannot enter into a detail of its 
 debates, but we publish two documents 
 which were its results. 
 
 I. 
 
 " Kossuth to the Nation. 
 
 " After the unfortunate battles where- 
 with God, in these latter days, has visited 
 our people, we have no hope of our success- 
 ful continuance of the defence against the 
 allied forces of Russia and Austria. Under 
 such circumstances, the salvation of the 
 national existence, and the protection of its 
 fortune, lies in the hands of the leaders of 
 the army. It is my firm conviction, that 
 the continuance of the present government 
 would not only prove useless but also inju- 
 rious to the nation. Acting upon this con- 
 viction, I proclaim that, moved by those 
 patriotic feelings which, throughout the 
 course of my life, have impelled me to devote 
 all my thoughts to the country, I, and with 
 me the whole of the cabinet, resign the 
 guidance of the public affairs, and that the
 
 366 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY '. 
 
 supreme civil and military power is herewith 
 conferred on the General Arthur Gorgey, 
 until the nation, making use of its rights, shall 
 have disposed that power according to its 
 will. I expect of the said General Gorgey 
 and I make him responsible to God, the 
 nation, and to history that, according to 
 the best of his ability, he will use this 
 supreme power for the salvation of the na- 
 tional and political independence of our poor 
 country and of its future. May he love his 
 country with that disinterested love which I 
 bear it ! May his endeavours to reconquer 
 the independence and happiness of the na- 
 tion be crowned with greater success than 
 mine were ! 
 
 " I have it no longer in my power to 
 assist the country by actions. If my death 
 can benefit it, I will gladly sacrifice my 
 life. May the God of justice and of mercy 
 watch over my poor people ! 
 
 " Louis KOSSUTH, Governor, 
 BARTHOLOMEW SZEMERE, 
 S. VUCKOVICH, 
 
 L. CSANYI, 
 
 M. HORVATH."
 
 THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. 367 
 
 II. 
 
 " Gor gey to the Nation. 
 
 "Citizens! The Provisional Govern- 
 ment exists no longer. The governor and 
 the ministers have voluntarily resigned their 
 offices. Under these circumstances a mili- 
 tary dictatorship is necessary, and it is 1 
 who take it, together with the civil power 
 of the state. 
 
 " Citizens ! whatever in our precarious 
 position can he done for the country, I in- 
 tend to do, be it by means of arms or by 
 negotiations. I intend to do all in my 
 power to lessen the painful sacrifice of life 
 and treasure, and to put a stop to persecu- 
 tion, cruelty, and murder. 
 
 " Citizens ! the events of our time are 
 astounding, and the blows of fate over- 
 whelming ! Such a state of things defies 
 all calculation. My only advice and desire 
 is, that you should quietly return to your 
 homes, and that you eschew assisting in 
 the resistance and the combats, even in case 
 your towns are occupied by the enemy. The
 
 368 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY : 
 
 safety of your persons and properties you 
 can obtain only by quietly staying at the 
 domestic hearth, and by peacefully following 
 the course of your useful occupations. 
 
 " Citizens ! it is ours to bear whatever it 
 may please God in His inscrutable wisdom 
 to send us. Let our strength be the strength 
 of men, and let us find comfort in the con- 
 viction that Right and Justice must wea- 
 ther the storms of all times. 
 
 " Citizens ! may God be with us ! 
 
 " ARTHUR GORGKY. 
 
 "Arad, 11th August, 1849." 
 
 We ought to consider that the defeats 
 of the Hungarians in their own country 
 were accompanied almost simultaneously by 
 equal defeats of their allies. The Grand 
 Duchy of Baden was reconquered by the 
 Prussian army ; Radetzky forced perfidious 
 Sardinia to accept his conditions of a peace ; 
 and even republican France took the field 
 against the republic and anarchy of Rome ; 
 while the Austrian troops did the service of 
 scavengers to the other cities in Tuscany,
 
 THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. #69 
 
 and in the Papal states. The Hungarian 
 republic was thus left isolated and thrown 
 back upon the last step of despair, viz., 
 the dictatorship. Hungary took that step, 
 though without hope and without success. 
 
 How much must Kossuth have suffered 
 when he was compelled to resign his power 
 into the hands of his hated rival ! and what 
 must his rage have been when he found that 
 Gorgey's measures were opposed to his own, 
 and that he recommended peaceful senti- 
 ments ! 
 
 Two days after the council of war at 
 Arad the new dictator entered upon the 
 only path of safety for himself and his 
 countrymen. We publish Baron Haynau's 
 bulletin of the 18th of August, in so far as 
 it relates to this transaction : 
 
 "Gorgey and his corps, whose rapid 
 movements caused them to escape from the 
 Russian army on the Upper Theisz, marched 
 to Debreczin, where his rear-guard was 
 routed by the Russians, and from thence to 
 Groszwardein and Arad to join the southern 
 
 B B
 
 370 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY : 
 
 army of the Magyars. He was on the point 
 of effecting his purpose, when the Austrian 
 army of the Danube relieved Temesvar and 
 threatened Arad on the left of the Maros. 
 Gorgey arrived too late, for early on the 
 10th of August Count Schlick, with part of 
 his corps, attacked Gorgey's advanced guard 
 of from eight to ten thousand men near 
 
 O 
 
 Arad, in which city they were driven back 
 with great loss. 
 
 " Upon this Gorgey endeavoured to 
 reach and cross the Maros, and he threw a 
 bridge over that river in order to escape to 
 Lippa and Lugos. I had, however, sent a 
 column to Lippa, which drove the enemy's 
 advanced guard back across the river. Upon 
 this the enemy burned their bridge. These 
 last mano3uvres were decisive, for nothing 
 now was left to Gorgey except either to face 
 the Eussian corps which followed him from 
 Groszwardein, or the advanced guard of the 
 allied army at Deva, .or, on the left bank of 
 the Maros, the Austrian army of the Da- 
 nube. Thus surrounded on all sides, Gorgey, 
 with his corps of 25,000 men, with 144 pieces
 
 THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. 371 
 
 of artillery, surrendered on the 13th of 
 August at Vilagos ; and the fortress of Arad, 
 too, made an unconditional surrender on the 
 17th of August. 
 
 " The Austrian army prides itself on 
 having annihilated the enemy in six battles, 
 and on having compelled Gorgey and Arad 
 to surrender. An intercepted letter from 
 Kossuth shows that he despaired of the Hun- 
 garian cause even before he knew anything of 
 Gorgey's surrender. Large masses of mili- 
 tary stores, provisions, ammunition, and wea- 
 pons, to the amount of many millions, have 
 fallen into our hands. M. Duschek, the 
 Minister of Finance of the Provisional Go- 
 vernment, surrendered in person, and brought 
 us a large treasure of gold and silver in 
 bars. 
 
 " On the 16th of August, a junction was 
 effected between the troops of Baron Jella- 
 chich and the army of the Danube. The 
 bloody drama is ended, and we accept it as 
 a happy omen that we can proclaim this fact 
 on this day, the birthday of our most gra- 
 cious monarch."
 
 372 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY I 
 
 Kossuth's letter, which is mentioned in 
 the above bulletin, is addressed to the rebel 
 chief Bern. It is written in the French 
 language, but with many faults of ortho- 
 graphy and grammar. The postscript is in 
 German : 
 
 Kossuth to General Bern. 
 
 " Teregova, 14th August, 1849. 
 
 " I do not care for my own safety. I am 
 tired of life, for I see the fair fabric of my 
 country, and with it the sanctuary of Euro- 
 pean liberty, thrown down ; not by our 
 enemies, but by the hands of our brethren. 
 It is not a cowardly yearning for life which 
 induces me to hasten away. I go, because I 
 am convinced that my presence has become 
 obnoxious to the country. 
 
 General Guyon writes to say that the 
 army at Temesvar is in a state of complete 
 dissolution ; as for you, General, you too are 
 disabled. Gorgey, at the head of the only 
 army which remains, protests that, instead 
 of obeying, he means to command. I have 
 adjured him to be a patriot and to remain
 
 THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. 373 
 
 faithful to his country, and I have made way 
 for him. At present I am a citizen, neither 
 more nor less. I went to inspect the state 
 of affairs and the forces at Lugos. I found 
 General Vecsey's corps in good order, and 
 well disposed ; all the other corps were dis- 
 handing. Desewffy and Kmety protested 
 that, instead of fighting, this army was likely 
 to take flight at the first gun-shot. I found 
 them altogether without provisions, and 
 forced to make requisitions, a wretched 
 expedient, which serves only to exasperate 
 the country people. The bank has been 
 brought to Arad ; it is in Gorgey's hands. 
 What I saw convinced me, that if he sur- 
 renders, the army at Lugos cannot hold out 
 for twenty-four hours, especially since they 
 want the means of subsistence. In the ene- 
 my's country an army may possibly exist on 
 forced requisitions and contributions ; but 
 by no means can it exist in this way in its 
 own country. I for one will never lend my 
 hand to forcible measures against my own 
 people. I would give my life to save, but 
 I will never oppress, the nation. You see,
 
 374 KOSSUTH AND GORGE Y I 
 
 General, it is a case of conscience. I cannot 
 resign on one day and claim the power of 
 government on the other. If the nation and 
 the army were to will it otherwise, things 
 would, of course, take another turn ; hut 
 then Gorgey's army, the bravest of all our 
 corps, ought to assent. Unless this be done, 
 I am simply a citizen ; and I will never con- 
 sent to give the assistance even of my pre- 
 sence to measures of terrorism, to destruction, 
 and robbery, to requisitions and oppressions. 
 If Gorgey's army, too, were to call me back 
 to the government if you were to succeed 
 in some operations tending to ensure the 
 provisioning of your troops without violent 
 measures against the people if the bank 
 could be brought to work, and if it stood at 
 my disposal ; then, indeed, you would find 
 me willing, on the nation's demand, to re- 
 sume the duties of office. But unless those 
 things are done, there is no office for me. 
 With me, war is not the end ; it is a means 
 to save the country. If I see no probability 
 of accomplishing the end, I will not lend my 
 hand to make war for its own sake.
 
 THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. 
 
 " As a citizen and an honest man, I ad- 
 vise you to call a committee of the repre- 
 sentatives of the people, for it is their su- 
 preme power alone which can lawfully dis- 
 pose of the government. Send couriers to 
 Komorn and Peterwardein. Tell them to 
 hold out. Endeavour to obtain certain in- 
 formation about the co-operation of the com- 
 mander of Arad. These are matters of the 
 first importance, but my presence is not ; for 
 since you are forced to adopt violent mea- 
 sures to provide for your army, I cannot 
 lend the assistance of my presence to any- 
 thing of that kind. 
 
 " I remain, with great respect, 
 
 " KOSSUTH." 
 
 " P. S. Messieurs Zamoiski and Biszo- 
 ranowski tell me it is a duty of the Hun- 
 garians so to direct the manoeuvres of the 
 Polish and Italian legion that they may do 
 service to the country, but that in the worst 
 case they may avoid being transported to 
 Siberia. I am sensible of this duty, and have 
 instructed General Guyon to employ these
 
 376 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY '. 
 
 legions in keeping up the communications 
 with Turkey by way of Orsova. Now, I 
 understand that you have sent the garrison 
 of Orsova to Transylvania ; there are but 
 two companies, which cannot even for three 
 days make head against the Servians. They 
 are this day at Kornya ; they have marched 
 about six German miles, and they got 
 nothing to eat. They, too, will be routed, 
 and Orsova is likely to fall into the enemy's 
 hands." 
 
 The following is a translation of Baron 
 Haynau's bulletin of the 19th of August: 
 
 " The pursuit has been carried on by a 
 third corps, by the reserves, and by tbe 
 Wallmoden cuirassiers ; it was so successful 
 that Transylvania and the Banat are no 
 longer infested by the insurgents. A few 
 thousand men of the Polish legion are be- 
 tween Mehadia and Orsova, but we are 
 going to rout them. On the 19th our troops 
 overtook seventy- two field-pieces of Vecsey's 
 corps, which the insurgents had left behind. 
 They also took 100 baggage-waggons. This
 
 THE CRISIS OF THE WAR. 377 
 
 corps being in a state of dissolution, and 
 Vecsey himself having taken flight, the re- 
 mainder of from 7000 to 8000 men, 1000 
 horses, and 4000 muskets, with two field- 
 pieces, surrendered to the Russian army at 
 Boros-Jevo. 
 
 " The insurgents under Bern and Guy on 
 are still being pursued, and the third corps 
 entered Deva on the 18th and 19th. This 
 place had already been occupied on the 1,5th 
 by an advanced guard from General Liider's 
 corps ; but in the course of the night of the 
 17th Bern and Guyon arrived with their 
 forces, and the Russian outposts fell back 
 upon the main body of their corps. The 
 rebels asked General Liiders for an armistice 
 of twenty-four hours. This was granted to 
 them, with a summons to make an uncon- 
 ditional surrender afterwards. They held a 
 council of war, and many officers insisted on 
 continuing the combat, but the troops re- 
 fused to obey their orders. Bern and Guyon 
 took advantage of the armistice, and fled in 
 the direction of Ruszberg. They were al- 
 most captured. After their departure a vio-
 
 378 KOSSUTH AND GORGEY, ETC. 
 
 lent quarrel took place in the camp, for the 
 officers could not agree about the surrender. 
 The consequence was, that on the 18th inst. 
 the better half of the corps (about 8000 
 men) surrendered to the Russians, who 
 took the prisoners, weapons, and heavy artil- 
 lery (about fifty pieces) to Hermannstadt ; 
 twenty-four pieces of artillery were left at 
 Deva, under the protection of one battalion 
 of Eussians, but they were afterwards given 
 up to our third corps. 
 
 " Above 1000 insurgents have fled into 
 the mountains on either side of the Maros, 
 and the remainder of from 4000 to 5000 
 men were taken in charge by our third 
 corps. Within the last few days at Facset, 
 Deva, Dobra, and Karansebes, we have 
 taken 25,000 men and 176 pieces of artil- 
 lery, without counting, however, the corps of 
 Gorgey."
 
 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 379 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 KOSSUTH IN TDEKEY. 
 
 A PHILOSOPHER who can appreciate the gulf 
 which lies between the enjoyment of ambition 
 and the bitterness of an inglorious downfall, 
 will likewise be able to fathom the thoughts 
 of the man whom treason and revenge had 
 made a governor and dictator, who had 
 ruined his infatuated country, and who fled 
 to the frontier over heaps, of corpses and 
 ruins. Kossuth expresses these sentiments 
 in his farewell to Hungary, but he does so 
 in a very selfish and poetical way. This 
 batch of sentimental phrases, and this string 
 of accusations against Gorgey, which bears 
 the stamp of a broken heart, was published 
 in several foreign papers, so that there is 
 some reason to believe that Kossuth himself
 
 380 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 
 
 caused it to be translated. The document 
 has, however, a certain historical value. It 
 is dated from Orsova, the 15th of August, 
 1849, and runs to the following purpose : 
 
 " Farewell, my country ! Farewell, coun- 
 try of the Magyars ! Farewell, country of 
 torments ! No longer shall I see thy moun- 
 tains, no longer shall I make my home on 
 the soil where in my first days I drank the 
 milk of justice and of liberty. Canst thou 
 pardon me, O my country ? Canst thou 
 pardon the man who is now doomed to be 
 a vagrant far from thy sacred soil, because 
 he fought for thy happiness ? Canst thou 
 pardon me, that on thy plains there is no 
 spot that is free but that on which I kneel, 
 with some faithful sons of great, of conquered 
 Hungary ? 
 
 " I look upon thee, O my poor country ! 
 I see thee bent with suffering. I look to the 
 future, but the future is shrouded in dark- 
 ness. Thy plains are red with blood ; cor- 
 ruption will blacken it, as a sign of mourning 
 over the countless victories which thy sons 
 obtained against the enemies of thy sacred soil!
 
 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY". 381 
 
 How many pitiful prayers have struck the 
 ear of the Almighty ! how many hot tears 
 have fallen down upon thee tears which 
 might even have moved charity in the depth 
 of hell and these streams of blood, which 
 proved that the Hungarian loves his country, 
 and that he knows how to die for it ! 
 
 " And still, O my country, thou art en- 
 slaved. From thy very howels they will dig 
 out the iron to subjugate thee, to strike 
 down thy holy things, and to foster all things 
 accursed. 
 
 " O God, if Thou love us, Thy people 
 if Thou lovest us, the people of Arpad the 
 hero, listen to my prayers, and save this 
 country from humiliation. 
 
 " This I say in my despair, standing on 
 the last spot of thy soil. Pardon me, O my 
 country, since I was the cause that thy sons 
 have bled for thee ; for I was thy advocate 
 when they would have doomed thee lost. I 
 have spoken for thee when they said, * Be a 
 slave ! ' And I have girded my loins with a 
 sword when they dared to say, ' Thou art no 
 longer a nation on the soil of the Magyars ! '
 
 382 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 
 
 " Time has passed with rapid steps ; fate 
 has signed thy death-warrant on the pages of 
 thy history. The Colossus of the North has 
 printed his seal thereon ; but this seal will 
 melt at the approach of the red-hot iron of 
 the East. 
 
 " My country, thou hast shed streams of 
 noble blood, but there is no pity for thee. 
 Tyranny and despotism feast on the hills 
 formed by the corpses of thy fallen sons. 
 And the ungrateful one, whom thou hast 
 nourished with the fatness of thy wealth, he 
 has turned against thee. He, the traitor of 
 his own country, raised his hand and struck 
 his own mother. 
 
 " But thou, O generous nation, thou 
 hast borne all this, and more ; nor hast thou 
 cursed thy fate, for within thee hope tri- 
 umphs over the sufferings of the present 
 time. 
 
 " Hungarians ! do not avert your eyes 
 from me, for at this very moment my tears 
 are flowing for you, and this spot of ground 
 which bears my trembling feet is still blessed 
 by the name of Hungary. Thou hast fallen,
 
 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 383 
 
 my country, because thou hast wrought thy 
 own undoing. 
 
 " It was not the sword of the foreigner 
 which prepared thy fall, not the guns of 
 fourteen nations which were leagued against 
 thee could prevail against thy patriotism ; it 
 was not the fifteenth nation from beyond the 
 Karpathians which compelled thee to sur- 
 render. No, my country, thou hast been 
 betrayed and sold. Thy doom was signed 
 by the very men whose patriotism I thought 
 unimpeachable. The highest flight of my 
 boldest thoughts might, perhaps, have led 
 me to doubt the existence of God ; but I 
 never could have believed that he would be 
 a traitor to his country. Thou hast been 
 betrayed by the man into whose hands I 
 gave the government of our great country, 
 which he swore to defend to the last. But 
 vile metal had more value in his eyes than 
 his country and his God, who abandoned 
 him, even as he renounced God for his hellish 
 associates. Magyars ! dearest comrades ! 
 do not condemn me because I was forced to 
 select this man, and to resign my place to
 
 384- KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 
 
 him. I was compelled, for the people 
 trusted him and the army loved him. And 
 yet he has betrayed the confidence of the 
 people, and hatred was his return for the 
 love of the army. Curse him, people of 
 Hungary ! curse the breast which succoured 
 him ! 
 
 " I love thee, O most faithful of all 
 nations, as I love freedom, for which thou 
 hast done battle. The God of liberty will 
 never forget thee. May He bless now and 
 for ever. 
 
 " My principles were not the principles 
 of Washington ; my actions were not the 
 actions of terror. I wished to see thee as a 
 free people free as God created men. And 
 thou art dead, withered like the lily, to bring 
 forth fresh flowers with the return of spring. 
 Thou art dead, for thy winter has come 
 apace. But that winter will not last so long 
 as that of thy comrades in suffering who 
 pine away in the ices of Siberia. 
 
 "No; fifteen nations have prepared thy 
 doom, and thousands of the sixteenth shall 
 come to work thv resurrection. Be thou
 
 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 385 
 
 faithful, as thou always hast heen ; respect 
 the words of the Gospel ; say thy last prayer, 
 and let thy national hymn be silent until 
 thy mountains resound with the cannon of 
 victory. 
 
 " God be with you, dear countrymen ! 
 May His power and the angels of liberty 
 protect you ! Curse me not ! You are a 
 proud people indeed, for you have roused the 
 lions of Europe to conquer the rebels. The 
 world admires you as heroes, and the cause 
 of my heroic people will be supported by the 
 freest of all the free nations on the face of 
 the earth. 
 
 " God be with you, O thou sacred soil ! 
 sanctified by the blood of so many martyrs. 
 Let that blood be a witness to the people 
 which will bring you help. And God be 
 with thee, too, thou young King of Hun- 
 gary ! Do not forget that this people is not 
 thy own. I trust to God that thou wilt 
 become convinced of this, even on the ruins 
 of Buda. 
 
 " God Almighty bless thee, my beloved 
 people ! Have faith, charity, and hope." 
 
 c c
 
 386 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 
 
 According to an authentic report, Dem- 
 binsky, senior, Meszaros, and Meszlenyi 
 (Kossuth's brother-in-law), with eighteen 
 other rebel officers, most of them Poles, 
 arrived on the 14th of August, by way 
 of Orsova, at Turnul-Szeverino. On the 
 1 6th, Moriz and Nicholas Perczel, and the 
 Sheriff Makay, arrived at the same place ; 
 and the 18th witnessed the arrival of Kos- 
 suth with his followers, while the 19th 
 brought M. Fischer, commander of the 
 National Guards, and Major Count Dem- 
 binsky with his wife. They all fled to the 
 Turkish territory, whither they were fol- 
 lowed by Bern and Count Casimir Batthyany, 
 with his wife, many officers, and about 4000 
 privates from the insurgent army. 
 
 On the 20th of August, the first trans- 
 port of insurgents, escorted by some Turkish 
 cavalry, arrived at Kalafat, where they 
 stopped. After a stay of three hours, they 
 were taken across the Danube to Widdin. 
 At one o'clock on the 21st, Kossuth arrived, 
 with three vans of luggage, which certainly 
 contained a large amount of treasure, of
 
 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 387 
 
 which we grieve to say that we suspect 
 it had been acquired by robbery. He 
 hastened to the Turkish commander, and 
 after a few minutes he returned and pro- 
 ceeded to the river, where a miserable 
 boat was quickly manned and covered with 
 an awning of reeds, and in this boat he 
 crossed over to Widdin. The Turkish offi- 
 cers assert that Kossuth was in a morbid 
 state of excitement, and that he excused the 
 haste he was in by pretending that he was 
 being pursued by the Cossacks. A third 
 transport of fugitives, of men of rank, ar- 
 rived on the 22d. 
 
 Kossuth and his friends were quartered 
 in one of the suburbs of Widdin, and the 
 Pacha sent him a guard of honour, for his 
 favour had been obtained by means which 
 may be easily guessed. 
 
 It was but natural that Austria and 
 Russia should be eager, on the bases of former 
 treaties (to wit, of Karlowitz, Passarowits, 
 Belgrade, Kudschuk-Kainardschi), to nego- 
 tiate with the Porte on the extradition, or at 
 least on the careful surveillance, of the fugi-
 
 388 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 
 
 tives ; and, in short, to do all in their power to 
 foil the intrigues of those disturbers of the 
 peace of the world. There can be no doubt 
 that Turkey was trammelled by the influence 
 of England, which, for the last few years, has 
 ceased to be the old trusty ally of Austria ; 
 and thus it happened that Kossuth and his 
 followers remained under the protection of 
 the Crescent. 
 
 In the second half of October, the Aus- 
 trian General Hauslab arrived at Widdin. 
 He brought an extensive amnesty, on the 
 part of his most gracious monarch, for the 
 privates and Serjeants of the fugitives ; and 
 he succeeded in inducing a large number of 
 them to return to their country ; and this the 
 more since they were all in a wretched con- 
 dition, and as most probably they desired to 
 satisfy their conscience. 
 
 Bern, the faithless, renounced Chris- 
 tianity, and became a Mahometan, because 
 he hoped that the time would come when he 
 could, for the third time, take the field 
 against Russia. It is to be regretted that 
 so many fugitives followed his example.
 
 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 389 
 
 In the beginning of September, there 
 were in Hungary but three fortresses which 
 dared to resist the allied armies. They were 
 Munkacz, Peterwardein, and Komorn. When 
 Gorgey surrendered at Vilagos, and when 
 he declared that he would use his power and 
 authority to induce the commanders of the 
 said fortresses to follow his example, as 
 they could not hold out, and too much 
 blood had been shed already, it was generally 
 hoped that these fortresses would soon sur- 
 render to the mercy of the victors. They 
 were permitted to send officers to ascertain 
 the true state of affairs and the hopeless ruin 
 of their cause ; but although there could be 
 no doubt in this respect, the chiefs of the 
 rebels remained obstinate, and they per- 
 suaded their terrorised and deluded garri- 
 sons that Master Kossuth would soon come 
 with 50,000 Turks to reconquer the country. 
 
 The small fortress of Munkacz was the 
 first to surrender to the Russians. Peter- 
 wardein capitulated on the 7th, for, closely 
 infested by the troops of the Ban, and ha- 
 rassed by internal dissension, this capitula-
 
 390 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 
 
 tion had become necessary. But most ob- 
 stinate was the maiden fortress of Komorn, 
 under the command of Klapka, who tendered 
 conditions of surrender, which proved alto- 
 gether inadmissible. At this time (on the 
 13th of September) the great Field-marshal 
 Radetzky was at Vienna, and his influence 
 prevailed to such an extent that the capitula- 
 tion of Komorn was concluded on the same 
 mild and humane conditions which had been 
 offered to Venice. The negotiations were 
 resumed, and supported by a blockading 
 force of 80,000 men, and on the 27th of 
 September the garrison declared their readi- 
 ness to surrender. Thus fell the last and 
 strongest bulwark of the Hungarian revolu- 
 tion ; please God that it be for ever. 
 
 Klapka, and many chiefs of the con- 
 spiracy, were allowed to depart from the 
 country. Gorgey remained in Austria. He 
 lives at present at Klagenfurt. 
 
 As for the fugitives in Widdin, they have 
 since been transported to Schumla. A letter 
 from Widdin of the 4th November states 
 that the emigrants were divided into four
 
 KOSSUTH IN TURKEY. 391 
 
 transports, and that they left on the 30th 
 and 31st of October, and on the 1st and 3d 
 of November. They were escorted by 
 lancers and light-horse. Kossuth, dealing 
 in his usual sophisms, protested that this 
 transportation was an especial grace of the 
 Sultan ; and he made a speech, which we 
 decline to copy. It is asserted that he rode 
 on a miserable horse ; that he was pale, 
 gloomy, and broken-hearted ; in short, that 
 he was the very picture of wretchedness.
 
 392 CONCLUSION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 BY means of Kossuth and his revolutionary 
 republic, the Pragmatic Sanction has been 
 torn asunder. In former times, Hungary 
 was in the position of a foreign country to 
 Austria, and the line of customs on the 
 frontier prevented the exchange of merchan- 
 dise and of ideas. The Magyars, with their 
 Constitution, were indeed better off than Aus- 
 tria under the iron rule of despotism ; but 
 what was called liberty in Hungary was 
 nothing but a snare a mere delusion : for 
 the country groaned under the despotism of 
 the magnates, and of their feudal institutions, 
 which prevented all progress. Exulting and 
 abounding Pannonia remained half-unculti- 
 vated, and its resources unexplored. Even
 
 CONCLUSION. 393 
 
 what little prosperity it enjoyed, it owed to the 
 Germans, as well as its liberation from the 
 yoke of the Turks ; for without Charles of 
 Lorraine, Hungary would to this day, per- 
 haps, have remained a Turkish province. 
 
 Hungary was not grateful to her libera- 
 tors, for from her bosom rose one after another 
 Rakoczi, Tokeli, Zapolya, Wesselenyi, 
 Nadasdy, Zrinyi, junior, and Frangipani, the 
 predecessors and prototypes of Kossuth. 
 They even leagued with their old foes, the 
 Mussulmen, against the House of Habsburg, 
 and the force of arms only could reduce 
 them to obedience ; but though they assisted 
 Maria Theresa in her hour of need, their 
 assistance was neither so spontaneous nor so 
 generous as it has been made to appear, for 
 the Hungarian nobility extorted rights and 
 privileges of quite an Oriental character. 
 
 Hungary is now a conquered country, a 
 province of Austria ; and shares in the 
 Constitution of the 4th of March, 1 84<J. The 
 Magyars may now, indeed, say that they are 
 a free nation. Truly the gain is on either 
 side 5 for Hungary, though still bleeding from
 
 394- CONCLUSION. 
 
 the wounds of her fatal civil war, sees the 
 time approaching when the conviction will 
 force itself upon everybody that the bonds of 
 harmony, of confidence, and of fraternity, 
 will heal the wounds of either country, and 
 that they are a guarantee of tranquillity, and 
 order, and of future prosperity. For in re- 
 organizing the conquered country, Austria 
 will certainly bear in mind the important 
 words of Jean Paul " Next to strength, no- 
 thing is so sublime as its command." 
 
 THE END. 
 
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