The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-08 00:00:00

M. KOSSUTH IN CHESTER.

LECTURE ON THE CONCORDAT BETWEEN
THE POPE AND AUSTRIA.

(FROM OUR. OWN REPORTER.)

M. Kossuth delivered the first of two lectures on the pro-
bable effect of the Concordat lately concluded between the
Pope and Austria, on Hungary in general, and Protestant-
ism in Hungary in particular, last night, in the New Music
Hall, Chester. The proceeds of the lecture were announced
as to be devoted to the funds of the Chester Mechanics'
Institution. This being M. Kossuth's first visit to Chester,
an 3, indeed, the first visit he has paid for some years to
any part of the North of England, a very large attendance
was expected. The numbers, however, fell short consi-
derably .of what might have been looked for. Many of the
benches were quite empty, although the galleries were
generally filled. At eight o'clock precisely M. Kossuth
came upon the platform, accompanied by several gentle-
men of the city, and was received with enthusiastic
applause. The chair was then taken by Mr. Temple,
barrister.

The Chairman, in a few words, introduced the subject
of the night and M. Kossuth.

M. Kossuth then came forward, and was received with
enthusiastic applause, which was kept up for some
moments. When silence had been restored, he proceeded
to say—Mr. Temple, ladies, and gentlemen, I have been
invited to deliver two lectures on the concordat between
the Pope and Francis Joseph of Austria, with special
reference to Hungary in general, and to the Protestantism
of Hungary in particular. The peculiar character of my

past career, has made it a habit with me in every emer-
gency to endeavour, first, to concentrate my attention
upon the general philosophy, as it were, of any given
case, and then, when I have come to a general determina_
tion, pass to the details. I shall, therefore, devote this
evening to a general survey of the case, and reserve for
my next lecture, some particulars. Before, however,
entering upon the subject, I beg to claim some indulgence
from this audience. Your native language is not my own,
and the gloomy disposition of an exiled soul is not one
congenial to new acquirements. A combination of
peculiar circumstances, led me formerly to address
English assemblies as well as I could, but from obvious
reasons I have discontinued the useless practice, and I
have since been living a life almost like the solitude of
the desert, in England, but not with Englishmen.
Hence, I fear, I have rather retrograded than
advanced in the knowledge of your language, at least in
fluency of speech, and correctness of pronounciation.
Bear with me when I am defective. I shall now enter upon
my subject. Whatever may have been the case in former
times, for the last three centuries England has had nothing
to do with concordats. (Hear, hear.) Therefore, I do
not know whether I may suppose that the subject of my
lecture is generally known to all present, and perhaps,
therefore, I should rather begin by briefly . stating
what is the nature of a concordat. (Hear, and cheers.)
No man, M. Kossuth continued to say, had the right to
claim the title of Christian who was not willing to grant
to another the same right to worship God. according_to
his conscience which he claimed for himself; but tolera-
tion was one thing—priestcraft another. The concordat
had nothing to do wii.b religion. It was simply an attempt
to subordinate the civil structure of society
_to ecclesias-
tical supremacy for the purpose of making .ecclesiastical
supremacy an efficient tool for the eternal•aspiration of
the Roman See to universal dominion. The lecturer read
several of the clauses of the concordat, and'explained the
power with which they armed the hands of the ecclesias-
tics for aggrandisement or persecution. To name the
word religion in the matter, he urged, was profanation. It
was a daring act of conspiracy by the despotisms of the
world against the freedom of the world—at present in
particular against his own native land, Hungary, which,
ever thp champion, always the victim of Christian
Europe, was now again required to bear the brunt of the
battle for Christian civilisation. At all times, and in
every country, the Roman See was ready to measure its
strength with the civil power, and the doctrine of the
" Immaculate conception" was but promulgated for the
purpose of testing the extent of passive obedience in the
Roman Catholic world. If it were unhesitatingly received
the Papacy might well venture on a sweeping aggressive
measure. The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church still
were immensely rich, and yet it was a remarkable fact that
Papacy, all-powerful as it was, never could make a second
Spain before of Austria. There was perhaps no c ,untry of
the Roman Catholic faith where the Papacy had less power,
and it had perhaps even more in many Protestant countries.
This was chiefly owing to Hungary, not Protestant Hungary
alone, but all Hungary. Greater even perhaps in this
respect, and richer, was the glory of Roman Catholic
Hungary. He was proud to pay this tribute to Roman
inasmuch as he was himself a Protestant,
some of whose ancestors had suffered exile and death for
the Protestant creed, and when he himself was once placed
in a position to choose between his religion and the security
of his life, he did not find the choice either difficult or
dubious. (Loud cheers.) All the powers of Papacy, when
all other places gave way before them, were unable to crush
the indomitable spirit of Hungary. Hungary stood as a
barrier against the encroachments of the Papacy. She
knew how to distinguish between religion and priest-
craft ; and while she faithfully supported the first, she
strongly opposed the second. It was her maxim that Papal
interference was a wind which blew nobody good. Every
such encroachment found that nation united as one man to
oppose it. It was the glory of Hungary that even the native
Catholic clergy never sunk to that degree of servility as to
allow themselves to be used as tools for the unholy ambition
of Rome. Even in that gigantic struggle which it had been
his destiny to lead, the great measure of Roman Catholi
Hungary had always stood with the Hungarian nation, and
against whatever enemy would encroach upon the rights of
the nation—bo he king, emperor, or pope. (Cheers.) M.
Kossuth dilated on the position thus held by Hungary even
so far back as the very darkest days of superstition, and
declared that even when the Pope excommunicated Hun-
gary, Hungary in turn excommunicated the Pope.
(Cheers.) After the Reformation, he showed that Hungary
maintained the same ground, and that this manly spirit did
not fail to exercise an influence far beyond its own provinces.
Taking his stand upon the uncontrovertible ground of his-
tory, he felt perfectly justified in asserting for his nation the
claims, to the credit of Christendom, that there was no
nation, not one throughout the world, which had rendered
greater service to Christian Europe. He asked what
would have been the result to Europe if Hungary had
yielded to the awful current of Islamism, and had not
checked it; or if she had been merged into that Russian
church of which the Czars were Popes, or if Hungary had
not been the first to open her heart to the light of the
Reformation. How, he asked, had Hungary been enabled.
to render the service she did, which equalled any of these
he had last mentioned, in clogging the wheels of Papal
ambition ? It was done by the free word in the halls of
her Diets, and in her municipal institutions. There it
was that the public encroachments and secret tricks of
Papal ambition were denounced to the indignation of the
people. There it was that the independant country
gentleman hag sufficient power, by the thunder of the
patriot's voice, not only to denounce but to defeat the
insidious stratagems of the despot and the priest. There
it was that every village person, and even the poorest
chaplain felt himself safe to follow the patriotic impulses of
his heart, and to expose those who would abuse the name
of religion by calling upon it in support of the unworthy
ambition of the Popes. Yes, it was by these fifty-two
Parliaments of freedom that Hungary had been enabled
to maintain her position as a nation, and to repel all attacl's
either of tlae,despot or of the church. (Hear, and cheers.)
In resisting, however, the domineering tendency of the
Popes, of which the chief credit was due to his nation,
circumstances facilitated their task to a certain degree.
The Popes were restrained by the apprehension that Hun-
gary might be driven into the arms of Protestantism. That
danger it was now anticipated by the makers of the con-
cordat had passed away ; but he doubted whether the
result would be as they anticipated and hoped. Hungary
was the barrier to pontifical ambition, and its desertion by
England in the hour of its need would ultimately be sorely
visited on its people. The just concluded peace, which,
such as as it waa would bear testimony to these his words,
could not fail to prove of trial and suffering to isglatitl•
Hungary free would hurl back the dragon of darkness to
the abyss. (Cheers.) But when God, in the wise dispensa-
tion of his providence, sent his country the opportunity for

Catholic Hungary