The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-04 00:00:00

NBER.

Brecon
Richmond
Monmouth 2l
Manchester Autumn
Newmarket Ist Oct 26
Walsall
IBER.

Curragh l7
Newmarket Ho. M
`Worcester

NOVEMBER.
Lincoln Autumn
7 Leamington Runt 2l
Liverpool Autumn
13
Shrewsbury

REOPENING OF THE TRADE WITH ST. PETERS-
BURG.—The advices received in Hull during the
past few days have all been to the effect that in a short
time the navigation even as far as Cronstadt would be
opened. The merchants of Hull have not therefore lost
much time in getting their steamers ready for sailing, as a
vast quantity of merchandise intended for the Russian
copital has accumulated during the winter. The first
number passen-
gers.sTteuaemsdearyt,oanletal vseheHwuallswtoaL3 llothfooPwacehda, Captain Snow, on
on
Wednesday even-
ing or Thursday morning by the Panther, Capt. Butters,
and the Emperor, Capt. Brown. All these vessels have
secured
r e.2Thho eavfryeicgahrgtaogees,
is rather low. onas wellvarious
as a r g
articles e
of of
merchan-
diSe

The son of a Protestant clergyman, he was born
in May, 1813, in one of those picturesque valleys on
the southern slopes of the Carpathians which are
rich in mines, and not unlike in character to the
north of Derbyshire. With a decided vocation for a
military life, young George Kmety enlisted as a
private in the Austrian army, in spite of the diffi-
culties which then, more than now, were in the path
of any one not supported by strong interest or
money. Except when favoured by the chances of
war it was well nigh hopeless for any one to rise
above the lowest steps of the military hierarchy. To
rise to the rank of captain, and after 40 years' ser-
vice to retire on a pension of £6O a year, was about
the most brilliant career to which a man without
patronage could aspire. Kmety, who was heart
and soul in his work, struggled on in spite of these
small inducements, and after about seven years'
service found himself First Lieutenant and Adjutant
of his regiment, the 19th Hungarian Infantry, a
post he filled for 14 years, his Colonel being Count
Gyulai, of Italian notoriety. In this thankless po-
sition, where a man has to serve so many masters,
he succeeded in becoming so popular with his regi-
ment that his comrades subscribed and presented
a testimonial to the medical man who restored him
from a severe illness he had while in Lintz.
In spite of his predilection for the army, the yel-
low-black sash, which seems to possess the magic
power of stifling all feelings except those of duty to
the Kaiser and to the service, had no power over
him; he followed with eager interest the debates of
the Diet of 1843, and when the then head of the
Opposition came to Vienna, where Kmety's regi-
ment was in garrison, the latter, with another of
his Hungarian comrades, unheeding the risk of
losing his position, went in full regimentals to ex-
press his admiration to the eloquent defender of the
rights of his country.
The events of the spring of 1848 made a Minister
of the chief of the Opposition in the Diet of 1843,
and the Minister remembered the obscure adjutant.
Hungary wanted an army, volunteers were flocking
in, but officers who knew their business were few.
A man like Kmety, who had lived himself as it were
into regimental life, was a treasure.

He was sent to Raab in Western Hungary, to
form some 800 or 900 young volunteers, a great
many of them students from the college, into the
6th battalion of the national army. He went to
work like a practical man, and not like a military
pedant, as might have been expected from his ante-
cedents. Singling out such as had a little know-
ledge and address, those who seemed most intelli-
gent, he took them in hand himself, working them
hard, with the promise of advancing those who
showed most fitness for the posts of officers and
non-commissioned officers. What these learnt in
the morning they imparted to the rest in the after-
noon. It was an adaptation of the Lancastrian
method to soldiers, and was so successful that six
weeks after his arrival the battalion was fit to take
the field, and figured all through the war as one of
the most distinguished.
Advancement was rapid in those times, and after
taking part in the first advance and repulse of the
Hungarian army at Swechat, and the retreat before
Windischgratz, we find Kmety colonel and in com-
mand of the finest division of Gorgey's army, in
which character lie contributed not a little to the
success of the flank movement of Gorgey's army
which made the concentration of all the Hungarian
forces in the spring of 1849 possible.
We are not writing the history of the brilliant
spring campaign which ended in the evacuation of
Hungary by the Austrian troops and brought on
the Russian intervention. Suffice it to say that
during the whole course of it we find Colonel Kmety
'
and his division playing a conspicuous, although
often a thankless part, for he was no favourite with
Gorgey. He was passed over and singled out con-
stantly for detached service to observe the enemy,

attract his notice, and thus facilitate the operations
lof the main body. We find him. and his divi-
sion taking their share in the defeat of General
Schlick at Hatvan, and if the commander of the
corps to which his division belonged had followed
Kmety's advice and followed up the victory the other
Austrian column, under Jellachich, which was en-
gaged with the main body of the Hungarian army
at Isetzegh, would have been not only beaten, but
crushed four days after. Then they were sent to
form part of a corps of observation against the
capital, to which the Austrian army had retired,
and thus to enable the body of the army to reach
the fortress of Comorn, and the line of retreat of
the enemy. Here, after taking part in the siege and
storming of Hada, his division was again on de-
tached service on the left flank of the army on the
little river Raab, where an opportunity offered itself
at last for victory single-handed. At the first ad-
vance of Haynau, towards the middle of June,
Kmety surprised a detached brigade under General
Wyss at Esorna, and almost annihilated it. 'They
had thrust themselves between him and the rest of
the army. Guided by a man who knew the locality
well he made a forced march, and got into the rear
of the Austrian brigade. This was the last and
most brilliant deed of Kmety in connexion with the
Upper or Army of the Danube under Gorgey.
One hundred and fifty thousand Russians had
entered Hungary, and with them had advanced the
Austrian army under Haynau, strengthened to
70,000 by arrivals of troops from Italy. The tiff-
' ferences between Kossuth and Gorgey had doubled
the strength of the enemy, and in the confusion
which followed Kmety's Division was cut off from
the rest of the retreating army. Nevertheless,
Kmety made good his retreat, and joined un-
scathed the Southern army, which, under
the command first of Dembinsky, and then of
Bern, had been pressed back by Haynau to-
wards the fortress of Temesvar. If all the troops
and, above all, the commanders, had behaved there
as Kmety and his division on the left flank did,
the battle on the Bth of July might have been,
in spite of Russian artillery and numbers, a vic-
tory. But if they could not insure victory the Divi-
sion of Kmety protected the retreat, which would
otherwise have been fatal. He repulsed the Aus-
trians, who were pursuing the remnants of the army
at Lugos, and his corps fired the last shot at the
village of Farcet. But the end had come. At the
news of the defeat, which was represented as a
complete rout, Gorgey being surrounded and pressed
on all sides by Russians and Austrians, the remnants
of the Southern Hungarian army made the best of
their way into Turkey, or to their homes.
In the confusion which followed the debandade
Kmety found himself with 10 companions among
the labyrinth of mountains which divide the south-
eastern corner of Hungary from Wallachia. No
one new the road, and the population, of Wallachian
origin and excited by Austrian officers and func-
tionaries, were hostile to all that was Hungarian.
After wandering about for some time they met a
native who had been sergeant in the Austrian army,
and who promised for a good recompense to show
them the way. He led them into a defile, where
they were received by a hot fire of musketry from
all sides and taken prisoners. There was a great de-
bate whether the prisoners should be despatched at
once, or be given up to the nearest Austrian de-
tachment that could be found. The guide, who
hoped for his reward from the Austrians, carried the
point, and the prisoners were shut up in a barn,
while he himself started in search of Austrian sol-
diers. While shut up in the barn the prisoners per-
ceived that some hay stored up behind the barn had
accidentally taken fire; or had been set on fire, and
on the appeal of Kmety they resolved to risk any-
thing rather than be burnt to death. They broke
open the doors and rushed out just as the sergeant
returned with a body of lancers. They prepared to
sell their lives dear, when the officer of lancers, fol-
lowed by his men, rushed with raised sword through
the crowd and, cutting down the faithless guide,
asked the General for his " orders." The_ guide
had in the dark mistaken a body of rash lancers,
belonging to the Hungarian army, for Austrian
lancers, and had thus brought help instead of de-
struction to the prisoners.
It will be recollected by our readers how gene-
rously the Turkish Government, supported by Lord
Stratford, behaved about the Hungarian refugees
collected in Widdin, and how, at the risk of bring-
ing about a collision, not only with Austria, but
Russia, it steadfastly refused to give up those who
had sought an asylum in the Ottoman territory. To
the Hungarians these chances of a collision natu-
rally appeared far more imminent, and so it is not
surprising thatseveral of the moreprominent officers,
among them the late Generals Guyon and Kmety,
entered the Turkish service as " Mussefirs," or un-
attached, literally, " guests."

This has been misinterpreted, as if those who
entered the Turkish service had all embraced
Islamism. No doubt some did this later, but neither
Guyon nor Kmety. The best proof in the latter
case is that after the time for the intervention of the
exiles expired in 1851 Kmety, who had passed the
time in Aleppo, left Turkey at the same time as
those who had been in Kutayah. It must be re-
membered this was before the time of the Hatti
Humayoun, when recanting from Islamism was
death, and Kmety had no great Elchi to fall back
upon.

Leaving Turkey, Kmety came to England for the
first time. With little or no means at his disposal
he struggled on for a year and a half, trying to find
some means to earn his bread. Being fond of music,
he worked for hours and hours every day to qualify
himself to give lessons ; and it was touching to hear
the man who had led thousands to victory speak
naively of the progress he was making with Beetho-
ven's sonatas.

The outbreak of the Eastern War in the summer
of 1850 interrupted his musical studies and led him
back again to his true vocation. Ever mindful of
the kindness he had received from the Turks he
thought it his duty to offer his services at the time
of need.

In the leisure of his life in Aleppo he had learnt
Turkish, and made up by reading for any de-
ficiency in the higher branches of his profes-
sion. He arrived there unprotected and unrecom-
mended, and being besides objectionable for ser-
vice in Europe on account of his character as a
Hungarian exile, he was sent with the rank of ma-
jor-general to command the Irregulars of the Army
of Anatolia, where he found his former companion
General Guyon as chief of the staff. He arrived at
his post early in 1854. Outpost duties are under
the best of circumstances the most fatiguing work
in the army, and it was doubly so with Irregulars
partly composed of Khurds of doubtful fidelity,
watering between Sultan and Czar, and in the face
of the most formidable adversaries in outpost work
—the Cossacks. For nine months he worked in
this ungrateful task, exposed to the trying extremes
of climate for which the Turkish frontier is famous,
and without ever having a chance of distinguishing
himself. The summer campaign of that year was
not favourable to the Turks. Although superior in
number to the Russians, they were so ill handled
that they were driven back on all points, ignomini-
ously beaten in the battle of Kurukdere in July, and
had to think of their own defence instead of attack-
ing the Russians. Fortunately the Russians were
not prepared to follow up their success, for in the
confusion which reigned they might have possessed
themselves of the position before Erzeroum, which
would have opened to them the high road through
Asia Minor.

The danger was felt at Constantinople, although
it never was clearly understood there that after the
Allies were once engaged in the war the true sphere
of action for the Turks was in Asia. The commanders
of the army of Anatolia were changed ; Gen. Wil-
liams with a staff of British officers was sent to as-
sist the new commander, Tarif Pasha, and reinforce-