The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-24 00:00:00

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etheS__ V
o rvative or Austrian party advised the sGo-
vern ent not to carry into effect the sentences
against Wesseleny and the other young convicts,
and to vindicate law and order in Kossuth's person
Alone, but in any case to come to a decision on
these points before the opening of the Diet, as
they were well determined to oppose with all their
force any infraction or slight of the authority of the
judicial tribunals, and any extortion of concessions byl
a refusal of the levy to be demanded from the Diet.
The Austrian Ministry appeared, however, little
lanxious on the subject; they hugged themselves into
the conclusion that all the efforts of the Republicans
would fail befere the firmness of the Government,
and resolved upon nothing ! The Diet began ; through
half a year the contest was maintained between the
Conservatives and the Opposition. The latter had at
the Table of Deputies, in favour of a censure of the
tribunals, an amnesty, and other demands, among
which was one for the further establishment of the
Hungarian language, a majority of two; but at the
Table of Magnates a majority of nine-tenths against
them ; so that no decision was arrived at, and the
eventual triumph of the Conservatives seemed assured
by the gradual conversion of several of the Opposi-
tion comitats. Thiers was at this time Minister in
France. Prince Metternich was eager to compass
the grant of his 18,000 recruits and the close of the
Diet. The Chancellor, Count Mailath, who had been
appointed to his office in the hope that be would
manage the Diet with better success than his prede-
cessor, Count Pall, was uneasy at the continuance
of the dispute, and suddenly there appeared, in 1840,
a royal rescript conceding the amnesty. This was by
the old Emperor, since put out of the way. This was
hacked by verbal communications calculated to soothe
the opposition Deputies. The recruits, and a contri-
bution, were now voted. Kossuth's glory was en-
hanced, because it was through his sentence that the
Opposition had found their way to the obtaining their
demands. The ranks, meanwhile of the Conserva-
tives were thinned, because deserted by their Govern-
ment, they were abandoned to the imputation of being
more royalist that the Sovereign. Kossuth issued
from his prison amid the acclamation of the people.
A subscription had produced 10,000 florins for his
family. On the Ist of January,
1841, he came for-
ward as chief editor of the Pesthi .Hirlap. This jour-
nal soon counted 4,000 subscribers—a number wich,
at 12 florins per annum, raised his share of
the profits
to 12,000 florins. This sum enabled him not only to
meet his current expenses, but to purchase a small
estate in the comitat of Gran for 30,000 florins. He
selected some well-paid sub-editors and reporters from
the ranks of the Opposition, and with these instru-
ments he began the work of scattering over the face
of Hungary those cardinal elements of popular rights
and popular equality which soon advanced him to the
highest degree of confidence, affection, and veneration,
among almost the entire mass of the Hungarian
people.
While this masterly management of his journal was
daily increasing and extending his popularity the
Government looked on without stirring ; but the Con-
servative party felt the necessity of meeting the mis-
chief, both in print and in debate. Count Aurelius
Dessewffy, a young man:of much talent, of the mode..
rate royal party, undertook the editorship of the Vilag
journal, in which he combatted the doctrines of
Kossuth and his republican scheme of reform.
Kossuth, however, contrived to hold his own by dint
of a style more suited to the popular desire for positive
concessions. In the commencement of the year 1842
sudden death removed Dessewffy from the field of
action, and replaced Kossuth in undisturbed possession
of the influence of the press.
In the Pesth Assembly three leading speakers main-
tained, with various success, the contest against
Kossuth. These were Dessewffy, Count Stephen
Szecheny, and Ziedenyi, the latter of whom, as a
Protestant and principal orator of the Conservatives a
the Table of Deputies, had some followers. They
could not master the opposition spirit in the comitat,
but they administered some hard blows to Kossuth]
They lost their mainstay in Dessewffy, but they
managed to defeat the election of Kossuth for the
Diet of 1843. Count Szecheney endeavoured, to-
wards the end of 1842, to neutralize the doctrines of
Kossuth by his work " Kelet Net*" (" The People
of the East,") in which he denounced the projects of
his adversary for a separation from Austria. This
publication excited much interest, called forth a power-
ful reply from Kossuth, and several other answers
from Kossuth's adherents; but while it failed, as
books generally fail, to meet the influence of a poular
journal, it raised the popularity of Kossuth, and di-
minished that of its author with the people.
During the Diet of 1843-44, when the circulation
of the journal of its proceedings had risen to 7,000,
some controversies with his associates induced Kos •
suth to withdraw, Soon afterwards he established a
Hungarian commercial society, which operated, as he
intended, very powerfully to the spread of liberal
ooinions throughout Hungary. The influence of
Kossuth extended. The nobles as well as the masses
of the people gathered around him. Count Louis
Bathyany, one of the wealthiest and most powerful of
the nobles, placed himself under the guidance of Kos-
suth, enthusiastic to co-operate with him in his great
plans for the relief of Hungary. Kossuth was elected
a Member of the Diet, and we come now to the be-
ginning of those scenes which brought the Austrian
Emperor to his kyees—first to the Hungarians, and
secondly before the Emperor of Russia for help, in
his desperate extremities.

In iiresbureh, Kossuth soon became paramount at
the Table of Deputies; the proceedings, however, had
not yet stepped beyond the usual track of opposition
policy, when the Paris revolution of February ex-
ploded, and scattered its sparks upon the tinder of
Hungary. In Kossuth it revived visions of the exul-
tation of Hungary, w hick could not be resisted.
With the Vienna revolution came the long-desired
moment for action. A Hungarian Ministry was
planned, with Bathyany for its President. The Table
of Magnates demurred, but the second day of the
spreading insurrection of Vienna made resistance im-
possible. Kossuth availed himself of the moment with
all the energy of his character. The youth of Pres-
burg ware armed as a National Guard. In Peath,
revolutionary assemblies we) e organ :eel On the
)sth of March Kossuth appeared as the hero of the
day, at the head of a States deputation in Vienna,
in order to extort a local Hungarian Mi-
nistry from the Crown which had usurped: i a
powers; the Vienna National Guards drew
his carriage into the city. Guards of honour were
posted at his lodgings; Count Brenner, Priice
Lemberg, Professor Hyde, and other notabilities of
the Austrian liberal party, waited u,.on him; and
the students placed themselves at his orders, to storm
the palace, should the Emperor be obstinate. The
Ministry was ratified by an imperial signature, and
Kossuth returned in triumph to Presburg, wht re he
truly declared, in open debate, that he had h, ld the
fate of the House of Hapsburg in his band. The re-
sult invested him with the magic of greatness and
power, which, from this time forward, reduced all
his adversaries to submission, and made him all-
powerful with the people.
The subsequent career of this extraordinary man
is too vividly impressed upon the public mind to
need a minute recapitulation here. It was the base
treachery of Austria, in the instigation of the Croats
to insurrection, that rendered Kossuth and the Hun-
garians almost unappeasable. It was the usurpa-
tion, by Austria, of the independent powers of Hun-
guy, as a local Government, that made a desperate
contest
euonfrlatehttseoes
contest with the usurper inevitable. And how,
without means or money, Kossuth contrived iv
raise those splendid armies which have imortalized
iantheasrnpoe'ntaniseousa :
wtheeattil arriuhnngteit to
wealthier classes, and the universal confidence of all
classes in his paper. But not only were these vast
and conquering armies raised by a governor without
money ; but in thelmidst of all the pressing wants of a
fearful war, many of the burdens of taxation upon the
people were removed. They enjoyed the blessings of
a free people before they had achieved them. Hence
the desperation with which they fought. At last,
when Jellachich had been ignominiously expelled,
when Windischgratz and the imperial forces of Aus-
tria had been scattered and driven across the Danube,
or destroyed, or captured ; it was not the siVArnats
of
Cossacks from the Carpathian mountains tl3
History
de-
stroyed the revolution, but the traitor
Gowrgiielypfareanersdeeenthetesr
Russian gold that bought him.
te
nation f t
silence the enemies of Kossuth.
History
le of equal energy, only here and there an exemPan,
perseverance
;and
con-
stancy, ability, integrity,
scarcely another sucfh
greatex example of power over:the
a
classes,
nation t i
andon oftrapedoitpiolen,s,ofanado
mgaryt
mindsany races,and
t pgur elements into a harmonious mass, and
leadthemn flic
conflicting
an
local differencehesessa,terstas:
andof
dhlofty m
nof d
lithua could blend
Hungary.
. It is
only a great,
cheerfully to all the sacrifices of a most des-
perate revolution.
The Jewish Chronicle, in speaking of Kossuth,
suchn
says—
The share which the Jews took in the Hungarian
struggle for independence was no small one. Who-
ever is able to conquer prejudice will confess that
there is in this oriental people a moral fund, which
explores the purest gold of virtue from the deep mines
in which it lies buried. Not as Jews, but as children
of the country, they joined the ranks of the brave
Hungarians, and did not keep back in the reserve
corps at the rear; but we saw them in the avant-
guard, where the battle was the hottest, staking their
lives and their existence, their property and they
blood, on the political view they took of the
Jews, affair.
In the army of the Magyars fought thousands of
d their invalids.
among whom were a general and many commoners,
whose wounds have since renedierrepdarethnetms,
a
Not only the young men left
but the old and tpossessions for the field of battle,h
re-
flecting Jews glowed with love and ardent aspirations
n
for Hungary and her heroicow leadersi Thepunirshabmbeintes
and Jewish preachers are
for their natural sympathies, and the exorbitant non-