The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-27 00:00:00

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41, G

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ceptation in other countries. And ea:toast add, that
although the people were not by the 4isseeatet constitu-
tion allowed tb .speak 'for thernsely*iitill:we always
found among the aristocracy genftus and valiant
men, ready to stand ferth es the zchattlpions of their
country sod the rights of humanitea-epheirs.) To
enable them to do so, thy had fa:lined two institu-
tion—one was' what I" may call tbVParliement of
lltiogery, and the other was the county municipal
institutions ; which latter, more-then the Parliament,
were the safegtfarda of the Eights of the people, be-
cause these county institutions were so framed that
they could be only media through Whia Me Govern-
ment could convey orders to the magistrates and
other oflicere. These county Meeting& were com•
posed ofercdelemen who resided in the counties, and in
some counties amounted to twentyafiee ar thirty
thousand, every one of whom had the right of voting at
elections for magistrates who were the only executive
power of the country. If the Government wanted any
order 4e:tented, it must be done" by the municipal ma-
gistrate; but he could hot come into immediate
orders in the firstitietauce to , the cattetat
contact with the Gtivernment, `Who- must send their
meeting.
Such meetings had a right to dik.U4 the orders of
.Government, and more than one oaf) bad 'occurred,
in which the melee was not forwilided,to the magis-
Irate for. execution; but 'a , remonstrance :Feet to the
Government for sending it. They formed thus a
strong harrier against the encreachments" of the Go-
vernment; and no country has nelded such a barrier
more thUn Hungary, for more than three centuries
the hotue of Ilapsbutg had not hadit its, bead a man
who was a friend to pelitical freedorn.—(Loud
cheers.) Now, the house of Heeshrtrg has ru led in
Hungary for these three centuries,-neki, 37, conquest,
1,
but by the free choice of the, a: of without
conditions, but firmly bound ts fit'• the chief
feature of which' was, that when the King was ad-
mitted to power in the order of his lineal succession,
he was to rule and govern Hungary by means of its
own public institutions, and eccording to its own
laws ; he swore solemnly to do so, and prayed to the
eternal God to bless him and his race, as he was true
to his oath. This was a resume of the facts so far.
Well, out of thirteen kings—out of the thirteen kings
we had of this house and dynasty, no one who knows
anything of history can charge me with exaggeration,
when I say that their rule was one of continual per-
jury.—(Kossuth spoke very earnestly and with emo-
tion, dropping his voice so that the close of the sen-
tence was not audible at the. end of the table,
and some person asked, " A rule of what ?")
He exclaimed, of perjury, gentlemen—(Loud cheers)
—that is the word—perjury.H(Cheers for some
moments at his emphatic delivery of the word.) Gen-
tleman, I am a plain man, and call things by their
right names.—(Cheers and laughter.) Now when
the Hungarian nation elected the head of the house
of Hapsburg as her sovereign, the country contained
upwards of 4,000 German geographical square miles,
which, I am informed, is equal to about 100,000 Eng-
lish square miles, and fifteen millions of people, no.
small or insignificant realm, as you will admit.—
(Hear, bear.) At that time, too, the house of Haps-
burg ruled constitutionally in all their other pro-
vinces, but subsequently those provinces lost their
rights ; and, through the whole of the three centu-
ries, the direction of the ambition of the house of
Hapsburg has been to obtain undisputed absolute
dominion over all their territories. Shortly before
the Pesth struggle there was not a single province of
the Austrian empire that had a cons:itution, the am-
bition of the house of Hapsburg having absorbed
the constitutional rights of all. Our constitutional
rights were not absorbed, because we did not belong
to the Austrian empire, nor bad we any connexion
with it, except such as, that of Hanover with this
country, with this exception, that the line of succes-
sion was not limited in the same manner. We adminis-
tered a coronation oath, settieg forth that there was
to be no connexion between Hungary and any other
province, and that while we acknowledged the same
sovereign, our rights were to be preserved, and we
were to be governed solely by our own laws and
customs.—(Hoer, hear.) We also provided that, in
case the sovereignty should, in the line of succession,
fall into the hands of a child the same course should
not be adopted as in the case of Austria. In such a
contingency the regent of Austria would be some
elder member of the royal family; but we provided
that a Hungarian palatine should be appointed, so as
that our constitutional rights should not be absorbed.
These rights were also protected by our municipal
institutions, which, with an inherent strength that
never could be completely broken, steadily re-
sisted the encroachments of.- the Cre.4 eeePerhaps
I may illustrate the defensive stre s of these
institutions by alluding to the siege of Saragossa
by Napoleon. When Napoleon had battered down
the walls, he was as far from success as ever,
because he had to fight single battles with the
citizens in every street. So it was in. Hungary with
her municipal institutions.--(Cheers.) I remember
an occasion when the house of Hapsburg, in defiance
of the Parliament, levied troops
from one to two-and-a-half and raised the taxes
times as much
as they were before, and when the majority
of over fifty-two of our counties, influenced
by terror and every other means at the disposal
of the Government, submitted to the encroachment.
At that time there ware only ten or twelve comitats
that resisted, and the resistance of even these few was
as effective as that of the people of Sara ossa.—
(Loud
cheers.) By these means we preservegd through all
encroachments some shadow of independence, but the
Austrian Government having obtained absolute power
in their other provinces, took every means, from open
violence to the most insidious frauds, to overthrow
our municipal institutions. They fomented our
quarrels, undermined our national character, impo-
verished our country, and corrupted our nobles. Our
Parliament, which ought to be convened once in three
years was not convened for twenty, and so arbitrary
government went on, until at last we became aware
that from 300,000 to 500,000 nobles would not be
sthueffidceiesnpottitco
tdeenfednedneitehseorfigAhutsstroiaf. countryntheo
m this from
point
dates our struggles which have now lasted for about
twenty-eight years. We decided that our best safe-
guard would be to inspire all the people with the
sentiments of patriotism, by giving all an equal in-
terest in constitutional rights.—(Loud cheers.) That
was the direction of public opinion in
Hungary
in the year 1825. We felt the neaositY the

more, because, although we had aboard orcoun-
cil of government which by law was respon-
sible to the country, and were bound not to carry
into execution any order even of the sovereign, which

was contrary to our laws, still we knew that there was

no real responsibility in this council, because no cor-
rduepatle bolo dayy chaen
nib
ee
dme ar de
se
ptoon
efiehell
er, ehsupto nwshi be
Ili l i
thet y . Indivi-
Govern-
ment becomes collective responsibility vanishes. We
all Government, ;
and
feeling
thatwhich
50mo
,eosot eor nseenalococtptbhelfledre.o:_bra. could u ltah enno t all
saw, therefore, that our rights and privileges were
vanishing under the machinations of the Austrian
effec-
tuallyin resist such encroachments, we proposed to give
to the whole fifteen millions of our people an interest
in constitutional rights, and a motive for defending
eceterhhftpat
every
peasant should
them. The peasantry must form an important consi-
deration in every country, but doucbolyiusltoryin, Hungary,
which which was and is chiefly an agricultural country. The
condition of our peasantry became the first topic with
our reformers, who felt that our
gifted by nature, could never be made the earthly
paradise it ought to he except by free labourers enjoy-
ing constitutional rights ; and seeing that our pea-
sant had to work for his landlord 104 days in the
year, to which must be added Sundays, festivals, and
winter, and had to give the ninth of his produce to the
seigneur, the tenth to the bishop, we fel(tcthheaetrtsh.)is,wrhase
a condition
h i rightsous e, andws:
oitcwhhedcpeogrnirsneicseits-s.
princi-
ples of justice,—(Gear, hear.) The first thing, then,
himself froeffe othfehis feudal and
IcaBp3i2tatlo olfB3h6is,
itnhgat this power should be
rilwwtenhefwoot didrhal ml
sey
proposed longwofhaeos
elected
oceatvereldiri
in the
mt washeemancipateent,Lo wno
members, hitwYhi
`haie the right to make
dues.sei gn o r iAs lt
firstburd
we nes p
rboyp
oileda
independent of the will of the landlord, but were op-
posed by the House of Lords, until at last, by the
influence of Government, it was reduced to the pri-
vilege of purchasing freedom with the consent of the
landlord. That modified measure was carried by
the Commons and Lords, but was refused by the Re-
gent, who was thus at issue with the people on this
great question in 1836. I should state that the
members of the Commons voted as they were in-
structed by the comitats, and therefore it was towards
the latter that the intrigues of the Government were
principally directed. They could not corrupt them
by means of the Count Palatine, who being by office
president of the House of Lords, could not intrigue
with the county meetings, and therefore other persons
were selected to carry into the county meetings every
species of corruption.—(Hear.) They appointed an
administrator in every county, who should newr
leave the county, but be present at every meeting,
control every act, and corrupt every troublesome
member, in order that the comitats might become at
last the mere instruments and tools Or Government.
It was this system that we opposed with all our
strength of mind and body, but with no narrow view
to the privileges of our own class. We wanted these
institutions
to be independent in order that we alight