The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-13 00:00:00

KOSSUTH.

A PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON.

(From the Economist.)

Whatever may he the merits of Kossuth's policy or
the vices of his privath life, his influence over his
countrymen is very great. The fact is attested by
his whole career. The power of Rienzi, the rise
of Cromwell, the elevation of Bonaparte, is not more
extraordinary than this village attorney becoming
the governor of feudal, al istocratie, and imperial
Hungary, .and, in that character, &posing the
house of IL burg, and sustaining for some time
unequal contest with Austria and Russia. De-
feated in the end by jealousy and treachery, the bulk
of the people remained true to him and his cause. No
other persin in the late convulsions, nor even in the
first French Revolution, attained a like elevation or
possessed similar influence. The steps of Bona-
parte's throne were laid for him by the destruction of
all previtan authori y, and he only climbed up the
giddy height by years of military toil and numerous
victories. To find any resemblance to Kossuth in
the present day, we must go to the European or
Asiatic provinces of Turkey, where a fanatic Der-
vish or a manaic Mollah sometimes kindles enthusiasm
amongst the rude inhabitants, and makes the Sultan
tremble in Constantinople for his sovereignty. Though
removed from Hungary, the influence of Kossuth
over the minds of his countrymen depending on his
personal qualities, is not destroyed, if it be weakened,
if it be not even strengthened by his exile ; and, com-
pared to that great fact, his policy and his private
character are trifling matters not worthy of much con-
sideration.
What he may have done, or what be may have neg-
lected, is like the deeds and negligence of others; it
is the man himself who is the marvel. His orations
have been compared to the Phillipics, but the elo-
quence of Demosthenes, directed to a few fellow-citi-
zens, continued for some time, and having for its
burden a single subject, was feeble in its conse-
quences compared to the eloquence of Kossuth. By
his tongue and his pen he has made himself the
wonder of the age. What we stated last week of his
facility in adapting his language and his sentiment to
his audiences is confirmed by his proceedings since.
On Monday he addressed a large body of the working
classes in Copenhagen-fields, and to say he was as fa-
miliar with their ideas and appealed as skilfully to their
hopes, their fears, and their prejudices as Mr. Feargus
O'Connor or the late Mr. Hunt, would be doing him
an injustice. He appealed much more skilfully; he
carried the crowd with him ; and his speech will be
admired when read by the most intelligent of the
working classes, while the most flashy and most popu-
lar orations of these leaders were read with ennui or
disgust by those who applauded the orator. Take,
for example, his remarks on commencing his address
on Monday :
" Gentlemen,--I most warmly thank you for your gene-
rous sentiments of active and operative sympathy with
the freedom and independence of my native land, so
closely connected—as you have rightly judged—with the
freedom and independence of other nations on the Euro-
pean Continent. It is to me highly gratifying to know
that a large party of the present meeting belongs to the
working classes: It is gratifying to me because, if to
belong to the working classes implies a man whose live-
lihood depends on his own honest and industrious labour,
then none amongst you has more right to call himself a
working man than I so to call myself. I inherited no-
thing from my dear father, and I have lived my whole
life by my own honest and industrious labour. This,
my condition, I consider to have been my first claim to
my people's confidence, because, well they knew that
being in that condition I must intimately know the
wants, the sufferings, and the necessities of the people.
And so assuredly it was. It is, therefore, that Iso
practically devoted my life to procure and secure po-
litical and social freedom to my people, not to a race, not
to a class, but to the whole people. Besides, I devoted
all my life for many years by the practical means of as-
sociations to extend the benefit of public instruction to
the working classes, and to forward the material welfare
of the agriculturists, of the manufacturers, and of the
trading men.. Amongst all the enterprises to that effect,
at that time of my life, when I was yet in no public
office, but a private man, there is none to which I look
back with more satisfaction and pride than to the asso-
ciation for the encouragement of manufacturing industry
—to its free schools—to its exhibitions, to its press, and
to its affiliations. Besides conferring immense material
benefits, it proved also politically beneficial, by bringing
in closer contact and more friendly relations the diffe-
rent classes of my dear native land, by interesting the
woelting classes in the public political concerns of our
nation, and by so developing a strongly united public
opinion to support me in my chief aim, which was con-
serving the municipal and constitutional institutions of
my country—to substitute for the privileges of single
classes the political emancipation of the whole people,
and substituting freedom to class privileges—to impart
to the people the faculty of making the constitution a
common benefit to all for all—in a word, to transform
the closed hall of class privileges into an open temple of
the people's liberty.".
All that is precisely what the most intelligent of
our working classes are saying every day of their
lives. It is the same with his well expressed opinion
as`to the homage to be paid to the multitude :
" I said at Southampton that in these demonstra-
tions of the operative classes I recognise that natural
instinct of the people, before which every individual
greatness must bow down with respect. The same ac-
knowledgment I have to make on this occasion, only on
a larger scale, and in a higcr degree."
How flattering, too, is what follows, and not the
less flattering because many amongst ourselves think
attention toforeign affairs not very desirable in the
working classes. They, however, we know, entertain
a different opinion :
" Allowatne, firstly, to congratulate you on the atten-
tion which you have hereby proved that you devote to
public matters, to the glory as well as to the interests of
your country, and to the freedom and interests of hu-
manity. May this public spirit never decrease, may
every Englishman for ever feel that it is the basis of all
constitutional organization, be it under a republican or a
monarchical form, that it is the public opinion of the
people which must give direction to the policy of the
country, and that it is therefore not only the right, but
also the duty of every honest citisen to contribute to
otrvidheievhelothpemleengtisalnatd
ive, expressioneev,,ellote' tshtahte peuubthlioc opinion,
ritieeare
and must be, faithful representatives. Allow me, se-
" dendly, to congratulate you on the just and happy in-
stinct with which, bestowing your attention on publio
concerns, you have seized the very point which really is
the most important amongst all in which the mind and
the
freedomofof the
Englishmen
European
can be
continent."in ter e s interested. That point is
the
Having so cleverly appealed to opinions supposed
to be more elevated and disinterested than ordinary
motives, see how skilfully he afterwards applied him-
self to what are described as more vulgar considera-
tions :
" You live by honest labour. You have your manu-
factured products to dispose of, fur which you want
largo free markets and free trade. Now, it is as obvious
as that two and two make four, that without Europe
becoming free, England can have no free trade with
Europe. I will show you by facts that the amount of
trade with absolutist Russia and Austria is 7d. per head,
whereas the amount of the trade of England with a free
country—with the Republic of the United States of Ame-
rica, is isiper head. What a.difference? Absolutism
rultragdivoesaantud
airnkdoutsotfry7sa.
pmerarkheetado.f Is
notpe
r
to you? Let us look to consequences. Suppose the
glatheiveaedsirti:oreedyeoodmuo of Europe, then, a question of vital interest
price of the bread which one of you consumes be three
or four pounds; upon this price you have, by the repeal
of the corn-laws, probably not gained more than from fif-
teen shillings to a pound. Certainly a great benefit. But
suppose the 1.20 millions who inhabit Russia, Austria;
Italy, and Hungary, to become free, and being free, to
consume as much of your manufactures as the United
States (though in part highly manufacturing themselves)
consume per head, that would give a market of at least
60 millions sterling to England, which would prove a
benefit of two or three pounds a year per head to you."
These are only. specimens. Every address: is full
of similar appeals founded on some great principle,
and in general at once popular, true, and good.
Since last week his address to the people of the
United States has been published, and a paper more
calculated to interest the Americans in his favour,
and make them support his cause, it is impossible to
write. We can only afford room for one specimen,
but it appeals most forcibly to the• vanity of ottr
cousins. After giving a succinct history of the Hun-
garian struggle, dwelling on the exertions and virtues
of the Hungarians M. Kossuth said :
" Free citizens of America! from your history, as from
the star of hope in midnight gloom, we drew our confi-
dence and resolution in the doubtful days of severe trial.
Accept, in the name of my couterymen, this declaration
as a tribute of gratitude. And you, excellent people,
who were worthy to be chosen by the Almighty as an
example to show the world how to deserve freedom, how
to win it, and bow to use it—you will allow that the
Hungarians, though weaker and less f Jrtunate than you,
through the decaying influences of the old European so-
ciety, are not unworthy to be your imitators, and that
you would be pleased to see the stars of your glorious flak
emblazon the double cross of the Hungarian coat-of-
arms. When despotism hurled &fiance at us, and began
the bloody war, your inspiring example upheaved the na-
tion as one man, and legions, with all the means of war,
appeared to rise from nothing, as the tender grass shoots
up after spring showers."
When he replied to the address of the Society of
Friends of Italy, on Wednesday, knowing that they
are generally composed of persons who demand in-
terference by arms in the cause of liberty, and idea.
tify Mazzini with that cause, he went further than
usual in advocating interference
When I hear men speak of the moral force of pub.
lie opinion, I must frankly coulees my belief that it is