The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-26 00:00:00

31. KOSSUTH A T MANCHESTER.

(Fr•orn the Manchester Guardian.)

A meeting of " parties favourable to complete
non-intervention and strict neutrality in the present
European war" was held on Tuesday evening, in
the Free-trade Hall, it being announced that M.
Louis Kossuth would deliver an address. Admission
was by ticket—to the body of the hall free ;to the
gallery Is. each. The room was well filled. M.
Kosauth was loudly cheered when he came upon
the platform.
-Mr. George Wilson, as advertised, took the chair
at half-past seven o'clock ; and among those upon
the platform were Mr. G. Hadfield, M.P.,Mr. T.
BasW, M.P., &e.
The CHAIRMAN said they were met for the purpose
of expressing their opinions in favour of strict non-
intervention and neutrality in the present compli-
cated affairs of Europe. Non-intervention and
neutrality had become the watchwords of the Liberal
party in England, had been enlarged upon by the
writers in the press, and had been proclaimed by
her Majesty's Government. In reply to some ques-
tions which had been asked in the newspapers, why,
under those circumstances, there was any necessity
for this meeting, he would say that he knew of no
reason which prevented them from expressing their
opinions as long as their interests were concerned,
and that he held the doctrine that, as long as war
lasted, it was desirable day by day and week by
week, if necessary, to be prepared to express those
opinions, in order that no ingenuity of the Govern-
ment or of other parties, might entangle them in
difficulties. (Cheers.) In concluding, the chairman
referred to the reception of M. Kossuth in Man-
and said that as long as he
chester 11 years' ago,
chose this island as the home of his adoption he
would never want a country or a friend. (Applause.)
M. KOSSUTH was received with loud cheers, the
aualience rising. He said that we had arrived at
stirring times ; and for himself he might have
arrived at a period of his life which might call on
him soon great duties to fulfil. To receive, after so
many years of adversity, such a token of still warm,
still enthusiastic sympathy as that just presented was
a great encouragement, which ho would treasure in
his heart, and convey to those stout hearts and brave
arms of his country which might be called soon to
unfurl the banner of independence. (Cheers.)
Francis Joseph, the murderer, the lawless usurper of
Hungary, had just now a great war on his hands.
That war commenced in Italy • but it would be
impossible to circumscribe it ;hat it should not
extend to other portions of the Austrian do-
minions ' • because, if Austria had but a conflict
bounded by a certain line, and her antagonists
would not follow her retreating army, or would
not take lux power in flank and rear; the war could
never be brought to an end ; and no result would
there be, except a wanton effusion of blood. There-
fore the audience would agree with him that it was
natural he should look upon this war as one which
was likely to place the emancipation of his own
country even within the reach of the determination
of his nation. (Cheers.) Yes, he looked upon it as
one of those occasions for which, from the very
depths of his desolation, he had fervent prayers ad-
dressed to the Father of Mankind for long, dreary
10 years. He had made these preliminary obser-
vations because he had seen it remarked in some
papers, that what policy England may think fit to
adopt in this emergency, it was entirely a domestic
affair of the Englis people, in which he ought not
to interfere. He had never interfered with Eng-
land's domestic affairs; but he appealed to the jus-
tice of the English people whether this was not bis
own domestic affair far more than it was theirs.
The motive that urged him to accept invitations for
expressing his opinions was, that, unless the people
of England sent forth its forbidding word, he feared
the English people would interfere with Hungary's
domestic affairs by supporting Hungary's enemy,
and thus marring the prospects which a
merciful Providence has prepared for the Hun-
garian people. (Hear.) Was .not this legitimate
ground for him to stand upon ? (Hear.) The Royal
proclamation of strict and impartial neutrality was,
so far as words went, a wise and patriotic deter-
mination. He defied any man to point out any
present moral or material profit, or the prospect of
any future compensation which England could
derive from plunging into the horrors and calami-
ties of war on the present occasion. And the de-
claration of the Government had, besides, this
merit—that it was unique, so far as it went, as a
constitutional tribute to the will of the nation. If
it was the desire of the nation that the proclaimed
neutrality should assume the character of a settled
rule, and that independently of the varying chances
of the just-commencing war it should be acted upon
with an unwavering consistency; if it was desired
that the proclaimed and professed impartiality
should not &generate into a screen for partial
manoeuvres, calculated to pave the way, under
some specious pretence, for intermeddling first
and interventions afterwards, it was now more
necessary even than before that the manifesta-
tion of public opinion should not relax, but
should become more explicit. Because, in the
first Place, if the proclamation of the Queen re-
sponded to the will of the nation, it was proper
that the manifestations of public opinion should
respond to the proclamation of the Queen. In the
second place, the situation was too grave to admit
of a doubt that-mighty influences were at work for
getting England into entangling alliances, which
if not prevented would inevitably drift the country
into war, and for purposes, too, which, while they
had nothing in common with the national interests,
were of a character utterly repugnant to English
feelings. He knew of no official declarations or
acts which left the impression that her Majesty's
Ministers would side with Piedmont, or France, or
Italy, if they did not remain neutral; but he had
read many declarations and noted acts forcibly lead-
ing to the inference that the alternative was— neu-
trality or support of Austria. (Hear, hear.) Eng-
land could never do too much for preserving her
exalted rank amid the maritime Powers ; to
preserve themselves was the interest and a
legitimate ambition of the people. But it
was really a curious fact that just when
neutrality was proclaimed the nation was called to
arms. (Hear, hear.) Every nerve was strained to
man the navy, with an exertion far surpassing any-
thing we had been allowed to witness either at the
time of the Crimean war, or even when India blazed
into a terrible conflagration. Was invasion feared ?
Why, the plainest common sense reflection must
suggest that, unless it was supposed that the Em-
peror of the Frensh was entirely out of his tenses,
he not only could not be anxious to provoke, but
must be very anxious to avoid, a conflict with Eng-
land, having already a great great war on his hands.
Louis Napoleon knew the almost inexhaustible
resources of this country for a defensive war; that
every confinental country might be stripped to its
last shilling and exhausted to its last mail, still the
defensive resources of this sea-girt island would not
be so much as shaken in their solid foundations ;
and he knew that whosoever would embark on an
aggression of this country wOuld not only have to
do with an army, but with a nation, every man of
which would prove every inch a hero in the defence
of his native shore. (Loud cheers.) No ; England
would not be attacked in this war, unless she chose
to plunge into it of her own accord. What, then,
did these armaments mean' In his opinion they
meant that there-was an intention somewhere to
make England. provoke that aggression, in order j
to get a pretence for launching into the war in sup-
port of despotic, priest-ridden, bankrupt Austria
(hear, hear)—whose very existence depended upon
a tissue of conduct which even in• the ancient hea-
then times was regarded as hateful to the e.ods and
deserving of no defence from men. Lool to the
facts. The English ship Orion, after ships had
been sent to sea with secret scaled orders, was found
moored at Genoa, so as to impede the disembarka-
tion.of French troops, just at the moment when the
Austrians entered on the offensive against Pied-
mont, and therefore every moment of retardation
might have become fatal to Italy. That might be
a mere accident, but it certainly looked like a very
partial accident. Another vessel refused the elm-
monest mark of international civility to the flag of
Tuscany—refused to salute the flag which was not
" that of the Grand Duke, who had deserted to the
enemy, but was that of Tuscany, as much as the
flag of England was the flan. of England and of
nobody and nothing else. The demand made by
the Englith Government, that the shores of Dal-
matia, in' the Adriatic, should be regarded as neu-
tral, ra world, it' complied with, have been equivalent
o
lista is to the direct aid of an army of tlO,OOO or
40,000 ',men. This was not impartial neutrality ;
it vas p ositive interineddling with the war in fa- ,
"ua: of -Austria l) t" . Ima ta was a vulnerable point
in -4oustrb?s
deinaild that that
power; and the object of the
dt.a.t country should he re-zarded
neutral 'yam to
deptlsit;tlener the war finni Hungary,
and this
the chance .that. down-trodden country of
of emancipation- which Providence ap-
peared t be preparing, in the. logical course of
those ref -ibutive trials which were cat last set-
tling upo it the crime-loaded House of kra pSla;u)ie.grs.
(Hear, h var.) It was reported in the
that this Monstrous pretension had alreatte plfsA to
angvcor scspondence between En glan cl d.. Fran ce ;
and It mi. kilt lead to war if it were not checked in
time by t he -people's voice. But for these. Austrian
leanings in high and official quarters there would
be no cha wee of England drifting into war;' for—
and-it mi 4.3 at cause a pang to some—there was no
chance th a t the Government would be tempted to
shake the .1 mighty trident of these realms in favour
of the inc' it pendence of Italy, or of any of those na-
tionalitie. to whom the logic of the present compli-