The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-26 00:00:00

The following affidavit has been sworn in Chan-
cery in the suit between Francis Joseph, Emperor
of Austria, and King of Hungary and Bohemia,
plaintiff, and William Day, John Day, Joseph Day,
and Louis Kossuth, defendants:—
"I, ILoiais Kossuth, now residing in Bedford-
place, near to Russell-square, in the county of Mid-
dlesex, make oath and say
1. I am by birth a Hungarian noble, of the
county of Zemplen, in the kingdom of Hungary.
When Ferdinand V., formerly King of Hungary,
ceased to be King of Hungary, and the throne was
thereby vacant, I was, by the lawfully summoned
and duly constituted Estates of Hungary, consist-
ing of both Houses in National Diet assembled, on
the 14th day of April, 1849, appointed and named
to be a Governor-President, until the Diet should
have adopted a permanent settlement for the Go-
vernment of the kingdom ; and, on the 19th day o. f
April, I took, in the presence of the said Diet, in
the Great Reformed Church of Debreczen, the
solemn oath appointed by the Diet to be taken by
me as such Governor-President, and then swore
that I would be true and faithful to the authority
and functions that had been vested in me by
the said Diet. The said appointment and nomi-
nation, and the authority and functions thereby
vested in me, have never been revoked or super-
seded ; nor has any other appointment or nomina-
tion been since made ; nor has any person, ever
since Ferdinand V. ceased to be King of Hungary,
been called to fill the throne of Hungary, or been
accepted or crowned as King of Hungary, by the
said Estates of Hungary, to whom alone the power
belongs, by the fundamental laws of Hungary, to
do any of these acts.
g; 2. The plaintiff in this suit is not and never
has been King of Hungary, either de jure or de
facto. He is not King of Hungary de
,jure, inas-
much as the succession to the throne of Hungary is
a matter of strict settlement under the fundamental
laws of Hungary; and the claim to the succession
can only arise after the death of the last King. But
the last King, Ferdinand V., still lives. Moreover,
in conformity with the 2d Article of the Act of the
Diet of 1723, by which alone the present House of
Hapsburg-Lorraine was accepted by the Estates of
Hungary as having, under the conditions therein
named, a lawful and thereby established order of
succession to the throne of Hungary, the right of
succession can only devolve on the next heir of the
last King. But the present Emperor of Austria is
not the next heir of Ferdinand V., the last King of
Hungary, were not that King himself, as in fact
he is, still living. The plaintiff is not the King of
Hungary de facto, inasmuch as by the fundamental
laws of Hungary, which all the last 14 Kings of
Hungary have successively sworn shall be observed,
in every point and article, by themselves and their
successors, no one can be King de facto unless and
until he has been lawfully crowned as King within
the kingdom of Hungary, and he must be thus
crowned within six months after the day of the
death of a deceased King. And it is particularly
declared by the said fundamental laws of Hungary
that all the nobles of the kingdom are members of
the Sacred Crown of Hungary, and that they are
subject to no one except to a lawfullycrowned King.
" 3. The plaintiff, falsely called in •the said bill
of complaint in this cause King of Hungary,'
has not, and never has had, the sole and exclu-
sive privilege of authorising the issue in Hungary
of notes for payment of money, to be circulated
in that country as money. Were the plaintiff
King of Hungary, which he is not, he would not,
without the consent of the Diet, possess this
privilege and authority. And not only have this
privilege and authority never been granted by
the Estates of Hungary to any King of Hungary,
but the Estates of Hungary have formally recorded
their denial and protest that the King can issue
notes of his own authority. The only person to
whom the Estates of Hungary, in National Diet
assembled, have ever granted the power and autho-
rity to issue notes for the payment of money, to be
circulated in that country as money, and the only
person who has ever possessed lawful power to issue
or to authorise the issue of such notes, has been
myself; to whom, while I was, in the year 1848,
responsible Minister of Finance to the then King
Ferdinand V., the power to issue such notes was
then given by the Estates of the Kingdom in Na-
tional Diet assembled, and to whom, after I had
been appointed, named, and sworn as Governor-
President of Hungary in 1849, power to authorise
the issue of such notes was then again given by the
Estates of the Kingdom in National Diet assembled,
to meet the emergencies that then existed.
"4. The plaintiff, falsely called in the said bill
King of Hungary,' has not, and never has had,
the sole and exclusive privilege of authorising to
be affixed to any document intended to be published
or circulated in Hungary, the national arms in the
said bill, erroneously called the Royal arms of that
country. Were the plaintiff King of Hungary,
which he is not, he would not possess this privilege
and authority. There do not now exist, and never
have existed any Royal arms of Hungary. The
Crown of Hungary, which must be deemed the most
important part of the arms of Hungary, is the pro-
perty of the nation and not of the King, even
though he be a lawfully crowned King. It is
expressly declared, by the fundamental laws of
Hungary, that every noble is a member of the
Sacred Crown of Hungary; and I, whom am
a noble of Hungary, have an absolute and
hereditary share in those rights of the nation of
which the Crown has always been taken to be the
symbol. It is even required, by the fundamental
laws of the kingdom, which all the last 14 kings of
Hungary (that is to say, all those of Hapsburg race)
have sworn to observe and keep, that persons shall
be chosen by the Estates of the nation, who shall
have the keeping of the Crown itself, and this
within the Kingdom of Hungary. The other part
of the device engraved upon the said note, and the
whole of which is in the said bill falsely called ' the
Royal arms,' consists of the shield of the national
emblem or arms. But neither the use of this emblem
nor the authorisation of the use of it is in any sense
or manner the exclusive privilege of the King of
Hungary, did there now exist a King of Hungary,
which there does not. The use of this emblem is
not only the right of every Hungarian, but the use
of it is, in point of fact, common and habitual with
men of all classes in Hungary, and it is daily used
and put by them upon published newspapers and
other articles of all sorts publicly exhibited for sale.
And this is done in strict conformity with the laws
and the records of the kingdom of Hungary, which,
throughout and invariably, speak of 'Regni Corona'
and Regni Insigne,' never of `Regis Corona' or
Regis Insigne.'
"5. And I say that, in the notes complained of in
the plaintiff's said bill, the said national emblem
and crown, in the bill erroneously called the Royal
arms, are merely introduced into the ornamental
border which surrounds the notes, as the well-known
national emblem, but not for the purpose of in any
respect giving authenticity to such notes.
"6. The notes in the said bill mentioned, and
therein falsely called spurious notes,' do not
purport to be anything else than what is stated in
words upon the Ace of them. They have no re-
semblance whatever to any other notes mentioned
in the said bill.
" 7. It is not true, but it is wholly and entirely
contrary to the truth, that I have intended, as soon
as I receive the notes falsely in the said bill called
spurious notes,' to send them to Hungary, and to
sell some of them for divers sums of money to any
persons resident there or elsewhere, and by this
and other means to introduce the same into circu-
lation in Hungary. My intentions could not be
known to the plaintiff, or to Rudolph Count Ap-
ponyi, his ambassador in England. I affirm and
declare the faet to be, that the present state of
Europe and of the Austrian Government being
such as to make the happening of great changes in
the relations of lawful right and the dominion of
force seem not only possible but probable, I deemed
it to be my duty to take such means as I was able
to meet such an emergency as might thus probably,
arise, and to prevent the State and subjects of Hun-
gary from suffering the detriment that would ne-
cessarily follow from tbe,want of sufficient means
of circulation as money, and I have accordingly had
the notes in the said bill named prepared and
made ready, but had already, before the filing of
the said bill, made provision for their safe keeping
in England until the happening of the emergency
which could alone make use of them to Hungary to
be consistent with events. And I affirm and de-
clare, that I neither have attempted nor have ever
no tithe attention to attempt, to introduce the said
, falsely in the said bill called spurious notes,'
into
llunaga.r.y, so long as the present condition of
foreibere:ml
calls mien exists there. What the plaintiff
:restoration
Von', but which will, in fact, be the
=Just itself havthe laws and rights of Hungary,
notes in the saLlhba"ened in Hungary before the
of which the named can acquire the value
through their itiy expresses so much fear
circulation in the kingdom of Hun-
gary.

d, S. Detriment to the State and to the subjects
of Hungary ,lu nnot therefore be caused by the
making of the said notes, or
by their introduc-
tion
notes intcouldo Hun
77 under a.ry. On the contrary,cidrcumstances,
n
av the said
subjects of
which
amdent
be the means of relief to the State
an
Hungary from the g Teat loss and daeltrrei
the said State and subjects have
through acts done in the name and on the psuffered
the plaintiff. When I was Minister of Finance
N„,to
~ , as
about, in that capacit to arrange for the issue of
some notes upon the (credit of a metallic basis,the
National Bank of At rstria, which LS named in the