The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-03 00:00:00

CALUMNIES AGAINST KOSSUTH•
The following letter, vie are informed, was lately
forwarded to the editor of the Times :

" Sir,—There appeared in your paper of the 25th,
a calumnious statement, affecting the characte► of a
public man and of a gentlewoman of spotless reputa-
tion. Many weeks must necessarily elapse, ere M.
Kossuth, or Countess Dembinski's husband, or the
Hungarian emigration, can hear of or refute that ac-
cusation. I have reason to know the utter falsity of
the unmanly charge ; I am, perhaps, the only person
at the present moment in this country who can speak
from personal knowledge on the subject, and should
therefore think myself neglectful of an actual duty if
I allowed the reputation of an innocent lady and of
an illustrious patriot, to remain even temporarily
under the slanderous aspersion.
You, Mr. Editor, as a journalist, I doubt not, will
see sufficiently the propriety of deferring to the
spirit of f'tiir play, and feel sufficiently anxious to
make reparation fur the calumny which has crept into
your columns by giving insertion to its refutation.
That refutation I shall endeavour to effect by a sim-
ple statement of what I personally ascertained and
witnessed, without comment, beyond the remark that
I distinctly charge the author or authors of the accu-
sation with utter, wilful, and malignant falsehood.
The conduct of your Vienna correspondent, who has
spec.fically chosen to accept the responsibility of
these defamatory lies, for which he vouches, would
be difficult to characterise by expressions less offensive.
I need hardly recall more of the substance of this
pretended correspondence from Shumla, which overtly
accuses Madame Dembinski of an improper intimacy
with the late President Governor of Hungary,
alleging that she travelled with him under a false
name, in man's attire; that Kossuth had lost, in con-
sequence, the command of the emigrants, which had
been given to Perczel; that Perczel represented the
democratic, Batthyany the aristocratic party; that
they were both at variance with Kossuth, and that the
correspondent recognised a female in the disguise of
military rank and uniform.
I have the honour of the acquaintance of M.
Kossuth, of Madame Dembinski and her husband,
of Count Batthyany, and of General Perczel. I spent
(with the exception of occasional absences) two
months with the Hungarian emigration at Widdin,
and accompanied it part of the way on its march
to Shumla. During the chief part of that time I
was lodged in the house of Kossuth. There were
at Widdin, besides myself, three Englishmen, to
whom I can appeal for the strict accuracy of my state-
ments, that is to say, General Guyon, the cor-
respondent of the Daily News, and your own cor-
respondent, respecting whom you will perhaps
appreciate my silence if I am not here more ex-
plicit.

In the first place, there did not exist in the emigra-
tion any aristocratic or democratic party. The refu-
gees, like the bulk of the Hungarians, occupied them-
selves no more with such questions than the English
in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when menaced by the
Armada M. Kossuth, Count I3atthyany, and General
Perczel, always on a friendly footing, had recently
contracted the closest intimacy. On the night of my
departure I heard them pledge themselves to the
most perfect concert during the whole continuance of
their exile, and agree, as far as possible, never to
allow themselves to be separated from each other.
The last accounts that I (and I believe any one in this
country) have received from Shumla, indicate rather
an increase than any diminution of this good under-
standing. With regard to the deprivation of Kossuth's
command over the emigration, the ex-president
governor never attempted to assume any civil or
military control or other pre-eminence whatever over
the emigrants beyond the spontaneous deference
conceded to his late supremacy, antecedents, and
renown. General Guyon had the military command
of the emigration. On his departure for Constantinople
it was assumed by Mourad Pacha (General Bern).
And Islourad Pacha having quitted Widdin in an
armed steamer, before the emigration, commenced its
march, the command of the Hungarians devolved
naturally on General Perczel.
Besides a few canteen women there were but two
females—the Countesses Batthyany and Dembinski—
accompanying the emigration. The story of the lady
in uniform is a sheer fabrication.

I come now to Madame, or more properly, the
Countess Dembinski, and if obliged to enter into
seemingly indelicate details, must plead as my apology
both to that lady and to the public the grossness of
the outrage to which she is victim.
Madame Dembinski is the daughter of a merchant
of Arad, and the wife of Count Dembinski, a Gal-
lician nobleman, and relative of the General of that
name. Madame Dembenski, who has been some
months married, may be eighteen, her husband about
five and•twenty years of age. Madame Dembinski
was married before she ever saw Kossuth. She
followed her husband to the camp ; and I have heard
both him and herself relate that, excepting during
the continuance of an engagement, they had never
since their marriage been, even for a day, separated
from each other. Madame Dembinski is of an almost

infantine shnplicity, and has never attempted any in-
terference in politics. Count Dembinski being attached
to the person of Kossuth, spends his whole time under
Kossuth's roof; and (since the late President Governor
has kept a table) the Countess Dembinski presides
over it. Both Count and Countess Dembinski are in

ill-health, and still suffering from intermittent fever,
caught during their retreat from Hungary. Kossuth,
who is old enough to be their father, seems to take a
paternal interest in this young couple.
Kossuth, during the first part of his sojourn at
Widdin, inhabited the house of the chief of the police,
in which he occupied a single room, together with an
aide-decamp and his interpreter. Here, being
without convenience for the prepanition of any regular
repast, I found him eating his solitary meal out of
rude earthenware with an iron spoon.
During the last month of his stay, in consequence
of peremptory orders from Constantinople, the best
house in Widdin was placed at his disposal; but, as
he would not dispossess the owner, whose harem
filled the upper story, only the four ground-floor
apartments were occupied by him, and served to lodge
some dozen persons of his suite, besides servants.
The room which he day and night inhabited was,
in bath houses, according to the Turkish fashion,
always open to allow free ingress to all comers, and
could only be closed by a curtain drawn across the
doorway. Kossuth, during the whole of his stay in
Widdin, may therefore be said to have lived in a
glass house, and, amidst the empty honours finally
paid him, had constant reason to complain of the
want of privacy. The Count and Countess Dem-
binski did not lodge in the same house with
Kossuth, except on two exceedingly cold
nights, when, in consequence of their state
of health, a room was ceded to them, its
former occupants being quartered for the time
upon Kossuth. For the same reason, the late
president-governor, to whom a comfortable travelling
carriage had been presented, gave a seat in it to the
Dembinskis, whose carriage had no springs. The
last day that I accompanied the march I saw Kossuth
on horseback, with Caunt Batthyany on one hand
and General Perczel on the other, and Count Dem-
binski with his lady following in the carriage. Is it
necessary that I should seriously add that, to the
best of my belief and knowledge, Madame Dembinski,,
who is distinguished by graces essentially feminine
never arrayed herself in male attire in her life ?
In conclusion I can frame but one conjecture as to
the motive of this unfounded and scurtillous attack on
a suffering, inoffensive, expatriated woman, and on a
husband and father so notoriously devoted as M. Kos-
suth to his own wife and children.
That conjecture, Mr. Editor (and I conceive your
consequent dread of my participation in such a
scheme, however involuntary) will, if the reasons I
hive previously adduced prove insufficient, I am sure
determine 3ou to insert this letter.
Madame Kossuth is (or was until recently) con-
cealed in Hungnry. She had refused to follow her
husband in the hope of rejoining her children. All
the efforts of the Austrian police have hitherto been
unavailing to
to
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been devised
I am, Sir,yßoßurAoubertenßt
orse REVELATIONSryant,
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or RUSSIA.

London, Dec. 27th, 1849.
COPY OF POSTSCRIPT TO LETTER TO THE " TIMES."
P.S. I have just seen in your paper a letter from
Count Edmond Zichy, in which he says, " Kossuth,
on entering Turkey, positively refused to allow his
baggage to be searched," and " the spurs (a pair of
emerald spurs) were offered by Kossuth himself at
Widdin, on the feast of the Minim, to the Pacha,
who refused the gift."
I cannot believe that any attempt was made to search
the baggage of Kossuth, but I know that that baggage
consisted of one small portmanteau and a pair of sad-
dle-bags never locked, and the whole contents of
which were often untidily displayed to the inspection
of all visitors. On the occasion of Kossuth's only
visit to the Pacha of Widdin during the feast of the
Bairam, I also visited the Pacha, and was present
during the whole interview. M. Kossuth was ac-
companied by Count Casimir Batthyany, and by five
or six officers ; and I can vouch for the fact, that he
never offered to the Pacha anything beyond the com-
pliments of the season.
Count Zichy could hardly be expected to explain
that his unfortunate brother (besides other treason-
able papers) bad in his carriage for distribution seve-
ral thousand proclamations of Jellachich, at that time
declared a traitor and a rebel both by the Emperor
and the Diet, and occupied in ravaging Hungary
with fire and sword.
The jewels and all other property of Count Zichy
were legally confiscated by the Diet, and Kossuth
prosecuted and punished the attempted appropriation
of it by the police. During the war in Transylvania
Bem made application for secret service money to
counter-bribe a neighbouring authority. Some of
k Count Zichy's jewels, as the most portable articles of