The mountain sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1844-1853, 1849-07-26
Louis KOSSuth.
LEADER OF THE HUNGARIANs.

LEADER OF THE HUNGARIANS.
The Hungarian war has been, for the
last SIX months, the favorite field for abso-
lutist calumnies and English misconcep-
ton. The aristocratic and monarchical
nation of the Magyars has been alternate
ly described as a horde of blood-thirsty
communists, and then as the Orangemen
of Eastern Europe, fighting in the name of
liberty to consolidate an odious ascenden-
cy over the mass of the surrounding popu-
latlon. The plotting intriguer, JELLA-
cHIcH, appears as the champion of an op-
pressed race, and the faithful servant of a
betrayed empire. The Governor-Presi-
dent of the kingdom of Hungary is spoken
of as the chairman of a committee OF
Public Safety. But perhaps the most
singular misrepresentation have concern
ed the personal qualities of kossUTH.
Even observers, who cannot be charged
with spirit of intentional detraction, have
dwelt so exclusively, either on single ele-
ments of his character, or on such as are
utterly foreign to it, as to give, upon the
whole, most incorrect estimate of the
man. M. DE LANGsDoRFF, for example,
in the Revue des Deur Mondes, speaks of
him as a revolutionist of the latest Partisan
fashion. Another writer sees in kossuth
only fanatic, endowed with strange ener-
gy, and marvellous power of stirring, by
his eloquence, the passions and hearts of
multitudes. Such energy and faculties
KOssuth undoubtedly possesses; but
through his whole life they have been
subordinate to the most temperate discre-
ton, the most far-sighted patience, the
most practical and conscientious industry.
Louis Kossuth, then young man of seven
or eight and twenty, was selected in the.
year 1887, by noble Magyar lady, as
the representative other seigne,trie in the
Hungarian Diet. In that capacity he
transmitted periodical letters to his patron
ess, with an account of the proceedings IN
the Assembly. The want of any commu-
nication by the press gave great impor-
tance to these documents. They were
circulated from hand to hand, copies were
at first multiplied in manuscript and after
wards in ithograph. The reputation of
the young jurat's epistles had already ex-
cited the suspicion of the Austrian author
| tiles, and this last step gave them an op-
portunity they were looking for. The
| Autographed sheet came under the denom-
nation of a newspaper, and unlicensed
newspapers were prohibited in Hungary.
| Kossuth was arrested, and passed two
years in prison waiting for his trial. In
1889 he was tried, and sentenced to one
years additional Imprisonment. In 1910
he stepped from his prison to the head of
the Magyar opposition in the Diet. HIS
next eight years were passed IN steady
struggle on his part at once to repair the
gaps which inattention of the lapse of time
had permitted to deform the chartered lib
critics of the Magyars, and at the same
time 10 weld together into one homogene-
Gus nation, the various races dwelling on
the soil of Hungary. His journalistic mis-
| haps had by this time borne their fruit.
On quitting his prison, he at once COM
menced a daily journal, the Pest Hrlap,
and in spite of Seizures, prosecutions, and
the Austrian police laws, it forced itself
into circulation, and was continued under
Kossuth's personal direction, till the be-
ginning of last year. Kossuth's influence
was looked on with jealousy by more than
one party in the Diet. Besides the regu-
lar supporters of the Austrian government,
he was thwarted by the wealthy and pop
ular Szecheny, and by the ultra. .patricians
of exclusive Magyarism. Szecheny was
familiar with the political learning and
most advanced liberalism of Western Eu-
rope, but he lacked the high moral faith
which gives its political element to Koss-
uth's character; and while the latter was
bent on educating his countrymen for free
dom, by the foundation of schools, the or
ganization of municipalities, and the con-
cession of gradually extended franchises,
Sezcheny grudged whatever funds or acti-
vity were withdrawn from the task of for
warding the material civilization of the
country. On the other hand, the cham
pions of the old Magyar ascendency con-
tested every step towards raising Croats
and Sclovacks to level with themselves.
But Kossuth manfully struggled oil, and
when the great events of last year broke
out, had secured the hearty cooperation