The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-08-01
yhe @]ailg Arens.
Mr.. Mediil at Fanlt.

From the Providence Journal.
Mr., Joseph Medil has recently revived
the question so much disputed a quarter
of a century ago, respecting the motive of
the famous Hungarian revolution OF lS4S,
in a manner that is not calculated to
strengthen our confidence in the fitness of
an enterprising journalist to deal with a
difficult problem of history. The story of
the ll,tated struggle in which kOssuth
played SO conspicuous a part, remains yet
to be written, and with the means OF in
formation now at hand, any person with
less confidence in his own infallibility than
the editor of a leading Chicago daily might
well shrink from passing a ~peremptory
judgement. But when Mr.. Medill de-
clares that the whole thing was nothing
more than a revolt of Irish landlords, and
that mot a word was uttered nor act done
to better the condition of the miserable
rack rent tenants who titled the soil and
lived in restitution, while the landlords en-
NAL. it is evident that his researches into
Hungarian history have not extended very
far. What has given rise to so much mis-
conception respecting the Hungarian revo-
luton, and caused such wide differences of
opinion to exist as to the true aims of
those who undertook it, is ignorance of the
social institutions of Hungary as they ex-
listed up to the reforms Introduced by the
Batthanyi ministry of lS4S. More than
any other country of Europe, Hungary was
medieval. The land was burdened with
feudal restrictions the mobiles were
exempt from taxation: no middle
class existed. When Mr.. Medill denounces
the revolution as a revolt of landlords, he
seems not to be aware that landlords and
peasants were the only elements of the So
clal body, and that the latter were too ig-
norant or too Indifferent to take the lead
in political reform. But nothing could be
wider OF the mark than the statement that
the revolution designed to effect nothing
for this class. The movement to anchor
ate the condition of the peasants began
nearly a quarter of a century ago with the
efforts of Count Stephan Szechenyi, the
same who so startled the Diet of 1925 by
addressing the Lords spiritual and tenn
poral in his vernacular Magyar instead of
the customary and time. honored Latin. A
leading aim of the liberal party was no
doubt to secure for Hungary the free ex-
ercise of her local rights, and, so far as
this goes, no doubt an analogy exists be-
tween them and the present Irish Home
Rule party. But the Hungarian liberals
by no means stopped with this. Among
the measures proposed in the programme
of lS47, before there was any thought of
separation from Austria, were the reform
of the feudal t%enures; taxation of all class.
es; equality before the law; and liberty of
the press. These reforms were carried
through by the Batthanyi Ministry.
Whether the leaders of the Liberal party
acted wisely in undertaking what they at
terward did, whether especially it would
have been better for Hungary to have re
tanned her own local institutions instead
of being partially a%malgamated with Aus.
trla under the present compound admins
tration system are questions which we
cannot here discuss but the fact should
be borne in mind that the present system
has adopted some of the very reforms for
which the revolutionists of lS4S commended;
that Hungary proper and Croatia are now
united, a thing pronounced impossible by
those who were fond of stigmatizing the
revolution as a war of races,
and that, above all, what Mr.. joseph
Medill was strangely unmindiui OF when
he declared that the party to which
Kossuth belonged did nothing for the
peasants, the noblest result of the revolu-
ton remains in the emancipation of the
We commend the ex-Mayor to a
more exhaustive study of the facts.
Without being by any means unqualified
admirers OF kossuth, we cannot consent
to call the movement which he led a fraud.