HISTORY OF THE HUNGARIAN WAR."
". We earnestly hope that before long some autheaticinetere of the political course of the 'Hungarian 'insurrection will be publiaked by those best 'acquainted with its true character."—Tinter,-October 17.
[Under the above title and motto, _Fraser's Magazine for November produces a capital article, the first chapter of a series ; more informing in matter, and more truthful in tone, than the ".general reader" usually.meets with. In the following extract, Louis Kossuth makes his font appearance on the troubled scene of Hungarian polities.]
"Although various ill-advised attempts have beensnade by Hungarianend British writers to compare the constitution of Hungary with those usages and observances which in England have limited the violence of hostile fac- tions, and compelled them, as it were, in spite of private passions, to labour for the public good, it will be found, on ',loser examination, that the two constitutions are as different in their mode of working as in their results,. In Hungary, the Upper House of the Legislature, or 'Board of Magnates,' consisted of the large landed proprietors and dignitaries of church and state : it was provided that even the widows of magnates, and those whom business,. pleasure, or ill health, prevented from attending the sittings of the Board; should watch its proceedings by means of a deputy, who took the seat allotted to the absentee, but was not permitted either to speak or to vote. It appears that the duties of a magnates deputy were confined to the watching and re- porting the debates for the information of his employer. For the functions of that charge were usually conferred on young or briefless barristers and-so- licitors, who, besides the emoluments of such a situation, were:desirous of obtaining that information respecting the details and management of public- affairs which the-greatnewspapers in England convey to all ranks and all classes, but which in Hungary, by the want of private or official Perlis- mentaiy reports, was confined tothe few whose privilege it was to watch the proceedings of the two Houses. Among the most serious evileof this system upon the conduct of affairs, were the facilities it afforded to 'the magnates of slighting their legislative duties, and the amount of.superfoillity, ill-judged zeal, chicanery, and double dealing, which it encouraged.- Whatever good effects it had, were confined to the training of a .few needy and talented youths in the management of public effairs. "Of these was Louis Kossuth, the son of a emallIreehoider and land- steward in the county of Zemplin • who born in 1806, had jud•eompleted his twenty-seventh year when his hereditary poverty and natural gifts attracted the attention of his father's employer, and procured for him the email sti- pend of a Parliamentary agent and reporter. Although.considerable interest has been excited by later events about the-early -career of a man whom many consider as the prototype bf the good and bad qualitiesed his nation, yet so blind were the loves and hatreds which clung -around him, that little or no authentic information has transpired on the subject, But the few facts which can be eaid to be established, slime him a gloomy and eccentric boy, and a youth in whom habits of-study and application were curiously blended with some less creditable pursuits. Ilia enemies have accused him of exces- sive intemperance and sexual immorality, and of gambling and dishonesty in money matters. His friends, on the contrary, would make the world believe that Louis Kossuth's youth passed amidst the purest and brightest aspira- tion ' - that he remained a stranger to the vices of the age ; and that the.die- honesty, intemperance, and immorality of 'the _dominant .Austrian faction could never at any time seduce the ascetic severity of his morals or the Ca- tonic rectitude of his principles. Fiction reigns undisturbed whets facts fail; nor is it possible to reclaim the -life of the Hungarian dictator Irma the extravagant assertions of party romance, 'so long as those who are most llirelY to know the truth are most interested in conterdintit. But there is 'reason to fear that some parts elf Louis Kossuth% lift, such Heads alleged embezzle- meet of public monies, will always remain ddbateable ground for biogra- phers and the writers of political memoirs ; feed* was oharged with that crime and prosecuted, and the 'documents -relative to that prosecution have been destroyed. "There 15 reasonto helievelbst the corps of magnetos' deputies and private reporters Of Parliametitary debates at the Presburg Diet Of 1683 must have been deficient inatyle, as well as in a juet appreciation of the leading points of the tmnsacticmir, for Louis 'Koweith had no sooner entered on the f-une- lions of his office, then the manner and style of his reports attracted the attention of his private friends, and by degrees of members of the Diet, wed others interested in its proceedings. His reports and -commentaries on the roost important debetea were in great requisition, and it was ultimately re- solved to print and -circulate them. The manner in which this resolution was carried out is characteristic of the time and 'of the 'people. The mag- nifies and wealthy commoners -of Hungary, who reoklesely spent their in- comes, if net more, in pursuits alien discreditable to themselves and of- *wive to:others, were, without anoxeeption, unable to latford the funds Alt the vetted literary undertaking. A small lithographic printing-press was indegsurchased, but the sum required was collected by a general subscrip- tion the Liberal Opposition. Mr. Koasuth's reports, thus multiplied, were bled under the title of a Parliamentary Gazette, and distributed among
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the bscribers, and. those country gentlemen who chose to purchase political intgenee at the price of a few shillings per annum. This undertaking, hefer limited in its extent, exercised a powerful influence on the political deppment of Hungary. 1p to that period, a general report of the proceedings of the Diet had he published by the Government; but its style, like that of most official pructions, was not calcubited to make it palatable to the generality of revs. Its guarded language, its equivocations and frequentmmissions of fe, and, in short, its edition for an official purpose, made it an object of alio suspicion and disgust. The Government reports were, moreover, pub- lied with all the slowness Which formerly characterized the operations of e Continental press. The publication of official returns in particular was iried on by fits and starts, and the public were alternately disgusted by over-abundance or a total want of printed papers. Mr. Kossuth's re- nts, published daily after the close of public business, recorded and coin- tented upon the last debates ; they came to hand in single numbers, and rhile the questions of which they treated were still pending, and consequent- y open to influence from without.and they were confined to the pith. and
marrow of the matter before the House. His undertaking was eminently successful, and its influence became soon manifest to those agents of the Go- vernment whose ditty it was to watch and report on the state of public opin- ion in Hungary.
"The roost grievous fault of almost all Continental Governments, in the present century, has been their practice of increasing the popularity of their political antagonists by pettypersecutions. Though fully as vindictive, they have been less courageous than the princes and statesmen of former ages, who never struck a second blow. In Austria, and in some other German countries, the system of repression by-small measures had been carried to an astonishing and a dangerous perfection, for it was calculated to enlist public sympathy on behalf of its victims. Louis Kossuth the journalist was a source of serious annoyance to the Austrian Government, and an in- junction was issued to prevent the publication of his reports by means of -lithography. The result of this injunction was, that those reports were copied by a staff of clerks; that their language became violent, and their rice higher ; and that their circulation was doubled. " After the conCluelon of the Diet in 1836, Louis Kossuth, whom ex- perience had taught the benefits of persecution, continued to provoke the Government by his reports on the transactions of the county magistrates of Perth. Up to that period, the King's lieutenants in the various counties had succeeded in preventing the publication of the local or county Diets; and by so doing, they prevented all joint action and cooperation of the various Hungarian districts. Injunction after injunction was issued from Vienna, and disregarded by Mr. Kossuth ; who, assured of the protection of the Ma- gistrates of Perth, and glorying in the attacks of an unpopular Cabinet, continued still further to provoke his opponents to measures of violence. Orders were issued for the arrest of Kossuth:; but the Count Raviezky, the Chancellor of the kingdom, refused to sign tbe necessary warrants. He was removed, and his place given to the Count F. Palffy, who became a willing instrument in the hands of the Cabinet ; and the cities of Buda and Pest witnessed the extraordinary 'spectacle of a company of grenadiers with fixed bayonets marching to arrest a single and defeneeless man. The reason why so stronga force was sent to do the office of constable has never been satis- factorily-explained. Even at the time it was a question with the witnesses of that exciting scene, whether the Cabinet sought to awe the-public mind by an imposing display of military force, or whether those in power over-esti- mated the amount of popularity which their persecution had gained for Mr. Kossuth. But whether from bravado or fear, the result proved that the Austrian Government,conamitted a terrible fault, if mot a crime, in arresting the franklin of Zemplin, the salaried clerk a a country gentleman, and the publisher and editor of .a small local newspaper, with all the pride, pomp, and circumstance of -a martial expedition. " The news of this event spread like wildfire throughout Hungary. Peti- tions, remonstrances, and deputations, were sent in from all parts ; and while Kossuth awaited his trial in the New Prison' of Perth, his name became the watchword of the Opposition and his future liberation was con- sidered as the rallying point of the wildest est hopes. Nor could this gigantic popularity be lessened by-the arrest of other Liberals, although these later victims were more conspicuous, some by birth, and some by a longer and more active public career. The Count Raday, Madaraz, Uhazy, B. Wessels- neyi, and Beloit, aharedthe journalist's fate, and were arraigned with him be- fore the same tribunal. The sentence 'against Wosselenyi and Kossuth con- demned them-to three years' imprisonment, for having disobeyed the rtng's orders.' This sentence appears extremely mild, if compared with the long terms of imprisonment which the Austrian judges are in the habit of pro- nouncing against these whom their Government has cause to fear or to hate. But so great are the horrors of an Austrian state prison—which the ex- perience of later years shows to have been truthfully described by Silvio Pellico and other Italian convicts—that even the confinement of a few months sufficed to affect the health of body and mind of many unfortunate men who were consigned to them. When, after two years' confinement, the menacing attitude of the Hungarian counties induced the Cabi- net of Vienna to conciliate the public animosity by the publication of an amnesty, Mr. Kossuth left his cell, in the fortress of Munkaez, broken in health, and exasperated to the laat degree. My fate rests in God's hands,' said he, at later period ; it is his to consign me to suffering, to exile, or to the block ; but even His power shall never again make -me subject to the Habsburg dynasty !' "It-is strangely characteristic of the Austrian Government, that after raising Mr. Kossuth from his obscurity to the eminence of a political antagonist, and after giving him bodily proofs of their cruelty and vindictiveness, they should at length in the eleventh hour, have sought to gain him over to their party. Their measures to that effect were as petty and awkward as their former persecutions. If the liberated convict had been left to starve or live on the bounty of his friends, his very poverty would have ruined his in- dependence and :confined his energy. If he had been appointed to an im- t and lucrative office, his patriotism would have been suspected, and his condition envied by those who could not hope for an equal amount of good fortune. The Cabinet of Vienna, impelled by a strange fatality, chose a middle course between the two -expedients. They sought to conciliate their enemy by grantinga licence for a newspaper, the itsiti.ifirlap ; and they consented to Kossuth midertakmz its management. Nothing could be move advantageous for a man of as almost feminine softness, vanity, indolence, and irrascibility, suck as he proved to be, than to be thus thrown on his own resources, and compelled to come again before the public with the reminis- cences of a victim and the glory of a martyr. From that time forward, Louis Kossuth took his place among-the leaders of the Opposition. At the elections for the Diet 'of 1840 and 1645, the Government did indeed succeed in pre- venting his return es a member of the Lower House, or Board of Estates ; but his influence grew apace, and when the Diet of 1847 opened, the Oppo- sition had obtained a signal triumph in the elections, and Mr. 'Kossuthtook his seat as member.for the county of Perth."
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