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LAJOS [See also: At once his name and See also:influence spread . In See also:order to increase the circulation, he ventured on lithographing the letters . This brought them under the See also:official censure, and was forbidden . He continued the See also:paper in MS., and when the government refused to allow it to be circulated through the See also:post sent it out by See also:hand . In 1836 the Diet was dissolved . Kossuth I continued the agitation by See also:reporting in See also:letter See also:form the debates of the county assemblies, to which he thereby gave a See also:political importance which they had not had when each was ignorant of the proceedings of the others . The fact that he embellished with his own great See also:literary ability the speeches of the Liberals and Reformers only added to the influence of his See also:news-letters . The government in vain attempted to suppress the letters, and other means having failed, he was in May 1837, with Weszelenyi and several others, arrested on a See also:charge of high See also:treason . After spending a See also:year in See also:prison at Ofen, he was tried and condemned to four more years' imprisonment . His confinement was strict and injured his See also:health, but he was allowed the use of books . He greatly increased his political See also:information, and also acquired, from the study of the See also:Bible and See also:Shakespeare, a wonderful know-ledge of See also:English . His See also:arrest had caused great indignation . The Diet, which met in 1839, supported the agitation for the See also:release of the prisoners, and refused to pass any government See also:measures; Metternich See also:long remained obdurate, but the danger of See also:war in 184o obliged him to give way . Immediately after his release Kossuth married Teresa Meszleny, a See also:Catholic, who during his prison days had shown great See also:interest in him . Henceforward she strongly urged him on in his political career; and it was the refusal of the See also:Roman priests to bless their See also:union that fl:st prompted Kossuth to take up the See also:defence of mixed marriages . He had now become a popular See also:leader . As soon as his health was restored he was appointed (See also:January 1841) editor of the Pesti Hirlap, the newly founded See also:organ of the party . Strangely enough, the government did not refuse its consent . The success of the paper was unprecedented . The circulation soon reached what was then the immense figure of 7000 . The attempts of the government to counteract his influence by See also:founding a See also:rival paper, the Vilag, only increased his importance and added to the political excitement . The warning of the great reformer See also:Szechenyi that by his See also:appeal to the passions of the See also:people he was leading the nation to revolution was neglected . Kossuth, indeed, was not content with advocating those reforms—the abolition of See also:entail, the abolition of feudal burdens, See also:taxation of the nobles—which were demanded by all the Liberals . By insisting on the superiority of the See also:Magyars to the See also:Slavonic inhabitants of See also:Hungary, by his violent attacks on See also:Austria (he already discussed the possibility of a See also:breach with Austria), he raised the national See also:pride to a dangerous See also:pitch . At last, in 1844, the government succeeded in breaking his connexion with the paper . The proprietor, in obedience to orders from See also:Vienna (this seems the most probable See also:account), took See also:advantage of a dispute about See also:salary to dismiss him . He then applied for permission to start a paper of his own . In a See also:personal interview Metternich offered to take him into the government service . The offer was refused, and for three years he was without a See also:regular position . He continued the agitation with the See also:object of attaining both the political and commercial See also:independence of Hungary . He adopted the economic principles of See also:List, and founded a society, the " Vedegylet," the members of which were to consume none but home produce . He advocated the creation of a Hungarian See also:port at See also:Fiume . With the autumn of 1847 the great opportunity of his See also:life came . Supported by the influence of Louis See also:Batthyany, after a keenly fought struggle he was elected member for Buda-pest in the new Diet . " Now that I am a deputy, I will cease to be an agitator," he said . He at once became See also:chief leader of the Extreme Liberals .
See also:Deak was absent
.
Batthyany, Szechenyi, Szemere, See also:Eotvos, his rivals, saw how his intense personal ambition and See also:egoism led him always to assume the chief See also:place, and to use his parliamentary position to establish himself as leader of the nation; but before his eloquence and See also:energy all apprehensions were useless
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His eloquence was of that nature, in its impassioned appeals to the strongest emotions, that it required for its full effect the highest themes and the most dramatic situations
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In a time of See also:rest, though he could never have been obscure, he would never have attained the highest See also:power
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It was there-fore a See also:necessity of his nature, perhaps unconsciously, always to drive things to a crisis
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The crisis came, and he used it to the full
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On the 3rd of See also: A new paper was started, to which was given the name of Kossuth Hirlapia, so that from the first it was Kossuth rather than the See also:Palatine or the See also:president of the ministry whose name was in the minds of the people associated with the new government . Much more was this the See also:case when, in the summer, the dangers from the Croats, Serbs and the reaction at Vienna increased . In a great speech of r rth See also:July he asked that the nation should See also:arm in self-defence, and demanded 200,000 men; amid a See also:scene of See also:wild See also:enthusiasm this was granted by See also:acclamation . When See also:Jellachich was marching on Pesth he went from town to town rousing the people to the defence of the country, and the popular force of the Honved was his creation . When Batthyany resigned he was appointed with Szemere to carry on the government provisionally, and at the end of September he was made President of the See also:Committee of National Defence . From this time he was in fact, if not in name, the See also:dictator . With marvellous energy he kept in his own hands the direction of the whole government . Not a soldier himself, he had to See also:control and See also:direct the movements of armies; can we be surprised if he failed, or if he was unable to keep control over the generals or to establish that military co-operation so essential to success ? Especially it was See also:Gorgei (q.v.) whose great abilities he was the first to recognize, who refused obedience; the two men were in truth the very opposite to one another: the one all feeling, enthusiasm, sensibility; the other See also:cold, stoical, reckless of life . Twice Kossuth deposed him from the command; twice he had to restore him . It would have been well if Kossuth had had some-thing more of Gorgei's calculated ruthlessness, for, as has been truly said, the revolutionary power he had seized could only be held by revolutionary means; but he was by nature soft-hearted and always merciful; though often audacious, he lacked decision in dealing with men . It has been said that he showed a want of personal courage; this is not improbable, the excess of feeling which made him so great an orator could hardly be combined with the coolness in danger required of a soldier; but no one was able, as he was, to infuse courage into others . During all the terrible See also:winter which followed, his energy and spirit never failed him . It was he who overcame the reluctance of the See also:army to march to the See also:relief of Vienna; after the defeat of See also:Schwechat, at which he was See also:present, he sent See also:Bern to carry on the war in Transylvania . At the end of the year, when the Austrians were approaching Pesth, he asked for the See also:mediation of Mr See also:Stiles, the See also:American See also:envoy . See also:Windischgratz, however, refused all terms, and the Diet and government fled to Debrecszin, Kossuth taking with him the See also:regalia of St See also:Stephen, the sacred See also:Palladium of the Hungarian nation . Immediately after the See also:accession of the Emperor Francis Joseph all the concessions of March had been revoked and Kossuth with his colleagues outlawed . In See also:April 1849, when the Hungarians had won many successes, after See also:sounding the army, he issued the celebrated See also:declaration of Hungarian independence, in which he declared that " the See also:house of See also:Habsburg-See also:Lorraine, perjured in the sight of See also:God and See also:man, had forfeited the Hungarian See also:throne." It was a step characteristic of his love for extreme and dramatic See also:action, but it added to the dissensions between him and those who wished only for See also:autonomy under the old dynasty, and his enemies did not See also:scruple to accuse him of aiming at the See also:crown himself . For the time the future form of government was See also:left undecided, but Kossuth was appointed responsible See also:governor . The hopes of ultimate success were frustrated by the intervention of See also:Russia; all appeals to the western See also:powers were vain, and on the iith of See also:August Kossuth abdicated in favour of Gorgei, on the ground that in the last extremity the See also:general alone could See also:save the nation . How Gorgei used his authority to surrender is well known; the See also:capitulation was indeed inevitable, but a greater man than Kossuth would not have avoided the last duty of conducting the negotiations so as to get the best terms . With the capitulation of Villagos Kossuth's career was at an end . A solitary fugitive, he crossed the See also:Turkish frontier . He was hospitably received by the Turkish authorities, who, supported by Great See also:Britain, refused, notwithstanding the threats of the allied emperors, to surrender him and the other fugitives to the merciless vengeance of the Austrians . In January 1849 he was removed from Widdin, where he had been kept in See also:honourable confinement, to See also:Shumla, and thence to Katahia in See also:Asia See also:Minor . Here he was joined by his children, who had been confined at Pressburg; his wife (a See also:price had been set on her See also:head) had joined him earlier, having escaped in disguise . In September 1851 he was liberated and embarked on an American man-of-war . He first landed at See also:Marseilles, where he received an enthusiastic welcome from the people, but the See also:prince-president refused to allow him to See also:cross See also:France . On the 23rd of See also:October he landed at See also:Southampton and spent three See also:weeks in See also:England, where he was the object of extraordinary enthusiasm, equalled only by that with which See also:Garibaldi was received ten years later . Addresses were presented to him at Southampton, See also:Birmingham and other towns; he was officially entertained by the See also:lord See also:mayor of See also:London; at each place he pleaded the cause of his unhappy country . Speaking in English, he displayed an eloquence and command of the See also:language scarcely excelled by the greatest orators in their own See also:tongue . The agitation had no immediate effect, but the indignation which he aroused against See also:Russian policy had much to do with the strong See also:anti-Russian feeling which made the See also:Crimean War possible . From England he went to the See also:United States of See also:America: there his reception was equally enthusiastic, if less dignified; an See also:element of charlatanism appeared in his words and acts which soon destroyed his real influence . Other Hungarian exiles See also:pro-tested against the claim he appeared to make that he was the one national See also:hero of the revolution . Count Casimir Batthyany attacked him in The Times, and Szemere, who had been See also:prime See also:minister under him, published a See also:bitter See also:criticism of his acts and See also:character, accusing him of arrogance, cowardice and duplicity . He soon returned to England, where he lived for eight years in See also:close connexion with Mazzini, by whom, with some misgiving, he was persuaded to join the Revolutionary Committee . Quarrels of a See also:kind only too See also:common among exiles followed; the Hungarians were especially offended by his claim still to be called governor . He watched with anxiety every opportunity of once more freeing his country from Austria . An See also:attempt to organize a Hungarian See also:legion during the Crimean War was stopped; but in 1859 he entered into negotiations with See also:Napoleon, left England for See also:Italy, and began the organization of a Hungarian legion, which was to make a descent on the See also:coast of See also:Dalmatia . The See also:Peace of Villafranca made this impossible . From that time he resided in Italy; he refused to follow the other Hungarian patriots, who, under the See also:lead of Deak, accepted the See also:composition of 1867; for him there could be no reconciliation with the house of Habsburg, nor would he accept less than full independence and a See also:republic . He would not avail himself of the See also:amnesty, and, though elected to the Diet of 1867, never took his seat, He never lost the affections of his countrymen, but he refrained from an attempt to give See also:practical effect to his opinions, nor did he allow his name to become a new cause of dissension . A See also:law of 1879, which deprived of citizenshipall Hungarians who had voluntarily been absent ten years, was a bitter See also:blow to him . He died in See also:Turin on the loth of March 1894; his See also:body was taken to Pesth, where he was buried amid the See also:mourning of the whole nation, Maurus See also:Jokai delivering the funeral oration . A See also:bronze statue, erected by public subscription, in the Kerepes See also:cemetery, commemorates Hungary's purest patriot and greatest orator . Many points in Kossuth's career and character will probably always remain the subject of controversy . His See also:complete See also:works were published in Hungarian at Budapest in 1880–1895 . The fullest account of the Revolution is given in Helfert, Geschichte Oesterreichs (See also:Leipzig, 1869, &c.), representing the Austrian view, which may be compared with that of C . Gracza, See also:History of the Hungarian War of Independence, 1848–1849 (in Hungarian) (Budapest, 1894) . See also E . O . S., Hungary and its Revolutions, with a Memoir of Louis Kossuth (See also:Bohn, 18J4) ; Horvath, 25 Jahre aus der Geschichte Ungaens, 1823–1848 (Leipzig,i867) ;See also:Maurice, Revolutions of 1848-1849; W.H.Stiles, Austria in' 848–1 849,(N ew See also:York, 1852) ; Szemere,Politische Charakterskizzen: III . Kossuth (See also:Hamburg, 1853) ; Louis Kossuth, See also:Memoirs of my See also:Exile (London, '88o); See also:Pulszky, Meine Zeit, mein Leben (Pressburg, i88o) ; A . Somogyi, See also:Ludwig Kossuth (See also:Berlin, 1894) . (J . W . |
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