proscribed free speech, muzzled the known only as the leader in the armed newspapers, forced the German lan- "insurrection," the dauntless and verguage on the Diet, and aimed deadly satile dictator who organized resistblows even at the local county repre- ance, the fiery orator who poured sentative assemblies, which had sur- enthusiasm like new wine into the vived through the Middle Ages, and veins of a people outnumbered and surthe religious conflicts of the seven- rounded, the resolute and resourceful teenth century, and the terrific on- administrator who beat back the legions slaughts of Turkish barbarism. of Windischgrätz. But in reality his When Kossuth arrived at manhood most valuable work was done before Hungary was fermenting with the the war of '48, in keeping alive the leaven of resistance to the encroach- spirit of the nation during the long ments of Austria. But it was ferment- constitutional struggle, and in giving ing also with another leaven. The shape and definiteness to the movenational polity was constitutional and ment. The champion of democratic representative; but the constitution rights was himself a member of the was that of a feudal aristocracy. The aristocratic order by birth; that is to peasantry were almost in the condition say, he was the son of one of those of the mediæval villeins ascripti gleba. small country gentlemen who were They had no place in the constitution ranked among the "nobles," like the and no political rights. The franchise, vavassores in mediæval England. the right of sitting in the county coun- Trained as a lawyer, he entered polcils, and that of electing representa-itics as the representative in the Upper tives to the Diet, were limited to the House of the Pressburg Diet, of one "nobles," who corresponded to the of those landed lady magnates who, by military tenants and freeholders under the usage of the Hungarian Constituthe Western feudal system. The no- tion, were permitted to send proxies to bles were simply a privileged caste, the Chamber, though they might not who had all the benefits and none of sit there themselves. In the Diet Kosthe burdens of citizenship. The peas- suth became conspicuous as one of the ant held his land on a semi-servile ten- boldest and most eloquent of the reure and paid practically all the taxes; formers. But his real celebrity and his class constituted the misera plebs popularity came about through the contribuenda of old Hungarian legal press. The government forbade the documents. The Liberal movement of publication of the debates in the newsthe two decades before '48 was largely papers; Kossuth evaded the prohibidirected towards the abolition of the tion by circulating a manuscript report unjust monopoly of the aristocratic which passed from hand to hand, and class, the alleviation of the condition was widely copied. The Vienna auof the peasantry, and the destruction thorities did him the good service to of the surviving relics of feudalism. make him a martyr. They arbitrarily The movement for reform went hand and illegally ordered his arrest in 1837, in hand with the movement for the and for four years he was imprisoned restoration of the old constitutional at Pesth. His sufferings were not very rights. Both were strenuously opposed severe. He was allowed to see his by Metternich and the Austrian court; friends, to conduct his correspondence, both were passionately supported by and to read as many books as he the group of enlightened nobles, and pleased. This period of easy durance ardent young Liberals, chiefly of the was not without its advantages for professional classes, who did their best to rouse public feeling as much against the selfish Conservatism of the aristocracy as against the denationalizing policy of Vienna.

To Englishmen, Kossuth became

him. It gave him time to study Shakespeare and Burke, and the authorized version of the Bible; which he did to such good purpose that he afterwards showed himself to be one of the greatest masters of the English language –

native or foreign — who ever used that | charged air of the Continent and language on a public platform. It brought down the clouds in thunder. stamped him indisputably as one of the Nothing more astonishing than the epichief leaders of the national agitation demic of revolution which burst over against Austria. And it procured him Europe in those weeks has been witthe close acquaintance of Count Wes- nessed this century. Within a fortnight selenyi, a patriotic magnate whose of the Great Three Days at the Paridaughter Kossuth subsequently mar-sian barricades the Emperor Ferdinand ried. Wesselenyi, with Count Stephen was petitioned to appoint a native HunSzechenyi, and other Liberal leaders, garian ministry which was to include shared the punishment inflicted on Count Louis Batthyányi as minister Kossuth. The agitation produced by president, Deàk as minister of justice, the confinement of their popular politi- Count Szechenyi as minister of the cians was so menacing that Metternich interior, and Kossuth as minister of at length thought it advisable to yield. finance. The Vienna government hesIn 1841 Kossuth was liberated, and at itated; but in less than another fortonce renewed his journalism by start- night the students and the inhabitants ing a Liberal paper called the Pesti of the workmen's suburbs had risen in Hirlap. From a business point of view Vienna itself, Metternich fled for his the speculation was not very success-life, and the Camarilla was too terriful, and Kossuth attempted to retrieve fied to defy the Magyars openly. Koshis pecuniary position by plunging into suth went to Vienna, his appointment various agrarian enterprises of a semi-and that of the other ministers were philanthropic nature. In 1847 he was confirmed, and the partial recognition elected to the Diet, as representative of Hungarian autonomy was supposed of the county of Pesth, and proceeded to be secured by the restoration of the to develop a more "advanced" pro- old dignity of palatine or viceroy in the gramme of domestic reform than was person of the Archduke Stephen. In quite congenial to some of the other the Diet the new ministers, dominated popular leaders, like Francis Deak, by the magnetic personality of Koswho were Conservative and Constitu- suth, embarked on the full flood of tional in their tendencies. The nobles, who were at the head of the movement, were much more anxious to throw off the encroachments of Austria than to promote the extension of political rights among all classes of the population, or to change the servile condition of the peasantry into the status of free peasant proprietors. In fact, they regarded Kossuth's cosmopolitan Radicalism and semi-Republicanism with aversion and alarm. It is the most striking testimony to Kossuth's extraordinary energy of mind and power over men that he was able to whirl the half-reluctant Diet and his unwilling allies and colleagues along the road his own impetuous bound, out of the Middle Ages and steps were treading.

reforming legislation. The magnates were induced by the great orator to lay aside their fears; and in a few weeks, and almost without opposition, feudalism was swept away, amid a tempest of national enthusiasm. The caste privileges of the "nobles" were abolished; the franchise was extended so as to cover the mass of the middle and trading classes; the peasants were completely emancipated; and, to crown all, they were declared free proprietors of the lands they tilled, the State undertaking to compensate the landholders for the loss of their feudal and seignorial rights. With a suddenness more than Japanese, Hungary sprang, at a

seemed launched well on the tide of modern progress.

The crisis broke in the spring of 1848. It had been ripening for years But other interests speedily disin Hungary when suddenly came the tracted the attention of the ministers. uprising in Paris which passed like The Croats and Serbs - the wild, semian electric spark through the storm- barbarous Slavonic population of the

southern frontier-lands- were included was fought at Vallencze, and Jellachich in the dominions of the Hungarian was beaten. After this victory the crown, and were subject to the author- imperial government threw off the disity of the Hungarian ministry; but guise and openly sent assistance to the they cherished an hereditary hatred to ban. But this roused the Viennese to the Magyars and were easily persuaded fury. A conflict in the streets was that the new powers granted to Hun- precipitated by the attempt of the govgary menaced their existence and equal ernment to send away five regiments to rights. The intriguing little junta of the assistance of Jellachich who was officials and ladies who managed mat- now falling back towards the Austrian ters at Vienna after the departure of frontier. The people prevented the Metternich made haste to foment this soldiers from leaving the capital; the movement. Jellachich, the Croat emperor fled; and the war minister, leader, an able, unscrupulous, and de- Latour, the most active member of the termined Slav partisan, animated by a Camarilla, was murdered. The city fanatical hostility to the Magyars, was was in the hands of the insurgents, created "ban," or warden of the who closed the gates, manned the formarches, and with secret encourage- tifications, and held out against the ment from Vienna he enlisted a large Imperialist besieging army under Winforce of Croat highlanders and border- dischgrätz. Kossuth, somewhat uners, and broke into Hungary. Tech- wisely, sent several battalions of his nically this was rebellion, and the still raw and untrained troops to the emperor could not refuse to the Hun- relief of the Viennese. But his route garian ministry permission to deal with was barred by Jellachich, who had it by force of arms. Batthyányi and effected a junction with Windischgrätz, Kossuth called out the "Honved," or and a battle was fought at Schewchat, national militia of Hungary, and Ferdi- outside Vienna. The Viennese made nand was compelled to declare Jella- a desperate attempt at a sortie, which chich a rebel and an outlaw. This was ineffective; and the Hungarians latter move was a mere pretence. were defeated and compelled to reWhile the Hungarians were attacking cross the Leitha. The war between the ban in the name of the "king," Hungary and Austria had now fairly the king was supplying him with assist- set in, and Kossuth, recognizing that ance in money, arms, and presently, as Buda-Pesth was far too near the Ausit appeared, in troops. Almost before trian frontier to be safe, withdrew the they knew it, the Hungarian ministry seat of government to the town of had drifted into war; and though nom- Debreczin, far away to the eastward, inally they were not at war with the and in the heart of the great Hungahouse of Hapsburg, but, on the con- rian plain. The war began in earnest trary, were fighting to vindicate its at the end of 1848, with the abdication authority over its revolted subjects, the of the Emperor Ferdinand, the accesturn of affairs frightened those of Kos- sion of his nephew the present emsuth's colleagues whose sympathies peror Francis Joseph (who-such is were monarchical and Conservative. the irony of events is now pretty Batthyányi and Deàk resigned, and a nearly as popular in all parts of his Council of National Defence was con- dominions as any sovereign in Eustituted (still nominally with the em- rope), and the invasion of Hungary peror's sanction) with Kossuth as simultaneously by three Austrian arpresident. From that date, until the mies numbering more than one huncollapse of the Hungarian cause before dred thousand men. the Russians a year later, Kossuth was The eight months' campaign that the life and soul of the Hungarian followed is one of the most extraordi"insurrection." His first task was to nary of modern times. That the Hunsuppress the Croats, now well on their garians would be able to make even a way to the capital. A desperate battle decent show of resistance to the whole

power of Austria now exerted against | supplied with generals, staff, cannon, them seemed at first sight incredible. and the other accessories, were again The Imperialists had the whole re- and again beaten by numerically infesources and population of the hereditary rior forces, largely composed of hasty States to fall back upon; they had a levies of volunteers, badly armed, and large trained army, a regular military in some cases almost destitute of artilorganization, officers and generals, of lery, and corps de genie. The common whom many had seen service in the opinion of modern scientific officers is Napoleonic wars thirty years before, that the bravest troops in the world, if and a sufficient, if not particularly flour- untrained and loosely disciplined, canishing, credit. Nothing, at first sight, not hold their own against regular could seem more forlorn than the situ- | regiments. Gambetta's attempt to proation of the Hungarians. On three long the Franco-German War, after the sides Austria stretched an arm round collapse of the armies of the Rhine, by their little island of steppe and plain throwing hordes of National Guards and mountain-slope; on the fourth and Mobiles upon the well-organized they were confronted by the angry and invaders, is generally held to have been jealous neutrality of Russia. Western a magnificent absurdity, absolutely unEurope sympathized with them, but justifiable from the military point of had not the least intention of doing view, though perhaps defensible on anything effective to help. Against political and other grounds. The imthe armies of their foes they had noth- mense civilian armies which Grant and ing to oppose but an open country with Lee handled in the American War of few fortresses and few natural facilities Secession were formidable enough to for defence, and a population not much one another; but Lord Wolseley has exceeding five millions, for the Serbs, placed on record his opinion that thirty Wallachians, and other non-Magyar thousand European regular troops, inhabitants were actively or passively thrown on one side or the other, could hostile. The situation seemed desper- have decided the conflict at any period ate enough; but five centuries of a of the campaign. And to come struggle for existence against the Turks down to a subject of more living interhad taught the Hungarians to accept est to every reader of this paperdesperate situations without flinching. there is no officer of any real authority The warlike energies of the nation who believes that our two hundred were roused; the Honved battalions thousand "efficient" volunteers, in were swelled by thousands of eager their present state of military nudity recruits; and Kossuth's measures to and rawness, could hold their ownprovide war material and maintain the albeit, man for man, as good fighting financial equilibrium by means of a material as can be found in most coungreat issue of paper currency were tries—could hold their own against vigorously supported by the people. two or three French or German corps The Austrian generals, who had d'armée, well led, well equipped, and counted on a sort of military parade well trained, and properly supplied through the country, found themselves with the staff, guns, and appliances face to face with armies, inferior, it is without which an army is an armed true, in numbers and equipment to mob. their own, but in most cases admirably led, and animated by a dauntless spirit of patriotism, and a natural military aptitude, which compensated to some extent for their deficiency in drill, discipline, and training. To the intense surprise of the civilized world - which contented itself with applause the armies of Francis Joseph, properly

The Hungarian War of 1849 seems almost to contradict these conclusions. But there are some other considerations to be taken into account. For one thing, and in spite of the strategists and the military theorists, it is always to be recollected that war is a game in which much, very much, depends on the character of the players.

You cannot get rid of the personal | Bem, the Polish general who had element, especially in the matter of offered his sword to the patriots, leadership; and that, with due respect plunged into Transylvania, stamped to the scientific soldiers, makes war too out the insurrection of the Wallachioften deplorably unscientific. You ans, and drove the Imperialists from may get a Hannibal, a Charles the the province. Görgey, after a rapid Twelfth, a Turenne, or a Clive on one and masterly march through the Northhand, or a Varro, a Count Daun, a ern Carpathians, appeared on the Villeneuve, or a Marshal Benedek on Theiss, and by the end of March the the other, and things happen quite united Hungarian armies, under Demotherwise than they should according binski, Görgey, and Klapka, were conto all the rules of war. Now, that centrated in front of Debreczin and element counted very strongly indeed ready for a forward offensive movein the campaign of 1849. Probably no ment. Kossuth had insisted on giving great nation has been more consistently the supreme command to the Pole, and uniformly unlucky in its command-Dembinski — a very unfortunate selecers than Austria; and Windischgrätz tion, for Dembinski, besides being a far was conspicuously incompetent even inferior commander to some of his for an Austrian general. On the other subordinates, roused the furious jealhand, the Magyars were remarkably ousy of Görgey. The latter was probfortunate in their military leaders. ably the ablest of all the Hungarian Görgey, Klapka, Bem, Aulich, and officers as a tactician. A major in the Damjanich were excellent officers, who Austrian service, he offered his sword handled their raw and heterogeneous to the Pressburg ministry at the outlevies on the battlefield and the march break of hostilities with the Croats, with a skill as remarkable as the ineffi- and was appointed by Kossuth to the ciency of their opponents. Nor must command of the defeated army on the it be forgotten that while these and battlefield of Schewchat. His character the other superior officers of the Mag- and conduct have formed the subject yar armies were professional soldiers, of a bitter and unsettled controversy, there was also a strong corps of reg- through which perhaps the best guide ular troops to stiffen the half-trained is to be found in the two volumes of militia. Görgey's army of the Upper" Memoirs "1 published by him three Danube, the force which did the best years after the war, when Aulich, and hardest fighting of the war, was largely composed of the Hungarian troops which had come over from the Imperial service; and the hussars, who won the chief honors in the campaign, were the very pick of the Austrian cavalry. With all this the contest, at first, seemed ridiculously unequal. The Hungarian armies found themselves compelled to fall back on all sides before the invaders; and if these latter had been led by commanders of ordinary ability, and directed with common intelligence, the scattered and disorganized defending contingents should have been struck and broken before they could have acquired cohesion and solidity.

But Windischgrätz hesitated and delayed; and the early spring of 1849 was brilliantly used by the Magyar leaders.

Damjanich, and other heroes of the Revolution had been sent to a bloody grave, when Kossuth was in exile, and Görgey himself was living at Klagenfurt under the contemptuous protection of the Viennese government. It is clear enough that a deep difference of aims and objects divided Kossuth from Görgey, and from many other of the military men who had formerly been in the Austrian service. These officers protested, and probably with sincerity, that they had no wish to make war upon the "king," still less to bring about the separation of Hungary from the Austrian crown. They were seeking only to vindicate their constitutional liberties, suppressed under the Metternich régime, and to put down the 1 My Life and Acts in Hungary. By Arthur Görgey.