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Szathmar, gave a particular stimulus to the question in many counties where he did not appear personally. Metternich, however, resolved to gag the county assemblies, which hitherto enjoyed liberty of speech. In accordance with this policy some members of the liberal party, as Vesseleny, Count Raday, Lovossy, were thrown into prison, on account of their free expression of opinion. A similar punishment was inflicted on Kossuth for having lithographed the debates of the diets. This violation of personal liberty far from producing a feeling of intimidation, called forth loud remonstrances from the counties; that of Pesth, as if willing to show its open resistance to the court of Vienna, having returned Count Raday, one of the prisoners, member for the next diet.

This Diet was opened in 1840, and, as might be expected, in the midst of general excitement. The counties in their instructions to the deputies did not forget to press upon them the necessity of obtaining redress for the violation of the liberty of speech, and of urging the immediate liberation of those who were lately imprisoned. Another object of no small importance in this Diet was the infringement of the laws of the protestants, the catholic clergy, and, especially, the Bishop of Gross-Vardein, Francis Lajcsak, refusing to give the matrimonial blessing to mixed marriages between catholics and protestants. The chief attention, however, hung on the solution of the question of liberty of speech. After the lapse of a few months the palatine Arch-duke Joseph notified to the States of both houses who (as is usual on extraordinary occasions) had met together, that His Majesty resolved to release the political prisoners.

The character of the proceedings in the House of

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Lords, generally marked by a narrowness of mind and keen aversion to improvement, was in this Diet somewhat redeemed by the position assumed by Count Szecheny. Besides unequivocally condemning the clergy in the question of the mixed marriages, the noble Count expressed unhesitatingly his opinion on the violation of the liberty of speech, an opportunity which he made use of for expatiating at large on the relations subsisting between Hungary and Austria. After having premised a few remarks as to his maiņ intention of bring about a good understanding between the two branches of the Hungarian legislature, as well as between the Hungarian people and their king, Szecheny spoke thus:-"As far I am able to judge, the chief cause of our grievances does not lie in individual men, but in our heterogeneous union with Austria. We do possess a constitution, Austria has none. And this being the case we are bound to guard and preserve what we have; while the government, if desirous of living in harmony with us, ought likewise to feel itself bound, nay, for its own sake should sincerely wish, to promote the development of our constitutional life. But the government is far from doing this; and we have hence the deep mortification of seeing it pay men to write all kinds of calumnies against us,- -a policy, the obvious aim of which is to turn against us the opinion of the rest of Europe. Ah! this is a strange means of reconciliation, especially when it proceeds from a quarter where sacredness and legitimacy are so often talked of." The speaker then referred to some striking instances of the fidelity of the Hungarians to their dynasty; and, shifting his point, continued thus: "Let us likewise beware of violences and vain popularity; and let us not forget,

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that in France the learned Bailly lost his influence by the violences of Camille de Moulins, who in his turn was swept away by the violences of Danton, while he again was soon obliged to yield to the popularity of Robespierre, in whose hands it was made the means of boundless despotism. Let us guard ourselves against like occurrences; let us attempt, before everything else, the development of the public spirit, and walk together hand in hand; let us make, in short, the Hungarian name respected even by our enemies; but, on the other hand, let the government, which has already abandoned its Germanizing ideas, renounce also all its incorporating schemes, for never can these take place. We may perhaps be murdered, but we can never be fused into the Austrian dominions; nay, it is a question whether we can even be murdered. I at least do not believe it. A future yet awaits our nation, which cannot be undone by the will of single men. Fifteen years ago the sounds of the Hungarian language were, so to speak, for the first time heard in these halls; then the nation was divided into two parties, the one plunged in sensual pleasures; the other and the nobler looking to the past for national greatness in the belief that all was buried under the ruins of Mohacs. Then I, who had just left military service, and quite unprepared for the task of a writer, did by some power of inspiration exclaim, 'The Magyar was not, but the Magyar will be. And how great is the progress made during this interval! Even now I repeat the same words, and firmly believe that our nation is destined to act a great part, and that it is reserved for her to be here in the west the civilising instrument of those Asiatic tribes with whom it has a common eastern origin. Let not the government doubt of that; and

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let it believe our humane intentions even as we give credit to it. Everywhere the necessity for reform strikes the eye of man; the counties, the means of communication, the towns having no share in the Diet, and innumerable other things, demand change and improvement. Such things, however, cannot be done without a good understanding between us and the government. Now is the time for joint action; and if we cannot get all, let us at least try to obtain redress for one grievance, and insert in the address to the throne our complaints against the violation of the liberty of speech."

CHAPTER IX.

THE QUESTIONS OF THE DAY-KOSSUTH AS A JOURNALIST THE COMMERCIAL SYSTEM OF AUSTRIA IN ITS BEARINGS ON HUNGARY-THE DIET OF 1843MEASURES OF THE GOVERNMENT TO PARALYZE

THE COUNTY

(1840-1847.)

MUNICIPALITIES-LITERATURE

AFTER the diet of 1840, the questions which agitated the public mind, down to the great movement of 1848, were of a more decided character, and may be divided into two distinct heads: the one referring to civil law; the other embracing the general principles of political economy and their bearings on the state. It is needless to observe, that the solution of the former ought necessarily to have preceded that of the latter, and that before investigating the means of national wealth, the relation between commerce and agriculture, and all those regulations which serve as canons for home and foreign interchange, the first step to be taken was to lay down the fundamental principle of civilized society, which is-free labour, and a fair distribution of the burdens of the state among all the members of the community. All these questions were, however, mooted and discussed at one and the same moment; a circumstance by no means favourable to a lucid consideration of them in detail. This, however, was mainly owing