KOSSUTH, THE ORATOR AND STATESMAN. WHAT though Cimmerian Anarchs dare blaspheme Killing thy foes with unapparent wounds! Gaze on Oppression, till, at that dead risk, If Hope and Truth and Justice may avail, THERE is scarcely a doubt that Lajos | efforts of eloquence were produced upon the Kossuth is the most remarkable man of the age, the man apparently destined to leave the most enduring mark upon it. The Northern Hercules beat him down; but he is up again, like Antæus, and seemingly with renewed strength from the fall. He shows himself to be a greater man than we thought him, even when animating and directing the war of Hungary against two emperors. He also shows that this war is not over. It is waged, in fact, on the part of Kossuth, as vigorously as before; and what it may want in intensity, it possesses in universality. He is making the cause of Hungary the cause of the free nations of Europe, with better success than before; and, with the loud and commanding tone of a prophet, announces the approaching struggle between the people and their tyrants--the Armageddon of the two principles, Liberty and Despotism. He has opened the campaign in England with a splendid success-a series of wonderful conquests. Where the moderate middle classes of the land expected a red republican, they found, to their great reassurance and comfort, that it was only, after all, a man fashioned after the dearly remembered models of Sydney and Hampden, and went into ecstacies accordingly. Kossuth made it appear to them that Hungary and England have a mutual resemblance in their municipal institutions; that he only desires to do what England did before. His mission therefore prospered greatly in that "inviolate island of the sage and free," as the poets call it. If all he has done in England were done in Hungary; if all his successful susceptible feelings of Magyars, by means of their figurative language, it were a thing to wonder at and applaud. But our admiration of him must be increased when we find him overcoming the discouragements of our difficult parts of speech, before strange audiences, and welding at will the amiable democracy of England. It is curious to consider the causes which chiefly have fed to the influence and renown which Kossuth is at this moment gathering in two hemispheres. When he was thrown into prison at Pesth, in 1837, and kept there for nearly three years, he was not permitted to have any books of national interest, nor to hold any communication by means of pen, ink, and paper. He therefore resolved to study English, and begged for a grammar, a dictionary, and Shakspeare. The Austrians, not thinking he could concoct a conspiracy from such materials, and very unprophetic of the Englishspeaking Nemesis of to-day, brought him these innocent-looking volumes; and Kossuth was soon making vigorous way through the Tempest. When three years had gone by, he must have been pretty proficient in English; but the business of war and politics very probably drove a good deal of it out of his head; and his future career might have been prevented or greatly limited, but for his other imprisonment at Kutayah, which enabled him to become what he is, a powerful English orator. His schoolmasters were hard and cruel, but the result repays him for all. So strangely, as the Clown in Twelfth-Night says, "does the whirligig of time bring in his revenges!" Kossuth's study of the English language, less as sensible and as much to the point, which, of course, is still progressing, shows are forgotten. Pericles would speak of great youth and flexibility of mind, proving, "the lowering storm of war from the Peloas the chorus in Agamemnon declares, that ponnesus," (a figure imitated by Burke, with nobody is too old to learn new things. No- magnificent effect, in his Impeachment of thing, certainly, in modern eloquence, goes Hastings, where he speaks of Hyder Ally's beyond the oratory of Kossuth. The man armament, hanging like a black cloud above seems to be as full of fervor and elasticity, the Carnatic.) The loss of the flower of at the ripe age of forty-six, as the generality the Athenian youth, we believe, in the disof men are at twenty-five. The secret of his astrous war against the Persians in Egypt, moving others appears to be, that he is he termed "the spring taken out of the moved himself; moved to glowing enthu-year;" Greece was "a chariot drawn by two "the siasm or to tears; justifying the precept of horses," Athens and Sparta; Egina, Horace : eye-sore of the Piræus;" Athens, "the eve of Greece." Lord Chatham, too, it will be Si vis me flere dolendum est Primum ipsi tibi; tunc tua me infortunia lædent remembered, made his grandest points by Telephe vel Peleu. His reported speeches would do honor to the best speakers in the language, while, in the peculiar essor and spirit of them, he transcends all the modern orators, who show tamely in comparison with this impassioned Magyar. Daniel Webster seems the only man who can compete with him in the power of convincing or carrying away an audience. Kossuth belongs to a lofty order of men, beyond those who are merely great politicians or orators. He seem to rank with the grand old Greek strategoi; those mighty spirits, who could lead or direct the armaments of a nation, as well as govern the policy of it: Men who, the state's whole thunder born to wield, the help of similes and metaphors, calling Magna Charta "the Bible of the Constitution," &c. Kossuth has lately made use of a great many fine and memorable figures in his English speeches. He compared the patriotic minority of the Hungarian Komitats or County Committees, resisting the administratorship and intrigues of Austria, to the Spanish cities of Saragozza and Gerona, still holding out against desperate odds. Again, lifting his hands above his head, in a manner that greatly astonished the reporters, he took the Almighty to witness, that he, an humble son of modest Hungary, had held the existence of the House of Hapsburg "in these hands." To express his meaning, that the governments of England and America were respectively very good, and that the best would be proved such by its actions, he told an Eastern such as Alcibiades, Themistocles, Pericles, apologue of the man who had a ring which Cimon, and, in modern times, Chatham and made the possessor acceptable to God and Napoleon; all high-toned characters, with a man, but who, at his death, not knowing to certain originality and enthusiasm of nature. which of his three sons to leave it, got two Kossuth, to be sure, never set a squadron in others made so exactly like it, that the true the field; but he has the brain to organize one could not be distinguished; and so bearmies, and to regulate their movements in queathed to the children one apiece, bidWe cannot help perceiving that ding each believe himself the possessor of Kossuth's oratory bears a strong resemblance the genuine ring, and telling them that he to that of Pericles, in one feature of it, and who should conduct himself best should, by also to that of Chatham in the same re- that token, know that his ring was the right spect. In ancient times, when the classic one. This was a pat illustration, and a very diction was extremely simple in its struc- astute way of bidding for the good offices ture, somewhat resembling the Doric order of both nations in the noble business of of architecture, the condensed style and European liberty. Again, he exclaimed: vivid imagery of Pericles made such a lively "Oh, it is my hope, that the manly sense and impression on the Greeks, that it has been manly energy of the people of England will especially recorded and quoted; while the prove the trumpet-call for the regeneration speeches of Themistocles, Aristides, Ephi- of the world." At Guildhall, speaking of the altes, Cimon, and so forth, though doubt-importance of the British capital, he said: war. equal to this power of arousing the mind is the large understanding grasp and keen glance of statesmanship with which he lays open, as a book, the condition and tendencies of the nations, and the consummate judgment with which he applies his conclusions to the interests and even prejudices of the powerful people he addresses, whether immediately or at a distance. He told a great variety of noble truths in England; but took care to choose those which would sink deepest into the minds of Englishmen; winning them not less by his great intellectual powers, than by the prudent and cautious dignity with which he controlled his warmest enthusiasm. He spoke no word which the Times and the other conservative papers of England could, in any way, torture to the prejudice of his cause or himself. "London, then, is the heart of the world, | ster speeches of Daniel O'Connell. And which, like the metropolis of the human constitution, cannot fail to feel the least impediment to the circulation in the remotest corner of the globe. It is the place to which the most distant limb must send back the tide of life." Again: "The Orient, which, in so many respects, enters into the dearest interests of England, that it may be almost called its Achilles' heel." Speaking of the danger of delaying to conciliate the peoples, he says: "In the revolutionary movements of discontented nations, arising from disappointment of their just hopes, nobody can answer what fluctuations public excitement may take. It may be illustrated by the ancient Sybilline Books. Three years ago, Hungary would have been contented with laws made by her own parliament under the house of Hapsburg, in 1848. But Austria marched armies against Hungary, and called in the aid of Russia. One book was now remaining. The Magyars were not yet averse from monarchy, but sent to announce they would accept any dynasty recommended by England. They were not listened to; then came the horrors of Arad, and the last of the three books was gone." And how forcible and picturesque is the following, placing instantly before the mind's eye the true relations of Austria with Lombardy and Hungary. "Hungary and Italy are the two wings of one army, drawn up against a common enemy; they must be vanquished or victorious together." The Press is "the mother and guardian of the world's progress." History is the Book of Human Life." At the Hanover Square rooms, in accounting for being able, with his imperfect English, to awaken such a generous enthusiasm, he said, in what will be considered a very daring figure of speech, that "the Holy Spirit of freedom and liberty had descended on him." He termed commerce, very philosophically and happily, "the locomotive of principle." Along with these, a multitude of slighter similitudes will be found plentifully scattered through his harangues, showing the vivid and forcible manner in which his ideas marshal themselves to his utterance. 66 Taken altogether, Kossuth's speeches are more splendid and comprehensive than any pronounced in the British islands for the last fifty years; and exceed, in the power of exciting the public mind, the famous mon We shall give a few short extracts from his speeches, showing the manner in which he put forth his powers of persuasion. At the public banquet given him, on 30th October, at Guildhall, by the Corporation of London, he formally enumerated the arguments by which he hoped to make an impression in England. After stating that London was the world's centre, he went on: any other place in the world, interested in the "I believe that London is, more strongly than emancipation of nations from the power of despots. And I would remind the citizens of London that, so as in one family, so as in one community, so as in one country, things and affairs cannot be ruled on two different systems. It is the same with the destinies of mankind; liberty and absolutism cannot subsist much longer together in the present development of the human mind and heart. Free institutions may be established in different manners, in different countries; but the only principle which can be the basis of the material welfare and contentment of the whole world is, under every different form of government, Liberty. Now permit me to apply my argument, and put the question to the metropolis of the world-which will you side with, absolutism or freedom?" As regards what the despots are so fond of terming social order, he says: "The next principle I see exemplified in this place is the principle of social order, a word in using which I get most nervous and excited when I think how blasphemously it has been abused. They call it social order when humanity is thrown into prison; they call it social order when they make it the silence of the grave! But this day, 30th October, has presented to me the thing in a different aspect, which, once seen, I proudly say | sentiments, all the blood of my heart and the that no more shall the Russian Czar and Austrian energy of my mind to raise these words, high and Kaisar proclaim their social order. This day in loud, and solemn, until the almighty echo of pubLondon I saw hundreds of thousands of people lic opinion, in repeating it, shall become like a rushing forward in warm enthusiasm: what pre- thunder-trumpet, before the sound of which the served social order among these mighty masses? ramparts of human oppression must fall! And Let us see how many policemen were present? should this feeble form succumb to the longings I saw four! Now, on such an occasion, the des- of my heart to see my fatherland-that heart, pots-a Czar, a Kaisar, or a President-it is all which beats like a chained lion against his cagethe same-would have had the streets bristling even the grass that grows upon my grave wi!l with bayonets; they would have had the foot-cry out to England and America, Do not forget, in ways crowded with soldiers, and called that social order! Against whom would they have made this array Against the enemy? No, their own people! Now, what, in the opinion of this mighty corporation, is the best safeguard of social order? I believe the answer will be that which they themselves have found the best security of this illustrious city-Liberty." your own proud security, the fate of those who are oppressed! Do not grant a charter to the Czar to trample on humanity, or to drown the liberties of Europe in blood !” The reader will detect the two figurative allusions of the foregoing-one from the biblical siege of Jericho, and the other from the classical story of Midas. The following forcible passages, so full of generous fraternity and the spirit of indig nant prophecy, occur in his speech made at Manchester: After showing that despotism is the foe of free trade, and that Austria and Russia, by destroying the nationality of Hungary, had destroyed one of England's best markets, and would destroy them all, and oblige her to go to war to recover them, should "Shall Freedom die away for centuries, and their evil rule preponderate on the continent, mankind become nothing more than the blind inKossuth went on to argue on great govern-struments of the ambition of some few? or shall ment loans. He said: the print of servitude be wiped out of the brow of humanity, and mankind become noble in itself and a noble instrument in its own forward pro "London is the regulator of the money and credit of the world, and these two words show the im-gress? Wo! a hundred-fold wo, to every nation portance of the principle to you. Well, if London be the regulator of the public credit of the world, a very considerable quantity of the loan shares of every government must be concentrated in London. Let me ask, where is your security for these loans? May I not say without enthusiasm that there is a very early prospect that the restored nations of Europe will not recognize these loans? When the nations of Europe see the tendencies of absolutism, I do not think they will be inclined to give their money. I am no capitalist; but were I one, I would very much consider these circumstances consider whether there is a possibility of absolutism being able to pay." At the conclusion of the great London speech, he wound up with an earnest adjuration of the people of London: "All we wish is, that the public opinion of England may establish it as a ruling principle to acknowledge the right of every nation to dispose of its own affairs, and not to leave them to the tender mercies of the Czar. This is a principle which, I hope, will prevail in England, and also in the United States. From a most honored native of that country, [Mr. Walker,] I have had the honor to hear principles announced, which, if once carried into effect, would give liberty to the world. I have heard it proclaimed by an honored citizen of the United States, that the younger brother of the English race would join to protect oppressed nations from the oppression of absolutism. I will repeat it again: I will concentrate all my free which, confident of its proud position of to-day, What have I in my person, in my present, in my future, not to justify, but even to explain this universality of demonstration? Nothing! entirely nothing-only the knowledge that I am a friend of freedom. How can I state that the great struggle is so near? Ladies and gentlemen, I state it because it is! Every man knows it, feels it, sees it. A philosopher was once France contented, with her constitution subverted! deeply sympathized. Then, resuming"Pardon my emotions," said he, with a sublime solemnity; "the shadows of our martyrs passed before my eyes; I heard the millions of my native land once more shouting, Liberty or Death!" The audience rang with applause in acknowledg ment of a passion of oratory so affecting and so sublime. The speaker felt all the glowing emotion he communicated. The tongue of man," he said, "is powerful enough to render the ideas which the human intellect conceives, but in the realm of true and deep sentiments it is but a weak interpreter." Thus he speaks of his beloved Hungary: Germany contented with being but a fold of sheep, pent up to be shorn by some thirty petty tyrants! Switzerland contented with the threatening ambition of encroaching despots! Italy contented with the King of Naples, or the priestly government of Rome-one of the worst of human invention! Austria, Rome, Prussia, Russia, Dalmatia, contented with having been driven to butchery, and it. No; it was not he who inspired the HungaBut it was said it was he [Kossuth] who inspired having been deceived, plundered, oppressed, and rian people; it was they who inspired him! laughed at as fools! Poland contented with being Whatever he thought and felt was but a feeble murdered! Hungary, my poor Hungary, contented pulsation of what beat in the breast of his people. with being more than murdered--buried alive! The glory of battles was ascribed to the leaders For it is alive! What I feel is but a weak pulsa in history, and theirs were the laurels of immortion of that which fills the breasts of the people tality; they knew they would live for ever on the of my country. Russia contented with slavery! lips of their people. Very different the light fallVienna, Pesth, Lombardy, Milan, Venice, Prague, ing on the picture of those thousands of the people's contented! contented with having been ignomin- sons, who knew that where they fell, there they iously branded, burned, plundered, sacked, and would lie, their names unhonored and unsung; butchered! That is the condition of the continent and who still, animated by the love of freedom of Europe!" and fatherland, went on calmly against the batteries, whose cross-fire vomited death and destruction on them. Oh, they who fell, falling with the shout, " Hurrah for Hungary!" And so they died by thousands-the unnamed demi-gods! The opening of his speech at Birmingham, on the 12th of November, is described by the London Sun as almost unparalleled for grandeur of expression, irresistible pathos, and oratorical beauty. Kossuth described the impulsive movement of the Diet, when they rose as one man and granted a levy of 200,000 men for the defense of Hungary, swearing, at the same time, with uplifted hands, to defend her to the last. "Thus," said the orator, with the most impressive solemnity of look and manner, "thus they spoke, and there they swore, in a calm and silent majesty, awaiting what further word might fall from my lips. And for myself, it was my duty to speak, but the grandeur of the moment and the rushing waves of sentiment benumbed my tongue. A burning tear fell from my eyes; a sigh of adoration to the Almighty Lord fluttered on my lips; and, bowing low before the majesty of my people, as I now bow before you, gentlemen, I left the tribune, silently, speechless, mute." Again the short-hand writer interrupts his record to remark that the orator here paused for a few moments, overpowered by his emotion, with which the company The man of the coldest blood and faintest heart must, nevertheless, feel that this is thrilling eloquence, unsurpassed by any thing Demosthenes ever uttered! He thus forcibly states the relations of Austria and Hungary: great German nations, she would have had a future. Had Austria, in 1848, been just towards the But she deceived every state and every nation, and rendered herself entirely odious to all. The house of Hapsburg had lost all--history, affection, empire. There was one thing still left to it-the balance of power against Russian preponderance. belief that it was necessary to Europe to keep the The idea was a false one; for Europe could never be safe in a family, but only in a nation. It now, however, had become but the vanguard of Russian unnecessary, but dangerous, because it had depreponderance; and its existence was not only stroyed the system of equilibrium. What was Austria? Loans, bayonets, the Czar-that was all! The short moral of my long story is this. The Russian intervention in Hungary has put the foot of the Czar on Europe's neck. So long as Italy, so long as Hungary remain unliberated, that foot will rest on Europe's neck. Yea, it will step from the neck upon the head! So |