titled to send two deputies to the Diet. | sins, namely, three races and four religions, The National Assembly of Croatia possessed each acknowledged by law and furnished the right to send three deputies to the Diet. with the same rights. The privileged three The capitals and convents of the Catholic races were the Magyar, the Szekler, both of Church sent deputies, but these had collec- whom spoke the same language, and the tively but one vote; and the deputies of Saxon. Each of these had its own desigthe free royal towns had the same priv-nated territory. The Hungarian division ilege. Some years since the lower house began to attain greater weight from the fact that its members were the representatives of the majority of the privileged class, and were provided with special instructions from their constituents, which they were sworn to obey. The attitude of the lower house assumed more importance at each succeeding session, and began to display an incontestable tendency to important reforms. In the lower house was deposited the right of initiating all measures. A bill introduced and passed by it was transmitted to the upper house; and if there successful, was submitted to the King for confirmation. At the first submission the King had the right to send the bill back with his objections, but if it again passed both houses, the monarch was obliged to confirm it upon the last day of session; appearing in person at that time to assent to the several bills and close the Diet. As provided in the diploma of inauguration of 1790, the Hungarian Diet must be assembled every three years, convoked by a special decree of the King, and opened by the latter or a plenipotentiary. Besides the business of ordinary legislation, the Diet voted such subsidies as they thought proper for the maintenance of the army during a space of three years, and the sum they appropriated was collected and paid over to the Austrian Minister of War. The financial affairs of the nation, after the amount required for the purpose was determined by the Diet, were regulated by the several counties. It was the duty of those bodies to raise the amount voted by the Diet for the civil and military expenses of the general government, as well as to obtain and control the necessary funds required in the civil government of their own jurisdictions. The constitution and political existence of Transylvania were based upon the very principle of absurdity; and though somewhat tolerable under their own Dukes, were necessarily disastrous under the dominion of the house of Hapsburg. The constitution seems to have been erected upon seven was subdivided into thirteen counties, organized similarly to the counties in Hungary; the territory of the Szeklers into five, and that of the Saxons into eleven subdivisions, with a special organization differing each from the other, and from the Magyar. The privileged four religions were the Catholic, the Calvinist, the Lutheran, and the Unitarian. All these different races were represented in the Diet; and all the elective employments of state, from the governor of Transylvania down to the lowest counsellor, were divided equally between the four religions. According to law it made no matter if a competitor for office of another religion were better qualified, as the employments were distributed not according to the capacity of the candidates, but the nature of the religious belief they avowed. The consequence of this was an exceedingly creditable display of sectarian piety, at each election, on the part of the needy office-hunters. The Transylvanian Diet consisted of but one house, and was composed of Firstly, The deputies elected by the departments of the several races, every department sending two members. In the Hungarian counties the election was the same as in Hungary proper, the fundamental institution being based upon the nobility. The Szeklers being a tribe of nobles and enjoying special privileges, every Szekler was an elector. The Szekler counties had also the right to elect their own Mayors, a privilege enjoyed by no others. The Saxons were possessed of civil institutions dif ferent from the Magyars, somewhat tinged with the principles of the old Roman constitutions, and in theory based upon liberty and equality; but in practice, through the intrigues of the Court and the influence of the bureaucratic league, they became instruments of tyranny. Secondly, The deputies from the privileged towns, two from each. Thirdly, The deputies from the single capital and convent of the Catholic Church, All these deputies had individually votes. Fourthly, A portion of the magnates and wealthy nobles called to legislation by special letters of appointment, given by the Grand Duke, usually called litteræ regales, royal letters, whence these deputies were called Regalists. Thus it was in Transylvania, that only such of the nobles as were friends to the monarch entered the Diet. Fifthly, The bishops of the Catholic and the united Greek Church. the lower house could initiate a bill, the upper could stop it of course; and any measure displeasing to the Court of Vienna met with a prompt negative by her noble-born instruments. In Transylvania, the number of regalists not being determined by law, the monarch could at any time control the whole legislation by his creatures. Thus it was that there crept into the Transylvanian Diet a set of miserable conservatives, whose sole This Diet was presided over by an elec-ambition was to pander to the views of the tive president, whose station was the most Court. And the regalists were farther asimportant in Transylvania. Besides exercis-sisted by the twenty-two representatives of ing the law-making power, the Diet elected the Saxons, who never hesitated to take any the principal office-holders, from the gover- position they could, antagonistic to the welnor of Transylvania down. But in these fare of the Hungarian constitution; and the elections the four religions we have before representatives of the Szekler and Magyar given were obliged to be respected; and for races, and of the free towns, were constantly every office three candidates of each religion in danger of being overwhelmed by the were chosen and nominated to the sovereign, Saxons and an indefinite number of regalists. who selected from these. But the King was bound in his choice to respect the same principles, and divide his gift of life-offices among the favored beliefs. According to the compact made in 1690 with the house of Hapsburg, the Diet was to be convoked annually by a special minister. The laws and resolutions which passed the Diet were submitted to the King, who had a right to send them back with his objections, which were to be respectfully considered. Unfortunately, there was no limit as to the time in which a bill should be returned, and frequently very necessary bills of immediate importance were retained some half a century by the supreme power, in order to give proper consideration. The deputies from the towns in Transylvania, and the members of the lower house, were paid from the public treasury; but the nobles and bishops, being supposed to represent their own interests, obtained no compensa tion. A constitution so illiberal as each of these, however well it might have answered in a darker time, was manifestly out of keeping with the progress of civilization, and it became a point of national interest to effect a reform. The constitution of Hungary had a tendency, though based upon aristocratic principles, to improvement; but so active were the intrigues of the ruling house against the liberty of the nation, that the Diet for a long while had enough to do to ward off these blows of the Court. Francis the First, after having, as previously stated, accepted and sanctioned the conditions imposed on Leopold the Second, and re-affirmed his acceptance in the act by which he created himself Emperor of Austria, convoked the Diet regularly, according to law. But during that time the nation was too much occupied with wars and rumors of wars, to proceed regularly or zealously with constitutional or social reforms. The chivalrous nature of Hungary, and her loyalty to the crown of St. Stephen, led her to submit to Such were the peculiarities of the two constitutions, at the incipiency of the strug-repeated demands for men and money, withgle for reform and freedom; and the formation of the legislative bodies was found to be the greatest bar to advancement. The members of the upper house in Hungary, and the regalists in Transylvania, were the principal tools employed by the Austrian Government to carry out their darling wish, and undermine the structure of Hungarian nationality. In Hungary, the majority of the magnates were conservatives, who completely checked the efforts of the progressive nobles. Though out exacting in return an abatement of grievances. When the victories of Napoleon were shattering the unity of Austria, the Diet was reminded of its response to Maria Theresa at a similar crisis, and each appeal to their liberality was answered with devotion if not enthusiasm. Even when the Hungarians had grown weary of a war wherein they had performed the giant's labor for the dwarf's reward, the near approach of the invader made them. firmer in defense of the very King who had vio- | in spite of all persecution. The censorship lated their rights. When the victorious of the press was rigorously enforced; new army of Napoleon crossed the frontiers of and galling restrictions were placed upon Hungary, its great commander issued a pro- commerce; the paper currency, immensely clamation to the people, promising to main-expanded during a long war, was depreciated tain their national independence, and inviting by government, at two several times, 98 per them to elect any King they chose according centum; Francis, in infraction of his coroto their national constitution. In that mem- nation oath, did not convoke the Diet from orable proclamation the various violations of 1811 to 1825; and nearly every article of the constitution by the house of Hapsburg the constitution of 1790 was assailed by were clearly exposed, and how little of good violence or evaded by intrigues. In 1822 and much of evil Hungary must necessarily and 1823, the Austrian Cabinet attempted expect from its perfidious royal race. Able to levy troops and collect taxes, in direct and masterly in its style and tenor, it was violation of the diploma of Leopold the correct in its conclusions; for it prophesied, | Second. The county courts refused to put as the result of a refusal to abandon the in execution the illegal orders. The CabiEmperor-King, the ultimate downfall of net, determined to enforce its usurped auHungarian liberty and independence. Let- thority, surrounded many of the county ters were also dispatched by Napoleon to halls with troops, during the session of the leading Hungarians, containing the same legislative court, intending to intimidate the striking considerations. But the fidelity of members. But this move was met by pasthe nation remained intact; it respected its sive but unshaken resistance, each member allegiance to its sovereign, and continued a declaring that he would be buried beneath war which could never turn out to its own the ruins of the hall where he sat rather than advantage, unless the Court, in return for yield to so palpable a violation of the constisuch devotion, would on the restoration of tution. At length Francis was compelled peace assist in the necessary reforms. But the to recede, and in 1825 again assembled the chivalry of the nation was ill-recompensed. Hungarian Diet. From 1796 to 1811, the Diets were convoked to grant supplies, and prorogued when they began to discuss grievances; and thus for year after year the unequal contest was maintained between a generous people and a prince who forgot nothing save his promises. At the peace of 1815, it was found that Hungary, in spite of wars, levies, and the worst of governments, had materially increased in prosperity; and it was every where hoped that peace would afford an opportunity of devising and effecting those cardinal reforms admitted to be so necessary. But it was an era of protracted disappointment. Austria, as a member of the Holy Alliance, was now more than ever determined to place Hungary on the same footing with her hereditary States. A Court party was sedulously fostered in the Diet and the country; Austrian officers were placed in command of Hungarian regiments; and every effort was made to gain the necessary strength to consummate their intrigues. In the army no Hungarian could arrive at distinction, if he were not educated as a tool of the Camarilla-unless it might be a few stubborn fellows who fought their way up Under the lead of the distinguished Nagy Pál, or Paul Nagy, the session of this Diet was stormy; but found only time to discuss and endeavor to obtain atonement for the accumulated wrongs of thirty-five years. So resolutely did they proceed about this work, that the Emperor-King retracted, apologized, and by additional articles engaged to observe the fundamental laws of his Hungarian kingdom, to convoke the Diet triennially, and not to levy subsidies without its authority and warrant. From that year the movements of the Austrian Government were less daring and more insidious. After the Diet of 1825, the Court of Vienna sent for Nagy Pál, the leader of the lower house, that he might hear the royal word. The exact nature of the interview is not public. But in the next Diet, Nagy Pál was dumb, took no more an active part in politics, became the recipient of a very lucrative office from the EmperorKing, and in his private conversation was ever after a strong advocate of conservative measures. Up till that time the democratic principle in government was hardly known in Hungary, the constitution being based solely on the privileges of the nobles, and these last continually endangered by the acts of absolutism. The pride and alarm of the noble Diet kept it aloof from the great idea of the nineteenth century, until a leader appeared in the person of Count Stephen Szechényi, to raise the banner of democracy and progress. Szechényi, a member of one of the most illustrious houses of Hungary, wealthy, well educated, with a mind improved by travel, and having natural talents of a high order, espoused the cause of liberalism with ardor, and soon roused the vast body of the nation to a sense of its wants, and an expression of its wishes. With him were soon found nobles, priests and people, and the popular tide began to flow with a steady and resistless motion, which at once terrified and provoked the Court. Suddenly, in the midst of the war of parties, the active agitation of the progressives, and the steady resistance of the Court party, there sprang, Minervalike, from the head of the revolutionary Jove, that man now known as Kossuth the Exile, but to be recorded in history as Kossuth the Great. LOUIS KOSSUTH was born of a noble Hungarian family, in the county of Zempleny. He received his education in the Protestant college at Sarospatak. As a boy he displayed every token of a strong intellect. After graduating with high honors, he commenced the study of law at Eperjes, and was finally admitted to the bar. As a young lawyer he went to Presburg to increase his knowledge of constitutional law. Arriving at or about the time when the publication of the debates and proceedings of the Diet was suppressed by a royal decree, he became an intimate acquaintance of Szechényi and Wesselenyi. By their assistance he began to prepare and disseminate, in writing, secret reports of the discussions in the Diet. This succeeded admirably, especially so long as it escaped the knowledge of the Austrian Cabinet. He wrote with great facility and dispatch, and the patriots throughout the country received early and authentic information of every measure before the legislature. But the spies of the Court soon discovered this movement, and at once subjected the volunteer reporter to determined prosecutions. Numerous other liberal members were indicted at the same time, Wesselenyi for instance, and condemned. Kossuth fared no better than his associates, and was doomed to suffer two years' imprisonment at Pest. During the time of his incarceration, he devoted himself earnestly to the study of the languages and mathematics. When the amnesty was proclaimed, he was released in common with other political prisoners, and came from the Austrian dungeon, weakened in health, but with a mind enlarged by study and reflection. His suffering in a good cause and the preeminence of his talents attracted public attention and achieved popular support; so that not long after his enlargement he was enabled to stand at the head of a journal as its editor. He gave a new character to Hungarian journalism. The carefully-prepared leading articles in his paper were ardently read over the whole country, and gave a new impulse to political movements. The most important points of the reforms demanded were explained in that lucid, stirring and eloquent style which characterized every effusion from his pen. As a noble of Hungary, and consequently member of the county legislature, he took an active part in the general meetings of the Council at Pesth, where he began his career as a public speaker. His extraordinary oratorical efforts thrilled his auditors like an electric shock, and the whole assembly vibrated with his almost magical eloquence. His masterly speeches produced a similar effect in print. Sent by thousands to all parts of Hungary, they produced the same enthusiasm as at Pest, and won for him the love and confidence of the nation. It was at this part of his career that he met the opposition of Szechényi, and hence it was that the attacks of the latter were unjustly said to be dictated by jealousy of an ascending rival. It is scarcely possible for us to give an idea of the oratory of Kossuth. A friend of ours who heard him says that his style is more like that of Canning, the once celebrated English Minister, than any other. The most engaging manners and fine features were combined with an evidently tender feeling for the whole human race, which displayed itself in every gesture. On all occasions and on all subjects his reasoning was purely logical, and arrayed in the fittest words; his sentences, pronounced in silvery tones, pierced the very souls of his hearers. His occasional touches of pathos would draw a tears from the most impenetrable, and his thrilling appeals excite the most impassive to the utmost of patriotic enthusiasm. When inveighing against tyranny and despotic innovations, his soft eyes changed their character, assumed preternatural brightness, and shot forth indignant flashes; his usually kind manner changed to a stern determination; and his defiant position was that of a gladiator in the arena. Oratory such as this, combining mental and physical eloquence in excess, could not fail of its object; and beneath the storm it produced, the whole country rocked and heaved like a tempestuous sea. 383 been sufficient; but the patriotic party at Kossuth still continued his political labors. an Austrian This extraordinary effect, and the consequent popularity of Kossuth, were by no means to the taste of the Court; but there was no mode to act, under the letter of law, against the zealous reformer. All his proceedings were confined within the strict limits of the constitution and laws, and would not have been dangerous were they not performed in an extraordinary manner, by an extraordinary man. The Court feared to take any grossly illegal step lest it might precipitate matters to a crisis; but it neglected no means to stay the proceedings or weaken the influence of its great opponent. The first act of the Court was to silence his editorial voice-to remove him from the editorial control of his paper. The owner of this journal was a book-seller and publisher in Pest. Him the Court commenced to persecute, and after having exposed him to numerous assaults and vexations, threatened to suppress his publications, unless he dismissed Kossuth from the editorial chair. The owner, to save his property and perhaps his liberty, acceded, and another person was obtained to attend to the editorial duties. Kossuth, thus removed from his vantageground, demanded, as a free citizen, the authority to become proprietor and publisher of a new journal; but this he could not obtain. All his political agitation was now concentrated in the county meetings, where he continued daily to display greater tact and talent than ever. The Court resolved to remove him from this stage, and urged its partisans to object to his admission to the meetings of the local legislature on the ground that he had no property in the bounds of the county, and consequently had no right of membership in the municipality. This objection, pitiful as it was, would have I ism, and supplying their places with crea In spite of all the machinations of the Austrian Court, the opposition grew stronger day by day. The house of Hapsburg saw, with chagrin and mortification, that every step it had taken only served to alienate the confidence of its own partisans, and beheld its power becoming weaker every day through its own ill-judged perfidy. The common sense of the nation readily penetrated the ultimate aim of the dominant house, which was the extinction of Hungarian nationality. The bold advocacy of reform and emancipation by Kossuth and the liberalists arrayed on their side the young, the generous, and the patriotic; while the ruin that must ensue if Hungary were made a mere appanage to Austria, aroused the faltering and alarmed the conservative. A gradual and firm union, for the sake of their fatherland, ensued among all classes; and this token of a popular storm struck dismay into the hearts of the Camarilla. In 1845-6 the Court made its last constitutional efforts, by displacing all the county Mayors who were suspected of the least inclination to liberal |