Page:Men of the Time, eleventh edition.djvu/682

 KOSSUTH.

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sheets^ rmtil they were suppressed by the Goyemment^ and afterwards in MS. circulars. The GoTemment^ which determined not to allow reports of parliamentary debates to become current in Hungary^ prosecuted him for high treason j and in 1839 he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment. After about a year and a half of confine- ment> he was liberated under an act of amnesty. In Jan. 1841^ he became chief editor of the Hirlap, a newspaper published at Pesth. His influence with his countrymen steadily increased until^ in March^ 1848, he entered Vienna with a deputation to urge the claims of his country upon the Government, and returned to Fresburg as Minister of Finance. Under his influence the internal reforms which he had ad- vocated were carried out ; the last remains of the oppressive feudal system were swept away, and the peasants were declared free from all seignorial claims, the country undertf&ng to indemnify the landlords. The Diet was dis- solved, and a new Diet summoned for July 2, by which Kossuth was created Governor of Hungary, and he held that post diuring the civil war of 1848-9. After the efforts of the Hungarians had been crushed, mainly by the aid of Russian armed intervention, Kossuth was com- pelled to retire to Turkey. He reached Schumla with Bern, Dem- binski, Perczel, Guyon, and 5000 men, and was appointed a residence in Widdin. Austria and Bussia wished the refugees to be given up> in which case they would probably have been executed. Through the intervention of England and ]nrance> the demand was refused. The late Sultan behaved with great humanity and disinterestedness on the occasion. The refugees were removed to Kutahia, in Aiia Minor, where they remained prisoners untU Aug. 22, 1851. Kossuth left Kutahia Sept. 1, and after touching at Spezzia, called at Marseilles,

but was refused permission to travel through France. Having been hospitebly received at Gibraltar and at Lisbon, he reached South- ampton Oct. 28, sailed for the United States Nov. 21, and made a tour, agitating in favour of Hun- gary. He soon returned to England, where he resided for some years, occupying himself chiefly in writing for newspapers, and delivering lec- tures against the house of Haps- biug. CXne of the occasions on which his name was brought prominently before the public was in 1860, when the Austrian Government instituted a successful process against Messrs. Day and Sons for lithographing several millions of bank-notes for circulation in Hungary, signed by Kossuth,a8 governor of that country. In Nov. 1861, he published in the PerteveraiiMa, an Italian journal, a long letter, setting forth the situa- tion of Hungary, and urging the Italians to commence war against Austria, with the view of enabling the Hungarians to develop their strength against that Power ; issued an inflammatory address to the Hungarians, June 6, 1866, and after the close of the war of that year advised the Hungarians to reject the concessions offered by Francis Joseph. He was elected deputy for Waitzen, Aug. 1, 1867, but he declined to accept the office. In April, 1875, M. Kossuth was living in an unpretending dwelling in Turin, where he 1^ resided for thirteen years> in the strictest privacy. Latterly he has devoted much of his time to science, and he published a paper on the " Far- benver&nderung der Sterne'' in 1871. In Nov. 1879, he lost his rights as a Huns^udan citizen, as the Chamber of Deputies adopted a Bill declaring that any native of the country who yoluntarily resided abroad for an uninterrupted period of ten years should lose his civil status. The Extreme Left violently opposed the measure, aoousing the Government of levelling it di^tiy