4th of March,
1849, by which the House of Austria itself annihilated the Pragmatic
Sanction, treating free and independent Hungary with the arrogance of a
conqueror. The nation, more irritated by this act than by any preceding
event, saw that the hour was come, beyond which further to defer the
dethronement of the dynasty would be alike incompatible with the laws
and the honour of Hungary. _All the channels of public opinion, the
public press, the popular meetings, and even the head quarters of the
army, resounded with emphatic declarations of the impossibility of
reconciliation with the dynasty. The garrison of Komorn_--the most
important fortress of the country--_petitioned the government for the
declaration of forfeiture_. Most assuredly no party manoeuvres were
wanted in this universal excitement, caused by the constitution of the
4th of March, to carry a parliamentary resolution of forfeiture.

When the proposition of forfeiture was made on the 14th of April, 1849,
in the House of Representatives, only eight members voted against it, in
a house never attended by less than from 220 to 240 members. The House
of Magnates adopted this resolution without opposition. The press of all
shades of opinion, though enjoying the most unlimited freedom, also
declared for the resolution of the Diet. It was moreover received
throughout the whole country with patriotic assent and determination. If
there was a party opposed to the forfeiture, how came it that it did not
hold it to be a duty to declare its opposition in the Diet or through
the press?

When the intelligence of the unfortunate battle of Temeswar reached the
Governor Kossuth, who was then in the fortress of Arad, he immediately
summoned a council of the ministry to deliberate on measures of public
safety still possible. At this council, in which all the ministers took
part, it was resolved to invest Goergei, who stood alone at the head of
an unconquered army, with full powers for negotiating a peace. It was,
moreover, resolved to dissolve the government, which could not be
carried on in any fixed place of safety under the existing
circumstances. We did not, however, insert in the instrument investing
Goergei with full power (and despatched to him immediately) the
abdication of the government. On the same day--it was the 11th of
August, 1849--Goergei declared in the presence of some of the ministers
who had assembled at Csanyi's (who was one of them), that he could not