ked quite different
from what they appeared to be when the protocol was drawn up. The
treachery of the dynasty broke upon the mind of the most careless, and
its connexions with the leaders of the rebellious tribes had become
undeniable facts. It was during that short time, from July 5 to July 22,
that our national forces met in the Serbian entrenchments of St. Thomas,
Foeldvar, and Turia, regular Austrian soldiers: Meyerhofe, the Austrian
consul at Belgrade, was openly recruiting bands of Servians to reinforce
the insurgents; nay, it became even evident that General Bechtold,
appointed by His Majesty to lead the faithful Hungarians against the
rebellious Serbs, led them on in order to get them the sooner decimated
and broken. Some members of the opposition, headed by General Perczel,
declaimed loudly against the cowardly and fallacious policy of the
ministry, resolving to compel ministers to resign or to induce them to
take some more efficacious measures. In short, during this space of
time, the government and people found themselves in quite a new
position. Kossuth, in concert with the ministry, moved a levy of 200,000
men (July 11), which motion the Assembly hailed with unparalleled
enthusiasm, and which the people witnessed with approval, as affording a
guarantee of their liberties. It was in the midst of these moments of
excitement and temporary distress that Kossuth, as the most popular
member of the cabinet, was pointed out as the person most fitted to
undertake the very difficult task of speaking on the Italian question
alluded to by M. Szemere. Public opinion, aided by the opposition of the
house, was convinced that Austria, after having subjugated the
Lombard-Venetians with Hungarian troops, would then turn to Hungary, the
enslavement of which might more easily be executed by the country's
being bereft of a number of stout arms indispensable to her own defence.
Kossuth therefore, as a man of true liberal principles, while
acknowledging the ground to be right upon which the opposition moved,
professed in the speech alluded to that he had agreed then with his
colleagues in respect to the Italian question, on the ground that the
moral power of the protocol would suffice, although as a private
individual he could not help rejoicing at the victories of the Italian
people. Now, I submit it to every enlightened Englishman to decide
whether Kossuth evinced a want of civic virtue in declaring that, as a
man who wished fr