their country than this illustrious citizen.
The life of Hungary for the last twenty
years has its source in him." All his
instincts were practical; and of the many
enterprises in which he engaged the
industry of his country, none were chimerical.
Kossuth, on the other hand, imagined that
the independence of Hungary could be
secured by severing her connexion with
Austria; and that an inland state could be
converted into a maritime power, by throwing
public money into the Adriatic from
the little port of Fiume.

It is to the genius of Szechenyi that
Hungary owes her present commanding
position as the governing power of a great
empire, of whose future destinies she is
mistress. It is to the genius of Szechenyi
that the world is indebted for the
unimpeded circulation of merchandise, passengers,
and ideas, from Ratisbon to Constantinople
along that great water highway
which, in the event of any general maritime
war, would be the only way open to
the commerce of the east and west. He
had to deal with a suspicious, powerful,
and obstructive government; which by
tact and patience he converted into an
ally, securing its effective co-operation in
the cause of practical reform.* Kossuth had
to deal with a weak, but friendly and
compliant government; and he upset it, as he
upset everything else. Szechenyi found
the nobility of Hungary entirely exempted
from taxation, and the peasantry burdened
not only by the whole of the public
imposts, but also by a multiplicity of
feudal obligations. Without proclaiming
a war of classes, he persuaded the nobility
to submit to taxation, and spontaneously
surrender some of their most obnoxious
privileges. The equitable redemption of
the remainder was in a fair way of legal
settlement when all practical legislation
was suspended by the revolution which
Kossuth had invoked.

* Prince Metternich used to say, "the Hungarians
imagine that they have invented the Danube." He
was, however, one of the first shareholders in the
company formed by Szechenyi for ita navigation.

One last and most important particular
remains to be mentioned, in which
Szechenyi's opinions remain to this day far in
advance of those of his countrymen— far in
advance, indeed, of the opinions which
still prevail in England respecting the
treatment of alien races. The great
difficulty of Hungary, or, more properly speaking,
of the Magyar dominion in Hungary,
was, and is, a population of more than
eight hundred thousand Slavs, occupying
the whole southern portion of Hungary,
from the Drave to that point where the
Danube, not far from Belgrade, suddenly
changes its course. These Slavs, whose
chief representatives in Hungary are the
Croats, differ in origin, language,
character, and religion from the Magyars.
But the kindred families of their race
(one of the most numerous in Europe)
extend far beyond the limits of Hungary,
occupying the whole of Servia, and the
greater part of Bohemia; not to mention
that vast empire which stretches across
Europe from the White to the Black Sea.

Now, Szechenyi, alone of all his
countrymen, saw two things very clearly. First,
that the perfect amalgamation if possible,
but in any case the harmonious co-existence
and undisturbed co-operation of the
Magyar and Sclavonic populations of
Hungary, is absolutely necessary for the safety
and unity of the kingdom. Secondly, that
the supremacy of the Magyar element in
Hungary could only be secured by conciliation
and political tact. While his natural
justice and humanity revolted from the
idea of forcibly suppressing the Sclavonic
nationality in Hungary, his strong
common sense enabled him to perceive how
plausible a pretext any such attempt would
afford the Austrian government, for
crippling the development of the Magyar
nationality by reverting to its old policy
of divide et impera, and setting the Croats
against the Hungarians. In one of his
speeches, a speech which might be studied
with advantage by eveiy Englishman who
shares the inherited responsibility of governing
Ireland and India, there are some words
which appear to us to be of rare political
sagacity and moral elevation. "What
method shall we adopt for communicating
to the different races established
on Hungarian soil the sentiment of our
own nationality? There is only one way
in which we can, or ought to, induce
others to recognise our superiority, and
that is by making ourselves their moral
and intellectual superiors. Remember,
therefore, that your salvation depends, not
on the assertion of political power, but the
cultivation of personal virtue. The
success of the national policy depends on the
character and conduct of each individual.
Above all things it is necessary to acquire
the gift of pleasing, and to cultivate the
faculty of attracting, others. The secret
of power is sympathy. We may impose
the Magyar language upon unwilling lips,