it became evident that no loyal subject of
tlie King of Hungary could hold office in
the Kossuth cabinet. Meszaros took the
ministry of war; Deak, justice; Klauzal,
agriculture and commerce; Eotvos, public
instruction; Szechenyi, public works;
Kossuth (the soul of the new ministry), finance.

The ministry was scarcely formed before
it had to grapple with two great difficulties,
which forcibly demonstrated the wisdom of
Szechenyi. The first was the insurrection
of the Italians; the second, the opposition
of the Croats.

Should the Hungarian government
furnish troops to assist the King of Hungary
and the Emperor of Austria, in his war
with Charles Albert of Piedmont? If so,
would it not be attacking in Italy those
rights of nationality to which it owed its
own existence in Hungary? Should it
then refuse troops for the Italian
campaign? If so, that would be a violation
of the fundamental pact between the kingdom
and the crown, and tantamount to
open rupture with Austria. This delicate
question was still in debate, when the whole
position of the ministry became complicated
by the conduct of the Croats, whom
Kossuth's attempts to stifle by force the nationality
of a population of eight hundred thousand
souls had exasperated beyond endurance.
The Sclavo-Croatian Diet had just
elected Baron Jellachich of Bucszin, to the
representation of their national rights and
feelings, as Ban of Croatia.

Jellachich refused obedience to the summons
he immediately received from Kossuth
to appear before the Diet of Pesth. Meanwhile
a new revolution had broken out at
Vienna, and the Emperor had fled to
Innspruck. An understanding was quickly
effected between the revolutionary cabinets
of Pesth and Vienna; and the Ban of Croatia
was summoned in the name of the Emperor
to appear at Innspruck and render account
of his conduct to his imperial master.

Will Jellachich obey this summons? It
finds him installed in his new dignity
at Agram, with more than kingly pomp,
and far more than kingly power. He is
receiving hourly deputations, not only from
all parts of Croatia, but from Servia even,
and the Sclavonic comitats of the North.
His intentions are yet unknown.
Myriads of armed men are daily swarming to
the standard which he has not yet
unfurled. He is the hero of all hearts; he is
the chief of a vast tribe who regard him as
the armed prophet of their national faith;
he is the master of those terrible Croat
regiments whose savage valour, splendid
drill, and boundless devotion to their leader,
have been unequalled since the days of
Attila. Such was the position and power
of the man who was now invited to
surrender himself into the hands of his enemies;
in the name of a sovereign notoriously their
helpless puppet, and virtually their prisoner.

Early in the month of July, Jellachich
was at Innspruck. He assured the Emperor
that, if the Croats had not already marched
to the defence of the Empire in Italy, it was
because they were unhappily still obliged
to defend at home their own soil from
Magyar usurpation. The Archduke John
was intrusted to negotiate a better
understanding between the Ban and the
Hungarian ministry. Batthiany's hands were
tied, however, by the Radical majority in
his cabinet, and the pretensions on both
sides proved irreconcilable. "Farewell,"
said Batthiany, when they parted for the
last time on the Croatian frontier, "we
shall meet again, I suppose, on the banks
of the Drave." "No," replied Jellachich,
"on the banks of the Danube."

Kossuth became at last seriously alarmed.
He began to draw closer to his Conservative
colleagues. But it was too late. The
Emperor was now implored by the
Kossuth cabinet, to negotiate again, as King
of Hungary, on behalf of the kingdom,
with the Ban of Croatia, and endeavour
to obtain terms for the Hungarians from
those Croats whom the Hungarians had
insulted and outraged. At the same time
the levy of Hungarian regiments for the
support of Austria in Italy, and one
hundred millions of florins for the same
purpose were voted, at the demand of the
ministry, by the Diet of Pesth. A patriot
not in the secret of the minister's anxieties
protested against this measure, and
demanded the recal of those Hungarian
regiments already in Lombardy. "Fool!"
said Kossuth, "do you forget that in those
regiments there are more Croats than
Magyars, and soon enough we shall have
the Croats upon its, more than we need?"
A stipulation was made, however, that the
Emperor, if victorious in Italy, should
acquiesce in the autonomy of a Lombardo-
Venetian kingdom, tinder the sceptre of
the House of Hapsburg. "Whilst Kossuth
was still wording impracticable proposals
to Austria, the Emperor, victorious in Italy,
had made common cause with the Croats
against Hungary, and Jellachich with his
terrible bands was already on the march.

The Hungarian treasury was empty, and