to Hungary. And could such have been the condition of the service, those solemn words which were
lately used at Winchester need not have expressed any agony of self-reproach, or any feeling but of
glorious pride. "The agitation was great in Vienna,'' said M. Kossuth, "as in every other country in
Europe, save this England only, which, having once established its peace by revolution, can enjoy its
public liberties without any desire for another. On the Continent all was movement, and the government
of Austria hesitated to give us our rights. I went up to the Imperial Palace and told them, be just
to my fatherland and I will give you peace and tranquillity in Vienna. They promised me to be just,
and in twenty-four hours I gave them peace and tranquillity in Vienna; and before the Eternal God
who will make responsible to Him my soul, before History the independent judge of men and events,
I have a right to say that the House of Hapsburgh then owed its existence to me." Even so; and for
this tenure of existence, sanctioned by glorious watchwords and guaranteeing the progress of civilisation, it
must be admitted that the Hapsburghs made a sorry exchange when they betook themselves to Russian
despotism, restriction, and barbarism. At no distant day will be made more plain than at present all they
have gained by it and Europe lost.

Russian sway is doubtless powerful for evil, but it is very powerless for good. It may crush, but cannot
reproduce. It is represented by cities burnt, not by cities rebuilt; by ancient proprietors ruined, not by
new ones enriched; by old channels of trade blocked up, not by new resources opened. Peace cannot
permanently be maintained by such a power, unless it be such peace as the Roman historian ascribed to
solitudes. The interference of Russia decided the character of the struggle between Austria and Hungary;
and the statesmen of the civilised portions of Europe may yet have to render account for having silently
sanctioned the flagrant pretence that Russia's motive in so sacrificing her armies and her treasures was the
disinterested wish to strengthen Austria and maintain the balance of power in Europe. With the first
Russian bayonet that crossed the frontier the moral and material influence of Austria was broken; and
whether this was the interest of France, of England, of civilisation, will have to be determined hereafter.
Austria's natural and just position in Europe is that of a barrier against the advance of Russia towards the
south, and for this every wise statesman would have supported her to the last; but if she no longer fulfils this
condition, her continuance is no longer called for. Chained to Russia by the indissoluble and unceasing
necessity of support against her own subjects, her empire becomes but an advanced outpost of absolutism
against the progress and the liberties of the west. Can any one doubt that she occupies at this moment precisely
that position, who surveys the state of things throughout Germany? The functions of the house of
Hapsburgh as a dynasty, as M. Kossuth said at Winchester, are gone; and the present object of the eloquent
Hungarian seems to be to show the English people and their statesmen by what substitute they may even
yet be replaced. Could Hungary but have been brought victoriously through her struggle, the various races
now disunited by Austria might have been attracted and consolidated around her by her liberal institutions.
United to us by moral and political as well as material ties, she might then have taken that place in the east
of Europe which we occupy in the west, as the representative of national constitutional liberty; and as in
former times she was the advanced guard and barrier against Turkey, the strength and extent of her north
eastern boundary might again have made her, in the interest of Austria as of every civilised land, the natural
and tenable position against Russia.

There is no communism, no socialism, no red republicanism in all this; and most admirably have the
speeches of M. Kossuth, since he arrived in England, been framed to dispel such nightmare fancies from
future association with the Hungarian cause. "It was to increase the liberties and the security of the
crown that we in Hungary endeavoured to widen and enlarge the basis on which our constitution was
founded, so as to include the whole population, and thereby give them an interest in maintaining social
order." That word has gone forth and will have its effect in England. It is never too late to sympathise
with a heroic people crushed by brute force because they would not forego their birthright or grovel before
an usurper. It is immaterial now what M. Kossuth may have done or said at any former time. It matters
not with whom he may have fraternised, or to what hasty counsels he may at times have been
inclined to yield. All such personalities have been thrown aside in his noble identification with the cause he
has so ably represented at Winchester and Southampton. That cause survives and exists for the future,
independent even of him. "It is not the living under a government called a republic that will secure
the liberties of a people. Human hearts and human minds may require different regulation and training
according to circumstances. So also in nations a difference of position, of policy, of wants, of principles, of
action, may require different forms of government; and that government cannot be bad which secures to the
people liberty of opinion, social order, and the impartial protection of property and person of every class and
every member of society. England wants no change, because she is governed by a constitutional monarchy
under which all classes enjoy the full benefits of liberty and freedom. The people of England are therefore
masters of their own fate, defenders of their institutions, obedient to the laws, and vigilant in their behaviour;
and the country has become, as it must ever continue under such institutions, great, glorious, and free."

The people of England are not likely to show themselves insensible to such language as this. They will
be apt to infer that the country which sent forth such a speaker must in many particulars of its people
and its polity be strikingly akin to their own; and all enquiries they make will confirm that impression.
Let us add that the Hungarian leader would do well to avail himself of his presence amongst us, to apply
his own observation of the working of our English institutions to the correction of any excess in the theories
of friends who surround him. The first subject he selected for praise, when he stepped on the shore at
Southampton, was the importance of local administration, and the value of municipal institutions. With
proper allowances let that be fairly admitted; but should one of his most eager welcomers and partizans
take the opportunity of attempting to show him, as he has already undertaken to prove to ourselves, that
just as Hungary is now sinking under the illegal suppression of her local and provincial courts of justice,
so England at this moment is less essentially free than she was a hundred years ago because a curb has been
put upon her mayors and aldermen, upon county courts, upon the powers of justices in petty sessions, and upon
parish overseers, settlements, and workhouses, M. Kossuth will do well to turn incredulous away. It is only
in the earlier stages of society that extensive local administration can be salutary or desirable. Civilisation has
no choice but to bring centralisation with it; not to destroy, but to regulate, the uses of local municipalities.
Justly to balance individual and local activity with central system and correspondence of parts, remains