with their Protestant countrymen in defence
of the greatest human blessing, spiritual freedom.
Ferdinand disregarded the Vienna
Peace; and Bethlen, elected King of Hungary
in 1620, refused the crown. Ferdinand was
forced, in 1622, to ratify the disregarded
treaty; and when he again broke it, a second
and a third time, Bethlen forced him to
submission. Gabriel Bethlen died in 1629, never
having been defeated on a field of battle.
Again, in the year 1633, was Ferdinand
compelled to ratify the former articles of peace.

Religious warfare, internal dissensions, and
struggles sometimes with the Turks, and
sometimes with neighbouring states—occupy
the pages of Hungarian history down to the
reign of Maria Theresa, which began in 1740.
She drove out a host of intruding foreigners,
who infested the country, and appointed
Hungarians to the chief posts; recognised
and gratified national feeling, and, with a
woman's tact, led a people who would not be
driven. She managed to get on without the
Diet, and even, in spite of the Diet, settled
by her "Urbarium" the relations between
peasant and landowner. This settlement Diets
in after years confirmed. Maria reigned over
the hearts of her people for thirty years.

When Napoleon's career commenced, the
throne of Hungary was occupied by Leopold
the Second, and afterwai'ds by Francis the
First. In 1809, Napoleon offered the
Hungarians separation from Austria, and a King
to themselves; but they tore his proclamation
to pieces. After the "Holy Alliance,"
Francis the First, finding the Hungarians
inconveniently high-minded, ceased to
summon Diets, and proceeded, from year to
year, to work the ruin of the stubborn
Constitution. At last, in 1822, he endeavoured
to raise taxes without consent of the Diet; but
passive resistance totally defeated him. Therefore,
in 1825, he again summoned the Diet,
confirmed the Constitution, and treated it with
external respect. In 1832, a Reform Diet
began to do for the nineteenth, what had
been done after the Peace of Szathmar for
the eighteenth century. The deputies were
liberal, but the magnates and Government
opposed any change in the condition of the
peasants.

Francis died, and, after 1835, the Archduke
Louis and Prince Metternich governed in the
name of the imbecile Ferdinand the Fifth.
The Palatine of Hungary was Archduke
Joseph, who regarded the country with affection.
The Diet of 1832 continued its session
until 1836, labouring to revise the Urbarium
of Maria Theresa, and define, in accordance
with the light of our own age, the position of
the peasantry. The Court resisted every
attack on feudal institutions, and out of the
dispute arose arrests and lawsuits against
those who warmly advocated full reform.
The Courts displayed a disregard of legal
forms, and the conviction of certain members
of the liberal party—one of them M. Kossuth
—of high treason, aroused indignation through
the country. M. Kossuth was released after
three years' imprisonment; but for twelve
years nothing was effected by the Hungarian
reformers. In 1847, a Diet, summoned by
King Ferdinand, met with an enthusiastic
resolve to carry the required measures of
reform. It now appeared that the
irresponsible character of the King's ministry was
one of the chief evils injurious to order in the
state. The Diet, in 1848, was still sitting at
Presburg, when news arrived of the French
Revolution. The opportunity was then taken,
dutifully, to point out to the King the reforms
needed in Hungary; and this was done in an
address voted by both Deputies and Magnates,
and then sent on to Vienna. At the same
time, the people of Vienna were demanding
reforms also on their own account; and to
avoid insurrection, Ferdinand promised
compliance with the wishes of all his subjects.
A bill was accordingly passed in the
Hungarian Diet, establishing a responsible, in place
of an irresponsible, Ministry; and to this bill
the King gave his assent on the 11th of April.
Other reforms had in the meantime been
discussed, and a revolutionary section of the
people was controlled by the Diet, and
repressed with dignity.

The desired laws having been sanctioned,
the Diet was dissolved, that it might give
place to a "reformed Parliament." The
national finances were now legally controlled;
the troops sworn to the Constitution; the
feudal distinctions between noble and peasant
abolished; local administration amended;
and a small property qualification made the
title to elective franchise.

The Croatians, under the Ban Jellachich,
resisted the new arrangements, claimed
independence of the Hungarian Diet, and invaded
Hungary. On the 10th of June, therefore,
the King issued a proclamation declaring
Jellachich a rebel, and depriving him of his
dignities. While persisting in his rebellion,
he was, a week afterwards, received with
marked distinction at the Court, where it had
never been seriously meant to keep faith with
the Diet. It was known that Austria supplied
to the Ban's army money and equipments.
M. Kossuth, to resist the Ban's invasion, then
proposed a vote to authorise the levying of
troops and funds for the repulse of the
Croatian invasion. The vote was unanimously
passed, but the King would not confirm it.
On the 4th of September the King wrote,
annulling his former proclamation, to
Jellachich, who soon was marching towards Buda,
at the head of forty thousand men. The
Austrian minister of war, Count Latour, had
pledged his honour that he was suspected
falsely of being in communication with
Jellachich. Despatches from the Ban,
intercepted two or three days afterwards, were
found to be addressed to Count Latour,
acknowledging receipt of arms, and requesting
permission to act openly against Hungary.