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1094 THE LEADER, [Saturday ,
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WHEWEIX ON FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS. A Letter t...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Oorgri's Liffo And Acts \N Jttjnoaky. Mj...
for Austria , we do not read that Hungary was delivered to Austria by an Hungarian . That was reserved for the year of grace 1849 . Szekeli died on the field ; Tokolyi and Hakoczy died in exile . It was reserved for Arthur Grorgei , Hungarian , to betray his country in working out the most cold-blooded and selfish ambition , and to live in exile , a free prisoner , under the watchful eyes of Austrian mercenaries , with the mark of infamy deeply branded on his brow . If we could imagine the shade of Sobieski looking sadly down "upon the consequences of his acts—the late Russian invasion—how grimly and mournfully must the shades of the old patriot heroes of Hungary glance down upon the Life and Acts of Arthur Gorgei .
In the spring of 1848 , the Hungarian , Arthur Gorgei , narrates that he was living a quiet country life on the estate of a female relative , in the North of Hungary , when he was roused ahd drawn forth by the cry of distress— " The country is in danger , " which , from the lips of a patriot Ministry , rang through the land . Emerging from obscurity , the future general was made a captain in the fifth Honved battalion ; as he had previously served as a lieutenant in the Austrian army . Not destitute of a kind of brute courage , but wholly destitute of a generous faith , Arthur Gorgei entered on his duties . Hungary was then struggling to raise an army of defence ; her militia and her volunteers crowded to the ranks ; but as they were not born soldiers , and had to be made soldiers , Gorgei ,
who must have expected a Cadmean army , grew despondent and savage with his lot . He was quickly transferred from the Honveds to other services , which , to his credit , he performed with alacrity and success ; and had the authorities kept him strictly to works of administration , happy would it Have been for Hungary . Fate , and sore need of men , however , ordered it otherwise , and the respectable talents and ferocious courage of Arthur Gorgei were employed to organize the Mobile National Guard . He was promoted to the rank of Honved major , and stationed in a command , of which Szolnok was the head-quarters . But he was utterly unfitted to the task . He had not the steady patience , the manly firmness and forbearance which creates soldiers out of citizens and ploughboys . In his mind there was a deep stratum of regimental pipeclay ; and he
never could conquer his contempt for civilians . He wanted regular troops , without the trouble of forming them , and does not appear to have conceived it possible that a national army could be raised from the rustic Magyars . We do not wonder , therefore , that he , with great difficulty , collected scarcely seven hundred men in the course of a month . The Hungarians , like other nations , required to be roused into defending their fatherland : Gorgei was only prepared to dragoon them . He does not allude even remotely to the possibility that the people of the circle of Szolnok might have been persuaded by hearty and generous exhortations , such as it would have become a man of superior knowledge to address to
men of inferior knowledge . He despised such practices ; they were for civilians . Instead , he got an authorisation from Louis Batthyani to call courts-martial " to adjudicate upon cases of disobedience , cowardice , and treason , to confirm condemnations to death , and to order their execution ;" a mode of recruiting which at least , in a national struggle , has the benefit of novelty . It was while in this command that Major Gorgei , according to his own representations , first saved the Counts Zichy from the mob , and afterwards , one , being clearly proved guilty of treason , hung him . It was while Gorgei was stationed here , that General Moga , commander of the Hungarian army , and a kindred spirit of Gorgei ' s , fought the Croats at Pakozd , and concluded with them a three days' armistice , by which means the Croats under Jellachich escaped over the frontier .
Perezel now comes on the scene as Gorgei ' s superior officer . I hat word superior indicates an important psychological peculiarity of Gorgei's mind . Arthur Gorgei never acted under a superior oflicer whom he did not depreciate and contemn . There was not one man in Hungary , that man being in rank Gorgei ' s superior , whose reputation lie has not attempted to blast . Moritz Perezel was sent after a column of Croats , under Generals Ifcoth and Phillipovich . The troops he commanded were , like those of his inferior , militia . The contempt Gorgei had for the patriotic levy , " mostly armed with scythes , and a very few with rust y old muskets , to which ' going off was almost as rare an occurrence as it was to their scythes , " because they would not face artillery , may be gathered from those words . " The " militia came , and the militia went ,
just as it felt inclined . Generally , however , it came when tlio enemy was far off ; when the enemy approached , the militia departed . " And yet with those men Pcro / . el follow ( id the Croat column , hampered in his movements by Gorgei ' a disobedience of orders , for which Gorgei takes great credit , and captured them , although they were a " well-disciplined corps of from 8000 to 10 , 000 men . " Jf cowardice , and scythes , and impossible muskets could do this , they played a part in the Hungarian war which they never played in any war before . Gorgei ' s antecedent military employment , and the good account , of bin own conduct , which lie knew well how lo lay before- the Committee of . Defence , gained for him the rank of llonve . ' l Colonel , on the 8 th of October , . 1848 ; the day after the surrender of the Croats a . I , . Degh .
Arthur Gorgei , like a certain elans of rising . soldiers and politicians , knew the great , force of self-advertisement . 8 elf ' -praine may be , and is , no rcoommendat ion , when directly advanced ; but self-praise may be , and often is , couched under attacks upon others by persons who are anxious | . o rise at any cost . JMoreover it looks patriotic arid careful in a man freely to Mud fault with everybody to everybody else ; carefully keeping self out of sight by words , and obtruding self by facts . Thin was the G ' or""ci lactic . The following jmnrgnijih affords an apt illustration : —
* ' The decree of firmness , . so uuususil sit that . time , wliicli I bud shown a . " president' of the roiirt-nmrtiid sij ^ ahiwi , ( , ' ouut Zichy ; the open and decided blame with which 1 had censured freely , and even in writing , the armistice concluded with linn Jellachich , immediately after it was agreed upon ; the success of the Hungarian arms against Kolh's corps , which my friends attributed more to tho measures I had taken , singh-handed , against the will of IW / el , than lo what had been don . i in executing his orders;—all this might l'ave directed I ho attention of the lenders of the Hungarian movement towards me , mid made them believe that I was 11 m man who would miccced in g ivi | 1 e division to tho wavering operations of Aloga ' s army . "
fought well enough . But , m fact , Moga had carelessly placed the army so that it could not fight ; and this in an offensive advance ensured destruction or flight . The result was disastrous defeat ; and Vienna , which it had been intended to relieve , remained the prey of Windisch Gratz . Gorgei , himself , behaved , as he always did on the field of battle , with an utter disregard of death . But he expected too much from the volunteers , over whom had swept the icy chill breath of the treachery of General Moga . Gorgei , recommended by himself and Moga , was made General-in-Chief , by Kossuth , after this disastrous battle . Bern now comes on the scene and has an interview with Gorgei : —
Accordingly Gorgei was sent to be a spy in the camp of Moga , who was vehemently suspected of treacherous intents . He was appointed to command the vanguard . There is no necessity here to detail the various manoeuvres by which Moga , excited by Eossuth , who had joined the army with a strong reinforcement , and yet hesitating to cross the Laitha to attack " Windisch Gratz , led the army to Schwechat on the 30 th of September , and met with a terrible defeat . It may not have materiallyaffected the result , but Gorgei again disobeyed orders at Schwechat . He imputes the loss of the day to the conduct of the troops , who ran away under fire ; but he does not tell us whether they were so placed that they must either run away or stand to be shot without fighting , or the chance of fighting , or to maintain any position . The volunteers , led by Guyon
" Bern ' s presence produced a depressing effect upon me . I knew neither whence he came , nor what were his aims . His emerging in Vienna , which has remained inexplicable to me ; his doings there , wliicli I knew only by report ; and now suddenly the devotedness , just as inexplicable , which he constantly protested for the defence of my country , —these circumstances led me involuntarily to suppose him to be something of a " knight errant" in a modem revolutionary style of warfare . My country ' s cause appeared to me to be too sacred , too just , not to make me feel a decided aversion to the companionship in arms of such elements . " Here , for this week , we leave Arthur Gorgei , now a General of an army , hailing his own appointment " as a proof that ^ Kossuth had for ever sacrificed , to the welfare of the country , his anti-military
enthusiasm ; " and in an excess of confidence admitting what Major Gorgei had denied , that "the nation had risen unanimously to the conflict ; " accepting the chief command because he felt a vocation for it , and modestly expressing a belief that the higher he stood the more likely it seemed to him that his example would inspire his fellow citizens with a strong devotion to the just cause of the fatherland . We leave him also depreciating the rising talent of the army , and despising the civil power . Next week we shall see whither this led the General at present excited by his new dignity , and seemingly proud of his new vocation .
1094 The Leader, [Saturday ,
1094 THE LEADER , [ Saturday ,
Wheweix On Fundamental Ideas. A Letter T...
WHEWEIX ON FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS . A Letter to the Author of Prolegomena Logica . By the Author of the " History and Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences . " Privately printed . We presume that it will be no breach of etiquette to notice this pamphlet , although it seems to have been privately printed . It has been sent to us ; and it discusses a topic not personal , but of fundamental importance in philosophy , and it endeavours to extricate Dr . Whewell ' s favourite doctrine from the " misconceptions" of John Mill , H . L . Mansel , G . H . Lewes , and the Edinburgh Review . Wo need not remind the student of Philosophy , that the great problem which lies at the very basis of Metaphysics , that which must be settled before the possibility of Metaphysics as a scienco can be accepted , is expressed in the question , —have we , or can toe have , any Ideas antecedent to or independent of Experience I The old doctrine of Innate Ideas has been revived in Germany , and by German disciples in France and England , under the new form of Necessary Truths , or Fundamental Ideas . In England Dr . Whewell is the most celebrated representative of this school , and has done good service by pushing the doctrine to that extremity which renders its lallacy more recognizable . . , , p His position is this : wo have ideas which are not only independent oi Experience , for no Experience can give them , but arc Necessary I rutlis , the contraries of which inconceivableand they thus furnish the
niieJare , lectual capital of all Philosophy ; they belong to the spiritual ami prnn ; u element , and blow to atoms the whole fabric of " Sectional Lhilosophy . Against this it has been argued at some length by Mr . Mill ami jvn Lewes , that these Ideas arc given in Experience , that they arc not . rut h ¦ necessarily commanding the- assent of the mind ; that they are truths u contraries of whiclwm ,- conceivable and arc vory often conceived , and Midi ho far from having the self evident irresistible diameter otvnliuhous tmscolding experience , they require , in many cases , a very laborious tnimiiif , in tho mind that is to understand thorn . . . Dr WhewelL now coinen forward with a restatement ol Ins VH ' . ' ' modified to meet these objections , which ho considers to arise out <> misconception of his doctrine , . lie gives up Liu * irresisti \^ y > 'ln \ h , evidenceand the impossibility of conceiving the contrary , bul-atill u »» "
, he retreats into an impregnable threshold : — "Tho special and characteristic property of all tins Fundamental Iil « as is w m ^ have already mentioned , that they arc tho mental nources of necessary and """ ' ' scientific truths . I call them Ideas , as being something not denned Jr 0 " ? ' ] _ lion , hut
tin * foundations of respective ,. ; louiHlations ol respecuvo ram <"• " -- i floI 1 of the clearly po . srt . MHwI , gives rise to geometrical Axioms , mid is thus tho loan , . i ^ ^ Science of ( Jeometry- Tim Idea of Mechanical l <' orv « ( a , mod . tieat . on ol in - ^ ^ Cause ) , when clearly developed iu the mind , g ive » birth to Axioms w ^ foundation of the Science of Mechanics . The idea of Substance tf 1 Vt ^ 'V nll ( ,, Axiom which is universally .. ccej . fed that we cannot , by any process ^ lto by chemical processes ) create or destroy matter , but can only comhmo elements ; and thus gives rise to the Science of ( flieinistry . Scions , " Now it may bu observed , that in giving tins account ol the tounoauonu
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 13, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13111852/page/18/
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