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1144 THE LEADER. [Saturday ,
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BOOKS ON OUR TABLE. Life and Corresponde...
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Coltgei's Life Akt) Acts In Hungary. My ...
tion by Kossutk and his party—looked to me of necessity as its saviour , at that time also when , with a simultaneous disregard of every humane consideration , a last vain attempt for salvation could be dared . " third question will be : whether I did or did not attempt , when in Presbujg , to obtain for myself the dictatorship ; and what were my reasons ? Did I not distinctly hear an inward call to seize , even with despotic power , upon the march of my country ' s destiny ; had I not even at that time a firm conviction of the necessity of a dictatorship ; had I not been able to foresee that Kossuth would be just as unsuccessful a dictator as he had been a successful agitator ? "In the face of all these truths , unless I were to deny their existence , it would be incomparably more difficult for me to answer this question in a mysterious than in a clear and distinct manner .
" Have I ever aspired to the dictatorship ? " No . " Why did I never make any effort to obtain it ? " Because the dictatorship in my hands would have been an impossibility—nay a sheer absurdity . " Why would the dictatorship in my hands have been an impossibility , a sheer absurdity ? " Because I spent the whole of my early youth , up to the month of April , 1848 —precisely the season best adapted for acquiring information—beyond the frontiers of my native land , almost apart from any connexion with it , and nearly ignorant of my country ' s customs , usages , and laws , and above all , wholly deficient in even a superficial and general acquaintance with the civil administration ; ignorant to such a degree , that in strictly political matters , for instance , I was obliged to believe , generally on the mere word of the Committee of Defence , that their measures were iudicious , and favourable to the idea that directed all my efforts .
" Because being still unknown to the country , and not possessing the confidence of the nation , I could , under the most favourable circumstances , only have usurped the name without the real power of a dictator , and because , even when , somewhat later , a part of the nation began to put confidence in me , my power as dictator—considering the difference between my political views and those of Kossuth , who still continued to be the most popular man in Hungary—would have been by so much the more precarious , the less I was able to replace his civil administration by a more suitable one , and to render his agitation against me abortive by more effective counteraction . " These are the reasons why the idea of obtaining for myself the dictatorship was a sheer absurdity . I never thought of it so long as the events of the war and their results left even the narrowest field for the exercise of the civil government . "
This " nothing less than national enthusiast , " so ignorant of his country s laws and customs , and who , moreover , entered into the war with the foregone conclusion that his country would be beaten , Tie presumed to judge the conduct of her old friends and servants , of men who knew her laws by rote , and whose struggles and sufferings in early youth and in the prime of manhood , had been endured within the frontiers of their native land . In the very letter of the 11 th of November in which he ventilated the idea of the dictatorship , and artfully suggested himself , he demanded entire power over all promotions in his army and over all its movements—that is , he asked to be allowed to organize the army as lie pleased , and dispose of it as he pleased . He found the Committee of Defence not exactly ¦ willing to concur in his schemes , so he took " refuge in sarcasm , " his
" constant and faithful ally when driven almost to desperation . " The sarcasm was levelled at the Diet , the civil power in every shape , and the unfortunate volunteers , many of whom had , he tells us , neither clothing nor arms ; yet who , nevertheless , are exposed to sarcastic comments on their desire , in this condition , to avoid grapeshot ! JSTo doubt Kossuth relied too much on national enthusiasm ; and , like all men of ardent convictions , believed that others were as ardently convinced as himself . But this is a pardonable ; eiTor , for it docs not interfere with the formation of a good army . Gorgei , however , despised national enthusiasm , and trusted to discipline alone . He crushed , by his taunts and his insolence , all fire out of his patriotic troops ; and scorned the national guards and volunteers too much even to impart that discipline they stood in need of .
From the iJOfcli of October to the beginning of February , little but , disaster attended the fortunes of Hungary . Early in November the Committee of Defence had directed General Gorgei to defend the frontier and to harass the enemy by guerilla warfare . Gorgei , on the other hand , proposed to withdraw the army from the frontier , and the Diet from Pesth . Neither plan can ho said to have been adopted . Gorgei , alleging the weakness and cowardice of his army , waited until Windiscli Grsitz crossed the frontier , and rolreat on the part , of the Hungarians became inevitable . They fell back accordingly in all directions , and with great losses ; Gorgei retreating upon Itaab , and thence towards Ofen , whither he arrived i : i January , 184 , 9 . Meanwhile Perezel had Buffered a defeat ; X \; st , h being no longer tenable , the Diet bad decamped to Debreczin ; and although Gorgei had recommended this Htep a month previously ,
and although be admits that Pesth wan untenable , yet , inking " refuge in sarcasm , " he roundly ascribes the retreat of KoshuUi and the Diet to la . jtcur pour l <( pcatr . Disgusted by 1 , 1 k ; 'motives which , led to thin refreal , of the civil p ower , Gorgei declares lie came to " Pe . sl , li on 1 , 1 k ; 2 nd of January , 1849 , to demand certain explanations , und obtain them or resign . Instead of the President he found General Vetter , and , addrcHHiug hiniHclf l , o Velter , Gorgei HiiyH , " I invited him to take 1 , 1 k ; command in my . stead , because 1 , 1 k ; unfortunate ; results of the campaign had made me doubt , my ability for tin ; post confided to me . " Greater hypocrisy was never praetiHed by mortal num . Vide passim every page of the Life and Acts , Vol . I ., from the battle of Nehwechni to the evacuation of " !*«;» 1 , 11 ; wherein the ditmHtorn of the campaign are ascribed to the Diet , the volunteers , te > KoHHuth , l , o llie inferior oflicens , to everything and anything except , the
incompetence of Arthur Uorgei . On the 4 lh of January , l < ho army of the Upper Danube ; wived itself by cmsning that river , anel ' abaneloning the ; capitals e > f the country . On the ; C > th of January , Gorged nmrclicel bin army into Waizcn ; and here , in the ceJurHc of Juh stay , lie ; performed a most , important act . lie ; formally und contumaciously Hot hiuiHolf up aa u third competitor for Hungary . Kosnutb , waa tho champion of the nation ; " Windiseh Grate fought for tho
Emperor of Austria ; hut Arthur Gorgei , under pretence of espousing the cause of the King of Hungary , espoused his own . Here at Waizen he began that great movement to form a military party who should , in rallying round the ( Constitution of 1848 , rally round his own fortunes . In his Memoir he elaborately describes how the troops , the old troops had lost faitli in Kossuth , on account of his anti-dynastic tendencies , and Ms flight from Pesth ; how they had taken arms to defend the monarchical constitution , and found themselves hurried into what looked like an attack on the monarchy . He depreciates , by employing the vilest metaphors the
acts of the Committee ot Defence , and the efforts of those who had roused the troops and the country to resistance . He represents these troops that is , as it afterwards appears , certain officers—as deserting , others as wavering ; and then it comes out that " only their confidence in me could secure the latter . " This confidence he affects to think was shaken by the publication of a false proclamation in his name , and of a private letter to Kossuth— " resembling the official rhodomontades of Messrs . Kossuth
Perczel , and others . " So he took advantage of these circumstances , he tells us , to state his views , in a proclamation to the " Hoyal Hungarian corps d ' arniee of the Upper Danube . " And what did he proclaim ? He proclaimed the utter inefficiency of the Committee of Defence , in a series of wily confessions of error on his own part for not having opposed them ; he imputed to them the " furtherance of personal private interests , " in not permitting the army to immolate itself before Ofen ; and , b y implication , he disavowed their , authority—that is , the authority of the men
from whom he derived his command . And having arraigned the Committee , and declared them incompetent , if not worse , he proposed a declaration to the army , to the effect that the army will fight for the constitution of 1848 ; oppose all who attempt by " republican intrigues" overthrow the monarchy ; take orders only from the Minister of War ; and dejriare that it would accept no convention with the enemy which did not guarantee the integrity of the constitution . Unfortunately this document escaped the proper notice it called forarrest and punishment of the author . Gorgei had planted his personal
standard , and henceforward carried it high enough ; only striking it to the Russians at Villagos ! But for a man like this to censure others for insubordination , either in the field or in the camp , and thus naively t » confess it , is at once the height of impudence and of self-deception . Still how it passed without notice , is a mystery not yet cleared up . The retreat of the army to the left bank of the Danube , which was rendered necessary by the defeat of Perczel at Moor , began a career of misfortunes . At the same time it afforded Gorgei an opportunity of displaying what military talent he possessed , in shaping the course of the amount of for the
his army so as to afford greatest employment enemy and the greatest relief to that part of the country still in the hands of the national party . Gorgei thought the matter over , but he could devise no plan of operations . He had with him a chief of Ins general staff—whose name he does not mention—and it was fortunate for him he had . This able ofiicer devised a plan for retreating into the mountain towns of Schemnitz , Kremnitz , and Neusohl , in . order that the hostile main army might be diverted from the Theiss . It was a happy idea , and admirably carried out . Gorgei grew famous for this retreat ; and we remember that it made a great noise at the time in the newspapers . soldier
Little did we know that the idea was not Gorgoi ' s , but that ot a whose name he does not even deign to mention . We shall not follow him in this retreat . It was a very gallant performance ; and , so far as bravery on the scene of any encounter goes , gallantly wrought out by Grorgci . Altogether , although he does disparage his troops continually , because they would not stand in untenable positions nor face a heavy fire , without ammunition , it is perhaps that part of Gorgei ' s career which we can look on with the least displeasure . It was full of dangers , disasters , and , Jet General-Gorgei say what he will , of manly endurance on tho part ot his troops . Early in January , 1849 , the army quitted the mountains , and made for the upper Theiss , to effect a junction with a corps under Klapka , on the defensive against gchlick . On its way , G-uyon . alone , with the men stigmatized by Gorgoi as cowards and runaways , carried the Branyisko pass—Gorgei " reflecting , " at a distance , " onUiepaui . And in this fatal attitude we leave him to the reader's contemplation .
1144 The Leader. [Saturday ,
1144 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
Books On Our Table. Life And Corresponde...
BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Life and Correspondence of John Foster . Edited by J . E Ryland , A . M . WM < Notice of Mr . Foster at a Preacher and Companion , by John Shcppara . v . ^ Bohn ' s Standard Library . 1 J - ' j Rti , and ' h Life of Foster in a . popular bexik in religions circles , especially among 1 * e nonconformists , ami Mr . Bolm lias done ; wisely in including it in his Slandar Library . We need only specify that thus eelition is to bo in two volumes , ai containa a portrait . Chapman ' * Library for tho People . Jolm ' lftp ™ , Thk two last h » uc » of this series are , MissSedgewiclc ' H plfiawuit little " . Art ; -tae « . Historical Sketches of the Old Painters , nnel Clmrlem lienncU ' s beautiful trcatis on Christian Theism . Jtis : an Jiyyptlan I'Uyrimaye . By Junmn AutfUHtiiH HI . . IoIiik ^ VoIm . ^^^ (} rt . ) ftn , l Co . jriuf ( jin : dc . In Ilediiuration . Vnr A . do Liunartiutt . Ricliunl llt'nlli'jr . A Man Without a Name . ' I Voln . ( MiiiDiniiu " -i " " ' l-Old Honda and Nrtv Houdri . ' ' j | < J . Holm-The Voiini / \ V \ fc * Ouidt : Uy Hoiiry Duvi . m , M . P . |( ' u . U <> 1 » " . IClementHofHealth and I ' rinciitleu <;/ Mivutlt ¦ Ilyijuitc .. Uy H . •» ¦ « »' . - )()) lI 1 (^ mpniiiii-Tit-lhiy . A . Boston Litrruri / Jiiit-rntil . Vol . 1 . ' O . I '' - lty ro - Klemeiitwry Drawiw / SvluioU . | , j . J , uii ) l < 'y-Th « WrHt . ' itrporlH (> ' / ' th < : Noviat . y for J ' ruwoting Work-in ;/ Mm » Atfortanoii * . Vhiuthon ; or , Loom ,: ThouyhUJor l . oo * t : TUinkrm . U . y Mm K .-v . Uuu-Jon K '"^ . J . iiU . m mid <>• The Sunday Vieture- ' linok . . ( Vi ' imma " " •"' " " - dhrhtmtiH ' lloo / cn . l $ y ( iharliw l ) i <; ki > nn . , .,,,., „ ,. MA A . < ; <" il ( Hl " ' The Marti / rs , . Heron * , and Hard * of the . Snoltith Covenant . Ity () . ( Jillllliuf , » i . / v . ,,,,,,,. 1 , Olllot ' . Punch ' i Pocket-Hook for IHW . \ . |> uvid II <> K " - domic Almanack for 1 H 5 .-J . Hiiniihin i » "l M '" "hI" 1 "' A Nuntc . mqf Modern Ueayruuhy . . H L | ,, | orn i «" '' ,, V Tic it Historical Dramas or TrtH / ndirit . Uy . Iiivoiiih . |> uik : 1 i ° " , ' Writim / H of Ooiu / tas Jerrold Punch ' s l . cttcrn to ltin No / i . \( U \ cy "" ,,, {" ( h-tnnuM Household titories Thv Three Brothers , < i < -. OIiiiiiiiih . ii »'" ' '" V , Thfi JJoild Family Abroad . Hy Oharhm l , « vor . vVliiW » J'or " ¦ Tho Letter and Spirit of Scripture . Uy M « v . Thouiiw Wilson .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 27, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27111852/page/20/
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