THE GOVERNOR-PRESIDENT OF HUNGARY. (From the Examiner.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VI, Issue 457, 19 December 1849, Page 4

THE GOVERNOR-PRESIDENT OF HUNGARY. (From the Examiner.)

The most celebrated name among the leaders of the Hungarian war of independence is* that of Kossuth. Educated as a lawyer, he was well calculated to head a movement whose object was the maintenance of legal and constitutional rights. Persecuted as a journalist for his defence of some young men accused of high treason, illegally arrested and condemned to a long imprisonment, he became a martyr, pointed out by the Austrian government itself as a leader of the coming, revolution. The Diet of 1839 interceded so energetically in his behalf, that the Imperial Ministry thought it prudent to release him, under the pretext of a geneial amnesty to all political offeuders. After an imprisonment of some years, he re-appeared as the promoter of many plans for ti c material improvement of his country, such as the projected railway to connect the Danube with the port of Fiume on the Adriatic, thus seeking to release and give a vent to its pent up forces. In 1847 he was elected deputy to the Diet, and became leader ofrthe opposition ; in April, 1848, he was appointed Minister of Finance ; when the war with Jellachich broke out, he was elected President of the Committee of defence ; since April 14th, he has been Governor-President of the kingdom (not the republic- of Hungary, as his enemies assert), and thus invested with au ancient title of its most glorious era. His influence over his countrymen is immeasurable. In spile of defeats, and the occupation cf the capital by the enemy, he was enabled in the face of an overpowering force, to collect an army of 200,000 men, whom he had inspired with enthusiasm by his eloquence, and supplied by his indefatigable activity with all the material of war. By taking advantage of undeveloped resources, by the establishment of magazines and manufactories, by carefully organizing the forces of the country, he was enabled to maintain these supplies. Although himself ignorant of war, his genius enabled him to select from the crowd those generals, many of them as yet untried, whose battles were a series of triumphs. Perhaps there does not exist in Euiope another statesmau so profoundly acquainted with the wants and prejudices of his countrymen, or whose ambition so entirely represents their cause. With millions at his disposal, he lives simply,, and improvident of the future, well knowing that his victorious ' country would never allow his family to want. | As for himself he knows his days are numbered, for he is consumptive, and he redoubles his activity in order to concentrate the more into the shorter time. But the great secret of his influence — that which, more than his i inexhaustible eloquence, his organising intellect, or his genius as a statesman, makes him as the chief and central point of the movement — is his unshaken faith in the ultimate triumph and brilliant future of his fatherland. This is the electric spark which, emanating from him, pervades and unites the nation as one man.

The extent of Hungary, including Transylvania, is above 125,000 square miles ; that of Great Britain and Ireland is 122,000, and that of Prussia 116,000. The population of Hungary, according to the best authority, is nearly fourteen millions; that of England (in 1841) was nearly fifteen millions; that of Prussia about sixteen millions. * * The population of the kingdom like thft of the empire, is composed" of various races, amongst which there are differences of language, religion, customs, and sentiments. Of the 14,000,000 of people who inhabit Hungary, not more than 5,000,000 are Magyars, about 1,262,000 are Germans, 2,311,000 Wallacks, and of the remaining 5,400,000, nine-tenths or more are Sclaves.