M. LOUIS KOSSUTH ON THE EASTERN QUESTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5248, 18 January 1878, Page 3

M. LOUIS KOSSUTH ON THE EASTERN QUESTION.

In the course of a letter which he has addressed to Mr. John McAdam, of Glasgow, M. Louis Kossuth says :• —■“ One and all instinctively feel that to allow Russia to extend her power—he it directly by conquest, or indirectly by establishing her dictatorial influence over the Slavs of the Rust—would be equivalent to allowing her to become both a boa constrictor, casting her deadly rings around Hungary and Austria, and a monstrous polyp, grasping our national body with thousand tentacles. This view must appear evident to everybody reflecting on the geographical and ethnographical situation both of Hungary and of the Austrian Empire. Allowing Russia to issue victoriously from the present war, though without any territorial conquest, would with fatal [necessity lead both to the eventual dissolution of the Austrian Empire, and (mark well the fact) not to the profit of freedom for any single nation being now a component part of that Empire, but exclusively to the profit of Russian Fau-Gzarism, and would lead either to the partition of Hungary, or at least to her losin ; that national type of State existence with which she holds her place for a thousand years already in the family of nations in Europe. Now it is evident it would be sheer madness, it would be absolute suicide, to subibit to such a predicament ; we should be worse than any. creeping worm were wo to endure this without resistance. We will resist—we are determined not to shrink from any danger—risk everything rather than submit to such a mean inglorious death. As to Austria, you know what position I hold. There is such divergence—nay, such absolute contrariety of interests, both in a political and economical point of view, between Austria and Hungary—that it is absolutely impossible, .1 will not say to devise, but even to imagine a formula of union between the two countries that could satisfy both. There is au absolute incompatibility of interests between the two; that it is that decided me to set up my exile as a living protest against any transaction founded on the basis that the King of Hungary and the Emperor of Austria should be one and the same person. It is not because I am a Republican that I do not accept that person for my king. Kings may pass, kings will pass, like as the ichthyosauruses of the Lias formation have passed; with other times

other creeds will come, and republicanism will have its turn all over the world; but for the present moment forms of [government is a secondary consideration, with me. The principle is national existence, to which my country is entitled by right, by .the history of one thousand years, by her . territorial extension, larger than that of Great Britain, and by the amount of her population. It is because that national existence—which implies independence from any foreign interference in regulating both the domestic affairs and. the international relations of the country—it is, I say, because that national existence is absolutely impossible with a king , who is also Emperor of Austria, that I protest against his ruling over my country. . I am not actuated by rancor. It is true that man there (Francis Joseph) is guilty of crimes which it would be difficult to pardon, impossible to lorget. There is so much blood on his hands that not all the perfumes of Arabia could sweeten the smell of them. Still, I say, should the Imperial Crown of Austria fall from his head to-day, and he retain only the crown of St. Stephen, to-mor-row I should swear al egiance to him, and be true to my oath—l who ‘ may break, but bend never.’ Such being "my positiou, you may easily imagine that I do not consider it my vocation to be particularly anxious about the preservation of Austria from dissolution. I wish her decomposed—yea, but decomposed to the profit of national liberty, and not to the profit of Pau-Slavism headed by the Czar. I certainly do not like the Austrian eagle in Hungary, but I do not wish that eagle immolated to Pau-Czarism ; and least of all could I like my own beloved Hungary made the funeral pile for Russia to burn on it the eagle of Austria. lam rather glad that, this one time in international regards, there is harmony between the vital interests of Hungary and Austria. From the consideration above alluded to, my nation, without distinction of party, is firmly determined on doing its utmost in order to force the hands of that abnormal monstrous thing called Astro-Hungarian Government to side, with Turkey, and thus preserve our national future, the safety of which from Russian ambition is indispensable to the liberties of Europe in general, and I daresay to the most, vital interests of England in particular. And England ; where is she ? Good gracious ; tossed about like a ship without either rudder or compass. - She. [calls irresolution prudence— Quantum, mutatus ab illis. Thanks, to the glorious, .heroism of the Turkish ‘ soldiers,’ England is yet in time to rouse herself from her improvident lethargy and be herself again. The first sure sign of a like determination would be such a weight added to the mighty manifestations of public, opinion in Hungary as would in all probability put an end to the shameless irresolute attitude of the Cabinet of Vienna ; and the heroic Turks, assisted byithe Austro-Hungarian army and by the 240,000 Hungarian Kouveds ready to stand in order of battle in eiirht days, whom you would see re-performing the deeds of my ‘ unnamed -demigods of old,’■ and England’s might thrown into the balance, would for ever free Eu-ope—free her independence, her liberties, her-civilisation) her progress on the road of moral elevation, scientific culture, and material welfare, from that incubus which to-day ,is yet only Russia, but, unless prevented now, will in less than a quarter of a century, expand into almighty Pan-Czdrism. Now is the day and now is the, hour to'realise the programme of 1354,' then improvidently left unrealised. ‘ There we have the punishment of that fault.” . '