Deep interest throughout the civilized world was aroused by the unavailing struggle of Hungary, in 1848, for national independence.  The name of Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot and famous orator, became celebrated in many lands; and in the various countries where he sojourned as an exile from his own—­especially in the United States (1851-1852) and in England—­his eloquent appeals awakened profound sympathy for his people’s cause.  Vambery, however, regards Kossuth’s compatriot, Count Stephen Szechenyi (born in 1791) as “the greatest Hungarian of the nineteenth century.”  He was descended from a distinguished family, which had given to its country many champions of liberty.  The great aim of his life was to revive the drooping energies of the nation.  As a youth he served in the army.  Entering the famous Diet of 1825, in which, by right of birth, he took his seat in the Upper House, he distinguished himself by his liberal leadership, and as a writer and an advocate of public endowments accomplished much for the education of his people.

Up to the time at which Vambery, the celebrated historian of Hungary, begins the present narrative, the growth of the national spirit had been more and more evident each year since the end of the Napoleonic wars.  For more than two centuries Hungary had been under the oppressive rule of Austria.  Hungary had furnished soldiers to Austria in her struggle against Bonaparte, and the Austrian Emperor had repeatedly promised to redress Hungarian grievances; but after the fall of Napoleon these promises were repudiated.  Hungary so emphatically showed her indignation that the Emperor was compelled to convoke the Diet in which Szechenyi distinguished himself.  The subsequent career of this leader, the character and aims of Kossuth, and the insurrection they did so much to incite are powerfully described by Vambery, who writes not only as an author fully versed in his country’s annals, but also as a patriot jealous of her liberties, proud of her heroic sons, and loyal to her fame.

For fifteen years, up to 1840, the popularity of Szechenyi extended over Hungary, and his name was cherished by every patriot in the land.  About this time, however, the great statesman was destined to come into collision with a man who was his peer in genius and abilities.  The two patriots were representatives of different methods, and in the contest produced by the shock of antagonistic tendencies Szechenyi was compelled to yield to Louis Kossuth, his younger rival.  Although there was no material difference between their aims—­for both wished to see their country great, free, constitutionally governed, prosperous, and advanced in civilization—­yet in the ways and means employed by them to attain that aim they were diametrically opposed to each other.