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XLIII.—­SELF-GOVERNMENT OF HUNGARY.

[Banquet in Faneuil Hall.]

On April 30th, Kossuth was entertained at a Grand Banquet, by the Governor and Council, and the Members of the two Houses.  Eight hundred and seventy tickets besides were issued, and were all taken up.  The Honourable Henry Wilson, President of the Senate, was President for the evening.  It is not possible here to print all the speeches, but it may be noted that Governor Boutwell, in reply to a toast, elicited affirmative replies from the guests to many questions directed to show the necessity of American armed interference on the side of Hungary.  Also, the venerable Josiah Quincy, aged eighty, in reply to a toast, declared that liberty remained only in the United States and Great Britain, and that in Great Britain herself the spirit of freedom is weakened.  “Let Great Britain fail and be beaten down, and all the navies of Europe will be bristling against the United States.”  Finally, President Wilson, introducing the guest of the evening, said:—­

“Gentlemen, allow me to present to you the illustrious guest of Massachusetts, Governor Kossuth.  He has won our admiration as a man by the advocacy of the cause of his country, and he has won all our hearts by the purity of his principles.”

Kossuth, in reply, noticed that the toast with which he had been honoured was almost entirely personal; and while disclaiming merit, he was nevertheless induced to advert to personal incidents, (now generally known,) as,—­how he published in MS. the Hungarian debates,—­was unlawfully imprisoned for it, and learned English in prison by means of Shakespeare; how when he was necessarily released, the government imposed an unlawful censorship on his journal, which journal nevertheless became the basis of the great and extensive reforms which received their completion in the laws of March and April, 1848.  After this he proceeded as follows:—­

Gentlemen, allow me to say a few words on the ancient institutions of Hungary.  I have often heard it said that the people of Europe are incapable of self-government.  Let me speak of the people of Hungary, to show whether they are capable of self-government or not.  In thirty-six years, with God’s help, and through your generous aid, the free people of Hungary will celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the establishment of their home—­the millennium of Hungary in Europe.  Yes, gentlemen, may I hope that celebration will take place under the blessings of liberty in the year 1889?

It is a long period—­one thousand years—­and Oh! how it has teemed with adversities to my countrymen! and yet through this long time, amid all adversities there was no period when the people of Hungary did not resist despotism.  Our boast is, that through the vicissitudes of a thousand years there was not a moment when the popular will and the legal authorities had sanctioned the rule of absolutism.  And, gentlemen,