the men who could vote:  but the change was easy.  The frame of self-government was ready.  We had only to say, the people instead of the nobility had the right to vote; and so, in one day, we buried aristocracy, never to rise again.  Each county elected its Representatives to the Diet, and had the right of intercourse with other counties by means of letters on all matters of importance to these counties; and therefore our fifty-two primary councils were normal schools of public spirit.  We elected our Judicatory and Executive, and the government had not a right to send instructions or orders to our Executive; and if an order came which we considered to be inconsistent with our constitutional rights, it was not sent to the Executive, but to the Council; and therefore the arbitrary orders of the Government could not be executed, because they came not into the hands of the Executive.  Thus were our Councils barriers against oppression.

When the French took Saragossa, it was not enough to take the city—­they had to take every house.  So also we went on, and though some counties might accept the arbitrary orders of the government, some resisted; and, by discussing in their letters to the other counties the points of right, enlightened them; and it was seen that when the last house in Saragossa had been beaten down, the first stood erect again.  In consequence of the democratic nature of our institutions, our Councils were our Grand Juries.  But after having elected our Judges, we chose several men in every county meeting, of no public office, but conspicuous for their integrity and knowledge of the law, to assist the Judges in their administration.

Believe me, these institutions had a sound basis, fit to protect a nation against an arbitrary government which was aiming at centralization and oppression.  Now, these counties having contended against the Austrian Government, it did everything to destroy them.  The great field was opened in the Diet of 1847.  Having been elected by the county of Pest, I had the honour to lead the party devoted to national rights and opposed to centralization and in defence of municipal authority.  It was my intention to make it impossible that the Government should in future encroach upon the liberties of the people.  We had the misfortune in Hungary to be governed by a Constitutional King, who at the same time was the absolute monarch of another realm—­by birth and interests attached to absolutism and opposed to constitutional government.  It was difficult to be an absolute monarch and behave as King of Hungary.  There is on record a speech of mine, spoken in the Hungarian Diet, about the inconsistency of these two attributes in one man—­that either Austria must become constitutional, or Hungary absolutistical.  That speech virtually made the Revolution of 1848 at Vienna.  After this Revolution, I was sent to Vienna to ask that our laws be established, releasing the people from feudal rights and demanding