i? CSSIA2T A G GRESSION. 



207 



power surrounds Rouraania — this island in the 

 midst of a Slavonian sea — his fatherland will be 

 broken to pieces by the folds of the boa-constric- 

 tor. Every Roumanian dog knows it ! And it 

 was Europe that guaranteed the freedom and 

 neutrality of Roumania ! 



And still Roumania is the high-road by which 

 Russia marches to wage war against Turkey. 

 Roumania is still the basis of the Russian war- 

 operations against the Porte, as it was in the year 

 1849 of those against the Hungarians. The Rou- 

 manian Government prayed, with clasped hands, 

 to the guaranteeing powers that they would pro- 

 tect her neutrality. But the Russians are very 

 clever politicians ; they chose the right moment 

 in which to stir up anew the Eastern question. 



England is powerful. She can defend Con- 

 stantinople and sweep the Russian flag from the 

 seas. But she is not a Continental power. She 

 alone cannot send an army of some hundred thou- 

 sand men to Roumania. 



France is still maimed ; she begins to recover, 

 but she suffers from her past losses. If she were 

 not maimed, Russia would not dare what she 

 dares now. 



The German Imperial Government has polite 

 words for every one, but it is its policy not to al- 

 low an alliance of any European power with Tur- 

 key against Russia, in order to localize the war. 

 If this succeeds, it will be of the greatest service 

 to Russia, as she will thus have an opportunity 

 of preparing for the occupation of additional ter- 

 ritory by raising internal convulsions in the Turk- 

 ish provinces. And she will do it at the given 

 time as well in Hungary as in Austria. And what 

 is the key to this policy of Prince Bismarck ? 

 Nothing else but that he is afraid to offend Rus- 

 sia, as she might think of giving to France an 

 aiding hand to procure revenge. 



Lucky Italy, who deserves her luck for her 

 constancy centuries ago, and who wins provinces 

 by losing battles, is on the lookout to see whether 

 there is visible on the horizon a completing ray 

 of light for the " Stella d'ltalia." 



In the councils of Austria the traditional de- 

 mon of " rapine" goes about, and, where he does 

 not appear, the paralysis of irresolution " hums 

 and haws " from one day to the other. 



Hungary is a province, and not a state ; she 

 cannot follow an independent policy. She has 

 given up herself. She is treatied to death. 



They counted on all this at St. Petersburg, 

 ere the " pacific" Czar Alexander became such a 

 resolute " champion." 



For Roumania the end will be that the free 



Roumania whose neutrality has been guaranteed 

 by the powers will be held in dependence by 

 Russia, as she has been so many times before. 

 The Roumanian-Russian alliance is an accom- 

 plished fact, and by it Roumania has become the 

 auxiliary of Russia. What could the Roumanians 

 have done ? Could they, left alone to themselves, 

 have resisted the Russian pressure ? Could they, 

 wolf-like, have shown their teeth to her whom 

 the European powers regarded with lamb-like 

 patience ? The situation coerced them. 



This is the philosophy of the Eastern ques- 

 tion. As long as Russia is conscious of her over- 

 whelming power, and knows that she may press 

 with all her might upon the Turkish Empire, 

 nobody can there become free or independent. 

 They may change masters, get a new patron, but 

 the new patron's vital power consists in an autoc- 

 racy in whose outspread arms Freedom dies, and 

 only the weeds of the Nihilismus pullulate secret- 

 ly. Such a " patron" they may get, but nobody 

 can become free under " Russian protectorship." 



And it is right that I should mention here 

 what misconceptions there are as to the meaning 

 of the tide of feelings and apprehensions that 

 shakes the nerves of the Hungarian nation. They 

 say the Hungarians are afraid of the freedom of 

 their neighbors, the Slavonians. This is not true. 

 It is only intrigue that can say so, only blindness 

 or silliness that can believe it. 



Hungary and the Hungarians' love of liberty 

 are " twins born the same day." They have lived 

 together a thousand years. The Hungarians no- 

 where and never feared, and do not fear liberty. 

 And they were never exclusive in their love of 

 liberty ; they never accommodated even their 

 privileges to certain races. And we are the less 

 afraid of the liberty of our Eastern neighbors, 

 since I feel thoroughly convinced that if these 

 nations were to become free — really free, not 

 Russian serfs — then Hungary (if she may still 

 keep the mastership of her own destiny) would 

 be quite ready to inaugurate with them such de- 

 fensive combinations as, though in the interest of 

 the European equilibrium, would also uphold and 

 secure their individual national independence. 



And I am convinced also that such a combi- 

 nation, in which the Turkish nation may very 

 naturally join, is one of the chief necessities of 

 the logic of history. Only in this order of ideas 

 can be found security for the independence of 

 minor nations against the pressure of the greater 

 aggrandizing powers. 



We are not afraid of liberty, but of the in- 

 crease of Russian power. That is what we Hun- 



