208 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



garians are afraid of. We fear that, if the Turk- 

 ish Empire should be dismembered, if its sover- 

 eignty should be undermined previous to the re- 

 moval of this danger, and if this dismemberment 

 and undermining should be provoked by Russia, 

 and turned to her profit, the result would not be 

 that free nations would rise out of the ruins of 

 the Turkish Empire ; but rather the result would 

 be Russian occupation, or else (which is the same 

 thing, though more dangerous) Russian servitude, 

 accompanied, as a compensation, by the " grand 

 idea " of affinity of race as a honeyed cake ; and 

 the Slavonian nations would be fettered to the 

 Russian yoke. This would, in some inevitable 

 way, have a tendency to enslave Hungary as well, 

 and we should finally, after many and great 

 struggles, be brought to perdition, as Poland was 

 a century ago. 



And I must observe that the danger that 

 threatens us threatens still more the Austrian 

 Empire. There is between us such a community 

 of interests as gives the power to secure the re- 

 moval of this danger ; and the Government can 

 thus count on the whole nation, which would rise 

 as if her millions were only one man, not merely 

 in blind obedience, but with all the power which 

 a nation can exert when it defends its existence, 

 its very life. 



This is the danger that shakes the heart- 

 strings of the Hungarian nation. This makes it 

 ready for every exertion, for every sacrifice, in 

 order that the integrity of the Turkish Empire 

 and the sovereignty of the Porte may not become 

 a prey to Russian tyranny and aggrandizement. 



Remove this danger, and we shall always ap- 

 prove the regeneration al endeavors of the Turkish 

 nationalities, and shall feel great pleasure if this 

 regeneration succeed without destruction of races, 

 language, or creed — the old internal hatreds being 

 superseded by equal laws and equal freedom. 

 We Hungarians shall thus acquire in the Turkish 

 Empire such friends as could not be found else- 

 where on the surface of the whole earth. But if 

 Fate, whose skein is composed of the thread of 

 the immutable past, should decide that all these 

 endeavors shall be fruitless, owing to so many 

 impediments being thrown in the way of their 

 fulfillment by foreign intrigues, egotism, meddling, 

 and passion, then we are very much afraid of the 

 liberty of our neighbors. If the contrary happen, 

 however, we will welcome them at the round table 

 of free and independent nations ; we will offer 

 them our hands, and aid them so that their liberty 

 and independence may be secured against every 

 external aggression. 



Far from my fatherland I live in solitary se- 

 clusion, and shall die there. But if I am forced 

 to forget much, there is something I can never 

 forget ; it is that I know the Hungarian heart, on 

 whose throbbing my hand has so often rested. 



I shall now state why I think that Hungarian 

 public opinion should occupy a determinate posi- 

 tion on this Eastern question. 



It was diplomatically acknowledged, during 

 the crisis of 1854, how dangerous Russian power 

 had become to the liberty of Europe, and it was 

 then seen that the future could only be secured 

 against the renewal of this question by that 

 power being reduced to lesser proportions, such 

 as would not endanger Europe. 



This was what England aimed at in the Cri- 

 mean war of 1854. But her programme could 

 not be carried out then in consequence of the 

 attitude of Austria, as may be seen from some of 

 the articles in the French Moniteur, containing 

 those official revelations with which Napoleon 

 III. tried to soothe English public opinion, the 

 fluctuations of which I then strove to direct, and 

 which strongly demanded the restoration of Po- 

 land. 



And the programme not being carried out is 

 the reason why this question now shows itself in 

 a still more dangerous form than it has ever done 

 since that time. 



In a more dangerous form, I say, because the 

 Russian preponderance of power has assumed 

 such a character as against the liberties of Eu- 

 rope generally, and against those of our country 

 particularly, as shows her aim to be new territo- 

 rial annexations. 



The Emperor of Russia has written upon his 

 banner " The Slavonic Cause." This was the 

 phrase used by him on the occasion of his war- 

 like speech at Moscow. This phrase had hith- 

 erto been paraded only in the Slavonian diction- 

 aries for private use ; it had not before appeared 

 in the plan of the confessed policy of the Rus- 

 sian Government. It now appears from beneath 

 the ground, where it had before worked mole- 

 like — rising, on the arms of the absolute auto- 

 crat of 82,000,000 serfs, to the daylight as an 

 active power. The czar now occupies the posi- 

 tion of the declared champion of Panslavism. 



And what is this Panslavism ? This is no 

 merely national matter, no affair of national free- 

 dom. It absorbs the different Slavonic nations 

 into one single race. It substitutes race for na- 

 tionality; power of race for liberty. 



The signification of " The Slavonic Cause ' 



