KORNER, KARL THEODOR. 



KOSSUTH, LAJOS. 



748 



into it, aud by substituting old Greek words, at the same time avoiding 

 the affectation of too great a purism or classic pedantry. Koray died 

 at Paris in 1833, having had the satisfaction of seeing the struggle in 

 which his countrymen had engaged rewarded by success. 



KORNER, KARL THEODOR, was born at Dresden in the year 

 1791, of respectable parents. The weakness of his health prevented 

 any great application to study, and as a child he was rather remarked 

 for the amiability of his disposition than for any intellectual acquire- 

 ments. However, as he grew, both hia mind and body gained strength, 

 and he showed an early inclination to history, mathematics, and phy- 

 sical science. Above all he loved poetry, and was encouraged in his 

 juvenile compositions by his father, who was an ardent admirer of the 

 works of Gothe and Schiller. Being educated at a school in Dresden, 

 and by private teachers, he did not leave his father's house till he was 

 near seventeen, when, being designed to fill some office in the mines, 

 he was sent to the Bergacademie (school mines) at Freiberg, where he 

 made great progress. After completing the necessary course of study, 

 he went to the university at Leipzig, and afterwards to Berlin. A fit 

 of illness however, and the dislike which his father had to the wild 

 spirit then reigning among German students, were the cause of his 

 being Bent to Vienna, where he laboured much at poetical composition. 

 Two pieces, 'Die Braut' ('The Bride'), and 'Der griine Domino' 

 ('The Green Domino'), were acted at the theatre in 1812, and meeting 

 with success were followed by others, of which ' Zriny ' and ' Kosa- 

 muude' (the English Fair Rosamond), two tragedies, were works 

 aiming at a high character. 



The events of the year 1813 made a deep impression on Korner. 

 Inspired by patriotic zeal, he resolved to engage in the cause of 

 Prussia against the French, and joined the volunteer corps under 

 Major Lutzow. He was wounded by two sabre cuts at the battle of 

 Kitzen, and lay concealed and disabled in a wood, whither his horse 

 had carried him, until be was removed by two peasants, sent by his 

 comrade--, to a place of safety. In a subsequent battle, fought on the 

 26th of August, on the road from Gadebusch to Schwerin, he was 

 killed by a shot, and buried by his comrades at the foot of an oak on 

 the road from Liibelow to Dreikrup, with all marks of honour, and 

 his name was cut on the bark of the tree. 



A Korner was scarcely twenty-two years of age at the time of his 

 death, his works, which are rather numerous, must be judged with 

 lenity. To comprehend the great impression which his patriotic 

 poems made, it is necessary for the reader to throw himself back to 

 the time, and enter into the deep-rooted hatred felt by the Prussians 

 for the French. His fame chiefly rests on a collection of lyrical pieces 

 called ' Leier und Bohwert ' (' Lyre and Sword '), many of which were 

 written in the camp, and which can now only be properly felt acid 

 appreciated when studied in connection with the events that occa- 

 sioned their composition, and with a full understanding of the sin- 

 cerity of the poet's character. In fact, this very stamp of sincerity is 

 the chief beauty of his works: they contain no new thoughts or 

 striking creations of imagination, but are pervaded by only one 

 sentiment, the glory of fighting and dying for " fatherland," expressed 

 in a variety of shapes. Korner evidently had a perception of the 

 higher poetical beauties; but lushest poems are those which seem the 

 mere unpolished effusions of the moment, and exhibit the feeling 

 quite unadorned. Such is his spirited song 'Manner und Buben' 

 ('Men and Cowards'). The happiest effort of imagination is his 

 ' Schwert-lied ' (' Sword-song '), in which the sword becomes a person 

 and addresses its owner ; a piece which has been translated (not very 

 closely) by Lord F. L. Gower. English translations of other of his 

 poems and ballads have been published ; also ' The Life of Karl 

 Tbeodor Korner, written by his Father, with selections from his Poems, 

 Tale*, and Dramas, translated from the German by G. F. Richardson,' 

 2 vols. 8vo. 



KOROSI, CSOMA SANDOR. [Csoux.] 



KU8C1USKO, THADDEUS, was born in 1756, of a noble but not 

 wealthy family of Lithuania. After studying first at Warsaw, and 

 afterward* at Paris, for the military profession, he was made a captain 

 in the Polish army. He afterwards returned to Paris, and volunteered 

 to accompany La Fayette and other', who were going to assist the 

 revolted American colonies against England. In America he distin- 

 guished himself by his bravery, obtained the rank of general officer 

 in the American .army with a pension, and after the end of the war 

 returned to his native country. In 1789 he was made major-general 

 in the Polish army. He served with distinction in the campaign of 

 1792 against the Russians, but King Stanislaus having soon after sub- 

 mitted to the will of the Empress Catharine, and Poland being 

 occupied by Russian troops, Kosciusko, with several other officers, 

 left the service and withdrew to Germany. When the revolution 

 broke out in Poland at the beginning of 1794, Kosciusko was put at 

 the head of the national forces, which were hastily assembled, and 

 in great measure were destitute of arms and artillery. In April 1794 

 he defeated a numerically superior Russian force at Kaolawio-. Again 

 in the month of June he attacked the united Russians and Prussians 

 near Warsaw, but was defeated, and obliged to retire into his intrenched 

 camp before the capital. He then defended that city for two months 

 against the combined forces of Russia and Prussia, and obliged them 

 to raise the siege. Fresh Russian armies however having advanced 

 from the interior under Suwarrow and Fersen, Kosciusko marched 



against them with 21,000 men. The Russians were nearly three times 

 the number, and on the 10th of October the battle of Macziewice 

 took place about 50 miles from Warsaw. After a desperate struggle 

 the Poles were routed, and Kosciusko, bain" wounded, waa taken 

 prisoner, exclaiming that there was an end of Poland. The storming 

 of Praga by Suwarrow and the capitulation of Warsaw soon followed. 

 Kosciusko was taken to St. Petersburg as a state prisoner, but being 

 afterwards released by the Emperor Paul he repaired to America, and 

 afterwards returned to France about 1798. Napoleon I. repeatedly 

 endeavoured to engage Kosciusko to enter his service, as Dombrowski 

 and other Polish officers had done, and to use the influence of his 

 name among hia countrymen to excite them against Russia ; but 

 Kosciusko saw through the selfish ambition of the conqueror, aud 

 declined appearing again on the political stage. A proclamation to his 

 countrymen which the French 'Mouiteur' ascribed to him in 1806 was 

 a fabrication. He continued to live in retirement in France until 

 1814, when he wrote to the Emperor Alexander recommending to him 

 the fate of his country. In 1815, after the establishment of the new 

 kingdom of Poland, Kosciusbo wrote again to the emperor thanking 

 him for what he had done for the Poles, but entreating him to extend 

 the benefit of nationality to the Lithuanians also,' and offering for this 

 boon to devote the remainder of his life to his service. Soon after he 

 wrote to Prince Czartoriuski, testifying likewise his gratitude for the 

 revival of the Polish name, aud his disappointment at the crippled 

 extent of the new kingdom, which however he attributed " not to the 

 intention of the emperor, but to the policy of his cabinet, and con- 

 cluded by saying that as he could not be of any further use to his 

 country, he was going to end his days in Switzerland." (Oginski, 

 'Mdmoires sur la Pologne et les Polonaia,' Paris, 1827.) 



In 1816 Kosciusko settled at Soleure, in Switzerland, where he 

 applied himself to agricultural pursuits. He died in October 1817, in 

 consequence of a fall from hia horse. His remains were removed to 

 Cracow by order of Alexander, and placed in the vaults of the kings 

 of Poland, and a monument was raised to his memory. 



KOSLOW. [KOZLOV.] 



* KOSSUTH, LAJOS (LOUIS), was born April 27th 1S02 at Monok, 

 in the county of Zeinplin, in northern Hungary. He is the only son 

 of Andreas Kossuth, who belonged to the class of nobles, and was a 

 small proprietor of land. Louis Kossuth was educated at the Protestant 

 college of Sarospatak. In 1819 he commenced a course of legal study, 

 and attended the district court of Eperies aud the i-oyal court a f , Pesth. 

 Having completed his legal education, and received his diploma, he 

 returned in 1822 to Monok, where he was appointed honorary attorney 

 to the county, and obtained a good practice aa an advocate. In 1831 

 he removed to Pesth, and in 1832, as the representative of a magnate, 

 attended the sittings of the Hungarian diet, or parliament, and had 

 the right to speak, but not to vote. He wrote reports of the pro- 

 ceedings of the diet, which were circulated in manuscript, and eagerly 

 read. In order to extend the circulation of the reports he aet up a 

 lithographic press. The Austrian government objected to the publi- 

 cation of the reports, and Kossuth was ordered to discontinue his 

 lithographic printing. He continued however to circulate his manu- 

 scripts. The session of the diet closed in 1836. Soon afterwards some 

 young men were accused of a political conspiracy, and thrown into 

 prison. Kossuth charged the prosecutors with illegality and injustice ; 

 and for this interference he was himself arrested, tried, found guilty, 

 and imprisoned at Buda in 1837. He was kept in solitary confinement 

 three years, without books or writing materials. The diet met again 

 in 1840, and having proceeded to business, declared the imprisonment 

 of Kossuth to have been unjust, and refused to grant the supplies till 

 j he was set at liberty. He was released from prison in May 1840 : the 

 supplies required were then granted. 



On the 1st of January 1841 appeared the first number of the ' Pesti- 

 Hirlap ' (' Pesth Journal '), which was published at first four times a 

 week, but soon became a daily newspaper, and at one period attained 

 a circulation of 10,000. Kossuth was the editor in chief. On the 

 10th of January 1841 he married Teresa Meszlenyi. 



The liberal principles advocated in the ' Pesti-Hirlap," and the large 

 circulation which it had reached, alarmed the Austrian government, 

 which in 1844 succeeded in removing from office the liberal ministry, 

 and replacing it by one of imperialist principles. In November 1847 

 Kossuth was elected by the county of Pesth as its representative in 

 the diet, which met again in that month. The liberal opposition, 

 headed by Count Louis Batthyany, waa very powerful ; and on the 

 3rd of March 1848 the diet adopted a proposition made by Kossuth to 

 send a deputation to the King of Hungary (Emperor of Austria), for 

 the purpose of requiring the formation of a new ministry essentially 

 Hungarian, aa well as certain constitutional reforms. On the 15th of 

 March Kossuth entered Vienna with the deputation. Prince Metternich 

 had fled on the 13th, and Kossuth was received by the excited popu- 

 lation with the most enthusiastic demonstrations of applause and 

 sympathy. On the 16th the emperor received the deputation, and on 

 tue 17th issued a decree which sanctioned the establishment of a new 

 ministry, of which Count Louis Batthyany bucatne the president and 

 Koasuth the minister of finance. On the 24th of March a law was 

 passed by the diet, and received the assent of the King of Hungary, 

 which restored to the Hungarians certain constitutional rights long 

 withheld from them, abolished the feudal services to which the 



