THE HUNS OF ATTILA/ 



Only a few seasons have passed since tidings reached us of 

 commotion and conflict on the far off banks of the Danube ; and 

 the tale of the wrongs of Hungary aroused a lively interest in 

 every land.f Then came the stirring news of battle and carnage. 

 The brave Magyars had stood forth to breast the tide of leagued 

 oppression, had nobly and for a time successfully striven in the 

 fight for liberty. Every liberal heart throbbed with pride and 

 sympathy in those manly aspirations and gallant struggles. But 

 soon came the sad accounts of disaster and defeat. Again the 

 nations mourned another Poland fallen buried beneath the 

 crushing weight of Cossack tyranny. 



Two years later, a war-steamer, floating a strange banner of 

 stripes and stars, steamed up the Strait of Bosphorus to the seat 

 of the Moslem empire, and presented to the Sultan an order from 

 the civilized nations of the world for the release of the Hungar- 

 ian refugees from Turkish prisons.^ The patriot exiles, who 

 were at once a burden and a menace to the effete monarchies of 

 the old world, received a glad welcome in our last born of 

 nations. Soon in all our temples was heard the voice that had 

 been the soul and center of the Hungarian struggle, sounding 

 forth witli thrilling magic, though in a tongue but recently 

 acquired, the thoughts that kindle and the words that burn. The 

 patriot of his father-land toiled while among us, with all the 



*A Lecture written and first delivered at Skaneateles, N. Y. , in 1852. 



f The last Hungarian Revolution and struggle against Austria and Russia, 

 with Kossuth, Gorgey, and Bern, as leaders, occurred in 1849. 



^ The steamer Mississippi was sent to Constantinople in the Fall of 1851, 

 and brought away Louis Kossuth, his family and friends to our country as 

 the guests of the United States Government. 



