Kossuth's speeches in England were delivered under the influence of the
highest incentives by which an orator and patriot could be moved. With
the utmost confidence in his ability to perform what he had promised,
he had pledged his honor for the neutrality of England. As he then
believed, the fate of Hungary was staked upon the fulfilment of that
pledge. Hence it came to pass that his speeches in England in May,
1859, were on a higher plane than the speeches that he delivered in
the years 1851 and 1852. At the former period he had no hope of
immediate relief for Hungary; in 1859 he imagined that the day of the
deliverance of his country was at hand, and that the neutrality of
England was a prerequisite, or at least a coincident condition.
It is not too much to say that the following extract from his speech in
the London Tavern justifies every claim that has been made in behalf of
Kossuth as a patriot and an orator:
"The history of Italy during the last forty years is nothing but a
record of groans, of evergrowing hatred and discontent, of ever-
recurring commotions, conspiracies, revolts and revolutions, of
scaffolds soaked in the blood of patriots, of the horrors of Spielberg
and Mantua, and of the chafing anger with which the words, 'Out with
the Austrians,' tremble on the lips of every Italian. These forty
years are recorded in history as a standing protest against those
impious treaties.
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