oath, to govern the country in
accordance with its ancient usages and laws. The people, therefore,
never called him their crowned king; he was either styled "Emperor" by
them, or nicknamed the _kalapos_ ("hatted") king. His reign was but a
series of illegal and unconstitutional acts, and a succession of bitter
and envenomed struggles between the nation and her ruler. The contest
finally ended with Joseph's defeat. He retracted on his death-bed all
his arbitrary measures, and conceded to the people the tardy restoration
of their ancient constitution. The conflict, however, had left deep
traces in the minds of his Hungarian subjects. It roused them from the
dormant state into which they had been lulled by the gentle and maternal
absolutism of Maria Theresa. Thus Joseph's schemes not only failed, but,
in their effects, they were destined to bring about the triumph of
ideas, fraught with important consequences, such as he had hardly
anticipated. The nation, waking from her lethargy, gave more prominence
than ever to the idea of nationality, an idea which, as time advanced,
increased in potency and intensity.

Yet this ruler, who on ascending the throne disregarded all
constitutional obligations and waged a relentless war against the
Hungarian nationality, must be, nevertheless, ranked among the noblest
characters of his century. Thoroughly imbued with the enlightened views
of the eighteenth century, and those new ideas which had triumphed in
the War of Independence across the ocean, he was ever in pursuit of
generous and exalted aims. He sincerely desired the welfare of the
people, and in engaging in this fruitless conflict he was by no means
actuated by sinister intentions or by a despotic disposition. To
introduce reforms, called for by the spirit of the age, into the Church,
the schools, and every department of his Government, was the lofty task
he had imposed upon himself. A champion of the oppressed, he freed the
human conscience from its mediaeval fetters, granted equal rights to the
persecuted creeds, protected the enslaved peasantry against their
arbitrary masters, and enlarged the liberty of the press. He endeavored
to establish order and honesty in every branch of the public service,
being mindful at the same time of all the agencies affecting the
prosperity of the people. In a word, his remarkable genius embraced
every province of human action where progress, reforms, and
ameliorations were desirable.

Unhappi