h I hope, that no just man on earth can
charge me with unbecoming arrogance, when here, on this soil of freedom,
I kneel down and raise my prayer to God: "Almighty Father of Humanity,
will thy merciful arm not raise up a power on earth to protect the law
of nations when there are so many to violate it?" It is a prayer and
nothing else. What would remain to the oppressed if they were not even
permitted to pray? The rest is in the hand of God.

Sir, I most fervently thank you for the acknowledgment that my country
has proved worthy to be free. Yes, gentlemen, I feel proud at my
nation's character, heroism, love of freedom and vitality; and I bow
with reverential awe before the decree of Providence which has placed my
country into a position such that, without its restoration to
independence, there is no possibility for freedom and independence of
nations on the European continent. Even what now in France is coming to
pass proves the truth of this. Every disappointed hope with which Europe
looked towards France is a degree more added to the importance of
Hungary to the world. Upon our plains were fought the decisive battles
for Christendom; _there_ will be fought the decisive battle for the
independence, of nations, for State rights, for international law, and
for democratic liberty. We will live free, or die like men; but should
my people be doomed to die, it will be the first whose death will not be
recorded as suicide, but as a martyrdom for the world, and future ages
will mourn over the sad fate of the Magyar race, doomed to perish, not
because we deserved it, but because in the nineteenth century there was
nobody to protect "the laws of nature and of nature's God."

But I look to the future with confidence and with hope. Manifold
adversities could not fail to impress some mark of sorrow upon my heart,
which is at least a guard against sanguine illusions. But I have a
steady faith in principles. Once in my life indeed I was deplorably
deceived in my anticipations, from supposing principle to exist in
quarters where it did not. I did not count on generosity or chivalrous
goodness from the governments of England and France, but I gave them
credit for selfish and instinctive prudence. I supposed them to value
Parliamentary Government, and to have foresight enough to know the
alarming dangers to which they would be exposed, if they allowed the
armed interference of Russia to overturn historical, limited,
representative in