s
_nearly_ 14,000,000; that of England (in 1841) nearly 15,000,000;
that of Prussia about 16,000,000.

Thus it is evident that, in point of power, so far as power depends upon
population, Hungary possesses as much power as England _proper_, or
even as the kingdom of Prussia. Well, then, there is population
enough--there are people enough. Who, then, are they? They are distinct
from the nations that surround them. They are distinct from the
Austrians on the west, and the Turks on the east; and I will say in the
next place that they are an _enlightened_ nation. They have their
history; they have their traditions; they are attached to their own
institutions--institutions which have existed for more than a thousand
years.

Gentlemen, it is remarkable that, on the western coasts of Europe,
political light exists. There is a sun in the political firmament, and
that sun sheds his light on those who are able to enjoy it. But in
eastern Europe, generally speaking, and on the confines between eastern
Europe and Asia, there is no political sun in the heavens. It is all an
arctic zone of political life. The luminary, that enlightens the world
in general, seldom rises there above the horizon. The light which they
possess is at best crepuscular, a kind of twilight, and they are under
the necessity of groping about to catch, as they may, any stray gleams
of the light of day. Gentlemen, the country of which your guest to-night
is a native is a remarkable exception. She has shown through her whole
history, for many hundreds of years, an attachment to the principles of
civil liberty, and of law and order, and obedience to the constitution
which the will of the great majority have established. That is the
fact; and it ought to be known wherever the question of the
practicability of Hungarian liberty and independence are discussed. It
ought to be known that Hungary stands out from it above her neighbours
in all that respects free institutions, constitutional government, and a
hereditary love of liberty.

Gentlemen, my sentiments in regard to this effort made by Hungary are
here sufficiently well expressed. In a memorial addressed to Lord John
Russell and Lord Palmerston, said to have been written by Lord
Fitzwilliam, and signed by him and several other Peers and members of
Parliament, the following language is used, the object of the memorial
being to ask the mediation of England in favour of Hungary.

"While so many of the nations of