oned movement, and the bloody scenes
and fights provoked at every election by the hirelings of the
Government, in order to intimidate the adherents of reform, the friends
of progress became more and more convinced that the period of
moderation, such as preached by Szechenyi, had passed by, and must give
way to that resolute policy, advocated by Kossuth, which recoiled from
no consequences. Numerous magnates, all the chief leaders of the gentry
boasting of enlightenment and patriotism, and imbued with European
culture, rallied around Kossuth, until finally the public opinion of the
country and the enthusiasm of which he was the centre caused him to be
returned, in 1847, together with Count Louis Batthyanyi, as Deputy from
the foremost county of the country, the county of Pest.

During the first months of the Diet of 1847-1848, which was to raise
Hungary to the rank of those countries that proclaimed equal rights and
possessed a responsible parliamentary government, it differed very
little from the one preceding it. The opposition initiated great
reforms, as before, but there was no one who believed that their
realization was near at hand. Kossuth repeatedly addressed the House,
and soon convinced his audience that he was as irresistible an orator as
he had proved powerful as a writer. But there was nothing to indicate
that the country was on the eve of a great transformation.

The revolution of February, 1848, which broke out in Paris, changed, as
if by magic, the relative positions of Austria and Hungary. Metternich's
system of government, which was opposed to granting liberty to the
people, collapsed at once. The storm of popular indignation swept it
away like a house built of cards. At the first news of the occurrences
in Paris, Kossuth asked in the Lower House for the creation of a
responsible ministry. The motion was favorably received, but in the
Upper House it was rejected, the Government not being yet alive to the
real state of affairs, and still hoping by a system of negation to
frustrate the wishes of the people. But very soon the revolution reared
its head in Vienna itself, and the wishes of the Hungarian people,
uttered at Budapest, received thereby a new and powerful advocate.

At that time the Hungarian Diet still met at Presburg, but the two
sister-cities of Buda and Pest formed the real capital of the country
and were the centre of commerce, industry, science, and literature.
Michael Vorosmarty, the poe