laws Hungary became a modern state, possessing a constitutional
government. The Government was vested in a ministry responsible to the
Parliament, all the inhabitants of the country were declared equal
before the law, the privileges of the nobility were abolished, the soil
was declared free, and the right of free worship accorded to all. The
institution of national guards was introduced, the utmost liberty of the
press was secured, Transylvania became a part of the mother-country--in
a word, the national and political condition of the country was
reorganized, in every particular, in harmony with the spirit, the
demands, and aspirations of our age. At the same time the men placed at
the head of the Government were such as possessed the fullest confidence
of the people. The first ministry was composed of the most distinguished
patriots. Count Louis Batthyanyi was the President; and acting in
conjunction with him were Francis Deak, as Minister of Justice; Count
Stephen Szechenyi, as Minister of Home Affairs; and Louis Kossuth, as
Minister of Finance.

The great mass of the people hailed with boundless enthusiasm the new
Government and the magnificent reforms. The transformation, however, had
been so sudden and unexpected, and the old aristocratic world, with all
its institutions and its ancient organization, had been swept away with
such vehement precipitation that even under ordinary circumstances, in
the absence of all opposition, the new ideas and tendencies could have
hardly entered into the political life of the nation without causing
some confusion and disorder. But, in addition to these natural
drawbacks, the new order of things had to contend with certain national
elements in the population, which, feeling themselves injured in their
real or imaginary interests, were bent on mischief, hoping to be able to
rob the nation, in the midst of the ensuing troubles, of the great
political prize she had won. Certain circles of the court and classes of
the people strove equally hard to surround with difficulties the
practical introduction of the Constitution of 1848.

The court and the standing army, the party of the soldier class, feared
that their commanding position would be impaired by the predominating
influence of the people. The non-Hungarian portion of the inhabitants,
choosing to ignore the fact that the new laws secured, without
distinction of nationality, equal rights to every citizen of the State,
were apprehen