he was joined by Austrian regiments, which had marched from Southern
Hungary to put themselves under his orders. His advance, therefore, at
the head of an army composed of Austrian regiments and Croat forces,
was truly an invasion of Hungary by Austria.
The Hungarian forces collected to resist this invasion were still
without a commander-in-chief or a staff--without sufficient arms or
ammunition, and for the most part without military discipline or
organisation. We have already mentioned that, on the restoration of the
Ban to his offices and command, the Hungarian ministry resigned; but
Mazaros, minister of the war department, Kossuth, minister of finance,
and Szemere, minister of the interior, continued provisionally to
perform the duties of their offices. Their measures were so energetic,
that the Palatine called upon Count Louis Bathyanyi, the head of the
late ministry, to form another government. This step was approved
at Vienna; and Bathyanyi undertook the duty on the condition that
Jellachich should be ordered to retire, and, if he refused, should
be proclaimed a traitor. The king required a list of the proposed
ministry, which was immediately presented; but a week or more elapsed,
during which no answer was received, and during which Jellachich
continued to advance towards the capital of Hungary. The Palatine, at
the request of the diet, and after the measure had been approved by
the king, took command of the Hungarian troops opposed to the Ban,
which were then retiring upon Buda. Both parties, the invaders and the
invaded, appeared at this time to be countenanced by the Emperor of
Austria and King of Hungary; and the diet, while preparing for defence,
seems not to have relinquished all hope of a peaceful arrangement. The
Archduke Stephen, after joining the army, and hastily organising it,
opened communications with the Ban, and arranged a meeting in boats on
the Lake Balaton: but Jellachich did not keep his appointment; and the
Archduke Palatine, summoned to Vienna by the emperor, left the army,
passed through Pesth on his way to Vienna, and on his arrival there, as
we formerly stated, resigned the office of palatine. Shortly afterwards
he retired to his private residence on the Rhine.
Count Louis Bathyanyi, whose conditions had not yet been either
accepted or rejected, was thus left alone to carry on the whole
government; and the diet, for the purposes both of aiding and
controlling the administration of the minister, named a committee
of their number, called the "Committee of Defence," to assist in
conducting the government.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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