Jellachich had now established himself at Stuhlweissenberg, four or
five marches from Pesth; and the government at Vienna appears to have
anticipated that Hungary, left without a government, must fall into
confusion. But she preserved her loyal and constitutional attitude; and
while she was prepared to repel force by force, gave no pretext for
employing it. Count L. Bathyanyi was at length informed that his list
of the new ministry was not approved; and by an ordinance dated 25th
September, General Count Francis Lamberg was appointed to the command
of all the troops in Hungary, with power to restore order and to close
the diet. The time had arrived which the Hungarians had been most
desirous to avert, when they must either surrender their constitutional
rights or resist their king.
The murder of Count Lamberg by a frantic mob threw the diet into a
state of consternation. The regiment on which it most relied was the
regiment of Lamberg, and the Ban was at the gates of Buda. The diet
passed resolutions expressing its profound grief at the unhappy fate
of the count, and ordered criminal proceedings to be immediately
instituted against his murderers. The patriotism of the soldiers was
not shaken by the horrible event that had occurred; and they displayed
their wonted gallantry on the 29th, when the Ban was repulsed.
Immediately after the murder of General Lamberg, Count Louis Bathyanyi
resigned. There was now neither palatine nor minister in the kingdom,
and the enemy was about to attack the capital. In this emergency the
Committee of Defence, at the head of which was Louis Kossuth, took upon
itself the direction of affairs; and since that time it has governed
Hungary.
After the defeat of Jellachich, while he was on the frontiers of
Austria, followed by the Hungarian army, the king named Count Adam
Ricsay prime-minister, and by a new ordinance, countersigned Ricsay,
the diet was dissolved, its decrees annulled, and Jellachich appointed
commander-in-chief of all the troops in Hungary. The civil authorities
were suspended, and the country declared in a state of siege. At the
same time Jellachich was named royal commissioner, and invested with
executive power over the whole kingdom.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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