Memoir and Letters of Francis W. NewmanSieveking, I. Giberne (Isabel Giberne)
Religion
Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman
Sieveking, I. Giberne (Isabel Giberne)
Newman, Francis William, 1805-1897
In _Hungary in 1851_, by Charles Loring Brace, there are many keenly
interesting details about Kossuth. Mr. Brace made a tour in Europe,
chiefly on foot, during the spring of 1851, and met Kossuth in Pesth; his
mother was then living there. "To say that Kossuth is beloved here seems
hardly necessary after what I have seen. He is idolized. Every word and
trait of his character is remembered with an indescribable affection ...";
but they all acknowledged, he added, that he did not possess the necessary
gifts for a revolutionary leader. Still, he moved his countrymen in so
stirring a manner that they would have followed him anywhere. "He
'agitated' the whole land, and there is not a Bauer in the villages or a
Csikos (wild cattle driver) on the prairies, they say, who does not
remember as the day of days the time when he listened to those thrilling
tones ... as they spoke ... of the wrongs of their beloved Fatherland."
This is a short account by a journalist who knew him personally, and was
present at the time, of the manner in which Kossuth was received in
Scotland during his visit to Britain:--
"In travelling from Edinburgh to Perth, Kossuth was received at every
station by vast crowds of people, including many ladies, with vociferous
cheers and waving of hats and handkerchiefs. This was particularly the
case at Stirling, where hundreds crowded up to the carriage in which he
sat to grasp his hand."
One day it was suggested that Kossuth, Colonel Ibaz his aide-de-camp, and
the journalist should go for a drive up Kinnoul Hill, near Perth. "We soon
got into a rough country road winding among the farms. At one place the
carriage came to a stand while a gate had to be opened to allow it to pass
through. At this gate stood a tall, venerable-looking farmer, with long
white hair and beard ... who might have served as a painter's model for an
old Scottish Covenanter. He stood ready to open the gate.... He had, of
course, heard of Kossuth's invitation to lecture in Perth, and at once
divined that the carriage might contain his hero, as all visitors to Perth
ascend the Hill of Kinnoul.... In a very deep and solemn voice he said ...
'I reckon that Loois Koshoot is in this carriage. Am I richt? Whuch is
him?' Kossuth leaned forward and said in a very gracious manner, 'Yes, he
is, good man. I am Louis Kossuth.' Whereupon the venerable man reverently
took off his bonnet, came close up, grasped Kossuth's hand in both his
own, and said, 'God bless you, sir, an' may He prosper you in your great
waurk to free yer kintra frae the rod o' the oppressor. May He strengthen
ye and croon ye wi' victory....'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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