It is Eastern blood which runs in my veins. If I have somewhat of
Eastern fatalism, it is the fatalism of a Christian who trusts with
unwavering faith in the boundless goodness of a Divine Providence. But
among all these different feelings and thoughts that come upon me in the
hour of my farewell, one thing is almost indispensable to me, and that
is, the assurance that the sympathy I have met with here will not pass
away like the cheers which a warbling girl receives on the stage--that
it will be preserved as a principle, and that when the emotion subsides,
the calmness of reflection will but strengthen it. This consolation I
wanted, and this consolation I have, because, ladies, I place it in your
hands. I bestow on your motherly and sisterly cares, the hopes of
Europe's oppressed nations,--the hopes of civil, political, social, and
religious liberty. Oh let me entreat you, with the brief and stammering
words of a warm heart, overwhelmed with emotions and with sorrowful
cares--let me entreat you, ladies, to be watchful of the sympathy of
your people, like the mother over the cradle of her beloved child. It is
worthy of your watchful care, because, it is the cradle of regenerated
humanity.
Especially in regard to my poor fatherland, I have particular claims on
the fairer and better half of humanity, which you are. The _first_
of these claims is, that there is not perhaps on the face of the earth a
nation, which in its institutions has shown more chivalric regard for
ladies than the Hungarian. It is a praiseworthy trait of the Oriental
character. You know that it was the Moorish race in Spain, who were the
founders of the chivalric era in Europe, so full of personal virtue, so
full of noble deeds, so devoted to the service of ladies, to heroism,
and to the protection of the oppressed. You are told that the ladies of
the East are degraded to less almost than a human condition, being
secluded from all social life, and pent up within the harem's walls. And
so it is. But you must not judge the East by the measure of European
civilization. They have their own civilization, quite different from
ours in views, inclinations, affections, and thoughts. We in Hungary
have gained from the West the advantages of civilization for our women,
but we have preserved for them the regard and reverence of our Oriental
character. Nay, more than that, we carried these views into our
institutions and into our laws. With us, the widow remains the head of
the family, as the father was. As long as she lives, she is the mistress
of the property of her deceased husband. The chivalrous spirit of the
nation supposes she will provide, with motherly care, for the wants of
her children; and she remains in possession so long as she bears her
deceased husband's name. Under the old constitution of Hungary (which we
reformed upon a democratic basis--it having been aristocratic) the widow
of a lord had the right to send her representative to the parliament,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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