Kossuth returned to the scene of his former activity as the martyr of
free speech and the victim to the cause of the nation. He very soon
found a new field in which to labor. The Government perceived at last
that violence was of little avail, and that those questions which were
occupying the minds to such a degree could no longer be kept from being
publicly discussed by the press. Kossuth now obtained permission to edit
a political daily paper. Its publication was commenced under the title
of _Pesti Hirlap_ ("Newspaper of Pest") in 1841, and may be said to have
created the political daily press of Hungary. It disseminated new ideas
among the masses, stirred up the indifferent to feel an interest in the
affairs of the country, and gave a purpose to the national aspirations.
It proclaimed democratic reforms in every department; the abolition of
the privileges of the nobility and of their exemption from taxation,
equal rights and equal burdens for all the citizens of the State, and
the extension of public instruction, and it endeavored to restore the
Hungarian nationality to the place it was entitled to claim in the
organism of the State.
The wealth of ideas thus daily communicated to the country appeared in
the most attractive garb, for Kossuth possessed a masterly style, and
his leaders and shorter articles showed off to advantage so many
unexpected beauties of the Hungarian language that his readers were
fairly enchanted and carried away by them. His articles were a happy
compound of poetical elevation and oratorical power, gratifying
common-sense and the imagination at the same time, appealing by their
lucid exposition to the reader's intelligence, and exciting and warming
his fancy by their fervor. Kossuth always rightly guessed what questions
most interested the nation, and the daily press became, in his hands, a
power in Hungary, electrifying the masses, who were always ready to give
their unconditional support to his bold and far-reaching schemes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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