About
this time, however, the great statesman was destined to come into
collision with a man who was his peer in genius and abilities. The two
patriots were representatives of different methods, and in the contest
produced by the shock of antagonistic tendencies Szechenyi was compelled
to yield to Louis Kossuth, his younger rival. Although there was no
material difference between their aims--for both wished to see their
country great, free, constitutionally governed, prosperous, and advanced
in civilization--yet in the ways and means employed by them to attain
that aim they were diametrically opposed to each other.
Szechenyi, who descended from a family of ancient and aristocratic
lineage, and presented himself to the nation with connections reaching
up into the highest circles of the court, with the lustre of his ancient
name, and with his immense fortune, wished to secure the happiness of
his country by quite different methods from those adopted by Louis
Kossuth, a child of the people, who, although he was a nobleman by
birth, yet belonged to that poorer class of gentry who support
themselves by their own exertions, and who, in Hungary, are destined to
fulfil the mission of the citizen-classes of other countries.
Pages:
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394