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.
The extraordinary influence obtained by Kossuth through his paper
frightened Szechenyi, and, to even a greater degree, those whose
prejudices were shocked or ancient privileges and interests were
endangered by the democratic agitations for reform. Kossuth was attacked
in books, pamphlets, and newspapers, but he came out victorious from all
contests. In vain did Szechenyi himself, backed by his great authority
in the land, assail him, declaring that he did not object to Kossuth's
ideas, but that his manner and his tactics were reprehensible, and that
the latter were sure to lead to a revolution. The great mass of the
people felt instinctively that revolution had become a necessity and was
unavoidable if Hungary was to pass from the old mediaeval order to the
establishment of modern institutions and was to become a state where
equality before the law should be the ruling standard.
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