During the year 1852 a strong friendship had sprung up between Captain
Mayne Reid and Louis Kossuth, the ex-governor of Hungary, who was at
that time living in London. Captain Reid entered enthusiastically into
the Hungarian cause and attended many public meetings on behalf of the
refugees.
In February, 1853, when the ill-fated insurrection at Milan took place,
Kossuth was anxious to join the insurgents as soon as possible.
Captain Reid proposed that Kossuth should travel across the Continent
disguised as his servant. A passport was actually got from the Foreign
Office for this purpose, and bears date 24th February, 1853, "for the
free passage of Captain Mayne Reid, British subject, travelling on the
Continent with a man-servant, James Hawkins, British subject." All was
in readiness for their departure, when a telegram in cipher was received
by Kossuth that the rising had proved only an _emeute_.
Fortunately for Captain Reid, who was thus spared risking his life on
the altar of friendship, as he was quite prepared to do. Capture in
Austria would have been certain death for one, if not both of them.
He remained a staunch friend to Louis Kossuth during the latter's
residence in England, ever ready to defend him with the pen, as he had
been with the sword.
_The Times_ of February 10th, 1853, contained these lines at the head of
its Notices to Correspondents: "At 2 o'clock this morning we received a
letter, signed `Mayne Reid,' denying, in absurdly bombastic language,
the genuineness of the proclamation which we published on the 10th
inst., and which we introduced as `professing to be addressed by M.
Kossuth to the Hungarian soldiers in Italy.' Such documents are seldom
very formal, but we had good reason for believing it to be genuine, and
shall certainly not discredit it without better authority than that of
`Mayne Reid.'"
The letter to which _The Times_ refers--or rather a copy of it--was sent
by its author to the _Sun_.
"Louis Kossuth and the Italians.
"The following note has been addressed to ourselves by Captain Mayne
Reid, inclosing, as will be seen, a somewhat remarkable communication
addressed to one of our morning contemporaries. In our leading columns
of this evening we have referred more directly to the very curious
documents here subjoined:
"To the Editor of the _Sun_.
"30, Parkfield Street, Islington.
"February 16th, 1853.
"Sir,--I regret that I am a stranger to you, but I have a confidence
that your sense of `fair play' will influence you to insert the
accompanying letter in your journal of to-morrow. I need hardly add
that the facts which it states have been drawn from an authentic source.
"With high respect, sir,
"I am, etc,
"Mayne Reid."
"To the Editor of _The Times_.
"Sir,--In your journal of the 10th inst. appears a telegraphic dispatch
announcing an insurrection in Milan; and underneath, in the same column,
a document which you state `purports to be from Kossuth,' and to which
is appended the name of that gentleman.
"Now, sir, M. Kossuth either did write that document, or he did not. If
he did, and you have published it without his authorisation, you have
committed, by all the laws of honour in this land, a dishonourable act.
If he did not write it, you have committed, by the laws of justice in
this land, a criminal act. I charge you with the committal of both.
You are guilty of the latter; and the latter, like a parenthesis,
embraces the former.
"You have published that document without any authorisation from the man
whose name is subscribed to it; and upon the day following, in an
additional article, you have declared its authenticity, as a
proclamation addressed by M. Kossuth, from Bayswater, for the purpose of
engaging the Lombard and Hungarian patriots in the late insurrection at
Milan.
"As such, sir, in the name of M. Kossuth, _I disavow the document. I
pronounce it to be a forgery_.
"It remains with M. Kossuth to bring you before the bar of the law. It
has become my duty to arraign you before the tribunal of public opinion.
"I charge you, then, with having given utterance to a forged document,
which was calculated to reflect with a damning influence upon the fame
of its reputed author. Such conduct is in any case culpable. In yours
it is inexcusable, since you daily tell us that `whatever is intended
for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the
writer.'
"But this is not all, sir. In the editorial referred to, you take
occasion to speak of the man whose name has been thus abused in a tirade
of vengeful invective, whose epithets I, as a gentleman, shall not
condescend to reproduce.
"Calling the false proclamation `bombastic fustian,' you have charged M.
Kossuth with aiding to incite the late insurrection in Milan, and
thereby causing the wanton shedding of blood--of `hallooing on the
wretched victims to certain destruction, while he himself enjoys the
most perfect personal security under the guardianship of British law.'
"This is a serious charge, and, if not true, a slander which, by the
mildest construction, must be termed most cruel and atrocious. _It is
not true_. It is a slander, and I feel confident that all who read will
pronounce it, as I have done, cruel and atrocious.
"With regard to its first clause, I here affirm that M. Kossuth had not
only no part in inciting the Italians to a revolution at this time; but,
that up to the latest moment, he opposed such an ill-judged and
premature movement with all the might of his counsel. He had weighty
reasons for so doing. Perhaps you, sir, may know what these `weighty
reasons' are; but whether you do or not, I am not going to declare them
for the benefit of Austrian ears. This is not the question now, but
your charge is; to which I oppose the affirmation that it is _not true_.
With regard to the latter clause of your quoted assertion, I have thus
to answer; that the moment in which M. Kossuth received the news of the
insurrection in Milan--and which came upon him as unexpectedly as upon
any man in England--upon that moment he hurried to make preparation for
his departure to the scene of action. Although filled with a prophetic
apprehension that the affair would turn out to be an _emeute_, and not a
national revolution, he, nevertheless, resolved to fling his body into
the struggle. I, who was to have had the honour of sharing his dangers,
can bear testimony to the zeal with which he was hurrying to face them,
when he was frustrated by the news that the insurrection was crushed.
Were I to detail, as I may one day be called upon to do, the sacrifices
which he made to effect that object, the slanders, sir, which you have
uttered against him would recoil still more bitterly upon yourself. For
the present I content myself with the assertion of the fact; but should
you render it necessary I am ready with the proofs.
"But no such explanation was needed to shield Louis Kossuth from your
unmanly accusation. Shall I recall a circumstance in the life of that
heroic man to refute you? You, sir, must know it well. It has been
recorded in the columns, and engraven in the tablets, of history. In
August, 1849, upon the banks of the Danube stood Louis Kossuth. On one
side was the avenging Austrian, thirsting for his blood; on the other
his weak and wavering protector, who had declared that unless he--
Kossuth--and his associates would consent to abandon the religion of
their fathers they must be yielded up, to what? On the part of Kossuth,
to death--certain death--upon the ignominious scaffold. In this
perilous crisis, others, less compromised, accepted life upon the terms
proposed. What did Kossuth, when it came to his turn to speak? He
uttered these words of glory: `Death, death upon the scaffold, in
preference to such terms for life! Accursed be the tongue that could
make to me such an infamous proposal.'
"In such language, at such a time, there is no `bombastic fustian.' I
could believe that there were men incapable of comprehending the sublime
courage, the heroic virtue of such an act; but I did not believe there
existed a man in all England who would have the effrontery--the positive
and palpable meanness--to stigmatise the hero of that act with a charge
of cowardice.
"Such, sir, are the facts connected with this affair. I may at some
future time treat you to a few opinions, and review more copiously the
history of your conduct in relation to M. Kossuth. Meanwhile, I leave
you to purify your soiled escutcheon as you best may.
"I am, sir, yours obediently,
"Mayne Reid.
"February 15th.
"P.S.--February 16th. Sir,--In your journal of this morning, instead of
publishing the above letter, you have noticed it in a short paragraph,
worthy of the pen that would malign a patriot. But do not imagine that
you are to escape thus easily from the unpleasant position in which you
have placed yourself. In this country the character of a gentleman,
though he be a stranger, is not to be wantonly assailed with impunity,
and you, sir, shall be as amenable to the laws of honour and justice as
the meanest citizen in the land.
"You say, in relation to your pseudo proclamation, that you `had good
reason for believing it to be genuine, and shall certainly not discredit
it without better authority than that of Mayne Reid.'
"If you had no better authority for publishing it than what is implied
by the tenor of the above paragraph, I fancy you will have some
difficulty in explaining to your readers why you published it at all,
and to your countrymen why--_so long as a doubt existed in your mind as
to its genuineness_--you took advantage of the sentiments expressed by
it to defame the character of its reputed author. You take occasion to
characterise my letter as `absurdly bombastic language.' It is before
the public as above. Let them be the judges; and the only favour I
should ask of them would be, to read your editorial article upon the
same subject. Having given yours a prior perusal, I feel satisfied that
their ears will not be so delicately attuned as to be jarred by the
`absurdly bombastic' of mine.
"`Bombastic' seems to be a favourite phrase with you, and for the style
itself no writer in England is more accustomed to its usage than that
mythical personage--the editor of _The Times_.
"Your sneer at the `authority of Mayne Reid,' is equally characteristic.
It is true I am but a plain gentleman, who make my living, like
yourself, by literature. But I did not calculate upon the statement of
a plain gentleman having any weight with you. In my letter I offered
you full proof of my assertions. You do not seem inclined to call them
forth.
"And now, sir, one word more. If you flatter yourself that by means of
bold swagger and personal invective you can cover your misdeeds, you are
sadly mistaken. You may insult the understanding of Englishmen, as you
repeatedly do, with your wordy sophistry, and mystify the masses, who
`run as they read.' I, sir, have a higher faith in the intelligence of
my countrymen, and a full confidence that the majority of them have
heads clear enough to understand, and hearts pure enough to repudiate,
an unprovoked and unproven slander.
"I am, sir, etc,
"Mayne Reid."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the _Morning Advertiser_ of February 19th, 1853, appeared the
following:
"M. Kossuth and `The Times.'
"To the Editor of the _Morning Advertiser_.
"Sir,
"Your kindness in giving a place in your widely circulated journal to my
former communication in relation to M. Kossuth leads me to hope that you
will also publish the inclosed document.
"I am, sir,
"With high respect,
"Truly yours,
"Mayne Reid.
"301, Parkfield Street, February 17th."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"To the Editor of _The Times_.
"Sir,
"You have refused to disavow the pseudo proclamation which you published
over the name of M. Kossuth, _without better authority than that of
Mayne Reid_. Perhaps you will be satisfied with the authority of the
gentleman whose name is in autograph appended to the communication I now
inclose you.
"I am, sir, etc,
"Mayne Reid."
"To Captain Mayne Reid.
"London, February 18, 1853.
"My Dear Sir,
"I feel myself under high obligations for the generous and chivalric
manner in which you stepped forth to do me justice, when you knew me to
be wronged in that `proclamation' matter; as also I feel bound to
lasting gratitude towards you for the noble readiness with which you
gave me at once your helping hand, at my request, to aid me to reach the
field of that action which I did not approve, but which, of course, I
must have been anxious to join.
"Your generous assistance, which you so readily granted me, I can the
more appreciate, as I am sorry to say with us there are many
difficulties, even in reaching any field of honourable danger at all.
We are not free to move. Evidence of it: That when not long ago my
departed dear mother was on her death-bed in exile, a certain
`constitutional' government would allow me to go to imprint the parting
kiss of filial devotion on her brow upon the condition only that I
should submit to the disgraceful profanation of being accompanied by a
`gendarme' to my dying mother's bed.
"I thank you, sir, most affectionately, for that your assistance, as
well as your chivalric defence. I was just about myself to publish a
formal disavowal of that `Proclamation to the Hungarian Soldiers.' I
hope you, as well as every Englishman, will appreciate my motive for not
having done it earlier.
"My motive, sir, was this: that my disavowal would, of course, have been
telegraphed to Austrian quarters; and, supposing the fight in Italy
still pending, might have possibly done some harm to my beloved brethren
in oppression, the Italians. So I took it to be my simple duty rather
silently to submit to any virulent indignity than to harm the chances of
the struggling patriots at Milan, who, though inconsiderately and at an
ill-chosen moment, risked their life and blood and their sacred honour
to free their country from insupportable oppression, and that a foreign
one, too; just as England once rose and risked blood and life and sacred
honour--nay, more, sent one king to the scaffold and one other into
eternal exile--to free herself from oppression, though it was not a
foreign one.
"The history of past revolutions is but too readily forgotten by those
who now reap their fruits in peace and happiness. But I would like to
recall it to memory now, when men will be but too ready to add bitter
blame to the misfortune of the vanquished.
"I certainly, sir, did highly disapprove of any idea of rising in Italy
now; but the failure of the unfortunate victims I will consider but as a
new claim upon my compassion and sympathy. Men, in the peaceful
enjoyment of freedom and prosperity, can scarcely imagine what
aspirations and what thoughts can and must cross the hearts of a people
suffering what Italy does. That should be borne in mind before we cast
the stone of blame upon those who fell.
"I, sir, am so much penetrated by this sentiment, that, were it not for
higher motives--which are entirely of no personal susceptibility that I
am not permitted to take upon myself the imputation of an imprudent act
which I did not commit--I, perhaps, would have preferred to be injured
by letting pass in silence the whole proclamation matter, and all the
venomous slander connected with it.
"But for those higher motives I feel infinitely obliged to you for
having so generously undertaken to vindicate my prudence, and my plain
but honest character. May be that this, your chivalry, will entirely
release me from the necessity of any further public steps in that
respect. That I shall see, and leave in the meantime my ready disavowal
where it is.
"However, as following the generous impulse of your heart, you may,
perhaps, feel inclined to fight on the battle, if required, in which you
so nobly engaged, I thought it would perhaps be as well to state to you
some particulars.
"I think any intelligent reader of that purported proclamation may have
at once become aware of its not being genuine on reading it. Because,
to say in one and the same, document something to this effect: `I send
the bearer to you that he may inform me who amongst you are faithful and
true, and inform me how you should organise;' and to say in the same
document, as it were with the same breath: `Rise! Strike! The moment
is at hand,' which, is as much as to say, `Don't organise'--this is,
indeed, too absurd a blunder in logic to be believed.
"Do I then disavow the sentiments contained in that document? No, sir;
all my life is, and will be, summed up in this idea: my country's
freedom--my country's rights; and consistently with this, I am, and will
remain, an irreconcilable enemy to Francis Joseph of Austria, who stole
by perjury from my country sacred rights, freedom, constitution, laws,
and national existence; and beaten back in his criminal attack, robbed
it by treason and by foreign force--and now murders it. Yes, sir, I
avow openly these my sentiments, and trust in God that the day of
justice and retribution will soon come. And why should I not avow them?
I am not bound to any allegiance to Francis Joseph of Austria. Not I;
not my exiled countrymen; not our dear Hungary. He is no lawful
sovereign of Hungary. Justice is at home in England, sir; and,
therefore, I defy any man to get up a jury, or to point out a court in
all England which would find a verdict for Francis Joseph being a lawful
sovereign of Hungary--or I and my country owing him allegiance.
"Nor do I desire to be understood that I have never written anything
like the contents of that apocryphal document. I, indeed, sir, never
thought to have any claim to the reputation of a classical authorship.
Bad as it is, sir, I have written worse things in my life. I may have
written every sentence of it; some of them at one time, some at another
on different occasions--probably when I was a prisoner at Kutayah, for
different exigencies, all past, long past, years ago, out of which
writings the present document might have been patched up without my
knowledge, and used on the present occasion without my consent.
"All this is not the question. The question, sir, is--have I addressed
this (or whatsoever else) proclamation from English soil for the purpose
of engaging the Hungarian soldiers, or whomsoever else, in the late
insurrection at Milan, or wherever else, in Italy?
"That is the question. Answering to this question, you disavowed the
document as such, and pronounced it to be a forgery--and you are
perfectly right. I neither invited, nor gave any authority to any one
to invite, the Hungarian soldiers to join in any insurrection in Italy
now. Nay, whenever I heard anything said about the Lombard patriots
being incapable of enduring longer their oppression, and that perhaps
they might feel inclined to break forth at any risk, I condemned the
very idea of thinking now upon an insurrection in Italy, declaring that,
for the present, no revolutionary movement would succeed in Lombardy,
but `would turn out to be but a deplorable _emeute_;' and I, for one,
declared every _emeute_, however valiantly fought, would but render
impure the well-founded, legitimate prospects of the cause of liberty.
"All this, sir, you have known, when you gave your chivalric _dementi_
to that purported proclamation of mine. You have known more yet; you
have seen a letter from one of the most renowned Italian patriots, dated
on the 10th of February, from the field of action, in which he
categorically confesses that `I in my views was perfectly right, and
they have been wrong;' and in which he further, giving me the first
notice of my name having been used `clandestinely' at Milan, gives me
himself full evidence that it was done without my knowledge, without my
consent.
"You have known all this, sir; but one thing you may not yet know, and
that is:
"I came to England about the end of June, 1852. Since that time I have
been always on English soil; and since I have been on English soil, I
never addressed any proclamation to the Hungarian soldiers in Italy.
"But stop. Yes, I have addressed a proclamation to them. A single one,
dated February 15th, a copy of which I beg leave to send to you; and
remain with the highest regards and sincere gratitude,
"Dear sir,
"Yours affectionately and obediently,
"L. Kossuth.
"P.S.--You may make any public or private use of this my letter, and of
the annexed proclamation, you may think proper.--Kossuth."
"To the Hungarian Soldiers quartered in Italy.
"Gallant Countrymen!--It is with indignation I learn that on the
occasion of the troubles of February 6th, at Milan, an appeal has been
circulated there in my name, calling on you to join in that abortive
movement.
"Soldiers! that document was not genuine. I have not approved of an
insurrection in Italy for the present moment. I issued no appeal
calling on you to take a part in it.
"Once the time will come--and come it shall, undoubtedly--when I, in the
name of our country, will desire you, wheresoever you may then be, to
side with the people around the banner of liberty. That is a sacred
duty. Our enemy is the same everywhere, and the people's cause is one
and the same; alike as there is but one God, one honour, and one
liberty.
"But this one I shall do at the right time. The present time was not
the right one.
"Of one thing you may rest assured, and that is, that I shall never play
with your blood a wanton play.
"Whensoever I shall say to you, `Ye braves, the time is at hand!' I
will tell you this neither from London, nor from any distant safe place,
but from headquarters. In person will I lead you on, and claim the
first share in your glorious dangers.
"Never shall I invite you to risk any danger in which I myself do not
share.
"And as no one can be present in two places at once, should I, for that
reason, not place myself, at the head of your heroic ranks--because duty
will call on me to do that in our own dear country, where I shall have
to fight for freedom and right in Hungary, while you will be fighting
for it in Italy--my appeal will reach you by the hand of a gallant
Hungarian commander, whom I will charge to lead you on to the field of
glory--fighting forward home to join the banner which I shall hold
there.
"Of this you may rest assured. Until then be prepared--but wait. Don't
play your blood wantonly. The Fatherland, the world, is needing it.
"For freedom and Fatherland!
"L. Kossuth.
"London, February 15, 1853."
The "forged proclamation" correspondence elicited numerous editorials
from the Press, all warmly in praise of Captain Mayne Reid's able
defence of Kossuth.
From the _Morning Advertiser_ of February 19 the following is extracted:
"_The Times_--we say it with regret, because the character of the entire
newspaper press is more or less affected by the misdeeds of one of its
leading members--has earned for itself an unenviable notoriety by the
frequency with which it gives circulation to calumnies against those to
whom it is opposed, and then refusing to allow the parties affected to
prove that they are calumniated.
"A striking case, illustrative of this, has occurred within the last few
days. _The Times_, by some means or other, becomes possessed of a
document purporting to be a proclamation from Kossuth, addressed to the
Hungarian soldiers in that portion of the Austrian army employed to put
down the insurrection in Milan. We do not charge our contemporary with
publishing this proclamation knowing it not to be genuine. We are
willing to give _The Times_ credit for believing in the perfect
genuineness of the document when it opened its columns to its insertion.
Nor do we blame that journal for inditing a leading article, in which
the proclamation in question was made the groundwork of a furious
onslaught on Kossuth, because we are still assuming that _The Times_ all
this while believed the document to be an emanation from the pen of the
illustrious Magyar.
"But farther than this, in our allowances for our contemporary, we
cannot go. _The Times_ is told that the proclamation to the Hungarian
soldiers in the Austrian army was not the production of Kossuth's pen,
and that he was in no wise responsible for its sentiments or its
exhortations. Captain Mayne Reid writes to _The Times_, not only
denying the genuineness of the document but producing facts and
assigning reasons, which ought to have satisfied that journal that it
had preferred a charge against Kossuth as groundless as it was
injurious. But instead of giving a ready insertion to Captain Mayne
Reid's vindication of the character of the Hungarian chief from the
calumnies which _The Times_ put into circulation, that journal, without
assigning, or being able to assign, any reason for still believing that
the document was genuine, reiterates the assertion of its having
proceeded from Kossuth's pen.
"Fortunately for the character of the English press, there is not
another journal of any reputation in the country that would act in this
matter as _The Times_ has done. However much a paper may chance to be
opposed to a particular individual, we know of no instance, with this
solitary exception of _The Times_, in which an editor, having preferred
a groundless charge against a man whose character is everything to him,
would refuse to allow a contradiction and disproof of the accusation.
The force of injustice could no further go. To act in this way is to
play the part of a moral assassin, and ought to draw down on the head of
the journalist who could play so criminal a part the indignation and
abhorrence of the public.
"_The Times_ has not yet forgotten its old grudge against the Magyar
chief, nor is it likely it ever will. It not only greatly damaged its
commercial interests by the system of calumny which it pursued towards
the Hungarian exile, but it had also to endure the mortification of
finding that all its efforts to injure Kossuth's character, or to
diminish the interest felt in the cause of Hungary, were entirely
unsuccessful. Never was the utter powerlessness of a journal more
thoroughly demonstrated than was that of _The Times_ on the arrival of
Kossuth in this country, and the mortification of its signal failure to
prevent the tide of popular feeling from flowing in favour of the
ex-governor of Hungary, still rankles in the heart of _The Times_. The
gross act of injustice which we have sought to expose, and which we have
so unsparingly denounced, is the consequence of that intolerable
mortification.
"The character of Kossuth needed not the able and unanswerable defences
which Captain Mayne Reid, a popular author as well as gallant officer,
published in the columns of this journal on Thursday. Least of all was
it necessary to vindicate the Hungarian chief from the charge of want of
courage. The entire conduct of Kossuth, during the most troublous and
perilous period of the struggle for the national independence of his
country, proved him to be a man possessed of courage, of heroism, and of
a disregard of all considerations of personal safety, as his civil
administration of the affairs of Hungary showed him to be a statesman of
consummate capacity.
"Afterwards came the other, and, in some respects, still nobler display
of lofty heroism, which Kossuth made when a prisoner in Turkey. Those
are indeed heartless calumniators who would seek to brand with the guilt
of cowardice one of the bravest of men, overwhelmed with sorrow and an
exile from his country--a country dearer to him than life itself. But
for the credit of English journalism be it spoken, there is only one
paper amidst the entire press of this country of which he can complain.
We need not name that journal. Every one knows we allude to _The
Times_--a journal whose name has for some time past been everywhere
regarded as synonymous with all that is unprincipled and ungenerous.
"Since the above was in the printer's hands, we have received another
communication from Captain Mayne Reid, inclosing a letter from Kossuth
himself, which completely settles the question of the forged
proclamation. No one can read the letter of the illustrious Hungarian
without blushing to think that he should be systematically assailed in
the most savage manner, and be made the victim of a series of the
grossest calumnies by a paper arrogating to itself the title of `the
leading journal of Europe.' Captain Mayne Reid deserves, and will
receive, the thanks of every lover of justice for his spirited and
triumphant defence of the character of Kossuth."
_The Times_ afterwards stated that Kossuth was storing arms at
Rotherhithe. In the issue of that journal on April 18th, 1853, appeared
the following editorial note:
"We have received another highly complimentary letter from Mr Mayne
Reid--we mean a whole sheet full of abuse--and so long as we continue
what we are, and Mr Mayne Reid continues what he is, we shall consider
his abuse the greatest praise it is in his power to bestow. A feeling
of regard for the English language induces us, however, to refrain from
giving publicity to Mr Mayne Reid's balderdash, which we dare say may
be read in another place."
A copy of this letter had been forwarded to the _Morning Advertiser_,
and appeared in full in its columns on April 18th. It is as follows:
"To the Editor of _The Times_.
"Sir,--It is written--`Whom the gods would destroy, him they make mad.'
Your doom then seems inevitable; for if an utter abandonment of the laws
of morality, a reckless disregard of the laws of honour, a desperate
determination to court the contempt of your countrymen--if these be
symptoms of madness, then are you mad indeed--mad as moon can make you.
"But the gods are guiltless of the act. The demons have done it. Your
own vile passions have crazed you.
"Once more you have assailed M. Kossuth; once more you have shot your
envenomed shaft; and once more, glancing back from the pure shield of
that gentleman's honour, your poisoned arrow has recoiled upon yourself.
Unscathed stands he. His escutcheon is unstained. Even your foul ink
has not soiled it. It is pure as ever; spotless as the pinions of the
swan, as the wing of the wave-washed albatross.
"You have created an abyss of infamy. Into this you designed to drive
M. Kossuth. You essayed to push him from the cliff. Headlong you
rushed upon him; but, blinded by bad passions, you missed your aim. You
have staggered over yourself; and your intended victim stands
triumphantly above you.
"From the declarations of the gentleman himself, from my own personal
knowledge of facts, I pronounce your whole statement regarding M.
Kossuth and his Rotherhithe arsenal a web of wicked falsehoods. But the
cold-blooded audacity, the harlotic _abandon_, with which you have
uttered these falsehoods, and commented upon them, are positively
astounding. It is difficult to believe you in earnest; and one is
inclined to fancy you the dupe of some gross deception.
"But the palpable _animus_ that guides your pen will not permit this
charitable construction, and we are prevented from giving you even the
benefit of a doubt. We have no alternative but to believe you guilty,
with deliberate forethought, with `malice _prepense_.'
"But, sir, if you are to be suffered to drag innocent men from the
privacy of their hearth to charge them with imaginary crimes--to support
your charges with not a shadow of evidence, but, upon the contrary, to
substitute coarse calumny and vengeful vituperation--if all this be
permitted you with impunity, it is full time that we inquire, in what
consists English freedom?
"There are other tyrannies besides that of despotic governments. There
is the tyranny of a licentious press; and, for my part, I would rather
submit me to the rule of the sabre and the knout, than live at the mercy
of a conclave of dissipated adventurers who sneak around the purlieus of
Printing House Square.
"I shall not condescend to repeat the slanders you have lately uttered.
I am saved the necessity of refuting them. The pen and the tongue have
already accomplished this. Higher names than mine have endorsed the
refutation. In the House of Commons, Duncombe, Walmsley, Bright and
Dudley Stuart, have nailed the lie to the wall.
"I know not what course M. Kossuth may pursue towards you. Doubtless he
may treat you with that dignified silence he has hitherto observed. He
can well afford it. He need not fear to be silent. He shall not lack
defenders.
"You may double your staff of facile scribes, and arm each of them with
a plume plucked from the fetid wing of the Austrian eagle. You will
find among the champions of truth, brains as clear and pens as clever as
your own; and though you may stuff your columns with wordy sophistry, it
will be scattered like chaff before the heaven-born wind.
"I repeat it, M. Kossuth can afford to treat you with sublime silence;
but I, who am gifted neither with the divine endurance nor Christian
forbearance of that noble man--I cannot help telling you the contempt I
feel for you and yours. I feel the paucity of language to express it,
and I doubt not but that every Englishman will experience a similar
difficulty. True, we might get over that by borrowing a little from
your vocabulary, but I shall not condescend to do so. Even now I feel
that I am sinking the gentleman in coming thus forward a second time to
call you to account.
"But as the citizen of a country by you disgraced--as the friend of a
man by you injured--I cannot submit myself to silence. When you charge
M. Kossuth and other Hungarian leaders with a violation of our
hospitality, I cannot do otherwise than pronounce your statements false.
You perhaps do not know how much you yourself are indebted to the high
respect which these gentlemen have for the laws of English hospitality.
But for that, sir, I can assure you that you would long since have been
dragged from your incognito, and treated in a manner I will not
describe; and although I for one should not approve of such a
proceeding, I could not deny that you have done all in your power to
deserve it. But if the laws of our country protect you, they also
protect the stranger from personal insult. The host has duties as well
as the guest, and may equally violate the laws of hospitality. You,
sir, have been guilty of that violation.
"I call upon you, then, to make some atonement for the wrong you have
done, to apologise to the man you have wronged, to your countrymen,
whose honour you have compromised, whose intelligence you have insulted.
I counsel you to this course, which you will find the most prudent. Do
not affect to despise my counsel. Do not imagine, like Macbeth, that by
`becoming worse,' and keeping up a meretricious swagger, you may
extricate yourself from your unhappy position. This, be assured, you
can never do. Powerful as you fancy yourself, you are not strong enough
to defy public opinion. You may flounce about the lobbies of a
theatre--you may frown upon the manager, and frighten the trembling
_debutante_--you may, now and then, make merit for yourself by holding
up to public execration some unfortunate wretch who, having
miscalculated the amount of black-mail, has made you an _inadequate_
offer; but fancy not, for all this, that you are omnipotent: you cannot
annihilate one atom of truth. The humblest gentleman in England may
condemn and defy you.
"Mayne Reid.
"14, Alpha Road, Regent's Park.
"April 16, 1853."
The language of this letter seems now somewhat inflated. Allowance must
be made for the feelings of the writer, which, naturally sensitive, were
then strongly stirred by his friendship for Kossuth and his enthusiasm
for a popular cause.
A week later Kossuth wrote to Mayne Reid complaining of the espionage to
which he had been subjected during his residence in England, giving
certain facts. The communication, along with a letter from his own pen,
was forwarded by Captain Mayne Reid to the _Daily News_, in the columns
of which it appeared, April 25th, 1853.
The following letters from Kossuth to Mayne Reid may be here
conveniently inserted:
"28th March, 1856.
"My Dear Sir,
"Here I am again to torment you eternally. I send you the second half
of my second lecture for revision; the first half I am just a little
cutting to the proper length, inasmuch as this second half, as you shall
see, scarcely does admit of much abbreviation.
"How long _can_ a lecture be?
"Yours affectionately,
"Kossuth.
"Captain Mayne Reid."
"Friday evening, June 6, 1856.
"My Dear Sir,
"Sick, exhausted and outworn, I have had to prepare a new lecture for
Glasgow, whither I travel next Monday.
"Hard work this lecturing, but they promise to be remunerative; and I
have debts to pay, and my children want bread.
"I am greatly under obligation for your many kindnesses and assistance.
I am not unmindful of my obligation, and I hope soon to testify it; but
do me the favour once more to revise my grammar and syntax, I pray you.
"With the most sincere assurance of gratitude,
"Yours in truth and affection,
"Kossuth.
"Captain Mayne Reid."
"12, Regent's Park Terrace,
"March 4th, 1861.
"My Dear Friend,
"Very sorry to hear of the illness of Madame Reid and of your own
indisposition. Bronchitis--that curse of the London climate--is a very
trying affair; we know only too much of it.
"Many, many thanks for your kind offer, which I gladly accept as far as
your powerful pen is concerned. I am indeed in need of it, the more so
as I have no time to write myself--have scarcely time to breathe.
"We must try and make this Chancery suit a glorious triumph to my
country's rights and to the great principles involved in it, and I think
we may if only the press is not allowed to relax its support.
"The papers--at least most of them--are well disposed--even _The
Times_--only think!
"So write! write! write! is the word now more than ever.
"The _Daily News_ will, I think, accept any good article on the
subject--at least I expect them to do so--the _Morning Star_ still more,
and of the _Morning Advertiser_ I feel perfectly sure.
"I shall try to see you in the course of to-morrow, if possible--if not,
then after to-morrow for certainty.
"Yours very faithfully,
"Kossuth.
"Captain Mayne Reid."
In October, 1853, a meeting was held at the London Tavern, under the
presidency of Lord Dudley Stuart, to express sympathy with Turkey.
Captain Mayne Reid was present, and spoke effectively against secret
diplomacy.
"Secret diplomacy! There was not a phrase in the language that was more
repugnant to the hearts and the ears of Englishmen. Secret diplomacy!
There was dishonour in the sound--there was positive and palpable
meanness in the thought.
"What has secret diplomacy done for England? Was it by secret diplomacy
that this mighty nation had been built up? If they looked back upon
their former history they would find that the tricksters of foreign
countries had always out-tricked the tricksters of England. He could
understand some mean and petty nation having resort to secret diplomacy;
but he could not understand why England should have recourse to it.
Their first duty was to know what was right; and having ascertained
that, to demand it in the most open and straightforward manner. He was
no lover of war; he would be glad to see the sword turned into the
plough share; but he believed the time had come when war was not only
just, but a strict and holy necessity. They were bound by treaty to
protect the integrity of Turkey. Throw interest to the winds, their
honour called upon them."
A week later, on the 22nd of October, the British and French fleets
entered the Bosphorus, determined to prevent the dismemberment of
Turkey, although it was not until the following March that war was
declared against Russia.
At Christmas 1853 "The Young Voyageurs," a sequel to "The Boy Hunters,"
was published. The dedication was:
"Kind Father, Gentle and Affectionate Mother, Accept this tribute of a
Son's gratitude.
"Mayne Reid."
Of this book the _Nonconformist_ says:
"As a writer of books for boys, commend us above all men living to
Captain Mayne Reid.
"We venture to add, that we should like to see _men_ of any age who
could deny that its perusal gave them both pleasure and instruction."