International studio (16.1902)

Studio-Talk



lace
by Mr. Laszlo, of General Arthur Gorgey, the
Hungarian patriot and commander-in-chief of his
country’s army against the combined forces of Russia
and Austria in 1849. The life-history of General
Arthur Gorgey is instructive in many ways, and
not less so at the present day. During the progress
of the Hungarian War of Independence he was
idolised by his soldiers as the greatest military
leader in his country’s cause. After he surrendered
at Vilagos, the late Governor Louis Kossuth, who
had just crossed the frontier into Turkey, pro-
claimed Gorgey
a traitor be-
cause of the
surrender; and
the infamous
libel was ac-
cepted by public
opinion, render-
■Ug the name
°t Gorgey the
Host hated and
vilified in Hun-
gary for more
lhan a genera-
tion. Arthur
Gorgey was
WnatToporcz,

in Hungary, on the
30th of January,
1818. Fortunately
he is still alive,
having lived down
hatred and obloquy;
and now he is an
object of universal
esteem and venera-
tion in his native land.
Such change of public
opinion was doubtless
owing to the discus-
sion of the events of
1849 ; it was due also
to a solemn “ Declara-
tion by the Soldiers
of the Hungarian
Army of 1848-49,”
which wras presented
in 1884 to General
Gorgey, signed by
Honved * generals
and superior officers,
approving of his con-
duct in 1849. Never-
theless the step which served to establish the in-
controvertible historical truth was the publication of
a letter of the late Governor Kossuth, addressed to
his friend in exile, Nicholas Kiss de Nemesker.
This letter subsequently appeared in the fifth volume
of Louis Kossuth’s memoirs, edited by his son
Francis Kossuth, now member of the Hungarian
Parliament. In that letter Governor Kossuth states:
“A traitor Arthur Gorgey was not; but he was not

BY FRANZISKA HOFMANINGER

* Honved army—is the national Hungarian army—in contradistinction
to the Imperial Austrian army.

LACE

BY MATHILDE HERDLICKA

3°i