Mayne Reid Part 10

"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 n.o.bler 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 ill.u.s.trious Hungarian without blus.h.i.+ng to think that he should be systematically a.s.sailed in the most savage manner, and be made the victim of a series of the grossest calumnies by a paper arrogating to itself the t.i.tle 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 G.o.ds 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 G.o.ds are guiltless of the act. The demons have done it. Your own vile pa.s.sions have crazed you.

"Once more you have a.s.sailed M. Kossuth; once more you have shot your envenomed shaft; and once more, glancing back from the pure s.h.i.+eld 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 pa.s.sions, 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 p.r.o.nounce your whole statement regarding M.

Kossuth and his Rotherhithe a.r.s.enal 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 subst.i.tute coa.r.s.e 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. .h.i.therto 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 n.o.ble 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 p.r.o.nounce 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 a.s.sure 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 a.s.sured, 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 a.s.sistance.

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 a.s.surance of grat.i.tude,

"Yours in truth and affection,

"Kossuth.

"Captain Mayne Reid."

"12, Regent's Park Terrace,

"March 4th, 1861.

"My Dear Friend,