KOSSUTH, LAJOS (Louis), the leader of the Hungarian revolution, was b. in 1802 at Monok, in the county of Zemplin, in Hungary. His family is of noble rank, but his parents were poor. He studied law at the Protestant college of Sarospatak, and prac ticed first in his native county, and afterwards in Pesth. In 1832 he commenced his political career at the diet of Presburg as editor of a liberal paper, which. owing to the state of the law, was not printed, but transcribed and circulated. The subsequent pub lication of a lithographed paper led, in May, 1837, to Kossuth's imprisonment. He was liberated in 1840, and became again the editor of a paper, in which he advocated views too extreme for many of the liberal party amongst the nobles, but which took strong hold of the people in general, especially of the youth of the country. In Nov., 1847, lie was sent by the county of Pesth as deputy to the diet, and soon distinguished himself as a speaker, and became the leader of the opposition. He advocated the eman cipation of the peasants, the elevation of the citizen class, the freedom of the press, etc., and after the French revolntiori of 1848 openly demanded an independent government for Hungary, and constitutional government in the Austrian hereditary territories. To his speeches must in great part be ascribed not only the Hungarian revolution, but the insurrection in Vienna in Mar., 1848: On the dissolution of the ministry in Sept., 1848. he found himself at the head of the committee of national defense, and now prosecuted with extraordinary energy the measures necessary for carrying on the war. To put an
end to all the hopes and schemes of the moderate party, lie induced the national assem bly at Dehreezin, in April, 1849, to declare the independence of Hungary, and that the Hapsburg dynasty had forfeited the throne. He was now appointed provisional gov ernor of Hungary; but being disappointed hi his hopes for the intervention of the wes tern powers, and finding the national cause jeopardized by the arrival of Russia on the scene of action, he endeavored to arouse the people to a more desperate effort. The attempt was vain. Finding that the dissensions between himself and G5rtrei (q.v.) were damaging the national cause, he resigned his dictatorship in favor of the latter. After the at Temesvar on Aug. 9, 1849, he found himself compelled to abandon his posi tion, and to flee into Turkey, where, however, he was made a prisoner; but though his extradition was demanded both by Austria and Russia, the porte, true to the principle of hospitality, resisted all their demands. In Sept., 1851, he was liberated, and the gov erntnent of France refusing him a passage through their territory, he sailed in au Amer ican frigate to England, where lie was received with every demonstration of public respect and sympathy. In Dee. of the same year he landed in the United States, where he met with a most enthusiastic reception. lie returned in June, 1852, to England, and there lie chiefly resided until the Italian war broke out against Austria, when almost the whole of the Hungarian emigrants left for Italy with Kossuth. He now resides in Turin.