On the 9th of September 1S48, jellachich. the Dan of Croatia, having collected an army of 30,000 Serviette and Croatians, crossed the Drave and invaded Hungary. He was opposed and defeated by Guyon and others, and obliged to retreat to the vicinity of Vienna. Meantime a royal decree had appointed Field-Marshal Count Lemberg commander-in-chief of the Hungarian army, and he crime to Perth in order to commence the performance of his duties; but so infuriated were the people that they murdered him, September 2S, on the bridge which connects Buda with l'esth. In his pocket was found a decree authorising the dissolution of the Hungarian parliament. A remonstrance was published called ' The Parliameut's Address to the Nation,' which produced great excitement in Huugary. At the end of October the Hungarian army crossed the Austrian frontier, advanced to the vicinity of Vienna, and were defeated. In December Prince Windischgrhtz, at the head of an Austrian army, crossed the frontier and invaded Hungary. The Hungarian parliament then retired from Pesth to Debreczin. The war was extended; the Austrians suffitred a series of defeats, and on the 14th of April 1849, the Hungarian parliament proclaimed the independence of Hungary and the deposition of the House of Hapsburg from their office of kings of Hungary. This measure, which was carried on the proposal of Koesuth, was perhaps injudicious. It was well received by the army in general, but was censured by Gorgei, then commander-in chief, and afforded him a pretext for afterwards thwarting the measures of Kossuth. It was also disliked by many of the people, who were opposed to a change of their ancient constitution and to the separation of the Kingdom of Hungary from the Empire of Austria.
Kossuth was appointed by the Hungarian parliament Provisional Governor of Hungary, and a Provisional Committee was formed to manage the affairs of the nation, which was afterwards organised as a Committee of Defence, of which Kossuth was appointed President This Committee supplied the place of a ministry till the 1st of May, when a cabinet was formed with Count Sumer° as premier. A Russian army soon afterwards crossed the Carpathian Mountains for the purpose of assisting the Austrians, and gradually pursued Gorges army to the vicinity of Arad, whither the Hungarian ministry hod retired from Debreczin. Meantime the Hungarian army of the south
was pursued by the Austrian army under Haynau, and was defeated at Temeswar, August 9, 1849. The news of this disastrous event having been communicated to Kossuth at Arad, on the 11th of August he resigned his office of Provisional Governor of Hungary, conferred on GUrgei the entire civil and military power of a dictator, and with the officer& and part of the army of the south made his escape into the Turkish territories. Gorgei on the 14th of August surrendered his army unconditionally to the Russians, and the war then terminated.
Kossuth, and the officers who accompanied him, were detained as prisoners first at Widdio, and next at Schurnla. Kossuth was finally placed in confinement at Kutayia, in Asia Minor, where in February 1850 he was joined by his wife, with his two sons and daughter. While at Kutayia he made himself master of the English language chiefly by reading Shakspere with the aid of Johnson's ' Dictionary.' By the intervention of the English and American governments, through their ambassadors at Constantinople, and in defiance of the threats of Austria, he was set at liberty in August 1851. Ho left Kutayia September 1, embarked at Smyrna in an American vessel September 13, and landed at Southampton in England October 17. lie was received in London and other large cities and towns with boundless euthusiasm. His speeches were listened to with intense admiration, and his commaod of the English language excited a feeling of wonder. In November 1851 he went to the United States of America, apparently for the purpose of getting up a kind of crusade in favour of Hungary. He excited as much interest and enthusiasm there as he had done in this country ; lie also collected some money, and landed again in England in June 1852. Ho has einco continued to reside in London, and he spoke occasionally on the subject of the late war with Russia.
Kosenth's Speeches have been published separately and collected, In various forms, among which may be mentioned 'Select Speeches of Kossuth, condensed and abridged, with Kossuth's express Sanction, by Francis W. Newman,' 8vo, 1853; 'Authentic Report of liossuth's Speeches on the War in the East, at Sheffield and Nottingham, published by himself,' 8vo, 1854.