Ervin
Fenyő
Another English Connection
Letters
Between István Széchenyi, Lady Stafford and Lord Palmerston
This was how Count István Széchenyi became
the apostle of the Hungarian cause. On November 3, 1825, when he offered all
the revenues of his properties for one year for the purpose of establishing
a Hungarian scholarly association, the predecessor of the Hungarian Academy
of Sciences, the Countess was also in Pozsony, the city where the Hungarian
Diet met. Széchenyi placed a whole country at her feet. This country had to
be dreamed up first, and then realized. This was the task he undertook.
The 1830s were Széchenyi's years of glory. On February 15, 1826 he left the
Army. On his initiative the first races were held in Pest in June 1827. On
August 20 of the same year the National Casino, a gentleman's club which he
founded, was inaugurated in Pest. From 1830, his vastly influential books
were published in succession: Hitel (Credit) in 1830, Világ (Light) in 1831
and Stadium (Stage) in 1832. These works attacked Hungary's feudal establishment,
earnestly advocating the abolition of serfdom, the feudal order and the privileges
of the nobility. The author made reference only to common sense, showing that
every man was entitled to property, credit and trust. This alone was to form
the basis of the "social contract". This was the only way to build
a country where social awareness, solidarity and responsibility for the community
were all at work.
Hitel opened a new era in Hungary: among many other things, it discussed the
problem of loans and the liberation of landholdings. (The law of entailment
had obstructed the free sale of land of the aristocracy), a vital issue from
the viewpoint of the establishment of a modern agriculture. Világ laid emphasis
on the primacy of intellectual foundations and thinking, of trained and educated
people, to replace the false and misleading illusions of national pride. Stadium
provided a plan for changing the constitution.
In all those years Széchenyi was the
most popular man in Hungary. From 1833 he was the royal commissioner in charge of the navigability of the Lower Danube.
But his favourite projects were the construction of the first permanent bridge
between Pest and Buda and the establishment of a permanent Hungarian theatre
in Pest. For the first, in 1832 he visited William Tierney Clark in Hammersmith
and discussed with him the possibility of erecting a permanent bridge between
Pest and Buda.
Count Károly Zichy died on December 15, 1834. Széchenyi married his widow,
Crescence Seilern, on February 4, 1836. His public work was crowned with unqualified
success. In 1836 the Diet passed the Bridge Act, obligating everyone crossing
the bridge to pay a toll, regardless of status. (Previously, members of the
nobility had been exempt from such dues.). This set the precedence for the
social changes to come. On August 22, 1837 the Hungarian Theatre, Pest's first
permanent theatre playing in Hungarian, opened its doors.
The first problems came in 1840. On the political scene Széchenyi found a
rival in Lajos Kossuth. Széchenyi immediately reacted to Kossuth's appearance
on the scene, he knew that his political opponent was an outstanding speaker
and journalist who mesmerized his audience. Both of them wanted to change
Hungary's constitution and social order. Still, Széchenyi felt that Kossuth's
ideas would set the country ablaze.
Széchenyi wanted to introduce reforms from above. The national institutions
established by him-the Academy, the Casino, the Turf, the bridge, the railway,
river regulation, and the rest-were more than mere communal forums; they created
the opportunity to develop the intellectual powers of the individuals constituting
the community by attending to a shared problem. Széchenyi, too, wanted to
change the constitution, but he was opposed to revolutionary methods, and
Kossuth's revolutionary fervour antagonized him. Kossuth, who came from the
lesser nobility, held radical views, attacked the existing social structure
from the opposition benches in strong words. Instead of the ruling class,
he put his trust in the lower nobility and the bourgeoisie, his own background,
who were able to recognize the backwardness of a feudal society and wanted
radical changes. In addition to pushing for constitutional changes, Kossuth
also wanted to abolish all the fundamental pillars of the feudal world, silencing
their spokesmen. As a journalist, he was able to call the attention of the
Hungarian nobility and bourgeoisie to the urgency of social changes. Because
of its voluntaristic character, Széchenyi regarded this national consciousness
as an oversimplification, a demagogical and populist trick, and a very dangerous
one at that. He thought that the critical attitude might destroy the entire
social fabric, throwing the newly emerging social order into chaos. Not to
mention the danger that such a revolutionary shock might indefinitely postpone
the possibility of national progress based on rationality.
In addition to numerous domestic problems, the government was
faced with enormous problems in relation to Hungary's national minorities.
With their just demands turned down by the new Hungarian leadership, the national
minorities in succession turned against the Hungarian cause and looked for
support to the Imperial Court. The prospect of a war loomed. The Court apparently
backed the Hungarian government, but behind the scenes it sustained, and even
aggravated, the conflict. Kossuth, who saw through this double-dealing, wanted
to substantiate the concessions won in March and by the April laws.
Széchenyi looked on with growing anxiety. He feared that Kossuth, who had
the government in his sway, would plunge the country into a catastrophe. Their
antagonism grew. Their alliance put Széchenyi in fetters. He felt like breaking
free, but could not move. "... to bleed, or even to die, for one's own
convictions is all right, but to do it against them? As I am doing now for
Kossuth's views? which I relentlessly attacked? No!", he noted in his
journal on June 25. "Oh-I keep saying to myself-what a jest it was to
yield to pressure to team up with Kossuth? ... If only I had my freedom now!
I could not get much sleep. The utter disintegration of all the elements of
Hungarian life is clearly unfolding in front of me", he wrote in his
journal on July 5.
In response to the national minorities' growing opposition, Kossuth asked
Parliament for 200,000 recruits. The motion was carried. The Emperor did not
help to resolve the conflict. Széchenyi had nightmares: "Kossuth's name appeared
to me in a sea of blood in the history books of the future."
He was suffering from a guilty conscience. He blamed first Kossuth, then himself,
for it was he who had launched the entire reform movement. "You are to blame
for everything!", he noted in his journal. In the second half of August, Baron
Josip Jellac©ic´, later the Banus of Croatia, gathered an army in the southern
marches. Széchenyi thought that only death could bring him deliverance. He
ordered his family to leave Pest, but he stayed on.
The coup de grace was delivered by a memorandum issued by the Austrian government
on August 27, essentially declaring the March concessions unlawful and demanding
their withdrawal. "...in blood, and it is all Kossuth's fault," Széchenyi noted
in his journal. "No one can see the terrible world historical catastrophe
lying in store.-I can do nothing. I am in utter despair. I am dancing on the
chains of the bridge." On August 31 the Emperor issued a rescript, which informed
the Hungarian government that the conflicts between the two halves of the
Empire must be resolved on the basis of the Austrian government memorandum.
On the same day, Jellac©ic´'s army occupied Fiume. The Hungarian government
and Kossuth had to face the dilemma to surrender or to wage a defensive war,
a war of independence.
The Count was shattered. "No man has ever introduced greater mayhem into this
world... than I have! Oh, my God, have mercy on me!"-is the last entry for the
year 1848 in Széchenyi's journal.
On September 7, following three attempts at suicide, the gates of Gustav Goergen's
private asylum in Döbling near Vienna closed on Széchenyi. In those days in
Austria, mental patients were taken to lunatic towers, where chains, ropes,
leather straps and straightjackets were used to subdue and terrorize those
who were unable to control their bursts of emotion. The asylum in Döbling
was not such an institute. It was the first mental hospital in Austria that
used therapy. It was founded in 1819 by an energetic psychiatrist of vast
experience, Dr Bruno Goergen (1777-1842). Work and music therapy provided
the basis of treatment. Goergen's ideal was that the doctors and assistants
at the hospital should have musical training and that they should befriend
the patients and engage them in conversation. Only the most affluent could
afford to pay the high fees, but patients from several European countries
went there for treatment. The poet Lenau died there in 1850. After Bruno Goergen's
death his son, Gustav, took over as director, as such he took in István Széchenyi.
The Count was placed in a separate suite on the first floor of the
institute's western wing, with access through the back entrance in the garden.
This made Széchenyi's Döbling residence suitable for clandestine meetings.
In the twelve years of his stay at Döbling, Széchenyi only left the mental
hospital twice, on the two consecutive days of April 19 and 20, 1850, to visit
his family during their stay in Vienna. The encounter disturbed him to such
a degree that he would not receive visitors for many years afterwards. With
his sharp eye he could not help noticing the effect that his anguished face
and wretched appearance had made on his family. On his return to the institute
he collapsed on his bed and started to wail uncontrollably. He made a vow
never to leave the building again.
On April 12, 1857 the resident of the Döbling asylum received
an official letter. He was asked to attend the festivities that marked the
visit in Hungary of the Emperor, Francis Joseph I (1830–1916), who expected
to see him among his jubilant Hungarian subjects.
The invitation came from the Emperor himself.
The Döbling recluse picked up the gauntlet: he forestalled the Emperor. To
accept the invitation was out of the question. The asylum provided the perfect
excuse. But in order to save his son from this humiliation, too, Széchenyi
decided to send Béla abroad before Francis Joseph's arrival. In this way he
would not have to pay formal respect to the Emperor in the manner of a hand-kissing
servant, as custom and tradition would have required. He sent his son off
to England, so that Béla, too, could be exposed to the revelatory and personality-forming
experiences of Széchenyi's youth and could acquire the indispensable skills
of careful calculation and prudent judgement, which could be turned to his
country's advantage later. Széchenyi made only one provision, that the young
Count must find an English girl of 12 or 14 of a wealthy aristocratic family,
whom he could marry eventually. They were to settle in Pest and establish
a platform that would become the centre of that Hungarian national revival
in which Béla Széchenyi was to play a pivotal part.
The young Count set out on May 1, 1857 and complied with his father's conditions
in his own way. He did not protest, but after his arrival in England he promptly
fell in love with Lady Anne M. Stafford, a member of the English upper class,
unhappily married and with four children, delighted to find a companion at
last. Her husband, Lord Granville, was not bothered in the least. They led
their separate lives in freedom.
Széchenyi, who once again took to writing and was working on a monumental
book entitled Önismeret (Self-Knowledge), turned to a new theme on May 3,
1857, a systematic examination of national characteristics. One day later,
on May 4, he called His Imperial Majesty Francis Joseph an usurper, on the
very day that the Emperor's Hungarian subjects thronged to pay homage to him
in Pest-Buda.
There was no Széchenyi present, neither Béla nor István.
On October 29, 1857 the Viennese newspaper Der Wanderer printed a brief resumé
of a newly published, anonymous book, Rückblick auf die jüngste Entwicklungsperiode
Ungarns (Looking Back on the Latest Developments in Hungary, Vienna 1857);
Széchenyi decided to make use of his son's connections in England in Hungary's
interests, by writing up his own reflections as a reply to the book. He personally
made a copy of the manuscript, and asked his son to smuggle it to England
in late November.
Entitled Blick auf den anonymen "Rückblick", Von einem Ungarn (A
Look at the Anonymous "Look Back" by a Hungarian, London, 1859),
Széchenyi's work was published without the author's name, just as Rückblick
had been. "Anonymity" had an entirely different significance in
the two cases. "Anonymous of Döbling" used vitriolic sarcasm to
reject the propaganda that ten years after the end of the war of liberation
Hungary had become a country of prosperity and progress, where political rights
were fully exercised. That was not the way Széchenyi saw it, to say the least.
Blick, the so-called Yellow Book, was directed against the the despotism of
the Austrian administration, and above all else, the hated Minister of the
Interior, Baron Alexander Bach. The book was published in German by George
Barclay's London publishing house (28 Castle Street, Leicester Square). After
February 15, 1859 enterprising Hungarian patriots smuggled single copies into
the country. Because of its style and the biting sarcasm of the language,
people soon began to suspect that István Széchenyi was the author, whose English
connections gave rise to the circulation of various myths, anyway.
That was a difficult time for Austria, too. The Empire had just lost a war.
The emperors Francis Joseph of Austria and Napoleon III of France signed an
armistice at Villafranca on July 11, 1859, putting an end to the conflicts
between France, Austria and Piemont. The Habsburg Empire agreed to surrender
Lombardy, but Venice continued to stay Austrian. Defeat abroad demanded changes
in domestic policy too: on August 22, 1859 Baron Alexander Bach, the hated
Minister of Interior since 1848, was dismissed. A small part in his dismissal
could be credited to a certain patient in the Döbling sanatorium, who was
now constantly harassed by the police.
A house search took place on March 3, 1860. Several "highly treasonable" documents
were seized, and the police were almost certain that the famous Blick had
been either written or commissioned by Széchenyi. The old Széchenyi appealed
to common sense, as usual. He sent an invitation to the Police Minister Baron
Adolf Thierry. In his letter he described the house search as an insult to
his entire political career and services rendered to the Austrian alliance
of states. He maintained his conviction that he had always acted in the interests
of the Empire and even if he did make comments critical of the existing regime,
those were made with the intention of producing improvement. Adolf Thierry
replied on March 16, 1860. Part of his letter read: "The asylum to which you
had chosen to retreat has long ceased to be what it used to be. The almost
continuous and rather extensive correspondence that Your Excellency has been
conducting with the outside world, admittedly intra muros but nevertheless
in a very vigorous manner, along with your sprightly and active participation
in current events, which includes the most important issues that concern the
governments and peoples, has demonstrated that Your Excellency has long renounced
quiet reclusion. This has made it impossible for me to refrain, on certain
special considerations, from carrying out my duties that the existing circumstances
charge me with." Furthermore, Baron Adolf Thierry regretted to inform the
Count that his official engagements would not permit him to visit the noble
Count in his Döbling reclusion. The sentence that hurt Széchenyi the most
was this: "The asylum to which you had chosen to retreat has long ceased to
be what it used to be." This meant that the police had two alternatives to
choose from, either to institute legal proceedings against the elderly Count
or to have him locked up in a real asylum, among real lunatics. Neither of
the options was acceptable to Széchenyi.
On the night of April 7, 1860 he shot himself in the head. People in Hungary
took his suicide for what he had intended it: a protest against tyranny and
a call for the freedom of ideas.
Count István
Szechenyi to Lady Anne, Marchioness of Stafford
Madame
Allow me to commence this letter by saying that I love you infinitely, that
I take the greatest of interest in you and that I wish no more than for your
happiness. [Cancelled: And you should know that what engages me to speak to
you so frankly is the kindness you have towards my son Béla, who is indeed
an excellent young man.] The great kindness that you have been so good to
display towards my son Béla, who is truly an excellent young man, requires
me to speak to you with such frankness.
Our Béla-I call him "our" because he belongs to you as much as to my wife
and I-can render the most important services to our nation, which is dying,
or rather on the point of being murdered, but is still not dead.
Béla, who holds no secrets from me, has shown me all the letters that you
have written to him. O dear Milady, what you have written breathes so much
candour, so much truth! Your fine soul cannot dissimulate, knows not what
it is to be false. I do not believe myself mistaken in saying that, with the
most elevated sentiments, you are the finest creature in the world, "and
the best natured being that ever was."
In the midst of my cruel torments and agonies, a voice tells me that you are
a "Godsend" for Béla, and through him for the Hungarian nation which has above
all been developing recently a vitality, a moral force which fortunately has
not been perceived by our hangmen, but which animates us from day to day with
more hope of being brought back to life.
You have already filled the soul of your "Hungarian friend" with all that
is beautiful, noble and grand, for the love which is not debased is certain
to raise itself to the heavens, among the immortals.
Continue to have the bounty to be the sister, the friend, the confidante of
our Béla, and believe by my white head, my experience so cruelly acquired,
by my soul so ulcerated by sorrows... you will raise up, if you so wish, the
fine young man to the highest rank that a mortal may aspire to-to be the defender,
the saviour, the benefactor of his own people and of his country.
But, oh adorable daughter of that sublime Great Britain, you will have to
know how to understand, appreciate and assist my views with Béla.
So go on, straight forward, and come at once to the point-I wish for Béla
to marry in England-and by calculation, yes-but not by pecuniary calculation
[What an unworthy thought!-] we loathe gold [in general], consider it only
as a necessary evil but-by calculation to save and serve our unfortunate country.
You have written, or said so many times to Béla, that you would be able to
reconcile yourself to seeing him marry for love, while a marriage of convenience
would injure you fatally? And I can [only] applaud your elevated sentiments.
To place a man high and to see that he is in a condition to sell himself for
money is a thunderbolt which would destroy a soul such as yours.
If I thought that Béla were in a condition to do a spec for an heiress, to
play the sybarite on a grand scale, whilst his fellow countrymen swim in blood
and tears, upon my faith, I believe that I would be ready to put an end to
his days. [But, as I know him, he is in no danger from that aspect!]
Alas, it is not money which will assuage our agonies. All the wealth of England,
believe me Milady, would not suffice to make us forget our freedom, our independence
and the development of our nation, ravished, destroyed, ruined. Besides, we
dispose of a rather large fortune, to make life from that aspect as supportable
as possible. I wish an English alliance for Béla, and that he establish himself in the
heart of Hungary at Pest, to create a centre there, for that is what indeed
we lack.
And it is for you, Milady, to seek out, to find for him his companion, his
wife!
I do not believe that I am placing you too far on high if I tell you that
you may become the benefactress, the guardian angel of a nation, which is
not known, but which I swear to you is full of nobility and capable of the
fairest of futures.
We sent Béla last year to England so that he might find for himself a marriage
there. He met you and, alas, our wishes, our desires were ruined. We ought
to go to war with you-but still nothing is lost. Béla is very young, he is
able to wait, he would be able to wait for another ten or twelve years, were
not the time of the poor Hungarians so precious, and had they not need of
Béla, and through him a focal point. So, Milady, kindly put right the injuries
that your beauty, your charms, your sentiments have caused us-love Béla with
all the strength of your soul, but seek happiness in the virtue of self-sacrifice,
of devotion and, above all, in the ardour of taking up the vocation which
has fallen to you, which is no less, believe me, than restoring Hungary, the
fatherland of your "Hungarian friend", to life, health and happiness.
Béla is made of stern stuff, so you may be sure he will yield to your suggestions.
Be fearful of your youth, of your senses; do not rely upon the supernatural
strength of a young man so full of fire and spirit. Put an insurmountable
barrier between yourself and him, and you will enjoy the peace of a serenity
which you may not have known, and which is the portion of the virtuous soul.
Today we dispose of an income from the sale of lands, capable of great improvements
or of great development, of some 10,000-of which a great deal more than half
will be Béla's fortune.
You will therefore understand that it is not money that we have to run after.
Milady, be just on what you wish of Béla. Are you selfish enough to pretend
that the fine young man will play the sad and wearying role of Petrarch to
yourself-or that he will seek out or purchase the embraces of women of dubious
repute or those of fallen girls-while you enjoy the happiness of motherhood,
of having children-knowing the bitterness of being deprived of them, as recently,
which overwhelmed us with sorrow.
Béla has need of a companion, in perfect health, that is one of the most important
conditions; oh of good family, if possible a relation of yours, who has your
looks and who, in the words of the Hungarian proverb "has enough money to
pay for supper if Béla pays for the dinner" [which in Hungary is the principle
meal, while supper is generally a slight affair], for to create a centre one
should be able to live without embarrassment-and she should be now a young
girl of fourteen or fifteen years-since I hope that Béla still has some years
of maturing.
Those are [approximately] the conditions which will fill my heart with unspeakable
satisfaction.
All this should remain the greatest of secrets between us. Béla would come
to see you every year, or more often, for it is in England-where he can breathe
the air of freedom-that he should grow in body and soul, in consideration
and in hope.
You will be able to meet him without embarrassment and to love him without
blame and, if you succeed in finding for him what he needs to establish himself
in Pest and to work there for the happiness of his fellow countrymen, you
will be certain to be adored and blessed by a nation full of heart and of
nobility-if you ever come to see a Hungary restored to life, made flourishing
and happy by the very Béla you have loved, inspired and served as a true friend-say,
Milady, that you will forgive the unfortunate father of Béla for having spoken
to you in such frankness-perhaps in wounding your heart and placing you so
on high?
May the Good Lord enlighten your soul and fill your heart with that delicious
tranquillity that is known only to those who have the courage to know themselves
and to resolve to live [henceforth] only for duty and for the good of those
who have the capacity to serve their fellow countrymen and the human race
to the greatest of extents.
If I am no longer alive when the dawn of Hungary appears again and you are
happy to have served-through your love for your "Hungarian friend", a grateful
nation, consecrate to my memory a benevolent tear on my tomb.
Béla will send you some small mementos of Hungary on my part, please accept
them as cordially as I offer them to you.
[In Széchenyi's own hand: Milady, Your most humble and obedient servant,
Vienna
Döbling 163
Novemb. 17, 1858]
My dear Lady Stafford,
I am much obliged to you for the Letter which you sent me:
I think I know who the writer is, from the Allusions he makes to his having formerly
seen me.
The Description he gives of the State of Hungary, and of the Austrian Empire
generally, tallies very much with the Information which comes to us from various
other Quarters. This young Emperor seems to have entered into "the Road
to Ruin." I am afraid however that we can be of no use in saving him
and his subjects from the Evils which the Course he pursues is calculated
to produce. If he were disposed to listen to advice he would have mended his
ways, for he has had good advice from those whose Duty it was to give it,
and from whom he might have taken it without Derogation to his Dignity, but
advice from a Foreign Government would be rejected with that Scorn with which
those who need good Counsel most, are most prone to treat good Counsel when
given them.
With the best wishes to you, that many new Years may find you prosperous and
happy. I remain
Yours sincerely
Palmerston
My dear Duchess of Sutherland,
I am glad to find that you are returned safe and sound from all
the Chances by Sea and by Land of foreign Travel and as you have been in Hungary.
I should like very much to learn your Impressions as to the state of that
Country and as to the Points of Difference between the Austrian Government
and the Hungarians.-My own opinion as a far off Looker on is, that both are
in the wrong. That the Hungarians ask that which would be the Dismemberment
of the Empire and which therefore the Emperor can not be expected to grant;
while on the other Hand the Emperor requires that which would be much for
the Adventage of Hungary as well as of the Rest of the Austrian Dominions,
but he requires it in an arbitrary Manner which renders it difficult for the
Hungarians to consent to it. Hungary is too small to be a considerable European
Power by itself, but united with the Rest of the Empire it becomes an influential
Part of a State which if well governed would be one of the most powerful on
the Continent of Europe; and as the Hungarians are more clever, more intelligent
and more able than the Germans, they would in the working of a free Representative
Constitution in the long Run have the Lions Share of the Governing Authority.
But this Arrangement could only be brought about by their own free will expressed
by their rightful Representatives. I fear that neither Party is disposed to
listen to Reason, and that the Quarrel is not likely to be soon made up; while
in the meanwhile from the Resistance of the Hungarians on the one Hand and
the oppressive separations of the Austrian Government on the other there arise
from Day to Day Mutual Resentments and Enmities which will make Reconcilation
hollow, if ever it is effected. These are my views; now I should like to know yours derived from observation on the spot.
We heard that your visit to Hungary awakened the jealousy and alarms of the
suspicious and timid men who rule in Vienna. They did not make out whether
you and the Duke were going to preach submission or to stimulate Resistance.
They would have stopped you if they had dared, for they dread the exposure
of the oppression practised by their Troops in Hungary, and that was one Reason
no doubt why they wished us to bring away Dunlop. After all however the Austrian
Empire is an important and useful Element in the Balance of Power in Europe,
and it is very unfortunate that rich in all physical Wealth it should be so
poor in practical Statesmen.
We have been staying some Time at Walmer Castle and have now lent it to the
Shaftesburys with the Hope that quiet good air and a new scene unconnected
with any painful Recollections may repair their broken Health and Spirits
and we are now on our way to Broadlands.
Yours sincerely
Palmerston
