Archduke Palatine Stephen to the Hungarian Diet, July 8, 1848.

[Source: Henry M. De Puy, Kossuth and His Generals (Buffalo: Phinney & Co., 1852), pp.149-152.]

In the name, and as representative of our glorious reigning king, Ferdinand V., I hereby open thepresent Diet. The extraordinary circumstances in which the country has been placed, make itnecessary to summon at once a meeting of the Diet, without waiting for the completion in detailof all the propositions and administrative measures which the responsible ministers of the crownwere charged and directed by the past Diet to prepare and complete. Croatia rose in undisguisedsedition; in the districts of the Lower Danube, bands of armed rebels have broken the peace of thecountry, and while it is the sincere wish of his majesty to avoid a civil war, his majesty is, on theother hand, convinced that the assembled representatives of the nation will regard it as their firstand chief duty to provide all the means required to restore the troubled tranquillity of the country,to preserve the integrity of the Hungarian realm, and maintain the sacred inviolability of the law.The defense of the country, and the state of the finances will therefore form the chief subjecttoward

[p. 150].

which, under these extraordinary circumstances, I call the attention of the assembledrepresentatives. His majesty’s responsible ministers will submit to you propositions relating tothese points. His majesty entertains the confident hope that the representatives of the nation willadopt speedy and appropriate decisions on all matters connected with the safety and welfare ofthe country.

His majesty has learned with deep feelings of regret and displeasure — although he in his heartypaternal wish for the happiness of this country, following solely the impulse of his own desire,sanctioned during the last Diet, by giving to them the royal assent, those laws which werenecessary to the progress of the country to prosperity, under the demands of the time — yet that,especially in Croatia and on the Lower Danube, evil-disposed, rebellious agitators have excitedthe inhabitants of those countries, speaking different languages and holding different creeds, withfalse reports and terrorism to mutual hostility, and have driven them, under the calumniousrepresentation that those laws were not then sanctioned out of the free will of his majesty, tooppose the ordinances of those laws and the legal authorities — that some even have gone so farin rebellion as to announce that their violent resistance to those decrees is for the good of theroyal house, and takes place with the knowledge of his majesty.

For the tranquilization of the inhabitants of those districts, of all tongues and creeds, I thereforehereby declare, under the special commission of his most gracious majesty our lord the king, in hisname and as his representative, that his majesty is firmly resolved

[p. 151]

to maintain intact, by his royal power, the integrity and inviolability of his crown against allattacks from without, and against all discord within the realm, and to assert and enforce at alltimes the laws he shall have sanctioned. And as his majesty will allow no one to curtail thefreedom assured by the laws to the inhabitants of the country, his majesty expresses hisdispleasure with the daring conduct of all those who venture to assert that any illegal act ordisobedience shown to the law can have taken place with his majesty’s knowledge or in theinterest of his royal house.

The union of Transylvania with Hungary was sanctioned by his majesty, in part because he by thatstep fulfilled the earnest desire of his dearly beloved Hungarian and Transylvanian people, but alsobecause the united countries will in future form a firmer support to the throne and to freedom. Hismajesty’s ministers for Hungary will submit all the details respecting this already accomplishedunion, which remain for the consideration of the legislative body.

With regard to foreign affairs ; in the Lombardo Venetian kingdom, where the hostile troops ofthe king of Sardinia, and of other Italian powers, have attacked the army of his majesty, the warhas not yet been brought to a close. With the other foreign powers, the peaceable relations haveremained inviolate, and his majesty has the less doubt of their being maintained as he reckons it tobe the highest duty of his government to neglect nothing which, without injury to the dignity ofthe throne, and the safety of his loyal subjects and their legitimate interests, may confirm apeaceable understanding with foreign powers ; and his

[p.152]

majesty has a right to hope that as he adheres to the principles of neutrality as regards the internalaffairs of other countries, this neutrality will be responded to on the part of foreign countries inequal measure. His majesty does not doubt that the Diet, in the combined interests of the throneand of constitutional freedom, will order, without delay, all that the welfare of the country sourgently demands.

I only fulfill the demands of his majesty, when I assure the Diet, and the whole loyal nation, of thegracious disposition entertained toward them by our illustrious lord, the king. […]

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