Századok – 2002

Történeti irodalom - Helyreigazítás V/1234

1236 TÖRTÉNETI IRODALOM 1236 the first place from the Pest Hírlap. The present source publication presents new and more immediate evidence on the censuring of the parliamentary speeches of Kossuth. It is in the parliamentary collection of the archives of Zala county that a copy of the speech of Kossuth concerning the system of administrators, held on 8 February 1848, survived, which was prepared by János Lukács, a parliamentary stenographer. It is considerably longer than the version known from the Pesti Hírlap, a comparison of the two versions has revealed that the censor had consistently erased from the speech of Kossuth those parts which criticised the court of Vienna (and the ruler), and especially the much-attacked Hungarian arch-chancellor and, through him, the government itself. Gábor Pajkossy: DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE PROJECTED DANUBIAN CONFEDERATION OF 1862 On 18 Mayl862 in the Milanese review called L'Alleanza a project entitled The Danubian Confederation (Confederazione Danubiana) appeared with the signature of Lajos Kossuth. Two weeks later in the same review Kossuth declared that the text was not his work, but agreed with its principles, and attached a lengthy commentary to it (Sch.iaram.enti intorno al progetto della Confederazione Danubiana) Nevertheless, the project had long been attributed to Kossuth himself. From the 1960s the historical research revealed that 1) the idea of the Danubian Confederation was cherished from 1849 on not only by several groups of East- and Central-European emigrees but also by the Italian and French governments then in conflict with the Habsburgs; 2) Kossuth articulated his views several times in the debates on the Confederation; 3) in the elaboration of the idea of the Confederation an important role was played on the Hungarian side by count László Teleki and general György Klapka; 4) within the Hungarian emigration, and especially between Kossuth and Klapka, serious political dissent had emerged by 1962; 5) the project attributed to Kossuth was in fact a memorandum prepared by a man called Canini, a commissiary of the Italian government and at the same time a confidential of Klapka, on the negotiations between Kossuth and Canini, and signed by Kossuth himself. 6) what we regard as the project of Kossuth was a kind of answer to the plan of confederation which had been elaborated some three weeks before by general Klapka upon the commission of the Italians. The research of the problem is hindered by the fact that the documents cited above are unpublished or hardly available, and a great number of uncontrolled and erroneous statements circulate in the historiography concerning them. The Hungarian translation of the alleged project of Kossuth, in reality of the memorandum of Canini signed by Kossuth, which has been published at least ten times since 1878, has so far been regarded by all historians as the translation authorised by Kossuth himself, and no one ever compared it with either the French original or with its Italian version. Consequently the author publishes here the French memorandum of Canini signed by Kossuth (2); the Italian version published in L'Alleanza (3); an unpublished version of the Klapka-plan (1); and the similarly unpublished memoires of Kossuth from about 1880 (5). The author finally proves that the Hungarian translation of the project, which is part of the curriculum in the secondary schools and universities alike, is based on the Italian version published in L'Alleanza, but is full of errors; consequently, a new and trustworthy translation is offered here, which is based on the French original (4). György Spira: AN OFFER TO GET RID OF KOSSUTH IN THE UNITED STATES After the Hungarian revolution had collapsed in August 1849 Lajos Kossuth fled to the Ottoman Empire, and the Austrian government failed to achieve his extradition from the Porte. The Austrian minister of domestic affaires, Alexander Bach consequently commissioned a band of Istanbul-based Croates to kidnap Kossuth, but the attempt aborted. Kossuth was able in September 1851 to visit the United States of America. It was at that time that the letter of an Austrian secret agent, who called himself Dubois, to Alexander Bach was written. In this letter, which is published in extenso by the author, Dubois offered to hire an assassin to get rid of Kossuth in the United States. Bach rejected the offer, however, presumably because he wanted Kossuth to be transported to Austria alive, and have him sentenced to death by a military tribunal, as it had happened with the other leaders of the Hungarian revolution.