Fazekas Csaba: Palóczy László beszédei és írásai 1848-1849 (Miskolc, 1998)

The Speeches and Writings of László Palóczy (1848-1849) Summary in English

mere accident of birth, deserved his post both with his patriotism and moral strength.' Palóczy formerly firmly represented the anti-emperor traditions of the radical gentries, the circle of László Madarász often held their meetings in his flat. As a president however, he was impartial. Furthermore, it seems that he - who had always clung to his theories before - was serious about pushing the party debates aside until the end of the war. 'Let's leave such division of parties when our nation has been saved, and in the meantime we should not throw fire-brands on the heart of our nation.' - he often said. (This opinion met the efforts of Kossuth.) At the end of May his motion was voted in the Parliament about the salary of the Prime Minister and having his permanent flat in Pest. In 1848-49 the alternatives that the civic reforms brought about in Hungary, fundamentally changed Palóczy's way of thinking. Since the Declaration of Independence (14 April 1849) repealed the emperor's supreme right for pardoning, Kossuth proposed to set up a four member committee of pardon where Palóczy was elected too. (This body presided over by the Minister of Justice could hold only one sitting, it still indicated that the new forming state could practice the rights of the governor.) In Debrecen Palóczy had a chance again to benefit his legendary memory, because in the middle of May, 1849 the Foreign Minister asked him to make a detailed and exact report about the power politics in the first half of the 19th century especially focusing on the leading countries of the Holy Alliance and England. After reoccupying Buda (21 May 1849) the parliament decided to move back to Pest, although it could hold only one session there. It was presided over by Palóczy as well as the parliament fleeing again at the end of May to Szeged. Here some new laws, unparalleled in Europe, were adopted about the nationalities and the Jews. Unfortunately they were too late from the view-point of the war of independence. During the critical days at the end of July and the beginning of August Palóczy considered the work of parliament continuous, so it was just natural for him to follow the government to Arad, where he convoked the last session of the parliament by posters on 11 August. Perhaps it sounded a little tragicomic, when he greeted the ten representatives as 'Honoured national Parliament'. He said that Kossuth had visited him not long before and told him that because of the Russian intervention 'the nation was hopelessly lost'. Palóczy refused the idea of emigration saying: 'The life of an escaping patriot who has lost his nation is constant agony.' He finished up with saying that the parliament was not going to dissolve, it only succumbed to foreign odds and 'reserving all rights for an uncertain time' closed the sessions. Palóczy was hiding for a while, then he was arrested, and regardless of his old age, he was court-martialled and sentenced to death in Pest. Later he was granted a pardon and the sentence was changed to imprisonment. However, he was one of those who was granted a general pardon by Haynau on 5 July 1850. He opened the convoked parliament again as a president by seniority on 6 April 1861, so his person meant the continuity. But he could not live to see the end of the session adjourned by himself for twelve years in Arad: on 27 April 1861 suddenly he died. This volume contains the speeches he made as a member of parliament in 1848— 49 and other writings of his activities. The documents of this book can be divided into three main chapters. In the first chapter we have collected the parliamentary speeches of László Palóczy in the years of 1848-49, in the second chapter we