That is the key of Russian preponderance.  But consider the consequences of our defeat.  Austria was restored,—­not to its independent position—­that is lost forever; but, to the position of a tyrant at home, obedient to the wink of his master abroad.  Relying on the precedent established by Russia,—­Naples, Spain, and degraded France interfered in ROME.  After this, Austria and Prussia quarrelled for German supremacy, but before they drew the sword, went to the Czar for permission.  The Czar at Warsaw replied:  “I forbid you to quarrel.  Reconstruct the German confederacy of 1815 and add to it no constitutional element.  Send your two armies to HESSE CASSEL; crush the people who there resist by law the Grand Duke’s attempt to overthrow the sworn Constitution.  As to SCHLESWIG HOLSTEIN, I want to have it reserved to Denmark, as a satrapy for my servant and nephew.  The German confederacy having dared to countenance its rebellion, shall be punished by having to request Austria to send an army against it.”  So ordered the Czar, and so it was done.  And after it was done, the Czar ordered the withdrawal of the pageant of a Constitution, which in the hour of need the Emperor of Austria had promised to his empire.  It was withdrawn.  When thus every popular movement was crushed, every shadow of freedom withdrawn, the scaffolds of Hungary and Italy saturated with blood, the prisons filled with martyrs, the exiles driven from every asylum in the European continent, and Germany reduced to a condition worse than when the Unholy Alliance was at the full tide,—­then the Czar wrote an autograph letter to Louis Napoleon, the perjured President of France, assuring him of his imperial grace and benevolent support, if he would strike a deathblow to the French Republic.  And Louis Napoleon struck the blow.

Such are the results of the overwhelming preponderance of Russia, imposed upon Europe by its interference in Hungary.  Suppose now that I succeed in my sacred mission,—­sacred, because it is the cause of law and of all the oppressed;—­suppose Russian interference checked; then Hungary will crush the tottering Austrian dynasty:  Italy, delivered from foreign dominion, will sportively dispose of its petty tyrants.  The nation of Austria will become free, and a valuable ingredient in German liberty.  At the result of a glorious struggle in Hungary, burning shame will mount to the cheek of the French, and Louis Napoleon will be shaken off.

Let interference by the combination of despots be checked, let nations become masters of their own fate,—­and rely upon the magic power of your glorious example.  Republican institutions will spread as the light of the sun.  Yes, gentlemen.  It is not for one country that I ask your support.  My ground is as broad as the world; for it is the ground of eternal principles, common to all humanity.  No man, on the pretext that his heart is with some other nation,—­German, Italian, Pole, French; no man, on the pretext that he is a Universal philanthropist, ought to refuse his sympathies to Hungary; for its cause happens in this crisis to comprise the rest.  If I were a Pole, a German, or an Italian, egotistically patriotic, I could not serve my country better than by attacking Russia, the only substantial enemy.