powers of the earth, sanctioned by treaties made with the Hapsburg dynasty, at the era when this dynasty, by the freewill of my nation, which acted as one of two contracting parties, was invested with the kingly crown of Hungary.  Even more, this independence of the kingdom was acknowledged to make a part of the international law of Europe, and was guaranteed not only by foreign European governments, such as Great Britain, but also by several of those once constitutional states which belonged formerly to the German, and after its dissolution, to the Austrian empire.

This independent condition of Hungary is clearly defined in one of our fundamental laws of 1791, in these words:—­“Hungary is a free and independent kingdom, having its own self-consistent existence and constitution, and not subject[*] to any other nation or country in the world.”  This therefore was our ancient right. We were not dependent on, nor a part of, the Austrian empire, as your country was dependent on England. It was clearly defined that we owed to Austria nothing but good neighbourhood, and the only tie between us and Austria was, that we elected to be our kings the same dynasty which were also the sovereigns of Austria, and occupied the same line of hereditary succession as our kings; but by accepting this; our forefathers, with the consent of the King, again declared, that though Hungary accepts the dynasty as our hereditary kings, all the other franchises, rights, and laws of the nation shall remain in full power and intact; and our country shall not be governed like the other dominions of that dynasty, but according to our constitutionally established authorities.  We could not belong to “the Austrian Empire,” for that empire did not then as yet exist, while Hungary had already existed as a substantive kingdom for many centuries, and for some two hundred and eighty years under the government of that Hapsburgian dynasty.  The Austrian Empire, as you know, was established only in 1806, when the Rhenish confederacy of Napoleon struck the deathblow of the German empire, of which Francis II. of Austria, was not hereditary but elected Emperor.  That Hungary had belonged to the German empire is a thing which no man in the world ever imagined yet.  It is only now that the Hapsburgian tyrant professes an intention to melt Hungary into the German Confederation; but you know this intention to be in so striking opposition to the European public law, that England and France solemnly protested against it, so that it is not carried out even to-day.  The German Empire having died, its late Emperor Francis, also King of Hungary, chose to entitle himself Austrian Emperor, in 1806; but even in that fundamental charter he solemnly declared that Hungary and its annexed provinces are not intended to make, and will not make, a part of the Austrian Empire.  Subsequently he entered with this empire into the German Confederation, but Hungary, as well as Lombardy and Venice, not making part of the Austrian empire, still remained separated, and were not received into the confederacy.