Afterward I visited him with
my wife at Turin in 1892, when he was a few months past ninety.
He received me with great cordiality. I spent two hours with
him and his sister, Madam Ruttkay. They both expressed great
pleasure with the visit, and Madam Ruttkay kissed Mrs. Hoar
affectionately when we took leave. Kossuth's beautiful English
periods were as beautiful as they were forty years before,
at the time of his famous pilgrimage through the United States.
His whole conversation related to the destiny of his beloved
Hungary. He spoke with great dignity of his own share in
the public events which affected his country. There was nothing
of arrogance or vanity in his claim for himself, yet in speaking
of Francis Joseph, he assumed unconsciously the tone of a
superior. He maintained that constitutional liberty could
never be permanent where two countries with separate legislatures
were under one sovereign. He said the sovereign would always
be able to use the military and civil power of one to accomplish
his designs against the liberty of the other. The opinion
of Kossuth on such a question is entitled to the greatest
deference.
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