In 1836, Mr. Pulszky once more quitted Hungary to travel through Germany, France and England, in order to enlarge his experience by observation of the manners and institutions of foreign countries, and thus qualify himself to render more effectual service to his own. On his return in 1837, he published an account of England, written in German, which gained him a wide reputation. Soon after his return he was elected a Fellow of the Hungarian Academy. During his absence from Hungary his friend Lovassy, a young man highly distinguished for his brilliant genius, and for the nobleness of his character, together with some other members of the Debating Club, were subjected by the Austrian Government to an imprisonment, under the rigors of which the intellect of Lovassy was completely shattered. His release found him in a state bordering on idiocy, in which he has ever since continued.
In 1839, Mr. Pulszky was sent as deputy to the Diet from his native county of Sáros. In this Diet, the framing of a commercial code was proposed. Mr. Pulszky was on the Committee appointed to consider this subject. He was likewise a member of the Committee appointed for the codification of the criminal law. After the close of the Diet, Mr. Pulszky repaired to Heidelberg, to study more fully the subject of the criminal law with the celebrated Mittermaier. The committee intrusted with the work of the codification of the criminal law of Hungary, closed its labors in 1843. Mr. Pulszky did not offer himself as a candidate for re-election to the Diet. In Hungary, the deputies to the Diet are obliged to vote in conformity with the instructions of their constituents. The county of Sáros, which Mr. Pulszky had represented, was a conservative county; and as his principles allied him with the liberal party, he thus often found himself placed in a false position. He therefore devoted himself to serving the cause of reform in Hungary, by his pen. He wrote constantly for the Pesti Hirlap, the journal edited by Kossuth. The character of this journal, and the objects of its editor, are thus described by Szilagyi, a political opponent, in a work published at Pesth in 1850; "In 1841 a strange thing happened. He [Kossuth] who had been imprisoned for editing a journal, came out on the 1st of January of that year as editor of the Pesti Hirlap. The first number of this paper betrayed that it was the organ of the Opposition, and in a short time it had obtained a reputation which could hardly have been expected. In reality Kossuth conducted the editorship with much ability. His leading articles, the stereotyped publications of the wishes of his heart, scourged the abuses which existed in the counties and in the cities. The aim of these articles was to raise the importance of the burgher class, to overthrow the privileges of the nobility—in a word, first, Reform, secondly Reform—a hundred times, Reform."
In 1848, after the Revolutions of Paris and Vienna, while the ministerial question yet remained to be settled in Hungary, Mr. Pulszky was sent to Pesth, together with Klauzal and Szemere, by the Archduke Stephen, the Palatine of Hungary, to take suitable measures for the maintenance of order. Some disturbances having broken out at Stuhlweissenburg, Mr. Pulszky went thither to quell them. He was recommended to take a military force with him, but he refused, confiding in the power of reason and eloquence. The result showed that he was not mistaken. He addressed the people with energy, and the disturbances were appeased without the necessity of a resort to force. In May, 1848, Mr. Pulszky was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Vienna. On the 5th of October of the same year, when the Austrian government no longer felt it necessary to observe any appearances in regard to Hungary; and when war had been virtually declared against that country by the Imperial proclamation of Oct. 3rd, which appointed Jellachich Royal Commissary in Hungary, with full powers civil and military, Mr. Pulszky was dismissed from his office.
Mr. Pulszky was with Kossuth at the battle of Schwechat, where he acted as aid to the Hungarian commander, General Moga. He returned with Kossuth to Pesth, where he was appointed a member of the Committee of Defence, and was made Minister of Commerce. In December, 1848, he was sent as accredited Envoy to England, to advocate the interests of Hungary in that country. Speaking of his appointment to this office, Schlesinger, the able and impartial historian of the Hungarian War, says: "Kossuth could not have found a more active, able, and competent man in Hungary for the post. All that a man could do Pulszky did. Pulszky possesses the acuteness of a civilian, a penetrating intellect, readiness of conception, inexhaustible powers of invention, and withal, indefatigable activity, great knowledge of business, and a healthy and sober spirit, which is not easily carried away by sanguine hopes." After a perilous journey through Gallicia, Mr. Pulszky reached France, spent a short time in Paris, and arrived in England early in March, 1849, where he has since remained until the time of his embarkation for the United States. During his residence in England, Mr. Pulszky has served the cause of his country with equal zeal and ability. His character and his talents have obtained for him a great influence there. He enjoys the personal friendship of many of the most eminent men of England; and it is in a great degree to be ascribed to his exertions, that the merits of the Hungarian cause are so well apprehended by a large portion of the British public.
Of the literary labors of Mr. Pulszky and of his wife, who accompanies him in this country, the Transcript gives the following account, which, though incomplete, is sufficiently accurate, so far as it goes: "Mr. Pulszky is distinguished not only as a statesman and a diplomatist, but as an author. Early in life he acquired a high reputation in his own country, and in Germany, by various political, archæological and philological writings. He wrote in German in a singularly pure and forcible style. For the last two or three years he has resided in London, where he has published several works in English, written in good style, and exhibiting a rare combination of practical intellect and creative imagination." He is a novelist as well as the historian and vindicator of his country. The most elaborate production of his pen, in English, is a novel in two volumes, 'The Jacobins in Hungary,' published last spring. The London Examiner concludes its notice of this work, by saying, "In a word, 'The Jacobins in Hungary' is a remarkably well told tale, which will please all readers by the skill and pathos of its narrative, and surprise many by its fairness and impartiality of tone to opinions as well as men. But the majority of intelligent Englishmen have not now to learn, that the closest parallel for a Hungarian rebel of the nineteenth century, would be an English rebel of the seventeenth; and they will not feel or express astonishment that what falls from Mr. Pulszky on any question of society or government, might with equal propriety for its sobriety and moderation of tone, have fallen from Lord Somers or Mr. Pym."
The English translation of Schlesinger's War in Hungary was edited by Mr. Pulszky, who prefaced it with a long and well-written historical introduction, and added to it a masterly sketch of the life and character of Görgey, who had been his school-fellow, and with whose whole career he was intimately acquainted. The estate of the Görgey family was in fact situated at no great distance from that of Mr. Pulszky, who was also an intimate friend of the traitor's brother.
To the "Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady" by Theresa Pulszky, his wife, Mr. Pulszky prefixed a most valuable Introduction, containing the best history of Hungary which we have yet seen in English. It is a clear and concise sketch of the annals of the nation, from the earliest period to the year 1848, occupying about 100 pages of the American edition of the Memoirs. Madame Pulszky, the heroine and author of these interesting memoirs, is, we believe, a native of Vienna, where, in 1845, she was married to Mr. Pulszky. She was residing on their estates in Hungary, about 60 miles from Pesth, when the war broke out; and the Memoirs are principally devoted to a narrative of her sufferings and adventures in that exciting and perilous time. They contain, besides, many graphic descriptions of life and manners in Hungary, and a good historical narrative of the Revolution and the war.
Besides the Memoirs, Madame Pulszky has published in English, a volume of Tales and Traditions of Hungary, which we have not seen, but of which highly favorable notices have appeared in the Examiner and other English journals. She is not only a brilliant and powerful writer, but a most lovely and accomplished lady, as we learn from very reliable sources in Europe. Her talents and acquirements are said to be quite extraordinary. In England her husband and herself enjoyed the highest consideration, both in point of character and ability.
It may be remarked, in addition to this, that the Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady (Lea & Blanchard, Philadelphia, 1850) give a full account of Mr. Pulszky's career during the war and the revolution, and in chapters II. and III. a minute and most interesting sketch of his estates and tenantry. His novel, the Jacobins in Hungary, is understood to be written with constant reference to the recent history of his country, though the events on which it is founded occurred sixty years ago.