Prussian Wanted Poster Against Kossuth

* Cologne, 21 January. We have just received the following edifying document, printed in the Oppeln District Gazette (No. 207, 28 January 1849):

Wanted poster. According to a communication from the Imperial-Royal Austrian Government Commission in Cracow, such arrangements have been made in Hungary that Kossuth is expected to travel under a false name to Hamburg via Breslau, and it is supposed that he will take the direction via Myslowitz, Gleiwitz, and Kosel.

By order of the Lord High President of the Province of Silesia, I therefore call upon the police authorities, local courts, and gendarmes to keep a sharp watch for Kossuth, whose description is given below, to stop him if he is found, and to deliver him safely to me for further disposition.

(Here follows Kossuth’s description, as we have already communicated it.) The whole edifying document is signed:

Oppeln, 17 January 1849.
The Royal District Councillor Hoffmann.

What do our readers say to this? The God-bestowed Manteuffels of Water Poland have no small inclination, should the great agitator Kossuth be defeated and succeed in crossing the frontier, to arrest him and deliver him to his executioners for the speediest pardon with powder and lead. This extradition, should it actually take place, would be the most dastardly betrayal, the most infamous violation of international law that history knows.

Under the old federal law, Prussia was indeed obliged to extradite, upon request, political refugees indicted for acts committed on German federal territory. The revolution has overthrown the old federal law, and even under Pfuel, Viennese refugees were safe in Berlin. But

Prussia has no such obligation towards Hungary. Hungary is an independent state, and if Prussia extradites Hungarian refugees who can be indicted only for acts committed on Hungarian soil, it commits the same shameless infamy as if it extradited Russian or Polish refugees to Russia.

Even under the regime of Bodelschwingh, no one dared to extradite the Galician and Cracow refugees who had crossed over, to Austria. But of course, at that time we were also under absolute monarchy, and today we are constitutional!

Moreover: Kossuth, should he set foot on Prussian soil, is not a political refugee but a belligerent party who has crossed onto neutral territory.

German-Austria, an independent confederation of states, is waging war against Hungary, an independent state; for what reason, is no concern of Prussia’s. And even in 1831, no one dared to extradite the Poles who had crossed over to Russia; but at that time we were also under absolute monarchy, and today we are constitutional!

We signal the benevolent intentions of the Prussian government towards Kossuth to public opinion. We are convinced that this will suffice to stir up such a storm of sympathy for the greatest man of the year 1848, and of indignation against the government, that not even a Manteuffel will dare to appear against it.

But of course! For the moment Kossuth still rules in Debreczin, surrounded by the enthusiasm of the whole Magyar people; his brave hussars still dash across the Hungarian puszta; Windischgrätz still stands helpless before the swamps of the Theiss; and your wanted posters are more ridiculous than terrifying!