Pawtucket Gazette And Chronicle

How Kossuth Learnt the English Language.

Kossuth, in a speech at Baltimore on Monday to a deputation of Protestant Clergymen, confirms the report current in the newspapers that he acquired a knowledge of the English language while in prison. He says:

"It is some twelve years ago, that for my decided attachment to the right of the free press, which had never been oppressed except by the arbitrary laws of my country, I was put in prison by the Austrian Government. The first year they gave me nothing to read and nothing to write with. The second they came and told me that it would be granted to read something; but that I must not make my choice of any political books, but only a diffident one. I pondered a little, and knowing that a knowledge of languages was a key to sciences, I concluded that perhaps it might be useful to get some little knowledge of the English language. So I told them I would name some books which would not partake in the remotest way of politics. I asked for an English Grammar, Shakespeare, and Walker's Dictionary. The books were given, and I sat down without knowing a single word, and began to read the Tempest the first play of Shakespeare, and worked for a fortnight to get through the first page. I have a certain rule never to go on in reading anything without perfectly understanding what I read. So I went on, and by and by became somewhat familiar with your language."