compact was as futile as those which preceded it; each oath which fell
from the royal lips was but a renewal of previous perjuries. The policy
of the house of Austria, which aimed at destroying the independence of
Hungary as a state, has been pursued unaltered for three hundred years.

It was in vain that the Hungarian nation shed its blood for the
deliverance of Austria whenever it was in danger; vain were all the
sacrifices which it made to serve the interests of the reigning house;
in vain did it, on the renewal of the royal promises, forget the wounds
which the past had inflicted; vain was the fidelity cherished by the
Hungarians for their king, and which, in moments of danger, assumed a
character of devotion; they were in vain, since the history of the
government of that dynasty in Hungary presents but an unbroken series of
perjured deeds from generation to generation.

In spite of such treatment, the Hungarian nation has all along respected
the tie by which it was united to this dynasty; and in now decreeing its
expulsion from the throne, it acts under the natural law of
self-preservation, being driven to pronounce this sentence by the full
conviction that the house of Lorraine-Hapsburg is compassing the
destruction of Hungary as an independent State: so that this dynasty has
been the first to tear the bands by which it was united to the Hungarian
nation, and to confess that it had torn them in the face of Europe. For
many causes a nation is justified, before God and man, in expelling a
reigning dynasty. Among such are the following:

1. When the dynasty forms alliances with the enemies of the country,
with robbers, or partizan chieftains to oppress the nation: 2. When it
attempts to annihilate the Independence of the country and its
Constitution, supported on oaths, by attacking with an armed force the