Geography. The kingdom of Hungary consists of Hungary Proper, Slavonia, Croatia, Hungarian Dalmatia on the sea coast, Transylvania, and the Military Frontier. It is situated between 46° and 50° N. Lat., and between 15° and 25° E. Long. It is bounded on the N. by Galicia, on the E. by the Danubian Principalities, on the S. by Servia, Bosnia, and the Adriatic, and on the W. by Styria, Lower Austria, Moravia, and Silesia. The north-eastern frontiers are formed by the Carpathians, which jut out in different branches towards the banks of the Danube, and inclose Transylvania in the form of a double crescent. A no less natural boundary is the Danube, separating Southern Hungary from the Turkish Provinces. The least marked frontier is the western, separating Hungary from Lower Austria; it is in part formed by the small March River.

The exact extent of Hungary and its dependencies has not yet been precisely ascertained. According to the Austrian official statistics published by Czornig, the superficial area amounts to 125,037 English square miles; more recent Austrian tables reduce that number, whereas the Hungarian statistician, Alexius Fenyes, reckons the superficial area at 130,910 English square miles, of which Transylvania occupies about one-sixth, or upwards of 21,000 miles. The Hungarian kingdom is thus larger than Great Britain and Ireland by about 10,000, and than Prussia by 20,000 square miles.

The physical aspect of Hungary Proper is sharply marked by the contrast between the northern Carpathians, forming large plateaus, and the vast level land intersected by the Danube, Theiss, and Marosch; while in Transylvania, where the Alpine character predominates, the sudden diminution of the mountains allows only of undulating table-land, alternating with narrow valleys. The greatest part of Croatia, and part of Slavonia, likewise consists of mountainous land, formed by the outliers of the Alps, the level land in the latter lying to the north.

Rising like a rampart between Hungary, and Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, and the Bukowina, the Carpathians, after running round Transylvania, extend to Orova on the Danube. They form no connected chain, and are generally divided into frontier and central mountains. The Frontier Carpathians, which are of less height than the latter, begin near Pressburg. One group of these extends between the rivers Wang and March, and afterwards enters Moravia at the Strany Pass. The other group, known by the name of Beskid, runs between Hungary and Silesia, Galicia, and the Bukowina, and after traversing Moldavia appears as the frontier mountain of Transylvania. The inner or central Carpathians, which occupy much less ground than the frontier ones, are also divided into different chains or groups, among which the Tatra group in the north forms the most imposing mass. The whole granite plateau of this group is about 50 miles long and 15 miles broad. Its highest crests are the Lomnitzer, 8370, the Elsthaler, 8320, and the Krivan, 8230 feet high. The south-western branch of the Tatra extends to the mineral mountains. These, like a few other groups, are classified with the midland mountains, which are considered distinct from the central Carpathians. The Matra group in the county of Heves, the Buk, and Vine hills, where the tokay grows, are comprised in the northern chain. The eastern chain begins from the banks of Hungary, the Bodrog, and extends over the greater part of Transylvania. The western branches of this chain pass into southern Hungary or the Banat, and then gradually sink into hills. As in Transylvania the highest chain is the southern or Fagaras mountain range, rising near Czernstadt, the summit of which measures 8515 feet high. The low western mountains of Hungary which come from Croatia and Slavonia belong to the Styrian and Julian Alps, and are connected with the Carpathians by the midland mountains.

The great Hungarian plain, which is the largest in Europe, begins at the Mura group in the north, and extending over Southern Hungary, ends at the confluence of the Save and the Danube at Semlin. It is through this plain, called the Eastern Plain, presenting the richest soil, alternating with large barren sandy wastes, and which is hardly 140 feet above the level of the sea, that the Theiss pursues her meandering course towards the Danube. This plain is quite treeless and affords nothing to vary the monotonous scene except the mirage or Fata-Morgana (in Hungarian deli-bab). The smaller or western plain is separated from the former by the Bakonywood and its branches.

The frontier Carpathians consist mostly of sandstone formations, while the central or primitive mountains are of a granitic character, and contain strata of gneiss or beds of quartz, clay slate, graviwacke, basalt, and diorite. The calcareous formations are particularly rich in iron and copper, whereas the porphyritic and granite rocks contain much gold and silver. The sandstone and other secondary strata abound in coal beds. The level land, rich in salt springs, is also impregnated with nitre and carbonate of soda.

Turning to the hydrographic survey of the country, the Danube, the largest European river next to the Volga, first claims notice. Reaching the Hungarian territory at Presburg where the Carpathians begin to rise on its left bank, the Danube pursues a south-easterly course, dividing into three branches which receive the waters of the Layta, Raab, and the Waag, embracing moreover the two Schutt islands about Comorn, and then the St Andrew Island at Waltzen, after which its direction becomes more southerly, and after leaving Buda and the Oesel Island it rolls along the Hungarian plain and the Banat; its right banks reaching the Turkish territory at Semlin. There, where its course becomes retarded by the Servian mountains, it receives the waters of the Save, leaving the kingdom at Orsova, after forcing its impetuous waves through the Iron Gate. The breadth of the Danube varies in different parts, being about Presburg 900 feet, at Foldvar 1800 feet, between the former and Vank 4000 feet, at Petervardin 3500 feet, at Belgrade 608 feet, and at the Iron Gate between 158 and 80 feet. The depth varies between 20, 40, 60, and 120 feet. The greatest tributary of the Danube, the Theiss (Tibiscum), rises from a double source in the county of Marmaros near Galicia, reaches the level land at Nagy Széles, and winds its course through the large plain as far as Triel, where it flows into the bed of the Danube. The chief tributaries of the Theiss, remarkable for richness in fish, are the Hernad, Sajo, Bodrog, Szamos, Körös, and the Marosh, which is the chief river in Transylvania. The Drave, which rises in the Tyrol, flows through Styria into Croatia, and dividing it from Hungary, falls into the Danube near Essec. The Save, rising in Carinola, winds its course through Croatia, is fed by the Una and Kalpa, forms part of the frontier towards Bosnia and Servia, and falls into the Danube at Belgrade. The Marosh, which ranks next to the Theiss, falls into the latter at Szegedin, after having received the Aranyos, famous for its gold washings, and the Kokel or Kukuló. The Alt or Alana rises likewise in the Transylvanian mountains, entering Wallachia through the Red-Tower Pass.

All the Hungarian rivers flow into the Black Sea, with the exception of the Popard, which rises in the Zips from the Koenigberg, and flows into the Vistula.

Among the lakes the largest is the Platten see or Balaton, situated between the counties of Zala and Schweng, its length is about 50 miles and its breadth between 8 and 9 miles; and with the surrounding marshes comprises above 500 square miles. Its principal feeder is the Zala, and its only outlet is the marsh See. The Neusiedler-see in Hungarian Ferio, between the counties of Wieselburg and Ocledenburg, fed by the Vulka, is 70 miles long and 10 miles broad; its shallow waters are impregnated with salt, and exhibit an odd but flow, as yet unexplained. The Palver-see is, properly speaking, a marsh resembling many which are formed by the Theiss and Lower Hungary, Danube. The Sar-ved in Bihar, the Ecsedder in Szathmar, the Feketels in the Banat, are the largest marshes. The marshes covered with aquatic plants, such as Ecsedder, are generally distinguished by the name of top.

The only canal of importance is that in the county of Basa, called the Francis Canal, cut from Monoster to Podvar, and uniting the Danube with the Theiss. It is about sixty miles long, and shortens the passage by about 200 miles. The Bega Canal, near Temeswar, is rather a river than a canal.

The Adriatic touches only the south-western extremity of the Hungarian kingdom, the sea-coast being variously called Hungarian Dalmatia or Illyria, the principal ports being Fiume, a flourishing town inhabited chiefly by Italians, Buccari, Porte-ro-Zengge, St George, Tablonz, and Carlopagno. The whole coast is mountainous, and in some parts steep, and exposed to violent south winds.

As regards natural curiosities the numerous osiferous caverns, amidst the northern limestone mountains, deserve particular mention. The Agtelek Cave in Gomor, 16 feet high and about 50 feet broad, extending in a straight line to about 900 feet, contains fossil bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, and other large animals. Apertures in its sides open into recesses communicating with each other, and these as well as the main body of the cave contain springs. Of a similar description is the cave of Domény-falva in Liptau, containing glacial masses, and not far distant from it is the Okno and Vadl. The Czerva or Black Cave exhibits columnar concretions, and the same formations are found in the deep Funnata Cave in Bihar, which is divided into five separate fissures or chambers filled with osiferous fossils. In the Banat is the Veteran Cave near the Danube, containing a cistern and a powder magazine, once forming an important military post. The most remarkable, however, is perhaps the Almas Cave in the Szekler district of Transylvania. This spacious cavern presents, besides a labyrinth of precipices and chasms, marshes with floating beds or aquatic plants, and a rushing brook. No less curious is a small turbid stream near the Tatra group, looked upon by the people as a blood-sucker.

As may be inferred from its geographical position, Hungary contains the usual European quadrupeds, and its soil is productive of great varieties of vegetable life. It may be added that the Carpathians harbour the wolf, the bear, and chamois; and that if Hungary is not the land where the citron grows, it is superior to Italy in vines, and to all Europe in its exquisite melons. Filled, near the Balatin Lake, and Bartfeld, on the Galician frontier, watering-places much frequented in the summer season, have chalky-bitter springs, while Teplitz in Trenchin, and Mehadia in the Banat, have sulphurous springs. Parad in Borsod, and Borszek in Transylvania, have acidulous wells. No less famed are the hot springs of Buda.

The climate of Hungary varies greatly. In the counties of Climate. Arva, Liptau, Zips, and Marmaros, winter continues for fully six months, whereas in Southern Hungary the trees blossom as early as March, and in June the heat becomes burdensome, reaching its culminating point in July. From the partial meteorological observations that have been made, it appears that the highest temperature in Buda is 30° 6 R., and in Klausenburg (in Transylvania) 32° 6; and the mean is, in Buda 15° 19', and in Klausenburg 33°. This, however, is far from giving an idea of the climate in the different parts of the country, and especially in the level land in the south, or the larger plains, where at mid-day the heat is at times almost African; and yet in those very parts, as a geographer observes, even quicksilver was frozen in the unusually severe winter of 1816. The heat of the smaller or western plain is much tempered by the Bakonywood. The first half of January marks the minimum, and the second half of July the maximum of the temperature; whilst April and the first part of October coincide with the mean temperature. Blasts and the falling of hail happen most frequently among the Carpathians.

The population of Hungary and its dependencies contains a races, great variety of races, some of which form but insignificant numbers; the four principal races are the Magyars, the conquerors and founders of the kingdom, the Slavonians, the Wallachians, and the Germans. The ancient home of the Magyars or Ugri is Central Asia or ancient Scythia. Pressed by other tribes, they moved gradually round the Caspian Sea and the Euxine, till, at the end of the ninth century, they Hungary reached the Carpathians. Their leader Almus and his son Arpad, as the chroniclers say, in advancing to these mountains, burned to find out the fertile land of Attila, the king of the Huns, upon whom they looked as their ancestor. Hence, perhaps, may be explained the origin of the word Hungary and Hungarians, though some wish to derive that name from the term Ugari applied to the Magyars by the Slavons. The Magyar population comprises several tribes distinguished as the Székler, the Cumans, and the Jasiges. The Székler, or Siculi, were the followers of Attila. After the dismemberment of the Hunnish empire, in the 6th century, they retreated to the eastern mountains of Transylvania, where they continued to live till the arrival of their kindred. The Cumans and Jasiges, on the other hand, repeatedly entered Hungary during the 12th and 13th centuries in the character of invaders, till at length they settled as friends. The entire Magyar population speaks the same language with some differences in pronunciation, and some provincialisms, as is the case in England, France, and almost every country. The Slavonic population consists of several branches, speaking different dialects, the chief of which are the Slovaks, Ruthens or Russniaks, Rascians or Serbs (in German Raizen), and Croats, the insignificant tribe of the Bulgarians, the Wends, Scholzut, and Montenegrins. The Slovaks and Russniaks belong to the northern Slavonic stock, which comprises the Poles and the Croches of Bohemia, while the Rascians and Croats belong to the southern Slavonic family, the greater portion of which inhabits Turkey. All these Slavonic races, with the exception of the Rascians, inhabited Hungary before the arrival of the Magyars. The Rascians came from Turkey about the year 1690, at the time of the victories of Eugene over the Ottomans. The German settlers called Saxons came to Hungary first, in the year 1143, having been invited by King Géza II., by whom they were endowed with privileges and lands in Transylvania, and in more recent times, during the reign of Maria Theresa and Joseph I., though there were, no doubt, small numbers of them in Hungary previous to the Magyar conquest. The Wallachians or Roumins, who greatly resemble the Italians in physiognomy and language, were formerly known by the name of Petshengers, the inhabitants of Dacia, of which Transylvania formed a part. In the times of the Roman emperor Trajan, the Romans mixed with the Roman colonists located beside the Danube, and hence their present language. The whole population of Hungary may thus be divided into four distinct races; the Eastern, comprising—besides the Magyars, Jews, Armenians, and that most singular people, the Gypsies,—the Slavonian, the Wallachian, and the Teutonic races.

At the end of the great war in the beginning of the present century, the population of Hungary, Transylvania included, was 12,000,000, and according to the last census, before the late war of 1845, it amounted to about 14,500,000. Of this number, 2,200,000 belong to Transylvania, and 490,267 to Croatia; the population of the military frontier being estimated at more than 1,000,000. With regard to the different races, the proportion is as follows:

| Race | Population | |---------------|------------| | Magyars | 5,418,773 | | Slovaks | 1,722,003 | | Rascians | 1,293,995 | | Croats | 943,395 | | Russniaks | 459,870 | | Wallachians | 2,686,492 | | Germans | 1,273,677 |

The number of the Gypsies is variously estimated at 40,000 and 60,000. The different confessions are represented in the following approximate numbers:

| Confession | Number | |---------------|------------| | Roman Catholics | 6,500,000 | | Greek Catholics | 890,000 | | Non-United Greeks | 1,800,000 | | Calvinists | 1,700,000 | | Lutherans | 829,000 | | Unitarians | 44,600 |

In Transylvania:

| Confession | Number | |---------------|------------| | Roman Catholics | 221,400 | | Greek Catholics | 605,300 | | Non-United Greeks | 725,700 | | Calvinists | 358,300 | | Lutherans | 220,400 | | Unitarians | 44,600 |

With regard to the relation of the races to the confessions, Hungary. It may be observed that the Calvinists consist chiefly of the Magyars; the Lutherans, of the Slovaks and Germans; the orthodox and united Greeks, of the Rascians and Wallachs; the Roman Catholics, of about half of the Magyars and the rest of the Slavonic population and Germans.

The town population is estimated to form one-eighth of the inhabitants, a circumstance sufficiently proving the backward state of the country. The total number of towns in Hungary and Transylvania is 146; of boroughs, 881; and of villages, 16,450.

The character of the races is as different as their origin. The Magyars, both nobles and peasants, are marked by their Oriental pride and nobleness; by their love of liberty, hospitable customs, conviviality, and warlike spirit. Clinging with filial love to his superiors, the peasant—a gentleman in language and bearing—is, at the same time, alive to the sense of his own worth. In field labour and horsemanship, the Magyars surpass all the rest. The Slavonians of North-western Hungary are mild, frugal, and industrious. The southern Slavonians or Raizen are, in character, very much like the Greeks, being, moreover, merry, warlike, and of a fierce disposition. The Croats partake more of the character of the Raizen, than of that of the north-western Slavonians; and as to the Germans, they preserve their usual traits of industry and peaceableness. The most neglected race is, perhaps, the Wallachians. Strongly resembling in physiognomy the Italians, a fact clearly verifying their intermixture with the Romans, they, like the Slavonians, are bony, and of a tall stature, and are considered as one of the least active races.

The population in the principal towns and boroughs was in 1851 as follows:

| Town | Population | |-----------------|------------| | Pesth | 106,379 | | Buda (united to Pesth by a suspension bridge) | 50,127 | | Debreczin | 60,906 | | Pressburg | 42,178 | | Szededin | 50,244 | | Vasraholy | 33,690 | | Kekezmester | 32,308 | | Kronstadt (Transylvania) | 24,401 |

The relation in which the different classes of the population stand to each other will be noticed hereafter in connection with the constitution at large.

The history of Hungary begins with the conquest of the Magyars, who united ancient Pannonia, Croatia, Slavonia, and Transylvania into one kingdom. Previous to their arrival these countries were ruled over by petty princes, and inhabited chiefly by Slavonians, Bulgarians, Wallachs or Roumins, and a few Germans, all of whom soon submitted to their new conquerors. The prevailing opinion assumes the Magyars to be the descendants of the ancient Scythians, and to belong to the Tartar-Mogulian stock; the ingenuity of antiquarians, however, has not been remiss in bringing up evidences of their relationship to the Parthians, Turks, and Finns. Some go even so far as to trace the pedigree of the Magyars to Japhet, confounding the word Magyaryok (the plural of Magyar) with Magog. The Magyars are said to have wandered from the Ural Mountains to the Caspian Sea, and thence to Kiev possessed by the Russians, who succeeded in getting rid of their new masters by representing to them the fertility and beauty of Pannonia, the land of Attila. Divided into seven tribes, they arrived at the frontiers of Hungary in the year 889, under the leadership of Almus. At this juncture Almus died, and the chiefs of the tribes elected his son Arpad successor. From the foot of the Carpathians the followers of Arpad rapidly spread along the plains of the Theiss, crossing the Danube and occupying the banks of the Drave. From the date of the conquest to the year 1000, Hungary was ruled by dukes, royalty having been introduced simultaneously with Christianity a year afterwards.

The following is a chronological table of the Arpad dynasty which ruled over Hungary for upwards of three centuries:

| Duke | Reign | |--------------------|-------| | Arpad the Conqueror| | | Taksony | | | Zoltan | | | Geysa | | Hungary.

Kings.

Stephan (St.) 1000-1038 Aba and Peter (counter kings) 1038-1047 Andrew I. 1047-1061 Bela I. 1061-1063 Solomon 1063-1074 Gyula I. 1075-1077 Ladislaus I. 1077-1095 Coloman 1095-1114 Stephan II. 1114-1131 Bela II. 1131-1141

The following were the princes of the Houses that ruled Hungary from the extinction of the native dynasty to the commencement of the Hapsburg period:

Charles Robert (Anjou) 1308-1342 Louis I. (Anjou) 1342-1382 Maria & Sigismund 1382-1437 Albert of Austria 1438-1493 Elizabeth 1438-1442 Ladislaus 1442-1444

The first century spent by the Magyars in Europe, then in its most exasperated condition, was chiefly marked by their predatory expeditions. The shores of the Baltic, France, and Italy, all experienced the devastations of these swift horsemen, formidable for their archery and irresistible prowess. They received a check at the hands of Odo the Great, who defeated them before the walls of Augsburg in 955. A gradual change to a more peaceful life commenced during the reign of Gyula, who prepared the way for the introduction of Christianity by entrusting the education of his son Vaik to Adalbert, Bishop of Prague. On succeeding his father, Vaik determined upon assuming the regal title, and applied to Pope Sylvester II. for his consecration and benediction. His petition was granted, and he was crowned under the name of Stephan. It is to this first king that Hungary owed most of those institutions which survived down to the year 1848. Besides giving the country an ecclesiastical organization, Stephan divided it into counties, and laid the foundation of its municipal institutions. He also created a national council, consisting of the lords temporal and spiritual, and the milites or middle class nobility, and from this the subsequent Diet took their shape. The most important statutes enacted under his reign are contained in the Decree of 1010. Stephan married Gisela, daughter of the emperor Henry II., an alliance which proved the source of much trouble after his death. Leaving no heir, as his only son Emeric preceded his father to the grave, the queen, assisted by the emperor, endeavoured to gain the throne for her cousin Peter, while Apa or Aba, an Arpadian prince, was proclaimed king by a part of the nobles. Both these princes having perished during the war, Andrew I. succeeded to the throne, but was soon compelled to yield it to his brother Bela I. Neither the reign of this king, nor that of his two immediate successors, offers anything worthy of remark. The reign of Ladislaus is remarkable in many respects. Besides repelling a Tartar invasion and vanquishing the Cumans, Ladislaus subdued Dalmatia and Croatia, and annexed them to the Hungarian kingdom (1075). Ladislaus was notorious for his religious zeal, which procured him the title of Saint. A ruler of much more talent was his successor Coloman, whose reign was contemporaneous with the first Crusades. But for the valour of this king, Hungary might have experienced the fate that befell the empire of the Palaeologi, and been parcelled out among the Godfreys and Baldwins. Coloman issued several edicts, chiefly concerning the discipline of the clergy; and carried on a successful war against Venice for the possession of Dalmatia. Coloman died in 1114, leaving the throne to his son Stephen II., whose reign, like that of all those of the twelfth century, is barren of interest. The reign of Andrew II., called the Hierosolomitan, is famous for those wars of the nobles with the crown, which resulted in the grant, by the king, of the Golden Bull, the Magna Charta of Hungary. The chief provisions of this charter were as follows:—1st, That the states were henceforth to be annually convoked, either under the presidency of the king or the palatine; 2d, That no nobleman was to be arrested without being previously tried and legally sentenced; 3d, That no contribution or tax was to be levied on the property of the nobles; 4th, That if called to military service beyond the frontiers of the country they were to be paid by the king; 5th, That high offices should neither be made hereditary nor given to foreigners without the consent of the Diet. The most important point, however, was article 31st, which conferred on the nobles the right of appealing to arms in case of any violation of the laws by the crown. The other provisions contained in this charter refer to the exemption of the lower clergy from the payment of taxes and tolls, and to the determination of the tithes to be paid by the cultivators of the soil.

This Golden Bull was sworn to by all the subsequent kings of Hungary, including the fourteen of the Hapsburg house, but the 31st article was cancelled on the accession of Joseph, son of the emperor Leopold. It was promulgated by Andrew in 1222, shortly after his arrival from the Holy Land. He was succeeded by his son Bela IV., during whose reign Hungary was visited with the invasion of the Tartars under Batu Khan, who literally turned the country into a wilderness. The reigns of Stephan IV. and Ladislaus were chiefly marked by the wars waged against Ottocar of Bohemia, who was engaged in hostilities with Rudolph, the founder of the House of Austria. With the assistance of Ladislaus, Rudolph defeated the Bohemian king at the battle of Lea in 1275. Amid fierce internal dissensions, caused by the Cumans, Ladislaus died, and was succeeded by Andrew III., the last of the Arpads. This prince had to turn his arms against the emperor Albert, who, irritated at Andrew's refusal to marry his daughter Agnes, had declared war against Hungary; and after defeating his adversary, ended by exposing the slighted Austrian princess. In 1301 Andrew died, leaving no issue, and there thus arose fresh and complicated wars.

The first phases of Hungarian history are thus obviously parallel to the contemporaneous annals of other countries, marked by internal dissensions between the dominant elements of society, or the claimants to the throne, and by religious wars. In social institutions, Hungary undoubtedly stood above the other states of Europe; and the only peculiar disadvantage under which it laboured consisted in the diversity of its population, and the great power which the clerical order had acquired.

After the death of Andrew III. three candidates aspired to the crown of St Stephan—Charles Anjou, nephew of Charles of Naples, and of Arpadian blood by his mother, who was daughter of Stephan IV.; Venezlaus, son of the king of Poland and Bohemia; and Otho, prince of Bavaria. Through the influence of Pope Boniface VIII. and the bishops, Charles Anjou or Carobert was raised to the throne. Under the reign of this prince, and especially of his son, Hungary made great progress in general culture, and extended its influence abroad; and while the blessings of peace were felt at home, the Hungarian sword held in subjection Bulgaria, Bosnia, Servia, Moldavia, and Wallachia. To this vast power, Louis, surnamed the Great, the son of Charles, added the crown of Poland, so that under his reign Hungary was the most formidable state of Europe. But by a strange finality so strongly discernible in the annals of this country, this grandeur suddenly vanished, in consequence of the extinction of the male Anjou line. From a reverence to her father, the States, contrary to the rule, resolved upon raising Mary, daughter of Louis, to the throne, and, with her, her consort Sigismund of Brandenburg, son of the emperor Charles IV.—a determination pregnant with portentous events. It was soon after his succession to the throne that the Sultan Bajazet began to infest the provinces subject to the Hungarian crown, and to threaten Hungary Proper.

After gaining some victories over the Turks, Sigismund was completely routed at Nicopolis (1395), and obliged to fly the kingdom. During his absence, a party, headed by the palatine Gara, raised the standard of rebellion, and took him prisoner after his return. Scarcely was he released when he met with troubles in another quarter; having found a rival in Vladislaws, king of Poland, who had married Hedvig, the second daughter of Louis the Great. The circumstances of his having pawned the sixteen towns of the north called the Zips occasioned fresh discontent, and made them transfer their allegiance to his rival. After being elected Emperor of Germany and King of Bohemia, instead of providing for the safety of the country, Sigismund employed his time and resources in warring with the Hussites, and in presiding over the Council of Hungary. Constance—satiating his implacable zeal by condemning John Huss and Jerome to the flames. The learned Sigismund ended his inglorious reign in 1437, leaving a daughter of the name of Elizabeth, married to Albert, archduke of Austria.

After some misgivings the States proclaimed Albert king of Hungary, compelling him to confirm the privileges and rights of the country in a special manifesto resembling the Golden Bull. This Hapsburg king suddenly died after a reign of three years. The States thereupon offered the crown to Vladislav of Poland, and shortly afterwards the queen dowager, the widow of Albert, was delivered of a son, called Ladislaus Posthumus. This was fresh cause for civil dissension, and, to add to the evil, Amurath prepared for another general invasion. The party of Vladislav having triumphed and secured his coronation, he turned his arms against the Turks, already masters of the Danubian Principalities; and it was at this juncture that John Hunyadi, alias Corvinus, began to display those military talents which stamped him the first hero of the age.

The origin of Hunyadi is shrouded in mystery. The prevailing opinion is, that he was of Wallachian extraction, and the son of George Hunyadi, vassal of Wallachia during the reign of Sigismund. As to his surname Corvinus, some derive it from his estate, Piatra di Corvo; others, from his ancestry. Having been nominated vassal of Transylvania by Vladislav, John Hunyadi met Amurath on the plains of Wallachia, and routing his army, compelled the Sultan to retreat. The Sultan then overran Servia; but here again the Janissaries were overpowered by the arm of brave Hunyadi. From Servia the Hungarians advanced into Bulgaria, conquered Nissa, and gained a signal victory before the walls of Sophia (1443). These victories inspired Pope Eugene IV, with the hopes of seeing the Turks chased from Europe; and, to accomplish the great work without delay, he formed a league with the King of Hungary, the Emperor John Palaeologus, and the famous Scanderbeg, son of George Castriot, Prince of Epirus. The forces of these princes, however, were supported by the fleet, under the command of the Cardinal-Admiral Albert of Florence, destined to prevent the transportation of the Asiatic Turkish troops across the Hellespont. Apprised of these preparations, the Sultan sent ambassadors to the camp of Hunyadi with offers of peace; and, at the intercession of George, despot of Servia, peace was actually concluded for the term of ten years (1444).

The Sultan, besides acknowledging the sovereignty of Hungary over Wallachia, bound himself to evacuate Bulgaria, and to restore all the Christian prisoners. The observance of the treaty, so advantageous and so needful to Hungary, was sworn to on the Gospel and the Koran. The Papal legate, Cardinal Julian, however, took care to have it turned into an immediate war. Besides representing the vast preparations made by the league, and the folly of losing the most favourable opportunity for entirely destroying the infidels (representations in themselves sufficient to shake the youthful and ambitious Vladislav), the cardinal argued that the peace, inasmuch as it concerned all Christendom, and had been concluded without the consent of the Pope, was null and void; and, moreover, that no obligations could bind Christians to keep faith with the infidels. The cardinal's harangue produced the desired effect. Vladislav bound himself by a solemn oath to begin the crusade the very same year. Hunyadi and Dracula, the vassal of Wallachia, are said to have dissuaded the king from the expedition, but in vain.

Despite the advanced state of the season, and the disbandment of part of his Polish and Hungarian legions, Vladislav took the field, and marched into Bulgaria towards Widdin. Here he awaited the Greek troops and Scanderbeg, as well as the arrival of the Italian fleet before Gallipoli. Abandoned by his allies, while, despite the fleet, Amurath safely landed his Janissaries at Gallipoli, Vladislav determined upon a retrograde march, and encamped before Varna, which had been previously taken from the Turks. The rapid advance of Amurath having rendered further retreat impossible, Cardinal Julian advised him to await the enemy within the walls of Varna; while Hunyadi, to whom the maintenance of a siege seemed impossible in consequence of the want of provisions and ammunition, advised the acceptance of battle on the plain before the walls of the stronghold. The counsel of the vassal prevailed. For three consecutive days and nights did the hostile forces combat each other without any decisive result. On the fourth day (the 16th November), Hunyadi, charging with his Hungarian horse, twice put to flight the Janissaries. On this assault, Amurath, chafing with rage and terror, turned his back to the followers of the Cross, but was stopped in his retreat by one of his subordinates seizing the bridle of his charger. Meanwhile, two of the Hungarian bishops, as well as the king himself, despising the orders of Hunyadi, whose undisputed laurels they envied, left their position and rashly pursued the flying enemy, a movement which turned the day in favour of the Crescent. Vladislav paid the penalty of his rashness with sudden death, having been cut down by the sabres of the Janissaries; and his death at once became the signal of panic and ruin to his army. Hunyadi alone, with a few followers, escaped the carnage. Cardinal Julian, the author of this perfidy, was also among the slain.

The battle of Varna made the Sultan sole master of Servia and Wallachia, while the surrounding powers contrived to profit by the misfortunes of deceived Hungary. Venice attempted to conquer Dalmatia and Croatia; the Poles invaded Moldavia; the emperor Frederick III., the guardian of Ladislaus Posthumus, ravaged the provinces adjoining Austria. Frederick even refused to give up his ward to the Hungarians to be acknowledged king, and to hand over the crown of St Stephen, which had been left with him for safety. Amid these troubles the States proclaimed Hunyadi governor of Hungary. The first task of the governor was to wrest the young prince from the hands of the emperor by force of arms; but the incursions of the Turks rendered this undertaking for a time impossible. Pope Nicholas, through his legate Cardinal St Angelo, repeated the promises of his predecessor; but Hunyadi was too sagacious implicitly to confide in the support of the Roman see. Having, with the aid of the Papal legate, concluded a truce of two years with Frederick III., he turned with all his energy against the Turks; but his expectations of victory were disappointed by the treachery of George, despot of Servia, who went over to the camp of the Mussulman. It was in consequence of this defection that Hunyadi lost, in 1456, the battle of Kosovo (Campo Morino), in which 9000 Hungarians and 24,000 Turks are said to have fallen. It need hardly be observed that the Papal promises proved an idle phantom. Pope Nicholas attempted to palliate his inaction on the ground that the Greeks, most concerned in the war, had refused to subscribe to the union scheme prepared at the Congress of Ferrara.

In 1452 the emperor at last agreed to release Ladislaus Posthumus, who was greeted by the general acclamations of the Hungarians. Hunyadi, having resigned his office of governor, was nominated generalissimo by the king. The terror that seized Europe after the capture of Constantinople by Mohammed II., seemed to convince both the Pope and emperor of the necessity of assisting Hungary; and while the former issued an indulgence to crusaders, the latter convoked the German States at Regensburg, where 10,000 horse and 32,000 foot were voted against the common foe; a number more numerous than Hunyadi had expected. The Pope's indulgences, however, were too cheaply estimated; and the German levy did not go beyond the written resolutions. Exhausted Hungary was again left alone to fight the battles of Christendom. Slighting now his triumph over Byzantium, Mohammed set about preparing for the conquest of Hungary, and in 1456 he appeared before the walls of Belgrade with an army of 150,000 men. The garrison, under the command of Michael Orszag, numbered but a few thousands; the Papal indulgences promised to every one who should serve for six months, proved for the most part fruitless; and, in addition to this, the king, admonished by Hunyadi to make speedy preparations, fled in dismay to Vienna. The generalissimo, left to his own resources, raised a force of 10,000 troops at his own expense; and to these were added a few thousand men that followed the cross of John Capistran, a Mennonite monk. It was chiefly with these forces that Hunyadi hastened to the relief of Belgrade. It is not here the place to dwell on a defence on which the fate of Europe hung; it is enough briefly to state that, after a siege of several weeks, the haughty Ottoman conqueror, after leaving about 24,000 slain, saw, on August 4, 1456, his lines broken and his soldiers flying precipitately to Adrianople. Excessive fatigue brought on the hero, immediately after this victory, an illness from which he died at Semlin on the 10th of September. He left to his country two sons, Ladislaus and Matthias, the former of whom was cruelly Hungary executed by the orders of King Ladislaus Posthumus, while the latter was destined to reach honours and fame higher even than those of his father.

After the victory of Belgrade, the king returned from Vienna, and soon afterwards died at Prague. The subjugation of the Turks now became the common ground on which the rival princes built their hopes of the vacant throne. The three great rivals were the impotent Emperor Frederick, who held in his hands the crown of St Stephen; Casimir of Saxony, brother-in-law to the late king; and the King of Poland. Each of these candidates found adherents among the reckless and corrupt oligarchs, but they became the especial support of the Hapsburg emperor. At the head of his party stood Dionysius, archbishop of Gran; the palatine Gara, a sworn enemy to the Hunyadi; and Nicholas Ujjak, voivod of Transylvania. The more patriotic of the nobles, longing for a native ruler, spontaneously turned their eyes to Matthias, the younger son of John Hunyadi, who had marvellously escaped the fate of his elder brother. Treacherously carried away from Buda to Vienna by Ladislaus Posthumus, Matthias, but fourteen years old, was conveyed to Prague, where he arrived just at the death of the Hungarian king. At this juncture he was rescued by Podiebrad, who was about to ascend the throne of Bohemia, and, as afterwards appeared, aimed at making the young Hunyadi his son-in-law.

The party of Frederick were masters of the fortress of Buda, and in their confidence issued writs for the assembling of the diet. The Hunyadi party found an able leader in Michael Szilagyi, uncle to the young Matthias, and an army of 40,000 men stood ready before Pesth to support the cause of the young king. A sudden severe frost which covered the Danube with a thick sheet of ice, and thus facilitated the approach of Buda, turned the scale against the Hapsburg emperor. On the 24th of January 1483, the diet proclaimed Matthias king of Hungary, and declared Szilagyi governor during his minority. A deputation immediately repaired in great pomp to Bohemia, and recovered Matthias from the hands of Podiebrad, who was presented with 60,000 ducats, and had the satisfaction of seeing his favourite marriage scheme realized.

All chroniclers agree in describing the tumultuous joy that was manifested in Buda-Pesth at the arrival of the boy-king. Though but fifteen years of age, Matthias spoke—besides Hungarian—Slavonic, Bulgarian, German, and Latin, and understood almost every other European language. His father used to employ him as his interpreter and secretary, having been famous when a boy for his excellent writing at a time when (as a German historian of Hungary, whom we now follow, says) the vayvods and other high officials could hardly sign their names. To these accomplishments, and an acquaintance with the classics, Matthias added the talents of an impressive orator, and also of an able general. Simply in consequence of the hopes entertained of him as a warrior, the papal legate in Hungary, John of St Angela, exerted his influence in favour of the Hunyadi party.

The Emperor Frederick, determined to dispute the Hungarian throne with Matthias, openly assumed the title of King of Hungary (1489); but after being defeated by the Hungarians, he agreed to an armistice, which Matthias employed in marching against the Turks, who were ravaging the Dalmatian Principalities, Bosnia, and Servia. Having compelled Mohammed II. to evacuate these provinces, Matthias again turned his arms against the emperor, and compelled him to conclude a peace in 1463, renouncing all claims to the dominion of Hungary, and delivering up to the Hungarians the crown of St Stephen. One of the conditions of this peace is said to have been, that in case of Matthias dying without issue, the right of succession should revert to the emperor, or his son Maximilian.

After this peace, Matthias again turned his arms against the Turks, having previously reorganized the military system of the kingdom. In regard to the privileged commanders of the fortresses, he appointed men experienced in the art of war; and in place of the somewhat lawless irregular horse, he determined to make the foot soldiers the pivot of his strength, and among these the most famous were the Armigeri, alias the Black Legion. From the irregular horse he formed the hussars, a species of light cavalry, subsequently enrolled in almost every European state. All these troops were drilled by the king in person, inspired with a feeling of honour, and assured of meeting with due distinction. The Armigeri, as it appears, were in his camp what the tenth legion was in that of Caesar, a succour for the archers. These changes being effected in the military system, Matthias began to turn his attention to the state of education. He founded a university at Buda, calculated to afford accommodation for 40,000 students, and provided with a library of 55,000 volumes, bearing the name of Corvin, and possessed of many valuable manuscripts bought from Greek scholars who had fled from Constantinople, or such as were copied in different parts of Italy. To this was soon added a typographical establishment. But amid these occupations the hero king was summoned to the field.

Mohammed, who vowed to unfurl the banner of the prophet on the ramparts of Belgrade, invaded Moldavia in 1466, after having come to a secret understanding with the vayvods of Transylvania; but here too the Hungarian arms were triumphant. Mohammed now sent ambassadors with offers of peace, while the papal legate was endeavouring to persuade Matthias to a war against Podiebrad and the Hussites. When it was deliberated in the diet, whether the continuation of the Turkish war or a war against the Bohemians was preferable, the prelates pronounced for the latter, and so did the king. Matthias thus undertook a war against Podiebrad, his former father-in-law, already excommunicated by the pope, announcing, however, in his proclamations, that he took up arms only to defend the rights of the Catholics against the Hussites. The Emperor Frederick secretly designing to secure the Hungarian throne for his son Maximilian, fanned the ambition of Matthias, whose armies marched from victory to victory, and in a few weeks conquered three kingdoms. Accordingly, in May 1469, Matthias caused himself to be proclaimed, at Olmutz, King of Bohemia and Moravia, and received, a few days afterwards, the homage of the Silesians at Breslau. Meanwhile, the Turks repeated undisturbed their incursions in Bosnia and Croatia, a circumstance which created in Hungary a party against the king, who was opposed in Bohemia by the king of Poland. Returning to his kingdom, and restoring order within, Matthias again marched to gain fresh laurels in conflict with his old foe. A most bloody battle was fought in Transylvania, on the banks of the Marosch, in 1479, where about 100,000 Turks, under Ali Beg, were defeated by Stephan Batory and Paul Kinisky. The victors, says a chronicler, celebrated a great feast on the battle-field—Paul Kinisky, a man of prodigious strength, having danced while holding a slain Turk between his teeth. Amid these victories Matthias celebrated his second nuptials, having married Beatrix, daughter of Ferdinand of Naples. The death of Mohammed, which happened in 1481, was an event calculated to relieve Hungary from all apprehensions, and to re-establish general peace, when the war with the emperor, encouraged by Pope Sixtus IV., was resumed. To this pope, who counteracted his designs on Veglia, in Dalmatia, and raised a rival to the bishop of Monosch, nominated by him, Matthias gave the courage to threaten that Hungary would exchange the double crown with the triple one, or that it would nominate a patriarch to herself. Pope Innocent VIII. Matthias delayed by keeping in prison the Archbishop Varza. With the renewal of hostilities the Hapsburg monarch was destined to undergo most unexpected misfortunes.

After a siege of four months, Vienna opened its gates to Matthias (June 1483), and the emperor was obliged to roam in disguise from village to village. Matthias entered the capital of the Hapsburgs at the head of 8000 troops. The conquest of Austria so much heightened the credit of Matthias with the Turks, that Sultan Bajazet despatched to him an embassy, bearing the congratulations of their master, and followed by ten camels laden with presents.

Despite all the efforts of Frederick and his German allies, Matthias made Viszna for five years the seat of his government, and died there on the 23rd of April 1490, in the forty-fourth year of his age, and thirty-third of his reign. Besides the Italian Galeotti, this powerful monarch of Hungary found his panegyrist in Bonfinius, the author of Decades IV., Rerum Ungaricarum, both of whom have recorded many an anecdote and trait of private life, highly characteristic of their hero. During his reign Buda was the seat of many men of letters, whom he distinguished by peculiar favours, and who were mostly members of the two Hungarian learned societies established under his care.

At the death of Matthias the competitors for the Hunga- Hungary, rian crown were John Corvinus, a natural son of Matthias, the Emperor Frederick, his son Maximilian, and Vladislav II. of Poland. The States declared for the last, whose inglorious reign is worthy of mention for the collection then made of the laws of the realm and their sanction by the king and the States in 1514. This code is known as the *Tripartitum Opus Juris Consuetudinarum* incultum Regni Hungariae. Some supplements were made to it in 1628, all of which were afterwards merged in the *Corpus Juris*.

After his death Vladislav was succeeded by his son Louis, under whose short reign Hungary hastened fast towards destruction. The ambition of the oligarchs, no less than the carelessness of the king, left the frontiers unprotected, and that at a juncture when Soliman the Magnificent, the most powerful of Ottoman emperors, commenced his career. Having captured Belgrade and Peterwardein, Soliman advanced at the head of 200,000 men into the interior of the country. This formidable force the weak king, idly confiding in the assistance of his brothers-in-law, the Emperor Charles V. and Ferdinand, had the rashness to meet with 25,000 men. The Turks lay encamped on the plain of Mohacs, near a town of that name, situated between the Danube and the Drave. After three days' skirmishing the archbishop of Kolosza, Paul Tosorny, urged a general attack, and within an hour and a half the kingdom of Hungary lay in the dust. The king, two archbishops, five bishops, 500 of the higher nobles, and almost the whole army, perished in the carnage. This battle took place on the 29th of August 1526. After this victory Soliman marched onwards, captured Buda, where all that told of the fame of Matthias Hunyadi fell a prey to the blind rage of the Janissaries, and turning homewards, dragged in his train tens of thousands of prisoners.

We have now arrived at the point when the quasi Hapsburg reign commenced in Hungary, an event which proved the cause of wars for nearly two centuries. Before proceeding in our narrative, however, we shall briefly refer to the constitutional part of the history; and to preserve unity, we shall also add the fundamental laws enacted during the subsequent, or Hapsburg period.

Like the constitution of England, that of Hungary is the work of ages, the aggregate mass of consuetudinary and written laws or acts of parliament.

The right of succession belonged, from the very establishment of the Arpad dynasty, to the male line, though with the extinction of that line, and the accession of the Anjous, the States departed from the rule which excluded females from the throne. In the year 1657, the Emperor Leopold, under general terror, issued from the States an acknowledgment of the right of both male branches to the Throne of Austria. In 1723 the Emperor Charles who had no male issue, carried the point still farther, having brought the diet to acknowledge the hereditary right of the female line, and thus secured the Hungarian throne to his daughter Maria Theresa, and her descendants, in the order of primogeniture and lineal succession.

The exclusive privileges of the king are the right of nomination to the offices of state, of conferring titles of nobility, and convoking and closing the diet. The king, moreover, nominates the archbishops, bishops, and abbots; he may establish and endow new bishoprics, and appropriate to the regal chancery the revenues of vacant sees, dispose of Church property, abolish convents, and fix the number of the friars. He has the right of superintending the schools and nominating the teachers to the Catholic schools. By the *jus placuit* the king is empowered to regulate the intercourse of the prelates with the See of Rome, he regulates their oath of allegiance to the pope, and without his consent no bulls or briefs can be published. The legislative power is common to the king and the States, viz., the prelates, titled nobility, high officials, and the nobles. Among the barons of the realm the first in rank is the palatine, the second, the chief judge or *judex curiae*, the third, the ban of Croatia, the fourth, the chancellor. By the concordat concluded in August 1855, the Emperor Francis Joseph surrendered to the pope the most essential privileges of the Church. This concordat transferred to the pope the right of nominating the archbishops, of forming new and changing existing sees, of administrating the estates of the Church, of superintending the schools through the bishops, and finally, authorized the direct communication of the bishops, clergy, and people with the papal chair.

The functions of the palatine, whose office dates from the earliest days of Hungarian history, are as follows—He is the judge or mediator between the king and the people, the guardian of the minor kings, and regent during their minority and absence, president of the house of lords and the chancellery, commander-in-chief of the army, lord-lieutenant of the county of Pesth, and judge of the Cumans and Jaziges, a privileged portion of the Magyars. In 1608 it was enacted that, at each election of a palatine, the king must propose four candidates, two Catholics and two Protestants, from which the election is to be made by the diet. By another article of 1741, the office of the palatine can not remain vacant for longer than a year.

The *Judex curiae* is the first member of the Septemvir Court and the Court of Chancery, and is president of the Upper House in the absence of the palatine.

The Ban is the hereditary chief of the border regiments (the borderers in general having a special commander), and president of the Banat courts.

The Chancellor is member of the Septemvir Court, and presides over the Upper House in the absence of the palatine and *judex curiae*. The barons immediate in rank are the two keepers of the crown. The other members composing the States, *ordines regni*, are the Roman Catholic prelates, and, since 1782, the bishops of the non-united Greeks; the lieutenants of the counties, the magnates, the lower nobles, and the royal towns, each of which is equivalent to one noble.

By the law of 1791, confirmed in 1827, the diet must be convoked at least once every three years.

In former days the diet used to be held mostly on the plain of Rakos, near Pesth, or in Weissenburg, where the former kings used to be crowned. But since the accession of Ferdinand of Austria in 1527, Pressburg was chosen as the seat of the diet, because, on account of its proximity to the Austrian frontiers, it offered the greatest security to the Austrian party. It was about that time that the legislative body became divided into two Houses, or, as they are commonly called, two *Tabledes*. The bishops, high officials, magnates, and barons compose the Upper House; the lower nobility, who form the Lower House, do not attend in person, but are represented by their deputies, elected in the respective counties, which are fifty-two in number, each county sending two deputies to the diet. The free towns had also each a deputy at the diet, but their influence was merely nominal. The three Croatian counties included in the above number, however, chose, according to custom, their representatives, three in number, in a common congress. Of these one is sent to the Upper, and the other two to the Lower House. Transylvania has its own diet.

The initiative belongs partly to the king, and partly to the Lower House, though the royal proposals usually take the precedence. The Upper House has only the privilege of the veto rejection, and in case of a lengthened disagreement between the two bodies both Houses meet together. Since the end of the last century the deputies of the four districts, into which Hungary is divided, used to meet separately in what was termed circular sittings, for the preliminary discussion of the questions; till by degrees all came to meet together, thus assuring beforehand the fate of every motion. Some writers have erroneously mistaken these circular sittings for separate chambers.

The diet of Transylvania (which, as may be seen from our narrative, maintained its independence against the Austrians till the end of the seventeenth century) is formed on the same model. As in Hungary, so here, the peasantry, consisting chiefly of the Wallachs, were excluded from all participation in the legislature, the diet having been composed of the Magyars, the Saxons, and the Szekler or the Magyar borderers.

This abuse was here, as in Hungary, removed in 1848.

Much more efficacious than the diet against the usurpations of the crown was the internal organization of the counties, resembling, in many respects, the Swiss cantons. Next to the lord-lieutenant, the nominee of the crown, each county was governed by two sheriffs, elected by the nobles for the term of three years, and who, in the absence of the lord-lieutenant—a common occurrence—alone managed the public affairs. Besides preserving public order and administering justice, the sheriff or vice-lord-lieutenant presides over the county meetings, which are convoked several times a-year, and are of especial importance during the sittings of the general diet. Hungary. grievances of the county are here debated with more freedom than in the diet; and here are also prepared the instructions sent to the members of the diet, who, if not fulfilling their trust, are recalled. The most important feature in the county institutions, however, was the vis inertiae, or the privilege of passive resistance to illegal orders, sent by the chancery or the other high courts of administration. It was this inert power that, till 1848, often proved the sheet-anchor of the Hungarian constitutions.

Next to the counties, and besides the royal towns, which are independent of the counties with regard to their internal administration, there are several privileged districts, whose inhabitants are exempted from all those burdens which, to the year 1848, were borne solely by the peasants. The military frontier, or that narrow tongue of land which extends along the Turkish frontier, as may easily be conceived, has an organization of its own, to which we shall return when speaking of the military force of Hungary.

Above all these political and civil subdivisions there were two central courts at Buda, and a separate chancellory at Vienna, whose sphere extended over the political, ecclesiastical and financial and administrative departments at large. The evil effects of these irresponsible organs of general administration having of late years become more and more deeply felt, the final consequence was that in 1848 King Ferdinand V. was obliged to comply with the wishes of the diet, and nominate an independent responsible Hungarian minister. This compliance on the part of the Habsburgs (as it will be found in its proper place) gave rise to instant war, which, after having been brought to an end by Russian intervention, resulted in the entire subversion of the fundamental laws of Hungary. To return to the political and social description.

The feudal privileges having exempted the nobles from participation in the public burdens, the whole weight consequently fell on the peasantry, the unicae pecula contributae. Besides the feudal labour called robat which he had to perform to his master, the peasant had to pay the military-tax, to supply the house-tax, from which the expenses of the administration of the counties were defrayed, to repair the roads and bridges, to give quarters to the soldiers, to convey, for a nominal price, the county officials or military officers, to pay the ministers and schoolmasters, and lastly, to give one-ninth of his produce to his landlord, and tithes to the Catholic clergy, even although a Protestant. An earnest cry against this evil was raised only within the last twenty-five years, and in 1848 the liberal party at last triumphed, both the court and prelates having felt obliged to sanction the abolition of feudalism.

As regards the ecclesiastical institutions, they may chiefly be divided into three distinct parts—the Roman Catholic, the Protestant, and the Non-United Greek.

The Roman Catholic Church counts three archbishops and seventeen bishoprics. The foremost among the prelates is the archbishop of Gran, the primate of Hungary. Since 1452 he has borne the title of legatus natus to the see of Rome, and since 1715 that of prince, and is moreover by right the lord-chancellor of Hungary, and lord-lieutenant of the county of Gran. It is his privilege to crown the kings of Hungary, while the archbishop of Veszprém claims the right of crowning the queens. In influence, however, the Roman Catholic bishop of Transylvania comes next to the primate. The united Greeks form one body with the Roman Catholics, and have four bishops. Each bishop has his own consistorium.

The Protestant or Lutheran Church is divided into four superintendencies, consisting of several seniories or sections of a certain number of communities, and these in turn have each their inspector, and the right of electing their own pastors. Besides the ecclesiastical superintendent or principal, each superintendency has its lay-curator. The annual meetings of the Protestants are held at Pesth, under the presidency of a chief inspector. The internal organization of the Calvinists is with slight differences, and those also rather nominal, similar to that of the Lutherans. Since the end of the late war the Austrian government deprived both the Protestant churches of their liberties.

The head of the Non-United or Orthodox Greek Church is the archbishop and metropolitan of Carlovitz, who is chosen in a congress, and whose election must be confirmed by the king. This church counts seven bishoprics, viz., at Temesvar, Verecz, Arad, Old Buda, Neusatz, Pakratz, and Karlstad.

The number of the ministers of the different confessions was, according to the latest census, as follows:

- Roman Catholics: 9734 - Calvinists: 1812 - United Greeks: 880 - Lutherans: 648 - Non-United Greeks: 2830

According to ancient usage and laws, the military force of Army Hungary consisted of three different elements—1. The borderers, who date from the earliest days of Hungary, and who were again reorganized during the reign of Ferdinand I.; 2. The regular army; and 3. The levy of the nobles, who in times of danger took the field en masse, which was known by the name of insurrectio. The organization of the borderers, where every man is a soldier, is mixed up with a system of patriarchal rule. Each family, though consisting of several members, occupies what is called one border-house, to which a small tract of land is allotted, and the manor-house, part of which is carried on by the pater-familias, no longer fit for military service. Every borderer is liable to be called to duty wherever the king pleases, though in general the service is confined to the cordon or the watching of the frontier. And in such cases the borderer must be paid and clothed by his own family, in consideration of which he is entitled to an annual deduction of twelve florins from the taxes. The whole force consists of fifteen infantry and one cavalry regiment, besides a battalion of pontooniers, called charlakits, and makes in times of peace a total of 46,000 men. On a war footing this force was capable of considerable increase. The number of men constantly employed at the cordon and quarantine averages between 4000 and 6000.

The regular military force of Hungary consists of thirteen (infantry regiments of the line, besides the two Transylvanian and eleven hussar regiments, each infantry regiment numbering above 3000, and each cavalry regiment about 1800 men. The total military force is thus above 100,000.

In process of time the regular military force of Hungary became entirely merged in, and assimilated to, the Austrian army, the States contending themselves with exercising the right of voting recruits, and fixing the term of service, which since 1830 was limited to ten years. Their gross and palpable neglect is shown in the fact that they quickly allowed Austria to carry on that subtle game by which the Hungarian troops were carried abroad, and foreign regiments introduced. The reforms of 1848 have done away with this antiquated abuse. The most important fortresses are Comorn, on the Danube, between Pesth and Presburg, Petervardelin, also on the Danube, Arad on the Marosch, Temesvar, Ejsék, and lastly Buda, strong by nature. The most important fortress in Transylvania is Karlsburg. Transylvania forms a fortress in itself, and only a few narrow passes afford a passage through its mountain ramparts to an invading army. The principal passes are the Bozza, which leads to the Bukowina, the Ojtos, leading to Moldavia, the Torzburg, Tomös, and Red Tower passes, which communicate with Wallachia. It was through these last-named passes that the Russians penetrated in 1849. Mention must be made of the Dukhi pass, leading from Galicia into the north of Hungary, and through which Prince Paskiewitsch came with the guns of the Russian army.

Having thus described the constitutions of the country, we Resources shall now rapidly survey its resources.

The fertility of the Hungarian soil, and the variety of its produce, are universally known. Besides the different species of corn and maize, raised in great quantities, Hungary produces hemp and flax, various kinds of delicious apples, pears, and plums; two sorts of melons, rich crops of tobacco, and lastly, a great variety of wines; while the vast pastures and oak woods afford ample sustenance to herds of horned cattle, sheep, and swine. It is assumed, that with the aid of modern improvements in agriculture, and a little more industry, it could abundantly sustain a population twice as large as it actually possesses. The badness of the roads, the neglected state of the rivers, which, besides being closed to navigation, entail great losses by annual inundations, no less than the feudal institutions, and prohibitive system of Austria, all contributed to keep agriculture in a backward state, so that the vast produce may be said to come from the hand of nature alone. The home of the wheat is the Banat, and the counties of Basa, Baranya, Simin, Arad, and Borsod. Rye is raised chiefly in the north among the Slovaks; barley, oats, and maize, in different parts. The last occupies an important place in the Hungarian harvest. With some of the Slavonian population, such Hungary, as the Croats and Russians, and the Wallachs, maize bread is a great favourite.

Melons are raised in gardens and the open field, occupying sometimes continuous tracts of land of 100 acres. Of the water-melons the most famous are those of Heves, of more than two feet in diameter. The yellow or sugar melons are generally of a much smaller size. Tobacco grows almost everywhere, and greatly varies in flavour; the Csetzker of the county of Gömör, the Vepsteiter and Debroer of Heves being the most highly prized. The annual crop is upwards of 650,000 cwts. Potatoes form but a secondary article in Hungarian economy.

Among the vine hills and gardens, cultivated since the thirteenth century, and which occupy no inconsiderable part of the Hungarian soil, the most valuable is the Hegy-alfja, or southern promontory of the Carpathians, and which comprehends the Tokay mountains situated round the town of that name. The whole promontory occupies above 50 English square miles, of which only one-third is under cultivation. The Tokay wine is of a crystalline yellow, and sometimes greenish colour, and is known under two names, the Ausbruch, the stronger, containing more of the essence, and the Moslas. The whole annual produce is 180,000 gallons. Next in rank to the Tokay is the Menes, a red wine of the county of Arad; and inferior to it, though by no means inferior to Burgundy, are the red wines of Erlan, Szekard, Villany, and Buda. Among the yellow table wines, particular mention may be made of the Nezmeler, Somloer, Badacsoner, and Ermeleker. The county of Simia is, moreover, particularly famous for its red wines, the most known of which is found on the Fruska Gora mountain. No less famous are some of the Croatian wines, marked by a spirituous flavour, as well as the wines of Transylvania. The total produce of wine, Transylvania not included, is estimated at 325,748,000 gallons.

The animal kingdom exhibits no less abundance. The Hungarian oxen are the largest breed in Europe. They have a grayish white skin and long straight horns. The largest herds graze on the wide pastures situated between the Theiss and the Danube. The original Hungarian horse, marked by its middle size, broad neck, and compact build, is now only to be found in some parts of Transylvania. The introduction of English full-blood stallions by several of the magnates, has of late years enabled the breed, and the general improvement has been hastened by the royal studs at Mező-hegyes and Babolna. Of late years much progress has been made in the breeding of sheep, though the first step dates from the reign of Maria Theresa, when the Merino was, for the first time, imported into Hungary. The oak-woods pasture large herds of swine, part of which arrive annually from Servia, Bosnia, and the Danubian Principalities, for the purpose of being fattened, and thereafter exported to Austria. Mules, asses, buffaloes, and goats, are only to be found in very small numbers. As the war of 1848 made a great havoc in the animal kingdom, the census of 1850 cannot afford a fair representation of the capabilities of the country. We shall therefore give here the statistics of the year 1849, which stood as follows—Horses, 1,000,000; horned cattle, 4,250,000; sheep, 17,397,000; hogs, 4,000,000. In Transylvania the numbers were these—Horses, 297,382; horned cattle, 800,000; sheep, 2,000,000; hogs, 350,000. To this abundance must be added a great number of domesticated fowl, especially geese and turkeys, and a variety of game, such as ducks, partridges, pheasants, &c. The rivers abound in carp, pilo, and sturgeon—the Theiss being reckoned the richest; the peculiar Hungarian fish called foga, is only found in the Balaton Lake, or Platton-see. Some of the waters yield trout, and large quantities of leeches.

The approximate amount of the productive soil, both in Hungary and Transylvania, in the latter of which the forests form more than one-half, is, according to the Austrian official tables, 40,200,000 joch, or 57,204,600 English acres, of which 10,131,760 belong to Transylvania. The relative division is as follows, in English acres—

| Acres | |-------| | Soil under tillage... | 22,651,438 | | Vineyards............. | 1,659,962 | | Meadows............... | 5,711,773 | | Pastures.............. | 5,662,269 | | Forests............... | 15,880,680 |

In the above numbers is not included the military frontier, the productive soil of which occupies about 6,000,000 acres; the forests forming one-third. The produce in corn is—Hungary, 251,000,000 bushels; Transylvania, 30,000,000; military frontier, 12,000,000; total, 323,000,000 English bushels. The value of the natural products is estimated at L29,000,000, while the value of the crops in England and Wales is estimated by McCalloch to be only L83,056,071.

Let us now glance at the mineral kingdom. The mountains, Minerals, which are partly worked by the government and partly by private enterprise, contain metals of almost every kind, viz., gold, silver, iron, copper, lead, antimony, zinc, alum, orpiment, tellurium, and many other minerals, besides coal and salt. In the neglected state in which the gold mines are kept, the produce is only about 2400 marks. The silver mines yield 65,000 marks. Of great importance are the copper mines in the Banat; the richest vein, however, is at Schmolnitz. Those in Transylvania, at Damokos and Deva, yield 1200 cwts. The produce of lead is estimated at 26,000 cwts. The iron mines are found chiefly in the counties of Gömör, Sohl, Ung, and Zips; the average produce of the former being 250,000 cwts. The richest rock-salt mines are in the county of Marmarossag, and the total produce amounts to upwards of 800,000 cwts., a quantity which, however great, is far from sufficient for the wants of the country. Several places yield also soda, saltpetre, alum, and potash. Pit coals, which, till very lately, and before the introduction of railways, had been entirely neglected, lie in deep formations almost unwrought. The total produce is 1,000,000 cwts. The value of the mineral produce in Hungary is L872,000, that of Transylvania, L169,000; the military frontiers yield almost nothing in this respect. It must be added, that Hungary possesses also precious stones and marble of various descriptions.

The chief articles of manufacture are cloth, linen, and silk Manufactories, stuffs, carpets, leather, iron wares, and chemical products, in-tures, including alum, saltpetre, and potash manufactures. All these are as yet in an incipient state, especially cloth manufacture, if it be considered that in wool Hungary is the richest country in Europe. Linens are chiefly manufactured in the north. The county of Zips produces about 6,000,000 yards. The largest silk manufacture is at Pesth, giving employment to between 400 and 500 men. Of greater extent are the leather manufactures; but even of this article much is imported. The most productive iron works are in the county of Gömör, among which are particularly distinguished the manufactories of Pohorela, and Vorosko, belonging to the Prince Saxe-Coburg. The whole iron produce of Hungary is estimated at 500,000 cwts. per annum, half of which belongs to Gömör. In several counties there are potteries and glass-works, as well as powder-mills; and also clay-pipe-works, some of which, as at Debreczin and Papa, produce 20,000 bowls weekly. Soap is chiefly manufactured in Szegedin, Kecskemet, and Debreczin, the last of which produces 7000 cwts. annually. The distilleries are mostly in the north among the Slavonian population; and the breweries, 300 in number, are mostly round the large towns of mixed population, as beer is no favourite drink with the Magyars. Sugar refineries have also of late risen in several parts of the country; but this article also requires importation. The cigar manufactories, introduced within a very recent period, had imparted a new impetus to the cultivation of tobacco; but the introduction of the tobacco monopoly at the end of the late war, at once extinguished this branch of industry.

The inferiority of the roads, only compensated to some extent by two railway lines, and steam navigation on the Danube and Theiss, but especially the restrictive commercial system of Austria, sufficiently account for the insignificance of Hungarian commerce, both foreign and internal. The centre of commerce is the capital, Pesth, situated on the banks of the mighty artery of the kingdom, the Danube. The chief feature of internal trade is the exchange of products between the northern and southern districts; the former sending to the south minerals and timber, and the latter carrying to the north grain and cattle, an intercourse facilitated by the great number of rivers navigable to vessels and boats of small freight. The annual fairs held at Pesth mark the culminating points of commercial activity, the chief marketable article being wool, of which, according to Fenyes, upwards of 120,000 cwts. are sold annually. The other towns of commercial importance are—in the south, Becso exporting to Austria; Flume, the Hungarian littorale, and Semlin, communicating with the Turkish pro- Hungary. vines: in the west, Waitzen and Pressburg; in the north, Koszau and Eperies.

Exports.

The following details, collected by Fenyes, will give a general idea of the extent and progress of the foreign commerce during the five years immediately preceding the late war:

| Exports in 1840 | Cts. | |----------------|------| | Wheat | 1,313,629 | | Rye | 195,071 | | Barley | 1,191 | | Oats | 488,629 | | Wool | 237,746 | | Tobacco | 335,473 |

| Exports in 1845 | Cts. | |----------------|------| | Wheat | 2,408,118 | | Rye | 264,613 | | Barley | 782,812 | | Oats | 214,446 | | Wool | 211,625 | | Tobacco | |

The number of exported cattle in 1845 was 106,230, that of hogs, 332,440. The total value of exports that year was estimated at 71,735,683 florins, which, at the rate of ten florins to a pound, is equal to L7,173,568.

Imports.

The value of imports, both from Austria and other countries, was, in the same year, 63,514,437 florins, or L6,851,443. Foreign countries, it must be added, enter only for one-fourth of this intercourse, the rest belongs entirely to the Austrian dominions. Since the end of the last war the custom-duties between Hungary and Austria have been abolished. In how far this change has hitherto affected the commerce of the former would, in consequence of its abnormal political state, be difficult to determine even if the requisite data had been made public. As difficult would it be to form a sure estimate of the revenue and expenditure of Hungary since the late war, as both result from monetary arbitrary measures undertaken either as precautions against revolution or in consequence of the periodic sickness of the Austrian finances. Ample data, however, are extant as to the public revenue and expenditure of Hungary before 1848. The chief sources of revenue up to that date were—the house-tax, war-tax, the toll duties, the crown and fiscal domains, and salt revenues, which, with the minor sources of income, such as the lottery, the post-office, and the mines, yielded, according to Fenyes, L3,400,000, a sum less than that of Lombardy, but more than sufficient to cover public expenses, in consequence of the internal organization of the counties, where the salaries of the constitutional officials were but nominal. In the new regime a not unimportant item in the public revenue is the tobacco monopoly introduced into the Hungarian dominions by an imperial edict of November 1850. By this edict no one may cultivate tobacco, except by previous permission, specifying the place and mode of cultivation, each owner being obliged to deliver up his produce to the government, which determines its value. The monopoly in itself, no less than the domiciliary visits to which it gave rise, greatly injured this thriving branch of Hungarian industry. A great many, indeed, have in consequence of this given up its cultivation, dispensing even with its use.

Education.

Education, which has likewise undergone great changes since the war of 1848, has within late years made greater progress than general industry. The existence of feudality, we need hardly say, was incompatible with the education of the lowest and most numerous class of the population, the peasants; nor could much be expected from a bourgeoisie just starting on the road of activity and wealth. Mental culture thus became chiefly restricted to the nobles. They sent their sons to the colleges to acquire that knowledge and attain those degrees without which they could have made no figure in public life. Hence the vast number of advocates in Hungary, of whom only a small fraction make their appearance at the bar. Among the Protestants, who had enjoyed complete independence with regard to their ecclesiastical affairs and instruction, elementary schools had been established in almost every village, so that the rising generation of that confession surpass at least their parents in the knowledge of reading and writing. Among the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic population the number of elementary schools is comparatively very small, and the case is the same with the Non-United Greeks, who, like the Protestants, are in this respect independent of the government.

The higher schools of both confessions have generally each a fund, derived mostly from landed property, though the Catholic schools are much richer, and, as already observed, stand under the immediate control of the government. Hungary numbers one university (at Pesth), 21 lyceums, 28 theological and 17 philosophical schools, 95 gymnasiaums, and 2293 elementary or reading schools. This number does not include Hungary, Transylvania, which possesses 25 gymnasiaums and 236 reading schools, besides 8 lyceums and 10 seminaries, where theological and philosophical courses are given. The difference between the lyceums and philosophical schools is, that in some of the former the philosophical studies are but preparatory, though in general, and especially in those that are Protestant, they embrace also chemistry and law. The university of Pesth, where instruction is gratis, counts 45 professors, besides extraordinary lecturers. Of these 8 occupy the theological, 6 the juridical, 18 the medical, 14 the philosophical chairs, and 1 fills the chair of mathematics. The philosophical course lasts for two, law for three, theology for four, and the medical course for five years. The last enables to the degree of M.D. The students of surgery do not, like those of medicine, in a wider sense, require to have previously passed the philosophical course. Most of the lectures at this university are delivered in Latin, although of late years some of the professors began to employ the Magyar language. The university boasts of rare collections of natural curiosities, a large library, and a spacious botanical garden. In the year 1847 there were at the university 65 theological, 214 juridical, 539 medical, 233 philosophical, and 43 mathematical students; total, 1134.

The number of children attending the elementary schools was estimated at 230,617. A deadly blow was inflicted on both public and private education by the concordat already referred to, by which the schools are placed under the direct surveillance of the bishops. Even the Protestant schools must restrict themselves to the use of the books selected by the papal censors; and we find that even Cicero and Demosthenes have been placed on the list of proscribed authors. Amongst the most promising institutions are the Physical Society, established in 1841, and the Assembly of Naturalists, annually held in different parts of the country. The Hungarian Learned Society or Academy of Sciences is the supreme representative of the national culture. This society, first constituted with royal sanction in 1830, consists of 212 regular, and a large number of corresponding members, a certain number of the former participating in a small annuity. The programme of the society is rather ambitious, being divided into six sections, viz., philology, philosophy, history, mathematics, jurisprudence, and natural philosophy. Two of these sections, history and jurisprudence, enter but nominally into their labours, being virtually proscribed by the Austrian government.

The national museum at Pesth, founded by Francis Széchenyi, father of the famous Stephan Széchenyi, deserves particular mention. The collections in the museum, both in the numismatic and natural departments, are varied, and of the most precious kind, and so, especially in a national point of view, is the library department, comprising, besides a great number of rare books, many valuable manuscripts. The department of art vies in excellence and rarity with the rest, and its value was considerably increased by the magnificent present of 300 pictures, made by Ladislais Pyrker, archbishop of Eran. The massive edifice, situated in the centre of the town, in a free open square, is in good keeping with the rich treasures it contains.

Knowing the Asiatic origin of the Magyars, it is hardly necessary to say that their language is also Asiatic, though it has by no means hitherto been exactly determined to which great class it belongs. According to Balbi, who divides the known languages into five classes, the Magyar belongs to the Oural stock, comprising the Finnish, Lapland, and Perman languages, and which as such are contradistinguished from the Asiatic stock in which the Samoied and Tartar languages are comprehended. The Hungarian antiquarians, on the other hand, while likewise classifying the Magyar among the Oural tongues, include in this classification, besides the Finnish, also the Mogul, Tartar, Samoied, and Turkish languages, and thus make it a strictly Asiatic idiom. Recent travellers have pretty safely established the correctness of the latter opinion. The Magyar language is sonorous and mellow, rich in inflexions, copious in expression, and most logical in its derivations. The literature of Hungary has suffered severely from the exclusive worship long paid to the Latin, a circumstance due to the influence which the foreign monks naturally acquired on the conversion of Hungary to Christianity, and her simultaneous transformation into a monarchy on a European model. Raised by King Stephan to the peerage and the highest offices, the Hungary, ecclesiastical order, at first the sole lawgivers, and for centuries the only class possessed of European knowledge, became the means of establishing the Latin at court, of introducing it into the administration, and, from their ignorance of the Magyar language, of introducing it exclusively into public worship. Having thus become the language of the higher classes, or the *ordines regni*, the Latin continued, despite the Reformation, to monopolize the field of literature till the close of the eighteenth century.

The earliest publications in Latin worthy of particular mention, are the *Chronicle* by the anonymous notary of King Bela II., of the middle of the twelfth century, which describes the first ages of Hungarian history in connection with the Huns; the *Chronicle of Simon Kerz*, a writer of the thirteenth century; the *Chronicon Budense*, and the *Chronicon Rerum Hungaricarum* of Johan Thuróczius. A great stimulus was imparted to literature by Matthias Hunyadi, or Corvinus. Most of the *beaux esprits* that crowded to his magnificent court at Buda were Italians, invited to Hungary partly by Beatrix of Naples, the second wife of Matthias, though there were also several of the natives who earned well-deserved fame. The foremost among the Italians was Bonfinius, reader to the Queen Beatrix. His principal work is *Decades IV. Rerum Hungaricarum*, which comprises the Hungarian history from the earliest times to the death of King Matthias. Departing from the rule of the other Hungarian chroniclers, Bonfinius diversifies his narrative with a mass of legendary gossip; and though his attempt to imitate Livy failed, his history is highly instructive, and the most readable of all the historical productions of the time. The best edition of the *Decades* was published, by Sambucus, his commentator, at Basel in 1569. Galileotti, the principal librarian of King Matthias, wrote *De ejus dictis et factis*, while the Neapolitan envoy at Buda, Peter Riccio, composed a brief epitome of *Rerum Hungaricarum*. The Tuscan Callimachus procured himself a name by his three books on the reign of Wladislaus as well as his *Attila*. Among the natives the most prominent place belongs to Caligais alias Janus Pannonius, a famous Greek and Latin scholar in his age, and who in his youth went in search of knowledge to Italy, having spent fourteen years at Ferrara alone. Besides translations into Latin from Homer and Plutarch, Pannonius composed in Latin, epigrams, panegyrics, and a few epic poems, the greatest part of which is comprised in the *Deliciae Poetarum Hungaricarum*, published at Frankfurt in 1619. Contemporaneous critics all agree in lauding the classical learning and poetic genius of Pannonius, comparing him now with Scaliger, and now with Erasmus. But however that may be, it must appear a matter of some surprise that the example of Dante and Petrarch should not have inclined his muse to sing in the language of the living.

As regards the native, or the Magyar idiom, up to the sixteenth century, all that is known of it consists in MSS. of a few legends of the saints, some fragments of historical rhymes, and translations of the Scriptures. Ladislans Batory, a Pauline monk, was the first who performed the task of translating the Bible. This translation, which was executed in the middle of the 15th century, is preserved, but in an imperfect state. Relics of another kind belonging to this period, are the oath which John Hunyadi took when elected governor of Hungary, and a few verses sung by the children at Pesth, at the coronation of his son Matthias. As in other countries, so in Hungary also, the cultivation of the native idiom received a stimulus from the Reformation, though the melancholy days that commenced with the sixteenth century, and continued for two hundred years, afforded no general seat for the muses. Among the poets who wrote in the Magyar language, the best known are Bazai, Temesvari, Bogali, Valkai, and Timodi, who were ambitious enough in pretending to sing the exploits and glories of the two Hunyadis, and the deeds of Soliman, and the principal Turkish generals, and whose strains it would be difficult to rank above the level of rhymed chronicles. Kakony sang the deeds of Cyrus; and Csaktorony, improving upon Homer, rechanted Ajax and Ulysses. Of a higher order than these poetasters were Balassa and Rima, who belong to the second half of the sixteenth century. Much more important were the labours of the translators of these days. These were Konyati and Pinti, who produced a Magyar version of the *New Testament* (1536) among the Catholics; and John Erdösi and Heltai among the Protestants, who translated the entire Scriptures.

A new translation of the *Bible* for the Catholic confession was prepared in 1626 by George Kaldi, while the Protestant version was corrected and republished by Albert Molnar, the most learned of the Calvinist ministers. A few of the Latin classics were rendered into Hungarian by Deesi and Benko, and Heltai translated the laws or *Tripartium*, compiled by Verboeczy, and the *Decades de Bonfin*. A writer of considerable merit and great erudition, is John Sambucus, who studied medicine as a profession, and cultivated the study of history and the classics from pleasure, having spent more than twenty years at the universities of Italy, France, and Germany. Besides translating into Latin from Plato, Hesiod, and Hippolytus, editing several Latin authors, which procured him great contemporary fame, and composing several treatises on theology, Sambucus continued Bonfin's *Decades*, to the reign of Ferdinand of Austria. The patronage he enjoyed at the hand of Maximilian was little calculated to favour his reputation as a historian.

The seventeenth century, marked by the persecuting spirit of the reigns of Rudolph, Ferdinand, and Leopold, is but little better than the former, though it can boast of a few names which, in history, poetry, and theological controversy, have acquired for themselves a lasting celebrity. Hungarian annals, Nicholas Ivánffy, the *locum tenens*, or vice-palatine, in the reign of Rudolph, wrote in classic Latinity, the *History of Hungary from the death of Matthias Corvinus to Matthias II. of Austria*, a work of great merit, though too grossly biased in favour of the Austrian party. The Calvinist minister, Albert Molnar, already mentioned, distinguished himself by his philological labours, and especially by the composition of a Greek, German, Latin, and Hungarian dictionary; while the Jesuit Pater Pazman, afterwards primate and cardinal, enriched the national language with religious productions of a polemical nature. As regards poetry, a new era commenced with the appearance of Nicholas Zrínyi, grandson of Zrínyi the heroic defender of Sziget against Soliman in 1566. The noblest production of his lyre is the *Zrínyid*, or the Siege and Fall of Saiget. Gongyódi sung the deeds of Maria Széchy, the defender of the fortress Murány against the Austrians. In the eighteenth century, a period of peace, Hungary seemed sunk into a state of torpor, which, in the reign of Maria Theresa, was assuming, as far as the magnates were concerned, a denationalizing tendency, and producing a complete neglect of the native idiom. From this lethargy, the nation only recovered during the reign of Joseph, in consequence of his violent measures for the Germanization of Hungary. Societies for the cultivation of the language were now simultaneously formed in different parts of the kingdom, periodicals were started, and the language submitted to severe investigation, to be purged from foreign expressions, rendered more fixed in grammar, and to undergo a total reform. These linguistic efforts, begun by Revay, were carried on with unremitting zeal and signal success by Francis Kazinczy. The adversaries of the linguistic reform attempted to throw ridicule on the labours of Kazinczy by publishing a lampoon entitled *Mondolat*; but they were soon obliged tacitly to respect a man who, actuated by patriotic feelings, laboured unweariedly to remove the mental inactivity and torpor that lay heavily upon the national body, and who felt convinced that, with the revival and culture of the sonorous native idiom, the people would regain that self-esteem, buoyancy, and openness which once formed the chief features in their character. Kazinczy was far from being an original or powerful thinker. His powers mainly lay in his aptitude for adapting to the taste and opinions of his own country the ideas and general knowledge which he culled from foreign literature. The attractive and popular manner in which he advanced new rules and theories, was the chief secret of his success; and, though placed in circumstances incomparably more disadvantageous, Kazinczy may be said to have done for Hungarian literature what Herder had already accomplished for Germany. (See Hungary, Past and Present, chap. viii., by Emeric Szabadi.) His patriotism enthused him, like a few of his contemporaries, several years, imprisoned, but on his release he renewed his labours with redoubled vigour. The more prominent authors and poets of that time are Dugonics, Csokonay, Dayka, Virag, and Alexander Kisfaludy, among whom the last attained the greatest popularity. Kisfaludy excited great attention by his long lyrical poem, *The Lord of Ilionfy*, published in 1801. He also wrote several historical dramas of comparatively little merit, and highly in- teresting tales of ancient Hungarian life. A few glowing odes flowed from the pen of Daniel Beresnyi; Dobrentei and Vitkovics excelled in popular songs; while Charles Kisfaludy surpassed his brother in the drama. An author of higher parts than any of these was Francis Kölcsey, whose articles in the periodical Elet és Literatura (Life and Literature) are beyond doubt the finest specimens of Hungarian aesthetical criticism. Kölcsey was also great as an orator, and next to Count Széchenyi, the most influential leader of the reform party.

Before proceeding further it is necessary to remark, that about the end of the eighteenth, and the beginning of the nineteenth century, much was done in historical writing. The two Jesuits Pray and Katona have each, with much research, written in Latin the history of Hungary, from the earliest period to the reign of Maria Theresa; while Engel and Fessler have performed the same task in the German language. A brief history reaching only to the fourteenth century was composed in the Hungarian language by Virag.

Michael Vörösmarty may be called the father of the more recent and more genuine Hungarian poetry. The first fruit of his lyre which attracted general attention was a historical tragedy, King Solomon, published in 1821, which, though deficient in dramatic effect, is distinguished, like his other productions, by the beauties of a chastely figurative language and noble sentiment. Three years afterwards Vörösmarty gave forth an epic, The Flight of Zolán, embodying an episode of the conquest of the Magyars, which was followed by a romantic poem, and another epic, Csehrolom, having for its burden the victories of the Magyars over the Cumans. He wrote numerous exquisite lyrical pieces. He also translated several of Shakespeare's plays, and, as a member of the Academy, contributed much to the philological department. Next to him in rank are Bajza, Czuczor, and Garay, the last of whom acquired unusual popularity by his series of ballads relating to the Árpád period. More recently Alexander Vachot, John Erdélyi, Francis Caesar, and a few others, earned a high name as poets; and in 1842 Hungary received the first fruits of Alexander Petőfi, destined soon to become the most popular of her bards. His most successful pieces are those descriptive of country life. Petőfi disappeared amid the carnage of battle in 1849, and since then nothing has transpired as to his real fate. Tempa, another popular poet, is in some respects superior to Petőfi; and Arany gained a sudden popularity in the field of epic poetry. As a humorist, the palm belongs to Sárközy; his Golden Trumpet, descriptive of the late war, being a very singular production. The most promising of the recent minstrels are Hidvér, Szász, Gulay, and Levay.

Baron Josika may be said to have done for prose what Vörösmarty did for poetry, having been the first to produce genuine novels. The most popular works of this prolific author, now an exile in Belgium, are—The Bohemians in Hungary, in which Matthias Corvinus appears on the scene; The Last of the Batorys; and Abaúj, Prince of Transylvania. Baron Octavian, better known as a politician, earned celebrity as a writer of political novels; while Kathy, an author more original, and possessed of a richer fancy than either of the preceding, enriched the literature with several works of fiction, chiefly descriptive of Hungarian life and scenery. The familiar prose writers belonging to a more recent date are Baron Kemény, Charles Berzsenyi, and Moritz Jokay. This last author is as productive as he is popular. Political writing dates from Count Stephan Széchenyi; his first production, The Codex, embodying a series of proposed reforms, not a little startling to the feudal mind, was published in 1830. It soon called into action the pen of Count Joseph Dessewffy, and several other conservatives; and was followed by another work, The Light (A Világ), and the Studium. In the last the Count particularly expounds the necessity of means of communication, and of reforms in the laws of credit, as well as the importance of capital for the promotion of industrial activity. At the appearance of Kossuth on the field of journalism in 1841, Széchenyi came forth with his People of the East (Kelet Nepé), a most remarkable mixture of polemics and prophecy, and which called forth a separate answer from the powerful and popular editor of the Pesti Hirlap. Széchenyi's last work, Political Fragments, was issued on the eve of the war of 1848. Of considerable influence were the political writings of Baron Octavian and Szalay, who superseded Kossuth in the editorship of the Pesti Hirlap. Szalay also contributed short biographical sketches of modern English and French statesmen; as a sort of supplement to Hungary, which, there lately appeared, under the editorship of Csergery, sketches of Hungarian politicians; and since the late war he has written also a History of Hungary. The most valuable contribution in the field of literature is Count Joseph Teleki's voluminous history of the Hunyadi period (A Hunyadi kor). The noble author, formerly governor of Transylvania, dedicated upwards of twenty years to the composition of this work. In antiquarian research and natural sciences the most prominent names are Stephan Horvat, Fejer Kolker, and Scheidius. In Peter Vajda, distinguished as a poet, who was carried away by premature death, Hungary lost one of its most original philosophical writers. Since the end of the late war, literature has assumed a more scientific and abstract tone, as is shown by the increasing number of text books of natural science published within the last few years. The approximate number of books that appeared in 1853 was 230, and in 1854 this number was more than doubled. The effects of the censorship are best seen in the diminution of newspapers, which (in Magyar) averaged in 1854 between 10 and 15. Of this number only one belongs to Transylvania, The New Magyar Museum, edited monthly by Francis Toldy, secretary to the Academy of Sciences. This indefatigable savant is engaged with the republication of the authors of the last three centuries.

Having thus surveyed the present political and social conditions of Hungary, we shall resume the thread of history, which we left at the battle of Mohacs (1526), when the throne became vacant by the death of Louis II., brother-in-law to Ferdinand of Austria.

It is the fashion with some foreign writers here to stop short, and henceforth to merge Hungarian history into the annals of the House of Austria, a course utterly unwarranted by the nature of events. As well might a historian ignore the War of Independence of the Netherlands, and treat it incidentally in the general history of Spain.

Before entering upon this so-called Hapsburg period, we shall premise a list both of the kings of Hungary and the princes of Transylvania. The latter country maintained its independence till the end of the seventeenth century:

| Hungary | Years | |---------|-------| | Ferdinand I. (rival, John Zapolya) | 1527-1554 | | Maximilian (Segis, Zapolya) | 1554-1576 | | Matthias I. | 1576-1608 | | Matthias II. | 1608-1619 | | Ferdinand II. | 1619-1637 | | Ferdinand III. | 1637-1657 | | Leopold I. | 1657-1705 |

| Transylvania | Years | |--------------|-------| | Stephan Bathari | 1564-1576 | | Stephan Bekey | 1576-1581 | | Gábor Bathari | 1581-1619 | | Bethlen Gábor | 1619-1637 |

The general consternation caused by the victory of the Turks at Mohacs had barely subsided, when the majority of the nobles proclaimed John Zapolya, vassal of Transylvania, king of Hungary; and he underwent, in the usual forms, the ceremony of coronation at Weissenburg. Several of the magnates, influenced partly by envy to the vassal, partly by the prospect of the favours and distinctions of a foreign court, rallied round Ferdinand of Austria, brother of the emperor Charles V., who, in addition to the family alliance upon which he grounded his right, urged the claims arising from his compact with his brother-in-law, Louis II. A year later Ferdinand likewise received the royal election, and war accordingly commenced. Assisted by his brother Charles, and the hereditary States, Ferdinand sent an army into Hungary, before which his over-confident rival was soon compelled to retire. Zapolya took refuge for a time in Poland, whence he collected aid both from Soliman and Francis I. of France. The French king, then at war with the emperor Charles V., could hardly do more for Zapolya than send an ambassador to Hungary laden with fair promises. But the powerful Sultan, though equally importuned by Ferdinand, determined to aid the native king. A large Ottoman army, led by Soliman in person, entered Hungary in 1529, and drove the Austrians before them to the gates of Vienna. An attempt to take that capital having failed, the Sultan retraced his steps. After the conclu- son-in-law of James I. of England. The revolutions in the Hungary, seraglio at Constantinople, and the dastardly conduct of Frederic, content to abandon his subjects and save himself by flight, destroyed in embryo this domination. Notwithstanding, the Transylvanian prince, after having gained several advantages over the imperialists, led by Bougari, forced Ferdinand to peace, which was concluded at Nikolsburg in 1621. By the terms of this treaty, Ferdinand engaged to observe strictly all the laws of the country, and maintain inviolate the privileges of the Protestants; and Bethlen was acknowledged prince of Transylvania and of seven counties of Hungary Proper, and promised the possession of the duchies of Oppeln and Ratisbon, in Silicia. The infraction of this treaty on the part of the emperor led to a second war, which terminated in another peace, concluded in 1623 at Pressburg. And now, when the Protestant party were about to receive a formidable defender in Gustavus Adolphus, Bethlen suddenly died. Meanwhile, the Jesuits succeeded in regaining to the Roman Church many of the most powerful of the aristocracy, who carried along with them their numerous serfs. Ferdinand dying in 1637, and the religious persecutions being continued during the reign of his son and successor, Ferdinand III., the country was again exposed to the horrors of war, and in the present instance also the national cause found a defender in the prince of Transylvania, George Rakoczy, who extorted the peace of Lintz, concluded in 1645. His elder son having preceded Ferdinand III. to the grave, he was succeeded by his second son, Leopold, whose reign forms the most tragic page in Hungarian annals.

At his coronation this prince engaged himself to maintain the laws of the country in a diploma containing the important provision, that without the consent of the diet no war should be proclaimed, nor foreign troops introduced into the country. Despite these promises, however, Leopold ordered fresh troops to enter Hungary, ostensibly for the purpose of protecting his partisan, Kemény, in Transylvania, against Abafi, the designated prince of the Porte, but actually for the suppression of the heretics. Hereupon the Grand Vizier led his forces up the Danube, but, aided by a corps sent by Louis XIV. of France, the imperialists gained the battle of St Gotthard (1664), a victory which Leopold availed himself of for signing a hasty peace with the infidels, in order the more easily to check the heretics. Persecutions, as well as depredations, which fell equally heavy on the Catholics, now followed each other in rapid succession, and the result was, that the most devoted magnates of the House of Austria conspired to save the nation from ruin. The heads of this conspiracy were the palatines Wenzeloni, Peter Zrinyi, the ban of Croatia, and the chief-justice Naschidy. The plot having been prematurely discovered, these leaders were partly seized and partly decoyed to Vienna, placed before a foreign tribunal, and executed. The consternation became general, and the archbishop Szegedi established a tribunal at Pressburg, before which upwards of 200 Lutheran and 75 Calvinist martyrs were compelled to appear. The mad zeal went so far as to sell many of those victims as galley-slaves, some of whom recovered their liberty (at Naples, whilst they had been conveyed), by the intercession of the Dutch admiral, John de Haen. The Protestants, in despair, rose in arms, and found an intrepid leader in Emeric Tokoli (1678). The Marquis de Bethune, the ambassador of Louis XIV. in Poland, greatly encouraged the Hungarians, and concluded a treaty with Tokoli, from which much was expected, but which remained unfulfilled in consequence of the conclusion of the peace of Nissequon. No other ally was thus left to Hungary except the Porte, not a very reliable friend in hours of extreme danger. The grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, who, despite the remonstrances of Tokoli, marched straight forward to Vienna (1683), was, as is well known, compelled to raise the siege, and then routed, by the valour of Sobiesky, king of Poland. The misfortunes that henceforth overtook the Turks in Hungary, the alliance with Tokoli, and the fate of the malcontents, were but little thought of at Constantinople, then ruled over by imbecile Sultans. Nor did the court of Vienna neglect to attempt rendering Tokoli an object of suspicion to the Porte, in consequence of which he was thrown into chains and carried prisoner to Constantinople. Leopold now took revenge upon Hungary. A scaffold was erected in the market-place of Eperies, in the month of March 1687, and kept standing to the end of the year. For nine long months the Hungarians beheld their Hungary. countrymen dragged to open butchery, and if contemporary historians are to be believed, the executioners were weary of sacrificing the multitude of victims, which were without much distinction delivered up to them. These massacres, perpetrated under the auspices of General Caraffa, are known in the Hungarian annals by the name of the Butcheries of Eperies. The scaffolds were yet standing when the emperor caused the diet to proclaim the crown of Hungary hereditary, and to crown his son Joseph. After these massacres Tokóli, now released from imprisonment, again called the people to arms, resting his hopes of success on fresh engagements with the Porte. But the victories of Prince Eugene, which resulted in the Peace of Carlowitz in 1699, gradually dissipated all hopes, and the patriotic leader, with his followers, had no other chance left but to seek refuge in the Turkish territory at Nicomedia.

The oppressive rule was persevered in even after the total destruction of the national party; but by an almost incredible vitality, the nation at large was, three years after the peace of Carlowitz, enabled again to make a gigantic effort for independence. The victory of the Austrians under Prince Eugene, which led to the peace of Carlowitz, was gained in 1697, at Zenta, a village on the Theiss. By this peace the Porte abandoned Hungary and Transylvania to the emperor, but was confirmed in the possession of the Banat. The relinquishing of this fertile province to the Turks, as well as the fact that the emperor concluded that peace without the knowledge of the States, was sufficient to create the indignation even of the Austrian party, which largely affected their subsequent success. The leader in this fresh war, which lasted from 1703-1711, was Francis Raykoczy, prince of Transylvania. Its issue greatly depended on the great European war then carried on between France on the one hand, and England, Holland, and Austria on the other. Louis XIV, too well felt how favourable a diversion the war in Hungary created for his interests not to encourage and negotiate with Prince Raykoczy; while on the other hand, England and Holland were equally anxious to render him inclined to accept peace.

Through the mediation of the envoys of these two countries a temporary armistice was concluded, and deliberations for a final settlement of disputes were in course, when the victories of Eugene and Marlborough rendered all appearance of moderation on the part of Austria superfluous. Hostilities thus recommenced, and were at first in favour of the Hungarians, who assembled in Ompo (1707), and declared the Hapsburg dynasty deposed. But the favourable turn which affairs took on the Rhine enabled the Emperor Joseph to send reinforcements to the Danube, and the cause of the confederates began rapidly to decline. Raykoczy, discouraged and deceived in his expectations with regard to France and Charles XII. of Sweden, left the battle-field for Poland, under the pretence of seeking aid, and in his absence peace was concluded (1711) by Karoly, the chief of the Hungarian generals. At this juncture Joseph I. died, and was succeeded by his brother Charles VI. From this time no serious disturbance or open war took place between Hungary and her Hapsburgs until 1745 Charles secured the establishment of the right of succession in the female line. This right, known by the name of "Pragmatic Sanction," he obtained at the diet of 1722. In the year 1740 Charles died, leaving his throne to his daughter Maria Theresa, after having exasperated the minds of the nation by the issue of the war made in common with Anne, empress of Russia, upon the Porte, and which ended in abandoning to the Turks the fortress of Belgrade, and several other districts that belonged to the Hungarian crown.

The share which Hungary had in saving the Austrian empire from complete dissolution, during the reign of Maria Theresa, is too familiar to be here described. Threatened by Prussia, Bavaria, and France, and appearing at Pressburg as a fugitive, she had to appeal but once to the magnanimity and compassion of the States to make all of them shout with tears in their eyes, Moriamur pro rege nostro, and to make them immediately effect the insurrectio, or the general rise of the nobles. This tragic-dramatic scene took place on the 11th of September 1741, the young sovereign addressing in Latin the ordines regni with her infant Joseph—but six months old—in her trembling arms.

The chief merit of Maria Theresa lay in alleviating the condition of the serfs by the salutary changes which she effected in the feudal system. These reforms are known by the name of Urbanism. Transylvania was raised into a principality; the Hungary, Banat, which had been governed separately since its recovery from the Turks, was incorporated anew into the mother country, while the littoral, or the district of Fiume, likewise received a Hungarian government. Besides the establishing of the Theoricians in Vienna, Maria Theresa enlarged the university at Tyrnau, which in 1777 was transferred to Buda—established military schools for the nobles in Waltzen and Klausenburg, four academies at Tyrnau, Raab, Agram, and Kashan, and regulated the whole system of instruction. In short, her repeated and long stays at Buda, her measures in favour of commerce, and the creation of a Hungarian guard, were all calculated to gain for her the affections of the nation, though her consent to the repeated persecutions of the Protestants, instigated by the Jesuits and some of the prelates, does not redound to her honour. One of the Hungarian bishops, Martin Biro, went so far in his zeal as to publish a pamphlet in which, to save the credit of the Church of Rome for bloodshed, he strongly advised the burning of the heretics. Even Frederick the Great, at a distance, felt shocked at the procedure of that sanguinary prelate, of which the queen-empress took no cognizance at all. In 1780 Maria Theresa died, and was succeeded by her son Joseph, the last of the male line in the Hapsburg family.

The reign of this philosophic monarch produced events of a different character. Hurried away by his zeal for reform, Joseph, whose Edict of Toleration shocked all bigoted minds, and who aspired at transforming the Austrian States into a uniform monarchy, thought it better to dispense with diets, and so pay no regard whatever to ancient usages, and consequently began to govern Hungary by edicts. Not content with this, he enjoined the exclusive use of the German language in the schools, courts of justice, and administration, and imprudently carried the crown of St Stephen to Vienna. To crown all, the exorbitant taxes which he raised for the prosecution of a war against Turkey, in conjunction with Catherine II. of Russia, produced new discontent. The whole country was thus on the eve of a general war, when the king-emperor recalled all his edicts, promised redress, and suddenly died (1790). His brother and successor, Leopold, was obliged to confirm the liberties and rights of Hungary in a more explicit manner than any of his predecessors had done.

Leopold was succeeded by his son Francis at a time when all the dynasties of Europe were meditating the destruction of revolutionary France. Francis swore to the laws of Hungary, as readily as the other Hapsburgs had been in the habit of doing; and the States of Hungary contented themselves with furnishing the Viennese court with men and money. The king had but to mention the dangers with which the throne and the 'glorious privileges' of the feudal lords were threatened by the French Revolution, and levy followed levy en masse. The feudal lords of the Danube were not even impelled by a feeling of curiosity to think a while of what happened on the Seine. One man, Martius de, and a few others, who pondered over the Declaration of the Rights of Men, paid for their curiosity with their lives.

No other Hapsburg king of Hungary convoked the States so regularly and at such short intervals as Francis I. did, from the commencement of the Great War to the period when (as the phrase ran), to save Europe, he sacrificed his daughter Maria Louise; and at no other period were the Hungarian nobles more lavish in sacrificing their lives and treasures. In the year 1809 alone 50,000 nobles took the field, and their equipment entailed an outlay of more than 14,000,000 florins, besides the armaments of the counties. At the same time Hungary became inundated with bad coin and paper money, and was made to feel deeply the effects of the Austrian state bankruptcy. The States then began to approach the throne with loud complaints; but the close of the Great War led the emperor to choose, for the sake of avoiding useless recrimination, the easy method of altogether discontinuing the holding of the diets. This system was persevered in amid loud manifestations of discontent, till the year 1835, when the convening of the States and the exculpatory speech of the monarch again restored harmony between him and his subjects. It is to this date that the reform movement in Hungary, resulting in 1848 in the abolition of feudality, must be traced. The reconciliation of the Viennese court, where Prince Metternich, the personal friend of the emperor, possessed the greatest influence, Hungary, to the idea of constitutionalism in Hungary, was no doubt much owing to the unsettled state of Europe and in particular to the war of independence of the Greeks, which reacted on all the Christian provinces of the Ottoman empire.

Upon the whole, the diet of 1825 was of a retrospective character, but it remained immovable from the appearance of Count Stephan Széchenyi. The young count, then a captain in a hussar regiment, startled the lords spiritual and temporal, who strictly adhered to the use of Latin, by delivering his speech in the Magyar tongue; and on that occasion he, more than any other magnate, contributed to the establishment of a Hungarian academy, or learned society, offering towards this object his income of one year. This diet being ended, he left the army, and boldly assuming the task of a reformer, began to apply himself to political writing. He advocated the redress of some grievances connected with feudal tenure, reforms in the laws relating to credit, and an increase and improvement of the means of internal communication. The effects produced by his writings were shown in the spirit of the diet of 1832, when earnest appeals were made by the liberals in favour of the peasantry, and when the antiquated privileges of the nobles began to be called by their right names. A loud cry was also raised on behalf of Poland, then suffering all the horrors of a vanquished people. The results of that diet, however, were futile, although the progress which the idea of reform made in public opinion had by that time become palpable enough. Next to Széchenyi—engaged with the creation of clubs, the introduction of horse-racing, and plans for the regulation of the rivers, and for railway lines and other public works—the pioneers in the path of progress were Francis Kölcsey, the most classical of Hungarian authors; Stephan Bozókerdi, who may be styled the Wilberforce of the Hungarian serfs; Francis Deak; Gabriel Klunzal; and Eugene Boecky. The last—who, after a stay of a few years in Britain, died in 1854 an exile in Hamburg—was remarkable for his wit and his extemporaneous harangues, and contributed much to the progress made in matters pertaining to religion.

The Viennese court, to intimidate public discussion, resolved to visit a few of the liberals with imprisonment—a fate which fell also to the lot of Louis Kossuth. But this arbitrary conduct served only to render more animated the diet of 1840. On this occasion, too, when the question of the liberty of speech came under debate, the voice of Széchenyi made itself heard with more freedom than that of any other Hungarian, unequivocally stating the difficulty of a true union between constitutional Hungary and absolutist Austria. The noble count, in hinting to the court of Vienna to abandon its denationalizing measures, exclaimed—"We may perhaps be murdered, but we can never be fused into the Austrian dominions—nay, it is a question whether we can even be murdered—I at least do not believe it." The results of this diet were also nugatory. Public discussion, however, entered into a new phase, in consequence of the appearance of the political journal (Pesti-Hirlap) edited by Louis Kossuth. The effects of his leading articles were rapid and unexampled, exciting the attention of the most benighted and most apathetic. At this juncture Széchenyi stepped in to oppose his schemes, in a pamphlet called The People of the East, which served to add to the importance of the Pesti-Hirlap. Another adversary that rose against Kossuth was Count Dessefy Aurel, who became the editor of a conservative journal.

Despite the influence of Kossuth's labours as a journalist, and the stimulus given to public opinion by the liberal tendency of the literature, then in its most flourishing state, all that the diet of 1843 accomplished was an enactment conferring on the serfs the right to purchase their complete independence by paying a sum equivalent to the value of the land they possessed. Marriages between Roman Catholics and Protestants, solemnized by Protestant clergymen, were declared to be legal, and provision was made for enabling Roman Catholics to make a legal transfer of their profession from the Popish to a Protestant creed.

With reference to the use of the native idiom, or the Magyar, it was enacted,—1st, That it shall henceforth supersede the Latin in the speeches from and the addresses to the throne; 2nd, That it should be used in the central courts of administration and in the public schools, as well as in the diet. Croatia was exempted from the general rule, and left free to use Latin as its own tongue in the courts and assemblies. With regard to the diet, however, the Croatian members were exempted from using the Hungarian language only for the term of the next six years. However reasonable it was to substitute in the dietial debates a living idiom for the Latin, and however true it was that no other idiom except the Hungarian or Magyar could have been made the parliamentary or diplomatic language, these measures gave rise to a feeling of animosity in Croatia, which produced melancholy results. The question that was followed by a complete failure in the diet of 1843, was that which related to the commercial interest of Hungary. Hungarian commerce having long been obstructed by toll and custom duties established between Hungary and Austria, the liberal party now determined to remedy the evil by a radical change. In this their efforts proved unavailing, though an experiment was afterwards made to encourage home industry by way of association—an idea conceived by Kossuth, and readily supported by Count Casmir Batthyanyi. Meanwhile a new step of the court of Vienna served greatly to increase the political excitement of the country. As observed in the proper place, the counties which alone were able to withstand the encroachments of the Viennese court were governed by sheriffs, nominated by election for the term of three years, while the nominal head of each county was the lord-lieutenant—a dignity, in some instances a hereditary privilege of some families, but in the main conferred by the crown, and anything but lucrative. To render ineffectual the passive resistance of the county municipalities, Metternich hit upon the scheme of introducing a new class of officials, called administrators, both in counties where the office of lord-lieutenant was vacant, and in some instances despite the actual lord-lieutenant. This measure alarmed all who were in favour of constitutional government. The county assemblies and the daily press echoed with this question, and the liberals were soon split into two parties. The Kossuth party urged the re-affirmation of the county institutions, while a newer party, called the centralists, insisted on the nomination of a responsible ministry. The leaders of the latter party were Baron Octvios, Ladislaus Szalay, who followed Kossuth in the editing of the Pesti-Hirlap, and afterwards also M. Szemere, who in 1848 became minister of home affairs. On the approach of the elections for the diet of 1847, both liberal parties coalesced, having published their political creed in a programme.

In this important document, in declaring that they will avail themselves of all the means allowable to an opposition in a constitutional country, the liberals laid down the following points, to carry out which they promised to devote all their energies at the next session:—1. Reform in the feudal system. 2. The due representation of the towns. 3. Equality before the law. 4. General taxation for all classes, nobles and commoners. 5. Publicity in the courts. 6. The reunion of Transylvania with the mother country. 7. Liberty of the press; and, finally, a responsible ministry. They particularly appealed in this document to the laws of 1790, sanctioned by Leopold II., which distinctly declare that in its administration Hungary is an independent country, having nothing in common with the laws and institutions of the other parts composing the Austrian empire; and declared, moreover, that, while thus striving after reform, they by no means intended to place the interests of Hungary in opposition to those of the entire monarchy. An additional feature of this programme was the intimation, that, had the hereditary provinces of Austria continued to enjoy their former liberties, or if a constitutional existence were granted to those provinces, then there would be no difficulty whatever in reconciling the interests of Hungary with those of the whole monarchy.

On the 11th of November 1847 the diet was opened by King Ferdinand V., in person, the business having, according to usage, commenced with debates on the proposals of the crown. The first duty was the election of a palatine in the person of the Archduke Stephen, who was appointed to the office. In the address to the throne, particular stress was laid, along with the mention of other grievances or grievances, on the recent change introduced into the county administration. The final solution of the reform questions, especially opposed by the upper table or the House of Lords, was quickened by the unexpected February revolution of Paris. A numerous deputation conveyed the demands of the diet to Vienna. The troubled state of Lombardo-Venetia, and the revolutionary aspect of the capital, followed by the flight of Metternich, allowed the Hungary, court but short time for equivocation; and Count Louis Batthyányi, who had latterly served the cause of reform, was entrusted by his majesty with the formation of a Hungarian responsible ministry. Its members—Minister of Home affairs, M. Szemere; foreign affairs, Prince Paul Esterházy; finances, Kossuth; justice, Deák; public works, Count Széchenyi; public instruction, Baron József; commerce, Klauzál; and war, Mészáros, then colonial in the ministry of Radetzky in Italy. The principal laws passed were—The abolition of feudality; general taxation for all classes; the extension of the franchise to commoners, including also those occupying the military frontier; the equality of all received religions, including the Unitarians; the reunion of Transylvania with the mother country; liberty of the press; and trial by jury. On the 11th of April King Ferdinand repaired to Pressburg, and closed the diet amid the enthusiastic acclamations of the people.

As it afterwards became manifest, the court of Vienna, far from readily acquiescing in these reforms, rather meant them as a bait for drawing large supplies from Hungary against the Italian provinces, having immediately conceived the unenviable idea of preventing the consolidation of the new state of affairs by fanning internal discord. This was easily accomplished. The Rascians, who chiefly inhabit the Banat, and the Croats, demanded separate rights and separate administration, and instantly commenced to arm. The Rascians, who first unsheathed the sword of civil war, and many of whom were military borderers inured to arms, soon gained the ascendancy over the Magyars and Germans that inhabited the same districts, while their large supplies of arms and ammunition clearly indicated that they were receiving external assistance. Nor was it long before it became evident that Austrian officers were in their camps, directing their plans of attack. This state of things could not but hasten a collision between the Hungarian ministry and the court of Vienna with regard to a most sensitive question—the army, the former having necessarily urged the recall of the Hungarian regiments. Without complying with this demand, the Viennese court—which as yet feigned surprise at what happened in Southern Hungary, and stigmatized the Rascians and Croats as rebels—placed at the disposal of the Hungarian ministry a few foreign regiments, the commanders of which were soon found to be acting according to secret orders. The ranks of the Rascians were also swelled by levies openly made in Servia by the Austrian consul. While the Banat was thus all but a smouldering flame, Transylvania was becoming the theatre of a no less savage conflict. The Wallachs, that fine but neglected race, inflamed against their former feudal lords, and furnished with arms, destroyed Magyars, and everything that belonged to Magyars, with indiscriminate fury. The Saxons, flattered with hopes of great separate privileges, though preferring to keep within the walls of their towns, likewise contributed to the carnage; and, in addition to this general distress, Baron Jellachich (lately nominated Ban of Croatia) undignifiedly prepared an expedition against Pesth. The ministers turned to the fountain of justice, and King Ferdinand readily issued proclamations admonishing the "rebels" to peace and obedience; while the "rebels," in strange mockery, were boasting at that very moment of fighting for the king and his throne.

Amid this slaughter and devastation, the court of Vienna, directing its conduct in Hungary according to the state of the war in Lombardo-Venetia, went a step further in its dissimulation. The diet was convoked at Pesth with the avowed object of providing for the defence of the country (July 5). In the speech from the throne, the palatine, who opened the diet as vice-regent, declared the determination of the king to protect the integrity of the Hungarian throne. The secret object in view of the imperial dynasty in convoking the diet, as it appeared, was to obtain fresh levies for Italy, an idea sufficiently extravagant. The parliamentary deliberations on that head were however cut short by the approach of the Ban Jellachich. Count Batthyányi resigned, and Kossuth determined to proceed to the country and call the people to arms. The terror of the Croatian invasion soon proved a farce. Having advanced till within 25 miles from Pesth, the Ban was defeated in an engagement which took place at Paakond, and fled toward the Austrian frontiers during a three days' armistice that was granted to him. A few days afterwards, his rear, consisting of 10,000 men, was compelled to a surrender. The court now prepared for a regular invasion of Hungary, while the diet was equipping the levy of Hungary, 200,000 men formerly decreed, and from which decree royal sanction had been withheld. Meanwhile a dynastic revolution was accomplished. The weak Ferdinand was made to resign and to give place to his cousin, the Archduke Francis Joseph, son of Francis Charles, the heir-apparent to the throne. The new emperor proclaimed his ascension in a manifesto, announcing, among the primary things, the reduction of Hungary, while at the same time the diet declared this dynastic change unconstitutional and illegal. The real intentions of the court had been shortly before divulged by the interception of the correspondence of Count Latour, the Austrian minister of war, and the seizure of the papers of the palatine, who had fled to Vienna where he was supposed to be preparing to the camp to take the lead of the Hungarian troops.

Having dispersed a Slavonic congress held at Prague, and reduced the capital to obedience, Prince Windischgrätz, joined by the troops of the ban, began marching against Pesth. A part of the Hungarian national army, or the Honveds, which opposed his progress, were commanded by Görgei, lately a subaltern officer in the Austrian army. Without meeting much opposition, the Austrians advanced, in the beginning of 1849, to the vicinity of Pesth, which they occupied, after the diet and the committee of public defence had determined to transfer their seat to Debrecin, a town situated on the upper side of the Theiss. The heavy falls of snow, the severity of the season, the badness of the roads, naturally enjoined on the Austrian commander the necessity of a short respite, and during that interval the national government gained time for effecting a concentration of troops, and for procuring the matériel of war. With regard to the latter, the efforts and inventive powers of Kossuth surpassed every expectation.

On the advance of the Austrians in February 1849, the first engagement which took place at Kaplana proved decisive for neither party; but, a few days afterwards, a Hungarian corps, withdrawn from the Lower Danube, and commanded by Damyanics, one of the most valiant of officers, routed the Austrians at Szelekh. In the meantime, the Görgei corps, which, at the taking of Pesth by the Austrians, made a flank movement to the north, made its way amid numerous privations and difficulties through the Carpathians to join the army on the Theiss; while in Transylvania the war entered into quite a new phase. After the Hungarians, led by the intrepid Bem, a general known as a Polish hero since 1830, had defeated both the Austrians commanded by General Puchner, and the Wallachs, application was made to Russia, and General Luders, the Russian commander in the Danubian Principalities, forthwith penetrated into Transylvania, occupying Hermannstadt and Cronstadt, two towns inhabited by the Saxons. Even this foreign aid proved ineffectual. The victorious national legions led by Bem, took Hermannstadt by storm, and compelled both the Russians and Austrians to seek safety in the territories of the Porte.

By this time a large national army was ready on the Theiss to commence the offensive against Windischgrätz. The command was given to Görgei, and the different corps were led by Damyanics, Klapka, and Aulich. After crossing the Theiss, the Hungarians, in a high pitch of enthusiasm, advanced on the road leading to Pesth, meeting with the first serious resistance at the mountains of Gödöllő. After an obstinate battle the Austrians were driven from their positions, and successively defeated in four other pitched battles, the bloodiest of which was that of Iaszeg, fought on the 6th of April. Windischgrätz, abandoning the capital to the rebels, hastened to recross the Danube, leaving behind a small garrison at Buda.

Amid these victories, Kossuth, the president of the committee of public safety, proposed in the diet the dethronement of the Hapsburg dynasty, and the proposal was carried by acclamation. Hatred to the Austrian dynasty was much increased, both in consequence of its having called in the Russians, and by the new constitution promulgated (March 4) by the emperor Francis Joseph, which made a tabula rasa of all the ancient laws of Hungary. The substance of the act of independence, passed on the 14th of April, runs to the following effect—that the House of Hapsburg having treacherously levied war against the nation, broken up the integrity of the kingdom, and called in the aid of a foreign power to accomplish its aims, has by Hungary. These facts destroyed all the treaties that bound it to Hungary, and is therefore declared for ever excluded from the throne of the Hungarian kingdom. The future form of government was to be fixed afterwards, and in the meantime Kossuth was nominated governor, and a new responsible ministry formed. The legislators at Debrecin little suspected that that very moment couriers between Vienna and Petersburg were preparing a second Russian invasion, and that Europe would raise no voice against such an act. The English and French governments refused even to admit into their presence the Hungarian envoys. Though the warlike preparations of Russia were now immense, the Hungarians, under Danyanics, gained (April 18) the battle of Nagy Sarlo, which, if followed up, would have placed in their hands the Austrian capital, and thus have rendered them secure against Russian power. The commander-in-chief, Görgei, however, instead of advancing, led the army back to Buda, which, after a three weeks' siege, was taken by assault on the 21st of May; the divisions of Generals Nagy and Kmetz having been the first to scale the ramparts. The Russians meanwhile concentrated their forces in Poland, while the Hungarian government, not to offend European diplomacy, proved its forbearance, by refusing to order the corps of observation in the north to advance into Galicia, and thus anticipate the Russian invasion. Neither Russia nor the Western powers showed any sense of this moderation.

The Russians, commanded by Paskiewitch, began to pour in upon the Hungarian territory in June. As is evident from the official Russian statement, Paskiewitch's army consisted of 165 battalions of infantry, 138 squadrons of cavalry, besides 52 of Cossacks; with 65 generals, 349 staff officers, and 528 guns. The army commanded by Ludwig, which invaded Transylvania, numbered 28 infantry battalions, 16 squadrons of cavalry, 10 of Cossacks, with 56 guns; 11 generals, and 58 staff officers. The whole invading army thus amounted to upwards of 200,000 men. The Austrians were now placed under the command of Haynau, who was at Pressburg, joined by a Russian corps under General Panatin. The fact alone, that no protest was made, no word raised against the Russian invasion, served greatly to discourage both the people and the national troops. The combined armies of the two emperors reaped no small advantages from the refractoriness of Görgei, who, jealous of his comrades, prevented a speedy concentration of the troops. Obliged for the second time to abandon the capital, the diet and government repaired now to Szegedin, a town situated on the Theiss. After occupying Pesth, Haynau and the Russian corps joined to his army advanced towards the new seat of the diet; and at the same time the main body of the Russians advanced in two columns upon Miskolcz and Debreczin. The diet then transferred its seat to Arad, the fortress of which, like Comorn and Petervardein, was in the hands of the nation, and now the great struggle was drawing to its melancholy close. In Transylvania, the army under Bem was finally overpowered and routed; and in Hungary, Haynau and the Russian corps first drove the Hungarians, commanded by Dembinsky, from their position at Szegedin, and then gained a signal victory near Temesvar (August 9). It was two days after this latter defeat that Görgei, after a flank movement, undertaken at his own suggestion, arrived at Arad, where a pitched battle was to have been fought with concentrated forces; but this plan was naturally much affected by the defeat of Temesvar. At this juncture Kossuth resigned (August 11), having, in concert with those ministers that were present, nominated Görgei dictator of Hungary, and soon afterwards left Arad. The new dictator, who for some time back had been negotiating with the Russians, no sooner entered upon his office, than he at once settled with the Russian commander-in-chief the conditions of a surrender. This was soon accomplished on the 13th of August at Vilagos, a place near Arad; 24,000 men laid down their arms, and delivered 140 guns to the Russian General Rudiger. Bodies of troops that were in the immediate vicinity were compelled to do the same, and the fortress of Arad also opened its gates to the Hungarians. The belief of many among the Hungarian army, it may be observed, was, that the Grand Duke Constantine was to be the king of Hungary, and that he promised to give a constitution.

A few thousand men followed Bem and Guyon to Turkey, whither Kossuth and several others of the principal leaders had retreated, while all the prisoners of war were delivered by the Russians to General Haynau; and by the 2d of October the last rock of hope disappeared in the capitulation of Comorn, governed by General Klapka. "Hungary lay now entirely prostrate. The Russians began to take their backward route to the north and east, the Servians returned to the south, only the Austrians remaining with their commander Haynau, surrounded by bloody tribunals and hangmen. In almost every town of importance sat these foreign judges, to whom Francis Joseph confided the complete pacification of Hungary. Arad and Pesth, however, were the centres of these judicial proceedings. By an inexorable decree of Haynau, all the officers below the rank of a general, if not consigned to prison, were pressed as privates into the Austrian service, while the generals were sentenced to perish by the rope." The following eleven general perished on the gallows at Arad on the 6th of October:—Kiss, Török, Aulich, Laumer, Schwedler, Lemzian, Vessey, Kneizich, Nagy Sandor, and Danyanics. The last, the Hector of the Hungarian army, was dragged to the scaffold, despite his fractured leg. On the same day were executed at Pesth with the bullet, Count Louis Batthyani, Baron Pronyi, and several others, whose memory is endeared to the nation.

Despite the fact, that the constitution promulgated by the emperor in March 1849, meant to give equal rights to all the parts of the monarchy, was subsequently declared inapplicable, the new regime in Hungary was based on the ruins of all the ancient institutions. The office of the palatine, the county municipalities, the rights and privileges of the Protestant churches, all were swept away by periodical organic laws or ordinances. A treacherous hand dug up the crown of St Stephen, to deliver it to the emperor. But Francis Joseph, too glad of its possession, hitherto declined to undergo the ceremonies of coronation. From a kingdom Hungary thus sunk into a province, broken up into three parts, viz., two crown lands (the whole empire being divided into 20 crown lands), and a countyship. This latter province, comprising the Banat, consists of the counties Bac, Krassó, Temes, Torontal, and part of Syrmia. The three Croatian counties, Agrárm, Kreuzt, and Varasdín, and the three Slavonian counties, Posega, Veröze, and Syrmia, along with the Hungarian littoral, were erected into a crown land; the rest of the kingdom, divided into six districts, forms the other crown land. Transylvania is divided into five districts.

That the people feel the loss of their political rights, and look with anything but contentment upon the tabula rasa, feeding a host of foreign officials, and the infinitely less pleasant secret spies, may easily be understood. The exorbitant taxes which have already ruined part of the county gentlemen, however, would alone suffice to keep up those feelings which the court of Vienna flatters itself have disappeared. It is no secret, that the 119 million florins which Hungary contributed in 1854, to the well-known voluntary loan of 500 million, was, in the proper sense, a compulsory tax, levied with the voice of command and intimation. As if willing still more to brave the feelings of Hungary, the emperor surrendered to the pope the privileges of the Hungarian king by the concordat concluded in August 1855. The progress that is being made in the improvement of the means of communication, and the reforms introduced in several departments of judiciary, are advantages well worth mentioning. Nor ought it to be forgotten, that, however violent the changes introduced, and however at the mercy of a few civil and military officials, Hungary remains in possession of the noblest act of the revolution—the liberation of the serfs. Hungary-Water, a distilled water prepared from the tops of flowers of rosemary, and so denominated from a queen of Hungary, for whose use it was first made.