QUIT PRAGUE. JOURNEY TO BRÜNN BY KÖNIGGRATZ. STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
BRÜNN. ITS PUBLIC BUILDINGS. ABSENCE OF THE MORAVIAN BRETHREN.
"Time runs his ceaseless course," and, agreeably as with us he had
passed since our arrival in Prague, we began, after a week's sojourn
there, to discover that it would be necessary to move onwards. It had
been our anxious wish to proceed at once along the borders of Silesia
into Hungary; and at Dresden we had endeavoured to have some such route
marked out upon our passport, but we were not successful. For there is
extreme jealousy on the part of the Austrian officials abroad, of
granting free ingress and egress to and from Hungary; and we were
recommended, in consequence, to proceed direct to Vienna, where the
Hungarian Chancery would deal with us. We made another effort at Prague
to obtain that which in Dresden had been refused us; but it availed us
nothing. "We will pass you on to Königgratz, if you please," said the
chief of police, "where the authorities, being nearer to the frontier,
may be more in the habit of setting general regulations at defiance; or
you may go to Brünn, the capital of Moravia, and there fare better." We
fancied that there might be something in these suggestions, and
resolved to act upon them. Accordingly, having taken a last survey of
the lordly city, and provided ourselves with arms,--a precaution which
was everywhere pressed upon us, seeing that Hungary was our point of
destination,--we committed ourselves to an extra-post, an agreeable and
commodious vehicle, which holds two persons, and set out.
I have nothing whatever to say concerning our progress from Prague to
the first of the resting places which were marked upon our chart. Not
having any object to gain by delay, we performed the larger portion of
the journey by night; and, at an early hour in the morning, found
ourselves approaching the outer defences of a strongly fortified town.
This was Königgratz,--a huge barrack, in which two or three battalions
of infantry are usually quartered; and which contains, besides a state
prison, a Gymnasium, or seminary of public instruction, and some
churches. There was not much of promise in all this, neither did the
spectacle of chained men working by gangs in the streets, greatly win
upon us. We therefore abandoned, without hesitation, all idea of the
proposed halt; and having ascertained that the police were immovable;
that our passport being marked for Vienna and not for Hungary, they
either would not, or could not, sanction a deviation from the beaten
track,--we were fain to accept a visé for Brünn, and to resume our
former places in the interior of the diligence. Again, therefore, were
we _en voyage_, at a rate more rapid than is at all agreeable to him
who wishes to make acquaintance with a strange people. But for this
there was no help; and we took the evil patiently, being comforted by
the reflection, that, of the Bohemians we had already seen a great deal
more than ever can be seen, except by such as adopt our unpretending
system of travel.
From Königgratz to Brünn, you pass through a country for which nature
has done a great deal, and which the patient industry of its
industrious inhabitants has not failed to improve. It is, generally
speaking, a vast plain, with mountains in the distance; and, here and
there, a rise and fall on its surface, which produce an exceedingly
pleasing effect. There are many villages and small towns along the
road-side; and everywhere the fields were, when I saw them, in the
highest state of cultivation. Corn and meadow, with an occasional
vineyard, spread themselves out before us, and were relieved, from time
to time, by the introduction of a wood, disposed, as might almost seem,
with a view to heighten the extreme beauty of the landscape. Had I
abstained from holding converse with the inhabitants of that fair
province, I should have quitted it in the full assurance that they were
the most contented and happy people in the world. As it was, a regard
to truth compels me to acknowledge that I found them very much the
reverse.
It is not, I think, necessary for me to guard myself against the
imputation of cherishing any undue preference for the democratic
principle in the theory of government. Of all the tyrannies that exist,
the tyranny of the mob is the most oppressive; nay, the very excess of
freedom which gives to each individual the right of pestering all
around him with his impertinences, is surely much more hard to endure
than the occasional restraints which a strong police may impose. But an
absolute and irresponsible monarchy is not a pleasant government to
live under. Where men talk only in whispers; where they feel that their
words must be weighed ere they utter them; where their single idea of
the powers that be, is of an influence which oppresses, or keeps an eye
of unsleeping vigilance upon their movements; where they are not
permitted to form any judgment as to what is, or what is not, best for
their social condition,--but imbibe, from childhood, one conviction
only, that it is their wisdom to obey implicitly,--in such a state of
society it is vain to look either for true dignity of individual
character, or for the developement of powers which elevate both nations
and private men in the scale of human perfectibility. Practically
speaking, men may enjoy as much freedom of action as they could desire;
and their persons and their property will alike be secured from
violence; but there is not, nor can there be, real contentment
anywhere,--no, not even in the highest stations of all,--those of the
sovereign and his ministers.
I have been much struck in the course of my reading, with the pains
which travellers take to assure us that the government of Austria is
exceedingly paternal; and that the people who live under it harbour no
wish that it should be curtailed in its prerogatives. When this is said
both of the rulers and the ruled, as these show themselves in Austria
Proper, I am not sure that there is much to be found fault with. The
_Austrians_ have always been treated by the house of Hapsburg as
children are treated by their father; and being a light-hearted and
most unthinking people, they are happy in the preference which is shown
to them. But it is certainly not so in other portions of the empire. Of
the Italian provinces I need say nothing. Of Hungary I shall not speak
now, because other and better opportunities of doing so will arise; but
with respect to the Bohemians, the impression left upon my mind is,
that the iron has entered deeply into their souls. I have alluded
elsewhere to the substance of conversations which I have held with
nobles, and priests, and peasants. I have to record now what passed
between myself and a fellow-traveller in the diligence,--a medical man,
of strong good natural sense, and an education sufficiently enlarged.
He was not slow in discovering that I was a foreigner; and on his
demanding whence I came, I told him.
"Ah," said he, "you are the native of a free country. Everything which
you witness here must surprise and shock you."
"Quite the reverse," was my answer. "I am charmed with the simple
manners and apparently comfortable state of your population. I am
delighted with the kindness and hospitality which I have received from
your gentry; and, above all, I am glad to perceive that you all enjoy
as much of practical liberty as the heart of man need desire."
"Where is this practical liberty?" replied he; "is it in the liability
of the unprivileged classes to military service?--our total exclusion
from the management of our own affairs?--our rigid subjection to the
surveillance of the police--the restraint we are compelled to impose on
our very speech?--the absence of all tribunals to which, when oppressed
by the government, we can appeal?"
He was running on with a still longer list of grievances, when I
stopped him. "No," said I, "it is not in these particulars that your
practical freedom displays itself,--but in matters much more important,
because of daily and hourly recurrence. You go out and come in when you
will. You make choice of your own walk in life, and pursue it
uninterruptedly. You are safe from injury to person and property. You
have privileges, each of you, which no fellow-subject is permitted to
invade. Are not these very great blessings, and are you not content?
"Privileges!" replied he, "where are they? Undoubtedly, I am permitted
to practise medicine, under certain restrictions, exactly as the
bouerman may till his ground, and the artisan fabricate his wares. But
my privileges are those only which nature has given, and human laws
cannot take away. I may eat when I am hungry, if I can find food; and
drink when I am thirsty. But what am I, regarded as a citizen?--a hewer
of wood, and drawer of water; a mere drudge. Let my talents and
ambition be what they may, I can work out no opening for them. There
are no privileges in the empire, except those enjoyed by the nobles;
and even the nobles have, in point of fact, no rights which they can
call their own."
"What do you mean?" replied I; "if by honest industry you acquire a
fortune, you may purchase land, and take a settled station in society.
The army is open to you, and the church;--what would you have?"
"I would have what you possess in England," answered he; "room to
breathe freely; and a fair field in which to struggle even for the
honours of life. The army is open to us, doubtless; but in the army,
unless I be of noble descent, I cannot hope to rise above the rank of a
captain, at the highest. The church is good for those who are willing
to submit to its restraints, and play the hypocrite. I may purchase
land, too, doubtless, as you say; but its possession will not confer
upon me any, even of the ideal advantages, which are claimed and
conceded to the penniless aristocrat. With us the line of nobility is
so distinct and broad, that no human being can, unless the accident of
birth have placed him on the sunny side of the hedge, overstep it. But
this is not all. The nobles not only engross all places of trust, and
profit, and honour, but they do not bear their just proportion in the
burdens of the state. They pay hardly any taxes; whereas we of the
cannaille are very heavily laden with them."
I saw from the tone of my fellow-traveller's discourse that he was
exceedingly discontented, and I ventured to ask whether the sentiments
to which he gave utterance, were generally entertained in Bohemia?
"By all orders and degrees of men," was his answer. "Even the nobles
are dissatisfied, because the king holds his court at Vienna; and for
the rest of us, you may depend upon it that we feel our degradation
acutely."
"If it be as you represent," said I, "how comes it that there never
occurs anything like an attempt to wrest by force from the government
what it will not concede to reason?"
We were passing through a small town, or rather village, at the moment,
and my companion bid me look out. I did so, and saw two or three groups
of cuirassiers lounging about the street.
"These are the emperor's sureties for our good behaviour," observed he,
with a smile; "twelve or fourteen thousand men at Prague,--three or
four thousand at Königgratz,--a regiment at Tabor,--and squadrons
scattered, as you see, through all the villages. Our poor peasants
would hardly think of uttering a complaint in such a presence; and our
nobles don't care to argue points with men who wear the sword."
I could only shrug up my shoulders, for I saw that he was, at least, so
far in the right, that troops swarmed everywhere; and, without
encouraging him to brood over his own misfortunes, whether real or
imaginary, I was content to thank heaven that I had myself been born in
a land where such grounds of complaint are unknown.
We stopped to dine at Leutomischl, a small, but prettily-situated town,
with a schloss, or chateau, of which the style of architecture is
exceedingly striking. It occupies the brow of a rising ground, just
over the principal street; and with its profusion of minarets, reminded
us rather of some Oriental palace, than of the residence of a Bohemian
noble. But we had no time to examine it in detail; for even a German
extra post has its appointed season of movement; and our conducteur,
though abundantly civil, could not postpone it. Neither did there occur
any other incident of which it is worth while to take notice, till, at
six on the following morning, Brünn, the capital of Moravia, received
us within its walls.
There is not much in this city, independently of the historical
associations which are connected with it, that is likely to detain the
traveller many days, or to draw from him, after he has quitted it, a
lengthened description of what he may have seen. It is built along the
ascent of a steep hill, of which the summit is crowned by the
cathedral, a pile distinguished, like the more antique of the Slavonian
churches in general, by the great altitude of its nave. It is
surrounded by a belt of suburbs, at once more regular in their
construction, and much more populous than the town itself. To the north
lies the hill of Spielberg, surmounted by a modern and unfinished
redoubt, which having taken the place of the ancient citadel, is, and
for many years back has been, used chiefly as a state prison. It was
here that, during the reign of the Emperor Francis I., the unfortunate
Silvio Pellico spent his long and dismal season of captivity. Here,
too, Trenck, the famous leader of the Pandours, in the war of
succession, suffered imprisonment. Here Mack, long suspected of
treachery, underwent a severer punishment than his incapacity deserved;
and here still linger captives from various provinces, whose offence,
for the most part, is, that they pine to be free. This system of
shutting men up in prison, without trial, or the pretence of trial, is
very shocking. But I was glad to learn from the few who ventured to
speak in a whisper, that the tenants of the dungeons of Spielberg are
less numerous now than they used to be, and the time is not, in all
probability, distant, when the practice of filling them at the caprice
of a minister will be discontinued altogether.
Brünn is the seat of some of the most extensive as well as valuable
manufactories that anywhere exist in the Austrian dominions. The growth
of these, it appears, was much fostered by the late emperor, and his
memory is, in consequence, held in high veneration by the inhabitants.
It is to this circumstance, indeed, more than to the military virtues
which he displayed, that the erection of the obelisk on the Franzes
Berg is owing; for though the inscription seem commemorative of the
triumphs of the army in the later campaigns, the people tell you that
Francis is held in honour solely because of the countenance which he
gave to the works of peace. The articles produced here are thread,
cloths, linen, and glass; and there is a manufactory of porcelain at a
village about a mile distant.
It was market-day when we reached the town, and as the windows of our
apartment commanded an excellent view of one of the chief streets, the
scene which they opened out to us proved at once novel and interesting.
Crowds of country people were congregated beneath, in all manner of
grotesque costumes; while stalls of every description--some supporting
clothes, some laden with fruit, some set out with china, or glass, or
articles of cutlery, or shoes,--choked up the thoroughfare, to the
manifest inconvenience of the few vehicles which made occasional
efforts to pass. The dresses of the women, too, whose business it
seemed to be to superintend the sale of the fruit, were strikingly
national. They wore, each of them, a sort of jacket-fashioned boddice,
made tight to the shape, a petticoat of yellow serge, which reached
barely to the mid-calf, bright scarlet stockings, shoes that came up to
the ankles, a handkerchief, which, passing over the head, was tied
beneath the chin, white buckles, and hips enormously padded. Yet were
they, upon the whole, a handsome race, with clear brunette complexions,
and dark hazel eyes; and their good nature, as, one after another, they
made inroads into our apartment, and pressed upon us their cherries,
was something quite unusual. They perfectly succeeded in their object;
for we ate many more black-hearts than did either of us any good, and
bought a still greater quantity than we dreamed of consuming, simply
because we were unable to resist entreaties that were pressed upon us
so good humouredly.
Having amused ourselves thus for a while, and laid in a tolerable
breakfast, we sallied forth, under the guidance of a valet-du-place, to
perambulate the town. We found it surrounded by fortifications; yet
exceedingly clean and neat, and its public gardens, beyond the Prague
gate, at once extensive and well-arranged. There is a cemetery in the
middle of the new town, which is likewise worth visiting, were it only
because of its enormous dimensions. And the barrack, with its seven
capacious courts, is of prodigious extent. Of the churches, on the
contrary, with the exception of the cathedral, much cannot be said in
praise; and even the cathedral is more curious than beautiful. It
presents an excellent specimen of the kind of ecclesiastical architecture
in which the Slavonians of the middle ages delighted. Moreover the
Landhaus, or house of meeting for the estates of Moravia,--till the
times of Joseph II. a wealthy Augustinian convent,--may be visited with
advantage, as may also the Rath-haus and National Museum. Into the
citadel, on the other hand, no stranger can be admitted without an
order from the governor; and such order, unless the party applying for
it bring strong recommendations, is not easily procured.
The great lounge for the fashionables of Brünn is termed the Franzes
Berg. It is a sort of table-land, on the side of that hill which the
cathedral and bishop's palace overtop; and is laid out in shady walks,
well-ordered terraces, and bowers of most umbrageous shelter. Thither,
in the cool of the day, that is, between the hours of six and nine in
the evening, the _elite_ of the inhabitants repair, that they may
enjoy the pleasures of a crowded promenade, enlivened by the strains of
one of the finest military bands to which I have ever listened. As may
be supposed, we did not fail to become partakers in the scene, or to
relish it greatly; for the music is superb, the view over the valley of
the Taia beautiful, and the bearing of the company at once decorous and
full of good humour. But having accomplished this, and wandered through
the greater number of the streets, having visited the public buildings,
and made more than half the circuit of the ramparts, we felt that our
business in Brünn was completed. We accordingly returned to our hotel,
and being again refused by the police the coveted visé into Hungary, we
made up our minds to pursue our journey on the morrow towards Vienna.
I made numerous inquiries as to the condition of Protestantism in this
country, and received answers which were very little satisfactory. From
the effects of the persecution at the close of the Thirty Years' War,
it has never recovered. Toleration is, indeed, granted to Lutherans,
Calvinists, and Jews, under one or other of which denominations, all
dissenters from popery are classed; but of the Moravian brethren, not a
trace remains, either in the capital or elsewhere. Had I not previously
made myself acquainted with the history of this pious sect, the
circumstance of their total extirpation would have much surprised me;
because the error of the name which has somehow been applied to them,
reaches also to our conception of their origin and fortunes. But the
truth is, that they were never a numerous body in the land after which
they are now called. It was but in the natural course of events that
branches should have struck out from Mount Tabor in Bohemia, as well
into Moravia as into the border districts of Upper Austria, and these,
when the parent tree was cast down, soon withered away. I believe that
it is only at Hernhut, in Saxony, and in a few places of Poland and
Gallicia, that any remnants of them now exist. At all events, I could
discover none at Brünn, nor could any of those whom I interrogated on
the subject, direct me where to look for them.