COUNTRY BETWEEN BRÜNN AND VIENNA. VIENNA. JOURNEY TO PRESBURG.
PRESBURG. THE HUNGARIAN CONSTITUTION.
There is not much to praise, there is very little to describe, in the
general aspect of the country between Brünn and Vienna. Here and there
it is exceedingly barren and sterile, here and there just as much the
reverse; that is, if fields which produce the vine and the maize in
large quantities, deserve to be accounted fertile. It is true that if
you be a soldier, you will examine, with interest, the ground over
which the hostile armies manoeuvred both previous to the battle of
Austerlitz and afterwards. If geology be your hobby, in the low but
picturesque hills, the far-off roots of nobler mountains, which, in
many places, hang over the road, and give to it an exceedingly romantic
character, you will find something for the eye to rest upon. Various
dilapidated castles, too, that crown these rocks, may possibly arrest
the attention of the antiquary; whilst the political economist will
find food for reflection in the outward bearing of social life as here
it presents itself. For there are no towns of any size or note in all
this journey of more than a hundred miles. The villages, moreover, are
universally mean, and their inhabitants worthy of the homes which
receive them when the day's task is done. On the other hand, some
magnificent schlosses present themselves by the way-side, as if in
contrast to the squalid hamlets on which they look down; and soldiers
swarm everywhere. But as I do not know what could be said of such
matters more than will be found in any road-book which has the
slightest pretensions to accuracy, I am very little tempted to advert
to them at all. Neither can I speak of the aspect of things as it is
operated upon by the proximity of Vienna, because night had closed
round us long before we became conscious of the heaving of the living
vortex. And for the rest, to be delayed at the barrier till our
passports had been examined, our baggage searched, and a survey of our
persons and features taken, these were trifling grievances to which use
had reconciled us, and of which we thought nothing. We drove at once to
the Schwan, an excellent though expensive house in the Meal Market, and
there, for a brief period, established our head-quarters.
What shall I say of Vienna? Nothing, or next to nothing. I lingered
within its walls a week, and no more. I ranged its streets, visited its
galleries, lounged through its palaces, its public gardens, and its
temples. I stood among the coffins in the vault of the chapel of the
Capuchins, where rest the ashes of the Imperial family; I gazed long
and fondly, in that of the Augustines, on Canova's exquisite monument
to Maria Christina of Saxony. I observed, not without a feeling of
pardonable pride, that the Armoury, which is arranged with great taste
and skill, contains trophies from almost every European nation, England
alone excepted. I saw the chain with which the Turks, in 1529,
endeavoured to obstruct the navigation of the Danube. I beheld the
innumerable curiosities which are contained in the Arsenal, and lived
among the knights and heroes of the middle ages, while gazing on the
splendid suits of armour which the Ambras Museum contains. There is no
public place which I did not visit, from the Volksgarten to the
Prater;--no conspicuous building, beneath the roof of which I failed to
enter, from the cathedral to the Invaliden Haus;--no palace which I did
not inspect, from that of the Schweitzer Hof to Schönbrunn. Yet I will
not describe any of them. Why? Because the task has been executed so
recently, and so well, that nothing could proceed from me save idle
repetition; and I do not think that to indulge in such would either
redound to my own credit, or add to the edification of my readers.
Of the state of society in this great capital, again, I am not
competent to form an opinion. I saw but the exterior of things,--the
busy marts, the crowded streets, the shops more capacious and better
stocked than any, except those of London, and perhaps of Paris. The
music of the bands that played in the public gardens was familiar to
me, as well as the countenances and bearing of the joyous throng that
listened to them. But of the habits of the individuals who composed
these throngs, as they showed themselves within the domestic circle, I
can say nothing. I was told, indeed, that the ties of moral obligation
are not very rigidly regarded in Vienna; that, with much polish, and
all the charms of high-breeding about it, society is, in fact,
exceedingly corrupt. This may or may not be true; but to me the single
aspect which the Austrian capital wore, was of a vast assemblage of
people, whose great business it seemed to be to render life agreeable,
and its events, in whatever order they might occur, as free from
annoyance as possible.
I am equally incompetent to pass sentence on the state of learning, and
the fine arts, in Vienna. I found, indeed, that it was fashionable to
pay court to men of acknowledged talent and genius, and that to music
and dancing the Viennese are just as much addicted as any other members
of the Germanic family. But except from an evening spent at the
theatre, I had no opportunity of determining how far they were or were
not gifted with a taste more pure than prevails elsewhere. Neither can
I tell how the important matters of eating and drinking are conducted,
except in hotels and restaurateurs; for the season was unfavourable to
making Viennese acquaintances; and had the contrary been the case, the
time at my disposal was insufficient. But of cuisine at the Schwan, at
the Daums and Kaiserin von Oesterreich, I can give a very favourable
report, as well as of the cleanliness and even elegance of their
respective eating halls, and the civility of their waiters. What, then,
shall I say of Vienna? This, and no more. That to me it presented
greater attractions than any other continental capital that I have
visited; that I would have willingly spent as many weeks within its
walls as I spent days, and that though eager to pass on to a country,
to examine into the condition of which, constituted one and the
principal object of my journey, I did not make up my mind to quit the
city without reluctance. I dare say there is enough in and around it,
to call forth the regrets of the right-thinking; but these were matters
into which I could not pause to inquire. As I have already said, the
exterior of things was all that presented itself to me, and with that I
was delighted.
There is a custom in Vienna of demanding your passport when you first
make your appearance at the barrier, and requiring you to show
yourself, within four-and-twenty hours afterwards, at the
police-office. The object of these arrangements is, that you may
satisfy the authorities of your solvency, and receive from them a
letter of security for such length of time as you propose, or they be
willing that you should remain in the city. We attended to the
established regulation, of course, and now, having fixed the hour of
our departure, endeavoured to obtain from the Hungarian chancery the
license, without which it would have been impossible to pass the
frontier. It was granted without hesitation, though in terms at once
vague and rigid. I stated my business; that I went merely as a
traveller, curious to become acquainted with the people and the
country, and that not knowing the points which I might be induced to
visit, or the length of time which might be required to visit them, I
was anxious to receive a passport, as generally and loosely worded as
might be. The gentleman to whom I addressed myself was exceedingly
polite; but he did not exactly fall into my views. "There is no
necessity," said he, "to deviate in your instance from the common order
of such things. A passport is required from every traveller at the
frontier; but after you are once in Hungary, you may go where you
please, and stay as long as you feel disposed, without attracting the
slightest notice. I will, therefore, write upon your passport, that you
are permitted to visit Pesth and its vicinity for a month, and to
return." I thought this odd, but could not, of course, object to it,
because I concluded that a person in authority must be a much better
judge of what was necessary than I; and I have now given the detail at
length, because the sequel will show that what was esteemed perfectly
regular in Vienna, had well-nigh told against me in one of the remote
provinces.
There is constant communication, as everybody knows, between Vienna,
and Pesth, and Constantinople, by steamboats which touch, as they
proceed, at almost all the most important places that lie along the
banks of the Danube. Our original intention was to have availed
ourselves of one of these; but we found on inquiry, that the navigation
was intricate, and the channel of the river so low, that hardly any
view was to be obtained from the ship's deck. We determined, therefore,
to proceed by land as far as Presburg, and to regulate our future
movements according to the aspect of things there, and the information
which by its inhabitants might be communicated to us. About seven
o'clock, on a bright July morning, we accordingly took our seats in a
hired carriage, and were swept along through what are called the Marxer
lines, beyond the outermost suburbs of the capital. The country round
was, for a while, uninteresting enough. A huge plain was before us,
which the heat of the weather had scorched into the semblance of a
desert; and there were few objects upon it, of which I can say that
they much relieved its monotony. Several villages came, indeed, in our
way, and near one of them, called Semmering, a large turreted building
attracted our attention. It had once been a summer residence of the
Emperor; it is now a powder-magazine, and stands, as our postilion
informed us, on the same spot which, during the siege of Vienna in
1529, was covered by the tent of the Sultan Solyman. But we had passed
this some time, ere the scenery began to improve. When such improvement
did commence, however, it was very complete. The road wound inwards so
as to bring us parallel with the river, and to open out a fine view of
its waters, which being split up into numerous branches, poured
themselves over the plain, and enclosed a countless number of islands
within their eddies. Among these, our postilion pointed out that on
which Napoleon, by the breaking down of his bridge, was, during the
progress of the battle of Asperne, reduced to the utmost extremity,--an
extremity out of which nothing but the misplaced confidence of his
opponents enabled him to escape. It is an extensive flat, covered along
its edges by groves of giant willows; while just beyond it, on the
continent, the village spires of Asperne and Essling peer forth from
amid screens of thick foliage.
From this period till our arrival at the Hungarian frontier, we never,
for any length of time, lost sight of the Danube. Here and there,
indeed, the road struck inwards, so as to carry us away, perhaps, an
English mile or more, from its banks; but the river, after it reunites,
is so broad, and the country rises over it to such a height, that its
noble expanse is seldom concealed from you, and that only for a moment.
Moreover, the monuments of other days,--old castles, dilapidated
towers, with here and there a rude pillar, or block of granite,--became,
at each post which we gained in advance, more and more numerous. Near
Schwächat, for example, about ten English miles out of Vienna, and
itself a village of some two thousand inhabitants, stands a stone,
which marks the spot where Leopold first greeted the chivalrous
Sobiesky,--not with the ardour which might have been expected from one
in his situation, but coldly and ceremoniously, as if the king, who
came to save, were sufficiently honoured by the notice of the emperor
whom he had delivered. Next came we to Fischamend, where the traveller
will do well to halt, if it be only that he may delight himself, as we
did, with the magnificent scene which wooes his gaze from the summit of
the scaur that overhangs the Danube. I do not think that I ever beheld
a panorama of the sort which enchanted me more. We were elevated,
perhaps, three hundred feet above the bed of the river. Its broad, but
not limpid waters, measuring, perhaps, half a mile across, laved the
very base of the precipice, and swept along by their current a rude
barge or two, the only productions of man's industry and skill that
broke in upon their loneliness. Beyond was a wide plain, magnificently
wooded, with here and there a village, looking forth from its covering
of green boughs; while, up and down, the eye rested, either upon a
continuance of the same bold scaur; or, more attractive still, on the
advanced guard of those mountains amid which I and my fellow-traveller
had resolved to make our way. Then there were tower and castle crowning
the far-off rocks; there were rich vineyards, closing in to the very
brink on which we stood; and, as if to complete the picture, a herd of
dun-coloured cattle, oppressed with the excessive sultriness of the
day, descended, through a sort of ravine, in a long line, and stood to
cool themselves in the Danube. Altogether it was as fair a landscape as
the eye of the painter would desire to behold; and we did not leave it,
till a few fruitless efforts had been made to transfer some, at least,
of its most attractive features to a blank leaf in my journal book.
After leaving Fischamend we passed in succession Regelsbrunn, Deutsch
Altenburg, and Hainburg, near the former of which the attention is
arrested by what may easily be mistaken for the ruins of a city. It
proved, however, on examination, to be the commencement of an ancient
wall, which runs from Regelsbrunn all the way to the Neusiedler See; of
which the origin is lost in the mists of antiquity, but which is
generally supposed to have been thrown up by the Romans. There are
still the remains of towers here and there, which give to it, when
first beheld, its civic character; and it was, I believe, made use of,
so recently as 1683, as a line of defence against the Turks. Moreover
Deutsch Altenburg has its objects of interest also;--a tumulus, or
mound, sixty feet in altitude, but of a date to which tradition goes
not back; while the church of St. John, which crowns an eminence near,
is accounted one of the most perfect Gothic edifices in the Austrian
dominions. And, last of all, there is Hainburg, with its old castle,
and gateways equally old; both exhibiting manifest traces of war on
their exterior defences, even to the cannon-balls, which, since the
last invasion of the Turks, have been left sticking where they fell.
These, meeting you, as it were, one after the other, and forming points
of rest to the eye when it has grown weary of ranging over the plain,
produce a powerful effect upon your imagination; which is certainly not
lessened by the aspect of the living creatures, whether of the human or
some inferior species, which begin to gather round you.
I had been prepared by all that fell from those, who, having themselves
penetrated into Hungary, were obliging enough, both in Dresden and at
Vienna, to give me hints as to my own proceedings, for a state of
things, both animate and inanimate, very different from that which had
met me in Germany. I knew that the people were much less civilized than
the Germans; and that for one, who proposed to wander as I did, alone,
and, wherever it might be possible to do so, on foot, arms might be
found convenient, perhaps necessary. Yet I did not expect to see a
change so complete, in every point of view, as that which became
perceptible even before we passed the frontier. There began to meet us,
a little way in advance of Deutsch Altenburg, troops of those
Torpindas, whom, in the ignorance of our hearts, we had, in Bohemia,
mistaken for gipseys. There they were, with their hosen and coarse
cloaks, their broad sombrero hats, and matted locks, trudging along, in
bands of twelve or fourteen, and looking up with a glance of half
cunning, half curiosity, from beneath their shaggy eyebrows. By-and-by
came herds of cattle, quite different, both in colour and form, from
any which we had previously encountered; and then pigs,--monsters of
the first class,--whom men, evidently but one degree removed from
barbarism, were driving before them. My young companion and I looked
first at one another, and then at the pistols and other weapons which
hung about our persons; and, as if the thoughts of each had wandered
into the same channel, we smiled and said nothing.
We had quitted Vienna early in the morning; it might be about three in
the afternoon when we reached the Custom House,--a station in
Wolfsthal, remarkable for nothing except the constant bustle that goes
on in its street. In order to reach the village we had been again
carried away from the river, through a beautiful valley, hemmed in on
either side, by well-wooded hills; one of which bears upon its summit
what must have been, in its day, a castle of prodigious strength. We
were now clear of that pass, and the process of examination began. In
our case it was both brief and simple. We were asked whether our
knapsacks contained any prohibited article? We did not even know what
was prohibited; but finding that of copper the authorities were chiefly
jealous, we answered in the negative, and were permitted to pass. It
was not so with a whole string of wagons which came from the opposite
direction. One after another they were compelled to discharge their
contents, very much, as it seemed, to the inconvenience of the drivers;
and not till a rigid examination of each separate bale and package had
taken place, was permission given to load again. I could not help
thinking that the policy which drew so broad a line of distinction
between one portion of a great empire and another, was, to say the
least of it, very singular; and I was not slow in being taught that it
is very short-sighted too, because exceedingly distasteful both to the
Hungarians, whom it injures, and the Austrians, whom it is designed to
favour.
Our passports were looked at, of course; stamped with the seal of the
official, and returned to us;--after which we pushed on. We crossed the
frontier, and became sensible, on the instant, that a new country was
before us. To the right, as far as the eye could reach, was one
enormous plain. Rich it was, and apparently well cultivated; for,
except here and there, where a huge meadow intervened, the whole
surface was covered with the most luxuriant corn. Of trees, on the
contrary, scarce a sprinkling appeared; there were no groves at all,
and even hedge-rows were infrequent. Towards the left, again, there was
that sort of character which belongs to a region in which an extensive
range of highlands has terminated. Frequent hills and dales were there;
grassy knolls, with little valleys running through them; and such a
profusion of wood as held out the assurance that, in that direction at
least, the eye would not pine in vain for foliage. By-and-by, from
behind these knolls, the Danube made his appearance; not broader,
certainly, than he had seemed to be at Fischamend, or even above it,
but evidently deeper, I think, more rapid;--and altogether, with a
degree of majesty about him which attaches to the one object, that
gives its peculiar character to a living landscape. The Danube is,
indeed, a magnificent river; albeit the people who inhabit his banks
are only just beginning to find out that he may be turned to more
accounts than that of mere beauty.
The interval between Hainburg and Presburg is but a single post; from
Wolfsthal it is less than half that distance; yet, owing to the delay
which occurred at the Custom House, five o'clock had struck ere we
obtained our first view of this secondary capital of Hungary. Its
situation is fine, close to the Danube, at the base and along the
ascent of low hills; the crest of which is surmounted by the remains of
what was once a royal residence. This latter, the Alba Regali of the
chroniclers, is of very ancient date in its foundation. It was enlarged
in 1766 by the Empress Maria Theresa, and in 1809 burned to the ground.
The Hungarians say, that an Italian regiment in the French service set
fire to it wantonly, when evacuating the place. But, however this may
be, it gives, even in its ruins, an air of aristocracy to the town;
which, though neat and clean, and containing a population of thirty or
forty thousand souls, would otherwise present no very striking feature
to the eye of the stranger. Indeed, Presburg is a great deal too near
the frontier, and maintains a communication too frequent and too
regular with Vienna, to have retained almost any marks of its Hungarian
origin. You might, both from the structure of the buildings, and the
dress and manners of the inhabitants, easily fall into the error of
supposing that it belonged to Austria.
We approached Presburg by a good macadamized road, which follows the
course of the river, on the opposite bank from that along which the
city is built. It was very little thronged either with carriages or
horses, and gave few indications, in other respects, that a large, and,
as we had been assured, a bustling town, lay but a short way ahead of
us. This was the more surprising, that we could discover no evidences
of any transfer of the line of commerce from the land to the water; for
there was neither barge nor steam-boat to ruffle the bosom of the
Danube. But the unfavourable impression created by such an air of
stillness was not destined to remain. There is a long bridge of boats,
which connects the opposite banks of the river, and affords facilities
to the inhabitants of Presburg for passing and repassing. We saw, as we
drove on, that it was crowded with people, in their best attire; and
the sounds of music, which rose from an inclosure hard by, sufficiently
pointed out the nature of the attraction. We had come on a lucky day,
for it was a festival, and all the world was abroad, to enjoy the
delights of a calm and delicious evening amid the shady walks of the
public gardens.
He who goes to Presburg without venturing further, need not flatter
himself that he has made any, even the slightest acquaintance with the
manners and usages of the Hungarians. The town is not a Hungarian, but
a German town; the people are Germans, the language is German, and the
style of living is German. It is true, that the historical associations
connected with the place are all as thoroughly Hungarian as are those
which greet you at Ofen or at Graan; but the living men and women seem
to have striven, and striven successfully, to lay aside all the
peculiarities which could, by possibility, connect them with the tales
of other days. So far we profited by the circumstance that we found at
the Sun excellent accommodations; and excellent accommodations are not
to be procured at all the hotels in Hungary; yet were we, on the whole,
dissatisfied with it. We desired to study human nature under a novel
garb, and we found it still clothed as it had been in Austria.
Nevertheless, the visits which we paid to the Old Palace, to the
Cathedral, and the Königsberg, were highly interesting, because of the
important page in Hungarian story which they may be regarded as
illustrating. What that page contains, it may not be amiss if I take
the present opportunity of stating.
It is the peculiar boast of the Hungarians, that they live under what
they are pleased to term, a free constitution. Subject to the sway of
the house of Hapsburg only through the accidental lapse of the crown
into the female line, they utterly eschew all dependence upon Austria,
and would turn with indignation from him who should insinuate that over
them the laws of the empire exercise the slightest authority. They are
fellow-subjects with the Austrians and Bohemians only so far that the
imperial and the regal crowns happen to be worn by the same individual.
But there is this marked difference in their respective situations,
that whereas over Austria and Bohemia, the emperor exercises an
absolute sway, in Hungary he has his prerogatives, beyond the limits of
which he is not permitted to pass. He cannot, of his own will and
pleasure, enact a new law; he cannot interfere with the privileges of
his nobles; he cannot levy a tax, nor impose a new burden upon the
nation, till the parliament, or estates, have given him authority to do
so. It is because at Presburg the parliament meets, and that there also
the ceremony of the coronation is carried through, that I have selected
this stage in my narrative for the statement of matters which were not
rendered familiar to me till a protracted sojourn in the country gave
me opportunities of collecting information, both from its living
inhabitants, and from the treasured archives with which its libraries
abound.
The tract of territory which, on our maps, we describe as Hungary, is
peopled by two distinct races of men;--the Hungarians, who inhabit the
great plain of the Danube, of which Cormorn may be regarded as the
centre; and the Slavonians, by whom the mountain districts are
occupied, as well in Carpatia and Transylvania, as in Croatia and the
rugged districts that border upon Styria. Of these, the Hungarians are
not considered to amount to more than four millions of souls at the
utmost; whereas the numbers of the Slavonians fall not short of six
millions.
As is the case elsewhere, however, so has it happened here; the
political institutions of the few have been imposed with a strong hand
on the many; for the laws that prevail, as well as the machinery
created to enforce them, are alike Hungarian. Yet the Hungarians are,
so to speak, mere strangers in the land, who owe their original
settlement there to the edge of the sword, and by the edge of the sword
were long compelled to maintain it.
It seems now to be admitted, that the theory which once connected the
conquerors of Pannonia with the Huns, is entirely without foundation.
The Hungarians are the descendants of one of those eastern hordes whom
the Mongols, in their progress southward, drove from their homes; and
who, breaking through Russia, and traversing a large extent of Poland,
won a settlement for themselves late in the ninth century, near the
sources of the Theiss. Their legends say, that by lineage, they are
Magyars, and that they obtained the name which they now bear through an
accident. There stood, near the spot where they first permanently
encamped, a castle, called in the language of the country, Hung-var,
which the strangers won, and converted into a sort of capital. As often
as they sallied forth from that castle on predatory or other
expeditions, the Slavonians were accustomed to exclaim, "Here come the
Hung-varians," and the title thus given at first as a term of mere
derision or hostility, came, by-and-by, to be accepted as a national
distinction.
I am not prepared to avow either my own acceptance, or my own
rejection, of this mode of accounting for the origin of the Hungarian
name. There is no good reason to be assigned one way or the other; for
nations, like individuals, generally owe their designations to some
cause equally simple; but that the Magyars, or Myars, brought with them
the elements of that constitution under which it is the boast of their
descendants that they still live, is just as easily proved as that we
owe our most valuable institutions to the customs and usages of our
Saxon forefathers. The Myars, like the Saxons, appear to have lived,
during seasons of peace, in obedience to a whole host of petty and
independent chiefs. If war broke out, or a foreign expedition was
resolved upon, the heads of clans made choice of one of their order to
command the rest;--when the exigencies of the moment ceased to operate,
the commander fell back into his proper place among his equals. Seven
of these tribes are stated to have taken part in the earliest attack on
Pannonia. They were led by one Almus, a brave and successful warrior;
and soon spread themselves over the whole of the plain; but not for
many generations could they count on a permanent cessation from the
hostilities with which the mountaineers, driven back, yet unsubdued,
continued to harass them. The results were precisely such as occurred
in Normandy and England, and every where else, where tribes advanced to
a similar pitch of civilization, won settlements by the sword. Arpad,
the son of Almus, was chosen to succeed his father; and the foundations
were laid both of an hereditary monarchy, and of a power able and
willing to place limits to that of the crown.
The best historians inform us, that between Arpad and the heads of
tribes, a solemn compact was entered into, which, in addition to other
and less important stipulations, contained the following. It was agreed
that the order of succession to the throne should be hereditary; that
the male line should have the preference; the female not being
excluded; but that the inalienable right of the people to elect their
own sovereign, should never be called in question. Accordingly, in
cases where there is no break in the chain, and the son mounts the
throne which the father has bequeathed to him, certain forms are
enjoined, of which it cannot be said that they are mere idle
ceremonies. The king's title to govern must be solemnly acknowledged by
the states; and oaths are at his accession administered, any refusal to
accept which would lead to his rejection. Moreover there is an article
in this treaty which, in the event of a failure in the royal line,
secures to the nation the right of free and unrestricted choice, and
the right in question was exercised, to its fullest extent, so early as
the beginning of the twelfth century, when the house of Arpad became
extinct, and Charles of Anjou, called to the throne by the free voice
of the people, laid the foundations of a new dynasty.
While they thus consented, as a measure of prudence, to the
establishment among them of an hereditary throne, Arpad's peers were
not willing that it should be filled by an absolute monarch. They
claimed for themselves, and for their children after them, the right of
counselling the prince in every emergency. They stipulated, that
neither their persons nor their property, should be at the prince's
disposal. Military service they were, indeed, bound to pay; that is, it
was their duty to appear in the field when lawfully summoned, and to
defend the country from foreign invasion, or internal revolt. But even
military service, in the advancement of schemes of conquest, the king
could not exact from them; he had no power to lead them across the
border, except with their own consent. Then, again, within the limits
of their respective estates, each noble was independent; while all
situations of general trust and authority under the crown, were claimed
by them as their birth-right. Hence the establishment of the palatinate
in Hungary Proper, of the ban in Croatia and Slavonia, of the Vayvode
in Transylvania, and of the great functionaries, by whatever title
designated, each of whom appears to have enjoyed in his own province,
rather the privileges of a feudal sovereign, than the powers of a high
officer of state.
Such were the commencements of the Hungarian constitution,--an
unbending aristocracy from the outset, into the forms of which time has
doubtless introduced many changes,--but of which the spirit and the
principle continue to this day, precisely what they were nine centuries
ago. The first of these innovations occurred when Stephen ascended the
throne; and by the open profession of Christianity, gave a different
character to the whole order of society. His predecessors had never
worn a title more imposing than that of duke; Stephen received from the
pope both a royal crown, and the style and dignity connected with it.
Moreover, Stephen, by creating bishoprics, and richly endowing both
them and the monasteries, very much widened the circle of the nobility;
which by the creation of new offices, and the granting of fiefs both by
prelates and princes, received from time to time large accessions to
its numbers. Then began distinctions to be claimed and recognised, even
in the rights and privileges of the privileged classes. The nobles were
divided into princes, prelates, barons of the kingdom, and magnates,
whose rights, though in some trifling respects different, were yet so
much akin as to permit their being treated as political equals. Next to
them, yet claiming the essential privileges of nobility, came the
king's chief retainers, with the holders of fiefs under the princes and
prelates, and the principal retainers of the magnates; and finally, a
humbler class followed, who, corresponding to our territorial but
untitled aristocracy, are now content to bear the appellation of
eidelmen, or gentry. All of these were, in the strictest acceptation of
the term, freemen. They owed to the sovereign their right hands in war;
and when the exigencies of the state required, such aids in money as
they themselves might vote, but without such vote, in solemn comitia
granted, there was no authority anywhere to exact from them either a
blade of corn, or the most minute coin of the realm.
It was the right of the nobles to assemble and pass resolutions which,
when approved of by the king, obtained the force of law. Up to the
commencement of the thirteenth century, they used to meet in the open
air; and as each brought to the place of assembly as large an armed
following as he could muster, it was no unusual circumstance to find as
many as eighty thousand men in the field. Such a crowd could effect
nothing of its own free will, and was hardly to be managed by any
species of influence. At length, in 1235, Bea IV. succeeded in
introducing the system of representation which still holds good. By
this arrangement, an hereditary seat in the legislature was restricted
to the magnates, with whom sat likewise such official personages as
prelates and barons of the kingdom. The nobles of inferior rank chose
one or more from each county to represent their body, while the clergy
were represented by abbots, titular bishops, and dignitaries of an
inferior degree. By-and-by, during the reign of Sigismond, in 1386,
free towns and royal cities were authorized, in like manner, to choose
deputies, and then the framework of the Hungarian legislature became
complete.
The Hungarians are never more gratified than when an opportunity offers
of instituting a parallel between their houses of parliament and ours;
indeed, their taste for comparing is such, that they gravely contend
for a perfect similarity of principle between the constitutions of
England and of Hungary. It would be as impolitic as unjust, when
discussing the question with them, to deny that some such resemblance
prevails. Both monarchies are limited monarchies, in which the
sovereigns, though invested with absolute power as executors of the
law, are just as completely circumscribed by the law, as the meanest of
their subjects. It is curious to observe, likewise, how nearly the
prerogatives of the one correspond in all essential points with the
prerogatives of the other. The persons of both are sacred. Each is,
within his own realm, the fountain of honour and of justice; each
commands his own army, though by neither may its numbers be increased
without a vote of the legislature. And more remarkable still, the king
of Hungary, though a Roman Catholic, is the head of the church in
Hungary, in the very same sense which we apply to the term, when we
speak of the king of England as the head of the English church. In
Hungary, the crown appoints absolutely to all bishoprics, abbacies, and
even to canonries. Confirmed the choice must be, in the first of these
cases, by the Pope, otherwise the spiritual authority attached to the
office would be wanting; but the bishop-elect enters at once upon the
possession of his temporalties, of which no exercise of papal influence
can dispossess him. Moreover, it is in Hungary as it is in
England,--the affairs of state are administered in all departments by
the king's authority. The king's taxes, the king's duties, the king's
escheats and forfeitures, are levied; the harbours are the king's
harbours, the courts are the king's courts, the fortresses are the
king's fortresses, and the people are the king's lieges. But here the
resemblance between the constitutions of the two countries ends, and
all endeavour to trace it further is useless.
Even in reference to the kingly office, we soon begin to find ourselves
diverging one from another. The crown in Hungary is elective far more
decidedly than in England. We, indeed, in the ceremony of our
coronation, retain so much of the spirit which animated our Saxon
forefathers, that the question is still put to the people,--"Will ye
have this prince to reign over you?" and the prince is bound by solemn
oath to govern according to law; but the ceremony of a coronation is
not so vital among us, as that it might not be passed over with
impunity. In Hungary, so tenacious are the magnates on the one hand,
and so sensitive the emperor on the other, that he never omits, in his
own life-time, to have the heir to the imperial diadem, crowned king in
Hungary. The present emperor became king of Hungary three years
previous to the death of his father; and now the empress has been
crowned at Presburg, so that there may be no link wanting in the chain
which holds the several portions of the empire together. Again, the
king of Hungary, while he enjoys various privileges, to which the king
of England cannot lay claim, is likewise subjected to various
restraints, from which the king of England is free. The former, for
example, as he appoints arbitrarily to vacant bishoprics, so he
inherits the whole of a bishop's professional savings, who may chance
to have died intestate. If the bishop possess hereditary property, it
goes, of course, at his decease, to his next of kin; but his
accumulations, be they great or small, are taken possession of by the
crown. And even the making of a will saves but one-third of them. On
the other hand, the king of Hungary is watched and restrained in the
exercise of his prerogatives, not only by a parliament, jealous of its
privileges, but by officers appointed for that purpose. The palatine is
a strange compound of king's lieutenant and guardian of the liberties
of the nation. He is chosen for life out of four personages proposed to
the states by the sovereign; and as in the king's absence he exercises
vice-regal powers, so both then, and at other seasons, he mediates
between the crown and the people, taking care that the former shall not
trench upon the liberties of the latter, nor the latter make any
encroachments on the legal prerogatives of the former.
I might specify many other points in which even the parallel between
the kingly offices in Hungary and in England fails; but it is not
necessary. We have but to pass downwards to the classes below royalty,
and all ground of comparison between the institutions of the two
countries ceases. The parliament of Hungary is a very different affair
from the parliament of England. Its members sit, to be sure, in two
chambers, or houses, and enjoy, when assembled, the most absolute
freedom of speech; but they meet very rarely, they transact very little
business when they do meet, and both in the principle which brings them
together, and in their arrangements when assembled, they outrage every
notion which we are accustomed to cherish of perfection in such
matters. The spirit of the Hungarian constitution requires that the
estates should assemble at least once in every five years; the practice
of the same constitution leaves the king at liberty to call together,
and to dissolve the chambers at pleasure. I have already stated, that
to the higher order of nobility, the privilege appertains of meeting,
in their own persons, to deliberate on questions affecting the public
weal. These,--the princes and magnates,--occupy the same chamber with
the prelates and barons of the kingdom. The other chamber is given up
to the representatives of the lesser nobles, of the free towns, and of
the clergy; and, strange to say, to the proxies of such magnates as may
find it inconvenient, personally, to attend in their places. But though
there are only two chambers, there are four distinct estates, each of
which votes within itself in the first instance, and then carries the
result of its scrutiny to the common centre. And finally, while the
Upper House is presided over by the palatine, the lower is regulated
and kept in order by an official personage who bears the somewhat
lengthy title of Personalis presentiæ Regiæ in judiciis locum tenens.
He must be of noble birth, of course, and is likewise President of the
High Court of Justiciary. There are not fewer than 661 members in the
first of these houses, whereas the last can count upon 236 only.
The representative members of the Hungarian legislature are all paid by
their constituents, who again consist of the eidelmen of the several
counties. Of these very many are, in point of fact, mere peasants, whom
the misfortunes or imprudence of their ancestors have reduced to
poverty; but all must have noble blood in their veins,--for it is an
honourable descent, and not the possession of lands or houses, which
entitles a man to exercise the elective franchise in Hungary. Such
poor nobles are, of course, controlled and managed by their wealthier
neighbours, who, when the season of an election comes round, deal with
them pretty much as our own candidates and their committees deal with
the poor voters in boroughs. There is prodigious feasting at the
castle,--there is no end of magnanimous declarations,--no lack of
brilliant and spirit-stirring speeches; under the influence of which,
and of the wine and strong drinks that accompany them, the pauper
eidelman becomes a hero in his own eyes. But, alas! political gratitude
is not more enduring in Hungary than elsewhere. The crisis has its
course, and the scion of a glorious race,--the representative of a
family which followed Almus to the Theiss and gave the coronet to
Arpad,--goes back to his hovel, and his daily toil, and his filth, and
his wretchedness, there to chew the cud of bitter fancy, till the
return of an electioneering season shall call him forth once more to
act a part upon the stage of life.
My reader will be good enough to believe that while I thus speak of a
country,--very much under-peopled by ten millions of souls,--I am
referring to the condition of a minute fraction of that population,--of
something less than two hundred thousand persons, in whom alone the
existence of rights and privileges is by the law recognised. The
people,--properly so called,--the peasants who cultivate the soil, the
mechanics who construct the dwellings, the artisans who fabricate your
household utensils, your wearing apparel, your carriages, your ships,
your machinery; these are precisely in the condition of Gurth and Wamba
in Sir Walter Scott's romance of _Ivanhoe_. In the rural districts
every man whom you meet, provided he be neither a noble nor a soldier,
belongs to somebody. He has no rights of his own. He is a portion of
another man's chattels; he is bought and sold with the land, as if he
were a horse or an ox. On him, too, all the common burdens of the state
are thrown. If the parliament vote an increase of the taxes, it is from
the peasants that these taxes are wrung; for the lord takes care,
though he himself pay immediately, that he shall be indemnified by the
deduction which he makes from his serfs' allowances. It is the same
spirit which provides that the peasantry, who make the roads, and by
the labour of their hands keep them in repair, shall be the only class
of persons of whom toll is anywhere exacted. An eidelman in his chariot
passes free through every barrier,--a poor peasant's wagon is stopped
at each, till the full amount of mout, as it is called, has been
settled. But this is not all. Till the year 1835, each landed
proprietor possessed over his peasantry an almost unlimited power of
punishment, into his manner of exercising which no human being ever
took the trouble to inquire. Accordingly, you still find, as an
appendage to each mansion, a prison, with its bolts and chains, and
other implements of torture; while the rod was as freely applied to the
backs of delinquents, real or imaginary, as ever the whip made
acquaintance with the persons of our own negroes in a West Indian
sugar-field. It is to Count Chechini, (Szechenzi,) in this, and many
other respects, the greatest benefactor to his country which modern
times has raised up, that Hungary stands indebted for a law, which, for
the first time in the annals of the nation, gives to the poor peasant
something like protection against the tyranny of a capricious master.
Since the passing of that act there have been established in all the
counties regular magistrates, before whom delinquents must be brought,
and without whose sanction the punishment of the lash is supposed never
to be inflicted. I did not find, however, on inquiry, that much regard
was paid in practice to this statute. The nobles still flog their
serfs, when the humour takes them, and the serfs are too hopeless of
finding redress, by an appeal from one noble to another, ever, except
in extreme cases, to think of making it.
Such, in few words, is the Hungarian constitution,--a limited monarchy,
doubtless, which secures from the oppression of the sovereign a minute
fraction of his subjects, and leaves all the rest to the tender
mercies, not of one supreme head, whom motives of policy will render
humane, and generally just, but of a band of nobles; who, nursed in the
most exaggerated notions of their own importance, look upon all beneath
them as mere beasts of burden. To speak of it as akin to the
constitution under which we live, is to err entirely. It may, and does,
in numerous points, resemble the constitution of England, as it existed
under the first of the Tudors; but with that which secures to every
Englishman the rights which make him what he is, it has nothing in
common. A Hungarian noble is a very great man. A Hungarian eidelman is
inferior to him, only if he be less wealthy. A Hungarian peasant is a
serf. There is an excellent preparation made, doubtless, for better
things in the future, but in its immediate working, the constitution
which so orders matters, is to the people a thousand-fold more
oppressive than the most absolute despotism.
I have spoken of the solemnity of the king's coronation as taking place
at Presburg; I am not sure that it is necessary to describe the
ceremony in detail. Like its counterpart among ourselves, it is
regarded as the ratification of a covenant between the sovereign and
the people, and is performed, amid much pomp, both religious and civil.
The monarch elect, attended by his magnates and councillors, repairs to
the cathedral, where the officiating prelate administers to him the
customary oaths, by which he binds himself to govern according to law,
to protect the church, to uphold the privileges of the nobility, and to
secure the kingdom against foreign aggression. He is anointed with the
holy oil, and undergoes the usual routine of enrobing and crowning;
after which he proceeds on horseback, the states of the realm in his
train, to the Königsberg. It is a circular mound, perhaps fifty feet
high, which stands just outside the city, and commands an extensive
view over the plain, both eastward and southward. This the king
ascends, his nobles, and knights, and dignified clergy being collected
in a mass round its base; and, as all are on horseback,--as their
dresses are picturesque, their arms and housings costly, and their port
chivalrous in the extreme, the spectacle is, perhaps, as grand as can
be met with in any part of Europe. Beyond the circle of the privileged
classes, again, enormous crowds are gathered,--for the population
flocks from far and near to behold the ceremony; and the curious in
such matters will doubtless find as much to admire in their grotesque
appearance, as in the haughty port and Oriental splendour of their
superiors. Meanwhile the king has ridden to the crest of the hill,
where, before the bishops, he again gives the pledges which had been
exacted from him in the cathedral. Finally, he draws his sword, and
making a cut towards each of the cardinal points, thereby denotes,
that, let danger come from what quarter it may, he will repel it. Then
are medals scattered among the crowd; then is the air rent with shouts,
and the princely cavalcade returns to the city in the same order which
attended its outward progress.
END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
* * * * *
_SELECT BOOKS FOR USE IN FAMILIES_,
AND
_FOR REWARDS AND PRESENTS,_
PUBLISHED BY
JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND, LONDON.
THE CHILD'S GUIDE TO GOOD BREEDING; founded on CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES. By
Mrs. MARSHALL, of Manchester. Handsomely bound, gilt edges, 2_s._ 6_d._
In the present age, when so much is done for the benefit of the rising
generation, when works of no small size or price are published, to
teach our daughters to dress their dolls, and our sons to whip their
tops, and both together to play at "hide and seek," and "puss in the
corner;" that so wide and important a field of instruction should have
hitherto remained wholly uncultivated, seems indeed "passing strange."
My own often and deeply-felt want of such a work, has induced me to
make the attempt which I now lay before the public, in the humble yet
earnest hope that it may in some degree supply the blank in our
juvenile literature, to which I allude; until some brighter and more
able spirit start forward in the path I have opened, to supply the
deficiencies of this little work,--deficiencies no one can be more
sensible of than I am myself, or can rejoice more sincerely in seeing
noted and supplied; since to be humbly useful, is the motive I have at
all times proposed to myself, in what I have ventured to submit to the
same tribunal.--_From the Author's Address._
Also, by the same Lady,
THE CHILD'S GUIDE TO DEVOTION; with an ESSAY ON PRAYER, adapted to the
understanding of Children.
MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS; a Domestic Story.
ANNETTE MOWBRAY; or, CONVERSATIONS with MAMA. Handsomely bound, gilt
edges, 3_s._
THE FIRST LIE. Gilt edges, 6_d._
THE FIRST THEFT. Gilt edges, 6_d._
* * * * *
POPULAR TALES BY MRS. GODWIN.
With Engravings. 2_s._ each.
COUSIN KATE; or, the Punishment of Pride.
BASIL HARLOW; or, Prodigality is not Generosity.
ESTHER MORE; or, Truth is Wisdom.
LOUISA SEYMOUR; or, Hasty Impressions.
ALICIA GREY; or, To be Useful is to be Happy.
JOSEPHINE; or, Early Trials.
_SELECT BOOKS,
FOR REWARDS AND PRESENTS._
*A FAMILIAR HISTORY of BIRDS; their Nature, Habits, and Instincts. By
EDWARD STANLEY, D.D., Lord Bishop of Norwich, Pres. Lin. Soc. _New
Edition._ Two Vols. With many Engravings, 7_s._
*DOMESTICATED ANIMALS considered with reference to Civilization and
the Arts. By MARY ROBERTS. Also,
*WILD ANIMALS; their Nature, Habits, and Instincts, and the Regions
they inhabit. Both with Engravings. 3_s._ 6_d._ each.
*MINERALS and METALS; their Natural History and Uses in the Arts; with
Accounts of Mines and Mining. 2_s._ 6_d._
THE HOUSE I LIVE IN; or, Popular Illustrations of the Structure and
Functions of the Human Body. With Cuts, 2_s._ 6_d._
"I am fearfully and wonderfully made!"
CONVERSATIONS ON GARDENING AND NATURAL HISTORY. With Engravings, 2_s._
6_d._
*THE BOOK of TREES; describing the Nature and Products of the
principal Timber Trees, and the larger species of Palms. With numerous
Engravings. 2_s._
*BOOK of ANIMALS. BOOK of BIRDS. BOOK of FISHES. BOOK of REPTILES.
BOOK of SHELLS. 1_s._ 6_d._ each. All with numerous Engravings.
* * * * *
*THREE WEEKS IN PALESTINE AND LEBANON. With many Engravings. 3_s._
TWO YEARS AT SEA: being the Narrative of a Voyage to the Swan River and
Van Diemen's Land; thence, to the Burman Empire, and various parts of
India. By JANE ROBERTS. With Engravings. 5_s._
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS; his LIFE, VOYAGES, and DISCOVERY of the NEW
WORLD. With Cuts. 2_s._ 6_d._
CAPTAIN COOK; his VOYAGES and DISCOVERIES: with an Account of
Pitcairn's Island, and the Mutiny of the Bounty. With Engravings. 2_s._
6_d._
MUNGO PARK; his LIFE and TRAVELS: to which are added the Account of his
Death, from the JOURNAL of ISAACO, and the substance of later
Discoveries relative to his lamented fate. With Engravings. 2_s._ 6_d._
FIRST SUNDAYS AT CHURCH, or Familiar Conversations on the Morning and
Evening Services. By the Rev. J. E. RIDDLE, M.A., Author of _Luther
and his Times._ 3_s._ 6_d._
THE YOUNG LADY'S FRIEND; a Manual of Practical Advice and Instruction
to Young Females, on their entering upon the Duties of Life, after
quitting School. By A LADY. 3_s._ 6_d._
ABBOTT'S READER; a Series of Familiar Pieces in Prose and Verse. By the
Authors of _The Young Christian; The Corner Stone; The Teacher; &c.
_3_s._
*CONVERSATIONS of a FATHER with his CHILDREN. Two Vols., with
Engravings, 5_s._ 6_d._
PETER PARLEY'S UNIVERSAL HISTORY for the YOUNG, on the BASIS of
GEOGRAPHY. With upwards of Two Hundred Engravings on Wood; handsomely
bound. 7_s._ 6_d._
TALES AND STORIES from HISTORY. By AGNES STRICKLAND. Two Vols., with
many Engravings, 7_s._
*SCENES AND SKETCHES from ENGLISH HISTORY. With Cuts, 3_s._ 6_d._
SANDFORD AND MERTON; adapted to the use of Young Persons of the present
day, by MISS ZORNLIN. With many Cuts, 3_s._ 6_d._
SCHEMING: A TALE. By Mrs. GODWIN.
FIVE HUNDRED CHARADES, from History, Geography, and Biography. 1_s._
6_d._
*PERSIAN STORIES; illustrative of Eastern Manners and Customs. 1_s._
By the Rev. H. G. KEENE, M.A. Also,
*PERSIAN FABLES, for Young and Old. 1_s._
FABLES and MORAL MAXIMS. Selected by ANNE PARKER. 3_s._ 6_d._
POPULAR POEMS FOR YOUNG PERSONS; selected by ELIZABETH PARKER. 3_s._
6_d._
LIGHT IN DARKNESS; or the RECORDS of a VILLAGE RECTORY. 3_s._ 6_d._
THE VILLAGE. THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER.
THE RETIRED TRADESMAN. THE VILLAGE APOTHECARY.
THE GOOD AUNT. THE DESERTED WIFE.
THE FAMILY AT THE HALL; OR, PRIDE AND POVERTY.
_BOOKS FOR CHILDREN._
Pretty Lessons for Good Children; with some Easy Lessons in Latin.
2_s._
Easy Poetry for Children. 1_s._ 6_d._
Easy Grammar for Children. By a Lady. 9_d._
Songs for Children. With Engravings. 4_d._
Scripture Hymns in Prose. With Cuts. 6_d._
*A Little Reading Book for Young Children. With Cuts. 4_d._
*Lessons of Praise in Easy Verse. 4_d._
Familiar Lectures to Children; in which the Truths of the Gospel are
engagingly set forth. 1_s._ 6_d._
The Child's Verse Book of Devotion. 1_s._
Simple Tales for Children. With many Cuts. 1_s._
The Deaf and Dumb Boy; a Tale: with Cuts. 2_s._ 6_d._
The Stolen Child. By Charlotte Adams. 1_s._ 6_d._
*Insects and their Habitations. With Cuts. 1_s._
*Sister Mary's Tales in Natural History. With Cuts. 2_s._ 6_d._
* * * * *
_SMALL BOOKS for general Distribution._
Daily Readings from the Psalms. 6_d._
Faith and Practice; or, The Application of Christian Principles to the
Practical Duties of Life. 1_s._
Easy Lessons on Christian Evidences. 1_s._
Confirmation. An Address from a Clergyman. 2_d._
The Rite of Confirmation Explained. 6_d._
Reading Lessons from the Book of Proverbs & Ecclesiastes. 6_d._
A Few Words on the Sin of Lying. 3_d._
*Village Annals; or the Story of Hetty Jones. 9_d._
*A Colliery Tale, or Village Distress. 4_d._
*Susan Carter, the Orphan Girl. 6_d._
A Penny Saved is a Penny Got. 6_d._
The Old and New Poor Law: or, Who Gains? and Who Loses? 6_d._
* * * * *
LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, PUBLISHER, WEST STRAND