become a political necessity. History furnishes many other instances of a triangular contest between a despotic monarch, an arrogant nobility, and an exasperated people, in which the crown made common cause with the people, granted all their demands, and thus gained power enough to crush the refractory barons. Royalty is always more prompt to sacrifice its prerogatives, than an aristocracy is to abandon its privileges; for the former hopes to retrieve at a future day the ground which it has lost; while the latter, if once depressed, can never rise.

But the Magyars found still more serious cause to complain of the liberality of the new Austrian constitution. It provides that the Upper House of the General Imperial Diet shall consist of two members chosen by each of the provincial diets, besides other persons chosen by the Imperial Diet itself, enough to make the whole number one half as large as that of the Lower House; that is, it establishes an equal representation of the several Crown-lands in this Upper House, thus giving to Transylvania, Croatia and Sclavonia, and Fiume with its territories, equal weight with Hungary, and of course emancipating them from Hungarian domination. The constitution of the Lower House in the Imperial Diet is still more fatal to the lofty pretensions of the Magyars to govern all other races and nationalities. "The Lower House proceeds from general and direct elections. The franchise belongs to every Austrian citizen who is of age," and who pays a moderate tax, which is not in any case to exceed twenty florins, and may be as small as five florins. This is equal suffrage, and it certainly comes as near universal suffrage as any reasonable liberal could desire, considering how little experience the subjects of Austria have had in managing representative institutions. Under such a law, the 4,200,000 Magyars lose all control even of Hungary proper, which has a population of 10,500,000; the reins pass at once from their hands into those of the despised Sclavonians and Wallachians, who, taken together, number over six millions. The Magyar nobility, who number about 600,000, beheld themselves reduced from a condition in which they had the entire control of public affairs to a level with the eight millions of peasants. This proud aristocracy is absolutely crushed by the genuine republicanism of the constitution. This was the grievance which produced the Hungarian Declaration of Inde

pendence, a Declaration put forth by a Diet constituted almost exclusively of the Magyar nobility. Up to the 4th of March, 1849, the reunion of Hungary with Austria was possible, and even probable, though open hostilities had existed between them for nearly six months; but on that date, the new constitution was issued, and the Magyar nobles immediately threw away the scabbard, and declared that they fought for absolute national independence.

That they might not be absolutely without allies in a contest which would evidently be a long and desperate one, and as they could find no friends among the subject races in their own country whom they had so long oppressed, they resolved to make common cause with the ultra republicans of Vienna, and, indeed, of Germany and all Europe. It was this alliance which varnished over their aristocratic purposes and tendencies with a false appearance of democracy, and gained for them the misdirected sympathies of the liberal party in both hemispheres. To one who has studied the history, character, and condition of the Magyar race in Hungary, this alliance certainly appears one of the most preposterous that was ever framed. It can be explained only on the principle so frequently exemplified in the movements of political parties, that extremes meet. The most striking feature in the Magyar character is the chivalrous, haughty, and aristocratic spirit which has been fostered by centuries of undisputed dominion over the nations whom their ancestors conquered nearly a thousand years ago, and by a continued struggle with the house of Austria to preserve the exclusive privileges of their order and their race. An intense feeling of nationality has always directed their conduct. To To appease their growing discontent and gain their enthusiastic support, it was necessary rather to flatter this prejudice of race than to serve their real and material interests. Maria Theresa knew them well when she appeared before the assembled Diet in deep mourning, but with a helmet and plume on her head, a light sabre girded to her side, and with her infant in her arms, threw herself upon their generosity for support. The delighted assembly rose like one man, and clashing their sabres together, which these warlike legislators always carry even to the halls of debate, they uttered the memorable exclamation, Moriamur pro rege nostro, Maria Theresa. The whole scene would have ap

peared theatrical and in bad taste to any other legislative body in Europe; but it was perfectly in character for the Magyars, who have shown the same spirit on more recent occasions.

Even of late years, when ideas of progress and democratic reform had pushed their way even into Hungary, the great question at the Diet did not relate to the mode of embodying these ideas into legislative acts, but to the doubt whether the king, at the close of the session, would wear the Hungarian surcoat or the Austrian royal mantle; and whether he would make his speech in Magyar or in German. The manner in which the royal propositions were received, (the crown had the initiative in all legislative acts,) depended much more on the solution of these doubts than on the nature of the propositions themselves. "I still remember," says an eye witness, "the closing of the diet of 1840. The discussions had been stormy, and the members were about to separate with angry and resentful feelings. There were some at Vienna who counselled vigorous and severe measures. But there was a surer means of allaying the discontent. The emperor appeared in the Magyar hussar uniform, and the empress and her ladies bore the long white veil which the Magyar dames wear on great festival occasions. The assembly, electrified at the sight, made the hall resound with their cries of joy and triumph; and at the first word pronounced by the emperor in the Magyar language, the enthusiasm broke through all bounds, and he was not permitted to finish the sentence which he had learned with some difficulty."

This enthusiasm of character, coupled with some picturesque peculiarities of dress and customs, is one great cause of the favor with which the cause of the Magyars has been received in Europe. The established mode of taking the vote in the Diet has always been by acclamation, so that unanimity was often supposed when it did not exist. A noble never appears in public without the long and trailing sabre peculiar to his race, which, as already observed, he carries even into the legislative halls; whence the proverbial saying among them, "he has his arms, and he has his vote; his vote is therefore free." Assent was signified by clashing these sabres; and their late Palatine, the archduke Joseph, was noted for his quickness of ear and impartiality in determining whether more sabres were clashed in the affirmative or the negative of

a question. In this instance, as in many others, we see that the Magyar pride of race and strong attachment to ancestral usages have brought down a rude custom of the Middle Ages to modern times, in which it has no real significance, though it gives to their proceedings a factitious air of unanimity and chivalric feeling. The noted scene with Maria Theresa, for instance, as it is usually reported in history, gives a wholly false impression. The custom, indeed, has a historical meaning; it throws a broad light on the ancient constitution of the Diet, which consisted of 80,000 mounted nobles assembled on the plain of Rakos to determine on war or peace, and uttering all together the formidable cry, "To arms!"— after which no scrutiny of the vote was needed.

rence.

Again, the ordinary assemblage of the militia in Hungary, to perform the military service required of them by the tenure of their lands, is called the insurrection, a word which, as repeated by the historians, gives quite a false aspect to the occurThe splendid attire of the Hungarian soldiery, especially of the cavalry, in which arm alone the nobles are bound to serve, shows the rude and barbaric taste for magnificence which has descended to them from their Tartar ancestors, and has been religiously cultivated as a badge of their race. Yet their dress is well designed for military purposes, as the imposing aspect of an army is often an element of its success; the Magyar hussar jacket, embroidered with gold and pearls, has been copied in half the armies of Europe. One reason of the lasting popularity of the late Palatine was, that he always wore the national dress, especially the attila, a sort of tunic of cloth or black velvet, the name of which flatters the pride of the Magyars with the memory of their supposed ancient leader, and the mente, a long surcoat or pelisse, trimmed with fur. He also spoke with great fluency the Magyar language, a rare accomplishment for a native German, though no officer of rank in Hungary would be tolerated who had not acquired it. The nobles pay great attention to the physical education of their children, accustoming them from a very early age to all manly exercises, especially swimming and horsemanship. The noted reformer, Count Széchény, a magnate of high rank and great wealth, is reported to be the best swimmer in Hungary; a crowd often collected on the quay at Pesth when the rumor was circulated that he was about to swim over the Danube.

Many of the characteristics of the Magyar race interest the imagination and the feelings strongly in their favor; but the sober judgment of one who looks at them under all the light derived from the improved civilization of the nineteenth century cannot but condemn their position as a false one, their institutions as antiquated, and their character and customs as little suited to promote their intellectual and material well-being. The most intelligent among them have long admitted the necessity of great reforms, and during the twenty years which immediately preceded the recent war, many beneficial changes were actually made, and the way was paved for others of greater moment. The credit of these ameliorations is chiefly due to Count Széchény, one of the noblest and best reformers of whom any age or country can boast. Having a princely fortune, an enterprising and generous disposition, and an intellect thoroughly cultivated by books and foreign travel, joining the enthusiasm and the perseverance of a reformer to the practical skill and tact of a statesman, and being both an accomplished writer and an eloquent and practised debater, he has accomplished so much for his country that she owes him a larger debt of gratitude than is due to all her sovereigns and warriors united. His first enterprise, commenced twenty years since, was an attempt to improve the navigation of the Danube, a work of immense importance, as we have shown, to the prosperity of the country. The obstructions in the river were so great, that only large rafts and some rude bateaux were sent down stream, to be broken up when they had once arrived at the Black Sea. Széchény built at his own expense a light and stout boat in which he descended the river himself, and ascertained that the rocks and rapids were not so formidable as had been supposed. He then organized a company for removing the greatest obstacles from the bed of the stream, and placing a line of steamboats upon it. The undertaking had complete success, and within one year the boats were plying regularly from Ratisbon to Vienna, and from Vienna to Constantinople. The enterprise excited great enthusiasm in Hungary; the Austrian government favored it, and contributed largely for its execution. Metternich himself was pleased, and became one of the first stockholders, though he laughed at the boasting of the Magyars respecting it," who thought they had invented the Danube."