what will surprise the reader is, that the. citizens of Debreczin themselves are, as a body, by no means revolutionary, but a jolly, simple, good-natured, ignorant people, just like the Turks of some town in the interior of Asia Minor. The element of political agitation was the tail that followed Kossuth and Madarasz from Pesth. The poor citizen of Debreczin, in his sheep-skin cloak and long boots, attending to his hogs and his horses, has not the least idea of the merits of knotty political questions; and although the locality of the declaration of independence was Debreczin, the men of the declaration were Kossuth and his small but energetic clique.

The people of Debreczin, therefore, moved my commiseration, as much as those who plunged them into these misfortunes excited my indignation. They complained most loudly and bitterly of their losses, by the plunder of the Cossacks, and described to me the ingenuity that these wild horsemen exercised in getting at their valuables. Every part of a barn and cellar were poked with their lances, to see if the earth were soft, and if silver spoons or other valuables were hid. They seized every horse in the town they could find in private stables, but were always ready to sell them again for thirty per cent. of their value. Often, however, a proprietor had to buy his horse twice over. Even General- the most polite, friendly man possible,—who shook every bodyby the hand, kissed acquaintances of two days' standing with the warmth of old friendship, stood cool and unmoved himself under the hottest cannonade but offered peppermint-drops to those who had caught cold in a draught of air, and was a perfect master of minor courtesies-made requisitions of wood, and other necessaries, for his corps, which he sold again next day, and the proceeds of which, we may rest assured, did not go into the exchequer of the Autocrat. I must, however, make an honourable exception of General Prince Bebutoff, who nobly spurned at all opportunities of peculation or plunder, and when he left the house in which he was quartered, told. his landlord to

examine the apartments, and see if the smallest article was missing.

Thousands of families in Debreczin had relations killed or wounded; and however much the ultra-Magyar aberration was inconsistent with either the universally recognised principles of law, or with a true and just conception of civil liberty, I was perpetually reminded, in the most painful manner, of how small a number of persons could be deliberately considered responsible for their immense sufferings. At a dinner given by the principal lawyer in the town, I met the principal physician in the place, Doctor K-: He had two brothers in the Austrian army, who served with distinction in the first campaign under Radetzky. In the following year one brother remains in Italy, the other becomes General K--, in the Hungarian army. The Temple of Janus is shut. The officer in Italy gets his promotion, and General K turns Mussulman.

CHAPTER XXV.

PESTH.

At Pesth, I put up at the Jagerborn, which I found to be a very good inn, adjoining the Danube, and overlooking the ruins of the German theatre, which had been destroyed by fire during the bombardment in the summer of 1849; and here I completed my Hungarian experiences, and during my stay saw a great deal of all partiescivilians and military-Magyars, and non-Magyars, the old aristocracy, the new bureaucracy, and not a few democrats, notwithstanding my antipathy to all extremes in forms of government. Pesth was full of military and

empty of society when I was last there, and, the prisons being full of political characters, all classes were more or less in a state of suffering and anxiety; for the aristocracy having taken to flight, the tradespeople were all complaining, and the Kossuth-party were, to use their own words, morally and physically niedergeschlagen. But now that the reign of terror was over, and Haynau making every effort to conciliate the people—with very little success, I must admit-Pesth was full of deputations and political partisans from all portions of Hungary, each seeking to indoctrinate him and Baron Gehringer, the civil governor of Hungary, with their conflicting views, and seeking the furtherance of their respective interests. My own time was passed, therefore, in an interesting manner. During the forenoon I discussed the state and prospects of Hungary with all those parties, and in the evening wrote my notes, or took social recreation in the political or musical drawing-rooms of the metropolis. But before I commence any account of the society of Pesth, since Hungary was turned upside down, let me take a glance at the external features of the place.

The great feature of Hungary is the Danube. A capital not situated on the Danube would, therefore, have a primary disqualification, which nothing else could compensate. Almost equidistant from the Styrian frontier on the west, and the Transylvanian frontier on the east, from the Carpathians on the north, and the Drave on the south, which separates it from Croatia, Pesth may be said to be situated very nearly in the centre of Hungary.

Pesth itself is situated on the left bank of the Danube, on perfectly level ground, with a noble line of newlyconstructed houses, forming a magnificent quay. Across the Danube is Ofen, alias Buda, rising above the water by a bold, steep acclivity, to an elevated table-land, on which is built the Royal Palace and other public offices of the kingdom of Hungary. The view from the terraces of the sister town-as Ofen is called--has been so often painted and described, that I need enter into few details,

except to remark that the two component parts of the capital partake also, in a striking degree, of the geographical peculiarities that divide all Hungary into two distinct regions. If, standing on the western terrace, we look to the amphitheatre of vine-covered slopes rising to nooks in the hills, in which neat white villas are situated: or admire the rugged precipices of the Blocksberg, overlooking the Danube, we see the Eastern boundary of the great Alpine region, which stretches from the Rhone to the Danube. Westward, all is hill and dale, lake and forest. The famed Platten, or Balaton-See, the NeusiedlerSee, the Bakonyer Wald, and all the romantic sites of Western Hungary, are mere prolongations of the Styrian Alps. If, on the other side, we cast our eyes downwards from the eastern terrace of the citadel of Ofen, the Danube flows at our feet, and Pesth lies stretched out to our view, with its long quay and countless dark brown tiled houses, broken here and there by a church spire, or a public square, beyond which is seen the commencement of the great plain, steppe, or pustza of Hungary, which stretches eastwards to the regions far beyond the Theiss.

The course of the Danube is here rapid, and its depth partakes of the nature of its banks. A few feet from the Pesth shore there is only two feet of water, in the middle five, and on the Ofen side a depth of eight fathoms. The connexion between the two cities has been hitherto kept up by a bridge of boats, the lease of which produced to the town the sum of 80007. per annum, the lessee being bound to keep it floating up to the 6th of December, which shows very nearly how long the river is free from ice. In order to maintain a constant communication all the year round the chain bridge was built, after the designs, and under the superintendence of Mr. Clark- -a noble triumph of British taste and science; and when I think of the two extremities of the capital, Ofen, with its vine-clad hills and German population, and Pesth with its long Hatvan-street, where the wild Magyar peasant, with swarthy complexion, fiery eyes, and nomad-like sheep-skin dress, has just arrived

from the pustza, with his horses reeking with sweat, the genius of Britannia seems even here in its congenial element, connecting the ocean-like plains of Asia with the civilisation of Europe.

Nothing could be more sublime than the spectacle which the Danube presented on my return to the capital; the intense and long continued frost had rendered the ice of great thickness, and a thaw having taken place, the whole breadth of the channel from shore to shore, was covered with huge blocks of ice that had been accumulated above Comorn, sweeping past with a loud roaring noise, and it was with a feeling of terrific pleasure akin to that with which one approaches a great cataract, and compounded of a vague mixture of danger and security, that I stood at the centre of the bridge and looked on the fields of ice rolling downwards, as if they would sweep away the piers of the bridge on which I stood, and then with a loud crashing noise splitting themselves on its immoveable foundations. Whole days elapsed before the immense tracks of ice, stretching from the Black Forest to the quay of Buda were swept away, and the spectacle was equally beautiful, in the silver sunshine, or in the blackness of night, when the masses were neither glittering nor very definable.

Ofen used formerly to be a place of considerable official bustle, in consequence not only of the residence of the Palatine, but of the numerous other public officers connected with the crown of Hungary, and in fact, was a large nest of conservative place-men; but this has been considerably altered since the destruction of the government palace and other edifices, and the transfer of the civil administration to a large hotel on the quay of Pesth, a little above the Casino, and close to the bridge. Bureaucratic Ofen was always dull compared with Pesth, but now it is desolate. Preparations were, however, making to rebuild the palace and retransfer the whole of the establishment across the river again.

If Ofen commands Pesth from its towering height, the