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county, and substituting Magyar ones, in flat defiance of the fundamental diploma of the Servian nation, that the first shot of the whole war was fired.

But truth compels me to say, that both in the wars against the Turks and against the ultra-Magyars the greatest atrocities were committed by the Servians; that many defenceless persons were massacred, and whole villages burnt down. In fact, both were wars of extermination; and in Servia Proper all the Turks were extirpated, and are now confined to the few towns described in my work on that country. In my intercourse with the Servians during my tour through the Voyvodina and elsewhere, I never hesitated to express my strong horror of those wars of extermination, and the answers I got might be condensed thus: When the oppressions of the French aristocracy were no longer tolerable, this nation, that calls itself the most civilised in the world, sent to the scaffold even the most virtuous Mâlesherbes; how then can you wonder at the excesses of our people who are just laying the foundation stone of their new civilisation. The religious emancipation of 1791 saved us from a convulsion, a timely national emancipation would have done the same. As for the convention of Szegedin removing our disabilities when the ultra-Magyar faction was at their last gasp, that was bringing water to extinguish the embers after the house was burnt down.".

The province of the Voyvodina as re-established, comprises the Bacs country and the Banat, i. e. Neuzatz, Pancsova, Temesvar, &c. During the late revolution they elected their own voyvode, and adopted the ancient royal banner of Servia; but since the restoration of order, the Emperor is great voyvode, and it has been arranged that for the future, each vice-voyvode shall either be a Servian or able to communicate with the nation in their own tongue; for the ruling passion of all races in Hungary is neither religion nor politics, but the development and (when possible) the supremacy of language and nationality.

The new Voyvodina, however, has by no means an exclusively Servian character, in fact it is a mixed state of Servians, Daco-Romans, Germans, and Magyars. All these languages are on a level as far as local business is concerned, each village being in immediate relation with the local government through its own language, but the communications with Vienna are in German. This is unavoidable, as one central language is indispensable to every empire, and as German is the most extensively spoken in the monarchy, and except the Italian has the most valuable literature, it is in all respects the fittest. What irritated and embittered the nations of Hungary against the Magyars, was not so much the adoption of one central language for the Diet, as the carrying the national fanaticism into the municipal and ecclesiastical sphere.

The Servian peasant of the Voyvodina, is very far from having the tall stature, strength, vigour, and veracity of the true Servian; he lives on a plain, gets his food easily, and is somewhat too fond of plum brandy; and he regards Syrmium with its college of Carlovitz to be the chief seat of his nationality on this side of the Turkish frontier. Pannonia interamnis was the name of the Illyrian Mesopotamia in the time of the Romans, and of this wedgeif I may so term the high wooded region between the Save, the Drave, and the Danube-Syrmium was the point. None of my tours in Hungary proved more interesting than one I took in the summer of 1838 through the socalled Frusca Gora, (mons almus) where I found the mountain air so pure, and the water so deliciously clear, that, coming direct from the Banat, where I had passed a scorching summer, it seemed a paradise.

CHAPTER X.

ARAD-ITS FAIR-COMMERCE OF HUNGARY-DESCRIPTION OF ARAD-THE FORTRESS-THE COUNTY OF ARAD.

One fine clear chilly autumnal morning I started in the diligence for Arad, where the fair was then holden. As we approached the Maros, the land gradually undulates, and instead of the tame flat fields of wheat and rape seed, every hillock with a good southern exposure is covered with vines. At length, Arad hove in sight, scattered broad and wide, and by the crimson glow of sunset I again arrived at the left bank of the Maros under the bastions and ravelins of the fortress. Here the wreck of the old bridge formed a picturesque object, while on the other side of the river the opal coloured ruins of the nearer houses and spires of the central part of Arad stood distinctly defined in the ruby horizon.

Arad consists of two parts, Old Arad, an open town in the county of that name, and New Arad, the fortress in the Banat, which includes within its walls no civic population, and being entirely constructed for military purposes, commands the town and secures the passage of the Maros, on the high road between Temesvar and Grosswardein, and is therefore one of the most important strategical points in Hungary.

The inn was on the great square in the centre of the town, and next morning a characteristic scene presented itself on my looking out at the window. Opposite was a tall church, the tower considerably damaged by cannon shot during the long siege, and all the body of the place covered with booths, the side alleys being choked with horses and carts and their drivers. A kitchen was established in the open street, and a stout dame could scarcely serve quickly enough-fried-bacon and drams of brandy to the carmen and peasants that crowded round her for breakfast. For hours I walked through the temporary wooden streets, examining the articles, their sellers and purchasers.

There was the burly Saxon from Transylvania, that land of wool, with his pile of blankets, and thick white peasant's top-coats. These blue-eyed men came seven centuries ago from the Lower Rhine, they were then called by the kings of Hungary, Flandrenses; and our own English flannel tells whence our ancestors derived their warmest woollens. Transylvania is a land of tallow as well as of wool, and there might be seen, the industrious soap-boiler of Szegedin, laying in the provision for his winter's fabrication. There too, in large measures, was the paprika, or Hungarian scarlet pepper, like Cayenne, but not so strong. Another home product were the long rows of winter mud boots worn outside the tight breeches; those for the females being of scarlet leather, while all the articles of hard and soft ware were abundant. Metals from Styria, cloths from Moravia, and cottons from Bohemia.

Arad, although not so regularly built as Temesvar, has a much more town-like aspect than Szegedin. That part of it next the Maros is much damaged from having been exposed to the fire of the fortress during the war, and although Arad has no good street, it has many good houses denoting previous prosperity. The population is about 28,000, divided as follows:-9000 Germans, 9000 DacoRomans, from 3000 to 4000 Magyars, 3000 Jews, and 3000 Servians, who all dwell on the north side of the Maros; the burgomaster being during my passage through the town, a German, and Arad having been the last place in possession of the Magyar force, all nations had suffered severely by the Kossuth notes, as the towns-people were kept in profound ignorance of the hopeless condition of the ultra-Magyar cause, previous to the surrender of Georgey, and at the close of the struggle the fortress of Arad was the receptacle of their military stores and those bank notes which were the sinews of the war.

The fortress itself on the other side of the river was constructed in the same style and about the same period as that of Temesvar, the ground being perfectly level,

and the works according to the system of Vauban. Arad is said to be the neatest fortification in Hungary, and no sooner had I traversed the draw-bridge and passed the vaulted gate-ways, when I found myself in a sort of park, with alleys of trees. The only edifices inside being those required for strictly military purposes, barracks, magazines, and a church, the spire of which was much shattered in consequence of the Hungarian besiegers having erroneously supposed it to be the observatory of the besieged. All the rest of the large space within the fortress was park, alley, garden, and parade ground, girt by the ramparts with a great extent of bomb-proof casemates, that were at that time tenanted by between 300 and 400 political prisoners, either condemned to terms of imprisonment or awaiting their trial; and on the outside of the fortress, the spot was pointed out to me which was the scene of the execution of the leaders of the army that fought under the tricolored banner; but as I neither approve of the cause for which they fought, nor of the policy which dictated the punishment of death, however legal it might have been in a technical point of view, I reserve this subject to the conclusion of my account of Hungary.

For some time after leaving Arad, the land as we ascend the Maros is flat, and we are still in the great plain of Hungary, and in a few miles we are at the foot of the great Carpathian chain that separates it from Transylvania; and the county of Arad is not less rich than varied in its products, so that if I were asked in what county I had seen best represented, in parvo, the territorial wealth of this noble kingdom, I would answer Arad; with level wheat-growing plains, not inferior to those of the Banat, it has also vine-clad slopes, and hill pastures that furnish rich fleeces, and above them wood with fuel in abundance. The land, instead of gradually ascending, is a dead flat rich plan to the very base of the mountains; the white village church spires, villas, and cottages, seem to overlook the level land, and the clear morning air reminded me of those pleasant passages of

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