ing this portion of the entertainment, which was transacted standing, lounging, and chatting easily, in such a way as would break the ice of the most frigid party of reciprocal strangers; but there was no such necessity on this occasion, for nothing could exceed the civility of the Russian staffofficers, who were evidently a very superior, and, I should say, carefully picked set of men, with qualities comprising knowledge of their profession, general intelligence, and polished manners. Colonel Isaak of had been so obliging as to accompany me during the review, and give me information on the various corps. Another officer, with whom I conversed very agreeably during this vodka business, told me that he had been professor of mathematics in the military academy at St. Petersburg, and, being desirous of turning theory into practice, had come to see a campaign.

At dinner, General Grabbe proposed the health of the Emperor of Austria, and General Nugent responded by that of the Emperor of Russia; and then began a series of national dances, performed by Russian soldiers; and, when the sun was setting, we took our departure. On arriving at Almas I was so knocked up with such a day of riding, that I would have given a guinea for a bed, but no such luxury was to be procured; and at half-past two in the morning we arrived at Acs after a very long, very interesting, very instructive, but excessively fatiguing day.

The aspect of the Austrian troops in the review that followed is so much more familiar to the English continental tourist, that I only repeat what is well known, in stating that there is no army in Europe composed of more carefully picked privates; for, although the recruitment is by conscription, the latitude of rejection is considerable. Altogether, they are much larger men than the Russians, and have a freer and less artificial air. The horses were in good condition, considering the campaign they came out of; but, as already stated, their breeding is inferior to that of the Russian; and, according to the Hungarian

accounts I have received, the Austrian artillery is in the gunnery as superior to the Russian, as the Russian to the Austrian in mounting and equipment. As it is, I believe the Austrian army to be one of the best in Europe; for every officer has been put to the test, and every young, active, and intelligent officer rapidly advanced. But it is unnecessary to add that with a bungling or irresolute strategy, or finances deranged by a protective system that foregoes the large income derivable from a customs tariff adjusted solely to revenue, (thus rendering difficult or impossible the imposition of extraordinary direct taxation in a war crisis)-mere regimental excellence has not fair play in the actual tug of war. Such in the almost unvarying moral derivable from the perusal of accounts of several of the campaigns of Austria with the French Republic and Empire.

CHAPTER III.

THE DANUBE-SZOLNOK-THE MAGYAR CHARACTER-BRAVERY

AND

GENEROSITY-INDOLENCE AND

GRADE STATE OF AGRICULTURE.

BARBARISM-RETRO

Gran, Vissegrad, and other places on the Danube between Comorn and Pesth, have been so frequently subjects of the pen and pencil of the tourist, as to render a reproduction of their aspects superfluous; and the condition. of society in Pesth, a subject of the deepest interest and importance, I reserve for my return from Lower Hungary and Transylvania; for, on my passage through that metropolis in October, 1849, I was in too great a hurry to get over the basin of the Theiss before the weather broke.

And yet, although this is my fifth visit to the nations of Hungary, I confess that I never set foot in a Danube

steamer without a feeling of pleasure, excitement, and interest; for this noble river, once the great boundary between the Roman world of a civilisation about to dissolve, and the world of Germanic barbarism so soon to be transformed by the Christian element,- so soon to give to Italy, after an interregnum of chaos, her own element of liberty, and to receive from the south of the Danube the venerable fabric of Roman law,—has now become the highway along which the Germanic element identified with civilisation again rolls eastward. Presburg looks like a suburb of Vienna. In the fortifications of Comorn we see the consummate science of the Austrian school of engineering. In Pesth we see the results of a large immigration of German artisans, from the house shell to the cabinetwork that is the last finish of the drawing-room; and as we descend the stream, Neusatz and Belgrade echo, although more faintly, the vibrations from above.

The Theiss, although a tributary of the Danube, presents a complete contrast to the main stream. Here we find the Magyarism without the German dress of material civilisation in which she is enrobed at Pesth; and yet, beneath this uncouth native undress, the heart beats warmly, and is in the right place. There is ignorance, filth, and barbarism allied to generosity, bravery, and sincerity. Szolnok, a place of 12,000 inhabitants, is situated on the Theiss, the second navigable river of Hungary, and at the terminus that connects Pesth with the Theiss: one might therefore suppose it to have some appearance of a town; but it looks exactly like a large Turkish village in Bulgaria, minus the bazaar.

It has been well remarked, that the German likes narrow streets and wide trowsers; and the Magyar, wide streets and tight breeches; and one sees it verified the moment one enters Szolnok. The railway station in which we arrive is large and civilised-looking, but the moment we quit it, and look for the town, we see it nowhere, but follow the truck that carries our luggage for about a mile, through wide-scattered cottages and farm-yards

until we arrive at such an inn as almost frightens us back to Pesth again; the rooms being all on the ground floor and surrounding a large court-yard, which is a dungpuddle.

I found the people good-natured, civil, and honest (always excepting mine host of the "White Horse," who charged everything fifty per cent. above the standard of a good hotel in Vienna or Pesth). They had come out of a bloody war, into which they were deluded by a small junta of ambitious and fanatical men. They fought bravely, and they have been defeated. I viewed them, not with prejudice, but with compassion. I therefore would have willingly discovered the slightest spark of a tendency to civilisation in the mass of the people; but, after a careful examination of this place, its inhabitants, and agricultural system, I saw it not. I am compelled as a writer, anxious, not to put forth the views of this party or that party, but to arrive at the truth, to say there cannot be a greater delusion than to associate the Magyar element in Hungary with civilisation. A Count Sechenyi was the exception,

and not the rule.

The tendency to civilisation visible in Pesth is entirely and exclusively from the large influx of German artisans, and from the German education of the superior classes. The fine streets and houses are all the product of German architects, builders, smiths, carpenters, and cabinet-makers, assisted to a moderate extent by the Slovacks of the northern counties, who, inhabiting a poorer soil, are far more industrious than the Servians and Croats of the South; but here in Szolnok, where there are no Germans or Slovacks, you might imagine yourself to be in a village of Central Asia, so unlike is it to Europe, nothing being visible but filth and barbarism. Here and there a few logs of wood are thrown lengthways in the streets to prevent one getting over the ankles in mud; and in a town of 12,000 inhabitants, I have seen no house with a first floor, except the convent attached to one of the churches.

I find the Magyar character to have a great resemblance to that of the Turks who followed them out of Central

Asia. They are generous to profusion; they are naturally very courageous; and, like all foreigners that enjoy a supremacy through the valour of their forefathers, much more sincere than the Servians or the Wallachians. Their defects are also the Asiatic defects-pride and indolence. The Magyar is uncivilised because he feels no desire to be better; he is on perfectly good terms with himself; he has no internal desire to labour, to improve, to take pains, and to persevere until he arrives at a great future result. Even if the common Magyar go to Pesth, or Vienna, you find him a waiter in a tavern, a barber, or any light sauntering employment, but rarely in a trade that requires severe labour or long apprenticeship. If he stay at home, and devote himself to agriculture, he is equally remarkable for a spirit of antique, incurable Asiatic indolence.

Of the value of manure they have not the least idea, or rather they set too much store by it, for it accumulates in the towns so as to breed a fever from time to time. The agent of the Steam Navigation Company wished a heap of dung to be removed from the vicinity of the landing-place here; but the peasant answered, that the dung of his father and grandfather had lain there, and he did not understand how he should be called on to remove it for the public convenience. It never struck him that if he had laid it on his land he should put money in his pocket, so it was removed by the steam-boat agent.

The ploughs here are of the rudest description, and are all of wood, except a coarse ploughshare, which turns aside the earth so insufficiently, that all the ploughing is done with six oxen, when, with a modern plough, a pair of stout oxen is quite sufficient for the heaviest land. The harrows look as if they had come out of Noah's ark being entirely of rude branches of trees, pegged together in the most inartistic manner, and do their work so imperfectly, that a considerable part of the seed-corn is blown away.

When harvest-time comes, the wheat, instead of being reaped, is mowed down like grass, the mower receiving

PATON. II.

2