of Hungary with the Transylvanian mountain bastion in entire and complete possession of the Austrian and Russian troops.

This short sketch has been suggested by my visit to Schässburg, in the environs of which were the decisive operations by which Bem first gained, and then lost Transylvania; but the long siege of Carlsburg, and an account of what passed in the Szekler-land and around Cronstadt, Bistritz and other places, would require volumes instead of a chapter. The most distinguished officers on the Magyar side, were Kemeny, Kis, who defended the Carpathian Pass, and for personal courage, Counts Mikes and Gregory Bethlem. Worthy of praise on the other side, is General Luders, who showed himself to be practical and skilful. General Engelhardt distinguished himself by great personal bravery. With regard to General Hassford's able retreat from Herrmanstadt through the Rothenthurm Pass there is a difference of opinion; some severely censuring General Luders for leaving him with so small a force and so heavy a baggage train, which but for Hassford's prompt dispositions, incurred the risk of the Russian army losing the greater part of their baggage. However this may be, success has ensured General Luders the prominent place. Of the unfortunate Puchner, who in youth had an active and successful career, I have already spoken, and report was highly favourable to General Clamggallas, who commanded the Austrian troops in the Russian campaign, as well as to Baron Heydte, who during all the war proved himself an excellent partisan leader. Of General Urban, who demands a more especial notice, I shall have something to say at Clausenburg.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SZEKLERS-UDVARHELY- THE SZEKLER CONSTITUTION

KERESTHUR-UNITARIANS-SZEKLER NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.

Brave and hardy in physical constitution, the Szekler is the inhabitant of the mountain region that approximates to the mouths of the Danube, and the streams from which water a considerable portion of the principality of Moldavia; and as Udvarhely and Maros-vasarhely are towns of which many readers have never heard, I hope they do not consider me as losing my time on subordinate places, when taking a look at the permanent garrison of the great bastion of forests and precipices that juts out into that part of the Ottoman Empire which adjoins Southern Russia. I had heard many rumours of robbers and dangers when in Herrmanstadt, and was advised to let the Szeklerland alone, but no accident of an adventurous description occurred to me in the course of my tour, and after the war there seemed a general disposition for a sleepy tranquillity. Much was no doubt owing to the exertions of Baron Heydte, a man of popular and conciliatory manners, who speaks the language fluently, and proved himself a gallant soldier during the war.

The origin of the Szekler nation is involved in a dark obscurity; some writers maintaining, that they are the true descendants of the Huns of Attila, who, after overrunning the Roman Empire, permanently settled in the romantic vales of Dacia Transylvania. If such be their origin, habit has considerably altered their character from that of a nomade race, that encamps on the steppes, or pusztas, as attempts were made during the revolutionary crisis to transplant this dense compact population to parts of Hungary, such as the Bacska, where the Magyar population is largely mingled with Servians and Germans; but the question always was, "Has the Bacska mountains? Has the Bacska forests? If not, it has no charms for us."

Certain it is, that they preceded the Magyars, by probably a century; and although having a different dialect of the same language, now speak the Magyar in the same manner as the inhabitants of Hungary, but with a slight singing twang.

Udvarhely, the ancient capital of the Szeklers, is surrounded by hills, and has 8000 inhabitants. Most of the houses are built of, or roofed with wood, and with the exception of the church, the Calvinistic college, and halfa-dozen other houses, looks just like a Turkish town. The fair was held while I was there, and the streets were crowded with male and female Szeklers, who are certainly a fine race, the women being handsome, and the men compactly built. Nearly all were dressed in homewove and home-made cloths. The webs of coarse iron-grey cloth piled up in booths, and a large traffic going on in small Transylvanian horses, but there was a great want of those colonials and manufactures which betoken civilisation. For the Szekler dresses himself in his drugget and sheepskin, or Saxon home-made linen, and instead of coffee and sugar, makes a large consumption of bacon and homemade brandy.

On the great square is the Calvinistic college, which was shown me by the professor of mathematics and natural philosophy, a very intelligent man, who had studied in Berlin. It is a quadrangle with a monument to the builder of the edifice in the centre, but no lectures had been given for some time; the events of the war having dispersed the college, and professors, and all the students having been enrolled in Bem's army. The subjects taught are theology, mathematics, physics, and law; and on examining the library, I found very few Magyar books, most of the works being Latin and German ones of the seventeenth century. All the class-room windows and stoves had been knocked to pieces by the barbarous Daco-Roman militia.

The Catholic church is situated at the top of the hill on which Udvarhely is built, and is such a remarkable

instance of good taste, as struck me with surprise in the Szekler land, and made me ask myself if accident had produced those pleasing proportions, or if a mute inglorious Wren or Perrault, building a Catholic church at the other end of Transylvania, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, had gone backwards in search of the simpler forms of preceding periods. In Udvarhely it certainly was a wonder, for the modern churches of Hungarian country towns are generally the choicest models of the worst taste imaginable.

All the rest of Udvarhely 'was miserable in the extreme; and the sun having partially thawed the snow, this circumstance, along with the great traffic of the fair, rendered the streets ancle deep with mud; against which even the fair sex were well provided, as many a young girl, with delicate features and fine complexion, was seen trudging helter-skelter through the mud, in her enormous thick soled boots that came up to the knee.

There is no middle class in Udvarhely.. It has no Casino with newspapers, or any class having intelligence, so as to make it worth the traveller's while to remain for a short time and cultivate acquaintance. The Szekler is a soldier-peasant; persons of education are the rare exception; the only seat of anything like a middle class is Maros-vasarhely, which was for a long period considered the capital of the Szeklerland; but Udvarhely in antiquity has the precedence. The Szekler has several points of difference from the Magyar, as well in geographical peculiarity as in local and municipal institutions. They had no magnates, that is to say, princes, counts, and barons, in their ancient constitution, and the primarii, primipili, and piccidarii, were knights, yeomen, and footmen or infantry, and the land was not divided into counties, but into six stools, or Sessions of Justice-magnates and serfs being equal strangers to the aboriginal constitution, which was of a more republican cast than that of Hungary, and the traces of which spirit pervaded all their legislation; for instance, in Hungary the king is, as with

us, the ultimus haeres when a person dies intestate without lawful heirs; but in the Szekler-land, when such a contingency occurred, the land was divided among the next neighbours.

But there are several Hungarian magnates of Szekler origin and property. The principal family of this description in the neighbourhood of Udvarhely, are the Counts Matscasy, at whose house I spent a day at Keresthur, which, for a wonder, was not burnt down or destroyed; for, being in the Szekler-land, it was more secure than those residences in the Daco-Roman districts. In order to give an idea of what such mansions are, I may mention, that they are usually, like the French châteaux, close upon the road, and are built no higher than one floor, forming three sides of a large court-yard. A large hall leads from the central door to the back of the house, and is of such extent as to be a ball-room in case of a festival occasion, and leading from it, on the right and left, are dining-room and drawing-room, beyond which are the private apartments of the family, and on the other side of the hall those of the guests. Previous to the revolution it was a common thing for persons of good landed property to keep open house; but with the spread of better inns, and the greater frequency of communication, this custom had for some years been much circumscribed; and, since the revolution, the perpetual visiting that went on among county families, and even the unceremonious reception of all strangers, necessarily gave way, after a large proportion of the incomes of the landed proprietors were swept away by the Batthyany - Kossuth legislation.

The position of the landed proprietor in this part of the world is any thing but enviable; he is not like the British landlord, deriving a fixed income from farms let to parties at a stated rent; he is, in some respects, himself a farmer; and, therefore, compelled to cultivate by the means of persons whom he employs, or his income is made up by payments in kind. All this compels the landed