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HE struggle quality of the soul, and degrade history into a
between lib-mere recital of crimes, without a warning or a
erty and des- moral. It is the mind which marks the pro-
potism, since gress of the human race, not the physical con-
the first dition in which we are placed. If the mind is
French Re- pregnant with changes, it is in vain to arrest
volution, in its course by physical obstacles. The Russians
1789, never themselves, if they could accomplish the con-
was half as quest of western Europe, would, like the Man-
intense or tshoo Tartars who conquered China, be subdued
as pregnant by the civilization of the vanquished.
with impor-

tant consequences as that which the world has just witnessed, and which ended with the subjugation of the Magyars by the combined armies of Russia and Austria. It has left all the parties engaged in it prostrate, and has sealed the doom of Austria. It overthrew the European doctrine of the status quo,-a mere diplomatic chimera that never had any real application in time and space-and proclaimed, trumpettongued, perpetual war between barbarism and civilization. The plains of Pannonia are now added to the battle-ground of the great and unceasing struggle between the lovers and the enemies of mankind; while Turkey, which has been slumbering for two generations, is called in to decide the contest. Meanwhile the forces of both parties are recruiting;—when the Parisians shall have done dancing, the combat will again begin in the streets of Paris, and terminate with the overthrow of feudalism, or a new armistice between mind and physical force. To believe in a permanent victory of despotism, would be despairing of Providence and the destiny of the human race. It would proclaim the triumph of sensualism over every noble

For more than a thousand years Austria has been the watchtower, if not of liberty, at least of that species of civilization which, in the end, must beget liberty as a condition of its existence. Planted by Charlemagne on the eastern confines of Christianity, she guarded Germany and France against the Huns and Turks, who repeatedly swarmed over her fertile plains, and threatened the destruction of the empire. But Austria soon forgot what she owed to Europe; and, intent on her own aggrandizement, increased her own power at the expense of Germany. She became, by marriage, a conglomerate of many distinct nations, which she had neither the energy nor the mind to assimilate to her own people; she acquired physical momentum without moral or intellectual force. The House of Hapsburg aimed at universal empire, without possessing one of the qualities of a great ruler. It increased its territory as a farmer increases his estate; it never comprehended its mission to become the mediator between the different nations that met on the confines of Europe and Asia. Austriæ est imperare orbi universo, was the motto of Frederic IV., one of the poorest successors to the crown of Charlemagne, after the principle of this onward march had been explained in the wellknown adage: "Bella gerunt alii, tu felix Aus

tria nube !" Austria grew in body, not in, Napoleon back across the Rhine; it was "the

mind; she had the physical strength of a giant, and the soul of an infant. The different nationalities of her people coexisted, but were stunted in their growth, and recognised no historical necessity of combination.

But this was not the only fault of Austria and the House of Hapsburg. To the crimes of omission must yet be added those of commission in Germany. The House of Hapsburg comprehended its mission in Central Europe as little as that on the confines of the two continents. Jealous of the petty princes of Germany, it yet never had the courage and power to subdue them. It sought possession, and not power; territory rather to divide among children, than national character and elevation. It traded away whole provinces of the German empire for family possessions in Italy, lost Switzerland by its tyranny, the northern provinces and the Alsace by inactivity and military blunders, and at last, from sheer impotency, was content to share its power with one of its rebellious vassals.* The best opportunity for Austria to consolidate the German empire into an hereditary instead of elective monarchy, was offered her in the Thirty Years' War; but even then, when a multitude of circumstances combined to favour her aspirations, she had not the moral courage to will it; but rather sought safety from herself in the assassination of her successful general.† "That the House of Hapsburg never had a mission to rule Germany," wrote GENTZ, the secretary of Prince Metternich, in 1806, to JOHANNES VON MÜLLER, the historian, appears to me evident, from the fact that it was never able to reduce Germany to an hereditary monarchy." The fact is, the House of Hapsburg bethought itself of its own hereditary possessions, and was always ready to sacrifice the interests of the elective crown of Germany to those of the members of its own family.

66

The French Revolution found Austria entirely unprepared for the crisis, and her repeated defeats sufficiently evinced that she was unable to resist the new ideas of the age; while, at the same time, she had not the courage to adopt and guide them.

The battle of Auster

litz, and the subsequent battles of Auerstaedt and Jena, terminated the existence of the German empire; but the Austrian monarchy still continued as a separate European power.

The war of 1812, '13, '14, and '15, brought a new element into play; it was that of the roused nationality of the Germans. It was the enthusiasm of united Germany on which Austria herself was borne along, which drove

Frederic of Prussia. †The Duke of Wallenstein.

power of liberal ideas in Germany," as the proud conqueror himself admitted, that lost his cause on the battle-fields of Leipsic and Hanau. But no sooner was the danger passed, than Austria and Prussia relapsed into their former state of torpor. Austria, at the Congress of Vienna, preferred to consolidate her own hereditary monarchy, to presiding over the destinies of regenerated Germany; and the Emperor Francis declared to the deputies of the Hanse Towns, that he had not yet made up his mind, whether he would accept his old office (!)—the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. For the purposes of military defence against France and her liberal ideas, the German confederation of Frankfort-on-the-Maine was formed, which deprived the smaller states of Germany of the means of entering into alliances with foreign powers; but nothing was done to secure the progress or consolidation of Germany herself. Austria and Prussia alternately were made to preside over the confederation; twenty millions of Germans were left at the mercy of petty princes, and exposed to their rapacious extortions. To secure the attachment of these princes to the House of Hapsburg and Brandenburg, it was urged that they should form themselves into miniature constitutional monarchies, in order that their power should be broken by the antagonism of the people, and depend for its existence on the preponderance of Austria and Prussia as European powers. So far the diplomacy of Metternich.

The revolution of 1830 exhibited the weakness of Germany to a lamentable extent; but the joint action of Austria and Prussia, together with the reactionary movements of Louis Philippe himself, preserved the peace of Europe. The last struggle was made by Poland against Russia.

Had that struggle succeeded, the policy of Austria might possibly have changed; she might then have become a Sclavonic empire, instead of a Russian province. Metternich, at that time, felt some conservative compunctions. He saw that if Poland were crushed, it would be incorporated into the Russian Empire, and the old diplomate had a sincere

dread and hatred of the Czar. But his dread of him was greater than his hatred; and thus he again consigned himself to inactivity, and awaited the progress of events. The utmost

action to which the court of Vienna and its chancellor could be roused, was an offer of mediation despatched to Prince Paskewich before Warsaw. The Prince received the letter from the Austrian courier; but being in the act of arranging the storm on Praga, he invited the messenger to wait till he should be at leisure to read it. Praga fell, and with it the devoted city of the Polish heroes. The media

THE HUNGARIAN STRUGGLE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 185

tion was then declined, as no longer necessary. But Russia did not forget the disposition of Austria, and determined to give her officious neighbour a taste of revolution in her turn.

The revolution of Cracovia of 17th and 21st February, 1846, soon spread into Austrian Galicia, and crossing the Carpathian Mountains, planted the germ of insurrection in Hungary. The Magyars holding, in regard to Austria, pretty much the same position which Poland held to Russia, only unsubdued and undivided in their strength, had expressed their liveliest sympathy for the Poles from the commencement of the first revolution; and this new outbreak, and the dastardly means resorted to by Austria to suppress it, excited a bitterness of feeling, and a contempt for the Austrian government, which it became manifest would sooner or later prove destructive to the whole monarchy. It is well known that Austria, finding herself too weak to suppress the revolution of Galicia by military force, excited the peasantry to revolt against their lords, and by a universal massacre, stilled the sentiment of independence, in the spirit of assassination and plunder. A universal cry of horror pervaded the monarchy at the sight of these atrocious proceedings; but Austria heeded it not. The Hungarian nobles saw their own fate written on the wall. From that moment they prepared for their defence, and sacrificed the distinction of caste to the con

Russia, where they were hospitably received. Austria paid her butchers at the rate of ten florins a head! The charge was publicly made at the time in the French Chamber, and remained uncontradicted, except by a few newspaper articles in the Vienna papers.

It was now clear that Galicia, with her four millions of people, was reduced to a conquered province, but Austrian dominion over her extended no further than the reach of Austrian bayonets. That province was now sympathizing

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solidation and homogeneity of their country. | with Russia, rather than with the unnatural The peasants became proprietors in fee-simple; tyrant. If doomed to be crushed by despotism, the feudal system gave way to the national elevation of a whole people.

The revolution of Cracovia found Russia so well prepared, that the tranquillity of her own Polish provinces was not disturbed for a single moment; nay more, Russia warned Austria to be prepared, and offered her then, as subsequently in the Hungarian struggle, a division of her army. Metternich declined the offer; his national pride went just far enough to prefer the employment of his own Polish Lazzaroni to the aid proffered by the Emperor of Russia. The murders and assassinations then committed under the sanction of the Austrian government, drove many Polish nobles of Galicia into

the Poles preferred that which was coupled with unity of race, and with the prestige of a great destiny. On that side, then, Austria was undermined by her powerful Russian neighbour. Metternich saw it; but had not the energy to resist it. His puerile fears of liberty occupied him in Germany and Italy, and rendered him more apprehensive of the mob of Paris, than of the powdered Tamerlan in St. Petersburg. He was now old and decrepit. The dissipations of his youth, which had once nearly cost him his life, while minister to the French Republic,* had sapped his energy, and he was

He escaped with a sound drubbing, periodically re

loath to change a policy which he had pursued with so much apparent success for the doubtful result of a new one. He saw the storm brewing, and felt that Austria would perish in it; but he counted the span of life still left him, and, satisfied that it would be spent before the revolutionary waves would dash his ship of state to pieces, he adopted the motto: "Après moi le déluge!"

Europe. Germany and Italy rose from the Rhine
and the Alps to the sea-shore, claiming consti-
tutional governments, in conformity with the
spirit of the age and the progress of education
Austria and Prussia were
of the human race.
revolutionized; but by far the most important
event was the attempt of the Germans, by and
with the consent of their princes, to establish
a central German government, through a na-
tional German parliament. This was the period
at which Hungary, if she had so desired it,
could have attained her entire independence ;
but this was not the object of the Magyars.
As a truly generous nation, their loyalty to the
House of Hapsburg grew with the difficulties
with which the emperor was now surrounded.
They merely asked for a responsible ministry
chosen from their own people, and literally
overwhelmed Archduke Stephen, the Palatin of
Hungary, with tokens of fidelity and devotion.
Neither did the Magyars show themselves in-
capable of appreciating and acting in accor-
dance with the new state of things. They at
once recognised the central German govern-

the-Maine, to welcome united Germany to her achievements, and declared themselves the fast friends of civilization and order. They invited their king, as emperor of Germany, to follow his historical mission, and attach himself warmly and faithfully to the German cause. Germany and Hungary united would have been able to defy Russia, and with her the whole train of Asiatic barbarism.

Meanwhile Hungary woke to a sense of her power and consequence. She saw Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Galicia, every other province under the Austrian sceptre, wither and decay. She felt that herself must be infected before long, and resolved on achieving her national independence. By her ancient constitution, and the pragmatic sanction of Charles VI., the emperors of Austria were the hereditary kings of Hungary; but Hungary still existed as a separate kingdom, and was, as such, entitled to a separate government. It had been the studied plan of Austria not to Germanize Hungary (for herself was in too great a part composed of Sclavonic races to do so); but to merge the Hungarians gradually into Austrian sub-ment, sent diplomatic agents to Frankfort-onjects. This course, more than any actual oppression, roused the national feelings of the Magyars, who, in turn, demanded every year greater concessions from the crown, as a means of preserving and fostering their separate national existence. The proceedings of the Diet were carried on in Latin; the Magyars insisted they should be carried on in the Hungarian language. The officers of state corresponded with each other in Latin or German; the Magyars substituted the Hungarian, and fostered the language by the institution of an academy of language and science, which exists to this day. They insisted on the right to officer their own regiments, and of substituting the Hungarian language for the German in the Hungarian army. The very inscriptions of coins were to be in Hungarian; while the splendid improvements of Pesth retained the rich Hungarian nobles during the winter in their own capital, instead of seeking dissipation, and finding political corruption, in the avenues to the court of Vienna. All these movements excited the jealousy and fear of Austria, as it was plain that Hungary was only hanging by a thread to the Austrian monarchy, which the first political event of any magnitude might sever and divide for

ever.

Then came the revolution of 1848 which, in an incredibly short time, convulsed the whole of

peated for several hours, for invading the private rights of a general of the republic, and was only rescued by the ingenuity of Josephine, who was gracious enough to require the general's immediate presence.

The

In proof of this, the Deputy Gorové introduced the following resolution into the Hungarian Diet: "The Union of Germany is to spread civilization eastward, and Hungary is Metternich's infamous bound to assist her. policy has caused the intervention against liberty in Italy and Spain-he it was who co-operated with a power which is threatening the whole of civilized Europe. When France shall have consolidated her power, when social democracy shall have been spread over Spain, Portugal, and Italy, Germany and Hungary will spread it over the east. House of Representatives therefore ought to recognise the intimate union of interests which exists between the Germans and the Magyars.” Count Teleky Laszlo supported the resolution, and spoke as follows: "It is impossible not to support the resolution. I desire that, since the alliance between Germany and Hungary has been manifested by the rising of all the members of the German Parliament, we now acknowledge in the same solemn manner our obligation in regard to Germany.” (Here the whole House of Deputies rose as one man.) The noble Count then proved that the Austrian ministry at Vienna did not comprehend the

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