CHAPTER III.

VIENNA TO PRESBURG.

Distance 60 miles.

THE bed of the river being formed of stone and sand, which are easily acted upon by the force of the water, is changed almost every week. Divided into many arms, it forms innumerable islands, which are covered with shrubs and trees; while its flat and uninteresting shores are relieved in the distance by two chains of mountains, which indicate an approach to the Hungarian frontier. On the left is the terminus of the Carpathian, on the right the Levithe chain. Opposite to an Imperial Palace, called Theban, are some Roman ruins, and a church walled round, supposed to have been the first built in the country, having an antiquity of nearly 1500 years. This is Isaid to have been the station of the tenth Roman Legion, at the time when two others were put in garrison in Vienna, under Vespasian, in the year A. D. 70. From hence a fine view is had of the Chateau of the Hungarian kings, majestically seated upon an eminence, and leading to the supposition,

that the old Magyar sovereigns, contemplating an extension of territory, erected their palace on the confines, in order to command the country for many miles around.

A Diligence runs regularly between Vienna and Presburg, leaving the former place at 6 o'clock in the morning, and arriving at the latter, in seven hours. The price is 4 shillings.

CHAPTER IV.

HUNGARY.

Historical Sketch of the Country.-Manners of the People.-The Nobility.-Fertility and Produce of the Land.

HUNGARY is one of the most interesting but least known countries in Europe. It contains about 12,000,000 of inhabitants, and an area of 133,000 square miles. Under the name of Pannonia, it was subdued by the Romans, eleven years before the Christian era, and was conquered by the Huns in the year 433, when the monarchy was founded. Attila, the king, whom Gibbon calls "the supreme monarch of the barbarians," established his court and camp between the Teisse and Danube, in 452. Having led his uncivilized hosts to Rome, Pope Leo and the senators met him at its gates, and prostrating themselves, besought him to spare the city, which he did, upon condition of its becoming tributary to him. In 462, the Huns struck terror into France and Germany, and after becoming masters of the latter, and of all Dacia, they were united

under Charlemagne; but in 920, shook off the French yoke. In 1010, they embraced Christianity, and Louis, their last king, was killed in battle, at Mohatz, in 1526. In 1684, a bloody war commenced between the Hungarians and Mahomet IV., but the coalition effected between them and Sobieski, King of Poland, the Venetians, and Peter the Great, led to the utter defeat of the Turks, in 1686. Mustapha, the son of Mahomet, concluded the peace of Carlowitz, in 1699, by which Austria became possessed of all Hungary, which had been in the hands of the Turks ever since the time of Ferdinand I. Possession of the country was disputed, however, until 1739, when, by the treaty of Belgrade, the Sultan renounced for ever his pretensions to it. A decrease of the population and a check to civilization were the natural consequences of these contests, which had endured, with little intermission, for nearly 1600 years: viz. from 154 to 1739.

Voltaire describes the Hungarians as a proud and generous nation, the scourge of tyrants, and the defenders of its sovereign. As the title of a noble descends to all his posterity, the great increase in the number of this class has reduced the majority of them to a miserable and proud poverty, and has completely prevented the creation of an intervening

* The nobles amount to at least 300,000.

class. Ridiculously devoted to ancient customs, as indeed to every thing Hungarian, they are pertinaciously opposed to all innovation, and take advantage of a multiplicity of legal absurdities to exempt themselves and their retainers from every sort of direct taxation, tithe, and local impost, and to throw the whole burthen of these upon the operative and unrepresented body; who, having made the roads and erected the bridges, are obliged to pay the toll; whilst others, who from poverty are compelled to move in the same sphere and to engage in the same occupations, being shrouded under a title, pass on free. The ownership of the soil being restricted to the order of nobility, and the clergy-whose offices are patents of nobility—severely cramps the energies of the people, and retards improvement; while an uncertainty of occupation extinguishes all spirit of enterprise. Thus, the cupidity of the privileged class not only has the effect of excluding commerce, but of throwing more than one half of the available land out of cultivation, which would otherwise give them an excess of three times the amount of their consumption.

Though forming an essential part of the Austrian Dominions, Hungary is said to be a free nation; but this must be taken in a limited sense, for recently, when many of its most liberal rulers, who, it is but justice to say, have succeeded in introducing some useful changes, and in rendering the Danube