navigable, wished to carry out their views upon a more enlarged scale, by extending the representation, establishing a free press, and removing some of the most onerous legal disabilities, they found that they had over estimated their power, and were thwarted in all their useful purposes.

Hungary may be considered as forming a little Europe in itself, so rich and fertile that notwithstanding the administrative defects in its government, it derives from its own internal resources almost every thing that can be produced in European countries. Wines, of which there are at least a hundred different sorts, vary in price from one penny to five shillings the bottle, (Tokay). Coffee, olives, mulberries, and tobacco, are in great plenty; while the cattle supply the German markets. Horses are good and cheap, the price of the best seldom exceeding £25.; and from the introduction of Arabian and English horses, the breed improves every year, although a little more strength is still desirable. Mines of all sorts abound, but they make but a small return, compared with what they are capable of. Fish and game are so abundant, that the natives assert the river Teisse to consist of two parts, one of fish, the other of water.

D

CHAPTER V.

PRESBURG.

Description of the Town.-The Diet.-Hotels, &c.

THIS is a respectable town of about 35,000 inhabitants, and is the capital of Hungary. It is situated in a plain, at the foot of the Carpathian range of mountains, on the left bank of the Danube. A bridge of boats, 780 feet long, conducts to the public gardens, which are extensive and tastefully laid out, a royal palace occupying the highest summit. This was rebuilt by Count Palfry, in 1635, and enlarged in 1760, but was accidently burnt by some Italian soldiers quartered there, in 1811. It now only exhibits exterior evidences of its former grandeur.

The kings of Hungary, (the emperors of Austria having held that dignity since 1536), are crowned in this city, where also the Diet is held, the acts of which must have his majesty's approbation, whose policy of equilibrium, like the head of Janus, or the Austrian eagle, looks two ways-in Austria to suppress liberty-here to support it, in opposition to

the aristocracy. The Diet consists of four states or orders: 1st. the bishops and abbots; 2nd. the magistrates or great nobles; 3rd. the knights; 4th. the free cities. The two former appear in person, and constitute what is called the magnate table; the two latter, who form what is called the state table, appear by their representatives. They assemble every three years, and sit during the king's pleasure. All the four orders must accord, or the sovereign can neither impose or change a law, nor levy troops. At the ceremony of coronation, the king, taking the sword of Holy Stephen, who first introduced Christianity into the country, presents it to the four winds, declaring that he will defend the kingdom against the enemies that may arise from either quarter. All religions are tolerated, one half of the magistrates being chosen from Protestants, and the other half from Catholics. In public life, the greatest liberty in both sexes is tolerated.

There are several exceedingly moderate hotels and lodgings at Presburg, and every article of life comes under the denomination of cheap. When the French besieged the town in 1809, there were 129 houses destroyed.

CHAPTER VI.

PRESBURG TO PESTH.

Distance 140 miles.

The Danube.-Gonyo.- Comorn.- Neszmely.- Gran.Vissegrade.-Waizen.-Buda or Ofen.

THE steam-boat leaves Presburg at 6 o'clock in the morning, and arrives at Pesth at about the same hour in the evening. On leaving the city, the Danube divides itself into many arms, and is shallow. On each side is an extensive flat country, which offers nothing remarkable, until the traveller arrives at

Gonyo, a place pointed out for a rail-road to Vienna, as it sometimes happens in the summer, that large vessels cannot proceed higher than here, for want of water. In an hour from this place, the Virgin fortress and steeples of

Comorn are descried-a city which, amidst the various changes and vicissitudes that have for centuries agitated the immediate vicinity, never admitted an enemy within its gates. It still bears the same distinction that it did at the remote period of 1272,

as one of the bulwarks of the Austrian monarchy. After passing a number of mills in the stream, the voyage becomes more interesting.

Not far inland is

Neszmely, a place famous for the production of an excellent wine, named after itself, and which is equal, in point of quality, to new Rhenish Hock. It is sold in most hotels at 6d. a bottle.

Gran is marked by the extensive ruins of a castle. It was once a military post of considerable importance, and is now influential as the ecclesiastical capital of Hungary, being the residence of the Archbishop, who is primate and chancellor of the kingdom. On a promontory of the river, a church is in progress, which, when finished, will be but little inferior in point of size to St. Peter's, at Rome. Some short time since, a spring, similar in the quality of its water to that of Epsom, was discovered here. Magnesia is manufactured from it.

The banks of the river are enlivened by good cultivation, and a number of small villages present many beautiful pastoral scenes, in the approach to

Vissegrade, where, upon the top of a high perpendicular rock, are seen the ruins of a triangular castle, first mentioned in history, in 1077, as a place where Ladislaus confined his cousin, King Solomon, for a period of eighteen months. The prison, six stories high, is still to be seen, but it