University of Northern Iowa

Hungary and Roumania Author(s): Karl Blind Reviewed work(s): Source: The North American Review, Vol. 109, No. 224 (Jul., 1869), pp. 176-197 Published by: University of Northern Iowa Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25109487 . Accessed: 09/04/2012 11:26
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176 Hungary VI. ?

and Roumania.

[July,

Art.

Hungary

and Roumania.

Some twenty years ago, in the full flush of European revolu and again shortly before that dark deed which brought the downfall of republican freedom in France, the name a household word among of Hungary if I mistake was, not, the people of the United States, a romantic as well as a politi " cal interest having attached itself to that War of Indepen " even the writers of dence round whose heroes and martyrs so critically in general had inclined, contemporary history, cast a poetic halo. already when called upon to recognize Hungarian Lord Palmerston, " Austrian Em independence, replied that he knew only an " States were not indisposed to enter into ; but the United pire relations of international amity with the new commonwealth. To the United States it was owing that'those Magyar exiles who on their had found a shelter, though clogged with restrictions freedom, on Turkish soil, were not kept for an indefinite personal as would have suited the purposes of time in such confinement the Czar and the Kaiser, but were released and enabled to enjoy In the belief that offered them by free nations. the welcome of fortune which Hungary has since experi the vicissitudes now that she has re and prospects enced, and her position in a constitutional, if not in the more attained self-government will have an interest for Americans, democratic form, complete tions, about of the account of the political resurrection as well as of the perils which yet surround it, realm, Hungarian " to what is called the Eastern in consequence of its relations I shall give
question."

some

Palmerston said, in 1849, that he knew no " he repeated but only an Austrian the Empire," Hungary, he had used some eighteen or nineteen years before, on phrase Then he of the Polish war of independence. the occasion " but only that he knew no Poland, Russian had declared it was the fashion In the mouth of one whom dominions." " to style Lord Firebrand," that ex with ultra-conservatives When Lord pression may have could be explained, but I believe seemed strange enough; it after all, by his earlier relations with Mus-.

1869.]

Hungary

and Roumania.

177

covite diplomacy, would reflect though such an explanation little credit on the memory of that able and powerful, but statesman. At all events, he was guilty of a unprincipled of Poland" and fallacy both in the case of the "Kingdom in that of Hungary, when to make those coun endeavoring " " tries appear simply as provinces of the respective empires and Habsburg. of Romanoff Even by the houses governed as she had been among three crushed Poland, partitioned poor, some signs of national life and some powers, had yet preserved distinct In that part of Poland which institutions of her own. was joined to Russia, the Constitution of 1815, engrafted upon that of 1791, established there being government, representative then two houses of parliament and a responsible ministry, as? the monarch well as a separate army organization, the having " and the administration title of King of Poland," being car ried on, during his absence, by a viceroy. The rising which on November soon as 29, 1830, and which began at Warsaw of a war, could therefore under no cir sumed the proportions as a simple revolt of a "province" be regarded cumstances an "empire." It was the movement of a distinct against nation against an oppressive ruler, who, from the fact of his re standing at the head also of another nation of vast military sources, was able to crush the feebler, freedom-loving power. under the same rulers So it was with Hungary. Although " as the other countries in the Austrian comprised Empire," as re down to 1849, had been a separate kingdom Hungary, and the tenure of the royal power ; the its constitution garded and its territory confines of the realm were clearly marked, a cordon of custom-houses, was girdled which formed a by in addition to the political commercial one, between division, the countries on the two sides of the boundary line. A " prov " ince "of Austrian Empire," Hungary the therefore was not. or Kaiser-Staat, name of Kaiserthum as applied to The very dates from the beginning of the present century, Austria, only when Francis was compelled, of war through the misfortunes to lay clown his imperial Ger in the struggle against Napoleon, man dignity, which had become a mere shadow, and thereupon, as a slight solace, assumed the title of Austrian or Emperor, was not affected Kaiser. Constitutionally speaking, Hungary
vol. cix. ? no. 224. 12

178 Hungary

and Roumania.

[July,

the Austrian For Hungary, emperor remained simply thereby. a " king," though in some undefined way he had provided him is wont to self with an additional the folly of men title, which " as an appellation to that of king." regard superior and a govern boundaries, institutions, Having representative and other rela ment of its own, though connected by dynastic in 1848-49, tions with Austria first strove proper, Hungary, in the sense of greater parliamen to improve its Constitution tary freedom and of political equality among the various races was not to be done the realm. that dwell within Royalty in its privileges. Before but only to be restricted " to the " extreme of taking the management step resorting re nations of their affairs into their own hands, generally or treachery to be some act of intolerable quire oppression It was the double committed them by their rulers. against away with, that drove the Hungarians dealing policy of the Habsburgs to into a war, during which the reigning house was declared thus paved for the have forfeited its rights ; the way being establishment of a republic, had it not been that the rising lib erties of the people were crushed under the weight of a double attack from abroad, combined with reactionary move military fostered by Imperial statecraft within. ments " " of the Austrian of a mere The character province" to Hun attributed which Lord Palmerston falsely Empire," to acquire full inde gary, at a time when she seemed destined pendence, was in reality imposed upon that country through the resolved In return for the declaration issue of the war. of the the forfeiture at Debreczin, which pronounced upon " " crown the house of Habsburg-Lorraine, of St. Stephen by to have forfeited now declared the Hungarians the Kaiser their autonomy and their constitution through the fact of the to use It was done on the Verwirkungs-Theorie, rebellion. Henceforth officials. of Imperial the special phraseology of to the pleasure was to be governed according Hungary institu of representative the whole machinery the monarch, sad having been tions, both in state affairs and in local matters, " Car abolished by a stroke of the pen, or rather of the sword. ? of Norman that haughty tel est notre plaisir" expression even yet lingers in the official inter French despotism, which

1869.] course

Hungary

and Roumania.

179

between the English Crown and its Parliament, though in England has fortunately the spirit of government changed for the better ? was to be made a harsh truth in the once self realm. governed Magyar for the first time, arose that Imperialist doctrine Then, which would not acknowledge be any longer the distinctions " tween the several component parts of the Austrian Empire," ? distinctions which are so broadly stamped upon them either or by the influence of character of national by the differences was to be a " centralized Austria" There historical grouping. under the black-yellow flag, held together by the iron bands of arbitrary rule, with no trace of national rights or popular and the left standing. Robert Blum, Messenhauser, liberties were in their bloody other champions German of democracy, at Arad the hangman On the gallows of graves at Vienna. and Apostolic had strung up his Imperial, Royal, Majesty and statesmen In eminent Magyar generals by the dozen. the work of oppression was completed numberless Italy by no impedi There was consequently fusillades. court-martial of the Kaiser's At least so it desires. to the fulfilment ment of Vienna. appeared for a time to the cabinet politicians Yet the scheme of triumphant In tyranny would not work. the face of their victor, ? whp, the better to mark the relation in which he stood to the people of his capital, would never (from 1848 down to 1860) appear in public in any other than ? the Viennese military garb, preserved an attitude of sullen so ness it formed to the court because the more galling a contrast to the good-natured and forgiving temper of strong but withal free-minded Year that pleasure-loving population. still remember would after year passed by, but the Viennese is the only town in Europe which can Theirs their martyrs. of the popular boast of a monument worthy of the champions cause that fell in the street fights of the early part of 1848. aloft like a colossal finger of It is a granite obelisk, towering be it said that, at To the honor of the Viennese warning. the the very time when oppression was rampant, they matured for the erection of that noble memorial. Nay, proposition on being applied to by the communal the government, when to be placed on council, refused to allow a suitable inscription

180Hungary "

and Roumania. "

[July?

the pedestal, the assembled fathers of the town resolved by a formal decree to refrain from adding any inscription at all, " until it could be done in proper form at a more propitious
time."

would not be weaned Even as the people of Vienna from so the Lombards and Venetians liberal their aspirations, would not abandon their eager desire for a junction with their the Italians, it is true, so long as Italian brethren. Against were unaided by foreign forces, the Court of Vienna was they able to avail itself not only of a commanding strategic position a large military array, but also of the superior martial of its non-Italian it be forgotten Nor must prowess subjects. national in the Lombardo-Venetian tendencies that, kingdom, to be found beyond the urban populations were and scarcely " " classes the better part of the ; whilst the peasantry, upper in animated by class hatred against the signori, and attracted some degree to Austrian rule by a well-devised of im system in minor social matters, looked rather coldly partial justice formed by the democratic upon the plans of deliverance party of action, as well as by the more cautious and astute Piedmon Since in Italy, as on the Continent tese politicians. in gen class forms the vast majority, in fact more eral, the agricultural than two thirds, of the aggregate it is easy to see population, that Imperial rule had, after all, to deal only with a very small, which it was not difficult to overawe though active, minority, force. The fact of the indiffer by a constant display of military of the peas ence, nay, in many cases, the positive antagonism, of the more enlightened antry to the national tendencies classes, has been testified to me by the two chief leaders of the Italian " The nickname of was there Austriacanti" popular party. as well as to the time-serv fore often applied to the peasants, of the higher ranks. Even during ing or unpatriotic members war of 1859 many the peasants were found ready to succor It was a state of things the Austrian soldiery on its retreat. to that which in many similar prevailed provinces formerly of the towns and of the Polish, where the patriotic aspirations more also found themselves nobility progressive checked, a time of insurrection, of a by the sullen indifference during from the remembrance of long-standing class which, griev and

1869.]

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and Roumania.

181

and therefore, ances, is of a somewhat suspicious disposition, as a rule, little inclined to co-operate heartily with the people of the towns. So it was also in Galicia, the Polish province under Habs even more There class hatred was embittered burg sway. Iii Galicia, fanned antagonism of race. the by an artificially population belong partly to the Polish race, properly so called, " " stem, which holds an intermediate partly to the Ruthenian or "Lechs," between the Poles, and the Russians* position over Lithuania, and Podolia, Galicia, Spreading Volhynia, to their territo Northern Hungary, the Ruthenians, according rial position and the extent of their intercourse with their im the Poles mediate neighbors, approach in speech and tendencies or the Russians, as in an ethnological and may consequently, to occupy in a great well as in a political be considered sense, a debatable measure Those of them who are located ground. in Galicia the central portions of the province, around occupy in the eastern and the the capital, the Poles proper .dwelling western districts. This distribution of races, together with the and the aristocracy, enabled class feuds between the peasantry in in 1846, to quell a patriotic Polish movement Metternich, a cruel massacre, Galicia in which the notorious Syela by It was a deed the more hideous and played an infamous part. di hateful because, even from the point of view of Austrian a reconstituted Poland would be a desirable consum plomacy, as it would afford a shield against ten the aggressive mation, But though the Ruthenians, dencies of Russian Pansclavism. state since 1846, have frequently been opposed by monarchical the idea of Polish the Poles, craft to their brethren, indepen even in Galicia. Hence this dence could not be vanquished and Venetians, formed like the aspirations of the Lombards too, a bar against the establishment of a Centralized Austria. In an even greater degree was this the case in Hungary. That kept down by the bayonet; country could be vanquished, would not but its political parties, with remarkable unanimity, of the the other dominions fusion with hear of any political There is, in that polyglot country, ? which house of Habsburg. races differing as much as the Turks its precincts has within or the Italians a from the Dutch, ? do from the Prussians,

182Hungary

and Roumania.

[July,

of a common strong national wonderfully spirit, the growth even of a the strength historical against which development, to his aid, Joseph II. failed, though he called ideas of progress in the interest in his attempt to overcome aristocratic privilege monarch of a more overbearing, impartial, but nevertheless ical rule. Hungary, during the popular struggles of 1848-49, was often called a " nationality." That appellation has, with and speakers, clung to it; but in point of many public writers fact it is a misnomer. is certainly not a nationality, Hungary a in the sense in which we speak of an Italian, a German, a compound or even a Polish nationality. It is rather French, " " character of nationalities ; and yet it has an unmistakable in a its own, which stands out in bold relief and explains of and the constitution the vitality of its political great degree fruitlessness of the attempts made for its overthrow. The German', in nuce. Austria has been called a Europe races are rep and the Ugrian the Romanic, the Sclavonic, of tribes hetero in it, besides various odd fragments resented huddled together in some nooks and corners, as stray geneously is true drifts. What of the migration remnants and sediments as a whole and its true of Hungary is even more of Austria annexes. we look back into history, we find When so-called Sarmatae, Iaz Bastarnae, Getae, Illyrians, Paeonians, Dacians, Suevi, Quadi, Alans, Avars, Huns, yges, Vandals, Bulgarians, of differ Goths, Sclavonians Marcomanni, Longobardi, Gepidae, and last, but not ent denominations, Khayars, Wallachians, ? a people belonging to the same stock as the least, Magyars ? into what to-day, Fins and the Turks successively sweeping " " " or " Ungrian tribe of the Magyars, is after the Ugrian countries that have There are other European called Hungary. tribes. of discordant been visited by a nearly equal succession and Turkey ? have pre Bui the East of Europe ? Hungary In traces of such national served the strongest dissimilarity. are even worse off on some respects, various parts of Hungary There are districts this score than certain Turkish provinces. in which every claim of one race is contested by half a dozen
other races.

Hungary race, which

is

inhabited

at

is mainly

settled

by the central Magyar present on the plains; by different Scla

1869.] vonian

Hungary

and Roumania.

183

the more mountainous chiefly inhabiting populations, or lesser compactness, in greater but stretching also, parts, and southern the northern, western, along parts of the cir cumference has spread along ; by the German race, which and through the towns in gen that great artery, the Danube, race which or Wallachian, eral ; and by the Rouman, is scat tered over the eastern districts, where it touches, through Tran of the Danubian sylvania, the cognate population principalities. as the Hungarians insist on considering which Transylvania, part of their own country, as it covers their eastern flank by the of Rou smaller Carpathian range, is inhabited by a majority the political but somewhat uncultivated people; man-speaking social power, industry, and intellect being chiefly re strength, a people of Magyar the Szeklers, ? by the Magyars, presented " ? ? a German and the Saxon nation," descent, population settled there since the early centuries of our era. In a numerical sense, every race may be said to be in a in Hungary. The Magyars, counting between five and minority are pretty well offset by the Sclavonians, six millions, taking are as the Sclavonians these latter in the bulk. However, of the kingdom, somewhat scattered around the circumference in whereas the Magyars occupy a more concentrated position and as the former are, moreover, the middle; split up into a Schok number of tribes, ? namely-, Slovaks, Croats, Rascians, and others, ? who lack a common aczes, Wends, Ruthenians, medium of understanding, their different languages being still nation has natu in the state of simple dialects; the Magyar a position of greater even in intellectual mat influence, rally in this respect, as well as ters. The. chief source of progress na German in industrial is however the neighboring affairs, have penetrated into what, whose pioneers of civilization tion, by the more ambitious among them, has sometimes been called their Colonial Department the German in the East. Altogether, of Hungary may be reckoned at about two millions. population on the whole, on terms of good fellowship It lives, fortunately, with the Magyar element, there being even a tendency among the German and settlers to Magyarize themselves immigrants so that, under not a few strange-sound in their familynames, " " " or " Pfannenschmied is Schulze," ing names, a Miiller,"

184 Hungary hidden.

and Roumania.

[July,

of two millions of Roumans occupy the Upwards and are loosely scattered over of Transylvania, greater portion that principality between the districts and the river Theiss. the old Magyar under disfranchised Politically constitution, as the plebs Valachorum, which treated them contemptuously they have, in some notable cases, been made use of as instru in the Imperial ments for convulsing for. interest, Hungary it is which their low state of civilization ? into which, part true, they had been thrown by aristocratic misrule?eminently fitted them. Shall I also mention the medley of Arnauts, Bulgarians, and so forth, which goes to make up Armenians, Gypsy clans, of the Hungarian the full aggregate ? Be it enough population to say, that it would be difficult to conceive a more variegated " " and tribes than are to be found of nationalities hodgepodge " " in the happy-family the thrown together, fashion, between and the Danube. range Carpathian But the strong state-forming has given power of the Magyars to the whole population a tone and a character of its own. With all that variety of rafees and tongues, which rendered it advisable down to quite recent times to use Latin as the official and parlia had most dis commonwealth mentary language, the Hungarian tinctive features, and was imbued with a spirit difficult to tame of a levelling monarchical down to the requirements bureauc has been able to outlive terrible disas racy. Hence Hungary ters brought upon her from without and worse internal dangers. Never have the latter been more trying to the cohesion of the realm than in the period immediately previous to the misfortune for independence of Vilagos. and liberty against the Battling house of Austria, the Magyars were assailed from within by lo in which the fierce passions of hostile cal counter-insurrections, races, kindled by despotic guile, ran riot at the expense of that freedom which all might Thus the Revolution have enjoyed. had been internally undermined before it fell under the weight and the Czar. But even of the combined armies of the Kaiser that sad experience could not break the spirit of the Magyar nation. which The great capacity that for self-government Eastern chiv race, whose origin is to be traced to a nomadic in an equal degree with nations boasting of alry, had displayed

1869.]

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185

an Anglo-Saxon descent, was still powerful enough to make the of the time. bear up against the discouragement Hungarians after 1849, to The attempt made by Prince Schwarzenberg, to the rule of the them to yield a ready obedience compel So did the more liberal, but still sword, failed miserably. of Herr von Schmerling, who endeavored anti-Hungarian, policy on the constitutional to found a centralized Austria principle. At a first glance there was something specious and captivating it seemed but natural that the in this latter scheme. To many " of the different populations institutions various- " antiquated and a new funda should be altogether of Austria discarded, set up in mental law, on the modern pattern, representative of civic rights, irrespective their stead, proclaiming uniformity It was a plan which of race. of national history and distinctions won the assent of the great industrial inter almost necessarily ests of the German interests of Austria, ? every provinces on their activity. where impatient of restrictions To the great idea of a possible return to a state of the mere manufacturers, line might be restored between things under which a custom's of the dynasty and the other dominions Hungary appeared Their utterly preposterous. sympathies were therefore easily constitution. enlisted on the side of the Schmerling On the other hand, it was easy to see that if that constitu tion were finally adopted, there was an end of the long-dreamed of a United of reconstitution Poland, Italy, and an Independent can never be complete not to speak of German Unity, which that have for so many centu without those Austrian provinces first under the Empire, ries formed part of the Fatherland, ? and then under the Bund, or Federal League, which replaced on it. At the same time, the Hungarians, priding themselves a constitution a thousand years old, would not receive nearly from the hands and by the sovereign pleasure of amonarch that A constitu their imprescriptible which they considered right. taken away. tion thus arbitrarily bestowed might be arbitrarily The Hungarian idea of a constitution was that of a compact, or like the ancient Arragonese somewhat covenant, a lawful king the king being only considered sworn to observe the national fundamental law, a lawful king so long as he observed his maining constitution; after having and only re part of the

186 Hungary

and Roumania.

[July?

The Schmerling notion of a constitution was that of compact. a convenient machinery enact and passing for raising money " with no " right of resistance to illegal royal and im ments, to it. attached There was a radical di perial procedures between If the Liberals of the the two opinions. school asserted that the new Austrian constitution Schmerling was in many than the old Hunga respects more progressive rian statute, the Magyars with some show of reason, replied, that progress was best wrought out and secured by the free resolution of a people, and that, moreover, they did not mean to return to the old constitution of their country, such simply as it was before 1848, but that they intended to accept also the' " " amended laws of that year of progress. to send deputies On the continued refusal of the Hungarians von Schmerling to the new "Reichsrath" at Vienna, Herr "We can afford to wait for uttered the haughty expression, them I" Events have proved that the Hungarians could afford to wait for the downfall of the Schmerling ministry. The ma vergence noeuvres which in that able but crafty statesman employed order to bend the Hungarians to his designs will be in the of many readers. the same as those recollection They were of 1849. which had been employed the Revolution during in Galicia made use of the minister the unscrupulous Whilst central Ruthenian peasantry for the furtherance of his Austrian the Magyars with the rekindling ization scheme, he threatened and contrived to induce the Tran of separatist movements, a majority in which of Rouman deputies was sylvanian Diet, In this way to send delegates to the Reichsrath. assembled, the Magyar he meant to surround, and circumvent population, and com it with a coalition of secessionist elements, overpower pel it to sue for mercy. the triumph remained with the in This plan, also, failed; the undaunted tended victims. of the Liberal To perseverance to the favor of unexpected events leaders, not less than Magyar which broke the pride of the Imperial family, the success of the of which Francis Deak was the most constitutional movement, is to be attributed. To-day Hungary representative, prominent has once more its ancient its time-honored funda frontiers, mental law, modified by the reforms of 1848. Its ruler, after

1869.]

Hungary

and Roumania.

18T

taken a special coronation having oath, is recognized only as king. The name of Hungary is placed, in all state docu on equal terms with that of Austria The Hon ments, proper. are acknowledged as hav who fought against the Kaiser, veds, merited well of the country. The rank of General is given ing once among the military back to Klapka, Percyel, and Vetter, heads of what in the Hof burg was called a rebellion. In short, as complete as it could the restoration of liberty is wellnigh A few steps further would possibly be under a royal regime. in the condition of full independence she place Hungary seemed destined to enjoy at the time of her glorious struggle. Even the most advocates of independence, thorough-going with very few exceptions, under pres are, however, unwilling, ent circumstances, to hurry on matters in that direction. They see rocks ahead, and will not risk shipwreck too by venturing far. What I have stated above in reference to the multifarious races with which the country is dotted over, and among which the are somewhat-infected and Roumans Sclavonians with seces sionist dispositions, will explain this cautious behavior of even radical Magyar In the East, ? in which Hungary politicians. ? race plays a greater part than is con well be included, may sistent with sound political principle. At the gate of Hungary ? ? stands an overgrown but still aggressive power, Russia, in 1849 effected the final overthrow of the Revolution which the army led by Paskewitsch. Russia aims at the through of the vast countries that separate her from the absorption Mediterranean and the Adriatic. In her eager desire to pre she carries on a propagandism, pare them for annexation, on alleged as well as on similarity of founded consanguinity The Sclavonian tribes scattered through Hun religious creed. are thus allured to unite under a common gary and Turkey national banner, though in reality they differ as much from the and from each other, as the Germans, Danes, Norwe Russians, all of whom belong to the and English, gians, Swedes, Dutch, Germanic The Greek Church stock, differ from one another. is equally used as an engine of propagandism The by Russia. Greek Church numbers not only many its members among on Transylvanian in Turkey, but also several millions millions and Hungarian soil. The importance of this fact was recognized

188Hungary

and Roumania.

{.Jutyi

a forged paper, no in the so-called "Last Will of Peter I.," ? ? not less fictitious doubt, as I have stated in a previous article, " at than the famous exclamation of "Finis Polonice ! wrongly on which tributed to Kosciusko, ? but still containing maxims acted. the successive rulers of Russia have evidently It is the fear of Russia which statesmen induces the Magyar to refrain from steps which might become fatal to the vitality of their commonwealth. What called the "ex is at present treme left" in their Diet is chiefly composed of men who work under cover for separatist In the districts ends. inhabited by a Rouman and Servian speaking these pseudo-radi population in the Mag cals' have just carried a number of elections, whilst the yar, German, nay, even in the Slovak and Croat districts, to Hungarian favorable Those union has triumphed. party who fail to perceive the character of this secessionist undercur rent are deceived by party denominations. There are members " and the Ser of the left" who aim at detaching Transylvania vian Banat from Hungary; others who, under the guise of " a " Danubian Confederation swamp the Mag scheme, would nation by the addition of a Sclavonian of large numbers yar from Northern Turkey. speaking population both these plans the leading liberal and radical poli Against Not even the name of Kossuth ? ticians are on their guard. has changed his political views as regards who, unfortunately, so entirely that he has actually gainsaid everything Hungary States ? he stated when on his great tour through the United " has been able to lend any lustre to that Danubian Confeder " as got up in the Russian It is denounced ation interest; plan. and in the heated discussions which have latterly taken place to recollection upon the subject, it was brought that, towards had proposed the close of the Hungarian revolution, Kossuth to offer the crown of the country to a prince of the imperial Nor can this fact be explained away; for family of Russia! the very documents the proposal have been pub containing If the proposition is not denied. lished, and their authenticity was not urged any further at that time, it was because events too quickly, and the subjection of Hungary moved by Russian arms had been accomplished before the offer alluded to could be properly made at the Russian head-quarters.

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as affording a key to the I have only referred to these matters of among the vast majority unwillingness undoubtedly existing of all parties to adopt the counsels now Hungarian politicians them from a quarter to which formerly and then vouchsafed the best men of the country looked up with confidence. fact of the elections gone against Hungarian having a Rouman in the districts where and Servian popu " Eastern that there the lation is in a majority ques proves an influence ? a question of incalculable im tion" exercises to the security of all Europe. The Rouman leaders portance ene at Bukarest, of the Bratiano stamp, and the Servian The union of the Magyar mies to cut up Hungary, the realm, wish as far as the river former the whole country demanding a curious I have before me Theiss. correspondence, pub in 1851, between Mr. D. Bratiano lished at Paris and a Hun In it the aims of the pan garian exile of the name of Iranyi. are already openly avowed, the writer Rouman in propaganda the Rouman interest the form of a republican pro choosing fession of faith, in order to render his doctrines acceptable to the French It was at a time when France still public. lived in appearance under republican the coup institutions, dyetat of Louis Napoleon not having yet been perpetrated. On the strength of that republican of faith, Mr. profession " Bratiano for a while, to the Central belonged, subsequently " at London, Democratic of which Maz Committee European zini and Ledru Rollin were members. Suddenly changing the brothers Bratiano entered into relations sides, however, with the French of the and, on the overthrow government, Couza in the Danubian about usurper Principalities, brought the election of Prince Karl of Hohenzollern to the throne of " is at present called United Roumania." what Sinqe then, the Bratiano party, which formerly professed an undying hatred accused of underhand of Russia, have been frequently dealings the government at St. Petersburg in a sense detrimental with to Hungarian territorial Facts have come to light, integrity. that the Danubian may indeed be re showing Principalities as the centre of that movement which aims simul garded at the disruption of Hungary and Turkey, thus en taneously to deal a blow alike at a re-established free state deavoring

190 Hungary

and Roumania.

[July*

and at a stationary Oriental to rule which is an impediment connec certain schemes of aggression. It is this unfortunate tion which places all thoughtful in such a friends of progress sad dilemma, when called upon to side with one or the other " Eastern question." party on the It may be useful to cast a glance here at the early attempts of the Czars to obtain influence in the Danubian Principalities. over Moldavia Ottoman and Wallachia had been supremacy in 1393, by the treaty of Nicopoli, established Sultan between I. and Myrtche of Moldavia. It was sixty %years Bajazet I., even had become a Turkish before Constantinople At city. first the treaties stipulated for a mere Ottoman protectorate. The course of events converted suze it into a more substantial a complete which gradually rainty, approached sovereignty. of inde Soon, however, attempts were made at a reconquest on the part of the rulers of Moldavia and Wallachia, pendence who strove to use the privileges left to them for throwing off It is at that epoch we find the Czar of Mos the Turkish yoke. cow already casting a wistful on the Danubian prov glance inces. Ivan III. ? the same who married the niece of the last ? to have entertained is known decided Byzantine Emperor a claim of his own to the inheritance notions of respecting " " Eastern Rome of that object he allied ; and in furtherance The suc interests with Moldavia. his house and his political cessors of Ivan also kept their attention fixed on the Danube. that Constantinople Now the Turks, acting upon the maxim at the Danube, must be protected took the opportunity of a over the insurgent Wallachians to con victory gained by them a Turkish into On their part, the vert Wallachia pashalik. became more and more accustomed to look Moldo-Wallachians as an ally. It was during the war begun in 1710 to Russia overtures to the hospodars to secure them that Peter I. made as confederates To Dmitri Cantimir he Turkey. against offered to render and to place his Dmitri Cantimir the princely dignity hereditary in his family, successors forever under Russian protection. In the closed with this proposal. eagerly " Most Serene High treaty thereupon concluded, he was styled of Moldavia, Confederate ness, Lord and Sole Master (CfoZ was drawn up A similar of Russia." engagement ligator)

1869.] between

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191

I. and the Wallachian Both hos Peter prince. podars then invited the Czar to enter their country with his army, and, when he had crossed the Pruth, assisted him to the best of their ability against Turkey. Peter, however, having been surrounded by the Turks, very nearly fell into the hands of his enemies, and owed his personal safety only to the cir and future Czarina, Catherine, having cumstance of his mistress bribed the vizier in command of the Ottoman troops. have steadily kept From those days, Russian governments in 1772 Catherine their eyes on Moldo-Wallachia. Already II. proposed, at Foksani, to render the Danubian provinces In the The project was shelved at that time. independent. in 1774, the treaty of Kudjuk-Kainardji, deliberations preceding Russia She ostensibly the paraded repeated her demands. to a national of those countries administration of their right, the title of to obtain for the hospodars own, and contrived " as well as the privilege of being represented sovereigns," at Constantinople At the same time agents. by diplomatic she took good care to assure to herself the important right of the constitution under cover of guaranteeing of interference, the Principalities against Turkey. a The annexation of the Crimea offers in this connection lesson which may well be the end of the last century, ing a footing on the Black

studied towards When, to-day. I. was bent upon gain Catherine Sea, one of her first acts tending to this end was to favor the movement then made in the into an independent Crimea for forming that peninsula king the Khans of the jealousy dom. of the advantage Taking Crimea their Ottoman the Russian felt towards suzerain, government espoused the cause of the Tauric Tartars, and thus contrived to bring about a severance of the ties which for cen to Constantinople. the peninsula turies had bound Conse the Crimea was acknowledged in the peace of 1774, quently, ?" as an independent dependent only upon God," ac realm, The people of the peninsula to the Russian wording. cording " were henceforward to govern themselves Such were freely." stipulations imposed by Russia even extolled Liberals misguided the
Czarina.

upon the Porte. the magnanimity

Many of the

192Hungary

and Roumania.

[July,

A few years more passed by, and the wily designs of Cathe The Crimea, unable by its own force to rine were disclosed. and unaided by the armies of her resist the pressure of Russia, former suzerain, fell, in 1787, an easy prey to the Northern " the establishment invader. Thus ended an independence," heralded ! of which had been so pompously II. to create such " inde It was a favorite idea of Catherine her scheme for the establishment states. Witness pendent" " under a Russian Hellenic of protec republics," independent In this latter plan, it is true, she met with a decided torate. foster in she caused Alexis Orloffto failure. The insurrection means as dressed of Muscovite the Peloponnesus agents, by a it been otherwise, Had Greek priests, utterly miscarried. repetition
result.

of the Crimean

game would

have

been

the probable

to the Danu in reference Every step taken by the Autocrats, since the end of the last century, was an bian Principalties, from vassals of the Porte into effort to convert the hospodars Russia worked Sometimes of the Muscovite protector. subjects in this behalf by mere diplomatic by mili intrigue ; sometimes sham insurrections, sometimes up by getting tary invasion; in 1821. The influence she acquired such as that of Ypsilanti, after the war of 1829 brought her very near to the accomplish ambition. ment of her long-cherished their influence in the In proportion as the Czars consolidated the idea of Moldo-Wal they gradually dropped Principalities, for that of their own lachian laboring only independence, in 1848, we find the Emperor Nicholas Thus, protectorship. in a note written in the most violent himself, pronouncing and free Rou of an independent the foundation terms, against at Bukarest. mania, which had been the object of the revolution " " interest the Czars felt in the scheme of The independence as they were able to direct the movement. only lasted so long as in others, was always in this matter, Russia The policy of not seeing her way to For the moment, one of expediency. the Roumans she is satisfied with against annexation, setting of either of these states ? The consolidation the Magyars. the other only just restored the one of quite recent formation, ? are roused is to be impeded, and passions to its autonomy

1869.]

Hungary

and Roumania.

193

it is no doubt hoped at St. Petersburg, will one day so which, as to place them convulse both Hungary and the Principalities at the mercy of a stronger neighbor. as to the social condition I may here say a few words of and the political consequences Moldo-Wallachia, resulting
therefrom.

A middle class," so wrote one of the most zealous defend ers of Rouman some years ago, when the Princi independence ? had not yet acquired their present "a palities autonomy, middle class has scarcely begun to form itself in Moldo-Wal lachia." We at the peasantry have, therefore, to look mainly and the aristocracy. the most numerous Now, unfortunately, the bulk of the population, namely, class, that which constitutes are deeply sunk in ignorance the peasants, and superstition. are under the thumb of their clergy ; and that clergy has They shown Russian Of the noble enough frequently leanings. Owe their very rise to the former Musco families, the majority vite protectorate ; and of the spirit which animates many mem and Hungarian bers of the Polish is to be nobility, nothing found amongst them. There remains, consequently, only a party of lesser boyards, and the population, somewhat of a numerically insignificant, and liberal sentiments are to be few towns, in whom patriotic met with. This will explain how the upstart Couza could so overthrow a state of comparative easily freedom, by dissolving in Napoleonic the National Assembly fashion, and then appeal to whom, partly, gross ing to the suffrage of brutish masses, baits were held out, or who were not intelligent enough to see For several years Couza thus held the real case at issue. Great was the sorrow of real sway, aping his Parisian model. in the Principalities when they saw the very source of patriots progress thus poisoned. for them but to resort to an agitation remained Nothing the usurper in public opinion abroad, and to prepare in against the mean while a plan for his sudden capture and overthrow The emissaries of the Liberal party of the Prin sent to Western for the purpose who were Europe cipalities, on the cause of to look favorably of influencing governments had a most unsatisfactory Lord Palmerston reception. right, no. 224. vol. cix. ? 13 at Bukarest.

"

194Hungary gave the

and Roumania.

[July,

to the confidential cold shoulder envoy that ap I vividly remember the expres him with a message. proached the latter used before me sions of sorrowful indignation which when he came back from that hopeless interview. the secret plan for the overthrow of the tyrant had However, better luck. It sufficed that a party of determined men, who one night over his body-guard, sud appeared gained at his head, to bring before his bed, presenting denly pistols about his speedy abdication. I believe those who formed the for the deliverance of the country had no idea of original plan throne, but were calling a Hohenzollern prince to the vacated rather bent upon the establishment of true freedom. This, at ? a himself any rate, was the notion of that excellent man, cabinet minister of Couza before the latter had turned usurp at London and Paris the er,? Mr. Pano, who had filled envoy of the Rouman Liberal party during post of confidential downfall. the time immediately It was Couza's preceding and French demo through him that exiled Italian, German^ crats were kept informed of what was quietly being prepared. that he was not to see the dawn of freedom Unfortunately had But neither had after Couza had been ejected. appeared once more he the galling of seeing his country made pain The last I heard of him the instrument of despotic intrigues. was through the head physician of a well-known asylum near where he had been placed, and where, a little later, he Vienna, Who died in a state of mental aberration. knows whether sorrow at seeing the promising Liberal movement among his an ag thwarted the elements which gradually by compatriots had set in motion did not darken absolutism that so bright and lucid. as well as Roumans of the United Principalities, Hungarians, at present do much for the freedom of the East if that might But the men of the unfruitful quarrel of races were dropped. gressive intellect before Bratiano ing might, from ism," whilst the Magyars the most gall party still heap upon " from Asia," who them intruders insults, pronouncing out into the wilderness without injustice., be driven them with "barbar whence came, and taunting they a nomadic formed their ancestors because chivalry, the descendants of are, forsooth, they, the Roumans,

1869.]

Hungary

and Roumania.

195

the ancient Latin race, ? that is to say, if we keep to his torical truth, of the inhabitants of a penal settlement of the Ro man Empire we Europeans come had not all successively ! As if from Asia, a little earlier or a little later ! The Hungarians, no doubt, were among the last arrivals ; and Germans, who here had to suffer much from them at a time when they were to be partial be least expected to yet a rude race, might them. But must not good sense teach us to give up all in in presence of claims well made out by vidious distinctions ? After all, that Magyar noble struggles for self-government on the banks of the Danube race had established a sort of " British even before the time when England Constitution," to proper parliamentary had attained thus prac government, a superficial race theory which is at pres tically contradicting in vogue. ent too much on the other hand, we were to inquire into the Moldo If, claim to a classic origin, it would be easy enough Wallachian the question that the thinly ethnologically, in the cen of the ancient Dacians became, the fall of the Roman Empire, so turies immediately following in the invasions of Goths, Kumans, swallowed up Petchenegs, and a flood of Tartar tribes, that any remnants of the original element must have been completely Roman remoulded. The have always served as one of the great gateways Principalities flowed. the tide of migrations Each wave of through which " Thus the that human ocean left its impress. purity of the " of the Moldo-Wallachian is rather doubt population pedigree research may ful. Whilst exercise its ingenuity antiquarian the subject, the politician will dismiss the ethnological upon claim at once, and only take into consideration the urgent events of the epoch, which unquestionably political point to as a unit. of maintaining the necessity Hungary in concluding, than refer to the dis I cannot do better, in New York in Decem course which Louis Kossuth delivered in the edition of his collected ber, 1851, and which is printed " under On Nationalities." the title, This speeches speech was made over by Mr. at a dinner of the press, presided of the relation the poet. of the Magyars Treating Bryant, " to the other races of Hungary, Kossuth said that ro word to show, judging race sown Latin

196 Hungary

and Roumania.

[July,

' has been more misrepresented than the word nationality,' in the hands a dangerous which is become of absolutism a na weapon against liberty.If language alone makes then there is no great nation on earth: for there is no tion, is counted but speaks country whose population by millions more on the European than one language.But conti nent there unhappily has grown up a school which bound the idea of nationality to the idea of language only, and joined to it.This if it were not im idea, political pretensions a death-blow be a curse to humanity, would to practicable, and throw back mankind and progress, by cen .... It would be an eternal source of strife and war. but despotism would rise out of such a fanatical strife Nothing of all mankind." " those who would claim from Then, after having denounced .... to cut off our right hand, to divide its territory, Hungary and to give it up to the neighboring Wallachia; Transylvania, one pound of our very breast, ? the to cut out, like Shylock, the Danube and Theiss, and the rich country between Banat, ? : " It continued to augment by it Turkish Servia," Kossuth but an easy conquest, of conquest, not is the new ambition arms but by language. So much I know, at least, that this by absurd idea cannot, and will not, be advocated by any man here shores in the United States, which did not open its hospitable and greet the flocking millions of emigrants with to humanity, the right of a citizen, in order that the Union may be cut to into new-framed and even your single States divided pieces, to languages." countries, according independent " And do the orator went on to say, you know, gentlemen," " It was this absurd idea sprang up on the Continent? whence ? that is, the idea that the mighty the idea of Pansclavism, races is called to rule the world, as once the stock of Sclavonic to did. It was a Russian Roman plot; it was a dark design make out of national preponderance feelings a tool to Russian civilization turies. over the world." leader spoke and acted in At that time the exiled Hungarian of his nation. the views of the best elements accordance with to do. On the I have here nothing his later changes With " . the most of Hungarian progressive Nationality," question

1869.] men

The Laws

ofHistory.

197

of his country still adhere to the opinions he then gave ? founded in the very nature of things utterance to, opinions It is not by shak in that peculiar Eastern region. existing edifice but still necessary, such a complicated, political ing It as Hungary to the ground that freedom can be promoted. secu is rather by raising up again those bulwarks of European an encroaching to throw has contrived autocracy rity which like down through intrigue and brute force. Commonwealths and the Danubian those of Hungary ought to Principalities in such a work. hands To venture upon deadly strife join for both of them Blind. the

each other can only bring about with fate which has befallen unhappy Poland.

Karl

Art.

1. A History of of the Intellectual Development M. D., LL. D. New Draper, By John William Europe. 1863. York. 2. Ancient Law ; its Connection with theEarly History of Society, to and its Relation Ideas. Sumner Maine. Modern By Henry 1863. London. Every

VII. ?

the laws to which social changes attempt to discover run great risk of being frustrated must by the mere of the mass of details which the investigator strives immensity to arrange in orderly sequence. as are numberless Seemingly the phenomena dealt with by the physical sciences, they bear no or in variety, to the facts upon either in multitude proportion, conform which Facts the historical inquirer must build his scientific theorems. concerning man in his physical relations to soil, climate, of the earth, blend with facts con food, and the configuration the intellectual and moral relations of men to each cerning are sur of nature by which other and to the aspects they and multiform rounded, making up a problem of such manifold

that it may well have long been deemed complexity, incapable The fit subject of wonder of satisfactory solution. is, indeed, not that we are as yet unable to arrive at accurate prevision