. /'.J A USTRIA AKD THE AUSTIUANS. VOL. II. WiiiTivo, BKAiFrirT wor. ipmEKT©]! iM'iri'iimMEcsieL £on/erg is a fine old man- sion, forty miles from Vienna. The apartments are large, convenient, and furnished in the magnificent style which prevails in the noble- men's houses of this country. The company consisted of the prince and princess, the Count 86 THE LIECHTEXSTEIX FAMILY. Degenfeldt and his iady, a very accomplished woman; the Duke of Hamilton, M. Milnes, another EngUsh gentlemen, and myseK. Oxir entertainment was in every respect splendid, particularly in the article of attendants. Some of the Austrian nobihty carry this point of magnificence to a height which would scarcely be supported in England, where one footman is more expensive than four in this country. Tlie day after our arrival, breakfast was served up to the company separately in their own apart- ments, as is the custom here. We afterwards set out for another ^-illa of the prince, at six miles distance, where he intended to give the duke the amusement of hunting. The princess, the countess, the duke and Mr. Milnes, were in one coach, the prince, the count, and I, in an- other; the tvvo princes, with their governor, and the young English gentleman, in a third, with a great retinue on horseback. As the dav was well advanced when we arrived, I imagined the hunting would begin immediatelv : but everv tliinsr is done with method and good order in this country, and it was judged proper to dine first. This, in due time being concluded, I thought the men would have proceeded directly to the scene of THE LIECHTENSTEIN FAMILY. 87 action, leaving the ladies till their return. But here I found myself again mistaken : the ladies were to assist in the whole of this expedition. But as there was a necessity to traverse a large wood into which coaches could not enter, vehicles of a commodious description were pre- pared. I forget what names are given to these carriages. They are of the form of benches, with stuffed seats, upon Avhich six or eight people may place themselves, one behind the ether. They are drawn by four horses, and side over the ground like a sledge, passing £ilong paths and trackless ways over which no wheel carriage could be driven. Mter being conveyed in this manner across the wood and a considerable way beyond it, we same to a large, open field, in which there wen several little circular enclosures of trees and underwood at wide intervals from each other. This hunting had hitherto been attended with very little fatigue ; for we had l^een carried the vhole way in coaches, or in sledges, which are itill easier than any coach. In short, we had leen perfectly passive since breakfast, ex- cept luring the time of dinner. Wien we arrived at this large plain, I was inforned tliat the hunting would commence 88 THE LIECHTENSTEIN FAMILY. within a very short time. I then expected we should have some very violent exercise after so much inactivity^ and began to fear that the ladies might be over-fatigued, when, lo ! the princess servants began to arrange some port- able chairs at a small distance from one of the thickets above mentioned. / The princess, countess, and the rest of the company took their places ; and when every 1)ody was seated, they assured me that the hunting was just going to begin. I own my curiosity was now excited to a very considerable degree, and I was filled with impatience to see the issue of a hunting which had been conducted in a style so different from any idea I had of that diversion. While I sat lost in conjecture, I perceived at a great dis- tance, a long line of people moving towards a little wood, near which the company tere seated. As they walked along they gradually formed the segment of a circle, whose caitre was this wood. I understood that these ivere peasants, with their wives and children, vho, walking forward in this manner, rouse the game, which naturally take shelter in the thicket of trees and bushes. As soon a; this happened, the peasants rushed in at th^ side THE LIECIITEXSTEIN FAMILY. 89 opposite to that where our company had taken post, beat out the game, and then the massacre began. Each person was provided with a fusil, and many more were at hand loaded for immediate use. The servants were employed charging them as fast as the pieces were fired off; so that an uninterrupted shooting was kept up as long as the game continued flying or running out of the wood. The prince hardly ever missed, and killed above thirty partridges, a few pheasants, and three hares. At the beginning of the scene, a servant handed a fusil to the princess, who with great coolness, and without rising from her seat, took aim at a partridge, which immediately fell to the ground. With the same ease she killed ten or twelve partridges and pheasants at about double the number of shot. The company afterwards walked to other enclosures of plant- ing, where some game was driven out and killed as before. The following day, the prince conducted us to another of his seats, where there is a very fine open wood full of deer of every kind ; some of them the largest I ever saw. There is also a great number of wild boars, one of 90 THE LIECHTENSTEIN FAMILY. which, by the prince's permission, the Duke of Hamilton killed. Nothing could surpass the politeness and magnificence with which the company was entertained during the Vi^hole of their stay. The jDrincess is a woman of an amiable charac- ter and a good understanding; educates her children and manages her affairs with the utmost prudence and propriety. So slowly do national manners change, that immediately after the middle of September you may still witness hunting exactly in the same way at Feeberg and many other of the country seats of the chief nobility. Bolder hunting, in which ladies take but little part, is however not uncommon, although the unfatiguing sport described, which was no doubt planned by the hardy Germans in their practical respect for the ladies, is still prevalent. I have lately been very much amused with various descrip- tions of hunting and coursing, related by Prince TrauttmunsdorfF, \vho is one of the principal amateurs of this country in field sports. If you ever visit the imperial domi- nions, a respectable introduction will always ensure you, during the season, hospitality and sport at the country seats of the nobility ; and THE LIECHTENSTEIX FAMILY. 91 in no part will you receive " highland welcome/' in regard to your stay, more heartily than m Hungary. In fact, the chase in the Austrian dominions, would form an excellent subject for a book; and it is almost a matter of regret that Charles the Tenth, who has spent half his life in shoot- ing, not his enemies, but pheasants, partridges, woodcocks, hares, deer, and wild boars, should have left the world without writing his expe- rience as a sportsman. 92 LETTER VIII. Excursion from Pesth to Croatia, and through Hungary to Oedenburg. In a former letter I have alluded to our having returned from Pesth to Vienna by land, in order to form some acquaintance with the interior of Hungary, not within the beaten route of travel- lers. Instead of hiring regular jDost horses, especially as we had left our carriage at Vienna, we engaged an honest Hungarian, who spoke a little German, and his two sleek black Hun- garian horses, with a small strong calashe, at so much per day, while we should require him. He even agreed that if we chose, when his horses became so fatigued as not to proceed as rapidly as we thought proper, that we might hire Bauer post-horses; that is, post-horses TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY. 93 supplied from distance to distance by the pea- sants, and that he would follow us with his own horses as soon as they were refreshed to where we might put up at night, to proceed with us next day, or if he did not overtake us, to Vienna, in order to bring back his carriage, and receive the amount we agreed to allow him. Tliis arrangemant turned out very conveniently. Notwithstanding the generally unimproved state of the country, and the bad roads, I do not know any part of continental Europe, un- less it be occasionally in Italy, where the obstacles of mere travelling are got more rapidly over than in Hungary. For the first fifty, we travelled at the rate of eight English miles an hour, without halting except when I stopped to have some talk, through our driver as dragoman, with the shepherds, and once to bait the same horses at Stuhlweissenberg. As to accommodations on the roads, especially as to inns and beds, we found them in as rude a condition as if the people had never seen or expected travellers. In fact, except those of their own country, and I may say, that on the road we travelled, they very seldom do, we were, perhaps, the first British subjects they had ever beheld, and I believe we might have freely lived 94 TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY. on the hospitality of the people over the whole circuitous and extensive route from Pesth east of the Balionyer wa/d, a wooded mountainous country, resembling the black forest, and of the Flatten See, a magnificent lake, until we reached the Drau or Drave, where that roman- tic river divides Hungar}^ from Croatia, — and until we reached Warasdin, the second town of the latter countr)^, where we found tolerable accommodation, but where, however, the make" shift appeared to have been the only system ever known. From Warasdin we engaged the Bauer Post, and travelled rapidly north, except when I wished to stop in order to examine some di- versity in agriculture or in pasturage, until we arrived at Oedenburg, close to the New^ Siedler- see. The natural fertihty and beauty, — the mountain and sylvan scenery, — the lakes, — the rivers, of the extensive region that we traversed, would render it one of the most valuable as well as the most delightful in Europe, were its vast resources only properly developed by the ingenuity and industry of man. Even now, under the most slovenly cultivation, corn, green vegetables, flax, hemp, tobacco, wine, honey, wax, madder, various fruits, are }nelded in TRAVELLING I.V HUNGARY. 95 tolerable abundance; so might also olive oil, for in the southern parts of the country the olive would thrive Ainth very little care. The mulberry is particularly adapted to the soil and climate, and its cultivation and the rearing of silkworms are attended to with success in a few places, by some Saxon inhabitants. Then the mineral Avealth, — the mines of Schemnitz and Kremnitz, — the salt mines and salt lakes, — the valuable forests of timber, and the eminent advantages of water navigation which the ex- tensive distribution of rivers, spread in all directions over the interior, and which might be generally unlocked by very short cuts of canalization. When we travelled over Hungary it was during a delightful season ; although I have so long delayed sending you, as I now do, a bare sketch of one of the most interesting excursions that I have ever made. You, who are accus- tomed, when absent during summer or autumn from London, to all luxurious comforts and conveniences at your immediate command, would, however, not have considered our wan- derings so agreeable. I am much mistaken, if you would not have been wofully out of patience while waiting an hour or two for a simple meal, 96 TRAVELLING IX HUNGARY. and as little satisfied in being obliged to sleep all night in your carriage, on arriving at places where you were by no possibility expected to be seen. The best in the village would certainly be at your service ; at the same time you would rather decline beds, the cleanliness of which you were not convinced of. This happened to us more than once. But I was more entertained than otherwise, as it gave me an opportunity of knowing more of the country and of the people, and of exhibiting to me how little ad- vantao-e all the rich benefits of nature are unless brought into use by the enterprise, intelligence, and labour of man. I could not help com- paring the comfortless accommodations, the wretched state of the roads, the want of con- veniences in this, perhaps the richest country in Europe, and the condition of Holland, in every province of which I have never failed to find excellent lodgings, and the luxuries of the table, — although all Holland was naturally com- posed of turf bogs and sandbanks, Avithout a tree to build a ship, a stone to build a house, or a single mineral with which to make the most common implement. It was our our intention at first to have crossed the Rekau-Giberge ridge of the Car- TRAVELLIXG TN HUNGARY. 97 pathians, at tlie foot of which we passed to Agrara and Karlstadt, and thence through lUyria to Laybach, and by Gratz through Illyria to Vienna, but further interest in Hun- gary led me to prefer the route by Tschaka- thurm, Kormend, Stein-a-manger^ and Oeden- burg. In this wild route Ave might it was told us, be stopped by some of the daring detached ban- dits of Schubri, but as we carried little money, and nothing else of much value, we enter- tained no fear of being robbed. I have, in a former letter, given you a sketch of the Hungarian serfs : there is one circum- stance which alleviates many evils attached to their condition ; that is, whatever be their means, I have not been able during this very lengthy journey, to discover them in actual want of such food as is necessary for them to subsist upon, or, however rude their clothing, I have not met with them, as I have so gene- rally the Irish cotters, destitute of sufficient covering. They are ignorant and supersti- tiously rehgious ; but, until their condition is changed, and until their minds are enhghtened with sufficient knowledge to enable them to think more rationally, I should grieve to think VOL. II. H 98 TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY. them destitute of the spirit of devotion, how- ever delusive, which affords them the con- solation of present confidence and the hope of future reward. The Hungarians, both those of Magyar and Sclavonian race are naturally formed for as much usefulness as any uncultivated people I have any where travelled among. The Scla- vonians of Croatia make excellent soldiers : as cavalry troops they are perhaps the best in the empire. It is insinuated, that being of the Greek church, they are influenced by their priests in favour of Russia, and to cherish a hatred to Austria. I dou]}t this much. I have found the priests, both Cathohc and Greek, although both are ignorant, in every parish acting truly as pastors to their flocks ; and I advise all who travel in Hungary, Cro- atia, and the military frontiers, to appeal in all cases of difiiculty to the priests : indeed, where inns are not, go to the curate's house, and you will share the best accommodation and nourish- ment it contains, or that can be had. Having travelled on routes very different from those, and extended m.y journeys much farther than I had intended on entering Hungary'-, I was unfortunately but slenderly provided TRAVELLING IX HUNGARY. 99 with letters of introduction, otherwise I might have said a great deal more than I have in my previous sketch of the Hungarians, of the baronial lords, who dwelt in several castles, near which we passed, on our excursion south to Croatia and north to Oedenburg. On coming occasionally in contact with them, a desire to oblige, and a spirit of hospitality, was fully and at all times evinced, although we knew them not, and although we were strangers passing over a country that we might never see again. In many respects, the aris- tocracy of Hungary who are not rich enough to live either in Pesth, Presburg, or Vienna, reminded me of the open-hearted hospitality which prevailed in the houses of the highland gentry not later than twenty-five years ago, and which I have experienced within the last twelve years in the south and west of Ireland. With the same feelings of gratitude for kind- ness received at the hands of all the Hungari- ans with whom I have had any communication, must I preserve the pleasing recollections of their disinterested hospitality. In fact, hospitality, the chase, and horsemanship, are the chief characteristics of the country aris- tocracy of Hungary. n 2 100 TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY. In Hungary we frequently met with gipsy families, wandering about, or squatted under low rude tents, which were sometimes covered with cloth, sometimes with skins, and some- times with sods. They looked exactly like those we meet in England. In the Austrian dominions they are numerous, especially in Bohemia, Transylvania, and Hungary. My friend. Colonel Harriot, of the Bengal service has, in my opinion, fully proven by the analogy of language, and by the evidence he translates from Eastern Avriters, the oriental origin of the Romnichal, or tribe miscalled Gipsy and Bohemian. See his memoir, in " Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland." In Hungary they are called Tzygani, and Pharaoh Nepek, or Pharaoh^s people. The English name gipsy is from the vulgar error that they are of Egyptian race. They call themselves Ronmichal ; the translation of M'hich from their own language, is equivalent to wanderers. They were first brought in great numbers, as Colonel Harriot clearly shows, by the statements made to him by the celebrated Fateh Ali-Khan, of Tehran, about the year a. d. 350, by the Emperor Bahrara Gor. Colonel Harriot also translates TRAVELLING IX HUNGARY. 101 6^m the Persian of Firdousi, a remarkable passage^ stating the reason which induced Bahram to bring the Luri, as they are called in Persia, from India. The reason given is, that the poor of Persia drank their wine with- out music ; and that he consequently sent for four thousand Luri from India, to perform music for the poor while they drank wine. They afterwards wandered west, and spread over Europe. Joseph II. had planned their ci^'ilization within his empire. If industry, thrift and intelligence, can there- fore make the most barren country rich, and fill it with all varieties of comforts and luxuries, what ought the condition of so fertile and vast a country as Hungary to be ? A generally im- proved system of husbandry, — an extensive sale for its products in other countries, would soon enrich all classes, and especially the pro- prietors of land in this kingdom, beyond all ordinary calculation. As we travelled onwards we met frequently immense flocks of sheep. Those of the native breed have very coarse wool. It is chiefly used in the country for making the common undyed cloth worn by the peasantry; and I believe, also for the clothing of soldiery. The wool of 102 TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY. the improved breeds is remarkably fine^ equal to the best Silesian, and often sold as such at the fair of Breslau, and for which immense sums are paid annually by England. Why are not these golden fleeces shipped direct by way of Austrian ports, — by Trieste or Fiume, to England ? Why, indeed ? I say, from no other cause than the anti-commercial system of Austria, which, in practice, transfers all the fleecy wealth of the Hungarian nobility into the hands of a few bankers at Vienna. I wish I could determine the Esterhazys, PaKys^ Apponyis, and other leading nobles in the country, to act earnestly for their own interest and for that of their country in the considera- tion of this most important subject. At pre- sent the greatest sheep proprietors in Hungary are completely in the hands of a few Vienna bankers, who monopolize the whole wool trade, and must do so until the commercial system of Austria is altered. The oxen of Hungary are large-boned animals, of a dirty white colour, immense horns, and thick tails. They are nearly the same as the Itahan breed, — excellent for draught, and walk fast. Their flesh, however, is as tough as Indian rubber. Veal is the usual meat' which TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY. 103 you get in Hungary; but, as I dislike this flesh, especially when it is perpetually served, I usually managed to get fish of some kind, with which the waters of the country abound ; bread, eggs, now and then bacon or ham, and occasionally vegetables. Fruit, especially de- licious grapes, we always procured in abund- ance. With a little money and a little con- trivance, that country must be indeed poor in which all that is necessary cannot be had. Good wine is difficult to be found on the route we travelled, but we had some of very fair quality at Warasdin, and we found the liqueur sli- voioitza, extracted from prunes, very agreeable when mixed with water, or even as a pure liqueur. It is chiefly made in Illyria, but a great quantity of strong inflammatory spirit distilled from grain and other substances, is made in Sclavonia and the military frontiers, and called sometimes hrantivein, and sometimes slivowitza. This spirit is found in every Httle inn throughout the country, at which your driver seldom fails to halt for a moment without dis- mounting, to take his schnapps or dram, which is brought him in an instant by the landlady, or more usually by one of her daughters, while all in the dwelling usually present themselves. 104 TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY. On arriving late in the evening, and a good deal fatigued, at Stein-a-manger, Avhere, it being the seat of a bishop and a clerical seminary, we expected to find tolerable accommodations for the night. Our driver stopped at what he termed the best inn, and where the kellnerin, a pretty blooming girl, told ns we could have good beds. We were rejoiced at the news, and accordingly descended, and were shown into a large public room, where several persons were sitting on benches before tables eating or drinking. On asking to be shown the sleeping- rooms, the pretty kellnerin asked me to follow her up a narrow stair, and there unlocking a large room in which were not less than eight beds, she pointed out two for us to occupy. AH the others were engaged by the people below; and with great naivete, and I am sure with simple innocence, she could not compre- hend my reason for saying that I should require three separate rooms in which no others slept, for myself and wife, and for our man and maid servants. On returning to the sitting-room this was equally incomprehensible to the good people, but explained, I believe, to their astonishment, by a Jager or huntsman, of some neighbouring TRAVELLING IN HLXGARY. 105 baron, and wlio, ha\ang travelled in other lands with his lord, told the good people that in the country we came from it was the custom always to sleep in separate rooms. If we did not find accommodations for sleep- ing, we were not disappointed in regard to supper. They soon prepared potatoes by boiling, — excellent trout, fried, which, with some bacon, bread, and tolerably good wine, and really very good coffee afterwards, prepared us, during the remaining part of a splendid moon- light night, to resume our journey ; and after passing through the small town of Giins, to arrive in good time for breakfast at the thriving town of Oedenburg, situated amidst one of the loveliest landscapes on earth, facing the New Siedler-See,* and surrounded by fields, mea- dows, and vine and wood-decked hills. Here we found a good inn, excellent fare, delicious wines, ready attendance, and a moderate bill of charges. Oedenbur?-, although its population does not exceed 14,000 inhabitants, is more remark- able for its industry than any town I have visited in Hungary. Cloths of very fair quality • This lake, about 20 English miles long, and from 4 to 6 broad, is shallow and salt. 106 TRAVELLING IN HUNGARY, are manufactured here. It is the greatest pork- market in the country; and from forty to fifty thousand horned cattle are also sold here at the fairs. The vineyards of the neighbour- ing hills are another valuable source of com- merce, which sends thirty-two thousand eimers of wine annually into the trade of this town. Coal-mines in the vicinity, although yet worked but on a limited scale, may be brought into very extensive use, especially if a rail-road for their conveyance were extended to Vienna, or even to join the canal from that capital to Neu- stadt. Nature has showered riches around Oeden- burg, and the industry of the population, chiefly Germans, has turned the gifts of Heaven to an advantage, the example of which, if followed in all parts of the kingdom, would inevitably be attended with equal benefits. 107 LETTER IX. HUNGARIAN WINES. The wines of Hungary- have been far more celebrated than their general quality deserves ; yet, as generally, the soil and sunny sides of the Hungarian hills and mountains are far more favourable to the growth of those grapes which afford more delicious wines than even the \'ine districts of France. Hungary, at the same time, does certainly yield some of the richest and most pleasant wines in the world. The quantity of those fine wines is still too limited, and the prices con- sequently too high, for them to be usually pro- duced at the tables even of the most wealthy, and are very seldom to be had at all in foreign countries. 108 HUNGARIAN WINES. Some of the moderately-priced Hungarian wines are, however, very good. Those which the vineyards on the hills of Buda or Ofen yield resemble wholesome Bordeaux, or what we should call a rich unadulterated claret. On the hills near Oedenburg, pleasantly-flavoured wines of second quality are also produced, and in the country east of the Danube the Avines of the hills of the Banat, and of Lobosh and Komlosh, are considered of rich quality. The grapes in many parts are said to be admirably adapted for making wine similar to champagne ; but I believe no such wine is made, although, some years ago, a French schoolmaster succeeded in manufacturing wine from Wallachian grapes, inferior to those of Hungary, v/hich he sold at Bucharest as real champagne, at an enormous price ; and from the mere profits of the wine sold to the buyer from whom he rented the vineyard, he, in three years, brought the pro- prietor so deeply in debt, that the latter, to rid himself of the claim, transferred the ground to the schoolmaster. With less labour and skill than is practised in France and Rhenish Germany, the hills of Hungary with sunny aspects, might be made to yield vast quantities of the finest and richest HUNGARIAN WINES. 109 wines. The whole quantity now said to be produced annually is stated vaguely at about 18,000,000 eimers.* One-tenth of this quantit}^ may be considered superior, three-tenths tolerably good, and six- tenths thin, flat, acid, and, to those accustomed to the better kinds of wines, undrinkable. The celebrated Tokay, hke the Johannisberg of the Rhine, and the Clos-vogeat of Burgundy, is the produce of a few "v-ineyards, of hmited extent, on the south slope of one of the moun- tain-ridges in northern Hungary, near the towTi of Tokay (in latitude 48° 10' N.). From all I could observe, there are thousands of equally favoured slopes for vineyards, especially in those parts of south-western Hungary over which we lately travelled, and upon the estates of Prince Esterhazy. Industry, skill, and markets, the desiderata which are in every other respect wanting to enrich and to render Hungary great and powerful, are those alone which are neces- sary to make her yield, in the greatest quantity, the most delicious wines in Europe. * This estimate is certainly over-rated, as it is nine and a half gallons the eimer, about jiftcen English gallons for each inhabitant. 110 HUNGARIAN WINES. Tlie wines called Tokay are but very par- tially produced on the hills of Hegy-Allia, or Tokay, for nearly all that is yielded on the neighbouring hills facing the south receives the same name. But the fine rich Tokay owes its celebrity to the process of making it. The best grapes are picked, and suspended in netted bags hung in the sun, over tubs into which the juice drips without pressing. The wine thus produced is called the Ausbrusch, or first quality, and is entirely monopolized by the emperors of Austria and Russia, and a few of the first magnates. If a pint bottle can by any chance be had, the cost will be at least ten florins, or twenty shilHngs. Ausbrusch has been sold as high as one hundred florins, or ten pounds the bottle. The second quality, Matzchlap, is either produced by slightly press- ing the grapes hung in the sun, or mixing the juice for the Ausbrusch with a certain quantity of other good wine. The other qualities of Tokay, and that which may be considered as alone to be purchased, is made of picked grapes, subjected to the usual process of vinous fermentation. The wines of Ofen and Oedenburg, of HUNGARIAN WIXES. Ill Menes, Erlau, Rust, and St. George, are ranked next in quality after Tokay, and they certainly, if not adulterated, as is alleged, after they get into the Vienna dealers' hands, are excellent wines. 112 LETTER X. THE FAMILY OF ESTERHAZY. Instead of proceeding by the high road from Oedenburg to Vienna, we drove round over the heights west of the Neu-Seidler-See to Eisenstadt, the magnificent seat of Prince Esterhazy. The usual former residence of the family, and called Esterhaz, is distinct and distant from the seat at which the family now chiefly reside when not at Vienna. Esterhaz has a vast schloss, or castle, a large library, rich collections, and extensive gardens. At the castle of Frakno, or Forchtenstein, a fortress not far distant belonging to Esterhazy, the family treasures, jewels, massive silver, &c., are usually secured. ESTERHAZY. 113 Eisenstadt,"^ however^ being the favourite residence, and, I must say, deservedly so, has caused the others to be neglected and almost forgotten. The splendid situation, the water, hills, forests, the gardens, especially the botanic gardens of Eisenstadt, render it, with its vast palaces, the most princely seat in Austria. I consider it far preferable in all respects to Versailles ; although a Frenchman would say now, as a Frenchman formerly said to Dr. Moore ; " Ah, par bleu ! Versailles ctait fait exprcs pour n'etre compare a rien." The prince being absent in England, I did not think it proper, although I now know I miirht have done so without its being: con- sidered a presumption, to intrude upon the members of the family then at Eisenstadt. A servant showed us, with honest pride in regarding its splendour, round the palace and over the grounds; and although neither our names nor country were made knoAvn, refresh- ments were laid out for us, of which we merely stopped to partake of an ice and glass of wine each, as we had ordered diimer at the hotel of * The palace of Eisenstadt was built about 1G80, but often embellished, and many buildings attached to it since. VOL. II. I 114 ESTERHAZY. the adjoining little town. I have since been rebuked by an amiable member of the family, for not making ourselves knowai; hospitality beins: at all times the characteristic of the Esterhazys, and of the joyous halls of their celebrated house. In looking over Dr. Moore's* "View of Society and Manners on the Continent of Europe/' his accoimt of Eisenstadt (which he calls Esterhasie) is so vividly descriptive, that, with little alteration, although written about sixty years ago, it gives a picture of what may yet be seen at this magnificent residence. " Prince Esterhazy is the first in rank of the Hungarian nobility, and one of the most magnificent subjects in Europe. He has body-guards of his own, all genteel-looking men, richly dressed in the Hungarian manner. " The palace is a noble building, lately finished,t and situated near a fine lake; the apartments are equally grand and commodious ; the furniture more splendid than almost any * Celebrated by many only as the father of General Sir John Moore ; but more justly so as the author of *' Zelucco," and personally as an excellent man. f Scarcely then finished ; for it has been greatly orna- mented and enriched since that period. ESTERHAZY. 115 thing I liave seen in royal palaces. In the prince's own apartments there are some mu- sical clocks ; and one in the shape of a bird, which whistles a tune every hour. " Just by the palace there is a theatre for operas and other dramatic entertainments ; and in the gardens a large room, with commodious apartments for masquerades and balls. " At no great distance, there is another the- atre, expressly built for 2:)upj)et-sliows. This is much larger than most provincial play- houses ; and I am bold to assert, is the most splendid that has yet been reared for that species of actors. We regretted that we could not have the pleasure of seeing them perform ; for they have the reputation of being the best comedians in Hungar}^ " We had the curiosity to peep behind the curtain, and saw kings, emperors, Turks, and Christians, all ranged very sociably together. King Solomon was observed in a corner, in a Tery suspicious ttte-a-ttte with the Queen of Sheba. " Among other curiosities, there is in the garden a wooden house, built upon wheels. It contains a room, with a table, chairs, a looking-glass, chimney, and fire-jilace. There 1 2 116 ESTERHAZY. are also closets, with many necessary accom- modations. The prince sometimes entertains twelve people in this vehicle, all of whom may easily sit round the table ; and the whole com- pany may thus take an airing together along the walks of the garden, and many parts of the park, which are as level as a bowling-green. The machine, thus loaded, is easily drawn by six or eight horses. ^^ Prince Esterhazy having heard of our being in the garden, sent us an invitation to the opera which was to be performed in the even- ing; but as we had brought with us no dress proper for the occasion,* we were forced to decline this ol)liging invitation. " The prince afterwards sent a carriage, in which we drove round the gardens and parks. These are of vast extent, and beautiful beyond description. Arbours, woods, hills, and valleys, being thrown together in charming confusion. If you look over Ariosto's description of the gardens in Alcina's enchanted island, you will have an idea of the romantic fields of Ester- hazy, which are also inhabited by the same kind of animals. * A plain dress -suit would now, as in Paris or London, be quite sufficient. ESTERHAZY. Il7 ' Tru le purpnrei rose e i bianchi gigli, Che tepid' aura freschi ognora serba, Sicuri si vedean lepri e conigli ; E cervi con la fronte alta e superba, Setiza temer die alcun li uccida pigli, Pascono, e stansi ruminando 1' erba : E saltan dam e capri snelli e destri, Che sono in copia in quel luoghi campestri.'* " Having wandered here for many hours, we returned to the inn, where a servant Avaited with Prince Esterhazy's comphments, and a basket containing two bottles of Tokay, and the same quantity of champagne and old hock. We lamented very sincerely that we could not have the honour f of waiting on this very magnificent prince, and thanking him person- ally for so much politeness. " A company of Italian singers and actors were then at the inn, and preparing for the * While midst tlie roses red and lilies fair For ever nursed by kindly zephyr's care, Tlic nimble hares in wanton mazes played, And stately stags, with branching antlers, strayed ; Without the fear of hostile hand they stood To croj) or ruminate their grassy food. And wild goats frolic— leap the nimble deer, Thiit in this rural place in troops appear. \ This arose at that time from the eticpiette of dress, — a folly which then prevailed all over Europe. 118 ESTERHAZY. opera ; great preparations were maldng for the entertainment of the empress and all the court, who are soon to make a visit here for several clays. Though the imperial family and many of the nobility are to live in the palace, yet every corner of this large and commodious inn is bespoke for the company which are invited ujjon that occasion." Eisenstadt still continues as sum.ptuous and hospitable a residence. Its neighbouring grounds afford some of the best and most ex- tensive field- sporting in Hungary. A kind of interregnum has occurred in consequence of the prince's absence in England; but as he is expected here in spring, festivities will then be undoubtedly resumed on a splendid scale. Princess Esterhazy* is a charming woman, daughter of the Prince Tour and Taxis, one of the most wealthy noblemen in Germany. The eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, by this mar- riage, was m.arried four years ago' to Count Frederick Chorinsky ; and the second daughter. Princess Theresa, is soon to be married. The * Prince Esterhazy 's mother, the dowager princess, is still living in good health. He has no brothers, and only one sister, widow of Prince Maurice of Liechtenstein. ESTERHAZY. 119 only son^ Prince Nicholas, now in England, is not yet twenty years of age.* I was very sincerely gratified on finding the excellent character which Prince Esterhazy bears in his own country : not as a personage of almost more than sovereign power, but what is much more, as a landlord and a proprietor of human beings, who are treated with great consideration under him, and who, I beheve, feels ardently desirous of changing the system of feudal services into that of mere rent. In fact, if he" were a prince intent on accumulating enormous wealth, he might even now increase it fourfold by severity in exacting all that he could claim from those who live on his terri- tories. But he has, I am convinced, in view other ends that will (without money being his chief object) increase his own revenue, and at the same time extend invaluable happiness to those who inhabit his vast domains. * Since this letter was written, Prince Esterhazy has, agreeably to the emperor's request, consented to remain three years longer as ambassador at the court of London. 120 LETTER XL SCHUBRT, THE BANDIT OF BANKORE. Hungary and Transylvania have, at various periods, been as famed for bandits as Spain or Italy; although their exploits have been but little known to western Europe. About twenty-five years ago, a formidable band spread terror over eastern Hungary, Transylvania, and the Banat. For a long time every attempt to subdue them, and every plan to surprise them, failed. At length sus- picion fell upon a shepherd, who came regu- larly from the mountains to Lobosh, to pur- chase wine, in quantities too great, and of a quality too good, for the orcUnary consumption of that part of the country. The shepherd was seized ; and threats and promises extorted from THE BANDIT OF BANKORE. 121 him the confession that he purchased the wine for the robbers, — that their number was about one hundred, — that their retreat was of difficult access, in one of the largest caverns in Transyl- vania, and so strongly fortified at the entrance, that they would be able to destroy all who approached it. The shepherd was both frightened and bribed to betray them. If the stratagem failed, and the shepherd did not return, his wife and children, who were retained by the governor of Lobosh as hostages, were to be executed. If it succeeded, the shepherd was to have a free pardon and a pension of one hundred florins for life. He was then ordered to pro- ceed with the wine as usual, into which opium was infused. The robbers got drunk, and slept upon it, — the cavern was surprised and taken, — and the whole of the bandits were hung in chains on the mountain above the cavern. The chief of the bandits who are now so formidable in Hungary, is called Schubri, or Sobri. Various accounts of his birth and character have been given from time to time. It was first believed that he was of noble birth; and the heroism of his character, and his daring boldness, was the general theme of 122 THE BANDIT OF BANKORE. conversation at all the inns and little towns of Hungary. It was then given out that he was one of the class of w'andering shepherds, who have certainly produced more brigands than honest men. Schubri's audacious appearance where he is least expected, exhibits him frequently in a most daring position. He enters towns by himself; dines at table-d'hotes; and on leaving, says to the guests, "I am off; and you will boast of having dined with Schubri !" Not long since, several noblemen dined at a tahle-d'hote in Szarvaz, a stranger entered, sat doAvn as a traveller at the table, amused the guests by his anecdotes and conversation, and after dinner, bowed to the company, and said on leaving the room, " Gentlemen, it is Schubri whose company you have had. Adieu ! till we meet again.^' His band was at hand ; and not long after, he entered the schloss of one of the nobles he had dined W'ith, saying, " I have occasion for two hundred ducats, and must have them at once, or I will instantly make your heir lord of this castle.^' Not long since it was announced that the greater part of his daring band, harassed by THE BANDIT OF BANKORE. 123 detachments of Hungarian troops, were dis- persed. This soon turned out a false report : a few of his band were surprised, and three or four taken, among whom were, Nagy Janesi, said to be the most bold and dexterous, and Milfait, who has been beheaded, and who has given a curious account of the chief, Schubri. It now appears that this daring brigand is only about twenty-seven years of age, and was bom at Funf-kirchen, in which town his father was an extensive tanner, and his uncle a saffron manufacturer, who had in that business reahzed a fortune. Schubri, Avhen a boy, was so daring, and so often engaged in plots among his fellows, that he gave perpetual uneasiness to his parents. He involved himself in bloody squabbles with the children of the nobles, and he was con- sequently sent from home, and placed in a school at Gotha. He is said to have made extraordinary progress in his studies, first at school, and afterwards in the gymnasium of that town, while he became at the same time in the highest degree despotic over the stu- dents, Avho usually submitted to him. At Gotha he wTote ballads and composed music, and he made his companions sing them, or join 124 THE BANDIT OF BANKORE. him in the chorus. If they sung out of tune he beat them, yet they obeyed him ; and he at last excited them to an insurrection, to storm at night, by torch-hght, the Numismatic Ca- binet. Pursued by the soldiers and police, he es- caped by swimming the river and burrowing under the stables of the schloss of Friededstein, and then wandered through Hanover and Hol- stein to Lubeck, from which he passed over to Upsala, in Sweden, by concealing himself in a vessel of that country, and not appearing until they had nearly crossed the Baltic. He was reduced to extreme distress ; and from his father, who had previously sent him sufficient means, he had not heard since the beginning of 1836. He was, in consequence, obliged to leave Upsala, where he had pre- viously determined to reform his life, and apply himself closely to study. Before his departure, however, he commenced his career as a robber. It was winter, and he sallied out of town after dark, dug in the road, then deeply covered with snow, a kind of pit, covered it over with branches and then with snow. The road in ■winter being confined to little more than a track, the first traveller fell into the pit, and THE BANDIT OF BAXKORE. 125 was attacked and robbed by Schubri. This he repeated for four or five nights; but being attacked in the market by the dog of a farmer whom he had robbed, he disappeared imme- diately from Sweden, and after landing in Ger- many travelled on to Hungary, robbing as often as opportunity enabled him. On reaching Joseph-stadt, in his native country, he wrote his father, boldly avowing his rol)beries, which he laid entirely to the principle of necessity, and to which, he asserted, the first noble families in Europe owed their origin. He then set to work, with extraordinary management and patience, to organize a band of brigands, to whom he wished to impart a romantic, military, and even chivalrous charac- ter. Numerous young men of high or despe- rate spirit, and overwhelmed with debt, amidst society, soon joined Schabri. His band was also augmented by discharged non-cominis- sioned officers, and romantic students, to an organized body of one hundred well armed and trained men. In less than seven months, either as a body or in detachments, they have committed the most daring robberies. Schubri, in all attacks. 126 THE BANDIT OF BANKORE. is at their head. In June he had a most des- perate engagement with a troop of hussars. He was wounded^ but he fought his way with great bravery, and escaped with his men. He was lately, with three of his men, sur- rounded at night in a farm-yard near the Platten-See, by forty horsemen. His presence of mind and audacit}' saved him. He directed his companions to throw aside their arms and part of their clothes. He then, followed by them, ran mth lighted lanterns to the outer entrance, and addressed the soldiers, as if he belonged to the farm-house, saying, they had better station themselves immediately at the inner gate, to prevent the robbers escaping, as they were desperate, and should be at once surprised in the house, where they were then re- galing themselves. The stratagem succeeded, and Schul^ri and his men were off before the soldiers even approached the house, in which all the inmates were surprised asleep, quite unconscious of what had passed. A few days after, he robbed an estate belong- ing to the Archduke Charles, of every valuable article he could carry away. He is now said to have a completely organ- ized troop of five hundred men, being reinforced THE BAXDTT OF BAXKORE. 127 by Bosnians, Pandaurs, and others. A come- dian of Ratisbon, named Kapfen, has lately joined him ; and his band, altogether, consists not of starving peasants or serfs, but of men degraded by vices, that have rendered them desperate. He has established among them strict dis- cipline, — employs a treasurer, — pays his men regularly, — has a surgeon to dress their wounds, and gives prizes to those who excel in carbine shooting and in gymnastic feats. He has sub- ordinate officers, and is now said to be forming a troop of cavalry. He probably dreams of becoming a mighty conqueror. Robbing the rich, and never injuring, but when possible, to assist the poor, is the prin- ciple he promulgates. It is said, that not a single murder can be traced to him ; and that he once ordered one of his gang to be shot for robbing a peasant. A few days ago, a positive account of his capture reached Vienna. His appearance ter- rifying the country near Hermanstadt, in Tran- sylvania, was given in another account. In fact, he is a second Rob Roy. 128 LETTER XII. WINTER AT VIENNA. Now that the carnival is over, and that the abstinence of lent leaves me more at leisure than I have been for some time past, I will endeavour to give you, as you request, some account of the winter in this capital. We have had snow and severe frost ; and the narrow streets of Vienna, when glazed over with ice, are the most dangerous in the world, and the most difficult to maintain a footing upon. Your skating amateurs might actually figure upon them, were it not for the eternal movement of all descriptions of carriages, which alone form an interruption. But there are other grounds for skating. The branches of the Danube, — the great river WINTER AT VIENNA. 129 itself, — the waters at the lower end of the Prater, are covered with ice ; and what a field for curling ! Then the sledging amateurs, with their fanciful vehicles, driving over the glassy- surface of solid water or frozen snow, and often to the chase. For all these sports and diversions the vicinity of Vienna is, during the frost, admirable; while every Ixixury that the heart can yearn for, may be found at the same time within the imperial city. The season opened early, with dinners and balls. Our own Ambassador gave a dinner party in honour of the Turkish minister : fifty of the most distinguished personages sat down to an entertainment displaying great taste and elegance, but, like every thing in which Sir Frederick is concerned, without ostentation. The representative of Turkey afterwards opened the splendid palace which he has hired from Prince Esterhazy, in the Faubourg, to all the fashional^le and distinguished world. Oriental and European magnificence were at the same time exhibited with dignified splen- dour. The marriage by proxy of the beautiful Arch- duchess Maria Theresa to the King of Naples, attracted attention for some weeks; and the VOL. II, K 130 WINTER AT VIENNA. rich elegance of her trousseau was for a fortnight all that the ladies talked of. She herself seemed to think little of the matter^, further than that she might be seen almost every day in some shop buying such articles as she fancied. After the marriage, a court entertainment was given to the members of the order of the Golden Fleece, to which all the diplomatic corps were invited ; and two or three days after there was a grand concert, in honour of the Archduchess Maria Theresa, when she appeared for the first time as the affianced bride of the King of Naples. A brilliant fete was after- wards given by the Neapolitan minister, the Marquis di Gagliati ; at which were present, besides the imperial family, the Duke of Nas- sau, the Prince of Salerno, uncle to the King of Naples, and many persons of the first dis- tinction. It was at this fete that the emperor, empress, and the other members of the imperial family, took leave of the Queen of Naples and of the Archduke Charles. That morning she left, accompanied by her father, and the Coun- tess d'Ertz, for Trent, where she met her consort, and from thence they proceeded to Venice, from which they embarked for Naples. The Prince and Princess of Salerno follo\\ecl WINTER AT VIENNA. 131 them ; and the Archduke Charles has since re- turned, after deUvering up his beloved daughter to the arms of a sovereign.* The death of Charles X., which occasioned the court to assume mourning ; and the tempo- rary closing of the two court theatres, caused a few days' dulness, in which there was no sin- cerity. The ex-king's body was interred at Gratz, in presence of an imperial commission, to whom, immediately before the coffin was put into the vault, the body was shown, and then locked up with three distinct keys, after the manner observed at the funeral of any one of the house of Hapsburg, in the vaults of the Capucins. Pompous funeral masses were pre- viously celebrated at the palace church, and at the cathedral of Vienna. Even the Count de St. Aulaire, the minister of Louis-Philippe, put on mourning; but this was in accordance to the etiquette of the court, and not out of respect to the memory of the ex-monarch. The Avhole of this mummery, in which I am persuaded there was not one grain of honesty, was very inconvenient at the time to tlic imperial family, • It is said that Leopold, second brother of the King of Naples, has asked the hand of the sister of Maria Theresa. K 2 132 WINTER AT VIENNA. and personally disrelished by all Vienna. The formality was, however, considered due to a deceased ex-crowned head. The carnival opeiied with more than ordinary brilliancy. The fantastic processions, in every possibly fancied costume, of the citizens, and the fetes and balls of the latter, with the Hber- ties which the customs of the carnival allow, presented Vienna in a very different aspect to that into which it would almost appear impossible to transform it. There was, how- ever, no licentiousness that could annoy any one. The pope has thought proper to prohibit the carnival this year at Rome : — he would find it beyond his power to do so at Vienna. The empress and emperor have both been unwell, and one of the court balls was post- poned in consequence. Several receptions took place ; and at the grand court-ball given before Christmas, the members of the corps diplomutiqiie, and all foreigners of distinction, with several officers of the Burger guard, were presented. If the emperor were in better health, I am convinced, from all I have seen and learn of him, that he would do much good in Austria; and there is an amiability and excellency of heart in the disposition of the WINTER AT VIEXNA. 133 empress, that would render her beloved in any station. The Countess de St. Aulaire's entertainment was quite in the highest cast of Parisian st}'le : and the good ladies have not yet ceased talking of it, and of that given by the Ottoman ambas- sador. The Princess Metternich entertains at her weekly soirees, and a fortnight ago she also gave a grand ball. All foreigners who were introduced into the fashionable circles were invited. The Duke of Nassau and sons were there ; — also Prince Vasa ; — also the "Vladika of Montenegro.* Marshal Marmont, who for- merly, under Napoleon, made war on the Montenegrins, made up to the \niadika, and had a long conversation with him. The intercourse between families, and the reception of strangers at Vienna, seems to be gradually acquiring a more easy position. The ♦ This country, bordering on Turkey, is considered under its government ; but it is said, that when the Vladika was asked a few days ago, if he intended to pre- sent himself to the Turkish ambassador, rephed, " Neither I, nor yet my people, have any thing to acknowledge to Turkey; we have nothing to do with that country, unless it be with our arms.'' 134 WINTER AT VIENNA. expected return of Prince Esterhazy, and the increased resort of foreigners to Vienna, will, it is supposed, be attended with much that will ameliorate the formality which has certainly prevailed here for a long time ; but of which visiters, who have not been well introduced, and who have not remained long in this capital, have given very erroneous accounts. Joseph II., and even his brother, had in view to render the society and manners of their court and capital, at the same time, the most agreeable and virtuous in Europe. From Dr. Moore's account, written at that time, it ap- pears that there then existed much that was highly attractive at Vienna. Speaking of society. Dr. Moore observes, " The manners of this court are greatly altered since Lady Mary Wortley Montague was here, particularly since the accession of the present empress (Maria Theresa), whose understanding and affability have abridged many of the irk- some ceremonials formerly in use. Her son's (Joseph II.) philosophical turn of mind, and the amiable and conciliating turn of the whole family, have, no doubt, tended to put society in general upon a more easy and agreeable footing. WINTER AT VIENNA. 135 cc People of different ranks now do business together with ease, and meet at pubhc places without any of those ridiculous notions about precedency of which the ingenious Enghsh lady has given such lively descriptions. Yet trifling punctilios are not so completely banished, as, I imagine, the emperor could wish, he himself being the least punctihous man in his domi- nions : for there is certainly a greater separation than good sense would direct between the vari- ous classes of his subjects. And, what is of more importance in a political sense, there are tertain places of high trust in the government vhich cannot be occupied by any but the higher crder of nobihty. " The ideas relative to dress seem to have entirely changed since Lady Mary's time ; and il not so absurd, at least not so singular; for tiey have, like the rest of Europe, adopted the Parisian modes. " The present race of Austrian ladies can differ in nothing more than in their looks from their grandmothers, who, if any of them be still alive, may be as beautiful as when she wrote ; for time itself could not improve that ugliness, which, according to her, was in full bloom sixty years ago. I have not yet inquired what method 136 WINTER AT VIENNA. the parents have deAdsed to remedy this incon- venience, but nothing is more certain than that it is remedied effectually: for at present there is no scarcity of female beauty at the court of Vienna. / *' This being the case, it is natural to imagine that gallantry must now be more prevalent thaii when her ladyship was here. But nothing is more heinous in the eyes of her imperial apos- tolical majesty, Avho seems to think that the ladies of her court, like the wife of Csesar, should not only be free from guilt, but from/ suspicion. | " With regard to what Lady Mary calls subJ marriages, they are not common in the latitude of her curious description. But it is not uncom* mon for married ladies here to avow the greatest degree of friendship and attachment to men who are not their husbands, and to live with them il great intimacy, without hurting their reputatior^ or being suspected, even by their own sex, of having deviated from the laws of modesty." " I never passed my time," observes Dr. Moore, in another letter, " more agreeably than since I came to Vienna ; we dine abroad two or three times a week — we sometimes see a little play, but never any deep gaming. At WINTER AT VIENNA. 13/ the Countess Thun's, where I generally pass the evening, there is no play of any kind* The society there literally form a conversazione. The countess has the art of entertaining com- pany, and of making them entertain one ano- ther, more than any person I ever knew. " To her politeness, and the recommendation of Baron Swieten, I am indebted for the agree- able footing I am on with Prince Kaunitz,* who at prescTit lives at Laxenburg, a pleasant village, ten miles from Vienna, where there is a small palace, and very extensive park, belonging to the imperial family. Prince Kaunitz has lately built a house there, and lives in a style equally hospitable and magnificent. He is not to be seen before dinner by any but people on business ; but he always has a pretty large company at dinner, and still greater numbers from Vienna pass their evenings at Laxenburg: not unfrequently the emperor himself makes one of the company. " Tlie emperor is of middle size, well made, and of fair complexion. He has considerable resemblance to his sister, the Queen of France,t * Fadicr of the present prince, and president of the cahinct of Maria Theresa, Leopold, and Francis : also father to the first wife of Prince Mettcrnich. f Marie-Antoinette. 138 WINTER AT VIENNA. which, in my opinion, is saying a great deal in favour of his looks. His manner is affable, obliging, and perfectly free from the reserve and lofty deportment assumed by some on account of high birth. *' AVhoever has the honour of being in com- pany with him, so far from being checked by such despicable pride, has need to be on his guard not to adopt such a degree of familiarity as, whatever the condescension of the one might permit, would be highly improper in the other. ^' He is regular in his way of life, moderate in his pleasures, steady in his plans, and dili- gent in his business. He is fond of his army, and inclines that his soldiers should have every comfort and necessary consistent with their situation. He is certainly an economist, and lavishes very little money on useless pomp, mistresses, or favourites ; and it is on no better foundation that his enemies accuse him of avarice. '' His usual dress (indeed the only one in which I ever saw him, except at the feast of the knights of St. Stephen) is a plain uniform of white faced with red. When he goes to Lax- enburg, Schonbrun, or other places near WINTER AT VIENNA. 139 Vienna^ he drives two horses in a plain chaise, with a servant behind, and no other attendant. He very seldom allows the guard to turn out as he passes through the gate. He is fond of conversing with ingenious people. Nobody ever had a stronger disposition to judicious inquiry. When he hears of any person, of whatever rank or country, being distinguished for any particular talent, he is eager to converse with him, and turns the conversation to the subject on which that person is thought to excel, drawing from him all the useful informa- tion he can. " He is convinced, that unless a sovereign can contrive to live in some societies on a foot- ing of equality, and can weigh his own merit without throiving his rank, guards, and pomp into the scale, it would be difficult for him to know either the world or himself. " One evening, at the Countess Wallenstein^s, the emperor enumerated some remarkably lu- dicrous instances of the inconveniences of eti- quette which had occurred at a certain court. One person present hinted at the effectual means his majesty had used to banish every inconvenience of that kind from the court of 140 WINTER AT VIENNA. Vienna. To which he replied, ^ It would be hard indeed, if, because I have the iU fortune to be emperor, I should be deprived of the plea- sures of social life, which are so much to my taste. All the grimace and parade to which people in my situation are accustomed from their cradle, have not made me so vain, as to imagine that I am in any essential quality supe- rior to other men.' " A few days after this, there was an exhibi- tion of fircAvorks on the Prater, when the em- peror, observing an unwieldy English gentle- man, who had been at the Countess Wallen- stein's, anxious, but too large to get through the railings, while small men crept under, said, ' Ah ! sir, you have heard me say how incon- venient it was to be too great !' '^ From the account I have given you of the late emj)eror, ^'^ou will perceive that, although Francis had neither the jjhilosophic mind nor the reforming principles of Joseph II., that he practised the same aifability and simplicity as a man. The present emperor's ideas have cer- tainly a greater affinity to those of Joseph than to the political principles and contracted re- ligious views of Francis, and his manners, as WINTER AT VIENNA. 141 I have observed, are equally unaffected and simple. His health alone prevents him from being equally active ; but he supplies the parts, which he himself would otlierwise perform, by taking his uncle, the Archduke Charles, and his brother, the Archduke Francis, into the council of state conference. The style of living during the time of Joseph II. and the present appear reaUy to differ very little, unless it be that several of the younger nobihty, who have succeeded to the inheritance of their ancestors, are charged with being far less munificent than their fathers. Country balls, city balls, receptions, are much on the same footing. The chase is equally a favourite piirsuit ; the grounds of the nobihty in Austria, Hungary and Bohemia, afford the most abundant sport. Anniversaries, commemorating great events, and observances long venerated, are religiously remembered, and still celebrated in Austria, and in the several states of the empire. Whe- ther in tlie spirit of former days, or of a period in the recollection of old people, now living, may be questioned. The cakmiities to which the empire was subjected during the greater part of the life 142 WINTER AT VIENNA, of Francis, rendered that monarch insensible, or disincUned him to the enjoyment of those festi\dties, which had, in the time of Joseph II. and his predecessors, been celebrated with im- posing splendour. The feast of St. Stephen has always, as the patron saint and king of Hungary, been re- garded with uncommon pomp. The emperors on the occasion have dined in public, with the knights of the Golden Fleece, dressed in their robes, and surrounded by Hungarian guards with drawn sabres. The honour of serving the emperor was limited to Hungarian noblemen. The public have always been admitted to beliold this feast, which was given in a vast hall, in the balcony of which Avere seated the empress, arch- duchesses, and ladies of the court. The anniversary of the defeat of the Turks by Sobieski, is another feast still commemo- rated. The imperial family, and the principal nobility of both sexes, walk in solemn proces- sion to hear mass performed in the cathedral of St. Stephen. The streets at the same time are lined with guards, and the windows and tops of the houses crowded with spectators, while a vast train of bishops, priests, deacons, WINTER AT VIENNA. 143 and monks, with bands of music, bring up the procession. All Vienna appear on this occa- sion in their richest dresses and most splendid equipages. On the following day, it has been the custom of the imperial family to dine in pubhc, and on the same evening, a grand ball, usually a masquerade, for which from four to five thou- sand tickets have at times l)een issued, has generally been given at the palace of Schon- brun. Now that we are in the midst of Lent, public pleasures are nearly all suspended; yet I assure you that very few fast. After Easter, the Prater becomes again, as I have already described, the scene of attraction and display. The coronation, as was given out for next summer, of the emperor at Milan, as sovereign of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, was one of the topics about which you heard the Viennese talk most. All the orjiaments and insignia are preparing at Milan : those used at the coronation of Napoleon in that city, although costly and superbly splendid, are not considered proper in their emblems, and are consequently not to be used. 144 WINTER AT VIENNA. It isj lately, understood that the pompous ceremony will be postponed for another year ; and it is decided that Pi'ince Esterhazy will continue as ambassador at the court of London. I hope that you will now admit that I have at least endeavoured to give you, in my seve- ral letters, a tolerable view of society and maimers in the capital of Austria. 145 LETTER XTII. JOSEPH THE SECOND AND HIS REFORMS. I HAVE, in a former letter, said that Francis I. of Austria (second of Germany) was so far behind his age, that he ought to have died at the period his grandmother, Maria Theresa, was born ! It may be also observed, that Joseph II. was so far in advance of the age in which he lived, that he would have been a monarch far better adapted to rule, if the period of his reign did not com- mence until a century after his birth.* Although he was elected King of the Ro- mans in 17C4, and soon after Emperor of • Joseph was born in March, 1741. VOL. II. L 146 JOSEPH THE SECOND Germany, his mother, the Empress Maria Theresa, retained the power nearly until the day of her death in her own hands. She al- ways attached the first importance to heredi- tary birth. Her son did not partake of these ideas ; and his philosophic mind early led him to consider merit as the real distinction, and he beheld in man, only man. The character and talents of Frederick of Prussia, he who did more than any prince or warrior to humble Austria, seems to have animated Joseph to great deeds, Avhile he him- self had already resolved on great reforms. The latter were stimulated by the philosophical works that he had read, and by the breaking out of the troubles in America; for he con- sidered that England had most unjustly op- pressed her colonies ; and it is certain that he at the time felt no sympathy for the former during that period of Britain's disgrace. When the seven years' war broke out, it was intended that he should command the army; but the empress suddenly changed this reso- lution. He married young, the Princess Eliza- beth of Parma, whom he adored ; but she died in childbirth, and his mother compelled him to espouse the Princess Josephine of Bavaria, for i AND HIS REFORMS. 14/ whom he had no regard ; she died two years after. His first object of reform was the army; the state of which, although often vexatiously opposed by his mother, he, with the assistance of the celebrated general Lascy, greatly im- proved : but he was perpetually thwarted in regard to the efficiency of the officers, by the aristocracy of the country", who considered that the army was created for them alone. He at length put himself completely at the head of his forces, and determined that none but men of merit should be appointed as officers. Among some curious well-authenticated let- ters of this prince, which I have found here, but which I believe are quite unknown in England, I found the following (which I trans- late for you), to a lady who claimed a post for her son. *• Madam, " I do not believe that among the obliga- tions of monarchs, they are bound to give places to one of their subjects for the sole reason that he is a nobleman ; but I am to conclude by your letter that I am. Your late husband was a distinguished general, you say, l2 148 JOSEPH THE SECOND and a nobleman of ancient family; therefore you consider that I cannot do less than give a company of infantry to your son. Ma- dam, one may be the son of a general without any talents for commanding ; — one may he a nobleman of good family, and possess no other merit than that which he possesses by accident — the title of nobleman. " I know your son — and I know also that which is necessary to make a soldier. This double knowledge convinces me that your son has nothing of the character of a warrior, and that he is too much occupied with his birth, to leave a hope that the country can ever receive benefit from his services. *^ It is you, therefore, madam, who are to blame, as his mother, for your son being neither fit for an officer, nor a statesman, nor a priest. In one word, for his having no other qualification but his birth, in every acceptation of the word. You may therefore render thanks to that Pro- vidence, which, in denying talents to your son, has put him in possession of those vast estates, which he may waste at pleasure, and whicli renders him, at the same time, independent of my favours. Adieu, madam." Joseph, who was no author himself, although AND HIS REFORMS. 149 he read much, pretended to ridicule the idea of royal authors, and remarks, in a letter to his friend Von Smeten, " I cannot conceive how sovereigns solicit grandeur in making verses, or in arranging the plan of theatricals : not that I would exclude from the education of a sovereign that which appertains to the fine arts. " The Margrave of Brandenburg (Frederick of Prussia) has made himself the chief of an association of kings, who amuse themselves in making memoirs, poems, and treatises. " The Empress of Russia (Catherine) imitates him, reads Voltaire, and writes comedies and verses, addressed to her favourites. Stanislaus Lesczinski (of Poland) writes pacific letters. The King of Sweden follows their example, and spends his time in M'riting, while he leaves his ministers to govern.^' Joseph, however, visited Frederick soon after, and admired him exceedingly; and tlie King of Prussia afterwards returned the visit at the Austrian camp of Makrhch Neustadt, in Mo- ravia, where they, for the time, arrested the partition of Poland, which, however, a short time afterwards was effected, and Ijy wliich Austria acquired, without conquest or money. 150 JOSEPH THE SECOND Galicia and Lodomeria, with three millions of subjects. In 1777 be visited Paris, where he remained some time, but returned shortly l^efore the death of the Elector of Bavaria, which occa- sioned the war of succession, and which was terminated by Maria Theresa, contrary to the will of Joseph. In l779j the year before his mother's death, he assumed the undivided ex- ercise of imperial power, but did not fuUy begin his reforms until after her demise. He was then forty years of age, in good health, and animated with the determination and ambition of effecting those reforms which he sincerely believed were calculated for the happiness of his people. Sovereign of twenty- two millions of subjects, and at the head of a large well organized army, the regard of all Europe was fixed upon him. His people adored him, but the nobility and the clergy, who could not bear his love of justice, and who dreaded his projects of reform, leagued against him, and, by their infamy, corruption and in- trigue, at length created general discontent throughout the empire. When we consider with what extraordinary AND HIS REFORMS. 151 difficulty reforms have been carried into effect in England, in opposition to the Tories and the Church, we need not be surprised at the lament- able termination which the efforts of Joseph II. have had in the states of his empire — in which the nobihty and clergy, at that time, possessed all the landed property, and in which the people, ignorant and superstitious, were either tenants or sofs; the exceptions being little other than the merchants and manufacturers of the Netherlands. The hatred of the nobles and clergy was soon kindled by his introducing efficient men into the sersice of the state — by an extension of liberty to the press — by his suppressing the subordination of the clergy to the pope of Home — by his regulating pensions according to services — by his tolerance to the Jews — by his plans for abolishing servitude, and suppressing numerous convents and a multitude of monks, but chiefly those who neither taught schools, attended the sick, nor preached. Notwithstanding these reforms, the pope, in the spring of 17^2, came, at the emperor's request, to Vienna, and exercised his sacerdotal functions, although, during the very time that the holy father was showering his benedictions 152 JOSEPH THE SECOND on all, the emperor was employed in abolishing religious houses ; — the inmates of which he re- duced, in eight years, from 63,000 to 27,000. By a new code, he abolished the punishment of death, and greatly reformed the administra- tion of justice. He then determined to or- ganize the government of the imperial states throughout, on one general system, nearly similar to that of the other states of Germany. This innovation, and especially the attempt to force upon the people the German language, was found impracticable. A revolt broke out in Wallachia in consequence, the leaders of which, Gloska and Hora, were executed. It was also planned at tbat time to exchange the Austrian Netherlands for Bavaria, but the other states of Germany prevented this design from being executed. In 1788 he visited the Empress Catherine in the Crimea, where, at Kherson, the most superb fetes were given by the Russian sovereign in honour of the emperor. While there he re- ceived intelligence of an insurrection in the Low Countries. On his return to Vienna, through the general discontents brought about by the nobility and clergy, he was induced, always intent upon the welfare of his people. AND HIS REFORMS. 153 to revoke some of the innovations whicli he considered before so necessary, merely because he judged the change requisite to restore tran- quiUity. The war with Turkey broke out at the same time^ in which he joined Russia ; and, notwithstandinsr Belsrrade had surrendered to General Laudon, the summer heat and malady were disastrous to his troops. A new law, in 1784, relative to duties, again spread discontent, and the anti-commercial feeling of the emjieror, which he honestly, under erroneous impres- sions, intended to protect industry, has formed the greatest curse to, and the cause of some of the heaviest calamities which have befallen, the empire.* Joseph's health had been attacked in the Crimea — he returned sick to Vienna. Fatigue — the chagrin of disappointment in all his plans — disorder in all parts of the empire — the suc- cess of the people of the Low Countries in driving the Austrian troops out of all parts of that territory, except Luxemburg — and who, declaring themselves independent, rejected all the concessions offered them by the emperor — * See financial and commercial systems of Austria hereafter. 154 JOSEPH THE SECOND and then the troubles in Hungary^ which imi tated the Low Countries — altogether completely weighed him down, and in despair he revoked, by one single declaration, all the innovations which he had made during his ten year's reign. The states of the empire, even the Tyrol, were thus placed on their former establishment. The effects, however, of these reforms, temporary as they were, have not yet spent their force. Joseph M^as now completely worn out. He sunk rapidly under the oppression of those dis- appointments and reverses, which destroyed both the ardour of his soul and the strength of his body. His frame became rapidly emaci- ated — the sure precursor of dropsy. Certain that death was meddling with him, he de- manded at once of his physician to be made acquainted with the probable time he might live, that he might act accordingly. The latter said, '^ Your majesty has, at most, but a few days to suffer." Turning to his chief minister, Kaunitz, he said, " You have heard the doctor's opinion. I must soon bid you adieu — take care of all the papers in the cabinet — I recommend you to my brother and successor." He then bad adieu to AND HIS REFORMS. 155 Generals Laudon, Lascy, and to Iladdick'^ and several others. The consort of his nephew Francis, the Archduchess Ehzabeth, for whom he always cherished the affection of a father, was then far gone in pregnancy. Joseph became exceed- ingly uneasy about her, especially as he had not seen her for some days. It was considered dangerous, for her to behold her uncle in the ghastly form to which he was reduced ; but Joseph said, " I must bid her adieu.''' Before her entrance, however, fearing that his shrunk cadaverous visage might startle her, he had covered his face nearly all over, and a small wax taper, placed in a distant corner, was all the light allowed. At this sad inter\aew the excess of precaution served only to precipitate the melancholy shock it was intended to pre- vent. His tremulous voice — his position in bed — the gloom of the chamber, rendered still more solemn by the glimmering light, paralyzed the archduchess, and she fell, as if dead, on the bed. She was immediately carried out of the bedchamber, but insisted on returning, saying, * General Haddick, who was advanced in years, went home immediately, took to his bed, and died in a few days. 156 JOSEPH THE SECOND "Now I have overcome the shocks and will receive my uncle's blessing." He spoke afFectingly to her — exhorted her to patience and tranquillity for the sake of the child to which she was to give birth, and which might, should it live, succeed to the empire. " I am resigned," said the emperor, " perfectly resigned and tranquil. My brother Leopold, your husband's father, will in a few hours suc- ceed me in the cares of government. Your husband, if God spares him, will succeed my brother, and also the child whom you now bear if a son, and if he Hves, follow in his turn." Joseph then blessed her, and said, " Farewell, my beloved niece, we will hereafter meet on a more pleasant journey."* This was on the l7th of February, and he then prepared to receive the last consolations of his faith. All the court attended the viati- cum to the chamber immediately before that in which he lay. On this day, he wrote with his own hand, to his sisters, Marie-Antoinette and Christine of Sax-Teschen, and on the following day to Potemkin, minister of Catherine, re- * She was a Lutheran princess of Wirtemburg, and the first wife of Francis, the late emperor. See volume first. The child did not live to grow up. AND HIS REFORMS. 157 commending peace with Turkey, and asking the friendship of Russia for his successor. His physician begging him to be tranquil, and to leave matters of business to others, — " My dear doctor," said Joseph, " you your- self have announced to me that I have at most but a few days to live, and that even a moment may terminate my existence. My brother has not had the opportunities that I have of know- ing the character of men who deserve to be rewarded and appreciated. Tlie moments I have to live are therefore important, and are due, in justice, to others." He accordingly advanced various meritorious officers and civil servants. On the evening of his death he called his domestics around him ; and besides leaving something to them in his will, handed each a hundred ducats, desiring them to bear the same regard to his brother they had done to him. The news just received from France, — the delicate and dangerous position of his beloved sister, Marie-Antoinette, now weighed heavily on his mind, — and before his dissolution, a still more poignant anguish awaited him, as if to consummate the bitterness of his depar- ture. 158 JOSEPH THE SECOND The Archduchess Ehzabeth was seized sud- denly with the pains of childbirth ; and after enduring the most excruciating sufferings, gave birth to a daughter, and expired. It appeared necessar)^ to communicate the appaUing intelligence to the emperor. Her youthful husband was overwhelmed, and had become frantic by the effect of the unexpected and sudden catastrophe; and the emperor's confessor revealed to him the terrible intelli- gence. Joseph, unprepared for this climax of sorrow, turned his face to the wall ; tears, the last he was doomed to shed, flowed down his hollow cheeks; and a deep sigh followed, with the words, " Lord, thy will be done !" He then recovered his self-possession, as it were suddenly. He made a sign to Count Rosenberg to approach, and then said, in a voice that seemed to come forth from the tombs, " Alas ! what I have endured is incre- dible. I beheved myself prepared to support every anguish to which it might please Heaven to subject me ; but this terrible calamity sur- passes all that I have ever suffered !" After this he became composed, gave direc- tions for the funeral of the archduchess, and of his own, directed the vaults to be opened AND HIS REFORMS. 159 sometime previous, that at their interment, which he directed to be close beside his mother's coffin, no one should be exposed to foul atmosphere. He then directed an esta- fette to be sent to Bucharest for the Prince of Hohenlohe, to replace, in case of need, the Prince of Coburg, then dangerously ill. He also ordered double pay to be given to his army for fourteen days after his death ; and that a million of florins should be immediately drawn from the treasury, for the benefit of the military institute which he had founded. " I die," said he to General Laudon, " in the full confidence that you will be the pro- tector of my army. Give me your hand : in a very little time I cannot enjoy the pleasure of pressing it in mine." He now directed the new-born princess to be brought to him ; and kissing and blessing it, said, " Dear infant, innocent portrait of thy pure, dear, departed mother, brought to me Avhen the hour of my own departure has also arrived !" After the infant was carried away, he called his confessor, and began to pray with him, but was unable to proceed. Marshal Lascy, Prince Dictricht, Baron Von Storch, Count Rosen- 160 JOSEPH THE SECOND. berg, and his confessor, remained all night in his chamber. The emperor slept until four in the morning, and then turning round, said, — " You are still here !" Baron Von Storch gave him a little broth, which he swallowed, and then asked his confessor to pray, begin- ning, " We repose on the faith, the hope, and the love,^' &c., the emperor repeating until the word love, and then abruptly said, " Stop on the love,^^ — this book ^dll serve me no longer, keep it in regard to me." Then, after a silence of a few seconds, with suppressed breathing, he exclaimed, " As a man and a sovereign, I believe I have fulfilled my duty ;" — and then, turning on his side, breathed more deeply a few respi- rations, yielded up that spirit which had been so active in hfe, and so far in advance of the intolerance and illiberahty of the age. 161 LETTER XIV. SPIRIT AND PRACTICE OF RELIGION. If irreligion or scepticism exist in Vienna, it is certainly difficult to detect them. The imperial family have always been piously dis- posed. Maria Theresa was especially so. She scarcely ever omitted attending mass daily at her chapel in the church of the Capucins, for the last thirty years of her life. There is cer- tainly no other city in Europe in Avhich there appears throughout, among the population, so much satisfaction to themselves, in their warm at- tachment to, and regular observance of, religious duties. Be their creed right or wrong, I should lament their being deprived of the certain con- solation whicii they derive from those devo- VOL. II. M 162 RELIGION. tional observances^ however superstitious I or others may think them. Ahhough I may consider, as I firmly do, all the relics shown in old churches and cathedrals as materials of imposition, employed by priests to dupe the people into credulity — although I do not believe there is one word of truth in the angels having, on the appearance of the Sara- cens or other infidels, flown away from Pales- tine, carrying off "with them the hut in which the Virgin Mary was born_, to the eastern shores of the Adriatic, where they are sworn to have deposited it (with the actual image of the Virgin sculptured by St. Luke) in a castle of Dal- matia, to which they were guided by a blaze of celestial light and concerts of divine music ; nor yet that, when the fatigued angels rested with the image and hut in a httle wood, all the trees of the forest boAved in adoration ; nor, that in consequence of the insufficient respect paid to the hut and image at the Dalmatian castle, the indefatigable angels carried both over the broad bosom of the Adriatic, and finally lodged it safely in the country of the pope himself, at Loretto, where a magnificent temple was built over it, and to which so many thousands of pilgrims have flocked. RELIGION. 163 Further, although I know that the Hquefac- tion, when brought near the saint's head, of the blood of St. Januarius, so piously gathered by a young virgin when he was beheaded at Naples, — that the phial with the sweat of Jesus — that the chemise of the Virgin, and other relics at Aix-la-Chapelle — that the bodies of the three kings of the east, and the skulls of the eleven thousand virgins of St. Ursula at Cologne — that the rotten body of St. Antonia at Padua emits an agreeable and refreshing flavour — that the actual bodies of St. Matthew and St. Luke are preserved in the same city — that the tongue of Holy John of Nepomuk, now enclosed in a silver case at Prague, as fresh as when it was cut out of that martyr's head, although it lay three hundred years undiscovered under the bridge in the middle of the river, and gave out blood when found — that although all these, with a thousand other assertions, are abominable and disgusting falsehoods, which no man of education and ordinary plain sense believes; yet until the people, who derive tranquillity of mind and consolation from the Catholic or other creeds, however superstitious, are pro- perly educated and enabled to think rationally, I am one of those who would grieve to see •M 2 164 RELIGION'. them regardless of that sincere spirit of de- votion, or of that practice of rehgious ob- servance which prevail in the Austrian domi- nions. Of the whole population of the imperial states. about thirty-five milhons, more than twenty- seven milHonSj according to Cannabich, are CathoUcs. The government of this church has, however, been long secured and jealously guarded by the emperors, and over which the pope has not even nominal authority. Sometime ago, in an article of withering seve- rity on, and great injustice to, the Austrian government, a writer in the Edinburgh Review observed, in respect to religion — "And first, with regard to the great element of religion, in which the characteristic selfishness of its pohcy has always been conspicuous. The court of Rome has ever been a dangerous friend, and a still more formidable enemy to the Cathohc monarchies. The emperors of Ger- many, when at war with the popes, lost the obedience of their subjects, their power, and their crown. Without any impidse of zeal or bi^otrv, she vras intolerant till the middle of last^centurv. She established the Jesuits at an early period, frequently abandoned to their RELIGION'. 165 guidance the affairs of the state, and intrusted them with the education of her princes, but she never would consent to share her power Avith the popes. Tlie emperors style themselves apostolic, and pay a voluntary homage to Rome, but they acknowledge no compulsory authority. Maximilian, the son of Ferdinand, in his public address to the head of the church, on his elec- tion as king of the Romans, substituted the word obseqiiium for ohedientiain. Even Charle- magne and Napoleon were vain enough to be crowned by popes ; but the emperors of Austria, on the contrary, have endeavoured from the first to discredit the practice of receiving the cro'svn from the hands of the pontiff. Nature indeed seems to have endowed them with some pecu- liar pov.'er of resisting the thunders of the Vatican. When the Archduke Rudolph was threatened with excommunication by the pope, he used to say that, within his owm dominions, he was himself pope, archbishop, bishop, arch- deacon, and priest, and his successors have religiously adhered to the maxim of exercising Avithiu tlieir own states all the powers of the church. The Emperor Maximilian endeavoured to organize a general council in German^, to control the pretensions of the church of Rome. 166 RELIGIOX. Joseph II. ventured when he pleased on the boldest reforms in rehgion within his domi- nions. He encouraged the pubhcation of the Monocohgia, 0, satire against the monks, some- what similar to the Guerre des Dieiix, which appeared at the revolution. Instead of walking with the penitential haircloth to Rome, he brought Pius VI., in 1786, a supphant to his capital; and the reigning monarch, although he inculcates religion in public and private, though he has paid a visit to the pope in Rome, and restored to him eighteen pictures which belonged to the Pinacotheca of Milan, allows no papal bull to be published Avithin his domi- nions without his previous sanction, and cer- tainly has never dreamed of restoring to the monks the property they possessed before the revolution ; and if, in former times, Austria used to consign her heretical subjects to Rome, as to a common centre, for trial and punish- ment, Italy now repays the obligation by placing in the hands of Austria her political dehn- quents. " The treachery and cruelty with which she proceeded against the Hussites in Bohemia are M'ellTinown. The thirty years war, while it exhausted both herself and her opponents, had BELIGIOX. 167 convinced her that the risk of the contagion of the reformed doctrines, or at least of their poU- tical tendencies, had in a great measure ceased; that the furious zeal which had at first been roused by the rapid spread of Protestantism was on the dechne, and that, in order to pre- sen-e the supremacy of Germany, it was neces- sary that the toleration which she accorded should be sincere. "In order, therefore, to calm the fears of the Protestant states, and regain their confidence, she began by granting protection and toleration to her own Protestant subjects. If this govern- mefit is revengeful, it is more from calcidation than passion ; and accordingly, it never allows its resentment to get the better of its reason, or pushes its vengeance so far as to injure itself. The instant that Austria ceased to persecute, she regained the supremacy of the German empire, which she continued exclusively to ex- ercise down to the reign of Frederick II. From that period Protestant Germany ha^^ng a na- tural protector in Prussia, has possessed a surer guarantee for the sincerity of Austrian tolera- tion ; and accordingly, that government now allows an equal protection to the Calvinist and 168 RELIGION. Lutheran doctrines, with all their modifications, and to three millions of Greeks, schismatics, Jews, Moravians, &c. " Thus Austria, guided solely by an unbend- ing principle of self-interest, emancipated her- self early from the papal authority — protected the Jesuits, and availed herself of their services while they were necessary to her — banished them when their ser\"ices were no longer re- quired — and finally became tolerant, not from feeling but from necessity, when she saw that bigotry was generally on the decline/' That the present Austrian government, which in point of religious toleration, even to the Jews, is the most liberal in Germany, should be chargeable with the crimes and errors of its predecessors, may be brought forward by party writers -with about the same justice, as to make Lord Melbourne's ministry accountable for all the oppression and injustice to which Oliver Cromwell, William IIL, and the church of England, subjected Ireland; or for the dra- gooning of the Scotch Presbyterians, in order to force upon them that establishment so much extolled by Sir Robert Peel, when he was, as I have lately observed in the newspapers, feasted RELIGION. 169 and flattered by the degenerated ScotSj whose forefathers had so vahantly defended their civil and rehgious rights. The prime minister of Austria and his col- leagues are far too jealous of their master's omnipotence in the empire, and their omti au- authority in the government, to give irrespon- sible power to the bishops and priests. They make use of those enemies to salutary change and liberality, and must continue to do so, as long as the form of the government remains absolute; but at the same time, neither the present em- peror, the Archduke Charles, Prince Metter- nich, nor Count Kollowrat, will ever consent to give any power to the clergy, further than that which will patriarchally maintain among the people a religious devotion, and passive obedi- ence to the imperial government.* The Catholic or state church of the Austrian * The following are extracts from the pastoral letter of tlie Archbishop of Boliemia, promulgated and read by every priest on and after the coronation of the present emperor, and exactly similar to that pronnilgated on occa- sion of the same ceremony when the emperor was crowned in Hungary, and to that which will be issued and read in all parishes after the intended coronation at Milan. 170 RELIGION. dominions is tinder the imperial government and control, confided to the metropohtan and diocesan care of thirteen archbisliops, and fifty- " We, Andreas Aloys, hy the grace of God, Prince Arch- bishop of Prague, Count Skarbeck Ankwicz von Poslawic, Primate of Bohemia., S/'c. Sfc. <^c. " Greet all pious believers of our arch-diocese of Prague, who shall see, read, or hear read this our letter, with our holy salutation and fatherly blessing. " Dear Lambs in Christ Jesu ! " We cannot conceal the inexpressible pleasure which our heart felt when, on the 7th of this month, in our holy and ancient metropolitan church, we enjoyed the supreme happiness of anointing one of the greatest and mightiest of monarchs with the holy oil, and of crowning his illus- trious head with the holy diadem of the kingdom of Bohemia. " It was incontestably, and will for ever remain, one of the most happy and most blessed days of our life, for which the inscrutable providence of God hath appointed us, and which leaves us nothing more (except the eternal welfare of our soul) to wish for in this world. " Thanks be to the All Good ! we have happily per- formed, by God's aid, the triumphant and august solemnity of the coronation of his majesty our most illustrious and beloved Lord Ferdinand, by the grace of God, king of Bohemia. In the splendour of that great and holy cere- mony, we have seen and honoured the reflection of the divine glory in the rank of kings, being an institution ira- RELIGION'. 171 nine bishops. Most of these dignitaries are princes of the empire, or nobles of the first families. The primate of Hungary has an mediately derived from God, as it is only through God that kings reign : and the voice of the Most High pene- trated to our heart, as he spake to the anointed King David ; — ' I have found David my servant : with my holy oil have I anointed him ; with whom my hand shall be establislied, mine arm also shall strcUL'then him ; the enemy shall not exact upon him, nor the son of wicked- ness afflict him.'— (Ps. Ixxxix.) " It was, in truth, a day of the greatest jubilee and the sweetest deliglit, which, to speak with holy writ, 'the Lord hath made' (Ps. cxviii.) ; and which will ever remain a never-to-be-forgotten memorial to yourselves, beloved in Christ, to your dependents, and especially to your dear children. The fathers of coming generations will tell the glory of the Lord to their sons — that in the midst of acclamations, of triumph, and of tears of joy, Ferdinand the Just, Bohemia's anointed of God, showed himself to his faithful people, in his royal robes of high state, having the crown of Charles IV. upon his head, and how he was received with the most cordial homage of his good subjects. " Praised and blessed be the Lord of Hosts ! " ' Honour the king,' says the Apostle Peter to all be- lievers, honour the king, — he bears the sword intrusted to him by God, for the protection of the upright, and the punishment of evil doers : as you owe to God from re- ligious duty the most profound devotion, even so do you owe all honour to his majesty, the rightful lord of the realm ; who is the image and vicegerent of God, by whom * princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.* 172 RELIGION. enormous revenue, and all have large incomes. I am sure that Paul, a preacher, when he ordered Timothy, a bishop, to bring him his " Lastly, religion makes it incumbent upon you to yield a Christian obedience to the king (1 Peter ii. 13). Not from compulsion or hypocrisy, but for the Lord's sake (Rom. xiii. 1,2); He so ordered it, and it is well- pleasing to His infinite Majesty, for He gave us Himselt as a worthy example of obedience to the authorities, in the person of His own Son. " We now constantly demand and confidently expect from your well-known piety and fear of God, that you also shall conscientiously and under all circumstances perform those duties which the religion of Jesus imposes upon you towards your lord and king. The sincere and profound love, which doubtless moves you towards his majesty, puissantly demands that you should fervently pray to God for him, for his long preservation, and for a happy reign. This duty of praying for the monarch is the more urgent, as by its fulfilment our own welfare will be promoted and ensured ; and holy writ teaches us that 'the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord ; as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever he will.' — (Prov, XX i.) " This is, my beloved, true Christian obedience to the ruler appointed by God. Lay then to your hearts the words of Tertullian, spoken by him in the name of the first Christians : ' Honour the emperor,' said he, ' as a person who comes directly after God, and who is subor- dinate in relation to God alone.' " We think that we do not err in the tranquillizing belief, that not one of you, as we trust in the grace of God, RELIGION. 173 cloak and books, and especially the parch- ments, had no idea of the right reverend and princely dignity of a bishop ! The Catholics of the Greek church are stated at 3,040,000 ; of whicli, in Hungary 2,070,000, the remainder in Illyria, Slavonia, Croatia, and Transylvania. Tliey have a metropolitan at Carlowitz in Slavonia, and ten bisliops. The Protestants of the Lutheran confession of Augsburg amount to 1,2(jO,000, in the Ger- man states and Galicia, — and 750,000 in Hun- gary. They are under the consistory of Vienna, and of iive superintendencies. The reformed Protestants, as they style them- will ever harbour the evil intentions of certain men of ■whom the Apostle Peter has so bitterly complained, as of those who ' despise government,' and 'are themselves the sen'ants of corruption.' — (2 Pet. ii. 10, 14, 19.) " May the immortal King of kings, who portions out crowns and sceptres, and wonderfully protects them, bless his majesty, our most gracious, good, and religious king, and her majesty, his illustrious consort, our gracious lady and queen ! may lie bless the most illustrious and august imperial house of Austria, our dear country Bohemia, and may he suffer us all in peace and tranquillity to work out the salvation of our souls. " Given in our residence at Prague, the 8th Sept. 1806. " A.NDiiEAs Aloys, " Prince Archbishop." 174 RELIGION. selves, amount to about 1,600,000, chiefly in Hungary and Transylvania. They have also a consistory at Vienna, and four superinten- dencies. The great body of Unitarians are in Transyl- vania, and are stated by some at 150,000; by others at not more than 50,000. There are about 500,000 Jews, who seem to thrive well in the imperial states, in which there exists nothing at present to disturb the harmony of rehgion as far as interference on the part of government is concerned : and I must add that the cathohc and protestant clergy are on the most chari- table understanding the one with the other ! 175 LETTER XV. MONACHISM AND JESUITISM. Notwithstanding the suppression of a multitude of religious houses by Joseph II., monasteries and nunneries are still upon a far more extensive and more richly-pro\aded foun- dation in the states of the Austrian empire, than in any other country in Eurojie — not even excepting Italy. That those hives of consuming and non-pro- ductive drones are drawbacks on the national wealth, there can be no denying : altliough it is contended that the lands belonging to the monasteries and abbeys, when given by princes and other pious persons to religious communi- ties, were at that time in a Avilderness state, covered with woods, or occupied by rocks. 176 MONACHISM. which were cleared off, and the soil brought under profitable cultivation by the pious monks and other meek children of the church : — that the religious communities themselves, though idle and non-productive, encouraged agricul- tural science, and promulgated religious in- struction — that their tenants were protected from the oppression of feudal barons* — and that fertile and extensive valleys, and hilly pastures, were thus rendered beautiful and fruitful by those very lazy monks. True that, originally, monks were instru- mental in bringing those lands under cultiva- tion : — that is, they did so by means of the labour and money of others; but as monks leave no children, at least not children that are usually provided for out of those territories, such lands on the death of the monks, to whom the credit of improving them is attributed, should naturally fall into the general property of the state, for public purposes, instead of being con- served in perpetuity to maintain successive swarms of drones, — and therefore most unjustly appropriating the property of the state : for, * Man leht gut unter dem Krummstab, i. e., " one lives well as tenant under the crosier," is a well-known German proverb. JESUITISM. 1/7 those religious congregations not only contribute nothing towards the public burdens, but they themselves draw the amount of their con- sumption from the general stock of national commodities, while they occupy upon the earth's surface the room which would be other- wise taken up by the industrious. More than this, they provide nothing for their children : for let it not be believed that congregations of robust healthy monks have no progeny. They have, clandestinely, and with impunity. This is too well known; but the foundling hospitals which were invented by them, shelter, when not otherwise screened, the fruits of their iniquity. On this subject, I must confess, I was very long incredulous ; but the statements made to me at Prague, Vienna, and towns in which foundling hospitals flourished, were too clearly evident of facts not to remove my doubts. The Geb'drhaiis, or lying-in hospital at Prague, is the resort of about one thousand mothers of clandestine children annually. Women need not even give their names, if they pay a certain sum ; othermse than inserting it, Avith their address, in a sealed letter, to be opened if the woman should die within the walls. They are VOL. II. N 178 MONACIIISM. even, by paying somewhat morej admitted in masks. They leave their children afterwards to be brought up at the expense, with some excep- tional allowance, of the institution. Others than priests and friars are no doubt the fathers of these children. But the statistical evidence I have alluded to goes sufficiently far to prove the great increase of bastardy, wherever religious communities exist. Of the evils of monachism, Joseph II. was thoroughly convinced. Of all religious socie- ties he considered the Jesuits the most danger- ous, and the most objectionable. After their expulsion from France, the Duke of Choiseul, then secretary of state, wrote Joseph, on the subject of expelling them from the Austrian dominions ; but his mother then exercised the whole power, and Joseph could only give his opinions as expressed in tlie following letter to Choiseul : " Sir, " I thank you for the confidence you give me. If I were sovereign, you might count on my ready co-operation. As to the Jesuits, and the plan to abolish their congrega- tion, I am entirely of your opinion. JESUITISM. 179 " Do not depend much upon my mother, for an attachment to this order has become here- ditary in the house of Hapsburg. Clement XIV. himself has had proof of this. " Meantime Kaunitz is your friend. He can do much with the empress, and he is perfectly of your opinion in regard to expelling the Jesuits. '' Choiseul, I knoAV these gentry as well as any man. I know all their projects — all their efforts to spread darkness over the earth — to rule over Europe from Cape Finisterre to the Frozen Ocean. " They are mandarins in China — acade- micians, courtiers, and confessors in France — grandees of the nation in Portugal and Spain — and kings in Paragiiay. " If my grand-uncle, Joseph I., had not ascended the throne, perhaps we should have them as Malagridas, Aveiros, and advocates of regicide in Germany. But my uncle under- stood them. When one day the sanhedrim of the order suspected his confessor of fidelity, and when the latter manifested more attach- ment for the emperor than for the Vatican, he was cited to Rome. Anticipating the cruel judgment to which he would be doomed, he N 2 180 MONACHISM. implored the emperor to prevent his journey; but all the monarch's efforts were vain. The pope's nuncio himself insisted upon the con- fessor's departure. " Irritated at length by this papal despotism, the emperor declared, ' If it is absolutely necessary for this priest to go to Rome, he will not go alone, for all the Jesuits within the Austrian states shall accompany him, never to reappear in any part of this monarchy.' " This unexpected and almost too hardy reply for the age, made the Jesuits abandon their demand. Such, Choiseul, was their spirit for- merly, — such it continues. I know we must change their position. Adieu ! Heaven pre- serve you long to France, to me, and to your numerous friends. " Joseph." Three years afterwards, in 1773, he wrote an extraordinary letter on the same subject to Count d'Aranda, ambassador from the court of Spain to the court of France. The following extracts show the ideas he entertained of the disciples of Loyola. " Clement XIV. has acquired immortal glory in banishing the Jesuits from the earth. JESUITISM. 181 Before those seides of apostacy were known in Germany, religion was to the people a source of real felicity. The Jesuits have made it the instrument of their own ambition, and the mantle of their shameful projects. " The intolerance of the Jesuits has drawn on Germany the calamity of a thirty years' war: their principles deprived Henry IV. of France, of his throne and his life, — and they were the authors of the atrocious revocation of the edict of Nantes. *^ Their influence over the house of Haps- burg is but too well known. Ferdinand II. and Leopold I. protected them until their last breath. The education of youth, literature, recompences, nominations to the highest places in the state, the ears of the kings and hearts of the queens, — all, in short, was confided to their perfidious direction. " Ij I can hate, I execrate this race of men, who persecuted Fenelon, — who gave birth to the /)u//, ' In Coena Domini,' — and who have rendered Rome so despicable. Adieu ! " Joseph." Afterwards, on his accession to the imperial diadem, he writes Choiseul, in December, 1780: 182 MOXACIIISM. " The influence which the priests have exer- cised until now in my mother's government, shall also be the special object of my reforms. / do not like those men who, intrusted exclusively with the cares of our salvation, inove so actively in the mediation of our worldly affairs" Two months after, the emperor writes to the Archbishop of Salzburg : " My Prince, " The interior administration of my states exact from me a prompt reform. An empire over which I reign, must be governed accord- ing to my principles. Prejudices, fanaticism, despotism, and the slavery of mind must disap- pear; and each of my subjects must resume the exercise oj' his natural rights. " Monachism has attained an intolerable excess in Austria. These monks endeavour to escape from the civil authority, and address themselves, a tout propos, to the Pontifex Maximus of Rome. ^' I have appointed a commission, charged with the duties relative to the suppression of superfluous convents. When I tear off the mask of monachism, and transform the useless monk into a productive citizen, I then hope JESUITISM. 183 that more than one of those factious slaves will speak otherwise, than they now do of my reforms. " My task is difficult. It is no inconsider- able affair to reduce this army of monks, and to make men of these yaA^Vs ; before the shorn heads of whom the vulgar prostrate themselves with respect, and who, taking the advantage of fear and superstition, know how to hold empire over the people, at a time when no other object can make an impression on the human mind." In October, 1781, Joseph Amtes to Cardinal Herzan, imperial envoy at the covirt of Rome : " Since the time I have succeeded to the first diadem in the world, philosophy has re- gulated my actions. Austria must assume another than her present form. It is indis- pensable that I should separate from the church certain things that never should have made a part of religion. As I detest supersti- tion and her Pharisees, I will give freedom to my people. For this purpose I will drive out the monks, I will suppress their convents. They will denounce me at Rome, that I am sure of. They will say I have attainted divine riglit. They will cry out, ' the glori/ of Israel is fallen ." They will be still more irritated 184 MONACHISM. that I have undertaken to reform without the prehminary authority of the servant of the servants of God — the Pope. " The principle of monachism^ from the time of Father Pacome down to our days^ has been in direct opposition to common sense. Like all the sons of Levi, the priests arrogate a mo- nopoly of the human mind. Their false prin- ciples are spread among the vulgar, who no longer know God, and hope for every thing from the saints.^^ The emperor then goes on to state, that his new system will provide seminaries of education, which shall " be nurse- ries for rearing wise ecclesiastics, — the curates that will come forth from them wiU carry into the world enlarged minds, and will communi- cate solid instruction, instead of superstition, to the people." Rome was highly shocked at all this outrage against her infallibility and power. She could not, however, take upon her to cite Joseph, as she had done Henry IV., to the pope's threshold, — but the intrigues of priestcraft were secretly at work in causing that general discontent which rendered the last days of the emperor wretched. He, however, had gone a great length. In 1784, he writes Pius VI.: JESUITISM. 185 " The funds of the clergy of my states are not destined^ as is presumed to be said at Rome, to be extinguished with my reign. No ; they are destined to be usefully appropriated for the benefit of my people ; and as this measure, as well as the displeasure consequent to it, will appertain to the domain of history, pos- terity will judge of it without our co-operation. It will therefore become a monument, and I trust not the only one, of my age. I have suppressed the superfluous convents, and con- gregations, still more superfluous. Their re- venues are appropriated to maintain useful curates and primary schools. But the funds of the schools shall have nothing in common with those of the church. But I also find that at Rome the logic is not the same as within my states. Hence the want of harmony be- tween Italy and the empire.^^ These admirable extracts will, I hope, justify my saying that Joseph was so far in advance of his age, that to reign with success he should have ascended the throne a century after his birth. Joseph was indeed a great man ; but the bigotry and selfishness of the world would not appreciate him when he lived, and it is probable that his unfortunate reverses may 186 MONACHISM. have influenced the whole hfe of Francis, who succeeded so soon after to the diadem. The Prince de Ligne, who hved, as I have already mentioned, until the congress of Vienna, said, sighing, " Alas ! I died with Joseph 11/' '' Europe," observed a nobleman present, " pro- claims him immortal ; say, therefore, rather, like him." — " His,^' replied the prince, ^' was the immortality of genius ; but mine, if I be doomed to have any, will be like that of the sibyl, merely the endurance of age." Tliat the late emperor should have not only meditated, but resolved in his will, on restoring the Jesuits, is a deplorable instance of super- stitious weakness in the character of an amiable monarch. I am bound so to name it, for Fran- cis was too good a man at heart, and too much attached to his people, to do any one act that he did not consider calculated for their preser- vation and for their benefit. The members of all religious orders, and the priests of all state religions, will ever be found the dangerous enemies of human liberty. What they dare not do openly, they will persevere in carrying into effect by secret and deeply planned intrigue and treachery. History, in all ages, proves this truth. JESUITISM. 187 Under the restoration, and especially during the reign of Charles X., the Jesuits in France had wormed themselves into power, and into the direction of that besotted king's conscience. In Galicia they are now in the ascendant, having been tolerated in that country even after their expulsion from the empire by Joseph ; and lately they have been formally restored. On the 21st of last August, " a solemn service was performed at Lemberg, the capital, by the archbishop and primate of Galicia, in honour of the restoration of the brothers of the order of Jesus to their ancient church." I can hardly imagine a greater calamity to the Austrian dominions than the re-establish- ment of the Jesuits ; and I can only console myself in my anxiety for the happiness of man- kind, in believing that there is too much intel- ligence in the emperor's council, ever to admit a society so contrary to the spirit of the age, and so dangerous to the safety of the empire ; and especially, to commit to their care, as directed in the late emperor's will, the educa- tion of youth. After the general peace in 1815, an extra- ordinary reaction favourable to Jesuits, monies, and priests, began in several states of Europe, 188 MONACHISM. especially in Spain, France, Sardinia, and Austria. In Spain, Monachism and Jesuitism may, thanks to the influence of intelligence, and intercourse with England, be said to have expired with Ferdinand. The Jesuits of Mont- Rouge precipitated Charles X. from the throne. Rome had re- solved to regain her ascendancy in France, through the reorganization of the Jesuits in Paris, under the auspices of a fanatic king. An anonymous writer of the day describes, and certainly, without exaggeration, the re- establishment of the congregation of Jesus in France, of VA^hich Mont-Rouge was the centre. " The party which is rapidly pushing France towards the abyss into which Spain has fallen, recruits and extends itself A\dth the greatest activity. The Bishop of Hermopohs declared the existence of but seven seminaries of a religious congregation, and of but one political congregation. Without doubt it was all that then existed : he counted wisely ; he knew so well the associations of which he revealed the existence, that he refused to take part in them, in order not to contract engagements contrary to his duties as a prelate and a minister. But since that period, there have been established new JESUITISM. 189 little seminaries, and new great seminaries for the higher class of Jesuitical studies, and mystical associations, similar to those which in the six- teenth century were organized in France by- Jesuits and foreigners, and which preluded the MASSACRE of ST. BARTHOLOMEW by the Massacre of Vassy. " As in the 16th centur}', Paris is divided into sixteen quarters, in each of which Mont- Rotige supports a legate. A committee of direction names its chiefs, in whom great caution and discretion are expected to form an essential characteristic. Their functions consist in the inspection of the district in which they are lodged at the expense of the order ; and in distributing supplies to the indigent of the fraternity. Besides this, they fulfil a part attached to the different clubs which the congregation may have in the dis- trict, equivalent to that of attorney-general to the order. " As in 1586, a part of the Parisian popula- tion is seduced, and individuals enrolled in the congregation %\'ithout their having any know- ledge of it. This association in Paris counts nine clubs of different professions. " The order of proceeding is nearly the same in all the lodges. The sitting is opened by a 190 MONACHISM. hymn to St. Ignatius ; the legate afterwards pronounces a discourse on Jesuitical questions, and on the progress of the league : to the legate succeeds the treasurer, who renders an account of the employment of the funds, of which the division is ordered by the committee of direc- tion, either for religious foundations, or for relief to the members of the societies in a state of need, or for the expenses incurred with a view of increasing the number of proselytes. The profane (Jes profanes) who have been sufficiently prepared by fasts, prayers, and mortifications, or by some great undertaking commanded by the superior council, are after- wards presented and received. — A hymn of thanks to the Virgin terminates the sitting. " The president — who is elected, as well as the members of the committee, by a plurality of voices — is furnished with a hammer instead of a bell, which he strikes on the table to re-establish order. " An embroidered stole, of different designs, according to rank, is the only distinction of the members of the club. Entrance into each club or meeting is rigorously prohibited to any one who has not a card of admission from the congregation. " The pupils of Mont-Rouge are instructed JESUITISM. 191 to handle arms. Lessons in military tactics mix themselves with the exercises of the classes. Already ^ des militairts de robe courte' come out of this singular school, and serve the APOSTOLIC PARTY. The Jcsuits of Paraguay organized an army, which braved for a long time the troops of Spain. The good fathers fought Avith the cross in one hand and the sword in the other. Perhaps we are destined, in the nineteenth century to see a like spectacle. This time, revolutionary blood will not be attributed to Voltaire or Rousseau. At Ma- drid, the reverend fathers (associates of those who now mi France with trouble and disorder) teacli the militarv exercise to the initiated and their pupi^ ; and in constitutional France we have secret armies, enlisted and numbered. " Politic Rome has in the midst of us one hundred thousand congregationists, who meet on iixed days ; who have chiefs, watchwords, immbers, and new confederates ; who seem waiting for another Guy to spring the mine which they have secretly dug under the edifice of our institutions." General Sebastiani, in an admirable speech, detailed from facts still more fully, the extra- ordinary ascendancy which the Jesuits had then 192 MONACHISM. acquired in France, and their indefatigable per- severance in seducing the people, while they pretended not to exist as a congregation, until the Bishop of Hermopolis, the conscience- keeper of Charles X., made his forced avowal. Monachism went hand in hand with Jesuitism. '* The Freres Ignorantins," as he termed the congregation, "propagated their influence by the instruction of both sexes, rendering them- selves masters of infancy, by exacting from it oaths, of which parental authority cannot pierce the mystery/' The revolution of 1830 drove the Jesuits again from France. They established them- selves in a vast college in Freiburg, Switzerland. Many followed the Bishop of Hermopohs and Charles X. to the Austrian dominions, where the great hope of their permanent and power- ful re-establishment now centres. I cannot as yet believe that those arch evil- doers will succeed. The Chancellor of the Em- pire is far too sagacious not to perceive the mischief they would disseminate throughout the land. Let them once get but a firm footing, and they will in reality prove the dangerous Secret Society. Prince Metternich may then well say " after me the Deluge !" 193 LETTER XVI. SUPERSTITION. Among the people instruction to a certain extent, which I will explain in giving you a sketch of the state of education, is difi'used in every parish ; but that instruction is far from sufficient to clear their vision so as to enable them to see through the mists of superstition. The consequence is, that pilgrimages and pro- cessions to the shrines of saints, most of whom were put down by Joseph, but restored by Francis, arc now nearly as frequent as in the fifteenth century. Prague has, since the extinction of the reforms begun by Jerome and John Huss, been the great centre of that devotional folly, which exhibits poor human nature in its most self-degrading aspects. VOL. II. o 194 SUPERSTITION. Holy John of Nepomucene^ the patron saint of Bohemia — the fructifier, as he is termed, of barren women — and, the protector of bridges, in gratitude for being thrown over one, and drowned in the Moldau, is the great object of superstitions veneration. Holy John was the confessor of some queen (it is not agreed who) in the fourteenth century. He was required by the magistrates of Prague to reveal certain plots of which her majesty was accused, but persist- ing, like an honest priest, in keeping her secret, the Obers-hurg-graf ordered his tongue to be cut out, and John to be thrown over the bridge into the river. Both were miraculously disco- vered, and quite uncorrupted, three hundred years after. In 1729 John was canonized — his tongue, which still bleeds, placed in a gold and glass case — and his body preserved in a silver sarcophagus, weighing four hundred pounds, which v/as hidden when Bonaparte robl^ed the cathedral of its then massive and rich treasures. His image adorns and sanctifies the bridge, and his feast is celebrated on the 10th of May. The shrine, statue, and cere- monials, were restored to all their pristine splendour by the late emperor, who came to Prague on the occasion 3 and, kneeling before SUPERSTITION. 195 the image on the bridge, offered up his devo- tions among tens of thousands of his subjects. This was pohtic, if not pious. During the festival of Holy John, Prague is crowded by pilgrims from all parts of Bohemia. The great open square is transformed into one immense refectory for feeding them. The people crawl on their knees, and kiss the earth before tho image — the bridge is adorned with wreaths and garlands of flowers — there are processions, masses, and offerings. The Vir- gin, and all other saints are entirely forgotten, in their adoration of Holy John, who would certainly be melted into compassion for iliem, if his heart were not, as that on the bridge cer- tainly is, made of stone. The procession of the Virgin, the image of wdiich, dressed in gaudy tinsel trappings, with a gold crown on the head, is another of those parades Mdiich engage the superstitious enthu- siasm of all Bohemia. This image is made to traverse the country from Heilegenberg (Holy Mountain), Brandeis, Friedek, and all spots of miraculous reputation. Vast multitudes ac- company it. The priests cany the mage from their own church to that of the next parish, where they are relieved by another relay of o 2 196 SUPERSTITION. ecclesiastics, until all the holy places are visited and reconsecrated by this deplorable exhibition of a great lewd-like representation of a woman's figure in tawdry finery. In the archduchy of Austria, the pilgrimage which enjoys the greatest celebrity, since its revival, is that annually to Mariazell. As I have not witnessed this spectacle of devotion myself, and as I am made to understand that Mr. RusselFs picture of it, although somewhat too dramatic, is perfectly just in its general features, I extract it for you. ^' The superstition of the people is even fos- tered by the government encouraging pompous pilgrimages, for the purpose of obtaining the blessing of heaven by walking fifty miles in hot weather. The favoured spot is Mariazell, in Styria, and the pageant is commonly played oft' in July or August. The imperial authority is interposed by a proclamation affixed to the great gate of St. Stephen's, authorizing all pious subjects to perform this mischievous act of holy vagabondizing, that they may implore from the Virgin such personal and domestic boons as they feel themselves most inclined to, and, at all events, that they may supplicate continued prosperity to the house of Hapsburg. On the SUPERSTITION. 197 appointed day, the intended pilgrims assemble in St. Stephen's, at four o'clock in the morning; most of them have been anxiously accumulating many a day's savings, to collect a few florins for the journey, for they generally do not return before the fourth day. Mass is performed, and the long motley line, consisting of both sexes and all ages, separated into divisions by reli- gious standards and gaudy crucifixes, alternately cheered and sanctified by the trumpets and kettle-drums M'hich head each division, and the hymns chanted by the pilgrims who compose it, wends its long, toilsome, and hilly way into the mountains of Styria. The procession which I saw leave Vienna consisted of nearly three thousand persons, and they were all of the lower classes. The upper ranks do not choose to go to heaven in vulgar company ; and, if they visit Mariazell at all, they make it a pleasure- jaunt (for the place of pilgrimage lies in a most romantic countiy), like an excursion to the lakes of Scotland or Cumberland, and pray to the Virgin en passant. Females predominated; there were many children, and some of them so young, that it seemed preposterous to produce them in such a fatiguing exhibition. The ycmng women were numerous, and naturally were the 198 SUPERSTITION. most interesting objects. Many of them were pretty^ but they were almost all barefooted, both from economy, and for the sake of ease in tra- velhng. Observant of the pilgrim's costume, they carried long staffs, headed with nosegays, and wore coarse straw-bonnets, with enormous brims^ intended to protect their beauties against the scorching sun — unaware, perhaps, of the more fatally destructive enemy, who, ere this perilous journey is terminated, cuts down, in. too many instances, the foundation of that pleasing modesty with which they pace forth to the performance of what they reckon a holy duty. Joseph II. saw and knew all the mis- chief of the ceremony, and abolished the pil- grimage ; Francis I. restored and fostered it. " At the flourishing monastery of Lilienfeld, the whole train of pilgrims are refreshed with a great benediction, and a little plate of soup. " The whole road, as far as Mariazell, the first Styrian town, and the holy abode of an ugly picture of the Virgin, is much more thickly strewed with emblems of believing piety, and conveniences for devout worshippers, than with the marks of civic industry and comfort — for it is the line of the great pilgrimage from Vienna. Every valley which the pilgrims have to tra- SUPERSTITION. 199 verse is crowded with saints and virgins, and every hill across which they toil is surmounted with a chapel or a saviour. But even pilgrims cannot dispense with temporal restoratives, and brandy-booths refresh the votaries of the Ma- donna as frequently as her own image. The Aniaberg, or mountain of St. Anne, is at once the steepest ascent which they have to climb, and the most romantic spot in this part of Styria. The rocks press together so closely, and the wood entangles itself so thickly round the mountain path, that, at every turn, it seems impossible to emerge from the dell in Avhich you have been caught; but, on reaching the apparently extreme point of your progress, the read turns sharjoly round some angle of the rtountain, and leads you, amid sparkling streams aid overhanging rocks, into another dell of the sime sort, till the summit of the hill itself appears, crowned with its ancient cloister. Tie pilgrims always ascend this eminence clanting hymns ; the young women allow tleir hair to hang down loose over their sloulders, dropping, not with myrrh, but with perspiration ; and the more laboriously pious aid to the sum of their good works by dragging ater them a cumbersome cross. At the foot of 200 SUPERSTITION. the liill there is a chapel in which they may pray, and, opposite to it, a brandy-shop to quicken the body. Their devotions are renewed in another chapel on the summit, but the spring which it contains supplies only water. It is the most profanely grotesque of all fountains. It is formed by a rude image of the dying Mes- siah lying on the lap of his mother ; an iron pipe is inserted into the wound in his sidcj and the pure stream issues from it. " The nearer you approach to the holy city itself, the greater is the number of drinkng- booths and beggars ; for the pilgrimage is often made a pretext for mendicity, and people who would not stoop to ask alms on other occasions, reckon it no disgrace to seek the aid of charity in observing the rites of their superstition. Tlie first object that met the eye on passing tlip boundary from Austria into Styria, was a boaW, announcing an express prohibition against bej- ging, and right under it sat an old woman begging. (( If there be any member of the Catholc chvirch who will really maintain that it is betttr for the community that the hard-earned gai^s of these poor people should be consumed in i distant pilgrimage, which, moreover, is oftei SUPERSTITION. 201 accompanied with much immorality, than that they should be expended in adding to their domestic comforts, he is as far beyond the reach of argument, as the observances of his church are, in this instance, beyond the reach of respect. " Mariazell would not be worth visiting, were it not for the celebrity which it has acquired as a place of pilgrimage, and the residence of a holy influence, which, till this day, is working more frequent, and astonishing, and undeniable miracles, than even Prince Hohenlohe. The town is small and mean-looking ; it consists, in fact, principally of inns and ale-houses, to ac- commodate the perpetual influx of visiters, which never ceases all the year round, except when snow has rendered the mountains impas- sable. The immense size of the beds in these hostelries, show at once to how many inconve- niences the pious are willing to submit. The pilgrims, however, who can pretend to the luxury of a bed, are few in number; above all, during the time that the annual procession from Vienna is on the spot, it is not possible that the greater part of the crowd can be able to find lodgings, and, though there were accommodations, no small portion of them are too poor to pay for 202 SUPERSTITION. it. TliesC;, from necessity, and many others from less justifiable motives, spend the night in the neighbouring woods ; both sexes are inter- mingled, and, till morning dawns, they continue drinldng and singing songs, which are any thing but hymns of devotion. Fighting used to be the order of the night, so long as the procession from Gr'citz (M^hich, likewise, is always a nu- merous one) performed the pilgrimage at the same time with that from Vienna. The women of Gr'atz are celebrated for their beauty all over the empire, and the young females of Vienna have their full share of personal attractions. When the two companies met at Mariazell, the men were uniformly engaged, at last, in deter- mining by blows the charms of their respective fair ones, or deciding who was best entitled to enjoy their smiles. It Avas found necessary to put a stop to this public scandal, by ordering the pilgrimages to take place at different times. " The church, which is the centre of all this devotion and irregularity, has nothing to recom- mend its antiquity, and the picture to which it owes its fame. The latter, is just one of those modern Greek paintings which are so common in Italy, and which are there ascribed, by the believing multitude, to the pencil of the apostle SUPERSTITIOX. 203 Luke. The maiden-mother holds the holy infant in her arms, but both are so covered with silver, that only the heads are allowed to be seen. An irruption of the Tartars had driven a Styrian priest to save himself by flight, and he carried along with him this Madonna, the only ornament of his rude church. As he wandered for safety through this mountainous region, a light suddenly burst from heaven, and the Madonna herself, descending on the clouds with her infant son, in the very same attitude in which she was represented in the picture, or- dered him to hang it up on a tree which she pointed out, and sent him forth to proclaim to the world that, through it, her ear would ever be open. On the spot where the tree stood, the church was afterwards built. As the fame of the miracles soon spread over all Germany, and as they were frequently performed in behalf of princes, the altars of Mariazell have been crowded for more than eight hundred years, and its treasury continued to overflow with gold and silver, and precious stones, till Joseph removed part of its riches into the imperial exchequer. Maria Theresa had hung up, as a votive offering, figures in silver of herself and aU her family — the unnatural son melted down 204 SUPERSTITION. his mother, and brothers, and sisters, and car- ried his profanity so far as to subject to a similar process the four angels, of the same costly metal, who guarded the high altar. The trea- sury of Mariazell used to be reckoned the rich- est in Europe, after that of Loretto ; and, as in the latter, the renewed devotion of the faithful is again restoring its lost splendour. " In the centre of the gloomy church stands a small and dark chapel, dimly lighted up by a single lamp, whose ray is eclipsed by the glare of precious stones and metals that are profusely scattered within. A silver railing guards the entrance, and around this costly fence knelt the crowded worshippers, supplicating their various boons from the holy picture within, which they can scarcely see. Behind the chapel rises an insulated pillar, surmounted by a stone image of the Virgin. It was surmounted by a double circle of pilgrims. The inner circle consisted of females ; they were all on their knees, in silent adoration. The outer circle contained only men ; they had no such devotion either in their looks or attitude, and stood by, carelessly leaning on their staffs.^' I do not allude to these superstitions as being especially peculiar to the Austrian dominions. SUPERSTITION. 205 for superstition is common among every nation on earth wherever ignorance dwells. Not long since, on occasion of erecting a crucifix in a country church in France, the bishop and priests fell down on their knees in adoration, exclaiming that they beheld the true cross in the heavens. The multitude fell down im- mediately after, and all, but a few unbehevers, declared that they also saw the holy pheno- menon. The few incredulous persons who did not see Avith the eyes of faith, declared that they could only beliold a cloud ; but the ])ishop, and hun- dreds of the multitude, signed a certificate of having witnessed the appearance of an immense wooden cross floating in the sky ; and this attestation was forwarded by a sacred deputa- tion, appointed by the Jesuit Bishop of Ilermo- pohs to Rome. The pope received the deputa- tion, and the proofs of this modern miracle, with holy honours. The miracle of the chaj^jel and the tree, was next announced by all the priests in France. A venerable tree, which stood before a chapel, was purchased and paid for by a carpenter, who sent some of his jour- neymen to fell it; but they had no sooner 206 SUPERSTITION. attacked it with their hatchets, than birds and nondescripts of hideous forms appeared on the branches, and assailed them with screeching cries, and, descending, pecked at the workmen, until they ran off in terror to their master's dwelling. The carpenter, who was none of the faithful, laughed at his men, and swore he would certainly have the tree, as he had paid for it. But mark the consequence — he sallied forth a sinner, and returned a saint ! On reaching the chapel, he commenced without his workmen, to cut down the tree ; when, lo ! on the first stroke being given, the birds and other winged monsters appeared, and flew, screaming, at the carpenter and his men. He however, enraged, ordered his workmen to cut away ; when, on the second stroke, to the terror of the infidel carpenter, the tree opened, exhibiting the blessed Saviour, in flesh and blood, nailed to the cross. The unbeliever fell down in adoration — the tree closed — and he returned to his house re- penting of his iniquity, and firmly established in the faith. An account of this miracle was also sent to Rome by the same bishop. But this monstrosity is scarcely behind the SUPERSTITION. 207 age in which a man of the genius of Chateau- briand, I do not say his education, for that unfor- tunately for him was Jesuitical, carried water from the river Jordan, which he presented to be used, as it was, for the coronation of Charles X. Let us not, however, accuse Catholics alone of superstition. What are the revivals of Mas- sachusetts, — the extravagances of camp meet- ings, — the Southcottonian behef in England, — the intemperance of the holj/ fairs of Scotland formerly, — the fanatacisms of the parliamentary sabbath-bill framer, but superstitions, which make us exclaim as we hear of, or witness them, Alas, poor weak human nature ! The fanatic of Erlangan, in Germany, who lately, in order to imitate Abraham, sacrificed his son, and the perpetrator of another sacrifice soon after in WUrtemberg, were Protestants ; so were the young women who crucified them- selves a few years ago in Switzerland. These gloomy mental aberrations are now infatuating many of the protestant districts of North Ger- many. The sacrifice at Dunningen, in WUrtem- berg, was committed by a man on a wife whom he tenderly loved. She declared, that by her death her family were destined to expiate the 208 SUPERSTITION. sins of mankind ; and she accordingly persuaded her husband, who was equally infatuated, to strangle her. He did so, and next morning pre- sented himself, attended by his two children, to the curate of the parish, and declared his crime. 209 LETTER XVII. EDUCATION. I BELIEVE there is no subject relative to the Austrian dominions of which we have a more erroneous idea than the actual state of educa- tion. Wise and intelligent as we may consider ourselves as a nation, in England_, I fear that as far as the mere diffusion of elementary in- struction is in question, that we are in a more destitute condition than any country in Europe, except Spain, Portugal, the western and some central departments of France, and, perhaps, the serfs and peasantry of a portion of Hungary and Russia. I am not about to advocate the jilan of public instruction in the Austrian states, far from it : neither do I exactly admire the ad- VOL. II. p 210 EDUCATION. ministrative system of education in Prussia and the other German states, which has been so highly extolled by M. Cousin and others, and so furiously abused in the very extraordi- nary, and in most parts admirable speech of that very sleepless spirit Lord Brougham. In Prussia and ail North Germany, Bavaria, Wlirtemberg and Baden, every child above seven years of age is not only instructed, but very usefully and extensively instructed, although the course of education is entirely calculated, rather to render the pupils and students tranquil subjects than high-minded citizens. In a word, great benefits will inevitably re- sult from the diffusion of knowledge through the medium of the established system of educa- tion in Prussia ; but we must not forget, that the course of instruction, the books to be read, and the administration of the colleges and schools are under the absolute direction and control of the supreme government, through its organ the minister of public instruction at Berlin. The same principle pervades all the states of the Germanic confederation ; and the same sjiirit as fully, and with perhaps greater scrutiny, and witli more limitation as to the EDUCATION. 211 course of instruction, pervades the whole sys- tem of education throughout the Austrian dominions, with the exception of Hungary. The late absolute resolutions of the Ger- man Diet apply, in fact, to North and South Germany, Bohemia, and Lombardo-Venetia.* The foundation of elementary instruction in Austria was first laid in the early part of the last century; and soon after, about one in twenty-five of the inhabitants were taught to read. Joseph II. directed his energies to the instruction of youth ; but the clergy, high and low, opposed him, and, after his death, suc- ceeded in establishing generally their own plan of educating children. The government has, however, taken special care that tlie priests should not have the con- trol over public instruction ; and the law of 1821, consequent to that of 1819, in Prussia, directs that no village in the hereditary domi- nions shall be without an elementarv school — that no male can enter the marriage state Avho is not able to read, write, and understand cast- * These resolutions state the obligations under whicli pupils and students may enter the schools and universities of Germany. P 2 212 EDUCATION. ing up accounts — that no master of any trade can^ without papng a heavy penalty, employ workmen who are not able to read and write — and that small books of moral tendency shall he published and distributed at the lowest pos- sible price to all the emperor's subjects. The provisions of this law appear to me to have been very generally put in force : for I have nowhere in Austria met with any one under thirty years of age who was not able to read and write, and I have found cheap pubU- cations, chiefly religious and moral tracts, — almanacks, very much like '' Poor Richard's,'' containing, with tables of the months, moon's age, sun's rising and setting, the fasts, feasts, holidays, markets and fairs in the empire — and opposite to the page of each month, appropriate advice relative to husbandry and rural economy, with moral sayings and suitable maxims. Besides these, and several small elementary books and periodicals, the Penny Magazine is now very generally circulated in Austria. M. Fleischer, the intelligent and spirited bookseller * Austria seems resolved not to be behind Prussia in diffusing instruction, and lately has shown, especially in religious matters, much greater liberality ; especially as respects the Jews. EDUCATION'. 213 of Leipzig, ha\'ing managed to procure stereo- types of the wooden cuts of the London edition, repubhshes the work in German, and strikes off about 38,000 copies for Austria alone. A Heller magazine, pubhslied also at Leipzig, is likewise very generally circulated. The spirit of elementary instruction, if not the most enlight- ened, inculcates in every step morality — the advantage and happiness of a virtuous life — the evils of vice, and the misery consequent on crime. I have found no difficulty in procuring statis- tical returns of the colleges and schools of the empire : from these it appears that, in the eight universities established in the archduchy of Austria, Bohemia, Galicia, Moravia, Tyrol, Styria, and the Italian provinces, viz., Vienna — Prague, in Bohemia — Lemburg, in Galicia — Olmutz, in Moravia — Inspruck, in the TjtoI — Grdtz, in Styria — and Pavia and Padua in the Itahan states, there exists 54 philosophical foundations, with 334 professors, and attended by 7G80 students; 55 theological (Cathohc), 326 professors, 6120 students; 16 medicine, 150 professors, 4679 students; 1 (Vienna) veterinar)', 6 professors, with assistants ; and 8 jurisprudence, 5/ professors, 3228 pupils. Taking the population of the Austrian domi- 214 EDUCATION. nions, exclusive of Hungary and Transylvania (of which I will speak sej^arately)^ at 22,500,000, I find that there are 25,121 national elementary schools, divided into first and second classes of primary schools, with 10,280 ecclesiastical, and 22,082 lay teachers. In these schools 2,313,420 children are instructed in reading, writing, and accounts ; that is, rather more than one in ten of the whole population. Besides these, there are numerous private schools and institutions. Cannabich giveS;> for 1835, the following state- ment: " Exclusive of nine universities (including Pesth), there are 23 Catholic lyceums and aca- demies ; 1 Illyrian lyceum, 4 Lutheran lyceums and colleges, 7 reformed colleges, 1 Unitarian col- lege, 20 Catholic theological, 1 Protestant theo- logical, and 15 high philosophical foundations ; 230 preparatory {vorhereitenden) gymnasia (of which 6 are high gymnasia in Hungary,) besides special common schools {volkschtikii) in the classes of primary, secondary, and practical schools : also burgher schools, and the military, and forest institutes — veterinary schools — blind and deaf and dumb institutes at Vienna, Prague, Linz, Waitzen, &c. — schools of hydrography and trades — the polytechnic institutes at Vienna EDUCATION. 215 and Prague — the medical and chirurgicai aca- demy at Vienna ; to which has been added the optical museum of M. Relchenbach— 14 normal high schools — 57 special institutions for female education — and 4 communities of instruction ; besides numerous scientific societies at Vienna, Pesth, Prague, Milan/' &c. The inhalntants of Lombardo-Venetia and Lower-Austria are the most generally educated, amonii whom I think that one in eight must be receiving instruction.* The universities of Vienna and Padua rank * In Prussia, the population, in 1833, was 13,038,900. The primary schools 21,889, tlic number of boys instructed 987,475, girls 950,4^9— total 1,937,934, or rather more than one in seven of the whole number of inhabitants. The whole of these training schools were then directed by 22,211 schoolmasters, 2014 ushers, and 604 school- mistresses. The normal schools, or schools to prepare masters, were 42; professors, 219 ; students, 1992. In the seven universities of the Prussian monarchy there were belonging to the several faculties 332 professors, and 5423 students ; of the latter 792 were foreigners. In the 140 Hoheren Biirger-Schul^-n and Gymnasia, there were 1534 professors, 27,461 students ; and in 481 Mittcl-Schulen (or secondary schools for boys), and 372 for girls, there were 1 172 masters, and 3()0 assistants, who taught altogether 56,879 boys, and 46,598 girls. Besides all these institutions for instruction, there is an academy for cadets at Berlin, and numerous military seminaries. 216 EDUCATION. first among those of the empire. The salariess of the professors are, at the former, and I be- lieve at all the universities, paid by government, and the professors are not allowed to take fees on their own account, nor to dehver lectures, except in their respective colleges. The theo- logical, surgical, and veterinary courses, are free to the students ; but a fee is exacted for attend- ing lectures on philosophy, medicine, and juris- prudence. These fees are appropriated towards the maintenance of indigent students. The whole course of lectures are read in the German language, excepting some deviations in respect to theology and physic. The philosophic course is contemptible as to its being so termed, and false and obscure in the premises, reasoning, and limits. Divinity, consisting of the dogmas of the church and the writings of the fathers, is as laudable in the way of inculcating its prin- ciples and doctrines as that of the church of England is at Oxford, or that of Calvin at Geneva or Edinburgh. For medicine, surgery, mathematics — especially algebra and geometry, and the positive sciences generally — Vienna and the Austrian colleges and gymnasia gene- rally, are certainly excellent schools. The study of history — that is, Austrian history — is obhga- EDUCATION. 217 tory on all preparatory to taking degrees in law or philosophy, and ancient history, on those who are to become teachers. Of the 230 g}''ninasia, 201 are Catholic, 25 Lutheran, two Greek, and one Unitarian. Jews and Protestants are admitted, Avithout regard to opinion, into the Catholic gymnasium and other schools. The grammatical and philological classes in the gymnasia are said to be fully deserving of approbation. The Polytechnic institute at Vienna, which I have visited with great satisfaction, and to which a [real-schiile) school of practical know- ledge is attached, fully justifies the celebrity it has acquired and the great cost expended in its establishment. It has 33 professors and 750 pupils. It contains all necessary mechanical and astronomical instruments and publications, maps, and two extensive chemical laboratories, with preparations. Indigent scholars are also assisted with allowances of from 40 to 200 florins per annum. Mechanical science and chemistry, mathematics, arts, trade, and manu- factures arc admirably directed under the as- siduous superintendence of counsellor Prechtl. There is a new academy of sciences, in con- templation at least, to be established, and I 218 EDUCATION. must certainly say^ that if any one^ however poor, does not receive instruction and gather knowledge, in Vienna, it must be entirely attributed to his own indolence. I must at the same time observe, that there are A^ery few towns in Europe in which a man is less disposed to study profoundly. Nor is there the same causes to excite to emulation, nor the same necessity to compel a man to labour and study as in England, or northern Germany. Vienna is filled with institutions and libraries. It is ridiculous to say, that the materials of knowledge and the means of instruction are wanting ; for you may get any work published in Leipzig, London, or Paris, here, a few days after they appear originally, and also reprints of the leading English and French works.* The accusation, repeated without due inquiry, of the study of civil history being disallowed in Germany and Austria is equally unjust, as the ungrateful opinion given by the Duke of * There are forty-five public and private libraries, to which there is free access ; fifteen mineralogical museums, twenty of zoology and anatomy, twenty-three of antiqui- ties, heraldry, and scientific apparatus and instruments, and twenty of medals, &c., besides numerous galleries ot paintings, public and private. EDUCATION. 219 Wellington of the Prussian army. It was probably more than fortunate for his grace^s reputation that the soldiers of Prussia falsified at Waterloo what he afterwards said of the best disciplined troops in the world. But there are some men who are always successful when they act, but who seldom open their mouths without uttering foolish expressions. Nations have their sensibilities and their points of honour as well as individuals. I was in North Germany at the time when the Duke of Wellington gave his ill-natured and inhuman opinion of the Prussians, and when Lord Brougham made his remarks on the system of public instruction. I had also the honour and happiness of numbering among my friends learned professors and distinguished military officers, and certainly they were indignant at being so ungenerously calumniated by a dis- tinguished warrior, and also by so transcendent and useful, although eccentric, man of learning and genius. " I have inquired," said Lord Brougham, " of well informed foreigners, not certainly in France, if, in addition to a little natural history and mineralogy, the children were not allowed to learn civil history also ? The answer was. 220 EDUCATION. 'No, that is forbidden ;' and in certain countries, seats of legitimacy, it may not without risk be taught. So that the pupils learn the history of a stone, of a moss, of a rush, of a weed ; but the history of their own country, the deeds of their forefathers, the annals of neighbouring nations they must not read. They are not to gain the knowledge most valuable to the com- munity. History, the school of princes, must present closed doors to their subjects; the great book of civil wisdom must, to them, be sealed. For why ? There are some of its chapters, and near the latter end of the volume, which it is convenient they should not peruse. Civil history, indeed ! the history of rulers ! why that would tell of rights usurped — of privi- leges outraged — of faith plighted and broken — of promises made under the pressure of foreign invasion, and for giving the people's aid to drive back the invading usurper and tyrant; but made to be broken when, by the arm of that deluded people, that conqueror had been repelled, the old dynasty restored, and when it only remembered the invader and the tyrant to change places with him, and far outdo his worst deeds in oppressing their subjects and plundering their neighbours ! History, indeed 1 EDUCATION. 221 That would tell of scenes enacted at their own doors — an ancient, independent, inoffensive people overcome, pillaged, massacred, and en- slaved, by the conspiracy of those governments which are now teaching their subjects the his- tory of the grasses, and the mosses, and the ■weeds ; tell them that the bible and the liturgy were profaned which they are now commanded to read, and the Christian temples where they are weekly led to worship, Averc desecrated by blasphemous thanksgivings for the success of massacre and pillage ! It would tell them of monarchs, who hve but to tyrannize at home and usurp abroad, who hold themselves unsafe as long as a free man is suffered to exist ; who count the years of their reign by just rights outraged and solemn pledges forfeited. Mo- narchs who, if ever, by strange accident, the sun goes not down upon their A^Tath, exclaim that they have lost a day ; monarchs who wear a human form and think nothing inliuman alien to their nature. No wonder, indeed, that civil history is forbidden in the schools of those countries ! The tyrant cannot tear from the book, the page which records his own crimes and the world's sufferings, and he seals it up from the people." 222 EDUCATION. Now it would be easy to show that, as far as annals of civil history are in question, this ad captaiidum rhapsody is quite as applicable to England, as to the countries against which its wrath is discharged — iVustria and Prussia. Nor will it be contended that Francis of Austria, or Frederick William III., have, during their lives, been more characterized by acts of public or private tyranny than the prince, in opposi- tion to whom Lord Brougham owes so great a share of his popular celebrity ; a prince whose personal reputation, and whose usefulness, as the first magistrate of an empire containing 24,000,000 of people at home, and countless millions in his possessions, would be indeed deserving a praiseworthy place in history, if his life had been distinguished by the public and household economy, and still more so by the domestic virtues and morality of Francis and Frederick. So far from the study of history being pro- hibited in Austria, it is insisted upon in various courses of instruction as a qualification : and as to the reading of history, you find the libraries and book-shops crammed with his- torical and biographical works, many of them reflecting fearlessly on the government and EDUCATION. 223 emperors of Austria.* Von Hormayer's Tas- cheubiicli J'Ur das Vaterland Greschichte, lately published and distributed all over Austria and Prussia, is an elementary history of Germany, very similar to Goldsmith's England. The number of historical works published at Leipzig, arc countless ; and they all find their way to Vienna, Avith or without the plea- sure of the minister of police and censorship, M. Sedelnitzky. Having said so nmch to show the fallacy of the opinion entertained in England, that civil history is prohil:>ited in the states of Austria and North Germany, I will now prove to your satisfaction how mucli more than the " history of tlie stones, the grasses, the mosses, and the weeds,^' is taught. In the Protestant theological college [studiuin) Vienna, tliere are imperial allowances of from 50 to XOi) florins a year given to indigent students. In this college, in three gymnasia, — in two public high schools with four classes, » Among these 'are Schneller's History of Bohemia, — Miiller's History of Switzerland, — and even Palacky's History (the fuat vohime of which hiis appeared) al- tlioiigh pubhshed at the expense of the government ; — also Ledderhose's Life of Martin Luther, — the History of the Council of Constance, — the Life of Wallcn3teiu,&c. 224 EDUCATION. — and in the eleven public high schools, with three classes, civil history occupies a full share of the course of studies. In 59 elementary schools [trivial schulen), the elements of his- tory are read, with moral lessons, by the pupils. Besides these, to whom all are ad- mitted, there are several private elementary schools, some of which are for girls of the Catholic faith, — others for girls of the Jewish profession, — and some for Protestant pupils. Then there is the institute for educating and maintaining the daughters of decayed civilians ; and another for the daughters of military officers. Also two institutions [convictes) for more liberal and accomplished instruction : first, the Royal Imperial ; and the other, called by its founder's name, " Gr'dfe Loiceburg' sches Convict" The medical-chirurgical academy, named, " Die medicinisch-chirurgishe Joseph's Akade- mie" founded by the Emperor Joseph in 1785, chiefly with a view of providing the army with skilful physicians and surgeons, is one of the best schools for medicine and surgery in Europe. The collections of natural history, — the preparations illustrative of chemistry and materia-viedica, dry and wet, — and especially EDUCATIOX. 225 the anatomical preparations in wax, occupying seven large rooms, the finest in regard to ex- ecution, and the most extensive in variety and number in the world. The hbrary, instruments, &c., render this one of the most convenient and interesting schools for the medical or surgical student. The engineer academy, at the head of which is the Archduke John, is justly celebrated for its instruction in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, mechanics, and all that relates to the profession of the civil and mihtary engineer. The Ritter Akademie, founded by Maria Theresa, was intended by her for a scientific and equestrian school for all young catholic noblemen. Joseph and Francis extended it on a far more hberal plan. The humanities, his- tory-, philosophy, and sciences generally, are taught here. There is attached to it a large botanical garden, and also an admirable riding- school. It has 65 imperial and 83 private foundations for maintaining students. Ludwig Graf Von Taafer, is curator of this academy. Tlie imperial academy for oriental languages, " Akademie der Morgeiiliuidischen Sprachen" was also founded by Maria Tlieresa, but ex- tended and greatly improved since her time. VOL. II. Q 226 EDUCATION. The course of studies are for five years; and one of its objects, among other s, is to prepare men for eastern diplomacy and consular ser- vice in Turkey, the Levant, and other parts of the East; the languages, the history, and the commerce of which, form chiefly the course of studies. It has an extensive collection of oriental manuscripts. Exclusive of these schools, the libraries^ mu- seums, and collections, especially those of the university, of the emperor, of Egyptian and other antiquities, of the imperial gallery of paintings, of medals and moneys, of the Brazi- lian museum (the result of a scientific expedi- tion sent to South America in 1817), of raw materials and manufactures, all afford free op- portunities to all classes to learn much from instructive subjects in nature and art. Besides numerous institutions, as hospitals and charitable foundations to relieve distressed humanity, for which Vienna may very honestly be proud,* there are several societies for pro- moting usefulness, as well as the embellishment * The institutes for the deaf and dumb, for the blind, for orphans, for orphans and widows, the pension institute, and the sustenance house, are some of about forty-five institutions which provide for the unfortunate. EDUCATION". 227 of society. Among these are the k. h. Land- wirt/isc/taJts-GcsellschaJt, or Imperial and Royal Agricultural Society, of which Peter Graf von Gciess is president. The Society of the Lovers of Music for the Austrian states, of which Augustus Prince Lob- kowitz is president, is famous for its concerts, and the encouragement it holds out to musical aspirants. In connexion 'with this society, 20 professors are provided for, and 300 pupils, boys and girls, taught gratis, vocal and instru- mental music. This society has an excellent library, in the splendid edifice at which its meetings assemble. The Society of Noble Ladies, for the fur- therance of industry and usefulness, was form- ed to encourage industrious persons, by pur- chasing the articles they make for the use, gratis, of the blind, deaf, and dumb orphans, and the hospital for the sick at Baden, &c. The Society of Arts, for the encouragement of natural artists (Kunstverein zur Aufmunte- rung Vatcrlandischer Kiinster) was founded, like that of Munich, by a capital of shares, five florins each, and afterwards maintained by sub- scription. The paintings exhibited, approved q2 228 EDUCATION. of, and purchased, are sold afterwards by auc- tion to the subscribers, or divided by lot. There is a society or jockey club for regu- lating the horse-races at Simmeringer (Gesell- schaft der Simmeringer Pferdrennen), but it has also in view encouraging improvement in the breeding of horses. Having now given you, what you will very likely consider a tedious, but what in reahty is a very slight sketch of the seminaries of educa- tion, and of a few of the useful institutions in Vienna, I must conclude the letter by adverting briefly to some of the universities and schools in the other states of the empire. The university of Pesth was removed from Ofen in 1784, by Joseph. The large and accumulating revenues of the abbey of Foel- devar having been added to its foundation, it has for some time been by far the most richly endowed university on the continent of Europe. Its revenue is stated at about 600,000 florins, or 60,000/. per annum, and it maintains a great number of indigent scholars, and 1020 candidates for the priesthood, as well as 306 students. It has 10 professors of theology, 74 of physic, 14 of philosophy, seven of law, and one each of the German, Hungarian, Itahan, EDUCATION. 229 and French languages. English is to be, I hear, added. The number of pupils have more than doubled during the last twenty years. There is no distinction as to creed observed in regard to admission. In 1835, the pupils were 1172 Cathohcs; 253 Protestants, 261 Jews, 84 Greeks — in all 1770* Besides maintaining a preparatory ecclesiastical seminar}'^, an archi- gt/mnasiiim, of six classes, and about 3 GOO dis- trict grammar and elementary schoolmasters, are aided or supported from the funds of this university. At Prague, Gr'atz, Maria-Brun, seminaries are also maintained on a very respectable foun- dation. The Johanneum, or Technical semi- nary of Gr'atz, the institute of Prague, the imperial institute of Maria-Brun (chiefly for science, connected with the management of forests), are all highly spoken of. In the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, we find that the course of instruction at the university of Pavia, the talents and learning of the pro- fessors, and the provision made in aid of in- struction, renders that seat of instruction among the very first in Europe, especially for classical studies, medical science, universal histor}^, Aus- trian history. Rural economy, archaiology, he- 230 EDUCATION. raidry, numismatics, German language, Greek philology, history of philosophy, architecture, hydrometry, &c., are added to the usual courses. There is no theological faculty at Pavia; at Padua there is. There are twelve Lycea for secondary in- struction distributed in the Lombardo-Vene- tian kingdom ; besides two classes, first and second, of primary schools. There are thirty- live female seminaries or colleges, several of which are under the special direction of the Ursuline and Salisiane sisters. Besides all these, infant and Sunday schools are very ge- neral in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom ; and even in the Tyrol, I was astonished to find elementary instruction in a far more advanced state than I was prepared to expect. Considering the great importance which I attribute to the influence of useful education, in rendering mankind more virtuous, more indus- trious, and more happy — better neighbours, and more agreeable and orderly members of all com- munities, you will forgive the length to which that great object has extended this letter. 231 LETTER XYIII. LITERATURE AND MEN OF GENIUS. Notwithstanding all I have advanced in my last letter relative to the diffusion of public instruction^ and the facilities of acquiring know- ledgCj I am unable, as far as literature and men of genius are in question, to say much that will rescue Austria from the designation long given her of the " German Boeotia." Not but that men of natural genius are born in Austria ; for undoubtedly there are many individuals of great practical talent. Musical genius, Vienna at least claims : but, from whatever cause, genius in hterature, poetry, philosophy, and the higher casts of intellectual conception and creation, does not certainly shine fortli resplendcntly in Austria. 232 LITERATURE The celebrated names of Germany, — Lessing, Bach, Kant, Fichte, Kepler, Jacobi, Schleier- macher, Michaelis, Mendelssohn, Schelling, Werner, Klopstock, Goethe, SchiUer, the two Schlegels, Fieck, Herder, Gessner, GeUert, Bodmer, Breitenger, Jean Paul Richter, Voss, Prlisger, Matthisohn, Korner, Miiller the his- torian, Schulz, Tiedge, Klinger, Stolberg, Gor- res, Gentz, Jarke, Heine, Borne, Hardenberg or Novahs, W. Miiller, Riikerst, Schwab, Kliist, Immerman, Raupach, Hoffman, Zchokke, Uli- land, Iffland, and the Humboldts, were not one of them born or educated in the Austrian do- minions. North and central Germany gave birth to them all except Bodmer, Breitenger, and Miiller, who were born in German Swit- zerland. Yet, as far as the government is in question, there is nothing to discourage genius, if political writings affecting that government, be kept out of question. Frederick Schlegel, IfHand, Kor- ner, and others, have been led to Vienna, and patronized to a certain extent by the govern- ment. Gentz was ennobled, and Jarcke placed in an office of confidential dignity. There is, however, no enthusiasm in regard to genius and literature, as there is in North AND MEX OF GENIUS. 233 Germany, To the abundant means of living, — to the greater ease, and to the consequent greater indolence, must, I fear, be attributed the state, certainly below mediocrity, of litera- ture, and, as far as kno^^^l to the public, of genius, in Austria. In the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, poetry, belles lettres, and history, are very generally cxiltivated by writers of genius and learning. They do so, because they, like most educated Italians, find pleasure and even repose in those charming and enlightening studies. Bohemia may also boast of some men, who, although little known, are entitled to fair, but not voluminous, literary reputation. In Hungary there appears to me a still greater promise of rising genius among the people : there they may write and speak with a freedom not ex- actly tolerated in other parts of the empire. In the Austrian dominions, generally, with the exception of Lombardo-Venetia, those who read either for information or amusement, rely upon the intellectual produce of other lands, of which there is a great abundance supplied by Leipzig, Stuttgard, and Paris. I am not positive whether I am perfectly just in my opinion, but as far as I have been 234 LITERATURE able to discaver and read, I have seen nothing original from the Vienna press, except the novels of Caroline Pichler, and some scientific books, worthy of any pretensions to genius or talent. There are a few dramatic writers who may claim more favourable consideration ; but their writings are ephemeral, and pass away almost as soon as represented. M. Balbi, of Venice, the author of several excellent geographical and statistical works, published chiefly, with little profit to him, in Paris, was invited by the Austrian government to settle in Vienna. A pension, to enable him to prosecute his labours unembarrassed, has been settled upon him ; and he tells me that he is left perfectly free to write and publish such works as he may labour to produce. Those on which that indefatigable author is now engaged are purely statistical. The Encyclopaedia of the Austrian Empire, appearing in parts of about 200 closely-printed octavo pages, 24 parts of which are published, contains statistical, scientific, historical, and biographical information, very satisfactorily compiled, relative to all the imperial dominions. Theological works, written in a barbarous AND MEN OF GENIUS. 235 style — elementary books of instruction — works on mathematical science, medicine, surgery, chemistry, military science, and plays, are those which now appear as original or as reprinted publications from the Vienna press. Scientific men, especially physicians, com- plain that the Austrian government holds out no encouragement as the Russian and Prussian governments do, to talent and genius. This may be true, for the cabinet of St. Petersburg dignifies priests, bishops, and physicians with high military rank, and adorns those peace- preaching servants of the meek Saviour with the first orders of chivalrous knighthood. In France, Dupuytren and Cuvier, Thiers, Guizot, Dupin, and, I believe, most of the members of the institute, have been proud^ and those hving continue to be so, of wearing some cross or ribbon indicating alliance with the human butchers of the legion of honour (?). What absurd folly ! Four years ago, when lodging in the Hotel Sinet, at Paris, I had a valet who never appeared brushing my clothes, or bringing me my boots, or otherwise attending to what I asked, without being decorated with two red ribbon orders. He was inflated with the vanity of wearing them — talked of 236 LITERATURE equality and Napoleon — and the evils of feudality in England. Yet, whenever I ordered him, he flew to execute what I desired quite as subserviently as any military sashed or starred, priest, doctor, professor, or knight, would to execute the orders of the autocrat himself. He did so from no reason in the world but that I employed him at as high wages, I suppose, as he could get from any other person. In Austria a man of genius and talent, pro- vided he agrees to exercise that talent in the service of the government, will certainly be employed, as Schlegel, Gentz, and others have been. Considerable ability is absolutely neces- sary in the secondary home and foreign de- partments of the state service ; first, to execute the business of the state efficiently — secondly, to relieve those holding the primary appoint- ments of state, of the labours of bureaucracy. There is not, however, as in England, France, and especially in Prussia, a prospect of talented men of plebeian birth ever directing the su- preme administration of an empire. In Eng- land we have had Walpole — Pitt — Whitbread, a brewer — Perceval — Jenkinson,all commoners; Canning, the son of an actress — Wellington — Peel, the son of a wealthy manufacturer — and AND MEN OF GENIUS. 237 lastly, the present honest head of the adminis- tration ; all men belonging to the people, and all ennobled with or without title, by themselves. In Prussia, the present minister for foreign affairs, Ancillon, is son of a simple burgher, descended from the French who fell from the revocation of the edict of Nantes. He begun the world for a livehhood in a profession which he did not like to follow, that of a humble preacher or tutor, and from which his hterary and philosophical genius rescued him. Naglor, the postmaster-general, and many highly-gifted but low-born men are in the official service of Prussia. Another, minister of state, MUhler, the son of a baker; and another, Kempz, of much the same origin, owe their positions entirely to themselves. In the smaller states there is greater difficulty for genius and talent to surmount: yet my friend Dr. von Wirchinger, minister of finance in Bavaria, has attained his position solely by the exertion of his own abilities. It is not the government of any countrj', however, that draws fortli the energies of literary genius, or of philosophic minds. The encouragement which the people hold out forms the true natural excitement — the sohd trust of 238 LITERATURE AND MEN OF GENIUS. men who are eminently gifted by nature. This pubhc encouragement does not, as yet, exist in Austria. But when the instruction of the people expands their mental faculties, as it assuredly must, in the present irresistible progress of intelligence, Austria will, as certainly, be no longer knovrn as the German Bccotia. 239 LETTER XIX. MUSICAL GENIUS. They say, in North Germany, if you allow tlie Viennese the reputation of pre-eminent musical genius, they will not be angr}' if you deny them every other spiritual gift. This, like all general remarks, is no doubt fallacious. Musical genius certainly pervades, and finds great estimation among the people, high and low, of tliis capital, and throughout Austria. Of all the fine arts, music alone seems to be highly appreciated. Painting owes its most masterly excellences to the encouragement given to it l)y Catho- licism. Yet in Viemui, where the great body of the population profess that religion, and where they are quite as devoted in tlieir adora- 240 MUSICAL GENIUS. tion of all that gives splendour to churches, the latter are by no means celebrated for their pic- tures, nor has the capital ever been, for painters of great merit ; although, as the numerous shop sign-boards testify, eminently so for artists of ordinary talent. Sculpture is still less prized in a city and country where there exists but little pride on the part of the government, in regard to elevating monuments, either to honour the memories of great men, or to perpetuate the recollections of great national events. There are, indeed, very few monuments to the memory of distinguished persons. The last erected in St. Stephen's Cathedral was that of Prince Eugene of Savoy ; where, as Madame de Sta'el observes, rather pointedly, " he waits for other heroes." As far as monumental fame speaks forth, none have since appeared in that temple. The equestrian bronze statue of Joseph II. in Joseph's platz, admirably executed, is the only one which appears to honour royalty in the open air; and the few monuments which are elsewhere to be discovered, erected for the last century and a half, have been raised by private affection. The museums and galleries of Vienna abound with the works of sculptors and MUSICAL GENIUS. 241 painters, but they are nearly all by foreign artists, and it is astonishing how little interest the inhabitants take in those collections. At Munich and at Dresden the people are again impassioned with an admiration of painting and sculpture, while they in my opinion possess quite as high feehngs of delight in music as the Viennese. The latter, however, have more abundant leisure to enjoy music, and far more ample material qualifications for its accompaniments. At Vienna, (with the exception of what the operas and melo-dramas afford), instrumental music, certainly in the most perfect style of execution, is that which ravishes the ears. The Prater, the Volks-Garten, the Au-Garteii, and a hundred other resorts, are filled with bands, the meanest of which surpasses those of most theatrical orchestras. Zelter, the composer, in his letters to Goethe, describes admirably the happy material posi- tions of the Viennese for enjoying music, and how indifferent the Kapel Meister was in adapt- ing their music to words, as to the beauty or approi)riation of the latter, provided the music was effective ; and then, talking of the faubourg VOL. II. B 242 MUSICAL GENIUS. theatres^ where the melo-dramas are charac- terized by broad-humoured coarseness, he ob- serves : " There were the three pieces, Die Merber, Die Damenh'dte im Theater, and a pantomime, Schuhmister Beej/strich, oder das Donnenswetter. These are all of a somewhat -vrxlgar character. My sides are still aching with laughter. The people, as well as the actors, share in the per- formances ; for the least success is followed by applause, and the bad parts are hurried over. The players are in perpetual motion. They enjoy as much, if not more, than their audience. It is a gipsy scene, and cannot be described. The children screech, and then clap — the whole audience then screech, and clap too. When the piece is finished, all the actors, who are able to stand after the exhaustion, are called for: they make their bows and deliver thanks, and go on with their parts in their individual persons. " It is thus that these people are not political. They only want to live, and to enjoy every minute of existence. They do so. Politics would ennui them at the beginning, and ennui them at the end. They go from the theatre to MUSICAL GENIUS. 243 supper — rise in the morning to go to mass — then to work — then from one play to another. Wiser they never were, and never ^vill be. " At the Prater you see several hundred car- riages ; some of them the most splendid — some Jiacres ; all moving in the centre avenue. In the others, groups, couples, solitary walkers, in beautiful confusion, which it is delightful to behold. Pretty, well-dressed women, and handsome men, with great diversity of counte- nance and character, flit past you like brilliant shadows. You sit down at the sides on seats, before the coffee-houses, shadov/ed by clumps of the most beautiful trees. All is charmingly neat and clean. From the thicket behind comes forth the sounds of delicious music : now you have an opera — now a ball — now a parade. Coffee and cakes before you — a child brings you flowers — a girl crystal water — an old woman tootli-picks. You send them away happy with a few copper kreutzers, which were previously as hea\'y in your pocket as the possession of a bad conscience. This is Vienna. In the midst of sitting and serving, drinking and smoking, dancing and fiddling, do the living stream move comfortably and gladly onwards. They come, they stay, R 2 244 MUSICAL GENIUS. tliey go, they speak, or do as they please in quiet, — in uninterrupted motion. No impedi- ment — no inclosures. The coffee-houses and dancing-rooms belong to proprietors ; the ground is the emperor's ; no one dare inclose it. What makes the scene real sunshine, is the multitude of happy beings, who, reconciled in the morning (Sunday) to their Creator, enjoy the world in the evening as they like it best.^^ Madame de Stael remarks, that instrumental music is cultivated in Germany as much as that of vocal in Italy; and gives as a reason, that the former requires labour, while the soft climates of the south are favourable to fine voices. I attribute the prevalence of either vocal or instrumental music every where to circumstances, and its perfection to musical genius. Melody and strong expression form the characteristics of German music : and its vocal performance is, 1 think, far more general in central and North Germany, and in the Tyrol, than in Austria. How often must those who have rambled along the banks of the Rhine, or among the valleys and hills behind, have been delighted, as I have, on listening to bands of rustics, young men and women, on going or returning MUSICAL GENIUS. 245 from their field labour, singing melodiously their national airs and songs, and also selec- tions from Mozart, Beethoven, and Weber, On the Rhine, we may frequently observe a boat filled with passengers singing in full chorus, to which the mountain-echoes join in, as if performing the accompaniments. The burschen of the northern universities sing their songs louder, and with greater glee than those of the south : they have also their instrumental music. Three years ago we were in a steam-boat ascending the Rhine ; the day was as lovely, as imagination could exult in, amidst such delicious scenes. On passing Bonn, between Godsberg and the Drachenfels, three boats, which seemed idling on the Rhine, came alongside, with fifty young men clad in black velvet coats, cut like English shooting-jackets, — military-looking caps, fancy waistcoats, and as fanciful trousers, — hair a la Rubens, — each with a long meerschaum, and a gaily- wrought pouch ; and some fifteen, bearing musical wind instru- ments, while the remainder carried fowling- pieces. They boarded us, as if they Avere vassals of the feudal baron of Rolandsec, sent forth as Ha'dher Hitter, to capture, or to exact the 246 MUSICAL GENIUS. Rhine toll. They quickly arranged themselves over various parts of the deck, struck fire and lighted their pipes ; and immediately the curl- ing smoke from their three-score of meerschaums rose in clouds, competing with that of the steam-flue, as to which would more effectually obscure the clear bright heavens. These free-spirited lads were the bursohen of Bonn, a seat of learning which justly boasts of giving birth to Beethoven, and which is also still distinguished for the musical taste of its people. It was Sunday ; the burschen were in their holiday academicals, and looked light- hearted, generous, daring spirits, fit and ready for study, song, generosity, mischief, or revolt. On approaching the isles of Nonnenwerth, the ci-devant convent of v/hich is now a favourite Sunday tavern and smoking-house, all the meerschaums were simultaneously extinguished, — the burschen descended into their boats, — fired a salute of about thirty shots, — rowed towards Nonnenwerth, — struck up on their instruments, to our surprise and delight, " God save the King," all the joyous youths joining in full chorus. A selection from Beethoven followed. The effect, amidst that most romantic part of the Rhine was enchanting. MUSICAL GENIUS. 247 The singing of the schoolboys on Sunday mornings, in North Germany, is noticed by Madame de Sta'el, partictdarly on a remarkably cold morning, when she witnessed those juvenile choristers in the town of Eisenach. The same custom still prevails. We happened to be at Gotha early last year. The day was Sun- day, and it blew a most piercing cold north- easterly wind. Gotha, on the face of a hill, with a northerly aspect, is one of the most bleaky cold places in its situation that I know. As we were at breakfast in the Reisen hotel, a lonw file of bovs, in their dark clothes and white shirt collars, came slowly down rather a steep street leading from the palace, singing a psalm : they alone appeared in the street ; they stopped at each house where any of them had a parent or relation ; they sung the solemn melody with an earnest feeling, and in a voice and taste astonishingly sweet and impressive. Their parents, sisters, and friends, appearing at the windows, and hearing the sacred song with heartfelt joy. Some time after the scholars had passed, the municipal band appeared, with wind instru- ments, on the towers of the towai house, where the cold must have been extreme. They played 248 MUSICAL GENIUS. three or four sacred airs, and then disappeared. We witnessed this often in other towns, on Sundays and on week days, particularly at Weimar. In Austria and the southern parts of Ger- many, although the passion for music is general, its cultivation is directed more to that of instru- mental, than in the north. The very gipsies of the south wander about with their rude harps ; and the shepherds often beguile time by per- forming on some simple musical instrument. In the Tyrol, song and pipe are both indigenous, and often have both, animated the people to redeem their liberty. To those who can comprehend and feel the force, beauty, and feeling which the German language is capable of conveying, and who have some acquaintance with the associations, le- gends, and histor}'- of the country, the national songs of Germany will be heard with exquisite delight. Das Knahen Wunderhorn, compiled by Von Arnim and Bretano, two poets of the romantic school, is the best collection of popular German national songs. They charm and animate old and young. Heine says of this collection : " I cannot sufficiently praise these sweetest MUSICAL GENIUS. 249 blossoms of German genius. Let he, avIio desires to know the bright side of the German people, read their popular songs. In these we feel the heart-throbs of the nation. In these German wrath beats the drum — German mockery whistles — and German love kisses. In these the pure German wine and pure Ger- man tears distil in pearly drops : the latter often far more preciously refined than the former." When the iron tyranny of Napoleon threat- ened the extirpation of national spirit in Ger- many, and Avliat was termed the holy war of independence was proclaimed by the German people, the poets and men of letters were not the least efficient in rousing the country to arms. The German muses, although they were for some time constrained to silence, were ever too proud and patriotic to praise the despot. For a time all jealousies — all discord vanished in that country. Emperors and kings, princes, pohticians, poets, and philosojohers, joined in the holy strife for liberty. The sword and song were wielded together, Theodore Korner, Ludwig Uhland, Frederick de la Motte Fouque, Moritz Arnott, Schenkendorf and many more, were amongst the foremost in urging the public on, by their songs, to death or liberty. 250 MUSICAL GENIUS. The strife ended gloriously ; but the people, •who gained the advantages of peace, were not satisfied. The despotism of aristocracy again, especially in the small states, reared its head. A multitude of young poets and students, who Tvere engaged in the fight, returned to their studies with all the vigour of patriotic life. The war of ideas succeeded the conflict of swords, and the attempts made to stifle the publicity of those ideas in Germany have pro- duced secret societies — the Bin^schenschaft, Jung Deutschland, Jung Schweitz, and the demagogischen Umtriebe. 251 LETTER XX. YOUNG GERMANY— THE PRESS — CENSOR- SHIP— POLICE— AND PUBLIC OPINION. Nothing astonished me more during my first travels in Germany than the execration which every one, connected with either the great or Httle governments, spoke of secret societies, and the hcentiousness of the press, whenever those subjects were alluded to. The most apprehended of these associations is that called Jung Deutschland, or young Ger- many. If this society be composed of such members as it is said to be, and if their prin- ciples are universal revolution and universal pillage,* no one can say that it should be too * It is also averred that the members swear to slay any of their number who is guilty of betraying them, or who fails in any measure he may plan. 252 YOUXG GERMANY THE PRESS — generally detested. But I doubt, from all I have been able to learn, if its existence be otherwise than on too despicable a scale to cause the German governments to have adopted the measures they have resolved and acted upon ; which in reality only serve to give secret societies more importance, and to render the power of the state less respected, by exhi- biting to the world, that those governments are under the influence of fear. Governments, like great rulers, to be strong ought to be magnanimous : for tyranny and oppression are, universally, proofs of fear and weakness. The cruel enormities of Augustus are among the most atrocious on record. These were committed, when he lived, for tvv^elve years, in daily fear. Afterwards, when he was above fear, he Avas the most lenient of emperors. If the German governments have actually the courage to despise such societies as Young Ger- man]/, Young Sioitzerland, and Young Ilaly, let them but show that they disregard them, and the influence of these associations, and of all secret propaganda, will cease to be of any con- sequence whatever either in disturbing the pub- lic peace, or in overturning thrones. A small body of men cannot secretly do great mischief. CENSORSHIP POLICEj &C. 253 A multitude can never be a secret body ; and if the whole, or a majority of the people, become determined by the force of moral conviction to change the established state of things, no exist- ing government can prevent them. Prosecutions for alleged political offences, have, in all countries, tended a thousand times more to weaken the moral, and finally though silently, the political power of governments, than all that secret societies and propaganda, ever could, or ever can accomplish. France, which before, and particularly since the revolution of July, has been the most atro- cious in her arrests, prosecutions of the press, seizures, imprisonments, and penalties, is at this moment in the most insecure state of any government in Europe. In Austria, as I have already said, no one has the privilege of writing or speaking against the measures of government; and the prose- cutions and imprisonments consequent upon the attempts made in her Italian possessions, can never be defended upon sound political, any more than on humane principles. T]\e arrest and condemnation of Confalonieri, even his respite from death, for a long imprisonment, and latterly for banishment: the sad story of 254 YOUNG GERMANY — THE PRESS Silvio Pellico, and the other arrests and im- prisonments made in Italy, have done a thou- sand times more to estrange Italian feeling from Austria, than those severities for securing obedience. The rigour exercised in Galicia, towards those suspected of secret correspondence, and of conspiring with foreigners, cannot but have caused a feeling, however silent, of hatred to- wards Austria, in a country so infamously partitioned from Poland only half a century ago. Austria however is, with the exceptions I have made, not so rigorous in her prosecu- tions as most of the other states of Germany. Prussia, has for some time evinced a most un- accountable dread of secret societies, and pro- paganda. The counsellor of state, Schumman, has lately, on frivolous charges, been found guilty at Berlin, of high treason, and con- demned to be imprisoned for fifteen years in a fortress ; and many others have been prosecuted for political offences, or arrested and detained in prison for two or three years on suspicion. It is impossible for the press to be more in the harness of censorship than at Berlin. An aca- demy also, is about to be established in that CENSORSHIP — POLICE, &C. 255 capital, with the design of counteracting the influence of literary Germans, residing in other countries, such as Heine, Borne, GutzkofF, Laube, ^lundl, Veenburg ;* whose works, al- though prohibited by a late resolution of the diet, and seized wherever found by the police, are yet generally disseminated over all the German states. By the influence of Prussia, and the especial fears of the small governments, the diet at Frankfort has lately resolved, that political offenders shall be subjected to extradition, for trial, from one state to another, and there is not one of those which have not many alleged political offenders now in their prisons. It is remarkable, that there is even more severity exercised in most of those states, who have the semblance of representative constitu- tions, than in Austria. A few weeks ago, one * Count Bernstorff, when minister, recommended (and his advice has certainly been followed), " The press as eminently qualified to consolidate and preserve the at- tachment of the German public to order and legality ; and to tuin over talented writers, whose safe opinions might be tried by the wariness with which they would now lend their pens to assist the governments ; yet no al- terations are to be made in the existing censorship, which even in time of war cannot be dispensed with." 256 YOUNG GERMANY — THE PRESS of the deputies at Hesse Cassel was arrested^ without being even charged with his offence, while sitting among the other deputies in the chamber, and sent to prison. During the sitting of the last session three years ago, of the legislature of Bavaria, the question of the civil list, on an augmented scale, being submitted to the consideration of the chambers, to be voted, not for the king's life, but " in perpetuity, and never to be sub- jected to any change otherwise than if neces- sary, still further to enlarge the amount," there were a sufficient number of refractory members to oppose its passing. This was, however, got over by the king and his minister. Prince Wallenstein. The refrac- tory members were arrested, on pretence of secretly conspiring against the government, and confined in prison until the chambers were prorogued, when they were sent to their re- spective country residences under a military escort. An act of degradation only paralleled by that of Gessler commanding all who passed the hat he placed on a pole, in the public place of Altorf, to do homage to the hat as if it were the em- peror, occurred last summer at Munich. CENSORSHIP POLICE, &C. 25/ The Aulic counsellor Behr," formerly burgo- master of Wurzburg, had taken upon him to speak more freely on matters of right and government than was agreeable to King Lud- wig. Belir, who certainly does not gain in our estimation by the punishment, was condemned to do penance on his knees, in the public hall of the municipality, before the portrait of the Icing. He then read an applauded lecture on the necessity of a supreme head of the state and his inviolability, and that, consequently, he never intended any thing disrespectful to the person or power of his majesty, to whose revered head he was faithfully devoted, and for what he had formerly said he begged to pro- claim his deep repentance." The Press, in the Austrian states, cannot, in any political or religious view, be considered the organ of public opinion, altliough it cer- tainly may l)e understood frequently as the organ of the state. Yet great talent is not, as in Prussia, employed by the government in rendering the press a powerful engine ; and the actual merit of the newspapers justifies Dal- pozzo in saying, " The Austrian government is not hypocriti- cal, it disdains to colour its actions as some VOL. II. s 258 YOUNG GERMANY THE PRESS — other governments do; it follows a straight- forward course^ heedless of the talk, and criti- cism, and ridicule of foreign journals. It ought, however, to persuade itself that it is not useless nor derogatory to enlighten and conciliate pub- lic opinion, and to dispel unfair charges. That Austria is powerful enough to be generous, even to her declared enemies ; that she ought to grant a full amnesty for political offences in 1820-1 ; that she ought to allow her subjects an unlimited liberty of travelling, the restric- tions imposed on the locomotive faculties being both absurd and odious. That she ought to introduce the free introduction of foreign books and journals. The more people read about foreign affairs the less they will be liable to the imposition of quacks and alarmists." Dalpozzo -wTote as a well known supporter of the Austrian government, yet no one can deny that he does not give sound advice. The censorship of the press is in principle and power as strict in Austria as in Prussia. In Lombardy and Venetia, where the principal periodicals are published, the pohce and cen- sorship are bitterly complained of. A late Italian writer, whose name I have omitted when I made the extract, asserts, and although with CEXSORSHIP — POLICE, &C. 259 warmth, not without truth, as to existing rega- lations. " Tlie liberty of the press is fettered by an inexorable censorship, and the expression of opinion prevented by an unceasingly vigilant pohce. Nothing can be introduced, nothing can be published, not even an advertisement for a lost dog, without previous licence, and sometimes not without a double and triple censorship. Not only sentiments, but even words, are subject to proscription. No author can employ in his writings the words constitu- tion, country, liberty, independence, liberality, Avithout incurring the anger of these inquisitors. In a work of the unfortunate Signor Pellico, who was shut up for three years in the prison of Spielberg, this phrase was cancelled, ' the laudable desire of popularity.' The Austrian government, after having permitted some in- dividuals to estal)lish, at their own expense, Lancasterian schools in Mantua, Brescia, and Milan, suddenly, and \vithout the least motive or even pretence whatever, caused them to be closed by a commissary of police, and the young students to be turned out amidst the tears of their parents. Tlie Austrian govern- ment insisted tliat the Lancasterian scliools of s 2 260 YOUNG GERMANY THE PRESS — Piedmont should share the same fate, alleging as a reason that they taught the rights of man!" In Germany (including 36 in German Swit- zerland) there are about I70 political journals, or rather mere newspapers, published, and about 500 literary, scientific, and religious papers. In the Austrian dominions 76 journals are printed, of these 22 appear from the Vienna press, 25 at Milan, 10 in the other towns of Lombardy, 7 in the Venetian States, 5 at Verona, and 7 ii^ other towns. At Vienna 12 English (daily and w'eekly), 7 French, 2 Dutch, 1 Belgian, 22 German, 2 Greek, 2 Turkish, 2 Polish, and 5 Russian journals are at present received ; besides 9 reviews and literary peri- odicals from England, 38 from France, and about 110 from the several states of Germany. The well-known Algemeine Zeititng, or Augs- burg Gazette, is that chiefly read. This journal is chiefly valuable for its extracts ; it has always a supplement, and it is said that the supple- ments sent with those which enter Austria are arranged, so that the paper may contain nothing offensive to the government. The Beobachter, or Observer, is the principal Vienna journal, and the organ of government. CENSORSHIP POLICE, &C. 261 It often contains a good deal of interesting intelligence ; but, as a political paper, neither it nor any one of those published within the Imperial States, are in the least degree interest- ing. The other papers are. The Gazette, for official notices, and several small literary, dra- matic, and humorous daily or weekly papers, chiefly found at the coffee-houses. As far as I have observed the police, which, in all countries (except when strictly muni- cipal for maintaining civil order) form an intolerable nuisance, inconsistent with liberty, are by no means so meddling as in France and in some small German states. Passports, another plague with which the 18th century and the first French revolution have cursed Europe, are often a cause of the most annoying delay all over the Austrian dominions, except Hungary, where the people are not yet, as in France, Germany, and Italy, sufficiently civilized to understand the great utility of those loco- motive licences. Believing, from conviction, after much ex- amination, that the most licentious press will fall powerless if left to expend itself; that secret societies can never become dangerous to a good patriarchal, or to a Avell organized repre- 262 YOUXG GERMANY THE PRESS sentative government; that, in defiance of all censorship and prohibition, every book will find its way where it can get purchasers and readers ; and that, although governments may, for a time, stifle the expression of public opinion, they never can destroy its force, which win only break forth, like a volcano, with the greater explosion, in proportion to the obstacles that resist it; I have great hopes that the government of Vienna, becoming every day more intelligent, and more prepared for liber- alizing the whole empire, will at the same time direct its attention to those great measures which, in regard to freedom of thinking and acting, Avill not only the more effectually guarantee the duration of tranquillity, but in developing the vast and varied resources of the Austrian dominions, consolidate the common feelings and prosperity of the whole empire, by material and intelligent improvements ex- tended equally to all those states. 263 LETTER XXI. AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. According to the authorities of Austrian pubhcists themselves, and the statements of Cannabich, Galetti, and Balbi, the imperial government is absolute in some states, limited in others, and the monarchy hereditary. The title of Emperor of Austria was assumed, when Napoleon compelled Francis the Second to resign the elective title of Emperor of Ger- many. At that time his hereditary titles were Archduke of Austria, and King of Hungary and Bohemia; and now. Emperor of Austria, and King of Hungar\-, Bohemia, and Lombardo- Venetia, &c. The emperor must be considered in Austria, the fountain of all militarv and civil honours 264 AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. and appointments, and the supreme and abso- lute director of the executive, legislative, and military government. He is assisted in the administration, First, by tlie " JMinistry of State and Conference,^' viz. ; two arclidiikes ; a prince of the empire (Metternich) ; three noblemen ; and one director of this council. These form the cabinet. Secondly, by the " Council of State Conference and Privy Refei'ence" consisting at present of The president of the interior and finance (Count Kol- lowrat) ; a general field-officer ; a superior ecclesiastic ; his majesty's physician in ordinary ; and five other counsel- lors ; besides six refendaries of the council ; viz. : one general officer, and five aulic counsellors. Thirdly, by the " Chancellorshij}s" viz. : TTie Chancellorship of the Household, Court, and State, composed of one chancellor. Prince Metternich, who is also minister for foreign affairs, and may be considered prime minister of the empire ; eight aulic counsellors, and five privy counsellors. The Chancellor of the Court fin assembly), consisting of one supreme chancellor, the minister of the interior ; one first chancellor ; one chancellor of the court ; one vice- chancellor, and sixteen aulic counsellors. The Chancellorshiip of the court of Hungary, composed of one chancellor ; one vice-chancellor, and ten aulic counsellors. The Chancellorship of the court of Transylvania, consist- ing of one president, and four court counsellors. Fourthly, by the " Council of IFar," composed of One president ; a general field officer ; two vice-presi- dents ; four counsellors of the war council ; fifteen aulic AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. 265 counsellors ; one director-general of engineers ; one director general of artillery, and one president of the military' court of appeal. Fifthli/, by the " High Court of Police and Ceiisorski]}" consisting of — One president, and four aulic counsellors. Sixthly, by the Minister of War, Finance, Interior, and Foreign Affairs, in their respective departments, and by the Court Commission, for administering the Supreme Di- rection of Justice. The funded operations and central finance are managed much in the same way as by the bank of England, by the national hank of Austria. The " Royal Household" has — First, on the emperor's establishmejit — The vicar of the first grand master, who is also grand marshal ; grand chamberlain ; grand ecuyer ; grand master of tlie ceremonies ; grand master of the kitchen ; upper stable master ; iiitendant general of the buildings ; prefect of the imperial library ; director of the privy purse ; grand huntsman ; grand guardian of the table utensils, &c. Secondly in the empress's household — The grand master ; grand mistress, &c. &c. : besides the grand masters and mistresses of the princesses, &c. &c., and numerous other officers, guards, &c. &c. There are twelve generals in chief commanding in the twelve general captainshijys, viz. : — lUyria, Austria, Styria, and the Tyrol ; Bohemia ; Moravia and Silesia ; Gallicia ; Hungary ; Lombardy and Venice ; Sclavonia ; Croatia ; Upper Hungary ; Transylvania, and Dalmatia. There are also in each of the great divisions of the empire — 266 AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. A civil governor, or president, and supreme tribunals, to Avhich appeals lay in Lower and Upper Austria ; Bo- hemia ; Moravia and Silesia ; Galicia ; Dalmatia ; the Tyrol ; Lombardy and Venice. ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS. " The German geographers," says Balbi, " are nearly all of the same opinion, by dividing into four parts, all the countries which form the empire of Austria, viz. : — First, the German country, or the A ustrian territories, com- prised within the German confederation. Second, the Polish country, or that part of the ci-devant kingdom of Poland, now belonging to Austria. Third, the Hunga- rian country, which not only include the kingdoms of Hungary, Transylvania, and the military confines, but also the kingdom of Dalmatia : and fourth, the Italian States, which include the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom. Inexact as these divisions are, because they are neither Ethnographic, as is shown by what we have mentioned in the articls ethnography, or geographic, as can be proved on examining their position on a chart : we do not hesitate to adopt them, although imperfect ; for they are too generally admitted, to be set aside. It is, therefore, upon these great divisions, that we establish the particular divisions. The whole empire is accord- ingly divided into fifteen governments, all independent of eacli other, having different titles, superfices very unequal, and each administered very differently. Each govern- ment is subdivided into circles, provinces, counties, districts, &c., according to the different countries to which they belong." AUSTRIAX GOVERXMEXT. 26/ THE GOVERNMENTS AND SUBDIVISIONS ARE: AUSTRIAN, OR GERMAN TERRITORIES. DIVISIONS. SCBDIVISIONS. 1. Government of Lower Austria ") lCaptainship,Vienna. (Niedcr-Oestereich^or Landtintei'}- , /->• i ,1 V \ 1 4 Circles. aer ±,ns) . . . . j 2. Government of Upper Austria j) (Ober-Oesterich, or Land ob-dcr > 5 Circles. Ens) ) 3. Government of the Tyrol . 7 Circles. 4. Government of Styria (Steyer- ? . circles mark) J KINGDOM OF ILLYRIA. (iLLYRIEN.) 5. Government of Laybach . 5 Circles. f. f, 4. c-r ■ 4. ( 1 Free City— Trieste. 6. Government of 1 rieste . • > o P" • les 7. GoTOrnment of Bohemia. ? ,- pi- i (Boehmcn) . . . .\^^ Circles. 8. Government of Moravia and^ Silesia. (Maehren and Schle-> 8 Circles, sien) J POLISH COUNTRY. 9. Government of the Kinsdom c f r ■ /r- I ■ \ r 19 Circles. 01 Uahcia. (Gahcienj ITALIAN COUNTRY, OR, LOMBARDO-VENETIAN KINGDOM. ions. 10 Government of Milan, or ) ^ j^^j j Lombardo Provinces . . ) ° 11. Government of Venice, or ? ^ t-»„i „t;^„^ ,,..„. ' > 8 Delemtions, Venetian Provinces . . J ° 268 AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. HUNGARIAN COUNTRY. Ungarn of the Germans. — Madjar-Orzag of the Hun- garians. DIVISIONS. SUBDIVISIONS. 12. Kingdom of Hungary . . 4 Circles. Subdivided again into . . 46 Comitats. 13. Kingdom of Sclavonia. (Civil } „ n -^ ^ Section) . . . .^ ,\^ Comitats. 14. Kingdom of Croatia. (Civil } „ ^ -x x Section). . . . .p Comitats. PARTICULAR DISTRICTS, VIZ : 15. Littoral Hungary . ."I 16. Jazygia. (Jaszsag) . . i 17. & 18. Little and Great Ku- [> or 6 Administrations, mania . . . . .J 19. Territory of the Hay-Doucks. j GOVERNMENT OF TRANSYLVANIA. Siebenburgen of the Germans ; Erderly — Orzagofthe Hun- garians, and co7itaining 20. The Magyarck-Reze, or Hun- ) 11 Comitats. garian Section . . • 3 '^ Districts. 21. Szekelyek-Resze, or Szeklers ^ c q i. country ] ^^ ^^' 22. Szasrok - Resze, or Saxon } 9 Szekes. country ) 2 Districts. DALMATIA, OR 23. The Government of Dalmatia and Albania ^ MILITARY GOVERNMENT, VIZ.: 24. The Generalship of Carlstadt, ~) Warasdin, and tlie Ban of > 8 Regimentships. Croatia, subdivided into . . ) AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. 269 DIVISIONS. SUBDIVISIONS. c\~ rru r- II- re 1 ■ S 8 Resrimcntships. 2o. 1 he Generalship of Sclavonia< , t> H. i- ^ (1 liattalion. 26. The Generalship of Banat . 2 Regiments. 27. The Generalship of Transyl- > ^ Regiments, vania ..... J ° The AUSTRIAN EMPIRE is, therefore, divided into : — 9. Great Divisions, subdivided into 27. Lesser administrations ; and further, into 203. Circles, counties, military districts, &c. ; besides minor jurisdictions, somewhat resembling the English hundreds and French communes. The assemblies, called provincial states, which meet in all the countries subject to Austria, except Friuli, and the military limits, seldom, or generally do not, impose any check on the prerogative of the emperor. They assemble, it may be said, for little more than to give opinions, unless it be in regard to some secondary branches of administration. In Hungary and Transylvania, hoAvever, not only the states possess a share in the making of laws ; but the nobility have other highly impor- tant privileges. In the Tyrol, no new tax can be levied without the consent of the states. The Hungarian government, l)eing almost entirely aristocratical, the body of the peasants are 270 AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. still in no way represented. The states consist of four orders ; clergy, nobles, knights, and the representatives of the free cities. In the Tyrol there is a chamber of 'peasants. The local affairs of towns and parishes, appear to be generally administered with mild and equal authority, and certainly at very little expense to the people. 271 LETTER XXII. ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS. Justice is administered according to recent codes formed under Joseph II., in 1786-7, and under Francis II., in 1811-12. The tribunals are presided by the magistrates in towns ; and in the country there are courts presided in by the nobihty of the district. From them an appeal lies to the college of justice, established in the capital of each pro\'ince. The laws consist chiefly of edicts, established precedents, usages, and regulations, not repug- nant to the spirit and practice of the govern- ment. The different sections of the emjjire have their respective usages, or laws, which are often very contradictory in one state to those in another. 272 ADMIXISTRATION OF THE LAV7S. It is contended that punishments are mild, inasmuch as death is seldom the consequence of judicial trials. No man, by the Austrian lawsj can be put to death until he confesses his crime. This is the law also in Bavaria, and some other states. The severity and dura- tion of imprisonment, and of condemnation to hard labour in the mines, for crimes against property, for political transgressions, and for smuggling, are certainly inflicted wdth rigorous obedience to the sentence of the tribunals. Crime against property and person is certaiidy rare in Austria ; and to the moral instruction and material ease of the people, this must, I think, be attributed. Dalpozzo, who must, however, be considered as viewing the Austrian government with a favourable eye, says, and, as far as I have been able to obsen^e, (taking the exception of politi- cal cases), with truth, — " The abolition of feudal servitude and per- sonal services in Bohemia, Gahcia, and other Austrian states, except in Hungary, where the nobihty, while they boast of their patriotism and nationality, have generally opposed the ameliorations suggested by the crown in the condition of the peasantry ; the abohtion of }J ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS. 273 torture ; tlie determined resistance to encroach- ments of the papal authority ; the gradual and considerate suppression of superfluous monas- teries; the security afforded to literary pro- perty ; the establishment of elementary schools all over the monarchy : the abohtion of corpo- ral punishment in those schools ; all are mat- ters/' he says, "well-known, at least, to the men of the eighteenth century-. It is also, continues he, "knoisTi, that in every part of the Austrian monarchy there are provincial states, which meet to discuss matters relative to the administration, especially financial, of their respective provinces. They lay the re- sult of their deliberations and their suggestions before the sovereign. In the Italian provinces, they are called congregations : of these, there are two central ones ; one at Milan, and the other at Venice. They are composed of depu- ties from three classes, — nobles, proprietors not nobles, and deputies of the cities. The communal council elects three candidates for every vacant place, out of which the emperor chooses one. Their functions chiefly relate to the repartition of taxes between the various districts, to military lodgings, and other charges; the inspection of hospitals and other charitable VOL. II. T 274 ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS. institutions, to roads, bridges, canals, &c. Tlie administration of the municipal and communal finances is especially intrusted to the provin- cial congregations, of whicli there is one in every province, and which are composed on the same principles as the central ones. The central congregations have also the right of making known to the sovereign, directly, the wants and wishes of the nation. " The Austrian government, although not constitutional, cannot be called despotic. It has fundamental lavv'S, usages, and precedents, from which it does not deviate. The right of private property is held sacred. The emperor makes general laws for his subjects, but no S2:)ecial or ex- ceptionable ones for particular persons or cases. There is equality before the law, and no odious privilege of cast is now admitted. There is no abusive influence of either aristocracy or clergy. The judiciary power is held inde- pendent, and not interfered with by rescripts from the sovereign. No special commissions are appointed to try particular cases ; no arbi- trary penalties are inflicted. All those who were condemned for political offences in 1820-1, were regularly tried j several were condemned ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS. 2/5 to death, but not one was executed.'^ The pro- ceedings in the civil courts are neither dilatory nor expensive. The conveyance of property has been rendered, by a wise system of regis- tration, as easy and safe as any commercial transaction. With the exception of political cases, the penal code is very mild. The punish- ment of death is awarded in very few instances. Few countries in Europe enjoy so much mate- rial prosperity as the Austrian monarchy." As far as the subordinate agents of the Austrian government are in question, even Silvio Pellico admits that all those with whom he came in contact during his wearisome im- prisonment — police commissaries, officers, guards, inspectors, gaolers, priests — were honest hearted, kind, good men. " The clergy," he says, " are not one of them uninformed, bad, rude, or deceitful." — ^' Surely," says Dalpozzo, * This is not sufficient proof of mercy — we should have an expose, of prison and hard lahour treatment. Both are, however, milder than in France ; and the first generally, even for high crimes, better than that to which poor debtors (the rich, even in prison, can buy comfort) are subjected to in England. A man's property is liable, not his person, as witii us, for the debts he contracts. Yet we hear the voice of vwnsters still advocating, in both lords and commons, imprisonment for debt. T 2 276 ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS. " a government employing such servants can- not be so very barbarous, very unprincipled, and very bad, as is commonly represented." In regard to my own convictions, I entered the Austrian dominions with certainly no fa- vourable idea of the administration of the pub- lic offices, or of the details of justice ; and, after careful and extensive examination, I am bound to say, that, although there is much that I would change for the benefit of all, I could also prove, by well-authenticated, and not to be dis- puted statistical facts, that society at large, and famihes and individuals, have suffered more affliction and pain from confining the unfortunate in the prisons of England and Ireland in one year, by the mere practice of our courts of law, by the rascality of attorneys, and by imprison- ment for debt, than all that have been vic- timized for political opinions, or by the admi- nistration of justice from the year 1780, when Joseph II. began to reign, until his nephew, Francis, died in 1831. Let those who fall on foreign nations, and especially on Austria, with foul abuse — let the Edinburgh Review, and other periodicals, first put down our barbarous imprisonments for personal, and often doubtful claims — let tithe- ADMINISTRATION OF THE LAWS. 277 rebellion wTits — let the tpanny of Chancery- practice and Exchequer penalties be annihi- lated, before England can boast of the practical enjoyment of that impartial, equal, inexpensive, unoppressive justice, to which she has, with the whole world, a natural and riglitful claim. Until then, let party writers not accuse foreign nations of greater evils than those which haunt and destroy the happiness of our own Jiresides. 278 LETTER XXIII. ANTI-COMiMERCIAL SYSTEM. In nearly all countries, except Turkey and Holland, the idea of prohibiting foreign com- modities, or burdening them with enormous duties, was considered a policy which would force home-manufacturing industry into flourish- ing prosperity, and consequently increase the wealth and power of the state. This fallacious doctrine, which subjugates, in nearly all cases, the bulk of the nation to a most unjust, although indirectly oppressive tax- ation, for the doubtful, but specious benefit, at the most, of a feiv of the many, has been doggedly persevered in by the Austrian govern- ment. If the many disasters which the empire has ANTI-COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. 279 SO grievously experienced, can be attributed to any one principal cause, it will assuredly be found to arise from her short-sighted illiberal commercial system. With the best intentions of a liberal, but not sufficiently experienced man, Joseph II. en- feebled his country by his false commercial legislation, so as to subject Austria in conse- quence to the misfortunes that an empty and bankrupt treasury are sure to bring upon na- tions as well as upon individuals. He wrote to the then Earl Kollowrat, in order to bring for- ward indigenous productions, and to curb the useless growth of luxury and fashion, " I make public my orders concerning the general •pro- hibition of foreign manufactures. " By the consumption, almost exclusive, of foreign products, the Austrian trade has been rendered passive ; and the state has lost in con- sequence twenty-four millions of florins per annum paid for foreign commodities. " Until this time the government appears to have only had in view enriching French, English, and Chinese merchants and manufac- turers ; and to deprive the country of the advantages of which it would otherwise neces 280 ANTI-COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. sarily avail itself, by its own industry, to satisfy its wants." A system nearly prohibitory was then en- forced, — an expensive establishment of pre- ventive custom-house agents employed, and continued to this day, — and duties of 60 per cent., ad valorem, on all foreign commodities not actually prohibited by law, imposed. Notwithstanding all these precautions foreign manufactures have always appeared at Vienna, and at all the principal towns. The late Ger- manic union of customs has also caused so great a contraband trade into Austria, that, although the expense of guarding the frontier amounts to more than the revenue collected, foreign smuggled goods appear at the fairs and other markets much cheaper than home manu- factures. Austria, therefore, after persevering for nearly sixty years in a system that has made her twice bankrupt in her financial credit, — that has pre- vented her ever having revenue sufficient to meet her expenditure, — that has left her with- out means to clothe, and arm, and pay an army of such magnitude as would have driven back? or crushed at once, even the most formidable ANTI-COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. 281 invasion of Napoleon, — remains still embar- rassed by the dead-weight oppression of that system; — while not more than one out of eighteen of her whole population are employed in manufactories, and while her mighty natural elements for foreign commerce have lain almost dormant. A liberal commercial system can alone ren- der Austria a great powerful independent em- pire. No power can be independent, which, in time of peace expends more than her revenue. This is the case with Austria, as I will hereafter explain to you. And a state which has twice fallen into bankruptcy and financial discredit, must make vigorous exertions to recover her strength, in order to be prepared for defence in case of need and danger. Austria possesses all the natural resources, — all the moral and physical elements of power, and revenue, and riches, in an eminent degree. She has pre-eminently the advantages of ex- tensive and varied productive regions ; — corn, wine, oil, honey, wool, silk, hemp, flax, tobacco, timber, madder, all useful vegetables and de- licious fruits — iron, coal, salt, and other mineral products in abundance; — cattle, swine, horses and sheep ; — great rivers, sea-ports, rich soils. 282 ANTI-COMMERCIAL SYSTEM. all climates, and all her states adjoining each other, forming one of the greatest compact empires in the world. To bring forward into productive and enrich- ing operation all those great natural elements of wealth and power, there is one great spring of action wanting, namely, an extensive com- merce with foreign nations. This commerce would inevitably create, not only great home industry, but a great export trade. The anti- commercial system, on the other hand, by preventing the introduction, except by smug- gling, of most foreign commodities, forms a smothering incubus, under which industry and and enterprise lay in stationary torpor. 283 LETTER XXIV. FINANCES. The revenue of the Austrian dominions is derived from direct taxes^ land chiefly, — excise, tolls on roads, tobacco monopoly, salt mono- poly, customs (1,540,000/. sterling only), post- office, lotteries, stamps, which are very high, — miscellaneous taxes on property, &c., mines, only one-seventh part of the amount after paying the expenditure, and a few extra taxes, producing altogether, without deducting the expense of collection, the gross sum of 147,600,000 florins, or 14,760,000/. sterhng; the expense of collecting which, amounts direct to 35,600,000 florins ; and indirect, with addi- tional frontier guards, customs, oflicers (exclu- sive of additional military and police assisting 284 FINANCES. to guard the frontiers), to 2,800,000 florins more, — in all 38,400,000 florins, or more than one-fourth of the whole revenue. The gross expenditure is 155,455,756 florins, 43,500,000 of which goes to pay the interest of the national debt. The excess of expenditure over receipts, is 8,455,756 florins. Now, when we consider the financial distress of the empire at various periods, — the losses of 1811 and of 1813, the national debt now due, — the small amount of revenue in proportion to the population, we shall find no difliculty in tracing this state of long-continued embarrass- ment to no other cause but the anti-commer- cial system, which has prevented the develop- ment of the vast resources of this otherwise splendid and magnificent empire. Maria Theresa, rather than liberalize Trans- sylvania, Sclavonia, and Croatia, from the shackles of restriction, and consequently in- crease her revenue, descended to the plan of public begging in the churches ; and so far was she reduced in her treasury, that, to secure in her need the afliance of France, she conde- scended to correspond and pay court to Fari- neUi and Madame de Pompadour, both royal mistresses, which the Aartuous and chaste FIXAXCES. 285 queen would no doubt have immured in a convent if she had had them at Vienna. Frederick III., whose empty treasury re- duced him frequently to humiliation, used to say, " that, like a willow, he bent to the blast, and rose when the tempest was over." Fran- cis II. was compelled to practise the lesson of his ancestor. In Schneller^s Histor}^ of Bohemia, an able and fearless work, which you may find in any book-shop in Vienna, the following passages, relative to the Austrian finances, occur in the besrinnino; of the third volume : " Count Wallis, called from the post of Oberst-burg-graf in Prague to that of finance minister in Vienna, soon perceived that the financial measures of Counts Sauran, Zichy, and O^Donell, from 1790 to 1811, were only ex- pedients for momentary relief, and not for per- manent income. Voluntary contributions had been called for ; the silver of the churches had been used ; a base currency of half its nominal value had been issued ; the exportation of the metals had been prohibited ; a compulsory loan of seventy-five millions of florins had been exacted, to diminish the amount of bank-notes ; enormous duties had been laid upon colonial 286 FINANCES. produce ; the post money had been raised two or three times ; a property tax of one-half per cent, had been introduced; and the emperor, who had pubhcly promised to issue no bank- notes in future, was compelled again to have recourse to that expedient. All was in vain. " The floating bank-notes had imperceptibly risen to 1,060,000,000 of florins (106,000,000/. sterling) ; the amount of int-erest-paying debt was not exactlv ascertained. It was doubtless even more considerable; the salaries of all public officers, and the expenditure of the state, had risen enormously in proportion to the depreciation of currency; all these evils were now to be remedied by the bold project of the determined Count Wallis. " The coup-d'ttat which that minister carried into execution, was approved of by his majesty. On the 11th of February, 1811, the orders were printed with the greatest secrecy in the imperial printing-office ; a copy of the warrant was sent, sealed, to all the governors of the empire, who were to open it at the same hour, on the 15th of March, 1811 ; these orders were instantly to be acted upon, without remon- strance, and without the assent of the states ; they were promulgated amidst the roll of mili- FINANCES. 287 tary drums. This master-stroke consisted in the substitution of quittances for bank-notes, so that five florins of the latter were paid by one florin of the former, in all pubhc and private engagements. " The whole financial system of the empire was thus changed; the usual notion of right and property was entirely violated. The war of 1813 drew forth a fresh issue of 212,000,000 in paper, besides (niticipationscheine to three times that amount. When Count Stadion suc- ceeded Count Wallis, the paper money was so valueless, that he found it necessary to reduce it from 250 to 100. In consequence, the pro- perty of minors, hospitals, all institutions, and capitalists, was reduced from one 100,000 tO 20,000 by Wallis, and from 20,000 to 8000 by Stadion. Yet all this was of no comparison to the corruption of morals introduced amongst the people. Every one endeavoured by any means, to make up for his unmerited loss. The permanent disadvantage to the state was still greater. It was compelled to borrow, after the peace, first 20,000,000, and afterwards 38,000,000 from Rothschild, and nearly as much from other contractors." In 1831, aloan of near 100,000,000 florins was 288 FINANCES. contracted ; and unfortunately, the expenditure ever since has exceeded the receipts. Nothing can justify the national bankruptcy of a respectable government. Siecle, a French financial writer contended, before the first revolution, " that in an abso- lute government like France, the reigning prince has only a temporary interest in the revenue of the state, and consequently that it would be not only a prudent, but even a legal operation to annihilate the public debt at the commence- ment of each reign." This diabolical maxim may have been read by Count Wallis, but he should have remembered, as imperial minister, what King John of France declared, "■ that if honour had fled the world, it ought still to be found in the bosom of princes." Having given, in connection with other in- quiries, rather extensive consideration to the financial system, or rather financial expedients, which mark the last eighty years of Austrian administration, and having compared those expedients with the natural resources and population of the empire, I am finally led to the conclusion, that a minister like William Pitt, notwithstanding his involving the country in a general war, would never have allowed the FINANCES. 289 empire to fall into the degradation of break- ing faith with the public creditor ; not that Mr. Pitt was the minister whose administration I praise ; but as a statesman, his energies in maintaining the national credit during war, must be admired, although his policy may not be justified ; and in time of peace he would, in a government hke that of Austria, have been really the man to make the empire recover herself by a liberal commercial system, which would in a far less period than the twenty- two years that have elapsed since the general peace, not only have diminished the debt, but have produced a revenue fully adequate to meet the current expenditure, and pay the interest regularly of the public obligations, impelling at the same time the whole empire forward in agricultural, manufacturing, and commercial prosperity. Prussia, at the present moment, maintains her public credit, after having fulfilled her ob- ligations honorably. And yet tlie expenditure of Frederick the Great was necessarily enormous. Even after the war we are astonished, on visiting Berlin and Potsdam, at the vast sums which must have been expended in palaces and public buildings of all kinds. Yet Frederick left behind VOL. II. U 290 FINANCES, him a tolerably well filled treasury, and no debt. His successor afterwards contracted liabilities of about twenty millions sterling, which the present king paid nearly oflf before the battle of Jena. The ravages of the French, and the distress to which the kingdom was consequently re- duced, involved the treasury afterwards in a debt, for which a yearly interest of 6,397,000 thalers, or nearly one million sterling is paid : this, for a population of fifteen millions, is a mere trifle, and 2,500,000 thalers is also appro- priated annually to reduce the debt. In Prus- sia, the revenue raised is regulated as nearly as possible to meet the expenditure. It has been fixed, for the ten years ending May, 1840, at 51,400,000 thalers, or ^£8,420,000 sterling annually. The land tax in Prussia is high in proportion to the other taxes, and the excise bears so heavily on the vineyards of the Rhenish coun- try, that the growers have occasionally not con- sidered it prudent to gather or put the vines in press, on account of the excise duty. The customs have fallen off also, in consequence of the political extension of the Prussian tariff around so many states of the Germanic con- FINANCES. 291 federation. Yet Prussia^ which, Avith very- few exceptions, in regard to ha\ang cheap manufactures, has always had a moderate com- mercial system, has, through all her disasters, maintained her public credit. Austria seems never to have in any way un- derstood the simple fact that, to raise a large revenue Avithout oppressing the people, it is necessary to levy duties on foreign commodi- ties for the purjiose of revenue only; never with the false \4ew of protecting and raising up domestic manufactures, which, high duties, or in other words premiums for smuggHng, never can realize. Low duties on foreign com- modities, as is experimentally proven in England and the United States, alway^s occasion great consumption. Great consumption yields great revenue. u2 292 LETTER XXV. INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, AGRICULTURE —MANUFACTURES— TRADE. Amoxg the first improvements in a country, roads, are of the most important benefit. The highways in the Austrian dominions generally, with the exception of Hungary, part of Galicia, and the country east of Styria, are in a remark- ably good condition : but it must be remarked, that there are too fcAv of these roads, and that the by-roads in wet weather, are no more than miry tracks. With the exception of the Lombardo-Vene- tian kingdom, the empire requires generally to be unlocked by canalization. An extension of commerce by requiring greater facility of trans- port, would also require canals, to be extensively executed, as well as many new lines of railroads. IXTERXAL IMPROVEMENTS, &C. 293 With respect to the latter, Austria is in advance of every other continental country. That which 1 have already noticed passing from Linz north, to Budweis, and south towards the salt-mines, is of itseK an extensively useful work. That projected from Vienna to the frontiers of Kra- kaw, as well as one of far greater importance, from Vienna to Milan, and another commercial road, not decided of what description, to Trent, will most likely be accomplished in a few years. Many other improvements, which are required to facilitate internal communication, and for re- moving the few impediments which interrupt the lower navigation of the Danube, and those of its branches, can only be effected as increas- ing commerce may ensure a return of the outlay, or when the general utility may induce the government to execute such pubUc works. At present, the revenue will not permit any such expenditure, and it never can until it is greatly augmented by increased trade. When that happens, the enterprise to which commerce itself will give birth, can far better accomplish works of general usefulness than any govern- ment. In fact, the prosperity and enterprise of a country is never great, when public works are managed by the government, with which 294 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, there can be no competition : and competition, as in England, and the United States of America, forms the heart and hfe of that active enterprise and ingenuity, which render nations great and wealthy. Agriculture, especially the raising of corn crops, may be considered in a fair state of improvement. Throughout Austria, Bohemia, and Lombardo-Venetia, ploughs and all im- plements of husbandry, are, in consequence of iron being cheaper, far superior to those used in France. The farm-houses, and all rural dwell- ings have a clean, corresponding, comfortable appearance. Sheep pasturing and breeding is attended to with great care in Austria, Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia, as well as in Hungary. The manufacturing of woollen cloths, coarse and fine, has attained a superior degree of excellence both in quality and dyeing, in Mo- ravia, Bohemia, and the Archduchy of Austria. The glass of Bohemia, especially the brilliantly coloured glass, is perhaps the finest and most beautiful ever manufactured. Cotton manufactures, which have recently sprung up in German Bohemia, and at Vienna, appear to be in a flourishing state, they are not so in reality. The high duty on foreign fabrics, AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, &C. 295 maintains all these in a fictitious state, at the expense of the whole empire. The manufacture of linen is by far the most healthy and prosperous of any. The silk fabrics of Lombardo-Venetia, are on the decline. Those of Vienna are supplanting them, (where smug- gled articles do not,) in all the imperial markets. The ironmongery and cutlery, manufactured from the excellent iron of Styria, appear to me superior to any other WTOught on the con- tinent. The porcelain of the imperial manu- facture is fine and clear. The earthenware, generally inferior. A great variety of em- broidered and fanciful articles of home manu- facture, are sold in the shops and at the fairs. Generally speaking, the apparently prosperous state of the Austrian manufactures must be entirely attributed to the low price of bread and animal food. The protective duty is in- jurious not serviceable to them. Smuggling brings goods far more ruinously into compe- tition with them in the home market, than fair trade, subjected to moderate duties, could ever accomplish. The home trade and enterprise is also shack- led by taxed licences, which with the erwerh 296 INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS, steiier (earnings tax), and qualifications as to capital before setting up in business as mer- chants and bankers, destroy competition. To me it is Avonderful that the aristocracy and landed proprietors, are not sensible of their being the great victims to this monopolising system. They pay even at Vienna twice the price they should do for butchers' meat in consequence of the monopoly created by the " slaughtering license." The trade of Austria with other countries is chiefly contraband by land, and by sea princi- cipally, for colonial produce, cotton, wool, and various raw materials by Trieste, France,Venice, and Fiume. The activity which the steam-boat navigation has already extended along the banks of the Danube, forms practical evidence of how easily the commerce between Austria and other countries may be advanced. The advantages of an extensive international trade between the British and Austrian empires, would undoubt- edly be attended with the utmost benefit to both. In the latter, where not one-eighteenth of the population are engaged in manufactures, — where every nobleman, landholder, and AGRICULTURE^ MANUFACTURES, &C. 297 farmer, are taxed 60 per cent on the home manufactures thev use for the fictitious benefit* of that one eighteenth, — where all the wool of the landed interests is in the way of trade monopolised by a few bankers at Vienna, an ex- tensive trade with a country which consumes so vast a quantity of the very kinds of raw com- modities which the Austrian dominions can so eminently supply, forms a subject of the first consideration for the statesmen of both nations. * Fictitious benefit it certainly is, for immediately on the other side of the frontier of Bohemia, in Saxony, where the manufacturers had no protection whatever until they were compelled to come under the Prussian cordon, thej same fabrics as those protected in Bohemia are in a more flourishing condition, although manufac- tured in a naturally less favourable situation. 298 LETTER XXVI. MILITARY FORCE, The standing army forms, in proportion to the revenue, an oppressive burden on the Austrian states. Its maintenance, exclusive of various foraging allowances in Hungary, drains the treasury of 44,000,000 of florins, or 4,400,000/. per annum. That is, more than all the land and direct taxes. Considering the actual standing force, this sum is remarkably moderate, in comparison with the expenses to which the British army, of less than one fourth the number, costs the country. Physically speaking, the Austrian army con- sists of the most able bodied force in Europe. MILITARY FORCE. 299 In appearance, the infantry is the least im- posing. The Avhite coarse cloth of which their uniform is made, the cheapest that can be supplied, is quite as warm and as comfortable as the expensive splendid uniform of Prussia. The standing army consists at present of. First, 58 regiments of infantry, of 2 battalions and 12 compaTiies each, viz.: 7 Austrian, 9 Bohemian, 5 MoraA-ian and Silesian, 3 lUyrian, wth 8 Italian regiments, of 1892 men each ; and of 15 Hungarian and Transylvanian regiments of 26 IG men each; in all 120,596 infantry of the linei < Second, 20 grenadier battalions of 900 men, 1 regiment of chasseurs, 2320 men, 17 military frontier regiments, of which 7 are Hungarian, 6 Illyrians, 4 Transylvanian, and 4 garrison bat- tahons, 49,501 men. In all, 196,377 foot- soldiers. Third, 37 regiments of cavalry, 44,970 strong. Fourth, 5 regiments of field-artillery, of 2763 men each, 1 corps of bombardier artificers, 1075, 14 garrisons of artillery, variously dis- tributed in fortresses, in all 2490, and 500 artillery workmen: total artillery', 17,790. Fifth, the engineer corps of 6 companies of 300 MILITARY FORCE. sappers, 2 battalions of engineers, 5 companies of miners, in all, 2800 ; of a battalion, 106/ of pontoniers, and a battalion of Tschaikistes (1200 charged with the gun-boats on the Danube and Save), and of the artillery and military train, 8000 ; total, engineer and artillery train, 13,067, and total effective standing force of the army, 272,204 men. Besides these, there are, one Lombard regi- ment of gendarmerie, 640, 9 battalions of Con- dons, for the frontiers of Austria, Bohemia, Galicia, Silesia, and Moravia, 3200 ; the invalid corps, 10,800; the imperial body guard of noble archers, 4 officers, and 63 sub-officers ; the imperial body guard of noble Hungarians, 58 ; the trabans, of 97 Vienna men, and 34 of Milan; the palace guards, 4 officers, and 218 men. Total extra, 15,118 men. Total force maintained in peace, 288,322 men. Augmentation in war, consists in an addition to the line, of 48,800 men ; of Landwehr, 142,000 ; Hungarian insurrection force, 33,500; foot and horse reserve, 30,000 : total augmen- tation 254,300 men. Total war force, 527,000 strong. This however, does not amount to half the MILITARY ENTHUSIASM. 301 troops which might be readily raised, if money to clothe, arm, and feed them, were forth- coming. As to provender, there would be little difficulty. Arms, ammunition, waggons, and clothing, would alone, as heretofore, form the great desiderata. The naval force consists of 8 ships of the line, 8 frigates, 4 corvettes, and 6 brigs, in all 34. To these are attached an artillery corps of marines, and an engineer corps, besides the requisite number of sailors. There is also a college for marine cadets. The gun-boats on the Danube and Save, carrying in all, about 130 pieces of cannon. The spirit of enthusiasm in an army, or in the soldiers who compose it, is perhaps of more consequence in gaining battles, than either discipline or money. But unless it be the determined spirit of patriotic enthusiasm in defending our country, or redeeming our liber- ties, I must confess, that I am not anxious to see an army filled with any other impulse for the fight. In one of the late numbers of the Ediii- burgh Review, it is stated with the severity of a political writer, but still with leading points of truth, which may apply also to other states, that 302 MILITARY ENTHUSIASM. " Austria is poor in money and heroism^ but she is rich in men ! She never gives quarter, but she has no objection to receive it. With all this command of men, however, the mi- serable state of her finances, will not allow her to bring great armies at once into the field. While Louis XIV. had 400,000 men in arms, Austria could with difficulty embody 70,000. In 1756, she raised 100,000, to oppose the King of Prussia with 200,000. In 1792, she took the field with 1 70,000, against France with an army of 600,000. ^' Among all the automata that allow them- selves to be slaughtered for five pence per day, the Austrian soldier is the most deserving of compassion. The chastisement which awaits him for the slightest offence, is the most ignominious that can be inflicted ; the reward of his toils and his bravery, the most miserable that can be given. The food, the pay, and the clothing of the Austrian, are inferior to those of any other soldier in Europe. Life, where men are at all trained to reflection, is not a thing to be bought for a sordid price. It may be gifted, but cannot be sold. To dispel these illusions of honour which animate the soldier, is to deprive the military profession of its only MILITARY ENTHUSIASM. 303 redeeming quality. The Greeks and Romans fought for the name of their country; the French for Francis I. — for Henry IV. — for Napoleon — for France — for glory ; the Turks for their religion. But the Austrian soldier fights neither for loyalty, nor religion, nor honour. *^ Almost ignorant of his general's existence, the Austrian soldier can feel no enthusiastic attachment to him. Frequently these generals are strangers, such as Tilly, MontecucuUi Eugene, Lascy, &.c. The jealous policy of the court will not allow the generals to court popu- larity, or to apperd to the feelings of their fol- lowers. Twice only have the Austrian troops showed any thing like enthusiasm for their generals — for Prince Eugene and for Laudon, In this age, in which prodigies of valour have been effected by military eloquence, the Aus- trian government has allowed nothing but a brief proclamation at the opening of each cam- paign, commanding obedience, rather than rousing to effort. No triumphal arches — no annaUst to record his exploits — no monuments to attest his victories, present themselves to the imagination of the Austrian soldier. Nor can his courage be much animated by the prospect 304 MILITARY ENTHUSIASM. of a medal, which he must look upon rather as a badge of mferiority, than as an honour, since it is never worn by the officers ; while the offi- cers, in turn, can have no strong incentive to exertion in the hope of obtaining the cross of Maria Theresa, the requisites for which are too numerous and too difficult. " Armies such as these make no rapid con- quests, and give little employment to fame. But, in return, a force of this kind, being almost entirely material in its nature, is exempt from those alterations which disturb the action of moral power. The government, accordingly, calculates its strength numerically ; and reckons not by souls, but bodies. With the armies which Austria has sacrificed to preserve the duchy of Milan and the Low Countries, and to recover Silesia, Charles XII. Avould have con- quered the world." Of all the dangers to which a state can render itself subservient, military enthusiasm is the most to be guarded against by a good govern- ment and by an upright nation. What has the British soldier to fight for more than the Aus- trian. True he is somewhat better paid, and far better flogged. Marlborough and Wellington have had palaces built for them, and monuments MILITARY ENTHUSIASM. 305 erected to their honour. On what other monu- ments can the soldier gaze in England ? Whenever our country, or our justly defined rights are invaded, our people will furnish suf- ficient enthusiasm, and nothing would tend more to the perfection and moral improvement of an army, than to abrogate the sale of commissions, and to promote officers according to merit, as is the case in Prussia, which has the most intelligent army in Europe. The common soldier in Austria has, it is true, nothing but his food and pay to urge him to perform the duties required of him. And as Austria keeps up her army to maintain peace at home, and to prevent foreign aggression, and not for conquest, she might well change the posi- tion of the private soldiers, so as to make them patriotically enthusiastic, first by a s cientific plan of instruction as in Prussia, and secondly by rewards and promotion for exemplary conduct. The military enthusiasm of the French sol- dier is for rapid promotion, rapid conquest, and rut] 1 less plunder. The whole standing army are nauseated with their Napoleon of peace, and the throne of Louis-Philippe would be four times as stable, if he had an army of only one- fourth of its present numerical force. VOL. II. X 306 MILITARY ENTHUSIASM. Promotion in the Austrian army among the officers is remarkably slow: but not confined as in England, first, almost entirely to pur- chase, and after a certain grade, to the turns of seniority. 307 LETTER XXVII. PHYSICAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL POWER OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. Physically, with a population of more than thirty-five milhons, inhabiting countries possessing the many eminent natural advan- tages which I have pointed out to you in my former letters, the Austrian empire may be considered the most powerful in Europe. Morally, Austria is comparatively weak. This arises from the empire being composed of so many nations, holding or fancying them- selves independent, except so far as sovereignty is in question of the central state, which is peculiarly German ; while the population again consists of no more than G,200,()()0 of Ger- mans ; and the remaining 28,800,000 of, 1st. 308 PHYSICAL, MORAL., AND POLITICAL Sclavonians, consisting of Hungarian^Dalmatian, Illyrian, Croatian, and Carinthian Sclavonians, 5,500,000; Galicianand other Poles, 4,450,000; Bohemian, Moravian, Silesian, and Sclavonian, 5,850,000, in all 15,800,000 Sclavonians; 2d, of Hungarian Maygars, 5,300,000; 3d. Italians, 4,800,000; 4th, Wallachians, 1,900,000; 5 th, Jews, 510,000; 6th, Zigeunery or Gipsies, 115,000; 7th, Greeks, Clementines, Turks, &c., 425,000. The difficulty of governing and inspiring a general national feeling throughout the empire, arises from the want of adhesion in the moral constitution of a population speaking different languages, and educated or reared with their respective associations, feehngs, and ideas. Political power is, again, rendered weak by the want of solidity in the moral cohesion. The wisdom and abihty of the supreme govern- ment has, therefore, to direct a most difficult management, — to reconcile the physical, moral, and political elements for the maintenance of domestic tranquiUity, and of peace with foreign nations. Prussia is governed by an intelligent despot- ism, managed in all the details of its admini- stration by the talent which a well-educated POWER OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. 309 nation can supply. The security against the danger of the power it -wields being balanced by the responsibility which the king morally holds at the head of fifteen millions of people, well instructed in useful learning, and in a more sombre religion, which trains the mind more to thinking. This security, which a vicious or foohsh monarch may abuse, is, however, far less dangerous than having a representative legislature, like that of France (and of England formerly), elected so that the king may always carry his own measures by the votes of the chambers, and thus free himself and his mini- sters of both legal and moral responsibility together. Austria is governed by d, patriarchal despotism, seldom abusing its power, except when its authority is disputed. I have, in my former letters, given you a suf- ficient account for a general idea of the relations of Hungary with the empire. Bohemia, the Tyrol, Galicia, and the Italian states, require the most careful, but I would always say the most kind consideration of the supreme govern- ment. The continuation of peace for some years 310 PHYSICAL, MORAL, AND POLITICAL longer, and the maternal relations which exist between Bohemia and the archduchy of Aus- tria, will, finally, cement the former to the latter so intimately, that the amalgamation of both may be realized without much dissatisfac- tion. The Tyrol may also be brought, with moderately paternal consideration, to form a part of Austria proper; and to the M^hole, Moravia, I beheve, on the north, and Illyria on the south, may be also added to the arch- duchy, under the vmited administration of the same general government. As to Galicia, nothing but the most liberal treatment will sooth the Polish nationality into confident alliance with Austrian government. Let the people of Galicia but fully enjoy the blessings of a good administration, and the less enviable condition of their brethren in the duchy of Warsaw, will make them fully appre- ciate the paternal rule of Austria. Italy presents numerous difliculties ; but I am persuaded they might be all so effectually overcome as to render severity altogether unne- cessary; and iniless all the people of Italy, from the Alps to Sicily, were under one liberal constitutional government, I am persuaded. POWER OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. 311 that, if discontent were but removed, and tlie freedom of commerce extended, Lombardo- Venetia might, under Austria, be rendered at least as prosperous and happy as beneath the sway and government of any other power. NOTES.— VOL. I. Kote A, j}^^ ^• SALT-MINES. The salt-mines of Hallein chiefly supply Upper Aus- tria, the Tyrol, and Western Bohemia, with salt. Those of Galicia, Hungary, and Transylvania, the remaining parts of the empire. This most necessary article of con- sumption, from being a government monopoly, is sold in the jmvileged shops in quantities, either in the refined or rock state, with much the same previous care as refined sugar in England. C,for which read B, 2^^g^ 115. The imperial museum of the national productions of fabrics, afford at once to the traveller who visits Vienna an opportunity of judging of the natural and agricultural produ(!e, and the progress which manufactures have made in, the several states of the Austrian dominions. D, foi- luhich read C, page 325. STEAM NAVIGATION OF THE DANUBE. Active preparations are now making for navigating this river from Ulm to Vienna, and in two or three months it will be easily practicable to cross Europe from London to Constantinople, first, by steam to Mayence, thence by land to Ulm or Ratisbon, and thence by the Danube and Black Sea to Constantinople. From the latter the steam-boats lately established will convey passengers by Smyrna or Alexandria back, touching at various ports, to Marseilles. Several steam-boats now ply in the Adriatic. THE END. WHITING, BEAUFORT HOUSE, 6TKAND. J) 13 25 if. 2 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. Series 9482 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A A 000 162 278 #