50 NUMEROUS BRANCHES OF DANUBE. Vessigrad, and lowering with a sombre frown over the waters of the Danube, tells of days anterior to the paltry structures of modern times. Underneath, is a solitary tower whose decrepitude bespeaks a still prior date. Here Salomon, the sixth king of Hungary, was confined by his subjects in the eleventh century. Towards Vessigrad the country begins to assume a more interesting character. To the west of Gran, the river winds through a monotonous plain, among a multitude of islands dividing it into three or four different branches, each small and shallow; but to the east of that town, hills rise on both sides, clad with shrubs and forest trees, interspersed with towns, spires, villages, and dilapidated fortresses, exhibiting at every point a landscape not dissimilar to those on the banks of the Rhine, but with less luxuriant vineyards and less interesting ruins. One of the peculiarities of the scenery of the Danube consists in the numerous water-mills on its surface. Eighteen or twenty boats are strung together, two and two, each pair containing a mill, the wheel of which, balanced between a couple of boats and turned by the current, is used for grinding corn. The town of Watzen on the left bank of the river indicated our approach to Pest. Its pretty HUNGARIAN NOBLES. 51 church, like many others in this part of the country, has two towers surmounted with shining cupolas, terminating in light, airy spires, in the eastern style. At 8 P. M. we reached our destination, having accomplished thirty-one German, or a hundred and fortythree English, miles. The evening closed upon a day of as much enjoyment as can be anticipated from an excursion of pleasure. A large portion of the kingdom of Hungary had passed under our review in the space of fourteen hours, and each turn in the river had presented a fresh subject for some amusing anecdote, some historical allusion, or some political opinion. The sitting of the diet at Presburg had combined with accidental circumstances to cast us into the midst of the magnates of the land, and it would have required an effort to have avoided learning something from their conversation. Every word, every look of the Hungarian noble proclaims him a man of proud independent spirit, with one predominant political passion, hatred of Austrian rule. Patriotic as the Pole, and frank as the Briton, his country's honor is dear to him, and he hesitates not to say that that honor is compromised by the annexation of Hungary to Austria, which deprives 52 UNION OF HUNGARY WITH AUSTRIA. the former of its character as a free state; nor can he bear to think of the circumstances under which the land he loves became subject to the German emperors. King Louis the Second was drowned in a lake, into which he fell while flying from the famous battle of Mohacs, where the Turks were headed by Soliman the Great, in the year 1526; a battle in which a large portion of the Hungarian nobility was slain. The Moslims were expelled the following year by Ferdinand the First of Austria, who then annexed the kingdom of Hungary to his dominions. The monarchy, however, had always been elective, and so it continued, the diet nominating as kings of Hungary the successive sovereigns of Austria, till the year 1687, when Leopold the First prevailed on the nation to make the crown hereditary in his family. At the diet held at Presburg in that year, the magnates and deputies, in gratitude for the final expulsion of the Turks in 1686, consented to resign their privilege of election in behalf of the male descendants of Leopold, or, in failure of such, in favor of those of the house of Hapsburg. Charles the Sixth, the last male representative of his dynasty, fearing lest the crown should not devolve to his daughter Marie Thérèse, ob METTERNICH'S POLICY. 53 tained the sanction, commonly called the Pragmatic Sanction, of many of the powers of Europe to her succession. Though several of her provinces revolted and others became disaffected, yet her right was maintained, and with it the possession of Hungary; which, by her marriage with Francis the Lotharingian, passed, with the rest of her dominions, into the hands of the Lotharingian family, who still hold the empire. In failure of the descendants of Marie Thérèse, that is, of the Hapsburg family,-the monarchy of Hungary becomes again elective in the hands of the diet. This reversionary right tends to keep up the existing jealousy towards Austria. The Hungarians naturally lament that they have no separate king of their own, no sovereign who holds his court among them; and the emperor does not manifest in this part of his dominions an interest sufficient to make them forget that they are but a secondary object of his consideration: consequently, they are disaffected as well as jealous. A few years ago, Metternich flattered their vanity by proclaiming the then crown prince, the present emperor, king of Hungary, thus making the kingdom for a season a distinct monarchy and still preserving the integrity of the Austrian empire. 54 EXISTING DIFFERENCES. Just at this time there is a dispute between the Hungarians and their sovereign on a point of apparently little moment. He calls himself Ferdinand the First, being the first Ferdinand of Austria; but as Hungary has had four kings of that name, they are desirous he should be called Ferdinand the Fifth of Hungary; and with this prayer they have recently sent a deputation to him. They also insist on the empress being crowned at Presburg as queen of Hungary; while the Austrians think her acknowledgement as empress to be sufficient. It is probable that the latter demand will be conceded on the part of government, while the former is resisted.* *The following schedule, extracted from an old number of the "Morning Herald," affords a means of comparing the extent and population of Hungary with those of the other dominions of the emperor of Austria. Contents Population. |