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362 Rives, Miss Amèlie Louise, To, On her Departure
for France.

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Lines on the Death of Col. Pierce M. Butler.
Lines. Suggested by a Conversation with a Friend. 529 Rome. Papal and Republican.
Lines. To the Rev. Edward Fontaine of Mississippi. 398

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PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM―JNO. R. THOMPSON, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.

VOL. XV.

RICHMOND, JANUARY, 1849.

NO. 1.

public in France was necessary to rouse formal,

GLIMPSES AT EUROPE DURING 1848. palsied Germany, to give new hopes to Poland,

MAGYAR AND CROAT.

to overthrow the proud medieval house of Habsburg and to break the chain that rivetted Italy to its eternal oppressor.

Paris was, as usual, the spark that set fire to all the combustible material of the Continent. The flame spread rapidly and the proportions of the gigantic conflagration are hardly yet determined. Far from it; but ideas, institutions and

The past year, which has just closed its iron gates for ever, has been full of solemn warnings. The God of Nations has caused the sun of prosperity to shine with unwonted splendor upon this continent, whilst dark night has fallen upon the men begin, at least here and there, to appear in fairest parts of the Old World. Ours has been the triumph of the sword and the victory of the race; powerful and honored abroad, prosperous and happy at home-who would not be grateful for such blessings? But fearful and sad has been the fate of our transatlantic brethren; thrones have been overturned and kings banished from their land; nations have risen in arms to fight against their own kindred and the voice of liberty has been drowned in the cries of murdered patriots.

There is in fact no epoch in modern history, when Europe has been so universally, so deeply agitated. Neither the bloody times of religious excitement during the thirteenth, nor the uninterrupted wars of the seventeenth, not even the period of awful commotion at the end of the last century, can show us any year so full of sudden revolutions and thorough changes as the year 1848. From all sides and at every instant do we see the political stage invaded by new actors, so unexpectedly appearing and so little known before, that we have hardly time to examine their features and trace their origin to centuries long past, when a new race appears and claims its part in the great drama.

the dark mêlée : tendencies are showing themselves and taking form, plans for the future are marked out and cognate elements combine for common purposes. We begin to see the two great principles now agitating the Continent of Europe: the desire of forming new political institutions and the resurrection of the nationality of ancient races.

The latter, a movement only about sixteen years old, is by far the most important and the most interesting; it has already overthrown an ancient dynasty and broken up Empires of a thousand years' standing; thanks to it, Germany is no longer German, Hungary no longer Hunnish, and Greece no longer Greek. By its magic touch there rises in the very centre of Germany a Bohemian nation, counting millions, speaking a new language and claiming its own time-honored institutions! In the land of the proud Magyar, five millions of Croats suddenly shake off their fetters, invoke the memory of their ancestors, who fell defending their hearths and their faith against the legions of Trajan, and send an army to enter triumphantly the old Imperial city! Moravia all at once remembers its Selavonic origin and joins the great League into which even That the French Revolution has produced this Silesia, that richest province of poor Prussia, is great European movement, is only in some res-anxious to be admitted. All clamor, all fight for pects true. For the revolution of last February the restoration of their nationality, but all at the was not a political movement; it was not brought same time claim greater liberty and perfect inabout by a party, or the people, nor foreseen by dependence. For it is the people, the so-called those who profited by it, much less by those who low people, who alone had preserved the nationfell its victims. It was, as all the world now knows, nothing less than a social revolution, full of bloodshed, meanness and sadness. Still it has its providential end, which will characterize it in history, when the smallness of means, the infirmity of agents, the miseries of detail, will disappear in the distance, leaving nothing on its broad canvass but great world-moving events. For nothing less than the establishment of a Re- Tired of being French, or German, or Magyar,

al tongue of their forefathers. Now, of a sudden, nobles and scholars, high and learned men, remember their long-forgotten mother tongue, seek for its purer forms in distant centuries, free it from the rust of ages and wield the polished weapon from the professor's desk and the preacher's pulpit, in the salon and the Parliamentary Hall, in behalf of their great and noble cause.

VOL. XV-1

they will now only belong to their own country; of all Slave-nations, claimed proudly their right for this purpose they seek out and associate and refused to send representatives to the Gerthemselves with the low and the humble, who man Diet at Frankfurth. For German Princes for so many centuries have been the modest, but and Tchech Kings might have formed an allitrue representatives of their common race, and ance, they said, but what had the Slave to do in by birth aristocrats, by interest monarchists, they a German Parliament? A Slave Congress was now preach the purest democracy! held at the famous old city of Prague, and here Thus here also the two great principles of lib-were, for the first time since long centuries, unierty and nationality are found faithful and formi- ted the supple, cunning and fanatic Bohemian dable allies; the inflexible prejudices of race, with his own brother, the Moravian and the Slokept unalloyed and strangely tenacious by the vaque from Northern Hungary, the warlike, restpatriarchal life of the Sclavonic nations, com- less Pole, sadly Frenchified, and the Esclavobine with their innate love of liberty, and must nian, Croat and Serbian with his fierce and savand will in the end be triumphant, even at the age air, his long pointed mustaches, and his face risk of shaking European society to its very foun- bronzed by a Southern sun-not to speak of the dations. For many causes have of late coope- Greek Slave and the Cossack of Bessarabia and rated to rouse the feeling of nationality in differ- Transylvania. Here were seen the representaent parts of the Continent. German science has tives of twenty millions of reckless, grim solfor years been successfully engaged in reviving diers, all speaking the same tongue, though in the memory of the former glory of ancient ra- different dialects, and all united under the same ces, still in existence, though almost forgotten, white banner with its red cross, that cross which and thus aroused them to a consciousness both adorned alike the patched jacket of the poor of their power and their degradation; the revi- Tchech, the rough lambskin of the Croat, and val of Greece, as an independent kingdom, with the purple velvet of the Dalmatian. They came all its display of enthusiastic patriotism, has kin- from the foot of the Ural where they bent their dled the sleeping flame and given new courage knees to the Czar, and from the shores of the and new life to the despairing, whilst gigantic treacherous Adriatic under the gentle sceptre of Russia has first nurtured the almost sublime idea the infallible Pope, from the fertile banks of of a Panslavism, that curious resurrection, now the Oder under Prussia's Christian King, and half accomplished, of all the Sclavonic nations and their union into one great Empire, with Russia for its head, Poland its heart, Bohemia its arm, and the feet of the giant resting on the Bosphorus and the Adriatic.

from the marshy shores of the Danube where the Crescent reigns,—but they all met as brethren, as members of an ancient, honored race, as children of a common father, and whenever they met, one shout for "free Slavia" rent the air. When, therefore, Germany first raised the ban- It was among this motley crowd of brilliant ner of a One United Germany, it was at once costumes and wretched rags, that public attensaluted by a cry of insurrection from the Oder tion was attracted by half-a-dozen young men, and the Vistula, the Moldau, Save and Drave who everywhere appeared together, silent, never and from all along the banks of the Lower Dan- smiling, always courteous. There was nothing ube. Slave* arose against Teuton, and king- remarkable in their dress: a red cloak with erdoms that had formed part of Germany, until mine falling over the left shoulder, a red or purall traces of national difference seemed to have ple cap of curious shape, and a sword at the side disappeared, abandoned the tottering Empire formed a costume like many others; and when and rejected with the oppressor's rule his not addressed they would answer with equal fluency less hated language. In vain did German pa- in German, Latin or the Sclavonic dialect, called triots plead that the Sclavonian minority ought Illyrian. But they were evidently men whose to follow the great national movement of Ger- hearts were sad and whose grief bore heavily many-in vain did they point to the smaller sat- upon them; only when some strange orator ellite following his sun and the tender parasite would rise, and in a language but barely able to winding around the venerable tree, and in vain maintain its claim of kindred to the great Sclawas Bohemia called a dagger in the very heart vonic family, speak of the distant Adriatic and of Germany. For it was in this ancient king- its smiling plains, they rose like one man, and dom that the Tchechs, a fierce and fiery race, full with a voice full of deep emotion, exclaimedof energy, and excited by their enthusiasm for Zivio! Zivio !* the recovery of their national independence, first

They were Croats,-Croats of the south of Hungary, and a curious race of men. Held in

✦ Following European custom, we use the word Slave slavery for a thousand years and more, they had

as the generic name of all Sclavonian tribes, whose political union is known as the Panslavism.'

* Hurrah.

been less fortunate than even the smallest of brethren in fierce simplicity, 66 we are Romans." European races-for never during that long se- They were content to be Slaves. ries of centuries, and amidst all the overthrows And Slaves the Croats are, even the first born and changes of which their country has ever of the Sclavonic race; for their traditions say been the theatre, had they found the hour or the that when Rome's Proconsuls made the yoke of place to recover their independence as a people. the Eternal City unbearable, ancient Illyria (of And yet, in spite of Macedonia and Rome, their which the Croatia of our day formed part) sent first but not successful enemies, in spite of the Bul- three armies out under the command of three garians who imposed their own name upon a brothers. Tehech, Leck and Russ were their part of their native land, in spite of the Turks, names and three great kingdoms they founded: who for centuries have occupied the larger por- Bohemia, Poland and Russia. But the vast tion of their country-in spite even of the Magy-steppes of Illyria were a sad inheritance; they ar and the Austrian who reign over the rest, they were the gigantic high roads on which tribe had remained uncorrupted and undismayed amid after tribe, nation after nation, poured down all the vicissitudes of time. The cry of nation- from the mysterious East upon the fertile lands ality had been heard far away in their vast step- of Middle Europe. They came by hundreds of pes and found an echo in their hearts, warmly thousands, they came by millions, and the poor attached to the memory of their forefathers and Sclavonians bowed their head like the pliant reed full of ardent love of independence. They had before the storm and rose again after it had passed. shaken off the yoke of the Magyar: a handful Six times had they seen fierce and savage hordes of men, they had risen against millions of a proud pass through their land towards the West, never and warlike race that had ruled them since time to return, when there came a still fiercer horde immemorial, and now they had come to claim and a more savage tribe from the distant Ural the assistance of their brother Slaves. For Slaves mountains. They were brothers of those Huns they had ever been, and Slaves they were yet with heart and soul. But the Magyar hated them, for he was their conqueror-and the Teuton hates the Slave.

who, under Attila, had filled Western Europe with horror and carnage-the last on the native soil of the Croat, but invincible warriors and a powerful nation. Millions followed each other in vast armies during the whole of the ninth century, fearful enemies, striking terror into their foes by their countless numbers and strange tactics, until finally they found themselves lords of the soil and gave to their new conquest its Latin name Hungaria. But Magyar was the name by which they were then known to their brethren and Magyar they are still in their features, language and manners. Brave and intelligent, they hide under the calm and reflective physiognomy of an Oriental nation, a passionate heart and an enthusiastic spirit.

And with this hatred they had lived for a thousand years, conqueror and conquered in the same land, yet ever separated by all the external signs which perpetuate the remembrance of the victory of one and the defeat of the other race:the Magyar, always on horseback, always in arms, proudly displaying the insignia of command and showing himself master of the soil; at his side the not less proud Croat, cultivating under the rude dominion of foreign masters fields whose harvest would not be his, covered with miserable sheepskins, chained to the glebe, with no traditions but slavery and no legal existence but in the Germany gave them civilization and the blesswords of his lord: plebs misera, gens contribuens ings of the Christian faith, their great king, St. aut potius nulla! Stephen, a constitution breathing liberty and But now the Croat's ancient nationality was equality, and the race became a mighty and reresuscitated; a long forgotten people they reap-nowned nation. The whole of Illyria owned them peared on the stage and claimed their place allegiance, and Hungary was already one of the among the nations of the earth and their vote in powers of the earth, when their king Mathias the affairs of Europe. entered Vienna and was crowned Emperor of

With the modesty of true pride they spoke not Germany. Still they retained their laws from of the days of ancient Rome when their fathers the times of St. Stephen and preserved them noowned all the rich lands from Drave to Danube, bly through all the invasions of Tartars, the confrom the foot of the Alps to where now stands quests of Turks and even the wars with great the city of Belgrad and where the mighty river Austria; for those institutions were based upon suddenly turns its course towards the East. They that only solid foundation of all legislation, nadisdained to quote their own historians who, car- tional genius, which it were well for the Euroried away by their pride and patriotism, count pean nations of our day not so entirely to abanthe imperial Assyrian and the illustrious Trojan don for the sake of mere theoretical liberty or among the ancestors of their race; they disdained fantastic notions of nationality.

even to say with the unlettered of their own

About the year 1000.

centuries, for fearful is the struggle between the proud freeman and the cunning oppressor. The accounts of their rebellion form the most lamentable history of any nation, and such were the effects of their stubborn resistance and the licentiousness and cruelty of the Imperial armies, that at one time human flesh was publicly sold in the land of the noblest race of Europe!

Admirable as these laws and institutions were, | under Austrian rule! Bloody are the pages of they still bore from the beginning the germ of his history during the sixteenth and seventeenth their final destruction in them; their leading principle being that the only means of governing the strange diversity of subjugated populations by the few and the strong, was the paramount strength of the royal power. This principle was handed down as a government-tradition to all the successors of St. Stephen. Besides, the Magyars gave laws only for themselves, the conquering nation; they only were thus organized, The skillful policy and the patient genius of remaining forever a victorious army in the land the Austrian sovereigns were directed towards of those who have ever been nothing more than a complete change of their constitution; an abplebs contribuens. They were all of them no- solute monarchy was to be established and the bles and warriors, owning the land by the right|language, the customs and the laws of the Magof their sword and holding it under the title of a yar were gradually suppressed. Their pride military fief. Hence their barbarous latin term was broken, and never was a race prouder of Insurrection for the military service that every their tongue and more jealous of their liberty. Magyar is obliged to render for his fief, hence Even the Magyar of our day shows it yet in also the Magyar word Hussar for the soldier, every word, in every action. His tall, muscular whom every twenty had to send mounted into stature is that of the man given from early childthe field. hood to rude bodily exercise; the fierce, piercing Thus they prospered and became more pow-look speaks of unyielding pride, and his costume, erful abroad and more tyrannical at home, ex- the brilliant "dolman" of the Hussar, richly emtorting from their weakened monarchs greater broidered in gold and pearls and but partly covliberties and higher privileges-but always for ered by the "Attila" tunic of black velvet, rethe Magyar alone; the Croat, the German, the minds him constantly, in form and name, of his Roumain or Walachian remained still plebs nulla. lofty descent. The noble Magyar-and every Their period of greatness and success was how- Magyar is noble-never appears without his large ever rapidly drawing to an end. The Turk, curved sabre, trailing on the ground, and whilst their fearful neighbor, had grown bolder and more elsewhere the Halls of Legislature are closed to and more dangerous, until the Crescent threat- the armed man, the Magyar enters them boldly, ened once more to banish Christianity from Eu- his left hand on his sword and his brethren say: rope. Army after army was poured into the He had his arms and he has voted; his vote then fertile valley of the Danube, and fortress after was a free vote! The Magyar loves his language, fortress fell into the hands of the Infidel. And and a beautiful, sonorous language it is, by its a strange king was the king of the Magyar, natural loftiness and majesty of expression well whom Providence called upon to resist Soliman fitted for a people of warriors and orators, and the Magnificent, the conqueror of Rhodus. Na- the very fact that it is an idiom separated from ture had marked him for a strange fate, for, born all other known tongues in the world, a language before his time, he was a bearded youth in his" without a mother or sisters," but adds to its fourteenth, and a gray headed man in his eighteenth year. Betrothed even before he was born and crowned when two years old, he ascended the throne at ten, was married at fifteen and died at twenty. What a master for the proudest nobility of Europe! What an adversary for the first general of his age! Three hundred thousand Turks invaded the land of the Magyar, and at the fearful battle of Mohacz fell forever the national life and independence of Hungary; a part of the beautiful country was made a Turkish province, the remainder passed under the dominion of Austria, and Hungary, after a race of unparalleled brilliancy and after a most heroic and romantic resistance takes foreign masters and is buried in the history and the monarchy of Austria. A sad fate has been the fate of the Magyar sition in the monarchs of Austria, or a national

peculiar charms. That the Magyar is often carried away by his national pride, and in solemn earnest assures us that his Lords are more noble than all the kings of the earth, that some of them trace their descent through Attila up to Noah, or that St. Stephen is the first saint in Heaven, and that the Revelation was given to the world in the language spoken in Heaven, in Magyar, is a failing also of other nations of Europe and may well be pardoned in a people sighing under a foreign yoke and delighting in dreams of former greatness,

For dreams were all the Austrian left him from the times of the chivalrous Ferdinand, whom he called in to his aid and made his king, to save him from the Infidels, to the days of fallen Metternich. Not that there was a tyrannical dispo

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