LIV. CHAP. of the Drave."-" We shall meet before on those of the Danube," replied Jellachich; and he was as good as his word. With these words they separated, and both sides prepared for war. 1848. 34. State of par ties in Hun time. No proper idea of the great and most interesting war which ensued can be formed, unless the state of parties. gary at this in Hungary throughout its continuance be taken into consideration. There were two parties in that country, which, although united at first in the common cause of resisting the Austrian rule, and asserting the independence of Hungary, rested, in reality, on different principles, and came at last to be as much opposed to each other as both at first were to the Imperial domination. The one was composed of the high Magyar aristocracy -as proud and chivalrous a body of nobles as any in the world-which aspired after the independence of Hungary, because it would place them in possession of its government, and liberate them from the German yoke, which had so long chafed their lofty and aspiring dispositions. With them the quarrel was national, not political; it resembled the contest of Wallace or Bruce with the Plantagenet rulers of England in former days, and had nothing in common with the social struggles going on in Europe in the present. Passionately desirous of emancipating their country and race from Austrian thraldom, they had no intention whatever of delivering their people from their own. Though hurried along, in the first instance, by the universal transports into Liberal measures, it was with the arrière pensée to make use of them as a means only to an end, and that end was to establish a highly aristocratic government in Hungary, of which the Emperor, as king of the realm, was to be the nominal head, and they themselves, as his ministers and counsellors, the real rulers. It was with this view that, in the outset of the contest, when the Cabinet of Vienna had no means of resisting their demands, they had succeeded in extorting from it not LIV. 1848. only a separate legislature and army, but a national CHAP. exchequer and cabinet, without the intervention of a single functionary of German blood. At the head of this party was Count Louis Bathiany, a noble of ancient family, heroic disposition, but little prudence or worldly wisdom. He had all the virtues and failings of the Magyar character. Bold, chivalrous, and enthusiastic, but headstrong and rash, he devoted himself heart and soul to the cause of his country, and suffered death in the end on the scaffold on its behalf, with the same resolution as his ancestors had charged the Ottoman squadrons on the ancient fields of Hungarian fame. 35. or republi The second party in Hungary was composed of men who, though united at the moment with the Magyar Democratic magnates in the effort to throw off the German yoke, can party. were in reality not less hostile to them than the Vienna aristocracy, and foresaw a contest with their present allies even more terrible than they were now to wage together with the Austrian battalions. This party comprehended all who were smitten with the political and social passions of the time, and seized the opportunity of its embarrassments not only to destroy the authority of the House of Hapsburg, but to establish republican institutions in its stead. It consisted almost entirely of the inhabitants of towns and the students at the universities and academies, who sincerely desired the amelioration of their country, or who, carried away by the warm views of their eloquent teachers, were ready to go any length against the aristocratic pretensions even of their own families. It may readily be believed that this party had little at bottom in common with the haughty Magyar nobles, who aspired to the government of the State; and unquestionably a victory to their united forces could have had no other effect but that of opening the portals to a still more desperate civil war between the rival aspirants to the rule of the Hungarian commonwealth. So deeply, however, is the love of equality in Hungary, as in Poland, CHAP. implanted in the minds even of the nobles, that many LIV. of them were foremost in the republican party, and 1848. 36. ardent in support of a cause which could have led, if successful, to no other result but ruin as complete as, from its triumph on the Vistula, had overtaken the Sarmatian commonwealth. Unmarked at first amidst the enthusiasm of Hungarian nationality, the division between the two parties was, in reality, complete and irreconcilable; and it is to its influence, more even than the intervention of the Muscovite battalions, that the ultimate failure of their united effort for independence is to be ascribed. Though Count Louis Bathiany was the political head Character of of the aristocratic portion of the Magyar party, yet when Georgey. war began, his ascendancy yielded to that of GEORGEY, to whom the command of the army was intrusted. This very eminent warrior must receive a prominent place in that age of glory, and be placed alongside of Radetsky in the archives of military fame. He was one of those men who, born with military genius of the very highest kind, wanted only a greater theatre whereon to exert his talents, to have attained the very highest reputation. When called to the command of the Hungarian army, and opposed to the soldiers of Jellachich and Windischgratz, he had a very difficult task to accomplish. Though the Hungarian soldiers are second to none in the world. in native hardihood and valour, and they had always been regarded as the élite of the Imperial infantry, yet, like all other young troops, their new levies were little able to withstand the shock of the Imperial veterans. Although the general enthusiasm was sufficient to cause all the recruits after that occasion to join the national ranks, and the depot battalions stationed in Hungary did the same, yet the veterans were all in Lombardy serving under Radetsky; and his influence, joined to the strong instinct of military discipline, was adequate to retain them with the Imperial standards even when most LIV. 1848. strongly urged by their countrymen to go over to the CHAP. other side. Thus, when hostilities began, the Hungarians had the most difficult of all tasks to perform-that of combating with new levies veteran troops in a flat country, with no natural advantages except the possession of the fortresses to counterbalance those of discipline and military experience on the other side. The ability with which Georgey did this, and the success with which for long his efforts were attended, forms one of the most instructive chapters in military history, and has deservedly given immortality to his name. His merit was the greater that he had not been bred a soldier, and only served a short time in the Austrian army as lieutenant before the war broke out; and when aroused, as he himself tells us, by the cry, "The country is in danger," he Georgey, was living a quiet country life on the estate of a female Acts in relative in the north of Hungary, and entered one of the i. 1. battalions of the Honved with the rank only of captain.1 1 Hungary, His very interesting military memoirs are full of com- 37. plaints against the unsteadiness of the new Hungarian Continued. levies, and the manner in which they melted away when first brought under fire, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of their officers to retain them to their colours. Probably, if they have "writ their annals true," the historians of all other young troops would have similar tales to recount; but, in the Hungarian war, there was this peculiar difficulty wherewith the Magyar generals had to contend, that their troops were almost all new levies. They had scarcely any old soldiers on whom to fall back, or to bring up in the decisive moment, either to improve success or avert disasters. This was a difficulty of the most serious kind-so great, indeed, that if the Austrian generals had evinced the same vigour in following up their victories that their troops had displayed in gaining them, the Hungarian insurrection must have been crushed in the outset, and the Imperial Government spared the humiliation of invoking the Mus LIV. 1848. CHAP. covite aid for its final suppression. In combating these early successes of his enemies, Georgey displayed military abilities. By his indefatigable efforts, inexhaustible resources, and indomitable spirit, the contest was prolonged amidst multiplied disasters, until the young soldiers had acquired by practice the steadiness of veterans. Like Washington, he made such skilful use of the mattock and the spade, that he succeeded in baffling all the efforts of his antagonists, and had the glory, with his raw levies, of reducing the Imperial army to such straits, that beyond all question, but for the intervention of the Muscovites, Vienna would have fallen before the Hungarian arms. The necessity of capitulating at length to the Russians, has exposed his memory to severe obloquy, especially from his own countrymen; but his actions will speak for themselves—they require no eulogy; and he has recounted them with the calm dignity of one who can trust to time to vindicate his reputation. 38. of Kossuth. The leader of the other party was KOSSUTH, and Character though a far less immaculate character than Georgey, he possessed all the qualities requisite for the lead of the democratic party, of which he was the head. Bold, unscrupulous, and determined, he was a true tribune of the people. Born in the humbler ranks of society, he not only shared none of the Magyar pride, but their haughtiness was his aversion; and he was resolute to vindicate both the independence of his country and the dignity of human nature, by organising a revolutionary movement which should at once secure the first and assert the second. The powers he had received from nature were eminently calculated to achieve these objects. His oratorical talents were of the very highest kind. He could declaim with equal facility in Hungarian, Latin, German, French, or English; and he has repeatedly charmed audiences of different nations, by speeches delivered with the ease and accent of a well-educated native. To this facility in speaking he joined the rarer faculty of seizing |