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^Literature*Memoies op a Hungarian Lady, By Thebesa Pudszxy. With an Introduction, by Francis Pulszky. 2 vols, Colburn. * iThe deep interest which England, in common with the greater part of the civilized world, has felt in the recent struggle of the Hungarians for the maintenance of their liberties would excite an eager desire to peruse these volumes, had they no other recommendation. But coming, as they do, from the wife of one of the most active and eminent patriots engaged in that brilliant but unfortunate contest, they merit a peculiar share- of attention, and will be eagerly read to obtain a clear and living view of the whole enterprise. They possess, however, a still livelier claim upon our sympathies, as they narrate not only the deeds and deaths, the victories ; and the exilfes, of the greater movers in the conflict against the combined tyranny of Austria and Russia, but, the perils and eventually-successful escape pf the writer herself from the pursuit of her country's enemies to Englahd, In this latter point of view they are more stirring and striking than any possible romance. They combine all the thrilling interest of difficulties and dangers /with the solemn, certainty of truth. There is at once a npvelty and a reality about them that rivet the reader to their pages, and are sure to confer an extensive popularity upon them.The circumstance which will first strike the reader is the excellent English in which these volumes are written. It is only by an occasional phrase, or an occasional want of a native _ fluency in the style, that we are 'reminded that it is the work of a foreigner ; and even these, in a second edition, which is sure to be called for,\ may by a little care be reinoved. We Arid on the same page frequently written Bude and Buda, Pest and j?esth,and other names of Hungarian places not strictly confined to the one or other orthography. There occuralso, now mid then, sudi little slips as the following :At pp. 246; volv ii;: “ This we never experienced more thoroughly than one day, when from noon till mid* night, in an opeio. vehicle, we were exposed to the burning rays of, the sun, and soon after, to a splashing ram.*’ We presume that the aim does not burn till midnight in Hungary, Jhough rain may splash you aoon after* With these slight marks of a foreign pen, the work, on the whole, even as, regards its English, is one of singular ability. It is opened by a coucise history of v by Mr. Pulszky, which will give to thereader a' more clear acquaintance with the ‘ aimals and character of * that country than hine-tenths of the British population possess, fcs; Pulszky^ thentells Her ste^, blended with the story , of her country'srecent achievements and inj uries with a life and can-doui that are peculiarly attractive. We are str tick vrith the-fmrhess .^th wmch she treats of persOhs and evente. that deserve * the severest condemnation at any gooi man's hands, and which cannot possibly be regarded by any Hungarianbut with/a diecp and natural resentment. The conduct of Austria towards the noble 'teuntry of Hungary has been so brutal, and^as regards her own greatness, so suicidal, that the simplest statement is the best’. -Her follies and her cruelties would be lessened by the exhibition of anger: in the calmness of historical impartiality they stand forth in their real ehormity; Surely no nation of modern times Has shown so stupid ah ignorance of anything like sound policy, or of that progress in liberal enlightenment which ought to, have been aimed at in the nineteenth century. To say that its government is cruel, treacherous, obstructive, and narrow-minded, is only to say that it has lived amid great events without being capable of deriving the true moral from them» and that while other nations have been advancing in power and social hap-: piness, in proportion as they have adopted free institutions, she has been too imbecile to perceive or to comprehend this. ^ The most melancholy fact connected with the late civil war between Austria and her fairestr , * • ^ 1 ^ t t | -province is, that heri government has displayed a blindness, to all that constitutes true sovereignty, or that is productive of national prosperity, so thorough and so. fixal'tot.. nothing .can result from it but yet deeper degradatiph and ultimate dissolution. For Hungary, full of chiyalteus power, full of the sources of natural wealth, and with a tendency to expansion of intellect and of political inquiry^ there is a brighter future, notwithstanding its present disasters. The evils that afflict Austria are more deadly and ineradicable. At this moxhent who would hot ten thousand times prefer to be a Hungarian than an Austrian ? How much mote hopeful must be the sorrow of the Magyhr patriot, even irt exile, over the destinies of hik nation,, thte that of a’thinking Austrian over the auguries of his! In the ohe case there is a bleeding cpimtrjr, yet a Iivini one ; in the other, the body is bloodless, lifeless, antsunk in a poisonous and repulsive corruption.Mrs. Pulszky describes herself as kno wing nothing ofHungary before she went there in 1845. She was a Viennese by education, and first visited Hungary with her husband, who whs a Hungarian. The picture which she draws oftheir life on their estate at Szecsy, about sixty miles from Pest, and the views which she gives of various places oh the way thither, with the history and legends attached to them, are very agreeable. We are introduced to a life , half patriarchal half feudal, sufficiently unlike anything in this country to interest us by its novelty. We find ourselves amongst a miscellaneous population of Jews, Gipsies, Slovacks, and Hungarian peasants ,* and the lord andlady of the castle, amid their twenty-five thousand acres, their extensive farms and woods, devoting thechief portion of their time to the duties that such a property brings. They have to care for the education of their peasant children, the advance of their agriculture, and, during dearth and winter, to the supply of their people with food. At one time they are witnessing the dance of the peasants; at another they are making excursions into the distant parts of their estate:—“We often drove,” says the authoress, “to see our Pusztak (farms). My favourite one was Batka, which was rich in pleasant oak woods, presenting a romantic view ofthe ruins of Holldko, beautifully situated on the top of a rock. This ruined castle was once the abode of the lords of HolhSko, a large domain of many estates, amongst which was Szecseny, now its superior. At the foot of the ruin, in a narrow mountain pass, lies the village of Holldko, entirely shut out from the rest of the world, and almost inaccessible in the rough season. In this seclusion live the descendants of the feudal garrison of that ancient stronghold, who are legarded as the best cultivators of fruit iu that neighbourhood. Nothing could bo lovelier than the fruit-trees, with their bunches of blossoms, exhaling perfume in the midst of this desolate spot.”This is one little peep at the charming life of the authoress and her family on this quiet property, when the scene changes to the northern part of the country where Mr. Pulszky’s mother lived—a “ region exposed to the dominating influence of the Carpathian chain of mountains, rough and stubborn, many of them rearing their snowy summits, the outline of which was softened only when the rising and setting sun spread a rosy veil over their angular brilliancy.Here the wild mountains give birth to many mineral springs possessing medicinal virtues, and the life is varied by the variety of people flocking to these spas, and by the descendants of the 20,000 Hussites who, in the fifteenth century, fought under their leader, Giskra of Brandeis, and settled there under the celebrated Hungarian monarch, Matthias Corvinus. Here, too, we are amid great religious processions of the peasantry, the chase of the wolf, the boar, and the bear, by the gentry,’ diveiwlfied by «{orU, bulls, weddings, anniversaries, and improvised festivities.But. suddenly the scene changes. There are rumours•• * •
Newspaper Details
London Standard of Freedom
London, Middlesex, GB
Sat, Mar 23, 1850
Page 11
Full Page
Clipped by
Laszlo N.
HU 12 Jul 2020
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