The story of Hungary 4

The story of Hungary 4

Debreczen, one of the most remarkable cities of the Hungarian Alföld

and the seat of a considerable industry; Grosswardein (Nagy-Várad),

the scene of many important historical events; Arad, Temesvár, and

Carlsburg (Gyulafejérvár), all fortified cities memorable in history;

Klausenburg (Kolozsvár), the capital of the former principality

of Transylvania; the flourishing Transylvanian towns of Kronstadt

(Brassó) and Hermannstadt (Szeben), inhabited for the most part by

the descendants of Saxons; Fiume, the seaport on the Adriatic; Agram

(Zágráb), the capital of Croatia, a beautiful city, which, however, was

greatly damaged in 1880 by a terrible earthquake; and Eszék, the most

prominent of the Slavonian towns.

 

[Illustration: COACHMAN.]

 

[Illustration: HUNGARIAN TYPES.]

 

The population of the country is composed of various nationalities.

The conquering Hungarians did not oppress the ancient inhabitants

of the land but left them undisturbed in the use of their native

language, and, even in later days, their tolerance went so far as to

actually favor foreign, and, more particularly, German immigrants,

and to this exceptional forbearance alone must be traced the survival

of so many nationalities, and the lack of assimilation, after so many

centuries. Classified as to languages spoken by the inhabitants, the

chief nationalities number as follows: 1, Hungarians or Magyars,

6,500,000—the ruling, and, so to say, the political nationality of

the country, their language, the Magyar[*] being the language of

the state; 2, Germans, 1,900,000; 3, Roumans, 2,400,000; 4, Slovaks,

1,800,000; 5, Croats and Serbs, 2,400,000; 6, Ruthenes, 350,000. Besides

these there are other nationalities but in insignificant numbers.

 

[*] The language of the Hungarians, or Magyars, belongs to the

Uralo-Altaic stock, and must be classified with those mixed languages

which have sprung up from the amalgamation of different branches of

the said race. In the case of the Hungarian language we have before

us a mixture of the Finnic-Ugrian and the Turco-Tartar idioms, and

the question of its fundamental basis has been constantly a matter of

dispute between philologists.

 

Its phonetic system, as a strictly Asiatic language, being essentially

different from that of the Indo-European or Aryan languages, we give

here the following rules of pronunciation to be used in this book:

 

VOWELS: | CONSONANTS:

_Hungarian._ _English, etc._ | _Hungarian._ _English, etc._

a o in hot. | cs ch in chalk.

á a in far. | cz ts in charts.

e e in net. | gy dy in how d’ you do.

é ai in fail. | ly gl in Italian gli.

i i in pin. | ny gn in Italian ogni.

í ee in deer. | s sh in shirt.

ó o in no. | sz s in saint.

ö eu in French meuble. | ty ty in hit you (tu in

ö eu in French deux. | tune).

u u in full. | zs s in pleasure.

ú oo in too. |

ü u in French juste. |

ü u in French dur. |

 

The relative numbers of the various religious denominations are, in

round figures, as follows: Roman and Greek (united) Catholics 60%;

Eastern-Greek (non-united), 16%; Lutherans, 7%; Calvinists, 13%;

Unitarians, 1/3 %; Jews, 4%.

 

With respect to their cultural condition, the people may be said to be

abreast of the nations of Western Europe in every thing but industry,

commerce, and some branches of science. In recent years especially a

great improvement has taken place in popular education, owing to the

large and daily increasing number of schools, and the law which compels

children to attend school. There are, for the purpose of advancing

learning and cultivating the various branches of science, a variety

of conspicuous scientific institutions, literary societies, reading

clubs, and public and private libraries. In journalistic literature the

country is equal to any country on the European continent.

 

[Illustration: CHILDREN FROM THE DISTRICT OF THE SAVE.]

 

The constitution of the kingdom is one of the most liberal in

Europe. The estates were represented at the Diet up to 1848, but

under the present constitution the government is based upon popular

representation. The Parliament or National Assembly consists of two

Houses, the House of Representatives and the Upper House, or House of

Lords, and in these two bodies and the king is vested the legislative

power. The national affairs are administered by eight ministerial

departments; the affairs in common with Austria are settled by a

delegation from the two Houses of Parliament which meets an Austrian

Parliamentary delegation once in every year, and administered by three

common ministerial departments—for foreign affairs, for the common

army, and for the finances, respectively.

 

In conclusion it may be added that the description given above of the

favorable concurrence of soil and climate is fully borne out by the

abundance of fine cattle of every description possessed by the country,

by a bountiful production of cereals which has earned for Hungary the

name of the granary of Europe, by the growth of the greatest variety of

fruit and forest trees, and finally by the rich products of the mining

regions we have adverted to before.

 

This chapter, however, would be incomplete were we not to mention the

gigantic efforts made by the national government in every direction

during the last two decades to raise Hungary from a mere agricultural

state to an industrial and commercial state as well, by fostering

her domestic industries and providing good highways, a fine net of

railways, steam and other navigation, in order to afford an easy and

cheap outlet to the abundance of natural products with which nature has

blessed her.

 

These patriotic efforts, considering the short space of time they

cover, have been attended with signal success, and have culminated

in the National Exhibition of 1885, held at Buda-Pesth, which fitly

illustrated to its many visitors, amounting to nearly a million, the

extraordinary progress made by the country in the last years.

 

[Illustration: A “KOLA.”]

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER II.

 

HUNGARY BEFORE THE OCCUPATION BY THE MAGYARS.

 

 

The historic period of Hungary begins, properly speaking, with the

first century before our era, when Pannonia, comprising the regions

watered by the Danube and Drave, was conquered by the victorious arms

of Rome. Prehistoric traces, however, may be met with in abundance,

which, with the aid of archæological inquiry, indicate that the soil

of Hungary was already inhabited in the neolithic age and in that

of bronze by populations who, judged by the mementoes left behind

them, which were unearthed by the present generation, must have stood

on the same level of civilization as the rest of Europe at those

periods. Certain articles dating from the age of bronze show even

such marked national peculiarities as to lead to the supposition that

the heterogeneous tribes were all under the influence of one kind of

culture. The Pannonians, after a protracted struggle, were subjugated

by Tiberius, the stepson of the emperor Augustus. One of the art gems

of antiquity, the so-called _Apotheosis of Augustus_, to be seen in the

museum of antiquities at Vienna, commemorates the triumph of Tiberius.

The conquering general is represented as stepping from his chariot to

do homage to Augustus and Livia, who are seated on a throne in godlike

forms. Below, Roman soldiers are raising trophies, whilst the conquered

leader is sitting on the ground with his arms tied behind his back. The

reduction of the Dacians, to whose realm Transylvania belonged, took

place under Trajan, a century later. To this day stands in Rome the

pillar of Trajan, erected in memory of his successful campaign in Dacia.

 

[Illustration: ROMAN AND DACIANS, FROM TRAJAN’S COLUMN.]

 

In Trajan’s time already Pannonia differed in no wise from the other

Roman provinces. Under a Roman administration the language of Rome

soon gained ground, although the legions placed there were by no means

Roman or even Italian, but consisted for the most part of Romanized

Spaniards, Belgians, Britons, and inhabitants of the Alpine provinces.

The towns became municipalities and colonies, and their inhabitants

enjoyed the privilege of self-government conceded to every Roman

citizen. Dacia, too, became, under that name, a Roman province, and

the Romanizing process was no less rapid there than it had been in

Pannonia. The blessings of Roman civilization followed, as usual,

in the train of Roman conquests. Cities soon sprang up in the newly

organized provinces, and were connected with each other as well as

with Rome by fine highways, traces of which may be met with here and

there to this day. The cultivation of the vine was introduced under

Roman rule, and the regular working of the gold and salt mines of

Transylvania began at that period. The life in the provinces was

modelled after the Roman pattern, for the Roman brought with him his

customs, institutions, language, and mode of life. The newly built

cities boasted of public places, of amphitheatres, of public baths,

the resort of pleasure-seekers and idlers; nor was the forum with its

statues wanting. The border towns had their _castrum_, giving them a

peculiar character of their own.

 

[Illustration: A ROMAN TEMPLE.]

 

For four centuries these provinces shared the destinies of the Roman

empire. The enemies of Rome were their enemies, too, and when, under

the emperor Marcus Aurelius, in the latter part of the second century

of our era, the German nations combined in an attack on the Romans,

the Marcomanni, who were renowned for their savage bravery, made a

successful inroad into Pannonia, and crossing the Danube devastated

the whole land. Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius, was satisfied

to maintain only the integrity of the