tion and a regiment of Austrian cavalry to | of freedom, eternally green, from out of Grand Varadin, the memorable insurrection whose foliage shall be heard the voice of of the 6th of October broke out at Vienna, God speaking, as from the fiery bush to and for a time suspended the war in Hun- Moses, 'The spot on which thou standest is gary. It may be recollected that the first holy ground; thus do I reward the brave. collision occurred in the effort to prevent the To the Magyars freedom, renown, well-bedeparture of the troops to Hungary. Jella- ing, and happiness." This noble invocation chich crossed the Austrian frontier at Bruck was nobly answered by the patriot citizens, on the Sth, and advanced with his troops on who hastened to the field. the capital, and subsequently united with Auersperg and Windischgratz in crushing the movement of freedom in Vienna. The terrible atrocities committed by Jellachich's Croats on the devoted city are unparalleled in modern warfare. Had the Hungarians at once marched against him, the fortune of war might have been changed; but the Hungarian army was not then freed from the destructive influence of the Austrian camarilla. After the terrible bombardment of Vienna, in the latter days of October, a partial agreement for surrender was made; when on the 30th the Hungarians were observed from the tower of St. Stephen's attacking the besieging army. For a moment there was a brave rally; but avarice, indecision, and timid counsels had done their work; the true-hearted and the brave had now only to fight like men for whom there was no hope of mercy-they died as soldiers, good men and true; and Vienna became the prey of the brutal force of the Imperial

arms.

Meanwhile, the noble Hungarians were watering the plain with their life's blood. The eloquence and energy of Kossuth had collected a considerable body of troops. "It is an eternal law of God," said he, in one of his grand proclamations, "that whosoe'er abandoneth himself will be forsaken by the Lord. It is an eternal law that whosoever assisteth himself, him will the Lord assist. It is a divine law that false swearing by its results chastiseth itself. It is a law of our Lord's that whosoever availeth himself of perjury and injustice, prepareth himself the triumph of justice. Standing firm on these eternal laws of the universe, I swear that my prophecy will be fulfilled-it is, that the freedom of Hungary will be effected by this invasion of Hungary by Jellachich." And he thus invoked the patriotism of the nation: "Between Vezprim and Weissenburg the women shall dig a deep grave, in which we will bury the name, the honor, the nation of Hungary, or our enemies. And on this grave shall stand a monument, inscribed with a record of our shame, So God punishes cowardice' or we will plant on it the tree

Although the Diet in the month of July had voted an enlistment of 200,000 men, up to this point the levy and equipment had proceeded but slowly. Of the 40,000 regular troops in Hungary, about 24,000 had declared for the nation. By the 24th of November Kossuth had, however, collected 12,000 regulars, and 8,000 of the Honved or national force, to march against Jellachich in the direction of Vienna. The regulars, by the departure of officers, were inefficiently led, and the Honved recruits and volunteers were badly armed, many of them only with scythes. The force was subsequently increased to 50,000 infantry, with 54 cannon and 1,200 hussars. It was in the interval of this increase that the hopes and fears of the beleaguered Viennese were so painfully excited. With this force the Hungarians marched on the plains of Vienna, where were opposed to them the united armies of Auersperg, Jellachich, and Windischgratz, amounting to 120,000 splendid infantry, four heavy calvary regiments, and a park of 272 heavy cannon. Fearful odds these; but strong in the might of a just cause, the Hungarians boldly met the foe in the battle of Schwachat, on the 30th of October. Their right wing gallantly carried the village of Mannswerth with the bayonet; but being exposed to a murderous cross-fire from the forts of Schwachat, and disappointed of aid from a Viennese sally, they were compelled to retreat, leaving 6,000 dead on the field. In that battle many noble deeds of personal courage were performed. The scythe-men armed themselves with the muskets of the slain. A gallant countryman of ours, Captain Guyon, who led a Honved battalion of scythe-men, received his rank of colonel on the field. The Hungarians finally retreated, in tolerable order, through Bruck and Raab to Buda-Pesth.

The defeat of Schwachat did not dispirit the Hungarians. The enlistment and equipment of the Honveds proceeded, under the extraordinary energy of Kossuth, with marvellous rapidity. The anvils of the towns rang with the clang of the arms which their artisans forged by night and day, and the

bells of the churches were cast into cannon. Everywhere did the local committees of defense promote the work of recruitment. The nobles mortgaged their properties, to aid the patriotic movement with money; and heading their dependants, brought whole battalions and regiments into the field. Even women, casting aside the vestments of their sex, took arms as soldiers. It was a great and generous movement.*

the previous year was but sub-lieutenant of his regiment-60,000 men with 100 cannon held the plains between the Danube and the Thiess. The centre at Szolnok operated thence along the only road which leads from Pesth into the plains of the Thiess through Abany. A second corps extended on the right wing covering the passage over the Thiess, in the famous vintage district of Tokay; and it thus kept up the communication with Gallicia, whence important auxiliaries in men and money were drawn. To them were opposed the corps of General Schlick. The third division of the army stationed in Hungary proper, covered the passages lower down the Thiess near Kekskemet, to check the advance of Jellachich.

To cover the rear, General Bem was sent into Transylvania at the head of from 15,000 to 20,000 men. The brilliant career of this general, not only in subduing the hostile elements of the country, but in annihilating the Russian auxiliaries, deserves a word or two of personal detail. Bem has been too conspicuous in the battles of freedom to escape the calumny of despotic pens. His career has been eventful and glorious. Of a noble Gallician family, he first saw service as a lieutenant under Davoust and Macdonald, in the French expedition against Russia. On the reorganization of the Polish army, his military talents secured him a military professorship, but his independent spirit and his bold utterance of free opinions, subjected

By the end of December about sixty battalions of from 1,200 to 1,500 men each, were equipped, officered by the magnates, and men from foreign services; but merit always received foremost recognition. The humblest men who manifested talent for leadership were sure of promotion. The Honved battalions are now considerably upwards of two hundred. Buda-Pesth was the centre of these movements up to the close of December; but at that time the united force of Jellachich and Windischgratz, amounting to 110,000 men, made their advance on the capital, on both sides of the Danube. Kossuth, to oppose them, erected barricades throughout the route by which they must approach the capital; but this effort, which was attended with vast labor, was defeated by a severe frost, which enabled the Austrians to avoid these formidable obstructions by crossing the frozen marshes on each side. The Hungarians wisely avoided the risk of a battle on a plain, at that time; and in the beginning of January in the present year, they abandoned the cap-him to long imprisoment and even to torture. ital and fell back westwards, to the more important strategetic position of Debreczin, on the eastern side of the Thiess. They, however, left a strong garrison in the commanding fortress of Komorn, by which they retained a hold on the communication of the Danube. Debreczin now became the provisional seat of government. The army was divided thus. Under the command of the heroic Arthur Gorgey-a young man who in

*The Hungarian correspondent of the Daily News, to whom we are indebted for some of these details, states, that in a band of 140 prisoners, subse quently captured by the Austrians, sixteen were women. He adds, that "a countess, who is living in the midst of the Austrians, and not unseldom seen at court, has equipped for war all her tenants capable of bearing arms, and completed a regiment of 1,300 hussars, who are commanded by her sister in person."

What a fine opportunity for those ardent spirits who have sought military enterprise in the fields of Portugal and Spain, to do the cause of liberty a

service. Good artillery officers are eagerly sought after by the Hungarians.

In the Polish Revolution his great skill as an artillery officer gained him the command of that branch of the service. Up to a recent period he has lived in retirement in France and England, devoted to scientific pursuits. He was on his return to his native land when the command of the National Guard of Vienna was conferred on him, which he held with honor up to the surrender of the city. A price being put upon his head, he escaped to Pesth; and Kossuth and the war committee gladly availed themselves of his military genius, since so amply displayed in the fields of Transylvania. Bem's greatness and gallantry as a soldier are not more remarkable than his humanity as a man. Despite the vile calumnies of the insatiate libellers of freedom in the German and English press, he has in no single instance abused the fortune of war, but has been generous to excess in forbearance. Indeed, throughout the war, the whole conduct of the Hungarians towards their prisoners has been chivalrous, and of

fers a noble contrast to the cold-blooded

From the Quarterly Review.

LYELL'S SECOND VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES.

A Second Visit to the United States, in the years 1845-6. By Sir CHARLES LYELL. 2 vols. 1849.

[The liberal and candid tone of the following article is in such striking contrast with that which has hitherto usually characterized Tory criticisms upon our national character and customs, as to be quite worthy of note.-Ed.]

command the interest of the ordinary reader in a much higher degree than his former valuable tour, which we can take some shame to ourselves for not having reviewed in this Journal.* Not only do the author's peculiar pursuits occupy in proportion much less space, but the scientific part, without being condescendingly popular, from his perfect mastery of his topics and the lively perspicuity of his style, has the rare merit of making the most abstruse discussions intelligible, we cannot but think even attractive, if not to the absolutely uninitiate, to those who have but slight elementary acquaintance with this new philosophy. If on the other grave questions with which Sir Charles Lyell, in the strong curiosity of an active and ardent mind, delights to grapple, his judgments do not always obtain our assent, they command our respect for their honesty, calmness, and moderation. If from the natural bias of his mind, predisposed and kindled by the wonderful revelations of his own science to the utmost speculative freedom and boldness, from gratitude for the more than generous hospitality which he everywhere met with, from the honor paid to his philosophical pursuits, the universal acceptance which he encountered in all parts of the land, he is inclined to take a favorable view of American institutions and American life-to look forward with sanguine hope to the future of this great unprecedented experiment in political society; there is, nevertheless, no blind flattery, no courteous reticence of that which is socially dangerous or disagreeable, if not worse, in

THIS is very pleasant and at the same | Sir Charles Lyell's present volumes will time very instructive reading. Sir Charles Lyell ranges with great ease, liveliness, and rapidity over an infinite variety of subjects, religious, scientific, political, social-from the most profound inquiries into the structure of the immense continent of North America, and the institutions, the resources, the destiny of the mighty nation which is spreading over it with such unexampled activity, down to the lightest touches of transatlantic character and manners. Now we are discussing the grooves and indentations which the icebergs have left, as they grated over the rocks, when great part of Canada and the United States formed the bottom of an unfathomed ocean; we are taking measure of the enormous coal-fields, as large as most European kingdoms, which promise to be the wealth and strength of this great federation; or we are calculating the thousands of years before man became an inhabitant of our planet, when the Mississippi began to accumulate its delta. We are now amusing ourselves among the every-day topics of American steamboats and railroads, with incidental anecdotes of the language, habits, modes of feeling in the various races and classes or conditions of American citizens; we may almost see the growth of cities springing into existence, we trust under happier auspices, as in a more genial clime, but hardly less rapidly, than that which Milton describes as "rising like an exhalation." We are discussing the exhausted Oregon question, the inexhaustible Slavery question; even to the Millerites, a set of fanatical impostors and dupes, who sat up in their winding-sheets, or in more becoming white robes, awaiting, on the night of October 23, 1844, the dissolution of this world and all its geology.

* The former tour was made in 1841-2, and the

account of it (2 vols.) published in 1845. This ought

to be at hand while one reads the new book.

the result of those institutions or in the pre- | Past, sweep away her throne, her aristovailing character of that life. The work cracy, and her church; dismantle her Windmay at once enlighten and render us more sor, demolish her Alnwicks, and Chatsjust and fair on our side of the Atlantic; worths, and Belvoirs, and Blenheims, and on the other side, by the strong predomin- Hatfields; break up her cathedrals into ance of good will, by the total absence of congregational churches-than America, acrimony, though now and then there is a when the inevitable day of her independence touch of sly, perhaps involuntary satire, (in was come, could have vested her presidency some of the quiet anecdotes there is a sin-in an hereditary line of sovereigns, or atgular force and poignancy,) it may afford matter for serious reflection to the thoughtful and dispassionate, and force or win some to sober thought who are in danger of surrendering themselves to the unsafe guid-vices, which are the popular element conance of passion, jealousy, or national vanity. We cannot but hail with satisfaction anything which may tend to promote the mutual harmony and good will of the great Anglo-Saxon race, on whom, at present at least, seems to depend the cause of order, civilization, and religion.

We write with fear and trembling when, amid this universal breaking up of the fountains of human affairs, we dwell on the stability of any political institutions. The Almighty might seem to have written on the crystal arch of the all-seen heavens, or rather on the crumbling walls of earthly palaces, for all mankind to read, the simple Apostolic axiom, "Be not high-minded, but fear." It is in no spirit of boasting, therefore, but in humble gratitude to the Supreme Disposer of all things, that we refuse to close our eyes upon this inevitable fact. So far as the world as yet has shownpartly, perhaps, from some innate national idiosyncrasy, but far more from its slow and gradual training, its widely ramified and universal scheme of self-government, the growth of its laws and polity out of its character, the strengthening of its character in congeniality and in attachment to its laws and polity-the Anglo-Saxon race alone seems gifted with the power of building up for duration free institutions in the two majestic forms of an ancient constitutional monarchy and of a new federal republic. To each its station has manifestly been appointed by irrepealable laws, and by the force of uncontrollable circumstances. England, in the nature of things, could no more have become could no more become a flourishing republic, than America could have started as a dignified monarchy. England could no more, with safety, without endangering all that is her pride, her glory, and her strength, even her existence-without hazarding her wealth, her culture, her place among the nations-break with the

tempted to create an aristocracy without descent, wealth, traditionary names, or those great professional fortunes and distinctions, or fortunes and distinctions from public ser

stantly renewing our aristocracy. This subject-"this great much injured name"the aristocracy of England, with its influence, we have long wished to see treated with the fullness, the freedom, the philosophic impartiality of M. de Tocqueville's celebrated work on the Democracy of America; but we confess that among the most profound, as among the more empiric or ignorant continental writers, including among the former M. de Tocqueville himself-even among the most enlightened Americansthere seems so complete an incapacity of comprehending its real nature and bearings, that we almost despair of the fulfilment of our earnest desire. Yet, so long as such a work is wanting a work developing and illustrating worthily the profound and real meaning of a phrase which with most writers conveys but a vulgar and utterly erroneous reproach-we take the freedom to say that no political writer can judge, with the least justice, the absolute necessity of our present institutions to our political and social wellbeing; nay, the fact, that while the slow, and gradual, and inevitable expansion of those institutions in their own spirit and in their own principles is their one safeguard, a revolution which would shatter them to the earth would, in Europe at least, throw back for ages the civilization, the order, the social happiness of mankind. We might then seek in far western realms old English institutions under totally different circumstances, growing out into the laws and usages of orderly and of happy republics; we might find our laws, our language, our letters renewing their youth under new social forms. As we may now, we might perhaps for centuries contrast North America with South America-the grave legislative assemblies of New York or Pennsylvania with the lawless bands in Monte Video or Paraguay, which rise one day to power and have disappeared the next-the great system of