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    760 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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    RUSSIA AND TURKEY. The Nations of Russia...

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    HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH. Hungary and Us Revo...

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    To Have Some Twelve Or Twenty Periodical...

    field , " aid the " Staffordshire Potteries ; " there are also new parts of the Art Journal and of Chambers s Edinburgh Journal , the last full of sound matter as isual . The "woiks of old English writers—known too- often only by name—are Literally pcuring from * the press . This week Mr . Bohn supplies us -with , another volume of Dk Foe , containing Memoirs of a Cavalier , Memoirs of Captain Carleton , and others of less significance . In the new series of British poets , published by N " ichol ( Edinburgh ) , we have the first volume of Samuel Butler ' s works , edited , by the Rev . Gteobge Gzlfillan . Nicouua ' s History of the Jesuits ( Bokn ) we reserve for more extended criticism . A single word is sufficient to announce a new translation of Strdbo , in Bohn ' s Classical Library . The only other book on our list is Viset's History of French Literature , in the Eighteenth Century .

    Hard Times , collected into one volume , beautifully printed , needs no notice from us beyond the simple announcement of its reproduction in a permanent form . No doubt the mass of our readers are already familiar with the story as it appeared week by week in Household Words .

    760 The Leader. [Saturday,

    760 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

    Russia And Turkey. The Nations Of Russia...

    RUSSIA AND TURKEY . The Nations of Russia and Turkey , and their Destiny . By Ivan Golovin . Author of The Caucasus . Part II . Triibner and Co . t * a sort of Preface to these lively Notes ( for the volume is rather a collection of jottings than a connected and systematic essay ) M . Ivan Golovin constitutes himself a critic of contemporary writers on Russia . We cannot , as a rule , find time or space to criticise critics , and we think M . Golovin would have sho \ m better taste and discretion if he had reserved his strictures on his fellow-writers for at least a separate form of publication . A correction of the many errors into which the political bias of pamphleteers , the haste . of bookmakers , the ignorance of a priori historians , and the

    iihperfect observation of tourists inevitably betrays the mass of writers on the topic of the day , would in , itself be a valuable contribution to the dominant literature ; and M . Golovin has rip doubt peculiar qualifications for suet a task . But to preface a hasty and fragmentary production of his own , which a harsher judgment than ours might pronounce more readable than reliable , a specimen , in ' short , of the thousand and one mixtures of anecdote and statistics which are daily supplied by ingenious publishers to an ungenerous public under thie general titles of " Books on the War , " ' * Russia and Turkey , " & c . : thi $ usurpation , we say , of a double office bjr our present author is , we humbly think , deserving a word of reprehension . Having discharged our gall to this ext ent , we have no difficulty in recommending

    "M . Iyan Golovin as a vivacious and original authority on Russian eccentricities , social , political , and administrative . His family name , his personal antecedents , and his actual position * are not the least striking illustrations of the System he exposes with a severity to which the freedom and dignity of exile , with all its hardships , preferred to the livery of a splendid servitude with all its wealth and decorations ^ lend a keener ed » e than any mere force of rhetoric , or point of epigram can bestow . When , the Emperor Nicholas paid a visit to Italy and Sicily some years ago , Count B , who had been ambassador from the Sardinian Court to St . Petersburg , at his coronation , had an interview with the imperial tourist . The conversation falling on the Marquis de Custine ' s book , the Emperor said , " M . de Custine is a Frenchman ; he is free to write what he pleases on Russia ; but ( alluding to M . Golovin ' s work on Russia under Nicholas , ) here is a man whose brothers I know well as men of honour and

    distinction , and he writes in this disgraceful way about his country . " To which sally of temper , our informant adds , the Count B ~ , in the true spirit of a practised courtier , could only reply , a la Louis XIV ., " Sire , one black sheep out of six ty millions ! " The Emperor , however , if his words are faithfully reported , -was incorrect in accusing M . Golovin of abusing his country . On the contrary , although an exile , he never forgets to separate his race and his country from the government he unmasks and the system he lays bare . The Athenasum only last week says , almost in a tone of reproach , " Before all things , M . Golovin is a Russian . * ' We honour the patriotic courage which refuses to confound an enduring nation with a transient tyranny . M . Golovin has been accused of treating as of no importance the exemption of the Russian nobility from corporal punishment , an exemption which is in effect a real privilege . Our contemporary , whom we have just

    quoted on the other hand , seems to blame M . Golovin for noticing this exemption , in reply to a French writer , who had epigrammatically remarked that " all Russians were equal before the stick . " An English writer might with equal justice and propriety remark that " All Englishmen arc equal ¦ before the law . ' Old marquises , ' however , do occasionally escape exposure , and q system of fines in police-courts operates occasionally as an exemption from punishment for the rich in cases where imprisonment would be the penalty of the poor . Landowners , too , in some instances , practically refute this admirable theory of equal justice . " When M . Golovin tells us that ho regards it as u a misfortune to have been born in the reign of Nicholas , to havo to waste his energies \ n combating a man who , had he not the , pow <> r to render millions of human beings unhappy would not deserve any attention ;" he speaka rhetorically , of course ; his regret lias all the air of real gusto , and the " had ho not" is a stroke of irony with a vengeance ! " Had he not , "" indeed !

    M , Golovin , in the volume we are at present noticing , rambles on im a not « -book style over every phase and branch of his subject , historical , ethnological , political , administrative , military , artistic , literary , topographical . Much of his information is necessarily not new , though probably not borrowed , and it is conveyed with a certain pretension of novelty and exclusivcnoss rather irritating to readers choked with Russia of lute . The beat and fresh < jsb part of the . book is , aftor all , the- moat apocryphal—wo mean the anecdotes with which every page is agreeably interspersed . Of some of these it may bo aiud , - —if not true , they « ro well invented ; and they arc happier , if not more faithful illustrations than tons of contradictory and H < jue < Jziiblo statistics . ML Golovin writes surprisingly good English—clear , vivid , and sonaotimca oven felicitous . Perhaps the occasional strangeness of the phrase lends a certain zest and flavour to the writer's always oaustio stylo . J

    Hungary And Kossuth. Hungary And Us Revo...

    HUNGARY AND KOSSUTH . Hungary and Us Revolutions , from the Earliest Period to the Nineteenth Century : with a Memoir of Louis Kossuth . By E . O . S . Bohn . Hungary and its Revolutions is the title of the volume just published by Mr . Bohn in his " Standard Library ; " but b y far the lai-ger portion of its paces is dedicated to the most recent of Hungary ' s revolutions ; the chief object of the work being , as the author states , " to give a true and correct relation of the life and character of Louis Kossuth , and especially to point out the principles by which lie was guided before and after the revolution of 1848 . " The introductory sketch of Hungarian history is consequently an exceedingly brief one ; but it is well and clearly written ; it is an interesting narrative—not , like most compendiuins , a dry record of dates and events ; and it is valuable as affording a key to the character of a people extremely susceptible to traditional influences , and attached as much to ancient laws as to ancient liberties- As a specimen , we will present the reader with an extract from the account of the struggle for Hungarian liberty , in the beginning of the eighteenth century , by the patriot Francis Baltoczy . The history is additionally interesting , for we cannot but trace a striking analogy between some of its events and those of the last revolution in Hungary ; an analogy which even extends in some measure to the heroes of either story . The living patriot has evinced the talent , the energy , the devotion , the courage an misfortune , which distinguished his predecessor : we may trust that the similarity between their fates ceases there , and that a brighter future is in store for Kossuth .

    "As soon as Joseph I . was established on the throne of Austria he recalled Heister , and offered the Hungarians an amnesty , -with a promise to redress their grievances . Though the country was still in a state of too much irritation against the late monarch to be ready to accept t « rms from his successor , Rfikoczy -was sincerely desirous of peace ! As he could not singly oppose the will of the majority , he summoned a Diet , where it was resolved to restore ^ Hungary to its original fortn of government , a kind of federal union , in -which each state or coilnty should continue as heretofore to manage its own local adralnistnvtion , while sending deputies to the general Diet , and all united under one chief , who sliould bear the title of Duke , as in the days of Arpad . It was with some difficulty that Ktikoczy could be persuaded to accept the honour , but as soon as he yielded , he was raised on a shield according to ancient usage , and the prelates , magnates , and deputies of } , he Diet , swofe allegiance to him . The proposals of Joseph to negotiate were then accepted , on condition of bis resigning tie hereditary claim of his family to the throne of Hungary and Transylvania , tnat it

    ana ne was received as their king , he would abandon the latter country wholly to Rakoczy , and swear to observe the charter of King Andrew . " These conditions were , however , rejected , and war recommenced in 1707 . The 3 > iet met at Onad , and the deputies from thirty-one out of the fifty counties attended the sitting . Rakoezy again urged them to listen to proposals of peace , which werej however , again refused ; tie Hapsburg dynasty was declared to be deposed , and the throne vacant . The Czar of Russia about this time offered to procure the crown of Poland for Rakoczy , but he declined the honour . la 1708 , Joseph convoked a Diet at Presburg , which was but thinly attended , and the time was wholly occupied l > y religious discussions . General . Heister entered Hnngaiy with a large army , and encountered Rakoczy at Trentsin : in the heat of the battle , the prince was thrown from his horse with so much force as to become insensible , and this accident tamed the fortunes of the day ; when ho recovered his faculties all was already lost . Six thousand men lay slain , many captives were taken , and the rest "were dispersed by the Austrians . '

    " The magnates had now begun to weary of the war , which they themselves had continued contrary to the advice of Rakoczy r but when in 1710 he laid before them the proposals of peace sent by Joseph , and offered to resign his office , and release them from their oaths' of allegiance to Mm , they steadfastly refused . The plague had broken out on the frontiers of Turkey , and cut off all communication with the strong places there which still declared for the Hungarian leader , and the promised succour of his ally , the King of IVnnce , did not arrive . Ra > koc ? , y accordingly went to Poland to demand aid , leaving Karolyi in charge of the troops ; but in his absence his general accopted the mediation of England and Holland , and at Szatinar signed a treaty of peace with the emperor . " Rakoczy perceiving now that all Ms hope of establishing the liberties of Hungary on a firmer basis were vain , wrote to Joseph and recommended the unhappy Hungarian people to his mercy ; then embarking in a vosscl at Dantzic . sailed for ISneland , and passed from tnence

    into 1 < rauce . Louis X . 1 V . received lum graciously , allowing him a handsome pension , and he was treated with much kindness by his nobks and the ladies who surrounded the king , who were charmed with his romantic history , and his literary taste . But the frivolity of the French court had no attractions for a man whose hopes had been crnslied , and who now wandered aij exile from the country for which he had vainly sacrificed the best years of his life . Ho left Franco for the shores of the Sea of Marmora , and was there occupied with literary labours until liis death in 1735 . His memory is over cherished by llungary as one of the last of her patriots , and the wild music of the lidkoczy march which tucn echoed amidst her mountains , and was borne by the wind . s across her plains , has a century later been heard again in loader strains , and roused the hearts of her people once more to deeds of heroism . "

    The work before us is principally compiled from soureos of information already before the public ; but it nlso contains much that is new regarding the early and purely personal history of Kossuth- —if , indeed , a man can be said to have a purely personal history whose whole life has been devoted to the service of Ins country , and who has scarcely liad a thought unconnected with public matters since extreme youth . There arc interesting details concerning the conduct of the Peati Hirldp , or Pesth Journal , of which Kossuth was the editor from 1841 to 1844 , and which became in his hands so valuablo an exponent of Liberal principles . Many of those individuals who look upon Kossuth as a demagogue or general destructive , whose marvellous powers of eloquence only render him the more dangerous , will probably be surprised to see the wisdom and moderation with which—while advocating the cause of the people , und endeavouring to awaken them to a scn . se of thoir dignity and of their rights— -lie employs that powerful eloquence equally to repress injustice and revolutionary excesses . Tlio following is not the language of an ambitious demagogue : —

    Ul lhos « Bchomooof wiadoin are futilo , ' ho wrote , ' whiah . do not proceed from law , but within the boundaries of law , wo must listen to tho inspirations of sound roason , and wo may not forgot that under tho ohudow of u constitution which it lina taken centuries to erect , tlio lives and intorouts of millions rest , who have a » nbrong claims on our consideration and forbearance as on our justice . ' With these- viows ho who desirous thut while claiming a morojimt construction of the laws respecting tho tenure of land , tho interests of tho present proprietors of tho aoil should not bo overlooked . " Ho furLhor exhorted tliowo wlio , in thoir zoal for rof ' orm , were inclined towards oxtromo monamot ) , to ohoriuh tho roincmbrsinco of tho rm . at . whioli lunidat errorn und ditrknoRa , contained much thut whh truly groat und good , and therefore to roapoct tho order of the nri «~ tocmoy , w-hiuh had hitherto pluyed tho chiof p : \ rt in tho history ( Mr thoir country . Ho Imdo thopooplo follow leadorrt wlioao iinmoa wore asiiooin ted with tho most glorious recollections , while ho « t . tho < nme Uino adinonitiliod those to whom t \ nation turuod with conlldenco at tho vory ( iourul of tlidi- iiiwnoH , to wJiom 11 upbore of active unof ulnooa wuh opened from thoir first outranoo into life , whioli other inon only attained through nuorioa of long Htrugglcu , Unit . it whs thislr duty to lend tho notion on in tiio pathway of reform . Lot tliuia but ronouiico thoir liurrow-hoarlod , ncUisli , unpatriotic viowa , lot them but fool that to grant to othorrt thoir rlglittt is no muirifico , but tho boat acouriLy for their own rights : lot tliom but entry tho whito Unnncr of rwtiomil profi , ross orownod with tho j { reou garland of llono , uloiig tlio

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 12, 1854, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12081854/page/16/