The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-21 00:00:00

HUNGARY.

ration.
It is estrange effect that is produced upon men by
being thus drawn into the bu'y coil of social relations
in advance of those among which their character has
been formed. The being fore, dto overleap a great
chasm yawning midway in the even progressive path
of social improvement—to assimilate their views and
conduct to those of a society centuries in advance of
them—has rarely a beneficial effect on individuals.
Ordinary minds give way and sink beneath the shock,
as witness the uniform disappearance of savage races
from regions into which civilised men immigrate in
numbers. Hardier and more powerful natures sur-
vive the shock ; nay even develop higher qualities and
capacities than in ordinary circumstances they might
have done • but even they jar ariably develop
'counterbalancing weaknesses, which indicate the un-
healthy influence it has exercised on their system.
In the earlier part of his career MEIIEMET ALL
evinced simply the qualities of many an ambitious
and unscrupulous Turkish Pacha. The arts by which
he sulilented his rivals, the massacre of the Mame-
lukes to assure his power, the nature of the aggran-
disement he contemplated, all have many parallels in
the Turkish :enrols. But he had a capacity to recog-
nise the superiority of Europeans, and ambition to
'aspire to become, or appear, their equal. The old
fox learned to wear the external show of European
civilisation to speciously as to deceive European.
themselves, and lead them to regard him as a man of
oenial views and sympathies. But it was an ex-
' eoterngal show, and little or nothing more. He disci-
plined armies, he built and manned fleets, he encou-
raged attempts to introduce improved methods of
agriculture and manufacture into his dominions,
he founded schools, he set at nought the
traditional customs and superstitions of so-
ciety when they interfered with his purposes.
I But amid all this he remained at bottom an inveterate
Turk of the old school, less advanced beyond the
Turks of last century than many of his contesopera.
rip. Increased knowledge and improved morals—
perfected modes of industry—improved orgenisatioa
of his systemof administering government—were with
him no more than so many instruments for increasing
the power of the Turkish Pasha. Self-aggrandise-
ment—self aggrandisement in the mean and narrow
conception formed of it by the no'orious pachu of
Bagdad and of Janina—was hie sole objezt. He un-
derstood and appreciated the superior power conferred
by European civilisation, in the same (and no higher)
ewe that any slave-dealing negro chief appreciates
the superior power conferred by the possession of a
good store of muskets and ammunition. The heart of
the unreclaimed semi-savage despot, beat unaltered
beneath the outward show of the far-sighted and
humane statesman. As the mere rustling of a mouse
behind the curtain was enough to betray the seeming
woman into the resumption of her feline character, so
the eagerness of MEHEMET ALI to 'tibiae and ex-
terminate the Wahabees and to bend the inhabitants
of Dongola to his yoke, made him oast off at once all
his affectation of Europese blaadness and humanity,
end stand revealed cues more the unchanged and un-
changeable murderer under trust of the Mainelukes.
We would not be understood to deny MEHEMET
ALI the possession of virtues. All powerful characters
—and his was eminently a powerful character—as
are incapable of petty vices, so they are a-
of great virtues. But his virtues were those of
semvcivilised Onnankse, not of the tamed
European. He loved his family as the wolf loves its
cube. He was imbued with a sentiment that enabled
him on all occasions to net up to the decorum and
dignity of his position. lie was not carried away by
noun ; he could bear reverses with majestic silence.
The self-command he evinced by allowing the English I
mails to cross the isthmus uninterrupted during the
time that the whole structure of his power, as well
u all his ambitious aspirations, seemed crumbling
down beneath the blighting
impelling
of England-,
was morally grand, let his i motive have
been what it may.
Altogether the character of MEREncr AL: con-
trasts meat favourably with the great majority of
the Europeans among whom he moved. The enthu-
siasm of BURCIIIIABDT; the healthy, manly, r.ibusti-
Guineas of BELZONI ; the prosaic frankness and
independence of Re
g> til• sturdy energy of
WAGIIOII24, and the good qualities of one or two
others, show to advantage ; but in the great herd of
adventurers who flocked to Egypt under Menurxr
ALL, it is bard to say whether the mean or the ludi-
crous predominate. The levee of else young spend-
thrift in HOGARTIIIIProgress" does not
present such a group of caricatures of humanity, en
the mass of European adventurers who have of late
years been scrambling, and squabbling, and intriguing
in Egypt—a worse plague than ever Mosas brought
down upon it. The best intellects of a highly-
civilised country find a career at horns ; it is the
shams who are driven to become prophets in less civi-
lised lands, as underbred men try to pass for fashion-
able among the vulgar. The motley crowd of
projectors and dealers in articles of vereu who sought
to push their fortune in Egypt were as paltry and
spiteful in their rivalry as they were sordid in their
aims, The envenomed factions of ransackers of tombs
(not in much of knowledge, bat of ealeable articles),

r, and

letter

THREE women, REBECCA SMITH, MARY-ANN
°ERRING, and CHARLOTTE HARRIS, at this moment
await the last sentence of the law, the first for poison-
ing her children, the two last for poisoning their hus-
band,. Such cases have lately become so painfully
and horribly frequent, that we cannot but feel sur-
prise that the last session of parliament should have
been allowed to pass without some philanthropic and
humane legislatr feeling that it was his mission to
attempt the application of a remedy. That the faci-
lity with which every.description of poison can be
procured in the druggist's shop, and the abe:ce ot
any inquiry into the causes of death by com-
eezent persons, are closely connected with
the frequency of these poisonings, there can
be little doubt. If we examine all the murders from
this come that have come before the public, from the
Happisburgh poisonings in Noifolk, which first re-
minded us of the days of BRIM VILLIERS and TORANA
down to the present cases, it will be olrerved in the
majority of instances that little or no difficulty was
found in procuring the most dangerous poisons, and
that the murdered persons were buried without a
suspicion having been created of their having died of
other than natural causes. Here, then, appear to be
two points upon which legislation might proceed.
In the first place, restrictions and conditions might
be placed upon the retail sale of poisons that would
not only to a great extent prevent persons intending
to commit murder from purchasing them at all, but in
all oases afford a clue to the destination of purchased
poisons. In order to effect this, only persons licensed
Amid be allowed to sell poisons, and then only to in-
dividuals who are, directly or indirectly, known to
them, and every sale of' poison should be registered.
Although this last may be regarded as a trouolesome
process, it might be done in the same time that the
druggist now spends in labelling his parcels, " Ar-
senic—poison." Such a system could be objected to
upon no other ground than the increase of trouble to
the seller of poisons ; but those who arc acquainted
with the details of a chemist's and druggist's shop will see I
at once that it would add very little indeed to the labour
the chemists erealready in the babit of expending ice'
the neatly done-up parcels which are sent out from
their establishments. A small extra charge would
pay fur all the expenses attendant upon a plan of this
kind.
In the second place, the registration of death
under the present law is very loose and deficient. All I
that is required is, that some one informs the registrar
of the death. Little or no inquiry ever takes place,
and if the death has not been unusually sudden or
suspicious, all competent inquiry is at an end. The
importance of the certificate of a fit judge of the
muse of the death of an individual, has been already
pointed oat by Mr. HoRACE MANN, in his
Letters on the existing Law of Reg istration r
and he suggests " that every death and its cause I
should ba certified to the registrar by a duly qualified
medical practitioner." If such a regulation existed
in addition to requiring the statement of the death by
the friends of the deceased, it would be impossible to
hush up a death where no medical attendance had
been procured, or even where a medial man has
refused to give a certificate of death. Under such a
law the absence of the certificate of death in any
particular case should be the indication for farther
inquiry with regard to the cause of death. It is
difficult to suppose that if a plan of this kind
had been in operation REBECCA SMITH could have
poisoned successively her eight children without detec-
tion. It was the impunity from anything like inquiry
that enabled JONATHAN BALLS, of Happisbiugh, to
poison successively twenty members of his own
family. Nor do we think that Mrs. MAY and her
gang of female associates around Harwich could have
carried their abominable designs into effect if this
simp'e plan had been in operation. To carry this plan
into effect would not be difficult; it would be to make
that law which is now voluntarily done by the great
bulk of the medical profession. The Registrar-
General supplies every medical man in the kingdom
I with blank certificates, and in nine eases out of ten
they are filled up. Let it only be insisted on in every
ewe, and inquiry instituted when the certificate isnot
forthcoming, and much evil, wears persuaded, will be
arrested. Such a plan as this might also supersede
in many instances the necessity far coroners' in-
quests, and would be one of the most effective indica-
tions as to where they ought to be held.
The prevention of such crimes as these, by with-
drawing the motives which have prompted to them,
is, we fear, beyond the reach of legislative influence.
The degraded condition into which such women as
HARRIS and °ERRING have fallen can only be the re-
sult of early neglected moral culture, followed by a
long course of hardened sin, not the less terrible in its
consequences though not obvious to those around.
Such cases as these come under the same category
and belong to the same disgusting phase of human
nature as the poisonings of the society of women
in Rome, under the Sicilian Spars, and those
at Palermo and Naples under the infamou To-
mow.. But there is another set equally ma.
manageable, and which seem to result from
a morbid love of the terrible act of destroy
Masan life. The nogedies of Happisburgh eat
Westbury, with the exploits of the Marchioness is
BRINVILLIERS, belong to this data The want of all
ordinary motive in these cases would seem to imply a
morbid state of mind, which, if it can be ever urged
as a plea for the mitigation of capital punishment,
might be urged in behalf of the wretched REBECCA
SKIM
One frequent cause, however, of these poisonings is
the gain which accrues to the poisoners on the death
of their victims. Amongst the more opulent classes
of society this motive has urged to crime, and the
large sums for which persons insure their lives have
occasionally led to their violent death. If this
is the eases in our more imposing assurance
societies, it is not to be wondered at that it should
occur amongst the "death" and "burial clubs" of
the pow. The majority of the murders that occurred
near Harwich were far the purpose of procuring

We have received a letter from our Hungarian
correspondent, dated Sz•gedin, the 24th of July.
This communication, which we give below, puts us, at
last, in possession of a clear and coherent account of
Hungarian operations from the 6th to the 24th of
that month. Ir. disposes of the rubbishy bulletin
attributed to Dtmbisski, and to others of a similar
stamp, which previously and since hsvo issued from
the Hamburg m►nt. It shows us the nal position
and prospects of Dembinski up to the 24th of last
month ; and, by recapitulating the antecedents of
Gorgey, confirms and explains the account of his '
victory over Grabbe on the 28:11 of July. That
victory is, we see, now admitt. d by the Vienna papers.
The Oat Deutsche Prase of the 15th of August states
that it has learned on good authority " that General
Orabbe has been driven back upon Comorn by
GOrgey."
From the 24th of July darkness again falls over
the events in the region of Szeg‘din, and from the
28th upon those in the vicinity of Good. We stated
yesterday our reasons for suspecting the bulletins of
sth and 8 h of August, attribusel to Human, to be
apocryphal. Inteligence respecting Gorgey, which
we have since received by way of Warsaw, appears
to us of an equally qui stionable character, but our
duty as impartial chroniclers of the news of the day
is to communicate what we hear, warning our readers
whenever we may entertain doubts as to its cone et-

ness.
With these preliminary explanations we now refer
our readers to the details in our corresp3ndent's

SZEGEDIN, JULY 24.
The prospects of this campaign are within the last
few weeks very much improved. On my arrival at
Pesth, rather more than a month ago, things wo-e
about as unpromising an aspect as it was possible to
imagine. Giirgey's force-40,000 men at the utmost
—was fully occupied in defending the line of the
Wan against an army of Austrians and Russians
more than three times as numerous as his own ;
while Paskiewitch, with an army of 60,000 in Upper
Hungary, appeared to be menacing his right flank
and his rear. To oppose the Russians, there was no-
thing but the feeble corps of Wisot,lty, amounting tol
12,000 men, Poles and Hungarians; for Vetter's
corps of 20,000 was fully engaged in observir g and,
checking Jellachich in the Butchke. Thus our poei-i
tion was truly critical, and a golden opportunity was I
lost by Paskiewitch ; instead of marching directly on
Pesth or Szeedin, he wasted his time and his
forces in useless and desultory expeditions. A detached
c lips of 15,000 men was sent to Debreezin,
where they found no enemy but the cholera. It was
at first reported that this division was on its way to
Transylvania ; but after remaining upwards of a fort.'
night at Debreezin, they were ord^red to rejoin the
main body under Paskiewitch. The latttr, with an
army greatly- reduced by cholera (he is said to have
ieft 6.000 men in the ditches or hospitals of Kuban),
as well as by this imprudent dispersion, at length
made his appearance at Fazberen. His movements,
however, bad been so dilatory, Viet Dembir ski, who
was teinstated in his command, had had time to pre-
pate for his reception. Wisotsky's corps was re-
inforced by a body of 15,000 men, a great proportion
of whom were landsturm, armed only with pikes, and
had been hastily raised by General Perczel. The
whole of this force, amounting to more than 25,000
men, was concentrated undtr Dembinski at Szolaoc
on the 12th inst. But Paskiewiteh, though greatly
superior in numerical strength, as well as
artillery and cavalry, did not venture to
attack his old adversary; his heart failed him it
appears, and after hesitating a few days at Jaz-beren
he withdrew in the direction of Pesth, which had
been evacuated by Kossuth and the other members
of the liangarian government on the 10th. We
were thus relieved from the apprehension of being
placed between two fires—that of Jellachich to the
south, and that of Paskiewitch from the north ; of
seeing Dembinski driven back upon Vetter, and both
compelled to extricate themselves, aad r. tire as well
as they could behind the Theits and the Marosh. It
was gratifying also to know that we had nothing
further to fear from the side of the Carpathians
and that the whole of northern Hungary bad been
freed from the Russians, and was ready, if necessary,
to rise in their rear. It was probably this lest con-
sideration —namely, the undisguised hostility of
the inhabitants, which had induced Paskiewitch
to sidle off to his friends on the Danube.
We had thus time left to look about us and recover
our spirits at Szegedin, cheered in the meanwhile by
the news of Bent's victories in Transylvania, and no
less delighted to hear that Jellachich has been driven
into the Francezeemat by Guyon. The only draw-
back on our satisfaction was the precarious situation
of Gorgey: uneble or unwilling to effect a junction
with Dembinski, he was with his thirty and odd
thousand men encompassed on every side by the
superior forces of the enemy. It was the general
belief that under these circumstances he would throw
himself into Comoro, and eitker make a powerful
diversion in our favour by detaining the greater part
of the Aastro-Russian army to besiege him there, or
operate in their rear if they should advance.
Doubts, however, were entertained as to the supply
of provisions in Comorn being adequate to the
support of so large a force. It was whispered
also that Gdrgey in his isolated position might enter
Into a separate negotiation, and many misgivings, not
to say euspicions, began to gain ground on the sub-
ject. The idea of so considerable a section of the
army, or the main body of it rather, being entirely
cut off was by no means a comfortable one, and we
anxiously to look out for any stray corps or de-
tachment, such as that of Count Khettley, which
might be saved from the general destruction. Bat for
a fortnight or mere no such godsend, nor even a word
of intelligence, reached us from that quarter. It was
only on the 19th that we heard there had been some
severe fighting in the vicinity of Comore ; but that,
hough General Klapka had repeatedly repulsed the
enemy, no decisive action had taken place. These
' affairs were said to have occurred on the 12th,
114th, and 15th. A few days afterwards it was
rumoured that a small corps of Hungarian troops, con-
sisting chit fly of hussars, and commanded by General
Natchandor had appeared in the neighbourhood of
Wilkins. The Russian detachment at Path, about
5,000 strong, had been hastily summoned away about
the same time; a heavy cannonading was heard
there, and it seemed probable that some movement of
great importance was being effected. At length all
suspense was removed; and yesterday morning the
governor received despatches from Gorgey himself,
communications being now completely re-established.
To our unutterable astonishment, these despatches are
dated from Miskolcz, at which place thirgey is at this
moment, at the head of his army 30,000 strong. By
Leavingi
e
Ith i
n eat garrison
bthat
hautezi
idvtfe
deiaeitarulhwpse.
viewed
proclamation
northward,u:stlweririisimat i
eatranei north
etse
ani r e
nnmnto
a series of the most brilliant manosavres and sangui-
ood authority,
per Hungary
aus were
nary conflicts, he has succeeded in forcing his way
through the combined armies of Russia and Austria,
amounting to 200,000 men, more than six times his
ogel:tonraual, onbe rthe
the left bank of the Danube, and encountered the
esmay at Vaitzen, Retsag, Bahasa, Gyarmat, and
Lasonez, at all which places, but particularly at
Van, or Vaitzen, he gained decisive victories ; at the
latter place the Austro-Russian army was driven back
with great carnage, leaving more than three thousand
dead on the field of battle. To avenge this defeat
they sacked, burnt, and utterly destroyed the town of
V.eatzen, after it had been evacuated by the Runge-
dwraEthlwvearen7lhikeeoAluswaltarriant dire
at
displeasure by the Emperor.
f
Raltiatwgasthaint
othoergmeyouisntaaaindoutos cohanvnetryinatioctedthe
seve-
restans
. I
o
d
losses on the enemy : the last drubbing he gave
re-
straint,
have
savages,
havet
the
winner
n
nhb
iibydiniet
inhabitants,
,unp wherever
es Russians
tiltheemir hwillearts'acot niAtert,ncanz.rl Tfohlroywedwerehimtherenobef:terthnethr.
The circuit which he thus made in eleven days from
ashamed
nne.o