The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1849-06-15
From the Ns,C York Tribune.
HUNGARY.
HER POSITION, RESOURCES, sc.

and recognising only the sovereignty of the house
of Hapsburg, has, in great measure, merged her
nationality in that of the Austrian Empire. She has
thus lost her place, nation, in the chronicles of
the modern historian the character of her people,
her position and her social and commercial relations
are no longer familiar to the memories of the
present generation. Since the commencement OF
the European revolution, however, her situation is
different. Leading the victorious vanguard of the
armies of Repubicanism, she fights with the eyes
of the world upon her, holding the hopes of other
races, the fate of other struggles, dependent upon
her own. While she continues to keep at bay the
vast forces pressing upon her frontiers let take
brief glance at her position and the resources she
can command to meet the coming necessity.
The geographical extent of Hungary, including
the ancient dependencies of Pennsylvania and Gro
atia and that collection of different tribes organized
| under peculiar system military frontier be-
| tween her dominons and Turkey, more than equals
that of Austria with all her remaining provinces of
| Bohemia, Gallicia, Tyrol, Lombardy, and Venice.
| The traveller who approaches Vienna from the
morrill, sees at one glance from the soping heights
which conduct him to the Danube the imperial city
at his feet the spires of Hungarian Presburg the
horizon, and the outposts of the Carpathian range
far away to the northeast. From the river March
the Austrian frontier north of the Danube-a
days forced march would take an army to the
walls of Vienna. The boundary line extends
nearly to Cracow on the north, following the course
of the Carpathians as they curve eastward like a
grand natural arch, resisting the pressure of Rus
sia South of the Danube, it runs to the southwest
in an irregular line, closely approaching the great
highway from Vienna to Trieste, and striking the
Adriatic at the head of the gulf of Fiume. The
Danube, sweeping to the east for about seventy
miles after leaving Presburg, turns abruptly to the
south at Waitzen, (the scene of late glorious
Hungarian yictory,) and, parting the rival cities
of Pesth and Ofen, passes through the heart of
I'd haf nrtr sc d. 1,s,
which is to the Danube what Ehrenbreitstein is to
the Rhine--it again resumes its easterly course,
striking the Turkish frontier at Belgrade, and
skirting Pennsylvania till within hundred miles
of the Black Sea.
The central region of Hungary, stretching out
from the Carpahans to the Danube in vast steppes
which are drained by the Thesis and its myriad
tributaries, is not surpassed in soil and climate by
any other part of Europe 1t yields, in great
abundance, all the products of the temperate zone,
with others common TO Italy and Southern France.
The harvests of grain abundant and certain.
The plains are protected from the cold winds of
the North by mountain range 5000 feet in height,
while the hot blasts Of the South tempered be-
fore they reach the Danube, in the defIes of the
Balkan and the immeasurable forests of Servia
Hungary thus produces within her own borders,
even under the imperfect system of agriculture
which her peasants have practsed for three hun
dred years, all that Is necessary to her susie
nance. The valleys of the Carpathans support
numberless hocks of sheep, goats, and cattle; the
central table land watered by six hundred streams,
brings forth, with little labor, wheat, rye, maize,
barley, and all kinds of vegetables the warm hills
bordering the Danube yield annually twenty five
| million gallons of wine, among them the renowned
| Tokay; while the marshes in some of the south
| districts successfully used in the cultivation -
| rice. The climate, more mild and equable than
| that of Germany, is the healthiest in Europe one
4 af which IA IN ri and
strong physical energies Of the inhabitants, whose
mode of life also tends materially TO preserve the
| stamina of the race.
The mineral wealth of Hungary, as vet very i'm
perfectly explored, promises to develope inexhaust-
IDLE resources Of industry and profit. The Carpa-
than district inhabited by that branch of the Scla-
| vonc race known as the Slowaks, and some Ger
mans who are connected with the mining opera
| tons, rs rich in the precious well the ruder
and more necessary metals. Gold is as abundant
| IN some localities as IN the mines OF the Ura,
whence Russia draws her fabulous wealth; veins Of
silver and copper of unusual richness frequently
met with, and the wandering lapidary picks up in
the untraveled recesses of the mountains the enc
raid, the jacnth, and the radiant opal. Mines Of
rock salt, sulphur and satpctre, on the one hand,
and copper, iron, and zinc on the other, need but
labor, enterprise, and proper encouragement, to
rank among the most profitable in Europe, and
vast beds of coal, which might supply the "disfor-
ested 0rient," still lie untouched. Ii no marvel
that Austria should have endeavored TO bring such
a country under the yoke Of her grasping monopoly
oftradeand oppressive internal customs or that Rus
sia should seize any preext to take up the QUAR-
rel, with far-reaching hope for the lions share.
The kingdom OF Hungary, with Transylvania
and Croatia, covers about $50 900 square miles, and
supports population reckoned at about IA millions
The country is less densely populated than Austria
in fact, portions Of II still retain the original forests
1 in uhtch the deer hear and xutld boar hnnfsd
| by the native noblemen. But, deducting from the
remaining population Of Austria the Polish and
Italian provinces which are disaffected, and on
whose support she cannot rely, IL will be seen that
in numerical strength Hungary falls little short Of
being her equal The difference Of races, and the
consequent hostility Of blood between different por-
tons Of the Hungarian people are, however, in
fuences which prevent the country at present from
displaying It's full power. Whether the more inn
mnent danger which threatens II will efface for the
time these jeaousies, and unite all fraternaly in
common struggle, is question whose favorable So
luton is earnestly to be desired.
The Msgyas constitute the original Hungarian
stock, whose Chiefs founded the kingdom a thou
sand years ago, and in whose hands the governing
| power has always remained. They sprung from the
same Mongoban origin the Turks, their near
neighbors, whose language strongly resembles their
own. They received the name of Ungri from the
Sclavonc tribes whom, in the tenth century, they
dispossesscd OF the fertile plains OF the Danube.
THIS title was taken up by the Germans, and under
II they became famous a nation. The Magyars,
who number about 800 900 souls still inhabit the
generous soil which attracted them from the East,
and one Of their cities, Debreczin is now the tenn
porary capital Of Hungary.
| The Sclsvonic tribes hold all the mountainous
districts and estimated collectively at 500 900
divided between Croatia on the south, embracing
the seaport of Fiume, the Slowaks among the Car
pathisns, and the Seekers, Bulgarians, Servians
and other small groups on the military frontier.
The Germans, l,250,000 in all, inhabit the rich
wooded and billy province Of Trsnsylvania east Of
the Carpathians, whittier they emigrsted in the
twelfth century, and where they sull preserve the
language and customs of the Rhine, surrounded on
all sides by the Magyar and Sclavonic races. No
country in the world holds within uninterrupted
boundary, and under single civil system, so many
striking contrasts Of language and blood.
| The same causes which have operated to pre-
vent the advance of the Hungarians in all modern
arts, have also contributed preserve, in spite Of
persecution and intrigue, the ancient balance Of
sects, in religious view The Magyars embraced
| Christianity soon after their settlement on the
1 Dapnhe for liant he tide If T,rrk-