Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1851-12-30

\ supremacy over tue civil Hft OF his Victim. or
at most with penetrating into the conscience
Of his victim and tearing out the secretest Il !
bre Of his faith, but the insatiate and omniyo-
rous ambition Of the Austrian oppressor, so
long as the living obstacles to its power
could talk to each other Of their mutual sor :
rows and wrongs, or 50 long, when the tongue
was silenced by strange speech, as they
could recognize each other BY the fold of the
attiler or the wave of pl1mc, found their
horrid work unfinished Nothing but com :
| plete and irreyocablc extiaction could ap
pcase malignity so exhaustless and fell
When Joseph II, put on The imperial pur-
ple Of Hapsburg, he bad the temerity to re-
ject the Hungarian Constitution; lie refused
to take the coronation oath, saying that the
crown was his by hereditary descent and he
abolished municipal self-goyernmcnt, taking
away thereby the elective franchise Of the
people even in the most trivial village affairs
| Rodolph H., his successor, then undertook to
extermiuate the Protestants; shut up their
religious ediGces; admitted no man to citizen
ship who would no. swear unqualified fidelity
to the priests, seized and pi.laged their villa
ges; invaded the bed chambers of women
with his brutal soldiery; dragged the peas
ants from their plows to answer for opinions
which they had not even whispered to the poor
brutes they drove, and devoted to instant ex-
eeution at the hands of the haugman, who
formed regular train of bis army, all who
dared to speak of clemency- or to utter the
! slightest disapprobation Of bis cruelties.-
Yet, as if this were not enough, the Hunga-
rian was forbidden to talk in his native
speech. The laws, the deliberations, the lee
lures of Professors, the literature Of books,
nay, the common every day conversations Of
the mechanics and the husbandmen, and,
worse than all, the innocent prattle of the
mother 10 her infant, could only be uttured
in the language of the oppressor. The an
cient songs of the people were no more heard
in their corn fields, the story teller was silent
! by his native hearth, the workman was dumb
at his BENCH and a hideous paralysis, as of
nightmare, froze up the very currents of the
soul. Manners ard customs, too, as well as
civilization and the laws, whatever might re-
mind the Magyar Of his former freedom and
/ independence, whatever cherished within him
the seeds Of nationality ard the hope of its
resurrection, whatever endeared bin to his
brother and stood in the way of his total "a
malgation with the race of bis conqueror-al
were washed away as with sponge. but a
sponge wet aud rocking with his own heart 5
| blood
Do you ask ifiuiqulty so horrible was tame
/ ly submitted to Pho you do not ask it, be-
cause your hearts have already giren .i;::o re,
/ ply. The Magyars were not race to sink
down sullenly under such oppression. lfthey
had been, thoy might have deserved their fate.
But they battled long and well against all
the insidions and all the epen inroads Of the
invader They made gigantic efforts to heaye
off the incubus, they struggled Ike Sinbad
with the old man on bis back. they performed
heroic efforts, and illuminated their annals
with instances Of devotion, ofenergy, of high
minded courage, but they labored in vain.--
i The heel Of the oppressor was on their neck
and for more than q century their faces were
in the dust. Whatever Of their old immuni-
ties remained was the grant of their sovereign
not their own right.
They submitted, but they did not yield
It was not in tie power Of man to utterly
crush the hopes or break the viii Of sach Q
people They bore their wrongs for that
dreary century; they saw their names blotted
out of the book OF nation; they saw their III
stitution, their laws, their popular privileges
their literature, their commerce overturned
and prostrate but they were still Magyarl
and men, and still believed in the eternal God
But alas the old men laid themselves down
in their graves before the redceming hour Of
God S justice had arrived
Such, then, were the old relations between
Hungary and Austria, and such the inheri
tanee which either party had left to its sue
eessors. 1t was a contest of nation againa
nation-of an encroaching, insatiate, aud am
bilious empire. with an independent, prouc
and resisting kingdom. The eternal relations
ofthe two therefore, were those Of incessan
hostility.
With the dawn Of the present century,
new generation upon the throne OF Hapsburg
( younger set of men in the homes OF TIL
Magyar new circumstances arose, and ney
relations, both internal and external, wer
generated. The Magyar, forgiying but no
forgetting, the wrongs Of his fathers, acquies
cling for the time in tyrauy which he coul
net overthrow, -eorrupte too, it may be, t
some extent, by the Establishments when ao
solutism knew so well how to use,--in tb
long wars that grew out of the French Rev
olution, became the hest reliance of Austri
in her hour of need. lie joined in her bat
ties with the mighty spirit who then distrac
ted aud terrified the allied sceptres of Europe
The discipline and impetuous energy of th
Hungarian soldiery saved many field il
which the feebler force of Austria would hav
been borue to the ground.
These services ought to have been requite,
on the part of Austria, in liberal spirit 0
administration toward her assistant, but, witt
the exception of few trivial concessions, 0
an occasional allowance Of municipal rights
and an occasional relaxation Of eppressiy,
ediets, the old system was enforced Will
much of its old stringcncy and malevolcncc
AT the same time, however, these services 0
the Hungarians had been profitable to them
selves, for they had taught them the secre
of their strength. 1t was great thing t.
have learned the fact that if they were insig
nifcant in peace, they could be terrible in war
They were emboldened and encouraged L
more positive demands. The feelings Of tn,