nerals were resolute and elated with their success. The Hungarian leader vacillated between two dangers he feared a victory almost as much as a defeat. The Austrians had, moreover, the advantage of intrenchments in their positions at Schwechat, Mannswörth, and Kaisers Ebersdorf. The second of these positions was stormed by the right wing of the Hungarians under Colonel Bárczay and Major Guyon; while their centre, under the Colonels Lazár and Görgey, advanced upon Schwechat; and their left wing, under Colonel Repasy, proceeded to attack the heights of Himberg. During the first hours of the battle, the Imperialist commanders endeavoured to out-manoeuvre the Hungarians, and turn their left flanka dangerous movement on so extended a line. This was shown by the successes of the enemy, who, in despite of their numerical inferiority, continued to advance, until at twelve o'clock at noon the Prince Windischgrätz concentrated the whole of his artillery in and around Schwechat, from whence he opened a murderous fire upon the Hungarians, silenced their artillery, and spread such a panic among their young militia, that they fled in the greatest disorder. This circumstance decided the fate of the battle. General Moga retreated, under the protection of Colonel Repasy and Major Guyon, who kept the Imperialists in check; and on the last day of October, his army re-crossed the Laytha, and returned to its camp at Parendorf. The unsuccessful leader of that day was compelled to resign. Mr. Kossuth, in his capacity as President of the Committee for the Defence of the Country, gave the chief command of the national forces into the hands of Colonel Görgey. Arthur Görgey, formerly a subaltern in the Austrian army, resigned his commission at a time when no patriotic motives could have prompted that step. Poor and unprotected as he was, it is to be presumed that the slowness of a military career jarred upon his impatient ambition. Though no other profession was open to him, he resigned the scanty pay of a continental subaltern with the same cynical indifference which he displayed on other momentous occa sions, and he devoted himself to a life of misery and privations. Illdressed, fed, and lodged, he passed several years in the chemical laboratories at Vienna and Prague. Even at that time, his military bearing, tall and active figure, saturnine aspect, the roughness and studied brutality of his address, his neglected hair and beard, and the torn and filthy raiment which appeared a matter of choice rather than of necessity, awakened the curiosity of strangers, and amused and perplexed his friends. He preferred, or pretended to prefer, the coarsest food, and even of this he ate sparingly. He would leave his wretched attic to sleep on a stone floor, or on the hard and frozen earth. In all this there was much discipline, but also much temper and affectation. He delighted in appearing mysterious, unaccountable, impenetrable. The obtrusive contempt with which he affected to regard social customs and the opinions of men betrayed his desire for notoriety. When Jellachich's invasion threatened Hungary, Mr. Görgey offered his services to the Batthyanyi cabinet. They were readily accepted, and he was charged with the organization and the command of a free corps, and instructed to defend the banks of the Danube, near the island of Csepel. While on this station, his troops captured Count Zichy, a wealthy nobleman and descendant of an old Hungarian family. This man was taken under circumstances which warranted the gravest suspicions. On being searched, documents were found upon him which left no doubt that he carried on a treasonable correspondence with the enemy, and that he was in the habit of informing Jellachich of the plans and movements of the Hungarians. The practice of espousing the national cause openly, and of continuing secret communications with the cabinet of Vienna, or the Croatian invaders, had become general. So great was the indifference or duplicity of the Austrian officers, who then commanded almost all the native corps, that an extensive system of espionage was carried on by numbers of officers, noblemen, and gentlemen, who, doubting the end, wished to gain the good opinion and to merit the thanks of either party. The rules of war of all nations know but of one punishment for a traitor and a spy. In the present instance, the culprit was a nobleman, a member of the Emperor's household, and the scion of an illustrious and powerful family. Major Görgey saw nothing but the spy. The Count Zichy was tried by court-martial, condemned, and executed. The government at Pesth confiscated the condemned traitor's possessions, and the result proved that Major Görgey's act was as judicious as it was just. It terrified the double-dealers, and drove them to the Imperial standards, where they did no harm whatever to the cause of Hungary. Hence Major Görgey had a twofold claim on Mr. Kossuth's confidence. His energetic operations against the Croatian reserves, which he captured, and his gallantry at Schwechat, showed that he, at least, was not inclined to dally with the enemy. The murderer of Count Zichy,' as the Austrian journals called him, was a doomed man, unless the Hungarian struggle proved successful. No other native officer had given equal proofs of zeal, energy, and devotion. Mr. Kossuth's selection of a commander-in-chief was, moreover, highly flattering to the national Magyar party, and to those Hungarians who had served in the Austrian army. This class of persons received an important addition to their numbers by the wholesale desertion of the Emperor's Hungarian Noble Guard, who at an early period of the struggle left their splendid barracks at Vienna with the hope of greater licence and splendid fortunes in the ranks of the national army. The services of these young men were highly prized by Mr. Kossuth and the parliament. Favours and promotions were lavished upon them; nor were the motives ever suspected which induced these military adventurers to discard the Habsburg colours for the Hungarian tricolore. Indeed there was not much time for reflection. After the fall of Vienna, Prince Windischgrätz pushed his outposts to the very banks of the Laytha. Jellachich's Croats, again provided with arms and ammunition, were ready for the field. Large masses of troops advanced from Bohemia, and the Gallician garrisons detached their supernumerary battalions against the defiles of Jablunka. Troops from Styria approached the Lake Balaton. General Puchner occupied Transylvania. The Servians under Suplicacz threatened the Banat and the Bacska in the south. The Hungarian army, dispirited by its defeat at Schwechat, was still disorganized. Mr. Kossuth travelled through the country, seeking, by moving appeals and fiery speeches, to create a public opinion among the illiterate peasantry and rouse them to resistance against the encroachments of Austria. The friends and eulogists of that remarkable man have alternately extolled his administrative genius, his political sagacity, and rare and subtle diplomacy. But they have scarcely done justice to his most brilliant talents and most prominent qualities. It is scarcely possible to follow Mr. Kossuth's career without becoming convinced that, as an agitator, he is superior to any demagogue of ancient or modern times. He has often been compared to Mr. O'Connell, whom he surpasses in singleness of purpose, earnestness of feeling, and blindness of faith in the mission which he believes himself predestined to perform. At the commencement of his career, he created public opinion among the upper classes of his countrymen by creating a newspaper press. He inspired and organized parliamentary parties; he defined and concentrated their action, and even as a minister he favoured and strengthened the opposition by an appearance of official moderation. But it was the second part of his task which called forth his chief energies. Great as the power of the press is in England, as far as the lower classes are concerned, its influence is next to nothing in the east of Europe. The popu lation of the counties on the Theiss and Danube, the Magyar peasants and herdsmen, the vagabond gypsies, and the trading Jews are alike strangers to the artificial sympathies of civilized society. Even those among them who have learnt to read, are impressible rather by the ear than by the eye. In addressing himself to the great mass of his nation, Mr. Kossuth discarded the press, and, travelling from county to county, and from town to town, convening popular assemblies, and speaking in public wherever he went, he appealed to the pride, the prejudices, and the patriotism of his countrymen, elevating his diction to the wild poesy of their ideas, appealing to Magyar Isten, to that peculiar deity which guides the destinies of his chosen people, the Magyars. He reminded his hearers of the aggressions and spoliations of the foreign usurpers, and told them the time had come when the Hungarians must be a free people or a despised race of outcasts on the face of the earth. The impression of these speeches was powerful, enduring, and almost in eradicable. They awoke the dormant energies, they directed the enthusiasm, and concentrated the discontents, of a nation, which now, for the first time, was taught to trace individual sufferings home to national calamities, to visit the misdeeds of its agrarian tyrants on the guilty heads of their foreign protectors and abettors, and to consider the independence of their country as certain to be attended by all those blessings of harmony and plenty which tyros in politics love to dream of in some ideal Utopia. National guards, militia, and free corps rose, as if by magic, in the track of the Agitator, and Mr. Kossuth, of all men, may boast that it was his to realize the poet's idea of an impossibility, and to 'stamp soldiers from out the soil.** AN AN ELECTION ROW IN NEW YORK. N election in England is a very exciting affair in America, from its frequency, it becomes a mere matter of every-day business. Almost every citizen has the opportunity of voting twice a-year, and elections are continually going on in some part or other of the country, so that they form a standard topic of conversation, much as the weather does in England. No wonder, then, that they usually fail to awaken any great or general interest. But to this rule there are important exceptions. A presidential or a congressional campaign sometimes involves the fate of most important measures of policy, and creates a corresponding excitement. At such periods, the country is flooded with extra' newspapers and political lecturers, the walls groan with placards, bar-room politicians talk themselves hoarse, and steam-boat passen gers amuse themselves with holding meetings and sham-balloting for the respective candidates. Still the enthusiasm of the parties generally spends itself in words; they seldom come into actual personal collision. Even in the west, there are not more rows on election days than at other times. But here again we have a notorious exception in the case of New York. Many thousands of the finest pisantry' have located themselves in that city, and they have not lost an iota of their bellige rent propensities, affording a beautiful illustration of cœlum non animum &c. Entirely under the influence of their priests, they are almost invariably to be found on the agrarian side, and are ready at any time to attack a Whig (conservative) meeting, storm the polls, or engage in any other act of violence to which their wily leaders may prompt them. * Kann ich Soldaten aus der Erde stampfen, SCHILLER'S Jungfrau von Orleans. + It is a mistake to suppose that the presidential election is always attended with great excitement. Munroe literally walked over the course for his second term. Martin Van Buren's election passed off very quietly; and General Taylor's, being taken almost as a matter of course, was accompanied by no extraordinary demonstrations. In the spring of 1840, the Whigs of the State of New York (the city still inclined the other way) had been in power nearly two years, with a decided majority in both houses of the legislature, and a governor who 'went the entire animal' with them. Washington Irving says that the best men of a party propose to themselves three ends: first to get their opponents out; secondly, to get themselves in; thirdly, to do some good to the country; but the majority are satisfied with attaining the first two objects. Now the Whigs had accomplished these as thoroughly as they could have desired, and had made such use of their victory as to put it out of the power of any one to charge them with being worse than infidels. They therefore, like good patriots, set about the third proposed point, and their first step was to take some measures for improving the election laws, so far as concerned the city of New York. That city had more than 300,000 inhabitants, at least 26,000 voters, and no registry law whatever. The consequence may be easily imagined. If a man chose to take the responsibility of perjuring himself, he could always pass a false vote, and was frequently able to do it without that unpleasant necessity. To prove residence, it was only requisite to have slept the previous night in the ward where he voted; this gave rise to an extensive system of colonization just before the election. In short, it was evident that the ballot alone would not secure a fair vote, while the experience of Philadelphia showed that with a good system of registry it answered every required purpose. A registry law was accordingly reported and read the first time. Great was the wrath of the LocoFocost when they found this mea * Now more than 600,000. sure on the tapis. The strength of the two parties in the city was very nearly balanced, the mercantile influence of the Whigs, and the papist influence of the Locos, being about a match for each other. Indeed, the same side seldom carried its candidates for mayor and aldermen more than two years successively. But the Locos had good reason to fear that a strict registry law would knock on the head nearly a thousand of their voters, without making corresponding havoc in the Whig ranks. They were therefore naturally anxious to prevent, if possible, the passage of this law; every effort was put forth to make it appear unpopular, by calling meetings, and getting up petitions against it. Most of the Whigs cared nothing for this; but some men, whose good feeling outran their discretion, and who had the fatuity to suppose that Loco-Focos were capable of being influenced by reason, called a meeting (it was about a week previous to the charter election) of citizens, without distinction of party,' to express their approval of the registry law. Such calls, emanating professedly from neutrals, but really from partisans, are not uncommon; and the result of them usually is, that the speakers meet with no opposition, and the resolutions are carried unanimously; none of the other party, except, perhaps, a reporter or two, attending. But on the present occasion, the opponents of the measure were determined that its friends should not have it all their own way; so some thirty or forty of the Locos attended, and did their best to impede the proceedings. First, they objected to the gentleman proposed for chairman; then they interrupted the speakers; and, finally, kicked up This sobriquet, at first applied to a small fraction of the New York democrats, which fraction afterwards absorbed the whole party, had its origin in the following incident-A quarrel occurring at Tammany Hall, (the head-quarters of the democracy,) the majority moved an adjournment, and, to make sure of it, put out the lights. The recusants, in anticipation of some such step, had provided themselves with lucifer matches, and, by their aid, relit the lamps, and continued the meeting. Lucifers were then called loco-focos-why, no one knows; the name was probably invented by some imaginative popular manufacturer of the article; and the appellation of Loco-Foco party was proposed in derision, for this small band of seceders; who, however, in time, brought over the original majority to their views. Hence the Whigs continued to apply the contemptuous designation to the whole democratic or radical party. such a row as effectually to drown the voice of the secretary, who was trying to read the first resolution offered. Now of all the offences against good manners that can be commisted in America, disturbing the harmony of a public meeting is about the most flagrant. It may be supposed, then, that the conduct of these intruders excited no small indignation on the part of the majority. There were not enough constables present to eject them, so the ⚫ citizens, without distinction of party, took the law into their own hands; such Whigs as were nearest incontinently laid hands on the rioters, and passed them out.' But, Reader, have you a clear idea of what this passing out' is? I believe the operation is occasionally practised in England, at theatres and other places of public resort, when young gentlemen have got elevated, and wont behave themselves. lest you should not be familiar with it, I will endeavour to give you as much as I remember of a description by one of our authors,* of the style in which the thing is managed. The occasion represented is a public dinner, given to the Honourable Mr. So-and-So by his admirers; and the victim, a too daring-dun, who has spoiled a fine period of the ora tor's, If, fellow-citizens, I should be doomed to retirement, I shall at least carry with me the proud conviction that I have always acted as becomes an honest man,'-by impertinently suggesting that 'his small account for groceries has been running four years. This was too much for the admurers of the honourable gentleman. arn him out! Throw him over!' Hotle him out! • Pass him down!! • Hom when it is remembered that The unhappy tonn had established bimerit at the very upper end of the prean, in which five hundred of his follow creatures were packed like daming gowda, it will be easily Tungod what a pleasant prospect his find before home. An markudage of human beings lina often been compared to a sen. Dreadful, indeed, poor Muzzy, was the ocean on which thou wert doomed to embark. PASS HIM DOWN! The call was answered by the elevation of Mr. Muzzy six feet in the air. From this altitude he was let down into a vortex of stronghanded fellows, who whirled him about horribly, and then transmitted him to a more equable current, which pitched him forward at a steady rate towards the door. Sometimes he landed among a party of quiet elderly gentlemen over their wine, and the torrent seemed to be lulled; then again it would return upon him with renewed violence, and bear him helplessly along. At last he was caught up by two mighty billows in the shape of a master butcher and baker, and impelled with fearful velocity through the narrow straits of the door. On recovering his senses sufficiently to take an observation, he found himself stranded, keel uppermost, in the gutter, with his rigging considerably damaged, and his timbers somewhat shaken." Such was the discipline to which the obstreperous Locos were subjected, and neither their general disposition, nor their particular temper of mind at the time, was such as to induce them to bear the infliction with Christian resignation. Accordingly, they repaired in a body to the head-quarters of their party, (at Tammany Hall, about half a mile distant,) and there reported the indignity they had suffered. The thing was not to be endured, and steps were instantly taken to exact a terrible retribution. The more belligerent of the Locos had formed themselves into various associations * Canninum Matthews, to whom this quotation from memory may possibly do Injuatins, Trut the work in which it deers is now out of print. |