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COUNT SZÉCHENYI'S

CHAPTER VIII.

COUNT SZÉCHENYI ISTVÁN.

Count Széchenyi, an Officer of Hussars, a Traveller, a Reformer.

- Improvement in the Breed of Horses. — Races. - Magyar Language. —Széchenyi's Writings — the “Credit” — his Judgment on England - Character of his Writings. — Establishment of Casino.- Bridge over the Danube. —Nobles taxed. Steam Navigation.- Political Career.— Prudence. — M. Tasner.

COUNT SZÉCHENYI István* is the third son of the founder and benefactor of the Museum of Pest, a scion of the same house which produced two of the most distinguished archbishops of Hungary. For seventeen years Széchenyi served in the Austrian army; and it was not till the peace had rendered it

; an idle life, and removed all chance of distinction, that he determined to quit it. Perhaps, disgusted with the system of favouritism or the personal enmity which had kept him down to the rank of captain ; perhaps moved by that spirit of regeneration, which from the mountains of Transylvania spread over the plains of Hungary, and was felt even at the gates

TRAVELS AND PLAN OF REFORM.

205

of Vienna itself; or, it may be, warned that the freedom with which he had dared, under the influence of this spirit, in his place as an Hungarian Magnate, to address the upper Chamber, was inconsistent with the uniform he wore ;-—such have been suggested as among the causes which may have driven him from the army, and which soon placed him in the foremost rank of Hungarian patriots.

The leisure which he now enjoyed was occupied in foreign travel. England particularly fixed his notice. Our manners, our institutions, our commerce were objects of his study, and offered him useful hints for the improvement of his native land. The causes which impeded the introduction of commerce in Hungary, and the great developement of her natural resources which must result from their removal, first occupied his attention. At home, he found a government and people mutually distrustful. The Hungarians complained to him that foreign — so they called Austrian - jealousy and oppression were the sole causes of all their misfortunes; while, beyond the Carpathians, he heard his countrymen described as a tyrannical, ignorant, and turbulent nobility, the oppressors of a poor, idle, and slavish peasantry; – the one class who would not,

the other who could not effect anything for the common advantage of their country. On all sides, a reform in Hungary was declared impossible.

Széchenyi was not to be turned from his object. His plan was cautiously laid down, and has been so

206

IMPROVEMENT OF HORSES.

.

far steadily followed up, — to labour incessantly at improvements, and to pursue such only as the strength of his means gave him a reasonable hope that with unwearied perseverance he might carry through. In common with others, he has always striven for the great objects of reform in the laws and institutions of the country, an extension of the rights of the lower classes, and a more equitable and just government; but his great and peculiar glory is in the path which he has marked out alone, and which, in spite of all obstacles, he still follows, with the greatest success, — namely, the improvement of the material condition of Hungary.

One of the first objects to which Széchenyi drew the attention of his countrymen was the improvement of the breed of horses ; a subject particularly suited to their taste, and likely to attract their notice. A large stud, often from one to two hundred horses, forms almost a necessary part of a nobleman's establishment; and yet they rarely bred anything but a cross of the common country horse with the large, slow, high-actioned Spanish horse, a race of little use but for the pomp of ceremony. Széchenyi introduced the English race-horse and hunter, and, to show their superiority, he instituted races and kept a pack of hounds ; in short, he succeeded in making English horses a fashion, which is now generally followed.

The races take place twice a year,-at Pest about the end of May, and in autumn at Parendorf near

Presburg — and are so well attended, that it is evident they suit the taste of the people, and it is highly probable that they will one day form a part of the national amusements.

An improvement in the breed of horses was an object well worthy Széchenyi's attention, and nothing was more likely to promote it than the establishment of races at the capital ; but some have thought that objects of a deeper interest than the encouragement of thorough-breds might have been dreamed of in their institution. The Diet ought by law to sit every three years; but, when the government is strong, it sometimes dispenses with its services, as it did during and after the last war for twenty-five years; and then the nobles have no object of common interest to bring them together. When minds clash not with minds, they are apt to grow rusty and lose somewhat of their sharpness and polish; a thousand useful ideas and beneficial projects, a thousand high resolves and patriotic schemes, expire untried, unheard of, from want of opportunity to communicate them to others. This opportunity to meet and communicate the races afford, without a pretext for interference or interruption. Many come they know not why; the master-minds command, and they obey.

The system so long and so ably followed up, of Germanizing Hungary, had succeeded to such a degree as to destroy to a considerable extent the feelings of nationality among the higher nobles :

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THE MAGYAR LANGUAGE.

most of them were ignorant of the language; few of them took any interest in the affairs of Hungary, except in the preservation of their own privileges ; and some even affected to despise their countrymen, because of a little outward rudeness, of which the absenteeism pursued by the more polished and wealthy was the main cause. Fortunately the wellwishers of Hungary knew how influential a principle the spirit of nationality is in the regeneration of a country; nor did they forget how strongly the language of one's childhood, with which man's earliest and dearest associations are connected, acts in exciting that spirit.

The restoration of the Hungarian language was therefore the first object. Széchenyi himself, from disuse, was no longer master of it: he made himself so, and became one of the most influential in its diffusion. He was the first in the Chamber of Magnates who spoke in Hungarian ; till then Latin was always used in the debates, as, we have seen, it still is by the Palatine and by the court party. Few thought of reading Hungarian, still fewer, except some poets, of writing in it; Széchenyi published several political works in the language, and Hungarian authorship has become fashionable. Among men it is now the medium of conversation; at public dinners, toasts and speeches in German would not be listened to; and at Pest, whatever may

be the case at Vienna, Hungarian gentlemen are now ashamed to be thought ignorant of the Hungarian language.