FOREIGN AND MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



allowed to use, must pay a duty. Then, say 

 they, this all comes at the worst of times, when 

 we are stripped of our property by the war, and 

 when the peasants, especially, have lost millions 

 by the Kossuth notes, which the government, 

 despite its promise, has never yet redeemed, at 

 even a part of their value. 



The result of it was, in this village, they all 

 told me, that every man was limiting his liabili- 

 ties in every possible way to being taxed. The 

 amount of wine made there the next year, would 

 be the least possible which they would want for 

 themselves. In tobacco, from which the Govern- 

 ment had expected the greatest revenue, know- 

 ing the universal habit of the people, the yield 

 would be the smallest ever known. The law, 

 in regard to the tobacco is so exacting, and the 

 dutj' so heavy, that it will scarcely repay any 

 farmer to sow the seed. In one district around 

 that village, they said, where formerly were five 

 hundred tobacco plantations, there are not now 

 tive! They have made too, a patriotic matter 

 of it, as we did of our tea-tax, and the govern- 

 ment will probably gain very little revenue from 

 that duty. In the course of our ride a man 

 joined us who was a farmer on the outskirts of 

 the town. He spoke German, and I had a long 

 conversation with him. Though a middle-aged 

 man, with a family in merely comfortable cir- 

 cumstances, his great desire was, he told me pri- 

 vately, to get over to America, and he ques- 

 tioned me a great deal about the expenses, and 

 the best situation for an emigrant, &c., &c. In 

 the course of the conservation I had the curi- 

 osity to ask him why he had this plan? lie 

 was living comfortably here, and the taxes, 

 though they were burdensome, would not ruin 

 him. It would be a hard thing for him to begin 

 life over again in a new land. 



" Yes," he said. •'■' I know it well — and it is 

 like cutting the heart-strings, to break away 

 from the old place here, and from Hungary. 

 But I cannot live here a slave. It is not Hun- 



fary to me, if it is not free. As for the taxes, 

 could bear them, though they are heavy. But 

 I can't see why, if I am steady and industrious, 

 I should pay the debts of my neighbor when he 

 is a spendthrift. Of course I know that every 

 state must lay taxes to support itself, but why 

 Hungary should pay Austria's six hundred mil- 

 lion of debt, I don't see! I shall wait a while, 

 to see if no change comes here, and then, if no- 

 thing occurs, old as 1 am, I will leave the coun- 

 try. My country must be where freedom is." 



"VVe rode about to the farms of a great many 

 different persons, and everywhere at once, ac- 

 cording to the Hungarian usage, the white and 

 red wines were brought forth, with a flask of 

 mineral water, which they all seem to drink 

 with wine — a water with a strong smack of 

 sulphur and iron. They appeared to consider 

 it such a violation of liospitality if one did not 

 drink that at first, I si])ped a little at every 

 house, but finally declined altogether, especially 

 score that Americans did not drink wine, 

 ch house, too, as we went away the peo- 



ple took my hand, and wished, almost solemnly, 

 the Hungarian blessing, '' If^len aldjo/i meg!" 

 (May God bless you I) 



At length, in tlie evening we stopped, by the 

 urgent invitation of a Bauer, at liis little house 

 to take supper. I was inlbrmed that there were 

 three other places \vhere we were engaged to 

 take supper beside, and that I might as well give 

 myself up, and accordingly with a sense of re- 

 signation I followed the others in. The table 

 was soon loaded, and though people were con- 

 tinually coming in and eating and going out, it 

 seemed to make no difference — and dish after 

 dish of good things were set out before us. 

 First came a huge tureen of soup, with little 

 balls floating in it of dough stuffed with hashed 

 liver. Then a preparation of very diminutive 

 chickens, stewed in red pepper. Then one of 

 the genuine Hungarian puddings, of small bits 

 of batter, worked and cut till they looked like 

 fragments of leather — all soaked in fat. After 

 this, chickens boiled with rice, and following it 

 a formidable looking pyramid of cakes, such 

 as in Yankee land we call " fritters," ex- 

 cept that they were cut into singular shapes, 

 and piled up in a towering mass on the platter. 

 Besides, there figured roast mutton and salad, 

 and veal cutlets, and divers other dishes — some, 

 dishes unmentionable in English, and others 

 with names which I have forgotten. Flasks of 

 white and red wine were brought in every few 

 miimtes, and bottles of sulphur- water and iron- 

 water, which the guests seemed to drink even 

 more than the wine. 



At the end, the Bauer and his wife handed 

 every person a little tumbler with coffee. The 

 talking was very animated at table, and mostly 

 of America, and the chances for the Hunga- 

 rians, if they should go there. 



Several of the company were government of- 

 ficers, but the same expressions were used there, 

 which one liears everywhere — of the stupidity 

 and oppression of the government, and that the 

 only hope for them was to emigrate to "the 

 free land." At length one of the principal men 

 rose for a toast. He spoke in Hungarian, with 

 a rich, eloquent tone, and they all listened in 

 the deepest silence. I onh' understood it in 

 part, but as they translated it, it was, that my ar- 

 rival in the uuiiappy land seemed ominous of 

 good ; that I was one from a nation who had 

 welcomed the Hungarian exiles in their suffer- 

 ing, and had given sympathy to their poor coun- 

 try, and that he would propose the health of 

 two of the statesmen of my country, whom 

 every Hungarian knew, " "Webster, or (^Vebster 

 as they call him,) and Fill.more!" 



I was surprised enough at hearing such a toast 

 in a little Hungarian village, though I found 

 afterwards that very much was known indeed, 

 there, of our country. 



Towards the end of the supper, in a pause of 

 the conversation, the wife of our host, a pretty 

 looking, nut-brown peasant woman, came up to 

 me, and kissing my hand, with a look that almost 

 tempted me to kiss her, said something very 



