HUNGARY (LITERATURE.) 



829 



noss of the expression in the particular cases, and 

 the proselyting activity of the Catholic clergy, ren- 

 der the Catholic religion predominant. Children, 

 whose parents are of different religions, if the father 

 is a Catholic, must be educated in the Catholic reli- 

 gion ; but if he is a Protestant, only the sons can 

 adopt his religion. This is the cause of most of the 

 oppressions, which the people suffer from the clergy, 

 who are very careful to prevent the Protestant reli- 

 gion from getting the ascendency. 



The legislative power is vested in the diet, that is, 

 the king and the estates. The estates consist of the 

 higher clergy (bishops, popes, and abbots), the mag- 

 nates, the two courts of appeal, and two representa- 

 tives from each chapter, county, city, and privileged 

 district. They are divided into two chambers 

 (tabulee), under the presidency of the palatine and 

 the personal (president of the royal chambers of 

 justice). The diet has also the privilege of crowning 

 the king (who swears to maintain the liberties and 

 rights of the kingdom, and to recover all the lost 

 provinces, and annex them to the kingdom), of 

 electing the palatine (the first officer of the state), 

 and of granting supplies and subsidies in money, in 

 kind, and in troops. The king has, 1. the right of 

 patronage, or the investiture of all ecclesiastical 

 benefices ; 2. the right of conferring nobility (yet 

 certain prelates have the power, by granting parti- 

 cular estates, of placing persons, not belonging to 

 the nobility, in a condition nearly equivalent to that 

 of the nobility) ; 3. the appointment to all offices and 

 honours excepting that of palatine ; 4. the coining 

 of money ; 5. the regulation of the post ; 6. the 

 right of declaring war and making peace ; 7. the 

 command of the army; 8. the right of assembling 

 and dissolving the diet. The inferior administration 

 of the country is differently organized in relation to 

 the various classes of inhabitants. The whole 

 country is divided into fifty-three counties, of which 

 there is one in the Littorale, three in Croatia, and 

 three in Sclavonia. The county magistrates have 

 the immediate government over both the nobility 

 and the peasants of the county ; but they are elected 

 by the nobility, every three years, from their own 

 members, besides which they advise with the nobility 

 on subjects of general interest, in public meetings. 

 The citizens of the free cities have also their own 

 magistrates, consisting of the inner council (senators 

 elected for life), and the outer (the electors who 

 choose the senate and fill their own vacancies). The 

 privileged districts also choose their own magistrates. 

 The royal regency (in Buda), at the head of which is 

 the palatine, is over all the offices above named. It 

 has the supreme administration of the country, and is 

 the regular organ of communication between the 

 king and country ; it watches over the observance of 

 the constitution, and submits to the king any pro- 

 posals for the public good. The king exercises his 

 authority through the Hungarian chancery (in Vi- 

 enna). Besides their political powers, the inferior 

 authorities exercise the administration of justice in 

 the first instance. But the peasant is subject to 

 the seigneurial jurisdiction of the lord of the manor, 

 which sometimes extends even to criminal cases, 

 if the lord is invested with the jus gladii (as it is 

 called). There are three county courts in civil 

 cases, according to the importance of the subject in 

 question; consisting either of a judge with a jury,- or 

 of the vice-officer of the county with a judge and 

 jury, or of the supreme tribunal of the county (sedes 

 jtidiciaria, Sedria), which also revises the decisions 

 of the two other courts and of the seigneurial courts, 

 and has the sole jurisdiction in all criminal cases in 

 tlifi counties. In certain civil processes, designated 

 by law, four district tables (tabulae) in Hungary, and 



one in Croatia, exercise original jurisdiction. The 

 courts of appellate jurisdiction are the royal table 

 (which, however, in several cases, has original juris- 

 diction) and the table of the seven (both in Pesth). 

 They are both comprised under the name of curia 

 regia, the sentences of which have the force of law, 

 in case there is no positive law. The Catholic 

 clergy in Hungary are powerful, by reason of their 

 large landed property, and the influence which they 

 possess over all offices. 10,000 clergymen, with 

 three archbishops and twenty diocesan bishops (among 

 whom are four Greek Catholics), watch over the 

 Catholic flock. The Protestants have a primitive 

 form of government. Laymen and clergymen united 

 (presbyteri) manage the affairs of the different con- 

 gregations, under the direction of superintendents. 

 The adherents of the Augsburg confession have also 

 a general superintendent. There are seven bishops 

 and one metropolitan of the non-united Greeks. The 

 education and instruction of the Catholic youth are 

 mostly in the hands of the clergy. There are five 

 academies for higher studies; a lyceum at Erlau, and 

 a university at Pesth with a library of 70,000 volumes, 

 an observatory, &c. Protestants are admitted into 

 these establishments, and the instruction is gratuitous. 

 The Protestants have many gymnasia; the non-united 

 Greeks have two. The Hungarian contingent to the 

 Austrian army consists of twelve regiments of infan- 

 try and ten of cavalry; in all, 64,000 men; to which, 

 in cases of emergency, is added the Insurrection, 

 which, in 1808, amounted to 40,000 men. The 

 annual revenue from the domains, the regalia, and 

 taxes, amounts to from 30 to 40,000,000 guilders. 

 The expenditure is small. The peasants pay the 

 county officers; they also supply the provisions for 

 the army, at a price fixed in 1751, which is much 

 below the market, value. In the free cities and pri- 

 vileged districts, the officers are also paid by the 

 communes. Most of the public institutions have 

 considerable funds; and the Protestants are obliged 

 to defray the expenses of their worship. There is 

 no public debt. 



See doctor J. A. Fessler's History of Hungary, in 

 German, tenvols. (Leipsic, 1815 etseq.), and His- 

 tory of the Magyars, by count Mailath, three vols. 

 (Vienna, 1828); Beudant's Mineralogical and Geo- 

 gnostical Travels in Hungary, in the Year 1818, 

 four vols. (1822); Bright's Travelsin Hungary (1814.) 



Hungarian Literature has received but little at- 

 tention from foreign scholars, but has been treated 

 by Hungarian writers, in the Hungarian language, 

 by Spangar (1738), Bod (1766), Sandor, Budai, 

 Papai, Toth, Jankowich, and others ; in Latin, by 

 Czwittinger (1711), Rotarides (1745), Bel, Schier, 

 Haner, Schmeitzel, Weszpremi, Pray, Wallaszky, Si- 

 monchich, Belnai, Tibold, &c.; in German, by Win- 

 disch, Seivert, Kovachich, Engel, Fessler, Miller, 

 Schwartner, Schedius, Liibeck, Rosier, &c. The 

 character of this singular people, their peculiar views 

 of life and the world, are strikingly displayed in 

 their literature, which also bears traces of the con- 

 stant struggle which they have had to carry on ever 

 since their first entrance into Europe. Nor is it 

 deficient in qualities which render it important in a 

 scientific light. The language suggests many un- 

 expected views in regard to the philosophy of 

 language in general ; the poetry, particularly the 

 lyric, excels in beauty, and works are not wanting 

 in the department of natural history, Roman and 

 Grecian antiquity, philology, history in general, the 

 laws of nations, and other subjects. The H ungarians, 

 impelled partly by the spirit of adventure which 

 characterized the middle ages, and partly by the 

 demands of assistance from foreign princes, emigrated 

 from Asia, and spread over the disconnected pro- 



