CHAPTER VL 



HUNGARY AND TRANSYLVANIA. 



(Magyars and Rumaîîians.) 



General Aspects. — Mountains. 



UNGARY, with Transylvania, possesses, in its geographical homo- 

 geneity, a great advantage over the Cisleithan half of the Aiistro- 

 Hungarian Empire. Very inferior to German Austria in popula- 

 tion, wealth, and civilisation, Hungary nevertheless enjoys superior 

 political advantages. The former is an incoherent conglomeration 

 of territories stretching from the banks of the Rhine eastward to the Vistula, 

 whilst Hungary presents itself as an oval plain encircled by mountains. Tliis 

 plain is the basin of an ancient lake, and the dominant race, numerically as well as 

 politically, occupies it, and all the other races gravitate towards it. Thus, in spite 

 of wars and national jealousies, the various peoples inhabiting Hungary, owing to 

 the geographical homogeneity of the country, have generally been united by the 

 same political bonds. Together they succumbed to the Turks, and subsequently 

 to Austria ; and together they now form a self-governing state, proud of having 

 reconquered the outward signs of its independence. Whatever the future may 

 have in store, the nation which has established itself in the huge arena encircled 

 by the Carpathians must always enjoy a preponderating influence in the territory 

 conquered and hitherto maintained by it. It has been said that the future belongs 

 to the Aryans, and that all other races will have to submit to them in the end. It 

 promises well for the destinies of mankind that a nation of non-Aryan origin 

 should have planted its foot in the centre of Europe. In answer to the haughty 

 pretensions of the Indo-Europeans, the Magyars are able to refer to their history. 

 They have had their periods of apathy, no doubt, but what neighbouring nation 

 can boast of being their superior in intelligence, bravery, or love of liberty ? 



The Alps play a very subordinate part in the orography of Hungary. 

 Standing upon the heights above Vienna, we perceive in the distance the bluish 

 hills rising beyond the river Leitha (1,600 feet), an outlier of the Styrian Alps. 

 The sandy valley of the Vulka separates these hills from the limestone range of 



77 



