HUNGARY. 487 



horses, cattle, swine (to the amount of several hundred thousand pounds 

 annually) corn, wine, tobacco, the productions of the mines, linen, raw 

 and manufactured skins, tallow, saffron, honey, wax, and oil. In the 

 year 1787, the exports amounted to 17,800,000 florins (about 

 1,800,000/. sterling) and the imports to 13,800,000 florins (1,400,000/.) 

 leaving a balance to the country of 4,000,000 of florins, or 400,000/. 

 sterling. 



Constitution and government The Hungarians have preserv- 

 ed the remains of many checks upon the regal power. They have a 

 diet or parliament: which assembly consists of two tables or houses; 

 the first composed of magnates, or the great officers of the crown, 

 princes, counts, barons, archbishops,; and the second, of the abbots, 

 prelates, and deputies from the chapters and each of the two-and-fifty 

 gespannschafts, or counties, into which the kingdom is divided. These 

 houses, however, form but one body, as their votes are taken together. 

 The diet, besides being convened on all great national events, should 

 meet at stated times. Under Matthias Corvinus, and Ferdinand I, it 

 was decreed, they should be annual; and under Leopold I, that they 

 should be triennial; which was confirmed by Charles VI, and is still 

 considered as the constitutional period. But sovereigns and their min- 

 isters often wish to get rid of these incumbrances; and from 1764 to 

 1790, no diet -was held ; though many important affairs had happened 

 within that period. It ought not to sit more than two months. There 

 is likewise a Hungary-office, which resembles our chancery, and which 

 resides at Vienna; as the palatine's council, which nearly resembles 

 the British privy-council, but has a municipal jurisdiction, does at 

 Presburg. Every royal town has its senate; and the gespannschafts 

 have magistrates, who act as our justices of the peace. Besides these, 

 there is an exchequer, nine chambers, and other subordinate courts. 



Revenue. ...The revenue which the emperor derives from Hungary 

 amounts to about two millions sterling. 



Army ...The emperor can bring into the field, at any time, seventy 

 or eighty thousand Hungarians in their own country, but seldom draws 

 out of it above ten thousand: these are generally light-horse, and well 

 known in modern times by the name of Hussars. They are not near 

 so large as the German horse; and therefore the hussars stand up on 

 their short stirrups when they strike. Their expedition and alertness 

 have been found so serviceable in war,that the greatest powers in Eu- 

 rope have troops that go by the same name. Their foot are called 

 Heydukes, and wear feathers in their caps, according to the number of 

 enemies they pretend to have killed : both horse and foot are an excel- 

 lent militia, very good at a pursuit, or ravaging and plundering a coun- 

 try, but not equal to regular troops in a pitched battle. The sovereign 

 may summon the Hungarian nobility to take the field and defend their 

 country. This service is called an insurrection and from it the high 

 clergy are not exempt. In the frequent wars in which Hungary was 

 formerly engaged, principally against the Turks, this service was ra- 

 ther a severe obligation. The number of combatants each brought 

 into the field was in proportion to his estate. The archbishop of Gran 

 and the bishop of Erlau, brought each two stands of colours, and under 

 each stand a thousand men ; the archbishop of Colocza, and several 

 bishops, a thousand each. In the fatal battle of Mohatch. seven bishops 

 were left on the field. 



The standing military force of Hungary, in the year 1794, consisted, 

 ding to Or. Townson, of nine regiments of infantry, of 3000 men 



