PEACE OF SZATHMAR. 173 suaded by General Palfy to state his grievances and demands to the emperor, and accordingly assembled some of the Confederates at Salank, a village near Münkacs. The prince submitted to the decision of those whom he convoked the following question :— Whether they thought it better that he should throw himself into the fortress, there to await the issue of the negotiations, or go in person to solicit the assistance promised by the Czar? The Confederates pronounced for the latter alternative, and Rakoczy accordingly set out for Poland (1710). Before his departure, the chief command of the troops was entrusted to Karoly, who, tired of Rakoczy's prolonged and useless absence in Poland, assembled the nobles at Szathmar, and concluded, in 1711, a peace known as the Treaty of Szathmar. By this treaty the emperor engaged to redress all grievances, civil and religious, promising, besides, amnesty to all the adherents of Rakoczy, as well as the restitution of many properties illegally confiscated. Rakoczy protested from Poland against the peace concluded by Karoly; but of what effect could be the censure and remonstrance of a leader who, in the most critical emergency, had left the scene of action in quest of foreign assistance, which, he might have foreseen, would never be accorded. Thus ended the first and second periods of the Hapsburg rule in Hungary. Nearly two hundred years are thus seen to have passed away in rapine and slaughter, the blood of the nation flowing in a hundred different channels, the vine-covered mountains standing desolate, and the wide plains strewn with the bones of the slain. Under the mask of freeing Europe from the Mussulman, Austria brought the mercenaries of almost every European people to break down a 174 CONCLUDING REMARKS. once mighty race which had proved itself a match for the Ottoman power when it was in its fullest vigour. Strange crusaders truly were the Belgiosos, Bastas, and Caraffas, whom the Hapsburgs sent to Hungary under the standard of the Cross! Europe had been willing, up to the days of Rakoczy, to believe that all the hosts sent into that country were designed to destroy the Turks, and the pernicious Hungarians with whom they were repeatedly allied. This last war, however, as has been seen, was commenced and carried on for seven years, by a people driven to despair by the unceasing tyranny of its Christian rulers, and regarded by the Porte with absolute indifference; and still no earnest effort was made by civilized Europe to relieve the unfortunate condition of this ill-starved race; an effort, which at this emergency, was as easy as it would have been successful, if attempted by the maritime powers who professed to mediate. A man with the stern earnestness and determination of a Tököli, would have found it no difficult task to save, under these rather favourable circumstances, the independence of Hungary. But not so the prince Rakoczy. Though prompted to action by a feeling of justice and patriotism, this young prince wanted consistent energy and faith in the final success of his cause, two qualities indispensable in a national leader, and the only infallible tests of his real greatness. No small praise, however, is due to the memory of Rakoczy, who, though brought up by Jesuits, fought for, and proclaimed the religious liberty of the Protestants. Refusing to accept the imperial pardon he betook himself to France, and spent the next four years of his life in that country. Tired of his stay in France, he looked for a last asylum in Turkey, at that time ruled CONCLUDING REMARKS. 175 over by Achmet III. This sultan, it may cursorily be remarked, was entirely engrossed in the intrigues of the harem, and was not to be roused into action either by the favourable opportunity offered to the Porte by Charles XII. of Sweden, or by the Hungarian war. In fact, it was during that time that the Porte began to decline, and Russia to raise its head under Peter the Great, who neglected no effort that might secure for himself the sympathies of the Sclavonic tribes living under Turkish rule.1 1 Salaberry, vol. iii. p. 78, illustrates most strikingly the apathy of the divan, which turned a deaf ear to the admonition of the vizier Kinperli and Poniatowski, a Polish nobleman and adherent of Charles XII. They accused the Czar of engaging the subjects of the Porte, especially the mountaineers, allied to the Russian by the community of religion, urging upon the sultan to take the field. "Les Montenegrins," says the historian, 66 sur la renommée des succês d'une peuplade de leur nation contre leurs ennemis communs, avaient envoyé, dans le tems de la paix de Carlowitz, offrir leur alliance a la Russie. La prevoyance de Pierre I., n'avais pas dedaigné depuis des Montagnards dont la haine et la bravoure pouvaient devenir utiles; et sans avoir de dessein fixé ou de but present, il avait cultivé les germes de cette amitié profitable. Les presents de Pierre I., avaient decoré les Eglises des Montenegrins, ses aumones avaient eté secourir les prétres grecs jusque dans les celulles du Mont Athos. Ainsi dés-lors, tous les peuples, les uns de même origine, les autres de même religion que les Russes, partagaient la bienveillance de leur nom, l'assurance de leur amitié, l'esperance de leur protection en Epire, en Thessalie, dans la Grèce, dans la Morée." THIRD PERIOD-1711-1825. CHAPTER VI. CHARLES VI.—MARIA THERESA—(1711-1780.) AFTER the peace of Szathmar, Hungarian history assumes a quite different character. The Hungarians will no more be seen to rise against their Hapsburg monarchs, but on the contrary to save the Austrian empire from the bold and ambitious designs of two of the most warlike princes of Europe, Frederick the Great and Napoleon Buonaparte. It will be seen how, in the midst of the stirring spirit of the present century, so memorable from its mental activity, and the race of giant minds which it had sent forth, Hungary without producing a single man of note lay in a state of deep lethargy; how the privileged classes, entrenching themselves behind the ramparts of feudalism, scorned every idea of progress; farther, how the national feeling and language, vanishing from among the higher classes, were guarded and treasured up by the oppressed and rude, but incorruptible peasants; MEASURES OF CHARLES VI. 177 finally, how the first spark of national regeneration was kindled in a time of greatest reaction by a few dispersed and unknown literati. Charles the VI. was crowned king of Hungary under the name of Charles the Third. Immediately after the death of his brother Joseph (1711) he left Spain to receive the imperial unction at Frankfort. Hence he proceeded first to Austria, and then to Presburg to appear at the diet of 1712. Previous to his coronation, Charles swore to observe all the ancient laws and privileges of the country, with the exception of the 31st article of the Golden Bull, pledging himself, further, to incorporate into the mother country all the provinces regained from the Turks, and acknowledging the right of the Hungarian States freely to elect their king after the extinction of the male line of the House of Austria. In consequence of an epidemic disease, the diet was soon dissolved, but met again in 1714. The most important enactments of this assembly were, the reorganization of the Courts of Chancery and Administration; the renewal of the privileges of the towns retaken from the Turks; the election of a palatine in the person of John Palfy, and the assurance of redeeming the districts of the Cumans and Jasiges from the knights of the Teutonic order. Of no less importance was the nomination of commissioners ordered to inquire into the state of properties (commissiones neo-acquisitica), which had passed into new and illegal hands during the long wars. In the same year Charles concluded the peace Radstadt with the king of France, beginning, however, a new war against the Porte, then bent on wresting Morea from the Republic of Venice. The Court of Vienna used all possible means to persuade the Vene M of |