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qrliEAUIilSrGS FROM FOREIGN BOOKS.
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official capacity as head of the military departments * " ™^ Saien of 1859 . At the outset of the inquiry Baron votf *>™ - - ^ sss sis ^ t' ^^ fSS forgiveness of his Emperor and master , whom he had so gneyously ilVi We cannot get at the real facts of this affair , but it ^ rould seenvtfiat a great numbe ? of persons , some of distinction are «^ lved It » inftter of surprise that Etnatten , v'lio had been abroad tiH but lately , should have returned to Vienna , and the more after thefoilowing scene , which toot place just before his departure from vSmfathe truth of it is vouched for by the Frussian
Gazette-: The baron was invited , with many other officers o ( high rank , to a supper at Count Grume ' s . On his entering the dining-room which was already filled with the guests , and about to take his seat , Field-Marshal Benedee rose , and declared that hi& honour would not permit him to sit at the same table with a general who was strongly suspected of fraud ; he would avoid his company till lie had cleared his character , Those who were , of his opinion would follow his example . Hereupon Benedee took his hat and left the room , and was followed immediately by the whole company . . 1 lie excitement consequent upon this has been further ipcreased by the arrest of M . Richteb , chief manager of the Credit Mobiher society , who is now in prison ; and the arrest and sentence to death x > f a captain of engineers , Dohe , who was living upon the ^ bounty ^ F the Emperor at Verona , of which place he drew the plans and sold them to the French .
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THE SCLAVONIASJS . If we look at the present state of the Sclavoman races , it offers us S , very varied aspect . It is generally supposed that there , are sixty million . Sclavonians . Tliis race of men must , consequently , be reckoned among the most numerous of Europe , or of the world . Ifc is imposing- through-its mass * - through its numerical superiority . This its position among the nations ^ ust tend to elevate and embolden it , while exciting alarms and rendering needful precautionary measures among the neighbouring nations ; and this so much the more that in recent times the idea has become dominant of unitingall the Sclavonian peoples into a common brotherhood , known by the branches
iiame of Pansclavonjanism . The Sclavoiiians full into many , according to the point of view from which we regard them . In the first place , they form different tribes , with different names , according to the several regions which they inhabit , and the manifold dialects into which their language has broken . Following the geographical position of their lauds arid of their dialects , we can distribute them into these leading groups : The . firs t * which is also the nearest to our German fatherland , would , according to the calculations of the Sclavonians themselves , be the southwestern , or the Bohemian , to which the Czechs in Bohemia , the Moravians , ' the Ruthenians in Gulicia , and the SlowacUs in the Carpathian monntains must be reckoned , in number more than live millions and a half : or , if we reckon the Wends in the
two Imsatias , nearly six millions ; they inhabit a long tract from west to east . The second is the Southern , or Seryian-IUyriaju group , to which the Servians , Bulgarians , Bosnians , Montenegrins , Herzegoviniuns , glavoris , Dalmatians , Croats and Wends , or Slonenzians- — -some of the latter being included in the , Austrian monarchy—are to be reckoned , in number at about five millions . They dwell in a chord extending from the Bulletin to the Drave in Austria , in a direction extending from east to west . The third is the north-western , or Polish group , to which all Sclavonians are to be reckoned with whom the Polish is the prevailing 1 language—about eighteen millions . The fourth , north-eastern or Russian group , embraces those tribes amonjg whom the Russian—N " ew Russian-Great Russian dialect decidedly predominates , about thirty millions . A scientific comurehensive picture of the differences of these dialects
as to words , forms of words , accents , and bo forth , is yet wanting ; but so much . is certain , that those . tribes which have closest intercourse with the Germans have ' taken muoh from these ; those which dwell not fur from Italy , from the Italians ; those which are subject to the Turks , from the Turkish , the Arabic , the Greek , and other tongues , and have thus destroyed the purity of the original language . Lingual maps , which are now so common , and which include ( Sclavonic , give a lively imago of the extensive distribution of the Slavonic race , but show , likewise , how , in thin respect , that race has been rent and dispersed . Still more striking- are the separations which have arisen and continue through religious creeds . In Bosnia a great part of the Sclavonic inhabitants are Mahometans . Tlie Montenegrins , on thoothor hand , tho Servians , the Russians , the Bulgarians , belong- to the Greek Catholic Church . The most of
the Sclavonic nations under the Austrian sway are Roman Catholics . A small part of them , as well as a part of the Wends hi Lusutia , are Protestants . Hare to give numbers would be a vain" attempt ; but maps may in , some measure supply the defect—those we moan which furnish in outline the , geographical dintribution of the religious confessions , Finally , tho Slavonians can bo classified according to tlio forms of government under which they lire . Iu this relation they are cither independent or sub-
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ject . The Russians alone are independent ; all the remaining Sclavonic races are in a state of subjection , either to the Russians or to the Turks , or to the Germans- —especiallyto the A « stnans , the Saxons , arid the Prussians . Those subject to the Germans amount to about five millions seven hundred thousand ; the numbers of those subject to other States cannot even appivuxi relatively be given . The lot of the subject races varies much , according to the character of the Government under whose sway they are placed . Very sari was and is the lot of the Sclavoiiians under the Turkish yoke , —a lot which the decree known as the Hatticherif of Guilhane some years ago slightly mitigated . Very harsh was the bondage of the Sclavonians under the Magyar dominion , from which , however , they were freed by the changes in Hungary subsequent to the last abortive , revolution there . The situation of the Sclavoniaris under the Austrian
Government was by no means joyous . The Austrians troubled themselves little about their Sclavonic provinces , while yet in many ways oppressing them ; but in consequence of theHungarian revolution , Austria s Sclavonic provinces rose to an equality of privilege with the other Austrian dominions . Most deplorable is the condition of the subject Sclavonic races under the Kussian sceptre , which aims at nothing else than levelling and Russianising all nationalities in the vast Muscovite empire , the Sclavonic nationalities included . Ihe Sclavoniaiis had little to complain of in Saxony , where recently they have been placed on the same footing as the rest of the inhabitants , as had long been the case in Prussia , though the political and religious fanaticism of the Poles questions or quarrels with the blessing . The Slavonians in Austria look forward , through the changes in that empire , to a better future , to more political freedom , to nobler culture , to a more national existence . — jSeffler ' e Sclavonianisni .
ANIUA . L MFK 131 SOTTTHEBN BTJ 8 SIA . The forests are the usual pasture grounds of the herds of cattle which pass the whole summer in the open air . The inhabitants of a village generally send out their cattle together under the guidance of one or more herd boys ; thick clouds of dust in the evening : announce from afar the return of the herd ; the long procession seems as if it would never end , and we are forced to marvel at the power which man exercises over the animals when we see the little herd-boy , and behind him the immense oxen which march in the van . Horses likewise find pasture in the forests , , and it is magnifibut their wild
cent to see the noble creatures obeying nothing own impulses , playing or battling with each other , or startled * hastening away with flowing marie when men draw near . How great the wealth in horses is , we have evidence of in the daily life of the people . Persons of even moderate means never travel with less than four horses in harness / and often there are six . The peasants frequently make use of one-horsed vehicles called telegas , in which the horse is harnessed to a piece of arched wood fixed to the pole ; this arrangement favours steadiness of movement . When in a Russian carriage , three horses are harnessed abreast , they seem all to be going in different directions , the appearance whereof is curious enough . her th The
The Russian horses are smaller but toug an ours . Russians travel with the rapidity of lightning over untrodden tracts , and pay no regard to the obstacles by the way ; in the wooden britschkas and telegas , however , it is terrible work- for the horses . For long journies the tarantass is made use of , —a largo clumsylooking , but really light and comfortable carriage , the body of which rests on two elastic poles which are connected by the axletree . Officers . travelling oil service , 'military couriers , and the like , avail themselves for the most of the wooden post-telegas , in which , m spite of an uncomfortable position on a wooden seat right over the wheels , they rapidly traverse the vastest tracts . These simple vehicles contrast with the fashionable Russian coach , notable lor elegance and splendour . It is drawn by from four to eight horses of the same favourite colour , and of the same size . On the high seat is enthroned the coachman in a long kaftan with a red scarf , or silver trirdle , and a tall cap bordered with fur . Ho looks very
majestic when standing up to drive the horses , wherein he ih aided t > y a little postilion In a similar cpstume , who is , seated on one of the
leaders . The Russian coachmen and peasants have an infinite treasure of words for talking to their horses . Their speech to them is incessant ; they have a thousand chiding , cursing phruaes , but they have in still greater abundance tender , endearing expressions ; they change their voice at every moment , and go rapidly from the softest , Bweotest tones of flattery , to the roughest sounds of anger . The peasants-are , for the most part , bold riders , mount in a moment the wildest horses , which have passed all the summer in the forest , and holding firmly by the mane , dash along without saddle or bridle . The green treeless hills , the wide tracks of heath , and the mown fields are the nusture-Krounds of the sheep , many thousands
of which belong 1 to nearly every extensive farm . Above all , those provinces arc the nuraories of pigs , as Dickens would my , who has so often , described , with humorous , half-tymputlusing accuracy , ' the aspects and doings of these despised animals , and who would find a rich field for observation in tho villages of bouth Russia j so tall of pretty piglings everywhere , running about by hundredt ^ and in all colour * , dancing round their ; utf ly mothers , playing together , or rolling in the puddles , and which are not only a characteristic feature of the villages , but often a source ot nchos to their
inhabitants . . „ ,. „ ; , . The hunter finds in tho South Russnan foists scope for his -fulleat joy and activity . There the wolves have their homo , and there , in covortH not easily approached , lurk the beiira . _ The staff , with his proud antlers , bouncla past the oaks ; the roe , timid , ana yet smiu ^
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March 24 , i 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday AnatysU **•
Qrlieauiilsrgs From Foreign Books.
; '¦ aiiEA ^ I ^ GS FBOM FOUEIGN BOOKS .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 24, 1860, page 287, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2339/page/19/
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