LOVE AND CONSTANCY IN of life's stormy sea-fixed as the lumin WOMAN. ary that is without variableness or shadow of turning. If she is fluctuating and untrue to others, she is untrue to herself, and the suicide of her own happiness, for the misery she causes she must share. There are women so true, so pure, so absorbing feeling, that all others are dull and worthless in the comparison, or only derive their value and interest from their connexion with it. They are the alchymists of their own happiness, of which their hearts are the crucible: like them they toil and labour in search of the elixir of life, and that true philosopher's stone, whose touch or presence converts every thing into a pure, bright and golden vision of peace, happiness, and joy. The common details of life are the material on which they work, and these they invest with a roseate hue, which no clouds can darken, no rough touches efface, no misfortunes eradicate. Oh! how common and despicable are the trifles, the sordid causes of most of the discontents of life, when encountered by true and faithful hearts, and warded off by arms that encircle us in the warm folds of generous love! and how blunted do they glance off from the bosom mailed with true affection, confiding in mutual sincerity, and glowing with one pure and undivided hope? Poverty and straitened circumstances are naught—seclusion from society only draws such hearts into closer union—and the nearer they approximate, the better are they known. Thousands of such glowing natures exist in the world, or it would indeed be a dreary desert, "a world without a sun;" the rose of life would be without sweetness; and the attempt to place it in our bosoms, or wreathe it round our brows, would only prick the fingers and wound the breast and head of the rash and weary sojourner here. Love is not a garment we can wear or lay aside at pleasure-to fit us loosely like an easy glove—'tis not a thing that we can toy or play or trifle with, to entertain or fling aside as our wayward fancy lists-constant, so occupied with the one that gains admission into the heart as a chance tenant, and to whom we may give notice to quit, at a moment's warning, as whim, caprice, or humour prompt. It is a holy, deep, devoted passion—once gains it admission into true woman's breast, it lingers there for ever. In her waking and her dreaming hours, it is always present. She would not resign it for her life. She could not if she would, for without it her bosom would be a dreary void, and her existence a blank. Oh! ye who possess that inestimable treasure, a woman's trusting doting love, trifle not with the precious boon. Loves she you once, she loves eternally. Change as ye will, no change can alter her. Few men will propose unless tolerably sure of success-and a man must either be very vain or very shortsighted to obtrude his attentions where there is a decided repugnanee on the other side. But a woman should be frank and explicit in her manner and demeanour; she should not trifle and coquet, hang out false colours, and hoist others when the hour of action is at hand. A man should not be subjected to the pain and mortification of refusal, for no one would willingly cut a ridiculous figure; and when the matter has proceeded so far, I generally think that the lady must have flirted a little. For a woman always knows what is coming long beforehand; she has an instinctive presentiment of the existence of those feelings toward her which ripen into love under the rays of her smiles, and such hopes she ought not to encourage only to destroy. She should not flirt with one, and hold out her hand to be kissed by another her affections should be concentrated on one object alone, or she knows nothing about the matter of love. There can be no misunderstanding in a woman that is really and truly in love; she knows what going on in her heart, and who it is that inspired the tender passion. Women once pledged should be immoveable, constant to one image, "like the northern star that hath no fellow in the firmament." Like it her sincerity should shine clear and constant -like it, it should glitter through the darkest night of adversity, silvering with its holy lustre the troubled waves There are some women of such exquisite sensibilities, such deep-toned and finely-strung feelings, that when the chords of their hearts are once touched, they thrill and vibrate for ever-the music of their hearts is attuned to the sweetest melody-and meets it a response in a congenial soul, their dwelling-place is a plot of Eden, and their existence a rapture. There are others, too puredevoted, and free from feelings of self, that they are almost unsuited for the every-day wear and tear of the world. I know one of these, whose brief history I will incorporate with my present rambling and desultory communication. She was a simple, secluded, affectionate girl, about nineteen years of age, beautiful as the morning, and gentle and bright as the sweet flowers among which she sprung. Her life had been all sunshine, and love was yet a stranger to her breast. She lived near my own residence, not far from the city, in a sweet romantic nook, surrounded with the graceful offspring of our western Flora, whose priestess she seemed to be. How often have I noticed her, like a nymph among her leafy bowers, and how frequently have I thought with the poet, that "Not a flower was blooming there, Sweet as herself, or half so fair!" Hers was a free and buoyant spirit, whose wings were of the rainbow's hue, and whose existence appeared to be a very ocular dream. She was fond of poetry and music, and gifted beyond the lot of ordinary minds. One came to her father's cot, whom she saw but to love; and, oh! how worthy he was of that sweet girl's affections! From a slight, it grew to an overwhelming passion, and became the all-absorbing emotion of her bosom, and the every motive of her existence. Her affections were reciprocated to the utmost extent of man's capability of loving, and they were happy in each other, beyond the poet's art to speak, and which even few lovers can conceive. Circumstances, however, had interposed an insurmountable barrier to their union, and they separated with pledges of inviolable fidelity. He went to distant lands, and was away many years she, in his absence, had numerous suitors, and her acceptance of one or other of them was frequently canvassed within the circle of my acquaintance; but she accepted none-she had given her heart wholly to the man of her choice-and, although she might never see or hear from him more, it was his and his alone. Fragments of his letters, a curl of his hair, his miniature, anything that was his; the walks where they had strolled together, each of which had been the witnesses or pledges of well remembered and deeply cherished words and promises, which to her were conviction and reality, would fill her eyes with tears, and her bosom with indefinable emotions. She was unpractised in the world's cold ways, and ignorant of its selfish machinations-the groves and woods had been her temples, and nature her artless instructor-she had drank deep of its inspiration, and consulted no monitor but her own true, guileless and woman's heart. Therefore did she cling, with passionate pertinacity, to the object of her only love-a love, which, in its beginning, promised no other reward to her but disappointment, darkness and despair-or, at the best, but the satisfaction of thinking that she loved worthily-and whose light, like the fanciful glimmer of the Rosicrucians, illuminated the deep recesses of her heart, in which her fondly-cherished hopes were enshrined and buried. Ten weary years thus dragged their slow and tedious length along; and hope deferred, which the psalmist says, "maketh the heart sick," had not distilled its lethargic influence upon hers-she was the same -fond to his image, confiding in his sincerity, and faithful to her promise, although he came not. But one came instead-ardent, accomplished, rich and powerful-his hand, heart and fortune were tendered, and everybody now thought the wedding-bells would celebrate her nuptials. But, no-the new suitor departed as he came, and as others had gone before him, with a blessing and a regret. Was this a constant woman, and does not fidelity like hers deserve the reward that is sure, one day or other to overtake it? He came at last, her chosen one, "her soul's election "-every obstacle to their union had been removed, and they were married. Were they happy? O yes!-supremely so. The joys of a lifetime were compressed in every hour, and the outpourings of hearts pent up for years and years of agony in their own bosoms, now gilded and consecrated every moment of their existence, which seemed to be as fully blessed as heaven permits mortality to enjoy. The story that I have related is no fiction-it was told to me by the husband himself, and was corroborated by his high-hearted wife, who are still my near neighbours, and of whose acquaintance I am prouder than any other. My communication, I am afraid has already reached a tedious length; but if you have no objection, I will conclude it with one more fact within my personal notice, illustrative of the position I have taken with regard to woman's love and woman's constancy. Many years ago, I was acquainted with a family at Croydon in Surrey, named B., who left America on the embarkation of the British troops, in 1783. Captain B. was a military professor at the East India Company's college at Addiscombe. He had a daughter, who was called the "Croydon belle," and well she deserved the distinction. Her beauty and accomplishments won the heart of a young cadet, her senior by a few years--of course, a union was impracticable; his scene of action was in the East Indies, where circumstances rendered it impossible for her to go. She promised to be his through weal and wo, and said her hand was a widow's unless he returned to claim it. They separated-and did not meet again for twenty-two years; that long lifetime, that lingering eternity to all lovers-but his promise went with him, and he never forgot it in all the changes of climate, or the scenes of war. The attractions of fresh-imported European beauties, which are described as irresistible to the British officers in India, had no charms for him-one only feeling pervaded his soul, the recollection of his early love. And the lady, was she constant? Yes! Had she been surrounded with admirers, and beset with offers ? Did wealth, and rank, and title allure her, with their gaudy trappings? They did so; but in vain. The " Croydon belle's" heart never wandered from her poor cadet. The companions of royalty were at her feet, and implored her hand —a prelate sued, but the mitred admirer had no more success than those who preceded him. Her heart was in India, and she could not, or would not call it back. Returned it to her ?-It did. The cadet returned a colonel, and last week I saw the announcement of their marriage in the " Morning Chronicle." If you doubt this story, get the paper, and remove your scruples. ON HUNGARY, AND THE PORTIA. (Translated from the French, for the Parterre). HUNGARY, one of the finest countries in Europe, is also one of the least known. Strangers are satisfied with learning that its soil is fertile, that it has good wines, and possesses corn, cattle and gold. He who chances to have heard besides this, that the capital of the kingdom is called Buda, and its coronation city Presburg; that Hungary was long the theatre of the sanguinary wars with the Turks, and that it is the native country of the light cavalry, that under the name of Hussars are now to be found in the armies of every European power, is persuaded that he has entirely compassed the history and geography of Hungary. The learned even scarcely take the trouble to glance at Hungary, because they suppose that a country inhabited only by barbarians, little differing from their Eastern neighbours, can offer nothing to increase their acquirements. The result of this prepossession has been the unnumbered vague notions, false opinions, and extravagant assertions with which the writings of most authors in regard to Hungary are replete; and which under the protection of an eminent name are so rapidly diffused, and acquire a consistence very difficult to destroy. It is doubtless, in these prejudices, that we must seek the origin of the notion that slavery exists in Hungary; that, for the honour of humanity has long since ceased. The slave in the true meaning of the word is not a person but a thing, that, like any other, is bought, sold and employed at the will of the master, who is the unlimited and absolute owner of it. The serf is scarcely more fortunate, excepting that his life is placed under the protection of the law. We shall, however, find that the classes of unhappy individuals designated by these two names, although formerly very numerous in Hungary, do not now exist there. It When the Hungarians, who are called in their own language, Magyars, issued from the broad steppes of Asia, and rushed upon the provinces now inhabited by their descendants, they were encountered by tribes not willing easily to surrender their possessions to the new comers. It was necessary to have recourse to arms, and fortune befriending the warlike horde, who fell in heavy masses on the several weak and disunited princes of the petty sovereignties, they without much difficulty succeeded in wresting their States from them. was then that the conquerors, in the right of the strongest (the only right respected in those barbarous days) reduced the vanquished to slavery, imposing upon them a heavy yoke, the better to keep them in subjection. The masters fancied they might dispense with toil of every sort, and condemned to unceasing labour, those whom they had taken captive, rating their worth only according to the utility derived from them. They consequently established the principle that this class of men, or rather of domestic animals, could not in any way participate in civil rights, and had only obligations to fulfil. Warlike, ferocious, and greedy of booty, the Hungarians soon turned their destructive arms against their neighbours, and successively invaded the contiguous provinces of the Byzantine Empire, Italy, Germany, France, and even Spain. The most frightful desolation always accompanied these irruptions, the more fatal to the countries of which they were the scene; as these territories were not only plundered of whatever they had of any value, but of their whole population besides, who, destined for slavery, were dragged off into the land of the invaders. We find in a letter from Saint Pilgrim, written to Pope Bennet the Eighth,† that a great number of foreign slaves were in his days to be found in Hungary. He says, "the christians, who compose the majority of the people, brought from all parts of the world to this country, and not daring openly to dedicate their children to the true God, come in multitudes to have them baptised, now that fear no longer restrains them. They exult with joy, as if about to return to their own country, because they have obtained permission to exercise their worship." Hungary was in its turn unpeopled by the pressure of that barbarous custom of dragging away as prisoners, men, women, and children, which was in force with the Turks in all their wars, to even the seventeenth century; it ought to be considered as one of the principal causes of the small number of inhabitants in Hungary, in proportion to the extent of its territory. At a later period, when Stephen I. took his place amongst the sovereigns of Europe, he felt the necessity of civilizing his people having embraced christianity, he entered into pacific treaties with neighbouring states; the sources that had formerly furnished a constant supply of slaves were dried up, and slavery was limited to children born of parents who were slaves, and to free men condemned to slavery as a judicial punishment for specific crimes. The new religion enjoining the love of our neighbour, and the different methods employed by this great king to familiarise his people with the arts, which only flourish in times of peace, prompted Stephen to promulgate several laws for the amelioration of the social existence of this unhappy class of persons, Similar laws were likewise enacted by Ladislaus the First, Boloman, and other monarchs, who caught a glimpse of the necessity of protecting this numerous class against the arbitrary treatment of Saint Pilgrim was one of the first apostles of the gospel in Hungary, under duke Geyza, father of Stephen the First. + Bennet the Eighth filled the chair from 1012 to 1024. their masters. These unhappy people, in short, began now to be reckoned for something in the economy of the nation. Although in most cases a real benefit resulted from these advantages, it did not extend to the entire class of Serfs; but it could scarcely have been otherwise, if we consider the point of view in which the legislators, under the evil spirit of the times, regarded the lower orders. When Stephen I. founded his monarchy, he modelled it upon that of adjoining kingdoms, particularly the German Empire, whose sovereign Henry II. was on friendly relations with him, relations subsequently strengthened by ties of blood. The whole of Europe at that time adopted the feudal system, that seemed the most in accordance with a monarchical government. It was therefore upon that basis that Stephen established the new constitution he gave his people. As it was a part of this system for the free-man only to be lord of the soil, the serf being himself but the property of another, he was accounted as nothing in the active part of legislation: the only question was to restrain in his favour the abuse of the arbitrary power of the master. The slave was never an active subject, but merely a passive object of the law, as animals are in some countries, where their protection is guaranteed by it. * The names designating this class of men, experienced successively various modifications: those of Serf and Slave disappeared, and that of Peasant (Colonus, a cultivator) was substituted in their place. But this change of names was of little import; a favourable change was also demanded in the unhappy existence of these individuals. This amelioration was effected in 1405, under the reign of Sigismund. Two new laws gave to each peasant liberty to leave his master in case of dissatisfaction, and to go and settle wherever else in the kingdom he might choose. This facility of withdrawal from the service of his lord, and the liberty of choosing a new residence and a new master, without assigning to him who was left any reason for the change, may be considered as the virtual abolition of slavery, although the laws did not absolutely designate it as such. The peasants had enjoyed this liberty for a century, when a terrible event plunged them back into all the horrors of servitude. Pope Leo X. in 1514, sent to the Archbishop of Gran, permission to preach * In Turkey, particularly, this law is in existence. a crusade against the Turks, with indulgences for those who should join the standard in person. Several noblemen, fearing the consequences of this enterprise, endeavoured to dissuade the king from permitting the publication of the Pope's bull; but the Archbishop prevailed against them with the weak and timid prince. A prodigious number of idle persons, of vagabonds and of peasants flocked to the army to gain absolution, and an immense host assembled together at Pest. The command was entrusted to one George Dozsa, a warrior of low extraction, but of approved bravery in several engagements with the Turks. The disorder was terrible, and general throughout the kingdom. The fields were left without labourers, the mechanics without workmen, and the nobles without domestics. These latter then were compelled to interdict their subjects from joining the army of the Crusaders. From this interdict resulted numerous dissensions between the nobles and the peasants, of which Dozsa determined to profit. As soon as he put himself in motion with his mixed multitude, he declared against the nobility, the clergy, and all those who were rich enough to be plundered, by exciting the peasants to kill their masters, and seize upon their possessions, promising to support them with his strength and means. A dreadful revolution, chronicled in history under the name of "the peasants' war," broke out all over the country. During the four months it lasted, seventy thousand men perished, with a great proportion of the nobility, and the rising was not quelled without exceeding difficulty. Immediately after this event, the king convened a diet, that stripped the peasants of all the rights formerly granted to them, and reduced them again to their first state of slavery. The calamities that followed this sad conflict; and by which Hungary was reduced nearly to a Pachalic, left to the legislature very few leisure moments, and these moments were employed rather in devising means of defence against the aggressions of the foreigner, than in regulating the internal affairs of this unhappy kingdom. The severe laws against the slaves were, however, gradually mitigated, and their condition ameliorated. Maria Theresa at length, desiring to prescribe limits between the peasant and his master, issued a general regulation under the name of Urbarium,subsequently adopted by the States, that registered all the privileges and duties of the peasant. The glory of blotting out from the statute book the very name of servitude, was reserved for the year 1791, when a direct law finally abolished slavery, restored to the peasant the rights that had been accorded to him in the origin of the monarchy, and added others. This regulation, and various other laws of 1792 and 1802, still farther promulgated in their favour, constitute the peasants' code, and fix the present state of the agriculturists of Hungary. The constitution of Hungary is the most ancient of Europe. It is in its antiquity that we must seek the root of the good and evil it contains, as well as the vestiges of feudalism still discernible in it. From the spirit of this constitution it is only the noble who can hold land: it is to him then, that all bearing the denomination of domain appertains; but as he can not cultivate the soil himself, nor acquit himself of the several duties the state can exact of him as owner of this possession, he is compelled to farm out a part of it to others, who will pay him rent in vassalage or personal services. This is the primitive idea on which are based the reciprocal obligations of seigneur and peasant, and which is still with its subsequent modifications acted upon. The peasant is the hereditary farmer of the proprietor of the soil, under certain stipulations, not arbitrary, but legally binding to both parties: an unlimited franchise will doubtless eventually be obtained for the peasant. Bedford. B. E. M. |