health and life, in this his close imprisonment and exile." These petitions having been taken into consideration by the House of Commons, the sentence of the StarChamber on the three Puritans was solemnly reversed; and, as regards Prynne, he was restored to his degrees in the university, and to the exercise of his profession of an utter barrister-at-law.

Released from captivity, the Puritan martyrs returned home in triumph. Burton and Prynne landed at Southampton together, where, according to Clarendon, they were received with loud acclamation, and liberal presents were made to them. In every town through which they passed on their way to the metropolis there were the same demonstrations of sympathy and respect. Several miles from London they were met by persons of all ranks, some on foot, some on horseback; many of whom had come more than a day's journey. These people formed themselves into a triumphal procession, which had swelled into a dense multitude when they reached Charing Cross. Flowers and fragrant herbs were strewn along the road as they passed, shouts rent the air; and amidst the din and confusion, the most virulent abuse of the bishops was distinctly heard.

Soon after Prynne's return an opportunity occurred to him of rendering a valuable service to Sir P. Carteret. Sir Philip had in the island certain unscrupulous enemies, who took advantage of the political circumstances of the period, and his temporary absence from the island, to commence an attack upon him. They forwarded in an underhand way, to the principal members of the English Parliament, a series of accusations against him, and an inquiry into his conduct was demanded. The machinations of Sir Philip's enemies were, however, defeated by Prynne, who boldly and openly championed his quondam jailer, regardless altogether of political considerations. His conduct upon this occasion was violently assailed by the Jersey malcontents in a pamphlet called PseudoMastyx. If Prynne, however, displayed a slight amount of political inconsistency, who will not admire his manliness and generosity of spirit? "I should have manifested my self a monster of ingratitude," he says, “had I not contributed my best assistance to support Sir Philip's innocency, honor, and repu. tation, against the malicious and injurious accusations and aspersions of his inveterate, backbiting enemies, who endeavored only to defame him, and to oust him of his offices of

trust that themselves might step into them.” Sir Philip Carteret returned victorious to Jersey, and in the civil war that ensued, and which spread to the Channel Islands, he distinguished himself greatly for his services to the royal cause.

The subsequent fate and fortunes of William Prynne may be told in a few words. His taste for controversy seems to have been sharpened by imprisonment and suffering; and he was persecuted by every dominant party and government during the civil troubles. The Long Parliament imprisoned him for denying, in general terms, the supremacy of Parliament: and when military sway became the order of the day, he was arrested by the army, and ejected from the House of Commons. True to the principle of opposition which actuated him through life, he attacked Cromwell with bitter animosity, and by the Protector he was once more deprived of liberty, and imprisoned first in Dunster Castle, Somersetshire, and afterwards in Pendennis Castle, Cornwall. In 1660 he was returned to Parliament for Bath, and after the Restoration his learning and abilities procured for him the office of Keeper of the Records in the Tower. That he should be again found fishing in troubled waters, is somewhat astonishing, but it is nevertheless true, that "his pragmatical temper" once more got him into difficulties before the close of his life. On the last occasion he was luckier than preceding ones, for he escaped with a reprimand from the House of Commons. Perhaps large allowances were made for his vehement and contentious disposition, which had occasioned him so many years of imprisonment, and so much personal suffering. He died at his chambers in Lincoln's Inn, in 1669.

Prynne's character is thus drawn by the unfavoring hand of Lord Clarendon. He was not unlearned," says the historian, “in the profession of the law, as far as learning is acquired by the mere reading of books; but being a person of great industry, had spent more time in reading divinity, and, which marred that divinity, in the conversation of factious and hot-headed divines; and so, by a mixture of all three, with the rudeness and arrogance of his own nature, had contracted a proud and venomous dislike to the discipline of the Church of England; and so by degrees, as the progress is very natural, an equal irreverence to the government of the State too; both which he vented in several absurd, petulant, and supercilious discourses in print."

THE stormy years 1848-49 buried a free nation, and brought forth a new absolute empire. That free nation was the Magyars -the new absolute empire is Austria, conjoined to Hungary by Russian bayonets.

the

Hungary had been free for the period of a thousand years. Its constitutional freedom was established by the dynasty of Arpád, in year 1222. The document called "Aurea Bulla" confirms, in thirty articles, all the customs, rights and privileges of the population of the whole country, without any restriction of religion or nationality, defines the obligations of the people to their rulers, and sets a limit to the power of the ruler over against the rights of the people.

For the security of that national compact, we find in the last article, paragraph ii., the following:-

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'Quod si vero nos, vel aliquis successorum nostrorum, aliquo unquam tempore, huic dispositioni nostro contrarie voluerit, liberam habeant, harum authoritate sine nota alicujus infidelitatis, tam Episcopi, quam alii Jabagiones, ac nobiles Regni universi, et singuli, presentes et futuri, posterique, resistendi, et contradicendi, nobis, et nostris successoribus, in perpetuum facultatem."

According to this document was Hungary ruled from the time of its settlement in the year 884 till the year 1301, when the dynasty of the founders of the country became extinct. The kings were elected from various houses till 1527, at which time Prince Ferdinand of Hapsburg succeeded in gaining the election by a small party at Presburg. He made oaths to the whole extent of the constitutional charter. But from the moment of his election the intentions of his house were directed to the destruction of Hungarian free institutions, which they regarded as obstructive and injurious to the absolute system by which the non-Hungarian provinces of Austria were governed.

Joseph the Second omitted from his oaths of fidelity to the constitution, in 1687, the above-mentioned paragraph ii.; and Charles the Third virtually abolished the whole by the so-called Pragmatic sanction, in the year

1712-according to which the crown was made hereditary in the dynasty of Hapsburg. Five times before the final attack of 1848 was the destruction of the constitution attempted; but all in vain. Even in the Turks did the Hungarians find supporters of the national cause; and in 1848 they showed the same disposition, but were prevented by the English Government.

Ferdinand the Fifth, at his coronation in 1835, took the prescribed oaths. He was deposed by a court intrigue in 1848, and he was the last legitimate King of Hungary. The same Ferdinand sanctioned the demands of the Diet of 1847-namely, that Hungary be governed in the spirit of her ancient laws, by a national ministry, and not by Germans from Vienna. Hungary's rejoicing was great; a new future was hoped for,for science and industry; a golden age was expected. But the stormy months that followed were favorable for the old views of Austria. She took part with the non-Magyar population; and agitated them against the new Government. They took up arms, and madly fought against their own freedom and privileges. Francis-Joseph took then the absolute rule of Hungary; no more as its lawful king, but as the autocrat of all the Austrian dominions. The foreign conquest of that country, with all the atrocious cruelties and crimes which followed, was sanctioned by the corrupted diplomatists of Europe. May God remunerate them for it!

We will endeavor now to exhibit the present state of our unfortunate country, in parallel, as it were, with its previous circumstances; which we have thus related, because we know that in England are very who see in Hungary's present fate the full contrast to her former high condition.

POPULATION.

few

The extent of the whole country is calculated to be 125,028 English square miles; the most fertile country in Europe, rich in all the treasures of nature. The inhabitants are as follows:

THE MAGYAR NATIONALITY.

The character, like the language, of the Magyars, is a most peculiar one. Not only is the Hungarian good-hearted, humane and hospitable-proud to put forth his strength in support of his weaker fellow-man, and ambitious of a good name among the nations -but an extraordinary love of freedom is his most eminent feature. In this case there are no such similar-minded people as the English and the Magyars; and therefore, during their struggle, the sympathy of the English was predominant above all other peoples. But the nature of the Magyar was never inclined to a republic; we do not find a passage in his history of a republican tendency-much less a communistic idea. He is a free-spirited patriot. At home or in exile, he is amalgamated with the soil of his fatherland. Therefore, under present circumstances, Austria endeavors to extirpate that characteristic. The language is the first obstacle-for the language of every nation represents and perpetuates all its peculiarities. In consequence, in all the schools is now introduced the German language. In the churches it must be preached; on the Exchange it must be spoken. All the Courts' proceedings are written in German; and by this means, too, all these documents are brought under taxation, which before

were free.

Press laws do not exist; therefore it would seem there could be no interference with the publication of Hungarian works. Nevertheless, if a work has been printed, the sheets

must be put into the hands of the German censor, before it may be offered for public sale. If the work contains any liberal idea— any breathing of patriotism-any expression of dissatisfaction-even though only in a single word-or if the censor happens to be in a bad humor-he will prohibit the circulation of that already printed work; and if the author himself preserve copies for his own use, and they be detected, he is liable to eight, ten, or twelve years' imprisonment. Of course, therefore, the papers are stopped. Hundreds of manuscripts, containing valuable works, cannot be now published, because of their liberal or patriotic spirit-the muse, as the people, watching in mourning and in hope, the coming day of recompense.

POLICE.

Before 1848, the grounds, houses, and every other property of a Magyar, were sacred property. No police, nor even the king, had the right to take a footstep therein. without the consent of the proprietor. For every man's house and garden was protected by the constitution, and he was himself a king, bowing his head before the laws which had been constituted with his consent and sanction, but his person in the highest degree free, untouched. Now, the police have full liberty to go into any body's house,— to ask for the keys of every closet and drawer, and to take away whatever they think proper. They have special instructions to watch the better-known patriots,-all their doings, family and friends,-and to take possession of all national pictures and prints, or even articles of dress that may display the national colors. The house that

once was so sacred from intrusion must not now resound with a national, much less a patriotic, song, or strain of music. For the possession of any emblem, or for the slightest expression of national feeling, the persecuted patriot may find himself in the hands of the gendarme-the faithful servant of the new absolutism-and be immured in a prison for two or three months, even before he is put under inquest. In Hungary, therefore, so long the land of liberty, there is now, indeed, equality, but no liberty-no privileges, personality, dignity or preponderance - but all are equally under the conqueror's iron sceptre.

DUTIES AND TAXES.

Before 1848, all the wants of the state were laid before the Diet by the legitimate ruler, and their supply provided for.

other tax was ever known since Hungary was first called by that name. Noblemen, bishops. priests, artists, were free from any kind of duty or payment. Except in the case of war, they paid only by free will that is, the subsidia, which had been fixed by the Diet. The farmers had several obligations. They paid a small sum of money for their land, and rendered hand-labor (robot) twenty, fifty, a hundred, or a hundred and fifty days in the year, according to the extent of their farms. But, by the last National Assembly, all these obligations were given up by the nobles, without any compensation.

The taxation paid by the whole country, before 1848, was under fifteen millions of florins. The support of the army-twelve regiments of hussars and fifteen regiments of the line-cost less than ten millions of florins; the expenses of the home government, including the comitatus of the shires, were under five millions and a half. The revenues of the Crown, from its gold, silver and salt mines, landed estates, and import duties, amounted to 14,940,730 florins. Now, all is different. The same forms of taxation prevail as in the Austrian dominions--taxes on paper, books, wine, spirits, tobacco, &c., none of which were known before. The proceeds of this exhausting system may be calculated as follows:- Direct taxation, thirty-eight millions; duties on articles of consumption, thirty-five millions—and all this in addition to the revenues raised before; so that Hungary pays in all, under different forms, the yearly sum of 163 millions of florins. As Austrian paper money is in circulation in Hungary to the amount of pretty nearly fifty-five millions, it follows that every florin must be repaid to the Government three times in a year. It must be, at the same time, well understood, that the money is taken from the country, and never returned to it again.

the imperial flag-and that for the protection, or even extension, of the limits of absolute Austria.

In the former time, in every case of need, the free men of Hungary cheerfully took the field. Maria Theresa's German dominions were saved by the arms of the faithful Magyars; Francis the Second was supported against Napoleon by the sabres of Hungary; and without the same loyal service, the throne of the Hapsburgs might have been. demolished in the storms of a complicated policy. But now, with what hope of success can Austria look for protection to the freewill of Hungary? We know not-but this we know, that if the defeated cause of Hungarian independence call again for the arms of its children, every man will be ready to devote to it life and property. The country that once resounded with the shout, "Moriamur pro rege nostro!" will not resound with the cry, "Moriamur pro usurpatore nostro !" The murmurs of discontent and indignation that are now heard, advise us of the events that must follow. That the national spirit is not dead, but only suppressed, is witnessed by the immense mass of gendarmes, spies, and soldiers-the only pillars of an absolute government-which are maintained. Never, even when Hungary was threatened with foreign conquest, had she such a grandiose army as now-600,000 soldiers, besides 150,000 police.

This crushing weight of expense must of itself produce bankruptcy, if the weight of oppression do not first provoke a revolutionary eruption. In either case the House of Hapsburg will not find the support on which it has hitherto reckoned from those deceived nationalities, the Croats, the Serbs, or the Wallachs. The same iron hand has

pressed on all, and provoked all. Their clergy humiliated, by having taken from them the management of the schools, lest they should disseminate political ideas; the nobles deprived of their property, name, and respect; the traders and peasantry ground by taxation; Magyar and non-Magyar, are all now united as brethren, and ready to fight under the read-with-green banner.

But the fate of these countries is not in the hands of negotiators. It is in the hands of a mysterious destiny-in the sacred hands of that God who guides all events, and pities the oppressed. We pray, with all sufferers, for the manifestation of His goodness!

LAS CASES' NAPOLEON.-A beautiful edition in four volumes, of the celebrated Memoirs of Napoleon by Count Las Cases, has been issued by Mr. REDFIELD, of this city, illustrated with numerous portraits and views. The work has long been out of print, and a new generation grown since its first appearance delighted the public mind. With all that has appeared on this fruitful subject, no work has the profound and touching interest of this. The bosom friend and companion during his exile, the author became the depository of the Emperor's most secret judgments and feelings. In the course of his conversations, he rehearses the whole of his life, he re-enacts his deeds of war and statesmanship, often entering into minute details of persons and battles. The reader thus obtains Napoleon's views of his battles, his plans, his enterprises, with all the explanations and | criticisms which his sober review supplied. The affectionate feeling with which the author regards his subject, would of course make him very partial; but it rather assists than impairs the value of the revelations which he makes. Napoleon appears often in amiable and noble light in these volumes, and no one can read them without deep commiseration for the misfortunes of the illustrious exile.

The MESSRS. CARTER have added to their store of admirable religious books recently, some valuable works. The Footsteps of St. Paul" is a clear, graphic, and interesting sketch of the life and labors of the great Apostle, told in animated style, and with such illustrative lights of histo y, topography, and archæology, as to reader the whole intelligible to the modern reader. It is a work of very great learning, infused by an earnest spirit and a strong imagination, and puts the reader in possession of the missionary career of St. Paul in the clearest

"The Minister's Family," is the title of a delightful story, by the Rev. Dr. Hetherington, of Scotland. It is a record of facts, and depicts a career of admirable fortitude under trial, and illustrates the benefits of earnest piety. R. CARTER & BROTHERS.

The same house issue a uniform edition, in three volumes, of the writings of the late Caroline Fry "The Listener," "Christ our Example," and "Christ our Law." Miss Fry's writings display remarkable clearness and felicity of style, an earnest purpose, and great point. Her views are strictly evangelical, and animated with a fervent

aim.

The Messrs. HARPER have issued "Travels in Europe and the East," by the Rev. Samuel Irenæus Prime, D.D., one of the editors of the N. Y. Observer, in two volumes. Without furnishing any novelties, or adding much to the information respecting the countries visited, they engage the reader with pleasant descriptions, and good, wholesome moral reflections.

THE Athenæum says that a Russian press, printing works in Russian, of a democratic order, is in full operation in London. The first Russian grammar ever printed was at Oxford, in 1696, by Ludolf. Hertzen, in 1853, issued from the above press an address to the Russian noblemen; he has now published a work entitled "Prison and Banishment.”

JAMES MONTGOMERY, the poet, who died last year, left an estate, which has just been sworn under £9,000. Times have changed since Johnson exclaimed, on hearing that Goldsmith died £3,000 in debt, "was ever poet so trusted before !" Southey died worth about £7,000, and Wordsworth as much, while Rogers is a millionaire.

THE London Critic has the following items:"Leigh Hunt is about to give the lovers of poetry something they have long desired, viz., a collection of his best narrative poems-Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning are both preparing new poems for this year. Mrs. Browning's is a narrative poem.-Miss Jewsbury has a novel ready for publication.-A volume of selections from the writings of Thomas Carlyle is announced to be edited by one who will do his work with taste and discrimination.-A literary discovery of some interest has lately been made. It comprises above a hundred letters of James Boswell, principally addressed to his friend, the Rev. Wm. Templer, Rector of St. Gluvias, in Cornwall, whose name is mentioned in the life of Johnson. They were rescued, some years ago, from the hands of a shopkeeper in France, with a mass of other less important correspondence, addressed to Mr. T., but have not been thoroughly examined until lately. Preparations are now being made for their publication."

PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF FRANCE.-The French Minister of Public Instruction has issued a work on the Public Libraries of France and Algiers, from which

it appears that, excluding Paris, there are in all the libraries 8,733,439 printed works, and 44,070 manuscripts. Bordeaux has 123,000; Lyons, 180,000; Rouen, 110,000; Strasbourg, 180,000; Troyes, 100,000; Avignon, 60,000; Dijon, 80,000; Versailles, 56,000; Tours, 57,000; Grenoble, 80,000; Nantes, 45,000; Marseilles, 51,000; Amiens, 53,000; Toulouse, 50,000. In 1853-4, there were which sum only 184,227 francs were for the purexpended for all these libraries 407,781 francs, of chase of books and binding. There are 330 public libraries.

MR. SCRIBNER, announces "Historical Sketches of the most eminent Orators and Statesmen of Ancient and Modern Times," by D. A. Harsha. "The Par