resolving to meet force by force, and to settle the matter with the inconvenient Peter, if he had the courage to show fight, with signal punish

ment.

And so, for that day, we parted; not without renewing again and again our mutual protestations. I rode home in rather a melancholy humour, and retired early, partly to avoid my mother's affectionate and rather inquisitive observations, and partly to gather up my own thoughts, and to decide in an extremity, which seemed likely to arrive, on some resolute plan of action. While my mind was engrossed however, with the contemplation of our unfortunate condition, and with the fear of losing Lavinia, I could not prevent some uneasy thoughts from obtruding themselves relative to the proposed bride's maid. The description tallied oddly enough with the widow and daughter whose acquaintance I had formed at the university. Could it be the same? or was it only an accidental similarity of circumstances and position? The dwelling on this thought worried me not a little. I had nothing to reproach myself with so far as I could see, in respect to my acquaintance with the daughter; but, still, if it should prove to be the same, my meeting with them, I felt, I hardly knew why, would be awkward. And then, I regretted, that, I had not mentioned my adventnre to Lavinia, who might possibly misinterpret the reasons of my silence on the subject and regard it as a suspicious concealment. Altogether the circumstance, if it should turn out as it seemed possible, was vexatious.

As the solution of this enigma gave rise in a curious way, to fresh embarrassments greater than the first, it is necessary to develope it in a new chapter.

PANSLAVISM AND THE SLAVONIANS.

THERE is no question, but that whether viewed in the light of progressive civilisation, of the extinction of the Mahometan rule in Europe, of national regeneration, or of Panslavic or international, and more especially Muscovite and Germanic relations, that the so-called Slavonic populations are at the present moment more replete with interest than any others in Europe. The very fact of a long political degradation, their occupation of remote and little-known countries, their servility alike to Russian, German, Turk, and Magyar, become, with the prospects of regeneration, only circumstances of more paramount curiosity.

The Slavonians are of the Indo-European family of nations. They are one of the primeval races of Europe, and were settled in the countries they now occupy before the commencement of the historic era. About the middle of the fourth century, the Slavonian countries were visited by three successive irruptions of the Celtic or Gallic nations. These drove before them the Slavonians of Pannonia and Illyria, and even the Thracian nations settled in Dacia were also compelled to yield part of their country. The migrations of the Slavonians from Russia began as early as the time of the Huns, and we find them accordingly settled in Roman Dacia, or in Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania; as also in the highland districts at the foot of the Homus-the Bal-Khan of the Turks.

These lost, in the early part of the sixth century, not only their independence, but their very name, which was absorbed into that of their conquerors, the Bulgarians. The latter, who, according to the Greek writers, derived their name or descent from the Huns, attracted by Roman wealth, marked the same year in which Ravenna fell, by an invasion of so dreadful and devastating a character that it almost effaced the memory of past inroads. Repulsed ultimately by Belisarius, they retired to the fertile country which lay between the Bal-Khan and the Danube, and which corresponds to the Moesia Inferior of the ancients. Here they assumed a vague dominion over the Slavonian name; and the people, whose intermediate boundaries, Gibbon justly remarks, were never accurately known or respected by the barbarians themselves, became fused into one, for the same authority also insists with equal justice upon the fact that the same race of Slavonians appears to have maintained, in every age, the possession of the same countries. Ranke has repeated the same thing in his History of Servia.”

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Leaving it," he says, "to antiquaries to trace out the origin and migrations of these people, by combining languages and myths with fragmentary traditions, it will suffice to say, that, from the earliest times, we find them in the country which they occupy to this day."

The Bulgarian Slavonians were converted to Christianity in 860. Constantine Cyrillus and Methodius, two celebrated Slavonian apostles, introduced letters among them, and gave them a Slavonic version of the Scriptures, and a national liturgy. Their capital, Pereslau, the ancient Marcianopolis, was overthrown in 971 by the united forces of the Greeks and Russians; after which they remained vassals of the former, till the period of the Osmanli conquests, when they not only fell under the Oct.-VOL. LXXXIV. NO. CCCXXXIV.

R

bondage and bigoted rule of their oriental conquerors, but were in large part forced to adopt their faith.

According to Szaffarik, in his "Slavonic Ethnography," published in 1842, 3,500,000 Bulgarians live under the sway of the Osmanlis ; 80,000 under that of Russia, and 7000 under that of Austria, making a total of 3,587,000. These numbers are important, for throughout Turkey in Europe the Osmanlis now form only an insignificant portion of the population. It is calculated by the same authority that of the Bulgarians 3,287,000 belong to the Greek church, 50,000 are Roman Catholics, and 250,000 Mahometans. Among the Bulgarians of the Greek church, Russia possesses great influence. It is much to be doubted if the Mahometan Bulgarians are in any way attached either to their religion or their masters, while it is more than probable that any prospect of national regeneration would unite all persuasions in a common cause, to the exclusion alike of Russians, Austrians, or Turks.

The modern Bulgarian has been much calumniated. There is no doubt that he is often ignorant, and wants sobriety; but he is always plodding, industrious, and persevering; attentive to his business, domestic in his habits, and peaceful in his manners. Dr. Walsh says of the Bulgarians, that they are particularly distinguished by their honest and goodhumoured countenances.* And Bell quotes the same authority as asserting, that of all the peasantry he ever met with, the Bulgarians seemed the most simple, kind, and affectionate; forming a striking contrast with the rude and brutal Turks who are mixed among them.

With respect to the Servians, we have so lately called attention to their peculiar position and history in the New Monthly Magazine, on the occasion of the publication of Mrs. Kerr's translation of "Ranke's History of Servia," that we need not refer to the peculiar features which they present as a branch of the great Slavonic race on the present occasion. So intimate are these relations, that Szaffarik places the Servians and Illyrians in the same category. As the Slavonians of Servia obtained their name from the country they inhabited (Sirbia), so, also, with little difference of race, did the Slavonians of Illyria obtain theirs from the same Roman territorial divisions, and that name was resuscitated to designate, in the language of the Austrian administration, the Hungarian provinces on the south side of the Drave. The Servians and Illyrians number 5,294,000 souls. Of these, 2,600,000 are subjects of Turkey, 2,594,000 subjects of Austria, and 100,000 subjects of Russia. 2,880,000 belong to the Greek church, and 1,864,000 to the Latin church; 550,000 are Mahometans. It is evident, from these proportions, that there cannot be an European struggle for nationality that will not sooner or later involve the Slavonic populations of Turkey. And this not only applies itself to the Servians, but also to the Turco-Croatians, to the Bosnians, the Herzegovinians, the Montenegrians, and even to the Albanians, who are partly of Slavonic origin. All these nations are of bold warlike habits, and past history attests how prone to struggle for their nationalities.

As the Bulgarians are of Tartar-Slavonic origin, and the Russians are of Slavonic-Tshudish origin, so the Wallachians, or the Kara-Iflak, "Black Wallaks," as the Turks call them, and the Moldavians, or Akh Vlakhi, or "White Wallachians," are of Slavonian-Romaic origin. They are supposed, indeed, to be part descendants of the Romans with whom Trajan

* "Narrative of a Residence at Constantinople," vol. ii., p. 436.

peopled Dacia after the defeat and death of Decebalus. Their language is an admixture of the Slavonian and Roman dialects. As these principalities have, however, shown more anxiety to act for themselves in the regeneration at present going on in south-eastern Europe, and which will inevitably once more light up the long-protracted struggle between European civilisation and Oriental despotism, it is unnecessary to discuss their position in regard to Slavonian nationality.

Any movement on their part will not, however, be without its direct and indirect effects upon neighbouring territories. It sets a direct example of insubordination and struggle; it diverts the attention of the Sublime Porte, and it indirectly foments similar aspirations on the part of Hungarians, Wallachians, and the more pure Slavonian races. What is of more importance to notice here is, that the Slavonian population of northern Hungary, where they are called Slovacs, amounts to 2,753,000 souls, and that these, united with the Croats, 801,000 in number, and Illyrians, as far exceed in number the dominant race of Magyars, or Huns, who refuse to accede to them their national rights, as they do in manly and military prowess. Austria not only does not refuse the demands of the Slavonians, but almost abets and encourages them in the strife, as we shall afterwards see, for Austria has 4,370,000 Slavonians to legislate for in Bohemia and Moravia, 2,341,000 Slavonian Poles, and 1,151,000 Carinthians of same descent, and towards all of whom she professes to be actuated with the same desire of securing national rights and granting national privileges, so far as they do not interfere with imperial ascendency.

The term of Panslavism, which means the union of all the Slavonic nations into one empire or confederation, is as yet little known in England. It has, however, already produced a strong sensation in Germany and has been much talked of and discussed in France. We shall borrow from a very able work just published by Mr. Newby,* a rapid sketch of the rise and progress of the idea of Panslavism.

The rapid progress of intellectual development in Europe, since the beginning of this century, exerted its influence upon the Slavonic nations also: literature has been steadily advancing, and all branches of human knowledge have been successfully cultivated by those nations. The principal subjects, however, that have engaged the attention of Slavonic scholars, are the history and antiquities of their respective countries, studied not only in their written records, but also in their popular songs, traditions, and superstitions, together with the cultivation and improvement of their national languages. Such studies could not, however, lead to any satisfactory result, as long as they were confined to the student's own country, and it was soon found indispensable to extend them to other Slavonic nations. The result was, the universal conviction, that all the Slavonic nations are not only so many offsets of the same common stock, and that their respective idioms are only so many dialects of the same mother-tongue, but also that the most important parts of their moral and physical character are identical. In short, that all Slavonians, notwithstanding the various modifications resulting from the influence of different climates, religions, and forms of government, are, in all their essentials, one and the same nation. This conviction could not but expand the love of their native land, which animated the above-mentioned students, into that of their whole race, and they promoted, by their writings, this feeling amongst their countrymen. The thoughts of extending their intellectual activity over the

"Panslavism and Germanism," by Count Valerian Krasinski, author of "Reformation in Poland." T. C. Newby.

most numerous race of Europe, instead of limiting it to the comparatively narrow sphere of their own nation, appeared particularly gratifying to those Slavonic writers, whose works had only a very circumscribed circle of readers, on account of the small number of the population speaking the language in which their works are composed. This is particularly the case with Bohemia, because, although that country possesses a considerable literature, and has now several authors of first-rate merit, their reading public is very limited. The population speaking the Bohemian language amounts, including the Slovaks of Hungary, to upwards of 7,000,000. But as almost all the educated classes, particularly in Bohemia, know German, the national literature of Bohemia meets with a formidable competition from the productions of Germany, and therefore the most important works published in Bohemian, generally owe their support, more to the enlightened patriotism of individuals, than to their extensive circulation. Literature in our times cannot however attain a high degree of prosperity, without having a wide field open to the fame of its writers and the profits of its publishers, who must be able to reward literary labour in a manner which may induce men of talent to devote themselves to the arduous career of authorship. The Bohemian literati arrived therefore at the conclusion, that the most effective means of attaining such a desideratum, would be to extend the intellectual activity of every Slavonic nation over the whole of their race, instead of limiting it, as it had hitherto been the case, to their peculiar branch. Kollar, a Protestant clergyman of the Slavonic congregation at Pesth in Hungary, and who has acquired a merited fame for his literary productions, was the first who brought forward this great idea in a tangible and practical manner by several writings, but particularly by a dissertation which he published in German in 1828, entitled" Wechselseitigkeit," i. e. reciprocity. He adopted the German language for this publication, in order that it might find a more easy access to the better educated classes in all the Slavonic countries, who generally understand that language. He proposed, through this work, a literary reciprocity amongst all the Slavonic nations, that is to say, that every educated Slavonian should be conversant with the languages and literature of the principal branches of their common stock, and that the Slavonic literati should possess a thorough knowledge of all the dialects and sub-dialects of their race. He proved at the same time, that the various Slavonic dialects did not differ amongst themselves more than it was the case with the four principal dialects of Ancient Greece (the Attic, Ionic, Eolian, and Dorian), and that the authors who wrote in those four dialects were, notwithstanding this difference, equally considered as Greek, and their productions as the common property and glory of all Greece, and not as exclusively belonging to the population, in whose dialect they were composed. If such a division of their language, in several dialects, prevented not the Greeks from creating the most splendid literature of the world, why should the same cause act as an impediment to the Slavonians in obtaining a similar result? The advantages which all the Slavonic nations might derive from the establishment of such a reciprocity are certainly very great, because it could not but give a considerable extension to the literature of all the Slavonic nations and by the same greatly raise the intrinsic worth of their productions, as it would afford the authors a wider field for the spread of their fame and a better chance for the remuneration of their labours.

About the time when Kollar began to advocate the establishment of a literary connexion between all the Slavonians, another Bohemian writer, who has now acquired, by his researches on the ancient Slavonic history, a European reputation, Szaffarik, published a sketch of all the Slavonic languages, and their literature. This work, published also in German, powerfully assisted the object promoted by Kollar, as the Slavonians perceived by means of this publication, with joy and amazement, their own importance as a whole race; and this fact could no longer be questioned by other nations, who became acquainted with it, through the medium of the same work.

Kollar's proposition, supported by Szaffarik's work, found a ready echo