Doubt hangs over the state of other countries. Although the
position of contending parties in Hungary is in the main under- stood, the actual situation of military affairs is not so well authen- ticated. Windischgriitz is converging upon the country an army estimated at 100,000 strong. The Magyars are consolidating their lines of defence, abandoning useless positions and fortifying those by which they stand ; and they have an army estimated at i
300,000 strong. The army consists n great part of raw levies, ill equipped, and ill fitted to contend with the hardships of win- ter ; but those hardships will tell with still severer effect on the foreign portion of the Austrian army. The fate which threatens Hungary might have awakened compassion, and even active sym- pathy, a year ago : the finest race in that fine kingdom is over- shadowed by the Imperial power of Austria, while it is warred on by the inferior races within its own confines. But the impending fate of Hungary appears to us a manifest warning on the conse- quences of national meanness. Jellachich, whose hostility has given the fatal turn to the career of the country, is perhaps a semibarbarian, not very enlightened in closet statesmanship or liberalism ; but in one respect he has formed a striking contrast with his rival Kossuth. The Ban fought for his fellow Croa- tians but, accepting the patronage of the Emperor, he threw himself heart and soul into the Imperial cause—shared its perils as well as its difficulties. The Hungarians sought to war for Hungary alone : they evaded the Italian sympathy, fearful lest they might profit by it; they coldly left Vienna to its fate ; and now the Hungary of the Magyars, warlike but arrogant and self- seeking, is left to struggle alone in its last mortal war, expiating in destruction the sin of national self-sufficiency.
The King of Denmark has indulged in a sudden revolutionary escapade : displeased with the conduct of the joint Government in Schleswig-Holstein, he has coolly told the Schleswigers that they need not obey that, the only Government among them ! A dubious aspect has also been given to the Sicilian affair. Taking heart probably from the signs of reaction, the King of Naples has suddenly turned round upon the English and French representatives ; transferred the conduct of the negotiations from his Foreign Minister to his military commander ; announced that Spain, whose reigning family has a reversionary interest in the Neapolitan succession, demands to take part in the intervention; and declared that he means to invite Austria and Russia. The question is all thrown open again with less hope of settlement
than ever, though some hope for again, of protracting her pre- carious oppression of the islanders.
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