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L12 RIESBECK’’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
been for this, what has been fpent upon the conqueft of a very {mallpart of Bavaria,
would have brought in ten times more in a much fhorter time, by laying it properly out
on the cultivation of Hungary.
The greateft fource of confidence for a Hungarian patriot is, that his prefent King
feels the connection betwixt his own intereft and that of the ftate. That heknows how
to value liberty and mankind; is blinded by no prejudice, will not fuffer his hands te
be bound by any adherence to old cuftoms, and has ftrength and refolution enough ~
to attempt the Herculean labour of civilizing this important part of his hereditary do-
minions. :
LETTER XXX1.
Vienna.
I TOLD you in my laft, that the great Hungarian nobility live entirely according to
our ton. Our fafhions reach to the borders of Moldavia, and Wallachia, and from Pref-
burg to Cronftadt, all that is called the fine world {peaks our patois. Formerly they ufed
their own language, at leaftto exprefs common things, but every body now gives dinés,
Soupes, and dejunes. There are balls paré and balls ma/que ; every town with four or
five houfes in it has its afemblées, and redoutes. The men play whift, and the women
wear poudre a la Marechale, and have vapours. ‘The bookfellers fell Voltaire in fecret,
and the apothecaries fell mercury openly. ‘The men have an ami de Ja ‘mai/on for their
wives, and the wives a jfile de chambre for their hufbands. They have men cooks,
and maitre d’hotels; they have ballets, comedies, and operas, and they have debts upon
debts.
In the year 1740, when the Hungarian nobility took the field for their King Maria
Therefa, the firft fight of fuch troops ftruck the French army witha panic. They had,
indeed, often feen detachments of thefe diables d’ Hongrie, as they ufed to call them, but
a whole army of them drawn up in battle array—unpowdered, from the general to the
common foldier—half their faces covered with long whifkers—a fort of round beaver
upon their heads inftead of hats—without ruffles or frills to their fhirts, and without fea-
thers—all clad in rough fkins—monftrous crooked fabres, ready drawn and uplifted—
their eyes darting flafhes of rage fharper than the beams of the naked fabres—was a
fight our men had not been accuftomed to fee. Our oldeft officers ftill remember the
impreflion thefe terrible troops made, and how difficult it was to make the men ftand
again{t them, till they had been accuftomed to their formidable appearance.
All this is now at an end, the Hungarian nobleman begins to leave off his long beard,
and dreffes much after the French fafhion. :
It is remarkable enough, that whilft in imitation of the Hungarian foldier, the Huffar
has become an effential part of the Pruffian army, and has alfo been received into the
French regular troops, the true original is loft in his own country. Not one of the
fourteen or fifteen regiments of Huflars in the Emperor’s fervice is made up entirely of
Hungarians. Experienced officers have, it feems, thought fuch regiments could no
longer be of any fervice; it may be fo, but it is certain that the Hungarian has entirely
loft his {pirit by difcipline, for, like other wild men, he detefts the artificial arms again{t
which his ftrength and courage are of no avail, and if ever he fhews himfelf in his native
fiercenefs, it is only when the firing is over and he comes to clofe engagement. Here
indeed the hero fometimes ftarts out again. But this was not enough to make the Hun-
garians a match for the Pruffian Huflars in the Silefian war; on the contrary they al-
ways proved inferior to them.—Afier all, however, if this laft change had not been
made,
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