as akin to the
constitution under which we live, is to err entirely. It may, and does,
in numerous points, resemble the constitution of England, as it existed
under the first of the Tudors; but with that which secures to every
Englishman the rights which make him what he is, it has nothing in
common. A Hungarian noble is a very great man. A Hungarian eidelman is
inferior to him, only if he be less wealthy. A Hungarian peasant is a
serf. There is an excellent preparation made, doubtless, for better
things in the future, but in its immediate working, the constitution
which so orders matters, is to the people a thousand-fold more
oppressive than the most absolute despotism.

I have spoken of the solemnity of the king's coronation as taking place
at Presburg; I am not sure that it is necessary to describe the
ceremony in detail. Like its counterpart among ourselves, it is
regarded as the ratification of a covenant between the sovereign and
the people, and is performed, amid much pomp, both religious and civil.
The monarch elect, attended by his magnates and councillors, repairs to
the cathedral, where the officiating prelate administers to him the
customary oaths, by which he binds himself to govern according to law,
to protect the church, to uphold the privileges of the nobility, and to
secure the kingdom against foreign aggression. He is anointed with the
holy oil, and undergoes the usual routine of enrobing and crowning;
after which he proceeds on horseback, the states of the realm in his
train, to the Koenigsberg. It is a circular mound, perhaps fifty feet
high, which stands just outside the city, and commands an extensive
view over the plain, both eastward and southward. This the king
ascends, his nobles, and knights, and dignified clergy being collected
in a mass round its base; and, as all are on horseback,--as their
dresses are picturesque, their arms and housings costly, and their port
chivalrous in the extreme, the spectacle is, perhaps, as grand as can
be met with in any part of Europe. Beyond the circle of the privileged
classes, again, enormous crowds are gathered,--for the population
flocks from far and near to behold the ceremony; and the curious in
such matters will doubtless find as much to admire in their grotesque
appearance, as in the haughty port and Oriental splendour of their
superiors. Meanwhile the king has ridden to the crest of the hill,
where, before the bishops, he again gives the pledges which