My Life and Acts in Hungary, in the years 1848 and 1849

Front matter

AND 1849. LONDON: PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLFN, Great New Street and Fetter Lane. THE YEARS 1848 AND 1849. BY ARTHUR GORGE! VOLUME I. LONDON: DAVID BOGUE, FLEET STREET. MDCCCLU. PREEACE. The resistance of Hungary to Austria and Russia was broken. Kossuth and Szemere and their partisans saved themselves, like the Poles, on a neutral territory. I rejected flight; and the majority of the unfortunate combatants for Hungary against New Austria followed my example. Hereupon I was pardoned, and meanwhfle banished to Carinthia. The decision on the fate of my companions, however, was left to the Master of the Ordnance, Baron Haynau. The striking contradiction between my pardon and the subsequent executions might have induced the rela tives of some of those who were awaiting the decision of their case to suppose that it would be possible for me, by some means, to save these unfortunate men; for, immediately after the first executions at Arad and Pesth, I was requested by letters from various quarters to exert my presumed influence with the government of Austria in favour of one or. other of the politically compromised persons who had come into the power of Baron Haynau.

The failure of these applications needs scarcely to be mentioned. I had positively no influence at all to exert. I had, on the contrary, to perceive that it was my duty to suppress even the anxious cry for pardon, so long as Baron Haynau remained the absolute master vol. i. b

Preface

. VI of life and death to my companions in war. My inter cession could but kindle still higher the pious zeal of the Baron. Not until there was a pause in the execution of the capital sentences pronounced at Arad and Pesth, and it seemed to be indicated by this circumstance that Baron Haynau no longer ruled with unlimited sway in my country, could I venture to beg attention to the logical consequences of my being pardoned, without having to fear at the same time that my intercession would com pletely endanger the lives of those whose deliverance it implored. I was on the point of handing my petition, addressed to his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, to the local mi litary authority of Klagenfurt to be kindly forwarded, when the rumour, that the Monarch would perhaps visit Carinthia also on his state-progress in May 1850, roused in me the desire, as will easily be conceived, to make my request orally to his Majesty.

The rumour, indeed, was well founded ; but an audience was refused me, and I was referred with my petition to the Minister of the Interior. Re-encouraged in some degree by the assurances with which Herr von Bach dismissed me, I thought it best to present through him my petition to the Monarch. This I did in the following letter : To his Excellency the Minister Alexander von Bach. " Your comrades will not be deceived, if they expect the clemency of his Majesty"— were the last consolatory words with which your Excellency was pleased to dismiss me yesterday. How deeply they penetrated into my afflicted soul, how quickly they revived my well-nigh extinguished belief in the prevalence PEEFACE. VII of forgiving sentiments in the breast of the offended earthly dig nities, let the enclosure declare to your Excellency.

It is a feeble attempt to implore the pardon of his Majesty for those who are not in the fortunate position of being able to do so for themselves. But I know not the language which has power to reach the heart of his Majesty ; your Excellency, on the contrary, cannot be a stranger to it. My words are perhaps too bold ; perhaps the use I make in the enclosed document of the reminiscences of a mournful past is calculated to thwart my purpose. It cannot be concealed from your Excellency's sound judgment, whether both are fitted to be of use to my unfortunate companions, or whether the mischief of a contrary effect may perhaps threaten them from my ignorance of the bearing of this step. And thus my anxious uncertainty about the consequences of the enclosed most submissive petition will excuse me for daring once more to approach your Excellency with the respectful prayer, that your Excellency would be pleased most kindly to decide, on a humane consideration of that which it was not permitted me personally to lay before his Majesty, whether the petition most respectfully enclosed in the original is worthy to be presented to his Majesty by your Excellency's gracious intermediation.

Klagenfurt, 21st of May, 1850. My petition to his Majesty the Emperor of Austria was as follows : Your Majesty ! When, on the 13th of August last year, I laid down our arms before the troops of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia, I begged that my unfortunate companions might be spared, as well as the deeply distressed people of Hungary, freely giving up myself in expiation of what had been done. I despised flight, and purposely avoided, after as well as before the laying down of our arms, any expression or action tending to my own safety ; for I

PREFACE.

. VIII wished at least to share the fate of my companions, if my prayer should not be granted; since my companions were guilty of no act for which they deserved a more rigorous fate than myself. The laying down of our arms was resolved upon in a military council, at which I was not even present. I merely undertook to execute this resolution : and nevertheless, I was pardoned, while a part of the members of this military council lost their lives, another part their property and liberty. I it was especially whose independent acts, favoured by the fortune of war, so long hostilely delayed the realisation of your Majesty's great idea of a united free Austria : and notwithstanding, your Majesty was pleased to grant pardon to me, while my former inferiors — the tools of my daring hand — were given up to the inexorable severity of the courts-martial.

In vain I sought for a point of view, regarded from which my fate and that of my unfortunate companions might be made to agree. I found none ; and abandoned myself to the torturing thought, that the act of Vilagos, by its consequences speedily and bloodlessly terminating the Hungarian revolution, had been ac counted meritorious in me exclusively, and had been rewarded with my pardon. Deeply afflicting as this supposition is to me, I firmly cling to it, because it has become to me the ground of hope, that those of my former companions who are still alive might not much longer be deprived of your Majesty's most high pardon, if my ingenuous words were permitted to re-echo in your Majesty's soul. The surrender at Vilagos, with all its consequences, would have been impracticable without the magnanimous co-operation of all those on whom your Majesty's courts-martial have since either inflicted death, or the severest imprisonment.

The dead — they rest in peace ; neither affected any more by fear or hope. But the living — they still hope. The pardon which has been extended to me, their leader, continually encourages them to hope. For them I venture my prayer, whose boldness the sacred interests of humanity may justify, the oppressive burden of my grief may excuse.

PREFACE.

. IX Mercy for them implores the man who could never hope or pray for mercy for himself, although sacred duties forbade him to reject it when freely offered. Mercy for those whom death has not yet removed beyond the influence of your Majesty's clemency. For all, who, by love to their country, in the midst of great bewildering events, enticed from the path of duty, partly too late entered on the honourable way of return, partly could not again enter on it through insurmountable obstacles ; and whose faithful love to their fatherland justifies the sure expectation, that they would repay with threefold interest their sacred debt to the great common fatherland by a devoted co-operation in healing the wounds they had once helped to inflict. The gloomy prisons, unbarred at your Majesty's gracious nod ; the purification-commissions relieved from thenmelancholy duty by the merciful words, "forgiven and forgotten" — would restore to thousands their liberty, their home, their respectable position in society, — to the common fatherland a great number of intelligent faithful citizens, — to the state many a capable tried servant.

The apprehension of a shameful abuse of your Majesty's pardon is contradicted by every trait in the general national character of the Magyars ; and even in the non-Magyars among my unfortunate companions, this apprehension vanishes at the remembrance of then voluntary submission. A single stroke of the pen would gain for your Majesty millions of thankfully devoted hearts- — a secure refuge at any time — and thousands of millions of timorous, though voiceless, complaints would become most joyously - sounding wishes for blessings on Francis Joseph the magnanimous. Four or five weeks later, several of my companions in arms were pardoned; those, namely, who, like myself, belonged to the category of the so-called " quitted" of ficers, that is, those who had quitted the rank of officers in the Austrian army before the breaking out of the war between Hungary and Austria, but on their departure

PREFACE.

. X had given a written promise never to fight against the armies of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria. The publication of this act of mercy induced me to address the following letter to the Minister of the Interior : To his Excellency the Minister of the Interior, Alexander von Bach. His Majesty's recent act of mercy, to which all those officers owe their deliverance from the dungeons, who as " quitted" royal imperial officers had taken service in the revolutionary Hungarian army, and were for this reason condemned by the courts-martial, has surprisingly revealed the beautiful meaning of those consolatory words with which your Excellency dismissed me. The hearts of those who have now been given back to their families and to their friends overflow with loud blessings for those men who put the thought of mercy into the Monarch's heart, and made it there germinate to a noble action.

None of the public voices announces then names ; but nevertheless I am constrained firmly to believe that the pardon of a considerable number of my companions has certainly been most decidedly promoted by your Excellency ; not, perhaps, in consequence of the hopeless steps which I dared, but rather in spite of them ; for I can very well conceive that all I urged verbally and in writing, believing it to be in favour of my companions, was more fitted to incite than to conciliate. It came, however, from me, the living evidence, the irrefutable reproach, that punitive justice has by no means been dealt out in equal measure to the participators in the Hungarian revolution. On a first superficial glance, this disproportion seems now to be equalised — let us leave the dead in peace, — for I also belong to the category of the quitted royal imperial officers.

But he who, on the one hand, does not overlook the limited political horizon of the soldier, and, on the other, the events of the summer of 1848, standing somewhat isolated in history, can hardly free himself from the apprehension, that the reproach of inequality in punishing and

PREFACE.

. XI forgiving has gained but a broader basis by pardoning all quitted officers, in face of the still condemned active ones. The Monarch, whose will is law to the army, was represented in the summer of the year 1848 by two executive powers, crippling each other, and nevertheless legitimate ; the army was divided between both by distinct military oaths. Publicly disavowed by both, but secretly supported by one of them, a third national military power arose, and with fatal haste first hurled the fire brand of civil war from the south into the heart of the monarchy. In the midst of this general confusion, only a few succeeded in guessing for which of the two legitimate executive powers the Mon arch would declare himself, simultaneously disavowing the other ; for the proclamations — which were calculated to explain to many an isolated body of troops, to which they came direct, the true will of the Monarch — were either not communicated to the others at all, or too late, and moreover in such a manner as to weaken their effect.

The first steps of the soldier ordered to Hungary for the maintenance of the Hungarian executive power, already minified in Vienna, were made consequently under the moral influence of the recent military oath, out of obedience, the fundamental principle on which the existence of every regular armed force depends. The quitted officers already pardoned were not subjected to this influence. They broke then promise, given in the reciprocal bond when they quitted — never to serve with arms in hand against the troops of his Majesty the Emperor of Austria — from a free, independent resolve. By the pardon of these men, the execution of the condemnations of the active officers, still proceeding, gains an expression of rigour, which causes it not only easily to be forgotten that these also have already been mitigated in the way of mercy, but which moreover might even raise the natural compassion of the masses for those who are punished to a kind of martyrworship, with ah its tra ditional consequences, especially to be regretted by Austria. ■ The modest expression of a deeply felt thanks, which I wished to give to my words, has by degrees been changed, from con tinually looking at so many still-unbarred prisons, into the almost

PREFACE.

. avowed one of a substantiated intercession ; and while I am aware of this, the doubt again arises, whether I do not thereby perhaps injure where I wish to benefit. This doubt would silence me for ever in behalf of my companions, were it not counteracted by the conviction, that your Excellency, recognising in all its great ness the irresistible effect of clemency upon the human heart, and disregarding the contradictory views of parties, will successfully conduct to its consummation that work of reconciliation which has already been so nobly begun. Klagenfurt, 30th of June, 1850. I give these documents in the Preface, because I think their contents may be calculated to serve as a pledge beforehand to the reader of the frankness of the subsequent records of my life and acts. Those historical documents of value which accident ally remained in my possession appear in their proper places, partly given verbatim, partly faithfully translated from Hungarian into German.

The surprisingly small number of documents is ex plained by the circumstance, that I never expected to survive the revolution. ARTHUR GORGEI. Klagenfurt, 15th of August, 1851. Note.— The reader is requested to observe that wherever miles are mentioned, the German long mile (= nearly SJ English miles) is meant. In some instances the word ' (German)' has been inserted before 'miles,' but it is feared not uniformly. — Transl. CONTENTS OF VOL. I. a

Chapter I. Page

Enter the Honveds. Occupations out of Hungary. Advanced to Honved major. Szolnok ; the Volunteer Mobile National-guards. Political confession of faith 1

Chapter II

Detached to the island of Csepel. Nominated commander-in chief of the southern militia, and simultaneous extension of my mili tary mission. Count Eugene Zichy arrested ; examined, condemned, and executed by court-martial ....... 6

Chapter III

Three days' armistice after the battle at Pakozd, Velencze, and Sukord. Vasarhelyi. Recommencement of hostilities. Perczel my commander-in-chief. The militia. Opening of the expedition against Major-general Roth. Skirmish at Tacz. Disarming of a Croat column. Philippovich in Perczel's head-quarters. Retreat of Major-general Roth. Dispute between Perczel and myself. Dis arming of the Roth corps at Ozora ....... 31

Chapter IV

Advanced to Honved colonel, and recalled from the Perczel corps. Kalozd. Take possession of some jewels belonging to the late Count Zichy. Vasarhelyi. Pesth. Deliver up the jewels ' . 49

Chapter V

A consultation at Kossuth's. His want of confidence in Moga. Secret object of my recall from the Perczel corps and mission to Parendorf CONTENTS.

Chapter VI. Page

The command of the vanguard of the army of the upper Danube transferred to me. Ladislaus Csanyi. Our outposts on the Lajtha. First crossing of the frontier. The head-quarters at Parendorf, and my secret mission. The troops ofthe vanguard. Second crossing of the frontier

Chapter VII

First proclamation of Prince Windisch-Gratz, and its consequences. A deliberation beforehand at Moga's about the impending third crossing ofthe frontier. Some light on the first two crossings of the frontier. The military council in Nikelsdorf. Kossuth in Parendorf. His ultimatum to Prince Windisch-Gratz. The agitations in the camp for the offensive. A Hungarian trumpet made prisoner in the hostile camp, and its consequences ..... 66

Chapter VIII

Third and last crossing ofthe frontier. The battle at Schwechat. Remarks upon it .......... 78

Chapter IX

£A conference with Kossuth. His experience on the flight from Schwechat. Count Guyon named colonel of the National-guard and commander ofthe expedition against Field-marshal Lieut. Simunich. The chief command of the army of the upper Danube transferred to me. The expedition against Simunich fails. The two meetings between Bern and myself ...... 92

Chapter X

Reasons which had determined me to accept the chief command ofthe army. I demand the evacuation ofthe frontier; Kos f suth its occupation. Kossuth's dependency. Nevertheless I desire him for Dictator. My reasons. My letter to the Committee of Defence in reference thereto. Controversies between Kossuth, the Committee of Defence, and Meszaros on the one part, and myself on the other. Proofs of it ........ 101

Chapter XI

Reasons why I was not removed from the chief command when in Presburg. Why I did not, of my own accord, resign. Whether CONTENTS. XV ' T ... . PAGE I did or did not aspire to the dictatorship, and why. A private letter. Establishment of defensive works at Presburg, Wieselburg, and Raab. The state of Hungary in autumn 1848, and the regular troops 122

Chapter XII

Prince Windisch-Gratz crosses the frontier. It is evacuated. Presburg abandoned. Great losses. Beginning of the retreat towards Raab. Combat at Wieselburg. Continuation of the retreat as far as Raab. Patriotic devastations. An end put to them. Troops believed to be lost unexpectedly saved . . . .133

Chapter XIII

Raab evacuated without drawing a sword. Combat with the rear-guard at Babolna. Vertesi Hegyek. Plan of defence. Undeceivings. General Perczel defeated at Moor. Offensive dispositions against Perczel's conqueror. Retreat towards Ofen . . 139

Chapter XIV

Perczel's views about his defeat at Moor. The last resolutions of the Diet at Pesth. Kossuth demands a decisive battle before Ofen, and at the same time the army to be saved and the capitals spared. The impracticability of this. , Kossuth at Debreczin. Military council in Pesth. Its resolutions. Battle at Teteny. Evacuation of the capitals ......... 147

Chapter XV

The state of Hungary and the regular troops after the evacuation of the capitals. The proclamation of Waizen. The regular troops get out of the rain and under the spout . . . . . .156

Chapter XVI

The corps d'armee of the upper Danube. Offensive against Field-marshal Lieut. Simunich. Its interruption by Field-marshal Lieut. Csorich. Characteristics of Colonel Count Guyon. I insist on prosecuting the offensive against Simunich. The chief of the general staff proposes to save the corps of the upper Danube in the mountain-towns, and prevails 169

Chapter XVII

The district of the mountain-towns. Position of the corps I Xvi . CONTENTS. PAGE d'armee of the upper Danube before the retreat thither. Position of the hostile corps The plan of retreat. Its execution. Position of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube in the mountain-towns . 176 CHAPTER XVllI. The enemy attacks the mountain-towns. Zsarnocz. Turning-column of Colonel Collery. Conflict at Hodrics (22d of January) . 181

Chapter XIX

The defeat ofthe Guyon division at Windsehacht (21st of January), and its retreat from Schemnitz as far as Bsicsa (23d of January), subsequently becomes known. Critical situation of the Aulich division. Saved from it. Still more critical situation ofthe Guyon division and that ofthe left wing. Final junction in Neusohl ofthe corps d'armee ofthe upper Danube. A previous order to re treat by the war-minister is afterwards taken into consideration. Our lines of retreat from Neusohl towards the upper Theiss. Plan for retreating as far as the Zips. A train of heavy-loaded wagons as rear-guard. The retreat commences. A tempter. Disposition of the population 193

Chapter XX

Arrival ofthe corps d'armee ofthe tipper Danube in the Zips. Sudden attack at Iglo (between the 2d and 3d of February). Dan gerous .°ituation ofthe corps d'armee ofthe upper Danube. A possible outlet. Reasons against making use of it, and for the offensive against Field-marshal Lieut. Count Schlick. Offensive begun. Po sitions ofthe corps under Klapka and Schlick. The combinations deduced from it very unfavourable for the corps d'armee ofthe upper Danube. Importance of the battle at the Branyiszko. A reckoning with the past 203

Chapter XXI

Report on Guyon's victory at the Branyiszko (5th of February). Essentially changed situation of the corps d'armee of the upper Danube. Count Schlick abandons the basis of his operations. Conjectures occasioned thereby as to his next intentions. Measures against them. Surprising defensive measures of the enemy. Direct news from Colonel Klapka. Their influence on our dispositions for attack The enemy evacuates Kaschau without striking a blow. Junction ofthe corps d'armee ofthe upper Danube with the Hun garian forces on the Theiss. Klapka's last operations against Count CONTENTS. XVU PAGE Schlick. Offensive concerted between Klapka and myself. The Klapka corps undertakes the pursuit of the Schlick corps. Lieut. general Dembinski orders the Klapka corps from Kaschau to Mis kolcz. The corps d'armee of the upper Danube undertakes the pursuit. Its results . , . . . . ... . . 215

Chapter XXII

Dembinski becomes Hungarian commander-in-ehief. New clas sification ofthe Hungarian forces. The corps d'amide ofthe upper Danube receives the name. Seventh army corps. Antipathies therein against Dembinski's being commander-in-chief. Causes and conse quences. Measures taken against the consequences. Dembinski recognised as commander-in-chief ....... 224

Chapter XXIII

Dembinski rejects the plan of operations concerted between Co lonel Klapka and myself. The seventh army corps ordered to Mis kolcz. First encounter with Dembinski. Dembinski's first acts as Hungarian commander-in-chief ....... 230

Chapter XXIV

Dembinski's dispositions assume an offensive character. His dissatisfaction with Klapka and the government. His dispositions of troops. Encounter with Dembinski in Erlau. 1 he enemy himself assumes the offensive. Dembinski's characteristics . . . 239

Chapter XXV

Position ofthe Hungarian army immediately before the two days' battle at Kapolna. Termination of the first day's battle (26th of February). Dembinski's dispositions for the second day's battle. Circumstances causing delay in forwarding them to the army corps. Guyon arrives too late at Kapolna 247

Chapter XXIX

Dembinski intends to give the army rest. His dispositions to that effect. The army enters the cantonments. Klapka attacked at Eger-Farmos (1st of March). The army quits the cantonments. Dembinski's theory for procuring rest. Character of the Windisch- Gratz-Dembinski campaign 281

Chapter XXX

The Klapka divis ons refuse unconditional obedience to Dem binski. Dembinski decrees the retreat beyond the Theiss. Klapka effects it with his divisions (2d of March). I delay the retreat of the seventh army corps. Reasons for it. Dembinski countermands the retreat ofthe seventh army corps. My written declaration against it. I effect the retreat (3d of March) 289

Chapter Xxxviii

The first, second, and third army corps separate from the seventh corps, and begin to turn the enemy. One half of the third army corps defeats the enemy at Tapio-Bicske, after the latter had previously defeated the whole first corps (4th of April). Continuation of the turning-manœuvre ........ 332

Chapter XLV

Crossing the Gran. Damjanics conquers at Nagy-Sarld on the 19th of April. My views on this combat. Continuation of the operations. The battle at Keme-nd on the 20th of April. Relief of the fortress of Komorn on the left bank of the Danube on the 22d of April 384

Chapter XLVI

Preparation for the relief of the fortress of Komorn on the right bank of the Danube. Sudden attack on the hostile trench in the night between the 25th and 26th of April. The relief on the right bank also effected on the 26th of April . . . . . .391 MY LIFE AND ACTS.

Chapter I

The summoning cry of distress of the first independent Hungarian ministry of war, " The Country is in danger !" drew me from the quiet country-life in which I had passed the spring of 1848, on the estate of a female re lative in the north of Hungary, into the ranks of the Honved battalions, which had just been raised. Having formerly been a lieutenant in the royal im perial Austrian army, I was immediately invested •with the rank of captain, and attached to the fifth battalion of Honveds. The station for its formation was Raab (Gydr). There I found a captain my senior in rank already occupied in the organisation of his company. I had known this man when I served in the royal Hungarian Noble Life-guards, and knew also that, not long before, he had been pensioned as a royal imperial lieutenant on account of his mental imbecility.

What services could the country expect in the time of war from one whose intellectual faculties had not sufficed for the claims of the service in the time of peace? The preferment of such a man to the rank of captain made me fear that sufficient strictness had not been exercised in the choice of the Honved officers. Sadder were the experiences VOL. I. B MY LITE AND ACTS IN HUNGAEY. in this respect which awaited me. This senior comrade of mine was intellectually unfit for his post; the chief of the battalion was also morally so. He was generally recognised as a usurer well known in Pesth. In these painful circumstances, I joyfully hailed the decree of the ministry, which suddenly transferred me from the battalion to a more independent sphere of action ; and from this time I saw my battalion no more.

In Pesth, whither this decree ordered me, I received a commission to purchase for Hungary a supply of flint-muskets, then lying in Smyrna and Constantinople, and to use the greatest possible speed in transporting them to Pesth. This project failed, as the person who offered them could not be depended upon; and I was then commanded to establish a manufactory for fusees and percussion-caps ; but meanwhile to furnish percussion-caps during the next year, by obtaining speedy sup plies from similar manufactories already existing. The fulfilment of this task led me, in August 1848, to Prague and Wiener-Neustadt. I visited several times the royal imperial manufactory for fireworks situated near the last-mentioned place, to learn the process of manufacturing fusees adopted there. Introduced by the then ministry of war at Vienna, I received the necessary information from the directors of the establishment in the most obliging manner.

The war of Hungary with the southern provinces of Sclav onia had almost exhausted the stock of fusees at the disposal of the Hungarian ministry of war. I was therefore ordered at the same time to provide Hungary with a fresh supply direct from the royal imperial es tablishment for fireworks; and assisted by the Vienna ministry of war, quickly executed this commission. On CHAP. I.] 3 MY LIFE AND ACTS IN HUNGAEY. my return to Pesth, I submitted to the ministerial president a proposal for the establishment of a manufactory for fusees and percussion-caps. But there were always more important things to be attended to. I was obliged to wait, and wait, and again wait, till at last I lost all patience, and insisted on being employed in the war against the Raizen. My request was acceded to. I had to join the suite of the minister of war, who was about to proceed to the Hungarian camp, and superintend the operations against the revolted Raizen and Serbians.

I had already waited an hour for our departure on board the steamer appropriated to the minister of war, when I suddenly received orders to remain in Pesth, and assist in the formation of a plan for the concentra tion of the Mobile National-guard from the four circles of Hungary, regard being paid to the strategic conditions of the country. I had immediately to take the command in one of the circles, and was appointed to that on this side the Theiss ; my chief station being Szolnok. On this occasion I was advanced to the rank of Honved major. In Szolnok I obtained my first insight into the state of affairs in Hungary, and was, alas, undeceived. I had supposed that all my countrymen were animated, like myself, with a determination to sacrifice every thing for the salvation of the fatherland.

I confidently expected that the whole Magyar population of Hungary would rise as one man in defence of our native soil and all that renders it dear to us. But the formation of the mobile National-guard was already rendered necessary, in general, by a moral defect in the National-guard itself, of which the tragi-comical influence on the events of the war threatened to become an inexhaustible source of numerous, successful, though involuntary parodies on the traditions of the heroic ages of Hungary. To leave their own hearths, that they might defend those of their fellow-citizens, which were nearer the dan ger, seemed to fathers of families and proprietors among the National-guard a matter demanding most mature deliberation. With a most affecting pathos they dwelt on the far more sacred duty of preserving their own dear selves, and obstinately refused to march against the enemies of the country; and if their mobilisation was nevertheless sometimes successful, the country was more injured than benefited by it, because the expenses of such an organisation were, in comparison with that of regular troops, disproportionately great, while their ser vices were just as disproportionately small, nay, were scarcely worth mentioning.