Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/193

same is now, contrary to all law and treaties, looked forward to by his son, or rather by those in whose power he is, — they, meanwhile, never taking into consideration how treacherously they have already been treated by the tyrant and ejected from Buda. But souls which are blinded with the lust of reigning are borne on to their own destruction, and drag their neighbours with them.

If Christianity had not held a garrison (and that it has had a very strong one there has been shewn by daily experience, and by slaughters repeated upon slaughters), yet, were it but for the wealth alone with which the great and good God has most bountifully endowed it, and from which it has been able to supply the neighbouring nations, it would not only have been incumbent upon the Hungarians themselves, but upon all Christians to struggle for its welfare as for a common country. For what is there scarcely in the whole range of nature which is good and precious, which is not possessed by Hungary? If you seek metals, — what part of the world is more productive of gold, silver, copper, steel, and iron, than Hungary? It is true it is deficient in lead, and is said to have no tin, if it be right to say that it has not that which has not hitherto happened to be found. It has also metallic salts of the best and purest quality, which are cut in the quarries in large blocks. It has, moreover, in some places, and this is a fact which may justly cause surprise, a kind of water which alters the nature of metals, and turns iron into copper.

It produces wines, differing in character according to the different places in which they are made, and in several parts even beyond Sirmium [Simach], which is famous for the amount of produce and the excellence of its wines, which we lost; there are some wines so generous and excellent that they might be taken for Cretan wines. I say nothing of the vegetation and the boundless abundance of all kinds of the best fruits. Then as to game and everything which is taken in hunting