The literature of Hungary is almost entirely a growth of the latter part of the 18th century, and of the 19th. The language, a branch of the Tartar stock, was revived, when sinking into decay, by the exertions of Kazinczy, and by the attempt of the emperor Joseph to suppress it. It has now become the object of enthusiastic affection on the part of those who speak it, and who were congratulated on their possessing such a noble organ of thought and poetry by the great linguist Mezzofanti. The number of works published in the language iu 1795 was 22, and in 1855 no leas than 640. The fine library of Count Francis Szechenyi, which was given in 1802 as the foundation of a national museum at Pesth, has since grown to a collection which was stated in 1859 to contain 180,000 volumes, of which 30,000 were Hungarian books, and 20,000 of the remainder were books relating to Hungary. These numbers are no doubt much exaggerated, but the catalogue of the original collection which was printed at Szeehenyi's expense before the donation was made shows that be had amassed with uncommon care and success almost everything that related to the history, the topography, and the lite rature of the country. If the collection has been continued on the same scale, as it probably has been, it must present as complete a speci men of what a national library should be as exists in Europe. In the British Museum there is a fine collection of books on Hungarian topo graphy and history, and also of books in the Hungarian language, which may be called an abridgment of the Szechenyi Museum. The Hunga rian refugees who arrived in London after the failure of the revolution of 1848, must have been agreeably surprised to find arrived before them all their best authors and most distinguished periodical publications, in an abundance which showed that the frequent complaint of Hungarian patriots was not in this instance justified—that Hungary had not been overlooked or forgotten.
The success of other languages has led the Wallachians recently to attempt a national literature, which was commenced w thin the last twenty years by the translation of some popular Fren h novels into Wallachian or "Roumania; by a native princess. 'I is not very promising beginning has been followed up by a host of other trans lations, and by a few original efforts, some of which appear to have merit. The political importance which has been lately attained by Wallachia and Moldavia has given rise to a flood of pamphlets and political writings; and the peculiar position of the Wallaehian as a solitary Romanic language in the east of Europe, has lent it an interest that otherwise would scarcely belong to it. Most of the original publi cations in Wallachian are in the British Museum.
The Servian language has far other claims to notice in its beautiful and spirited ballads, which have attracted from their first appearance the admiration of all literary Europe. The Servian literature is collected with care in the libraries of other Slavonic countries, but there appears to be no public library at Belgrade.
The ancient connection of Bohemia with England by the marriage of Richard II. to a Bohemian queen, led to the introduction of the doctrines of Wickliffe from the university of Oxford to the university of Prague, and so to the cultivation of the national language in the struggle which ensued with the Catholic clergy. Bohemia was the first of the Slavonic languages which had a printed literature ; but, after the defeat of Bohemian Protestantism in the -Thirty Years' War, that literature was also attempted to be suppressed. A Jesuit father of the 17th century, is branded with infamy as having for many years collected Bohemian books for the purpose of destroying them, an attempt in which he had no common share of success. As in the' case of Hungary, the Bohemian language was sinking into apparently irrecoverable decay, and yielding the ground it had for merly occupied to German, when this tendency was arrested by the exertions of native scholars, and for some years past the language has been growing more and more into literary cultivation. One of the chief measures taken by the national party was the establishment of a " Bohemian Museum " at Prague, to contain among other things a collection of Bohemian literature. Bohemian is not like Hungarian, an isolated language ; and the recent Panslavistie movement has called attention to Bohemia and its literature in other Slavonic countries. The library of St. Petersburg was enriched in 1852 by the purchase of the library of Jungmann, the author of the great Bohemian dictionary, and the historian of Bohemian literature. The student of the language will find a good collection of Bohemian books of recent date, and some curious ones of an older date, in the British Museum.
The literature of Poland has been remarkably unfortunate. It had a period of cultivation almost contemporary with our Elizabethan age, but its early productions rival in scarcity those of Bohemia, for though they were not made the object of systematic persecution, the in difference of the Poles to literary treasures has been so marked, that most of their ancient books have been gradually consigned to destruc tion by mere carelessness and wantonness. When Zaluski in tho 18th 'century, brought together his immense library, one of his principal objects was to amass everything that related to Poland, and it is stated that 20,000 of his volumes had reference to this subject, though the whole number of books in the Polish language in his library was less than 5000. Many of the books in this collection were unique, and to form a second collection approaching to it in completeness was out of the question. When, therefore, the whole Zaluski library Was carried off, as has been already stated, to St. Pctersburgh by the Russians, the Poles sustained not only a great but an irreparable loss. On the second occasion of the seizure of the Polish libraries in 1833, the Emperor Nicolas was, it appears, considerate enough to direct that books in Polish and books on medical subjects should be permitted to remain in Warsaw. The Polish emigrants have since established a Polish library in Paris, and Prince Adam Czartoryski, the same from whom the Russians took the Pulawy, presented to the British Museum in 1833, a small collection of seventy or eighty Polish volumes. A few
years afterwards, the movement commenced for increasing the Museum library, and it has now the richest collection of Polish literature out of l'oland and Russia. To judge from the occasional complaints of Warsaw journals as to the defective literary communication between that capital and Posen and Cracow, it is not improbable that Polish books from the three literary centres of the Polish language under three daft-gent goverurnents, may be often assembled in London before they meet on their native poll. On that native soil many of the literary productions of the Polish ' emigration' are of course forbidden to appear at all, w h110 at the Museum they are still but imperfectly represented, though care is now taken to collect them from the &Teruo localitlee where they appear,at Leipzig, or Poitiers, or Tutten ham. Amid the convulsions of the continent, and the dangers and which surround Polish libmries in Poland, it is far from improlsalsle that the future historian of Polish literature may hare to seek some of his best materials in Great Russell Street The literature of Russia commenced in the year 170S. It was then that Peter the Great issued his new alphabet, an improvement on the old and clumsy Slavonic) alphabet which it supplanted, but still re taining one of its worst defect's, in a silent letter, which in every Russian volume wastefully consumes at least a sheet. Along with the alphabet the old Slavonic language was abandoned, and the Russian, which had hitherto been spoken, not written, became the language of literature. A collection of it was located in a very singular quarter. Denis, the author of the ' Introduction to Bibliography,' tells us in 1775, and again in 1796, in his account of the libraries of Italy, that hi that of Modena was a collection of all the Russian books ever printed, and the statement is repeated in 1846, in Itencetti's Italian translation of Denis, a carefully edited book, with excellent illustrative notes. Meanwhile, with regard to the great 7almuski library of Warsaw, collected by a Pole, and rich in Slavonic literature. there is a dis agree:nent among authorities as to the number of Russian books it contained, some stating that there were five, and, others that there were only four. When the library was removed to St. Petersburg, and made the public library of Russia, measures were taken to remedy this defect, and in the official guide to that library, published in 1350, the number of Russian books, forming a separate department with a separate librarian, is stated at 40,000, and it has since been materially augmented. The literature of Russia is now in a period of gigantic growth, and some of its productions are individually of gigantic size. A single number of a Russian monthly or fortnightly magazine, is generally of the dimensions of an English quarterly review, and a periodical of the first class, of which there are several, presents its readers in the course of a twelvemonth with six or seven thousand closely printed octavo pages, in which are inserted as articles among the original matter, complete translations of such works as Prescott's ' Conquest of 31exico,' or Kingsley'a ' Two Years Ago.' It is one of the most singular literary phenomena of our time that this great movement is taking place among a nation of nearly seventy millions of population, and that it is in most other countries so thoroughly ignorrd. The Russian authors abound in talent, and some of them have manifested genius; their subjects are full of interest. If they treat of their own topography, it is that of so mighty a portion of the earth's surface, that it cannot fail to have a general bearing ; if of their own history, it is so intimately connected in modern times with that of Europe in general, and England in particular, that a more intimate acquaintance with it is highly desirable. They are great travellers also, and there is much in their observations on our own and other countries that deserves attention. Their admiration of English literature is warm, but not Indiscriminate; and while in Spain or Italy we might seek in vain for critics who appreciate our merits or detect our faults, the observations of Russians may perhaps anticipate the judgment of posterity. In Hutton' of politics, their freedom of speech is greater than we 'suppose, and they write much on subjects of contemporary history. Of late years, a Russian Free Press' has been established in Loudon, in which atone of their most eloquent writers express their opinions altogether without restraint, and as these publications are known to be constantly rend by the emperor, they exercise an im ps rtant political influence in Russia itself. Beyond the limits of Russia there is now apparently no Russian library of great extent— that of .11uslous being anterior to the great movement in Russian literature—except the collection in the British Museum. Four or five-and-twenty years ago, a solitary English student who had set himself to muter the Russian language, found himself thrown entirely on his own resources for prosecuting the study of its literature. It was the tame, not only with Russian, but with Polish, with Bohemian, with Serelan, with Hungarian, with Duteh, with Danish, with Swedish —in short, with all the secondary languages of Europe. No large col lection of any one of them then existed in England, unless possibly in private hands. No large public collection of any of them is known now to exist in England except under one roof, that of tho British Museum, and there they are all assembled. Small as has been the cost of amassing it—lest probably for the whole, than was given at Paris a few years ago for a single one of 3larshal Soult's ' Murillos '—it is a collection unrivalled of its kind in Europe. The poorest student who law access to the British Mureunm has now access to unlimited stores, of which he has only to bring the key.