Hungary. 11 February 1849

Hungary.
No. 219, 11 February 1849
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.
* The *Kölnische Zeitung*, which as is well known sides with Windischgrätz against the Magyars, today characterises the reports of the reactionary, anti-Magyar *Breslauer Zeitung* on the Magyars’ victories as “unspeakably ridiculous boasts”. We have communicated those reports and will indeed, before going into them in greater detail, await further news. So much is certain, that the imperial forces have encountered unforeseen obstacles at the Theiss, otherwise they would have to have crossed long since; according to the “credible” Austrian reports, Schlick has already marched on Debreczin a dozen times, while he has not even yet crossed the Theiss!

In the meantime, for the edification of the credible Schwanbeck, we will communicate a few small items from the imperial-royal Augsburg Gazette, which is surely credible enough. It will be remembered that for some time we have drawn attention to the so-called democratic fraction of the Austrian Slavs and to the conflict into which these enthusiasts must necessarily have fallen with the Olmütz Government. We designated Jellachich as the first and Stratimirovich as the second representative of this tendency. That this fraction, whose organ is the *Südslavische Zeitung* in Agram, is also gaining ground in Croatia itself, is shown by the following article from the A. A. Ztg.:

“As I reported to you, the machinations of the Serbian General Stratimirovich are gaining in importance, since he counts a large following among the Serbs and seems to exercise a particular influence upon the Tschaikists. That his attempts at sedition against the Patriarch Rajachich, as is generally asserted, are based not on an understanding with the Magyars, but solely on ambitious intentions, we do not doubt; but how sad it is, when one sees that

the Slav element, to which Austria in the storm should and had to cling, is itself abandoned to the storms of egoistic party factions! Stratimirovich is offended because he saw himself deceived in his expectation of obtaining the voivodeship after the death of General Supplikatz, and broods revenge. Whether this takes place at the cost of the so necessary concord among the people and at the cost of the welfare of their own fatherland, is not asked. Stratimirovich had the good fortune to distinguish himself with a small band of victorious Serbs at the beginning of the Magyar struggle, to render himself, as it were, indispensable, and especially at St. Tomas and the Römerschanzen to achieve more than many another general with regular troops. He rose rapidly from the rank of first lieutenant to general. Attached to the deputation of his country sent to Olmütz, he succeeded there in fulfilling the dearest wishes of the Serbs with regard to their nationality and independence, and when soon afterwards the sudden death of the barely appointed voivode Supplikatz occurred, the wish of the troops and of the country designated him as the probable successor. So things stand on this side. But also in Croatia matters are not shaping themselves nearly as serenely as people are wont to report them superficially. Creditable persons who come from the country assure that the absence of the Ban is being seen to drag on very unwillingly, and that his popularity is endangered, since the Croats wish to find in him their Ban and not merely the Austrian field-marshal lieutenant. Likewise the appointment of Baron Kulmer as minister is said not to meet with that approval in the country which was initially expected, since he is generally designated as a tool of the court. The news of his appointment is even said to have given occasion to a hostile demonstration, a part of the forests belonging to him in Croatia having been set on fire. From all this, as well as from the daily rising bitterness of the language of the Agram newspapers, it is evident that it may not be possible to get rid of the Slavs quite so cheaply.”

On the other hand, the same newspaper confirms the arrival of Dembinski in Debreczin. It writes from Pest:

“General Dembinski is indeed staying in Debreczin. Members of the Hungarian House of Representatives are staying there in large numbers, whereas the insurgents count only 11 magnates in their midst. Fortune seems to have turned its back on the rebel chief Bem in Transylvania; at least, despite his boastful reports, refugees seeking help are constantly arriving at the rump parliament. According to a decree of the Debreczin *Közlöni*, the Magyar *Moniteur*, War

Minister Meszaros has resigned on account of illness and has been replaced by General Vetter.”

Concerning Dembinski himself, it contains the following items:

“Vienna, 3 February. The fanatical Magyars expect the most favourable success from the talent of the famous Polish General Dembinski, to whom the supreme command over all the Magyar troops is said to have been transferred. Dembinski, born in 1791, came in 1807 to the Engineering Academy in Vienna, secretly fled from there in 1809 and, in his 18th year, joined the fifth Polish mounted chasseur regiment as a private. He fought against the Russians, and so distinguished himself in the campaign of 1812 at the Battle of Smolensk that he was promoted by Napoleon to captain on the battlefield itself. Too proud to enter Russian service, he then spent years in quiet seclusion until, in the Polish Revolution of 1830, he had the opportunity as a colonel to distinguish himself with his cavalry brigade of 4,000 men, by holding up the entire Russian force of 60,000 men under Marshal Diebitsch in the Battle of Grochow for a whole day.”
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