While we were still thinking and talking of Deaks political career, a
very present cause for anxiety arose in reference to the state of the
Danube. The annual breaking up of the ice is always anticipated with
uneasiness, for during this century no less than thirteen serious
inundations have occurred. This year there was reason for alarm, for
early in January the level of the river was unusually high, and a
further rise had taken place, unprecedented at that season.
The greatest disaster of the kind on record took place in 1838, when the
greater part of Pest was inundated, and something like four thousand
houses were churned up in the flood; nor was this all, for the loss of
life had been very considerable, owing to the sudden nature of the
calamity on that occasion. The recollection of this terrible disaster
within the living memory of many persons kept the inhabitants of
Buda-Pest very keenly alive to any abnormal rise of the Danube waters.
There were, besides, additional circumstances which created uneasiness
and led to very acrimonious discussions. In recent years certain
"rectifications" had been effected in the course of the Danube, which
one-half of the community averred would for ever prevent the chance of
any recurrence of the catastrophe of 1838. But there are always two
parties in every question--"Little-endians" and "Big-endians"--and a
great many people were of opinion that these very "rectifications" were,
in fact, an additional source of peril to the capital.
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