On shooting a bishop in Melbourne

One of the most interesting accounts of goldfield life is Stanley Robe's translation of Seweryn Korzelinski's memoir, written in Polish, but one bit has been annoying me for ten years. Korzelinski wrote:

Bishop Medianski had gone to France after the Hungarian uprising and then to Australia, where he worked for a time on the diggings. He was on his way to Melbourne on business when attacked and shot by a bushranger. He knocked out the robber and went for help, but his left arm needed to be amputated.

I could find no trace of 'Medianski' anywhere, but as I am revising my Not Your Usual Gold Stories, I decided to give it another spin. To my delight, I found one hit, but it was in a string of English in a PDF that appeared to be in Hungarian, a language in which I used to have three words, long since forgotten. Still, I gave it a go.

Alas, the PDF just quoted Robe, in English, in a footnote, but being devious, I looked more closely at footnote 36, and saw Mednyánszky in the text. So I fed that to Trove, and bingo! I got this from the South Australian Register:

The Late Attempted Murder. — The Hungarian so atrociously assailed and shot at in the Government Paddock on Sunday night, is doing well. His name is Caesar Mednyaszky, and his connections in his native land are said to be inferior to none. One of his brothers is a General in the Hungarian army, the other a Bishop, and his family is declared to be allied in a close degree to Prince Albert It will be seen by a reference to our City Police report that a man has been apprehended and remanded on suspicion of being the party who wounded Mednyaszky, but whether he can be identified has not been as yet ascertained.

 Here is the story, courtesy of Adelaide Times:

The Attempted Assassination.—On further reference to our files of Melbourne papers, we find the following particulars regarding the attempt upon the life of Mr Mednyanszky, to which we yesterday referred:—

ATTEMPTED MURDER AND ROBBERY—Between 11 and 12 o'clock on Sunday night, a Hungarian was proceeding from Melbourne to the house of Trooper Burns, in Tanner-street, Richmond, where he resides, and, on reaching the centre of the Government paddock; a man approached, and demanded of him to surrender his money. The reply of the other was, 'I have none for you, my good friend," wherewith the ruffian presented a pistol, and the Hungarian, raising his left hand to protect himself, received a ball in the arm, and jumping forward at the moment, with his fist struck the highwayman on the nose, by which he was felled to the earth; but the scoundrel quickly regaining his feet succeeded in making his escape through the bush and has not since been heard of.

The Hungarian, though bleeding profusely was not up to this time aware of his having been shot, and was able to walk home, when the extent of his injuries was first ascertained, and Dr. Wilson was called in to attend him. Dr. Eades was subsequently sent for, and about half-past two o'clock amputation of the arm was deemed advisable by both medical gentlemen The operation was performed under the influence of chloroform, and the arm taken off from near the shoulder. He is doing well. The would-be murderer is described as a low-sized man, wearing a cap, but whether he can be identified by his victim we are unable to say.

So, case closed... or is it? From another source, it appears that he might be Baron Cezar Mednyanszky, a priest who was Catholic chaplain to the 1848-49 revolutionary army in Hungary, Now I have to track down his 1858 posthumous English translation of his The Confessions of a Catholic Priest. Still, if I don't get around to it, the next person making this search will now have a few pointers.

Having some clear space, I delved, and in a 1990 issue of Földrajzi Múzeumi Tanulmányok, I found an article by Dr. Balázs Dénes entitled 'Magyar utazók Ausztráliában', which seems to mean something like 'Hungarians in Australia', which includes a small section in English:

So there you have it: he was not a bishop, but a priest and a baron. Before he died, Mednyánszky wrote a memoir, Confessions of a Catholic Priest, and his account of the shooting starts at page 196. There isn't much there, but the work is available through Google Books.

I think the case is now closed, pro tem.