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The Political Evolution 
 
 of the 
 
 Hungarian Nation 
 
The 
 
 Political Evolution 
 
 of the 
 
 Hungarian Nation 
 
 BY 
 
 The Hon. C. M. KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN 
 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. I 
 
 LONDON 
 THE NATIONAL REVIEW OFFICE 
 
 23 RYDER STREET, ST. JAMES'S 
 1908 
 
I\.%A10ZA 
 
TO 
 AN 'AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN' 
 
 MY WIFE 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book in no sense claims to be a history. Within 
 the compass of two volumes it is hardly possible to do 
 more than give a general view of the gradual develop- 
 ment of a nation which can boast a thousand years of 
 constitutional existence. The greater part of the first 
 volume should be regarded merely as an introduction 
 to the succeeding pages which deal with Hungary's 
 political renaissance, with the events of 1848, with the 
 juridical relations of Hungary to Austria, and with the 
 circumstances which attended the creation of the dualism 
 of to-day. The last two chapters are intended to facili- 
 tate the comprehension of certain problems whicK are of 
 more than local interest. If, as I hope will soon be the 
 case, one of the historical authorities of Hungary (my 
 indebtedness to whose works has been inadequately 
 acknowledged in the limited space available for foot- 
 notes) finds time to write an exhaustive history of his 
 country for the special benefit of English readers, my 
 labours will be sufficiently rewarded if the present work 
 receives mention as a serious attempt to lift a corner 
 of the veil which ignorance of the Hungarian language 
 necessarily interposes between the British public and the 
 only reliable sources of information as to the growth 
 and nature of the political institutions of the Magyars. 
 
 C. M. K.-H. 
 
Hungaria . . . cum Partibus adnexis Regnum liberum, et relate 
 ad totam legalem Regiminis formam (hue intellectis quibusvis Dica- 
 steriis suis) independens, id est nuUi alteri Regno aut populo obnoxium, 
 sed propriam habens Consistentiam et Constitutionem, proinde a 
 legitime coronato haereditario Rege suo, adeoque etiam a Sua Maje- 
 state Sacratissima, successoribusque ejus Hungariae Regibus, propriis 
 Legibus et Consuetudinibus, non vero ad normam aliarum Provin- 
 ciarum . . . regendVim et gubernandum. — Law x. 1790-91. 
 
 Rex habet superiorem, Deum. Item Legem per quam factus 
 est Rex. Item Curiam suam. — Bracton. 
 
The Political Evolution of the 
 Hungarian Nation 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 " Let not vanity deceive us ; it is the fact that Europe 
 is scarcely aware of our existence, and that many an 
 African settlement is better known than our country, 
 which foreigners regard as a productive but uncivilised 
 colony of Austria." These words are almost as true 
 to-day as when they were spoken by DeAk more than 
 sixty-five years ago. There are many educated people 
 in England who believe that Austria is a homogeneous 
 nation speaking a mysterious " Austrian " language ; while 
 Hungary, to whom " a venerable monarch, rendered wise 
 by experience and benevolent by misfortune," has conceded 
 some measure of local autonomy in order to satisfy the 
 unreasonable demands of a turbulent population, is 
 occupied by a gipsy race which justifies its existence by 
 its ability to provide weird music for the postprandial 
 delectation of cosmopolitan plutocrats. The better in- 
 formed, who derive their knowledge of Hungarian history 
 solely from prejudiced German and Austrian sources, are 
 hypnotised by the legend that nothing but affection for 
 the aged Emperor prevents the disruption of the polyglot 
 congeries known as the Austrian Empire, and see in every 
 act of assertion of Hungary's historic rights a parallel to 
 the act of a maniac who, from motives of conceit or 
 
 VOL. I B 
 
2 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 revenge, would amuse himself with lucifer matches in a 
 powder-magazine. Even the Press will, from time to 
 time, speak of the Golden Bull, the Pragmatic Sanction, 
 and the Compromise of 1867, each in turn, as having 
 conferred a Constitution on Hungary. Little wonder, 
 therefore, that the position of affairs in the Dual Monarchy 
 and the justification 'of Hungary's attitude with regard to 
 certain questions are* so misunderstood, a reasonable com- 
 prehension being impossible without some knowledge of 
 the gradual development of political institutions which are 
 as old as, or older than, the British Constitution. 
 
 As Guizot says, " I'histoire est essentiellement successive 
 . . . un peuple a beau renier son pass6, il n'est pas en 
 son pouvoir de I'an^antir ni de s'y soustraire absolument, 
 et bient6t surviennent des situations, des n6cessit6s, qui le 
 ramenent dans les voies oil il a march6 pendant des sifecles," 
 and this is perhaps more true of Hungary than of any 
 other nation. The Hungarian Constitution, which has 
 been obscured at intervals, violated at times, and suspended 
 for a period, only to prove its indestructibility, is the 
 product of no charter or fundamental statute, but is the 
 result of a slow process of development, of a combination 
 of statute and customary law which finds its nearest 
 parallel in Great Britain. It is remarkable that two such 
 different races should have proceeded on such similar 
 lines as the Anglo-Saxon and the Asiatic people, which, 
 both as regards language and primitive institutions, intro- 
 duced an entirely new element into Europe. The four 
 blows with the sword directed, at his coronation, to the 
 four cardinal points, by every Hungarian king down to 
 Francis Joseph are an emblem and a recognition of the 
 fact that the Magyar people has had to maintain itself by 
 force of arms against the unceasing attacks of alien 
 neighbours ; and the fact that a few thousand wanderers 
 from Asia were able to preserve their individuality and 
 institutions in the midst of an ocean of Slavs, Germans, 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 3 
 
 and Turks, and obtained comparatively quickly a position 
 of equality with members of the European family, 
 argues the possession of exceptional military and political 
 qualities, of exceptional cohesiveness, of a stoical capacity 
 for endurance, and of a' rooted confidence in them- 
 selves and in their future which no vicissitudes of fortune 
 have been able to destroy. The alien jargon first 
 heard by European ears twelve hundred years ago has 
 maintained its existence in spite of the competition of 
 German and Slav dialects, of deliberate discouragement 
 and temporary neglect, and has developed into a' language 
 which, for fulness and expressiveness, for the purpose of 
 science as well as of poetry, is the equal if not the superior 
 of the majority of European tongues. Palacky, the great 
 Czech historian, expressed the opinion that " the invasion 
 and definitive establishment of the Magyars is one of the 
 most important events in the world's history. Slavdom never 
 received a more fatal blow during its existence of several 
 thousand years. It extended in the ninth century from 
 the borders of Holstein to the Peloponnesus .... and 
 the Magyar by driving a wedge into the heart of the 
 state in process of formation destroyed it, and therewith 
 all the hopes of the Slavs." A people which has rendered 
 such services to the cause of European equilibrium, which 
 stood for centuries as the antemurale dypeusque Christiani- 
 tatis between the Turk and the Western nations, and has 
 shown such vitality and persistency in the past, is the chief 
 defensive force to be reckoned with in the future should, 
 as some fear, a graver danger arise to the balance of power 
 in Eastern Europe than was ever presented by the spectre 
 of Panslavism. 
 
 Research and speculation as to the origin of the 
 Hungarian race has on the whole been singularly barren 
 of positive results, and the conflict of opinion as to whether 
 the Magyars were Ugro-Finns who acquired certain 
 Turkish customs, or Turks who adopted Ugro-Finnish 
 
4 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 habits, is probably of little interest to English readers. 
 The very origin of the names Hungarian and Magyar 
 is uncertain. Jordanes, who wrote in Constantinople 
 about the year 550, refers to the Hunugurs as one of 
 the Hun tribes inhabiting Scythia or the great Sarmatian 
 plain in the neighbourhood of the Volga ; and Theophanes 
 in his Chronographia of even earlier date speaks of 
 Muagyer, possibly the primitive form of the name 
 Magyar, as king of the Huns.^ The earliest Hungarian 
 writers ^ agree as to the Hunnish origin of the race, and 
 the anonymous scribe or secretary of King B61a III. states 
 that it migrated to Pannonia, having heard that that 
 country formerly belonged to Attila, the ancestor of 
 Arpad.* On the other hand, the Emperor Constantine' 
 Porphyrogenitus,* who presumably had access to the best 
 contemporary sources of information, says that the migra- 
 tion westward was the result of attacks by a neighbouring 
 tribe, the Patzinakites (Besseny6k), which necessitated the 
 discovery of a new habitation. Professor VAmb6ry^ 
 believes that the Hungarians were Turko-Tartars, and 
 both Arab and Greek writers, including the two emperors 
 Constantine and Leo VI.,^ agree in regarding them as a 
 branch of the Turkish race. Further, the oldest proper 
 names ArpAd and Zoltan are undoubtedly of Turkish 
 origin. One thing seems sure, namely, that the earliest 
 
 1 Marczali, "A Vezerek Kora," in A Magyar Nemzet Tsrtinete, i. 8, 
 Budapest, 1898. 
 
 2 (a) "Anonymus de gestis Hungarorum," circa 1250, in Endlicher's 
 Hungaricarum rerum Monumenta ; (i) K&ai, court priest of Laszl6 IV., 
 circa 1282, Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum, Endlicher, p. 83 ; (c) The Vienna 
 Illustrated Chronicle, written in 1358 by a Minorite friar, Mark. Comparison 
 of (i) and (c) shows that both were derived from an earlier source unknown to 
 Anonymus. 
 
 3 Anonymus, ch. v. 
 
 * De Administrando ImpeiHo, ch. xxxvii., circa 950, in Marczali's A Magyar 
 Tirtinet Kiitfiinek Kizikonyve. {Enchiridion fontiuni), Budapest, 1901. 
 
 ' A Magyarok Eredete, 2nd ed., Budapest, 1882, 24 sqq. 197-199. A TSrok 
 Faj, Budapest, 1885, p. 95. 
 
 s On Military Tactics, ch. xli., circa 890. Enchiridion Fontium, p. 14. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 5 
 
 definite home was in the neighbourhood of the modern 
 Uralsk and Samara, abandoned, in or about the year 700, 
 in favour of Lebedia, the district between Astrakhan and 
 Stavropol, where a stay of about a century was made 
 prior to the final migration westward. From Lebedia, 
 according to Constantine (ch. xxxviii.), part of the tribes 
 went towards Persia, in which statement he is supported by 
 the Pressburg Chronicle of the fifteenth century,^ which 
 says that some of Nimrod's posterity — the Hungarians — 
 " inhabited a district of Persia and resembled the Huns 
 in figure and complexion, but differed from them some- 
 what in speech, only however to the extent to which 
 Saxons differ from Thuringians ; " and it is a fact that 
 there are Persian elements in the Hungarian language. 
 The spilling of blood at the taking of an oath referred to 
 by the anonymous writer^ curiously recalls the Parthian 
 custom,' and a fourteenth century account * of Hungarian 
 military tactics exactly corresponds with the classical 
 description of Parthian methods. 
 
 One of the most interesting theories is that mentioned 
 by Pauler,^ who identifies the Hungarians with the 
 Bashkirs, believing them to have retained the original 
 Bashkir language, while those of their fellow-tribesmen 
 who did not take part in the exodus lost it. The theory 
 depends to a considerable extent on the degree of trust- 
 worthiness attributable to the account which a Dominican 
 friar ^ gives of his wanderings in 1235, who alleges that 
 he found between the Caucasus and the Volga a people 
 
 ' Chronica minora, ed. Fl6riAn, p. 2. ^ Endlicher, o.c. p. 8. 
 
 s Tacitus, Annals, xii. 4.7 : " Mos est regibus quotiens in societatem coeant 
 implicare dextras poUicesque inter se vincire, nodoque praestringere : mox 
 ubi sanguis in artus se extremes sufFuderit, levi ictu cruorem eliciunt atque 
 invicem lambunt. Id foedus arcanum habetur quasi mutuo cruore sacratum." 
 
 * Matteo Villani, Croniche, vi. 54. Enchiridion Fontium, p. 225 sqq- : "La 
 loro guerra non i in potere mantenere campo, ma di correre e fugire e 
 cacciare saettando le loro saette, e di rivolgersi e di ritornare alia battaglia." 
 
 ' J Magyar Nemzet TSrt/nete Szt. ht'vdnig, p. 24.1 sqq. Budapest, 1900. 
 
 ' De facto Ungariae Magnae a Fratre Ricardo in'ventae, Endlicher, p. 252. 
 
6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 " whose language was completely Magyar," who knew 
 that the Magyars were of like origin with themselves, 
 and that they had gone westward, but were ignorant of 
 their actual habitation. Vamb^ry^ does not believe in 
 Brother Julian's description, and says that it is full of 
 geographical inaccuracies ; but it is curious that the 
 Chronicon Dubnicense^ of 1358 describes Scythia as 
 divided into three Icingdoms, one of which is Bascardia ; 
 that Arab writers refer to the Magyars as Badzsgerd ; 
 and that when in 1848 Cossacks from the Ural came to 
 Hungary they invariably called the Hungarians Bashkirs.^ 
 It need scarcely be said that the early chronicles, though 
 to some extent confirmed by outside sources of informa- 
 tion, have no claim to be considered as containing more 
 than a grain or two of historical truth* ; they are, however, 
 interesting as showing the views entertained by the 
 Hungarians of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as to 
 their origin and early history, and the nature of the family 
 legends from which such opinions were undoubtedly derived. 
 As regards the early organisation of the tribes, we are 
 perhaps on more solid ground, as our information is 
 derived from a period when feudalism was firmly 
 established in Europe, and if our authorities had merely 
 drawn on their imagination for a description of the 
 primitive political system of the Magyars, it is not likely 
 that they would have given us a picture so widely diiFerent 
 from that presented by the contemporary Institutions of 
 other countries. It appears that the nation consisted of 
 
 ' A Magyarok Eredete, p. 112. See also A TirSk Faj, p. 610 sqq. 
 
 2 Ed. F16ri4n, p. 9. 
 
 3 Marczali, "A Vez^rek Kora," in A Mag. Nem. T'irt. i. p. 34, citing Reclus, 
 Giografhie Uni'Virselle. Count Eugene Zichy, as the result of his travels and 
 investigations in the Caucasus, Siberia, the desert of Gobi, and elsevfhere, 
 believes that the Magyars originally came from North China and settled near 
 the Volga and the Caspian in the second or third century a.d. ; also that they 
 kept quite distinct, ethnically, from Turks and Finns, but that they were 
 undoubtedly influenced by the customs and language of both races. 
 
 ^ See Hunfalvy Pdl., Magyanrszdg Etknographidja, Budapest, 1876, 283. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 7 
 
 seven tribes, the names of which have been preserved by 
 the Emperor Constantine,^ and one hundred and eight 
 families ; ^ the tribes, each under its own voy vode,^ or 
 military leader, being separate entities for all purposes, 
 united only by the tie of common origin and language, 
 and by the necessity of holding together for attack and 
 defence, and " having no fortified camps like the Romans, 
 but living as scattered tribes and families for grazing 
 purposes until the day of battle." * There was no king 
 or archon ; but apparently at an early date two common 
 officials were elected by the tribes in general meeting — 
 the kadar^ or karkhasz,® and the gyula or gytilasz" — 
 both judicial officers, and identical with the Rectors referred 
 to by the anonymous scribe as having been appointed for 
 the purpose of " settling the disputes of litigants in accord- 
 ance with customary law." From their decisions an appeal 
 lay to the general assembly of the tribes,® which could not 
 only revoke an unsatisfactory decision or excessive sentence, 
 but " couldi depose the erring Rector and captains at 
 pleasure " ; from which perhaps we may conclude that 
 Constantine, who states that the gytllasz was superior to 
 the karkhasz, was mistaken in supposing that there were 
 two judges ; for gytllasz looks suspiciously like gyules, the 
 Hungarian word for the general meeting to which, as we 
 have seen, an appeal lay. Verboczy,'^ the codifier of the 
 Magyar customary law (15 14), says that "in old days, 
 while the Hungarians still lived under tribal organisation, 
 the exclusive power of making laws and statutes was 
 vested in the people," which, according to a chronicle® 
 already quoted, was summoned together by a herald 
 
 1 De Administrando Imperio, ch. xl., one of them Mey^pij, query Magyar ; 
 Hungarian writers of the seventeenth century use the form Magyari for 
 Magyar. Marczali, "A Vezirek Kora," in A Mag. Nem. tirt. i. 46 n. 
 
 2 K£zai, Endlicher, p. 88. ' De Admin. Imp. ch. xxxviii. 
 
 * Leo, ch. lii. ^ Chronicon Dubniceme, a.d. 1358, ed. F16ri4n, p. 9. 
 
 ' De Admin. Imp.ch. xl. 
 
 '' Tripartitum opus juris inditi regni Hungariae, ii. 3. 
 
8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 crying, " Hear the voice of God and of the entire com- 
 munity. Every man is to appear armed in such and such 
 a place, and punctually at such and such an hour, to hear 
 the commands and the considered will of the people " ; 
 and he who failed to obey the summons without valid 
 reason was cut in two, or sent on a forlorn hope (ire in 
 desperatas causas), or reduced to slavery. 
 
 When the great Vestward migration was decided upon 
 in or about the year 890, necessitating a closer union and 
 unity of leadership, the tribes under their seven captains 
 held a general meeting at EtelkOz (i.e. the parts near the 
 Etel or Volga), elected ArpAd, son of Almos, their chief, 
 and arrived at a compact ^ which, if in fact made, may be 
 looked upon as the foundation of the Hungarian Constitu- 
 tion. It was resolved : 
 
 (i) That so long as those present or their descendants 
 should live, their chief should always be chosen 
 from the family of Arpad. 
 
 (ii) That whatever property their united efforts might 
 obtain, no one of them should be excluded from 
 participation therein. 
 
 (iii) That as they had freely chosen Arp4d as their 
 
 chief, neither they nor their descendants shoidd 
 
 ever be excluded from the king's council, or 
 
 deprived of their right to share in the govern- 
 
 ' ment of the country.^ 
 
 (iv) That if any of their descendants should be 
 unfaithful to the chief, and stir up strife between 
 him and his relations, the offender's blood should 
 be shed, even as blood was shed in the ceremony 
 of taking the oath of fidelity to Arpid. 
 
 1 Anonymus, Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 7. The 6th clause is added by 
 Michael Horvdth, Magyarorszdg ISrtinelme (revised edition, Pest, 1863) i. 
 21, «., on the doubtful authority of the Szekler Chronicle. 
 
 ^ This is Horvdth's translation, perhaps hardly justified by the original, 
 " nunquam a concilio ducis et honore regni privarentur." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 9 
 
 (v) That if Arpkd or any successor should break the 
 conditions of the compact, he should be for ever 
 accursed, 
 (vi) That he who refused to attend the meetings of 
 the tribes should be cut in twain. 
 
 "With regard to the controversy as to the authenticity 
 of this document, it should be remarked that though the 
 original does not exist, there is a copy extant which was 
 made in the latter half of the thirteenth century, and that 
 it contains a balder, more unadorned statement than 
 might be expected from the pen of one disposed to glorify 
 the past and exaggerate the importance of the early 
 political institutions of his nation. Further, there is 
 its non-feudal character, the absence of any reference 
 to a graduated hierarchy, which one might expect to find 
 in the work of a mediaeval forger. Be that as it may, 
 the fact is unquestionable that members of Arpdd's family 
 ruled in Hungary for over four hundred years ; that 
 the institution of the congregation of the tribes summoned 
 for judicial purposes and for the decision of all matters 
 of general interest, if not for the discharge of true 
 legislative functions, existed long before the exodus fi-om 
 Lebedia, and continued till the establishment of monarchy 
 by St. Stephen. 
 
 When Arpdd and the seven tribal captains, each at the 
 head of 30,750 men,^ to whom an eighth tribe of Bolgars 
 or Kuns attached themselves,^ set out in quest of their 
 new home, the northern part of the old province of 
 Pannonia was occupied by the descendants of King 
 Svatopluk, the founder of the great Moravian kingdom, 
 while ^the district between the Tisza and the Danube and 
 the mountains of Transylvania were inhabited by sparse 
 bands of nomad Gepidae, Avars, and mixed Slav tribes,* 
 
 1 Petri Ransani Epitome, Chronica minora, ed. F16riin, p. 179. 
 2 Pauler, o.c. p. 14. 
 s Csuday, Die Geschichte der Ungam, 2nd ed. p. 36. 
 
10 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 incapable of serious resistance to a relentless invader. How 
 far the occupation was effected by force of arms, and how 
 far it amounted to no more than the seizure of vacant dis- 
 tricts is unknown ; in any case, by the end of the ninth 
 century the Magyars were firmly established, roughly 
 within the limits of their present territory. Tradition^ 
 says that as soon as the occupation was effective Arpdd 
 held a general meeting of the tribes at Pusztaszer, 
 near the modern Szegedin, " and there he and his nobles 
 arranged all the customary laws of the kingdom, and the 
 rights thereof, and the conditions of obedience to the 
 chief and his officials, and what punishment should be 
 apportioned to each crime committed. There also the 
 chief made grants of land, together with all the inhabitants 
 thereof, to the nobles who accompanied him, and the place 
 where all these matters were arranged the Hungarians 
 called Scerii, for there the whole business of the kingdom 
 was settled." ^ This is, at all events in one respect, inaccu- 
 rate, for it is certain that there was no private ownership 
 before St. Stephen's time, all land belonging to the tribe 
 and reverting to it on the death of the temporary occupant. 
 Further, it is obviously improbable that any cut-and-dried 
 organisation or system of laws was arrived at, offhand, by 
 a predatory race, which, for a century after its appearance 
 west of the Carpathians, was occupied in making itself a 
 terror to all central and western Europe. Its first object 
 of attack was Moravia, of which " it entirely extirpated 
 the inhabitants^ in 892," and between that date and 955, 
 when an end was put to their incursions by the battle of 
 Augsburg, the Magyars swarmed across Germany, the 
 north of Italy, Provence, Burgundy, Aquitaine, and the 
 Lowlands. It is known that fortified camps were 
 established in numerous districts, the governorship of 
 
 1 Anonymus, ch. xl. 
 
 2 " Scerii, Puszta-szer, szerz6dni," to make a compact. 
 
 5 Constantine, De Admin. Imp. ch. xli. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION ii 
 
 which was hereditary till monarchy was established, and 
 it is possible that the anonymous writer, in speaking of 
 grants of land, referred to the forts and to the land 
 adjacent thereto enjoyed by the governors in virtue oi 
 their office. Beyond such organisation for purposes of 
 defence, it is improbable that any great alteration was 
 made in the system, or want of system, which had existed 
 in the old home, and in fact continued unchanged for a 
 century or more in Transylvania.-^ Chiefs of the house 
 of Arpdd continued to be elected, and the kadar, karkhasz, 
 or karkhan, to perform his judicial functions,^ until, with 
 the cessation of warlike enterprises and the consequent 
 slackening of the loose ties which bound the tribes 
 together, the population scattered, and it became impos- 
 sible for a single judge to perform his duties effectively. 
 The only court of appeal and political authority was the 
 nation in arms, which no doubt found justice and pre- 
 ponderance of logic to be on the side of the party whose 
 supporters shouted loudest and presented the more 
 threatening appearance. 
 
 With the introduction of Christianity the picture 
 changes. St. Stephen is generally credited with having 
 effected the conversion of his people, but it is a mistake 
 to suppose that he had only to say the word to induce 
 the acceptance of the new doctrines. On the contrary, 
 conversion was a slow and, to many of the converts, a 
 painful process. Bishop Piligrin, of.Passau, is inclined to 
 claim, in his letter of 974 to Benedict VI.,^ the credit for 
 having converted the barbarians ; but his emissaries, by 
 their own showing, baptized no more than five thousand 
 converts, and G6za, the father of St. Stephen, " the first 
 of the Hungarians to believe in Christ," * was probably a 
 
 1 Herczegh, Magyar JopdrMnet, p. 102, 9. 
 
 2 Pauler, o.c. p. 25. The third law of St. Ladislaus, cl. 2, A.D. 1092, 
 mentions a judge, " Sarchas nomine " ? Karkhasz. 
 
 ^ Endlicher, Monumenta, p. 131 sqq. 
 
 * Petri Ransani Epitome, Chronica minora, p. 181. 
 
12 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 more efFective missionary, as he did not hesitate to have 
 recourse " armorum terroribus," ^ and many noble 
 Hungarians, " baptismum fidemque respuentes," were 
 reduced to a menial position.* Seventy years later King 
 Bdia summoned to his council two representatives, 
 " possessed of the gift of eloquence," * from every village, 
 who proceeded to justify their reputation by the form in 
 which they couched, their request that they might be 
 allowed to revert to their pagan habits. " Let us stone 
 the bishops, eviscerate the priests, throttle the acolytes, 
 hang the tithe collectors, demolish the churches, and 
 break the bells." * B61a asked for four days in which to 
 consider the matter, and while the first representatives of 
 the elective principle in Hungary sang songs abusive of 
 the faith, to the great satisfaction of the common people,^ 
 collected a large force which dispersed the demonstrators, 
 and put an end to the last open protest of dny importance 
 against compulsory conversion. 
 
 Compulsion was, no doubt, fully justified by considera- 
 tions of expedience. Stephen was aware that there could 
 be no future for Hungary unless it joined the family of 
 Christian nations — an alien and pagan race would always be 
 fair game for Christian, and especially for German, aggres- 
 sion. Christian Europe was purely monarchical, and the 
 first king of Hungary could expect no fixity of tenure 
 unless he qualified himself for alliances, matrimonial and 
 otherwise, with established reigning houses by the adop- 
 tion of the current religion. The opposition came from 
 those who identified Christianity with foreign interference 
 of Pope or Emperor, implying the loss of national indi- 
 viduality, if not of independence, and disliked the idea of 
 opening the door to immigrants, bearers of western civilisa- 
 
 ^ Chronicon Dubniceme, p. 34. 
 
 2 " Ad turpia servitia sunt detrusi " ; see also Bonfini, Rerum Hungaricarum 
 Decades, Leipzig, 1771. Dec. ii. bk. i. (ist edition, 1568). 
 
 ' " Facundiam habentes," Chron. Dub. p. 70. * Ibid. p. 72. 
 
 5 Horvith, Magyaronzdg TSrt^nelme, i. 176. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 13 
 
 tion whom Stephen was anxious to encourage.^ It was 
 fortunate for Hungary that both Pope and Emperor were 
 so fully occupied during the eleventh century — the one 
 with his claim to the disposal of the imperial crown, the 
 other with his desire to control the election to the Holy 
 See — that neither had time to turn his full attention to 
 the new Magyar kingdom, which thus was enabled to 
 consolidate and establish itself on a firm basis. Stephen's 
 first step was to secure himself from the interference of 
 German bishops, who claimed ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 over his kingdom, which nominally formed part of the 
 dioceses of Passau and Salzburg, and from that of the 
 Holy Roman Empire, the emperor of which considered 
 himself the feudal head of Europe, and as such the sole- 
 dispenser of royal titles. This he did by applying to 
 Pope Sylvester for sanction for the assumption of the. 
 crown of Hungary, who, glad of the opportunity of 
 preventing the royal convert and his subjects from joining 
 the Eastern Church, treated him with exceptional con- 
 sideration, granted his request, confirmed him in his title, 
 and, declaring that Stephen was a very apostle for having 
 turned so many souls to Christ, gave him authority to- 
 have the cross borne before him as a symbol of apostolic 
 rank.^ Thus fortified, Stephen was able to set about the 
 consolidation of his kingdom without fear of foreign inter- 
 
 ' " In hospitibus et adventitiis tanta inest utilitas . . . diversas linguas et 
 consuetudines diversaque documenta et arma secum ducunt quas omnia regiam 
 ornant et magnificant aulam . . . unius linguse uniusque moris regnum im- 
 becille et fragile est." — St. Stephen's " Institutio Morum," written for his son's 
 benefit, § 6, in Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, p. 65. 
 
 2 Bishop Hartvig, " Vita S. Stephani Regis," twelfth century, in Endlicher's 
 Monumenta, p. 173. The authenticity of Sylvester's letter has been disputed, 
 but the fact remains that every king and one queen of Hungary has been 
 styled " Apostolic Majesty." Fessler, Geschichte der Ungarn, calls it a " Kunst- 
 werk des XVII. Jahrhunderts." See Szalay, Magyarorszdg T'ortinete, Leipzig, 
 1852, i. 71, iqq. Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, igo6 ed. p. 199 «., says, 
 "Apostolic Majesty was the proper title of the King of Hungary. The 
 Austrian Court has recently re'vi'ved it." It would be as correct to say that the 
 Mikado has recently revived the imperial Chinese title of Son of Heaven. 
 
14 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ference. A lawgiver and organiser was wanted, not a 
 military leader as in the past, and his first act was to 
 destroy as far as possible the independent existence of 
 the tribes, and to fuse them into a nation by encouraging 
 the development of private ownership of land,^ and by 
 appointing his own officials to the governorship of the 
 fortified places, and placing the foreign, non-Magyar, popu- 
 lation directly undeP their control. The tribal divisions 
 were maintained for military purposes only, and the old 
 idea bf the sovereignty of the people in general meeting 
 assembled was thrown into the shade, though the recol- 
 lection of the tribal congregations of old never died, and 
 though the necessity of the people's assent to legislation 
 was always recognised.^ 
 
 Hungarian writers have claimed that the institution of 
 the general meeting was at all times looked upon as 
 possessing an authority equal to that of the King, but as will 
 appear hereafter the assertion can hardly be justified. The 
 people divested itself of the greater portion of its sovereign 
 rights in favour of the monarch, — the personification of 
 national unity, — retaining only the guarantee affbrded by 
 the elective nature of the monarchy, the principle that he 
 whom the popular will had raised to the throne could be 
 deposed by the same agency, and the fact that a nation 
 in arms could always get the better of a would-be tyrant 
 in the days which preceded the invention of gunpowder 
 and the introduction of the professional element in warfare. 
 The idea of the divine right of kings never existed at any 
 period of Hungarian history ; and if at any time the King 
 arrogated any right not specifically conferred by law, the 
 presumption was always, and, be it remembered, still is, 
 against the validity of the claim. Theoretically, the owner- 
 ship of all land was vested in the King, who consequently 
 
 1 St. Stephen's Laws, bk. ii. 3. 
 
 2 Verboczy, Jus 'Tripartitum, ii. 3, cited by law xviii. of 1635. Kmety, 
 A Magyar KSzJog Tankonyve, pp. xv. and 4, «., 3rd ed., Budapest, 1905. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 15 
 
 succeeded to the possession of all land escheated on con- 
 viction of treason, and to the estates of all persons dying 
 without male heirs.^ Practically, he was the owner of all 
 lands not otherwise definitely appropriated, the power to 
 make grants of which was one of the chief causes of the 
 firm establishment of the royal power and of its subsequent 
 decadence. Theoretically he was the sole source of justice, 
 and practically the sole source of legislation. The general 
 meetings of the nation In fact continued, but it is evident 
 that they were summoned from time to time for judicial 
 purposes only, or for the purpose of publishing^ the decrees 
 issued by the King on the petition,^ or with the consent of 
 the royal council, which consisted of his own nominees, 
 and never had any effective control till the end of the 
 thirteenth century.* All ofiicials were appointed by him, 
 and to him alone were they responsible. He was the 
 commander-in-chief, and could summon the nation to 
 arms ; but his power was limited by the fact that the 
 obligation to serve was confined to home defence,® and to 
 service under the personal leadership of the King.^ His 
 control was limited also as regards taxation ; for the reason 
 that taxes could be imposed only on foreign immigrants and 
 on the remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants. 
 
 The rest of the population may be divided into three 
 main classes : the bishops and other chief ecclesiastics, who, 
 in the early days of Christianity, naturally had a pre- 
 ponderant influence in the King's council ; the chief nobles 
 — the descendants of former heads of tribes and families — 
 from whom were selected the occupants of all official posts 
 not monopolised by the clergy ; and the mass of the 
 
 1 St. Stephen, ii. 26. 
 
 2 Law I. of St. Ladislaus, 1092, was passed "ram testimonio totius cleri at 
 populi." — Preamble. 
 
 5 St. Stephen's Laws, bk. ii. cl. 2. : "Consensimus petitioni totius senatus." 
 ■CI. XXV., "decernimus nostrorum primatum conventu"; but i. 6 says "decrevi 
 mus nostra regali potentia." * Law of 1298, cl. 23. 
 
 5 Golden Bull, cl. 7. « St. Stephen, ii. 43. 
 
1 6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 conquering race, all free and all noble, the lesser nobles or 
 " gentry " of a later date, theoretically on a footing of 
 absolute equality with the noblest, the richest, and the most 
 powerful. Naturally, as the result of the abolition of 
 collective ownership by the tribe, of the establishment of 
 private property, and of the exercise of the royal preroga- 
 tive of making grants of land to useful adherents, some 
 became richer, some poorer, and a landed aristocracy arose ; 
 but, nominally, no Magyar, unless deprived of his rights 
 of nobility for treason to King or country, or for conviction 
 of certain specified offences against the law, was either 
 superior or inferior to his neighbour.^ Every Magyar 
 freeman was liable to military service, under obligation to 
 attend the general meeting of the nation, and eligible for 
 any office of state. The Hungarian nobility was no privi- 
 leged caste, but was synonymous and co-extensive with the 
 whole Magyar nation ; and it is essential to a comprehension 
 of subsequent history that this fact should not be forgotten. 
 In the counties ^ into which the country was divided 
 by St. Stephen for the organisation of home defence, the 
 royal power was represented by the governors* of the 
 fortified towns, henceforth no longer hereditary officials, 
 but nominated by the King, who naturally could not 
 afford to run the risk of leaving the country's strong- 
 holds in the hands of ambitious and disaffected nobles. 
 The military forces at the disposal of the governor were 
 formed by poor nobles,* who received land from the King 
 in return for service in arms, the right to possession 
 descending from father to son, but conferring no claim to 
 the freehold, and being dependent on continuity of service. 
 The rest of the lands in the immediate vicinity of the 
 
 ' VerbSczy, Jus Tripartitum, i. 2, and law of 1351, cl. 11, "un4 et eidem. 
 libertate gratulentur." 
 
 2 Apparently forty-five at this period, Vienna Chronicle, ch. xlv. 
 
 5 Virispin, Comes Castri, Comes Parochiae or Provinciae. " Satrapa " in 
 the document recording the union of the Transylvanian nations in 1473. 
 
 * K^zai in Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 129. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 17 
 
 town was held of the King by non-noble freemen, the 
 descendants of such of the original inhabitants of the 
 country as had been left in possession of their holdings, 
 and had, possibly because they offered no resistance to the 
 conquerors, avoided reduction to slavery.^ These also 
 were liable to military service, and, in addition, paid over, 
 as a recognition of the dominium naturale of the King, half 
 the proceeds of the land, of which one-third went to the 
 governor and the remainder to the royal treasury. The 
 great majority of this class eventually received rights of 
 nobility, and so became freeholders merged in the Magyar 
 nation and liable to military service on the same conditions 
 as the rest of the nobles.^ The remainder, with the 
 development of the fortress and surrounding land into a 
 town in the proper sense of the word, either sank in course 
 of time into the general body of non-free peasants, or 
 acquired burgess rights,^ as did the artisan class — personally 
 free, but not land-owning, and the foreigners who settled 
 in the neighbourhood for the purpose of trade. Thanks 
 to the example of St. Stephen, who manumitted most 
 of his slaves, slavery as an institution soon began to 
 disappear, though it continued to exist to some extent 
 to the end of the thirteenth century,* and the majority of 
 non-free peasants received allotments from their former 
 owners in return for fixed payments and services, the 
 difference between them and the free peasants consisting 
 in the fact that the former were adscripti glebae, while the 
 latter could migrate as they pleased. From this class of 
 serfs sprang the great mass of the population, the misera 
 contribuens plebs, which bore part of the burden of military 
 service and nearly the whole of that of taxation, without 
 having any share in the political rights of the rest of 
 
 ' Timon, Magyar Alkotmdny is Jogtortinet, 3rd ed., Budapest, 1906, 129 sqq. 
 ^ Timon, o.c. p. 146. Whole communes were occasionally ennobled in 
 rpturn for exceptional services rendered to the State. 
 
 ' Herczegh, Magyar JogtSrtinet, Budapest, 1902, p. 70. 
 
 * Timon, o.c. p. 148. 
 
 VOL. I C 
 
1 8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the nation down to the abolition of class privileges in 
 1848. 
 
 The people must have been aware of its own inherent 
 weakness as aliens in a strange land, surrounded by nations 
 which considered it to be hardly human, and believed it 
 to be guilty of cannibalistic proclivities, or the transition 
 from socialistic republicanism to a monarchic regime would 
 not have been e^cted so easily. But the influence of 
 Christianity and the prestige which St. Stephen enjoyed as 
 Defender of the Faith gave him an authority which he 
 would never have possessed merely as the elected chief of 
 a notoriously undisciplined race. Hence the anxiety 
 manifested in his laws to guarantee the interests of the 
 Church, which, in return for his fostering care, encouraged 
 the monarchical idea, and propagated the legend of the 
 King's miraculous powers. Of the laws as they have 
 come down to us,^ the first book is almost entirely con- 
 cerned with Church matters, the position of the bishops, 
 their judicial powers with respect to matrimonial and 
 ecclesiastical offences, the observance of the Sabbath and 
 decent behaviour during divine service, and, what was no 
 doubt far more important to the clergy, who, it must be 
 observed, were members of the nobility in virtue of their 
 office, and as such were liable to military service, made the 
 payment of tithes compulsory, and sanctioned the exaction 
 of one-ninth instead of one-tenth of all produce in the 
 case of fraudulent concealment.^ The exceptional position 
 of the clergy was still further strengthened by the enact- 
 ment that no layman's evidence should be accepted against 
 a priestly wrongdoer* — a tacit encouragement to mis- 
 conduct which had its reward when the doctrines of the 
 Reformation found their way into Hungary. The second 
 . book deals with offences against the person and property, 
 
 1 Endlicher's Monument a, p. 310 sqq. 
 
 2 " Si quis decimam suam abscondit novem det," II. xviii. 
 
 ' "Testimonium laici adversus clericum nemo recipiat," I. iv. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 19 
 
 and the draconian severity of the penalties prescribed bears 
 testimony to the condition of the country — disorderly, no 
 doubt, but no worse than that which contemporary penal 
 legislation proves to have existed in other parts of Europe. 
 That there were other books is shown by frequent 
 references in later laws to constitutional matters of which 
 no trace remains In the existing series. The Golden 
 Bull,^ for example, and the law of B61a IV.^ refer to the 
 liberty granted by the sainted King, and Horvath ' believes 
 that the lost books defined the composition and functions 
 of the King's council, and regulated the local government 
 of the counties. Hartvic * says that after his coronation 
 the King signed and published a decree in the nature of a 
 " permanent treaty " between himself and his people, which 
 looks like the prototype of the diploma inaugurale (or 
 document signed by every king before his coronation) of 
 a later date, and ordained that no one should be interfered 
 with " sine judicii examinatione " — an apparent anticipation 
 of the celebrated clause of the Golden Bull. Further, it 
 is known that he ordained that he and his successors 
 should periodically visit the county towns in company 
 with the bishops and chief nobles for judicial purposes, 
 and that, as he could not visit them all every year, each 
 county should elect two judges for the trial of minor 
 offences, from whom an appeal lay to the King's Bench, 
 Presumably all these matters formed the subject of legisla- 
 tion at the general meetings, or Diets as they are usually 
 styled, of which he is known to have held several at 
 Szdkesfeh^rvar, attended not only by the people at large, 
 but by the bishops, the chief officers of state, and the 
 governors of the fortified towns.^ 
 
 ' Preamble. 
 2 1267. 
 
 ' Magyarorszdg TSrtinelme, i. 128 sqq. See also Kovachich, festigia 
 Comitiorum apud Hungaros, Buda, 1790, i. 17 sqq. 
 
 * Vita S. Stefhani, ch. x. 
 
 * Kovachich, Vestigia Comitiorum, i. 30 sqq. 
 
20 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 More light is thrown on the composition of these 
 popular assemblies by the preamble of the first series of 
 1092. the laws of St. Ladislaus,-' which, though they deal with 
 secular as well as religious matters, are stated to have been 
 passed by the " Holy Synod under the presidency of his 
 most Christian Majesty, with all bishops and abbots of 
 the kingdom, and, all optimates (members of the royal 
 council and other great officers), and with the testimonium 
 of the whole clergy and people." ^ The preamble to the 
 second series shows the existence of a true legislative 
 assembly acting without special reference to the King, In 
 fact in his absence : " We, the whole body of the chief 
 nobles {optimates) of the Pannonian kingdom, held a 
 meeting on the Holy HiU in the time of the most pious 
 King Ladislaus, and took counsel as to how it might be 
 possible to prevent the intentions of evil men and advance 
 the interests of the nation, and ordained as follows."^ The 
 third series begins simply with the words, "This they 
 decreed and this they ordained," and the three books 
 taken together show clearly that the days of independent 
 royal decrees issued without reference to the wishes of 
 the nation, constitutionally expressed, were over. On the 
 other hand, they contain evidence of the confirmation of the 
 power of the King as the paramount judicial authority, not 
 only in lay but in ecclesiastical causes,* and of his control 
 of the executive. The bishops and lords-lieutenant of 
 the counties govern the country in his name, and he 
 punishes and rewards them according to their deserts. 
 
 Ladislaus may claim to have strengthened, by the laws 
 which bear his name, the foundations laid by St. Stephen 
 
 1 Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 326 sqq. 
 
 2 Kovachich, o.c. i. 60. 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
 * Ladislaus's charter, given to the monastery of Somogy, "omnium 
 bonorum consensu (the nobles so described sometimes) regalis est prohibitio 
 ne quis mortalium praeter ipsum regem super res ecclesiae judicare praesumat." 
 See Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, p. 100 sjq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 21 
 
 of the royal power, of the Church, and of the local govern- 
 ment of the counties ; to have improved the administration 
 of justice and enhanced the sanctity of private property. 
 That the Diet was not more frequently summoned is 
 probably due to the fact that the relations of society were 
 too little complicated to require much legislative regulation. 
 A few penal laws for the discouragement of disorder, and 
 a few regulations for the maintenance of the dignity of 
 the Church, its moral and material welfare, to purge it of 
 undesirables, and compel the reluctant to attend, and pay 
 for, its ministrations, sufficed for the needs of a country 
 the inhabitants of which had but recently abandoned the 
 nomad habits of their forefathers.-' 
 
 Like all previous legislation the laws of King Coloman, noo. 
 which, it should be noticed, are expressly stated to have 
 been enacted with the consent of the King and of the 
 entire nation, are chiefly concerned with the confirmation 
 and extension of ecclesiastical privileges. Priests are to 
 be subject to the control of none but their bishops (§§ 5, 
 6, 65), to whom is also given judicial authority over 
 laymen in conjunction with a mixed tribunal of lords- 
 lieutenant and other lay officials, in a court to be held 
 twice a year for the benefit of those who, on account of 
 distance or want of means, are unable to apply for justice 
 directly to the King, and have reason to complain of the 
 action of the local authorities. A strict system of 
 subordination of each rank of ecclesiastics to its immediate 
 superior in the hierarchy is established — the highest order 
 
 ' Ecclesiastical legislation of the period deals, inter alia, with breaking the 
 Sabbath and talking in church ; penalty : prompt flogging in the porch and 
 compulsory head-shaving (St. Stephen, bk. i.). Refusal to attend church, 
 refusal to pay tithes, bigamy of priests (i.e. remarriage, Szalay, o.c. i. 187), 
 bishops' refusal to abstain from unlawful cohabitation (St. Ladislaus, bk. i.). 
 " Ut ydiote (illiterates) presbiteri non ordinentur ; qui vero ordinati sunt discant 
 aut deponantur." "Ut canonici in claustro et canonici in curia literatorie 
 loquantur." — Decree of the Synod of Esztergom, cl. 5, 6 ; Endlicher's Monumenta, 
 p. 351. N.B. — The first mention of the official use of Latin in the law courts, 
 of which so much is heard later. 
 
22 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 being responsible to the King alone, whose independence 
 of the Pope is guaranteed by insistence on the royal right 
 of investiture, by the exclusion of papal legates from the 
 kingdom unless their admission is expressly authorised by 
 the King, without whose knowledge and consent all com- 
 munication with the papal see is absolutely forbidden. 
 That Hungary of the period was not looked upon with 
 a particularly favourable eye by foreign ecclesiastics may 
 be concluded from the unflattering account given by Otto, 
 Bishop of Freising,^ who passed through the country on 
 his way to the Crusade, and lays claim to an omniscience 
 Worthy of a tourist of a later period. " Their language, 
 manners, and customs are barbarous and brutal, so much 
 so that Fortune is to be blamed, or rather the tolerance 
 of the Almighty is to be marvelled at, for having handed 
 over such a delightful country to such monsters — I cannot 
 call them human beings. In one respect they imitate the 
 intelligence of the Greeks, namely, that they never 
 undertake any business of importance without long and 
 repeated discussion .... the nobles bring their own 
 chairs to the King's court, and there they meet and deal 
 with and discuss the affairs of State, and they do the 
 same in their own houses in the cold winter days. They 
 have such reverence for their King that they think it 
 unlawful, not only to annoy him by open contradiction, but 
 even to give vent to whispered abuse behind his back." 
 
 The period of obsequiousness described by the bishop 
 did not last long, if it ever, in fact, existed. "Xhe strong 
 monarchy founded by Stephen and buttressed by Ladislaus 
 soon began to show signs of decay, caused by the rapid 
 growth of a powerful landed aristocracy, both lay and 
 ecclesiastical, due to excessive grants of land, privileges, 
 and exemptions, made by weak kings to secure the 
 support of the influential. The grantees soon manifested 
 a tendency to emancipate themselves from the King's 
 
 ^ Gesta Frederici Imperatoris, i. ch. xxxi. circa 1150. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 23 
 
 authority, to become great feudal lords, and to increase 
 their power and wealth at the expense of the lesser nobles. 
 Thus began the conflict which gave rise to the Golden 
 Bull, and runs through the whole of Hungarian history 
 down to the importation of the Habsburg dynasty. In 
 order to preserve the independence of the mass of the 
 nation and the authority of the Crown, it became necessary 
 to protect the King from himself, rather than to protect 
 the nation from royal encroachment on the popular 
 liberties. Andrew the Second was the first King of 
 Hungary to do what all others, with one exception, have 
 since done — to take a solemn oath on his coronation to 1205. 
 observe and respect the rights and privileges of the people.^ 
 His own he could not maintain ; and thus was brought 
 about the alliance between King and people which finds 
 its expression in the Golden Bull,^ the main object of 
 which was to preserve the authority of the Crown — the 
 chief defence of the people's rights against oligarchical 
 interference. Herein lies the difFerence between the 
 Golden Bull and Magna Charta, its elder by five years, 
 in which some have sought to find its source of inspiration.^ 
 In the Hungary of the period no defence was necessary 
 against royal encroachment or attempted autocracy ; " in 
 such a state of society as that which existed all over 
 Europe during the Middle Ages very slight checks sufficed 
 to keep the sovereign in order. His means of corruption 
 and intimidation were very scanty. He had little money, 
 little patronage, no military establishment. His armies 
 resembled juries. They were drawn out of the mass of 
 the people ; they soon returned to it again, and the 
 character which was habitual prevailed over that which 
 was occasional. . . . Such a military force as this was a 
 far stronger restraint on the royal power than any legis- 
 
 1 Herczegh, Magyar Jog&rtinet, p. 59. 
 
 ^ So called from the aurea bulla, or gold seal, dependent from it. 
 
 ' E.g. Szalay. 
 
24 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 lative assembly. The army, now the most formidable 
 instrument of executive power, was then the most formid- 
 able check on that power, . . . the legal check was 
 secondary to that which the nation held in its own hands, 
 ... the guarantee is the opinion of a community of which 
 every individual is a soldier. There were representative 
 assemblies, but it was not necessary that those assemblies 
 should meet very frequently, that they should interfere 
 with the operations of the executive government, that 
 they should watch with jealousy and resent with prompt 
 indignation every violation of the laws which the sovereign 
 might commit. They were so strong that they might 
 safely be careless. He was so feeble that he might safely 
 be suffered to encroach. If he ventured too far, chastise- 
 ment and ruin were at hand. In fact the people generally 
 suffered more from his weakness than from his authority. 
 The tyranny of wealthy and powerful subjects was the 
 characteristic evU of the timeg." ^ 
 
 The King's unfortunate marriage with Gertrude of 
 Meran led to the importation of foreign favourites whose 
 influence was intolerable in the eyes of the native noble. 
 Bishop Berthold, the Queen's brother, a man of notori- 
 ously evil life, and other disreputable priests, showed a 
 growing inclination to dispute the royal authority, to 
 regard themselves as owing allegiance to none but the 
 Pope, and to take advantage of the King's absence to 
 make themselves masters of secular property. The office 
 of the lords -lieutenant had again become hereditary, 
 and, instead of suppressing the growing oligarchy, the 
 12 1 9. King tried to purchase its support by perpetuating the 
 results of usurpation, by issuing an edict which made all 
 previous grants of lands and titles hereditary and irrevoc- 
 able. The Diet had not been summoned for years. The 
 more complete the independence, financial and military, 
 of the great nobles, the less they cared for the constitu- 
 
 1 Hallam's Constitutional History, i. 154 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 25 
 
 tional rights of the nation. A number of regna in regno 
 were formed. Local tyrants imposed their own taxes, 
 issued their own debased coinage, exacted customs dues 
 from foreign traders, and so paralysed the development 
 of the country. Officials originally intended for the 
 maintenance of the royal authority did most to under- 
 mine it. The King was so far stripped of the possessions 
 which should have provided the funds necessary for 
 national defence that he had to look for new sources of 
 income. Fresh taxes were imposed ; octroi duties were 
 introduced ; the price of salt, a royal monopoly, was 
 raised ; the currency was continually altered to the dis- 
 advantage of the holder ; ^ and the collection of revenue 
 was entrusted to Jews and other undesirables who made 
 the position of the tax-payer intolerable. The King was 
 even reduced to making excessive use of his " right of 
 descent," i.e. of staying with nobles at their expense, a 
 relic of old days when the Court had no fixed habitation, 
 but moved about from place to place and judicial per- 
 ambulations were a necessary institution. Signs of a daily 
 intensified discontent became more and more manifest ; 
 local risings against petty tyrants proved the country to be 
 on the eve of a general upheaval. Appealed to on a case 
 of conscience, Pope Honorius advised the King that it 
 was not only his right but his duty to revoke his un- 
 constitutional edict at the expense of his oath, and to 
 maintain the royal property and privileges intact.^ En- 
 couraged by the papal casuistry, the Archbishop of 
 Esztergom, and other patriots, succeeded in stiiFening 
 the King's back, and inducing him to summon the Diet, 
 and to issue the decree which later ages agreed in regard- 
 ing as the fundamental guarantee of the liberties of the 
 nation, though no such importance appears to have been 
 
 ' Theodoric, Life of St. Elisabeth, quoted by Csuday, Geschichte, p. 235. 
 Three new coins were issued in return for four of equal value withdrawn from 
 circulation. 
 
 ^ Letter to the Bishop of Kalocsa, Mag. Nem. T'Srt. ii. 393, n. 
 
26 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 attached to it by contemporary authorities. The later 
 chronicles do no refer to it, neither is it mentioned by 
 Bonfini ; and the fact is that it failed in its purpose, and 
 practically was a dead letter till, three hundred years later, 
 the Jus Tripartitum of Verboczy gave it a posthumous 
 celebrity. 
 
 It is an entire mistake to suppose, as many apparently 
 do, that Hungary 'became a constitutional monarchy by 
 virtue of the Golden Bull. The Bull was, in the first 
 place, the charter of the liberties of the lesser nobles, that 
 is to say, of the mass of the nation — a confirmation or re- 
 affirmation, as clearly appears from the text, of existing 
 rights and of the old established principle of the equality 
 of all Magyar freemen. In the second place, it was 
 intended not to circumscribe the royal power, but to 
 strengthen and protect it against the effects of its own 
 feebleness ; to restore its former prestige, and revive the 
 authority which the encroachments of the oligarchy had 
 diminished. The essential difference between this docu- 
 ment and the Charter, which made King John exclaim, 
 "By God's teeth, I will not grant them liberties which 
 will make me a slave," is apparent ; but the points of 
 resemblance are equally striking ; and if Hallam's words 
 are true, that the Magna Charta is still the keystone of 
 English liberty, that all that has since been obtained is 
 little more than a confirmation or a commentary, and 
 that if every subsequent law were to be swept away there 
 would remain the bold features that distinguish a free 
 from a despotic monarchy, a similar eulogium may be 
 claimed for the Golden Bull. The document in question 
 is a true charter, granted by the King without reference 
 to the council, the prelates, or the nobles. It consists of 
 a preamble, which explains the circumstances of its origin, 
 and of thirty-one articles, of which the more important 
 are set out below.^ 
 
 ' For the fuU.text see Marcrali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 133 sjg. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 27 
 
 Whereas the liberties of the nobles [i.e. all freemen) and others,^ 
 as established by St. Stephen, have been diminished in many 
 respects by the power of certain of the Kings, sometimes for 
 the satisfaction of their anger, sometimes in consequence of their 
 lending ear to the false counsels of evil men, or of pursuers of 
 private gain ; and whereas the nobles have often urged and 
 entreated Us and Our royal predecessors to take in hand the 
 reform of the kingdom ; now therefore, as in duty bound, 
 desiring to satisfy their petition in all matters, more especially 
 inasmuch as no slight bitterness has often arisen between us 
 which should be avoided in order that the dignity of the Crown 
 may be more elFectually preserved ; and whereas the desired 
 object can be attained by none better than by the said nobles 
 themselves ; We hereby confirm unto them and to all other 
 Our subjects the liberties granted by the Royal Saint, and at 
 the same time, as regards other > matters pertaining to the reform 
 and welfare of the State, declare as follows : — 
 
 (i) That We bind Ourselves to hold a court ^ every year on the 
 feast of St. Stephen at Szdkesfeh^rvdr, unless prevented 
 by some diiScult matter or by sickness, and that if We 
 Ourselves are unable to be present. Our Palatine shall 
 be there without fail in Our stead to hear causes on 
 Our behalf, and that all nobles who so desire may 
 attend without let or hindrance. 
 
 (ii) It is Our will that neither Ourselves nor Our Successors 
 shall seize any noble, nor destroy him out of favour to 
 any powerful person, unless he shall first have been 
 summoned and convicted according to law.^ 
 
 (iii) That We will collect no tax and will exact no money 
 payments,* and will not visit, uninvited, the estates, 
 
 1 Foreigners, clause xix. 
 
 2 " Solemnizare." 
 
 ' Magna Charta, clause 39 : " No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or 
 disseised or outlawed or in any way destroyed . . . unless by the lawful 
 judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." 
 
 * "Liberos denarios" paid by non-noble freemen, in recognition of the 
 dominium naturale regis and by foreigners pro libertate. (Timon, o.c. p. 240, 
 and clause 80 of Coloman's Laws ; Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 370.) Clearly 
 "without consent of the Diet" is implied in the case of non-clerical nobles. 
 The tenants of the Church have, on the other hand, unconditional exemption. 
 Clause 14, Magna Charta, evidently recognises the King's right to scutage 
 and aids, but the assessment must be made by the general council. 
 
28 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 houses, or villages of the nobles; and that from the 
 Churches' folk we will collect no tax whatsoever. 
 
 (iv) If any noble shall die without male issue, his daughter 
 shaU obtain one-fourth of his possessions ; of the rest 
 he may dispose as he pleases. If death shall have 
 prevented his making such disposition, his near kinsmen 
 shall inherit ; but if he shall have no heirs whatever, his 
 property shall devolve on the King.^ 
 
 (vii) If the King shall wish to lead an army outside the 
 kingdom, the nobles are not bound to go with him 
 save at his expense, and shall not be tried by court- 
 martial (for refusing to go) on his return. But if a 
 foreign army shall come against the kingdom, all are 
 bound to go with him. But should We Ourselves 
 go in person with an army outside the kingdom, all 
 lords-lieutenant of counties, or others who receive 
 money from Us, are bound to accompany Us.^ 
 
 (viii) The Palatine may judge all our subjects without distinc- 
 tion, but he shall not determine the cause of any noble 
 involving capital punishment or forfeiture of property 
 without the King's cognisance, and he shall employ 
 no substitutes save one judge in his own court. 
 
 (ix) If foreigners, be it understood men of good standing, shall 
 come into the kingdom, no office shall be conferred on 
 them without the consent of the council. 
 
 (xii) Neither the wives of those who die a natural death, nor 
 of those condemned to death by legal sentence, nor of 
 those who fall in battle,* or have died in any other way, 
 shall be defrauded of their dowry.* 
 
 (xiv) If any lord-lieutenant shall not conduct himself in 
 accordance with the dignity of his office, or shall despoil 
 the people under his authority, he shall on conviction be 
 publicly degraded and stripped of his office, and shall 
 make restitution of that which he has extorted. 
 
 Clause xvi. forbids the granting of " whole counties " 
 {i.e. hereditary lord-lieutenancies), or of any other offices 
 
 1 I.e. no lord-lieutenant or other great noble has any feudal claim on the 
 property of the nobles. The King alone is general heir. 
 
 2 " Comitatus tenent vel pecuniam nostram," i.e. state officials. 
 
 3 « Duello," single combat (Horv4th), but query. 
 * Cf Magna Charta, clause 7. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 29 
 
 in perpetuity, in order to put an end to the attempted 
 establishment of a feudal aristocracy. Clause xx. provides 
 that tithes are to be paid in kind and not in money— a 
 necessary provision at a time when the value of coins was 
 continually changing, and a protection to the tithe-payer 
 in view of the scarcity of metal currency. Clause xxiii. 
 declares that new money shall not be issued at shorter 
 intervals than twelve months. Clause xxviii. enacts that 
 if any one has been legally condemned, no protection of 
 powerful persons shall avail to protect him from the 
 consequences ; ''■ and clause xix. that strangers,^ of what- 
 ever nationality, are to be left in enjoyment of the 
 privileges originally granted to them, and that Ishmaelites 
 (Mohammedans) and Jews are not to be employed in the 
 Treasury, or in the Mint, or in the collection of taxes, or 
 in the control of the salt-monopoly. 
 
 And that these Our concessions and commands may stand 
 and hold good at all times, during Our own life and the lives of 
 Our Successors for ever. We have ordered the same to be com- 
 mitted to writing in seven similar documents, of which the first 
 is to be sent to Our Lord the Pope for inscription in his registry ; 
 the second is to be kept by the Knights of St. John ; the third by 
 the Knights Templar ; the fourth by the King ; the fifth by the 
 chapter of Esztergom ; the sixth by the chapter of Kalocza, and 
 the seventh by the Palatine for the time being, to the end that 
 having this document ever before his eyes, he may never deviate 
 in any respect from the terms thereof, nor allow the King, or the 
 nobles, or any other person, to transgress the same, so that they 
 may rejoice in their liberty, and that the obedience due to the 
 Crown may not be withheld. We also ordain that if We, or any 
 of Our Successors, shall at any time contravene the terms of this 
 statute, the bishops and the higher and lower nobles of Our 
 realm, one and all, both present and future, shall by virtue thereof 
 have the uncontrolled right in perpetuity of resistance both by 
 word and deed without thereby incurring any charge of treason.^ 
 
 1 Magna Charta, 40 : " We will neither sell nor deny right or justice to 
 any man nor defer the same." ^ Ibid., clause 41. 
 
 3 The somewhat similar right of resistance conferred by cl. 61 of Magna 
 
30 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 This charter, which, it will be observed, not only 
 ratifies and confirms the ancient liberties of the kingdom, 
 while providing for the maintenance of the King's authority 
 — the best guarantee of the immemorial equality of all 
 free Magyars against the attempted establishment of a 
 feudal oligarchy — but guarantees the personal liberty of 
 the subject against the possibility of arbitrary punishment 
 or imprisonment,' introduces the principle of responsibility 
 for official action, and raises the Palatine to the position 
 of intermediary between the Crown and the people, of 
 guardian of the nation's rights, and of keeper of the King's 
 conscience. 
 
 There is, perhaps, a tendency to read between the lines 
 of early legislation, to discover in it a fuller meaning than 
 its authors intended it to convey, and possibly some com- 
 mentators have been inclined to exaggerate the importance 
 both of the Great Charter and of the Golden Bull ; but, 
 in any case, it is hardly too much to say that the latter 
 enactment recognises, by implication if not expressly, the 
 ancient popular right to regular legislative participation in 
 the government of the country, and to the control of taxa- 
 tion and of the executive. It was intended to be, and was 
 looked upon as a victory both for the Crown and for the 
 lesser nobles, and as such it was expressly ratified and con- 
 
 Charta has given rise to the idea (entertained by Ladislaus Szalay among others, 
 o.c. i. 294) that the Bull is derived from that document. A comparison of 
 the two and of the circumstances which gave rise to them should suffice to 
 refute the theory. Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 132, suggests that it was 
 inspired by the laws of Aragon with which Hungary was connected by the 
 marriage of King Emerich (Imre) with Constance, daughter of Alphonso II., 
 but BeOthy {Magyar Allamisdg FejlSd/se Kilzdelmei, i. 44) points out that the 
 charter of Aragon was considerably later in date. The " General Privilege of 
 Aragon " i» dated 1283, and the right of maintaining liberties by force of arms 
 was granted by charter of Alphonso III. in 1287, which also provided 
 that none should be proceeded against forcibly without previous judicial 
 sentence, also for a yearly meeting of the Cortes. (Hallam, Middle Ages, 
 ii. ch. iv.) But armed combinations, or " Hermandades," formed for the 
 purpose of resisting arbitrary encroachment on constitutional rights apparently 
 existed earlier. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 31 
 
 firmed as a whole by the coronation oath of all Habsburg 
 kings from Ferdinand to Leopold I. Temporarily, however, 
 it failed to attain the desired result. No more than nine 
 years later King Andrew was obliged to issue a supplement^ 1231. 
 to the Bull, apparently on the advice of the Pope, to whom 
 the clergy had complained that the great nobles were as 
 oppressive as ever, that laymen interfered in ecclesiastical 
 matters, and that Church property was taxed in spite of 
 the promised immunity. The second clause of the Golden 
 Bull is amplified by the enactment that henceforth not 
 only no noble, but no person whatever can be imprisoned 
 or destroyed without previous judicial process, thereby 
 putting the guarantee of personal liberty on an equality 
 with that provided by section 39 of Magna Charta, sections 
 30 and 3 1 ^ of which find their Hungarian counterpart in 
 clause 22 of the new law, which forbids the King to demand 
 unpaid labour of the peasants for the purpose of building 
 fortifications or for any other reason. The importation of 
 foreign favourites and the development of foreign influence 
 on affairs of state is further limited by an amendment of 
 the eleventh section of the Golden Bull, which provides 
 that no alien whatever shall have office or dignity conferred 
 on him unless he be naturalised — a clause consistently 
 neglected by later, Habsburg, kings of Hungary in spite 
 of their confirmatory oath. The popular control of the 
 executive is increased by section 11, which says that "if 
 the Palatine shall mismanage the King's affairs and those 
 of the kingdom, and we are prayed to appoint some more 
 suitable person according to our pleasure, we will assent to 
 the request." As regards all other matters, the law of 
 1 23 1 confirms and closely follows the wording of that of 
 
 * For the text see Kovachich, festigia Comitiorum, i. qZsqq., and Marczali, 
 Enchiridion Fontium, p. 134 sqq. 
 
 ^ " No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take horses or carts of 
 any freeman for carriage, except with the consent of the said freeman. Neither 
 shall we, nor our bailiffs, take any man's timber for our castles, or other uses, 
 save with the consent of the owner of the timber." 
 
32 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 1222, save in so far as the interests of the Church are 
 concerned — evident inspirer of this supplementary piece of 
 legislation. The guarantee of observance is no longer the 
 right of armed resistance, but excommunication by the 
 Archbishop of Esztergom in the event of infringement. 
 Ecclesiastical persons are exempted from the jurisdiction 
 of the Palatine,^ who is, at the same time, forbidden to hear 
 matrimonial causes and others of an ecclesiastical nature 
 (cl. 17), and a confirmatory document,^ handed by the 
 King to the Papal legate two years later, raises the excep- 
 tional position of the clergy to its highest point. Neither 
 the King nor his judges are henceforth to interfere in 
 matrimonial causes. Priests are to be subject to the judicial 
 control of none but the ecclesiastical authorities except in 
 matters concerning the title to land ; the amount of the 
 royal contribution to the funds of the Church is fixed ; and 
 the King renounces his right of episcopal investiture, thus 
 depriving himself of one of the chief privileges of the 
 legatio apostolica conferred on St. Stephen. 
 
 During the reign of Andrew's successor, Bela IV.,^ the 
 kingdom was torn and greatly weakened by the incursion 
 of the Tartars. In the latter part of B6Ia's life his son 
 Stephen rose against him ; in fact the country was 
 practically divided between the king and his two sons, 
 with the result that all three tried to obtain adherents by 
 promises of favour and grants of land, which so increased 
 the arrogance and attempted tyranny of the greater nobles 
 that the lesser ones were obliged once more to bring 
 pressure to bear on the King in order to force him to 
 summon the Diet and to remedy their grievances. The 
 1267. resultant legislation provided for the return of lands 
 usurped by great and tyrannical nobles, reaffirmed the 
 privilege of all freemen of immunity from taxation, unless 
 
 1 Altering clause 8 of the Golden Bull. 
 
 ' A Magyar Nemzet TSrUnete, ii. 432. 
 
 3 Albert. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 33 
 
 imposed with their consent expressed in general meeting,^ 
 and emphasised the fact that there was no obligation to 
 accompany the King on a war of foreign conquest, and 
 that those who might voluntarily accompany him did so 
 at his expense. " Likewise we have ordained that in 
 every year one of us {i.e. the King and his two sons) shall 
 go to Sz61cesfeh6rvar, on the feast of the Sainted King, 
 and that from every county^ two or three nobles shall 
 meet us there, in order that in their presence satisfaction 
 may be given to all complainants for all injuries and 
 wrongs inflicted no matter by whom " — a further recog- 
 nition of the popular control of the executive, of the 
 rights of the counties to take part in legislation,' and a 
 second indication of a tentative elective system. The 
 laws in question are expressed to be passed habito baronum 
 consilio et assensu ; and it is impossible to say with certainty 
 whether the phrase refers merely to the members of the 
 council, or implies, as has been suggested, the recognition 
 of an intermediate, not necessarily official, class between 
 the King and the general body of the people ; but the 
 presumption, based on the theoretical equality of all 
 nobles, is in favour of the former interpretation, as is the 
 preamble to the laws passed at the beginning of the reign 1291. 
 of Andrew III. with the consent of the bishops and 
 barons and " of all the nobles of the kingdom." 
 
 On his accession to the throne Andrew took the usual 
 coronation oath * to be a faithful son of the Church, to 
 do justice to all men, to keep the laws, to defend the 
 
 ^ That this is the correct interpretation of the clause is shown by the cir- 
 cumstance that the nobles had in fact recently paid taxes, as appears from the 
 diploma of privileges granted to the nobles of Szepes, which says that they are 
 to-pay taxes only if imposed on all nobles. — A Magyar Nemzet 'tirtinete, ii. 258. 
 
 2 The number of counties had now been increased to seventy-two. — Magistri 
 Rogerii Carmen Miserabile, § 10. 
 
 ' Clearly the meeting was for legislative and not for judicial purposes, as 
 otherwise the presence of the county representatives would be inexplicable at a 
 time when there was an organised judicature but no jury system. 
 
 * Magyar Nem. TSrt. ii. 576. 
 
 VOL. I D 
 
34 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 kingdom and its' territorial integrity, and to preserve the 
 rights of the people — thus guaranteeing " the most notable 
 and necessary liberties of the nation." ^ 
 1292. The laws passed the following year at the Diet of 
 Szdkesfehervar for the most part closely follow the word- 
 ing of the Golden Bull, but there are notable additions. 
 No foreigner is ,to be appointed to any office or allowed 
 to have a seat in the council (cl. 3), and the right of the 
 nobles to influence the appointment to the chief offices of 
 State is definitely recognised by the ninth clause, which 
 provides that appointments shall be made to the offices of 
 Palatine, Treasurer, Vice-Chancellor, and Chief Justice, on 
 the advice of the nobles, " in accordance with the ancient 
 custom of the kingdom " — apparently of the pre-Stephanic 
 days, as there is no reference to any such custom in 
 recorded legislation. All barons and nobles are to meet 
 in Diet once a year to deliberate on affairs of State, and to 
 inquire into the acts of the lords- lieutenant, "how 
 they have acted in their several counties and have preserved 
 the rights of the kingdom," and to punish or reward 
 them according to their deserts (cl. 25) — a considerable 
 advance in the direction of official responsibility to the 
 nation instead of to the King. Further, the rights of the 
 counties and the principle of judicial responsibility are 
 extended by a provision to the effect that whenever the 
 Palatine holds a court in any county the Lord-Lieutenant 
 and four subordinate judges are to be present, and if any 
 injustice be done or attempted are to inform the King 
 (cl. 14). The Lord-Lieutenant and four good men are 
 charged with the regulation and introduction of new 
 coinage in the counties (cl. 12), and the succeeding, 
 mutilated, section apparently prohibits local magnates 
 from making issues on their own account. For the 
 further protection of the people from the oppression of 
 
 1 Constitutions of Pest, 1298, preamble and cl. 33 in Endlicher's Monumenta, 
 p. 630. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 35 
 
 the great, it is provided (cl. 19) that all castles built to 
 the common injury (nests of robber barons and seats of 
 local autocrats) are to be destroyed ; and the laws of 1298 
 impose on the King and the Palatine the duty of seeing to 
 their demolition (cl. 9), and to the punishment, after 
 excommunication, of any great noble who compels freemen 
 to enter his service. 
 
 The Diet at which this law was passed was perhaps 
 the most important that had ever met in Hungary, as 
 here at all events we have an unmistakable, true legislative 
 assembly, which originated legislation without royal 
 interference, and subsequently, and for confirmation only, 
 submitted the results of its deliberations to the King, who 
 now takes his proper constitutional place, as the equal, as 
 regards legislative capacity, of the Diet, whereas hitherto 
 the initiative had rested solely with the Crown.^ Not 
 only was the King himself absent from the Diet, but all 
 office-holders dependent on him, and hereditary magnates, 
 were, as the preamble states, expressly excluded. For the 
 purpose of checking the threatening growth of a feudal 
 oligarchy, the law allows the King to obtain armed 
 assistance from abroad if he is unable to put down 
 insurgent nobles with his own unaided forces (cl. 6), and 
 to prevent the establishment of a landed aristocracy it is 
 decreed that, in the event of any noble being forced by 
 pecuniary difficulties to sell his land, his brothers, or other 
 relations, shall have a right of pre-emption. Of far 
 greater importance is the twenty -third clause, which 
 contains the germ of the principle which, owing to the 
 importation of a foreign dynasty, did not attain its natural 
 development till a much later period, that no royal order 
 is valid without the counter-signature of a responsible 
 Minister. It is enacted that two bishops and two paid 
 nobles, elected representatives of the nation,^ changing 
 
 ' See Kmety, A Magyar KSzJog TaniSnyve, 3rd ed. p. xv. jyy. 
 2 " Totidemque et quasi omnes nobiles." 
 
36 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 every three months, shall be in constant attendance on the 
 King, whose acts as regards the conferment of dignities 
 and offices, " and other matters of greater importance," 
 shall be void and of no effect without the consent 
 previously obtained of these temporary ministers a latere 
 — a notable addition to the guarantees of popular control 
 over legislature and executive, a parallel to which did not 
 exist in contemporary England. 
 1301. On the death of Andrew III. the main line of the 
 house of Arpdd became extinct, and the nation's unre- 
 stricted right of election to the vacant throne, which had 
 been limited by the compact of EtelkOz, revived. Though 
 in fact the principle of hereditary succession had generally 
 obtained, the right of a son to succeed to his father had 
 never been Actually recognised, and the people were at 
 all times entitled to select the most suitable member of 
 the Arpad family. For example, Andrew I. was succeeded, 
 not by his son, but by his brother B61a ( 1 06 1 ) ; and 
 Stephen II. was elected to the throne to the exclusion of 
 his predecessor's son (11 14). Thenceforward the right 
 of primogeniture was recognised in fact, though in theory 
 the elective principle was maintained as rigorously as ever,^ 
 and the taking of a satisfactory oath ^ to maintain the 
 rights and liberties of the people continued to be an 
 essential preliminary to coronation.* 
 
 1 It was the same in England in Saxon times. Stubbs, Constitutional 
 History, i. ch. vi. 
 
 2 In any case from the time of Andrew II. See the letter of Pope Gregory 
 IX. in Kovachich, Festi^a Comitiorum, p. 82, and probably earlier. Timon, 
 Magyar Alkotmdny is Jogtirtinet, p. 105, n., quotes Feh^r, Codex Diplomaticus, 
 ii. p. 508, showing that Ladislaus IV., 1279, i° taking the oath to the 
 constitution was following an ancient precedent, "nee non omnia alia et 
 singula quae nostri progeni tores in sua consueverunt coronatione jurare." 
 
 3 "Though from the twelfth century the principle of hereditary succession 
 to the throne superseded in Aragon as well as Castile the original right of 
 choosing a sovereign within the royal family, it was still founded on one more 
 sacred and fundamental, that of compact. No king of Aragon was entitled 
 to assume that name until he had taken a coronation oath to observe the laws 
 and liberties of the realm." Alphonso III., 1285, being in France at the time 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 37 
 
 Pope Boniface VIII. wished to force the election of 
 his vassal, Charles Robert of Anjou, who, through his 
 mother, the daughter of King Stephen V., had Arpad 
 blood in his veins, but the Magyars insisted on their 
 unrestricted right of election, and fearing to compromise 
 their independence by the acceptance of the papal nominee, 
 chose Venceslas of Bohemia, and crowned him with the 
 usual formalities. When, however, the new king 1305- 
 succeeded, on the death of his father, to the crown of 
 Bohemia, he resigned his right to the Hungarian throne, 
 and Charles Robert ultimately succeeded to the vacant 
 place. On November 27, 1308, a meeting of the bishops 
 and great nobles, at which the mass of Magyar freemen 
 was largely represented, was held at Pest. The papal 
 Legate attended to urge the acceptance of Boniface's 
 candidate, on the ground that as St. Stephen had accepted 
 the crown from the hands of Sylvester, the latter's 
 successor in the papacy had ipso facto the right to nominate 
 the new king in default of male issue of the house of 
 Arpad. The claim was resolutely and noisily contested ^ 
 by the meeting, which, all the same, ended by unanimously 
 electing Charles Robert, whom a section had chosen the 
 previous year, stating at the same time that it had no objec- 
 tion to the confirmation * of the election by the Pope, but 
 that that was a mere formality, and a totally different thing 
 to the recognition of an obligation to accept the papal 
 nominee. Charles therefore was duly elected ' and took a 
 
 of his father's death, assumed the title, but the states protested and obtained 
 an apology, at the same time acknowledging Alphonso's right to the throne, 
 " so oddly were the hereditary and elective titles jumbled together." — Hallam, 
 Middle Ages, ii. ch. iv. 
 
 > 'Ronit\i,MagyarorszdgTSrt^nelme, ii. 21 ; ^za^a.y, MagfaronzdgTdrtinete, 
 ii. 136. 
 
 2 "The Popes of the Roman Church may confirm and crown the King of 
 Hungary who springs from the royal family and shall have been unanimously 
 elected by us," quoted by Timon, Magyar Alkotmdny is Jogfdrtinet, p. 494., from 
 document of 1308. 
 
 ' " Diligent! coUatione praehabita dominum nostrum Carolum ac fosteri- 
 tatem ejus prout regalis successio exigit in regem Hungariae ac naturalem 
 
38 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 solemn oath ^ to maintain the privileges, not only of the 
 people, but of the Crown, the rights and possessions of 
 which he undertook " not to diminish or alienate (as had 
 been done by previous kings in favour of powerful nobles), 
 but rather to increase the same ... to maintain the 
 nobles of the kingdom of Hungary in the exercise of 
 their approved and ancient rights ; to protect them from 
 the oppression of tyrants ... to be satisfied with 
 legitimate wedlock ... to do good and not harm to the 
 people committed by the divine Providence to my care ; 
 and to condemn or execute no one without fair and legal 
 trial." 
 
 The introduction of a foreign dynasty marks the 
 beginning of a new phase in the history of Hungary. 
 As would be expected, the Importation of the Anjou 
 dynasty had a " western " Influence. The badges and 
 trappings of European civilisation were Introduced ; the 
 relations of noble and peasant received a feudal tinge ; 
 and that which had hitherto been regulated by custom 
 was now consecrated by law. That the true feudal system 
 was never established on a firm basis was due to the 
 hostility of the very numerous lesser nobles, who resented 
 the formation of large domains and of a feudal hierarchy 
 which would Increase the power of a few at the expense 
 of the great mass of the people, and to the considerable 
 political influence which the latter exercised at the Diets, 
 at which, in theory at all events, one noble was as good as 
 
 dominum perpetuum suscipimus." — Kovachich, Festigia Comitiorum, p. 157. 
 I.e., the family of Charles Robert was placed in the position formerly occupied by 
 the house of Arpid. The elective right was maintained, but the King had to 
 be chosen from the male members of the reigning house. When the corona- 
 tion of Charles Robert took place the Pope's Legate was not allowed to be 
 present for fear that the people should look on his presence as a proof of papal 
 interference. — Herczegh, Magyar JogtHrt/net, p. 297, ». 
 
 1 Kovachich, Festigia Comitiorum, p. 1 70 sgg. In the oath of Andrew II., 
 the chief point is the maintenance of the rights of the Church ; here it is the 
 preservation of the rights of the whole body of nobles and of the Crown 
 against the oligarchy. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 39 
 
 another. Vassalage to great nobles did in fact exist, but 
 only to a limited extent,^ and the recognition of the 
 necessity of preventing its extension, in the interest both 
 of the throne and of the lesser nobles, finds its expression 
 in the establishment of the so-called "Doctrine of the 
 Sacred Crown," and in a gradual development of the 
 constitutional idea of the equality of King and people 
 as legislative factors. The Crown, the outward and 
 visible sign of the unity of the King and people, began 
 to be looked upon as a person, as the true owner of the 
 country,^ and not as a mere symbol of kingship. Every 
 Magyar freeman is a " member of the Sacred Crown " of 
 which the King is but the first member, possessing no 
 power but that conferred on him by the people, in 
 conjunction with whom he forms the mum corpus Sacrae 
 regni Coronae. Till the Sacred Crown has been placed 
 on his head the King has no legislative and little 
 other authority, and its imposition with the proper 
 formalities is a condition precedent to the obligation of 
 obedience.^ 
 
 Charles Robert observed the terms of his oath so far 
 as the privileges of the Crown were concerned, by com- 
 pelling the return of fortified places and royal domains 
 improperly obtained by grasping nobles ; but he was too 
 much occupied with the task of developing the military 
 resources of his kingdom to trouble himself much with 
 
 ' 1298, cl. 33, allows voluntary service to the great nobles as distinguished 
 from the King : " Item statuimus quo nobiles servire valeant quibuscunque 
 voluerint sua spontanea voluntate." 
 
 ' " Radix omnium possessionum." The expression " sacred crown " first 
 appears in the time of B^la IV. — Timon, o.c. p. 484, «. See especially Kmety, 
 A Magyar KSzjog TankSnyve, p. xv. 
 
 ' Verboczy, Jus Tripartiium, i. 4, by whom the doctrine was finally 
 consecrated. " Nobiles . . . membra sacrae coronae esse censentur nuUiusque 
 praeter Principis legitime coronati subsunt potestati." This should be 
 remembered in connection with the succession of Francis Joseph. Though 
 Charles Robert was crowned three times with a new crown he was not 
 considered to be legitime coronatus till on a fourth occasion the sacred diadem 
 of St. Stephen was used. 
 
40 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 constitutional questions. He did in fact summon the 
 Diet on four occasions,^ if not oftener, at the' urgent 
 instance of the bishops, but in 1338 we find the latter 
 complaining to the Pope that the holding of the " general 
 meetings of the Estates " is forbidden, and all approved 
 and ancient customs and rights established by the royal 
 saints, Stephen and Ladislaus, are neglected or suspended.^ 
 Presumably the thief grievance of the ecclesiastics lay in 
 the fact that the alien King was the first to introduce 
 a system of direct taxation by imposing a land tax' for 
 military purposes on every peasant allotment, no matter 
 whether it belonged to the Church or to a lay owner ; 
 1323. but as the tax was imposed with the consent of the Diet, 
 thereby establishing a fresh precedent for the principle of 
 popular control of taxation, the temporary inconvenience 
 may be considered as more than counterbalanced by the per- 
 manent constitutional gain.* Save for the above-mentioned 
 innovation, and for the establishment of an improved 
 judicial system based on the French model which continued 
 in use for several centuries,* no immediate and striking 
 change was brought about by the introduction of a foreign 
 dynasty, and by the inception of the period of Hungary's 
 military glory, which reached its highest point during the 
 1342- reign of Louis the Great, Charles Robert's successor, when 
 1382. Poland, Volhynia, Podolia, Moldavia, Bessarabia, Wallachia, 
 Bulgaria, and Servia were included in the limits of an 
 empire which extended from Pomerania to the Black 
 Sea. 
 
 The country paid somewhat heavily for its glory, for 
 
 1 1318, 1320, 1323, and 1322. 
 
 2 Fehii, Codex Diflomaticus, viii. 4, 321, quoted by Herczegh, Magyar 
 JogtSrUnef, p. 331, n. 
 
 ^ See infra, p. 75. 
 
 * The necessity of application to the representatives of the nation for funds 
 for military purposes was the origin of all the real power of die Diet, in fact, of 
 all parliaments. 
 
 5 Verboczy, Jus Tripartitum, ii. 6, "Usus. processuum quem in causis 
 incohandis prosequendis discutiendis et terminandis observamus." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 41 
 
 it resulted in a period of legislative stagnation, broken 
 only by an interval of retrogression which introduced a 
 new page into the statute book, the evil consequences of 
 which remained till 1848. The law of 1351, which it 
 should be observed is passed " de voluntate Genetricu 
 Nostrae" whose Arpad blood made her, in the popular eye, 
 of equal importance with the King, recites and confirms, 
 except in one detail, the Golden Bull, and restates the 
 principle " that all and singular the nobles, both of 
 Hungary proper and of the ' duchies ' pertaining thereto, 
 enjoy identical privileges." The most important point 
 is contained in the preamble, which expressly alters the 
 Golden Bull, in so far as the fourth clause of that charter 
 declares that nobles dying without issue may grant in 
 their lifetime, or bequeath on their death, their possessions 
 to churches or to individuals, or may sell or otherwise 
 alienate the same. Henceforward " they shall have abso- 
 lutely no such power, but their possessions shall descend 
 directly and as of right to their brothers and their issue, 
 whose claim none shall be able to dispute." On failure of 
 direct and collateral heirs, the land reverts to the Crown, 
 the theoretical source of all individual ownership, the 
 object being to strengthen the landed interest by the 
 preventing the subdivision of properties and the establish- 
 ment of large feudal estates, in order that it might be 
 better enabled to answer the requirements of the new 
 military system. Thus was established the so-called 
 " principle of aviticity," ' which, by preventing the aliena- 
 tion, and, consequently, the mortgaging of property, so 
 long as any, no matter how distant, scion of the original 
 owning family remained,, offered an almost insuperable 
 obstacle to the obtaining of credit, and to the material 
 development of the country. Military exigencies were 
 also answerable for the clause (6) which regulates the 
 relations between landowner and serf. Henceforth the 
 
 ' OsisSg, not abolished until 1848. 
 
42 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 former is not only entitled but bound to exact the pay- 
 ment in kind of one-ninth of the produce of all holdings 
 in order to be able to carry out his military obligations.^ 
 During the reign of Louis the provincial meetings 
 of nobles," hitherto held at rare intervals and for 
 special purposes only, became gradually periodical, 
 and thus made up to some extent for the King's illegal 
 irregularity in the matter of summoning the national 
 Diet, due in all probability more to the pressing nature 
 of his military occupations than to any unconstitutional 
 inclinations.^ 
 
 On the death' of Louis, who left no son, his daughter 
 Maria was " crowned as King," * after the usual formalities 
 of an election had been gone through. Subsequently her 
 husband, Sigismund,^ son of the Emperor Charles IV., 
 
 1387. was also elected and crowned, but not until the Diet had 
 imposed, and he had accepted, conditions calculated to 
 guarantee the country against the dangers of possible 
 foreign interference. He undertook, by his coronation 
 oath, not only to maintain all the rights of the nation, but 
 also to admit no foreigners to the Council of State, and 
 to confer bishoprics, which gave the right of admission to 
 that body, on none but Magyars. Though further 
 
 1397- guarantees were exacted from him by the Diet of Temesvdr, 
 
 ' The fixing of the dues at one-ninth was probably no innovation, but 
 the legal confirmation of an existing custom. — Marczali, Enchiridion, p. 213. 
 
 ' See infra, p. 95 sqq. 
 
 ' Though there is no actual record of any Diet but that of 13J1, it is 
 evident from references made at the Diet of 1397 to otherwise unrecorded 
 regulations that at least one other was held. — A Magyar Nemzet 'TSrtinete, iii. 
 348. See also Kovachich, festigia Comitiorum, p. 184. sqq. 
 
 * "Coronata in regem," Horvith, Magyarorszdg 't'irUndme, ii. 178, which 
 explains the famous cry " Moriamur pro Rege nostro Maria Terezia." Her 
 seal bore the inscription, "Sigillum Marie Dei gratia Regis Hungarie," 
 Szalay, Magyarorsxdg TorUnete, ii. 257, n. 
 
 * Sigismund admits in several documents that he was elected, and so did 
 not become King in virtue of his marriage with a descendant of Arpid. The 
 Doge of Venice writes to him of his " regnum non jure haereditario sed electionis 
 scrutinio ad te delatum." — Szalay, o.c. ii. 271, n. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 43 
 
 which was attended by, four deputies from each county 
 and by delegates from the chief towns, now for the first 
 time invited to send their representatives,^ Sigismund 
 surrounded himself with alien adventurers and favourites, 
 with the result that a conspiracy was formed to dethrone 1401. 
 him, and he was seized and imprisoned, for the country 
 never at any time entertained a doubt as to its right to 
 depose an unsatisfactory king whom the free-will of the 
 nation had raised to the throne. A section of the nobles 
 decided to exile him, and a council was formed for the 
 purpose of carrying on the government of the country 
 pending the making of a satisfactory arrangement as to 
 the succession. As, however, captivity seemed to be 
 having a sobering effect on the deposed King, and as the 
 nobles feared the result of competition for the vacant 
 throne, it was decided to reinstate him on his giving a 
 promise (not strictly observed) to expel all foreign parasites 
 and adventurers, and to refrain from taking vengeance on 
 the conspirators." The chief object of his resentment was 
 the Pope, Boniface IX., who had taken the side of Ladislaus 
 of Naples, whom a faction had wished to elevate to the 
 temporarily unoccupied throne ; and it is probably fair to 
 assume that the legislation of 1404 was due more to 
 a wish to annoy Boniface than to a desire to protect 
 Hungary from papal interference. The Placetum Regium,^ 
 issued "after consultation with all prelates, barons, and 
 nobles," declares that henceforth, "sub poena capitis et 
 privationis beneficiorum,'' no papal Bull shall be published 
 in Hungary without the express consent of the King ; 
 and that all attempts at outside ecclesiastical interference * 
 
 ' Horvith, o.c. ii. 224, n. 
 
 ^ Kovachich, Festigia Comitiorum, p. 194. 
 
 ^ Kovachich, Festigia Comitiorum, p. 198 sqq. Cf. the English statute of 
 Praemunire, passed eleven years earlier, prohibiting, inter alia, bulls, excom- 
 munications, etc., touching the King or his realms. 
 
 * The Placetum was revived by Maria Therezia in 1768, and by Joseph II. 
 in 1781. It was last referred to in 1870 when papal infallibility was declared. 
 
44 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 "by way of citations to Rome, inhibitions, rescripts, 
 executions, and processes," shall be void of effect — 
 the intention clearly being, not only to reassert the 
 King's right of investiture/ but to put an end to the 
 baneflal influence of Rome on the tranquillity of the 
 country, an influence which was liable to be exercised 
 at any moment in support of any pretender to the 
 throne who would undertake to back the claim of papal 
 suzerainty. 
 
 14.10. The election of Sigismund to the imperial throne, and 
 his consequent long and frequent absence from Hungary, 
 gave rise to military disorganisation, to confusion at home 
 and disasters abroad in the wars with Venice and with the 
 Turks. The immediate cause of disorder was a recru- 
 descence of the tendency to establish local despotisms on 
 the part of certain nobles to whose action the restoration 
 of Sigismund had been due, a fact which made him a 
 puppet in their hands and reduced the royal authority 
 to a shadow. As usual the lesser nobles sought the 
 antidote to threatened ruin in an attempt to strengthen 
 
 J435- the King, their natural ally. The Diet was summoned, 
 and it was resolved to increase the counties' power of 
 self-government by allowing them to elect officials on 
 
 Bishop Jekelfalussy, who had published the Bull without previously obtaining 
 the royal consent, was summoned "ad audiendum verbum regium," and 
 publicly rebuked by the Prime Minister, Count Andrissy, in the King's name 
 in the presence of the whole cabinet. — Rad6-Rothfeldt, Die Ungarische Verfas- 
 sung, p. 13. Berlin, 1895. 
 
 I See the letter written by Mathias Corvinus to Sixtus IV. in 1480 
 {Enchiridion Fontium, p. 275) on the subject of the "jus electionis quae mihi 
 legitime competit." " Your Holiness might have known, or, if ignorant thereof, 
 might have heard from others, of the nature and character of the Hungarians, 
 who, rather than allow appointments to benefices in this kingdom to be made 
 by the apostolic throne without election and presentation by their kings, 
 would prefer some other religion to the Catholic faith, and would join the 
 ranks of the infidels." As mentioned above, Coloman, in 1106, first gave up 
 the right of investiture. See his letter to Urban H., Enchiridion Fontium, 
 p. 115, but the royal assent to appointments to bishoprics was still required. 
 Herczegh, Magyar Jogfirtinet, p. 116. Sigismund regained full command of 
 the "jm supremi patronatus " originally conferred on St. Stephen. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 45 
 
 whom the duty was to be imposed of keeping the greater 
 nobles in order, of seeing to the proper collection of the 
 King's taxes,. and to the regular provision of the necessary 
 military forces. The King admitted that it was his duty 
 to see to the defence of the frontier fortifications, and to 
 the protection of the country in general, so far as his 
 means allowed, and requested the Diet to put him in a 
 position to fulfil his obligations. It is noticeable that the 
 law which gave, inter alia, assent to this request was 
 declared to be passed " with the unanimous vote, advice, 
 deliberation, and consent of our prelates and barons, and 
 of nobles, representative of the whole corpus of the said 
 kingdom, and invested with full authority to represent the 
 absent," and thus confirmed not only the, hitherto tenta- 
 tive, representative principle, but the people's exclusive 
 control of taxation and its right to interfere in military 
 affairs. 
 
 The confusion of the hereditary and elective principles, 
 to which HaUam draws attention, is well exemplified by 
 the fact that when Sigismund died and left no son his 
 daughter Elisabeth and her husband Albert of Austria 
 were both, formally and simultaneously, elected : the 1439- 
 former, to emphasise the fact that the rights of a daughter 
 of the late King, and of a late Queen who had Arpad 
 blood in her veins, were recognised, and that she received 
 the crown not merely as the wife of the chosen sovereign ; ■^ 
 the latter, in order to prove that the mere fact of marriage 
 with a scion of the Arpad family conferred no claim to 
 the throne. As Albert was a foreigner, the Diet naturally 
 wished to exact exceptional guarantees, and made him take 
 a vow which was looked upon as a model for all future 
 coronation oaths. In addition to the usual undertaking 
 as to the confirmation and observance of existing laws 
 
 ' Elisabeth admits that both she and her husband owed their throne to 
 election. See her letter to the Empress Frederick in Kovachich, Vestigia 
 Comitiorum, p. 473. " Als unser lieber Herr und gemahl Kunig Albrecht . . . 
 und Ich zu dem Reich Ungern erwelt und gekrSnt ware." 
 
46 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 forbidding, inter alia, the employment of foreigners as 
 officers of State, and of foreign mercenaries, who might 
 easily become a source of danger to the national liberties, 
 he was made to swear that he would spend his whole time 
 in Hungary, " after the manner of previous kings " 
 (cl. 22) ; that he would not give away or otherwise 
 alienate Crown property ; and that, " in accordance with 
 the requirements of ancient custom,"^ appointments to 
 the office of Palatine should be made only on the advice 
 and with the consent of the prelates, barons, and nobles 
 of the kingdom." The reason for insistence on this 
 recognition of the people's right to control the appoint- 
 ment of the chief officer of State is, of course, to be 
 found in the fact that the King being an Austrian, and 
 having been recently elected Emperor with the Diet's 
 consent,^ it was necessary that the Palatine should be 
 some independent person and one not likely to be 
 swayed by alien influence. For the same reason Albert 
 was made to promise that the command of no camps or 
 fortified places, and no possessions, honours, ecclesiastical 
 offices, baronies, lord-lieutenancies, or other ecclesiastical 
 or secular dignities, should be conferred on any foreigner. 
 The Diet's control of monetary matters is established by 
 the tenth clause, which provides that no change shall be 
 made in the coinage without the consent of that body. 
 As a further protection against foreign interference, it Is 
 enacted that in the matter of the marriage of the royal 
 princesses the King must take the advice of the Diet, and 
 not that of his relations in the Austrian Archduchy. The 
 King admits (cl. 3) that it is his duty to provide for the 
 defence of the kingdom at his own expense, binds himself 
 not to call for the assistance of the nobles except in case 
 
 1 The reference is to the law of Andrew III., 1291, cl. 9. 
 
 ^ " Pari voluntate eligat." 
 
 3 He had been made to promise before election to the Hungarian throne 
 that he would not accept the Imperial crown without the Diet's consent, " ne 
 suo injussu imperium acceptaret." — Aeneas Sylvius, History of Bohemia, ch. Iv. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 47 
 
 of absolute necessity, and undertakes that, " as required 
 by their ancient liberties," they shall under no circum- 
 stances be asked to serve beyond the limits of the 
 kingdom. Further, he promises (cl. 14) to accept the 
 advice of none but Magyars in matters concerning the 
 defence of the kingdom. In return for his guarantees 
 and undertakings the Diet promised to recognise the claims 
 of his and Elisabeth's children to the throne of Hungary. 
 The meeting of the Diet of 1439, at which these bargains 
 were made, is important from the point of view of consti- 
 tutional development, as the proposed laws were not, as 
 had generally been the case in the past, laid before the 
 assembly by the King in the form of ready-made pro- 
 positions for discussion, acceptance, or rejection, but the 
 Diet itself took the initiative, drew up the laws, and sub- 
 sequently presented them for ratification, thereby assert- 
 ing its right to initiate legislation, and placing itself, in 
 this respect, on a footing of complete equality with the 
 Crown. 
 
 Albert's reign was short, but long enough to give 
 him the opportunity of neglecting his promise with regard 
 to the appointment of the Palatine, and his undertaking 
 to stay in Hungary and to provide for the defence of its 
 frontiers. The result was that while he wa^ absent fight- 
 ing for the crown of Bohemia the Turks laid Transyl- 
 vania waste, and carried away seventy thousand persons 
 into captivity — a foretaste of what was to occur under 
 later Habsburgs. His absence and his death produced a 14.39. 
 recrudescence of disorder, and of the attempts of powerful 
 and ambitious barons to secure a preponderating in- 
 fluence at the expense of the legitimate authority of the 
 whole body of nobles. Elisabeth, who was expecting her 
 confinement, claimed the throne for herself and for the 
 anticipated heir, and when Ladislaus was born the follow- 
 ing year procured his coronation. But the nobles, aware 
 of the danger liable to result from the long minority of a 
 
48 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 useless infant, which might give a free hand to would-be 
 oligarchs, refused to be bound by the undertaking given 
 to his father, and elected Vladislav of Poland, who 
 accepted all the conditions they imposed, gave the neces- 
 sary guarantees,^ and undertook that Poland should help 
 to keep the Turks in order. The rejection of Ladislaus 
 amounted to a strong affirmation of the country's un- 
 controlled elective rights, more especially in view of the 
 fact that the nobles had agreed only a few years back to 
 recognise the claims of Elisabeth's and Albert's possible 
 issue, and to choose their King from among the descend- 
 ants of the founder of the Anjou dynasty.^ The identity 
 of Hungary's interests with those of Poland, and the 
 ancient principle that " election to the throne is dependent 
 on the will of the people, and that popular approval is the 
 sole source of the efficacy and virtue of the Crown,"* were 
 the chief reasons for the breach of the undertaking referred 
 to. Except as a matter of principle, the refusal to elect 
 the posthumous son of Albert was of no great importance, 
 
 1444. as after the death of Vladislav in battle against the Turks, 
 Ladislaus was in fact raised to the throne, in spite of the 
 opposition of two sections, one of which desired the 
 election of Philip of Burgundy,* and the other that of a 
 native Magyar noble. 
 
 The government, which, until the presumption of 
 Vladislav's death became a certainty, had been carried on 
 by " seven principal barons " or " captains," * who soon 
 proved their inability to deal with disorderly nobles, was 
 
 1446. entrusted to John Hunyadi, voyvode of Transylvania, as 
 Regent during the King's minority. The limits of his 
 
 1 For the maintenance of constitutional liberty, and more especially for 
 the observance of the terms of the Golden Bull and the laws of 1298 and 
 1 35 1, Kovachich, Sufflementa ad Vesti^a Comitiorum, i. 478, Buda, 1798. 
 
 2 Supra, p. 47. 
 
 3 Kovachich, Vestigia Comitiorum, p. 239. 
 * A Magyar Nem«,et Tsrt^nete, iv. 68. 
 
 ^ Ibid. pp. 65 and 72, n. The King's ecclesiastical authority was trans- 
 ferred to the Council of State. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 49 
 
 authority were fixed by resolution of the Diet,^ which 
 invested him with the same power as that hitherto ex- 
 ercised by the Crown (cl. 6), except in so far as it 
 restricted his power of making grants of land, and strictly 
 defined his relations with the Council of State and the 
 functions of that body. Hitherto the council had con- 
 sisted of the King's nominees, summoned for consultation 
 as and when their nominator pleased. Henceforth the 
 Regent was to be allowed to select as many members as 
 he. considered desirable, but there must in any case be 
 twelve permanent councillors — two, the Palatine and the 
 Chief Justice, ex officio, and ten elected by the Diet (cl. 7). 
 A further democratic guarantee was provided by the pro- 
 hibition of indictment for treason without the knowledge 
 and approval of the Diet ; and in order to avoid the 
 possibility of rival claims and civil war in the event of the 
 King's decease, it was resolved that in case of dissension 1447. 
 representatives should be summoned from each county 
 to confer with the bishops and barons and a unanimous 
 vote /obtained (cl. 30). In the course of Ladislaus's reign 1454. 
 the Diet successfully asserted its right to interference in 
 military affairs, by enacting that a committee should be 
 chosen from among its members for the purpose of fixing 
 the number of soldiers to be provided at the expense of 
 the Treasury, and of regulating the collection and employ- 
 ment of the royal revenues with a view to the punctual 
 payment of the troops. Further, it was resolved that the 
 counties should elect committees to decide questions of 
 exemption from service, and to see to the details of re- 
 cruiting.^ 
 
 Effect was given to clause 30 of the law of 1447 on 1458. 
 the death of Ladislaus, when Mathias Corvinus, one of 
 the Hunyadi family, was elected to the throne out of 
 gratitude and respect to the memory of the late Regent. 
 
 1 See Kovachich, f^estigia Comitiorum, p. 253 sqq. 
 2 A Magyar Nemzet TSrtinete, iv. 130. 
 VOL. I E 
 
so THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 The nobles were largely influenced in their choice by the 
 recollection of the disorder and disasters not infrequently 
 consequent on the election of a foreign king, and it was 
 this consideration which prevented the selection of 
 Casimir of Poland or of the Emperor Frederick, both of 
 whom considered they had claims — the one as brother-in- 
 law and the other as uncle of the late King.'' The first 
 act of the Diet v^as to take steps to prevent the recurrence 
 of an attempt made in the last reign to impose a tax 
 without the consent of that body, to forbid such an 
 infringement of its undoubted rights " under any pretext 
 whatsoever — even in the most difficult circumstances.^ 
 The King, by his coronation oath, promised compliance 
 with the law, and the fact that he was no foreigner, and 
 frankly recognised the supreme authority of the repre- 
 sentatives of the nation in the matter of taxation, led to 
 their treating him at aU times with exceptional liberality, 
 though in the course of his reign protests were more than 
 once raised in consequence of the frequency with which 
 the Diet was summoned, and the regularity with which 
 1462. fresh taxation was asked for at each of its meetings.^ 
 General principles, the Diet's control of taxation, and its 
 right to interfere in administrative questions,* having been 
 established, the legislative assembly was able to turn its 
 attention to matters of detail, with a view to the protection 
 of the whole body of nobles against their traditional 
 antagonists, the would-be oligarchs, and to purge the 
 
 1 Csuday, Ungarische Geschkkte, i. 441. 
 
 2 CI. 55, " NuUo unquam tempore . . . taxae . . . aut aliae executiones 
 indebitae ex quacunque ardua ratione petantur vel imponantur." — Kovachich, 
 Vestigia Comitiorum, p. 328. 
 
 ' The law of 147 1 says that the Diet is to meet every year in case of 
 necessity, but that of the following year says that the frequent holding of the 
 Diet is a burden, and that none is to be held for the next two years. 
 
 * "Ea quae ad publicam pertinent utilitatem . . . communi omnium 
 consilio discutienda sunt et decidenda" (Letter of Mathias Corvinus). 
 Kovachich, o.c. p. 364, styles this phrase, "illustre monumentum quo 
 Cardinale illud Principium Juris nostri publici stabilitur." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 51 
 
 law courts of the pernicious influence of aristocratic 
 preponderance. By the Decretum Majus of 1486,^ the 
 object of which, according to the preamble, was to put an 
 end to " enormities and unheard-of scandals " in legal 
 procedure, the Palatine was deprived of his power as chief 
 judicial authority of the kingdom, the criminal jurisdiction 
 of the counties was enlarged, and it was ordained that a 
 court, consisting of not less than two judges, should sit 
 twice a year as long as might be necessary for the dispatch 
 of business. The scandals referred to consisted in the 
 fact that great nobles were in the habit of attending the 
 courts ^ with an armed retinue for the purpose of intimida- 
 tion (cl. 64), and that the delay in obtaining justice was 
 so great, " especially in cases relating to the possession of 
 land, that sometimes a cause could scarcely be disposed of 
 in a man's hfetime " (cl. 4). In order to safeguard the 
 principle of the equality of all men before the law, nobles 
 are enjoined to leave their arms at their inn ; their ignoble 
 retainers failing to divest themselves of their weapons are 
 to be put in the pillory for two days and two nights 
 without food ; the " immunity" enjoyed by many families, 
 in virtue of which they were exempt from the control of 
 the ordinary courts, and subject only to the King's personal 
 jurisdiction, is abolished ; and all, with the single exception 
 of hereditary lords -lieutenant, become subject to the 
 authority of the local justices. It was presumably this law, 
 which, as the preamble states, was passed on the motion, and 
 
 ^ Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 90 sqg. 
 
 ^ The so-called "Proclamatae congregationes," or perambulating courts 
 hitherto held in the counties by the Palatine, are here referred to, generally 
 identified, but wrongly, according to Szalay, Magyarorszdg T'drtinete, iii. 289, «., 
 with the "judicium generate " which the Palatine held, in case robbery and 
 disorder was specially rife in certain districts, at which summary justice was 
 done, executions were frequent, and heavy fines were imposed for the benefit 
 of the treasury on whole districts, as well as on individuals, and was very 
 unpopular, more especially for the reason that the holding of this extraordinary 
 court was looked upon as an interference with the growing autonomy of the 
 counties. 
 
52 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 with the unanimous consent of the whole body of prelates, 
 barons, and " elected nobles from each county representing 
 the entire kingdom," which gave the reign of Mathias its 
 reputation ^ as the golden age of even-handed justice. 
 
 The disciplined and orderly government established 
 by the native king ^ was a great contrast to the general 
 feebleness and disorder which marked the reigns of his 
 foreign predecessors and of his immediate successors. 
 His popularity was not destroyed even by his request for 
 funds, repeated again and again in spite of the promise 
 already mentioned. The glory obtained by the capture 
 of Vienna, and the fact that the king of Hungary became 
 Archduke of Austria and King of Bohemia, and joined 
 Moravia and Silesia to his dominions, justified his demands 
 in the eyes of his subjects. So many properties, communes, 
 and even whole districts, had been exempted from the 
 payment of the lucrum camerae, the fixed contribution 
 of the peasants to the royal treasury, by the foolishness 
 and weakness of his predecessors, that Mathias had to find 
 1466. a new source of income. With the consent of the Diet 
 he abolished the old impost and substituted an annual' 
 " treasury tax " of one-fifth of a gold florin on every 
 town house and peasant homestead, including those of the 
 Saxons and other, hitherto exempted, races — a tax which 
 the Diet voluntarily quintupled in the following year, and 
 
 1 " Mathias is dead and justice has fled the earth " became a proverb. 
 Clause 1 8, abolishing trial by combat, is interesting : " Whereas in trial by 
 single combat frauds of various kinds may be committed, and it is rare that 
 parties to the suit fight themselves, and usually hire fighters (pugiles), who at 
 times are corrupted by gifts, favours, and promises, with the result that a 
 suitor, though his cause be just, may lose the same owing to his being unac- 
 customed to fighting "... Clause 69, ordains that " whereas lawyers are in 
 the habit of undertaking for the sake of lucre the cases of many suitors at the 
 same time, and conduct their defence satis negligenter, and care nothing if their 
 principals are mulcted," in future no one is to be allowed to undertake more 
 than fourteen cases in one term. 
 
 2 The Roumanians claim Mathias as of their race, but it was more likely 
 he was of Slav origin. In any case his family had been completely magyarised 
 since many generations. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 53 
 
 at its meeting in 1478 made payable for five successive 
 years. As a compensation for this exceptional burden it 
 was resolved that no military service should be asked from 
 the nobles during that period unless the country were 
 invaded by the Emperor, the Sultan, and other, specified, 
 possible antagonists ; in which case it was agreed that all 
 nobles without exception should take the field.^ 
 
 Unfortunately for Hungary, Mathias left no legitimate 
 heir, and the question of the succession to the throne was 
 complicated by a provisional agreement which he had 
 made at the beginning of his reign with the Emperor 
 Frederick III. It was agreed that in the event of 
 Mathias dying without heirs the crown should go to 
 Frederick, or to such son as he should appoint ; or, if 
 the throne should not become vacant before the Emperor's 
 death, to his surviving son ; or, should he leave more than 
 one, to such son as Hungary might select ; and the Diet 
 of 1464, strange to say, had confirmed this infringement 
 of its right of free election. However, on the death of 1490. 
 Mathias, the Diet, which cannot be accused of exaggerated 
 scrupulosity in matters which might be construed as 
 constituting a breach of its privileges, did not hesitate to 
 set aside the arrangement, on the ground that its authors 
 had acted ultra vires and without consulting the wishes of 
 the country, and to elect Vladislav of Bohemia, who had 
 some particles of Arpad blood in his veins, being a son of 
 Elisabeth, the daughter of Elisabeth and Albert. Maxi- 
 milian, son of Frederick, consequently declared war on 
 the new King in order to enforce his rights, such as they 
 were, but peace was soon arranged on the terms that if 
 Vladislav should leave no legitimate male issue, the crown 
 should go to the house of Habsburg. Vladislav succeeded 
 with difficulty, and amid loud protests from the lower 
 
 ^ The Diet made the imposition of the tax conditional on the acceptance 
 by the king of the clause relating to military service. See the address cited in 
 A Magyar Nemzet TSrUaete, iv. 267. 
 
54 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 nobles, in obtaining the Diet's consent to the compact ; 
 but the general attitude of the country was so evidently 
 hostile to Austrian pretensions that Maximilian threatened 
 to enforce his claims at once and without more ado. The 
 1506. result was that a fresh agreement '^ was made, to the effect 
 that in the event of the existing King having no male heir 
 the crown shall go to such descendant of Maximilian as 
 the nobles should select,^ who should thereupon take the 
 customary oath to maintain all the rights, privileges, 
 liberties, and customs of the country. It was at the same 
 time arranged that Ferdinand, grandson of Maximilian, 
 should marry Anna, daughter of Vladislav, in order that 
 the, probable, future occupant of the throne should have 
 some connection with the house of Arpad. There can 
 be little doubt that Hungary never had any intention of 
 considering itself, and constitutionally could not be, bound 
 by a compact which would curtail its elective rights, and 
 was ratified chiefly for the reason that the Sacred Crown, 
 the emblem of the people's liberties, was in Austrian hands, 
 and that its return was one of the considerations specified 
 in the contract. The episode requires to be noted for the 
 reason that at a later date Ferdinand asserted, and that 
 German writers have supported his assertion, that the 
 House of Habsburg succeeded to the throne of Hungary, 
 not by election, but in virtue of the compact between 
 Vladislav and Maximilian — a proposition which, as will be 
 seen hereafter, unquestionable facts prove to be untenable. 
 The selection of Vladislav was an unhappy one for 
 Hungary, for he was a feeble creature, deliberately chosen 
 by the bishops and great nobles, not in the interests of the 
 country, but as a tool for the prosecution of selfish ends 
 and with a view to the preservation of their oligarchical 
 privileges. In addition to the usual coronation oath, 
 Vladislav was made to sign a document or Diploma 
 
 1 Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 328 sqq. 
 2 " Quem eligendum duxerint." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 55 
 
 Inaugurale,^ nominally guaranteeing the rights and liberties 
 of the nation at large, but in reality conceived with a view 
 to the concentration of all power in the hands of the 
 oligarchy. " Whereas the bishops, barons, and other 
 nobles, and the whole body of the people, in exercise of 
 the most ancient custom and privilege of electing their 
 King, have cast their eyes on Us, and have elected Us 
 their King and Lord and Prince in accordance with the 
 terms and articles below written," Vladislav undertakes 
 that he will maintain all and singular the ancient rights, 
 privileges, immunities, liberties, and approved customs of 
 the nation ; that he will not allow the Sacred Crown to be 
 taken out of the kingdom under any pretext whatever ; 
 that he will make no agreement with his Imperial Majesty 
 Frederick v., or with Maximilian, King of Rome, " without 
 the express free and voluntary consent " of the bishops 
 and barons (cl. 7) ; that no foreigner shall be admitted 
 to the Royal Council, all members of which, as well as all 
 court officials, are to be Magyars ; and that he wiU ratify 
 and confirm in writing all laws voted by the Diet before 
 his coronation, "just as other kings our predecessors have 
 always done in accordance with the approved and laudable 
 custom of the kingdom" (cl. 18). Further, Vladislav 
 admits the necessity of asking consent of the bishops and 
 barons to the issue of new coinage, to the King's ecclesi- 
 astical nominations, to the alienation of the towns in 
 Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola acquired by Mathias 
 Corvinus, and, in the event of the redemption of such 
 towns by Maximilian, to utilise the proceeds for the 
 defence and for the general benefit of the kingdom in 
 
 1 For the text see Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, p. 307 sqq. This is 
 usually considered to be the first occasion on which such a Diploma (a similar 
 one to which was signed by all succeeding kings with one exception) was 
 exacted, but Timon, Magyar Alkotmdny is JogtSrtinet, p. 105, «., says that 
 Andrew III. signed such a document, and the law of 1298, 41, refers to 
 "libertates regnicolarum et ecclesiarum tempore coronationis suae in Uteris 
 expressas " confirmed by him. See also cl. 18 of Vladislav's Diploma, infra. 
 
56 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 accordance with the advice and wishes of the bishops and 
 barons (cl. 5). The document is of importance not only 
 for the reason that it strictly limits the royal authority in 
 numerous particulars, but on account of its containing the 
 first express recognition (cl. 7) of the Council's right to 
 interfere in foreign affair^, hitherto regarded as belonging 
 exclusively to the King's province. The continual refer- 
 ence, however, to' bishops and barons, to the exclusion of 
 the general body of nobles, proves a retrograde intention, 
 and section 25 of the law of 1495, providing that the King 
 and Council shall prepare Bills for presentation to the Diet, 
 discloses a desire to deprive that body of its powers of 
 initiative, rather than to facilitate and expedite legisla- 
 tion — the ostensible object of the measure. The attempted 
 encroachment on the Diet's privileges was only temporarily 
 successful, and three years later we see a return to the old 
 practice. 
 
 Relations between the barons and lesser nobles soon 
 became dangerously strained. The latter insisted on their 
 right to a proper share in the executive, from which the 
 former had excluded them by reorganising the King's 
 Council, and by limiting membership to the Palatine, the 
 Chief Justice, the Treasurer, the Chancellor, four barons, 
 and four bishops. The last straw was provided by a 
 resolution of the Council, to the effect that none but the 
 peasants of those who had not the privilege of leading 
 their retainers to war under their own flag should pay the 
 increased war-tax — thus exempting the well-to-do at the 
 expense of the poorer members of the community, and 
 by the fact that the Council entrusted their own creatures 
 with the collection of the tax ^ and failed to account for 
 the proceeds. An attempt to impose taxation without 
 the consent of the Diet, to jockey the opposition by 
 unpunctuality, and by prolonging the meetings of that 
 body to such an extent that the poorer members, unable 
 
 1 Andrissy, A Magyar Allam FSnmaraddsiinak Okai, i. 404. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 57 
 
 to stand the expense of prolonged attendance, dispersed to 
 their homes, and thus enabled the great nobles to snatch a 
 vote with the semblance of legality, led to concerted action 
 on the part of the majority and to the passing of the law 
 of 1498.-' It was thereby enacted that the Diet should 
 meet annually at the plain of Rakos for the ensuing four 
 years, and thereafter every third year ; that its business 
 must be finished within fifteen days, and that any one 
 failing to appear punctually on the first day should be 
 fined.2 The sphere of action of the sixteen lesser nobles, 
 who had been appointed three years ago to take part in 
 the judicial functions of the Council, was enlarged by an 
 instruction of the Diet which ordered its representatives 
 " faithfully and under pledge of secrecy to take part in 
 all discussions relative to the common welfare " ; and thus 
 practically converted them into ordinary members of the 
 Council. Two years later the influence of the lesser nobility 1500. 
 on the executive was again increased. The Diet resolved 
 that the said representatives should be elected for a period 
 of three years ; that half their number should always be 
 in attendance (thus ensuring a perpetual majority in the 
 Council over the four barons or bishops who were bound 
 to be present), and declared it to be their duty (1507) to 
 report to the Diet any action of the Council which might 
 be contrary to law or dangerous to the liberties of the 
 country. But in spite of these constitutional safeguards, 
 the great nobles, with their money and their armed 
 retainers, still kept their access to the King's ear and their 
 general influence, and the Council still had less real power 
 than the actual executive officers, such as the Palatine, the 
 Treasurer, the Chief Justice, and others whose orders the 
 country was accustomed to obey. 
 
 By far the greatest and most permanent success 
 obtained by the Diet was the final establishment of its 
 
 1 Enchiridion Fontium, p. 315 sqq. 
 ^ Barons and high ecclesiastics 800, others 400 florins. 
 
58 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 control of taxation ; and the celebrated law of 1504,^ 
 never repealed or amended, was often referred to in the 
 first half of the nineteenth century as one of the strongest 
 bulwarks of the Constitution. " If any county of its 
 own motion and without the consent of the whole realm, 
 that is to say of the general Diet of the kingdom, shall 
 offer or grant to his Majesty any subsidy or contribution 
 whatsoever under any pretext or in any form in contra- 
 vention of the ancient liberties of the kingdom, the entire 
 nobility of that county shall be deemed to be guilty of 
 treason, perjury, dishonourable and disgraceful conduct, 
 and ipso facto shall be removed and excluded from the 
 society of the rest of the nobles." ^ Thus, not only every 
 tax not voted by the Diet is irregular and illegal, but 
 even the making of voluntary contributions is penalised as 
 liable to infringe the solidarity of the people, and to open 
 the door to attempts at oppressive taxation and to the 
 exercise of undue influence. 
 1505- At the next meeting of the Diet a solemn protest was 
 entered against the importation of foreign kings — 
 Hungary's final kick as a completely separate State now 
 so soon to be connected in perpetuity with the hereditary 
 provinces of the Habsburgs, and so of historical, but not 
 of practical interest, save in so far as it subsequently 
 provided John Zapolya and his party with a justification 
 for their fight against the introduction of an alien dynasty. 
 "Whereas this kingdom has frequently been ruled by 
 foreign kings and princes, and whereas it would be easy 
 to prove, if necessary, that the kingdom never suffered 
 greater injury, danger, and desolation, than at times when 
 it was under the rule of foreigners, men of an alien 
 tongue ... in consequence whereof Rama, Servia, 
 Galicia, Lodomeria, Bulgaria, and Dalmatia, and many 
 fortified places, have been lost to the Crown, by reason 
 
 ' In Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, p. 317 sqq. 
 ' Cf. I Richard III. ch. 2, forbidding the exaction of " benevolences." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 59 
 
 whereof it is |:o be feared that, owing to the dilaceration 
 of the kingdom's extremities, hostile attacks may penetrate 
 into the interior . . . henceforth, whensoever the throne 
 shall become vacant, and there shall be no ma;le heirs 
 entitled as of right and according to custom to succeed 
 thereto, no king shall be chosen from any foreign nation 
 or of foreign tongue, but a Magyar, and only a Magyar, 
 shall be elected by fair voting^ and unanimous consent 
 on the plain of Rakos and nowhere else." ^ Any one 
 daring to act in contravention of this resolution is to 
 be judged guilty of treason to the nation, to be 
 deprived of all privileges of nobility, and to be re- 
 duced to perpetual servitude. In order to exclude 
 all possibility of foreign interference, the Diet of the 
 following year, as a condition precedent to its consent 1506. 
 to crown Louis, Vladislav's son, as "Junior King," 
 according to not infrequent custom, made Vladislav 
 undertake ^ that in the event of his decease during Louis's 
 minority neither the Emperor Maximilian nor any 
 other foreigner should be appointed guardian — so strong, 
 apparently, was the presentiment and dislike of coming 
 foreign interference. 
 
 Of the remaining legislation of the reign only two 
 enactments need special notice. The law of 1507 (5, 7-8) 
 declares that royal edicts unconfirmed by the Council of 
 State are void and of no effect, and that if any member 
 of that body shall, as such, offend against the "liberty, 
 common weal, and statutes of the kingdom," he shall be 
 looked upon as a traitor, brought before the Diet, and 
 punished according to his deserts, — thus putting the act 
 of proposing measures injurious to the interest of the mass 
 
 ' Parili 'volo, one vote one value, in contradistinction to the more usual 
 principle, f^ota ponderantur non numerantur. 
 
 ^ It was to this resolution that Napoleon I. referred in his manifesto of 
 1808, when he tried in vain to seduce the Hungarians from their allegiance to 
 the Habsburgs. 
 
 ' See Kovachich, Vestigia Comitiorum, p. 455 sqq. 
 
6o . THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of the nobles on the same footing as actual illegal action, 
 and establishing the principle of the responsibility of the 
 executive to the representatives of the nation. The other 
 measure to which reference must be made is the law of 
 1514- 1 5 14, which deals with the position of the peasants. The 
 ' law was passed under the fresh impression of the terrible 
 Jacquerie associated with the name of Dozsa, the leader of 
 the peasants, who are now deprived of the right of migra- 
 tion, their chief protection" against exaction and oppression, 
 and thus are reduced to complete and perpetual subjec- 
 tion to their landlords, whose custoniary claims to the 
 forced labour and other services of their tenants now 
 receive legal confirmation. It must not be forgotten 
 that the peasantry comprised not only "Saxons, Germans, 
 Bohemians, and Slavs who profess Christianity, Wallachians, 
 Ruthenians, Servians, and Bulgarians who follow the 
 errors of the Greeks, Philistines (Jazyges) and Cumanians 
 (Polovtses)," ■^ but Magyars also, who were in no respect 
 in a better position than their alien fellows. They were 
 not serfs in the true sense of the term, as they could not be 
 sold away from the land or mortgaged. Their personal 
 property was their own and could be disposed of by will ; 
 they could marry as they pleased,^ and, until 1514, could 
 migrate from one landowner to another ; but the peasant 
 had no right of perpetual occupation, and no claim to 
 anything except to " the reward of his labour." ^ To 
 the King he paid a land tax and extraordinary war taxes. 
 To the clergy he paid tithes, and his lord claimed dues and 
 services from him in accordance with the " urbarium " or 
 contract existing between them. The dues were first fixed, 
 
 ^ Verb6czy, Jus Tripartitum, iii. 25. 
 
 2 This they could not do, neither could a peasant choose his own occupa- 
 tion before the middle of the 1 9th century in the Austrian possessions of the 
 Habsburgs, who posed as the protectors of the peasants in Hungary. 
 
 3 " Riisticus praeter laboris mercedem et praemium in terris domini sui 
 quantum ad perpetuitatem nihil juris habet sed totius terrae proprietas ad 
 dominum terrestrem spectat et pertinet." — Verb6czy, iii. 30. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 6i 
 
 as has been mentioned, by the law of Louis the Great ■' at 
 one-ninth in kind of the product of the land, in addition 
 to which the law of 15 14 imposed on him the yearly pay- 
 ment of one florin in gold, and the provision for the lord's 
 use of one chicken every month and two geese every year, 
 while every ten houses in a village had to produce a fat 
 pig at Christmas. Further, the lord was entitled to claim 
 the unpaid labour of the peasant on fifty-two days in the 
 year.^ Before the passing of the law of Louis the Great, 
 the landlord had jurisdiction only in civil matters, unless 
 the jus gladii had been conferred on him by the King ; 
 but that law gave him jurisdiction in all criminal matters 
 also, except in the case of crimes, including larceny and 
 robbery,^ which involved the death penalty. If the lord 
 delayed or refused justice, he could be summoned before 
 the lord-lieutenant, and the judicial officials of the 
 county were bound by the law of 1405 (cl. 10) (which, 
 however, seems to have remained more or less a dead letter) 
 to hear and decide the case. The peasant could be trans- 
 ferred with his holding to another owner, and if he 
 occupied land not held of some noble, he could dispose of 
 half only by will, the rest going to his lord. Originally 
 the right of migration was unrestricted, but the landlords 
 did their best to curtail it. Laws were therefore passed in 
 1298 and 1405 reaffirming the right ; but their operation 
 was limited, if not nullified, by a subsequent enactment 
 (1492), which required the tenant to obtain the consent of 
 the landlord and to pay all his debts prior to removal. 
 Even Mathias the Just could do little to ameliorate the 
 peasant's lot, and the reactionary law of 15 14 perpetuated 
 a sore in the body politic which was more injurious to 
 
 1 1351, 6. 
 
 2 That is to say, in thecase of a peasant occupying a whole sessio or allot- 
 ment. Such allotments varied in size in different parts of the country. In the 
 case of a peasant who occupied a half or quarter sessio the dues and services 
 were proportionately reduced. 
 
 ^ Timon, o.c. p. 574, n. 
 
62 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Hungary's interests, and more fatal to progress, than all 
 the incursions of the Turks or the deadening influence of 
 religious obscurantists.^ 
 
 If on no other grounds, the reign of Vladislav was 
 memorable for the reason that it saw the production of a 
 codification of the customary and statute law of Hungary, 
 which had hitherto justified its claim to be considered the 
 land par excellerite of custom. As Verboczy says in the 
 preface to his work,^ " the laws of Hungary and the edicts 
 of dead kings being confused, disconnected, and often 
 contradictory, and so liable to give rise to intestine dis- 
 sension, which is more injurious than foreign wars," it was 
 advisable that, " neglecting mere ancient fables," a codi- 
 fication should be undertaken of the statute and customary 
 law which actual experience had proved to be of actual 
 force and validity, to which effect had been given from 
 time immemorial in Diet and law courts. The author, 
 who is described in the King's Approbatio as Protonotary 
 of the High Court, was commissioned by the Diet of 1 507 
 to draw up a document containing the fundamental laws of 
 the kingdom. The result, the so-called Jus Tripartitum, 
 was considered by a special committee of ten members, who 
 reported in favour of its accuracy. In November 15 14 
 the King gave it his imprimatur, and undertook to have a 
 copy sent to every county for the guidance of its judicial 
 authorities. Though this was never done, and though 
 the Jus Tripartitum was never actually consecrated by law, 
 yet, for more than three hundred years, it continued to be 
 the chief if not the only document regulating the rela- 
 tions of King and people, of nobles and their peasants, of 
 Hungary and the dependent States. In the dark days of 
 Turkish domination the common use of Verboczy's code was 
 
 1 Bathory, one of the most powerful nobles of the day, is reported to have 
 said that any one who complained of him to Mathias required two heads, as 
 one would certainly be cut off before the complainant reached the palace. — 
 AndrSssy, A Magyar Allam FSnmaraddsdnak Okai, i. 40 1 . 
 
 '^ Opus Tripartitum Juris Consuetudinarii Regni Hungariae. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 63 
 
 the chief tie which bound the disjecta membra of the Sacred 
 Crown together, and it is a remarkable document, which 
 requires to be studied carefully by any one who wishes to 
 obtain an insight into the circumstances of the age in which 
 it was written, when the monarchy had lost much of its 
 ancient authority and prestige, and the great body of 
 freemen had succeeded in asserting its claim to equality with 
 the greater nobles. The doctrine of the Sacred Crown, 
 and the conception of its wearer as the personification of 
 national unity, and as the delegate of the nation's rights, 
 had begun to give place to the idea of the actual 
 sovereignty of the whole body of Magyar freemen, of 
 whom the King was no more than the representative, 
 invested with the power of proposing and sanctioning 
 legislation, but not with that of forcing its acceptance 
 or directing its application — a life-president of a semi- 
 oligarchical state in which the mass of the peasants 
 had no influence whatever, and the trading population 
 of the towns little or none. From the point of view 
 of subsequent history the chief interest centres in 
 Verboczy's enumeration of the royal privileges, and 
 Vladislav's solemn ratification of the Code is a sufficient 
 indication of the fact that no sign was discernible of 
 an attempt to give less unto Caesar than that to 
 which he was constitutionally entitled, and that the 
 Crown could claim no privileges other than those 
 specifically enumerated. The second part of the work 
 is specially devoted to the investigation of the problem 
 of the initiative in legislation : of the question whether 
 the King can himself make laws and statutes,^ or whether 
 
 ' The latter, apparently, are measures affecting the Constitution, if there is 
 any distinction. Herczegh suggests that the difference is that the King could 
 withdraw the former without the Diet's consent, but not the latter (Magyar 
 JogtSrtinet, p. 330) ; but query, as section 5, dealing with the question of the 
 binding force of laws, says that both constitutiones and decreta bind the King ; 
 and section 3, that " omnia," i.e. leges, constitutiones, statuta et sanctiones 
 mentioned therein " specialiter Principis et non populi statuta nuncupantur . . . 
 
64 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the consent of the people (the free fopulus, the members 
 of the Sacred Crown distinguished by Verboczy from 
 the unprivileged plebs) is necessary to their validity. 
 The answer is that "the King cannot of his own 
 motion and uncontrolled power make laws, more especi- 
 ally laws which are prejudicial to divine and natural 
 law, or derogate from the ancient liberty of the whole 
 Hungarian natiofti, but can legislate only by summoning 
 and interrogating the people as to whether it accepts 
 his propositions or not. If the reply is in the affirma- 
 tive, such propositions thereupon become law. " But 
 the people itself, often by unanimous consent, decrees 
 measures which it considers conducive to the public 
 welfare, and hands the same in writing to the King, 
 praying that laws may be passed in accordance with the 
 same, and if the King accepts and approves the said 
 measures, they obtain the force of law, and are, in fact, 
 regarded as such." ^ The laws are declared to be binding, 
 in the first place, on the King himself who promulgated 
 them at the request of the people. The above is no 
 doubt a correct presentment of the King's position as 
 regards legislation, and the statement of the other rights 
 of the Crown is equally precise. They comprise the 
 right of granting the privileges of nobility, of succession 
 to the property of nobles dying without heirs, of con- 
 ferment of ecclesiastical benefices and titles, and there 
 is no mention whatever of any oth.&c jura reservata 
 which German writers have tried to read into the 
 Hungarian constitution, such as the right of regulating 
 all details of military organisation, of sole control of 
 diplomatic negotiations, or of making treaties without 
 
 'verum generali nomine constitutiones ipsae saepenumero regni decreta 'vofitantur." 
 So clearly decreta are not merely by-laws of the executive or laws issued by 
 the King without reference to the Diet. On the other hand, Verb6czy says, 
 that the annexed States can make leges, or local regulations, but not statuta, 
 or laws of general application for the whole kingdom. 
 1 Part 11. tit. iii. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 65 
 
 reference to the Diet. We have already seen how Vladislav 
 admitted the Diet's right to interfere with the making 
 of agreements with foreign monarchs, and in so doing 
 he was only following the example of his predecessor.^ 
 Louis's treaty with Poland in 1376 was expressed to 
 be confirmed by the bishops and the " barones regni 
 Hungariae principaliores" \^ that of Sigismund in 1369, 
 as " consilio baronum nostrorum " ;^ and so long ago as the 
 beginning of the twelfth century the Venetian ambas- 
 sador was informed by the King (Coloman) that the 
 proposed terms of peace would not be valid without 
 the consent of the Council of State.* The personal 
 rights and privileges of the nobles vis-h-vis the King 
 are likewise defined by Verboczy. " All bishops, priests, 
 barons, and other magnates, nobles and patricians of 
 this kingdom of Hungary, in virtue of nobility and of 
 the possession of temporal goods, enjoy one and the same 
 liberty, the same exemptions and immunities, nor has 
 any one of the lords more nor any, one of the nobles 
 less thereof." ° There can be no King unless he be 
 elected by the nobles, and no rights of nobility can be 
 conferred by other than the King. A noble so created 
 ipso facto becomes a member of the Sacred Crown, is 
 subject to the authority of none but the legally crowned , 
 King, and cannot be imprisoned unless he has previously 
 been summoned and condemned by process of law. All 
 nobles have complete freedom in the exercise of their 
 
 ' 14.62. Mathias writes, re his treaty with Frederick : " Certos tractatuum 
 articulos attulit quibus respondere et eos firmare aut infirmare prout ab eo 
 percepimus non est nostrum, cum non personam nostram ut dicunt sed totius 
 regni universitatem concernant, imo nee adhuc in specie ostensi sunt et 
 publicati, sed in hac proxima generali omnium regnicolarum nostrorum 
 congregatione, ob hoc praecipue advocata, sunt publicandi." — Epistolae Mathiae 
 Cor'vini, cited by Szalay, Magyarorsadg Tirtinete, iii. 199, «. 
 
 2 Szalay, o.c. ii. 241, n. 
 
 ^ Ibid. i. 228, n. 
 
 * Andrdssy, A Magyar Allam fanmaraddsdnak Okai, i. 127. 
 
 ^ Part I. tit. ii. 
 
 VOL. I F 
 
66 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 rights and in the use of their property, and are exempt 
 from all servitudes, taxes, contributions, tribute, or other 
 obligations save that of military service in defence of 
 the country. Further, they have the right, conferred 
 by the Golden Bull, of contradicting and resisting the 
 King should he attempt to interfere with the rights 
 and privileges of the nation, without thereby incurring 
 a charge of treason — sine nota alicujus infidelitatis. 
 
 The greater part of the Jus Tripartitum is concerned 
 with such questions as the difference between natural and 
 civil law, between statutes and municipal regulations, 
 with the conditions essential to the validity of an alleged 
 custom, with the law of succession to property, and with 
 the relations of the clergy to the civil law, and many 
 other matters which have no immediate bearing on the 
 subject matter of this book. It is enough if the reader 
 remembers Verboczy's statement as to the equality of all 
 Hungarian freemen and his definition of the King's rights 
 and privileges — a knowledge of which is essential to an 
 appreciation of the terms of the contract on which 
 Ferdinand of Habsburg received the crown of Hungary, 
 and of the manner in which those conditions were observed 
 by him and by his successors. 
 1516- Louis II. was only ten years old when he succeeded 
 to the throne ; it was therefore decided that during his 
 minority the affairs of state should be managed by a 
 Council to consist of two bishops, six barons, and sixteen 
 lesser nobles annually elected by the Diet, which thus 
 secured an unquestioned control. The chief difficulties 
 with which it was confronted were of a financial nature, 
 the result, as usual, of the squandering by former kings 
 of the revenues of the Crown and of the mortgaging of 
 royal property. The Diet of 15 18, with a view to the 
 prevention of a recurrence of the financial scandals of the 
 previous reign, decided that two members of the Council 
 should be chosen as comptrollers of the royal expenditure ; 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 67 
 
 that without their knowledge and consent the Treasurer 
 should neither receive nor disburse any monies ; and that 
 death should be the penalty for carelessness or dishonesty.^ 152^- 
 It was also made part of the Treasurer's duties to take 
 steps for the defence of the fortified places on the frontiers, 
 for the proper payment of officers and men, and for the 
 provision of military necessities. Thus on the very eve 
 of the era of national disintegration the Diet confirmed its 
 control of the chief departments of State, and reaffirmed 
 the principle of official responsibility to the representatives 
 of the nation.^ But these measures were insufficient to 
 avert the fate (the result of a succession of incapable 
 kings, of consequent internal disorder, and of the un- 
 patriotic ambitions of a selfish aristocracy) which, but for 
 the strong government and organising ability of John 
 Hunyadi and l^idathias Corvinus, would probably have 
 overtaken the country at a considerably earlier period. 
 Probably the chief cause of a national debility which 
 invited disaster was the gulf fixed between the two 
 sections of the population — the nobles, with their im- 
 munity from taxation and their monopoly of power, and 
 the misera contribuens plebs, which could have little interest 
 in the maintenance of the territorial integrity of the 
 country, and in fact constituted a danger rather than a 
 source of strength.^ The Crown had lost its prestige, and 
 the King was reduced to begging the Diet for money for 
 his personal expenses. Faction, and corruption of morals, 
 especially among the clergy, contributed to the general 
 
 1 Kovachich, Festigia Comitiorum, p. 446. 
 
 2 The Rikos Diet of 1525 resolved that though bishops and barons take 
 part in the Council as before, the control is to be in the hands of the elected 
 members. " Summa tamen auctoritas omnium rerum apud electas personal 
 maneat." The Council had already ceased to be styled " Royal Council," and 
 was known as the Consilium Hungaricum. — See Timon, Magyar Alkotmdny is 
 Jogtortinet, p. 628, n. 
 
 3 The Papal Nuncio wrote in 1526 to the Pope, that if the Sultan were to 
 proclaim himself the protector of the peasants they would join him. — Andrissy, 
 A Magyar Allam Fonmaraddsdnak Okai, i. 436. 
 
68 EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 decadence and disintegration which rendered the country 
 an easy prey to its enemies. The King, twenty-eight of 
 the chief barons, 500 nobles, seven bishops, and 22,000 
 men, were killed at the battle of Mohacs ; the Turks 
 laid waste the country as far as Buda, the period of 
 Hungary's separate existence came to an end, and 
 therewith the possibility of expansion south and west, 
 to the Balkans and to the sea, which in time would 
 have converted Hungary into a great European power. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Before we attempt the description 6f the disorder and 
 territorial disintegration characteristic of the period which 
 immediately followed the disaster of Mohics, some refer- 
 ence must be made to certain details of administration as 
 well as to certain officials and races whose names will recur 
 from time to time, some acquaintance with whose func- 
 tions and position during the pre-Habsburg period is 
 necessary to a proper comprehension of subsequent events. 
 
 It has been seen how the King gradually developed 
 into a constitutional monarch with a right of veto, a 
 divided authority as regards legislative initiative, a partial 
 control of military and foreign affairs, and none whatever 
 of direct taxation. The executive officials, by a similar 
 process of development, gradually lost their character of 
 court functionaries, appointed by and responsible to the 
 King alone, and were converted into officers of State 
 responsible to the Diet, and liable to execution for treason- 
 able conduct^ — an expansive term, and one which gave 
 almost unlimited control over life and property to that 
 body which was itself judge in all cases of treason. 
 
 The Palatine, Nddor,^ or Comes Palatii, was originally, 
 as the name indicates, no more than the chief court 
 official ; but already in the time of St. Ladislaus * his 
 
 ' Law of 1518. 
 
 ^ Properly Nidorispdn, probably from the Slav, nadvor 2supan= Palatii 
 Comes. German, Obergespan. A Nddori is Onzdgbirii Hi'vatal, Frankl. 
 (Frakn6i). 3 Law iii. § 3 of 1092. 
 
 69 
 
70 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 sphere of action had widened, and we find him represent- 
 ing the King in his character of chief judicial authority. 
 Under Coloman ^ he is not only the general representative 
 of the King in his absence, but accompanies him on his 
 judicial tours. In the reign of B61a III.^ the Nador goes 
 on judicial perambulations instead of the King, as ^^ judex 
 de latere regio missus," to hold ?iproclamata congregatio in 
 each county ; ^ and in the succeeding reign the nobles 
 recognise his authority, whereas, previously, he had no 
 jurisdiction over them unless they made voluntary sub- 
 mission.* Thirty years later he had acquired independent 
 judicial power not derived from his representation of the 
 King, and a new and distinct character as president of the 
 Diet in the King's absence and as custodian of one of the 
 copies of the Golden Bull, "in order that having the 
 document always before his eyes he may not deviate in 
 anything from the contents thereof, nor allow the King or 
 nobles or others to do so, that they may enjoy the liberty 
 which is theirs, and may therefore ever be faithful to Us 
 and Our Successors, and that the obedience due to the 
 Crown may not be withheld."^ He thus became, in a 
 sense, the responsible guardian of the Constitution. By 
 the law of 1231^ the King undertook to remove unsatis- 
 factory Palatines from ofiice at the request of the nobles, 
 and from 1291 '^ he was bound to ask their advice before 
 making an appointment. The law of 1397, 14, enacts 
 that the Nador may be called to account for misconduct 
 by the Diet and ejected with disgrace from an office, the 
 final development of which to the position it occupied 
 down to 1848 occurred in 1439,* when it was declared 
 that the Palatine should thenceforth be elected by the 
 nobles, not merely as intermediary between King and 
 1 1095-1115. 2 1172.1156. 
 
 = Herczegh, Magyar JogtSrt^net, p. 82. 
 
 * St. Ladislaus, Law iii. § 3, « qui spontanea voluntate iverint ad eum." 
 
 * Golden Bull, iz22, cl. 31. 6 /i,v. cl. 3. 
 7 Ibid. cl. 9. 8 ibid^ cl. 2. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 71 
 
 people, and representative of the constitutional principle, 
 but as judge ^ between the two in questions of rights and 
 obligations. The law of 1485 further defines his duties : 
 to summon the Diet on the throne becoming vacant, to 
 cast the first vote at the election of the new King, and to 
 act as guardian of the monarch during minority. As such 
 he may claim the same obedience as the King himself 
 would be entitled to exact if of full age. He is the 
 Commander-in-Chief of the national forces and the 
 "mediator between the King and his people." He is 
 responsible for the security of the kingdom and of the 
 fitness of the fortified towns for purposes of national 
 defence. If the King is absent from the country, the 
 Nador is ex officio locum tenens regius, invested with all the 
 royal powers save of pardon and of conferring privileges 
 and titles. If the monarch is of feeble intellect, or remiss 
 in the execution of his duties, the Palatine can receive 
 foreign ambassadors and negotiate with them. This is 
 evidently no innovation, but a legal confirmation of ancient 
 practice, as from 1414 to 1419 the Palatine as "vicarius" 
 governed the country during Sigismund's absence.^ By 
 the law of 1525 (cl. 22) it was enacted that the ofiice 
 should be held for life. 
 
 The Chancellor's office developed in a similar manner. 
 At first he was the Notarius who drew up and sealed 
 documents on behalf of the King, and was not styled 
 Chancellor till 1138.^ The clergy, being better educated 
 than the rest of the nobles, for a long time monopolised 
 the post, which for a considerable period was always held 
 by the Archbishop of Esztergom. Not till 1366 was a 
 layman appointed. The power of the Chancellor gradually 
 increased, as it depended on him what matters were 
 brought before the King, especially as regards the grant- 
 
 ' " Judicium et justiciam facere potest et tenetur." 
 ^ Herczegh, Magyar Jogtbrtinet, p. 355, n. 
 ' Timon, Magyar Alkotmdny is JogtSrUnet. 
 
72 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ing of pardons and the conferment of privileges, exemp- 
 tions, and titles. He represented the Crown in judicial 
 matters, and was custodian of the liber regius, the official 
 record of State documents signed by the King. Next to 
 the Palatine he was the most important member of the 
 Council of State, and that he had become a public official 
 instead of a mere court functionary in the course of the 
 thirteenth century is shown by clause 9 of the decree of 
 1290, which requires the consent of the Diet to the 
 appointment even of his deputy the Vice-Chancellor. 
 
 The Treasurer (Magister Tavernicorum or F6tdrnok- 
 mester) was no more than the manager of the King's 
 private finances during the whole period of the Arpdd 
 dynasty, though clause 9 of 1291 required the advice of 
 the Diet to be obtained, "according to ancient custom," 
 before any candidate was appointed to the office. Under 
 the Anjou dynasty he was promptly converted into a 
 public official (Summus Thesaurarius or F6kincstart6), and 
 had control of the tax voted from time to time by the 
 Diet {hadi add), the proceeds of which were utilisable 
 only for military purposes. Numerous laws were passed 
 for the purpose of controlling his actions : ' e.g. 1496, 
 2^, for auditing his accounts, which proving unsatis- 
 factory, his arrest was ordered;^ 151 8 and 1521, 33, 
 providing for the election of two barons and two nobles 
 to see to the collection and disposal of the military tax — 
 the nearest approach to Dietal budget control. Strictly 
 speaking there was no State Treasury or State financial 
 system, only a Fiscus Regius or Camera Regia, which was 
 supposed to bear all the expenses of State ; but the King's 
 sources of income (peculia Sacrae Coronae) might not be 
 alienated without the Diet's consent (1439, clause 18), 
 and certain lands were specially intended to provide for 
 the maintenance of the Court. Arpdd and his descendants 
 took a large slice of land for themselves (the propria 
 
 ' Timon, o.c. p. 656. 2 Herczegh, ox. p. 369, «. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 73 
 
 haereditas mentioned in St. Stephen's time), and all 
 unoccupied lands belonged to the King, as did the domains 
 or lands in the immediate neighbourhood of the fortified 
 towns, lands forfeited for treason of their owners, and the 
 property of nobles who left no heirs. Originally these 
 were the chief, if not the only sources of revenue, but 
 they were supplemented at an early period by the regalia 
 majora, i.e. the salt monopoly, the customs duties, the 
 right of coining, and the sole ownership of mines — 
 inalienable and unmortgageable without the consent of 
 the Diet. The collection and employment of the proceeds 
 were also controlled by that body, which passed many laws 
 dealing therewith {e.g. 1439, 11 ; 1464, 9; 1492, 30; 
 1 5 14, i). The right of coining was a source of consider- 
 able profit to the Crown,^ which evidently was not over 
 scrupulous as to the way in which it made use of its 
 privilege. The Golden Bull shows that continual changes 
 were made in the value of the coins. They were 
 frequently called in and reissued at a discount, or were 
 composed of metal not of the standard value, as is proved 
 by innumerable protests of the Diet.^ Originally aU 
 highways were looked upon as military roads, and as such 
 were under the control of the King, who thus became 
 entitled to make all merchants pay for using them.* Both 
 exported and imported goods paid one-thirtieth of their 
 value, and a duty was charged on all merchandise using 
 highroads and internal waterways, as on goods exposed 
 for sale at fairs and market-places.* The Diet determined 
 what articles of import and export should be subject to 
 
 ' Falsifiers of the coinage were punished as for high treason. 
 
 ^ Charles Robert left the mines of gold, silver, and copper in the possession 
 of the surface-owners on terms of receiving two-thirds of the produce, but 
 under Louis the Great the right of resuming possession was reserved to the 
 Crown (1351, clause 13) on giving estates of equal value elsewhere. 
 
 ' Herczegh, p. 124 sqq., and Tiraon, o.c. p. 236. 
 
 * The tricesma,as it was called, was first imposed by King Sigismund. 
 It was temporarily abolished by Mathias Corvinus, but was soon revived. 
 
74 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 payment of duty and provided for the collection^ of 
 the proceeds. 
 
 The first indication of a distinction between Crown and 
 national revenues is found in the law of 1444, clause 3 of 
 which provides that the proceeds of taxation are to be 
 applied to the payment of Court expenses and of the cost 
 of national defence, while other income may be utilised 
 according to the King's pleasure.^ Direct taxation was 
 first introduced by Coloman (iioo), or in any case was 
 regularised by his law. A census regalis, or collecta regalis, 
 was paid at that period by all freemen who were not nobles, 
 as a recognition of the King's dominium naturak, by tenants 
 of the King's land, and by foreigners pro libertate (cl. 80). 
 Hence the proceeds were known as liberi denarii, referred to 
 in the Golden BuU.^ The nobles at all times considered 
 the payment of taxes as beneath the dignity of free men, 
 and saw no difference between taxes paid to the King and 
 the rent paid by serfs to their lords. Hence the numerous 
 laws from the Golden Bull onwards guaranteeing and 
 reaffirming the immunity from taxation enjoyed by all 
 nobles or freemen. When the Crown had partially 
 pauperised itself by excessive grants of land and of whole- 
 sale immunity from taxation, it had to make extraordinary 
 levies on the non-noble freemen, at first only for the 
 purpose of building fortifications, or of portioning the 
 King's son on his marriage, but later for all purposes at 
 the King's discretion ; * and immunities granted by the 
 Crown were held not to apply to extraordinary taxation of 
 this nature. During the reign of the house of Arpad the 
 chief regular taxes were the hearth-tax (fumarii) payable 
 by every non-noble, free, householder, and the terragium or 
 land-tax.* Besides these there were the so-called munera, 
 nominally free gifts payable by the towns on New- Year's 
 
 1 Law of 1405, 17 ; 1439, fi i 1492, 27 ! 149^, 29 i I5i4- 
 
 2 Herczegh, o.c. p. 416. » Timon, o.c. p. 240. 
 * Herczegh, p. 126. 6 Timon, o.c. p. 243. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 75 
 
 day or on other festivals, and by lords-lieutenant, who 
 were bound to entertain the King once a year, and to give 
 him one or two hundred marks when he got up from 
 dinner. In the middle of the eleventh century this custom 
 annually produced ten thousand marks for the King's 
 treasury,^ which also received one-twentieth of the Church 
 tithes.^ The introduction of a regular system of taxation 
 was necessitated by the establishment of a paid army under 
 the Anjou dynasty, the basis of taxation being originally 
 the porta (i.e., the peasant homestead with a gateway large 
 enough for a hay-cart to pass through) without reference 
 to the number of persons living within it. This tax, 
 which varied at different times from, roughly, one-seventh 
 to one-third of a gold florin, was changed in the reign of 
 Mathias Corvinus into a tax payable by all peasants except 
 those of the clergy and of nobles possessing more than one 
 sessio or peasant's allotment. Though this produced a large 
 sum, it did not put an end to the necessity of occasional 
 extraordinary taxation, to the extent even of a gold florin 
 on every peasant household, and of the imposition of a poll- 
 tax on the landless. Though from Albert's time no tax 
 could be imposed without the consent of the Diet, Charles 
 Robert, Sigismund, and Vladislav imposed such extra- 
 ordinary taxes with varying success, without reference to 
 that body, which invariably protested against the infringe- 
 ment of its privilege. The result was the law of 1453, 
 absolutely prohibiting the collection of any extraordinary 
 taxes whatever, an enactment which, as a matter of fact, 
 did not prevent the Diet from subsequently voting special 
 subsidies under exceptional circumstances. Thus, by 
 degrees, were established the two principles : that of the 
 Diet's complete control of direct taxation, and that of the 
 nobles' absolute immunity therefrom. That the nobles 
 
 ' Timon, o.c. p. 24.6. 
 
 2 Granted by Pope Alexander IV. to Bela IV. in 1259. Herczegh, o.c. 
 
 p. 127, «. 
 
76 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 were not entirely altruistic in their resistance to the King's 
 demands for money is obvious from the fact that the 
 greater the exigencies of the public service the less the 
 probability of the landlords obtaining their dues in full. 
 
 It must be remembered that the nobles had some 
 justification for their rooted objection to pay taxes, and 
 for the immunity which they maintained down to 
 1848. Every noble landowner,^ no matter what the 
 size of his property might be, was liable to be called out 
 for military service at his own expense to resist foreign 
 invasion,^ and to pursue and take vengeance on the 
 aggressor ; ' and in a country like Hungary, " set in the 
 midst — in the very jaws — of enemies, and requiring at all 
 times to be defended by the sword," * the obligation was 
 no insignificant one. Apart from the levie en masse of 
 the nobles the King had his own forces, and these he could 
 utilise both at home and abroad. They consisted, in the 
 first place, of the poor nobles (ydrjobbdgyok), who held 
 land of the King, and were under an obligation to perform 
 military service in return therefor. These provided the 
 mass of the army at the disposal of the Crown. Secondly, 
 there were the forces which the chief officers of State were 
 bound to provide in virtue of their official positions, viz. 
 the Palatine, the Ban of Croatia, the Voyvode of Transyl- 
 vania, the lords-lieutenant of counties, certain bishops, 
 and others, to whom the King had made grants of land, 
 the consideration for which, was the performance of 
 military service.^ Thirdly, there were the soldiers whom 
 the royal towns arid privileged peoples like the Saxons 
 were bound to provide. The non-noble free were under 
 no obligation to serve, but eight, or sometimes ten, had 
 
 ^ In the case of brothers, joint owners, only one, the utilior et acrior, was 
 bound to serve. Constitutions of Pest ; Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 635, cl. 19. 
 2 Golden Bull, cl. 7. 
 
 ^ Law of 1 23 1, cl. 16, "pro vindicta persequi." 
 * Verb6czy, i. 18. 
 ' "Et quibus amplas concessimus possessiones," 1231, 15. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 77 
 
 to club together to provide one soldier. If the king 
 thought fit to employ mercenaries, he had to pay for 
 them out of his own funds. With the Anjou dynasty the 
 principle was introduced that while poor nobles were not 
 bound to do more than give personal service, the great 
 landowners must take a share in the defence of the 
 country's interests proportionate to their means. Hence 
 the law,^ to which reference has already been made, fixing 
 the peasant's dues at one-ninth of the produce of his land 
 payable to the landlord, and one-tenth to the clergy, who, 
 as nobles, were also liable to military service in defence of 
 the country down to 1523, when they were allowed to 
 find substitutes. For every hundred florins so received 
 two mounted men had to be provided. The number of 
 soldiers to be found under the new system in proportion 
 to the number of peasants on an estate varied, from time 
 to time, from three from every hundred to one from every 
 twenty,^ the so-called militia -portalis. Nobles with no 
 peasants originally had to give personal service only ; but 
 from the middle of the fourteenth century three, four, ten, 
 or twenty, according to the country's necessity and the 
 decision of the Diet, had to find a mounted man between, 
 them,' as well as to serve themselves under the flag of the 
 lord -lieutenant of their county. The forces so raised 
 amounted to from 100,000 to 200,000 men at various 
 times out of a population of between four and five millions, 
 of whom seventy to eighty per cent were Magyars.* The 
 local justices were entrusted with the task of registering 
 all peasants liable to serve ; ® and by a law of the reign of 
 Ladislaus V., nobles failing to provide their proper con- 
 tingent of soldiers according to the number of their 
 
 1 1351, 6. 
 
 ^ Timon, o.f. p. 744, «. The origin of the word ^Kwar — hijsz=20. "Gentes 
 potissimum levis armaturae sive hiszarones," i486, cl. 31. 
 ^ Timon, o.c. p. 745, n. 
 
 * Mdtyds Kirdly Birodalma. Beksics, p. 39. 
 
 * Law of 1435. 
 
78 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 tenants, had to pay sixteen florins for each mounted man 
 whom they failed to supply, and ten for every foot-soldier. 
 In case of non-payment within fifteen days, defaulters 
 were to be kept under arrest until their obligations were 
 fulfilled.^ The number of men called out for service in 
 every case depended on the decision of the Diet, as did 
 the assessment of the military tax ; except, therefore, as 
 regards the forces provided ex officio by the great officers 
 of state and by the King, the control of the Diet was 
 complete in military matters. Charles Robert, relying on 
 the love of display of the Hungarians, introduced the 
 so-called Banderial system, which allowed nobles who 
 found one hundred or more soldiers ^ to bring them under 
 their own flag instead of fighting under that of the lord- 
 lieutenant of their county. The result was a competition 
 among the nobles for the distinction of having brought 
 the greatest number of retainers. The qualifying number 
 was subsequently reduced, and from 1492 onwards the 
 privilege was extended to all who brought not less than 
 fifty armed men. For foreign expeditions the King could 
 rely only on his own forces, and on the banderia of the 
 officials already referred to,* each of whom provided not 
 less than 500 mounted men. 
 
 The want of a permanent body of disciplined troops 
 began to be felt. Consequently King Mathias organised 
 a force of 14,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry, known 
 from their uniform as the Black Brigade,* the pay and 
 cost of maintenance of which was voted from time to 
 time, as required, by the Diet, which stipulated that the 
 officers of the Brigade as well as those in charge of the 
 fortified places on the frontiers should be exclusively 
 
 1 
 
 A Magyar Nemzet TsrMnete, iv. 130. 
 2 Timon, o.c. p. 746. Herczegh, p. 314, n., says 500. 
 ^ The so-called Ziszl6s urak, or Bannerets. 
 
 * Herczegh, o.c. p. 414. Horn, Le Compromis de 1S68 entre la Hongrie et la 
 Croatie, says they were mostly Croatians. 
 ^ 147 1, 6, and 1492, 8. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 79 
 
 Magyar. The establishment of a permanent force led to 
 the decay of the Banderial system, and as, after the death 
 of Mathlas, the Black Brigade became disorderly and fell 
 to pieces, the country became unable to defend itself 
 against the better organised and better armed Turkish 
 troops. The result was the disaster of Mohdcs.^ 
 
 As has been mentioned, the nobility never constituted 
 an exclusive caste, for all free Magyar landowners 
 nominally enjoyed precisely the same privileges. In 
 practice, however, this was not entirely the case, wealth 
 and official position being differentiating factors ; and 
 though, nominally, no difference of birth was recognised 
 before 1608, there were certain families which possessed 
 the hereditary right of admission to the Council ^ (member- 
 ship of which otherwise depended on the holding of 
 certain high offices), and others, the members of which 
 were known, at all events as early as the reign of B61a IV.^ 
 as barones naturaks or barones solo nomine. These latter 
 
 1 The Turks had 300 guns at Mohdcs, the Hungarians only 80. — Mdtyds 
 Kirdly Birodalma. Beksics, p. 21. 
 
 2 Marczali, A Magyar Nemzet T'irUnete, ii. 639, cites a patent given to the 
 Frangepdn family by Bda IV., in return for a money subsidy required for the 
 purpose of raising mercenaries, in virtue of which all its members became 
 primates, and received in perpetuity the right to a seat in the King's Council, 
 and to all the privileges, honours, and franchises attaching to the chief lords of 
 the kingdom. So it would appear that higher nobles were recognised as a class 
 in 1263. Further, Szalay, Magyarorszdg TSrtinete, iii. 187, «., says that down 
 to the time of Sigismund " Imtnunitas " from the jurisdiction of the county 
 authorities carried with it the title of baron. For an example of " Immunitas " 
 see Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 209 sqq. : a charter granted in 1330 to 
 the Bithory family. The family and all living on their land, including 
 foreigners, are excluded from the jurisdiction of the Palatine and county 
 authorities in perpetuity, and the peasants are exempt from payment of all 
 State taxes and dues ; jurisdiction is given to the family in all civil and 
 criminal cases, and power to inflict the penalty of death, mutilation, and 
 branding, and to keep a gallows always standing for the discouragement of 
 evil-doers. These immunities, which also gave the right to build castles, gave 
 rise to an oligarchy, to an attempt to bring the smaller landowners into 
 a state of feudal dependence, and to the pauperisation of the Crown. They 
 produced a breach in the solidarity of the people, which was largely answerable 
 for the disaster of Moh^cs. 
 
 ' BeOthy, o.c. i. 332. 
 
8o THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 possessed the title, but not the office of the veri barones 
 regni, the Palatine, Chief Justice, Bin of Croatia, Voyvode 
 of Transylvania, and other officials, members of the Council 
 of State enumerated by Verb6czy, in which recognised 
 class of great nobles the bishops were included in virtue 
 of their office. The title of Count (gr6f) was held in the 
 fifteenth century, if not earlier, by such nobles, comites 
 liberi et perpetut, as exercised completely independent 
 authority over whole districts.^ Though the conferment 
 in perpetuity of the right to exercise such authority was 
 forbidden by the Golden Bull,^ grants continued to be 
 made in Croatia and Slavonia.^ The creation of Counts 
 without reference to landed possessions or special authority 
 did not begin till after the introduction of the Habsburg 
 dynasty, which, after 1608, created Counts of the Holy 
 Roman Empire largely with a view to obtaining a majority 
 in the Upper House. The same may be said of the 
 Duces or Princes created by the House of Habsburg, 
 who thus became possessed of a title confined under the 
 Arpid dynasty to members of the reigning family.* 
 
 It will be remembered that all barons, that is to say 
 officials dependent on the King and hereditary lords- 
 lieutenant, were excluded from the Diet of 1298 ; but 
 there is no evidence to show that this was the usual 
 practice, and that their influence was permanently confined 
 to the council chamber. In the first place, both custom 
 and law not only allowed, but in early days, compelled 
 
 1 Timon, o.c. p. 534.. 2 Q, jg, 
 
 * Herczegh, o.c. p. 316. 
 
 * It was the custom from St. Stephen's time to confer the government of 
 districts on sons or brothers of the King, with the right of coining, keeping 
 troops, etc., and the heir to the throne was often crowned as " rex junior " in 
 his father's lifetime. As such he had his own officials, chancellor, treasurer, 
 etc., but held his position only ex 'voluntate patris. Emerich (Imre), son of 
 Stephen, was apparently the first Duke, as governor of Slavonia. Bda, brother 
 of Andrew I., governed a third of the kingdom. — Herczegh, o.c. pp. 64, 65. 
 
 The title of Prince was conferred for the first time on one not of royal 
 blood, on the Voyvode of Wallachia, by Louis the Great. — Timon, o.c. p. 538. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 8i 
 
 the attendance of all nobles ; ^ in the second place, the 
 established principle that votes should be weighed and 
 not counted ^ makes it improbable that those who, owing 
 to their position and attainments, were best qualified to 
 form public opinion in such an unwieldy body as the Diet 
 of early days should have been habitually excluded from 
 its deliberations. The fact of its unwieldiness soon led 
 to an attempt to alter its composition by the introduction 
 from time to time of the representative principle ; but the 
 fact that a recurrence to the old system frequently took 
 place shows either that the recollection of the old mass 
 meetings of the tribes died hard, or, what is more probable, 
 that the people had little confidence in the ability of their 
 representatives to resist the blandishments, or the attempts 
 at bribery or intimidation, of the powerful nobles^ or of 
 the King. The latter would, no doubt, find it easier to 
 get subsidies voted by a comparatively small body of 
 representatives than by the great mass of the impecunious, 
 and, consequently, would be the warmest partisan of the 
 representative system. But there was another reason for 
 the introduction of that system. It came to be regarded, 
 not as a deprivation of a right, but as an alleviation of a 
 burden. The law of 1526 (cl. 16) says that "poor 
 nobles have become so exhausted by the frequency of 
 the meetings of the Diet that they have been compelled 
 to mortgage their property to meet the excessive expense, 
 and so have degenerated into a condition of perpetual 
 rusticity." The great nobles dragged out the meetings 
 
 1 " Omnes servientes {i.e. nobles) libere illic (Sz^kesfeh^rvar) conveniant," 
 1222, cl. I, and 1290, cl. 25. 
 
 ^ Verboczy says : " Verum si populus in duas divideretur partes, tunc 
 constitutio sanioris et potioris partis valet. Sanior autem et potior pars ilia 
 dicitur in qua dignitate et scientia fuerint praestantiores atque notabiliores," 
 lii. 2; The law of 1495, 25, ordains that each member of the Council is to 
 be asked his opinion ; but still the " Saniores " had it their own way, and 
 though continual disputes arose in consequence, the system continued till 
 after 1825. 
 
 ' See Andrdssy, A Magyar Allam FSnmaraddsdnak Okai, i. 392. 
 
 VOL. I G 
 
82 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 in order to tire out the opposition,-' and non-attendance 
 became a habit. It was resolved, therefore, that business 
 must be begun on the fourth day after that fixed for the 
 opening of the Diet, and concluded within fifteen days ; 
 and that all who failed to attend should be heavily fined. 
 Fear of expense and distrust of their representatives 
 alternately influenced the lesser nobles. It seems that 
 in the twelfth cCntury all attended every year. In 1267 
 it was enacted (cl. 8) that "two or three from each 
 county" should appear. The law of 1290 (cl. 25) 
 demands the attendance of all nobles ; and it is the same 
 in 1318. In 1385 four representatives are summoned 
 from each county. In i486 an unspecified number of 
 " elected nobles representing the whole kingdom " attended 
 the Diet of Buda according to the decree of that year. 
 Nine years later the entire body of nobles was summoned ; 
 and we may take it that the right of all nobles to appear 
 was never abolished till 1608, though after Mohacs 
 circumstances made its exercise an impossibility.^ In 
 early times the Diet, or parlamentum publicum^ as it was 
 styled in 1288, was summoned annually ; but, apparently, 
 it became the habit early in the fourteenth century to call 
 it together at uncertain intervals when required, as it was 
 then no longer summoned for judicial purposes. The law 
 of 1498 decreed its convocation every year for the next 
 four years, and then every three years; that of 1563 
 requires an annual sitting to be held, but the rule was 
 not observed. Ferdinand II., in his diploma inaugurak, 
 undertook to summon the Diet at least every third year ; * 
 and this continued to be, nominally, the rule till 1848. 
 
 ' By 1492, 108, the Diet was bound to wait three days for the bishops 
 and barons, and then could proceed without them. 
 
 ^ Apparently the whole body of the nobles was summoned for the last 
 time, and under penalty for non-attendance, by Maximilian in 1572, for the 
 coronation of his son. 
 
 ^ Also styled Parlamentum generale. Concilium commune Regni, Con'ventus 
 Regni generalis, Diaeta generalis. — BeOthy, o.c. i. 48, and Kmety, Kozjog, 248, ». 
 
 * Timon, o.c. p. 599. How long the Diet continued to be held in the 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 83 
 
 Till 1608 the Diet consisted of one chamber only, though 
 the King's Council contained the germ of the Upper 
 House of a later day. It is evident that in the time of 
 the Arpad dynasty it was the usual practice for the King 
 to consult the Council as to proposed legislation before 
 the meeting of the Diet took place; and cl. 25 of the 
 law of 1495 n^ade it obligatory to do so. 
 
 In early days the Magyar population had little 
 inclination for anything but country life, and the towns 
 developed but slowly from the communes, in which 
 strangers were encouraged to settle for purposes of trade 
 by the grant of immunity from the payment of customs 
 duties ^ and of the permission to hold fairs and markets 
 under the supervision of the governor of the fortified 
 town ^ — the political centre of every county. The urban 
 population consisted chiefly of Germans and Jews, who 
 did not speak Hungarian, and so lived a life apart and 
 took no part or interest in the common affairs of state. 
 Their very privileges were a cause of, and accentuated, 
 their isolation, made them dependent on the King,* and 
 hostile or indifferent to the constitutional rights of the 
 rest of the people. As early as 1230 town councils existed, 
 invested with judicial authority, and consisting of a judge 
 
 open air after the manner of the old tribal meetings is uncertain ; anyway it 
 was not so held after the introduction of the Anjou dynasty. It was not 
 always held at the same place, but Sz^kesfeh^rvir was the traditional place for 
 the Coronation Diet. After Mohics, Pressburg (Pozsony) became the regular 
 place of meeting, and continued to be so, apparently for the reason that it was 
 close to Vienna, and gave the Habsburgs a greater degree of control than they 
 would have had over a Diet meeting at more distant Buda. The oldest extant 
 Utter ae regales, or letters of summons, are of 131 8. They state that the Diet 
 is summoned under pressure, under threat of excommunication, apparently 
 the only means the nobles had of compelling an unwilling King to convoke 
 them. — Herczegh, o.c. p. 338, n. Since Sigismund's time the litterae regales 
 specified the chief subjects for the discussion of which the Diet was to meet. 
 
 ' 1405, cl. 17. 2 Herczegh, o.c. p. 73. 
 
 ^ " Bona et peculia Sacrae Regni Coronae." " Die Magyaren errichteten 
 in Ungarn den Staat, die Deutschen schufen die Stadte." — Hunfalvy quoted 
 by Schwicker, Die Deutschen in Ungarn und SiebenbUrgen, Vienna, 1881, p. 87. 
 See the chapter entitled " Die Deutschen und das Stadtewesen in Ungarn." 
 
84 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 (Major villae or villicus) ^ and ten or twelve jurors elected 
 by all householders. From the decisions of this body an 
 appeal lay to the King's treasurer. The actual govern- 
 ment of a town was in the hands of an outer and an inner 
 council : the former consisting of forty to one hundred 
 members/ the latter of twelve to twenty -four senators 
 elected for life, with whom lay the appointment of all 
 executive officers. There were no definite class dis- 
 tinctions, but certain towns had an exclusively racial 
 character, and in many places the result was the establish- 
 ment of a narrow German oligarchy, which took advantage 
 of its privilege of making by-laws and regulations to 
 refuse to allow Magyars or members of other races to 
 own property within the town limits, and so excluded 
 them from participation in municipal government.^ For 
 a long time the towns were unrepresented at the Diet. 
 The representatives of the larger ones were in fact 
 summoned from time to time for special objects,* for the 
 discussion of terms of peace or of financial questions, but 
 the first occasion on which they undoubtedly took part 
 in the general business of the Diet was in 1405. In that 
 year eight ° free towns sent their representatives, elected 
 for the purpose, not by the mass of the citizens, but, as in 
 later days also, by the town councils. This fact deprived 
 
 ' Timon, o.c. p. 204., «. See also the charter given to Buda in 1276, 
 cl. 3, in Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 543, and law of 14.05, giving jurisdiction 
 in case of all offences committed within the town limits. 
 
 2 In Pest 124. — Herczegh, o.c. p. 386. 
 
 2 The exclusive tendencies of the Germans made it necessary to take 
 measures for the protection of other nationalities, and cl. 12 of the law of 
 1608 declared that at elections to municipal offices no regard must be had to 
 nationality, and that Magyars and Slavs must be allowed to own property 
 within the town limits. As this law received the assent of an Austrian king, 
 it may be concluded that the scandal which gave rise to it must have been 
 considerable. In most towns less than one hundred persons possessed the 
 rights of citizenship. — Horvdth, HuszanSt i'v Magyarorszdg TSrt^nelmihol, 
 i. 619. * E.g. in 1397 to the Diet at Temesvdr. 
 
 ^ Called liberae et Regiae cinjitates, to distinguish them from the liberae. 
 Verb6czy enumerates eleven such, and early in the sixteenth century there 
 were fifteen. — Timon, o.c. p. 563, «. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 85 
 
 them of their representative character, and justified the 
 general view that they were mere tools of foreign trade- 
 guilds, anti-Magyar in spirit, and blind partisans of the 
 King whenever the interests of the Crown and the nation 
 happened to be opposed. Hence the continued opposi- 
 tion in the Diet to the extension of urban representation, 
 of which more will be heard hereafter, and the fact that 
 all the privileged towns together were regarded as forming 
 only one nobilis persona entitled as such to the apparently 
 derisory, but actually sufficient, privilege of one vote. 
 More they could hardly expect so long as they were under 
 the thumb of the Court, and were not only indifferent, 
 ' but actually hostile to the desires of the nation whose 
 favoured guests they were,^ whose language they were 
 unable to speak.^ In return for their privileges they paid 
 a land tax and a military tax to the Crown, and were 
 under an obligation to find a certain number of soldiers, 
 but only in the event of the King taking the field in person. 
 Before Mohacs, Transylvania, " antiquissimum Hun- 
 gariae Regni membrum," as it was styled by the Diet of 
 Pressburg of 1691, formed an integral part of Hungary, 
 and consequently had no separate legislative body, but 
 sent its representatives to the Diet in the same way as the 
 counties of Hungary proper sent theirs. Being some- 
 what shut off from the rest of the country, it was, from 
 St. Stephen's time, placed under a Voyvode, or permanent 
 governor, who, in time, came to occupy much the same 
 position as that held by the Palatine in Hungary. The 
 population consisted of Magyars, Szeklers, and Saxons, 
 spoken of as " the three nations of Transylvania," each 
 having their own separate organisation down to 1437, 
 when, owing to a rising of Wallachian and other peasants, 
 
 ' Michael Horvdth, Magyarorszdg TSrtinelme, vi. 25. 
 
 * The deputies of Pozsony, Buda, Kassa, and Szdkesfeh^rvdr to the Diet 
 of 144.6 could not understand Hungarian, as shown by a letter of one of their 
 number quoted by Knaus, Az Orszdgos Tanda is OrszaggyiiUsek T'Minete, 
 p. 41 and note 179. But Szalay, o.c. iii. 89, «., doubts this. 
 
86 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 they formed, for purposes of defence, a " fraternal union," 
 which was developed in 1507 by the establishment of a 
 common judiciary. A general meeting of all the nobles 
 is first spoken of as having taken place in 1291, and from 
 that time forward frequent mention is made of meetings 
 of the congregatio generalis trium partium for judicial 
 purposes as well as for the discussion of questions of local 
 finance and milifery matters.^ 
 
 The origin of the Szeklers (Latinised as Siculi)^ is 
 uncertain. Procopius* says that 3000 Huns entered 
 Erdeleu* after their defeat, "calling themselves, not 
 Hungarians, but Zekul," and that the Szeklers were the 
 descendants of the Huns who stayed in Transylvania 
 until the return of their congeners under Arpdd. The 
 anonymous scribe of King Bela speaks of them as 
 "formerly Attila's folk," but Timon^ shows that this 
 could not have been the case, as their language proves 
 that they could not have separated from the main stock 
 until the Magyar tongue had attained its full develop- 
 ment, which did not take place until a considerable time 
 after the occupation of Pannonia had become an accom- 
 plished fact. Marczali* thinks they were members of a 
 kindred tribe, neighbours of the Magyars in their old 
 home, who are known to have setded in parts of Hungary 
 and Bulgaria.^ Pauler, on the contrary, believes that 
 they were pure Magyars transplanted to Transylvania 
 by St. Ladislaus in order to have a permanent defensive 
 force on the frontier ; but if this was their origin, it is 
 
 ^ Timon, o.c. p. 695 sqq. 
 
 2 Probably originally Scythuli. The Epitome of Peter Ransanius in the 
 Chronica minora, ed. Fl6rian, p. 153, says they were the descendants of 
 Sicilians who fought under Attila, a mere invention to account for the 
 name. 
 
 5 De Bella gothico, iv. 18. 
 
 * The Hungarian for Transylvania is " Erddy." 
 
 ^ O.c. p. 75 ; so too Hunfalvy, Magyarorszdg Ethnographidja, 200. 
 
 ' A Magyar Nemzet "tirtinete, ii. 1 70. 
 
 ' The Bessenyok or Patzinakites of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 87 
 
 strange that it should have been forgotten so soon. In 
 support of the theory is the fact that the obligation 
 of military service was universal with the Szeklers, who 
 were, in consequence, exempt from taxation. They long 
 maintained the old family and tribal organisation with 
 its military basis.^ the King's authority being represented 
 by an Ispdn, known as the Comes Siculorum, and the 
 seven districts and the seven free towns elected their own 
 military and judicial officers. The seven captains and 
 seven judges of the district, as well as the Comes, attended 
 the Hungarian Diet. Similarly, the Magyar part of 
 Transylvania was divided into seven counties, each under 
 its Lord-Lieutenant and corresponding officials, as in 
 Hungary proper. Every county and each of the four 
 towns sent two representatives to the Hungarian Diet. 
 
 In early times the Hungarians not only did not 
 oppress but actually gave exceptional privileges to the 
 strangers within their gates who, later, ill requited the 
 hospitality they had received. Of the so-called Saxons 
 the earliest settlement came into existence in the reign 
 of G6za II., about the year 1 147, when floods in Flanders ^ 
 drove out a considerable section of the population, which 
 betook itself to Saxony in search of a new habitation, 
 but finding that country a prey to famine, resumed its 
 wanderings, accompanied by many Saxon families, and 
 eventually reached the northern part of Hungary. There, 
 in 1 147, King G6za allowed them to settle in the district 
 of Szepes (Zips), recently devastated by the incursion of 
 the Kuns, and gave them special rights and immunities 
 which were confirmed by subsequent kings. At first 
 they did not form a separate political body, but by 
 charter of 1271,' confirmed in 131 2 by Charles Robert, 
 
 ^ Herczegh, o.c. p. 102, n. Hunfaivy, I.e., states that the name Szekler 
 signifies frontier-guard. 
 
 ^ In the thirteenth century they were known as Flemings, not as Saxons 
 Regestrum de Vdrad, 1231-1235, — Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 701. 
 
 ' Endlicher's Monumenta, p. 522. 
 
88 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the twenty-four so-called towns were formed into a 
 separate provincia, at the head of which was a comes or 
 judex chosen by the inhabitants, who were thus withdrawn 
 from the jurisdiction of the King's justices^ and kept 
 their own laws and customs. In return for their 
 privileges they paid the King three hundred marks of 
 fine silver every year, and were bound to provide him 
 with fifty lancers in time of war. 
 
 It seems that the Saxons of Transylvania mostly came 
 from the neighbourhood of Cologne and DQsseldorf, whence 
 they were driven by the oppression of feudal lords.^ By 
 the charter of Andrew 11.^ (1224) these " Theutonici 
 Ultrasylvani " were recognised as a separate political 
 organisation, were allowed to choose their own lay and 
 ecclesiastical officials, and were subjected to the authority 
 only of the King and of their own Ispan.* Their traders 
 were allowed to import their merchandise free of duty 
 into all parts of Hungary and to hold fairs and markets. 
 Originally they elected their own burgher-masters and 
 judges, but in or before Sigismund's reign these offices 
 had become hereditary in certain families. An end was 
 put to this, and the elective principle was restored, by 
 Mathias Corvinus in 1477. Each town had its popular 
 assembly, its inner council of twelve members, and its 
 outer one of fifty to one hundred. The Transylvanian 
 Saxons were bound to find 500 soldiers for home 
 defence, provided the King took the field in person, 
 and 100 for service abroad. They also paid 500 
 marks per annum to the royal treasury. Like their 
 
 ' " Quia homines sunt simplices et in jure nobilium nequeunt versari." — 
 Timon, o.c. p. 217, «. 
 
 2 Keinzel, Ueber die Herkunft der Siebenbilrger Sachsen. A Magyar 
 Nemzet Tortinete, ii. 412 sqq. See also Enchiridion Fontium, p. 145. Schwicker, 
 Die Deutschen in Ungarn und Siebenbiirgen, p. 80 sqq., and especially Teutsch, 
 Geschichte der Siebenbilrger Sachsen, Hermannstadt, 1899, p. 8 sqq. 
 
 ^ Teutsch, o.c. p. 27. 
 
 * Appointed by the King — official title, Comes Cibiniensis, Count of 
 Szeben, 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 89 
 
 fellow-countrymen elsewhere the Saxons would in all 
 probability have lost their individuality, and have be- 
 come merged in the Magyar nation, but for the special 
 privileges which kept alive the spirit of racial distinction, 
 the results of which were felt all through Hungarian 
 history. 
 
 Slavonia formed part of Hungary from the earliest 
 times, as is proved by reference to the treatise of Con- 
 stantine Porphyrogenitus already referred to,^ but was not 
 converted to Christianity till the time of St. Ladislaus.^ 
 It enjoyed a certain measure of self-government, had its 
 own Congregatio, which could pass by-laws of local 
 application, paid only half the taxes paid in Hungary,' 
 could elect its own Comes and bishops, and used its own 
 laws and rules of judicial procedure. No Magyar or 
 other foreigner could live or hold property in the 
 privileged towns* without the express consent of the 
 municipal authorities. The Congregatio^ sent elected 
 representatives to the Hungarian Diet.^ 
 
 Croatia,^ annexed in 109 1 by St. Ladislaus, revolted 
 
 1 De Administrando Imperio. 
 
 ^ This statement is not borne out entirely by the document which Timon 
 [o.c. p. 224, «.) quotes in its support, " Laszld qui terram slavonie " {i.e. the 
 parts between the Szava and Drdva) "sive banatum ab errore ydolatrie ad 
 Christianitatem convertem corone Hungarie subiugavit." 
 
 ^ Szalay, Magjiarorszdg TSrtinete, iii. 265, n. 
 
 * See the charter granted in 1 108 to the town of Traun by King Coloman, 
 in Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, p. 126, regarded as the model for all such 
 charters. 
 
 ' Timon, o.c. p. 716 sqq. 
 
 'Law xxiii. of 1751. After Mohacs Slavonia came under Turkish 
 domination, and was not restored to the Sacred Crown till 1699 — the peace 
 of Karl6cra. Since 1751 it was under the authority of the Bdn of Croatia. 
 
 ' See Timon, o.c. p. 716 sqq. ; and Herczegh, o.c. p. 226 sqq. Croatia of 
 to-day is territorially distinct from the original country of that name. In the 
 twelfth century Croatia was the name of the district lying between the Kulpa 
 and the Verbasz, and included the present Bosnia and parts of modern 
 Dalmatia. Such was the independent kingdom of Zvonimir before it was 
 united to Hungary. This original territory was subsequently occupied by 
 the Turks, and the Christian population took refuge in the strictly Hungarian 
 district lying between the Sziva and Driva. The rights enjoyed under 
 
90 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 after his death, and was reconquered in 1105 by Coloman, 
 who assumed the title of King of Croatia and Dalmatia, 
 and placed both countries under a Dux or Ban invested 
 with the functions of governor or chief justice. By 
 the " Privilegium libertatum," granted a few years later, 
 Coloman allowed the Croatians to keep their old laws, 
 and to forbid the ownership of real property by Magyars, 
 exempted the nobles from the payment of taxes to the 
 royal treasury, and permitted migration to all who might 
 consider themselves aggrieved by Hungarian rule. Except 
 for the fact that they had no right of armed resistance to 
 the King, the Croatians in most respects enjoyed rights 
 similar to those possessed by Magyar nobles, as, apart 
 from immunity from taxation, they were liable to military 
 service outside the limits of Croatia only under the personal 
 leadership of the King, and at his expense. Croatia had 
 its own diaeta generalis, which could pass laws of local 
 application only^ and provided for the assessment and 
 collection of the military tax and the enrolment of the 
 military contingents required by Hungary. Dalmatia* 
 received similar rights from Coloman, and, though in 
 general under Hungarian law, had certain old privileges 
 confirmed later by Charles Robert and Louis the Great. 
 For instance, the Dalmatians elected the governors of the 
 
 Hungarian predominance were continued to those in the new, which gradu- 
 ally lost its essentially Magyar characteristics, though it continued to be 
 subject to the spiritual lordship of the Magyar bishop of Kalocsa. 
 
 1 Verboczy, Jus Tripartitum, iii. 2. 
 
 * Occupied by the Venetians early in the Anjou period, restored to 
 Hungary in 1358, but again occupied by Venice in 1420. In 1432 the whole 
 of Dalmatia came into the possession of Venice, which continually had to 
 fight the Turks to maintain its rights. By the Peace of Campoformio 
 Francis I. recovered Dalmatia as belonging to the Sacred Crown of Hungary, 
 but kept it only till 1805, when it became a French possession. Recovered in 
 18 1 6, it was incorporated in Austria, illegally, as Francis's claim to it was 
 based solely on the fact that it belonged to Hungary. Fiume formed a 
 "separatum Regni Hungariae coronae adnexum corpus," a detached but 
 integral part of the Magyar kingdom, in accordance with the " Benignum 
 Rescriptum " of Maria Theresa, 1779. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 91 
 
 towns, the bishops, and the lower judicial authorities ; and 
 one-third of the customs duties was applied to local 
 purposes, the remainder being paid into the Hungarian 
 treasury. In Dalmatia the King did not claim the right 
 of investiture or any judicial control of ecclesiastics. 
 These three districts of Slavonia, Croatia, and Dalmatia, 
 at first spoken of as partes subjectae^ and later, out 
 of deference, it appears, to Croatian susceptibilities, as 
 partes adnexae, never seriously claimed more than a 
 certain degree of municipal independence, though the 
 Croatians asserted, in their address to Ferdinand I., that 
 they had joined themselves of their own free will to the 
 Crown of Hungary, and in pursuance of their historical 
 rights had voluntarily elected him to the throne. The 
 value of such claim is indicated by the fact that though, 
 possibly, some early kings of Hungary caused themselves 
 to be crowned kings of Croatia,^ Sigismund absolutely 
 declined to do so, and from that time forward coronation 
 with the Crown of St. Stephen was all that was required 
 to give Kings of Hungary authority over the annexed or 
 subject parts. Deputies sent by the provincial Congre- 
 gatio had seats in the Hungarian Diet, and six towns and 
 the district of Turopolya each sent representatives to that 
 body, which passed many laws dealing with purely Croatian 
 affairs, as the Corpus Juris Hungarici shows ^ — a sufK- 
 
 1 Diploma of 1490 and Verb6czy, iii. 2, who distinctly states that 
 Dalmatians, Croatians, and Slavonians, and any other people " quae alterius 
 subest dominio nulla potest condere statuta nisi cum consensu sui superioris." The 
 laws of 1579, 1715, 2, and 1723, show that the usual phrase was " Regnum 
 Hungariaepartesque eidem adnexae iiel subjectae." Appeals from the local courts 
 went before the High Court, the Kirilyi Curia of Hungary, both in Verboczy's 
 time and later in accordance with laws of 1723 and 1807. BeOthy, A Magyar 
 Allamisdg fejlldise Kiizdelmei, ii. 271, cites a document of 1492, signed and 
 sealed by the Bin and sixty-two chief nobles of Croatia, in which are the words 
 " coronae atque regno subjecti sumus." They are styled " Subjectae " in clause 8 
 of the Peace of Nagy-Vdrad, 1538, and in the preamble to the laws of 1608. 
 
 2 Kmety, A Magyar KoxjogTank'onyve, p. 148, says that Coloman was the 
 only one to be crowned King of Croatia. 
 
 ^ E.g. 1351, xii., provides for the payment of the lucrum camerae by the 
 
92 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 cient proof of the baselessness of Croatia's claim, advanced 
 at a later date, to be considered an allied and not a sub- 
 ordinate state.^ The key to later history is to be found in 
 the fact that Croatia desired to be united to its congeners, 
 Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, and so to form a Slav state 
 of greater importance than it could ever aspire to attain 
 as a constituent part of the realms of the Sacred Crown. 
 
 The Wallachs or Roumanians claim to be descendants 
 
 of Roman colonists, but there is not a vestige of evidence 
 
 to show that any Roumanians lived in Transylvania at the 
 
 •time of its occupation by the Magyars.^ They were a 
 
 inhabitants of the district between the Driva and Szava. 1471, vi., enacts that 
 the fortifications on the Croatian frontier shall be entrusted to Magyars. The 
 sixth decree of Sigismund shows that the form of the oath to be taken by all 
 Croatian officials, from the Ban down to the lowest judicial authorities, was 
 fixed by the Hungarian Diet. 
 
 ' Horn, Le Compromis de 1868 entre la Hongrie et la Croatie, tries to show 
 that Croatia was never a Hungarian province, but an allied state which had 
 never been conquered. He admits, however, a "partial" conquest by St. 
 Ladislaus, and that when Coloman advanced later with an army to enforce his 
 claims, the Croatians accepted his terms rather than fight, which scarcely looks 
 like voluntary alliance. His argument for the independence of Croatia, based 
 on the fact that the Bdn Imre issued instructions "auctoritate regia," pp. 41, 
 42, proves, if anything, precisely the contrary, as the Bin was son of the King 
 of Hungary and ruling ex 'voluntate patris, who obviously had complete 
 control of Croatia if he could delegate regal authority without reference to 
 that country. It should also be observed that Bins were almost invariably 
 Hungarians down to 1848, when the usual practice was departed from for an 
 obvious reason. No conclusion can be drawn in favour of Croatia's independ- 
 ence from the fact that its deputies did not attend the Hungarian Diet from 
 1527 to 1593, as owing to the Turkish occupation everything was in an 
 abnormal condition. Later they invariably attended, took part in the election 
 of the Palatine, and demanded that their Bin should have a seat at the Diet, 
 p. 80. In fact Croatia, as M. Horn admits, was proud of its connection with 
 the Sacred Crown until it conceived ideas of expansion and of absorption of 
 other Slav elements ; and indeed, until then, it never looked upon its privi- 
 leges as other than municipal rights. Laws of 1439, ^^1 ^"<i i49^> 8> required 
 the Bin to be a Hungarian, and the Croatians themselves demanded that it 
 should be so, as they would not obey one of their own race. — SzOgyiny Marich 
 Laszl6, EmMiratai, p. 66. See also Auerbach, Les races et Us nationality en 
 Autriche-Hongrie, Paris, 1898, pp. 315-316. For the argument based on Croatia's 
 action re the Pragmatic Sanction, see below, p. 186, n. 
 
 2 Paul Hunfalvy, Die RumUnen und ihre Anspruche, Vienna., 1883, p. 39 
 sqq.j as to the evidence of names of rivers and places showing no vestige of a 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 93 
 
 race of nomad shepherds who gradually wandered into 
 Hungary from the Balkan peninsula in the course of 
 the twelfth century, bringing their Slav liturgy, an indi- 
 cation of their true origin, with them.^ The theory of 
 Roman origin, mentioned by Bonfini,^ was seriously 
 revived by Sinkai in 1 807 on the authority of Eutropius,* 
 who says that Trajan, after the conquest of Dacia, brought 
 thither an immense number of people from all parts of the 
 Roman world to till the land and occupy the towns, for 
 the male population had been exhausted by the long war 
 with Decebalus. But even if this statement is correct, it 
 does not necessarily imply the total extermination of the 
 
 Romance population. See also De Bertha, Magyars et Roumaim de'uant Fhisioire, 
 Paris, 1899, ch. vi., and Hunfalvy's Magyarorszdg Ethnographidja, pp. 479 sqq.^ 
 
 499- 
 
 ' Herczegh, o.c. p. 104. For the evidence of language see Hunfalvy, 
 o.c. pt. ii. The Cyrlllian characters were used down to the end of the 
 eighteenth century, when Sinkai issued the first Roumanian grammar, 1780. 
 Cihac's Etymological Dictionary shows that the Slav words in use vastly exceed 
 those of Romance origin [ibid. 222). See also Auerbach, Les races etles nationa- 
 litis en Autriche-Hongrie, Paris, 1898, p. 290 ; and Baloghy ErnO, A Magyar 
 Kultura is a Nemzetisigek, Budapest, 1908, pp. 98, 106 sqq. ; also Beksics Gusztav, 
 A Romdn Kirdis, Budapest, 1895, p. 20 sqq. The Bible was not translated into 
 the Rouman language till the time of George R4k6czy in the middle of the 
 seventeenth century. PiJ, Zur Rumanisch-Ungarischen Streitfrage, Leipzig, 
 1886, admits, p. 42, that the post-position of the definite article in Roumanian 
 is a serious stumbling-block in the way of those who would assign a Roman 
 origin to that language. Even the Roumanian name for Transylvania, 
 " Ardeal," was clearly taken from the Hungarian Erddy, a proof that the 
 WaUachians came on the scene after Transylvania had received the Magyar 
 stamp. Pic can do no more by way of answer to the above fact than refer to 
 the existence of a Rutulian town, Ardea, in Italy, o.c. p. 80. 
 
 ^ Rerum Hungaricarum Decades, 7th ed., Leipzig, 1771, p. 284. Of 
 modern partisans of this theory see especially PiS, Zur Rumanisch-Ungarischen 
 Streitfrage, Leipzig, 1886, ch. i. The letter of Pope Innocent III. in 1204 to 
 the Hungarian King shows that he believed the Wallachs to be Bulgarians, 
 but apparently he himself suggested to the WaUachians the theory of their 
 Roman origin in the hope of weaning them from the Eastern Church. — See 
 Hunfalvy, Die RumSnen, etc., p. 69. Niketas Choniates, writing at the end of 
 the twelfth century, speaks of the Blacchi, " formerly called Mysians," as having 
 previously been under the same rule as the Bulgarians. See also the reply of 
 the Transylvanian Orders to the Sufplex Libellus Valachorum in 1791. Jancs6 
 Benedek, Szabadsdgharczunk is a Dako-Romdn Torekvisek, Budapest, 1895,. 
 pp. 2, 3, 25 sqq. ^ Book viii. 2-3. 
 
94 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Dacians ; ^ and if the imported colonists were " ex toto 
 or be Romano y they were obviously anything rather than 
 Roman. Mommsen, who clearly shows that the Dacians, 
 so far from being exterminated, gave considerable trouble 
 to later Roman emperors, says that the imported colonists 
 were Dalmatians and inhabitants of Asia Minor,^ Sinkai, 
 in his anxiety to find a respectable origin for the Wallachs, 
 quotes EutropiuS when that writer apparently supports his 
 theory, but not when his evidence is destructive. He 
 therefore omits all reference to the passage' in which his 
 author states that the Emperor Aurelian, " despairing of 
 his ability to retain the province of Dacia, which Trajan 
 had constituted beyond the Danube," withdrew the Romans 
 therefrom in a.d. 270, abandoning it, according to Gibbon,* 
 to the Goths and Vandals. Little is heard of them in early 
 Hungarian history. The Blacchi^ are mentioned some- 
 
 ' See Hunfalvy, o.c. p. 12 iqq., and, as to the evidence of inscriptions, 
 p. 8, which prove the existence of a very strong Dacian element. 
 
 2 The Pro'vinces of the Roman Empire, bk. viii. ch. vi. Mommsen, in fact, 
 says that Roman rule was never effective in the parts of Moldavia, Bessarabia, 
 and Wallachia, which were " nominally " incorporated in the Roman Empire. 
 " Even the language of the country maintained its ground." According to the 
 same authority, the Dacians, Moesians, and Thracians all spoke the same 
 language. The two legions posted on the left bank of the Danube were finally 
 withdrawn in 260 a.d., and therewith disappeared the last vestiges of Roman 
 control. The Roman coin and inscription of latest date are of 255 a.d. 
 
 5 viii. 15. 
 
 * Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ii. 11 sqq. Gibbon is often cited 
 in support of the Roman origin of the Wallachians, who, he wrongly says, 
 " boasted in e'very age of their Roman descent," vol. ii. ch. xi., but in vol. vii. 
 ch. Iv., he says that they are of kindred osigin with the Bulgarians, Servians, 
 etc. 
 
 5 Vlachs, from the German expression for Romanised races, Walsch, see 
 Hunfalvy, o.c. pp. 76 and 241-250. Verantius, a writer who lived at the court 
 of John ZApolya, in the sixteenth century, mentions the Vlacchi, and says they 
 had no freedom nor property, and lived a miserable life scattered about the 
 mountains with their cattle. — See Kovachich, Script. Minor, ii. 106. Simon 
 K&ai, Gesta Hunnorum, i. 5, mentions the Blacki as living mixed up with the 
 Szeklers in early days, but evidently he and the other chroniclers who mention 
 the Wallachs could account for their existence and for the servile position 
 they occupied only by assuming that they were aborigines conquered by the 
 Magyars. The anonymous scribe of King Bda refers to the existence of a 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 95 
 
 what contemptuously by the anonymous scribe of King 
 Bdla, and a document of the reign of Andrew III. (1293) 
 refers to them as serfs of the King whose wanderings must 
 not be allowed to continue, apparently on account of their 
 predatory habits, by reason of which the edict of 1625 
 forbids them to ride or carry arms. The Diploma of 
 Leopold, 1691, which confirms the religious and civil 
 liberties of the other races of Transylvania, does not even 
 mention the Roumanians. On the other hand, the report 
 of Joseph to. Maria Theresa, on his journey to Transyl- 
 vania in 1768, refers to their "indescribable ignorance 
 and stupidity," and to their blind obedience to their priests, 
 and mentions the fact that not one in a thousand cpuld 
 either read or write his own language. The troubles of a 
 later period are directly traceable to this servile obedience 
 to the priests, who desired an independent ecclesiastical 
 organisation of their own, and fomented the hatred en- 
 gendered by subjection to Saxon as well as Magyar land- 
 lords. The Roumanians of Transylvania had no political 
 rights down to 1848, in which respect they were on pre- 
 cisely the same footing and had the same grievance as all 
 Magyar peasants. 
 
 St. Stephen abolished the old tribal divisions and 
 divided the country into counties ^ in order to facilitate 
 the collection of taxes, the establishment of a form of 
 military organisation, and the consolidation of the royal 
 power. At the head of each county was the Comes Castri 
 (Foispdn or Lord-Lieutenant) appointed by the King — at 
 
 Wallachian Duke Gelou in Transylvania, but there is no other record of such 
 a person j and Hunfalvy, o.c. p. 92 sqq., shows that the Wallachian word 
 Kenez (Russian Kniaz, Prince or Duke) signified no more than the head of a 
 village or district. 
 
 ' Probably forty-five at first (Timon, o.c. p. 188.) The oldest reference 
 is of the year 1150, in the Gesta Frederki imperator'u of Bishop Otto of 
 Freising, who says there were seventy or more, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 120. 
 See also the Carmen miserabile Magistri Rogerii, circa 1245, in Endlicher's 
 Monumenta, p. 262, and Petri Ransani Epitome in Chronica minora, ed. F16ri4n, 
 p. 144. 
 
96 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 first, probably, a purely military official, governor of the 
 fortified town and commander-in-chief of the county 
 forces,^ who soon developed into the responsible head of 
 all branches of local government. With the decline of 
 the royal authority the autonomy of the counties rapidly 
 increased, the purely military character of their organisa- 
 tion disappeared, and they became political units whose 
 wiU was voiced hy the Congregation or general meeting of 
 the whole body of inhabitants,^ originally convened only 
 for judicial purposes ^ under the presidency of the Palatine, 
 but as early as the middle of the thirteenth century, for 
 the discussion and decision of aU matters of local interest 
 under the presidency of the lord-lieutenant.* In his 
 character of " Comes naturalis " of every county, the King 
 could appoint any local landowner to the lord-lieutenancy 
 down to 1486,^ when the law required the consent of the 
 nobles to be obtained prior to the making of an appoint- 
 ment to that office. Though the sixteenth clause of the 
 Golden Bull had forbidden the conferment of hereditary 
 lord-lieutenancies, the dignity was, in fact, still hereditary 
 at the beginning of the eighteenth century in no less than 
 
 1 He appointed the hadnagy, or captain of the forces — the varnagy, the 
 captain of the castle — and the centuriones, the lower officers. 
 
 2 Till the introduction of the Anjou dynasty, nobles and non-nobles alike 
 attended, but with the development of the feudal tendencies of the great nobles 
 the peasants lost their right, though a letter of summons of the period of Louis 
 the Great exists addressed "omnibus nobilibus et ignobilibus nee non alterius 
 cujus'vis status et conditionis hominibus." — Herczegh, o.c. p. 373, n. 
 
 3 The Comes was the chief judicial authority of the county, but he had 
 no authority over the nobles except in the matter of tithes and coinage 
 (clause 5 of Golden Bull). There was also in early times a Judex Regis, at 
 first independent, later under the control of the Comes, who, in his turn, was 
 subject to that of the Palatine, and responsible at first to the King (sect. 14, 
 Golden Bull), then to the Diet (1290, clause 25), for his general conduct. The 
 " bilochi regales " referred to in Golden Bull, clause 5, were apparently judges 
 sent specially for the trial of "-fures et latrones," as assistants to the Comes. 
 
 * Herczegh, o.c. p. 92, «., cites a document of 1254, which shows that the 
 congregation already then dealt with all matters "quae totam pro'vinciam 
 tangerent." 
 
 6 Clause 60. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 97 
 
 nineteen families, and was enjoyed ex officio by two arch- 
 bishops and seven bishops.-' The result was the converse 
 of what might have been expected. The lords-lieutenant, 
 both hereditary and nominated, being, in the majority of 
 cases, great nobles who desired either a wider field for 
 their activities or more satisfactory opportunities of spend- 
 ing their money than the county could afford them, 
 developed in course of time a not unnatural tendency to 
 absenteeism. Hence a gradual weakening of the King's 
 hold on the organs of local government, and a correspond- 
 ing accentuation of the democratic character of county 
 organisation. 
 
 At first the Vicecomes was merely the nominee and 
 representative of the Lord-Lieutenant ; ^ but in 1 548 the 
 " Universitas nobilium," ' or whole body of freemen, 
 asserted their right to elect whom they pleased, and 
 thenceforward the Deputy-Lieutenant became the chief 
 representative of the principle of local autonomy and the 
 practical head of both the judiciary and the executive. 
 In the absence of his superior he presided over the 
 Congregatio, took a leading part in its deliberations, 
 summoned meetings for the election of officials, and when 
 the representative system was finally established, was 
 usually chosen as one of the two deputies who represented 
 the county at the national Diet. Next to the Vicecomes 
 the four judices nobilium (sz61gabirak) were the most 
 important officers, and with him formed the sedria or 
 County Court. They also owed their position, which 
 they held for one year,* to election by the Congregatio ; 
 and refusal to accept office entailed the payment of a fine. 
 
 ' Non-hereditary Foispdns held their appointments " durante beneplacito 
 Regis," according to the usual form of patent. — Herczegh, o.c. p. 375, «. 
 
 ^ The text of the law of i486, clause 60, makes it uncertain whether the 
 King or the Lord-Lieutenant appointed the Vicecomes at that period 
 
 ^ The official title, " «oj uni'versitas Praelatorum, Magnatum, et cunctorum 
 nobilium." 
 
 * In the seventeenth century the tenure of his office was extended to 
 three years. 
 
 VOL. I H 
 
98 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Originally they exercised exclusively judicial functions ; 
 but gradually the sphere of their activity came to include 
 all details of administration, and they were entrusted with 
 the duty of supervising the collection of taxes, the regis- 
 tration of all persons liable to military service, the main- 
 tenance of public order and of the means of communication. 
 Their assistants, the Tablabirak, eight to twelve in number 
 according to the size of the county,^ were also elected 
 officials. They received no salary, and consequently met 
 with the reward which is not unusually meted out to those 
 who are patriotic enough to give their services to their 
 country for nothing. Though in later times it was the 
 fashion in governmental Viennese circles to sneer at these 
 Justices of the Peace, who performed their self-imposed 
 duties neither better nor worse than their British counter- 
 parts, the office of Tablabir6 was much sought after by 
 the young and, the energetic, and formed a stepping-stone 
 to higher office and an excellent school for future legis- 
 lators, in which nearly all the great politicians of the first 
 half of the nineteenth century served their apprenticeship. 
 At an earlier period the most desirable candidates were 
 not always elected, as is evident from the law of i486, 
 which put an end to the practice of election by acclamation, 
 conducive to the selection of unsuitable persons and to the 
 perpetration of "levities, the result of fear, favour, and 
 corruption," and entrusted the Lord-Lieutenant with the 
 duty of preparing a list of candidates from among " the 
 good, the worthy, and the well-to-do" (clause 9). 
 
 It would seem that at one period the counties showed 
 some disinclination to put up with interference from the 
 central government, and a disposition to claim for their 
 local statutes a force and a validity equal to that 
 possessed by the general laws of the realm.^ However, by 
 
 1 According to the law of Mathias Corvinus, i486. Four according to 
 the law of 1444.. 
 
 ^ See Verb6czy, Jus Tripartitum, iii. 2. In the nineteenth century the 
 Vienna Government objected, without effect, to the custom of some counties of 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 99 
 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century the limitations of 
 the ^'jus statuendi " were clearly recognised, and the Con- 
 gregations confined themselves to the making of rules of 
 procedure and such by-laws of local application as did not 
 run counter to the general statutes of the realm. In the 
 matter of local taxation the Congregations had a free hand. 
 From the year i486 they were in the habit of imposing a 
 tax to provide for the payment of the expenses of their 
 elected representatives at the Diet, but this soon developed 
 into a general power of taxation for all local purposes,^ to 
 which noble,^ and peasant, and citizens of the free towns, 
 alike contributed from 1537 to 1733, when land-owning 
 nobles selfishly claimed the privilege of exemption on the 
 strength of Verb5czy's dictum which limited the obliga- 
 tions of the nobility to military service. All matters of 
 national as well as of local interest were discussed at the 
 general meetings, and, if necessary, the results of the 
 deliberations of the Congregatio, its requirements, and its 
 objections, were communicated to the King, the Executive, 
 and the Diet. On the last-mentioned body the counties 
 exercised a direct and, possibly, an excessive influence. It 
 was customary for the King's letter of summons, directing 
 the election of deputies, to set out the " propositions " 
 or measures which the Crown intended to submit for con- 
 sideration by the Diet. The Congregations debated these 
 embryo Bills and gave binding instructions^ to their 
 representatives how to vote on each individual matter. 
 The mandate could be withdrawn, modified, or supple- 
 mented, at any moment, and if any matter came before the 
 Diet as to which the deputies had received no instructions, 
 members were bound to refer to their constituents. Under 
 
 allowing the honoratiores, i.e. non-noble members of the liberal professions, to 
 take part in and vote at the Congregations. 
 
 1 H4ziad6, contributio domestica. 
 
 ■ Except those personally summoned to the Diet by the King. Before 
 1537 only nobles paid. 
 
 2 First mentioned in 154.5. BeSthy, o.c. p. 352. 
 
loo THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 such circumstances there was no possibility of mistaking 
 the opinion of the country, and, in fact, as will be seen 
 hereafter, in the early years of the nineteenth century the 
 fate of any Bill was practically known before the meeting 
 of the Diet. But the system had grave disadvantages : 
 there were practically fifty-two Diets instead of one, and 
 the initiative a|id discretionary powers of the deputies 
 were reduced to a minimum. Further, it became possible 
 for an unscrupulous Government to obtain a momentary 
 majority by inducing a few counties by corrupt means to 
 disfranchise themselves temporarily by withdrawing the 
 mandate given to their representatives. As a matter of 
 fact the counties could rarely be reproached with a want 
 of true patriotic interest in the affairs of the nation. Their 
 chief power resided in the fact that it was not only their 
 privilege, but their bounden duty to defend the Constitution 
 and to refuse to obey illegal edicts.^ The execution of all 
 royal rescripts and ordinances of general application rested 
 with the county authorities, to whom they were sent for 
 publication, and if, after due consideration, the same 
 were found to be not in accord with law and immemorial 
 custom, the Congregation addressed a protest to the King, 
 the Executive, or the Diet, and if the objectionable order was 
 not withdrawn, could " respectfully disregard it." ^ The 
 only remedy of the Crown was the dispatching of a com- 
 missioner to carry out the royal instructions by force, 
 or the summoning of recalcitrant officials ad audiendum 
 verhum regium, to be cajoled or browbeaten ; but if a 
 county chose to continue its policy of passive resistance, 
 to be steadfast in its refusal to elect officials, collect taxes, 
 and provide recruits until its grievances were removed, it 
 could effectually paralyse all attempts at unconstitutional 
 action. 
 
 The pre-Habsburg period saw the gradual develop- 
 
 1 1444, cl. 3. 
 ^ This originated, no doubt, from the old right of armed resistance. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION loi 
 
 ment of the essential features of constitutional government, 
 of the idea of the personal liberty of the subject, of the 
 responsibility of the Executive to the nation, of the 
 representative principle, and of the equality of King and 
 people as legislative agents ; but in the state of debility to 
 which Hungary was reduced by internal faction and 
 external attacks, it is doubtful whether any constitutional 
 principles would have alone sufficed to defend the country 
 against the persistent attempts to germanise and absorb it, 
 of which it was the object in the ensuing period of its 
 history. The fact that the Constitution was not cut and 
 dried and inelastic, but that it gradually took shape and 
 was formed by degrees, partly by crystallisation of customs, 
 partly by legislative enactments scattered over many years, 
 naturally gave rise to uncertainty which easily lent itself 
 to exploitation in the interests of absolutism.^ The 
 Hungarian Constitution was weak, inasmuch as it provided 
 no sufficient means of compelling a king to observe the 
 sworn guarantees he had given, or of punishing remissness 
 or intentional infringement.^ The right of armed resist- 
 ance to royal illegality and the threat of excommunication 
 — of a boycott in this world and of damnation in the next 
 — had been proved to be inefficient safeguards of popular 
 liberty. A Constitution which members of a national 
 dynasty had successfully infringed had little chance of 
 avoiding violation at the hands of kings of an alien race, 
 whose watchwords were absolutism, Catholicism, centralisa- 
 tion, germanisation. The Diet's right of financial control 
 was a powerful weapon, but, as will be seen hereafter, was, 
 alone, an insufficient means of defence. Apart from the 
 inherent vitality of the Magyar race, it is, before all, to the 
 autonomous institutions of the counties, and to their 
 power of passive resistance, that Hungary owes the 
 maintenance of its individuality and its escape from 
 
 ' "Der Absolutismus macht sich In den gewaltigen Lilcken der Un- 
 garischenVerfassungbreit."^Tezner,Z)frO«f.^a«?rri/f/,etc.,Vienna, i899,p. 7. 
 
I02 EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 absorption. It was the misfortune of Hungary that the 
 later kings of the pre-Habsburg period allowed themselves 
 to be dependent on the goodwill of the great nobles, 
 and' feared a frank alliance with the mass of the people. 
 If the kings had boldly identified their interests with those 
 of the lesser nobles, they would have had a strong 
 kingdom, financially and militarily, instead of one rent 
 by faction and class-hatred. Hungary, set in the midst 
 of enemies, could not afford to make the mistakes which 
 England, secure in its insular position, could commit with 
 impunity. Internal dissension necessarily opened the door 
 to foreign interference, and after five centuries spent in 
 consolidating and extending itself, on constitutional de- 
 velopment and foreign conquest, Hungary suddenly found 
 itself face to face with the task of maintaining its existence, 
 of escaping reduction to a mere geographical expression. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 After the battle of MohAcs it at once became evident that 'S^S- 
 little serious resistance could be oiFered to the Turk until 
 a new king had been elected and time had been gained for 
 the reorganisation of the scattered forces of the country. 
 The first idea was to elect Sigismund, King of Poland, to 
 the vacant throne, and he, in fact, sent envoys to negotiate 
 on his behalf; but they arrived too late to have any 
 chance of success, more especially as Hungary was dis- 
 gusted with him on account of his failure to keep his 
 promise, made some weeks before the great disaster, to 
 send help against the Turks. The country was divided 
 into two parties, of which by far the larger was in favour 
 of the election of John Zapolya, Voyvode of Transylvania, 
 a Magyar and a man of great wealth, who had long been 
 looked upon as a possible candidate for the throne. It 
 was mainly with a view to the exclusion of foreign 
 pretenders and to his succession that the resolution formu- 
 lated by Verboczy had been adopted by the Diet at Rakos 
 in ; 505. The probability of promotion in the event of a 
 vacancy occurring, was considered by some to have been 
 the cause of Zapolya's absence from the fatal field of 
 Mohacs, a neglect of duty which his supporters tried to 
 explain by suggesting that he had been kept away by the 
 intrigues of a hostile faction in order that he might have 
 no share in the anticipated glory.^ In any case he was 
 popular with the majority, and those who had escaped 
 
 1 Rad6-RothfeIdt, Die Ungarische Verfassung, p. z6. 
 103 
 
I04 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 from the disaster at once began to gravitate towards him. 
 For a time, at all events, there was practical unanimity in 
 his favour. Soon, however, the opinion began to gain 
 ground that the election of Ferdinand of Austria would 
 result in the throwing of the might, not only of the 
 hereditary provinces — a comparatively small matter — 
 but of the whole of Germany into the scale against the 
 Sultan, and specfal stress was laid upon this consideration 
 by the Palatine, Stephen Bithory, and other personal 
 enemies of ZApolya. 
 
 Ferdinand, grandson of the Emperor Maximilian 
 and brother of Charles V., had married Anna, sister of 
 Louis, the late King of Hungary and Bohemia, who in 
 his turn had married Maria, Ferdinand's sister ; but 
 connexion by marriage with a former King could give no 
 claim to an elective throne. The Archduke Ferdinand, 
 born in Spain and living at Innsbruck, had hitherto con- 
 centrated his attention on Western-European politics and 
 took no interest in Hungary, where he was entirely 
 unknown. It was not he, but his sister Maria, who took 
 the Habsburg cause in hand. A suggestion had been 
 made that Zapolya should marry Maria, and so secure to 
 Hungary the double advantage of a native King and of a 
 connexion with Germany ; but though the idea was 
 favoured by the Pope Clement VII., and was well received 
 in the country, the ex-Queen, partly out of loyalty to her 
 brother^ and partly, to judge from her subsequent reputa- 
 tion, for the reason that widowhood presented more 
 attractions than the bonds of holy matrimony, would not 
 hear of the scheme. A meeting of the Diet was called for 
 November 5, and this fact and Maria's energy finally 
 galvanised Ferdinand into life, who conceived the in- 
 genious idea of sending Thomak Nidasdy to begin his 
 electoral campaign by squaring the chief nobles and the 
 influential clergy ^ by promises of money and by holding 
 
 ' Michael Horvdth, Magyarorszdg TSrUnelme, iii. 9. 2 j^,-^ pp j^ 5. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 105 
 
 out hopes of preferment to the seven vacancies which 
 Mohacs had fortunately created on the episcopal bench, 
 and by promising observance of the rights and privileges 
 of the people and the speedy ejection of the Turks.^ 
 Knowing nothing of the Hungarian Constitution, Ferdinand 
 did not understand that election by the Diet was essential, 
 and thought that, at the- most, half a dozen or so influential 
 electors could, as in Germany, dispose of the crown. In 
 any case he had no idea of the necessity of calling the 
 whole body of nobles together, and restricted his summons 
 to selected representatives of the counties, who were to 
 meet, not for the purpose of electing him, but for the 
 formal recognition of his claim to the throne as brother- 
 in-law of the late king. In the meanwhile, as he had 
 neither men nor money with which to back his pretensions, 
 his and Maria's chief wish was to gain time. He therefore 
 began a correspondence with Zapolya, with a view to 
 keeping him quiet while negotiations were begun, with the 
 object of obtaining diplomatic backing in Western Europe 
 on the strength of his alleged rights to the Sacred Crown 
 and of the supposed interests of Christendom in the 
 erection of a strong barrier against Turkish encroachment. 
 In spite of the disturbed and desolate state of the country, 
 a vast number of nobles attended the opening of the Diet, 
 which took place at the traditional place of meeting, 
 Sz6kesfeh6rvdr, on November 9. Though Ferdinand's 
 envoy was present, and did all he could to obtain an 
 adjournment of the meeting, the result was never in 
 doubt, and John Zapolya was elected unanimously and 
 by acclamation.^ The only thing wanting to make the 
 election and the ensuing coronation complete and legal in 
 all respects was the fact that the Diet had not been 
 summoned by the Palatine, but, Bithory being a personal 
 enemy of Zapolya, by a document signed by thirty of the 
 
 ' Michael Horvith, Magyarorszdg TSrt^nelme, iii. p. 5. 
 ^ Frakn6i, Magyar OnzaggyilUsi EmUkei, i. 1 3-30. 
 
io6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 principal barons and nobles, and that the first vote for the 
 new king was not cast, as it should have been, by the 
 Palatine. Zapolya, who was not a man of war, and was 
 not anxious to be King, appointed the famous Verboczy 
 to the post of Chancellor, in the hope that the ingenuity 
 of the great legist, and the weight of his name, would 
 obviate the necessity of a recourse to arms for the 
 vindication of the claims of a native monarch to the 
 throne of St. Stephen. 
 
 Ferdinand, who had recently been elected King of 
 Bohemia, now thought it time to take a decided step, and 
 summoned a meeting at Pressburg, to which only those 
 on whose support he could rely were admitted. His 
 envoy, Christopher Rauber, solemnly promised in his 
 name that he would drive out the Turks,^ and produced 
 a formal letter written by Ferdinand from Vienna in which 
 he undertook to indemnify his partisans against any loss 
 they might suffer in consequence of their support of his 
 pretensions, and promised that they should have the first 
 call on all temporal and ecclesiastical offices in the event 
 of his obtaining possession of the kingdom. In a document 
 of the same date (Nov. 30), which is important for the 
 reason that it refutes the claims which have been advanced 
 on behalf of the house of Habsburg to the throne of 
 Hungary by right of conquest, conferring a license to 
 disregard historic rights and constitutional guarantees, 
 Ferdinand undertook to maintain inviolate all the privileges 
 of the people and to govern in accordance with the 
 ancient laws of the country : — " We, Ferdinand, by the 
 grace of God King of Bohemia, Infante of Spain, Archduke 
 of Austria, etc. . . . promise the entire kingdom of 
 Hungary that We will preserve and maintain the Lords 
 Spiritual and Temporal, the nobility, the Free Towns, and 
 all the Estates of the Realm, in the enjoyment of all 
 liberties, laws, and decrees which they have enjoyed 
 
 ' BeOthy, A Magyar Allamisdg FejUd&e KUzdelmei, p. 292. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 107 
 
 from the time of former kings, even if We shall obtain 
 the said kingdom by force of arms, in exactly the same 
 manner as if We had been elected by unanimous vote. 
 We will confer no bishopric, benefice, hereditament, or 
 office on any alien, nor will We admit foreigners to the 
 Council of the said kingdom. More especially will We 
 observe the decree of his most exalted IVIajesty King 
 Andrew, to the observance whereof the Kings of Hungary 
 have been wont to take a solemn oath at their coronation. 
 . . . And to the firm observance of all these presents We 
 do hereby bind Ourselves and Our heirs." ^ This was good 
 enough for Ferdinand's anti-nationalist and self-seeking 
 partisans, but could not obviate the necessity of holding a 
 formal meeting of the Diet, as foreign nations would 
 recognise none but an elected King of Hungary. Therein 
 lay the difficulty of the situation, as it was almost impossible 
 to get together anything decently resembling a quorum. 
 The meeting had to be postponed for the purpose of 
 sending a whip round, and when it was ultimately held at 
 Pressburg on December 17, the attendance was lamentably 
 sparse, the representatives of the counties were conspicuous 
 by their absence, and those who did attend were mostly 
 Croatians, who subsequently transferred their allegiance to 
 Zapolya, whose election the meeting declared void for 
 nine reasons, chief among which was the fact that the 
 Diet of Szekesfehervir had not been convened by the 
 Palatine.^ In this respect Ferdinand had the advantage 
 of strict legality on his side, while, on the other hand, 
 
 ' A similar promise was made to the meeting on Ferdinand's behalf five 
 days later by Bishop Rauber. It is stronger in some respects. " Promittens 
 quoque eisdem Statibus et Ordinibus quod omnia et singula regni hujus 
 privilegia libertates, decreta, et consuetudines hactenus observatas de cetero 
 non tantum conservare firmiterque tenere et adimplere, sed etiam ilia eis 
 majora amplioraque efficere velimus et intendamus. Nee eos vereri debere 
 quod exteros suis adhibere consiliis aut alienis a natione Hungarica beneficia 
 dignitatesque ecclesiasticas conferre velimus." — Enchiridion Fontium, p. 392. 
 Michael Horvdth, o.c. iii. 18. 
 
 ^ Szalay, Magyaronzdg Tsrtinete, iv. 3 1 
 
io8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Zdpolya had been crowned with the Sacred Crown, the 
 imposition of which was essential in the eyes of the 
 majority to the vaUdity of the coronation ceremonial. It 
 was evident that arms alone could decide the questions at 
 issue. 
 1527. On March 17 a meeting of the Diet was convened at 
 Buda, as a counterblast to that held at Pressburg, and in 
 order to show which of the rival claimants had the 
 sympathy and the support of the nation at large. The 
 meeting, which was attended by the representatives of 
 fifty-three counties, and of Slavonia and Croatia, showed 
 no hesitation in declaring for Zapolya, voted him one- 
 • tenth of all personal property, renewed its adherence to 
 the principle enunciated by the resolution of Rilcos, and 
 declared those who should have any dealings with 
 Ferdinand traitors to their country. To Ferdinand, who 
 sent a protest asserting tha't he, not Zapolya, was the true 
 King of Hungary, a reply was sent pointing out the fact 
 .that Hungary was not the fief, nor was its crown in the 
 gift, of any man ; that the monarchy was an elective one, 
 and that the best thing Ferdinand could do was to cease 
 calling himself King and interfering in the affairs of the 
 country, and to do his utmost, as a Christian, to help the 
 cause of Christendom against the Turks.^ Ferdinand 
 thereupon concluded that he would have to fight, or, rather, 
 to get some one to fight for him. As a preliminary, he tried 
 to win over Zapolya's supporters by promises of money 
 or promotion, more especially in Transylvania, the strong- 
 hold of the national party, in which he couldi rely on the 
 support of the Saxons, naturally in favour of a German 
 king, and of the Jewish and German population of the 
 towns, whose pocket interests led them to wish for the 
 Austrian connection. Ferdinand, in pursuance of his 
 policy of promising rather than fighting, sent seventy-nine 
 letters to Maria, with instructions to date them from 
 
 1 Michael Horvith, o.c. iii. 29. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 109 
 
 Hungary, and distribute them to bishops, or would-be 
 bishops, and to influential barons. The result of the 
 manoeuvre is unknown, but one thing is certain, namely, 
 that the Hungarians began to show signs that they were 
 tired of Zapolya's inactivity, and to waver in their allegi- 
 ance to him.'' Nearly a year had passed since Mohacs, 
 and nothing had been done either against the Turks or 
 against the Austrian pretender, and many Protestants 
 inclined towards Ferdinand in the mistaken belief that, as 
 a German, he would favour the German reformed faith, 
 which had already made considerable way in Hungary. 
 
 Without any expectation of success, and chiefly 
 with a view to gaining time for the collection of men 
 and money, Ferdinand off^ered Zapolya 300,000 florins 
 for the crown of Hungary, and when the offer was 
 indignantly refused, with the remark that no Habsburg 
 " had any more right to the throne than a Babylonian or 
 a negro," gave the order to his army to advance into 
 Hungary. On September 26, Count Salm defeated 
 Zipolya's forces, and captured all his artillery. The 
 victory was welcome, as it enabled Ferdinand to convene 
 something resembling a proper Diet, which hitherto he 
 had been unable to do for the reason that, until it was 
 clear which way the cat was likely to jump, comparatively 
 few nobles were inclined to take any step which might 
 jeopardise their necks. The coronation, which was carried 
 out at the beginning of November with proper pomp and 
 circumstance, gave Ferdinand a legal status, but no more 
 solid gain, as more than half the country still refused to 
 recognise the validity of his election. It is noticeable that 
 the oath taken by Ferdinand before coronation differs in 
 an important detail from the terms of the document of 
 November 30, to which reference has been made, for he 
 takes the oath for himself only, not for himself and his 
 
 1 Some of those who had two sons sent one to Ferdinand and one to 
 Zipolya. — Michael Horvdth, o.c. iii. 41. 
 
no THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 heirs, thus indicating the fact that his right to the throne 
 was based solely on election, and that his successors would 
 have no other claim than that which the people itself 
 might give them. The oath is incorporated with the 
 heading, " Ferdinandus in Regem Hungariae rite eligitur " 
 in the Corpus juris Hungarici, and as the Corpus was 
 published in 1822 with the special permission of Francis I., 
 who was most jealous of his rights and prerogatives, and 
 at a time when the censorship was exceptionally rigorous, 
 mention of the fact of election would not have been 
 allowed if there had been any basis for the Austrian 
 contention that Ferdinand owed his crown not to election 
 but to conquest, or to the compact made between his 
 grandfather and Vladislav. By the oath, which may be 
 regarded as embodying the terms of the contract between 
 Ferdinand and Hungary, the new King binds himself 
 "to maintain God's Church, the high ecclesiastics, the 
 barons, the nobles, the free towns, and all the inhabitants 
 of the kingdom, in the enjoyment of their exemptions, 
 freedom, possessions, privileges, and ancient and approved 
 customs ; to do justice to all and every one of them ; to 
 observe the terms of the decree of his former Majesty, 
 Andrew II. (the Golden Bull) ; not to alienate or diminish 
 the territories of Hungary, or of any countries pertaining 
 thereto by any title whatsoever, but to the best of his 
 ability to increase and extend the same, and to do all that 
 is legally possible for the common weal and for the honour 
 and increase of the realm." To what extent the compact 
 was observed will appear hereafter. 
 
 Neither Salm's victory nor Ferdinand's election did 
 anything to quiet matters down. On the contrary, civil 
 war was now in full swing, though there was no concerted 
 plan on either side, and skirmishes between the two 
 factions were of daily occurrence. It soon became evident 
 that neither party was strong enough to demolish the 
 other, and that the perpetuation of disorder and a permanent 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION iii 
 
 division of the country must be the result. Under the 
 circumstances, Ferdinand broke with the traditions of his 
 house and of Christendom, which forbade all dealings 
 with the Turk, and influenced only by personal considera- 
 tions and the fear that Zapolya might anticipate him, 
 began bidding for the Sultan's support. Martinuzzi, or 
 Friar George as he was generally known, Zdpolya's chief 
 supporter and adviser, began an agitation in Poland, 
 resulting in the collection of a considerable armed force, 
 which, however, was unable to stand against Ferdinand's 1528 
 superior numbers. Till now Zapolya had refused to 
 listen to the suggestion that he should negotiate with the 
 Sultan, believing that the Christian principles of Europe 
 would back him in a new crusade ; but his defeats, and 
 the failure of his hopes of foreign help, at last made him 
 consent to approach Constantinople. The way had been 
 already prepared, without his knowledge, by Venice, the 
 most resolute enemy of the Habsburgs, which, fearing 
 that the rival kings might come to terms, pointed out to 
 the Sultan the fatal consequences which might result to 
 Turkey if Hungary became a German dependence, and 
 urged him to come to the assistance of ZApolya.^ Negotia- 
 tions with the Porte were begun on the basis of the 
 recognition by the Sultan of Zapolya as an equal or allied 
 monarch who, in return for assistance in the task of 
 obtaining undisputed possession of the throne of Hungary, 
 would make an annual present, a euphemism for tribute, 
 to his ally. The proposal was accepted by the Sultan with 
 a view to utilising Zdpolya's claims as an excuse for the 
 conquest of Hungary for his own benefit, and Austria's 
 prospects looked blacker than at any previous period. 
 
 Ferdinand was not in Hungary to look after his own 
 interests. Disgust was everywhere expressed at the 
 brutality and misconduct of his German mercenaries ; ^ 
 his warmest partisans began to waver when the news of 
 
 1 A Mag. Nem. Tort. v. 62. ^ Michael Horvath, o.c. iii. 47. 
 
112 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Zipolya's agreement with the Turks became public 
 property, and Maria sent urgent messages entreating him 
 to take the conduct of affairs into his own hands, and 
 insisting that a prolonged absence 'from Hungary meant 
 1529- ruin to his prospects. By the beginning of January not 
 a town in the south remained to Ferdinand, and on 
 May 2, Zipolya issued a proclamation announcing his 
 alliance with Suleiman and calling on all Hungarians to 
 rally round him. With few men and no money Ferdinand 
 could do nothing, even if he wished to do anything, for 
 the defence of Buda, which the Turks, followed by 
 Zipolya, entered early in September. Thence the Sultan 
 advanced in person to Vienna and began the siege, but 
 soon after abandoned it, though the defence could not 
 have: held out more than a few days longer, as soon as 
 he heard that Ferdinand, whose capture was the main 
 object of the expedition, was not in the town. In any 
 case the result of the campaign was that not a vestige of 
 authority was left to Ferdinand in Hungary ; for the 
 army which he had collected in the hereditary provinces 
 refused to advance as soon as it heard that Vienna was 
 no longer in danger. Still, as Ferdinand had not been 
 captured, or forced to admit defeat and withdraw his 
 claims to the Sacred Crown, the Sultan's object had not 
 been attained. The opinion now became general in 
 Hungary that neither claimant would be able definitely to 
 oust the other, and the desire for the end of a destructive, 
 and apparently useless, civil war became more and more 
 acute. ZApolya, established in Buda, was nearly at the 
 end of his tether, for though the Diet voted subsidies he 
 could not collect them, and so was almost penniless. Both 
 rivals were ready and anxious for peace, but while 
 Ferdinand was quite prepared to buy terms from the 
 Sultan, Zapolya would not listen to the suggestion of a 
 compromise with the Turks involving a surrender of part 
 of Hungary to the Porte and the definite acceptance of 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 113 
 
 Suleiman's suzerainty. Ferdinand was too fully occupied 
 in Germany with the task of procuring his election to the 
 imperial throne, in which he succeeded early in 1531, to 
 be able to show any activity elsewhere. He therefore 
 confined himself to carrying on simultaneous negotiations 
 with Zdpolya and with the Porte, which had announced 
 its intention of making a fresh attack on the Austrian 
 provinces. With the former he arranged a truce for 
 three months on the basis of each party keeping what it 
 had got (a more accurate definition of spheres of influence 
 being an absolute impossibility at the moment), and thus 
 a provisional division of the kingdom resulted which 
 prepared the way for final dismemberment. 
 
 In the spring of the following year Ferdinand sent 1532. 
 envoys to Constantinople to offer an annual tribute of 
 100,000 florins in gold if he were given the opportunity 
 of obtaining the whole of Hungary, or of 50,000 if he 
 were allowed to remain in undisturbed occupation of the 
 fraction then actually in his possession. He was even 
 prepared to relinquish all claim to Hungary, with the 
 exception of certain frontier districts the control of which 
 he consideried essential to the safety of the hereditary pro- 
 vinces of Austria. Finally, he expressed his readiness to 
 abandon even this modest claim if Zdpolya would under- 
 take the constitutional impossibility of nominating him as 
 his heir to the throne. At first the Sultan's plenipotentiary 
 would listen to none of the suggestions of Ferdinand's 
 envoy, saying that there was room for only one person 
 at a time on the throne of Buda, and adding that it was 
 impossible to deal with a man who never kept his word, 
 whose ambassadors alternately threatened and begged for 
 peace.^ Eventually, however, he submitted the last of the 
 above-mentioned offers to Suleiman, whose reply took the 
 form of a promise to visit Ferdinand in his own country, 
 and to talk the matter over in Vienna. The Sultan 
 
 1 A Mag. Netn. TSrt. v. 90. 
 VOL. I I 
 
M4 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 did, in fact, penetrate into Austria and ravage Styria, 
 but his visit had no great results, though Ferdinand, 
 whose money difficulties were so well known that his 
 Italian mercenaries refused to budge without money down, 
 could oppose no effective resistance. In Hungary all 
 political life was suspended ; whole districts were ravaged 
 by Turk and Austrian alike, and rendered uninhabitable. 
 The whole country was pining for peace and for the 
 re-establishment of national unity. The nobles bitterly 
 regretted the fact that two rival kings had been elected, 
 and did not much care which of the two succeeded in 
 making his claim effective provided the result was the 
 withdrawal of the Turks on the one side, and of the far 
 more hated German mercenaries on the other. The 
 Diet, summoned at Buda by Stephen Bathory, Ferdinand's 
 chief supporter, passed a resolution in this sense, and 
 wrote saying, " If your Majesty cannot defend the 
 kingdom, be kind enough to say so openly, and we 
 will then discover some means of helping ourselves and 
 of warding off the peril which threatens us." ^ But 
 '532- Ferdinand, then at Augsburg, replied only with smooth 
 words, and the Diet, at its next meeting, expressed its 
 willingness to acknowledge whichever claimant first 
 proved his ability to maintain the territorial integrity 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 The poor result of his last expedition convinced 
 Suleiman of his inability to evict the Austrians, com- 
 pletely and for ever, from Hungary. He therefore 
 received, with a greater degree of politeness than he 
 usually showed, a fresh embassy sent by Ferdinand to 
 express his willingness to renounce all claim to the 
 bird in the bush, provided he were allowed to retain 
 what was actually in the hand. The Sultan agreed to 
 the proposal on condition that the keys of Esztergom 
 should be sent him as a sign of recognition of his 
 1 A Mag. Nem. TSrt. v. 97. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 115 
 
 suzerainty, and Ferdinand submitted to the unpre- 
 cedented humiliation. Both parties in Hungary were 
 furious when it became known that a king, who had 
 been elected solely with a view to the ejection of the 
 Turks, and had solemnly sworn to maintain the integrity 
 of the country, had recognised the overlordship of the 
 infidel. They were still more enraged at the partition 
 of the kingdom, and at the prospective loss of individuality 
 as a nation and of the very name of Hungary.^ Ferdinand 
 did not care. He wanted leisure to turn his attention, as 
 a good Catholic, to the extermination of the Protestants, 
 and, for the moment at all events, was ready to abandon 
 his hopes of obtaining an undivided throne. But his 
 women would not agree to his sharing a crown, and 
 spoiled the negotiations which otherwise would probably 
 have ended in the abandonment of Hungary to Zapolya, 
 and in the nomination of Ferdinand as his successor. 
 Ferdinand, therefore, again collected an army, the biggest '537- 
 he had ever got together for use in Hungary, but only to 
 incur a disastrous defeat at Gorjan — after Mohacs, perhaps 
 the greatest blow Christendom ever suffered at the hands 
 of the unbeliever. He began to realise the obvious fact 
 that of himself he could do nothing, and that Martinuzzi 
 was the only man capable of effecting any lasting results. 
 Brother George, the tortuousness of whose ways earned 
 him an unenviable reputation in certain quarters, was a 
 statesman and a diplomatist who realised the fact that 
 peace was his country's essential necessity, and desired 
 above all the maintenance of Hungarian independence. 
 He was quite ready to come to terms, but the arch- 
 bishop, Ferdinand's emissary, acting on instructions, so 
 haggled over details, that Zapolya's representatives 
 
 ^ Maria warned him against neglect of Hungarian interests, and told him 
 Hungary might be easier to win than to keep. He replied that as soon as he 
 had troops enough he would know how to deal with the Magyars. (Fessler, 
 Geschichte der Ungarn, iii. 417.) His idea was to occupy the fortified places 
 with hired troops to assure the subjection of the country to Austria. 
 
ii6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 dropped the discussion in disgust, and the matters in 
 dispute were adjourned to a meeting to be held the 
 1538. following year at Varad, where peace was signed on the 
 following terms : — maintenance of the status quo ; Fer- 
 dinand to succeed to an undivided throne on the death of 
 Zapolya, even if the latter should have a legitimate heir ; 
 if Ferdinand and Charles V. predeceased Zapolya, the 
 crown to go to Zapolya and his heirs ; if he left no heir, 
 Hungary's right of unrestricted election to revive. It 
 was further agreed that should Zapolya have a son he 
 should be confirmed in the possession of the family estates, 
 and should receive a separate principality and a daughter 
 of Ferdinand in marriage. In the meanwhile, Ferdinand 
 gave up all claim to Transylvania, and Zdpolya to Croatia 
 and Slavonia. Result — a temporary peace and a worthless 
 defensive alliance against the Sultan. Brother George 
 induced Zapolya to consent to this sacrifice of the consti- 
 tutional rights of Hungary and of his own claims, in the 
 belief that the true interests of the country demanded it ; 
 that if it had rest and time to recuperate it might be able 
 to maintain its individual existence and eventually to eject ' 
 the Turks. True, he admitted the claims of the House 
 of Habsburg, but on conditions, and by the eighteenth 
 clause of the compact Ferdinand undertook that " should 
 the succession fall to Us, neither We ourselves nor Our 
 son or heir shall take possession of the said kingdom, or 
 of the provinces and parts subject thereto, before taking 
 a solemn oath as King, in accordance with the custom of 
 former kings of Hungary, to maintain and observe the 
 liberties, decrees, laws, and customs thereof." 
 
 The sworn brotherhood did not last long. The country 
 had imagined that Charles V. would now do his utmost to 
 defend the family inheritance against the Turks, but the 
 death of his wife, and anti-Catholic disturbances in Ger- 
 many and the Netherlands, put all plans for the liberation 
 of Hungary out of his head. It was necessary, therefore. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 117 
 
 to attempt to keep the Sultan in the dark as to the terms 
 of the peace of VArad, for fear he should reply by invading 
 the country, which, indeed, was incapable of effective 
 resistance. Moreover, Zapolya had another reason for 
 wishing to keep Suleiman in good humour, which had 
 not been without influence on him at the time when 
 preliminaries to peace with Ferdinand were under discus- 
 sion. He had, in fact, matrimonial designs on Isabella, 
 daughter of the King of Poland, who had no inclination 
 to allow her to marry while matters in Hungary wore 
 such a threatening aspect. The signing of the convention 
 of VArad, and the apparent acquiescence of the Sultan, 
 satisfied all parental scruples, and Isabella was married 
 and crowned at Sz6kesfeh6rvar early in the following 
 year. Ferdinand must have been anxious about the 1539. 
 possibility of the birth of an heir to Zapolya, and to 
 this circumstance may probably be ascribed the fact that 
 he insisted on the publication of the terms of the peace 
 of Varad, knowing that it would bring the Sultan on to 
 his ally's back ; and in fact the Turks promptly carried 
 10,000 Magyars into slavery at Constantinople. This 
 necessitated further intrigues in order to checkmate 
 Zapolya, whom Ferdinand believed to be now ready to 
 recognise, definitely and unconditionally, the suzerainty 
 of the Porte ; but Zapolya's days were numbered, and 
 he died on July 11, 1 540, only eleven days after the 
 birth of his son, commending his country, his wife, and 
 his child to the care of Brother George. In better times 
 he would probably have made a respectable king, but he 
 was not strong enough to stand up against Turk 
 and Austrian at the same time, and to reorganise the 
 country after the disaster of Mohacs. He saw, or rather 
 Brother George made him see, that the only hope for 
 Hungary was to improve the position of the peasants, 
 reduced to the level of brute beasts by the law of 15 14 ; ^ 
 
 ' At his instigation the Diet of 153 1 passed a law re-establishing the 
 
ii8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and the last native king of Hungary was the first to 
 devote attention to the maintenance of the Hungarian 
 language,^ seeing therein the best bond of national union, 
 and anticipating thereby the efforts of the patriots of the 
 early part of the nineteenth century. Though by the 
 peace of Varad the country was nominally divided into 
 two more or l§ss equal parts, Zdpolya's influence was out 
 of all proportion greater than that of Ferdinand, who, as 
 a Hispano-German, with no knowledge of Magyar customs 
 or laws, was always treading on the national toes, and put 
 no faith in his Hungarian followers. They in their turn 
 had no confidence in him, hated his German advisers and 
 sycophants, and looked with something like contempt on 
 a king who was useless in war and financially feeble. Even 
 the German population of the towns soon lost their illusions. 
 His mercenaries, instead of defending them against the 
 Turk, were no better than undisciplined looters.^ With 
 the Church he was equally unpopular, for the reason that 
 he appointed foreigners to the most coveted ecclesiastical 
 offices in contravention of the law. His idea was to 
 govern Hungary from Vienna, and to visit it as rarely 
 as possible ; but in one matter, at all events, the Diet 
 had the whip-hand of him. It did not fail to remind 
 him that he was the elected king of a constitutional country 
 bound by law and his oath, and emphasised the reminder 
 by a refusal to abandon one particle of its control in the 
 matter of taxation. Hitherto the importation of the 
 Habsburgs had proved a disastrous faUure. Whole 
 districts had been ravaged and depopulated by German 
 mercenaries, by the janissaries, and by the plague — also a 
 Turkish export. In one year 100,000 men, women, and 
 
 peasant's right of migration, but circumstances prevented it from becoming 
 effective. See Acsady, A Magyar Johbdgysdg TSrUnete, 201 sq. 
 
 1 Tinodi, whose poems passed from mouth to mouth, did much to keep 
 the Magyar spirit alive. 
 
 2 " Who live on the tears (lacrimis vivunt) of the poor people," Law xvi. 
 of 1536. , 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 119 
 
 children were carried captive into Turkey. Only in one 
 respect were the rival kings agreed, namely, as to the 
 necessity of keeping the country pure from the pernicious 
 doctrines of Protestantism, and of extirpating a heresy 
 which possessed the fatal attraction that it permitted 
 matrimony to a clergy which had always been inclined to 
 regard the vow of chastity as an unnecessary institution. 
 
 For a time it looked as if Ferdinand would now hold 
 undisputed sway, but Isabella, Brother George, and 
 Verboczy had no intention of sacrificing Zipolya's son, 
 John Sigismund, or what they considered to be the interests 
 of the country. Two courses were open to them : either 
 to secure the family estates and a suitable position for the 
 boy at the price of recognising Ferdinand's claim to an 
 undivided throne, or to throw the interests of Christendom 
 overboard, make friends with the Turks, and, with their 
 aid, secure the independence of as large a slice of Hungary 
 as possible. Ferdinand had only himself to blame for the 
 existing state of affairs. Elected for the purpose of 
 expelling the Turks, he had proved himself unwilling or 
 unable to satisfy even the most modest expectations of his 
 supporters. Any hesitation which Brother George may 
 have entertained as to which of the alternative courses he 
 should follow were promptly dispelled by Ferdinand's 
 attempt to make himself master of Buda by a trick. The 
 Sultan was quite ready to accept the office of patron and 
 protector of Zapolya's son. In the summer of 1541 he 
 advanced with a large army and utterly defeated the 
 Austrians who, under Roggendorf, were besieging Buda. 
 The terror of Ferdinand and other princes lest the Turks 
 should continue their victorious .advance through Austria 
 into Germany may be imagined ; but for the moment the 
 Sultan had plenty to do in Hungary, which he knew the 
 Austrians to be totally incapable of defending. Naturally, 
 he took good care to reward himself properly for his 
 efforts on behalf of Zapolya's son : in fact, there had never 
 
I20 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 been any altruistic motive for his actions. He decided 
 that Buda was no fit habitation for John Sigismund ; 
 assigned him Transylvania as his place of residence, and 
 entrusted him to the guardianship of Isabella and Brother 
 George. Thus was the tripartite division of Hungary 
 brought about. Practically the whole of Hungary proper 
 was in the hands of the Sultan ; Transylvania became a 
 separate principllity under Turkish suzerainty ; and 
 Ferdinand, with the title of King and no certainty as 
 to the fixity of his tenure, occupied the western districts. 
 The irony of fate willed it that Verboczy, incarnation of 
 legal wisdom, author of the book which the Magyar 
 nobles looked upon as their Bible, should receive from 
 the Sultan the appointment of Chief Justice of the Christian 
 subjects of the Porte. 
 154'- Brother George was now inclined to regret what he 
 had done, and began to renew negotiations with Ferdinand 
 at the request of the chief nobles, who entreated him to 
 save the country from definitive dismemberment. But he 
 could not make up his mind to be off with the Turks 
 before he was on with Ferdinand. Probably he hoped 
 that if he played one off against the other Hungary might 
 eventually come by her own ; or that both Turkey and 
 Austria might come to see the advantage of having an 
 independent buffer-state between them. The result of 
 the negotiations was the treaty of Gyalu, confirming and 
 continuing that of Varad, with the addition of a clause, of 
 the uselessness of which Ferdinand's previous record gave 
 convincing proof, to the effect that the Austrians undertook 
 to expel the Moslems. It was resolved that there should 
 be a levie en masse of the Hungarians in the event of 
 Ferdinand taking the field in person ; and an army of 
 60,000 men was collected, which, though Ferdinand had 
 the good sense not to command it himself, met with 
 complete failure in its attempt to recover Buda. General 
 recrimination resulted ; Ferdinand, like other weak rulers 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 121 
 
 and people before and since, consoled himself with the Ger- 
 man equivalent of the classic phrase " nous sommes trahis" 
 and threw the most influential of the Magyars into prison 
 to encourage the rest. The result was the inception of a 
 new period of distrust and hatred fatal to any possibility 
 of effective action. The Magyars were utterly disgusted 
 with the Austrians, whose predatory mercenaries gave the 
 country no rest and proved quite incapable of ejecting the 
 Turks.^ The inclination to settle down quietly under the 
 heathen yoke, which allowed, at all events, more religious 
 liberty than Ferdinand's fanaticism could tolerate, became 
 more and more pronounced. The Diet was lavish in the 
 matter of subventions,^ and Ferdinand in the making of 
 promises. This, however, did not make him ashamed to 
 buy peace from the Sultan for a year and a half at the 1543- 
 price of 50,000 gold pieces, thereby still further estranging 
 the Magyars,^ who continued, in places, an unequal struggle 
 on their own account, while Ferdinand devoted his energies 
 to an unsuccessful attempt to extirpate Protestantism in 
 Styria and the Tyrol. In the meanwhile Brother George 
 continued his policy of keeping the Turks quiet while 
 doing all in his power to help Ferdinand to extend his 
 influence. " Until," wrote Brother George, " your 
 Majesty's affairs take a turn for the better, I will keep 
 the enemy out of the country by means of the artifices 
 which I have hitherto employed," and there is no reason 
 to doubt his sincerity, though it is clear that he was 
 unwilling that Isabella should hand over Transylvania 
 until he was satisfied that Ferdinand was both able and 
 
 1 The law of 1546, 5, recognises the necessity of employing foreign help 
 against the Turks, and authorises Ferdinand to maintain a permanent force of 
 Hungarians and foreigners to be paid out of the proceeds of the military tax, 
 the profits on coinage, and the customs duties. The nobles and clergy to 
 maintain a certain number of soldiers proportionate to the size of their landed 
 property. "Equites vel milites continui." — Timon, o.c. p. 761. 
 
 2 Michael Horvdth, o.c. iii. 165, 168 ; Szalay, Mag. TSrt. iv. 240, 298. 
 
 3 Michael Horvith, o.c. iii. 164. 
 
122 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 willing to carry out the obligations imposed on him by 
 the conventions of Vdrad and Gyalu. 
 '547- The Porte, now fully occupied with affairs in Persia, 
 consented to a peace for five years on terms which con- 
 stituted a fresh and complete humiliation for Ferdinand, 
 nominal King of Hungary. The Sultan, described in the 
 document in which the terms of peace were embodied as 
 Padishah of Budt, Transylvania, and the parts pertaining 
 thereto, in consideration of the payment of a yearly 
 tribute, consented to allow the King to remain in undis- 
 turbed possession of the parts then actually in his occupa- 
 tion, provided he undertook to abstain from interference 
 elsewhere. Transylvania, and the district lying east of the 
 Tisza, were left to John Sigismund, who, like Ferdinand, 
 was to pay annual tribute in recognition of the suzerainty 
 of the Sultan. The Magyar nobles, who had been kept 
 in the dark as to the progress of the negotiations,^ were 
 greatly disgusted when the result became known ; but the 
 country was utterly worn out by the events of the last 
 twenty years, and had no alternative but to acquiesce in 
 the disgraceful bargain, the effect of which was that 
 Ferdinand was left in possession of thirty-five counties 
 of upper Hungary, the Slavonian districts lying between 
 the Szava and the Drava, and the parts of Croatia adjacent 
 to the sea.^ Government was organised on a purely 
 military basis, and a chain of fortified towns was established 
 along the frontier, as a defence against the Turks and as a 
 haven of refuge for the country population when harried 
 by irresponsible raiders. The rest of Hungary became 
 an Ottoman pashalik in which no vestige of the old 
 political life remained. Buda became a Turkish city, the 
 cathedral was converted into a mosque, and the whole 
 
 1 " Ea quae sunt in articulis praesentibus inclusis secretiora et quae non 
 sunt necessaria ad publicandum teneatis apud vos secreta." — Ferdinand's instruc- 
 tions. The price of peace, 30,000 florins, was concealed from the Diet. 
 — Michael Horvath, o.c. iii. 170. 
 
 ^ Law xix. 154.8. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 123 
 
 country was treated in precisely the same way as any 
 Mussulman province. 
 
 In religious matters the new masters of the country 
 interfered little, if at all, and looked on with an amused 
 smile when Catholics and Protestants fought, and the latter 
 reviled and destroyed the images which they had recently 
 adored. Preferring convenience to dogma, some IVIagyars 
 took refuge in Allah, and risked their souls for the sake 
 of material advantages ; but the fact that few, if any, 
 became definitely denationalised, while many Slavs were 
 permanently absorbed in Islam, gave fresh proof of the 
 vitality of the Magyar nation. The rich nobles who had 
 lands outside the limits of the Turkish pashalik retired 
 thither ; the poor ones were reduced to beggary. The 
 peasants perforce remained where they were, and found 
 their dues and their forced labour neither more nor less 
 distasteful when, exacted by alien masters than they had 
 been when Hungary was under purely Christian govern- 
 ment. In any case they were better off than the peasants 
 of the outlying districts of Ferdinand's dominions, which 
 enterprising Turkish raiders harried and laid waste at 
 their pleasure. Their German King could not protect 
 them, and at least a third of the district nominally under 
 Habsburg sway was in reality subject to the Sultan. 
 Transylvania was in a more enviable position, thanks to 
 Brother George, who kept the Turks at arm's length, not 
 by organised defence, but by ingenious diplomacy. Com- 
 bining in one person the functions of Prime Minister 
 and all other Ministers, he saved the country from the 
 financial straits from which Ferdinand's dominions suiFered, 
 kept the nobles in order, bettered the position of the 
 peasants, and at the same time met with little opposition, 
 except from a section of the Saxons who had prejudices in 
 favour of a German ruler. 
 
 Now that peace was temporarily secured, Ferdinand 
 set about the task of establishing his rule in his fragmentary 
 
124 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Hungarian dominions on a -firmer basis. He had every 
 opportunity to do so, as the population was ready and 
 crying for a ruler who would introduce order and give 
 them rest. The nobles were becoming reconciled to the 
 idea of Habsburg rule, but at the same time had no idea 
 of abandoning their right to be governed in accordance 
 with their ancient Constitution. Ferdinand had learned 
 his lesson and n6w showed himself in another light. 
 Personally he seemed to be friendly, and ready and 
 anxious to listen to proposals ; but German Court officials, 
 with no sympathy for Hungary and no comprehension or 
 experience of constitutional government, formed an insuper- 
 able obstacle to the realisation of Magyar aspirations.^ 
 Order was gradually restored, and powerful nobles who had 
 taken advantage of the recent troublous times to make 
 themselves uncontrolled tyrants of the lower classes, and 
 considered license the first condition of liberty, were brought 
 to book and made to disgorge their ill-gotten gains. Con- 
 sequently, the lesser nobles, who, at the beginning of the 
 reign, had been the most uncompromising opponents of the 
 foreign king, began to look upon him with a more tolerant 
 eye,^ readily voted the necessary taxes, and gave voluntary 
 subsidies in addition. At the same time they took care 
 to stipulate that such action on their part should not be 
 looked upon as a precedent for treating their legal 
 immunity from taxation as lapsed. 
 
 The King, prompted by Brother George, recognised the 
 necessity of doing something, if only out of a spirit of com- 
 petition with the Turk, to lighten the lot of the peasants, and 
 
 ' Maurice, Duke of Saxony, warned Ferdinand that he could never govern 
 Hungary with foreigners, and advised him to hand it over to one of his sons, 
 as Hungarians would obey none but a king who lived among them. — Horvdth 
 (Janos), A KSzos Ugyek ElSzminyei is FejUdise. 
 
 ^ Ferdinand said, " I am obliged to favour them, for if I didn't every man 
 would become a Turk." The Magyars are said to have threatened to 
 return to Asia en masse if their grievances were not remedied. — Istvanffy, 
 Historia regni Hungariae, quoted by BeOthy, A Magyar Allamisdg Fejlodise 
 Kiixdelmei, i. 348. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 125 
 
 to establish his popularity on a broader basis. After much 1548. 
 difficulty and delay, he induced the Diet to agree in principle 
 to the abolition of the enactment forbidding the migration 
 of the peasants ; but the nobles evaded the law in every 
 possible way, and after ten years of legislation on the 
 subject, it was still to all practical purposes a dead letter,^ 
 as in fact were the majority of the seventy-one laws passed 
 in the session of 1548, which was chiefly remarkable for 
 the fact that it was the first in which any attention was 
 paid to the question of popular education. Now that 
 Charles V. had been completely successful in his anti- 
 Protestant campaign in Austria, Ferdinand thought the 
 time had come to imitate him in Hungary, and urged the 
 Diet to take steps for the extirpation of heresy.^ That 
 body, however, had the good sense to object to a r6gime 
 of fire and sword, called upon the clergy to restore the 
 Church to its former position by good example and by 
 the inculcation of wholesome principles, and recommended 
 that only " men of approved life " should be admitted to 
 orders — showing thereby that, though the majority in the 
 Diet was Catholic, it was fully alive to the fact that the 
 spread of Protestantism was, in a large measure, due to 
 the notoriously disreputable character of the parish priests.' 
 From the point of view of Hungary's historic rights, the 
 importation of the House of Habsburg was disastrous. 
 True, the old court offices remained, but no Palatine, the 
 proper intermediary between the King and the people, and 
 the sworn defender of the country's rights, was appointed. 
 True, the management of the national finances was 
 nominally left in the hands of the Hungarian Treasury, 
 and a separate Hungarian Chancery was established for 
 the management of Hungarian affairs, but Treasury and 
 
 ' Though the Diet had unanimously declared that " nothing had done 
 greater injury to Hungary, formerly in a flourishing condition, than the 
 oppression of the serfs, whose cry of suffering rose up to Heaven." — Corpus 
 Juris Hung. i. 408, quoted by Szalay, Mag. TSrt. W. 253. 
 
 2 Michael Hovrdth, o.c. iii. 173. 3 154.3, cl. 6. 
 
126 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Chancery were mere empty names, and their every act 
 was dictated by Vienna. The opinion of the Hungarian 
 Treasury was rarely asked, and if asked was neglected by 
 the Viennese Ministry of Finance, in which all financial 
 control was vested. Though the Hungarians had paid 
 in blood for the inability of Ferdinand to defend his 
 kingdom against the incursions of the Turks, they had no 
 share in the management of military affairs, and none but 
 Germans found places in the new War Council, the sphere 
 of action of which included Hungary. A Privy Council 
 was established in Vienna for the control of all important 
 home affairs, and for the decision of all questions of 
 foreign policy., Thus the Magyars were deprived of all 
 voice in the three great departments of State — Finance,^ 
 Foreign Affairs, and Army — and the first definite step 
 was taken in the direction of stripping Hungary of the 
 most important elements of constitutional life. It is a 
 question whether this high-handed action constituted a 
 deliberate attempt to absorb Hungary in Austria ; but in 
 any case it had the result of reducing the former country to 
 a subordinate position from which it failed to emerge till 
 three hundred years of ceaseless struggle had elapsed. The 
 Magyars seem to have been unconscious, for a time, of the 
 fact that they were letting their birthright slip from their 
 fingers. Thirty years of internal discord and foreign oppres- 
 sion had so worn and wearied them that they had begun 
 to forget the traditions of free Hungary. So soon, however, 
 as they regained their strength they began the fight for the 
 recovery of the ground that had been temporarily lost. 
 
 Naturally the Turks were not satisfied with the state 
 of affairs in Transylvania, which they looked upon as 
 temporary and as requiring modification in their interests 
 so soon as a convenient opportunity should present itself. 
 Ferdinand was equally discontented, and equally de- 
 
 ^ See Acsidy, Magyaronzdg P^nzugyei I Ferdinand Uralhddsa alatt, 
 Budapest, 1888, 35 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 127 
 
 termined to alter what he regarded as an impossible 
 position. It was Martinuzzi's business, now that a larger 
 policy of national unity and independence was an im- 
 possibility, to hold the balance between the two rival 
 parties. In 1 549 he was ready strictly to carry out the 
 terms of the compacts of Varad and Gyalu, so far as it was 
 possible to do so in view of Ferdinand's inability to secure 
 John Sigismund in the possession of his family estates. 
 It was, therefore, agreed that the latter was to receive the 
 title of Prince of Oppein and Ratibor in Silesia, that 
 Isabella should be given 100,000 florins, and that 
 Ferdinand's rule should be acknowledged in Transylvania. 
 As soon as Suleiman heard of the arrangement he gave 
 instructions for the decapitation of Martinuzzi, but as 
 usual Brother George succeeded in finding a satisfactory 
 explanation, and in allaying the Sultan's suspicions of 
 Ferdinand's intentions. The latter now made a serious 
 attempt to put his new rights in force. His first step 
 was to collect a large force of mercenaries, consisting of 
 half the unattached blackguards of Europe, whom he 
 placed under the command of Castaldo, an Italian, and of 
 the appropriately-named Teufel. Between this particular 
 devil and the deep sea of Islamism the Hungarians began 
 to doubt whether the balance of discomfort was to be 
 found on the side of the Turkish disease or of the Austrian 
 remedy. Brother George, at last at the end of his tether, 
 admitted to Isabella that he was no longer able to preserve 
 her and her son from the tender mercies of both Sultan 1551- 
 and Ferdinand, and induced her to abandon Transylvania 
 to the latter, and to retire with her son into private life. 
 Martinuzzi's task was now ended. He wrote to Ferdinand 
 explaining the motives which had influenced his tortuous 
 policy in the past, claiming credit for having restored 
 Transylvania to the Sacred Crown, and asking to be 
 relieved from the burden of office.^ To this request 
 
 1 See the facsimile letter in A Mag. Nem. Tort. v. 306. 
 
128 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Ferdinand refused his assent, as he could not spare 
 sufficient troops to secure his position in Transylvania, and 
 so could not dispense with the services of a past master 
 in the art of deceiving the Turk. But Brother George's 
 release was not long delayed, as Ferdinand, having 
 conceived suspicions of the friar's single -mindedness, in 
 order to avoid further complications, took the simple 
 course of having Rim assassinated. He made no conceal- 
 ment of his complicity in the murder,^ and openly declared 
 that matters in general showed a decided improvement 
 after the removal of the turbulent priest. But his boast 
 was hardly justified by the facts, as the next ten years of 
 more or less intermittent war with the Turks were more 
 disastrous to Hungary than any preceding campaign. The 
 terms of peace which, in 1562, brought an inglorious 
 episode to a disgraceful end, left Transylvania still outside 
 the pale of the Habsburg dominions, and provided for 
 the payment to the Sultan of an annual tribute disguised 
 under the name of a Christmas present. 
 
 Brother George was undoubtedly the greatest states- 
 man and diplomatist Hungary had yet produced. It was 
 not his fault that Ferdinand was negligent of the country's 
 interests and incapable of defending them. He had to 
 utilise the weapons with which nature had endowed him, 
 and to call him deceitful and dishonest is but to compli- 
 ment him, for the deceptions which he employed were 
 never directed to selfish ends, and the arts of insincerity 
 produced results which straightforward virtue could never 
 have attained. For thirty years he played Suleiman 
 against Ferdinand — a shifty Habsburg against an over- 
 bearing Turk — with the result that Transylvania retained 
 a measure of independence, kept alive the Magyar spirit, 
 
 1 Michael Horvdth, o.c. iii. 201 sgq. Pope Julius III. held an inquiry into 
 the circumstances of the assassination, and at the Emperor's urgent request 
 acquitted Ferdinand of complicity, but this had no effect on public opinion. — 
 Istvinfiy, xvii. 310. Castaldo and his fellow-assassins, who, so far from denying 
 the murder, claimed credit for it, were also acquitted. — Ibid. 314. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 129 
 
 and handed on the torch of Hungarian tradition which 
 otherwise would infallibly have been extinguished. It is 
 eternally to Transylvania's credit that while the rest of 
 Eui"ope was bathed in blood by the quarrels of fanatics 
 over questions of dogma, religious equality was proclaimed 1557- 
 in that country. This, and the fact that in spite of the 
 Habsburgs some vestiges at least of constitutional govern- 
 ment remained in Hungary throughout the following 
 period, during which ' absolutism was supreme on the 
 Continent, was In a large measure due to the courage and 
 ingenuity of Brother George. 
 
 On the death of Charles V., Ferdinand was elected to 1558. 
 the imperial throne, and, consequently, paid less attention 
 than ever to Hungarian aiFairs. His activity was confined 
 to an attempt to deprive the country of its last means of 
 defence against autocracy — of the right to fix the amount, 
 and arrange for the collection, of taxes.^ But here he 
 ^had to contend against the passive resistance of the 
 counties, now, as in the future, the one reliable bulwark of 
 constitutional liberty. The Diet pointed out that the 
 attempt to impose taxes without its consent was an 
 unconstitutional act, and though Ferdinand argued that 
 the welfare of the country, by which he meant that of the 
 Austrian provinces, was of greater importance than con- 
 stitutional forms, the Golden Bull, and other antiquated 
 guarantees, which were all very well in their day but were 
 out of place in an up-to-date monarchy, the resistance of 
 the nobles was completely successful. In the matter of 
 the maintenance of the elective character of the monarchy 
 the results were not so satisfactory. Ferdinand felt that 1561- 
 he was getting old, and, desirous of seeing the succession 
 of his eldest son Maximilian assured, requested the nobles 
 to crown him in his father's lifetime. The nobles replied 
 
 ' Ferdinand wished the taxation to be fixed for a period of six years. 
 Naturally the Diet objected, as it knew that it was only the necessity of obtain- 
 ing votes for money and men that made Ferdinand convene it. — Szalay, Mag. 
 Tirt. iv. 318 ; Frakn6i, Magyar OrszdggyiiUsi EmUkek, iv. 
 
 VOL. I K 
 
130 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 that election was a condition precedent to coronation, and 
 some expressed the wish to elect the younger son, 
 Ferdinand,^ in the belief that he possessed greater military 
 ability than his brother. The King was furious, and 
 requested the Magyar to cease talking about the 
 "superfluous and offensive" formality of election, and 
 to crown Maximilian without more ado.^ Temporarily, 
 however, the nSbles stood their ground, and it was not 
 till two years later that, Ferdinand being seriously ill, 
 Maximilian was crowned : the Diet contenting itself with 
 a protest against the absence from the Letter of Summons 
 of all reference to the necessity of election — a formality, 
 perhaps, but at the same time an essential one if the 
 continuity of the nation's rights was to be preserved. 
 
 Nine months later Ferdinand died. By electing him 
 1564- Hungary had made the worst possible bargain. The 
 very fact of his being a Habsburg prevented any possi- 
 bility of Hungary arriving at a reasonable modus vivendi 
 with the Sultan, who, but for the fact of the identity 
 of the King of Hungary and the head of the Holy 
 Roman Empire, would have been quite ready to leave 
 the Magyars in peace on acceptance of his suzerainty 
 and on payment of a moderate tribute. The treaties 
 which Ferdinand arranged with the Porte were made at 
 the expense of Hungary, which the Turks continued to 
 ravage while the hereditary provinces of Austria were 
 left in comparative peace. From Mohacs to the final 
 ejection of the Mussulman, Vienna looked on Hungary 
 as a buffer-state, specially intended by Providence to 
 intercept the kicks to which Austria would otherwise have 
 
 1 Salamon, A Magyar Kirdlyi SzA BetSlt/se, p. 50. The idea was given 
 up for the reason that it was imagined that the task of expelling the Turks 
 would be taken in hand more seriously if King and Emperor were combined 
 in one person. 
 
 2 Ferdinand required the nobles to "recognise," not elect, Maximilian 
 as King. — Michael Horvith, o.c. iii. 247. As a compromise, the word 
 "nominatus" was used instead of "electus." — Szalay, Mag. 7lirt. iv. 326, «. ; 
 Frakn6i, Magyar Ors%dggyulisi Emlikek, iv. 371 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 131 
 
 been exposed, and to pay at the same time for its privilege 
 of vicarious suffering. As Hungary alone could not, 
 and Ferdinand and Charles V. would not if they could, 
 eifect the expulsion of the Turks, it would obviously 
 have been more satisfactory to pay the Sultan and be left 
 in peace than to pay the Habsburg and be harried and 
 dismembered into the bargain. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 1564. The Hungarians who had hoped for a Magyar King 
 found that, in Maximilian, they had got a purely German 
 one who did nothing to gain their goodwill, but subordi- 
 nated their interests in every detail to those of the 
 hereditary provinces, of which, but for its control of 
 taxation, what remained of Hungary practically became a 
 part. And yet it was the possession of the ancient crowns 
 of Hungary and Bohemia, not that of the provinces of 
 Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, 
 which gave the Archdukes of Austria their locus standi in 
 Europe and ensured the election of Maximilian to the 
 imperial crown. The new "King was well acquainted with 
 the doctrines of the Reformation, described Lutheranism 
 as the true religion, and the opponents of Church reform 
 as the servants of the devil ; ^ consequently, his succession 
 to the throne seemed to promise a period of respite for the 
 Protestants. But for this fact there was little to recom- 
 mend him. He knew no Hungarian and little Latin, and 
 so was obliged to address the nobles in the, to them, 
 repulsive and unfamiliar German tongue. He regarded 
 their notions of independence as mere impertinence, and 
 took no pains to conceal the fact. Though the law of 
 1563 made it obligatory to convoke the Diet every year, 
 unless circumstances {i.e. the Turks) made it impossible, 
 his idea was never to summon it except when he was in 
 
 1 A Mag. Nefn. TSrt. v. 361. 
 132 
 
EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 133 
 
 want of money. The climax of unconstitutionalism was 
 reached when he invented the plan of deliberately altering 
 the text of laws after they had been finally approved by 
 the representatives of the nation. The desultory war with 
 the Turks continued with no more success than in 
 Ferdinand's time, and ended in the now familiar way : 1568- 
 uti possidetis and the payment of an annual tribute, or 
 munus honorarium ^ as it was euphemistically called, to the 
 Sultan. The peace of Drindpol nominally gave the 
 country the blessings of peace for twenty-five years ; but 
 in reality it was only a truce between King and Sultan, 
 and the Turks still raided Hungary, and burned, and 
 ravaged, and carried off slaves to Constantinople. Maxi- 
 milian could do nothing but look on. He did, in fact, try 
 to get German aid, but the Augsburg Diet of 1566 made 
 it a condition precedent to the grant of assistance that 
 Hungary should be fused in the Empire ^ and share its 
 expenses and obligations, and nothing was done except to 
 increase the nervousness of Hungary, to which the 
 possibility of absorption in Germany was an ever-present 
 nightmare. The complaints to which Ferdinand's uncon- 
 stitutional proceedings had given rise were even better 
 justified during the reign of his successor. The old 
 grievances remained : the neglect of Hungary's interests, 
 the abominable behaviour of the mercenaries, the failure 
 to appoint to the chief offices of state, and the subordina- 
 tion of such functionaries as were in fact appointed to the 
 corresponding officials in Vienna. With respect to the with- 
 drawal or control of the mercenaries,* plenty of promises 
 were made, but none were kept, while as regards the 
 grievances of a constitutional nature, Maximilian made no 
 secret of his intention that things should go on as they had 
 in his father's time. In his view, military and financial 
 matters were not even "affairs of common interest," but 
 
 1 Szalay, Mag. TSrt. iv. 354. 2 Michael Horv^th, o.c. iii. 265. 
 
 ' As to their conduct, see ibU. pp. 275, 323. 
 
134 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 were entirely outside the province of Hungarian influence ; 
 and the Magyars should be more than satisfied if a 
 Hungarian or two found a place from time to time in 
 the Council of War and in the Treasury. Of the one 
 remaining constitutional safeguard he tried to deprive 
 Hungary by a _ trick : by proposing that the counties 
 which would undertake the expense of provisioning the 
 troops quartered on them — thereby, so he suggested, 
 obtaining the whip-hand of the disorderly mercenaries — 
 should be relieved of an equivalent amount of taxation. 
 But the Diet was not to be hoodwinked, and seeing 
 that the object of the suggestion was to deprive it of 
 its financial control, repudiated the proposal with an 
 unparalleled outburst of protestation against the " hitherto 
 unheard-of system of slavery, tyranny, and oppression 
 introduced under his Majesty's rigime" ^ and threatened 
 to meet no more and to vote no more taxes till the 
 country's grievances were remedied. The just complaints 
 of the Diet, qualified as impudence by Maximilian, were, as 
 usual, disregarded ; and want of combination, of leadership, 
 and of the knowledge where and how to begin, reduced 
 the nobles to practical impotence. They could do no 
 more than continue the policy, which plays so large a part 
 in Hungarian political history henceforward down to 1848, 
 of making formal presentment of their grievances, of 
 waiting and hoping. As regards the Turks, nothing 
 shows the real feebleness of the Habsburgs at this period 
 better than the fact than when the throne of Poland 
 became vacant the Sultan's nominee, Stephen Bathory, was 
 chosen, to the unspeakable disgust of Maximilian, who had 
 spared no effort to secure election. 
 1576 The most characteristic event of the next reign, 
 Rudolph's, was the attempt not only to fuse Hungary 
 in Austria, but to force Catholicism on her at the point 
 
 1 He used to bring some thousands of mercenaries to the Diet in order to 
 overawe and coerce the members. — BeOthy, o.c. i. 309. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 135 
 
 of the sword ; and it is, in a large measure, to the hold 
 which Protestantism had obtained on the country that 
 Hungary owed the success of her resistance to attempted 
 incorporation. Rudolph's chief title to fame consists in 
 the fact that he spent twelve million thalers on the 
 purchase of pictures and statues — a sum which, if 
 judiciously distributed among the unattached adventurers 
 and impecunious princes of Europe, might have produced 
 an army large enough to drive the Turks into the sea.^ 
 But Hungary's wishes had no influence on the new King, 
 though, like his predecessors, he had sworn to maintain 
 not only the Constitution, but the territorial integrity of 
 his kingdom as well. He never summoned the Diet if 
 he could possibly avoid doing so, and infuriated all strata 
 of the population as much by subordinating the offices 
 of state to the central bureaucracy of Vienna as by his 
 indifference to the question of providing for the defence 
 of the frontiers. The result was, that as the Hungarians 
 had no hope of promotion in the Austrian service, and 
 had no outlet for their energies at home, the disillusioned 
 patriotism of the country transferred its allegiance to 
 Stephen Bathory, in Transylvania, where Magyars found 
 good and regular pay, and an opportunity of giving vent 
 to their combative instincts. Rudolph was, apparently, 
 both surprised and annoyed, and the gulf between him 
 and his subjects widened perceptibly. The policy of 
 concentrating all executive authority in Vienna was 
 followed more consistently than ever, till the Diet 
 brought the King up short by refusing to vote any 1580. 
 taxes, with the result that he appointed Hungarians to 
 various posts, and expressed his readiness to utilise their 
 services in connection with all matters of common interest 
 to Hungary and Austria, military as well as financial. But 
 the Diet had lost all patience ; palliatives were of no use 
 to a disease which required radical treatment ; Hungary 
 
 1 A Mag. Nem. TSrt. v. 431. 
 
136 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 for the Hungarians was what it wanted, and exclusion of 
 German influence and the restoration of constitutional 
 government was, in its view, the only panacea.^ Rudolph 
 was "surprised," not to say pained, and nothing could 
 ever induce him again to have any direct dealing with 
 
 1588. the Hungarians or with their ungrateful Diet. To a 
 repetition of that body's demands for proper financial 
 and military control, and for the re-establishment in its 
 primitive form of the Hungarian Council, he replied by 
 omitting to convene the representatives of the nation 
 for a period of five years. 
 
 1593. Matters began to assume a threatening aspect, and 
 it was, on the whole, fortunate for Rudolph that war 
 with Turkey broke out again and distracted the thoughts 
 of the Magyars from the grievances which twenty-five 
 years of peace had done nothing to mitigate. Transyl- 
 vania, the last stronghold of Hungarian independence, now 
 became the chief object of Rudolph's attention. His 
 intrigues were ably seconded by the Jesuits, arch-enemies 
 of liberty, traducers of the Magyars, and glorifiers of 
 Austrian despotism, who had been recently introduced 
 into the country, and had succeeded in getting Sigismund 
 Bdthory completely under their thumb. Tired of Turk 
 and Habsburg alike, and sick to death of his wife, 
 Christina, Sigismund came reluctantly to the conclusion 
 that the only way to be quit of all three was to resign 
 
 1598. his throne in Rudolph's favour. General Basta, a man 
 
 of proverbial brutality, now came upon the scene as the 
 
 . representative of the blessings of Habsburg rule, and 
 
 treated Transylvania as a conquered country,^ with 
 
 the result that the inhabitants soon sighed for the 
 
 ^ Contarini, ambassador of Venice, wrote : " Odiano naturalmente la casa 
 d' Austria perchfe lor pare d' esser stati tenuti non solo soggetti ma sprezzati 
 assai, avendoli essa sempre sottoposti al governo de Tedeschi loro natural! 
 inimici." — Sayous, Histoire ginirale des Hongrois, ii. 125, n. 
 
 2 " Pilla avec un soin mithodique dont le souvenir n'a jamais disparu." 
 — Sayous, I.e. ; Michael Horvdth, o.c. iii. 377-379 Jyy. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 137 
 
 days when they were so miserable under Turkish domina- 
 tion. The Protestants were, naturally, the chief 
 victims of the unholy alliance of Basta and the Society 
 of Jesus, and their churches were destroyed and their 
 clergy were expelled. These were the halcyon days of 
 the Catholic Church, and the officers of State were so rpany 
 instruments of religious oppression. Of the bishops who 
 occupied fourteen out of twenty places in the Council, 
 perhaps the worst was Stephen Szuhai, Bishop of Eger. 
 He told the King that it was quite unnecessary to summon 
 the Diet, and that it was far simpler to order the counties 
 to collect the taxes and, if they refused, to dragoon them 
 into submission. It was Szuhai who conceived the idea of 
 accusing wealthy nobles of treasonable dealings with the 
 Turks, and of confiscating their property on the strength 
 of trumped-up evidence. Millions flowed into the 
 Treasury in this way, to the great satisfaction of Rudolph, 
 who was ready to do anything for money.^ What Basta 
 did in Transylvania, Belgiojoso did in Upper Hungary. 
 He openly declared his intention of feathering his nest at 
 the expense of the Protestants : of extirpating heresy 
 to the eternal profit of his Catholic soul, and for 
 the temporary satisfaction of his disreputable appetites. 
 Rudolph, who suffered at intervals from nervous collapse, 
 was a mere puppet in the hands of the priestly organisers 
 of the anti-Protestant campaign, who robbed, and con- 
 fiscated, and tyrannised to their heart's content. What 
 specially annoyed laqd-owners and peasants alike was the 
 fact that as, owing to troublous times, the value of 
 produce had greatly increased, the priests wriggled out of 
 the bargains which they had made with respect to tithes. 
 Lay farmers of tithes, who had, in many cases, paid cash 
 down to the Church at a time when money was scarce and 
 produce was cheap, lost both capital and income, and the 
 peasants found themselves again face to face with the 
 
 1 A Mag. Nem. TSrt. v. 569 sgq. 
 
138 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 tender mercies of ecclesiastics who had a short way of 
 dealing with heretic unpunctualify in the matter of 
 payment. Thus, the general discontent had an economic 
 as well as a religious basis. The success of the Reforma- 
 tion in Hungary was largely due to the tendency to 
 identify Catholicism with Austrian autocracy : to look 
 upon the established Church as an instrument of oppression, 
 the means of escape from which might perhaps be found 
 in the adoption of a new religion. Hatred of the Jesuits 
 was another important factor. They were looked upon 
 as Habsburg spies, and detectives in priestly garb 
 presented a particularly unattractive spectacle. They 
 encouraged the King in the belief that Protestantism was 
 the one obstacle to the success of his germanising efforts, 
 and that Hungary could never be properly incorporated 
 in Austria until heresy was extirpated. The influence of 
 the higher members of the Catholic hierarchy was always 
 anti-national, and, with few exceptions, the bishops were 
 at all periods of Hungarian history ready to sacrifice the 
 individuality and the Constitution of the nation, provided 
 the hegemony of Catholic dogma could be thereby 
 assured. Pazmany, for example, who turned from the 
 Reformed to the Catholic Church, was reported to have 
 said that he would rather the country were inhabited only 
 by wolves and foxes than that heretics should be allowed 
 to exist there.^ When the Court of Vienna wanted an 
 instrument of oppression it could always find an appropriate 
 tool among the Catholic bishops ; no wonder, therefore, 
 that the Catholic Church was looked upon, not as the 
 provider of the means of salvation, but as a department of 
 the hatred bureaucracy of Vienna, As in political, so in 
 educational matters, the influence of the Jesuits was 
 purely anti-Magyar. Their object was the discouragement 
 of the idea of Hungary a nation ; their weapon, the 
 substitution of dog-Latin for the national language, and 
 
 > BeOthy, o.c. i. 372. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 139 
 
 the suppression of all reference to the past glories of the 
 period of independence. 
 
 The Diet continued to present its usual list of com- 
 plaints : of the absence of the King from the country ; of 
 the disregard of laws he had sworn to observe ; of the 
 exclusive employment of foreign advisers ; of the black- 
 guardism of the German mercenaries, and of the sacrifice 
 of Hungary's material interests to those of Austria. In 
 1597 the Diet raised for the first time the question of 
 the economic grievances, of which much will be heard 
 hereafter. It pointed out that Hungary was a country 
 which depended for its welfare, and for its power to bear 
 the burden of taxation, on its ability to find a market for 
 the raw materials which Austria excluded by means of 
 protective duties, while it flooded Hungary with its own 
 surplus products. But to this, as to all other complaints, 
 Rudolph turned a deaf ear. Not satisfied with his sins of 
 omission, he attempted the deliberate fraud of falsifying 
 the law, and inserted in the laws of 1 604 the celebrated 
 twenty-second clause, which forbade the Diet to occupy 
 itself in future with the discussion of any matter connected 
 with religion.^ When the forgery was discovered, he 
 attempted to justify himself on the ground of good inten- 
 tions, and of the discretionary power vested in the wearer of 
 the Sacred Crown, though he was, of course, quite aware that 
 the Constitution, which he had sworn to maintain, gave 
 him neither a license to forge nor any independent 
 legislative authority. This was the last straw on the back 
 already strained to breaking by the Bastas and Belgiojosos. 
 Rudolph saw, without regret, that a crisis was at hand, 
 for he had no doubt as to his ability to suppress any 
 rising that jnight take place, and, in fact, was pleased 
 with the prospect of a reasonable excuse for establishing 
 Church and autocracy on a sounder basis. 
 
 The nation's necessities brought forth the requisite 
 
 1 KSrolyi, A. xxii. Articulus. 
 
HO THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 leader in the person of Stephen Bacskay, a fervent 
 Calvinist, a diplomatist, and a soldier, whom a mass 
 meeting held at Szerencs^ acclaimed Prince of Hungary 
 and Transylvania. Liberty of conscience for all was 
 proclaimed, and all who should fail to rise in defence of 
 their country were stigmatised as traitors. Having secured 
 the benevolent neutrality of the Porte, Bocskay in a short 
 time collected an army of such dimensions that Rudolph 
 had reasonable justification for a fresh nervous breakdown. 
 Though himself a Protestant of the strictest type, Bocskay 
 did not trouble about the religious opinions of his 
 followers. It was enough for him if a man was a patriot 
 ' and ready to fight for his country. At first Basta obtained 
 1604. some success, but by the end of the following year all 
 Transylvania and practically the whole of Upper Hungary 
 were in Bocskay 's hands, and his Haiduks were making 
 incursions into Lower Austria, Moravia, and Silesia. It 
 must be admitted that he took a leaf out of Basta's book, 
 and destroyed and confiscated the property of the Catholic 
 Church and of the Catholic nobles ; but considering the 
 provocation received and the class from which the majority 
 of his followers were derived, it would have been a matter 
 for surprise if nothing in the nature of reprisals had taken 
 place. For this was essentially a popular rising from 
 which the chief nobles of Upper Hungary, and bastard 
 Magyars, who cared more for their pockets than for the 
 ancient liberties of the nation, held aloof. Bocskay, like 
 his lieutenant, Stephen Illeshazy, one of the victims of 
 Szuhai's policy of extortion,^ fought, not for his own hand, 
 but against compulsory germanisation : to win badk 
 Hungary for the Hungarians, and to preserve the national 
 language and individuality. Consequently, he was ready 
 to make peace at any moment provided satisfactory 
 
 1 At this meeting resolutions were drawn up in the Hungarian language 
 for the first time since the country's conversion to Christianity. — A Mag. Nem. 
 ISrt. V. 603. 
 
 2 Michael Horvith, o.c. iii. 381. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 141 
 
 guarantees of political and religious liberty were forth- 
 coming. It is possible that he might have driven the 
 Austrians clean out of Hungary, but the country wanted 
 rest, and there was always the danger that the attempts 
 of the Catholics to induce the Sultan to interfere might 
 be crowned with success : for an alliance of Cross and 
 Crescent was quite admissible in the eyes of the Church 
 in the sacred cause of tyranny and religious obscurantism. 
 Rome tried to stiffen Rudolph's back by promises of help, 
 as did the Venetians, whose interest it was to keep him 
 fully occupied in the South ; and the Jesuits threatened 
 him with excommunication if he made any concession to 
 the insurgents and to Protestantism. But his troops 
 were utterly demoralised, and his brother Mathias, sick of 
 his incompetence and mad outbursts of impotent rage, 
 pressed him to make peace. 
 
 Bocskay embodied the terms on which he was willing 1605. 
 to suspend hostilities in fifteen articles, which demanded, 
 inter alia, religious liberty for Calvinists and Lutherans ; 
 the abolition of the forged twenty- second clause of the law 
 of 1 604 ; the exclusion of the bishops from political office, 
 and, generally, from interference in Hungarian affairs ; 
 the expulsion of the Jesuits ; the appointment of a Palatine ^ 
 with complete authority to represent the King during his 
 absence from Hungary ; the confiding of the manage- 
 ment of Hungarian military and financial affairs^ to 
 Hungarians ; the exclusion of German advisers ; the 
 exclusive employment of Magyar officers and Magyar 
 troops within the limits of Hungary ; and a general 
 amnesty to put an end to accusations of treason and the 
 consequent extortion. The news that a large Turkish 1606. 
 army was advancing finally induced Rudolph, after months 
 
 1 None had been appointed for forty-six years in spite of continual protests 
 of the Diet. 
 
 2 For the financial position at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning 
 of the seventeenth centuries see Acsddy, A Magyar Ad6zds Tortinete, iS^S- 
 1604-ben, Budapest, 1906, pp. 49 sqq. 59 sqq. 
 
142 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of haggling, to give way on the main points, and to sign 
 the convention known as the Peace of Vienna, in which, 
 as a final wriggle, he inserted the clause " without prejudice 
 to the Catholic faith," in order to qualify the obligations 
 imposed on him and to have a weapon for future use. 
 Five months later the peace of Zsitvatorok arranged 
 matters with the threatening Turk, for the first time on 
 a basis not altogether disgraceful to Christian Austria, as 
 no annual tribute was exacted, though 200,000 florins were 
 in fact paid as the price of a twenty years' peace which 
 confirmed the Habsburgs in possession of, roUghly, one- 
 quarter of the Hungary of seventy years ago.^ The 
 peace is remarkable for another reason ; for the fact that 
 the terms were submitted to the Diet for consideration 
 and were embodied in a special law ; and thus the 
 principle of the ratification of foreign treaties by the 
 representatives of the nation as essential to their validity 
 received fresh confirmation. Bocskay had not fought in 
 vain. Protestantism, which hitherto, like Judaism, had 
 been a nominally tolerated, but not a recognised religion, 
 now received legal sanction ; and, thanks to him, Magyars 
 were Magyars still, when Austrian poison ended his career 
 only a few months after the achievement of his object.^ 
 The death of Bocskay would, no doubt, have had the 
 result of encouraging Rudolph to violate the compact 
 recently made, but, fortunately, his family was tired of the 
 sick man, who at times " bellowed like a bull or roared like 
 
 1607. a lion," and failed even in his attempts to commit suicide, 
 and a bloodless palace revolution put his brother Mathias 
 
 , in possession of the throne of a fragmentary Hungary, 
 In pursuance of the terms of the peace of Vienna,* the 
 
 1608. Diet was summoned, and proceeded to add a fi-esh chapter 
 to the constitutional history of Hungary, and new clauses 
 
 1 Szalay, Mag. 'TSrt. iv. 460. * Michael Horvith, o.c. iii. 429. 
 
 ^ It has been termed the first Ausgleich, or " Compromise," between Austria 
 and Hungary. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 143 
 
 to the fundamental laws which no Habsburg ever frankly 
 obeyed or openly impugned. The elective nature of the 
 monarchy^ received fresh confirmation, though Mathias 
 struggled hard to get himself "recognised" instead of 
 elected ; and the historic rights and privileges of the 
 nation were again formally guaranteed in writing before 
 the coronation took place. Clause 22 of 1604 was abro- 
 gated, " the same having been added to the Statute Book 
 extra Diaetam, and without the consent of the people." ^ 
 Religious freedom was assured to the Protestants, and 
 places of, worship confiscated by either party during the 
 late disturbances were to be returned to their true owners. 
 It was provided that the Palatine should be elected at the 
 next meeting of the Diet, and that in the event of the 
 King being unable to live permanently in Hungary, or 
 being obliged to be absent for a long period, the Palatine, 
 in accordance with the full powers to be granted to him 
 by his Majesty in that behalf, should, as ancient custom 
 demanded, have as complete authority to govern and 
 administer the country with the help of the Hungarian 
 Council as the King himself would possess were he not 
 absent.^ It was further provided that the King should 
 submit the names of two Catholics and two Protestants 
 as candidates for the office in question, from among whom 
 
 1 Clearly recognised by non-official Austria, the Protestants of which begged 
 the Hungarians not to elect Mathias unless he guaranteed religious liberty to 
 them also. — Michael Horvith, o.c. iii. 458, 462. 
 
 ' Clause I of the Terms of Peace. 
 
 2 Clause 18 of the law of 1608, ratified by Mathias before coronation and 
 as a condition precedent to election. This clause is of special importance, as 
 a similar one in the laws of 1848 was said by the enemies of Hungary to be a 
 revolutionary innovation, justifying the taking of extreme measures. Clause 
 3 of the terms of peace says : " Statutum et constitutum est quod sua Serenitas 
 (the Palatine) secundum plenipotentiam sibi per suam Majestatem non ita 
 pridem concessam in negotiis regni Hungariae per Palatinum et Consiliarios 
 Hungaricos, non secus ac si sua C. R. que Majestas personaliter praesens 
 adesset, audiendi, proponendi, judicandi, concludendi, agendi et disponendi 
 in omnibus iis quae ad conservandum regnum Hungariae ejusdemque regni- 
 colarum quietem et utilitatem videbuntur esse necessaria, plenariam potestatem 
 et facultatem habeat." 
 
144 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the Diet should elect one ; and that In the event of the 
 Palatine's decease the King should be bound to summon 
 a special meeting of the Diet within one year for the 
 election of a successor (clause 3). Clause 4 requires the 
 Sacred Crown, the symbol of national independence, to be 
 brought back to Hungary and left there in the custody of 
 elected Magyar laymen. Clause 5 provides that the 
 Treasurer must 'henceforth be a Magyar and a layman, 
 and that no foreigners are to be allowed to meddle with 
 any branch of the national revenues, the management of 
 which is to be entirely independent of the Austrian 
 treasury. Hungary proper, as well as the parts thereto 
 annexed — Dalmatia, Croatia, and Slavonia — are to be 
 governed by Magyars only ; appointments are to be made 
 without regard to religious belief ; and his Majesty is to 
 take care that no foreigners are ever allowed to interfere 
 in any governmental department (clause 10). German 
 and other foreign mercenaries are to be withdrawn from 
 the country as soon as possible (clause 12). The King 
 is to undertake to maintain the " privileges, liberties, 
 customs, and immunities " of the people in " undiminished 
 sanctity ; " and all decrees which may be in contradiction 
 with the ancient laws of the kingdom are to be amended 
 and put in order by a special commission, and, as amended, 
 are to be adopted by the Diet and ratified by the King. 
 Further, the clause of the Golden Bull and of its amend- 
 ing Act, which prohibits the punishment of any person 
 without legal citation and conviction, receives fresh con- 
 firmation (clause 16) ; and the Jesuits, the fount and 
 origin of half the discord and disasters which rent the 
 kingdom, are forbidden to own real property in Hungary. 
 Thus the conflict between Magyar patriotism and Austrian 
 autocracy apparently resulted in the complete victory of 
 the former. The Protestants are no longer to be harried 
 and oppressed at the discretion of the Jesuits. Hungary 
 is to cease to be a milch cow to be drained and debilitated 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 145 
 
 by foreign adventurers and parasites of the Habsburgs. 
 It is no longer to be a mere province of Austria, privileged 
 to intercept the blows of the Turks, and to pay for the 
 privilege in blood and taxes. The contract between 
 Hungary and the Habsburgs, which each successive King 
 had done his best to tear to shreds, was again patched up 
 — to be violated again so soon as convenient occasion 
 offered. The legislation of the year 1608 is memorable 
 also for the fact that the indiscriminate right of all nobles 
 to appear at and take part in the deliberations of the Diet 
 was abolished, and the representative system was definitively 
 introduced. Further, the Diet was divided into two 
 Chambers. What we may call the Upper House hence- 
 forward consisted of the magnates and hereditary barons, 
 the bishops, and certain other high ecclesiastical function- 
 aries ; the Lower House, of the deputies from the 
 counties, from certain chapters and free towns, and of 
 the representatives of absent barons. Thus for the first 
 time the existence was recognised of an aristocracy separate 
 and distinct from the common aristocracy of the whole 
 body of freemen.^ 
 
 After the Peace of Vienna the Protestants tried to 
 secure the results of their victory, and the Catholics to 
 win back by fair means or foul what they had lost. The 
 resulting conflict fills the history of the next thirty-seven 
 years. The law providing for the re -establishment of 
 Hungarian control of Hungarian finances remained 
 
 ^ The barons and magnates included the Comes of Pressburg, the 
 guardians of the Sacred Crown, the governor of Fiume (later), hereditary 
 and appointed lords-lieutenant, hereditary counts and barons, and other 
 High Court and judicial officials (Kmety, Kszj'og, p. 85, ».)• I" ^^^ Lower 
 House the judges of the High Court had seats, but took no part in the debates 
 and had no vote. The number of the county representatives was not fixed 
 till 1 68 1, when the Lower House complained that only two were summoned 
 from each county. The Upper House did not agree that there was reason to 
 increase the number, which thus was tacitly fixed in perpetuity, down to 1 84.8, 
 at two. The number of the free towns entitled to be represented was fixed at 
 eight, in accordance with the decree of King Vladislav, but apparently others 
 sent deputies also. 
 
 VOL. I L 
 
146 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 practically a dead letter, and Vienna continued as before 
 to turn a deaf ear to the protests of the Diet. Mathias, 
 who never had the least intention of giving effect to the 
 laws of 1608, tried his hand at Rudolph's old trick of 
 altering the text of laws after they had received their final 
 form at the hands of that body, which eventually had to 
 pass a law (16 18) to emphasise the fact that the King had 
 no right whatever to omit anything from, or interpolate 
 anything in, the Bills submitted to him for confirmation 
 — that he possessed indeed the right of veto, but not the 
 privilege of forgery. It is noticeable that the Magyars 
 did not fight for their own hand only, but did their best 
 to improve the position of the Protestants in the hereditary 
 provinces. Mathias, however, pointed out to them that 
 Austria was Austria and not Hungary, and politely 
 requested them to mind their own business. And in 
 fact they were soon fully occupied with their own affairs, 
 for as soon as Mathias was elected Emperor at Frankfurt, 
 he felt himself strong enough to begin a systematic anti- 
 reformation campaign against the " dog's creed," as he 
 styled it, and the Jesuits again raised their heads in 
 Hungary, and opened schools just as if there never had 
 been such a thing as the Peace of Vienna or the laws of 
 1608. Of course it would be absurd to suppose that the 
 Protestants were nothing but injured innocents, passive 
 victims who turned both cheeks in turn to the smiter 
 and confined themselves to making verbal protests. As 
 in England, so in Hungary, as regards readiness to give 
 their opponents the opportunity of earning the martyr's 
 crown, there was little to choose between Catholics and 
 Protestants. It was merely a question of opportunity ; 
 and as the former were members of the established 
 Church, and Vienna identified Protestantism with 
 Hungarian nationalism and hostility to benevolent 
 despotism, it is obvious that the votaries of reforma- 
 tion got comparatively little chance of indulging their 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 147 
 
 propensity to persecute their opponents. Bishop Khlesl 
 summed up the official Catholic view in the phrase, 
 " Between Christ and Behal there can be nothing in 
 common," i.e. that the King could at any moment take 
 away with his left what his right hand had been forced 
 to concede, and that no moral obligation could originate 
 in a treaty made with heretics. Protestantism was there- 
 fore at a permanent discount. 
 
 Transylvania, the refuge and stronghold of Magyar 
 nationality, cared even more for freedom of conscience 
 than for political independence, and the schemes of 
 Gabriel Bethlen were directed to the recovery of the 
 former rather than of the latter.'' Personal aggrandise- 
 ment was not his ultimate object when he took the side 
 of Bohemia in the war with Austria, which ended so 
 disastrously for the former at the battle of White 1620. 
 Mountain and led to the conversion of the hitherto 
 existing trialism into the dualism of to-day. His notion 
 was to secure the independence of Protestant Hungary, 
 increased by the addition of the hereditary provinces in 
 Austria (in which Protestantism had taken root as strongly 
 as anywhere), which had already cried to the Magyars to 
 come over and help them. He had hoped, in alliance 
 with Bohemia and with the Protestant German princes, 
 to obtain a Protestant majority at the Diet of Frankfurt, 
 and so to put an end for ever to the great enemy of 
 Calvinistic and Lutheran humanity — the domination of 
 a Catholic emperor. The ease with which Ferdinand II. 
 destroyed the historic independence of Bohemia, estab- 
 lished the predominance of an intolerant Catholic minority, 
 substituted German for Czech as the official language, 
 and foisted a German bureaucracy on the conquered 
 country, encouraged the Habsburgs in the work of 
 reducing Hungary to the position of a province or a 
 
 ' See the manifesto issued by him on the eve of insurrection.-^Szalay, 
 Mag. Tm. iv. 518, n. 
 
148 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 colony of Austria. It was in the Turks that Gabriel 
 Bethlen saw the chief defence of Hungary against 
 germanisation. He did not want the Turks any more 
 than he wanted the Habsburgs, but a long residence 
 among the former had taught him that from many points 
 of view, more especially as regards respect for the given 
 word, the former were vastly superior to the latter. It 
 was his object that the Hungarians should be masters in 
 their own house, and in order to attain it he never hesitated 
 to utilise a heathen against a Christian despot. 
 
 During the whole of Ferdinand's reign the complaints 
 of Jesuit influence and of evasions of the laws of 1608 ^ 
 continued without interruption. The underground rumb- 
 lings were unintermittent, but nothing took place in the 
 nature of an earthquake beyond an advance linto Upper 
 Hungary by George Rakoczy of Transylvania, who, 
 guaranteed by treaty the financial support of France and 
 Sweden, thought the time had come to effect the final 
 liberation of his country from political and religious 
 oppression. Unfortunately, the Magyars were temporarily 
 divided by the spirit of religious intolerance. The Pro- 
 testant members were at one moment on the point of 
 seceding in a body from the Diet ; and throughout this 
 period national politics were completely swamped by 
 religious dissensions, as is shown by the terms of the 
 1645- Peace of Lincz concluded between Rak6czy and Ferdinand 
 III., and incorporated in the Statute Book by the Diet 
 of 1646.^ Except for clauses 9 and 6^, which provide 
 for a general amnesty and forbid the sending of Magyar 
 troops out of Hungary, the convention is concerned solely 
 with guarantees of the free exercise of religion and of 
 the free use of chapels, beUs, and churchyards ; with the 
 
 ' In the Diploma Inaugurale he undertook to observe them " in omnibus 
 suis punctis, clausulis, et articulis, firmiter et sancte, per aliosque omnes in'viola- 
 biliter obser'vari Jaciet." It is set out in Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, 
 p. 514^7?. 
 
 2 Enchiridion Fontium, pp. 522-542. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 149 
 
 prohibition of interference by landlords in the religious 
 affairs of their peasants ; and with the distribution of 
 honours and offices without regard to religious opinions. 
 
 Hitherto, as we have seen, Transylvania and its princes 
 had done much to preserve the existence and the liberties 
 of Hungary, but now it spent its force in useless internal 
 and external wars under George Rak6czy II. The re- 
 sult was that there was no one to interfere with the process 
 of grinding Hungary to pieces between the Turkish 
 and the Austrian millstones. The country was never 
 more exposed to the horrors of Turkish irruptions than 
 during the early part of the reign of Leopold I. (1657- 
 1705), while he and his Jesuit advisers were occupied with 
 the task of extirpating heresy and destroying the last 
 vestiges of political liberty.^ In the Diploma Inaugurale,^ 
 and by his coronation oath, Leopold undertook to observe 
 and maintain the laws and liberties of Hungary ; to 
 summon the Diet at least once every three years ; to 
 employ exclusively Magyar counsellors in Magyar affairs, 
 and Magyar soldiers and officers in Hungary ; not to 
 remove the Sacred Crown ; and above all to obey the 
 laws of 1608 — the guarantee of religious freedom. But 
 the ink of the Diploma was scarcely dry when he began 
 to follow his father's footsteps, to renew the campaign of 
 which the ultimate object was the abolition of all constitu- 
 tional guarantees and the establishment of an unlimited 
 despotism. In order that he might have a free hand, and 
 that the Porte should have no excuse for interference, he 
 did not even remonstrate when the Turks annually raided 
 Hungary and killed and carried oiF the inhabitants to 
 the number, according to a contemporary estimate, of 
 10,000 every year. Though the great majority of the 
 population was Protestant, the lords-lieutenant and other 
 
 1 For details see Alfred Michiel, Histoire secrite du Gowuernement autrichien, 
 p. 126 sqq. Unreliable. 
 
 ^ Confirmed and incorporated in the Statute Book by the Diet of 1659. 
 
ISO ^ THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 officials were mostly Catholics, who used their influence in 
 an anti-Protestant, anti-national direction,^ by forcing the 
 counties to send Catholic representatives to the Diet, thus 
 strengthening the forces of intolerance and multiplying the 
 instruments of autocracy. The peasants, for the most 
 part, clung to Protestantism, for the services of the 
 reformed Church were conducted in Hungarian, instead 
 of In Latin which no one understood ^ ; but nine-tenths 
 of the great landowners were Catholic, and as intolerant 
 as the Jesuits, who, within a year of the coronation of the 
 new King, already felt themselves strong enough to begin 
 a campaign of compulsory conversion and the extirpation 
 of the recalcitrant. Stankovics, the Jesuit, clearly expressed 
 the true aim of official Austria in his prayer : " God grant 
 that we may soon see the day, the glorious and blessed day, 
 when the whole of Hungary will speak but one language and 
 will be united in the ancient faith." So the real object 
 was not to ensure the salvation of mankind by turning all 
 hearts to the Virgin, but to extirpate the national language 
 and therewith the feeling of Magyar nationality. Nicholas 
 Zrinyl in vain urged the King to put an end to the three 
 great evils — mercenaries, Turkish raids, and religious perse- 
 cution ; but the King listened to none but Montecuccoll, 
 and replied that If the Diet would drop the religious 
 question, something might be done against the Turks. 
 As a matter of fact, the Turks were a far lesser evil than 
 the German mercenaries,^ as the former looked upon 
 
 1 Catholic landlords considered themselves justified in compelling their 
 peasants to attend Catholic services, and to hand over Protestant churches on 
 their estates to the Catholics, even where the majority of the population veas 
 Protestant. — Michael HorvAth, o.c. iv. 26. The principle on which they 
 acted was expressed by the phrase, " cujus regio, ejus religio." 
 
 2 The Jesuits of Munkdcs, seeing that the peasants took no interest in ser- 
 vices which they could not understand, tried them with mass in their own 
 language, and with success, until the Pope in 1661 forbade the substitution of 
 Hungarian or any other language for Latin. 
 
 3 See Law iii. of 1596 as to robberies, murders, arson, and sacrilege 
 " which no words can describe." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 151 
 
 Hungary as on their future inheritance, and consequently 
 set a certain limit to their destructive instincts, while the 
 latter, who generally engaged themselves for a single 
 campaign only, considered war as a commercial under- 
 taking. Whether they killed Turks or Magyars they did 
 not care ; in fact, understanding neither, they hardly 
 distinguished between the two. Money, not glory, was 
 their object, and if, as was generally the case, they did 
 not receive the wages promised by their Austrian pay- 
 masters, they indemnified themselves at the expense of the 
 peaceful inhabitants, and what they could not turn into 
 cash they ruthlessly destroyed.^ The general discontent 
 must have eventually ended in a national revolt against 1663- 
 Austrian rule ; but once again the Turks acted as a 
 lightning conductor for Austria, and all the energies of 
 Hungary were directed against them until the complete 
 defeat of the Sultan's troops at St. Gothard led to the 
 Peace of Vasvar, when Austria again sacrificed Hungary's 
 interests, in spite of the oceans of blood the Magyars had 
 shed in defence of their country. Not only were the 
 Hungarians not consulted as to the terms of peace ; ^ not 
 only was no part of their country recovered as the result 
 of a successful campaign, but four additional counties 1664- 
 were handed over to the Turks. The Magyars came to 
 the natural conclusion that the Court of Vienna had no 
 intention of freeing them from the Turkish yoke, and 
 that they had therefore no alternative but to make the 
 best terms they could with the Porte in order 'to save 
 themselves from the destruction as a nation which Vienna 
 thought could easily be brought about, now that religious 
 differences made concerted action an impossibility, and as 
 the country had lost its only possible leader by the death 
 of Nicholas Zrinyi. 
 
 * " Rather Allah than luer da," i.e. than the " who goes there " of the 
 Germans, was a popular phrase of this period. 
 2 Szalay, Mag. TSrt. v. 98. 
 
152 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Zrinyi's brother, Peter, Nddasdy, and Frangepdn, after 
 futile negotiations with Louis XIV., who, though anxious 
 that troubles at home should prevent Austria from inter- 
 fering abroad, was not, for the moment, disposed to help 
 the Hungarians, did in fact raise part of the country in 
 revolt. After a few small successes they were induced 
 to lay down their arms by a promise that Hungary's 
 grievances should be remedied, and a general amnesty 
 granted to all who had taken part in the rising. The 
 value of Habsburg promises was, as usual, too highly 
 1 67 1, estimated, and the three counts, Zrinyi, Nddasdy, and 
 Frangepan were executed after a mock trial before an 
 Austrian tribunal.^ A reign of terror followed ; execu- 
 tions were a daily occurrence ; over 2000 nobles were 
 thrown into prison, and the foreign mercenaries were 
 given a free hand to murder, burn, and impale in the 
 name of Christ and Mary.^ " Poor Nidasdy ! May he 
 rest in peace. I have had two masses said for the repose 
 of his soul." Having thus salved his conscience, Leopold 
 informed the Protestants that owing to insurrection their 
 religious liberty was forfeited, and proceeded to the whole- 
 sale confiscation of schools and churches. Public opinion 
 made Leopold personally responsible for the massacres 
 which followed, but it is probable that he was in reality 
 a more or less blind instrument in the hands of Lobkowitz,^ 
 the moving spirit, in the anti-Protestant, anti-Hungarian 
 campaign,* who was ably seconded by Bishop KoUonics 
 
 ' Wagner, Hist. Leop. i. 249 ; Histoire des R^olutiom de Hongrie, 1739, 
 i. 237 sqq. ; Szalay, Mag. Tort. v. 134 sqq. 
 
 2 A gold piece was given to any mercenary who killed an ex-insurgent, 
 and six months' pay for killing an officer. 
 
 ^ Lobkowitz said tp Gremonville, ambassador of Louis XIV. : "The 
 Emperor is not like your King, who sees everything, and himself gives the lead 
 in all matters. He is like a statue which we put in the position which suits 
 us best." 
 
 * Michael Horvdth, o.c. iv. 90 sjq. ; Wagner, Hist. Leop. i. 265. Wagner 
 was himself a Jesuit, but lets the truth come out in spite of his violent anti- 
 Magyar prejudices. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 153 
 
 when any dirty work was to be'done. To complete their 
 victory, and to erase the last vestiges of Hungarian 
 liberty, an attack on the organisation of the counties was 
 begun. Owing to the devastated condition of the county 
 the collection of the ordinary taxes was an impossibility. 
 Orders were therefore given that each county should 1672. 
 maintain its oppressors, the German mercenaries who 
 were quartered upon it, and that failure to do so should 
 entail "the most terrible consequences." Every family 
 was to be taxed according to its presumed normal consump- 
 tion of meat, ,beer, wine, and brandy (it was even proposed 
 to tax every pair of shoes), and this at a time when half 
 the land was out of cultivation and the depredations of 
 the mercenaries made the obtaining of supplies from a 
 distance an impossibility.-' How and where the people 
 were to get the articles of food scheduled as the basis of 
 taxation the Viennese Court neither knew nor cared. 
 That peasants starved was a matter of no importance 
 provided the taxes were paid. The noble landowners 
 who should have helped and protected them were refugees, 
 if Protestants, and occupied in currying favour with 
 Vienna, if Catholics ; and so the soldier tax-collector had 
 a free hand. 
 
 According to the Swedish ambassador, PufFendorf, 
 Leopold took an oath in 1670 that if, by the grace of 
 God, he succeeded in putting down Zrinyi's insurrection, 
 Hungary should become a true Regnum Marianum, and 
 every Protestant should be expelled from the Virgin's 
 territory. When PufFendorf remonstrated with him on 
 the subject of religious persecutions and Turkish raids, he 
 replied that it was no great misfortune if the Sultan 
 pocketed a bit or two of Hungary, and that, personally, he 
 would rather lose the whole than endure the presence of 
 any heretic.^ But, for the moment, even Leopold had 
 
 1 A Mag. Nem. T'Srt. vii. 300. 
 2 Ibid. vii. 301. 
 
154 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 qualms of conscience on the subject of the oath he had 
 taken at his coronation to maintain the liberties and the 
 Constitution of Hungary, and turned to Kollonics, an 
 authority on matters of conscience, who appointed a 
 committee consisting of four Jesuits and three monks to 
 decide the moral question involved. The committee 
 unanimously decided that Hungary had forfeited all 
 historical and natural rights, and that the King was under 
 no obligation to treat its inhabitants as human beings. 
 Thus with a clear conscience, knowing for certain that his 
 actions smelled sweet in the nostrils of the Almighty, for 
 the committee told him so, Leopold proceeded with his 
 work of extirpating heresy and pulverising his sacred 
 engagements. A mild protest was raised by Bishop 
 Szelepcs^nyi against the abolition of the shadow of 
 constitutional government which remained, but his action 
 was evidently due to fear of losing his place and emolu- 
 ments as viceroy, and on being guaranteed the continuance 
 of his salary he reconsidered the matter and withdrew his 
 opposition. On March ir, 1673, Leopold published the 
 decree which he imagined was to reduce Hungary for 
 ever to the position of a hereditary province of the 
 Habsburgs. All constitutional forms were abolished, and 
 Ampringen, a licentious and self-seeking soldier, was 
 appointed governor-general, with a council consisting of 
 Szelepcs6nyi and Kollonics, the typical representatives of 
 religious intolerance, and ten others to aid him in the task 
 of germanising the country and of " taking care of the 
 interests of the Roman Catholic Church." ^ But the 
 scheme was still-born. Dissensions among the German 
 officials condemned it to failure from the start, and 
 absolute anarchy reigned in the land, to the satisfaction of 
 none but mercenaries, who were thus left undisturbed in 
 their orgy of brutality and depredation.^ 
 
 ^ Instructions, Szalay, Mag. TSrt. v. 155, «. 
 
 ' If the peasants complained they were robbed of their last farthing and 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 155 
 
 KoUonics' boast that he would make Hungary first a 
 slave, then a beggar, and then Catholic,^ lacked justifica- 
 tion only as regards the last item. Wherever the 
 population could manage to keep in touch with its clergy 
 it still adhered to its religion. Kollonics, therefore, 
 directed his persecution mainly against the clergy, in the 
 hope that when the last of its members had been killed, 
 imprisoned, or driven out of the country, such Protestants 
 as still wished to be married, or to christen their children, 
 or to be buried, in accordance with some kind of Christian 
 formality, must perforce be converted to Catholicism. 
 The result, to judge from the number of shepherdless 
 sheep who returned to the true fold, was eminently 
 satisfactory. Of the conversions which took place in the 
 course of the succeeding three years, 6000 are ascribed to 
 Bishop Szelepcs6nyi and 7000 to Bishop Barsony ; while 
 the Jesuits, who are more exact in their figures, are 
 credited with having won 15,219 souls for Christ in the 
 single year 1673.^ A judicium delegatum extraordinarium, 1674.. 
 or special tribunal, for the wholesale trial of Protestant 
 clergy, was established at Pressburg, which summoned 
 336 pastors and schoolmasters before it, and expeditiously 
 condemned those who were foolish enough to obey the 
 summons, or did not die in prison, to death — the sentence 
 being subsequently commuted by the tender-hearted 
 Kollonics to hard labour in the galleys at Trieste and 
 Naples.^ The general disgust of Europe led to remon- 
 strance on the part of certain German princes and of 
 Sweden and Holland.* A temporary halt was called ; 
 but the feeling of hatred engendered throughout Hungary 
 
 received corporal punishment into the bargain. — Michael Horvdth, o.c. iv. 99. 
 Even the Austrian Court was shocked by the " godless excesses " of the German 
 mercenaries, and in 1696 ordered the military authorities to take steps for their 
 prevention, lest the vs'rath of Heaven should be incurred. — Wagner, Hist. Leap. 
 ii. 313. 
 
 > Szalay, Mag. TSrt. vi. 30. 2 j Mag. Nem. TSrt. vii. 328. 
 
 5 Michael Horvdth, o.c. iv. 97. * Wagner, Hist. Leop. i. 325. 
 
156 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 was too deep to be aUayed by trifling concessions, and 
 the national aspirations found a new leader in the person 
 
 1676. of Imre Thokoly, whom the Turks, as well as Louis 
 XIV., then at war with Leopold, helped with men and 
 money. 
 
 His object was much the same as that of other national 
 champions, his predecessors: religious liberty, the 
 restoration of 'confiscated property, the recognition 
 of his claim to the title of Prince of Transylvania, 
 and constitutional government for Hungary.-' At first 
 he obtained only minor successes, in Moravia and else- 
 where, but by the beginning of 1683 nearly the whole 
 of Upper Hungary was in his hands. The Court of 
 Vienna soon became aware of its inability to put down 
 the insurrection, but at the same time was disinclined to 
 make substantial concessions. The failure of the new 
 system of government and the retirement of Ampringen, 
 its moving spirit, made Leopold see that something must 
 be done to quiet popular discontent for fear lest the 
 revolt, which at first showed signs of taking a slow and 
 
 1 68 1, indecisive course, might end in a general conflagration. 
 The Diet was summoned, and its first demand, the 
 election of a Palatine, was conceded. More than this 
 Kollonics had no intention of allowing Leopold to grant ; 
 and the Protestants^ could do no more than bring 
 forward series after series of complaints : that churches 
 were turned into stables or used for profane purposes ; 
 that schools were closed, and that submission to extortion 
 was a condition precedent to permission to bury their 
 dead.^ Eventually, more out of weariness than for any 
 other reason, and, possibly, influenced by the wish to get 
 his second wife Elenora Magdalene crowned quietly, 
 Leopold gave way to some extent, reconfirmed the terms 
 
 ^ Wagner, Hist. Leop. i. 558. 
 
 2 Being in a minority. They were forty-two to sixty-six Catholics — 
 Szalay, Mag. TSrt. v. 197. 
 
 ^ Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 544. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 157 
 
 of the peace of Vienna,^ which had nominally guaranteed 
 religious liberty to all, gave permission to the ejected i68i- 
 Protestant clergy to return to their parishes, annulled 
 the forcible conversions of the past years, and specified 
 certain districts in which schools and churches might be 
 built.^ This, of course, contented no one ; neither the 
 Catholics who objected to any interference with, or 
 diminution of the right to persecute their religious 
 opponents which they had hitherto enjoyed, nor the 
 Protestants, who would be satisfied with nothing short 
 of absolute religious equality with the Catholics. The 
 outrageous system of taxation introduced in 1672 was 
 withdrawn, and arrears of taxes, it being impossible to 
 collect them in the impoverished state of the country, 
 were remitted. The office of Governor -General was 
 abolished ; a general amnesty was proclaimed ; the 
 withdrawal of German soldiers was promised ; and the 
 subordination of the Hungarian Treasury to the corre- 
 sponding institution in Vienna nominally ceased. But 
 Kollonics remained president of the Treasury, in spite 
 of the law forbidding the holding of that post by an 
 ecclesiastic, and Esterhazy, the new Palatine, made little 
 or no attempt to restore the old authority of his office. 
 In fact, the laws of 1681 were merely a sop thrown to 
 public opinion, and an attempt to throw dust In the eyes 
 of the Protestant Powers of Europe. 
 
 The instant ThSkOly's defeat at Pressburg caused his 1683. 
 retirement, and John Sobieski's victory over the Turks 
 under Kara Mustapha raised the siege of Vienna, Leopold 
 began to regret the concessions of 168 1. Careless of 
 what might happen to Hungary, he secretly offered terms 
 
 1 Clause 25 of the law of 1681 : " Liberum Religionis exercitium a parte 
 nonnuUorum interturbatum," is the unexaggerated description of the horrors of 
 the past years. 
 
 ^ Clause 26. It was at the same time enacted that Hungary should have 
 its own diplomatic representative at the Porte, who was to be on a footing of 
 equality with the Austrian envoy. 
 
158 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of peace to the defeated Vizier in order to save himself 
 the trouble and expense of pursuing his advantage. But 
 the offer was refused, and the Pope and the Venetians, 
 believing that the time had at length come to drive the 
 Turks out of Europe, compelled the Austrians to continue 
 the war.^ Otherwise, for all Leopold cared, Hungary 
 might have waited till doomsday for its liberation from 
 the Turkish yc^e. Now that Thokoly was temporarily 
 out of the way, the King conceived fresh conscientious 
 scruples about keeping a promise made to Protestants ; 
 and fearing to compromise his soul's salvation, cast about 
 to find some new method of extirpating heresy, and, 
 incidentally, of incorporating Hungary in his hereditary 
 dominions. His advisers pressed upon him the view that 
 the complete reconquest of the parts occupied by the 
 Turks, which now seemed probable, justified him in 
 regarding Hungary as a country conquered for his own 
 benefit and not for that of its inhabitants. Hungary, so 
 KoUonics said, owing to the long duration of the Turkish 
 occupation, had lost its Magyar character,* and Austria 
 could deal with it as she pleased. Two committees, in 
 which, naturally, no Hungarian found a place,^ were 
 appointed to consider the question of the proposed in- 
 corporation in the hereditary provinces, and that of the 
 introduction of a permanent system of taxation without 
 1686. representation. The recapture of Buda by Charles of 
 Lorraine after a century and a half of Turkish occupation, 
 and the complete defeat of Kara Mustapha at Mohdcs, 
 the scene of the great disaster of 1526, temporarily put an 
 end to disturbances in Hungary. Thokoly, to whom the 
 Vizier attributed his misfortunes, was thrown into prison 
 
 1 BeOthy, o.c. i. 422. 
 
 ' The fact that this was not true, though the greater part of Hungary had 
 been occupied by the Turks for a century and a half, is one of the most 
 remarkable facts in Hungarian history, and should have satisfied the Habsburgs 
 as to the futility of attempting to germanise the Magyars. 
 
 ' BeOthy, o.c. i. 503. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 159 
 
 at Belgrade, and with the exception of MunkAcs, where the 
 heroic Ilona Zrinyi, his wife, still held out, the whole 
 country was in the hands of the imperial troops. But the 
 lies of CarafFa led Leopold to believe that a fresh insurrec- 
 tion, of a far more dangerous character than any of its 
 predecessors, was pending ; a new extraordinary tribunal 
 was established at Eperjes, and the butchery of innocent 
 but inconvenient persons which followed recalled the worst 
 days of the Spanish Inquisition, and acquired for CarafFa ^ 
 a permanent reputation for brutality rivalled only by that 
 of Basta and Belgiojoso in the past, and of the butcher 
 Haynau at a later date. A recrudescence of persecution 
 followed all over Hungary, especially in the reconquered 
 parts, where, under the heathen rule of the Turks, the Pro- 
 testants had exercised their religion in comparative peace. 
 
 The fear of torture rather than that of death had 1687. 
 reduced Hungary in the course of twelve months to such 
 a state that Leopold thought the time to be ripe for the 
 realisation of the scheme cherished by the Habsburgs for 
 the last 150 years, namely, the abolition of Hungary's 
 elective rights, and the establishment of hereditary 
 monarchy. The disgust generated in Europe by the 
 butchery of Eperjes made it advisable to give the 
 semblance of legality to the execution of the scheme, 
 instead of abolishing Hungary's rights merely with the 
 stroke of a pen and incorporating it once for all in the 
 hereditary dominions. The Diet was therefore convoked,* 
 
 ' Of Neapolitan origin. He owed his rapid advancement to the Jesuits, to 
 whom his fanaticism and cruelty recommended him. — Michael Horvith, o.c. iv. 
 183. Arneth, a non-Magyar authority, in his life of Field-Marshal Starhemberg, 
 quoted by Szalay {Mag. Tsrt. v. 352, 71.) says, "Sehr ist zu bedauern, dass der 
 Glanz der erfochtenen Siege durch die Grausamkeit befleckt wurde, mit welcher 
 der unmenschliche Antonio Caraffa zu Eperies gegen die angeblichen Theil- 
 nehmer einer kaum ivirtlici bestandenen Verschixiirumg verfuhr." 
 
 ^ Kollonics expressed surprise at the sparse attendance of the representatives 
 of the counties, and at the youth of those who were in fact present. He him- 
 self supplied the answer to the enigma : " Of course, if all the older men have 
 been decapitated, you can send only young ones." — "A Tfirttoelmi T4r," 
 cited in A Mag. Nem. Tsrt. vii. 465. 
 
i6o THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and the King announced that though he would be justified 
 in treating Hungary as a conquered country to be dealt 
 with as he pleased, he was disposed, of his mercy, to 
 re-establish the Constitution under three conditions :^ 
 Firstly, that the inaugural diploma should henceforth 
 take the form of that signed by Ferdinand I. Secondly, 
 that the hereditary right of the male line of the house of 
 Habsburg to tlie throne of Hungary should be ac- 
 knowledged in perpetuity. Thirdly, that the clause of 
 the Golden Bull giving the right of armed resistance to 
 unconstitutional acts of the monarch should be abolished. 
 It is perhaps surprising that the last condition had not 
 long ago been insisted upon, as though, in reality, it gave 
 no protection to insurgents if the King got the better 
 of them, it yet gave a sort of legal sanction to in- 
 surgence, and justified to some extent the expecta- 
 tion of immunity in case of failure. Only one 
 speaker/ the Chief Justice, Count Draskovsics, was bold 
 enough to urge the retention of the clause and the 
 maintenance of the elective nature of the monarchy. 
 All the conditions were accepted with little, and that 
 chiefly formal, opposition.^ And thus, after 687 years, 
 Hungary ceased to have an elective monarchy ; and 
 as, in fact, it had ceased from the time of Ferdinand I. 
 
 1 " Posset equidem eadem sacratissima Caesarea Majestas Regno huic . . . 
 omni jure leges dare nee non vi armorum recenter acquisita jure belli sibi 
 suisque augustis haeredibus separatim attribuere placitisque et convenientibus 
 legibus gubernare." October 31, 1687. The King's "propositions" at the 
 opening of the Diet. 
 
 2 Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 677 ; Wagner, Hist. Leap. ii. 30. 
 He died suddenly a day or two later, and was popularly supposed to have 
 been poisoned on account of his independence. — Katona, Historia Critica, 
 XXXV. 441. 
 
 2 Even the extension of the right of hereditary succession to the Spanish 
 branch of the Habsburgs which became extinct in 1700. In the event of the 
 extinction of all male descendants of both branches " the ancient and approved 
 custom and prerogative of the Estates and Orders in the matter of the election 
 and coronation of their kings" revives. — CI. 2, 1687. This is of ' importance 
 in connection with the Pragmatic Sanction. 
 
6F,THE HUNGARIAN NATION i6i 
 
 to be elective, except on paper, the country lost little by 
 the concession.^ 
 
 The real pinch was in the first condition, for the 
 diploma of Ferdinand I. contained no guarantees of 
 religious freedom, as in 1526 the right of freedom of 
 conscience was not questioned, and the idea, now rooted 
 in the Habsburg mind, that religious unity was essential 
 to, and would necessarily lead to, political unity, had not 
 been conceived. The Protestants protested in vain. The 
 Catholic majority had its way, and, satisfied with the 
 triumph of dogmatic intolerance, gave way almost unasked 
 on other points of far greater importance than the question 
 of an hereditary crown. ^ The form of diploma, as finally 
 settled, contained no reference to the obligation of con- 
 vening the Diet at least once in every three years ; to the 
 exclusion of foreign interference in Hungarian affairs, 
 which a dozen laws and previous diplomas had guaranteed ; 
 to the election and sphere of influence of the Palatine ; to 
 the employment of Hungarian officers in Hungarian 
 regiments ; or to the obligation of withdrawing foreign 
 mercenaries from the country. In accordance with the 
 terms of the new law — the work of an intolerant Catholic 
 majority which in no sense represented the opinion of an 
 intimidated country — Leopold's son, Joseph, was crowned 
 in his father's lifetime ^ first hereditary King of Hungary,* 
 in grateful remembrance of the benefits conferred by the 
 
 ' Clause 2 provides that in future the states and orders of Hungary, and the 
 farts thereto annexed, will have none other for their King than the legitimate 
 descendants of the King in accordance with the law of primogeniture. Thus 
 the King of Hungary becomes ipo facto King of Croatia, which M. Horn 
 would have us believe was an independent, allied, kingdom. 
 
 ^ At this Diet the representatives of over a hundred non-Hungarian 
 families were foisted on the Upper Chamber with a view to creating an entirely 
 anti-national aristocracy as had been done with success in Bohemia after the 
 battle of White Mountain. — BeOthy, ox. p. 504. 
 
 2 Rex junior, as in the reigns of Andrew II. and B^la IV. 
 
 * But the coronation, the diploma, and the oath still remained conditions 
 precedent to investiture with royal power. 
 
 VOL. I M 
 
1 62 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ejection of the Turks from Buda,^ which, if successive 
 Habsburgs had attempted to perform their most ele- 
 mentary duty to the nation which had voluntarily elected 
 them to the throne, could undoubtedly have been effected 
 a century earlier. 
 
 The Catholics were not yet satisfied with their work. 
 To the complaints of the Protestants as to the disregard 
 of old laws and of solemn guarantees of religious freedom, 
 they retorted by quoting other ancient enactments enjoin- 
 ing the burning of heretics.^ Laws were passed in the 
 same session providing for the re -establishment of the 
 Jesuits (sec. 20), and " with a view to the maintenance of 
 concord and public tranquillity," it was ordained that none 
 but Catholics should be allowed to own property in 
 Croatia, Slavonia, or Dalmatia (cl. 23). 
 
 Having converted Hungary into a hereditary depend- 
 ency of Austria, Leopold now thought it worth while 
 1689. seriously to set about the task of expelling the Turks. 
 All Europe was at war, and Louis XIV. had his hands 
 too full to render much assistance to the Sultan, while 
 Austria could rely on the help of Poland, Venice, and the 
 German Princes. It seemed at last as if nothing could 
 prevent a victorious march to Constantinople and the 
 incorporation of the Balkan provinces in the realm of 
 the Habsburgs ; but at the critical moment the death of 
 Pope Innocent XL, who gave millions to the Christian 
 cause out of gratitude for Austria's exemplary treatment 
 of the heretics, deprived Leopold of his most important 
 supporter. ThOkoly, freed from imprisonment at Bel- 
 grade, had again started, more or less successfully, on the 
 war-path ; but by the end of 1690 Louis of Bavaria had 
 made Transylvania too hot to hold him. Though he 
 
 ^ With the aM of men and money contributed by all Catholic countries. 
 
 2 E.g. 1525, iv. "Lutherani etiam omnes de regno extirpentur, et ubique 
 reperti fuerint per ecclesiasticas, verum etiam per saeculares, personas libere 
 capiantur et comburantur." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 163 
 
 returned again the following year, and destroyed half of 
 the imperial army, and in spite of the fact that the child 
 Michael ApafFy II. was nominally recognised as Prince of 
 Transylvania, that country was practically reduced, by the 
 end of 1698, to the position of one of the hereditary 
 provinces of Austria. The appearance on the scene of 
 Eugene of Savoy (the importation of capable foreigners 
 was always a necessity for Austria down to the days of 
 Metternich and Beust), led to the final overthrow of the 
 Turks and their expulsion from all parts of Hungary 
 with the exception of the Banate of Temes. Leopold 
 was, however, too much occupied with the task of 
 securing his succession to the throne of Spain to follow 
 up his victory and to carry out ambitious plans in the 
 Balkan peninsula. Peace was therefore made at Karlo- 1699- 
 vicz and signed ' by Leopold as Emperor only, which 
 showed his opinion of the effect of the laws of 1687, and 
 that he now considered it unnecessary to ask Hungary's 
 opinion as to the terms of peace, though the law of 168 1 
 bound him to do so. The Palatine,- Eszterhazy, made no 
 attempt to render eiFective such rights as were left to 
 Hungary, and for the rest of his reign Leopold did not 
 think it necessary to go through the form of convening 
 the Diet. Every department of State was germanised. 
 The parts beyond the Drava recently occupied by the 
 Turks were not rejoined to Hungary, and Croatia and 
 Slavonia were governed directly from Vienna. Kollonics 
 was all-powerful, and under him Hungary was reduced 
 to a position similar to that which it occupied during the 
 Bach rigime of a later period. The counties nominally 
 retained their independent organisation, but in reality were 
 mere tax -collecting agencies. Kollonics was not yet 
 satisfied, and suggested to Leopold the advisability of 
 introducing foreign settlers, especially Austrians, "in 
 order that the kingdom, or at least a large part of it, 
 may be gradually germanised, and that the Magyar 
 
1 64 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 blood, accustomed to revolutions and disturbances, may 
 be diluted by the admixture of a German element." ^ 
 His whole policy was, in fact, directed to this one end : to 
 the ejection of the Magyars from Hungary. In pur- 
 suance of this scheme new German communes were 
 established in many parts of the country. Buda received 
 an almost entirely German population, as did Esztergom, 
 Vdrad, Eger, Fejdrvdr, in fact, aU the chief towns re- 
 covered from the Turks ; and the Saxons of Transylvania 
 had such privileges conferred on them as their Magyar 
 co-religionaries could never hope to receive. 
 
 To this period belongs the introduction of the Servians, 
 70,000 to 80,000 of whom under their patriarch Arsenius 
 Csernovics took refuge in Hungary. Already in 1495 
 Servians who had fled from the Turks enjoyed certain 
 privileges,^ such as exemption from the payment of 
 tithes ; but hitherto their religion,* like that of the 
 Jews, had been tolerated but not recognised. Circum- 
 stances had now changed, and Leopold " in order that on 
 the very threshold of our kingdom they may appreciate 
 1691. the mildness and benignity of our rule and government," 
 secures them in the free exercise of their religion ; allows 
 them to choose their own archbishop, and to buUd churches 
 and monasteries wherever they please. Further, the 
 patent confirms their exemption from the payment of 
 tithes, and subjects them to no control but that of their 
 own elected magistrates.* This then is the origin of that 
 considerable factor in modern politics — the Servian popu- 
 lation of Hungary, established by Leopold with the 
 deliberate intention of introducing a permanent foreign 
 
 1 "Einrichtungswerk des KSnigreichs Ungarn," cited in A Mag. Nem. 
 TSrt. vii. 512. 
 
 2 Law of 1495, 45- They, originally, did not intend to take up their 
 residence permanently in Hungary. 
 
 ^ Greek Church. 
 
 * The patent is given at length in Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, 
 p. 597 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 165 
 
 element hostile to the idea of Magyar nationality.-^ " He 
 builded better than he knew." To make room for them 
 Magyars were unceremoniously kicked out of their 
 holdings — the intention being to get the land out of 
 Hungarian hands, and so to destroy the influence of the 
 land-owning "gentry," the backbone of county organisa- 
 tion. To give a semblance of legality to the evictions, the 
 so-called Neo-acquistica Commissio was appointed, for 
 the purpose of investigating all titles to land in the re- 
 captured districts, and all landowners were called upon to 
 justify their occupation within six months. Naturally, 
 after the country had been occupied by the Turks for the 
 better part of two centuries, and had been for years the 
 battlefield of Moslem, German, and Magyar, the pro- 
 duction of documentary evidence of title was difficult, if 
 not impossible ; ^ hence, many hundred square miles of 
 land fell into the hands of the Austrian Government and 
 were promptly sold to Germans and other foreigners. 
 Prince Eugene, Caprara, and others who had deserved 
 well of Leopold, were not forgotten, and the grant of 
 enormous estates recompensed them at Hungary's expense 
 for their services to the autocracy. 
 
 The reconquered districts , offered a fine field for re- 
 ligious intolerance, being for the most part occupied by 
 Protestants whose religion the Turks had looked upon as 
 contemptible rather than blameworthy. The Govern- 
 ment's first step was the issue of an order that, henceforth, 
 none but Catholics should be eligible for office in the 
 counties ; but as this to some extent failed to effect the 
 desired results, owing to the numerical insufficiency of 
 Catholic candidates, recourse was had to the old and tried 
 expedient of driving out the clergy and confiscating their 
 churches and schools. The next move in the campaign 
 was directed against intellectual freedom, and a rigorous 
 
 ^ See Baloghy ErnO, A Magyar Kultura is a Nemzetisigek, Budapest, 1908, 
 p. 139 sqq. 8 Michael Horvdth, ox. iv. 261. 
 
1 66 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 censorship was established under the control of a Jesuit, 
 authorised to suppress any book he might consider per- 
 nicious, and to destroy the press that had printed it. 
 Foreign Governments protested against the new crusade, 
 not only on humanitarian grounds, but also for the reason 
 that such proceedings must eventually lead to a fresh 
 revolt. The Viennese Government was ready with a 
 satisfactory explanation. It replied that not 5 per cent 
 of the population of the reconquered districts belonged 
 to the Reformed Church, and that exceptional treatment 
 could not be expected for a numerically trifling body of 
 dissenters. It was not the fault of Kollonics and of his 
 policy of extermination that the statement as to the 
 relative numbers of Protestants and Catholics was a lie. 
 
 Taxation was now to give the finishing touch to the 
 ruin which other forms of persecution had been unable to 
 complete to the satisfaction of the camariUa. In the 
 seven years from 1683 to 1690 Hungary was made to 
 pay 30,000,000 florins in taxes, or more than it had paid 
 in a whole century to the Turks. In 1699 the whole of 
 Austria and Hungary paid 10,800,000 florins, of which 
 the latter had to pay 4,500,000, while the hereditary pro- 
 vinces, which were much richer, and had been left com- 
 paratively uninjured by late wars, escaped with the payment 
 of little more than 6,000,000. The basis of taxation was 
 fixed without convening the Diet and without consulting 
 any Hungarian as to the taxable capacity of his country.^ 
 Further, it being the deliberate policy of the War Council 
 
 1 In 1684 an attempt was made to impose a tax of 5,000,000 florins on 
 Hungary in addition to its own expenses for home defence, while Lower 
 Austria, which had never been ravaged to anything like the same extent, was 
 exempted for two years from the quartering of troops. In 1685, though worn 
 and exhausted by the war, Hungary was made to bear 70 per cent of the cost 
 of maintaining the army — Austria 30 per cent. In 1686 Hungary bore 
 51 J per cent, and in addition had to feed and find forage for the troops which, 
 as they could not get their pay from Vienna, took it out of Hungary. — Horvdth, 
 A KSziis Ugyek, p. 38 sqq. ; Acsidy in A Magyar Nemzet TSrMnete, vii. 522 ; 
 Michael Horvath, o.c. iv. 248. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 167 
 
 in Vienna to quarter as many troops as possible outside 
 Austria in order to save the hereditary provinces the 
 expense of their maintenance, Hungary had to find 
 quarters, rations, and fodder for 12,000 horses and for 
 44,000 men, who were chiefly occupied in the collection 
 of taxes, and were not particular as to what kind of 
 torture they employed in order to compel payment. In 
 1702 recourse was had to a new method of oppression, 
 and the pressgang was introduced with instructions to 
 collect 20,000 men for use in the war with France from 
 among peasants " having no visible means of subsistence '* — 
 in other words, from among those whom Austrian tyranny 
 had reduced to the verge of starvation.^ 
 
 In Transylvania the position of affairs was no better 
 than in Hungary proper, in spite of the Diploma 
 Leopoldinum^ of 1690 (granted at a time when Thokoly, 
 and the fear of foreign interference, forced the hands of 
 the Vienna Government), which guaranteed the religious 
 liberties of the recognised sects, fixed the maximum of 
 taxation, and provided for the convocation of the Diet 
 at fixed intervals, and for the exclusive employment of 
 Transylvanian officials in the management of Transylvanian 
 affairs. Young ApafFy was driven to resign his title of 1 701. 
 Prince of Transylvania, and to retire abroad in order that 
 there might be no obstacle to the process of compulsory 
 germanisation which KoUonics proceeded to inaugurate 
 with a complete disregard of the recent Diploma. The 
 taxes were increased far beyond the legal maximum, and 
 the German collectors repeated the brutalities which had 
 made them an object of detestation in the rest of Hungary. 
 Many of the inhabitants fled to escape torture ; others 
 took their daughters to the Turks and sold them in order 
 to obtain the money necessary to satisfy the extortions of 
 Vienna. In Transylvania as well as elsewhere the regime 
 
 1 BeOthy, o.c. i. 518 ; A Mag. Nem. TSrt. vii. 526. 
 ' In Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, p. 577 sqq. 
 
1 68 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION , 
 
 of Kollonics had brought about such a state of affairs that 
 an eruption of the volcano was bound to ensue. That it 
 did not come earlier was due to the denationalisation of 
 the majority of the great nobles — the natural leaders of 
 the people, who from motives of self-interest remained 
 blind to the sufferings of their compatriots, and thought 
 only of currying favour with the Court of Vienna. The 
 results of absenteeism soon became apparent. The 
 peasants who had hitherto respected, even if they dis- 
 liked, their landlords, lost all touch with them, and a 
 Jacquerie on a large scale, winked at by the camarilla, 
 whose policy it suited that the landowners should be 
 exterminated, was the natural result. The homeless and 
 the persecuted, the victims of Vienna and of the Society 
 of Jesus, took to the highway for their livelihood, and 
 the bands of robbers who infested the country assumed 
 such proportions that an organised campaign had to be 
 undertaken for their suppression. These forces of dis- 
 content were ready to the hand of ,any leader who could 
 impress their imagination sufficiently to induce them to 
 drop fighting for revenge or profit and to start a war of 
 liberation.^ The leader was found in the person of 
 Francis Rik6czy, grandson of a former Prince of Transyl- 
 vania, and of Count Zrinyi, one of the three Counts who 
 had been executed in 1671 in spite of the promised 
 1703. amnesty. The opportunity was afforded by the outbreak 
 of the war of the Spanish Succession. 
 
 Rdk6czy had been confided in his childhood to the 
 care of the Jesuits with a view to distracting his mind 
 from earthly ambitions ; but the priesthood possessed no 
 attractions for him, and he obtained leave to travel. 
 Unjustly suspected of complicity in the insurrection of 
 the peasants in Transylvania and thrown into prison, he 
 proceeded, on his escape, to justify Vienna's suspicions of 
 
 ' According to BeOthy the last straw was the introduction of the press- 
 gang already referred to. — o.c. p. 518. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 169 
 
 his reliability. At the start he had but 50 horse and 
 200 foot, but his name was sufficient to cause 
 peasants and refugees to flock to his camp, and by the 
 end of the year he had 70,000 men and a miscellaneous 
 collection of arms. At first a strong feeling of hostility 
 existed between the peasants and the nobles.^ In its 
 early stages the rising was distinctly one of the lower 
 orders ; but as the movement proceeded it lost, to some 
 extent, its class character, and ended by becoming a 
 national insurrection in which noble and peasant. Catholic 
 and Protestant, alike took part. To Rakoczy's army, 
 though badly armed and suffering from a deficiency of 
 officers, Austria, now deeply engaged abroad, could offer 
 but little resistance. Leopold was in his dotage — more 
 worried about the future of his sinful soul than about 
 that of Hungary ; and the spring of 1704 saw Hungarian 
 scouts at the gates of Vienna. In a manifesto ^ addressed 
 " to all Christian princes and states," an eloquent vindica- 
 tion of the sacred right of insurrection against tyranny, 
 and an unanswerable indictment of the House of Habs- 
 burg, which had sworn times innumerable to maintain the 
 liberties of Hungary, but had deliberately reduced its 
 people to slavery, Rak6czy calls God, His saints and 
 angels, and all the civilised world, to witness that he took 
 up arms, not for purpose of private gain or ambition, but 
 in order to liberate his country from the yoke of a per- 
 jured and tyrannical dynasty.^ England and Holland, 
 
 ' Rik6czy mentions in his memoirs the difficulty of getting peasant and 
 noble to work together harmoniously. He says that nine-tenths of his 
 followers were Calvinists. — Szalay, Mag. TSrt. vi. 149. Mimoires du Prince 
 Franfois Rc!k6czy, in vol. ii. of Histoire des R/'Volutions de Hongrie. The Hague, 
 1739- Principis Rdkiczi Confessiones. Ed. of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 
 1876. 
 
 2 Dated June 7th, 1703, but Szalay has shown, Mag. TSrt. vi. 140, «., that 
 it was not issued till the next year. For the text of the manifesto see 
 Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, p. 601 : " Ad perpetuam rei memoriam. 
 Recrudescunt inclytae gentis Hungarae vulnera," etc. 
 
 ' R4k6czy has been accused of ambition, and of playing for his own hand, 
 but it is improbable that ambitious motives would have led him to begin such 
 
lyo THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 which recognised the importance of the movement, saw 
 with concern the enforced division of Austria's forces 
 required on western battlefields, and Stepney, the British 
 envoy at Vienna, was instructed to urge the King to make 
 terms with the insurgents.^ The camarilla, however, was 
 obstinate, and the news of Heister's success against 
 Rak6czy, and of Prince Eugene's and Marlborough's 
 victory over the French and Bavarians at Hochstadt, 
 made it less inclined towards a compromise than ever. 
 1705. The following year, in spite of a severe defeat at the hands 
 of Heister at Nagy-Szombat, the insurgents devastated 
 the hereditary provinces, and this fact, and the death of 
 Leopold, who, desirous of making his peace in time with 
 the Almighty by coming to terms with those whom he 
 had so deeply wronged, urged his successor to settle with 
 Rak6czy ^ on the basis of the recognition of Hungary's 
 historic rights, led to the inception of negotiations. 
 
 On succeeding to the throne Joseph issued a manifesto 
 disclaiming responsibility for past errors,^ and announcing 
 his intention of ruling in accordance with the terms of his 
 coronation oath, and of doing all that was in his power to 
 do to remedy the existing discontent. Popular opinion 
 attributed to him an abstract fondness for justice and a 
 desire for reform to which he could not in reality lay 
 claim. He soon became bored with the business of state, 
 and dropped the Jesuits and the Ministers for the more 
 congenial society of ladies who possessed the physical 
 attractions in which his German wife was deficient. So 
 the Government, left to its own devices, required little 
 
 an unequal contest with such inadequate forces. He was no soldier of 
 fortune, but the owner of 2,000,000 acres, and a Prince of the Holy Roman 
 Empire, whose wife and child were in the hands of the Habsburgs. — BeiSthy, 
 o.c. p. 524. 
 
 ' Szalay, Mag. TSrt. vi. 147. See Stepney's letter to Rdkdczy, Histoire des 
 
 Ri'volutions, etc., i. 241 sqq. 
 
 2 Hist, des Ri'volutions de Hongrie, ii. 330. 
 
 ' According to BeOthy, o.c. p. 535, he had negotiated with R4k6czy 
 behind his father's back. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 171 
 
 encouragement from Prince Eugene, the chief partisan 
 of the fire and sword method, to induce it to abandon 
 negotiation and to resume the fight. It soon became 
 evident that RAk6czy with his irregulars ^ could not long 
 continue the unequal contest with the trained soldiers of 
 Vienna which the hope; of European intervention alone 
 induced him to maintain. The futility of his expectations 
 was proved before long by the offer of Peter the Great to 
 put the Russian army at Joseph's disposal, and by the 
 fact becoming evident that Louis XIV. cared for the 
 cause of Hungary only so far as it served to create a 
 diversion in Austria's rear,^ and that no effective support 
 could be expected from him. Rakoczy, therefore, opened 
 negotiations on the basis of the restoration of the constitu- 
 tional liberties of the country, and of the recognition of 
 the newly-acquired hereditary rights of the Habsburgs. 
 But his offer of peace met with no response, and but for 
 the efforts of Sunderland, sent by England to Vienna with 
 instructions to insist on a reconciliation, the fight would 
 have gone on to the bitter end. The pressure exercised 
 by England and Holland was so far successful that Joseph 1706. 
 notified the Powers of his willingness to recognise the 
 constitutional rights of Hungary ; ^ but he changed his 
 mind when the news came of Prince Eugene's victory 
 over the French at Turin, which left Austria's hands free 
 to deal with the insurgents. 
 
 RAk6czy's last move was the convocation of a meeting 
 of nobles at Onod, who solemnly passed a resolution,* in 
 
 1 He had twenty-five French officers with him, excellent so far as technical 
 matters were concerned, such as artillery and fortification, but they wanted to 
 turn Magyar irregulars into troops of the line, and make them adopt a 
 manner of fighting which was foreign to their habits and nature. — BeSthy, 
 O.C. p. 556. 
 
 ^ He for a time subsidised the insurgents to the extent of 50,000 livres per 
 mensem. — Fiedler, Aktemtucke zur Geschichte, F. Riik6czy, p. 195. Vienna, 
 1855. 
 
 5 Credentials of the Dutch envoy cited by Szalay, Mag. TSrt. vi. 3 1 3, k. 
 
 * Enchiridion Fontium, p. 613 sqq. When reproached for issuing his 
 
172 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 their own name and in that of their descendants, to the 
 eiFect that they renounced for ever all allegiance to the 
 perjured Habsburgs, But this was only a paper thunder- 
 bolt, and as a kind of counterblast thereto, and in order 
 to give proof in the eyes of Europe of his tolerant spirit 
 and of his devotion to the Constitution, Joseph was induced 
 to summon a meeting of the Diet at Pressburg. His 
 refusal, however-, to make any concession in the direction 
 of religious liberty, and the appearance of the plague and 
 of the insurgents, dissolved the Diet before any result had 
 been attained. In the meanwhile Heister had inaugurated 
 a fresh campaign, which began with a notice to all wives 
 and children of the insurgents to leave their homes within 
 1708. fourteen days, and ended with the battle of Trencs6n — the 
 final blow, as it turned out, to the hopes of Rdk6czy, 
 though he made superhuman efforts to raise a new army. 
 Again England interfered and sent Lord Peterborough to 
 Vienna to insist on peace being made ; and 1 7 1 1 saw the 
 end of the long struggle, Joseph having removed all 
 remaining obstacles to peace by dying in the early part 
 of the year. 
 
 Rak6czy, who had retired to Poland in order to 
 negotiate with the Tsar with a view to inducing him to 
 intervene on behalf of the insurgents,^ made a last attempt 
 to prevent the success of the negotiations, which Alexander 
 Kdrolyi had carried on during his absence, by making an 
 appeal to Hungary to hold out to the last, and protesting 
 against a peace which would " lead to the everlasting slavery 
 and entombment of the once glorious Magyar race." But 
 all were longing for rest, and the insurgent nobles of 
 
 manifesto on the ground that it was likely to bring about reprisals, Rak6czy 
 replied that if the people won, the manifesto could do no harm ; and that if 
 they lost, declaration of independence or no, the Habsburgs would massacre 
 them. — BeOthy, o.c. p. 486. According to Michael Horvith, ox. iv. 415, 
 Louis XIV. insisted on a renunciation of allegiance to the Habsburgs as a 
 condition precedent to the giving of further assistance. 
 1 Fiedler, Aktenstiicke, p. 197. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION - 173 
 
 Hungary and Transylvania, convened by Karoiyi in the 
 church of Szatmdr, accepted the terms which he had 
 negotiated on their behalf. RAk6c!iy was to be allowed 
 to keep his estates and live where he pleased, in Hungary 
 or Poland, provided he took the oath of allegiance to the 
 King within three weeks. A general amnesty was to be 
 proclaimed ; widows and orphans of insurgents were to 
 receive back the property of their husbands or fathers, 
 and foreign soldiers, who had taken part in the rising, 
 were to return unmolested to their own countries. Pro- 
 vision was made for the revival of the old guarantees of 
 religious freedom, and the King was to promise " to 
 maintain and hold sacred and inviolate the rights, liberties, 
 and immunities of the kingdom of Hungary and Transyl- 
 vania." ^ Though the results of the struggle were not so 
 great as those secured by Bocskay and by the Peace of 
 Vienna, in any case they justify Acsady's statement, that 
 they realised the most important point in the national 
 programme, Hungary was Hungary still. Rak6czy, still 
 irreconcilable, retired to Paris, and thence to Turkey, 
 where he ended his days. But his country never forgot 
 him, and popular pressure recently induced the present 
 head of the House of Habsburg to give a tardy consent 
 to the return of his harmless bones to his native land. 
 
 ' Clause ix. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 171 1. The violent phase of the anti-reformation campaign 
 ended with the Peace of Szatmir. The bankruptcy of 
 the CaraiFa-KoUonics system was evident. If Thokoly 
 and Rak6czy failed to compel a complete restoration of 
 Hungary's rights, they had, at any rate, given convincing 
 proof of the fact that violence and oppression could never 
 reduce the country to a position of permanent subordina- 
 tion to the hereditary provinces. It seemed as if Charles, 
 the new King, had been long enough absent from Austria 
 to be unaffected by the influence of the Viennese camarilla 
 with its fixed idea as to the necessity of extirpating Protes- 
 tantism by violent means as the first step towards the 
 compulsory germanisation and absorption of Hungary. 
 " I will strive with the whole force of my soul, in order 
 that my beloved Hungary, which has been tossed and 
 disturbed by so many storms and troubles, may enjoy 
 certain peace, and may be comforted after the heavy 
 blows it has sufi^ered." This, Charles's first manifesto, 
 showed that the lesson of successive insurrections had 
 not been entirely lost, and that there was no intention, 
 for the moment at aU events, of attempting a recurrence 
 to the policy of intimidation. But much more than 
 smooth words was necessary to restore to Hungary 
 even a semblance of its former position. The districts 
 recaptured from the Turks required to be reincor- 
 porated in the kingdom, and freed from the control 
 of the military and financial authorities of Vienna. The 
 
 174 
 
EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 175 
 
 reduction of taxation was an absolute necessity, and some- 
 thing definite required to be done for the improvement 
 of the material condition of the people, which could never 
 thrive while German soldiers, ill-paid or unpaid', lived on 
 the country. Further, the inalienable right of the Diet 
 to decide all questions of taxation must obtain fresh and 
 unequivocal recognition. The aspirations of the nobles 
 soared no higher than this. They had no idea of the 
 necessity of far-reaching reform, of abandoning the ex- 
 clusive privileges of the nobility, and of establishing the 
 State on a broader basis. The great nobles had, to a 
 considerable extent, been tarred with the Viennese brush, 
 and were out of touch with the great mass of the people ; 
 but the " gentry " who attended the meetings of the Diet 
 were really representative of popular opinion, and that 
 opinion was overwhelmingly conservative, and, before all, 
 hostile to the introduction of any kind of innovation 
 which might bring with it the infringement of the nobles' 
 privilege of immunity from taxation. The Diploma 
 Inaugurate,^ the first to be signed since the monarchy had 
 lost its elective character, and therefore regarded as ex- 
 ceptionally important, gave satisfactory guarantees ; but 
 as, hitherto, every Habsburg had systematically violated 
 his oath, too much importance could easily be attached, 
 in forecasting probabilities, to the paper promises of the 
 new King. Like his predecessors, Charles undertook, 
 " firmly and sacredly," to preserve and maintain, and to 
 see that all others of whatever rank or position did the 
 same, "all the liberties, immunities, privileges, statutes, 
 common rights, laws, and customs," conceded and con- 
 firmed by previous kings ; and more especially the Golden 
 Bull, with the exception of the clause permitting armed 
 resistance ; to keep the Sacred Crown in Hungary, and to 
 reincorporate all the districts recovered from the Turks. 
 
 1 Incorporated together with the coronation oath in Law i. of 1715. — 
 Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 687 sqq. 
 
176 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 The crown now being hereditary, the King bound all 
 possible successors to swear before coronation to observe 
 the terms of this diploma, and guaranteed the revival of 
 the ancient elective character of the monarchy in the event 
 of his leaving no male heir — a matter of great importance 
 to Hungary, in view of the fact that at the moment 
 Charles had no son, and seemed unlikely to have any. 
 Further, the law of 1715, in which the diploma and the 
 coronation oath are incorporated, formally reaffirmed 
 Hungary's right to be governed solely in accordance with 
 its own existing laws and those which might thereafter be 
 passed by the Diet. The maintenance of historic rights 
 and constitutional liberties seemed, therefore, to be suffi- 
 ciently guaranteed, though in reality, as subsequent events 
 proved, Charles had no more intention than any of his 
 predecessors of allowing inconvenient promises to interfere 
 with the introduction of innovations or with the establish- 
 ment of dynastic continuity. 
 
 The King's experience in Spain had taught him that 
 war was no longer what it used to be ; that it had become 
 more scientific, and required a better organisation than 
 that provided by the Banderia of the nobles or the levie 
 en masse in time of necessity. He therefore induced the 
 1715. Diet to consent to the establishment of a standing army,* 
 and to vote the taxes necessary for its maintenance.^ 
 This new institution was, naturally, unpopular with the 
 taxpayers, who not only had to find the money for the 
 soldiers' pay, but — a still greater burden to an agricultural 
 population which had by no means recovered from the 
 
 1 1 7 1 5, Art. 8, " regulata militia turn ex nativis turn externis constans." 
 * Though the principle of a standing army was adopted, Hungary did not 
 bind itself to find either a fixed number of men or a fixed sum of money for 
 their maintenance. Both were to be fixed from time to time as occasion 
 required. The nobles, in consenting to the innovation, were apparently in- 
 fluenced by the consideration that the establishment of a permanent native 
 force would relieve the country from the extortions and brutalities of the 
 German mercenaries. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 177 
 
 effects of the late wars and disturbances — was obliged 
 to provide quarters, rations, and forage for 15,000 men, 
 who, if they did not get what they wanted by ask- 
 ing, took it by force. So the new army was no more 
 loved than the imperial troops, which were still quartered 
 on the country, not for fear of a Turkish invasion, the 
 alleged reason, but in order to prevent the possibility of 
 a fresh Hungarian rising — now as ever the bugbear of 
 the Viennese bureaucracy. The nobles as well as the 
 peasants soon discovered that they had cause for com- 
 plaint. Though in one respect the authority of the Diet 
 was undisputed, for neither men nor money could be 
 raised unless voted ^^diaetaliter" they found that the 
 control of the force which they had brought into exist- 
 ence was vested in the Austrian Council of War, and 
 that reiterated demands for the establishment of a Hun- 
 garian War Office to deal with the new Hungarian troops 
 were persistently disregarded. Apart from the risk in- 
 volved in the institution of a permanent army controlled, 
 by the Viennese bureaucracy, the nobles had another 
 reason for feeling nervous as to the outcome of the new 
 experiment. Their immunity from taxation had hitherto 
 been justified by the obligation to perform military service, 
 and though the law of 1 7 1 5 expressly maintained the right 
 of the King to call upon all classes to serve in case of 
 necessity, the establishment of a standing army practically 
 nullified the obligation and destroyed the justification for 
 exemption. 
 
 As regards religious questions, the position of affairs 
 was far from being satisfactory to the Protestants. 
 Charles's long stay in Spain had saturated him with the 
 spirit of dogmatic intolerance, and his whole reign consisted 
 of a series of acts of injustice and partiality though not of 
 open persecution. His idea was to root out heresy without 
 scandal to Europe, and he considered that the object in 
 view could best be. attained by subjecting the Protestants 
 
 VOL. I N 
 
178 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 to petty annoyances, by refusing to allow churches to be 
 built in certain districts, and by restricting the rights of 
 citizenship and membership of trading guilds to Catholics. 
 Scandal was not entirely avoided, and Frederick William 
 of Prussia, actuated either by charitable motives or by the 
 idea that Hungary might produce some useful recruits for 
 his corps of grenadiers, instructed his Ambassador in 
 Vienna ^ to do what he could to help the Protestants, and 
 to promise an asylum in Prussia for such as cared for the 
 flebile migrandi beneficium. Possibly Prussian mediation 
 had some effect, but it is probable that the desire to obtain 
 Protestant support in the matter of the succession to the 
 throne was the real cause of 'the adoption of milder 
 methods, and of the issue of an order forbidding the 
 sequestration of churches, the ejection, on religious 
 grounds, of Protestant tenants by Catholic landlords,^ and 
 the separation of parties to mixed marriages (1722-23). 
 Catholic annoyance at these concessions found its expression 
 in the application of a sort of tyrannical Test Act. It was 
 decided to exclude Protestants from the exercise of legis- 
 lative functions and from the holding of all offices by 
 insistence on the taking of an oath containing a reference 
 to the Virgin and saints, refusal to take which rendered 
 the recalcitrant liable to fine and imprisonment. Passions 
 became so inflamed, and the relations between Catholics 
 and Protestants were strained to such a degree, that Charles 
 finally had to interfere and annul the sentences passed on 
 the non-jurors. Section 30 of the law of 17 15 declared 
 that the King confirmed the laws of 168 1 and 1687 
 (which, as has been seen, nominally put the two religions 
 on a footing of equality) " for the present " ; Calvinists 
 
 1 See his letter to Canngiesser. — A Magyar Nemzet T'drt/nete, vol. viii. 
 p. 121, n. 
 
 ^ Landlords entertained the opinion that he who paid the piper was entitled 
 to call the tune ; that they were justified in compelling their tenants to conform 
 to the religion of their lord, and in refusing to allow churches built on their 
 lands to be used by members of a heterodox sect. " Cujus regio, ejus religio." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 179 
 
 and Lutherans were therefore sitting on a volcano which 
 was liable to eruption at any moment. A committee was 
 appointed in 1721 to decide all matters of dispute; but 
 the demands of the Catholic clergy were of such an 
 outrageous nature that the King could not accept them, 
 and was compelled to reserve the decision of debated 
 questions. The result of his deliberations was embodied 
 in the so-called Carolina Resolutio, published ten years 
 later.^ The Protestants as a body are thereby deprived 
 of their right of appeal to the King in case of illegal 
 oppression ; so, while the principle of toleration is nomin- 
 ally maintained by the Resolutio, they are in reality 
 stripped of their only defence against persecution (cl. 9). 
 Apostates, especially those who, having originally been 
 Lutherans or Calvinists, have joined the Catholic Church 
 and have subsequently apostatised, are to be severely 
 punished {gravi arbitraria poena) by the civil magistrates 
 (cl. 5). Protestants are obliged to observe the festivals 
 of the Catholic Church and to take part in the usual 
 processions (cl. 8). The oath to the Virgin and saints is 
 to be taken by all judges, advocates, and officials, but 
 witnesses are to be allowed to take the ordinary oath to the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, " in order that the course of 
 justice may not be delayed" (cl. 9). Mixed marriages 
 may be celebrated only by Catholic priests (cl. 7), who of 
 course threw every possible obstacle in the way of their 
 celebration, and exacted a promise that all children resulting 
 from the marriage should be brought up in the Catholic 
 religion. The rights of the landlords to interfere in the 
 religious affairs of their peasants are maintained, but in 
 case of any alteration in the established practice approval 
 of their actions must be obtained from the King as 
 Defender of the Faith (cl. 4). The result of the edict in 
 question was that the peasant had no legal protection in the 
 exercise of his religion, and that his right to pray, to marry, 
 
 ' 1 73 1, Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 706 sqq. 
 
i8o THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 to christen his children, and be buried, according to the 
 rites of his own Church, was made absolutely dependent on 
 the arbitrary discretion of landlord and King, i.e. on the 
 discretion of the landlord if he was a Catholic. Thus it 
 is clear that the sole object of that which was euphemis- 
 tically described as a " benign " concession to Lutherans 
 and Calvinists, was the maintenance of the outward forms 
 of legality and the extirpation of Protestantism by indirect 
 means and petty persecution.^ 
 
 It was evident from the first that Charles had little or 
 no intention of keeping his promises and of respecting the 
 constitutional rights of Hungary. It might be supposed 
 that a full and frank observance of the terms of the Diploma 
 and of the coronation oath would deprive the King of all 
 influence on governmental matters, and of all rights save 
 that of veto ; but in reality this was far from being the 
 case. In the first place, article vii. of the law of 17 15 
 made the King himself judge in all cases of lese majeste 
 and treason, and persons accused of those offences could 
 be imprisoned before trial, and so deprived of the protec- 
 tion enjoyed for the last five hundred years in virtue of 
 clause 2 of the Golden Bull and of clause 4 of the Act of 
 1 23 1 — the excuse for the innovation being the alleged 
 necessity of avoiding " the most dangerous consequences 
 arising from the formality of citation " before a Court of 
 first instance. In the second place, apart from his position 
 as head of the Church, which involved the right of 
 appointment to all ecclesiastical offices and the complete 
 control of all ecclesiastical educational establishments, the 
 
 1 A Magyar Nemxet 'Tsrtinete, vol. viii. p. 147, gives several instances of the 
 way in vrhich Protestants were dealt with : e.g. a drunken Protestant cut off 
 the nose of a crucified Christ which a boy was carving-. Condemned to death. 
 Sentence commuted by the King to three years' hard labour. A Lutheran 
 peasant was visited on his death-bed by a Catholic priest. The dying man by 
 accident or design let the sacred wafer fall from his mouth. After death his 
 body was dug up and burnt, and the ashes were scattered. His wife and 
 daughter were obliged to swear that they had not induced the committal of the 
 offence, and then were fined fifty florins. Sentence confirmed by the King. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION i8i 
 
 King appointed every official of state (with the exception 
 of the Palatine and the guardians of the Sacred Crown) 
 down to the humblest cleric — a privilege which gave him 
 immense influence, more especially on the Upper House, 
 the members of which were to a large extent holders of 
 official positions, and on fortune, place, and title hunters, 
 who naturally had their eye on the King, the sole fountain 
 of honour and distributor of emoluments. Moreover, the 
 frequency and duration of the sittings of the Diet 
 depended almost entirely on the royal will, as well as, to a 
 large extent, the choice of subjects for discussion. Further, 
 the employment of the proceeds of taxation and of other 
 sources of revenue was a matter solely for the determina- 
 tion of the King, who also decided ail questions relating 
 to the imposition of import and export duties, and to the 
 raising of loans, without reference to the Diet. Every 
 Hungarian matter, even the resolutions of the Diet, had 
 to run the gauntlet of the Viennese bureaucracy before 
 they reached the King. The want of independence, in 
 spite of oft-repeated guarantees, was especially noticeable 
 in military and money matters. The Financial Board, 
 established in 171 5, controlled the entire finances of 
 Hungary as well as of the hereditary provinces ; conse- 
 quently, the supposed financial independence of the 
 Hungarian Treasury, guaranteed though it was by 
 innumerable laws, became more of a myth than ever, as 
 every act of that institution was reported to and controlled 
 by the Viennese Board, of which it thus became a mere 
 subordinate branch-office. Only one Hungarian found a 
 place on the Financial Board, and the "reporter" for 
 Hungarian matters was a German. The Council of War 
 did not contain a single Magyar member. Practically, 
 the Palatine was the only surviving representative of the 
 old rigime, and even his influence had been greatly reduced 
 in spite of legislation specially directed to its preservation. 
 In military matters the control of the Palatine, who in 
 
1 82 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 former times had been the commander-in-chief of the 
 national forces, had entirely disappeared. He was no 
 longer the direct intermediary between the nation and the 
 Crown, his functions, as such, being performed by the 
 Hungarian Chancery sitting in Vienna. His Council was 
 no longer the chief authority in executive matters, and he 
 was reduced to ^e position of a mere representative of 
 the King in his quality of president of the new Council of 
 Lieutenancy and of the highest Court of Justice. Nicholas 
 PalfFy, who held the office from i7i4toi73i, was an old m an 
 and a tool of the Viennese bureaucracy, and when he died 
 no successor was appointed — a direct contravention of the 
 law. The government of the country was carried on by 
 the King through the medium of the Hungarian Chancery, 
 which consisted of the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, and 
 twelve councillors, whose functions comprised the " nulli- 
 fication of everything which might conduce in any way to 
 the curtailment of the royal power and dignity, and, on 
 the other hand, the preservation in their integrity of the 
 royal rights, privileges, and prerogatives, the execution of 
 the King's commands, and the maintenance of the system 
 and laws of the country." Nominally it was its duty to 
 maintain the constitutional rights of Hungary, but in 
 reality it did little more than transmit the royal instruc- 
 tions to the corresponding officials in Pressburg, and 
 submit the resolutions of the Diet for confirmation 
 by the King. As the worldly prospects of the 
 members of the Chancery depended on their ability to 
 keep on good terms with the King and the Viennese 
 authorities, they would have been more than human if 
 they had thought of nothing but the maintenance of the 
 Constitution. True, they were asked their opinion on all 
 matters which concerned Hungary, but it depended 
 entirely on the King's discretion whether effect was given 
 to their advice or not. Though the laws of 1569 and 
 17 1 5 affirmed their complete independence of all other 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 183 
 
 authorities, their position was in reality one of complete 
 subordination and empty magnificence. 
 
 The chief organ of government was the Council of 
 Lieutenancy established by the law of 1723, articles 97, 
 loi, and 102 of which define the sphere of its activity. 
 Though it was expressly declared to be independent of all 
 other governmental departments, and to have the right of 
 communicating directly with the King without interference 
 on the part of the Viennese bureaucracy, the fact that its 
 twenty-three members were appointed and paid by the 
 King, and not by the country, was not conducive to inde- 
 pendence. The Council had no originating or executive 
 power ; its duty was to "cause the resolutions of the Diet 
 to be carried out by those whose business it was to see 
 to their execution," and to receive the reports and pre- 
 sentments of the county authorities. Like the Chancery, 
 it could make recommendations which the King accepted 
 or disregarded as he chose ; consequently, its actions were 
 condemned to sterility from the start. Though it was 
 divided into five sections dealing respectively with eccle- 
 siastical, educational, military, economic, and general mat- 
 ters, as a large proportion of its members were Catholic 
 ecclesiastics it is not surprising to hear that " its only 
 serious business was the oppression of the Protestants." ^ 
 
 The position of affairs was no more satisfactory in 
 Transylvania than in Hungary proper, though the rights 
 and liberties of that country had been specially confirmed 
 by the Peace of Szatmar. The only matter of importance 
 discussed at the annual meeting of the Diet was the 
 amount of taxation to be voted ; and practically all power 
 was vested in the Transylvanian Chancery in Vienna — 
 like its Hungarian counterpart a mere organ for the trans- 
 mission of royal orders. Though the three recognised 
 religions were nominally on a footing of equality, the 
 Catholic, being that of Vienna and of the King, naturally 
 
 1 A Mag. Nem. TSrt. viii. 73. 
 
1 84 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 got the upper hand. In 1699 the Catholics, in contra- 
 vention of the Diploma Leopoldinum, obtained an order 
 from Vienna to the effect that of candidates for govern- 
 ment appointments at least one must be a Catholic, and 
 that at least half of the members of town councils and 
 trade guilds must also be of that religion. Consequently, 
 Transylvania, which had been the first country in Europe 
 to adopt the principle of religious equality, lost its special 
 characteristic, and the influence of the Romish clergy and 
 of the King gave a religious tinge to all questions, and 
 did much to diminish the spirit of loyalty to the dynasty 
 which had never been conspicuous for its intensity. 
 
 In Hungary proper the smooth words used by Charles 
 on his accession had not failed of their effect, and the 
 loyalty shown by the Magyars to an alien dynasty at 
 this and at all subsequent periods can only excite the 
 amazement of those who have some knowledge of the 
 history of Hungary since 1526. The words were not 
 followed by deeds tending to alleviate the existing distress. 
 For centuries the normal ' condition of the country had 
 been one of war. Four times within a few years the 
 population of Debreczen had been dispersed to all quarters 
 of the kingdom.^ The country was full of robbers ; 
 discipline of all kinds was hopelessly relaxed, and land- 
 lords were not only unable to collect their dues, but were 
 exposed to the reprisals of any tenants who considered 
 that they had old scores to pay for religious or other 
 reasons. Peasants left their holdings and migrated to the 
 lands vacated by the Turks in southern Hungary, where 
 the Ten Commandments were temporarily in abeyance 
 and there were no landlords. The want of labour was 
 severely felt in the deserted districts, and the land went 
 out of cultivation. The Treasury soon felt the result of 
 the departure of the taxpayers. In 1 7 1 5 the Government 
 decided to re-enact the old laws forbidding the migration 
 
 1 A Mag. Nem. TSrt. viii. 98. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 185 
 
 of peasants without the express consent of the landlords ; 
 and in 171 8 impressed on the latter the necessity of treating 
 their tenants well and of assisting them financially till a suc- 
 cession of good harvests had put them on their feet again.-^ 
 Neither materially nor from the point of view of 
 the restoration of its constitutional rights can Hungary 
 be said to have received the promised " comfort." How 
 little Charles intended to be bound by his obligations 
 is best shown by the fact that within a few months of 
 signing the Diploma Inaugurale, which provided for the 
 revival of Hungary's elective right in the event of the 
 extinction of the male line of the Habsburgs, he began to 
 take steps to abolish that fight, so far as possible, for 
 ever. In 1703 his father, Leopold, had made a so-called 
 Hausgesetz — Pactum Mutuae Successionis — confirmed by 
 will in 1705, by which it was provided thkt the testator 
 should be succeeded by Joseph and his sons, whom 
 failing, by Charles and his sons ; and that should the 
 latter have no male issue, the succession should go first 
 to Joseph's daughters and then to those of Charles. 
 From the moment of his succession Charles had no 
 intention of being. bound by any such arrangement, and at 
 once began to take steps to secure the succession, in default 
 of male heirs, of his own daughters (should he have any), 
 to the exclusion of Joseph's daughters (Maria Josepha and 
 Maria Amalia), who obviously had superior rights to any 
 which any possible female issue of Charles might claim. 
 In any case it was to the interest of all that the question 
 of the succession should be arranged before the death of 
 Charles with a view to the prevention of internal dissension 
 and foreign interference, and his subjects were not slow to 
 recognise the fact. As early as March 1 7 1 2 the Croatian 
 
 ' The Vienna Government always claimed credit for humanitarian motives 
 for its interference between landlord and tenant, but a study of the cases in 
 which it interposed makes it clear that interference was invariably prompted 
 by motives of financial self-interest. 
 
1 86 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Diet busied itself with the matter, no doubt on receipt of 
 a hint from Vienna, and with a view to emphasising its 
 loyalty at Hungary's expense, and requested the royal 
 confirmation of a resolution to the effect that Croatia 
 accepted aS its ruler whatever person might succeed 
 to the possession of the hereditary provinces of Austria.^ 
 As is shown by the terms of his reply to the resolution, 
 Charles himself clearly recognised the fact that as 
 Croatia formed part of the dominions of the Sacred Crown 
 of Hungary, the resolution was ultra vires and of no 
 possible effect ; but all the same it gave him a useful 
 start, and a lever for use with the other constituent peoples 
 among whom the Magyars were the only important, and 
 doubtful, factors. A certain degree of nervousness is 
 shown by Charles in broaching the subject with Hungary. 
 In July of the same year a meeting of Hungarian nobles 
 was convened to consider the possibility or advisability of 
 submitting the question of female succession to the Diet. 
 The result was, to some extent, encouraging ; but the 
 meeting expressed the opinion that certain conditions 
 must be observed, and concessions made, before the Diet 
 
 ^ Salamon, A Magyar Kirdlyi Szik Bealtise, p. 36 : Croatia at a later date, 
 and its historians [e.g. Horn, o.c), refer to this resolution as a proof of 
 its independence of Hungary ; but Croatian representatives to the number 
 of ten were present at the meeting of the Hungarian Diet which accepted the 
 principle of the Pragmatic Sanction on behalf of Hungary and the parts 
 annexed without protest from the Croatian deputies. Further, the Croatian 
 Diet of 1740 refers to the terms of the law passed at Pressburg in 1723 as the 
 governing enactment, and to its own resolution of 1 7 1 2 only as a proof of 
 ready loyalty ; and Maria Theresa, in her rescript to the said Diet, refers only 
 to the Hungarian law of 1723. Salamon, o.c. p. 225. In his reply to the 
 Croatian Diet of 171 2 Charles mentions the fact that in the event of his 
 having no son the crown of Hungary " and of the parts annexed " will go to 
 the person whom the Hungarian Diet may elect, i.e. that coronation with the 
 Sacred Crown ipso facto makes the wearer King of Croatia, etc. (see Csuday, 
 o.c. p. 224). Further, the operation of Law i. of 1715, providing for the revival 
 of Hungary's elective rights, is extended to the "partes adnexae," and the 
 Croatian representatives raised no objection, which they obviously would have 
 done if they thought that the resolution of March 1 7 1 2 had any constitutional 
 significance. See K6nyi Man6, Dedk Ferencz Besz^dei, 2nd edition, Budapest, 
 1903, ii. 601 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 187 
 
 would consent to abandon its elective rights which now 
 seemed likely to revive in the near future. The question 
 of the contribution of the hereditary provinces to the 
 maintenance of the army, kept in Hungary just as much 
 for the defence of Austria as for that of Hungary itself, 
 must first be settled. Hungary's right to a separate and 
 independent government must be recognised. In the 
 event of Charles's successor being a minor, the Palatine 
 must be entrusted with the regency, and not some Austrian 
 Minister. The future Queen must marry a Catholic, and 
 her husband must be crowned in Hungary. Generally, 
 the historic rights of the kingdom must be properly 
 guaranteed and confirmed. Charles was not at all 
 pleased with the bargaining spirit shown by the nobles, 
 and affected to look upon the whole business as a 
 mere matter for private family arrangement, and as giving 
 no occasion for any negotiation with Hungary, though 
 of course he was perfectly well aware that no Haus- 
 gesetz had any validity in that kingdom. 
 
 On April 19, 17 13, the document known as the Prag- 
 matic Sanction ^ was produced at a meeting of the Privy 
 Council in Vienna. Ir recited the Pactum Mutuae Succes- 
 sionis of September 12, 1703, and provided that in default 
 of male heirs the hereditary provinces, regarded as one and 
 indivisible, should descend in the first instance to Charles's 
 daughter, should he have one, and then, in default of 
 male heirs of such daughter, who would succeed, in accord- 
 ance with the law of primogeniture, to the daughters of 
 Joseph, and lastly to those of Leopold. This arrange- 
 ment was accepted without demur by the members of the 
 
 ' Kmety, Magyar KSzjog, p. 172, »., says that the term Pragmatic 
 Sanction was that applied by German princes to documents regulating the 
 succession to their principalities. Hubner, Reales Staats-Lexicon, cited by 
 Marczali in A Magyar Nemzet nrtinete, vol. viii. p. 198, »., says " Pragmaticae 
 Sanctiones sunt Edicta oder Rescripta generalia von wichtigen Sachen, welche 
 zur Erhaltung der allgemeinen Wohlfahrt so wohl in Polizysachen gehflren 
 und von der hOchsten Rathscollegiis aufgesetzet werden." 
 
1 88 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Council, but neither they nor Charles attempted to 
 conceal the fact that, though the hereditary provinces had 
 neither right nor power to object, Hungary was under 
 no obligation whatever to give effect to a mere family 
 compact, more especially in view of the Diploma Inaugurate 
 of 17 12, which expressly recognised the revival of the 
 right of election in the event of Charles having no male 
 heir. A considerable amount of discussion therefore 
 followed as to the advisability of convening the Diet, and 
 as to the possibility of inducing it to consent to the 
 abandonment of its elective rights. Eventually, fear of 
 Magyar opposition, and the fact that all hope of male 
 issue had not yet been abandoned, led to a decision to 
 postpone for a time the taking of any decisive step. A 
 son was in fact born in April 17 16, but he died the same 
 year, and it was not till September 1 7 1 8 that the birth of 
 Maria Theresa provided the desired heir. In order to 
 get rid of the superior claims of Joseph's daughters, 
 Charles married Maria Josepha to the Elector of Saxony, 
 who later became King of Poland, and Maria Amalia 
 to the Elector of Bavaria, and made both of them, 
 before betrothal, renounce all claim to the Habsburg 
 succession. 
 
 The ground being thus cleared, it was now time to obtain 
 the formal recognition of Maria Theresa as Charles's heir 
 by the various provinces of Austria. Beginning with the 
 line of least resistance, the consent of Upper and Lower 
 Austria was secured without difficulty ; and in fact the 
 Tyrol was the only province to show any serious 
 inclination to object. In the case of Hungary no such . 
 obsequiousness could be anticipated. The Palatine was 
 commissioned to win over the chief nobles ; the Arch- 
 bishop to square the ecclesiastics ; and the Chief Justice 
 to deal with the " gentry," from whom the greatest 
 amount of opposition was expected. The arguments of 
 Charles's agents were supplemented with lavish promises 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 189 
 
 of titles, money, and promotion. The same procedure 
 was adopted in Transylvania, though in reality there 
 was no reason for so doing, as, constitutionally, that 
 country formed an integral part of the domains of the 
 Sacred Crown of Hungary, and possessed no separate 
 elective rights. 
 
 The Palatine addressed himself first of all to Francis 
 Szluha, an old insurgent under Rakoczy, and a man of 
 great influence, and asked him what the price of the 
 Diet's consent would be. Szluha returned evasive answers : 
 pointed out the possibility of Charles having a son, the 
 impossibility of forecasting the action of the Diet in vie^;^ 
 of the number of the unremedied grievances of which it 
 had cause to complain, such as the failure of the King to 
 reincorporate in Hungary the districts recovered from 
 the Turks, the burden of taxation, the neglect of Magyars 
 in the matter of official appointments, and the exclusive 
 employment of Austrians. He drew attention to the 
 fact that the Diet had, in 1687, accepted the hereditary 
 principle as regards the male line on the distinct under- 
 standing that Hungary would be better treated, and that 
 its rights would be respected, with the result that it had 
 been worse treated than ever. But in spite of these 
 objections and of the fact that the general opinion of the 
 country showed itself to be distinctly hostile to the 
 proposal, the leading men, both in the Upper and in the 
 Lower House, including the recalcitrant Szluha himself, 
 were so easily won over that there is justification for the 
 belief that in reality there never was any doubt as to 
 Hungary's acceptance of the principle of female succession, 
 and that the only question was what guarantees could be 
 obtained in return for the abandonment of a constitutional 
 right. The Diet met at Pressburg on June 30, and 1722. 
 though the King's summons^ contained no reference to 
 the question of female succession, no doubt every member 
 
 1 Kovachich, SufpUmentum ad Vestigia Comitiorum, iii. 432. 
 
I90 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 was aware of the reason for its convocation. Szluha 
 opened the discussion with an ingenious speech ^ on the 
 subject of the necessity of peace and quiet, which could be 
 guaranteed only by a settlement of the question of the 
 succession to the throne. He pointed out that discord 
 and a separation of Hungary from Austria would only 
 have the effect of reopening the door to the Turks, and 
 ended with an appeal to sentiment — to the notorious 
 loyalty of the Magyars, another proof of which would 
 win the admiration and applause of the whole world. The 
 proposal was accepted almost without discussion, and it is 
 fair to doubt whether the success of the Viennese Court 
 should be ascribed entirely to Szluha's oratorical powers. 
 The distribution of rewards in money and money's worth 
 which followed gives colour to the supposition that other 
 agencies were at work, besides eloquence and assurances 
 that the acceptance of the principle of female suc- 
 cession in no sense involved a diminution of Hungary's 
 independence.^ 
 
 By the laws of 1723, which gave effect to the resolu- 
 tion of the Diet in favour of accepting the principle of 
 hereditary succession in the female line, the King "first 
 and before all, and without any previous humble petition 
 of his faithful States and Orders in that behalf, promises 
 to maintain all the said States and Orders of his hereditary 
 Kingdom of Hungary, and of the Parts, Kingdoms, and 
 Provinces thereto annexed, in all diplomatic® and other 
 rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, customs, pre- 
 rogatives, and laws hitherto granted, established, and 
 enacted, and to be enacted " * by the present and future 
 
 ' Salamon, A Magyar Kirdlyi Szik BetsMse, p. 149 sqq. 
 
 ^ Szluha was made a baron and received 20,000 florins ; Stephen Nagy, 
 24,000 ; and many others lesser sums. — BeOthy, o.c. p. 713. 
 
 2 I.e. referred to in the Diploma Inaugurale of 1712. 
 
 ^ Recognising the fact that no change is made as regards the immemorial 
 equality of Diet and King as legislative factors and of the former's powers of 
 initiative. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 191 
 
 Diets (Art, i). In its turn the Diet " proclaimed by free 
 and unanimous vote " its acceptance (failing male issue) 
 of the principle of female succession to the throne of 
 Hungary and of the Parts, Kingdoms, and Provinces 
 pertaining to the Sacred Crown. The order of succession 
 is to be the same as that established in the hereditary 
 provinces, which are at the same time declared to be 
 inseparable^ (subsec. 3). Hence it follows that whatever 
 male or female descendant of the specified members of 
 the House of Habsburg becomes entitled, according to 
 the law of primogeniture, to the possession of the heredi- 
 tary provinces, he or she, necessarily and ipso facto, 
 becomes entitled to the Crown of Hungary and of the 
 Parts, Kingdoms, and Provinces inseparably thereto 
 annexed (subsec. 4). Should Charles have no male issue, 
 the succession devolves, first on his daughter and her legiti- 
 mate Catholic descendants ; then on Joseph's daughters 
 and their issue ; lastly, on the offspring of Leopold's 
 daughter in accordance with the law of primogeniture, and 
 in conformity with the new Act of Settlement obtaining 
 in the indivisible and inseparable hereditary provinces of 
 Austria, which, together with Hungary and the Parts, 
 Kingdoms, and Provinces thereto annexed, form the 
 hereditary possessions of the House of Habsburg (sections 
 5, 6. 7). All succeeding kings or queens, as the case 
 may be, are to guarantee and confirm, on the occasion of 
 their coronation, the liberties and prerogatives of Hungary 
 as confirmed by Charles's Diploma Inaugurale and by the 
 laws of 1687 and 17 15 (subsecs. 9 and 10), and will 
 maintain the same inviolate (Art. 3, sec. i). The King 
 not only confirms and promises to maintain inviolate all 
 the rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, prerogatives, 
 laws, and approved customs of Hungary, but will cause 
 
 1 I.e. the Austrian provinces are not to be partitioned among the members 
 of the House of Habsburg, as had been done in times past, but are to form an 
 indivisible whole just as Hungary and the parts thereto annexed — Transyl- 
 vania, Croatia, etc. — are an indivisible whole. 
 
192 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the same to be observed by all his subjects of whatever 
 rank or condition (Art. 3, sec. 2). The eleventh section 
 of the second article makes the express reservation that 
 on the extinction of the descendants of Charles, Joseph, 
 and Leopold, " the ancient, approved, and accepted custom 
 and prerogative of the States and Orders in the matter 
 of the election and coronation of their King shall 
 revive. 
 
 These laws formed a new contract between Hungary 
 and the House of Habsburg,^ and were regarded and 
 accepted as such by both parties. They form the basis 
 of their relations down to the present day in spite of 
 the coups de canify not to say the tearing to tatters, to 
 which they have been subjected by successive kings, and of 
 repeated attempts to read into them a meaning which they 
 cannot possibly bear. They in no sense form a contract 
 between Hungary and Austria. They in no sense bring 
 them into closer contact than had hitherto existed. Though 
 the elective nature of the Hungarian monarchy had been 
 recognised by Ferdinand I. and by every one of his suc- 
 cessors, Hungary had, as a matter of fact, invariably 
 exercised its right of election in favour of the person 
 entitled by right of heredity, or by virtue of a family 
 compact,'' to the possession of the hereditary provinces of 
 Austria. Apart from the question of female succession, 
 from the point of view of Hungary's relations with 
 
 1 Not, it must be observed, between Hungary and the hereditary provinces 
 (as Tezner declares it to be, Die Wandlungen def isterreichisch-ungarischen 
 Rekhsidee, p. 66 sq.). The laws of 1723 do not differ, as regards their essential 
 character, from any other laws passed by the Diet and sanctioned by the King, 
 and strictly maintain their validity only until abrogated by a similar law similarly 
 sanctioned, "le^bus in futurum diaetaliter constituendis," as Law iii. of 171 5 
 puts it. 
 
 2 As in the case of Mathias II. Deak points out that, but for the Pragmatic 
 Sanction, when Charles died in 1740, Hungary would probably not have 
 elected Maria Theresa, but would have put an end to the Habsburg connection, 
 as both the French Court and Frederick the Great were anxious to weaken 
 Austria, which could best be done by severing its union with Hungary. — 
 K6nyi, Dedk Ferencz Besxidei, iii. 41. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 193 
 
 Austria, the laws of 1723 amount to no more than to an 
 affirmation of the indivisibility of the hereditary provinces 
 on the one hand, and of the indivisibility of Hungary and 
 its dependencies on the other, and of the indissolubility 
 of the union of Austria and Hungary, which exists for 
 defensive purposes only, and is a necessary consequence 
 of the identity of the monarch of the two countries. 
 Should the identity of the Austrian monarch and the 
 King of Hungary cease, the union between Austria and 
 Hungary ipso facto comes to an end, and Hungary is 
 again free to elect its king. Thus, the union between 
 the two countries is a purely personal one, depending 
 on the existence of an individual qualified to combine 
 in his person two distinct characters, and in no sense 
 amounts to unification. On the contrary, Hungary's 
 distinctive and independent position vis a vis Austria, 
 and its historic rights, privileges, and laws, receive 
 fresh and express recognition and confirmation. That 
 is the quid pro quo. The recognition of its complete 
 independence is the consideration for the, possibly 
 temporary, abandonment, or rather suspension, of its 
 constitutional elective right so long as legitimate 
 Catholic issue of certain specified persons shall exist. 
 If any contract has any definite meaning the import 
 of this particular compact is clear, namely, that the full 
 and frank observance by members of the House of 
 Habsburg of their obligation to observe and respect the 
 laws and Constitution of Hungary in all their details is 
 a condition precedent to their right to the Sacred Crown. 
 Their obligation is not merely moral, it is contractual. If 
 it were otherwise the Diet would merely have passed a 
 law accepting the principle of hereditary female succession 
 without reference to the Diploma Inaugurale and the laws 
 of 1687 and 1715 in particular, and all other the 
 kingdom's rights, laws, and prerogatives in general.-' No 
 
 ' The consequences of combining the main point of the Pragmatic 
 VOL. I O 
 
194 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 new rights and privileges were conferred on Hungary by 
 the Pragmatic Sanction, or by the laws of 1723. The 
 latter, the only enactments connected with the question 
 of the succession of which Hungary has official cognisance, 
 the details of which, in fact, differ from those of the 
 Pragmatic Sanction,^ are, apart from the above-mentioned 
 question and that of the duality of the monarchy, or the 
 personal union of the two countries involving the obliga- 
 tion of mutual defence,^ merely a reaffirmation of rights, 
 
 Sanction in the same law with a reaffirmation of Hungary's independence was 
 pointed out to the King by a member of the Council before he confirmed 
 the law ("Reflexiones in Articulis," quoted by A Mag. Nemzet Tsrt., viii. 
 p. 222). Springer, however, does not hesitate to say that since 1526 Hungary 
 was "a province of the Habsburgs just like every other crown-land." — 
 Grundlagen und EnttuicklungszieU der 'isterreichisch-ungarhchen Monarchie, 
 Vienna, 1906, pp. 8, 18, 19. Tezner states that the reaffirmation of con- 
 stitutional rights which Hungary was careful to obtain, applied only to the 
 nobles' immunity from taxation (Der osterreickische Kaisertitel, etc., Vienna, 
 1899, pp. 36 and 45, ».). He says the same of Law x. of 1790-91, o.c. p. 36, 
 the heading of which " De independentia Regni Hungariae partiumque eidem 
 annexarum " would alone almost prove the erroneousness of his view apart 
 from the phraseology of the law itself: "Hungaria est regnum liberum et 
 relate ad totam regiminis formam . . . independens." — See infra, p. 232. 
 
 1 It is noticeable that the law of 1723 does not mention the Pragmatic 
 Sanction in order to avoid any appearance of dependence on Austria or 
 recognition of the validity, as regards Hungary, of a document which, in fact, 
 affected the Austrian provinces only. The Law of 17 15, iii., which says " nee 
 status et Ordines Regni eadem Sacra Regia majestas secus regi aut dirigi vult 
 quam observatis propriis ipsius Regni Hungariae hactenus factis vel in 
 futurum DiaetaUter constituendis legibus," being subsequent in date to the 
 Pragmatic Sanction, is complete proof that the law of 1723 was entirely 
 independent of the Pragmatic Sanction, which differs from it, in the first place, 
 owing to the fact that its promulgation was an act of an uncontrolled autocrat, 
 while the law of 1723 was the act of the elected representatives of a nation 
 confirmed by a constitutional king. Secondly, the Pragmatic Sanction gives 
 the right of succession to all female members of the House of Habsburg, " alle 
 abstammenden Erben des Geschlechts," while the law of 1723 confines the 
 right to the descendants of three specified persons. This fact alone suffices 
 to disprove Lustkandl's statement that the law of 1723 was a mere registra- 
 tion by the Diet of the terms of the Pragmatic Sanction (Das ungarisch- 
 isterreichische StaaUrecht, 1863, p. 226 iyy.). Further, there is the fact that 
 while Hungary's right of election revives in a certain event no such right is 
 reserved to the hereditary provinces. — See Dedk's, AdaUk a Magyar KHzjoghoz, 
 Pest, 1865, p. 56 sqq. 
 
 2 As obviously the King of Hungary must defend the Archduke of 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 195 
 
 privileges, and customs which had existed for centuries, 
 which every King in turn had sworn to observe and 
 respect, and a declaration of the indivisibility of the 
 realms of the Sacred Crown — Hungary, Transylvania, 
 Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia. The Habsburgs gained 
 by the contract, as now that their hereditary right to the 
 throne of Hungary was acknowledged, their realms for 
 the first time presented to Europe the .appearance of 
 a strong, united monarchy- — a matter of considerable 
 importance, and a compensation for the loss of 
 prestige involved by the fact that a female Habsburg 
 obviously could not become a Holy Roman Emperor, 
 and that, consequently, only the possession of the crown 
 of Hungary could assure her status vis d vis other royal 
 houses. 
 
 Austria, and 'vice 'versa, though the law does not in fact refer to the 
 obligation of defence. No obligation is imposed on Hungary of joining 
 Austria in a war of conquest not necessary for the preservation of the 
 territorial integrity of the realms of the King and Archduke. Charles's 
 proposal bears this out : " Ut adversus omnem externam vim et quosvis etiam 
 motus internos salutare inveniatur statuaturque remedium, eaeque necessariae 
 diaetaliter fiant dispositiones ut per vicinam et amicam cum reliquis Regnis 
 et provinciis nostris haereditariis divinitus nobis et Augustae Domui nostrae 
 subjectis cointelligentiam et unionem publica quies, pax constans et inper- 
 turbata, ac in quemvis casum optata Regno tranquillitas in aevum perduratura 
 stabiliatur." No doubt, as Bidermann says {Geschichte der Ssterreichischen 
 Gesammt-Staats-Idee, Innsbruck, 1889, ii. p. 51), Charles's object was the 
 " gezetzliche Begrtlndung einer Vereinigung " but the Diet accepted " das 
 Mittel, liessen aber den eigentlichen Zweck darait unerfallt." Count Virmont 
 declared Charles's object to be " a fusion of and an indivisible ' Aneinander- 
 hangen ' of all provinces and hereditary kingdoms, with the object of mutual 
 and reciprocal defence" {ibid. p. 56). Certainly " cointelligentia " is not the 
 word which would be chosen to indicate the existence of the real union which 
 Lustkandl and his disciples see in the law of 1723. DeAk cites the fact that 
 during the minority of the King of Hungary the Palatine is his guardian 
 according to Law ii. 1485, confirmed by i. 1681, v. 1715, and after the 
 Pragmatic Sanction by ix. 1749 ^nd v. 1790, whereas in Austria the guardian- 
 ship devolves on the Emperor's nearest paternal relation (K6nyi, Dedk 
 Ferencz Beszidei, iii. 41). Further, Austria being a member of the German 
 Empire, and later of the German Confederation, was obliged to take part in 
 a defensive war with the other members, but Hungary not being a member 
 was under no such obligation — an inconceivable position if a real union of 
 Austria and Hungary existed. 
 
196 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Save for the final conversion of the monarchy from 
 an elective to an hereditary one, and for the definitive 
 establishment of the principle of duality, the reign of 
 Charles is memorable only on account of the victory of 
 Prince Eugene at Petervarad, the capture of Temesvar, 
 and the final ejection of the Turks from Hungary, one 
 result of which was the completion of the organisation 
 of the military frontier begun some twenty years earlier. 
 The defence of the frontiers was entrusted to Slav 
 refugees, Servians, Roumanians, and Germans, who in 
 return for military service enjoyed exemption from taxa- 
 tion. They were commanded by Austrian officers who 
 were responsible for their acts only to the King and to 
 his Council in Vienna, and so were entirely withdrawn 
 from Hungarian control, though the land they occupied 
 strictly formed part of Hungary, and should have been 
 reincorporated therein in accordance with the King's 
 solemn undertaking to maintain the territorial integrity 
 of the kingdom.^ The existence of an organised foreign 
 military force directly dependent on Vienna was naturally 
 regarded as a standing menace to Hungarian independence, 
 more especially as all danger of Turkish invasion, the 
 only excuse for the maintenance of a special military 
 1740. organisation, had finally disappeared.^ 
 
 Maria Theresa gave the same constitutional guarantees 
 before coronation as her father had given, and throughout 
 her reign of forty years made few direct attacks on the 
 rights and liberties of Hungary. The process of ger- 
 manisation took a new and more subtle form, and violent 
 anticonstitutionalism was replaced by an attempt to kill 
 the spirit of nationality by kindness. The Queen was 
 
 1 The coronation oath, " Fines regni nostri Hungariae et quae ad illud 
 quocumque jure aut titulo pertinent non abalienabimus nee minuemus sed 
 quoad poterimus augebimus et extendemus." 
 
 2 The abolition of the force and the reincorporation of the frontier 
 districts was continually demanded by the Diet henceforward down to 1848^ 
 but in vain. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 197 
 
 animated by a sincere desire for the welfare of the country, 
 but, at the same time, entertained the ineradicable con- 
 viction that that welfare consisted only in assimilation to, 
 or fusion with the hereditary provinces of Austria. She 
 relied to a considerable extent, and with success, on the 
 effect of her personal appearance, and of the idea of 
 having a woman for their King, on the chivalrous and 
 susceptible Magyars. She early recognised the fact that 
 the Hungarians, if properly treated, formed the one solid 
 and reliable support of her throne ; and the readiness 
 with which they responded to her demands for men and 
 money more than answered to her expectations during 
 the hard times of the war of the Austrian Succession, 
 when no one in Europe believed that the monarchy could 
 maintain the form in which Charles had left it, and paper 
 plans for its partition, and speculations as to its future, 
 were as rife as they are to-day. In view of the simul- 
 taneous- attacks by Prussia, France, Bavaria, and Spain, 
 it certainly looked as if the gloomy prognostications of 
 complete dismemberment would be justified ; and the 
 fact that, after eight years of fighting, Maria Theresa 
 was able to conclude peace with honour, and with, no 
 greater loss than that of Silesia and of a few districts 
 in Italy, while, on the other hand, the Pragmatic Sanction 
 obtained complete recognition, was due in a great measure 
 to the freedom with which Hungary spent its blood and 
 treasure in a cause which was, at the most, only partially 
 its own, and on behalf of a dynasty which had no claim 
 whatever on its gratitude. Conscious of its own import- 
 ance as the chief constituent element of the monarchy, 
 more especially now that the connection with the Holy 
 Roman Empire had temporarily ceased, Hungary was 
 more able and more disposed than hitherto to take a 
 firm stand in defence of its Constitution ; and the 
 enthusiasm evoked by the young Queen on her coro- 
 nation was insufficient to make the Diet forget its 
 
198 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 unremedied grievances, or to omit to insist upon its 
 undoubted rights. It is a mistake to suppose that the 
 oft-quoted and lauded words, " moriamur pro rege nostra 
 Maria Therezia" ^ showed that at the moment of their 
 utterance, and till then, Hungary was all loyalty and 
 devotion to its Queen. As a matter ' of fact, through- 
 out the year which elapsed between her accession and 
 September 21, 1741, the date on which those words were 
 uttered, there had been a considerable amount of acri- 
 monious discussion, friction, and bargaining. There was 
 the natural fear that in the probable event of Francis 
 of Lorraine, Maria Theresa's husband, obtaining the 
 imperial crown, Hungary might lose its position as the 
 most important factor in the monarchy, and again be 
 looked upon by Vienna as a mere appanage of the House 
 of Habsburg. It was desired to limit Francis's right of 
 interference in Hungarian affairs as much as possible, and 
 in order to emphasise the fact that Maria Theresa was 
 the only recognised King of Hungary, and that Francis 
 was only her consort, the Lower House refused to allow 
 him to be crowned simultaneously with his wife. The 
 instant the coronation was over the Diet gave bitter 
 expression to its grievances, and to its hatred of foreign 
 interference ; so, while giving every credit to the Magyars 
 for the enthusiastic generosity of their promises, and still 
 more for the manner in which they redeemed them,^ we 
 must not forget that the old insurrectionary spirit was 
 only dormant — sleeping, moreover, with one eye open. 
 The fact that it did not wake to active life was due 
 
 * The phrase really used was, "njitam et sanguinem pro domina et rege, 
 corona etpatria nostra,'" or "•vitam et sanguinem consecramus." 
 
 ^ The bona fides of the cry "Vitara et sanguinem" is shown by the fact 
 that, before the end of the year 1741, Hungary had 80,000 men-in-arms, 
 exclusive of the frontier garrisons. — BeBthy, o.c. p. 724. In 1751 the Diet 
 increased the military tax, amounting to 2,500,000, by 700,000 florins, and 
 then was abused by the Queen for its stinginess. Further, during the Seven 
 Years' War the Counties voluntarily found 52,000 more men. — Csuday, o.c. 
 ii. 250. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 199 
 
 chiefly to Maria Theresa's personal charm, and to the 
 tact of PAlfFy, the newly-elected Palatine. 
 
 In the dangerous position in which the Queen found 
 herself, the Diet had little difficulty in exacting a declara- 
 tion that both within and without the limits of the 
 kingdom Hungarians should have the exclusive control 
 of Hungarian affairs, and a recognition of the complete 
 independence of the Hungarian Treasury, Chancery, and 
 Council of Lieutenancy, and of the obligation to fill all 
 official posts, whether secular or ecclesiastical, by the 
 appointment of suitable Magyars. The indivisibility 
 of Hungary and Transylvania obtained fresh recogni- 
 tion, and special grievances, such as the prolonged 
 existence of the Neo-acquistica Commissio,^ and the 
 right claimed by the Crown, and several times exer- 
 cised, of imposing taxation behind the Diet's back by 
 virtue of the eighth section of the Act of 1715,^ on the 
 pretence that war was imminent, were remedied by law. 
 In all these questions the Diet must have our entire 
 sympathy, as it did no more than reassert its undoubted 
 rights ; but its action in the matter of taxation served 
 only to prove once more the selfishness of the governing 
 class, which affected to believe that the abolition of its 
 privilege of exemption from taxation would entail the 
 ruin of the country and the extinction of its independence. 
 The nobles forced the Queen to consent to a fresh legal 
 affirmation of their exemption and privileges, as defined 
 by their champion, Verboczy, two hundred and thirty years 
 ago, and to a declaration that the payment of taxes was a 
 personal obligation of the peasant in occupation of land, 
 
 1 Supra, p. 165. 
 
 2 It provided that "in the extraordinary case of an unexpected hostile 
 irruption " not admitting the ordinary method of procedure, the Palatine, 
 Primate, members of the High Court of Justice, and as many barons, prelates, 
 and representatives of the counties and free towns as can be got together, 
 shall be summoned to deliberate and decide as to the amount of the financial 
 contribution to be made by Hungary, if they consider one to be necessary, 
 and not for any other purpose. 
 
200 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 and not a charge on the land itself: for if it were the 
 latter, any noble who came to hold land hitherto occupied 
 by a tax-paying peasant would ipso facto become liable to 
 taxation, and the exemption of the nobility would become 
 a thing of the past. 
 
 After this exhibition of egotism the Diet had no oppor- 
 tunity of showing its fighting powers for eight years, as the 
 war gave the Qheen a tolerable excuse for omitting to 
 convene it ; but when it met again in 175 1 the old griev- 
 ances were ventilated anew : the burden of excessive taxation, 
 the oppression, extortions, and general misconduct of the 
 soldiery, and the unfairness of the Austrian customs regula- 
 tions, framed with the deliberate intention of excluding 
 Hungarian corn and cattle. The Queen would give no promise 
 of doing anything to lighten the burdens which were crush- 
 ing the country,^ and the disgust generated by her refusal 
 was intensified by her demand that representation and 
 voting rights should be given to certain new privileged 
 towns, the inhabitants- of which, almost exclusively German, 
 would naturally use their votes in the interest of their 
 benefactress, and so would increase the control of the 
 Court on a body which was already far too subject to 
 its influence. The Diet refused its consent to Maria 
 Theresa's demand, also to the request that Hungary should 
 make a fixed contribution to provide for the interest on a 
 proposed State loan of ten million florins — a refusal which 
 found its justification in the fact that Hungary had never 
 received the slightest benefit from any loan raised by 
 Austria for public purposes. The attempted taxation of 
 ecclesiastical^ property, a side attack on the cherished 
 exemption of the nobles, was also successfully resisted, 
 and the only result of the manoeuvre was that it drove 
 the Catholic priests, who had hitherto been on the side of 
 the Court, into the arms of its Protestant opponents, — a 
 
 1 Though she admitted in her rescript of Fftbruary i6, 1754, that the 
 existing tariff system was unfair. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 201 
 
 consummation which no amount of legislation on religious 
 questions could have effected. So things went on much 
 as before ; the country had still no idea of the necessity 
 of any real reform ; defence of class-privileges was still 
 the main object of the Diet, whose sessions in 1751 
 and 1764 were, except for some patchwork, parish-pump 
 legislation, practically barren of results. 
 
 That the Diet should have adopted a defensive, almost 
 hostile, attitude is not surprising. Maria Theresa had 
 no notion of the meaning of constitutional government. 
 She openly stated her view that "when a royal rescript 
 is under discussion in the Diet, the States and Orders have 
 not to consider the question of the advisability of what 
 is demanded of them, but only the method in which the 
 royal requirements are to be met." ^ Her idea, and that 
 of her Minister, Kaunitz, was that everything should be 
 done mechanically, by word of command, according to 
 Prussian pattern ; and not content with the importation 
 of foreign notions, the Queen imported foreign officials to 
 carry them out, though the law bound her to consult none 
 but Hungarian advisers in all matters affecting Hungary.^ 
 From her point of view two matters imperatively required 
 settlement : the provision of a sufficient army, and, its 
 consequence, the adoption of a proper system of taxation. 
 On neither of these questions could Maria Theresa 
 expect anything but hostility from Hungary.^ The 
 first necessity, therefore, was to get rid of Magyar 
 statesmen, who, though personally loyal to the throne, 
 were patriots according to their lights — defenders of 
 the Constitution first and courtiers afterwards, and to 
 
 * Arneth, Maria Theresa, quoted by BeOthy, o.c. p. 60 1. 
 
 ^ 1 741, xi. "Tarn intra quam extra regna." 
 
 ^ Maria Theresa originated the policy of germanising the army. Only 
 German words of command and Austrian flags were allowed to be used. The 
 spirit of Magyar nationality was to be suppressed or discouraged, and driven 
 into the background as much as possible, and the army subjected in all details 
 to the control of the Vienna Hof kriegsrath. 
 
202 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 substitute creatures of the Court, tools of a would-be- 
 autocracy. Count Paul Festetics, who throughout the sit- 
 tings of the Diet had supported the Queen's policy through 
 thick and thin, was entrusted with the task of elaborating 
 a scheme of reform of the relations of landlord and tenant. 
 Since 1715 the lot of the latter had become harder than 
 ever ; for now that the liability of the nobles to 
 military service had ceased in fact, though not in theory, 
 the peasants not only had to provide the recruits for the 
 standing army, but also had to bear the whole burden of 
 the taxation necessary for its maintenance. So between 
 the demands of the landlord and those of the state the 
 country population was in an unenviable position. The 
 more the landlord took the less remained for the Treasury; 
 and this is the sole explanation of Viennese interference in 
 the Hungarian peasant question. Humanitarian motives 
 were entirely absent : the desire for the punctual payment 
 of taxes was ever present ; consequently, Vienna has no 
 more claim to our respect than the nobles have who clung 
 with such tenacity to the principle that the poor must be 
 taxed in order that the rich may go free. When, during 
 the session of 1764, Maria Theresa made a demand for 
 increase of taxation, the question of lightening the 
 peasants' burden was raised ; but the Diet would not even 
 consider it, and the remarks of a liberal-minded ecclesiastic 
 were drowned in laughter.-^ The result of the Diet's 
 obstinacy was that in 1765 the Queen, on her own 
 initiative, issued an order regulating the relations of land- 
 lord and tenant, the main result of which was that the 
 current scale of dues and payments was thenceforth 
 regarded as the maximum to which the landlord was 
 entitled, and that any attempted increase justifieid the 
 aggrieved party in appealing to the Queen.^ Thus, the 
 peasant was, for the first time, brought directly in contact 
 
 1 Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 797. 
 2 See Acsddy, A Magyar Jobbdgysdg Tirt^nete, 362 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 203 
 
 with the Crown. The peasants were again allowed to 
 migrate, and their obligations were made proportionate to 
 the size of their holdings. In return for every allotment ^ 
 of, roughly, twenty-three to forty acres of arable land 
 according to the district in which it lay, and ten to eleven 
 of pasturage, the peasant was obliged to do fifty-two days' 
 work per annum with a cart or plough, or one hundred 
 and four without one, in addition to a certain amount of 
 wood-cutting, cartage, and beating for game. One-tenth 
 of all produce belonged to the Church, and one-ninth to 
 the landlord, to whom an annual poll tax of one florin 
 was also payable. In the case of a lawsuit between the 
 landlord and tenant the Manorial Court was still the 
 court of first instance, but an appeal lay to the County 
 Court, in which the county lawyer was bound to under- 
 take the peasant's case. These slight improvements of 
 the peasant's position, which still gave him little or no 
 protection from the arbitrary exercise of the landlord's 
 authority, the principle of governmental interference 
 between landlord and tenant, and the legal recognition of 
 an authority superior to that of his lord, convinced the 
 nobles that the country was going to thp dogs, and the 
 peasants that complete emancipation was intended. The 
 inability of the peasant to understand any form of liberty 
 which did not entail the immediate abolition of land- 
 lordism, and the conviction that the good intentions of 
 the Queen were concealed and thwarted by a malevolent 
 aristocracy, led to a refusal to do forced labour, and to the 
 outbreak of an epidemic of disorder which had to be 
 forcibly suppressed, and incidentally strengthened the 
 position of the nobles vis a vis the Queen, who had not 
 the slightest desire to bring about a social revolution. 
 No further legislation was attempted with a view to the 
 improvement of the peasants' lot. The new system was 
 
 ' A sessio, or allotment, could be divided into two, four, or eight parts, and 
 the dues and services apportioned. 
 
204 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 simply disregarded in many districts, and did not receive 
 general application till ten years had passed. 
 
 One great benefit was conferred on Hungary by 
 Maria Theresa.-" By charter of 1779, Fiume and the 
 surrounding district were incorporated in Hungary ; and 
 thus was realised the long-cherished desire of the Magyars 
 to have their own outlet to the sea — a convenience which 
 was rendered all the more necessary , by the burden 
 imposed by the unfairness of the Austrian customs 
 regulations and by the excessive dues imposed on Hun- 
 garian produce in transit. The result of having its own 
 port was that Hungary again became a wheat-producing 
 and wheat-exporting country, whereas for a long time past 
 its trade had been almost entirely confined to the export 
 of cattle, which had to pay a heavy duty at the Austrian 
 frontier. Corn also was heavily penalised except during 
 war time, when the duty-free export of the wheat 
 required by Austria for its troops was kindly allowed. 
 The loss of Silesia, the chief manufacturing district, made 
 it a matter of vital importance to Austria to foster its 
 remaining industries. The desired object could best be 
 attained by rendering Hungarian and foreign competition 
 impossible by means of tariiF barriers, and by compelling 
 Hungary to draw exclusively on the hereditary provinces 
 for all its requirements.^ The duty on Hungarian manu- 
 factures exported to Austria was raised in 1774 from, 
 roughly, eleven to twenty per cent,' and a heavy duty was 
 also imposed on all raw products which Austria itself was 
 capable of producing.* The export of Hungarian cattle 
 
 1 In addition to the reincorporation of the parts beyond the Mdros, the last 
 district to remain in Turkish hands. 
 
 ^ Michael Horvith, o.c. v. 24.0 sqq. The commercial relations of Hungary 
 with Austria and the outside world were under the exclusive control of the 
 Viennese Commerzien-Rath, established in 1746, which numbered no Hun- 
 garian among its members. Thirty to sixty per cent duties were imposed on 
 all foreign goods imported into Hungary which Austria was capable of 
 producing. 3 Mag. Nemzet TSrt. vol. viii. p. 321. 
 
 * The export to foreign countries of Hungarian raw materials which 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 205 
 
 to Carinthia was prohibited, and, climax of absurdity and 
 undue preference, no Hungarian wine was allowed transit 
 through Austria to foreign countries unless the exporter 
 shipped at the same time an equal quantity of Austrian 
 wine. In order to make the competition of Hungarian 
 cloth factories an impossibility, those in Austria were 
 provided with capital by the State at three per cent interest, 
 and the free importation of skilled foreign workers was 
 allowed. Every branch of Hungarian trade was at a very 
 low ebb by reason, in a great measure, of the obstacles 
 thrown in the way of the export of its surplus products, 
 and owing to the fact that Hungary was surrounded by 
 countries which produced the same kinds of raw material 
 as it provided. Consequently, the complaint of Austria 
 that the Magyars did not bear a proper share of the 
 expense of the monarchy was not well founded, for 
 Hungary's taxable capacity was vastly inferior to that of 
 its neighbour, and was at the same time unduly depressed 
 by the stepmotherly treatment to which Hungarian trade 
 interests were subjected. It was Maria Theresa's opinion ^ 
 that as the richer classes in Hungary enjoyed an immunity 
 from the taxation to which those in Austria were liable, it 
 was only fair that the latter country should be commer- 
 cially favoured at the expense of the former. The result 
 was that Hungary was treated as if it were a colony which 
 existed only for the purpose of exploitation by the 
 mother-country, and its export trade sank to an almost 
 hopeless level. 
 
 By nature as well as by education the Queen was as 
 
 Austria required was either prohibited or rendered impossible by the imposi- 
 tion of such high export duties that the producer had no alternative but to sell 
 to Austrian consumers at a price far below that obtainable elsewhere. 
 
 1 Influenced by Adam KoUar's book (1764), attacking the principle of the 
 nobles' immunity and advocating an equitable system of direct taxation for all 
 classes. The outcry against the book was so strong that Maria Theresa had 
 to order its withdrawal from circulation (Michael Horvith, o.c. v. 211). She 
 forgot that owing to the unfair tariff system Hungary indirectly paid a, large 
 proportion of the taxsstion which was nominally paid by Austria. 
 
2o6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 intolerant in religious matters as any of her predecessors. 
 Though her struggle with Protestant Prussia was not 
 calculated to make her look with a favouring eye either 
 on Lutherans or on Calvinists, the genius of statesman- 
 ship with which nature had endowed her occasionally 
 proved stronger than the spirit of religious fanaticism. 
 The difficult circumstances which surrounded her at the 
 beginning of her reign compelled recognition of the mag- 
 nitude of the risk which acts of intolerance would surely 
 entail. Nevertheless, the inward struggle between the 
 statesman and the fanatic continued uninterruptedly, and 
 it was at all times uncertain which of the contestants 
 would gain the upper hand. At first she expressed her 
 intention of following her father's example, and refused 
 to receive Protestant deputations ; but when the French 
 and Bavarian armies were only a few miles distant from 
 Vienna she changed her mind as to the advisability of 
 exhibiting an intolerant spirit, only to change it again 
 so soon as the threatening danger had passed. Thence- 
 forward she openly identified herself with the party of 
 persecution. The question of the oath to the Virgin and 
 saints, as a condition precedent to eligibility for office of 
 any kind, was still as burning as ever, and on Christmas 
 Eve 1742, as a message of peace and goodwill to all men, 
 she issued a rescript announcing her inflexible resolution 
 to maintain the objectionable ordinance. Only when the 
 impossibility of finding a sufficiency of Catholic candi- 
 dates for office in certain districts became evident did she 
 change her mind, and then only to the extent of admit- 
 ting Protestant candidature in case of absolute necessity. 
 The minor authorities naturally took their cue from the 
 Court, and the confiscation of schools and churches was 
 almost as common an event in Maria Theresa's reign as 
 in any previous period.^ Special permission had to be 
 
 ^ As many as two hundred were confiscated during this reign, A Mag. 
 Nemzet TSrt. viii. 331. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 207 
 
 obtained to build school or church, and the unauthorised 
 inception of the work of construction entailed severe 
 punishment. The Protestant clergy were fined if they 
 failed to notify from the pulpit the approach of Catholic 
 festivals, and licence to work on a saint's day had to be 
 obtained from a Catholic priest. Apostacy from the 
 Romish faith was severely punished : both converter and 
 proselyte were fined and imprisoned if of the better class, 
 and a long term of penal servitude was the penalty im- 
 posed on poorer offenders. It was only when the Queen 
 wanted the co-operation of the Protestants for the execu- 
 tion of her plans of reform that some concessions were 
 made. Pope Benedict XV., fearing reprisals on the part of 
 Frederick of Prussia if Maria Theresa's system of persecu- 
 tion was carried too far, advised her to be more tolerant ; 
 but the recognition by his successor, Clement XIV., of 
 her right to the title of Apostolic King was intended, 
 and served, as a direct incitement to oppression. By 
 refusing to allow any form of higher education to be 
 given in Protestant schools she thought to compel the 
 more intelligent to attend the Catholic establishments ; but 
 her manoeuvres were attended with little success, except in 
 the case of nobles Ambitious of distinction or office, to 
 which apostacy was the easiest and most certain road. 
 
 Notwithstanding the above facts, it must be admitted 
 that Maria Theresa was animated by a genuine desire to 
 raise the general level of instruction. Hitherto the 
 education of the people had been almost entirely in the 
 hands of the Jesuits and of the monks, and the Queen's 
 intelligent advisers were not slow to perceive that little 
 could be done until the exclusive control of religious 
 obscurantists was abolished.^ The suppression of the 
 
 1 The laws of 1715-74 and 1723-70 reserved to the Crown the control of 
 all schools, and the latter indicated the Council of Lieutenancy as the educa- 
 tional authority. It confined its activity to the restriction as far as possible of 
 non- Catholic establishments. — Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 717. The 
 German language was made a compulsory subject in all seminaries, and a 
 
2o8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Society of Jesus by Clement XIV. was by no means 
 1773. approved by Maria Theresa, but it was the best thing 
 that ever happened for the cause of education in Hungary, 
 as the property of the Jesuits was utilised for instructional 
 purposes, and all classes profited without distinction of 
 creed. The control of all educational establishments 
 from university to village school was placed in the hands 
 of the Council of Lieutenancy ; the country was divided 
 into eight educational departments, and the programme 
 of every school was arranged according to the language 
 and level of intelligence of each district. The Ratio 
 1777- Educationist provided for the establishment of schools 
 of three grades : National schools for those who intend 
 to be agriculturists, artisans, or " fathers of families " ; 
 grammar schools for future National School teachers, and 
 for those intended for business or for the army ; and 
 Academies " severioris liter aturae" in which " disciplinae 
 sublimiores" philosophy, jurisprudence, theology, and 
 medicine " a viris kctissimis explanantur." Further, the 
 High School of Nagyszombat, formerly in Jesuit hands, 
 was transferred to Buda and converted into a university^ 
 " emporium quoddam artium ingenuarum et scieniiarum ubi 
 licebit audire viros cekberrimos." The Protestants, who 
 could not forget the recent persecutions, naturally looked 
 upon the whole scheme with distrust, and thought they 
 saw the old wolf under a new disguise ; but their 
 suspicions were not justified, for the Ratio Educa- 
 tionis constituted a serious attempt to promote the 
 educational welfare of the whole nation, not only of a 
 single religious sect, and the subsequent renaissance of 
 Hungary, and the consequent maintenance of its Indi- 
 viduality, was largely due to Maria Theresa's zeal In the 
 cause of learning. 
 
 knowledge of it was essential to all candidates for public, civil, military, or 
 ecclesiastical employment. 
 
 1 See Marczali's Enchiridion Fontium, 718 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 209 
 
 " I am a good Hungarian," wrote the Queen in 1778, 
 " and my heart is full of gratitude towards that people." 
 She proved the fact by leaving the Constitution under a 
 glass case ; " it fared like old shields and coats of mail . . . 
 the ancient panoply was thrown aside to rot in lumber- 
 rooms or be exhibited as part of an idle pageant." ^ The 
 office of Palatine was for a long period left unfilled,^ and 
 the Diet was summoned only three times in the course of 
 forty years. But perhaps the severest blow she inflicted 
 on the cause of Magyar nationality was the encouragement 
 she offered to the great nobles to settle in Vienna and 
 to enter the Government service.* This, and matrimony 
 with Austrian ladies, widened the gulf already existing 
 between the aristocracy and the " gentry." The former 
 became denationalised, forgot its native language, and 
 looked with contempt on its own country which supplied 
 the absentees with the means of living a life of idle 
 magnificence in Vienna, where they spent the money which 
 would have been better employed in the country of its 
 origin. Hungary found some compensation in the fact of 
 the consequent development of the class of lesser nobles, 
 of the " gentry," for whom country business provided the 
 school in which they acquired the experience of public 
 affairs which a later generation employed to such good 
 purpose in the Diet and elsewhere for the preservation of 
 constitutional privileges and of Magyar nationality and 
 characteristics. Neither the insidious favours of Maria 
 Theresa nor her religious intolerance succeeded in under- 
 mining the patriotism and esprit de corps of the Lower 
 House. However much its members might quarrel 
 amongst themselves on questions of dogma, as soon as 
 their constitutional rights, or, it must be added, pocket 
 interests, were attacked, their solidarity was unbreakable. 
 
 1 Hallam, Constitutional History, i. 1 57. 
 2 For fifteen years from 1765. 
 ^ Michael Horvith, ox. v. 179-94. 
 VOL. I P 
 
2IO EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 Attempts to interfere with their control of taxation were 
 doomed to failure from the first, and attacks on the 
 impregnable rock of county organisation were so evidently 
 useless that they were not even attempted. The younger 
 generation might, perhaps, have been seduced from its 
 allegiance to the national party if a military career had 
 been open to it ; but promotion to the higher grades 
 was reserved almost exclusively for Germans, and the fact 
 that a knowledge of the German language was essential 
 for admission to the commissioned ranks, deprived the 
 Queen of the services of many Magyars in whom the 
 hatred of that tongue was ineradicable. Such national 
 literature as there was was in Latin ; but dog-Latin was an 
 inefficient medium for the conveyance of modern political 
 and scientific notions, so the Magyars were confronted 
 with the alternative of either learning German or of 
 developing and improving their own language. The first 
 to point out the necessity of polishing and enriching 
 the niother tongue was an evangelistic clergyman,^ who 
 reproached his countrymen with the neglect of their own 
 language in favour of Latin, which the early kings had 
 introduced of necessity, as in their day it was the only 
 medium of communication between different countries.^ 
 But his voice was that of one crying in the wilderness, 
 and Hungary still had to wait a few generations for any- 
 thing to be done in the desired direction owing to the 
 conservatism of the Magyar, who regarded the use of 
 Latin as the chief means of differentiating the Noble from 
 the peasant. 
 
 1 John Ribiny, Oratio de cultura linguae Hungaricae, 1751. 
 
 2 When St. Stephen introduced Christianity he imported Polish, German, 
 and Italian priests to help him in the work of conversion, who did not lose 
 sight of their own interests. They induced him to believe that now Hungary 
 was a member of the happy Christian family he would do well to adopt the 
 language of the Church in order that they might obtain for themselves the 
 lion's share of political influence. This was the origin of the use of Latin as 
 the language of Government. — Kossuth, Schriften aus der Emigration, ii. 159. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Joseph II. had already been Emperor of Germany for 1780. 
 fifteen years when he succeeded to the throne of his 
 mother, who had carefully brought him up on the system 
 which " magyarised the princes in order the better to 
 germanise the Magyars," As usual, the exaggerated 
 piety of the mother was the cause of free -thinking in 
 the son. Joseph took Frederick the Great for his 
 model, and resolved to be a crowned philosopher and a 
 benevolent autocrat. In old days birth had been the 
 matter of supreme importance ; later, membership of the 
 Catholic Church had been the passport to preferment ; 
 henceforth education and ability, and a knowledge of the 
 German language, were to be the only qualifications for 
 admission to the ranks of officialdom. Respect for tradi- 
 tion, and the idea that an institution must be good because 
 it is old, became a thing of the past. Religion must be 
 encouraged for the sake of the weaker spirits and in so 
 far as its ministers can be utilised as promoters of the new 
 policy. The pedantic exactitude of Frederick, the great 
 martinet, was to be applied to all branches of the Govern- 
 ment service. The Procrustean system of cutting down 
 what was too long and stretching what was too short was 
 to be introduced ; and in order to reduce all as near as 
 possible to the same standard the privileges of the Nobles 
 were to be curtailed, and the peasants and lower classes 
 were to be raised. The unification and simplification of 
 government was Joseph's ideal, which naturally brought 
 
212 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 him into conflict with Hungarian conservatism. He 
 hoped in vain that a general development of material 
 prosperity, improvements in local government, in the 
 administration of justice, and in the means of communica-" 
 tion, as well as the promise of a career for conspicuous 
 talent, would atone in Magyar eyes for interference with 
 the prerogatives of birth. He made the mistake of 
 supposing that his philosophy could overcome the 
 prejudices of pocket patriotism, which saw in the 
 attempt to abolish class distinctions the spectre of 
 taxation for all — the bugbear of the privileged and the 
 true aim of Joseph's reforms. 
 
 One of the earliest acts of the philosopher was to burn 
 22,000,000 florins' worth of notes and bonds, which his 
 father had put by against a rainy day, on the ground 
 that it was a scandal for a king to hold the promissory 
 notes of his subjects — a harmless piece of theatricalism, 
 and on a par with the action of a banker who would 
 destroy his own note issue and claim to be actuated by 
 altruistic motives. He refused to be crowned King of 
 Hungary, as he would have been obliged to take the 
 coronation oath to maintain the Constitution, rights, and 
 privileges which he was absolutely determined to abolish. 
 In a spirit of toleration, hitherto unknown in a Habsburg, 
 the outcome of a philosophic contempt of dogma, he 
 protested against the traditional policy of persecution ; 
 and though he would have liked to secure uniformity in 
 religion as well as in the clothes of its professional adepts, 
 limited his interference to the establishment of his position 
 as head of a Church in the tenets of which he did not 
 believe. The connection with Rome must be weakened, 
 and the Pope's power of interference must be curtailed. 
 Sigismund, Vladislav I., and Maria Theresa had already 
 established the principle that no papal Bull could be issued 
 in the country without the Placetum Regium ; but Joseph 
 went a step further in announcing that not only every 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 213 
 
 Bull, but every letter, order, and instruction from Rome 
 must obtain the royal sanction and approval before publica- 
 tion ; and that the Bulls " Unigenitus " -^ and " In Cena 
 Domini " ^ must be expunged. Thus, not only matters 
 of church government, but of dogma also, were subjected 
 to Joseph's control. The relations and communications 
 of the monastic orders with their titular heads were 
 regularised, pilgrimages to Rome were forbidden, and 
 bishops were no longer to swear allegiance to the Pope 
 on the occasion of their consecration. Pope Pius VI. 
 became anxious, and went to Vienna in order to reason 
 with the royal innovator, a step unheard of for the last 
 three hundred years, and one in which the free-thinkers 
 saw a revenge for Canossa. Though the Pope was treated 
 with great respect, he obtained little satisfaction, as during 
 his visit Joseph not only took the precaution of avoiding 
 an interview, but ordered an inventory to be taken as a 
 preliminary to the confiscation of the property of all 
 religious orders which preferred a life of ease and con- 
 templation to the work of ministering to the wants of 
 the poor and the ignorant. At the same time he appointed 
 a commission to inquire into, the whole matter of ecclesi- 
 astical property, with a view to the establishment of State 
 control, to the more equal distribution of its revenues, 
 and to subjecting it to taxation. The result was a storm 
 of protest. The bishops protested more loudly than any, 
 but the laymen also objected, as ecclesiastics, in virtue of 
 their -possession of real property, enjoyed the privileges of 
 nobility, and the nobles saw in the proposal to tax church 
 revenues the thin edge of a wedge intended to be driven 
 into their own most cherished prerogative. The privilege 
 of ignorance was also attacked by the establishment of 
 
 ' Against the Jansenists (17 13) and Quesnel's Moral Reflections on the Neiu 
 Testament, confirmed 1725. 
 
 ^ A wholesale excommunication of all heretics. — See Marczali, Magyar- 
 orsza'g TSrt/nete II. Jozsef Kordban, Budapest, 1885, ii. 73 sqq. 
 
214 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 State -controlled seminaries for intending priests ; for 
 Joseph saw in the withdrawal from the influence of the 
 bishop of juvenile ecclesiastics — henceforth to be regarded 
 as State officials and as the mouthpiece of the central 
 Government — the best means of combating superstition 
 and of eradicating the spirit of intolerance.-' Some of 
 the details of his system of interference were comic rather 
 than beneficial ; for instance, his directions with respect 
 to sermons. Women were to be exhorted from the 
 pulpit to abandon the pernicious habits of wearing stays 
 and defrauding the customs house ; and the use of candles 
 on the altar was prohibited, not for any ritualistic reason, 
 but for fear of fire. 
 1781- Soon after his accession the uncrowned King issued 
 an edict proclaiming the complete' political equality of 
 Protestants and Catholics, and this was followed a few 
 months later by the Tolerantiae Edictum,^ which marked 
 a great advance, not only as regards the previous position, 
 but in comparison with that obtaining in the England of 
 the period, not to mention other European countries. 
 " His Majesty being persuaded of the injurious effects of 
 all coercion which does violence to the human conscience, 
 and believing that the greatest benefits to religion and to 
 the State emanate from that genuine spirit of tolerance 
 which is agreeable to the principles of Christian charity," 
 proceeds to break with the tradition of the Habsburgs, 
 which made it incumbent upon them to preserve Hungary's 
 character as a Regnum Marianum with the aid, if need be, 
 of the stake, the wheel, and the sword. (Sect, i) The 
 free, private exercise of their religion is to be allowed 
 everywhere to Lutherans, Calvinists, and members of the 
 Greek Church. (Sect. 2) Wherever there are more than 
 one hundred non- Catholic families they can build their 
 own church (which, however, must have no tower or 
 
 ' Marczali, Mag. TSrt. II. Jozsef Kordban, ii. 173 sqq. 
 2 Enchiridion Fontium, 709 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 215 
 
 bells) and may keep their, own priest. (Sect. 3) Non- 
 Catholics may hold any dignity, position, and property, 
 both in Hungary and the parts thereto annexed. The 
 sole qualifications for office are henceforth to be merit, 
 capacity, and a Christian life. (Sect 4) No oath is allowed 
 to be exacted the terms of which contravene the religious 
 principle of Calvinists or Lutherans ; and Protestants are 
 no longer to be compelled to take part in Catholic 
 ceremonies. (Sect. 5) The seventh section abolishes the 
 rule that all children of mixed marriages are to be brought 
 up in the Catholic faith. Henceforth, if the father is a 
 Catholic, all the children are to be Catholic ; if he is a 
 Protestant, the males follow the father's, the females the 
 mother's religion.^ All this was of great importance to 
 Hungary, where, hitherto, a large section, if not the greater 
 part of the population, had recently been excluded from 
 participation in political life, and even from membership 
 of Trade Guilds ; ^ but it must not be supposed that an 
 end was put to all religious strife by a stroke of Joseph's 
 pen. The Catholic bishops struggled hard to keep open 
 the gulf which divided their country into two hostile 
 camps ^ — an unpatriotic action in justification of which 
 they referred to the sacred right of oppression conferred 
 by old legislation, a reference which only disgusted Joseph 
 
 1 Sects. I and 2 still restrict the public worship of Protestants to certain 
 specified places. Sect. 16 declares that no one shall be fined or suffer 
 corporal punishment for a religious cause. Sect. 10 allows Protestant priests 
 to attend their co-religionaries e'uen to the place of execution. The details 
 of the Edict of Toleration supply a sufficient answer to Austrian apologists 
 who try to minimise the amount of persecution to which the Protestants 
 had hitherto been subjected. 
 
 ^ Sect. 5 Edictum Tolerantiae. 
 
 ' The reservation as to children of mixed marriages, whereby alone the 
 superiority of the Catholic Church was maintained, gave them the desired 
 weapon. They did all they could to throw obstacles in the way of mixed 
 marriages, and continued to exact, as the price of consent, a promise that all 
 children should be brought up in the Catholic faith. Their power in this 
 respect was not destroyed till 1843-44. They were specially annoyed by the 
 recognition of the contractual aspect of marriage and the consequent admission 
 of the possibility of divorce. 
 
2i6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the more with them and it, and made him more resolved 
 than ever to persevere in his abolitionary campaign. The 
 Jews were not forgotten. Hitherto they had been 
 tolerated but not recognised, and had to pay a special 
 tax to justify their claim to existence. Henceforward 
 they were allowed to attend Christian schools and to hire 
 land and carry on trades, whereas up to now the majority 
 had earned a miserable livelihood as travelling pedlars. 
 Joseph wished to abolish the distinction existing between 
 them and the rest of the population, and tried to compel 
 them to shave their beards and abandon the use of dis- 
 tinctive clothes ; but the Jews protested, and so the matter 
 dropped, to the relief of the Christians who objected to 
 the abolition of the outward signs of racial diiFerence, 
 almost as much as they objected to Jewish emancipation 
 for fear of the competition of Semitic intelligence.^ 
 
 The removal to Vienna, in spite of a howl of protest, 
 of the Sacred Crown (which the Magyars looked upon as 
 the symbol of their national independence) without more 
 ado than if it were the most ordinary piece of personal 
 property,^ was an indication of Joseph's contempt for the 
 law when it stood in the way of the execution of his plans, 
 and a proof of his intentions with regard to Hungary. 
 They amounted to nothing less than the recasting of the 
 whole of its social, religious, and governmental institutions. 
 1782. With a view to the simplification of government the 
 Treasury was united with the Council of Lieutenancy ; 
 the Transylvanian and Hungarian Chanceries were 
 amalgamated ; and the seat of government was, as reason 
 demanded, transferred from Pressburg to the more central 
 Buda. Joseph refused to recognise any distinction between 
 constitutional Hungary and the hereditary provinces of 
 Austria where his autocratic rights were undisputed. 
 
 1 Marczali, Mag. TSrt. II. JozsefKordban, ii. 271 sqq. 
 ^ " Bonum mobile " was the phrase Joseph contemptuously applied to it. — 
 Ibid. ii. Appendix xxii. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 217 
 
 Henceforth all feet were to be squeezed into the same 
 shoe. Linguistic uniformity was essential to complete 178+- 
 centralisation. Joseph therefore issued an order ^ to the 
 effect that henceforth German was to be the official 
 language of Hungary, and was to be used in all Chancerial 
 documents at the expiration of six months from the date 
 of the order. Within three years German was to be 
 exclusively used in the law courts, and ignorance of that 
 language was to entail exclusion from all public employ- 
 ment. Hence, special attention was to be given to it in 
 gymnasium and seminary, and a knowledge of it was made 
 a condition precedent to employment in the humblest 
 educational capacity in the primary schools. Further, 
 German was to be the exclusive medium of instruction in 
 the University. Joseph was mistaken in his estimate of 
 the extent to which German was known in Hungary, and 
 it is easy to imagine the horror ot grey-headed officials 
 at the prospect of having to learn a new and repulsive 
 language at their time of life on pain of loss of employment. 
 For Joseph made no secret of his intentions. " If any 
 one does not conform with my desires, the door is open 
 and he can walk out, whether he be a member of the 
 Chancery or the humblest clerk in the county organisation." 
 He was perfectly indifferent as to what people learned 
 provided they learned it in the German language, and to 
 the fact that what may be admirable as a means of educa- 
 tion is purely detestable as an end. The measure, which 
 was intended as a direct blow to the spirit of nationality, 
 had precisely the contrary effect to that which was expected.^ 
 
 ' Instructions to the Council of Lieutenancy, May 6, 1784.: "Alle 
 Provinzen der Monarchic soUen nur ein Ganzes ausmachen, in alien die 
 Krafte des Volkes auf ein gemeinsames Ziel, Osterreichs Macht, gerichtet sein." 
 
 " Joseph justified his action on the ground that the use of a dead language 
 proved that the national language was deficient, and that a country should not 
 be governed and judged in a language which the majority of the population 
 does not understand — a good reason for the abolition of Latin but not for the 
 introduction of German in its place. See Joseph's edict of April 26, 1784. — 
 Marczali, Mag. Tm. II. Jozsef Kordban, ii. 385. 
 
21 8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 It made the Magyars, perhaps for the first time, recognise 
 the importance of language as a preservative of distinctive 
 nationality, and realise the fact that the recognition of 
 the superiority of German as the language of all branches 
 of Government must sooner or later be equivalent to an 
 admission of the right claimed by Austria to the position 
 of predominant partner, of the superiority of the German 
 race, and of the necessity of ultimate fusion therewith. 
 The revival and development of the Hungarian language 
 dates from this period, and the contemporary works of 
 Kazinczy, Bar6czy, Bacsanyi, Bessenyei, and R6vai are a 
 lasting proof of the progress made within the limits of a 
 single generation. 
 
 After making an inventory of ecclesiastical property 
 with a view to its taxation, Joseph proceeded to deal in 
 the same way with that of private owners. A census of 
 the population ^ was begun, and a system of registration of 
 land and house property was instituted with a view to the 
 formation of an estimate of the taxable capacity of the 
 country and of the number of available recruits. A 
 swarm of foreign surveyors descended on the counties, as 
 hateful to the landowners who had to contribute to their 
 maintenance as to the peasants who had to give them 
 unpaid assistance ; but owing to the incompetence of the 
 surveyors and the hostility of the population the work 
 was never finished, and the only result was the increase 
 of Joseph's unpopularity.^ 
 
 The organisation of the counties, the real stronghold 
 of national independence, was the next object of attack. 
 The first step was to get rid of opposition in high places, 
 and to appoint to the most important office in the country 
 
 1 According to Pauler, o.c. p. 130, the population was 8,000,000 in 1785. 
 Count Albert Apponyi, in his pamphlet on The Juridical Relations of Austria 
 and Hungary, p. 8 «., says that out of the 7,500,000 inhabitants of Hungary, 
 3+0,000 enjoyed the rights of nobility as compared with 122,000 in France 
 out of a population of 26,000,000, 
 
 2 Michael Horvdth, o.c. v. 397. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 219 
 
 Count Christopher Niczky, who was obviously qualified 
 for the post by the fact that he possessed the confidence 
 of none of his fellow-countrymen. Owing to the 
 suspension of the meetings of the Diet, which Joseph 
 never once convened in the whole course of his reign, the 
 counties formed so many uncontrolled regna in regno, a 
 fact which was not conducive to the attainment of Joseph's 
 ideal — uniformity of government. The counties must 
 therefore be abolished, and the country must be divided 
 into ten districts, each under a royal nominee, a paid 
 commissioner, or Kreishauptmann, whose sphere of 
 authority was to include all matters relating to taxation, 
 to trade questions, to the registration of land and popula- 
 tion, to the relations of landlord and tenant, to the means 
 of communication, to the appointment and dismissal of 
 officials, and to the control and distribution of the soldiery. 
 Not only was every vestige of the old popular elective 
 organisation destroyed at one stroke, but the personal 
 liberty of the subject was at the mercy of the Kreishaupt- 
 mann, who could arrest any one in the Emperor's name, 
 and could apply direct to him for instructions without 
 regard to the Council of Lieutenancy in which the control 
 of the country was nominally vested. No doubt Joseph 
 was animated by the best motives. With a view to the 
 development of trade he sketched out a whole network 
 of roads, prescribed the regulation of the waterways, and 
 laid special stress in his instructions to the commissioners 
 on the necessity of religious tolerance, of the abolition of 
 the corveg, and on the undesirability of encouraging the 
 migration of the country population to the great towns. 
 The fact is that Joseph was born before his time, and that 
 the country was not ready even for the proposed improve- 
 ments in its material condition, in his advocacy of which 
 the Emperor to some extent anticipated the great reformer 
 of half a century later — Count Stephen Sz^chenyi. He 
 wished to plant ready-made, full-grown trees, and was too 
 
220 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 impatient to cast a seed and leave it to germinate. The 
 only real result of his hasty reforms was the production 
 of a conviction in the minds of the peasants that he 
 intended, and in fact had ordered, their complete emanci- 
 pation, and that his good intentions and instructions were 
 thwarted and disregarded by a malevolent officialdom, in 
 which they discerned not the protectors of the poor, 
 whom Joseph had wished them to see, but the agents of 
 their natural enemies, the landlords, and of a new and 
 more subtle form of oppression. Consequently, the 
 Jacqueries which followed in certain districts were, in a 
 way, a tribute of gratitude to the imperial liberator whose 
 remissness in suppressing the disturbances gave some 
 colour to the belief that he was not an entirely reluctant 
 spectator of the process of landlord-baiting.^ The good 
 intentions above referred to were expressed in the order 
 of August 22, 1785, whereby the term serf (^jobbAgy, 
 Leibeigen) was abolished, and the peasants' right of 
 migration received fresh confirmation. Henceforth the 
 peasant can marry without consent, and is not controlled 
 in his choice of trade or profession. He can freely 
 dispose of his personal property, cannot be deprived of 
 his tenant right except by legal process, and in case of 
 oppression can claim the assistance of the official lawyer 
 of the district.^ All these feforms, beneficial in themselves, 
 were acts of benevolent tyranny realised in total disregard 
 of the laws of the country, and over the head of the sole 
 legal legislative authority. The idea of conferring 
 proprietary rights on the peasants apparently never 
 entered Joseph's mind, but as the body which paid the 
 
 1 Like Stepanovitch, the most heartless and successful of the anarchistic 
 agitators of Russia, H6ra and Kloska, the authors of the Jacqueries here 
 referred to, produced documents written in letters of gold, purporting to 
 contain Joseph's authorisation to the peasants to exterminate the landlords. — 
 Michael Horvdth, v. 35 1, 357 ; Marczali, Mag. TSrt. II. Jozsef Kordban, ii. 526. 
 See also Jancs6 Benedek, A Romdn Nemzetis^gi TSrelnj&ek TSrt^nete. Budapest, 
 1899, 110 iqq., 114, 123. 
 
 2 AcsAdy, A Magyar yobbdgystig TSrtinete, 379 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 221 
 
 taxes and provided the recruits for the army, they were 
 entitled to protection from gross acts of tyranny ; and 
 every fresh immunity conferred on them drove another 
 nail into the coffin of the nobles' exemption from taxation, 
 the desire for the abolition of which was the motive for 
 all Joseph's reforms of the relations between landlord and 
 tenant. However great our sympathy may be for the 
 desire of the nobles to maintain their independence and 
 legislative rights, we must admit that they cut a poor 
 figure when they could produce no better justification for 
 the maintenance of a barbaric system and of inequitable 
 privileges than Verboczy's two and a half centuries' old 
 dicta, and tacitly insisted on the theory that their national 
 individuality could be preserved only by the perpetuation 
 of injustice and class distinction. 
 
 If Joseph's reforms had been prompted only by 
 notions of abstract justice, and not by considerations of 
 expediency, he would not have maintained the one-sided 
 system of protection which reduced Hungary to a position 
 of complete economic dependence on Austria,^ the price 
 of escape from which was complete fusion with the 
 hereditary provinces, and that no patriot was prepared to 
 pay. The desire for uniformity and for the abolition of 
 class and national distinctions was at the bottom of the. 
 Emperor's economic policy ^ as well as of his reform of 
 
 1 In 1785, Joseph wrote to the Chancellor, Pilffy, admitting that 
 Hungary was exploited as a colony, but saying that he would do nothing to 
 remedy its position unless it would undertake to pay more taxes (BeOthy, o.c. 
 vol. i.p. 728). It must not be forgotten that the nobles made large voluntary 
 contributions in money, first in 1+39, and in men ; much less that Hungary 
 had no control whatever of expenditure, and that all proceeds of taxation went 
 to Austria, which never spent a penny on the material or moral welfare of the 
 country from which it annually drew a sum of money out of all proportion 
 greater than that which it provided itself, having regard to the relative taxable 
 capacity of the two countries. 
 
 2 The " Isolirungs-System," as he himself styled the system of out-and- 
 out protection of Austrian trade interests maintained at Hungary's expense. 
 On the economic relations of Austria and Hungary during this and the 
 preceding period, see Michael Horvath's Az Ipar // Kereskedelem Tortinete 
 Magyarorszdgban a hdrom utols6 sx,dzad alatt. 
 
222 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the judicature and of the criminal law. The jurisdiction 
 of the landlord over his tenant was taken away, and 
 thirty-eight local courts of first instance were established. 
 These were subject to the control of the supreme judicial 
 body, the Court of Seven Judges, whose duty it was, 
 inter alia, to select and submit to Joseph the names of 
 candidates for judicial appointments. Henceforward, 
 nobles and peasants were to be tried by the same 
 tribunals, and both classes were to be liable to the inflic- 
 tion of the same penalties- — no doubt a great and admirable 
 reform as far as it went, but the punishments prescribed 
 for various offences showed little advance from the 
 humanitarian point of view, and the absence of any idea 
 of the desirability of reforming the criminal, rather than 
 of merely taking vengeance on the offender, is shown by 
 the enormous length of the sentences prescribed for 
 comparatively trifling misdeeds. And here again, the 
 tendentious character of the reform is shown by the 
 number of offences enumerated by the new code which 
 entail the loss of the rights of nobility, and the consequent 
 enlargement of the tax-paying classes. 
 1788. Joseph paid for the unpopularity of his reforms and 
 innovations as soon as foreign complications arose, and 
 where Maria Theresa found help and enthusiasm, met 
 only with indifference and open hostility when men and 
 money were wanted for the Turkish war, success in which 
 might encourage the Emperor in the prosecution of his 
 centralising policy, whereas a fiasco might afford the 
 opportunity of recovering at least some measure of 
 independence. The distress caused by the slow progress 
 of the war, and the news of the outbreak of the French 
 Revolution, made the probability of a general upheaval 
 of the country greater than ever ; more especially when 
 Joseph gave orders that the troops should be employed 
 to collect, by force if necessary, the arrears of taxes which 
 the pauperised population was quite unable to pay. But 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 223 
 
 the spirit of hostility found its expression, not in any 
 outburst of violence, but in a passive resistance to the 
 demands of the Government, and in a deliberate develop- 
 ment of the spirit of nationalism, the outward and visible 
 signs of which were the revival of the national costume, 
 and the universal use of the national language. With the 
 outbreak of the revolution in Belgium came the beginning 
 of the end, and the general collapse of the edifice which 
 Joseph had so laboriously reared. Fearing that he would 
 find another and more formidable Belgium in Hungary, 
 he began the process of climbing down the ladder, and 
 was unable to stop until he had arrived at the bottom. 
 First he issued a decree suspending the work of the survey- 
 commission, followed by the rescript of December 18, 
 1789 (which it is to be observed is written in Hun- 
 garian as well as in German), promising to convene the Diet 
 as soon as the war should be over. Last of all came a 
 death-bed recantation — the withdrawal of the objectionable 
 ordinances, and the destruction at one stroke of the whole 
 work of his reign, excepting only the Edictum Tolerantiae. 
 
 We have of Our clemency decided to restore the public 
 administration and the judicial system, as from the first day of 
 May next, to the position it occupied in the year 1780 on the 
 decease of Her Most Serene Majesty the widowed Empress and 
 Apostolic Queen Our Mother . . . and now that We are con- 
 vinced that you prefer the old form of government, and in it 
 alone seek and find your happiness, We make no delay in deferring 
 to your wishes ; and as Our sole desire is for the prosperity of the 
 nations entrusted to Our charge ... to all the counties of the 
 kingdom, royal free towns and districts, their former legal 
 authority is restored, both as regards matters to be dealt with 
 in general or other meetings and as regards the election of 
 officials. The rest of the ordinances issued by Our authority, 
 which may seem to be contrary to the usual interpretation of the 
 laws, We hereby declare to be suspended, void, and of no effect 
 - . . whereby you will receive an irrefragable proof, and one 
 valid for all times to come, of Our determination to maintain 
 in undiminished force the rights of the Estates in the matter 
 
224 EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 of legislative authority, which, by virtue of the fundamental laws 
 of the Kingdom is equally divided between the King and the 
 various Estates of the Realm, and to transmit the Constitution 
 inviolate to Our descendants in the same form as that in which 
 we ourselves received it from Our predecessors, in the hope that 
 you will assist the country which implores your assistance by 
 supplying provisions for the troops now mobilised for its security, 
 and by voting of recruits to the extent which you may consider 
 necessary for the carrying out of the campaign during the 
 current year. 
 
 Strange irony of fate that the bitterest enemy of the 
 Magyar language should be the first of the Habsburgs 
 to submit to the obligation of addressing his subjects 
 in that idiom, and that the great innovator should be 
 compelled to subscribe to a document containing the 
 plainest possible recognition of the constitutional rights 
 of the Diet as regards legislative initiative, control of 
 taxation, and the fixing of the military contingent. The 
 last clause of the rescript gives complete proof of the 
 success of the policy of passive resistance, and of the 
 impossibility of coercing a country which Maria Theresa 
 found it easy to lead by appealing to its generosity. 
 Whatever one's opinion may be of the wisdom of Joseph's 
 attempted innovations, it is impossible to be blind to the 
 many merits of the would-be reformer, or to withhold 
 one's sympathy from the individual. He chose for his 
 epitaph the words : " Here lies a monarch whose inten- 
 tions were good, who failed in all his enterprises." ^ A 
 more courtly, but equally just inscription records the fact 
 that " Saluti publicae vixit, non diu, sed totus." ^ 
 
 1 Michael HorvAth, o.c. v. 440. ^ A Mag. Nem. Tsrt. viii. 464. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The return of the Sacred Crown to Buda was the signal 1790- 
 for an outburst of joy on the part of the Hungarians, who 
 saw therein the outward and visible sign of their victory, 
 the re-establishment of their Constitution, and the recogni- 
 tion of their historic rights. But their recent experiences 
 were not calculated to make them entirely contented with 
 the prospect of returning to the position of affairs which 
 had existed at the death of Maria Theresa. It was evident 
 that a stronger safeguard was required than that provided 
 by the Pragmatic Sanction ^ against attempts to annihilate 
 the nation's individuality. The law of 1723 was intended 
 to form, and had been looked upon by all as constituting, 
 a contract between the Habsburgs and Magyars ; and the 
 deliberate pulverisation of that contract by one of the 
 parties thereto, in the opinion of many, justified the other 
 party as treating the whole compact as null and void, and 
 in returning to the status quo ante. It was pointed out 
 that Joseph had succeeded to the throne solely by virtue 
 of that agreement, which had guaranteed the liberties and 
 the Constitution of the Hungarian nation, and that by his 
 disregard of his contractual obligations " the thread of 
 succession had been broken " ; ^ whence it followed that 
 the people had recovered its ancient elective rights. This 
 
 > The term Pragmatic Sanction is used for convenience, though, as has 
 been pointed out, it is not that document but the laws of 1723 which contain 
 the terms of the contract between Hungary and the Habsburgs. 
 
 2 "Filurti sanctionalis successionis regiae interruftum." — Marczali, Az. lygo-gi- 
 diii OrszdggyuUs, Budapest, 1907, i. 15. 
 
 VOL. I 225 Q 
 
226 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 opinion, and the general unrest, was encouraged and 
 fomented by Prussia, which saw with concern the suc- 
 cesses of Loudon in Turkey, and was quite alive to the 
 advantage either of securing active assistance in the event 
 of war with Austria, or, at all events, of paralysing the 
 right arm of the Habsburgs by encouraging the Magyars 
 to sulk in their tents. When war seemed unavoidable 
 the Hungarian leaders kept in close touch with Jacoby, 
 the Prussian envoy, and were anxious that no terms of 
 peace should be arranged between Prussia and Austria 
 which did not provide some kind of guarantee of the 
 maintenance of the liberties and independence of Hungary, 
 and new and more certain protection for class privileges. 
 Few, however, went so far as to wish for the deposition of 
 the perjured dynasty, or as to be disposed to shed their 
 blood '■'■pour le rot de Prusse." 
 
 The Counties addressed themselves with pleasure to 
 the task of destroying the relics of " Josephism." Com- 
 pulsory German instruction was promptly abolished, and 
 the opportunity was taken for the first time of extending 
 the teaching of the Hungarian language among the non- 
 Magyar population. It is perhaps not to be wondered at 
 that the reaction manifested itself in places in a somewhat 
 exaggerated form. In some Counties the books of the 
 foreign land-surveyors were solemnly burnt. German, 
 i.e. non-Hungarian, clothes were either voluntarily laid 
 aside or stripped from the backs of the wearers. A cry 
 was raised for a return to ancient Hungarian manners and 
 customs, to the simple life of " Scythian " ancestors, and 
 for the re-establishment of the ancient relations of land- 
 lord and serf.^ Of all Joseph's innovations the principle 
 of religious toleration alone escaped attack ; for the 
 people was convinced of the necessity of putting an end 
 to the disputes which had so long divided the nation 
 into two camps, the hostility of which had lent itself 
 
 ' Marczali, Az. ijgo-gi-diki OrszclggyiiUs, i. 42 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 227 
 
 so easily to exploitation in the interest of alien domina- 
 tion.^ The immediate convocation of the Diet was 
 demanded, and it was resolved that a failure to convene it 
 within a month should be followed by the suspension of the 
 collection of taxes. The catchwords of the French Revolu- 
 tion, " sovereignty of the people " and the rest, came into 
 fashion, and the establishment of a national army, and 
 the recognition of the nation's right to be heard on the 
 question of making war and peace, was insistently de- 
 manded. Both the illegality of interference with old class 
 privileges, and the modern ideas of liberty and equality, 
 provided a basis for an attack on the Habsburg con- 
 nection. The continuance of the war with Turkey, and 
 the position of Austria vis a vis the Anglo-Prussian- 
 Dutch convention, made it essential for Vienna to come 
 to terms with Hungary, which saw the opportunity not 
 only of obtaining security for the maintenance of its 
 historic rights, but of limiting the privileges of the Crown 
 and of establishing a national army which should make 
 a repetition of the brutalities of foreign mercenaries an 
 impossibility. The sudden abolition of Joseph's reforms 
 produced a recrudescence of unrest among the peasants, 
 who discerned nothing but humanitarian motives in the 
 innovations of the past reign. The "Peasants' Decree," 
 issued in certain districts, showed the spirit which animated 
 the H6ras and Dozsas to be still alive, and gave fresh 
 expression to the ineradicable idea that nothing but the 
 malevolence of officials prevented the realisation of the 
 desires of the Liberator-King for the complete emancipa- 
 tion of the oppressed. The proclamation in question 
 threatens extermination of the landlords if they venture 
 to depart a hair's-breadth from the terms of Joseph's 
 edict, as well as of any blackleg peasants who dare to pay 
 
 ' " Qu'on ne craigne pas la revolution dans un pays oil il y a six partis 
 puissants qui se detestent, le clerg^, catholique, grec et protestant, les magnats, 
 gentilshommesetpaysans?" — LePrincedeLignetoKaunitz. — Marczali, o.c. i. 54. 
 
228 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the rent, or perform the services hitherto incident to the 
 tenure of land. The petition addressed to Leopold II., 
 Joseph's successor, shows hardly any sign of the influence 
 of the French Revolution, and no idea of demanding any 
 form of political rights or anything more than the abolition 
 of the most crying forms of injustice. The requirements 
 of the peasants are limited to the redemption of the feudal 
 dues, the fair division of the corvie between the different 
 seasons,^ the employment of non-nobles in inferior official 
 positions," freedom from corporal punishment without 
 previous legal condemnation, and a lightening of the 
 burden of taxation. Luckily for the nobles, Leopold was 
 either too busily occupied with external complications, or 
 was too conscientious, to raise a peasant Frankenstein and 
 to utilise the forces of discontent for selfish purposes. 
 Without his interference the nobles were brought to 
 reason by the threat of peasant risings, and consented to the 
 passing of certain measures, based, not on Joseph's decree, 
 for that would have been equivalent to the recognition of 
 the legality of extra-Dietal interference in the internal affairs 
 of the kingdom, but on the laws passed in Sigismund's, 
 Ferdinand's, and Maximilian's reigns, which had abolished 
 the principle of perpetual servitude. The right of free 
 migration, subject to the satisfaction of the peasant's legal 
 obligations to his landlord, was re-established,^ and the 
 tenant's right to fair compensation for unexhausted im- 
 provements was recognised. On the other hand the manorial 
 courts were revived, and the regime of the stick continued. 
 It was fortunate for Hungary that one royal innovator 
 
 ' Hitherto the landlord could compel the tenant to do the prescribed forced 
 labour all at once at any period of the year, thus making it impossible for the 
 peasant to prepare his own land for the season's crops. 
 
 2 E.g. in the postal service. 
 
 ' Migration was allowed only at the festival of St. Gregory, i.e. before the 
 spring labour begins, and for fear lest whole districts might be depopulated to 
 the detriment of the Government in the matter of taxation (1790-91 Art. 35). 
 This law was the last passed with a view to bettering the position of the 
 peasant till a new era of reform began with the Diet of 1832. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 229 
 
 was not succeeded by another of the same type. Leopold 
 had already had twenty-five years' experience of the work 
 of government at Florence, where he had earned the 
 respect and admiration, not only of his own subjects, but 
 of all who had come in contact with hlm.^ But Tuscany 
 was not Hungary, and presumably he recognised the fact 
 that the benevolent despotism, based on a well-organised 
 secret police, which had sufficed in the former would, in 
 the present condition of public opinion (the result of the 
 French Revolution), and in view of the threatening nature 
 of the general European outlook, infallibly lead to a 
 national upheaval in the latter. This, rather than any 
 philosophic attachment to the abstract idea of liberty and 
 Constitutionalism, dictated the letter in which he informed 
 Hungary of his accession to the throne and of his intention 
 to maintain the freedom, laws, and Constitution of the 
 country, and to summon the Diet without delay. The 
 lesson afforded by the deathbed recognition by his prede- 
 cessor of Magyar tenacity of purpose and by the victory of 
 passive resistance made him indisposed to submit to the 
 influence of reactionary bureaucrats who saw in the coUapse 
 of " Josephism " the prospective loss of remunerative 
 occupations. The justifiable suspicion with which the 
 Diet at first looked upon Joseph's brother was evidenced 
 by the insistence of the Lower House on the taking of an 
 oath by all its members to the effect that no one would 
 accept any honour, decoration, or present, without the 
 knowledge and consent of the Diet ; ^ and by the contest 
 which raged over the question as to the form which the 
 Diploma Inaugurale should take. By the demand for 
 separate diplomatic representation in the peace negotiations 
 with Turkey, and for a separate Hungarian army using 
 only Hungarian words of command, officered exclusively 
 by Magyars and subject only to the control of a Hungarian 
 
 1 Doran, Men and Manners at the Court of Florence. 
 ^ Marczali, o.c. i. 163. 
 
230 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 War Office, a definite attempt was made to give proper 
 expression to the principle of the personal nature of the 
 union between Hungary and the hereditary provinces 
 deducible from the terms of the Laws of 1723. To the 
 former of the two demands the King yielded ; and it is 
 probable that had his relations with Prussia continued 
 much longer to be strained almost to the breaking-point 
 he would have been forced to a complete surrender. 
 Though at the discussion of the terms of the Convention 
 of Reichenbach the Prussians threw over the Hungarians, 
 whose attitude had paved the way for Prussia's diplomatic 
 success, the fact that Leopold felt his position to be insecure 
 is shown by the letter which he addressed to some of the 
 leaders of Hungarian opinion on July 20. " Animated 
 by attachment to the Constitution of the kingdom as 
 interpreted by the Pragmatic Sanction, His Majesty 
 neither desires to infringe the accepted terms of that 
 enactment, nor will he permit the same to be violated by 
 others. His Majesty is not averse to the adoption by the 
 Diet of suitable measures directed to the preservation of 
 the said Constitution in accordance with the dignity of the 
 Crown and the welfare of the country, but at the same 
 time cannot allow that His Majesty's right of succession, 
 based on a fundamental law of the State, the Pragmatic 
 Sanction, should be called in question. . . , The King is 
 prepared to exercise his executive authority in accordance 
 with the laws, but cannot agree to any alteration which is 
 contrary to the spirit of the Constitution of the kingdom." 
 For a moment Leopold entertained the idea of inducing 
 Magyar officers, by promises of reward and advancement, 
 to issue a counterblast to the demands of the Diet, in 
 the name of the Hungarian forces, in the form of a 
 pronunciamento protesting their loyalty to the dynasty, 
 and announcing their refusal to be separated in any 
 manner from their Austrian brothers in arms ; but a more 
 effective, if less reputable, means was adopted of showing 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 231 
 
 the Diet that it could not have things all its own way, and 
 of proving the essential weakness of a body which was 
 only partially representative of the inhabitants of the 
 country, viz. a deliberate incitement to racial dissension. 
 The Servian population was encouraged in the assertion of 
 its demands for territorial separation which found violent 
 expression at a so-called lUyrian congress^ attended by 
 many Austrians, and among others by the governor of 
 Petervdrad, who compelled, by threats of imprisonment, 
 the partisans of unity to sign a petition for national 
 dismemberment. Leopold clearly had no intention of 
 giving effect to the separatistic tendencies of the Servians, 
 but thought to utilise them for the purpose of frightening 
 the Diet, which he vainly tried to terrify by an attempt to 
 procure the indictment, on a charge of high treason, of 
 those who had negotiated with Jacoby for Prussian support.^ 
 Another useful bugbear was the suggestion of the immi- 
 nence of a peasant-war with which the officious Press 
 threatened recalcitrant nobles ; and, in fact, the attitude 
 assumed in some districts by the lower orders did induce 
 the Diet to adopt a less uncompromising attitude than that 
 which the instructions of certain counties would have 
 justified it in assuming. Thus, it was to a combination 
 of circumstances that the acceptance, after a deal of 
 haggling, of a Diploma Inaugurale, containing practically 
 the same terms as those signed by Charles III. and 
 Maria Theresa, was due. The liberties, immunities, and 
 privileges of the kingdom received fresh confirmation, 
 and the revival of its elective rights in the event of the 
 extinction of the issue of the three persons specified by the 
 Pragmatic Sanction was guaranteed. Further, the accept- 
 ance of the terms of this Diploma, and the taking of an oath 
 recognising its validity, was made a condition precedent to 
 the right of Leopold's successors to occupy the throne. 
 
 1 Michael Horvdth, o.c. vi. 48 sq. 
 2 Schwicker, PolitUche Gesckkhte derSerben in Ungam, Budapest, 1 880, p. 363 sqq. 
 
232 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Though the Hungarians had to renounce their desires 
 for complete military and diplomatic independence, the 
 meeting of the Diet of 1790 is in any case memorable for 
 the fact that to it is due the strongest expression of the 
 constitutional rights and independence of the country that 
 had ever been put in black and white. The laws then 
 passed suffice, alone, as a justification, if any is required, 
 of the attitude adopted by subsequent generations towards 
 the encroachment of successive monarchs. A new and 
 solemn recognition was obtained from the King of the 
 independence of Hungary and of the parts thereto 
 annexed, and a clear definition of the position occupied by 
 the two parties to the Pragmatic Sanction. The personal 
 nature of the union existing between Austria and Hungary 
 is underlined and emphasised, and the equality of King and 
 Diet as legislative factors is definitely reaffirmed. No change 
 is imported into the relations existing between the two 
 countries, but a clear restatement is made of principles which 
 every Habsburg king, with the exception of Joseph II., 
 had sworn to observe and had consistently infringed.-" 
 The most important clause of the law passed by the Diet 
 of 1 790-1 79 1 is Article 10, which reads as follows : — 
 
 ' Tezner, the most violent modern critic of Hungary's Constitution, asserts 
 in order to get over the obvious meaning of the laws of 1790, that the affir- 
 ination of Hungarian freedom and independence is no more than a reaffirma- 
 tion of the rights and privileges of the nobles as regards exemption from 
 taxation, a " Privilegien Assecuranz," as he styles it. — Der Oesterreichische 
 Kaisertitel, pp. 3 6, 9 1 . An acquaintance with the details of the law in ques- 
 tion, a comparison of Article i of 1723 and of Joseph's rescript of January 28, 
 1790, and the fact that Law x. makes no reference to the nobles, only to the 
 " Jura et libertates Regni" and the words of the heading of that law, " De 
 independentia Regni Hungariae Partiumque eidem annexarum" should suffice 
 to refute the assertion. Though no special mention is made of foreign affairs 
 and of a separate national army, Idenczy, a renegade Hungarian, a supporter 
 of Joseph's regime and an avowed enemy of the Constitution, wrote a book 
 drawing attention to the effect of the wording of Article 10, "a free Kingdom 
 and independent as regards the whole legal form of government," and logic- 
 ally deducing therefrom, as others have since done, the complete independence 
 of the armed forces of Hungary from the military authorities of Vienna, com- 
 plete financial independence, and the right to separate diplomatic representa- 
 tion. — A Mag. Nem. Tort. viii. 523. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 233 
 
 " Hungary, together with the parts thereto annexed, 
 is a free Kingdom, and independent as regards the whole 
 legal form of government, in which' term is comprised 
 each and every governmental department ; that is to say, 
 it is dependent on no other Kingdom or people, but is 
 possessed of its own separate existence and Constitution,^ 
 and consequently must be ruled and governed by its here- 
 ditary King, crowned according to law, namely, by His 
 Most Sacred Majesty and his successors. Kings of 
 Hungary, in accordance with' its own laws and customs 
 and not after the manner of other provinces, as is pre- 
 scribed by Articles 3 of 1713,^ and 8 and 11 of 1741." ' 
 
 Article 3 provides that in future kings must be 
 crowned without fail within six months of the death of 
 their immediate predecessors, and that until the ceremony 
 of coronation has taken place the royal right of conferring 
 titles and privileges is suspended. 
 
 Article 12 declares that His Majesty voluntarily 
 recognises the fundamental principle .that the power of 
 passing, abrogating, and interpreting laws is exercisable 
 jointly by the King and the States and Orders of 
 the realm in Diet assembled and not otherwise, and that 
 His Majesty will himself maintain the said legislative rights 
 of the States in full force and inviolate, just as they 
 existed in the time of his predecessors, and will so transmit 
 them to his successors ; " assuring the States and Orders 
 of the Realm that the Kingdom and the parts thereof 
 annexed shall never be governed by Edicts or so-called 
 Patents which in any case can never be accepted in any 
 governmental departments." * Further, the King under- 
 
 1 " Propriam habens consistentiam et constitutionem." 
 
 ^ " Nee Status et Ordines Regni eadem Sacra Regia Majestas secus regi aut 
 dirigi vult quam observatis propriis ipsius Regni Ungariae hactenus factis vel 
 in futurum Diaetaliter constituendis legibus." 
 
 3 Guaranteeing the nobles' exemption from taxation (8) and providing that 
 Hungarian affairs shall be managed by Hungarians exclusively. 
 
 * "■Judiciis.'" This does not mean law courts, but is equivalent to "dicasteriis" 
 as used in Article lo, the technical word for governmental departments. 
 
234 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 takes that he will not interfere in judicial matters or in 
 the execution of sentences, and that the executive power 
 shall be exercised in strict accordance with the laws. A 
 meeting of the Diet is to be convened every third year or 
 oftener if necessary in the public interest (Art. 13). The 
 Council of Lieutenancy, as the supreme executive organ, 
 is declared to be independent of all other official depart- 
 ments (Art. 14). His Majesty assures the States and 
 Orders that no foreign language shall be used in any 
 governmental business of any nature whatsoever (Art. 1 6). 
 Officials are not only to take an oath of allegiance to the 
 King, but are also to swear to observe the laws (Art. 18). 
 No subsidies in money or kind, and no recruits, shall be 
 asked for by the King, even in the form of free gifts or 
 under any other pretext whatsoever, extra Diaetam, except 
 in the case provided for by Article 22 of 1741 ;^ and the 
 amount of taxation required for the maintenance of the 
 standing army must be fixed only by the Diet, and only 
 for the period intervening between two meetings thereof. 
 The taxes payable by Croatia and Slavonia are also to be 
 fixed by the Hungarian Diet (Art. 59). 
 
 In one respect the Diet suffered a slight defeat. It was 
 especially anxious to establish its control of the price of 
 salt — a royal monopoly and one of the chief sources of 
 income, the raising of which to an excessive figure inflicted 
 considerable hardship on the lower classes. Article 20 
 enacts that the price shall not be raised without the 
 consent of the Diet, but the result of the popular victory 
 was nullified by the insertion of the phrase, " except in 
 case of urgency," which had already done good service in 
 cases where the King wished to perpetrate an illegality. 
 As regards ecclesiastical matters also, the legislation of 
 1790 was not entirely satisfactory, though some progress 
 was in fact made in the direction of establishing the 
 
 1 In the case of sudden invasion making it impossible to summon the 
 Diet. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 235 
 
 principle of religious equality. The Catholic bishops 
 thought it their duty to put matters back, as far as it was 
 possible to do so, to the position in which they were left 
 by Maria Theresa, in order to revenge themselves for the 
 inequality of treatment to which Catholics were subjected 
 in Protestant States, and on the principle that liberty of 
 conscience must necessarily be fatal to the interests of 
 Catholicism. For a moment Leopold was disposed to 
 maintain the Catholic Church in its privileged position, 
 in order to punish the Protestant section which had 
 indulged in a flirtation with Prussia prior to the meeting 
 of the Congress of Reichenbach. Fortunately, however, 
 the great majority of the lay Catholics were animated by 
 a reasonable spirit, which induced them to prefer national 
 unity to the interests of the party of dogmatic intolerance. 
 The King, therefore, withdrew his opposition, and 
 Article 26 was passed, as it declares, "in spite of the 
 opposition of the spiritual lords and of a certain section 
 of the lay Catholics." The Article in question is based on 
 the Tolerantiae Edictum of Joseph II., the operation of 
 which is now extended by the grant of equal rights to 
 members of the Greek Church (Art. 27). Henceforth 
 the Protestants may have the church towers and bells 
 which the above-mentioned edict had denied them ; the 
 distinction between public and private religious exercises 
 is abolished, and Lutherans and Calvinists may build as 
 many churches as they please, provided that they can 
 satisfy the members of a mixed commission that there is 
 money enough available to provide for the maintenance of 
 a new place of worship in the district in which they 
 propose it should be erected. In one respect the law is 
 of a retrograde character. Clause 3 of the Tolerantiae 
 Edictum allowed non- Catholics to hold property and 
 office in Croatia, thereby abolishing the restrictions 
 imposed by the law of 1687, which had confined that 
 privilege to Catholics. These restrictions were revived 
 
236 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 by the law of 1790-91. But for this fact, and but for the 
 maintenance of the advantage enjoyed by the Catholic 
 Church in the matter of the religious education of the 
 issue of mixed marriages, and for the restriction to 
 Catholic priests of the right of celebrating such marriages, 
 the members of all recognised religions were put on 
 practically the same footing.^ In any case the Catholic 
 Church renounded the political supremacy it had so long 
 enjoyed with the connivance of the Habsburgs, whose 
 aim it had been to effect the uniformity of their dominions 
 in religious matters with a view to ultimate uniformity 
 in all branches of government. 
 
 The equalisation of Protestant and Catholic was im- 
 portant also from the point of view of the reincorporation 
 of Transylvania in Hungary. Hitherto, as the Protestants 
 were far more happily situated in the former country where 
 the Catholic religion had never occupied the dominating 
 position it had held in the latter, they naturally had contem- 
 plated with a certain degree of apprehension the possibility 
 of a reunion which might entail the loss of religious freedom. 
 Now that their fears as to the possible consequences of 
 reincorporation were allayed, the desire revived for a 
 reunion which would strengthen them in their resistance 
 to autocratic encroachment on their liberties and privileges. 
 Kaunitz, the chief exponent of the advantages to be 
 derived from the dismemberment of Hungary, had no 
 difficulty in convincing Leopold of the dangers which 
 would be entailed by the realisation of the wishes of the 
 Hungarian population of Transylvania, and encouraged 
 the opposition of the Saxons, who never lost an opportunity 
 of currying favour with the Court, and of emphasising 
 their loyalty at the expense of the Magyars. The fact 
 that the question of the position of the Transylvanian 
 Roumanians was raised (for the first time) at the 
 
 > Catholics may freely convert Protestants, but the latter are strictly 
 forbidden to seduce a Catholic from his faith. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 237 
 
 Transylvanian Diet of 1790 gave further proof of the 
 necessity of reincorporation. The numbers, as well as 
 the want of education, of the Roumanians, made them, 
 then as now, a source of danger to the IVTagyar principle 
 to which the reunion of the severed member of the Sacred 
 Crown would bring an accession of strength. It is not 
 surprising, therefore, that successive Habsburgs showed 
 themselves to be indisposed to give effect to the Magyars' 
 desire for reunion, and remained true to the motto 
 " divide ut imferes." 
 
 At the beginning of the reign both the King and the 
 nobles had played a game of bluff, for the purposes of which 
 one party utilised the bugbear of Jacqueries and Servian 
 separatism, the other the spectre of revolution and of 
 Prussian interference. When both agreed to put a stop 
 to their flirtation with each other's antagonists, a period 
 of mutual confidence followed, based on a far more solid 
 foundation than that afforded by the temporary enthusiasm 
 which Maria Theresa and Hungary had entertained for 
 each other. The return of the Sacred Crown, the corona- 
 nation, and Leopold's promise to confirm the appointment 
 of whomsoever the Diet might select for the office of 
 Palatine, won the confidence of the nation. In order to 
 show its willingness to consign Joseph and his innovations 
 to oblivion, and to begin a new era of affectionate loyalty, 
 the Diet elected Leopold's son, the Archduke Alexander, 
 to the vacant post. A reasonable compromise settled all 
 disputes. The towns which the Magyars looked upon 
 as the strongholds of Austrian imperialism, the foreign 
 population of which might become the instrument of an 
 anti-national policy, were encouraged by the success of the 
 French bourgeoisie to demand better representation at the 
 Diet. As on previous occasions, the elected representatives 
 of the nation protested against the undue exercise of the 
 right of the Crown to increase the number of royal free 
 towns, and Leopold agreed to consult the Diet on each 
 
238 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 occasion before exercising his privilege. Possibly it was a 
 mistake on the part of the Magyars to resist the establish- 
 ment of a tiers etat, which, as subsequent history shows, 
 once received within the pale of the Constitution, would 
 have been as active as the nobility Itself in its hostility 
 to unconstitutional interference ; but Josephism and the 
 French Revolution had engendered a feeling of nervous- 
 ness, and the nobles feared to open a door for the admission 
 of German influence, the exclusion of which they had only 
 recently effected. The creation of a separate Servian 
 Chancery, which the Diet naturally looked upon as an 
 indication of an intention to dismember Hungary and to 
 treat a comparatively recent Importation as an independent 
 people, was more or less satisfactorily explained by the 
 King's assurance that it Indicated no separatlstic intention ; 
 that it was solely due to consideration of administrative 
 convenience ; and that the sphere of Influence of the new 
 department would be strictly confined to ecclesiastical 
 matters. The establishment of the Servian Chancery was 
 in fact a mere temporary move in the game of bluffs, the 
 necessity for which soon ceased to exist, as indeed, did the 
 Chancery itself. 
 
 By Article i6 of the law of 1790 a first step was made 
 in the direction of official recognition of the Hungarian 
 language, and Article 7 of the law of 1792 marks a further 
 advance. The study of the national language Is thereby 
 elevated to the position of an ordinary subject of Instruction 
 within the limits of Hungary proper, and to that of a 
 studium extraordinarium in the " annexed parts." Non- 
 Magyar students in academies and university are dispensed 
 from the necessity of learning the language provided they 
 have no intention of gaining a livelihood in Hungary. A 
 knowledge of Hungarian is ultimately to be essential for 
 admission to the public service, and in the meanwhile 
 public offices are to be gradually filled as vacancies occur 
 by the appointment of candidates acquainted with that 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 239 
 
 language. Thus the principle that non-Magyars earning 
 their living in Hungary may reasonably be expected to learn 
 the national idiom obtains recognition for the first time. 
 
 It is remarkable that the Diet did not take the 
 opportunity presented by Leopold's conciliatory disposition 
 of passing, or of attempting to pass, in spite of the 
 opposition of the Viennese bureaucracy which it would 
 have infallibly encountered, some measure of reform of 
 the fiscal relations of the two countries. Frequent 
 reference was, indeed, made to the scandal of the one-sided 
 Austrian protective system as one of the causes, if not the 
 chief cause, of the poverty of the country, and the question 
 of the customs barrier erected between the two halves of 
 the monarchy and the expediency of doing something for 
 the encouragement of trade was referred to a committee ; 
 but there the matter ended. Presumably, the shock inflicted 
 on Hungary by Josephism had produced a temporary 
 paralysis of the progressive instinct, and the energy of the 
 Diet was exhausted by its eiForts to " entrench " the 
 constitutional position, and to put an end to the hatred 
 engendered by the conflict of rival religions. In any case, 
 the country had little reason to be dissatisfied with the 
 results attained in the short time which had elapsed since 
 the death of Joseph. It is a question whether the fact 
 that the duration of his successor's reign was limited to 
 two years was in reality a misfortune for Hungary, and 
 whether Leopold would have succeeded in maintaining 
 the spirit of confidence engendered by his early acts in the 
 minds of his Magyar subjects, but for which, when the 
 storm and stress of the Napoleonic period began, Austria 
 would have found itself in a far weaker position than that 
 which it actually occupied. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 1792. Francis was a sickly, petty creature, whom his father 
 would gladly have excluded from the succession, had it 
 been possible to do so, but for the fact that his second 
 son, Charles, was no better fitted than the legal heir 
 to occupy the throne.^ The new King, half educated, 
 virtuous, obstinate, and impatient of contradiction, prided 
 himself before all on his pedantic attachment to the 
 minutiae of government/ and was easily flattered by his 
 ministers into the belief that he was a heaven-born genius 
 who carried the whole weight of government on his own 
 shoulders. In reality, he was a puppet in the hands of 
 CoUoredo and Thugut, in spite of the fact that he dis- 
 trusted them to such an extent that he employed the 
 secret police to watch their every action. So long as the 
 detective force succeeded in making him believe that no 
 detail of the public or private life of his subjects could 
 escape the royal omniscience/ and provided that a suffi- 
 cient number of new State documents were submitted for 
 his signature, and that the old ones were properly docketed 
 and pigeonholed, no suspicion of his own futility ever 
 crossed his mind. 
 
 1 For Joseph's opinion of his son see Anton Springer, Geschichie Oesterreichs 
 seit dem Wiener Frieden, Leipzig, 1863, i. 109. 
 
 ^ He continually said that he would have made a good head, clerk in a 
 government office. — Hartig, Genesis der Re'volution in Oesterreich. "D'esprit 
 etroit et mesquin il prenait la signature des pifeces pour I'exercice du pouvoir 
 et I'ingirence dans tous les details des affaires pour la marque de I'autoriti." 
 — Eisenmann, Le Compromis Austro-Hongrois, p. 53. 
 
 2 Anton Springer, ox. i. 118. 
 
 240 
 
EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 241 
 
 The French Revolution not only shook thrones but 
 also shattered preconceived notions as to the divine origin 
 of class distinction ; it is therefore not surprising that 
 when Francis came forth in the face of Europe as the 
 champion of the monarchical idea, and, incidentally, of 
 the privileges of the nobility, he had the almost solid 
 support of the governing classes of Hunga,ry. The nobles 
 expressed thetnselves as ready to shed the last drop of 
 their blood in the cause of the security and dignity of 
 His Majesty, and Francis in his turn declared his anxiety 
 to do all in his power to promote the welfare of his 
 beloved Hungarians, and to encourage their national 
 aspirations.^ He badly wanted their backing in his 
 combat with the democratic hydra, " the spirit of the 
 age," " the malady of the time," in which, at a later date, 
 Metternich saw the root of all evil.^ He bid for it boldly 
 by promising to find places for Magyars in the Council of 
 State and in the holy of holies of the military hierarchy, 
 as well as by gratifying the landlords by still further 
 strengthening their juridic control of the peasants — the 
 protection of whom was ever, according to Austrian 
 apologists, the pride and pleasure of the House of 
 Habsburg. The objectionable Servian Chancery was at 
 once abolished, and the Diet showed its gratitude by 
 receiving the Metropolitan and bishops of the Greek 
 Church into its body. There was a considerable party 
 which embraced the doctrines of liberty and equality, but 
 the fear of the spectre of revolution threw all questions 
 of social reform into the background, and would-be 
 
 ' " Mit der OfFenherzigkeit, welche auf der Reinheit meiner Absichten 
 und meinem Selbstbewusstsein beruht, erklare ich vertraulich, dass auch die 
 grossmtlthige Nation es nie bereuen wird, mir vertraut zu haben. . . . Euer 
 Liebden werden den MitbUrgern nach der Heimkehr sagen, dass ich der 
 eifrigste Hater der Verfassung sein werde . . . meinen Willen stets das Gesetz, 
 meiti Herz nur Aufrichtigkeit und das Vertrauen des Volkes leiten wird." — 
 Speech to the Hungarian deputation sent to invite him to Hungary to be 
 crowned. Csuday, ii. 300. 
 
 2 Memoirs, iv. 249, 255 and passim. 
 
 VOL. I R 
 
242 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 reformers had to possess their souls in patience while the 
 unnatural alliance between Hungarian constitutionalism 
 and Austrian autocracy, based on an inquisitorial detective 
 system, held the field. 
 
 It is, unfortunately, impossible to blink the fact that 
 the enthusiasm of the governing classes for constitutional 
 government was, in the early part of Francis's reign, 
 to a great exteht the outcome of anxiety to maintain the 
 privileges of the minority at the expense of the great mass 
 of the people.^ Consequently, but little inclination was 
 manifested to open the door to new ideas, or to protest 
 when the introduction of a strict censorship barred and 
 bolted it. The mere suggestion of a connexion between 
 Jacobinism and Protestantism was considered to provide 
 a sufficient justification for a recrudescence of religious 
 intolerance ; and the general nervousness was shown by 
 the treatment meted out to Martinovics and his associates 
 1795. who were hanged, or imprisoned for years, for complicity 
 in a plot which never existed. True, one of the con- 
 spirators had translated the Marseillaise, and Martinovics 
 himself had produced a revolutionary catechism' — a 
 
 1 When in 1807 Paul Nagy, the most radical of contemporary politicians, 
 urged on the Diet the necessity of taking steps to lighten the burden of the 
 lower classes, he was shouted down by the Diet and told " not to play the 
 fool." — Michael Horvdth, o.c. vi. 255. 
 
 2 Divided into four parts : (i) What is man? What is wisdom, and what 
 should be done to combat superstition and ignorance ? (2) What is Society and 
 Citizenship ? Of the sovereignty of the people, and of the duties of Citizenship. 
 
 (3) Of servitude. No difference between the serfs and beasts of burden. 
 
 (4) The right of resistance to governmental violence, to put an end to slavery, 
 and open the door to freedom. Kings are men of like passions with our- 
 selves and may be deposed if they make improper use of their power (this 
 hardly goes further than the clause of the Golden BuU). Of the evil caused 
 by the power of priests and nobles — ignorance and fanaticism the result. 
 Hungary enclosed in a Chinese wall by the exclusion of books. The people's 
 rights must be restored, or it will take them for itself. These platitudes were 
 described in the indictment as " serif ta jam in se ipso crimen laesae majestatis 
 in'vol'ventia." — De Gerando, Der Sffentliche Geist in Ungarn, Leipzig, 18+8, 
 pp. 36, 46. Michael Horvdth, o.c. vi. 142. The incriminated documents were 
 not circulated but kept locked up by the seventy-five " conspirators." Even 
 those who took no part in the discussions of the society, but were aware of its 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 243 
 
 declaration of the rights of man which justified resistance 
 to the monarch, in fact, the abolition of royalty as an 
 institution ; but it contained nothing but general principles, 
 no reference to Austria or Hungary in particular, and 
 there is no evidence to show that its author, or any one 
 of his associates, contemplated the creation either of a 
 revolutionary movement directed against the Habsburgs, or 
 of a peasant insurrection, the nightmare of the privileged 
 classes. But Thugut^ had no difficulty in persuading 
 Francis that he had had a narrow escape, and convinced 
 him of the necessity of keeping the country free from 
 contamination by foreign revolutionary notions, and of 
 discouraging pernicious originality in all its forms. And 
 so the spirit of reaction triumphed, and the advent of 
 Napoleon found King and nobles united to an extent that 
 would have seemed impossible to previous generations, 
 that alone explains the fact that after the defeats and 
 humiliations which preceded the Peace of Pressburg ^ the 
 House of Habsburg was able to come up smiling for the 
 next round. 
 
 By a reference to the traditional liberality of Hungary, 1796. 
 evidenced by its chivalrous treatment of his respected 
 ancestress, Maria Theresa, Francis obtained without any 
 difficulty a vote for 50,000 men, 10,000 horses, and an 
 enormous quantity of supplies. Francis's younger brother, 
 the Archduke Joseph, was elected Palatine, and after this 
 
 existtence, were condemned. Seven of the accused were hanged. For the 
 history of this "conspiracy" see especially Frakn6i Vilmos, Martino'vics is 
 Tdrsainak Osszeeskuvese, 2nd ed. ; for the catechism, o.c. p. 427 sqq., Buda- 
 pest, 1884. 
 
 ' Thugut, originally Thunichtgut, son of a carpenter. Maria Theresa 
 discerned his abilities. He obtained Bukovina for Austria, in order to connect 
 Transylvania with Galicia, on the ground that it formerly belonged to Hun- 
 gary, in which, however, it was never incorporated. He was credited, not 
 without justification, with having invented the Martinovics conspiracy to 
 terrify public opinion. — BeOthy, o.c. p. 652. Michael Horvith, o.c. vi. 126. 
 He succeeded to the place left vacant by the death of Kaunitz in 1794. 
 
 ^ Austria lost the Venetian provinces, Tyrol and Vorarlberg, roughly 
 3,000,000 of its population, and its access to Italy and Germany. 
 
244 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 affirmation of the solidarity of King and people the Diet 
 was dissolved — a blank session so far as legislation was 
 
 1797- concerned. When the Peace of Campo Formio was 
 signed the following year, Hungary had already lost 
 100,000 men and 30,000,000 florins, but that did not 
 damp its ardour, and in 1 802 the Diet voted the increase 
 of the Hungarian contingent to 64,000 men, and the 
 provision of 1^,000 more in the event of a renewal of 
 hostilities. In 1809, the levk en masse was decreed; the 
 summons was responded to with the utmost enthusiasm, 
 and one can only marvel at the loyalty evinced throughout 
 the whole Napoleonic period to a dynasty which had 
 already proved its ability to astonish the world by its 
 ingratitude to a nation which had saved Austria in 1741 
 when birds of prey were preparing to tear it to pieces. 
 For twenty-two years Hungary fought almost without 
 interruption in order to maintain Austria's position in 
 Germany and Italy, as a rule under incompetent generals,^ 
 and with little encouragement in the way of promotion for 
 Magyar officers, except when Vienna saw signs of slacken- 
 ing in the national enthusiasm for the Habsburg cause. 
 
 1804. For a moment Hungarian suspicions were aroused 
 when, after Napoleon had announced his assumption of 
 the Imperial title, Francis followed suit by taking that 
 of Emperor of Austria, which might in some measure 
 be regarded as implying, if not the fusion of the two 
 countries, at all events the subordination of Hungary 
 to the hereditary provinces. It was not the first time 
 that the House of Habsburg had considered the advis- 
 ability of adopting a title which should symbolise its 
 hereditary rights to the Crown of Hungary, as well as to 
 the heterogeneous congeries of duchies, principalities, and 
 countships comprised in its Austrian 'dominions. The 
 
 > Who, with two exceptions, did not know the Hungarian language, and 
 openly expressed their dislike of, and contempt for, the Magyars. — Michael 
 Horvith, o.c. vi. 298. 
 
OF THE HUNGATilAN NATION 245 
 
 style of Emperor of Pannorlia had been suggested in the 
 time of Joseph II., and even before that period slipshod 
 diplomatic documents and careless speakers referred, not 
 infrequently, to a non-existent " Austrian Empire," under 
 which misnomer Hungary was supposed to be included. 
 To speak of the head of the House of Habsburg as " the 
 Emperor " was perfectly correct, as there was in fact only 
 one Emperor, namely, that of the Holy Roman Empire, 
 for the title of Emperor, qualified by the addition of 
 the words, " of all the Russias," was merely adopted for 
 convenience in dealing with West European Courts, and 
 had no meaning except as a sort of translation of 
 the proper appellation, " Tsar." ^ The shaky and 
 precarious position of his German throne, the practical 
 collapse of which led to his abandonment of the Holy 
 Roman title two years kter, made it advisable that 
 Francis should invent some phrase which should prevent 
 his being reduced to calling himself by his proper 
 appellation of King of Hungary and Bohemia and Arch- 
 duke of Austria. It is doubtful whether the assumption 
 of the new title was intended as a step in the direction 
 of the amalgamation of Hungary with the hereditary 
 provinces ; but the Magyars naturally viewed the move 
 with apprehension, though in all probability it was only 
 the outcome of an idea that it is more distinguished to be 
 styled " Emperor " than to be one of a crowd of mere 
 Kings. In any case, Francis found it necessary to allay 
 Hungarian suspicion by issuing a rescript in which he 
 declared that " that which We have done for the glory of 
 Our monarchy has no effect on the individuality, laws, 
 or constitution of Our beloved Hungary and of the 
 parts thereto annexed," though, but for the fact that 
 the principle of the indivisibility of the hereditary pro- 
 vinces of the Habsburgs received fresh confirmation, 
 
 1 See Freeman's introduction to the translation of Lager's History of 
 Austria-Hungary. 
 
246 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Hungary was in no way affected by the conversion of 
 the Archduke of Austria into an Emperor.^ 
 1805. Some reward was clearly due to Hungary in return 
 - ' for the enthusiastic loyalty of which it continued to give 
 proof, and at the next meeting of the Diet Francis agreed 
 to make further concessions in the direction of establishing 
 the official position of the Hungarian language.^ Hence- 
 forward the Diet is to communicate with the King in 
 Hungarian and Latin (columnaliter), and only in 
 Hungarian with the Chancery and the Council of 
 Lieutenancy. Hungarian may be used in the County 
 Courts, and the King undertakes to give fuU effect to 
 the seventh article of the law of 1792 already referred 
 to.' But at this point the concessions with respect to 
 the language question came to a full stop, and, though 
 the Diet of 1807 made further attempts to obtain com- 
 plete official recognition for the national language, Francis 
 
 ^*i "Salvis semper juribus, legibus et Constitutione Regni Hungariae." 
 It is absurd to lay stress, as Tezner (Der Ssterreichische Kaisertitel, Vienna, 
 1899) does, on the fact that the Diet used the expressions "tota monarchia" 
 and " monarchia Austriaca," and to argue therefrom that Hungary recognised 
 the fact of its inclusion in a uniform Austrian Empire, as the words are 
 "utilitas Regni Hungariae partiumque adnexarum et totius monarchiae," 
 which show that a distinction is drawn ; otherwise the words "tota monarchia" 
 would suflSce alone, and a separate"reference to Hungary would be superfluous. 
 Further, we find the phrase "tota monarchia et Regnum Hungariae," 1805 
 (see infra, p. 301, re the title of Ferdinand, 5th of Hungary and ist of Austria). 
 Friedjung's offhand statement that Hungary was, and recognised the fact that 
 it was, " ein Theil Osterreichs " requires no refutation. — Osterreich von 184S 
 bis i860, Stuttgart, 1908, I. vi. 
 
 2 1805, Art. 4. The importance of language as a preservative of 
 national individuality was now fully recognised, thanks to R^vay, Kazinczy, 
 and others, for whom see Riedl's Hungarian Literature, London, 1906. Paul 
 Nagy pointed out, for the first time in 1807, that the language was of 
 greater importance than the Constitution, as the latter might be won back, 
 but language and nationality never, if once lost. — BeOthy, o.c. p. 884 ; Tezner, 
 Der oiterreickische Kaisertitel, etc., Vienna, 1899, says that Hungary's objection 
 to the official use of the German language was "nur ein Agitationsmittel, 
 durch welches das eigentliches Ziel desselben die Abwehr der Vernichtung 
 der standischen Steuerprivilegien verdeckt wurde," p. 39, a statement which he 
 does not attempt to support by evidence. 
 
 ' Supra, p. 238. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 247 
 
 successfully took refuge in a policy of procrastination, 1807. 
 and the members dispersed with nothing to their credit 
 save an undertaking on the part of the King that he 
 would never do anything to curtail the right of free 
 speech, and with further sacrifices of men and money on 
 the debit side. It was resolved that the nobles, mer- 
 chants, and tradesmen, should contribute one-sixth of 
 their income, and one per cent of the value of all personal 
 property ; ^ and as if to prove that the words, first used 
 at this meeting of the Diet, " we are the representatives 
 not only of the Nobility but are the protectors of the 
 entire population," were no meaningless phrase, the 
 peasants were exempted from the imposition of this 
 exceptional burden. Neither King nor country was 
 satisfied with the results of the session of 1807 ; the 
 latter, on account of the magnitude of the sacrifices 
 demanded of it and of the ill-concealed disinclination of 
 the Crown to do anything to promote the national welfare 
 by encouraging the trade purposely sacrificed to Austrian 
 interests ; the former, because he realised the fact that 
 temporary votes of men and money could not suffice to 
 maintain his position in Europe in view of the growing 
 intimacy of France and Russia, and that nothing would 
 answer his purpose short of putting the military organisation 
 of the country on a permanent basis and thereby depriving 
 the Diet of its most cherished rights — the control of 
 taxation and the voting of the annual contingent. 
 
 When the Diet met again Francis had little reason 1808. 
 to complain. With a few flattering words he obtained 
 more than he could ever have got by appeals to reason. 
 Not only did he obtain a vote of 20,000 men, but he 
 was invested with authority, hitherto unparalleledj to 
 proclaim the levee en masse without reference to the 
 Di^t in the event of a renewal of the war at any time 
 during the next three years. He thus was enabled 
 
 1 Michael Horvith, o.c. vi. 244. 
 
248 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 to exhibit in the eyes of Europe the spectacle of the 
 solidarity of King and people, and a proof of the readi- 
 ness of the Magyars to make any sacrifice when the 
 dynasty was in danger.^ Napoleon did not sufficiently 
 appreciate the intensity of Hungarian loyalty when he 
 issued the celebrated proclamation ^ from SchSnbrunn. 
 
 1809. It is the Emperor of Austria, not the King of Hungary, who 
 has declared war against me. By your Constitution he had no 
 right to do so without your consent. . . . Hungarians, the 
 moment has come to recover your independence. I offer you 
 peace, the integrity of your territory, your liberty, and your 
 Constitution. ... I want nothing from you : only to see you 
 free and independent. Your union with Austria has been your 
 misfortune. Your blood has flowed for her on distant fields, and 
 your dearest interests have been continually sacrificed to those of 
 the hereditary States. You formed the fairest portion of the 
 monarchy and yet were reduced to the position of a subject 
 province, and made the sport of passions to which you were 
 strangers. You have your national customs and a national 
 language. You boast of an ancient and illustrious origin. 
 Regain, therefore, your national existence. Have a King of 
 your own choice who reigns for you only, who resides in your 
 midst, who is surrounded only by you and your soldiers. 
 Hungarians, this is what Europe, which has its eyes on you, 
 what I also ask of you: a lasting peace, commercial relations, 
 and an assured independence. That is the prize that awaits 
 you if you are worthy of your ancestors and of yourselves. You 
 will not refuse these liberal and generous offers. You will 
 not squander your blood in the cause of feeble Princes, ever 
 dominated by corrupt ministers who are in the jjay of England, 
 that enemy of the Continent, which has founded its prosperity 
 on monopoly and on our divisions. Meet, therefore, in your 
 national Diet on the plain of R^kos, as your ancestors did, and 
 let me know the result of your deliberations. 
 
 1 " Cordi meo carissimi Hungari ! Fecistis ea quae ckaractere 'vestro a'vito 
 digna sunt, f^idebit Ma Europa Regent •vestrum •vobiscum ita unum sentire, 
 ut nee miki nee 'vobis carius esse possit quam antiquum constitutionem nostram 
 usque ultimam guttam sanguinis defendere •velle. Juncti fuimus, juncti sumus, 
 juncti semper manebimus donee mors nos separabit." — Diarium Comit. 35, 376. 
 
 '^ Facsimile in A Mag. Nem. TSrt. viii. 582. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 249 
 
 To this document, which, with consummate ingenuity, 
 touches every sore spot in the body politic and appeals 
 both to passion and to sentiment, Hungary replied by 
 making still further sacrifices ^ on behalf of the dynasty 
 which it was invited to throw overboard, and at Aspern 
 and Wagram justified the confidence which the imperial 
 family ^ manifested by taking refuge in Hungary when 
 the enemy, who would have seduced the Magyars from 
 their allegiance, was at the gates of Vienna. Hungary's 
 reward for its devotion to a losing cause was the loss of 
 Fiume and of the western parts of Croatia, and (as soon 
 as the King thought his position to be sufficiently well 
 assured by the marriage of Napoleon to Marie Louise) 
 by the initiation of a new phase of reaction and repression. 
 
 The Archduke Joseph tried to press upon Francis the 
 necessity of establishing the monarchy on a firmer basis, 
 either by means of the extension of representative insti- 
 tutions to all the subject provinces, or by a complete 
 restoration of the constitutional system of Hungary, 
 and by a transference (suggested by Gentz in 1805)' 
 of the centre of gravity to Buda : for the possession 
 
 ' Hungary's contribution this year amounted to 40,000,000 florins. — Hor- 
 vith, KSzSs t/gjiek, p. 39. BeOthy, o.c. ii. 247 «., says 28,000,000 and 50,000 
 men. The lev^e en mane took place four times during the Napoleonic period 
 — 1797, 1800, 1805, 1809. In 1796 Hungary gave 50,000 recruits, 6,100,000 
 bushels of wheat and oats, 10,000 horses, and 20,000 head of cattle. In 1802 
 the contingent was 64,000 men. In 1807 additional 12,000 recruits were 
 voted, and in 1808 a further zo,oao.—lbid. i. 725. And yet Austria com- 
 plained that Hungary had done nothing and demanded that it should take the 
 responsibility for a large part of Austria's public debt, not a penny of which 
 had been spent in Hungary or for Hungary's benefit. 
 
 ^ 1805. The Archduke Joseph, the Palatine, wrote on November 23 to 
 Francis, " Let Your Majesty rely on the Hungarian people which will never 
 desert its King." — Horvith, o.c. p. 113. Francis said in a brave moment that 
 he would not make peace with the French even after five defeats, and that if 
 he had to retreat to TemesvAr he would win the sixth battle there (BeOthy, 
 0.1;. i. 669), showing that he knew what the possession of Hungary meant to 
 its dynasty, its resources, its sticking power, and its patriotism. 
 
 ^ Correspondence, iv. 244. Not only Gentz, the German political writer in 
 the Austrian service, but Talleyrand also considered that the seat of govern- 
 ment should be transferred from Vienna to Buda, which was less liable to attack 
 
250 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of the crown of St. Stephen seemed likely to be the 
 one thing capable of preserving for the Emperor of 
 Austria his importance in the eyes of Europe. Francis 
 curtly replied that " the Hungarian Constitution must be 
 remodelled and brought into harmony with the system 
 obtaining in the other hereditary possessions," For the 
 moment he thought of nothing but of restoring some 
 semblance of order to the financial system of the monarchy. 
 In the position of affairs which obtained in the rest of 
 Europe the placing of an external loan was an impossi- 
 bility. Notes were in circulation to the amount of 
 1 ,060,000,000 florins, which, in the absence of a sufficient 
 corresponding metallic reserve, were accepted only at an 
 enormous discount.^ Hungary in vain protested against 
 the adoption of this system of printing-press finance, as 
 to which it had not been consulted, which, if not actually ' 
 contrary to Hungarian law in any case was not sanctioned 
 by it. The new Austrian Finance Minister, Wallis, 
 reduced the value of the note issue by a stroke of the 
 1811. pen to 212,000,000, i.e. to one-fifth of its face value, 
 and an illegal patent ^ was the first notification Hungary 
 received of the accomplished fact. Further, the value of 
 the 80,000,000 florins' worth of copper money in circula- 
 tion was reduced by four-fifths in order, apparently, to 
 complete the ruin of the tax- paying peasant, already 
 reduced to the verge of starvation by the sacrifices 
 
 and was the natural centre of the Dual Monarchy. — BeOthy, ox. p. 638. Bis- 
 marck wrote to Baron Schleinitz, March 13, 1861 : "If I had to be Emperor 
 of Austria I should at once transfer myself to Pest, put on a hussar uniform 
 and speak Hungarian. I should incorporate everything in Hungary which I 
 could squeeze into it. I should tell the Magyar Diet that the first duty of an 
 Austrian Emperor is to be a Hungarian King." — Beksics, Mdtydi Kirdly 
 Birodalma, p. 122. 
 
 1 At about one-tenth of their nominal value. — Michael Horv4th, o.c. vi. 
 314. The ratio of paper to silver fell as low as one to twelve. — See also Anton 
 Springer, o.c. i. 168 sqij. 
 
 2 Rescript of May 8, 181 1. The law of 1790-91 (Art. 12) declared such 
 patents to be illegal, as the Diet did not fail to point out. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 251 
 
 entailed by the war. TTie counties protested, but merely 
 received a peremptory order to carry out the terms of the 
 Patent within seven days, and a rescript from Francis 
 rebuking their "insolence" and threatening "the most 
 stringent measures." The ringleaders of resistance were 
 summoned to Vienna " ad audiendum verbum regium^^ i.e. 
 in order to be frightened into submission or corrupted 
 by promises ; but the King, nevertheless, had to give way 
 to the demands of the nation to the extent of summoning 
 the Diet, 
 
 It met on August 25, and was at once confronted with 
 a demand for an increase by 12,000,000 florins of the 
 taxes raised for military purposes, and for a guarantee 
 of 100,000,000 of the total, depreciated, paper issue of 
 2 1 2,000,000 florins ; i.e. of practically the same amount as 
 that allotted to the King's Austrian dominions, which were 
 far more prosperous and enjoyed the benefit of a gerry- 
 mandered customs system at Hungary's expense. And 
 this in face of a four-fifths depreciation of the cash in 
 circulation.-' In 1 8 14, in spite of the Government's under- 
 taking to issue no more paper money,^ a further emission 
 of 480,000,000 was made, which fell to one-third of its 
 nominal value. The next step was the redemption of 
 the depreciated notes by the exchange of 1 00 new paper 
 florins for 250 of the previous issue. Had Francis shown 
 any inclination to satisfy the wishes of the Diet in the 
 matter of the language question, it is possible that he 
 would have met with little opposition from that body. 
 But he returned a point-blank refusal to all its requests, 
 and ought not to have been surprised when it paid him in 
 his own coin and refused to undertake any part of the 
 burden of extra taxation which he would have imposed 
 on the country. Twelve years of despotic government 
 
 1 The value of the notes issued in 1 8 1 1 fell 45 per cent in twelve months. — 
 Michael HorvAth, o.c. vi. 389. 
 ^ Patent of February 20, 1811. 
 
252 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 was the result, and only in the political life of the counties 
 did any vestige remain of the Constitution likened by 
 Metternich^ to " a precious jewel which ought to be kept 
 like a relic" — locked up, apparently, in a safe, to be 
 exhibited from time to time to prove to a careless Europe 
 the good faith with which the Habsburgs observed their 
 obligations. 
 
 Francis had* no difficulty in forgetting what he had 
 said on the occasion of his accession to the Throne : that 
 Hungary would have no cause to regret its confidence in 
 the excellence of his intentions, and that he would be the 
 most ardent defender of the Constitution and of the laws. 
 A story is related to the effect that when Baron Stift, the 
 King's doctor, who was treating him for a persistent 
 cough, observed that there was no cause for anxiety as 
 His Majesty had an excellent constitution, Francis ex- 
 claimed, " Never let me hear that word again. . Say, if 
 you like, that I have a dauerhafte Natur, but don't speak 
 of constitutions, for there is no such thing as a good one, 
 and never will be." ^ Whether the story is a true one or 
 not, from 1813 to 1825 the Constitution of Hungary 
 was practically non-existent. Metternich described the 
 Holy Alliance between Russia, Austria, and Prussia as 
 having come into existence " not for the destruction of 
 popular rights or for the promotion of absolutism or 
 tyranny, but as the outcome of the piety of the Tsar, and 
 for the adaptation to politics of the principles of Christi- 
 anity." As far as Hungary was concerned these Christian 
 principles found their expression in an unexampled obscur- 
 antism, and in a total disregard of the contractual obliga- 
 181+. tions of the reigning monarch. The Council of State 
 was re-established in Vienna, and the Hungarian Chancery 
 and Council of Lieutenancy were reduced to the position 
 of mere instruments for the execution of its instructions. 
 
 ' Memoirs, iv. 256. 
 2 A Mag. Nem. TSrt. ix. p. 10 ; Michael Horvith, oc. vi. 372. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 253 
 
 The censorship of the Press reached a point of develop- 
 ment hitherto unattained. The importation of foreign 
 periodicals " of a dangerous tendency " was strictly for- 
 bidden ; ^ and as the order was held to apply not only to 
 political but to purely literary productions as well, it 
 amounted to a total prohibition of all foreign literature.2 
 Some of the counties protested, but the Catholic ecclesi- 
 astics were on the side of the obscurantists. Their Synod 
 petitioned the King to instruct the censors to extend their 
 activity to the booksellers' shops, with a view to the 
 withdrawal of all " pernicious literature " — a comprehen- 
 sive phrase as interpreted by religious and political reaction- 
 aries — and even induced him to prohibit the employment 
 of Protestant teachers in Catholic schools and private 
 families except as language and dancing-masters. 
 
 Though Francis had declared in his rescript addressed 
 to the Diet in 1807 that the independence of the Hungarian 
 Treasury should be strictly maintained, ' that institution 
 was not consulted on the subject of the new financial 
 measures adopted in 1 8 1 6, nor was Hungary represented 
 on the commission appointed in August of the same year, 
 under the presidency of Metternich.^ The result of the 
 deliberations of that body was embodied in the Patent of 
 October 29 — the work of Stadion, the new Minister of 
 Finance. The Patent provided for the issue of five per 
 cent one hundred florin obligations, redeemable in specie 
 only, in exchange for notes of like nominal value and for 
 a like amount of short term bonds issued earlier in the 
 year. As if this depreciation did not inflict a sufficiently 
 serious loss on the holders, in 1820 outstanding paper 
 was redeemed at two-fifths of its face value,* and Stadion's 
 plan was so far successful that by 1827 the paper money 
 
 ' Order of January i, 1821. 
 
 2 Michael Horvdth, o.c. vi. 383 sq. Every possible obstacle was thrown 
 in the way of students wishing to visit foreign universities. 
 
 3 Memoirs, iii. 15. See especially Anton Springer, o.c. i. 307-315. 
 * A Mag. Nem. Tirt, ix. 45. 
 
254 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 in circulation had been reduced from 1,060,000,000 to 
 99,000,000 florins. It was no doubt good business for a 
 Government to pay a penny for a shillingsworth of cash 
 received or of services rendered, but the result to the 
 individual was disastrous.-^ The protests raised by 
 Hungary on the promulgation of the Patent of 1 8 1 1 was 
 met by a royal assurance that the measure was of a 
 temporary nature and would remain in force only untQ 
 the meeting of the Diet ; but as the King in defiance of 
 the law did not summon that body for the next thirteen 
 years it was but cold comfort. If the buying power of 
 the depreciated paper and copper money had remained 
 the same, it is conceivable that the peasant, who lived 
 from hand to mouth, would not have been severely 
 affected ; but this, of course, was not the case in a country 
 which had to import most of its requirements, and, as will 
 be seen hereafter, the Austrian Government would not 
 accept its own paper in payment of taxes. 
 
 It might have been supposed that the Government 
 would have made some concession to the poorer classes 
 in return for the sacrifices entailed by the recent financial 
 juggles. Far from it. The price of salt, a royal 
 monopoly, which, as the King had admitted in his rescript 
 of 1 802,^ could not be increased without the consent of 
 the Diet,* was raised in 1811, 1815, and in 18 16, without 
 reference to the representatives of the nation. A further 
 rise of two florins the centner followed two years later, 
 and the price had to be paid in silver then standing, 
 owing to Stadion's measures, at a premium of 250 per 
 cent. If the Austrian Government had encouraged and 
 facilitated the export of Hungarian products, something 
 
 1 According to Michael . Horvath, o.c. vi. 392, the result of the Govern- 
 ment's financial measures was that in sixteen years the value of 100 florins 
 paper fell as low as eight florins silver. 
 
 * September 23, and again December 14, 1807. 
 
 ' Law XX. 1790, nisi extreme urgentes circumstantiae aliud exigerent, i.e. 
 in case of war making it impossible to summon the Diet. 
 
O^ THE HUNGARIAN NATION 255 
 
 might have been said in its favour ; but the duty imposed 
 on Hungarian corn and cattle exported to Austria, and 
 the octroi dues, made it impossible to compete with 
 Bavaria and Turkey, while the duty imposed on Austrian 
 wines exported to Hungary was comparatively trifling. 
 Tobacco being a State monopoly in Austria the duty on 
 the Hungarian product was raised, first from one and a half 
 kreuzers to twenty, and then to twenty florins payable in 
 silven^ Articles imported from abroad into Hungary 
 and then into Austria paid duty twice over, while Austria 
 could buy goods abroad, and after paying a single duty 
 could export them, without further payment, to Hungary. 
 So after forced depreciation of the currency had sheared 
 the Magyars to the skin, the gerrymandered tariff system 
 proceeded to remove the scalp also. 
 
 In the enforced absence of the Diet no one could make 
 eff^ectual protest against the system of organised spoliation 
 of which Hungary was the victim. While war was in 
 progress or in prospect the King was too busy to be 
 bothered with a Diet, and when peace was assured he had 
 no time to spare. Plenty of time, however, was available 
 for the making of an insidious attack on the organisation 
 of the counties — the last refuge of the constitutional prin- 
 ciple. For some time past the Government had appointed 
 to the ofRce of lord-lieutenant only such denationalised 
 Magyars as could be relied upon to raise no obstacles to 
 the realisation of bureaucratic ideals ; and in some counties 
 meetings for the election of officials had not been sum- 
 moned for ten or fifteen years.^ Vienna had learnt by 
 experience that a frontal attack on local autonomy was 
 doomed to failure, and could only result in causing all 
 classes to combine in defence of their interests. A new 
 scheme must be devised, and a new weapon discovered 
 
 1 Umrisse einer mVglichen Reform in Ungarn, i. i y. 
 
 2 Michael Horv4th, HussionSt /i; Magyarorszdg tSrt/netAsl, i. 25 (cited 
 henceforth as Horvith, HuszonSt ^). 
 
256 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 wherewith to break down resistance to intended centralisa- 
 tion. No better instrument could be found than the 
 impecunious " noble," whose membership of the privileged 
 class made him, as regards voting power, the equal of the 
 richest and the most intelligent. The "nobles in sandals "^ 
 who might, and did, occupy any position from that of 
 postman to that of pig-tender, had hitherto taken but 
 little part in the political life of the counties. Want of 
 time and money had prevented attendance at the meetings, 
 and the Government was not slow to recognise the fact 
 that here was an element which could be utilised to obtain 
 the complete exclusion from office of the educated classes, 
 and to ensure the election of pliant creatures who would 
 reduce the autonomy of the counties to a mere sham. 
 Free food and free drinks brought the impecunious in 
 their thousands to the polling -places, and the return of 
 the official candidate was rarely in doubt. In order that 
 there might be no mistake, under the pretext of safe- 
 guarding the sacred rights of the people, an order was 
 issued from Vienna which abolished the old system of 
 election by acclamation and substituted therefor individual 
 voting, thereby assuring the preponderance of a corrupt 
 and frequently intoxicated majority. The success of the 
 autocratic wolf in the sheepskin coat of the sandalled 
 nobility was especially precious to the Government at a 
 moment when the Freemasons of Spain and the Carbonari 
 of Italy were keeping Metternich fully employed.. With 
 Naples and Piedmont in a ferment the time was not yet 
 ripe for undisguised autocracy, and Francis thought it 
 necessary to repeat his assurances of love for Hungary 
 and of attachment to its Constitution. " Hitherto, by the 
 grace of God, I have preserved your country from every 
 danger, and will take steps to avert all possible harm 
 in the future ; for my happiness consists in that of my 
 
 1 Later known as "five-florin Magnates." — Michael Horv^th, HuszonSt 
 ^•v, i. 580. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 257 
 
 faithful people, the task of governing whom has been im- 
 posed on me by Divine Pirovidence. Now, once more, peril 
 is threatening the world. The whole universe is playing 
 the fool {stuhizat), and with ulterior motives is demanding 
 a Constitution. You are blessed in having a Constitution 
 inherited from your ancestors, which I wish you to love 
 as I love it. I have preserved it hitherto, and it is my 
 intention to hand it down unimpaired to my successors in 
 the hope that you will not desert me in the hour of 
 danger. The danger is not yet here, but should it ever 
 come I count upon your assistance." ^ Apart from the 
 terminological inexactitude of the first sentence of this re- 
 markable appeal, it may be pointed out that the monarch's 
 affection for the Constitution had been shown in the past 
 only by his failure to summon the Diet for the last eight 
 years, and was to be manifested in the future by a refusal 
 to convene the representatives of the nation for the suc- 
 ceeding period of five years.^ The Magyars' characteristic 
 affection for the dynasty seemingly enabled them to 
 swallow any inaccuracy provided it was clothed in the 
 Magyar language, but a further attack on the depleted 
 pockets of the tax-payer was more than they could stand. 
 For the suppression of the commotions in Italy, the War 
 Office and Stadion decided that Hungary must produce 
 28,000 recruits,^ and that the taxes, fixed by the Diet at 
 its meeting eight years ago at 5,200,000 florins, and pay- 
 able in paper money, must thenceforth be paid in silver. 
 The result was that the ratio of paper to silver then being 
 as one is to two and a half, the contribution of Hungary 
 
 ' Horvith, HuszonSt ^, i. 28. 
 
 2 Law xiii. of 179 1 required the Diet to be convened every three years or 
 oftener. 
 
 ^ In order to maintain a semblance of legality, but at the same time to 
 avoid the necessity of summoning the Diet, which alone could grant recruits, 
 the Government called for the balance (28,420) of the 90,000 recruits demanded 
 by Francis in 1 8 1 3 and 1 8 1 5, but not actually called out owing to the declara- 
 tion of peace in the latter year. The contingent not having been voted by the 
 Diet it was ab initio illegal. 
 
 VOL. I S 
 
258 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 was raised to 13,000,000 florins without the consent of 
 Diet, the only legal taxing authority. As a matter of 
 fact there was not sufficient silver in circulation for it to 
 be possible to pay the amount demanded in that metal,^ 
 but this was a detail to which Vienna was entirely in- 
 different, and Pharaoh's demand for bricks without straw 
 seems moderatg in comparison with that of Stadion. In 
 1 815 the Government had demanded and obtained taxes 
 and recruits behind the back of the Diet ; but at that 
 time Napoleon was again at large, and there was the 
 excuse of imminent danger. In 1 8 2 1 there was no such 
 justification for illegality, still less for the Government's 
 refusal to accept its own paper which it had arbitrarily 
 depreciated for its own ends. Neither the protests of the 
 counties nor the fact that a large percentage of previous 
 taxes was in arrear and uncollectable, and that the con- 
 sumption of salt had dropped to an unprecedented level 
 — a certain proof of the destitution of peasant tax-payers — 
 could turn the Government from its purpose. The easy 
 1822. success of Metternich in Italy, and the knowledge that he 
 had the Holy Alliance at his back, prevented Francis from 
 paying attention to the warnings of the Palatine. Some 
 of the fifty- two counties paid the tax and found the 
 recruits ; others, more numerous, only did so after the 
 receipt of threatening rescripts, while the remainder stood 
 firm for a long time. Eight refused to collect the taxes, 
 ten to provide recruits ; and it was only by means of 
 moral terrorism or actual violence that the Government 
 was able to break down their resistance. Of the passive 
 resisters some were chained and imprisoned,^ others were 
 arrested on a charge of treason, or on a trumped up 
 accusation of being in secret communication with Italian 
 insurgents ; while those who resigned their offices,* rather 
 
 1 Horvdth, HuszonSt ^, i. ii6. 
 
 2 At Komirom and elsewhere. — Horv4th, HuszonSt fy, i. io8. 
 
 3 As in Bars County, where the whole official body resigned and so tempor- 
 arily paralysed the illegal action of the commissioners sent to break down the 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 259 
 
 than be a party to illegality,^ and refused to hold the 
 necessary meetings, were surrounded by soldiers, driven 
 to the meeting-place, and kept there till they gave way. 
 As for the recruits, the press-gang looked after them, with 
 the result that the forests were peopled with " poor 
 fellows," the usual euphemism for highway robbers, and 
 that agriculture came to a standstill for want of hands.^ 
 
 In spite of the saying to the contrary, everything 
 cannot be done with bayonets, and the King's advisers at 
 last recognised the fact that violent coercion, though 
 temporarily successful, must be beaten in the long run by 
 resolute passive resistance. It was to the determined 
 attitude adopted by a few counties in the face of tyranny 
 and violence that the restoration of a semblance of con- 
 stitutional government, after thirteen years of despotism, 
 was ultimately due. The choice lay between the un- 
 compromising utilisation of armed force for the final 
 destruction of the Constitution and the convocation of 
 the Diet which the counties had continually entreated 
 Francis to summon in accordance with the law,' "not 
 owing to passion or anarchical suggestion, but from 
 motives of fidelity to him on whom we must look as upon 
 the true Father of our Country. The mainspring of our 
 action is the desire to protect the Throne and our ancient 
 Constitution, and in our fidelity to both nothing shall 
 shake us." * The King was finally induced to accept the 
 
 resistance of the counties, by fair means or foul, by force or by bribing the 
 impecunious "nobles," and so obtaining a majority at the county meetings 
 over the intelligent opposition. 
 
 ' Francis saw a revolutionary spirit where there was only conservatism 
 anxious to maintain constitutional rights, and wished to indict the officials of 
 Bars, but the attorney-general (Causarum Regalium Director) informed him 
 that there was no law under which they could be indicted, and that the only 
 result of prosecution would be to show up the illegality of the Government's 
 action in the whole matter of taxes and recruits. — Marczali, A Legujabb Kor 
 Tdrt^nete, p. 297, Budapest, 1892. 
 
 ^ Michael Horvith, o.c. vi. 246. 
 
 ' xiii. of 1790-91. 
 
 * Address of Somogy County. — Marczali, A Legujabb Kor Tirtinete, p. 299. 
 
26o EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 second alternative and to adopt a comparatively constitu- 
 tional attitude;^ and though the Diet was summoned 
 ostensibly only for the purpose of crowning Queen 
 Carolina Augusta, and though Francis made no secret of 
 the fact that he had no intention of complying with his 
 legal obligation to summon the elected representatives 
 of the nation at fixed intervals, the opportunity of airing 
 grievances and of re-establishing the Constitution in 
 accordance with the spirit of Law x. of 1790 was greeted 
 with the utmost enthusiasm. With the opening of the 
 Diet at Pressburg on September 11, 1825, began a new 
 era of political development which ended with the capitu- 
 lation of Vilagos twenty-four years later. 
 
 1 Metternich claims the credit. — Memoirs, vol. v., letter to Gentz, Sept. 28, 
 1825. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Metternich's success abroad blinded Europe to the 
 inherent rottenness of the new-fangled Empire, and made 
 it forget that Austria, as a united nation, was a diplomatic 
 fiction, and consisted in reality only of a narrow bureau- 
 cracy, a disorganised army, an empty treasury, an 
 all-powerful secret police, and a degenerate dynasty. 
 For the last alone could any enthusiasm be expected 
 from the monarchy's sole constituent race which was not 
 a mere fragment of some greater political entity, and a 
 time was bound to come when the policy of passive 
 resistance to Viennese encroachment must give place to 
 another ; when the Magyars would no longer be contented 
 with " fencing round " their Constitution, but would see 
 the necessity of advancing in the direction indicated by the 
 liberal ideas of England and France. The weakness of 
 the political situation lay in the fact that owing to a series 
 of unconstitutional monarchs all energies had been directed 
 to the maintenance of historic rights and not to the 
 passing of progressive legislation. The change from mere 
 defence to active progress is the characteristic feature of 
 the period which was inaugurated by the convocation of 
 the Diet of 1825. 
 
 The blackest darkness preceded the dawn. We are 
 told that it is a mistake to suppose that Metternich 
 had unlimited power over Francis, that while he ruled 
 Europe he never ruled Austria or Hungary, and that 
 
 261 
 
262 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 in matters of internal government he was purposely kept 
 at arm's length.^ Be that as it may, it was certainly 
 Metternich who persuaded the King of the necessity of 
 preventing Hungary from coming in contact with the 
 notions of the outside world, in order to perform " the 
 task which Austria had undertaken of forming a dam 
 against the extension of the movement in favour of the 
 principle of the sovereignty of the people which was 
 spreading west of her." ^ The essence of the so-called 
 Metternich system was " zealous opposition to every 
 concession which would weaken the power of the monarch 
 either at home or abroad. It was a gigantic task to take 
 the field against the spirit of the age. No one Govern- 
 ment could succeed in it alone. So long as the two 
 great Powers, Austria and Prussia, followed the same path 
 hand-in-hand, the supreme power could maintain an 
 undiminished control ; but as soon as the King of Prussia 
 decided to share his authority, though only in certain 
 matters, with the estates of the realm, it at once became 
 evident that the collapse of the autocratic principle 
 must soon follow in both countries. . . . The out-and- 
 out negation of the principle of a division of power, a 
 principle which the King of Prussia had half recognised, 
 became the task of Austria alone in Germany and 
 Western Europe." * For the execution of that task, so 
 far as Hungary was concerned, Metternich found willing 
 helpers in clerical obscurantists, and useful instruments 
 in the spies of Count Szedlniczky, Chief of the Secret 
 Police since 1817. The spy-system, first applied in 
 Austria, was extended to Hungary, where, before long, no 
 ofiicial could keep his place unless he was in Szedlniczky's 
 good books. The secret police took no notice of 
 
 1 Genesis der Re-volutian in SsterreicA, 3rd ed., 1851, p. 15 (by Count 
 Hartig, the Austrian Minister). Metternich said of himself : "J'ai gouvernd 
 I'Europe quelquefois, I'Autriche jamais." See also Stiles, Chargi d^ Affaires of 
 the United States in Vienna, Austria in 1848-4^, London, 1852, i. 6i. 
 
 2 Hartig, o.c. p. 12. 3 /i,-^. „ ^ p ^ 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 263 
 
 Hungarian authorities, but took their instructions solely 
 from Vienna. The introduction of foreign newspapers 
 was forbidden ; passports could be obtained only with the 
 greatest difficulty ; and only strong backstairs influence 
 could obtain leave for Protestants, desiring to become 
 professors, to visit foreign universities. Innumerable 
 protests from counties and individuals were addressed to 
 the King, claiming that the behaviour of Hungary during 
 the late wars justified it in looking for something better 
 than suspicion, and warning the Government of the 
 consequences of its policy.^ In spite of oppression, and 
 partly in consequence of it, the party of progress and 
 patriotism increased in strength. Excessive severity was 
 the cause of the censorship's failure ; the best foreign 
 works were smuggled into the country, and forbidden 
 fruit is proverbially attractive. The process of literary 
 revival which began at the end of the reign of Joseph II. 
 had never entirely ceased. The national literature was 
 the begetter rather than the result of a national ideal, and 
 the revival of letters was the chief cause of the gradual 
 substitution of ideas of patriotism allied with progress 
 for the narrow conception of that sentiment which had 
 hitherto existed. Hungary was still suffering from " in- 
 sularity." While the great nobles, austrianised by Maria 
 Theresa, looked upon the Magyar language as a gipsy 
 jargon, and, fearing the doctrines of liberalism and the 
 loss of class privileges, stood shoulder to shoulder with 
 the partisans of autocracy, the majority of the lesser nobles 
 or gentry were inclined to be stagnant or retrograde ; to 
 believe that what Magyar country gentlemen did not 
 do could not be worth doing ; to be satisfied with 
 the vegetable existence described in EStvOs's novel, The 
 Village Notary, or to indulge in a swaggering prodigality 
 exemplified by the Magyar Nabob of Maurus J6kai. It 
 was therefore essential to win back the great absentee 
 
 ^ Horvath, Huszon'ot ^'V, i. 78. 
 
264 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 nobles to Hungary, to develop- a less narrow form of 
 patriotism, and to enforce recognition of the possibility 
 of progress and of the substitution of a positive for a 
 negative programme. There was plenty of scope for the 
 energy of reformers. The peasants were practically in 
 the same position as that which they occupied before the 
 importation of the Habsburgs. The right of migration 
 had again been conferred on them in 1790, and the school 
 system established by Maria Theresa had done something 
 for their intellectual improvement ; but though many 
 landowners did all they could to improve the condition of 
 their peasants the regime of the stick continued, and the 
 great mass of the population, both Magyar and foreign, 
 had no political rights, and consequently were not interested 
 in the maintenance of Magyar nationality. 
 
 The gentry, who produced most of their own require- 
 ments, were tolerably well off, but the depreciation of the 
 currency made it difficult for them to maintain their 
 standard of living, as nearly all articles of luxury required 
 to be imported. Want of capital made the introduction 
 of agricultural improvements an impossibility, and the 
 raising of loans was hampered by the antiquated and 
 exaggerated system of entail. The want of proper means 
 of communication, of good roads, and of the regulation of 
 the waterways, and the consequent difficulty of disposing 
 of raw products, were severely felt, while the Austrian 
 tariff system deliberately stifled Hungary's modest 
 attempts to emerge from the position of a purely agri- 
 cultural country. The Catholic clergy, who enjoyed the 
 rights of nobility in virtue of their office, turned their eyes 
 to the Government — the dispenser of preferment — and 
 generally cared more for their prospects of promotion 
 than for the constitutional rights of their country. With 
 the increase of the wealth and importance of the towns, 
 the, largely foreign, urban population had become dis- 
 contented with the limitation of its political privileges. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 265 
 
 and hostile to the Magyar nobles, who, seeing in the 
 organs of municipal government nothing but an alien 
 oligarchy and a tool of Austrian autocracy, were justified 
 in objecting to an increase of the influence of a permanently 
 reactionary element. As it was, the Government's control 
 of the Diet was excessive. The Personalis Praesentiae 
 Regiae locum tenens, or president of the Lower House, was 
 not elected by the members but was appointed by the 
 King; and the High Court of Justice^ provided the clerks 
 and other officials, who consistently used their influence 
 in favour of the Crown. Resolutions of the House were 
 dravm up by an official of the High Court, and were 
 handed to the Magnates by a deputation drawn from 
 all classes of members ; and the refusal of the Upper 
 House to transmit such resolutions to the King, without 
 even taking the trouble of considering them, nipped many 
 salutary measures in the bud. An exchange of messages 
 repeated ten times or more between the two Houses was 
 no unusual occurrence ; and if the two Houses finally 
 managed to agree on a principle,^ endless opportunities 
 of quibbling and obstruction were afforded by the process 
 of settling the form of the measure {concertatio) to be 
 submitted for the royal sanction.^ Delay is fatal to 
 enthusiasm ; members got bored with a subject owing to 
 the procrastinating tactics of the Government, or changed 
 their minds from conviction, or for the reason that the 
 offer of place or title made it worth while for them to 
 do so. The Upper House,* in which high officials and 
 
 1 The judges had seats in the Lower House, but did not speak or vote. 
 
 2 The holding of a sessio mixta of the two Houses was an extremely rare 
 occurrence. Law xxvi. of 1790-91 re the Protestant religion was passed in 
 such a session. — Be6thy, ox. i. 797. Re the exchange of messages, see EatvSs, 
 Reform, 11. 
 
 ^ Horvdth, HuszonSt ini, i. 165, says that the Government, in drawing up 
 the text of laws, always tried to make it as obscure as possible in order to be 
 able to give its own interpretation to inconvenient enactments. Horvath was 
 a member of the Hungarian Ministry in 1849. 
 
 * In 1 844 there were 165 members, de Gerando, Uber den Sffentlichen Geist in 
 Ungarn, p. 63. About thirty-four were ecclesiastics. 
 
266 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ecclesiastics were present in overwhelming numbers, was 
 the stronghold of the Court party, and its unlimited 
 powers of obstruction could reduce the progressives to 
 almost permanent impotence. At the elections of 1825 
 a considerable number of Magnates caused themselves 
 to be elected members of the Lower House ^ in order 
 to avoid condemnation to comparative inactivity in an 
 assembly which 'was generally regarded as hostile to the 
 interests of the nation. 
 
 The instructions given in 1825 by the various 
 counties to their members agreed in demanding that steps 
 should be taken to prevent a recurrence of the illegalities 
 which the Government had recently perpetrated, and to 
 "fence round" the Constitution ; but they contained little 
 or no indication of a desire for far-reaching reforms 
 except as regards the customs tariff. For the most part 
 they were limited to a demand for the establishment of 
 an institution for the training of Hungarian officers 
 (the Ludoviceum), and its corollary, the exclusive 
 employment of Magyar officers in Magyar regiments; 
 for the recognition of Hungarian as the official language 
 instead of Latin ; for the convocation of the Diet every 
 three years ; and for the establishment of a Hungarian 
 bank with power to issue notes.^ The moderation of 
 these demands seems to have astonished Metternich, to 
 judge from the letters he wrote a few days after the open- 
 ing of the Diet. "A good spirit prevails, but a great 
 deal of inexperience is evident. The fatherly attitude 
 adopted by the Emperor in his speech has taken the 
 Estates by surprise, and, as is usual in such cases, has 
 inspired them with great enthusiasm. .... Certainly a 
 democracy does not exist here. The struggle goes on 
 
 1 In which the Court party consisted only of the ecclesiastics, the urban 
 representatives, and the members of the High Court. Most of those who had 
 distinguished themselves in the counties by activity in resisting the recent 
 illegalities were elected. 
 
 2 Horvath, HuszonSt /n/, i. 149 sj. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 267 
 
 between the pure Royalists and the friends of the 
 Constitution." ^ The speech in question contained the 
 usual platitudes ; as usual with the Habsburgs, the King 
 posed as the champion of the Constitution which he had 
 deliberately set at naught. " I ask nothing from you 
 but zeal in taking measures for the increase of your own 
 happiness ...... and that the Constitution of the 
 
 Kingdom may be fenced round and strengthened, and 
 so be handed down to my descendants for the benefit 
 of the Magyars, whom J regard as my beloved sons." 
 The enthusiasm with which this expression of constitu- 
 tional sentiments was received was somewhat damped by 
 the King's reply to the first Address received from the 
 Diet, in which that body complained that in direct con- 
 travention of Law X. of 1790-91 the country had been 
 governed by royal edicts, in the same way as the hereditary 
 provinces of Austria were governed ; and that taxes and 
 recruits had been collected by force. The Address 
 declared that the principle that the convocation of the 
 Diet depended on external circumstances and not on the 
 Law was indefensible, and demanded that the repre- 
 sentatives of the nation should be summoned every three 
 years and that all officials should swear fidelity not only 
 to the Throne but to the Constitution as weU, and should 
 be prosecuted if they violated their oath. The reply 
 rebuked the Diet for wasting time ; recorded the fact 
 that His Majesty " noted with regret that many matters 
 were again warmed up which had better have been 
 forgotten," and justified the failure to summon the Diet 
 for thirteen years on the ground of want of time and 
 of suitable opportunities. The dissatisfaction evoked by 
 this rescript induced the Palatine to press for a more 
 satisfactory pronouncement. In a second rescript the 
 King protested that nothing could be further removed 
 from his intentions than an attempt to interfere with 
 
 ^ Memoirs, September 26, 1825, vol. v. 
 
268 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the Diet's control of taxation and recruiting, and 
 that the apparent misconception of his motives 
 "pained his paternal heart." He further pointed to 
 the fact that a law already existed providing for the 
 summoning of the Diet every three years (as though 
 that superfluous observation were of itself a sufficient 
 answer to a complaint that the legislative assembly 
 had not, in Tact, been summoned since 1812), and 
 expressed his willingness to convene it at even shorter 
 intervals if necessary. 
 
 The receipt of this assurance, which was regarded as 
 a proof of the King's intention to turn over a new leaf, 
 encouraged the progressive party to begin the work of 
 reform. Law viii. of 1741 had affirmed the principle 
 that the payment of taxes was a personal obligation of the 
 peasants in occupation of allotments, and not a charge 
 on the land itself, which, consequently, if occupied by 
 a noble was exempt from taxation. A resolution was 
 now carried, condemning the inequitable system, and the 
 thin end of the wedge was driven into the principle of the 
 nobles' immunity from taxation, the abolition of which, 
 even to the limited extent now proposed, would materially 
 lighten the burden borne by the peasants, as the number 
 of nobles in occupation of land was large, and the 
 consequent increase in the ranks of the taxable would 
 be considerable. The Hungarian language next claimed 
 attention. It was pointed out that it was nothing less 
 than a scandal that the study of the national idiom should 
 be regarded as of less importance than that of a dead 
 language, that Catholic priests should think that a 
 knowledge of any tongue but that of their own ritual 
 was superfluous, and that the German and other foreigners 
 who made their money out of the Magyar population 
 should refuse to learn the language of their adopted 
 country. Paul Nagy suggested that the prime necessity 
 was the establishment of a Hungarian academy, whose 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 269 
 
 members should devote themselves to the task of polishing 
 and developing the language and of encouraging its use ; 
 "but all this is vain talk," he exclaimed, "while those 
 who could do most in this direction hang back. The 
 chief necessity is money, money, money." His words did 
 not fall on deaf ears. Count Stephen Sz^chenyi, a member 
 of the Upper House, promptly offered a year's income, some 
 sixty thousand florins ; many others followed his example ; 
 subscriptions poured in ; a committee was appointed to 
 carry out the scheme outlined by Nagy, and a new era in 
 the history of the Hungarian language began. 
 
 At first quite a sensation was caused in the Upper 
 House when Szechenyi addressed it in Hungarian, 
 but soon others followed suit, and in a short time the 
 importance of the national idiom as the best preservative 
 of Magyar nationality was generally recognised. The 
 proposal that Hungarian should thenceforth be the 
 official parliamentary language met with some opposition 
 on the part of Croatian representatives and of some 
 Hungarians of Upper Hungary, where Austrian influence 
 was strongest, and it was evident that the Court was 
 anxious to do all it safely could do to prevent the 
 realisation of Magyar aspirations. The King's reply to 
 the request of the Diet that laws should thenceforth be 
 published in Hungarian as well as in Latin, a request that 
 had already been formulated in 1 8 1 1 but without success, 
 was evasive and unsatisfactory, and afforded further proof 
 in Hungarian eyes of the hostility to the idea of Magyar 
 nationality of a King who saw no objection to issuing 
 proclamations in Hungarian at the time of the French 
 war, when the enthusiastic loyalty of his Hungarian 
 subjects was a matter of vital importance, but would make 
 no concession when he felt his position to be secure. In 
 reality there should have been no question of gracious 
 concessions ; in this, as in other matters, the Diet 
 asked nothing but that to which it was entitled, and the 
 
270 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Palatine admitted to Sz6chenyi that he knew of no 
 law which prohibited a Hungarian from using his native 
 language. But the Court thought otherwise, or affected 
 to do so, and, except for the foundation of the Academy, 
 the session of 1825 marked no advance in the direction 
 of establishing Hungarian as the official language. And, 
 indeed, the general legislative gains of the Diet were 
 infinitesimal. Academic resolutions, and fresh paper 
 guarantees of constitutional rights, could hardly be 
 looked upon as a result commensurate with the energy 
 and enthusiasm manifested by the progressive party.^ 
 " His Majesty, being entirely convinced that his own and 
 the Kingdom's welfare is based solely on the punctual 
 observance of the law, and that if any part of His Majesty's 
 rights or of those of the Estates be lost, the entire legal 
 edifice established by centuries of use would collapse, has 
 graciously thought fit to declare that it is his chief care to 
 defend and maintain the Constitution, and to cause others 
 to maintain the same, more especially Laws i., x., xii., and 
 xix. of 1790"^ (Law iii.). "His Majesty , assures the 
 Estates that in the matter of recruits and taxation he 
 recognises the binding force of the laws of 17 15-18 and 
 1790-91, and that he will not cause any change to be 
 made in the nature or amount of taxation without the 
 consent of the Diet " (Law iv.). " As custom and the 
 experience of centuries proves that the holding of the 
 Diet is the chief promoter of the welfare of the Kingdom, 
 and a beneficent remedy and preventive of grievances, His 
 Majesty assures the Estates and Orders that he will not 
 fail to give effect to Law xiii. of 1790, relating to the 
 
 1 In the 1825 Diet, questions were for the first time decided by direct 
 voting. Hitherto tlie Personalis, after hearing the chief speakers, declared the 
 motion carried or rejected on the principle that "<vota non numerantur sed 
 fonderantur." As he was a nominee of the Government the result of such a 
 principle may be imagined. 
 
 2 Recognising the independence of the Kingdom and the division of 
 legislative power between King and Diet, supra, p. 231 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 271 
 
 Diet " ^ (Law v.). The expression of constitutional senti- 
 ments contained in the new laws must have been too 
 familiar to excite much enthusiasm, as in the past such 
 declarations were generally the precursors of a fresh period 
 of autocratic illegality. At the same time it was not 
 discouraging. Though the session came to an end, the 
 political activity of the members did not cease. Numerous 
 committees laboured unceasingly at the work of laying 
 the foundations of constitutional reform, and of preparing 
 the materials intended to be utilised at the coming meeting 
 of the representatives of the nation, now, perhaps for the 
 first time, imbued with the idea that their duties were not 
 confined to maintenance of the constitutional status quo, 
 or to the promotion of local rather than of national 
 interests. 
 
 The fear of complications with Russia made it necessary 
 that the Court should be on good terms with the Magyars, 
 for a disturbed and discontented Hungary would make 
 the re-establishment of the army on a proper basis, and 
 effective interference abroad, an impossibility. Since 18 15 
 the Hungarian forces had greatly decreased in numbers, 
 and comparatively few volunteers came forward to fill the 
 vacancies. Owing to the accepted principle, " once a 
 soldier always a soldier," many of the rank and file had 
 passed the serviceable age, and the establishment was 
 several thousand short of the proper complement.^ The 
 Magyars entertained a rooted objection to military service , 
 in peace time and the Government did nothing to over- 
 come their antipathy. The Hungarian regiments were, 
 full of Austrian officers, promoted over the heads of 
 qualified natives, and the fact that it was the settled policy 
 of the Government to keep down the number of Magyar 
 officers was proved by its refusal to sanction the establish- 
 ment of the Ludoviceum projected as long ago as 1808. 
 
 1 Providing for its convocation every three years. 
 ^ Marczali, A Legujabb Kor TSrtinete, 312. 
 
272 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Further, the use of the military to enforce the illegal 
 collection of taxes made the army unpopular, and caused 
 it to be looked upon as the blind instrument of an alien 
 and hostile Government. The committee appointed to 
 consider the whole question wished, now that in the days 
 of scientific soldiering the levee en masse was out of date,, 
 that every noble should serve for a period as a private 
 soldier as a condition precedent to eligibility for public 
 office, an innovation which would soon have provided a 
 national army controlled by the national representatives ; 
 but this was the last kind of force which the Government 
 wished to bring into existence. 
 
 In 1830 Metternich again urged the necessity of con- 
 vening the Diet. It was as well that he did so, as before- 
 the session began the July revolution had taken place in 
 France, as well as revolutions in Germany, Italy, and the 
 Netherlands. The proclamation which summoned the 
 Diet referred to the proposed coronation of Ferdinand,, 
 the heir to the throne, in accordance with ancient precedent,, 
 and to the necessity of voting recruits to fill the vacancies, 
 in the Hungarian regiments, " the model of bravery," 
 and promised a satisfactory reply to the statement of 
 grievances presented during the past session, and a 
 reference to a special commission of the question of re- 
 annexation to the mother-country of the parts which had 
 been torn from it and never returned, in spite of unceasing 
 protests. Fortunately, the Hungarian chancellor, Adam 
 Reviczky, possessed the confidence not only of his- 
 countrymen but also of the King, whom he convinced of 
 the legality of the position adopted by the Opposition, and 
 of the impossibility of silencing the party of reform, which 
 wanted no violent innovations — only that the King should 
 put himself at the head of the movement and be the first 
 gentleman of Hungary.^ Thanks to Reviczky, the secret 
 police of Vienna, hitherto the chief source from which. 
 
 1 Marczali, A Legujabb Kor 1'SrUnete, 317. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 273 
 
 Francis drew his information about Hungarian men and 
 matters, temporarily ceased its baleful interference, and 
 the relations between King and people assumed a more 
 satisfactory aspect. 
 
 The question of the military contingent was the first 
 matter for discussion. The House demanded an explana- 
 tion of the Government's reason for requiring recruits, 
 and though the Personalis objected to the demand on the 
 ground that it constituted an interference with diplomatic 
 affairs outside the purview of the Diet, the majority 
 insisted, the Court gave way, and the President of the 
 War Council was deputed to give the necessary explana- 
 tions. The recruits were thereupon voted, the House 
 declaring in its resolution that it did not wish to fall short 
 of the standard of patriotism and fidelity to the dynasty 
 set by its predecessors in the time of Maria Theresa, and 
 that in the case of unwarrantable attack on the country, 
 it was prepared to make the utmost exertions to provide 
 for its defence.^ This episode was important, not only 
 from the military standpoint, and for the reason that it 
 sTiowed Europe that Hungary, as hitherto, identified its 
 interests with those of Austria in face of the possibility of 
 foreign complications, but still more so from the consti- 
 tutional point of view, as it established the Diet's right to 
 receive information as to the facts which necessitated an 
 appeal for recruits on the part of the Government, and 
 amounted to a recognition of Hungary's right to make its 
 voice heard on questions of foreign policy. The required 
 contingent was not voted without a considerable amount 
 of acrimonious discussion. The fact that corporal's rank 
 could not be attained without a knowledge of German, 
 and the dislike of Austrian officers and Austrian uniforms 
 were emphasised as the chief causes of the unpopularity of 
 the service. It was pointed out that often ten, or even 
 fifteen, foreign officers were to be found In the higher 
 
 ' Marczali, A Legujabb Kor TSrt^nete, 317. 
 VOL. I T 
 
274 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ranks of a single Hungarian regiment, and that no 
 Magyar, however competent, could expect promotion to 
 a higher post than that of captain.^ The Lower House 
 threatened to refuse the vote unless reference were made 
 in the resolution to these grievances, and the reactionaries 
 had to give way. The text, as finally settled, stated that 
 the recruits were voted " on the Diet being informed as 
 to the position of foreign affairs and of the Hungarian 
 forces, as a special grant in view of exceptional circum- 
 stances, which must not be regarded as constituting a 
 precedent for future use." " Inasmuch as the prompt 
 reward of professional merit would spur the military to 
 exert themselves in their profession. His Majesty has been 
 pleased to assure the Estates that he will carefully bear In 
 mind the provisions of Law ix. of 1792 and i. of 1807, 
 and will appoint born Magyars to the command of 
 .Hungarian and frontier regiments, and to the rank, of 
 General and to the Staff." As usual, the royal promises 
 were made only to be broken, but the fact that the King 
 accepted the conditions of service insisted upon by the 
 Diet, and so reaffirmed that body's right to decide ques- 
 tions affecting the " internal organisation " of the army, 
 gave permanent importance to the law of 1830.^ 
 
 In the same year the language question received further 
 consideration, and the desire of the Government to get 
 the military contingent voted made it more disposed to 
 be accommodating than it had hitherto been. Even in 
 Croatia there was little disposition to resent the placing 
 of the Hungarian language on a footing of equality with 
 
 1 Horvath, HuszonSt A<, i. 239-40. Paul Nagy named a Hungarian 
 regiment in which only twenty-two officers out of fifty were Hungarians. — 
 Marczali, A Legujabh Kor 'Tsrt^nete, 318. 
 
 2 The immediate grant of 28,000 recruits was voted, and of a further 
 20,000 in the event of Austria being invaded before October of the following 
 year. The period of service was fixed at ten years. Recruits on proof of 
 unavoidable necessity for their presence at home must be allowed to return. 
 The number of recruits to be provided by each district is to be determined by 
 the Diet, which even fixes the minimum height for eligibility for service, etc. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 275 
 
 Latin, until such time as the use of Hungarian should 
 become universal among the Croatians. Several Croatian 
 members spoke in favour of the extended use of that 
 language, none against it ; and at a meeting held at Agram 
 the Croatian electors gave instructions to their deputies to 
 the Diet, which deserve to be recorded as an answer to the 
 charge brought against Hungary of attempting the forcible 
 magyarisation of other races. " The Estates and Orders,"^ 
 recognising the necessity of spreading the knowledge 
 of the Magyar Language in these Kingdoms (Croatia, 
 Slavonia, Dalmatia) in order that a closer bond may bind 
 them to the Magyar Kingdom, request their Deputies to use 
 their endeavours in order that the Hungarian language 
 may by law be made a regular subject of instruction." ^ \ 
 The language question was, in fact, made the subject 5t 
 legislation, and the King sanctioned a measure which 
 provided (Law viii.) that the Council of Lieutenancy 
 should reply in Hungarian to all communications addressed 
 to it in that language, and issue its instructions in the 
 same idiom ; that the Court of Appeal should use the 
 Hungarian language when considering Hungarian cases ; 
 that local courts should do likewise except where Hun- 
 garian was not in general use {e.g. Croatia), in which case 1 
 their deliberations might be conducted either in Latin or 
 in Hungarian ; that in future no one should be eligible toJ«i4-- 
 public office who was ignorant of the latter language, or, 
 after 1 8 34, be admitted advocate. Further, it was enacted 
 that all military officials in Hungary, including those of 
 the frontier establishment, should be bound to take 
 cognisance of all communications addressed to them in 
 Hungarian. All this marked a considerable advance in 
 the desired direction, though the patriotic party in the 
 Lower House failed to realise one of its chief desires, 
 namely, that Hungarian should be made the language of 
 command in Hungarian regiments, experience having 
 
 1 Marczali, A Legujabb Kor TSrtinete, p. 323. 
 
276 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 shown that the difficulty of obtaining recruits was largely 
 due to the use of German, and to the employment of 
 Austrian officers and non-commissioned officers to the 
 exclusion of qualified Magyars.^ 
 
 In all directions indications were to be found of a 
 revival of a spirit of nationality and of a desire for reform. 
 It might be said that the same manifestations were visible, 
 though in a lesser degree, in the early years of the previous 
 reign, but in truth, at that period, the desire of the nobles 
 to obtain fresh confirmation of their privileges was the 
 mainspring of action, and the prospect of the spread of 
 the liberal notions of Western Europe excited almost as 
 much fear in the mind of the upper classes of Hungary 
 as in that of the Austrian Government. The constitu- 
 tional guarantees then obtained did not put a stop to the 
 traditional germanising policy of which Joseph II. had 
 been the chief exponent, or to the attempts to surround 
 Hungary with a Chinese wall, which should prevent the 
 possibility of contact with the ideas of the outside world. 
 The vast majority of the educated population still failed 
 to realise how backward the country was both materially 
 and politically, as compared with its western neighbours ; 
 and what guarantee was there that the country would 
 not again relapse into a slumber of apathy and self- 
 satisfaction — hypnotised by momentary success in obtain- 
 ing fresh paper guarantees of the maintenance of its 
 ancient Constitution ? The spirit of retrospective patriot- 
 ism had indeed been aroused by the literary revival to 
 which reference has already been made ; but the credit of 
 having turned men's eyes to the future, of having created 
 a desire for progress and compelled the recognition of its 
 necessity, was due almost entirely to the genius of an 
 individual. From the moment when Count Stephen 
 Sz6chenyi made his offer of a year's income, as a first 
 contribution towards the cost of establishing a Hungarian 
 
 ^ Horvdth, HumonSt fy, i. 233. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 277 
 
 Academy, he became a marked man. Born in 1791, son 
 of Count Francis, the founder of the National Museum, 
 who died "despairing as a Magyar," Stephen Sz6chenyi 
 entered the army, but finding therein no field for his 
 energies, no prospect of obtaining the advancement 
 habitually denied to capable Magyars in the Austrian 
 service, left it in 1826 to travel in France and England, 
 where his eyes were opened to the possibility of material 
 and political progress unknown to Hungary. He con- 
 ceived the idea of regenerating his country, and thence- 
 forward devoted his whole energies to the task of preparing 
 himself for what he conceived to be his mission. At first, 
 while still under the numbing influence of the years passed 
 in the Austrian service, he appears to have considered that 
 Hungary must find salvation in the general welfare, and 
 as a subordinate factor, of the Austrian monarchy ; that 
 the ideal of a practically independent Hungarian monarchy^ 
 of a Magyar Holland, without its commercial prosperity, 
 was antediluvian and unrealisable. His conviction that 
 Hungary was neither desirous nor capable of regaining 
 its national independence was modified to some extent 
 at a later date, but it was the guiding principle of his 
 whole career that material regeneration must precede 
 constitutional reform, and that the first duty of a patriot 
 was to force this view on public opinion. His first effort 
 in the desired direction was the publication of a book on 
 Horses, in which he showed how antiquated the notions 
 were which prevailed in Hungary on the subject of horse- 
 breeding, and pointed out how much more profitable it 
 would be to adopt modern methods of improving the breed, 
 as in England. With a view to encouraging such improve- 
 ment, the first horse-races were held under his auspices at 
 Pest, and in order to facilitate intercourse and contribute to 
 the formation of public opinion, he founded the National 
 Casino, the establishment of which was followed by the 
 formation of similar clubs in many of the chief towns of 
 
278 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Hungary — a potent factor in the development of the 
 political education of the upper classes. 
 
 In 1 829 his first great book appeared — Credit} Every 
 intelligent person read it and quarrelled over it, agreed with 
 its tenets or burnt it as unpatriotic, and Sz^chenyi's reputa- 
 tion as the apostle of national regeneration became firmly 
 established. The book begins by addressing a rebuke to 
 those who see patriotism in mere opposition to Austria, 
 " and salvation in vain insistence on a catalogue of 
 unredressed grievances. Let us not seek the cause of our 
 backward condition solely in the Government. Let us 
 not stay motionless in our old state of stagnation merely 
 because the Government has not removed every obstacle to 
 our well-being. Instead of everlasting complaints, sterile 
 recriminations, and idle demands, let us set ourselves to 
 work ; and if everywhere the road does not lie clear 
 before us, let us at least try to develop ourselves mentally 
 and morally, and increase our material well-being, where 
 and when, and in what manner it is possible to do so." 
 The causes of Hungary's poverty are enumerated in 
 turn ; its antiquated agricultural methods ; the absence 
 of the requisite capital ; and before all the want of credit, 
 due to the feudal relations of landlord and peasant. The 
 landowner is tied hand and foot by the antediluvian 
 system whereby, in accordance with the law of 1351, 
 land is entailed down to the most distant member of a 
 family ^ on the death of whom the ownership reverts to 
 the Crown, without the regard to claims of creditors,* 
 the result of which is that no one can lend money on land 
 owing to the impossibility of realising his security. The 
 peasant has no interest in the country beyond the " reward 
 of his labour," as Verboczy put it over three hundred 
 years ago, and the forced labour of serfs notoriously 
 
 ' "Hitel," Grif S«Jchenyi htvdn Munkdi, vol. i. Budapest, 1904. 
 
 2 Osisig, jus aviticitatis. According to Horv^th, HuszonSt iv, i. 420, there 
 was hardly a family in the country which was not engaged in a lawsuit as to 
 the title to property. 3 Fiscalitas. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 279 
 
 produces only a third of the result obtained by hired 
 hands or peasant ownership. Trade is practically non- 
 existent, owing, partly, to want of proper means of 
 communication and to the idea that road-making consists 
 in heaping mud on mud, in consequence of which it is 
 more troublesome to go to Vienna than to Philadelphia. 
 The inconsiderable home market is made still smaller by 
 the absenteeism of the great landlords, while export is 
 hampered by duties, by continual governmental interfer- 
 ence, and by guilds and monopolies which operate m 
 restraint of trade. The establishment of a national bank 
 to provide the money for improvements and for the 
 encouragement of enterprise is one of the chief national 
 requisites ; but before all the whole nation must be welded 
 into one, and to this, and to the maintenance of nationality, 
 the development and modernisation of the national language 
 is a condition precedent. Progress is visible in all direc- 
 tions, except in Hungary, where people still are satisfied 
 with the contemplation of a glorious past, believe that 
 " extra Hungariam non est vita " and see no necessity for 
 educational development and a wider horizon. " They 
 are wrong who say Hungary was. I love to believe that 
 Hungary will be." 
 
 The book, which jumps from one subject to another 
 in bewildering fashion, appeals rather to the imagination 
 than to the intelligence. It speaks much of the essential 
 necessity of credit, but gives little practical indication of 
 the way in which the desired object is to be attained. It 
 is full of Bentham and Adam Smith, and the charge of 
 Anglomania brought against it by its chief but ineffective 
 critic. Count Joseph DessewfFy, was undoubtedly justified. 
 Sz6chenyi replied to his opponents in a second volume, 
 Light,^ m which he develops the thesis enunciated in 
 Credit, convinced those whom his first efi^ort had left 
 doubting, and drove not one nail, but many, into the 
 
 1 "Vilag," Gr6f Szichenyi Istvdn Munkdi, vol. ii. p. 39 sq. 
 
28o THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 coffin of the feudal relations of landlord and peasant. 
 But the benefits he conferred upon his country did not 
 end there. Had there been no Szechenyi, Hungary 
 would have long remained in the old state of somnolence 
 and stagnation, and would have waited for years for a first 
 tentative effort to be made in the direction of economic 
 development. 
 
 His next book, Stadium, written in 1831, forbidden 
 by the censorship, and printed abroad two years later, is 
 less emotional and more constructive than his previous 
 works. In it he formulates a distinct programme in 
 twelve sections, the most important points of which are 
 the abolition of exaggerated entail ; the commutation of 
 the Crown's reversionary right for the payment by each 
 successive owner or purchaser of one per cent of the value 
 of the estate ; the extension of the right to own land to 
 all members of the community ; the equality of all before 
 the law ; contribution to the cost of parliamentary and 
 local government by all classes, not only by the non-nobles 
 as hitherto ; and the abolition of monopolies and trade 
 guilds. Further, he demands that the Council of Lieuten- 
 ancy shall be the only intermediary between the King and 
 the nation, which would thus be free to work out its own 
 political salvation, freed from the numbing influence of 
 Austrian bureaucracy, and that in Hungary no law, order, 
 or judgment which is not couched in the Hungarian 
 language shall have any force or validity. Sz6chenyi was 
 convinced that if once the land were freed, if all classes 
 could become landed proprietors, complete emancipation 
 would follow, and that the nation would consist of ten 
 million freemen, which, politically, had hitherto consisted 
 of eight hundred thousand privileged persons. The race, 
 he said, must die if nine millions continued to be excluded 
 from the possession of rights which should belong to the 
 nation as a whole. Freedom for all is essential to material 
 prosperity ; "the steamship cannot endure the smell of 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 281 
 
 feudalism," and for every shilling the nobles give up they 
 will receive back eighteenpence in another form. Let them 
 have the courage to cast their bread on the waters, and 
 they will soon find it again.* 
 
 Sz6chenyi was anxious to proceed hand in hand with 
 the Government, not in spite of it, and this wish influenced 
 his whole career. Therein lay his mistake. He failed 
 to see the uselessness of expecting any good from the 
 Vienna of Metternich, which looked on Hungary merely 
 as a colony to be exploited in the interests of Austria, 
 and as the possessor of a Constitution which required not 
 reform but abolition.^ It must be remembered that the 
 last word in all matters rested with the Crown, and that 
 the King of Hungary was never a match for the Emperor 
 of Austria. Every matter, though purely Hungarian, 
 had to run the gauntlet of the Council of State in Vienna, 
 and of the Conference of Ministers. The Hungarian 
 Chancery, the Palatine, and the Treasury, did little more 
 than register and give effect to the decisions of Vienna. 
 There was no question of the power being in the hands 
 of the majority in the Diet ; the majority was always in 
 
 ' The influence of Hitel and Stadium is clearly visible in the anony- 
 mous work, Umrisse einer mSglicAen Reform in Ungarn, said to have been 
 written by Count George Andrissy, which appeared in 1833 and insists on the 
 necessity of improving means of communication in order to attract the 
 foreigner, of regulating the waterways, of encouraging improvements by 
 means of proper patent laws, etc. — Part i. It complains of Austria's habit 
 (which is still in favour in the twentieth century) of deliberately traducing 
 the Magyars in order to alienate from them the sympathies of other nations, 
 but makes the admission that " here there is no question of a nation, only of 
 the interests of a few Magnates whose chains the nation has to endure." — 
 Part ii. 17 «. 
 
 2 "Die Regierung ... so wenig eine reformirte Verfassung wie die 
 Altbestehende liebte, und die Todtenruhe der deutschen Erblander gem auch 
 auf Ungarn Obertragen hatte. Darum kann man aber auch den ungarischen 
 Reichstag nicht tadeln, dass er den Widerstand bis auf das Ausserste trieb, 
 und sich freiwillig nicht beugen liess. Er hatte nicht zu wahlen zwischen der 
 bestehenden, theilweise veralteten Constitution und einer neuen vernunft- 
 gemassen Verfassung, sondern zwischen der Herrschaft des Gesetzes und der 
 Regierung durch Cabinetsbefehle." — Anton Springer, o.c. i. 198. 
 
282 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 opposition, not in office, hence the essence and foundation 
 of parliamentary government were wanting. The oppo- 
 sition, since 1825, was the originating, creative force, 
 while the Government was the drag on the wheel, and 
 relied for the successful prosecution of its policy of inertia 
 on the traditional hostility of the greater and lesser nobles, 
 and of Protestant and Catholic, which was now fast 
 disappearing. Party organisation and discipline of the 
 English type were unknown. Every fresh question was 
 liable to weaken or destroy such slight cohesion as existed, 
 and it was only the influence of individuals which served 
 to maintain some semblance of unity of action, which 
 the changing and contradictory nature of the " instruc- 
 tions " of the constituencies, the mutual distrust caused 
 by the acceptance of office by some of the most important 
 members of the reform party, and the attempts of the 
 Government to sow discord among its opponents,^ did 
 much to diminish. The Magnates were hypnotised by 
 Court influence and prestige, and the party of progress 
 in the Upper House was in a hopeless minority. The 
 place-hunters and the bishops cast ' their votes in favour 
 of reaction with machine-like regularity, the former for 
 obvious reasons, the latter because they were aware that 
 the curtailment of the privileges of the nobles would 
 lead to the diminution of their influence, both as 
 ecclesiastics and as the largest landowners in the country.^ 
 The steady opposition of the Government party to the 
 proposals of the Lower House gradually wore out the 
 patience of the elected representatives, who, not un- 
 naturally, ended in many cases by losing the enthusiasm 
 for reform with which they had begun the session. The 
 
 J Louis W^ii-kner, author of the memoirs frequently cited below, an agent 
 of the Vienna Government, did much to undermine mutual confidence. 
 
 2 In old days their tenure of land was to a large extent subject to the 
 performance of military duties, the maintenance of fortresses, and the supply 
 of troops. These obligations had long ceased, but the bishops retained their 
 estates. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 283 
 
 proceedings of the Diet tended to degenerate into a 
 haggling-match in which the vis inertiae of Magnates 
 and retrograde ecclesiastics was bound in the long run to 
 defeat the efforts of the representatives of public opinion. 
 As a matter of fact, it was not always possible to 
 know what was the trend of public opinion at any 
 given moment on any particular subject. The Press at 
 this period possessed but little weight, and the counties 
 were always liable to alter the instructions given to their 
 deputies. It was not unusual for a member to speak in 
 favour of a motion and yet be obliged to vote against 
 it, in consequence of the receipt of a fresh mandate from 
 his constituents. The binding force of these instructions 
 naturally lessened the authority and originating power of 
 the Diet, tended to prevent the development of the true 
 form of parliamentary government, and made it impossible 
 to predict with certainty the fate of any measure, however 
 great the enthusiasm which greeted its introduction. Of 
 enthusiasm there was, in fact, plenty since 1825 ; the 
 catchwords of reform were in every one's mouth ; many 
 travelled in order to inform themselves as to the economic 
 and political progress of foreign nations, more especially 
 of England and France, and a feeling of shame was caused 
 by the idea that Hungary did not stand in the same rank 
 as other European nations. Hence the seed cast by 
 Szdchenyi did not fall on barren ground. Since the July 
 revolution even Metternich was inclined to the belief 
 that the best preventive of similar outbreaks was the 
 encouragement of ideas of moderate reform ; and the 
 violence of the peasant disturbances brought about in 
 1 8 3 1 by the cholera, and by the belief that the medicine 
 provided at the expense of the Government was in- 
 tentionally poisoned, confirmed his newborn opinion that 
 only increased educational facilities and the improvement 
 of the material position of the country population could 
 prevent the recurrence of the outrages to which the 
 
284 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 landlords were subjected. The great nobles shared 
 Metternich's views, and the idea of the necessity of some 
 measure of reform which should better the condition of 
 their tenants, but at the same time should not undermine 
 their own privileges, gradually took shape in their minds. 
 Few, however, were far-sighted enough to realise the fact 
 that half-measures would not suffice to stop the rising 
 flood of discontent ; that the tide which had swept over 
 France and Germany could not be stopped at the 
 Hungarian frontier, or that the greater the receptivity 
 of Hungary for foreign ideas, the greater its ability 
 and determination would be to maintain its national 
 individuality and to work out its salvation on its own 
 lines. 
 1832. When the time came for the reassembling of the 
 Diet, though the majority of the counties, which ascribed 
 the poverty of the country to the gerrymandered customs 
 system, put commercial and tariff reform in the forefront 
 of their programme, Reviczky wished to obtain prestige 
 for the Government by giving the impression that it was 
 itself at the head of the reform movement, and to begin 
 with the line of least resistance — the reform of the 
 relations between landowner and peasant, and of judicial 
 procedure. The King's speech, therefore, referred specially 
 to these two questions, but as the Government gave no 
 indication of the length to which it was prepared to go 
 in its concession to the ideas of the progressive party, 
 there is justification for doubting its good faith, and for 
 believing that its anxiety to begin with the discussion of 
 urbarial relations was due to the belief that that subject 
 of all others was calculated to bring about a split in the 
 ranks of the Opposition, and that the raising of awkward 
 questions and the warming up of old grievances would 
 be thereby avoided. On the one hand were politicians of 
 the type of Paul Nagy, who said that it was useless to 
 " fence round " the Constitution so long as it protected 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 285 
 
 the interests only of a privileged class, and the millions of 
 non-nobles were left outside the pale ; ^ on the other were 
 those, found even among the members of the Lower 
 House, who raised their voices in opposition to the policy 
 of concession to the peasants on the ground that it would 
 destroy t;he independence of the country : as if, as Deak 
 said,^ everlasting servitude, the landlord's judicial powers, 
 and the regime of the stick formed the only foundation 
 of the Hungarian Constitution. The Catholic bishops 
 were also against emancipation, " trembling lest that rock 
 should split on which Peter's Church is built " ; ^ but the 
 great majority of elected members were on the side of 
 the angels ; with them there was no question of fighting 
 for profit or privilege, but for permission for self-sacrifice 
 in the interests of an oppressed class. The Government 
 was always glad to lighten the burden of the peasants 
 at the expense of the landowners, and to pose as the 
 protector of the poor, but it had no intention of giving 
 them real freedom, or of doing anything in the direction 
 of emancipation which might tend to democratise the 
 country. As before, it tried to undermine the Opposition 
 in the Diet and in the counties by bribery and corruption, 
 and in several constituencies succeeded in bringing about a 
 modification of the liberal " instructions " which had been 
 issued to the deputies.* But the session was by no means 
 barren of results so far as the peasant question was con- 
 cerned. The small vexatious dues, the payment of which 
 had not been interfered with by the ordinances of Maria 
 Theresa,* were abolished ; the corvie was reduced and 
 regularised in such a way as to prevent the exaction of the 
 landlord's rights from making it impossible for the peasant 
 
 1 Marczali, Enchiridion Fontium, p. 798. 
 
 2 Horvdth, Huszondt iv, i. 398. ' Horvath, HuszonSt ^, i. 399. 
 * Kolcsey, the noted poet, and one of the boldest champions of the peasants' 
 
 cause, retired from the representation of his constituency, as, owing to the 
 machinations of the Government, the liberal instructions given him on election 
 were withdrawn. ^ Supra, p. 202 sq. 
 
286 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 to give proper attention to his own land at seasons 
 when such attention was most wanted.^ The right of free 
 migration, subject to the satisfaction of all debts whether 
 of a public or private nature, and without the necessity 
 of obtaining the landlord's consent, was conferred on the 
 peasant ^ — after all but a small boon, for the peasant could 
 only migrate to the land of another proprietor ; he could 
 not yet become 'a free man and have property of his own. 
 The spirit which animated the King and his advisers 
 was clearly shown when the Bill which embodied these 
 and other moderate concessions was submitted for the 
 royal assent. After a delay of nine months, a reply was 
 received, refusing consent to the most important provisions 
 of the Bill, such as the permission thereby granted to 
 commute all dues in perpetuity for a money payment, 
 though such redemption had been allowed in Austria 
 since 1772, without fatal democratic consequences. The 
 King was perpetually under the impression caused by the 
 French Revolution, and dead against emancipation, fearing 
 that " it would bring into existence a new and hitherto 
 unrecognised class, and that trouble might easily arise 
 owing to a change of this nature.^ He even refused his 
 consent to the abolition of the landlord's jurisdiction ; but 
 Deak and his followers did not abandon hope. Though 
 the permanent commutation of dues did not receive 
 legislative sanction, it was admitted in principle, as it was 
 enacted that landlord and tenant might enter into contracts 
 for the redemption of such dues by payment of a fixed 
 annual sum, and some of the more liberal nobles at once 
 took advantage of the permission. Further, a step was 
 
 1 Law viii. 1836. 2 Law iv. 1836. 
 
 2 See his conversation with Wirkner, the Government agent, Elminyeim, 
 2nd ed. p. 71, which disposes of the oft-repeated legend that it was to the 
 Crown that the peasants always had to look for their salvation. It must be 
 admitted that the reforms of Maria Theresa and Joseph IL were introduced 
 in spite of the nobles, who thought that the country must necessarily go to 
 the dogs if their privileges were interfered with, but those reforms were due to 
 economic, rather than humanitarian motives. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 287 
 
 taken in the direction of peasant proprietorship by granting 
 permission to the peasants to enclose for private or 
 common use part of the land over which they and their 
 landlords had joint rights of pasturage. During the 
 same session a measure (Law viii. of 1741), which declared 
 the payment of taxes to be a personal obligation of the 
 peasant, not an incident of real property, was repealed, 
 and of course in this case the royal assent was not refused, 
 as the result of the law was a considerable increase in the 
 number of tax-payers. As a large number of nobles now, 
 for the first time, became liable to taxation, it was obvious 
 that they would never rest until the rest of the privileged 
 classes were in the same boat with themselves, and so the 
 propagandists of emancipation would find fresh partisans 
 in the ranks of the self-interested. The Government, 
 therefore, did not enforce the new tax, but winked at its 
 evasion in order to obtain the support of the now taxable 
 "sandalled nobility," which, consequently, became a willing 
 instrument in the hands of the retrograde. A further, 
 though inconsiderable, breach in the privileges of the 
 nobles, and a further advance in the direction of rnaking 
 the liability to taxation common to all, was effected by 
 the passing of a resolution that all classes should pay toll 
 at the suspension bridge which it was now propo^d to 
 erect between Buda and Pest in accordance with the 
 cherished scheme of Sz^chenyi. Many nobles still 
 regarded the obligation to pay taxes, no matter in what 
 form, as a badge of servitude, and nothing illustrates the 
 mental attitude of the ultra-conservative better than the 
 fact that Chief Justice Cziraky^ would never cross the 
 chain bridge for the reason that he considered that the 
 payment of toll was contrary to the principle of the 
 nobles' immunity from taxation. But such fossils were 
 fortunately rare, and the Diet, admitting the inequitable- 
 ness of the existing system, in accordance with which the 
 
 1 The author of the Conspectus Juris Publici. 
 
288 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 unrepresented, non- noble, tax-payers bore the whole cost 
 of its meetings, shifted the burden on to the shoulders of 
 the privileged classes. The same course should in fairness 
 have been adopted with respect to the expenses of local 
 •government, which were borne entirely by the class which 
 derived least benefit from that institution. The Pesti 
 Hirlap, the most influential of the newspapers, started 
 an agitation in favour of a change of system, and some 
 of the Conservatives, whose spokesman was Count Emil 
 DessewfFy, gave it their support, but a " No tax " cry was 
 got up in the counties, and the question did not come 
 up for discussion by the Diet. Many nobles, however, 
 thenceforth voluntarily bore their share of the expenses 
 in question, and the change which was gradually taking 
 place in public opinion was indicated by the fact that 
 numerous counties took advantage of their statutory 
 rights to admit non -noble members of the intelligent 
 classes to take part in the deliberations of the local 
 assemblies. 
 
 The general disgust caused in the ranks of the Liberal 
 party by its inability to overcome the resistance of the 
 Upper House ^ and of the Government to necessary 
 reforms, made many consider the advisability of retire- 
 ment from the unequal struggle as a protest against the 
 absurdity of the existing system, and DeAk had consider- 
 able difficulty in convincing them of the futility of a policy 
 of boycotting the Diet, which could only have the effect 
 of facilitating the task of the partisans of reaction. One 
 of the greatest difficulties with which the Liberals had to 
 contend, and one of the chief causes of discouragement, 
 was to be found in the absence of proper means of in- 
 forming pubUc opinion. The Austrian and Hungarian 
 
 1 The feeling entertained against that body first became really acute at 
 the Diet of 1832-36, on account of the obstructive exercise of its powers of 
 stopping legislation. " Mending or ending " was demanded, not on account 
 of objections to the hereditary principle, but because it was felt that the Upper 
 House was merely the tool of Vienna. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 289 
 
 newspapers gave accounts of the proceedings of the French 
 and English ParHaments, but none of those of the 
 Hungarian Diet. The official journal of that body gave 
 the most meagre summary of its transactions ; no members' 
 names were mentioned, and no reference was made to the 
 extra-Dietal meetings at which the real business of the 
 Lower House was transacted.^ Consequently, the con- 
 stituencies and the country at large had but scanty means 
 of informing themselves of the march of events and of 
 the shifting currents of parliamentary opinion beyond 
 that afforded by the presence at the meetings of the Diet 
 of a considerable body of youthful politicians sent by the 
 counties to serve a kind of political apprenticeship in the 
 gallery of the House.^ In 1825 the "instructions" of 
 many counties referred to the need of having a proper 
 official journal of the proceedings of the Diet, and that 
 body expressed its desire for such an organ, which should 
 confine itself to recording the speeches of members without 
 comment, and should be subject to the censorship only of 
 a committee of the House itself ; but when the required 
 permission was demanded, the Government returned no 
 answer, and the matter dropped, only to be raised again, 
 and dropped again in 1832, when the President of the 
 
 1 Most resolutions were taken in "district meetings" (^Keruleti UUsek) 
 or committees held outside the House, in which the Government was not 
 represented, and so exerted no influence. Originally the deputies of the two 
 Tisza and two Danube districts sat separately, but at this period they all sat 
 together, so forming a sort of committee of the whole House, excluding the 
 members of the High Court. — Kmety, KSzjog, 268, n. The result was that 
 discussion in the Lower House was often reduced to a minimum, and the 
 most important motions were declared carried on a cry of " Agreed " without 
 more ado. 
 
 2 In 1 8 2 5 fifteen to twenty were sent by each county. — Horvdth, HuszoniSt ^, 
 i. 298. In 1836 their number totalled 1200 or more. — Wirkner, ilminyeim, 
 p. 91. Filled with liberal notions and at the same time with devotion to the 
 historic rights of the country, they exercised a considerable, and possibly un- 
 desirable, influence on the proceedings of the Diet. Reactionary speeches 
 were greeted with demonstrations of disapproval, and the Government was 
 justified in objecting to the existence of a noisy and disorderly chorus. 
 
 VOL. I U 
 
290 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Lower House declared, amid protests from the deputies, 
 that the right of censorship was the inalienable prerogative 
 of the Crown. Louis Kossuth, who made his first 
 political appearance at the Diet of 1832, stepped into the 
 breach and began the issue of his lithographic reports of 
 the proceedings of the Diet,^ which, subscribed for by 
 the county clubs, at once greatly increased public interest, 
 subjected the niembers to the control of public opinion, 
 and encouraged a healthy ambition. For a time the 
 publication continued its bi-weekly appearance, but as 
 soon as the Government got wind of Kossuth's enterprise 
 it confiscated the lithographic press, and the policy of 
 obscurantism again triumphed. 
 
 The Government was well served by its agents. Ferstl, 
 an ex-officer, was head of the secret police, and " under 
 his orders were those persons who were entrusted with the 
 duty of observing the acts of the more conspicuous public 
 men, and those whose function it was to give their opinion 
 on the political questions of the moment," as Wirkner 
 euphemistically styles the spies of Vienna.^ Further, 
 there were " at the head post-office two entirely trust- 
 worthy persons in charge of the so-called Black Cabinet. 
 These opened the letters of those individuals whose views 
 and intentions it was desired to know." ^ As a matter of 
 fact, there was no legal justification for police interference 
 in Press matters. The Palatine issued a pronunciamento 
 to the eiFect that no political or literary periodical could 
 be issued without express permission from the King, but 
 no law restricting such publication existed. A statute of 
 1790 (xv.) spoke of the freedom of the Press, which 
 was thereafter to be regulated according to law, but there 
 was no legislative justification for the existence of a 
 
 1 Orsz,dggyUUsi I'uiUsitdsoi. ^ Elminyeim, p. 67. 
 
 ' Slm^nyeim, p. 68. Ferstl was instructed by Metternich to give immediate 
 information of any important fact to Wirkner, who none the less resented the 
 imputation of being a spy in the pay of Vienna. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 291 
 
 preliminary censure such as that exercised by the police- 
 bureau, against the severity of which the counties protested 
 in vain. After the close of the Diet, Kossuth continued 
 his work by distributing manuscript accounts of the pro- 
 ceedings of the county meetings, and no amount of 
 prohibitive orders and illegal tampering with the post 
 could entirely prevent the circulation of his reports. The 
 Government, therefore, took the absolutely illegal step of 
 sending soldiers to arrest him, seized his writings and cor- 
 respondence, and caused him, after a long period of strict 
 preliminary confinement, to be condemned by a servile 
 tribunal first to three, and then to four years' imprisonment. 
 It was the deliberate policy of Vienna to stifle free 
 discussion. There was hardly a county in which some 
 chief speaker was not prosecuted and imprisoned. In 
 1834 a society was formed among the youths attending 
 the Diet on the lines of the Sociiti des Droits de FHomme 
 for the discussion of political questions. No doubt the 
 juvenile debaters entertained notions of too advanced a 
 character for the Viennese stomach, but they confined 
 themselves entirely to theory, and there was no possibility 
 of danger to the Government. True, they organised a 
 torchlight procession in honour of one of the victims of 
 the muzzling policy, but that did not justify the arrest of 
 the chief members, and the condemnation, by a mockery 
 of justice,^ of one of the leaders of the society^ to ten 
 years' confinement in a fortress. The counties pro- 
 tested, but in vain,^ and public opinion became violently 
 inflamed when it was realised that the liberty of the 
 individual was at the mercy of judges, who, from motives 
 
 ' Witnesses were not confronted with the accused, who were not brought 
 into court, but examined separately in their cells, and were not allowed to 
 choose their own defenders. — Pulszky Ferencz, Eletem «S Korom, 2nd ed., i. loi. 
 Pulszky was himself a member of the society. 
 
 ' Neither the King nor the Chancellor would receive deputations.— 
 Marczali, A Legujabh Kor TtrUnete'-p. 392. 
 
292 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of self-interest, were ready to obey the instructions of 
 Vienna, no matter how illegal they might be. A more 
 notable victim was Sz6chenyi's friend, Baron Wessel6nyi, 
 who had made himself objectionable to the Government 
 by his activity in connexion with the question of the 
 reunion of Transylvania, his native land, to the mother 
 country. With him and Kossuth out of the way it was 
 hoped that the task of stifling free speech might be more 
 easily accomplished. 
 
 From the time when Transylvania was first occupied 
 by the Magyars it was spoken of as the "partes 
 Transylvanae" and sent its representatives to the 
 Hungarian Diet. After Mohdcs and the consequent 
 division of the realms of the Sacred Crown, from the 
 year 1 540, Transylvania had its own Diet, and the King, 
 and the representatives . of the Magyar, Szekler, and 
 Saxon populations, exercised joint legislative authority. 
 After the first ejection of the Turks, neither the Viennese 
 Government,^ nor the Diet of Transylvania,^ attempted to 
 deny Hungary's right to demand the reincorporation of 
 the severed parts, but for a long time the Transylvanians 
 had no wish for reunion, chiefly for the reason that during 
 the period of religious intolerance and despotism they 
 feared the loss of their special privileges, and that the 
 equality of the four recognised religions would become a 
 thing of the past. Now, since 1825, a strong feeling 
 existed among the Magyars of Transylvania in favour 
 of reunion, which, as they believed, constituted their sole 
 defence against Austrian interference. The only serious 
 
 1 As shown by Law viii. of 1791. 
 
 ^ Clause 6 of the law of 1 79 1 passed by the Transylvanian Diet ; " Tarn 
 sua Majestas sacratissima quam secuturi ejusdem ex augustissima domo 
 austriaca successores qua legitimi reges Hungariae Transylvaniam tanquam ad 
 sacram regni Hungariae coronam pertinentem eodem cum Hungaria imperii 
 et successionis jure tenebunt." Which refutes Brote's statement, that only a 
 federal tie existed between Hungary and Transylvania, and that the latter was 
 always independent. — Die rumdnuche Frage in Siebenburgen und Ungarn, 
 p. II. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 293 
 
 opposition came from the Saxons.^ The organisation of 
 the Diet differed in certain respects from that ot its 
 Hungarian prototype. It consisted of one Chamber only, 
 in which the representative members were far out- 
 numbered by the official element, consisting of the members 
 of the High Court, the lords - lieutenant of the Magyar 
 counties, and the chief officials of the Szekler and 
 Saxon districts. The Diet had the right to appoint 
 the members of the Transylvanian Chancery in Vienna, 
 the Chancellor and Governor, the judges of the High 
 Court, and the lords-lieutenant; but since 1809, the 
 King, in contravention of the law, had failed to convene 
 the Diet, and the Austrian Government appointed its own 
 subservient nominees to all vacant posts, without reference 
 to the wishes of the country. Only one official remained 
 who had been appointed in accordance with constitutional 
 usage, and a further grievance was to be found in the 
 fact that the Government had no regard to the relative 
 numbers of the members of the various Churches, but 
 chose its nominees almost exclusively from the ranks of 
 the Catholics, in spite of the fact that by far the greater 
 part of the Magyar population, and the vast majority of 
 the chief nobles, belonged to the Reformed Church. The 
 average of education was considerably lower in Transyl- 
 vania than in Hungary proper, and there were few of 
 sufficient energy and independence to make a firm stand 
 against the unconstitutional interference of the Govern- 
 ment, whose intention it was gradually to prepare the way 
 for the final absorption of Transylvania in the hereditary 
 provinces, by omitting to convene the representatives of 
 
 1 There were twice as many Magyars as Szeklers, and four times as many 
 Magyars as Saxons. The Roumanians, by far the biggest element of the 
 population, were not represented, though many of Roumanian origin were 
 among the elected representatives and specially summoned nobles.— Horvdth, 
 HuszonSi iki, i. 427. There was no limit to the power of the King to 
 summon the last-mentioned (regalistdk) ; it was easy therefore to swamp the 
 Opposition. 
 
294 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the people. Baron Nicholas Wessel6nyi was the chief 
 promoter, if not the creator, of the desire for reunion with 
 Hungary. He first came into prominence in 1818, when 
 the Government attempted to regulate the question of 
 the relations between landlord and peasant without 
 reference to the wishes of the people constitutionally 
 expressed througlj Its elected representatives. He travelled 
 all over the country, urging the inhabitants to resistance 
 to the illegal actions of Vienna, and exciting the enthusiasm 
 of the youth for the Hungarian language and nation. As 
 in 1790 so in 1825, one of the chief questions raised by 
 the Diet at Pressburg was the question of reunion, if not 
 with Transylvania as a whole, at all events with certain 
 districts in which the Magyar feeling was strongest ; and 
 Wessel6nyi was the life and soul of the movement in 
 favour of reincorporation. Thenceforward he devoted 
 himself almost entirely to the cause. He attended 
 innumerable county meetings, which he induced to pass 
 resolutions petitioning the King to remedy their grievances, 
 and, pending the convocation of the Diet, to initiate a 
 policy of passive resistance in order to paralyse the un- 
 constitutional action of the Government. In May 1832 
 the King gave some indication of an intention to summon 
 the Diet, but vague promises were no longer capable of 
 satisfying the people. In the following year the Ban 
 of Croatia, sent as Royal Commissioner with full powers 
 to Transylvania, became convinced of the fact that a 
 recurrence to constitutional government alone could restore 
 tranquillity to the country, and succeeded in satisfying 
 the King of the unwisdom of the policy hitherto adopted. 
 The Diet was, therefore, summoned in 1834, and an 
 opportunity was at length obtained of ventilating long- 
 standing grievances.^ No practical results were obtained ; 
 
 ' Some of the chief causes of complaint were, apart from those arising out 
 of the deliberate violation of the Constitution, the favouring of Catholics at 
 the expense of Protestants, the prohibition of foreign travel, and the op- 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 295 
 
 but that very fact served to strengthen the conviction 
 entertained by the Protestant-Magyar population that 
 the only hope of political salvation lay in reunion with 
 the mother country. The King's reply to an Address 
 voted by the Diet took no notice of the grievances 
 therein enumerated, and his intentions were shown by the 
 fact that he passed over the two candidates for the presi- 
 dential chair who had received the greatest number of 
 votes, and appointed a person on whose subservience to 
 the wishes of the Government more reliance could be 
 placed. The printing of the journal of the Diet was 
 prohibited, and when Wesseldnyi distributed lithographed 
 accounts of its proceedings his press was confiscated. 
 The Diet entered a formal protest, and the King replied 
 thereto with a rescript severely rebuking the members for 
 having dared to stand up for their constitutional rights, 
 dissolving the Diet, and enjoining obedience to the edicts 
 which he proposed to issue. 
 
 In Hungary proper, Wessel6nyi and Kolcsey did not 
 allow the question of reunion to drop, though it was now 
 more obvious than ever that the Government would not 
 consent to the reincorporation of the severed province for 
 fear that the spirit of Magyar nationality and the power 
 of resistance to the policy of centralisation would be thereby 
 strengthened. Wessel6nyi's activity naturally marked him 
 out for destruction. The Government wished to get him 
 out of the way at any price, and in May 1834 caused him 
 to be indicted on a charge of disturbing the public order, 
 the accusation being based on a distorted interpretation of 
 words he had used in a speech made at Szatmar at the 
 end of the previous year. He accused the Government 
 of having for centuries sucked the blood of the peasants 
 while it posed as their protector, and warned his country 
 that Austrian interference with the Jacqueries, which would 
 
 pression of the Szeklers by the soldiery, which exacted provisions at half 
 the market price, and generally misconducted itself. 
 
296 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 ensue, would be withheld till the houses of the nobles were 
 reduced to a mass of smoking ruins, and then — " Woe to 
 our national independence ! " ^ He was accused of Ihse 
 majesti immediately the words were spoken, but refuted 
 the charge, and the matter was allowed to drop by the 
 meeting, which had power to punish him if it considered 
 that he had made use of improper language. Six months 
 later the Government seized the opportunity of suppress- 
 ing an active and capable opponent, and WesseMnyi, 
 after long delay, was sentenced to three years' imprison- 
 ment.^ The question was raised in the Hungarian Diet 
 whether a prosecution would lie for words spoken in a 
 country where no law existed curtailing the right of 
 free speech ; and, secondly, whether an attack on the 
 Government could be treated as an attack on the King, 
 and so justify indictment for "infidelity," or minor 
 treason ; but the Upper House twelve times rejected the 
 petition which the elected representatives wished to be 
 addressed to the King on the subject, so the presentment 
 never reached its destination, and the only result was that 
 the feeling of resentment against the obstructive tactics 
 of the Magnates became more inflamed than ever, 
 and the conviction more rooted that the Government 
 would shrink from the adoption of no means, however 
 illegal, of suppressing the opponents of unconstitutional 
 action. 
 
 To belong to the Opposition, or to call one's self a 
 Liberal, meant the loss of all possibility of advancement, 
 involved a liability to persecution at the hands of spies, 
 and made it almost impossible to obtain permission for 
 
 1 De Gerando, Uber den bffentlkhen Geist in Ungam, p. 190 jyy. ; Marczali, 
 ji Legujabb Kor T'drUnete, p. 390 ; K6nyi, Dedk Ferencz Beszidei, i. 162 sqq. 
 
 * The influence of Deik, who applied direct to the King, saved Wesselinyi 
 from imprisonment, and he was allowed to retire to Grafenberg for the benefit 
 of his shattered health. But the Government's object was attained. "The 
 Government succeeded in obtaining a conviction." — Wirkner's expression, 
 Elm/nyeim, p. 99. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 297 
 
 foreign travel. Nothing shows the spirit which animated 
 the partisans of the Government better than their action 
 in resisting the substitution of a living for a dead language 
 in official documents. They urged that it was inadvisable 
 to proceed too quickly ; but as the language question had 
 been raised, without satisfactory result, on every possible 
 occasion during the past forty-three years, no one could 
 be accused of undue precipitancy. The subject was again 
 mooted during the session 1 832-36, and again it engendered 
 a feeling of passionate hostility between the parties, com- 
 parable only to that evoked by the question of the 
 emancipation of the peasants. The deputies demanded 
 that the messages of the Upper to the Lower House 
 should be couched in the Hungarian language, as well 
 as petitions and addresses to the King, and that the 
 Hungarian text of the laws should thenceforth be regarded 
 as the official version. To this latter demand the Magnates 
 refused their consent, and the King insisted that the Latin 
 text should continue to be considered the only authentic 
 one. " A dead language means a dead people," protested 
 one of the deputies who had already suffered for his out- 
 spokenness at the hands of the Government.^ " From 
 our graves we cry to the King to open our tombs and 
 to let us arise to a life of freedom ; but instead of lifting 
 the cover, our rulers only drive a few more nails into our 
 coffin, and condemn the living to everlasting death." ^ 
 Deak, who during this session of the Diet finally 
 established his influence, not so much by means of his 
 speeches as by his moderation and common sense, and by 
 the absolute straightness and unselfishness which were his 
 striking characteristics, expressed himself in a similar 
 strain. " No one. was born with a ready-made knowledge 
 of Latin. The action of the Government is comparable 
 
 ' John Balogh, who had been indicted for openly expressing approval of 
 the speech for which Wessel^nyi was condemned. 
 2 Marczali, A hegujabh Kor TllrUnete, p. 380. 
 
298 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 to that of the tyrant who inscribed the laws on the top 
 of a high tower in such small characters that no one could 
 read them with the naked eye and yet punished those who 
 transgressed them." ^ Finally, the King gave way on the 
 intervention of the Palatine, and a further advance was 
 made towards the abolition of the compulsory use of a 
 dead language, partisans of which desired its maintenance 
 solely for the reason that it served as an obstacle to the 
 development of the spirit of Magyar nationality. Hence- 
 forth, when any doubt arose as to the interpretation of 
 laws, the Hungarian version was to be regarded as the 
 authentic one. High Court actions were allowed to be 
 conducted and judgment delivered in Hungarian, and 
 registers of births and marriages were to be kept in that 
 language ; but, that other nationalities might have no 
 cause of complaint, only in places where divine service 
 was celebrated in Hungarian. Further, the King under- 
 took to take steps for the provision of facilities for the 
 acquirement of a knowledge of the Magyar tongue in 
 Roumanian seminaries.^ 
 
 It is no exaggeration to say that the Government 
 considered all progress in Hungary to be contrary to 
 Austrian interests, and this is especially true as regards 
 economic^ and educational matters. Sz6chenyi realised 
 this fact, and consequently took a comparatively incon- 
 spicuous part in general politics, for fear that he might 
 excite insuperable hostility to his pet plans, such as the 
 regulation of the Danube, the "removal of the obstacles to 
 navigation known as the Iron Gates, and the development 
 of the port of Fiume, the natural channel for Hungarian 
 exports, with which heavy freights, and want of accommoda- 
 
 1 Marczali, A Legujabb Kor TSrt^nete, p. 381. According to Kossuth and 
 Deik. only fifteen to twenty thousand persons understood Latin. 
 
 ^ Law iii. of 1836. 
 
 3 E.g. a prohibitive duty was imposed on the import of Hungarian beet 
 sugar into Austria, while the Austrian article was imported into Hungary 
 duty free. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 299 
 
 tion for shipping, seriously interfered. Educational as 
 well as material progress was consistently opposed. As 
 Hungary showed signs of a coming development in the 
 arts of manufacture, of ceasing to be a purely agricultural 
 country, the Diet in 1836 urged the establishment of 
 technical schools in the chief towns, and of a polytechnic 
 in Pest, in order to remedy the want of practical mechanical 
 and commercial knowledge, the chief obstacle to be over- 
 come ; but the Government, which wished to keep the 
 control of all educational matters in its own hands, 
 opposed the introduction of a Bill dealing with the subject. 
 "His Majesty," said a royal rescript, "will take the 
 establishment of such institutions into consideration ; 
 consequently, legislation is superfluous," ^ and the disgust 
 of the Diet may be imagined in view of the fact that no 
 money for the furtherance of the scheme, or help in any 
 form, had been asked of the Crown. The same obstructive 
 tactics were adopted with respect to the Ludoviceum. At 
 the beginning of the century, during the Napoleonic wars, 
 the Diet had agitated in favour of the employment of 
 Hungarian officers in Hungarian regiments, though, as 
 a matter of fact, there was an insufficiency of qualified 
 persons, to remedy which it was proposed, in 1808, that a 
 sum should be privately raised for the establishment of a 
 military academy. Eight hundred and ninety-five thousand 
 florins were subscribed, and a college was built with accom- 
 modation for two hundred students, but the Government 
 would not give permission for it to be opened, on the 
 ground that its statutes required revision, but in reality 
 because it objected to the request that the language of 
 instruction should be partly Hungarian.^ Thus, every 
 action of the Government proved its desire to do all in its 
 
 1 Horvdth, HuszonSt A;, i. 474. Not till 1 846 was permission given for the 
 establishment of a commercial school bearing the name of the Archduke 
 Joseph, which later developed into a polytechnic. 
 
 * The building remained unoccupied till 1 848, when it was opened. After 
 the war it was shut again till 1872. 
 
300 EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 power to retard the development of the country and to 
 crush its aspirations. 
 
 Francis died on March 2, 1835. His last actions, his 
 refusal to allow the adoption of the desired reform per- 
 mitting commutation of feudal dues for a money payment, 
 and the dissolution of the Transylvanian Diet, had destroyed 
 the last vestiges of the popularity which he had gained 
 by his consent to the convocation of the Hungarian Diet 
 in 1825. The establishment of the secret police and the 
 development of the censorship had been the characteristic 
 events of the last years of his life. He desired to keep 
 his subjects free from the infection of the liberal ideas of 
 Western Europe ; believed that prevention was easy, but 
 that cure was difficult, and persecuted ideas on principle, 
 in the hope that the march of civilisation could be arrested 
 at the Hungarian frontier. The futility of his efforts was 
 proved by the fact that the closing period of his reign was 
 rendered illustrious by the rise of the three greatest sons 
 of Hungary — Sz^chenyi, the prophet of material progress ; 
 Kossuth, the political idealist ; and Deak, the personifica- 
 tion of strict legality and of the invincible tenacity of the 
 Magyar race. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 It was notorious that Ferdinand, the new King, was of 1835. 
 less than mediocre ability. His father had not failed 
 to realise the fact, and knowing the feebleness of his 
 character impressed on him the necessity of allowing 
 himself to be, guided by Metternich, who, with Kolo- 
 wrat and the Archdukes Louis and Francis Charles, 
 Ferdinand's younger brother and presumptive heir, hence- 
 forth formed a camarilla which held all strings and made 
 the puppet King dance to its liking. The tendency of 
 Ferdinand's advisers was at once shown by their action as 
 regards the royal title — seemingly unimportant, but not 
 so in reality. To style the new King, Ferdinand the 
 First, as they attempted to do in official documents, 
 instead of Ferdinand the Fifth, his proper designation, 
 would have been equivalent to an interruption of the 
 continuity of succession of Hungarian kings, would have 
 implied, to a certain extent, at all events, the incorpora- 
 tion of Hungary in Austria, and would undoubtedly have 
 been used as an argument to prove the voluntary relin- 
 quishment of national independence.^ The next slap in 
 
 ' The Diet declared, August 19, 1835, that the title of Ferdinand the First 
 " Austriae Imperator quo sua Majestas utitur," can derogate in nothing from 
 the rights and independence of Hungary guaranteed by Law x. of 1790-91. 
 The result of the protest was that Ferdinand used the style of " First of Austria 
 and Fifth of Hungary of that name." Springer's statement [Grundlagen und 
 Enfiwicklungsziele des Oesterreich-Ungarischen MonarcAie, Vienna, 1906, p. 23), 
 that " Ungarn gestattete ohne Wiederrede das der Kaisertitel auch auf Ungarn 
 radizirt werde, dass der KOnig von Ungarn unter dem Kaiser von Oesterreich 
 
 301 
 
302 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the face which Hungary received was the appointment of 
 a new Chancellor in the place of Revicsky, who had 
 always exercised a moderating influence on Francis, and 
 consequently was hated by the more retrograde of the 
 great nobles. Count Fid^l PalfFy received the vacant 
 place^ a denationalised opportunist, ignorant of his 
 country's language,^ whose only wish was to earn the 
 favour of Vienna and to maintain the privileges of the 
 aristocracy. To appoint to the most important official 
 position a man who knew no word of Hungarian, the 
 nephew and nominee of Kolowrat, the chief protector 
 of the Pan-Slav agitators now coming into prominence, 
 was a deliberate insult to the Diet which the Government 
 looked upon as an unmitigated evil, the influence of 
 which should be curtailed by fair means or foul, and more 
 especially by limiting the freedom of speech and of the 
 Press, as is proved by the treatment meted out to Kossuth 
 and WesseI6nyi. The new Chancellor opposed every 
 form of progress ; obstacles were thrown in the way even 
 of the construction of the new bridge at Budapest on the 
 ground that it was too important a matter to be left to 
 private enterprise, and of the improvement of the Danube 
 for purposes of navigation, for the reason that it would 
 open the door not only to foreign trade competition, but 
 to the importation of foreign ideas as well. No one's 
 correspondence was safe from interference at the hands 
 of the police, and every possible means was adopted to 
 prevent concerted action on the part of the various 
 counties.^ A great change had recently come over the 
 latter, for whereas formerly only the meetings held for 
 
 vSlkerrechtlich verschwinde, dass es ein Landneben den vielen anderen Lan- 
 dern des Kaiserreiches sei," is clearly untrue. — See K6nyi, Dedk Ferencz 
 Beszidei, i. 157. 
 
 ' Szfigy^ny-Marich L4szl6, EmUkiratai, p. 9. 
 
 2 The "instructions" of the counties given to their deputies before the 
 Diet of 1825 insisted on the inviolability of their correspondence, without 
 which unity of action was impossible. — Horvith, HuszanBt /<ii, i. 157. Then 
 as later the motto of the Government was " divide ut itnperes." 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 303 
 
 the election of officials were well attended, the newly 
 aroused interest in the political questions of the day, 
 and the repressive action of the] Government, caused 
 hundreds to come where hitherto tens had congregated. 
 Disorder and violence were not uncommon when the 
 main questions which divided opinion were being dis- 
 cussed. Neither side can be acquitted of the charge of 
 bribery and corruption. The partisans of the Govern- 
 ment, being drawn from the richest classes, were the first 
 to adopt illicit means of gaining the day, and the 
 Liberals had to follow suit, on pain of being left out in 
 the cold, though quite aware of the demoralising effect 
 of their action. The excitement caused by the persecu- 
 tion of ideas and the prosecution of individuals reached 
 such a pitch that the Viennese camarilla became nervous 
 and recognised the advisability of providing a safety 
 valve for popular passions by summoning the Diet, the 
 convocation of which was moreover demanded by the 
 necessity of getting the military contingent voted in 
 view of the threatening nature of the European outlook. 
 PalfFy had to go, for even his partisans in the ranks of 
 the retrograde Magnates were not prepared to see their 
 country sacrificed to Austria, and reduced to the position 
 of a dependent province, and Count Antony Majlath, a 
 highly-educated and broad-minded man, was appointed in 
 his stead. 
 
 The chief result of the reactionary policy recently 1839- 
 pursued by the Government was the complete victory of ' ^°' 
 the Opposition at the polls, and a noticeable change in 
 the ideas of the Upper House, where few, with the 
 exception of the bishops, were now disposed to offer an 
 uncompromising resistance to Liberal innovations, or saw 
 salvation only in the retention of old forms and anti- 
 quated privileges. Szechenyi's example was contagious, 
 and many who had been satisfied with the rdle of spec- 
 tator, now wished to play a part in the affairs of the 
 
304 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 country. Among the Conservatives the most distin- 
 guished were Count Aurelius Dessewffy,^ a politician of 
 distinguished ability, Baron Samuel J6sika, Count George 
 Apponyi and Baron Nicholas Vay, men of exceptional 
 education and breadth of view, who formed the " party 
 of deliberate progress " ^ which supported the Govern- 
 ment, but not in the former servile manner, and desired 
 to avoid conflict with the Crown and with Austria's 
 interests in order to lessen opposition to the promotion 
 of the material welfare of their country. Count Louis 
 Batthydny was the leader of the Liberals in the Upper 
 House. He accepted Sz6chenyi's ideas on the subject 
 of economic reform and material progress, but cared more 
 than his teacher for the maintenance of the national 
 Constitution, and was not inclined to barter liberal ideas 
 and independence for financial prosperity, in which 
 respect he resembled his predecessor in the leadership, 
 Baron Nicholas Wessel6nyi, driven into retirement by 
 ill-health and persecution. Among his followers were to 
 be found such distinguished persons as Baron Joseph 
 E5tv5s, not less celebrated as a politician than as a 
 writer ; Count Ladislaus Teleki, a debater who was 
 always ready to enforce his arguments with the aid of 
 the duelling sword, and many other nobles, whose 
 presence in the ranks of the Liberal party went far towards 
 realising the wish long ago expressed by Sz6chenyi, that 
 the aristocracy should take its place at the head of the 
 reform movement instead of being dragged at its tail. 
 Their programme comprised the emancipation of the 
 peasants ; an equal distribution of the burden of taxation ; 
 the grant of political rights on the basis of a property- 
 qualification irrespective of class or religion ; the provision 
 of extended educational facilities, and the abolition of the 
 customs barrier between Hungary and Austria, and of 
 
 ' Son of Count Joseph Dessewffy, the chief critic of Sz^chenyi's Hitel. 
 2 The Fontol'va Haladd Party, as it styled itself. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 305 
 
 the Aviticitas and Fiscalitas^ which, as Szdchenyi had 
 shown, constituted the chief obstacles to the economic 
 regeneration of the country. 
 
 The opening of the session was marked by an episode 
 which augured ill for the prospects of peaceful progress. 
 The county of Pest was deprived of the services of one 
 of its members, Count Gideon Rdday, whom the Govern- 
 ment had prosecuted on a charge of lese-majesti, on account 
 of a too free expression of opinion on the subject of the 
 Government's sins of omission and commission, and 
 forbade to take his seat for the reason that the case was 
 still pending — an outrage on the principle of parliamentary 
 independence, as the unchecked exercise of such auto- 
 cratic interference would have enabled the Government 
 to arrange the constitution of the House as it pleased, 
 to disfranchise any county which had elected Liberal 
 representatives, and, in fact, to disqualify the whole 
 Opposition by the simple process of indictment.^ The 
 Lower House refused to proceed to business till its 
 grievance was remedied, and the Government was in a 
 quandary, as the withdrawal of the prohibition would 
 have amounted to the abandonment of its cherished 
 principle that the Crown and its Ministers were invested 
 with equal sanctity as regards immunity from criticism, 
 and would have been equivalent to an admission of the 
 illegality of its proceedings in the case of Count Raday. 
 The Magnates refused to endorse the remonstrance which 
 the Lower House addressed to the King, but as the 
 Deputies stuck to their guns and refused to begin work 
 (though Rdday was ultimately allowed to take his seat), 
 until they received satisfactory guarantees for the main- 
 tenance of their parliamentary privileges, the Upper House 
 had to give way and the address was forwarded to the 
 Crown. In reply thereto the King sent a rescript on 
 March 24, 1 840, promising that the right of free speech 
 
 1 Supra, pp. 41, 278. 2 Kdnyi, Dedk Ferencz Besz^dei, i. 318 sjq. 
 
 VOL. I X 
 
3o6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 should not be restricted, and that a full amnesty should 
 be granted to Wesselenyi, Lovassy, and others who had 
 been prosecuted for political reasons since the last session 
 of the Diet, if that body would consent to begin without 
 more ado the discussion of the Government's request for 
 recruits. Eventually Dedk and his party accepted the 
 King's offer, aijd the contingent was voted, the Law^ 
 in which the grant was embodied stipulating that the 
 recruits should serve only in Hungarian regiments, and 
 thereby further , affirming the Diet's right of inter- 
 ference in matters affecting the internal organisation of 
 the army. 
 
 The twelve points of the programme which bore the 
 name of the county of Szatmdr, the basis of whose in- 
 structions to its deputies it formed, may be taken as 
 typical of the demands of the Liberal party at this period : 
 — ( I ) the abolition of the existing system of entail ; 
 (2) land registration and the establishment of a land 
 mortgage bank ; (3) compulsory redemption of feudal 
 dues and of peasants' allotments ; (4) abolition of guilds 
 and monopolies operating in restraint of trade ; (5) eligi- 
 bility to office and the right to own land to be extended 
 to all without restriction ; (6) the revival and extension 
 of the law of the reign of King Mathias relating to the 
 taxation of nobles and the higher clergy;^ (7) popular 
 education ; (8) freedom of the Press ; (9) emancipation 
 of the urban population and the reform of municipal 
 government ; (10) revision of the civil and criminal law 
 and the introduction of trial by jury ; (i i) the separation 
 of executive and judical functions in the counties; (12) 
 popular representation at the Diet. Of this list, which 
 might have passed as the programme of the Liberal party 
 In almost any contemporary European country, the last 
 
 1 1840, Law ii. 
 
 ' LXIV. of i486, providing for the payment by the clergy and nobles of 
 the expenses of the " nuntii electi " — a dead letter. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 307 
 
 point was clearly the most important. The county 
 organisation was all very well as a bulwark of the Con- 
 stitution, as a barrier against autocratic encroachment, 
 but its very strength was its weak point. The conflict 
 of local interests was always liable to be fatal to the 
 possibility of united action, and it was evident that the 
 salvation of the country, its political independence and its 
 economic development, could be guaranteed only by a 
 strong central Parliament elected on a basis which ad- 
 mitted within the pale of the Constitution the majority 
 of those who had been hitherto excluded. The idea that 
 that majority could continue indefinitely to be taxed to 
 provide for the expenses of local and parliamentary 
 government without being represented at the councils of 
 the nation was soon to be exploded. The principle of 
 universal liability to taxation had been championed to 
 good purpose by Kossuth, who pointed out that complete 
 exemption therefrom was in civilised countries a privilege 
 enjoyed by beggars alone ; but it was still opposed by some 
 who, though they called themselves Liberals, put their 
 pocket interests before those of the nation at large. The 
 Government was influenced by conflicting considerations ; 
 for while, on the one hand, it had always recognised the 
 advantage of increasing the number of tax-payers, on the 
 other hand it was opposed to anything which would tend 
 to strengthen the feeling of national unity. 
 
 One of the chief obstacles to that unity and the chief 
 battle-ground of the antagonism which had hitherto existed 
 between Catholics and Protestants, was provided by the 
 question of mixed marriages. Originally, no restrictions 
 on such unions existed, and the question was first raised 
 by the bigotry of Maria Theresa in the interests of the 
 domination of the Catholic Church. In accordance with 
 the edict of Joseph II., if the husband were Catholic, all 
 his children were brought up in the father's religion ; if 
 he were a member of the Reformed Church, his boys were 
 
3o8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 brought up as Protestants, while the girls followed the 
 mother. The same principle, though distinctly unfair to 
 the Protestants, was adopted by Law xxvi. of 179 1, which, 
 at the same time, enacted that no obstacle was to be thrown 
 in the way of the celebration of mixed marriages. In 
 spite of the last-mentioned provision, the Catholic priests 
 tried to compel Protestants desiring to marry Catholics to 
 sign a document giving an undertaking that all children of 
 the marriage should be brought up in the Catholic religion,^ 
 and refused to perform the ceremony until such guarantee 
 were given. A further injustice inflicted on the Protestants 
 consisted in the fact that any one desiring to leave the 
 Catholic Church was unable to do so without first submit- 
 ting to religious instruction by a priest, in order that the 
 eloquence and erudition of the latter might have a chance 
 of bringing the wandering sheep back to the fold. The 
 instruction was not allowed to be taken in homoeopathic 
 doses from various priests, so the ingenious ecclesiastics 
 hit upon the plan of interrupting their lectures before the 
 full six weeks' course was ended, and of compelling the 
 would-be pervert to betake himself to a fresh instructor. 
 This manoeuvre might be continued indefinitely, with the 
 result that it might take years to complete the process of 
 transference from one religion to another.^ The whole 
 question of mixed marriages was raised at the end of the 
 Diet in 1830, but nothing was done. In 1833, *^^ Lower 
 House appointed a committee which proceeded to draft a 
 Bill remedying the above-mentioned grievances, and pro- 
 viding that thenceforth Protestants might own land in 
 Croatia, visit foreign universities, and that Protestant 
 members of trade guilds should not be penalised for 
 refusal to observe Catholic festivals and holidays. To 
 their credit the Catholic members ^ of the Lower House 
 
 1 The so-called " Reversalis." The Catholic priests justified themselves by 
 reference to an illegal Royal Order of 1792. 
 
 2 Horvdth, HuszonSt ^'v, i. 312. 
 
 ' Dedk, who first attracted special attention by his speech on this question, 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 309 
 
 rose one after the other to support the Bill, which was 
 consequently carried ; but the bishops strongly opposed the 
 first reading, and it was sent down again unread in spite 
 of the efforts of Sz6chenyi and EotvOs, himself a Catholic, 
 in its support. Seven times the Bill was sent up to the 
 Magnates, only to be rejected, to the great satisfaction of 
 the bishops, two of whom issued pastoral letters instructing 
 the clergy to prevent the celebration of mixed marriages 
 by all means in their power, and to refuse the Church's 
 blessing to such unions, unless the Protestant bridegroom 
 gave the " reversalis " undertaking, in spite of the law of 
 1791, which made it obligatory on Catholic priests to 
 officiate unconditionally. Finally, after an eighth exchange 
 of messages with the Magnates, the Lower House dropped 
 the Bill, which had found its most ardent supporters 
 among the Catholic members, rather than that it should 
 be passed in a mangled form. But the excitement in- 
 creased rather than waned, owing to the ill-advised action 
 of the bishops in sending one of their number to Rome to 
 obtain the instructions of the Pope, who, though he 
 decided that mixed marriages without " reversalis " must 
 be looked upon as " illicita sed valida" approved the action 
 of the bishops, and gave them written encouragement in 
 their resistance to the law. As no papal communication 
 could be published in Hungary without the Placetum 
 Regium, furious protests were raised in the counties, and 
 the general election, which took place in 1843, was largely 
 influenced by this episode, which did much to eliminate 
 the previously preponderating influence of the Catholic 
 clergy. The development of a spirit of freethinking was 
 
 was one of them. The Pal%tine was in favour of the Bill, having himself 
 married a Protestant. The Croatians, both lay and ecclesiastic, were, next to 
 the bishops, the most violent opponents of the Bill, for the reason that it would 
 abolish Law xxvi. of 1791, and so remove the restrictions imposed on 
 Protestants (not, be it observed, on Jews or members of the Greek Church) 
 which forbade them to own land in Croatia. So the opposition had an 
 economic as well as a religious side. Hungary and Croatia came into collision 
 for the first time over this question. 
 
3IO THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 one of the characteristic phenomena of the period, and the 
 Catholic Church, feeling that its influence was slipping 
 away, tried in vain to retain it by entering into an unholy 
 alliance with the party of reaction — nominally " for the 
 defence of throne and altar," ^ but in reality because it 
 feared the loss of political power and the secularisation of 
 its enormous possessions. 
 
 Only in the rnatter of the language question was any 
 notable success obtained by the Liberal party in the Diet 
 of 1839-40. Law vi. of that session enacted, inter alia, 
 that Addresses to the King, the official communications of 
 the county authorities ^ with the Government offices, and 
 the circulars of the Council of Lieutenancy, should be 
 couched exclusively in the Hungarian language. Hence- 
 forth the possession of a knowledge of Hungarian was to 
 be a condition precedent to appointment to all ecclesiastical 
 offices, and the King undertook to see to the extension of 
 the knowledge of that idiom in the frontier districts, and 
 to its employment by the Magyar regimental authorities 
 in their communications with Hungarian official bodies.. 
 Further, after the expiration of three years from the close 
 of the session, all registers of births, marriages, and deaths 
 were to be kept in the Hungarian language.' 
 
 As regards the reform of the criminal law, one of the 
 chief necessities of the period, the Liberal party failed to 
 realise its desires. The conviction now obtained that the 
 existing law was of too Draconian a character, though, as 
 recently as 1825, the " instructions" of one county required 
 that the King should be petitioned in favour of greater 
 
 1 The motto of its organ, the Nemaeti Vjsdg, which never possessed much 
 influence, and had still less when the control was taken over by the reactionary 
 Count John Majldth. 
 
 2 Hatiraibani K0ztarv^nyhat6stigok, i.e. Hungarian authorities only, intra 
 fines regni, so Croatia had no ground of complaint. 
 
 ^ Wirkner, in his letter to Metternich, admits that not one-tenth of the 
 nobles understood Latin.— Elm^nyeim, p. 136. The Government feared that 
 the universal use of a language understood by all would be fatal to its policy 
 of reaction and obscurantism. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 311 
 
 frequency in the application of capital punishment, on the 
 ground that the long confinement of prisoners was a cause 
 of excessive expense.^ The Diet appointed a committee to 
 consider the question of reform, which included in its 
 members many of the best known and most enlightened 
 deputies, among others Deik, Pulszky, EetvOs, George 
 Apponyi, and Aurelius Dessewfiy ; and a commission was 
 sent abroad to sti^dy the various prison systems. The 
 Bill, for the most part the work of Dedk, which was 
 intended to give effect to the recommendations of the 
 committee, provided for the introduction of trial by jury 
 and the abolition of the death penalty ; it is needless to say, 
 therefore, that it was thrown out by the Upper House. 
 
 The results attained by the efforts of the Liberal party 1843- 
 since 1825 were far from being commensurate with the' ^' 
 energy expended, and it became more and more evident 
 that the struggle between the old ideals of Austrian 
 despotism and Hungarian constitutionalism must soon 
 take a decisive turn one way or the other. Hungary 
 recognised the need of democratic reform, of abolishing 
 the hard and fast line which divided the population into 
 two classes, the privileged and the unprivileged,^ and was 
 no longer content to limit its exertions to the prevention 
 of the more flagrant violations of its historic rights. 
 Austria, on the other hand, saw that its only chance of 
 keeping its preponderance lay in the maintenance of the 
 status quo as regards the question of the emancipation of 
 the peasants and of its economic relations with Hungary, 
 The antagonism which existed between the two countries 
 was brought to a head, but was not in any sense caused, 
 by recent events in Western Europe. It was the conflict 
 of ideals — liberalism on the one side, autocracy on the 
 
 1 Marczali, ^ Legujabb Kor 't'drUnete, p. 360. 
 
 2 As long ago as 1807 Paul Nagy had urged the necessity of extending the 
 benefits of the Constitution to all Hungarians " in order that in the moment 
 of danger the entire people may stand together in its defence." — Wirkner, 
 Elminyeim, p. 25. 
 
312 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 other, which rendered a peaceful solution an impossibility. 
 The wall with which Metternich had sought to surround 
 Hungary had failed to stop the spread of modern notions. 
 In 1 84 1, Kossuth, whose term. of imprisonment had 
 recently terminated, became the editor of the Pesti Hirlap, 
 and dealt in its columns with every subject of public 
 interest from the national point of view. Landerer, the 
 publisher, was art agent of the secret police, hence the fact 
 that the Government raised no objection to the inception 
 of the new journalistic enterprise,^ which it certainly would 
 not have permitted if it had had an idea of the magnitude 
 of the influence which Kossuth would exert on public 
 opinion. Sz6chenyi was mistaken in supposing that 
 economic progress must necessarily precede constitutional 
 reform. Kossuth's view was sounder, namely, that only 
 the development of a middle class, by means of an 
 extension of the franchise, could bring about a lasting 
 change for the better in economic conditions. He saw 
 that the future of the country depended on the " Gentry," 
 not on the Nobles, whom he plainly told that reforms 
 would be effected " through them and with them if they 
 were willing, without them and in spite of them if 
 necessary." Dessewffy, who wrote in the Vilag, the 
 organ of the "Party of Deliberate Progress," was 
 Kossuth's only possible antagonist in the journalistic 
 world. He feared the possibility of an orgy of tyrannical 
 Liberalism as much as the recrudescence of Austrian 
 autocracy, and therefore was in favour of the establish- 
 ment of a strong, but limited and responsible, central 
 government, which should control the excessive power of 
 the counties. Unfortunately, he died in 1 842, at the age 
 of thirty-six, and there was no one to take his place. 
 Sz6chenyi lost no opportunity of attacking Kossuth and 
 of accusing him of setting poor against rich, class against 
 class, and, more especially, of stirring up hatred against the 
 
 1 SzOgy^ny, EmUtiratai, p. 19. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 313 
 
 Upper House ; but his efforts were inefFective, possibly 
 for the reason that he created the opinion that the main- 
 spring of his action was a petty jealousy which prevented 
 him from supporting any scheme which he himself had 
 not initiated.-' He published a pamphlet ^ with the special 
 object of pressing home the attack, in which he admitted 
 that he did not doubt the purity of Kossuth's motives, 
 and agreed for the most part with his views. He 
 reproached his rival with addressing himself to the heart 
 and not to the head of his readers, and tried to impress on 
 him the futility of progress without regard to the means 
 employed and the goal in view. According to Szdchenyi, 
 Kossuth, in his thirst for popularity, mistook the applause 
 of the crowd for public opinion, and demanded unlimited 
 publicity for his own views while he encouraged the mob 
 to shout his opponents down. Between himself and 
 Kossuth, Sz6chenyi considered the same difference to exist 
 as there is beween peaceful reform and revolution. But 
 the nation was tired of waiting in vain for reform to come 
 from above, and though the pamphlet in question had to 
 some extent a moderating influence on the tone of the 
 Pesti Hirlap, its chief result was the destruction of the 
 remains of Sz6chenyi's popularity and the splitting of 
 the reformers into two parties — the moderates and the 
 Kossuthites. Kossuth, whose paper was not so much the 
 organ of public opinion as the creator of it, made a polite 
 but crushing reply, suggesting that his adversary renounced 
 his own opinions so soon as he heard them enunciated by 
 another, and the victory was never for a moment in doubt, 
 more especially as DessewfFy and EotvOs threw their 
 weight into the balance on Kossuth's side. Thenceforth 
 Sz6ehenyi's influence was supreme only in economic 
 matters, and even in this department the rivalry of 
 Kossuth was soon to make itself felt. 
 
 ' Pulszky, £letem is Korom, i. 158. 
 2 A Kelet N^e, Gr6f Szechenyi Istvan Munkii, vol. ii., Budapest, 1905. 
 
314 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 The King's Speech on the occasion of the opening of 
 the Diet gave unusual satisfaction, on account of the 
 number and the nature of the legislative proposals which 
 it contained.^ It appeared as if the Government at last 
 recognised the necessity of constitutional and economic 
 reform. Even Kossuth was inclined to believe in the 
 good intentions of Vienna ; but the cloven hoof was soon 
 shown by the inspired refusal of the Upper House to 
 allow the publication of an official, uncensored report of 
 the proceedings of the Diet. The reform of the muni- 
 cipal franchise, and the extension of urban representation 
 at the Diet, were favoured by the progressive party, not 
 only as the first step in the direction of a thorough altera- 
 tion of the existing basis of parliamentary representation, 
 but as being likely to bring a considerable accession of 
 strength to the Liberals. A Bill was therefore introduced 
 providing that both municipal officials and deputies to the 
 Diet should be elected by manhood suffrage, and that 
 sixteen seats should be allotted to the towns. The 
 Magnates insisted on a high property qualification for the 
 franchise and on the adoption of a system of indirect 
 voting, which would have excluded the great mass of the 
 urban population from participation, and would merely 
 have had the effect of giving the Government sixteen 
 more votes in the Lower House, whose " saturation with 
 dependent elements, whose servility would in the course 
 of five or six years suffice to destroy not only that 
 chamber itself, but liberty and the Constitution as well." ^ 
 So after fruitless negotiation the Bill was dropped, and 
 the disingenuousness of the Government's legislative pro- 
 posals became patent to all. True, the Upper House 
 allowed an Act to pass making non-nobles eligible for ail 
 
 • Establishment of land mortgage bank, improvement of means of com- 
 munication, regulation of the Danube, urban representation at the Diet, etc. — 
 Horvath, HusaonU i'v, ii. 190. 
 
 2 Szdchenyi, quoted by HorvAth, HuszonSt ^, ii. 233. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 315 
 
 offices,* but small thanks were due to them for the con- 
 cession ; for what could be more useless than to give 
 peasants, who, as non-nobles, could not vote at elections, 
 the right to be themselves elected ? In other respects the 
 Act in question conferred a considerable boon on the lower 
 classes. Law vii. 9 of 1840 had admitted in principle 
 the peasant's right to redeem all feudal dues, and to divide 
 his holding by will among his children, and now that of 
 1844 conferred the right on all non-nobles, belonging 
 to any recognised religion, to own real property. The 
 change which had taken place in public opinion since 
 1834 is noticeable. Notions which had horrified people 
 at that date met with almost universal acceptance ten 
 years later. The laws of 1840 and 1844 were, in fact, 
 generally regarded merely as an instalment, and the 
 movement in favour of complete emancipation of the 
 peasants continued unabated. 
 
 Hungarian had now completely ousted Latin as the 
 language of debate, though there was still some opposition 
 on the part of the representatives of the " annexed " or 
 " subject parts," encouraged by the Government and by 
 the partisans of reaction. The Croatian deputies to the 
 Diet of 1843-44 ^11 belonged to the so-called lUyrian 
 party, to which reference will hereafter be made, and had 
 been elected by a snap vote in the absence of the Hun- 
 garian electors, who were tricked into the belief that the 
 election had been postponed. When these deputies began 
 to address the Diet in Latin, they were met with cries of 
 " Speak Hungarian ! " and shouted down, chiefly for the 
 reason that the trick to which they owed their election 
 was known, and on account of the recognised fact that 
 they were the representatives of a disloyal faction, and 
 not of the public opinion of Croatia. The King, who 
 was quite ready to wink at the existence of a Pan-Slav 
 agitation, if he could utilise its promoters to the detriment 
 
 ' 1844, Law v., without regard to religious distinctions. 
 
3i6 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 of Hungary, took no notice of the protests of the Hun- 
 garian party in Croatia against the illegahties which had 
 marked the recent elections, but sent a rescript to the 
 Diet ordering it to allow the Croatian deputies to address 
 it in Latin. The House denied the right of the Crown 
 to interfere, persisted in its refusal to listen to Latin 
 speeches, and resolved to ignore them in the official 
 journal of proceedings. Finally, an end was put to the 
 dispute by the receipt of the royal assent to an Act,^ 
 which provided that the Hungarian language was to be 
 used to the complete exclusion of Latin in all royal com- 
 munications with the Diet, as well as in the drawing up of 
 laws, and in the Crown's confirmatory rescripts. Thence- 
 forth Hungarian was to be the sole language of debate, 
 but a period of grace was granted to non- Magyar 
 deputies, permitting them to continue the use of Latin 
 for the space of six years. The use of Hungarian was 
 made obligatory in all documents issued by the Chancery 
 and by the Council of Lieutenancy, as well as in all the 
 law courts of Hungary. In future the Magyar language 
 was to be taught in the secondary schools of the " annexed 
 parts "as an ordinary subject, and was to be the medium 
 of instruction in all schools in Hungary proper. The 
 authorities in the said " parts " were bound to accept 
 official documents couched in the Hungarian idiom, but 
 might continue to use Latin in their correspondence with 
 Hungarian officials. Thus, after a struggle which had 
 continued almost without interruption since 1790, the 
 Magyar language was raised to the position to which it 
 was entitled as that of the dominant nation, or of the 
 " predominant partner," if that familiar phrase is less 
 offensive to racial susceptibilities.^ 
 
 ' Law ii. of 1844. 
 
 2 Under what may, for convenience, be called the feudal system only birth 
 could give rights ; so long as the Catholic Church was supreme membership 
 of that Church was essential to their full enjoyment. With the approach of 
 the abolition of the former and of the dethronement of the latter the language 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 317 
 
 If the Croatians had wished to address the Diet in 
 their own language something might have been urged in 
 their favour, but nothing but the wish to annoy could 
 have prompted a sudden recurrence to the use of Latin, 
 voluntarily abandoned for years past in favour of Hun- 
 garian, which the Croatian deputies spoke without diffi- 
 culty. As a matter of fact, they had no wish whatever to 
 preserve the use of Latin, as they knew there was no 
 feeling in its favour in their own country, where it was 
 understood by only a trifling minority, but they wanted a 
 weapon of offence, and could find it only in the Latin 
 language, as there was no tongue in existence which could 
 be described as the national language of the Slavs of 
 Hungary, unless it were Servian, and to the exaltation 
 of that jargon to an exclusive position no Croatian would 
 have agreed. In Slavonia only 12,000 out of 145,000 
 spoke Croatian, and in Croatia 280,000 out of 570,000 
 spoke Servia,n,^ and as the Palatine, the Archduke Joseph, 
 wrote to Metternich, there was no question of any national 
 feeling of hostility to Hungary on the part of the sub- 
 ordinate races. " The use of Latin has declined, as in the 
 rest of Europe, and the people see no objection to the official 
 use of the Magyar language, provided that they are not 
 
 question acquired a new and greater importance, as the majority of those who 
 would now receive political rights for the first time were of non-Magyar 
 origin. 
 
 ' Horvith, HuszonSt ini, ii. 214.. F^nyes's and other statistics, quoted by 
 De Gerando, Uber den 'iffentlichen Geist in Ungarn, p. 262, give the population 
 of Hungary in 1842 as 13,784,170 ; of which 4,870,000 Magyars, 1,262,000 
 Germans, 2,311,000 Roumans, 4,273,860 Slavs. De Gerando, o.c. p. 287, 
 states that all races where in contact with the Magyars spoke Hungarian, 
 while Slovaks, Croats, Ruthenians, and otliers spoke Hungarian to each other, 
 as it was the only language they could all understand. In their intercourse 
 with each other Hungarian was used as pidgin-English is used in the Treaty 
 Ports by Chinese from different provinces. Count Albert Apponyi, in his 
 pamphlet already referred to, The Juridical Nature, etc., says that in 1 848 the 
 nobles numbered 675,000 out of a population, according to him, of nearly 
 12,000,000. To the numbers of the privileged must be added over 16,000 
 clergy, members of enfranchised liberal professions {the honoratiores), and the 
 burgesses of the free towns, p. 8 n. 
 
31 8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 interfered with in the use of their own dialects in private. 
 All peoples and races inhabiting the Kingdom, without 
 exception, entertain this view, and in recent times the 
 younger section of the population evinces a lively desire 
 to acquire the Magyar language, even in places where it 
 is not generally spoken." ^ Better evidence of the arti- 
 ficial nature of the agitation could not be asked than that 
 provided by this letter of a member of the House of 
 Habsburg. The fact was that the Croatian deputies 
 found that the triumph of Hungarian Liberalism meant 
 the triumph of the principle of religious equality, and that 
 the right of owning land in Croatia could then be no 
 longer denied to the Protestants. There was no question 
 of fighting for the maintenance of national rights. It 
 was only the fact of the enjoyment of the benefits of the 
 Hungarian Constitution by Croatia as a constituent part 
 of the Hungarian kingdom that saved the Croatians from 
 Austrian despotism — as they were to discover to their 
 cost at a later period, when they allowed themselves to be 
 used as the catspaw of autocracy. 
 
 Since the Habsburgs abandoned the old Hungarian 
 tradition with respect to the Balkan Peninsula, turned 
 their eyes from the road which led towards Constantinople, 
 and kept them fixed on Frankfurt, the central point of 
 the German Confederation, the Slav races had begun to 
 develop a tendency to look to Russia for their future. 
 The Tsars naturally regarded with complacency a move- 
 ment ^ which, even if it did not end in permanently increasing 
 their realms or their influence in Western Europe, would in 
 any case provide them with a useful weapon to hold over 
 the head of Austrian Emperors, the population of whose 
 patchwork dominions was more than half Slav. The 
 possibility of the arrogation by Russia of a sort of 
 " sacerdotal supremacy " over the Slavs of Hungary was 
 
 ' HorvAth, HuszonSt ^, ii. 281. See also BeOthy, o.c. ii. 279. 
 2 Bidermann, Russische Umtriebe in Ungam, Innsbruck, 1867, p. 18 sq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 319 
 
 not lost sight of by the author of the apocryphal Will of 
 Peter the Great,^ but according to Kossuth,^ the idea of 
 Pan-Slavism as the union of all Slav races under Russian 
 protection with a view to the formation of the largest 
 political organisation the world had ever seen, was first 
 suggested by Prince Adam Czartoryszki in 1815, as 
 affording some consolation to the Poles for the dismember- 
 ment of their country. The idea was accepted with 
 enthusiasm by the Tsar Alexander, and only the wedge, 
 to use Palacky's phrase, driven into the Slav body by the 
 Magyars,^ seemed to make the ultimate realisation of the 
 dream an impossibility. Hence the hatred of the Pan-Slavs 
 for Hungary. In any case there would seem to be 
 evidence enough to show that the affection evinced by 
 successive Tsars for the Slavs of Hungary was not purely 
 unselfish, and was due to some other reason than a laudable 
 desire for the spiritual welfare of their co-religionaries.* 
 At the time of the cholera epidemic in 1831, Russian 
 agents were busy stirring up the peasants, and the 
 Russo- Turkish war afforded a favourable opportunity 
 of encouraging the idea of the identity of interests of all 
 Slavs, and of fomenting hatred of the inconvenient 
 Magyars.* Austria, hypnotised for the moment by its 
 fears of the nearer danger, the establishment of a united 
 and democratic Hungary, lost sight of the possible 
 ultimate consequences of Russian interference, and en- 
 coixraged the mutinous tendencies of the Slavs in the hope 
 of thereby checking the progress of Magyar Liberalism. 
 Kolowrat, Austrian Minister and chief of the pro-Slavs, 
 saw no inconsistency in encouraging the national desire of 
 
 ' Bidermann, Russische Umtriebe in Ungam, n. 98. 
 
 2 Schriften aus der Emigration, ii. 168. 
 
 ' See supra, p. 3. 
 
 * Horvdth, HuszonSt i'v, i. 510, cites instructions given to Admiral 
 TsitsakofF in 1 8 1 2 emphasising the necessity of stirring up the Slav races in 
 Bosnia, Servia, Croatia, and Dalmatia, of promising them freedom and the 
 establishment of a great Slav state. 
 
 6 Marczali, A Legujabb Kor Tirtinete, p. 417 sq., and Bidermann, o.c. 
 
320 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the Czechs as regards the maintenance of their language, 
 and in thwarting at the same time similar aspirations on 
 the part of the Magyars.^ In the reign of Joseph II. the 
 Croatians were anxious for the maintenance of Hungarian 
 independence, and protested against centralisation and 
 germanisation as energetically as any Magyar. When, 
 after the Peace of SchOnbrunn, the parts lying beyond 
 the Sz4va were given up to Napoleon, Croatians ap- 
 parently resented the dismemberment of their country 
 less than the prospect of absorption by Austria. The 
 short period spent under the French flag gave a great 
 impetus to trade and to education, and greatly increased 
 the Croatians' idea of their own importance, and. to some 
 extent is responsible for the development of separatistic 
 tendencies.^ 
 
 At first the Pan-Slav movement was purely literary, 
 but a new turn was given to it by the raising in the Diet 
 of 1830 of the question of the exclusion of Protestants 
 from the ownership of land. The fear of the removal of 
 Protestant disabilities contributed to the production of a 
 form of pseudo-patriotism among the Catholics of Croatia, 
 and to the creation of a feeling of hostility to the Magyars, 
 which, but for its economic origin, would soon have 
 disappeared. The poet of the movement was John 
 
 ' Count Leo Thun came forward as the champion of the Slovdks, alleged 
 to be oppressed by the Magyars. See his controversy with Pulszky, who 
 effectively answered him. — Die Stellung der Slo'uaken in Vngam, Prague, 
 1843. No doubt Hungary did its best to establish the use of Hungarian 
 among the uneducated Slovaks by making a knowledge of that language 
 essential to employment in church and school. The priests hated the 
 Calvinists of Hungary as much as they hated the Catholics of Austria, and 
 then, as to-day, exploited the ignorance of the common people, and created a 
 hostility to Hungary which otherwise would not have existed. Thun's idea 
 was that timely concessions to the Austrian Slavs would prevent their looking 
 to Russia for their future. 
 
 ^ BeOthy, ox. ii. 279, says that after the collapse of Napoleon's Illyria, the 
 parts of Croatia which had been incorporated therein petitioned Francis for 
 re-union with Hungary, and declared that they wished to live and die under 
 the aegis of the Hungarian Constitution. But the pocket interests of the 
 Catholics caused this pro^Magyar enthusiasm to be short-lived. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 321 
 
 KoUar, an evangelistic preacher, who in 1827 wrote a kind 
 of Divine Comedy entitled Slawy Dcera (Glory's Daughter) 
 in which he drew a glowing picture of the future of 
 Russia — fated to extend from the Arctic Seas to Constanti- 
 nople — and vilified the Magyars and all alleged oppressors 
 of the Slavs.'' A more redoubtable protagonist was Louis 
 Gaj, to whose machinations such bitterness as was felt in 
 Croatia with regard to the language question was almost 
 entirely due. In 1835 he founded an anti- Magyar 
 newspaper, the Illyrian National Gazette, in which, knowing 
 that the Croatians alone were no match for the Magyars, 
 either in numbers or intelligence, he urged the necessity 
 of a union of the southern Slavs, and of its necessary 
 corollary, Croatian hegemony, under the protection of 
 Russia, the tender mother of all Slavs, the predestined 
 ruler of the world.^ Russia's treatment of the Poles should 
 have made Gaj's Croatian readers hesitate as to the 
 advisability of sacrificing their local autonomy and the 
 certain benefits enjoyed under the Hungarian Constitution ; 
 but the prospect of a reconstituted and glorified lUyria 
 apparently obscured their judgment as to the respective 
 merits of King Stork and King Log. The difficulty 
 presented by the absence of a medium of communication 
 between all southern Slavs was more or less got over by 
 the adoption of the Ragusan dialect, which, under Italian 
 influence, had developed into something resembling a 
 modern language, which could not be said of the Croatian 
 and Servian dialects to which it was allied.^ 
 
 ' Arpad, Charlemagne, and others guilty of interfering with the prospects 
 of Slav expansion, are accommodated with special places in his Inferno, where 
 they drink the filthy water of dungheaps while devils dance on their stomachs. 
 In 1837 Kolldr wrote a pamphlet on the relationship of the different Slav dia- 
 lects, the moral of which was that no matter how many Slav branches there may 
 be, they possess a common Fatherland in Russia. His first work was published 
 in 1832, entitled, Shall ive become Magyars? 
 
 2 He was generally reputed to be in the pay of Russia. — Horvdth, HuszonSt 
 iv, i. 523. Pulszky, who was particularly well informed on the subject, also 
 says that Gdj's press was run with Russian money. — iletem isKorom, i. loi. 
 
 3 Pulszky, ibid. i. 137. 
 
 VOL. I Y 
 
322 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 In spite of unlimited abuse of the Magyars, the Illyrian 
 movement made but little headway, though the Viennese 
 Government, which had censored and suppressed to the 
 best of its powers the attempted development of a 
 periodical literature in Hungary proper, threw no obstacles 
 in its way, and winked at the treasonable propaganda of 
 Gdj and his followers.'' If any one had a reason for 
 complaint it was* not the Croatians (with whose limited 
 autonomy, enjoyed for centuries, no Hungarian had 
 attempted to interfere), but the Magyars of Croatia, as 
 the scandals which had marked the elections of representa- 
 tives to the Diet of 1844 were repeated the following 
 year, and the nobles who were not members of the 
 Illyrian party were deprived of their votes. The Bin 
 produced a royal rescript which stated that the right of 
 voting at the provincial Diet belonged only to those 
 summoned by writ of the Bin and personally present, and 
 as that official had taken care to summon only the high 
 Catholic clergy and members of the Illyrian party, the 
 Croatians who were loyal to Hungary, and the Magyars 
 of Croatia, were stripped of the rights which immemorial 
 custom had given to every noble.^ 
 
 Now for the first time the notion was propagated that 
 fractional nationalities, settled in a country which had 
 indisputably belonged to the Hungarian kingdom for 
 nearly a thousand years, were entitled to form regna in 
 regno and renounce allegiance to the paramount nation, but 
 for whose protection they would long ago have been 
 absorbed in Austria, if, indeed, Austria had itself escaped 
 the dismemberment with which it was threatened in the 
 days of Maria Theresa. The words used by the Palatine, 
 who was also an Austrian archduke, in the Upper House 
 
 1 Francis sent GAj a diamond ring, and an Order to Count Draskovitch, 
 his chief supporter. — Horvith, HuszonSt i'V, j. 531. Metternich, on the other 
 hand, disapproved of the encouragement given to the Pan-Slavs. 
 
 2 Pulszky, o.c. i. 213. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 323 
 
 of the Diet on June 28, 1843, '^i^h respect to the lUyrian 
 movement should not be forgotten, for they are no less to 
 the point to-day than they were sixty-five years ago : 
 " When every fraction of the Hungarian people lays claim to 
 a separate individuality, the general welfare of the country 
 is threatened. I belong to those who think that every in- 
 habitant of Hungary, whatever his language may be,' while 
 he enjoys the rights, the privileges, and the benefits of the 
 Magyar Constitution, should consider himself a Magyar. 
 Here there is no Illyrian nation ; there is only one nation, 
 the Hungarian. I repeat that the welfare of the country 
 has hitherto been derived from the unity of the constituent 
 nationalities." Baron Rauch, a Croatian magnate, followed 
 in the same strain, and attacked GAj and his followers for 
 their attempt to impregnate the youth and the clergy with 
 ridiculous notions, and for " assuring them that in the 
 near future the Russians will dictate laws in Pressburg, 
 and will grant a constitution to all nationalities which join 
 them."-' The agitation was in fact fictitious, and at this 
 period had but little effect on the masses, whose free use 
 of Slav dialects in Church ^ and daily life was in no way 
 threatened. But the view entertained by the Palatine 
 was not that of the Viennese Government. " It is certain 
 that Metternich's Government gladly availed itself of the 
 opportunity of drawing to itself the non-Magyar-speaking 
 races, more especially the Croatians, by the grant of 
 secret support, or at least by the promise of it, and so 
 prevented the disappearance of the evident antagonism 
 between them and the Magyars. . . . It is undeniable 
 that the Government's plans were put into practice with 
 great skill, with the result that very few -among those 
 whom the Government intended should play an active 
 part in the strife of parties saw through its designs and 
 
 1 De Gerando, Vber den Sffentlicken Geist in Ungarn, p. 325. 
 
 2 Except where the great majority of the population were Magyars, and 
 wished for the use of their own language in Protestant churches. 
 
324 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 realised the fact that, while nominally fighting the battle 
 of the nationalities, they were in reality only catspaws 
 utilised for the attainment of ends which had nothing in 
 common with their racial aspirations."^ The truth of 
 this statement is proved by the fact that the publication 
 of Gdj's disloyal and anti-Magyar paper was allowed, 
 while that of Kossuth's account of the proceedings of the 
 Diet was forbidden ; and the answer to the charge brought 
 against the Magyars of oppressing the Slavs by attempting 
 to suppress the use of their dialects, is to be found in the 
 fact that no steps were taken in Hungary to interfere 
 with the dissemination of Pan-Slav extravagancies. The 
 result of Viennese encouragement was that Croatia began 
 to have pretensions to be looked upon as an allied country, 
 not as a constituent part of the Hungarian kingdom, to 
 demand union with Dalmatia, and to object to any 
 interference in Croatian affairs^ while maintaining its 
 influence on Magyar politics by means of its representatives 
 at the Hungarian Diet. If racial suicide is to be com- 
 mended, and the Magyars are to be blamed for acting in 
 self-defence and for attempting to utilise school and church 
 for the maintenance of their existence as a nation, well and 
 good ; but if the instinct of self-preservation is not wholly 
 vile, the feeling of resentment aroused by the connivance 
 of the Viennese Government at the separatistic propaganda 
 of the so-called lUyrian party was amply justified. 
 Wessel6nyi, the earliest Hungarian prophet of federation,^ 
 saw in the disabilities of the peasants the chief justification 
 
 1 Ost und West, the pro-Slav Viennese publication, March 1862. — HorvAth, 
 Huszonilt ^, i. 530. 2 K.6nyi, Deiik Ferencz Besz/det, i. 397.' 
 
 3 In 1843 Wesselinyi published his Sz6zat or appeal, in which he pointed 
 out that Austria should prevent the nationalities from turning their eyes to 
 Russia by developing the spirit of freedom and contentedness. He suggests a 
 form of federation and the formation of five groups : (i) The German 
 provinces, including Carinthia and Carniola, whose scattered Slavs should have 
 the same privileges as the Saxons of Transylvania ; (2) Bohemia and Moravia ; 
 (3) Galicia ; (4) Lombardo-Venetia and the Italians of Dalmatia ; (5) Hungary 
 and the parts annexed. — See Horvdth, HuszonSt ^'v, ii. 126 sq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 325 
 
 for the fear aroused by the spectre of Pan-Slavism. In 
 his view a strong Hungary was essential to Europe as a 
 defence against the spread of Russian obscurantism, and 
 the right of citizenship should be conferred on all who 
 could read and write Hungarian. Above all things, all 
 semblance of an attempt to deprive the constituent 
 nationalities of their languages should be avoided, lest 
 Croat, Slovak, and Servian should be driven into the arms 
 of Russia, or become willing instruments in the hands of 
 the reactionary Government of Vienna. 
 
 That the object of that Government still was the re- 
 tardation of the moral and material progress of Hungary, 
 was clearly shown by the attitude which it adopted towards 
 the movement in favour of the emancipation of the 
 peasants, and with regard to the commercial relations of 
 Austria and Hungary. The basis of those relations was 
 formed by the principle that it was Hungary's business 
 to supply Austria with raw material, and Austria's ex- 
 clusive privilege to provide H-ungary with the manu- 
 factured article. Consequently, any attempt of the latter 
 to develop its incipient manufactures was looked on with 
 disfavour by the former, for fear that the Hungarians 
 might ultimately become commercially self-sufficing. 
 Though, since 1825, the Diet continually complained of 
 the fact that the customs tariff was all in Austria's favour, 
 and was intentionally fatal to the possibility of Hungarian 
 commercial development, the Austrian Government turned 
 a deaf ear to all remonstrances and denied the right of 
 Hungary to have a voice in the matter. So long as that 
 country was purely agricultural its only wish was for 
 the removal of the customs barrier erected in Austria's 
 interest between the two countries ; but when the fact was 
 realised that the want of local manufactures was one of 
 the chief causes of the nation's poverty, ideas changed, 
 and the maintenance of that barrier was desired in order 
 to prevent the swamping of nascent industries by Austrian 
 
326 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 exports, but with modifications which would put an end 
 to the existent one-sided arrangement. Three, four, and 
 even ten times as much duty had to be paid on goods 
 exported from Hungary to Austria as on those sent from 
 Austria to Hungary. A heavy transit duty was imposed 
 on exports from Hungary to foreign countries passing 
 through Austria, which, consequently, constituted the only 
 market for Hungarian products, and thus could practically 
 fix its own price. As between the two countries, the 
 balance of exports over imports was enormously in favour 
 of Austria, four-sevenths of whose products went to 
 Hungary in 1841. Money flowed out of Hungary. 
 Seventeen million florins were paid to Austrian manu- 
 facturers in one year for cotton goods alone, which could 
 perfectly easily have been produced locally.-^ 
 
 In 1844 the Diet sent an Address to the King, asking 
 for commercial reciprocity, for statistics of imports and 
 exports, for information as to the working of the existing 
 tariff system, and on other matters affecting the com- 
 mercial relations of the two countries. The Government, 
 in order to burke inquiry, delayed the despatch of its 
 reply till only three days remained before the dissolution 
 of the Diet. The reply stated that " the fact that more 
 had not hitherto been done for the advancement of 
 Hungary's commercial interests must be ascribed to the 
 difficulties presented by attendant circumstances, but that 
 the Government has the matter at heart, and will take 
 steps with a view to the promotion of the material welfare 
 of the Kingdom." The wished -for statistics were not 
 sent, and the vague nature of the long-delayed answer 
 gave fresh proof of the Government's intention of doing 
 nothing to remedy the grievances which had been the 
 subject of incessant complaint for nearly a century. The 
 excuse usually put forward in justification of the mainten- 
 ance of the unfair tariff system was that Hungarian 
 
 ' Horvdth, HuszonSt ^, ii. 246-47. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 327 
 
 landowners paid no taxes, and, consequently, so it was 
 alleged, were at a great advantage as regards the cost of 
 production of raw materials as compared with Austrian 
 producers, and that the tariff system to some extent 
 redressed the resultant, inequality. A second excuse was 
 found in the fact that the tobacco traffic was a State 
 monopoly in the hereditary provinces, but not in Hungary, 
 and as that monopoly was the chief source of Austrian 
 revenue, a protective duty to exclude Hungarian tobacco 
 was an absolute necessity until the Diet consented to the 
 extension of the monopoly to Hungary, in which case 
 Austria would be compensated for the abolition of the 
 customs barrier. The first-mentioned excuse would 
 promptly have disappeared if the Government had used 
 its influence in favour of the principle of universal taxa- 
 tion, one of the chief desires of the Liberal party, instead 
 of retarding its adoption for fear of its necessary con- 
 sequence—a stronger and more democratic Hungary. 
 The tobacco question the Government approached in a 
 characteristic manner. It established its factories in 
 various parts of Hungary, and proceeded to undersell the 
 Hungarian producers at a loss to itself, under the pretence 
 of benefiting the poor consumer, but in reality in the con- 
 fident belief that a few years of "dumping" would ruin 
 the local manufacturer, and that thenceforward Austria 
 would obtain the desired monopoly without having to 
 make any concessions as regards the tariff question. The 
 execution of this plan was facilitated by the fact that the 
 better class of leaf for mixing purposes had to be imported 
 by Hungary from abroad ; consequently, by raising the 
 duty on that article the ruin of the Hungarian manu- 
 facturer could be assured. As usual, Austria was using 
 loaded dice, and it was evident that Hungary must play 
 its own game without reference to the susceptibilities or 
 the convenience of its antagonist.^ 
 
 1 Sz^chenyi's schemes for the improvement of the breed of horses, 
 
32 8 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Stephen Bezer6dj voiced the common discontent and 
 suggested the remedy when he exclaimed in the Lower 
 House : " Some time or other we must awake from our 
 lethargy and set up on our own doorsteps that which 
 we are not allowed to erect on our frontiers. If we 
 do not wish to groan eternally under the commercial 
 yoke of the forqgner, let us combine to form a pro- 
 tective union." ^ The idea was greeted with enthusiasm, 
 as affording a means of escape from the economic 
 tyranny of Austria, and October 1844 saw the establish- 
 ment of the Protective Association, the members of 
 which, drawn from aU classes of society, bound them- 
 selves, for a period, to the exclusive use of home-made 
 products. The object of the association was not merely 
 to boycott goods " made in Austria," but to prevent the 
 migration of skilled labour, which found insufficient 
 opportunity at home, to promote trade in general, and 
 to encourage the establishment of manufactories of those 
 articles which could just as well be produced in Hungary 
 as across the frontier.^ Here, it seemed, was an idea 
 
 agriculture, etc., did not run counter to Austria's interests, and consequently 
 were not altogether discouraged, but those of his proposals which would tend 
 to make Hungary commercially self-sufficing were opposed. For instance, 
 the proposed land mortgage bank had to be dropped, as the Government 
 insisted on keeping the control in its own hands instead of appointing officials 
 from a list of candidates submitted by the Diet. The Government clearly 
 wished what was intended to be a benefit to the country to be degraded into 
 an instrument of bureaucratic interference and corruption. — Horvdth, HuszonSt 
 /f, ii. 266 sqq. The same fate befell another of Szichenyi's proposals (first 
 made in the Jelenkor or " Present Time," and developed into a pamphlet, 
 Az AdiS is Kit Garas, " The Tax and Two Kreuzers "), suggesting that each 
 noble should pay two kreuzers every year for every acre and a half he owned. 
 The resultant six and a quarter million florins per annum would enable a loan 
 of a hundred millions to be raised for public purposes. The Lower House 
 accepted the idea of a public fund of this nature, and offered 10,340,000 florins, 
 to be spread over the next three years to form an interest and sinking fund for 
 railway loans, etc. ; but the Government's supporters in the Upper House 
 would only agree to 1,000,000 per annum for that period — too small a sum 
 to be of any practical use. So the idea was abandoned. 
 
 1 Marczali, A Legujabb Kor TSrtinete, 556. 
 
 2 K6nyi, DecSk Ferencz Beszidei, ii. 64 sqq. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 329 
 
 that would unite all parties without distinction, but the 
 natural hostility of the Government prevented the Con- 
 servatives from co-operating, and membership soon became 
 a party question. Sz6chenyi opposed the establishment of 
 the Association on the ground that it would' do Austria so 
 much harm that it must infallibly provoke a fatal retalia- 
 tion, but neither his prognostications nor the opposition of 
 the reactionary party could stop the ball which Bezer^dj 
 had started rolling. Within three weeks the Association 
 numbered 60,000 members, and 146 branches were 
 quickly established in various parts of the country.^ 
 The leaders of society set the example of wearing dresses 
 made exclusively of Hungarian materials, and all who 
 claimed to be patriots were bound to follow suit. An 
 exhibition of local products was held, and factories were 
 started. Some succeeded, others failed ; but in any case 
 the foundation was laid of future commercial development. 
 In the first year of its existence the Association reduced 
 the proceeds of the sale of imported cigars by 3,000,000 
 florins, to the great disgust of the Viennese Treasury,^ 
 and Metternich suggested to the Palatine the advisability 
 of taking steps to suppress the dangerous innovation ; but 
 the Archduke pointed out that the Association was a 
 private society, in no sense illegal,^ and of course the 
 Government could no more compel the members to use 
 Austrian products than the British Government could 
 compel the English to eat German sausages. Austrian 
 manufacturers began to find themselves squeezed out of 
 the market which they had hitherto monopolised, and 
 resorted, but without success, to the modern trick of 
 marking their goods "Made in Hungary." * The inspired 
 Austrian Press started a campaign of calumny, which finds 
 its counterpart in modern times, and alleged that the 
 
 1 Horvith, Huszonot iv, ii. 364. 
 
 2 HorvSth, Huszonm /i), ii. 369. ^ BeOthy, o.c. ii. 342. 
 
 * De Gerando, Uber den iffentlichen Geist in Ungarn, p. 443 n. 
 
330 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 formation of the Association proved that Hungary wished 
 to sever all connection with Austria. Magyars of all 
 shades of opinion protested against the insinuation, and 
 the only result of the Press campaign was still further 
 to incense public opinion against rich absentees who 
 spent in Vienna the money which they drew from 
 Hungary. Count George Apponyi, the leader of the 
 "Party of Deliberate Progress," who had been recently 
 appointed Vice -Chancellor, saw that the only way in 
 which the Government could combat a dangerous move- 
 ment was to take the wind out of the Association's sails 
 by parading a conciliatory spirit, and by abolishing the 
 most crying abuses of the one-sided tariff system. But 
 it had always been the principle of the Viennese Govern- 
 ment to give way only an inch at a time, with the result 
 that in the long run it had to concede an ell, where the 
 concession of half a yard in the first instance would have 
 brought peace with honour. It consented to a reduction 
 of the duty on certain articles, but in many instances the 
 new tariff maintained the same proportionate difference in 
 Austria's favour,^ and in all cases unfairly penalised the 
 incipient trade of Hungary. 
 
 It was evident that no serious concession could be 
 expected. The Government was, in fact, more disposed 
 to abolish the customs barrier, as that would be a step 
 in the direction of the absorption of Hungary, than to 
 modify it to Austria's loss ; and abolition was out of 
 the range of practical politics unless compensation were 
 obtained by the establishment of a monopoly of the tobacco 
 traffic, which the " dumping " policy was intended to bring 
 about. It affected to believe that Hungary had no right 
 to be heard on the tariff question, but could cite no law 
 
 1 See the instances given by Horvath, HuszonSt ^, ii. 382-83. In the 
 case of raw silk, for instance, which Austria worked up and exported, 
 and consequently wanted cheap, the duty was 4 florins 10 kreuzers per 
 centner, while the duty on the same material imported into Hungary was 
 100 florins. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 331 
 
 in support of its view. The Pragmatic Sanction provided 
 no justification, and Law x. of 1790 clearly recognised 
 the mastery of Hungary in its own house, subject to the 
 constitutional authority of its King, who must know how 
 to dissociate himself at times from the Austrian Emperor. 
 Hungary was to be, as far as the Government could make 
 it so by the imposition of an import duty which was 
 almost prohibitive of foreign competition, a private 
 market to be flooded at Austria's will with inferior 
 Austrian productions. Baron Sinai, the first financial 
 authority of the period, in the course of conversation, 
 which Wirkner^ records, gives the view of the hard- 
 headed Austrian business man of the economic relations 
 of the two countries, " It is a question whether Austria 
 would gain anything if Hungary were to attain a high 
 state of civilisation. People believe that Hungary con- 
 tributes nothing to the common expenses. Far from it. 
 Hungary is a little West Indies for Austria. Every 
 handful of grain, every product of Hungary pays a high 
 duty at the Austrian frontier, and, on the other hand, 
 Hungary takes the very worst manufactured articles from 
 Austria, and thereby increases the tax-paying capacity of 
 the latter. What money is left in their country the 
 Magyar cavaliers bring to Vienna and spend it there." 
 
 Here, at least, we have an unprejudiced foreign opinion 
 on the financial aspect of the question, a strong confirmation 
 of the Hungarian view on the subject of the organised 
 exploitation, not to say spoliation, of which Hungary had 
 been the victim since the days of Maria Theresa. Some 
 Hungarians saw the sole chance of escape from an im- 
 possible position in the inclusion of Hungary and Austria 
 in the German customs-union^ — influenced by the fact 
 that in case of a good harvest in both countries the former 
 had no market, in existing conditions, for its surplus 
 products; but the suggestion received but little support. 
 
 • Elminyeim, p. 121. * Horvdth, Hmzonit ^, ii. 157. 
 
332 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Seeing that the ZoUverein brought closer political union 
 between the parties to it in its train, the great majority 
 of the Magyars came to look upon the customs barrier 
 erected between Hungary and Austria as an obstacle to 
 possible ultimate incorporation in the hereditary provinces, 
 and realised that to consent to its abolition might be 
 equivalent to political suicide. It was realised that the 
 establishment of a customs-union between Hungary and 
 Austria, and the maintenance of a protective system 
 vis-h-vis the rest of the world, must eventually make the 
 commercial monopoly enjoyed by Austria in Hungary 
 still more complete, and postpone, perhaps for ever, the 
 realisation of Hungary's desire for economic independence. 
 This was the view maintained by Kossuth, who rightly 
 refused to be satisfied with sops thrown from time to 
 time by Austria in the hope of effecting a temporary 
 pacification, but took his stand on the Constitution and 
 declared that Hungary required no concessions, only 
 its strict legal rights — freedom to work out its own 
 economic salvation on its own lines. He laid special 
 stress on the necessity of obtaining direct connexion with 
 the outside world, on building a railway to Fiume, Hun- 
 gary's port, in order to avoid the necessity of transit 
 through Austria to Trieste. In 1 840, the export of goods 
 via Fiume had increased threefold in comparison with the 
 figures of the preceding six years, and yet the Govern- 
 ment, which spent millions on the development of Trieste, 
 and a considerable sum on that of Venice, would not 
 spend a penny on the provision of proper shipping 
 accommodation at Fiume. Forty -seven counties in- 
 structed their representatives to support the scheme, in 
 order that the traffic originating in the basin of the 
 Danube might obtain a direct outlet to the Adriatic — the 
 key to foreign markets. The Lower House was ready to 
 guarantee four per cent interest on the cost of construction, 
 and to push the scheme with all its power, but when the 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 333 
 
 Magnates passed an amendment to the effect that the 
 Government should be requested to build the line, the 
 scheme was shelved.' The meaning of Governmental 
 control was too well known — endless obstruction, delay, 
 and discouragement, for fear that Trieste would suiFer 
 from the competition of a Hungarian port, and that 
 Hungary's dependence on the Austrian market might 
 ultimately cease.^ 
 
 Not only in economic matters, but in the general 
 field of politics as well, the results attained by the Diet 
 of 1843-44 were far from being in proportion to the 
 amount of energy expended. A notable success had been 
 obtained as regards the recognition of Hungarian as the 
 official language of the kingdom of Hungary, an advance 
 had been made in the direction of religious equality,' and 
 one of the disabilities of the non-nobles had been removed 
 by making them eligible to public office. Henceforth the 
 peasant might own land ; but this concession could be of 
 no great value except as a matter of principle, until the 
 e?cisting system of entail (6sis6g) was abolished. Abolition 
 was, however, sure to follow, now that the first steps had 
 been taken in the direction of non-noble ownership ; and 
 electoral rights could not long be withheld now that 
 eligibility to office was no longer confined to the privileged 
 classes. But it must not be supposed that progress was 
 to be measured only by the number of laws added to the 
 statute-book. As Horvith points out, in the abnormal 
 position of affairs, the result of Hungary's "mixed 
 marriage " with Austria, and of the absence of an effective 
 
 1 Kossuth did not abandon hope. He visited Trieste in 1845, and the 
 result was his article in the Hetilap, January 27, 1846, "Tengerre Magyar ! " 
 (Seawards, Magyar !). 
 
 2 Horvith, HtiszonSt /'V, ii. 166, 247 sq. 
 
 5 Law iii. of 1 844. At mixed marriages the ceremony may be performed 
 by Protestant clergy. Any Catholic wishing to become a Protestant can do 
 so by making a declaration in the presence of a priest and two witnesses. If 
 the priest refuses to grant a certificate of conversion, the witnesses can do so. 
 As regards the first point the Act is retrospective also. 
 
334 EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 uncensored Press, one of the chief functions of the Diet 
 was to create public opinion, not merely to give effect 
 to it ; and judged from this point of view, the Liberal 
 party had not laboured in vain, but had laid a solid 
 foundation which could not long remain without a 
 superstructure.^ 
 
 1 HuszonSt ^, ii. 259. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 The Government was not slow to realise the fact that the 
 popularity and strength of the Opposition had greatly 
 increased now that the country's eyes had been opened 
 to the possibility of commercial development and of 
 freedom from economic dependence on Austria. With a 
 view to the recovery of its waning prestige, the Govern- 
 ment decided that, henceforth, it would itself be the 
 initiator of reforms and not wait to have them forced on 
 it by the Liberals. It hoped to dish the Opposition : 
 to beat the reformers at their own game, and to compel 
 them to follow the governmental lead on pain of losing 
 their popularity. , Count George Apponyi, the leader of 
 the " Party of Deliberate Progress," was entrusted with 
 the management of Hungarian affairs, and commissioned 
 to inaugurate the new policy, for the success of which 
 two things were essential. In the first place, the abnor- 
 mal, unparliamentary, position of the Government must 
 be altered ; at all costs the perpetual majority of the 
 Opposition must be destroyed. In the second place, a 
 leaf must be taken from the book of Joseph II., and 
 the power of the counties to paralyse unconstitutional 
 action must be abolished. In Hungary there was a 
 divergence of opinion as to the merits of the county 
 organisation. Some looked upon it as an incomparable 
 institution, the product of an almost supernatural wisdom, 
 while others considered it to be the chief obstacle to 
 
 335 
 
336 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 progress. Ladislaus Szalay,^ the editor of the Hirlap 
 since Kossuth's resignation in July 1844,^ and Eotvos 
 and Csengeiry, the chief contributors,^ were among the 
 latter. They objected to the existence of fifty-two regna 
 in regno, to the compulsory nature of their " instructions " 
 to deputies, and to their power of bringing the whole 
 governmental machine to a standstill by a simple refusal 
 to obey orders.* They wished the influence of the 
 counties to be- limited to local affairs, and the executive 
 power to be transferred to the hands of a strong central 
 government operating on true parliamentary lines. In 
 their opinion the patriot should not content himself with 
 opposition to the Government, but should strive that the 
 Government may be so organised that there may be as 
 little cause as possible to oppose it.^ But the larger party 
 took the view that if the power of resistance of the 
 counties were weakened or abolished, the Government 
 would find the task of destroying the Constitution com- 
 paratively easy, and that it was a mistake on the part of 
 Eotvos to cast ridicule on the county organisation,® and 
 
 1 The celebrated historian. 
 
 2 He failed to get permission from the Government to start a new paper. 
 It is evident from Wirkner's account that Metternich tried to get hold of 
 Kossuth, though he declared that he hated bribery, despised the man who 
 allows himself to be corrupted, and would never ask anything of Kossuth that 
 could hurt his moral feelings. At the same time he asked him " to name the 
 compensation for his time and trouble which would best answer to his wishes 
 from the material point of view." — Pulszky, Eletem is Korom, i. 173 ; Wirkner, 
 Elminyeim, 123 sq. "Utilise him or hang him," was Sz^chenyi's advice to the 
 Archduke Louis. 
 
 5 Beksics' A Magyar Doctrinairek, 1882. 
 
 * For the powers of the counties, see Czirdky, Conspectus Juris Publici, 
 Bk. I. ch. V. 
 
 s EOtvOs's articles were reprinted in Die Reform in Ungarn, Leipzig, 1846, 
 reprinted in Hungarian, Pest, 1868. He takes as his starting-point the im- 
 possibility of the continued existence of a privileged minority with all the 
 power and no obligations ; the fatal results of the non-severance of executive 
 and judicial functions ; and the necessity of abolishing the oligarchy and 
 opening wide the gates of citizenship. j 
 
 6 In A Falu Jegyzoje, 1845 (The Village Notary). See Grtlnwald B6la, 
 A rigf Magyarorszdg, Budapest, 1888, pp. 436-451. .^i. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 337 
 
 to weaken its hold on the popular affection unless and 
 until a proper system of representative government, 
 and a national and responsible Ministry, were brought 
 into being. The justice of this opinion was soon to be 
 proved. 
 
 In 1844 the idea occurred to Kolowrat to appoint a 
 commission to consider the whole question of the county 
 organisation with the object of converting the lords- 
 lieutenant into active instruments of governmental control. 
 In many counties the lord -lieutenancy was a hereditary 
 office, or was vested in the chief ecclesiastical authority, 
 and absenteeism was the rule rather than the exception. 
 It was decided that this state of affairs must end, and 
 immediately after the dissolution of the Diet a rescript 
 was sent to the Palatine giving instructions that henceforth 
 the lord-lieutenant must reside in the county, preside 
 at all meetings of the local Diet, audit the finances, see 
 to the collection of taxes, and generally become the 
 central controlling figure of the official body. In return 
 for the increased demands on his activity his pay was to 
 be trebled, and he was to be assisted by a " well disposed " 
 secretary, in other words, by a creature of his paymaster 
 the Government. If the existing lords-lieutenant refused 
 to accept these conditions, which amounted to a recurrence 
 to pure Josephism, they were to be allowed to keep their 
 titles, and the Government would appoint administrators 
 in their place. These latter, together with the lords- 
 lieutenant, would be responsible for the good government 
 of the counties and would be liable to severe punishment 
 if guilty of remissness or of connivance with the Opposition. 
 " Apart from their strict official duties," said the rescript, 
 " it is incumbent on the heads of the county organisations 
 that they should take steps to obtain a majority loyal to 
 the Government and to the Constitution, that they should 
 report on every meeting and on the nature of its delibera- 
 tions, and should inspect the minutes of the same. With 
 
 VOL. I z 
 
338 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 regard to the appointment of officials they are to put 
 themselves in communication with the Government and 
 to carry out its instructions with every means at their 
 disposal." Thus, the constitutional guarantees afforded 
 by the county organisations were to be destroyed ; a 
 bureaucracy directly dependent on the Government was 
 to take the place of elected representatives ; and a sub- 
 servient majority was to be scraped together by fair means 
 or foul. EotvOs declared that the administrators could 
 only succeed by means of bribery, and subsequent events 
 justified the statement. The new regime was initiated on 
 February 26, 1845, in spite of the objections of the 
 Palatine, the Archduke Joseph, to the curtailment of the 
 counties' elective rights. Thirty-two Administrators were 
 appointed, who proceeded to justify the confidence reposed 
 in them by their Viennese paymasters by packing meetings, 
 holding them without due notice, using soldiers to eject 
 the Opposition at the point of the bayonet,^ bribing on a 
 large scale,^ and drawing up the " instructions " to deputies 
 in accordance with the requirements of the Government, 
 or modifying them after the session had begun.^ In 
 Croatia the Ban imitated the Administrators and jockeyed 
 the Opponents of the " lUyrian " tools of Vienna out of 
 their votes.* All over the country the prospects of the 
 Liberals looked so black that Sz^chenyi asked Apponyi 
 to be careful not to annihilate the Opposition lest Vienna 
 
 1 Bihar County. — HorvSth, HuszonSt in), ii. 327 iq. De Gerando, \)ber den 
 'iffentlichen Geist in Ungarn, p. 232. 
 
 2 Hont County, where in January 1845 the Administrator distributed 
 1 7,000 florins, and in Miskolcz, where the agents of the Government openly 
 bought votes in the streets. — De Gerando, I.e. No doubt the Opposition also 
 used bribery and corruption. Wirkner (a tainted source) says that candidates 
 would entertain their supporters by hundreds and that many families were in 
 consequence reduced to beggary [filminyeim, p. 185), a state of affairs to be 
 paralleled only by county elections in England in the same century. See also 
 K6nyi, Dedk Ferencz Beszidei, ii. 89 sq. 
 
 ' BeOthy, o.c. ii. 379. 
 
 * A deputation was sent to Vienna to complain of the illegality of the 
 Bin's action, but was not received. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 339 
 
 should have matters all its own way.^ In October 1846, 
 Apponyi was appointed Chancellor, a proof of the 
 confidence of the Government in the success of the new 
 regime, and in its ability to overwhelm the Liberal Party. 
 But the Opposition was not dead ; on the contrary, 
 though the general hatred of governmental interference 
 in the counties and the fear of possible reduction to 
 impotence made it more radical, more Kossuthian, mistrust 
 of Vienna led to a rapprochement between it and the more 
 advanced of the Conservatives ; and the idea that the 
 institution of a responsible ministry and a wide extension 
 of the franchise alone could guarantee the maintenance of 
 Hungarian independence met with far more general 
 acceptance than hitherto.^ 
 
 Count Antony Sz6chen at a meeting held on 12th 
 November 1 846, formulated the programme of the Con- 
 servatives, who were now to form an organised party^ 
 declaring their belief in the loyalty of the expressed 
 intentions of the Government,^ which now announced its 
 determination to adopt a policy of active reform, and 
 promising consistent support, so long as due regard was 
 had to the moral and material interests of the country. 
 
 1 Marczali, A Legujabb Kor TSrtinete, p. 578. Unfortunately Sz^chenyi 
 had been induced by Apponyi to accept the appointment of chairman of a 
 commission appointed to consider improvements in the means of communica- 
 tion, which created the impression that he approved Apponyi's policy. 
 
 2 For the " Stimmung " of Hungary at this period see Anton Springer, o.c. 
 ii. 90. "Eine ahnliche machtige Bewegung, wie man sie nach dem Tode 
 Kaiser Josephs und dann wieder kurz vor dem Reichstage 1825 bemerkt hatte, 
 durchzitterte das Land von einer Grenze zur andern, die Politik verdrSngte 
 abermals alle anderen Interessen, die SfFentUchen Angelegenheiten liessen jede 
 andere Sorge zurttcktreten, dem Vaterlande unmittelbar zu dienen, mitzurOsten 
 fOr den Streit, mitzuklmpfen die Schlacht, hielt sich jedes Individuum im 
 Gewissen verpflichtet." 
 
 ^ The Government's concessions on the language question veere referred to 
 as a proof of its goodwill. The fact that it had taken fifty years of incessant 
 struggle to extort such " concessions " was forgotten, as were the connivance of 
 the Government with the Illyrian separationists, the censorship, the illegal 
 arrest of members, the administrators, and the tariff system. For the 
 programme, see Horvath, HuszonSt iii, ii. 438-45. 
 
 VOL. I Z 2 
 
340 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 The programme condemned the tactics of the Opposition, 
 whose principle, so it alleged, consisted in doing every- 
 thing against the Government and nothing with it, and 
 declared the readiness of the Conservatives for reform 
 under the aegis of Vienna. Apponyi's plan of campaign, 
 submitted for the acceptance of the Viennese Cabinet in 
 January 1847, suggested that, in place of the sketchy 
 legislative propositions usually contained in the King's 
 Speech, the Government should come forward with cut 
 and dried Bills, and should no longer leave the initiative 
 to the Diet. The idea was that this innovation was an 
 approximation to a true parliamentary system as exempli- 
 fied by England, but the essential fact was lost sight of 
 that in England the power is in the hands of the majority, 
 whereas in Hungary the Government had hitherto been 
 in a perpetual minority — a circumstance which made all 
 analogy between the two countries illusory. But this was 
 a matter of no consequence to Apponyi, who wished that 
 reform should come in a moderate form from above rather 
 than in a more radical guise from below. His proposals,^ 
 therefore, touched all questions which chiefly agitated the 
 public mind, but at the same time took care to safeguard 
 the interests of Vienna. The immunity of the nobles from 
 taxation was to be abolished, and the tobacco monopoly 
 was to be introduced, the Diet's consent to which was to 
 be purchased by the provision of improved means of 
 communication. The question of urban representation 
 and of the organisation of the royal free towns was to be 
 dealt with — naturally not in a way that would diminish 
 the Government's hold on the Diet, from which the 
 representatives of absent Magnates were henceforth to be 
 excluded. The system of entail and the Crown's rights 
 of succession were to be " regulated " but not abolished. 
 An end was to be put to the disorderly proceedings of the 
 occupants of the gallery, and the " misuse of the right of 
 
 ' Hartig, Genesis der Re'volution, Appendix I. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 341 
 
 free speech " at the provincial Diets was to be restrained. 
 The penal code and the prison system were to receive 
 attention, and the regulation of non-commercial associa- 
 tions, " the abolition of which by the Government might 
 be justifiable but impolitic," was to be taken in hand. 
 Finally, the redemption of feudal dues was to be 
 facilitated, " in order to impregnate the country population 
 with a spirit of confidence and with a feeling of attachment 
 to the Government." ^ 
 
 It was evident that only half-measures were intended, 
 and that the semblance rather than the reality of reform 
 was the object in view. The origin of this programme 
 is to be found in an extraordinary letter,^ dated May 9, 
 1 844, and addressed to the Palatine by Metternich, whose 
 ideas on the subject of Hungary had hitherto been limited 
 to the view that the essence of good government consisted 
 in steady opposition to the wishes of the majority. 
 Between platitude and misrepresentation some particles of 
 truth manage to ooze out. " Those States which remain 
 stationary are necessarily retrogressive ; those which 
 advance in a wrong direction march to destruction. For 
 States to thrive it is essential that they should advance in 
 accordance with principles, and in a direction which is in 
 conformity with the requirements of the age. Hungary 
 has remained at a standstill for the reason that it was for 
 a long period under the Turkish yoke, and, consequently, 
 was subjected to foreign political influence, was involved 
 in civil strife, and for more than a century had no strong 
 
 1 The reality of the desire of the Government to improve the peasants' lot 
 may fairly be questioned. In 1846, a Leipzig bookseller, Otto Wigand, 
 published a pamphlet on the urbarial question dealing with the corbie and 
 other feudal relics, and demanding their abolition in the name of humanity. 
 It contained no word of attack on the King and his Ministers, but attacked 
 the privileges of the Nobles. Result, that the Government decreed that all 
 books published by Wigand should be confiscated in future. — De Gerando, 
 Uber den offentlichen Geist in Ungarn, p. 245. 
 
 2 Set out in Wirkner's tlminyeim, 151 sq. Horvath's version differs some- 
 what. — HuszonSt ^-v, ii. 274 jy. 
 
342 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 government. The country was tired during the reign 
 of Maria Theresa, the beginning of which was occupied 
 in a struggle to maintain the throne, and wanted 
 scarcely anything but internal peace. From this slumber- 
 ous state it was aroused by Joseph II. The period of its 
 revival was marked by the Diet of 1 790-9 1 , which had more 
 or less the character of a constituent assembly. . . . 
 The long reign of His late Majesty did nothing for Hungary. 
 The fault did not lie in the ideas of the Monarch, 
 but was due to the dearth of men capable of answering 
 the requirements of the situation. The unfortunate 
 state of affairs which obtained was the result not 
 of want of will on the part of the governmental 
 authorities but of failure to understand the necessities of 
 the situation ; for two conflicting principles stood face to face, 
 those of Hungarian constitutionalism and German despotism. 
 . . . The Diet of 1825 marks the beginning of a new era 
 in Hungarian history, not only because it began with a 
 declaration on the part of the King that he had irrevocably 
 entered on the path of constitutionalism, but also for the 
 reason that the democratic elements of Western Europe 
 began to exercise an influence on the confused position of 
 Hungarian affairs. . . . Public life in Hungary is paralysed 
 . . . this is the plain unvarnished truth ... it is paralysed 
 for the reason that the Government has lost its moral force 
 . . . because the power is in fact in the hands of fifty-two 
 counties, which fact is, of itself, enough to make the 
 general welfare of the country a mere pium desiderium ; 
 for the reason that the democratic principle is in direct 
 contradiction with the whole body of circumstances existing 
 in Hungary, beginning with those affecting the ownership 
 of land, and finally, because there is no possibility of 
 obtaining a majority for the Government in the Lower 
 House. A State with constitutional representative insti- 
 tutions cannot survive but must come to an end if the 
 Government cannot command a majority." That majority 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 343 
 
 was to be obtained by fair means or foul in order to 
 maintain the hold of " German despotism " on Hungary, 
 of a Government which had " lost its moral force." As 
 if Vienna had not sufficient influence already. It controlled 
 the army, completely controlled the revenues, could force 
 its bank-notes on the country in exchange for cash and 
 then depreciate the paper currency at will, education was 
 entirely in its hands, the censorship controlled the thoughts 
 of the people, and the one-sided tariff system emptied their 
 pXirses. A creature majority in the Lower House must 
 now be concocted in order to accomplish Hungary's final 
 destruction.^ 
 
 The pronouncement of the practical identification of 
 the desires of the Conservative party with those of Vienna, 
 and the activity displayed in attempting to secure a majority 
 for reaction masquerading under the cloak of progress, 
 provoked the Opposition to issue a counter-manifesto,^ the 
 work of DeAk, which did much to bridge the gulf fixed 
 between the doctrinaire Liberalism of EOtvos, moderate 
 Conservatism, and the Radicalism of Kossuth and his 
 followers. Stress was laid on the necessity of adherence 
 to principles and not to leaders, and of keeping a close 
 watch on the Government, whose action in connexion 
 with the Croatian illegalities and with the appointment of the 
 administrators showed that the organisation of the Counties 
 no longer afforded a sufficient guarantee of the maintenance 
 of the Constitution, which could be preserved only by 
 the establishment of a central and responsible Government. 
 
 ' " It is obvious that if the system were suffered to take root a kind of 
 Austrian bureaucracy would by degrees be engrafted on the Hungarian 
 institution. . . . The ultimate result of the system would probably be the 
 conversion of Hungary into an Austrian province and the Diet into a mere 
 registrative Board, or, at most, an Administrative Council similar to the 
 Landstande of the hereditary provinces." — Mr. Blackwell (British diplomatic 
 representative at Pressburg) to Lord Ponsonby, January 28, 1848. Corre- 
 spondence Relati've to the Affairs of Hungary presented to both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, 1850. 
 
 2 For the text see K6nyi, Dedk Ferencz Beszidei, ii. 163-69. 
 
344 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 For the preservation of national individuality, religious 
 equality, freedom of the Press, reunion with Transylvania, 
 and equality of all before the law were declared to be 
 essential. Before all, the privilege of the franchise and the 
 burden of taxation must be enjoyed and borne by noble 
 and non-noble without distinction, and the landlords must 
 be compensated for the loss entailed by the compulsory 
 abolition of the uftarial system which could now be 
 delayed no longer. The Opposition would forget neither 
 the responsibilities towards Austria deducible from the 
 Pragmatic Sanction, nor the fact of the independence of 
 Hungary reaffirmed by Law x, of 1790-91. The Opposi- 
 tion justly complained that the Government now presented 
 itself to the country in the guise of a parliamentary party, 
 but at the same time insisted on the provision, by fair 
 means or foul, of an unconditionally submissive majority 
 instead of asking for independent support on the strength 
 of a meritorious programme. How much could be ex- 
 pected from the Government in the way of fair treatment 
 had recently been shown by its action in the matter of the 
 primary schools, the exclusive control of which had been 
 handed over to the Catholic bishops, whose sectarian zeal 
 augured ill for the Protestants. The Opposition wished 
 religious and secular instruction to be kept distinct, that 
 each denomination should receive its spiritual training at 
 the hands of its own clergy, and that the control of 
 elementary schools should be given to the communes, 
 subject to the supervision of the county executive, which 
 could not legally be deprived of its general supervisory 
 authority. 
 
 Though plenty of inflammable material had accumu- 
 lated, no one save Sz6chenyi appears to have believed in 
 the possibility of an explosion. Apponyi and Metternich 
 considered the Opposition to be a nuisance but not a 
 danger, and Wirkner led the Government to believe that 
 an obsequious majority could be obtained by the expenditure 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 345 
 
 of a few hundred thousand florins.^ Szdchenyi, who 
 now feared the development to its logical conclusion of 
 the progressive tendency which he had been the first to 
 stimulate, issued a passionate appeal ^ to his countrymen — 
 a last effort to restrain their advance along the path which 
 he feared would lead to revolution. Hungary, he said, 
 was unfair to Vienna — looked for evil motives where none 
 existed, and lost sight of, or took a perverted view of, the 
 consequences necessarily arising from the " mixed marriage " 
 with Austria. He still believed in the incompatibility of 
 material progress with radical reform, and, though in 
 favour of the emancipation of the peasants, and of the 
 equal distribution of the burden of taxation, feared that 
 a hasty and simultaneous realisation of both these desiderata 
 would divide the country into two hostile camps instead 
 of fusing all classes to their common advantage. He 
 admitted the genuineness of Kossuth's motives, but 
 declared that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, 
 that Kossuth was " full of phantasy and self-confidence," 
 fancied himself to be the Messiah of a new political era, 
 and would be responsible for all the evil that might ensue 
 if he did not retire from the leadership of the Opposition. 
 The pamphlet, which invited the people to work in 
 harmony with, and not in opposition to, the Government, 
 and was intended to assist Apponyi in his task of concoct- 
 ing a majority, failed to; attain its object. The general 
 opinion regarded the appeal as an outburst of personal 
 animosity against Kossuth, who neither read nor replied 
 to the attack of " the greatest of the Magyars," as he had 
 himself styled his adversary. No modus vivendi was 
 possible between the two, and in the absence of Deak 
 from the fighting line ' there was no one to dispute 
 
 1 Pulszky, Eletem is Korom, i. 24.8. 
 
 ^ Politikai ProgrammtSredAek, Grof Sz^chenyi Istvin munkdi, Bp. 1905, 
 vol. ii. 
 
 ' In his constituency, Zala, the principle of the contribution of the nobles 
 to the costs of local government was rejected, owing in a large measure to 
 
346 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 Kossuth's claim to the leadership of the Opposition, for 
 which his debating powers and his hold on the popular 
 imagination obviously qualified him. 
 
 Both in Austria and in Hungary there was a general 
 feeling of unrest — a conviction that a change was impend- 
 ' ing, that with the disappearance from the scene of 
 Metternich and Marshal Radetzky, the main supports of 
 the existing regimt, both nearly eighty years old, the 
 position of the Habsburg monarchy vis-k-z>is the rest of 
 Europe in general, and Germany and Italy in particular, 
 could not fail to be sensibly modified. In these circum- 
 stances the Government was impressed with the necessity 
 of doing something to allay the growing discontent of 
 Hungary, of avoiding internal complications, the present- 
 ment of the spectacle of a house divided against itself, and 
 the consequent destruction of its credit in the European 
 money-market. Metternich and Apponyi talked glibly 
 of the introduction of reforms which should increase the 
 material prosperity of Hungary, but the shaky condition 
 of Austrian finances was a matter of common knowledge. 
 In view of the known inability of the Government to 
 raise money for works of public utility,^ the opinion 
 gained ground that the bona fides of the promise of 
 material reform was more than doubtful, and that the real 
 object in view was the postponement of the discussion of 
 Hungary's grievances and of the remodelling of the 
 Constitution on democratic lines for which the country 
 was now ripe. The suspicion was justifiably entertained 
 that the chief aim of Austria was to throw the burden of 
 part of its public debt on Hungary, and that in the event 
 of all classes consenting to bear their share of taxation the 
 
 wholesale bribery, and Dedk had made the acceptance of the principle a 
 condition precedent to his acceptance of election. — BeOthy, o.c. ii. 253 ; K6nyi, 
 Dedk Ferencz Besz/dei, ii. 
 
 ' For example, Kobeck, the Finance Minister, pressed by Szichenyi for a 
 loan of only a million florins for the reglilation of the Tisza, avowed his 
 inability to find the money. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 347 
 
 proceeds would be utilised to bolster up the Austrian 
 financial system rather than for the benefit of the 
 Hungarian tax -payer. Now that the principle of the 
 equal distribution of the burden of taxation had come 
 within the range of practical politics, it was more than 
 ever necessary that the nation's finances should be directed 
 by a responsible Minister invested with control, not only 
 of the sources of revenue, but also of its application. A 
 refusal to bear that burden was to be found in the 
 "instructions" of only three or four counties, and the 
 practical unanimity with which ideas were accepted which, 
 but a few years ago, were to be found in the programmes 
 of only the most radical constituencies, proved that the 
 intelligent section of the community was in practical 
 agreement on questions of principle, though a considerable 
 divergence of opinion still existed as to the method in 
 which the desired reforms should be effectuated. The 
 instructions of the metropolitan county of Pest demanded 
 the recognition of Hungary's right to make its voice 
 heard on questions of foreign policy ; the revision of 
 the tariff system ; the introduction of a new criminal code 
 and of trial by jury ; the annual convocation of the Diet 
 at Pest, the natural centre of national life ; a wide extension 
 of the franchise ; reunion with Transylvania ; the emancipa- 
 tion of the Jews, and the abolition of the nobles' exemption 
 from taxation.^ To not one of these demands, which 
 
 ' Stephen Bezer^dj, who had already set an example of being the first to 
 make a contract with his tenants for the redemption of feudal dues, voluntarily 
 paid his share of the cost of local government in his county. Over two hundred 
 nobles did the same in Deak's old constituency, Zala, and sixty followed suit 
 in Csongrdd. — Horvath, HuszonSt i-v, ii. 361 ; K6nyi, Dedk Ferencz, Beszidei. 
 Sz^chenyi objected to this as premature, and for fear that it would excite the 
 opposition of the larger landowners. For the same reason he opposed Kossuth's 
 scheme of land purchase. Kossuth saw the necessity of the complete emanci- 
 pation of the peasants and of indemnifying the landlords, and believed that 
 if the nobles' exemption from taxation were abolished there would be no 
 diiEculty in providing interest and sinking-fund on a loan of sufficient 
 magnitude for the purpose. Wessel^nyi's idea was that the peasants should 
 
348 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 may be taken as fairly representative of the desires of 
 the nation, was the Government likely to yield without 
 a struggle. 
 
 During the last session of the Diet, the Opposition 
 had always been sure of a majority of ten to twenty-five 
 votes on any important question, but owing to the action 
 of the Administrators, and to the system of bribery and 
 corruption now rampant in many constituencies, it was 
 evident that it would be impossible to prophesy with 
 certainty the fate of any motion in the Lower House. 
 The Opposition, therefore, felt that it would be fighting 
 with its back to the wall, and that it must strain every 
 effort to prevent the country from being hypnotised by 
 the hope of material progress under the aegis of Austria, 
 for the reason that the loss of the present opportunity 
 of converting the semblance of independence into a reality 
 meant the postponement to an indefinite period of the 
 realisation of their hopes. Szechenyi and the Con- 
 servatives were still inclined to mumble spells over a 
 disease that needed the knife, and but for Kossuth the 
 most burning questions of constitutional reform might 
 have waited for years for a satisfactory solution. The 
 Government moved heaven and earth to prevent the election 
 of Kossuth, and Szechenyi gave up his seat in the Upper 
 Chamber in order to oppose him in the Lower House, 
 seeing, as he thought, the opportunity of forming a united 
 party of his own by the exclusion of both Conservative and 
 Radical extremists, and so of destroying the preponderating 
 influence of his great antagonist, the continuance of which 
 would, in his opinion, infallibly lead the country to 
 destruction. Everything pointed to the probability of a 
 stormy session, a probability increased by the recent death 
 of the Palatine, the Archduke Joseph, who, throughout 
 his fifty years' tenure of office, had never forgotten 
 
 relinquish part of their holdings' to their landlords, and should hold the 
 balance in fee simple, free of all dues. 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 349 
 
 the fact that, though he was the representative of the 
 authority of the Crown, he was, at the same time, the 
 representative of the principle of Hungarian independ- 
 ence. His experience and his popularity had enabled him 
 to exercise a moderating influence on the acrimony of 
 party politics which unfortunately showed signs of 
 reaching its acutest stage at the very moment of his 
 inopportune disappearance from the scene. 
 
 Ferdinand opened the Diet in person, in November 
 1847, and for the first time since the early years of the 
 sixteenth century the representatives of the nation heard 
 their King address them in their own language. The 
 programme outlined by the Speech from the Throne com- 
 prised, inter alia, proposals for legislation on the subjects 
 of the reform of municipal government, and of urban 
 representation at the Diet ; recommended the abolition of 
 the corvie, and suggested that steps should be taken with 
 a view to the regulation of the commercial relations of 
 Hungary and Austria, in a manner conformable to the 
 interests of both countries — in his Majesty's opinion best 
 to be served by the abolition of the customs barrier. The 
 Speech was well received, not only for the reason that it 
 was couched in the Hungarian language, but because the 
 proposals it contained, and the manner in which they were 
 expressed, were thought to indicate the abandonment of 
 the old ideals of germanisation and centralisation, and to 
 amount to a recognition of Hungary's legally indisputable 
 right to manage its own affairs without the intervention 
 of the Viennese bureaucracy. Paul Somssics, the leader of 
 the Conservative party, moved an address thanking the 
 King for his Speech, and for the proposals it contained, 
 which " so happily correspond with the most ardent desires 
 of the people," and proposed that instead of the usual 
 discussion and presentment of the country's grievances, 
 of the list of the Government's sins of omission and com- 
 mission, all matters connected with the infringement of 
 
350 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 the country's constitutional rights should be referred to 
 a special commission. Such an attempt to burke public 
 inquiry and discussion was not to pass unchallenged. 
 Kossuth declared that the great wish of the Diet was not 
 to remedy grievances after their infliction but to prevent 
 their occurrence. He attacked the whole system of 
 government as deliberately intended to deprive Hungary 
 of the independence which the law of 1790, confirmed by 
 successive kings, had unreservedly acknowledged, and 
 pointed out, " as a member of His Majesty's most faithful 
 Opposition who allows no one to surpass him in loyalty 
 to the Throne," but distinguishes the King from the King's 
 Government, that it was not the first time that legislative 
 propositions of an encouraging nature had been laid 
 before the Diet with little or no result save that of 
 shelving the discussion of the nation's grievances, and 
 of postponing the adoption of remedial measures. He 
 enumerated in turn the chief grounds of complaint, laying 
 especial stress on the Government's continued neglect of 
 the Diet's demand for the re-incorporation in Hungary of 
 certain districts of Transylvania,^ and on the illegality 
 
 ' The Transylvanian Diet of 1837 did not accept Wesselinyi's ideas on 
 the subject of reunion, as the landlords feared that emancipation of the 
 peasants would follow as well as abolition of the nobles' exemption from 
 taxation. Wessel^nyi also had to contend against the opposition of the official 
 class which feared the loss of remunerative occupation under the Austrian 
 Government, also of the Saxons who were desirous of incorporation in a 
 Greater Germany under Austrian hegemony. The numerical preponderance, 
 on the other hand, of the Roumanians convinced the Magyar population that 
 the emancipation of the peasants would be fatal to their interests unless the 
 protection which would be afforded by reunion with the mother-country were 
 previously obtained. In 1847 the Diet of Transylvania, reactionary in other 
 respects, was prepared to enter into negotiations for reunion. Certain districts 
 and counties had been ceded to the princes of Transylvania by various treaties 
 between 1583 and 1645. In 1687 Transylvania again came into the possession 
 of the Sacred Crown, and the said districts and counties were declared, by a 
 law of 1693, to be integral parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. In 1731 King 
 Charles improperly caused three counties and one district to be incorporated 
 in Transylvania in spite of the protest of the Council of Lieutenancy. The 
 Diet of 1 741 also protested and passed an Act, which received the royal 
 assent, providing for their re-incorporation ; but the Act remained a dead 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 351 
 
 of the recent appointment of Administrators ; insisted 
 that the Address should specifically allude to each un- 
 remedied grievance, and, as a guarantee against repetition 
 of unconstitutional action, should demand the annual con- 
 vocation of the Diet at Pest. The Address, as moved by 
 Kossuth, was carried by a narrow majority (the repre- 
 sentatives of twenty-six counties voting for the motion, 
 and of twenty-two against it), but was rejected by the 
 Upper House, which adopted the view that the Address 
 should be limited to an expression of thanks to His 
 Majesty, and should contain no reference to grievances, 
 or that, if the Lower House insisted on alluding to them, 
 it should do so only in general terms. Rather than 
 submit to the emasculation of the Address, Kossuth pro- 
 posed that it should be dropped altogether, and after a 
 long and stormy debate his motion was carried. For the 
 first time in history no reply was sent to the Speech from 
 the Throne. 
 
 The new Palatine, the Archduke Stephen, elected by 
 the Diet out of gratitude for the services of his father, 
 threw all his influence into the scale in favour of Szechenyi, 
 whom he considered to be the only person capable of act- 
 ing as a counterpoise to Kossuth and of inducing the Diet 
 to abandon its insistence on the removal of its constitu- 
 tional grievances. Signs of the formation of a " cave " 
 in the Opposition were not wanting. Kossuth wished to 
 be as omnipotent in the Diet as he had been in the 
 journalistic world, loved popularity, and wished to mono- 
 polise the applause of the country. The result was that a 
 section of his party, the inferior talents, was inclined to 
 
 letter in spite of the remonstrances of the Diets of 1751 and 1764, and of a 
 fresh Law (xi. of 1792). Representations were again and again repeated, and 
 a third Act was passed in 1836 (xxi.) and received the royal assent. Still 
 nothing was done, and the Diet again renewed its request, but in vain. The 
 explanation of the Government's barefaced illegalities is to be found in the 
 fact that it feared that the re-incorporation of Transylvania would strengthen 
 Hungary. 
 
352 THE POLITICAL EVOLUTION 
 
 revolt, and so caused the Palatine to believe that a con- 
 ciliatory pronouncement on the part of the King with 
 respect to the appointment of the Administrators would 
 go far towards destroying the supremacy of Kossuth, and 
 bridging the gulf fixed between the Government and the 
 Progressives. He therefore induced the King to issue a 
 rescript to the effect that the appointment of Adminis- 
 trators was intended only as a temporary measure, that no 
 more would be nominated " except in exceptional circum- 
 stances, and that there never had been any intention of 
 interfering with the rights of the counties." The " mis- 
 understanding," to quote the words of the rescript, " was 
 all the more painful to His Majesty's paternal heart, as 
 from the very first moment of his reign he had given so 
 many proofs of his unconquerable determination to main- 
 tain inviolate the ancient Constitution, and its firm founda- 
 tion — the organisation of the counties, and to observe the 
 laws of the country, more especially the fundamental 
 statute of 1790." But the rescript satisfied neither the 
 Conservatives, who discerned in it an unwelcome indica- 
 tion of weakness on the part of the Government, nor the 
 Progressives, who looked upon it as amounting to a mere 
 empty promise, made only to be broken, like similar 
 undertakings which successive kings had given when 
 desirous that the Diet should drop the discussion of its 
 grievances and be humbugged into a temporary belief 
 in the Crown's attachment to constitutional principles. 
 An Address of thanks to the King for his gracious 
 rescript, and the rejection of Kossuth's counter -pro- 
 position demanding the prompt dismissal of the Adminis- 
 trators and the reinstatement of the Lord-Lieutenant was 
 carried, thanks to the Croatian vote and to the fact that 
 several members disobeyed the instructions of their con- 
 stituencies which insisted on the abolition of the Govern- 
 ment's illegal innovation. The result was received with 
 howls of disapproval from the youthful occupants of the 
 
OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION 353 
 
 gallery ; disorder spread to the floor of the Chamber, 
 and the House adjourned without any declaration from 
 the Chair as to the fate of either the motion or the 
 amendment. 
 
 The Government would have liked to dissolve the 
 Diet without delay, but in view of the inflamed state of 
 public opinion in Hungary, and of the uncertainty of the 
 general European outlook, feared to take any step which 
 might conceivably fan into flame the smouldering dis- 
 content. Consciousness of its own inherent weakness led 
 it to overestimate the amount of explosive energy with 
 which Hungary was charged. On February 25, at a 
 conference of the Opposition, the question was debated 
 whether the time had not come for the presentation of an 
 Address to the King requesting the grant of a Constitution 
 to the hereditary provinces, Kossuth being firmly con- 
 vinced that one of the chief sources of Hungary's troubles 
 was to be found In the fact that his country was united In 
 a " mixed marriage " with another, which had no experi- 
 ence, and consequently no idea of the meaning of con- 
 stitutional parliamentary government, and therefore not 
 only was unable to understand, but viewed with actual 
 hostility, Hungary's manifestation of attachment to Its 
 historic rights. Kossuth and his followers were outvoted 
 — a proof positive of the fact that at that date the Op- 
 position, in spite of its ardent desire for reform, was 
 determined to proceed with caution and had no Idea of 
 committing itself to a revolutionary policy the outcome 
 of which It would be impossible to foresee. Kossuth 
 alone seems to have been convinced that the hour had 
 come for Hungary to put an end to an intolerable situa- 
 tion, and to establish its independence of a Government 
 " by whose unconstitutional acts the legislative, the ex- 
 ecutive, and the judicial powers of the State have been 
 utterly degraded. If such acts," he cried, " can be endured 
 any longer, and at a moment when despotism trembles 
 
354 EVOLUTION OF HUNGARIAN NATION 
 
 before the renascent spirit of liberty, and nations benumbed 
 and decrepit show signs of their pristine vitality, then 
 indeed shall I despair of my country."^ But not even 
 Kossuth contemplated the possibility of a recourse to 
 active revolutionary methods. No doubt he was deter- 
 mined that the near future should see the end of Austrian 
 interference in Hungary's internal affairs, and the estab- 
 lishment of a responsible Ministry at Pest, but he relied, 
 for the attainment of his object on constitutional weapons 
 and on the rottenness of the foundations of Austrian 
 autocracy, which required no more than the rumble 
 of a distant earthquake to bring the whole structure 
 clattering about Metternich's ears. 
 
 ' Speech on the question of the reincorporation of part of Transylvania, 
 January 14. 
 
 END OF VOL. I 
 
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