430 



HUNGARY. 



committees of the counties and the representatives 

 of the royal free towns, dissolved by our autograph 

 letter of November 5, 1861, to meet in place of the 

 county assemblies appointed by article 5 of the law 

 of 1848, in order to form the electoral districts and 

 the central electoral commissions. We therefore 

 hereby desire you earnestly to take without delay all 

 the legal measures necessary to carry out the elec- 

 tions. 

 Given at our capital of Vienna. September 18, 1865. 



(Signed) FRANCIS JOSEPH. 



(Countersigned) GEORGE VON MAILATH. 



At the recent electoral campaign, three par- 

 ties were in the field. Firstly, the Old Con- 

 serratites, under the leadership of Zsedenyi, 

 who, before 1848, went hand in hand with the 

 Government against the Liberals and Raditals. 

 The leader of the party thus defined the pro- 

 gramme for the coming Diet : 



1. The historical privileges and the integrity of the 

 Hungarian crown must be upheld, and with them 

 the rights of the Hungarian Diet. 2. The Diet must 

 be completed in accordance with Law 5 of the year 

 1848 (it provides for a proper representation of the 

 people), and with Law 7 (it relates to the union be- 

 tween Hungary and Transylvania). 3. As the laws 

 of 1848 form the legal basis of the Hungarian Consti- 

 tution, they can only be altered by the mutual con- 

 sent of the crown and the nation. 4. The differences 

 between Hungary and the other provinces of the em- 

 pire must be settled in accordance with the stipula- 

 tions of the Pragmatic Sanction. 5. There must be 

 an independent and responsible Government. 



Secondly, the liberal-constitutional or "Ad- 

 dress-Party," under the leadership of Deak and 

 Baron Eotvos. They received the latter name 

 because they proposed and carried at the last 

 Diet of 1861 an "address" to the "King" 

 Franz Joseph, in which the latter was recog- 

 nized as a ruler of Hungary, upon condition of 

 his fulfilling the duties imposed upon him by 

 the constitution of the country. Th'eir chief 

 organ is the Pesth "Naplo." The views of 

 this party are thus explained by Baron Eotvos, 

 in a speech to his constituents : 



It is high time that Hungary should seriously en- 

 deavor to come to an understanding with her sov- 

 ereign, but her representatives must be careful not 

 to lose sight of three things : 1. They must not for- 

 get that Hungary with the partes adnexce (Transylva- 

 nia, Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia) is a perfectly 

 free and independent country. 2. They must stren- 

 uously uphold the fundamental principles of the Con* 

 stitution, and take care that Hungary has as great a 

 share as the other parts of the monarchy in the man- 

 agement of the general affairs of the empire. At the 

 same time they must take care not to lose sight of 

 the fact that Hungary, by means of the sovereign, is 

 united to the other parts of the Empire. The very 

 laws which guarantee our independence indissolubly 

 unite Hungary and Austria, and the common inter- 

 ests of the inhabitants of the two countries render it 

 necessary that they should live together in peace and 

 harmony. 3. The representatives of the Hungarian 

 nation must neither interfere with, nor infringe on, 

 the constitutional rights of the inhabitants of the 

 western part of the empire. 



At a meeting of the leaders of this party, 

 they designated the following as the chief feat- 

 ures of their political programme : 



There must needs be for the two countries (Austria 

 and^Hungary) one and the same minister for foreign 

 affairs. The two countries must also have one and 



the same minister of war, but the Hungarian Diet 

 will only grant to the common army a number of re- 

 cruits, which number will be determined during tho 

 next session. As Hungary cannot possibly allow the 

 Austrian Reicbsrath to legislate for her, the two 

 countries cannot have one and the same chief of the 

 finance department. Hungary will take on her 

 shoulders a due share of the national debt, say about 

 two-fifths of it, and will also annually contribute a 

 certain sum toward the expenditure of the war de- 

 partment. There can be no question of the forma- 

 tion of a senate for the management of those matters 

 which concern both countries, "as the Hungarian 

 Diet must treat directly with the sovereign or his 

 representative." The Hungarian laws of the year 

 1848 were drawn up in a great hurry, and require 

 revision, "but the thing must be done in a legal way. 

 That is, the laws must be changed by the Hungarian 

 Diet, and not by means of an imperial patent. The 

 Hungarian Diet will not be complete unless Transyl- 

 vania be represented in it, that principality having 

 been incorporated with Hungary in the year 1848." 



The third of the political parties of Hungary 

 is the Radical-constitutional or the "Resolu- 

 tion " Party, receiving the latter name from the 

 circumstance that they proposed at the Diet 

 of 1861, instead of an "address," a simple 

 " resolution," plainly declaring the rights and 

 grievances of Hungary. Both the Resolution 

 Party and the Old Conservatives mitigated their 

 distinctive party-principles, and all the three 

 parties agreed upon some of the most important 

 points to be demanded from the Austrian Gov- 

 ernment. On the other hand, all agreed in 

 highly eulogizing the Rescript of September 

 20th, and in manifesting a readiness to come to 

 an understanding with the Emperor of Austria. 

 The election resulted in the return of a major- 

 ity of the members of the " Address " party. 



The Hungarian Diet was opened by the 

 Emperor on December 14th, at the palace of 

 Ofen. His Majesty, after greeting the assembled 

 deputies, spoke of the hindrances which had 

 hitherto prevented an adjustment of the rela- 

 tions between the Emperor, and Hungary, and 

 of obstacles to be removed. The difficulties 

 which had hitherto arisen were chiefly owing 

 to the different points from which the two par- 

 ties set out ; on the one side forfeiture of rights, 

 and on the other unbending maintenance of 

 rights, as of an uninterrupted lawful inher- 

 itance. 



The Emperor said he took his stand on the 

 Pragmatic Sanction,* which guarantees the 

 autonomic political and judicial administration 

 of Hungary, as well as the inseparable union of 

 all the lands of the Hungarian crown. The 

 reciprocal position of the lands of the Hungarian 

 crown is therefore to bo regulated before all 

 things by the meaning of the Pragmatic Sanc- 

 tion. For this reason the Diet of Transylva- 

 nia had been summoned to revise the laws of 



* The "Pragmatic Sanction " -was drawn np by Karl 

 In order to secure to bis only daughter, Maria Then 

 succession contrary to the former law of Hungary, which pro- 

 claimed succession in the male line only. It was submitted 

 to the Diet of Hungary in 17128, and only accepted with the 

 express stipulation that that country, and all the lands con- 

 nected with it, tthould retain their complete independence as 

 they had possessed it of old, being ruled according to their 

 own laws and customs, which were to be confirmed by every 

 monarch before his coronation. 



