EOTVOS, BARON. 



EUROPE. 



280 



comedies and a tragedy, which met with suc- 

 cess. In 1833 he adopted the profession of an 

 advocate, which he relinquished, to travel in 

 Germany, France, England, Sweden, and the 

 Low Countries. On his return he took an ac- 

 tive part in politics, becoming in 1838 editor 

 of the Budapesti ArvizMnyt, a work in which 

 the most eminent Hungarians took part. M. 

 Eotvos contributed to its pages a novel en- 

 titled " The Carthusian," that raised him great- 

 ly in public estimation. A pamphlet from his 

 pen on " Prison Reform " created considerable 

 sensation, which was increased by his vigor- 

 ous support of the proposal for emancipating 

 the Jews. In 1841 he was one of the leaders 

 of the opposition in the Senate of the Hunga- 

 rian Diet, where his rank, his fine presence, 

 his readiness in debate, and his literary attain- 

 ments, gave him great influence. The com- 

 mercial crisis of 1841 having severely crippled 

 his means, he had recourse to literature, and 

 the "Village Notary," a romance intended to 

 expose the abuses of the nobles in the differ- 

 ent counties, appeared in 1844. It has been 

 translated into English by Count Pulszky. 

 Baron Eotvos was a constant writer in a popu- 

 lar journal, the Pesti Hirlap, in which he be- 

 came the antagonist of M. Kossuth, arguing in 

 behalf of centralization, against the latter's 

 scheme for autonomy of the counties. These 

 articles were collected and published in one 

 volume in 1846, under the title of "Reform." 

 In 1847 he published another romance, " Hun- 

 gary in 1514," a tale founded on the revolt of 

 the peasantry in that year. This was an elo- 

 quent appeal to the nation for the emancipa- 

 tion of the serfs an act which had at that 

 time become an urgent necessity, and which 

 was accomplished in 1848. Of bis minor writ- 

 ings we may mention " Poverty in Ireland," 

 " On the Emancipation of the Jews," and a 

 very able defence of Kossutb, his former an- 

 tagonist, against Count Sze~chenyi. His novel 

 " The Carthusian," which gained him reputa- 

 tion beyond his native country, and his poetry, 

 will live in Hungarian literature. It was par- 

 ticularly during the period of Austrian rule 

 that the late baron developed an extraordinary 

 literary activity. In reading his charming 

 novel, "The Sisters," one would scarcely fancy 

 that the same author produced at the same 

 period a book so rich in philosophical inquiries 

 as " The Influence of .the Leading Ideas of the 

 Nineteenth Century upon Government and 

 Society" a work known all over Europe, and 

 much appreciated by such philosophers as Mr. 

 J. S. Mill and M. de Tocqueville. On the 

 breaking out of the revolution in 1848, he be- 

 came Minister of Public Instruction in the ad- 

 ministration of Count Batthyani, and resigned 

 after the assassination of Count Lamberg, re- 

 tiring to Munich until the close of the Hunga- 

 rian insurrection. From that time until the 

 close of 1859 he kept aloof from politics; but 

 the ferment created by the promised concessions 

 by the Emperor to his subjects, and the crea- 

 VOL. xi. 19 A 



tion of the temporary Council of State in 

 1860, drew him from his retreat. In conjunc- 

 tion with M. Deak, with whom his name was for 

 some time associated, he became a leader of 

 the Moderate Liberal party, and, on the forma- 

 tion of the Hungarian ministry in 1867, was 

 appointed Minister of Worship and Public In- 

 struction. The indefatigable zeal with which 

 he fulfilled his important functions, in the 

 short period of three years, sufficiently proved 

 how beneficial were his efforts for the advance- 

 ment of culture in Hungary. But it was also 

 the cause of his premature death. 



EUROPE. The great war, which will as- 

 sign to the year 1870 a prominent place in the 

 history of Europe, was brought to a close in 

 1871. Its chief result is a considerable change 

 of the territorial division of Europe. By the 

 cession of Alsace and Lorraine, France saw 

 her area reduced from 209,428 to 204,079 square 

 miles, and her population from 38,067,094 to 

 36,594,875. The new German Empire, whose 

 reconstruction was completed on January 18, 

 1871, when King William of Prussia assumed 

 the title of Emperor, now exceeds France both 

 in area and population ; for, after the incorpor- 

 ation of the ceded provinces, it now embraces 

 39,888 square miles, and 40,106,900 inhabitants. 



On February 12th the French Republic, after 

 having been ruled for nearly six months by 

 a self-constituted revolutionary government, 

 found, in the National Assembly, which met 

 at Bordeaux, on February 12th, an authority 

 elected by the national vote. The Assembly 

 contained a greater number of men of the 

 highest social standing than any French con- 

 vention since the Revolution of 1789. The 

 aged statesman Thiers, who was elected by 

 the Assembly as chief of the executive power, 

 and later as President of the republic, gained 

 to a high degree the confidence of the French 

 people. He easily obtained the consent of the 

 National Assembly for the conclusion of peace- 

 with Germany, but was unable to prevent the 

 outbreak on March 18th, and the success of an 

 insurrection of the radical party in Paris,, 

 which, for two months, established a reign of 

 terror, and made the first attempt to carry 

 through the principles of the socialistic party.. 

 After the occupation of Paris, May 21st, and 

 the suppression of the insurrection, the ques- 

 tion of the future form of government chiefly 

 occupied public attention. In the National 

 Assembly the monarchists had a decided ma- 

 jority, but they were divided among them- 

 selves. Count de Chambord, for the first time 

 since 1830, returned to France, but the fusion; 

 between the Legitimists and Orleanists was^ 

 at the close of the year 1871, not completed. 



The attention of the German Government 

 and the German people was chiefly directed to- 

 the consolidation of the new empire. The Ger- 

 man Reichsrath showed a strong desire to- 

 clothe the central government with greater 

 powers, and to reduce the prerogatives of the- 

 states. Several of its resolutions are not likely 



