HUNGARY. 



379 



avoid everything that would estrange the peo- 

 ples of the two halves of the monarchy. At 

 the same time he spoke of the arrangement of 

 the " Ausgleich " as near at hand. He also op- 

 posed a provisional solution of the bank ques- 

 tion, demanding either a dualistic or an inde- 

 pendent Hungarian bank. Several meetings 

 were held in Pesth during January between 

 the ministers of the two countries, and as they 

 did not lead to any definite result, the Austri- 

 ans returned to Vienna. On January 29th the 

 Hungarian ministers Tisza, Szell, Wenckheim, 

 and Trefort, proceeded thither to resume the 

 negotiations. These, however, were as unsuc- 

 cessful as the former conferences. Both Gov- 

 ernments came to an agreement on all points 

 relating to the new organization of the bank, 

 and the only question unsettled was that of 

 the " Centralausschuss." Tisza had agreed to 

 Count Andrassy's proposition that 14 gen- 

 eral councilors should belong to this board, 

 5 should be Austrians, 5 Hungarians, while the 

 remaining 4 should be elected by the share- 

 holders, without regard to nationality. Sud- 

 denly, however, the Austrian Government, and 

 the administration of the bank, insisted that 

 these 4 members must also be Austrians. Tisza 

 declared that he could not consent to this, and 

 having returned home, sent in the resignation 

 of the entire Hungarian ministry. The King 

 accepted the resignation, and called upon Tisza 

 to name his successor. The latter suggested the 

 leader of the opposition, Baron Paul Sennyey, 

 and he, as well as the Jud. Curiro Majlath, was, 

 in consequence, called to Vienna. The name 

 of Sennyey, however, met with a strong op- 

 position in the Foreign Office, and Andrassy 

 threatened to resign immediately in case of 

 the formation of a Sennyey-Majlath cabinet. 

 Baron Sennyey declared himself willing to 

 form a ministry, if he could immediately dis- 

 solve the Chamber, and as the Government 

 did not submit to this step, he retired volunta- 

 rily. The King then tried a simple change of 

 persons within the Liberal party, and turned 

 to the former ministers, Szlavy, Bitto, and 

 Ghyczy, but without success. They declared 

 themselves unable to form a cabinet, support- 

 ed by a strong majority, in opposition to Tisza. 

 The King was thus forced to fall back on Tisza, 

 and called upon him again to take charge of 

 the Government. This he did provisionally, 

 and the conferences between the two minis- 

 tries again began. They finally agreed upon 

 the following compromise : The general coun- 

 cil of the bank should consist of one governor, 

 two vice-governors, and 12 general council- 

 ors. The governor and vice-governors were 

 to be appointed by the Emperor, the governor 

 upon the united recommendation of the two 

 Governments, and one vice-governor upon the 

 recommendation of each of the Governments. 

 Of the general councilors 2 were to be elected 

 by the shareholders upon the recommendation 

 of each of the Governments, while the remain- 

 ing 10 were to be elected without regard to their 



nationality. These propositions were sanc- 

 tioned by a committee of the Constitutional 

 party of the Austrian Keichsrath on February 

 22d, and Tisza was then again permanently ap- 

 pointed President of the Ministry. 



Immediately upon its reappearance in the 

 Hungarian Chamber of Deputies, which had 

 reassembled on January 20th, the reorganized 

 ministry was bitterly attacked by the so-called 

 "Independents" and the extreme Left for its 

 course on the bank question. Of the former, 

 Baron Louis Simonyi, formerly Minister of 

 Commerce under Tisza, spoke; while of the 

 latter Nemeth gave expression to his hostility 

 in almost unparliamentary language. Tisza 

 answered both with dignity, and succeeded in 

 removing all ill-feeling in the large Liberal 

 party, while even the Right, under the leader- 

 ship of Sennyey, received his explanations with 

 applause. The discussions of the " Ausgleich " 

 were resumed in the deputations of the two 

 Parliaments, which met on May 29th. The 

 Austrian deputation elected for its president 

 Count Wrbna, and the Hungarian, Szlavy. 

 These discussions threatened to be without 

 any definite result, as the Hungarians insisted 

 on a reduction of one per cent, of their contri- 

 bution to the common Treasury. As the labors 

 of the deputations resulted in no understanding, 

 each appointed a sub-committee to consider 

 the question. Even these could not come to 

 an agreement, and the subject was, in July, 

 finally laid over till the fall. 



The peculiar character of the population of 

 Hungary caused all classes to take a special 

 interest in the events going on beyond the 

 Danube. The Slavs, especially the Croatians, 

 naturally sympathized with their struggling 

 brethren in Turkey. On the other band, tha 

 Hungarians, fearing their very existence threat- 

 ened by the growth of Slavic influence in South- 

 eastern Europe, and being also, with the Turks, 

 the last remnants of the Turanian race in Eu- 

 rope, strongly sympathized with the latter. 

 In order to give an expression to this sympathy, 

 the Hungarian students resolved to present 

 the Turkish commander-in-chief, Abdul Kerim, 

 with a sword of honor. A deputation of 

 twenty was chosen for this purpose. On Jan- 

 uary 7th they arrived in Trieste, and embarked 

 immediately on account of the hostile demon- 

 strations of the Slavic and Greek inhabitants 

 of that city. In Constantinople, however, they 

 were received with great honors. 



The Turkish Government spared no efforts 

 to secure the sympathies of the Magyars. In 

 April the Sultan signed a decree that the library 

 known as the " Corvina " be returned to Hun- 

 gary. The "Corvina" was originally established 

 by King Matthias Corviims in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, and comprised 50,000 volumes. Every 

 book was bound in velvet, and decorated with 

 gold and silver clasps, and the emblems of the 

 king. After the death of Corvinus, and the 

 capture of Buda by the Turks, the library was 

 scattered all over the world. Since then the 



