CHAPTER XIX.
1825-1850.
1825-1850. Count Stephen Széchenyi, “the greatest Magyar” as Kossúth called him, was one of those rare patriots whose enthusiasm is tempered by the most careful respect for facts and practical probabilities, while their love of detail and material work is broadened and elevated by the noble passion of disinterested patriotism. The maxim of his life was, “Hungary has not yet been; she will be” (“Magyarország nem volt hanem lesz”). A scion of a magnate family he had, like Mirabeau, derived much light from the study of foreign countries. As most of his contemporaries, he was convinced that Hungary, unless aroused from her political and industrial torpor, could not in her then state claim a place amongst the civilized nations of Europe. He was by no means of a revolutionary disposition against the Habsburgs. On the contrary, he wanted to realize all the vast reforms he contemplated in peace with Austria; for being a sort of enthusiastic Walpole (—the manes of Sir Robert will pardon us that epithet!—) his activity was directed mainly, at times at least, to the bettering of the material condition of Hungary.
Széchenyi did not, however, neglect the intellectual needs of his country either. When still a young cavalry officer he offered one year’s revenue of his estates (£10,000 in value; nominally, £5,000) for the establishment of a national Hungarian Academy of Science, the members of which were to consider the cultivation and development of the Hungarian language as their prime duty. Széchenyi’s magnanimous offer was at once responded to by similar offers on the part of three rich magnates (Count George Andrássy, Count George Károlyi, and Baron Abraham Vay), and thus a serious commencement was made with the founding of an intellectual centre in Hungary. The Academy (“Magyar Tudományos Akadémia”) was formally established in 1830, its first president being Count Joseph Teleki. Among the great number of linguistic, historic, and scientific works, both original and translations, published by the Academy, we may mention the “Monumenta,” or historic sources of Hungary; several smaller dictionaries for current use, and the great Dictionary of the Hungarian Language, edited by Gregory Czuczor and John Fogarasi (1844-1874); the translation of the best works of foreign authors on History, Philosophy, Law, and Science, including, amongst others, almost all the standard works of English literature; and a series of original researches into all branches of Science, descriptive, mathematical, physical and chemical. Together with numerous writers of that period, Széchenyi also attempted, and very felicitously too, an internal reform of the Magyar language, to the vocabulary of which he added some needed and now generally accepted terms.
Széchenyi’s restless propaganda succeeded in moving even the ultra-conservative and indolent country-gentry; and in the thirties many a nobleman had a residence of his own built in Pesth. The Country began to move into the Town. In 1837, the national Hungarian theatre was opened at Pesth. Numerous newspapers and periodicals were published; the number of press-organs in Magyar, which was five in 1820, rising to ten in 1830, and to twenty-six in 1840. In 1891 there were 645 Magyar newspapers and periodicals in Hungary. The work meted out to the “Academy” being rather of a technical nature, the “Kisfaludy-Society” (“Kisfaludy-Társaság”) was formed in 1836, with the view of promoting the interests of belles-lettres proper in Hungary. Thanks to the patriotic and well-directed activity of that Society, many an unknown but gifted author was enabled to bring his work under the notice of the country. Its prizes were, and are eagerly competed for, and it has done very much for the great progress of good literature in Hungary. Historical and archæological societies were formed in many parts of the country; and the nation became conscious of the greatness of Hungarian music, which in the wizard hands of Francis Liszt (1811-1887), the greatest of all executive, and one of the most striking of creative musicians, was fast becoming the admiration of Europe. Nor were the schools neglected. Since 1844 the language of instruction in schools was mostly Hungarian. The political reverses of the Hungarians in 1849 caused the introduction of the German language into the schools of Hungary; in 1861, however, the national language was again reinstated in its rights, and now the language of instruction in all the schools and colleges of Hungary is Magyar.
These are some of the most important intellectual reforms which, from 1825 to 1848 completely changed the face of the Hungary of olden times. While previous to 1825, all attempts at reform were restricted to small circles and straggling individuals, and could, therefore, bear no fruit for the nation at large, now the efforts for the renascence of the material and intellectual life of the country were concentrated by the creation of a true capital of social, literary and scientific centres; by the co-operation of great numbers of patriotic and able men; and by the powerful, nay, in Hungary, all-powerful stimulus imparted to all the energies of the nation through the revival of its ancient parliamentary life. In Hungary, as well as in England, Parliament is the soul of the body-politic. The stagnation of parliamentary life in Hungary from 1813 to 1825 was almost tantamount to the stagnation of all the other intellectual energies of the nation. From 1825 onward, the National Assembly met frequently; the Magyar language was again used in the debates, and many reforms that had proved unrealizable in the hands of private reformers, were carried out by the power of the nation assembled in Parliament. The constant opposition offered to all reforms in Hungary, at the hands of the Vienna government, only acted as a further stimulus to the Hungarians; and within the five-and-twenty years of the present period, Hungary advanced by leaps and bounds, both in its politic and literary development.