553. Formation of the Liberal Party.—As has been pointed out, the Compromise was carried through the Hungarian parliament in 1867 by the party of Deák. Opposed to it was the Left, who favored the maintenance of no union whatsoever with Austria save through the crown. The first ministry formed under the new arrangement, presided over by Count Andrássy, was composed of members of the Deák party, and at the national elections of 1869 this party obtained a substantial, though hard-won, majority. In 1871 Andrássy resigned to become the successor of Count Beust in the joint ministry of foreign affairs at Vienna, and two years later Deák himself, now an aged man, withdrew from active political life. There followed in Hungary an epoch of political unsettlement during the course of which ministries changed frequently, finances fell into disorder, and legislation was scant and haphazard. The Deák party disintegrated and, but for the fact that the Left gradually abandoned its determination to overthrow the Ausgleich, the outcome might well have been a constitutional crisis, if not war. As it was, when, in February, 1875, the leader of the Left, Kálman Tisza, publicly acknowledged his party's conversion to the Austrian affiliation, the fragments of the Deák party amalgamated readily with the Left to form the great Liberal party by which the destinies of Hungary have been guided almost uninterruptedly to the present day. Except for the followers of Kossuth, essentially irreconcilable, the Magyars were now united in the support of some sort of union with Austria, and most of them were content for the present to abide by the arrangement of 1867. Before the close of 1875 Tisza was established at the head of a Liberal cabinet, and from that time until his fall, in March, 1890, he was continuously the real ruler of Hungary.
554. The Liberal Ascendancy: Tisza, Szápáry, Wekerle, and Bánffy.—The primary policy of Tisza was to convert the polyglot Hungarian kingdom into a centralized and homogeneous Magyar state, and to this end he did not hesitate to employ the most relentless and sometimes unscrupulous means. Nominally a Liberal, he trampled the principles of liberalism systematically under foot. To the disordered country, however, his strong rule brought no small measure of benefit, especially in respect to economic conditions. He supported faithfully the Compromise of 1867; but when, in 1877, the commercial treaty between the two halves of the monarchy expired he contrived to procure increased advantages for Hungary, and among them the conversion of the Austrian National Bank into a joint institution of the two states. Opposition to the Tisza régime arose from two sources principally, i.e., the Kossuth party of Independence, which clung still to the principles of 1848, and the National party, led by the brilliant orator Count Albert Apponyi, distinguishable from the Independence group, on the one hand, by its provisional acquiescence in the Ausgleich and from the Liberals, on the other, by its still more enthusiastic advocacy of Magyarization. At Vienna, Tisza was regarded as indispensable; but growing discontent in Hungary undermined his position and March 13, 1890, he retired from office.
With the fall of Tisza there was inaugurated a period of short ministries whose history it would be unprofitable to attempt to recount in detail. The Liberal party continued in control, for there had appeared no rival group of sufficient strength to drive it from power. But the rise of a series of issues involving the relations of church and state injected into the political situation a number of new elements and occasioned frequent readjustments within the ministerial group. The ministry of Count Szápáry, which succeeded that of Tisza was followed, November 21, 1892, by that of Dr. Sandor Wekerle, and it, in turn, after a number of the religious bills had been passed, was succeeded, January 11, 1895, by a cabinet presided over by Baron Bánffy. At the elections of 1896 the Liberals were overwhelmingly triumphant, acquiring in the lower chamber a majority of two to one. The Nationalist contingent was reduced from 57 to 35.
555. The Era of Parliamentary Obstructionism.—The period covered by the Bánffy ministry (January, 1895, to February, 1899) was one of the stormiest in Hungarian parliamentary history. At the close of 1897 the decennial economic agreement with Austria came automatically to an end, and despite its best efforts the Government was unable to procure from Parliament an approval of a renewal of the arrangement. Through two years successively the existing agreement was extended provisionally for twelve months at a time. It was only during the ministry of Széll, who took office in February, 1899, that a renewal was voted, covering the period to 1907. In Hungary there is no constitutional provision equivalent to Section 14 of the constitution of Austria, but during 1897-1899 the utter breakdown of legislation at Budapest drove Premier Bánffy to a policy of government by decree very similar to that which was at the same time being employed at Vienna. The Government had all of the while a substantial majority, but the obstructionist tactics of the Independence group, the Apponyi Nationalists, and the Clericals were of such a nature that normal legislation was impossible. Under the régime of Széll (February, 1899, to May, 1903), who was a survivor of the old Deák group, constitutionalism was rehabilitated and the Liberals who had been alienated by Bánffy's autocratic measures were won back to the Government's support. Nationalist obstruction likewise diminished, for the primary object of Apponyi's followers had been to drive Bánffy from power.
The brief ministry of Count Khuen-Hedérváry (May 1 to September 29, 1903) was followed by a ministry presided over by Count István [Stephen] Tisza, son of Kálman Tisza, premier from 1875 to 1890. The principal task of the younger Tisza's ministry was to effect an arrangement whereby the Hungarian army, while remaining essentially Hungarian, should not be impaired in efficiency as a part of the dual monarchy's military establishment. During parliamentary consideration of this subject obstruction to the Government's proposals acquired again such force that, under the accustomed rules of procedure, no action could be taken. November 18, 1904, the opposition shouted down a Modification of the Standing Orders bill, designed to frustrate obstruction, and would permit no debate upon it; whereupon, the president of the Chamber declared the bill carried and adjourned the house until December 13, and subsequently until January 5, 1905. The opposition commanded now 190 votes in a total of 451. When the date for the reassembling arrived members of the obstructionist groups broke into the parliament house and by demolishing the furniture rendered a session for the time impossible. In disgust Tisza appealed to the country, only to be signally defeated. The Government carried but 152 seats. The Kossuth party of Independence alone carried 163; the Liberal dissenters under Andrássy got 23; the Clerical People's party, 23; the Bánffy group, 11; and the non-Magyar nationalities, 8. Tisza sought to retire, but not until June 17, 1905, would the sovereign accept his resignation.
556. The Government's Partial Triumph.—Incensed by the prolonged, and in many respects indefensible, character of the parliamentary deadlock, Francis Joseph resolved to establish in office an essentially extra-constitutional ministry which should somehow contrive to override the opposition, and likewise to set on foot a movement looking toward the revolutionizing of Hungarian parliamentary conditions by the introduction of manhood suffrage. Under the ministry of Baron Fejérváry, constituted June 21, 1905, there was inaugurated a period of frankly arbitrary government. Parliament was prorogued repeatedly, and by censorship of the press, the dragooning of towns, and the dismissal of officers the Magyar population was made to feel unmistakably the weight of the royal displeasure. For awhile there was dogged resistance, but in time the threat of electoral reform took the heart out of the opposition. Outwardly a show of resistance was maintained, but after the early months of 1906 the Government may be said once more to have had the situation well in hand. Two events of the year mentioned imparted emphasis to the profound change of political conditions which the period of conflict had produced. The first was the establishment, under the premiership of the Liberal leader Dr. Wekerle, of a coalition cabinet embracing a veritable galaxy of Hungarian statesmen, including Francis Kossuth, Count Andrássy, and Count Apponyi. The second was the all but complete annihilation, at the national elections which ensued, of the old Liberal party, and the substitution for it, in the rôle of political preponderance, of the Kossuth party of Independence. The number of seats carried by this rapidly developing party was 250, or more than one-half of the entire number in the Chamber.
557. The Parliamentary Conflict Renewed.—The Wekerle cabinet entered office pledged to electoral reform, although in the subject it in reality cherished but meager interest. In 1908, as has been related, it was impelled by popular pressure to submit a new electoral scheme;[705] but that scheme was conceived wholly in the Magyar interest and did not touch the real problem. It very properly failed of adoption. Meanwhile the ministry fell into hopeless disagreement upon the question of whether Hungary should consent to the renewal of the charter of the Austro-Hungarian Bank (to expire December 31, 1910) or should hold out for the establishment of a separate Hungarian Bank, and, April 27, 1909, Premier Wekerle tendered his resignation. At the solicitation of the sovereign he consented to retain office until a new ministry could be constituted, which, in point of fact, proved to be until January 17, 1910. Added to the problem of the Bank was an even more vexatious one, that, namely, of the Magyarization of the Hungarian regiments. The extremer demands in the matter of Magyarization emanated, of course, from the Independence party, though upon the issue the party itself became divided into two factions, the extremists being led by Justh and the more moderate element by Kossuth. The coalition was disrupted utterly; the Wekerle ministry dragged on simply because through many months no other could be brought together to take its place. The year 1909 passed without even the vote of a budget.
January 17, 1910, Count Hedérváry succeeded in forming a cabinet, and there ensued a lull in the political struggle. At the elections of June, the Government—representing virtually the revived Liberal party—carried 246 seats, while the two wings of the Independence party secured together only 85. The Clericals were reduced to 13 and the non-Magyars to 7. Under the leadership of István Tisza there was organized, at the beginning of 1910, a so-called "National Party of Work," which by the emphasis which it laid upon its purpose of practical achievement commended itself to large elements of the nation. By the Hedérváry government it was announced that the franchise would be reformed in such a manner as to maintain, without the employment of the plural vote, the historical character of the Magyar state; but the bitterness of Magyar feeling upon the subject continued to preclude all possibility of action. The embarrassments continually suffered by the Hedérváry ministry reached their culmination in the winter of 1911-1912, at which time the relations between Austria and Hungary became so strained that Emperor Francis Joseph threatened to abdicate unless pending difficulties should be adjusted. The question of most immediate seriousness pertained to the adoption of new regulations for the military establishment, but the electoral issue loomed large in the background. The retirement of the Hedérváry cabinet, March 7, 1912, and the accession of a ministry presided over by Dr. de Lukacs affected the situation but slightly. The new premier made it clear that he would labor for electoral reform, and issue was joined with him squarely upon this part of his programme by the aristocracy, the gentry, the Chamber of Magnates, and all the adherents of Andrássy, Apponyi, and Kossuth, with the deliberately conceived purpose of frightening the Government, and especially the Emperor-King, into an abandonment of all plans to tamper with existing electoral arrangements. During the earlier months of the ministry efforts of the premier to effect a working agreement with the forces of opposition were but indifferently successful.[706]
V. The Judiciary and Local Government
558. Law and Justice.—The law of Hungary, like that of England, is the product of long-continued growth. It consists fundamentally of the common law of the mediæval period (first codified by the jurist Verböczy in the sixteenth century), amplified and modernized in more recent times, especially since the reforms of 1867, so that what originally was little more than a body of feudal customs has been transformed into a comprehensive national code. Hungarian criminal law, codified in 1878, is recognized to be the equal of anything of the kind that the world possesses. Since 1896 there has been in progress a codification of the civil law, and the task is announced to be approaching completion. There are numerous special codes, pertaining to commerce, bankruptcy, and industry, whose promulgation from time to time has marked epochs in the economic development of the nation.