23 FEBRUARY 1889, Page 9

THE UPROAR IN HUNGARY. T HERE is not, we hope, much

importance to be attached to the uproar which has risen in Hungary ; but what a singular scene it is ! M. Tisza, the Premier, has now governed Hungary through a free Parliament for fourteen years. During all that time he has been supported by the Chambers, where, indeed, he still possesses a large majority, and has been regarded by the electors as the man of whom Hungary was most proud. Not only have his legislative and financial proposals been all accepted, not only has he kept the peace among the jarring nationalities of the Kingdom, but he has so managed the delicate and difficult relations of Hungary with her partner in the Empire, that Austria is full of complaints about the position occupied by the other State in the Dual Monarchy. If one of the two partners has to yield, it is always Austria ; Hungarian sus- ceptibilities are never to be wounded; and of the common expenses, which should be equally defrayed, Hungary con- tributes only 33 per cent. Whoever has a right to complain, it is not Hungary; and she owns this, and admits she owes much of her position to M. Tisza, to his courage and his judgment in all negotiations with Vienna, and his remarkable ascendency over the Emperor's mind. Suddenly, in the midst of all this success, Hungary, or, at least, Hungary so far as her cities represent her, is clamouring furiously for M. Tisza's resignation. He must go, as a sacrifice to the wounded honour of Hungary. He has, of course, in fourteen years made many enemies, including some genuine patriots, who denounce his habit of letting corrupt officials down too easily ; and he has many other enemies ready-made. Like Kossuth and Beak, and other great Hungarians of this epoch, M. Tisza is a plebeian, and the magnates dislike the court which they feel compelled to pay to a social inferior. As the Scotch said of Cromwell's Judges, M. Tisza is a "kin- less loon," and the nobles resent while they acknowledge his superiority. The clerical party, which, though never dominant in Hungary, is still a force, are enraged with him for favouring the Italian alliance ; while several of the most influential personages in Hungary, wbo agree with most of his policy, entertain towards him, for reasons not visible to outsiders, an acute personal dislike. These various parties have combined for the overthrow of the too powerful Minister, and have availed themselves for their purpose of an outburst of " nationalist " feeling which he has accidentally provoked. The new Army Bill, which makes large drafts upon the population, and increases the military expenditure, is greatly disliked ; bnt it has been accepted by the nation as a political necessity, with the exception of two or three clauses which provide that words of command shall be given in German, and that all Hungarian officers employed must pass an easy German examination. These clauses being sup- posed to admit a certain primacy in the German element of the Empire, have driven certain classes of the popu- lation quite crazy with patriotic excitement. It is in vain that old Generals point out to them that in so hetero- geneous an Empire, the Army must have common words of command, for otherwise officers of a dozen nationalities might have a dozen languages to learn ; in vain that statesmen tell them that the Monarchy must have a lingua franca for military business, and that it can only be German; in vain that the most cultivated men in Buda-Pesth point out that to learn German is essential to the liberal educa- tion it is desired an officer should have. The people will have it that to make German a necessary tongue is to insult Hungarian nationality, and argument failing them, begin to make disturbances in the streets. Mass meetings have been held in Buda-Pesth of thirty thousand men, all marching in frosty weather to denounce the Premier; the Emperor-King, though warmly cheered for himself, is assailed with cries of " Down with Tisza !" and the smaller cities send up addresses praying for his removal. So fierce is the agitation, that it has spread to the Deputies, and in spite of the "political sense" supposed to distinguish Hungarians, insults are freely exchanged, and every debate is followed by one or more duels. Herr Tisza cannot give way, for the uniform organisation of the Army is essential to its cohesion, and therefore to the Hapsburg Monarchy ; and it is probable that as the excitement calms down, he will keep his majority ; but the incident has shaken his popularity, and may shorten his continuance in an office which is untenable unless its holder is sure of general support. He has the Emperor to manage as well as his rivals beyond the Leitha ; and to plead successfully for immunities for Hungary without pleading that he is the mouthpiece of the nation, is next to impossible. Hun- gary has, in fact, weakened the authority of her own representative in order to indulge in a sort of scream over her affronted amour props.

The incident will pass, for the Emperor's person is not mixed up in it, no demonstration will affect the troops, and Hungary and Austria are bound together by the chain of political necessity ; but it illustrates that terrible vanity of nationalities which is the permanent cause of war, and which seems irremovable by any argument or any lapse of time. The Magyars, the ruling race of Hungary, are supposed to be the most sensible political people in Europe, and have certainly adhered faithfully to Desk and Tisza, mainly as sensible men. So far from being placed in any position of humiliation, they are ruling themselves and Austria too, and have secured for themselves every privilege they desire, including that of getting the better in all bargains. They admit fully that, outnumbered as they are by the Slays, the permanence of the Dual Monarchy is essential to their safety ; and so far from specially hating the Germans, they ally themselves with them on all occasions to resist the Slays, whose weight presses on them everywhere both within and without the Kingdom. Without the German help they would in a month be lost amid their own dependants. There is not a chance of getting rid of the immediate cause of their annoyance, the use of a " foreign " tongue on certain business occasions ; yet they are ready, during a grave crisis in Europe of which they are well aware, to upset a successful Government and a Premier whose ability they recognise, in order to obtain revenge for an "insult" which no human being, least of all the Minister who owes everything to their votes, intends to put upon them. We are not blaming them, we must observe. The pride of nationality becomes, with all nations except the English, so nearly instinctive, that it is occasionally almost independent of volition ; and Hungarians could probably no more explain their outburst of political folly, than could the " drunken private of the Buffs," hymned by Sir Francis Doyle, explain why he refused to kotow. The interest of the story is not that, but rather the evidence it affords that confederation between nations is nearly beyond hope, that their natural state is antagonism, and that in relying on reason and interest to bind them firmly together, we are relying as yet on very thin staffs. Tennyson's " Parliament of man, the Federation of the World," would break up in its first sitting over the question of the language to be used in its debates, and the Roman Empire would not have survived a Representative Assembly for six months. No two peoples could have more reason for pulling together than the Austrians and Hungarians have ; yet if they were not both of them afraid of the same external foes, they would fly asunder, not to avoid a common and most oppressive mili- tary service, but to avoid letting one of the two enjoy the imaginary superiority of settling the words of command for both. That touches national pride, and the pride of all nations, the English excepted—who would accept Manx words of command, if the Manxmen cried for them long enough—is in their very veins. Little Bohemia, ringed round by superior Powers, shows it as strongly as Hungary; and lesser Croatia, with no possibility of standing alone, displays it more savagely than either. We suppose such irrational pride is not bad for Europe in some ways, for it is a force which operates against both the conquest that statesmen fear, and the deadly monotony in living dreaded by John Stuart Mill ; but it is one of the most serious difficulties in the way alike of calm and of progress in Europe. It impedes all close alliances for long periods, and on alliances depends peace; and even when, as in Austria, they have been arranged, it compels the nations to submit the gravest questions to a personal, and therefore autocratic, referee. They dare not and will not trust each other to be fair to each other's pride. Those Who believe that Ireland might be in the British Empire what Hungary is in the Hapsburg Dominion, should just observe the part that loyalty to a House plays even in this new incident. Without the Emperor, where would be the bond between German and Magyar that would stand the strain of the separateness produced by national vanity, and where in these islands is our Emperor? In Ireland they refuse to drink the Queen's health, and in England men do not care.