At the eleventh hour the deadlock in Hungary has been
suddenly and unexpectedly averted by a welcome compromise between the Crown and the Coalition. The basis of settle- ment was only arrived at on Friday week at a conference between Baron Fejervary and the Coalition leaders, and on the same afternoon M. Francis Kossuth and Count Julius Andrassy were received by the Sovereign, who accepted the compromise. Full details as to the terms have not yet been published, but it seems clear that a General Election will be proclaimed and conducted within the Constitutional time by a new Coalition Government, with Dr. Wekerle as Premier, on the single issue of universal suffrage, all military questions being shelved. The new Government will then make a declaration concerning the military prerogatives of the Crown ; will ensure the voting by the new Parliament of the Budget, the treaties of commerce, the economic Compact with Austria, the normal contingent of recruits, and the military credits already sanctioned by the Delegations ; and will then bring in and carry a Universal Suffrage Bill. Finally, on the basis of the reformed franchise, a fresh General Election will be held. The settlement, which has been greeted with enthusiasm, averts a grave crisis, since the Constitutional period within which a fresh Election must be announced expired only five days after the settlement, and further postponement of the convocation of a new Parliament by Royal Rescript would have seriously infringed the Hungarian Constitution.
