The composition of the new "Cabinet of Transition" fortunately affords
a good guarantee of its ability to carry out this formidable programme. Dr. Wekerle, Premier in 1892-94, and noted for his grasp of finance, has justified his reputation as 'a strong man by . securing the -adhesion of all the chief Coalition leaders,—M. Francis Kossuth, Count Julius Andrassy, Count Albert Apponyi, and Count Aladar Zichy, the Clerical leader. As the Times correspondent points out, it must be no slight satisfaction to Francis Joseph, King of Hungary, to have received the oath of allegiance from the son of the great Kossuth, "sometime rebel against the Hapsburg Crown." It is difficult to apportion the credit for the settlement where so many are concerned, but while the Coalition leaders are specially to be congratulated on having initiated the coin_ promise, the path was largely smoothed by the universal suffrage movement, started by M. Kristoffy, a member of the discredited Fejervary Cabinet, but now accepted by all sections of the Coalition and freely endorsed in the new compact. The attitude of the Hungarians is all the more to their credit in that under the present electoral system the Magyars have a virtual monopoly of political power, their share of representation in the Chamber being exactly forty times that of the non-Magyar races, while on the basis of population it should be half-and-half.
