HUNGARIAN FREEDOM AND MAGYAR RULE.* IN these days of free
speech and many newspapers the treat- ment of abuses in foreign countries is a question of much difficulty. It is so especially in England, because tradition and habit have bred in us the critical temper, and we have not always the impartiality which deprives the eritical temper of much of its offensiveness. Englishmen have a natural sympathy for revolution. It had its origin in the reaction against the Holy Alliance and the methods of government in which the Holy Alliance found its most trusted weapons. For some time after 1815 we acquiesced in these methods, partly because they had some pale replicas among ourselves, and partly because the recollections of the French revolution and the Napoleonic aggressions had not wholly vanished. Then came the outburst of 1848, and English feeling was strongly, and on the whole rightly, enlisted on the side of the Hungarians against Austria, and of the Italians against Austria and the Papal Government Kossuth and Garibaldi grew to be familiar names in every household, and a lesser admiration was extended to their imitators in other countries. England became the recognised asylum of defeated patriots, and foreign governments looked with a feeling which was part in- dignation and part amusement at the fortunate nation which had pity and encouragement to spare for every revolution in turn, provided that it stopped short of reproducing itself with- in the four seas. No great harm would have come of this had the popular parties abroad never come to be oppressors in their turn. But in more than one instance this was exactly what happened. Human nature is not materially altered by political changes, and the authors of a successful revolution are naturally under the twofold temptation to avenge them- selves on their fallen enemies and to guard themselves against possible reaction. It is then that the English public becomes puzzled. It has taken the righteousness of every revolution for granted, until it is compelled to recognise that the new governments are not indisposed to avail themselves of the weapons of which they have deprived their adversaries. It is disagreeable to blame those for whom we have so long had nothing but praise, and silence becomes the easiest policy.
Mr. Seton-Watson's book is the expression of a wholesome reaction against this way of letting unpleasant truths go unnoticed. Hungary was one of the earliest objects of English good-will. Through 1848 and 1849 we followed with enthusi- astic admiration the efforts of Kossuth in the direction first of responsible government and then of independence. During the ten years of absolutism which followed, the defeated party had its full share of our pity until all seemed settled in the beat possible fashion by the compromise which followed the defeat of Austria by Prussia in 1866. Since that time the Magyars have had everything their own way, and Mr. Seton-Watson describes the manner in which they seek to maintain their position in a system which makes them supreme among a popu- lation in which their numbers at most only equal those of their subject races. In this object they are greatly helped by an electoral law which, though "when it was passed in 1874 com- pared not unfavourably with that of many other countries, . . . is to-day probably the most illiberal franchise in Europe." The proletariat is entirely unrepresented, the skilled artisan "is a negligible quantity." The electors who own over eight acres of land are over 59 per cent. of the whole number, and as a result of these arrangements only 6 per cent. of the entire population have votes. Still, all these precautions have not entirely kept out the non-Magyar races from the electoral roll; and the Hungarian Government is not disposed to leave anything to chance. So long as there are non-Magyar votes which may secure the election of non-Magyar candidates, adequate means must be taken to hinder them from being recorded. Mr. Seton-Watson describes some of these expedients. Fortunately for the purpose of the Government, the Magyar strength lies in the towns. This has the double advantage of making it easy for the Magyar electors to vote and bringing the non-Magyar electors under influences of the right sort by placing the polling station for the surrounding district in the town. It need not be said that there is no wanton multiplication of polling places. In one case part of a constituency is sixty miles from the nearest polling station. The authorities decide at which station
• Corruption and Reform in Hungary. By B. W. Setan-Watson. D.Litt. ("Scotus-Victor"). London: Constable and Co. [4s. fkL net
the electors shall vote, and they are quite alive to the diffi- culties which may be interposed in the way of their doing so by a little clever geographical arrangement. Thus "electors from many villages near Baja have to go 40 kilometers north to Dunakeczel to vote, instead of voting in the neighbouring town ; while others lying to the east of Dunakeczel have to pass it on their left and go many miles on to Dunapataz, where there is no railway at all."
These comparatively natural difficulties are not all that a non-Magyar elector may have to encounter. The shortest road to a polling station often lies over a bridge. Here plainly there is room for Government interference. Not to mention the rude expedient of breaking down the bridge which serves the voter's purpose, what can be easier than to declare it unsafe for carriages on the day of the election "in order to force opposition voters to walk impossible distances or lose their votes." Another expedient is the discovery, on the eve of the polling day, that all the horses in the outlying villages of a constituency need to be kept at home under veterinary supervision. Alarms of this kind often prove groundless, so that there is no cause for wonder in the fact that the order is withdrawn the next day. Another useful provision in an Hungarian election is that the time of closing the poll is left to the discretion of the returning officer. In one case, in 1905, the Roumanian electors were kept outside the town for two days, that the Government might profit by the leakage incident to such a delay. At other times the returning officer has declared the poll closed as soon as the right candidate has secured his majority and it is not thought prudent to run any further risks. The elections are habitually conducted in presence of troops. In 1910 173,000 soldiers were employed to maintain order at the polls. Hitherto these have been drawn from the Joint Army, but Mr. Seton- Watson doubts if this will go on much longer, as "the news that Count Khuen Hedervary had used Austrian regiments to hold back Slovak electors from the polls aroused great indigna- tion in Parliamentary circles in Vienna," and was the occasion of a debate in which " all parties and races united in their con- demnation of Hungarian methods as unworthy of a country which claims to be in Europe." Indeed, there is something Asiatic about the Magyar methods which goes to show the persistence of racial characteristics in very changed conditions. But the withdrawal of the Joint Army is only likely to make matters worse for non-Magyar voters, " since it would leave them to the tender mercies of the Honved, or militia," and of the still more dreaded gendarmerie, which " is one of the most valuable assets of every government in its political campaigns." The preparation of the electoral rolls provides other means of increasing the Magyar voting strength. The lists are always drawn up in the official language in disregard of the fact that there may be hardly a Magyar-speaking elector in the constituency. The Magyar language has a peculiarity which arms the returning officer with special powers of turn- ing these circumstances to account. If an elector describes the candidate for whom he means to vote by his Christian and surname in that order, the returning officer says, " There is no candidate of that name. Stand aside." All that this means is that he ought to have put the surname first and the Christian name second ; but this trifling error may involve the dis- franchisement of the voter for that time. In other countries it is usually the defeated party, or the party which thinks it is going to be defeated, that first resorts to violence. On one occasion when a non-Magyar candidate was leading, the " un- bridled agitation" of his supporters was described as justify. ing the returning officer in quashing the election. " This was printed in ordinary type among a crowd of other electoral
results, as if such an event was of every-day occurrence." Even in Hungary the official decision is occasionally challenged, but of how much use this is may be inferred from the reason given in one instance for rejecting evidence : " The testimony of the witnesses cannot be considered since they all belong to the Veselovsky party "—Veselovsky being the unsuccessful candidate.
Mr. Seton-Watson's volume is full of evidence to the same effect, both from what be has seen himself and what he has
learned from trustworthy eye-witnesses. Several of the elections in 1910 are described in detail, and the reader is left to draw his own conclusion. We cannot pretend to do anything more as regards our own readers. We know these things only on Mr. Seton-Watson's word ; but the
particulars are given so fully and with such constant reference to official documents that they certainly establish a primd- facie case against the accused officials. There can be no real improvement until there has been a large extension of the franchise, a general redistribution of the electoral area, and the establishment of vote by ballot. Even these far-reaching changes will not invariably insure purity of election, but until these three changes have been made the Hun- garian Parliament will not represent the Hungarian people. Everything seems to tint', at least so we learn from this book, on the action of the dynasty. " The Emperor King, with a true instinct for the great issues involved, has hitherto remained resolute in his desire to extend to Hungary the reform which rejuvenated Austria in 1907; and the Heir- Apparent is, if possible, an even firmer believer in the need for admitting the democracy to its share of political power." Mr. Seton-Watson does not desire the complete subordination of the Magyar voters. It may fairly be argued, he thinks, that the Magyars, " in right of their superior political educa- tion and traditions," might be allowed fifty more seats than they could claim on a strictly population basis. Without some such protection the introduction of universal and secret suffrage might only be a signal for civil war. But with this amount of protection, and a complete reformation in the voting arrangements; with voting papers printed on uniform and not transparent paper, and drawn up in all the languages spoken in the constituency ; with polling booths at regular distances " so arranged as to enable all voters to reach the poll on foot in all weathers "—this is an improvement for which there is much room nearer home; with the election officials sent from headquarters, and a sound system of appeals in eases of disputed returns, Mr. Seton-Watson thinks that the worst of the evils so forcibly set out in Corruption and Reform in Hungary would disappear. It greatly concerns the reputation, and, in the end, the security, of the Magyar population that these changes should be made willingly, and made at once.
If we were enemies of the Magyar race we should wish them to persist in their present policy. It is because we are their sincere well-wishers and admirers that we hope and trust that they will learn to maintain their leadership in the Hungarian Kingdom by moral force, aptitude for political affairs, and the instinct of statesmanship, and not by tricks of Tam- many Hall and the brutalities of the party Boss.
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