Count Tisza has scored the first point in his contest
with the Opposition. On Friday evening last week he went to Vienna to seek the Royal approval for his policy. He has secured the King's consent to a Dissolution, which will be effected by the King in person on January 4th or 5th. The Premier goes to the country on a plain issue,—Is Parlia- mentary government to be made impossible by obstruction ? He admits the technical illegality of his conduct, but defends it on the ground of the urgency and importance of the crisis. The Opposition decline to pass a vote for interim supplies ; and if the vote is still refused, Count Tisza proposes to dissolve without it, and trust, if necessary, to a Bill of Indemnity. This last Constitutional question is apparently a debateable one, and the Premier is naturally averse from obscuring the main issue with further controversies ; but he is prepared to risk it if the intransigence of the Opposition continues. Meanwhile his opponents have begun a campaign in various parts of the country, and are endeavouring to distract the attention of the people from the essential weak- ness of their position by raising the banner of electoral reform. Politics in Hungary will be an unquiet profession for the next few months.
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