THE WHIRLPOOL OF DUROPEt
AIIBTRIA-11IINGARY and its future is undoubtedly the most complicated problem of modern Europe, and moreover a problem which, by reason of the issues involved, threaten more and more to absorb the attention of the student of modern politics. There are many political riddles to which Vienna alone can supply the key, or which at any rate cannot be sobied without her concurrence;—the future of the Slav race, Balkan federation, Macedonia,' the Drang %itch Osten, a.Mid-European Zollverein. In these circumstances, it is highly unfortunate that no book exists in English which deals with the history of Austria-Hungary in modern times. Doubtless this want is largely due to the extreme difficulties of the task, and to the fact that a really authoritative study of the question would involve a knowledge of Magyar, Czech, and Roumanian, in addition to the Western languages. As, however, we fear that thie ideal historian is not likely to be forthcoming, we must content ourselves with the work of such indefatigable and observant travellers as Mr. and Mrs. Colqu7 holm, who have already proved their versatility in many foreign fields. Besides, as they tell us that their book is intended for that mysterious person the "general reader," and not for the student, it would no doubt be unfair to judge it by purely historical standards. The system of omitting all references in the text has been adopted in deference to this general reader, and in a book of this kind there would seem to be little objection to the practice so long as a full and trust. worthy list of authorities is given somewhere. This is un- fortunately not the case. The list of authorities seems to us more meagre than " formidable," it is described in tbe ' • • Extract from Lord Grey's *tech et the opening of the Dominion Perlin,
meat, November 24, 1906." •
• t The Whirlpool of 'Europe. By A. B. Colqnboun and E. Colquhonm London: Harper and Brother* [15e. net] preface. Out of twenty-two books mentioned by name, four or five might have been omitted, and many of the standard books. on the subject are missing,—e.g., Anton Springer, Horvath, Rogge, Bidermann, Ebtviis, the French works of MM. Denis and Bayous, Herr Friedjung's brilliant history of Austro-Prussian rivalry, and " Rudolf Springer's " publicist studies. Without expecting Mr. and Mrs. Colquhoun to tackle the Magyar language, we are surprised that they have paid so little attention to German, which contains moat of the literature on the subject. The chief weakness of the book lies in the want of arrangement, and an unfortunate tendency to go off at a tangent at any moment. And yet within their self-imposed limits the authors could hardly avoid this. The only remedy lay in strictly confining themselves to an historical sketch, or to one of those blends of travel and political digression which go down so well with the modern public. Instead, they have tried to combine the historical, racial, and geographical sides of the question, and the book reflects both the advantages and drawbacks of this system.
The great Dela once remarked to Beust that in ordinary life it often happened that of two adversaries who were seeking an agreement, each thought that be had made every possible concession. The fact, then, that an accord could not be reached proved that at least one of them was mistaken. Unhappily, such objectivity no longer exists either in Austria or in Hungary, and hence the prospect of a reasonable solution of the Ausgleich crisis is far from hopeful. The present volume should give the general reader a clue to the various points at issue; but its attitude to the Constitutional question should be carefully watched. On the one hand we are told (p. 83) that "Dualism dates from 1867," and on the other that "Hungary is and always has been an independent sovereign State" (p. 202). The confusion is due to the enormous difference between theory and practice. The Magyar mind is a strange blend of legality and romance, and the solemn recognition of his rights by the Monarch has often duped him into tolerating their infringement. From Mohacs (1526) to the Pragmatic Sanction (1723), Hungarian liberties were violated time after time by absolutist rulers, and even after that date the Hapsburgs long understood the art of bartering the shadow for the substance.
" The Story of Hungary" is a somewhat obscure piece of writing, and the facts of Hungary's partition after Mohacs do not emerge. In reality, Buda and the Danube plain were held by the Turks for a hundred and forty-five years, the northern districts from Pressburg to Kaschau by the house of Haps- burg, and Transylvania was ruled by Magyar Princes under the Sultan's suzerainty, the three " nations " of Magyar, Saxon, and Szekler being recognised on an equal basis in the Parliament of Klausenburg. Again, the Revolution of 1848.49, which marks a turning-point in Hungarian history, is so slightly sketched that the reader would never suspect that Hungary was only brought to submission by an army of a hundred and eighty thousand Russians. "The Story of Bohemia" is distinctly clearer ; but little or nothing is said of the history of the German Bohemians, who were paramount from 1648 tb 1848; and on p. 37 we find the fanciful remark that the Bohemian people are not " intact," because there are Czechs living under Prussian rule (about sixty thousand, we believe). On the same principle, Hungary is not "intact," because there are Magyar settlers in the Bukowina and Roumania. It is most misleading to say that " Czech is granted equal rights with German in schools." It would be far more accurate to say that while the law recognises the equal rights of Czech and German as languages of education, in practice neither race tolerates the rival language in its schools.
Later chapters give a pleasant sketch of society in the Dual Monarchy, and of the different characteristics of its twelve races ; but the opening phrase of chap. 7, that the Magyars are " an entire and homogeneous nation," is disproved by most of the rest of the book. If the authors are somewhat severe on the bureaucracy and police, they at least do full justice to the joint Army, its officers and its traditions. The chapter on "Some Internal Problems" contains a useful account of the commercial relations of Austria and Hungary, and of the unwise fiscal policy of the Coalition. The authors hit the nail on the bead in the neat phrase, "Austria is an industrial country in ease, Huigary in posse," and in the doubt whether Hungary can retain her agricultural market while building
up protected industries. The chapters on Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism are good, if slight. But the treatment of the difficult South Slav question is wholly inadequate. On p. 180 we are told that in the settlement of the Ausgleich Croatia was handed back to Hungary, and remained a province of that kingdom. This is typical of those perplexing hall-traths of which the book is full ; there is not a word to tell us of the Hungaro-Croatian Ausgleich (or Nagoda) of 1868, which hiss regulated their relations ever since. Nor is it possible to maintain that Croatia was a Constitutional kingdom before the eleventh century (p. 281). We are actually told that "the only essential difference between Croats and Serbs is that the former never fell under the Turks," and reference is made to the " sympathies of Croatia for Serbo-Croat peoples in Bosnia. and Servia" (p. 326). No one could have written this who realised the keen rivalry of Croat and Serb, and their utterly different outlook,—the former towards Rome and Paris, the latter towards Constantinople, Belgrade, and Moscow. The dreams of a Magna Croatia and a Servian Empire are mutually exclusive, and it is this rivalry which makes the eastern coast of the Adriatic a doubtful factor in the future. In speaking of the language, it is not made clear that all Croats are Roman Catholic and all Serbs Orthodox, the Cyrillic character being used only by the latter, the Latin by the former. The brief account of the Glagolitza (the old Slav ritual in use in certain parts of Croatia and Dalmatia, but again frowned upon since the deaths of Leo XIII. and Bishop Strossmayer) is not trustworthy, though we have no space to deal with so involved and burning a question. We are happy to find that highly interesting little people, the Slovaks, treated with such sympathy, though we cannot admit that they had "no sense of racial grievances" until these were trumped up by party passion. The authors are altogether right in the view that " the struggling [Slovak] renascence received neither pecuniary aid nor sympathy from Russia." The " Pan-Slavism " of which they are so readily accused by the Magyar Chauvinists, and for which so many of their leaders have been, and still are, punished with imprisonment and heavy fines, "is nothing more than an attempt to resist Magyarisation" (p. 285). The best chapter in the book is that on "Politics and Politicians," which, without attempting to go deeply into the complicated internal history of the two sister-lands since 1867, gives a clear and fairly correct outline of the rival parties and their programmes.
Among several misprints, we notice "Gratz" for Graz (p. 260), "Smetaud" for Smetana the composer (p. 167), "Heynau" for Haynau (p. 75), "dissolve" for prorogue (p.314), " czardas " for csairdas (p. 132). "Bethlen Gabor" should be Gabriel Bethlen, the authors having forgotten that the Magyars place the Christian name after the surname. Wladislaw is spelt in four different ways, Schwarzenberg in two on the same page, even Wycliffe in two other ways. And if we are to have "St. Vaclav" (p. 53), do not let us have "St. Venceslav" on p. 83; indeed, to be logical, we should have "St. Istvan" for St. Stephen. On p. 88 the occupation of Bosnia is said to have shut off Monte= negro from the port of Cattaro, though this is a geographical impossibility. On p.69 we are told that the Bulgarians threw off the Ottoman yoke in the first quarter of the nineteenth century ! On p. 72 we are told that the Austrian Empire com- prises ten hereditary provinces, though elsewhere the seventeen are correctly given. It is entirely incorrect to say that the Roumanian population of Transylvania. "belongs historically to the kingdom of Roumania" (p. 149); and we wonder how the authors, with their Magyar sympathies, could have ven- tured on such a statement. On p. 86 we read: "Beust retired in 1871 and Count Andrassy became Prime Minister." But in 1871 Hohenwart was Austrian Premier, not Beast, and Andrassy, who was Hungarian Premier from 1867 to 1871, resigned that office in order to succeed Beust as Joint Minister of Foreign Affairs. A blunder like this shows that the author of chap. 5 has much too hazy an idea of Dualism to have written chap. 10. Finally, as a good Scotsman, Mr. Colquhoun should have compared Petifi to Burns, not to Shakespeare or Goethe, with whom he has no more in common than Omar Khayyam. And it is hardly fair to say that Vienna has no modern drama. The great Grillparzer (Byron's "devil of a name, but must be remembered ") has no successor, but Schnitzler and others are not unworthy to compete with our own Bernard Shaw.
The occasional brief descriptions of scenery and street-life show that the authors understand the art of charming "travel-pictures," though why Croatia should be called " bare and unbeautiful " passes our underittanding. But we cannot pass over in silence an extraordinary reference to Vienna's "disadvantages" (p. 101). These, we read, are the absence of a fine river and the flatness of the surrounding country ! Evidently Mr. and Mrs. Colquhoun do not know Vienna, which has the most delightful (and hilly) surroundings of any European capital. Even a slight acquaintance with German light opera would have introduced them to the charming Wiener Wald; and we hope that .when they next visit Vienna, they will find their way to the ICablenberg, the Sophienalpe or the Hermannskogel, or explore the beauties of the Danube from Vienna to Linz. The Whirlpool of Europe contains the makings of an excellent book on Austria-Hungary, but a great deal of revision and further study is necessary.
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