THE END OF THE HUNGARIAN CRISIS.
AUSTRIA is not exactly "a milk-white hind," but certainly she seems " fated not to die." The Standard of Thursday contained a statement which to those who think, as we do, that " Austria," or " the Austrian Empire," or "the Hapsburg dominion"—call it which you will, the latter being the true historical description—con- tains in itself some strong principle of life, is not only of interest, but a little amusing. So very much has been said and so very little done. The Opposition in Hungary had got hold of a strong weapon. There is no rule in the Hungarian Parliament directed against obstruction, and the minority resolved to carry that practice straight to its logical conclusion, and so make Parliamentary action impossible. They would then, they thought, be able to paralyse Government after Government until at last they got a Cabinet exactly to their mind. They carried this scheme out with reckless determination, not only stopping all ordinary legislation, but arresting the renewal of the Ausgleich or " arrangement" with the Cisleithan half of the Monarchy, upon which the prosperity of the entire Empire depends. They had behind them, as they thought, a mass of force, the Tory party, the Clerical party, all the big people in Vienna, and the ingrained dislike of the Hungarians for absolutist decrees, which, as they think, break the continuity of their history and render possible a repetition of the horrors of 1848. There was much reasonableness in the view of the obstructives ; and as the Emperor steadily supported Baron Banffy, it really appeared for some weeks as if the Constitution must be suspended, and Hungary once more plunged into the situation from which she was rescued by Dr s,k and her King. The Opposition had not, however, covered the whole ground, or reckoned up all the factors. The electors hated alike obstruction and clerical dominance. From every part of Hungary protests came up from men who at last, to show their determination, offered to pay their taxes in advance, and in thousands of cases did actually pay them. Representatives, however bitter, still feel condemnation by those whose confidence is their only title to power, and after one last scrimmage in Parlia- ment, so violent that it was followed by a shower of challenges, the minority sullenly gave way. They pro- mised if Baron Banffy, against whom they entertain a deadly grudge—due, we believe, but do not quite know, to his religious position—would resign, to forswear ob- struction for the future, and to conduct their contest with the majority according to Parliamentary rules. Even this offer might have failed, for the Emperor-King would not have consented to remove a Premier supported by a large majority ; but Baron Banffy insisted that his per- sonality should not be considered to the injury of his country, and the compromise was arranged. The Hun- garian constitutional difficulty, which seemed insuperable, has in fact disappeared.
The incident is characteristic of Austrian history, and is the more remarkable because it does not appear to have been due to the personal intervention of the Emperor. That astute diplomatist, for all the sadness produced by his unexampled misfortunes, may have been pulling un- suspected wires, but to the world of Hungary he appears only to be stubbornly constitutional, supporting the majority of Deputies, and quietly waiting until his Hungarian Parliament had recovered its senses.. We believe that the defeat came not from him, though he may have helped, but from the people, led by a few Catholic Magnates who, though devoted to their Church, were not prepared to see their country carried for its sake into an abyss. That seems to be the true explanation, and it is exactly in accord with Hapsburg history. Every- thing always goes wrong with that dynasty' except the ultimate result. They are always beaten but never ruined. Their wars are unsuccessful, and they emerge rather greater than before. Their rebels dictate terms to them, and then become enthusiastically loyal subjects. Their house produces idiots exactly where they seem most dangerous, and the idiots disappear at the very nick of time. Who could have imagined that after the peace of Villafranca. the Hapsburgs would acquire Bosnia and Herzegovina; or that after the frightful tyrannies of 1848, when they actually called in a foreign army, they would be- come enthusiastically popular; or that after Sadowa, Prince Bismarck, their deadly opponent, who expelled them from Germany, should stake his grand position, if not his life, on a successful effort to save them from the consequences of their own blunders ? The plain truth is that the enemies of Austria, whether foreign or domestic, are ready to face everything except the consequences of doing without the Hapsburgs. Whenever that becomes visibly the logical conclusion of their acts, they quail, and the house, with its cold pretension to universal superiority, its " stupid dignity," as its critics call it, goes on stolidly but adhesively sitting at the top. It does not hate its enemies, it does not thank its friends ; for the former cease to be enemies when they cease from troubling, and the latter are only performing their clear and imperative duty to their superiors.
But will this curious position outlast the reigning Emperor ? There are observers all over Europe who believe that it is simply impossible, who say that the racial hatreds of the Empire are incurable, that its religious homogeneity is more or less of a fiction, that the " brotherhood " in its Army is an etiquette and not a principle, and that the next heir will probably be a stolid 171tramontane, lacking in all the Emperor's special ability; and it is not easy to deny, or even question, their assertions. We have nothing to oppose to them except a conviction best expressed in the old mot that "if Austria did not exist it would have to be invented." What the method may be of extrication when the next danger arises we have not an idea. Perhaps the Emperor, marrying again, as he ought to do, may have a son who will be shielded by a strong Regent,—a personage never yet seen in Austria. Perhaps the Empire, singularly sterile for centuries in men of genius, may at last, as Empires do, produce a first- rate Vizier, a man who can lay down fundamental rules which will thenceforward be as bones to the body politic. Perhaps, though it seems so impossible, the Army may win a great pitched battle, and find in its recollection a new incentive to unity against all who assail the Empire. Or perhaps—for even this has occurred in Switzerland —the hostile races may silently agree to dislike and despise each other, and yet to work together at their proper business, which is to render all the populations of the Empire as tolerant as the population of Vienna, where people of five or six nationalities, languages, and grades of civilisation jostle each other in the street every day, and when they jostle apologise for jostling, while the whole of them uncap as the Emperor-King drives by. All that any one can confidently say about the possibilities is that hitherto not only the Hapsburg dynasty, but the Hapsburg dominion, has been strengthened as regards its resources by all misfortunes, and that its subjects, what- ever their inner feelings, have never been able when the hour of decision arrived to reconcile themselves to any alternative. If they are not loyal, they acquiesce, and in our day and under modern circumstances acquiescence is for loyalty the best of working substitutes.
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