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CHAPTER XIII

Electoral Corruption and Electoral Reform[1]

Igazad, sógor, de senki sem hiszi. (You're right, coz, but no one'll believe you.)

Magyar Proverb.

EVER since universal suffrage became an accomplished fact in Austria, the real centre of interest in the Dual Monarchy has been transferred to Hungary, where the ques­tion was originally raised in the autumn of 1905. The present political situation of Hungary is unique in Europe. The Party of Independence, after upholding extreme Radical principles during forty years of Opposition, at length attained to power, only to be captured in its turn by reactionary in­fluences. As a result we have an Extreme Left which is at once ultra-Conservative, ultra-Protectionist and ultra­Chauvinist — an overwhelming majority which will tolerate no conflicting opinions and which is not ashamed to thin the scanty ranks of its opponents by suspension of immunity and even by more violent methods. But while within the walls of Parliament there is no Opposition worthy of the name, the country is full of discontent and impatience. In Octo­ber 1907 Mr. Mezöfi, the only Socialist deputy in the House, was received with loud and hostile cries when his interpel­lation on electoral reform was announced, and only a single member of the entire Coalition party voted for its urgency. This would seem somewhat illogical in a party whose leaders at their accession to power laid repeated stress on the tran­sitional nature of their government. The Coalition has now been in office for two years and a half, and so far no indication has been given as to the lines on which this reform, admittedly the chief item in their programme, is to proceed. As Count Andrássy, the Minister whose duty it will be to introduce the Bill, has justly observed, the whole future of Hungary depends upon the manner in which this problem is solved ; and hence no apology is needed for its discussion in a book which deals with the racial question in Hungary.

The present electoral law of Hungary, when it was passed in 1874, compared not unfavourably with that of many other countries, especially Austria, where the complicated curial system prevailed. But since that date it has been out-dis­tanced by all its neighbours, and is to-day probably the most illiberal franchise in Europe.

The qualifications for the vote are so elaborate and so involved that the official organ of the Government once de­scribed the Hungarian franchise as " the confusion of Babel." They are based upon property, taxation, profession or official position, and ancestral privileges[2]; and care has been taken to exclude not merely servants in the widest sense of that word, but also all apprenticed workmen and agricultural labourers (§ 10). Hence the proletariat is entirely unrepre­sented in the Hungarian Parliament, and even the skilled artisan is a negligible quantity in politics ; less than 6 per cent, of the working classes, and only 13 per cent, of the small trading class, possess the franchise. No fewer than 59 per cent, of the electors are owners of over 8 acres of land. Indeed only six per cent, of the entire population enjoys the franchise, and as a result, a number of constituencies have become little better than rotten boroughs. At present there are two constituencies with less than 200 voters, nine with less than 500, 49 (or 11 per cent.) with less than 1,000 : while 280 more contain less than 3,000 voters.[3] As the proportion of voters who actually come to the polls is not high in Hungary,[4] the elections of 1901 presented the following startling result. Almost one­third of the deputies (125) were elected by less than 100 votes ; close upon two-thirds (254) received less than 1,000 votes; 377, or over 91 percent., received less than 1,500 votes, and only n candidates received more than 2,000 votes.[5] In 1905 there was no contest in 108 seats, or 26 per cent, of all the seats.[6]

Though the Magyars are never tired of emphasizing the need for uniformity in the lands of St. Stephen, they did not scruple to introduce a special franchise for Transylvania, which is skilfully devised in such a way as to secure the Magyar " hegemony." While in Hungary, as a whole, the franchise is possessed by 6'i per cent, of the population, in the central districts by from 6'5 to 7*5 per cent., in Transylvania, on the other hand, only 3-2 per cent, are enfranchised. Indeed the more Roumanian a county is, the fewer voters does it possess.[7] Thus out of the 74 deputies whom Transylvania sends to Budapest, 35 represent the 4 Magyar counties and the 15 chief towns,[8] which together form only 28 percent, of the population ; while only 30 represent the remaining 72 per cent, of the population, which is of course overwhelm­ingly Roumanian. In other words, among the Roumanians there is an average of one deputy to every 50-60,000 inhabi­tants, among the Szekels of Last Transylvania, i to every 4-5,000 ! Moreover, in Transylvania the qualification is from three to six times lower in the towns than in the rural districts, for the excellent reason that the Roumanians are in a hopeless minority in most of the urban communes. Nor is this all. In the rural districts of Transylvania the qualification is in­finitely higher than in other parts of Hungary. In the latter the vote falls to all owners of a "quarter urbarial session" (roughly 14 acres), in the former it is limited to taxpayers who can show a net income of 159 crowns. Owing to the greater poverty of the soil and the primitive conditions which still prevail in Transylvania, the practical result of this is that a Roumanian peasant must own at least six times as much land as his Magyar equal, before he can obtain a vote. This helps to explain why in the 25 more or less Magyar counties of Hungary the proportion of voters to the entire population is nearly twice as large as in the Roumanian counties.

The statistics with which I have inflicted the reader tell an eloquent tale, and he will no longer be surprised or in­credulous when he reads that the Hungarian franchise is not exactly monopolized, but effectually controlled by two classes — the Gentry and the Jews. No one who has any knowledge of Hungary can venture to deny this assertion, for the Magyar "intelligents" and the enfranchised portion of the petite bourgeoisie are mainly recruited from these two classes.[9]

The proletariat has no share in political life, and if it has not been found possible to exclude the non-Magyar races entirely from the franchise, numerous devices, of which we shall have to speak shortly, have been successfully employed for the past 40 years to keep them from the polls or to pre­vent them from electing men of their own nationality. In short, under the present franchise the non-Magyars and the working classes are little better than political helots. There is no pretence of democratic representation ; or rather there is a great deal of pretence, but absolutely no reality.

If the distribution of seats is unequal, gerrymandering, or electoral geometry as the Germans aptly call it, has reached its acme of perfection in Hungary. The constituencies have been cut up in the most arbitrary fashion, in defiance of geography, population and nationality, but with the one great object of favouring the Magyar element. There is only one polling booth in each constituency, and as the non­Magyar constituencies are apt to be larger than the Magyar, it will not surprise the reader to learn that the larger the constituency, the farther from its centre is placed the polling booth. It is only necessary to glance at an electoral map of Hungary to see the truth of this assertion ; indeed a score of instances could be cited where the polling place is in the extreme corner.[10]

Strangely enough, this is most noticeable in the mountain districts, where difficulties of communication would seem to call for some other arrangement, and the fact that the Magyar strength lies in the towns serves to emphasize the handicap thus laid upon those coming from a distance, who are in the main non-Magyars. The constituencies on the frontier are often carved into long and narrow strips, which seem to mock at the convenience of the inhabitants,[11] in many others the boundary follows so tortuous and serpentine a route that the general effect reminds us of the most difficult Chinese puzzles of our childhood.[12] One constituency[13] is divided into two portions, the larger of which is separated by another large constituency (to say nothing of the river Maros) from the smaller portion which contains the polling booth ; in] another[14] a distance of sixty miles separates the polling place from the southern boundaries of the constitu­ency. Under such circumstances it is often necessary for voters to leave home on the morning before the election in order to arrive in time to record their votes. How insuper­able the difficulties must have been twenty or thirty years ago when the railway system was less developed, can easily be imagined; and even to-day the climate and the weather play a very important part in elections, owing to the great distances which many voters have to cover.[15]

On the other hand every obstacle is thrown in the way of the Opposition voters, especially in the case of a non-Magyar candidate. Bridges have sometimes been broken down or de­clared unsafe for vehicles on the day of the election, in order to force Opposition voters to walk impossible distances or lose their votes. With the same object, all the horses in the outlying villages of a constituency have been placed under veterinary supervision, which is of course withdrawn on the day following the election. And even when the outlying voters have reached their destination, their troubles are not ended. It is quite a common trick to keep a body of peasant voters waiting all day outside the village in rainy or frosty weather, in the hope that this treatment may thin their ranks or induce them to transfer their allegiance. At Pancsova in 1875 the non-Magyar voters were made to wait two days in the open in ice and snow, before they were admitted to the poll.[16] Meanwhile in full view the rival voters are probably being ostentatiously feasted or plied with drink and money. If the Opposition voters remain firm, they may perhaps at length be admitted to the poll, only to be subjected to still greater indignities. But sometimes a cordon of troops or gendarmes blocks all entrance to the town, until the recording officer has closed the poll. Then, if the frantic peasants, who have come miles to vote, are rash enough to resist, ball cartridge is freely used, and dreadful scenes of bloodshed ensue. At the elections of 1896 thirty-two persons were killed and over seventy wounded ; and though the death roll on this occasion was unusually high, military intervention always claims its victims.[17] (See Appendix xxiii.).

At every general election the troops of the Joint Army are requisitioned by the Magyar authorities to " preserve order " at the polls ; the regiments quartered in Hungary itself are regarded as insufficient, and fresh battalions are poured into the country from Galícia and Štyria.[18]

At an election in a Slovak or Roumanian district, it is by no means unusual for the authorities to send 1,500 troops and 100 gendarmes to " preserve order " in a single con­stituency[19]; and the Magyar Press is full of tales of the "ter­rorism " exercised by the non-Magyar agitators in such favourable circumstances ! Of course, in reality, so far from being able to terrorize, they are scarcely free to turn round without the permission of the authorities, who shamelessly set the law at open defiance. Hitherto the Hungarian Govern­ment has been free to employ the military for purposes of electoral coercion ; but it is to be hoped that the reformed Austrian Reichsrath will no longer submit to this misuse of the splendid institution of the Joint Army, and that the elec­tions of 1909 will be conducted on West European principles. It must not, of course, be supposed that such practices are universal in Hungary. All depends on the locality and the administrative officials. While, for instance, in the County of Nyitra the corruption and tyranny of the authorities baffles description, in the adjoining county of Pressburg an entirely different system prevails, and the elections are conducted in an orderly and impartial manner. At the same time, it is no exaggeration to say that for the past forty years an honestly conducted election in a non-Magyar constituency has been a very rare occurrence ; and the Roumanian petition of 1892 to His Majesty was only stating the brutal truth when it asserted that a non-Magyar citizen " can only take part in the electoral campaign if he disregards his life and personal safety," and that Hungarian elections " have well-nigh assumed the character of a civil war."[20]

The way in which electoral rolls are prepared in Hungary throws a lurid light upon local administrative methods. Everything depends upon the personal character of the local notaries, szólgabiró[21] or village mayor, of whom the former are notorious for their arrogance and Chauvinism and the latter for his helpless subservience. Applications by Op­position electors, above all applications by non-Magyars, are often simply ignored. Names are arbitrarily omitted or intentionally mis-spelt, or entered with wrong age, pro­fession or address, and thus disqualified at the poll; and the fact that the lists are drawn up solely in the Magyar language, even in parishes where those speaking Magyar may be counted on the fingers of one hand, makes these mani­pulations a safe and easy task. Persons accused or suspected of " Pan-Slav " tendencies are thus apt to find their names passed over in the electoral rolls, Their verbal complaints will be met with insolent or stolid neglect, and their formal written appeals are in danger of finding their way into the waste-paper basket. Needless to say, the higher the qualifi­cation and the intelligence of the persons concerned, the more likely is this abuse to occur, and I myself know the manager of a large bank and a prominent Slovak advocate who were in this way deprived of their votes at a former election.[22] As an instance of what is possible among the officials who direct the elections in Hungary, I cannot do better than quote an incident which occurred in June, 1907, at Gernyeszeg, a purely Magyar constituency in Eastern Transylvania. Here at a bye-election between two rival candidates of the Independent Party, the opening of the poll had to be delayed for several hours, because the voting roll had mysteriously dis­appeared !

Needless to say, the officials take an active part in politics, especially during elections ; and nowhere is their zeal so manifest as in the non-Magyar districts. The regulations which enjoin their political neutrality arc openly flouted, and the local officials arc frequently the most prominent, not merely in canvassing, but in intimidating and bribing the peasant electors. The village notary especially keeps a close eye upon the voters of his district, and his intimate knowledge of their private means and taxable capacity, backed often enough by his alliance with the all-powerful Jewish publican and usurer, enables him to exercise very consider­able pressure when "the day of the election comes round. If the fight is closely contested, unwilling or wavering voters are often dragged from their houses, and browbeaten into voting for the " desirable " candidate. The Magyar officials know very well that these illegalities, so far from exposing them to reprimands or punishments, are the surest path to promotion and the favour of the authorities. Those who shout loudest are the greatest patriots, and those who prefer to be patriotic in their mother tongue are traitors and agi­tators, and as such must be ruthlessly suppressed. In ex­treme cases, where the Magyar hegemony is endangered by the candidature of a Slovak or Roumanian, the county officials are supported in their " patriotic " efforts by the High Sheriff. For instance, in 1906, when the election of the Slovak candi­date at Rózsahegy seemed certain, the High Sheriff of Liptó came over in haste and canvassed from door to door among the Jewish shopmen, until a majority could be secured for the Magyar and Anti-Semite candidate.

The same partiality prevails among the officials who direct the elections. As I have already indicated, administrative efficiency varies greatly in the different counties, and one result of this is, that while in one county corruption and bribery are confined to the agents and canvassers of the candidates, in another the electoral officials are themselves guilty of the most outrageous illegalities. In each county the recording officers are appointed by the Central Committee of the County Assembly, which is only too often a mere tool in the hands of the High Sheriff or of a few powerful local magnát es. A great deal, therefore, depends on the personal character of the recording officer, for he is charged with all preparations for the poll and disposes over the gendarmes and troops which may have been requisitioned to preserve order. With him are present during the election representatives of each commune in the constituency (generally their mayors) and also representatives of the rival candidates.[23] But their helplessness becomes at once apparent whenever the president stoops to illegali­ties. Their protests are disregarded, and their withdrawal only opens the way for even greater abuses. For instance, cases could be cited where during the five or ten minutes which elapsed between the departure of one Vertrauensmann and the arrival of another, the president arbitrarily disqualified a whole batch of electors and even credited some of their votes to the other side !

There is no secret ballot, and to vote by public declaration before a mainly Magyar electoral committee requires very considerable courage on the part of a Slav or Roumanian peasant voter, who knows only too well the acts of petty tyranny and injustice by which the local demi-gods can re­venge themselves for his refusal to support their candidate. The minutes and the entire proceedings of the election are conducted in Magyar, and the slightest slip in that language often serves as an excuse for disqualifying him. Votes are sometimes annulled en masse on the wildest pretexts. For instance, a voter who, from ignorance of the language, failed to understand a question put to him, or mispronounced the candidate's name, or put his Christian name before his sur­name (and not vice versa according to the Magyar custom), is often ordered to stand aside, and loses his vote. The list of such sordid electioneering tricks could be added to almost indefinitely, but the lengths to which this swindling is some­times carried can best be realized from the following account of the notorious Szenicz and Verbó elections in May, 1906.

Szenicz is a constituency of 2,391 electors, situated in the county of Nyitra on the Moravian frontier. The population is entirely Slovak, with the exception of a handful of officials and Jewish tradesmen. On the eve of the general elections of 1906, Szenicz and the neighbouring villages were filled with gendarmes and troops ; and on the polling-day the returning officer, Mr. Coloman Szabó (the szólgabiró of Holies), cut off the Slovak voters by a military cordon from all access either to the polling-booth, or to the village inns. Their leaders were not allowed to communicate with them, and they were kept waiting outside Szenicz without food or drink till late at night, before they were even admitted to record their votes. As there seemed to be no prospect of the Magyar candidate being returned, Szabó and Pfauser, the presidents of the two committees, then proceeded to annul votes whole­sale. Fifty-seven Slovak electors were disqualified because they either pronounced the candidate's name wrongly, or credited him with a wrong Christian name, or omitted, or were ignorant of it, or described him as " Frank " or " Frano " Veselovsky, instead of " Veselovsky Ferencz " (the Magyar form). Others were rejected because their names or ages were entered incorrectly on the voting-roll, even when there could be no question of mistaken identity ; while certain names were treated as having been struck off the roll, because a careless clerk had written them half through the line in­stead of above it. In short, every possible trick or manoeuvre, some just within the letter of the law, others far beyond it, was employed to thin the ranks of the Slovak electors — with the result that 326 Slovak voters were disqualified and the Magyar candidate was elected by a majority of 141 votes. After the election, 214 voters charged Szabó with misuse of his official position and violation of the law regulating elec­tions. The inquiry into the case was entrusted to Dr. Szálé, the szólgabiró of the neighbouring district of Szakolcza, who had organized the electoral campaign in favour of the Government candidate. The plaintiff's counsel was not allowed to attend the inquiry, and Mr. Szálé did not even examine Szabó, the accused official ! On the other hand, he succeeded by threats and other devices in inducing 86 of the petitioners to withdraw from the action. The re­mainder held firm, but the Fiscal, in rejecting their appeal, did not scruple to argue that their evidence could not be con­sidered, because they all belonged to the Slovak party![24]

The election of Szenicz was wholly eclipsed by that in the neighbouring Slovak constituency of Verbó, where the total number of electors only amounted to 1,522. Baron George Rudnyánszky, the candidate of the Constitutional Party, was opposed in the interests of the Slovak national party by Dr. Julius Markovič, a well-known Slovak doctor in Vágujhely, who has done more than any other man to improve the con­dition of the Slovak peasantry by the foundation of village banks and co-operative societies, and by strenuous opposi­tion to the fearful abuses of usury as practised by the Jewish tradesmen of North-west Hungary. Out of the 1,522 voters, the Magyars could not count on more than 400 to 500, even in­cluding those amenable to bribes, and thus in order to bring in their candidate, extremely drastic measures were adopted. Voting, it must be remembered, is by public declaration. A peasant, then, is asked to name the candidate for whom he votes. " Gyula Markovics," he may reply. " Gyula ? Gyula ? " says the returning officer, " there is no candidate called Gyula. Stand aside." And the unlucky voter, who ought to have said, " Markovics, Gyula," instead of " Gyula Markovics," has lost his vote. Another may make the same mistake with his own name, or may, from ignorance of Magyar, use a wrong number in stating his address. By these and similar dodges man after man was disqualified ; yet at 10 p.m., after all the Magyar voters had polled, the Slovak candidate was still leading by 150 votes, and Rud­nyánszky's cause seemed desperate. The situation was saved by a little band of roughs, who were allowed to force their way into the polling-booth, upset the president's table, and smashed the lamp. In the darkness the registers were torn up, and thus the election had to be annulled. The Magyar papers, ignoring the fact that Markovič was known to be leading easily, had the effrontery to assert that the disturbance was due to his supporters. Such an accusa­tion merely added insult to injury, for the Slovak headquarters were outside the village and were surrounded by troops and gendarmes, who also guarded the polling-booth, and who could have stopped such disturbances in a moment, unless they had been given the hint to hold aloof.[25] Most significant of all, nu inquiry was ordered, and the drunken louts who had caused the mischief were allowed to go unpunished.

A fortnight later, on May 18, a fresh election was held at Verbo.the chief szólgabiró Szálé acting as returning officer. Over 1,200 troops and 100 gendarmes had been requisitioned to preserve order, and on an appeal of Mr. Hodža to the Minister of the Interior, instructions had been issued for a " pure election." Three Slovak deputies (Jehlička, Juriga and Skyčak) were, despite their immunity, forcibly expelled by the gendarmes. The main body of Slovak electors was assembled outside the village, and, despite heavy rain, were kept waiting till dusk in the open fields, surrounded by a strong force of troops. They were not allowed their own " marshals," but were placed at the mercy of a Magyar can­vasser, who beguiled over 150 peasants before an entirely sham electoral committee, where they recorded their votes without discovering the deception. The Slovak candidate, hearing of this in time, collected them once more and brought them to the proper polling-booth, only to find that Szálé absolutely refused to admit them. Meanwhile votes were annulled wholesale on the most flimsy pretexts. All those who failed to give the candidate's name, age and address in correct Magyar were promptly disqualified, and the Slovak candidate was robbed of something like 700 votes. Dr. Mar­kovič's representative on the committee was charged no fewer than six times, and for the last two hours no Slovak representative was present at all, with the result that whole batches of Markovič's supporters were credited to the rival candidate ! Thus an absolutely safe majority of over 200 for Markovič was twisted into a minority, and Rudnyánszky was declared elected by 95 votes. Not content with their victory, the authorities took action against a number of villagers for carrying white banners on the day of the election — an ancient custom which denotes that the villagers to which the banners belong intend to vote solid for one parti­cular candidate. The Lutheran pastor of Krajne and seven peasants were sentenced to ten days and 150 crowns (£6 55.) each, and five others to five days and 100 crowns each. Such is the history of this astounding election, which threatens to rob Coloman Tisza and Bánffy of their laurels, and reveals the Coalition Government as the worthy champion of the Magyar " liberal " tradition.

Wholesale bribery has always been recognized in Hungary as a political instrument of the first importance, and it formed the basis of that far-reaching system of corruption to which the Liberal Party owed its thirty-eight years of power. In former years the electors were invariably regaled with food and drink for days, sometimes for weeks, before the day of the poll; and the money which in Britain is spent in hiring public halls and deluging the country with pamphlets and fly-leaves is applied in Hungary to the refreshment of the inner man. Though since 1899 greater respect may be shown for appearances, the corruption strikes as deep roots as ever, while in the non-Magyar districts no trick is too mean or discreditable to ensure the return of a " patriotic " member. The large proportion of uncontested seats is in no small measure due to previous monetary arrangements, especially where there is a limited number of voters ; and rumour has it that not a few deputies speculate upon their par­liamentary salaries. Be this as it may, a large mass of electors have their price, and even to-day an election is still regarded in many country districts as an opportunity for getting blind drunk for nothing. No disgrace attaches to bribery, and indeed its success is only too often regarded with envy and admiration.[26]

In 1899, it is true, Mr. Coloman Széli introduced an elaborate Corrupt Practices Act, as a reaction against the disgraceful trickery and violence of Baron Bánffy's régime ; but this law, like so many others in Hungary, has for the most part remained merely ornamental. The blame for this does not attach to Mr. Széli, who was probably genuinely disgusted at the excesses of his predecessors, but to the bad adminis­tration against which every educated Hungarian inveighs ; and until the latter is radically reformed, no great improve­ment can be expected in the matter of purity of elections. Meanwhile, even this law directly sanctions bribery under certain prescribed forms. In other words, the candidate may drive his supporters to the poll at his own expense, may supply those coming from a distance with food and drink, and may entertain individual voters in his house " so far as this does not exceed the limits of ordinary hospitality."[27] With this exception, however, the new law looked very well on paper, and meanwhile the local authorities might be trusted to maintain their ancient reputation. The baneful effects of the system upon the moral standard of the peasants, and indeed of society as a whole, cannot be two strongly em­phasized ; and one of the most sterling merits of the little band of non-Magyar deputies is their resolute condemnation of corrupt practices, and their endeavour to appeal to the reason and sentiment rather than to the appetite and pockets of their constituents. May they long remain true to the motto of Kollár, "Our people must base its existence upon virtue!"

Of course, no one will ever know the sums spent by the Governments of the past forty years for electoral purposes ; but the scandals which came to light in the spring of 1907 render it highly probable that considerable sums have been diverted from the Budget for necessary electoral " expenses." Mr. Ugron, the well-known Clerical Independent, did not hesitate in 1900 to accuse Baron Banff y of not handing over to his successor the electoral fund of the Liberal Party ; and though Mr. Ugron's statements are not always very accurate, the existence of such a fund can hardly be called in question. In this connexion we cannot do better than quote from an Address moved in November, 1898, by the National Party, under the leadership of Count Albert Apponyi : "The Premier has partly in his earlier, partly in his most recent announcements, declared it to be the duty and business of the Government to collect, control and distribute electoral money for the support of official candidates, and make use of the power of the public offices." In a word, the brazen assertion of Baron Bánffy, that absolutely no incorrect use of money was made at the elections of 1896, need not be taken seriously ; indeed it was received by the House in the same spirit in which it was uttered. In the course of the same debate (Feb. 17, 1898), Mr. Rohonczy, a Liberal deputy, had openly asserted in the House that at the " Bánffy elections," the Government spent six million crowns to defeat opposition candidates. His assertion was, of course, denied, and he subsequently admitted that he was not in a position to prove the exact sum. But when he confessed to having himself received 9,000 crowns on that occasion, and 4,000 crowns at each of the two previous elections, his statement was accepted on all sides as bona fide.[28] Of course there is not necessarily anything discreditable in the grant of pecuniary support to a poor candidate by his party ; the real significance lies in the admission of the manner in which a large portion of this money was spent, and of the direct and active support received by " desirable " candidates from the central and local executive authorities. Besides, there is all the difference in the world between a party fund for electoral expenses, and a Government fund for the same purpose. It is the latter which exists in Hungary, and in the so-called " pure " elec­tions of Mr. Széli (1901), and Count Tisza (1905), the Govern­mental support to Governmental candidates was reckoned at close upon ten crowns a head for the number of electors. For instance, in a constituency with 1,000 electors, the " desirable " candidate would receive from 8,000 to 10,000 crowns, and made his arrangements accordingly.[29] Each of these general elections must, therefore, have cost the Govern­ment at least eight million crowns. Thus with charming im­partiality the Government provides money for its own supporters and troops and gendarmes for the benefit of its opponents. The money thus placed in the hands of candidates is of course distributed with varying degrees of delicacy. The banknotes may be handed over concealed in a newspaper, or may be left protruding from a pocket in sight of the proper people : on other occasions such hypocritical tricks may be dispensed with altogether.

Meanwhile, Mr. Rohonczy's avowed object of provoking an inquiry was not achieved, and time after time, when inter­pellations have been made respecting specially outrageous electoral incidents, the House has almost unanimously decided to ignore them, and has accepted with significant readiness the most childishly inadequate explanations. Scandals of this kind, instead of being probed to the bottom, are ignored or hushed up ; for " no nation possesses so much esprit de corps as the Magyars, and nowhere are all facts which might compromise the ruling nation in the eyes of the foreign public, passed over in such unanimous silence."[30] As Mr. Rákovszky, the clerical leader, once pertinently remarked in Parliament,[31] a single newspaper article would suffice in Britain to produce a parliamentary inquiry on a question of corruption. But in Hungary matters are very different. The county in which Mr. Rákovszky's home is situated, has long been the scene of specially flagrant electoral corruption and political persecution, and yet his attitude has been one of open and unqualified approval. Doubtless he regards all means as justifiable, when applied against the race to which his an­cestors belonged, but which he himself pursues with all the fanaticism of a convert.

Electoral freedom of speech and action is a mere farce wherever opposition voters are concerned, and is continually violated in the case of non-Magyar candidates. Not merely are voters intimidated or forcibly prevented from recording their votes, bttt obnoxious candidates arc prevented from addressing meetings of their adherents. For instance, last year at a bye-election in Bazin (County Pressburg) two Slovak deputies were forcibly ejected from a village where they wished to speak in favour of the Slovak candidate, Mr. Ivánka.[32] An even more typical case was reported in the following laconic words in the Pester Lloyd during the elections of 1905 : — "Cséke (Bihar Co.) — The Roumanian candidate has roused the population to such an extent, that he has been arrested by order of the főszolgabíró ! " An incident whose occurrence in any other country might have caused the fall of the Government, is in Hungary dismissed in a couple of lines. Incidents of this kind occur so frequently, that public opinion has long ceased to wax indignant, especially as the majority of these illegalities are committed against the non-Magyar helots, and not against "the ruling nation" (azural­kodó nemzet). An incident which occurred at the general elections of 1906 will give the reader a still clearer idea of the arbitrary and scandalous conduct of the local authorities in many Hungarian counties. The constituency of Girált in the county of Sáros, on the Galícián frontier, was to be con­tested by Count Aurél Desewffy, a member of the Constitu­tional Party, and Mr. Pivko, a small Slovak proprietor, as a Slovak national candidate. Girált contains 2,027 electors, of whom the vast majority is Slovak, and as there was a real danger of Pivko being elected, drastic steps had to be taken to avert such a disaster. One fine morning Pivko was arrested by a couple of gendarmes and thrown into prison at Eperjes. Though he had all the necessary papers to prove his identity, all his protests were in vain, and he was neither allowed to call in an advocate, nor to wire to his brother or to the Minister of the Interior. In prison he remained for forty-eight hours, and meanwhile, as he failed to present himself for nomination, his rival Desewffy was elected un­opposed ! He was then released with faint apologies, and no further proceedings were taken against him. By way of adding insult to injury, the szólgabiró Kerekes forbade him to set foot in the county of Sáros for ten years to come, though needless to say no legal title could be found for such a pro­hibition.

Those non-Magyars who succeed in running the electoral gauntlet are often prevented from addressing their consti­tuents. For example, Mr. Milan Hodža had arranged to hold meetings on one Sunday of the autumn of 1907, in order to deliver the customary annual report of his parliamentary activity. But the chief szólgabiró of Neusatz (Újvidék) interposed his veto on the ground that the general discontent among the popu­lation and especially among the working classes had assumed such dimensions that such meetings were calculated to en­danger the public order ! Meanwhile the unsuccessful candi­dates are brought to trial for remarks made on electoral platforms or contained in their party programmes. Here again examples might be quoted ad nauseam. On Septem­ber 6, 1902, Dr. Rudolf Markovič and his brother were found guilty of holding a meeting in the previous October in the village of Hrussó without previously intimating it to the authorities (see p. 324). One of the incriminated passages in the former's speech was the following sentence : "Let us hold together, there is no power on earth which Can crush us." These outrageous remarks savoured of treason to the Magyar officials, the plain fact being that a Slovak who no longer cringes to the local tyrant already stands self-convicted of " Panslav " leanings.

It is evident that an electoral system such as has been described above, so far from being worthy of a country whose constitutional Charter dates from the thirteenth century, actually eclipses that of England in its most corrupt epoch before the Reform Bill, and that of Tammany at the present day. The system has so many grave defects that it is difficult to know where to begin with a reform ; but this does not supply the Government with an excuse for further delay. An extension of the franchise is now admitted on all sides to be inevitable, and the only question now at issue is whether the ruling caste can succeed in rescuing some fragments of its old privileges from the grasp of the young democracy.

The Coalition was guilty of a fatal error of judgment in refusing to accept office in the spring of 1905 ; for the so­called " unconstitutional " Government of Baron Fejérváry was thus enabled to overtrump the Opposition by including Universal Suffrage in its programme. The proposals of Mr. Kristóffy aroused rage and consternation in the camp of the Coalition, and corresponding enthusiasm among the working classes and the non-Magyar helots. The Russian revolution­ary movement of that autumn had already prepared the soil, and the ideas of Kristóffy, transplanted into Austria, rapidly grew into the stately tree of a rejuvenated and demo­cratic Reichsrath. Meanwhile at the eleventh hour the Hungarian Coalition capitulated to the Crown (April, 1906) and accepted office on the basis of a transitional programme. The new Cabinet solemnly pledged itself to postpone all discus­sion of the military questions which had evoked the crisis, until a radical measure of electoral reform had been adopted by the House and a new Parliament elected on a really repre­sentative basis could express its opinion at the polls. Though anxious to postpone the evil day as long as possible, the Wekerle Cabinet knows that there is now no escape from the dilemma. La vérité est en marche et rien ne ľarrétera plus. The real question is how the principal of Universal Suffrage will succeed in running the gauntlet of a House whose mainstay are the landed interest and professional politicians, both of whom are threatened by the Socialist leanings of the proletariat. At least a quarter of the House is composed of mere " carpet-baggers," who owe their position solely to the narrow franchise and to the favours of some all-powerful political Maecenas. When entrance to Parliament is no longer largely dependent on the wirepulling of a few individ­uals and the greasing of a few hundred palms, but on the successful organization of a numerous electorate, then an entirely new class of men will enter the worn-out Parliament of privilege, and the poisonous Chauvinism of the present day will be supplanted by a growing enthusiasm for social reform.

Unhappily the present House is Kossuthist merely in its attitude towards Austria, and in all internal questions favours a scarcely veiled mediaevalism such as may well make its former leaders turn in their graves. The brilliant financier who gives his name to the Cabinet, is an opportunist of the first water, while the two representatives of Western culture, Mr. Francis Kossuth and Count Albert Apponyi, are the reluctant victims of their corrupt milieu. This fact became apparent to all the world when these men and Count Julius Andrássy consented to share the sweets of office with Mr. Géza Polónyi, whose scandalous collapse in February, 1907, cannot have surprised any of his country­men, and who was peculiarly unfitted for the position of Minister of Justice.

Reaction has for the moment gained the upper hand in Hungary, and it may be taken for granted that a House which is so essentially oligarchic as the present, will make des­perate efforts to modify any measure of universal suffrage in an illiberal sense. An attempt may be made to neutralize any accession of strength to the non-Magyars by giving the Magyar districts and the towns more than their fair pro­portion of seats. But such a manreuvre would only have the effect of strengthening the Socialists, whose chief following lies among the artisans of the towns and among the Magyar peasantry of the Alföld ; and the fact that the latter can no longer be relied upon, shows how grave is the situation of the dominant caste. As the Socialists are strongly in favour of equal rights and linguistic liberty for all races, the result of the manoeuvre would merely be to drive most of the non­Magyars into their arms. Unfair distribution, then, if carried very far, would become a two-edged weapon. Skilful gerry­mandering will no doubt place the non-Magyars in a minority in all constituencies which are situated on a linguistic frontier ; for Count Andrássy is hardly likely to adopt the just and en­lightened system now in vogue in the Moravian Diet, by which each race has a separate register and all inter-racial contests are avoided. But even when all the resources of geometry have been exhausted, Universal Suffrage is bound to bring a great accession of strength to the non-Magyars, especially in Transylvania — for the simple reason that the existing franchise throws all its weight into the Magyar scale. Hence a much more insidious plan is being discussed in certain sections of the Independent Party. Universal Suffrage, they admit, is a pledge to which they are irrevocably com­mitted. But of course this universal suffrage must be brought into harmony with " the idea of the Magyar state " (a mag­yar állam eszme), and it is obvious that in any well-regulated country a knowledge of " the language of state " is an essen­tial qualification for a vote. In other words, these Radical stalwarts proclaim their adherence to the great principle of Universal Suffrage, but at the same time are anxious to ex­clude from its benefits those 40.9 per cent, of the population who are still entirely ignorant of the Magyar language! The difficulty would thus be solved in a manner worthy of Magyar constitutional casuistry. But happily the Coalition Government was unwary enough to commit itself in its compact with the Crown to a measure of Universal Suffrage at least as liberal as that put forward in 1905 by Mr. Kristóffy. As the latter was careful to remind his audience, in the course of a brilliant public address last March, the new reform is therefore bound to extend the franchise at any rate to all males over twenty-four who are capable of reading and writing any Hungarian language. But even without this pledge, it is hardly credible that the Sovereign would ever give his sanction to a bill which excluded half the nation from political rights for no other reason than for the accident of their birth.

Another group of Chauvinists favours a still more Jesuitical method of securing the Magyar hegemony in the new Parlia­ment. In their view the franchise should be extended as widely as possible among the people — geometrical allowances being doubtless made, and loopholes being left for the in­ventive genius of the local officials ; but a " patriotic " test must be imposed upon all candidates for Parliament.[33] Even as it is, any candidate guilty of " instigation of one class, nationality, or confession to hatred of another," or of agi­tation against the political unity of the nation or the institu­tions of property and marriage, is ipso facto disqualified. But the Chauvinists would like to see even these outrageous limitations increased and applied with such severity as to exclude every non-Magyar or Socialist who dared to criticize the Divine right of the Magyar clique. In short, all kinds of fantastic schemes are on foot, whose sole and avowed object is to counteract the effect of a reform of the franchise ; and it will require all the firmness of the Sovereign and the Heir­Apparent to overcome the reluctance of the Government and the virtual hostility of its adherents.

In any case the crying grievances of the present system can never be removed unless three safeguards are imposed upon the extended franchise. In the first place voting must be by ballot, for in the words of Mr. Kristóffy, to abandon the ballot " especially in our country, where governmental and economic hypertrophy has reached its climax, is as much as to take back '.with one hand what has been given with the other." Moreover, the most stringent and detailed rules must be introduced for the guidance of voters at the poll. The voting papers must be printed on uniform paper, must not be transparent, and must be drawn up not in Magyar only as hitherto, but in Magyar and all other languages spoken in the constituency in question. All writing on the voting paper must be strictly prohibited, and only a cross filled in opposite the name of the candidate for whom the elector wishes to record his vote. Great care must be taken to pre­vent the voter from being overlooked or influenced in any way while he is recording his vote, and still more to prevent him from carrying away a voting-paper from the polling-booth. The old evil system of separate entrances to the booth for rival parties must of course be finally abolished. I mention these apparent trifles because they have been found in other countries to be essential to the purity of elections, and their neglect might render the introduction of secret balloting entirely illusory.

Secondly, there must be polling booths at regular distances in every constituency, so arranged as to enable all voters to reach the poll on foot in all weathers. It may not prove possible to establish a polling booth in every parish (község or Gemeinde) : but there is nothing to prevent them from being sufficiently numerous to enable every man to exercise his political rights without hardship or inconvenience.

Thirdly, the elections must on no account be conducted by the county officials, who are mere creatures of the ruling oligarchy, and whose corrupt and autocratic tendencies would poison the whole reform. Royal officials from headquarters must be appointed ad hoc, and not appointed on the eve of the election by the influence of the Cabinet, but at stated intervals, and on the basis of some arrangement between all existing parties. Finally, appeal against electoral abuses must be rapid, cheap and easy, not slow, expensive and futile as at present. These two latter innovations are essential to the success of Electoral Reform. In most Hungarian counties, local administration is so bad that all honest Hun­garians, irrespective of race, inveigh bitterly against it ; and its democratization must be the first task of the coming People's Parliament, if social and economic disaster and revolution are to be averted. It is obvious, then, that the extended franchise, — the only legal instrument by which this demo­cratization can btj affected, must not be placed in the absolute control of the corrupt officials whom it threatens with a just Nemesis.

Finally, the complicated system of plural voting devised by Count Andrássy and so opportunely revealed by the Social Democratic organ Népszava, can hardly be accepted as a basis of electoral reform.[34] Its real object is, under pretence of safe­guarding the interests of the Magyar race, to perpetuate the reactionary and oppressive sway of a narrow oligarchy. Less than four years ago in his electoral address the present Minister of Education, Count Albert Apponyi, described the electoral system of Hungary as " belonging to the realm of fables," and as " forming the laughing-stock of the world " (January, 1905). His colleague's Reform Bill is likely to accentuate the truth of these words.

The Coalition is solemnly pledged to introduce universal suffrage "on at least as broad a basis" as Mr. Kristóffy's Bill; in other words, the suffrage must be universal, secret and equal for every man who has reached the age of twenty-four and is able to read and write. Hence only direct perjury on the part of the Government can avert this reform much longer ; and their reluctance to fulfil the pledge will not avail against the fact that the Royal word is also given. For many months there have been furtive endeavours to secure a revision of the compact with the Crown ; but Francis Joseph, with a true instinct for the great issues involved, has remained reso­lute in his desire to extend to Hungary the reform which re­juvenated Austria in 1907. The Coalition leaders in their rash endeavour to tamper with electoral reform are engaging in a struggle upon four fronts — against the dynasty, against Croatia, against the nationalities, and against the working classes. Each of these separately is a formidable enemy ; to resist all four at once is simply to court disaster. Yet racial Chauvinism and class interests combine to blind the ruling caste to the danger of its position ; and there is every reason to fear that Hungary is on the eve of internal convulsions similar to those which preceded the great Reform Bill of 1832. It is sincerely to be hoped that a wide extension of the fran­chise may be attended with the same blessings in Hungary as in Britain ; for upon it depend many problems, not only of the Dual Monarchy, but even of the Northern Balkans.