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The Roumanian Question in Transylvania and in Hungary.

The first and the most natural of the fundamental rights of man is always that of existence.

But what human existence can have a right better founded on nature itself than that of a National Community.

It is always the basis of individual existence, and a fundamental condition of the development of humanity.

bluntschli[1].

It is a fact generally known that Hungary as well as Austria, Switzerland etc. is a state composed of different nationalities.[2]

These nationalities of Hungary and of Austria have not been able, during a long succession of centuries, either to be Magyarised or Germanised, although the national sentiment in these times has not existed.

The principle of nationalities and the events of 1848 awakened in all the nations the desire to recover their national liberty.

The chief question, which has never ceased to be a burning one, was there as it is to day, whether or not the empire had a constitution answering to the wants and the national aspirations of all the peoples which composed that state. The Germans demanded a centralising system the other nations a federation.[3]

Among these nations is the Roumanian.

On the 15th may 1848, the Roumanians assembled to the number of about 40,000 on the Champ de la Liberté, near Blaj, and after a long and animated debate, unanimously passed a resolution containing 16 points. The first of these was as follows:

The Roumanian nation, basing itself on the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity, demand from a political point of view its national independence, and to be regarded as a Roumanian nation.[4]

It was in this sense that all petitions were addressed to the King, and to obtain this numerous deputations were sent to the Austrian Government.

The petition presented to the King at Olmutz, on the 25 february 1849 may be regarded as a general expression of feeling of all Roumanians of Austrian-Hungary.

In this memorable petition the Roumanians demanded:

1. The union of all the Roumanians of the Austrian states into one single autonomous nation, forming, under the scepter of the Austrian monarch, an integral part of the Empire.

2. An autonomous administration as much from a political as from a religious point of view.

3. The assembly without delay of a general congress of the whole nation, with a view to form a constitution and especially:

a) for the election of a national Head who should be confirmed in his functions by H. M. the King and who would receive a title in accordance with the exalted nature of his functions.[5]

b) for the election of an Administrative Council which should bear the name of « The Roumanian Senate ».

c) for the organisation of the Communes and of the Districts.

d) for the organising of a proper system of popular instruction,

4. The use of the national language in all business relative to Roumanians.

5. An assembly of the whole nation once a year.

6. A proper representation of the Roumanian nation in the Austrian parliamentary body, in proportion to the number of the inhabitants.

7. The Roumanian nation to have a Representative with the Austrian government, whose duty would be to defend and protect Roumanian interests.

That His Majesty consent henceforth to add to his titles that of Grand Duke of the Roumanians.[6]

As will be seen the people of Transylvania, of Hungary and Bucovinia, with a full knowledge of its national wants, demanded a Constitution based on the principles of federation.

It is one similar to that demanded by the Croatians, the Servians, the Slovaques, &^a.

But the Magyars would not even hear of these demands so natural to a people living in their midst.

The fact that Hungary is the country of several peoples appeared to them to be a fact able to be suppressed; they demanded the whole of Hungary and of Transylvania for themselves and for themselves alone.

With this object in view they lighted up the whole country with their celebrated resolution; they declared as deposed the dynasty pf Hapsburg Loraine, and demanded the separation of Hungary from Austria.

The non Magyar nations have been against this separation, because they feared that henceforth, a fact of which to day they are only too painfully convinced, that this separation of their country from Austria was equivalent to the hegemony of Hungary, and the destruction of that which did not belong to the Magyars.

It was these considerations which, in 1848, when the Magyars commenced their revolution, incited all the other nations of Hungary to take up arms and make common cause against them.

When the revolution had been put down, all kinds of centralising systems were applied to the country, which tended to the germanising of the other countries.

All these systems have since been recognised as impossible.

When the Empire had experienced in another war these calamities which are so well known, the chancellor, M. Beust recommended in 1867 to the king the division of the whole monarchy into two relatively independent states — Austria and Hungary — bound together, however, in regard to certain common interests.

Instead then of a federation made up of 8 or 9 particular states, as the other nations, which composed the larger majority demanded, only two states were organised.

The ties of union between these two states is infinitely less binding than would have been the case had all the nations been allowed to form one state.

This dual kingdom, formed without having consulted the greater part of the inhabitants of the empire, and in spite of their will clearly expressed, could only satisfy the centralists of Austria and above all the Magyars.

It is already twenty-five years since this dualism was introduced,[7] and the good feeling between the nations has not yet been brought about, because the non germanic nationalities demanded and they still demand equal national rights, in other words a federal constitution, whereas the centralising ideas in this country only tend in an opposite direction.

It is in the nature of things that the aspirations of a people should have for aim the constitution of a nation: it is in this direction that we seethe aims of every other nation.

It is not for us to plead for the introduction of a federal system into the polyglot monarchy of Austro-Hungary; it is that which has been done, and which the leaders of the movement are already doing.[8] But in order that the following chapters may be understood, we shall here cite the opinion of one of the most celebrated historians who has written about the history of civilisation.

M. Frederic Van Hellwald thus writes: Whoever will have attentively followed the march ot the natural evolution of things, cannot but doubt that there are only two ways of re-uniting the diverse elements of the Austro-Hungarian empire; these are a violent absolutism or a liberal federation.[9] The Magyars to their advantage have chosen the former.

In fact they knew perfectly well that we live in a period when the formal rights written on yellow parchment must bow down before the actual rights of a people.

Consequently they have thus reasoned: In Hungary, besides the Magyars five compact nations are to be found. The continued evolution of the principle of federation will eventually secure for each one of them their national independence. The Slavs will join with the Tcheques in order to form one natural state; also the Russians of Hungary will unite with those of Gallicia, the Servians and Croatians to the kingdom of Servia and the Roumanians to that of Roumania.

The Magyars have thought, and they still think that a sure and practical means of obviating this eventuality will be to impose upon the other nations their wish to see the others magyarised.

This idea was so much the more absurd inasmuch as although they knew perfectly well that they only formed a people of about five millions, they had the idea which they still have, of becoming a great nation at the expense of other people of the same country.

In regard to the question whether or not these latter would consent to be regarded as raw material for the formation of a Magyar kingdom, the Magyars seem to have thought that it was not one worth taking into consideration.

The Magyar press has even already adopted the following stereotyped phrase: « The country will become Magyar or it will cease to exist. In other words the Magyars will succeed in destroying the five non-magyar nationalities, or their efforts will bring about the destruction of the monarchy of the Hapsburgs and the fall of Hungary.

It is evident that in order to put in practice this desperate policy, the Magyars could not and cannot do otherwise than impose upon us, Roumanians a system of the most complete absolutism.

So that the Magyars without consulting the other nations and obtaining their consent, have alone realised the dualism so that they have been enabled to pass a number of laws of which the greater part strike at the very existence of our people.

Without consulting the Roumanians of Transylvania, and in fact against their will, seeing that the Roumanians are -in a majority in the country, the Magyars have abolished the autonomy of Transylvania and have reunited it to Hungary.

By the laws which they have made « de nobis sine nobis » they have already decreed that all of us, inhabitants of Hungary, Slavs, Germans, Servians, Magyars, and Roumanians shall compose one undivided kingdom, that of the Magyars.

It is on this absolutely false basis, unconstitutional and insensate, that the Magyars have constructed their national policy, the object of which is the destruction of all the non-magyar element in the country and of their being swallowed up in magyarism.

To stifle in the hearts of the people the recognition of their own national rights, the Magyars consider as absolutely non existent the law in regard to nationalities which guarantees for each one a minimum for its own proper evolution.

Since then the denationalising of these different peoples has been the alpha and the omega of all laws passed by the Magyars.

Under every possible pretext the Magyars have imposed upon the other nations the Magyar language as the official language, to force them in this way to learn that language and to recognise its supremacy.

Little by little, per fas et nefas, the Magyar language has been forced upon us as the language to be used in public and lately we have been compelled to use it in private life as well.

And in order that this brutal Magyarism should not too severely shock the people by its too sudden imposition, the Magyars introduced their language at first into the elementary schools, then into the secondary schools, and last of all into the infant schools, alleging hypocritically that they did this only to enable us to learn the language of the state.

Needless to say that the study of our own language, of that of our ancestors has been put indefinitely aside and that so it must remain.

We thus see ourselves deprived of our most powerful lever in bringing about our national progress, and of the power of using our own mother tongue in a state supported and defended by ourselves.

And yet all the peoples of Hungary have the consciousness of their national individuality; and it is clear that if during ten centuries, they have not been able to become assimilated, less than ever will they to day allow themselves to be despoiled of their nationality.

And because they will not lend themselves to the wishes of Magyarism, the Magyars have commenced to terrorise them by means of the cries « A Magyar State » — « Unity of Magyar culture » and whoever has dared to oppose himself to these too open manifestations of magyarism has been struck by the whole power of the state, in other words by the whole force of pan-magyarism.

For every body can easily see that the idea of one Magyar state is simply a veil beneath which is concealed Magyar cupidity.

From 1848 until now the non-Magyar nations have struggled, by every legal means, against the outrage which has been and is being inflicted upon them, and he who takes the trouble to study the connection between the various peoples of Hungary cannot fail to see that these latter are placed wholly beyond the benefits of the Constitution.

An exceptional electoral legislation, unheard of outrages at the elections, the proclaiming of Magyars elected who have only obtained a minority at the urns, protests made of no effect by taking advantage ot formalities not complied with, applications of the press-laws laid down by Austrian absolutism, persecution, imprisonment &^a &^a, these are the weapons used by the noble Magyar nation against our nationalities.

It is thus that one people from the fruit of its ceaseless toil, must pay ministers who are strangers, deputies who do not represent them, and supreme governors and a host of officials who are also unknown to them.

It is always thus that from their pockets they must contribute to the enormous expenses of schools and of foreign teachers, who have only one object, to give satisfaction to the privileged Magyar nation and to effect the material and intellectual degradation of our people.

It is thus that our people, as well as the Slavs and Servians are reduced to a state of absolute poverty.

And how can it be imagined that a government completely ignorant of their wants and aspirations can feel for them the slightest compassion in their distress? And that is why we, the Roumanians, and with us all the other non-magyarised nations, will not allow ourselves to day, at the end of the 19^th century, to be imposed upon, and as a nation, to be magyarised, under the feudal pretext which the Magyar nation itself gives that we are persecuted simply because she is our mistress.

In the same way as a stepmother who loves only her own offspring, gives to her other children a piece of bread and her contempt, so the Magyar government only protects its own people and advances them as a people seeing in us, but the intolerable obstacles in its path, and never ceases to treat us as traitors, Daco-Roumanians and Panslavistes.

And yet what do we ask of them?

Do we ask the Magyars to give up to us something which they possess. Do we ask for privileges?

From 1848 and up to our day, we, the Roumanians, have never claimed, and we do not claim that which is not our own. We ask for our national rights in virtue of which we inhabit the country and would continue to inhabit it. We ask for this on the principle of « suum cuique ». We wish to be governed and to have justice rendered by our own people in our own language, to elect our own representatives and to choose our own officials, men in whom we can have nothing but confidence; to establish as many institutions for national education as we wish, as many as we need, of which we ourselves are the best judges. We ask and we do so with all our might, that we shall be allowed to be the judges of our own destiny, and on no terms whatever, while we live, are we willing to admit the right of the Magyars to arrogate to themselves the right to dictate to us in what manner we must think, feel and speak, to give us lessons in patriotism and to fashion out in their way our happiness.

In one word we wish to have in this world and in reality, our own country. We wish to be the masters of the soil inhabited for centuries by our ancestors and our fathers: we wish to be enlightened by that sun which is known as National Independence. That is why the whole Roumanian nation old and young claim their national rights on their own soil.

We are a people that has a lively feeling of its own valour and of its national dignity; we are brothers in blood and in language of the free kingdom of Roumania, and we call upon the Almighty to witness that Death alone can take from us the nationality of our fathers.

It is now seventeen centuries since we were separated from Rome,the immortal mother of our race; for seventeen centuries we havs resisted, and that continually the hordes of Goths; Gepidians, Awars, Huns, Tartars, Turks, and other barbarians which have invaded our territory, fire and sword in hand; through epochs long, painful and cruel these seventeen centuries, and yet we have been able to preserve through them all the sweet yet sonorous language of our ancestors.

And to day in spite of the painful disasters of our part, when we see safety in prospect, to day after these great sufferings, when we wish to breathe the free air ot national independence, the noble and liberal Magyar nation takes upon itself to load us with fresh chains, in trying to take from us our national independence.

For we put this question,can there bea more cruel slavery that that under which a people, having aspirations for liberty, is arrested in the tree development of its national independence?

Every man who judges calmly and with justice, sees that we do not ask for that which belongs to others, that we do not desire the suppression of a people, that it is not we who have been the cause of a despotism, neither do we impose one: it is the Magyars alone who do so.

From the foregoing, it will be seen that the struggle in which we are engaged has not the characteristics of a party strife; we are not liberals and conservatives struggling for theories and for principles. With us it is a question of a struggle between races, in which a whole people, or rather in which many peoples ought to defend themselves against the aggression of a violent element seized with the desire of personal aggrandisement.