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© Created in January 2001, Last revised: January 3, 2004

The law upon nationality is a Parody of Law.

" There is no more cruel tyranny than that which is exercised under cover of the law and in the name of justice.

montesquieu[1]

Our fellow students say in their Reply: « All the accusations that the Manifesto (of Bucarest) brings against us, whatever their number, and thousands of other accusations that may be imagined either to day or in the future whatever their gravity, are all reduced to nothing by one simple fact, the existence in Hungary of a fundamental law on the equality of national rights ».

« This law respects to such a degree, interest, justice and truth, that perhaps nothing that modern times has produced can be compared to it. »

After having cited the law, our fellow students exclaim:

« There are many countries wherein the minority of a nation enjoys such immunities, but nowhere to the same extent as in our country ».[2]

Before proving that these vain boastings will no longer pass muster, we must remark that in Hungary, it is not a question of one part of the nation placed in a minority, but of five nationalities oppressed by a sixth.

With regard to the justice of this law, we quote the opinion of a German scholar who cannot be suspected of partiality to the nationalities, since he is more a partisan of the Magyars than of ours.

Professor D^r L. Gumplovicz, of the German university of Graz, writes as follows on the subject of the worth of this much extolled law:

« The law declares, in its introduction, that all the citizens of Hungary, form with regard to politics, but one single nation; but it is evident that this idea excludes a number of nationalities; indeed, it says in the same paragraph that « all the citizens of the country to whatever nationality they may belong, have equal rights as members of the same nation. »

« It is very evident that this paragraph sacrifices sound logic to the fine phrases on the equality of rights. »

« For, if there exists in Hungary, as the law indicates several nationalities, and one single nation, the Magyar nation, it is evident that they do not enjoy equal rights, since the non-Magyar nationalities are obliged to agree to form a part only of the Magyar nation. »

» If the Magyar nation can permit itself the luxury of forming a nation at the expense of the equality of the rights of the different nationalities, it is evident that these latter do not enjoy this equality, »

« And in truth, this equality of rights bears a restrictive clause, for in the second paragraph we see, that the equality of rights will be regulated only from the point of view of the official use of the different languages of the country, and only in so much as the unity of the country will permit, for the practical necessities of the government and the administration.

» Even should we be disposed to believe that this first « only » and the « in so much as » which follows it, scarcely affect the equality of rights, the logic however would make quite clear to us t h a t these few words reduce to nothing the equality of the rights ».

If we consider then how elastic and how imperfectly stated the expressions, the practical necessities of the government and the administration and the exact distribution of justice are, we are obliged to acknowledge that this equality of rights which requires so many clauses, is but an empty word, and that in the true state of things, some other name would be better, that of « Law of Oppression » for instance. »

« This inequality of rights, with regard to the languages spoken in Hungary, results from the fact that the Magyar language is proclaimed the language of the State ». [3]

It is not really we who say all this, but an Austrian professor of common law.

This is to what the high sounding phrases of the Magyar students may be reduced.

To say that in no country there exists a law so liberal with regard to nationalities, is to conceal the truth.

In Austria, Belgium, Switzerland and even in Canada and India[4] the nationalities are without comparison better guaranteed and enjoy greater rights than we do in Hungary.

In face of the egotism of the pan-Magyars, which has inspired this law, no one can help seeing that if such an ill-made Jesuitical law has been granted to the nationalities, the manner in which the Magyars ought to apply it, might smooth away some of its asperities.

Unfortunately it is a well-known truth, that for a long time this law has only existed on paper.

It was only made to furnish Magyarism with a motive for praising itself, in the eyes of a foreigner, for its just and liberal sentiments.

But we will hear what our non-Roumanian fellow citizens say on the subject of the manifest violation of this fundamental law of Hungary. M^r L. Moesari, of an old Magyar family, deputy of the Magyar diet said:

« It is not enough that this law (of nationalities) remains a dead letter, in the collection of our laws.... It is a fact that several laws have been made which are in complete contradiction of principal with the law (of nationalities) of 1868. [5]

We have remarked above that the purely Magyar paper « Magyar Attam » said:

« It is a fact that there exists in Hungary a law on nationality, the provisions of which are not respected.

M^r Joseph W. Filtsch, deputy of the Saxons of Transylvania, writes: «... The equality of rights of which we have spoken above either exists only on paper, or else has been mutilated ».[6]

The national newspaper of the Saxons of Transylvania writes: « Do not suppose that the changing of a few persons occupying the posts of supreme counts, is capable of putting an end to the complaints of the Saxons ».

« Our complaints refer to principles and bear upon the discredit thrown upon the laws, especially on the one which treats of the nationalities. »[7]

This is how the Slovaques express themselves on the subject of the violation of the said law: « ..... It is sheer charlatanry on the part of the Magyars to make a law on nationalities, to submit it to the sanction of the king, and then not to execute any of the provisions, on the contrary to trample it under foot and to consider the violation of it as a merit to be recompensed. »

« This is an injustice which calls for vengeance, it is an infamy which provokes the most natural hatred in the hearts of the non-Magyars, which causes the whole civilized world to laugh at and condemn the Magyars. »[8]

The Roumanian and Serbian papers speak in the same manner.

This is what the existence of laws means in Hungary, and what the special value of this boasted law of nationalities, invented and applied exclusively by the chivalrous Magyars, is!

Our Roumanian brethren themselves did not deny the existence of this law, but they laid a stress upon its having been voted with the mental reserve that it would never be applied.

The Magyars can prove nothing by their written laws, because here the only laws that are respected are those which concern the Magyar nation alone; for ourselves, the government officials who enjoy supremacy here, think it sufficient that these laws exist on paper.

This is what D^r Hugelmann an Austrian lawyer says of such trickery with regard to the rights of nationalities:.....

« Such a state of things is more dangerous than the most violent denial of the rights, for it destroys the confidence in the sacred character of the law, corrodes the perception of right in the people and gnaws at its root the life of the state itself. »

» In truth, no disposition of government can have more fatal effects than that of justifying even in the heart of a part of the population, the belief that the constitution is but a piece of paper which permits everything. »[9]

Later on we shall have occasion amply to prove this truth, that the said law is in point of fact almost abrogated.