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CHAPTER V

Magyarization

Tót nem ember (The Slovak is not a man).

Magyar Proverb.

(Magyar ember hat Courage Német ember, Hundsfott, Bagage.

Magyar doggerel.

Adjon Isten a mint volt

Hogy szolgáljon a Magyarnak mint a német mint a tót (God grant, that, as it ever has been, both German and Slovak may serve the Magyar).

Magyar doggerel.

Talia requirit linguae nationalis dignitas.

 

MAGYAR apologists invariably assert that the linguistic laws which we have briefly summarized in a previous chapter were not the caxise but merely the pretext of a long­prepared Slav opposition.[1] Some excuse must be made for writers whose whole horizon is darkened by the fearsome bogey of Pan­slavism; but their arguments savour unduly of the public school bully who pleads the wellworn excuse "please, sir, the other boy began." In reality it is quite immaterial whether Magyarism or Slavism first took the offensive; the point to be ascertained is. how far their respective growth was natural or retarded by deliberate means. There can be no question that even before the year 1825 large sections of the community were committed to a policy of Magyarization — "an adventurous policy," as a contemporary has well said, "unique in the history of man­kind," — and that but for the resistance of the government to all parliamentary action, the extremist party would have forced on a crisis in the racial question long before 1848. Even the Tudományos Gyűjtemény, the first review of any importance in Hungary and a pioneer of literary effort,[2] took up a very hostile attitude towards the Slavs, and setting history at defiance, argued that the non-Magyars were only allowed into the country on condition that they adopted the Magyar language and customs.[3] As early as 1817 one of its writers describes the Magyars as " the ruling nation," (az uralkodó nemzet,) and says, " If we take an inferior drink to add to a noble wine, we do not destroy the qualities of the latter, but it mixes with the other. In the realm of the Magyars the Magyars are a nation, but not the Slovaks. And hence the Slovak nation in Hungary is nothing but a revolting dream or a despicable invention.[4] The title of nation belongs only to the ruling Magyars: the fatherland is the Magyars' pro­perty.”[5] He actually takes the Slovaks most severely to task for venturing to publish a newspaper with the "dishonour­able" (sic) title of National Gazette. Indeed the whole tone of the article is one of intense resentment at the Slovaks having dared to produce a newspaper of their own; its title is merely a convenient peg on which to hang all kinds of sus­picions and innuendos of disloyalty, in the approved manner of the wolf and the lamb. "The Slovaks," says another writer,[6] are mere hawkers (zsellérek), their language is only that of haymakers and workmen, while Magyar is 'the ruling language.' "Yet another writer, in 1826, is full of hope for the Magyarization of the Slovaks, who, he considers, yield to patriotic blandishments far more readily than the Germans. Speaking of the efforts of one Hrabowszky (presumably a renegáté Slovak) at Palota near Lajos Komárom, he tells us that" since the people of the latter place are Magyar, German and Slovak mixed, there is hope that through his (Hrabow­szky's) loyal activity all of them may be converted into Mag­yars, and indeed no slight progress has been made in this."[7]

This extiact is of special interest, owing to its bearing on one of the classic instances of Magyarizing tyranny, which is quoted by every pamphleteer on the Slav side and denied or treated as entirely exceptional by Magyar writers.

In this trilingual commune, which had only been colonized late in the eighteenth century, the original Lutheran pastor had used all three languages. His successor appealed to the Superintendent for permission to limit himself to a single language, and though failing to carry his point owing to the opposition of the congregation, he none the less conducted the catechizing in Magyar only. Continual friction was the result, and the discontent culminated at the election of a new pastor. Disputes arose regarding the can­didates proposed by the Superintendent, and finally one was elected who was ignorant of Slovak. The Superintendent then ordered that since the Slav members were too poor to pay for an assistant, the schoolmaster should give religious instruction in Slovak, and that a Slovak-speaking clergyman should officiate and dispense the sacraments four times a year. Some of the foremost Slovaks of the congregation appealed against this decision to the Palatine's Council, which upheld the Superintendent and instructed the county authorities of Veszprém to enforce the obedience of the parishioners to their new pastor. The County appointed a deputation to conduct an inquiry on the spot, and as four of the appellants still refused to comply, they were publicly flogged before the County buildings, one receiving as many as sixty-four strokes, the others fifty, forty and twenty-four. When the Pala­tinal Council threatened to take proceedings, the county authorities defended themselves by the memorable phrase, "Talia requirit linguae nationalis dignitas."[8] The whole incident — which has its comic side, especially as revealing the Magyar conception of Church freedom — remind us of the Magyarizing methods of an Archbishop of Kolocsa in the first half of the eighteenth century, who, resenting the fact that almost the entire population of the town spoke Serb, introduced the novel alternative of twelve florins or twelve strokes, for every person heard conversing in his native tongue.[9] Aut disceaut discede: manet sors tertia — caedi; but the unlucky Serb serfs of that age were not free to choose the middle course.

The Magyars are quite right in asserting that such a case as that of Lajos Komárom was exceptional; and the feudal relations between lord and peasant made flogging a commoner and also a less degrading punishment in those days than it has become since. But the spirit which underlay the incident was well-nigh universal. The county of Békés, where large Slovak colonies existed, decided to accept only Magyar documents at a "seignorial court." The county of Ungvár passed a resolution urging that the Royal towns should only be ad­mitted to parliamentary votes, if they agreed to adopt Magyar as the exclusive language of their administration.[10] The county of Somogy would only approve of the abolition of aviticity, on condition that the power to acquire seignorial land were limited to those who knew Magyar.[11] In 1829 the county of Oedenburg ordered that in every parish where some Magyar was understood, sermons were to be preached in Magyar. Pest county had medals struck as a decoration for the schoolmasters in non-Magyar districts who distinguished themselves in spreading the Magyar language. In 1832 the county of Arad (where even to-day 947 per cent, of the popula­tion is non-Magyar) introduced Magyar as the sole language of county administration and justice. Only those who could speak Magyar might be elected as judges, notaries and jury­men in the towns and villages, even if not a soul in them knew a word of anything save Serb or Roumanian. Only Mag­yars were to be appointed as clergy and teachers. None could be apprenticed, and no prentice could rise to be a master unless he knew Magyar, while the accounts of tradesmen were declared only to be valid if kept in Magyar.[12] The county of Temes passed similar, though less stringent, provisions. Like many laws, both central and local, in Hungary, these doubtless remained merely on paper: for it is obvious that even the most efficient administration in the world would have found their execution a physical impossibility, and efficient is hardly the word to apply to the administration of Hungary. But we are justified in taking the will for the deed, and it is not difficult to imagine the racial antipathies which such action aroused.

The results of this extreme attitude on the part of most of the county authorities (which, it must be remembered, controlled the central Diet in those days), were in the highest degree deplorable. Slovaks and Roumanians were forced to take the oath in a language of which they knew not a syllable; non-Magyar communes were obliged to submit to Magyar circulars and orders; petty justices had to sign important documents without understanding their contents.[13] Attempts were made to compel the German peasants of certain districts to adopt Magyar costume.[14] More than one Magyar county returned, unopened, correspondence addressed to them by a Croatian county, simply because it was written in Latin. Several counties prohibited all legal decisions in their courts, unless the original documents submitted were drawn up in Magyar; and thus even the signing of contracts soon came to involve the knowledge of a language which was still spoken by a bare third of the population.[15]

By the year 1840 Chauvinism was rampant throughout the country, and the Magyar Press, which at length began to shake off the throttling grasp of the censor, was full of violent racial outbursts. The substitution of Latin as the language of public business had of course become inevitable; for Latin had degenerated into an odious jargon worthy of the dark ages.

A typical instance of the barbarisms then in vogue, is the case of the travelling magnate who calls anxiously to his postillion, "Quomodo via?" and receives the Latin answer, "via est passabilis." Latin, then, had to go: and failing German, which the sentiment of the country would not tolerate, Magyar was the natural language to take its place. But the ardent spirits who led the national opposition, were far from being satisfied even by so decisive a law as that of 1840. Instead of leaving it to produce its inevitable effect and meanwhile concentrating their efforts on raising the standard of culture and education among their own race, they were bent upon effecting in a decade the complete Magyarization of the other races. "German pens," wrote one of the champions of the movement,[16] "have claimed Belgium and Alsace. We want to Magyarize a few German colonies and the less important Slav population." The fact that the entire history of the world could not supply a single precedent for the success of such a scheme weighed but little with its promoters, for indeed racial passions had rendered them impervious to all argument or reason.

The law of 1840 placed administration and justice completely under Magyar control; the main attack was now directed against the Church and the School, those two last outposts of downtrodden nationalities. At first isolated attempts were made to impose Magyar clergy on Slovak-speaking congrega­tions, whether Catholic or Lutheran. In Kerepes, a village of Catholic Slovaks in Pest county, a Magyar service was substituted for the Slav,[17] while the Lutheran Senioráte of Pest ordered Magyar sermons to be introduced on every third or fourth Sunday in a number of Slovak communes. Needless to say these measures led to unseemly disturbances; in Cserna (Veszprém Co.), for instance, when the clergyman began to preach in Magyar his congregation tried to drive him out of the church. In Szarvas, a large Slovak colony in the county of Békés, the notary ordered a monthly Magyar sermon.[18] When the people declined to attend on these occasions, it was no longer given out previously, but immediately after the

slovak peasant types.

Slav sermon the pastor began without an interval to preach in Magyar. Here, too, the congregation left the church, and disagreeable scenes ensued. In Jasda (Veszprém Co.) another Lutheran pastor introduced Magyar hymns, and in his anger at the people continuing to sing in their native tongue, specially limited the Benediction to those who had used Magyar.[19] It was quite frequent for candidates to be ordained in purely Slav parishes.who knew no Slovak save Luther's catechism, and a few extracts from the Bible.[20]

Such scandals, however, were regarded as mere inter­ludes in the great struggle of Magyar nationality, and in 1840 an event occurred which gave a fresh impetus to the Magyarizing movement within the Lutheran Church. A vacancy arose in the office of General Inspector, and resulted in the election of Count Charles Zay, the leading noble of that church, a man of Slovak origin, whose father had known the Slovak hymn-book almost by heart and had distributed Bibles at his own expense among the peasantry of the western coun­ties.[21] The new Inspector, who had espoused the cause of his adopted nationality with all the zeal of a recent convert, caused an immense sensation by the Inaugural Address which he delivered before the General Assembly on September 10, 1840. In this speech he did not hesitate to proclaim to a mainly Slav audience the doctrine that racial apostasy was a duty which they owed alike to patriotism and to religion. "Our common cause," he asserted, "is the development of our nationality: and as national life is impossible without a national language — the Magyarization of our country ! I know the momentous force of these words, their kindling effect on the hearts of our fellow-citizens: I can guess the flaring excitement of hostile elements. But I feel also that it is my sacred duty, by right of my religion and my office, to proclaim fearlessly in this place my views upon this matter. Every sensible Magyar frankly admits the Slav nation's antiquity, historic greatness and degree of culture, nay more, that the Slavs are the firstborn of our country and that the occupation of the Magyars was only the fruit of conquest. But in this place the claims of vanity, the haughtiness bred of power, are alike silent; the idea of Magyarization is to be regarded from a loftier stand­point, as though its victory were the acquisition of the eternal rights of intelligence and constitutional freedom, as though its repression were the condemnation of European culture to mediaeval stagnation." While admitting the efforts of the Slavs for the development of their language and the preserva­tion of their nationality to be inspired by honourable motives, he assured his audience that their only result would be "the ineffectual squandering of their spiritual strength or else the establishment of other foreign elements in our country." To appeal to extraneous aid "never has been and never will be the intention of our loyal and unprejudiced Slav brethren; for they would never extend a helping hand to the repression of culture, liberty and intelligence, to the sapping of the life­blood of religion, to the strengthening of despotism and the ruin of another nation and nationality. Consequently it is the firm and sacred duty of every enthusiastic citizen of our country, of every eager champion of freedom and intelligence, of every loyal subject of the House of Austria — if he wishes to avert the charge of prejudice and dangerous aims — to further manfully the Magyarization of our country." In such a situa­tion, he adds, the Slavs will surely not be tempted by a narrow devotion to their mother tongue, to sacrifice to a mere whim their liberty and their religion. Such stubbornness could win them neither the assertion of civil and religious liberty, nor legal au­tonomy; and they would scarcely console themselves with " the gloomy consciousness that they are serving as the instruments of triumphant despotism and of the suppression of advancing intel­ligence. No one honours more profoundly than I the common and individual rights conveyed by the idea of nationality, as also the rights of every fellow-citizen with regard to language: but above all I honour the material and spiritual freedom of the nations, of the citizens as a whole, to which it is the sacred duty of every rational and immortal being to sacrifice even his native language." We are reluctant to offer any comment upon language so repugnant to every true conception of liberty, the more so as the lamentable confusion of ideas which it betrays must be apparent to every reader. We can only marvel at the speaker's effrontery, when after appealing "not to the force of the victors but to reason and the heart," he almost in the same breath urges the Slavs to remember "that to impede the Magyarization of our country even indirectly, and to strive for the development of any other language than the Magyar, is equivalent to sapping the vital forces of con­stitutionalism and even of Protestantism itself, and hence that the Magyar language is the truest guardian and pro­tector of the liberty of our country, of Europe and of the Pro­testant cause. Let them therefore convince themselves that the triumph of Magyarization is the victory of reason, liberty and intelligence."[22]

Such ravings, even when dignified by their author with the name of a confession of faith, could hardly impose upon any audience which was not the helpless slave of racial passion and prejudice. Coming from a man of such prominence as Count Zay, its numerous fallacies, instead of meeting with the contempt which they deserved, were greeted by a chorus of approval. More than one county assembly expressed its thanks to Zay " for his great services against Panslavism," and the leading advocates of the Magyar cause were loud in his praise.[23] How " appeals to reason and the heart ! " were interpreted in Magyarizing circles, may be gathered from a leading article in Jelenkor.[24] "Every compulsion which seeks to influence by law the condition of our country, is without point; but one must rather prescribe by law that within a certain period all parents shall send their children to schools in which the Magyar language is the chief subject of instruction; while by means of institutions for tending small children, which should be erected at the cost of each village but should be non­sectarian, it should be possible to effect a radical remedy of the evil." In other words, the non-Magyars must be left entirely free to cultivate their own language, but — they may only be educated at schools where this is impossible.

A month after the publication of Count Zay's speech, the same journal printed an article entitled " Bohemian-Slav Heroes of Panslavism in Leutschau," signed by a certain Szatócs, a Slovak renegade whose real name was Kramarcsek.[25] The object of its attack was a Slav society founded eight years previously by Michael Hlavaček, a professor of the Lutheran gymnasium of Leutschau (Löcse). Under the fostering care of this "preacher of Panslavism," the numbers of the society rose from a dozen to close on seventy, mainly Slovak pupils at the gymnasium; a small Slav library was formed, and in 1840 a small book was published under the name of Gitrenka, containing what were regarded as the most promising literary efforts of its members. More than one youth had yet to learn to ride, when he mounted the fiery Slav Pegasus. The trampled rights of the Slav nation must be defended; a loathsome raven — doubtless the swarthy Magyar of the Asian Steppes — tries to force the golden nightingale to crow. And probably many pages more of schoolboy ecstasy and passion. The zealous Szatócs, who would have covered himself with ridicule in any other country in Europe, had not reckoned in vain upon the prevailing racial fanaticism. But even the prominence given to his accusations by the Társalkodó might soon have been forgotten, had not Count Zay read the article, and without making any inquiry into the facts, sent a circular to the direc­tors of the school of Leutschau, accusing the Slovaks of ' besmirching the fatherland with curses, and of seeking to stifle our mother-tongue, the cause of liberty and even of Protestantism itself." In the circtilar Zay pleads once more for Magyarization, in the interests of the Protestant faith. ''What, after all," he asks, "is the Slav language and nationality, what forthat matteris any language or nationality, compared with the state? Mere empty forms, like time and space com­pared with eternity." By thus affecting to despise linguistic differences, Zay would seem to be undermining his own case for the enforcement of Magyar; but he cleverly escapes from this dilemma by identifying the Magyar language with the state. But in disclaiming all idea of force, he merely introduces a distinction without a difference, since complete'^assimilation of the non-Magyars is his openly avowed object; and he closes with the assertion that Hungary " can only be great and happy if it becomes Magyar." Every line of the circular reveals the fallacious and insulting theories that national life is impossible without a national language, and that patriotism can only be expected from those who know the language of state.[26]

As a result of Zay's action and the press campaign which it evoked, the unlucky Hlavaček lost his position, and the Slav society in Leutschau came to an end. The best proof of his innocence of treasonable practices lies in the fact that he was never taken to court; indeed when the Synod of Rosenau proposed an inquiry into the case, so that his guilt or innocence might be publicly established, the church authorities declined to proceed. Slander had done its work, and the gymnasium of Leutschau lost every year more and more of its Slovak character.

A brochure inspired by Zay was published in Leipzig under the title of Protestantism, Magyarism and Slavism, severely attacking the Slavs; and its date gives the lie to the common insinuation that the Slavs by the constant publication of anonymous pamphlets goaded the long-suffering Magyars into counteraction. In dealing with literary feuds between rival races and nations, it is of trifling importance to learn on which side they commenced. In this case the earliest offender was probably the Piarist Father, Andrew Dugonics, whose voluminous writings are full of abuse of the Slavs. In one of his novels he writes of the "miserable clumsy strawfooted Slovaks," derives Moravia from the Magyar word for "cattle,"[27] reviles Svatopluk and the Czechs and describes the Russians as no better than gipsies.[28] Kollár's Literary Reciprocity was the first book for many years which exercised or deserved to exercise any influence upon the racial question, and it, as we have seen, docs not contain a single phrase which the Magyars can regard as offensive. Count Zay's pronouncement was a trumpet call which ushered in a whole crowd of anonymous combatants who pled the rival Slav and Magyar causes in rhetorical and acrid pamphlets.[29]

At the same time a determined attempt was made to Mag­yarize the Slav schools of North Hungary, the gymnasium of Rimaszombat being the first to fall a victim to the Magyar onslaught in 1838. In this respect Count Zay specially dis­tinguished himself by holding a conference of schoolmasters at Zay-Ugrocz, to devise a plan of campaign against the Slav language. So successful were his efforts, that Gustav Szon­tagh, a prominent Chauvinist writer and renegade, gave Zay the chief credit for naturalizing the Magyar language in the schools of the Lutheran church.[30]

While the Magyarization of education was being seriously attempted, Magyarizing societies were founded in various parts of the country. For instance, the Nemzeti Intézet of Nógrád held a county ball in aid of its funds, and the Jelenkor regarded its success as assured, "since the aim of the society — the Magyarization and education of Slovak children — is well known to the public!"[31] More than one fantastic scheme was propounded by which the country might be rapidly Magyarized. Books and pamphlets were to be printed at the expense of county assemblies and scattered broadcast among the non­Magyar population.[32] A law was to be passed by which after a definite number of years none who could not speak Magyar should be capable of owning a house or movable property, unless he paid a florin on every 100 florins of income, for the spread of the language![33] The county of Gömör decided to grant no passport to any student wishing to visit a foreign university, till he had proved that he had taken no part in Pansláv intrigues — thus no doubt hoping to shut off Bohemian and German influences from the Slavs and Germans of North Hungary. Most ingenious of all was the suggestion of Hirnok,[34] that 60,000 Magyar soldiers should be quartered on the non­Magyar population, and moved triennially to a new district, until all had been Magyarized. Every soldier who Magyarized a household would earn a reward of 15 florins, and after three years the state would remit the house-tax of all those house­holders whose family could speak Magyar. Finally the writer indulged in a bad joke regarding the cost of this policy, which he estimated at 3,600,000 florins (£300,000) spread over a period of twelve years, and which he proposed to raise by holding no Diet for sixteen years and appropriating the salaries of its members. That a journal of the standing of Hírnök (till the appearance of the Pesti Hírlap almost the leading Magyar newspaper) could open its columns to such a nonsensical pro­posal, goes far to prove that the Magyars were suffering from an attack of political monomania.[35]

The policy initiated by Count Zay met with the unquali­fied approval of the Magyar party in the Lutheran Church, and as they formed the most active and influential section, their views were embodied in the resolutions of more than one synod and presbytery, containing severe strictures on the Slavs.[36] In the General Assembly of the Church, held in the summer of 1841, a debate arose on Panslavism and Russian propaganda. One speaker actually talked of the extermination (kurtás) of the Slavs in Hungary,[37] while Kossuth himself moved that all the existing Slav societies in Lutheran secondary schools should be forthwith abolished, and that only "homiletical exercises" should be permitted in the Slovak language. The motion was carried, not as the result of inquiries into the state of these societies, but on the simple ground that they might in the future become dangerous ! [38]This was not confirmed by the district synods, so that the life of the societies was spared for the moment; but the Slovak pastors who attended the Church assemblies, over­timid at the best of times, were browbeaten into silence and often weakly allowed their adversaries a clear field. A typical case of this is afforded by a meeting of the Cisdanubian Synod in Pressburg in June, 1841. Several Slovaks requested that the proceedings should be in Latin, since they knew no Magyar; but the president, Baron Jeszenák, refused to allow this. A knowledge of Latin, he said, was useful, nay, perhaps even necessary (this was said within a year of its having been the official language of Hungary !) but a knowledge of Magyar was an indispensable duty; and he would have liked to hear a declaration to that effect in the assembly, "because it was not permissible to subordinate the national cause to one's own private conveniences." The Slovak language was of course a private convenience, the Magyar language was the national cause. Argument was indeed useless with men in such a frame of mind as this, just as it was useless against a prominent Magyar apologist, who could in one and the same article deny all compulsion in the matter of language, and yet refer with obvious triumph to the dissolution of all Slav societies in the schools.[39]

Intimidation produced its effect, and the leading Slav clergy, doubtless persuaded that their plight was desperate, came to the mistaken resolve to lay their grievances at the foot of the throne. That they were fully entitled to take this step, is of course beyond all question, though it brought upon them from all sides the charge of treason and disloyalty to their fatherland. But it must be admitted that the sovereign was not at that period regarded (and did not deserve to be regarded) as a defender of Protestantism, even though the law recognized him as the supreme overseer of the Lutheran Church; and thus the indignation of the Magyars is less inexcusable when one remembers the past relations of the dynasty and the Protestant cause, than when one considers the particular case in point.

The petition was signed by Superintendent Jozefi and about 200 other Slovak Protestant clergy. It put forward as its leading motive the circumstance that the Slovaks "form a peculiar nationality, which is only capable of further pro­gress through the cultivation of its own language, and which has for centuries offered its life and property to the common fatherland, enjoying in return equal rights with the other races of Hungary." None the less the Slovaks, and above all their clergy, "are basely insulted and put to contempt before the other inhabitants of the land, the teaching of the Slovak language is penalized and abused as something illegal, Slovak teachers and students are accused of traitorous in­trigues." The petitioners then recount their various griev­ances — the attack on the Slavs through their Church organiza­tion, the forcible introduction of Magyar into their services, the closing of Slav societies, the abusive violence of the Magyar press and its refusal to grant the right of reply, the lack of all provision for the teaching of Slav languages and literature, the exclusion of the Slovak language from all courts of justice; and conclude with an appeal to the monarch to extend his august protection, to save the threatened Slav Chairs at Pressburg and elsewhere, to establish a Slav chair at Pest and a separate censor for Slav books, to allow Latin to con­tinue as the language of the registers, to protect the schools from the attacks of the ultra-patriots and to prevent the expulsion of the Slovak language from them. The deputation was graciously received by Ferdinand, as well as by the Arch­duke Charles Louis and Metternich; but little hope of any practical result was held out to its members.[40]

To judge by the violence with which their action was greeted by the Magyar Press and by Magyar public opinion, the worthy superintendents might have propounded some far­reaching scheme of Slovak autonomy; whereas in reality the moderation of their demands is without a parallel in the history of modern Hungary.

There were stormy scenes at the Synod of the Mountain District, which met at Pest in the middle of June; the Slovak clergy were loaded with abuse, and Superintendent Szebcrinyi, who upheld the right of appeal to the sovereign, was con­tinually interrupted in his speech.[41] But the climax was reached when the General Assembly opened on June 15. Kossuth commenced the attack with extreme vehemence, described the deputation as a betrayal of the Protestant religion and of the Magyar cause, clamoured for inquiry and condign punishment, and advised Jozefi to resign his superintendency. The proceedings of the assembly being public, a mass of young Magyar lawyers, many of them being Calvinists or even Catholics, attended and greeted every Slovak speaker with loud and abusive shouts. When men like Jozefi and Hodža were positively howled down, it is hardly to be wondered at that the rank and file of the Slovak clergy were silent or absented themselves altogether. The poet Kollár, it is true, bravely faced the, hostile assembly and made no attempt to conceal the reason why the Slovaks had not submitted their petition. Confidence and love, he said, cannot be compelled. After denying the assembly's competence to deal with the matter, since according to law the king is the supreme superintendent of their Church, he proceeded to say: "If there is to be talk of inquiries, fiscal actions and so on, or if our superintendents and leaders are to be further abused and insulted, we declare openly that we prefer not to share in this General Assembly and will not recognize its decrees." Next day, a moderate version of the minutes was laid before the assembly, but Kossuth rose in anger and declared that he had never in all his life heard worse minutes; whereupon his audience commissioned him to draw up himself a revised version, thus making him both accuser and judge in one and the same cause. As thus altered, the minutes protested against the petition as a vio­lation of church autonomy, appointed a committee to inves­tigate complaints and significantly declared the Assembly "to be still actuated by those feelings which led it last year to formulate provisions regarding the Magyar language, in accordance with the sense and spirit of the laws of the country."[42] No wonder that the moderate Baron Prónay exclaimed, "The spirit of this assembly is the best justification of the Slavs and their journey to Vienna. For myself, I prefer to belong to the insulted rather than to the insulters."[43]

A remarkable sequel was presented by the action of the Gömör county assembly, which in September instituted legal proceedings against Jozefi and deposed him from the post of county assessor, on the ground that the deputation was a crime against Church, country, law, and the Magyar nationality.[44]

Amid the general orgy of Chauvinism, two voices were raised in defence of the unfortunate Slavs. Count John Mailáth, the well-known historian of Hungary, was a poli­tician of pronounced Old Conservative views, and the fore­most champion of the Catholic view on the vexed question of mixed marriages; and the fact that it was left to a man of these opinions to espouse the cause of the Slav Protestants, speaks volumes for the latter's desperate plight. In a leading article in the Nemzeti Újság, of which he had recently become the editor, Count Mailáth protested against the Magyarizing mania and invited the Slavs to air their grievances in his journal. His appeal produced two results. On the one hand he was attacked with great violence by the Magyarizing party with Kossuth at its head; on the other hand he received a large number of letters and addresses from Slovak Protestant clergymen, thanking him for his courage and impartiality, and some even begging him to defend their cause in the Diet.[45] But Mailáth's influence was restricted to a small section of the population, and indeed to one which was steadily losing its hold upon public opinion, and although he did actually defend the Slavs in parliament, his appeals met with little or no response. But about the same time a greater than Mailáth entered the lists against the overzealous cham­pions of Magyarism. This was no other than Count Stephen Széchenyi, who had already rendered incalculable services to the economic and moral revival of Hungary, and whose glowing patriotism was therefore far above all tinge of sus­picion. Without in any way espousing the Slav cause, or indeed uttering one word which was inconsistent with the strongest opposition to Panslavism, Széchenyi, in a famous address to the Hungarian Academy which he himself had brought into being, warned his countrymen against letting their patriotic ardour tempt them to overstep the law, de­scribed the Slav movement in Hungary as a reaction against Magyar vehemence, and argued that the only hope of victory for the Magyar element lay in moral superiority, in the deve­lopment of a vigorous national culture and literature. "I hardly know," he said, "of a single Magyar who, however silvered his hair, however furrowed his brow by experience and knowledge of life, is not transformed into a madman and even more or less deaf to the laws of fairness and justice, whenever the question of our language and nationality is raised. At such a moment even the calmest is. carried away, the most clear-sighted is stricken with blindness, and the most reasonable is ready to forget the eternal truth of the phrase, 'do to others as you would be done by.' " In short, Széchenyi merely made what we should call an appeal for fair play, to an audience whose rank and learning suggested impartiality and immunity from racial passion. Yet his words were received even at the moment with open disfavour, and were subjected to the severest criticism throughout the Magyar Press. Indeed, it is not too much to assert that the decline noticeable in Széchenyi's influence dates from this speech. The strict moderation of Széchenyi's view is clearly shown by the annoyance which he showed at re­ceiving addresses of thanks from the Slav clergy and at being lauded by the Saxon and Illyrian Press. Indeed no one believed more ardently than he in the possibility of assimi­lating the non Magyar races; he merely sought to attain this great end by fair means, not by foul, to kill all opposition by kindness, not to crush it ruthlessly under foot. None the less, his speech earned him a violent attack from Kossuth's organ, which accused him of allying himself with the enemies of his fatherland, of intruding politics into the calm academic atmosphere, of asserting a haughty infallibility, and of brand­ing the whole nation with the mark of an unmerited shame.[46] One further consequence of Széchenyi's speech was the publication of a pamphlet on Magyar and Slav nationality

by the veteran Baron Nicholas Wesselényi, Kossuth's rival in governmental disfavour. His main object was to point out the dangers of the Slav movement from an European point of view. With him Russia had become a permanent obsession; in his own expressive phrase, the Turks have moved from Constantinople to St. Petersburg, and the days of the great wars will come again. The growth of the prin­ciple of nationality seemed to him to involve a reorganized federal Austria. But while he saw clearly the beam in his neighbour's eye, the mote which was in his own eye remained unsuspected; and though in fancy he split up "Austria felix" into racial units, he refused to treat Hungary in the same way. Just as the predominance of a single race in one half of the Dual Monarchy involves a similar predominance in the other, so racial equality in the one leads either to racial equality in the other or to a complete severance of partnership between the two states. Wesselényi's failure to realize this fact reveals the limitations of a truly noble and far-sighted statesman; but it is a lesson to which Magyar statesmen still deliberately shut their eyes, and the neglect of which has at length brought them to the brink of the precipice.

The Lutheran lycée in Pressburg, as the chief centre of budding Slovak culture, naturally formed the main point of attack for the Magyar Chauvinists. In this institution a chair of Slav language and literature had been founded in the year 1803, and was held by Professor George Palkovic, distinguished for his Czech Dictionary and for his revised translation of the Czech Bible for the use of his Slovak com­patriots. In 1837, he adopted as his assistant teacher one of his own students, Ljudevit Štúr, a remarkable man who was destined to exercise a decisive influence on the future of his nationality. A year later Štúr went to Halle University and spent a couple of years there in the study of the classics and of Slav literature, receiving a double bursary as a recog­nition from the Lutheran presbytery of Pressburg. In 1841 he once more began to lecture as Palkovič's assistant, and rapidly acquired great influence over his Slovak pupils, of whom he already had seventy. The enthusiasm which his personality and learning inspired, had, even before his depar­ture for Germany, induced a party in Pressburg to intrigue for the prohibition of his lectures, and on his return the Magyar attack was more and moreTconcentrated upon Stúr's own person, as being indispensable alike to the Slav society and professorship. The attempt of the General Assembly in 1841 to abolish all Slav societies at Lutheran schools and colleges was thwarted for the time by the resistance of the district synods; but the incident of the deputation decided the Magyar party in favour of fresh aggression, and in June, 1843, the commission appointed by the General Assembly met to inquire into the state of the Slav societies. Though Palkovič, Štúr and others were examined, nothing objec­tionable could be found in their conduct, and the inquiry ended in their acquittal. None the less, the District Inspector insisted upon the Rector of the lycée withdrawing his sanc­tion from Štúr's lectures. Protests flowed in from the Slovak clergy and laity throughout "Slovensko," and a memorandum was signed by sixty-eight students, pointing out that Štúr's removal would inevitably cause the collapse of the Slav society in Pressburg. This was of course the whole object of the Inspector's action, and when the Presbytery met on December 31, two of its German members bravely exposed these hidden motives. Palkovič, who, after close upon forty years of office, was now too old and feeble for his work, was skilfully offered the alternative of lecturing himself, in which case Štúr was not needed, or of resigning, in which case the Pres­bytery would appoint his successor. The superintendents Szeberinyi and Jozefi claimed that nothing should be done till the next district synod met, and as Palkovič had originally been appointed by Synod and superintendents, this claim seemed unanswerable. None the less, when the presbytery met in January, the appointment of Palkovič's assistant was definitely assigned to the Inspector and professorate, and on February 25 Štúr was finally deprived of his post. The result of this unjust decision was that the great bulk of Slovak students left Pressburg, and that as Palkovič was unable to lecture, the chair of Slav died an unnatural and unmerited death.[47] To commemorate this exodus from Press­burg, John Matuška, one of the voluntary exiles, composed the famous song " O'er Tátra's crags the lightnings gleam," which, like the national hymn, "Hej Slováci," is now treated as a proof of Panslavism and disloyalty.

Štúr was far too energetic a nature to be discouraged even by such unjust treatment. He devoted himself to pleading the Slovak cause abroad, especially in Germany, and pub­lished not only a number of articles in the Augsburg All­gemeine Zeitung, at that time the most widely circulated paper of Central Europe, but also wrote two able pamphlets entitled "Complaints and Grievances of the Slavs in Hun­gary" (1844), and "The Nineteenth Century and Magyarism" (1845). In 1845 he obtained the long-delayed permission to publish a Slovak newspaper, the first of any importance in that language. While Palkovič was prosecuted by the county authorities for presuming to call his journal the Slav National Gazette (Slowenské Národné Nowiny), and was forced to omit the word "Slav" from the title, Štúr would probably never have been permitted to publish his Národníe Noviny, but for the personal intervention of Baron Kulmer. In this journal, for the first time, the Slovaks possessed a real exponent of their national feeling; while its literary sup­plement, the Tátra Eagle (Tatransky Orol), edited by Miloslav Hurban, devoted itself to their songs, folklore, and traditions. Through the medium of his paper Štúr advocated the formation of societies and unions, for the abolition of the feudal Robot — a cause which he always had specially at heart — for the redemption of waste land, and for the spread of temperance. But Štúr and Hurban had to fight against overwhelming odds. The entire machine of county govern­ment was in the hands of their opponents, and previous to 1848, when the Diet was still composed of county delegates, and when the judicature still rested on an elective basis, control of county government meant control of Hungary in a sense far more complete even than in the present year of grace. Nobility and Press were alike hostile: the Magyar educated classes were at least as chauvinistic as they are to-day; and the Slovaks, indeed all the Slav and Latin races of Hungary, owing to their less favoured geographical and economic position, had an extremely small middle class, and hence only very limited powers of resistance to the clan of the extremists.

Štúr's literary activity forms a turning point in the history of his race. Realizing the imperfections of the Bernolák dialect, and convinced of the impossibility of maintaining Czech as the language of Slovak culture, Štúr with his two friends Hurban and Hodža, both of them Lutheran pastors, definitely adopted as the language of all their writings the central Slovak dialect, as spoken in the counties of Liptó and Turócz. In 1846 Štúr published in Pressburg a new Slovak grammar, and followed this up in the same year by a treatise on "Slovak Orthography and the need of writing in it."[48] The new school met with the strongest disapproval from the Czechs, who published in Prague a reply in defence of linguistic unity between the two sister races. While Šafárik regarded Stúr's action as unnatural, because too sudden and only based on theoretical and speculative principles, Kollár with his usual vehemence not only denounced the absurdity of the movement, but strove to depreciate the central and un­doubtedly purest Slovak dialect at the expense of the Eastern dialects which contain a large admixture of Polish and Ruthene. Thus for a short period no less than three linguistic schools prevailed among the Slovaks — the Bernolačina, used by most of the Catholic clergy; the Czech, used by Kollár and his adherents; the middle Slovak, used by Stúr, Hodža and Hurban. In 1847 the rival schools met at the assembly of the literary society " Tatrin," recently founded by the three friends for the support of Slovak writers and for the pub­lication of literature for the people; and it was agreed to submit their conflicting views to the arbitration of Martin Hattala, a professor in Prague. The troubles of the Revolution postponed the decision, but in 1850 Hattala published his results in his Grammatica linguae slovenicae, which was accepted by both sides a year later at a linguistic conference at Pressburg. Henceforth the Slovak language has developed steadily, despite its extremely unfavourable political situa­tion, and has produced more than one poet of no mean order. Its literature cannot of course compare with that of the Magyars, who have during the past century produced at least three poets of the very first rank, besides numerous other writers of great charm and merit. But there is no language in Europe of which its sons have so genuine a right to be proud; for it is the product of a struggle against the most desperate odds, and its survival proves its virility and innate merits. It proves also that it supplied a natural want, by providing the soul of the people with a means of literary expression;

ludevit Štúr.

for otherwise it must inevitably have perished. At first sight it seems the greatest pity that a new history language should have thus been somewhat artificially created. But Štúr's action was based on a true instinct. In the case of the Slovaks a distinctive language of their own was wellnigh their sole weapon of defence against national extinction; and if racial passions had not blinded the Magyars to all reason, they would have realized that Štúr, by his deliberate erection of a new linguistic barrier, was supplying a most striking and convincing disproof of his alleged "Pansláv" leanings. It is a peculiar irony of fate that a countryman of Kollár should have been the first to turn his back upon the ideals of that apostle of literary Panslavism, "A poor thing, but mine own," is after all the one unanswerable reply of weak and insignificant nationalities to the would-be assimilator.

The ruthless manner in which the Magyars, so to speak, passed to the order of the day over the helpless bodies of their Slovak fellow-countrymen, is nowhere more apparent than, in the utterances of the Magyar Press of the forties. At a time when Press freedom in Hungary had hardly thrown off its swaddling clothes, its champions were eager to refuse its benefits to their weaker brethren. A most startling proof of this is afforded by the report of the Committee ap­pointed by the Diet to inquire into the matter of liberty of the Press. "Lastly," it remarks, "the Committee has not neglected the matter of nationality, and has regarded as its chief point of departure the interests of the Magyar language, to work for the spread of which is the most sacred duty of every citizen. Convinced that with the extension of Press freedom interest in the study of, and desire for the knowledge of, the Magyar language will be greatly increased, and bearing in mind the relations between our country and the hereditary lands (i.e. Cisleithania), the Committee wishes to see the aforementioned favours vindicated only for Magyar writings." [49] Comment upon such language is surely superfluous, and that it is no mere isolated example can be abundantly proved by extracts from the leading newspapers of the period, especially from Kossuth's own organ, the Pesti Hírlap.

After a few preliminary assurances of racial tolerance, this journal devoted all its brilliant talents and rapidly in­creasing prestige to the cause of Magyarization, and contributed very materially to the growth of ill-feeling between Magyars and Croats. Even within the first year of issue, an article appeared under the heading " The Serbs, our ene­mies,"[50] and soon afterwards the Serbs were described as mere retainers dependent upon the Magyar alms.[51] In No. 91. of the Pesti Hírlap a Slovak professor in Schemnitz is re­proached for holding Slav classes twice a week for forty of his pupils, and in No. 41 the introduction of Magyar sermons in the pure German community of Dobschau is held up to the reader's admiration. Special prominence is given to instances of Magyarization in church or school, and the assump­tion of Magyar surnames by Slav, German, or Jewish renegades is a permanent rubric on the front page.

In a famous article entitled "A Retrospect on the Slav Movement,"[52] the Pesti Hirlap indulges in vague allusions to Russia, civilization, and a duty to posterity, and after declaring that the future of the country belongs to the Magyar nationality, declares the Slav movement to be "an unnatural attempt," and rings the death-knell of the Hungarian Slavs. "Nationality is the holiest gift of Heaven, for which one cannot struggle enough, for which we gladly sacrifice the greatest gifts on earth. . . . Nationality is a historic fact, of which language is only one factor, for that a people may possess nationality it must also possess a common constitu­tion, common sentiments, interests and needs of progress, common memories of a great past lived together. In a word: nationality presupposes a certain amount of culture, a certain degree of self-consciousness rousing it into action, and at the same time ability to acquire under given circumstances an independent position towards every other nation." It was a cunning trick on the part of the author to make inde­pendence a test of nationality, for it gave him an excuse for denying the very existence of a Slav nationality in Hungary. "All those qualities which rank as the attributes of nationality, are possessed in our fatherland by the Magyar race alone, as combining property, intellect, and power — yes, and power, for whatever fine phrases we may use, power is in the last resort the most important historic factor of nationality." [53]

Some weeks later [54] the same writer spoke still more openly. "Who can doubt," he said, " that the Magyar is within his rights if he extends the blessings of the national constitu­tion to the inhabitants of non-Magyar tongue, solely on the condition that . . . they become Magyars in language, feeling, and political aims?" "If," exclaims another writer, "we pursue the Magyarization of the Slavs of Hungary, we merely fulfil the duty which is proclaimed by every son of the father­land, by the fatherland itself, by the nation, by constitutional freedom and civilization."[55] A writer in Társalkodó[56] goes even further, and declares that " those deserve the name of scoundrel, who write in the German or Slav languages against Magyarization."

An article of Louis Kossuth in the autumn of 1843,[57] which attracted much attention in its day, claims as a minimum, "that all branches of the public administration without exception be conducted in the Magyar language, as also that the language of official intercourse with the Government be . . . Magyar." The new law should declare that" the Hun­garian legislature not only does not intend to rob the other races of the country of their language, but rather recognizes how unjust it would be to meddle with private matters of language by means of legal compulsion." Kossuth' then proceeds to interpret this pretty phrase, as follows: "It seems to us that the language of public instruction cannot be different from the diplomatic language.... With regard to the village schools, we hold that, since it is the duty of the State to take care that every one has the opportunity of learning the language of public administration, it is necessary that in every village school the Magyar language should be care­fully taught." [58]In the same way the Jelenkor, in a leading article of August 13, 1842, while disclaiming all idea of legal compulsion, argues in the very same sentence in favour of a law by which parents must "send their children to schools where the Magyar language is the chief subject of instruction."[59] By such means and by the erection of infant homes at the expense of each community, " it should be possible to help radically this evil."[60]

A renegade Slav whom Kossuth's organ puts forward as a spokesman in favour of "unity of nationality," writes as follows[61]: "What then, ask the opponents of the Magyar language and nationality, does Magyarism aim at, with its restless struggles and energetic expansion ? The answer is very simple. It seeks guarantees for its future existence. Magyarism, as an independent national element, is not some­thing which is still in the birth throes, like Illyrism — it already exists, and the first natural law of that which exists is to seek to maintain its existence." What is meant by " main­taining its existence " may best be gathered from a highly characteristic article of the same period.[62] " While every student of history is forced to admit that Hungary can only be strong and secure and develop all her material and spiritual strength when all the dividing elements in the people's life are linked together by the mutual bond of language, and that this language can only be the Magyar as the real language of the nation, on the other hand it is only possible to regret the embittered feelings into which the nation has been plunged by a few ultras. The law, and with it every moderate and sober Magyar, wishes nothing else than that every one who if asked after his fatherland can only call himself a Magyar, should, understand the Magyar language,[63] but it is impossible to interpret the law to mean that the Slav or German should therefore forget his mother-tongue. The aim of every Magyar, and his warmest wish is that in his country only a single language, namely the Magyar, should be usual; but this can only be the work of time. But that this wish is no mere castle in the air, is taught us not only by history, but by many examples in our country. In the counties of Bács and Somogy there exist many villages which were originally inhabited by Slavs and Germans, but which have been completely Magyarized, so that only foreign accents betray their origin." Language is here treated as the sole basis of nationality. The many other factors which contribute to the life and durability of a sťaté 'are wilfully ignored, the experience of many other countries is rejected, and the illogical view is upheld that every inhabitant of "Magyarország" must speak Magyar, just as every inhabitant of England or Italy speaks English or Italian. Here then we have the goal towards which every " patriotic " Magyar must strive — Hungary as a national state from which all racial distinctions have been carefully eliminated. It is quite possible to argue that the attainment of this end would be in the higher interests of the country; but it is obvious that no self-respecting non-Magyar could ever admit this view of the case, and to brand him as a traitor for his op­position, is repugnant to all ideas of fair play or common sense.[64]

We cannot better conclude this chapter than by referring to a famous controversy of the year 1842,[65] between two prominent champions of the Magyar and the Slav cause — Francis Pulszky, the able lieutenant of Louis Kossuth, and Count Leo Thun, a Czech nobleman who was destined to play a conspicuous part in Austria during the years that followed the suppression of the Revolution. The correspondence was opened by Thun, who sent to Pulszky a recent essay upon the Czech literary revival, and invited his criticism upon it. Pulszky in his reply institutes a comparison between the political and literary situation in Bohemia and hi Hungary, and then proceeds to discuss the condition of the North Hungarian Slavs, who were welcomed as refugees from religious tyranny, and should not now turn ungratefully against the Magyars. That the linguistic struggles of the Slovaks, he said, can lead to nothing, is proved by the fact that in the county of Sáros Slovak resembles Polish far more closely than Czech, that the peasants are utterly backward, the nobles Magyar, and the bourgeoisie, even when Slav by birth, eager to be regarded as German, while the Catholic clergy are devoting themselves to the spread of the Magyar language. "The Czech language," adds Pulszky, "has no future in Hungary, and much as I value the talent of a Kollár, I still think that if in a Hungarian Slav the feeling of his Czech origin awakes and develops into hostility towards the Magyar language, then there is nothing left for him but to emigrate with Palacky and Šafárik to a place where his aspirations are recognized and his intellectual activity finds a wider and more fruitful field than in Hungary." Here we have once more the old refrain, "aut disce aut discede," though in a more polished and seductive form. To these remarks Thun replies by pointing out the inconsistency with which Pulszky seems to recognize in the case of the Czechs and of the Southern Slavs those rights of nationality and language which he denies to the Slovaks. As he justly observes, the question whether the Slovaks are descended from Hussite immigrants instead of being the original possessors of the soil, is quite immaterial. The real issue is whether the Magyars "will allow the Slavs of Hungary to feel as Slavs in their moral and cultural development," just in the same way as the Magyars themselves. That the Slovaks are in a backward condition, is no argument, for so too were, till recently, the Czechs, (and, he might have added, the Magyars.) The only plausible argument against the Hungarian Slavs is that they play into the hands of the Russian Government, and so endanger the State; but this is an entirely false view. Hungary's need of a common language cannot be contested by any sensible man, and this language should certainly be the Magyar. But it does not by any means follow from this that Magyar is to stand alone and to be the exclusive language of local and county affairs. If only the Magyars would concede to the Slavs the control of their own schools, and the right to conduct the affairs of Slav communes and corporations in their own tongue, the whole quarrel would soon be at an end.

When Pulszky next enters the lists, he has already donned the full armour of the Pan-Magyar, and speaks with no uncertain tone. He is proud to be a patriot, not a cosmopolitan, and will never subordinate the good of his country to vague con­siderations of philanthropy. The bond which has hitherto held Hungary together is the dominant Magyar race, and it is hardly likely that its enemies will be admitted to the enjoyment of political rights, since mere humanitarian phrases can hardly blind the Magyars to their isolated position in Europe. "We ask of the Slavs," he continues, "no more than the English ask of the Celts of Wales or the Scottish Highlands (sic),[66] nor than the French ask of Brittany or Alsace. We wish that all public documents in Hungary should be in Magyar, that the language of instruction should be Magyar — in a word, that the Magyar language should in every respect supersede the Latin, while the Slav language may content itself with those rights which it formerly possessed; but into the household, circle the Magyar language will never forcibly intrude. But that this too will gradually be Magyarized as general culture spreads, is natural enough; for since public life, whose organ the Magyar lauguage is, extends its influence in every direction, it will without any compulsion introduce that language into every family which does not move entirely outside its sphere. The most zealous Slav turns Magyar when he becomes advocate [Louis Kossuth the advocate and Francis Pulszky were both Slovaks by birth]; if he is noble, he could not in any case remain Slav, and this explains the strange state of affairs under which the Protestant clergy and professors are the only persons to defend the Slovakl anguage in North Hungary,[67] since they have hitherto been excluded in most countries from the right to vote which the Catholic clergy possess." Pulszky adds that he has tried to discover any specific fact which substantiates the Slovak grievances; he is calmly oblivious of the over­whelming proof of the cruel situation of the Slovaks, which is supplied by his whole letter, and especially by the passage which we have just quoted. Indeed the very fact that he regarded exclusion from political rights as the true motive of their leaders, helps to demolish his own assertion that they had no cause for complaint.

There is no need to recount the various arguments of Count Thun's final reply, though it is interesting to note that he disposes of the ridiculous analogy with Wales and Scotland, by holding up as an example to the Magyars the attitude of English bishops and schoolmasters towards the Welsh language. Very crushing is his rejoinder to the Magyar journalists, who reproach the Slovaks because they have no newspapers in their own language; the simple reason was that at that period permission had been persistently refused for the foundation of a Slovak journal. But his plaidoyer reaches its highest level when he comes to deal with Pulszky's kindly assurance that no force will ever be used to introduce the Magyar language into the family circle. "Does that mean," he exclaims, "that you actually do not forbid the Slovaks to use their language in the interior of their houses, where no one can overhear them? Or do you wish to take credit for the fact that no Slovak is flogged or stoned for speaking Slovak on the open street ? Neither the one nor the other is within your power. But if you appoint teachers in the schools who cannot or will not speak the language of the children, and thus for the sake of your language transform the schools into places where the soul is crippled instead of being awakened into life; if you order sermons to be preached in the churches in a language which the congregation does not understand, and thus disturb the service of God instead of protecting it; if instead of furthering all higher culture in the Slav mother tongue, you do all in your power to hinder it — then you are guilty of a more cruel compulsion towards your Slav fellow-countrymen than can be inflicted even with the knout." Here we have an allusion to a phrase of Count Zay, who told the Slovaks that they had to choose between Magyarism and the Russian knout. As a contemporary sarcastically remarked, it is highly suggestive that despite the dreadful knout to which Magyar publicists

so often refer, the Magyars themselves seem to believe that a Russian régime might be found preferable to their own mild and benevolent rule.[68] " Rather the Russian knout,"[69] was the fiery answer to Count Zay's alternative, " rather the Russian knout than Magyar domination, for the one could only enslave our bodies, while the other threatens us with moral ruin and death."