Modern Hungary 100 Years Ago

“I called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old.”
- Canning

W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908 - CHAPTER II

MODERN HUNGARY

MODERN Hungary practically begins with the emergence of the nation from the torpor consequent upon the cruelties, which followed Világos. For ten years a kind of passive resistance was practised which in a quiet way frustrated all schemes for the centralisation and Germanisation of Hungary. The first sign of repentance or recognition of value was shown at the close of the war with Italy, which ended so disastrously. In 1860 it was impossible to collect the taxes. The Hungarians are adept at passive resistance. Everybody was seized with an inability to pay their taxes. Neither was it any good seizing goods and submitting them to public auction, for the Austrian official could never find a purchaser.

I was told of a case where the tax amounted only to a forint, and a cow was offered to a large crowd for that amount, but no one would buy. It is in incidents such as these that the quality of national patriotism is exhibited. The futility of continuing the struggle against stubbornly patriotic people at last dawned upon the mind of the Viennese statesmen, and the Diet was convoked in 1861, where Deák expounded his famous principle of “Jogfolytonosság,” the continuity of the law of the land, or full restitution of the constitution of 1848. Was it wise to ask as much just then?

That is a question which one has asked oneself a hundred times, but to ask less was but to meet with the same result. The necessity of considering the claims of Hungary had not yet entered into the circle of political conception around which the Austrian mind wobbled. There were those doubtless who foresaw the attainment of every demand, but the majority only said “hands off” what we have acquired.

During the Prussian War the Hungarians again saved Austria from utter annihilation, and thus forged another claim to consideration. Reconciliation did not come, however, until 1867, and it was largely the achievement of Deák. The famous Compromise, or “Augsleich,” was simply an endeavour to give a precise turn to the duty of mutual defence undertaken under the Pragmatic Sanction by the creation of an administration in which the countries bore an equal part of the control of foreign affairs and the united services. The coronation of Francis Joseph at Buda in June 1867 was another binding but highly conciliatory act.

Then followed an era of comparative peace if not of contentment. Civilising influences were not long making themselves felt. For at least ten years no gigantic constitutional issue could disturb the nation, for the question of the revision of the “Compromise” was admitted only after such a lapse of years. The nation was driven to introspection, and naturally strove to express its new conception of liberty in a multitude of forms. Hungary had to be re-formed, re-shapen, and re-made.

The task was a huge one, and the labourers were few. Many imagined that the “Compromise” did everything, secured everything; consequently little was submitted to criticism or challenged. It is true that there existed a section of the political thinkers who continually advocated separation from Austria, but it was rarely made a supreme cry. There was no real hostility at this moment to the Emperor-King.

Meanwhile the nation steadily utilised or absorbed the examples provided by Western civilisation, and Modern Hungary sprang into being. In politics new men began to loom, men of talent, not to say genius. The situation even now was beset with thorns. Germanisation was dreaded, whilst there was a desire to preserve the most friendly relations with the Ottoman Empire, because of their kindness in receiving the exiles of 1848.

The question of military expenditure in 1878 was an important one, and Kálmán Tisza, who succeeded Kálmán Széll, had no little difficulty in quieting the public mind on this point. Gradually the nation underwent change. Reform after reform was rushed through Parliament during the fifteen years’ regime of the elder Tisza. The House of Magnates was re-modelled, the Hungarian language became popular, whilst the period of election of deputies to the House of Parliament was extended from three to five years.

Once the harmony of reform was threatened by the Anti-Jewish riots, but the good sense of the nation stepped in and averted disaster. The Hungarian in politics is a strange bundle of contradictions. He is a speedy absorbent, but there is little far-awayness in his politics. He stands out in marked contrast to the English statesman, it may be because conditions are so different; but even accounting for his environment, an ample margin of contrast exists. In surveying Modern Hungary it is impossible to overlook the traces of hurry. There was so much to be done directly the nation threw off its lethargy. Men began to realise that a mere constitution was not sufficient, they must have a country. Pride of race asserted itself. A new order of men had to be found, for new ideals had touched the national conscience. Budapest had to be made habitable, and not only habitable, but beautiful.

No sooner was the idea hinted than the waste places of Pest blossomed as the rose.

Structure after structure reared its head proudly - but quickly. Uniformity was not regarded as an essential, variety was courted, but everything ugly tabooed. The great demand was that it must be done quickly. Today, when you ask Hungarians why this and this is not done, they at once remark, “You must remember that forty years ago we had nothing. Look at our great buildings and monuments, they are modern.” If one would awaken old memories, or catch the spirit of the past, then you must wander amongst the narrow streets of Buda, so redolent of Turkish occupation. Here modernity is immediately dethroned. But it is only an excursion, not a sojourning-place for the student of men and affairs. In the history of Modern Hungary one does not hear the clash of arms, the groans of the dying, or the victor’s song, but rather the pounding of metal into shape, the blasting and disgorging of mineral wealth, and the hum of the artisan. The National Exhibition held in Budapest in 1885 did much to awaken the attention of the public mind to the economic and commercial possibilities of the country. Then the Hungarian began to travel. Disraeli said : “Travel is the great source of true wisdom, but to travel with profit you must have such a thing as previous knowledge.” It will be seen how much “previous knowledge ” the Hungarian possessed.

From every journey some new idea was forthcoming. England and Italy enjoy quite a good proportion of the ideas, which were regarded as practicable. But if so much time was devoted to the building of a new capital, politics were not relegated to an obscure corner; on the contrary, the passion for politics increased with vehemence.

Political parties sprang up in a night, just like a Hungarian newspaper. Political migration was common. A change of Premier was an opportunity or a change of party. The long reign of the elder Tisza broken, others sought to emulate his staying power, but failed. Each succeeding Premier made some contribution to Modern Hungary. Wekerle, who succeeded Szapary, earned a reputation for his clerical reforms, and brought upon himself the everlasting hatred of the Romanians. Bánffy put the finishing touches to two of Wekerle’s unfinished measures, as well as renewed the Ausgleich.

In 1896 the Millennial Exhibition at Budapest again attested the development of the nation. Several points are worthy of special notice, primarily the great increase in the urban population. In 1881 the population of Budapest stood at 360,000, increasing in 1891 to 505,000, whilst in 1901 the figures were 732,000. These figures rose in 1906 to about 900,000. It is in Budapest alone that the rapid growth of the population is demonstrated. Szeged, it is true, added 29,000 to its numbers during this period. But Zagrab, the chief town of Croatia, jumped from 29,000 to 61,000. Whilst, however, the towns increased at the rate of about a thousand a year, many of the villages suffered from depopulation, for more than a million of their inhabitants found their way to America during this period. No country can afford to lose so many of its rural population. In a policy of haste many great economic factors were overlooked. To let these human assets steadily drift from your side is one thing, but to woo them back again after they have once tasted the sweets of a higher civilisation is quite another thing. Hungary has always needed workers.

This is felt all the more keenly by reason of the absence of a genuine Hungarian middle class. I shall never forget the surprise with which a remark of mine was greeted concerning the participation of the English nobility in the world of commerce. That a peer should condescend to associate with business was something beyond their apprehension. In Hungary money means power, more so than in most places.

The Jewish element saw it, and the towns realise what it means today. They were prepared to work hard and to live hard, but they focussed their nimble wits upon getting rich, and they accomplished their object.

The Hungarian magnate despised the Jews, one and all, and seemed to lose sight of the fact that there are Jews and Jews. He never even learned the art of business from them, though it was practised before him every day. But the politician soon found out that the Jews had captured the commercial-economic machinery of the land, and that however much he might despise the men and means employed to secure such, the power of directing money and trade was largely in their hands. Awakening, perhaps not too late, one finds the Hungarian aristocracy promoting industries today. There is, for instance, the “Counts’ Brewery Company,” dominated by the Andrássys and their friends. The Jews, on the other hand, have acquired some of the worst traits of the hereditary nobility.

In the making of Modern Hungary the Jew has been a great contributor, for he did the work which aristocratic breeding would not then allow. But the Jewish business element is not to be likened unto the middle classes of England. Having obtained a good grip of the commercial possibilities of Hungary as manipulated by its centres, attention was then turned to politics, and soon the Jews swarmed into the Országház. Nothing could stay the development of this large section of the Budapest population. Politically, however, it is a variable and negotiable quantity.

“Each for himself” was again the motto. With sentiment against them, and in opposition to Magyar feeling, they have wrought wonders - for themselves. To ignore them is now an impossibility. They have moved with the times, often against their inclination, but they saw the necessity of moving.

In less than fifty years wonders have been wrought on the Pest side of the Danube. Fifty years ago there were no waterworks in Pest. In most of the houses of that period was found an old-fashioned pump, picturesquely set in an old-fashioned courtyard. From this common pump the water had to be carried in quaintly shaped tubs to each dweller in the house.
The task of carrying the water in these tubs on the back was performed by women as a rule. Water thus secured had to be treated as a rarity. In one of the squares - Calvin tér - stands a rather pretty fountain: here in the old days - not beyond recall - could be seen a group of merry-tongued Rebeccas, sent thither by their mistresses for water. Artists ever saw a new canvas here. Even the water from the Danube was hawked round the town by discreditable looking vendors, who were usually followed by a horde of ragamuffins striving to earn a few copper coins by carrying the water to your rooms. But today every- thing is up to date. Means of communication were also very primitive in those days. It is almost impossible to describe the ambiguous looking vehicles of forty years ago. They were really wagons, and only in that sense public conveyances, but wagons constructed so as to carry sixteen persons of normal build, fourteen within and two without on the box. If a storm came on, a framework of iron rods was speedily requisitioned - and each driver was supposed to carry such - over which was flung an awning of oil- cloth, for the most part porous. The badly made roads and the clumsiness of the vehicle often led to the dislodgement of these rods, which would somewhat heavily remind the occupants of the vehicle they chanced to fall upon that watchfulness was a necessity.

But this was not the only ill travellers were subjected to. For instance, it was a trifle annoying to have the entire awning suddenly removed by a gust of wind during a downpour of rain. It was a work of art sometimes to enter these hearse-like coaches, for one and all were often called upon to creep under the flaps of the tarpaulin. Another difficulty often experienced was that of stopping the conveyance, for so great was the clatter created by the vehicle and horses as they lumbered over the cobbled streets, that the driver never, or rarely, heard the request of the passenger. A friendly prod with a walking-stick, however, usually succeeded in arresting his attention, but not until you had passed the spot you desired to alight at.

To walk instead of ride, particularly in the bad weather, was also beset with difficulties; for the paths were not raised, and drivers did not hesitate for a moment to use the cleanest place to drive; consequently, passengers continually ran the risk of being crushed against the wall, or being forced into a shop entrance, from which they rarely escaped without opening their purse. Today one of the finest narrow-gauge electric tramway systems in the world interlaces Budapest at every point, and travelling is not only rapid but inexpensive. It must not be forgotten that Budapest boasts of having the first tube-railway, and though travelling is not so luxurious underground as in London, it is a most serviceable system, seeing that it touches just those streets outside the radius of the street tramways. One, however, must express a note of regret that the weird-looking omnibuses, which continue to convey people from Buda to the Városliget (City Park) are not done away with. The introduction of the zone-tariff in 1889 must also be regarded as an important factor in the making of Modern Hungary. Communication was thus made possible to all, and the spirit of progress passed to and fro on wheels.

The tendency nowadays is to overestimate the influence of Parliament, and to undervalue those forces, which appear to hover somewhere between municipal or private enterprise and State intervention. In 1875 only 3985 miles of railways were to be found in Hungary, whilst in 1900 some 10,624 represented the railway system of Hungary, upon which some 64,412,000 passengers were carried that year. Shipping is also making tremendous progress, and Fiume appears likely to develop into a first-rate port. Fifty years ago the shipping trade at Fiume amounted to only a few thousand pounds, but now its figures have joined the ranks of the millions. It is obviously clear to all who have seriously attempted to study the Hungarian people, that in fifty years something in the nature of a miracle has been performed. Attention has been devoted to this and that national necessity, to the improvement of this and that institution, but the great institution of the State - man - has in some degree been neglected. Man the economic factor, the industrial pivot, man the worker and universal provider, has been left somewhat to himself. The larger European unrest left him for years untouched, and he remained content in his lot as a producer. No idealism stirred his blood, though the flame of nationalism burned within him as a religion, and somewhat obscured the picture of the future, which the worker in other lands had caught a glimpse of.

No inspiring teacher or prophet came forward with an evangel. Thus contentedly the worker plodded, prevented from thinking of the future by the din and perhaps even the fascination of modern political disturbances. Tocqueville was right when he said, “Nations are like men: they are still prouder of what flatters their passions than of what serves their interests.” Now, in 1908, the worker has awakened, and a still more modern Hungary must be created if he is to be kept within the confines of his native land.

During the past ten years parliamentary deadlocks have been frequent. The commercial activity of Hungary undoubtedly tended to provoke periodic outbursts of anti-Magyar feeling in Austria, whilst both the nationalities and the Socialists contributed to the friction in Hungary itself Government under Count István Tisza was not an unmixed boon. The 3 dispersed.

The Hungarian Parliament was cleared by soldiery, and the doors of the Chamber sealed and guarded. This was the closing insult to Hungarian constitutionalism, to the wishes of the majority in Hungary. One felt directly this was resorted to that the psychological moment had arrived. What would the nation do now? was the question all Europe asked.

Of course there were the usual pour-parlers and the time-honoured conferences, but few were prepared for the news of an armistice between King and people.

It was one of the most astonishing transformations in the recent history of European politics, the granting of power to those who had practically been placed under Tsarism, and the relinquishing of the Russian methods put in force in Budapest by the Hungarian Trepoff Rudnay. There was something so sudden and unexpected about it that it seemed incredible, until one beheld the ministers being whirled round the town by a happy and excited populace. Never before have I seen such enthusiasm. The look on Count Apponyi’s face as he approached me in the afternoon was not one to be forgotten. It was radiant with his newly won success. “The best of all is,” he said, “we have given up nothing, we have surrendered no item of our programme, and made no sacrifice of principle. But you must remember it is only a Government of transition.”

But how was all this attained? What or who had wrought the change? The House of Habsburg, it is said, is successful in everything except debate and war. It certainly looked like it. But why had the Emperor softened so? What were the terms of the armistice, which seemed like heralding a new epoch to Modern Hungary? The Coalition groups were prepared to accept the responsibility of government providing the following claims were not disregarded.

In the first place, the military question - i.e, the “commandosprache” - was to be held in abeyance until a Bill furnishing a large measure of electoral reform became active. The reason for this was that perchance Austrian opinion, and doubtless even the King himself, considered that as the last elections were not fought on this issue the verdict of the people had never been secured, consequently he - the King - was justified in rejecting all such claims as had been advanced by the Magyars. Such a measure of electoral reform would take quite two years to prepare, during which period the attention of Parliament would be devoted to social legislation. Meanwhile the new Government only recognised such debts as were incurred in the displacement of non-effective armaments for effective armaments.

No more recruits were to be granted. On the other hand, the Government insisted upon the commercial and fiscal individuality of Hungary; freedom of trade between Austria and Hungary. Currency reform was also another demand, the abolishing of all paper money and the introduction of the metallic system crowning the whole with a real Hungarian Bank, thus securing more independence. To one and all of these proposals the veteran King assented, and the result was the return of Wekerle as Premier of the celebrated “Coalition of Talent.”

The cup of national joy now o’erflowed. The elections for the first time unrestricted gave the Independent Party a huge majority. The new Parliament met without an opposition, and the length of its life was shortened by this very fact.

The Liberal Party, once so formidable, had died in a single night, and its deserted leader sought the solitude of the Alföld for recompense, and English political biography for refreshment. Never before, perhaps, in the whole history of European politics has a party so influential disappeared so abruptly. There was something almost cowardly in the manner it left the arena of politics. Such, however, are the fluctuations of Hungarian politics. The nation now having obtained their desire, power having been vested in the formerly despised, a kind of passivity fell like a mantle upon all. Much was expected. Alas! in politics the expected never happens. There’s a no more jaded, disappointed set of men than the members of an over-powerful parliamentary majority, and it is difficult to find a more disappointed country than one legislated for by such a majority. Balance in statesmanship is one of the most desirable achievements. Political lopsidedness invariably produces political libertinism.

At the moment I pen these lines the country is again awakening from one of its periodic naps, and the cry is for Reform. What can result from such a demand must necessarily be left to the chapter on “Prospective Hungary”

Alongside the strenuous political movements of the twentieth century in Hungary one may easily distinguish the growth of the commercial and industrially economic idea. To make Budapest a modern city is one thing, but to modernise Hungary is quite another thing. Visitors to Budapest must not imagine for a moment that by coming to Budapest and exploring its environs that they have seen Hungary and the Hungarians. Not so. What you have seen is a cosmopolitan city with an English flavour about it. Yea, you have seen even more than that; you have touched, so to speak, the keyboard of Hungarian activity, intellectual, commercial, and political. But Hungary and the Hungarians you have not seen.

These live beyond beaten tourist tracks, in the region of the hills, and on the great plain; here resides the flower of Hungarian chivalry, the strength of the nation. Let us now take a peep at them.

From W. B. Forster Bovill: Hungary and the Hungarians, 1908

Hungary, Hungarians