The sun., 1905-10-14

f~iervssy Cab,h~, NV hish crim~a and
fuisfl~mesnors committed IN Tho levyiHs
NJ fHtSs and The cunssfipiins ~ solsll"ra
dtrnp ihe Parliamentary frtr~s Nv
IueatlunHI,iY HHf0H FpirRVtHr hps i'een
duirs ditging the dimmef pfrrisriv Fhn'
HtsdtnfE dtl IN his 'apaeHy ~ pfussian
rfemlef NV ivo W. ihfsr yerfs pfere'l
iru me trsisu rfNs~lan W. eh"u
eihuu' Legislative ssneflru he .hierirtl
irtra rrd ntfeaaa,i fhe army Ne Fna
toll 1ttfe hs, ~ rlsHNd his hetd tnd
prfh1fa H. wWild hayc ts' n hri 'hc
t1r ~ mU pfrysd Disastrous Nv me
,win'f,
titinR tu fhr asrirpl1ft sef featftini
rthiid'eli hv ihe rhirfa N Tho runlitinh
10 a ftHsilie ihH, rpmufrHt ise het weeh
thrif t.evi md ihaf sovcfeOgns mnv
tet w. nv iIun should ihrv prftid
huvo.cl u lheI, irntnd irt me- use ~
Ntgtor tpth ir 'ho Hungarian nffnv
. demand shioh the tmirr0r kihg eon
sidrfs lrvrllrd ~ The most vi'nl bond
uniiing the iwn hilvra " he dual mon.
nfchv er can ~" unl, tvr solutions ~
the cNisltng deadlock nlmely retululiuh
nn no onc hnnd NJ rpgp 4 f'r' on 'hc
nthrt toup rds n II u,,nrs viii
inhe ihe form ~ dissolution ~ paflia
rurd and Tho election ~ n nrw f,bic NJ
Deputies 80 he lnais NJ uniycfih sut
ifhrc Witch niRh, he expected 'D eive
the non Magyar elements ot the Hun.
gaflan population u mninrily ~ the
rupulat chamber " - true that such
u majority would ye Nndr ~ purity NJ
ttuats, who during the last thirty.nve
vcara have cnoprtu'eI with the NHRynrs
owing tu the special CONCESSIONS made
to them hut their attitude, ncyerthe
lcss would bc uncertain ~ they might
secure an even larger measure Of power
through u combination with the Ruman-
ian, Slpvak and Serb constituents Of the
Hungarian realm OF course according
to the Constitution Of Hungary the Diet
alone Is empowered 70 define the condi-
tons on which the Parliamentary fran
chises shall be exercised The I'm peror-
King has no more right to arrogate that
power and disregard the existing restric-
tions on the franchise than LOUIS NApO-
LEON had to defy the Constitution Of
the Second French Republic, when, nf.er
his coup d'ttdt Of December :? ISL, he
paid no heed to the narrow electorate
by which the Legislative Assembly had
been chosen, but by his personal fiat
directed an appeal to universal suffrage.
A resort to such coup d'ftdt by Cen
eral Baron FEJERvARY would be opeT to
two grave objections On the one hand
it would almost certainly provoke the
Magyars to resolute national uprising
which they have exercised for centuries
in Hungary; and, on the other hand,
the Emperor-king could not with any
show of consistency withhold from his
Cislethan kingdom the regime of uni
versal suffrage enforced by him in Hun
gary. Now in the Cisleithan kingdom
the Germans are even more outnum-
bered than the Magyars are in Hungary.
They possess, indeed, very large pro-
portion of the wealth and culture but
they constitute scarcely more than third
of the population Under the existing
electoral regime, however, they enjoy a
Parliamentary representation out Of all
proportion to their numerical strength,
because in the popular branch of the
Reichsrath 425 seats are so distributed
among five classes that So members
are elected by the great landowners,
llS'by the cities. q by the Chambers of
Commerce, 129 by the rural communes
and 72 by the general class which in
cludes substantially all men not in do
mestic service. For this device, which
is, OF course, an outgrowth Of the me-
diRval system of estates not only the
Czechs, Poles, Ruthenians, Slovenans,
Italians and all other non-German in
habitants of the Cisleithan kingdom,
but also the German Socialists and many
Of the German Liberals desire to subst-
tute an appeal to universal manhood
suffrage.
The fact that the Introduction of
universal suffrage in Austria might in
the end prove fatal to the use Of German
words of command, even in the Cisleithan
army, accounts for the reluctance of the
Emperor-King to apply that electoral
system to Hungary.