Ethnography and Population.—Like Aus tria and Russia, Hungary is a polyglot country of many races whose unity is merely political. Exact statistics are not obtainable, since for many years the census returns have been de liberately falsified for °Magyar reasons —to prove that the Magyars are the predominant race in numbers as well as in political power. Competent observers estimate that, in Hungary -- excluding Croatia-Slavonia, the new ugo-Slav state — there are about 8,500,000 agyars, or over 1,500,000 less than the official figures show. Some authorities even place the number of Magyars as low as seven to eight millions. Of these classified as °Magyars) there are nearly 1,000,000 professing and a large num ber of baptized Jews. Against this total there are more than 2,000,000 Germans, including the numerous colonies on the Austrian border, the Swabians of the south and the Saxons of Tran sylvania; more than. 2,000,000 Slovaks, Inhabit ing chiefly the northwestern counties; between three and four million Rumanes, living- between the Tisza and the eastern Carpathians; some 500,000 Ruthenes or little Russians, .who inhabit the northeastern counties; some 600,000 Serbs and Croats in the central southern counties; 100000 Slovenes along the borders of Styria and Carinthia; and some 200,000 other non Magyars, including about 90,000 gypsies, who speak a language of their own. Taking the population of Hungary proper at 18,000,000, the Magyars are thus in a minority, which becomes more marked when the former (till 1918) crown-land of Croatia-Slavonia are added, with its population of 2,600,000 Southern Slays. In 1868 Croatian was recognized by law as the official language of these crown-lands; it has since proved to be the mother-tongue of over 60 per cent of the inhabitants. The last census returns (1910) for Hungary show that there were 11,820,416 persons speaking the Hungarian language, or 64.7 per cent. Obviously, a great number would naturally speak the official lan guage of the country without being of Magyar birth. The census also showed 278,130 foreign residents of whom 235,475 were Austrians; 8,655, tlermans; 10,612, Italians; 5,640, from Bosnia: and Herzegovina; 1,055, French; 2,389, Russians; 998, Swiss; 1,042, British; 1,674, Turks, and 10,590 of other nationalities. The town population of Hungary was close to 4000,000. In 1913, the last normal year before the war, there were 751,517 births and 500,875 deaths; the rate of illegitimacy was 9.2 of the total number of births. Marriages, 195,030. The infant death rate is remarkably high. The Magyars (pron. mad'yfir), who are the domi nant race, are located for the most part in the centre of the country. They are high-spirited, proud, warlike and generous; according to travelers they are more sincere than their Serbian and Wallachian (Rumanian) neighbors. Their general deportment is serious; and in many respects they resemble the Turks, who followed them out of Asia, and belong to the same great family of mankind. The Magyar costume is remarkable for its picturesque ele gance. Most of the Hungarian nobles are Magyars; and it is by this section of the popu lation that the constitutional form of govern ment and municipal institutions have been mainly, if not wholly, upheld. The Slovaks are among the people apparently the earliest settled in Hungary; They inhabit the northwest, and are similar in race, customs and language to the adjacent Moravians, to whose extensive empire they belonged before the Magyar conquest. The Ruthenians or Rusniaks dwell beneath the north and northeastern Carpathians. The Rumanians (Wallachians) occupy a tolerably wide tract of country on both sides of the west and north boundaries of Transylvania. They are behind the Slovaks, and, indeed, nearly all the other • races of Hungary, in education and civiliza tion. They appear to be the descendants of Italian colonists, placed in Dacia during the Roman dominion there, and have been accord ingly called Daco-Romans — an epithet' to which their classic features, easy manners, language and antique costume seem to give them a claim. They call themselves Romouni; and speak a dialect of Latin. The Croats people nearly all Slavonia and 'Croatia, and stretch into seven of the counties of Hungary proper as far as the county of Pesth. The Wends (Vandals) in habit two counties of Hungary proper as far as the county Theresianopel, and a few other parts of the Banat; the Montenegrins a part of the county Temes: and the Armenians portions of three of the eastern counties. The Germans appear, in the first instance, to have emigrated into the country during or before the 7th cen tury, subsequently to which many successive im migrations took place, especially under Geysa, king of Hungary, who ascended the throne 1141 am. and who established large numbers of Ger man colonists from Franconia, Thuringia and Alsace in several of the northern counties, and in Transylvania. They speedily became dis persed in detached settlements over all Hun gary; and early in the 13th century Pesth was described as a "large and rich German In the 18th century other Teutonic immigrants, with some French refugees, settled in the king dom. They people the greater part of the
western frontier, from Pressburg and around the shores of Lake Neusiedler south nearly to the limit of Croatia; elsewhere they are most nu merous in the county of Zips, the mining dis tricts, the Banat, and especially in the towns, where they compose the bulk of the trading pop ulation. Class animosity is exceedingly strong among the mixture of races. The Magyar peasant never forgets the dominance of his race and treats the peasants of other nationalities with more or less good-natured insolence. He especially despises Jews and gypsies.
According to the last census Budapest, the capital, a magnificent double city, also called Pest-Ofen or Buda-Pest, and situated on both sides of the Danube, had a population of 880, 371. The only other town with a population of over 100,000 was Szeged, 118,328. The towns of Transylvania present a striking contrast to the cities of the plains. They are full of picturesque reminiscences of the Middle Ages. Some of the true Hungarian cities spread over the have enormous areas with small popu lations. Debreczen, for instance, is larger than New York city in area and has only 93,000 in habitants. Country life is monotonous and dull • the ablest men are attracted to the cities, and little is left to the villagers beyond (the call to work at dawn and the church bells in the even, ling.') There was no absolute ownership of land except in the hands of the crown; so long as a member of a family lived, the property re mained in his hands, otherwise it devolved upon the king, who could vest it only in a noble family.
Emigration.— As most of the peasantry live in grinding poverty, large numbers who are able to do so emigrate to other countries, principally to the United States. In 1911 the United States admitted 19,996 Magyars, 18,982 Croats and Slavonians, and 21,415 Slovaks; in 1912 there were 23,599 Magyars, 24,366 and Slavonians and 25,281 Slovaks; in the year before the war broke out the numbers rose to 30,610 Magyars, 42,499 Croats and Slavonians and 27,234 Slovaks. For the year ending June 1917, after the United States had been three months at war, only 112 immigrants were ad mitted from Hungary.
Agriculture, Live Stock and Al most the only industry in Hungary is agricul ture, which provides a living for nearly 70 per cent of the population. Directly or indirectly agriculture supports nearly three-fourths of the inhabitants. Of the total area of arable land no less than 82.09 per cent is farmed by the proprietors, and only 17.91 by tenants. Stock was the chief industry for centuries, but agriculture has become increasingly im portant during the last 70 years. The great plains are dotted with agricultural villages separated by long solitary tracts. The principal products of Hungarian agriculture are wheat, rye, barley, oats, maize, potatoes, clover and lucerne, rape-seed, peas, lentils, hemp, flax, to bacco, sugar-beet, vegetables and rice. Nearly all the corn is consumed in Hungary and Aus tria; only the finest flour is exported. The great pride of Hungarian agriculture, however, is Hungarian wine, for which one of the best foreign markets is, strange to say,. Bordeaux. The industry is so disfigured by a wide system of adulteration that a bottle of genuine Hun garian wine,, it is admitted by natives, rarely leaves the country. A ,kind of brandy called Slivovitz is prepared from plums. Horses, cat tle, sheep, hogs, game (in the north bears), poultry, fish (among which the sturgeon and salmon are the principal), bees and silkworms are among the productions of the animal king dom. Long hours and small pay mark the lives of agricultural laborers, causing much discon tent and friction. Government intervention and numerous acts of Parliament have vainly en deavored to check the flow of emigration by improving the lot of 'the workers.
The principal artisans are tanners, furriers, manufacturers of tschism (cordovan boots), lace-makers, harness-makers, makers of wooden wares, of straw-plait work, etc. There are few extensive manufactures in Hungary. There are numerous iron and steel works, some iron-foun dries, tinplate and wire works; also potteries. glass manufactures, sugar-refineries and beet root sugar works, soap-works, tallow, stearine and wax-candle works; soda, saltpetre and pot ash works and brandy distilleries. Trade is al most exclusively in the hands of the Germans, Greeks and Jews. Internal commerce is pro moted by the railways and rivers, the Temes and Francis canals (the former 75, the latter 60% miles long), the fairs (which amount to 2,000), and the complete absence of tolls. The railways have a total length of about 13,400 miles, 11,665 miles being run by the state, and the remainder by private companies. The total length of navigable rivers and canals is 3,736 miles, •of which 2,177 miles are navigable for steamers. The Danube is the most important highway of traffic. Before the war Hungary possessed about 540 merchant ships, steam and sail.