The Hungarian constitution and the system of central government obtain ing in Hungary under the old regime which ended in 1918 are dealt with in the article Ails TRIA. Of that famous constitution it may be said that the practical application of its princi ples was not in strict accordance with its writ ten provisions. Although, on paper, Magyars and non-Magyars were on terms of equality be fore the law and nominally fully represented in the legislature, the fact was that the repre sentatives rather represented the Magyar upper classes than the subject nationalities or the masses of the people. Only a quarter of the men qualified to vote were .permitted to exercise that power, being disfranchised by various question able means besides property qualifications. As the Germans in Austria, so the Magyars in Hungary were in the minority, hence the ma nipulation of the census returns referred to un der Population. The Dual Settlement after the Austrian defeat at Sadowa had the effect of making the German minority supreme in Aus tria and the Magyar minority supreme in Hun gary, a circumstance, by the way, which ren dered both minorities dependent upon Prus sian support as against the Slav majorities. The remarkable disparity between population and the numbers of the 413 deputies for Hun gary alone in the last election preceding the war is shown by the returns of 1910: Magyars, Independents and other parties, 404; Socialists, 1; Rumanians, 5; Slovaks, 3; Serbs, none. About 400 of these were Magyars; the remain ing 13 represented nearly 10,000,000 non-Mag yars, out of a total population of, roughly, 18,000,000. Elections were invariably accom panied by bloodshed, violence and terrorism. For the 1910 elections no fewer than 202 bat talions of infantry were mobilized, besides 126 squadrons of cavalry, while a large number of troops were brought in from Austria. The price of °maintaining was estimated at nearly $4,000,000 (Dancer's Arrneezeitung, 6 June 1910). Troops and gendarmes prevented many thousands of qualified voters from enter ing polling booths in the country districts. Dur ing one election 32 men were killed and 70 wounded. An electoral reform bill in 1918 en franchised every male Hungarian over 24 pos sessing any one of the following qualifications: Two years' service in the war; non-commis sioned rank; passed primary education; pay ment of annual tax ($2); having a licensed profession or trade; permanently employed; being a former elector. The ability to read and write is attached to each qualification. On 1 Nov. 1918 Count Karolyi announced that fol lowing a revolution in Budapest a Hungarian National Council had taken over the govern ment. The king-emperor formally abdicated on 11 Nov. 1918. Thus ended nearly 400 years of revolt against Hapsburg rule.
Local Government in Hungary was admin istered since 1876 by committees partly elected by the county or district and partly appointed by the crown. A more bureaucratic system was introduced in 1891. The local assemblies are now half composed of landed proprietors and half of those chosen by parliamentary electors, presided over by the appointed lord-lieutenant. There is no popular representation in the true sense in these county assemblies. The land owners and those elected under the very lim ited parliamentary franchise hold all the power, while the working classes and subject races have none whatever. So far from being— as it was often held up to be— the land of ideal local government, "Hungary is becoming the happy hunting ground of the petite bourgeoisie, which, with its strong Jewish element, is reL placing the decaying gentry of former days.' Law and The Minister of Justice stands at the head of judicial affairs and exer cises only administrative control. His func tions, prescribed by law, relate to the supervi sion of judges, legal redress in international law, extradition, the execution of punishments, pardons, dispensation in divorce cases, and es pecially the preparation of hills. The judges were appointed by the king; they were perfectly independent and irremovable. As courts of first instance there are — in Hungary proper — 385 district courts with single judges and 67 county courts with collegiate judgeships. Alto
gether there are over 2,000 judges of first in stance. As superior courts there were the 11 "Royal (Courts of Appeal) and the Curia (High Court of Justice) in Budapest, the first composed of 200 judges, the latter of 92. Civil procedure is regulated by the Consolida tion Acts of 1868 and 1881; summary procedure was codified in 1893. The Criminal Code of 1896 closely resembles the English model.
The creeds of the Hungarian peoples are as various as the races: Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Old Catholic, Greek Oriental or Orthodox., Evangelical, Unitarian, Evangelical Biotherhood, Baptist, Gregorian Armenian, Jewish and Mohammedan. All are recognized and each sect independently admin isters its own affairs; on the whole this princi ple is loyally respected. The education act of 1907 somewhat restricted that autonomy in re gard to the Church schools. The latest statis tics, which include Croatia-Slavonia, now sepa rated from Hungary, give the religions as fol lows: Roman Catholics 10,888,138 Greek Catholics Evangelical 3,961,472 Greek Orthodox 2,987,163 Unitarians 74,296 ' 932,458 17,452 Total 20, R86,487 It is somewhat remarkable that the true Magyars, in spite of having become Christians, still preserve to this day the original pagan ex pression, The God of the Hungarians.
Since 1868 all children between the ages of 6 and 12 are supposed to attend day schools. Children that are educated privately or at home must pass a public examination at the end of the year. Three years (12 to 15) must be spent in continuation schools. In 1910 there were over 9,000,000 who could neither read nor write — nearly half the population, while 1,775,000 could only read. Continuation schools for technical instruction in agriculture gradually took the place of general continua tion courses all over the country and give both theoretical and practical instruction, the latter on model farms and gardens attached to the schools, which are separately for boys and girls. Since 1907 Magyar is the language used in all continuation schools. About 2,754,000 children attend elementary day schools, to the upkeep of which the local authorities defray 71 per cent of the cost; the state contributes the rest. Higher education is provided by second ary schools wherein pupils are prepared for college and university. There are two kinds of secondary schools — the gymnasia or classical schools, which attach most importance to the humanities, to the classical languages, history and literature; and the realschulen, which, by putting modern languages, mathematics and nat ural science in the foreground, prepare their pupils for the higher grades of technical science. The latest figures show 192 gymnasia with 66,863 pupils and 43 realschulen with 14,938 pupils. The Magyar element predominates in all the higher schools. In a few of these the German, Italian, Serbian or Rumanian lan guages are used. In Hungary proper there are some 60 institutions of university status; 2 universities of sciences, 1 of technical sciences, 10 law academies and 47 theological colleges. The state maintains 5 universities: Buda pest, Kolozsvar, Agram, Pressburg and Debrec zen. All but one comprise the four faculties of medicine, law, philosophy and theology. Women are admitted to the universities as ordi nary students. The theological colleges are thus distributed: Roman Catholic, 29; Greek Cath olic, 4; Greek Oriental, 4; Protestant, 9; Jew ish, 1. A large number of Hungarian students go agroad to study at foreign universities, Be fore the war Hungary possessed over 1,000 in stitutions for instruction in agriculture, com merce, industries, technology, mining, art, music and military training. The Hungarian National Museum (founded 1802) in Budapest contains a library of over 1,500,000 volumes and a rich collection of antiquities, natural his tory and ethnographical exhibits, and the old est monuments Hungarian life, language, literature and history. Among other museums, that of Fine Arts contains numerous old mas ters and the works of modern painters.