Magyar News, 1992. szeptember-1993. augusztus (3. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1993-03-01 / 7. szám

KEEP THE BALL ROLLING

This photograph was made in 1963 at the

end of summer. It shows the Hungarian soccer team of our area. The coach of the team was Father Idrányi, at that time a priest at St. Emery Church. In the midst is a table with many trophies on it It would be

nice to know who the participants are and what happened to them since. Maybe they should get together for the 30th reunion.

Let us know.

w . Hf n REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION OF 1848

(continued from page 1)

ereign state, but connected with Austria through the person of the monarch, who was emperor of Austria but at the same time king of Hungary. Evidently this situation necessitated further negotiations and agreement between the two states concerning their common interests and policies on three areas: national defense of both countries, conduct of a common foreign policy and provide the finances for these two areas.

The second question left unsolved by the new constitution was the situation of the non-Magyar nationalities living in Hungary who constituted more than half of the total population of the country. The laws of March 1848 answered this question by declaring the complete equality of all citizens of Hungary, regardless of their nationality or religion, endowed with the same rights, and subject to the same obligations. Francis Deák, one chief-negotiator of the future Compromise of 1867, introduced the term “Political Nation” to explain the situation of the nationalities in Hungary. According to this concept, the population of Hungary forms, from a political point of view, one collective unit which includes all nationalities, the Magyars too, with equal rights and opportunities. In order however to preserve the undivided territorial unity and the historical character of the Hungarian state, and also for practical purposes, the official language of the legislation, government and administration should be the language of the largest single national group, the Magyar, while the other national groups

can freely use their language in their home, in the church, social and economic life, and at a limited extent in the education. The non-magyar nationalities were unwilling to accept this interpretation of a “political nation” and consistently demanded more extensive use of the national language in education, as well as in the administration of the territory where their particular nationality formed the majority. Thus, the problem of the nationalities remained unsolved and haunted Hungarian politics for the rest of the existence of the old historical Hungary.

Negotiations to solve the problems of the so-called “common affairs” started right after the promulgation of the new Hungarian constitution, but they eventually were stalled, the Austrian government of Metternich’s successor, Prince Schwarzenberg, waiting for the opportunity for a showdown with the Hungarians. As the military situation in Italy improved and the revolution in Prague was crashed by the army of Windischgrätz, advisors of the rather feeble-minded emperor Ferdinand persuaded him to resign in favor of his nephew, the 18 year-old Archduke Franz Joseph, and to repudiate the Hungarian Constitution. The point of no-retum was reached when, with the approval of the emperor, General Jellasich invaded Hungary with his troops from Croatia. He was forced to retreat towards Vienna by hastily organized troops of a National Guard. The Hungarian government and parliament,

which already transferred its seat to Buda, responded with declaring a national emergency, established a Committee of National defense with the leadership of Kossuth, and ordered to raise a national army of 200,000 to resist the expected invasion of the army of Windischgrätz. With this the rupture with Austria was complete, and anew tragic and heroic chapter opened in Hungarian history: the War of Independence of 1848-49.

During the period of absolutism, which followed, the surrender of Világos, when Hungary was subject to the central government of Vienna as a province of the empire, certain laws of the legislation of March 1848 were still kept in effect by the Imperial government, such as the laws concerning the agricultural reforms, abolishment of certain feudal institutions, religious tolerance, etc. And later the restoration of the Hungarian constitution of 1848 was a nonnegotiable preliminary condition of the Compromise of 1867, which established the system of the Dual-Monarchy between Austria and Hungary. Thus, the legislation of 1848 served as basis for the future legislations of the subsequent political era of liberalism in Hungary, which elevated the country, at least economically, and culturally, within the period of one generation, to the level of the more advanced European countries around the turn of the twentieth century.

Andor Urbánszky Page 3