Körmöczi Katalin szerk.: Historical Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum 3 - From the End of the Turkish Wars to the Millennium - The history of Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries (Budapest, 2001)

ROOM 11. Reform in Hungary in the First Half of the 19th Century "We Must Extricate Ourselves from the Morass of Decaying Feudalism" (István Széchenyi) (Katalin Körmöczi)

first instance of generally applicable taxation in the Kingdom of Hungary (nobles were unable to claim exemption). The ceremony at which the foundation stone was laid took place on August 24, 1842, in the presence of Archduke Charles, who represented the king. The bridge was built by Adam Clark, on the basis of plans drawn up by William Tierney Clark. Miklós Barabás

's large-size oil painting not only commemorates the ceremony, but also gives a picture of the social elite of the age. Bourgeois Hungary was shaped by the hands and minds of those who attended the laying of the foundation stone and who contributed to the bridge's realization: those in the castles of the aristocracy, in the manor-houses of the lesser nobility, in the town houses of Pest, in the county halls, at the Diet at Pozsony (Bratislava), and at the Court in Vienna (Fig. 28). In the lithograph (1834), made after a sketch by Max Paur Felix, visitors can see the bridge and Pest's Classicist Danube embankment from the wharfside market at today's Roosevelt tér to the Church of the Inner Town. This was one of the busiest and most rapidly developing parts of PestBuda during the Reform Age. THE REFORM DIETS AT POZSONY (BRATISLAVA) István Széchenyi, who wished to develop the economy, transportation, social life, culture, the Hungarian language, and Hungarian theatre, and who offered a year's income to found a Hungarian Scientific Society, was the hero of the 1825-27 Diet. At the Reform Diet of 1832-36, which saw the emergence of a new generation, the leading politicians were Baron Miklós Wesselényi; Ferenc Kölcsey; Ferenc Deák (1803-76), a new delegate from Zala county, and Lajos Kossuth (1802-94), who attended as the nominee of an absent aristocrat. Through their co-operation, a bill to clarify feudal dues - the relationship between serfs and landowners - was tabled during discussion of the regular committee work. It was at this time that Maria Theresia's Urbárium was formally enacted into law in Hungary, with the inclusion of a number of concessions to the serfs. With the support of a few aristocrats, the majority of delegates to the Lower Table (Fig. 29) fought for voluntary manumission of serfs to be included in the law, albeit unsuccessfully. But the Reform Diets did enact legislation on the development of transportation, construction of the Chain Bridge, and on the Hungarian language. Publication of the Parliamentary Reports, edited by Lajos Kossuth, greatly helped public awareness of the Diet's work. At first, these reports were handwritten, but were later lithographed. Széchenyi published works supporting the country's modernization and the shaping of public opinion: Credit (1830), Light (1831), Phase (1833), People of the East (1841), and Fragments from a Political Programme (1847). Miklós Wesselényi also presented his reform ideas to the public, in his works Misjudgments (1833) and An Appeal on the Issue of the Magyar and Slav Nationalities (1843). Kossuth launched and edited newspapers: Parliamentary Reports, Legislative Reports, Pest News, and Weekly News. The politicians of the Reform Age were not agreed on how the economy should be developed. Count István Széchenyi urged the modernization of agriculture; this, he thought, would bring about industrial de-