Szőcs Sebestyén: Budapest székesfőváros részvétele az 1905-1906. évi nemzeti ellenállásban - Várostörténeti tanulmányok 1. (Budapest, 1977)

6. Befejezés

Béla Rudnay was appointed royal comissary for the capital by the monarch on February 15th. The government informed the capital about this on February 19th, letting it know that if necessary the royal comissary could dissolve the municipal committee and exercise the assembly's authority in a one-man management form; and besides he had the right directly to dispose over all the municipal officers, could discharge or replace the disobedient members. The royal commissary, first of all, ordered the delivery of the unsolicited direct taxes amounting to more than five million crowns. By the depositing the taxes the opposition did not achieve its goal; all the less since the court of justice, due to non-competence, dismissed the action of the capital entered against the government and at the same time compelled it to withdraw the deposited tax amount. Then Rudnay announced his assignment to the municipal committee at an extraordinary assembly held on February 24th. The municipal committee members did not partake in the royal comissary's inauguration and shortly after his departure from the room they protested against his appointment in the form of a resolution, qualifying it a "violation of statute by force of power" and declared the measures to be carried out by the royal comissary legally ab ovo ineffective. József Márkus, the retired Lord Mayor was commissioned by the municipal committee leaders to table the draft resolution to the assembly. Following the comissary's decree the withdrawn deposited taxes were delivered by the council without delay to the Treasury. With this the resistance by the capital virtually ceased. The opposition concluded to discontinue the municipal committee's functioning during the period of the comissary's activity. At the beginning the opposition soundly accepted that standpoint, but the majority of the assembly would not even hear of it. They had no doubt about the fact that by the royal comissary's appointment the capital's autonomy was gravely endangered, but they were not ready to give it up completely. Above all they did not want anybody else to dispose over the property of the capital. Their standpoint was adopted soon by the liberal wing of the opposition as well. The issue was discussed at the assembly held on March 16th. Here Vázsonyi, in the name of the liberals, soundly disagreed with the conservatives and definitely rejected the statements by the coalition incessantly charging the capital with treason and the municipal committee with dishonest intentions. Vázsonyi's protest was wholly just. The capital did not commit treason indeed. Though it is doubtless that both the majority and the opposition members of the municipal committee were apt to manoevering and to solve problems by compromises; the presence of the royal comissary, however, made any resistance impossible, although subsequent to delivering the taxes he limited his official activity solely to the performance of the Lord Mayor's duties. Yet his presence-as mentioned above-was equal to the permanent endangering of the capital autonomy, although formally it was never suspended. Any further resistance would have resulted in the total loss of autonomy, contributing by no means to the realization of the "national objectives". The resistance ceased not only in the capital; it decreased all over the country and at last faded out. The king dissolved the Parliament on February 19th, and sent royal comissaries to the territory of several boroughs. The government withdrew the funds from the rebellious municipalities, limited the right of hodling public meetings and prohibited the selling of the newspapers in the streets. Consequently to these measures the coalition realized the hopeless189