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 wanted to secure his system permanently by this reform. The Opposition, however, recognized clearly that by this means Tisza would secure the party monopoly for himself for ever, and that on the threshold of a dangerous epoch all power would be centralized in the hands of the Government. To-day it does not matter who was in the right: Tisza or the Opposition. All that is important, and unfortunately also very sad, is that the outbreak of the war found the nation in a mood which approached civil war, that party was ranged against party and class against class, and that social intercourse had ceased, even between the leading statesmen, and that, furthermore, the country had to do without its King and a great portion of the nation did not regard him as an unprejudiced ruler, but rather as a partisan. It was a common saying in the circles of the Opposition that the King was the first honorary member of the National Labour Party. It was an exceedingly delicate matter that common opinion considered that the principle of authority had had its day, and that its second source, namely, Parliament, was an institution that had been played out because, during the elections, serious abuses were discovered and because impossible scenes took place during the negotiations.

The saddest heritage of this unfortunate period, however, was the disappearance of manners, and especially the distortion of political manners. More people lived by politics than for politics. Convictions were less and less strong, and individuals, less and less independent,