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 enough in the question of the election. As I have already stated, the reform of the election was undoubtedly urgent. The new Government had to make electoral reform one of the first items in their programme, but the initiative on the part of the King was not suitable in so delicate a question. If, however, he persisted in doing so, it was necessary that the royal promise should be carried out quickly.

Any further hesitation was all the more dangerous as the basis of the new proposal was an agreement with the Socialists, because, when the King had resolved to tackle the problem of the election, I attempted, in order that the royal promise might come to be realized without too radical a reform and without excessive difficulty, to come to an agreement with the Social Democratic Party.

I succeeded in so doing, and this agreement subsequently became the programme of the Cabinet of Esterhazy, and later on of the Cabinet of Wekerle. On the basis of this agreement, Vázsonyi, who had also played a leading part in calling this agreement into existence, drew up the proposals when he was Minister of Justice.

As soon as it became evident that the existing Parliamentary majority would not allow the new reform to pass which had been accepted by the King on the basis of this agreement, the Chamber of Deputies should have been dissolved. And if new elections, no matter for what reason, were impossible, the Government was bound to abide by its proposals, which had