Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/342

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. of the greater homogeneity of the Lower House of the Hungarian Parliament, does not exercise so great an influence in its deliberations as over those of the Austrian Reichsrat. As in Austria, decrees must be countersigned by a responsible minister to acquire validity. The Hungarian Parliament is composed of an Upper House — the Table of Magnates — and a Lower House — the House of Representatives. The Table of magnates in 1900 consisted of 17 members of the royal family, 42 archbishops, bishops, and other dignitaries of the Catholic and Greek churches, 12 representatives of the Protestant churches, 225 hereditary peers. 76 life-peers, 17 high officers of State, holding their seats ex officio, and 3 delegates from Croatia-Slavonia. The House of Representatives, which is chosen by the entire male population over the age of twenty, the qualifications being the payment of a small direct tax or the possession of a certain income, contains 453 members (413 from Hungary and 40 from Croatia-Slavonia), elected for a period of five years. In the Parliamentary scheme, the Table of Magnates plays an important part. The majority of its members are great landowners, possessing extensive influence in the country, and as such often enter into opposition to the popular chamber. In the Parliament as a whole, the Magyar element is strongly predominant, and of the Magyars it is the gentry, or minor nobility, that make up the bulk of the House of Representatives and are the controlling political power of the country. The establishment of the Magyar supremacy has been steadfastly pursued in all walks of public life, and the Magyar language is the only recognized language in the courts and schools of Hungary proper, the army, etc. Although the other races combined outnumber the Magyars by 4,000,000 out of a total population of 19,000,000, the only race that has received recognition from the Magyars is the Slavic race of Croatia-Slavonia. The Hungarian Parliament legislates for Hungary and for all affairs that are common to Hungary and Croatia-Slavonia. For purposes of local legislation — i.e. for such matters as agriculture, education, police, and many features of civil and criminal law — Croatia-Slavonia has a diet of its own, consisting of 7 ecclesiastical dignitaries, 20 peers and officers of State, and 90 representatives of the rural communities and towns.

The executive power in the Kingdom of Hungary is vested in a cabinet consisting of 9 ministers and a minister-president. The 9 ministers are those of (1) Finance, (2) Interior, (3) Agriculture, (4) Industry and Commerce, (5) Defense, (6) Justice, (7) Education and Public Worship, (8) Minister for Croatia-Slavonia, (9) Minister ad latus — i.e. near the person of the King. The ministers are responsible to Parliament. The chief executive in Croatia-Slavonia is the Ban, who stands under the control of the Hungarian ministers. Hungary proper (including Transylvania) is divided into 63 counties, at the head of each of which is a governor (German Obergespan), and 25 independent municipalities, the latter comprising the free royal cities. The counties are subdivided into 106 incorporated towns, governed by magistrates, and 410 presidencies (Stuhlrichterämter), and the presidencies are further portioned out into greater and smaller communes. In these ultimate units the representative body is composed, half of deputies, elected by all males over the age of twenty, paying a small tax, and half of the highest taxpayers in the communes. The executive power rests with a council appointed for varying terms in the rural and town communes. The presidencies have no legislatures, but are mere administrative divisions.

The legislative bodies in the counties are elected by the qualified parliamentary electors of the district, and the Obergespan is assisted in his duties by a committee or council appointed for a period of ten years. In the degree of self-government the municipalities rank with the counties. Their representative bodies are created in the same manner as those of the communes, and they have their councils and magistrates. Croatia-Slavonia contains 8 counties and 12 free cities. The counties are subdivided into communes, rural and urban, similar in their government to those of Hungary. The county legislatures are composed of representatives chosen by the body of parliamentary electors, of committees representing the municipalities and communes, and of the higher county officials.

. In Hungary the tribunals exercising original jurisdiction comprise 457 district courts for the trial of misdemeanors, 76 circuit courts for the hearing of criminal charges and important civil cases, and 15 jury courts for the trial of press offenses. Appeals from the lower courts rest with the 12 Royal Tables of Justice, and in the final instance with the Royal Curia at Budapest, in Hungary, and the Supreme Court of Justice and Cassation at Agram, in Croatia-Slavonia. There are besides a tribunal of Commerce and Exchange at Budapest, a Court of Admiralty at Fiume, a Central Court of Land Registry, and a Supreme Court of Discipline for military cases.

An extremely heavy public debt, whose origin dates back a century and a half, and which not only shows no signs of abatement, but keeps growing from year to year; a chronic deficit in the Imperial budget; a burdensome system of taxation, which falls heaviest on the shoulders of the poorer classes of the population — such is the cheerless aspect of the national finances of the country. The following figures show the budgets of Austria and Hungary during the last quarter of the century:

Year Austria Hungary Revenue Expenditure Revenue Expenditure 1875 $159,056,000 212,978,000 308,375.000 333,326,000 $159,056,000 214,960,000 301,930,010 333,156,000 $146,206,000 215,631,000 214,486,000 1885 $146,211,000 1895 204,832,000 1901 214,481,000 • Deficit of $20,000,000.

The per capita expenditure increased in Austria from .$7.92 in 1880 to $9.58 in 1890, and to $12.70 in 1901; while in Hungary it was $7.49, $9, and $11.53, respectively. Nearly 40 per cent. of the total expenditure of the monarchy is absorbed by the service of the debt; 18 per cent. of Austria's expenditure and 7 per cent. of Hungary's go to the common expenditure of the monarchy, i.e. for the ministry of foreign