vague Indication!—"the countries allied to it." Whole Turkey north of the Balkan was thus to be joined to the Hungarian realm. Bosniaks, Herzegovinians, Montenegrins, Bulgars—tribes either Slavonian or half-slavonized—were to be thrown into this enlarged tate. Hungary, as it is, forms already, in nationalities and tongues, a Babylonian structure. Yet Kossuth proposed to render that confusion even worse confounded; or, more strictly speaking, he wished to call in new national elements which would have entirely overwhelmed the Magyar race!
According to his scheme, the seat of the executive of the new state was to be, in turns, at Pesth, Bukarest, Belgrad, and Agram. That is to say, in one case, in a semi-Magyar town; in the other three cases, in non-Magyar cities, two of which are hotbeds of panslavist agitation. A constituent assembly was to fix the official language of the confederacy. At a first glance, everybody could see that the result of such a choice would be in favour of some Slav tongue, and against the Magyar language. The scheme was rightly spurned by the Magyar leaders. Passion ran high; and some of Kossuth's adversaries brought to mind that, at the close of the Revolution of 1849, he had proposed to offer the crown of Hungary to a prince of the imperial family of Russia.
A second great defeat of the Austrian kaiser on the field of battle, in 1866, enabled Deak to wring from the government at Vienna a fuller legislative autonomy than it had been ready before to grant. Deak, on that occasion, did not raise his constitutional terms. He simply repeated them. He might, after Sadowa, have gone much further in his demands, with reasonable hope of success. But, partly from his training as a strict parliamentary legist, partly because he would not strain things so far as to cut off the Magyars wholly from the German connection, and thus isolate them amidst jealous or hostile races, Deak remained content with a lesser concession.
After new laborious negotiations, the present state of things was established, which on most essential points renders the Magyar realm independent from Cis-Leithan Austria. To-day, Hungary has once more her old landmarks, and her time-honoured ground-law, modified by the reforms of 1848. Her ruler, placed under a special coronation oath, is recognized only as king. The name of Hungary figures, in all State documents, on equal terms with that of Austria. The Honveds who had fought against the kaiser are acknowledged as having merited well of the fatherland. The rank of general has been given back to Klapka, Perczel, Vetter, once foremost among the military chiefs of the Revolution. Men who once narrowly escaped the gallows have been placed in the highest positions. Count Andrassy himself belongs to that class. In short, the restoration of self-government is well-nigh as complete as it could possibly be under royal rule.
This was Deak's crowning achievement. As the "Father of the Restored Constitution of Hungary," he henceforth had marks of esteem and respect showered upon him from all sides. The people, when speaking of him, used quaint names of endearment; and all kinds of tales about his daily doings cropped up. To the queen-empress Elizabeth, whose favourite sojourn has of late years been the castle of Gödöllö, near Pesth, he became "Cousin Deak," or "Uncle Deak:" so, at least, the popular myth would have it. Meanwhile the great Hungarian patriot never gave up his wonted simplicity of life; a hater, as he was, of all pride and pomp. His bachelor abode at Pesth consisted of two rooms, at an ordinary hotel—the "Queen of England." His landed property he had transferred to other hands for a small annuity. He lived in the most frugal style; was a total abstainer (a rare thing, indeed, in a country famous for good wine!); but, on the other hand, an inveterate smoker. He aged rather soon, and was styled "alter Herr" and "patriarch" at a time when other statesmen still pride themselves on their vigour. His modesty, his retiring disposition, never forsook him. Having nothing about his personality that could be called impressive, he might, in his sombrero hat and his Neapolitan mantle, have passed unobserved in a crowd; but a nation's admiring looks followed his steps, in spite of his occasional strong protests against every ovation.
An unselfish man; not a republican by conviction, yet distinguished by an incorruptibility reminding us of the noblest models of republican virtue, Deak declined all favours from the court. To the question, more than once addressed to him confidentially by the court, as to what he wished, he uniformly replied, "I am not in want of anything." At last, on the advice of one of his ministers, Francis Joseph sent him a royal family portrait, in a frame of pure gold, set with costly gems.
"It would look like a present of money," Deak said; "I cannot accept that!"
