r our national
future, whereas the Magyars see in it the tomb of their nationality.
We consider the liberation of the East as a condition of a happier
future, while the Magyars regard it as the beginning of their absolute
ruin or at least as the end of their aspirations for the sole
dominion. The idea of a Yugoslav State, arising in Croatia or in
Bosnia or Serbia, would always find in Hungary a most determined foe."
It was thus improbable that any satisfactory arrangement would be
made, particularly as the Austrians, oblivious to all that
Jella[vc]i['c] had done for them, were quite prepared to give their
erstwhile enemies, the Magyars, a free hand. And what the Magyars did
was to confer upon Croatia this autonomy for educational and legal and
religious matters, while they reserved financial, railway, fiscal and
commercial questions, military legislation and the laws relating to
the roads and rivers in which both were interested--all these subjects
they reserved for the Parliament at Buda-Pest, in which, of course,
the Croats formed an impotent minority. Francis Joseph on May 1, 1867,
sent a message to Zagreb in which he stated that "the pourparlers with
the Kingdom of Hungary, which to him was always dear and faithful, had
led to the desired results." He trusted that the Croats would be
represented at his coronation at Buda-Pest. Strossmayer was ordered to
bring this about; he went instead to the Paris Exhibition. He and the
National party prepared themselves for a severe struggle. But now
Baron Levin Rauch, of infamous memory, was nominated as Ban. He at
once altered the electoral laws, so that the National party came back
with only fourteen deputies. If any one in Western Europe thought
about the Croats it was with the traditional aversion for the way in
which they had behaved to the most noble Kossuth. This was years
before the time when Dr. Seton-Watson, as it may interest him to hear,
defeated the Magyarophil candidate at an election in the town of
Ogulin. The bright idea occurred to somebody to whisper it abroad that
Dr. Seton-Watson would arrive that day in order to make notes of the
election for the British Press. With Rauch's obedient majority a
compromise, the _Nagodba_, was arranged with Hungary. The terms of
this, subordinating Croatia economically and financially to Buda-Pest,
are what one would expect; the chief novelty concerns Rieka, as to
which port no agreement had been reached.
THE "KRPITSA"
O
|