ression
of trade doubtless helped to induce them to perform a duty which they ought
to have performed from the first; but their chief motive was the desire to
escape the menace of universal suffrage or, at least, to make sure that it
would be introduced in such a form as to safeguard Magyar supremacy over
the other Hungarian races.

[Sidenote: Pact of 1906.]

The pact concluded (April 8, 1906) between the Coalition and the crown is
known to have contained the following conditions:--All military questions
to be suspended until after the introduction of universal suffrage; the
estimates and the normal contingent of recruits to be voted for 1905 and
1906; the extraordinary military credits, sanctioned by the delegations in
1904, to be voted by the Hungarian Chamber; ratification of the commercial
treaties concluded by Tisza; election of the Hungarian Delegation and of
the Quota-Deputation; introduction of a suffrage reform at least as far
reaching as the Kristoffy scheme. These "capitulations" obliged the
Coalition government to carry on a dualist policy, although the majority of
its adherents became, by the general election of May 1906, members of the
Kossuth or Independence party, and, as such, pledged to the economic and
political separation of Hungary from Austria save as regards the person of
the ruler. Attempts were, however, made to emphasize the independence of
Hungary. During the deadlock (June 2, 1905) Kossuth had obtained the
adoption of a motion to authorize the compilation of an autonomous
Hungarian tariff, and on the 28th of May 1906, the Coalition cabinet was
authorized by the crown to present the Szell-Koerber tariff to the Chamber
in the form of a Hungarian autonomous tariff distinct from but identical
with the Austrian tariff. This concession of form having been made to the
Magyars without the knowledge of the Austrian government, Prince Konrad
Hohenlohe, the Austrian premier, resigned office; and his successor, Baron
Beck, eventually (July 6) withdrew from the table of the Reichsrath the
whole Szell-Koerber compact, declaring that the only remaining economic
ties between the two countries were freedom of trade, the commercial
treaties with foreign countries, the joint state bank and the management of
excise. If the Hungarian government wished to regulate its relationship to
Austria in a more definite form, added the Austrian premier, it must
conclude a new agreement before the end of the year 1907, when