Ride to Szent Domokos--Difficulty about quarters--Interesting
host--Jewish question in Hungary--Taxation--Financial matters.
From Szereda I went to Szent Domokos. It was a long ride, and I was
again nearly benighted. However, I reached my destination this time just
as the last streak of daylight had departed.
I had some difficulty in making the people I met understand that I
wanted the postmaster's house. No one, it appeared, could speak a word
of German. At length I found the place; but a new difficulty arose. The
postmaster, it seemed, was away, as far as I could make out from his
wife. She seemed greatly puzzled, not to say alarmed, at seeing an armed
horseman ride up, who demanded hospitality; and I daresay she was the
more puzzled at not being able "to place me," as the Yankees say, for
she asked me if I was a Saxon, an Austrian, or a Turk? My appearance, I
suppose, was rather uncouth and alarming. She was young and very
pretty--an Armenian, I learned afterwards. These women are apt to have
Oriental notions about men, and she was evidently afraid to ask me in.
There was I, with my tired horse, completely up a tree. I thought to
myself, I cannot stay in the street, so pushing my way through a sort of
courtyard, I found out what appeared to be the stable. This I took
possession of, all the time making the most polite bows and gestures,
for we hardly understood a word of each other's language. There was no
help for it, I must make myself at home. I put the horse up, I relieved
him of his saddle and saddle-bags, and seeing a bucket and a well not
far off, I fetched some water. By this time the young woman had called
in some neighbours, and I could see them watching me from behind the
half-closed doors and windows. I must observe I had lighted my own
lantern that I always carried with me, so that my proceedings were made
quite visible to the cautious spectators. They never attempted to
interfere with me, and I went on doing my work quietly and
unostentatiously. The position was ludicrous in the highest degree!
While I was yet foraging for my horse's supper, by good-luck in came the
postmaster. He spoke German, and I was soon able to make all square. He
was as civil as possible, offering me at once the hospitality of his
roof, which in fact I had already assumed. I saw he was very anxious to
remove the unpleasant impression of his wife's mistake. He bade me
welcome many times over, he thanked me for the honour I did him in
offering to sleep under his humble roof, and further persisted in
calling me "Herr Lord." It was in vain that I corrected him on this
point. "I was an Englishman, therefore I must be a 'Herr Lord,' and
there was an end of it."
When Mr Boner was travelling in Szeklerland he was also, _nolens
volens_, raised to the peerage, so I suppose it is a settled conviction
of the people that we are all lords in Great Britain.
We had for supper a capital _filet d'ours_ from a bear that had been
shot only two days before. I enjoyed my supper immensely; the wine was
as good as the food. My pretty hostess laughed a good deal over the
false alarm my appearance had created. Her husband interpreted between
us, but I promised to learn Hungarian before I paid them another visit.
My host proved himself to be a very intelligent man; I had an
exceedingly interesting conversation with him after supper. He
complained bitterly of the heavy pressure of taxation, saying that
Government ought to manage things more economically, for that every year
now there was a deficit.
"Yet your country is rich in natural resources, as rich almost as
France, barring her advantages of seaboard."
"Yes, we have wealth under the soil," he replied, "and what we want is
capital to develop our resources. Herein Austria has stood in our way;
you know the old policy of Austria, as far back as Maria Theresa's time,
which was to make Hungary Catholic, to make her poor, and to turn her
people into Germans. This last they will never do; but they have
succeeded in their second project only too well. They have made us poor
enough, they have discouraged manufactures and industries of every kind.
We wish for free trade, but Austria is opposed to it. The manufactures
of Bohemia must be nursed, and accordingly we are made to suffer. We
want to be brought into contact with our customers in Western Europe; we
want, in fact, to get our trade out of the hands of the Jews."
"I wish to ask you your candid opinion about the Jews. Some people say
they are the curse of the country; others again, that Hungarian commerce
would be nowhere without them."
"I will tell you what happens," replied my friend, evading a direct
answer to my latter observation. "A wretched Jew comes into this
village, or some other place--it does not matter, it is always the same
story. He comes probably from Galicia as poor as a rat, he settles
himself in the village, and sells _slivovitz_ on credit to the foolish
peasant, who, besotted with drink and debt, gets into his meshes; in the
end, the Jew having sucked the blood of his victims, possesses himself
of their little property, finds himself the object of universal hatred,
and then he moves on. He makes a fresh start in some other place,
beginning on a higher rung of the ladder; and you will find him sitting
in the highest seats before he has done."
"If your people were less of spendthrifts and managed their affairs
themselves, then the Jews would cease to find a harvest amongst you."
"Yes, that is true," he answered; "but we are not practical; we do not
organise well. The Jew always manages to be the middle-man between
ourselves and the consumers."
"But without the Jew you would perhaps not even get so near to the
consumer," I observed quietly.
My host puffed out a volume of smoke, and after a pause observed, before
he placed his pipe again between his lips, "In this part of the country,
in the Szeklerland, the better class of merchants are nearly all
Armenians."
Apropos of the tax question, I have looked into the matter since, and I
am rather surprised to find the proportion not so heavy as I thought; on
the whole population it is about £1 a-head--certainly less than is borne
by many other states. In England, I believe, we are taxed at over £2
a-head. Then, again, it is true that since 1870 there has been an annual
deficit, and the equilibrium of income and expenditure can hardly be
counted upon just yet; still things are moving in the right direction.
The Hungarians have been reproached for managing their finances badly
since the compromise with Austria in 1867, when the revenue came
exclusively under their own control. But in answer they say, that having
so lately entered the community of states, they found themselves in the
position of a minor who comes into house and lands that have need of
every sort of radical repair and improvement. Hungary has had to spend
heavily upon road-making, bridges, railroads, sanatory and other
economic improvements, and very heavily for rectification of the course
of the Danube; in fact they have ambitiously set themselves too much to
do in the time. They have rendered Buda-Pest, with its magnificent river
embankments, one of the finest capitals in Europe. The Magyar does
everything with a degree of splendour that savours of the Oriental.
They know not the meaning of the homely adage which tells a man to "cut
his coat according to his cloth."
Added to the pressure of accumulated expenses, Hungary has had a
succession of bad harvests--she has been passing through the seven lean
years. The last season has shown, however, a decided improvement, so we
may hope the bad corner is turned. I am informed that this year the
schedule for unpaid--viz., arrears of--taxes is completely wiped off.
Then, again, the income-tax in the space of five years ending 1874
increased from 5,684,000 florins to 27,650,000 florins!
The financial account of the current year is reassuring. At the sitting
of the Hungarian Diet on the 30th October,[20] the minister, in
presenting the estimates for 1878, said that in 1876 and 1877 the
expenditure had been reduced by £1,250,000. It was not possible to
continue at the same rate, and the net reduction next year would be
£360,000. It is true the deficit of 1877 is £1,600,000, a sufficiently
grave sum; but to judge the position fairly it is necessary to look at
the budgets of former years. In 1874, "in consequence of rather too
hasty investment of money in railways and other public works," the
deficit was £6,000,700; in 1876 it had fallen to £3,100,000. The present
year, therefore, shows a steady reduction of those ugly figures at the
wrong side of the national account.
[Footnote 20: 'Hungarian Finances,' the Times, October 31, 1877.]