although it had been specially stipulated in the Agreement—which
stands in the place of a fundamental constitutional law—that _Croatian_
was to be official tongue in all joint offices within Croatian
territory. The Serbo-Croat Coalition, which is represented by forty
members in the Hungarian Parliament, rose in wrath against the
Bill, and declared war to the knife upon the Hungarian Government.
The conflict in the Hungarian Parliament is known all over Europe.
The Croats and Serbs pursued a policy of obstruction, which fairly
paralyzed the House and made parliamentary discussion of the Railway
Bill quite impossible. To get it passed Kossuth so worded his Bill that
it was contained in one paragraph, empowering the Government to deal
with the Pragmatic (administrative business of the country) at their
discretion as part of the Order of the Day.
The rupture with Hungary was now complete. The Serbo-Croat Coalition
transferred the conflict to Croatia, and the nation began to agitate
for detachment from Hungary. The Parliament was dissolved, but the
Coalition was again victorious in the election. On the resignation of
the Croatian Government, Alexander v. Rakodczay was appointed Ban,
but failing to raise a party friendly to the Government he was forced
to resign his office in two months. The next Ban to be appointed was
Baron Paul Rauch, who boldly entered his capital town of Zagreb, but
was received with hostile demonstrations and showers of stones. It
speaks well for his courage that he was not affected by this reception,
and even introduced himself to the Parliament with great pomp. His
reception in Parliament was one great demonstration of hostility,
so that he could not even read the Royal message. He had to fly the
building with his Ministerial staff, and Parliament was officially
dissolved the same day. Baron Rauch formed a Government party of venal
upstarts and discredited characters, secured the support of the now
thoroughly demoralized “constitutionalist party,” and ordered a new
election. _Everything_ was done to intimidate the electorate, with the
result that not one of Rauch’s candidates was returned. This Parliament
was dissolved without even having been summoned, and Rauch embarked on
a reign of terror which can only be compared to that of Germany in the
Cameroons. He organized the Jewish-constitutionalist party into bands
which went by the name of the “Black Hand.” Their motto was “For the
Emperor, and for Croatia,” and their weapons were murder and assault,
which they were allowed to use with impunity against their opponents.
At the same time an organized judicial persecution of the Serbs was set
on foot. But even this tyranny could not break the national resistance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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