and improved public instruction. Very successful in this new campaign, they at the same time opposed strenuously the pretension of the Germans and Magyars to administer the whole internal organisation of the Monarchy. The details of these quarrels are well known, and it is unnecessary to recall that the parliaments of Vienna and Budapest were never able to sit regularly on account of Slav obstruction.
In Hungary the reign of violence is still better known. Since 1867, when the Magyars became absolute masters of the country, the situation of the non-Magyar nationalities has been intolerable. The Slovaks up till now have not had even primary national schools, to say nothing of secondary or high schools. The Magyars tried to denationalise the Slovak people by the most violent means. All law appointments were reserved solely for Magyars, and political persecutions became innumerable. The Press was barely able to subsist, muzzled, suppressed, and materially impoverished as it was. The economic development of the Slovaks was systematically obstructed by the most treacherous proceedings. The local administration was completely in the hands of the Magyars, while the Slovaks, who number some three millions, had just two members to represent them in the Parliament of Budapest before the war.
In fact, the same absolutist régime was in practice
