of the worst class of oppressors, since they themselves, in their turn, are oppressed by or at the mercy of the despot who sits on the throne at Vienna. The Magyar language is forced as much as possible upon the Slavs. Every public career is closed entirely to Slavs of independent views or of strong national feeling. In a country where trade is carried on very largely by licence of the authorities, the Slavs have every difficulty placed in their way if they wish to trade. Justice is administered to the Slav subject to the wishes of the political power.
That justice is so administered appears very clearly from the trial of Dr. Friedjung in 1909. That trial also proved, conclusively, that when necessity or advantage demands, the government of the Dual Monarchy is willing, in order to attain its ends, to descend to the deepest depths of duplicity and fraud. It can deliberately lie as no man or nation has ever yet lied in the history of the world. And this is the State which had the effrontery to expect this and other civilised countries to take its word that it had discovered, after secret investigation, sufficient facts whereon to base the charges it made against Servia in the famous ultimatum which precipitated the great war!
Dr. Friedjung is an historian with a great reputation as such. The Austro-Hungarian Foreign minister, Count Aerenthal, furnished him with some secret state papers as material for an article the doctor was to write in the Neue Freie Presse, the article being intended to charge the Croatian party in the Croatian Diet with treasonable conspiracy with Servia. It was hoped by the Crown that when published this article would so inflame public opinion against Servia that war could be declared. The article was published, and had the desired effect upon the public, though war, for other reasons, was not found necessary on that account. Had the war broken out as intended, these unfortunate Slav politicians would at once have been court-martialled and shot. Peace having been preserved, the men who had thus been attacked had an opportunity to investigate the matter, and as a result prosecuted Dr. Friedjung for libel. At the trial, which took place in 1909, the evidence, though given before a prejudiced judge and a jury packed by the Crown, was found to prove conclusively that the documents given to Dr. Friedjung by Count Aerenthal had been fabricated and forged for the express purpose, and that this was so to the knowledge of the Foreign Office, the historian being used by Count Aerenthal as a catspaw in the furtherance of his unscrupulous and criminal efforts further to repress the Croats and to bring about war with Servia. Yet though this was all proved, the Court in the end, under pressure from the Government,
