CHAPTER XXII.
The baths of Tusnad--The state of affairs before 1848--Inequality
of taxation--Reform--The existing land laws--Communal
property--Complete registration of titles to estates--Question of
entail.
I mixed exclusively in Hungarian society during my stay at the baths of
Tusnad. With Baron ---- and Herr von ---- I talked politics by the hour.
The Hungarians have the natural gift of eloquence. They pour forth their
words like the waters of a mill-race, no matter in what language. My
principal companion at Tusnad spoke French. The true Magyar will always
employ that language in preference to German when speaking with a
foreigner; but as often as not the Hungarians of good society speak
English perfectly well. The younger generation, almost without
exception, understand our language, and are extremely well read in
English literature.
I had so recently left Saxonland, where public opinion is opposed to
everything that has the faintest shade of Magyarism, that I felt in the
state of Victor Hugo's hero, of whom he said, "Son orientation etait
changee, ce qui avait ete le couchant etait le levant. Il s'etait
retourne." The transition was certainly curious, but I confess to
getting rather tired of the mutual recriminations of political parties;
respecting each other's good qualities, they are simply colour-blind.
After the Saxons had been allowed to drop out of the conversation, I led
my Magyar friend to talk of the state of things before 1848, and to
enlighten me as to the existing condition of laws of property.
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