men combined formed but an insignificant
fraction of the people compared to the numerous nobility, who, after
their enforced submission during ten years, were eager to turn to the
advantage of their own class the victory they had achieved over Joseph.
During the initial preparations for the elections to the Diet, and in
the course of the elections, sentiments were publicly uttered and
obtained a majority in the county assemblies, which caused a feverish
commotion among the common people and the peasantry.

The latter especially now eagerly clung to innovations introduced by the
Emperor Joseph, so beneficial as regarded their own class, and were
reluctant to submit to the restoration of the former arbitrary landlord
system. Their remonstrances were answered by the counties to the effect
that Providence had willed it so that some men should be kings, others
nobles, and others again bondmen. Such cruel reasoning failed to satisfy
the aggrieved peasantry. Symptoms of a dangerous revolutionary spirit
showed themselves throughout a large portion of the country, and an
outbreak could be prevented only by the timely assurance, on the part of
the counties, that the matter would be submitted to the Diet about to
assemble.

The Diet, which had not been convened for twenty-five years, opened in
Buda in the beginning of June, 1790. The coronation soon took place.
Fifty years had elapsed since the last similar pageant had been enacted
in Hungary. After a lengthy and vehement contest extending over ten
months, in the course of which the Diet was removed from Buda to
Presburg, the laws of 1790-1791, which form part of the fundamental
articles of the Hungarian Constitution, were finally passed. By them the
independence of Hungary as a state obtained the fullest recognition. The
laws, which were the result of the cooperation of the crown and the
Estates, declared that Hungary was an independent country, subject to no
other country, possessing her own constitution, by which alone she was
to be governed.

Important concessions were also made to the rights of the citizens of
the country. The privileges of the nobility were left intact, but the
extreme wing of the reactionary nobles had to rest satisfied with this
acquiescence in the former state of things, and were not allowed to push
the narrow-minded measures advocated by them. The majority of the Diet
was influenced in their wise moderation, partly by the exalted views of
the King and