ituation but slightly.
The new premier made it clear that he would labor for electoral
reform, and issue was joined with him squarely upon this part of his
programme by the aristocracy, the gentry, the Chamber of Magnates, and
all the adherents of Andrassy, Apponyi, and Kossuth, with the
deliberately conceived purpose of frightening the Government, and
especially the Emperor-King, into an abandonment of all plans to
tamper with existing electoral arrangements. During the earlier months
of the ministry efforts of the premier to effect a working agreement
with the forces of opposition were but indifferently successful.[706]

[Footnote 706: For a brief account of Hungarian
party politics to 1896 see Lowell, Governments and
Parties, II., 152-161. For references to current
periodicals see p. 497.]

V. THE JUDICIARY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

*558. Law and Justice.*--The law of Hungary, like that of England, is
the product of long-continued growth. It consists fundamentally of the
common law of the mediaeval period (first codified by the jurist
Verboeczy in the sixteenth century), amplified and modernized in more
recent times, especially since the reforms of 1867, so that what
originally was little more than a body of feudal customs has been
transformed into a comprehensive national code. Hungarian criminal
law, codified in 1878, is recognized to be the equal of anything of
the kind that the world possesses. Since 1896 there has been in
progress a codification of the civil law, and the task is announced to
be approaching completion. There are numerous special codes,
pertaining to commerce, bankruptcy, and industry, whose promulgation
from time to time has marked epochs in the economic development of the
nation.

The lower Hungarian tribunals, or courts of first instance, comprise
458 county courts, with single judges, and 76 district courts, (p. 506)
with two or more judges each. Both exercise jurisdiction in civil and
criminal cases; but the jurisdiction of the county courts in civil
cases extends only to suits involving not more than 1,200 crowns,
while in criminal cases these tribunals are not competent to impose
punishment exceeding a single year's imprisonment. The district courts
serve as courts of appeal from the county courts. Of superior courts
there are fourteen--twelve "royal tables," or courts of appeal, a
Supreme Court of Justice at