contingents of recruits. 16,700 men were needed for the joint
army, and the remainder for the Austrian and Hungarian national defence
troops (Landwehr and honved). The total contribution of Hungary would have
been some 6500 and of Austria some 14,500 men. The military authorities
made, however, the mistake of detaining in barracks several thousand
supernumerary recruits (_i.e._ recruits liable to military service but in
excess of the annual 103,000 enrollable by law) pending the adoption of the
Army bills by the two parliaments. The object of this apparently
high-handed step was to avoid the expense and delay of summoning the
supernumeraries again to the colours when the bills should have received
parliamentary sanction; but it was not unnaturally resented by the
Hungarian Chamber, which has ever possessed a lively sense of its
prerogatives. The Opposition, consisting chiefly of the independence party
led by Francis Kossuth (eldest son of Louis Kossuth), made capital out of
the grievance and decided to obstruct ministerial measures until the
supernumeraries should be discharged. The estimates could not be
sanctioned, and though Kossuth granted the Szell cabinet a vote on account
for the first four months of 1903, the Government found itself at the mercy
of the Opposition. At the end of 1902 the supernumeraries were
discharged--too late to calm the ardour of the Opposition, which proceeded
to demand that the Army bills should be entirely withdrawn or that, if
adopted, they should be counterbalanced by concessions to Magyar
nationalist feeling calculated to promote the use of the Magyar language in
the Hungarian part of the army and to render the Hungarian regiments, few
of which are purely Magyar, more and more Magyar in character. Szell, who
vainly advised the crown and the military authorities to make timely
concessions, was obliged to reject these demands which enjoyed the secret
support of Count Albert Apponyi, the Liberal president of the Chamber and
of his adherents. The obstruction of the estimates continued. On the 1st of
May the Szell cabinet found itself without supply and governed for a time
"_ex-lex_"; Szell, who had lost the confidence of the crown, resigned and
was succeeded (June 26) by Count Khuen-Hedervary, previously ban, or
governor, of Croatia. Before taking office Khuen-Hedervary negotiated with
Kossuth and other Opposition leaders, who undertook that obstruction should
cease if the Army bills were with