e an
inquiry. All the anti-liberal elements in the country now became banded
together in this effort to discredit the liberal government, and for the
first time the Hungarian anti-Semites found themselves at the head of a
powerful party. Fifteen Jews were arrested and thrown into prison. No
pains were spared in preparing the case for trial. Perjury and even
forgery were freely resorted to. The son of one of the accused, a boy of
fourteen, was taken into custody by the police, and by threats and
cajoleries prevailed upon to give evidence for the prosecution. He was
elaborately coached for the terrible _role_ he was to play. The trial
opened at Nyiregyhaza on the 19th of June, and lasted till the 3rd of
August. It was one of the most dramatic _causes celebres_ of the
century. Under the brilliant cross-examination of the advocates for the
defence the whole of the shocking conspiracy was gradually exposed. The
public prosecutor thereupon withdrew from the case, and the four
judges--the chief of whom held strong anti-Semitic opinions--unanimously
acquitted all the prisoners. The case proved the death-blow of Hungarian
anti-Semitism. Although another phase of the Jewish question, which will
be referred to presently, had still to occupy the public mind, the shame
brought on the nation by the Tisza Eszlar conspiracy effectually
prevented the anti-Semites from raising their voices with any effect
again.

Meanwhile a more formidable and complicated outburst was preparing in
Austria itself. Here the lines of the German agitation were closely
followed, but with far more dramatic results. It was exclusively
political--that is to say, it appealed to anti-Jewish prejudices for
party purposes while it sought to rehabilitate them on a
pseudo-scientific basis, racial and economic. At first it was confined
to sporadic pamphleteers. By their side there gradually grew up a school
of Christian Socialists, recruited from the ultra-Clericals, for the
study and application of the doctrines preached at Mainz by Archbishop
Ketteler. This constituted a complete Austrian analogue to the
Evangelical-Socialist movement started in Germany by Herr Stocker. For
some years the two movements remained distinct, but signs of
approximation were early visible. Thus one of the first complaints of
the anti-Semites was that the Jews were becoming masters of the soil.
This found an echo in the agrarian principles of the Christian
Socialists, as expounded by Rudo