A HUNGARIAN ELECTION.

BY BARON JÓZSEF EÖTVÖS.

(From "The Village Notary.")

[BARON JÓZSEF Eörvös, a Hungarian novelist, statesman, and orator, was born at Budapest, September 3, 1813. He began his literary career with poems and tragedies, which were universally admired; and then published, at different epochs in his life, the novels "The Carthusian" (1838), "The Village Notary" (1844), and "Hungary in 1514" (1847). He was for many years minis. ter of worship and education, and won the gratitude of his countrymen by his political acts. He died at Budapest, February 2, 1871.]

Ir was but natural that while the Conservative party at Tissaret made so many preparations for the election, Mr. Bantornyi's cooks and butlers should be equally busy. Tserepesh was the seat of Bantornyi's party, whose number surpassed those of Rety's adherents. Almost all the great landowners of the county, with the exception of Kishlaki, Shoskuty, and Slatzanek, resorted to Tserepesh. Their enthusiasm (to judge from the noise they made) was unbounded, and their chief strength consisted in the support of the younger and consequently more liberal members of the community. But Mr. Kriver, who sided with either party, had his reasons for doubting the ultimate success of the Bantornyis. He was aware that excepting himself, the prothonotary, and a few vice justices, all the placemen of the county belonged to the Conservative party, which did the more credit to their disinterestedness and foresight, as it was well known that Bantornyi was leagued with men who, like himself, aspired for the first time to the honors and cares of office, a policy whose edge will sometimes turn against him who uses it. Besides (and this was indeed. Mr. Kriver's chief ground of doubt), Bantornyi's party had resolved to act upon the mind of the Cortes by persuasion, and to eschew bribery. This sublime but rather impractical idea emanated from Tengelyi, whose motion to that effect was so zealously supported by Bantornyi's friends (excepting always the candidates for office) that the recorder's eloquence and Bantornyi's entreaties were of no avail against this virtuous resolution of theirs. In justice to Bantornyi we ought to say that he and his family strove to make up for this fault, and his noble friends were never in want of either wine or brandy;

but this rash resolution, which the Retys published with their own commentaries, was nevertheless a serious drawback to the success of the party. Well might the Bantornyis agitate for the emancipation of the Jews (so the Rety party said) since they were stingier than a thousand Jews; they despised the nobility because they refused to treat its members. Bantornyi's secret donations were fairly smothered by these public calumnies. Kriver was perfectly justified in protesting that what the party wanted was the power of publicity. Rety's men, on the other hand, perambulated the villages; they bore gaudy flags; they had their houses of resort; they distributed feathers among the men and ribbons among the women; the very children in the streets were gained over to them. Every noble fellow knew that it would be three zwanzigers in his pocket if Rety was returned. And the Bantornyis walked about empty-handed, appealing to moral force! They had not even the ghost of a chance; the candidates for office became dissatisfied and talked of effecting a compromise with the enemy, and there is no saying what they might have done but for a most unexpected event, which caused them to rally round their leader.

The lord lieutenant wrote to inform Mr. Bantornyi of his intention to visit the county, and of staying a night at Tserepesh. The letter which contained this welcome intelligence was in his Excellency's own handwriting, and the sensation produced in the county was of course immense. The lord lieutenant had always taken up his quarters in Rety's house. Now Rety was a renegade. An old Liberal, he had joined the Conservative party. And the lord lieutenant, scorning Rety's proffered hospitality, turns to the house of his antagonist. His Excellency was a Liberal at heart, and that was the secret at least in the opinion of the Tserepesh people. The Rety party were a little shocked. They said, of course, that his Excellency consulted but his own convenience; that Bantornyi's house was the most convenient place on that road, and that the inns in that part of the county were villainous; but in their inmost souls they denounced this step as the greatest political fault which his Excellency could have committed, and which, they were sure, must lead to his downfall. The anti-bribery party were positive that the high functionary was aware of the despicable means which the Retys employed to get their chief returned, and that he claimed Bantornyi's hospitality only to

express his disgust at the unlawful practices of bribery and corruption. It need scarcely be said that Tengelyi was a zealous supporter of the latter opinion. But whatever reasons the Count Maroshvölgyi had for going to Tserepesh, certain it is that the news of his coming gave the Bantornyis hopes, and more than hopes, of success. It steadied the wavering ranks of their partisans and recruited their number by a crowd of would-be eandidates. The day appointed for the Count's arrival saw the house of Bantornyis thronged with anti-bribery men; and though his Excellency was not expected before nightfall, it was all but impossible to cross the hall at nine o'clock in the morning.

Bantornyi's house was one of those buildings with which every traveler in Hungary must be acquainted. It was a castellated mansion with nine windows; a large gate in the middle, and a tower at each of its four corners. The interior of these buildings is always the same. An ascent of three stone steps leads you to the gate, and walking through a large stone-paved hall you enter the dining room, to the right of which are the apartments of the lady of the house, and to the left the rooms destined for the use of the landlord and his guests. Bantornyi's castle was built on this plan; but ever since the return from England of Mr. Jacob-or James Bantornyi (for he delighted most in the English reading of his name) Mr. Lajosh Bantornyi had come to be a stranger in his own house.

There is in England a very peculiar thing which is commonly known by the name of comfort. Mr. James had made deep investigations into the nature and qualities of this peculiar British "thing" (as he called it). Indeed he had come to understand and master it. The "thing," viz. comfort, is chiefly composed of three things: first, that a man's home be built as irregularly as possible; secondly, that there be an abundance of small galleries and narrow passages, and no lack of steps. near the doors of the rooms; and, thirdly, that the street door be fashioned with a Bramah lock and key. Curtains and low armchairs are capital things in their way; but most indispensable are some truly English fireplaces fit for burning coal, for it is the smoke of coal which gives a zest to English comfort. When Mr. James Bantornyi returned from England, he rebuilt the family mansion on a plan which was suggested by “Loudon's Encyclopedia of Cottage Architecture." The new build