form; and the most drastic steps are taken to prevent the Slovak people from securing its due representation in Parliament. Nowhere has the scandalous system of electoral corruption and violence weighed more heavy than among the Slovaks. As a distinguished Hungarian statesman said not many years ago on the floor of the House, “In Hungary the Magyar is the master.” The other races are mere helots.
It is to perpetuate this infamous system that the Magyar oligarchy, under the able leadership of Count Tisza, is fighting this war; and it can hardly be wondered at that every Czech and Slovak should approve the rival programme of Bohemian independence. The difficulties which lie in the way of such a programme are many and obvious. The new State would be seriously handicapped by the lack of a seaboard, just as are Switzerland and Serbia to-day. This insurmountable geographical fact would unquestionably be the occasion of tariff difficulties. But it must be remembered that even before the war Bohemia and Moravia, which industrially possessed a special identity of their own, suffered seriously from the economic disadvantages of their situation. The attainment of their independence may not enable them to overcome all these disadvantages, but it is obvious that at the worst the Czechs can scarcely be worse off when they have complete economic and financial control of their own destinies and are thus able to consult their own peculiar interests, than in their
