A HUNGARIAN ORATOR.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3597, 22 January 1883, Page 4

A HUNGARIAN ORATOR.

In a description of the Hungarian Parliament intheNouvelle Revue, M. Nemeuyi, after regretting that eloquence has disappeared from that Assembly Avith Francis Peak and Jules Andrassy, thus describes the most powerful man in Hungary at the present day, M. Tisza. A friend of Germany, who had accompanied him to the gallery of the Hungarian Parliament, cried, *" "Why, it is a mufschith master."' (one Avho teaches scA-eral Aillago schools in turn, walking-from one to the -other.) A running- schoolmaster ought to he extraordinarily well booted, but does not usually strike you as prominently about the region of the waistcoat.. Here the comparison is exact enough. The orator's garments were not made to raise the authority of the ■wearer; the principal one is a A-ery short grey coat, "buttoned to the top. He is thin and dry looking. His face, ornamented with spectacles, and surrounded by a grey beard, looks 20 years older than he really is. He stands as straight as an arrow, but looks as if the least touch would upset him. His eloquence accords admirably with Ids appearance. In spite of the silence _ which prevails directly he rises, it is impossiblo to hear him. His voice is stifled as if he wore eonA'ersing without concerning himself about the effect of his Avords, Let us take the case of a stranger listening to the debate without knoAving tho language. Suddenly he sees one of these murmured phrases followed by a sudden thrill through the Assembly. Three hundred members rise at once, gesticulating, and manifesting tho most opposed sentiments—these applauding with joyful ac-

clamations those by vehement declamation showing lioav disagreeably the orator's Avords have affected them. He meaiiAvhile is imperturbable ; the flattest contradiction cannot irritate him; he continues in the same stifled tone, and his auditors never cease listening to him AA-ith breathless attention. Membsrs apju'oach on tiptoe from the further corners of the hall to catch tho words more distinctly which fell from his lips, for the intrest in what ho says is as great to his adversaries as to his friends. His self-command rarely deserts him ; then he raises his A-oice and gesticulates a little. But his voice never fills the hall—it becomes hoarse and forced, Avlu'le the gestures are forced : he seems to menace his opponent with the pencil Avhicii he held in his hand, as if Avishuig to transfix him Avith that redoutable Aveapon. NeA-orthcless the stranger, Avhose surprise augments, allows that these phrases, pronounced in a disagreeable A'oice, and accompanied by gestures anything but elegant, make an impression on the chamber, and that at the end of speech, generally very short, ho produces Avhat is called in Franco Hionvviiiart ]>rolv>it/c, so prolonged, indeed, and so intense, that the debate is perforce suspended for several minutes. This orator —need I name him f—is Koioman Tisza, for ten years the all-poAverful President of the Council. In this country no other politician can boast of ha\'ing been so A'igorously hated in his time ; no other has in an equal degree experienced the inconstancy of popular faA'or; and no other has shown as he has done perseA-eranee under all difficulties in the hour of misfortune.