Background
Eötvös was the son of Baron Ignacz Eotvos and the baroness Lilian. He was born at Buda on the 13th of September 1813.
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(This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 18...)
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1854 edition by F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig.
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Eötvös was the son of Baron Ignacz Eotvos and the baroness Lilian. He was born at Buda on the 13th of September 1813.
After an excellent education he entered the civil service as a vicenotary, and was early introduced to political life by his father. He also spent many years in western Europe, assimilating the new ideas both literary and political, and making the acquaintance of the leaders of the Romantic school.
On his return to Hungary he wrote his first political work, Prison Reform', and at the diet of 1839-1840 he made a great impression by his eloquence and learning. One of his first speeches (published, with additional matter, in 1841) warmly advocated Jewish emancipation. Subsequently, in the columns of the Pesti Hirlap, Eotvos disseminated his progressive ideas farther afield, his standpoint being that the necessary reforms could only be carried out administratively by a responsible and purely national government. The same sentiments pervade his novel The Village Notary (1844 - 1846), one of the classics of the Magyar literature, as well as in the less notable romance Hungary in 1514, and the comedy Long live Equality!
He was now generally regarded as one of the leading writers and politicians of Hungary, while the charm of his oratory was such that, whenever the archduke palatine Joseph desired to have a full attendance in the House of Magnates, he called upon Eotvos to address it.
The February revolution of 1848 was the complete triumph of Eotvos' ideas, and he held the portfolio of public worship and instruction in the first responsible Hungarian ministry. But his influence extended far beyond his own department. Eotvos, Deak and Szechenyi represented the pacific, moderating influence in the council of ministers, but when the premier, Batthyany, resigned, Eotvos, in despair, retired for a time to Munich. Yet, though withdrawn from the tempests of the War of Independence, he continued to serve his country with his pen. His Influence of the Ruling Ideas of the 19th Century on the State (Pest, 1851-1854, German editions at Vienna and Leipzig the same year) profoundly influenced literature and public opinion in Hungary. On his return home, in 1851, he kept resolutely aloof from all political movements.
In 1859 he published The Guarantees of the Power and Unity of Austria, in which he tried to arrive at a compromise between personal union and ministerial responsibility on the one hand and centralization on the other. After the Italian war, however, such a halting-place was regarded as inadequate by the majority of the nation. In the diet of 1861 Eotvos was one of the most loyal followers of Deak, and his speech in favour of the "Address" made a great impression at Vienna. The enforced calm which prevailed during the next few years enabled him to devote himself once more to literature, and, in 1866, he was elected president of the Hungarian academy. In the diets of 1865 and 1867 he fought zealously by the side of Deak, with whose policy he now completely associated himself.
On the formation of the Andrassy cabinet (February 1867) he once more accepted the portfolio of public worship and education, being the only one of the ministers of 1848 who thus returned to office. He had now, at last, the opportunity of realizing the ideals of a lifetime. That very year the diet passed his bill for the emancipation of the Jews; though his further efforts in the direction of religious liberty were less successful, owing to the opposition of the Catholics.
(This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 18...)
(This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)
Good Catholic though he was, Eotvos looked with disfavour on the dogma of papal infallibility, promulgated in 1870
In 1842 he married Anna Rosty, but his happy domestic life did not interfere with his public career.