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# The Diets of 1792 and 1794–95

At its next two sessions, Transylvania's diet continued to fight for the legislative proposals that had been introduced in 1790–91, but to little avail. No significant new initiatives were taken by the 1792 diet; there was debate over the merits of six-week educational sessions, and the estates called for release of the report by a mixed committee on the frontier guard, but neither matter was settled. However, the diet did pass a resolution opposing the reannexation of the Partium to Hungary; the issue of reincorporatio was destined to complicate the debate over union for the next fifty years.

The 1794–95 session of the diet was marked by a more turbulent political climate. In early 1794, aristocrats and lesser nobles established the 'Diana Association of Hunters'. Foreshadowing similar initiatives in the Reform era, the latter's agenda encompassed {2-749.} the translation of agricultural handbooks, the development of horse breeding, character-building programs for young people, and social programs to bridge the gap between the higher and lower strata of the nobility. Noting that this 'hunters' association' had a predominantly political orientation, Bánffy and the Gubernium advised them forestall reprisals by disbanding, and they complied. Meanwhile, in mid-1794, a Jacobin movement that had emerged in Hungary began to spread to Transylvania. Opposition elements among the landowning nobility turned militant; in some counties, they blocked military conscription, released those already conscripted, and refused all military assistance.

The diet was scheduled to address the reports of its standing committees. Instead, a debate erupted over the proposition that local authorities should be apprised of these reports before they were considered by the diet. After giving up on this question, the estates engaged in a tug-of-war with the Gubernium over the order of debate for the reports. The estates preferred to tackle taxation matters first, for this promised to embarrass the government; the Gubernium wanted to give priority to the question of socage, which was bound to irritate the estates. In the end, neither set of proposals came up for debate.

The diet did deal at length with military affairs. The estates made yet another attempt to restore the office of Transylvanian general; with regard to the frontier guard, they initially supported its retention in Hunyad County, then reiterated their 1791 proposal that the entire institution be abolished. A comprehensive military reform was drafted by a group that included the prothonotary László Türi, perhaps the most astute among the leaders of the opposition. The plan called for a standing army consisting of 4,000 mercenaries drawn from the peasantry and an equal number of troops that would be provided, on a rotating, monthly basis, by the estates; this army would be commanded by a Transylvanian general, seconded by a general from each of the 'nations'. When the proposal was {2-750.} submitted to the diet, the government moved decisively to forestall consideration. Bánffy himself alleged that a group espousing the goals of the French Revolution was preparing to set off a 'general explosion'.[21]21. OL, EK: AG, Teleki Sámuel elnöki iratai, D. 21. For his part, the commander-in-chief, Vince Barco, claimed that this movement was led by Türi and Wesselényi, that the estates were prepared to raise 48,000 troops, and that, in Hungary, Jacobin plotters had already been put under arrest! When Bánffy was finally persuaded that there was no danger of an 'explosion' in Transylvania, he contented himself with dismissing Türi and holding Wesselényi in check, and he succeeded in convincing Archduke-Palatine Alexander that these steps would suffice to settle the matter. Although Ábrahám Barcsay was also denounced by the military authorities for his alleged participation in the conspiracy, neither he nor the others incurred serious consequences due this affair.

In these circumstances, the estates could hardly give full endorsement to Türi's scheme. They did put forward a proposal that reflected the spirit of the latter, but it concerned only the Székelys; it aimed to restore the tax immunity of Székely soldiers, restrict their service abroad to cases of war waged for the defence of Hungary and Transylvania, and to have them serve under Székely officers. In other policy spheres, the diet was less forceful in confronting the government. It once again requested that Church nobles, armalists, and Székely lófős and infantrymen be exempted from taxes, and that the Cameralia be subordinated to the Transylvanian court chancellery pending a more thorough administrative reform; and, as before, the government turned a deaf ear to these demands.

The diet's initiative in the matter of a Transylvanian Hungarian national theatre, the Nemzeti Játékszín, proved more fruitful. The Saxons already had a permanent theatre in Szeben, and a ballroom suitable for theatrical performances was under construction in Brassó. Realizing that theatres could serve to nurture their native {2-751.} tongue, the Hungarian estates decided to give a financial boost to the burgeoning theatrical life of Kolozsvár. A public subscription was launched for the construction of a national theatre, and the diet appointed a committee to supervise the project, consisting of the major donor, Miklós Wesselényi, along with Ferenc Fekete, who had worked out the original plan, and Farkas Bethlen Jr. The building of the theatre would span a generation, but a beginning had been made.