school age ends with the completion of the twelfth year. The subjects taught are reading, writing, arithmetic, religion, grammar, geometry, geography, natural history, physics, history, drawing, singing, gymnastics (to boys), and household work (to girls). The schools are built and supported by the communes. There were 17,926 elementary schools, with 59,200 teachers and 2,857,669 pupils in 1887. The gymnasia in 1889 numbered 172, with 3,510 teachers and 55,089 pupils; the Realschulen or scientific middle schools, 85, with 1,370 teachers and 18,860 pupils. The University of Vienna in 1889 had 368 professors and tutors and 5,218 students; the Bohemian university at Prague, 121 instructors and 2,361 students; the German university at Prague, 142 instructors and 1,470 students; Gratz University, 130 instructors and 1,296 students; Cracow University, 111 instructors and 1,206 students; Lemberg University, 62 instructors and 1,129 students; Innsbruck University, 96 instructors and 862 students; Czernowitz University, 42 instructors and 259 students. The colleges for Catholic theology in 1888 numbered 49, with 225 instructors and 2,199 students. There was one school for Protestant theology, with 41 students, and one for Greek Oriental theology, with 16 students. The Polytechnic Institute in Vienna had 91 teachers and 796 students in 1889. In Prague there is a Bohemian polytechnicum with 63 teachers and 334 students and a German one with 49 teachers and 184 students. There are besides 1,460 special technical schools for art, music, commerce, agriculture, mining, and various industries, with about 150,000 students. In 7,001 of the elementary schools the language is German; in 4,246, Czech; in 4,058, other Slavic languages; in 870, Italian; in 63, Roumanian; in 3, Magyar; and in 448 more than one language is used. In 1886 there were 851 per cent. of the children of school age in actual attendance in the schools.

The Bohemian Ausgleich.-Count Taafe's policy of compromise has been described by himself as durchfretten, or "rubbing along." He came into office after the German Liberals had been governing for years under Prince Alexander Auersperg and were no longer able to crush down the rising spirit of nationalism. The mission that he undertook was to build up a Conservative party by making the Czechs, Poles, Slovenians, and Italians of Istria and the Trentine work together with the feudal and Ultramontane German elements. To maintain this union the Germanizing policy of Prince Auersperg and Count Beust was reversed, the liberalizing tendencies in religious, educational, and social legislation were checked to please the Clericals, and the democratic wave that was sweeping away the remnants of aristocratic privileges was retarded. The coalition worked harmoniously by the aid of concessions to the nationalities and Conservative elements of which it was composed until the once supreme German Liberal party became so feeble that it threatened to resort to the final but always effective manœuvre of dissolving the party and withdrawing from the Reichsrath, having already left the Bohemian Diet. Dangerous defections began to take place in the unwieldy and heterogeneous majority, and new opposition parties began to

form, which menaced the stability and internal order of the composite empire. In the Trentine and Istria Italian nationalism began to exhibit affinities with Irredentism. Among the Germans. of Austria anti-Semitic and Socialistic tendencies showed themselves. The Clericals began to present exorbitant demands. Prince Aloys Lichtenstein sought to use the Conservative coalition for the purpose of passing a school bill that would place primary education under the complete control of the clergy. The interference of the Emperor caused the bill to be dropped, and Prince Lichtenstein retired to private life; but the Ultramontanes waited only for an opportune juncture to renew their effort. Bohemia was from the beginning the chief battle-ground on which the struggle between Germanism and Slavdom in Austria has been fought out. The elaborate adjustment of the rights and claims of both nationalities was satisfactory to the extremists of neither party. The Young Czech party arose with Radical as well as ultra-Nationalist sentiments. They made demonstrations in commemoration of John Huss, demanded the restoration of the Kingdom of Bohemia by the coronation of the Emperor at Prague and the proclamation of an independent constitution like that of Hungary, under which they could suppress the German language, and betrayed Panslavistic and Russophile leanings. The Young Germans, on their part, ceasing to talk of themselves as Austrians, yearned for incorporation in the German Fatherland. About three fifths of the population are Czech in language and two fifths German; but of the latter a considerable proportion are attached to one or the other of the Czech parties. The Young Czechs, who declared war against the Schwarzenbergs and other feudal magnates and rejected the Conservative and Clerical lead under which previous concessions had been attained won many seats in the Diet, and grew with a rapidity that threatened soon to give them a majority over the Old Czechs.

The time being ripe for a new combination, the Emperor interposed, as he has done before at similar junctures. He definitely rejected the plan of a Bohemian coronation, and induced the Prime Minister and the leader of the German party, Herr von Plener, to seek an agreement. The governing party in Austria, dominated by the Clericals, who were inimical to the Protestant dynasty in Prussia and the excommunicated monarch of Italy, were not altogether friendly to the triple alliance and endangered the success of the combination on which the future of the Hapsburg Empire is staked. For that reason a firmer direction of the foreign policy of the empire could be expected from a new disposition of the political forces and the construction of a Conservative majority by discarding the extreme Nationalist and Clerical elements and replacing them by the Moderate Germans, who had been neglected for ten years. An agreement between the Moderate Germans and the Old Czechs in Bohemia, with new concessions to the Poles, would make the Government independent of exacting Czechs and Ultramontanes. With this object a conference was arranged, which was held at Vienna in January, 1890. A preliminary understanding was reached, on the strength of

which the Germans agreed to re-enter the Bohemian Landtag. The agreement arrived at between the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Old Czech and German parties, Dr. Rieger and Ernst von Plener, required to be embodied in laws by the Provincial Diet and the Reichsrath. Between the time of its publication on Jan. 21 and the session of the Landtag that was to give it the final sanction in May the Young Czechs carried on a lively popular agitation against the compromise, which struck a fatal blow to their aggressive nationalism, which aims at making Bohemia entirely Czechish, in that it divides the governing and judicial bodies into Czechish and German sections and partitions the kingdom into judicial, electoral, and administrative districts in which each of the two nationalities will enjoy the use of its own language and separate civilization without coercion or restraint from the other. The Ausgleich embraces the following principal points: 1. The division into Czech and German sections of the Provincial Educational Council, which exercises control, subject to the approval of the Government, over all the primary and industrial and many of the intermediate schools; the division in like manner of the local school boards in districts having a mixed population, and the establishment of minority schools in districts where the parents of forty children who have been five years in a district demand the instruction of their children in their native language. 2. The separation into two national groups of the Landesculturrath or Provincial Agricultural Council, which was originally a free association, but has been endowed with official powers, having control of the agricultural schools and societies and the traveling teachers of agriculture and of the distribution of Government and provincial subsidies for the improvement of agriculture. The Germans, not being represented in this body, founded an association of their own, but have hitherto enjoyed no favors or subventions from the Government. 3. The division of the Supreme Court into two national sections. 4. The redistricting of the kingdom for administrative, judicial, and electoral purposes on a comprehensive plan that will afford a legally recognized geographical basis for language regulations. 5. The repeal of the regulation requiring Government and local officials to know both languages. Of the superior judicial officers about one fourth, destined for employment in German districts, are no longer obliged to prove their familiarity with the Czechish tongue. 6. The division of the Bohemian Diet into national sections. Members before taking their seats will have to declare to which national curia they belong. On the demand of a certain number of members that a vote shall be taken curiatim, each national curia votes separately, and a majority in both is necessary for the passage of the measure. The curia of large proprietors will be preserved, while the curia of the towns and rural communes will be merged in the two national curia. In the former provision will be made for a larger German representation by changing electoral divisions and placing allodial property more on an equality with trust estates.

The conference was called together again in April to consider the bills that were framed by

the Government before they were submitted to the Landtag. The popular opposition to the compromise, fostered by Dr. Gregr and the Young Czechs, was such as to threaten the Old Czechs with extinction in the coming elections; and therefore in the Diet a part of them were disinclined to carry out all the arrangements to which they had pledged themselves. The bill for dualizing the Educational Council was passed on June 3, and was promptly signed by the Emperor in spite of the expressed desire of the Czechs that the measures should be sanctioned as a whole. Enough of the former followers of Dr. Rieger voted with the Young Czechs to prevent the passage of any measure requiring a twothird majority. Consequently, the compromise bills were postponed, with a prospect of a continuation of the conflict of nationalities, unless the Germans will abate some of their demands, especially in regard to the use of German as the official language of courts and administrative authorities. Dr. Rieger, once the popular champion of Czech pretensions, but now the object of general opprobrium, announced in July his intention of retiring from public life.

Session of the Reichsrath.-The Clerical party refused the concessions contained in a bill prepared by Minister von Gautsch, and the bishops went beyond the Lichtenstein proposals in a declaration read by Cardinal Schönborn on March 12 in the Committee of the House of Lords demanding Catholic public schools in which Catholic children would not have to mix with those of other confessions. They not only ask that nothing repugnant to Catholics should occur in the course of instruction, but would require it to conform in all respects to the Catholic character of the schools. The right of supervision must be restored to the clergy, and the teachers must be trained in Catholic normal schools and receive their appointments subject to the consent of the ecclesiastical authorities.

The Clerical demands, if it were possible for the Government to yield, would necessitate the revocation of one of the most popular and cherished liberties secured by the Constitution of 1861, that of compulsory and undenominational primary instruction embodied in the educational acts of 1868 and 1869, according to which children of all creeds are taught in the same schools except during the single hour that is set apart every day for religious instruction, at which time those who are not Catholics are at liberty to withdraw.

The Slav majority, on which the Taafe Cabinet has heretofore depended, carried a bill releasing Galicia from a debt of 106,000,000 florins to the Austrian treasury, although outside Galicia the measure was very unpopular, since all the other provinces have paid the debts of a similar character that they owed. The debt was incurred in 1848 in connection with the creation of a peasant proprietary. The Clericals, who have voted in favor of the other rewards that the ministry has conferred on its Polish supporters, refrained from voting either for or against this measure, which passed by a narrow majority.

Labor Disturbances.-In the beginning of April a strike of the masons and bricklayers was followed by strikes of the shoemakers, tailors, turners, and barbers in Vienna. The servant

is municipal property, 0.1 per cent. belongs to foundations, 2 per cent. is ecclesiastical property, 0.2 per cent. is held in trust, and 66.1 per cent. belongs in fee simple to private individuals. There are 2,348,107 owners who hold 15,027,889 jochs (1 joch 1.43 acre) in properties of from 8 to 30 jochs; 118,981 owners of from 30 to 200 jochs, whose aggregate holdings amount to 6,741,000 jochs; 13,757 proprietors, whose possessions range up to 1,000 jochs, aggregating 14,240,000 jochs; 4,695 proprietors of from 1,000 to 10,000 jochs, who have altogether 6,660,000 jochs; and 231 whose estates exceed 10,000 jochs and make 3,939,000 jochs in the aggregate. The area devoted to cereal crops is 8,021,000 hectares, of which 2,776,000 are under wheat, 1,828,000 under Indian corn, 1,126,000 under barley, 1,122,000 under rye, and 1,045,000 under oats. Vineyards occupy 353,000 hectares; the sugar-beet, 39,000; tobacco, 56,000. Meadows and pastures cover 8,427,000, and forests 9,275,000 hectares.

Finances.The budget estimates for 1890 give the following amounts, in florins, of revenue from the various sources: State debts, 4,319,139; Accountant-General's office, 1,895; Ministry ad latus, 250; Ministry of the Interior, 1,059,547; Ministry of Finance, 266,021,133; Ministry of Commerce, 62,527,635; Ministry of Agriculture, 12,282.554; Ministry of Education and Worship, 852,409; Ministry of Justice, 769,117; Ministry of Defense, 271,241; total ordinary revenue, 348,134,920; transitory revenue, 7,124,327; grand total, 355,259,247.

The expenditure for 1890, in florins, under the various heads, was estimated as follows: Civil list, 4,650,000; Cabinet chancery, 74,978; Parliament, 1,236,802; quota of common expenditure, 23,297,673; pensions, 6,372,319; national debt, 120.018,588; guaranteed railroad debts, 11,287,623; administration of Croatia, 6,063,530; Accountant-General's office, 110,100; MinisterPresidency, 335.430; ministry ad latus, 54,212; Ministry for Croatia, 36,080; Ministry of the Interior, 11,694,434; Ministry of Finance, 57,246,567; Ministry of Commerce, 45,609,595; Ministry of Agriculture, 12,428,341; Ministry of Instruction and Worship, 6,971,260; Ministry of Justice, 12,324,139; Ministry of Defense, 10,712,585; total ordinary expenditure, 330,824,256 ; transitory expenditure, 6,399,461; investments, 12,225,383; extraordinary common expenditure, 6,214,546; grand total, 355,663,646.

The Resignation of Tisza.-Koloman Tisza, as the all-powerful Prime Minister of Hungary for more than fourteen years, has won the reputation of being one of the ablest statesmen of the age by lifting his country from a condition of disorganization, bankruptcy, and political impotency, and making it a united, powerful, and prosperous state, occupying the dominant position in the affairs of the Hapsburg Empire. The value of his achievements no serious Hungarian statesman will deny; yet for years past he has been more hated and reviled than any other European minister, and chiefly for the reason that he possessed the unshakable confidence of a great majority of the nation. Men of political talents and classes that formerly exercised a controlling influence, such as the magnates and patriotic Catholics, he disregarded and offended, although he could have easily gained

their support. He surrounded himself with new men, content to act as mere clerks under his direction, whom he shielded when they were charged with dishonorable acts, although his own reputation for integrity was above reproach. The autonomous rights of the counties and the Catholic sentiments regarding education and marriage he trampled upon with uncompromising harshness. Still, the Opposition have not ventured to oppose his policy or commit themselves to the repeal of his acts. Their attacks have been directed against his political methods. They accused him of maintaining his "dictatorship" and keeping together a solid body of parliamentary "mamelukes" by the abuse of official patronage, by bribery and administrative presstre at elections, by the perversion of the organs of justice, and by the arbitrary exercise of executive power. The unpopular army bill gave them the first opportunity to attack him on patriotic grounds. The defect in the bill which relaxed the strict parliamentary control over the army was remedied, and strong men who had formerly acted with the Moderate Opposition were taken into the Cabinet, such as Szilagyi, once the leader of that party, and Count Teleky, a representative of the feudal aristocracy. These concessions, which were made in a conciliatory spirit and not from political necessity, impaired his influence with the Austrian court party, which feared that he might be drawn to yield still more to the Hungarian desire for an independent national army, especially since he insisted on the dual character of the army being recognized by giving it the title of " Royal and Imperial." Tisza found that he could not work in harmony with the new ministers. The question on which a rupture occurred was one of little importance. The advanced Opposition, the visionary disciples of Kossuth, who call themselves the party of "1848 and of Independence," discovered that under the naturalization law passed in 1879 Louis Kossuth was about to lose his rights as a Hungarian citizen, as a paragraph of the act provides that a Hungarian settled abroad who for ten years neglects to notify the proper authorities of his intention to preserve his nationality can no longer claim to be a citizen. They demanded that a special act should be passed to keep alive the civil rights of the exile of Turin. Tisza said this was unnecessary, as his acceptance of the honorary citizenship of thirty Hungarian towns was equivalent to the formal notice required by the law. No other member of the Cabinet concurred in this view. The Independence party called for a separate act, and threatened to obstruct the passage of the Honved bill until one were passed. The Premier, without consulting his colleagues, announced that he had changed his mind, and thought that, in consideration of the numbers of Hungarian emigrants settled in America, the paragraph ought to be amended, and therefore he promised that after the Honved bill was disposed of, he would bring in a bill that would have the effect of repatriating Kossuth. When the matter came before the Cabinet, all except two of the other ministers supported Szilagyi's objections to amending the law of 1879 and approved a special act in favor of Kossuth. At this stage of the question the exiled patriot wrote