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vessels, including 4 monitors for the Danube, 5 new cruisers, 23 third-class cruisers, and 25 firstclass, 5 second-class, and 26 third-class torpedo boats. The "Monarch," "Wien," and " Budapest," sister ships launched in 1895 and 1896, have a displacement of 5,550 tons, 10-6 inches of side armor, engines of 8,500 horse power, giving a speed of 17 knots and an armament consisting of 4 9-4-inch guns and 6 59-inch and 14 47-millimetre quickfiring guns, besides machine guns and 4 torpedo ejectors. The ram cruiser Marie Theresa," launched in 1893, has a displacement of 5,250 tons and engines of 9,800 horse power, making 19 knots, and carries 2 9-4-inch, 6 6-inch, and 11 quick-firing guns and 4 torpedo ejectors. The "Kaiser Franz Josef" and "Kaiserin Elizabeth," of 4,000 tons, are similarly constructed. A new armored cruiser now building, of 6,100 tons, with a belt of 10-6-inch armor, is designed to carry 2 9.4-inch guns, 8 5.9inch quick firers, 18 smaller ones, 4 torpedo tubes, and to run 20 knots an hour with 12,000 horse power. The personnel of the navy consists of 628 officers, 446 petty officers and mechanics, 7,500 sailors, and 4,500 marines. The marines are raised by conscription like the army, and when the term of four years is past they are transferred to the reserve for five years, and then form part for three years longer of the Seewehr, created in 1888, which corresponds to the Landwehr.

Commerce and Production.-Austria is a country of diversified industry, though agriculture employs about half the working population. Hungary is mainly an agricultural country. The wheat crop of Hungary in 1894 was 53,085,000 hectolitres, while that of Austria was 16,982,000 hectolitres. Hungary produced 28,382,000 hectolitres of maize, and both countries grew large crops of oats, rye, and barley. The sugar beet is extensively grown in Austria, the crop amounting to 67,285,000 hectolitres, and potatoes cover as large an area as wheat. The exports of horses, of which there were 1,548,197 in Austria and 1,997,355 in Hungary at the last census, and of cattle and sheep, are much greater than the imports. There are 9,775,722 hectares of forest in Austria, over two thirds of it covered with pines, and in Hungary 9,074.000 hectares, of which 2,440,167 hectares are oak, 4,752,978 hectares beech, and 1,880,975 hectares beech forest. The exports of timber and forest produce from Hungary amount to 24,000,000 florins a year. The coal mined in Austria in 1895 was worth 69,000,000 florins: the Hungarian output was worth 23,700,000 florins. The iron produced in Hungary was 27,771,000 florins in value; the Austrian output, 12,490,000 florins The total value of the merchandise imports of Austria-Hungary in 1895 was 722,500,000 florins, and of the exports 741,800,000 florins. The chief imports were: Cotton, 51,687,000 florins; wool, 39,232.000 florins; coffee, 37,631,000 florins; coal, 33,501,000 florins; woolen yarn, 24,978,000 florins; machinery and carriages, 24,179,000 florins; leaf tobacco, 21,257,000 florins; silk, 20,295,000 florins; grain, 18,900,000 florins; hides and skins, 17,991,000 florins; instruments and clocks, 17,422,000 florins; leather, 16,700,000 florins; books and maps, 15,681,000 florins; silk goods, 14,499,000 florins; live animals, 14,018,000 florins; cotton yarn, 13,939.000 florins; manufactured tobacco, 4,221,000 florins. The principal exports were: Sugar, 63,003.000 florins; sawed timber, 39,500,000 florins; cattle, 39,396,000 florins; eggs, 39.357,000 florins; coal, 30,427,000 florins; grain, 28,722,000 florins; hardware and clocks, 26,106,000 florins; glassware, 23.048,000 florins; horses and mules, 22,756,000 florins; gloves, 21,457,000 florins; wood and bone goods, 18,824,000 florins; hides and skins, 18,409,000 florins: woolen goods, 17,837,000 florins; bev

erages, 13,464,000 florins; leather goods, 13,278,000 florins; iron goods, 12,423,000 florins; paper and paper goods, 11,848,000 florins; wool, 10,409,000 florins.

The imports into Hungary in 1895 were valued at 543,977,000 florins, the chief articles being cotton goods for 58,649,000 florins, woolens for 45,738,000 florins, clothing for 18,990,000 florins, silk goods for 17,719,000 florins, sugar for 10,104,000 florins, wine in casks for 9,990,000 florins, and cotton yarn for 9,004,000 florins. The total value of all йungarian exports was 504,812,000 florins, of which 86,417,000 florins represent cattle, pigs, and horses; 71,671,000 wheat, corn, and barley: 69,618,000 flour; 19,287,000 wine in casks; 11,489,000 cask staves; 8,822,000 wool; and 8,739,000 eggs. Of the imports into Hungary 81.21 per cent. came from Austria, and of the Hungarian exports 77-24 per cent. went to Austria.

The value of gold and silver coin and bullion imported into Austria-Hungary during 1894 was 37,639,940 florins, and in 1895 it was 54,146,791 florins; the exports in 1894 were 27,361,456 florins, and in 1895 they were 24,257,737 florins in value.

The trade of Austria-Hungary was divided among foreign countries in 1895 as follows, values being given in Austrian florins:

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Navigation. The number of vessels entered at the ports of Austria increased from 66,271, of 8,773,713 tons, in 1890, to 87,503, of 9,494,229 tons, in 1895; the number cleared increased from 66,257, of 8,759,632 tons, to 87,421, of 9,472,485 tons. Austrian vessels formed 85 per cent. of the total number and 89 per cent. of the tonnage. At the port of Trieste 8,085 vessels in the foreign trade were entered, aggregating 1,760,055 tons, and 8,103, of 1,759,875 tons, were cleared in 1895; at the port of Fiume 7.023, of 1,063,970 tons, were entered and 7,006, of 1,060,538 tons, cleared.

The number of vessels owned in Austria and Hungary on Jan. 1, 1896, was 11,912, of 264,193 tons, employing 33,023 men in their crews. Of the total number, 244, of 202,352 tons, were seagoing merchant ships; 1,746, of 38,849 tons, coasting vessels; and 9,922, of 22,992 tons, vessels engaged in the fisheries.

Communications.-The railroads owned by the state had a total length of 4,950 miles in Austria in 1895, besides which the state operated 589 miles belonging to companies, while the railroad companies had 4,561 miles. In Hungary the Government owned 6,725 and companies 1,492 miles. The Austrian roads carried 102,898,000 passengers in 1894, and 92,865,000 tons of freight. The receipts were 243,208,000 florins, and the working expenses 136,227,000 florins. On the Hungarian lines in 1893 the number of passengers carried was 95,582,000, and the freight traffic was 124,460,000 tons. The receipts were 102,591,000 florins, and expenses 53,702,000 florins.

The Austrian postal traffic in 1895 was 689,306,

140 letters and postal cards, 99,071,300 samples and printed packets, and 82,309,600 newspapers; receipts, 45,484,751 florins; expenses, 42,158,412 florins. The Hungarian post office in 1895 forwarded 152,889,000 letters and postal cards, not including official and franked letters, 31,283,000 book packets, samples, etc., and 89,081,000 newspapers; receipts, 16,771,000 florins; expenses, 12,153,000 florins.

The telegraphs of Austria had a total length of 29,750 miles in 1895, with 86,328 miles of wire. The number of dispatches sent during 1895 was 13,234,625. In Hungary there were 12,473 miles of telegraph lines, with 35,320 miles of wire. The number of dispatches in 1894 was 9,969,844. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the telegraphs had 1,784 miles of line and 4,262 miles of wire in 1893, and the number of messages that were sent in that year was 531,269.

Bosnia and Herzegovina.-The Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in accordance with a provision of the Berlin Treaty, have been administered by the Austro-Hungarian Government since 1878. The Bosnian Bureau is subject to the authority of the Imperial Minister of Finance. The provincial government in Sarajevo, divided into the departments of finance, internal affairs, and justice, is assisted by an advisory body consisting of the dignitaries of the Greek Church and 12 representatives of the people. Bosnia and Herzegovina have an area of 23,262 square miles. The sanjak of Novi Bazar is occupied by Austro-Hungarian troops, but is administered by Turkish officials. The population of the occupied provinces in 1895 was 1,568,092, comprising 828.:90 males and 739,902 females. There were 673,246 Greek Orthodox, 334,142 Roman Catholics, 3,596 Evangelical, and 251 other Christian inhabitants, 548,632 Mohammedans, 8,213 Jews, and 12 of other religions. Except the Albanians of the southern part and Scattered gypsies the people are of the Servian race. Tobacco is the most valuable product. Wheat. corn, and other grains, potatoes, flax, and hemp are cultivated. Dried prunes are exported largely. Cattle breeding is an important industry. There were 233,322 horses, 1,416,394 cattle, 1,447,049 goats, 3,230,720 sheep, and 662,242 hogs in 1895. Nearly half the country is covered with forest. Iron, copper, manganese, antimony, chromium, quicksilver, lead, and zinc are mined. Compulsory military service has been introduced, and 5,185 men were enrolled in the local forces in 1895. The Austrian army of occupation numbers 22,994 men.

Renewal of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise. The negotiations for the renewal of the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich, the settlement of the amount to be contributed by each half of the monarchy to the common expenses, were not concluded by the Austrian and Hungarian deputations, which separated with mutual expressions of regret that they had failed to come to an agreement. Hence, in virtue of the constitutional law, the question was referred to the two governments, which submitted their decision to the parliaments in Vienna and Buda-Pesth. Count Badeni and Baron Banffy decided to continue the expiring treaty for one year more pending further negotiations. Under the present arrangement Austria pays 68.6 per cent. and Hungary 314 per cent. In view of the great economic development of Hungary it was urged by the Austrian deputation that the Hungarian quota ought to be raised to 43.16 per cent. and that of Austria reduced to 56.84 per cent. Hungary, which in the last decade has enjoyed a comparatively greater degree of growth and prosperity than Austria, though still possessing far less wealth and industrial development, was willing to bear a heavier

part of the imperial expenses than heretofore, but the Hungarian representatives objected strenuously to the principle put forth by their Austrian colleagues that the number of the population in the two halves of the dual monarchy should henceforth furnish the basis of calculation. They urged on the part of Hungary that the quota should be based on the revenue derived from taxation in each half of the monarchy, since the great majority of the population of Hungary is agricultural and comparatively poor. The deputation of the Austrian Reichsrath in May reduced the contribution demanded from Hungary to 36-4 per cent., but the Hungarian deputation would not agree to a higher quota than 33-2 per cent. The negotiations were broken off, and the Hungarian Government would not renew them, being unwilling to commit itself to any precise figures in the absence of an assurance that the Austrian Government could secure the sanction of the Reichsrath for any definitive agreement. The Austrian agricultural interests wanted protection against Hungarian flour, while the growing industrial interests of Hungary would willingly see the customs union lapse in order to establish protective duties against Austrian manufactures. Hence there were strong influences at work in both halves of the monarchy tending to retard a settlement. Negotiations were begun in September for the provisional extension of the existing Ausgleich. The two premiers agreed to an extension for twelve months, and bills to authorize this arrangement were introduced in both parliaments. The temporary extension includes the customs and commercial treaty and the understanding between the two governments and the Austro-Hungarian Bank.

International Politics.-The visit of Count Goluchowski, Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in Berlin in January, 1897, showed with sufficient clearness that the rapprochement between Austria and Russia created no coldness between Austria and Germany and did not affect their defensive alliance. In the Grecian question Austria, which was the first to suggest coercive measures, acted throughout in evident harmony with Germany, and both in a spirit of compliance toward or agreement with Russia that contrasted with the wavering attitude of Russia's ally, the French Republic. The German Kaiser, instead of meeting the Emperor Franz Josef at a frontier watering place, this year visited Vienna, where he was received with royal honors on April 21. The Austrian Emperor visited the Czar at St. Petersburg, and there an understanding is supposed to have been reached regarding matters that might lead eventually to a rupture between Austria-Hungary and Russia, and causes of difference or suspicion to have been, for a time at least, smoothed away.

The Reichsrath in 1896 sanctioned a so-called investment loan, free of taxes and bearing 34 per cent. interest, to raise 53,500,000 florins for the payment of debts incurred by the various ministries, to cover the costs incurred in the transfer to the state of the telephone system, to increase the rolling stock of the state railroads, and to set aside a sum for new investments. In February the Government issued 58,000,000 florins, representing the amount of the new loan, which was taken at the net price of 92 per cent. by a syndicate composed of the firm of Rothschild, two Vienna banks, and the Post Office Savings. Bank, with the understanding that all profits accruing to the syndicate from subscriptions over and above the price of 93 per cent. shall be shared equally with the Government. This is the first state issue in Austria that bears so low a rate as 3 per cent. interest, the previous average annual rate being 4 per cent.

Austria. -The Austrian Reichsrath is composed of the Herrenhaus, or House of Lords, in which 21 princes of the imperial family, 67 territorial nobles, 2 cardinals, 8 archbishops, 7 bishops, and 120 life members have seats, and the House of Deputies, of 353 members elected for six years, partly by the direct votes of citizens twenty-four years of age who possess a small property or other qualification. The electors are divided into four classes: Landed proprietors paying from 50 to 250 florins in direct taxes, according to the province in which their estates are situated, who elect 85 Deputies; chambers of trade and commerce, represented by 21 Deputies; the towns, where every citizen who pays direct taxes of 5 florins or over or who possesses certain personal qualifications, has a direct vote, electing 118 Deputies; and rural communes, where a similarly qualified class of voters choose 1 elector for every 500 inhabitants, and these electors meet and vote for the 129 rural Deputies.

Bohemia is represented in the Reichsrath by 92 Deputies, Galicia by 63, Lower Austria by 37, Moravia by 36, Styria by 23, Tyrol by 18, Upper Austria by 17, the coast land by 12, Carniola by 10, Silesia by 10, Carinthia by 9, Bukowina by 9, Dalmatia by 9, Salzburg by 5, and Vorarlberg by 3. Each province has its own Landtag, or diet, and possesses a large degree of autonomy. The Landtage are single chambers, elected similarly to the Reichsrath, for six years, containing in Lower Austria 72 members, in Upper Austria 50, in Salzburg 26, in Styria 63, Carinthia 37, Carniola 37, Görz and Gradiska 22, Istria 33, Tyrol 68, Vorarlberg 21, Bohemia 242, Moravia 100, Silesia 31, Galicia 151, Bukowina 31, and Dalmatia 43.

The Austrian Cabinet, constituted on Sept. 29,. 1895, consisted in the beginning of 1897 of the following members: President of the Council and Minister of the Interior, Count Casimir Badeni; Minister of Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Baron D. Gautsch von Frankenthurn; Minister of Finance, Ritter von Bilinski; Minister of Agriculture, Count T. Ledebur Wicheln; Minister of Commerce and National Economy, Baron Hugo Glanz von Eicha; Minister of National Defense, FieldMarshal Count Zeno von Welsersheimb; Minister of Justice, Count Johann Gleispach; Minister for Railroads, E. von Guttenberg.

Finances.-The budget estimate of revenue for 1897 was 692.703,959 florins, of which 681.083,783 florins were ordinary, and 11,620,176 florins extraordinary receipts. The following are the sources of revenue: Reichsrath and Council of Ministers, 813,485 florins; Ministry of the Interior, 1,175,373 florins of ordinary, and 52,370 florins of extraordinary receipts; Ministry of Defense, 394,126 florins; Ministry of Worship and Education, 6,594,274 florins of ordinary, and 133,709 florins of extraordinary receipts; Ministry of Finance, 494,303,807 florins of ordinary, and 1,260,629 florins of extraordinary receipts; Ministry of Commerce, 50,170,870 florins of ordinary, and 47,120 florins of extraordinary receipts; Ministry of Railroads, 108,959,780 florins of ordinary, and 9,129,300 florins of extraordinary receipts; Ministry of Agriculture, 13,869,782 florins of ordinary, and 2,948 florins of extraordinary receipts; Ministry of Justice, 1,039,479 florins of ordinary, and 8,800 florins of extraordinary receipts; pensions, subventions, etc., 1,320,123 florins of ordinary, and 255,300 florins of extraordinary receipts; state debt, 2,431,834 florins of ordinary, and 580,000 florins of extraordinary receipts; various sources, 10,850 florins of ordinary, and 150,000 florins of extraordinary receipts.

The total expenditure for 1897 was estimated at 692,161,183 florins, of which 655,775,446 florins are for ordinary, and 36,385,737 florins for extraordi

nary purposes. The ordinary expenditures are 4,650,000 florins for the imperial household, 79,500 florins for the Imperial Cabinet Chancery, 2,472,206 florins for the Reichsrath and Council of Ministers, 22,725 florins for the Supreme Court, 116.736,482 florins for the Austrian contribution to the common expenditure, 20,620,567 florins for the Ministry of the Interior, 22,677,650 fiorins for the Ministry of Defense, 26,093,219 florins for the Ministry of Worship and Education, 96,256,303 florins for the Ministry of Finance, 45,040,404 florius for the Ministry of Commerce, 85,344,500 florins for the Ministry of Railroads, 15.846,411 florins for the Ministry of Agriculture, 22,859,800 florins for the Ministry of Justice, 175,200 florins for the Board of Control, 28,125,030 florins for pensions, subventions, etc.. 168,137,859 florins for the public debt, and 637,990 florins for management of the debt. The extraordinary expenditures are 185,685 florins for the Reichsrath and Council of Ministers, 2,396,198 florins for common extraordinary expenditure, 3,789,284 florins for the Ministry of the Interior, 416,520 florins for the Ministry of Defense, 1,647,932 florins for the Ministry of Worship and Education, 7,131,374 florins for the Ministry of Finance, 2,182,800 florins for the Ministry of Commerce, 12,700,230 florins for the Ministry of Railroads, 1,875,706 florins for the Ministry of Agriculture, 2.127,008 florins for the Ministry of Justice, 1,904,500 florins for pensions and subventions, and 28.500 for debt. Agrarian Agitation.-The most remarkable social manifestation of the year was a movement akin to social democracy among the peasantry in certain parts of the country, particularly in Galicia. The leader of the movement among the Polish peasants was Father Stojaloffski, an eloquent priest, whose views partake of the social philosophy of Karl Marx, and whose sermons are a singular mixture of the style of the Hebrew prophets with modern socialistic phraseology. While a parish priest he began to inveigh against the tyranny of landlords and the injustice of Government officials, and for this he was repeatedly the object of disciplinary punishment on the part of the bishop of his diocese. Hence he resigned his living and joined the archdiocese of Antivari, in Albania, thereby placing himself outside the jurisdiction of the Galician episcopacy, though he remained in Galicia as a priest without a charge. He preached, whenever he could get an opportunity, against the iniquity of great people, editing at the same time two magazines, in which he advocated his principles. The Austrian Government prosecuted him on various minor charges, such as his having read mass in a public house and his having refused to comply with an order for the dissolution of a political meeting. The Pope ordered him to go to his own diocese of Antivari, and when he refused to do this he was excommunicated. He protested against his excommunication, declaring that it was contrary to the canons, and was therefore null and void, and that the bishops had perverted the intentions of the Pope. His excommunication did him least harm in the very part of the country that is considered the main stronghold of the Catholic religion. His followers declared that the Galician authorities wished to get rid of him in view of the coming elections. He continued his campaign, and continued also to say mass, thus infringing the Austrian law. His utterances had a Russophile tinge, and contained also an admixture of anti-Semitic sentiment, but their burden was the vindication of justice for the peasantry, which had been robbed by the nobility and was denied its rights by the civil authorities. After he was repeatedly prosecuted and imprisoned for offenses against the press laws, Father Stojaloffski fled to Hungary, where he

was arrested and kept in custody some weeks at the instance of the Austrian Government. The Hungarian authorities finally refused the application for his extradition, and on Jan. 11, 1897, set him at liberty. The Galician agrarian movement, to which Father Stojaloffski gave fresh impulse and development, is one of long standing, dating from the annexation of western Galicia to Austria and the abolition of serfdom by the Emperor Josef II. Up to that time there existed in Galicia the old Slavonic institution of the mir, the village commune. When this system came to an end it was succeeded by that of private property, in the apportionment of which the peasants deemed that they were deprived of their own, although portions of the forests and pasture lands remained in the possession of the communes. For many years this grievance was a sore point with the Galician peasantry. Polish novelists have made the hatred of the peasants toward the landlords who have deprived them of their forests the motives of their romances, and popular songs have contributed to perpetuate the feud. There is a prevailing notion in the rural districts that the Emperor wants his beloved peasants to get their forests back again. During the revolutionary movement among the Polish nobility and students in 1848 the Austrian Government armed the peasantry for the preservation of public order, but with disastrous results, for nobles and their families were massacred by hundreds, their houses were burned and pillaged, and a reign of terror hung over the country until Gen. Benedek came with imperial troops and put down the peasants by military force. The agricultural distress and the spread of socialistic teachings have revived the old grievance; but, whereas the principal seat of the peasant movement at that time was in eastern Galicia, where most of the noblemen are Poles and Roman Catholics, while the peasants are Ruthenians of Greek Catholic or Greek Orthodox faith, the present agitation has its headquarters in the western part of the province, where both landlords and peasants are Poles and Roman Catholics. The approach of the electoral campaign of 1897 witnessed an increase in the agitation among the peasants. In one instance a meeting summoned by members of the clergy to express confidence in the Polish representatives in the Reichsrath voted down a resolution to that effect by a large majority. In their electoral manifestoes the followers of Father Stojaloffski appealed to their brother peasants (upon whom had been shifted the heaviest burden of the taxes, whose debts were driving them from their native soil into the wide world, and whose rights were betrayed in Vienna to the landlords) to drive out the recreant representatives and send faithful men to the Reichsrath who would have the law altered so as to restore and defend their rights. Prince Sanguszko, the Statthalter of Galicia, at the opening of the provincial Diet condemned without reserve all who took part in the movement among the peasantry and working classes. This gave occasion to interpellations in the Reichsrath, where Polish members inquired whether the Government intended interference in the electoral campaign, and reflections were suggested regarding the means by which is secured the election of a compact group of Poles, three quarters of whom represent exclusively the interests of the nobility and the clergy.

The Ruthenian nationality entered the field of racial politics in 1897, and put forth a programme that is partly national, demanding the division of Galicia into two administrative districts-one Ruthenian and the other Polish and partly agrarian, appealing to the Polish as well as to the Ruthenian peasantry, the main demand proposing the sale of

the great estates and their division into small peasant holdings. The Ruthenians, though outnumbering the Poles, under the new election law elected for the first time separate national representatives in the Diet and in the Reichsrath.

General Election.-The admission of the new category of electors, which practically established universal suffrage, was attended with new developments in political parties. The rivalry between the Anti-Semites and the Social Democrats, both bidding for the votes of the newly enfranchised class, became more acute. The old German Liberal party, that once directed the fortunes of the empire, was practically submerged by the new parties, and even the remnant joined the general hue and cry against the development of capitalism, which this party had done most to foster. A new German National party, composed largely of the less instructed German population enfranchised by the new electoral law, expressed the racial jealousy roused in antagonism to the triumph of Czech nationalism. This intense German revival reacted in turn on the Czechs and the Poles, and established a closer bond between these nationalities which have had more grounds of antagonism than of political fusion so long as the Czechs coquetted with Panslavism, and appealed to the protection of the Russians to save their nationality and language from extinction. Having found powerful allies within the empire, the Czechs dropped their Panslavism as if it were a mask, and in effusive gatherings with the Poles echoed the hereditary antipathy of the latter against Russia.

The Social Democrats of Vienna arraigned severely the Anti-Semitic majority in the municipal council, reproaching it with working in a direction directly opposed to the interests of the people by withdrawing subventions from the public library and societies for the winter refuges for the poor and attaching such conditions to the subvention to the volunteer ambulance society, which included some Jews in its membership, that the society properly refused it, and, on the other hand, by granting a large subvention to a suburban church building association, thus betraying its Ultra-Clerical tendencies and its subservience to the Clericals, who had contributed large funds for the Anti-Semite electoral campaign. Dr. Adler, the Social Democratic leader, accused the vice-burgomaster of desiring to expend 30,000,000 florins on the city gas works for political purposes, and said that the Christian Socialistic municipal council had shown itself an enemy to the working classes sooner than was expected. The Anti-Semitic and Christian Socialist leaders in advising their followers to purchase nothing from the Jews, in whose hands most of the trade and capital were concentrated, did not aid the prosperity of the capital, which lagged in a depressing way, while the general feeling was that the administration was generally unsatisfactory, and disgust was expressed at the violent altercations in this municipal council and its partisan decisions and oppression of the minority. The Government made some attempt to hold in check the Christian-Socialist and AntiSemitic elements, yet, with no effective support from the Liberal party, which had almost ceased to exist as such and was undergoing a fundamental transformation, it had nothing to fall back upon but a disorganized and disunited minority in any attempt to curb the imposing Clerical majority that stimulated and protected popular passions and social jealousies that formed no part of its own party tenets. The Social Democracy of Austria regarded the troublous and confused political situation as rapidly leading to their advent to power. Their numbers tended constantly to increase, and the exemplary discipline of the party was well maintained. They half expected to win the elections for the

Reichsrath in the capital, and afterward attributed their defeat to the fact that their rivals, the AntiSemites, controlled the administration and the electoral machinery. They counted surely on sending 20 representatives to the Chambers from the capital and other manufacturing centers, and in this they were not disappointed. Long before the elections the Government made a concession to the industrial classes in the matter of prison labor by increasing the tariff paid by contractors who farmed the work of convicts in order to lessen the competition that industry and trade suffered from prison-made goods. The electoral campaign was the most exciting and keenly contested that Austria has ever known. The new German popular party carried on a spirited canvass in Austria proper, Bohemia, Styria, and Silesia against the Clerical and Anti-Semitic alliance. They hoped to gain about 30 seats. Their programme, which looked to the formation of a great German party on the single basis of nationality, proposed a union of the middle classes with a view of working out social reforms gradually, free from socialistic theories, but still opposed to the growing preponderance of capitalism. The manifesto of the Austrian episcopate, signed by 5 cardinals, 4 archbishops, and 26 bishops, advised the electors to vote for men who pledge themselves to defend the principles and interests of the Church, notably that of religious education, against the attacks of the anti-religious. The Social Democratic party issued a manifesto reminding the Social Democrats of Austria that, in virtue of the new electoral law, they were for the first time entitled to vote, and urging them to vote in such manner that the laboring classes should be represented and the Social Democracy be heard from the only tribune in Austria that is free from police supervision, so that the whole truth may be told without reticence, and the sufferings and requirements of the laboring section of the population be made known in the place where hitherto laws opposed to the working classes have been created. The impending struggle was foretold to be a hard one, for the Government would be hostile to the Social Democracy, which would have to fight, moreover, the elements of reaction under various names and guises, all in league against the Social Democracy, and wearing each its mask of friendship for the people, behind which it was nevertheless easy to detect the trinity of the landholding nobility, the capitalists, and the priesthood. The Socialists carried on an active campaign in Vienna and in all the mining and manufacturing centers with fair success, especially in some of the workingmen's districts in the north, and in Bohemia. In that province there was intense excitement, and such antagonism between the Germans and the Young Czechs as to lead to rioting. The mixed nationalities were everywhere in a ferment, and presented a more complex problem than in any previous election. Dr. Lueger's Anti-Semites in Vienna showed no signs of declining strength or lack of enthusiasm. The Anti-Semites and Social Democrats, in competing for the new category of Deputies, 73 in number, to be elected for the first time by universal suffrage, were nightly involved in election fights in Vienna and other populous centers, and the police only intervened when bloodshed occurred. Father Stojaloffski, from his headquarters at Czacza, near the frontier of Galicia, organized the revolt of the Polish peasant voters which menaced the control over their votes and representation that the Galician aristocracy and clergy have been accustomed to exercise. Under the leadership of Dr. Rieger, the Old Czechs effected a coalition in many districts with the Young Czechs in the electoral contest against Germans, Social Democrats, and Anti-Sem

ites. In some districts, however, Young Czechs opposed their candidates to those of the Old Czechs. The most obvious feature in the campaign was the manifest strength of the Clerical and Anti-Semite coalition. Count Badeni, the Austrian Premier, threw the weight of his influence in favor of the groups characterized by the Liberals as reactionary, with the object of building up a new Government party that should embrace all sections of Conservatism and Catholicism. The aristocratic Hohenwart Club, the feudal party of Bohemia, and the Clericals in Tyrol and Salzburg, Upper Austria, and Styria rallied to the summons to form a Center party in the new Reichsrath that should be the nucleus of a strong Government majority.

The elections for the lower house of the Reichsrath began on March 9. The Christian Socialists prevailed in the capital over the Social Democrats, polling, in fusion with the Anti-Semites, 117,000 votes to 88,000 cast by the Social Democracy aided by many Liberals and even some Moderate Conservatives. The Christian Socialists for their part have been assisted by the influence of the Vatican and the patronage of the papal nuncio, and count as allies the lower clergy, who are generally discontented with their own lot, and thus received a great number of Ultramontane votes, while the episcopacy and higher clergy, mistrustful of the interference of the Vatican and apprehensive of assaults on their own privileges and authority, gave a dubious and half-hearted support. Of the German Liberals who sat in the last Reichsrath one third were displaced, mainly by German Nationalists. The party, which had 114 representatives in the former parliaments, disappeared as a separate group, becoming merged in the Progressists, while the National Germans increased from 19 to 43. The new Unterhaus was composed of 77 Progressive Germans, 43 German Nationalists, 28 Christian Socialists, 63 Clericals, 20 Social Democrats, 62 Young Czechs, 21 Feudal Czechs, 59 Conservative Poles, 15 Italian Liberals, and 50 representatives of other parties. The Poles no longer returned a solid deputation controlled by the Clericals, but sent some Agrarian Socialists and Ruthenians, and even a Social Democrat from Cracow. In the urban curia the Anti-Semites were beaten by the Liberals and Socialists. A strong ministerial majority was not indicated by this distribution of the seats. Hence the Premier attempted to negotiate with the Progressist group, with the object of forming a coalition majority, consisting of the Poles, the moderate Catholics, the Young Czechs, and such of the German Liberals as would join. He was anxious to dispense with the support of the Anti-Semites as well as the German Nationalists, and to remain independent of the reactionary Clericals. Failing in his plans, he and his associates offered their resignations on April 2, but they were induced to remain in office. The Austrian Social Democratic party were not disheartened at their defeat in the capital, where they contested all five districts, but showed the same confident hope that the future was theirs, and played shrewd politics as before, for instance, by collecting money at their sixth general congress, held in Vienna on June 6, to aid the street railroad strike then going on in the capital, although they had no share in organizing or influencing this strike, which, in so far as it was not due to the independent initiative of the strikers themselves, was the work of the Christian Socialist wing of the AntiSemitic party. In this strike, although it interrupted the means of passenger transit in Vienna for some weeks, public opinion was on the side of the employees, who were encouraged by some members of the Reichsrath and supported by the municipal council, which warned the company of the

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