ATJSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. 



45 



culty, the Government and the party which 

 supports it had taken refuge in paltry meas- 

 ures, increasing the charges of direct taxation 

 without producing any tangible result. Dr. 

 Plener never hinted that he spoke in the name 

 of the constitutional party; still, from the way 

 in which his speech was received on that side, 

 it was inferred that his plan would eventually 

 be accepted by the Constitutional party as their 

 financial programme. The principal speech on 

 the part of the Right was made by Count Clam 

 Martinitz. The debate came to an end on 

 April 13th. The real issue between the two 

 great parties was on the secret-service money. 

 Both fractions of the Constitutional party 

 agreed to refuse the money on the ground that 

 they had no confidence in the Ministry. In the 

 name of the Ruthenes, M. Kovalski declared 

 that they would also vote against the grant, as 

 the Ministry had used the money against the 

 freedom of the elections the previous year. As 

 the Ministry was supported in this question by 

 the Poles, the Czechs, and the Conservatives, 

 it was expected that the grant would be voted, 

 but, to every one's surprise, when the vote was 

 taken, it was lost by 154 votes against 152 

 yeas. In view of the small majority against 

 them, the Minister- President and the mem- 

 bers of the Cabinet belonging to the Consti- 

 tutional party did not deem it necessary to 

 resign. 



Still more than by religious and financial 

 questions, the Austrian Parliament was dis- 

 turbed by the interminable nationality question. 

 The conflict of nationalities at the beginning of 

 the year was especially severe in Bohemia. 

 Meetings of the German-Bohemian members of 

 the Reichsrath and the German members of the 

 Bohemian Diet were held in January and Feb- 

 ruary to draw up a memorandum in opposi- 

 tion to a Czechic memorandum by which the 

 leaders of the Czechs had, in December, 1879, 

 expressed their national wishes to the Emperor. 

 The counter-memorandum drawn up by the 

 Germans was presented to the Emperor on 

 February 9th, by Count Mansfeld, Minister of 

 Agriculture in the former Ministry. )ount 

 Mansfeld assured the Emperor that the German 

 memorandum was not dictated by any hostility 

 to the Czechs, but was prompted only by a 

 sense of the duty of preserving the unity and 

 power of the state. The Emperor, in reply, 

 stated that the reconciliation of the two nation- 

 alities was his most ardent wish. An ordi- 

 nance having been issued by the Government, 

 in April, placing the Czechic language on the 

 same footing as the German in all political and 

 judicial proceedings in Bohemia and Moravia, 

 Minister Stremayr, on May 5th, explained in 

 the Reichsrath that the Government ordinance, 

 by which the free use of their language was 

 secured to both nationalities, and which merely 

 ordered the authorities to uphold the rights 

 existing in this respect, has kept within the 

 bounds of its authority. The Government, in 

 his opinion, had not deviated from what had 



existed before. On May 10th, the German 

 deputy Wurmbrand moved that the German 

 language be declared the official language of 

 the empire (Reichssprache), but on motion of 

 the Polish deputy Dunajewski, the Reichstag 

 declined, by 158 against 143 votes, to enter into 

 a discussion of the question. 



Another reconstruction of the Ministry took 

 place on June 27th, when the resignations of four 

 Ministers, Dr. Stremayr, General Horst, Baron 

 Korb Weidenheim, and Baron Kriegsau, were 

 accepted, and Baron Streit, Baron Welsers- 

 heimb, Baron Kremer, and Dr. Dunajewski 

 appointed in their places. The four Ministers 

 who resigned were the representatives of the 

 Constitutional party in the Cabinet; of the 

 new Ministers the three first named are mere 

 functionaries, while the appointment of Dr. 

 Dunajewski was regarded as a new concession 

 to the Autonomist party. 



The Diets of all the crown lands were opened 

 on the 8th of June. Most of their proceedings 

 were not of general interest. The Diet of the 

 Tyrol received a joint protest from the Arch- 

 bishop of Salzburg and the Bishops of Trent 

 and Brixen against the formation of two Pro- 

 testant congregations which the bishops say 

 had taken place against the will and by a vio- 

 lation of the most sacred feelings of the Tyro- 

 lese people. The bishops at the same time re- 

 quested the Diet to embody their protest in the 

 minutes. The Diet of Bohemia rejected, by 

 135 against 79 votes, a proposition made by the 

 Government to change the electoral law of the 

 crown-land. The change proposed by the Gov- 

 ernment would diminish the German element 

 of the Diet, and the Germans who at present 

 constitute the majority of the Diet did not feel 

 disposed to lend a hand to a diminution of their 

 own influence. 



The German Liberals look upon the majority 

 of the Cabinet as hostile to the interests of the 

 German nationality, and as inclined to sacrifice 

 them to the Czechs and the Poles. They are 

 therefore making earnest efforts to perfect a 

 national organization. Provincial assemblies 

 of German members of the Reichsrath and 

 other prominent men of the party were held at 

 Modling in Lower Austria, at Briinn in Mora- 

 via, and at Karlsbad in Bohemia. The Bohe- 

 mian meeting, which took place in October, 

 was attended by more than 1,800 persons. The 

 Government showed its hostility to this move- 

 ment by confiscating all the papers containing 

 the resolutions which had been drawn up for 

 adoption at Karlsbad. The Municipal Council 

 of Vienna expressed the warmest sympathy 

 with this German movement, and resolved in 

 October to invite prominent Germans from all 

 parts of Austria to hold a general meeting at 

 Vienna. The meeting took place on Novem- 

 ber 14th, and was attended by 4,000 prominent 

 men of the German Constitutional party. Res- 

 olutions were adopted, amid great enthusiasm, 

 declaring the federalistic tendencies of the 

 Slavs to be dangerous to the unity of Austria, 



