AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. 



47 



this question with their Governments. _ In the 

 Austrian Reichsrath, however, the Polish dep- 

 uty Hausner made, on March 12th, a violent 

 speech against the Austro-Germari alliance, and 

 recommended in place of it a Franco- Austrian 

 alliance. Many of the Polish, Czechic, and 

 Ultramontane members seemed to sympathize 

 with these views. As Hausner's views were 

 violently attacked by the Germans, both in 

 Germany and in Austria, he published in their 

 defense a pamphlet entitled " Deutschthum und 

 deutschesVveieh " (Vienna, 1880). The author, 

 though a German by name and birth, is in his 

 political sentiments a Polish extremist. The 

 object of his pamphlet is to show that an alli- 

 ance of Austria with Germany would virtually 

 be a submission to Germany, and would greatly 

 promote the ambitious plans of Bismarck, who, 

 in his opinion, intends to wrest the Baltic prov- 

 inces and Russian Poland up to the Vistula 

 from Russia and annex it to Germany an 

 event which he would regard as the greatest 

 calamity for the Poles, who might not be able 

 to resist absorption by the civilized Germans 

 as well as they resisted the uncivilized Rus- 

 sians, A provisional commercial treaty with 

 Germany was ratified by the Reichsrath in May. 

 A new interview of the Emperors of Austria 

 and Germany at Ischl, and the marked atten- 

 tions shown to Archduke Rudolphus during his 

 visit at Berlin, were regarded as new pledges 

 of the continuance of the German- Austrian al- 

 liance. The revival of a triple alliance between 

 the Emperors of Austria, Germany, and Russia 

 was strongly advocated by Baron Hiibner, who 

 was ambassador in France under the Empire, 

 in a meeting of the Austrian delegation on 

 November 2d. Baron Hiibner is afraid that 

 out of the unsettled condition of Western Eu- 

 rope, especially of England, Italy, and France, 

 there may arise a crusade against conservatism 

 all over Europe, and he therefore demanded 

 that steps should at once be taken to insure a 

 combination of the three great conservative 

 powers of Europe. The feeling of a very large 

 portion of the Austrian population continues, 

 however, to be very hostile to Russia. When 

 the -Emperor in September paid a visit to Ga- 

 licia, the demonstrations made by the Polish 

 population were so significant that many Hun- 

 garian papers spoke of an approaching resto- 

 ration of the kingdom of Poland, and of the 

 inevitability of a war against Russia. Public 

 sentiment in Russia showed itself, in return, 

 greatly irritated against Austria, although the 

 Emperor of Austria, in order not to give any 

 cause of irritation, had never used the Polish 

 language on any official occasion, and, in his 

 reply to the leader of the Polish nobility, who 

 emphatically spoke of the "Polish" nobility, 

 had been careful to use the expression, "the 

 nobility of Galicia." It was a noted feature 

 in the proceedings of the delegations in No- 

 vember that no voice was raised against the 

 desirability and the continuance of the Austro- 

 German alliance. 



The friendly relations between Austria and 

 the Government of Italy were not interrupted, 

 although they were repeatedly endangered by 

 the agitation of the party of the Italia Irreden- 

 ta, with which a considerable portion of the 

 Italian people expressed an open sympathy, and 

 which, in the opinion of the Austrian Gov- 

 ernment, was not as energetically suppressed 

 by the Italian Government as it should have 

 been. (See ITALY.) Within the Austrian do- 

 minion, the Italian nationality has of late made 

 considerable progress in Dalmatia. The Ital- 

 ians constitute in this province only 9'5 per 

 cent, of the total population, while the Slavs 

 number more than 90 per cent. ; but all that 

 has been achieved in the provinces of literature, 

 art, and science, in material and intellectual 

 progress, is due to the Italian element. The 

 Slavs, on the other hand, are still at the lowest 

 stage of mental development. The schools of 

 the higher grade were, therefore, to a large ex- 

 tent under Italian influence. The sympathy 

 which the tendencies of the "Italia Irredenta" 

 met with among the Italians of Italy induced 

 the Austrian Government, in June, to change* 

 all the Italian middle schools in Dalmatia, es- 

 pecially those in Sebenico, Curzola, Cattaro, 

 Ragusa, and Spalatro, into Slavic schools. 



It was for some time feared that the rela- 

 tions between Austria and England might be 

 seriously affected by the triumph of the Liberal 

 party at the English elections. At one of the 

 meetings preceding the elections, Mr. Gladstone 

 had energetically protested against England 

 joining the Austro-Gennan understanding, and 

 converting it into a triple alliance. He had 

 declared that if the Austrian Government 

 wished to shut his mouth, it should abandon 

 its schemes against the freedom of other coun- 

 tries. When the elections resulted in a tri- 

 umph of the Liberal party, apprehensions were 

 naturally felt that the English Cabinet would 

 be hostile to the Oriental policy of Austria. 

 These apprehensions were, however, dispersed 

 by a letter addressed by Mr. Gladstone to the 

 Austrian ambassador in London, in which the 

 English Premier states that he has no hostile 

 intention toward Austria, and that his animad- 

 versions on her foreign policy were founded 

 upon suppositions which, upon the assurances 

 of the ambassador, he now believed to be un- 

 founded. (See GREAT BRITAIN.) 



The question pending between Austria and 

 Servia, relative to the establishment of railway 

 junctions, caused considerable trouble. On 

 January 10th Baron Haymerle, in the Foreign 

 Affairs Committee of the Hungarian delegation, 

 stated that the Servian Government had origi- 

 nally held the view that both the Porte and 

 Bulgaria would have to take part in the nego- 

 tiations, but ultimately M. Ristics, the Prime 

 Minister of Servia, had admitted the justice of 

 Austria's construction of the stipulations of the 

 Berlin Treaty, and a Servian representative 

 with full powers would shortly arrive in Vi- 

 enna to effect a final settlement of the question. 



