182 



AUSTKIA. 



"What the Hungarian party chiefly insisted upon 

 was the reestablishment of the comitats or mu- 

 nicipal councils of Hungary, as the natural pre- 

 cursors of a diet, which they said might be 

 constituted without the slightest danger to the 

 monarchy. Count Forgach admitted the desi- 

 rability of reestablishing the comitats, but 

 doubted whether the time was yet come for 

 such an experiment. He recommended his 

 Hungarian countrymen to persevere in their 

 conciliatory views, and that he should be happy 

 to make himself their mediator with the em- 

 peror. Toward the close of the year 1862 it 

 Avas thought that the basis of a compromise was 

 agreed upon, and the leaders of the liberal-con- 

 servative party in Hungary, anxious both for the 

 independence of their country and for its " indis- 

 soluble and indivisible " union with the other 

 hereditary provinces of Austria, were said to 

 be engaged in a negotiation with influential men 

 in Vienna for that object. In November the 

 emperor granted an amnesty to political offend- 

 ers condemned by courts martial, as well as 

 such refugees as had already returned to Hun- 



gary. The emperor also ordered the total ces- 

 sation of judicial proceedings pending for 

 offences of a political character. For Venetia 

 a new plan of organization has been drafted, 

 according to which there is to be a diet com- 

 posed of fifty members, chosen by direct elec- 

 tion, who appoint their own president, subject 

 to the ratification of the emperor. The exe- 

 cutive power is to be composed of thirteen 

 members, nine of whom are to be chosen by 

 the diet, and four by the Government. The 

 diet is to have the right to revise the plan. 



The diets of the following provinces: Bo- 

 hemia, Dalmatia, Galicia, Upper and Lower Aus- 

 tria, Salzburg, Silesia, Styria, Carinthia, Carni- 

 ola, Bukowina, Moravia, Tyrol, Vorarlberg, and 

 Istria, were convoked by an imperial decree for 

 December 10. The Government wished to cir- 

 cumscribe their deliberations within narrow 

 limits, but it was soon found impossible to 

 evade the discussion of political questions. 



The following table gives a complete exhibit 

 of the different nationalities in Austria, ac- 

 cording to the census of 1857 : 



Among the Northern Slavi are included 6,132,- 

 742 Chechi, Moravians, and Slovacks, 2,159,- 

 648 Poles, and 2,752,482 Ruthenes. Among 

 the Southern Slavi are included 1,183,533 

 Slovenians, 1,337,010 Croats, 1,438,201 Ser- 

 vians, and 24,030 Bulgarians. Among the 

 West Romanians are included 2,557,913 Ital- 

 ians, 416,725 Friulians, and 14,498 Ladin- 

 ians. Among the other races are 3,175 Al- 

 banians, 2,255 Greeks and Zinzari, 16,131 Ar- 

 menians, 146,100 Gipsies, and 1,049,871 Jews. 



The population of the principal cities is as 

 follows: Vienna, in 1857, 476,224, in 1861 

 about 512,000; Prague (in 1851) 142,588, 

 Pesth 131,705, Venice 118,172, Trieste 104,707, 

 Lemberg 70,384, Gratz 63,176, Szegedin 62,700, 

 Verona 59.169, Brunn 58,809, Buda 55,240. 



The total imports of 1861 consisted of 240,- 

 732,238 guilders ; total exports of 315,177,981 

 guilders. The merchant marine in the same 

 year numbered 9,803 vessels, with 341,972 

 tons. 



The financial condition of the empire will 



appear from the following extracts from the 

 Finance Law and the Budget for' 1863, which 

 have been published in the official collection 

 of laws, where they fill together 29 columns. 

 The Finance Law is in substance as follows : 

 The total expenditure for the year 1863 is esti- 

 mated at 367,087,748 florins. The total revenue 

 304,585,094 fl. The deficit of 62,502,654 fl. is 

 to be covered by means of an augmentation of 

 the taxes, by the sale of bonds belonging to 

 the English loans of 1859, and of shares in the 

 lottery loan of 1860. Should the deficit not 

 be entirely covered, the Minister of Finances is 

 empowered to raise a loan of 12,000,000 fl. If 

 an arrangement with the National and Credit 

 Bank should not be brought about, the minis- 

 ter shall be at liberty to raise another loan of 

 30,000,000 fl. 



The following are the prominent features of 

 the budget for 1863 : the civil list is 7,458,- 

 700 fl. (it was 6,127,200 fl. in 1862). The out- 

 lay for the Reichsrath, 726,537 fl. ; Cabinet of 

 the Emperor, 76,000 fl. (it was 72,900 fl. in 



