AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



53 



school age ends with the completion of the 

 twelfth year. The subjects taught are reading, 

 writing, arithmetic, religion, grammar, geome- 

 try, 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 pu- 

 pils. The University of Vienna in 1889 had 

 368 professors and tutors and 5,218 students; 

 the Bohemian university at Prague, 121 instruct- 

 ors and 2,361 students ; the German university 

 at Prague, 142 instructors and 1,470 students'; 

 Gratz University, 130 instructors and 1,296 stu- 

 dents; Cracow University, 111 instructors and 

 1,206 students ; Lemberg University, 62 instruct- 

 ors 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 stu- 

 dents in 1889. In Prague there is a Bohemian 

 polytechnicum with 63 teachers and 334 students 

 and a German one with 49 teachers and 184 stu- 

 dents. 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 

 85-1 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 him- 

 self as durchfretten, or "rubbing along.'" He 

 came into office after the German Liberals had 

 been governing for years under Prince Alexan- 

 der Auersperg and were no longer able to crush 

 down the rising spirit of nationalism. The mis- 

 sion that he undertook was to build up a Con- 

 servative party by making the Czechs, Poles, 

 Slovenians, and Italians of Istria and the Tren- 

 tine work together with the feudal and Ultra- 

 montane German elements. To maintain this 

 union the Germanizing policy of Prince Auers- 

 perg and Count Beust was reversed, the liberal- 

 izing 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 priv- 

 ileges was retarded. The coalition worked har- 

 moniously by the aid of concessions to the na- 

 tionalities 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 ma- 

 ixeuvre of dissolving the party and withdrawing 

 from the Reichsrath, having already left the Bo- 

 hemian 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 Ger- 

 mans of Austria anti-Semitic and Socialistic 

 tendencies showed themselves. The Clericals 

 began to present exorbitant demands. Prince 

 Aloys Lichtenstein sought to use the Conserva- 

 tive coalition for the purpose of passing a school 

 bill that would place primary education under 

 the complete control of the clergy. The inter- 

 ference of the Emperor caused the bill to be 

 dropped, and Prince Lichtenstein retired to pri- 

 vate 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 sat- 

 isfactory 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 in- 

 corporation in the German Fatherland. About 

 three fifths of the population are Czech in lan- 

 guage 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 Schwarz- 

 enbergs 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 mon- 

 arch 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 em- 

 pire 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 



