34 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



which the Germans agreed to re-enter the Bohe- 

 mian Landtag. The agreement arrived at between 

 the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Old 

 Czech and German parties Dr. Rieger and Ernst 

 von Plener, required to be embodied in laws by 

 the Provincial Diet and the Reichsrath. Be- 

 tween the time of its publication on Jan. 21 and 

 the session of the Landtag that was to give it 

 the final sanction in May the Young Czechs 

 carried on a lively popular agitation against the 

 compromise, which struck a fatal blow to their 

 aggressive nationalism, which aims at making 

 Bohemia entirely Czechish, in that it divides the 

 governing and judicial bodies into Czechish and 

 German sections and partitions the kingdom 

 into judicial, electoral, and administrative dis- 

 tricts in which each of the two nationalities will 

 enjoy the use of its own language and separate 

 civilization without coercion or restraint from 

 the other. The Ausgleich embraces the follow- 

 ing principal points: 1. The division into Czech 

 and German sections of the Provincial Educa- 

 tional Council, which exercises control, subject 

 to the approval of the Government, over all the 

 primary and industrial and many of the inter- 

 mediate schools; the division in like manner 

 of the local school boards in districts having a 

 mixed population , and the establishment of 

 minority schools in districts where the parents 

 of forty children who have been five years in a 

 district demand the instruction of their children 

 in their native language. 2. The separation into 

 two national groups of the Landesculturrath 

 or Provincial Agricultural Council, which was 

 originally a free association, but has been en- 

 dowed with official powers, having control of 

 the agricultural schools and societies and the 

 traveling teachers of agriculture and of the dis- 

 tribution of Government and provincial sub- 

 sidies for the improvement of agriculture. The 

 Germans, not being represented in this body, 

 founded an association of their own, but have 

 hitherto enjoyed no favors or subventions from 

 the Government. 3. The division of the Su- 

 preme Court into two national sections. 4. The 

 re-districting of the kingdom for administrative, 

 judicial, and electoral purposes on a comprehen- 

 sive plan that will afford a legally recognized 

 geographical basis for language regulations. 5. 

 The repeal of the regulation requiring Govern- 

 ment and local officials to know both languages. 

 < )f t he superior judicial officers about one fourth, 

 destined for employment in German districts, 

 are no longer obliged to prove their familiarity 

 with the Czechish tongue. 6. The division of 

 t IP- Bohemian Diet into national sections. Mem- 

 bers before taking their seats will have to declare 

 to which national curia they belong. On the 

 demand of a certain number of members that a 

 vote shall be taken curiatim, each national curia 

 votes separately, and a majority in both is neces- 

 sary for the passage of the measure. The curia 

 of large proprietors will be preserved, while the 

 curicp of the towns and rural communes will be 

 merged in the two national curice. In the for- 

 mer provision will be made for a larger German 

 representation by changing electoral divisions 

 and placing allodial property more on an equa- 

 lity with trust estates. 



The conference was called together again in 

 April to consider the bills that were framed by 



the Government before they were submitted to 

 the Landtag. The popular opposition to the 

 compromise, fostered by Dr. Gregr and the 

 Young Czechs, was such as to threaten the Old 

 Czechs with extinction in the coming elections; 

 and therefore in the Diet a part of them were 

 disinclined to carry out all the arrangements to 

 which they had pledged themselves. The bill 

 for dualizing the Educational Council was passed 

 on June 3, and was promptly signed by the Em- 

 peror in spite of the expressed desire of the 

 Czechs that the measures should be sanctioned 

 as a whole. Enough of the former followers of 

 Dr. Rieger voted with the Young Czechs to pre- 

 vent the passage of any measure requiring a two- 

 third majority. Consequently, the compromise 

 bills were postponed, with a prospect of a con- 

 tinuation of the conflict of nationalities, unless 

 the Germans will abate some of their demands, 

 especially in regard to the use of German as the 

 official language of courts and administrative 

 authorities. Dr. Rieger. once the popular cham- 

 pion of Czech pretensions, but now the object of 

 general opprobrium, announced in July his inten- 

 tion of retiring from public life. 



Session of the Reichsrath. The Clerical 

 party refused the concessions contained in a bill 

 prepared by Minister von Gautsch, and the bish- 

 ops went beyond the Lichtenstein proposals in 

 a declaration read by Cardinal Schonborn on 

 March 12 in the Committee of the House of 

 Lords demanding Catholic public schools in 

 which Catholic children would not have to mix 

 with those of other confessions. They not only 

 ask that nothing repugnant to Catholics should 

 occur in the course of instruction, but would 

 require it to conform in all respects to the Catho- 

 lic character of the schools. The right of su- 

 pervision must be restored to the clergy, and the 

 teachers must be trained in Catholic normal 

 schools and receive their appointments subject 

 to the consent of the ecclesiastical authorities. 



The Clerical demands, if it were possible for 

 the Government to yield, would necessitate the 

 revocation of one of the most popular and cher- 

 ished liberties secured by the Constitution of 

 1861, that of compulsory and undenominational 

 primary instruction embodied in the educational 

 acts of 1868 and 1869, according to which chil- 

 dren o,f all creeds are taught in the same schools 

 except during the single hour that is set apart 

 every day for religious instruction, at which time 

 those who are not Catholics are at liberty to 

 withdraw.- 



The Slav majority, on which the Taafe Cabi- 

 net has heretofore depended, carried a bill re- 

 leasing Galicia from a debt of 106,000,000 florins 

 to the Austrian treasury, although outside Ga- 

 licia the measure was very unpopular, since all 

 the other provinces have paid the debts of a 

 similar character that they owed. The debt was 

 incurred in 1848 in connection with the creation 

 of a peasant proprietary. The Clericals, who 

 have voted in favor of the other rewards that 

 the ministry has conferred on its Polish support- 

 ers, refrained from voting either for or against 

 this measure, which passed by a narrow majority. 



Labor Disturbances. In the beginning of 

 April a strike of the masons and bricklayers was 

 followed by strikes of the shoemakers, tailors, 

 turners, and barbers in Vienna. The servant 



