AUSTRO-HUtfGARIAN MONARCHY. 



59 



of respect and confidence, and we did not hesitate 

 cordially to accept these overtures. The exchange 

 of dispatches which took place on this occasion forms 

 the basis of relations, resting on a policy of equality 

 and mutual interest, which have been maintained 

 ever since. I do not share the anxieties of those who 

 expect a reversal of the edifice which has so recently 

 been built. Far from looking back to the past in a 

 spirit of fruitless complaint, and envious ill-will, we 

 hope that the new state of things will follow its nat- 

 ural development. It is an historical error to repre- 

 sent the old Germanic Confederation as a guarantee 

 of peace. The guarantee consisted in the coopera- 

 tion of Austria and Prussia, and a compensation for 

 the great changes which have occurred in the rela- 

 tions between those powers is given by the disap- 

 pearance of the object for which they strove. We 

 can, whenever we wish it, now place ourselves on 

 an equal footing by the side of a friendly and strength- 

 ened Germany. In England, our new attitude tow- 

 ard Germany is hailed with lively satisfaction. Our 

 relations with Eussia are in a favorable state, if only 

 because it is not easy to become the enemy of your 

 friend's friend. Now that a bulwark of peace has 

 been erected in Central Europe, a spirit of modera- 

 tion and mutual respect must regulate her relations 

 with the East. France will always find in Austro- 

 Hungary a sincere friend. In Italy, she has gained, 

 by the principle of non-intervention, a permanently 

 friendly neighbor ; and the conciliatory spirit shown 

 by the Sublime Porte, in the question of the regula- 

 tion of the Danube, shows that our amicable relations 

 with Turkey have not changed. 



The Chancellor concluded by saying that 

 the above statement should not be regarded as 

 an ephemeral programme, but as indicating 

 the principles by which Austria's foreign policy 

 is to be permanently guided. 



After the adjournment of the Reichsrath, on 

 July llth, and the close of the sittings of the 

 delegations on July 20th, Count Hohenwart 

 pursued with greater eagerness than before 

 the attempts to bring about a full understand- 

 ing with the Czechs and the Poles. The lat- 

 ter appeared to be contented with the con- 

 cessions made to them, and especially with the 

 Polonization of the Imperial University, at 

 Lamberg, from which most of the German 

 professors were removed. The Czechs were 

 not so easily gained, as they did not conceal 

 their design to demand for Bohemia and Mo- 

 ravia an autonomy equal to that of Hungary. 

 In the beginning of August, the cis-Leithan min- 

 istry took an important step to meet the wishes 

 of the Czechs. By three imperial patents, 

 dated August 13th, the Lower House of the 

 Reichsrath, aud the Diets of Upper and Lower 

 Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Mora- 

 via, Silesia, and the Tyrol, were dissolved; 

 new elections ordered for the Reichsrath and 

 the Diets, and the latter convoked on Septem- 

 ber 14th. The fact that, with the exception 

 of the Tyrol Diet, only the Diets of those prov- 

 inces were dissolved in which the supporters 

 of the actual Constitution had a majority, in- 

 dicated that the Government intended to make 

 great changes in the Constitution. The Diet 

 of Tyrol, in which the ministry controlled a 

 majority of the votes, was included in the meas- 

 ure, as it was expected that the inhabitants 

 of the Italian portion of the province, who 



are aiming at the erection of their district into 

 an independent province of the empire, might 

 be induced to send their delegates to the pro- 

 vincial Diet. The election of the new Diets 

 took place in the first days of September, 

 amid the greatest excitement. The German 

 Liberal party was triumphant in Lower Aus- 

 tria, to which province the city of Vienna 

 belongs (64 Liberals being elected, and only 

 one supporter of the ministry) ; in Carinthia 

 (32 Liberals, 4 Ministerialists), and Silesia (24 

 Liberals, 4 Ministerialists) ; it had likewise a 

 two-thirds majority in the Diets of Styria and 

 Salzburg, but the ministry carried the prov- 

 inces of Upper Austria, Moravia, and Tyrol, 

 and, in general, controlled a sufficient number 

 of votes in all the Diets to be able, in case 

 Bohemia should send her delegates into the 

 Reichsrath, to control a two-thirds majority 

 of the latter. 



Important modifications of the Constitution 

 of cis-Leithania were now looked for. When 

 the Bohemian Diet was opened, a rescript 

 from the Emperor was read to the members, 

 in which his Majesty "acknowledged the rights 

 of the Bohemian Kingdom, and promised to 

 guarantee that acknowledgment by a corona- 

 tion oath." This, the first substantial promise 

 of redress which the Czechs had received since 

 the commencement of their agitation, caused 

 universal joy in Bohemia, and general conster- 

 nation among the Germans. The drafts of 

 two laws were also presented by the ministers 

 to the Bohemian Diet ; one was a law of na- 

 tionality to guarantee the rights of the Czechs, 

 and of the Germans in Bohemia; and tho 

 other was prepared to settle the distribution 

 of offices between Czechs and Germans, and 

 to make it imperative that all officers of the 

 crown should speak both the German and 

 Czechish languages. The next step was the 

 presentation to the Emperor, by a deputation 

 from the Prague Diet, of the fundamental laws 

 on which the Czechs desired the Ausgleich 

 should be based. This presentation caused a 

 meeting of the Crown Council, composed of 

 all the cis-Leithan ministers, Count Andrassy, 

 and the three ministers common to the whole 

 empire. The Council was summoned to meet 

 to decide on some objections offered by Counts 

 Beust and Andrassy to the conclusion of the 

 Reichsrath on the basis of the fundamental 

 laws. One objection was, that the Czechs, by 

 desiring the abolition of the Upper House, and 

 the substitution of a Senate in its stead, attacked 

 the Constitution. Another, that the para- 

 graph in the fundamental laws which acknowl- 

 edged the legality of the arrangement with 

 Hungary, made in 1867 (an acknowledgment 

 not yet made by the Czechs), was inopportune 

 and improper, because the arrangement, being 

 made, could not be altered. Beust also re- 

 marked that a change of the relations between 

 Bohemia and the empire should be left to the 

 decision of the Reichsrath, and not to the Bo- 

 hemian Diet and to the ministers. The Em- 



