M<>N.\l:niY. 



75 



The number of post-offices, at the end of tho 



year 1>7J, u:i-'i. s _4; the number of private 

 lot t ITS f..r\v.-mli-i| ti> places in Austria, 122,- 

 :c.i7. 117:1 ; of othYi.-il loM.-rs, is.d^J.l'.d) ; of nows- 

 sent, 65,758,688; number of private 

 - sent alt road, 82,445,099; of official let- 

 ters, '-V'1 I," 1 1 ; f postal cards, 15,549,700. 



The Austrian (iovornment is beginning to 

 bestow close attention upon the development 

 of the Land wch r. lujrirnental schools of in- 

 .-miftion already exist for the improvement of 

 non-commissioned officers of the various bat- 

 talions during their eight weeks of annual 

 training; but to extend the period for these 

 would, of course, involve heavy expense, and 

 the chief object of the new measures intro- 

 duced is, therefore, to improve the instruction 

 of the better class who are to officer the force. 

 For this purpose a central school is established 

 at the headquarters of each of the seven great 

 Landwehr districts, with a staff of instructors 

 chosen by the commandant, who is to give 

 the preference to officers of the regular army, 

 should such present themselves, who have 

 been employed already in instruction. He is 

 also to do his utmost to make the objects of 

 the school and its advantages known to the 

 proper classes of his district. At each there is 

 to bo a regular daily course of theoretical 

 stiuly, chiefly in military subjects, and lasting 

 from the 1st of January to the 81st of July, 

 followed by two months of practical instruc- 

 tion. But, in addition, there are to be regular 

 evening classes for those candidates who have 

 occupations of their own in the daytime, who 

 may then go through the whole course without 

 interfering with their civil pursuits. Young men 

 who have been under training in the Land- 

 wehr, and are specially reported on as apt sol- 

 diers, are eligible as candidates, as are those 

 who have been made non-commissioned offi- 

 cers, and done well in the regimental school. 

 But others who have not been out for training, 

 and desire to qualify for Landwehr commis- 

 sions, are also to be admitted, a moderate edu- 

 cational test being in all cases provided by proper 

 school certificates where they can be produced, 

 or by direct qualifying examination where none 

 such are forthcoming. There is no limit fixed 

 to the number of pupils ; but those who have 

 not served in training can only be admitted 

 entirely at their own expense, which is also the 

 rule for any Landwehr officer who may attend 

 on his own application for the purpose of self- 

 improvement. These last, of course, are sub- 

 ject to no examination at the close of the 

 course ; but the others have then to appear 

 before a jury composed in part of Landwehr 

 officers of standing and in part of professors. 

 According to the result of the final examina- 

 tion, the pupils are to be either rejected alto- 

 gether, recommended to come up again for 

 another annual course, or noted to receive a 

 commission in the order in which they stand 

 on the successful list. 



The provincial Diets of Austria which were 



in session at tho opening of the year 1874 fin- 

 ished their labors on January 17th, with the 

 exception of that of Trieste. Several of the 

 l>k-t-. \\-i-re occupied with anew regulation of 

 school affairs, and the Conservatives and Lib- 

 eral parties, as might be expected, had severe 

 conflicts, the general result of which was not 

 to the satisfaction of the Liberal party. In 

 the Moravian Diet, the Government was vehe- 

 mently attacked by several Czechic deputies, 

 but supported by the majority. 



The Reichsrath reassembled in Vienna on 

 January 28d. The Catholic party entered the 

 year with the hope that the influence of the 

 Church upon the court was still sufficiently 

 strong to defeat the four liberal church laws, 

 which the ministry, in compliance with the re- 

 quest of the Liberal majority of the Reichsrath, 

 was known to have prepared. The hope was 

 strengthened by the fact that the Emperor, when 

 the ministry submitted to him the first draft 

 of the laws, referred it to Bishop Kutscher, 

 who holds an appointment in the Ministry of 

 Instruction, for an elaborate report, and that 

 the bishop strongly advised the Emperor not 

 to sanction the ministerial draft. The minis- 

 terial Council, at a meeting held under the 

 presidency of the Emperor on January 18th, 

 prevailed, however, upon the Emperor to al- 

 low the laws to be laid before the Reichsrath. 

 The four laws were : 1 . A law for the regula- 

 tion of the external legal relations of the 

 Catholic Church, embracing the formal aboli- 

 tion of the Concordat of 1855, and the co- 

 operation of the Government in the appoint- 

 ments made by the bishops for ecclesiastical 

 benefices, defining the limits of ecclesiastical 

 jurisdiction, regulating the right of the state 

 with regard to the faculties of Catholic theol- 

 ogy at the universities, regulating the eccle- 

 siastical corporations, the ecclesiastical patron- 

 age, the superintendence of the state over the 

 administration of the Church ; 2. A law for 

 regulating the external legal relations of monas- 

 tic communities, and vindicating for the state 

 the right to allow or to forbid the establish- 

 ment of monasteries, and to inspect them, and 

 for all the members of such communities to 

 leave them at any time after notifying the civil 

 magistrate of their intention ; 3. A law for 

 taxing ecclesiastical property for the purpose 

 of improving the revenue of the lower cl. 

 4. A law regulating the legal recognition of 

 religious denominations. The Reichsrath, on 

 February 6th, referred the four laws to a sub- 

 committee of seven members, and appointed 

 another committee of five members to draft a 

 law for reforms in the state laws concerning 

 marriage. The discussion of tho laws in the 

 Reichsrath began on March 5th. The opponents 

 of the laws. Count Hohenwart, Greuter, Prince 

 Czartoryski, who spoke in the name of most 

 of the Poles, Weiss von Starkenfels, and many 

 others, warned ajiainst arousing an opposition 

 of tho Church against the Government, which 

 was already endangered by political and na- 



