AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. 



tional conflicts. The new laws, they urged, 

 would only redound to the honor and the glory 

 of Prussia, and were of an illiberal and despotic 

 character. The chief speakers in support of the 

 proposed laws were Prof. Suess, of Vienna, the 

 Minister of Public "Worship, Dr. Stremayr, and 

 the prime-minister, Prince Auersperg. Prof. 

 Suess announced an amendment which de- 

 mands that the bishops of Austria must take an 

 oath of loyalty to the constitution. Dr. Stre- 

 mayr denied any intention on the part of the 

 Government to carry on a war against the 

 Church, but insisted that no well-regulated 

 Government could allow religion to be made 

 the pretext for dangerous schemes against 

 the state. He called the laws the result of 

 legislative necessity for guarding the freedom 

 of religion and averting dangers, which from 

 the zeal of misguided ecclesiastics might arise 

 for the state. The prime-minister declared 

 emphatically, in view of threats that the law 

 could never be enforced, that the Government 

 would possess sufficient energy to see the law 

 respected. The Emperor, by telegraph, de- 

 clared his approval of the speeches made by 

 the two ministers, and at the close of the gen- 

 eral discussion the Reichsrath, by 224 against 

 71, received the ministerial draft, which on 

 March 16th, after a discussion on the several 

 articles, was adopted without any change. In 

 the Herrenhaus the discussion of the new laws 

 began on April 10th. The cardinal-arch- 

 bishops, Rauscher, of Vienna, Tarnoczy, of 

 Salzburg, and Prince Schwarzenberg, spoke 

 against them, and declared, in a memorial which 

 they handed in, that they adhered to the con- 

 viction which they expressed in the year 1868 

 relative to the existing legality of the Con- 

 cordat, while, besides several ministers, Count 

 Anton Auersperg, better known under the nom 

 de plume of Anastasius Grun, as one of the 

 greatest German poets, warmly defended them. 

 After a motion of the Catholic party to pass 

 over the laws to the order of the day had been 

 negatived, by 77 against 43 votes, all the arch- 

 bishops and bishops left the House, and the 

 law was adopted in the form in which it had 

 come from the Lower House. The Pope, in an 

 Encyclical Letter, addressed to the Austrian 

 bishops, and dated March 7th, had denounced 

 the laws as being of the same stamp and char- 

 acter as the new Church laws of Prussia, and 

 and as involving the same danger for the 

 Church. The prime-minister, Count Andrassy, 

 in his reply to the circular, said that it exag- 

 gerated facts, and that the Holy See might rest 

 assured that the laws in question were not in- 

 tended as an act of hostility toward it, or as 

 a curtailment of its rights in questions of re- 

 ligion, their object being solely to regulate 

 material questions, and more especially to re- 

 move stipulations which were obstacles to im- 

 perial legislation. The Government did not 

 publish the reply of -Count Andrassy, but in 

 the great meeting of the Austrian and Hun- 

 garian delegations held at Pesth, Count An- 



drassy, in reply to a question, gave a sketch of 

 his note. He stated that his note does not 

 question the Pope's right to communicate his 

 opinion to the bishops on ecclesiastical mat- 

 ters, but expresses regret that the Encyclical 

 should have pronounced a condemnation of 

 things which are in no way of a dogmatic 

 character, but belong to the sovereign domain 

 of state legislation. The note adds that the 

 Government will, nevertheless, endeavor to 

 avoid a conflict with the Church, but will only 

 do so if, in contradiction with the Encyclical 

 Letter, the bishops are advised to obey the 

 laws of the state. In conclusion the note 

 says that if the clergy do not obey the laws 

 which have been enacted and sanctioned, the 

 Government will consider itself bound to pro- 

 tect the rights of the state, and is in any case 

 convinced that it will be able to compel respect 

 for the law. Count Andrassy added that no re- 

 ply had been received, but since that time a cer- 

 tain appeasement appeared to have supervened. 



The Reichsrath adjourned on March 24th for 

 three weeks, and, immediately after resuming 

 its sessions on April 14th, referred (on April 

 15th) a motion, introduced by Deputy Fux, rela- 

 tive to the expulsion of the Jesuits and all 

 affiliated orders from Austria, to the Commit- 

 tee on the new Church laws. The three other 

 Church laws were all adopted by the Reichs- 

 rath, which also adopted Liberal amendments 

 to the law on the monastic communities which 

 the ministry refused to accept, and to which 

 the Herrenhaus had not yet given its consent, 

 when on May 7th the eighth session of the 

 Reichsrath was adjourned. From November 

 5, 1873, the day of opening, to its close, the 

 House of Deputies had held sixty-three, and 

 the House of Lords twenty-one meetings. Soon 

 after, the first two of the confessional laws re- 

 ceived the sanction of the Emperor, and were 

 promulgated as laws of the empire. 



At the beginning of the year, Dr. Glaser, 

 the Minister of Justice, in a circular ad- 

 dressed to all officials concerned, announced 

 the complete introduction of the system of 

 trial by jury, as ab&ut to come into effect, in 

 accordance with last year's act. The officials 

 are reminded in this circular that the spirit of 

 the new legislation is that they are to attach 

 equal importance to the vindication of the law 

 to the protection of the innocent. Crime is to 

 be prosecuted in the interests of the commu- 

 'nity with all the more energy since the pecul- 

 iar powers of public prosecutors in originating 

 proceedings as hitherto practised in Austria 

 will no longer exist. Confidence must be cre- 

 ated in the readiness of the representatives of 

 the states to follow up the complaints of indi- 

 vidual persons against those who have wronged 

 them, irrespective of rank or person. In par- 

 ticular the minister finds it necessary to warn 

 those he addresses, that the power of prelimi- 

 nary detention for purposes of prosecution 

 must be exercised in future with the greatest 

 circumspection. 



