AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. 



59 



ing this session was chiefly given to financial 

 and railroad bills. The House of Deputies dis- 

 posed of forty bills introduced by the Govern- 

 ment and of eleven introduced by its own 

 members. One of the last measures discussed 

 and adopted by the House of Deputies was a 

 bill for the regulation of the relations of the 

 Old Catholics. The draft of this bill, prepared 

 by a committee of the House, avoids the ex- 

 pression "Old Catholics" altogether, and des- 

 ignates them as "those Catholics who recog- 

 nize all the doctrines of the Catholic Church, 

 with the exception of the doctrines proclaimed 

 in the Papal bull 'Pastor JEternus' of July 

 18, . 1870, relative to the infallibility and the 

 supreme and immediate jurisdiction of the 

 Roman Pope." The draft limits itself to de- 

 manding for those Catholics the right to or- 

 ganize independent congregations. The min- 

 istry observed a complete silence in regard 

 to the bill, but all its members voted against 

 it. The President of the Herrenhaus, Prince 

 Carlos Auersberg, promised to a deputation 

 of the Old Catholics of Vienna that their re- 

 lations would be fully regulated in the fall. 

 The government bill providing for the organ- 

 ization of a court of administration (Verwal- 

 tungsgerichtshof ) was adopted after a brill- 

 iant speech of Minister Unger. 



The fall session of the Reichsrath was 

 opened on October 18th. The Czechic depu- 

 ties of Bohemia adhered to their determina- 

 tion not to attend. The representatives of 

 the other dissatisfied Slavic nationalities, the 

 Czechs of Moravia, the Poles, and the Slovens, 

 were again present, and the deputies belonging 

 to the Catholic party of the Tyrol also resolved 

 not to absent themselves. On October 19th 

 the Minister of Finance presented the budget 

 for 1876. The expenditures were estimated 

 at 4.03,869,876 florins, 21,587,827 florins more 

 than in 1875 ; the public revenue at 378,941,- 

 953 florins, or 5,852,054 florins more than in 

 1875 ; the deficit at 24,927,923, exceeding that 

 of the preceding year by 15,735,773 florins. 

 On November 9th the House of Deputies 

 adopted a bill introduced by Dr. "Wildauer 

 relative to school legislation, after striking 

 out those sections of the bill which related 

 to Galicia. The Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion disapproved of the bill, which he des- 

 ignated as neither opportune nor necessary, 

 as all its provisions were contained in the 

 present laws, and as the provisions relative 

 to the superintendence of the schools were 

 everywhere carried out, even in the Tyrol. 

 He recognized, however, the competency of 

 the Reichsrath to legislate on the subject. 

 The Emperor appointed four new members of 

 the Herrenhaus during life, who are believed 

 to be all favorable to the present constitution. 

 Two of them are abbots. Among the ques- 

 tions that are rising to greater importance are 

 those of protection and free trade. On Novem- 

 ber 14th forty-two deputies drew up a scheme 

 of commercial polity which, in their opinion, 



would cover the entire deficit of the Govern- 

 ment estimates. The first Austrian Industrial 

 Diet (Gewerbetag), which met on November 

 12th at Reichenbach in Bohemia, passed reso- 

 lutions in favor of discontinuing the commer- 

 cial treaties of the empire existing at present. 



The joint annual meeting of the delegations 

 of the legislatures of cis-Leithan Austria and 

 Hungary met in September, at Vienna. The 

 Austrian delegation elected the ex-minister 

 Herr von Schmerling, the Hungarian Herr von 

 Szogyenyi as President. The Emperor, in his 

 replies to the addresses presented to him by 

 the presidents of the deputations, spoke of the 

 peaceable tendencies of Austria and the per- 

 fect understanding with the two neighboring 

 empires. The Chancellor of the Empire, Count 

 Andrassy, stated that Austria was aiming, in 

 the Oriental question, at three things : protec- 

 tion of the Austro-Hungarian interests, pres- 

 ervation of the European peace, and removal 

 of the serious grievances of the rayahs in 

 Bosnia and Herzegovina. The financial con- 

 dition of the two countries was represented 

 by the two Ministers of Finances as being not 

 brilliant, but at the same time as not des- 

 perate. The meeting of the delegations was 

 closed on October 17th. The amount allowed 

 by the delegations for the common expendi- 

 tures of the empire is 115,845,331 florins, of 

 which 71,237,817 florins are to be paid by 

 cis-Leithan Austria, and 30,530,527 florins by 

 Hungary. Both delegations passed resolu- 

 tions expressing their confidence in the min- 

 istry for the Common Affairs of the Empire, 

 and the Chancellor of the Empire specially 

 thanked them, in the name of the Emperor, 

 for their readiness to grant the increased 

 amounts needed for maintaining the efficiency 

 of the army. The reasons for the material in- 

 crease of this year's army estimates were, 

 according to an official paper, as follows: 1. 

 The manufacture of new steel ordnance, with 

 which the entire artillery-force is to be pro- 

 vided. The amount will be heavy, but the 

 material costs only about a quarter of what 

 would be required for cast-steel guns. 2. The 

 military schools and officers' colleges stand in 

 need of a radical reform. 3. It has been 

 found necessary to raise the scale of pensions 

 paid to retiring officers, who are henceforth 

 to be more generally employed in the ad- 

 ministrative service of the empire. 4. A 

 great number of officers are henceforth to be 

 mounted. 5. The material condition of the 

 rank and file urgently requires improvement, 

 though the War Ministry finds itself compelled, 

 by financial considerations, to rest content, for 

 the present, with a smaller progress than it 

 would otherwise desire. 6. An additional 

 sum is required for the maintenance of bar- 

 racks, hospitals, and magazines, and likewise 

 for the fuller organization of the general staff. 

 7. In the last place, something must necessa- 

 rily be done for the completion of defensive 

 fortifications. This want is fully as urgent as 



