AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. 



that for better weapons in the army. The 

 comments of the Austrian and Hungarian pa- 

 pers on the proceedings of the delegations 

 were not generally favorable. The Austrians 

 were dissatisfied with the unequal distribution 

 of the amounts to be raised by the two coun- 

 tries, and many Hungarians say that they might 

 well get along without the institution of dele- 

 gations. 



On April 4th the monument of the late 

 Emperor Maximilian, in Trieste, was unveiled 

 in the presence of the Emperor and Arch- 

 dukes of Austria, who were loudly cheered by 

 an immense crowd. Signer Porenta, the Presi- 

 dent of the Memorial Committee, made a 

 speech in Italian, in which he extolled the Em- 

 peror Maximilian and expressed the devotion 

 of Trieste to the house of Austria. The Em- 

 peror made a suitable reply in the same lan- 

 guage, in which he thanked M. Porenta and 

 the town of Trieste. The Emperor subse- 

 qently addressed an autograph letter to the 

 Governor of Trieste, expressing lively satisfac- 

 tion at the evidence he has received of the un- 

 alterable affection and loyal sentiments enter- 

 tained toward him by the population. 



The relations of Austria to foreign powers 

 were of a friendly character. On April 5th 

 the Emperor visited the King of Italy in Ven- 

 ice, and before his departure congratulated 

 him upon the consolidation of Italy. At a 

 grand public dinner given in his honor, the 

 Emperor, in reply to a toast from the King of 

 Italy, drank to the well-being and prosperity 

 of Italy. The semi-official papers declared the 

 object of their visit to be the establishment of 

 closer connections between Italy and the three 

 European empires for the purpose of securing 

 the continuance of peace. The reception of 

 the Emperor in Italy was quite enthusiastic ; 

 only the organs of the Catholic Church ex- 

 pressed their decided dissatisfaction with the 

 exchange of friendly sentiments between the 

 two Governments. On June 28th an interview 

 between the Emperors of Austria and Russia 

 took place at Eger, Bohemia. 



From Venice, the Emperor set out for a 

 long-intended journey through Dalmatia, where 

 he met with an enthusiastic reception. The 

 five days' stay at Zara, the capital of Dalmatia, 

 was one continuous succession of rejoicings. 

 The Italian population of the town as well as the 

 Slavonic population, which had come in large 

 numbers and with its picturesque costume, vied 

 with each other in their loyal manifestations. 

 Generally opposed to each other in everything 

 else, they met on common ground on this oc- 

 casion. On an excursion made from Zara on 

 the fine imperial road which runs along the 

 coast to Bentovay, the Emperor was greeted 

 by the immense concourse of the population, 

 for from the remotest villages on the mountain- 

 sides people had come down, and there was 

 not a hamlet which did not send at least a dep- 

 utation. A great feature was the numerous 

 troops of men who received the Emperor with 



salvos, firing off their pistols. Nearly every 

 man in that country is armed and has hitherto 

 belonged to a sort of irregular militia. Now 

 the militia law for the whole empire is being 

 introduced into Dalmatia, and several compa- 

 nies of these new troops could already be in- 

 spected, but the majority of the male population 

 remains in its old organization by villages and 

 clans, and wears its. own picturesque costume, 

 in which red is predominant and which shows 

 off that powerful race to the greatest advan- 

 tage. In Cattaro, the Emperor received a visit 

 from the Prince of Montenegro. He returned 

 to Vienna on May 15th. 



On April 6th sixteen of the seventeen provin- 

 cial Diets of cis-Leithan Austria were opened. 

 The complexion of several of these Diets, which 

 are, not less than the Reichsrath, the battle- 

 ground of the different religious, political, and 

 national parties of the empire, was in some re- 

 spects materially different from that of last 

 year. In the Diet of the Tyrol, the delegates of 

 the Italian portion took their seats for the first 

 time since 1861, and added considerably to the 

 strength of the Liberal party. In the Diet of 

 Carniola, in which province the Slovens consti- 

 tute more than 90 per cent, of the population, 

 the result of the elections of the Chambers of 

 Commerce gave this year to the Constitutional 

 party in union with the Liberal party of the 

 Young Slovens a majority in all questions relat- 

 ing to church and school, while last year the 

 Catholic party in union with the Old Slovens 

 controlled the majority. The Bohemian Diet 

 is but little changed, the Liberal party of Young 

 Czechs numbering this year nine, instead of 

 seven members. To all the Diets the Govern- 

 ment made communications concerning the in- 

 troduction of the metrical system of weights 

 and measures. In Bohemia and Moravia, the 

 improvement of the salaries and positions of 

 school-teachers formed a prominent subject of 

 discussion. It seems that the functions and 

 powers of the provincial Diets are not yet fully 

 understood. In the Diet of Styria, the com- 

 missioner of the Government replied to an in- 

 terpellation which had been directed to him 

 soon after the opening of the Diet, that the right 

 of making interpellations did not at all belong 

 to a provincial Diet, while in the Diet of Lower 

 Austria the commissioner of the Government 

 replied, in a similar case, that the particular 

 interpellations addressed to him exceeded the 

 jurisdiction of the provincial Diet, thus not de- 

 nying to the Diets the right of interpellating in 

 general. Most of the Diets were closed on 

 May 14th ; that of Galicia was continued to the 

 end of May, and that of Dalmatia did not open 

 until May 19th. 



Austria is still suffering severely from the 

 great financial crisis which began in 1873, and 

 put an end to the swindling operations of many 

 of the numerous stock companies. One of the 

 most interesting episodes in the history of the 

 financial distress which followed the outbreak 

 of the crisis is the trial of the Director-Gen- 



