AUER8PERG, COUNT VON. 



AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. 51 



AUERSPERG, ANTON ALEXANDER, Count 

 VON, also well known by his nom de plume, 

 Anastasius Grun, an Austrian statesman and 

 pm-t, born April 11, 1806 ; died September 12, 

 1876. He received his first education at home, 

 was sent to the Theresianum in Vienna, in 

 1*1::, from there he went to the Engineering 

 Academy. Upon the death of bis father he 

 was placed in a private institution to prepare 

 himself for the university. After having 

 studied law and philosophy in the Universities 

 of Vienna and Gratz, he traveled through Italy, 

 France, England, and Germany ; took charge of 

 his estates in 1831, and in 1839 married the 

 Countess Maria von Atteins, living after that 

 partly on his estates and partly in Gratz and 

 Vienna. Every office in the service of the 

 Government or of the court he decidedly 

 refused, being bitterly opposed to the policy of 

 Prince Metternich. He began early to gain a 

 reputation as a poet. Even while a student in 

 Vienna he had contributed numerous small 

 poems to the Philomeleand the Theaterzeitung, 

 and in 1830 published a small volume under the 

 title of " Blatter der Liebe, von Anastasius 

 Grun." Under the same nom deplume he pub- 

 lished, during the same year, "Der letzte Rit- 

 ter " (eighth edition, 1860), a romance, in which 

 he intended to show to the effeminate admin- 

 istration of that period the manly picture of 

 the last knight, Maximilian, in the form of 

 Theuerdank. This was followed by " Spazier- 

 gange eines Wiener Poeten" (1831 ; sixth edi- 

 tion, 1861), which appeared anonymously in 

 1831 in Hamburg. This volume, a collection of 

 thirty patriotic poems, produced great excite- 

 ment throughout Germany. The authorities 

 employed every means to discover the author, 

 and when they finally found that the "Vien- 

 nese poet," Anastasius Grun, and Count Auers- 

 perg, were one and the same person, the latter 

 was fined fifty ducats. In 1835 he published 

 another collection of patriotic poems, under the 

 title of " Schutt " (twelfth edition, 1869), which 

 is generally considered as his best production. 

 He then collected his smaller poems, sketches, 

 etc., into one volume, "Gedichte" (1837; four- 

 teenth edition, 1868). In 1848 he was elected a 

 member of the German " Vorparlament," and 

 at'tvrward of the National Assembly in Frank- 

 fort. In this body he always voted with the 

 Left Centre, but left it in September. 1848, be- 

 cause the murders of Lychnowski and Auers- 

 wald had utterly disgusted him. For some years 

 he lived in entire seclusion on his estates, pub- 

 lishing in 1852 the poetical works of his friend 

 Nikolaus Lenau. After the change of affairs 

 in Austria in 1859, he again took an active part 

 in public life. In that year he was appointed 

 by the Government a member of a commission 

 to draw up a communal law for Carniola. In 

 1860 he was called by the Emperor to the 

 " Verstarkter Reichsrath " for Carniola, and 

 in 1861 was created a life-member of the Aus- 

 rian Herrenhaus. Here he was the regular 

 reporter aud author of addresses to the throne, 



with the exception of one session. In all 

 questions of legislation he voted with the Lib- 

 erals, while in the constitutional debates he 

 was with those who advocated centralization 

 and afterward dualism, rejecting the federal 

 idea decidedly. The address of January, 1870, 

 was an able argument for the preservation of 

 the constitution, and against the impending 

 federalistic experiments of the minority ; that 

 of November, 1870, culminated in a most de- 

 cisive vote against the vacillating policy of the 

 ministry, and was adopted even in the Herren- 

 haus by an almost unanimous vote. He spoke 

 repeatedly for a peaceful and constitutional 

 settlement of the difficulties with Hungary, 

 and for a closer connection of Austria and 

 Germany. In the Diet of Carniola, from 

 1861 to 1867, and afterward in that of Styria, 

 he was an active supporter of German ideas 

 and of the Liberals. In 1868 he was unani- 

 mously elected president of the delegation of 

 the Austrian crown-lands. But, with the ex- 

 ception of his seat in the Herrenhaus, he 

 resigned all his positions. In this body he 

 continued to take an active interest up to his 

 death. Among his speeches those delivered 

 during the confessional debates of 1868 and 

 1874 have gained particular celebrity. His 

 last poetical work of any importance was a 

 German version of " Robin Hood " (1864). 



AUSTRALIA AND POLYNESIA. The 

 area and population of Australia and Polynesia 

 were, according to the latest accounts, as fol- 

 lows: 



According to the enumerations of the years 

 1869-'71, there were 1,300,452 Protestants, 



