64 



AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. 



failure of the attempts to form what might be 

 called a Parliamentary Ministry in the strict 

 sense of the word, supported by a clear and 

 compact majority. Two attempts in the latter 

 direction had been made, the first by Baron Pre- 

 tis-Cagnodo, which aimed at forming a majority 

 by the fusion of the different fractions of the 

 Constitutional party, and the second by Count 

 Taaffe, who took as the basis of his combina- 

 tion the two more -Conservative fractions of 

 the Constitutional party, round which should 

 be grouped some of the fractions outside that 

 political body. Both these schemes, however, 

 failed, and the hope of forming in the present 

 Parliament a compact working majority had to 

 be abandoned. Nothing remained but to tide 

 over the time till the general election, which 

 must be the principal task of the reconstituted 

 Ministry. 



, The new Ministry met on February 18th in 

 the Eeichsrath, and Dr. Stremayr made a dec- 

 laration, in which he alluded to the attempts 

 made to form a new Cabinet. Besides the 

 difficulties of the general political situation, 

 he said, the circumstance that the duration of 

 the present Parliament would end in the course 

 of th^e current year proved an insuperable ob- 

 stacle. This decided the position of the pres- 

 ent Cabinet. It had no programme of the 

 future, no new policy to announce; its main 

 office was to guard against any interruption in 

 the constitutional working of Parliament and 

 in the administration. As to the principles 

 directing the Ministry in this province, the 

 House had known them for seven years. In 

 regard to the work to be done, there were, 

 above all, the budget and the bills connected 

 with it. With reference to Eastern affairs, 

 which so deeply affect the interests of the mon- 

 archy, a precise and positive basis had been 

 laid down for them by the Treaty of Berlin. 

 Taking its stand on this instrument, the Gov- 

 ernment would esteem it its duty to execute 

 fully the task assigned it by the Powers. The 

 Government would seek to avoid all constitu- 

 tional complications and further sacrifices, as 

 far as they regarded it compatible with the 

 honor and security of the monarchy. After 

 voting the budget, the session of the Reichs- 

 rath was closed on May 17th by the Emperor. 

 In the speech from the throne he said that the 

 sacrifices which had been made by the country 

 had rendered it possible for the Government, 

 in the interest of the maintenance of peace, 

 to employ all its influence in consolidating the 

 work achieved by Europe in the East, and that 

 the attainment of this object was near at hand. 

 The elections for the new Reichsrath were 

 held during June and July, and resulted in a 

 loss of seats by the Liberal party. Of the dep- 

 uties elected, 173 belonged to the different 

 Liberal fractions and 175 to the Conservatives. 

 From these figures it will be seen that the 

 two parties nearly balanced each other, and 

 that if they both were compact parties neither 

 could furnish a working majority. There were, 



however, no signs of cohesion on either side. 

 Among the 173 of the so-called Constitutional 

 party, there were the representatives of all 

 the clubs into which the party was divided in 

 the previous session that is, the Left Center, 

 the Left, and the new and old Fortschritt Clubs. 

 On the other side were reckoned the Clericals, 

 the Czechs, the Poles, and the Slovenes, a con- 

 glomeration as mixed as, if not more so, than 

 the other party. A new Cabinet was formed 

 on August 14th under the presidency of Count 

 Eduard Taaffe. (See above.) 



An important political conference was held 

 on August 31st at Linz, in which all the newly 

 elected German liberal members of the Reichs- 

 rath took part. It was called for the purpose 

 of determining the position of the party to- 

 ward the new Ministry, which comprised Lib- 

 erals, Czechs, Clericals, and Feudals. It was 

 unanimously resolved at this meeting that the 

 composition of the present Cabinet did not 

 justify its support by the German Liberal Con- 

 stitutional party. The leaders of the different 

 groups of the opposition to the Liberal party 

 held a meeting about two weeks later, under 

 the presidency of the Count Hohenwart, and 

 resolved to act as a united Right. In the be- 

 ginning of October an autograph letter of the 

 Emperor was published, acceding to Prince 

 Carlos Auersperg's repeated request to be re- 

 lieved, on account of ill health, of the post of 

 President of the Upper House of the Reichs- 

 rath. On September 30th the Emperor ap- 

 pointed Count Trautmannsdorf in his place. 



The Reichsrath met on October 7th, but the 

 formal opening did not take place till the next 

 day. In his speech from the throne, the Em- 

 peror referred with pleasure to the fact that 

 the Bohemian delegates, who formerly had 

 declined to enter Parliament, had taken their 

 seats, and stated that an important step had 

 thus been taken to secure that general recon- 

 ciliation and agreement which have always 

 been his wish. Among the measures which 

 would probably come before Parliament, he 

 mentioned decrees relating to the military sys- 

 tem of the country, laws relating to Bosnia 

 and Herzegovina, and the revision of treaties 

 and trading laws. With regard to foreign af- 

 fairs he said : 



It is with great satisfaction that I record the undis- 

 turbed continuation of friendly relations with other 

 Powers. The Berlin Treaty has been carried out in 

 all its essential conditions. The entry into the san- 

 jak of Novi-Bazar has been made upon the basis of 

 that treaty, in friendly accord with the Porte. The 

 Government is now in a position, and it will be its 

 principal task, to devote its earnest and full attention 

 to cherishing with unremitting care its economical re- 

 lations withTthe East. 



Referring to the finances, he said: 

 The endeavor to recover an equilibrium in the 

 finances by careful arrangement will above all things 

 concern you, and this also applies to the war budget ; 

 so far only, however, as may appear compatible with 

 the position and safety of the empire. A consider- 

 able diminution of the expenditure has. through the 

 simplification in the administration of the individual 



