AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY. 



49 



Prague, one of the earliest in Germany, into a 

 bilingual establishment ; or, leaving the Univer- 

 sity of Prague in its old position, to establish 

 a new Czech university. The efforts of the 

 Czech party were directed in 1880 to getting 

 its teachers gradually introduced, and a resolu- 

 tion was passed by the House authorizing the 

 Government to ask from it the grant of money 

 necessary for this purpose. In the estimates 

 presented for 1881 no such grant was asked 

 for. Upon the demands of the Czech party, 

 the Government appointed a commission to in- 

 vestigate the feasibility of the plan. The mat- 

 ter was settled by an imperial order in April, 

 providing that henceforth two separate univer- 

 sities should exist under the common name of 

 " Carolo-Ferdinandea," in one of which the 

 medium of instruction shall be the German, 

 and in the other the Czech language. The 

 two faculties of Philosophy and Law were to be 

 in readiness by October 1st. On May 15th the 

 Government presented to the Chamber two 

 bills relating to this matter. One related to 

 the legal status and the course of study, while 

 the other provided for the necessary credits 

 for creating the two Czech faculties. The sum 

 necessary for this purpose was set down at 

 23,000 florins for the current year. The first 

 bill provided, among other matters, that all 

 property belonging to the university, or to any 

 of the faculties, should in future be regarded 

 as the common property of both universities, 

 or of the respective faculties. A student can 

 not be immatriculated in both universities, but 

 a student of one shall be at liberty to attend 

 the lectures of the other, and these lectures are 

 to be credited to him as if he had attended 

 them in his own university. The bill was 

 passed on May 31st, after a motion making it 

 compulsory upon every student at the new 

 Czech university, who should intend entering 

 a public profession, to have a perfect knowledge 

 of the German language, had been rejected. 



In the early part of the year a bill was intro- 

 duced in the Lower House by Herr Lienbacher 

 of the Clerical party, providing that in future 

 any provincial Diet should have the power of 

 decreasing the term of compulsory school at- 

 tendance, which heretofore had been eight 

 years. The bill was supported by the Auton- 

 omist party, who thought in this way to in- 

 crease the autonomy of the several crown-lands, 

 and was strongly opposed by the Constitutional 

 party. It passed the Lower House with a ma- 

 jority of 13, but was rejected by the Herren- 

 haus by the decisive vote of 74 to 32, a vote 

 which was entirely unexpected, as it was 

 thought that the recent creation of new life- 

 members had given the ministry who support- 

 ed the bill a majority in tins House. 



On March llth Count Coronini. the Presi- 

 dent of the Lower House of the Reichsrath, 

 resigned his seat in that House. In his letter 

 of resignation, Count Coronini, who belongs to 

 the Constitutional party, declared that he had 

 endeavored to do his duty according to his best 

 VOL. xxi. 4 A 



belief, but that the conscientious fulfillment of 

 duty did not insure success. He did not think 

 that he could interpret the events that had 

 taken place in the House of late, otherwise 

 than by concluding from them that he no longer 

 possessed the confidence of the House. He had 

 become painfully aware that, in these circum- 

 stances, he could no longer be of service to the 

 House, and he had, therefore, decided to give 

 up his position. As the rules of the House did 

 not allow of his resignation, and as he was not 

 certain that the House would accede to his re- 

 quest to relieve him from the office, he had 

 chosen the only course open and had resigned 

 his seat. His seat was filled by the election of 

 Dr. Smolka, the First Vice-President, while 

 Prince Lobkowitz was elected to fill the latter 

 post, so that the presidency, as well as both 

 vice-presidencies, had now passed into the 

 hands of the majority. 



The session of the Reichstag was closed by 

 the Government in June. 



The continual anti-German policy of the 

 Government brought about a union of the two 

 factions of the Liberal and Constitutional par- 

 ties into a German party, a union which was 

 heartily approved by Dr. Herbst, the leader of 

 the Constitutional party. 



In April the Emperor sanctioned a measure 

 empowering the Cisleithan ministry to raise 

 a 5 per cent loan of 50,000,000 florins, which 

 amount was required to make up the deficit in 

 the last budget of this half of the empire. 

 The loan was at once subscribed, and twenty- 

 five times over, the amount actually offered be- 

 ing upward of 1,250,000,000 florins. The real 

 amount of the issue was 54,347,800 florins, the 

 price being at 92. 



The foreign relations of the empire during 

 the year were of the most friendly character. 

 In August the Emperor met Emperor William 

 of Germany at Gastein, and the usual demon- 

 strations of friendship were made, while the 

 meeting was said to be without any political 

 significance. 



On October 27th, King Humbert and Queen 

 Margharita of Italy arrived in Vienna on a vis- 

 it to the imperial family. It did not transpire 

 what occurred at this meeting, but it was gen- 

 erally agreed that the greatest political signifi- 

 cance was to be attached to it. It was regard- 

 ed as marking the admission of Italy to the 

 Austro-German alliance, while it was thought 

 that at the same time questions relating to the 

 estates of the deposed princes of Naples and 

 Parma, who were closely related to the impe- 

 rial family of Austria, were definitely settled. 

 They were received with great demonstrations 

 of friendship, and on their return the Emperor 

 accompanied them as far as Venice. 



The era of good feeling between the empire 

 and Italy, which seemed to have been brought 

 about by the visit of King Humbert, was threat- 

 ened by some remarks made during a debate 

 in the Hungarian delegation. At a committee- 

 meeting, which was held with closed doors, 



