AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



67 



great influence down to 1879. It fell through 

 its efforts to impose the programme of the 

 Liberal party in Germany upon Austria, to 

 liberalize the social and religious institutions 

 of the country, and Germanize the Czechs and 

 other nationalities. The combination of Czechs, 

 Feudalists, and Clericals, who reversed this pol- 

 icy, have already accomplished more in the di- 

 rection of decentralization than the Constitu- 

 tional party did toward imposing the German 

 language and ideas on the Slav peoples by ex- 

 tending the sphere of central authority. Count 

 Taafe, as well as independent politicians, has 

 within a year or two labored to form a middle 

 party that would attract the German elements 

 that can reconcile themselves to accomplished 

 facts, and would enable the Government to re- 

 sist further tendencies to disintegration. 



The War of Languages. The language question 

 in Bohemia became a more serious matter when 

 it extended from the arena of parliamentary 

 discussion into the field of social life. The suc- 

 cess of the Czechs in restoring their national 

 tongue as the language of the courts, of official 

 intercourse, and of instruction, did not settle 

 the question for those parts of Bohemia where 

 there is a preponderant or considerable Ger- 

 man element. The German party responded 

 with a proposition to separate from the king- 

 dom the German districts. There followed a 

 social persecution of the Czechs in those dis- 

 tricts more grievous than the Germans had 

 suffered in the Czechish districts during the 

 earlier stages of the conflict. In the Reichs- 

 rath the Constitutionalists offered a challenge, 

 by presenting Count Wurmbrand's resolution 

 affirming German to he the state language of 

 Cisleithania, which the House of Deputies re- 

 jected by 186 votes to 155, after a declaration 

 of the ministry that a statute was unnecessary, 

 since the position of German as the actual lan- 

 guage of the state was not assailed. A pro- 

 posal to refer the language question in Bohemia 

 to a committee composed of members of all the 

 groups, which should codify and harmonize the 

 ordinances in force in the various districts, was 

 broached by the Left and withdrawn when the 

 Czechish party showed a willingness to accept 

 this plan. The Liberals threatened to abstain 

 from legislative work, but changed their mind 

 in order to follow the National Liberals of 

 Germany in the new path of social legislation, 

 offering the normal work-day bill in earnest 

 of their conversion to socialistic principles. 

 The language conflict was transferred to the 

 Bohemian Diet, where the German Liberals 

 fought a losing battle with interpellations and 

 fruitless motions. 



Suspension of the Constitution in Vienna. Aus- 

 tria and Hungary were until recently free from 

 socialistic agitation. For three or four years 

 past refugees from Germany and agents from 

 Switzerland have spread among the industrial 

 population the Anarchist doctrines in a dan- 

 gerous and revolutionary form. Still, the Gov- 

 ernments of the two monarchies felt no inclina- 



tion to copy the anti-Socialist enactments of 

 Germany. The invitation from Germany and 

 Russia to join in a treaty for the extradition of 

 Socialists and revolutionists was rejected. In 

 1883 a murder for the sake of robbery was com- 

 mitted by persons who were evidently con- 

 nected with Anarchist associations. The po- 

 lice began to subject the Socialists to an exas- 

 perating surveillance, and to treat them as a 

 <?M<m-criminal class. Collisions occurred, and 

 finally a policeman, Hlubeck, was murdered. 

 On New-Year's-eve a Jesuit preacher in the 

 Vienna suburb of Favoriten, who had offended 

 the Socialists by defending the rights of prop- 

 erty, was stoned from the chancel and the con- 

 gregation dispersed in a panic. On the 10th 

 of January a money-changer, named Eisert, 

 was robbed and murdered in the suburban 

 Marienhilf-Strasse by a band cf Socialist des- 

 peradoes. A number of revolting crimes, nota- 

 bly the murder of Count Majlath, chief judge 

 in Hungary, and the series of murders commit- 

 ted by Hugo Schenk, who enticed away several 

 women on promise of marriage and killed them 

 for the sake of their money and valuables, 

 alarmed people at this time with the idea of an 

 epidemic of crime. On the 26th of January, 

 in the suburb of Floridsdorf, the detective 

 Bloch, who had been active in tracking out 

 the murderers of Hlubeck, was assassinated. 

 After this deed the Government felt the neces- 

 sity of providing against a state of terrorism, 

 though still averse to special anti-Socialist 

 legislation. Count Taafe therefore took advan- 

 tage of an act, passed May 5, 1869, to meet a 

 state of insurrection. This law empowers the 

 Government to suspend constitutional rights 

 in particular localities. On Jan. 30 a decree 

 of the ministry was issued suspending civil 

 rights in Vienna, Kornenburg, and Wiener- 

 Neustadt, the judicial districts of the me- 

 tropolis. The rights suspended are the in- 

 violability of the post, the guarantee against 

 domiciliary visits without warrant, the liberty 

 of association, the right of assembly, and the 

 freedom of the press. Another decree, based 

 on the law of May 23, 1873, suspends trial by 

 jury, enacting that certain crimes shall be 

 tried by a bench of six judges. Both decrees 

 remain in force till Dec. 31, 1884. Count 

 Taafe had difficulty in finding a majority in the 

 House of Deputies to confirm these decrees. 

 The Constitutional party denounced them as a 

 reactionary stroke aimed against the freedom 

 of political and religious opinions, while among 

 the young Czechs and other liberal sections of 

 the majority there was a reluctance to consent 

 to the exercise of dictatorial powers and the 

 employment of repressive measures. 



Anarchist Trials. The murderer of Bloch, the 

 detective, was arrested while escaping, and was 

 tried in .June. He proved to be a shoemaker, 

 named Stellmacher, a young man of remarka- 

 ble intelligence and resolution, who was deeply 

 versed in socialistic theories, and had been ac- 

 tive in their propagation. Facts were revealed 



