AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



seventeen Provincial Diets. The Reichsrath 

 consists of an upper house, formed of'l 8 princes 

 of the blood, 64 nobles, 17 archbishops and 

 prince-bishops, and 104 life-members, and of 

 a house of deputies, composed of 353 members, 

 of whom 85 represent the landed proprietors, 

 116 the towns, 21 the chambers of trade and 

 commerce, and 131 the rural districts. 



The ministry is composed of The following 

 members: Premier and Minister of the Inte- 

 rior, Count Eduard Taaffe ; Minister of Public 

 Instruction and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Dr. Paul 

 Gautsch; Minister of Finance, Dr. J. Duna- 

 jevski ; Minister of Agriculture, Count Julius 

 Falkenhazn ; Minister of Commerce and Na- 

 tional Economy, Marquis de Becquehem; Min- 

 ister of National Defense, MM jor-General Count 

 S. von Welsersheimb ; Minister of Justice, A. 

 Prazak ; without a portfolio, F. Ziemialkovski. 



Finances. The revenue of Austria for 1885- 

 '86 is estimated in the budget at 504,961,495 

 florins; the expenditure at 520,198,772 florins. 

 In 187t5-'77 the revenue was 436,724,000, and 

 the expenditure 432,910,000 florins. Accord- 

 ing to the financial estimates for 1885-'86, di- 

 rect t-ixes yk'ld 96,945,000 florins, of which 

 33,650,000 florins come from the land-tax, 

 27,804,000 from the house-tax, 24,530,000 from 

 the income-tax, and 10,100,000 from the in- 

 dustrial tax. The yield of indirect taxes is 

 estimated at 306,071,952 florins, excise duties 

 producing 90,494,000 florins ; customs, 46,815, 

 452; the tobacco duties, 72,742,000; judicial 

 fees, 34,000,000, the salt-tax, 20,274,500 ; the 

 state lottery, 20,224,000 ; stamps, 17,600,000; 

 and other taxes, 3,922,000. The receipts from 

 the postal and telegraph service are estimated 

 at 26,577,160 florins ; those from the railways 

 at 38,343,510 florins; the receipts from mines 

 at 6.311,735 florins ; from forests and domains, 

 3,917,330 florins; from the ministry of Wor- 

 ship and Education, 5,167,062 ; and smaller 

 sums from other sources, besides 10,961,797 

 florins of extraordinary revenue. The expend- 

 itur3s under the principal heads are shown in 

 the following table : 



BRANCHES OF EXPENDITURE. Florins. 



Public debt 117,959,057 



Ministry of binaneo 102229476 



Contribution '.'.'.'//. s^S^Sg 



Ministry of Commerce 67 887 279 



Mi-istry of Justice '., 19,82o'eOO 



Pensions and grants . 17203240 



Ministry of the Interior 1&20&218 



Ministry of Agriculture 11,406,386 



Mintetry of Education 11197107 



Ministry of Defense 9,'479'612 



Imperial Household 4650000 



Ministry of Worship ........'..'. 4J15MO 



Other ordinary expenditures 3,368,633 



Totil ordinary expenditures 470,76S,417 



Extraordinary expenditures 49l430,'855 



Total expenditures 520,19SVT72 



At the beginning of the session of the Reichs- 

 rath, which met on Sept. 29, the Marquis de 

 Becquehem announced a deficit during the last 

 few years of 5,368,000 florins in the budget of 

 the state railroads, and asked for a credit to 



that amount. The budget estimates for 1887 

 calculate on a total revenue of 505,676,119 

 florins, with expenditures amounting to 521,- 

 975,654 florins, leaving a deficit of 16.299,535 

 florins, as compared with 8,791,930 florins in 

 1866. Part of the deficit is accounted for by 

 the anticipated expense of 7,900,000 florins for 

 railroads, while the repeating-rifles for the in- 

 fantry account for 2,401,000 florins more. 



Change in the Cabinet. Baron Pino, the Min- 

 ister of Commerce, was accused of jobbery in 

 connection with the purchase of the Prague- 

 Dux Railroad when the bill for the purchase 

 was brought before the Reichsrath in Febru- 

 ary. The accused minister challenged his as- 

 sailants to bring charges in a court of justice; 

 but, finding his place in the ministry untena- 

 ble, sought a way to vacate it on other grounds. 

 Without consulting his colleagues he issued an 

 extraordinary order curtailing the Emperor's 

 prerogative in the appointment of savings-banks 

 directors by limiting the selection to post-office 

 employee. The ministers decided in a Cabinet 

 council, on March 14, that he must recall the 

 decree, and he thereupon offered his resignation 

 on March 14, 1886, which was promptly ac- 

 cepted. Baron Pusswald was appointed Min- 

 ister of Commerce ad interim. On June 27 

 the appointment of the Marquis de Becquehem 

 to the post was gazetted. Like Dr. Gautsch, 

 who was appointed Minister of Education on 

 Nov. 6, 1885, the new Minister of Commerce 

 is not a party man, and not dependent on the 

 support of any constituency, while both are 

 supposed to sympathize rather with the policy 

 of the Liberals than with that of the reaction- 

 ary Clerical Conservatives and Czech Radicals 

 and Poles, who by joining issues have hitherto 

 controlled the political situation. 



The Austrian Landstnrm. A bill for creating 

 a Landsturm in Austria was introduced in the 

 Reichsrath on Feb. 17, and passed on April 16. 

 It provides for the enrollment of all men, not 

 in the regular army, between the ages of 

 nineteen and forty -two. Two classes will be 

 formed. The first includes men between the 

 ages of nineteen and thirty-two ; the second 

 from thirty-two to forty-two. The Landsturm 

 will only be employed for the defense of the 

 country. The bill does not apply to the Tyrol 

 or the Vorarlberg. This new reserve army 

 will render the Landwehr available for active 

 service in war-time, thus adding 270,000 men 

 to the fighting strength of the regular army. 

 The Landsturm will give the empire about 

 330,000 men for garrison duty and national 

 defense, bringing up the total effective strength 

 of the army on a war footing to nearly 1,500,- 

 000. All time-expired soldiers within the lim- 

 it of age, and all persons who have obtained 

 exemption from service in the regular army, 

 will be enrolled in the Landsturm. Even such 

 as are incapacitated for bearing arms by infirm- 

 ities must serve, if capable of doing work, in 

 the administrative brandies of the service. 

 The bill was strongly opposed by the Liberals. 



