BEUST, FRIEDRICH FERDINAND. 



dition of the working-classes, which, in its re- 

 port, established the reality of many of the 

 grievances of which the work-people com- 

 plained. In Liege and other industrial centers 

 it was found, for instance, that employers com- 

 pelled the laborers to purchase supplies from 

 their "truck" stores, at prices from 50 to 90 

 per cent, above the usual retail rates. 



The commission to inquire into the condi- 

 tion of industry included leading men of both 

 parties, such as Senators Malou, Balisaux, and 

 Montefiore; Deputies Levi, Buls, D'Andri- 

 mont, Jacobs, Meens, Pirmez, Sabatier, and 

 Saintclette ; economists, such as Profs. E. de 

 Lavelye and Hector Deniss, and MM. de Moli- 

 nariandDe Hauteville, but contained no repre- 

 sentative of the working-class. 



At the opening of the Chambers, on Novem- 

 ber 9, King Leopold, in the speecli from the 

 throne, announced that the Government would 

 submit bills favoring the free formation of pro- 

 fessional bodies to establish between workmen 

 and employers bonds of union, in the way of 

 conciliation and arbitration councils ; to regu- 

 late the labor of women and children ; to re- 

 press abuses in the payment of wages ; to fa- 

 cilitate the construction of proper dwellings 

 for laborers; to develop insurance institu- 

 tions for the sick and helpless; to check ine- 

 briety and immorality; and to suppress adul- 

 teration in articles of food. The address also 

 held out the promise of amnesty for those con- 

 victed of offenses connected with the March 

 disturbances. 



The School Question* Dr. Ronvaux, the dep- 

 uty burgomaster and superintendent of the 

 communal schools in Namur, a a congress of 

 school-teachers held in that town, delivered a 

 toast to the King, in which he said that the 

 school - masters and mistresses, who were 

 doomed to martyrdom by the new school- 

 laws, and who were more patriotic than the 

 ministers that surrounded him, greeted their 

 sovereign just as the gladiators about to die 

 in the arena were wont to salute the Roman 

 OflBsars. For this speech, on the ground that 

 it was insulting to the King, the ministry re- 

 moved the orator from his offices, and thereby 

 roussd the indignation of the Liberals through- 

 out the country. This incident and the labor 

 disturbances divided the attention of the public. 

 An attempt was made to unite the different 

 factions of the Liberal party on the old ques- 

 tion of secular education, and prepare for the 

 return of the old party leaders to power by 

 electing Ronvaux as a representative from 

 Brussels, to succeed Vandersmissen, who had 

 brought disgrace on his party by killing his 

 wife out of jealousy, and was on trial for 

 homicide. The radical advocates of universal 

 suffrage, however, refused to reunite with the 

 moderate Liberals, and placed their own can- 

 didate in the field. 



BEUST, Count Fried rich Ferdinand, Austrian 

 statesman, born in Dresden in 1809 ; died at 

 his country residence at Altenburg, near Vi- 



enna, Oct. 24, 1886, of apoplexy. He was 

 descended from an old Brandenburg family, 

 and entered the diplomatic service of Saxo- 

 ny in 1831. After filling various high posts, 

 among them that of minister to London, he 

 became Saxon Prime Minister, holding the 

 portfolio of Foreign Affairs, in 1849. During 

 the reactionary period following the Revolu- 

 tion of 1848, Baron Beust, by severe repressive 

 measures, presented himself to the Liberals of 

 Saxony as the head of the Conservative reac- 

 tion, though his own instincts were always 

 liberal. He used coercion only as a temporary 

 expedient that he considered necessary, and 

 after the accession of King Johann, in 1854, 

 adopted a liberal policy. During the ten 

 years preceding the Austro-German War he 

 and Count Bismarck were the leading expo- 

 nents of two rival policies in Germany. While 

 Bismarck was working for the predominance 

 of Prussia, and the economical and political 

 consolidation of the German states under her 

 lead, Beust endeavored to bring about a league 

 of the smaller states strong enough to resist 

 either Austrian or Prussian domination. After 

 the defeat of the Austrian army in 1866, the 

 Emperor of Austria called to Vienna the great 

 antagonist of the German Chancellor, and 

 placed him at the head of the ministry, in or- 

 der that his statesmanship and diplomatic ad- 

 dress, for which he had a reputation through- 

 out Europe, transcending that of any Austrian 

 or of any German statesman except Bismarck, 

 might find a way to avert the threatened disso- 

 lution of the Hapsburg monarchy. His confer- 

 ences with Deak, in 1867, convinced him that 

 there was no means of keeping Hungary within 

 the empire except by granting her complete 

 legislative independence in her domestic affairs, 

 He evolved a radical and far-reaching plan, 

 and carried it out with surprising rapidity and 

 completeness. The dualistic system, of which 

 he is generally accounted the originator, was 

 proposed and advocated by him as a necessary 

 compromise. This change in the Constitution 

 of the empire was followed by changes not 

 less thorough-going in the political system of 

 Austria. Parliamentary and responsible gov- 

 ernment, and a transfer of political power, 

 were accomplished so thoroughly that, al- 

 though the royal prerogative has regained its 

 ascendency amid the conflicts that have arisen 

 later, the aristocracy and the clergy, whom 

 Beust mortally offended, have not recovered 

 the powers and privileges that were curtailed 

 under the Liberal regime. Count Beust' s fixed 

 aversion to Prussian predominance in Ger- 

 many, sharpened by personal animosity toward 

 the successful rival who had defeated his dear- 

 est plans, brought about his fall, and left others 

 to cope with new combinations and new forces 

 in the dual empire, that have altered the sys- 

 tem that he created. In 1870 he endeavored 

 to bring about an alliance of Austria with 

 France against Germany ; but the Hungarians, 

 under the lead of Count Audrassy, defeated 



