AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



53 



in the other European capitals, and their 

 theories are generally accepted also by the 

 working-classes of Gratz, Klagenfurth, Briinn, 

 and Reichenberg, and have taken deep root in 

 Hungary, though their public expression is 

 hindered by the new anti-socialist law of that 

 country. The revolutionary socialists are not 

 numerous in Austria, yet a band of desperate 

 characters was organized among the industrial 

 population of the suburbs of Vienna, with af- 

 filiated groups in other places, which the police 

 detected just as some of their destructive plots 

 were ripe for execution. In March, 1887, 

 15 anarchists were tried in Vienna before a 

 special court of six judges without a jury, on 

 the charge of preparing and secreting explo- 

 sives. It was proved that they had entered 

 into a conspiracy to tire several lumber-yards 

 for the purpose of creating a panic, and that 

 they had provided themselves with bombs and 

 grenades charged with a powerful explosive. 

 The ringleaders were a mason named Kaspari, 

 and a weaver named Wawrunek. A tinsmith 

 named Kratochwill had attempted to set fire to 

 a lumber-yard, but the fuse would not burn. 

 Two of the prisoners were acquitted, and the 

 rest were sentenced to the penitentiary for 

 terms ranging from six months to twenty years. 



Hungary. The Hungarian legislative author- 

 ity is exercised by a Diet consisting of two 

 branches. The upper house, called the House 

 of Magnates, contains, under the law of 1885, 

 all hereditary peers who pay a land-tax of 3,000 

 florins or over ; archbishops, bishops, and cer- 

 tain other ecclesiastics of the Roman and Greek 

 Catholic Churches, 39 altogether: 11 ecclesias- 

 tical and lay representatives of Protestant 

 bodies ; 50 life-peers who were elected by the 

 house, but are to be hereafter nominated by 

 the Crown; 16 high state and judicial digni- 

 taries, who are members ez-officio ; 1 delegate 

 from Croatia and Slavonia; and the archdukes 

 who are of full age. The House of Represen- 

 tatives in 1886 consisted of 453 members, of 

 whom 40 were the delegates of Croatia and 

 Slavonia. The ministry is composed of the 

 following members : President of the Council, 

 Koloman Tisza de Boros- Jeno, who in Febru- 

 ary, 1887, took over the Ministry of Finance on 

 the resignation of Count Gyula Szapary ; Min- 

 ister of the Interior, Baron Bela Orczy, who 

 succeeded the Prime Minister when the latter 

 assumed charge of the finance department ; 

 Minister of Education and Worship, Dr. Au- 

 gust Trefort ; Minister of the Honved, other- 

 wise called the Minister of National Defense, 

 Baron Geza Fejervary, appointed Oct. 28, 

 1884; Minister ad latus, Baron Orczy; Minis- 

 ter of Justice, Theophile Fabinyi, appointed 

 May 17, 1886 ; Minister of Communications, 

 Baron Orczy ; Minister of Agriculture, Indus- 

 try, and Commerce, Count Paul Szechenyi ; 

 Minister for Croatia and Slavonia, Koloman de 

 Bedekovich. 



Revenue and Expenditure. The total revenue 

 in 1885 was 318,444,919 florins, and the ex- 



penditure 358,645,446 florins. The estimated 

 revenue for 1887 is 328,356,095 florins ; the ex- 

 penditure 350,400,021 florins, of which 111,- 

 832,886 florins are applied to the national-debt 

 account, 29,470,424 florins to the common ex- 

 penses of the empire, besides 4,150,917 florins 

 of extraordinary expenditure, 56,106,352 florins 

 to financial administration, 27,295,000 florins 

 to state railways, 17,907,680 florins to invest- 

 ments, and 11,799,003 florins to debts of guar- 

 anteed railroads taken over by the Government. 

 The public debt in the beginning of 1886 

 amounted to 1,342,380,381 florins, besides Hun- 

 gary's share in the common debt of the em- 

 pire, on which the interest charge is 30,000,- 

 000 florins per annum. 



Parliamentary Elections. The general election 

 which began on June 17, was attended with the 

 usual popular excitement, but with fewer dis- 

 turbances than in former years. Notwithstand- 

 ing the strong position of the Tisza Cabinet, 

 corrupt inducements and administrative press- 

 ure were employed as usual to augment the 

 Government majority. Count Albert Apponyi, 

 the eloquent leader of the Moderate Opposi- 

 tion, made much of this practice of corruption 

 in his arraignment of the Government, and 

 summed up all the errors committed during 

 Tisza's twelve years' premiership ; yet the Gov- 

 ernment obtained a larger majority than ever. 

 There were riots in five or six districts, in 

 which many persons were killed and wound- 

 ed. At Usbeck the troops were called out to 

 quell a disturbance, during which 8 persons 

 were killed and 30 injured. At Verbo the 

 anti-Semites wrecked the polling-place, but 

 the soldiery did not interfere. The result of 

 the election was a majority for the Government 

 of 103 to 56 in 1884. The Moderate Opposi- 

 tion, which numbered 67 members in 1878, 

 was reduced to 44. The Independents, who 

 had 70 seats in 1878, now secured 77, but the 

 anti-Semites, who vote with them on general 

 questions, lost a number of seats. The Nation- 

 alists also elected fewer members than in the 

 last election. 



Fires and Floods. Hungary was visited during 

 May and June with calamities of more than 

 usual severity. Fires are of common occur- 

 rence in that country, and are shown by sta- 

 tistics to be particularly prevalent in the month 

 of May. The unusual number of large fires in 

 May, 1887, may have been the result, as is the 

 case in Galicia, of the careless use of petroleum. 

 The town of Toroczko in Transylvania was 

 partially destroyed, and a day or two afterward 

 the villages of Merenyo and Mezoeceueged were 

 entirely consumed. On May 4 a fire broke 

 out in the town of Arad which destroyed 150 

 houses and a large factory. In the mining 

 town of Ruszkabanyilll houses were burned ; 

 and at Nagy Karolyi the family estate of the 

 Counts Karolyi, including their mansion, 25 

 large workshops, and 225 other buildings, was 

 destroyed. This was followed by a greater 

 catastrophe at Eperies, the chief center of Prot- 



