ON PLAIN AND PEAK 



cials and clerks that are so abundant on the Conti- 

 nent ; and, lastly, the peasants. With the great gulf 

 that there is fixed between each of the thre'e, it is 

 not surprising that class prejudice should be one of 

 the strongest features of Austrian social life. 



But far stronger than any class prejudice, there 

 exists in Bohemia the most intense racial hatred. 

 Whilst the inhabitants of the south and central 

 portions of the country are mostly Slavs, those of 

 the north and the Saxon and Bavarian frontiers are 

 German. The Slav hates the German, and the 

 German reciprocates the feeling with interest. The 

 Slav will speak nothing but Bohemian, even if he 

 knows German ; the German longs to see the 

 Bohemian language forced out of existence by Act 

 of Parliament. It is the old struggle of centuries 

 the struggle of language and nationality still 

 going on. 



This racial hatred is the greatest danger to the 

 Austrian Empire. An Austrian does not say, " I 

 am an Austrian," but, " I am a Bohemian," or, " I 

 am a Viennese," or, "I am a Moravian." It is not 

 the glorification of the whole Empire that he looks 

 for, but that of the portion of it to which he himself 

 belongs. Austria's peril lies in the fact that she 

 consists of a conglomeration of particles, each one 

 of which wishes to be independent of the others. 



Up to the revolution of 1848 the Bohemian 



IP 



