AUSTRIA. 



are also described. From the report of the com- 

 mittee chosen to examine the operations of the sink- 

 ing fund, it appeared, that, of the old debt (contract^ 

 i.l I ) fore the year 1815), nearly 39,000,000 florins 

 were discharged in 182-1 ; and tin- new debt (con- 

 tracted since 1815), amounting to 208,000,000 florins, 

 was considerably diminished. But the sinking fund 

 w:is so increased after its establishment (March 1, 

 1817), that, in 1825, the amount disjxisable was 

 estimated at more than 160,000,000 florins. The 

 public debt has since been regularly reduced. From 

 tlie annual report of the president of the bank of A., 

 the count of Dietrichstein, now deceased, it appears, 

 that, in seven years previous to- Jan. 10, 1825, 

 284,342,600 florins of the paper money in circulation 

 hail been redeemed. In order to raise the value of 

 the depreciated paper currency, a particular fund 

 was established to redeem it, and the rate fixed at 

 250, since 1816. The paper florin is worth six 

 groschen, eight pfennige, and twenty krenzer, = fifty 

 kreuzer of Vienna currency, or Is. 8d. sterling. 

 Loans were afterwards instituted to increase the 

 quantity of specie in the monarchy, and to pro- 

 mote the payment of old arrears. Of these, the 

 loan of two and a half million pounds sterling, 

 made at London, in the close of the year 1823, 

 was destined for the payment of the British de- 

 mands (from 1794 to 1800), liquidated Nov. 23, 

 1823. Notwithstanding this, the Austrian paper 

 money increased to such a degree, that, in the be- 

 ginning of 1825, the national securities at five per 

 cent, (metalliques) stood, in Frankfort, at almost 96 

 (on the Gth of Aug., 1827, at more than 91), and the 

 brink stocks at more than 1400 (on the Gth of Aug., 

 1827, at 1302), while, at the end of 1820, the former 

 had stood at only 73, and the latter at scarcely 552.* 

 By its artificial financial system, A. has made the 

 rich speculators of many other countries dependent 

 on itself, and rendered it their interest to promote her 

 power and influence. 



The prosperity of agriculture is closely connect- 

 ed with the improvement of the finances. In 

 order to gain a knowledge of the state of the country 

 in general, it was decided, in 1819, to establish a 

 committee of topography and statistics (taking 

 the Prussian board as a model), and to connect 

 it with the council of state. This led to an at- 

 tempt to drain the morasses of Laybach. In the 

 next year, the new system of taxation was completed. 

 To divide the expenses of the government more 

 equally, the whole monarchy had been surveyed in 

 the time of Joseph II. To facilitate the trade, of 

 Italy with the south of Germany, the road from 

 Chiavenna over the Splugen has been built since 

 1820, with the aid of the neighbouring Swiss cantons ; 

 and a new passage from Italy to South-eastern Ger- 

 many was opened in September, 1824, by a splendid 

 road through Bormio and Tyrol. (See Alps, roads 

 ever.) For the completion of the Alpine roads over 

 the Splugen and mount St Bernard, A. concluded a 

 treaty with Sardinia, May 20, 1824, to which the 

 cantons of the Grisons and Tessin acceded. The 

 canal from Vienna to the borders of Hungary has 

 been opened, and another from Vienna to Trieste, to 

 unite the Danube with the Adriatic sea, has been 

 begun.f In 1820, the canal from Milan to Pavia 

 was finished, connecting Milan with the gulf of 



The public debt of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom is 

 managed separately. In l22,a bank (monte) was erected 

 at Milan for the payment of it. 



I The, house of Fries and company hired, in 1822, the 

 navigable portion of the canal of Lower Austria, and un- 

 dertook to continue it to the Adriatic, by forming an in- 

 corporated canal company. 



Venice. In the commencement of the 19th century, 

 Bohemia contained only 280 miles of regular rojuls ; 

 at present, it contains 1 101 miles. The Danube Las 

 hvcn connected with the Moldau by means of a rail- 

 road, which is carried over the mountains from 

 Mauthausen, in Upper Austria, to Bndweis, in 

 Bohemia ; in all, seventy-five miles. The naviga- 

 tion of the Danube, and the trade of Turkey, wen- 

 opened to the subjects of Austria by the new com- 

 mercial treaty concluded with the 1'orte in 1818 : at 

 the same time, the commerce of the Mediterranean 

 became an object of importance. The arrivals and 

 clearances at toe free port of Trieste amount annually 

 to 2200 vessels ; and the state, which numbered, in 

 1815, only 157 licensed vessels had, in 1820, ex- 

 clusive of coasters, 528 trading vessels, of 110,500 

 tons burden, 6836 sailors, and 2:iG!) guns. The 

 naval force was increased for the protection of trade ; 

 and the emperor erected, at Venice, a college for 

 the instruction of young naval officers. 



In August, 1819, young men were prohibited from 

 entering foreign universities, and a resolution was 

 made, Sept. 25, 1819, to establish a Lutheran theolo- 

 gical institution in the centre of the empire. This 

 "theological school for the adherents to the Augs- 

 burg confession," was opened at Vienna, April 2, 

 1821. The professors are native theologians, anil 

 the two Protestant consistories exercise a general 

 superintendence over the whole. The government, 

 at the same time, received into Galicia fifty Jesuits, 

 who were banished from Russia in 1820, and appro- 

 priated to their use the great Dominican monastery 

 at Tarnopol. Lyceums also were erected, or in- 

 structors provided for those already in existence. 

 Towards the close of this year, the Redemptoriits 

 (q. v.) were established in Vienna, and the Jesuits 

 instituted a school in this capital. In the public- 

 papers of the year 1821, an order was issued, for- 

 bidding private persons in the city and in the pro- 

 vinces to send abroad for instructors ; especially since 

 the education of youtli might be intrusted to the 

 Jesuit fathers, and their colleagues, the Kedemji- 

 torists. In November, 1822, the Bible societies 

 were once more forbidden to distribute Bibles in the 

 Austrian dominions, particularly the Bohemian Bible, 

 printed in Berlin ; or to sell them at reduced prices. 

 The Protestant society in Prague has lately erected a 

 school. About forty inhabitants of Galneikirchen, in 

 the country above the Ens, went over to the Pro- 

 testant church in the year J821, and the little Pro- 

 testant community at Venice had already been re- 

 cognized in the year 1820. The medical institution 

 of Joseph was re-opened at Vienna, in November, 

 1824, on a new plan. 



As to the military affairs of the empire, since 1819, 

 the government has been employed in erecting forti- 

 fications on the borders of Galicia. In 1823, 25,000 

 men were dismissed from the standing army. Instead 

 of the grants made by Napoleon to the Italian officers 

 in Tyrol, the emperor gave them, in 1821, a yearly 

 pension from the year 1814.* The military schools 

 established in several regiments, on the Lancasterian 

 plan, have been abolished since 1821. But then; 

 are fifty-three schools, in each of which forty-eight 

 children, belonging to the foot-soldiers of the German 

 and Hungarian regiments, are instructed. The Milan 

 school for the Italian regiments is designed for 250 

 boys. There is an engineering academy, at Vienna, for 

 the education of officers ; and in the mil itary academ y a t 

 V/ienerisch-Neustadt, 327 cadets are educated at the 



* The pensions were also continued to the civil officers 

 of the former kingdom of Italy, which they would have 

 received if the kingdom had not ceased to^xist. 



