AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. 



257 



cwt. of wool was manufactured, and 5200 looms pro- 

 duced 120,000 pieces of woollens from fourteen to 

 twenty yards per piece. Various other branches of 

 industry are attempted with more or less success, 

 and sufficiently demonstrate the industrial spirit of 

 this part of the empire. It must, however, be con- 

 fessed that the above statements respecting this pro- 

 vince, together with its very considerable agricul- 

 tural produce, are far from giving a true idea of 

 its productive power. The Austrian National En- 

 cyclopaedia estimates its farming produce as fol- 

 lows : 



" Wheat, 3 millions Metzen, (1 Metzen = 1-72 

 bushels English); rye, 15 millions Metzen ; barley, 



G.!- millions Metzen ; potatoes, ; wine, 



2(5,145 Eimer, (the Eimer 15-9 gallons English) ; 

 1,000,000 cubic toises of fire- wood. The amount 

 of live stock, which is on the increase, is 142,036 

 horses, 243,779 oxen, 650,779 cows, 1,590,672 

 sheep. Game of the choicest kind in incredible 

 quantities, stags, roebucks, wild boars, pheasants, 

 woodcocks, &c." i. 336. 



Bohemia must be looked on as the most flourish- 

 ing province of the empire. The nobility is en- 

 lightened and public-spirited, and pains are taking 

 to ameliorate the condition of the lower classes. 

 The number of forty grammar schools and 2556 

 peasants' schools gives one of the former for 95,000 

 inhabitants, but of the latter one to 1120 inhabi- 

 tants. The middle classes are unfortunately pos- 

 sessed with a passion for entering into the innum- 

 erable government bureaux, which drain the coun- 

 try of so much talent and exertion, a loss which 

 would be more seriously felt, if the sway of the 

 noble landed proprietors were less mild, and the 

 spirit of industry less spread among the lower 

 orders. 



These remarks may be extended in a general way 

 to all the other Sclavonian provinces, which, al- 

 though possessing sources of inexhaustible wealth, 

 make but slow advances, owing to the same restric- 

 tions. A national spirit is however awake in all, 

 and the education of the peasants has become an 

 object of serious attention, the example of Bohemia 

 rapidly spreading to the neighbouring Sclavonic 

 districts. In the Slowack country, public-spirited 

 individuals have established schools, the Hungarian 

 constitution enabling them to do so unimpeded. 

 Gallicia alone remains behind in this race of im- 

 provement, the government not establishing, and 

 the influential men neither demanding, nor, in- I 

 deed, seeming to wish for, schools for the im- 

 provement of the lower ranks. Some provinces, 

 however, labour under peculiar grievances of their 

 own. 



On Gallicia the whole weight of the iron sceptre 

 of Austria has of late years been doomed to fall. 

 No sooner was the insurrection in the kingdom of 

 Poland completely subdued, and the means of future 

 resistance, us far as the Russians could discover 

 them, eradicated, than the lenient policy which 

 Austria had shown towards the Gallicians changed. 

 Prince Lobkowitz, whose humanity and prudence 

 had saved the province for the empire, was re- 

 placed by the Archduke Ferdinand ; and a system 

 of inquisitorial proceedings has for the last three 

 years been carried on, which has totally alienated 

 what attachment had begun to spring up among 

 the people towards their new rulers. The object 

 of the government in all these proceedings is an 

 absolute mystery. It is true that the people of 

 Gallicia manifested, in 1830, the most ardent sym- j 



pathy for their brethren at Warsaw, and immense 

 supplies of money and provisions were daily sent 

 over the frontier. The governor, aware of his ina- 

 bility to suppress the working of these natural 

 feelings, wisely chose to wink at such irregularities, 

 rather than expose the province to the dangers 

 arising from still greater excitement, if he forcibly 

 attempted to restrain them. Thus, when the storm 

 had passed over, the Gallicians could only rejoice 

 with trembling that it had not overwhelmed them 

 in its career ; while they were gratefully sensible 

 of the mild treatment they had experienced from 

 rulers whose apprehensions seemed likely to dictate 

 a very different policy. This was the moment for 

 a prudent minister to seize to attach such an im- 

 portant province to the government by the strongest, 

 ties. But, so far from thus improving the oppor- 

 tunity, researches were gradually made after indi- 

 viduals, who had either served in the revolutionary 

 army, or carried on correspondence with Poles in 

 the Russian territories. These inquiries were also 

 instituted with all the wanton harshness of dele- 

 gates in a remote part of the empire, and screened 

 from public opinion by the secrecy of their proceed- 

 ings. Men of all classes were summoned to Lem- 

 berg ; members of the most illustrious houses, 

 peasants, whose poverty and ignorance were no 

 match for the intrigues of such an inquisition, 

 and Jews, whose helpless situation exposes them 

 to every species of tyranny were compelled to 

 spend months in attendance on this tribunal ; and 

 the scourge of the executioner is said to have been 

 frequently used in secret to quicken the confessions 

 of tardy witnesses. Every day saw transports ot 

 prisoners in irons, under military escort, travelling 

 towards Lemberg, many of whom died in prison ; 

 while those who, after a long delay, and being ex- 

 posed to every insult, were at length released, re- 

 ceived no other satisfaction than the certainty that, 

 all these inquiries bad led to no result. Not a 

 single trace of any thing like a serious conspiracy 

 against the Austrian state could be discovered, nor 

 could any thing worthy of publication, still less of 

 punishment, be tortured out of the imprudent 

 marks of sympathy shown by the most unwary to 

 their suffering countrymen who had taken refuge 

 among them. The greater part of those who 

 laboured under the heaviest suspicions were set at 

 liberty, ignorant, for the most part, of the charge 

 intended to be substantiated against them, and 

 against which no means of defence could conse- 

 quently be provided. The province in the mean- 

 time was treated as if it had been in a state of 

 actual revolt. Upwards of 50,000 regular troops 

 were quartered through it, and instructions were 

 given to the officers and civil employes to mix as 

 little as possible in social life with the inhabitants. 

 The effect which such treatment must have pro- 

 duced upon a high-spirited people it is easy to sur- 

 mise, and the government, when tired of so useless 

 a system of rigour, will probably be unable to dis- 

 continue it when it shall desire to relax. 



The Sclavonian population of the southern states 

 of the empire are not less favourably situated, 

 being in possession of the long tract of mountainous 

 country which stretches eastward from Tyrol, fol- 

 lowing the course of the rivers Save and Dra*ve, 

 from which a branch, diverging at right angles, runs 

 south along the sea-coast through lialmatia. The 

 provinces of Carinthia, Carniola, Istria, Dalmatia, 

 Croatia, Sclavonia, and what is called the military 

 frontier, are peopled by Sclavonians, with the ex- 

 it 



