

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



Austria to fulfill her part by constitutional agencies 

 or otherwise. The question of the quota, or the 

 respective contributions of the two halves of the 

 monarchy to the common expenditures, which oc- 

 casioned a long dispute in the beginning, was in a 

 fair way to a settlement satisfactory to both govern- 

 ments. Hungary objected to paying on the basis of 

 population on account of the backward condition of 

 her industries and the poverty of the Slovaks and 

 other elements of her population. Ultimately it 

 was agreed that the contributions should be calcu- 

 lated on the same basis as in 1887. There was still 

 a question as to the method of estimating the Hun- 

 garian share, the difference being a little over 3 per 

 cent. The German peasantry of Styria, Tyrol, and 

 other provinces whose representatives joined in 

 the obstructive tactics that paralyzed the Austrian 

 Parliament were actuated not solely by race feeling, 

 but were desirous of defeating the Ausgleich and 

 erecting a customs barrier between Austria and 

 Hungary, as they attributed to Hungarian competi- 

 tion the agricultural distress that afflicted Austria. 

 In Hungary too, if it were not for fears that a cus- 

 toms frontier would lead to the dissolution of the 

 dual monarchy, the idea of protection against 

 Austrian industry and of independent treaty ar- 

 rangements with Germany and other customers for 

 Hungarian produce would be very popular. As it 

 was, the Hungarians stiffly maintained the position 

 which they had taken as to the quota, but they were 

 willing to prolong the status quo for one year more 

 in case the parliamentary deadlock in Austria con- 

 tinued. 



At a conference between the Austrian and Hun- 

 garian Premiers the latter agreed to an application 

 of the emergency paragraph of the Austrian Consti- 

 tution if alter convening the Reichsrath once more 

 it should be found impossible to secure the passage 

 of the Ausgleich bills. In that case the Hungarian 

 Government would submit measures to the Legisla- 

 ture at Buda-Pesth providing for the independent 

 regulation of Hungary's customs and commercial 

 relations with Austria. Austria would then be at 

 liberty to provide corresponding regulations by 

 ministerial decree. It was understood that the 

 Hungarians would contribute 2 per cent, more to 

 the common expenditure than their former quota 

 and that the provisional Ausgfeich would last till 

 !!)(>:!. In accordance with this arrangement the 

 Austrian Reichsrath was convened for Sept. 26 by 

 nn imperial rescript issued on Sept. 2. 



Austria. The Austrian Empire is composed of 

 Ki provinces, each of which has its own diet with 

 largo powers of legislation in matters connected 

 with local taxation, agriculture, education, charity, 

 religion, and public works. The Austrian Reichs- 

 rath consists of the House of Lords, made up of 21 

 archdukes, 67 feudal lords, 17 prince bishops, arch- 

 bishops, and cardinals, and 120 life members, and 

 the House of Deputies, of 425 members, elected for 

 six years, 129 by rural communes, 118 by towns, 21 

 l)y chambers of commerce. 85 by landed proprietors, 

 and 72 under the law of June 14, 1896, by the whole 

 body of electors. 



The Council of Ministers, first constituted on 

 So | >t. 29, 1895, was composed as follows at the be- 

 ginning of 1898: President of the Council and 

 Minister of the Interior, Count Kasimir Badeni; 

 Minister of Finance, Chevalier de Bilinski ; Minis- 

 ter of Worship and Public Instruction. Baron 

 Qautsch von Frankenthurn; Minister of National 

 Defense, Graf Zeno von Welsersheimb ; Minister of 

 Agriculture, Graf J. von Ledebur-Wicheln ; Minis- 

 ter of Justice, Graf Gleispach; Minister of Com- 

 merce, Baron Glanz von Eicha; Minister of Rail- 

 roads, liitter von Guttcnberg; without portfolio, 

 Dr. Rittner. 



Finances. The total revenue in 1895 was 827,- 

 394,000 florins, arid the expenditure 809.385,000 

 florins. The estimates for the year 1898 make the 

 revenue 719,900,282 florins, of which 518,889,842 

 florins are collected by the Ministry of Finance 

 from taxes and duties, 118,829,800 florins come from 

 the Ministry of Railroads, 52,452,150 florins from 

 the Ministry of Commerce, 14,572,718 florins from 

 the Ministry of Agriculture, 6,851,733 florins from 

 the Ministry of Worship and Instruction, 1,575,597 

 florins from funds for pensions, subventions, etc., 

 1,379.996 florins from the Ministry of the Interior, 

 1,073,231 florins from the Ministry of Justice, 1,059,- 

 136 florins from the administration of the state 

 debt, 791.300 florins from the Reichsrath and Coun- 

 cil of Ministers, 408,679 florins from the Ministry 

 of Defense, and 1,016,100 florins from various 

 other sources. The total expenditures are estimated 

 at 715,920,827 florins, apportioned as follow : State 

 debt, 170,553,910 florins ; contribution to the com- 

 mon expenditure, 122,656,440 florins; Ministry of 

 Finance, 112,651,806 florins ; Ministry of Railroads, 

 96,525,500 florins; Ministry of Commerce, 49.445,- 

 049 florins ; pensions, subventions, etc., 29,348,305 

 florins ; Ministry of Worship and Instruction, 29,- 

 177,140 florins; Ministry of Justice, 28,065,087 

 florins; Ministry of the Interior. 26,623,441 florins: 

 Ministry of Defense, 24,072,680 florins; Ministry of 

 Agriculture, 18,588,231 florins ; Reichsrath and 

 Council of Ministers, 2,636,283 florins ; imperial 

 household, 4,650,000 florins; management of debt, 

 650,190 florins; Board of Control, 176,600 florins ; 

 Imperial Cabinet Chancery, 76,864 florins ; Supreme 

 Court, 23,300 florins. 



The Gautsch Ministry. After the German 



Earty by noisy obstruction and dangerous violence 

 ad defeated all immediate prospect of the renewal 

 of the Ausgleich with Hungary or of any useful 

 legislation being accomplished in the autumn ses- 

 sion of 1897, and even imperiled the peace of the 

 empire, Count Badeni resigned in consequence of 

 the passage of the lex Falkenhayn, a drastic meas- 

 ure for the suppression of obstruction, which per- 

 mitted the intervention of the police in Parliament 

 for the forcible expulsion of contumacious mem- 

 bers. The legality of the new rule was called in 

 question in a country where parliamentary freedom 

 is regarded as a bulwark of popular rights, and the 

 defection on this account of the Tyrolese Catholic 

 People's party and of the German landed pro- 

 prietors placed the Cabinet in a minority. Baron 

 Gautsch then undertook the duties of Prime Min- 

 ister and the Reichsrath was prorogued. The 

 language conflict was thus transferred to the pro- 

 vincial diets, which sat early in 1898. The Ger- 

 mans, having almost aband'oned their hopes of 

 Germanizing the Slavs, were anxious to preserve 

 their existing rights and erect legal barriers against 

 further Slav encroachments. The Landtag of 

 Lower Austria passed a resolution establishing 

 German as the exclusive language to be used in the 

 schools, but this the Czechs, seconded by the Social 

 Democrats, denounced as unjust and oppressive to 

 the Bohemian working classes in the province, 

 numbering in Vienna alone not less than half a 

 million people. A similar resolution was subse- 

 quently passed by the upper Austrian Landtag at 

 Linz. In the Bohemian Diet the extreme Pan- 

 Germanic Nationalists, with Herr Wolf and Herr 

 Schonerer at their head, took the lead and effectu- 

 ally checked the efforts of the Conservative party of 

 feudal landowners, which some of the moderate 

 Germans were inclined to support, in the direction 

 of a temporary compromise. The Germans, per- 

 sisting in their demand for an unconditional abro- 

 gation of the language ordinances, threatened to 

 withdraw from the Diet as well as from the Reichs- 





