STATISTICS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY. 145 



but the Magyars would then occupy a fur less favourable position. Hemmed 

 in on all sides by hostile races, their very existence as a nation would be 

 threatened. Need we wonder, then, that during the late war they sided with 

 their old enemies, the Turks, and resisted to the last the threatened occupation of 

 Bosnia ? They feel that the fate of the Turks may one day be their own. Like 

 them, they are looked upon as strangers in the land they govern. 



It would be presumptuous to anticipate the destinies of Austria. Palaèk}^ 

 the historian, said in 1848 that " if Austria existed not, it would be necessary to 

 invent it ; " but a crisis, attended by vast changes in the balance of power in 

 Eastern Europe, is nevertheless approaching. If Vienna and Pest are unable or 

 unwilling to satisfy the aspirations of the nationalities represented within the limits 

 of the empire, these will look beyond its boundaries for assistance. 



But whatever the future may have in store, the material prosperity of Austria- 

 Hungary progresses as rapidly as that of most other European countries. 



Population. 



The population increases. In 1816, soon after the wars of the empire, the 

 Emperor Francis reigned over 28,000,000 subjects. In 1857, when the first 

 trustworthy census was taken, the empire had 32,000,000 inhabitants ; and twelve 

 years afterwards, in 1869, 35,943,000. The annual increase thus amounted to 

 325,000 souls, and if we suppose it to have continued, the empire must now have 

 a population of over 38,000,000 souls. In population the empire, therefore, ranks 

 next to Russia and Germany, but its density is less than in the United Kingdom, 

 Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, or the J^etherlands. The birth rate exceeds 

 the death rate throughout, but varies exceedingly, and whilst the inhabitants 

 of Dalmatia, Carniola, and the Tyrol live to a good old age, the Hungarians 

 die young. Pest, amongst all the capitals of Europe, is that where Death reaps his 

 most abundant harvests.* 



Agriculture and Mining. 



In Austria-Hungary, as in other countries of Europe, the towns increase at a 

 more rapid rate than the villages, but at the present time, at all events, the great 

 mass of the inhabitants live in the country districts. The great wealth of the 

 empire consists in its varied agricultural products. Nearly all the food and 

 "industrial" plants of Europe are grown within its limits. All the cereals are 

 grown, but it is only in the cultivation of maize that Austria holds the first place 

 in Europe.f The yield per acre is far less than in Western Europe, and if wheat 

 and flour are nevertheless exported in large quantities, this can be done only 

 because Puraanians, Polaks, and Slovenes live almost permanently at a starvation 

 rate. 



* Birth rate (1869), 40-3 ; death rate, 30-0. Death rate in the Tyrol, 23-9 ; in the Military Frontier 

 districts, 41-7. 



t Annual produce of cereals, about 088,000,000 quarters, of which one-fourth consists of oats, one 

 fourth of rye, one-fifth of wheat, and one-seventh of maize. 



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