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EMPIRE OF AUSTRIA. 



9 Education. There are six universities in the empire, besides those of the Italian prov- 

 inces ; they are at Vienna, Prague, Pesth, Lemberg, Innspruck, and Graetz. High schools 

 and primary schools have also been established in some parts of the country, but in general the 

 national education is extremely deficient. The restraints upon the press and freedom of speech, 

 render the Austrian incurious upon many moral and political subjects, which occupy the minds 

 and pens of men in freer countries, and sliut out large fields of literature from popular inquiry. 



10. Government. The sovereign is styled the emperor of Austria , and the government, with 

 some diversities in the.different parts, is absolute in all, except in Hungary and Transylvania. 

 In Hungary there is a diet, composed of the clergy, the nobility, depuies of the royal cities, 

 and of the boroughs, which has the right of making laws in concurrence with the king, as the 

 emperor is there styled, and of laying taxes. The constitution of Transylvania is similar. 

 There are assemblies of the estates in Bohemia and Gahcia, but their powers are merely nom- 

 inal. In the hereditary States, as the archduchy of Austria, Stiria, Carinthia, and Carniola are 

 called, the power of the emperor is uncontrolled, but is exercised with mildness. The Mihta- 

 ry Frontiers have entirely a military administration, and, in fact, are nothing more than a vast 

 military colony, under the immediate management of the minister of war. They consist of a 

 narrow tract extending along the northern frontiers of Turkey and the southern boundary of 

 Hungary anJ Transylvania, and divided into four generalats or generalships. The inhabitants 

 enjoy the use of the land which they cultivate, on condition of rendering certain military servi- 

 ces, and all are, therefore, trained to military exercises. Even civil affairs are here conducted 

 in a military form, and the magistrates have military titles. The purpose of this singular insti- 

 tution is to maintain a disciplined army of cultivators of the soil, always in readiness to defend 

 the frontiers against the Turks. 



11. Inhabitants. The inhabitants of this great empire belong to several entirely distinct 

 races. 1. The Germans form the population of the archduchy of Austria, the greater part of 

 that of Stiria and Tyrol, and the minority in the Hungarian and Polish provinces, and in Bo- 

 bemia, Moravia, and Silesia. 2. The Sclavonic race, comprising nearly one half of the popu- 

 lation, consists of several different people ; these are the Tzechs, or Bohemians ; the Slowac , 

 in Moravia and Hungary ; the Poles, in Galicia ; the Wends, in Stiria, Carniola, Carinthia, - 

 and Tyrol ; the Croatians, Dalmatians, &c. 3. The Uralian race comprises the dominant 

 people of Hungary and Transylvania, or the Magyars. 4. The Latin race comprises the Ital- 

 ians, and the Wallachians of Hungary, Transylvania, and the Military Frontiers. 



The Sclavonians, scattered, as we have described, over a great extent, are the most back- 

 ward and ignorant part of the population. They are commonly employed in mere rustic labors, 

 and many of them are still in a state of servitude. Thus in Bohemia and Moravia, the Ger- 

 man population conducts public affairs, transacts commercial operations, and exercises the me- 

 chanic arts, while the Sclavonians are the common laborers ; and in Hungary, the Magyars, 

 who, though in general illiterate, are a spirited and intelligent race, and fond of active employ- 

 ments and a military life, leave the more servile kinds of labor to the Sclavonic inhabitants ; the 

 Sclavonians, in fact, are the conquered aborigines, who were reduced to slavery or kept in a 

 subordinate state by their conquerors. In the Polish provinces, where the Sclavonians form 

 almost the whole population, they evince an aversion from mechanic arts and commerce, and 

 the traders and dealers there, as in Poland, are mostly Jews. 



J^umber of different Races. 



Sclavonians . . 15,000,000 



Germans . . 6,000,000 



Italians . . . 4,500,000 



Magyars . . 4,500,000 



Wallachians . . . 2,000,000 



Jews . . . 500,000 



Gypsies (Zigeuner) . 100,000 



Armenians . . 20,000 



12. Revenue. Jlrmy. In an agricultural country, like Austria, the customs are small, and 

 the revenue is principally raised by land and poll taxes. In the Hungarian States, the nobility 

 are exempt from taxes. The revenue of Austria is much smaller than those of England and 

 France, not exceeding 70 millions of dollars ; the debt is 320 miUions. The army is com- 

 posed of 270,000 men. 



