MONARCHIES.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

THE Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (capital, Vienna) is a quasi-federal State in the south-centre of Europe. It is bounded on the west by the Republic of Switzerland and the Empire of Germany, on the north by the Empires of Germany and Russia, on the east by Russia, and on the south by the Kingdoms of Roumania and Servia, the Empire of Turkey, the Principality of Montenegro, the Adriatic Sea, and the Kingdom of Italy. The peculiar political significance of the Austrian frontier is that it artificially divides populations of the same race and language-Germans from Germans, Czechs from Czechs, Slavs from Slavs, Turks from Turks.

For several centuries Austria held (with short intermissions) the hegemony of the German States. The monarch of Austria called himself Emperor of Germany until the beginning of the nineteenth century, when, under constraint from Buonaparte, Francis I. resigned the title, and soon afterwards assumed that of Emperor of Austria. The empire was ejected from the German Confederation by Prussia in 1866. The connection between Austria and Hungary was more or less close from the fifteenth century;

but the Hungarians, whose Monarchy and Constitution were amongst the oldest in Europe, were never at rest under the Austrian yoke. The widespread revolutionary movement of 1848 found them eager to take advantage of it; they declared their independence, and were only reduced to subjection again by the introduction of a Russian army (through Galicia). During the Franco-Austrian War of 1859 Hungary once more preferred her demands, and the Emperor Francis Joseph I. endeavoured to meet the difficulty by offering a new Constitution in the " diploma" of 1860.

The situation at this crisis was not void of resemblance to the present situation of affairs between Great Britain and Ireland. The wisest men of all parties, in both countries, sought means of reconciliation and political readjustment, whilst every variety of counsel was put forward and discussed, from the extreme demand of absolute independence on one side to the extreme advocacy of repression on the other. The conciliatory attitude of the Emperor, the combined firmness and moderation of Deak, and the statesmanship of Beust, led gradually to a happy result; but the Prusso-Austrian war contributed powerfully to bring about the final solution. Autonomy was granted to Hungary in 1867, the Emperor was crowned King at Buda-Pesth, and the present Constitution was established.

The expulsion of Austria from the Germanic Bund, as well as from Venice, which removed the centre of her influence towards the south and east of her dominions, combined with the sacrifices which she had been compelled to make in Hungary, completed the, consolidation of a country whose sway had once extended from the Baltic to

Spain, and from Sicily to the Netherlands. The character of the Dual Monarchy has in great measure changed with its external conditions, and its broad federal Constitution has produced a general (though moderate) satisfaction amongst its various nationalities, contrasting in a remarkable manner with the discontent prevailing under the old régime.

The following table will show the political organization of the monarchy, with its area and population:

These various Provinces represent almost as many distinct nationalities, whereof the members talk languages mutually unintelligible. In the census of 1880 there were in Austria over 8,000,000 Germans, 6,000,000 Magyars, nearly

7,000,000 Czechs and Slovaks, more than 2,500,000 Roumanians, 3,000,000 Poles (chiefly in Galicia), 3,000,000 Ruthenians, nearly 3,000,000 Serbs and Croatians, over 1,000,000 Slovenes, 1,500,000 Turks, and large contingents speaking other tongues. It is this characteristic which gives its most special interest to the success of the federal government of Austria-Hungary, and emphasizes the value, as well as the necessity, of the Constitutional settlement in 1867 and the following years.

GOVERNMENT.

The Constitutional " diploma" of 1860 was the production of a body very imperfectly representative of the Austrian States, originally elected nine years before. The scheme was based on a Reichsrath of two Houses, one of them chosen by the Provincial legislatures, which was to transact the financial, military, and foreign affairs of the whole empire-leaving provincial affairs to the legislatures aforesaid; but whenever the common concerns of the nonHungarian Provinces came under discussion the Hungarian members were to withdraw, and the remainder were to constitute a Lesser Reichsrath.* The Provincial constitutions, suspended in 1849, were restored, including the old Constitution of Hungary (before its revision by Kossuth and his colleagues in 1848). The Upper House was to consist of imperial archdukes, nobles nominated by the Emperor, and prelates; and the right of initiating and debating measures of legislation was conferred for the first time.

This Constitution was not generally satisfactory, and in

*Compare the suggested plan of full Irish representation at Westminster for imperial affairs, and the exclusion of the Irish members when English, Scotch, and Welsh business was introduced,