A history of Austro-Hungary from the earliest time to the year 1889

Front matter

THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY

CHAPTER I. The Austro-Hungarian State and its Constituent Elements

How the Austro-Hungarian State was formed ..... I Austro- Hungary has neither geographical nor natural unity, nor

natural frontiers .......... 3

Statistics of the various nationalities ....... 5

Preponderance falsely attributed to the Germans ; their distribution

among the various provinces ....... 6

The Magyars, the Slavs, and the Latins ..... 7

Persistency and vitality of the national languages in Bohemia and

CHAPTER n.

Primitive Times — The Barbarians— The Roman Rule- German Invasions.

Pre-historic times — Celts and Illyrians — Conquest by Rome . . 11 The Dacians — The Marcomanni in Bohemia — Organization of the

Roman conquest. ... ...... 14

The Goths — Diocletian and Christianity 17

The Huns— Attila— The Lombards . . . . . . .21

XXIV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER III. The Migrations of the Slavs

PAGE

Origin of the Slav race — Tlie Chekhs — The Slavs of the Danube . 25 The Slavs and the Avars — Samo (627-662) . . . . .27

The Servians and Croatians (634-638) ...... 30

Manners, customs, and religion of the Slavs ..... 33

CHAPTER IV. Moravia and the Slav Apostles

The Magyars — Their origin and arrival in the valley of the Danube — Their invasions (892-955) ......

Manners and religion of the Pagan Magyars ....

The first princes of the dynasty of Arpad — Christian Hungary— St Stephen (997-103S)

The laws of St. Stephen ........

The Chekhs, Moravians, and Carinthians — Legendary rise of Bohemia ...........

Moravia— Rostislav (846)— Cyril and Methodius (863-885)— The

Svatopluk — The ruin of Moravia and of the Slav Church (870-907) . 45

The Slovenes — The Croats under a national dynasty (780-1090) . 51

CHAPTER V. Formation of the Magyar State

57 61

64 67

Chapter VI

Hungary under the Successors of St. Stephen.

The first successors of St. Stephen — Ladislas the Holy (1077-1095) . 71 Koloman (1095-11 14) — Croatia united to Hungary (i 102) — German

colonies — Wars with Galicia and Venice . • . . . .74 Andrew II. (1205-1235)— The Golden Bull 79

CONTENTS.

Struggles against the Mongols (1239-1241) and the House of Austria

— Last kings of the race of Arpad {1235-1301) .... 83 Progress of civilization ......... 87

CHAPTER VII. Bohemia under the Earlier Premyslides

The first Christian princes — St. Adalbert (874-997) ... 89

Bretislav and the institution of primogeniture (1037-1055) — Vratislav

Premysl Otokar I., hereditary king ( II 97-1230) — Vacslav I. (1230-

1253) — Invasion by the Tartars (1242) ..... 98

Premysl Otokar II. (1250-1278) — .Struggle against Rudolf of Habs-

burg — Glory and decay of Bohemia ...... 103

Humiliation and death of Premysl Otokar II. (127S) . . . 108

CHAPTER VIII. The Later Premyslides

The later Premyslides — Vacslav II. king of Bohemia and Poland

Bohemia under the Premyslides — Bohemia and the Empire . . 119 Bohemian institutions — German colonies . . . . . .122

Relision — Arts — Civilization 124

Chapter IX

The Early History of the Austrian Group — The House of Babenberg (973-1246).

The Eastern March — The first Babenberg^ — Henry lasomirgott

(973-1177) '27

Leopold V. (1198-1230) — Frederick the Fiijhter (1230-1246) —

Acquisition of Styria and part of Carnicla . . . . .132 The Laws of Austria under the Babenbergs— TJie Landeshohcit —

The towns — Literature 136

XXVI CONTEXTS.

CHAPTER X. The Austrian Group under the First Habsburgs (1273-1493)

PAGE

Rudolf I. invests his sons with Austria and Styria (1273-1298) —

Frederick the Handsome (1330-1358) — Acquisition of Carinthia . 141 Rudolf IV. (1358-1365) — The Privilegium Magus — Acquisition of

Tyrol (1363) — Dismemberment of Austria (1379) . . . 145

Albertine and Leopoldine branches (1379-1457) .... 149

Frederick of the Empty Purse (1406-1439) 151

Frederick v., emperor (1440-1493) 152

CHAPTER XL

Bohemia under the House of Luxemburg — ^John Hus (1310-1415).

John of Luxemburg (1310-1346) — Annexation of Lusatia and Silesia 155 Charles IV. (i 346-1 378) — Prosperity of the kingdom — The Golden

Bull 161

Vacslav IV. (1378-1419) — Revolts of the nobles — Religious troubles 164

John Hus (1369-1415) — The Council of Constance (1415) . . 169

CHAPTER XH.

Bohemia and the Hussite Wars.

Formation of the sects of the Utraquists and Taborites (1415-1419) . 176 Beginning of the struggle — Sigismund (1419-1437) — ^John Zizka

(1420) 180

Negociations with Poland — Sigismund Korybutowicz (1420) — The

Four Articles — Death of Zizka (1424) . ..... 185

Procopius the Great — Victory of Ousti (1427) — Hussite invasion of

Council of Basle (1431) — Anarchy in Bohemia — Battle of Lipany

(1434) 194

The Compactata (1436) — The result of the Hussite wars — Death of

Sigismund (1437) 198

CONTENTS. XXVU

CHAPTER XIII.

Bohemia under George of Podiebrad (1437-1471) — The Jagellon Dynasty (1471-1526).

PAGE

Albert of Austria (1438-1439) — Vladislav the Posthumous (1439-

1447) — George of Podiebrad {1444) 203

The reign of George of Podiebrad (1457-1471) — Bohemia at peace . 207

Wladyslaw Jagiello (1471-1516) — Increased power of the nobles . 213

Louis (1516-1526) — The Reformation of Luther in Bohemia . . 215

CHAPTER XIV.

Hungary under the House of Anjou (1310-1388) — The Elective Monarchy (1388-1444).

Charles Robert of Anjou (13 10-1342) 218

Louis the Great (1342-1382) — The Hungarians in Italy — Wars with

Venice and Naples ......... 220

State of Hungary under the House of Anjou ..... 223

Sigismund of Luxemburg (1382-1437) ...... 225

Albert of Austria — Wlaydslaw Jagiello (1438- 1444) . . . • 229

CHAPTER XV.

John Hunyady— Mathias Corvinus — The Jagellons (1444-1526).

Ladislas the Posthumous — John Hunyady governor of the kingdom . 232

Mathias Corvinus (1458-1490) — War with Bohemia and Turkey . 236

Hungary under Mathias Corvinus ....... 242

Wladyslaw II. (1490-1516) — Verboczy — Revolt of the Kurucs (1514) 244 Louis II. (1516-1526) — Loss of Belgrade (1521) — Battle of Mohacs

(1526) 248

CHAPTER XVI.

The Austrian Emperors.

Maximilian I. (1493-1519) — The Austrian marriages . . . 251 Ferdinand I. (1519-1564)— The Reformation in Austria . . , 255 Maximilian II. (1564-1576) ........ 259

XXVlll CONTENTS,

PAGE

Rudolf II. (1576-1611) — The Counter-Reformation in the Austrian

Mathias (1612-1619)— Ferdinand II. {1619-1637)— Ferdinand III (1637-1657) — Influence of the Jesuits . ....

Leopold I. (1657-1705) — Siege of Vienna — Sobieski (1683)

Austria under Leopold I. — Army — Finances ....

Administration — Legislation — Literature

Joseph I. (1705-1711) — Charles VI. (1711-1740) — The Pragmatic

263 266 271 275

CHAPTER XVII.

Bohemia under the First Austrian Kings (1526-1620).

Ferdinand I. (1526-1564) — Growth of the royal power — The

monarchy becomes hereditary ....... 283

Revolts and persecutions of the Protestants — Destruction of the

municipal franchises ......... 286

Maximihan II. (1564-1576)— Rudolf II. (1576-16x2)— Wars with

Mathias and the Utraquists ....... 289

Mathias (1612-1619)— The defenestration at Prague (1618) . . 292

Bohemia in revolt — The Thirty Directors 296

CHAPTER XVIII.

Bohemia Conquered (1619-1740).

Battle of the White Mountain (1620) — Political and religious reaction (1620-1627) . . . . , , . . . 300

The Thirty Years' War — Wallenstein — The Swedes in Bohemia

(1634-1648) 306

Decay of Bohemia in the 17th and iSth centuries .... 310

CHAPTER XIX.

The Dismemberment of Hungary (1526-1629).

Ferdinand I. and Szapolyai (1526-1540) — The Turks in Hungary

(1529-1562) 314

Martinuzzi — The Turkish rule 318

Sigismun^ . .• urinces-^Gabriel Bethlen (1613-1629) . . 325

C0NTEN7S.

XXIX

CHAPTER XX.

Hungary in Revolt and Hungary Reconciled (1629-1740).

I'AGE

The Rakoczy family in Transylvania — Leopold I. in Hungary (1629-

1705) 331

Expulsion of the Turks . . , . . . . . . 337

Francis Rackoczy (1700-17 II) 338

Hungary reconciled — The Treaty of Passarowitz (i 718) . . . 341 The Servian colonists — The military frontiers — The Treaty of

CHAPTER XXI.

Maria Theresa (1740-1780).

AVar of the Austrian succession — Loss of Silesia — Treaty of Aix-la-

Kaunitz — The French alliance — The Seven Years' War (1756-1763). 352

Partition of Poland — Acquisition of Galicia (1772) .... 356 Acquisition of Bukovina (1775) — War of the Bavarian Succession

(1779) 361

CHAPTER XXn.

Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria under Maria Theresa.

Bohemia .......

Hungary — " Moriamur pro rege nostro" .

The peasant question — The military frontiers Reforms in administration and education Finance — Trade — The army .

364 366

370 373 379

CHAPTER XXin.

Character of Joseph H

Church reforms ......

Administrative, judicial, and economical reforms

-35 259

XXX CONTENTS.

PAGE

Foreign policy — The Fiirstenbund (1785) — Revolt of the Netherlands

— War with Turkey (1788) . . 391

Hungary and Bohemia in Joseph's reign ...... 394

CHAPTER XXIV.

Francis II. (1792-1S35) — Wars against the Revolution.

Loss of Belgium — Acquisition of Western Galicia (i 791-1795) . . 404

Loss of Lombardy — Acquisition of Venice and Dalmatia (1797) . 406

Marengo — Treaty of Luneville (i 801) 410

Austria after the Peace of Luneville 414

CHAPTER XXV.

Francis II. — Wars against Napoleon to the Treaty of

SCHONBRUNN (180I-1809).

Francis II., emperor of Austria (1804) . . . . . New war against Napoleon — Treaty of Pressburg (1805) . Surrender by Francis II. of the title of Roman Emperor (1806) Campaign of 1809 — Insurrection in Tyrol . . . .

Aspern and Wagram — Treaty of Schonbrunn (1809). The French in the Illyrian provinces . . . . .

423 428

431 434 438

CHAPTER XXVL

Francis II. — Austria after the Peace of Schonbrunn (1809-1815).

Alliance with Napoleon . ........ 442

Russian campaign — Reaction against Napoleon — Austria in alliance

Campaign of 1813 451

Battle of Leipzig (1813) — The Austrians in Paris .... 454

Austria after the Treaty of Vienna 462

CONTENTS. xxxi

CHAPTER XXVII.

Francis II. and Mettermch (1815-1835).

PAGE

Austria at the head of the reaction in Europe — Meetings of Congress 469

The Eastern Question (1820-1829) 471

Polish, Itahan, and German affairs ....... 476

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Hungary and the Slav Countries (i 790-1835).

Development of public spirit in Hungary — The Diet of 1825 — Sze-

chenyi, Deak, Kossuth . . . . . . , , 491

Revival of the Slavs — Bohemia — Kollar ...... 495

The Southern Slavs — Ljudevit Gaj — Panslavism .... 500

CHAPTER XXIX.

Ferdinand IV. — Austria on the Eve of the Revolution (1835-1848).

The Staats-conferenz ......... 504

Polish affairs — Occupation of Cracow — The Galician massacres

(1846) 506

Progress of public opinion — The Bohemian Diet — Havlicek . .510 PubHc opinion in Hungary — The Magyars and Slavism . . .514 The races in Hungary . . . . . . . , '519

Public opinion in Vienna . . . , . . , , .521

CHAPTER XXX.

The Revolution of 1848.

Fall of Metternich — The first Austrian constitution .... 524

Concessions to Bohemia — Palacky and the Frankfort parliament . 527

The Slav congress at Prague ........ 529

Galicia and Italy c . . 531

XXXll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXr.

The Hungarian Revolution.

PAGE

The first Hungarian ministry — Tiie 15th of March — The Croats and

Servians 533

Jelacic 535

The war 537

The Russian intervention 539

CHAPTER XXXH.

The Revolution in Vienna.

The parliament of Vienna — The October Days — Repression . . 542 The Diet of Kromerice — Abdication of Ferdinand IV. . . . 546

CHAPTER XXXni

Francis Joseph — The Reactionary Period.

The new constitution (March 4th, 1849) ...... 548

The reactionary period (1850-1860) — The Concordat (1855) . . 552

Austria and Germany — The Crimean War (1854-1855) . . . 555

The war in Italy — Loss of Lombardy (1859) ..... 55S

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Attempts at Constitutional Government — War with Prussia (1860-1866).

Return to constitutional government — Patents of i860 and 1862 . 561 Opposition of the nationalities to the centralizing reforms — Insurrection in Poland (1863) 564

War against Prussia and Italy — Austria excluded from Germany —

Loss of Venetia (1866) 567

CONTENTS.

XXXlll

CHAPTER XXXV.

The Dual Constitution (1867).

Austria after Sadowa ......

Agreement with Hungary — The dual government (1867)

Slav protests against the dual government.

Liberal reforms .......

Resistance of Bohemia — Declaration of 1S6S

The Galician resolution (1S68) — Insurrection of the Bocchesi (1869)

Grievances of the Servians, Croats, and Roumanians against the

Hungarians 586

PAGE

572 573 577 580 582 584

CHAPTER XXXVI.

AUSTRO-HUNGARY FROM 1867-1878.

Efforts towards federation — The Hohenwart ministry (1871) . . 589

Negociations with Bohemia — The fundamental articles . . . 590

Federation checked ........•• 593

Present state of Austro-Hungary — Economical progress and liberal

The Eastern Question reopened — Uncertain policy of Austria (1874-

1878) 600

CHAPTER XXXVn.

AuSTRO-HUNGARY FROM 1878-1?

The occupation of Bosnia ........ 603

Political consequences of this occupation ...... 609

The Taaffe ministry and policy of conciliation towards Bohemia . 612

CHAPTER XXXVni.

Organization and Statistics of Austro-Hungary.

Common affairs . .617

Organization of Cisleithania ........ 61S

Organization of Hungary . . . . . . • . .621

XX XIV CONTENTS.

PAGE

Population 626

Natural resources .......... 629

Means of communication — Industry and commerce . . . .631

Religion 634

Intellectual culture ....... .... 635

Table of Sovereigns who have reigned over the States which either now compose the austro-hungarian Monarchy, or have belonged to it 638

Losses and Gains of the House of Habsburg from Rudolf of Habsburg to the Present Time 644

Index 649

Ethnographical Map of Austro-Hungary . . , At end

ERRATA.

Page 10, line ^,/or " form part of," read " annexed to." 13, line \(>,for " Marius," read " Marcus." 64, line 2,yi?r " France," read " Burgundy." 89, line 15, o»izi "or Lusatians." 117, 'Note, ybr " Sandomir," read " Sandomiria."

360, line 22, _/i7r " thirteen hundred square miles," read "fifteen hundred square German miles."

362, line w^for " miles," read " German miles."

363, line 12, for "miles," read " German miles." 399, line 2,, for " province," read " duchy." 473, line 5,/or " Upsilanti," read " Ypsilanti." 497, 'Note, /or " Chansones," read " Chansons."

Chapter I. The Austro-hungarian Empire And Its Constituent Elements

Holu the Austro-Hungarian Empire was formed.

Notwithstanding the great historic memories which are associated with the name of the house of Austria, the Austro- Hungarian empire is one of the youngest among European states. It was not founded till 1804 — till the day when Francis H., aware that the German crown was tottering on his head, and that Napoleon was creating for his family an hereditary empire, determined to secure for himself also a title of equal importance, in case Germany should be lost to him. Up to that time, the various elements of the Austro-Hungarian state had preserved their historic individuality. This had not indeed always been duly respected by the Habsburgs in practice, but in principle it had never been seriously disputed. It has been customary to identify the history of the various states now subject to the house of Austria with the history of the house of Austria itself; this is a mistake which was excusable at a time when the history of a people was supposed to be contained in that of its sovereigns, but which can no longer be pardoned. It is now known that nations have an existence apart from that of reigning families, and that these families, however illustrious may be their origin, are always obliged at last to subordinate themselves to national aspirations.

B

The leaders of the French Revolution knew nothing of an Austro-Hungarian state when they declared war against the king of Bohemia and Hungary. When these kingdoms offered their crowns to Ferdinand I. of Austria (1526), they had no intention of subordinating their individuality to an artificial union of alien states. After a free and glorious life under their national kings, they sought in a purely personal union — by taking the ruler of a neighbouring state as their sovereign without any change in their constitutions — to strengthen themselves against Ottoman invasions ; they never dreamed of disappearing, either in the unity of the Austrian monarchy, or in that of the empire. Ferdinand I. brought with him only his hereditary possessions, Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Gorica (Gorz), Gradiska, part of Istria and the Tyrol ; that is to say, a group of German and Slavonic populations, the whole number of which now hardly amounts to five millions, i.e. scarcely a seventh of the whole population of the Austro-Hungarian empire. These states, moreover, were neither great enough, famous enough, nor far enough advanced in civilization to justify them in an endeavour to absorb or assimilate the two kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary.

When he accepted the two crowns of St. Vacslav and St. Stephen, Ferdinand undertook to respect the rights and privileges which Avere attached to them, and he had made a similar promise with regard to Croatia, which was dependent on the Hungarian crown. Thus it was by virtue of a contract freely entered into, and with mutual obligations, that Bohemia, Hungary, and the hereditary provinces of Austria passed under the common rule of the same sovereign.

It must not be forgotten that, at the time of which we are speaking, several of the provinces which now form part of Austria still belonged to neighbouring powers. Galicia, for example, formed part of the kingdom of Poland, from which it was not separated till 1773; Dalmatia was subject to the republic of Venice down to 1797 ; though in both cases the

AN EMPIRE WITHOUT UNITY. 3

house of Austria has been able to plead as a justification for " re-annexation " certain ancient rights possessed by Hungary and its dependent Croatia.

This rapid sketch will suffice to show that Austro-Hungary is essentially an empire based on historical rights. These rights owe their origin neither to conquest nor to successful revolutions ; they are rights the form of which has always been respected by the Government, even when it has disregarded the spirit.

Austro-Hungary possesses neither Geographical Unity, Natio7ial Unity, 7ior Natural Frontiers.

In the history of this complex state there is, then, to be found neither the manifest development of a single great nation, as in France or Germany, nor geographical unity, as in Italy, nor an abiding unity of will and aspiration, as in republican Switzerland.

Austria has no natural frontiers, no form determined beforehand by seas, by the course of rivers, or by mountains. The basin of the Danube certainly seems destined to become the seat of a great empire, but only the middle portion of it belongs to Austro-Hungary. Nevertheless, thanks to its position on this river, Vienna has gained for itself one of the foremost places among European capitals, standing as it does almost exactly in the centre of Europe, at an equal distance from Madrid and Moscow, from Stockholm, London, and Constantinople, from Hamburg and Bucharest.

As the geographer Reclus remarks, the Danube and its tributaries do indeed create a sort of unity, from an hydrographical point of view, by joining in the same basin the mountains of Austria and the plains of Hungary ; but a large part of the monarchy lies outside the Danubian regions, in the valleys of the Elbe, the Vistula, the Dnieper, and the Adige.

Moreover, while the sea Avashes certain parts of Austro- Hungary, it does not really belong to her. The complete possession of the Adriatic must sooner or later be claimed by Italy, or by the people who shall succeed in uniting the Slavonic groups of the Balkan peninsula.

Neither do mountain ranges form for it a well-defined frontier. The great chain of the Carpathians, which covers the north-east and south-east, leaves the Bukovina, Galicia, and Silesia outside and completely exposed on the north to the attacks of Germany and Russia. Bohemia is protected by the Riesengebirge, the Erzgebirge, and the Bohmerwald, but then Bohemia is also girdled to the south-east by the mountains of Moravia, so that it forms by itself a real geographical whole which may easily be detached in thought from the factitious unity of Austro-Hungary. Towards the south-west, however, the Austrian frontier is better defined by the Alps (which, however, leave Istria outside), by the Adriatic, and by the parallel streams of the Save and the Drave.

If, however, this country of ill-defined boundaries belonged, like her neighbour Germany, to a single race, firm, compact, obedient to common traditions, ready at any sacrifice to aim at a common future, the want of natural boundaries would be of small importance ; but this is far from being the case. Besides having no geographical unity, Austro-Hungary presents to us ethnographically also a picture of the most complete anarchy.

We have already pointed out what are the three primary groups of the empire : the German and Slavonic lands known as the Hereditary Provinces, the kingdom of Bohem.ia, and the kingdom of Hungary, with its dependency the kingdom of Croatia. The partition of Poland in 1772 added to these a new element, Polish Galicia. But even these groups, although they have historic individuality, are far from having any real unity in themselves, so that we have to deal not only with such contests as are produced by claims founded on written law, but also with those to which, in our own century, the idea of nationality has given birth.

STATISTICS OF NATIONALITIES. 5

Statistics of the Various Nationalities.

It would be impossible to understand the history of these various groups, their mutual relations, or the true situation of Austro-Hungary, without a clear idea of the statistics of the nationalities who divide the state.

They belong to four different races — the Slav, the Teutonic, the Ural-x\ltaic, and the Latin, They may be divided approximately as follows : —

Slav race < -n ^i.

\ 3)395jOoo Servo-Croats.

600,000 Italians.

Latin race , , „

2,640,000 Roumanians

Ural-Altaic race... 5,500,000 Magyars.

These are only approximate iigures, for the dominant races take pleasure in swelling their own numbers, while they diminish those of the less favoured.

To these different groups at least one million Jews must be added, scattered all over the empire, and in certain districts preserving all the principal characteristics of their race, even the use of the Hebrew tongue. They exercise considerable influence over the economic conditions of the countries in which they live.

These conflicting elements have not been welded together by time, as, for example, have the Celts, the Gallo-Romans, the Franks, and the Iberians in modern France. They have each preserved their language and their traditions ; they live side by side without mingling. The life of an organic body consists in the equilibrium of the simple elements of which it is composed. If this equilibrium is destroyed, the body dies.

In like fashion, the life of the Austro-Hungarian state depends upon the unstable equilibrium of the various races which make up the empire.

Preponderance mistakenly attributed to the Germans ; their distribution among the various Provinces.

Far too prominent a position is usually assigned to the German population of Austria, and this arises from want of knowledge not only of their numbers, but also of the way in which they are scattered over the empire. To call Austria a German state is to use a phrase which is most misleading. The number of Germans is said to be seven or eight millions, and this may be raised to nine millions, if we add to them 'those Jews to whom German is the mother tongue, and still higher if we count in citizens of other German states resident in the country. But these eight or nine millions are far from forming a compact and homogeneous body. The only entirely German provinces are the two Austrias and the duchy of Salzburg. To this compact mass the Germans of Styria, Carinthia, and the Tyrol, who are mixed in these provinces with Italians and Slovenes, may be regarded as attached. Marburg in Styria, Klagenfurt in Carinthia, and Neumarkt in the Tyrol are the last German towns to the south. The group formed by these five provinces comprises at the most 3,500,000 Germans, and is really the only one which may be considered as belonging to the Greater Germany of Pan-Germanic enthusiasts. Should they one day form part of that Greater Germany in virtue of the principle of nationality, that principle would not allow them to drag with them either the Slavs or the Italians of the Tyrol. Thirty leagues divide the Germans from Trieste, which they consider as their great Adriatic port.

Next come the Germans of Bohemia. They are scarcely two-fifths of the population of the kingdom. They are scattered along the frontiers of Bavaria and Saxony, and the towns of Budweiss (Budejovice), of Pilsen (Plzen), Leitmeritz (Litomerice), and Reichenberg mark the line which separates

THE GERMAN ELEMENT. 7

them from the Chekhs. In Moravia, where the majority of the population (nearly 150,000) is Slav, about 50,000 Germans occupy the north of the province. It must be admitted that the Germans of Bohemia and Moravia are more than two millions ; but this figure is small compared to that of the Chekh majority, which numbers at least 4,300,000 souls. The Germans of Bohemia, colonists or conquerors, separated from the mother-country by a well-marked geographical boundary, could never dream of attempting to force into a German union that Slav majority which had created and organized the state long before they came to live in it, some as gladly welcomed guests, others as hated invaders. The Germans can never claim Bohemia, as, for example, they claimed Alsace, by virtue of the principle of nationality; and therefore they invoke a pretended historic right belonging to the Holy Roman Empire. In every other part of the empire the Germans are few in number; they have no special political rights (except among the Saxons of Transylvania, who have ancient privileges), and owe the advantages they possess to the universality of the German tongue, to certain political traditions, or to their scientific or industrial superiority. There are about 234,300 Germans in Silesia, 114,000 in Galicia, 27,000 in Bukovina, 29,700 in Carniola, 200,000 in Transylvania, and 122,700 in Hungary. There is no doubt these figures make up a respectable total, but the importance of this total is singularly diminished when we remember in what fashion these numbers are scattered among Slavs, Magyars, and Roumanians.

The Hungarians, or Magyars, as they call themselves, are far from occupying the whole of Hungary ; the Slavs and Roumanians share it with them. The INIagyars are divided into two compact bodies. The first contains about 4,400,000 souls; Hungarian ethnographers say 5,000,000. The towns of Presburg (Pozsony), Kaschau (Kassa), and Munkacs form its frontier to the north, and separate it from the Slovaks and Ruthenians. To the east, a line drawn from Munkacs divides them from the Ruthenians and the Roumanians ; to the south they stretch as far as Arad and Szombor, and touch the Servians and Croats. The reasons why these Hungarians have been able to subdue the peoples round them are to be found in their central position on the Danube, the unity of a group which is greater than any of those that are near them, and some political and military qualities of great importance. The second Magyar group, that of the Szeklers, wrongly called Sicules (about 500,000 souls), is surrounded by Roumanians, and must doubtless some day be absorbed by them. But their vitality is maintained by constant intercourse with the main body, which is the true kernel of the kingdom of Hungary.

The Slavonic race occupies the north and the south-west of the empire ; the Chekhs, the greater part of Bohemia, Silesia, and Moravia ; the Slovaks, the north of Hungary ; the Poles, the north-east of Galicia ; the Ruthenians, the rest of Galicia, part of Bukovina, and some districts to the north-east of Hungary.

The Slavs to the north are separated from those to the south-west by the Germans, the Magyars, and the Roumanians. Their geographical division, and the Slavonic dislike to a firm rule, are sufficient to explain why, in spite of their numerical superiority, they have never been able to conquer the Germans or the Magyars, nor even to secure their own admission to complete equality. The southern Slavs are divided into two groups : the Servo-Croatians, who occupy Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Sirmia, the south-western portion of the ancient Banate of Temesvar, and those lands which used to be called, until quite recently, the Military Frontier ; and the Slovenes, who inhabit Carinthia, Carniola, and part of Istria and Styria.

The Roumanians are settled in the south-west of Hungary, in Transylvania, and the Bukovina. The Italians form a compact group in Southern Tyrol, and have colonies in all the principal towns of Istria and on the Dalmatian coast.

BOHEMIA AND HUNGARY. g

Penisteucy and Vitality of the National Languages in Bohemia and Hungary.

The vitality and diversity of these races is proved by the variety of literary languages in use among them. These are not languages in such a position of inferiority as, for example, the Basque, or Breton, in France, nor mere dialects such as, for instance, are found in Germany and Italy ; but languages complete in themselves, and fixed in their present form by constant use. Austria is a real European Tower of Babel. In it are published newspapers in German, Hungarian, Polish, Ruthenian, Chekh, Slovak, Servo-Croatian, Slovene, Roumanian, and Italian. These newspapers, often written in a tongue which is only understood by the people whose one language it is, frequently represent antagonistic interests ; for, in consequence of historic traditions or of the modern idea of nationality, some of these populations are more or less openly attracted towards centres outside the empire ; Germans towards Germany, Poles towards Poland, Italians towards Italy, the southern Slavs to their brethren in Turkey, the Roumanians towards Wallachia. The Chekhs and Magyars alone find in the empire the home of their nation and the centre of their destiny. The two great moral forces which keep the other nations in union A\nth the Austro-Hungarian monarchy are, first, the very antagonism of the attractions exercised upon them, and, secondly, a certain traditional loyalty to the dynasty. To these must be added the spirit of caste, which, among the servants of the State and in the army, strengthens an artificial patriotism, and, at need, is made to supply its place.