a burden, as Austria has already too many 'cutters-off of ears and noses' among her subjects; while on the contrary, by regaining her position in Germany, she would have assured the basis of her existence. The Austrian Imperial Chancellor therefore tried to gain the alliance of Russia by proposing, on New Year's Day 1867, what the St. Petersburg Cabinet accepted in October 1870, and by favouring the Turkish vassals, the protégés of Russia. The Turkish garrisons were withdrawn from the Servian fortresses; Roumania received permission to coin her own money; for Montenegro Count Beust tried to effect the concession of the harbour of Spizza; and to the Cretans, after the insurrection in their island, a very large amount of self-government was allowed. The Chancellor, in this change from the traditional Oriental policy of Austria, was urged on by Count Andrassy, who, as former partisan and ambassador of Kossuth, had welcomed with enthusiasm the childish idea of his hero of forming a Danubian Confederation, in which the Magyars would have the hegemony. Childish indeed was such an idea, for the Servians, Bulgarians, and Roumanians would sooner die than enter into any confederation with the Magyars. The answer to Kossuth's project was the insurrection of the Croatians and Servians in South Hungary in 1848, and the civil war which ended with the destruction of the Hungarian autonomy; while, twenty years later, the attempt of the Foreign Office to gain the sympathies of the Turkish vassals has been re

paid with base ingratitude in Bucharest, Belgrade, and Cettinje. Count Beust recognised his error, and, returning to the traditional policy of Austria, arranged the visit of the Emperor Francis Joseph at Constantinople at the time of the opening of the Suez Canal, and this was the first be

ginning of the rupture between the Imperial Chancellor and the Hungarian Premier.

Such was the position of affairs when the Franco-German war broke out in 1870. Count Beust, when he drew up the Austro-French treaty of alliance during the meeting of the Emperors of France and Austria at Salzburg, was alarmed himself at what might be the consequences of this step, but it was too late to draw back. Later, when the danger of a war between France and Prussia was imminent, his German sympathies were aroused; and while Count Andrassy, on July 14, 1870, in the Vester Correspondenz inspired by him, gave the signal for a war of races against Russia and Germany, Count Beast, in his dispatch on July 11, instructed Prince Richard Metternich, Austrian Ambassador at Paris, to annihilate the French hopes of an Austrian alliance. The Duke de Grammont has denied the existence of this dispatch, and it is proved that Prince Metternich did not present it. At that time, palace intrigues had succeeded in undermining the position of Count Beust; the appointment of Count Andrassy as Minister of Foreign Affairs was certain, and Prince Metternich, informed of the crisis, delayed presenting the dispatch till every warning was too late.

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Like all the world, Count Beust thought that Napoleon III. would assemble all the troops at his disposition and conquer South Germany before the completion of the mobilisation of the Prussian army. Then, according to the calculations of the Count, Austria was to assume an active part, free Southern Germany, and regain the old position she had in Germany. Count Andrassy, on the contrary, desired war at any price. The Prussian victories of Weissenburg, Wörth, and Spicheren put an end to the crisis, and after Sedan the inter

ference of Austria in the West became impossible. Count Beust wished for peace, as he recognised how extremely difficult it would be to separate Russia and Germany. It was clear that henceforth only the East could be the theatre of the war which was to serve as introduction to the consolidation of Austria.

The renunciation by Russia of the treaty of Paris, which was already known in Vienna in the middle of September 1870, the readiness of Montenegro for a war, and the attempts of Russian agents, especially of State Counsellor Jonin, the Russian Consul at Ragusa, to excite a revolution in the Herzegovina, gave the Hungarian Premier new incitements to provoke a war against Russia. Without the knowledge or concurrence of Count Beust, he negociated with General Schweinitz, the Prussian, and with Khalil Bey, the Turkish Ambassador at Vienna.

In England and Constantinople, however, the desire for peace predominated, so Count Beust was able to make his wishes respected at Court, and for the second time war was averted. But, clearer than before the first crisis, the necessity of relinquishing all idea of war in the West, and of concentrating the power of the Empire in the direction of the East, became now apparent. For the new policy, Austria did not require the sympathies of the South Germans. The German Austrians retired into the background, the Hungarians and Poles acquired fresh importance, and it seemed an absolute necessity to win the Sclaves by concessions, so hat their sympathy for Russia, which in reality was only displayed by their leaders, and not shared by the masses, might be counteracted. Even during the Franco-German war, the constitutional (German) Ministry was

overthrown in Cis-Leithania and a Federalistic Cabinet appointed. But the change was so sudden, that on the one hand the Northern Sclaves became restless, and threatened daily to go over to Russia, and on the other, the South Sclaves in Hungary were in a ferment. In the Croatian Diet, the antiHungarian party triumphed completely, and among the Servians in the Ogulin district, situated in the former military frontier, an insurrection broke out, which, as Lieutenant Field-Marshal Baron Mollinary, who quickly suppressed it, maintained, aimed at forming a South Sclavic empire. Count Beust exerted his whole influence to overthrow the Federalistic Ministry, though he knew all the time it was a Curtius-like act on his part. The gulf in which Austria threatened to perish did in reality close, but the Minister of Foreign Affairs disappeared in it.

Through the fall of the Federalistic Hohenwart Ministry the first step in the new Eastern policy had failed. Count Andrassy, however, as head of the Foreign Office, did not relinquish it; he made it a condition with the new Cis-Leithan Ministry that Galicia, where, although the Ruthenians, Jews, and Germans form the majority among the inhabitants, the Poles rule the Diet and occupy all official posts, should be allowed a semi-independent position by Cis-Leithania, and that in Dalmatia, in which till then the weak Italian minority had ruled politically, the Sclaves, by the help of the Government, should obtain the majority in the Diet. In pursuance of this plan, Lieutenant Field-Marshal Baron Rodich, a fanatical Servian and enemy to Turkey, was to remain stadtholder of Dalmatia, although at the head of the party who desired to detach that province from CisLeithania; but it was thought he would win the sympathies of the

South Sclaves living on Turkish territory for Austria. Baron Kellersperg, a distinguished politician, who was entrusted with the formation of a new Ministry, refused to accept these conditions, and it was almost six weeks before a new Cabinet-the Auersperg Ministrycould be formed. Later a separate Polish Minister was appointed, and the choice fell upon Dr. Florian Ziemialkowski, head of the socalled Polish party,' who aim exclusively at the restoration of Poland.

Scarcely was the new order of things inaugurated than, for the second time, the plan of conquests in the East totally failed. 'We will post ourselves on the Dniester,' said Count Andrassy to a Vienna journalist at the end of March, 1873, smoke our cigars, and as soon as Russia advances to the Lower Danube, we will march into her land.' But just at this time Prince Bismarck succeeded in his efforts to effect a rapprochement of the Courts of Vienna and St. Petersburg, and to bring about the alliance of the three empires. Of course, after this it became impossible to patronise the Poles.

After this second defeat, the Minister of Foreign Affairs did not change his object, but only the means towards its attainment. He never for a moment paused in trying to pave the way for triumphs in the East; and being no longer able to support the Polish aspirations openly, he allowed the extraordinary state of things in Dalmatia to continue, by which that province was to become a centre of crystallisation for all the South Sclaves; and then repeating the fatal mistakes of Austrian policy in 1867 to 1869, he endeavoured to purchase the sympathies of the Turkish vassal states for Austria. First, the agreement concluded by Count Beust with the Porte respecting the construction of the Turkish railway

net was ignored, and Count Andrassy did his utmost to induce the Porte to construct the line from Mitrovitza to Nissa, on the Servian frontier, so that Semlin might be the junction of the projected Servian line with the Hungarian railways, and Alexinatz that of the Turkish. The Prince of Montenegro was overwhelmed with presents and marks of attention, and with Roumania a commercial convention was concluded in contradiction to the rights of Turkey as well as Austria, and in which the manufacturing and commercial interests of the empire were sacrificed.

At the beginning of 1875 it seemed likely that an opportunity would be offered of making a war, which might end with the wishedfor annexation of Turkish provinces. Count Andrassy, great as was his confidence in his own powers, was not quite sure Prince Bismarck would support him, or even observe a neutrality in the interests of Austria; but at the end of March 1875, a war seemed inevitable between France and Germany, and in that case the latter Power would not be able to render any assistance to Russia. It was remembered that in 1876 the negociations on the renewal of the Austro-Hungarian treaty of union would take place, and no satisfactory result was to be hoped for except under the impression of military successes. Moreover, an irritation existed between Vienna and Constantinople, caused by the railway question and the AustroRoumanian commercial convention. The Emperor Francis Joseph expressed his strong disapprobation of the railway policy of the Porte shortly before his journey to Dalmatia took place. Among all the Sclaves a report was spread that that journey was the prelude to a war with Turkey, and that Duke John Salvator of Modena, a member of

was in the days of Czar Duschan -in other words, of the annexation of all South Hungary and the erection of a Dacian kingdom, which, besides Wallachia and Moldavia, would include Bessarabia and Southwest Hungary to the banks of the Theiss. In Servia the conservative Marinovich Ministry was overthrown, and Ristich, and later Kaljevich, were Premiers; while in Roumania the conservative Catargin Ministry resigned, and the Reds' all but came into power. Ristich and his colleague Kaljevich, and Bratianu, the leader of the Roumanian 'Reds' (now called the National Liberal party), are all inveterate enemies to Hungary, which is now surrounded on its southern border by Russian outposts. From the Adria to Cracow, Austro-Hungary is enclosed in a wide curve by Russia and Russian satraps.

The wavering policy pursued, its failure, and the unfortunate effect it has had on the Austrian Sclaves, has of course increased the confusion and diversity of opinions among the different nationalities and parties of Austro-Hungary, and driven them to extremes, producing everywhere discontent and insecurity. These two last feelings are the only ones shared alike by all races, and might serve as substitutes for public opinion; in every other respect a want of union prevails, and not only every nationality, but every fraction, has its own views on the subject of Oriental affairs.

The small nationalities do not require to be considered here. The gipsies, 156,000 in number; the Friulians, 52,000; Bulgarians, 26,000; Ladinians (descendants of the Latinised Raethii) in the Tyrol, 18,000; Armenians, 18,000; Alba

nians, 3,500; Greeks and Zinzares, 3,200, and the other remnants of nations, exercise no political influence. The Jews, on the contrary, numbering 2,000,000, are very influential, as, on account of their wealth, they have more votes in the elections to the Reichsrath than all the other nationalities. Almost all the newspapers in Austria are in their hands; and from their habit of going to extremes in politics, and changing constantly, they have had a fatal influence on the late development of the empire. With regard to the foreign policy, they attach themselves almost exclusively to the nationality among which they live; belonging to the German national party, or being Magyar and Polish exaltados according to their surroundings, and, at the most, distinguished by a slight liking for the Turks, because in religious toleration they are far superior to the Christians in the Balkan Peninsula.

The Slovacks, 1,800,000 in number, who live chiefly in North-west Hungary, though they are to be found in other parts of that kingdom, where they were invited as excellent labourers after the devas tations of the Turks, are a goodnatured industrious race, humble to servility, and endowed with all the virtues and vices of the Sclaves. Tyrannised over, misused and robbed by the Magyar lesser nobility and officials,' they live in sad resignation to their fate.

Of all the Sclavic languages, theirs has the most resemblance to the old Slovenian, the root of all Sclavic tongues, and the only one which can be partially understood by all Sclavic nations. It is therefore quite natural that the idea of