Bohemia under Hapsburg Misrule

y and Prussian Silesia; on the east by Prussia and Moravia; on the south by Lower Austria; on the west by Bavaria.

King Václav IV. in 1419; the second, with the battle of White Mountain in 1620. The period intervening between the first two events is referred to

D AND T

f her crown-lands, contains an area of 8,583 square miles. The

an area of 1,987 square miles. The population is divided as

ned in use ever since. When the matter was debated in parliament in 1880 the Bohemians and other Slavs indignantly protested against it as unscientific and as a device dictated by political motives. A census so taken, they contended, was calculated to raise by artful means the numerical strength of the Germans and to deduce from it the superior importance to the state of the Germanic element to the disadvantage of the non-Germans.[3] It was argued that the mother tongue of the citizens should serve as the test of one's nationality, not the language in which the Slavic workman may be compel

f industrial countries, namely, coal and iron, the hills of Bohemia contain in abundance. Among her specialties, which have acquired world-wide renown, are decorated and en

t away the Slavic tribes that lived north of them in Lusatia and of whose existence nothing now remains but the Slavic names of rivers and cities. The struggle for supremacy in Bohemia may be said to have begun the year the fabled leader ?ech, in the gray dawn of history (about 450 A.D.), migrated to the country, having dispossessed the non-Slavic tribes of Boii, from whom Bohemia acquired her name. The Hussite wars in the fifteenth century are popularl

h Lusatias (Upper and Lower) also constituted part and parcel of this state, yet the latter were never so closely affiliated with Bohemia as Moravia had been, because the inhabitants of the Lusatias wer

a matter of fact, however, there is no compact, unmixed German territory in Bohemia, which is exclusively German and into which the Bohemian workman, going in search of employment to the mines, mills, and shop

the German cohorts. These clearly betray Slavic origin. It has been remarked sarcastically that the Bohemians were really German-speaking Slavs. Certain it is that their association of more than a thousand years' duration with Teutonic neighbors resulted in their accepting many of the latter's customs and western culture. Then, too, foreigners have not

s admonished the people to be on their guard. One of the oldest chorals extant contains the pathetic invocation to

nd Moravia more Germans adopted the Bohemian language than Bohemians the German. The final sum of this process of assimilation seems

one that owns the land, then the future of Bohemians is clearly assured. Looking backward, it was very fortunate for the nation that in the days of its deepes

eports of the Commissioner of Immigration in Washington, the number of illiterates among Bohemians is less than 3 per cent., Slovaks 25 per cent., Serbo-Croatians, 38 per cent., Poles 40 per cent., Little Russians (Ruthenes),

c branch in Germany, support 11 publications; Slovaks, 53 (4 of which are dailies); Slovenes, 110 (5 dailies); Bulgars, 300 (19 dailies); Serbo-Croatians, 350 (37 dailies); Poles, 600 (78 dailies); Bohemians

of cultivation of the land. In the great agricultural belt formed by the States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas there are large settlements of Bohemians (about one-half of t

most liberal-minded of men,-in many instances a sceptic and a scoffer. Possibly there is no other foreign nationality in the Uni

usiness. The vast economic interests of the Jews are found wholly on the side of the Germans. Ernest Denis believes that German primacy in commerce may yet continue for some time to come, because the districts inhabited by them in Bohemia offer greater inducements to the investor and the capitalist, owing to the wealth of mineral ric

DOWN

easons and were defeated at the battle of White Hill (Bílá Hora) near Prague. From the effects of this disastrous event the

third to suffer was Christopher Harant of Pol?ic, "a learned man, distinguished writer, and noted traveler." The next on the death list was Caspar Kaplí? of Sulevic, a venerable man of eighty-six. The fifth was Prokop Dvo?ecky of Olbramovic, a scion of an old family. The sixth was Baron Frederick Bíly, "an upright and learned man, one of the Directors at the time of the interregnum." The seventh, Henry Otto of Los, who, under Frederick, was connected with the exchequer. Then followed successively Dionys ?ernín, William Konechlumsky, aged seventy years, Bohuslav of Michalovic, "a man of splendid talents who deserved well of his country," Valentine Kochan of Prachov, a learned master of arts; Tobias ?tefek of Koloděj, a citizen of Prague and a Director of the Revolution; John Jesensky of Jesen (Jessenius), a scholar, scientist, and orator, "whose writings shed lustre on the university;" Christopher Kober, a n

llel in the history of European nations. Edmund de Schweinitz, in commenting on the consequences of the Bohemian Revolution, says that "in the histor

enstein Commission had confiscated fully two-thirds of all the lands in Bohemia. Some of the choicest estates taken away from the rebels the emperor retained for the Hapsburg family. A goodly portion of the forfeited lands was given to the church, of which the emperor was a devout member. "Take, fathers, take," he used to say to the ecclesiastics when endowing this or that foundation with gifts of confiscated estates. "It is not always th

is, Gallas, Millesimo, Liechtenstein, Goltz, Villani, Defours, Huerta, Vasques-names indicating Spanish, Italian, German, and Walloon birth. These aliens, enriched by property taken away from Bohemian nobility, surrounded themselves with foreign officials, who treated the natives with the scorn and insolence of victors. Their chateaux formed in many cases the nucleus of German settlements which later threatened to overwhelm the nation. Some of

his empire there should be "unity of faith and tongue." A unity of faith he and his successors have achi

to town, searched libraries, carried off books written in Bohemian and burned them whether they were "tainted" or not. Sometimes the books were privately thrown in the flames in the houses where they had been seized; at other times they were brought to the market-place or to the public gallows and there publicly burned. The Jesuits were indefatigable in their search for here

the three lands,-Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia,-and it was the duty of this censor to see to it that no books were published or reprinted that did not meet the approval of the general of the order. Easy was the labor of the censor, for in Moravia, for instance, only one printer was fortunate enough to secure a license. In Bohemia they set up the so-called University Printing Office. Besides this only five or six other establishments were licensed to print books. In a few decades these zealots destr

In 1624 seven patents were promulgated. Some of these were directed against the laity, which, till then, had escaped the wrath of the conqueror. It ordered the expulsion from trade guilds of all those who could not agree with the emperor in matters of faith. Discriminatory measures against nonconformist merchants and traders went into effect, which quickly resulted in their ruin. Another patent, bearing

nued suits for treason, and made restitution of confiscated property. In some cases he extended the time within which heretics could become reconciled with the church, but the clemency was extended too late, for while some individual

not be accused of partiality, is authority for the statement that about 36,000 families, including 185 houses of nobility (some of these houses num

he "amendment" really consisted in the abolishment of those ancient right

nce on the affairs of the government. The Diet at Prague was divested practically of all its power and initiative; from now on its sole function was to levy and collect taxes. And because the king had invited to the country so many alien nobles (or commoners later ennobled) who were ignorant of the language of the land, the amended statute provided that henceforth the German language should enjoy equal rights with the Bohemian. A disastrous

und that the Chancellor was required to be near the person of the sovereign. In reality, however, the transfer was a part of a preconceived plan to make Vienna the centre of the empire, from which the Hapsburg "provinces" were to be ruled. Under one pretext or another

he confiscation of their estates, and the peasantry that survived was reduced by alien lords to a degrading condition of serfdom. Between 1621 and 1630 400 Prague citizens went into exile. The Nové Město (one of the Prague quarters) alone had at one time 500 vacant houses. The town of ?atec, which in 1618 had 460 citizens, counted ten years later 205 of them. In Kutná Hora, of a total of 600 houses, 200 remai

that the nobles were the standard-bearers of Bohemian nationalism and the sole representatives of the nation's culture

in New Amsterdam, made an attempt to establish a colony of compatriots on a grant of land that he had received from Lord Baltimore and which he named in honor of his native land, Bohemia Manor, a place famous in early Maryland history. Numerous exiles settled in the first half of the seventeenth century in Virginia. In the beginning the exiles hoped to be permitted to return home, but the terms of the Peace of Westphalia (164

n of death from harboring or aiding heretic teachers or ministers, the reading and smuggling into the country or otherwise circulating Bohemian books on the prohibited list. Other patents followed in 1721, 1722, 1723, 1724, 1725, 1726, with the result that non-Catholics who still secretly clung to the forbidden faith emigrated to Saxony and Prussia, where they sought the protection of the rulers of those countries. The suffering of the unfortunates was somewhat, though not wholly, relieved when the German princes, assembled in the Diet at Regensburg in 1735, sent a stro

ION AND TH

had been educated to the belief that he was rendering a supreme service to his subjects by forcing them "to unlearn the barbaric language of their sires, which isolated them from the rest of the world." "He who knows only Bohemian and Latin," declared Councilor Gebler, in 1765, "is bound to make a poor scholar, a

e were no Germans at all, only Poles and Russians. Discoursing upon the worth or the lack of value of languages of small n

or lowest grades of the school. No pupil could enter a gymnasium (secondary school) who had not had a previous training in German. Fortunately for the non-Germans of that period, progress was less rapid than had been generally expected. Sc

required to qualify in Latin and Greek, yet no one questioned whether or not he knew the tongue of the natives. Pupils were educated in German to be able to perform the work of janissaries on the people of their own race. Slowly but steadily Bohemian was likewise forced out of the courts. Laws were promulgated in the German language. The Bohemian began to los

r his thatched roof, long after it had been expelled from the proud chateaux of the nobility and disowned by the middle classes. The peasant preserved the language for the literary men who rescued from oblivion this precious gift for future generations. "It is admitted by all," said Palacky, "that th

Bohemian tongue," protested these officials. "The government cannot antagonize the feeling of the most influential and wealthiest classes who use German, if not exclusively, at least overwhelmingly. Moreover, to encourage Bohemian would be to lose sig

to make the empire a German state, as has already been pointed out. But a greater incentive than Josef's coercive measures were the inspiring ideals of the first French Revolution which

s solely in Bohemian were not allowed by the police. The text had to be translated, and the German part of it printed above the Bohemian. Nowhere but in the households of the commonest classes was the despised tongue sheltered. Families belonging to the world of officialdom and to the wealthier bourgeoisie, though often imperfectly familiar with it, clung to German. Strict etiquette barred Bohemian from the salons. The only entrance that was open t

hotel in Prague) and gave orders to the waiters in Bohemian, who, of course, understood us well. This we did with the intention o

a mistake, appears from the fact that Greater Prague to-day numbers nearly 600,000 inhabitants, of whom only about 17,000 are Germans. When, in 1844, Archduke Stephen cam

me and saying: 'Das ist auch einer von den Vlastenzen' (Here goes another of those patriots), or 'Das ist ein gewaltiger Czeche' (There is a thorough ?ech for you). During my stay

nguages, Bohemian and German. Abbé Dobrovsky, the "father of Slavic philology," and Count Kaspar were of the opinion that it was too late to think seriously of the resuscitation of the Bohemian nation, and that all attempts in that direction must end in failure. Palacky, then a youthful enthusiast, disagreed in this with his elder companions and bitterly reproached Dobrovsky, that he, a literary light among his people, had not written a single book in the mother tongue

er Sprache in B?hmen," dated 1790, Pelcl expressed himself as follows: "The time is approaching when the Bohemian language will be in the same situation at home as the Slavonic

ogy of arts and sciences, that flourished while the language lay dormant, had to be created. Dictionaries, grammars, and histories had to be compiled. Above all, the dross of alien forms had to be re

ary Pan-Slavism, wrote his main work in German. Josef Dobrovsky, already mentioned, composed all his works in German. Josef ?afa?ík's monumental volume on "Slavic Antiquities" was also written in German; even the "Father of his country," Francis Palacky, wrote his "History of the Bohemian Nation"[10] in t

not infrequently with contempt, while the government, distrusting everything that was new, suspected them of dangerous intrigues against the safety of the state. It must be

m ignorance, superstition, and bigotry, hindered it at every step. As an example of self-sacrificing patriotism, the case of a law student by the name of ?eho? should be mentioned. This man took a vow that he would distribute as many Bohemian books as were said to have been burnt by the Jesuit Koniá? during the anti-reformation, that is, 60,000 volumes. ?eho? died some time in the late fifties of the nineteenth century, and he is said to have accomplished the greater part of his self-imposed task. When Jungmann, one of the greatest of the revivalists, died

CAL AW

ever, was denied to them-they were not permitted to think. Prince Metternich, the personification of absolutist Austria of those days, observed with ala

tternich complained in a letter to Count Apponyi. "Each day we can observe how the moral infection is spread

, March 5th. Italy seethed with political excitement. Kossuth, in Hungary, demanded that a constitution be granted to the people in Austria. Overnight Metternich's elaborate system of government, maintained by the police and the military, was tumbling down li

y constitution, the reason assigned being "the incapacity of parliament." The choice fell on this particular young man because Prince Schwarzenberg recommended as ruler "one whom he would not have to be ashamed to show to the troops." Though not relevant, it is interesting to recall how the present emperor acquired his cognomen. "What shall it be, gentlemen," ask

nations. He made no secret of the fact that he was opposed to the rule of lawyers; those alone w

he methods of police rule that obtained prior to 1848. The reactionaries who s

o a noted clerical, "considering its peculiar structure, has only two firm bases on which it can rest in safety and unity,-the dynasty and the church." Accordingly he brought about, in 1855, the adoption of the famous concordat, a convention between the pope and the monarchy, a pact that increased immens

pon them the wrath of Vienna. Under Bach they were probably subjected to oppression

followed Palacky even to the sick-bed of his wife. The military authorities at Prague suspended the publication of Havlí?ek's famous newspaper, "Národní Noviny," on the ground that its editor indulged in "immoderate language." Finding Prague closed to his paper, Havlí?ek made an attempt to publish it in Vienna. "I am determined not to issue licenses to any newspaper in Vienna; we have enough n

e one journalist whom neither threats nor offers of bribery could influence. There, separated from his wife and child, Havlí?ek gave way to brooding which brought on a fatal brain disease. From Tyrol he was permitted to return home, broken in health and spirit. To the last Havlí?ek remained steadfast to the cause he had championed-the liberation from bondage of his nation. Havlí?ek

of the short-lived parliament, was deposed as judge because, when presiding at a trial, he failed to hold a drunkard on a charge of lèse majesté. Count Thu

een the historian and the censor. However, Palacky's biographers all agreed that the terms of the compromise were not satisfactory to him. He is said to have expressed a hope that future historians, living in freer times than he, should tell the whole truth about the importance and meaning of the Hussite movement, which he was not allowed to do. The chapters relating to the Hussite times he wrote both in B

and Rokytansky, was removed from the university because t

two or three scientific and literary magazines, and the police would have liked

hese learned bodies did not seem patriotic enough from the Austrian point of view. The Matice ?eská-a society for the publication of standard li

. "God prevent," answered ?afa?ík to Pogodin's letter (1857). "Who would think of pu

o be submitted for approval to a learned priest, to make sure that it contained nothing contrary to the teaching of the church. Palacky, who was always dr

ip, applied for a license to start a coal yard with which to support his family. The application was promptly disallowed. Young Fri?, a literary rebel, planned to issue a volume of poetry with the collaboration of the younger set of writers. This warning was received from Vienna: "Let Fri? beware; if he does not desist in his dangerous course, he ma

o live in it he must obey German laws. Yet Fri? was incorrigible. For his intractability and because he would

The progressive element clamored for reforms. Bach was dismissed from office and his successor (Goluchowski) announced that in the future the state budget would be subject to the scrutiny of the people and

go to Vienna and urge the emperor to have himself crowned king in Prague. When, subsequently, a deputation of the diet secured an audience from the ruler, he declared (1861): "I will b

eir ideal of autonomous Bohemia s

ke all Germans, obsessed with the notion that German hegemony was indispensable to the safety and greatness of the state. Accordingly he subordinated every other idea and interest to that one obsession. A most ingenious electoral system was evolved whereby Germans, though in minority, were able to control, not only the central parliament, but the provincial diets as well. The scheme was to favor the cities, wealthy individual taxpayers, and chambers of commerce (which groups then were German in sentiment) to the

ertheless entered parliament, but they did so upon the express understanding that their partici

government to the various races; the centralists, who were backed by the German masses, opposed this. Austria, according to the latter, was lost to the German cause the moment the agitation "Away from Vienna" had gained the upper hand. For reasons o

cution of their press, the brutal partiality of the speaker of parliament, the hostile attitude of the executive organs of the government were signs, the significance of whi

hat year they issued a statement in which the grievances of the nation were set forth at length. For sixteen years after that no Bohemian legislator appeared in the Austrian Parliament. And while this may not have been a sagacious

BLUNDER

had been a leading member, the championship wrested from it by victorious Hohenzollerns, rent by internal discord, its statesmen concurred in the opinion that reconstruction of some kind was inevitable. But what course of a

amored for recognition? Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria, it will be remembered, had formed a union in 1526-1527 on terms of equality. And then how should the larger Slavic questions be settled? Numerically the Slavs were the strongest element in the monarchy. If allowed to elect representa

a statesman who participated actively in the plan of reconstruction. "You," addressing the

d a dual government, one in Vienna, the other in Budapest, and three parliaments, one to sit in Vienna for the Austrian half, one to meet in Budapest for the Hungarian half, and a third one to be called the "Delegations" and to convene alternately at both capitals to deliberate on matters common to the

follows: Austria received Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Bukovina, Dalmatia, Galicia, Carinthia, Carniola, Trieste and vicinity, Goritz and Gradiska, Istria, Lower Austria, Up

d to dualism and presently became its irreconcilable enemies. Under the Au

ans 6,

4,96

es 1,2

roatian

ussians

17,0

domination fell t

ks 1,

ans 1,

1,10

Russian

80,

e race, setting up a political barrier where nature intended that none should exist. Austria, for instance, had been awarded Dalmatia, the population of which is almost wholly Croatian; yet Slavonia and Croatia, which is also Croatian to the core (or Serbo-Croatian), went to Hungary. Bohemians of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesi

e and given equal rank with a medley of outlying and insignificant provinces. Dualism condemned the Slavs to be the unwilling tools of a policy to which they had been opposed. Bohemia, the richest and most productive land in the empire, was made to bear the heaviest quota of the burden with which statesmen had saddled the Austrian half of the monarchy." Condemning dualism, Dr. Edward Grégr, in a famous speech delivered in parliament, declared "that it would be wisest to tear down to its foundations the ram

s, whose claims were utterly disregarded-it will be remembered that at that time, 1867, they were boycotting the parliament-a series of

h right to autonomy as Hungary. Promptly the government dissolved the diet and ordered new elections. At these elections, thanks to the ingenious electoral law, the Bohemians were defeated and the German minority, now master in the diet, proceeded to elect delegates to the Vienna Parliament. The Bohemians declared this election unconstitutional and fraudulent. Deputies s

ticipate in the labors of the parliament. The Director of Police in Prague received orders to see to it "that Bohemian new

an newspaper. Arrests for political crimes became so numerous that the jail of the New Town (one of the Boroughs of Prague) held at one time 400 prisoners, though there was room only for 250 persons. During 1868 in Prague alone Koller sent to jail 144 persons who were convicted of political misdemeanors and c

ecame furious. Bohemian autonomy, declared their organ, the Vienna "Neue Freie Presse," is an issue that only force can solve;

OSEF, A W

the emperor encouraged to make terms with the Bohemians. Hohenwart's first step was to name two distinguished Bohemians, Jire?ek and Habětínek, members of his cabinet. The "Neue Freie Presse" commented on Hohenwart's appointment as "the Sedan of German ideals in Austria." Hohenwart's next step was to select an Austrian commission, in co-operat

Crown, calling to mind the renown and power which the crown has conferred upon Us and Our predecessors, and mindful further of the unwavering loyalty with which the peopl

oravia, and the Duchy of Silesia were one and indivisible; that Bohemia was a part of the monarchy only as long as the Hapsburgs survived in the male or female line; that in the event of the Hapsburg-Lothringen line becoming extinct, B

ralists worked indefatigably to defeat the settlement with Bohemia. Their journals employed every means to prejudice public opinion against it.

ntrigued to defeat the autonomy which Premier Hohenwart was ready to concede. "Hungary will have nothing in common with Slavic Austria," declared the "Pester Lloyd," speaking

ntal Articles," resigned October 30th. For the second time since 1848 the rehabilitation of the Bohemian State had been frustrated. That the emperor, always vacillating and ever fearful of the Pan-

the diet was dissolved. The Auersperg-Lasser Ministry which followed Hohenwart was outspoke

ERSEC

prosecutors were instructed. "The prosecutors have a full power to act and they are answerable to no one." During the first year of the Auersperg-Lasser Ministry the daily newspaper "Politik" in Prague was confiscated 83 times by the conscientious prosecutor. A number of societies were dissolved, though non-political in character. An agricultural organization that had been founded during the reign of Maria Theresa and had survived the bitter days of Bach's administration, was deprived of its charter because its president, Prince Charles Schwarzenberg, a Bohemian noble, declined to participate in the Vienna Exposition unless a separate space was allotted there to Bohemia, as to Hungary. Eve

of Justice replied that state necessities justified this course. On one occasion a deputation of representative citizens of Prague called on Baron Koller to complain of the arbitrariness of the police. "Gentlemen, I hope you do not wish me to be uncivil to you. I am exceedingly busy, and inasmuch as I have

tion, autonomy, is to-day no nearer fulfillment than it ever was. If they thought that they might be able to convince Vienna of the injustice of dualism and might by parliamentary pressure force it to grant to them home rule of which they had been twice cheated, they had reckoned wrongly. Not only did they fail to bring Vienna to terms, but they were made to feel that anoth

two fronts-Vienna on one front and their fellow-countrymen with Pan-German leanings on the other. The main quarrel between Vienna and Prague during all these years has been over Home Rule. Shall Bohemians living in the countries comprising the B

SANCTION O

d Berlin, rather than toward Prague or Vienna. Their scheme having been blocked, the Germans availed themselves of obstructive tactics in the diet, with the result that a deadlock ensued. As usual, the Vienna Government hurried to the assistance of the Germans. Bohemian leaders were made to understand that they must yield in the Prague Diet, or suffer punishment in the parliament. However, neither threats nor promises moved the Bohemians; they made it plain that they would not submit to further political extortions. Unable to break the deadlock in Bohemia and unwilling to abandon the Germans in their hop

not they wished war. The ruler alone decided this momentous question by taking recourse to the famous paragraph fourteen of the constitution which, in certain cases, allows him to act alone without the co-operation or advice of the parliament.[14] This situation really suited the wishes of the government clique, which knew beforeh

f is possible so long as the deadening centralistic, anti-Slavic policy obtains, so long as

of state, principles of state, necessities of state. If the grumbling is too loud the malcontents are

believe that it will conquer in the end, if it is only determined." And the Bohemian nation is

RGS DI

Prague would be as German as Leipzig or Vienna. Their own determination to live saved them from extinction. All that the nation is and all that it has attained it has accomplished through its own effort, without help from Vienna, often in the face of the bitterest opposition from that quarter. Deny it as much as you will, the truth remains that Bohemians, remembering their experience with Ferdinand II., have always distrusted the Hapsburgs; and Francis Josef has done nothing, despite the splendid opportunities of his remarkably long reign, to dispel that feeling of distrust. For, who was it but a Hapsburg who, in the first half of the s

TY AN

ere enthusiastic and united[15] on the question of war and that stories of oppression of non-Germanic peoples were baseless, lacking the foundation of truth. A member of one of the consular staffs made a pretty speech before the New York Twilight Club in which he tried to convince

ny of troops is admittedly unknown in the German Army, and none have been, so far as we know, reported from the French or English Armies. Neither the Germans, nor the English, nor the French officials in this country have felt the need to make public affi

gain, many of the leading men of the Bohemian nation are in jail or under strict police surveillance and cannot speak. Are we to believe that all the Austrian races fight enthusiastically? Precisely the opposite of this is true. With the exception of a fraction of the Galician Poles, the Slavs were entirely opposed to the war with Serbia.[16] Unfortunately they have no voice in the foreign policy of the monarchy; if their warnings and pleadings, as reflexed in their press, had been heeded, war against Serbia would never have been undertaken. Slavs are battling under the Austro-Hungarian standards because they cannot help themselves. Yet their hearts are not in the fight. Even the dullest and least informed mind will guess, notwithstanding the honeyed assurances of consular officials, the way their sympathies incline. It should be borne in mind that this is a war of Slavs against Slavs, of Slavic Russia and Slavic Serbia against two-fifths Slavic Austria. Let us place ourselves in the position of the Bohemians. For decades they have worked for sol

fatherland. What are the Austrian Slavs fighting for? To them, or rather to the majority of them, Austrian fatherland conveys but an abstraction, for correctly speaking, Austria is a government and not a fatherland in the sense that a German or a Frenchman regards the country of his birth. Austria may possibly be a fatherland to the inhabitants of the Archduchies of Lower and Upper Austria, bu

, THE

Vienna? The residence of the sovereign and the seat of the government and the capital-not of the empire, mind you, but of the Archduchy of Lower Austria. The capital of Hungary is Budapest; the centre of attraction of the Poles is Cracow; the heart of the Bohemians is Prague. What has been the a

sign on the building until the municipality gave its consent thereto. A few years ago a company of actors, attached to the National

an city! A few years ago the municipality ordered the closing of the Komensky Bohemian elementary school, ostensibly because it failed to comply with building and health ordinances. The real reason, however, was known to be political and raci

PR

yet with the assistance of a few facts and figures much that is puzzl

new sources of wealth, yet with every factory erected or a mine opened the socialists have added so much to their disaffected ranks. A bitter war is being waged in certain sections of the monarchy between the clericals and the modernists, for it must not be forgotten that Austria is still a faithful daughter of Rome

new and recognized Austrian-Germans only. After that revolutionary year they were compelled to take notice, unwillingly enough, we may be sure, of other races. Bohemians, Magyar

in the future Germany. "The aim which you propose to yourselves," wrote Palacky, among other things, to Frankfort, "is the substitution of a federation of peoples for the old federation of princes, to unite the German nation in a real union, to strengthen the sentiment of German nationality, to secure the greatness of Germans without and within. I honor your resolve and the motives by which you are impelled, but at the same time I cannot share in your work. I am not a German, or at least I do not feel as if I were one. Assuredly you

rian Government for allowing the national movement among its Slavs to spread as it did. What the

Slovaks, Poles, Ruthenes, Slovenes, Rumuns, and Italians, should submit to the baptism of the German school, if they desire to participate in the public affairs of the state." Someone answering von Kaiserfeld, for that was the name of the distinguished statesman, "You desire to Germanize the empire; you are not Austrians, you are Germans," von Kaiserfeld replied angrily, "There are no Austrians in Austria, only Germans." Von Kaiserfeld was not the only statesman who believed that Austria should b

f the latter's feelings. The result was jealousy, discord, opposition. Even the Great War which has caused Austria to rock like a rudderless ship, was engineered and premeditated by the 35 per cent., in face of th

shod manner as Vienna has treated the Bohemians, or Budapest the Slovaks, Serbs, or Rumuns, she would have made rebels of every one of them, instead of loyal citizens. The Swiss Republic is the home of three races, French, German, and Italia

overnment owes it to the people to make Bohemia German. Extirpate! Remember, gentlemen, Ratkovsky is not an isolated case; this agitation is being conducted systematically both in Austria and in Germany. F. L?her, a Bavarian historian, who studied conditions in Austria-Hungary in the seventies, declared that there was only one conclusion possible: to make Germans of Bohemians and Magyars. This same idea was advanced by Professor Walcker of the University of Leipzig. Yet, gentlemen, I should not attribute so great a weight to the opinions here cited were it not for the circumstance that bigger men in Germany were behind this scheme. One can often hear mentioned the name of Lagarde in this connection and you, gentlemen of the German national party, know Lagarde's name full well. What has this great thinker taught the German youth for decades? 'Austria must be regarded in the light of a colony of Germany. Apart from this Austria has no claim to a separate existence. Austria is confronted with one task only and that task is to Germanize all its Slavs.' To the South Slavs Lagarde gave pardon. All the other people of the Danube Monarchy, including the Magyars, were obstacles in Germany's way and the sooner they were extirpated the better for Germany, the better for themselves. Slavs, according to Lagarde, resembled a commercial enterprise which was working with an insufficient capital. And just as there could be no Reuss-Schleiz-Greiz-Lobenstein policy, so there could not exist a state called Wenzelland (an opprobrious term given to Bohemia by Germans and meaning much the same as Patrickland as applied to Ireland). Istria, contended Lagarde, should be German to form an outlet for German commerce to the Adriatic Sea and to the African coast, Jablunkov (a town in Austrian Silesia situated on a direct route to Hungary) should hear nothing but German, and from there let the wave roll southwardly, submerging the wretched little states and people that now bar the way thither. 'No empire, save Germany, is capable o

Prague the courts try cases in either Bohemian or German, but should a Bohemian come into contact with the courts in Vienna, the capital of the empire, the law forgets equality and treats him there as a foreigner who must plead his case in German only. In Prague there are numerous and palatial German schools maintained by the state or the municipality, as the case may be; but in Vienna Bohemians, though numbering not less than 300,000 (in Prague Germans are 17,000 strong), have not one public school and the school authorities at the capital have fought for years in the courts every attempt of

rles IV. in 1348-far outstripped its old partner in point of attendance. At present the number of students in the Bohemian faculties is 4,713; in the German 2,282. Of late years a demand has been made for a second university to be located at Brno (Brünn), the capital of Moravia. The University of Prague is scandalously overcrowded and students from the sister state of Moravia are compelled, in consequence, to go to Vienna in search of education, where, under Teutonic influences, many are estranged from their nation. Numerous petitions have been addressed to the government on the subject of a second university, but to no purpose. In the matter of secondary schools (gymnasia and real schools) the discrimination against non-Germans is very striking. For 4,241,918 Bohemians in Bohemia the government maintains 39 schools of this typ

GIN OF

hat year by the Hungarians, who placed the crown of their country on the head of this Hapsburg. From that time on Austria, composed of three states in one, started on its career of a world power. The three units were the basis, the origin, the rise of the Austrian Empire. All else is really the result of accident. Eastern Galicia has belonged to Austria only since 1772, Bukovina since 1777, Western Galicia since 1795, Venice

'S FUTU

ch minorities rule and majorities are made to obey, the homeland of a doze

st came to an end at Sedan when the Prussians assumed leadership among Germans; the second terminated when Prussia gave up its Kulturkampf against R

been, to form a bridge between Germany and Russia, between the Slavs and Teutons, between the west and the east. For Germany to go to war to fight the Slavic peril is conceivable, even justifiable; but for Austria, more than 60 per cent. Slavonic, to draw her sword

nial empire. Austria possesses no colonies. The plan of her statesmen (Aehrenthal) has been to establish a predominating Austrian influence in the Balkans, where Germany's interests, to quote the well-k

a, with Trentino and Trieste restored to Italy, and Bosnia and Herzegovina incorporated in Greater Serbia-provided the partition went no further-what would be left of the Hapsburg inheritance? Instead of a Greater Austria, that should have included c

ll only live as long as the Slavs wish her to live and no longer. Rieger's famous utt

as ?

nal Life Within the Last Half Century, by Jakub Maly; Slavdom, Pictures of Its Past and Present. (This is a standard work containing isolated articles by a number of representative authors.) History of Our Times, by Dr. Jan Kri?t?fek; Political History of the Bohemian Nation from the Year 1861 to the Ascension of the