Pact of 1906

language; and on Tisza's motion the Liberal party adopted by military force (February 19, 1906) and an open breach of the an addendum, sanctioned by the crown: "the party maintains constitution seemed within sight did they come to terms with the standpoint that the king has a right to fix the language of the crown and form an administration. The miserable state service and command in the Hungarian army on the basis of his of public finances and the depression of trade doubtless helped constitutional prerogatives as recognized in clause 11 of law XII. to induce them to perform a duty which they ought to have of 1867."

performed from the first; but their chief motive was the desire Notwithstanding the concessions, obstruction was continued to escape the menace of universal suffrage or, at least, to make by the Clericals and the extreme Independents, partly in the sure that it would be introduced in such a form as to safeguard hope of compelling the crown to grant the Magyar words of Magyar supremacy over the other Hungarian races. command and partly out of antipathy towards the person of The pact concluded (April 8, 1906) between the Coalition and the young calvinist premier. In March 1904, Tisza, therefore, the crown is known to have contained the following conditions: introduced a drastic" guillotine" motion to amend the standing All military questions to be suspended until after the orders of the House, but withdrew it in return for an undertaking introduction of universal suffrage; the estimates from the Opposition that obstruction would cease. This time and the normal contingent of recruits to be voted for the Opposition kept its word. The Recruits bill and the estimates 1905 and 1906; the extraordinary military credits, sanctioned were adopted, the Delegations were enabled to meet at Budapest by the delegations in 1904, to be voted by the Hungarian -where they voted £22,000,000 as extraordinary estimates for Chamber; ratification of the commercial treaties concluded the army and navy and especially for the renewal of the field by Tisza; election of the Hungarian Delegation and of the artillery-and the negotiations for new commercial treaties Quota-Deputation; introduction of a suffrage reform at least with Germany and Italy were sanctioned, although parliament as far reaching as the Kristóffy scheme. These" capitulations" had never been able to ratify the Széll-Körber compact with obliged the Coalition government to carry on a dualist policy, the tariff on the basis of which the negotiations would have to although the majority

of its adherents became, by the general be conducted. But, as the autumn session approached, Tisza election of May 1906, members of the Kossuth or Independence foresaw a new campaign of obstruction, and resolved to revert party, and, as such, pledged to the economic and political to his drastic reform of the standing orders. The announcement separation of Hungary from Austria save as regards the person of his determination caused the Opposition to rally against him, of the ruler. Attempts were, however, made to emphasize the and when on the 18th of November the Liberal party adopted independence of Hungary. During the deadlock (June 2, 1905) a "guillotine" motion by a show of hands in defiance of orthodox Kossuth had obtained the adoption of a motion to authorize procedure, a section of the party seceded. On the 13th of the compilation of an autonomous Hungarian tariff, and on the December the Opposition, infuriated by the formation of a special 28th of May 1906, the Coalition cabinet was authorized by the corps of parliamentary constables, invaded and wrecked the crown to present the Széll-Körber tariff to the Chamber in the Chamber. Tisza appealed to the country and suffered, on the form of a Hungarian autonomous tariff distinct from but identical 26th of January 1905, an overwhelming defeat at the hands with the Austrian tariff. This concession of form having been of a coalition composed of dissentient Liberals, Clericals, In- made to the Magyars without the knowledge of the Austrian dependents and a few Bánffyites. The Coalition gained an government, Prince Konrad Hohenlohe, the Austrian premier, absolute majority and the Independence party became the resigned office; and his successor, Baron Beck, eventually strongest political group. Nevertheless the various adherents (July 6) withdrew from the table of the Reichsrath the whole of the dual system retained an actual majority in the Chamber Széll-Körber compact, declaring that the only remaining and prevented the Independence party from attempting to economic ties between the two countries were freedom of trade, realize its programme of reducing the ties between Hungary and the commercial treaties with foreign countries, the joint state Austria to the person of the joint ruler. On the 25th of January, bank and the management of excise. If the Hungarian govern the day before his defeat, Count Tisza had signed on behalf ment wished to regulate its relationship to Austria in a more of Hungary the new commercial treaties concluded by the definite form, added the Austrian premier, it must conclude a Austro-Hungarian foreign office with Germany and Italy on new agreement before the end of the year 1907, when the reciprothe basis of the Széll-Körber tariff. He acted ultra vires, but by city arrangement of 1899 would lapse. The Hungarian governhis act saved Hungary from a severe economic crisis and retained ment replied that any new arrangement with Austria must be for her the right to benefit by economic partnership with Austria concluded in the form of a commercial treaty as between two until the expiry of the new treaties in 1917

foreign states and not in the form of a "customs and trade A deadlock, lasting from January 1905 until April 1906, alliance.” ensued between the crown and Hungary and, to a great extent, Austria ultimately consented to negotiate on this basis.

between Hungary and Austria. The Coalition, though In October 1907 an agreement was attained, thanks chiefly to possessing the majority in the Chamber, resolved not the sobering of Hungarian opinion by a severe economic

to take office unless the crown should grant its demands, crisis, which brought out with unusual clearness the including the Magyar words of command and customs fact that separation from Austria would involve a separation from Austria. The crown declined to concede these period of distress if not of commercial ruin for Hungary. points, either of which would have wrecked the dual system as Austria also came to see that separation from Hungary would interpreted since 1867. The Tisza cabinet could not be relieved seriously enhance the cost of living in Cisleithania and would of its functions till June 1905, when it was succeeded by a non-deprive Austrian manufacturers of their best market. The parliamentary administration under the premiership of General main features of the new "customs and commercial treaty " Baron Fejerváry, formerly minister for national defence. Seeing were: (1) Each state to possess a separate but identical customs that the Coalition would not take office on acceptable terms, tariff. (2) Hungary to facilitate the establishment of direct Fejerváry obtained the consent of the crown to a scheme, railway communication between Vienna and Dalmatia, the drafted by Kristóffy, minister of the interior, that the dispute communication to be established by the end of 1911, each state between the crown and the Coalition should be subjected to building the sections of line that passed through its own territory. the test of universal suffrage and that to this end the franchise (3) Austria to facilitate railway communication between Hungary in Hungary be radically reformed. The scheme alarmed the and Prussia. (4) Hungary to reform her produce and Stock Coalition, which saw that universal.suffrage might destroy not Exchange laws so as to prevent speculation in agrarian produce. only the hegemony of the Magyar nobility

and gentry in whose (5) A court of arbitration to be established for the settlement hands political power was concentrated, but might, by admitting of differences between the two states, Hungary selecting four the non-Magyars to political equality with the Magyars, under Austrian and Austria four Hungarian judges, the presidency of mine the supremacy of the Magyar race itself. Yet the Coalition the court being decided by lot, and each government being repredid not yield at once. Not until the Chamber had been dissolved I sented before the court by its own delegates. (6) Impediments

Deadlock of 1905.

Agree ment of 1907.

to free trade in sugar to be practically abolished. (7) Hungary | offended several of the great powers, who seemed to see in this to be entitled to redeem her share of the old Austrian debt railway concession the price of the abandonment by Austria(originally bearing interest at 5 and now at 4-2 %) at the Hungary of her interest in Macedonian reforms. That Baron rate of 4.325% within the next ten years; if not redeemed von Aerenthal was able to pursue a policy apparently so rash, within ten years the rate of capitalization to decrease annually was due to the fact that he could reckon on the support of by until it reaches 4-2%. This arrangement represents a Germany. The intimate relations between the two powers potential economy of some £2,000,000 capital for Hungary as had been' revealed during the dispute between France and compared with the original Austrian demand that the Hungarian Germany about Morocco; in the critical division of the 3rd contribution to the service of the old Austrian debt be capitalized of March 1906 at the Algeciras Conference Austria-Hungary, at 4.2% (8) The securities of the two governments to rank alone of all the powers, had sided with Germany, and it was a as investments for savings banks, insurance companies and proposal of the Austro-Hungarian plenipotentiary that formed similar institutions in both countries, but not as trust fund the basis of the ultimate settlement between Germany and investments. (9) Commercial treaties with foreign countries France (see MOROCCO: History). The cordial relations thus to be negotiated, not, as hitherto, by the joint minister for emphasized encouraged Baron Aerenthal, in the autumn of foreign affairs alone, but also by a nominee of each government. 1908, to pursue a still bolder policy. The revolution in Turkey (10) The quota of Austrian and Hungarian contribution to had entirely changed the face of the Eastern Question; the joint expenditure to be 63-6 and 36-4 respectively—an increase problem of Macedonian reform was swallowed up in that of the of 2% in the Hungarian quota, equal to some £200,000 a year. reform of the Ottoman empire generally, there was even a The economic dispute between Hungary and Austria was thus danger that a rejuvenated Turkey might in time lay claim to settled for ten years after negotiations lasting more than twelve the provinces occupied by Austria-Hungary under the treaty years. One important question, however, that of the future of of Berlin; in any case, the position of these provinces, governed the joint State Bank, was left over for subsequent decision. autocratically from Vienna, between a constitutional Turkey During the negotiations for the customs and commercial treaty, and a constitutional Austria-Hungary, would have been highly the Austrian government attempted to conclude for a longer anomalous. In the circumstances Baron Aerenthal determined period than ten years, but was unable to overcome Hungarian on a bold policy. Without consulting the co-signatory powers resistance. Therefore, at the end of 1917, the commercial of the treaty of Berlin, and in deliberate violation of its provisions, treaties with Germany, Italy and other countries, and the Austro- the king-emperor issued, on the 13th of October, a decree Hungarian customs and commercial treaty, would all lapse. annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Habsburg Monarchy, Ten years of economic unity remained during which the Dual and at the same time announcing the withdrawal of the AustroMonarchy might grow together or grow asunder, increasing Hungarian troops from the sanjak of Novibazar. (See EUROPE: accordingly in strength or in weakness. (H. W. S.) History.) During this period of internal crisis the international position of the Dual Monarchy was threatened by two external dangers. The unrest in Macedonia threatened to reopen the Eastern Question in an acute form; with Italy the irredentist attitude of the Zanardelli cabinet led in 1902-1903 to such strained relations that war seemed imminent. The southern Tirol, the chief passes into Italy, strategic points on the Istrian and Dalmatian coasts, were strongly fortified, while in the interior the Tauern, Karawanken and Wochein railways were constructed, partly in order to facilitate the movement of troops towards the Italian border. The tension was relaxed with the fall of the Zanardelli government, and comparatively cordial relations were gradually re-established.

In the affairs of the Balkan Peninsula a temporary agreement with Russia was reached in 1903 by the so-called "February Programme," supplemented in the following October by the "Mürzsteg Programme" (see MACEDONIA; TURKEY; EUROPE: History). The terms of the Mürzsteg programme were observed by Count Goluchowski, in spite of the ruin of Russian prestige in the war with Japan, so long as he remained in office. In October 1906, however, he retired, and it was soon clear that his successor, Baron von Aerenthal, was determined to take advantage of the changed European situation to take up once more the traditional policy of the Habsburg monarchy in the Balkan Peninsula. He gradually departed from the Mürzsteg basis, and in January 1908 deliberately undermined the Austro-Russian agreement by obtaining from the sultan a concession for a railway from the Bosnian frontier through the sanjak of Novibazar to the Turkish terminus at Mitrovitza. This was done in the teeth of the expressed wish of Russia; it roused the helpless resentment of Servia, whose economic dependence upon the Dual Monarchy was emphasized by the outcome of the war of tariffs into which she had plunged in 1906, and who saw in this scheme another link in the chain forged for her by the Habsburg empire; it

Alois, Count Lexa von Aerenthal, was born on the 27th of September 1854 at Gross-Skal in Bohemia, studied at Bonn and Prague, was attaché at Paris (1877) and afterwards at St Petersburg, envoy extraordinary at Bucharest (1895) and ambassador at St Petersburg (1896). He was created a count on the emperor's 79th birthday in 1909.

Internal diffi

'culties.

Meanwhile the relations between the two halves of the Dual Monarchy had again become critical. The agreement of 1907 had been but a truce in the battle between two irreconcilable principles: between Magyar nationalism, determined to maintain its ascendancy in an independent Hungary, and Habsburg imperialism, equally determined to preserve the economic and military unity of the Dual Monarchy. In this conflict the tactical advantage lay with the monarchy; for the Magyars were in a minority in Hungary, their ascendancy was based on a narrow and artificial franchise, and it was open to the king-emperor to hold in terrorem over them an appeal to the disfranchised majority. It was the introduction of a Universal Suffrage Bill by Mr Joseph Kristóffy, minister of the interior in the "unconstitutional" cabinet of Baron Fejérváry, which brought the Opposition leaders in the Hungarian parliament to terms and made possible the agreement of 1907. But the Wekerle ministry which succeeded that of Fejérváry on the 9th of April 1906 contained elements which made any lasting compromise impossible. The burning question of the " Magyar word of command" remained unsettled, save in so far as the fixed determination of the king-emperor had settled it; the equally important question of the renewal of the charter of the Austro-Hungarian State Bank had also formed no part of the agreement of 1907. On the other hand, the Wekerle ministry was pledged to a measure of franchise reform, a pledge which they showed no eagerness to redeem, though the granting of universal suffrage in the Austrian half of the Monarchy had made such a change inevitable. In March 1908 Mr Hallo laid before the Hungarian parliament a formal proposal that the charter of the Austro-Hungarian Bank, which was to expire at the end of 1910, should not be renewed; and that, in the event of failure to negotiate a convention between the banks of Austria and Hungary, a separate Hungarian Bank should be established. This question, obscured during the winter by the Balkan crisis, once more became acute in the spring of 1909. In the Coalition cabinet itself opinion was sharply divided, but in the end the views of the Independence party prevailed, and Dr Wekerle laid the proposal for a separate Hungarian Bank before the king-emperor and the Austrian government. Its reception was significant. The emperor Francis Joseph pointed out that the question of a separate Bank for Hungary

Contral

Federal
Ists.

The

did not figure in the act of 1867, and could not be introduced give greater power to the German inhabitants of the towns; into it, especially since the capital article of the ministerial pro- the votes of the proprietors would, moreover, nearly always give gramme, i.e. electoral reform, was not realized, nor near being the final decision to the court and the government, for the realized. This was tantamount to an appeal from the Magyar influence exercised by the government over the nobility would populus to the Hungarian plebs, the disfranchised non-Magyar generally be strong enough to secure a majority in favour of the majority; an appeal all the more significant from the fact that government policy it ignored the suffrage bill brought in on behalf of the Hungarian This constitution had failed; territories so different in size, government by Count Julius Andrássy in November 1908, a bill history and circumstances were not contented with similar which, under the guise of granting the principle of universal institutions, and a form of self-government which satisfied Suffrage, was ingeniously framed so as to safeguard and even Lower Austria and Salzburg did not satisfy Galicia and Bohemia. to extend Magyar ascendancy (see HUNGARY: History). In The Czechs of Bohemia, like the Magyars, had refused to recogconsequence of this rebuff Dr Wekerle tendered his resignation nize the common parliament on the ground that it violated the on the 27th of April. Months passed without it being possible historic rights of the Bohemian as of the Hungarian crown, to form a new cabinet, and a fresh period of crisis and agitation and in 1865 the constitution of 1861 had been superseded, while was begun.

(W. A. P.) the territorial diets remained. In 1867 it was necessary once II. Austria Proper since 1867.

more to summon, in some form or another, a common parliament

for the whole of Austria, by which the settlement with Hungary As already explained, the name Austria is used for convenience could be ratified. to designate those portions of the possessions of the house of This necessity brought to a decisive issue the struggle between Habsburg, which were not included by the settlement of 1867 the parties of the Centralists and Federalists. The latter among the lands of the Hungarian crown. The separation of claimed that the new constitution must be made by Hungary made it necessary to determine the method by which agreement

with the territories; the former

maintained ists and these territories were henceforth to be governed It was the that the constitution of 1861 was still valid, and misfortune of the country that there was no clear legal basis demanded that in accordance with it the Reichsrath on which new institutions could be erected. Each of the terri- should be summoned and a constitutional government tories was a separate political unit with a separate history, and restored. The difference between the two parties was to a great some of them had a historic claim to a large amount of self- extent, though not entirely, one of race. The kernel of the government; in many the old feudal estates had survived till empire was the purely German district, including Upper and 1848. Since that year the empire had been the subject of Lower Austria, Salzburg, Tirol (except the south) and Vorarlberg, numerous experiments in government; by the last, which all Styria except the southern districts, and a large part of began in 1860, Landlage or diets have been instituted in each Carinthia. There was strong local feeling, especially in Tirol, of the territories on a nearly uniform system and with nearly but it was local feeling similar to that which formerly existed identical powers, and by the constitution published in February in the provinces of France; among all classes and parties there 1861 (the February Constitution, as it is called), which is still was great loyalty both to the ruling house and to the idea of the

the ultimate basis for the government, there was Austrian state; but while the Liberal party, which was dominant February instituted a Reichsrath or parliament for the whole in Lower Austria and Styria, desired to develop the central Constita empire; it consisted of a 'House of Lords (Herren- institutions, there was a strong Conservative and Clerical party

haus), in which sát the archbishops and prince bishops, which supported local institutions as a protection against the members of the imperial family, and other members appointed Liberal influence of a centralized parliament and bureaucracy, for life, besides some hereditary members, and a Chamber of and the bishops and clergy were willing to gain support in the Deputies. The members of the latter for each territory were struggle by alliance with the Federalists. not chosen by direct election, but by the diets. The diets Very different was it in the other territories where the majority themselves were elected for six years; they were chosen generally of the population was not German and where there was a (there were slight local differences) in the following way: (a) lively recollection of the time when they were not a certain number of bishops and rectors of universities sat in Austrian. With Palacky, they said, “We existed virtue of their office; (b) the rest of the members were chosen before Austria; we shall continue to exist after it lands. by four electoral bodies or curiae,-(1) the owners of estates is gone." Especially was this the case in Bohemia. which before 1848 had enjoyed certain feudal privileges, the In this great country, the richest part of the Austrian dominions, so-called great proprietors; (2) the chambers of commerce, where over three-fifths of the population were Czech, racial (3) the towns; (4) the rural districts. In the two latter classes feeling was supported by the appeal to historic law. A great all had the suffrage who paid at least ten gulden in direct taxes. party, led by Palacky and Rieger, demanded the restoration of The districts were so arranged as to give the towns a yery large the Bohemian monarchy in its fullest extent, including Moravia representation in proportion to their populations. In Bohemia, and Silesia, and insisted that the emperor should be crowned c.g., the diet consisted of 241 members: of these five were as king of Bohemia at Prague as his predecessors had been, and ex officio members; the feudal proprietors had scventy; the that Bohemia should have a position in the monarchy similar towns and chambers of commerce together had eighty-seven; to that obtained by Hungary. Not only did the party include the rural districts seventy-nine. The electors in the rural all the Czechs, but they were supported by many of the great districts were 236,000, in the towns 93,000. This arrangement pobles who were of German descent, including Count Leo Thun, seems to have been deliberately made by Schmerling, so as to his brother-in-law Count Heinrich Clam-Martinitz, and Prince

Friedrich von Schwarzenberg, cardinal archbishop of Prague, . It is impossible to avoid using the word " Austria" to designate who hoped in a self-governing kingdom of Bohemia to preserve these territories, though it is probably incorrect. Officially the word that power which was threatened by the German Liberals. The Austria, an Austrian empire appears not to exist;

the territories are feudal nobles had great power arising from their wealth, the spoken of in official documents as "the kingdoms and lands repre great traditions of their families, and the connexion with the sented in the Reichsrath.". The Hungarians and the German party court, and by the electoral law they had a large number of such as “ Austrian citizens," " Austrian law" are found. The of Bohemia, fearful of falling under the control of the Czechs, be used, but it has not been gratified. On the other hand, expressions representatives in the diet. On the other hand the Germans reason of this peculiar use is probably twofold. On the one hand, a were the most ardent advocates of centralization. The Czechs reluctance to confess that Hungary is no longer in any sense a part were supported also by their fellow-countrymen in Moravia, of Austria : on the other hand, the refusal of the Czechs to recognize and some of the nobles, headed by Count Belcredi, brother of which properly is applied only to the older ancestral

dominions of the the minister; but in Brünn there was a strong German party, house of Habsburg, is used for waqt of a better word.

In Silesia the Germans had a considerable majority, and as

too:

The Slavoal