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Sanna MALE Leb HisAEObuderedederroretateed i RIN OTT ENT 4. ui Heat avei beh RUatalatelachae { SOLAR. I Ms liuerabliatet APPEL BER EMU E CANT tMEN ibbete dean rae MELE RUR Eos AP & Meirarereree Chan Lhethesbipttdeed theect HACER EU TESTALLALEL EeiPA Pe be sta RMR bat i Een ite GREET AE AUPE recta e tbe tae CO 4 Shee r VEPELPU RIED Perni debi saben parody rena BRERDR AEE b Le i perpen “Vere yc: vikue ee TRE SRE BN yet ‘§ : a Wha HESUTEA Teepe yea bar yew eeh yj PN Aa Hitt vite iit a PRY PU Sa EDN vat AERIS OF ieee ny ah vis THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: we. vy t LIBRARY —OlL4Sb W 59 ‘Return this book on Of belore the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. | University of Illinois Library | b? ‘nd } i Qe $U 19 ganio4g A eo “ piPly ea th fer a re! beh ee if) E - y 1 e 4 a) , i ; 4 ; caw jie THE REALM OF Jl#,3¢ vw59 BY THEVSAME AULAHOR IMPERIAL GERMANY FW Critical Study OF FACT AND CHARACTER THE UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY ieee alee eM OF fae MABSBUNGS BY SIDNEY WHITMAN “OO wer wWerss, Was in der Zetten Hintergrunde schlunimert ;” SCHILLER: Dox Carlos NEW YORK EPOVELE, CORYELL & COMPANY 5 AND 7 EAST SIXTEENTH STREET gn Affectionate Memory OF Hi Re Woe Mm «Nice, fanuary 26, 1884 CHAP, XII. XIII, GO Nel EEN INTRODUCTORY . . PAST AND PRESENT. THE 5 Aleinh THE THE . THE UNLESS THE THE . THE THE THE THE GERMANS . CZECH HUNGARIANS . JEW . VIENNESE . ° EMPEROR . ° NOBILITY . NOBILITY (continued) ARMY : . ARMY (continued) PRIEST AUSTRIAN MIDDLE CLASSES PAGE vill CONTENTS CHAP. XIV. THE AUSTRIAN MIDDLE CLASSES (continued) XV. THE AUSTRIAN MIDDLE CLASSES (continued) XVI. THE PEASANT XVII. WOMANKIND IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY XVIII. CONCLUSION ELE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS INTRODUCTORY . ov yap ot mareis, OVS eipiyora Portes acparécraror' "ANN Ot Ppovodvres €d Kparovar Tavtaxod * SOPHOCLES (Ajaz) 4 I To many Englishmen the very term ‘‘ Austria,” or— as this at one time most powerful country in Europe is called since the Covenant of 1867f—< Austria- Hungary,” conveys a somewhat hazy geographical as well as political idea. And this is the case * ‘Wor not the stout or the broadbacked men are the most sure ; those rather who keep their wits come everywhere to the ‘ front.” + The Covenant of 1867 (Law of December 21), re-constituted the Empire as two inseparable and constitutional monarchies, hereditary in the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ; it gave Hungary . important separate State Rights, and perpetuated the Habsburg dominion under the denomination of Austria-Hungary. A 2 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS notwithstanding that England and Austria have - been allies on many momentous occasions and fought side by side on many a hard-fought field. Who will say, too, that to-morrow some political comph- cation may not again suddenly concentrate the attention. of Europe on the banks of the Danube ? The country itself is comparatively seldom visited by tourists * from the west of Hurope, and is even less read about. Thus it is that this most fertile, as well as most picturesque, part of the Continent— lavishly endowed as it is by Nature—is as little known to us as are the character of its inhabitants, their many racial distinctions, and their varied social and political life. Yet there never was a time in which it was more imperative than it is at present to investigate the psychological aspect of things in the wide domain of the national life of neighbouring peoples. The ° electric telegraph, the network of railways, the extraordinary impulse given to production of every kind all the world over, are all by degrees bringing about a state of affairs in which the struggle for existence among communities as among individuals, seems destined to become acute. We are being brought so near to one another that we can no longer afford to ignore each other’s existence; but the struggle thus looming in the future has not hitherto * The so-called Salzkammergut and the Tyrol are exceptions to the above statement. According to the statistics for 1890, German-speaking Tyro! alone boasted 190,575 visitors during the year, who spent over seven million florins in the country. The statistics of Italian-speaking Tyrol are not given. INTRODUCTORY 3 . led to much mutual knowledge of character or of institutions. The following pages are mainly intended to be a small contribution to the study of the psychology of nations, and to show, among other things, how even classic virtue may be insufficient in the battle of life, the palm of which is now more than ever allotted to the “ fittest.” II Austria is a country which stands geographically, economically, as well as politically, midway between the past and the present. Geographically Austria borders on the west on highly developed Germany, while on the east it touches stagnation. In parts of Austria the past in all its phases is still blended with the present in proportions hardly to be met with elsewhere in HKurope. For whilst the tcurist can traverse Hungary by rail, by virtue of the new Zone tariff, for less money than he can travel first- class from Dover to Calais, in this same Hungary over half a million of hand ploughs made of wood still furrow the fertile soil.* In England, the Royalty of the Plantagenets, Tudors, and Stuarts has given place to a mild form of social regal presidency—an amiable but arduous leadership, through the mazes of Society’s cotillon. Seated on the throne of the Austria of to-day is the * “Nie Landwirthschaft Ungarns.” Prof. Dr. EH. v. Rodiczky. 4 THE REALM OF THE HABSEURGS same family which held sway there in the days of our Plantagenets. And, although the despotic rule of those days has given place to the prevailing milder form of representative government, yet the fervid loyalty of past ages, elsewhere dead, still survives in the hearts of the soil-nurtured Austrian peasant, of the town-bred citizen, and of the noble in his princely ancestral home. With us the distinctive garb of the people has long disappeared, together with the class life of the rural population. A visitor coming to England, fresh from Austria, must be surprised to see the lower orders—particularly the women—dressed in the soiled and bedraggled left-off finery of the middle classes. Among Austria’s many nationalities, each still retains its characteristic picturesque garb and its traditional customs. In Germany, as in England, an enormous increase in the population of great towns is everywhere apparent, in its results gradually undermining the old landmarks of the people, which connected them with the soil from which they sprang. In Austria, on the other hand, all these elements of modern change have had less play and their influence is far less evident. | In republican France, the Revolution has swept away the once powerful landed aristocracy, and reduced the Catholic prelate to a small fixed salary. In Austria there are still territorial magnates, whose wealth and the extent of whose possessions vie with those of our greatest landowners. There are INTRODUCTORY 5 Princes of the Church in Austria as well as in Hungary, whose incomes make even our Arch- bishops’ princely salaries appear small by com- parison. That, however, which must chiefly attract the interest of the politician towards Austria is the fact of her rupture with her autocratic past, and her embarking upon the broad waves of modern liberalism. This is the most stupendous experiment of political patent-medicine methods—as opposed to gradual and natural evolution—that is to be met with in the wider fields of political history. IIT Some of us can remember the easy-going pre- 1866 days—the closing epoch of the older régime —when the pick of Austria’s crack regiments could be seen doing garrison duty as far west as Frank- fort-on-the-Main. The Austrians, Prussians, and Bayvarians mounted guard on alternate days. But people had no eye for the cold mechanical Prussian goose-step, and for those raw, beardless Prussian recruits, who looked so fagged, and were said to have such a distressing time of it under the iron discipline of the brutal drill-sergeant. The uniforms - of the latter, too, were dull to look upon; they fitted badly, and emphasised the angularity of the big bones of the wearers. We did not then know that the Austrians, besides being picked troops, were long-service men, who naturally contrasted favour- 6 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS ably with Pomeranian recruits. And who could help admiring the well-knit Austrian—-many of them swarthy fellows from the Italian provinces of Lom- bardy—who seemed to combine the natural grace of the Southern with the chivalric bearing of the flower of the Teutonic race ? Those were days when the great thinker, Arthur Schopenhauer, used to eat enough for three at the table @héte of the Hotel d’Angleterre. There he might be seen sitting at the bend of the triangular dinner-table surrounded by dishes, which the waiters slyly piled up before and around him, and which he testily pushed aside. His was a queer old gorilla face, with the bristling hair and the keen flashing eyes ; but philosophy in his case evidently did not lead to disdain of the creature comforts of life. Down at the further end of the table, towards the door, the Austrian cavalry officers congregated. We only heard, many years afterwards, from Chal- lemel-Lacour, the French writer and diplomatist, that the wily old philosopher used day by day to make a silent bet with himself that those gay cavalry men would never talk at table of any other subject than women, horses, and their chances of regimental preferment. Neither did it particularly attract our attention when we saw now and again a Prussian officer sitting among them, for few of the Prussians could afford the luxury of the table @hote at the Hotel d’Angleterre. But now it all floods back on one’s memory; a spare, wiry figure, with cold, steel-grey eyes, politely but decisively INTRODUCTORY 7 laying down the law on some subject or other to the ill-concealed discomfiture of his Austrian listeners —quietly nonplussed by the outcome of wider knowledge and cool perception of fact. There in a nutshell lay the key to much that was hidden still from the majority, but was soon to be revealed to all alike. , IV Only a few brief years later, and all Hurope is breathless, for the Angel of Death is at work, reap- ing his grim harvest’amid the golden cornfields of Bohemia. His servants were first the bullet and then the cholera. It is a sultry summer eve, and the Prussians are busy installing themselves for the night in the little town of Podol, around and in which a tough encounter with the enemy had taken place during the day. Suddenly the alarm is given, the drums beat—the Austrians are coming on in full. force, a part of the renowned Iron Brigade among them, to turn the Prussians out of Podol. There they come, along the high-road, and here - stand the Prussians, holding the bridge that com- mands the road leading back into the town. ‘The needle-guns are ready, and at the dry word of com- mand whole lines of the brave Austrians bite the dust! But on come others over the dead and dying, and again the needle-gun rattles its death-knell into the quivering lines of stout human hearts. The road is blocked up with the dead as by a 8 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS parapet. At last silence and the night supervene. The Austrians have left their killed and wounded behind, and disappeared in the darkness. The Prussian cavalry ride up and see the ghastly heaps of dead and dying intermingled. “ Du lieber Gott,” says a Prussian officer—possibly the very grey-eyed debater of Frankfort table dhéte days—“ if that is the senseless way they are going to lead these poor fellows to the slaughter, we shall not have much to fear in this business.” «Ah, Kam’rad,” calls out a wounded Austrian officer, “‘ you manage to keep your asses in the rear —we have got ours, alas! in front.” And the birth-throes of a new era long prepared are being laboured through in agony on these very plains of Bohemia in the course of a few short weeks. Amid the ripe cornfields the wounded Austrian is seen limping along, supported by his stick, his uniform still dyed with the blood and dirt of the battle-field, a prisoner in his own country! * Who can wonder at the disgust of the old ex- Emperor, Ferdinand, living quietly in retirement at Prague? When they told him that the victorious Prussians were coming, and that he had better take to flight, he is reported to have said: “If that is all the good you have: done, you need not have taken the trouble to make me abdicate in ’48.” * The campaign of 1866 was the last one fought in Europe under the old barbarous system of helplessness with regard to the care for the wounded. Austria-Hungary joined the Geneva Red Cross Association immediately after it. INTRODUCTORY 9 _ Where is now your heroism, your chivalry? Not even a word of recognition for the willing sacrifice of your good honest bones. “If that is all you have got to show, we have not much to fear!” Surely the portent of this did not confine itself to the plains of Bohemia, nor even to the time of its occurrence. ‘The lesson isto be read to-day! Thus shall the blind devotion of the past prove unavailing —go down before highly organised discipline in time to come, whilst the many lull themselves into false security, fondly believing in a millennium of peace and inanition. CHAPTER PAST AND PRESENT Austria erit in orbe ultima I THE Realm of the Habsburgs is an old country in many other senses than that of antiquity of origin.* Austria is old by the tenacity of her tradition, and by the still unchanged character of her inhabitants amid the latest political innovations. While England and France are to-day so coloured by modern civilisation that scarcely more than dead stones remain to recall even the comparatively recent period of medizeval chivalry, almost everything in Austria has still a flavour of ages long since passed away. There must be something soothing in the peaceful * The name of Oesterreich, originally applied to the territory situated above and below the river Enns, is not mentioned in history much before the year one thousand of our era. It first occurs in a deed of gift in the reign of Count Henry the Strong, who ruled over the province in question about the year 994 A.D. It is about a thousand years since first mention is made of the name of Hungary. PAST AND PRESENT it retirement of the picturesque old Austrian towns, which has so often acted as an attraction to legiti- mate monarchs ‘ out of work,’ and bade them seek refuge on Austrian soil in preference to any other. The Duchess of Berry, Charles X., the late Duke of Chambord, and, lastly, the late King of Hanover, all ended their days on Austrian territory. Decadence and decay lose much of their terrors amid scenery, the effect of which is to remove our thoughts from earthly vanities. It is only in accordance with the fitness of things that a long line of kings of another powerful monarchy of the past—that of Poland— should also have found their last resting-place m Austria.* As in the case of Poland, the history of Austria is inseparably connected with that of its monarchs. In truth, we have here the history of one and the same family registering the ups and downs, the sunshine and storm, which have affected the fortunes of millions of human beings for six centuries tT and marked the destiny of a realm, the sway of which was at one time more extensive than the rest of Kurope combined. At the time of the Reformation, her rule was so extensive that the Emperor Charles the Fifth could boast—as Queen Victoria may to-day—that the sun never set in his dominions. Even in our time, the Emperor of Austria-Hungary rules over 41,000,000 * The kings of Poland are buried in Cracow. + Since 1278, the date of the battle of Marchfeld, in which Rudolph of Habsburg defeated Ottokar, king of Bohemia. 12 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS human beings, distributed over an area of about 240,000 square miles; the greatest number of souls and the largest extent of territory, if we except Russia, under the direct sway of any one monarch in Hurope. it The Hohenstaufen, the Habsburgs,” and the Hohenzollerns are the three great royal Houses round which has revolved the political history of the middle of Europe during the last eight hundred years. All three are of Germanic blood, all three are descended from families whose ancestral castles, strange to say, were situated in close propinquity to one another in the south-west of Germany. Though identical in origin, however, their part in history has, on the contrary, been widely divergent. The Hohenstaufen Emperors, nearly 800 years ago, endeavoured to play the great national part which has fallen to the lot of the House of Hohenzollern in our time. ‘ Frederick the Second, the ablest and most accomplished of the long line of German Ceesars, had in vain exhausted all the resources of military and political skill in the attempt to defend the rights of the civil power against the encroachments of the Church. The vengeance of the priesthood had pursued his House to the third generation, Manfred * Habsburg (originally Habichtsburg, that is, Hawkscastle), an old German family, which takes its name from the old Swiss castle of Habsburg, now in ruins, situated on the river Aar in the Canton of Aargau. PAST AND PRESENT 13 had perished on the field of battle, Conradin on the scaffold.”* They were in truth before their time, and to the Habsburg dynasty fell the succession to the dignity of Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. But whereas the Hohenstaufen had perished fighting for essentially German ideals against the temporal power of Rome, the Habsburgs became great by direct co-operation with Catholicism. There was a time, during the Reformation, when the power and with it the supremacy of the Habsburg rule was seriously imperilled; but the regeneration of Catholicism during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries strengthened the founda- tions of Habsburg power and ensured their successive possession of the elective dignity of Holy Roman Emperors of German nationality, down to the final collapse of the Holy Roman Empire itself. It is beyond our province to dwell even in outline on the record of what is, broadly speaking, the history of the human race fora long period. All through succeeding centuries we find the power of the Church as the basis of the Catholic State, which in its turn is supported in its autocratic character by the priesthood of Rome—notably the Jesuits. Throughout this period Catholicism is seen work- ing side by side with the House interests, the so- called House policy of the Habsburgs. And this continues down to the time when the latter are confronted by an antagonistic force of a * Lord Macaulay : Essay on Ranke’s History of the Popes. 14 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS similar kind—namely, the expansive ambition of the Royal House of France. From the time of Charles the Fifth down to our own, the policy of France was almost solely directed towards the humbling of the power, which uniting the Netherlands, Burgundy (in part) and Spain under its sway, had taken a French king prisoner in battle. | We all know how the growth of French power, only rendered possible by the internal dissensions of the Teutonic race which lasted for several centuries, eradually forced the House of Habsburg from their possessions in the Netherlands, Spain, and even the Rhine, until the work of Richelieu was crowned, and the Habsburgs were compelled to give up most of the immense territories which they had gained by a succession of prudent marriages. This, however, is beside our purpose, as also is the trite assertion that if the Habsburg dynasty had not invariably been guided by dynastic rather than by broader national considerations, a Habs- burg Kaiser might still be crowned in Frankfort-on- the-Main, and Metz and Strasburg need never have formed part of France. The history of the world is as full of “ might ‘have been” as the life of any humble inhabitant of our planet. II] The result is all that concerns us. The Catholic Habsburgs were unable to dim the glorious German PAST AND PRESENT Is national traditions attaching to the memory of the Hohenstaufen. These embodied an idea, which the Habsburgs ever failed to realise, and this idea became engrafted on and found: nourishment in the spirit of Protestantism. The Catholic and politi- cally egotistic character of the House of Habsburg failed to awaken that sympathy in their fortunes which would have been necessary in order to bring the genius of Germany to identify its interests with those of Austria. That Germany should do so was, _ perhaps unconsciously, the ambition of the Emperor Joseph II. He endeavoured to break with priest power and inaugurate a newera. But although he was never tired of asserting that he was above all a German Sovereign, the sufferings of centuries made Germany deaf to his words. Nor was he one of those historic personages capable of changing the current of history. He perhaps foresaw that Catholicism meant in the end severance from the best intellect of Germany. Nature had not, however, fitted him for great political work. He would actually rush out at night to assist in extinguishing a fire in Schonbrunn, whilst the kingdom of Bohemia ’ -was aflame with war brought about by his state- manship. In this way, then, originated a split in the great central Teutonic Empire of Europe, and it has been left to our time to witness the final result—namely, the severance of Protestant and national Germany from the Catholic House dominion of the Habs- burgs. | 16 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS In this instance the fortunes of one autocratic and Catholic family have swayed a mighty perioc of the past. By a strange coincidence its eclipse __ was almost coeval with the great economical, intel- lectual, and political evolution in the midst of which we are all living to-day. The political factors of the past are no longer the leading ones in the life of nations at the present time. The attachment of the Germans to the head of the Holy Roman Empire died out with the Thirty Years’ War. The loyalty of the Austrians for their monarch is still strong, but it is no longer as of yore their only guiding star—not even when backed by Catholicism. Human _pas- sions are ever the same, though they run in different grooves: but human institutions, human ideals, these change with the times. Now, if in the past the history of a great por- tion of Europe may be fairly identified with the history of one ruling family, such is unlikely to be the case in the near future. Autocracy in Europe has had its day; modern revolution has rendered this an anachronism. And as if to make its reappearance, even in Catholic countries, doubly impossible, the Catholic Church is no longer to be relied upon as the ally of autocratic monarchy as opposed to the social and_ political aspirations of communities or nationalities. The expansion of the individual, even when united with a strong feeling of attachment to the Sovereign, has evoked aspirations among the masses which must PAST AND PRESENT a, ead to acuter perceptions and desires. The grow- ‘ng acuteness of the economical struggle for life has aecessitated universal education as a weapon to meet its conditions. The outcome of this and of many other factors of our day has been a renewal of the feeling of race and nationality, which, though always existent, was formerly forced more into the background by the supreme importance of community of faith or loyalty to a Sovereign. Nowadays the elements of political economy have supplanted the figment of loyalty— even of creed—from the first rank of popular interests. And this remains a fact even where’ Catholicism—the strongest of all religious creéds— is supreme. Thus we note Protestant leaders con- trolling a Catholic race agitation in Ireland; Pro- testant clergymen inciting their flocks in Alsace to~ remain faithful to the lost connection with Catholic French nationality. So, too, in Austria, we see a rivalry of races, supplanting almost every traditional influence of the past: whilst the Catholic Church marches on amid the débris of discarded autocratic -shibboleths. The individual is no longer satisfied with the knowledge of being the unit of a great Empire, as is more or less the case for the moment -in Germany. ‘The particularism which statesmen - have striven to stamp out in Germany, and which has given place to the class war of socialism, is to- day the rising tide in Austria, though its source and character are different. It is not an attachment to a petty Sovereign, as in old-fashioned Germany : B 18 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS it is democratic, even verging towards republicanism ; it has a social tinge as well as a political character. The unit of each community has been taught to ask for something, to strive and to agitate in order to obtain it. He is no longer satisfied with the gratification of his own individual wants. In olden days these were small, and easily supplied. To-day, his energy and ambition are awakened, and with an increasing perception of his scope of mental effort, comes the desire that the political and the economical benefits to be obtained, should become the common property of his class, of his brothers, of his particular nationality. Hence, in the case of Austria-Hungary, composed as it is of a variety of distinct nationalities, a rivalry of race is at work, the course of which will be followed with no ordinary interest by politicians of all countries. IV In some recent numbers of the Revue des Deux Mondes,* M. Anatole de Leroy Beaulieu sfig- gests the possible obliteration of the connection between race, language and nationality, and he instances the Turks, with whom identity of creed is everything, and race and language a secondary consideration. And by way of showing what may be possible under conditions of Asiatic decaying — ee a Se * “Tes Juifs et ]’Antisémitisme,” Revue des Deux Mondes, February 15, May 1, July 15, 1801. ~ PRok AND PRESENTS 19 autocracy in the past, the example may stand. But surely M. Leroy Beatlieu would not ask us to believe that what is feasible in Asia could ever be a possi- bility in Europe. He cannot intend us to kelieve that it is a matter of detail for the future of a country whether this or that race be on the decline or in the ascendant, and therefore destined to impress its character on the entire community. For when we read the lessons of the past, the interpretation of historical fact points all the other way. What, we may ask, were the ancient Britons until reinforced by the hardy Norseman, by the Dane and the Saxon? To the blood of those Northmen, who furrowed the German Ocean with their many-oared galleys, a thousand years ago, can in a measure be traced the world colonising power of the England of modern times. Some of the vicissitudes of modern French history can as clearly be traced to the idiosyncrasies of the Celtic Gaul as observed by Ceesar, as the fixity of - purpose of a Richelieu, the ruling qualities of the French nobility through the centuries of the build- ing up of the French monarchic State can be traced to the infusion of the Burgundian, the Frank, and the West Goth blood during and after the Volker- wanderung in the fifth century of our era. And yet the train of thought of M. Anatole de Leroy Beaulieu might lead us to believe, that it were _a matter of no moment to the course of the future history of Austria, whether the Turanian Hungarian, the Slavonic Czech, the ‘Teuton, or the Hebrew 20 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS should form the future dominant element on the banks of the Danube. Let us for a moment sup- pose that the majority of Austria’s population were thrifty Belgians or hardy Scotchmen. Would any- body aver that this would mean no difference in Austria’s political, social, and economical problems to-day ? In any case, there can be no doubt that it is a matter of life or death to Austria what race becomes the dominant one in her midst; the result must infallibly decide the lines of her foreign policy in the future, and that in ifs turn must influence the political future of the Realm of the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs may broadly be said to have sacrificed the hegemony of Protestant Germany for the sake of Catholicism, and for the sake of those Catholic provinces over which they have ruled so many centuries. Will those elements stand by the Habsburg family in the future ? tA ene HAO reas LL THE GERMANS Auch tiber die Hange der Alpen kreist Keine Schranke kennend der deutsche Geist Ros. HAMERLING* I THe Germans—at all events those of distinct Ger- man race and language—form in Austria-Hungary between nine and ten millions out of the total of forty-one million inhabitants. Thus, numerically, they only take a secondary place among the races of the Empire. On the other hand, the Austrian Empire is itself a German product. The Habsburg history of the last six hundred years is essentially the history of a German Roman Catholic family and of German ‘Roman Catholic civilisation. Vienna, the capital, was always a German city, from which German university life, laws, institutions, sciences, arts, and customs were promulgated, spread and took effect throughout the Habsburg dominions. The aristo- cracy, the army, the official world—in one word, * The spirit of Germany hovers even over the slopes of the Alps, despising all restraint. 22 THE REALM OF THE “HABSBURG. the governing influences of the country—were almost entirely German in character, if not also in race. If Bohemia was once a Slavonic kingdom, so too were large tracts of what now is Prussia . once Slavonic in character, even as they are still racially. Bohemia became German by the right of conquest, and remained so unchallenged for cen- turies. Ifthe Magyars first constituted Hungary as a State, if Latin was the language of culture and officialdom, the Germans founded the towns of Hungary, the social life of her citizens, their com- merce and industry. The German origin of many towns in Hungary is shown by their German names : Oedenbure, Stullweissenburg, Ftinfkirchen, etc. Hven the old name. of the capital, Pesth, is not a Magyar name, but one of Slavonic root. Indeed, we are told,” that as early as 1240, Pesth was known as a very wealthy “German” town. To-day there is not a town in Hungary which was not at one time entirely or partially inhabited by Germans. Transylvania at an early period became a German colony, and is an essentially German province still. Thus it has come about that Austrian civilisation is almost entirely a product of the Teuton race. It was the T'eutonic element which not only founded the Austrian Empire, but provided the grit (bindende __.* “Hthnographie von Ungarn.” Paul Hunfalvy. P. 28t. Budapesth, 1877. + Ibid. p. 282. THE GERMANS 23 Kraft) which enlarged, elevated it to its world- dominating position, and held it together amid the vicissitudes of centuries. And as long as the Habsburgs in person united the titular leadership of the German Empire, nothing seemed to call the legitimate supremacy of the German ruling element into question. It was only in the present century that the racial struggles began, the results of which are still in progress. Their first powerful manifestation was, of course, the Hungarian rebellion of 1848; that, however, Austria overcame with the assistance of Russia. The Slavonic propaganda of the Czechs were still only working silently underground. Thus as long as Austria retained her position as titular head of the Germanic confederation, we find the German race, at all events outwardly, master of the situation. ia! It is only since the final ostracism of the House of Habsburg from Germany and the introduction of Liberalism and the new order of things, that the German element in Austria hag been gradually losing the immense political prestige which it for- merly enjoyed, and has been thrown back more and more upon its own resources, to stand or fall on its merits ; as merits go in such struggles nowadays, Since that time the German race shows signs of a steady declension. No wonder, then, that there are coteries among the German ruling class of 24 THE REALM. OF THE ‘GABSBURKGS Austria which still resent the blow dealt them by Protestant Prussia twenty-six years ago. No sooner had Hungary gained autonomy, than she proceeded to use the very same weapons which the House of Habsburg had used in the past against her. The Magyar tongue became uni- versally obligatory in official life, and everything was done to ostracise the German language by strenuous agitation and other means.“ Tor the Hungarians, in common with the Czechs, are in constant fear that, unless they succeed in extirpating the German language, they will never be safe against the more powerful German volume of culture which finds its way into Austria by means of the universities of Germany proper. And they have both been largely successful in their efforts in this direction. Thus, while in the year 1869 there were still one thousand two hundred and _ thirty-two German schools in Hungary, now there are only half that number. ‘Ten years ago the German language was still predominant in Budapesth, now only two-thirds of the inhabitants speak it. The Hungarians have also extended their efforts in the same direction among the German population of Transylvania, and have been indirectly assisted here by the stagnation in the German population of Transylvania. It is said that the Transylvanian * Germans have repeatedly been fined by the police in Hungary, for drinking to the health of the Emperor of Austria as such. THE. GERMANS 25 — Saxons have of late years adopted the custom of limiting the family to two children ; the only population of Teutonic race which hitherto has done so. In the meantime the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia have not been slow to follow the example set by Hungary, as yet only by tacit agreement among themselves. Hven as far back as the year 1872, when Czech hatred of everything German had not reached the pitch it has now attained, many Czechs refused an answer if addressed in German. At present they are eager to possess a law making the Czech language officially obligatory, and if they succeed in this endeavour the use of the German tongue will be still further restricted in Austria. Vienna, once the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, a thoroughly German city, is gradually but surely assuming the character of a Slavonic city. And not only is this the case, but a still surer sign, if possible, is to be found in the decay of German - influence; Vienna is gradually losing much of its former life and bustle, and trade is on the decline. ~ Prague, which since the Thirty Years’ War had become as much a German town as Vienna, is to- day Slavonic. And not only in the large towns, but in the rural districts the same influences are at work, narrowing down and _ superseding the Germanic elements. Even in the south-west, in the Tyrol, the German language is receding before the Italian. Count Wolkenstein, a Tyrolese noble- man, lately asked for a railway ticket at Roveredo 26 THE-REAIM OF THE HABSEURGS for “ Botzen.” ‘ We don’t know the place,” replied the official. ‘‘ I presume you mean ‘ Bolzano’ ?” Thus while in the east the Hungarians, in the west and south-west of Austria the Slavonic races are respectively making great headway against the only opposing barrier there—what is German. In fact, the elimination and suppression of the German race and language is going on throughout the length — and breadth of Austria-Hungary, and the loss of the language goes hand in hand with the loss of old German feeling. Those of German parentage be- come, with the adoption of another tongue, totally dead to their lost nationality, and often even fana- tical adherents of the adopted one. TE Since the advent of the present Ministry of Count Taaffe, the neglect of German race interests and the | suppression of the German language are viewed with favour if not officially encouraged. This is, perhaps, the most ominous sign of all. For if the official world (the Emperor and the Imperial Arch- dukes at its head), itself largely German, turns against them, it is difficult to see how German interests are to be safeguarded. Still, no official leaning would by itself have been able to bring about the alarming symptoms of the last decennium. In truth, other factors have to be added to account for the results obtained. In the first place, there is the aggressive antagonistic national aspirations DHES-GEKMANS 27 of the other races; in the second, the activity of the Roman Catholic priesthood; in the third, the want of political resistive force of the German race itself. The enmity of the Catholic Church is, both directly and indirectly, at the bottom of almost all the attacks to which the Germans are exposed. The Catholic Church, like Russian diplomacy, never changes its course, and her course in this case means undying enmity to the German element. We may lose sight of questions of race ; not so Rome the Hternal, though to her they may be but means to an end. Monarchy may receive her protection to-day, a Republic to-morrow, a Democracy the day after; these may pass away, but a race survives. Catholicism knows that of the two, the Slave and the German, the former will be more malleable stuff in his hands than the latter. For the German will sooner or later fall back upon his splendid literature and rebel against the slavery of the mind, irrevocably -involved in Roman priest-rule. Hence it is the Catholic priesthood which is trying to stamp out ~the German schools in the German Tyrol, of which a part belongs to the diocese of the Archbishop of Milan. It is the Catholic priesthood which is doing the same work among the Czech peasantry of Mo- - ravia and Bohemia—in fact, everywhere throughout Austria-Hungary. Lastly, it is the Catholic priesthood which is responsible for the desertion by the great German- Austrian nobility of the German cause. The 28 THE REAIM OF SRA ESHA SB Una. Catholic priest influences them through the con- fessional. By means of his strong hold over the women of the aristocracy, he nurtures a hatred of the German element, particularly of its liberal and Jewish sections. Another strong argument in the hands of the priest in dealing with the aristocracy is, that the Slave is likely to prove more submis- sive to the territorial supremacy of the aristocratic landowner than the more individualistic German. The aristocracy believe this, but it is possible that a rude awakening may await them. The signs of it are to be gathered from among the voung Czechs, who are likely to be socially more iconoclastic in the future than the Germans. It is more than possible that the German aristocracy may find that they have made the same mistake which the German barons of the Baltic provinces made through many centuries, in endeavouring to exterminate the Ger- man peasantry. To-day the Russians are about to Russify them ! IV When we bear in mind that the German language has always been that of the army and of the whole official world, that the culture of the whole monarchy with its German universities, had long been essen- tially German, it was only to be expected that the great development of local activity in large towns since 1867 would at least strengthen the dominant German element in those towns, whatever might happen in the rural districts; particularly as the THE. GERMANS 29 German language is still obligatory in the whole army. Instead of this, the exact opposite has taken place. A signal proof, too, is here afforded of the weak power of resistance possessed by the German race in Austria. No wonder that the political fail- ings which have characterised Austria in the past, are most strongly typified in the German element to-day ; for they are the direct inheritors of the flabby official past. For the mere mechanical nature of language alone cannot account for such phenomena. Nations have gradually changed their tongue, but retained their characteristics. Where these are strongest the method of expression adapts itself, as is evidenced by the merging of alien colonies in the ruling community without compulsory cause ; thus, instead of endeavouring in the past to coerce other tongues, the Austrians should have gained the mastery of the mind, and the language would have adapted itself. However much the German may be superior to the Slave or the Hungarian in culture, there seems to be little doubt that, aw fond, he is inferior to either of them as a Zwov vodXrrtkov ; in other words, the German-Austrian, notwithstanding his many ex- cellent qualities, lacks the “ grit” of the Prussian. _ He is lacking in the sense of duty, and the capacity for conscientious hard work and frugality (Geniig- samkeit) which the organisation of Prussia has instilled into the very bones of its inhabitants.* * In Germany, a young clerk who has 150 marks a month, 30 THE, REALM (OF THE GABSBORGs With this exception, he is a peu pres what many Germans would be to-day but for the iron system that has done them so much good. With all his devotion to his Sovereign, he does not possess the silent energy of self-denial (verzichterede Kraft). Even his devotion goes off in transient combustion (Strohfewer) when the moment for action arrives. In the past he was only taught to love and obey; not to think and to work. ‘Thus he possesses, in some ways, a wondrous affinity to the Philistine of the German Fatherland. As a politician, he is given to argue about facts which he has _ not thoroughly grasped; he unites self-confidence and pessimism in a singular degree. In fact, the so-called idiosyncrasies of the Austrians, notably those of the Bureaucrat, are largely typical of the German-Austrian element. Foremost among these is a strange inaptitude for hard, crisp thinking, and unreliability in grasping concrete facts; as well as an utter incapacity to act promptly upon them. ‘The shade of Metternich, their last and greatest emasculator, still hovers over them! It is herein that may be found some ex- planation of the seeming disproportion between their intelligence and their waning political influence. It is want of moral hardness—character, not mere brain sensibility, that weighs down the scale in saves fifty. If his salary is raised to 200 marks, he will spend an extra ten, and save the rest. In Austria, the same man will at once increase his method of living, on the strength of his larger salary. THE GERMANS 31 some phases of race competition for political supremacy. a) In this matter of character, the German-Aus- trian is inferior not only to the Bohemian Czech, but also to the Hungarian. He may speak contemp- tuously of the stuff (das Zeug) of which the other nationalities of Austria-Hungary are composed. He does not, however, himself possess either the cohe- sion, the strong national and race feeling, or the subordination of his whims and hobbies—in a word, the community of feeling (Gemeinsinn)—that charac- terises the Czech and the Hungarian. The Ger- mans are divided into half a dozen groups,* and are drifting to pieces ever more and more. The German newspapers in Austria complain bitterly of this state of affairs. All weak elements complain of their weakness. So, too, do the Iins complain that the Russians are effacing their nationality, and so did the Irish ever complain, until they found the means of self-assertion—the secret of baiting the Saxon. - These newspapers reiterate the necessity of furthering the “solidarity of German Austria.” As if any amount of printer’s ink could accomplish * Their diminishing numbers in the large towns are divided among Liberals, Clericals, Christian Socialists (Anti-Semites), and Conservatives. In the rural districts the great majority of their number (about nine millions) are almost all strongly Clerical, and thus politically reactionary. a2 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS that! No, like the German Philistine womanhood which made love to the French prisoners in 1870, the Austrian-Germans lose their heads over the Czech musicians who come to the Vienna Exhibi- tion. And the only return they earn is, that the Czechs tell them plainly: ‘‘ We have beaten you with whips; wait a bit, we will yet lash you with scorpions.” They are in dire need of discipline, the capacity for sacrifice of time and money, which they see daily brought to bear against them; of that union and the aggressive instinct of battle which animate their opponents as well as the living world at large. Ah, if they possessed all this, joined with true political genius, they would know that, at least as far as the Czechs are concerned, nothing is to be gained by concession. There has ever been a chivalrous instinct among the Hungarians; but the Czechs, like the French and a few others, belong to a race which accepts every concession as a sign of weakness, calling forth, not gratitude or content, but increased demands! Instead of noting all this, they look to Peace Congresses and cheer the ami- able platitudes of a Baroness Suttner,* calling upon them to lay down their arms and welcome the millennium, whilst the culture of centuries is being wiped out in some of the fairest lands of Europe. They have not even enough energy left to grumble when they hear that Germans have been punished in Hungary for presuming to drink the health of * Die Waffen Nieder. Baronin v. Suttner. Dresden: Pierson. THE. GERMANS 33 the “Emperor of Austria” (the German monarch, and not the Magyar Kiraly, the king of Hun- gary). | VI No wonder a deep-felt pessimism, a feeling as of autumnal desolation, has fallen upon the Germans in Austria. In politics as elsewhere, the biblical warning anent the “sins of the fathers” is apt to prove true. And where there is no faith, not even the grim faith in yourself, there ‘‘cometh night in which no man can work,” or fight. The Germans in Austria have no faith in themselves or in their leaders, of whom the less said the better. The latter have hitherto been only disintegrating forces. But even if it were otherwise, and they had bold and capable leaders, like those of the Hungarians and the Czechs, it would make little difference. Where the Hungarians and the Slaves would not stop at violence and bloodshed if led up to it, the Germans would in all probability only criticige and slander those who led them. It is only here and there that a faint gleam is to be met with of that poetic ideality common to all sections of the Teutonic race. It is not among the _priest-ridden nobility, but rather among the choice spirits of the hills of Carinthia, Styria and the Tyrol, or from among the best Austrian townsmen, among whom German talent and genius” has so often * Mozart, Haydn, Grillparzer, Rosegger, and many others may be recalled here. C 34 THE REALM OF THE FASBSBURGS winged its way, that this sentiment is to be found. Among these are men who grieve at the evil days that have fallen on their race. Something uncon- sciously tells them that it is not only brawn and muscle, or the profit and loss account at the banker's, that marks the history of mankind; that it is after all the ‘‘idea” that lifts the world off its hinges (aus den Angeln). Thus it is not that their dividends only bring them 2? per cent, instead of 5 per cent. ; it is not that their incomes may be diminished or their trade narrowed, that fills them with anxiety ; it is that they have somehow imbibed the traditions of a great country of which they and their ancestors formed an integral part for a thousand years: the community of race, of blood! Some of these men—and women, too—look wist- fully over the Austrian borders. They forget the jealous hatred of olden days—the bloody field of Sadowa; their thoughts turn towards the silent, endless fir-trees of Pomerania. There they fancy they see the national hero of their own race roaming in solitude, And the poor Austrian-German—poor in this, though he may have a million at his banker's —feels sick at heart. Perchance some faint friendly echo from those very woods may disturb his reveries. Then his eye moistens, as he exclaims: “ A thou- sand thanks for thinking of me in the sacred woods of Varzin.”* * “Tausend Dank dass Sie in den geheiligten Waldern vou Varzin an mich gedacht.” Cie Aa bY ER Sik THE CZECH Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on the other side SHAKESPEARE it AmonG the various races that go to make up the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Slave holds the first place in point of number. ‘Thus, if we take the different groups of the Slavonic race, the Slovaks in Hungary, the Slovenes of Carniola and Dalmatia, ‘the Croats of Croatia, the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia, etc., we find that they form close upon 20,000,000 out of the 41,000,000 of Austria- Hungary. They form also the most significant ele- ment among the races of Austria, inasmuch as they _are credited with aims, the realisation of which would ultimately mean the complete disruption of Austria- Hungary as a great Power. In 1862, the Russian author Turgenieff, writing to a friend, indulged in a pessimistic review of the possibilities of the “poor” Slave. And truly, from 36 THE REALM OF PHL HABSCURGS the point of view of culture, many a long day may yet pass before the Slavonic race can offer to its idealistic sons food for optimism. JBefore culture, however, in the life of all races, comes self-assertion. This must come first, for it is only on the basis of a broad expansive instinct that culture has ever been known to fertilise its healthiest mental produce. Now the Slavonic race in those parts of Hurope © that belong to, or are situated in, the vicinity of Austria-Hungary, has already had a great past. The Czechs, also, the most important, and said to be the most gifted of Slavonic tribes, came to Bohemia, which was previously inhabited by Celts, about the year 495 A.D. ‘The king of Bohemia, Ottokar, whom Rudolf of Habsburg slew in battle, was a Slavonic monarch. Again, it was among the Czechs of Moravia and Bohemia that the Reformation first took root in the person of John Huss and in the Moravian Brotherhood. In those days the University of Prague counted 10,000 students. And lastly, it was a learned Czech, John Amos Comenius, who was the founder of the modern school system still in vogué in Austria and part of Germany. The Thirty Years’ War crushed out Protestantism in Bohemia, and almost led to the extermination of the Slavonic race and language. The Protestant nobility were banished, and their estates handed over to the Catholic Church. During a century and a half the language had gradually regained ground, when, in 1774, an Imperial Decree of the Empress THE CZECH 37 Maria Theresa, making the use of German obligatory in the schools, again retarded its progress. Still through all this time the Slavonic idea lived on in the heroic traditions of John Huss, Ziska, the two Procops (Generals of the Hussites) and others, who, from having been the leaders of a religious movement, gradually came to be regarded by the populace as the heroes of the race, and are still __ cherished as such. Here as elsewhere religion has given way to the feeling of race and nationality as the motive force. It was about the year 1848 that the national idea again quickened into more active life, and, since that date, it has made prodigious strides. Thus, while in 1866 there were appa- rently only 4,680,000 Slaves or Czechs, to-day there are between six and seven millions in Bohemia and Moravia alone, and a similar increase may be noted in other parts of the Empire. II Whoever knows what Bohemia was thirty years ago, and compares the racial conditions then with those of to-day, must wonder at the changes that have taken place. ‘The Czech has progressed materially and intellectually in a manner which cannot fail to strike the impartial observer with wonder. Up to the end of the fifties, most of the towns in Bohemia had a decided German character. The better classes almost exclusiveiy spoke German; the schools, the academies, the fe 38 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS theatres, commerce and industry—all: these were entirely German. The Czech language was only spoken by the peasant or the villager, or, in the case of the towns, by the working class and domestics. How all this has altered! In the course of thirty years the Czechs have created a powerful political party, a literature and a musical school of their own. We have it on the authority of the: Encyclopedia Britannica, that at the present day their more prominent names in philosophy, theology, and politics are too numerous to be mentioned in detail. In all Slavonic districts a network of savings banks, public credit institu- tions to advance money to small traders (Vorschuss Kassen), co-operative societies and manufactories, has been spread out far and wide. Slavonic schools are everywhere largely attended, commerce and ~ industry are flourishing. In short, the Czechs have_ eyerywhere risen to the level of their German competitors. eons Erie Exhibition (1891), which by the short-sighted action of the Austrian-Germans took an essentially Czech character, was visited by hundreds of thousands from all parts of Europe, and was an extraordinary success. At the Musical Exhibition lately held in Vienna, the Czechs were represented by a national theatre of their own, embracing dramatic plays and operas written ex- clusively by Czech talent, and the success of these was one of the most striking features of the Exhibi- tion. The critic of a Berlin newspaper pays them THE CZECH 39 o the following tribute (referring to the Comédie Francaise) : “‘ The French are old-fashioned (veraltet) and were disappointing. _The Bohemians are full most sensation. The former were not up to their great reputation ; the latter, from whom little was expected, did great things.” IIT Such successes, however, are of far lesser interest to the foreigner than the political circumstances and the qualities of character that make them possible. Among the former, the breaking-up of the German- Austrian ruling element consummated by the ex- pulsion of Austria from Germany in 1866, occupies a foremost place. ‘To this breaking-up was due the grant of autonomy to Hungary, the full intro- duction of parhamentary government, and the spread of a national press. That these conditions have also largely increased the scope of the professional agitator goes without saying. Added to the above must be reckoned the strong partisanship of the Roman Catholic Church, referred to elsewhere. But the qualities of character that enabled the Czechs to take advantage of all this are even more significant. They are active, industrious, and in-~ telligent. As working men, we are assured that they are generally superior to their German co- nationalists; they are more diligent, more thrifty, and take a greater pride and interest in their work, 40 THE REALM OF THE HABSSURGs whatever it may be. And the same testimony is given of the Czech peasants. ‘These are imbued with a strong national and race feeling. They read the papers, and follow every political development with avidity. They utilise every occasion to make pro- paganda for their nationality, and are so success- ful in this at home that many of the present gene- ration of Bohemians whose parents were German, some of them even unacquainted with the Slavonic tongue, notably working men and mechanics, are now thorough-going Czechs. It is in their political talents, foremost among which are discipline and self-subordination, that the Czechs stand out in most marked contrast and show to advantage as compared with the Germans. ‘The latter hesitate at every step, and are united in nothing. ‘The former attempt everything, and combine to gain politically whatever tends to the furtherance of their interests.* They combine, besides, in social unity of a kind, for while the various classes of their competitors are split up, the Czech, whether he be a noble, a lawyer, a merchant or a mechanic, seems to stand on one supreme level as a nationalist before all things. Itis a characteristic as well as a strong feature of the Slavonic race in general, this subordination of class distinction to political aims. In the words of a Russian lady : * This still remains true in the sense indicated, notwith- standing the recent split between young and old Czechs. The latter—among them the aristocracy—hesitate to go on towards the end ; but the Catholic priest will overcome their scruples, THE CZECH 41 ‘With us, if we find you are poor and stand alone, that is reason why we should assist and befriend you, and why we should not cast you off.” This sort of instinct largely permeates the Czechs (even as it does the Jews), and enables them to bring all their might to bear, and to concentrate it between the ribs of their antagonists with the impetus of a steel-pointed spear. Herein lies the power of a young community, which has not had time to dis- solve into ridiculous social coteries. And in truth they possess the unscrupulous roughness of a young community, which, as long as the aim in view is the supreme one, is not particular about the nicety of the means. ‘They have not had time to assimilate the deadly virus of calculated hypocrisy, and to employ it; but they would not hesitate to commit deeds of violence, if their leaders were to advise such and saw a prospect of their being crowned by success. At the same time, they are naturally gifted with a goodly portion of cunning,* which they are not above employing in the furtherance of national interests. or instance, Dr. Gregr, the leader of the young Czechs, in a recent speech (November 1891), without stopping to examine what percentage of the taxes referred to were paid by the Germans of Bohemia, told his parliamentary opponents: “ it is we who are entitled to speak, not you, for we Bohemians contribute more taxes to the revenue * Vide German proverb: “Sachs und Bohm Trau, schau, Wem ?”’ 42 LHE REALM OF 7 AE MPaIABSBURC. than any other part of the monarchy.” — So, again, in view of the material progress of Bohemia, and particularly the numerical increase of the Czechs, it seems strange to read in the words of the same speaker (December 1891), that Bohemia had been sucked dry by that vampire Austria. Such, how- ever, are the political weapons of aggressive nation- alities generally, and not in Austria-Hungary alone. And yet in all probability nobody, who knows anything about Austria, will take what is said above in all seriousness. At the same time, it is highly significant of the aims and self-consciousness (Selbst- bewusstseix) of the Czechs. Every dispassionate observer must admit that the Czechs have some reason to trust to their own strong arm, if we gainsay their ideas of justice. They possess strong cohesive power, and their action only shows whither the instinct of race expansion is really tending. It is a manifestation of battle in which the strong only can prevail. IV If now we make an attempt to glean what are the true aims of the Czechs, we meet with an ever- enlarging circle of demands. ‘The foremost of these are undoubtedly called forth by the example of Hungary. The Czech leaders are fully aware of the material benefits which a national government is supposed to have brought to the Hungarians, and THE CZECH 43 their followers are determined to have as much. The first step, then, must be the crowning of the Emperor Francis Joseph in Prague, as King of Bohemia. To justify this demand, the Czechs point to the fact that Maria Theresa was crowned Queen of Bohemia in 1743. They feel that their growing consciousness of nationality warrants their attainment of this, and this therefore they are determined to bring forward and push at all risks and hazards. That is why they now insist that nohody shall hold an official position, even in the German districts of Bohemia, unless able to read and write the Czech language. ‘They are well aware that with this once granted, they will thrust the German element still further to the wall. In fact, they hope to succeed in ultimately destroying the binding force of German bureaucracy in Vienna itself. And here they have the Catholic priesthood on their side, and the greater number of the wealthy Bohemian and Moravian nobility. Indeed, it is peculiar to note, that whereas a few of the Bohemian nobility of Czech descent, such as Count Czernin near Traiitenaii, prove the exception by siding with the Germans, the rule is all the other way, even those of German race being distinctly on the national side. ‘a Besides this, the Czechs are aware that their aims are more or less sympathised in by all the Slaves of Austria, forming a far greater percentage of the total population of the monarchy than the Hun- garians, and this naturally emboldens them, 4A THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS No wonder the Czech leaders adopt an aggressive tone, and that Herr Gregr now and then comes within measurable distance of high treason in his passionate orations. “The majority of the Czech population of Bohemia,” he recently said (December 1891), “is utterly wretched in the midst of this alien Empire, and the longing to emerge from their Babylonian captivity has already penetrated into the lowest strata of the Bohemian people. Could the Bohemians of long ago have foreseen what was in store for their descendants, their choice of a king in 1526 would have been very different. Their nationality is op- pressed and persecuted in this Austrian State, where violence und tyranny towards all Slavonic races are dominant. The bond between the Crown and Bohemia will be severed if the traditional rights of Bohemia are much longer neglected, and the future relations of the two countries will be those of the conquered towards the conquerors. The Mannlicher rifle will be of little avail in the hands of a people without loyalty and without enthusiasm, but instead of kindling enthusiasm for the State at large by making the Bohemian people contented, they are brought to hate—yes, I say, to hate—this same State. Mark my words, the day of reckoning will come!” And a shadow thereof seems already dis- cernible, THE CZECH 45 V The Slavonic Croat, for centuries the truest type of the loyal Austrian soldier, nowadays keeps the picture of the Russian Czar hanging in his cottage. The Catholic priest is no longer there to denounce him and to see that he is shot for high treason, as might have been the case of old. The Roman Catholic, too, shares the sympathies of his Slavonic brethren for those Russians whom, but for other counterbalancing influences, he would be obliged to combat as schismatic Greeks. This Slavonic and Catholic sympathy for Russia is indeed one of the most extraordinary features with which we have to deal. In her politics and national poetry alike, this Russia possesses something ungraspable and weird, some- thing recalling the inorganic forces of the earth, the sky, the ocean—of Nature at large. The distant roar of some mighty force yet struggling for out- ward articulation, or at least as yet imperfectly understood by listeners; yet withal wonderfully disciplined to suffer while advancing as by some natural law. Silent and slow, yet irrevocably fixed on her onward march, capable as 1¢ 1s of endless self-sacrifice, the great Slavonic power, wedged in on Austria’s north- eastern flank, resembles some strange elementary force in what is still a chaotic form. What is it that the Bohemian Czech expects from her? Can it be that the Roman Catholic Church, which is at 46 THE REALM OF THE AABSBURGS the bottom of so much in Austria-Hungary, has here even wider aims in view than those to be realised by Holy Russia? How would it be to unite the whole of the Slaves of Hastern Europe into one Roman Catholic republican conglomeration, crushing dissentient Hungary, and raising the cross of Saint Peter equally against the autocratic Romanoffs of Russia and Protestant Germany? Large views allied to a capacious mouth, wide open, with a glib tongue playing, have before now done big things in politics, and never more so than at present. But the Tarpeian rock was near the Capitol for a thousand years ! Perhaps, however, the Czech may go too far. The intense hatred of the Slaves for their neighbours should not blind them to the fact that the battle of the White Mountain took place but 272 years ago. rE Ate Esch IeV. THE HUNGARIANS Extra Hungariam non est vita POPULAR PROVERB I THE kingdom of Hungary, comprising Hungary proper, Transylvania, Croatia and Slavonia, as well as the port and territory of Fiume, embraces an area of about 124,400 square miles, and is thus larger 1» extent than either Austria, Great Britain, or Italy. When in the hands of the Romans, Hungary seems to have been inhabited by people of Celtic race. In the fifth and sixth centuries, however, the - immigration of peoples (Vélkerwanderungen) altered its complexion. So thoroughly, indeed, did the Goths, Vandals, Huns and other invaders destroy all remains of previous civilisation, that while in Germany, France, Belgium, and Hngland many towns and rivers bear names of Roman origin, not a single locality in Hungary has a name of Roman derivation. For a time settlements of Slavonic races seem 48 THE REAUM OF STH HABSBURG to have taken the place vacated by the westward- pushing hordes of Teutons and others; but these, in their turn, were conquered by the Avares, a warlike Asiatic race of horsemen. ‘The latter remained masters of Hungary, and pushed even as far west as Bavaria, until finally subdued by Charlemagne in the year 803. The first authentic mention of the dominant race in the Hungary of to-day, the Magyars, dates from the year 836, when the Greek writer, Leo Gram- maticus, styles them successively by the three distinct names of ‘“ Hungarians,” “ Turks,’ and “Huns.” ‘They are then referred to as encamped on the banks of the Lower Danube. Their origin and early history are alike shrouded in mystery. By language they are distinctly related to the Finns; by race they belong to the 'l'uranian tribes, of which the Turks are representatives. According to a Russian chronicle, they were to be met with as an army of wild horsemen in the neighbour- hood of Kiev in the year 898. They seem to have originally come from the plateaux of Asia, and to have established themselves as conquerors in the land which the Avares acquired as above mentioned about the end of the ninth century. | Originally a nomadic people, it is under their first Christian king, Stephen, the Patron Saint of Hungary (997), that they were first organised into a State, possessing permanent institutions, and having a settled form of government. St. Stephen thus may be fairly considered to be the founder of THE HUNGARIANS 49 the Hungarian kingdom and with his reign does her history, properly speaking, begin. Il The Magyars, although sufficiently numerous for purposes of conquest, were from the first inadequate to fill the expansive provinces which their valour had acquired. Hence foreign elements were intro- duced, first by compulsion ; later on, as Christianity spread, by invitation and grants of privileges. This policy, which has been persevered in for centuries, is one of the causes of the varied racial character of Hungary as we know it. For ages the history of Hungary is a bare record of heroic struggle with foreign invasion; notably that of the Mongolians, who, in the thirteenth century, spread devastation and ruin far and wide. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the country existed as an independent elective - monarchy, and under its various dynasties attained a high degree of power and prosperity. Its progress, ~ however, received a sudden check in the year 1526, at the battle of Mohacs, when the Turkish Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, completely annihilated - the Hungarian forces. A partition of the country between the victorious Turks and the Austrians followed this disaster, the principality of Transyl- vania alone being able to retain its independence under elective native dynasties. Since then till now the fortunes of Hungary have been linked with D 50 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS those of the House of Habsburg, the Sovereigns of which were elected kings of that portion of Hungary which was not held by the Turks. In 1686, Buda, the ancient capital of Hungary, was wrested from the Infidel, and by the end of the seventeenth century her territory was entirely and finally freed from Turkish dominion. It was in 1687 that the House of Habsburg succeeded to the throne of Hungary by the right of dynastic inheritance. But even in the days of Habsburg omnipotence the Magyars never really lost sight of their claim to national autonomy ; for, in literal harmony with the words of an Austrian law of 1790, Hungaria cwm partibus adnexis est regnum liberum et independans, we find that which was rudely abolished in 1849 expressly re-estab- lished for ever in 1867. ia! In former days, when the Poles were compli- mented on being the ‘“‘ French of the North,” the Hungarians used to be styled the ‘‘ English of the Kast.” And there are points of affinity enough between the history of the two countries to warrant more than a passing reference to the comparison. No other country* except England can show such an unbroken continuity of constitutional develop- * See a lecture delivered by Professor Franz. v. Pulzsky in London, entitled “ National Life and Thought.”” Fisher Unwin. 1891, THE HUNGARIANS 51 ment. In no other country except England has a mixed form of government continually prevailed in which the balance of the respective powers of the monarchic, the aristocratic, and the democratic elements—however much it may have fluctuated— has never been irretrievably destroyed. In England, from the days of Queen Elizabeth, when the country definitively accepted Protestant supremacy, the cause of national independence was always intimately allied to that of liberty. Likewise was it in the case of Hungary. Amid the troubles of foreign invasion, the Reformation spread rapidly over the whole country; imbued all classes of the population, and gave the people a new interest in religion, in education, and in literature. It was the means of keeping alive their national aspirations, the outcome of the traditions of the past, and leavening these with dreams of moral and material progress and spiritual liberty. The spirit of Pro- testantism is the source of the magnetic power ' which is enabling Hungary to realise her national dreams. For, at the present time, hemmed in by Catholicism on all sides, the intellectual backbone of the country—the small nobility—is Protestant, and that of a Calvinistic type. The Protestant _ population of Hungary numbers 3,174,000. But while in these respects many parallels suggest themselves between the development of Hungary and England, in point of racial tempera- ment there is a strong affinity between the Turanian Magyar and the Celtic Irish. Both possess the 52 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS same combination of wild animal spirit, chivalrous courage allied to a tinge of sadness, as is evidenced by their national songs, Both are noted for the same qualities—ardent patriotism, imaginative optimism, and extravagance. The Saxon has long enjoyed a laugh over innumerable funny anecdotes of the one and the other. But in the case of the Hungarians, the laugh has lately been largely on their own side. There is a story told of a Hungarian going into a shop to buy a geographical globe. He tries to find Hungary on it, and when the tiny spot is pointed out to him, exclaims in disgust: ‘‘ Nonsense; what IT want is a globe of Hungary!” * This little story possesses significance inasmuch as it reflects two leading features of the Magyar character: patriotism and its excess, an exag- gerated idea of the importance of his own countvry, national conceit. Here again is a Celtic quality which we find more fully represented in the French race. ‘This exaggerated notion of theirs may pos- sibly harbour disappointments for the Hungarians in the future; but their energetic patriotism has already produced astonishing results. We need not refer to the uprising of Hungary in 1848, when her heroism excited the admiration of the civilised world. It is enough to note that the kingdom of Hungary is the part of the Realm of the Habsburgs which for years past has attracted most public at- tention, and that deservedly. For if the Germans * “ Nicht doch, will ich haben Globus von Ungarn.’ THESHUNGARIANS 53 of Austria may be said to typify the past, the Slaves a possible future, the Hungarians are, politically and economically at least, eminently characteristic of the present day. IV We have noted elsewhere the part which tho Germans played in the making of Hungary. The Magyars are now the ruling race, and although they only form at the very utmost forty-eight per cent.* of the seventeen million inhabitants of the kingdom of Hungary and its appendages, their will is supreme, and their energy in national, political, and economical matters something astonishing. What makes this perhaps all the more surprising is, that the Magyar is said to be deficient in many qualities to which we are accustomed to look as guarantees of worldly success in every-day life ; notably, thrift, industry, so- called conscientious right-mindedness, with an added sprinkling of canting hypocrisy. The lack of the latter explains why the frankly aggressive egotism occasionally offends sensitive outsiders. The Magyar is wanting here all along the line. He is pleasure- loving ; the oppressive heat in the summer makes him disinclined for persistent effort, and somewhat of a spendthrift. He has even been typified as a man holding a bottle of champagne in one hand, * According to the Almanach de Gotha (1892), only about six millions in the whole of the Hungarian monarchy speak the Magyar tongue. 54 THE READM OF THE PABSECKG> and a promissory note in the other. And yet he has a record of national self-assertion, and, within the brief space of one generation, has achieved an opening up of the material resources of the country which may well call forth both envy and admiration. The world has been accustomed to marvel at the growth of trans-oceanic communities. Hungary, however, can show an almost equally remarkable spectacle. Here is a great country of the past, in which national independence had been forfeited two hundred and fifty years prior to the collapse of Poland, and which continued to exist at one time as a Turkish province, at another as a portion of Austria, but which suddenly becomes endowed with new life, makes peace on equal terms with its conqueror, and rises up again a new nation. In the course of a short spaco of twenty-five years, this people succeeds in creating commerce and manu- facture, a network of railways, a thorcugh system of public education, a national school of literature, science, journalism,* drama,t painting and music. These, and many other things besides, have the Hungarians succeeded in bringing to life, mainly by the force of national enthusiasm. Other factors as well have, of course, been at work. In the first place, the bounteous hand of Nature herself has * They had almost to create a language of journalism for themselves. + Budapesth possesses four theatres in which the Hungarian language is used, against two in which the performances are in German. THE HUNGARIANS ss given her in the,Danube a river similar to what the Mississippi is to North America. Then, again, she is possessed of a soil, the fertility of which qualifies her to be the granary of Hurope; though against this must be placed the excess of heat, and consequently recurring disastrous droughts and floods. In the second category of causes of Hungary’s flourishing state (Zmporbltihen) must be placed the removal of the deadening hand of Austria. The protective commercial policy of Austria, notably that of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph II., practically cut Hungary off from the rest of the world, and made her economical development ‘impossible, These impediments, however, are now removed; and the new commercial treaty of Austria with Germany must result in a further material increase of prosperity for Hungary, par- ticularly when the canal between the Danube and the Oder and Elbe is made complete, and Hun- garian grain can find its way to the sandy north at nominal freights. ‘This and many other move- ments inevitably point to the transferment of Austria's centre of gravity to Budapesth. But more than any treaties, the qualities of the Hungarians themselves are likely to ensure this consummation. And it is of these that we wish to treat, for, beside his defects, the Magyar possesses some very strong qualities, We need only take a glance at Buda- pesth, the beautiful capital, to recognise this; for, if the Hungarian is, as stated, averse to work, he 56 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS must at least possess the talent to make others work for him, this greatest necessary gift of our time, to have achieved such a splendid result in so short a space. To this outward tangible result must be added one of still greater signifi- cance—namely, the enthusiasm which the Magyar nationality seems able to inspire in others. The German and the Jew gladly exchange their nation- ality for that of the Magyar, and in 1848 the Jews were devoted adherents of the cause of Hungary, as they have since remained. Vv What strikes us, perhaps, most forcibly in Hun- gary, is the union of all classes alike in action and striving in the pursuit of common aims. While in the past, when the Germans were the ruling element, there was continual bickering and jealousy between the town population, the peasantry, and the landed nobility (in France the convulsion of the Revolution ended by the extirpation of the old French nobility), in Hungary, peasant, townsman, and Hungarian magnate are all at this day harmoniously and enthusiastically allied in the fur- therance of the same national endeavours. If any qualification is necessary to this, it 1s at most as to “how far” they wish to go, not a question of difference of principle or antagonism of class interests. Most interesting to us in England is this at the present time, when our democracy is more or Jess indifferent to the possession of India, THE HUNGARIANS 57 which it looks upon at most as a gigantic institu- tion of out-door relief for the sons of the upper classes. To the attainment of this strong unity of pur- pose, the Hungarian aristocracy contributed their share in a manner which will make their high- minded patriotism stand out for all time as a subject for admiration. ‘The share of the Huvga- rian aristocracy in the national uprising of 1848-9, and in its disastrous results—ruin and death by bullet or the common hangman—these are matter of history. Less generally appreciated, however, are the results of this community of all classes in the shambles and on the scaffold; for the memory of it undoubtedly acts as a strong bond of union be- tween them. Down to the year 1848 the nobility of Hungary enjoyed the same privileges which they possessed in the Middle Ages. It is a significant feature in the history of Hungary, however, that while the hard feudal condition of life which existed elsewhere in -Kurope never held sway in Hungary, the common man always had a higher status than elsewhere, although up to our time the peasant in Hungary has remained stationary in the same rank which ‘he oceupied in the past. In 1848 the Hungarian nobility,“ under the * The term of: nobility includes here the class which we in England call landed gentry. The only privilege which the nobility retained almost unchanged was the right of the ‘‘Magnates” to form the Upper House—the “Table of the Magnates.”’ ; 58 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS inspiration of Count Szechenyi, Franz Deak, Koloman Tisza (to-day ex-Minister) and others, came to the conclusion that their ancient class privileges only meant stagnation for the country at large, and made all ideas of progress illusory. They were eager to create and foster enthusiasm among the people for the broader idea of a national existence, and, rising above class selfishness, they led the way by abolishing their own privileges. And in acting thus, in yielding up _ their enormous privileges of their own accord, without pressure from below and in spite of opposition from above, the Hungarian nobility, strange as it may appear, so strengthened their social and political position in a moral sense, that to-day, merely by the force of tradition, it has remained almost the same as it was formerly by force of law. The nobility is now essentially what it ever was, the main constituent part of the public and official life of the country.” On the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the coronation of the Emperor of Austria, the Vienna New Press (5th May 1892) paid the Hun- garian nobility the following tribute : ‘“‘ An aristocracy which is in no need of material aid, possessed of a spirit of independence, and educated in a broad conception of national rights, never placed itself in opposition to the people, nor * Der Adelin Ungarn. Johann von Asboth. THE HUNGARIANS 59 nurtured any class hatred, but always stood in the full vitality of the present.” Again, unlike the nobility of Germany, all the poli- tical talent of the Hungarian nobility is enlisted on the side of the people; they do not form a coterie among themselves, but belong promiscuously to every party. The aristocracy of Hungary offers the most pregnant contrast to the Sarmatian nobility of Poland, which by its impoverishment and gradual extinction is now paying for the sins that brought about the ruin of that once powerful kingdom. No amount of belated heroism in the field could in truth suffice to atone for the class selfishness and political incapacity of the aristocracy which were so conspicuous in Poland’s miserable history. In taking note of the political virtue of the modern Hungarians, it is well to bear in mind that the Hungarian nobility has ever been distin- guished by the possession of marked political talent. ‘Thus, as early as the year 1223, within three years of the granting of our Magna Charta, we find them originating in the Golden Bull a similar charter to that which safeguarded the liberty of the subject in England—a constitutional guarantee exacted from King Anareas the Third. Its main provisions concerned the liberty of the people: the inviolability of property, and the right of the subject to petition the Sovereign for redress of wrongs. Other provisions applied to the right of the nation to oppose the wishes of the monarch, 60 THE REALM (OF THE HABSBURGS should these be in controversion to the law of the © constitution. Hven now the king of Hungary, in the person of Francis Joseph, takes his oath of fidelity to the Golden Bull of 1223. And, indeed, as early as the year 1505, we find the aristocracy insisting on the responsibility of Ministers, which is to-day common to all constitutional countries. Bearing all this in mind, then, it is not surprising that those who know best have a very high opinion of the political talents of the Hungarians, and of the possibilities which the future may have in store for them. Atal It seems to us to be a good augury for the political future of the Hungarians, that, although modern par- liamentary institutions came suddenly upon them, they have shown strong signs of understanding how to work them, instead of being worked by them. The fact of the matter is, that this people, in pursuance of their national aims, combine so-called liberalism with a deal of the method of paternal government, And the results have exceeded every expectation in ctimulating activity and production in every conceivable direction. ‘They already show us what a numerically small practical people, who pull in one direction, can achieve in material and political progress. The Dual Monarchy had hardly been established on its present basis in 1867, when the Hungarians Tere EUNGAKIANS 61 gave proof that they were well able to take care of their interests in more ways than one. The Government wanted money. ‘The Austrian- Hungarian Empire had none. Germany was not likely to respond very liberally. Wnhat was to be done? Why, work on public opinion elsewhere. Now this occurred at the time when the French were very tired of American (read Mexican) investments. For- tunately, the construction of the Suez Canal turned the eyes of the French investing public eastward ! Hungary is also in the Hast. The Suez Canal will bring figurative grist to the mills of Hungary! “Thus argued the wily Hungarians; and the way they succeeded in convincing the I'rench investor of this reflects the highest possible credit on them, and adds one more cogent reason for believing in their political future. The leading organs of the Paris press were “ given to understand,” that in proportion to their influence and circulation a certain percentage of the Royal Hungarian Loan would be placed at their disposal. Thus began one of the most amusing episodes of baiting the many-headed beast that the record of publicity can show. The French public were suddenly “ encouraged” to take an abnormal interest in Hungary, a country the resources, even the geographical position, of which the average Frenchman was probably less acquainted with than with those of Cochin China! The Figaro brought a series of highly coloured descriptions of the social aspect—the charm of Hungarian life. The serious 62 LTHE-REATLW-OF THE HABSBURG. Temps followed suit with a compilation of rose-tinted statistics, showing the wonderful economic possibi- lities of the Magyar kingdom, designed, as if by Providence, as the most suitable repository for the hard-earned savings of Jacques Bonhomme and Joseph Prudhomme. Thus were the changes dexte- rously rung throughout the gamut. And the result was a most successful floating of the Hungarian loan on the Paris money market ! No doubt it was only fear of Russia that pre- vented Austria from joining in the war of 1870, and equally sure is it, that had she done so the national bankruptcy of Hungary would have fol- lowed as a matter of course, and added the Hungarian millions to those of Panama. Such con- siderations, however, are in no way calculated to lessen our admiration of Hungarian astuteness in this business. aL A far more difficult task awaited the leading minds of Hungary in the matter of parliamentary government, From having formed part of the most grand- motherly State in Europe, the Hungarians suddeniy found themselves in possession of an amount of liberty almost boraering on license. They now possess complete freedom of the press, freedom in all forras of co-operative association, political meet- ing and individual enterprise, and an extension of BES HUNGARIANS 63 the franchise tantamount to manhood suffrage. Surely this is liberty enough to favour the growth of the toadstool of selfishness, of vanity and conceit ; liberty enough to encourage any amount of shrieking for “rights ” and silencing every call for self-deny- ing duty! And this with a frontier exposed on every side! As if, too, so much liberty were not in itself sufficient to tax their best energies, they have from the first had a hidden relentless foe in the priesthood of Rome. Be this as it may, however, they still look as if they could ride safely at anchor amid it all—a splendid testimony surely to their political ability. . At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the Hungarians started with many practical advan- tages on their side. One of these—the community of feeling between all classes—we have already de- scribed. Besides that, however, the very blank of their past has been of great moral advantage to them. Few crying injustices, few striking anomalies, few vested interests, either in land, in drink, or in law, exist ; no class privileges have survived the sweep- ing innovations of the Revolution of 1348. Thus Hungarian legislators could come before the country with clean hands; equality for all before the law was not a phrase, but a reality. Instead of a barren policy of negation, instead of a_ half- hearted righting of wrongs, they could make a fair start with measures for the benefit of the community at large. Foremost among these came measures for 64 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS a beneficial subdivision of the land wherever . practicable ; energetic taxation of land, which had formerly been totally exempt from every contribu- tion ; protection against commercial fraud, bogus companies, etc. Measures, too, were passed against every form of modern filth and license, such as the spread of drunkenness, betting and adulteration, etc. etc, In the attainment of these ends there was no social servility to conquer; the dread word “ com-: petition” had not yet had sufficient play to accentuate unduly the spirit of abject prostration of the poor before the rich. Nor also had privilege and beggary, pauperism and charity, time to sap the independence of character of large classes of the community. VIII With these positive and negative advantages in hand, the Hungarians proceeded to work out parliamentary government. Being a young country, the beginning was naturally characterised by the boisterous roughness of youth. Thus we read that the Hungarian elections are still attended with brutal savagery—that people on such occasions are killed and wounded, in out-of-the-way places. We must not, however, forget that when England was fighting the world and building up the Colonial Empire which belts the globe, our parliamentary elections produced periodical crops of broken pates —— THE HUNGARIANS 65 and damaged limbs all over the country. Bearing this in mind, we must not be too hard on Hungarian electoral enthusiasm. It will be for the future to prove whether a few broken heads or a meek electorate, pledging its candidates to female suffrage, is the healthier omen. , In the meantime, it is undoubtedly a good sign of the political earnestness of a country, when peasants are said to travel thirty miles to record their votes. This surely is, from a parliamentary point of view, a more promising outlook for a backward country than are the complaints we read of elsewhere, particularly in Germany, regarding the apathy of the electorate, The Hungarian electors require educating before they become capable of insisting on pledges and able to choose the mealy-mouthed huckster to redeem them. As yet their only ken is the capability of discerning broader aims of patriotism. It is within the walls of parliament itself, however, that the Hungarians appear to the greatest advan- tage. There they. show qualities, notably common sense, which prove them to be born parliamentarians in the best sense of the term. They have little belief in empty words. Thus, some years ago, when a member exclaimed, ‘ Yes, IT am a Republican,” the whole assembly burst out laughing. By nature passionate and impulsive, they have introduced an honest business-like sobriety into their language, which is as striking as it is impressive. Nor have they patience with fads, 1D) 66 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS crotchets, and empty party cries. They would even scorn to pledge themselves to vote in accordance with such. It is therefore not surprising that they do not for a moment take the parliamentarian windbag at his own valuation. He is laughed at or sat upon, and sometimes exploded altogether. Should a parliamentarian, however, add hypocrisy to his ‘‘ windiness,” it becomes a serious matter. The cant of ‘‘conscientious scruples,” the ‘‘all- importance of principle,” and the “insignificance ” of the speaker’s personality, being “open to con- viction,” but only after “careful weighing of evidence,”—all this, instead of exciting admiration, provokes deadly animosity. ‘‘ How are we to hold up our heads,” they say, ‘‘and face our national foes in the hour of danger, if we allow unscrupulous politicians of this stamp tc demoralise us with their hypocrisy?” Tor, strange to say, the Hungarians are afraid of becoming infected by the devilry of falsehood. This hot-blooded but primitive people on such occasions lose all control of themselves. They do not babble about fighting elections with a glib tongue, but they endeavour to provoke the hypocrite to deadly combat with sword or pistol, and if possible to send him into everlasting retire- ment. Hungary, in her precarious condition, cannot aford to allow such noxious weeds to flourish. The Hungarians may be primitive in the method adopted for their eradication, but there can be no doubt as to the soundness of the principle involved. THE HUNGARIANS 67 IX The power of wealth and patronage and so-called social influences go for very little in parliamentary life in Hungary. Membership is not a stepping- stone to social recognition: men of the stamp that are elected in Hungary possess social standing which satisfies them without it. There is a tacit Free- masonry among Hungarian members, inasmuch as from the Ministers down to the most insignificant member of the House they address each other in the familiar “thou”; but this is merely a conventional form which enhances mutual good-feeling, and never leads to undue familiarity, for the educated Hungarian is a gentleman by instinct. The Hun- garian member of parliament, moreover, always retains his independence, because of his not being an office-seeker or ambitious of titular distinction. It is a strange feature of parliamentary life in Hungary that there is no opposition which endea- yours to turn out the Government and take its place. At least such a thing as a change of Government, in the sense in which we understand it, has not taken place since Hungary acquired an independent legislature. Hence there exists no motive for one party to continually question the purity of conduct and principle of their opponents. Hence too they have not yet come to practise a policy of “office at any price.” An unpopular personage retires and another takes his place, that is all; for the main body have the same aim—the good of their 68 THE REALM OF ‘THE HABSBURGS country. The political huckster is as yet an unknown feature; the rich man, who subscribes funds to help to turn out a party and earn a trumpery title in exchange, has hitherto not shown himself. The capitalist is, it is quite true, utilised— nowhere is he ‘‘ worked” more effectually; but neither the Government nor the members in general allow themselves to be swayed by him. Were the wealthy landowner to ask compensation for public improvements which increase the value of his property, he would be ridiculed. As for the sinecurist, the brazen parliamentary beggar, the cunning little self-seeker, the small-brained scion of the aristocracy—these have in parliamentary Hungary but little scope, and at most an uncertain, obscure position. ‘‘ Brandy ” and the liquor interest generally have little influence there. The Hungarians have been on the look-out for strong, honest men to do their work, and in their efforts to find such they have been fairly successful. The array of eminent names the Hungarian parliament can show during the last twenty-five years would do honour to the oldest established national House of Representatives. There is Koloman Szell, who was Minister of I’inance at the same age as Pitt. There is Count Julius Szapary, who has been Minister of Finance, and is now Prime Minister, There is Koloman Tisza, one of the strong men of Hungary, who for ten years was an all-powerful Prime Minister, THE HUNGARIANS 69 There is Count Alexander Carolyi, a man_ of princely fortune and estate, who, disdaining to take his seat in the Upper House, has entered the arena where no privilege of birth can assist him. And lastly, there is the recently deceased Gabriel von Baross. Such are a few of the men who have done good parliamentary work in Hungary. And they have had their hands full! x One of the most striking features of Hungarian legislation has been that connected with industry, commerce, and the opening up of railroads, etc. And here, somehow, this passionate, excitable Asiatic race has got hold of the sober utilitarian watchword of our time—‘ competition.” The Magyars are determined ‘‘to compete” all along the line. And their efforts in this direction prove them to be no unworthy rivals, much less servile imitators, of more phlegmatic races. Nay, on the contrary, they even excel among their competitors. From being shut out from the markets of the world, they have come to compete successfully with the world at large. How they managed to do this is, indeed, an instructive page in contemporary history. 7 In the first place, the Magyars, hand in hand with the Jewish element in their midst, are an eminently practical people. ‘They instinctively discovered for themselves the cardinal truth, which 70 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS was only revealed to us by Professor Bryce, that ‘nothing is more pernicious in politics than abstract doctrines.” They have not been slow to rid themselves of theories, and to face the concrete fact that even without powder and shot there is war, unrelenting war, ever going on in the world. At the present day it is the war of freights, tariffs, and prices. And the Hungarians are determined to have their fair share of the spoil in this warfare, though it be only in the economic form of florins and kreuzers. They set to work accordingly to find a man who could assist them in this; and they found him in the late Minister of Commerce, Gabriel von Baross, the typical Hungarian national politician. Born in the momentous year 1848, of humble parentage, Baross studied law and drifted into journalism. Hlected for parliament, he became Secretary of State at the age of thirty-five, and at thirty-eight full Minister. Of singular force of character, arbitrary or pliant: as circumstances dictated, he was a man of boundless resource and herculean powers for work. Hxacting towards himself, never taking an hour’s holiday, he demanded the same of his subordinates. He found the railway system of Hungary in hopeless disorder, and set to work to put it right. No vested interests were allowed to stand in the way of what he recognised to be an essential condition of national growth and prosperity. He discerned that it was of the first importance to develop the means of communication of the country, in order that the THE HUNGARIANS 71 people might be able to wage the economic warfare, advantageously “fighting light.” He was intimately acquainted with railway matters in other countries, and had heard that the exorbitant freights of English railway companies were choking the agri- cultural produce markets in England to such an extent that foreign fruit was being imported, whilst the home article was actually rotting in the orchards which produced it. J urther, he had heard that the English passenger world is still pay- ing interest on the 460,000,000 given by the railway companies as compensation to English land- owners for trespassing on their property and increasing its value, and that the English parcel post, and even the letter post in some places, has to be served by mail-coaches because the railway monopo- lists will not carry them at reasonable rates. Such were some of the abuses from which Baross determined that Hungary should be spared; and the result has been the so-called Zone tariff,* and the cheapening of freights to such an extent that Hungary, which twenty-five years ago could only show 1400 miles of railway, to-day possesses 7000 miles (4000 belonging to the State) as well as the cheapest railway rates in Hurope. But railway reforms by no means exhausted the energies of G. von Baross. He was an enthusiastic furtherer of home production. To him also are, in * See “Special Inquiry into the Zone Railway System.” Glasgow: Hedderwick & Sons. 1890. 72 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS a measure, due the introduction of the Postal Savings Banks, the recent treaties of commerce, as well as a deal of the social legislation of Hungary. In short, Baross may be said to have literally consumed himself in the service of his country. Although only forty-four years of age when he died last May, his name had attained eminence even outside Hungary. ‘The occasion of his death was one of national mourning throughout the country, the Emperor of Austria (king of Hungary) himself taking the lead in the expression of his deep sympathy. XI Opinions are somewhat divided as to the correct value of the reformatory labours of Gabriel von Baross. The more so, as his revolutionary reforms, and those of his immediate predecessors, could never have been carried through except at the price of great sacrifices from many legitimate vested interests. Jn his enthusiastic cheapening of freights, in his encouragement and assistance of native industries, he went a long way on the road toward State Socialism. The results, however, cannot be said as yet to have come up to expectations. Many are of opinion that they have only served to bring into relief the ‘“‘over-haste” and ‘“‘ unripeness,” the want of per- sistent effort, which still largely characterises Hungary, intellectually * and economically. * The number of those who cannot read and write in Hungary is larger than in any other part of the Dnal Monarchy. THE HUNGARIANS re Be this as it may, the importance of Herr von Baross to us is, that he concentrated and typified in his person the virtues and aspirations of the latter- day Hungarians: burning patriotism, restless energy, free from all mean personal self-seeking egotism ; self-denial and self-sacrifice, devoted to the further- ance of a noble object. : A most significant and hopeful feature to us is the enthusiasm which a bit of genuine “ character ” seems able to call forth in Hungary. Even the town corporations of Croatia—a country which stands in about the same relation to Hungary as Ireland does to England—joined in the mourning for the death of Baross. This man had been neither a popularity hunting demagogue, nor one whom vanity, even when ministered to by royalty itself, moved one hair’s-breadth from pursuing what he believed to be the sum of his life’s work. Strength of character and zeal for the material progress of his country distinguished him in the eyes of his fellows, and in our opinion the impulse his example has furnished to his countrymen will beneficially outweigh any of the shortcomings or fallacies inherent in his feverish legislative activity. Of one thing there can be no doubt, that if Hungary had been forced to depend on the class of politicians who only take the initiative in more advanced com- munities, where the intolerable pressure of public opinion forces them to act, she would not hold the political position or enjoy the economic prospects she has. These possible ‘‘ prospects” stamp Hun- 74 THE REALM OF THE HABSBSURGS gary as an Eldorado for the adventurous agricultural emigrant with capital. But he must be ready to work, as he is forced to work in America and the British colonies. Unfortunately, there is something in the very air and climate of Hungary which, whilst it lends to life the charm of floating on a sunbeam, soon subjects the hardiest foreigner to the weird intoxicating influence of the passionate and yet dreamy, work-killing sounds of the Czardas. _ Who shall say that the future of this people will not manifest what the present seems to fore- shadow ? Much may be expected of this mysterious, and still almost unknown, half-Asiatic race. It unites with many splendid qualities a keen utilitarian level-headedness, an eagerness to go ahead—to overcome every obstacle to its self-assertiveness. Yet there is a dread shadow cast upon its future, for a mighty race looms amid the gloom of Hungary’s snow-tipped hills. Of this the Hungarians can never lose sight, nor are they likely to forget soon the mournful day of Vilagos.* * Tdentified with the collapse of the national rising of 1849, At Vilagos, the Hungarian army under Gorgei surrendered to the Russians, 13th August 1840. 77 "on Yr CHAPTER” V THE JEW Naturam expellas furca ; tamen usque recurret HORACE 1 Russia, Germany and Austria, when they dismem- bered Poland and divided it anong themselves, took over the nucleus of its present large Jewish popula- tion. For Poland had long been the favourite resting-place of the Semitic race in Europe, driven thither from the West by medizval persecutions in Germany, France, and elsewhere. There would, indeed, seem to be a touch of the Nemesis of history in the fact that nowadays the Jews threaten to compete for intellectual and ma- terial supremacy in Russia, in Germany, as well as in Austria, Under the early Romanoffs, the Jews were for- bidden to reside in Russia. ‘To-day the Polish Jews of Russia have spread far and wide through the dominions of the Czar, and are said to number from four to six millions of souls. 74 le REALM OF THE HABSBURGS cary f , : 2 No enormous has been the increase in the Jewish vace in Europe during the present century, that Germany alone possesses a greater number of Jews than did the kingdom of Poland at the time of its first partition;* at which time Poland contained more Jews than the rest of Europe combined. But Austria-Hungary is the country in which, next to Russia, the heritage of Poland has resulted in the greatest increase in the Jewish population. When the Emperor Francis the First arrived at Lemberg, the capital of Austrian Poland, for the first time, he was so struck by the number of Jews that he called out to his suite: ‘‘ Now I know why I hold the title of ‘King of Jerusalem’”” t And verily in modern times there is no country in the world where the Jews form so influential a body as in Austria-Hungary. As the life of the country concentrates itself more and more in the great towns, the Teuton, the Slave, and the Hungarian find a tougher competitor in the Israelite. It was only as recently as 1867 that they first obtained equal political rights; and yet already it is impossible to treat of the country ethnologically, psychologically, or economically without taking into account the Jewish elements to be found there. Their astonishing increase in numbers, as also in * The official census of Poland and Lithuania of 1772 gives the total Jewish population at 308,500 souls. Germany to-day has 600,000 Jews. + The Emperor of Austria holds, among his other titles, that of “ King of Jerusalem.” THE ¥EW 77 influence and wealth, throws the strongest light on the political and intellectual weakness, or rather want of resisting power, on the part of the Austrians, be they considered as a race or as a conglomeration of races. The power of the Jews in Austria affords us, by reason of the antagonism it encounters every- where, an exact scale by which to measure the inertia of the Austrian in competing with them in the battle of life of the nineteenth century. From an economic point of view, too, the Jew is the most significant factor in Austria-Hungary ; for while other race struggles may affect Austria-Hun- gary's political future, the Jewish element is threat- ening in course of time to transform her both economically and socially The following figures will give some idea of the proportion and growth of the Jewish population of Austria-Hungary. According to the census of 1880,* among a total population of 37,786,346, Austria-Hungary counted 1,643,708 Jews,f of which 641,000 fall to Hungary alone. One hundred thousand of these latter belong to the capital, Budapesth; forming one-fifth of its total inhabitants.{ But these figures * The census of 1890 for Hungary is not yet accessible. + The full significance of these figures will be best understood when we bear in mind that in 1848-49 there were, according to the Almanach de Gotha, only 746,891 Jews in the whole country. In 1864 this number had risen to 1,121,000 (683,000 in Austria, 428,000 in Translcithania, Hungary). { Since the Hungarian Edict of Tolerance of the Jews of 1872 the Jews have swarmed to Budapesth. In the year 1842 there 78 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS by no means exhaust the presence of the Jewish race in Hungary. For it is a well-known fact, that about 25 per cent. of the Jews in Hungary have gradually become Hungarians, and adopted names of Magyar character: these do not figure in the statistical columns as Jews at all. The fact of the Hungarians being themselves of Asiatic origin and also largely of the Protestant faith, is said to have facilitated this process, which elsewhere the Catholic Church does all in its power to prevent. That this increase of the Jews in Hungary is evidently destined to become still greater, is proved by the statistics of births and deaths. Whereas in the years 1866—70 the average surplus of births over deaths in Hungary was 17 per cent., among the Jews it amounted to 49°30. ‘There is no reascn to suppose that this proportion has materially altered since. according to the census of Austria proper of 1890, out of a population of 23,895,000, there were 1,143,000 Jews. There are upwards of thirty synagogues in Prague alone. While in the year 1857 there were only thirty- two Jews for every thousand inhabitants of Vienna, in the year 1890 this proportion had risen to one hundred and twenty-two. According to the census of the latter year there were 118,495 Jews in Vienna out of 1,214,363 inhabitants. In the. same year were only 7586 Jews living in Pesth, which was then distinct from Buda, the other half of the town on the opposite bank of the Danube. THE FEW 79 fifty-five Catholics went over to Judaism in Vienna! In one district of the city alone (Leopoldstadt) there are at present 49,098 Jews against 104,934 Roman Catholics: nearly as many as in the whole of Great Britain, Close upon five hundred entries in the Vienna Postal Directory answer alone to the name of Kohn. ‘These figures, taking an average of five to represent a family, would mean that there are two thousand five hundred Jews in Vienna bearing the name of Koln. Kyven these imposing statistics, however, do not, nor would the aggregate of their wealth, convey a full idea of the relative preponderance of the Jewish race in Austria-Hungary. ET The intellectual grip of the Jews in the Austrian Empire is even more surprising than the accumula- tion of their wealth and the variety of their occupa- tions. ‘To begin with, although in number they only form about five per cent. of the entire population, their proportional number at the Austrian univer- sities in 1887-88 was 19°3 percent.” Once started - in life, these nineteen per cent. infuse into every branch of the professions, leaving the gross of the Jewish population to grapple with the sadly incom- petent Austrian in the field of speculative commerce and manufacture. * There were 15,362 students at Austrian universities in the winter of 1887-88. 80 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS In Germany the Jew is almost, though not quite, as powerful in finance and in commerce as in Austria, but he is rarely met with as a manufacturer; the control of labour and the slow mechanical method of making money by manufacturing being perhaps the vocations for which the Jew is least fitted. In Austria, however, he is omnipresent even as a manufacturer. ‘This fact is, perhaps, the most crushing indication of Austrian incapacity to wage the battle of modern life on equal terms with the tougher Oriental. In the communal schools of Vienna (Stddtische Volksschulen) in the year 1890-91, among 42,624 boys there were, roughly speaking, 5600 Jews. Now whereas there were at the same time 6274 pupils at the technical schools (Gewerbe-schulen), drawing their pupils from the communal schools, there were among these only 110 Jews. This shows distinctly how small is the percentage of Jews who think it worth their while to take to the humbler vocation of learning a handicraft, as distinct from a trade. The Jews are all-powerfully represented in every walk of life which leads to influence, money-making, and ‘‘getting on” generally. Everywhere their influence is out of all proportion to their represen- tative numbers, large though it be, both in the liberal professions of law, medicine and literature, and in commerce and industry. ‘hey are to be found dominant in all the large urban centres of political life and commerce, as well as in the rural THE JEW 81 centres of agriculture. They rule the markets, are at the head of finance, and, except in the case of the Czech, direct public opinion. The produce Exchange, and, of course, the Bourse, at Vienna, Pragueor Budapesth, are deserted on Jewish holidays. Jewish syndicates of bankers in Vienna are said to hold mortgages over most of the land of Hungary. All the railways which do not belong to the State are controlled by them. Numberless manufacturers could not carry on their business at all, but for the accommodation afforded them by Jewish bankers. As for public opinion, as expressed through the medium of the press, with the single exception already mentioned, it is the Jew who speaks in the name of the people, be it the Hungarian or the German. Notwithstanding the aggressive national consciousness of the Hungarian, whenever this senti- ment finds expression, it is in all probability through the pen of a Jew. So, too, if an emperor, a states- man, or a great soldier die, it is a Jew who prepares the necrological notice setting forth the virtues of the deceased to public appreciation. On occasions of great Roman Catholic festivais, such as Whitsun- tide, Haster, etc., it is again a Jew who celebrates the occasion with a leading article and tells the good Christians to behave themselves as such; often with quotations from the Bible. Thus, on the recent occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Covenant between Austria and Hungary, the Vienna New Free Press™ aptly concludes a highly optimistic * June 5, 1892. F 82 THE REALM (OF THE HABSEO. Ge leader with the following quotation from the Acts of the Apostles, chap ii. verse 1: ‘And when the day of Pentecost was come, they were all with one accord in one place.” III The foregoing leaves no room for doubt, that in the battle of life, as it is now waged in Austria- Hungary, the Jews are undoubtedly the victors, and are likely to remain so. And when we come to consider the prejudice and hatred they have had, and still have, to encounter, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that their fighting powers must be such as are likely to make their superiority in the future proportionate to the geometrical square of the development of their wealth and number. It is but another case of the figurative snowball. It follows, moreover, that being alien in race and ~ the object of our dislike, and thus only able to succeed in the rivalry of daily life in spite of us, their success is the exact measure of our weakness, whether it be social, political, or economical. In Austria this weakness is partly political, though chiefly commercial, economical, as has already been pointed out. For socially Austria is still true to its standard and will have none of the Jew, and, with very few exceptions, keeps him outside its circle, whatever be his wealth.” * In countries in which society deserts its traditional land- marks, the Jew, although perhaps disliked, becomes in virtue of his money all-powerful as a leader of society. THE FEW 83 All this becomes the more significant as regards the future when we bear in mind that, unlike the Jews in France, England, America and Germany, the greater number of the Austrian-Hungarian Jews are still huddled together in poverty in the eastern provinces of Galicia and in the wilds of Hungary.* Thus it is as yet only the é/ite, a small minority of the Jews, who have achieved so much. If their success continues, they are evidently destined to form a large percentage of the aristocracy of the country, notwithstanding every opposition. Nor do we see how this could well be otherwise. For the aristocracy of to-morrow must be merely the repre- sentatives of the most clever, the most successful, in all walks of life. The most successful, the best—o. apicror—of the past were in reality only those who were most distinguished in war, character, ability, and intellect—the best-balanced heads—the strongest. To-day there is war still, only it is of a different kind. Its character is economical; its prizes, millions; its defeats, poverty. Thus excellence in the art of money-making is the largest and most important attribute of every conception of the best: the most seaworthy in the storms of modern life. And it looks very much as if in time to come it would be the only attribute necessary, not in Austria alone, but all the world over. * Though yearly an increasing contingent is moving up west- ward to swell their victorious ranks in the capital. 84 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS IV It is this strength of the Jew and this weakness of the Austrian that are largely, if not entirely, at the root of the hatred and slander of which the former is the object. The weakest Christians are those who slander the Jews most; they cannot realise that slander is no logical attribute of dislike. Not that the Jews are at all inclined to take this hatred meekly. They already feel their power, and when threatened with expulsion have been known to reply: “‘Go away yourselves, you stupid Christians, if you don’t feel happy here.” It is a pity that in our antipathy towards a race which is so widely dissimilar to our own, we are apt to lose sight of its virtues and to omit the lesson to be derived from them ; for these virtues, strange to say, partake largely of a Christian character. True charity, union among themselves, strong family ties, and fellow-feeling to assist and enable the poorest of their brethren to succeed, are characteristic of them. And the fact most easily lost sight of is, that these so-called Christian virtues are almost as much the cause of the Jew’s success as his clear- headed sobriety in money matters, his keen instinct for discovering our weak spots, his dexterity in availing himself of them, and his persistence of effort, all concentrated on the one aim of worldly success. In truth, the secret of Jewish success consists not only in his strong qualities, but in our untruthfulness to our ideals (wnsere Unechtheit). THE YEW 85 If we were true to the latter, he might assail us in vain. As itis, he has assimilated our strong points, even our virtues, and overcomes us by playing on our weakness. And yet the most widespread accusation against the Jew is, that he is commercially unscrupulous, dishonest. We hold this to be the most unjust of all the reproaches levelled at him. We have yet to gauge the measure of our own scrupulosity. In the meantime, it is a positive fact that the biggest swindles in London, Paris and New York, during the last twenty years, have been almost exclusively the work of the Caucasian, sad to say ! Let us even go a step further. When we bear in mind the natural tricky instincts of kindred races in the East, whence the Jews sprang—-when we remember the persecutions the latter have suffered during so many centuries—-we cannot refuse a tribute of respect to the many excellent qualities they possess. We may cal) them unscrupulous; but they may justly retort that our ideals are not theirs, and that they are more faithful to theirs than we to ours. We were once discussing the question of business confidence with an Austrian. ‘‘ Confidence,” he said; “I have no confidence in anybody.” Now this is all very well, but the Catholic priest has confidence in the Jewish banker, for he intrusts him with the funds of his Church. We have it on the authority of one priest, that the Jews are the only people he would care to trust. In the press the Jew is accused of trickery. 86 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS Then why do we read the papers which we are | thoroughly aware are edited by him? In Austria the answer is simple: because they are almost the only ones worth reading. V The Austrians cannot reproach the Hebrew, because, being a sober Asiatic, he is not carried away by their passions and their ideals. He simply — panders in a legitimate commercial way to their wants and tastes, to the best of his intellectual and commercial ability. The Hmperor is not of his race ; why should he be ready to shed tears for him, let alone to die for him? The aristocracy does not recognise him; why then should he refrain from twitting it with its weaknesses? The Austrians are ready to fly at each other’s throats. What interest can the Jew have to prevent their doing so? Their squabbles only deviate their hatred for the time being from him, and are thus of service to him. That they take what he openly offers as eagerly as the baby takes to the feeding-bottle—for in Vienna newspaper reading is a serious occupation— this surely cannot constitute a reproach to be levelled at the Hebrew. On the contrary, it is a splendid testimony to his intellectual abilities that your full- grown manhood swarms the cafés of Vienna from morning until night, eager to partake of the pabulum provided by a coterie of, perhaps, thirty to forty Hebrews. Whether it consist mainly of clever ae THE {EW 87 banter and ridicule of your institutions and your public men, or of critical opinions telling the reader what to applaud and what to condemn, the result is the same. It is a clear case of intellectual bondage, as effectual and far-reaching as any other kind. And we are even inclined to think that, taken all in all, the Austrian Jews do not abuse their journalistic power, but rather wield it with a fair amount of moderation—indeed, very much more so than the Czech press use theirs. But. so little is this dominion of the Jews realised, that people are said to exist in Austria and elsewhere who still speak of converting the Jews. ‘‘ Why, good Chris- tians, they have nearly succeeded in converting you. Another complaint which the Austrian makes against the Jew is, that he is what the Germans call evn Streber: a “ striver ”—a clever tricky self- seeker; a man who is not particular as to the means he employs as long as he “gets on.” As if Christianity had none such! As if in Austria the cunning little Saxon or the astute Wurtemburger who comes to Austria to make his fortune, are more particular in this respect! As if we had never heard the motto of an eminent Christian railway director: ‘“‘ The world is my oyster; I will open it!” In one sense a Jew is tempted to employ means, if he wishes to succeed, of which the Christian need not avail himself. For he starts with hatred - against him. ‘Thus, however learned he may be in 88 THE REALM OF THE HABSBURGS law, clever in science, or conscientious as a business man, he must first conquer aversion before you will employ him. And the wonder is that he succeeds in this. If he does this by trickery alone, how foolish must those be who oppose him and after- wards trust hin! As a matter of fact, when the Jew succeeds, it is often not money that is his ultimate aim, but rather the respect which we would fain deny him, and which we only accord to those who possess money. No, we refuse to believe that the Jew is one whit more money-grasping than the Christian. On the contrary, according to the laws of psychology he might even be less so, for it is in human nature to value highest that which is most difficult to attain. And the average Jew makes money with facility (speelend). He may prize titles and other distinc- tions more than the Christian, because they have hitherto been more out of his reach; this last, how- ever, is no longer the case, for a German rhyme has it: * Jeder Schmul wird Consul, Jeder Aaron wird Baron.” But no title or distinction will affect his sober judgment in business matters. His steady success proves this up to the hilt in Austria. He is further accused of arrogance. Our experience is, that Iree- masonic good-nature is more characteristic of the Jew than arrogance, at least towards those who meet him without arrogance. There can be no THE EW 89 doubt that between Jews of different spheres of life, there is less arrogance than among Christians. VI It has been often said that the Jew is a disinte- grating force; that the preponderance of the Jew spells decay. And this we are inclined to believe ; and for this reason, that the population is infe- rior in powers of resistance, which allows a foreign antipathetic race, which is not productive in the word’s highest sense, to predominate. Even Spinoza, perhaps the greatest Jew of modern times, was more noted for the nobility of his thoughts than for the originality of his philosophical system. No Jewish inventor, no Jewish painter, dramatist or architect of undisputed first rank is known. This certainly lends some colour to the assertion of his enemies, that he originates nothing, but manipulates everything. He certainly does not shine as an originator or pro- ducer. ‘That, however, means nothing. It is not to genius that we look up, or which succeeds. The prize is to the “clever” as opposed to the cacellent, and the Jew is “ clever.” As a matter of fact, the Jew is unsurpassed as a manipulator, and we live in the age of the successful manipulator. And this largely explains why the dominion of the Jews is of our own, and not of a previous era. There are others beside the Jew adept in this; but in Austria the Jew has no serious competitor worth mentioning. Not that the worthy Austrian 90 THE REALM OK FRE HABSBURG. need take this as an unalloyed compliment. For, if he is less able, that does not mean that he is less eager: witness the arrogant, purse-proud, Austrian Christian parvenu, who has completely gone off his head since his millions brought him the title of Imperial Councillor! Surely it is nothing to be ashamed of in the Jew that he remains cool in dealing with money matters, whilst the Christian loses his head in similar circumstances.