History for ready reference, Volume 6
part 2, page 305
(New York: Charles Scribner's Sons)._
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Italy: Sunken Roman vessels in Lake Nemi.
"A discovery during 1895 which made a great sensation throughout Italy, was that of the famous Roman vessels which had been sunk for so many centuries at the bottom of Lake Nemi, the existence of which has been known or suspected ever since the fifteenth century, notwithstanding many sceptics."
_American Journal of Archœology July-September, 1896._
ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: Syria: Ruined cities of the Roman Province.
An important exploration of ruined cities in the old Roman provinces of Syria and Arabia was conducted by an American archæological expedition organized in 1899. Mr. Howard Crosby Butler, of Princeton, was in charge of the studies made in architecture, sculpture and archæological matters generally; Professor William K. Prentice devoted attention to classical inscriptions, of which a great number were found, while Semitic inscriptions were the subjects of the study of Dr. Enno Littmann, of the University of Halle. The ruins of thirty-three cities, nearly all of them evident places of large population in their day, were visited in regions now too bare of productive soil to support even the small nomadic population of the present day. "The desert conditions have preserved the cities intact as they stood at the time when they appear to have been abandoned, in the beginning of the seventh century." Some account of the expedition and its work is given in the "New York Tribune" of February 3, 1901.
----------ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: End--------
{26}
ARCTIC EXPLORATION, Recent.
See (in this volume) POLAR EXPLORATION.
----------ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: Start--------
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1895. Census.
"According to the census, the number of persons in the Argentine Republic on May 10, 1895, was 4,042,990; the estimated number of Argentines outside the boundaries of the Republic on that day is placed at 50,000, thus making the total population 4,092,990." Of this population 663,854 is in the city of Buenos Ayres. "The increase in the population between September 15, 1869 (the last census), and May 10, 1895 (the date on which the present census was taken), has been 2,218,776, equivalent to an increase of 120 per cent, or an annual increase of 4.6 per cent. The urban population of the Republic has increased 1,045,944. … It is estimated that there are 345,393 foreigners in the city of Buenos Ayres, and that the total number of foreigners in the Republic is about 1,000,000. … Among the Argentine portion of the population, the females exceed the males in number, while it is estimated that two-thirds of the foreign population are males."
_United States Consular Reports, November, 1896, page 438._
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1895. Resignation of President Peña.
President Saenz Peña having refused to issue, at the request of Congress, a decree of amnesty, extended to all persons implicated in the last revolution, his Cabinet resigned (January 16), and he found it impossible to form another. Thereupon the President himself resigned his office, on the 22d of January, and his resignation was accepted by the Congress. Señor Uriburu was elected President on the following day, and promptly issued the desired decree.
ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1898. Settlement of boundary dispute with Chile. Election of President.
"A long unsettled dispute as to the extended boundary between the Argentine Republic and Chile, stretching along the Andean crests from the southern border of the Atacama Desert to Magellan Straits, nearly a third of the length of the South American continent, assumed an acute stage in the early part of the year, and afforded to this Government occasion to express the hope that the resort to arbitration, already contemplated by existing conventions between the parties, might prevail despite the grave difficulties arising in its application. I am happy to say that arrangements to this end have been perfected, the questions of fact upon which the respective commissioners were unable to agree being in course of reference to Her Britannic Majesty for determination. A residual difference touching the northern boundary line across the Atacama Desert, for which existing treaties provided no adequate adjustment, bids fair to be settled in like manner by a joint commission, upon which the United States Minister at Buenos Aires has been invited to serve as umpire in the last resort."
_Message of the President of the United States of America, December, 1898._
The arbitration of the United States Minister, Honorable William I. Buchanan, proved successful in the matter last referred to, and the Atacama boundary was quickly determined.
In June, 1898, General Julio Roca was elected President and assumed the office in October. In July a treaty of arbitration was concluded with the government of Italy, which provides that there shall be no appeal from the decision of the arbitrators.
----------ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: End--------
ARGON, The Discovery of.
See (in this volume) SCIENCE, RECENT: CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.
ARICA, The question concerning.
See (in this volume) CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
ARMENIA: A. D. 1895-1899. Revolt against Turkish oppression. Massacres and atrocities of the conflict. Final concessions.
See (in this volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1895; 1896 (JANUARY-MARCH); 1896 (AUGUST); 1899 (OCTOBER).
ARMENIA: A. D. 1896. Attack of Armenian revolutionists on the Ottoman Bank and subsequent massacre of Armenians in Constantinople.
See (in this volume) TURKEY; A. D. 1896 (AUGUST).
ARMIES, European and American: Their numbers and cost compared.
See (in this volume) WAR BUDGETS.
ARMY ADMINISTRATION, American: Investigation of.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898-1899.
ARMY CANTEEN, Abolition of the American.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
ARMY, United States: Act to increase to 100,000 men.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
ASHANTI: British occupation of the country. Rising of the tribes. Siege and relief of Kumassi.
In 1895, King Prempeh, of Ashanti, provoked a second expedition of British troops against his capital, Kumassi, or Coomassie, by persistence in slave-catching raids and in human sacrifices, and by other violations of his treaty engagements.
For some account of the former expedition
See, in volume 2, ENGLAND: A. D. 1873-1880)
Late in the year a strong force was organized in Gold Coast Colony, mostly made up of native troops. It marched without resistance to Kumassi, which it entered on the 17th of January, 1896. Prempeh made complete submission, placing his crown at the feet of the Governor of the Gold Coast; but he was taken prisoner to Sierra Leone. A fort was built, and garrisoned in the center of the town, and the country was then definitely placed under British protection, politically attached to the Gold Coast Colony. It submitted quietly to the practical conquest until the spring of 1900, when a fierce and general rising of the tribes occurred. It was said at the time that the outbreak was caused by efforts of the British to secure possession of a "golden stool" which King Prempeh had used for his throne, and which had been effectually concealed when Kumassi was taken in 1896; but this has been denied by Sir Frederic Hodgson, the Governor of the Gold Coast. "The 'golden stool,'" he declared, "was only an incident in the affair and had nothing to do with the cause of the rising, which had been brewing for a long time. {27} In his opinion the Ashantis had been preparing ever since the British occupation in 1896 to reassert their independence." The Governor was, himself, in Kumassi when the Ashantis first attacked it, on the 25th of March, and he has given an account of the desperate position in which the few British officials, with their small native garrison and the refugees whom they tried to protect, were placed. "Our force," said Sir Frederic Hodgson, "consisted of only some 200 Hausas, while there is reason to believe that we had not less than 15,000 Ashantis surrounding us. In addition to our own force we had to protect some 3,500 refugees, chiefly Mahomedan traders, Fantis, and loyal Kumassis, none of whom we were able to take into the fort, where every available bit of space was required for military purposes. It was heartrending to see the efforts of these poor people to scale the walls or break through the gate of the fort, and we had to withdraw the Hausas from the cantonments and draw a cordon round the refugees. It is impossible to describe the horror of the situation with these 3,500 wretched people huddled together without shelter under the walls of the fort. That same night a tornado broke over Kumassi, and the scene next morning with over 200 children was too terrible for words. Afterwards they were able to arrange shelters for themselves." Near the end of April, two small reinforcements from other posts reached Kumassi; but while this strengthened the numbers for defence, it weakened the food supply. Taking stock of their food, the besieged decided that they could hold out until June 23, and that if the main body then marched out, to cut, if possible, their way through the enemy, leaving a hundred men behind, the latter might keep the fort until July 15. This, accordingly, was done. On the 23d of June Governor Hodgson, with all but 100 men, stole away from Kumassi, by a road which the Ashantis had not guarded, and succeeded in reaching the coast, undergoing great hardships and dangers in the march. Meantime, an expedition from Cape Coast Castle was being energetically prepared by Colonel Sir J. Willcocks, who overcame immense difficulties and fought his way into Kumassi on Ju]y 15, the very day on which the food-supply of the little garrison was expected to give out. The following account of his entry into Kumassi is from Colonel Willcocks' official report: "Forming up in the main road, we marched towards Kumassi, a mile distant, the troops cheering wildly for the Queen and then followed silence. No sound came from the direction of the fort, which you cannot see till quite close. For a moment the hideous desolation and silence, the headless bodies lying everywhere, the sickening smell, &c., almost made one shudder to think what no one dared to utter—'Has Kumassi fallen? Are we too late?' Then a bugle sound caught the ear—'the general salute'—the tops of the towers appeared, and again every man in the column, white and black, broke into cheers long sustained. The brave defenders had at last seen us; they knew for hours' past from the firing growing ever nearer that we were coming, yet they dared not open their only gate; they perforce must wait, for even as we appeared the enemy were making their last efforts to destroy the outlying buildings, and were actually setting them on fire until after dark, when a party of 100 men went out and treated them to volleys and cleared them out. If I have gone too fully into details of the final scene, the occasion was one that every white man felt for him comes perhaps but once, and no one would have missed it for a kingdom."
ASPHYXIATING SHELLS: Declaration against.
See (in this volume) PEACE CONFERENCE.
ASSASSINATIONS: Of President Barrios.
See (in this volume) CENTRAL AMERICA (GUATEMALA): A. D. 1897-1898.
Of President Borda.
See (in this volume) URUGUAY: A. D. 1896-1899.
Of Canovas del Castillo.
See (in this volume) SPAIN: A. D. 1897 (AUGUST-OCTOBER).
Of Empress Elizabeth of Austria.
See (in this volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (SEPTEMBER).
Of Governor Goebel.
See (in this volume) KENTUCKY: A. D. 1895-1900.
Of President Heureaux.
See (in this volume) DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1899.
Of King Humbert.
See (in this volume) ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900; and 1900 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).
Of Professor Mihaileano.
See (in this volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
Of Nâsr-ed-din, Shah of Persia.
See (in this volume) PERSIA: A. D. 1896.
Of M. Stambouloff.
See (in this volume) BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES (BULGARIA).
ASSIOUT, Nile barrage at.
See (in this volume) EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
ASSOCIATIONS BILL, The French.
See (in this volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1901.
ASSOUAN. Nile barrage at.
See (in this volume) EGYPT: A. D. 1898-1901.
ASSUMPTIONIST FATHERS, Dissolution of the Society of the.
See (in this volume) FRANCE: A. D. 1899-1900 (AUGUST-JANUARY).
ATACAMA, The question concerning.
See (in this volume) CHILE: A. D. 1894-1900.
ATBARA, Battle of the.
See (in this volume) EGYPT: A. D. 1897-1898.
ATHENS: A. D. 1896. The revival of Olympic games.
As the result of a movement instituted in France by the Baron de Coubertin, an interesting attempt to give athletic sports the spirit and semblance of the ancient Olympic games was made at Athens in the spring of 1896. A number of wealthy Greeks in different parts of the world joined generously in the undertaking, one gentleman especially, M. Averoff, of Alexandria, bearing the cost of a restoration in marble of the stadium at Athens, for the occasion. The games were held in April, from the 6th to the 15th, and were witnessed by a great number of people. Besides Greek competitors, there were 42 from Germany, 23 from England, 21 from America, 15 from France. The great event of the occasion was the long foot-race from Marathon to Athens, which was won by a young Greek.
The U. S. Consul at Athens, writing of the reconstruction of the ancient stadium for the games, described the work as follows:
{28}
"The stadium may be described as an immense open air amphitheater constructed in a natural ravine, artificially filled in at the end. It is in the shape of an elongated horseshoe. The spectators, seated upon the sloping sides of the ravine, look down into the arena below, which is a little over 600 feet in length and about 100 feet wide at the widest part. … The stadium, as rebuilt for the games, will consist of (1) the arena, bounded by a marble curbing, surmounted by an iron railing adorned with Athenian owls; (2) a walk between this curbing and the first row of seats; (3) a low retaining wall of marble on which rests the first row of seats, the entire row being of marble; (4) the seats; (5) the underground tunnel.
In addition to these features there will be an imposing entrance, a surrounding wall at the top of the hill, and two supporting walls at the entrance. As far as possible, in the reconstruction of the stadium, the old portions will be used, where these are in a sufficient state of preservation, and an effort will be made to reproduce, as nearly as practicable, the ancient structure. The seats at present will not all be made of pentelic marble, as there is neither time nor money for such an undertaking. At the closed end of the arena, seventeen rows will be made of pentelic marble, as well as the first row all the way around. The remaining rows up to the first aisle are being constructed of Pincus stone. These will accommodate 25,000 seated spectators. From this aisle to the top will be placed wooden benches for 30,000 seated spectators. Add to these standing room for 5,000, and we have the holding capacity of the stadium 60,000 without crowding."
_United States Consular Reports, March, 1896, pages 353-354._
ATLANTA: A. D. 1895. The Cotton States and International Exposition.
An important exposition, named as above, was held with great success at Atlanta, Georgia, from the 18th of September until the end of the year 1895. The exhibits from Mexico and many of the Central and South American States were extensive and interesting; but the main interest and value of the exposition were in its showing of the industrial resources of the Southern States of the American Union, and of the recent progress made in developing them.
AUSGLEICH, The.
See (in this volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: FINANCIAL RELATIONS; and A. D. 1897 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
AUSTRAL ISLANDS: Annexation to France.
The Austral or Tubuai Islands were formally annexed to France by the Governor of Tahiti, on the 21st of August, 1900.
----------AUSTRALIA. Start--------
AUSTRALIA: Recent extensions of Democracy in the Australian Colonies and New Zealand. Social experiments.
"The five colonies of the Australian continent, Tasmania, and New Zealand constitute seven practically independent commonwealths under the British crown. Australians and New Zealanders have therefore been able to develop their countries along their own lines, and have surpassed all other Anglo-Saxon nations in the number and variety of functions which the state is called upon to perform. … The railways almost without exception, and all the telegraph and telephone lines, are in the hands of the community. In the few cases in which there is private ownership of railways, a particular line was demanded at a certain time, and the government were not then in a position to borrow the funds required for its construction. Western Australia has recently purchased the entire property of one of the two private undertakings in the colony. A mass of sanitary and industrial legislation also has been placed upon the statute book.
"Again, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and New Zealand lend money to settlers at low rates of interest; South Australia sells its wines in London; Queensland facilitates the erection of sugar mills; Victoria and South Australia have given a bonus upon the exportation of dairy produce; South Australia, New Zealand, and Victoria receive the produce, grade and freeze it free of charge, or at a rate which barely covers the expenses; Victoria contributes toward the erection of butter factories; Victoria and New Zealand have subsidized the mining industry; and Western Australia has adopted a comprehensive scheme for the supply of water to the Coolgardie gold fields. In all the colonies the national system of primary education is compulsory and undenominational. In South Australia, Victoria, Queensland, and New Zealand it is also free. In the other colonies fees are charged, which may be remitted wholly or partly if parents are unable to pay them. Assistance is given in most cases for the promotion of secondary, technical, and university education. New Zealand and South Australia have appointed public trustees. New Zealand has long possessed a department of life insurance.
"Finally, … New Zealand has adopted a system of old-age pensions. A pension of seven shillings a week is to be given to every person above the age of sixty-five years, provided he or she has lived in the colony for twenty-five years, and is able to pass a certain test in regard to sobriety and general good conduct. … In South Australia direct taxation takes two forms. There is an income tax at the rate of four and a half pence in the pound up to £800, and of six-pence in the pound above £800 of taxable amount resulting from personal exertions, and at the rate of ninepence and one shilling in the pound respectively on incomes from property. Incomes between £125 and £425 enjoy exemption on £125 of the amount. Again, there is a tax on the unimproved value of land of one half-penny in the pound up to, and one penny above, the capital value of £5000. …
"Similar taxation is to be found in New Zealand, and includes both a progressive income tax and a tax on land values which is more highly graduated than that of South Australia. … All improvements are excluded from the assessment of the taxable amount. … If the owner of the property is dissatisfied with the assessment of the government, he can call upon them to buy it of him at their own valuation. In only one case has such an extreme step been taken; and it is pleasant to find that it has resulted in an annual profit of nearly five per cent upon the outlay, and that the land which formerly gave employment to a few shepherds is now occupied by a large number of thriving settlers. {29} I may add that when the government deem that an estate is not being developed as it should be by its owners, they are authorized by statute to purchase it—by negotiation if possible, otherwise at a price paid by an impartial tribunal—with a view to its subdivision into small holdings suitable to the requirements of the community. This system of taxation, it will be said with some truth, is based upon the teachings of Henry George. He travelled in Australia and New Zealand, and was listened to with attention; but, while he looked to the ultimate absorption of the whole unearned increment, his hearers in the antipodes dissociated themselves from his conclusions, though they appreciated the value of his premises. Consequently, while accepting his principles, they did not hesitate to exempt small properties from the tax, and to increase its rate progressively in relation to the amount of the unimproved value. …
"One of the most hopeful signs of the day is that, with the help of the representatives of labor in Parliament, Australian governments have done much within recent years to mitigate the excess of population in the large towns, and to replace the unemployed upon the land. Of course mistakes have been made. In some cases settlers have failed through lack of agricultural knowledge; in others, on account of the barrenness of the soil. In South Australia, the village settlements, which were avowedly started as an alternative to relief works, have been only a modified success. In New Zealand, village settlements have produced very satisfactory results. … In Victoria, a labor colony has been established, with the entire support of the trades-unionists, to which the unemployed may be sent, and at which they receive, at a very low rate of wages, a course of instruction in agricultural pursuits which enables them subsequently to obtain private employment with farmers or others. In New Zealand, I found a very strong feeling among trades-unionists that it would be to the interest of the workingmen themselves if a penal colony were established, on the lines of those which exist in Germany, to which loafers might be sent, and at which they would be compelled to work, with the alternative of starvation."
_H. De R. Walker, Australasian Extensions of Democracy (Atlantic Monthly, May, 1899)._
See also (in this volume), NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1891-1900.
AUSTRALIA: Western Australia: The Outlander problem in Australia.
"Here we have a problem in many respects similar to that which has distracted South Africa. In several particulars the resemblance is startlingly close. … Many of the elements of disorder in the two continents are the same. In Western Australia, as in the Transvaal, there is a large population of mining residents, who complain that they are treated like 'helots'—to use Sir Alfred Milner's term—by the privileged agricultural burghers. They urge that they are denied fair representation, so that the burghers monopolise political power; that the administration is in the hands of a knot of politicians and place-hunters at Perth—I had almost written Pretoria; that they have made the colony wealthy by their enterprise and capital, only to see a large part of the fruits of their industry drawn from them by excessive taxation, which is expended mainly outside their own district; that they are burdened by oppressive railway rates and denied access to the port which is the natural outlet to the Goldfields, and so on. The Kalgoorlie 'Uitlanders,' like the Johannesburgers, have sent a petition to the Queen, signed by a larger number of persons than those who forwarded the famous memorial which set the ball rolling in South Africa and led to the Bloemfontein Conference. The case is fully and temperately set forth in this petition, and in the Manifesto of the Eastern Goldfields Reform League of Western Australia, both of which documents are in the last Bluebook relating to Australian Federation. The same official compilation contains a statement to Mr. Chamberlain from Dr. Paget Thurston, in which the parallel between West Australia and the Transvaal is asserted with the most uncompromising directness. 'We have here,' says the writer, 'a Boer and Outlander question almost parallel to that in the Transvaal. As an Outlander I appeal to you.' Dr. Thurston adds: 'The old West Australians openly speak as if the colony was theirs, and we were interlopers who have no course open to us but to leave the colony if we are dissatisfied.' This has a very familiar sound, and so has the following: 'The great bulk of the taxation is levied through duties on food and drink. As the Boer party includes all the agricultural producers, and the Outlanders include the great bulk of the consumers, this acts injuriously on us in two ways. It puts a frightful load on the Outlander taxpayer, and enables the Boer producer to command a very high price for his food-stuffs. Owing to the limitation of the market by excessive protection, many articles of common use reach famine prices at times. In the three years I have been here, for instance, potatoes have been £22 10s. a ton; apples, 2s. 6d. a pound; oranges, 5s. a dozen; new-laid eggs, 4s. a dozen (at the time of writing, 3s. 6d.). Fresh butter is practically unobtainable for ten months in the year, and common country wine (such as I used to buy for 3d. and 4d. a bottle in the Canary Islands) is here 2s. a bottle. I ask you, Sir, whether any other place in Her Majesty's Empire (not physically inaccessible) can show prices one half as high during the past three years?'
"Nor does the ominous kind of hint that preceded the Jameson Raid fail to be uttered. Only three terminations, according to Dr. Thurston, are possible if Sir John Forrest does not modify his Krugerite policy towards the mining settlers: '(1) Separation of the goldfields.—This would be only fair to the goldfields; but thousands of Outlanders have settled in the other parts of the colony, and this step would not redress their wrongs. The practical result of this step would be prosperity for the goldfields, but almost ruin for the rest of the colony. (2) Revolution.—I fear this is much more probable than is generally thought. Unless a material change takes place quickly there will be bloodshed in this colony. (3) General depression, practically equivalent to bankruptcy.' Separation, however, and the creation of a new colony, which would include the Goldfields district and come down to the sea, and would immediately join the Australian Federation, is the remedy officially proposed by the representatives of the Outlanders. …
{30}
"The Colonial Secretary has deferred his final answer to the Goldfields Petition until the comments of the Perth Ministry upon that document have been received and considered. But he has sent a provisional reply to the representatives of the petitioners in London. He sees the solution of the matter in getting Western Australia somehow into the new Commonwealth. In a communication to Mr. Walter Griffiths, one of the Goldfields delegates, the Colonial Secretary says: 'The decision of the Government of Western Australia to summon Parliament immediately with the view to the passing of a measure for the submission of the Commonwealth Bill to the electors of the colony has removed the chief of the grievances put forward in the petition and has opened up an early prospect of obtaining the object which the petitioners had in view. An answer will be returned to the petition after a careful consideration of its terms and of the comments of the Government of the colony thereon, but Mr. Chamberlain trusts that before an answer can be returned the people of the colony will have decided to join the Commonwealth, for the government of which, in that event, it will be to deal with the grievances alleged in the petition in so far as they are not exclusively within the province of the Parliament and Government of Western Australia.' In other words, let the Federation dispose of the matter. But the delegates point out that this might not remove their grievances. The Federal Parliament would have no power to compel the dominant party in the Perth Assembly either to redistribute seats fairly, or divide the colony, so as to create 'Home Rule for the Rand.' True, we should have washed our hands of the affair, and could tell the malcontent Uitlanders that it was none of our business. But if Perth still remained obstinate, and Coolgardie in consequence began to carry out some of those ugly projects hinted at by Dr. Thurston, it might become our business in an embarrassing fashion. At any rate, it does not seem quite fair to the new Commonwealth to start it in life with this grave question, still unsettled, upon its hands."
_S. Low, Enigmas of Empire (Nineteenth Century, June, 1900)._
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1894-1895. Defeat of the Protectionist policy. Adoption of a liberal tariff.
At the general elections of July, 1894, in New South Wales, the tariff issue was sharply defined. "'Protection' was inscribed on the banners of the ministerial party, led by the then Premier, Sir George Dibbs, while the aggressive opposition, led by Mr. Reid, … fought under the banner of 'free trade.' The Free Traders won the battle in that election, as there were 63 Free Traders, 40 Protectionists, and 22 labor members, mostly with free-trade leanings, returned. On the reassembling of Parliament, Sir George Dibbs was confronted with a large majority, and Mr. George H. Reid was called to form a government on the lines suggested by the issues of the campaign. The Council or 'upper house,' consisting of Crown nominees for life, rejected the measures suggested by Mr. Reid and passed by the Assembly by an overwhelming majority, and Mr. Reid dissolved Parliament on July 6, 1895, and appealed to the country. The election was held on July 24, and again the issues, as set forth in the measures, were fought out vigorously. The great leader of protection, Sir George Dibbs, with several of his ablest followers, was defeated, and the so-called Free Trade party came back, much stronger than before. Thus, it was claimed that the mandate of the people, declaring for free trade and direct taxation, had been reaffirmed, and on the reassembling of Parliament, on August 13, the same measure, as passed by the Assembly and rejected by the Council, was again presented and passed by the Assembly by a majority of 50 to 26, and again went to the upper house. Again it was met with great hostility, but the Government party in that chamber, having been augmented by ten new appointments, the temper of the house was softened and the bill was passed with some two hundred and fifty amendments. As, the Assembly could only accept some eighty of these without, yielding material points … a conference was suggested, which, after several days of discussion, agreed to a modified measure, embracing the principle of free trade, as interpreted in this colony, and direct taxation, and the new law goes into effect as above stated, on January 1, 1896.
"It may be well here to remark that there are a few articles, notably raw sugar, glucose, molasses, and treacle, upon which the duty will be removed gradually, so as not to wantonly disturb vested interests, but, with these exceptions, the change is a very sweeping one."
_United States Consular Reports, June, 1896, page 299._
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1896. Change in the government of Norfolk Island. Its re-annexation to New South Wales.
A change in the government of Norfolk Island was proclaimed in November, 1896, by the Governor of New South Wales, who came to the island, acting under directions from the British Colonial Office, and announced that "Her Majesty's Government has decided to appoint a resident magistrate. The object sought is to secure the impartial administration of justice, while leaving the local and municipal affairs of the island to be conducted by a council representing the inhabitants. In consideration of the fact that the Norfolk Island settlement originally formed part of the administrative colony of New South Wales, and that the legal business of the island and the registration of all land titles and transfers have uniformly been conducted by the Government departments at Sydney, Her Majesty's Government has decided to transfer the administration of the island to the Government of New South Wales. The Government of New South Wales has accepted the charge and as soon as the necessary arrangements have been completed Norfolk Island will be administered by the governor of New South Wales in council." "It will thus be seen that the Pitcairn community, which, for more than one hundred years, has governed itself by its own laws, is now abolished and that a new era has begun. The governor's legal right to annul the constitution given by the Queen when the community emigrated from Pitcairn was questioned. A deputation was appointed to wait on the governor, but he refused to discuss the subject further."
_United States Consular Reports, May, 1897, page 37._
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1897. Conference of colonial premiers with the British Colonial Secretary.
See (in this volume) ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).
[Image: Map of Australia and Islands of the Pacific.]
{31}
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900. Federation of the Australian Colonies. The steps by which the Union was accomplished. Passage of the "Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act" by the Imperial Parliament.
"The first indication of a plan for united action among the colonies is to be found in a proposal of Earl Grey in 1850. The main object of the proposal was to bring about uniformity in colonial tariffs; but, though partially adopted, it came to nothing. From 1850 to 1860 the project of federation was discussed from time to time in several of the colonial legislatures, and committees on the subject were appointed. But there seems to have been little general interest in the question, and up to 1860 all efforts in the direction of federation met with complete failure. Shortly after, however, a new form of united action, less ambitious but more likely of success, was suggested and adopted. From 1863 to 1883 conferences of colonial ministers were held at various times to discuss certain specified topics, with a view to introducing identical proposals in the separate colonial legislatures. Six of these conferences were held at Melbourne and three at Sydney; and one also was held at Hobart in 1895, though the period of the real activity of the conference scheme practically closed in 1883. The scheme proved a failure, because it was found impossible to carry out the measures concerted in the conferences. But material events were doing more than could any public agitation to draw attention to the advantages of closer union. The colonies were growing in population and wealth, railroads were building and commerce was extending. The inconveniences of border customs duties suggested attempts at something like commercial reciprocity between two or more colonies. New political problems also helped to arouse public interest. Heretofore there had been little fear of foreign aggression and, hence, no feeling of the need of united action for common defense; nor had there been any thought of the extension of Australian power and interests beyond the immediate boundaries of the different colonies. But the period from 1880 to 1890 witnessed a change in this respect. It was during this period that much feeling was aroused against the influx of French criminals, escaped from the penal settlements in New Caledonia. The difficulties in regard to New Guinea belong also to this decade. Suspicion of the designs of Germany upon that part of the island of New Guinea nearest the Dutch boundary led to the annexation of its eastern portion by the Queensland government. This action was disavowed by the British government under Gladstone, and the fears of the colonists were ridiculed; but almost immediately after the northern half of New Guinea was forcibly taken possession of by Germany. The indignation of Australians was extreme, and the opinion was freely expressed that the colonies would have to unite to protect their own interests. Finally, this was the time of the French designs on the New Hebrides Islands and of German movements with reference to Samoa. These conditions, economic and political, affected all the colonies more or less intimately and resulted in the first real, though loose, form of federal union. At the instigation of the Honorable James Service, premier of Victoria, a convention met at Sydney, November, 1883, composed of delegates from all the colonial governments. This convention adopted a bill providing for the establishment of a Federal Council, with power to deal with certain specified subjects and with such other matters as might be referred to it by two or more colonies. … New South Wales and New Zealand refused to agree to the bill, but it was adopted by the other colonies; and the Imperial Parliament, in 1885, passed an act permitting such a Council to be called into existence at the request of any three colonies, to be joined by other colonies as they saw fit. Meetings of the Council took place in 1886, 1888, 1889 and 1891, but very little was accomplished. That the Federal Council was a very weak affair is obvious. … Meanwhile, interest in a more adequate form of federation was growing. In 1890 Sir Henry Parkes proposed a plan for federal union of a real and vigorous sort. At his suggestion, a conference met at Melbourne, February 6, 1890, to decide on the best method of getting the question into definite shape for consideration. … Provision was made … for the calling of a convention to draw up a constitution. … In accordance with the decision of the conference, delegates from the several colonies convened at Sydney, March 2, 1891; and with the work of this convention began the third and final stage in the federation movement. The Sydney convention formulated a bill, embodying a draft of a federal constitution, and then resolved that provision should be made by the several parliaments to submit it to the people in such manner as each colony should see fit. … But there was no sufficient external pressure to bring about an immediate discussion and an early settlement. … The result was that nothing was done. … Meanwhile, federation leagues had been organized in different colonies, and in 1893 delegates from a number of these leagues met at Bendigo, Victoria. … After adopting the bill of 1891 as a basis of discussion, the Bendigo conference resolved to urge the colonial governments to pass uniform enabling acts for a new convention—its members to be elected by popular vote—to frame a constitution which should be submitted to the people for approval. This proposal met with general favor and resulted in the calling of a meeting of the premiers of all the colonies at Hobart in January, 1895. There an enabling bill was drafted which five premiers agreed to lay before their respective parliaments. … It took two years to get this machinery into working order. At length, however, the requisite authority was granted by five colonies: New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, Queensland and New Zealand declining to participate. On March 22, 1897, the second constitutional convention assembled at Adelaide. This convention drew up a new federal constitution, based upon the draft of 1891. Between May 5 and September 2 the constitution was discussed in each of the parliaments. When the convention reassembled at Sydney on March 2, as many as 75 amendments were reported as suggested by the different colonies. Many were of an insignificant character and many were practically identical. The constitution and proposed amendments were discussed in two sessions of the convention, which finally adjourned March 16, 1898, its work then being ready to submit to the people. {32} In June a popular vote resulted in the acceptance of the constitution by Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia; but the failure of the parent colony, New South Wales, to adopt it blocked all hope of federal union for the moment. Recently, however, at a conference of colonial premiers certain amendments demanded by New South Wales were agreed to in part, and upon a second vote the constitution, as amended, was accepted by that colony."
_W. G. Beach, The Australian Federal Constitution (Political Science Quarterly, December, 1899)._
In August, 1899, the draft of a Constitution thus agreed upon was transmitted to England, with addresses from the provincial legislatures, praying that it be passed into law by the Imperial Parliament. Early in the following year delegates from the several colonies were sent to England to discuss with the Colonial Office certain questions that had arisen, and to assist in procuring the passage by Parliament of the necessary Act. Looked at from the Imperial standpoint, a number of objections to the draft Constitution were found, but all of them were finally waived excepting one. That one related to a provision touching appeals from the High Court of the Australian Commonwealth to the Queen in Council. As framed and adopted in Australia, the provision in question was as follows:
"74. No appeal shall be permitted to the Queen in Council in any matter involving the interpretation of this Constitution or of the Constitution of a State, unless the public interests of some part of Her Majesty's Dominions, other than the Commonwealth or a State, are involved. Except as provided in this section, this Constitution shall not impair any right which the Queen may be pleased to exercise, by virtue of Her Royal Prerogative, to grant special leave of appeal from the High Court to Her Majesty in Council. But The Parliament may make laws limiting the matters in which such leave may be asked."
This was objected to on several grounds, but mainly for the reasons thus stated by Mr. Chamberlain: "Proposals are under consideration for securing a permanent and effective representation of the great Colonies on the Judicial Committee, and for amalgamating the Judicial Committee with the House of Lords, so as to constitute a Court of Appeal from the whole British Empire. It would be very unfortunate if Australia should choose this moment to take from the Imperial Tribunal the cognizance of the class of cases of greatest importance, and often of greatest difficulty. Article 74 proposes to withdraw from the Queen in Council matters involving the interpretation of the Constitution. It is precisely on questions of this kind that the Queen in Council has been able to render most valuable service to the administration of law in the Colonies, and questions of this kind, which may sometimes involve a good deal of local feeling, are the last that should be withdrawn from a Tribunal of appeal with regard to which there could not be even a suspicion of prepossession. Questions as to the constitution of the Commonwealth or of a State may be such as to raise a great deal of public excitement as to the definition of the boundaries between the powers of the Commonwealth Parliament and the powers of the State Parliaments. It can hardly be satisfactory to the people of Australia that in such cases, however important and far-reaching in their consequences, the decision of the High Court should be absolutely final. Before long the necessity for altering the Constitution in this respect would be felt, and it is better that the Constitution should be enacted in such a form as to render unnecessary the somewhat elaborate proceedings which would be required to amend it."
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications (Papers by Command, April and May, 1900, Australia—Cd. 124 and 158)._
In reply, the Australian delegates maintained that they had no authority to amend, in any particular, the instrument which the people of the several colonies had ratified by their votes; but the Imperial authorities were inflexible, and the article 74 was modified in the Act which passed Parliament, on the 7th of July, 1900, "to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia," as may be seen by reference to the text, published elsewhere.
See (in this volume) CONSTITUTION OF AUSTRALIA.
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900. The question of the Federal Capital.
By the Constitution of the Commonwealth, it is required that the seat of government "shall be determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney;" and "such territory shall contain an area of not less than one hundred square miles." "New South Wales," says a correspondent, writing from Sydney, "is naturally anxious to get the question decided as quickly as possible; but Victoria will equally be inclined to procrastinate, and the new Parliament—which cannot be more comfortable than it will be at Melbourne—will not be in a hurry to shift. The necessity for a new and artificial capital arises entirely out of our provincial jealousies, and it would have been a great saving of initial expense and a great diminution of inconvenience if we could have used one of the old capitals for a quarter of a century." To remove preliminary difficulties and avoid delay, the government of New South Wales appointed a commissioner to visit and report on the most likely places. The report of this commissioner, made early in October, "reduces the possible positions to three—one near Bombala in the south-east corner of the colony at the foot of the Australian Alps, one near Yass on the line of the railway between Sydney and Melbourne, and one near Orange on our western line. On the whole he gives the preference to the first named."
AUSTRALIA: New South Wales: A. D. 1900. Old-Age Pension Act.
A letter from Sydney, November 29, 1900, announced: "The question of the establishment of an old age pension system, similar to that now in successful operation in New Zealand [see (in this volume) NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1899], has been agitating New South Wales for several months, and to-day the bill for that purpose became a law. There has been a desire on the part of some members of the Legislature to hold over the bill until the convening of the Federal Parliament, in the hope that the measure would become universal throughout the continent, but the majority, including the Premier, wished the bill to be pushed through without loss of time. There is no opposition worth mentioning. … At a mass meeting in favor of the bill representatives of every political party, of every Church and of every profession and trade in the community were present. {33} The sentiment of the colony has never been more unanimous. … The estimated cost of the scheme is something like £250,000 or £300,000 a year, but this does not take into consideration the amount which will be saved by doing away with the charitable institutions now draining the pockets alike of the state and of the individual. Private contributions alone amount to £600,000 a year; all this will be saved, together with a part of the Government's annual expenditure—about £400,000—for public institutions. Not all pauper institutions can be abolished, for many of the aged and friendless poor are ailing or slightly feeble minded, and will continue to need medical attention."
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (March). New Zealand looking toward federation with the Australian Commonwealth.
See (in this volume) NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (MARCH).
AUSTRALIA: West Australia: A. D. 1900 (August). Vote to join the Commonwealth.
The question of union with the other colonies in the Commonwealth, from which the West Australians had previously held aloof, was submitted to them in August (women voting for the first time), and decided affirmatively by 44,704 against 19,691. Adding the West Australian totals to the aggregate vote at the decisive referendum in each of the other federating colonies, the following is the reported result:
For federation. 422,647 Against federation. 161,024
Majority. 261,623
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1900 (September-December). The Queen's Proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth. Contemplated visit of the Duke and Duchess of York to open the first session of the Federal Parliament. Appointment of Lord Hopetoun to be Governor-General. The first Federal Cabinet.
On the 17th of September the following proclamation of the Australian Commonwealth was issued by the Queen:
"Whereas by an Act of Parliament passed in the sixty-third and sixty-fourth years of Our reign, intituled 'An Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia,' it is enacted that it shall be lawful for the Queen, with the advice of the Privy Council, to declare by Proclamation that, on and after a day therein appointed, not being later than one year after the passing of this Act, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania, and also, if Her Majesty is satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto, of Western Australia, shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth, under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. And whereas We are satisfied that the people of Western Australia have agreed thereto accordingly. We therefore, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, have thought fit to issue this Our Royal Proclamation, and We do hereby declare that on and after the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and one, the people of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia shall be united in a Federal Commonwealth under the name of the Commonwealth of Australia. Given at Our Court at Balmoral, this seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred, and in the sixty-fourth year of Our reign. God save the Queen."
At the same time, the following announcement, which caused extreme delight in Australia, was published officially from the Colonial Office:
"Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to assent, on the recommendation of the Marquis of Salisbury, to the visit of their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York to the colonies of Australasia in the spring of next year. His Royal Highness the Duke of York will be commissioned by her Majesty to open the first Session of the Parliament of the Australian Commonwealth in her name. Although the Queen naturally shrinks from parting with her grandson for so long a period, her Majesty fully recognizes the greatness of the occasion which will bring her colonies of Australia into federal union, and desires to give this special proof of her interest in all that concerns the welfare of her Australian subjects. Her Majesty at the same time wishes to signify her sense of the loyalty and devotion which have prompted the spontaneous aid so liberally offered by all the colonies in the South African war, and of the splendid gallantry of her colonial troops. Her Majesty's assent to this visit is, of course, given on the assumption that at the time fixed for the Duke of York's departure the circumstances are as generally favourable as at present and that no national interests call for his Royal Highness's presence in this country."
To manifest still further the interest taken by the British government in the event, it was made known in October that "when the Duke of York opens the new Commonwealth Parliament, the guard of honour, it is directed, shall be so made up as to be representative of every arm of the British Army, including the Volunteers. To the Victoria and St. George's Rifles has fallen the honour of being selected to represent the entire Volunteer force of the country. A detachment of the regiment, between 50 and 60 strong, will accordingly leave for Australia in about a month and will be absent three or four months."
The honor of the appointment to be the first Governor-General of the new Commonwealth fell to a Scottish nobleman, John Adrian Louis Hope, seventh Earl of Hopetoun, who had been Governor of Victoria from 1889 to 1895, and had held high offices at home, including that of Lord Chamberlain in the household of the Queen. Lord Hopetoun landed at Sydney on the 15th of December and received a great welcome. On the 30th, his Cabinet was formed, and announced, as follows:
Mr. Barton, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs; Mr. Deakin, Attorney-General; Sir William Lyne, Minister for Home Affairs; Sir George Turner, Treasurer; Mr. Kingston, Minister of Trade and Commerce; Mr. Dickson, Minister of Defence; Sir John Forrest, Postmaster-General.
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (January). Inauguration of the Federal Government.
The government of the Commonwealth was inaugurated with splendid ceremonies on the first day of the New Year and the New Century, when the Governor-General and the members of the Federal Cabinet were sworn and assumed office. Two messages from the British Secretary of State for the Colonies were read, as follows:
{34}
"The Queen commands me to express through you to the people of Australia her Majesty's heartfelt interest in the inauguration of the Commonwealth, and her earnest wish that, under divine Providence, it may ensure the increased prosperity and well-being of her loyal and beloved subjects in Australia."
"Her Majesty's Government send cordial greetings to the Commonwealth of Australia. They welcome her to her place among the nations united under her Majesty's sovereignty, and confidently anticipate for the new Federation a future of ever-increasing prosperity and influence. They recognize in the long-desired consummation of the hopes of patriotic Australians a further step in the direction of the permanent unity of the British Empire, and they are satisfied that the wider powers and responsibilities henceforth secured to Australia will give fresh opportunity for the display of that generous loyalty and devotion to the Throne and Empire which has always characterized the action in the past of its several States."
AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1901 (May). Opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth by the heir to the British crown. The programme of the Federal Government.
The Duke of Cornwall and York, heir to the British crown (but not yet created Prince of Wales), sailed, with his wife, from England in March, to be present at the opening of the first Parliament of the federated Commonwealth of Australia, which is arranged to take place early in May. He makes the voyage in royal state, on a steamer specially fitted and converted for the occasion into a royal yacht, with an escort of two cruisers.
Preliminary to the election and meeting of Parliament, the new federal government has much organizing work to do, and much preparation of measures for Parliament to discuss. The Premier, Mr. Barton, in a speech made on the 17th of January, announced that the Customs were taken over from the several States on January 1, and the defences and post-offices would be transferred as soon as possible. " Probably the railways would be acquired by the Commonwealth at an early date. Whether the debts of the several States would be taken over before the railways was a matter which had to be decided, and was now engaging the attention of the Treasurer. The Ministry would not consider the appointment of a Chief Justice of the High Court until Parliament had established that tribunal." In the same speech, the main features of the programme and policy of the federal government were indicated. "The Commonwealth," said the Premier, "would have the exclusive power of imposing Customs and excise duties, and it would, therefore, be necessary to preserve the States' power of direct taxation. There must be no direct taxation by the Commonwealth except under very great pressure. Free trade under the Constitution was practically impossible; there must be a very large Customs revenue. … The policy of the Government would be protective, not prohibitive, because it must be revenue-producing. No one colony could lay claim to the adoption of its tariff, whether high or low. The first tariff of Australia ought to be considerate of existing industries. The policy of the Government could be summed up in a dozen words. It would give Australia a tariff that would be Australian. Regarding a preferential duty on British goods, he would be glad to reciprocate where possible, but the question would have to receive very serious consideration before final action could be taken. Among the legislation to be introduced at an early date, Mr. Barton continued, were a Conciliation and Arbitration Bill in labour disputes, and a Bill for a transcontinental railway, which would be of great value from the defence point of view. He was in favour of womanhood suffrage. Legislation to exclude Asiatics would be taken in hand as a matter of course."
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AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: Financial relations of the two countries forming the dual Empire.
"The financial relations of Austria and Hungary fall under three main heads. Firstly, the Quota, or proportionate contribution to joint expenditure. The Quota is an integral portion of the compact of 1867 [see—in volume 1—AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867], but is revised every ten years. Failing an agreement on the proportion to be paid by each half of the monarchy, the Quota is fixed from year to year by the Emperor till an agreement is arrived at. Secondly, the so-called commercial 'Ausgleich' treaty, which provides for a customs union, postal and telegraphic union, commercial equality of citizens of one state in the other, identical excise duties, &c. Thirdly, the Bank Union, by which Austria and Hungary have a common Austro-Hungarian bank, and common paper money. The Ausgleich and Bank Union are not essential parts of the 1867 compact; they are really only treaties renewable every ten years, and if no agreement is come to, they simply lapse, and each state makes its own arrangements, which seems very likely to be the fate of the Ausgleich unless the present crisis can be got over. The proceeds of the joint customs are applied directly to common expenses, and only the difference is made up by Quota. But if the Ausgleich falls through, the whole of the joint expenditure will have to be settled by quota payments. The joint expenditure goes almost wholly to the up-keep of the army, navy, and consular and diplomatic services. It amounts on an average to about 150 million florins or 12½ million £, falling as low as 124½ million florins in 1885 and rising to nearly 167 million in 1888. Of this total the customs revenues have, in the last few years, accounted for nearly a third, usually about 31 per cent. The Quota was fixed in 1867 at 70 per cent. for Austria and 30 per cent. for Hungary, based on a very rough calculation from the yield of common taxation in the years 1860-1865, the last few years preceding the restoration of Hungarian independence. On the incorporation of the so-called Military Frontier in Hungary, the Hungarian proportion was increased to 31.4. Hitherto the Hungarians have resisted any attempt to increase their quota. This 'non possumus' attitude has provoked great resentment in Austria, especially when it is compared with the self-complacent tone with which the Magyars dwell on the enormous progress made by Hungary since 1867. That progress is indubitable. Hungary has not only developed as an agricultural state, but is in a very fair way of becoming an industrial and manufacturing state as well. …
{35}
"On all these grounds the Austrians declare that they can no longer go on paying the old Quota of 68.6 per cent. The Hungarians admit the great progress made by Hungary, but with some qualifications. In spite of the growth of Budapest, Fiume, and a few other towns, Hungary is still, on the whole, very backward when compared with Austria. The total volume of her manufactures is very small, in spite of the rapid increase of recent years. Hungary is still, to all intents and purposes, an agricultural country, and as such, has suffered largely from the fall in prices."
_L. S. Amery, Austro-Hungarian Financial Relations (Economic Journal, September, 1898)._
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895. The Hungarian Ecclesiastical Laws. Conflict with the Church. Resignation of Count Kalnoky.
In the last month of 1894 royal assent was given to three bills, known as the Ecclesiastical Laws, which marked an extraordinary departure from the old subserviency of the State to the Church. The first was a civil marriage law, which made civil marriage compulsory, leaving religious ceremonies optional with the parties, and which modified the law of divorce; the second annulled a former law by which the sons of mixed marriages were required to follow the father's religion, and the daughters to follow that of the mother; the third established an uniform State registration of births, deaths and marriages, in place of a former registration of different creeds, and legalized marriages between Christians and Jews without change of faith. These very radical measures, after passing the lower house of the Hungarian legislature, were carried with great difficulty through the aristocratic and clerical upper house, and only by a strong pressure of influence from the emperor-king himself. They were exceedingly obnoxious to the Church, and the Papal Nuncio became active in a hostility which the Hungarian premier, Baron Banffy, deemed offensive to the State. He called upon the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Kalnoky, to address a complaint on the subject to the Vatican. This led to disagreements between the two ministers which the Emperor strove without success to reconcile, and Count Kalnoky, in the end, was forced to retire from office. The Pope was requested to recall the offending Nuncio, and declined to do so.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896. Race-jealousies and conflicts. The position of Bohemia in the part of the dual Empire called Austria. Anti-Semitic agitation in Vienna. Austrian Ministry of Count Badeni. Enlarged parliamentary franchise.
In the constitutional reconstruction of the Empire after the war of 1866, almost everything was conceded to the Magyars of Hungary, who acquired independence in matters of internal administration, and ascendancy over the other races subject to the Hungarian crown. "On the other hand, absolute equality was established between the different countries that are not connected with Hungary. No greater privileges were granted to an ancient historical kingdom such as Bohemia than were given, for instance, to the small Alpine district situated between the Tyrol and the Boden See (Lake of Constance) known as Vorarlberg. … The representatives of these countries were to meet at Vienna, and a ministry for 'Cisleithania' was appointed. That these measures were injudicious is now the opinion of almost all Austrians. Beust [the Saxon statesman who was called in to conduct the political reconstruction of 1867—see, in volume 1, AUSTRIA: A. D. 1866-1867; and 1866-1887], created a new agglomeration of smaller and larger countries, entirely different as regards race, history, and culture. It is characteristic of the artificiality of Count Beust's new creation that up to the present day no real and generally accepted name for it has been found. The usual designation of Cisleithania is an obvious absurdity. A glance at the map will suffice to show how senseless such a name is when applied, for instance, to Dalmatia, one of the countries ruled from Vienna. The word 'Austria' also can correctly be applied only either to all the countries ruled by the house of Habsburg-Lorraine or to the archduchies of Upper and Lower Austria, which are the cradle of the dynasty. The official designation of the non-Hungarian parts of the empire is 'the kingdoms and lands represented in the parliament' (of Vienna)—'Die im Reichsrathe vertretenen Königreiche und Länder.'
"Though the Germans willingly took part in the deliberations of the Parliament of 'Cisleithania,' the Slavs of Bohemia and Poland were at first violently opposed to the new institution. They might perhaps have willingly consented to take part in a Vienna parliament that would have consisted of representatives of the whole empire. But when the ancient historical rights of Hungary were fully recognized, countries such as Bohemia and Poland … naturally felt offended. Count Beust dealt differently with these two divisions of the empire. The partly true, partly imaginary, grievances of the Poles were more recent and better known thirty years ago than they are now. Beust was impressed by them and considered it advisable to make large concessions to the Poles of Galicia with regard to autonomy, local government, and the use of the national language. The Poles, who did not fail to contrast their fate with that of their countrymen who were under Russian or Prussian rule, gratefully accepted these concessions, and attended the meetings of the representative assembly at Vienna. Other motives also contributed to this decision of the Galician Poles. Galicia is a very poor country, and the Germans who then ruled at Vienna, naturally welcoming the representatives of a large Slav country in their Parliament, proved most generous in their votes in favour of the Galician railways. Matters stood differently in Bohemia, and the attitude of Count Beust and the new 'Cisleithanian' ministers was also here quite different. They seem to have thought that they could break the resistance of the Bohemians by military force, and with the aid of the German minority of the population. A long struggle ensued. … Bohemia is … the 'cockpit' of Austrian political warfare, and almost every political crisis has been closely connected with events that occurred in Bohemia. The Bohemian representatives in 1867 refused to take part in the deliberations of the Vienna Parliament, the existence of which they considered contrary to the ancient constitution of their country. {36} In 1879 they finally decided to take part in the deliberations of the Vienna assembly. … The Bohemians, indeed, entered the Vienna Parliament under protest, and declared that their appearance there was by no means to be considered as a resignation of the special rights that Bohemia had formerly possessed. The Bohemian deputies, however, continued henceforth to take part in the deliberations of the Cisleithanian Parliament and loyally supported those of the many Austrian ministers who were not entirely deaf to their demands. Some of these demands, such as that of the foundation of a national university at Prague, were indeed granted by the Vienna ministers. Though a German university continued to exist at Prague, this concession was vehemently opposed by the Germans, as indeed every concession to appease the Bohemian people was."
_Francis Count Lutzow, Austria at the End of the Century (Nineteenth Century Review, December, 1899)._
During recent years, government in the dual empire has been made increasingly difficult, especially on the Austrian side, by the jealousy, which grows constantly more bitter, between the German and Slavic elements of the mixed population, and by the rising heat of the Anti-Semitic agitation. The latter was brought to a serious crisis in Vienna during 1895 by the election of Dr. Lueger, a violent leader of Anti-Semitism, to the office of First Vice-Burgomaster, which caused the resignation of the Burgomaster, and led to such disorders in the municipal council that the government was forced to intervene. The council was dissolved and an imperial commissioner appointed to conduct the city administration provisionally; but similar disorders, still more serious, recurred in October, when elections were held and the Anti-Semites won a majority in the council. Dr. Lueger was then elected Burgomaster. The government, supported by a majority in the Austrian Reichsrath, refused to confirm the election. A second time Dr. Lueger was elected; whereupon the municipal council was again dissolved and the municipal administration transferred to an imperial commissioner. This measure was followed by scenes of scandalous turbulence in the Reichsrath and riotous demonstrations in the streets, which latter were vigorously suppressed by the police. Some considerable part of the temper in these demonstrations was directed against the Austrian premier, Count Badeni, and still more against the Polish race, to which he belonged. Count Badeni, who had been Governor of Galicia, had just been called to the head of affairs, and gave promise of an administration that would be strong; but several other members of his cabinet were Poles, and that fact was a cause of offense. He gave an early assurance that the demand for an enlargement of the parliamentary franchise should be satisfactorily met, and that other liberal measures should be promptly taken in hand. These promises, with the show of firmness in the conduct of the government, produced a wide feeling in its favor. The promise of an enlargement of the parliamentary franchise in Austria was redeemed the following February (1896), by the introduction and speedy passage of a parliamentary reform bill, which embodied an important revision of the Austrian constitution. Seventy-two new members were added to the 353 which formerly constituted the lower or Abgeordneten House of the Austrian Reichsrath. The original body of 353 remained as it had been, made up in four sections, elected by four classes in the community, namely: owners of large estates, electing 85 members; doctors of the universities and town taxpayers who pay five florins of direct taxation yearly, these together electing 115; chambers of commerce and industry, electing 22; country taxpayers who pay five florins of direct taxation yearly, electing 131. The number of voters in these four privileged classes were said to number 1,732,000 when the Reform Bill passed. The new voters added by the bill were estimated to number about 3,600,000. But the latter would elect only the 72 new members added to the House, while the former continued to be exclusively represented by the 353 members of its former constitution. In other words, though the suffrage was now extended to all male adults, it was not with equality of value to all. For about one-third of the political community, the franchise was given five times the weight and force that it possessed for the remaining two-thirds. Nevertheless, the bill seems to have been accepted and passed with no great opposition. In Vienna, the Anti-Semitic agitation was kept up with violence, Dr. Lueger being elected four times to the chief-burgomastership of the city, in defiance of the imperial refusal to sanction his election. Finally the conflict was ended by a compromise. Lueger resigned and was permitted to take the office of Vice Burgomaster, while one of his followers was chosen to the Chief Burgomaster's seat.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1896. Celebration of the Millennium of the Kingdom of Hungary.
The millennial anniversary of the Kingdom of Hungary was celebrated by the holding of a great national exposition and festival at Buda-Pesth, from the 2d of May until the end of October, 1896. Preparations were begun as early as 1893, and were carried forward with great national enthusiasm and liberality, the government contributing nearly two millions of dollars to the expense of the undertaking. The spirit of the movement was expressed at the beginning by the Minister of Commerce, Bela Lukács, by whose department it was specially promoted. "The government," he said, "will take care that the national work be exhibited in a worthy frame, so as to further the interests of the exhibitors. May everyone of you, its subjects, therefore show what he is able to attain by his diligence, his taste, and his inventive faculty. Let us all, in fact, compete—we who are working, some with our brains, others with our hands, and others with our machines—like one man for the father-land. Thus the living generation will be able to see what its fore-fathers have made in the midst of hard circumstances, and to realize what tasks are awaiting us and the new generations in the path which has been smoothed by the sweat, labor, and pain of our ancestors. This will be a rare family festival, the equal of which has not been granted to many nations. Let the people gather, then, round our august ruler, who has guided our country with fatherly care and wisdom in the benevolent ways of peace to the heights which mark the progress of to-day, and who—a faithful keeper of the glorious past of a thousand years—has led the Hungarian people to the threshold of a still more splendid thousand years to come!"
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Writing shortly before the opening, the United States Consul at Buda-Pesth, Mr. Hammond, gave the following description of the plans and preparations then nearly complete: "The series of official festivities will be diversified by those of a social and popular character. These will be the interparliamentary conference for international courts of arbitration; the congress of journalists, with the view to constitute an international journalistic union; international congresses of art and history, of actors, tourists, athletes, etc.; numerous national congresses embracing every intellectual and material interest of the country, in which the leading personages of all groups and branches of national production, the highest authorities in the field of commerce, industry, communication, etc., as well as those who are in the forefront of the literary, spiritual, and philanthropic movements of the country will take part.
"There is activity in all classes of Hungarian society, with a view to carrying out the ingenious project of the artist Paul Vágó—the great historical pageant. Several municipal bodies have already promised their cooperation, while scores of men and women, bearers of historic names, have declared their readiness to take part at their own expense. All the costumes of all the races and social classes who have inhabited this country during ten centuries will pass before our eyes in this beautiful cortege. The genius of the artist will call into life in their descendants the warriors who conquered Pannonia under Arpad, and, during the reign of Louis the Great, annexed to this realm all the neighboring countries; all the dignitaries, both civil and ecclesiastical, who, under Stephen the Saint, King Kálman, and Mathias Corvinus, spread Christianity, enlightenment, liberty, and wealth to the extreme confines of this part of Europe; all the crusaders of Joannes Hunyady, who drove back the Crescent for a century and thus defended western civilization against eastern fanaticism; all the kings, princes, noblemen, and poets of modern times who have led the nation in her struggle for modern ideas. These historical figures will be followed by their retainers or surrounded by the popular types of the respective epochs. To judge by the sketches of the artist, this pageant promises to surpass anything that has hitherto been offered on similar occasions.
"All these festivals will move, as it were, within the fixed frame of the Millennial National Exhibition, which will cover an area of 500,000 square meters (5,382,100 square feet) and consist of 169 buildings and pavilions, erected at a total cost (including private expenses) of 10,000,000 florins ($4,020,000). This exhibition is divided into two sections, viz:
(1) The historical section, containing art treasures, relics, and antiquities of the past, which will illustrate the political, religious, military, and private life of each principal period in the history of the nation. … (2) The section of modern times will embrace everything offered by similar exhibitions.
Nevertheless, the visitor's mind will here, too, be impressed with the solemnity of the millennium and the enthusiasm inspiring the nation at this momentous period of its history. The programme embraces the national life in all its manifestations. Not only will the present condition of Hungary be laid open to general view, but the world will also be impressed with the great progress Hungary has made since the reestablishment of her constitution in 1867."
_United States Consular Reports, April, 1896._
By every possible arrangement of facilitation and cheapening, a visit to the Exposition was placed within the means of all the inhabitants of the kingdom; and especial provision was made for bringing schools and teachers to receive the object-lessons which it taught.
Among the ceremonies which attended the ending of the great national festival, was the formal opening, at Orsova, of a ship channel through the rocky obstructions that have been known since the days when they troubled the Romans as the "Iron Gates of the Danube."
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897. Industrial combinations.
See (in this volume) TRUSTS: IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897. The forces of feudalism and clericalism in Austria. Austrian parties in the Reichsrath. Their aims, character and relative strength. Count Badeni's language decrees for Bohemia.
"In no European country have the forces of feudalism and clericalism such an enormous influence as they have in Austria. The Austrian nobility is supreme at Court and in the upper branches of the Administration. In Hungary the small nobility and landed gentry exercise a preponderating influence, but they are a wide class and filled with the national spirit. The Austrian nobility forms a narrow, intensely exclusive and bigoted caste, whose only political interest is the maintenance of its own class supremacy. The large Protestant element in Hungary has in no small degree contributed to the success of the Magyars, both in its effect on the national character and by the secondary position to which the mixture of creeds has relegated the Church. In Austria the Church of Rome is all-powerful. The House of Habsburg has always been bigotedly Catholic: Francis Joseph himself was a pupil of the Jesuits. The triumph of the reaction after 1848 was the establishment in 1855 of that 'written Canossa' the Concordat, which made the Church absolute in all matters relating to education and marriage. And even though the Concordat was got rid of in 1870, the energies of the clerical party have been but little weakened. The real explanation of the whole course of Austrian politics lies in the interaction of the two conflicts—of reaction, clerical or aristocratic, against liberalism, and of Slav against German. …
"In March 1897 came the general elections, to which a special interest was lent by the first appearance of the fifth class of voters. The most striking feature of the elections was the complete and final break up of the German Liberal party. … The history of the German Liberal party has been one of a continuous decline both in numbers and importance. It counted 200 members in 1873, 170 in 1879, 114 in 1885-1891, and only 77 out of a total of 425 in 1897. … Their political theories are those of moderate constitutional liberalism as understood on the Continent in the middle of the century—i. e. belief in the efficacy of parliamentary government, in commercial and industrial freedom, hostility to military bureaucracy and clericalism. … The most radical group among them, the Progressists, an offshoot of the last election, is about as radical as the ordinary English Conservative of to-day. The views of the Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz are those of the English Tory of fifty years ago.
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"Of the fractions into which the Liberal party is now divided the most important is the Deutsch Fortschrittliche, or Progressive, which split off from the main body in November 1896. Its chief object was to direct a stronger opposition on national and liberal lines to Count Badeni. Its 35 members are almost exclusively recruited from Bohemia and Moravia. They differ from the German 'Volkspartei' mainly in their refusal to accept anti-Semitism, which would be both against their liberal professions and their economic convictions as representatives of the commercial and manufacturing classes. The constitutional landowners (Verfassungstreue Grossgrundbesitz, 30 seats) represent the most conservative element of the old Liberal party. … The 12 members of the Free German Union (Freie Deutsche Vereinigung) may perhaps consider themselves the most authentic remnant of the great Liberal party—it is their chief claim to distinction. The German National or People's party (Deutsche Volkspartei, 43 seats) first made its appearance at the elections of 1885. It rejected the old idea of the Liberals that the Germans were meant, as defenders of the State, to look to State interests alone without regard to the fate of their own nationality, and took up a more strictly national as well as a more democratic attitude. It has also of late years included anti-Semitism in its programme. Its main strength lies in the Alpine provinces, where it heads the German national and Liberal opposition to the Slovenes on the one side, and the German clericals on the other. It is at present the largest of the German parties. …
"Least but not last of the German parties comes the little group of five led by Schönerer and Wolf. Noisy, turbulent, and reckless, this little body of extremists headed the obstruction in the Reichsrath, the disorganised larger German parties simply following in its wake. The object these men aim at is the incorporation of German Austria in the German Empire, the non-German parts being left to take care of themselves. Both the German National party and Schönerer's followers are anti-Semitic, but anti-Semitism only plays a secondary part in their programme. The party that more specially claims the title of anti-Semite is the Christian Social (Christlich-Soziale, 27 seats). The growth of this party in the last few years has been extraordinarily rapid. In Dr. Lueger and Prince Alois Liechtenstein it has found leaders who thoroughly understand the arts of exciting or humouring the Viennese populace. … The characteristic feature of Austrian anti-Semitism, besides the reaction against the predominance of the ubiquitous Jew in commerce, journalism, and the liberal professions, is that it represents the opposition of the small tradesman or handicraftsman to the increasing pressure of competition from the large Jewish shops and the sweating system so frequently connected with them. The economic theories of the party are of the crudest and most mediæval kind; compulsory apprenticeship, restricted trade guilds, penalties on stock exchange speculation, &c., form the chief items of its programme. …
"The German Clericals and the Clerical Conservatives (Katholische Volkspartei and Centrum) number some 37 votes together; but their importance has always been increased by the skilful and unscrupulous parliamentary tactics of the party. The strength of the Clerical party lies in the ignorant and devotedly pious peasantry of Upper Austria and the Alpine provinces. The defence of agrarian interests is included in its programme; but its only real object is the maintenance of the moral and material power of the Church. Its policy looks solely to the interests of the Vatican. …
"The best organised of the national parties is the Polish Club (59 seats). It represents the national and social interests of the Polish nobility and landed gentry. … Standing outside of Austrian interests, they exercise a controlling voice in Austrian affairs. The three-score well-drilled Polish votes have helped the Government again and again to ride roughshod over constitutional opposition. The partition of Poland has thus avenged itself on one at least of its spoilers. The Germans have long resented this outside interference which permanently keeps them in a minority. … The Czechs are a party of 60, and together with the 19 representatives of the Czech landed aristocracy, form the largest group in the Reichsrath. The Young Czech party began in the seventies as a reaction against the Old Czech policy of passive resistance. In contra-distinction to the Old Czechs, they also professed radical and anti-clerical views in politics generally. … In 1897 the Old Czechs finally withdrew from the contest or were merged in the victorious party. … Of the other nationalist parties the most important is the Slav National Christian Union (35 seats), comprising the Slovenes, Croatians, and some of the more moderate Ruthenians from Galicia. Their programme is mainly national, though tinged with clericalism; equality of the Slav languages with German and Italian in mixed districts; and ultimately a union of the southern Slavs in an autonomous national province. The Italians are divided into 5 Clerical Italians from the Tirol and 14 Liberals from Trieste, Istria, &c. The Tirolese Italians desire a division of the Tirol into a German and an Italian part. …
"The most interesting, and in some ways the most respectable, of all Austrian parties is the Socialist or Social Democratic party (15 seats). It is the only one that fights for a living political theory—German liberalism being to all intents and purposes defunct—and not for mere national aggression. The Social Democrats hold the whole national agitation to be an hysterical dispute got up by professors, advocates, and other ne'er-do-weels of the unemployed upper classes. … Their support is derived from the working classes in the industrial districts, and not least from the poorer Jews, who supply socialism with many of its keenest apostles. …
"Altogether a most hopeless jumble of incoherent atoms is this Austrian Reichsrath. The chariots driving four-ways on the roof of the Houses of Parliament are a true symbol of the nature of Austrian politics. To add to the confusion, all the parties are headless. Able men and men of culture, there are a good many in the House; but political leaders there are none. The general tone of the House is undignified, and has been so for some time. …
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"On April 5, 1897, Count Badeni published the notorious language decrees for Bohemia. This ordinance placed the Czech language on an absolute equality with the German in all governmental departments and in the law courts all over Bohemia. … After 1901 all officials in every part of Bohemia were to be obliged to know both languages. The refusal of the Germans to admit the language spoken by 62 per cent. of the population of Bohemia to an equality with their own is not quite so preposterous as would at first sight appear. Without subscribing to Professor Mommsen's somewhat insolent dicta about 'inferior races,' one must admit that the Czech and German languages do not stand on altogether the same footing. German is a language spoken by some 60,000,000 of people, the language of a great literature and a great commerce. Czech is difficult, unpronounceable, and spoken by some 5,000,000 in all. It must be remembered, too, that the two nations do not really live together in Bohemia, but that the Germans live in a broad belt all round the country, while the Czechs inhabit the central plain. There is no more reason for a German Bohemian to acquire Czech than there is for a citizen of Edinburgh to make himself master of Gaelic. On the other hand, every educated Czech naturally learns German, even in a purely Czech-speaking district. … It must also be remembered that the decrees, as such, were of doubtful constitutionality; the language question was really a matter for the Legislature to settle. The decrees at once produced a violent agitation among the Germans, which rapidly spread from Bohemia over the whole Empire."
_The Internal Crisis in Austria-Hungary (Edinburgh Review, July, 1898)._
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1897 (October-December). Scenes in the Austrian Reichsrath described by Mark Twain.
"Here in Vienna in these closing days of 1897 one's blood gets no chance to stagnate. The atmosphere is brimful of political electricity. All conversation is political; every man is a battery, with brushes overworn, and gives out blue sparks when you set him going on the common topic. … Things have happened here recently which would set any country but Austria on fire from end to end, and upset the government to a certainty; but no one feels confident that such results will follow here. Here, apparently, one must wait and see what will happen, then he will know, and not before; guessing is idle; guessing cannot help the matter. This is what the wise tell you; they all say it; they say it every day, and it is the sole detail upon which they all agree. There is some approach to agreement upon another point: that there will be no revolution. … Nearly every day some one explains to me that a revolution would not succeed here. 'It couldn't, you know. Broadly speaking, all the nations in the empire hate the government—but they all hate each other too, and with devoted and enthusiastic bitterness; no two of them can combine; the nation that rises must rise alone; then the others would joyfully join the government against her, and she would have just a fly's chance against a combination of spiders. This government is entirely independent. It can go its own road, and do as it pleases; it has nothing to fear. In countries like England and America, where there is one tongue and the public interests are common, the government must take account of public opinion; but in Austria-Hungary there are nineteen public opinions—one for each state. No—two or three for each state, since there are two or three nationalities in each. A government cannot satisfy all these public opinions; it can only go through the motions of trying. This government does that. It goes through the motions, and they do not succeed; but that does not worry the government much.' …
"The recent troubles have grown out of Count Badeni's necessities. He could not carry on his government without a majority vote in the House at his back, and in order to secure it he had to make a trade of some sort. He made it with the Czechs—the Bohemians. The terms were not easy for him: he must pass a bill making the Czech tongue the official language in Bohemia in place of the German. This created a storm. All the Germans in Austria' were incensed. In numbers they form but a fourth part of the empire's population, but they urge that the country's public business should be conducted in one common tongue, and that tongue a world language—which German is. However, Badeni secured his majority. The German element was apparently become helpless. The Czech deputies were exultant. Then the music began. Badeni's voyage, instead of being smooth, was disappointingly rough from the start. The government must get the 'Ausgleich' through. It must not fail. Badeni's majority was ready to carry it through; but the minority was determined to obstruct it and delay it until the obnoxious Czech-language measure should be shelved.
"The 'Ausgleich' is an Adjustment, Arrangement, Settlement, which holds Austria and Hungary together [see above; also, in