protectorate over the islands. Up to 1846 a small portion of the natives struggled against this protectorate, but since the population have caused no embarrassment to France, and virtually it has been a French possession since that year.

Tahiti is about one hundred and eight miles in circumference and thirty-two miles long, and is described as an elongated range of highland, which, being interrupted in one part, forms an isthmus (submerged at low water) about three miles broad, which connects the two peninsulas. The larger of these is Tahiti proper, while the smaller is named Tairaboo, and both are surrounded by coral reefs. The highest summit in the island is a mountain in the northern part, 8,500 feet above sea-level; another attaining 6,979 feet. From these two peaks ridges diverge to all parts of the coast, throwing off spurs as they descend. The fertile portion of the island lies in the valleys, which are of small extent, and in the plain, which stretches from the seashore to the spurs of the mountains. These produce tropical plants in great abundance and luxuriance. The climate is agreeable, being warm, but not enervating. The natives are a good-humored, gay, happy, and cheerful people, and are further described as honest, well-behaved, and obliging. They have been converted to Christianity by the labors of missionaries, and there are few of them who can not both read and write. The island is divided into seven districts, and is the seat of a Supreme Court, consisting of seven Judges, two of whom reside in Eimeo. Several vessels of about one hundred and thirty tons burden have been built there, which have been employed in the trade to New South Wales, whith er they carry sugar, cocoanut-oil, and arrowroot, the principal productions of the island, and whence they bring back in return hardware, cloths, calicoes, etc. Most of the vessels that visit Tahiti are whalers, though until lately they only averaged less than one hundred annually. Its principal town and port is Papiete, and its estimated population is somewhat over nine thousand.

The French now have the following possessions in Oceania:

March 7, 1880, to Stéphanie Clotilde, second daughter of the King of Belgium, born May 21, 1864. The marriage was fixed to take place in February, 1881.

The Ministry for the Common Affairs of the Empire consisted, toward the close of the year 1880, of Karl Heinrich Baron von Haymerle, Minister of Foreign Affairs and of the Imperial House (appointed October 9, 1879); Joseph von Szlavy, Minister of the Finances of the Empire (appointed April 8, 1880); and Court Arthur Bylandt-Rheidt, Minister of War (appointed 1876).

The Ministry of Cisleithan Austria, at the close of 1880, was composed of Count Eduard Taaffe, President (appointed August 14, 1879); Baron Moritz von Streit, Justice (1880); Baron Sigmund von Conrad von Eybesfeldt, Public Worship and Instruction (1880); Count Zeno von Welsersheimb, Defense of the Country (1880); Count Julius von Falkenhayn (August 14, 1879), Agriculture; Alfred von Kremer von Auenrode (1880), Commerce; Dr. Julian Dunajewski (1880), Finance; Florian Ziemialkowski (April, 1873), and Dr. Alois Prajak (August 14, 1879), Minister without portfolio.

The area of the entire monarchy is 622,837 square kilometres*; population, according to the last census of 1869, 35,901,435; according to an official estimate, in 1880, about 38,000,000. The area of Cisleithan Austria, or Austria Proper, is 300,209 square miles; the civil population at the end of 1879 was officially estimated at 22,176,745, to which must be added the army, numbering about 177,500 persons, making a total population of 22,354,245. The official estimate is based upon the census of 1869, by adding the average percentage of increase. The civil population was distributed among the different crown-lands as follows:

Galicia

2,743

Marquesas Islands

18,174

Clipperton Island..

1,274

5,754

Bukowina. Dalmatia

5

Tahiti, Morea, and adjacent islands.. Tubuai, Vavitao, Oparo....

not inhab'd.

Tuamotu Archipelago, with Gambier Islands

Total.

1,000 5,469 23,491 81,822

AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY, an empire in Central Europe. Emperor, Francis Joseph I, born August 18, 1830; succeeded his uncle, the Emperor Ferdinand Í, December 2, 1848. Heir-apparent to the throne, Archduke Rudolphus, born August 21, 1858; engaged on

Total..

Total at the end of 1878

22,176,745 21,970,649

From some observations made in the "Statistical Monthly" ("Statistische Monatsschrift ") of Vienna by Herr Schimmer, one of the bestknown statistical writers of Austria, we learn tria show, in a marked degree, the influence of that the movements of the population in Austhe bad times through which all European states have been passing. The following table

*One square kilometre = 0.836 English square mile.

For the first time within seven years does the wave of depression show signs of lifting, as testified by the increased number of marriages in 1879. The most encouraging point in the figures is the decrease in deaths, which is most marked in the case of infant mortality. It will be remarked that 1873, the year of the Exhibition, was notorious for the fatalities of the cholera, which carried off great numbers of people in Vienna.

The number of professors and students, inclusive of non-matriculated hearers, was in the summer semester, 1879, as follows:

Czernovitz.

Cracow..

Gratz.

Innspruck

Lemberg

Prague Vienna *

Total.

861

8,360 According to their mother tongues, the students were classified as 3,863 Germans, 1,351 Czechs, 1,410 Poles, 439 Ruthenians, 187 Slovens, 248 Croatians and Servians, 318 Italians, 116 Roumanians, 348 Magyars, and 80 others. According to their religious denominations, 6,642 reported themselves as Roman Catholics, 214 as belonging to the Oriental Greek Church, 262 as Evangelical, 18 as Unitarians, 1,193 as Israelites, 6 as members of other churches, and 25 as belonging to no religious denomination.

Besides the seven universities, Austria had, in 1879, 6 technical high schools, 1 agricultural high school, 2 academies of mining, 2 academies of commerce, 2 high schools of art, 42 theological schools, 91 gymnasia, 18 undergymnasia, 47 Realgymnasien of various grades, 61 Realschulen, 18 under Realschulen, 42 male teachers' seminaries, and 27 female teachers' seminaries. The number of "Bürger-" and "Volkschulen " was, in 1875, 15,166, with 31,196 teachers, and 2,134,683 pupils. There were also in 1877 145 Kindergartens, with 11,663

children.

The total number of periodicals published in 1878 was 1,050, against 1,001 in 1877, 967 in 1876, and 876 in 1875. As regards the contents of the periodicals, there were among them in 1878 330 political periodicals, 32 religious, and 75 educational. The large majority of the pe

Exclusive of the faculty of evangelical theology.

language; next in order follow the Czechic periodicals (122); the Polish (73); Italian (66); Slovenish (17); and Ruthenian (15). The number of dailies is only 81, the number of weeklies 306, and that of monthlies 215.

The population of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to an official census taken on June 16, 1879, amounted to 1,142,147. Of these, 487,022 belong to the Greek, and 208,950 to the Roman Catholic Church, making a total number of 695,972 Christians. The number of Mohammedans was 442,500, of Israelites 3,426, of others 249. The town of Serajevo, which was supposed to contain 45,000 inhabitants, turns out, according to the English consul Freeman, to have only 22,000, of course without counting military or strangers, of whom about 3,000 are temporary residents. The discrepancy, which is certainly very considerable, may partly be accounted for by the drain on the population during the Montenegrin, Servian, and Russian wars, while others who joined the Mussulman rising have never returned to the town. These absentees, however, could not be more than 3,000 or 4,000 at the most, and it only shows how necessary it is to reduce population estimates to the strict domain of statistics. Not included in these census returns is the Sanjak of Novi-Bazar, the population of which is set down at 61,150 Mussulmans, 101,348 Orthodox Greeks, 49,217 Roman Catholics, 1,340 gypsies, and 65 Jews; total, 223,120. (See "Annual Cyclopædia" for 1879, p. 62.)

In accordance with the political constitution of the Austrian Empire, there are three distinct budgets: the first, that of the delega tions for the whole empire; the second, that of the Reichsrath for Austria Proper; and the third, that of the Hungarian Diet, for the kingdom of Hungary. By an agreement, or socalled " compromise," entered into, in February, 1868, between the Governments and Legislatures of Austria and Hungary, the former has to pay seventy and the latter thirty per cent. toward the common expenditures of the empire, not including the interest on the national debt. The accounts of the actual revenue and expenditure of the empire during the year 1878 were published by the Government in 1880. According to them, the ordinary expenditure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs amounted to 3,318,800 florins*; that of the Ministry of War, 95,700,455; of the Ministry of Finance, 1,896,855; of the Supreme Court of Accounts, 111,924; total, 101,028,042 florins. The extraordinary expenditures amounted to 77,876,767 florins; total of ordinary and extraordinary expenditures, 178,904,809. The surplus from customs apportioned to meet the expenditure for the common affairs of the empire amounted to 3,856,262 florins, leaving 175,048,547 florins to be provided for by con

* One florin = 48 cents.

In the Right, which embraces as subdivisions the Feudal, the Clerical, the Czechist, the Polish, and the Slovenish parties, the Poles were openly at variance with the Czechs, and a large number of the Poles with a minority of the Czechs were decidedly opposed to the principles of the Clerical party. In the Left, the two principal divisions of which are the Constitutional party (Verfassungspartei) and the party of Progress (Fortschrittspartei), the latter informed the former that in consequence of the support given by a large portion of the Constitutional party to certain anti-liberal measures of the Government, the party of Progress deemed it best to recede from a union of the two parties. The latent dissension among the sections of the Right was greatly widened in the beginning of February by a memorandum addressed by the Catholic bishops of Bohemia to the Ministry of Education and Worship, in which they demand the restoration of denominational schools. The memorandum is signed by all the four bishops of Bohemia, and concludes with these words: "The principle of undenominational schools, and therefore of a separation of the school from the Church, blocks the way to any thorough improvement in the educational system. Favors in regard to any secondary provisions, even if they were granted (which hitherto has generally not been the case), can not avert the injury which is inherent in that principle. Nothing is therefore left to the bishops but to request the Ministry to adopt the necessary measures for restoring the denominational character of the schools for the Catholic population, and to secure to the Church her due influence upon the instruction and education of the youth. If the Imperial Ministry should leave this remonstrance of the bishops likewise without answer, or if it should not afford a definite prospect of a speedy and radical improvement of educational affairs, it would be impossible for the bishops to coöperate any longer in the execution of the school laws. They could, in that case, no longer allow any participation of the clergy in the school boards, and they would deem it their duty to remind the faithful of the sacred duties which will devolve upon them if their children can be intrusted to the schools into which they are compelled to send them, not with confidence, but rather not without great detriments." The Czechs as a national party care more for national Czechic than for Catholic schools, and, though the Old Czechic party regards an alliance with the Church as desirable, they are loth to subordinate their national claims to the interests of the Church. The "Pokrok," the organ of the young Czechs, openly opposed the episcopal memorandum and the action of the Clericals, and expressed the conviction that the Czech members would leave no doubt as to their views. The Poles desire a more efficient state control than in the case of confessional or national schools, which in Galicia might be claimed equally by the Ruthenes or the Greek Church. On the 3d of

February the two parties in the House of Deputies measured their strength at the election of twelve members of the Staatsgerichtshof (State Court), who have to be chosen by the House. The Right succeeded in electing their entire ticket. A partial change in the Ministry took place on February 17th, when Baron Conrad von Eybesfeldt, the Governor of Lower Austria, was appointed to the Department of Education, and Baron Kriegsau, formerly a candidate for the office of Education, to the Ministry of Finance. Neither of the two new Ministers had played a political part, but both had made their way in the administrativé career. Baron Eybesfeldt, who was appointed to the post of Governor of Lower Austria when the Constitutional party was in power, is supposed to have a leaning toward that party.

On April 6th the important debate on the budget began. Great preparations had been made for it on both sides, for it was known that the discussion, as is customary on such occasions, would extend to all great questions of the day, political and national. One of the most remarkable speeches made on the occasion was that by Dr. Plener, one of the most gifted among the younger generation of Parliamentary men in Austria. He severely criticised the political and, above all, the financial measures of the Government, and developed a new scheme of financial reform which attracted great attention on all sides of the House. He combated the idea that the equilibrium between the revenue and expenditure could be brought about by any reduction on a grand scale, either in the military expenditure or in the internal administration. On the contrary, he maintained that the improvements which must be made on account of the army, and the outlay which is still necessary in order to complete the means of communication, will tend rather to increase than to diminish the expenditure. The only way to deal with the deficit was to make a thorough reform of the taxation. Dr. Plener went fully into this subject, and showed the general features of such a reform, laying great stress on the income-tax and the indirect taxes on sugar and spirits. He criticised the present system of drawbacks on these two articles upon exportation, the result of which is that, owing to the large sum thus repaid at exportation, the home consumption of these articles is very small as compared with the consumption in France or Germany. If only one half of the quantity consumed in Germany was consumed in Austria, it would make a revenue of over ten million florins, instead of one million which it now makes, net, after the subtraction of the duty repaid on exportation. It is the same with the duty on spirits, a considerable portion of the revenue on which is also returned at the exportation. The reform of the system of taxation on these two articles would be almost sufficient to grapple with the deficit. Instead of initiating such a policy of reform on a grand scale which alone could meet the diffi

culty, the Government and the party which supports it had taken refuge in paltry measures, increasing the charges of direct taxation without producing any tangible result. Dr. Plener never hinted that he spoke in the name of the constitutional party; still, from the way in which his speech was received on that side, it was inferred that his plan would eventually be accepted by the Constitutional party as their financial programme. The principal speech on the part of the Right was made by Count Clam Martinitz. The debate came to an end on April 13th. The real issue between the two great parties was on the secret-service money. Both fractions of the Constitutional party agreed to refuse the money on the ground that they had no confidence in the Ministry. In the name of the Ruthenes, M. Kovalski declared that they would also vote against the grant, as the Ministry had used the money against the freedom of the elections the previous year. As the Ministry was supported in this question by the Poles, the Czechs, and the Conservatives, it was expected that the grant would be voted, but, to every one's surprise, when the vote was taken, it was lost by 154 votes against 152 yeas. In view of the small majority against them, the Minister-President and the members of the Cabinet belonging to the Constitutional party did not deem it necessary to resign.

Still more than by religious and financial questions, the Austrian Parliament was disturbed by the interminable nationality question. The conflict of nationalities at the beginning of the year was especially severe in Bohemia. Meetings of the German-Bohemian members of the Reichsrath and the German members of the Bohemian Diet were held in January and February to draw up a memorandum in opposition to a Czechic memorandum by which the leaders of the Czechs had, in December, 1879, expressed their national wishes to the Emperor. The counter-memoranduin drawn up by the Germans was presented to the Emperor on February 9th, by Count Mansfeld, Minister of Agriculture in the former Ministry. Count Mansfeld assured the Emperor that the German memorandum was not dictated by any hostility to the Czechs, but was prompted only by a sense of the duty of preserving the unity and power of the state. The Einperor, in reply, stated that the reconciliation of the two nationalities was his most ardent wish. An ordinance having been issued by the Government, in April, placing the Czechic language on the same footing as the German in all political and judicial proceedings in Bohemia and Moravia, Minister Stremayr, on May 5th, explained in the Reichsrath that the Government ordinance, by which the free use of their language was secured to both nationalities, and which merely ordered the authorities to uphold the rights existing in this respect, has kept within the bounds of its authority. The Government, in his opinion, had not deviated from what had

existed before. On May 10th, the German deputy Wurmbrand moved that the German language be declared the official language of the empire (Reichssprache), but on motion of the Polish deputy Dunajewski, the Reichstag declined, by 158 against 143 votes, to enter into a discussion of the question.

Another reconstruction of the Ministry took place on June 27th, when the resignations of four Ministers, Dr. Stremayr, General Horst, Baron Korb Weidenheim, and Baron Kriegsau, were accepted, and Baron Streit, Baron Welsersheimb, Baron Kremer, and Dr. Dunajewski appointed in their places. The four Ministers who resigned were the representatives of the Constitutional party in the Cabinet; of the new Ministers the three first named are mere functionaries, while the appointment of Dr. Dunajewski was regarded as a new concession to the Autonomist party.

The Diets of all the crown lands were opened on the 8th of June. Most of their proceedings were not of general interest. The Diet of the Tyrol received a joint protest from the Archbishop of Salzburg and the Bishops of Trent and Brixen against the formation of two Protestant congregations which the bishops say had taken place against the will and by a violation of the most sacred feelings of the Tyrolese people. The bishops at the same time requested the Diet to embody their protest in the minutes. The Diet of Bohemia rejected, by 135 against 79 votes, a proposition made by the Government to change the electoral law of the crown-land. The change proposed by the Government would diminish the German element of the Diet, and the Germans who at present constitute the majority of the Diet did not feel disposed to lend a hand to a diminution of their own influence.

The German Liberals look upon the majority of the Cabinet as hostile to the interests of the German nationality, and as inclined to sacrifice them to the Czechs and the Poles. They are therefore making earnest efforts to perfect a national organization. Provincial assemblies of German members of the Reichsrath and other prominent men of the party were held at Mödling in Lower Austria, at Brünn in Moravia, and at Karlsbad in Bohemia. The Bohemian meeting, which took place in October, was attended by more than 1,800 persons. The Government showed its hostility to this movement by confiscating all the papers containing the resolutions which had been drawn up for adoption at Karlsbad. The Municipal Council of Vienna expressed the warmest sympathy with this German movement, and resolved in October to invite prominent Germans from all parts of Austria to hold a general meeting at Vienna. The meeting took place on November 14th, and was attended by 4,000 prominent men of the German Constitutional party. Resolutions were adopted, amid great enthusiasm, declaring the federalistic tendencies of the Slavs to be dangerous to the unity of Austria,