Mr. Jay to Mr. Fish
Sir: I have already advised you of the result of the recent elections in favor of the policy of the Count Hohenwart, looking to an extension of the rights of the provinces, and such a revision of the cases of representation as would increase the electoral power of the various nationalities, and diminish, proportionally, that of the Austro-Germans. It was announced that an analysis of the votes in the new Diets showed that the new Reichsrath would be composed as follows, those marked “federalists” belonging to the ministerial party, in favor of amending the constitution, and those designated as “constitutionalists” being chiefly, if not altogether, Germans, in favor of retaining it as it is.
| Provinces. | Federalists. | Constitutionals. |
| Bohemia | 40 | 14 |
| Gallicia | 38 | -- |
| Moravia | 19 | 4 |
| Lower Austria | -- | 18 |
| Styria | 2 | 11 |
| Tyrol | 8 | -- |
| Upper Austria | 8 | 2 |
| Camrola | 6 | -- |
| Silesia | 1 | 5 |
| Dalmatia | 5 | -- |
| Corinthia | 1 | 5 |
| Bukowine | 4 | 1 |
| Salzburg | 1 | 2 |
| Istrid | 2 | -- |
| Gorice Groiska | 3 | -- |
| Trieste | 2 | -- |
| 139 | 62 |
An amendment of the constitution, requiring a vote of two-thirds, or 134, this estimate gave the government five votes more than was requisite.
The dissatisfaction, forcibly expressed by the Austro-German press, had rather prepared the public to be but slightly surprised at learning, upon the assembling of the new Diets at Brünn, Linz, and Laibach, that the German delegates had absented themselves, but the country seemed scarcely prepared for the bold course upon which they have decided at Prague, and the issue of which is still in the future.
The Diet of Prague was opened on the 14th September by the Count Chotek, the late Austro-Hungarian envoy at St. Petersburg, and now temporary governor of Bohemia, who presented to the assembly the Prince George Loblowitz, the new grand marshal, who concluded an address in the Czechish language with these words:
“May the resolution of this assembly contribute to the well being of our country and to that of all the other countries united under the scepter of our Emperor and King”
The prince then said in German:
“In saluting this assembly in the two languages, I do not think I am observing an idle formality, but I think it a duty thus to act because I regard the observance of the equality of rights of the two peoples inhabiting this country, in the course of the deliberations of this assembly, as the first and the most important duty of him who presides at these sittings. I do not deny that I have belonged to a political party, but I promise henceforth to belong only to the service of my country.”
[Page 35]The governor then rend the imperial message, of which I append a translation. The passage in which the Emperor recognized the rights of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and promised to sanction them anew by the oath of his coronation, called forth enthusiastic and prolonged applause. The imperial message renewed in increased force the displeasure of the so-called constitutional press, and the sheets that sustain the ministry declare that their articles exhibit more of passion than of calm, serious, and impartial judgment. The Freundenblatt, for instance, is quoted as saying:
The Count Hohenwart should not be astonished if his projects of laws relating to modification in the provincial statutes and the electoral law are condemned and rejected without any examination.
The day after the delivery of the imperial message the German delegates developed their plan of operations.
They quitted the assembly, having addressed a declaration to the president, which contained these expressions:
The text of the imperial rescript places the Kingdom of Bohemia outside of the framework of the constitution, since according to the text itself, it no more imposes obligations on this country, but only upon the other kingdoms and countries of the monarchy, and consequently the constitutional rights of the inhabitants of Bohemia cease to be recognized, In view of this inadmissible basis that the government takes as its point of departure, we have reason to fear that it may he the desire to encroach upon the constitution in order to favor a policy which is not founded upon history, and that we can never recognize a policy the effect of which will be to break the national bands that unite the Germans in Austria; a policy, in fine, which compromises the force of the empire in giving to this country an exceptional situation, and places in danger the peace and the prosperity of the country in troubling the national equilibrium. We will never approve, and we cannot approve, a policy which is in contradiction with our Austrian convictions, with our sentiments and our national interests, and with our most sacred duties.
According to the newspaper reports, the declaration of the Germans was received in the Diet with bursts of laughter by the Czechs and Federalists. Three German deputies, one of them the Curé Platzer, declared that they were present by the votes of the electors, and they protested against the declaration of the centralists. The secession or abstention from the Diets and Reichsrath in past years by the Czechs and Poles was not too favorably regarded by the country, although it found a partial justification in the apology that the Czechs certainly had had no part in shaping the constitution, and had uniformly declined to recognize it.
“With the Austro-Germans,” said a distinguished German to me, “the case is different; they have claimed to be the founders in Austria of constitutional government; they have eulogized it as a sacred thing; they have demanded acquiescence in the will of the majority, as the foundation of constitutional government, and the first time there is a constitutional majority against them they betray their own principles, and do the very thing they have condemned in others.”
What the result is to be is doubtful; possibly some compromise, assisted by the influence of the German Empire, although how any compromise can now be proposed acceptable to the Czechs, who have the power in their own hands, and the pledged word of the Emperor, it is not easy to foresee. It is announced that Prince Hohenlohe is charged with the ceremonial preparations for the coronation at Prague, in the early part of the winter. What seems, for the time at least, an unfortunate feature of this proceedure is, that it tends to revive, in all its narrowness and all its bigotry, that bane of Austrian politics, the doctrine of nationalities. The Germans, who were divided into conservatives and liberals, appear to be almost a unit against the other nationalities, and the lines [Page 36] are drawn, not according to principles, but to race. The greatest interest excited by the election is shown by the statement, that the number of votes cast was 23 per cent, larger than usual. Of the electors who voted in Vienna, 89 per cent. are announced as against the government.
The simple and straightforward policy for the Germans would seem to be, according to our American ideas, to accept the situation and then proceed to prove their superior intelligence and culture by raising issues upon which they could, in a little while, divide the national votes and secure for themselves a majority. This, as an eminent German admitted to me, would be their true course; but he did not think it would be adopted. He hoped for some satisfactory solution of the difficulty by the aid of the great proprietors in Bohemia, who, with Czechs estates and adopted Czechish, names, are in fact German in their ideas and sympathies. I annex a translation of an article from the National Zeitung at Berlin, which appeared while the elections were still pending, and which shows the importance there attached to the policy of the ministry, as involving a continuance of the friendly relations between the empires established at Gastein and at Salzburg. It seems a curious exemplification of the remark sometimes made, that political crises constitute the normal state of Austria, that the money-market is not at all disturbed by the proceedings at Prague. Indeed, I am told that some of the stocks showed an upward tendency just after the announcement of the German secession, and that Austrian paper is rising in value, but the Austrian lottery loans have somewhat declined.
I have, &c.,