one by one found their way back into Turkey.

On the other hand, Carinthia and Carniola should have been included amongst the seats of the Illyrian nation, for the Carinthian is a dialect of the Illyrian branch of the southern division of the Slavonic languages; and the Slavonic population of Carniola speaks, in the present day, the identical dialect in which the Slavonic Liturgy of the Greek Church is drawn up.

In the political sense, however, of the word nations,' the Bulgarians may be classed with the Illyrians, for the name is now purely conventional, as Sir Gardner Wilkinson has very justly observed,

'the Illyrians of the present day having no necessary connexion, either of origin or language, with the ancient Illyrian races who occupied the Danubian provinces of the Roman empire, but deriving their name from the country which they have overrun. Though the language of Dalmatia and the neighbouring provinces is called Illyrian, and many modern writers have run into the error of supposing it the same as that of their early predecessors, who occupied the country when conquered by the Romans,-the fact of its being a Slavonic dialect, and the known period of the arrival of the Slavonians, suffice to disprove this, and show that it can bear no more relation to the ancient Illyrian than to the

Macedonian and the Thracian. Nor has the

modern Epirote or Albanian any resemblance to the Slavonic dialect.'-Dalmatia, &c., vol. i. p. 36.

they understand each other, but serve their mutual interests by striving to maintain a state of general peace. The normal state of their relations ought accordingly to be that of friendly alliance, and any other condition of them must be exceptional to the general rule.

The position of Austria, on the other hand, in reference to Germany, is a given position, analogous, in many respects, to that of the fly-wheel which regulates and steadies, whilst at the same time it gives greater effect to, the action of an extensive and complicated system of machinery, and without which the latter would be liable to violent disturbance at times. The mantle of the Roman Emperor of the German Nation has, in respect of this important duty, fallen on the shoulders of the Emperor of Austria. Austria, besides, is the prop of the Roman Catholic states; the sentiment of South Germany rests for support upon her against the intellect of the North; and the

material interests of Bavaria and Wurtemberg connect those countries intimately with the Austrian empire. The Danube and the Inn are the great arteries of commerce for the southern states, just as the Rhine and the Elbe serve a similar purpose for the western and northern states. Saxony, on the other hand, instinctively clings to Austria from gratitude and from interest. An illustration of the feeling of the German States towards Austria is indirectly supplied by the votes of the Francfort Assembly on The Power which at present keeps sen- the 25th of January, after the debate on the tinel on the Danube and the Save is an es- hereditary chiefdom of the proposed German sentially pacific Power. Saturated with the Empire. The votes for and against the existing extension of her territorial dominion, proposition-in other words, for and against Imperial Austria has no reason to covet the a Central State, with the King of Prussia as possessions of any neighbouring state; and hereditary chief, and Austria either mutiin withdrawing herself from all direct con-lated or excluded-were as follows:

tact with France in 1815, she has put an
end to the continued jars between herself
and that power, of which such contact was
either the cause or the pretext. Conserva- Prussia
tive thus, in regard to her own interests,
Austria maintains an attitude which is ne-
cessarily conservative for other Powers.

1. On the North of the Maine.

For. Ag't. 132 37

2 16

16 9

6 4

Royal Saxony
Hanover
Electoral Hesse

The two great political bodies, which in Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenburg 7 3 this respect exhibit the greatest moral affi- Brunswick nity by reason of their respective material | Oldenburg differences, are obviously Austria and Great Mecklenburg Britain the one in her character of a pure-Nassau

ly continental power; the other in her Luxemburg-Limburg insular position, unconnected with any pos- Anhalt

sessions on the continent of Europe-for the Waldeck and Lippe rock of Gibraltar constitutes only a nominal Thuringia exception to her territorial insulation.

As

there cannot thus be any cause of rivalry between these two Powers, they cannot, if

Free Cities.

3

2 3

6 2

2 0

26322205

132300040

194 82

17 182

211 264

This decision was quite in accordance with the Report of the Commission of the 18th of December, which declared that'without Austria, without Bohemia and Tyrol, Bavaria could not remain in Germany. Bavaria and a part of South Germany have a more natural leaning (Zug) towards Austria than towards Prussia; but even without this natural inclination from political and commercial considerations, Bavaria, in a strategical point of view, would be sacrificed, if Austria were excluded from Gerinany.'

The Commissioners proceed to say

'We ask this further question, whether Austria would acquiesce in this exclusion? and we think

available defences of Germany. Austria at present occupies all the outlets of Germany towards the east and the Adriatic; and in placing all the weight of her empire in the political balance of Germany, she triples the disposable forces of the other German states. Further, Austria has nothing to seek from Germany, excepting the same peace which she has always sought to secure to Germany.

The position of Austria, in reference to the members of her empire, is singularly complicated by the great variety of subordi nate political elements which they respectively present. No European state has consequently a more difficult problem to work out, in determining the proper equation between the unity of government and the diversity of administration, which the peculiarities of her material composition demand. The Austrian question, in the present day, exhibits some affinity to the German question. Composed, like the Germanic Confederation, of heterogeneous parts-of parts, indeed, historically more heterogeneous, though politically less divergent, than the Germanic States-the Empire, on the one hand, does not allow of a system of central administration in its full extent, like that which France, whether wisely or not, regards-or till very lately regarded as the most precious conquest of her first Revolu tion;-on the other hand, it cannot subsist with that diversity of government which is admissible in Confederations. The difficulty of defining the proper functions of the central government, which at all times was great from the circumstance that the various countries which make up the empire possessed different secular constitutions, has been much enhanced by the transformation which the central power is itself undergoing. The empire is not unusually regarded as a pure monarchy. Such a view, however, is erroneous; for it is rather a cluster of monarchies, some of which are pure, but others mixed, all, however, being constitutional, and some, such as Hungary and Transylvania, parliamentary. Accordingly, the system of goAgain. Austria can afford to separate vernment which has hitherto been pursued from Germany with much less inconvenience has endeavoured to accommodate itself as than that which Germany would experience much as possible to the peculiarities of each if she were separated from Austria. The monarchy; and whilst the executive funcAustrian empire, for instance, is exceedingly tions have been exercised by the Emperor well rounded off. Germany, on the other alone, or by his officers, the administrative hand, without Austria, would be mutilated functions have been exercised by him conin a very inconvenient manner. The moun-jointly with the respective Estates or Parlia tains of Bohemia would no longer be a friendly rampart to Saxony towards the east, the Carpathian chain would no longer break the pressure of the Slavonic races on Western Europe, and the natural bulwarks of Austria would cease to form part of the

we must answer this question in the negative. Austria has not only duties towards Germany, but she has rights in Germany. Austria, German Austria, could scarcely stand without Germany; and, to cut short the various complications of the question, would Germany go to war to effect her own dismemberment? We ask finally, would Germany give up the Germans in Austria? To this we answer most decidedly in the negative; for such an abandonment of the Germans would be to surrender them irretrievably to the Slavic and non-German population in Austria. The German element is at this very moment depressed in Austria: it cannot express its wishes openly. If Germany should give up Austria, she will perpetuate the conquest of the German-Austrians. The most sacred obligations of patriotism, and of brotherly love towards our fellow-countrymen, demand imperatively that we should prevent this disgrace attaching to Germany.'

ments.

The composition of these Estates, or Stände, varies in the different parts of the empire, and rests on laws and customs derived from the middle ages. Mr. Turnbull, in his valuable work upon the social and

political condition of Austria, gives an account of them, which, as they differ very considerably from ordinary representative bodies, deserves notice :—

Crown.

In all the German provinces, however' (he proceeds), with the exception of Tyrol, these Stände, or States, are composed of members representing, or supposed to represent, the interests of the different free classes of which society in the feudal condition is understood to consist. Of these there are four:-First, the clergy, or Prälatenstand, or Geistlichkeit; secondly, the high nobility, or Herrenstand, consisting of princes, counts, and barons; thirdly, the lower nobility, or Ritterstand, being the untitled nobles; fourthly, the citizens, or Burgerstand. The number and the qualifications of the members vary in every state; but, waiving smaller distinctions, we may take the following observations as of general application:-Of the first class, the greater number of members sit in virtue of benetices, to which they are appointed by the To these fixed spiritual members are added a certain number of others, deputed by the Chapters of cathedrals and other clerical corporations. The second and third classes contain members partly hereditary and territorial, and partly elected. Many sit in right of their entailed baronial estates, others as the chiefs of certain ancient families, some as holding specific offices, and the rest are made up of deputies elected nominally by certain individuals of their own order, in whom the right of election rests. The fourth class, the Bürgerstand, are the deputies of the cities and towns, who enjoy the privilege of "sending members to Parliament" by royal charter, and in which the right of election is exercised in practice by those close corporations, the constitution of which has been formerly explained. The number of corporations thus qualified is very various, and it is generally the more relatively great in proportion as the Crown has gained the greater ascendency over the feudal aristocracy. Thus the towns which send deputies are-in Upper Austria, with Salzburg, thirty-nine; in Styria, thirty-seven; in Lower Austria, nineteen; and in Carinthia, fifteen: while in Moravia their number is but seven; in Bohemia, four; and in Galicia only one. A slight peculiarity exists in Tyrol, where the higher and lower nobility form one order only, and where a fourth order in the Stände consists of deputies sent from the class of pea

sants, or non-noble holders of land.

'The Stände meet at least once a year, and form but one chamber, without distinction of classes; the resolutions being carried by a simple majority of votes. The president is either the governor of the province, or some other high officer of the crown; and no sitting can be held but in his presence, or that of a royal commissioner, whose sanction is necessary to all the proceedings. The session commences with the consideration of certain royal propositions, which consist, in part, of the demand annually made by the Crown for the portion of direct revenue to be raised in each province. The supply being voted, or, to speak more correctly, the demand for it having been enregistered, they apportion

its quantum among the different districts; and,
through the agency of a permanent committee,
which sits for this and other purposes during the
recess, they superintend the collection.
They then pass to matters of local interest, either
as recommended by the Crown or suggested by
any individual member. Of legislative power
they have none; but their administrative facul-
ties, varying in different provinces, are always
important. They have, generally speaking, a
control over the application and direction, by the
governor or the government, of the numerous
local establishments, revenues, and endowments,
for provincial purposes. They make representa-
tions on all matters of local concern, and these
representations, coming from such influential
bodies, must necessarily have considerable weight
at Vienna.

In the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom a somewhat more popular system prevails. Each of the two provinces has its assembly, with attributes and powers similar to those of the German Stände; but their internal composition is wholly different. They have neither ecclesiastical members, nor nobles sitting in right of birth or property, nor deputies of close corporations. The members are all elected; but through the medium of a double, or rather a triple, stage of election. The two great classes-of Contadini, the proprietors of land, and Cittadini, the inhabitants of towns-are the primary electors, the suffrage depending on the payment of a certain sum în annual taxes. These primary electors vote in, from their general body, a council of election, the members of which must possess a higher property qualification than is requisite for the primary elector himself. The council of election nominates, by vote, from the members of its own body, a certain number of candidates, and from these candidates the Crown selects those who shall act as members of the Provincial Assembly; with the power, however, in its discretion, of refusing them all, or of ordering a new selection.' -Vol. ii. p. 217.

In Hungary, on the other hand, and in Transylvania, the Diets or Parliaments are purely aristocratical bodies, which have been hitherto omnipotent in maintaining for the noble their feudal privileges and their exemption from all direct taxation.

of Hereditary Magnates, and an elective chamber "They consist of two chambers; a chamber of deputies from the counties, the free towns, the higher clergy, the Magnates, and the widows of Magnates. But of these deputies the country members, who are themselves all noble, and are chosen by nobles, have alone the privilege of voting; the deputies of the free towns, contrary to the spirit of the ancient constitution, being merely allowed by the nobles to sit and speak, on the ground that, being under the immediate protection of the Crown, they might be obsequious instruments in its hands.'

It may reasonably be doubted whether the interests which such parliaments represented were so national, as those which the

capacity of Privy-Chancellor of Court and State.

estates elsewhere represented, and whether the caste-legislation which such parliaments pursued was calculated to promote the ge- Until long after the commencement of the neral welfare of the nation, as much as the present century the Councils acted quite exercise of legislative power by the Em-independently of one another, each being peror himself.

It is by no means unusual to compare the British and Hungarian parliaments, and there are doubtless certain accidental analogies of form between them, but in their substance they are totally different, the former being based on an expansive, the latter on a close principle; the former representing at all times the various orders of society, though in different proportions, the latter one order only, which was also already represented by its chiefs in the chamber of Magnates.

the Interior, and Count Stadion, Minister of Finance. Upon the death of the latter, however, and the change of office of the two former, the old titles were resumed, and the Ministers of these departments fell back upon the more limited functions of Presidents of Boards.

supreme in its own branch of the service, and subordinate only to the Emperor, who set them in motion from above, when not applied to from below, by special instructions termed Præsidialia, addressed immediately to the Presidents, and for the execution of which they were alone responsible to him. This arrangement could not but be found defective in operation under the pressure of affairs which required unity and promptitude of action; and such was the conclusion to which the Emperor was led at the termination of the war with Napoleon in 1815. On the other hand, the executive functions He was accordingly induced on one occasion of government have been hitherto exercised to change the titles of the chief functionaries by the Emperor through the instrumentality of the three most important departments, of Councils at the head of each department, and we thus find Marshal Bellegarde, Miresembling in character the Boards of Administer of War, Count Sauran, Minister of ralty and Treasury at Whitehall, with the exception of the department of Foreign Affairs. The latter was confided to a Minister for the first time in the person of Prince Kaunitz, during the reign of the Empress Maria Theresa, under the title of 'Privy-Chancellor of Court and State,' whọ was supreme over his department, and alone One reason for the introduction of this responsible for the conduct of affairs. The system of Councils and its prolonged duraheads of the other departments, of Finance, tion, may doubtless be sought in the diWar, Interior, &c., bore the name of Chan-versity and separation of the various parts cellors or Presidents of the Councils or of the empire. of the empire. Thus, before the changes Boards, before whom all business in the which the wars of the French Revolution departments was brought by Referendaries, entailed, we find at Vienna a Chancellor of and decided by plurality of voices. Bohemia at the head of a Council charged with the management of the internal affairs of the German parts of the monarchy-and in a similar manner Chancellors of Hungary, Transylvania, the Low Countries, and Italy, with their respective Councils. All matters of finance, on the other hand, having been first discussed by local boards established at Buda, Klausenburg, Brussels, and Milan respectively, were referred for approval to the Central department of Finance, sitting at Vienna, under the title of Hof-Kammer.

Before the establishment of the PrivyChancellorship of Court and State, the conduct of Foreign Affairs at Vienna rested with the Vice-Chancellor of the Germanic empire; who fulfilled in this respect the duties which had of old attached to the Elector-Archbishop of Mayence, as ArchChancellor of Germany, just as the ElectorArchbishops of Trèves and Cologne had respectively exercised the Arch-Chancellorships of the Arelate and of Italy. The uninterrupted enjoyment of the Imperial crown by the House of Hapsburg rendered this arrangement feasible, although it was occasionally found to be inconvenient. Austria, for instance, had interests in connexion with foreign powers peculiar to herself, apart from those of the Germanic empire, and it was accordingly found necessary to hand them over to a special Councillor in the Chancery of Bohemia (the Department of the Interior), as Referendary, until at last Prince Kaunitz entered himself upon the general conduct of Foreign Affairs in the

'In the provinces,' writes Mr. Turnbull, 'three financial, and the military, mainly independent of great branches of authority exist, the civil, the each other, although mutually co-operating for their respective objects when occasion may so require. Each military district, of which (if I mistake not) the empire contains fourteen, has a general officer in command, whose staff and other functionaries, appointed by the Crown, form his permanent council, and who acts under the orders of the Council of War at Vienna. Each financial district has its chief of finance, with a similarly appointed council, who corresponds with the head of the department at Vienna, and