the viceroyalty of upper Austria. But the emperor had formed much too high an opinion of his ability to leave him in the provinces. In the spring of 1867 he summoned him to Vienna, made him a Geheimer Rath; and on the fall of the Belcredi ministry, insisted upon his entering the new Cabinet. Franz Josef cares not one iota for constitutional precedents when the welfare of lis people is at stake; he had found a mau after his own heart at length, one with the brains and the will to serve him wisely and well; and he had resolved to give him a free hand. own strength of will and statesmanlike qualities. The rapidity with which he caused his influence to be felt is the more remarkable from the fact that he is singularly lacking in the personal gifts by which most men win popularity; he is no orator, no genius. The Viennese, however, recognized his merit as a statesman from the first; and warmly supported the action of the emperor, when, after the defeat of Karl Auersperg, he commanded Taaffe to form a ministry. At that time the Austrian Empire was thoroughly disorganized; and the On March 7th, 1867, Count Taaffe Reichsrath was then, as now, split up became, under Count Beust's leader- into innumerable national groups and ship, minister of the interior, with clubs, each one of which was at bitter charge, for the time being, of the port- enmity with the rest. The only politfolios of education and public worship | ical party of numerical importance was the first time in constitutional days that of the German Liberals; and they, that an untried man of thirty-four ever whilst themselves shirking the responentered a ministry as the chief of sibility of governing, seemed resolved three departments. Most people would to prevent any one else governing in either have sunk beneath the weight their stead. If it had not been for his of the responsibility of a threefold devoted loyalty, Count Taaffe would office, or have lost their heads in ex- certainly have refused the thankless citement at such a sudden elevation. office imposed upon him, for he knew Count Taaffe's exceptional strength of well that any Cabinet it was in his character and sturdy good sense, how-power to form was foredoomed. Still, ever, stood him in good stead. Within he held it was not for him to question twenty-four hours of his appointment the will of his sovereign; and Septemhe was discharging the duties of his ber 26th, 1868, he became premier. position as calmly and quietly as if he had been a minister all his days. The permanent officials of his department watched him with amazement; he seemed to divine by instinct exactly what was to be done. The Beust ministry only lasted nine months, and then Prince Karl Auersperg undertook to form a Cabinet, with Count Taaffe as vice president, and minister of public safety and national defence. By this time the count had made his mark in Vienna, in spite of the sneers of the courtiers, who scoffed at his ill-made clothes, and marvelled that a man of his rank could eat and drink in third-rate restaurants, surrounded by clerks and tradesmen. The emperor's warm support had no doubt cleared away many difficulties from his path; but that would have been of little avail, if it had not been for his The Burgerministerium, as Taaffe's Cabinet was scoffingly named, included in its ranks an unusual number of men of distinguished ability; unfortunately, however, it was a case of quot homines tot sententiæ, and from the first it needed all the premier's diplomacy to keep peace amongst his colleagues. Beset though he was by difficulties on every side, Count Taaffe strove manfully to establish a strong government; for, until this was done, there was no chance, as he knew, of the nation's recovering from the ruin into which two disastrous wars had plunged it. Every means that human ingenuity could suggest he tried, but he failed. but fair to add, however, that even those who hate him most, admit that no man with supporters such as his could have succeeded. The gods themselves struggle in vain against stupidity It is and jealousy. On January 15th, 1870, | officials, and insisting upon the most he resigned office. Then Cabinet fol- rigid economy in every department. lowed Cabinet with bewildering rapidity; Hasner, Potocki, Hohenwart, and Holzgethan, all tried vainly to secure in the Reichsrath a working majority; until at last even Taaffe lost hope, and convinced that for the time at least no work worth doing could be done in Vienna, he accepted the viceroyalty of Tyrol, February 7th, 1871. He went from town to town, village to village, questioning the natives themselves as to how and when taxes could be paid with the minimum of inconvenience. The people were keenly touched by his solicitude on their behalf, and immensely flattered by his appeals to them for help and counsel; and, before he left, he had the satisfaction of knowing that Tyrol was one of the best governed and most contented provinces in the empire. Even if the work he did there stood alone, it would stamp him as an administrator This appointment was viewed with apprehension by his friends, and with unconcealed delight by his enemies; the former feared, the latter hoped, that the count's somewhat unconventional ways, his hatred of pomp and of the highest order. ceremony, would prove an insurmount- The last two years he spent in Tyrol able bar to his winning popularity were probably the happiest he has ever amongst the Tyrolese. A nation which known, for on all sides he could see had idolized that most stately of grand signs of the success of the work he had seigneurs, the Archduke Karl Ludwig, undertaken, a work by which he had would hardly welcome a democrat of won the enthusiastic gratitude of the the hail-fellow-well-met order, they Tyrolese. Arduous, too, as his labors thought. But those who argued thus little knew the man; the count is at once too kindly and too diplomatic not to humor the prejudices of his new subjects. He had married a wife, too, the Countess Irma Czaky, a beautiful and charming woman, who proved a valuable help to him at this time. For, whilst he was earning the gratitude of the people by redressing long-standing grievances, and granting much-needed reforms, his wife was winning the love of all around her by her gentle courtesy and kindly hospitality. were, they still left him leisure to enjoy the society of his wife and children, to whom he is devoted; and to assemble around him, from time to time, his own particular friends. He is a mau of wide culture, keenly interested in art, science, and literature; and distinguished strangers of all nations who chanced to visit Tyrol, always made his house their home. In 1878, however, this free, pleasant life came to an end, for Count Taaffe was summoned to Vienna, where the emperor stood sorely in need of his services. When the count arrived, Tyrol was in The relations between the rival naa most poverty-stricken state; the tax- tionalities in the Eastern Empire had gatherers were never off the doors of become from year to year more strained. the poor, yet the treasury was always Count Beust, by gratifying the aspiraempty, for the incidence of taxation tions of the Magyars, had set a preseemed to have been arranged with a mium on agitation; whilst the German view rather to oppressing the peasants Liberals, by their tyrannical policy, had than to raising money. The whole convinced the non-German population land was seething with discontent, and of the hopelessness of obtaining any was ready to welcome any change, for redress for their grievances by constino change could be for the worse.tutional means alone. The Czech SeDuring the years the count ruled the cession had already lasted for sixteen province he devoted himself heart and years, and other divisions of the empire soul to the task of lightening the bur- were only waiting for a pretext to withdens beneath which the peasants were draw their representatives from the groaning. He cut down the expenses Reichsrath. During the seven years of administration by dismissing useless Prince Auersperg had held power, Herr giving to Austria the internal peace she so sorely needed. As he said, "Dieses Ministerium ist kein Partei-Ministerium, es kann und darf kein solches sein." The reply he received was a declaration of war to the death. 1 Herbst, the leader of the German Lib-| pealed personally to Herr Herbst and erals, had adopted an attitude which his followers to join with him in puthad gravely compromised his reputa- ting an end to the strife of parties, and tion as a patriot and a statesman, and which had excited the severe displeasure of the emperor, and the indignation of moderate men of all parties. Whilst professing to support the ministry, he had opposed indiscriminately every ministerial measure; and the speeches Well warned, however, is half armed; he had made in the House, when the once convinced that nothing was to be ratification of the Berlin Treaty, and hoped for from the German Liberals, the law for fixing the cost of the army Count Taaffe looked elsewhere for for seven years, were under discussion, allies. When the Reichsrath met, a had outraged, not only all parliamen- strange sight was seen: Dr. Rieger, tary etiquette, but all sense of decency. accompanied by every member of the Even after Austria had taken formal Czech party, entered the House, the possession of Herzogovina and Bos- first time for seventeen years, and took nia, Herr Herbst continued to protest his place by the side of the premier. fiercely against the occupation; whilst, The first of the Concessions" had as for the military law, to the last he been made, the Ministerium der Verfought against it tooth and nail. If söhnung 2 had begun to vindicate its Herr Herbst's patriotism and loyalty rights to its title. Then concession folhad been above suspicion, his conduct lowed concession with such rapidity might have met with more toleration; that the prime minister's official resias it was, there was a general feeling dence was dubbed the "Concession in Austria that the time had come to Market" by the profane; the support put an end to the tyranny of a man of the Clericals and the Radicals, of who was ready to sacrifice his country the Conservative Germans and the Libfor the gratification of his personal eral Poles, of the aristocrat Hohenwart spite. But to depose a despot is as and the progressive Coronini, all had to child's play by the side of deposing a be bought, bought too at a price. Some parliamentary leader with a powerful of the bargains he had to make must party at his back. The emperor did have gone sorely against the grain with not stand alone in his belief that, if the the count, but there was no escape; work were to be done, only Count he must come to terms lest the second Taaffe could do it. When, therefore, state of the land should be worse than on the 12th August, 1879, the Stremayr the first. At length, after weeks of ministry was defeated, he at once terrible anxiety, during which he litercalled upon him to form a Cabinet. ally worked night and day, entreating, The news of Count Taaffe's appoint-persuading, negotiating, he was in a ment was received with scornful laugh- | position to bid defiance to his oppoter by the German Liberals, and bets nents, for he had at his command in were freely offered that the new minis- the Reichsrath a large, if somewhat try would not last a month. Exulting in the knowledge that they were the only solid party in the Reichsrath, they ridiculed the idea of the government being carried on without their help. The new premier, fully alive to the precariousness of his position, strove to conciliate them by giving portfolios to Herr Korb and Herr Kremer, both members of the German Liberal party. He did more again and again he ap One motley, majority. Then, when it was it dare not, be anything of the sort. 2 The Ministry of Reconciliation. and base treachery to themselves. No he laughs at theories, and claims to be accusation was too vile, no epithet too offensive, for them to hurl at the man who was striving heart and soul to serve his country. judged by his acts. Not the least of his merits as a strategist is the power he possesses of taking back with one hand what he gives with the other ; If Austria were to be saved, Count and of casting a glamour, as it were, Taaffe was only just in time to save it, over the husks he throws away. Of for when he accepted office, politically this his action with regard to the eduand financially, she was on the brink of cational question is a strong proof. By ruin. Of all the diverse races that a law passed whilst the German Libmake up that most heterogeneous of erals were in power, the period during empires, not one, with the single ex- which children must attend school was ception of the Magyar, was contented. fixed at eight years. When Taaffe The distress was general; agriculture took office, the Clericals and Feudalwas so weighed down by the burdens ists, as the price of their support, inupon the soil that the land was going sisted that this law should be annulled, out of cultivation. The great factories and a sort of modified voluntary system were for the most part in the hands of introduced. The minister, after a long foreigners; the small were being closed struggle, yielded to their demands, one after another, for their owners, though most reluctantly. On the face hemmed in as they were by vexatious of it, this concession was of the most restrictions, were unable to compete objectionable kind, involving as it did with their more wealthy rivals. The the sacrifice of the future to the pressufferings of the poor were terrible; ent, of the welfare of the young, to a for work was scarce and wages were mere question of political expediency. low, whilst all the necessaries of life It must not be forgotten, however, were heavily taxed. From year to that in country and mountainous disyear the country was becoming poorer tricts the Educational Act never had and poorer, and thus the less able to been, and never could be, obeyed; all bear the burden entailed by the im- that Count Taaffe's bill did was to mense armaments she is obliged by her legalize the existing state of things. position to maintain. And whilst the reactionists were inCount Taaffe was soon hard at work. dulging in the wildest jubilations at If all the reforms he has planned had what they viewed, not without some been carried out, already Austria would show of reason, as a signal triumph, be an ideal State in many respects, its the premier was quietly taking mensfinances on a sound basis, poverty ban-ures, as an administrator, to prevent ished from the land, and its rival races, the cause of education suffering from of every creed, living together in amity. But as he himself has said, "Das ist ja eben das Eigenthümliche des Ideals dass man dasselbe nie erreicht." 1 He has done his best, but the sons of Zeruiah have been too hard for him. Again and again he has been obliged to relinquish his most carefully considered plans; again and again he has been forced to consent to measures repugnant to his feelings as a states-haps, of the Bishop of Linz, never It is the fashion to point to the principles he has outraged; in theory no doubt he has outraged every priuciple he has ever professed; but then man. his action as a legislator. No sooner was the new law promulgated, than he sent to all directors of schools a circular insisting so strongly upon the necessity of insuring the regular attendance of children, that, in many districts, the new regulations have remained practically a dead letter. And so skilfully did he manage the whole affair, that the Clericals, with the exception, per suspected what he was doing. He was reproached at the time with being a renegade, a clerical reactionist; it must not be forgotten, however, that, by the course he adopted, he secured for the Educationalists better terms than the stoutest democrat in his place could | terrible price to pay even for the sup have won. port of the territorial party. Of all the concessions Count Taaffe has ever made, this is the most unjustifiable; the only excuse that can be offered for The give-and- take principle has proved less successful when applied to economic subjects. When, in 1879, Count Taaffe assumed the management his having consented to it, is that he of affairs, the Socialists were already a power in the land. had no alternative; to refuse would Their leaders, have meant a ministerial crisis. He Herr Maxen and Herr Meyer, both has certainly done his best, too, lo foreign refugees, had entered into a atone for his crime, if crime it were. close alliance with Count Belcredi, One useful measure after another was Prince Aloïs Liechtenstein, and other passed through the Reichsrath during members of the Feudal and Clerical his administration: poor laws, factory parties, and were propagating the wild- laws, laws for the protection of women est schemes for the regeneration of the and children, laws to bring home to people. The premier, as a practical employers their duties and responsiman, has little sympathy with Social- bilities to the employed. Struggling ism; and, as a statesman, views with industries have been fostered, and suspicion all allies of the Vatican party; municipal authorities encouraged to still, the distress in the country was too undertake useful works, whilst strinreal and general for him to venture to gent regulations against jobbery have ignore any efforts for the amelioration been introduced. Nothing short of a of the condition of the poor. He ap- miracle- and the age for miracles is pointed Count Falkenhayn, who holds past-could render Austria, army-bepronounced Socialist views, minister ridden as she is, financially a prosperof agriculture; and assured Count Bel-ous country; still, all that human credi of his readiness to support any ingenuity could suggest, all that infinite well considered measures of social and patience could devise, was done during economic reform. Belcredi and his Count Taaffe's régime to adjust at least friends at once began to formulate laws the terrible burden under which she for the regulation of industries of every struggles to the backs that are best able sort and kind. They were theorists, to bear it. The count, too, has done however, rather than legislators; the his utmost to give the working classes very vastness of their scheme rendered a voice in the management of the afit impracticable. Before a tithe of the fairs of the empire. Already in 1881, work they had undertaken was accom- he lowered the franchise so far as his plished, a split in their own ranks re- supporters would allow him. And the duced them to impotence. Meanwhile measure by which he has provoked the the difficulties of his position had storm now raging against him is a driven Count Taaffe into courses which thoroughgoing electoral reform bill. If effectually alienated from him the sym-it pass-and pass it must sooner or pathy, not only of the Socialists, but of all sound economists. The agricultural interests of the country had been for years in a state of the most deplorable depression; and, in an evil moment, the premier, yielding to the pressure of the great land-holders, placed a tax on imported corn. This tax is the more iniquitous, as almost the whole of the land being in the hands of the great nobles, it is the very poor upon whom it presses most heavily, the very rich alone who reap from it advantage. The passing of such a measure was a later, in one form or another-every Austrian male subject will have a vote, providing he be twenty-four years of age and upwards, that he can read and write, and that he have fulfilled his military duties. Thus the electorate, which is now only some one million seven hundred thousand, would at one fell swoop be raised to between three and four millions. Count Taaffe's policy with regard to the nationalities, though through no fault of his, has not proved an unqualified success. The dominant races, |