The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-13 00:00:00

THE NEW AUSTRIAN MINISTERS.

Some interesting particulars are given by the
Vienna press respecting the composition of the
new Cabinet. A Ministry containing so few aris-
tocratic names, it appears, has never previously
existed in Austria. Three of the new Ministers
(Brestel, llerbst, and Plener) are Viennese born,
and Dr. Beyer, the Minister without portfolio, is
one of the members for the city. The majority of
the Cabinet (Auersperg, Hasner, Taaffe, Herbst,
and Plener) consists of members of the Bohemian
Diet. No question appears to exist that the Ad-
ministration is altogether parliamentary in its
character, three members being selected from the
Upper House and the remaining six from the Lower.
Brief sketches of the political antecedents of each
will not be out of place.
The new Premier, Prince Carlos Auersperg, was
born in 1814, and became chief of his house through
his father's death in 1827. He first entered public
life in 1861, taking the Liberal side in politics,
and displaying great interest in the conversion of
Austria into a constitutional state. Elected a
member of the Bohemian Diet in 1861, he became
the leader of the constitutional party, and acted
with the German members in most important

questions. His appointment to the Presidency of
the Upper House of the Reichsrath reached him
only a few hours before the house assembled, but
he showed himself during his term of office to be
possessed of ample tact, and a man who under-
stood how to avert unpleasant scenes and disputes.
The suspension of the constitution and the conse-
quent close of the Reichsrath, occasioned Prince
Auersperg's abstinence for a considerable period
from political life; but he was re-elected into the
Bohemian Diet in 1867, and was conspicuous for
his efforts to gain a majority for the party favour-
able to the constitution. The prince is distin-
guished in society for especial amiability, and ex-
hibits so much nobility in mind and conduct that
Herr von Schmerling styled him the " first gen
tleman of Austria," a title that soon became
popular.

Count Edward Taaffe, the Deputy President, is
the second son of the former President of the Su-
preme Court, and has rapidly risen through the
various gradations of official life. In 1861 he was
secretary in the office of the Governor of Bohemia,
isenntgghaper d
for
became a councillor in the same department and
head of the Provincial
1867 occupied the
same year, and from 1863 to
Court at Prague in the
a district, became
was then appointed governor of
a privy councillor in 1867, and in the same year
position of chief in the Duchy of Salzburg. He
Interior. Very shortly afterwards he was elected
goiCrsnacrhilnooG?llisoalasrtoaanvß'iara:nn in 1837, the young man
that atofbotdhye
isnutoccetehdeeßdotohenatihaen
Diet, and
cohfosiVenlinbiystet
as one of its representatives in the Reichsrath.
playmateC
upon on t is in high favour at Court, and is
terms with the Emperor, whose
was in early youth.
the Minister of the Interior,
in 1820. His father, a tan-
ner, gave his careful education. After
i intimate i mahaeffa et
e .
became assistant Professor of Political Economy in
slwetuaaspdirinbed at the University of Vienna, where he
1845. Elected to the Frankfort Parliament in
1848, he resigned his professorship, and, after the
dissolution of the Parliament, practised as a bar-
rister in Western Russia. In 1850 he returned to
some time afterwards obtained the
advocate at Brunn. This proved the
stepping-stone to fortune. From 1861 he en-
tered public life, was elected to the Reichsrath,
position Vienna,
ando
f
and speedily became distinguished. Dr. Giskra is
credited with great administrative
considered a man of rapid resolution and energetic
talent. Proof of this was afforded
the Prussian occupation of Brunn,
post of burgermeister. The King
Prince of Prussia are said to enter-
tainaaa lastnlicwhentddi oytnahe eahearicnhgddrhe organizinguol rdwri
and a story is current
that the Crown Prince, when introducing Giskra
to the King, made use of the expression, ,4 I pre-
sent to you here the most capable man in Austria."
Dr. Hasner, the new Minister of Education, is
now about fifty. Born in Prague, he became edi-
tor of the official Prager Zeitung in 1848, and im-
parted to the paper a moderately-Liberal tendency.
In 1849 he was appointed Extraordinary Professor
of the Philosophy of Law at Prague University.
His election to the Bohemian Diet, and afterwards
to the Lower House of the Reichsrath, took place
in 1861. In 1865 he became Professor of Poli-
tical Science at the Vienna University, and was
appointed Hofrath. As he resigned his parliamen-
tary appointment at this period, it was supposed
for a time that he was about to devote himself
entirely to an academical career, but he again re-
turned to the arena of politics in 1867, .being
elected to the Bohemian Diet as member for Tran-
tenau, and again transferred thence to the Reichs-
rath. An IMperial letter of May sth, which created
several new peers in Austria, also appointed
Hasner a life member of the Upper House. Dr.
Hasner is favourably known as the author of
,4 The Philosophy of Law," and a system of Poli-
tical Economy, in addition to numerous contribu-
tions to legal periodicals.
Herr von Plener, the Minister of Commerce,
formerly Minister of Finance, was born in 1810
at Vienna, where his father, who was ennobled
in 1850, was attached to the Court. He studied
at the Vienna University, took his degree as Doc-
tor of Laws in 1832, and entered the public ser-
vice in 1836 at Eger. In 1851 he was sent on an
extraordinary mission to Pesth, and upon the
organization of the financial department in Hun-
gary in 1852 was despatched with the rank of
an Imperial Court Councillor to Pressburg, to take
the head of the newly-established finance office in
that district. After filling a similar position at
Lemberg in 1857, he was summoned to Vienna,
where he was made a privy councillor, and en-
trusted with the provisional direction of the Minis-
try of Finance, as the successor of Baron Bruck.
Upon the accession of Herr von Schmerling to the
Cabinet, at the latter end of 1860, Herr von Pleuer
was definitively appointed Finance Minister, and
held the office for five years, his tenure only termi-
nating with the fall of the Schmerling Cabinet. In
1867 he was elected to the Bohemian Diet, and
thence passed to the ReiChsrath, where he joined
the Opposition.
Count Alfred Potoski belongs to an old Polish
family, many of whose members have risen to the
highest dignities in the State, the army, and the
Church, since the 16th century. In 1861 he was
appointed to the hereditary Reichsrath, and elected
the same year a member of the Galician Diet. Ile
again entered the- Diet in 1867, and was elected by'
it to the Lower House of the Reichsrath. By the