The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-12-08

han when Count TaaTe finally found il
impossible 20 continue any longer IN the
Office OF premier.
Count TaafTe vas blamed for panderins
too much 10 the nationalist aspirations OF
the various races that go 20 make up the
agglonerat3on Of peoples known as Aus
tria But he had no alternative. The stata
OF the political parties when he reluctantly
assumed the office Of premier vas one OF
chaos There were about a dozen OF them
in the Reichsrath, and so bitter were they
one against the other that Il was Impos-
slble 20 carry on any legislation, the Re
suit being that Austria was politically and
financially on the brink of ruin. Distress
was general, agriculture vas SO weighed
down by the burdens upon the soil that
the land was going on OF cultivation. Fac
tories were being closed on every side. the
sufferings Of the poor were terrible. and
while wages were low and work scarce. all
the necessaries OF LIE were heavily taxed.
Count Taaffe understood that reforms
were urgent, and that they must be put
into execution quickly and no matter at
what cost. As the German Liberals. from
whom he had every right 10 look for sup
port. declined to help him unless he agreed
TO Germanize everything. thereby antago-
nizing every other political party. which
would have rendered legislation impossi-
BILE he cut loose altogether from them and
began a policy of Cancellation toward the
other political factions, the support OF
each of which he may be said to have pur-
chased by means of concessions 10 their
racial aspirations, so much so that his adj
ministration was known as the 'conces-
sion market" Ii was by this means that
he managed TO pass an immense number
of useful measures. which had long been
waiting parliamentary sanction, and TO IN
troduce numbers of sorely needed reforms.
Poor laws. factory laws, laws for the pro-
lection OF women and laws bringing home
to employers their duties and responsible
ties toward the employed were enacted.
The franchise was extended. and honesty
and integrity were introduced into an adj
ministration where jobbery and corruption
had been rife.
An Adept i'm Gaining Maiorities.
No statesman ever showed himself a
more perfect master in the difficult task of
securing legislative ma jorities to iEdorse
what he knew to be the policy of the en-
peror. In most other European countries
where parliamentary form of government
exists ii is the prime minister. as rule,
who is subservient 10 the parliamentary
majority In Austria and Hungary, how
ever. it is the prime minister who renders
legislative majority subservient to him.
self Anying himself personally with none
of the political parties, he availed himself
of the services first of the one and then of
the other, and when taxed with political
inconsistency was wont to reply that the
doctrines of both one and the other were
Indifferent to him except in so far as they
could be rendered serviceable in the furth-
ering of the aims of the emperor, whose
wishes he alone consulted and endeavored
to fulfill. He never under any circum-
stances allowed himself TO be Hurried or
worried about anything. not even III the
most turbulent sessions of the Austrian
TO-, s,.s,l !, hon q q
and almost indolent repose and calm.
lightened here and there by a cynical
smile or else by trite remark delivered in
the broadest of Niennese ''patois' (Wien-
er-deutsch).
OF course there came a time when this
sale of concessions TO the various political
parties had to stop. since matters had
reached such a stage that any continual
ton in this direction would have resulted
in the conversion of the empire into a
number of federal states bound together
only by dynastic ties. Having nothing
more to sell, he could buy no further sup
port: consequently his career OF usefulness
as prime minister~came 10 an END, ana ne
definitely resigned office after a crushing
defeat in his attempt to increase the cleo
torate by some 100000 votes.
After that time his life was spent mostly
at his beautiful country seat at ElliSchau,
in Bohemia. in the pretty park OF Whlcn
there is a reproduction OF the ruins VI HAS
ancestral Irish castle of Ballymote. Both
his wife. the stately Countess Irma, and
himself were noted far and wide for their
freedom from all pride and affectauon,
their absence of hauteur. their hatred OF
everything in the shape of fuss and feath-
ers and for their simple, democratic se-
NAL and knd-hearted bearing. Count
Taaffe descended from Sir John Taafe, or
County Cavan, in Ireland, who was raised
to the peerage of the Emerald Isle III 1928.
The second viscount had his estates con-
iscated nv Oliver Cromwell for having es-
poused the cause of King Charles l.. while
the third was killed in the battle of the
Bovine while fighting for King James. 1t
was the fourth viscount who migrated
with his family 10 Austria. Loyalty TO the
sovereign. indeed. has always been the
guiding principle in the lives of the Lords
of Taaffe. in none more so. however, than
in that of Count Edward Taaffe. the en-
naror,s friend. EX-ATTACHE.