The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-03-06
France, Russia and Austria.

banquet by M. DEsCHANEL, q Vice-Presi-
dent of the Chamber of Deputies, that the
effect of natural vicissitudes in Austria
would presently be q decisive drama In
which France would be called upon to play
a part. This Is construed to mean that the
death of the Emperor FRANCIS JOSEPH, who
will celebrate this year the fiftieth ann
versary Of his accession to the throne, will
be followed by @ disruption Of his domin-
ion, an event of the utmost m to Rus
sia. on the one hand, and to Germany on the
other. Let us review the clinical or his
torical affiliations of the components of the
Hapsburg realm, and inquire in what di.
rections they would naturally drift should
the dynastic tie which now unites them be
severed.
But for the bond Of allegiance to a com.
mon sovereign, the two great divisions of
the Hapsburg domain, the Transleithan or
Hungarian kingdom, and the Cisleithan or
Austrian monarchy, are now practically
independent, since the financial and com.
mercial agreements, which have governed
their collective interests for the last ten
years, have lapsed, and there is but little
prospect Of q permanent renewal of them.
IL - 4ottO PoSSiotS thuO upo LIZ oCdth vi
FRANCIS JOSEPH the virtual independence,
which already exists, will become ostensi-
BILE and formal. Once separated, however,
the two kingdoms would be in a materially
different situation as regards the danger of
further disintegration.
The Hungarian State, although composed
of heterogeneous elements, is strongly cen
tralized. The Magyars, while not consti-
tuting q majority of the population, are
absolute masters of the executive and the
legislature, except that in the Diet at
Budapest certain large concessions in the
direction of autonomy have been made to
the Croats, who occupy precisely the same
in and out position, which Irishmen were
intended under Mr.. GLADsToNE's second
Home Rule bill to hold in the British Par.
Lament. That is to say, they vote upon all
questions in which Croatia is concerned,
but not otherwise. With the exception of
this province. which might be lost in the
event of a general collapse of Hapsburg au-
thority, the whole of the Hungarian State
would hold together under the constructive
power of the Magyars and oppose a desper.
ate resistance to any attempt upon the part
of Russia to encroach upon its indepen.
dence.
1t is the other, or Cisleithan, half of the
dual realm, which would at once go to pieces
IL the restraining influence of the HAPs.
BURGs were withdrawn, and it Is, therefore,
this monarchy the composition of which
invites this review. Geographically and
ethnographically 1t is a medley of discord-
ant elements, and one might even be in.
r1inal fn onn II a fnrtuifpiIS nnnno,rca ne
atoms but for the fact that cogent motives
of expediency brought under a single polit-
ical system the Tyrolese, the Italian-speak-
ing inhabitants of Trieste, the Czechs
of Bohemia and Moravia, the Germans
of Upper and Lower Austria, and the
provinces adjoining those duchies on the
south, and the Poles of Galicia, which lies
to the northeast of Hungary, and naturally,
one might think, would lave been in.
corporated in that kingdom. The Cts
Lothian State was, in other words, an ON.
Mum gatherum into which were raked all
those fragments of the Hapsburg dominion
which, on one ground or another, would
have vehemently resisted subsection to the
Magyars. 1t was shown onclusively at the
last session of the Vienna Reichsrath that
these fragments cannot be governed col
lectively under a parliamentary regime,
are almost as certain to fall apart as is a
bundle of fagots when the wisp of straw
that ties it has been cut.
Now. whittier would the various compo.
nents of the Cisleithan kingdom gravitate9
The Germans, of whom, according to the
census Of 1890, there were about eight and
a half millions, would experience an irri-
sistible attraction toward the German EN-.
pire, in which they constituted the domi-
nant force up to the beginning of this CEN
fury, but from which, as reconstructed at
Versailles in 1871, they have been ex-
cluded. They would be eagerly welcomed by
those South German States which, while re-
tanning local autonomy, recognize in Kaiser
WILHELM III. their war lord and even
Prussia, which has no longer any reason to
dread the Austrians, could not but welcome
u an important accession to her military
strength. If only the German subjects of
the Hapsburgs in the Cisleithan monarchy
became incorporated with the German EN-
pire, neither France nor Russia would be
able to protest without impeaching the
principle of nationalities. The question,
ON the other hand, as to what disposition
should be made of Bohemia n of the
Hapsburg seaports on the Adriatic would
give a good deal of trouble. The German
Empire could not permit Bohemia, almost
entirely inclosed as it is by German lands,
and itself containing a large German
population, to be controlled by an alien and
possibly hostile power. The Czechs, how
ever, who of course are offshoots of the
Slavonic stock, have for some time regarded
the Gear as a possible protector, and would
undoubtedly implore him to avert the ex-
t~inction of their national aspirations.
1t is equally certain that neither Russia
nor France can desire to see the German en-
pire transformed into a great Mediterranean
power through the acquisition of Trieste and
the other Austrian seaports on the Adriatic.
1t might be possible to accommodate the