Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-09
Prince Lieohtenstein Rules Over a
Very Small Domain.
BETWEEN SWITZERLAND And AUSTRIA
About the Size Of the District of
Columbia.
JUST LIKE a COMIC OPERA
From the London Mail.

each SIDE of which would measure about
fCrty-six miles.
This is tract a great deal bigger than
the Duchy of Brunswick or the Grand
Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelit and Is real
ly. so far as size is concerned, princely.
Inheritance Yet its Owl er does not figure
in the "Almanach dc Gotha," either among
the Eur opean soveI eigns. or among those
princey or ducal Ierscr ages whose fam
lies officially held to be as good as
those of the various rulers.
No: the Duke of Sutherland figures only
In Par, III of Herr Justus Perthes' Won
derful annual. Yet in Part of the AL
II anach. cheek by jowl with her majesty
the queen. the car and the Emperor VIII
liam II. is to be found his Sovereign Trans
parency JChanl Maria Franz PIacidus,
Ieigning prince of Idechtenstein and duke
of Trdppau and Jagerndorf. An Austrian
emperor might, without the slightest loss
of dignity. marry sister OF this indie
pendent potentate, Prince John II; but for
MIN 10 marry a sister of Duke of Suther-
land would be practically impossible.
Liechtenstein ranks among the sovereign
principalities of the earth: the Sutherland
estates. on the other hand, receive no
recognition at the hands of the compiiers
of Herr Justus Perthes' "Diplomatico-Sta-
tistiCal Yearbook and that makes all
the difference in the world. and brands The
duke as. comparatively speaking. a no.
body, and the prince as one of the first
class wigs of Europe-and this in spite of
the fact that the territories in virtue of
which the prince holds his rank have only
about one-thirty-fifth of the extent of the
possessions of the duke.
Cunning Little Place
II the priRcipality of Lichtsnstein. which
Is a patch of mountain and Rhine detritus
of much the same shape as England. were
square, it would measure about eight miles
each way. As it is, the decentralization
of it makes easy enough days walk for
a healthy man. On the south and west, its
b1 rders. which are marked in the -egula-
ton continental manner by posts painted
In the national coiors-red and blue-u arch
with those of Switzerland; on The east
they march with those of Austria. On the
west the land lies low; and ;he only natural
barrier in the way of the wa9derer who
would enter the principally is the Upper
Rhine, which. being spa1ued by several
bridges, can be crossed without difficulty.
Switzerland, therefore, with which inter-
course IS facie, seems to have been des-
tined by fate TO be Lichtensteia's special
friend. and. If necessary, her protector; for
on the east, the mountains are high and
the passes are few and difficult. More
over. the observation-disclosures are, by descent,
rather ROmaniSc than German, and are
Il erefore more closely related to their
nsighbors in Graubun1en than to their
neigh5Ors in VOrarlberg. But, in Liecnten-
stein. as in the municipalities of GiI5ertian
opera. things go a good deal contrariwise:
ard So instead of being a republican can
ton Of the HelvCtic confedera ton, Liech-
teEstein is a constitutional monarchy in
close alliance with Aus-ria-Hungary.
On the Border Line.
Her constitution dates from 1862, and was
modified in 1873; her present connection
with Austria dates from 1852. when she
entered into customs and postal union
with the dual monarchy. Under this ar
rangement she ESCAPES from the necessity
OF having to maintain her own staff of
custom house officials Austria supplies
the men and the machinery and pockets
the duties on goods entering Licchtensteiu;
ana IN return she pays the prinicIpality a
yearly sum which the honest Liechten-
StetneTs declare TO be $1,000 FORMS but
which the ''Almanach de Gotha'' puts at
only about 2D,OOO forms, or f2,OOO sterling
Thus it happens that upon entering Liech-
tenstcin you have to explain away the CT
CARS IN your portmanteOu to an Austrian,
but as he is very good Austrian much
more lnquisittve than strict, you may face
MIN without a tremoT, unless, indeed, you
be smusgler on quite formidable scale.
IN thdt case scarcely know what the
good Austrian viii do with you; for in
all the fair land of Liechtenstein there is
no prison.
When LiechtensteiGer commits a seri-
Gus crlme-and he seldoms so far forgets
hirnse-f-the principaIity has to hire prison
accommodation for him in the neighbOring
austrian town of Feldkirch; so il is pos
slSle thaJ II you smuggle too extravaganza
iy you also will go to Feidkirch Why the
prince remains in postal alliance with his
Austrian brother L cannot for the life of
me imagine If. instead of letting his sub
stamps of his own ne would assuredly
oTaW from the phiIatelists a considerable
addition to his income.
without an Army
Llechtenstein is, as L have limited, a lit
tie Gilbertian in the matter of her aIIi-
ances, her customs, her prisons and her
postal arrangements, but she is very much
more unconventional and topsy-turvy in
other directions. In 1866. when war broke
out between Austria and Prussia, Liechten-
stem gaIIantIy joined the former power
anu. moDlhzing her little army of sixty
Six men, under Capt. Rheinberger dis
Patened 1t toward the scene of hostiIities
II had marched as far as Arlberg when
news reached it of the disastrous hattie of
hci4SSrdtz; whereupon ths captain and
MS merry men. realizing that they were
TOO late for the fair marched peacefully
pack again Two years later Liechtenstein
disbanded her army and .oreyer released
her subjects from liability to military serv-
zee. and then she recoilecf ed-for surely
she could not have recollected ii earlier
thAt. although she had taken I'D arms
against Prussia. she had omitted 10 make
peace with that power. Prussia had Drob
ably deemed her opponent too insignificant
70 De worth making a treaty with; Liech-
tonstein had forgotten to insist upon the
conclusion Of the war in the orthodox man
ner. ~
From this II results that ever since
June, 1885. Liechtenstein has been, SO far
as international law Is concerned In
state OF uninterrupted hostiIittes in
spite OF the fact that, during thirty of the
thirty two years that have since elapsed.
she has been absolutely without a soldier
Such record as this is, / believe unprece-
dented n history. Yet the good customs
eIncer on the Liechtenstein side of the I,u-
zieAsueS Pass makes no more difficnItv
about admitting Prussians than he makes
ABOUT admitting Englishmen or Turks
A Non-Resident Sovereign.
Another point in which Liechtenstein diff
fers form other countries is the habituaI
sbsenteeism Of her sovereign. The me-
tropoiIs is Vaduz, where the landtag. or
parliament, meets; but Prince John III lives
and has his court in Vienna, and. IT is said
has not been inside his principaIity more
than once since 1855; though local gossip
has II that, in addition, he has twice been
within sight of its borders while travelling
on the Swiss railway between Sargans and
Feidktreh. There is no doubt that for some
reason he avoids his country On the other
hand. he cannot be charged with neglectinp
hHEA rRr. TfxrG Ns.St -