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AUSTRIA. 
  
  
choosing a new king; but for the other erown-lands, 
the last sovereign appoints his own successor. The 
reigning House must profess the Roman Catholic 
faith. 
Till 1848, Hungary and Transylvania had a 
constitution limiting the monarchy, which was 
absolute for the rest of the empire; though the 
several provinces had each its consultative council 
composed of clergy, nobles, and burghers. Since the 
evolution of 1848, and the subsequent reaction, all 
marks of independence of the separate provinces 
have disappeared, and A. now forms one whole. 
The imperial constitution granted (octroyirte) March 
4, 1849, as well as the provincial constitutions that 
followed, have been abolished, and government has 
been organised in the most absolute form by the 
imperial ‘ patent’ or charter of December 31, 1851. 
The patent guarantees to every religious body recog- 
nised by law protection in the observance of public 
ordinances, in the management of its own affairs, 
and in the possession of buildings and funds for the 
purpose of worship and instruction. The relation of 
the Roman Catholic Church to the state has been 
put upon a new footing. It is no longer under 
the oversight of the sccular authority, the place- 
tum regium and church-patronage are abolished, 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction for discipline, and the 
independent administration of church-property, are 
conceded, and the intercourse of bishops and of all 
Catholics with Rome left free. The clergy have no 
longer to submit to examination or tests on the part 
of the state; they are nominated by the state, but 
only with the concurrence of the bishops ; and with- 
out that concurrence they cannot be deprived of 
their office. Along with all this, they have obtained 
an overwhelming influence over education, even in 
the universities; and by the concordat signed in the 
early part of 1856, this influence has been very 
greatly increased. The patent further guarantees 
the equality in the eye of the law of all citizens, 
irrespective of nation, rank, or religion, and the 
liberation of the land from all serfdom. Subsequent 
patents (e. g., for Hungary, Croatia, &c., in 1853) have 
regulated the claims between existing proprietors 
and their vassals, and determined the indemnities 
due to the former for their seignorial rights. 
The administration of the empire is divided atb 
present among six ministries—Foreign Affairs ; Inte- 
rior ; Worship and Instruction ; Finances ; Justice ; 
Trade ; Industry; and Public Works. In the coun- 
cil of ministers, one, named by the emperor, has 
the office of president. The collective ministry is 
merely the executive organ of the emperor, and 
responsible to him alone ; its function is to discuss 
measures, legislative and administrative, and counter- 
sign the imperial decreces. There has existed also 
since 1852 a supreme police board, independent of 
the minister of the interior, and under the imme- 
diate direction of the emperor. Co-ordinate with 
the ministry, and without communication with it, 
is the Council of the Empire, consisting of notables 
of independent position named by the emperor, and 
entitled Actual Privy Councillors. They are con- 
sidered the personal advisers of the emperor, are 
presided over by him, or by one of themselves, and 
consult on such questions of legislation as the 
emperor sees fit to lay before them. 
At the head of the provincial administrations 
stand in some cases military and civil governors, in 
others, presidents, &c., and under these, whole hosts of 
officials in gradation. Whatever local elective bodies 
exist, have no real authority, but are completely 
subordinate to the bureaucracy. The Austrians 
have good grounds for the complaint, common 
throughout Geermany, that they get too much govern- 
ment ; nor is it worth while to describe minutely 
  
  
institutions that may be suspended, altered, or 
annulled at the caprice of the rulers. 
In the administration of justice, publicity is 
not allowed. In 1852, the practice of flogging 
the accused while under examination was again 
introduced, as a corrective punishment, in case of 
contempt of court or other refractory behaviour. 
Finance—The protracted wars of the first 15 years 
of the 19th c. had so exhausted the resources of A., 
and shattered her credit, that paper-money, after 
being already twice reduced, had again sunk to 25 per 
cent. of its nominal value; and even 5 per cent. loans 
could only be obtained at a sacrifice of sometimes 
more than 50 per cent. During the 30 years that 
followed the war, much was done to restore the 
state credit, and 4 per cent. state paper was bought 
at par. The revolution of 1848 brought new duffi- 
culties, from which the finances had not recovered, 
when the Crimean war increased the expenditure, 
and the Italian war must have added to it enor- 
mously. The following table shews the revenue and 
expenditure of A. during the ten years from 1847 to 
1857 : 
Receipts. Expenditure. Deficiency. 
Millions of Florins, Millions of Florins, Millions of Florins, 
1847, . 162 209 47 
1848, . 122 187 65 
1849, . 144 289 145 
1850, . 191 263 77 
1851, . 217 289 72 
1852, . 226 279 53 
1853, . 23 293 56 
1854, . 245 386 141 
185554263 402 139 
1856, . 2T 335 62 
185714, 4298 340 42 
The national debt in 1856 amounted to 2417 
million florins (£241 million). In 1818 it was only 
£50 million. 
The army of A., as already incidentally mentioned, 
amounts, even in peace, to more than 400,000 men, 
including upwards of 60,000 cavalry and 1200 pieces 
of artillery. In the war in Lombardy (1859), the 
Austrian army is said to have been increased to 
something like a million of men. The navy, in 1858, 
numbered in all 135 vessels, carrying 852 guns, and 
manned by 8707 men. Of these, 1 was a steam line- 
of-battle ship, of 800 horse-power, carrying 91 guns ; 
7 frigates, of which 3 were steam-vessels, carried 260 
guns; the rest consisted of corvettes (2 of which had 
steam), brigs, &c.; and 13 steamers, with 43 guns. 
A. has also a flotilla on the Lower Danube, and 
another on Lake Garda, and a third called the 
Flotilla of the Lagunes. 
History.*—The nucleus around which this great 
empire has grown was that part of the Archduchy of 
A. that lies below the Ens. In the age of Charle- 
magne, about 800, the defence of the south-eastern 
frontier of Germany against Asiatic hordes gave rise 
here to a Margraviate, called the Eastern Mark 
or boundary of the empire, or Ostreich (Austria), 
the eastern government; which, being united in 1156 
to the country above the Ens, was raised to a duchy. 
After coming, in 1282, into the possession of the House 
of Hapsburg (q. v.), it rapidly rose to a powerful 
state. ~ The princes of that House extended their 
dominion by marriage, purchase, and otherwise, over 
a number of other states, and from 1438 held almost 
uninterruptedly the throne of the German empire. 
By the acquisition (1526 and 1527) of the crowns of 
Bohemia and Hungary, the House of A. rose to the 
rank of a European monarchy. In 1804, Francis 
* As the history of A. and its rulers involves, for many 
centuries, the main strand of the thread of European history, 
it is given at somewhat more than the usual length.