Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/347

 them, all had their offices in Vienna, their sphere was entirely limited to the Bohemian lands. Other officials were charged with the administration of Flanders, Milan, Hungary, Transylvania, and the so-called German hereditary dominions of the House of Habsburg. This system of government was undoubtedly a complicated one, but it was certainly in accordance with the wishes of the majority of the population of states between whom the dynasty formed the only genuine connecting link. Maria Theresa, however, as already mentioned, attributed the failures of the Austrian armies at the beginning of her reign to the autonomy which the Austrian Netherlands, Hungary, and to a limited extent Bohemia also still possessed. The equipment of the armies was, to a certain extent, still dependent on the grants of money made by the different Estates. As the events during the reign of Maria Theresa's son afterwards proved, it was dangerous to encroach on the liberties of Hungary and of the Netherlands. The councillors of Maria Theresa, therefore, determined first to devote their attention to Bohemia. Of the Empress Maria Theresa it can be truly said that she was the creator of what is now usually, though not officially, called "Cisleithania," a term which describes the non-Hungarian parts of the Habsburg domains. An imperial decree in 1749 abolished the separate law courts of Bohemia and Austria (i. e. the hereditary lands of the House of Habsburg) and established at Vienna a central tribunal for all the Bohemian and Austrian territories. Somewhat later the administration of the two previously separate countries was also united, and a common chancellor for Bohemia and Austria was placed at its head. At Prague also the authority of the Estates was still further limited, and the custom that the State officials, though appointed by the Government of Vienna, were chosen among the Bohemians, fell into desuetude. These administrative changes, which all tended to place Bohemia in closer dependence on Vienna, continued with increasing energy during the reign of Maria Theresa and her son Joseph, who in the year 1765 became her co-regent. An important measure which imperilled the national language even more than the decrees published after the battle of the White Mountain, was the new system of education which was introduced by Joseph II. He