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 in 1902–1903. Distilling is carried on on a large scale in Galicia, Bukovina, Bohemia, Moravia and Lower Austria; the number of distilleries being 1257, which produced 30,435,812 gallons of spirit. Rosoglio, maraschino, and other liqueurs are made in Dalmatia and Moravia. The manufacture as well as the growth of tobacco is a government monopoly, which has 30 tobacco factories with over 40,000 work-people, the largest establishment being at Hainburg in Lower Austria. Other important branches of industry are the manufacture of chemicals, in Vienna and in Bohemia; petroleum refineries in Galicia, and the extraction of various petroleum products; the manufacture of buttons; printing, lithographing, engraving, and map-making, especially in Vienna, &c.

In 1900 the various manufacturing industries employed in Austria 3,138,800 persons, of whom 2,264,871 were workmen and 103,854 were labourers. Including families and domestic servants, a little over 7,000,000 were dependent on industry for their livelihood.

Commerce.—Austria forms together with Hungary one customs and commercial territory, and the statistics for the foreign trade are given under. Owing to its situation, the bulk of the Austrian trade is carried on the railways and on the inland navigable rivers. Only a small portion is sea-borne trade, while the commercial interchange between the provinces lying on the Adriatic coast is very small.

Commercial Navy.—The commercial sea navy of Austria, excluding small coasting vessels and fishing-boats, consisted in 1900 of 154 vessels, with a tonnage of 198,322 tons, of which 123 vessels with a tonnage of 183,949 were steamers. The greatest navigation company is the Austrian Lloyd in Trieste, which in 1900 employed 70 steamers of 165,430 tons. During 1900 the total tonnage of vessels engaged in the foreign trade, which entered all the Austrian ports, was 1,448,764 tons under the Austro-Hungarian flag, and 888,707 under foreign flags; the total tonnage of vessels cleared during the same period was 1,503,532 tons under the Austro-Hungarian flag, and 866,591 under foreign flags.

Government.—Austria is a parliamentary or constitutional (limited) monarchy, its monarch bearing the title of emperor. The succession to the throne is hereditary, in the order of primogeniture, in the male line of the house of Habsburg-Lothringen; and failing this, in the female line. The monarch must be a member of the Roman Catholic Church. The emperor of Austria is also king of Hungary, but except for having the same monarch and a few common affairs (see ), the two states are quite independent of one another. The emperor has the supreme command over the armed forces of the country, has the right to confer degrees of nobility, and has the prerogatives of pardon for criminals. He is the head of the executive power, and shares the legislative power with the Reichsrat; and justice is administered in his name. The constitution of Austria is based upon the following statutes:—(1) the Pragmatic Sanction of the emperor Charles VI., first promulgated on the 19th of April 1713, which regulated the succession to the throne; (2) the Pragmatic Patent of the emperor Francis II. of the 1st of August 1804, by which he took the title of Emperor of Austria; (3) the Diploma of the emperor Francis Joseph I. of the 20th of October 1860, by which the constitutional form of government was introduced; (4) the Diploma of the emperor Francis Joseph I. of the 26th of February 1861, by which the provincial diets were created; (5) the six fundamental laws of the 21st of December 1867, which contain the exposition and guarantee of the civil and political rights of the citizen, the organization of justice, the organization and method of election for the Reichsrat, &c.

The executive power is vested in the council of ministers, at whose head is the minister-president. There are eight ministries, namely, the ministry of the interior, of national defence, of worship and instruction, of finance, of commerce, of agriculture, of justice, and of railways. There are, further, two ministries, without portfolio, for Galicia and Bohemia. The civil administration in the different provinces is carried out by governors or stadtholders (Statthalter), to whom are subordinate the heads of the 347 districts in which Austria was divided in 1900, and of the 33 towns with special statute, i.e. of the towns which have also the management of the civil administration. Local self-government of the provinces, districts and communities is also granted, and is exercised by various elective bodies. Thus, the autonomous provincial administration is discharged by the provincial committees elected by the local diets; and the affairs of the communities are discharged by an elected communal council.

The legislative power for all the kingdoms and lands which constitute Austria is vested in the Reichsrat. It consists of two Houses: an Upper House (the Herrenhaus), and a Lower House (the Abgeordnetenhaus). The Upper House is composed of (1) princes of the imperial house, who are of age (14 in 1907); (2) of the members of the large landed nobility, to which the emperor had conferred this right, and which is hereditary in their family (78 in 1907); (3) of 9 archbishops and 8 prince-bishops; and (4) of life members nominated by the emperor for distinguished services (170 in 1907). The Lower House has undergone considerable changes since its creation in 1861, by the various modifications of the electoral laws passed in 1867, 1873, 1892, 1896 and 1907. The general spirit of those modifications was to broaden the electoral basis, and to extend the franchise to a larger number of citizens. The law of the 26th of January 1907 granted universal franchise to Austrian male citizens over twenty-four years of age, who have resided for a year in the place of election. The Lower House consists of 516 members, elected for a period of six years. The members receive payment for their services, as well as an indemnity for travelling expenses. A bill to become law must pass through both Houses, and must receive the sanction of the emperor. The emperor is bound to summon the Reichsrat annually.

According to the imperial Diploma of the 26th February 1861, local diets have been created for the legislation of matters of local interest. These provincial parliaments are 17 in number, and their membership varies from 22 members, which compose the diet of Görz and Gradisca to the 242 members which constitute that of Bohemia. They assemble annually and are composed of members elected for a period of six years, and of members ex-officio, namely, the archbishops and bishops of the respective provinces, and the rector of the local university.

Religion.—Religious toleration was secured throughout the Habsburg dominions by the patent of the 13th of October 1781, but Protestants were not given full civil rights until the issue of the Protestantenpatent of the 8th of April 1861, after the promulgation of the imperial constitution of the 26th of February. The principle underlying this and all subsequent acts is the guarantee to all religious bodies recognized by law of freedom of worship, the management of their own affairs, and the undisturbed possession and disposal of their property. Though all the churches are, in a sense, “established,” the Roman Catholic Church, to which the sovereign must belong, is the state religion. The reigning house, however, though strongly attached to the Roman faith, has always resisted the extreme claims of the papacy, an attitude which in Joseph II.’s time resulted, under the influence of (q.v.), in what was practically a national schism. Thus the emperor retains the right to tax church property, to nominate bishops, and to prohibit the circulation of papal bulls without his permission. By the concordat of August 18, 1855, this traditional attitude was to some extent reversed; but this agreement soon became a dead letter and was formally denounced by the Austrian government after the promulgation of the dogma of papal infallibility.

Of the population of Austria in 1900, 23,796,814 (91%) were Roman Catholics, including 3,134,439 uniate Greeks and 2096 uniate Armenians. There were 12,937 Old Catholics, in scattered communities, 606,764 members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, mainly in Bukovina and Dalmatia, and 698 Armenians, also mainly in Bukovina. The Protestants, who in the 16th century comprised 90% of the population, are now only 1·9%. In 1900, 365,505 of them were returned as belonging to the Augsburg Confession (Lutheran), 128,557 to the Helvetic (Reformed). Other Christian Confessions in Austria are Herrnhuters (Moravian Brethren) in Bohemia, Mennonites in Galicia, Lippovanians (akin to the Russian Skoptsi) in Bukovina, and Anglicans. The Jews compose 4·7% of the population, and are strongest in Galicia, Lower Austria, Bohemia, Moravia and Bukovina. The Roman Catholic Church is divided into eight provinces, seven of the Latin rite—Vienna, Prague, Lemberg, Salzburg, Olmütz, Görz and Zara—with 23 bishoprics, and one of the Greek rite (Lemberg), with two bishoprics. The Armenian bishopric of Lemberg and the Austrian part of the archdiocese of Breslau are under the immediate jurisdiction of the Holy See. The Greek Orthodox Church has one archbishopric (at Czernowitz) and two bishoprics. There are 559 communities of the Jewish religion (253 in Galicia, and 255 in Bohemia). In 1900 there were, belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, 541 monasteries with 7775 monks, and 877 convents with 19,194 nuns; while the Greek Orthodox Church had 14 monasteries with 85 members. The Evangelical Church, according to the constitution granted by imperial decree on the 9th of April 1861 (modified by those of January 6, 1866 and December 9, 1891) is organized on a territorial basis, being