Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/220

 MARK TWAIN

the official language in Bohemia in place of the German. This created a storm. All the Germans in Austria were incensed. In numbers they form but a fourth part of the empire s population, but they urge that the country s public business should be conducted in one common tongue, and that tongue a world language which German is.

However, Badeni secured his majority. The German element in parliament was apparently be come helpless. The Czech deputies were exultant.

Then the music began. Badeni s voyage, instead of being smooth, was disappointingly rough from the start. The government must get the Ausgleich through. It must not fail. Badeni s majority was ready to carry it through; but the minority was determined to obstruct it and delay it until the ob noxious Czech-language measure should be shelved.

The Ausgleich is an Adjustment, Arrangement, Settlement, which holds Austria and Hungary to gether. It dates from 1867, and has to be renewed every ten years. It establishes the share which Hungary must pay toward the expenses of the imperial government. Hungary is a kingdom (the Emperor of Austria is its King), and has its own parliament and governmental machinery. But it has no foreign office, and it has no army at least its army is a part of the imperial army, is paid out of the imperial treasury, and is under the control of the imperial war office.

The ten-year rearrangement was due a year ago, but failed to connect. At least completely. A year s compromise was arranged, A new arrange-

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