Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/48

 protopapas, or deans. Very extensive powers, secured by a special Concordate with the Pontifical government, were formerly possessed by the Roman Catholic clergy in Cisleithan Austria, but the whole of these were swept away in 1867 and 1868, by a series of laws enacted by the Reichsrath, the last and most important of which—passed in April 1868—established civil marriage, and the perfect equality of all religious creeds. In Hungary and Transylvania, the various Christian sects have long enjoyed equal rights with the Roman Catholics.

The extent of landed property in Austria belonging to the Roman Catholic Church is very considerable. Though reduced in number within the last half century, there are still nearly 300 abbeys, and above 500 convents in the empire. The Protestants have no churches endowed by the state out of Hungary and Transylvania, the clergy being chosen and supported by their congregations.

Education until very recently was in a greatly backward state in Austria, the bulk of the agricultural population, constituting two-thirds of the inhabitants of the Empire, being almost entirely illiterate. During the last twenty years, however, vigorous efforts have been made to bring about an improvement, by founding schools, and appointing teachers, partly at the expense of communes, and partly, but less, at that of the state. It was enacted by a series of decrees issued in the years 1848 and 1849, that education should be general and compulsory, and the principle, though not adhered to in Transleithan Austria, nor in those parts of Cisleithan Austria inhabited by people belonging to the Slavonian race, was fully carried out among the Germanic population of the empire. In the major part of German Austria, the law enforces the compulsory attendance in the 'Volks-schulen,' or National Schools, of all children between the ages of six and twelve, and parents are liable to punishment for neglect. It is very rare, however, that cases occur in which penalties for non-attendance at school have to be enforced. The cost of public education mainly falls on the communes, but of late years the state has come forward to assist. In the year 1868, the sum provided for public education in the budget of Cisleithan Austria was only 74,636 florins, or 7,463l.; but the amount was increased in the budget of 1869 to 5,810,326 florins, or 581,032l. The budget of Transleithan Austria for 1869 set aside the sum of 1,346,400 florins, or 134,640l., towards public instruction, giving a total of 7,156,726 florins, or 715,672l., for the whole Empire. The sums voted were destined, in the first instance, to assist in the establishment of schools for primary education.

There are 8 universities in the empire, at Vienna, Prague, Pesth, Gratz, Cracow, Innspruck, Lemberg, and Linz. The number of