Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/724

 808 AUSTRIA

The teii-lieller (10-filler) piece = 5 kreuzer (krajezar) of the old coinage = \d.

Bronze : —

The two-heller (2-filler) piece = 1 kreuzer (krajezar) = ^d. The single heller (filler) piece = ^ kreuzer (krajezar) = -^d.

Silver gulden or florins continue to be legal tender to any amount. Silver crown-pieces are accepted to any amount at Government offices, but in general circulation they are legal tender only up to 50 crowns. The notes of the State Bank are legal tender.

The metrical system of weights and measures is now legal and obligatory in Austria-Hungary. The old weights and measures are : —

The Centner {m6,zsa) =100 Pfund = bQ-Q6 kg. =123^ lbs. avoirdupois.

,, Eimer{ak6) . . =56 "50 litre = 14 94 wine gallons.

,, Joch {hold), . =5, 754 "64 square metre = 1 '43 acre.

,, Metzen (mero). =61 '49 litre = 1*7 imperial bushel.

(The Klafter of wood = S'A1 cubic metre = 120 cubic feet.)

„ Meile (mertfold) =1 _7 Kor.fi ^npfvp^ - r8,897 yards, or about 4 24,000 Austrian feet/ - ^^»o *> i»eties _ -^ ^^^^^

AUSTRIA.

Constitution and Government.

I. Central Government.

The political representation is twofold — (1) for all the Austrian provinces (Reichsrath) ; (2) for each separate province (Landtage).

The Reichsrath, or Parliament of the western part of the Monarchy, consists of an Upper and a Lower House. The Upper House (Herrenhaus) is formed, 1st, of the princes of the Imperial family who are of age, 19 in number in 1898 ; 2nd, of a number of nobles — 66 in the present Reichsrath — possessing large landed property, in whose families by nomination of the Emperor the dignity is hereditary; 3rd, archbishops, nine in number, and bishops, eight in number, who are of princely title inherent to their episcopal seat ; and 4th, of any other life-members nominated by the Emperor, on account of being distinguished in art or science, or who have rendered signal services to Church or State — 153 in 1898. The Lower House (Abgeordnetenhaus) up to 1896 consisted of 353 members, elected, partly directly and partly indirectly, by the vote of all citizens who are 24 years of age and possessed of a small property or particular individual qualification ; of these, 85 representing the landed proprietors, 118 the towns, 21 the chambers of trade and commerce, 129 the rural distiicts. The constituencies were divided into four classes : first, the rural districts, where the peasantry and small landholders are the electors ; thoy choose a voter for every 500 inhabitants, these voters electing the representatives ; secondly, the towns ; thirdly, the chambers of commerce in the cities and large towns ; and fourthly, the large landed proprietors, payers of from 50 to 250 florins taxes, according to the provinces in which their estates are situated. In this last class females in possession of their own property are entitled to vote. Under a law passed in 1882, the franchise was extended to all male persons in towns and rural districts paying