by which the choice of representatives was
taken from the provincial diets and vested in the four classes of
provincial constituencies. For the carrying of this measure a
two-thirds majority was required, and if the Czechs had been willing
to vote at all upon it they might easily have compassed its defeat. As
it was, the amendment was carried without difficulty. A tenure of
power which not even the financial crisis of 1873 could break was,
however, sacrificed through factional bickerings. Within both the
ministry and the Reichsrath, the dominant party broke into three
groups, and the upshot was the dissolution, February 6, 1879, of the
ministry and the creation of a new one under the presidency of Count
Taaffe, long identified with the Moderate element. Three months later
the House of Representatives was dissolved. In the elections that
followed the Liberals lost a total of forty-five seats, and therewith
their position as the controlling party in both the Reichsrath and the
nation. Taaffe retained the premiership, but his Liberal colleagues
were replaced by Czechs, Poles, Clericals, and representatives indeed
of pretty nearly all of the existing groups save the Germans.[677]

[Footnote 677: As at first reconstituted, the
ministry contained a German Liberal, but he soon
resigned.]

*529. The Taaffe Ministry, 1879-1893.*--The prolonged ministry of Count
Taaffe comprises the second period of Austrian parliamentary history.
Of notably moderate temper, Taaffe had never been a party man of the
usual sort, and he entered office with an honest purpose to administer
the affairs of the nation without regard to considerations of party or
of race. The establishment of his reconstituted ministry was
signalized by the appearance of Czech deputies for the first time upon
the floor of the national parliament. The Taaffe government found its
support in what came to be known as the Right--a quasi-coalition of
Poles, Czechs, Clericals, and the Slavic and conservative elements
generally.[678] It was opposed by the Left, comprising principally the
German Liberals, In 1881 the various factions of the German party,
impelled by the apprehension that German ascendancy might be lost
forever, drew together again and entered upon a policy of opposition
which was dictated purely and frankly by racial aspirations. (p. 478)
Attempts to embarrass the Government by obstruction proved, ho