the electoral system and the renewal of the decennial economic
compromise with Hungary, to expire at the end of 1897. The first was
accomplished, very ineffectively, through the electoral measure of
1896; the second, by reason of factional strife, was not accomplished
at all.

*531. The Language Question: Parliamentary Deadlock.*--The elections of
1897 marked the utter dissolution of both the United German Left and
the coalition which had borne the designation of the Right. Among the
200 Germans elected to the Chamber there were distinguishable no fewer
than eight groups; and the number of groups represented in the
aggregate membership of 425 was at least twenty-four. Of these the
most powerful were the Young Czechs, with 60 seats, and the Poles,
with 59. Profiting by the recently enacted electoral law, the
Socialists at this point made their first appearance in the Reichsrath
with a total of 14 seats. Taking the Chamber as a whole, there was a
Slavo-Clerical majority, although not the two-thirds requisite for the
enactment of constitutional amendments. The radical opponents of the
Government were represented by the 51 German Liberals only. But no one
of the Slavic groups was disposed to accord its support save in return
for favors received. In the attempt to procure for itself a dependable
majority the Badeni government succeeded but in creating confusion
twice confounded. The Young Czechs, whose support appeared (p. 480)
indispensable, stipulated as a positive condition of that support that
Czech should be recognized as an official language in Bohemia and
Moravia, and by ordinances of April-May, 1897, the Government took it
upon itself to meet this condition. Within the provinces named the two
languages, Czech and German, were placed, for official purposes upon a
common footing. The only result, however, was to drive the Germans,
already hostile, to a settled course of parliamentary obstruction, and
before the year was out the Badeni cabinet was compelled to retire.

The Gautsch ministry which succeeded proposed to maintain the equality
of the Czech and German tongues in Bohemia; wherefore the German
Liberals persisted in their obstructionist policy and declared that
they would continue to do so until the objectionable ordinances should
have been rescinded. March 5, 1898, the Government promulgated a
provisional decree in accordance with which in one portion of Bohemia
the official tongue was to be Czech, in