11 FEBRUARY 1871, Page 2

The Austrian Cabinet has been dismissed. The new Premier is

Count Hohenwart, and his programme apparently is the extension of legislative and administrative autonomy to the provinces " so far as is compatible with the unity of the Empire," without any further attempt at " compromises with separatism on vital points." This is in accord with Mr. Gladstone's view expressed in the Edinburgh Review, that Austria needed more Federalism ; but how it is to be reconciled with the German wish to rule the provinces it is diffi- cult to see. Legislative autonomy is a dangerous thing to grant, where a dominant race has once ruled and left bitter prepossessions behind it.