24 JUNE 1905, Page 18

Affairs in Austria are not going well. The Emperor, finding

it impossible to form a strictly Parliamentary Ministry which will protect the unity of the Imperial Army, has appointed Baron Fejervary Premier in Hungary, in the hope that ordinary business at least may be carried on. On the Chambers reassembling, however, on June 21st, a vote of No Confidence moved by M. Kossuth was carried in the Lower House by a two-thirds majority. A Royal Rescript proroguing Parliament was then read ; but the President permitted debate upon the Rescript, and Baron Banffy sub- mitted a Motion declaring the prorogation illegal because no business had been done, forbidding the payment of the quota for Imperial expenses, and summoning the counties and com- mimes to pay no taxes and collect no recruits. . This Motion also was carried by a two-thirds majority amid shouts of " Long live Norway!" The paralysis of Russia has, in fact, relieved the Magyars of a secret fear, and they seem deter- mined to try 'the dangerous experiment of separating their State from the Dual Monarchy. Taught by his long experience, tire Austrian Emperor will, of course, try to avoid a final rupture with his Hungarian people ; but Parliamentary life is suspended, and it will be difficult or impossible to collect the taxes. The next step will therefore be watched with alarm as well as curiosity by all statesmen on the Continent, who are well aware that the dissolution of the Austrian Empire would be followed by a most dangerous explosion in Europe, Germans contending with Magyars, and Slave with both. It must he remembered, however, that whenever discussion gives place to action, there is one check on the Magyars,—namely, their imperfect hold on the majority of their own population, which is Slay.