The struggle of the races in Austria grows more acute.
The Germans, despairing of their old ascendency, are The struggle of the races in Austria grows more acute. The Germans, despairing of their old ascendency, are
advising their followers to turn Protestant in a body, and so remove all prejudices against them in the German Empire. The advice, as we have elsewhere explained, is not likely to be followed, but it reveals the bitterness of race-feeling more than any recent incident. Even in the Tyrol, it is said, the Germans demand that the clergy shall no longer intervene in politics. The quarrel, too, has reached the Army. Some Reservists recently answered questions whether they were present in Czechish, though it is an unalterable maxim in Austria that words of command or obedience should all be in one language, and that language German. The Minister of War therefore punished an officer who had accepted replies not made in German, and the popular irritation is directed against the War Office, which is in theory respon- sible to the Emperor only. In the excited state of feeling any accident may bring matters to a head, and compel the Emperor to enforce silence for a time, and therefore to govern alone. His alternative is to restore the Germans to their ascendency, which the Slays would now hardly bear.
