30 NOVEMBER 1867, Page 1
The Austrian fundamental laws have been passed by the Lower
House, but much resistance is expected in the Chamber of Peers. That House is composed of hereditary magnates, great ecclesi- astics, and life peers, and the two former classes dislike the abolition of the Concordat. The Emperor's influence with the magnates is, however, great, and to make the Bills safer he has summoned twenty new life peers to the House, presumably persons whom Baron von Beust can teach. It will be remembered that the nobles' feeling for the Concordat is not religions, but political, they being, in the main, materialists of a very decided school. They think, however, that aristocracy and ultramontanism will fall together.
