The Austrian Government seems to have got a decided majority
for the policy of federation in the new Reichsrath, the numbers appearing to be something like the following :-140 for the Ministry and 60 against, i.e., great enough to ensure the two- 'thirds' majority requisite for evlsry Constitutional change. The fight has been fought out chiefly on the issue between the Liberals and the Clericals, the Liberals being, as Germans, of course 'opposed to 'the policy of federation, and the Clericals being, as local nationalists, smelly in favour of it. The representatives to the Reichsrath being elected by the local diets, and the members
• of the local diets being elected on the American system, i.e., usually by ticket, it has often happened that a very small majority of party votes has sufficed to return a solidly Conservative deputa- tion to the Diet, and, therefore, also to the Reichsrath. The Austrian Minister, in his now-found zeal for a quiet and Con- ,servative European policy, will perhaps not regret the victory of the party of order, especially as it facilitates his scheme of fede- -ration. But the disgust of the German Liberals at their defeat by the Clericals and by the Partioularists is so great, that we may well expect to see a growing feeling in German Austria in favour of separation from this tesselated empire of Magyars, Czechs, and Slays, and advocating union with the great Vaterland.
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