The quarrel between the filerman and Non-German portions of the
Cis-Leithan population of Austria has this week reached a crisis. The Emperor, after much hesitation, has at length refused to accede to the Bohemian demand for an autonomy like that of Hungary, and Count Hohenwart has given in his resignation. It has not yet been accepted, and negotiations are going on for a compromise ; but if it fails, it is believed that the Federalists, who now include the feudal and clerical parties, will secede from the Reiohsrath, leaving the Emperor and the Germans to do the best they can. As long as no shock occurs they will get along well enough, but at the slightest shock, the Empire, being neither united nor federal, might go to pieces. The easiest solution, we still suspect, would be autonomy for all the States which desire it, with the Emperor himself as the federal Head controlling the Army and foreign policy. It is not in the Diets, but in the central Parliament that the insuperable difficulties arise.
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