The Austrian Budget for 1867 was published on December 30,
and shows a revenue of 40,729,700/., as opposed to an expenditure of 43,389,6001.—a deficiency of 2,659,900/., which would not be very great, were not taxation so strained. Three days after the Budget appeared an Imperial patent convoking a Reichsrath from -all non-Hungarian provinces, to consider a common constitution for those States, and then to come to some agreement with Hungary. This is, in fact, giving up the problem as insoluble. If the Kaiser cannot reconcile the Hungarians and Germans, it is -quite certain that Germans and Hungarians will not reconcile -each other. Indeed the patent has already produced the greatest dissatisfaction in Hungary, and we may expect to see the nego- tiations once more fall through, in which case the Emperor will probably fall back finally upon his absolute power, and the cycle from 1848 will be complete.
Previous page
