nsider a revision of frontier, and from the
nature of things such compensation can only have one meaning--the break-up
of Austria-Hungary.

Sec.5. _The Future of Austria-Hungary._--For many years this break-up has been
foretold by political pessimists inside and outside the Habsburg dominions,
and by many interested agitators both in Central and in Western Europe. The
present writer, on the other hand, has always regarded Austria-Hungary as
an organism full of infinite possibilities of progress and culture, a State
modelled upon that diversity of type which Lord Acton held to be the
surest guarantee of liberty. Those who affected to treat it as moribund
under-estimated both the underlying geographical bases of its existence and
its great natural resources; they emphasised what separates rather than
what unites. In short, they saw the rivalry between the two mottoes "Divide
et Impera" and "Viribus Unitis," and laid undue stress upon the former.
Just because they realised the extraordinarily complicated nature of the
racial problems involved, they tended to overlook the steady advance
made in recent years by Austria in the conceptions of political and
constitutional freedom. But at every turn Hungary has been Austria's evil
genius: the influence of the Magyar oligarchy has given a reactionary
flavour alike to internal and to foreign policy, has hampered every reform,
and poisoned the relations of the State with its southern neighbours.

[Illustration: AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: POLITICAL DIVISIONS]

For a short time the aggressive Balkan policy of Count Aehrenthal, as
exemplified in the annexation of Bosnia and the diplomatic duel with
Russia, was hailed as worthy of the Bismarckian tradition; but it soon
became clear that he was far from being the genius whose advent the
Monarchy was so anxiously awaiting. In recent years, then, despite many
hopeful signs, and despite increasing activity in almost every sphere of
life, a kind of progressive paralysis has taken hold upon the body-politic.
Three main causes may be noted--the lack of any great men capable of
counteracting the Emperor's lack of initiative, which was always very
marked, but has been accentuated by advancing old age; the superficial and
malicious outlook of the capital and the classes which control it; the
alliance between the Magyar oligarchy and the Jewish press and Haute
Finance, working in a pronouncedly anti-Slav direction. The wheels
still went round, but the m