together.

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

Or come back to Europe, and take the astonishing case of Austria and
Hungary. There you have two countries of different race and different
language, with different ideals, and with bitter memories of past
strife lying between them. A generation ago it was a commonplace among
all politicians that the Austrian Empire must break up. Yet it still
holds together, and has recently shown itself capable even of
aggressive action. The prophecy of decay is being pushed further and
further forward, and Austria still remains the great Christian bulwark
of Europe. How has that miracle been achieved after the terrible
internecine struggles of the mid-nineteenth century? How is it that
Hungary has forgotten the hangings and the butcheries of the sixties,
and still works within the Austrian Empire? Why, simply by virtue of
the principle of Home Rule.

Austria and Hungary, indeed, represent a far more extreme and daring
instance of this principle than it is necessary to put forward in
regard to Ireland. They possess distinct Parliaments and distinct
ministries. Those Parliaments sit apart and legislate apart and neither
possess any representation in the other. But they have, as we have
already seen, their link, not merely in a common Emperor and King, but
in a common body called the Delegations. There is the Austrian
Delegation and the Hungarian Delegation, both consisting of sixty
members, twenty from each Upper House, and forty from each Lower House.
The delegations sit alternately at Vienna and Buda Pesth, and they
deliberately and independently communicate their decisions by writing.
But if after three such interchanges no decision is arrived at, then
the whole 120 meet together and settle the matter by vote without
discussion. They possess a common Minister for Foreign Affairs, a
common Minister of War, and a common Minister of Finance. Count Von
Aehrenthal, who has in late years produced so startling an effect on
European politics, is the common Minister for Foreign Affairs for
Austria and Hungary, two countries with distinct Parliaments.

INDIA

I return from this tour of the world back to the British Empire. Here,
too, the principle of Home Rule has been working, not merely in regard
to our white dominions, but during the last ten years even more
daringly in regard to the countries of our black subjects. The great
Indian Reform Act of 1909 has created in India what are practically the
firs