h.

[Sidenote: The constitution of 1867.]

When the Reichsrath met, the government had a large majority; and in the
House, in which all the races except the Czechs were represented, the
Ausgleich was ratified almost unanimously. This having been done, it was
possible to proceed to special legislation for the territories, which were
henceforward officially known as "the kingdoms and lands represented in the
Reichsrath." A series of fundamental laws were carried, which formally
established parliamentary government, with responsibility of ministers, and
complete control over the budget, and there were included a number of
clauses guaranteeing personal rights and liberties in the way common to all
modern constitutions. The influence of the Poles was still sufficient to
secure considerable concessions to the wishes of the Federalists, since if
they did not get what they wished they would leave the House, and the
Slovenes, Dalmatians and Tirolese would certainly follow them. Hence the
German Liberals were prevented from introducing direct elections to the
Reichsrath, and the functions of the Reichsrath were slightly less
extensive than they had hitherto been. Moreover, the Delegation was to be
chosen not by the House as a whole, but by the representatives of the
separate territories. This is one reason for the comparative weakness of
Austria as compared with Hungary, where the Delegation is elected by each
House as a whole; the Bohemian representatives, _e.g._, meet and choose 10
delegates, the Galicians 7, those from Trieste 1; the Delegation, is,
therefore, not representative of the majority of the chamber of deputies,
but includes representatives of all the groups which may be opposing the
government there, and they can carry on their opposition even in the
Delegation. So it came about in 1869, that on the first occasion when there
was a joint sitting of the Delegations to settle a point in the budget,
which Hungary had accepted and Austria rejected, the Poles and Tirolese
voted in favour of the Hungarian proposal.

[Sidenote: The Buerger Ministerium.]

As soon as these laws had been carried (December 1867), Beust retired from
the post of minister-president; and in accordance with constitutional
practice a parliamentary ministry was appointed entirely from the ranks of
the Liberal majority; a ministry generally known as the "Buerger
Ministerium" in which Giskra and Herbst--the leaders of the German party in
Moravia and