Bohemia--were the most important members. Austria now began its
new life as a modern constitutional state. From this time the maintenance
of the revised constitution of 1867 has been the watchword of what is
called the Constitutional party. The first use which the new government
made of their power was to settle the finances, and in this their best work
was done. Among them were nearly all the representatives of trade and
industry, of commercial enterprise and financial speculation; they were the
men who hoped to make Austria a great industrial state, and at this time
they were much occupied with railway enterprise. Convinced free-traders,
they hoped by private energy to build up the fortunes of the country,
parliamentary government--which meant for them the rule of the educated and
well-to-do middle class--being one of the means to this end. They accepted
the great burden of debt which the action of Hungary imposed upon the
country, and rejected the proposals for repudiation, but notwithstanding
the protest of foreign bondholders they imposed a tax of 16% on all
interest on the debt. They carried out an extension of the commercial
treaty with Great Britain by which a further advance was made in the
direction of free trade.

[Sidenote: The Liberals and the concordat.]

Of equal importance was their work in freeing Austria from the control of
the Church, which checked the intellectual life of the people. The
concordat of 1855 had given the Church complete freedom in the management
of all ecclesiastical affairs; there was full liberty of intercourse with
Rome, the state gave up all control over the appointment of the clergy, and
in matters of church discipline the civil courts had no voice--the clergy
being absolutely subject to the power of the bishops, who could impose
temporal as well as spiritual penalties. The state had even resigned to the
Church all authority over some departments of civil life, and restored the
authority of the canon law. This was the case as regards marriage; all
disputes were to be tried before ecclesiastical courts, and the marriage
registers were kept by the priests. All the schools were under the control
of the Church; the bishops could forbid the use of books prejudicial to
religion; in elementary schools all teachers were subject to the inspection
of the Church, and in higher schools only Roman Catholics could be
appointed. It had been agreed that the whole education of the Roman
Catholic y