vernment could be carried on without difficulty. A still
greater blow to the Federalists was the passing of a new electoral law in
1873. The measure transferred the right of electing members of the
Reichsrath from the diets to the direct vote of the people, the result
being to deprive the Federalists of their chief weapon; it was no longer
possible to take a formal vote of the legal representatives in any
territory refusing to appoint deputies, and if a Czech or Slovene member
did not take his seat the only result was that a single constituency was
unrepresented, and the opposition weakened. The measure was strongly
opposed. A petition with 250,000 names was presented from Bohemia; and the
Poles withdrew from the Reichsrath when the law was introduced. But enough
members remained to give the legal quorum, and it was carried by 120 to 2
votes. At the same time the number of members was increased to 353, but the
proportion of representatives from the different territories was maintained
and the system of election was not altered. The proportion of members
assigned to the towns was increased, the special representatives of the
chambers of commerce and of the landed proprietors were retained, and the
suffrage was not extended. The artificial system which gave to the Germans
a parliamentary majority continued.

[Sidenote: Czech dissensions.]

At this time the Czechs were much weakened by quarrels among themselves. A
new party had arisen, calling themselves Radicals, but generally known as
the Young Czechs. They disliked the alliance with the aristocracy and the
clergy; they wished for universal suffrage, and recalled the Hussite
traditions. They desired to take their seats in the diet, and to join with
the Germans in political reform. They violently attacked Rieger, the leader
of the Old Czechs, who maintained the alliance with the Feudalists and the
policy of passive opposition. Twenty-seven members of the diet led by Gregr
and Stadkowsky, being outvoted in the Czech Club, resigned their seats.
They were completely defeated in the elections which followed, but for the
next four years the two parties among the Czechs were as much occupied in
opposing one another as in opposing the Germans. These events might have
secured the predominance of the Liberals for many years. The election after
the reform bill gave them an increased majority in the Reichsrath.
Forty-two Czechs who had won seats did not attend; forty-three Poles stoo