doctrines which had
held the field for nearly twenty years; but the full effect of the change
was not seen for some time. What ruined the government was the want of
unity in the party, and their neglect to support a ministry which had been
taken from their own ranks. In a country like Austria, in which a mistaken
foreign policy or a serious quarrel with Hungary might bring about the
disruption of the monarchy, parliamentary government was impossible unless
the party which the government helped in internal matters were prepared to
support it in foreign affairs and in the commercial policy bound up with
the settlement with Hungary. This the constitutional parties did not do.
During discussions on the economic arrangement with Hungary in 1877 a large
number voted against the duties on coffee and petroleum, which were an
essential part of the agreement; they demanded, moreover, that the treaty
of Berlin should be laid before the House, and 112 members, led by Herbst,
gave a vote hostile to some of its provisions, and in the Delegation
refused the supplies necessary for the occupation of Bosnia. They doubtless
were acting in accordance with their principles, but the situation was such
that it would have been impossible to carry out their wishes; the only
result was that the Austrian ministers and Andrassy had to turn for help to
the Poles, who began to acquire the position of a government party, which
they have kept since then. At the beginning of 1870 Auersperg's
resignation, which had long been offered, was accepted. The
constitutionalists remained [v.03 p.0031] in power; but in the
reconstructed cabinet, though Stremayr was president, Count Taaffe, as
minister of the interior, was the most important member.

Parliament was dissolved in the summer, and Taaffe, by private
negotiations, first of all persuaded the Bohemian feudal proprietors to
give the Feudalists, who had long been excluded, a certain number of seats;
secondly, he succeeded where Potocki had failed, and came to an agreement
with the Czechs; they had already, in 1878, taken their seats in the diet
at Prague, and now gave up the policy of "passive resistance," and
consented to take their seats also in the parliament at Vienna.

[Sidenote: Count Taaffe.]

On entering the House they took the oath without reservation, but in the
speech from the throne the emperor himself stated that they had entered
without prejudice to their convictions, and on the first day of