public offices in Vienna,
and the language of the court and of the army; moreover, in almost every
part of the monarchy it had become the language of what is called the
_internal service_ in the public offices and law courts; all books and
correspondence were kept in German, not only in the German districts, but
also in countries such as Bohemia and Galicia. The bureaucracy and the law
courts had therefore become a network of German-speaking officialism
extending over the whole country; no one had any share in the government
[v.03 p.0032] unless he could speak and write German. The only exception
was in the Italian districts; not only in Italy itself (in Lombardy, and
afterwards in Venetia), but in South Tirol, Trieste, Istria and Dalmatia,
Italian has always been used, even for the internal service of the
government offices, and though the actual words of command are now given in
German and the officers are obliged to know Serbo-Croatian it remains to
this day the language of the Austrian navy. Any interference with the use
of German would be a serious blow to the cause of those who hoped to
Germanize the whole empire. Since 1867 the old rules have been maintained
absolutely as regards the army, and German has also, as required by the
military authorities, become the language of the railway administration. It
remains the language of the central offices in Vienna, and is the usual,
though not the only, language used in the Reichsrath. In 1869 a great
innovation was made, when Polish was introduced throughout the whole of
Galicia as the normal language of government; and since that time the use
of German has almost entirely disappeared in that territory. Similar
innovations have also begun, as we shall see, in other parts.

Different from this is what is called the _external service_. Even in the
old days it was customary to use the language of the district in
communication between the government offices and private individuals, and
evidence could be given in the law courts in the language generally spoken.
This was not the result of any law, but depended on administrative
regulations of the government service; it was practically necessary in
remote districts, such as Galicia and Bukovina, where few of the population
understood German. In some places a Slav-speaking individual would himself
have to provide the interpreter, and approach the government in German.
Local authorities, _e.g._ town councils and the diets, were f