ree to use
what language they wished, and in this matter the Austrian government has
shown great liberality. The constitution of 1867 laid down a principle of
much importance, by which previous custom became established as a right.
Article 19 runs: "All races of the empire have equal rights, and every race
has an inviolable right to the preservation and use of its own nationality
and language. The equality of all customary (_landesueblich_) languages in
school, office and public life, is recognized by the state. In those
territories in which several races dwell, the public and educational
institutions are to be so arranged that, without applying compulsion to
learn a second _Landessprache_, each of the races receives the necessary
means of education in its own language." The application of this law gives
great power to the government, for everything depends on what is meant by
_landesueblich_, and it rests with them to determine when a language is
customary. The Germans demand the recognition of German as a customary
language in every part of the empire, so that a German may claim to have
his business attended to in his own language, even in Dalmatia and Galicia.
In Bohemia the Czechs claim that their language shall be recognized as
customary, even in those districts such as Reichenberg, which are almost
completely German; the Germans, on the other hand, claim that the Czech
language shall only be recognized in those towns and districts where there
is a considerable Czech population. What Taaffe's Administration did was to
interpret this law in a sense more favourable to the Slavs than had
hitherto been the case.

Peculiar importance is attached to the question of education. The law of
1867 required that the education in the elementary schools in the Slav
districts should be given in Czech or Slovenian, as the case might be. The
Slavs, however, required that, even when a small minority of Slav race
settled in any town, they should not be compelled to go to the German
schools, but should have their own school provided for them; and this
demand was granted by Prazak, minister of education under Count Taaffe. The
Germans had always hoped that the people as they became educated would
cease to use their own particular language. Owing to economic causes the
Slavs, who increase more rapidly than the Germans, tend to move westwards,
and large numbers settle in the towns and manufacturing districts. It might
have been expected th