at they would then cease to use their own language and
become Germanized; but, on the contrary, the movement of population is
spreading their language and they claim that special schools should be
provided for them, and that men of their own nationality should be
appointed to government offices to deal with their business. This has
happened not only in many places in Bohemia, but in Styria, and even in
Vienna, where there has been a great increase in the Czech population and a
Czech school has been founded. The introduction of Slavonic into the middle
and higher schools has affected the Germans in their most sensitive point.
They have always insisted that German is the _Kultur-sprache_. On one
occasion Count A. Auersperg (Anastasius Gruen) entered the diet of Carniola
carrying the whole of the Slovenian literature under his arm, as evidence
that the Slovenian language could not well be substituted for German as a
medium of higher education.

The first important regulations which were issued under the law of 1867
applied to Dalmatia, and for that country between 1872 and 1876 a series of
laws and edicts were issued determining to what extent the Slavonic idioms
were to be recognized. Hitherto all business had been done in Italian, the
language of a small minority living in the seaport towns. The effect of
these laws has been to raise Croatian to equality with Italian. It has been
introduced in all schools, so that nearly all education is given in
Croatian, even though a knowledge of Italian is quite essential for the
maritime population; and it is only in one or two towns, such as Zara, the
ancient capital of the country, that Italian is able to maintain itself.
Since 1882 there has been a Slav majority in the diet, and Italian has been
disused in the proceedings of that body. In this case the concessions to
the Servo-Croatians had been made by the Liberal ministry; they required
the parliamentary support of the Dalmatian representatives, who were more
numerous than the Italian, and it was also necessary to cultivate the
loyalty of the Slav races in this part so as to gain a support for Austria
against the Russian party, which was very active in the Balkan Peninsula.
It was better to sacrifice the Italians of Dalmatia than the Germans of
Carinthia.[17]

It was not till 1879 that the Slovenes received the support of the
government. In Carniola they succeeded, in 1882, in winning a majority in
the diet, and from this time,