t
sufficiently decisive in the measures for self-defence. In 1885 great
festivities in honour of Bismarck's eightieth birthday, which had been
arranged in Graz, were forbidden by the government, and the Germans of
Styria were very indignant that the party did not take up the matter with
sufficient energy. After the elections of 1885 the Left, therefore, broke
up again into two clubs, the "German Austrian," which included the more
moderate, and the "German," which wished to use sharper language. The
German Club, _e.g._, congratulated Bismarck on his measures against the
Poles; the German Austrians refused to take cognizance of events outside
Austria with which they had nothing to do. Even the German Club was not
sufficiently decided for Herr von Schoenerer and his friends, who broke off
from it and founded a "National German Union." They spoke much of
_Germanentum_ and _Unverfaelschtes Deutschtum_, and they advocated a
political union with the German empire, and were strongly anti-Hungarian
and wished to resign all control over Galicia, if by a closer union with
Germany they could secure German supremacy in Bohemia and the south Slav
countries. They play the same part in Austria as does the "pan-Germanic
Union" in Germany. When in 1888 the [v.03 p.0034] two clubs, the German
Austrians and the Germans, joined once more under the name of the "United
German Left" into a new club with eighty-seven members, so as the better to
guard against the common danger and to defeat the educational demands of
the Clericals, the National Germans remained apart with seventeen members.
They were also infected by the growing spirit of anti-Semitism. The German
parties had originally been the party of the capitalists, and comprised a
large number of Jews; this new German party committed itself to violent
attacks upon the Jews, and for this reason alone any real harmony between
the different branches would have been impossible.

[Sidenote: The agreement with Bohemia.]

Notwithstanding the concessions about language the Czechs had, however,
made no advance towards their real object--the recognition of the Bohemian
kingdom. Perhaps the leaders of the party, who were now growing old, would
have been content with the influence they had already attained, but they
were hard pressed at home by the Young Czechs, who were more impatient.
When Count Thun was appointed governor of Bohemia their hopes ran high, for
he was supposed to favour the coronatio