to the existing
members. This matter having been [v.03 p.0035] settled, parliament was
dissolved. The result of the elections of 1897 was the return of a House so
constituted as to make any strong government impossible. On both sides the
anti-Semitic parties representing the extreme demagogic elements were
present in considerable numbers. The United German Left had almost
disappeared; it was represented only by a few members chosen by the great
proprietors; in its place there were the three parties--the German Popular
party, the German Nationalists, and the German Radicals--who all put
questions of nationality first and had deserted the old standpoint of the
constitution. Then there were the fourteen Social Democrats who had won
their seats under the new franchise. The old party of the Right was,
however, also broken up; side by side with forty-one Clericals there were
twenty-eight Christian Socialists led by Dr Lueger, a man of great
oratorical power, who had won a predominant influence in Vienna, so long
the centre of Liberalism, and had quite eclipsed the more modest efforts of
Prince Liechtenstein. As among the German National party, there were strong
nationalist elements in his programme, but they were chiefly directed
against Jews and Hungarians; Lueger had already distinguished himself by
his violent attacks on Hungary, which had caused some embarrassment to the
government at a time when the negotiations for the _Ausgleich_ were in
progress. Like anti-Semites elsewhere, the Christian Socialists were
reckless and irresponsible, appealing directly to the passions and
prejudices of the most ignorant. There were altogether 200 German members
of the Reichsrath, but they were divided into eight parties, and nowhere
did there seem to be the elements on which a government could be built up.

The parliamentary situation is best explained by the following table
showing the parties:--

_German Liberals_-- 1897. 1901.
Constitutional Landed Proprietors 28 28
German Radicals 49 41
German Popular Party 42 51
Schoenerer Group 5 21
Kronawetter 1 ..
Democrat 1 ..
-- 126 -- 141
_Social Democrats_ 14 10

_German Conservatives_--
German Clericals