I. PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN AUSTRIA.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS AND STATISTICS.

THE Austrian Empire, as now constituted, embraces under one sovereign and one central government eighteen distinct provinces, besides a peculiarly organized Military Frontier. The total area is 248,551 square miles, with a population in 1857 of 35,018,988, including an active army of 579,989 men, distributed as shown by the following table:

Area, Population, and Religion of the different Provinces of the Austrian Empire in 1857.*

The first eleven of these provinces belong to the German Confederacy, ranking first and having four out of seventy votes in the General Assembly. Previous to 1860 supreme control over all the provinces but Hungary, Croatia and Transylvania, which have always been to some extent independent, was vested in the Emperor. In that year, however, to remove the deep-seated dissatisfaction that had existed from long before the insurrection of 1848, the Emperor Francis Joseph I. granted a con

* Lombardy, which was until 1849 attached to Venice, contains 8,313 square miles and a population of 3,039,055. The population of the Frontier is divided nearly equally between the Greek and Roman Catholic religions, with a small proportion of other sects.

stitution to the non-Hungarian provinces, by which, with the later concessions of 1861 and 1862, the Imperial Parliament, composed of a House of Lords and a House of Representatives, (the latter appointed by the direct votes of the several provincial Diets from their own members,) has the regulation of all subjects of legislation except those reserved especially to the Diets. The Hungarian States (Hungary, Croatia, and Transylvania) had at the same time their ancient constitutions re-affirmed to them. The Hungarian portion of the empire is so far distinct and in many respects peculiar that in the following Article its school system will receive separate consideration.

Three-fourths of the whole empire are mountainous or hilly, the chief exceptions being the elevated plateaus which form the provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, and the extensive plains and wastes that occupy nearly a third of Hungary. Its mineral wealth is unequaled in Europe, and mining has for centuries been a favorite pursuit. Its forests are more valuable and, except Russia, more extensive than those of any European country; the vegetable productions are extremely various, though agriculture generally is not far advanced; and in the production of wine Austria stands second only to France, producing annually about 680 millions of gallons, of which little is exported. Austria is also remarkable for the number of its distilleries and breweries.

The population is very unequally distributed, owing to the physical characteristics of the provinces, and also differs widely in its descent, language, customs, laws and religion. The Germans, numbering 7,889,925, form the entire population of Upper and Lower Austria, Salzburg, and Northern Tyrol, and are found throughout the empire, but prevail most in Carinthia, Styria and Silesia (50-70 per cent.) and to a less extent (25-35 per cent.) in Bohemia and Moravia. The Slavonic race is, however, by far the most numerous, numbering 15,027,646, but divided into a number of tribes, so differing in language, religion, culture, and manners, that their preponderance in the empire is lost. The chief branches are the Northern Czechs, (6,132,742,) forming the bulk of the population of Moravia and Bohemia and two-fifths of that of Silesia; the Ruthenes, or Red Russians, (2,752,482,) forming over two-fifths of the population of Galicia and Bukowina; the Poles (2,159,648) in Silesia and Galicia; the southern Slovenes (1,183,533) in Carniola especially, but largely also in the Littorale, Styria, and Carinthia; the Croats (1,337,010) in the Littorale; the Servians (1,438,201,) the largely predominant race in Dalmatia; and the Bulgarians (24,030.) The Romanic races, numbering 5,632,089, include in the west, the Italians (2,557,913) occupying the kingdom of Venice and southern Tyrol, and to some extent the Littorale and Dalmatia; the Ladins (14,498) in some valleys of the Tyrol; and the Friouls (416,725) about Gortz; and the eastern Wallachians (2,642,953,) who are found in Transylvania, Hungary, Bukowina, and the Frontier. The Magyars, or Hungarians, are located chiefly in Hungary and Transylvania. The remainder are Jews, (1,049,871,) most numerous in Galicia and

Bukowina; Gipsies, (146,100); Armenians, (16,131); Albanians, (3,175); and Greeks and Bohemians, (2,255.)

The number of languages or dialects exceeds twenty, but the German is the official language, and it is a significant fact that at a Panslavic congress held at Prague in 1848, the delegates of the different Slavic nationalities were unable to understand the different dialects of their own tongue and were forced to make the German the medium of communication. The Germans are the ruling race, not merely on account of the nationality of the ruling dynasty, but because German intelligence, culture, and industry prevail in all the different provinces, the Italian excepted. This diversity of nationality and language is one of the governing elements in the politics of the empire, and the consequent want of sympathy among the several nationalities and the general jealousy of the Slavonic and other races against the German, their hostility to any supposed attempt at "Germanization," and the effort to rid themselves of an oppressive feeling of inferiority to the Germans, have not merely complicated and embarrassed the school system of the empire, but have been the greatest and, indeed, the insurmountable difficulty in the way of a successful political reorganization.

Great differences exist in the state of civilization also of the masses of the people of the different provinces. The highest advancement is found in the Italian provinces, where agriculture is carried to the highest perfection, and among the inhabitants of the German provinces. In a lower grade are the Bohemians, Silesians, and Moravians, who occupy almost exclusively the manufacturing provinces. The Slavonians of the south may be ranked with the Poles and Moravian inhabitants of Hungary, and above the rude and almost nomadic Magyars, while the Dalmatians may be considered as standing on the lowest footing of civilization in Europe. South of the Danube the severity of the feudal system has long been nearly extinct, but much feudal power has remained until very recently in Bohemia and Moravia, still more in Galicia, and most of all in the Hungarian provinces. Though equality of right exists in all subjects of the empire to hold property, without distinction of class or religion, yet a great portion of the land is rendered inalienable by entails, and landed properties are still possessed in large masses. Late patents have abolished serfdom entirely throughout the empire. The peasants live little on the country lands but are gathered into villages. In 1840 there were within the limits of the empire 72,135 villages, 2,545 market towns, and 782 cities. Each province is divided into a large number of 'circles' (Kreise,) each containing 100-150 square miles, and having its proper officers and government, subordinate to that of the province. The lowest form of civil organization is the 'community' (Gemeinde,) coordinate with which is the 'parish' (Pfarrei) as an ecclesiastical organization, existing wherever there is a church and settled minister. For school purposes there also exists in later times the 'district' ( Bezirk,) coincident generally with the ecclesiastical 'deanery' (Decanat) in the

Catholic, or superintendency (Superintendential-bezirk) in the Protestant church of Austria.

As to religion, the great bulk of the nation (23,968,686) is Roman Catholic; of United Greeks (holding the communion of Rome and acknowledging the supremacy of the Pope, but employing the Greek language in their services) there are about 3,609,244; of the Greek Church proper, 2,835,834; Protestants, of all denominations, 3,182,616; Jews, 1,049,871. At the accession of Joseph II. there were 2,024 Catholic convents, which in 1816 had been reduced to 800. Since then they have again increased. In 1842 there were 766 monasteries with 10,354 monks, and 157 nunneries containing 3,661 nuns. By the Concordat of September, 1855, the Catholic Church in Austria has become a power entirely independent of the temporal government. The placitum regium was abolished, thus rendering all decrees of the Pope valid and binding for the catholics of Austria without previous sanction of the government. The bishops are empowered to prohibit all books which they may deem pernicious, and have immediate control over the Catholic schools so far as relates to religious instruction; they may punish clergy and laymen for any violation of the regulations of the Church, and may establish any number of new monasteries; in short, all the limitations of the Papal power established by Joseph II. have been removed, and Austria has become emphatically the leading Catholic power in Europe.

There were in 1853, 249 newspapers and other periodical prints, of which only 77 were political. Fully half were in German, but all are fettered by conditions which render them quite worthless as organs of public opinion. Literary censorship is strictly enforced.

I. ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN NON-HUNGARIAN AUSTRIA.

1. History.

The history of education in Austria prior to the Reformation corresponds fully with its history in other states of Central Europe as given in previous Articles. Here, after the close of the struggle against the Reformers, the schools for higher instruction remained in the hands of the Jesuits, while primary instruction, confined principally to religious teaching and the catechism, was in the special charge of the Brotherhood of Christian Instruction. Not until the establishment of the order of Piarists in 1621, who in addition to the three usual monastic vows devoted themselves also to gratuitous instruction and soon became very numerous, were special schools endowed for the exclusive instruction of poor children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, as well as, the catechism. Besides these schools and the similar ones belonging to the female orders, there were also some parochial schools founded by the lords of the estates or by the communities, but until the year 1770 the government even of the Empress Maria Theresa, who was the first to take an active interest in the personal welfare of her subjects, had gone no farther than to enforce the church regulations respecting religious instruction, to per

mit the teaching of the poor in other than the schools of the religious orders, and to adjust certain disagreements between the priests, the manorial lords, and the communities, respecting the engagement and dismissal of teachers. During the first thirty years after the Empress' accession to the throne in 1740, the condition of elementary instruction continued at the lowest. At Vienna, indeed, nearly one-fourth of the children between five and fifteen years of age were attending school, though teachers and text-books were often of the poorest description, and in the country generally but few of the children received any instruction whatever. Through the influence of Archbishop Sigismund (1753-1771) the condition of Upper Austria and Salzburg was somewhat improved, and in the Tyrol an attempt was made in 1747 to abolish the hedge schools and introduce a better system of schools and teaching. In Bohemia and Moravia, the suppression of the Protestant schools and continued persecution left but a miserable remnant, while in Silesia the Protestant schools were far in advance of those of the Catholics. In Galicia and Bukowina, not at that time attached to Austria, popular instruction was unknown.

Some attempts for the improvement and systematizing of elementary schools had, however, been made. Felbiger's method of instruction had been introduced into the orphan schools of Vienna, Gratz, and Klagenfurt, and in 1752 Rabstein's system was favorably received by the Empress, but its trial was prevented by the Seven Years War. In 1766 a "plan for the thorough reform of trivial* schools" was under discussion, modeled after that of Silesia, (then belonging to Prussia,) and was partially introduced by way of trial in the Tyrol, together with Felbiger's method. But the first effective impulse was given by a memorial of Count Firmian, Bishop of Passau, probably drawn up at the suggestion of the Empress herself, who, after the close of the Seven Years War, had devoted herself with new energy to the domestic improvement of her territories, and had already decreed, against an attempt of the clergy of Carinthia to possess themselves of the entire control of school appointments, that the management of the schools was and should remain a State matter, (politicum.) As a result of the memorial, it was decided in 1770 to create two "Boards of Education," for Upper and Lower Austria, which initiated a reform by establishing a normal school at Vienna. This school, under the management of Joseph Messmer, who was previously tutor of the Empress' children and at whose suggestion the Boards had been formed, contributed much to awaken a general interest throughout all the German and Slavonian provinces. A normal school fund was formed, a school-book publishing house was established, and the improved methods of teaching were introduced by teachers from the normal school, especially into the orphan and Piarist schools. Like measures were to some extent effected in other provinces. Kindermann opened a model school in Bohemia which

For an explanation of the designations of the different grades of schools, see page 24