The length of telegraph lines in the empire in 1876 was about 28,000 English miles. The number of messages carried in 1875 was 5,458,920. In 1876 there were in Austria proper 4366 post-offices, and in Hungary 1930. The number of letters and packets pass ing through the post in A. in 1875 was 244,331, and in Hungary in 1874, 68,673.
received a great impulse from the introduction of steam. By means of the Danube steam company, formed in 1850, and a second company (1852) confined to passengers and goods are now conveyed on the Danube between film and Galatz. and on to Constantinople. The Austrian Danube steam com pany has a fleet of steamers plying on the Danube, the annual receipts from conveyance of goods being more than 7 million florins. This traffic would be vastly greater were the lower Danube freed from the influence of Russia.
A Brent number of the political impediments to commerce have been removed or diminished. The customs-boundary that separated Hungary and the adjoining provinces from the rest of the empire, was done away in 1851, so that the whole is included in one customs district, with the exception of Dalmatia, which still forms a small district by itself; the free ports of Triest, Fiume, one or two other minor free ports and districts. By the new tariff, which came into partial operation in 1852, A. has passed from a pro hibitive to a protective sy-stem. No article is admitted duty-free; but absolute prohibi tion is confined to articles of state monopoly (salt. powder, and tobacco). Goods for mere transit or trans-shipment pay no duty. But the foreign commerce of A. is nothing compared with that between the different provinces. The great center of this internal commerce is Vienna: other important markets arc Linz, Prague, Lemberg, Brody, Pesth, Gratz. The imports and exports of merchandise and bullion for the whole of the efnpire except the province of Dalmatia, which, as has been mentioned, is not within the impe rial line of customs, were tabulated as follows for 1875 and 1876: For Dalmatia, the imports were in 1875, 13,400,000 florins, and in 1876, 12,900,000; the exports in 1875 were 10.400,000, and in 1876. 7,800,000. The principal articles of import into the Austrian empire are raw cotton and other materials for spinning, the value of this item reaching in 1876 the sum of 95,600,000 florins. Next iu importance come manufactured cloths, valued at 61140,000 in 1876; tobacco, and miscellaneous colonial produce. Some of the imports are partially re-exported; of native produce exported the most important are articles in metal, valued at 67,200,000 florins; cereals, 54,600,000; wood, 30,600,000; and pottery, 29,200,000.
The chief harbors of A. are those of Istria—Triest, Rovigno, Pirano, Citta Nuova, etc.; of Croatia—Fiume, Buccari, Novi; of Dalmatia—Zara, Spalatro, Ragusa, Cattaro, Curzola, etc.
As to form of government, A. is a monarchy hereditary in the house of Hapsburg Lothringen. In the case of the reigning fatnily dying out , the states of Bohemia and of Hungary have the right of choosing a new king; hut for the other crown-lands, the last sovereign appoints his own successor. The reigning, house must profess the Roman Catholic faith.
Till 1848, Hungary and Transylvania had a constitution limiting the monarchy, which was absolute for the rest of the empire; though the several provinces had each its con sultative council composed of clergy, nobles, and burghers. After the revolution of 1848, and the subsequent reaction, all 'narks of independence of the separate prov inces disappeared. The imperial constitution granted (oetrogirte) _March 4, 1849, as well as the provincial constitutions that followed, were abolished, and government was organized in the most absolute form by the imperial " patent" or charter of Dec. 31, 1851. The patent guaranteed to every religious body recognized by law protection in the observance of public ordinances, in the management of its own affairs, and in the possession of buildings and funds for the purpose of worship and instruction. The relation of the Roman Catholic church to the state was put upon a new footing. It was no longer under the oversight of the secular authority, the plaeetuni regium and church patronage were abolished, ecclesiastical jurisdiction for discipline, and the independent administration of church property, were conceded. and the intercourse of bishops and of all Catholics with Rome left free. The clergy had no longer to submit to examination or tests on the part of the state; they were nominated by the state, but only with the concurrence of the bishops, and without that concurrence they could not be deprived of their office. Along with all this, they obtained an overwhelming influence over education, even in the universities; and by the concordat signed in the early part of 1856, this influence was very greatly increased. The patent further guaranteed the equality in the eye of the law of all citizens irrespective of nation, rank, or religion, and the liberation of the land from all serfdom. Subsequent patents (e.g. for Hungary, Croatia, ete., in 1853) regulated the claims between existing proprietors and their vassals, and determined the indemnities due to the former for their seiguorial rights.