"The best organised of the national parties is the Polish Club (59 seats). It represents the national and social interests of the Polish nobility and landed gentry. … Standing outside of Austrian interests, they exercise a controlling voice in Austrian affairs. The three-score well-drilled Polish votes have helped the Government again and again to ride roughshod over constitutional opposition. The partition of Poland has thus avenged itself on one at least of its spoilers. The Germans have long resented this outside interference which permanently keeps them in a minority. … The Czechs are a party of 60, and together with the 19 representatives of the Czech landed aristocracy, form the largest group in the Reichsrath. The Young Czech party began in the seventies as a reaction against the Old Czech policy of passive resistance. In contra-distinction to the Old Czechs, they also professed radical and anti-clerical views in politics generally. … In 1897 the Old Czechs finally withdrew from the contest or were merged in the victorious party. … Of the other nationalist parties the most important is the Slav National Christian Union (35 seats), comprising the Slovenes, Croatians, and some of the more moderate Ruthenians from Galicia. Their programme is mainly national, though tinged with clericalism; equality of the Slav languages with German and Italian in mixed districts; and ultimately a union of the southern Slavs in an autonomous national province. The Italians are divided into 5 Clerical Italians from the Tirol and 14 Liberals from Trieste, Istria, &c. The Tirolese Italians desire a division of the Tirol into a German and an Italian part. … "The most interesting, and in some ways the most respectable, of all Austrian parties is the Socialist or Social Democratic party (15 seats). It is the only one that fights for a living political theory—German liberalism being to all intents and purposes defunct—and not for mere national aggression. The Social Democrats hold the whole national agitation to be an hysterical dispute got up by professors, advocates, and other ne'er-do-weels of the unemployed upper classes. … Their support is derived from the working classes in the industrial districts, and not least from the poorer Jews, who supply socialism with many of its keenest apostles. … "Altogether a most hopeless jumble of incoherent atoms is this Austrian Reichsrath. The chariots driving four-ways on the roof of the Houses of Parliament are a true symbol of the nature of Austrian politics. To add to the confusion, all the parties are headless. Able men and men of culture, there are a good many in the House; but political leaders there are none. The general tone of the House is undignified, and has been so for some time. … {39}