Though scenes in the Austrian Chamber were not quite so violent, perhaps, as they had become near the close of 1897, the state of factious disorder continued much the same throughout the year, and legislation was completely stopped. The work of government could be carried on only by imperial decrees. The ministry of Baron von Gautsch, which had succeeded that of Count Badeni, attempted a compromise on the language question in Bohemia by dividing the country into three districts, according to the distribution of the several races, in one of which German was to be the official tongue, in another Czech, while both languages were to be used in the third. But the Germans of the empire would accept no such compromise. In March, Baron von Gautsch retired, and Count Thun Hohenstein formed a Ministry made up to represent the principal factions in the Reichsrath; but, the scheme brought no peace. Nor did appeals by Count Thun, "in the name of Austria," to the patriotism and the reason of all parties, to suspend their warfare long enough for a little of the necessary work of the state to be done, have any effect. The turbulence in the legislature infected the whole community, and especially, it would seem, the students in the schools, whose disorder caused many lectures to be stopped. In Hungary, too, there was an increase of violence in political agitation. A party, led by the son of Louis Kossuth, struggled to improve what seemed to be an opportunity for breaking the political union of Hungary with Austria, and realizing the old ambition for an independent Hungarian state. {42} The ministry of Baron Banffy had this party against him, as well as that of the clericals, who resented the civil marriage laws, and legislation came to a deadlock nearly as complete in the Hungarian as in the Austrian Parliament. There, as well as in Austria, the extension of the Ausgleich, provisionally for another year, had to be imposed by imperial decree. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (April). Withdrawal from the blockade of Crete and the "Concert of Europe." See (in this volume) TURKEY: A. D. 1897-1899. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (June). The Sugar Conference at Brussels. See (in this volume) SUGAR BOUNTIES. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1898 (September). Assassination of the Empress. Jubilee of the Emperor's reign.