From the parliamentary elections held in January the Clerical and Anti-Semitic parties came back to the Reichsrath shorn of about one-third of their strength, while the various radical factions, especially those among the Germans, appear to have made considerable gains. Even in the Tyrol, one of the strongest of the Clerical leaders, Baron Di Pauli, was defeated, and in Vienna the Anti-Semitic majority was cut to less than one-fourth of what it had been three years before. "The Pan-Germanic group," writes "The Times" correspondent from Vienna, "which only numbered five in the last Parliament, now musters 21. It will be remembered that it openly advocates incorporation with the German Empire, and as a preparatory measure the wholesale conversion of the German population of Austria to Protestantism. It has hitherto been to a certain extent boycotted by the other German parties, being excluded from their so-called union for mutual defence and joint action." "But the programme which had thus been boycotted by the bulk of the German members has been the most successful of all in the recent general election. The position of its leading representative, Herr Schönerer, has been so strengthened that he has been able to impose upon the whole group the title of Pan-Germanic Union, and to enforce the acceptance of the principle of 'emancipation from Rome.' The latter demand caused a certain hesitation on the part of some of his new followers, who, however, ultimately decided to adopt it, although not to the full extent of renouncing the Roman Catholic faith, as Herr Schönerer and his principal lieutenant, Herr Wolf, themselves had done. At a conference of the party its programme was declared to be the promotion of such a federal connexion of the German provinces of Austria with the German Empire as would furnish a permanent guarantee for the maintenance of the German nationality in this country. The party would oppose every Government that resisted the realization of that object, and it could not participate in any manifestations of loyalty while such a Government policy was maintained. At the same time, the party regarded it as their obvious duty to emancipate themselves from Rome in a political but not religious sense—that is to say, to free themselves from the influence of the Roman Curia in affairs of State. {46}