"On all these grounds the Austrians declare that they can no longer go on paying the old Quota of 68.6 per cent. The Hungarians admit the great progress made by Hungary, but with some qualifications. In spite of the growth of Budapest, Fiume, and a few other towns, Hungary is still, on the whole, very backward when compared with Austria. The total volume of her manufactures is very small, in spite of the rapid increase of recent years. Hungary is still, to all intents and purposes, an agricultural country, and as such, has suffered largely from the fall in prices." _L. S. Amery, Austro-Hungarian Financial Relations (Economic Journal, September, 1898)._ AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1894-1895. The Hungarian Ecclesiastical Laws. Conflict with the Church. Resignation of Count Kalnoky. In the last month of 1894 royal assent was given to three bills, known as the Ecclesiastical Laws, which marked an extraordinary departure from the old subserviency of the State to the Church. The first was a civil marriage law, which made civil marriage compulsory, leaving religious ceremonies optional with the parties, and which modified the law of divorce; the second annulled a former law by which the sons of mixed marriages were required to follow the father's religion, and the daughters to follow that of the mother; the third established an uniform State registration of births, deaths and marriages, in place of a former registration of different creeds, and legalized marriages between Christians and Jews without change of faith. These very radical measures, after passing the lower house of the Hungarian legislature, were carried with great difficulty through the aristocratic and clerical upper house, and only by a strong pressure of influence from the emperor-king himself. They were exceedingly obnoxious to the Church, and the Papal Nuncio became active in a hostility which the Hungarian premier, Baron Banffy, deemed offensive to the State. He called upon the Imperial Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Kalnoky, to address a complaint on the subject to the Vatican. This led to disagreements between the two ministers which the Emperor strove without success to reconcile, and Count Kalnoky, in the end, was forced to retire from office. The Pope was requested to recall the offending Nuncio, and declined to do so. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896. Race-jealousies and conflicts. The position of Bohemia in the part of the dual Empire called Austria. Anti-Semitic agitation in Vienna. Austrian Ministry of Count Badeni. Enlarged parliamentary franchise.