We now come to one among these German states which have parted off from the kingdom of Germany whose course has been widely different from the rest, and whose modern European importance stands on a widely different level. As the Lotharingian and Frisian lands parted off on the north-west of the kingdom, as a large part of the Swabian lands parted off to the south-west of the kingdom, so the _Eastern Mark_, the mark of _Austria_, parted off no less, but with widely different consequences. ♦Origin of the name _Oesterreich_, _Austria_.♦ The name of _Austria_, _Oesterreich_—_Ostrich_ as our forefathers wrote it—is, naturally enough, a common name for the eastern part of any kingdom. ♦Other lands so called.♦ The Frankish kingdom of the Merwings had its _Austria_; the Italian kingdom of the Lombards had its _Austria_ also. We are half inclined to wonder that the name was never given in our own island either to Essex or to East-Anglia. But, while the other Austrias have passed away, the _Oesterreich_, the _Austria_, the Eastern mark, of the German kingdom, its defence against the Magyar invader, has lived on to our own times. It has not only lived on, but it has become one of the chief European powers. And it has become so by a process to which it would be hard to find a parallel. ♦Special position of the Austrian power.♦ The Austrian duchy supplied Germany with so many Kings, and Rome with so many Emperors, that something of Imperial character came to cleave to the duchy itself. Its Dukes, in resigning, first, the crown of Germany, and then all connexion with Germany, have carried with them into their new position the titles and bearings of the German Cæsars. ♦Union with Hungary.♦ The power which began as a mark against the Magyar came to have a common sovereign with the Magyar kingdom; and the Austrian duchy and Magyar kingdom, each drawing with it a crowd of smaller states of endless nationalities, have figured together in the face of modern Europe as the _Austrian Empire_ or the _Austro-Hungarian Monarchy_. ♦The so-called ‘Empire’ of Austria.♦ It is not easy, in drawing a map, to find a place for the ‘Empire’ of Austria. The Archduchy is there, and its sovereign has not dropped his archiducal title. A crowd of kingdoms, duchies, counties, and lordships, all acknowledging the sovereignty of the same prince, are there also. But it is not easy to find the geographical place of an ‘Empire’ of Austria, as distinct from the Archduchy. Nor is it easy to understand on what principle an ‘Empire’ of Austria can be understood as taking in all the states which happen to own the Hungarian King and Austrian Archduke as their sovereign. The matter is made more difficult when we remember that the title of ‘Hereditary Emperor of Austria’ was first taken while its bearer was still King of Germany and Roman Emperor-elect. ♦Union of separate states under the Austrian House.♦ But, putting questions like these aside, the gradual union of