The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls | Page 2

massed in the city of Prague. It is evident that the Government considers the situation grave, as the men have been sent out armed as for war, and furnished with the various necessaries as for a regular campaign.
When martial law is proclaimed in a district, it means that all persons within a certain limit are to be subject to the rules and regulations in use in times of war.
These rules are very strict. Persons who resist are arrested, tried, and severely punished. Sometimes if they cannot give a good account of themselves they are hanged as spies.
The law that has been proclaimed in Prague is known as the Standrecht, and is not exactly martial law. Instead of the military officers sitting in judgment on suspected persons, the civil judges of the law courts are given military powers. They try and sentence people with military haste, and their sentences are put into effect within a few hours after they have been passed.
There is no appeal from the judgments of the Standrecht; and so quickly are they carried out, that if a person is ordered to be hanged, and the regular executioner is busy, the judge can call on the soldiers to carry out the sentence.
No sooner were these severe measures enforced in Prague, than the wrath of the people began to calm down.
Four men were handed over to the mercy of the judges; each received a sentence of twenty years' imprisonment, and was immediately taken away without time for farewells.
The hand of the law is very heavy in Prague at this moment, and for this reason her citizens are gradually returning to their senses.
Throughout the length and breadth of this great city the people are forced to live by military rules. Among other orders, the commanding officer insists that the house doors must be closed at seven every evening. Shops have to be closed at five, cafés must have their lights out and doors closed at nine, and every person in the city has to give an account of himself whenever it is required.
Under these laws the people of Prague will continue to live until peace is restored. The condition of the city is very pitiable. The schools are closed, the hotels are empty, and the tradespeople declare that bankruptcy lies before them.
Amazing stories are told of the dreadful things done by the rioters in their hatred of everything German. It is said that the Children's Hospital was attacked, and pelted with stones until all the windows were broken. The poor little invalids were for hours subjected to the freezing cold, and all because the doctors and nurses were Austrian Germans. In another part of the city an ambulance with a sick man in it was attacked by the mob, because the doctor riding with the patient was known to be a German.
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While these horrors have been going forward in Prague, matters have not improved much in Vienna.
The two parties are more furious against each other than ever. It is asserted that if the Reichsrath reassembles with the same president, the previous disgraceful riots will be repeated.
It is said, however, that there is a chance of an understanding on the language question, but it is thought that it will be impossible to pass the Austro-Hungarian Compromise Bill in the Reichsrath.
This bill is the contract which holds Austria and Hungary together as one country, and which, as we have told you, expires on December 31st of this year.
If it is not renewed, Austria and Hungary must be separated.
As it has been impossible for the two nations to agree as to the terms of the new contract, it has, as we have told you, been suggested to make a temporary one for one year, which will bind the kingdoms while the permanent contract is being prepared.
It is this one-year agreement which it is supposed cannot be passed by the Reichsrath.
If it becomes evident that the Reichsrath will not pass this necessary bill, it is thought that the Emperor will finally take advantage of his right under the constitution, and, dissolving the Reichsrath, act on his own authority, and accept a one-year's agreement with Hungary.
If Francis Joseph is forced to take such a step it is likely that he may not call a new parliament for some time, but govern the country himself.
In the mean while, Baron Banffy, the Hungarian Prime Minister, has offered a bill in the Hungarian Reichstag (parliament) on this vexed question.
The Austrian parliament is called the "Reichsrath," the Hungarian the "Reichstag."
This bill provides that the contract between Hungary and Austria shall remain in force for another year, till December, 1898, and that if new arrangements have not been made by that time the compact shall be finally broken.
If nothing satisfactory has been proposed by May, 1898,