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insufficiency of life, the effort to impress by what is vast and elaborate. Man is beginning to retire into himself, to withdraw from contact with the rough facts of here and now,' to find enchantment in what is distant in the outer world or unexplored within himself. How romantic, how disdainful of the finite is Plato's philosopher-king, 'the spectator of all time and of all being'! The fourth century, and still more the third, are full of voices crying in the wilderness, for the attempt to live according to the facts of experience had failed and man was searching for a new way of life. The romantic consciousness with its unceasing quest of the infinite had been born from the perfection and the ruins of Periclean Athens.

We might call the Athenian way of life in the fifth century B.C. the gospel of the finite. The Athenians followed out that gospel with a seriousness and energy of which the splendour of their manifold achievements is the measure. Its failure has proved that the finite is not enough for man to live by. Like Cleopatra he has discovered 'immortal longings' in his consciousness. But the full understanding of that gospel, and of all that is implied in its failure, is perhaps of more importance than the appreciation of Greek literature and art to a world which, after the reaction from the endless dreariness of Roman materialism has spent itself, now stands painfully distracted between the claims of the finite and the infinite. It is hard, at times, in view of the political, social, and religious controversies of the present day to believe that we are in earnest about either the infinite or the finite. Yet it is upon the resolution or synthesis in some higher form of those two elements in our consciousness that the real progress and happiness of the Western races depend.

G. M. SARGEAUNT.

Art. 9.-THE JULY REVOLT IN VIENNA.

THE Outside world was probably much surprised at the terrible happenings which took place last July in Vienna; no one could have dreamed of such an outbreak of wild destructive rage on the part of the 'good-humoured,' amiable and worthy Viennese. The accounts of the startling excesses must for outsiders have seemed like a thunderbolt from a clear sky; for the trial to which events at Schattendorf had given rise, and which furnished the occasion, were probably regarded as quite a local and unimportant Austrian affair. That the sky out of which this dangerous flash came was in reality not so unclouded as appeared from afar; that for some considerable time menacing thunder-clouds had been gathering; and that the political atmosphere in Austria, especially in Vienna, had long been surcharged with poisonous and dangerous gases ready to explode: of all this the outside world for the most part knew and could know nothing, because the Vienna Commune shortly before had arranged a series of festivities, the object of which was to bring before the eyes of the numerous foreign visitors to Vienna the increasing prosperity of the city under the Social Democratic government of the Council, and in particular of the Burgomaster, Herr C. Seitz. With this object in view an exhibition, 'Vienna and the Viennese,' had been arranged to illustrate that progress, contrasting the brilliant Vienna of to-day with all the products of invention and culture, and the modest Vienna of former years in all its backwardness; a manœuvre as bold as it was clumsy, for it was an absurd pretension to place the general progress of our times to the credit of the Social Democrats; but, nevertheless, their object must have been achieved with many of the visitors to the Exhibition, who unquestionably left Vienna with the conviction that under the beneficent guidance of the Social Democratic Commune the city had become a Utopia in which every day is a holiday and where the people pass their existence in the full enjoyment of life, with music and dancing, plentiful food and drink.... Suddenly the glare of the burning Palace of Justice and the howls of the mob destroyed this beautiful illusion, and showed that the Vienna, celebrating the

festival as arranged by the Commune, was only a mirage à la Potemkin; and that behind those flag-bedecked, inviting and magnificent façades, lurked enemies, determined on destruction and blood, who were only waiting for the appointed moment to fall upon the innocent and let loose the forces of licence and destruction.

The daily papers at the time published such detailed reports of the shocking events of July 15 and 16 last, that we may spare ourselves the trouble of describing them here in order the more thoroughly to inquire into the causes and earlier history of those events, which must be difficult for foreigners to understand. Above all things it would be a great mistake for the outside world to believe that the trial at Schattendorf was the cause of the outbreak, as it certainly appeared to be. This trial was the occasion, and not the cause, which lies deeper and dates much further back. In order to realise the position, it must first be borne in mind that in Austria four great military organisations exist side by side. They are the 'Bundesheer' (Army of the Union), which is the official military instrument of the Union Government; the Republikanische Schutzbund' (The Defence of the Republican State); the Frontkämpfer' (Fighters from the Front); and the 'Heimwehr' (Home Defence).

With regard to the Bund Army, it has gradually arisen out of the famous Volkswehr' (People's Army), which was formed after the overthrow and break-up of the old Imperial and Royal Army, and was of a thoroughly Bolshevistic character. Without discipline, a wild and, on account of their arms, a dangerous horde, they were a terror to the civilian population. They committed excesses and crimes of every kind, and mutinies and robberies were of daily occurrence. These scoundrels at that time represented the Austrian Army. Only when the Social Democrats lost the supremacy, which they had seized on the overthrow of the Empire, did these sad conditions in the army begin to improve; slowly indeed, but, nevertheless, surely, the War Minister, Vaugoin, a member of the Christian Socialist party, although no soldier, succeeded in making out of those wild bands a military and disciplined army which, in consequence of the dictates from Saint-Germain, was

totally inadequate in numbers and weapons, and, therefore, useless as an instrument of war, but might be considered as a nucleus or basis for a genuine army. Naturally this change in the character of the army met with the strongest opposition from the Social Democrats, and they made every effort to overthrow the War Minister, but in vain; he remained and continued his work of regeneration. This army now consists of 65 per cent. of organised Social Democrats, and only 35 per cent. of the three citizen parties, which makes their political reliability most uncertain. Vaugoin has, however, performed a great service, in that the Union Army to-day is no longer the willing instrument of the Social Democrats that it was before. The average strength of the Union-Army is modest, and with its approximate 17,000 men, far below the 26,000 men allowed to Austria by the Treaty of Saint Germain.

As the Government was successful in gradually freeing the Bund Army from the domination of the Social Democrats, they felt that their power was endangered, and themselves organised a special army under the pretext that the Republic was threatened, calling it the 'Republikanischen Schutzbund.' In reality, it was nothing else than a Red Prætorian Guard. It was recruited from the Social Democratic working-men, and there was no question of volunteering but of the despotic compulsion, characteristic of all masses of Social Democracy. In this way the Red Party Army increased to a considerable number. Whether or not it really reached 250,000 men, as an article in the Münchener Neuesten Nachrichten,' which evidently was written by some well-informed person, asserted, must remain uncertain. In any case this Red Prætorian Guard, so far as numbers are concerned, leaves nothing to be desired. And so it is with its equipment, for according to the same authority it has over 250,000 rifles and 500 machine guns. At the head of this is Julius Deutsch, who as First Lieutenant of the Reserve to the Ministry of War, in the last years of the War, misused his position of trust by betraying to his party certain military secrets of which he had become cognisant, a fact of which he boasted afterwards in his book on the Revolution. As he was in consequence publicly declared to be a

blackguard, he brought an action against his accusers; but in doing so suffered a double defeat. At the first hearing it was established that the term was justified by his treachery; and at the second hearing he suffered a yet more lamentable defeat, for the judgment ruled that a man who was guilty of acting in this way deserved the name of 'blackguard.' It is this honourable gentleman who is at the head of the Red Prætorian Guard.

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The Heimwehr' (Home Defence) and the Corps of 'Frontkämpfer' (Fighters from the Front) had been established before the Republikanische Schutzbund' (Defence of the Republican State), and during that miserable period, after the downfall of the Empire, when it seemed probable that Austria would be dominated by the Social Democrats, and the already notorious Volkswehr' (People's Army) as the official army of the Republic through their lawlessness had made the country unsafe. The Heimwehr, therefore, as their name indicates, were only called into being for purposes of defence. They were drawn for the most part from the peasant population. In the towns their place was filled by the Frontkämpfer; which corps was by no means made up of mature soldiers, as its name seems to indicate, but chiefly of young men who had not taken part in the War, and who wished to occupy their leisure with military interests, and who, exasperated by the Red Terror, had developed a desire for action.

As to the strength of the Frontkämpfer, we have no certain data, but this much is certain, that their number is only a modest fraction of the strength of the Republikanische Schutzbund. Five thousand of its men are attributed to Vienna alone; but, on the other hand, that number is said to be too high and should be put at only 1500. Whether that be so or not, the strength of the Frontkämpfer is really absurdly small. Much larger is the Heimwehr in the country districts, but we have no particulars of these.

As to the political trend of the Heimwehr and Frontkämpfer, it is in no way monarchical as the Social Democrats have repeatedly asserted. That the Heimwehr, recruited as it is almost exclusively from the peasant population, should contain many faithful followers of the old-established dynasty, is to be expected,

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