The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

ties in Hungary, by the operation of Beust’s Dual Settlement, thus fortifying and insuring their own predominance over the Slavs remaining in Cisleithania.

The same cannot be said of the Panslavonic Congress held at Moscow in 1867. All Slav nationalities from Austria-Hungary and the Balkans were represented, with the exception of the Poles. The absence of such an important member of the Slav family cast a certain gloom on the proceedings of the Congress. Anyhow, some notable speeches about Slav solidarity were delivered, and measures were proposed for encouraging the independent development of different Slav nations. But a little incident at the end of the Congress slightly marred the good impression created by the proceedings. At the final banquet to the delegates a Russian speaker proposed that a resolution should be passed to the effect that all delegates expressed the wish that the Russian language be accepted as the literary language of all Slav nations, and that henceforward they would all print their books in the Russian language. The Czech delegate, Dr. Rieger, declared that that was a large question, which could not be decided by a resolution, that it necessitated mature thought and a meeting of all the educated classes in different Slav nations. The Bulgarian delegate enthusiastically accepted the proposition, declaring, in the name of Bulgaria, that they would be delighted to accept Russian for their literary language. But

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