countries, and in Hungary, from 18 to 223; in Transylvania, from 11 to 14. The income tax is raised from six to seven per cent. The present extraordinary impost (war contribution) on building classes and business profits is doubled. The taxes on the following articles of consumption will also be increased. The tax at present is as follows: Wine, per eimer, Austrian ... Cattle to be killed: first class.. second class.. third class. Calves, not over one year: first class.. Sheep, rams, goats: first class... Florins. Kreutzers. 261 second class... third class... Hogs, over thirty-five pounds: first class... Pigs, under thirty-five pounds: first class second class. third class.. Fresh meat, per centner: first class .. second class third class.. In the first class belong all cities of over 20,000 inhabitants. To all the above taxes M. Von Plener proposes to add an increase of 20 per cent. The Austrian budget has, since its publication, been the leading topic in the press and the reichsrash. M. Von Plener divides the expenditures into two classes-ordinary and extraordinary. In the first of these he places the civil service budgets, estimated at 99,755,000 florins; the army and navy, 108,476,000 florins; public debt, (per cent. to be paid on,) 124,537,000 florins; subventions and loss on exchange, 21,818,000 florins, forming a total ordinary expenditure of 354,586,000 florins; to this he adds an extraordinary estimate of 45,000,000 for the army, and 7,200,000 florins for the navy, which sums, with the preceding ones, form a general total of 406,786,000 florins. The estimated revenue to set against this is 296,599,800 florins, leaving an awful deficit of 110,186,200 florins, or, at the present rate of exchange, close upon 8,000,000 pounds sterling, required for expenditure in addition to a revenue of 21,500,000 pounds sterling. The establishment of an equilibrium is the great problem that has to be solved; and this has to be done, if possible, not only for the present but for future years. But how this can be done I do not see. Austria is compelled to keep an immense standing army on war footing, and must increase the navy for the protection of her coasts. As long as Austria cannot reduce her army, a prospect for the better is out of the question. Since 1815, up to this day, Austria has had a regular annual deficit, resulting in a monstrous total of one thousand millions of florins. The commerce of Austria has been very favorable during 1861. The imports in 1861 amounted to... The imports in 1860 amounted to.. The exports in 1860 amounted to.. The total of duties received on goods is as follows: In 1861, 13,201,462 florins; in 1860, 13,360,761 florins-a decrease of 159,299 florins. The tobacco monopoly of the government has added to the revenue in 1861 thirty-four millions of florins. If the American trade had not been cut short in consequence of our war, the figures would be still more favorable for Austria. Exchange has varied during this quarter from 35 to 39. MAY 15, 1862. I have the honor to inform you that a great discovery has been made here by the imperial aulic counsellor, Mr. Von Aner, which I deem of such importance that I hasten to inform your department of it without delay. The invention consists in making, out of Indian corn shucks and the upper part of the cornstocks, beautiful printing and writing paper, equal to the finest manufactured out of linen or cotton rags, and also fibres to be spun and woven like flax and hemp, equal in durability and strength to the flax or hemp thread. Mr. Von Aner had the kindness to show me the process and results of this great discovery, which is indeed wonderful, aye, even incredible. * JUNE 30, 1862. * Business has not much improved during this time, compared with the preceding quarter. The merchants are anxiously awaiting for the termination of the war to resume the former activity in the transatlantic business. The total export from here during this quarter amounts to 396,354 florins, or 228,054 more than during the preceding quarter. Exchange has varied during the last three months from 39 to 26 per cent. * SEPTEMBER 30, 1862. I have the honor to enclose my yearly report and my accounts and vouchers for the quarter ended September 30th instant. The exports of goods from here to the United States during this year, (from September 30, 1861 to September 30, 1862,) is as follows: During this period of time 518 certificates of invoices have been issued in this consulate. Exchange has varied here during the last three months from 25 to 30 per cent. Yearly report of Theodore Canisius, United States consul at Vienna, Austria, September 30, 1862. The total export of goods from here to the United States during this year (from September 30, 1861, to September 30, 1862) amounted The geographical position of Austria in the heart of Europe, and the great diversity of products of the many provinces, enables this country to carry on a very lively commercial intercourse with the world. Great attention has been paid to the facilitating of transmission of goods by means of highways, by preserving rivers navigable, and by a system of railroads extending over the whole empire. The railroads are, like in the United States, private enterprises, having a certain rate of interest warranted. The construction of a railroad depends upon a special concession, usually given for a term of 90 years, at the expiration of which the property of the railway, grounds, and buildings, fall into the possession of the state without any compensation. The state revises the railroad tariff every three years, and if the clear profits exceed 15 per cent. the rate of transport is lowered. Patents for steam navigation are no longer granted. The Austrian sea navigation is divided into a short and a long line of coasting navigation, (cabotage,) and into an open sea navigation. The short line of cabotage extends to the whole Asiatic Gulf. The long line of cabotage extends to the promontory of Otranto, and on the eastern side of the Ionian islands, and the port and canal of Zante. Any further course is reckoned open sea navigation. These courses require a special permission, called a passport for shipping. Ship-owners or freighters who want to obtain such a permission, or passport, as it is called, as well as masters or captains, must be Austrian subjects. The vessel must have been built or rebuilt in Austrian docks or yards, or, if built in a foreign country, it must be proved, by deeds and vouchers, to be lawful and exclusive property of an Austrian subject; in all cases, however, at least twothirds of the crew must be of Austrian nationality. In all the seaports of Austria (114) there have, in 1860 INLAND TRADE. The home trade of the Austrian monarchy is, in general, subject to no restriction or surveillance; therefore no numerical estimate of its extent can be given. The most important trading staples for the inland commerce of Austria, in the alternate succession of her provinces, are: Vienna, Linz, Gratz, Botzen, Prague, Reichenberg, Pilsen, Brünn, Olmutz, Rielitz, Lemberg, Mantua, Verona, Padua, Pest, Olenberg, Pressburg, Kasohav, Debregin, Agram, and Hermannstadt. The communication between the Austrian ports is, in general, restricted to the Austrian flag, and annually averages 66,000 arrivals and departures of vessels of 32 tons each, mean estimate. The most important ports are: Trieste, Venice, Fiume, Grado, Capo d'Istria, Brovigno, Pirano, Pola, Zengg, Porto, Ré, Zara, Spalato, Ragusa, and Cattaro. EXTENT OF THE EMPIRE The empire of Austria embraces an area of 11,252.9 Austrian square miles, distributed as follows: Littovale, (principality of Goritz and Gradisca, margravite of Istria, and city of Trieste)... 138.8 Principality of Tyrol and Voralberg. 509.0 The Austrian monarchy is the most mountainous state of Europe, Switzerland excepted, full three-quarters of its area comprising mountain regions. The extensive Alpine system, Tyrol, Carinthia, and northern Carniola is in the south, steeply sloping towards the Venetian plain, advancing southeastward, terracelike, into the Karst land and the Istrian-Liburnian, Dalmatian coast-borders which continue the former, crossing to the northeast, without any such gradation, into the mountain region of southern Austria proper and western Hungary, and reaching its northern termination in the Danubian basin, which is in the archduchy divided into the Upper Danubian basin and the Vienna basin. On the other side of the Danube the Bohemian-Moravian-Silesian high land expands itself, encompassed by border mountains, and is within interlinked in an undulating form. From the mark eastward, the Carpathian mountains commence, and stretch thence in a semicircular course between Hungary and Galicia, on both sides of which the high Carpathians are connected with a mountain region, passing northward over the Galician gradient levels into the Polish-Russian plain, southward down to the Danube and Theiss, belonging to Hungary, and in the southeast hanging together with the mountain chain of the Transylvanian high land. The Alps, the Carpathians, and the Transylvanian high land enclose the extensive Hungarian low land. The Galician gradient levels occupy an area of one thousand, the Hungarian low land an area of two thousand square miles; the Venetian plain is confined to a little more than one hundred square miles. RIVERS. The system of the soil is also fairly balanced by the range of the Austrian river system. Tributary to the Adriatic sea are 1,215 square miles, to the North sea, 1,050 square miles, to the Baltic, 825 square miles of river area; the remainder is tributary to the Black sea, principally through the Danube system, the area of which comprises 7,600 square miles within the empire. SEA. The Adriatic sea washes 250 miles of Austrian coast, and above 300 miles of islands belonging to Austria. The eastern coast is mostly high and rocky, offering, however, natural roadsteads to vessels by means of numerous creeks, inlets and channels. The western coast, on the other hand, is flat; the lagoons before the Baechiglione and the Brenta being separated from the open sea by small dikes. A strong northerly current passes along the Dalmatian coast; another, taking a southern direction, passes along the Venetian. GEOGNOSTIC DIVISION. With respect to geognostic relations, Austria is divided into four systems: a. The system of plains; b. The system of Alps; c. The system of Carpathians; d. The Bohemian-Moravian-Silesian system. System of plains. With the exception of those horizontal deposits of diluvial and alluvial formations, which usually accompany rivers both in the plain and in other ranges, and of which galt clay and silt prevail in the plain, the hilly parts consist almost only of neognite tertiary strata of clunch, sand, sandstone, silt, conglomerate, and Lietha lime. Alpine system. The central chain of the Alps is composed of links of the crystalline slate mountains, particularly of gneiss, mica-slate, clay-slate, granular limestone, with here and there some serpentine. In the north and south of this central chain, the "Lime Alps" appear as sedimentary formations. Between the Lime Alps, cretaceous formations, where slate and sandstone prevail. Eocene and neogenite tertiary formations fill up more or less extended basins, the former consisting mostly of numalitic lime and sandstone. Of blockstone there occur insulated groups of granite, porphyry, and basalt. Carpathian system. Geognostically this system is subdivided into the northern (Galician) and southern (Transylvanian) range. The geognostical components of the northern Carpathian range are in general similar to those of the Alpine range, with the |