1O4 GALICIA
ruling effectively. Throughout the period, the imperial government in Vienna
was so besieged by intractable problems of its own that it could spare but little
attention for the special interests of Galicia.^1
For almost a century after the First Partition, therefore, the Austrian Empire
exhibited most of the negative features of the neighbouring regimes in Russia
and Prussia. The state intervened in every sphere of social and political life. The
labour services of the serfs were fixed by official Robofpatente or 'work
certificates', just as the duties of the clergy were controlled by the Governor's
placetum or 'statement of approval'. The jurisdiction of the nobles was replaced
by that of the mandatariusz or 'state mandatary', who was paid by the
landowner but was answerable to the state authorities. Taxation rose steeply
above former Polish levels, bringing hardship to those least able to support it,
especially to the peasants. The Army played a prominent role in public affairs,
providing a privileged career for the sons of the nobility and demanding com-
pulsory military service from the peasants. The imperial bureaucracy was
numerous, powerful, hierarchical, and notoriously formal. In Galicia, it was
staffed largely by immigrant Germans and Czechs. The police system was well
developed. Surveillance and harassment of unreliable elements was accompa-
nied by close liaison with the police forces of Russia and Prussia. The frontiers,
whose most exposed sections ran across the Galician plain to the north of the
Carpathians, were heavily garrisoned. The Censorship left little to the imagina-
tion. Although in this Catholic Empire, the traditional Marian cult was encour-
aged, the Emperor's Galician subjects were instructed to redirect their prayers
from 'the Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland' to 'the Virgin Mary, Queen of Galicia
and Lodomeria'.
In the latter part of the century, however, Austria lost all but the most resid-
ual pretensions to the style of a great power. There was little of the earnestness
and dynamism of Prussia, and none of the ambition of Russia. In contrast to
Berlin or St. Petersburg, Vienna was decidedly debonair. As Francis-Joseph was
the first to admit, the work of Johanm Strauss was to prove much more lasting
than his own. Beset by the conflicting demands of seventeen recognized nation-
alities, the Imperial government had no major preoccupation but to survive.
After the resounding military defeats in Italy in 1859, and at Koniggratz
(Sadova) in 1866 at the hands of the Prussians, Austria fell rapidly into the
German sphere of influence. By the turn of the century, she had lost almost all
means of independent leverage in international affairs.
In these circumstances, as the outlying province of a declining Empire, Galicia
always presented an easy target for mockery. In the nature of things, it did not
possess the means or the will for resolving its manifold problems. Economically,
it was one of the most backward areas of the Empire. It had few resources to sat-
isfy the needs of a population, whose numbers rose from 4.8 million in 1822 to
7.3 million in 1900, in proportion to their impoverishment. The Imperial Salt
Mines at Wieliczka brought little local benefit beyond the building of one of the
Empire's first railways, the Kaiserferdnandsnordbahn from Vienna to Cracow,