The third Parliament consists of the so-called Delegations.

These Delegations are two committees of sixty members each, elected by
and from the members of the Hungarian Diet and the Imperial Parliament
respectively, but though I have termed them "committees" they are
committees which within their sphere have an authority independent of
the bodies by whom they are appointed.

The function of the Delegations is to determine the "common affairs" of
the monarchy, that is to say a strictly limited number of matters,
namely, common finance, common military matters, and foreign affairs. On
these three topics, and on these alone, the Hungarian and the Austrian
Delegations are (acting of course with the Emperor) supreme. They
determine the common Budget of the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire; they
determine as far as legislation is required all questions affecting the
Imperial army as a whole; they also determine, as far as their
intervention is required, questions of foreign policy. The function in
short of the Delegations is to deal with matters, and with those matters
only, which affect the Austro-Hungarian State as a united body, and in
its relation to foreigners. Hence three Ministers, the Minister of War,
the Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who act
for the whole monarchy, constitute what is called the Common Ministry,
and are appointed by the Emperor-King, and are responsible neither to
the Hungarian Parliament nor to the Imperial Parliament, but simply to
the Delegations. It is natural for Englishman to conclude that the
Delegations regulate matters, such for example as questions regarding
customs, &c., which must affect every portion of the State, and must, if
the two divisions of it are to be united at all, be regulated on common
principles. But this is not so. The economical relations of the two