After a vivid period of »čitalnice« (reading-rooms) and »tabori« (camps), betvveen 1860—1872, after disputes betvveen the Young and the Old Slovenes (1872—1875), and after the period of passive unification (1876—1879), the Gorica region faced the activity of the »government opportunist« Dr. Josip Tonkli along vvith the permanent and latent opposition, vvhich takes an independent stand on the eye of the first decade of Taaffe's rule. In the eighties the follovving personalities ereated the politics: Dr. Tonkli in the Gorica region, in the Primorska (Littoral — Coastal) region the emperor's representative baron de Pretis, and in the state count Taaffe. The Slovene politics in the Gorica region is characterized by moderation in actions, the representation of Trieste make impossible a more firm political link of the Coastal Slovenes (from Gorica, Trieste, Istria). At the Taaffe's fall the Slovenes in the Gorica region are again divided, and during this period tlie national antagonisms in the country become even deeper.