The Express.
London, England, 1862-06-14 00:00:00

HIGH WATU AT LONDON DAIDGIL

Tins D4llifOrmlig,lllllo7n--AfieWojnt 3h. MM.
TO-11033,0W—Motmlim 411. ... Afternoon, tlx. 3em.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 14.

Ir is impossible, without being ungenerous,
not to feel the strongest sympathy in the endea-
vours of those members of the Austrian Reichs-
rath who are striving day by day to prove the
reality and worth of those representative institu-
tions with which the Marasco'', for whatever
reason, has endowed the monarchy. They labour
under great difficulties. They do not form a valid
representation of the Empire, and they are well
aware of the defectiveness of their title. They
know that they derive such power as they have,
and, in an important sense, their very being,from
that discontent which holding back the representa-
tives of Hungary and Venice condemns them to
moral and constitutional incompetency. They are
aware that their assistance has only been invited
by the Crown because the old supports of the
Imperial throne had utterly failed, and that they
are liable to be arbitrarily dismissed at any
moment from participation in public affairs. Under
all these discouragement. the representative mem-
bers of the Reicharath have exhibited • superiority
to their circumstances which is full of promise. They
have not been discouraged by the immense diffi-
culties from which they were called to extricate the
Empire, but have set to work with a courage
and patience which are worthy of admiration.
The Austrian Parliament has wisely judged that
its duty is to enter boldly upon the exercise
of all the rights attributed to it, and without
loss of time see how these may be turned to
account for the good of the nation. If it had
done no more than examine and elucidate the
condition of the Empire, and the causes of its
measures, as it has done by the Committees it has
appointed, the gain would have been immense.
But it has done much more than that ; it has
effected important administrative reforms, and cut
down wasteful expenditure, which had long been
protected by hollow traditionary maxims of state.
It has propounded sound views of foreign
policy, the hearty adoption of which would be
equivalent to a *salutary revolution by which
all Europe would profit. And, lastly, it has
laid down as bases of domestic legislation and
government principles more just and liberal, espe-
cially in what eeneerns the relatioG: of Churches ,
to the State, than those which prevail in any
country in Europe. As Liberal journalists we
take pleasure in acknowledging the successful
assertion of Liberal principles in the capital from
which MirrEargica administered the policy of the
Holy Alliance. Whatever may hereafter happen,
the labours of the Reicharath will not have been
in vain. They will endure, if not as • starting
point for more assured progress, as a standard to
which future Austrian parliaments may well strive
to conform.

It is a long step from recognising the utility of
these labours to perceiving in them a pledge of the
success of that unitary and centralising policy which
the EMPEROR has pursued through different de-
vices, and by various Ministers, but hitherto with
uniform failure. Admirably as the members of
the Reichsrath seem themselves qualified to repre-
sent the interests of their German constituents—
the .extent of their success in the non-German
States of the Monarchy is only to quicken the
desire of the people to have similar Parliaments of
their own. The Hungarians do not grudge the
Austrians their Constitution and Parliament, but
neither will they send deputies to it, because they
have a Parliament and a Constitution of their
own, of which they are justly proud. The Ire-
=tiara will not send deputies anywhere but to
Turin or to Rome. The Bohemians and Poles do
not wholly absent themselves from the Reicharath,
but the deputies for these countries comport them-
selves as strangers there. In truth, excellent as
the measures of that body are, and wise as is the
conduct of its members, it does not appear that
they are able to advance by one step the unity of
the Empire, as understood by the EMPLKOR and
M. SCHWALM°. Nor is this surprising. For it
is felt by men of intelligence throughout the Em-
pire that, although the forms and instrumentalities
of government are changed, the basis of the Go-
vernment is still what it was—the will of the
Monarch. For a time it may suit the purpose of
the EMPIROIL to let the Reichsrath go very far in
the assertion of ite power ; but in an sssemblysuch
as the Austrian Government destined the Reicha-
rath to be, the Court would always be able to en-
sure a majority irrespective of its measures.
The character of such as assembly, and the
facilities which the Government would find in it,
have been well described by Mr. Mita. in his work
on Representative Government. He shows that the
action of public opinion, which is necessary to keep
parliaments right, cannot be obtained in such a
case
:

" Among • people without fellow-feeling, ape-
" chilly if they read and speak different languages,
" the united public opinion necessary to the working
" of representative government cannot exist.
" The intluenoes which form opinions and decide
" political acts are different in the different sec-
" tions of the country. An altogether different
" set of leaders have the confidence of one

" part of the country and of another. The same
" books, newspapers, pamphlets, speeches, do not
" reach them. One section does not know what
" opinion'', or what instigations are circulating in
" another. The same incidents, the same ants,
" the same system of government, affecainge In
" different ways ; and eaclk fears more !Injury to
" itself from the other nationalities than hem the
" common arbiter—the State. Their mutual
" antipathies are generally much stronger than
" dislike of the Government. That any one of
" them feels aggrieved by the policy of the com-
" mon ruler, is sufficient to determine another to
" support that policy. Even if all are aggrieved,
" none feel that they can rely on the others for
" fidelity in a joint resistance ; the strength of
" none is sufficient to resist alone, and each may
" reasonably think that it consults its own advan-
" tage moat by bidding for the favour of
" the Government against the rest. Above all,
" the grand and only reliable security in the
" last resort against the despotism of the Go-
" vernment is in that case wanting—the sym-
" pathy of the army with the people."
At present it is the German public opinion
that is represented at Vienna; it is an opinion
of a very good quality, but the experiment
of its working does not in the least show that a
heterogeneous assembly could represent the public
opinion of the Empire. All experience bide us
expect the opposite. Freedom, which favours the
union of elements having affinity, as we see in the
case of Italy, also gives fuller play to the forces con-
cerned in repulsion.