The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-21 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

•

AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA.
ALLEGED RECALL OF THE AUSTRIAN
AMBASSADOR FROM BERLIN, AND IN-
TENDED EVACUATION OF HOLSTEIN.
The Times hears that at a council held yesterday
at Schonbrnnn the Emperor of Austria and Count
Mensdorff, against, it is added, the advice of
some other ministers, resolved to withdraw
Count Karolyi, the Austrian Ambassador,
from Berlin, and this decision having been
made known to M. de Werthier, the Prussian
Ambassador at Vienna, it was expected that he
would take his departure immediately. The im-
mediate cause of this rupture is said to be
that Count Mensdorff, after receiving the Prus-
sian answer of the 15th, telegraphed a repe-
tition of the Austrian demand of the 7th, and
received a fresh refusal on Thursday. A council
was then held, and the opinion of the Emperor and
his Minister being in favour of the bolder
course it was adopted. _ The Times fears

this act must be looked upon as some-
thing more than one of those suspensions of diplo-
matic intercourse which are usual when courts or
nations are irritated with each other. The with-
drawal of the two envoys is also, if the Times is cor-
rectly informed, to be followed by a military move-
ment which the world will regard as made in anti-
cipation of war. An order was to be despatched
to the general officer commanding the Austrian
troops in Holstein, ordering him to fall back
through Hamburg and Hanover, leaving only a few
companies in the Duchy. There will be naturally
a tendency to give great importance to this last
piece of intelligence. If we find that Austria
abandons the Duchy which she occupied, and leaves
it open for the advance of the Prussians, people
will conclude that the Emperor purposes some
military movement himself, or that he feels certain
that Prussia is about to strike a blow.
We may state that to-day's telegrams from
Vienna make no mention of the above intelligence,
but, on the contrary, indicate a more peaceful state
of the relations between the two powers.

The Independence says All the information
which we receive from Germany presents the situa-
tion under a less gloomy aspect. The current in
favour of peace predominates to-day."
The Naples correspondent of the Temps writes :
Fifty unattached officers have been recalled to the active
service, and the artillery branch is being increased from
the cavalry, which is considered a serious symptom. With
regard to the Southern provinces this is the fact. Prince
Humbert, who is accustomed to speak out, says openly
that he expects to be engaged in war by the end of April.
He will command • division under General Cialdini.
Amongst those which surround Prince Napoleon there is
• report of a combination between Austria and Italy.
The Debatte says :
Austria does not desire war, but once engaged, and with
Europe in arms, she will march forward regardless of the
past and the traditions of her history. Then will her ap-
parent isolation cease, and her liberation from
the forces which have hitherto tied her down
will procure for her allies in the north as well
as in the south, in the east as well as in the
west. Austria has great and powerful resources at her
command, and once determined to employ them, Europe
will be astonished at the cards which old Austria has in
I her hands.
" This language," says the deettir National of
to-day, " must mean, when translated into facts,
the freedom of Venetia, an alliance with Italy, and
therefore an alliance with France. England will
have to come into the combination, and the result
will be the autonomy of the Elbe Duchies, the in-
dependence of the Danubian Principalities, and
the territorial modification of Prussia."
The Frankfort Journal has the following from
Vienna, under date of April 16 :
A ministerial crisis has taken place here. It has been long
known that a considerable difference of opinion has existed
between Counts Mensdorff and Belcrecli on the Schleswig-
Holstein, or rather on the German question. While in the
opinion of the premier Austria could make no new conces-
sions and must maintain her position in Austria at any cost,
Count Pielcridi thinks that in view of internal difficulties
Austria should keep a means of retreat open and maintain
peace, even at the price of making concessions to Prussia.
This difference of opinion came to an issue at the last coun-
cil of ministers. Of the Hungarian statesmen Count Ester-
hazy participates in the opinion of Count Belcridi, while
Count Mailath is on the side of Count Mensdorff. The Em-
peror wished to effects compromise, inordertoavoida change
of ministers at the present time, but the difference is too
wide for anything more than a temporary reconciliation.

THE ATTEMPT UPON THE CZAR'S LIFE.
The Nord contains some further particulars re-
specting the attempt made on the life of the Em-
peror of Russia. It was made, it says, when his
Majesty was leaving the garden on the side of the
quay, after taking a walk with Duke Nicholas of
Leuchtenberg and the Princess Mary of Baden.
The caleche was somewhat in advance, and a
sergent-de-ville had presented the Emperor with
his cloak when the ball whistled over his head. A
young peasant who observed the assassin aiming
at the Emperor struck his arm, which happily
caused the bullet to deviate. The people
would have torn the assassin in pieces if
they had not been prevented by the Emperor.
Ho cried out to the peasants who fell upon him,
" It is for you that I have devoted myself ; he has
deceived you, and has not given you enough of
land." When arrested he stated that he belonged
to the district of Longa (government of St. Peters-
burg). He has not yet been identified, but there is
reason to believe that his declaration is false, and
that he is one of those miserable wretches whose
moral sense has been perverted by a vicious educa-
tion and bad reading. The Emperor went at
once to the Winter Palace to inform the
Empress of what had happened. In the
evening the Emperor addressed the officers
of the Guards who filled the palace and
related to them the incidents of the attempt. They
went in a body from the palace to the Cathedral
of Preobrajensky, where a Te Deum was sung
while the Emperor and Empress and the rest of the
imperial family went to the Cathedral of Kazan,
and offered up thanks. The city was illuminated
in the night. The young man who foiled the arm
of the regicide was presented to the Empress, who
thanked him with tears in her eyes. When the
Emperor announced to the officers of the Guard
that he would ennoble the young man, the announce-
men was received with loud hurrahs. A subscrip-
tion has been opened to enable him to support his
new dignity. Some papers were found on the
assassin, and amongst them a kind of proclamation
to the people, in which he says " the world will
have no peace till all the sovereigns are eater-
minatecL"

(asermes TzLzawin.)

FRANCE.

PARIS, Ann. 2L

The Constitutionnel of to-day Publishes an article
signed by M. Paulin Limayrac, in which it re-
marks upon the impatience of those journals who
desire to have explanations from the French
government on the state of affairs in Germany.
The article reminds those journals that Prince is
not mixed up either directly or indirectly with the

questions at *sue between the two great Genesi'
powers, and continues thus :
"The government of the Emperor has noright to
interfere. It regards the conflict as a spectator
only, following, however, its different phases with
the same vigilance and solitude which it bestows
upon all important questions of foreign policy.
The imperial government cannot pronounce its
opinion upon a conflict which assumes so many '
different phases, and undergoes almost every day
fresh modifications. Moreover, the French go-
vernment could not express its opinion publicly
without sharing in the discussion upon the ques-
tion at issue."

The Constitutionct, in conclusion, demonstrates .
by the despatches of Austria and Prussia, by the
manifestations of the popular wishes, and the at-
titude of the secondary States, that the present
position of affairs presents at least as many reasons
for expecting peace as war.