The Express.
London, England, 1868-06-23 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 23.

rSTRLIN FLV.INCE.

RINI F. the great catastrophe of 1861 i, Austria
has completely and deservedly regained the
sympathies of Western Europe•. And when we
say " Austria " we mean that Imperial and Royal
°civil tumid which was so long the personi-
Scation of military and priestly despotism,
RS much as the populations 50 long
the victims of that dark and frivolous
misrule. It is difficult to risilise the change that
has come over the spirit of a blind and obsti-
nate Court since it learnt the uses of adversity
and found the seed of a better future
in a soil harrowed by calamity. Who
can recognise in the FRANCIS JosErit
of to-day the creature of a Ciumuilla, the
pupil rather than the insister of a SCHWARZENBEIRI
and a BACII Who can recognise iu his Empire
the sacristy. the confessional, the guardroom
of 1t4.)2 ' Who can rec•o„nise in the populations
under Ws May the insurgents of and the
sullen malcontents of that disastrous decade of re-
action from the comps 4 of Hungary to the Italian
war of independence ?

That Power which was the byeword of liberal
Europe, the central type and Pxample of re-
tirus.ion and reaction, is now regarded with
any and admiration by the liberals of France,
with u loon sympathy by the liberals of
denntiny, with confidence and hope by the forlorn

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vl <.f what WAS 04.!` P wit's attain-
tire soil err•ouraging iaternA by East snot
TI rcuglu ut Et. rope, and :ravine* nicest thin au
la:glued, the diseu.-sions ut the P.srl ia-
rut ut at Vienna and the' wine am I
liberal premiums of legislation which are
bringing Austrian instituti I into learnmay
with modern civilization, are wangled with
an intelligent and sincere solicitude. Under
happier conditions and in a very different seat.
from that of the Congress of Vienna and the Holy
Alliance, Austria, since the decisive victories
of her great German rival, his regained her
old rank and authority in a State system funda-
mentally transmuted and renewed. The Emperor
FRANCIS Josses has frankly surrendered himself
to the inevitable change, and has pledged, not his
word only—for the word of a Sovereign counts
for little on the Continent -but the security of his
Crown, to the maintenance of parliamentary in-
stitutions and the public liberties, and has chosen
from among the exiles and rebels of his earlier
reign the ministers and administrators of the new
regime, under the presidency of an enlightened
statesman who has no sympathy with a bitter and
evil past and is responsible for none of its dis-
graces and its wrongs.
Unfortunately it is not enough for M. DR Beusr
and his colleagues to resolve to be liberal, peace-
ful, economical, and solvent for the future, when
they find themselves encumbered at every step
with the faults and follies of their irresponsible
protheessent, with millions of public debt nu:k-
-ite:4ly incurred and recklessly squandered by the
pride and vainglory of an absolute monarchy, for
the sake of keeping hostile populations and alien
provinces in subjection by a vast army of
parade. The financial beggary of Austria is the
legacy of Austrian absolutism, not like that of
Italy, of a great experiment of national
revival and reconstruction. The Parliament at
Vienna, composed for the most part of men of
serious intelligence and habitat of business, has
already decided with equal energy and capacity
such vital questions as the supremacy of the
civil power and liberty of conscionce. It has
sanctioned that reconciliation with Hungary
which is the keystone of the new constitu-
tional Empire. Then CAMP the crucial test of
its enlightened patriotism, the question of
tarmac. How to bridge over the Apia of annual
detieits how to escape an imminent bankruptcy ?
By increased taxation? By the strictest re-
tiencliment in all brunches of the public expendi-
ture ? Found policy is sound finance; and the
domestic and foreign policy of Austria, under the
new rigime, so far as it was a policy of peace and
liberty, was calculated to revive the credit of the
State. Nothing but a policy of peace abr rid
and liberty at home could insure retren-b-
-meld. A determined policy of retrenehment,
especially in the indite," departments,
would, perhaps, enable an Austrian loan
to float in the money markets of London
and Pan:. But meanwhile the problem of how
to meet the preening &mantis upon the Treasury—
how to make two ends meet from month to month
—presented itself to the Parliament at Vienna.
After insisting on the severe et retrenchment,
and on a policy of peace and liberty, the legisla-
tors of the Reichsrath appear to have shrunk in-
stinctively from the facile but fatal temptation of
of a loon, and, strong in the consciousness of their
honest intentions, to have resolved to inflict a
moral lesson upon those public creditors who had
lent millions upon millions to the uses of an absolute
military monarchy. Accordingly, in spite of the
gentle remonstrances of the Government, the
majority of the Reichsrath agreed totem the coupons
I of the public debt, in other words, to reduce the
income of those foreign scripholders who had
sustained by their subscriptions that despotic
system which was shuttered at Solferino, and
Jinully collapsed at Satlowa.
This vote of the Austrian Reiehsrath, however
intelligible and even defensible in their own point
of view, was less likely to prove palatable in
London and in Paris. At Amsterdam, it appears
that our sagacious and fur-sighted Dutch friends
had taken the precaution to provide before-
hand, as M. de BEUST puts it, for " these
"risks and chances," by discounting, year
by year, from the capital invested in
Austria the interest exceeding 5 per cent. English
mid French investors have not been so prudent, and
it was lately represented to the Austrian Minister
at the Court of St. James's, by a deputation of
bankers and merchants, that this taxation of the
foreign debt would affect very injuriously the credit
of Austria. To this advice Count Areoxsri made the
best reply he could in his new capacity as the re-
presentative of a constitutional Power. In an
ably-written despatch, dated the 9th instant,
M. DE Iteurr comes to the aid of the Ambassador,
and pleads with " the City of London " against
" exaggerated apprehensions." Ho states with
much exemplary frankness all the diffi-
culties under which Austria labours in
the attempt to emancipate herself from
the errors and dangers of the past ; he
excuses " the passions and jealousies of a young
" Parliament," and admits on its behalf
a certain want of " that self-possession
" which experience gives under similar cir-
" eumstanses to the House of Commons." With
ready tact and acuteness M. DE BEIIST appeals to
Mr. GLADSTONE'S " wise precepts" and repeated
eloquent denunciations of " the pernicious system
of loans ;" he reminds us that " Rome was not
" built in a day," and that if the Austrian Parlia-
ment will but balance its budgets, it may deserve
the favour of the most eminent financial authori-
ties of the epoch. M. de BEEST'S strongest
argument, as addressed to public opinion in Eng-
land is, that since it was impossible to impose
new burdens upon the Austrian taxpayers
there was no choice between a ratification
of the measures proposed by the majority
of the Parliament, or a coop d'etat—and
that "There is no longer any reason for coups-
" tritat in Austria." M. DE BEEST therefore
recommends " patience" and trust in the " incal-
" culable resources" of a peaceful, free, and re-
generated Empire. M. DE BEEST has made the very
best of a bad case, and if he can convince " the
" City of London" that he has curried to the utmost
point retrenchment of expenditure in thosebranches
of the public service which are least congenial to
a policy of peace, we daresay his appeal to
" patience " will meet with the indulgencv it de-
SITNTS.