The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-06 00:00:00

AUSTRIA

VIENNA, PEE. 1.
As great reforms are to be made in the adminis-
tration of the Lombardo,Venetian kingdom,. the
Central Congregations have been desired to point
out to the Imperial Government those changes which
may to them appear necessary or desirable. The
Cabinet is firmly resolved to maintain the principle
of the unity and indivisibility of the Empire, but
it has become evident to all its members that
greater allowance must in future be made for the
peculiarities of the different nationalities. The at-
tempt " to Germanize" the Italians, Magyars, and
Sclaves, is a political blunder, and the Minister of
the Interior will assuredly meet with less syste-
matic opposition to his measures when he ceases to
endeavour to force German customs and the Ger-
man language on the other nationalities. The
improvements in the administration of the Lom-
bardo-Venetian kingdom are to be made without
delay, so that the Archduke Ferdinand Max
will find the State machine in good working
order when he enters on his duties as Gover-
nor General The appointment of the Archduke
has not yet been made public, but it is known
in official circles that the necessary prepara-
tions for his definitive establishment at Milan
are being made. Yesterday evening a courier was
sent to the capital of Lombardy with a vast quan.
tity of State papers, and it is presumed that some
matters of importance will he settled before the
Emperor and his three Ministers return to this c'ty.
Since His Majesty has been in Italy the draft of the
Municipal Laws has been forwarded to him, but
reliable information has been given me that it
will undergo some very important alterations
before it receives h's sanction. The statutes for the
representation of the different provinces are repos-
ing quietly in the bureaux of the Home Depart-
ment, and there they are likely to remain for a
time, as the Minister has lost courage, so often
have his propositions been rejected by the Council
of the Empire. It may be remarked, that rather
more than five years have elapsed since His Majesty
the Emperor issued a reseript,in which it was said
that as soon as the political organisation of the
empire was completed, the several provinces should
have a kind of representation. Until now the only
provinces which have representatives are Venice
and Lombardy. One of the most important changes
in the military organisation is, that the bookkeep
ing office of the War department will no longer be
subject to the " General Direction of Accounts''
(General Rechnungs Directorium.) The accounts of
the War Department are in future to be kept by
the Supreme Army Commando, and consequently
the Finance Minister will have little or no control
over the expenditure of the War Department. His
Majesty the Emperor is so well satisfied with
General Baron Schlitter, the person who made the
draft of the new military organisation, that he has
given him the Commander's Cross of St. Stephen,
which is the first of Austrian civil orders.

Some time since the Sardinian papers an-
nounced that the Turin Cabinet did no intend to
send any one to congratulate the Emperor -on
his arrival in the Italian states, " until the
sequestration had been raised and a general
amnesty granted." Both measures have been
carried out, but the Sardinians would deceive
themselves if they fancied their menace had had
any influence on the policy of the Imperial
Government. The abolition of the sequestration
and the liberation of the political prisoners were
resolved on fully two months before the Em-
peror quitted this city, and the fact is just
as well known to the French and English Go-
vernments as it is to His Majesty's Ministers.
Orders have been given by the Emperor that the
celebrated " Last Supper," by Paul Veronese,
which is in the municipal museum at Vicenza,
shall be restored. As the delicate job is to be
done under the superintendence of the Academy
of the Fine Arts at Venice, it is not to be feared
that any damage will happen to those parts of the
picture which are still uninjurel. My meaning is
that " La Cena" is not likely to be scoured to death.
Nothing positive is yet known respecting the
reduction of the army, but the prevalent report
in military circles is, that sixty thousand men
will be sent to their homes, and some twenty five
thousand horses sold. Towards 9 o'clock in the
evening of the 25th their Majesties drove in a glass
carriage and pair, without any outriders or guards,
to the Scala ; but they were a long time in getting
there, as a dense crowd surrounded the vehicle and
insisted on drawing it. As the Emperor declined
the proffered honour, the horses were led by the
people to the theatre, amid thunders of applause!'
A Milan correspondent of the Augsburg Gazette
observes that a hundred thousand Austrian
bayonets could hardly inflict greater injury on the
enemies of Austria than the clemency of the
Emperor has done. At the battue at Monza
a vast quantity of game was killed, and
140 head were shot by his Majesty.
About a fortnight ago five or six of the
Archdukes went to shoot wild bears on one of
the Imperial estates, and killed no fewer than 173.
There can be no mistake about the number, as the
game killed in the various Imperial preserves is
regularly entered in the books of the Oberstjager-
Meister (Master of the Woods and Forests), who
sells it wholesale to the game dealers. It is related
that a fort is to be constructed on the Semmering,
which will command the approaches to the railroad.
The well known Frederic von Gagern is now
publishing, in the Augsburg Gazette, a diary which
he kept in Russia in 1839, and one or two passages

that are likely to interest your readers will now be
given from it :
August 23.—Drove to Peterhof, where there is a picture
of the Dardanelles. The Russian artist has placed a Rus-
sian fleet in the Dardanelles. Another picture represents
Kieft', a tremendous arsenal and fortress, which has just been
built against Austria. And what does Austria do on her
side ? Nothing !
Went to see the stained glass, which is all from Switzer-
land, in the arsenal of the Emperor Nicholas. One of the
wincloWs represents the three Swiss in Grutli. he inscrip-
tion has been scratched out by order of his Majesty. In
the afternoon visited the Austrians. General Piret ex-
pre,ses himself without reserve on the policy of Austria.
4. We understand," says he, " that an intimate union
with Prussia would be the raest rational policy, but
she is so entangled in the family ties which connect her
with Russia, that there is nothing to be done with her. Our
new fortresses are directed against France. Until now, not
one has been built against Russia. We want to keep out
ideas, but fortresses are of no avail against them. Oirnutz,
Eperies, and Comma, are to be our protection against Ras-
sia, but Eperies is not yet forAsd."
The Emperor Nicholas was extremely particular in
matters of etiquette, and especially when it wss the ques-
tion of the Grand Duchess Kish. The Emperor was
speakieg to Count Fiequelment, the Austrian Ambassador,
at the ball, when a new chamberlain carne up to the latter,
and addressed him as follows :—" Mada le la Dachesse de
Lenchten berg begs of you to honour her (de lui flare l'hon-
neur) by dancing a polonaise wi.h. her." "Ox durak !" said
the Emperor in a fury, " the Duchess of Leuchtenberg is
her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Marie Nicole-
jewna, and when she dances with any one it is politeness
which she shows, and not an honour which she demands."
The chamberlain was dismissed.

TREATY FOR THE REDEMPTION OF THE
SOUND DUES.

kt, The following is, as we learn from advices
leoeived from Denmark, the outline of the treaty
about to be concluded between Denmark and the
various European Powers trading with the Baltic,
for the redemption of the Souud Dues
The preamble states, that with a view to facilitate
and increase the commercial and maritime relations
at present existing between Denmark and the other
contracting States, these parties have agreed to
negotiate a treaty for abolishing the dues levied on
ships and their cargoes passing through the Sound
and the Belts, and for diminishing the transit duty
payable on goods passing overland from the German
Ocean to the Baltic.

In the first article the King of Denmark under-
takes for the future not to levy any duty under the
name of customs, tonnage, or for lighthouses,
buoys, &s, on any vessels, or their cargoes, pass-
ing from the German Ocean to the Baltic, or vice
versa, through the Belts or the Sound, and this
too, irrespectively of whether the vessels simply
pass through the Danish %veers, or whether they
be compelled by stress of weather or for the sake
of commercial operations to cast anchor there, or
to put into a pert. No vessel of any sort belonging
to the contracting Powers is in future to be sub-
jected to any detention or other hindrance while
passing through the Belts or the Sound ; with
regard to the vessels of other States not partici-
pating in this Treaty, the King of Denmark is to
be at liberty to settle by separate arrangements
the fiscal conditions that are to be accorded to
them.

The King undertakes further to free from all
dues for lighthouses, beacons, buoys, &e , and, in
general, from all maritime taxes, with the excep•
tion of absolute port dues and customs, any such
vessels of the contracting parties as may enter or
leave Danish ports, either in cargo or in ballast,
and equally whether they have or have not entered
into any commercial transaction at the port.
In the 2nd article the King binds himself to main-
tain and keep in good order all the lights, beacons,
buoys, &c., at present in use, both at the approaches
to Danish ports and roads, or along the Danish
coast. Secondly, in the interest of commerce and
navigation, to pay due regard to the expediency of
modifying the position or the form of these said
lights, beacons, buoys, &c., or of increasing their
number, and this without any charge or burden to
foreign vessels. Thirdly, to keep up the present
supply of pilots, whom it shall be optional to all
masters of vessels to employ or not. The charges
for pilotage are also never to rise higher than they
are at present; they are to be the same for Danish
as for foreign vessels, and are to be payable only
by those vessels that take pilots on board.
Fourthly, he will permit private individuals, whether
natives or foreigners, to establish stations in the
Sounds and Belts for providing steam tugs to
vessels passing throuch and desirous of profiting
by this facility. Fifthly, he extends to all canals
or other routes leading from the German Ocean
to the Baltic the same exemption from duty wh;ch
Danish and foreign merchandise of certain hinds
enjoy on certain routes (here follows a specifica-
tion of the various kinds of merchandise and
the various routes) ; and if in future any goods
not specified here should succeed in obtaining an
exemption from transit duty on any one of these
routes, that exemption shall be extended to all
others. And sixthly, he undertakes to reduce the
rate of transit duty on all those goods now liable to
it to an uniform rate of 16 shillings Danish money
for 500 lb. Danish weight; and finally, should the
transit dues'oome, at any future time, to be lowered
on any one of the routes below this rate, the King
undertakes to put all the routes now connecting, or
which may hereafter connect, the German Ocean or
the Elbe with the Baltic or any of its tributaries,
on footing of perfect equality with any routes that
may hereafter be opened between any two ports of
his dominions.

According to Art 3, the provisions of Articles 1
and 2 are to come into force on and after April the
Ist of this year.

Art. 4 binds the States entering into this treaty
with Denmark to pay the latter as an indemnifica-
tion for the sacrifices it makes in the above articles
the sum of 30,570,698 rix dollars, according to
various quotas already agreed upon, and with the
provision that each State is liable only for its own
quota.

In Art. 5 it is provided that the various amounts
above specified shall be paid within 20 years, in 40
half-yearly equal instalments, which shall include
the portion of the capital due and the interest that
accrues on the outstanding balance.
Each of the high contracting parties undertakes
in Article 6 to come to an agreement with the King
of Denmark as to-1, the manner how, and the
place where, these half-yearly payments shall be
made ; 2, the manner and the rate in which the
several amounts, as stated in Danish money, shall
he computed in the money of the said state ; and
3, the conditions and the manner in which the said
state reserves to itself (if at all) to pay off by anti-
cipation its quota of the indemnity money.
In the following and concluding article the
execution of the foregoing stipulations is made
to be dependent on the accomplishment of the
formalities required by the constitutional laws
of the high contracting states, who, however,
undertake to procure that sanction at the earliest
possible time.