The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-20 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.---LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY.

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, JAN. 16.
As the Berlin Government professes to be dissa-
tisfied with what has been done by the French
Cabinet in the Neuchatel question, it becomes
necessary to communicate the opinions which
prevail in Austrian official circles on the subject.
In his despatches of the 6th and 19th of Dec., the
Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs recognised
the claim of the King of Prussia to the exercise of
sovereign rights in Neuchatel, but in the despatch
addressed to Count Trautmannsdorf on the 6th in st ,
it is said, " We have sti ongly urged the ncessity for a
conference, as it is our opinion that the Powers on
the one side and Prussia on the other are bound to
fulfil the engagements which they entered into
when,they signed the protocols 1 and 2 on the
24th of May, 1852." As the despatch in question
was published in a North German paper, and must
already have appeared in your columns, it is at
present but necessary to recall to the recollection
of your readers, that its principal object was to
prevent the march of Prussian troops across
their frontiers, because Prussia was bound by
the above-mentioned protocols to leave the settle-
ment of the Neuchatel question to the Powers•
In one of his despatches Baron von Manteuffel
declared, " that when once the Prussian army was
in movement, it would have to fight for another
object than the liberation of the prisoners. As
you were about a month since informed, the
Imperial Government was at first of opinion that
the quarrel between Prussia and the Swiss Con-
federation would afford a favourable opportunity
for re-integrating the Federal Constitution of 1815,
which in 1848 was subjected to changes that were
by no means to the taste of the absolute
continental governments. It was for a moment
the question of a simultaneous occupation of
Switzerland by Prussia, Austria, and France,
but Austrian statesmen are gifted with a great
deal of foresight, and they soon came to the
conclusion that it would be safer policy to unite
with England in preventing any attack being
made on a State, the neutrality of which was
guaranteed by the parties to the treaties of 1815
It was, besides, supposed that such a thrifty
State as Prussia would not have been in such a
hurry to place her troops on a war footing, if she
had not received a promise of the countenance or
support of Russia, and the Imperial Cabinet
resolved not to be to Prussia what she had so long
been to Russia—a cat's paw. It is credibly related
that before the Minister for Foreign Affairs
left Vienna for Milan, he expressed his approba-
tion of what had been done by the French and
British governments in the Neuchatel question, and
his confident hope that the King of Prussia would,
after:the liberation of the prisoners, display his mag-
nanimity by renouncing all claim on Neuchatel and
Valangin. It has this morning been communicated
to me that his Majesty's magnanimity is not so
great as Count Buol imagined, and the information
is probably correct, as the Emperor Napoleon has
considered it necessary to make the Moniteur speak
of the engagements of his Government to Switzer-
land, and of its resolve to fulfil them. The plain
speaking of the Moniteur can do no harm, and will
not give offence here, but the Imperial Government
would certainly be extremely sorry if any quarrel
should arise between France and its federal ally.

A Crum:al, STRIKE.—A strike of rather a novel character
has just occurred in the parish of St. George's, Somerset -
shire. It appears that the vicar's lady, by way of inducing
some of the children to lend their choral aid in the service
of the church, has been in the habit of rewarding their
diligence and attention by an annual gift of one shilling
each, payable at the commencement of the year. From
some circumstance which had transpired, the usual shilling
this year was withheld, the result of which was that on
Sunday morning five of the youthful choir "struck" their
singing. By evening service the number of mal-contents
was increased to seven, and the church being consequently
left almost voiceless, a promise was made that the shilling
should be forthcoming. Even then, however, the youthful
rebels, practically mindful of some such maxim as a " bird
in the hand is worth two in the bush," remained obdurate
until they should be actually put in possession of that which
they considered to be their due.