Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, DEC. 15.
The Journal de Frankfort, of the 13th inst.,
contains an article on the Suez Canal, which
cannot fail to attract attention in Paris, inasmuch
as it is a semi-offi3ial announcement of the opinions
entertained by the Austri;ta Government on the
subject. After stating that the Leipziger Allgenteine,
and other GrTman papers, have told the public
that Baron Prokcsch has been instructed by the
Imperial Government to give his support to M. de
Lesseps, on his arrival at Constantinople, the
Vienna Publicist says:—
We aro boater informed on this subi-et than the corres-
pondent of the Leipsig Allgemeine Zeinou and his co'.
leagues, and as assnfe those gentlemen that Aastria,
instead of trying to bring about a hasty and premature
solution of the Suez Canal qnz,.stion, has recently reminded
the Porte of the heavy reipoasibility it would incur, if it,
by means of a simple firman, should settle a matter of such
extreme importance to itself, and to the world at large.
The Stvz Cassel—sari even if its constraction should be
delayed for 10 years—rust not be the work of a party,
bat of all the great European Powers.
As the article in the Frankfort paper is from the
same source as that which was extracted from the
Oat.-Deutsche Post, and forwarded to you two or
three days ago, it does not appear necessary to
make any further quotations from if.
The Ultramontane Volksfreund does not consider

advisable to take any notice of the discomfiture or

its friends in Belgium, but all the independent
organs of the Vienna press openly express their
satisfaction at the decisive victory which the liberal
party has obtained. The Presse has an excellent
leader on the subject, which correctly expresses
ttie opinions and sentiments of the great majority
of the Roman Catholic inhabitants cf this city, who
see with intense disgust that their pastors and
masters would fain make ignorant bondslaves of
them. The Vienna Publicist says :
On the 10th of December progres3 and retrogression
bought a pitched battle in Belgium, and, as must always
tee the case when the weapons are equal and there is no
undue advantage on either side, the former was victorious.
The Belgian Government looked on during the electoral
conflict with truly Olympian composure. Tha authorities
did not inform the electors that the State religion, and
society at large would be placed in jeopardy it they did
not vote as one man for the Government candidates.
According to all the rermrts received from Belgium the
elections were very differently managed from what they
have recently been in France. In Bdgium there was no
interference en the part of Givernment, no artificially
produced majority. Public opinion lei to the election of
the libbrel candidates—public opiniov, which, in Be!gium
is not yet so corrupt and dastardly that it has not, in
decisive moments, the courage opnly- to say what it likes
and what it abhors.

For reasons which it is not necessary to mention,
the Vienna writers for the press are in the habit of
weighing every word before they put it to paper,
but the satisfaction felt at the defeat of the
Ultramontane party in Belgium is so great that
almost all of them have to-lay expressed themselves
with infinitely greater freedom than usual. Any
ground which Rome may lose in Belgium she is
pretty sure to gain in poor priest-ridden Austria.
At the new year, the Volksfreund will be the official
organ of the Jesuits, who carry all before them.
The non-official part of the Wiener Zeitung has long
been at the service of Rome, but after the new year
it will be "even more Catholic" than it is at present.
The information just given was received from
one of the members of the " Severinus " Associa-
tion, and consequently deserves implicit credit
On Nicholas day—Sunday, the 6th inst.—a Jesuit
preacher gave the following account of the question-
able saint of that name, who, being the bugbear of
children, is sometimes represented as " Oid Nick,"
with a rod in his hand :—" St Nicholaus (said the
reverend gentleman), who was the model of a
priest, had a very strongly pronounced antipathy
to all persons who did not belong to the Church
of Christ. He went to preach to the heathens, and
after he had converted them to Christianity, and
had been ' elected' their Bishop, he caused them
to expell all the Jews who resided in the same
place with them." After the Jesuit had made the
foregoing communication to his hearers he declared
St Nicholas to be a personage of remarkable
wisdom, and a man after God's own heart.
The Frankfort Post Zeitung states that in an
autograph letter the Emt,er.,r Francis Joseph
" lirecteci" the National Bank to lend 10,000,000
marks banco to the city of Hamburgh, but the state-
ment must be incorrect. As the Bank was allowed
by the Emperor to suspend its cash paymi n s, no
part of the metallic reserve could be sent abroad
without his authorisation, but his Majesty neither
could nor would order the Bank to give assistance to
the Hamburgh merchants. The establishment, with
everything which it possesses, belongs to share-
holders, and consequently is private property. In
the statutes of the Bank it is said that the
State shall watch over the administration of the
institution, but it is nowhere stipulated that it shall
be at liberty to dispose of its funds. The Credit
Bank has., at the urgent desire of the Minister of
Finances, rendered very great assistance to more
than one Hamburgh firm, and singular rumours
there are in report in consequence. Baron Bruck
has managed to make a great many powerfu
enemies, and they allow no opportunity of malign-
ing him to escape them. On Sunday, the 13. h
inst., twenty-seven waggons, which were escorted
by gendarmes, were driven out to the Northern
Railroad. Each waggon contained sixty cwt. of
silver in ingots, which were about half as broad
and thick as a common brick, and a foot and a-balf
long, The treasure, when on its way to Hamburgh,
was stopped by the employes on the Prussian
frontier. Those gentlemen declared that precious
metals could not be forwarded in Prussia by post,
but the Minister of Commerce, who was informed
by electric telegraph of the difficulty which had
arisen, gave orders that the silver should be left
in the hands of the persons who had brought it
fram Vienna.

Apprehensions were entertained, or feigned, by
sonic persons here that when the list of the Depu-
ties was called over, for the oath to be taken, certain
names would provoke marks of dislike from the
public. If anybody really expected this, he did
less thait.. justice to the sense of propriety which
distinguishes the Piedmontese. Not a single im-
probatory manifestation was made. At one name
only—that of Margotti, a priest, who is often