The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-10 00:00:00

AUSTRIA,

A letter dated Vienna, Dec. 4, says :—The Aus-
trian Government is extremely desirous to find
persons who will write articles for certain foreign
papers in defence of the concordat, but the task is
such an ungrateful one that no one -has either the
will or the courage to undertake it. Not long since
a prodigiously long article appeared in the Augs-
burg Gazette, the object of which was to calm the
apprehensions of the Protestants residing in Aus-
tria, but as the arguments employed were princi-
pally based on the " well-known moderation" of
the Roman Catholic clergy, it produced little or
no effect. At the same time that the concordat
was under consideration, the draught of some laws
which were favourable to the non• Catholic confes-
sions was made, but it seems that it has, for the
moment, been laid ad acta. Some pastoral letters
have recently been published by Lombardo Vene-
tian bishops, and in them it is said that there can
be no question of equality between the different con-
fessions as the Roman, Catholic "is the dominant
church." It is not less clearly stated that Pro-
testants must be well satisfied if they are simply
tolerated in Austria. There is, pehaps no coun-
try under the sun in which the authorities so much
delight in vexatious measures, which have not
even the merit of being of service to the State, as
in this. Every person who frequents the Exchange
is obliged to take a ticket, for which ho pays a
trifling sum ; and on the Ist of this month notice
was given by the police authorities that in future
every ticket would, in addition to the name and
address, have the religion of its possessor inscribed
on it. This new regulation has excited extreme
indignation among the Hebrew frequenters of the
Exchange, and its consequences will assuredly be
felt when their assistance is again required by the
State. When the national loan was being raised
the wealthy Jewish bankers were cajoled, and led
to expect that their political position would be
greatly ameliorated. In the hope that their pa-
triotic feeling would be properly appreciated they
one and all subscribed very largely, and now they
find themselves exposed to what they justly consi-
der a gratuitous insult.

RUSSIA.
A letter from St. Petersburg, published in the
Constitutionne/ of the 29th ult., says--
"Little importance appeared at first to be at-
tached to the mission of General Canrobert to
Copenhagen, but this indifference was afterwards
succeeded by a certain uneasiness. It is feared
that it is the intention of the Allies next spring to
make the Baltic the principal scene of their ope-
rations. This would cause a real danger, not
only because the groat majority of the troops
have been directed towards the south, but also
because the trifling commerce which it has been
hitherto possible to carry on between the ca-
pital and the provinces of the Baltic must
be given up. Several Generals vrho- have Ar.

rived, or are expected bore, appear to have been
sent for with a view to these eventualities. A
letter from Moscow states that the Emperor,
in returning through that city, devoted the
short time he stopped there solely to reli-
gious acts. Ho visited in suocession the nume-
rous churches of the Kremlin and paid his devo-
tions to the relics, and at his departure he received
from the bishop the image of a saint. During the
last three days of his journey from Perekop to
Moscow the Emperor did not publish any order of
the day. This is the first blank of the kind that
has occurred since his accession to the throne, and
was doubtless caused-by the rapidity which he tra-
velled. Administrative affairs at Taganrog have
so much increased, in consequence of the trans-
ports by land occasioned by the blockade, that the
Government has been compelled to increase the
number of the employes."