The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, May 14.
The following is the official report of the Aus-
trian commander in the recent naval engagement,
in a despatch to Count Crenneville, the First Adju-
tant• General to the Emperor :--
"This morning, while on my way to Cuxhaven,
I learned that three Danish frigates had been seen
near Heligoland. I sailed in that direction, and
having come up with the vessels in question, at
once attacked them. After the battle had lasted
two hours and a half the foremast of the frigate
Schwarzenberg took fire. As the vessel was lying
with her head to the wind I was obliged, in order
to prevent the fire spreading, to let her fall off. At
the sametime I made a signal to the other vessels
to break off (abbrechen) the engagement. We re-
treated to Heligoland, where we cast anchor."
A non-German, who witnessed the action off
Heligoland, says the Austrians displayed great
courage and determination, and that the foremast
of the Schwarzenberg was hit by a shell while her
crew was preparing to board one of the Danish
vessels. At first the Austrians maintained that they
were overmatched, but they now candidly acknow-
ledge that they had more and heavier guns than their
antagonists. The Schwarzenberg has a crew of 520
men, and carries four rifled 24-pounders, 40 smooth•
bored 30-pounders, and six mortars for throwing
60Ib. shells. The frigate Radetzky has 390 men on
board, arid her armament consists of three rifled 24
pounders, 24 smooth-bored 30-pounders, and four
mortars for 601 b. shells. Each of the Prussian gun-
boats—Blitz, Basilisk, and Adler—carries three

guns. The Danish screw-frigate Niels-Juel, which
is said to have been much injured, 11-.8 42 guns, and
the screw schooners Dagnaar and Haim cito 16 each.
As a reward for his gallantry, M. von TegelLlica
has been raised to the rank of a Rear-Admiral.
This Government has just forwarded to Berlin a
note, in which it is hinted that Austria and Prussia
will hardly be able to come to an understanding in
respect to the conditions to be imposed on Denmark
until the question relative to the German Customs
Union has been settled to the satisfaction of the Im-
perial Cabinet. It has long been known to
the Austrians that the ultra-Conservative party
in Prussia has a hankering after the Danish
Duchies, but they certainly did not expect
that such men as Count Arnim-Boy tzenburg
and Prince Putbus would advise the Sovereign
to lay violent hands on his neighbour's pro-
perty. The Austrian Government is said to disap-
prove the address which has just been sent to the
King of Prussia, but it can hardly attach import-
ance to it, as it mast well know that neither Eng-
land nor Russia will willingly allow Holstein and
Schleswig to be incorporated with Prussia.
In the evening of Wednesday you learnt from me
that only a part of the Austrian Loan had been
taken, and I am now able to give some detailed in-
formation on the subject. At 8 o'clock in the even-
ing of Wednesday the various sealed offers were
opened in the prdsence of the Minister of Finances,
but the only one accepted was that made by a com-
pany composed of the Anglo-Austrian Bank,
Messrs, Baring, of London, and Barons Sins and
Wodianer, of this city. The Vienna Credit Bail
was willing to take 10,000,0001 at 76, but M.
von Plener declared its offer to that effect to be
unacceptable. Yesterday evening the official Abend-
post informed the public that the whole loan of
70,000,0001 " was in the hands of a Syndicate."
The true meaning of the words quoted is that the
Anstrian Minister of Finances has given the whole
of the loan, with the exception of the 23,500,000 of
silver florins which were subscribed, in commission
to a company, which is composed of the Anglo-
Austrian Bank, Baring Brothers, M. Wodianer,
J. a. Sine, the Dutch Bank, the Berlin Diecount
Company, M. Karo, of Berlin, and B. G. Gold-
schmidt, of Frankfort. The independent Vienna
papers plainly give the Government to understand
that nothing but strict economy can keep the
finances of the Austrian empire from going to the
bad.

The Pesth Hirnok, professes to have learned from
reliable sources that the recent hard frosts have
destroyed nine-tenths of the rape and four-tenths
of the wheat sown in Hungary. The loss sustained
is estimated at 40,000,0001, but in my opinion the
accuracy of the estimate is very questionable.
One hundred and sixty sailors have gone from
Trieste to the North Sea, to fill up the gaps made
by the Danish guns in the crews of the two
Austrian frigates.