The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-22 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

CH'S DAT.—Morning, sh. 50m.—Afternoon, 6h . 9m.
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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1863.

Nothing could be grander, prompter, or more
resolute than the course pursued by Austria in re-
ference to Poland immediately upon the publintion
of the Despatch from Prince GORTSCHAKOFF. The
determination at once arrived at by the Viennese
Cabinet, upon this momentous question, at this most
critical juncture, is one in every way worthy of a
Great Power, hitherto known (until, as it were, but
yesterday) as an implacable and unreformable Oli-
garchy, but now, to-day, aspiring to assume a posi-
tion in the gaze of Europe as a distinctly Constitu-
tional Government. The announcement flashed
to us this very morning from the Capital of
Austria, goes far to justify the brightest and the
most sanguine hopes yet expressed in regard to the
future of that vast empire by the hon. and learned
gentleman the member for Sheffield. In the midst
of the ambiguity, and the hesitations, and the doubts
and the delays of our vaunted diplomacy, it is abso-
lutely refreshing to witness the clear precision, the
prompt decision, with which Austria goes directly to
the point, in the avowal of her policy upcn these
most delicate and complicated questions relating
to Poland—upon the very instant, we might
almost say, of the receipt of Prince GORTSCHAKOFF'S
despatch.

Scarcely has that document reached the Im-
perial Council Chamber at Vienna, when a pre-
liminary note in reply is addressed to Russia by the
Austrian Government. It is dashed off without one
instant's glimmering of anything like a timorous
hesitation on the part of either the KAISER or any-
one of his MAJESTY'S advisers. And to what effect ?
To the effect, as Mr. REUTER'S telegram expresses
it, in so many words, under date " Vienna, July
22nd," viz., THIS DAY—that Austria cannot
abandon the line of conduct she has pursued,
in this matter of course, up to the present moment !
Language could hardly be plainer than that, as indi-
cative of the nature of the resolve, unhesitatingly
arrived at. But, in her preliminary note, the one jus*,
now despatched to St. Petersburg in reply to this
most unsatisfactory missive recently received from
Prince GORTSCHAKOFF, the councils of Schoenbrun
are more explicit. Austria declares at once that she,
for one, rejects the proposal of a conference between
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, as thrown out byPrince
GORTSCHAKOFF in his at once truculent and insi-
dious document ! The document of which we re-
ceived a copy from the Foreign-office yesterday,
and of which copy we gave an exact duplicate
in our columns last evening. Not merely, however,
does the preliminary note just despatched from
Vienna to St. Petersburg, in answer to Prince
GORTSCHAKOFF, announce thus distinctly the de-
termination of Austria to persevere in the line of
conduct she has hitherto pursued in regard to the
interests of Poland ; not merely does it in-
dicate quite positively that she will not
take part in the Conference proposed by
Prince GoRT,
CRAKOFF in the name of his
Imperial Master the CZAR, but it goes yet farther
by proclaiming that Austria maintains the Six
Points ! As she is quite manifestly bent upon main-
taining them, intact to the very last, as the phrase
is, to the end of the chapter, of this new chapter in
the History of Poland—.one
at the head of which,
or we are all very much mistaken, even those who
run may read, inscribed there in luminous
characters, in characters of blood and fire
" RESURGAM !" From the closing
sentence of this
self-same telegram flashed but an hour or two
since from Vienna to London, we learn that
simultaneously with the despatch of
the prelimi-
nary note to St. Petersburg, other diplomatic noti-
fications have been forwarded by the Austrian Go-
vernment to the Western Powers, that is to
France and to England, declaring—that, come
what may, Austria will still continue to act
loyally and consistently, in concert with them, and
that in so doing she has arrived at the fixed de-
termination of firmly maintaining the Six Points.
Almost superfluous, it was, to add that last clause in
a sentence already complete in itself, because im-
plying it. Yet--although thus in a manner super-
fluous—it is here manfully added, nevertheless, by
the Austrian Government. A course so reselute,
so unhesitating, so instant in its promptitude, so
i
bold and uncompromising in the very mode of its
manifestation, might, so to speak, kindle a soul under
the very ribs of death, might rouse, at last, from its
protracted torpor the almost comatose foreign policy
of our own Government. Here, at any rate, is
another most signal opportunity now presenting
itself to that eccentric, but, occasionally, admirable
incarnation of the " Complete Letter Writer," the
Noble Earl at the Head of the Foreign Depart-
ment. England will look with profound
interest, particularly after this inspiriting resolu-
tion manifested by the Austrian Government, Dog-

land will look with profound interest and with a
certain eager solicitude, for the Despatch now being
prepared by Lord RUSSELL in reply to this last
haughty and intolerable missive from the hand of
Prince GORTSCHAKOFF.