The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—How fortunate we are in speaking a
language which has been framed for the use of a
nation the main occupation of which is law and
politics ! If we want to explain any change in the
government of our innumerable dependencies, ariy
diplomatic complication, or any historic discovery,
—nay, if we want to throw fresh light on the his-
tories of Greece or Rome, we possess a set of terms
and phrases having a thoroughly definite signifi-
cance, and if neither very eloquent, very imagina-
tive, nor very expressive, perfectly well calculated
to convey our meaning, and leaving little room for
doubt or ambiguity. This possession of a language
eminently adapted for the wants of political life, of
government, and of finance, if one of the least ob-
served, is certainly not the least valuable legacy
bequeathed to us by centuries of liberty and self-
government. To be aware of the value of such a
dialect, when we have to address our ourselves to
common people on the common affairs of life, we
ought to read the State papers which are from time
to time put forth by the German Governments.
Nothing is more ridiculous than their attempts to
popularize a subject ; their idea of making a thing
easy consists in clothing it in the choicest terms of
the philosophy of Kant and Hegel, the ground-
work of the whole thing is metaphysical, and the
declaration of the will of the Sovereign Prince is
invested with the forms of the development out of
the inner consciousness of the abstract into the con-
crete. A German Doctor cannot write an essay on
the cattle disease without an astounding exhibition
of this species of shallow profundity ; an Austrian
Minister cannot issue an order to his clerks without
involving us in the profoundest mazes of metaphy-
sical mysticism ; and the Emperor of Austria issues
a manifesto to his people, which reads more like a
plan fDr reorganizing the solar system than for
combining the forces of a discordant empire. We
have no time to go through a course of German
metaphysics, and we must therefore renounce the
hope of thoroughly explaining what we do not pro-
fess entirely to comprehend ; but we may, perhaps,
succeed by a liberal translation, and the substitu-
tion of words which, however vulgar, really have a
meaning, for the high-flown generalities of Austrian
statesmanship, in conveying to the minds of our
readers some slight idea of what after all is the
essential point to arrive at—what the Emperor of
Austria really means to do with Austria. He up-
holds the fundamental idea of the diploma of 1860
as the leading principle of the Imperial Goverment.
The people are guaranteed the right of participating
through their representatives in their own govern-
ment, and are thanked for the readiness with which
they sent representatives to the capital for the pur-
pose of solving some highly important questions.
"The formation of a durable and constitutional
charter of rights for the empire, which is the con-
stant wish of the Emperor, cannot be realised so long
as the first condition of bringing all its component
parts into clear and unmistakable harmony remains
unfulfilled." We do not pretend thoroughly to un-
derstand this oracular passage. To us it would seem
to assert exactly what is not the case—that it is im-
possible for the Emperor to give constitutional
rights to his subjects until he can prevail upon them
to agree among themselves. The constitution is a
question, as we apprehend it, between the Emperor
and his people, not between one section of his people
and another, and we do not at all see why the fact
that his people do not agree among themselves
should prevent them from receiving a boon which
requires no mutual concession for its acceptance.
" As it is legally impossible to treat the same con-
stitution as a fundamental law in one part of the
empire and as a matter of negotiation in another,
the Emperor is compelled to suspend the validity of
the constitution and the actual representation, with
the reserve that if the Diet in the eastern kingdoms
shall suggest changes in the existing laws compa-
tible with the unity of the empire and its position
as a great Power, the Emperor will lay these changes
before the legal representatives of the other pro-
vinces to receive and worthily estimate their ex-
pression of opinion." This seems to mean what
is indeed said in the next sentence, that the
Reichsrath is suspended, that the Emperor takes
upon himself provisionally the powers vested in the
Reichsrath in order to arrange with the different
provinces of the empire such modifications as
may allay the discontent existing in Hungary. The
whole matter, then, seems to amount to this : —The
Emperor of Austria, by a coup d'e'tat, has suspended
the present representative system in Austria. He
does this, not however with a view to abridge the
liberties of his subjects, but with a view of opening
negotiations with Hungary and the other Eastern
provinces for such a modification of the existing, or
we ought perhaps, to say the late constitution, as
will put it in their power to give a support to his
Government without destroying their local consti-
tutions. We gather further that the reasons im-
pelling the Emperor to this step are the wish to
establish harmony between the different parts of his
empire, and the absolute obstacle that the present
centralised constitution opposes to such harmony. In
other words, it would seem that the Emperor has
abrogated the existing constitution of Austria with
a view of substituting a Federal for a centralised
system, reserving to himself the absolute lower to
refuse or assent to, as be thinks proper, the terms
which may be suggested by the different Diets with
which he is in negotiation. If this be the meaning
of the document, it is the beginning of a change
long foreseen, absolutely necessary, and far too long
delayed. We observe in the first instance the very
frail tenure on which Austrian liberties are held,
when it is in the Power of the Emperor by a stroke
of the pen, without consulting anybody, to demolish
the existinc, constitution and assume all the power it
contains into' his own hands. This affords a striking
illustration of the little progress which the mere
establishment of a Representative Assembly in a
great military monarchy implies. The liberties of
Austria exist but in the breath of her Sovereign, and
for the moment at least a single word has vested in
himself a provisional dictatorship of the most abso-
lute nature. Passing over this objection, which
to German minds will probably appear hyper-
critical, we remark that the end in view is
eminently salutary, and that the absolute power
vested in the Emperor gives him the greatest
facility for working it out. But though this is cer-
tainly so, we cannot help trembling for the stability
of a fabric based on the ruin of a former edifice,
which one effort of a will raised, and one effort of
the same will summarily destroy. Confidence must
indeed be a plant of slow growth under an imperial
re'yinze. The erection of a constitution under the
direction of an absolute prince is like building a
tower on a ground subject to earthquake, or laying
out a vineyard on the edge of a volcano. Waiving,
however, this objection, and reserving our protest
against the studied ambiguity of the document, we
cannot sufficiently applaud the course on which the
Emperor of Austria is entering. The truth is Aus-
tria has too long been sacrificed to an idea, and it is
quite time some notice should be taken of that light
which is finding its way through the crevices of the
edifice. Abstractedly no one can doubt that a coun-
try like France, which the intense fire of revolution
has fused into one compact and homogeneous mass,
possesses a strength and a power of organisation
which makes Government as formidable to neigh-
bouring countries asito its own liberties. Philoso-
phers may doubt whether France does not buy these
liberties too dear by the sacrifice of individual ini-
tiative, by the reducing all thought and action to a
common rule and standard, and the obliteration of
provincial peculiarities and traditions. Any one
who observes with what fondness French literature
clings to these relics of the past will naturally be
led to entertain doubts on this subject ; but, be the
benefits of this iron centralisation what they may,
they are clearly unattainable by Austria. The
oppressions of 400 years have failed to break and
subdue the spirit of Hungary and Bohemia, the
spirit of local independence so rudely trampled
down by Russia in 1859 is for ever raising its head
anew. In order that she may be a single and united
monarchy, Austria has incurred the gravest risks
of ceasing to be a Monarchy at all. Rather than
be Federal, she has been content to be weak and
disunited, and drifts nearer and nearer to a na-
tional bankruptcy. Perhaps the recent instance of
North America' has convinced her that a federa-
tion is not so weak and inefficient a Government as
her statesmen were inclined to suppose. Perhaps
the Emperor sees that though it is in his power to
ruin Austria it is not in his power to make her one
or uniform. Austria has indeed a manifest destiny
if she did but know it ; her policy has been hitherto
to concentrate her power in order to contend with
Prussia for the leadership of Germany. What pro-
gress she has made in this effort we all know ; from
a rival she has sunk into a tool, and has shed her
blood in order to obtain the privilege of participat-
ing in the disgrace of a crime of which Prussia has
monopolised all the profit. She can do little in the
West ; but the East, if she pleases, is all her own.
With a Federal form of Government like that of
America, capable of admitting new States on easy
terms, and with a liberal commercial policy to re-
invigorate her finances, Austria might absorb one
by one the States on the banks of the Danube, and
assimilate to herself theprovinces of Turkey as they
drop off in shreds from the enfeebled body which
lacks vitality to retain them. A Federal form of
Government is the first condition for such a policy
as this, and the second is a regenerated finance, for
it is equally absurd to suppose that Austria can
unite new States to herself by offering them as the
first result of union the destruction of their lan-
guage, their -customs, and their nationality, as by
inviting their participation in financial ruin.
HERALD.—The Irish Registrar General has pub-
lished his annual statistics of Irish agriculture, and
may fairly assert that a more unsatisfactory docu-

meat has never before issued from his department.
It is unsatisfactory not only because it exhibits A
still further and most serious decrease in the land
this year under cereal cultivation in Ireland, as com-
paredi with last year ; but also because an attempt s
made in it to conceal the real diminution in the
area of the soil so occupied, by statements which
are easily confuted, and which cannot possibly be
supported by any evidence of their truth within
reach of the Irish constabulary, to whom the col-
lection of those statistics was entrusted—an at-
tempt which must deprive Mr. Donelly's future
returns of the confidence heretofore generally
reposed in their veracity. " Although," says
the report, " there is shown a decrease of
28,218 acres in the total area under crops in
1865, there was an increase in the extent under grass
to the amount of 127,470 acres, the area under bog
and waste unoccupied' having diminished by 101,543
acres." We should be glad to learn by what process
the amount of augmentation in the land under grass
this year has been so accurately ascerizlned. The
constabularly are certainly not all surveyors—we
doubt much if there be any amongst them ; but even
admitting them to be capable of professionally esta-
blishingi the truth of their report under this head, t
is evident that the time occupied in the performance
of their allotted task, even if entirely devoted to this
one object, would not have been sufficient to enable
them to do so. It is, however, easy for us to prove
to demonstration, either that this asserted increase is
fictitious, or that the Registrar-General's returns for
last year must have been inaccurate. Waste, and
more particularly bog, cannot possibly be reclaimed
and converted into pasture without having undergone
the process of tillage in their transformation. And
to accomplish a real conversion, they must have been
under cropping for at least three years previous to
to being " laid down," as must be well known to
every person having any practical knowledge on the
subject ; so that in point of fact, the only addition
which can possibly have been made to the Irish pas-
ture or meadows between last year and this must
consist solely in the balance between the quantity
then and now under cereal or green cropping, and
this, according to the official return, amounts to but
28,218 acres; and it follows, as a logical consequence,
that the police must have greatly understated the
extent of soil under cultivation during the last two
or three years in Ireland—which is not at all likely
—or that Mr. Donelly must have accepted from
them as true this year the particular return we
allude to, although the slightest consideration might
have enabled him to discover its palpable inaccuracy.
Passing over this abortive and unjustifiable at-
tempt to prove an increase in grass as a counter-
poise to the diminution of cereal production by
a subterfuge so easy or detection, we cannot,
like the correspondent of a contemporary,
discover that the present Irish statistics " are
on the whole most encouraging." The cultivation of
wheat has diminished to the extent of 8,410 acres
since last year, and that of oats by 70,625 ; and
when we remember that the soil under this crop,
which, with the potato, forms the food of the Irish
labourer and small farmer, had diminished by
128,000 acres in 1864, as compared with 1863,
being a gross reduction of (in round numbers)
200,000 acres in two years, the fact argues but little
for the increasing prosperity of the country ; at least
so far as concerns the condition of the classes alluded
to, more particularly when we find that the land
under potatoes has increased since last year by
26,170 acres, proof positive that the lower classes of
the Irish people are compelled by necessity to fall.
back again on a supply of an inferior and uncertain
description of food. The diminution in the extent
of the cereal crops applicable to human food from
last year is 79,035 acres, while an increase of 6,585
in barley, bere, and rye—none of which are used for
the sustenance of man—reduces the total diminu-
tion of cereal crops to 72,450 acres. " The returns
of live stock for 1865," says the report, " as com-
pared with 1864, show an increase in the number of
cattle of 231,120, of sheep 321,801, and of pigs
246,413, and a decrease in horses of 14,391." And
immediately afterwards we are told " that the re-
turns exhibit an increase in the number of cattle,
sheep, and pigs under one year old in each of the
provinces and almost in every county, the total in-
crease of cattle under that age being 56,147, of
sheep 175,441, and of pigs 220,285." Now, we
should be glad to know, taking these latter figures
as correct, from whence came the balance of in-
crease reported to have taken place since last year,
in the two former descriptions of stock. If only
56,147 black cattle have been bred in Ireland
during the last year, and that their increase within
the same period amounts to 231,120 as re-
turned in these statistics, it is evident that
174,973 store cattle must have been imported.
The fatted beasts cannot be included in the number,
for, being sent to market and instantly slaughtered
or exported, they may be said to cease to exist
almost immediately after they are landed. We have
not the returns of the black cattle imported into
Ireland during the time specified in Mr. Donelly's
statistics by us. As well as we remember, however,
the number has been exceedingly small. The same
remarks will apply to the asserted increase of sheep;
and if the Irish Register-General expects that any
attention can be paid to his future returns he must
offer some explanation on the points to which we
have alluded. If so large a quantity of live stock
as is necessary to make up the balance between the
asserted increase in their number within the year
and the number stated to have been bred in the
country has been imported, they must have been
paid for, and their price must necessarily be de-
ducted from the boasted augmentation in the agri-
cultural wealth of Ireland. Strange enough, too,
while black cattle and sheep are reported to have so
largely increased in numbers, the area under turnips
and mangold wurtzel, so necessary for their support.
has decreased over 3,000 acres; the increase in
green cropping being exclusively due to the greater
extent of land this year under potatoes.