The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-19 00:00:00

WARWICK RACES.
(THIS DAY.)

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPn.)
SCURRY HANDICAP.

Little Davie

REDUCTION OF THE AUSTRIAN ARMY.

The same day's news has brought us two very
startling announcements. The Austrian army is
about to be reduced, the Spanish navy is about to
be augmented. What the Peace Conference lose
on one side they gain on the other; in point of fact,
if the intended operations are carried out, the gain
will far overbalance the loss. We wish we could
place implicit credence in the first of these rumours
—the second one is of a character merely ludi-
crous. The announcement of a reduction in the
Austrian army is, indeed, made with every circum-
stance of addition which should entitle it to weight.
If we hesitate in the presence of such authority,
it is because confidence lifts been too often
deceived on the same subject. The intelligence
amounts to this, that 49 men out of each company
of 100 are to be relieved from military service. It
is not, of course, to be supposed that therefore the
effective strength of the army is to be reduced by
2.5 th; as if the retiring soldiers were entirely libe-
rated from the military obligation, or that the Trea-
sury would be proportionably relieved. As far as
we understand the matter as yet, there is to
be a furlough upon an enormous scale, com-
bined with facilities to worn-out veterans to retire
altogether from active service. How far this
furlough will amount to an effective reduction
remains to be seen, and we shall certainly suspend
our judgment upon it until we have had an oppor-
tunity of examining the details of the plot. We
have so often heard of these contemplated
reductions in the continental armies, and hitherto
they have so invariably ended in mere formal
change, that we had rather lay ourselves open
to a charge of scepticism than to one of cre-
dulity. It is not unlikely that this announce-
ment is a mere bait to the unwary, as a fresh loan
to ease the Austrian Exchequer is in contemplation.
Nothing would be so likely to conciliate the good-
will of capitalists to such a project as the prospect
of diminished expenditure on the part of the Aus-
trian Government. Every year since 1848 there has
been an enormous deficit in the balance-sheet of

the Finance Minister at Vienna, and the reason of
this is no secret. The young Emperor has been
living too fast. He has been spending more money
than his income warranted upon cannons, bombs,
Dragoons, Lancers, pontoon bridges, and so forth.
It is therefore obvious enough that, if it will but
cut down its expenditure under these heads.
to the point which the necessities of its posi-
tion absolutely require, the old firm of Haps'
burgh and Co. may yet show a clean balance-sheet,
pay all creditors 20s. in the pound, and continue
to carry on business as heretofore. But this mob of
armed idlers won't do. The scheme of governing
the scattered provinces of the Austrian empire by
sheer brute force has already been proved to be a
mistake. It will no longer answer to send an
armed Lombard to Hungary, and an armed Hair
garian to Lombardy, an armed Moravian into
Styria, and an armed Styrian into Moravia, with
the most perfect confidence that each province,
will keep the other down, however disaffected
all may be to the central Government. The most
daring Minister of any Continental Sovereign—and
more especially of the young Emperor of Austria--;
would now-a-days rather trust for the security 01
his master's throne, and for the aggrandizement of
his nation, to the system of peaceful development
than to the calamitous certainties of war. War
has no longer any favourable chances for kings
!
Times.