The Sun.
London, England, 1854-11-10 00:00:00

AUSTRIA UNMASKED.

I3Y HER FRIEND—" TILE TIMES."
We suspect there are very few of our readers who
have temper, patience, or leisure to trace through all
their entangle:rents and crossings the threads that form
the endless meshes of German statecraft and diplomacy.
It was the pleasure of those who settled the affairs of
Europe after the close of the late war to create in Ger•
many a Power impotent, as they believed, for aggressive
purposes, but sufficiently powerful for the purposes of
sell-defence. Germany was intended to be an immense
mass impassible to all external force—a lake, whose sur-
face every breeze could ruffle, but whose waters would
immediately resume their original stillness. For this
purpose Germany has been furnished with a hierarchy
of powers as carefully and absurdly graduated as the
endless ranks of her nobility,.—two in the first rank,
three or four in a subordinate one, and others, each more
insignificant than the other, till we reach the very
smallest dimensions consistent with the existence of a
Court and the puniest semblance of royalty. This in-
genie us plan has in one respect been perfectly success-
ful. The great German nation, with its literature, its
refinement, and its valour, has been found quite free
from any aggressive impulses. The misfortune is, that
with the power of aggression that of self-defence has
also disappeared. The machine of the German empire
is so contrived as to give every member of the Cons
federation a separate and individual interest, sometimes
really, and often ostensibly, opposed to that of the whole
body. Austria and Prussia have been engaged in an
interminable conflict, the object of which is not the
welfare of Germany, but the obtaining the first place in
her councils, and to this have been relentlessly sacrificed
all considerations of German honour and independence.
We have often seen the two rival Governments suing in
emulous servility for the good graces of the Autocrat of
Russia, and ready to sacrifice the interests which, as
Germans, they hold in common, to the desire of forti-
fying themselves by the patronage of so great an ally.
The smaller Governments of Germany are engaged one
and all in the mere struggle for existence. Having no
substantive power to support them, feeling themselves
the mere creatures of tradition, invention, or caprice,
these petty Courts seek above all things to avoid being
crushed in the collision of larger States, and, by flinging
their weight now into one scale, now into the other,
seek to preserve the duality of Austria and Prussia, on
which alone their frail existence depends. If we add
that beneath the ground on which these phantom Prinoee
strut and fret their little hour, there is a mass of fer-
menting and fostering disaffection, ready to explode
at the moment when least expected, we have said
enouglnto show how it is that in the crisis of the des
tinies of Europe, when Germany is threatened by the
aggression of Russia along the whole of her flat and dee
fenceless eastern frontier, her arm is palsied, her heart
is faint, and her councils divided and irresolute. Rer
greatest river is closed at its mouth, first by wilful neg.
ligence, and then by armed violence ; the very artery
through which her life-blood flows is choked up ; yet,
while England and France cheerfully encounter war for
the sake of European interests, Germany cannot even
rise to the level of a German question, and, if the Weste
ern Powers had not drawn the sword, seemed likely to
have surrendered the Danube without a blow, and almost
without a remonstrance. Let any one watch the course
of Austria during the last year. United with us in every
diplomatic step which we have taken, she has still care.
fully avoided entangling herself with our alliance, or in-
curring a breach with that Power against whom we are at
this very moment fighting her battle, even more than our
own. At first the excuse was that while we were re-
mote from, she was near to the Russian frontier, and that
it was unreasonable to expect her to move till re-
assured by our presence. At last we came in such
force and with such preparations as made this excuse
no longer tenable ; but Austria moved not a whit the
more. The Congre-s of Bamberg was in the Russian
interest, and Austria dared not move without the con-
sent of the Congress of Bamberg, Meanwhile success
began to declare itself in favour of the Allies, and the
tide of Russian invasion was rolled back from the walls
of Silistria. Then Austria made an advance, but in
direction obviously dictated by other considerations
than those of European or even German policy. The
Principalities became untenable for Russia, and Austria
was willing to hold them for Turkey. Russia rejected
her ultimatum, but Austria shrank from enforcing that
ultimatum by a recourse to arms.
Such is pretty nearly the position she occupies at this
moment. The duties thrown on her by that position
are manifest enough. She is bound by good faith to
hold these provinces —as a friend of Turkey—as a sacred
deposit, to be returned when Turkey shall be in a
condition to demand it inviolate as she received it.
All accounts agree in stating that Austria has not
faithfully discharged this duty. From her first entrance
into the Danubian provinces up to the present moment
Austria has treated the Turks and the provincials with
an overbearing insolence, which seems to announce that
she comes, not as a friend, but as a master—not as an
ally, but as a sovereign. After her own fashion, she
seeks to establish herself in a province that she has not
conquered as an enemy, after having obtained entrance
into it as a friend, and practices on the banks of the
Danube the same obtuse and unrelenting despotism as
saddens the plains of Lombardy or the marshes of Venice.
The cuckoo has obtained admission into the nest, and
lords it there with all the confidence of the rightful
owner. Thus is Austria fulfilling the duty she has un-
dertaken towards Turkey, thus vindicating the position
she has assumed towards Russia. What is her present
gratitude towards England and France 9 Having joined
with us in all our negotiatiuns and remonstrances, Austria
was to a common apprehension bound to join us also in
the means we have taken to enforce them ; but, if unable
or unwilling to vindicate by her arms the conclusions of
her diplomacy, she was at least bound by every feeling of
honour and justice to act with the utmost good faith and
friendliness towards Powers with whom she had gone so
far, and from whom she bad so unaccountably separated
hei self. How far this reasonable expectation has been
verified we learn from a recent letter of our Constanti-
nople correspondent. We are engaged in besieging an
enormous fortress, defended by an army probably more
numerous than our own, fighting on its own ground,
and possessing unbounded supplies of the munitions of
war. Above all things, it was considered desirable that
this disparity should not be increased by the presence of
further Russian reinforcements. With that view, the
Turks contemplated a diversion in Bessarabia, which
would at once have obliged the Russians to concentrate
their troops in that quarter, and thus cut off the last
hope of relief from the army of the Crimea. It is said
that this movement has been prevented by Austria,
afraid that, were the Turks to invade Russia from the
Danubian provinces, the Emperor might treat such a
proceeding as an act of hostility. Surely, this is some-
thing less than neutrality. The Turks are at war with
Russia, Austria has solemnly pronounced their quarrel
just, and yet she interposes to prevent their making stra-
tegical movements considered necessary for their own
safety, and for that of the army of those very Powers with
whose views Austria has professed entire concurrence, and
in tho success of whose arms she has affected to rejoice I
The Austrian occupation of the Principalities is at this
moment used as a means of hostility to the Allied
Powers, and of facilitating the enterprises of Russia. If
we had known that the Turks were not to be allowed to
make a diversion in our favour on the banks of the
Pruth, that Austria had dispensed them from the neces-
sity of defending their own country, and forbidden them
from invading that of their enemy, we might have found
occupation for Omer Paella and his gallant army either
in the steppes of the Crimea or the mountains of Ar-
menia. Austria has indeed occupied the Principalities,
but has neutralised a force almost equal to her awn,
She has joined us in protocols, but deserted us in action.
She has entered on the Danube as our friend, and re-
mains there to insult our Allies, and counteract our
strategical combinations. But all this crooked policy
will avail her little. Austria may yet find that it is
easier to alienate a friend than to conciliate an enemy,
and that while her recent interference has lost her much
with the Allies, with Russia it has gained her nothing.

BEQUEST TO ST. ANDREW'S SCHOOLS.—We learn from
the "St. Andrew's Monthly Pa er " that the late Sir
John Gladstone having left a sum of money for distri-
bution, at the discretion of the four eons, the executors
of his will, Mr. Robertson Gladstone, with the concur-
rence of his co-executors, has presented 501. to the St.
Andrew's Schools, of which his father was the patron
and founder thirty-seven years ago.
GENEROSITY OF BRITISH SEAMEN.—By private letters
received from the Bebring Straits division of the Arctic
Search, it appears that as 5001 as the intelligence had
reached them of the sad fate of the noble Bellot (the only
officer whose life has been sacrificed in an immediate ac
of duty, in the search for Sir John Franklin), the officers
and crew of her Majesty's ships Plover and Rattlesnake
immediately subscribed a day's pay to the "Bellot testi-
slurs AT LivEnr.oa,toLt.::::
1 menial," expressing deep regret at the calamity which
had befallen him.
and Messrs.
SALE OF Mn.
Poor., Nov. 9.—The trustees of Mr. Oliver's estate have
dTocnog.et,oCouffreryr,foarndsalCeo,
Ordvsa's
Messrs-
Cunard, instructed
u nard,mun Messrs.n
an
Sales-room, Liverpool, on Thursday, th-e Cotton
• n
mat , 35
ships, of an aggregate tonnage of 20,500 tone, belonging;
to Mr. Oliver, and at present lying at Liverpool a
other ports in the kingdom. The other a"
ships of Mr.
Oliver, at sea-or in foreign ports, will be offered for sale
as they arrive.
A RAILWAY CHURCH.—The Groat
have given notice of their intent. Northern Railway
ment in the ensuing session f ion to apply to Parlia-
endow a church in or near the town powers to erect and
to-
gether with schoolhouses, for th town of Doncaster,
operatives and servants of the e benefit of the numerous
plant-station at that town company employed at the
At present Divine service
is temporarily performed .'
con-
nexion with the plant. The
en the reading-room in
new schools for the educa-
tion of the children of the
railway employes are already
in a forward state, and only require the internal fitting
to complete them.
TURKISH SCRlP.—Turkish S •
crip again experienced
fluet •
nations, and, after a further considerable fall, closed
with an improved appearance. The last price yesterday
was 1 discount, and, although it opened this morning at
i to i discount, heavy sales caused a decline to 2 dis-
count. From this there was ultimately a rally, and the
final quotation was ito I discount. The committee of
the Stock Exchange met in the morning to consider the
objections urged against the form in which the bonds
have been prepared for issue, and were of opinion that,
although no question could exist as to the regularity and
legality of the stamped signatures, the method being a
new one would be likely to excite dissatisfaction on the
part of foreign holders, and consequently to check a
favourable reception of the security in some of the con-
tinental markets. Under these circumstances, the con-
tractors expressed their perfect readiness to attach their
written signatures to the bonds in the ordinary manner,
and to call in for that purpose the few that Kaye yet been
'tut torah-416a City Arcido