The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-15 00:00:00

THE AUSTRIANS IN WALLACHIA.

(From the Daily News.)

The officers of the Austrian army of occupation
in Wallachia are conducting themselves at Bucha-
rest with the same insolent brutality which they
have for years been excercising at the expense of
the inhabitants of the Lombardo-Venetian terri-
tories. The letter of our corresponlent at Bucha-
rest, which we published yesterday, contained an
account of their intolerably overbearing demeanour,
in so far as the Turkish Government was concerned.
The letter from the same gentleman, which we pub-
lish to-day, contains an account of their treatment
of private individuals. The magnanimous General
Popovitch performs a prominent part in the drama.
This gallant hero, who in 1848 saved his skin
by surrendering to a much inferior force under
Guyon, and quietly remaining a prisoner to the
end of the war, is now displaying his valour
at the expense of the lodging-house keepers and
ladies of Bucharest. Because au unfortunate house-
owner, whose apartments have pleased him, refuses
to unlock the rooms of two lodgers who are in the
country, and give them up to the Austrian general,
Popovitch almost beats the doors off their hinges.
If he ultimately gained admission—a matter still in
doubt—it is to be hoped the absent lodgers ob-
tained a good account of the property they had
left behind them under lock and key. Popovitch
did not come off so scathless in his attempt to
insult a lady of Bucharest upon whom he wished
to quarter some of his staff. Omer Pacha in-
terfered ; told the Austrian hero in the plainest
language what he thought of his conduct; and Po-
povitch apologised. In so doing he acted in ser-
vile imitation of his Commander-in -Chief. General
Hess advanced towards Bucharest, distributing
right and left handfulls of a proclamation, in which
he ordered the Wallachian authorities to apply to
his aide-de-camp for instructions in everything.
Omer Pacha protested against this order, repre-
senting to Feldzeugmeister Hess that as general of
a friendly army of occupation he had nothing to
do with the civil government of Wallachia, which
was vested in him, Omer Paella. The Feldzeug-
moister apologised ; vowed he had no intention
to encroach upon the jurisdiction of the Pacha ;
and, to prove this, showed the proclamation in the
original German, where the Wallachian authorities
were only instructed to apply to his Adjutant in all
things connected with the Austrian troops. It was
curious that this important mission in the Walla-
chian translation was never discovered till after
Omer Pacha had remonstrated. The apology of
General Popovitch was an equally tardy and un-
gracious compliance with a broad hint from Omer
Pacha. Will Feldzeugmeister Hess and General
Popovitch be equally amenable to the rebukes of
the Paella after the Austrian army of occupation
has been concentrated around Bucharest ? They
are both trying how far they may venture to
go ; and in future the amount of their power
will be the exact measure of the insolence of the
one in his intercourse with the Turkish authori-
ties, and of the brutality of the other in his inter-
course with the non-official Wallachians of every
rank, age, and sex. The spirit of Radetzky, the
oppressor of Italy, animates Hess ; the spirit of
Haynau, the woman-flogger, has migrated into
Popovitch. The Government of Vienna already
regards the Danubian Principalities as equally its
own property in perpetuity with Venice and:Lom-
bardy. It is governing the new acquisition in the
same spirit that it has ruled the old. By the con-
vention of the 14th of June last the Porte has
bound itself to admit the advance of Austrian
troops into the Principalities, and to allow them
to remain there until a new special convention regu-
lating their retreat has been concluded between the
Austrian and Turkish Governments. The Aus-
trians having taken the precaution to prevent their
being forcibly expelled from Wallachia and Mol-
davia, are already beginning to show their deter-
mination to act there not as friendly allies, but as
masters. They will take upon them an authority
they are not entitled to, like Feldzeugmeister Hess
in his proclamation ; they will continuo to act as
if their authority were real if not resisted ; if op-
posed, they will laugh the matter oft as a mistake,
but repeat the experiment on the first opportunity ;
and they will end by carrying their point.
The fate of the Porte in regard to the Danubian
Principalities is the exact counterpart of the fate of
one of the animal heroes of an sEsopian fable. The
horse begged the huntsman to avenge it on its
enemythe stag. The huntsman consented, on condi-
tion that the horse would take a bridle in its mouth,
and a saddle on its back, and allow him to mount
neoatsileyxa
it for the chase. The horse consented, but when
the stag was killed, and the chase was at an end,
amryalle nlotis SO
the horseman refused to dismount. The friendly
getot
irnidaolfl
satiai w. as
Tahneenpe
alisultinze
parts ; what historical or mythical parallel The huntsman really helped to kil
l the staever g
; the is
?
Austrians have had no hand in beating back the
Russians. The horse had nothing but its own folly
to thank for its subjection to the huntsman. When
the Turks are groaning under the infliction of
Austrian friendship they can turn round upon the
Government of England, and say, "It was your
advice that brought us into this scrape." On the
10th of June Lord Stratford de Redcliffe wrote
to the Earl of Clarendon, in relation to the conven-
tion between Austria and Turkey : "In reply. to an
application from Reschid Pacha, I have advised a
simple acceptance of the Austrian draft. On the 22d
of June Lord Clarendon replied to Lord Stratford
de Redcliffe—" I have to acquaint your Excel-
lency that her Majesty's Government approve the
the Turkish
in advisingcourse which you adopted
of treaty." Here are
Alinisters to accept the draft
hands both their hands—the of England's Foreign
b at Constan-
tinople—to Minister and of England's A m as a er
the confession that the occupation of is
Walla,chia by the
Austrians
their work. The
effect of that occupation has
already been to para-
lyse and strike despondency to the heart of
Omer c:,a ,
• to disorganise his army by de-
prfving
him of his best—his only reliable offi-
ers ; to subject the Wallachians, men and women,
to the brutalities of men bred in the schools of
Radetzky and Haynau ; and to consign to Aus-
trian fortresses and dungeons the residue of the
Hungarian patriots who have not yet been hanged,
shot, or imprisoned in Austria, and have not
found refuge in England or America. And all
these consequences must have been foreseen by
ministers and diplomatists who have been long
conversant with the Austrian Government. This
wretched transaction is a terrible stain on the
escutcheon of England • it is as bad as the national
breach of faith to Sicily and Genoa in the earlier
part of the century. To take arms against Russia
in order to wrest Moldavia and Wallachia from its
grasp, and then to play those provinces into the
hands of Austria, is one of the most degrading
farces recorded in history.