The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-05 00:00:00

FRASER.

Fraser opens this month with four chapters from the
" Peace Campaigns of Ensign Faunce," by Michael
South, which promise well. Michael South is a
regular thorough- bred rollicking Tory of the genuine
Maginn breed, a most amusing, impudent vagabond.
John Sterling's " Richard Coeur de Lion" is con-
tinued ; since Byron's " Don Juan" we have had no
such poem. The mantle of the Italian poets has
fallen on John Sterling. The article entitled
" Layard's Nineveh" is a most interesting notice of
Mr. Layard's recently published work; we have also
an excellent review of " Hunt's Poetry of Science,"
and a batch of recently published novels. The
" Biographical Sketch of the Career of Joseph de
Maistre" is spun out to too great a length. It is out
of the power of Fraser to render famous the career
of such an illustrious obscure as De Maistre,
of whom even on the continent little is known and
less cared for. In the paper on insolvent Members of
Parliament, Fraser, of course, is all for the expulsion
of them from the House of Commons, although he
is as strenuously opposed to the adoption of any mea-
sures for compelling Peers to pay their just debts.
This alone is sufficient to prove the animus by
which these virtuous indignants are animated. The
rough sketches of " Vienna during the Siege and after
it," are very interesting. The writer became ac-
quainted with one of Jellachich's Seretshaners, who
thus explained to him the nature of Croatian military
service.

" Sir,' said the Seretshaner, the Croat has no pay
like the other soldiers. When at home he tills his land,
which it is his duty to defend against the Turks. When
the Turks come over and take one of his sheep, he
collects his comrades and takes as many sheep as he
can find in the nearest Turkish village. When the Croat
goes to war his land remains uncultivated; his wife and
children must starve, and the old woman that lives in
his hut, his mother, perish for want unless he bring
some booty. "
And
,this wholesale system of robbery and murder
is not only tolerated, but organized by the Austrian
Government, which boasts of its love of order and
civilization. The most furious red Republican,
the maddest Communist that ever denounced
property as theft, never thought of orga-
nising such a diabolical system of plunder
as this which is maintained for its own purposes by
the house of Lorraine•llapsbourg. The Emperor of
Austria is King of the Bohemians in every sense of
the phrase. It would appear from the accounts of
this writer that Windischgratz is ill-natured, ill-
conditioned, obstinate, and excessively stupid, and
therefore he must have been almost driven mad by
the escape of Dr.,Schiate, which was not only cleverly
managed as regarded the escape itself, but so managed
as to be most annoying to Windischgratz and the
Austrian authorities, who were, by the clever tact of
Schiitte, made to aid and assist in his escape, for
which they received his thanks accordingly. We
subjoin the very amusing account of Schiitte's ad-
ventures :

" But the cruellest cut of all was that which Doctor
Schiitte gave the poor Prince. That strange man was
particularly wanted at head-quarters; the giving up of
him was among the first conditions of the capitulation
which the Prince had offered the town. A large reward
was offered to the lucky soldier who should succeed in
catching him; and, in spite of all this, and while the
distant frontiers were guarded, and while the agents of
the police were rummaging the distant provinces to pre-
vent the escape of the arch-agitator, Doctor Schiitte re-
mained quietly at Vienna, where he had taken lodgings
in the house of a fair widow, whose attachment to the
reigning dynasty was too well known to make her an
object of suspicion. Quitting Vienna at length, in the
most impertinent manner imaginable, and sending Prince
Windischgrdtz a letter of adieu, in which he thanked
him for his protection, the Doctor proceeded through
Hungary into Galicia; and imposing upon the governor
of that province, he, by false pretences of course, swin-
dled that chieftain out of a passport and an escort of two
hussars, who conducted the object of Windischgriitz's
hate (and, by the bye, he prides himself upon being a
good hater) safely to the frontiers of Prussian Silesia.
Doctor Schiitte was by far too polite a man not to ex-
press his deep sense of gratitude at so much unmerited
kindness. He did so in a letter to the Governor-General
of Galicia, which he charged his escort to deliver. The
message proved an unlucky one for the two fellows, who
were put in irons for the fault which their superior had
committed. Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi :in plain
English—' The master's folly is the servant's crime.' It
may easily be supposed that the temper of Prince Win-
dischgriitz was not much sweetened by occurrences like
these."