The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-02 00:00:00

GERMANY

AND

THE NORTHERN STATES.

AUSTRIA.

The Wiener Zeitung of the 27th August says—
The Minister of the Interior has received the follow-
ing autograph letter from his Majesty :
" My dear Baron Von Doblhoff,—lt affords me much
gratification, on occasion of the defiling of the National
Guard of Vienna and its neighbourhood, to receive their
demonstrations of attachment, and at the same time to
witness the proficiency in the formation of an armed
power to which this useful institute has already attained.
" I hereby charge you to make known my entire satis-
faction and acknowledgment on these points to all the
departments of the National Guard.
" I entertain the confident expectation that the guard,
fully recognising its high calling, will ever uphold with
energy and perseverance the laws of the constitutional
monarchy, which the true welfare of our Fatherland
demands, and of which they have given signal evidence
during the last few days.

" FERDINAND.
" WESSENBER G.

" Schoenbrunn, August 25."
Field-Marshal RADETZKY has forwarded to the
Minister of War ten of the Italian colours which
were taken from the enemy ; one of them belonged to
the Croatian, and the rest to the Piedmontese troops.
They have been deposited, with the keys of the city
of Milan, in the Imperial arsenal of Vienna, with
trophies of war of former times.
The Allgemeine Zeitung, of the 27th, has the fol-
lowing on the Austro-Italian question :
" The Italian question appears to be a source of great
embarrassment to our Ministry. The Government is
halting between the true interests of Austria and the
desires of a portion of the Radical party, and is at a
loss what to decide. Two of the Ministers (Doblhoff
and Schwarzer) appear inclined to sacrifice our richest
provinces. We must avow the idea seems to us too
silly to have been expressed in a Cabinet
Council; and what inducement could there have
been to lead Doblhoff to such views? It is
scarcely comprehensible why our Ministers should just
now be fatigued with the most unpopular idea of sacri-
ficing the integrity of the Austrian empire, and why they
should begin with Lombardy, with Milan, which three
hundred years since was a fief of the empire, and was
definitively conceded to Austria after Prince Eugene's
victory near Turin, on the 7th September, 1706; Milan
has thus been for 140 years an integral part of the Aus-
trian empire, and the Government is now in doubt whe-
ther it ought still to remain so? Do they wish to parcel
out Austria according to dialects; or, simply, to cast
out the Italian element. But in that case, on the same
principle, the Venetian territory, South Tyrol, Trieste,
and the coast lands, and even Dalmatia, would have
to be abandoned. Thus Austria and Germany would
be entirely cut off from the Adriatic and Mediterranean
Seas, and the consequences would soon be manifest.
Austria was strong enough to overcome her enemies
from without—shall she succumb to those within? On
what grounds can Austria be requested to withdraw her
frontier line from the Ticino to the Mincio? And why
should the Ministry allow itself to be driven to this
shameful determination by a portion of the Radical
party? It is truly melancholy to think that at present
the happiness and future prosperity of the Monarchy—
the welfare of 35 millions of beings—is in the hands of
this faction. The Minister of War proved, by the
activity he displayed in reinforcing the army in Italy,
which led to the happy results obtained, that he esteemed
the honour of the Austrian arms higher than is the case
with many members of the Diet, and the interests of
Austria are consulted by him more than by many of
his colleagues; but we still hope that the Presi-
dent of the Cabinet is unjustly accused of sharing
the anti-Austrian opinions of the Minister of
Public Works. Let the Ministry, however, con-
sider that it is answerable for its acts to the whole
population of the empire, and that all the population will
demand an account for the millions that have been spent
towards the preservation of the Italian provinces, for the
sacrifices they have made in money and in human life.
All the subjects of Anstria have paid heavy sums, and
thousands of her brave sons have fallen fighting to pre-
serve to their country the provinces which for centuries
have belonged to Austria, and are they now to be sa-
crificed to the will of a few demagogical clubs? The
people of Lombardy and Venice were happy under
the away of Austria; they had attained a degree of
prosperity greater than in any other part of Italy,
and these beautiful provinces were deservedly called the
garden of Italy. After the events of March, when
liberty of the press and a constitution were granted to
the people of Austria, the revolution, which had long been
under organization by the nobles, broke out in Italy—to
excite the people in their favour, the events at Vienna
were kept a secret from them, or misrepresented. But
the truth gradually revealed itself, and the nobles failed
in their attempt to excite a general rising of the people.
In vain did the Provisional Government of Milan issue
its appeals to the inhabitants of the Valtelina, and of the
lowlands; the appeals did not meet with that sympathy
which the nobili had reckoned upon, and thus it was that
the great cities only took an active part in the revolu-
tion. How, in truth, could it have been possible to over-
come so easily a population of four millions, with an
army of eighty thousand of the best troops of Italy for
their defence, if the great mass of the people had
acted hand-in-band with the nobles? When a nation
is fully determined to constitute itself into a free and
independent state, there is no power on earth capable of
subjugating it. Thus the Netherlands threw off the
yoke of Spain, and the Spaniards the dominion of
France; and when the time shall have arrived for Italy
to form a great and independent empire, no human
power will be able to prevent it; but as yet, it is still
further from that epoch than our German fatherland.
It is, therefore, the duty of the Government to avoid
exposing the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom to new poli-
tical tempests, arid to protest in the most formal manner
against every species of foreign intervention. Neither
England nor France, nor any other powers, have any
right whatever to interfere in the national affairs of
Austria, or else Austria has ceased to be one of the grey
powers of Europe."

PRUSSIA.
Our accounts from Berlin are to the 29th. At
that time the capital was in a very excited state, as
several of the workmen had expressed their determi-
nation to rescue the prisoners who had been arrested
on account of the former etneute, but at the time the
last accounts left the public tranquillity had not been
disturbed.

FRANKFORT.
In the sitting of the German Parliament, of the
29th ult., the following sections of Art. 3 of the fun-
damental law were disposed of :
" Sec. 11. Every German has full liberty of faith and
conscience.—Carried unanimously.
" No one is bound to reveal his religious convictions,
nor to unite himself to any particular religious com-
munion.—Carried.
" No one, on account of his religious convictions, may
be deprived of his privileges, or otherwise prejudiced.—
Rejected; noes 217, ayes 199.
" Sec. 12. Every German is unrestricted in the
familiar exercise of his religion, both at home and in
public. Crimes and offences committed in the exercise
of this liberty are punishable_ according to law.—
Carried.

" Sec. 13. The enjoyment of civil and political rights
is neither made conditional on, nor limited by, a reli-
gious confession. Such confession cannot interfere with
political duties.—Carried."

DENMARK AND GERMANY.
On the subject of the conclusion of the armistice
between Denmark and Germany, which was last
night announced in the House of Commons by Lord
PALMERSTON, the Hamburgh Borsenhalle, of
Tuesday last, contains the following additional intel-
ligence :