The Sun.
London, England, 1870-11-24 00:00:00

AUSTRIAN orINToN.

In the Eastern. Budget of. Wednesday we read :—Count
Beust's despatch in reply to the Russian circular is dated
the 17th instant. He points out the groundlessness of i
the reasons alleged by Prince Gortschakoff for the re-
pudiation by S Russia of her treaty engagements, and
demonstrates in strong terms the ~heavy responsibility
entailed upon Russia by her conduct. This is not the
first time that Count Beust has had to read
Prince Gortschakoff a lesson. During the Italian
war, when Germany seemed disposed to take the side of
Austria at the instigation of Saxony, Prince Gortschakoff
sent an important despatch to Dresden, warning the
German States not to interfere in European affairs. Count
Beust's reply, dated the 15th of June, was very sharp and
laconic, and it was pretty generally admitted at the time
that Saxony had gained a complete diplomatic triumph
over her huge antagonist.
One of the Pall Mall GazeUe correspondents at Vienna
writes :—That Prussia is secretly in accord with Russia
in this step, Count Beust makes no scruple of declaring,
indeed he has long since seen the meaning
and intention of the mock anger of Prussia
against England for her supposed favour to France
in the present war—a mere " querello Allemana "by
which, under the allegation of unfriendliness to Germany,
Bismarck was able to excite a bad feeling toward England
at the very moment when her magnificent benevolence
might have conciliated the German people. All these
were preliminary steps, all taken with due forethought,
arid all necessary for what was to follow.
The official Wiener Abendpast has 'twice denied that
Austria is arming—an anxiety which seems to indicate the
desire of the Government for peace. The Presse, one of
the leading Austrian journals, thinks the neutralisation of
the Black Sea of comparatively little importance. "We
cannot suppose that Russia will again venture on the
dance which cost Nicholas his life. We must, therefore,
still maintain the opinion that Prince Gorts•;hakoff's note
really intended only to get rid of the humiliating condi-
tions of the Paris Treaty, which deprived Russia of her
most important rights of sovereignty over a portion of
her own territory, and that it was due only to the national
want of manners if this was done in a way of which a
man would be ashamed in polite society, were it even in-
tended to be the prelude to a contest."
Karl Blind writes an article in the Neue Freie Presse of
Vienna, in'which he warns Germans against playing into
the hands of Russia. "England has not done in this
war that which, in a great measure, may be considered
her own interest, and which, moreover, would have been
regarded as a clear proof of friendship for Ger-
many. Are we, then, on that account, to do
the Russians, in a new Eastern question, a- favour for
which Germany would herself have to suffer in the end?
A thought like this cannot arise in the head of a thinking
politician. The polioy of petty revenge, of self-injury for
the assuagement of wounded feelings, is no policy at all.
If Germany does not mean to grow her policy exclusively
in the sand of the Uckermark, she must take care not to
allow the overgrown Muscovite Empire to assume once
more a domineering position in the Orient.
If all Germany stands together in this question, the
Russian cloud, which at this moment is only as big as a
man's hand, will soon dissolve. But if we hesitate, the
resistance of the French will be prolonged, for they will
hope that in consequence of the Russian demands a uni-
versal European complication will arise, in the course of
which they think England would, by the peculiar intri-
cacy of the situation, gradually be drawn towards the side
of France."