The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-03 00:00:00

STATE OF A USTRIA.

If it be true Jupiter is in the habit of mak-
ing men the authors of their own ruin—driving
those mad whom he wishes to destroy—it is to be
feared that Jupiter has some evil intention respect-
ing Francis Joseph of Austria. All the historical
symptoms of a doomed dynasty are now manifesting
themselves in Vienna. No sovereign can afford to
be at once obstinate and weak. Magenta and Sol-
ferino have inflicted an indelible disgrace upon the
arms of Austria. These defeats have made mani-
fest to the world that, when compared with France,
Austria, ruled by her present Emperor, is but a
second-rate Power. The prostration of Austrian
financial credit bas made puhlic the fact that Aus-
tria is poor. Weak in arms and poor in pocket as
he is, Europe looks anxiously to discover how this
young Emperor, who has so difficult a part to play,
demeans himself in the crisis. History has her
great men, who have made their fame out of a eon:
juncture such as this. It is a moment when the
gener 1 sense of danger would have allowed a single
mind to break down and to build up. Francis
Joseph for a while promised to rise equal to the
occasion. When he turned his horse from that
square tower upon the Solferino height a great
superstition must Lave been swept out of his head.
That force upon which he had been taught to rely
with implicit confidence was broken, and he could
never again believe it to be invincible. Ua-
happily, the conviction thus rudely pressed upon
him could not be kept in secret. It was shared by
the whole world. Italy knows it, and Hungary
knowskinnfoeon it,
ristoaannhddi s
iPrussialoudly
s kan dcw,e knows
whilee bt.r a t el
pdt
oi
bls
iytkentl
yho
ewinignn;tooirtehdLT:
is steadily acted upon. England, France, and
Russia cannot but look upon Francis Jose ph as a
struggling man whose kingdom is in danger of
passing away from him.
Under these circumstances the young Emperor
seems to combine in himself all the weaknesses of
our Charles I. and all the stupid bigotry of our
James 11. If there be anything which could tide
over this crisis in the fortunes of Austria it would
he the loyal and energetic assistance of Hungary.
This was once not very difficult to obtain. The
Hungarians boast themselves to be the most war-
like nation in Europe; they are addicted to arms;
they were, moreover, traditionally loyal to the
house of Hapsburg, and quite ready to expend all
their enthusiasm in the service of that exacting
house. In that nation Francis Joseph had a great
source of military power and the materials for
many armies. But his opportunity rested upon
two conditions. Hungary is warlike, but she is
attached to free institutions ; she is loyal, but she
is to a great extent Protestant. Francis Joseph is
a despot and a bigot. The difficulty is precisely
that which beset our James 11. He, like Francis
Joseph, had to govern a Protestant and a free
people, whose institutions had been assailed and
whose religious fears had been aroused, and he
ended by being sneered at by shrewd priests as a
simpleton who lost three kingdoms for a mass.
Here, in our day, is an Imperial pilgrim travelling
in the same path. Hungary is as much attached
to her free institutions as our fathers were. Yet
she has seen them all swept away, and now lies
writhing under a tyranny so heavy that it is even
an offence to ask to speak her own language in her
own universities. Hungary also is to a great degree
Protestant, and her Protestantism is of the most
turbulent and uncompromising character. That Cal-
vinism with which tolerance is a crime is rife among
the Hungarians, and now finds itself the object of
persecution. How has this young Emperor dealt
with this valuable but difficult portion of his em-
pire ? He has in effect said to it, as was once be-
fore said with a fatal issue, " My father chastised
you with whips, but I will chastise you with scor-
pions." Instead of restoring the institutions which
had been taken away, Francis Joseph has made
even petitions for such a restoration a crime. He
has not only punished all agitation for such an
ob-
ject, but he has proscribed all those who indicated
any leaning towards a liberal policy fur Hungary.
Baron Hubner was dismissed because he was fa-
vourable to Hungary ; the Archduke Maximilian
was exiled because he recommended concessions to
Hungary ; and the Archduke Stephen has refused
to accept the government of that country because
he recoils from the oppression which his instructions
would have compelled him to inflict. So as to their
religion. Ho has persecuted the Protestants till
even, the Roman Catholic priests cry shame and
sympathise with their heretical countrymen, post.
poning their bonds of faith to ties of blood. The
letters which we publish to-day from Pesth and
Vienna tell that this insane young man is going on
to ruin with increasing rapidity at every step. A
deputation from the Protestants of Hungary has
been sent to Vienna to ask for the restoration of
the historical rights and the old State recognition
of the "Evangelical Church of Hungary;.' to de-
mand the revocation of the Patent which proscribes
the Reformed religion, and to attempt to induce the
Emperor to convoke a Protestant Synod. It ap-
pears that these men, some of whom are of the
highest rank, have been refused an audience by the
Emperor, and have been rudely scolded and sent
away from Vienna by his Ministers. They are gone
back again to Hungary, and as they recount the
incidents of their stay in Vienna, and repeat the
coarse words of insult addressed to them by M. de
Rechberg, they are arousing far and wide that for-
midable religious zeal which the prosecution of the
Seven Bishops created in this country.
Thus, instead of Hungary being the strength of
Austria, she has become her weakness and her great
difficulty. Passive resistance and universal hatred
reign silent together throughout the land. All
Hungarians are united in disaffection to the
house of Hapsburg. The Bishop of Erlau and his
inferior clergy are as anxious as the Calvinistic
Synods to take advantage of any opportunity for
making any demonstration against Austria, and
they subscribe their thousands of pounds to a Na-
tional Academy with this object. Count Zay, the
leader of the old Conservative party, tells the Em-
peror that the restoration of Austria to her ancient
power is conditional upon the restoration of free
institutions in Hungary. The people are all as-
suming with ostentation the national costume;
the Protestants are thrusting themselves forward
for persecution ; Francis Joseph
.has succeeded by
his obstinacy and bigotry in alienating the affec-
tions of a people who only required fair treatment
to be the prop of his empire, and he has at the
same time by the exhibition of his weakness en-
couraged them to set his authority at nought.
Where will all this end ? It is only to a certaia
point that a Conservative Power can rely upon
other Conservative Powers to save it in its utmost
need. It may be so far gone that its neighbours
may deem it hopeless, and find it more costly to
support than dangerous when broken up. Here is
this empire, lately so strong and so powerful,
brought to the brink of ruin. Lombardy is rent
away, Central Italy is gone, even the faithful
Tyrol is disaffected, Venetia is ardent for revolt,
Hungary is awaiting only the first occasion for
armed resistance, and Croatia and Servia are ready
to unite with her. Yet, in the midst of this stands
Francis Joseph, weighed down with the Concordat,
his confessor and director instigating his every
act, persevering, with the indomitable stupidity of
the Hapsburgs, in heaping up religious hatreds
upon political discontents, and labouring blindly
until some casual hand shall fire the pile.—.7intes.

UNIVERSITY RIOT AT EDINBURGH.

A skirmish took place on Monday between the
students of the Edinburgh University and the police.
The disturbance began with playful snowballing,
but led eventually to more serious results. The
.'cots»zan says, that with the object of preventing
collisions between " town and gown," the policemen
quietly patrolled up and down in front of the col-
h•ge with their batons, but it soon became evident
that the students regarded this as an insult, which
they were determined to resent. One or two of
them were so unlucky es to be seen snowballing out-
side the gates, and were at once taken into custody.
This was considered a strong provocative by th • sta.
dents, who discharged volleys of snowballs at the
officers, and knocked one or two of their hats off.
The police, after a time, made a dash into the en-
blows from the closure. A general snow-skirmish was the result,
hard
dho figured prominently
and in a short
ainn dthtewomoelreteh, rreeeesetiuvdedenthsa,
con-
stables' batons. Thirty or forty of the more impe-
tuous had met with severe handling
nd
encouraged by a cry of " sticks,"
welkin g -sticks
rushed through the entrance
iiinto
ttohteheQ collegians,
straederta,
rind seedvewrailthtocyo-mshmopons,
which, in some instances, were daringly fl •
flourished
in the faces of the policemen. As the day wore on
the combatants got more and more e •
time literally
appeared b e s i besieged
armed
excited, and the
capture of a student being the • immediate cause, a
melee took place. Sticks
andbatons were used with
remarkable vigour, end in
some cases with serious
results—policemen and students were knocked down,
and many came out of
with blood. It the melee with faces streaming
seemed, to use the phrase of a by-
stander, "as if the h 1 w o e street was fighting." Five
or six more arrests were made in the course of this
severe struggle, and the prisoners were marched off
to the High-street. Towards four o'clock the dis-
turbances, which had in a great measure subsided,
again broke out with renewed fury, and the street
was, if possible, in a worse uproar than, before. A
number of magistrates and profess(Jrs had now
arrived at the scene of action, and endeavoured to
restore order ; but the students inF,lsted, as the first
condition of peace, that the policr.l should withdraw,
' and in deference to this loudly-expressed wish, the
superintendents withdrew their forces from the
college to the School of Artti close by. This happily
closed the riot.