The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The prospects arising from the Treaty of
Peace lately concluded at Vienna are less favourable
to Austria than they are to Italy. The difference
does not merely lie in the fact that the vanquished
Italians are enriched to the full extent of the losses

of their Austrian victors. It is not simply because
Austria has been compelled to part with Venetia and
renounce her place at the head of the German Con-
federacy that her condition inspires her well-wishers
with serious apprehensions. The uneasiness pro-
ceeds from the extreme difficulty created for her by
the late events of determining her proper position
for the future. The Hapsburg has ceased to be a
German and an Italian Sovereign. What place will
he have in Europe simply as an Austrian monarch ?
The time has come at last for men to get at the mean-
ing of the word " Austrian." The petty feudal lord
of some of the south-eastern circles of Germany, the
Duke of Austria, became a mighty Prince by a series
of auspicious events which brought Bohemia, Hun-
gary, and other non-German lands under his sway.
By the aid of these non-German possessions he se-
cured supreme power in Germany, carried Imperial
elections, and fixed the Empire on almost hereditary
rights in his House. The ascendancy of the Empire
in its turn enabled him to strengthen his sway over
the non-German dominions. The work of so many
centuries is now at last thoroughly undone. In Ger-
many the Emperor Francis Joseph counts for even
less than the petty feudal chief, his ancestor. But
he is still the lord of a small separate and indepen-
dent German State, the head of a vast extent of
non-German possessions —perhaps 8,000,000 Ger-
mans against 25,000,000 non-Germans: The posi-
tion is wholly reversed; the basis of empire displaced.
Up to 1806, or 1815, or even 1848, so long as Aus-
tria was at the head either of the German Empire or
of the Confederacy, she ruled by the aid of a German
majority, if not of numbers, at least of political and
social strength and intelligence, with her seat of
power at Vienna ; but, since Sadowa, the Kaiser
finds himself with his Germans in the minority, and
his State shows a tendency to gravitate to the east-
ward, to look for a new centre at Pesth, if not fur-
ther down to Szegedin or Belgrade. There is at
the present moment apparent calmness in the
Austrian Empire, especially in its light-hearted
capital, and the Government have at last deemed it
expedient to raise the state of siege, acknowledging
thus the improvidence of a measure of rigour for
which those easy-going Viennese had given no pro-
vocation ; but under that smooth surface the Empire
is no less a prey to helpless anarchy, an anarchy in
every branch and order of the administration. There
is as little Government in Austria at this moment,
as little mind and will to frame a policy for the
future, as there was in the worst days of 1848,
when General Perrone, Minister for Foreign Affairs
in Sardinia, being urged to profit by the disorder of
Austria to renew the contest in Lombardy, answered,
with what seemed then sound wisdom, " that he
thought it folly to meddle with a mad dog sure to
die of its own rage." The knots which the sword
managed to cut in 1848 present themselves again
now, awaiting a peaceful solution. The nationali-
ties are once more let loose. The position of 1848
is reproduced in 1866, but with two main points of
difference. In 1848 Germanism was still strong
enough to stem the tide. It first enlisted national
pride in the overthrow of a foreign aggressor. It
bore up the old Hapsburg standard against Sardinia.
It then turned its regained strength to the suppres-
sion of home factions ; it reorganised the central
power at Vienna, and hence proceeded to the sub-
jugation of the non-German Provinces. But there
was even then one of these Provinces for which
Germanism was not a match. Hungary was too
strong for Austria, and had to be brought to alle-
giance by Russian interference. In 1866 Germanism
constitutes a feeble minority in the Empire ; but,
on the other hand, and by way of compensation,
the loss of her position in Germany and Italy
enables Austria to throw all the weight of her
power into the settlement of internal difficulties.
The main difficulty, now as before, is, of course,
Hungary, and as the German element must needs
have lost so much of its ascendancy it has
occurred to some that the safety of the Empire
could best be provided for by a compromise between
Germanism and Magyarism--a partnership of power
between Vienna and Pesth. Under a scheme of per-
sonal union these two leading races, it is supposed,
Could keep all the minor nationalities under subjec-
tion. But it is, in the first place, very questionable
whether the German and the Magyar will either
agree to an equal share of power or bow to one an-
other, and it is still more doubtful whether the minor
nationalities will be easily amenable to the rule of
either or both of them. Were the Austrian Empire
composed only of three or four distinct members, or
were one, at least, of its members so compact and
homogeneous as to be able to take a central position
and maintain it, the cohesion with and subordina-
tion to it of the minor fragments might be easily
obtained. But out of the German element, which
has lost its main stay in the Confederacy, and con-
stitutes now, as we said, a small minority, there is
no such possible basis. The Magyar is the domi-
nant, but by no means the only, race in Hungary ;
the Czech does not occhpy the whole soil of Bohe-
mia, and all the East and South-east is swarming
with Slavonic tribes, so mixed up and interspersed
with. the German, or Saxon, and the Magyar, and
so constantly pressing and trampling upon one
another, that it would be idle to attempt to trace
either distinct or permanent limits between them.
So long as Austria was an absolute State, and Ger-
manism her centre, not only was her rule unre-
sisted, but hailed for its highly beneficial, civilising
influence ; but any attempt on the part of the
Government to organise itself on free principles, tlol
introduce representative forms, and, above a
things, to admit the justice of national claims, has
had hitherto no other effect than to raise a
storm of sub-national counter claims, and bring
the State to the 'verge of utter dissolution. It
is in consideration of these supreme dangers
that the Government of Francis Joseph, if any-
thing like Government may be said to exist in
Austria, seem staggered in their schemes for the re-
construction of the Empire, either on the principle
of a Dualism between the German provinces and
Hungary, or of a federation of the main national
divisions of the Empire. Anything constitu-
tionallikeatbe
plan, either general or partial, or the forma-
tion of a real Ministry, is in abeyance, and
ma-
nagement of military and diplomatic affairs algne
engrosses the attention of the rulers. The Archduke
Albert, the only man of energy, as itappears, about
the Emperor's person, seems to put all his faith in
the army, and the only measure of importance in
the appointment of Count Goluchowsky to the Go-
vernment of Galicia, and of Count Rothkirch Pan-
then to that of Bohemia; the former to the great
satisfaction of his Polish subjects, the latter to the
great indignation of the Czechs. The mere creation
of satrapies, with power to deal with local Diets,
upon more or less independent or autonomous prin-
ciples, might, perhaps, produce the form of govern-
ment best suited to the minor Provinces, and might
transform the Empire into a Confederacy' with a
strong military centraebs
ottnotahseyeltargoner
especially Hungary,
government, and aren
part
ad
rotm
os
f,
actual independence
ly separa t separate
either with or without aacntieian
the Hapsburgs. There is
very little show of disloyaltyl3;einrbteu
the
the Magyars ; but they d •
may be less determined be-
cause they are not clamorous. An outbreak in
Hungary would involve no slight danger to the
Monarchy ; but the Emperor and the Archduke
Albert are straining every nerve to keep the army
in the utmost state ofefficiency,and
quite German by reason of its strong organisation,
they rely upon it as the most conservative element
in the State. The peace concluded with Italy, and
the removal of the garrisons • • from the Quadrilateral,
enable them to concentrate their forces round the
seat of Empire, and to act with undivided energies
upon any given point. In any dispute with Hun-
gary, in any difficulty in the East, Austria will no
longer have to be on her guard against the South.
Her mission in Europe " no longer leads her in
that direction," as she informs us, and, notwith-
standing many petty demonstrations of it
is not likely that she can harbour any serious
thought of a new quarrel with Prussia or of the
recovery of her lost ground in Germany. Her life
or death now depends on the solution of the
home question, on the settlement of the great na-
tional difficulty. It is in all probability with a view
to prepare against internal disorders that the army
is being set in order, not for a new appeal to the
fortune of arms in Germany. Austria should be as
anxious to cultivate a neighbourly feeling towards
Prussia as she exhorts Italy to entertain towards
herself. In all her complications on the Danube, in
her conflict with rebel races, or in her advance upon
Turkish or Russian borders, she can have no better
ally than the new North German Confederacy.
The animosity between Austria and Prussia, how-
ever natural under present circumstances, should
not be long-lived. The ground of ill-will between
them is for ever removed, and the two countries need
never again cross each other's path. They may
still have, both in the East and West, community
of interests, but scarcely any ground for rivalry and
hostility.
ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES. The Pall-Mall
Gazette is a very young thing in an antique
garb. Ably conducted, young though it be, it
is already a great success. The Spectator_
through its spectacles—has perhaps become con-
scious that a vacant place has been filled. The
" Weekly" will be the more sensible of this, from
the sharp slap given to it by the young " Daily."
The Pall-Mall alleges on the part of the Spectator
the most painful ignorance of the Eastern question.
It warns its venerable contemporary off that ground