The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-23 00:00:00

'Count Crivelli was sent to Rome. His instruc-
tions were to inform the Holy Father that the
Emperor of Austria, as a Catholic sovereign,
was heartily sorry that the. Constitution which
he had granted his subjects rendered it impos.
sible for him to carry out the whole of 'the
details of the Concordat. Mgr. Haynald,
Archbishop of Calocza, was, at the Emperor's
request, selected as the negotiator of the
changes asked for. Mgr. Haynald in the
administration of his diocese in Transylvania
Thad incurred the displeasure of the Emperor
by reason of his political opinion, and being
:for this reason obliged to resign his bishopric,
.had formerly resided for some time. in Rome
as an Archbishop in partibus. He was con-
sidered to be opposed to the Concordat, for,
at the meeting of the bishops of Vienna in
1856, he was the only one of the Hungarian
prelates who voted against it. In spite of this,
However, Mgr. Haploid declined to undertake
the task offered him; but the Emperor pressed
him, as a man in whom he had confidence, to
go to Rome and assist the endeavours of Count
Crivelli by showingthe Holy Father the difficult
position in which the Emperor was placed in
regard to the religious question. Despite
the pressing instances of the Emperor and of
every inducement held out, Mgr. Haynald re-
mained firm in his refusal to undertake the
mission, because, knowing as he did the de-
signs of the Viennese Government, he was
convinced of the futility of any attempt to
carry them out:
Thus, then, the matter now stands ; Count
Crivelli has gone to Rome ; but we do not be-
lieve he has a single backer in his propositions
to the Holy. See—propositions which have
not an atom of a chance of being acceded to.
ft remains now to be seen whether the Em-
peror will have the courage (which we have
great reason to doubt) to oppose his veto to
the laws contrary to .the Conordat which have
been passed by the Chambers. If these laws
are allowed to come into action the Concordat
will be ipso facto annulled, and Austria, leaving
far behind her even the rankest Josephism, will
drift insensibly into pure and simple secular-
ism. Moreover, she will lose the sympathy,
which hitherto she has naturally received, of
the Catholics throughout the whole of Ger-
many.

As a fitting appendage to the above signs
of Austrian religious retrogression we subjoin
some extracts from a speech delivered by the
present Austrian Minister of the Interior,
Herr G-iskra, on the occasion of opening a
Protestant church at Briinn. After congratu-
lating the Protestants—to whom, he said,
Briinn was indebted for its prosperity—he
continued :

" A small body of people has brought to its
completion a great undertaking, because they
were inspired by a great idea. This Protestant
temple is the symbol of civilization, of
humanity, of progress. Toleration reigns at
Brinin, where Catholics and Jews have con-
tributed to the building of a Protestant church,
and, despite the Concordat, in your cemetery
the Protestant and the Catholic dead are not
separated. Yes, the inhabitants 'of an indus-
trial town are gifted with much more extended
vision than those who are pent up in narrow
valleys. Fear not that your church will be de-
stroyed. The fanatics and the lovers of dark-
ness have the will to destroy it, but they dare
not attempt to carry out their wish. At a
time when the Emperor no longer makes a
distinction between Catholic and Protestant in
the choice of his ministers, full and entire
toleration has not long to be waited for. The
victory of the principle that the State should
be of no religion cannot be won without hard
fighting ; but it will triumph in the end, for
the principles of the age and the intelligence of
Europe are assisting us in our battle against
that treaty (the Concordat) which was forced
upon the Emperor in a moment of fear. Let
the Austrian people, then, congratulate them-
selves upon the near approach of the triumph
of intelligence, of humanity, of civilization,
over barbarism and fanaticism."

It is true that Herr Giskra was not appointed
to his present post when he delivered this ora-
tion ; but we have no reason to believe that
his principles are changed by his elevation to
office. We have no hesitation in saying that a
man who should have given utterance to such
principles in Prussia would have destroyed
thereby the remotest chance of being selected
to assist in the councils of King William and
Count von Bismarck. But Herr Giskra's sen-
timents are quite after the spirit of the " new
era," as it is called, which has been inaugu-
rated in Austria. Lately, in the theatre at
Bolsano (Tyrol), some verses expressive of
contempt and insult towards the Church and
the Pope were loudly applauded by a num-
ber of " young Austrians" present. Several
of the inhabitants of the commune determined
to make a counter demonstration, if the scene
were repeated on another occasion. They there-q
fore attended the' theatre in conjunction with'
others from the neighbouring communes, and
when the vile effusion was again begun hisses
were heard from all parts of the house,
" mingled wijh warm expressions of disgust at
the proprietor of the theatre, who thus insulted
the most holy sentiments of the Tyrolese
people. Hereupon the military were called,
and they arrested several of those who had
expressed their disapprobation, and hauled
them off to prison. Next day three gentlemen,
who had given the signal for the demonstra-
tion, were brought before the magistrate, and
fined in various sums, and for having defended
the religion of their country." So you see
Austria has opened the doors of liberty to her
people.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)
PARIS, March 19.

Tue hurricane which burst over Paris the other
day, and blew about the handcarts and umbrellas
(we quote the simile of Swinburne in Peter Simple)
like peelings of onions, has been the last effort of
departing winter to die with decency, and now the
winking marybuds begin to open their golden eyes ;
that is to say; the delicate lilac is in flower,
bright green buds are bursting from the chestnut,
and the modest violet upturns her meek coun-
tenance to the sun, all which, being duly inter-
preted, means, in plain matter of fact prose, that the
fine weather has set in, and the habitués of the
cafés of the Boulevards now take their ease
not in their inn but outside it. In the political
world the Moniteur has officially confirmed
the language held by his Excellency M. Rouher
in the Legislative Assembly on the 4th inst., to the
effect that the relations of France with other
countries have never been more amicable than at
present. In the last audience accorded by the
Emperor to M. de Goltz, the Prussian Ambassador,
his Majesty said he hoped to establish the best
possible relations between the respective Govern-
ments ; his intention was to preserve the strictest
amity with all his neighbours. it is more than
probable that this bas been the motive of Prince
Napoleon's visit to Germany, as it is said the Em-
peror has expressed great satisfaction at its result.
Some differences are said to exist between Prussia
and Denmark. Such matters, however, bear the
same analogy to the general prospects of peace as
light clouds do upon the face of a summer
sky. Under such circumstances, the main
object of political attraction at Paris is found in
the brilliant debates of the Legislative Assembly.
The measure of Government proposes to leave all
meetings which do not touch upon politics or reli-
gion uncontrolled, merely requiring the guarantee
of a few persons in regard to meetings having a
pOlitical tendency, for the order with which ',hey
should conducted. Of course this does not
meet the views of the ultra Liberals, who, setting
out with the incomplete and deceptive hypothesis
that all assemblies must have for their end the
diffusion of useful knowledge, build thereon a
series of assertions and deductions, which, like
the card-houses of children, fall down at the
first breath of sense and reason which reaches them.
If the past history of France may be assumed as an
argument, surely no country has suffered more
from the existence of clubs and other unrestrained