The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-07-07 00:00:00

• FROM TUB IMSNCH PAPERS.

Pants, Just 27.—The communication which
wa% m ide to the Senate is the sitting of the 15th
A orii, was confined tcs.the official papers which
accompanied the Repoct, of the Minister for rt._
rc;gn Affairs upon the aggression of Austria. But
there exist other docpments not less prover to
make known, the violence and the injustice that
have directed the measures of that Power—War
was preceded by the most odious violation of the
rights of persons. On the 17th March, a French
Officer, with dispatches from M. Doduit, French
Charge d'Affaires at Vienna, was stopped at Bran-
nan, a frontier town of Austria—his dispatches
were taken by force, and sent to Vienna. When
his Majesty was informed of this, by a letter from
M. Otto, he ordered reprisels. An Austrian
courier from Vknna was stopped at Nancy, and hie
dispatches seized. They consisted of letters both
official and private from M. Stadion, of plans of
notes, to which was joined the Declaration of the
27th March, and of private letters. We shall
see by the official dispatch annexed (No. 2), that
the Court of Vienna rejects the proposals of the
gitaraatee of Russia, a measure which France pro.
posed, and which was, without doubt, the best
calculated to ensure the tranquillity of Austria, if
Austria had only wished for tranquillity—that she
rejected it ander the futile, and, to Russia, the
injurious pretext of the weakness of that guaran-
tee, and of the fear of compromising the power
that should have granted it.—Thus bad faith dere.
lopes itself by the pretexts with which it seeks to
coaccal its measures. In the same dispatch M. de
Alen( qich was ordered not to demand his pass-
ports t ! he shall have known that hostilities have
commenced, and then, by charging him to deliver
the Declaration of the 27th of March. This de.
elsration is not a Declaration of War—it was
wished that it should not be considered as such,
because M. de Metternich was prohibited from
demanding his passports, and yet war was re.
solved upon at that epoch, the order for the
commencement of hostilities given, and these
hostilities had begun before the Austrian Cou-
rier stopped at Nancy could have reached Paris,
and the Declaration of the 27th of March de-
livered by the A ustrian Ambassador. Thus the
Court of Vienna made war without declaring it.--
it made war when its Ambassador was at Paris,
enjoying all the honours of his rank, and treated
as the Representative of a friendly Power. Austria
herself degraded the character of her Ambassador
by making him the instrument of a perfidy, and
pet him in a situation in which he was asked for
an account of the French blood that flowed on the
fr•atiers, whilst he wu still speaking of the paci-
fic disposition of his Muter towards France. On
the 10th April, the Austrian Generals on the Inn,
the Isonzo, and in Dalmatia, made known to the.
French, or Allied headquarters, 20 or 30 leagues
off, that they had orders to march forward, and to
treat as enemies all that should oppose them.
At the same moment they attacked the advanced
posts, 24 hours before the latter could have re-
ceived orders from bead-quarters, and had the
noble glory of massacring some soldiers who were
reposing iu the security of peace. Military laws,
like those of honour, prescribed several days no.
tice. Thus they made sport of all that Nations
have agreed to respect, of all that form the basis
of their relations with each other, and of
all that the most savage people regard as sacred.
Amongst the private letters is one addressed to M.
de Metternich (No. 7.)....it chews what means are
employed to mislead more and more public men,
and to induce them to forgot their daties...it
proves the &infg,•r of that spirit ef Cotter* which,
assuming the plat, oP true national spirit, to which
it is always adversv, is wily etroug wheel, the Go.
vrnmenl is weak, and leads it Ito its rein from
the moment it is abi• to direct it.... The Minister
of Foreign Affairs, i !formed of the orders given
to the Minister of l'olice to arresktbe Austrian
couriers, had refused de lisletterhich the pas-
sage he had demanded . )r the courier he wished to
send off. It was a delicacy shewn to the Ambas-
sador—but M. de Metternich bad found means to
send off a courier, who was stopped at Chalons.
Be had, with other dispatches in cyphers, the
dispatch annexed (No. 8.).-.M. de Metternich
announces to Ms Sovereign the departure of
the King of Spain from Madrid. Be an.
'ounces that on the 27th of March, about the
period of the victory of Ucles, as a moment,
of prosperity for the affairs of Spain... What
thou had he written in times when they had been
lest happy ? And is it thus they attempt to de-
ceive the Emperor of Austria, and to hurry him
into a war that must ruin his country ? They
promised him the conquest of a part of Italy and
Germany. They had already shared these rich
spoils ; Intendants were named to administer
them. Private and hateful passions had created
those illusions, and formed those wasting and ab-
surd plans. And such are the men who are the
depositaries of the fate of the interests of Nations.
Sovereigns would do an act of wisdom, if they
annonneed to those whom they invested with their
confidence, that they made them responsible for
the miseries to which their cupidity and ambition
gave rise, and for the fatal errors produced by
the lying reports of men destined to enlighten
them—if this responsibility were something more
than a vain word !—Moniteur.
Of the documeau =meted we shall a.w take only the last,
at length.
The lint is M. Otto's letter, dated the 19th of Mareb,
1909, is which be considers the •eizure of the Freed courier
at Beaulieu as a new proof of the alsolate ascendancy of the
Enlists faction, which for six months has directed all the
stain of the Court of Vienna.
The seemed b from Count Stadion to M. de Metternich,
dated the nit March, is which the guarantee of Russia is re-
fused, as adding nothing to the security of Austria, the latter
not Wog able to demand the fulfilment of the eogagosagsts of
Meek Wore the enemy bad established himself is the centre
air the knotriaa Moaarehy.
The thinl awl Dearth &mist °fastest. be premised fly M.
de bison dells t. the Frew* Mhdotet, is which Austria con-
siden the note of the French Generamout, of the 10th of
March, as useatiolactory.
The Nth, sixth, seventh, and eighth are of little is-
pertains.