New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-11-07

ment possessed over their persons and fortunes
and not the smallest shadow of an opposition
was, therefore, TO be expected from this quarter
| Thus, Netternich was sNre Of the support Of the
two most powerful and influential classes of the
| empire, and he possessed, besides, an army and
bureaucracy which, for all purposes OF absolutism,
| could not be better constituted The civil
and military officers in the Austrian service form
race of their own; their fathers have been in
the service of the KGis,r and so will their sons
! be they belong to none of the multfarlous
nationalites congreg gated under the wing of the
double headed eagle; they are, and ever have
been, removed from one end OF the empire to the
other from Poland to Italy, from Germany 20
| Transylvania Hungarian, Pole, German, Ru-
manlan, Italian, Croat. every individual not stamp
ed with imperial and royal" authority, &c,
bearing separate national character, Is equally
desplsed by them they have no nationality, or
rather they alone make up the really Austrian
nation 1t Is evident what pliable and at the
an intelligent and energetic chief, such a civil
and military hierarchy must be.
AS to the other classes of the population, Met
ternich, in the true spirit of statesman OF the
ancien regime, cared little for their support. He
had, with regard to them, bat one policy; 10
draw as much as possible out of them in the
| shape of taxation and at the same time, to keep
them quiet. The trading and manufacturing
middle class was but of slow growth in Austria.
The trade of the Danube was comparatively I'M
important the country possessed but one port,
Trieste, and the trade of this port was very
limited As to the manufacturers, they en-
! loved considerable protection, amounting even
in most cases to the complete exclusion OF all
foreign competitions but this advantage had
been granted to them principally with view TO
increase their tax-paying capabilities, and was
in high degree counterpOlsed by internal re-
strictions on manufactures, privileges of guilds
and other feudal corporations, which were scru-
pulously upheld as long as they did not impede
| the purposes and views of the government The
petty tradesmen were encased IN the narrow
bounds of these medi9val guilds, which kept
the different trades in perpetual war OF privl-
legc against each other, and at the same time,
by all but excluding individuals OF the working
class from the possibility of raising themselves
in the social scale, gave a sort of hereditary
stability to the members of those involuntary
associations Lastly, the peasant and the work
ing man were treated as mere taxable matter,
and the only care that was taken OF them was
to keep them as much as possible III the same
conditions of life in which they then existed, and
| in which their fathers had existed before them.
For this purpose every old established hereditary
| phold he
that of the State the authority of the landlord
over the petty tenant-farmer, that OF the manu-
facturer over the operative, of the small master
over the lourneyman and apprentice OF the
father over the son, was every where ngldly
maintained by the government, and every
branch of disobedience punished, the same as
| transgre.ssion of the law, by that universal IN.
| strument of Austrian Justlce-the stick
Finally to wind up into one comprehensive
system all these attempts at creating an artlhclal
stability. the Intellectual food allowed to the
nation was selected with the minutest Caution
and dealt out as sparingly as possible. Educa-
tion was everywhere IN the hands OF the Oa'ho
lie priesthood, whose chiefs, IN the same manner
as the large feudal landowners were deeply In
terested in the conservation of the existing sys'
TEN The Universities were organized IN man
! ner which allowed them to produce nothing out
specia men, that might or might not OBTAIN
| great proficiency in sundry particular branches
| of knowledge, but which, at all events, excluded
tha, universal liberal education which other
universities are expected to impart There was
absolutely no newspaper press, except IN Hun,
gary. and the Hungarian papers were prohibited
in all other parts of the monarchy As to gen
orol literature. its range had not wdened for
century il had been narrowed again after the
death of Joseph II. And all around the frontier
| wherever the Austrian States touched upon
civilized country. a Gordon of literary censors
was established in connection with the Gordon OF
custom. house officials, preventing any foreign
book or new spaper from passing INTO Austria De
fore ITS contents had been twice or three times
Thoroughly sifted, and found pure OF even the
| SLIGHTEST contamination OF the malignant spirit
| Of the age
For about thirty years after 1915, this system
WORKED with wonderful success. Austria re-
NAMED almost unknown TO Europe, and Europe
vras cpite as little known IN Austria. The social
state Of every class OF the population, and OF the
nonulation as a whole, appeared not 10 nave I'M
deroone the slightest change Whatever rancor
there might exist from class to cass-and the
existence of this ranccr was, for Mettemlch,
nrincipal condition of government, which ne
even tostered by making the higher classes the
Instruments of all government e1actl0ns, and
thus throwing the odium upon them-whatever
hatred the people might bear to the inferior Off
Gals of the State, there existed upon the whole,
little CT no dissatisfaction with the Central Gov
eminent The Emperor was adOred, and old
Francis the First seemed 10 be borne out BY
facts. when, doubling of the durability OF this
system. he complacently added: and yet l. will
hnld while i've and Metternlch."