True American. [volume] (Steubenville [Ohio]) 1855-1861, 1855-01-04
THE AUSTRIAN ALLIANCE.

a concern proportiOnate to their curiosity,
and sympathies, Before them
has passed a diorama of events with all the
varieties of the tragic, melodramatic, and
comic, presented pretty much after the
stage managers art, Diplomacy, that is
to say, cunning, hypocrisy lying and cheat
ing in high places, attended with kind of
comic dcnouement always, has alternated
with marches and countermarches, with an
occasional display of fireworks. q
Now, the four great Powers, which means
simply, Powers who arogate to themselves
the authority to dispose of the rights and
privileges of millions outside of their own
jurisdictional limits, at the price of tenn
porary, and frequently, illusory gain to
themselves,-professing overtly to main
tain a "balance of power" among the ma
tions of the continent-sit in grave and
serious conclave, each trying to cheat the
other and sell the rest Of mankind, to sa-
tiate criminal ambition, or 10 replenish a
bankrupt treasury, Then, and while in
Vienna these arch traitors and foes to hui
man rights are playing their game, Rus
sian feet steals quietly out of port, and
almost within the hearing of the Right
Honorable members of the Peace Society in
the Black Sea, perpetrates decd ofmfamy,
which will make, for all time, Sinope by
word and rcproach to both Russian and Al
ly. And so, with hope and fear, has the
great soul of humanity alternately throbbcd
as these things have successively y transpired,
And when, after months of vascillation,
trihing, and Machiavelism, upon the part
of Austria, we had hoped that England
and France would rcbukc this contempt.
bic conduct, in way BETTING the great in
terests of most shamcfully wronged nation.
alities. we are at last told that this buying
and sclling-this courting and coqueting
and this political chcss-playing-has endec
in an alliance between Austria and thu
Western Powers-an alliance Of neutrality
in fact, upon the part of the former
contract stipulating that the "young hope
of his country" shall within one montl
thereafter make an empty declaraton-
paper declaration, of war AGAINST Nicholas
and that as a consideration therefor, Eng
land and France, upon their part, shal
guarantee him against invasion and insur
rection-a promise that these pretended
champions of progress will Quench tn
= rising spirit Of civil liberty in Hungar,
and Poland, and the Austrian States 0
Italy, if it becomes necessary so to do, t
enable the dastardly opprcssor to bind sti
tighter the fctters Of European liberty an
sprogrl.s. -,.--,----------t -
Z With this unfortunate piece Of diploma
cy, this Eastern question has become
cosmopolitan question. It no longer in
wolves the integrity of the Ottoman Gov
ernmcnt and territory, regarding merel
,, the map of Europe, affirming a boundar
line here, and changing one there, bu
. with its present complications are involve
natonalities which have years since fade
from the view in the gloomy night of dcs
potism. What may be the ulterior resuI
Of this unnatural alliance, of course moth
. inc short of the gift of prophcsy can fore
tell. Indeed the event has struck us wit
= a twotold surprise and with repugnancc
It could hardly be expected that in 5
, short time Austria should be overcon
J with such an ungrateful forgetfulness (
the signal favors of Nicholas bestowed VI
on her but few years since, in the hoI
of her peril and mcritcd chastisements;-
=; but still more strange is it, that Englant
,, the self-constitutcd champion of civil an
religious liberty in the Old World, an
-, France. the France of 80 and '4S, whc,
: even in this, the hour of her dcspotic rul
u may vet be heard the soul-stirring "Ma
e. seilles' upon the lips Of her libcrty-loyir
~ sons-should barter 50 cheap the ines
40 mable "boon of Providence to the hum;
., mce'-the right Of self-goyernmcnt,-
30 Next to the Hungarian, who thirsts aft
the traditional liberties Of his forefAthe1
- and to the brave and patient Pole, W
,. sighs over the unhallowed partition of J
IT, country, and dreams of the restoration
of bis beloved nationality, we, in this La
~ Of Promise, must sorrow over this, t
bo great and most rcgrctablc event of the p
No year.
w It would seem strange if the sturdy
20 Nicholas, autocrat and despot as he
'' should himself excite the very popular
u ings which this unholy alliance has,
~ ~ part, been formed to suppress, and besi
!o apply combustible to the embers of
- revolutionary fire, smouldering under
, ~ throne of Napoleon III. But very stror
OV things have happened since the world
W. can. From the present sad and gloO