The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-09-26
LETTERS FROM EUROPE.
especial Correspondents Of tho Unlou.I



leave Tomorrow for Biaritz, where they will stay
some ten or twelve days. The Emperor win then
go to Chaon to inspect the military camp, and then
return to Biaritz to bring the imperial family back to
Paris. Before the return of the Emperor nothing OF
Importance will take place ; but extraordinary
credit has just been opened to carry out the works
for the feet ordered by the Emperor while at Brest
and Cherbourg, 1t is remarkable fact that, while
every nation speaks of peace as necessary TO Chris
tanity and civilization, all arming, and, whilo
each Processes to have entire confidence in the others
loyalty and sincerity, every is anxious to prepare
for blow which it fears will be struck by the other
If France increases her navy, England must have
channel feet if France increases her naval dePots
and arsenals, England must do tho same and erect
Notifications in the channel islands The same holds
good of other nations Austria and liussa are 81
lently preparing large military sores and although
portion OF the Austrian army is on furlough, yet
such s the organization of the cades that very few
weeks would suffice to muster an army of 100000
men. Russia is improving her navy, after the model
of the French, by building large steam ineof
battle ships and frigates, also number of screw
steam corvetes for the Black sea- and by changing
number of shipsofwar into screw steamers. Ii is by
steam that the disparity of seamanship between o
sea-faring nation, like the English, and power
whose great strength lies in its army, is neutraized
and both Russia and France are avaling themselves
OF this new motor to measure their strength with
the maritime power that holds tho trident.
The Zot-uerea conference, now held in the city Of
Hanover, has not yet definitely accepted the Aus
trian proposition to Join the Yerein-that is, tho
conference has not accepted those propositions
which Austria considers indispensable to her step
The delegates to the conference were not unanimous
in regard to the Austrian proposition of aboshing
the river dues, Hanover being the chief opponent
and matters have now assumed that shape which
prevents the delegates from acting without receiving
further instructions from their respective govern
ments. Whether Austria will make new propositions,
modify those which she has already made wait till
the way is prepared for the favorable action of those
of the minor States which not afraid of being alb
sorbed or deprived of their influence by large o
power Austria joining the league, remains to be
seem Certain tis in the while that it is not the
minor States which prevent the extension of the W
rein to the Adriatic and the frontiers of Turkey
but rather Prussia--the power which has grown by
what 1T took from Austria and whose influence in the
affairs of Europe dates precisely from the first So
rous disasters that befel the House of Hapsburg.
Prussia, it is true, is the father of tho Zo verein
it has abored long and well to free at last the transit
trade from the innumerable vexations and exactons
with which it was fettered but she has not yet
espoused those enlarged principles of liberal COM
merce which have found favor in England and the
United States. Revenue and protection to the do
mestic manufacturer are the two principal may
say the only points aimed at by the Verein whereas
Austria has certainly gone step further when at
one fell blow she struck down the barriers which
separated the different provinces of her vast empire
from one another, and abolished all transit duties
! levied on Hungarian and Transylvanian products.
III Austria now join the Zoreren, as eventually she
must, no matter how severe the opposition from
some of tho German States, trade will pursue it's
course without hindrance or molestation from tho
Elbe and Rhine to the Danube, and from the North
sea and the Baltic to the Adratic and the Euxine.
This consideration alone, aside from the political
consequences which must flow from such combina-
ton OF material force, will overcome all opposition
and secure the triumph of a measure which of all
the German enterprises and changes since 1880 is
by far the most important and lasting in it's bearing
on the general welfare OF that geographical diys-
ion of Europe" ~ ~. ~. ; ,......... ?
If Austria does not Immediately enter the Kerein,
(which she is most anxious to do,) political, moi
commercial, reasons the of il. Prussia has
not yet decided whether she will add the weight OF
the Ierein as a commercial power to the policy pur-
Princpalities, and Turkey but public opinion in
Prussia itself is not always the side of the gov
ernment. Austria, on the other hand, has made a
great mistake in not proposing to join the Veren in
1880 That was the time when she ought to have
been up and doing but at that time unfortunately
the maxim "Apres moi le Hluge" governed Austria
under the auspices of that experienced but superan
nuated statesman, Mons. de Metternieh. His policy
was exclusively Austrian, disconnected from Germa-
ny, which he looked upon being in o transition
state, and separate institutions for each province
the empire, to prevent their making common cause
against the government. This policy was pursued
till lS4S, when it was found to contain neither pro
lection against internal revolutions nor the necessary
came, and the Austrian empire saved only by
Russian Intervention on one side, and the general
| ship of Marshal Radetzky on the other. The admin
isTation of Austria under its present monarch has
| dropped the Metternichian system altogether. II
has literally thrown that system to the dogs, and
instead of nourishing provincial jeaouses a
home, has endeavored, and is still endeavoring
to unite the people of the various provinces int
q nation that shall feel an interest in the com
mon welfare. Austria has commenced and made
some progress in Germanizng her Hungarian
and Scavonan provinces, but she meets will
4 unsurmountable obstacles in Lombardy and Venice
! A people that has history and q literature may
be conquered and held in subjection by material
force, but will never constitute homogeneous par
| of another empire In the other provinces Of Aus
tra, the German language, being far cultivated
and fraught with the treasures of science and art
may become the language of the educated classes
aud, through them, that of the people generally bu
where classic language is already spoken, in which
| classic poets have immortalized their fame such
change is out of the question and every species o
propagaudism of that sort only fragrant injustice
and tyranny to the people. Tho men who are now a
tho head of affairs in Austria know this as well as
anybody, and hence the ameliorations introduced a
| the suggestion Of Archduke Maximlan. IL they
prove unsatisfactory to the people of Milan 1t is nct
because the Austrian government is not desirous to
satisfy them, but simply because, from the very situ
alton Of Italy, it is impossible for the Italians to be
| satisfied. But even without the Italian States Aus
tra is monarchy of somo thirty three millions oi
people, and ii the products of their industry were
added to those Of the other German States the Verc
would at once become Of the first commercial
powers Of the world.
But Lombardy and Venice have large interest in