The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-05-11
The Crisis in Europe-Austria between the
Upper Neither Millstone.

Upper and Neither Milestone.
The last foreign news received by the steam
er Arabia may be regarded as the most impor-
tant that has crossed the Atlantic for a long
time. Such a crisis as now exists to throw
everything into one mans hands, the world has
never before witnessed. The New York Tri-
bune thus sums up the state of affairs IN Eu-
rope
In England we have a dissolution of Parlia-
ment, and an appeal by the ministry to the
people, which dep,ives the present government
of Great Britain for months to come of much
of its moral strength on the continent. The
military monarchies are continuing their vast
preparations for war, talking all the while about
a Congress to settle the pending difficulties, but
which no one believes will settle anything
Austria is on the verge of financial crisis. All
the other powers-Russia, England and Sar-
dinia-had negotiated the loans they had APP
piled for, but the Rothschilds had givenup the
attempt to place the Austrian scrip. Russia
is hand in glove with France. Germany is
divided, and under the action of a division of
opinion, she will follow, through Prussia, Eng
land in her course of ~inaction. Thus the
House of Hapsburg is brought between the
two millstones, France and Russia, and the in
terests of three hundred millions of civilized
people hang upon the wills of two men-Alex-
ander on one side, and Louis Napoleon on the
other.
But it is the latter that is more particularly
the master of the situation. His position is
one that knows no parallel in history. Abso-
Lutte master of thirty,six millions of men in tie
highest state of intellectual and industrial do
velopement; with a navy superior in numbers
and weight of metallic that of England and first
in the world; possessing railroads crossing his
Territory in every direction and fleets of stream
transports at command upon the sea; his en-
piIe fourishing and almost virgin in its fnan-
cial resources; England, the only power that
could possibly close the paths of the ocean to
him, his friendly ally. Napoleon III. yields
to-day a far greater power than ever did Napo-
leon I. in his palmiest days. Add to this that
he is not bound by the treaties that bind the
rest of Europe, for France was ignored at the
Congress of Vienna; that he has no dynastic
ties such as bind other royal rulers; and that,
with the most INSCRIPTIONS brain in Europe,
his sole aim is to create, not to follow prece-
dents /; and we have the secret of that triumph
of diplomacy, by bayonets, which makes him
the arbiter of the European world.
He has, too, the gift of silence, combined
with tenacity of purpose in a remarkable de-
gree; and when he speaks it is more frequent
ly for the purpose of Disgusting his intentions
than of announcing them. He said "The
Empire is Peace" and straightway made war
with Russia. Everywhere he proclaims Eng
land as his best ally, and so fortifics Cherbourg
that every Englishman looks upon it as a stand
ing menace to England. With the softest as
surance of peaceful views upon his lips, he
arms France as France never before was armed,
and by so doing brings half the time-worn
monarchies of Europe to the verge of bank
ruptcy, by forcing them to follow his example,
SO that they may be prepared to meet him
should he assume to TAKE ofense. Thus on
the one hand he weakens his enemies, while by
the exercise of an astute diplomacy he puts
them in the wrong, and forces them in self-de-
fence to become the aggressors.
This is precisely the position to which he
has reduced Austria. He has forced her to
such immense expenditures in arming her Ital-
ian possessions that she is on the verge of a
financial relapse, from which she can escape
only by wal. aBdakfesort to measures hat only a
foreign war will enable a government to impose
upon its people. In this state of things he
talks of negotiating and seels an interna-
tional Congress But all the while he contin-
ues his own warlike pre- partitions to such a de-
gree that Austria cannot in any way diminish
hers. thus delay becomes more dangerous to
her than war itself. She can escape from a
domestic CONFUSION, only by the breaking out
of hostilities, and she must commence them in
selfpreservation. But the first gun that Aus
tria fires upon the Ticino ~isolates her from the
sympathies of the rest of Europe, and leaves
her to cope single handed against her power
full enemy.
Then comes what Louis Napoleon intends.
and what the first Napoleon ardently longed
for The alliance. with England makes
the Mediterranean a French lake. 1t was
Nelson who prevented the. first Napoleon from
using the naval power of France in his Italian
wars. Now Louis Napoleon can freely pour
that power into the Adriatic; and the certain
capture q Venice and Trieste outianks the
Austrian armies in the acknowledgements
kingdom. Such movement revises the 'trea-
ties of. Vienna, if their total destruction can
be called a revision. This iswhat Louis Naro-
leon aims at and what he will attain. His di-
plomaey triumphs by threatening war, backed
by his admitted power to make it, and in war
he triumphs by isolating his opponents through
diplomacy. for by it he puts them in the position
of being the aggressors. He is the master of
Europe, and his policy has converted into ono
vast miGtary.eamp. How long it will consent
to this anomalous state of things time only can
determine.