The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-23


in streams, of your money to be spent by hun
dreds of millions, at the cost of bringing meal
culable confusion into your commercial rela-
tons, inflicting deep wounds, it may be incu-
rable wounds, on your prosperity, checking your
progress and arresting the course OF your
peaceful reforms? r" Hear, hear" and cheers.
What, / ask again, is the House of Austria to
You? Renewed cheers. Is its existence ad
vantageous to your commercial interests? Why,
Just consult the latest returns of the Board of
Trade, and you will see that your commerce
with small but free Belgium is nearly six
times as extensive as your commerce with the
big Austrian Empire. Hear, hear. Uruguay
nearly equals it, the Philippine Islands, poor
Norway, and little Greece, rank each before
Austria But know, that when the heteroge-
neous compound of that European nuisance is
once dissolved, your commercial intercourse
with Hungary alone must be ten times as ex-
tensive as it is with the whole Austrian EN-
pire now.
Or is it true, as some have told you, that
Austria is your useful ally, both faithful and
true? Laughter. Useful, indeed / know
that Austria was the Unsuitable pensioner of
England that she was the bottomless sack
into which England poured millions from the
life-sweat of her Industrious people. | know
that in the late French wars you gave her the
little snug sum of seventeen millions of pounds;
but what advantage you have got from her in
return, that is not yet recorded IN history.
daughter. | know that you have saved Aus
tria, but do not know that you are indebted
for your safety, for your rank amongst the ma
tons, for your prosperity, or for your freedom,
to her. Cheers. A dear ally she was to you,
forsooth; only too dear. But how " useful ="
That ] have yet to learn. Austria your ally,
II Il +r,a Wbv oantlamen rpmem her
the Crimean war. Cast your eyes at the gloomy
churchyard field before Sebastopol. 1t is faith
full Austria, that pale phantom of death, that
sent your heroes to die in vain on that barren
field, while she stood idle by without firing
shot. without raising a finger, in return for all
YOUR consideration for her. Hear, hear. But
if | can find no answer to the question, What
is Austria to England ?" | could tell you
tale of horrors about what Austria is to the great
birthright Of mankind, liberty-what she is to
freedom of conscience, what she is to culture
and enlightenment, what she is to everything that
good men prize No, England cannot, England
viii not, load herself with the reproach of OPP
pressed millions, by stepping between Austria
and retribution for which she appears to be
marked by the finger Of a long forbearing but
just Providence, whose ways are often mysteri
Gus.
into the calamities of war to keep that Austria
safe? One answer is given to this question,
which brings me to the last chapter of my re-
marks. 1t is said that the integrity of the Aus
trian empire is necessary to the maintenance
of the balance of power. Oh, this word, spectre
as it is, that cannot stand the light of common
sense, this word is a terrible Moloch, to which
right, justice, political morality, freedom, and
the existence of nations have been inundated
as so many holocausts. Hear, hear. Let it
not be said that England persisted in perpetual
ting the sacrifice. | shall not now enter on a
theoretical elucidation of the fallacies of this
cabalistc abracadabra of balance of power,
which, unlike that of the olden Syrians, creates
the diseases which it is intended to cure.
shall restrict myself to one remark of a practi-
cal character. Artificial States, without either
organic cohesion or harmonizng cement, are
an Indictment to war, instead of constituting
check upon it. Hear, hear. Against what
kind of preponderence is the Austrian empire
meant to constitute barrier2 Evidently either
against Russia or against France. Well, as to
Russia. There are in the Austrian empire
seventeen millions of people belonging to the
Slavonic race; all of them discontinued, be-
cause not only oppressed politically, but also
deprived of national existence. Now imagine
Russia desiring to strike an ambitious blow
anywhere. viii Austria be barrier to herr
Was she ever a barrier at any single moment of
the past? Why, Russia need only to say, as the
Car Alexander instructed Admiral Tsitsakof
to say, if he found Austria playing fast and
loose, Ye seventeen millions, rise against the
oppressor of your nationality-~here | am to
help you i" and they will rise, and where will
Austria be This is the reason why Austria
did not dare to draw her sword in the late
7, A. 10 - -,
high road inviting ambition to an easy march.
Cheers Now reverse the picture. Let those
seventeen millions be delivered from the Aus
trian yoke, and they would be what Slavonic
Poland was till quartered with the concurrence
of Austria.
Again, as to France. On the 10Th of No
vember last, l spoke at Glasgow the follow
ing words "In any war in which France will
stand on the one side and Austria on the other,
France has but to>advance to the frontiers of
any of the natiOnalities oppressed by Austria,
and say, Here | am to help you-rise, and
throw off the yoke of Austria and they will
hail the invitation with enthusiasm" You are
just on the eve of seeing this anticipation real
lied in Italy. AS the French advance, you can
see in them new Deucalions raising up an
armed foe to Austria from every stone And
you may see the anticipation, by and by, real
lied in other quarters, too. If Austria held not
Italy in her grasp, would an Italian question be
possible? No; Austria is not barrier; her
very existence is the sword of Damocles sus-
pended over the settled condition of Europe
it is the cavern from which the European vol
cano Is fed Hear, hear, and cheers. Let
Austria vanish into the gulf of eternal perdtion,
which is yawning for her, cheers, and we
may yet hear, perhaps, of local revolutions, but
they will remain moro domestic ffoiro Erro
pean wars of ambition will become forever i'm
possible, and you will not see any longer the
life sweat of Europe drained by the keeping up
OF large standing armies, because the independ-
ence OF every nation will find guaranty in
the independence of all. Cheers.
The truth is very plain, my Lord. The ma
tons aggomerated into the artificial compound
called Austria certainly contain considerable
elements OF power but it is a very great mis-
conception to deduce from this fact the infer
ence that the Austrian empire is a powerful
ingredient In what is called the system of the
balance of power. Hear. The world has
progressed, my Lord. The sentiment of nation
ahty, which, fifty years ago. the dynastes aroused
Tor the protection of their thrones is strongly
developed everywhere. If it be strong in the
German nation, it is equally strong in the Ital-
ian, Hungarian, and Slavonic nationalities-
nay, even stronger, because these are subjects
to foreign domination. Therefore the fact is
that the nations which are yoked together under
the strictly military rule Of Austria detest that
rule. Consequently, in any war waged against
Austria, one or another of them-it may be all
OF them-will always be found ready to join any
foreign Power against Austria. Those nations
emancipated from the yoke of Austria, would
certainly form powerful bulwarks of Europe's
independence; but coupled together by force
and violence, in an unnatural compound which
they detest they are not barrier, but the vul-