The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1859-06-30
Austrian oppression in Ttalv.

obdLosi WHICH SNOW LhaG the people Jnere
are moro heavily taxed than any other
people on the globe. For the last ten
years the taxes have been increasing,
while the disease in the vine and the
failure Of the silk crop have diminished
the resources Of the people, till they arc
reduced to a state of pitiable poverty
The consequence is that they five upon
their little capital of domestic stock
while it lasts, and then many of them
wander abroad or starvo at home; the
diseases attendant upon famine prevail,
and men consume the food of beasts
In one single district nearly six hun
dred estates Of persons deceased remain
unclaimed because the heirs are unable
to pay the taxes due on the property
The annual aggregate Of the local taxes
and the tax paid to Austria amounts now
to the almost incredible rate Of forty
three per cent, Of the actual income of
the inhabitants, and this is estimated
without any allowance for the failure
Of crops. The Austrian treasury draws
sixteen million dollars annually from
Lombardy alone, and the local tax is
nearly as large, making an aggregate tax
Of over thirty millions drawn from a pop
ulation Of two and a.half millions, or
| 912 from each inhabitant.
Austria is about to add to the burden
Of the people Of Lombardy by eztorting
forced loan Of seventy-fve million
forms from the principal cities. And
because her own bank paper has depre-
oiated the loan must be paid in specie
The Augsburg Gazette states that this
loan is to fall exclusively on towns
"whoso sympathies with Piedmont have
brought on the war, and who must now
pay the piper" If there is any life
in the Italians under Austrian rule this
refinement Of cruelty and insult should
goad them to revolt But the burden
of taxation is the least of the evils that
Austria has inflicted upon the Italians
The consequent energy with which Aus
tria has compelled the Italian rulers to
maintain despotio governments is well
known. The Review says:-
"Scarcely had the ink Of the treaty
of Vienna had time to dry, when Aus
tria, established in her old territory,
and much more largely gifted with new
at the north of the Peninsula, boldly
laid her hand on the extreme south, and
bound the king Of Naples, by a private
article in a treaty, to administer his in
ternal government upon her principles
In January, 1921, Prince Metternich,
(the Austrian Prime Minister) writes
to the Duke of Modeua, that If Austria
had had20,0 900 men disposable on the PO
in the preceding summer, they would
have marched on Naples to put down
the popular rising, and the world would
have applaUded the feat, as it applauds
all feats. At Laybach the same minis
ter declared that means must be taken
to avoid the danger that the Neapolitan
parliament might retrace its steps, and
be satisfied with a constitution like that
Of France under the restoration, which
France herself had recommeRded.-
And now We come near the climax
Being asked by Count CapO d'Istria (the
NeapOlitan Premier) on this occasion
whether Austria would give her sane
tion to a system ia Naples that should
partake of the representative character,
he replied that she would prefer to goI
to war. But, rejOined CapO d'Istria,
what if the king of Naples himself
should desire to establish such a sys-
temp In that case, the chancellor of
Austria answered, the emperor would
make war upon the king Of Naples. -
In conformity with this outrageous dec
laration, on the 9th of March, 1922,
Prince Metternich wrote to the Austrian
minister at Paris that the representa-
tive system, with the institutions nee
essarily following upon it, could not
and should not be established in any
single State of the Italian Peninsula.
"When the Austrians withdrew from
the military occupation Of the Neapoli-
tan States, the Austrian emperor inform
cd the king Of his intention to hold him
bound to the secret article of the treaty
of 1915; and on leaving the p0pal States,
where the occupation was Unasked, inI
1923, he announced his intention to re-
turn thither when he saw ft, quite ire
spectively even Of the wishes of the
government. In 1847 and 1S48 Austria
menacod any Italian government incli-
ned to reform, and impeded the grant,
and encouraged or compelled the viola
ton and withdrawal of constitutions
Finally, it was in 1s49 that France, BY
the Roman expedition, identified her
self with the eXeesses Of Austrian poll
oy, and with a view, nominally TO the
extension Of French influence in Italy,
but really to the Cancellation of a do
mestic party, incurred the scandal and
embarrassment from which she is now
making violent efforts to escape"
TERRIBLE STORM-30 LIVES LOST .-I