We cannot yet learn that ...
The Times, 1824-08-03T00:00:00

We cannot yet learn that there has appeared any dis. avowal from the Imperial Embassy here, of that placard, or hand-bill, or whatever else it professed to be, forbidding Lord HOLLAND, and some three or four ladies, by narne, to trespass on the Austrian territories. At first, we really did not conceive such a flight to be within the range of even the most Imperial intellect, and accordingly we treated it with contempt. What, to declare war against a single English nobleman-an uawilling traveller, during the sumr mer season, to whom exercise and change of climate have been prescribed for ill-health ?-Against four harmless and unconnected women? To warn them off from the purlieus of the great Austrian prison-house, like poachers from a manor?-" Spring-guns for Lord HOLLAND!"-" Lady "OXFOaD, beware of man-traps !"-" No blue-stockings "here, my Lady MORGAN !" And is this the dignity of the oldest empire in Europe? Is it come to this pass with the representative of the CMSARS, the Lord of Germany, and (alas!) of Italy too? Prince METTERNICH, we fear, the profound Prince METaTRNICH, has plunged on this occa- sion into a depth to which common sense can never follow him. He wishes at once to terrify and to punish; but he merely proves the activity of his own fears, and the impo. tency of his revenge. He leads the whole world directly to a conclusion the most mortifying to these ancient dynas- ties, and to the cause of all " paternal Governments"- namely, that their subjects are without the shadow of loyalty-that their power has notone grain of stability-that Despotism totters to the very earth, since it stands at the mercy of even a passing strasger, male or female, to sub- vert it. There is one other.point of view in wlhich this jealous extravagance of Austria seems to call for a more serious notice. Had Pdnce METTERNICH beeit satisfied with warning off a British nobleman, because he feared that his outrageous " radicalism" would cutup the Austrian empire by the roots, he had the power to do so: it was a.breach of national courtesy, no doubt-a violence to the laws and habits of civilization, and a slight to the friendly Govern- ment whose subject he sought to chastise;-but his right so to degrade his own Soverelgn -was unquestionable, if he pleased to exes?t it; at least so far as England was concern- ed. Not thus with the second reason assigned by the au- thor of the Austrian ordinance for his attack upon Lord HOLLAND. He tells us, that the insolent language of that noble LordE IN PARLIAM5ENT was a substantive cause of the prohibition. No British senator,then, is to exercise that pri- vilege of free discussion, which hisqwon Sovereign dares not impugn, without incurriug the open vengeance of a foreign Powverl Has thispresuwptiou,we beg to know,inits full fce, and with all its eventual and inevitable eonsequences, press- cd upor the minds of His Majesty's advisers? Is it to be borne that, in a public document, addressed to every Go- vernment, and to that of GEonGE IV. King of ?3ngland, at the head of them, a foreign Court shall presume to tell an hereditary counsellor of our gracious Sovereign, in what manner he shall discharge his senatorial duty to his own King and country? Is it to be endured, that foreignt despots shall attempt to control the free ageney of English legislators, or infuse by terror their own hateful and unmanly spirit into the very sanctuary of our laws? This, we affirm, is not merely an insult to the honest and patriotic Peer against whom it has been formally directed; it is a grave offence to the Legislature of England, and to the KING himself, as a part of it. Mr. CANNING, if he sees the aggression in this light, lias nerve and ability to enforce a proper atonement. Let the Right Honourable Secretary look to it: the system so begtn has no definite termination-it must be rebuked at once. As for the charge of radicalism upon Lord HOLLAND, we at first construed it into igniorance: but it is pure and piti- ful malice. Prince METTEaNICH cannot be so ill-inform- ed himself, or have employed such utter]y ineffective agents, as to ranlk Lord HOLLAND with a party to which hle has cver been decidedly opposed. They vanted a nick-name for the noble Lord, and *r radical," as bcing the bitterest, was the first they thought of.