Glasgow Courier. — 1848-10-17 (Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland)

TUESDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 17.  Al'Manus, the Liverpool Chartist leader, and Irish confederate, and O'Doneghue, have been capitally convicted at Clonruel. The sentence has not been yet recorded, but it will be, doubtless, in the same terms as that of Mr. O'Brien.  The rumours of changes in the composition of the French Cabinet still continue, but nothing positive is known respecting their nature.  The latest intelligence from Vienna contains npthing additional to what we had before received; and, until we can obtain some information that may be trusted -We are unwilling to hazard any remarks upon the subject. All Mutt is 'Positively known is, that the capital of Austria is noti under the control of a Directory, consisting of the following persons:—Doblhof, Interior; Kraus, Finance; Woyna (at present ambassador at Brussels), Foreign Affairs; Buchner (Military Commander of Siebenbiirgen), War; Hornborstel, Trade. There has been no more fighting; but the attitade of the antagonist parties is one of distrust, and, should Vienna be attacked, it is said that it will be vigorously defended.  There is nothing fresh from Hungary; but it is reported that Charles Albert is preparing to take advantage of the crippled state of Austria, and to renew the war in Piedmont.  The events which have just occurred in Vienna have not only surprised, but disappointed the British public, which, presuming upon the character generally attributed to the German people, and to the Austrians in particular, had hoped that matters were rapidly settling down into some fixed order, and that, at least, there would be no more revolutions, nor attempts at revolution. In this expectation they have been defeated by the extraordinary occurrences of last week, which have plunged them into a maze of perplexity out of which they see no visible way of escape, and which is rendered the more impenetrable by the difficulty of accounting for the tumult which has taken place. They do not understand why the mob, or the anarchical clubs, or the discontented soldiery, should have interfered, or attempted to interfere, with the conduct of the ministry in reference to the Hungarian revolt, which was not an affair that could directly touch any of these parties: while the cold-blooded and most foul murder of Count Latour, the Minister at War, throws over the whole transaction an air of sanguinary ferocity which utterly baffles comprehension. Such excesses horrify us when they are committed by any exciteable people whatever, and are numbered among the terrible aberrations from right reason and humanity by which modern revolutions are distinguished; but we are scandalised and deeply grieved when they are perpetrated by a people whom we have been accustomed to consider grave and sedate, in whom reflexion was believed to have acquired the force of a second nature, and whose boast it has been hitherto that they could maintain their loyalty to their Sovereign, their devotion to order, and their respect for law, amid temptations which had seduced the fidelity of other nations, and banished peace,from the soil of other States. In such a ease the revelation of feeling is strong, and is proportionable to the force of those opposite anticipations which had been indulged. Stupefaction succeeds to wonder, and we are involuntarily led to exclaim, "What will happen next t" Our confidence in the stability of the German character has received a violent and incurable shock, nor can we now venture to trust anything to it. It Las been tarnished by violence and stained by blood, and has ceased to be, for a time at least, that assemblage of respectable moral qualities which it was once supposed to be.  The cause of the contest of the sth instant is obscure, if not unintelligible: but it is impossible for us to disguise from ourselves that it is marked by several unhappy peculiarities, of which one of the most significant is the desertion of their standards by the Austrian Grenadiers. The Empire is virtually dissolved if political insanity has penetrated the ranks of the army, and a country may well be said to be on the brink of inevitable ruin which is about to become the prey of an insubordinate soldiery and a lawless mob. Without fidelity to their oaths, and a deep sense of personal duty, the members of a regular army must be numbered among the greatest curses which could afflict human society; for they would necessarily become its masters if once released from the restraints of