The Sun. — 1860-04-04 (London, England)

FRAUDS IN THE AUSTRIAN COMMISSARIAL  A I.etter from Trieste, dated March 29, says : The engrossing topic of the day is the gigantic frauds discovered in the Commissariat Department, which, no doubt, were in no small degree influential in bringing to so sudden a termination the recent hostilities between the Austrian and FrancoItalian armies, and which drag to light, despite most powerful influence, a series of disgraceful facts, involving a multitude of names, some of them holding positions so high as to render even allusions hazardous, in charges of the most flagrant political and moral turpitude. The accounts in the Vienna and other Austrian newspapers are meagre in the extreme and, but for the suicide of General Eynatten on the 7th-Bth inst., which admitted of no concealment, these frauds would probably never have been alluded to. The deficit amounts to the astounding sum of no less than 17,000,000 florins, or £l, 700,000 sterling, of which 3,000,000 florins, ( or £300,000, is laid to the charge of some of the leading. capitalists of this city. One was impri. soned, two have fled, and others are undergoing forced examinations of books, papers, documents, &c. The strangest part of the tale is, however, that which is certainly the least known. It is said, and from the sources from whence I hear it I believe it is true, that at the celebrated meeting of the rival Emperors which led to the armistice, and subsequently to the preliminaries of the treaty of peace at Villafranca, when Napoleon and Francis Joseph were left quasi alone for nearly threequarters of an hour, the former, addressing thelatter, said, " Your Majesty would do well to listen to friendly and well-meant counsels. You are surrounded by traitors. Your Majesty believes that your fortress of Mantua is provisioned for six months ; I tell you," emphatically raising his finger, "it has not food for as many days. Test my intbrmation, and act accordingly." And so it proved, and afforded another lesson also of the infinite superiority of the French over the Austrian system of espionnage. To give some idea of the bare-faced effrontery of the fraud, and the number of accomplices necessary, one instance will suffice, though, if needful, I could adduce many others. Mantua is a walled city, and the bullocks which were driven in at one gate passed through the town out at the opposite, and then, making the half circuit of the walls, re-entered at the first gate, and every bullock made this parade five times ! The richest part of the tale in connection with Mantua is yet to come. A firm in Trieste made a contract with the Austrian Government for the hides of the bullocks supplied for the use of the troops. Now, although each bullock did duty living for five, still he could only be killed once, and supply one hide. The contractors, therefore, called upon and actually received from the Government the forfeit, as stipulated by contract, of one florin upon every hide short delivered ; thus profitting to the extent of 30,000 florins for the nondelivery of the skins of animals which had never been killed ! Solferino and Magenta might each have told another tale had not the hunger caused by Austrian fraud weakened, if not paralysed, Austrian valour. Enough of this for the present. A good on dit is getting an extensive under-currency, and is believed by some ; I do not aver that I am of the number, nevertheless the tale tells well, and it may, therefore, be prudent not too closely to test its accuracy. It is said that the Emperor Francis Joseph, being disquieted by the triple recurrence of a dream, had recourse to the counsels of his mother, the Archduchess Sofia, who at once summoned to her aid a " weird sister" in whose mystic talent she had herself confidence. Introduced to the august presence, the crone demanded what visions of the night had startled the Imperial slumbers. The Emperor informed her he had dreamed of three mice ; the first perfectly blind, the second so immensely bloated and fat it could scarcely walk, and the third weak, poor, and almost dying from starvation. The beldame appeared alarmed,° and at first professed her inability to afford any solution ; but, on being reassured and informed that under any circumstances she might rely not only on protection but reward, she took heart, and, much to the astonishment of her Imperial interrogators, replied, " The blind mouse is your Majesty; the fat mouse, your Ministers ; and the worn-out, starving, and exhausted mouse, your people." Be the tale well or ill-founded, it is sufficiently analogous to the present state of the empire; but the worst part of it is that the blind mouse does not at present appear to have opened his eyes, and, if he continues to persevere in his present course, bids fair to realise the warning prophecy of the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, when nine months ago he gave deep umbrage to his Imperial brother by saying, " If your Majesty goes on thus, you will not stop till you have lost yourself and your empire." Apropos of the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian—a young man of education, genius, and talent far beyond the common order, and universally esteemed and beloved, except by one or two exalted personages—there is no doubt that his voyage to Madeira and the Brazils, from whence he is now on his return, was in reality an honorary exile. The advice which was once rejected is now sought, and his return is anxiously expected, as he possesses more brain than all the rest of the Hat.sburgs concentrated. He is generally expected here about the middle of April, but I believe the commencement of the month is more probable. His steam yacht, the Fantasia, left at midnight very recently to meet him, on the expected arrival of the Elisabetta frigate at an island which he bought a few months ago on the Dalmation coast for the purpose of erecting another marine residence; and I know positively that on the same day a telegram arrived from Vienna for • the purpose of hastening his departure for the capital to attend a Council.