The actual position of the Austrian empire, as it is
represented in the news of the week, is unprecedented in the history of states: such a complication of internal conflict, such rapidity in the pro- cess of decay, are without example. That the capital, abandoned by its Sovereign, is possessed by a revolutionary Government, and threatened without by two armies acting under very different motives, presents but a small part of the fatal cross-purposes, Official power in Vienna is still surrounded and upheld by the remains of the statesman class ; and although there have been conflicting councils, on the whole the stand taken by the de facto Government is practical, moderate, and consistent with events. The Diet labours to remain " constitutional"; pursues the flying Emperor with invitations to return to his post, and professes to act in his name.
In his name, technically correct, the Ministers call upon Count Auersperg, the commandant, to come and aid in maintaining or- der within the walls ; but literally, under colour of that pretext, what they require him to do is, to surrender himself to their force. On his part, keeping up the farce of official subordination, he professes to act under the responsible Ministers, but pleads orders from the Minister of War—the murdered Latour--and avers that he only awaits the countermand of the Minister's suc- cessor duly appointed ; he confesses that he mistrusts the armed bodies in the capital, and offers to enter it if they be disarmed: in other words, be offers to take military possession of the capital if the Diet will politely disarm it. The Diet astutely declines. Auersperg then says that be will not risk extremities, but will re- tire to a less menacing position; only he asks his Majesty's Min- isters to supply food and accommodation for his troops.
Meanwhile, the Diet has sent to Jellachich and his invading Croats, summoning them to retire. Jellachich replies, that he is the Emperor's officer, commanding the Emperor's forces ; and that he awaits the Imperial orders. The Diet then sends word to the Hungarian Kossuth, who fol- lows Jellachich like the shadow of death, that the Hungarians may enter the Austrian territory : his:Majesty's Ministers invite his Majesty's rebels to invade the metropolitan province in order to clear it of his Majesty's forces !
The position of the Emperor himself is not less intricate. He fled, leaving word that he would come back with help, to chastize his beloved subjects. He revoked that threat, but does send Auersperg and Jellachich to enforce it. The flying Monarch in- vites his Minister, "My dear Hornbostl," to pursue him; and the loyal Hornbostl, quite affected at such a trait of "constitu- tional" fidelity in the Monarch, does pursue his Ctesar, not "with an ode but with a letter tendering his own resignation. But Cmsar will not hear of resignation : he insists that the Min- isters, against whom he is sending armies, shall continue in the administration. Only he travels as fast as possible to throw him- self into the arms of his Sclavoniiin subjects: among his several provinces, all revolutionized, the least estranged from the adhe- sion to Royalty, perhaps, are the Sclavonian.
Seeing his motive, the Sclavonians receive him coldly ; and they invoke the recall of that Selavonian Assembly which wss dispersed by his General Windischgiiitz—that faithful veteran, whom he sent from Vienna to Prague for the purpose of putting down the Bohemians, and whom he now sends from Prague to Vienna for the purpose of putting down the Austrians.
Not to be behindhand in the matter of councils, the Diet of Vienna has appointed a deputation of members, one from each province, to pursue the Emperor with more solemn repre- sentations—to intimate, in fact, that he must resume his throne in Vienna with its " constitutional " limitations, or forfeit it. But the poor Emperor cannot learn that a " constitutional" throne is safer and more comfortable nowadays than the throne as he was born to it ; and so he continues the anarchical practice of issuing edicts, indecently prepared for him by his personal retainers, without Ministerial countersignature.
At Frankfort they talk of sending a contingent to Vienna : but with what mission ? To support the Emperor—that is, to sup- port the Sclavonians against the Austrian Germans ? or to sup- port the Austrians against the Selavonian invaders—that is, the Provisional Government against the Emperor ?
In Italy, the " Austrian" army threatens to fall to pieces like the empire : Hungarian and Croat are fighting against each other ; Magyar soldiers are demanding leave of absence from the scan- dalized Radetzky, in order that they may go home to fight for their country—against their Emperor. It looks as if the "pro- prium regnum Imperatoris," Lombardy, would soon loose the double tenure boasted by Austria—occupation and victory.
The audacious and amphibious denizens of the Bocce di Cattaro are contumacious; Transylvania is reported to have pronounced in favour of the Sclave movement; Russian troops have once more entered the Danubian states, "to preserve order "; and while Christians are quarrelling, the Turk is trying to regain his enfeebled hold of the Christian provinces. Such are the position and circumstances of" Austria " : Prince Metternich, in his quiet and healthy retreat at Brighton, under the wing of Constitutional Monarchy, seems likely to outlive that " geographical expression."
