The resolution of the Emperor of Austria—the turning-point of the
situation—has excited more surprise than it ought to have done. For weeks and months past a furious contest has been raging in the Hofburg between the Magyar party now in posses- sion of power, headed by Count Andrassy, and aided by the Ultra- montanes, and the "Military party," headed by the Archduke Albrecht, supported by the Slays, and aided by Liberals like Herr Giskra. This party maintains that it is better for the Empire to increase to the south and east, than to risk the attachment of all 'Slays by defending a race which has no hearty friends in Europe except the Magyars. The contest was excessively close, and it was believed, we know, in Pesth, that the Magyars had won ; but Francis Joseph still thinks of himself as Emperor rather than King, he is aware by cruel experience of his own want of military genius, and he finally decided not to risk all in order to obtain nothing. He has been loudly condemned for weakness, but it is difficult to see why a Hapsburg should send his subjects to be slaughtered in defence of a race whose highest military achievement was an attempt to take possession of Vienna. To fight Russia may be necessary one day, but to fight Russia in order that Ottoman Pashas may prosper was hardly an attractive prospect for an Emperor defeated in two great wars.
