The news from Austria is very strange. It is believed
on all hands that Count Taaffe and his Emperor intend to recede from their determination to introduce a nearly universal suffrage. The nationalities, it appears, have caught our point, that a strong Cis-Leithan Parliament might make short work of them, and are in such furious resistance that the Bill has in this Parliament no chance. The Conservatives, the Germans, and the Poles have all united, and as they possess a large majority, the Government has, it is asserted, given way. The Bill will be withdrawn, and Parliament will be dissolved with a promise that suffrage reform shall be very moderate indeed. That is rather an ominous resolution for the House of Hapsburg, for it looks as if its steadiness had given way, to be replaced by a shallow opportunism. The adoption of universal suffrage may be dangerous, but to adopt it one day, announce it to the public, and then abandon it next day, is more dangerous still. The whole body of the lower classes will be furious with disappointment, and they have now the argument to adduce that the Emperor and his Ministers hold a.wide suffrage to be compatible with Imperial interests. To which there is, and can be, no answer.
