The relative position of Austria and Prussia has not lost
its importance, but the two additional facts which belong to the week convey very little to enlighten us further. Baron Manteuffel, the tool of the feeble King and the Russian camarilla by which that Kin is surrounded and guided, has indited one of his weakest, wordiest, and wiliest pieces of mysticism, as a protest against the last Austrian note of September 30. The other fact is, that Baron Iler,s has reappeared in Vienna, and has been conspicuously mentioned as attending a great council of war in that capi- tal, with the Emperor presiding in person. Such an event was calculated to set in motion rumours of every kind, more or less consistent with ascertained antecedents : one, for instance, that Austria was about to demand from Russia the withdrawal of forces menacing the frontier; another, that Russia, carrying on her Operations through the summer and an- tunin for dilatory purposes intends to retaliate upon the Allies, and Particularly upon Austria, with a winter campaign. The
elder Napoleon had reason to know that Russia can place reliance upon her strength as " a winter power." In the frozen season, when English ships would suffer wreck, and English officers con- sumption, in the Baltic—when the armies of the South would be enfeebled by the icy breezes—the great inert empire, whose roads are desert tracks, becomes almost one level tramroad ; and the Russian soldier—who might almost be called the jackass in the military system of Europe, for his dulness, his patience, and his endurance—is then able to bring out thosodower qualities against the more chivalrous forces of other countries. Thus, too, the inert complicity of Prussia might be turned to full account. We have, however, no authority for the rumours beyond probability.
