Another great empire, Austria is in the throes and agonies
of disruption and reconstitution, if ;hat be possible. The advent of
Baron von Schmerling to power seepis likely to bring with it a new home and foreign policy. He has revived the work of Stadion. May he escape his fate Hungary has got beyond control, except by an armed force ; and it is far more likely that bit by bit the Hungarian will get what they want, as a bribe to aid the Kaiser, than that he will or can spare troops to provoke a new revolutionary war. Baron von Schmerling promises well —free constitutions for the provinces, courts independent of the Executive laws to protect personal liberty, a press freed from extra legal preventive restraints, religions liberty, revision of the Condordat, an Imperial-Parliament, with public debates all over the empire. At present, the Imperial Court has not made up its mind to restore Hungary's right to raise and expend her own taxes, and to raise and control her own armies. But that must come. Frank and fair concessions to the people of the empire or disruption—this is the alternative.
It is very significant of what is to be, that M. Grandguillot persists in telling Austria, through the columns of the Constitu- tionnel, that she cannot hold Venetia. Some sale, some bargain, some transaction, based on money or territorial equivalents—at whose expense ?—is brewing, and the Cabinets of Europe are no strangers to the business. It is equally significant that the Emperor Napoleon keeps open the Gaeta cancer, when, by with- drawing his fleet, and leaving King Francis to his fate, the ex- hausting labours of the siege would soon terminate. But the policy of France is as inscrutable as ever, and it is only for England that the- Emperor appears to have no reserves. For England -smiles; but for Italy, for Syria, for Austria—what ?
Previous page
