The Dominion. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1916. THE DEAD AUSTRIAN EMPEROR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2936, 23 November 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1916. THE DEAD AUSTRIAN EMPEROR

Britain's scapegracc King, Charles the Second, was witty and cynical up to the last, and on his death-bed he asked the bystanders to forgive him for being so unconscionable a time in dying! There | is one death chamber in Europe in | which the act of dying has been sadly prolonged, and that is the death chambor of the Emperor Fransis Joseph. For years the world has been expecting to hear of his end. And now the end has come.. That, death chamber must have been gloomy indeed. As the dying man, in thought, looked out from it he would sec a world weltering in blood, and he would know that he was a consenting party to the world crimo of the Kaiser and his War Lords. As ho looked back painful memories must have filled liis mind. : It. must have seemed to him as if his reign had been marked by bloodshed, bloodshed all the way; When he ascended the throne sixty-nine years ago, at the early ago of eighteen, he had_ to draw the sword to put down civil war. He succeeded nis epileptic, semi-insane, and utterly incapable uncle, Ferdinand I, who abdicated in his favour, and who lived under doctors aiid guardians a kind of vegetable existence till 1875, when he clied. Hungary, in 1848, disowned Francis Joseph as King, and its Diet proclaimed its independence of Austria, and denounced the house of Hapsburo as false and perjured, and forever excluded from the throne. Francis Joseph, by the aid of Russia, crushed the Hungarian army, and he chose General Haynau to play the part of the "butcher," and by martial law, murder, pillage, _ and wholesale brutalities, terrorise the Hungarians into obedience to his sway. After'some years of peace the southern part of his Empire became the scene of war. Italy, slain and buried by Austrian tyranny, rose to life, and struck for freedom and independence. The heroes of the Italian Risorgimento, Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Oavour, saw the triumph of their cause. The armies of Francis Joseph were defeated, and the Italian flag flew over lands in which Austria had played the tyrant. Blood and treasure were spent by Francis Joseph in vain in this war. The next war followed swiftly on the heels of the Italian war. In this war Francis Joseph was the victim of Prussia. The "blood and iron" policy of Bismarck was applied to Austria. In a seven weeks war Prussia smashed the armies of Austria, and the humiliated Francis Joseph had to admit that Prussia, and not Austria, was the dominant Power among the German kingdoms. The Austrian Emperor, baffled and beaten in battle, once and again thought fit to try and come to terms with Hungary, which he had crushed by brute force. He granted her a separate constitution, and agreed to receive a crown—a crown he had claimed already to possess. And tor a good many years there was peace in the dual kingdom, which has been well described as the "whirlpool of Europe." The Teuton, the Magyar, and the Slav in Austria-Hungary accepted Francis Joseph as a Kind of lesser evil than civil strife. But the dead Emperor, in the last years of his life, saw the crowning tragedy of his reign. Tho Prussian War Lords, in the weakness of his old age, forced him into this criminal war, and the outcome of it all may be the ruin of his kingdom and the ending iof the Hapsburq dynasty. Tragedy dogged the footsteps of Francis Joseph not only in his public life, but also in his family life. An avenging Nemesis seems to have pursued the jpath he trod. In tho early days of his reign a brokenhearted Hungarian mother, whoso son had been murdered by the infamous General Haynau, hurled at Francl3 Joseph a curse, in the following scathing, scorching words: Mfty heaven and licll Wast his happiness ! May his family bo exterminated! May he be smitten in tho persons of those lio loves! May his lifo he wrecked, and may liis children bo brought to ruin! Mr. Francis Gribble quotes these words in his Li/c o{ Uic Emperor*, and his story is a record of their terrible fulfilment. Mr. Gribble

avows that in painting his portraits he will paint the warts. His book may be one-sided. Sin Horace Ruiibold, in his Austrian Court in the Nineteenth Century, goes to the other extreme, and leaves out all the warts. Mr. H. W. Steed, in his calm and impartial Hapsbwrg Monarchy, helps lis to understand that Mr. Gribble-comes nearer the truth about the Austrian Court than Sir H. Rumbold does. The life of Francis Joseph was unique in its family horrors. His son, the Crown Prince Rudolph, according to Mr. Gribble, played the profit gate, and was either murdered or committed suicide; his wife, the Empress Elizabeth, was_ stabbed to death by the assassin in Geneva; his brother was driven from the throne of Mexico, and shot as a traitor by those who revolted from his rule; his nephew, and designated succcssor, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, wasmurdered (with his wife) in Austrian territory. No royal family in Europe has such haunting horrors in their presentday history. The story reads like a chapter out of the history of pagan Rome in ts most degraded period.

If ever Austria needed a capable ruler in all its history it needs such an one now. And will such an one be forthcoming? The succession has passed out of the family of the murdered Archduke. Hi's wife, the Countess'. Ohotek, i was considered by the Emperor of inferior rank, and Francis Ferdinand, before his marriage, had to swear an oath that none of his children could ascend the throne.. The marriage _he contracted was a morganatic one, and the children, though legitimate, lost their birthright. The succession to the tErono has passed to tbo nephew of Francis' Ferdinand, the young Archduke Charles Francis Joseph. This young man may prove capable, though Mr. Gribble makes out that his father, the Archduke Otto, was a thoroughly depraved and worthless character. It has been said lhafc Francis Joseph alone kept the Ausfcro-Hungarian Empire from distnption. His death may now prove a factor in hastening tho encl of the 'war. As the dying Emperor contemplated the future be would realise that the house of Hapsburq was face to face with one of the darkest hours in its history, and that his passing might ' mean the passing away of his house. Tho day of this family may bo near i«S close. "The feet of the avenging deities are shod with wool."