AUSTRIA AND THE COMING STORM.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 440, 21 January 1857, Page 4

AUSTRIA AND THE COMING STORM.

(From the* Times,' September 3.) An accredited organ of the Austrian Government —the ' Verona Gazette ' —has republished on its own account the manifesto of King Bomha. We should not have been the first to fling a stone at the Cabinet of Vienna, well aware as we are of the atrocities which are committed under the shadow,of the. Austrian flag for the simple reason that the Government of that country is allied with our own. It ig, however, rather too much to presume upon the sufferance of impartial men when the hirelings who are in the pay of one of the most oppressive tyrannies which have ever afflicted humanity dare to speak of any ■ portion of the British Empire in comparison with tlie provinces which are bayonetted and dragooned into subservience to the House of Hapsburg. We have not sought this contest. There >w,as .-really no reason why the official organs.of the Austrian Government should take up the quarrel of the King of Naples, caress his oppressions, adopt his acts, justify his insanity. We drew no comparison between the policy of the Austrian Cabinet and his own. We said nothing of Spielburg or of the dungeons of Mantua, Verona, Pesth, and of twenty other fortresses in which such cruelties are daily perpetrated as may make humanity shudder. Such things are endured not approved by the public opinion of Europe ; and if we have hitherto preserved < silence, it is not because we are reconciled to the policy of Vienna, but because we have profoundly felt that no word of ours, unsupported by an armed intervention, would save one victim from the rifles of the Austrian soldiery, or liberate one captive from the Austrian dungeons. We can do these poor people no good without involving Europe in the consequences of a general war, and, despite the' philippics of M. Kossuth and those who feel with him, we cannot see why Englishmen should sacrifice their lives in the cause of people who will not help themselves. There is a time however for all things, and although at the present moment Lorabardy is bound in iron fetters—although Hungary has been depopulated ,by the executioner, and Bohemia handed over .to the--,ex-tremities of religious persecution-v-although,the police spy is everywhere, and throughout- the extent of the Austrian dominions man cannot communicate freely with his fellow, nor pass unchallenged from one village to another, we know full well that a time will come when such things must end. The public opinion of England is with the oppressed and against the oppressor. The demagogues who from time to time have endeavoured to work upon the Austrian public have, in the first instance, expressed themselves as secure of the active assistance of England ; and, in the second place, when they have been disappointed in this expectation, have overwhelmed us with reproach. We have neither deserved their expressions of confidence or of disgust.

But for aU this, the real nature of the Austrian Government is pei'fectly ■understood in England. There was nothing so bad in the worst period of our own history centuries ago as not to have been equalled by the Austrian Government within the last few years. Hungary has been laid waste'with fire and s r word, contrary to the faith of treaties, and the natural humanities of modern civilisation. Lombardy is a prison. The whole of Italy is' subjected to the pressure of the Austrian bayonet. Tuscan3V the Legations,' Naples,—there "is "9^ a province except Sardinia, in whicli the weight of that impure power is not felt. Who shall describe the horrors and iniquities of the Austrian dungeons at Verona and elsewhere P It is perfectly understood in Europe that men are torn away from their homes in Italy upon mere suspicion, and executed in cold blood, with scarcely the form of a trial, by the hands of the Austrian agents. These things are endured, we scarcely know why, until France and England, unit 'd, resolve that they shall be no more. Will it be believed, that the agents of such a'Government venture to compare the abominations of their own condition with the state of any portion of the British Empire ? In by-gone days, when O'Connell was in his palmy days howling on behalf of his ragged clients, an idea1 got abroad upon the continent of Europe that he was real y in earnest, and that the poverty of Ireland v -s fairly referable to causes over -whichany Gove:nmerit could exercise control. _ It i^idje t<> P'Y that no pu-son above the condition of a Ou<~a::a

in any of the .European capitate ever believed in 11 * Jucli absurdity; but now the Austrian w*i diets are directed to compare the Ireffioflßs6 with the Hungary of 1856- the Lombardy of 1856 with the India of 1856 :- " To speak of Ireland and India, and the manner in which British Liberalism is administered I* those regions, is to throw in the face of the Bnelish Government all the opprobrium of a barbarism which luckily has no example elsewhere It is well that once more the deformed contradiction between the zeal of England for the welfare of. Italy, of Poland', and of Greece and its conduct towards Ireland, should be laid b«ro The possession of that island is a morbid c'mcer, continually eating the foundations of public tranquillity in tbe United Kingdon, and hVhiy compromising to its dignity in the face ofEurope. Without any participation in the advantages enjoyed by the sister islandonerously bearing the weight of this union— bound in fetters for ail that a people holds most dear, in religion, hibits, legislation —Ireland is continually on the vrdiAi for a propitious moment to rise and emancipate itself from its powerful bonds with England. The spirit of insurrection is the order of the day there more than in Italy or Poland, and if its manifestations are more rare and >do not attain such threatening proportions, it is -due exclusively to the much greater pressure exercised by. the English Government than that which England , laments so bitterly, presuming it to -weigh on ! other countries." "Would that any Austrian agent were directed to travel over that district of India, or of Ireland, in which the greatest discontent could be discovered, and to compare it with that section of the possessions of the House of Hapsburg in which the greatest contentment prevails, and we are perfectly willing to be judged upon the result of the comparison. Half-a-dozen of our Irish members, as free-spoken in Austria as they are in Ireland, would in something less than twenty-four hours render the position of the Emperor so truly uncomfortable that ho would have no resource but to shoot them or to" abdicate himself. What would the police agents who are charged with the government of Hungary think of a province in-which everybody has full power to say what he likes —to print what he likes against, the Government —to call meetings and denounce^the acts of the Government —to leave the province when he likes with no questions asked —in which the inhabitants are represented in the Imperial Parliament in larger proportion than any other district of the empire, and to take care that their representation shall npt be considered a dead letter ? True it is that in Ireland the Roman Catholic religion" is not largely assisted by the Government;-but have we not, on the other h-*nd. heard cf a Concordat with Home ?

We;arei'hpweyer,::!ptetFectly\sensible-thaJs'':-.tliis'; outrageous^ tissue; of-absurdity is- y not \'\ concocted! ■ for the benefit of^ educated: Eurppej but 'of >-tbe:'.| gaolers or The scribas; of the '" Verona Gazette" do; Dot' write for London) or. I^aris;. ;but.for ■MUani'vMani^;i,Spielberg/jPesth.vV-':^vHow- : farl thejr.lucubrations may ,■ receive credit.■ in \ townsv ■where, public bpiriibn}has/such play it i.is; not* for us to say ;i but it:iisv perfectly certain that' they -can;.decieive .no .person.who' has the :.slight-:■ est acquairitancebwith.;>the. '■ present condition 6£ Eui'ope..; Qn one points we certainly wonder'that the ATistrianiGpyerriment .was w discus.sipn'even-amoMg..a.picket'of;Gr6a^ policy irfr'non^iiierVe^ Great.;Btiitain;''17butf.if;,uppn;Great Britain', why not upon *^ustri.a:B:l;ft.HQW3:is •ifc^henVtKatii^we: fi'id-^Austria-'in- the Legations,- in Tuscany,in Parma, powerful by intrigue and commuriity;. of interest at Rbrnei-and'omnipotent at^^ Naples ?. If the influence of Great; Britain' on the popular, side is not to beexereised/ let Austria at least stbp..;, within;her. ;.flwri:--pTdvihoed^^f6v>.'sh'e;.-lfasl;---surely as : little direct' conceTh ■at the.'foot-■ o$ Italyaswe-can have.. : Everynati6ni-howeveiV in these days has a lignt toexercisean influence in the international concerns of another, not by: direct JinWyentißh, -for ;:cthat doctrine lias beenlong since explodedfbut'by the farmore efficient - agency, pf opinion.. L The Italians of the' present' d.ay may be .perfectly sure that whenever-. they are strong "enough to cast the Aiistrians out of the. peninsula, as far as this country is concerned they have nothing but support and hearty, good wishes to expect.-.. ■: ■::( - - ; "; ■