INSURRECTION AT VIENNA. [From Bell's Messenger, Oct. 16.] MURDER OF THE MINISTER OF WAR-FLIGHT OF THE EMPEROR.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 376, 10 March 1849, Page 3

INSURRECTION AT VIENNA. [From Bell's Messenger, Oct. 16.] MURDER OF THE MINISTER OF WAR- FLIGHT OF THE EMPEROR.

[The following extract gives an account of the insurrection at Vienna, which has led to the military operations, under Prince Windischgratz, related in the English Extracts in our last number. — Ed.N.Z.S.~] We have received information of the outbreak of a new and terrible insurrection at Vienna on the 6th inst. It appears that the military having refused to march against the Hungarians, part of the National Guards joined in the mutiny, barricades were erected, the tocsin sounded, the arsenal bombarded and sacked, the Minister of War, Count Latour, was killed, and his naked body exposed on a gibbet. The Xfesterreichische Lloyd of the 7th instant, a paper whioh is now published at Vienna, has the following graphic account of the deplorable events of the 6th and 7th :—: — " Early on the afternoon of the sth the notorious manifesto of the Emperor was published and sold in the streets. The people became greatly excited — partly on account of their sympathies for the cause of the Hungarians, partly from disgust at the late insidious condact of the Cabinet. It was said that the major part of the garrison of Vienna were to march against the Hungarians. Many soldiers made their appearance in the clubs, 'where they asked what they should do. The first battalion of the Regiment Ceccopieri bad already left Vienna by rail ; they had murmured, but as yet there had been no open mutiny. The second battalion peremptorily refused to march. They said they would not fight against the Hungarians and for the Croats. The Minister of War, Count Latour, insisted that they should. He sent artillery, horse, and two regiments of Polish infantry against them. The two parties stood opposed to each other when detachments of the National Guards arrived, who began by attempting a mediation, and finished by siding'with the mutinous troops. This dreadful state, of suspense lasted for about an hour ; and an enormous crowd had assembled in the course of that hour and surrounded the hostile parlies. Some random shots were at length fired from either side, and the commander of the government troops, General Breda, gave the order to fire a volley. He had scarcely uttered the word when he sank lifeless from his horse — two bullets had pierced his breast. " Then came the combat. The people captured four cannons, two of which were carried into the city, while two" were thrown into the Danube. The rappel was beaten in all quarters. The National Guards of the parishes of Wimmer and Karnthen, who sided with the government, took their position in the cathedral of St. Stephen to prevent the tocsin being sounded. The people and the students entreated them to open the doors of the sacred building, but their entreaties were in vain, and on a detachment of the insurgent National Guards coming up, the latter were fired at by the garrison of the cathedral. Another combat took place ; the insurgents were beaten off and forced to retire, but they rallied and pressed hard upon their antagonists, who by this time fired from the windows of the church and of the neighbouring houses. The insurgents, furious at what they called the ' treachery of the Imperialists,' raised a cry for artillery. A gun was brought up, and the firing from the houses effectually silenced. The church doora were then broken open, and the interior of the church was

searched, in order to detect and capture its defenders. " The game of the revolution was now fairly on foot. The names of the Ministers Latour and Bach were ominously pronounced, and a countless multitude rushed to the War Office in order to hang Count Latour. A bloody collision between the people and the military took place in some of the streets leading to the War Office. Volleys of grape and canister were* fired, advances were made and repelled, but the government troops were at length defeated and put to flight. " A similar combat took place in the yard of the building, but the grenadiers, who occupied the building itself, fraternised with the people ; large masses, armed with pikes, bludgeons, and muskets, thronged the offices, and searched them in order to find the minister, of whose presence in the house they were assured by the greuadiers. They succeeded at length in discovering the wretched man crouched in a dark hole near the roof of the j house. They seized him. He tried to awe them by firmness and composure, but when they brought him down stairs, and when frowning looks surrounded him on every side, he entreated them to spare his life. He received an answer — but that answer was accompanied by a blow with a sledge hammer, which hit him in the face. He fell, and in falling he was pierced by numerous pikes and i slashed with sabres. They flung him down the steps in front of the house. The mob tore off his clothes, and gibbeted him on one of the lamp-posts of the square. " The people turned next to the Arsenal, from which they wanted arras and ammunition ; barricades were erected in all the streets ; the Bastei was occupied by National Guards and students ; the tocsin was sounded from all the steeples, and the people from the suburbs came thronging in. The Arsenal was defended by two companies of Polish troops, who offered a stubborn resistance to the attacks of the people. The building could not be stormed, and the rioters drew up some cannon, and endeavoured to make a breach ; but on the garrison making a successful sally, and capturing one of their guns, some pieces of artillery were hoisted on the Shottenbastei, from the eminence of which they poured grape and canister down into the courtyards of the Arsenal. This lasted for some hours, but this, too, proved ineffectual, and the shirts of the combatants and the straw mats were covered with pitch, lighted and thrown upon the building, which was soon on fire, and part of it was burned. Rockets were then seen to illumine the sky, to call the peasant population of the vicinity into the city. The Diet made an attempt at mediation, but the bearers of the flags of truce were fired at and killed by the Poles in the Arsenal. Another attack and another bombardment followed, and continued all the night till seven o'clock in the morning, when the defenders of the Arsenal were forced to surrender. Enormous stores of weapons, to the value of many millions, were left unprotected to the depredations of the mob. No further hostilities occurred after the surrender of the garrison of the Arsenal. The number of the dead is stated to amount to 150." It appears from the latest advices from Vienna that the people care little or nothing about the second flight of the Emperor, whom they consider a traitor to the cause of constitutional liberty. Many instances of duplicity in the conduct of the Emperor ate quoted, and his late dishonest behaviour is thought likely to lead to the overthrow of his dynasty. The people of Vienna are fully aware of their dangerous position. They are forewarned of their fate by the Emperor's farewell proclamation in whiuh he says — " I leave Vienna in order to find somewhere else the means for the liberation of the subjugated population of the town." The Viennese interpret these words by asserting that a hostile attack upon their city is meditated, and they are preparing to repel it.