THE STATE OF VIENNA. [From the Times' Correspondent.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 386, 14 April 1849, Page 3

THE STATE OF VIENNA. [From the Times ' Correspondent.]

Vienna, November 15. — This is St. Leopold's day, the feast' of the patron of Austria. In more peaceful times the people of Vienna were wont to go and amuse themselves at Neubuig Convent, a few miles from here, wheie a solemn mass was read by the Metropolitan, and when every body indulged in feasting and all kinds of popular games. But so strong is the bane of this season, that even the u'ay of St. Leopold has lost the better half of its influence. The solemn mass may have been read this mori.ing at Convent Neuburg for all I know to the contrary, but the long rows of hackney coaches idling at their stands show the Viennese have kept within their walls. The grand day of public rejoicing is now something like a Sunday, with this only difference, that a greater number of shops remain closed than it is usuaj, to see on a common Sabbath-day. The coffee-houses are of course crammed, and so would the clubs be but for their opportune prohibition. People seem to have a mama for politics ; they can neither eat, diink, nor si- ep without them. The press appears to think the ministry that is to be, possessed of a panacea — of a pill or

draught that will cure all the ailings and sores of the state. I think if the minister could devise any plan by the action of which"they could be induced to mind their own business, and take some rational interest in otheritbings, than politics, they would have made a giant stride towards the pacification of the town. People have just now a deal to say on the subject of the free pardon which Prince Winc'ischi;ratz has thought proper to grant to Mr. Julius Frobel, a member of the German Parliament, at Frankfort, who had come to Vienna in order to foster the rebellion. This was the same case as that of Mr. Robert Bliim. The latier was shot, but the Weiner Zeitung proclaims of Mr. Frobel :—": —" That his guilt of assisting in and fostering the armed rebellion against his Majesty's troops had been proved l»y evidence and confessed by himself. That the saint Julius Frobel had been sentenced by court-martial to be hanged by the neck until death should ensue, but that Prince Windischgiatz, in consideration of certain extenuating circumstances, had granted a full and free pardon to the said Julius Frobel." This proclamation puzzles people to an enormous extent. They cannot understand that the extreme penalty of the law should be pronounced against a man when there were extenuating circumstances of such great import, that their consideration induced the Commander-in-Chief to grant a full and free pardon. Rumour, that always finds a reasou when none else can find one, ascribes to Mr. Frobel certain important revelations as to the existeuceofa grand democratic conspiracy, at the price of which, it is said, he bought his life. The soluiion of the enigma, however, is not so difficult as the Viennese would make it. I piesume Piince Windischgraiz did not think another inftingement of the privilege of Parliament necessary for his purpose. His whole conduct has proved how averse he is to the shedding of blood. Mr. Blum's execution had already consummated the rupiure between Austria and the Regency of Germany, and Prince Windischgratz was" contented with recording sentences of death against the other members of the Parliament, without going to the length of executing them. Some Vienna papers report that Mr. Messenhauser, the commander of the National Guard during the siege, has been found guilty by the military commission, and that he is to be hanged to-morrow morning. I have not been able to ascertain whether this statement is true or untrue, but there is a great likelihood of its being founded on fact. Mr. Messenhauser's active share in the combat against the Emperor's troops is so evident, that his warmest friends dare not dispute it, and there is a suspicion, almost amounting to a certainty, that he was the real cause of that disgraceful breach of good faith of which the Viennese made themselves guilty, by resuming the defence alter they had consented to surrender. To-day we have another proclamation about the disarmament. Weapons of all kinds that were taken from the aisenal during the riot, have been kept back in spite of former proclamations, and domiciliary visits in search of weapons are announced for to-morrow. This measure is necessary, but yet little is to be hoped from it. The defaulters against tlis proclamation of Prince Windischgiaiz will certainly have cunning enough to hide their arms in places where they cannot be found. The annoyance of the domiciliary visits will, of course, add to the bitter feelings of the Viennese. We have been favoured with the following admirable graphic descripton of some of the even.s of the siege by a gentleman who only arrived in Vienna the day before the murder of Count Latour. Our correspondent is a member of the University of Oxford.

Vienna, Nov. 9. —As the regular post, long interrupted, is resumed to-day, I am at length able to write you some account of the dreadful scenes which I have witnessed here during the past mouth. While travelling in Greece in September, I caught at Thermopylae a malaria fever, of which, I was very nearly dying ; and a3 soon as 1 recovered I was sent to Vienna for change of air, where I arrived just :n time to see the insurrection of the 6th of October, the murder ol Count Latour, and the massacre of some of his officers on the altar of the Catheilral, whither they had fled for refuge —deeds as I'orrlii as any perpetrated in the first French revolution. It is now certain that the leaders of the insurgents here were acting in concert with the chiefs of the ]ate revolts at Paris, Frankfort, and Berlin, and that they had intended, in case they repulsed the Imperial army, to abolish property, set up the guillotine —in short* to establish a Republique Rouge, and a Rei<m of Terror on the French model. Europe at large cannot be thankful enough that this greatest, and probably last effort in favour of Comniui.ii.ra, lias been *o MgiidH) .ieieated, chiefly, as all will allow, through ibe instrumentality ot Jellachicb, the Ban of Croatia, who marched on Vienna contrary to express

orders, and when, indeed, he bad been attainted of high treason, "detei rained," as he said in his proclamation, "to save the Emperor in spite of himself, or, if it was the will of Heaven that the Austrian monarchy should be dissolved, not to survive its downfall." The old generals who recollect Austerlitz, Moscow, and Leipsic, are comparing with the most brilliant exploits pf Hannibal and Napoleon Jellachich's march across Hungary — a hostile and most difficult country— at a time when the Emperor had repeatedly ordered him to submit to the rebels, and had left his army wholly unprovided for. On that dreadful night of the 31st of October I saw the glorious fellow, a young and magniGcent looking man, by the blaze of the burning houses and the flashing of 200 cannon, lead his wild Croats and Servians to the storm, his tall white plume shining, like Henri Quatre's at Ivry, as the pole-star of the whole army. All agree that he is one of those remarkable xnen who are raised up from time to time to m § Id the destinies of nations. For some days after the 6th of October the insurgents here, like our Long Parliament, waged war against the Emperor in his own name, and preserved tolerable order. But, after the corps diplomatique, all the nobility and gentry, and 60,000 of the principal citizens had withdrawn, and when Jellachich and Windischgratz had completed the investment of the city, the mask was thrown off, and the terrorism indeed became awful. The University — that is, not the "dons," but the students who exercise an influence in Germany which it is hard for an Englishman to understand — guided by some foreign emissaries of revolution, usurped all authority, arming the mob from the spoils of the Imperial J arsenal, and forming it into an Academic Legion. They domineered over the Convention, the National Guard, and all moderate men — in short, it was a second conquest of the Presbyterians by the Independents, or of the Girondins by the Montagnards. There were no means of escape ; ruffianly pressgangs burst continually into all the hotels and -oales, forcing every one, without exception, at the point of the bayonet and pike, to take arms and work at the barricades. You may imagine the exasperation into which we strangers and all respectable Viennese were thrown by such outrages, perpetrated on us in the name of liberty ; and what a " bore" it would have been to have got shot, as some foreigners I knew were, while forced to fight for so detestable a cause. On October 23, the Imperialists summoned the city to surrender -conditionally, and at the expiration of the forty-eight hours' thinking time (bedenkzit) as Jellachich called it, the attack began most punctually on the insurgents outposts. From 3 o'clock p.m. on the 25tb, until the evening of the 31st, the fighting continued with little intermission by day, while at night the heavens were all in a blaze with the glare of burning houses. 200,000 men were, in all, employed on both sides — a far greater number than fought at Waterloo; but the loss does not much exceed 2000, as both parties were so much under cover. The grand attack on the suburbs (from which the city, properly so called, is separated by a broad glacis and regular ramparts) began at 10 a.m., on Saturday the 28' h, and after eight hours' tremendous fighting left the Imperialists in possession of the Belvedere Palace, which commands the city to the east, and oi the Leopoldstadt, the Southwark of Vienna. On Sunday morning, the 29th, my friend H and I managed to escape from one of the advanced barricades, whither we had been pressed, into the Leopoldstadt, where we were most kindly received by the troops, both officers ■ and men, to whom we were able to give valuable information as to the real state and disposition of the rebel forces. There the devastation is dreadful. The Jagerzeile, the beautiful street leading to the Prater, had been the scene of the hardest fighting of all, as it had been fortified by a succession of barricades, built-up to the first floor windows in a half-moon shape, with regular embrasures, .and planted with cannon. This was strewn with the dead bodies oi men and horses, but they, and the pools of blood all about, did not strike us so much as the horrible smell of roast flesh, arising from the half burnt bodies .of rebels killed iv the houses fired by congreve rckets, which we saw used by the troops with terrible effect. Half of the houses in this beautiful suburb are thus burnt down, while the other half are riddled with shell and shot. On every side you may see sweeping wives, sisters,, and daughters, picking literally piecemeal out of the ruins the half>consumed bodies of their relatives. On Sunday evening, the city, dreading a 'bombardment from the Belvedere, agreed to but the capitulation was shamefully violated, when early the next morning the approach of the Hungarians to raise the siege was signalled from the tower of the cathedral. Then came the real crisis j most of the troops *nd guns were removed from the Leopolditadt to meet the enemy in the rear, while the .

remainder set to work to barricade the btidg which connects the suburb with the city, so as to prevent a sortie. H and I, and some other foreigners, dreadfully exasperated by the treatment we had met with from the rebels, and excited by the " pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war," offered the General our services, which, as men were scarce, were thankfully accepted, and setting to work in good earnest under the direction of the engineer officers, we soon erected — soldiers and civilians working together — a strong breastplate of paving stones — [N.B. Macadamising the streets of the continental cities would most effectually prevent revolutions] — from which the six cannon left us swept the bridge with such a murderous fire of grape that a sally became impossible. Of course we were fired on continually from the ramparts, and I for the first time literally tasted blood, which was dashed over my face and clothes when a round shot carried off the liead of an artilleryman by my side. All this time the roar of cannon, the whizzing of rockets, and the roll of musketry in our rear, told us that the Hungarian army had joined battle ; while in our front, from all the ramparts, tops of houses and churches, the rebels were firing signal guns and waving flags, to cheer them on. It was a beautiful, clear, sunshiny, autumn day, and all felt that there were trembling in the balance, not only the fate of the grand old Austrian empUe — " An Siegen und an Khren raich," the Monarchy of Charles Y. and Maria Theresa, and so long the bulwark of Christendom against the Turks, but with it the peace and safety of Europe. At length the firing behind us gradually slackened, and then died away, and towards sunset the victorious Imperialists marched back from the field of battle, having utterly routed the Hungarians, and driven 3000 of them into the Danube, which will roll their bodies down to Pesth — a fearful tidings of their defeat. You may fancy what cheers now arose from the Imperialists, and what yells of despair from the rebels, whose offer of a conditional surrender were now rejected. That night and the following morning (Tuesday, the 31st) were devoted to the needful repose of the troops, wearied by the incessant fighting of the past week ; but at 3 p.m., a tremendous bombardment of shells and rockets was opened from the Belvedere Gardens, and as soon as it got dark Jellachich stormed the ramparts, the troops getting into the city just in time to prevent a general plundering and massacre by the armed mob of all the respectable citizens, and to save the unrivalled collection of art and literature in the Imperial Palace, to which the rebels had set fire in their most impotent rage and spite. The adjoining church however where the hearts of the long line of Austrian Emperors are interred, and which was rich in splendid monuments, has been burnt to the ground. So were the tombs of the French Kings at St. Denis rifled by the revolutionary mob. The morning after the storm we marched into the city with the victorious troops ; pretty figures, indeed, after even our four days' campaigning, as of course we had escaped on Sunday with nothing but the clothes we wore — now torn and disfigured with blood and dirt. Martial law is of course proclaimed, and the leaders of the revolt are being shot in batches as they are caught. We have seen the execution of several of the chief students, who had rather ** fraternised" with us as English University men on our first arrival, who latterly had become too great men to condescend to notice or protect us from outi age; so we feel no pity for them. The great body of the students who have borne aims are to be forced to serve as common soldiers among the savage Croats, Jellachich diily leraarking, in yesterday's proclamation, that " as they had been pleased to play at soldiers without being called on, they should now have an opportunity of exercising the profession in a legitimate way." Tranquillity and confidence are already restored, and thousands of the fugitive families are daily returning. But it must be long before Vienna can become what ii once was — the very head quarters of pleasure and amusement ; indeed, in constitutional countries, (and a constitution has been granted Austria) where men have something more serious to attend to, there can probably never exist the light-hearted gaiety for which the Austrians were once so distinguished.

Egypt. — Alexandria, 20th Nov., 1848. — H.H. Ibrahim Pasha died on the 9th at 2 p.m. at his residence in Cairo; this event has created but little sensation among the Egyptians. Abbas Pasha was immediately sent for, who had a short time previously gone on a journey to Mecca, to take the direction of the government, which is provisionally confided to Said Pasha. No ceremonies have taken place, and the government conceals as much as possible the death of Ibrahim Pasha, because it fears an insurrection. All the consul-generals are in Cairo, to receive the new successor of Mehemet Ali, who will arrive to-morrow.