THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. [From the Times, Dec. 9.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 396, 19 May 1849, Page 4

THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT. [From the Times, Dec. 9.]

The extraordinary intelligence which reached us yesterday by the German mail in time for our second edition is in the most powerful corroboration of the opinion we have always confidently expressed, that the Austrian and Prussian Governments have engaged with perfect good faith in the arduous duties of constitutional monarchy, and that in their recent successful determination to restore order in their respective capitals by military power they were not animated by a blind spirit of reaction, but by a firm resolution to establish those conditions, without which neither government or liberty are po&sible. In Austria the personal infirmities of the late Emperor wholly disqualified him for the performances of the duties he owed to h'.s crown. Every act of the Court was stigmatised ns the scheme of a Camarilla, because it was known that the Emperor was a positive instrument in the hands of his family or of his Ministers. That extreme weakness which in calmer times had inspired the people of Austria with indulgent compassion, in the midst of revolutions gave rise to constant suspicions and undisguised contempt. It had long been foreseen that whenever the reign of Ferdinand was terminated, either by his decease or by abdication, his biother and immediate heir, the Archduke Franz Carl (who had exercised considerable power during the late reign) would probably be induced to renounce the Imperial Crown in favor of his son, and when that young Prince first appeared on the stage of politics, about a year ago, as Viceroy of

Bohemia, we pointed out the interest which henceforth attached to his person. His age, his talents, and his position had marked out from bis childhood the Archduke, now Emperor Francis Joseph I. of Austria, as the Prince wbo was destined to preside over' the renovation of the empire of his fathers. With this view the young Sovereign has been carefully trained under the eye of his mother, the Archduchess Sophia, a woman of great spirit and intelligence, and if report speaks true, his natural abilities, which are not inconsiderable, have been improved by all tl>e accomplishments of his age. In the Italian campaign of last summer he served with gallantry under the command of Marshal Radetzky, and shared the triumphs of the Imperial army. It is certainly a Providential circumstance that at this crisis in the affairs of Europe, and in the condition of the Austrian empire, when men are wanted everywhere to fill the great parts which history has assigned to them, a joung prince of so much promise, and surrounded by so many favourable accessories, shouli ascend one of the first thrones in Europe. The monarchy of the House of Austria — the crown of the two Rodolphs — of the Ferdinands — of Maria Theresa and of Joseph 11., had degenerated in the last years of Prince Metternich's administration, and during the whole reign of a faineant Emperor, into a mere tradition of etiquette and routine. Its power had gone out from it. The army alone retained a irace of vigour. The civil institutions of the empire were sapless and effete. At the first touch of the revolution they crumbled into dust, liut, although the nation when roused by the sudden shock of last March ceased to venerate and obey the mummies which occupied its high places, the delusive premises of anarchy and the foreign emissaries of revolution 1 aye done nothing to supply what is demanded by a great and iree people. A young Emperor, surrounded by the prestige of his race, and served by Ministers who are now unquestionably the first men in the realm, affords to the nation a far greater chance of the fulfilment of tlieir best expectations than the groping of a blind and factious Assembly, or the convulsive efforts of mere democratic power. The Crown on the other hand, is relieved from great embarrassments by this seasonable change. Instead of starting in a new and untried career with the heaviness of a feeble and undistinguished reign, it calls to it the influence of youth and the confidence of novelty ; and we presume the very incompetpnt Assembly which was summoned under the late Emperor to perform duties it has wholly failed to -discharge, will, acordiugto strict constitutional principles, be held to expire with the reign of the sovereign who convoked it. The Austrian Government possesses so unquestionably an ascendancy in the country by the fidelity and strength of the army, that it has the power of determining what the institutions are to be which are most likely to conduce to the well being and freedom of the empire ; and we are satisfied that infinitely more would be done for the cause of true progress by the establishment of moderate constitutional forms of government, than by abandoning the whole structure of the State to be torn asunder by the contention of demagogues or the menaces of insurgents. Hitherto, the revolution in Austria has only encumbered the soil with ruins ; the whole work of re-construction has to be I egun under the new reign, and that work will be more effectually promoted by the wishes of a patriotic Sovereign, and the counsels of enlightened statesmen, than by an usurpation of absolute constitutive power by a democracy, in a form which extinguishes the primary conditions of a limited monarchy and a mixed constitution. To an expedient of a similar kind the Prussiau Government has at last also resorted ; but in Prussia public opinioti is more concentrated, democratic agitation more diffused, and aristocratic elements far weaker than in Austria. The King's Government, therefore, in spite of the reactionary tendencies of which they are accused, have submitted to the conditions imposed on them by the excited state of the nation, and in promulgating a constitution they have at once adopted a basis of the broadest democracy. In their anxiety to bid high enough for popular support, and to iuin the speculations of anarchy by concession which leave nothing to be enacted hereafter, they have gone considerably be\ond the limits of j.rudence, and if this constitution be accepted by the people as it ought in reason to be, we forsee that it will give rise to the greatest difficulties in carrying on the King's Government. Unhappy is the state of a nation in which no legislative experiments are even tolerated, except those which are doomed by their extravagance to inevitable failure ! Such a Constitution would have appeared impracticable and dangerous if it had been framed by a popular assembly ; it may prove disastrous since the Crown itself has lowered its prerogatives to this level. We are the more surprised at the unbounded extent of these concessions to the democratic party, inasmuch as

they proceed from a Ministry which has already some experience of what may be done by temperate authority, and who might have learned that the Germans are a people which it is easier to rul- by firmness than to satisfy by concession. Although, therefore, do one will regret the dissolution of an Assembly which literally played at bo-peep with authority, and make " a house" or "no house" as I the majority fluctuated from one side to the other, we can look forward with little confidence to the Parliamentary body which is to succeed it, if the contest between theMonafchy and the Opposition is to be fought out by all but universal suffrage. In some respects however, this Constitution is an improvement on the existing state of things in Prussia, It establishes two legislative assemblies instead of one constituent convention and it maintains the principle of indirect voting in. the electoral districts. In our judgment, however, the intelligence of yesterday is far more full of promise to the Austrian empire than to the Prussian kingdom, and though we do not underrate the difficulties to he surmounted by the Cabinet of Olmiitz in dealing with so many jealous tribes and conflicting provinces, yet in recovering the energetic influence of a competent Sovereign the principle of their union and th si r prosperity is strengthened and restored. Whatever tends to the progress and well-being of Austria is of primary interest to the continental relations of this country, and we hope the British Government will at once avail itself of the accession of the new Emperor under circumstances of such peculiar interest to remove that coolness and distrust which originated a few months back from our conduct in the affairs of Italy, and to cause the Queen of England to be suitably and efficiently represented at the Court of so faithful and powerful an ally.

Value of Literary Fiction. — One or two great works in this department seem to prove that novel-writing may be used as the medium for conveying almost all the lessons that formerly were only to be learnt from the philosopher or the poet. The essential part of philosophy is its teaching us new truths concerning our own nature ; and whether this be done by a didactic treatise in the form of narrative, matters little; the young and indolent may prefer the more entertaining method, while graver minds will choose the more direct, complete, and systematic ; but the nature of the instruction is the same for both. The essential part of poetry, again, is certainly not the versification ; that, except so far as the dwelling upon the thoughts which it requires, or the delight which it inspires, may re-act upon the mind of the poet, and stimulate it to loftier flights — is but a form and accident of poetry. The essence of poetty, whatever it be, for it is a thing hard to define, may, and often does, exist in conjunction with the form of prose narration. It would be unreasonable to deny that some of Mr. Dickens's works, for instance, contain much poetry. Considering, then, that a novel may be philosophy, that it may be an epic, it seems hard to treat this as the lowest species of composition. But, on the other hand, :t may be said with justice, that iv assigning rank ;o any large and miscellaneous class of things, we must be guided, not by its possibilities, but by its ordinary and average products ; and, viewing the matter in this light, novel-wri-ting, a field that lies open to all, and whose •fruits may be gathered with less of labour and previous tillage than any other kind, is so over-run with the poorer sort of labourers, that it seems impossible to set much store by it. The first and obvious business of the novelist is to teli an amusing or interesting story ; this alone is his peculiar province ; and if certain gifted minds have embellished and dignified this task with jewels borrowed from the wardrobe of poetry or philosophy, it may perhaps be said that in so doing they have wandered out of their sphere, and ceased to be mere novelists. Now, without being ungrateful to those who tell us interesting stories, nay, while acknowledging that to be thus carried out of ourselves may sometimes be useful and improving, we must still maintain that the storyteller is not our best and most honourable preceptor. We value one original reflection above twenty original tales, as well for its intrinsic usefulness as for the power of mind which it evinces. Novelwriting, then, whether we consider its ordinary fruits, or its distinctive end and purpose, must, as compared with other departments of letters, rank low. — Westminster Review,