AN EVIL LIFE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 2, 27 November 1916, Page 4

AN EVIL LIFE.

There are at least some writers who do not believe that it is necessary to gloss over such evil as has been wrought by the late Emperor of Aus-j tria, simply because he has gone the; way of all flesh, and there is really no sane reason why a cloak of sickly sentimentality should be thrown over; tile deeds of a wicked old king sim-j ply because by the accident of birth he became a ruler of men. Taking tills very proper attitude the Povetty Bay Herald says:—“The law of Solon that men must not speak ill of the dead must be waived in the case of, the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph, I whoso demise is recorded to-day. Even Britishers’ proverbial chivalry towards their enemies should not be allowed to hide the faults of this wicked old! King, whose misdeeds stand as aj warning example to the world of what might be expected if the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns were permitted through the failure of our people to possible effort/towards the'winning of the war. to become the overlords of Europe. ( It is to free the world from such j fiends incarnate as Francis Joseph and Wilhelm that the Entente na-| tions are lighting to-day. In one of his historic Midlothian orations thirty-six years ago, Mr Gladstone challenged mankind to place its finger on any spot in Europe and to say “There Austria did good.” No one accepted the challenge, for no one! could point to such a spot either in Europe -or elsewhere. The challenge was one of Mr Gladstone’s splendid indiscretions. He had to explain it away; but his indictment of Austria was true, and it is as true to-day as it was then uttered. The Emperor Francis Joseph, who has died at the age of 86, reigned over Austria for 68 years. At the end of his reign, writes an English reviewer, Austria has reached depths of infamy which even Mr Gladstone never suspected of her. History will brand Ins reign with the foul and fearful record of cruelty with which his army treated the girls, the women, the children and the unarmed men of Serbia during the invasion two years ago. That awful outrage on humanity was done by high command. It will stamp Francis Joseph for ever as one of the two most appalling ruffians in modern history. Francis Joseph began his reign as a butcher. The Hungarians revolted against Austria. Francis 1 Joseph had them slaughtered. He turned General Haynau loose on them General Hyena, as ho came to be , ca lled in England. The thing which chiefly shocked England then was that women were flogged. How Austria has progressed since, under the guidance of her royal tutor! When Haynau came to London the draymen at Barclay and Perkins’ brewery flogged him with rods because he had flogged women. But Francis Joseph’s latest pupils have not stopped at flogging women: they broke their arms and legs, and otherwise mutilated thorn. They had Francis Joseph orders to give the Serbians a lesson Truly Francis Joseph may be called the wickedest old man in the world, for the Serbian women and children were massacred by royal desiie.