AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 202, 2 August 1860, Page 4

AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY.

Francis-Joseph, it is said, having discovered the iutility of his attempt to fuse his heterogeneous provinces into a homogeneous empire, is about to substitute for his centralising system one of federation, which will enable the various nationalities lie rules to enjoy their several ancient privileges. As an earnest of this improved state of tiling's the Emperor will be crowned King of Hungary. A letter from Trieste describes some of the extraordinary frauds which have recently been practised on the Austrian Goveinme.it: — The deficit-amounts tn the astounding sum of no less than 17,000,000 florins, or <£1.700. 000 sterling, of winch 3.000,000 florins, or .£300,000, is laid to the charge of some of the leading capitali-ts of this ciiy. One was imprisoned, two have fled, and others are undergoing forced examinations of books, papers, documents, <s’c. the strangest part of tile tale is, however, that which is certainly the least known. It is said, am! from the source from whence I hear it I believe it is true, that at the celebrated meeting of the rival emperors which led to the armistice, and subsequently to the preliminaries of peace at Villairaiicu, when Napoleon • and Francis Joseph were left quasi alone for nearly three-quarters of ail hour, the former, addressing the latter, said, ; Your majesty wiil do well to listen to friendly and well meant counsels. You are surrounded by tiniters. Your Maje-t\ relieves that your foi tress of Mantua is provisioned for six months ; 1 tell you/ emphatically raising jliis finger, ‘ it has not food for as many days. /Test my information, and act accordingly/ And so "it proved, and afforded another lesson also of the infinite superiority of the French 1 over the Austrian system of espionage. To give some idea of the barefaced effrontery of the fraud, and the number of accomplices necessary, one instance will suffice, though it needful 1 could adduce many others. Mantua is a walled city, and the bullocks whicii were driven in at one gate passed through the town out at the opposite, and then, making the half circuit of the wails, re-entered at the first gate, and every bullock made this parade five times! The richest part of the tale*in connection with Mantua is yet to come. A firm in Trieste made a contract with the Austrian government for the hides of the bullocks supplied for the use of the troops. Now, although each bullock did duty living for five, still he

could only be killed once, and supply one bide. The contractors, therefore, called upon and actually received from the government the forfeit, as stipulated, by contract, of one florin upon, every bide short delivered ; thus profiting to the extent of 30,000 florins for the nondelivery of the skins of animals which had never been killed ! .”

The Austrian Auction. — A letter from Pesth says:—“ Great indignation has been caused, in Hungary by the announcement that tlie Austrian Government is about to sell in England a quantity of all sorts of arms taken from.,,the Hungarian people after the revolu tion of 1848-9. If all these arms had been used in actual warfare against the Government, perhaps its right to sell them could not be disputed, though the exercise of it would undoubtedly prove both poverty and meanness; but, in point of fact, the greater part of them aro no more .the property of -the A us!r;an Government than are the arms iu the Tower of London. After the insurrection was quelled, weapons of every kind, even those of mere ornament, were required to be given up, but promises in writing were made that the ornamental ones should be restored. These promises were not kept. The ornamental arms, as well as others, were confiscated, and it is those which form part of the coming sale. As an example of the way in which tilings were done, take this fact, within my own knowledge: A gentleman had a splendid sword, the sheath of which was of gold, decked with diamonds. When the call for arms was made, he stated that he had this sword, and offered to give up the blade, but prayed to be allowed to keep the sheath. ‘ It. is a pity to separate them,’ said an Austrian functionary; * let them go together. You are sure to get them back in a fortnight or ten days, and herb is a written acknowledgment for them!’ Ten years have passed since then, and, in .spite of applications innumerable, the gentleman has obtained neither sword nor sheath. -Perhaps both will figure in the English sale. I know not whether it is allowable to call such acts as these stealing ; but, at all events they are a very peculiar specimen of what the wise call conveying.”