Austrian army on the frontiers, boldly declared his quibble. It is true she might have assumed the constitution void, and everything restored to the proud position of Protector of justice and right, state it was in before 1848. That tremendous year but such was not her policy. She has cautiously was to be obliterated from the pages of history. avoided acknowledging the justice of the Hessian The Elector of Hesse soon sought to follow the people's resistance; but still for her own purexample of the King of Saxony, and Wurtemberg poses, as the Austrian manifesto truly enough has since been advancing in the same course. The says, "without the pretence even of any foundaDiet of Frankfort, too, now assumes a tone of tion of right, but merely from considerations of authority, and insists on obedience to all its decis- political convenience and so-called interests of ions. Although every member of the confedera- state," she has occupied a part of the Electorate, tion agreed to its dissolution, and resolved that as while the troops of the Confederation have seized representative of the confederation it was forever another. And so the opposing forces were brought abrogated, Austria now imperiously claims all its at last within gun-shot of each other. former rights and privileges.

subdued by Russia, Austrian soldiers boasted of their valor and their victories, and now Russia had forced Prussia to give up her ambitious schemes. Austrian diplomatists crowed over the fallen victim, and fancied they had struck the last fatal blow.

But hereupon, at this pleasant conjuncture, both In the mean time, the two great questions of parties were summoned to the footstool of their German policy served to embroil matters still master, the Czar, to render an account of their deeper. Holstein and Schleswig, provinces chief stewardship. The matter was decided to the satisly inhabited by Germans, but united to Denmark faction of the Austrian. Prussia bowed her head, by the treaties of 1815, becoming animated by the and prepared to submit in silence and in sorrow. spirit of nationality which has exerted such im- Radowitz was dismissed because he demanded mense influence on the minds of men for the last preparations for war, and the Prince Brandenburg few years, demanded a separation from Denmark. fell sick and died of the shame to which his Holstein, by treaty, forms part of the German fatherland was forced to submit. Prussia then Confederation, while Schleswig does not. Both humbly requested Austria to open the free conferprovinces now desired to be German; and excited ence which had been agreed on for the reconstrucby Prussia, which hoped to unite them to its own tion of a German Confederative Government, and dominions, and thus obtain the key of the Baltic | begged that in the mean time she would cease her for Germany, they rose in arms against their sove- warlike preparations. But Austria had grown reign. This was no question of liberalism or insolent from her success. Hungary had been absolutism, but a question of nationality. Germany, and especially Prussia, was interested in establishing the German character of the two provinces, and their independence of a non-German power; while the other maritime powers of Europe, particularly England and Russia, were interested in preventing Germany from obtaining a position on the Baltic, which would enable her to close that sea at will. That Lord Palmerston has been right throughout, in this matter, both in an English point of view, and as supported by treaties, there can be no doubt; though we cannot help lamenting the bad company into which it has brought him, and the odium which some of the Germans have cast on England in consequence. Prussia, finding herself supported only by the German liberals, of whom she has no slight horror except when she needs them as tools, at last yielded, and withdrew the troops she had placed in Holstein; but she nevertheless allowed sympathizers in many thousands to pass over to the aid of the Holsteiners. She may have kept her engagements to the word, but to the sense she has not done so. She has in secret still fomented a war which by treaty she was bound to put down.

In answer to Prussia's reasonable demand, and after arrival of the news at Vienna of the retirement of Radowitz, Schwartzenberg offered as an ultimatum to open the conferences, on condition of Prussia's dissolving the union, acknowledging the acts of the Diet, and withdrawing her troops from Hesse, Hamburg, and Baden, within a specified time. The Wiener Zeitung, too, the official paper, published a manifesto, in which the peccadilloes of Prussia were held up to public scorn in the most aggravated manner. Austria's determination to carry out the decisions of the Diet by force was moreover confirmed by the announcement that 76,000 additional troops had been called out, that the reserve battalions had been summoned, and the border regiments made mobile. Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Saxony, were at the same time announced as equally active in preparation for war. So bullying an answer to the Prussian offers of peace had its instant effect. Prussia has called her sons to arms, and every man under the age of thirty-nine in the whole of the Prussian dominions is now a soldier. Frightful as this burthen must be on an industrious and peaceful population, it has been assumed with an enthusiasm which may well make Austria tremble. The cold insolence of Napoleon to their much-loved queen, even the worst oppressions of France, did not produce a greater feeling of patriotism in the Prussians than Prince Schwartzenberg's uncalled

The affairs of Hesse, on the other hand, stand on a totally different ground. The Hessian Diet wished to adhere to the Prussian Union. The Elector changed his ministry, deserted the Union, and re-formed the Diet of Frankfort. Then, stimulated and supported by promises from Prussia, the Hessians insisted on the dismissal of the obnoxious ministers, and refused the supplies. The Elector fled; and, finding that neither the civil nor military power would obey his orders, he threw himself into the arms of the Diet of Frankfort, and demanded their assistance. Neverthe-for impertinence. less, parliaments and people having no existence And now let us look at the condition of the two in the eyes of the diplomatist, and treaties and combatants. The Austrian army is said to amount compacts being made only in the name of princes to 500,000 men, though it is not much more than and their ambassadors, Prussia had no diplomatic half that number, and we doubt if it could send right to interfere where her assistance was not 100,000 into the field. Should Russia, as is asked for. Her right to use a road through the reported, occupy Hungary and Gallicia, another country as an excuse for occupying it is but a 50,000, or even 100,000, may be disposable. In

the mean time, however, troops must be maintained | Hungarians were enthusiastic in their admiration in the Papal states, in Tuscany, and in Parma, as of him, when, at the installation of the Palatine, well as in Lombardy, or the peace of Italy could he answered Kossuth in an extempore speech in not be kept a day. Vienna is discontented, Bohe- Magyar. Bright hopes were then formed by that mia cannot be left without a garrison, and nowhere gallant nation for their future king. He is accuscan the people be called to arms without threaten- tomed to business, and is said to apply to it with ing the safety of the state. In the army itself, energy. Since he ascended the throne, however, too, are from 60,000 to 80,000 Honveds. Should he has been surrounded by soldiers. Soldiers are Prussia take into her service any of the Hungarian exiled generals, there is not a man of these Honveds but would flock to his standard the moment it was raised. The finances of Austria, too, are in such a state that she cannot obtain a loan in any part of Europe; and on the outbreak of hostilities there is great danger that the taxes would be refused both in Italy and Hungary. National bankruptcy would follow as a matter of

course.

་་་

We know that for a short campaign an army may depend on forced supplies either in their own or an enemy's country; but this war, if once begun, will be no short one. Prussia could raise a loan to-morrow on favorable conditions. No state in Europe is so slightly indebted in proportion to its resources as Prussia; and her credit is such, that, a few months ago, while travellers were paying 51. per cent. for gold in Austria, they were often unable to obtain Prussian paper in equal exchange. Prussia has great disadvantages in her geographical position, so scattered and exposed as her provinces are; and the removal of so many hands from labor will be a sad blow to her industry. But a contented population, a well supplied exchequer, strong fortresses, and 400,000 men determined to fight for their fatherland, will take some time to put down, and may make Prince Schwartzenberg bitterly repent his Quixotic undertaking.

his friends, his companions, his advisers. It is no wonder, then, that continually excited by such society, with an immense army before his eyes, and flattered by the foolish old King of Wurtemberg with the title of leader of Germany, the traditions of imperial power should cross his fancy, and the hope of reducing the kingdom of Prussia to an electorate of Brandenburg stimulate him to war. Bavaria is also egging him on by every means in her power, partly from jealousy, and partly from the desire to repossess her favorite province the Palatinate, the loss of which has reduced her to a very second-rate position.

Such is the state of Europe. Blood has already been shed, and before another week, all Germany may be engaged in a desperate war; in which case, to Prince Schwartzenberg and his insolent, overbearing policy the result will have to be attributed. English sympathies will no doubt be given to Prussia, if Prussia shows that she deserves it. For her court there can be no sympathy-for her ambitious longings there can be no sympathy. But if she honestly takes up the Constitutional Cause, she will have not only our prayers and hopes, but those of the good and honest throughout the whole of Europe. What will be the termination of such a conflict no human eye can see; but, far removed as England is from the seat of war, we doubt much if she will be able to escape all participation in it, should it once fairly break out.

From the Times of Nov. 18.

COST OF ARMING EUROPE.

We have not reckoned the troops of the allies of Austria, for, unless their countries are occupied by Austrians, there is not one, except Bavaria, that will dare to march a man. The Hessian army is disbanded, and there can be no doubt they will join the Prussians. The Diet of Wurtem- Ir anything were wanting to justify even a faberg has refused money for the war, and the Sax-natical horror of war, it would be the aspect of ons are not to be trusted for a day. If Prussia Europe at this moment. Such a scene as Austerraises the banner of moderate freedom, against litz, or Borodino, or Leipsic, or such a story as absolutism and Russian interference, she will no that of the Peninsular war, is horrible and apdoubt have the aid of thousands from every part of palling, but, coming in the midst of angry pasGermany, as well as the good-will of all Europe. sions and bloody retaliations, it imposes on the Let her move her well-paid and well-disciplined reason with a show of necessity, and drags the soul troops where she will, she will be in a friendly down into the animosities of the struggle. In the country; while the ill-paid, plundering Austrians present instance there is neither reason nor provowill find an enemy at every step. cation. Europe is under arms without any assignThe character of the monarchs who occupy the able cause. Two great empires, speaking the great thrones of Germany render the maintenance same language, not only neighboring, but even of peace more difficult than it would be were these intermixed, members of an ancient confederation, countries sufficiently advanced in constitutional and with the same real interests, are bringing into government to render the individuality of the the field against one another, not only every soldier, monarch a matter of indifference to the policy of but almost every man capable of bearing arms. the country. The King of Prussia is the creature Prussia has called out her militia from every village of impulse and feeling. In religion a visionary and town, and put them in motion from one end of enthusiast, he mixes up his conscience with all her straggling possessions to the other. Austria manner of matters with which it has nothing to has summoned to the points of collision the tribes do, and manages to sanctify an unscrupulous ambi-that guard and disquiet her semi-barbarous frontiers. tion by dreams of traditional policy and Prussian patriotism. He is determined, even rash in council, but vacillating in action. He is one of those men who seldom say a silly thing, and never do a wise one.

The Emperor of Austria, though a young man, is by no means deficient in talent or information. Very many months have not passed since the

On either side, France and Russia are ready to pour hundreds of thousands into the arena, should the game once begin. But what is there for two million armed men to decide that could not be settled by two men of peace? What is there for a hundred and fifty millions of human beings to become " enemies" about? Mr. Cobden tells a story of a boy at Captain Siborne's exhibition, who puzzled his

with the question "What the battle of of any estimate. We may know what the PrusWaterloo was fought about?" The father might, sian Landwehr is paid to be idle, and what it costs

at all events, have answered that it concluded the longest and most terrible war, and introduced the longest and most beneficial peace, the world has yet seen. But what account can be given of the present general arming that the most intelligent child would be likely to understand? One thing at least, is very clear-that the greater part of the evil is produced by itself. Army provokes ariny, and the rivalry is only bounded by the inability of the population to produce more armed men; so that, if it be asked why Europe is armed, the best reason, after all, that can be given is, "Because it is armed.'

Thus,

in meat, drink, and clothing. But it can never be
known how much that country will lose by the
sudden withdrawal of some hundred thousand men
from the fields just at the time when they are
wanted to prepare for next year's harvest. To
similar causes may be ascribed the numerous fam-
ines which have accompanied war, and dealt more
destruction than the sword and the spear.
while these nations are increasing their debts, they
are still more curtailing their powers of production.
While there are more to be fed, there are fewer to
feed. Yet all this happens in a time of peace,
with nothing but the threat and apprehension of
war. Germany is, as yet, only fighting with a
shadow. There is no quarrel but what may be set-
tled in amicable conference, and need never have
arisen. At present the real quarrel is a rivalry of
armaments-which shall show most men. The
only check on so foolish a competition is a general
agreement to reduce these excessive preparations.
When the Russian and German powers next meet
at Warsaw, they will set themselves right with the
world, and do much to redeem the credit of kings,
if they agree to reduce their armies in a certain
proportion, or to keep only a certain quantity of
troops under arms. This might be done, for it has
been done frequently. The path of peace once en-
tered, there may soon be a rivalry in this direction
as great as that which is hurrying myriads to a
cruel and fratricidal war. England and France
have already effected large reductions during the
last year, and may effect more; why should they
not press on the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian
governments the wisdom of following their exam-
ple before they stumble into a war which this gen-
eration may not live to see the end of?

From the Times, 19 Nov.

UNION OF THE AUSTRIAN EMPIRE.

The stay-at-home inhabitants of this blessed isle can hardly conceive what it is to live under a military empire, in fact, in any one of the four great powers of Europe. Our army is comparatively small, and half of it is always out of the way. Though it presses rather heavily on the purse, it does not offend the sense or demoralize society to anything like the extent the foreign armies do. We have not several thousand soldiers lounging about every considerable town, getting into all kinds of mischief, and becoming more and more unfit for any honest or useful occupation. We do not see our villages emptied of ablebodied men, and the laborious works of husbandry left to women of all ages, working under the orders of husbands or fathers who have spent the best years of their life in military service, and are as disqualified as they are indisposed for agricultural labor. All this may be seen abroad anywhere, from the Bay of Biscay to the Caspian Sea. On a former occasion we have described what any man may see a day's journey from this metropolis, in the magnificent old cities of Rhenish Prussia; but, as Mr. Cobden has just dashed it off with his usual felicity in his Wrexham speech, we think it common justice to take his description. "Four millions of men-the flower of Europe-from twenty to thirty-three years of age, are under arms, living in idleness. There THE most important of the stipulations put forare no men in the country parts there; the women ward by the Austrian government, in its recent are doing their farm work, toiling up to their knees proposals for the restoration and reform of the in manure, and amidst muck and dirt, at the age of Germanic Confederation, is the demand of the Cabthirty and forty. They may be seen thus employed, inet of Vienna to annex to the confederation those tanned and haggard, and looking hardly like the parts of the imperial dominions (with the excep fair sex. They do this that the muscle and strength tion of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom) which of the country may be clothed in military coats, and have never yet been included in it. All the crown may carry muskets on their shoulders-a scandal lands of the empire, extending to Gallicia, Hunto a civilized and a Christian age.' We can an-gary, Transylvania, Croatia, and the Dalmatian swer for it from the evidence of our senses that this is no exaggeration, and, as it only aims to give one aspect of the fact, so it only gives half its horrors. If it be inquired why the countrywomen on the continent are so ill-favored, masculine, and coarse, compared with our own village girls and dames, or why foreign husbandry continues in so primitive and barbarous a state, or why the poor villagers are content with such humble fare, or why the statistics of the foreign cities prove so fearful an amount of demoralization, or, lastly, why foreign populations are so prone and apt to arms, and so formidable in insurrection, one answer is sufficient for all these questions, and that is, that nearly the whole population are early kidnapped, so to speak, from useful employments, to be crowded in garrisons and cities and pampered in idleness. to practise every vice, and forget every useful and honorable accomplishment.

The cost of the vast operations we now witness in Germany is too great and too manifold to admit

coast would thereby become German territory.
No doubt, such a scheme involves a change in the
political condition of a considerable part of Central
Europe, and calls for the dispassionate considera-
tion not only of Germany, but of the other Euro-
pean powers which took a part in the territorial
definition of the Germanic body at the congress of
Vienna. If on the one hand it increases the rela-
tive magnitude of Austria to her confederates, it
may facilitate the concession of some corresponding
security to their independence and influence.
we are inclined to think that, upon the whole, such
a change ought to be regarded as favorable to all
the interests of the parties most directly concerned
in it, and no less consistent with the view which
an enlightened English policy may take of Ger-
man affairs.

But

The Austrian government has insisted on this proposal. because the constitution of the 4th of March, and the whole policy by which the present imperial ministers are actively and laboriously en

The impolitic and unjust separation which has been perpetuated for so many centuries between the German and non-German dominions of Austria has been equally injurious to her provincial and to her national interests.

deavoring to regenerate the empire, rest upon the facility of access? The German colony at Hermanprinciple of fusion and consolidation. They are stadt, which dates from the 13th century, is still a endeavoring to assimilate and combine the prov- model of what may be accomplished by an indusinces of the empire by uniform laws, obligations, trious people in a land so favored by nature; and and privileges, and to awaken by practical meas- the proposal to open the entire territory of Hunures of union that national spirit which has hith-gary to German immigration, by making that counerto been confined in Austria to the ranks of the try an integral part of a confederation of which army and to the loyalty of the several states of the Germany is herself the heart, is obviously to enempire to the person of the sovereign. That sen-courage the greatest conquest of territory that can timent of loyalty may be shaken, and military be effected by industry, by capital, and by peace. organization cannot permanently uphold the fabric of a great nation. The time is come when Austria must owe her power and importance in the rank of European states to the political combination and national attachment she may infuse into her subjects by common interests and common As far as the policy of this country is concerned rights. Hence it becomes an essential part of her in its relation with these subjects, we can conceive present policy to abolish those lines of commercial no objection to any plan calculated to promote the and political exclusion which rendered the neigh-strength and civilization of the Germanic body to boring portions of her own dominions foreign to its furthest extremities, and which would lead to each other; though the measures she has taken at the establishment of a more extensive system of home to unite her possessions have been used as commercial intercourse and of military defence; an argument by her rivals and antagonists in Ger- for, by strengthening the interests of the German many for her total exclusion from the effective people in the east, we should probably contribute to union of German states. To that pretension Aus- increase the wealth and to secure the independence tria replies by the offer to include her whole do- of that portion of Europe. The Russian cabinet, minions within the federal limits of Germany. which might more reasonably oppose such an augSuch a proposal can only be entertained as a mentation of the strength of its immediate neighbor, matter of policy and agreement, not of right. is understood to have acceded to it at Warsaw, and Prussia, indeed, would have the less reason to the only serious impediment is the jealousy of a object to it, as one of her first acts in the disturb- certain party in Germany to whatever looks like an ances of 1848 was to throw her own extra-federal increase of Austrian influence. It is not, however, possessions-the province of Prussia Proper, and required or proposed that Austrian and Prussian the Polish Grand Duchy of Posen-into the con- influence should rank in the confederation precisely federation. But the change proposed by Austria in the numerical proportion of their respective popdeserves greater consideration from its magnitude.ulations, and they stand by right on a footing of The mere diversity of race and language in these equality. To speak correctly, Austria would probprovinces is not, we think, any serious or valid ably not owe to this change any addition to her objection to their admission within the federal pale. influence in Germany, but the German people In fact, the popular character of Bohemia, of Lu- would obtain a far more direct and positive interest satia, and great part of Silesia is as un-German as in the dominions of Austria. that of many parts of Transylvania and Hungary; but in all these regions, the dominant principle on which the government rests has for ages been German. It is the connection of these states with Germany and their allegiance to German powers which constitute their chief political importance. They have received from Germany a large portion of the civilization they possess, and, in return, they have gallantly participated in all the great struggles of Germany for conquest and for independence. If the military interests of the whole Germanic body are to be considered as the first condition of the independence and security of all the German states, it is impossible to draw any line of division between the different military populations of Austria. In the event of a great struggle between Germany and her neighbors to the east or to the west, she can ill afford to dispense with the service of those martial tribes which inhabit the confines of the Austrian monarchy. Practically speaking, those troops are as much the soldiers of the confederation as the Landwehr on the Rhine, and it is upon the union of all these forces that the strength of the nation depends. But, in peace, the admission of these territories to the facilities of intercourse and trade, which ought to prevail throughout the confederation, would be a still greater benefit. They have been termed in derision "the backwoods of Germany;" but can anything be more useful to a densely peopled country than the existence of immense regions thinly inhabited, fruitful in their soil, with great similarity of climate, and a complete

We are not, however, insensible to the extreme difficulty of carrying into effect political changes of this magnitude, at a time when jealousy, irritation, and fear have so large a share in the councils of statesmen, and when no commanding authority exists to execute the most essential reforms in the constitution of Germany. We can only point with approbation to those objects which appear to us to bear the stamp of an enlarged and liberal policy, by removing provincial barriers and by connecting the most uncivilized parts of Europe with the general interests of a people advancing in industry and freedom. On that ground we should be inclined to view the extension of the federal rights of Germany to the whole Austrian empire, north of the Alps, as a step in civilization and peace, and we trust that the influence of our own government may be used rather to promote than to obstruct it.

From the Spectator, 16th Novembor.
INDIA.

THE Manchester Chamber of Commerce, after sundry fruitless attempts to prevail upon government to send a commission to India for the purpose of inquiring into the state and prospects of cotton cultivation there, have made up their minds to send a commissioner of their own.

The chamber have been happy in their choice of a commissioner. Mr. Mackay, upon whom their choice has fallen, is favorably known to a pretty numerous public by his work on America.