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occur at a time when the Greeks have made great advances in commerce, in wealth, in intelligence, in literature, and in a familiarity with the opinions and institutions of other Christian nations; when they are more ripe for independence, and will feel slavery with more poignant pain. Their sufferings will be embittered by the knowledge, that even the general sympathy of Europe is unable to turn aside the destroyers from them; repressed as it is by the general conviction, that the sinister policy of the predominating Governments would render its display unavailing.*

AUSTRIA. †

Two popular writers, De Pradt and Dupin, have lately terrified the world with their pictures of two political Giants,-the one all covered with gold, the other with iron-England and Russia. But while the eyes of Europe have been thus anxiously directed to these colossal powers, and taught to watch their slightest movements, and to penetrate their most secret thoughts, they have been allowed to overlook a power situated, as it were, in the plain between them, which, under another aspect, is not perhaps less deserving of their attention.

Although these authors differ in many points, they seem to agree in thinking, that the equilibrium of Europe, and the independence of its states, are particularly menaced by the preponderating power of Russia. There is prudence at least in the warning; and some reason, perhaps, for the apprehension which it excites. The dangers arising from the abuse of military power are always the most imminent, and the loss of national independence is no doubt the worst of all calamities. But there are influences nearly as overwhelming as force; and the evils of conquest itself are mainly affected by the character of the power which prevails. If there exists, therefore, a power in Europe which labours systematically to roll back the tide of civilization, and to bury alive the people whom it holds in bondage, a power which, like an opaque body, intercepts the light which is growing around it,whose prosperity, whose very existence, seems to depend on the suppression of all knowledge,-is it not equally worthy of our curiosity-and our fear? Our readers will easily perceive that we allude to Austria,-the head of that Holy Alliance which will one day undoubtedly be regarded as the most formidable conspiracy ever entered into against the liberties of mankind.

But head though she be of that portentous confederacy, and boastful of the vile distinction, we do not think it surprising that Austria has hitherto attracted but little notice as an influencing member of the European community. There is something characteristically and intentionally obscurein her movements and her policy:-and the dull monotony of her existence, her affected gravity, the silence which reigns over the vast extent of her territory, and the unintellectual luxury of her capital, have repelled curiosity, and almost disarmed censure. One almost wonders at the courage of Coxe, who some years ago ventured on the task of writing a history consisting only of a series of wars, undignified by any traits of heroism or mili

On the Partitions of Poland there is an interesting article in Vol. xxii. page 294. It was currently reported, when the foregoing Essay first appeared, that it was from the pen of Sir James Mackintosh. + Qu'est que c'est que l'Autriche ?Vol. xl. page 293. July, 1824:

tary glory; and yet this history, though written with the view of paying court to the reigning family, must be admitted to display so much of Eng lish frankness and impartiality, as to excite the wonder of those it was intended to please. But though the learned author has stated fairly enough, the historical facts which he undertook to record, he could not venture, consistently with the plan he had adopted, to deduce from them those inferences to which we think they naturally lead; and which we shall now, therefore, endeavour to embody in the shape of some general remarks on the genius, principles, strength, and policy of this monarchy. They could not, we think, be offered with more propriety than at the present moment, when Italy is groaning under the weight of this dead force, and Greece, in her second birth, is in danger of being crushed by its co-operation.

A monarchy, which has extended itself for six centuries, without the aid of great men or great institutions-which has held on its course calmly in the midst of disgraceful disasters and ruinous defeats-which makes war without money and without credit-which, with a population equal to that of France, and a territory still more extensive, has always been unable to cope with it in the field or in the treasury-a monarchy composed of four states, speaking four different languages, by three of which the government is detested, and yet always obeyed-a monarchy which has been trampled on, and insulted in its seat, by Gustavus Adolphus, Kara Mustapha, Louis XIV., and Napoleon-which possesses a capital as luxurious as any in Europe, and universities and literary institutions scattered over its provinces, while half its population is as rude and barbarous as that of Turkey-a monarchy which is a combination of all these contradictions, is a political enigma which can be solved only by an analysis of each of the separate elements of its political power.

And first, with regard to the great element of Religion, in regard to which the characteristic selfishness of its policy has always been conspicuous. The court of Rome has ever been a dangerous friend, and a still more formidable enemy to the Catholic monarchies. The Emperors of Germany, when at war with the Popes, lost the obedience of their subjects, their power, and their crown. Henry IV. passed three nights in the snow on his knees to obtain pardon from Gregory VII. Frederic Barbarossa, after having been compelled to hold the stirrup of the Pope in Venice, fell in the East, fighting, at his instigation, for the faith. The kings of Spain, on the contrary, too anxious to preserve the friendship of Rome, ruined their kingdom by their complaisance, banished its most industrious inhabitants by the terrors of the Inquisition, and filled their place by a population of monks. It has always indeed been a difficult task to chose between the friendship or the hostility of this proud theocracy; but Austria, after a little experience, contrived to steer very dexterously between these opposite dangers. Without any impulse of zeal or bigotry, she was intolerant till the middle of last century. She established the Jesuits at an early period, frequently abandoned to their guidance the affairs of the state, and intrusted them with the education of her princes; but she never would consent to share her power with the Popes. The Emperors style themselves apostolic, and pay a voluntary homage to Rome; but they acknowledge no compulsory authority. Maximilian, the son of Ferdinand, in his public address to the head of the church, on his election as King of the Romans, substituted the word obsequium for obedientiam. Even Charlemagne and Napoleon were vain enough to be crowned by Popes: but the emperors of Austria, on the contrary, have en

deavoured from the first to discredit the practice of receiving the crown from the hands of the Pontiff. Nature indeed seems to have endowed them with some peculiar power of resisting the thunders of the Vatican. When the Archduke Rodolph was threatened with excommunication by the Pope, he used to say, that within his own dominions he was himself Pope, Archbishop, Bishop, Archdeacon, and Priest and his successors have religiously adhered to the maxim of exercising within their own states all the powers of the church. The Emperor Maximilian endeavoured to organize a general council in Germany, to control the pretensions of the Court of Rome. Charles VI. pensioned the historian Giannone for opposing the pretended. supremacy of the church over the kingdom of Naples. Joseph II. ventured, when he pleased, on the boldest reforms in religion within his dominions. He encouraged the publication of the Monocologia, a satire against the monks, somewhat similar to the Guerre des Dieux which appeared at the Revolution. Instead of walking with the penitential hair-cloth to Rome, he brought Pius VI., in 1786, a suppliant to his capital and the reigning monarch, though he inculcates religion in public and private, though he has paid a visit to the Pope in Rome, and restored to him eighteen pictures which belonged to the Pinacotheca of Milan, allows no papal bull to be published within his dominions without his previous sanction; and certainly has never dreamed of restoring to the monks the property they possessed before the Revolution. And if, in former times, Austria used to consign her heretical subjects to Rome, as to a common centre, for trial and punishment, Italy now repays the obligation by placing in the hands of Austria her political delinquents.

The key to all this is, that the love of power, like that of money, renders even the dullest intelligent. If Austria showed dexterity in emancipating herself from the papal yoke, she showed no less obstinacy in resisting the reformation in Germany. No sooner did she perceive that the tendency of the reformed religion was to render men less submissive to despotism, than she reared the standard of intolerance. She needed not the aid of any impulse from Rome; for it was not superstition or bigotry which led her to wage a war of extermination against the reformed opinions, but her dread of the political consequences which they appeared to involve. The treachery and cruelty with which she proceeded against the Hussites in Bohemia are well known. Charles V. and Ferdinand II. covered Germany and Holland with blood and fire to extirpate Protestantism; and the same scenes of cruelty were repeated in Bohemia for the same purpose. But Austria was politic as well as cruel; and when she had at last been taught, by the experience of centuries, that her opponents were not less resolute in resistance than she herself in persecution, she wisely relaxed the system of intolerance from the fear of wasting her own strength, and was induced to grant a temporary repose both to the Protestant States of Germany, and her own Protestant subjects. The thirty years war, while it exhausted both herself and her opponents, had convinced her that the risk of the contagion of the reformed doctrines, or at least of their political tendencies, had in a great measure ceased; that the furious zeal which had at first been roused by the rapid spread of Protestantism, was on the decline; and that, in order to preserve the supremacy of Germany, it was necessary that the toleration which she accorded should be sincere. In order, therefore, to calm the fears of the Protestant States, and regain their confidence, she began by granting protection and toleration to her own Protestant subjects. If this

government is revengeful, it is more from calculation than passion; and ac— cordingly it never allows its resentment to get the better of its reason, or pushes its vengeance so far as to injure itself. Its policy is slow and temporizing, indeed, and hence it has been looked upon by many with contempt. But when was it mistaken in its calculations? The truth is, that selfishness, assisted by cool reflection, and unchecked by any sense of honour, can seldom go wrong. The instant that Austria ceased to persecute, she regained the supremacy of the German empire, which she continued exclusively to exercise down to the reign of Frederic II. From that period Protestant Germany, having a natural protector in Prussia, has possessed a surer guarantee for the sincerity of Austrian toleration; and accordingly, that Government now allows an equal protection to the Calvinist and Lutheran doctrines, with all their modifications, and to three millions of Greeks, Schismatics, Jews, Moravians, etc.

Thus Austria, guided solely by an unbending principle of self-interest, emancipated herself early from the Papal authority-protected the Jesuits, and availed herself of their services while they were necessary to herbanished them when these services were no longer required,—and finally became tolerant, not from feeling but from necessity, when she saw that bigotry was generally on the decline.

The next preponderating ingredient in political power is the army: and Europe, which has seen Austria struggle for twenty-two years against the gigantic power of France, must at least applaud her perseverance. De Pradt himself, who is not generally inclined to deal in panegyric, observes, "résister est l'attribut caractéristique de cette puissance, qui endure tres bien les echecs; et qui, ayant l'habitude des revers, a fort bien appris à les supporter, comme à en rappeler."

What then is the principle of this passive courage, this power of resistance? It is, we think, to be found in the abundance of a population, vile in the eyes of its rulers, and of which the Government can dispose almost at its pleasure. Austria is poor in money and heroism, but she is rich in men! Her perseverance is not at all akin to that of ancient Rome, which never made peace till victory enabled her to dictate the terms. Austria, on the contrary, has repeatedly submitted to save her existence by passing under the yoke. She never gives quarter, but she has no objection to receive it. With all this command of men, however, the miserable state of her finances will not allow her to bring great armies at once into the field. While Louis XIV. had 400,000 men in arms, Austria could with difficulty embody 70,000. In 1756 she raised 100,000, to oppose the King of Prussia with 200,000. In 1792 she took the field with 170,000, against France with an army of 600,000. In spite of the numerous subsidies which she draws from other countries, she still remains poor. During the last war, notwithstanding the immense loans which she received from England, she was obliged to have recourse to a paper currency, and five times failed in her engagements with her creditors. But if her poverty prevents her from raising large armies, she can recruit them easily-for the materials are never wanting. Her strength, therefore, is not shown by one but by successive efforts. What she wants in extension, she makes up in depth. As she can dispose of men like property, her conscriptions have no limit, not even that which high prices usually put upon the consumption of other articles; for in Austria the expenses of living, of clothing, of education, etc., do not amount to the fifth part of what they do in England. It is the small value of individual lives

which explains how such immense armies were consumed by the Eastern governments, by Turkey; and by the Crusades. England, from a contrary cause, has always been sparing of men.

It is this continuous force which Austria possesses, that affords the key to her unwearied obstinacy in war; to the interminable campaigns of Charles V.; his extravagant expeditions to Africa; the thirty years' war; the war of the succession of Spain; that of the succession of Charles VI.; the second seven years' war against the King of Prussia; and, lastly, the twenty-two years' war against the French Revolution. The armies of Austria, if they are not immortal for their heroism, may be said to be so by the rapidity of their resurrection. Napoleon, in order to make himself master of Upper Italy, in 1796, was obliged to destroy five armies in one year. The best plan, therefore, of vanquishing Austria is that which Napoleon in all his campaigns adopted, of invading and surprising her, without leaving her time to recover herself. Give her breathing time, and she will soon recruit her armies, from her immense depôts in Hungary, Transylvania, and Croatia.

Among all the automata that allow themselves to be slaughtered for fivepence per day, the Austrian soldier is the most deserving of compassion. The chastisement which awaits him for the slightest offences is the most ignominious that can be inflicted; the reward of his toils and his bravery, the most miserable that can be given. The food, the pay, and the clothing of the Austrian are inferior to those of any other soldier in Europe. "Life, where men are at all trained to reflection, is not a thing to be bought for a sordid price. It may be gifted, but cannot be sold. To dispel these illusions of honour which animate the soldier, is to deprive the military profession of its only redeeming quality. The Greeks and Romans fought for the name of their country; the French for Francis I.-for Henry IV. -for Napoleon-for France for glory; the Turks for their religion. But the Austrian soldier fights neither for loyalty, nor religion, nor honour. He never sees a king at the head of an army. He is scarcely aware that he has an emperor. From the first existence of the empire, only a single enthusiastic movement is to be found among the Hungarians, when in the presence of their suppliant Queen, they exclaimed, "Moriamur pro Rege nostro Maria Theresa." Almost ignorant of his general's existence, the Austrian soldier can feel no enthusiastic attachment to him. Frequently these generals are strangers, such as Tilly, Montecuculli, Eugene, Lacy, etc. The jealous policy of the Court will not allow the generals to court popularity, or to appeal to the feelings of their followers. Twice only have the Austrian troops showed any thing like enthusiasm for their generals-for Prince Eugene and for Laudon. In this age, in which prodigies of valour have been effected by military eloquence, the Austrian government has allowed nothing but a brief proclamation at the opening of each campaign, commanding obedience, rather than rousing to effort. No triumphal archesno annalist to record his exploits-no monuments to attest his victories, present themselves to the imagination of the Austrian soldier. Nor can his courage be much animated by the prospect of a medal, which he must look upon rather as a badge of inferiority, than as an honour, since it is never worn by the officers; while the officers, in turn, can have no strong incentive to exertion in the hope of obtaining the Cross of Maria Theresa, the requisites for which are too numerous and too difficult.

Armies such as these make no rapid conquests, and give little employment to fame. But, in return, a force of this kind, being almost entirely

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