589

REVELATIONS OF AUSTRIA.*

lute than even an Emperor,- because he has a
right over the lives and fortunes of all his subjects,
while an emperor has only such rights over the
"of
army. "The dynasty," says our author,
Habsburg"

being only national for a sixth part of the Empire, its
rule must necessarily be absolute; and all other forms of
government, whether monarchical or democratic, are
incompatible with its interest and its existence.
Hence we see with what intelligence and subtilty the
Kaisers force the temporal and spiritual governments to
look upon them, not only as the centre of religious and
political absolutism, but also as the basis of monarchies
general.

All the princes in Europe make pilgrimages to Vienna, that they may be introduced into the sanctuary of their salvation, initiated into the mysteries of their monarchical and absolute government, and led to sign an act which the Kaisers succeed in persuading them is useful and necessary to the existence of all monarchs, but which only protects and guarantees the house of Habsburg in Hungary, in Poland, in Bohemia, and in Italy.

THE paternal government, i. e. the severe despotism of Austria, however it may be regarded by its subjects, national or annexed,-on which head there is much room for doubt,-was certainly never more unpopular in Europe than at the present moment. It is not only chargeable with enormities of a character unknown under the worst of modern despotisms, but a formidable obstacle to the social improvement of neighbouring states; while, to its alien subjects of Poland and Italy, it proves either a cruel scourge or the most oppressive of masters. A new book on the internal condition of Austria is, therefore, peculiarly well-in timed; and a severe and searching one, not unwelcome. The author of that on our table, is not only by birth an Austrian Pole, but a discarded functionary of the Austrian government; circumstances which, were he a more candid inquirer than he appears, must, to some extent, have warped his judgment, and affected his statements. He has, however, revealed enough to make his English readers desirous that some more able, and less suspicious authority should lay open to Europe the true condition and tendencies of a system of government, which, as it exists, is an No one incubus upon European civilization. would look to Young Ireland, for example, for a faithful picture of the political condition of either England or Ireland, whether in outline or detail; and M. Koubrakeiwicz must share largely in those national feelings and prejudices which would render certain representations questionable; and yet the lovers of liberty, and of human improvement, must rejoice that Young Ireland gives forth the notes of its obstreperous trump, and in making itself be heard by England, compels the rest of the world to listen to its tale, and sympathize in its wrongs, however exaggerated; and also that an angry Pole, in unmeasured terms, denounces Austrian tyranny.

According to an organical statute of the family of Habsburg, all the Archdukes are obliged to learn a trade. The Kaiser Francis the First was a sealing-wax maker; the present Kaiser, Ferdinand the First, is a

turner.

This statute is intended to maintain in the family a positive and speculating spirit.

The Kaiser is the chief of his family; he is obliged to maintain all its legitimate members: but, on the other hand, they cannot contract any legitimate marriage

without the consent of their head.

Alliances contracted by the Archdukes, or Archduchesses, without this consent, are called Morganatic. The children born of these unions bear the titles of

Barons or Baronesses.

The Archduke John married, Morganatically, the daughter of a postmaster, by whom he had two little barons.

The present Kaiser, Ferdinand the First, it is said, displayed, up to the age of eighteen or twenty years, some cleverness and independence of character. It was presaged of him that, when he became sovereign, he

would not follow the immutable system of his father, Francis the First; so much so that he was disliked both by his father and by Metternich, who were desirous that Francis Charles, the second son, who inherited all the systematic qualities of his father, should succeed to the

throne.

conniving at the assassination of the reigning Emperor, of whom M. Koubrakeiwicz relates many gossiping, and probably exaggerated stories. The ruling passion of Ferdinand, and of every successive Kaiser, is the love of gold. Mammon is their sole idol; and the narrow and unphilosophic spirit of the Revelations will be sufficiently apparent from the author's wholesale denunciation of a dynasty, of which each member would seem, according to him, to be alike chargeable with the most insatiable avarice and sordid parsimony.

The author of "The Revelations," next to the Austrian government, hates the Catholic religion, which he seems to regard solely as its degraded The late emperor and Metternich are representinstrument in enslaving its ignorant subjects. His editor thinks that his detestation of the des-ed as having been desirous of the death, if not of potism of Austria-which is carried to the length of bitter personal malice and petty spite-makes Koubrakeiwicz too favourable to Russia; but the reasons for this belief will be easily understood by those who have perused the editor's own works on Russia. It is more to the purpose that he pledges himself for the accuracy and trustworthiness of the details given of the administration of the Austrian government at the present time. The historical pictures and retrospects, if less faithful, are also of less importance, as this want may be supplied from better authorities. The Austrian sovereigns, we are informed, take the title of Kaiser, and their wives that of Kaiserinn; because a Kaiser is imagined to be more powerful and abso

The only passion they know, and that which absorbs or replaces all others, is the love of, or rather the rapacious and insatiable thirst for gold, which they look upon as their god, and as the only end and aim of their government and conquests. The most wretched parsi

By M. Koubrakeiwicz, ex-Austrian Functionary. Edited by the author of the Revelations of Russia, &c. &c. Two volumes. London: Newby.

mony, carried to the extreme of sordid avarice, is only | Austria, and the cause of his degradation, and of the the consequence of this predilection. humiliation of France.

The Kaisers themselves keep the key of their treasures; they alone know the sum-total of the millions hidden in their cellars.

Fancy an emperor of Austria sitting all day, and every day, locked up in a cellar, counting and gloating over his gold. The picture belongs to the primitive times described in the nursery rhyme :

The king's in his closet, counting his money;
The Queen's in her chamber, eating bread and honey.

M. Koubrakeiwicz draws comparisons between the Russian and Turkish governments, and that of Austria, very much to the disadvantage of the latter, at least as regards the provinces and dependencies of each of these despotic states. He sees nothing mild, nothing kindly in the boasted paternal despotism of the Kaisers, whose fostering indulgence, it may readily be admitted, seldom extends beyond the German provinces. There is some truth in the following remarks:

The absolutism of the Kaisers is palliated and upheld by the censored German press, which, whilst it reproves the Austrian dominion in Germany, as tyrannical and unpopular, believes it to be a duty to call it paternal towards foreigners. The Kaisers in Germanizing Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Poland, Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, Italy, &c.-in subjecting more than thirty millions of foreigners to the yoke, thereby serving and defending the integrity of the Germanic Empire, and the despotism of its princes, whilst at the same time extending the Germanic territory, language, and servile spirit, appears to merit the gratitude of all Teutons. The German Austrians are proud of the dominion of their masters over foreign nations, without reflecting that they themselves are the first enslaved, forming only an abject dulocracy, whilst these foreigners serve their masters as instruments to keep them in the degrading servitude in which they linger, and the spoil which their masters tear from the stranger, serving only to increase the means of the despotism oppressing them.

As our author can see nothing whatever either good or great in the house of Habsburg, from its mean alleged origin to the present hour, very little of his retrospect is worthy of notice. The general character of what he avers Austrian policy now is, and always has been, is enough for us; and, besides, what does not apply to every epoch of Austrian history is far from being untrue of its recent periods. The passage shows the animus, and affords a favourable specimen of the general style of the work.

The historical fact which merits the attention of the whole world, and which has struck few investigators, is the connexion, premeditated and foreseen, between the events realized in 1814, and 1815, as being natural effects of facts accomplished in 1810, their determining causes. The friendship of German Princes had always been found more dangerous and disastrous to France and its sovereigns, than their enmity.

After a thousand combats lost, the vanquished and humbled Kaiser changed his policy.

From the most implacable enemy, which he was, he all at once became, in appearance, the stanchest friend, the nearest relative of Napoleon.

As it has been said, " amongst the baggage taken by assault from the Capital of Vienna, Napoleon found the Archduchess Maria Louisa," daughter of the Kaiser; he repudiated Josephine, his guardian angel, and married the Archduchess, the devoted political instrument of

It would be wholly to misunderstand the nature of man, to suppose that a vanquished enemy could so readily become the sincere friend of his conqueror.

It was self-deception to imagine that the Habsburgs tion, or that they sincerely gave up their alliance with were not seeking the means of revenging their humiliaEngland.

In Paris there was a great rejoicing over this marriage, which was looked upon as the ultimate and consolidating result of the victories obtained, and as establishing French supremacy on an unshakeable basis. There was rejoicing also in Vienna over this “mesalliance," which was looked upon as a necessary sacrifice, as a political embryo, which was only engendered with the view of undermining the power of France, of bringing about her fall, and of raising Austria, and with her despotism.

Germans were heard, immediately after this marriage, to predict the downfal of Napoleon, and the ruin of France, so fully were they convinced that this marriage was only a snare on the part of their Kaiser.. tive and chief of the generous French Nation, was the Buonaparte, as a simple French citizen, representafirst captain in the world, the first French citizen, and in some measure the defender of all the oppressed. In his the welfare of France-his country; he distrusted all enterprises he consulted only his own intelligence and princes crowned by the grace of God; and was ever on his guard.

and received within the pale of German aristocracy, he
As son-in-law to the Kaiser, ennobled, metamorphosed,
consulted aristocratic appearances, consulted his own
interests, personal and dynastic; consented to restrain
France within its former boundaries under Louis the
Sixteenth, providing he was left upon his Imperial
sank into the position of the last of legitimate princes.
throne. He became the mere paladin of his wife, and
To obtain their simulated confidence, he was obliged to
accord his own sincere confidence; to render himself
worthy of being their chief, or even their equal, he was
obliged to become the champion of sovereigns, to surround
himself with clergy, and be the faithful companion and
zealous defender of all despots.

quisher of Jena, of Austerlitz and of Wagram.
After this marriage he appeared no more the van-

His genius was effaced, because he ceased after it to exist, or to combat in that democratic element which constituted the strength of the French Nation.

The Austrian monarchy having been re-established in its ancient splendour, and the Archduchess Maria Louise having played her part, she returned to Vienna, to receive from the holy alliance, the Duchy of Parma, that her marriage with Napoleon was a mere diplomatic as a recompense for her generous devotion. To prove affair, she sent him, when at the Island of Elba, an act of divorce. The ennobled Napoleon had not sufficient pride, moral courage, or self-love, to repay contempt by contempt. He had boldly demanded a divorce from the chaste and virtuous Josephine, the French citizeness, whose love was past all proof, and who died overwhelmed by grief at the misfortunes which fell on her ex-husband; yet he refused to accept the divorce from the Austrian subject Maria Louise, who despised him, and who was so anxious to offer her charms to another.

Alexander the Great perished a victim to his debaucheries; Charles the Twelfth to his generous temerity; Napoleon succumbed to his insolent pride.

Austrian government, of a recognition of the first
Some faint indications, on the part of the
principles of political economy, is, by our author,
represented as disregard to the interests of its own
subjects.
would, we imagine, rejoice to see England, in one
Many very ardent lovers of freedom
respect, in the evil condition in which Austria is
placed ;-that is, with a government studious of
economy, levying taxes mainly on the rich or on

How many years behind the time must the man be who believes "That, in constitutional monarchies, the very soul of finance is the system of debt; while the soul of absolutism is economy." This tenet will hardly cure the British people of their "ignorant impatience of taxation." But the economy of the Kaisers is carried so far as to impeach their honesty; of which fact we have this amusing illustration:

property, and quite free of debt.

Money being the sole aim of the internal and external policy of the Emperors, they do not hesitate to employ any means for its acquisition, or in their endeavours to economize it.

The arrival of the Emperor in Gallicia was announced several months previously. A month beforehand the hostel of the Black Eagle at Jaroslau, where the Emperor and his suite were to sup, sleep, and breakfast, was ordered to be prepared for the occasion.

The governor gave the order to the captain of the district, he again to the burgomaster, and finally the burgomaster to Madame Piekna, (the landlady of the hotel, a widow with five young children,) to embellish and refurnish her hotel for the reception of the august guests.

Madame Piekna was unanimously congratulated by

her fellow-citizens on this distinction.

It was even currently reported that his Majesty had chosen this hotel in preference to any other, for the purpose of assisting this poor widow, whose fortune was in a bad state, and who was deploring the death of her husband; this was the more readily believed, that she was generally known for her piety and exemplary exercise of the duties of the Catholic religion. A fortnight before the arrival of his majesty, the hotel was surrounded by police, cavalry, and infantry-no one was allowed to enter. Madame Piekna did not hesitate at any expense, and caused all the embellishments to be executed which had been recommended by the burgoAt last, on master, engineer, and captain of the Circle. the day named, his majesty, accompanied by M. Metternich and a numerous suite of courtiers, arrived, supped, slept, breakfasted, paid twenty-five florins (three pounds sterling,) and left for Leopol. Madame Piekna went to the burgomaster, and threatened to bring him before the judge as answerable for the expense and loss which the Kaiser's visit had occasioned her. The burgomaster had the Order of the Court of the Circle read to her. She addressed herself to the Court of the Circle, which proved to her that it had only acted in conformity with the command of the gubernium; and lastly, applied to the Emperor himself, and was informed that she had the right of citing the imperial treasury before a court The composed of the creatures of the Emperor. poor widow was consequently ruined and reduced to beggary.

The emperors being absolute masters over the fortunes of their subjects, are at great pains to induce foreign princes to visit Vienna, to take the baths of Karlsbad, and to spend their money liberally. They have more interest than constitutional governments generally, in making advantageous treaties of commerce; they are less inclined to make concessions than constitutional governments, because, although always appearing to act for the interests of their subjects, they only do so in reality for their own.

All the money earned, by their subjects, from strangers, finds its way little by little into their treasury, whence it only emerges in times of the utmost necessity.

So the Austrian despotic government, according to our author, encourages free trade for its own sinister objects! The spiteful gossip of the book is a distinguishing feature; but little of that may suffice; and, in the following picture of the

wretched condition of the Jews and peasants of Austrian Poland, there may be too much truth.

The Polono Austrian nobility is sufficiently attached to the House of Habsburg, because, firstly, the Kaisers easily grant the title of Count, in consideration of the payment of a tax of six thousand florins, (about six hundred pounds;) and secondly, because they maintain more strictly the Robot (or service due from peasants to their lords) of the Polish peasantry, than other absolute monarchies.

The Polono Austrian Counts showed frequent signs of respect towards the Kaiser Francis, particularly during his journey through Gallicia in 1817. It is well known that the Kaiser Francis, like almost all the first-born of the House of Habsburg, had a falling under lip, a wide mouth, the head bowed towards the chest, and hollow cheeks and eyes.

The disciples of Plato, to imitate their chief and master, affected to have round shoulders; and in Ethiopia, when the sovereign had any deformity the courtiers

maimed themselves to resemble him.

A few Austriaco-polish Counts, not wishing to appear less civilized than the Ethiopians, affected in 1817, and subsequently, a falling lip, gaping mouth, and lowered head; though their zeal and devotedness did not lead them quite so far as to make them hollow their eyes

and cheeks.

In Gallicia the wretchedness of the Burghers, Jews,
and particularly of the peasantry, surpasses all that can
The Polish peasants can afford even
be conceived.
black bread only during three or four months of the
year: they live the remainder of the time on potatoes,
with the exception of three or four months in the Spring;
when driven to subsist on green meat, extreme priva-
tion renders these poor wretches sallow, their bodies
swell, and fever carries away thousands, particularly
children and aged persons, every year. Out of a
hundred children born, at least sixty die before the
age of six, and it is rare in Gallicia to see a peasant
At the same time Gallicia pro-
seventy years of age.
duces three times as much corn as would properly sup-
port its population, which amounts to upwards of four
millions; but the taxes are so high, and money is so
scarce, that very often the whole crop does not suffice
to pay the Kaiser his direct taxes.

The wily German has taken for basis of taxation the price of corn in 1792, because there was at that time much more money than at present, and that the price of corn was higher on account of the war.

Thus the peasants and the lords themselves pay the direct taxes at the rate of eight shillings the hectolitre ; but when the government seizes corn in payment of taxes, it sells it at the rate of tenpence, or even as low as fivepence for the same measure.

The grower, that he may be able to satisfy the impeperial rapacity, is allowed to export, that he may find money abroad. A year of plenty and a full crop does not alleviate the misery of the agriculturists, because then either the price of corn diminishes, or the Kaiser increases the rate of taxation.

A Polish nobleman, who has but a single village, consisting of forty or fifty peasants' huts, with three or four thousand acres, with mills, ponds, and public-houses upon them, is often not able to pay the schooling of his