10 DECEMBER 1881, Page 3

Immense fuss is made in Vienna about a question between

the Austro-Hungarian Government and Roumania. Whenever the Imperial Government wishes to hint to Roumania, that she had better be civil, it discovers that cattle disease exists, and prohibits the transit of cattle by the Danube. [Precisely the same thing is done to Servia, only there it is pigs.] As this is ruin to the Roumanian squires and peasants, they grow angry, and talk of the Austrian " monopoly of the Danube;" and last week, King Charles, in his speech from the throne, embodied the popular complaint, saying the disease was a pretext. Count Kalnoky, the new Austrian Chancellor, then in St. Petersburg, telegraphed an order to his agent at Bucharest to hold no further communication with the Roumanian Government, except on strict business, unless this expression was withdrawn or apologised for, and the whole Danube is in commotion, the Viennese alleging that Lord Granville, who probably does not know that cattle-feeding in Roumania is a great trade, is at the bottom of it all. His object is alleged to be to destroy Austrian rights on the Danube. If Austria were desirous of a big war, this incident would serve as well as another ; but as she is going southward, and as King Charles is a Hohenzollern, and as Russia is not interfering, the business will blow over. The Austrian Government is quite within its rights, as it must decide whether it will admit cattle or not, but it will one day learn that temper counts in politics for more than gain. The Austrian cue should be to conciliate every- Balkan people, and they are worrying every one.