ELLE, CROWN PRINCE - Cr AUSTRIA.
THE most disappointed among the rulers of men, the . Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, has 'sustained'- this week- a crowning disappointment. The Throne is rebuilt, but his• only son is a suicide. He fought for twenty-two years to keep Italy- for his House, only, to see it torn finally, from his grasp. Ile strove for eighteen years for ascendency in Germany, only to be expelled from all place or influence in the counsels of the Empire. He laboured for nineteen years to fuse his - heterogeneous Kingdoms -into one great whole, only to find them avowedly split into two divisions, and to see his contentious nation- alities become more hostile to each other than ever. And now that he has by infinite patience and diplomacy attained a new- position as Federal Sovereign, the one political referee in his vast -dominions, which is almost a substitute for-hie old. autocracy, he is informed by 'a decree to which even he must submit, that his work has 'been done -for himself alone, and that no descendant of his will inherit the great Throne he has- so patiently, and laboriously rebuilt We do not know that the death of the Crown Prince Rudolph -is of im- mediate importance to Europe, for though he was amen. -a promise, he might not have reigned for twenty years to come ; but to the Emperor it must be a heart-breaking, blow. To labour for a family is one thing, to labour for a son another, especially, when the son was worth the labour, and competent to carry on the work. By general consent of all who knew him, the Crown Prince was so com- petent. Though perhaps without his father's ability, which has been developed by forty years of failure and success; and is now quite peou]iar- in kind,- he was a brighter man -than the generality, of Princes ; and while he knew the- politics of Europe thoroughly, and had definite -views as to the future of Austria,. he could have earned his living • as a professor of languages, or curator of a natural history museum. He travelled much, read much, and. collected much. Though a man given to fits of intense depression, perhaps tainted with- the liability which now runs in the veins of all Wittelsbachs, he was &bold sportsman, a. steady student, a sayer of keen things, popular in society, and a man who attracted personal devotion. He might have had a bright career, even if he had not proved quite so Liberal as his associates, imagined him to be ; and, at all events, he. was the only son- of his father, after whose death the Austrian Monarchy must pass either to his brother, the Archduke Charles Louis, or, if the vacancy occurs late, to his nephew, the Archduke Francis, now a man of twenty- five. There is a daughter of the Crown Prince, the- Archduchess -Elizabeth; but by the law- of the 'House a female cannot inherit, the Pragmatic Sanction or Imperial Decree which devolved, the succession on Maria Theresa, -containing an express provision that although her accession was permitted, the Throne should descend thereafter in the order of male primogeniture. The Emperor who has suffered so much, and survived so much, is, as far as his Empire is concerned, made childless in his old age.
We suppose that at the cost of a. rupture between the Emperor and the rest of his House, the rule of succession might be changed ; but the effort required to change it would be very great,, and, men do not make theefforts for a grand- daughter which they would do for the children of their own loins.- The position, too, has changed since the days of Maria Theresa. Charles- VI. had, in theory, only, to -decree, and thenceforward to make treaties pledging the Powers of Europe that they would forbear to urge any counter- vailing claims. His decree was valid as against objections within the Monarchy itself. The Emperor Francis Joseph, we imagine, would have to go through a different process. Europe would hardly interfere with any arrangement his various States might make, and-. the Archdukes, even if wrathful, could not raise armies. of their own ; but he would have to obtain the sanction of some eighteen Parliaments;-- and to change a title by pre- scription into a Parliamentary one. The Empress would reign, in fact, only by election. The Diets would all want concessions, and there are few concessions which could now be made, yet leave the Throne worth having. The Emperor has to think of his dynasty, and probably knows that the Salle Law, which. is considered here so ridiculous, is essential, under the conditions of modern polities, to the safety of military monarchies. The Emperor of Austria must do his own highest work, for though his different peoples - will trust him, each nation holding him to belong to itself, they: would - ascribe- to any Minister the prejudices of his nationality. It is doubtful if any woman could fill so difficult and so laborious a diplomatic place; certain that, if she did. fill it, her Chancellor would be supposed to govern her, and would therefore be detested. She could, not, moreover, be Com- mander-in-Chief of the Imperial' Army ; and in that vast , and composite machine, with its men of twentynationalities, and its officers bound into a brotherhood independent of nationality, only the person who demands equally the loyalty of all can be the ultimate controffing power. The Austrian Army requires a military Sovereign, one who can' stifle all jealousies by taking,the field in person, one who can settle details for himself, and one who can be trusted to make' no differences on account either of origin or language. NO woman can hold such a position, for in this respect even the tradition of Maria Theresa does not supply a favourable precedent. With far superior forces, wider territories, and' at least one better General, she was beaten, and beaten mainly because her rival commanded his own armies, and * therefore could not endure to sit down under defeat. No Army, can be governed constitutionally, and wherever the Army is the key-stone of the State, feminine rule is - an additional and. a serious embarrassment. We do not believe any attempt to change the succession will be made, and anticipate rather that the Emperor will work on for his House, a little lonelier, a little less hopeful, a . little more disposed to evade rather than to overcome his difficulties. His special abilities will not help him under this heavy blow. It has been his destiny all his life to fail, and to profit from failure; but one hardly sees how from this misfortune profit can arise. Death, though by no means the greatest of calamities, is-still the irremediable one ; and the Emperor, like the rest of us, has, when the decree has gone forth, only to submit, and let his Kingdom pass whither Gadhas willed.
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