2 MARCH 1861, Page 9

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

THE NEW AUSTRIAN CONSTITUTION.

DYNASTIES, as we have said, are slow to die, and the last step of the House of Hapsburg may secure it another long lease of sovereign power. The Constitution granted to the empire on the 26th inst. is one of the most satisfactory which has yet been conceded in Europe. It is impossible to examine it without feeling that, if honestly worked, it secures a fair measure of liberty to the people, and difficult not to see in it also some evidence of the honesty required. The utter absence of " Cassarism" is in itself a most favourable sign. There is no attempt to swamp the enlightened classes, to appeal through universal suffrage to the mob, or to blot out those local distinctions which, when not too obtrusive, are among the strongest defences of reasonable freedom. The suffrage is not yet defined, but the Members of the Diets are the real electors; and the Members of Diets are not likely, under any circumstances probable in Europe, to choose the men universal suffrage would elect. Even in America, the representatives chosen by the State Legislatures differ widely from the men chosen by the people. There is, moreover' an absence of small reservations, of limitations intended to emasculate the new-born liberty, which speaks well for the frankness of the Cabinet of Vienna. The right of publicity, for example, might have been withheld ; but it is granted, though the Emperor must be well aware that absolute pub- licity will be the most insuperable obstacle to the withdrawal of his gifts. The right of the initiative also is conceded, though the right of the initiative, by enabling individuals to centre on themselves the gratitude, hopes, and wishes of whole classes, organizes as it were the resistance to auto- cracy. We are bound, we think, under these circumstances, to examine the new Constitution without reserves as to the good faith of the Government which has proclaimed it. The new Austrian Reichsrath is, then, an aristocratic, but still free Parliament, framed generally on the English model, and invested with powers which, wisely used, may render it the most active as well as the most powerful Estate in the realm. The Upper House is composed of the princes of the blood, the higher clergy, and the great a with, we are sorry to perceive, life Members. The Emperor, appa- rently, could not bear to yield a direct control over the Peers, and retained the power of neutralizing their votes without the destruction of the Order. He may, however, be baffled from within the House itself. Austria, it must not be for- gotten, possesses a real, though somewhat modern, peerage. The great families whom the Emperor Ferdinand found, or founded, have no trace of the mushroom character of some continental peerages. They are still owners of vast estates, possessed of definite privileges, and wielding in the army and the interior an influence only too potent. After the treaty of Villafranca, in the height of the Imperial displeasure with his generals, those of high family were pimished with a compara- tively light hand. Their power of self-defence will not be dimi- nished now that their position as legislators is assured. Their loyalty, moreover, being unquestioned, they can venture on measures which, in other hands, the Court, suspicious of ulterior designs, would certainly interdict. The Upper House, unless utterly swamped with lifemen ought to be strong enough to secure a fair portion of legislative power.

The Lower House will Consist of three hundred and forty-three members, chosen'br the Provincial Diets. These diets again are nominated apparently byan electoral body numbering five per cent, of the inhabitants. The telegram on this point is a little obscure, but if this be, as we believe, the correct reading, the suffrage, though aristocratic, will be as liberal as in England, where a million of electors repre- sent a population of nearly thirty millions. It is just pos- sible that this narrow suffrage has been selected in the hope that, should the throne recover its prestige, a small class may be stripped of power more easily than a large one. It is, however, at least equally possible that this limit was de- liberately ;idopted from English example, and, like the double election, is intended to prevent the direct action of the masses upon the policy of the empire. In either case the Emperor will find that a voting aristocracy has a strong grip of power, that it is easier to strip multitudes of privileges worthless to each, than a class each member of which values them like property. To the Parliament thus framed the Emperor concedes all that has theoretically been conceded to the Parliament of Great Britain. The Reichsratli has the sole right of legis- lation, and may legislate on bills not brought forward by the Ministry. Its sittings are made public, thus giving to Parlia- ment the control of opinion, and it has supreme control of finance, of taxation, and of the National Debt. In that one power it possesses the source of all. Thus, although nothmg is said of what in England are considered the first guarantees of a Parliamentary Constitution, the means of ex- torting them are placed in the hands of Parliament itself. The Ministry are not made responsible, but a Minister who cannot pass his measures must perforce resign. Nothing is said of the Army, but the corporation which fills the mili- tary chest can control the military organization. Whether there is enough of spirit within the Austrian Provinces to assume these powers remains to be proved, but the means have been placed frankly in their hands. To take a simple example : Nothing but the exercise of force could prevent the Parliament from abolishing police arrests altogether by passing a Habeas Corpus Act. The Ministry might resist, and the Emperor might veto such a bill, but the Reichsrath, by simply sitting still and refusing to vote supplies, would at once paralyze their resistance. At first, doubtless, the Reichsrath will be cautious not to afford the reactionaries a pretext for declaring that the system has broken down. But with the public behind them, and an empty treasury to be filled, they ought, in a few months, to be finally beyond the reach of menace.

There remains the one great permanent difficulty of the House of Hapsburg, the heterogeneous character of their dominion. Each province is allowed a Diet for local pur- poses, freely elected, with the right of independent action in the province, and of securing popular support by publicity. "Autonomy" may mean anything or nothing, but if it in- cludes, as supposed, the right of passing regulations on such subjects as the police, communications, and personal freedom, it secures the empire absolutely from the evils of centraliza- tion. In the German provinces this concession will pro- bably be deemed sufficient, but the Constitution extends also to Hungary. Will the Hungarians accept the boon? They have repeatedly declared that they will not ; that they demand a separate, and not simply a free, administration. The Emperor, upon this point, will not yield ; and, if the Hungarians persist, the Austrian problem is still unsolved. The Constitution, however, even in this case, adds enormously to the safety of the empire. In the first place, if honestly worked, it relieves all Hun- garians zealous for their liberties rather than their na- tionality, of their personal interest in the strife. Secondly, it is one thing to face an isolated emperor supported by brute force, and quite another to encounter an emperor sup- ported by that force, and twenty millions of freemen. The Germans do not sympathize in any degree with the Hun- garian cry for nationality, and will probably support their Kaiser as vehemently as English members support an Irish Coercion Bill. And, lastly, the Constitution deprives the Hungarians of much sympathy abroad, and especially of the sympathy of the English people. This country detests op- pression, but it has no special love for provincialism, and no wish to see Austria destroyed. If the Emperor will grant Hungary full municipal liberty, a fair representation in imperial affairs, and a complete exemption from the Aus- trian. police, England will see Hungary reunited to the Austrian Empire with decided satisfaction. It is no part of our business to weaken a great barrier against France be- causi, Hungarians object to an Act of Union. Scotland objedted just as strongly, but a century and a half of just government has none the less welded the two kingdoms into one n'ation.

All now depends upon the honesty and firmness of the Emperor. If his eyes are really opened, if he really intends to allow a Parliament to grow to the full measure of its powets, he has, we believe, secured to his empire one more cliance of permanent greatness. With a free people at his back, he may bid defiance alike to the extreme parties and to France, and the Italian ulcer once cut offi resume in Europe the position it is certainly not to the interest of England he should lose.