The news from Austria during the week has been of
a somewhat sensational kind. In the course of a statement in the Reicharath on Monday the Prime Minister referred for the first time to the eventuality of a suspension of the Constitution. It was his duty, he declared—we quote from the Times telegram—to call attention to the dangers that resulted from the present exceptional circumstances. "What would happen. if a Government, the most serious and conscientious Government, yielding to the popular impatience and acting in the interest of the most urgent necessities of State, were to infringe the Constitution or to be forced to do so ? Such a Government would be for ever free from blame and secure against the reprehension of posterity. It could with all justice claim to hare saved the State." This is, of course, a warning that if the Members will not allow the Reichsrath to do its work, the Emperor will suspend the electoral Constitution. The warning has
caused a great deal of alarm and irritation among all parties, but it seems by no means improbable that it will have the desired effect. The Emperor, . of course, does not want to make a coup cr &at, for adventures are not for men of his age if they can be avoided. But though he may dread the necessity, the Members, except when their passions are inflamed by party zeal, dread it still more, and therefore the Emperor has the whip-hand. Probably, then, the end will be a compromise. But one can only say probably, for some small unexpected incident may act like a spark in a powder mill.
