THE LATEST INCIDENT IN VIENNA.
MOST British politicians understand that " Austria " is valuable to Europe, but the majority of our 3ountrymen are not sufficiently interested in the unity and prosperity of the Hapsburg Dominion. The tradition that the government of the Empire is despotic and cruel has lingered down from 1848, and was for many years strengthened by bitter dislike of its claims to Italy, so that even now, although it is understood that the present Emperor has learnt wisdom from experience and is inclined at once to compromise and lenity, the misfortunes of Austria excite but little sympathy. That is unfortunate, for Austria is in Europe our most persistent well-wisher. The Government of Vienna has always shown its per- ception of the "usefulness" of Great Britain, and in 1855 was ready to run the enormous risk of joining the Allied Powers. Moreover, the position of Austria as a first- class military Power which is also a peaceable one enables her to act as a steadying force in general Euro- pean politics. She is no doubt the ally of Germany for defensive purposes ; but when Germany adopts an aggressive line on any side Austria acts as a dead weight which can be dragged into the arena only by an immense expenditure of time and trouble. It is never the interest of the house of Hapsburg that France should be crushed, or Great Britain so provoked that her steady desire for peace, which as regards Europe at least never wavers, should be perforce abandoned. Austria, in fact, is the most effective bulwark against German ambition for predominance and Russian restlessness. With her two millions of soldiers she must always be consulted, and her policy, though occasionally self-interested, is usually dictated by a spirit of moderation and a temperamental dislike to risky ventures. It is believed, though we cannot affirm the statement, that one cause at least of the temper- ance which the German representatives latterly displayed at Algeciras was their knowledge that Austria, though formally acting as "second in the duel," would look with strong disapproval on direct menaces addressed to France.
No one, we think, familiar with Continental politics will question this account of the Austrian position ; but to make it permanent the Empire must be held together as a living force. The house of Hapsburg has succeeded in so holding it for nearly four hundred years, sometimes by war, sometimes by tyranny, and sometimes of late by lenient and rather lax administration. So frequently, indeed, has that house emerged victoriously from most threatening dangers, that a belief has sprung up among diplomatists and historians that it is protected by a kind of fate. It is always, they say, perishing, or about to perish, but it never perishes, and so terrible would be the situation created by its fall that it probably never will. Constantly defeated in war, its losses are always made up by gains that occasionally appear purely accidental, so that the present Emperor, who has been driven out of Italy, expelled from Germany, and only replaced in possession of Hungary by foreign assistance, actually finds himself in his old age ruling more subjects and a greater division of Europe than when he ascended the throne. It is, however, difficult to deny that the danger to Austria as an Imperial and conservative Power, able to throw a heavy weight into the scale which it prefers, is becoming greater than it has been since 1866. A recent incident shows that the latent dislike which has always existed between Cisleithan Austria and Hungary has assumed an unprecedented and subtly dangerous form. Hitherto the quarrel between "Austria" and Hungary has been a quarrel between States and Governments ; but now the peoples also show a disposition to take a hand in the dispute. The Austrians declare that they are sacrificed to Hungarian greediness, both political and economic; and the Hungarians declare that their allies or comrades, or whatever they describe them as being, are moved, whenever they are dealing with Magyars, at once by arrogance and hate. The astounding scene of June 10th in Vienna certainly seems to indicate a fierce dislike between the two communities. Some eighteen thousand Viennese, assumed always to be the most urbane of all citizens in Central Europe, at the instigation of their burgomaster, Dr. Lueger, actually mobbed the committee- rooms occupied by the Hungary Delegation, flung knives through the windows, and shouted "Los von Ungarn ! " (" Cut the Hungarian painter ! ") The police were summoned, but showed the greatest reluctance to interfere, and it really appeared for some hours that the assembled Hungarian statesmen might be " rabbled " merely for being Hungarians. Of course, next day the Austrian Ministry were full of apologies and ex- planations—most of them, according to the correspondent of the Times, at once untrue and silly—but the Hungarians, who always accuse Austrians of a sort of aristocratic con- tempt for them, are furious with indignation, so furious that they are inclined to suspect the Heir-Apparent, who passed the scene in his carriage, and who is supposed to be very hostile to the Magyar caste, of having organised the demonstration. That is foolish ; but the incident will not be forgotten, and will greatly increase the difficulty of maintaining the " Ausgleich " between the two halves of the Imperial Monarchy.
The Austrians, or some of them at any rate, are inclined to regard the Hungarians as a grasping set from whom they had better be separated, while the Hungarians say that they have no friends in Vienna except the King- Emperor, who will be succeeded whenever he passes away by a clerical and absolutist enemy of Hungary. The effect of tempers of this kind is to make unity in action, and more especially in foreign action, nearly impossible, and so to divide the Parliaments that Austria and Hungary are in danger of becoming for economic purposes independent and mutually jealous States, perpetually worrying each other over alleged breaches of agreement and undue lenity to each other's smugglers. In such circumstances the house of Hapsburg could hardly hope to retain its habitual weight in the European system. Its diplomatists, its publicists, and its soldiers would be divided in their objects, their friendships, and their unwritten alliances, and common action, even if secured at all, would be the common action of unwilling comrades. The Austrians would look to Germany as their ultimate friend, while Hungary would seek dependent allies among the States of the Balkan. In other words, the vast Empire which has hitherto swayed Eastern Europe, and has found it its interest to maintain a rather dull peace, would, even if its nominal cohesion continued, be broken up as an effective Power. It must not be forgotten that the Emperor, to whom Englishmen of late years have looked as a referee able to soothe away all quarrels among his widely divided subjects, is now seventy-six, a worn and weary man who has at least talked of a possible abdication, and that the good fortune of " felix Austria " has arisen mainly from the readiness of the masses within the Hapsburg Dominion to take their guidance from Sovereigns who, though often unoriginal and sometimes unlucky, have never been either vacillating or rash.
We think we have said enough to induce our readers to doubt whether they are wise in neglecting to watch the progress of events in Austria. They may be quite certain that diplomatists are watching them with keen anxiety, and that the British Foreign Office would be very ready, if it had the power, to make almost any effort that might help to soothe the jarring susceptibilities which threaten to cripple the usefulness of the Dual Monarchy. Unfor- tunately, it has little power of the kind, though it has always the advantage that Austrians do not suspect Englishmen of wishing to secure any end at their expense, and that, consequently, any approach towards an entente cordiale would not be hampered by ignorant popular suspicion.
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