FRANZ JOSEPH AS REVEALED BY HIS LETTERS. Edited by Otto
Ernst. Translated by Agnes Blake. (Methuen. 15s.)-Judging by the letters here selected from among the State archives in Vienna, the late Emperor of Austria must have been a most uninteresting correspondent. It is the " personal aspect " of the Emperor which Herr Ernst desires to bring before us, but these letters give us no picture at all. Their editor deduces from them that Franz Joseph was " the most conscientious of Head-clerks, a Civil Servant of the best sort "-in fact, " A Graven Image upon the Throne." But is this a fair deduction ? Doubtless he adhered when writing to strict rigid and time-honoured forms, but he may have had a personality totally unrevealed by the work to which he devoted his life, just as clerks and Civil servants have.. However, even the letters to his friends and his imme- diate family make wearisome reading. Albert King of Saxony was his greatest friend, the only man to whom he forbade the use of his titles, but he wrote to him chiefly of hunting and of small favours granted or refused to Albert's artist protigis. A sign of effort after literary effect shows itself in the notes he wrote to his strange and beautiful wife, towards whom his indulgence seems to have been unlimited. Once we seem to see a moment's emotion when he thanks her for lending her countenance to Frau von Schratt-the actress with whom he had so long a liaison and with whom the Empress Elizabeth was always friendly. To Frau von Schratt herself he wrote arranging for meetings, but nothing of more lasting interest.
Previous page
