The Times of Wednesday publishes a letter from a corre-
spondent who quotes the comments of Maria-Theresa on unrighteous acquisitions in 1772. It would be impossible to conceive any criticism more apt to the present behaviour of Austria-Hungary than these remarks of a very noble member of the house of Hapsburg. They were written when she was being urged to sanction the annexation by Austria of a part of Poland, or alternatively of Wallachia and Moldavia, then the territory of the Turks, with whom she was at peace, as "compensation" for the aggrandisement of Russia and Prussia. She declares that hitherto during her reign it has been the aim of Austria to be righteous, moderate, and faithful to pledges, and continues :—
"This won for us the confidence—nay, more, I venture to say, the admiration—of all Europe, the respect and the veneration even of our enemies. Within a year all this has been forfeited. I confess that I can hardly endure it, and that nothing in the world has caused me greater pain than the loss of our good name. T/nfortunately I must own to you that we deserve it. Here it is that I should wish to see the remedy applied, by the rejection as bad and ruinous of the principle that we ought to draw profit from these troubles."
Again, Maria-Theresa writes :—" We shall become the mock and scorn of all the rest of the world, and we shall be left to
our fate, for who will wish to ally themselves with us after such conduct ? " In spite of her anguish, Maria-Theresa did not feel able to bear up against her Ministers, and it is but a dim hope now, we fear, that the aged Emperor Francis Joseph will be strong enough where she failed.
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