Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849Various
Science
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Austria, on the other side, has done her duty nobly. Astounded as we
certainly were at the outbreak of revolution in Vienna, we had yet
that confidence, in the spirit and loyalty of the old Teutonic
chivalry, that we never for a moment believed that the mighty fabric
of ages would be allowed to crumble down, or the imperial crown to
fall from the head of the descendant of the Cæsars. And so it has
proved. The revolt occasioned in the southern provinces by the
co-operation of Jacobinism, under the specious mask of nationality,
with the mean and selfish ambition of an intriguing Italian potentate,
has been triumphantly suppressed. Vienna, after experiencing the
horrors of ruffian occupation--after having seen assassination rife in
her streets, and the homes of her burghers delivered over to the lust
and pillage of the anarchists--has again returned to her fealty. The
insurrections in Bohemia and Hungary have been met by the strong arm
of power; the schemes of treason and of faction have been discomfited;
nor can modern history afford us nobler examples of heroism and
devotion than have been exhibited by Windischgrätz and Jellachich.
Whilst the democratic press, even in this country, was sympathising
with the insurgents--whilst treason, murder, and rapine were palliated
and excused, and fulsome and bombastic panegyrics pronounced upon the
leading demagogues of the movement--we have watched the efforts of
Austria towards the recovery of her equilibrium, with an anxiety which
we scarcely can express; because we felt convinced that, upon her
success or her defeat, upon the maintenance of her position as a
colossal united power, or her division into petty states, depended, in
a large measure, the future tranquillity of Europe. Most happily she
has succeeded, and has thereby given the death-blow to the hopes of
the besotted visionaries at Frankfort. The Central Power of Germany,
as that singular assemblage of mountebanks, with a weak old imbecile
at their head, has been somewhat facetiously denominated--that
pseudo-parliament, which, without power to enforce its decrees, or any
comprehensible scheme of action, has arrogated to itself the right of
over-riding monarchies--is gradually dwindling into contempt. Even
Frederick-William of Prussia, its chief supporter and stay, has found
out his vast mistake in yielding to the democratic principle as the
means of ultimately securing for himself the rule of a united Germany.
The attempt has already wellnigh cost him the crown which he wears. He
now sees, as he might have seen earlier, but for the mists of interest
and ambition, that the present movement was essentially a democratic
one, and that its leaders merely held out the phantom of resuscitated
imperialism in order to make converts, and to strike more effectually
at every hereditary constitution. The farce cannot, in the ordinary
nature of things, last much longer. Without Austria, Bavaria, and
Prussia, there is no central power at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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