We now enter on a very different scene; for nothing can exhibit a stronger contrast than the portion of Italy subject to Austria, and the mountainous provinces which separate it from the rest of the empire. In treaties and other public acts, this country is styled the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, from its two great divisions, situated respectively to the east and west of the river Mincio, which, flowing from north to south, divides the country into two nearly equal parts. Lombardy, or the western province, is called the government of Milan; while the province to the east of the Mincio is the government of Venice. Each government is further divided into delegations, each of the extent of our middle-sized counties, as follows:

| Government of Milan | Government of Venice | |---------------------|---------------------| | Delegations | Population of the Chief Towns | | Milan | 160,000 | Venice | 115,000 | | Pavia | 20,000 | Verona | 55,000 | | Lodi | 14,000 | Rovigo | 7,000 | | Bergamo | 28,000 | Padua | 48,000 | | Brescia | 32,000 | Vicenza | 30,000 | | Cremona | 26,000 | Belluno | 8,000 | | Mantua | 23,000 | Treviso | 15,000 | | Sondrio | 3,500 | Udina | 18,000 | | Como | 8,000 | | |

The amount of town population exhibited in this list is far beyond that of any other portion of the Austrian empire; and the same holds in regard to the agriculture and manufactures of this interesting country. Its extent is 18,000 square miles, about two thirds of that of Ireland, and it is level almost throughout; its large and beautiful plains extending with little interruption from the Tiago or Tesin on the western frontier, to Venice on the east, a distance of 200 miles. The soil, naturally rich, is so much improved by centuries of cultivation, that it has been frequently called the garden of Europe. The warmth of the climate makes irrigation the chief desideratum with the husbandman, and his labours for that purpose are greatly facilitated by the number of rivers and streams flowing from the Alps across extensive plains to the Po. Wheat, maize, rice, and vines, are the principal products, to which are to be added silk, flax, and hemp. The pastures also are rich and extensive. The chief exports are corn, cattle, silk, wool, and fruits.

The population of Austrian Italy is nearly four and a half millions. It was under the control of France during eighteen years, from 1796 to 1814. It was then reoccupied by the Austrians, and erected into a kingdom, which, though declared to be inseparable from the Austrian crown, has a constitution of its own, with a prince of the imperial family at its head having the title of viceroy. Its revenue is larger in proportion to its extent than that of any other part of the empire except Vienna and its district. Venice is the city of the north of Italy which has the least partaken of prosperity in the present age; a natural consequence of its loss of sovereignty in 1797. But it is now declared a free port by the Austrian government; and the inhabitants have hopes of recovering, in some degree, the commercial activity of former ages.

After this description of particular portions of the empire, we shall proceed to state what is common to the whole under the following heads:—Physical Aspect, Soil, and Climate; Products, Manufactures, and Trade; National Income; Military Establishment; Religion, Education, and National Character; Government and Laws; Foreign Politics.

Physical Aspect, Soil, and Climate.

Of the rivers in the Austrian territory, by far the most interesting is the Danube. Before entering the imperial dominions; it receives a number of rivers flowing northward from the Alps, of which the principal are the Inn, the Iser, the Iller, and the Leck. It next receives the Ens, and flows eastward with a full stream, varying in breadth from a quarter to half a mile. It is bordered throughout this part of its course by high grounds or ridges of mountains, the distance of which from the water is generally greater on the south than on the north side. It is of sufficient depth to bear barges and large boats throughout the whole Austrian territory, and in Hungary it admits vessels of considerable size. Its navigation, however, is not easy, its banks being in various parts steep and rocky; while in the level countries, in which its waters are more widely spread, its bed is often encumbered with shoals. The use of sails has not yet been introduced on the Danube to the extent practised on the Rhine and the Vistula; and as the application of steam to navigation on this river is still in its infancy, the alternative in the case of boats going up the stream is to tow them along the banks; but both the towing tracks and the boats are as yet in a very rude state. Unluckily for the commerce of Austria, the course of the Danube is towards countries devoid of mercantile activity, and which offer no encouraging markets for the produce or manufactures it might be made to convey.

The other great rivers in the Austrian dominions are the Save, the Drave, and the Muhr, which convey to the Danube the waters from the eastern face of the Alps. The Marsch or Morawa brings it to the tribute of Moravia, while the still larger streams of the Theiss and Maros collect all that flow from the southern side of the Carpathians. All these rivers abound with fish, and are of sufficient depth to be navigable; but flowing through poor and thinly-peopled countries, they have as yet been of little use in a commercial sense.

Lakes and marshes are both numerous and extensive in the Austrian dominions. In Styria, Tyrol, and other mountainous tracts, they are formed, as in the highlands of Scotland, by water collected in valleys which, from the structure of the ground, are pent up in all directions. In Hungary, Galicia, and other level countries, their origin is different: they are a consequence of neglect of drainage, and of that backward cultivation which prevails in almost all countries until population and agricultural improvement attain a certain height. It was thus that marshes, heaths, and forests covered the surface of England in former ages, and that large tracts are at present lost to every useful purpose along the banks of the Danube, the Theiss, the Drave, the Save, and other rivers in Hungary, which inundate the country, when swelled by heavy rains or the melting of the snow. To drain these low-lying tracts would require skill, capital, and machinery, all of which are wanting in these poor and backward countries.

The other striking physical features of the Austrian territory are successive chains of mountains, viz. the Alps in the south-west, and the Carpathians in the north-east of the empire, all of great height and extent. In the bleak climate of Norway the higher parts of mountains present little else than continued sterility; but in the central and southern parts of Europe vegetation is seen to rise to a great height. The base of a mountain is often covered with vines and maize; the ascent with green pastures, or with wheat, barley, and similar kinds of corn. The trees in the lower and middle region are often the oak, the elm, or the ash; while, in the approach towards the summit, the yew and the fir are chiefly seen to brave the fury of the tempest. Many parts of Tyrol, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, abound with picturesque views, and recall to the traveller the scenery of Switzerland. Styria, in particular, has, like that country, its cascades, its glaciers, its perpetual snows, and its tremendous avalanches.

German writers are in the habit of dividing the climate of the Austrian empire into three regions or zones, viz. the northern, situated between the 49th and 51st degrees of north latitude, and comprising nearly the whole of Bohemia, with the high-lying parts of Hungary, Moravia, Galicia, and the Buckowine; the whole extending over a surface of 70,000 square miles. The weather in these countries, though colder in winter and warmer in summer than in England, bears, in its average temperature, a considerable resemblance both to our climate and to that of the north of France. In products also there is a remarkable correspondence; wheat, barley, oats, and rye, forming the great bulk of the yearly crops. The middle region of the Austrian dominions is considerably more extensive; containing the whole of Lower Austria, with the chief part of Upper Austria, Moravia, Hungary, Transylvania, and Galicia. It extends along the entire length of the empire, and has a surface of fully 150,000 square miles. This vast tract lies between latitude 46° and 49°. The summer and autumn heats are here much greater than in England; and, in addition to wheat and other products mentioned above, vines and maize are cultivated in favourable situations, as in the middle part of France. Lastly comes the southern region, extending from latitude 46° to 42°, and comprising Lombardy, the Venetian States, the coasts of Croatia and Dalmatia, with the southern line of Slavonia, and the Banat of Temesvar. In these different countries the winter lasts during two or three months only, and the cold seldom exceeds that of our month of March. Here are raised not only maize and vines, but olives, myrtles, and other southern products, as in the south of France. This temperature extends over a surface of from 30,000 to 40,000 square miles.

We have stated these distinctions of climate according to latitude; but it is proper to add, that in no country does there exist greater difference of temperature in the same latitude, in consequence of the very marked differences in the elevation of the soil; one line presenting a succession of mountains, and another of plains and valleys. Thus, the Alpine Provinces, with the extensive tracts adjoining the Carpathian range, and the lofty barrier between Bohemia and Moravia, partake of all the rigour of the north, though situated to the south of latitude 49°; while Galicia and the interior of Bohemia, though to the north of that line, are considerably warmer, because their surface is in general even, and little elevated above the level of the sea.

The average fall of rain is considerably greater in the mountains than in the plains. In Vienna, and the low-lying tracts generally, 28 inches are a frequent average for the year; but in the mountains it often amounts to 40 inches and upwards.

It remains to state how the summer heats in Austria are considerably greater than in the same latitude in England, while the cold of winter is often more intense. In this country, and still more in Ireland, the vicinity of the ocean induces a frequency of rain, with a medium degree of heat and cold in the prevailing winds, which by no means exist in Poland, Austria, or any country in the interior of the continent. But the transitions from heat to cold, and vice versa, are in many parts of Austria as frequent and as remarkable in degree as in this country.

Products, Manufactures, and Trade.

In a country covered in so many parts by mountains, mines and the extent of mineral produce can hardly fail to be large. Iron ore is abundant in many parts of Bohemia, Upper Austria, Styria, and Carinthia; and if the quantities of tin or copper hitherto wrought in these provinces be com- paratively small, it is owing to most of the mountain districts being as yet imperfectly explored. The mines already wrought in Bohemia afford good tin, and those of Hungary excellent copper. In the latter country, particularly at Schenitz and Kremnitz, are mines of gold and silver, wrought on the account of government, not from a monopolizing spirit, but because without such aid it would not be practicable to secure continued employment to the natives on the spot, so scanty and uncertain are the returns.

**Annual Produce of the Mines of Hungary.**

| Gold about | £80,000 sterling. | |------------|-------------------| | Silver | 160,000 | | Antimony | 250 tons | | Lead | 1,200 tons | | Copper | 2,000 tons | | Iron | 15,000 tons |

Small as is the quantity of gold obtained, the mines of Schenitz and Kremnitz are visited by foreigners for instruction in that respect, because gold is so seldom found in the more improved countries of Europe. Saxony is far before Austria in scientific knowledge, but its mines are of silver, not of gold; exactly as those of Cornwall are of tin and copper, to the exclusion of the precious metals. The companies lately formed in England for working the gold mines of Brazil have derived useful information from the mines of Hungary.

**Coal mines.** A far more important mineral than silver ore, we mean coal, has been found in many parts of the Austrian dominions, in Bohemia, Moravia, Austria Proper, Hungary, and Styria; but the quantity raised is large only in situations contiguous to a navigable river. One of the main sources of the superiority of England to other countries, has been the ease of conveying coal in former ages by sea, and latterly also by canals and railways, to situations where fuel is of importance for manufactures. But in a country like Austria, which has no coast, where canals are almost unknown, and railways have been heard of only of late, the opportunities of such conveyance are as yet very rare. This, joined to the abundance of wood fuel, has prevented the working of many coal mines; but they bid fair to be a source of general employment to the lower classes, and of advantage to those who manage them when manufactures shall be conducted on a larger scale, and the communications assimilated to those of England or the Netherlands.

Similar observations apply to the raising and distributing of rock salt, mines of which are found in various parts of the empire. Those of Bochnia and Wieliczea in Galicia are known to be the greatest in Europe. A number of others are found along each side of the great Carpathian range, and may be said to extend with greater or less intervals all the way from Moldavia to Silesia. This very extensive tract comprehends the salt mines of Wallachia, Transylvania, Galicia, Upper Hungary, Upper Austria, Styria, Salzburg, and finally of Tyrol. They are found either at the base or on the ascent of great mountains, the salt extending in horizontal or undulating strata, and alternating with strata of clay.

To an English traveller agriculture appears in a very backward state, even in the best provinces of Austria. Capital has as yet been applied to it on a very limited scale, while the ploughs and other implements in use are much inferior to those of England. Add to this, that scientific instruction in agriculture, though the subject of various publications in the Protestant part of Germany, is in a manner unknown in Austria and the Catholic countries in the south. Nowhere, however, is there a fairer field for improved husbandry, for no part of Europe presents a greater extent of good soil. Lower Austria has, like Lombardy, the advantage of extensive plains watered by streams flowing from a range of mountains which form the background of the prospect contemplated by those who travel along the banks of the Danube. Moravia has a similar climate, and almost equal advantages of soil and position. Galicia is likewise fertile, the most so perhaps of any of the Polish provinces; while in the south and east of the empire many of the plains of Hungary and Transylvania might be rendered productive were the population more dense, and acquainted with the method of draining, irrigating, and properly tilling the ground. The land of second rate fertility is in the Alpine provinces. The slopes of the mountains, up to a certain height, are favourable to pasture, and the raising of oats and other like grain; but in many parts the height is so great as to outweigh the advantage of latitude, and to confine the inhabitants to a scanty return for their labour.

**Comparative culture of Great Britain, France, and Austria, exhibited in proportions of 100.**

| Great Britain and Ireland | France | The Austrian Empire | |--------------------------|--------|--------------------| | Land under tillage | 34 | 44 | 34 | | Vines, orchards, gardens | 1 | 5 | 8 | | Land in grass, whether natural or sown | 40 | 14 | 17 | | Forests, plantations, copses | 5 | 17 | 26 | | Poorland, as heath, marshes, commons; also land totally unproductive, as rocks, summits of mountains, lakes, beds of rivers, roads | 20 | 20 | 20 |

**Comparative population.**

| Great Britain and Ireland | France | The Austrian Empire | |--------------------------|--------|--------------------| | Inhabitants per square mile | 220 | 165 | 130 |

This table suggests several conclusions of importance. First, the proportion of land altogether uncultivated is nearly equal in the three countries; the mountains of Scotland, the bogs of Ireland, and the commons of England, containing a surface corresponding to that of the high mountains in the Alpine provinces of Austria, and the marshes and sandy levels of Hungary. But the proportion of land covered with forests, and thus lost to useful cultivation, is far greater in France, and still more in the Austrian empire, than in this country. The inducement to convert such land into pasture is far greater in Britain and Ireland, in consequence of our numerous population, and the high price of butcher-meat, wool, and hides. To this is to be added a very different consideration, viz. that the facility with which all our large towns are supplied with coal makes it quite unnecessary to keep up forests, as on the continent, for the purpose of fuel.

Next, as to the land under tillage, the great proportion of land in France is owing to the lower orders living almost wholly on bread and vegetables, to the exclusion of animal food. In Austria the proportion of land in tillage is equal to that in Great Britain; but there is the greatest difference in the nature of the cultivation, the produce in even the best districts of Lower Austria being thirty percent less than would be obtained from similar soils in this country. In the nature of the produce there is a considerable resemblance, the bulk of it in either country consisting of wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, beans, potatoes, along with flax and hemp. Of rye, the proportion raised is larger in Austria; that of potatoes much smaller. Maize is raised in the southern provinces of Austria, as of France, and is said to yield much more nourishment for either men or horses than could be obtained from wheat on a similar soil.

The northern parts of the empire, viz. Bohemia, Galicia, and part of Moravia, are too cold for vines; but in the central part of the empire they are cultivated extensively, and wine is sold in large quantities for home consumption. The prices of the different qualities vary from sixpence to one shilling a bottle. The port is far inferior to that obtained from France, in consequence chiefly of the want of conveyance. Lower Austria and Hungary, the fittest countries for the vine, have navigable rivers only to the eastward, and these lead to countries which either raise wine for their own use, or are too poor to make purchases from their neighbours. The exports from the Austrian states are thus limited to small quantities of choice wines, such as the well-known Tokay, which is raised on the last chain of the Carpathians, near the district of Zemplin. This wine is cultivated along a tract of about seventy square miles: its qualities are various; the richest kind proceeding from the grape with little or no pressure; while the inferior sort is said to be made from the dried grape, reduced into a sort of pap, and mixed with other Hungarian wines. But it by no means follows that all the wine sold under the fashionable name of Tokay is the product of the district in question; for, even in Vienna, there is not perhaps a tenth of real Tokay among the wines which bear that name.

Manufactures have in the last and present age received considerable extension in the Austrian dominions. They are still, however, on a footing very different from those of our country. In England they are generally conducted on the plan of particular towns or districts restricting themselves to specific branches; as Manchester to cottons and Birmingham to hardware. Hence our minute division of employment, our nicety in workmanship, and the surprising quantities produced. But in Austria the case is different: woollens, linen, hardware, and of late years cottons, are made in almost every place of considerable population; a sure proof that their establishments are on a small scale, and that they avail themselves very imperfectly of local advantages or of the division of labour. In many parts, indeed, weaving and other sedentary work is performed in cottages, as was the case in England a century ago. Spinning wool and flax has from time immemorial been the habitual employment of the lower class of females in Germany; and still continues to be so, notwithstanding the competition of machinery. Linens are woven in every province of the empire; but the finest qualities are made in Lower Austria, Moravia, and certain parts of Bohemia. These countries supply little for export beyond the limits of the empire, but a great deal to the adjacent provinces. Woollens also are a very general manufacture throughout the empire. As to hardware, the mines in the mountainous districts supply an ample store of materials, the manufacture of which takes place partly on the spot, partly in the larger towns, such as Vienna, Prague, and Karlsbad. Bohemia is remarked for the number of its glass works, a consequence of fuel being cheap in several districts which have the advantage of water conveyance. Hungary, Transylvania, and the Buckowine, having extensive pastures, as well as forests containing vast herds of cattle in a wild state, hides are an article of export from the same cause as in the thinly-peopled provinces of Russia or the wilds of Buenos Ayres. A very different object of trade, paper, is also made to a considerable extent in the Austrian states, in consequence of the cheapness of linen rags.

All these are manufactures of old date; but cottons are comparatively of recent introduction, and are confined to Vienna and some of the principal towns. The cheapness of labour is in favour of such undertakings in Austria; Austria, the obstacles to it are the distance which the raw material, whether landed at Trieste or at Hamburg, must be brought by land, as well as the inferiority of the machinery to that of England.

Comparing these different manufactures with those of an improved country like England, we find the foreign articles generally higher in price and more homely in appearance, but at the same time more durable than ours. This distinction is found to hold in regard to fabrics the most different in their nature; the muskets made in Germany and France being heavier, exactly as their woollens, cottons, and linens, are thicker than ours. Lightness of workmanship and dispatch in completing an article are the result of long practice: the comparatively limited experience of foreigners, and their imperfect subdivision of work, require both longer time and a larger consumption of raw materials.

In her intercourse with foreign countries, Austria experiences all the disadvantages of an inland position, and trade of a very limited access to the sea; the portion of coast belonging to her being in a corner of the empire. Its extent is about 500 miles, comprising the north and east shores of the Adriatic, from the mouths of the Po on the west, to Ragusa and Cattaro on the east. The commercial sea-ports are Venice, Trieste, and Fiume; the first being the inlet to Friuli and Lombardy, the second to Carniola, and the third to Croatia. From Venice the access to the interior is easy, the country being flat, and admitting of intersection by canals; but Fiume, and still more Trieste, have to the east ranges of mountains, over which the transport of bulky commodities is attended with great labour and expense. Roads to the interior have been made at the public charge; and it is said that the canal now making from Vienna to the southward may perhaps be continued until it connect the Danube with the Adriatic; but that must be the work of a future age, and of means far greater than can be applied to it by any mercantile association, the distance being fully 300 miles along a line on which, if the mountains be avoided, it would be indispensable to erect aqueducts over the numerous rivers that flow from them. The expense of so vast a work could be defrayed only by the government; who, aware that improved roads are more useful for military purposes than canals, are likely to prefer that mode of employing the funds of the public.

Venice was made a free port by the Austrian government in 1830, and the inhabitants have hopes of recovering in some degree their former prosperity. Trieste is a port of considerable activity: the shipping belonging to it exceeds 100,000 tons, manned by about 6000 seamen.

The harbours along the coast of Dalmatia are both numerous and commodious, but their trade must be inconsiderable until the country inland acquire population and wealth. In the northern part of the Austrian empire there are also great obstacles to foreign trade. Bohemia communicates with the sea only by the Elbe, and Galicia with still more difficulty by the Vistula. Here there are vast tracts of level country, alike favourable for canals and for improved roads; but the distance to the sea from even the northern line of the Austrian territory is great,—almost 200 miles to the Baltic, and 300 to the German Ocean.

National Income and Finances.

In commercial countries, like England and Holland, the public revenue arises principally from the excise and customs; but in a country chiefly agricultural, such as France, and still more Austria, the case is very different. In these the limited extent of foreign trade renders the customs comparatively small; while the small number of towns, and their scanty population, lessen greatly the produce of the excise. An extra share of the public burdens must therefore fall on land, the assessment of which ought from time to time to be altered according to the amount of rents. In England, since the first imposition of the land-tax in 1692, there has been no renewed survey, or attempt to adapt it to the augmented rental; but in France and Austria the absolute insufficiency of other taxes rendered an increase of the land-tax indispensable, and the foncière in France is now collected on a valuation made so lately as 1815. In Austria, the emperor Joseph, among other changes, proposed a land and poll-tax on a uniform plan, and attempted a general survey of the empire. Several years were devoted to this great work; but it encountered many obstacles, as well from the difference of value between the plain and mountain territory, as from the difficulty of computing rents in almost any province of the empire, the property of the peasantry obliging them to pay their landlords in produce or in labour instead of money. Since 1815 the Austrian government has endeavoured to correct defects in the existing assessment, but it is still in a very imperfect state. In the Hereditary States, as well as in Bohemia and Galicia, the land-tax is levied without distinction of class or rank; but in the aristocratic countries of Hungary and Transylvania the noblesse or gentry are exempt from it.

**Public Revenue of Austria.**

| Description | Sterling | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------| | Land and house-tax, corresponding to the foncière in France | L5,000,000 | | Poll or personal tax paid by the Jews | 300,000 | | Poll or personal taxes on the other inhabitants of the empire | 1,200,000 | | Inland customs collected on the frontiers of the different provinces | L500,000 | | Salt duties | 650,000 | | Monopoly of tobacco | 300,000 | | Stamps | 350,000 | | Liquors | 250,000 | | Post-office | 100,000 | | Lottery | 200,000 | | All other indirect taxes | 650,000 |

Total of indirect taxes... 3,000,000

Crown revenue—from the forests L800,000 from the mines... 500,000 from the demesnes or lands... 200,000

Import duties, and all other sources of revenue... 2,000,000

Total net revenue... L13,000,000

Public debt, after reckoning the reductions since the peace of 1815, about... 75,000,000

Amount of government bonds in circulation... 8,000,000

The cost of collecting the revenue, which in England is not quite five per cent. on the amount, is in Austria ten per cent.

The Austrian government has not yet, like the English and French, adopted the plan of giving their finance accounts to the public. There are thus no satisfactory means of estimating the amount of national income, even that arising from the rent of land and houses throughout the empire; but as the two together can hardly amount to thirty millions sterling a year, perhaps not to twenty-five millions, it follows that of all income in Austria arising from real property, L20 in L100 are paid, even in time of peace, to the public treasury. The poll-tax on the Jews is a toleration tax. The next head in the list, viz. the inland customs, arises chiefly from the difference in taxation between Hungary and the Hereditary States. Dues are consequently collected on the transit of certain articles from one to another, as was the case between different provinces in France before the revolution. The duty on salt, though not high, is injurious both to agriculture and manufactures, by limiting the consumption. As to tobacco, there is no duty in Hungary and Transylvania; but in the rest of the empire the government, like that of France, keeps in its own hands the exclusive manufacture and sale.

The tax on liquors, slight in its rate, is small in its produce, from the limited population of the towns: in country parts, where the population is thin, the excise does not repay the expense of collecting. But nothing in the fiscal list is more interesting to a statistical inquirer than the net receipts from the post-office, which in this country are L1,200,000 a year; in France L600,000; in Austria only L100,000. What can show more clearly the limited correspondence and the scanty traffic of this great empire, or that the badness of the roads is productive of an expense which more than balances the low wages and general cheapness in the post-office establishment?

The imperial demesnes or crown lands yield about L200,000 to the treasury, a sum to be carefully distinguished from the personal property of the reigning family, of which the yearly rental amounts to about L100,000.

Among the lesser imposts in Austria, not specified in the above table, are those on carriages, pleasure-horses, hair-powder, starch, as well as legacy-duties, and fees on titles of nobility. The list of taxes, in short, is nearly as long in Austria as in England, and the complaint of their pressure almost as general. What, then, are the causes that, with so fertile a soil and so numerous a population, the public revenue of Austria should be so inferior to that of France? The inquiry is interesting, and the causes are briefly as follow.

In manufacturing and commercial countries, such as England or the Netherlands, agriculture is conducted with the benefit of capital and machinery; and the labour of 30 or 40 persons in 100 is sufficient to raise subsistence for the community at large. But in the other countries of Europe the case is very different, the labour of half or of more than half the inhabitants being required to raise the needful subsistence. Thus in France, a great part of which is more backward than an untravelled Englishman can readily conceive, between 50 and 60 persons in 100 are and must be employed in country work, in consequence of the great inferiority of their agriculture, their farms being small, their ploughs and other implements miserably defective, their capital scanty, and machinery, such as threshing-mills, in a manner unknown. Hungary, Transylvania, and the southern frontier along the Danube, being still more backward than any part of France, more destitute of capital, and more deficient in machinery, the consequence is, that of the average population of the Austrian empire, the labour of not fewer than between 60 and 70 persons in 100 is needed for raising provisions; thus reducing to a comparatively small number the population of the towns, the persons disposable for trade and manufacture. This is at once apparent from a comparison of the town population in these different countries. If we make it between France and England, we shall obtain a result decidedly favourable to England; but a comparison of France and Austria exhibits, in almost every case, a greater number in the towns of France. Thus,

**The twelve largest Towns in France.**

| Town | Population | |--------|------------| | Paris | 850,000 | | Lyons | 140,000 | Austria, like England, has a sinking fund, and one of which the operations are equally vaunted; but in either country the only true sinking fund is the extension of the national industry, and a reduction of the interest of the debt consequent on continued peace, and on a general abatement in the interest of money.

Military Establishment.

Austria has taken so prominent a part in the wars of the last and of the present age, that the nature and extent of her military means are subjects of great interest. The disposition of the inhabitants of Hungary, and of the more remote provinces of the empire, is well adapted to a military life. They are accustomed to pass their time out of doors, to indulge in active exercise, to follow the chase, and to occupy themselves with the care of horses. To such men marching and encamping are but a slight deviation from their established habits. The fire of the nightly watch is not more uncomfortable than that of their smoky cottages; whilst a loaf of bread, a slice of coarse pork, and a glass of spirits, are all the food and drink they desire. But to accustom these rude combatants to the restraints of discipline was found no easy task; still the Austrian government judged it indispensable to their meeting on equal terms the armies of France and Prussia. It is now somewhat more than a century since the Prussians began to take a lead in military discipline, the father of Frederick II. having carried both the manual and platoon exercise to a nicety unattempted by almost any other tactician. He left a highly disciplined army of nearly 80,000 men to his son, who, on the death of the emperor Charles VI. in 1740, conceived that such a force would soon enable him to accomplish the conquest of Silesia. He lost no time in making preparations for war. The court of Vienna, alarmed, sent a special envoy to dissuade him from it; but Frederick was not to be deterred by any remonstrances, however urgent. The envoy adverting, on the one hand, to the careful training of the Prussians, and on the other to the recent practice of the Austrians in the field, declared to the king, "Vos troupes, Sire, sont belles, mais les nôtres ont vu le loup." "Vous conviendrez," replied the king, "que mes troupes sont belles, je vous ferai convenir qu'elles sont bonnes." The words of the king were made good; the events of the war which ensued, as well as of the more arduous contest begun in 1756, having proved, on many trying occasions, the great advantage of a high state of discipline. This led the Austrian generals and war ministers to follow the example of the Prussians, as well by carefully training their infantry, as by new-modelling the "free corps" of horsemen, Croats, Slavonians, and Hungarians, who had hitherto been left to their national mode of fighting. By dint of perseverance, Marshal Lascy and other military men in Austria succeeded at last in bringing these half-civilized combatants under the discipline of regular cavalry.

The French, in the wars of the revolution, were remarkable for celerity of movement in collective bodies, but discipline bestowed comparatively little attention on the minute of discipline. The Austrians were charged with following a contrary system; with too much care as to details, and too little as to general movements. Their lines are said to have suffered on various occasions, in particular in the dreadful conflicts at Essling and Wagram, from continued exposure to the field-pieces of the enemy; and their infantry was said to be slow in executing most movements except those from front to rear. Their own officers, however, did not admit this inferiority; and whatever may have been the case in the last age, there is reason to believe that the Austrians have now attained that celerity of movement which has so long distinguished their rivals in France and Prussia, and which became so conspicuous in our own troops after their first campaigns in Spain.

In former times the Austrian government, conscious of the deficient education of its subjects, gave important commands to Italian officers, amongst whom the most remarkable were Montecucculi and Prince Eugene. At present there are military schools at Vienna and several of the provincial towns; and as these have of late been much improved, another generation will probably witness the removal of the charge of deficient instruction from the Austrian armies.

It is unnecessary here to enter into any particulars regarding either the absolute numerical strength, or the relative apportionment and distribution of the Austrian military establishment, at the present time, seeing that these subjects have been already treated of under the proper head in the article Army, where detailed information, derived from the most authentic sources, is given respecting the constitution, organization, discipline, divisions, and numbers of this establishment, as well as of its different branches or arms separately. In referring to the above article, however, it is proper to add, that recent events, particularly the contest in Poland, coupled with the actual state of affairs in France, Italy, and the Netherlands, have produced a considerable augmentation of the disposable military force of Austria. (June 1831.)

In most of the provinces of the Austrian empire the levies are at first made for militia service (landwehr), and the regular regiments are kept up by successive draughts from that force. But in Hungary, recruits are raised at once for the regular service, the emperor proposing a specific number to the diet, who deliberate on the demand; and on its being assented to, the magnates or great landholders undertake to levy their respective proportions on their estates.

The horses for the Austrian light cavalry are drawn from Hungary and Galicia; those for the heavy cavalry chiefly from Bohemia and Moravia. Clothing, arms, ammunition, and harness, are all furnished at different stations, in Bohemia, Moravia, and the Hereditary States. The duration of military service in Austria was long unlimited; but in the early part of the present century it was reduced, as in this country, to specific periods. For invalids and veteran soldiers there is a provision similar to what is made for our military; they are either received into hospitals or allowed small out-pensions.

The limited revenue of Austria, and her equally limited credit in a financial sense, prevent her from making a great military exertion at short notice. She cannot, unless when aided by English subsidies, equip for offensive operations, or send to a distance, armies of any very considerable force. Hence her power in attack is restricted so as to form a remarkable contrast to the extent of her means for continuing a contest by filling up the blanks in her regiments, year after year, by fresh levies. In her long and arduous struggle with France, the losses of each campaign appeared to be supplied without making a serious impression on her numbers, or distressing her productive industry. The causes of this are obvious. A country like England, possessing monied capital, can at short notice embody an army, and send it to a distance, amply equipped and provided; whilst an agricultural nation like Austria is limited in its extent of exertion at the moment, but, from the amount of its population, almost indefinite in its resources. The long duration of several of her wars is to be ascribed to two causes; her inability, on the one hand, to overpower her opponents by a great effort; and her power, on the other, to keep up a certain degree of exertion for a long period. It was thus that Austria carried on the contest in Germany about religion during thirty years, and persisted in the war with France in 1713, after England and Holland had withdrawn. Maria Theresa would have done the same towards Prussia in 1763, had she not been forsaken by her allies; whilst, in the wars with revolutionary France and Buonaparte, we have seen Austria, worsted in five successive contests, return as often to the charge.

The Austrian navy is as yet merely in an incipient state, but is entitled to notice, because the possession of Venice, Trieste, and the fine harbours along the coast of Dalmatia, hold out a prospect of its being, in course of time, considerably increased. At present it is confined to a few ships of the line, dismantled or cut down, eight frigates, as many corvettes, and about twenty brigs and sloops. Venice is the naval station.

Religion, Education, National Character.

The population of the Austrian empire, classed according to their respective creeds, will stand thus: Catholics 26,000,000, Protestants 3,000,000, Greek church 3,000,000, Jews 500,000, other religions 500,000.

Although Austria took, two centuries ago, so decided a part against the Protestants in the north of Germany, her internal tranquillity was never disturbed by religious contests except in Bohemia, the country of the unfortunate John Huss and Jerome of Prague. Her sovereigns have been tolerant from character, if not from conviction; and during the last half-century indulgence to Protestants and other dissenters has existed in a liberal form. The north and west of Germany frequently exhibit Catholic and Protestant communities in the same vicinity; and nowhere are the superior industry and intelligence of the latter more strongly marked. The traveller who passes from Saxony into Bohemia cannot fail to regret that the reformation should not have made its way into the Austrian dominions: the result would doubtless have been a very decided advancement in science and productive industry. Literature, manufactures, trade, would then have been cultivated in the south and east of Germany with the same zeal, and probably the same success, as have marked their progress in the south and west. At present we can hardly flatter ourselves with any considerable number of converts to Protestantism. The Catholic clergy are in general assiduous in the discharge of their duties: they possess the attachment of their flocks; and the Austrian people at large are too little enlightened to exchange a worship which dazzles the imagination by its pomp and ceremony for one which appeals chiefly to the understanding.

In Austria, as in France, the Catholic clergy are generally educated in humbler seminaries than universities. Oratory forms no part of their studies, and would, in fact, be misplaced before a German congregation, which meets for the purpose of fulfilling, soberly and tranquilly, a religious duty. Sermons therefore are, in almost all parts of the Austrian dominions, little more than plain moral lessons deduced from the sacred writings; and the reputation of a clergyman, particularly in country parts, rests chiefly on his attention to the sick, and the performance of private and unostentatious duties. But while the country curates and other inferior clergy are thus assiduous and unassuming, the conduct of the heads of the Romish church has often been very different. Protestants who have not lived in a Catholic country can hardly conceive the extent of the pretensions made by the popes in former ages, or which they are still disposed to make in the less enlightened parts of Europe. These the sovereigns of Austria have in general resisted; reserving to themselves several important rights, such as the imposing of taxes on church property, the nomination of bishops and archbishops, and the option of restricting or even preventing the circulation of papal bulls. The extent of landed property in Austria belonging to the Catholic church is very considerable, as may be inferred from the number of abbeys and convents. Though a good deal reduced within the last half-century, there are still nearly 300 abbeys and above 500 convents in the empire. The head of the Austrian church is the archbishop of Vienna; but the bishop of St Polten appoints the regimental chaplains, and is the superior of all clergymen doing duty with the army.

The followers of the Greek church are chiefly in Galicia, Hungary, Croatia, and Transylvania, forming a total of 3,000,000. They are in a state of gradual increase, as well by the progress of population as by arrivals of their brethren from Turkey. Galicia comprises a body of Armenian Catholics, and there are a few of that sect in Hungary. The well-known association of Hernhuters or Moravians took their origin from that province in the middle of the eighteenth century. The emperor Joseph, in his ardour for toleration, extended it to Jews, and even to Mahometans; but he found that the Jews were hardly in a state to be incorporated with the rest of his subjects, or to take advantage of the privileges held out to them. Their old habits and prejudices remain; so that ages will be required in Austria, as in Poland and other backward parts of Europe, before they can be identified with their Christian neighbours. In tolerating Mahometanism, Joseph had in view the vicinity of Turkey, and the importance of inducing traders from that country to travel and settle in his dominions.

A deficiency in national education has long been a subject of reproach to the Austrians, and their apathy in regard to literature and politics is often ascribed by foreigners to restraints on the press. But these restraints, slight in their nature, are by no means intended to check useful inquiry. The truth is, that the majority of the Austrians are occupied with the tranquil enjoyment of the good things of life: they are unambitious, uninquisitive, and, in general, satisfied with following a beaten track, with going over the same routine as their fathers and forefathers. The desire of acquiring property is, of course, as strong or nearly as strong in this as in other countries; but the inhabitants have still to acquire that intellectual activity which stimulates so largely to exertion in England, in France, and, above all, in the Protestant part of Germany. Saxony is the centre of literature for that country; and the society which is within the reach of a youth at the university of Vienna is not to be compared to that of Dresden or Leipsic. The Austrian dialect of Germany is unpleasant, having a slowness of accent and a hissing tone, particularly in the mouths of the lower orders. Hence French is the language used not only at court and by diplomatists, but by genteel society generally. The universities in the Austrian empire are as follow: Vienna, Prague, Pesth in Hungary, Lemberg in Galicia, Inspruck in Tyrol, Grütz in Styria, and Padua and Pavia in Lombardy; in all eight universities attended by nearly 7000 students. There are seven academies, and thirty lyceums or high schools. Of military schools there are in all ten in the empire; the two principal in Vienna, the others in provincial towns. The primary or elementary schools throughout the empire correspond in some measure to the parish schools in Scotland. They were greatly increased half a century ago in the reign of Joseph II., and in the Austrian provinces they appear to be adequate to the wants of the population; but in Hungary and the remote parts of the empire there are still great deficiencies in the provision even for this, the first stage of education. The university of Vienna dates from the middle of the thirteenth century, the time when the residence of the court, being fixed in that city, began to give importance to it, and to call for improvements in public education. It was long under the management of the clergy, who in the middle ages were the only men of letters; but, a century ago, Von Swieten, the celebrated physician, induced the government to take it into their own hands, and to give a great extension to the medical department: Vienna, from the number of its inhabitants and the extent of its hospitals, being much fitter for a medical school than any other city in Germany. The consequences of Von Swieten's representations were the fitting up of a botanical garden, an anatomical theatre, a military hospital, and, at a subsequent date, a veterinary school. The university of Vienna is thus at the head of the medical schools in Germany. It contains also public classes for law, theology, classics, philosophy, and general literature, in most of which the reputation of the professors is respectable, though not greater than in other universities, such as Göttingen, Leipsic, and Halle. The number of students at the Vienna university is from 1200 to 1500. Vienna contains also an academy for the fine arts, a seminary for the eastern languages, and facilities for the study of modern Greek. Among the military institutions are a school for cadets, and of late years a polytechnic school for engineers. This capital has also several seminaries like the Ecole Normale at Paris, for training teachers for provincial towns and villages. The imperial library at Vienna is very extensive, as is the collection of medals and coins. The university of Prague is of old date, and well attended by Bohemians, but it does not rank high in the scale of German seminaries. Pesth, Lemberg, Grütz, and the other universities, are of importance only to the population of their respective towns and their vicinity.

In travelling for instruction, the Austrians, like the French, are far behind our countrymen, in consequence partly of the want of pecuniary means, partly of their unambitious and uninquiring character. Individuals, however, may be cited among the Austrians, who, like Baron Humboldt among the Prussians, have traversed remote regions in quest of information; but their number is small when compared with the extent and population of the empire. Still Austria can boast of several names of eminence in literature. Of this class are the two Schlegels, one of whom, Frederick, has long been known by his publications on the language and philosophy of India; while his brother has acquired reputation by his translation of Shakspeare and his works on dramatic criticism. Hammer, the founder of the Oriental Society at Vienna, has long been known for his acquaintance with Persian literature; but the majority of Austrian writers have given their attention less to works of imagination than to classics, geography, and statistics. These studies, requiring rather continued attention than vivacity or power of imagination, are best suited to the laborious habits of the Germans.

In painting and sculpture, as in architecture, the Austrians have as yet made no great figure; but the case is very different in regard to music. Haydn and Mozart were both formed at Vienna; and it has been said with truth, that a foreigner can hardly receive a higher gratification than by being present at the oratorio at Vienna in commemoration of Haydn. If in vocal music the Germans are inferior to the Italians, they fully maintain the competition in instrumental performance. In short, the passion for music exists here in the humblest ranks, and under circumstances apparently the least favourable to it. The traveller, in passing through villages, observes wandering musicians performing on the most homely and imperfect instruments. He finds this equally in the populous districts adjoining the Danube, and in the secluded spots of Tyrol and Carniola. Statistical writers class the population of the Austrian empire according to national descent, thus,

- Of German origin: 6,000,000 - Of Italian: 5,000,000 - Of Jewish: 500,000 - Of Slavonians: 15,000,000 - Of Magyar: 4,500,000 - Of Wallachian: 2,000,000

The Slavonians (called in Latin Slavi or Sclari, and in their own language Slovacos) inhabited, in remote ages, a part of the vast tract of country known to the ancients by the name of Scythia. Their descendants are widely spread; for their language and habits are to be traced in the Illyrian provinces, in Hungary, Poland, the east of Germany, and even in the western frontier of Russia. They form the most backward and uninstructed portion of the population of the empire; being generally employed on common country labour, and many of them being still in a state of servitude. The Wallachians are almost equally backward; but the Magyars, though illiterate, are a spirited race, averse to sedentary work, accustomed to exercise in the open air, and prompt in obeying a summons to military duty.

In Styria, Carinthia, and other mountainous tracts, the manners of the inhabitants are very primitive. Content with the produce furnished by their lands and cattle, and as cheerful and frank as moderate desires can make them, they seem to have no wish beyond the limits of their native districts. They are, it must be allowed, very ignorant and superstitious; being still blindly attached to traditional usages, and among others, to that of making pilgrimages to a distance as the best means of obtaining forgiveness for trespasses.

The character of the Germans in the Austrian dominions is in general entitled to praise. Sincerity, industry, and habits of order, are all conspicuous in them; and the number of criminal offences committed among them is remarkably small. In many extensive districts year after year passes without a necessity for capital punishment. The French soldiers, who, in marching through Austria, were very often lodged in detached cottages, and at the mercy of the inhabitants, bore a favourable testimony to their humanity; and there scarcely occurred, either there or elsewhere in Germany, any example of those secret assassinations which were unfortunately so prevalent in Spain.

The habits of the females in Austria, in the large as in the small towns, are very domestic. Without taking so active a part as French women in either business or conversation, they claim regard for a steady fulfillment of the duties of wives and mothers. The lower orders have similar habits; and a traveller may visit village after village without hearing of a single instance of domestic disquietude. The care of children, the performance of their daily tasks, and punctual attendance on divine worship, seem to occupy all their thoughts.

A striking feature in the national character of the Austrians is a continued equanimity, a general good humour and forbearance, as if they had little or no cause for complaint in regard either to individual circumstances or public affairs. This fortunate disposition seems the result of various causes; of an habitual acquiescence under their superiors; an unacquaintance with the state of other countries; and in fertile districts, such as the banks of the Danube, of a general abundance of provisions, and an exemption from penury.

But as in national character almost every good quality has a corresponding drawback, that habitual content, and aversion to change, which has kept the Austrians tranquil amidst the convulsions of other countries, is connected with a blind adherence to old usages, and a disinclination to almost every kind of innovation. Hence their stationary condition, their backward agriculture, their slowly improving manufactures, and their extravagant deference to hereditary rank—a deference often dearly paid for in war, when men of inferior talents have been intrusted with important commands. On the whole, it must be admitted, that no country in Europe stands more in need than Austria of the benefits arising from the diffusion of knowledge. This applies to the upper as well as to the lower classes. In former times the government partook of the national prejudices, and exhibited strong indications of it in their conduct both in the cabinet and the field. This is forcibly stated in the memoirs of one who had long and arduous contests with them; we mean Frederick II. of Prussia. The court of Vienna was, he said, altogether untractable in negotiation, after obtaining even a partial success in the field, or whenever it had any prospect of success; at the same time that it evinced no discrimination in the choice of its general officers. In the campaign of 1744 Frederick entered Bohemia with a strong army, and soon overrun the whole country; but the veteran Marshal Traun being sent against him, found means, with an inferior force, so to straiten the Prussian army as to oblige it to quit one position after another, until it evacuated the whole kingdom. "Yet this man," says Frederick, "whom I have ever since regarded as my master in the art of war, the court of Vienna removed next year from the chief scene of operations, and sent to Italy with an inferior command." In our own days similar disappointments have been but too often caused by the Austrian cabinet; in 1796, when Marshal Clairfayt was led to resign, after a very brilliant campaign; and in 1805, when a great army was intrusted to General Mack, who, far from having acquired a reputation, had failed in almost every thing he had attempted.

We should, however, err greatly were we to suppose the apparent slowness of the Austrians indicative of deficiency of invention. On the contrary, their tranquil and sedate habits are more favourable to original combinations than the sprightliness of the French. But in Austria, as in other parts of Germany, mechanical ingenuity is often applied rather to make a display of skill, or to gratify a fancy, than to accomplish a useful purpose. In one part of a journey through that country a traveller finds a machine so framed that, with a slight impulse, it performs the functions of a chess-player; in another part he sees a head which may be made to imitate the human voice; and in a third place, an instrument uniting the most varied sounds of music. In machinery, as in politics, the speculations of the Germans often bear evidence of considerable ingenuity, but at the same time of the absence of practice and experience.

Government and Laws.

Having described the constitutions of Hungary and the other countries under their respective heads, it remains merely to state the part of the political system which is referable to the empire at large. The executive administration for the whole of the Austrian dominions is vested in the emperor, and is exercised at Vienna in nearly the same manner as that of France and England in their respective capitals. At Vienna, as in London and Paris, the chief public offices are the treasury, the home department, the foreign affairs, and the army; to which are to be added, the boards for the affairs of Hungary, and for the general superintendence of the mines. The name of Aulic is not confined, as is generally supposed, to the military board; it is given to several councils or boards, among others to that of the treasury. The Germanic confederation bore, as is well known, during many centuries, the name and form of an empire, consisting of a number of separate states, of which Austria was by far the greatest. Her dominions in Germany comprised Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, in addition to the circle of Austria, which contained Austria Proper, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola; hence the successive election, during nearly four centuries, of the head of the house of Austria to the rank of the emperor of Germany. This dignity being renounced by Francis II., the present sovereign, in 1806, the connection of Austria with the rest of Germany on the previous footing was dissolved; nor was it renewed in the final adjustments of 1815, by which the Germanic body was declared a confederation, but not an empire; for it has no longer an acknowledged head, questions affecting the confederation at large being discussed in the diet or assembly of deputies from the different states, and determined by a majority of votes. Each confederate state is pledged to supply, when required by the diet, a military force proportioned to its population. Austria having in Germany a population of ten millions, her quota in time of war is nearly 100,000 men; that of Prussia is 80,000.

Since the abrogation of the imperial form in Germany, the "Circle of Austria" is no longer an official designation; but the name of "Hereditary States," so often used, has reference to the same provinces, viz. Austria Proper, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, which during five centuries and upwards have belonged to the house of Hapsburg by hereditary descent. In these the authority of the emperor, though exercised with mildness, is almost uncontrolled. He is the head not only of the executive power, but of the church, and virtually of the legislature. The Hereditary States have parliaments, composed, as in Hungary and Bohemia, of the Catholic prelates and the nobility, with deputies from the landholders and free towns; but they meet seldom, and never fail to give a ready assent to the propositions of the sovereign.

There exists considerable diversity in the constitutions of the component parts of the Austrian empire, particularly in regard to their origin and date. The constitution of Lower Austria is founded on a charter granted so long ago as the year 1156. Hungary claims to be governed by laws of still older date, the first going back to the ninth century, others dating from the thirteenth; while in Bohemia, confirmations of the privileges of the nobility, and restrictions on the executive power, were enacted so lately as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Galicia, differing in several respects from these countries, traces part of its political constitution no farther back than its annexation to Austria in 1773. Notwithstanding all these discrepancies, it is in one quarter only, we mean Italy, that the sovereign of Austria has to apprehend deficient loyalty on the part of his subjects. In the other states of his empire, however remote from each other, however different in language or national manners, the prevailing feeling is attachment to the government and aversion to change. Nothing could show this more clearly than the steady loyalty of the people during the repeated invasions of the French, and their ready assent to the levies which year after year filled up the blanks in the imperial regiments, caused by a contest at all times sanguinary, and often unsuccessful. And even as to Italy, although the mountains which separate it from the north are as lofty and rugged on the side of Austria as of France, there are in the former no intermediate states like Switzerland and Piedmont; and hence the ease with which an army may march from Germany to Lombardy, and the promptitude with which it may put down insurrection.

The judicial body in Austria is far more numerous than in this country, the difficulty in travelling requiring that there should be courts of justice in a great number of provincial towns. Their salaries are greatly below our scale, the profits of pleaders being too small to discline even the most eminent from relinquishing their business. The administration of justice in Austria long took place, as in this country, by reference to ancient usage, and to a multitude of decisions, without much system or consideration of general principles. The perplexity attendant on this vague and undefined course being doubly felt in a country where individuals were in general ignorant, and the press inefficient, the government became aware, so long ago as the middle of last century, of the necessity of publishing the laws in a collective form. Accordingly, in the year 1767, a code was published in eight folio volumes. This was a first step towards improvement; but the work, from its bulk and its deficient arrangement, proving of little use, instructions were given by the government to an eminent civilian named Von Horten, to recast it in a condensed and improved form. This was necessarily a work of great time and labour, and it was not till 1794 that the first part of the civil code came forth in an improved shape. The remainder followed in a few years, when printed copies were distributed in all directions, and local commissions appointed to report on its applicability to the usages of the different provinces of the empire. At last, in 1812, the civil code was definitively promulgated, and applied to practice. With the criminal code a similar course had been adopted somewhat earlier; it had been promulgated in 1803, and introduced into practice the year after. Fortunately, the number of criminal offences in Austria is small compared with the magnitude of the population.

**Foreign Politics of Austria.**

We shall conclude this account of Austria with a few remarks on her situation in regard to the great powers who are her neighbours. To begin with France: It is now about three centuries since Austria, by the definitive acquisition of Bohemia and Hungary, became equal to France in extent of territory, and ventured to contend with her for ascendency both in Italy and the Netherlands. In fertility of soil Austria is fully equal to her rival, but in other respects France has had and still has great advantages. Her people all speak the same language, and the country is to a certain degree maritime; main points in facilitating intercourse, and in promoting civilization, trade, and national wealth. Hence the greater increase of the towns; a more general diffusion of education; and a larger proportion of intelligent public officers, of able statesmen and commanders. Add to this, that while France was relieved from intestine troubles so early as the year 1600, or the reign of Henry IV., Austria did not obtain the complete attachment of her subjects in Hungary and the eastern provinces until 1720, more than a century later. The consequence of all this was, that with a few exceptions, such as the brilliant reign of the emperor Charles V., or the still more brilliant age of Marlborough and Eugene, the balance of success inclined to the side of France; and Austria lost first Alsace, afterwards the Netherlands, and for a time Lombardy.

The adjustments of territory by the general treaties of 1815 are certainly more favourable than any former arrangement to the maintenance of peace between France and Austria. By these treaties Austria definitely relinquished Belgium, which had so long been a ground of quarrel between the two countries; and Prussia became the power to which England and Holland look for co-operation in the event of war in the Netherlands. It was with this view that Prussia received an extension of ter- ritory on the Rhine, exactly as Lombardy and Venice were restored to Austria, in the understanding that the political guardianship of Italy should be committed to her care. In pursuance of this system, an Austrian army became the sole agent in reinstating the royal authority in Naples in 1820; and to the same power has been lately intrusted the task of preventing the spread of revolution in the States of the Church. Has Austria to apprehend that questions arising out of the politics of Italy will be of a nature to involve her with France? To this the only answer that can at present be given is, that the intermediate power (the court of Turin) has the strongest motives to prevent such collisions, and that the French people have never gone along with their rulers in desiring Lombardy as they desired Belgium.

Another and an equally interesting question is, what seem to be the comparative prospects of these rival states in regard to increase of resources? The country which shall most steadily cultivate the arts of peace and productive industry, will assuredly advance most effectually in its wealth and power. Since the overthrow of Buonaparte, and the general settlement of territory by the treaties of 1815, the Austrian government has evinced a decided tendency to peace, and a solicitude to heal the wounds inflicted by twenty years of war. Bosnia and Servia, detached from the central part of Turkey, and immediately adjoining the Austrian frontier, offered strong temptations; but the court of Vienna has declined to be a party to any plan for dismembering the Turkish empire. Let us hope that this abstinence from aggression has proceeded from enlightened views, and from a solicitude to promote improvement at home, by leaving capital and labour disposable for productive purposes. Of a disposition to that effect there have been several symptoms since the peace: export duties have been lowered; the assessment for the land-tax has been amended; several of the high roads from Germany to Italy have been improved; those in Bohemia have been extended; and several marshes, in particular an extensive one near Laybach, have been drained. These different undertakings are on a scale insignificant to the view of an Englishman, but important, as indicative of a disposition on the part of government to contribute to public works in a country where formerly their utility was not appreciated. No state, assuredly, would profit more largely by the extension of such works than Austria. Territory she possesses in abundance; her great requisites are, a more close connection, and a greater approach to uniformity in her different provinces. This can be accomplished only by extending the communications, by opening new roads and improving the old, as well as by excavating canals in situations where they are preferable to railways. The difficulty and expense attendant on such labours, great in almost every country, are particularly so in mountainous regions like Spain, Switzerland, or the Alpine provinces of Austria; but in most parts of the empire the obstacles are lessened by the great extent of level ground.

The points of possible collision between Austria and Russia are on the side of Poland and Turkey. Were we to draw a parallel between these two empires, the results would be directly the reverse of those in the comparison with France; Russia being far more backward than Austria in national education, in manufactures, in the size of her towns, and in the average of individual property. Yet the vast extent of Russia, and the éclat she acquired by occasioning the overthrow of Buonaparte, has led the public, during the last twenty years, when comparing Russia and Austria, to regard the former as decidedly the greater power. On considering, however, the rigour of the Russian climate, the inconvenience of vast distances, and the general barbarism of the people, we cannot assent to this opinion without considerable qualification. In defensive war Russia is almost invincible, because her uncultivated provinces afford no resources to an invading force; but her financial means are not as yet greater than those of Austria, and the armies she has sent to a distance have been formidable only when subsidized by England. Russia has, however, one great advantage: a consciousness of the deficient education of her natives, and a readiness to accept the services of intelligent foreigners. How important would it be for Austria to call in similar aid, until her system of national education should be so far improved as to approach to that of France, England, and the north of Germany?

Prussia made common cause with Austria against France in 1792, but withdrew from the coalition as early as 1795; and during the subsequent invasions of the empire by the French, her government was considered a willing spectator of their success, calculated as it was to shake the influence of Austria over the Germanic body. But the grounds of such jealousy appear to have been removed by the arrangements of 1815, by which Prussia has the northern and Austria the southern portion of Germany under her influence. Though Prussia has long had the twofold advantage arising from the reformed religion and an enlightened government, she has no title to be placed on a level with Austria in point of resources. Her soil is in many parts so sandy and unproductive, that the average of her population, reckoned by the square mile, is less than that of the Austrian empire; while her revenue is only half, and her total population less than half, of that of her southern rival. The successes obtained by Prussia in the wars of the last century were owing chiefly to one cause, the talents of Frederick II.; and a recurrence of them ought not to be expected at any time when Austria shall be judiciously governed.

(M.M.)