XXIV PREFACE. 



posite of that of England. It is political, and not 

 commercial causes, which will produce her dismem- 

 berment. 



Blessed at present by a reigning family, whose 

 amiable disposition and gentleness of manners have 

 endeared it for several generations to its subjects, 

 and particularly to those of the Austrian States, 

 Austria is nevertheless without political conse- 

 quence, save by an immense army, which no one 

 can either wield or pay. Her aristocracy has been 

 destroyed by former emperors, and her court is 

 filled with powerless princes, counts and barons. 

 Five kingdoms, discordant in laws, language and 

 customs, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Styria and 

 Lombardy, each requiring a separate department 

 of government, demand a machinery so vast as to 

 be a clog and hindrance to whatever vigour exists 

 at the centre of the government of the whole. 

 This vast machinery, joined to the immense army, 

 demand a greater annual income than an im- 

 poverished people can raise. National bankrupt- 

 cies and depreciations of the currency, which are 

 robberies of the public, have taken place more 

 than once. Notwithstanding all this, the lower 

 classes are better off and happier than in almost 

 any other country in Europe. 



Rather, therefore, than hold up to Austria the 

 errors of England, in order to encourage her to re- 



