AUSTRIAN EMPIRE. 



259 



Still, as the finer feelings in an enlightened nation 

 are spread through a wider circle of its population, 

 and many things are for them oppressive of which 

 a less cultivated people would scarcely be sensible, 

 there can be no doubt that the invincible hostility 

 they bear to their present rulers is not without 

 foundation. The repressing character of the 

 Austrian sway, under which mediocrity makes the 

 greatest progress, while talent and energy are looked 

 upon as two disturbers of the public peace which 

 cannot be subjected to sufficient control, is little 

 suited to the tastes of an ardent people, among 

 whom democratic ideas have descended as a legacy 

 from the flourishing days of their state. Many 

 concessions have been made by the Austrians, in 

 order to conciliate the inhabitants, especially of the 

 cities, where the direct taxes upon industry are 

 much lower than in the provinces northward of 

 the Alps ; but the same system of innumerable 

 bureaux, and the same destructive institutions of 

 monopoly, weary out the aspiring spirit, and cramp 

 the nerves of enterprize. Yet the Italian provinces 

 must be reckoned among those whose subordination 

 depends upon the. presence of an imposing military 

 force ; and, to the skill with which the government 

 subdues the discontented of one province by the 

 power it borrows from another not much less dis- 

 satisfied, it is indebted for the effective subjection 

 in which all are retained. But an armed force, of 

 even more approved reliance than Austria could 

 muster, would never have succeeded so completely 

 in establishing the power of the government in a 

 manner which renders all thoughts of resistance 

 so hopeless that they are abandoned on all sides. 

 Much subtler, though, as it would appear, more 

 expensive, checks on the ebullitions of popular 

 spirit have been forged, the tendency of which is 

 for the present to tame the refractory by present- 

 ing innumerable obstacles to every attempt at inno- 

 vation, and eventually to destroy all dangerous 

 ergies so timely, by means of early training, that 

 e task of governing shall be rendered easy, and 

 constraint robbed of its bitterness. 



The undisputed sovereignty of the emperor in 

 every province is the first demand upon the subject, 

 and, as the royal person is multiplied in each by 

 thousands of representatives, the duty of submis- 

 sive respect is one of those most frequently called 

 into practice. It is part of the plan of govern- 

 ment, in every German state, to employ one half 

 of the nation to govern the other; and the pater- 

 nal care of the sovereign is studious to prevent 

 the number of employes, who live at the expense, 

 and, as they doubtless imagine, for the benefit of 

 their fellow-subjects, from being diminished. The 

 Austrian state Sckematismus presents a list of up- 

 wards of 25,000 individuals bearing appointments 

 in civil offices, and the number of those whose ap- 

 pointmenrs are either of too low a rank, or of 

 too secret a nature, to be introduced in company 

 with the first men of the country, may amount to 

 ;ij many more. Let us imagine these civil officers, 

 dependent solely on the crown, dispersed through 

 a nation which contains so many jarring elements, 

 that it unfortunately seems to be a matter primo 

 loco decided, that much loyalty cannot be ex- 

 pected ; let us follow each of these gentlemen as 

 he enters into society, anticipating defection in all 

 out of office, and necessarily disposed to vindicate 

 the authority that lends him consequence ; let us 

 add to these the number of 13,000 officers and non- 

 commissioned officers of the staff and commissariat 



department, all of whom are likewise to be found 

 within the empire, at the head of an army, which 

 on the peace establishment amounts to 270,000 

 men, and we shall see that the government has 

 monopolized, by means of these individuals and 

 their families, a powerful number of defenders in 

 every social circle. When we add that the secrecy 

 observed in all transactions, especially, however, 

 in the administration of justice, screens every 

 individual from the share of responsibility which 

 every public officer ought to incur towards the 

 public, some idea may be formed of the fearful 

 power thus created, and of the abuses to which it 

 must be subject. If we conclude these officials, 

 civil and military, to require a rather superior de- 

 gree of education to enable them to fulfil their 

 respective functions, it must be evident that an 

 immense mass of talent is abstracted from the mid- 

 dle classes of the nation, which, in the pursuit of 

 science, agriculture, commerce, or the fine arts, 

 could not be otherwise than productive of the 

 greatest benefits. The nature of their employ- 

 ments in the bureaux is no where of a tendency to 

 encourage a serious cultivation of any of the above- 

 mentioned useful sciences in the employes ; while 

 on the public they may be said to operate in a 

 directly prejudicial manner, as no individual can 

 take a step of the slightest importance in life or 

 business, without requiring the sanction of some 

 of these government officers, and finding no small 

 difficulty in procuring permission to become an in- 

 dustrious member of society. 



This leads to another grand source of influence 

 to the government, the system of monoply in 

 trade. A fact that the history of the last fifty 

 years has sufficiently proved, is that popular tumults 

 seldom originate amongst the peasantry of a coun- 

 try, and that the great problem of internal police 

 is to keep the inhabitants of the towns satisfied 

 and tranquil. To this end every city in Austria, 

 beginning with the metropolis, is allowed to grant 

 the freedom of trade to only a limited number of 

 individuals, so that the mere fact of an apprentice 

 having served his time by no means warrants his 

 setting up in business. Strangers, who come into 

 a city, must either show that they are provided 

 with means of support, or that they can procure 

 employment, otherwise they are at once expelled. 

 In return for this privilege of exemption from 

 much competition, the merchant, tradesman, &c., 

 pays a tax of no trifling amount, bearing the candid 

 designation of earnings-tax. In this manner the 

 whole industrial class in Austria, being in some 

 measure dependent on the government, which na- 

 turally has it in its power to introduce a system 

 of competition at will, and not dissatisfied with a 

 state of things which assures to it a certain com- 

 petence apparently on easy terms, is gained for the 

 present system. It does not seem that any exact 

 compact exists between the trading classes and the 

 state as to the number of privileged individuals in 

 every branch ; the butchers, however, form an ex- 

 ception, their number being fixed. This immunity 

 is purchased by an extra tax called the slaughtering 

 tax. Merchants and bankers are kept from in- 

 creasing in number by its being necessary to show 

 a certain amount of capital as a qualification for 

 the permission to enter into trade. Whatever 

 inconveniences arise from such a municipal system, 

 and that they are not few in number will easily be 

 supposed, are thoiifht to be fully compensated for 

 by the tranquillity which is stated to reign through* 



