Punch (37.1859)

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [July 30, 1359.

CRICKET-CAPITAL PRACTICE FOR THE ROUND BOWLING OF THE PERIOD.

FRAN CIS- J OSEPIi THE GREEN.

Hope appears to Lave told the Emperor or Austria a flattering
tale. In his late manifesto, that Imperial young man, after having
expressed himself as “ bitterly deceived ” in his “ well-founded hopes ”
that—the late contest not having been entered into for the defence of
the rights of Austria only—he was not going to be “ left alone in it,”
proceeds to say

“ In spite of the ardent sympathy, worthy of acknowledgment, which the justice
of our cause has inspired, for the most part, in the journals and peoples of Germany,
our national allies, our most ancient allies, have obstinately refused to recognise the
great importance of the grand question of the day. Consequently Austria would
have been obliged all alone to face the events which were being prepared for, and
which every day might have rendered more grave.”

He seems really to have imagined that not only Prussia, but even
England also, would take up arms, and actually lay down money, to
support his cause, that cause being, in addition to the Austrian des-
potism, the papal tyranny. He fancied that we, even we, would be
sure to fight for that crown in which the brightest jewel is the Con-
cordat—black diamond! What can he have been thinking of, what
can he have been dreaming of? Has he not heard the British Lion,
any time these seven years, roaring “No Popery ” ?—has he not seen
the^ writing on the wall ? Alas, no! Civilisation has yet to chalk
“ No Popery” on the walls of Vienna. Will Europe have peace till
it is inscribed on those of the Vatican?

This imperial youth is a remarkably ingenuous one. Witness the
following passage from the document above quoted. A confession
more artless was never made by a penitent schoolboy -

“The honour of Austria coming intact out of this war, thanks to the heroic efforts
of her valiant army, I have resolved, yielding to political considerations, to make
a sacrifice for the re-establishment of peace, and to accept the preliminaries which
ought to lead to its conclusion ; for I have acquired the conviction that I should
obtain, in any event, conditions less unfavourable in coming to a direct under-
standing with the Emperor of the French, without the blending of any third
party whatsoever, than in causing to participate in the negotiations the three great j
powers which have taken no part in the struggle.”

Experience has instructed the juvenile ruler. He has acquired the
conviction—perhaps it has been beaten into him—that he would gain

better terms for himself and his Concordat, from Louis Napoleon,
who wears, or fears that he wears, his crown partly by favour of
ldoman Catholic priests, than any that he could expect from Russia,.
Prussia, and England; powers which agree in disowning the Pope : j

the last-named one of them considering him spiritually a humbug and
temporally a tyrant, and wishing that everybody would renounce his
authority altogether, or that he would go to Jericho.

However, the Emperor of Austria has at last found out the
mistake which lie had the wonderful greenness to make—under the
misguidance probably of Jesuits, who were older and ought to have
known better. He may get wiser as lie gets bigger—unfinished,
perhaps, at present, in the upper storey. Some sign of amendment in
him may be spied in the resolution, which his manifesto declares him
to have formed, to improve the shining hour of peace by devoting all
his attention and solicitude to a certain “fruitful task” which he
proposes to accomplish :—

‘ That is to say, to found in a durable manner the internal well-being, and tha
external power of Austria by the happy development of her moral and material
forces, and by ameliorations conformable to the spirit of the time.”

Ah—that’s something like! as the Hampshire agriculturist at a
public dinner said, when he had put sugar into his Hock. _ Ameliora-
tions conformable to the spirit of the time ? Representative institu-
tions—ecclesiastical tribunals ignored by law—perhaps a Court of
Probate and Divorce established, together with some approach to the
liberty of unlicensed printing. Then we shall get on. Then will j
invigorated Austria flourish, and Erancis-Joseph the Green acquire ji
a name which Posterity will call Evergreen.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

“A Kean Banqueteer” is informed that there really was a Mr.
Macready who, some years ago, produced, both at Covent Garden
j and Drury Lame, the plays of Shakspeare and others, with every
! necessary accessory of scenery and costume. Mr. C. Kean was not
! born at the time, and therefore no reference was made to his once
celebrated predecessor on the night of the “Banquet.”