as come into existence such as she has never been accustomed to
deal with, and of which her statesmen have no knowledge. An Austrian
statesman is scarcely more advanced than a Frenchman of the time of
Louis Quatorze; and we verily believe that Louvois or Torcy would be
quite as much at home in European politics at this moment as Mensdorff
or Belcredi. Had they been well informed as to the condition of the
times, they never would have so acted as to bring about the late war. It
was their reliance on the ability of mere governments to settle every
question in dispute, that caused them to plunge into a conflict with
Prussia and Italy, when their master's empire was bankrupt, and when
more or less of discontent existed in almost every part of that empire.
Statesmen who knew the age, and who were aware of the change that has
come over Europe in half a century, would have told the Emperor that to
rely on "something turning up," after the ancient Austrian custom, would
not answer in 1866, and that peoples as well as princes had much to do
with the ordering of every nation's policy; and with every people
Austria is unpopular. It is not difficult now to understand that Francis
Joseph had a profound reliance on Napoleon III., that he believed the
Frenchman would prevent his being driven to the wall, and that Prussia
would be the greatest sufferer by the war, as she would be forced to
part with the Rhine provinces. His mistake with respect to France was
not a great one, as the French saw the triumph of Prussia with much
bitterness of feeling, and gladly would have joined the Austrians; but
the mistake he made in regard to Germany was very great, and shows that
he and his advisers knew nothing of Germanic feeling. If they could thus
err on a point that was plain to every intelligent foreigner, how can we
expect them to exhibit more intelligence and more sense with respect to
the new state of things proceeding from the event of the war? If they
could not comprehend matters of fact at the beginning of last June, why
should we conclude that they will be Solomons hereafter? Brought face to
face with a new state of things, they so proceeded as to convince all
impartial observers that they were wellnigh as ignorant of what had been
going on among men, as the Seven Sleepers were when roused from their
long slumber. But for this, unless we assume that they were fools, not
only would they not have admitted war to be possible, but they never
w