A "CRY OF ANGUISH" FROM VENETIA.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XVII, Issue 1380, 5 March 1861, Page 3

A " CRY OF ANGUISH" FROM VENETIA.

At the very time when the Emperor of Austria is assuming an air of liberalism tow aids other departments of his Empire, he is appaiently venting his baulked passion on the lemnant of his Italian subject's. If theie is a noble family in, Venice which has striven to keep together in seclusion the heieditary treasures in the antique horne — such a family ia now selected for spoliation The Prince or the Count has a notice — • such a notice* as no man dares, neglect — to leave his palace in three days, and yield it up to the mihtaiy authorities. With mournful huriy the moveable tieasures are cairied away, and befoie three days are over the long shut windows and doors are standing wide, and the gieat empty halls echo to the tread. In a few hours more they echo to something else The Austrians have picked out the cherished mosaics and smoked the fiescoes; and, as theybieak down the carvings of stone for seats, and those of wood foi fnes, theie are eyes watching them from ovei the way which they be glad not to meet abroad. The officeis make couches of embroidered hangings of aucient fabric as if they were common mattresses, and the men wash out then saucepans and hang out their rags to diy on the maible balconies. The gondoliers, instead of conveying the citizens, and teeing into the whole life of their city, now have for their fares only the hated Austrian and the passing stranger If you look upon the Giand Canal from morning till night of the sunniest October dj,y, you see no gondola that does not cany a uniform or an unmistakeable tourist The residents never stir abroad, nor taste the air while within view of the enemy. They dare not meet then friends, and have no coinage to encounter an Austrian in e\ery third pel son they pass The doors and windows are closed, their balconies are deseited, and they do what they can to make their houses appear deserted Not a note of music is heard except the mihtaiy bands of the Germans , and the people get out of healing of that with all speed. With the first btiain of the band befoio St. Mark's shops and windows are closed, and the square is cleaied of all Italians The pecuhai Venice boating is either funeieal or very gay in aspect It is funeieal now that no gondolier hums au an, and nobody they know goes to the theatre, 01 attends any festival , and there is no shopping or visiting, or ciuisnig about for love of sunshine and blue sky Theie is no pleasure on the laguncs now that every island and shoal is gloomy with fortifications, whence sentinels aie watching eveiy skiff. The shopkeepers have nothing to sell They say, "In a little while " Everybody says to tiusted. Englishmen, "In a little while " The townspeople in Padua and Verona say, like the icmnant left in Venice, "In a htttle while." The countiy people say so, when the bairenne&s of then fields is lemaiked The few professional men say so when fiom duty going about among their patients and clients, awaie of being dogged by spies at every step Thotradei bays so on receiving his letters open, or learning that there aie otheis which, have nevei leached him All oiders of Venetians say so, when paying then last cisli to the taxgatheier, or seeing then stock in ti ade 01 furniture seized because they have no money left The hungry tiy to say it, when speculating on how to get anothei meal for then childien The heart bioken say it in dying, in sympathy with those who suivive them The wives stiugglo to believe m it, when then husbands have disappeaied, anrl have been reported o£ as seen in irons, depoited to a German foitress Paients say it when left alone in their old age Then sons ha^e eithei escaped to Cioldmi or Garibaldi, 01 aie tlnust mto a German legiment as private sokheis, and sent to fight against Liberty, " In a little while," say all these suftereis, when they daio speak , and if they do not say it, they mean it the moie. But with it they cannot help sighing, "How long 1 o Lord • how long ' A new toitiue is now invented for tho°e to whom the pain of family dispersions had become a privilege m comparison with a woise trouble The Venetian youths who are with the Italian armies, or bieathmg free air in the libeiated cities beyond the fiontiei, !>'c made wretched by their parents being punished for then escape Fines, so heavy as to be impracticable, are imposed on the families of young men who do not answ er the summons of the Austrian conscnption, and when the absolute inability to pay is a=ceitamed, the amount is loweied to the point which it is supposed will piecisely exhaust the means of the victim Thus the patent* pay in privation for then c ons' fieedom And j just now anothei stioke has been announced. The I " Official Gazette" of Venice lias published a deciee by which all paients aie lequned to bung home then sons fiom college and school, as well as fioin other destinations abioad, uudei penalties of fines. Thus is even education to be kept undei Austiian mle The option is between the rum of the childien's minds or the parent's affj.ua What moie can the oppressoi do to a people who aie robbed, mined, nibultcd, unpiiboned, banished, heaitwiung in then affections toivaids kindled and country ' Is there yet anothei step to be ventured in the way of exaspeiation ? If the Empeioi has any friends, will they not tell him how he stands t What can be expected from a people so tieated ' And what can shield any oppiessor from such vengeance as then wrongs stn up 2 A yet moie piessmg question is, how long this unbeatable state of things is to go on "In a little while" the sufferers expect relief In one foim or anothei they will have it Let those who aie face to face with tho Empeior bee that something is done soon to relieve him of a lelationship which makes his name odious in eveiv free countiy. As he can haidly leain to love and tmst his Venetian subjects, let him be induced to pai t with them on some teims or othei. If he does not, out issue is clear Strong as is the military foice, and weak as aie his victims under then long toiment, he will rue his possession of them " m a little while."- — Daily Ncvb.