The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1916. EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH

New Zealand Times, Volume XLI, Issue 9514, 23 November 1916, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1916. EMPEROR FRANCIS JOSEPH

Tlie greatest sen the House of Hapsburg Has 'produced in its cerituty and a-half of rule is no more. Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, is dead, and a score of peoples mourn a monarch ' whoso life has been one long series of tragedy, triumph, and devotion,to the -his subjects. Sixty-eight years ago he ascended a throne around which the storms of revolution Wore. beating so menacingly that its overthrow was regarded as--near at hand; to-day he leaves two realms which have through his efforts become consolidated. His career is a notable, outstanding feature-in the modern political history of - Europe, or,. indeed, of the - world. When Francis Joseph, a youth of eighteen, came to the throne, Such, a possibility would have been scouted by the wisest men.-- The world, men' said in 1848 j was losing its belief in a monarchy. A fiery -spirit of nationalism was spreading oyer the continent; democracies were rising or groping -blindly for the reins of power. Monarchy as an institution, one writer tells us. Was looked upon as having exhausted its mandate; it could never again be the autocratic force of old. , Even in politics- it must be powerless; even if the Hapsburgs and the Sohenzollerns did not vanish from :the earth they would- survive merely as constitutional figureheads with-nothing-more than a social primacy. .This belief has been refuted by the spectacle off the Emperors Wilhelm . I. ■ and . 11. and Francis Joseph. And Francis Joseph-may he regarded as the 1 most ironically .remarkable of these answers, given by history , to the sceptics. While the battlefield gave back or strengthened monarchy’s standing in Germany,’ Francis Joseph always Suffered defeat. He stepped to the ’ throne ' With the turnloil /bf a five-cornered revolution resounding in his ears; , his position was more desperate even than might seem that of another Maximilian who would seek to sot up an empire to-day lU Mexico. ,TWo bloody Wars cost him dear in territory - Domestic peace was rare. A young and ardent Soldier, ho believed force, arid more force,' was -the remedy' for the strife that desolated his country. His re‘medy was worse- than - the- disease- in its effects; popular liberty was suppressed ; education was placed completely in the,.hands of the Church; .an unpopular alliance bet weed the sword and tho Cross was revived. The name of Francis Joseph became synonymous with bigotry, reaction, and cruel tyranny. For the first twenty years his reign -was repressive end unenlightened to a degree almost impossible 6f conception ih- this twentieth century. Yet the terrible mistakes raado by Francis Joseph at the outset oi his kingly career Were retrieved ' with success beyond parallel. The raaU who half a /entury ago was almost as one of t/ie destroying powers of darkness among tho several peoples of his empire toiled' long and patiently to disentangle the crises he had himself provoked, and with so much success that he became’ the revered friend and protector of _ .all within his dominions. Industrious, and possessing a wonderful capacity for the business of statecraft, he in the later half of his reign guided his criipiro through a transformation ■not to be found in any other country. Though be learned slowly, his- charao* ter is shown in tho fact, that he always did assimilate the lessons of bis errors. He threw off tb6 mantle of absolutism that had descended upon his shoulders; he broke_ away from the violence and the reactionary instincts to which he had- been bred-' Austria ho found a feudal State; he leaves it with tho fundamental liberties secureso far as the exigencies of such varied racial feelings will permit. Constitutional government has been granted, with universal suffrage: the Concordat (by which, in 1800, certain extraordinary powers were conferred upon i-ho Church) has been abolished, and the serf freed from subjection to the lord. Francis proved that ho had grasped tho principle of equal justice to ah races in his polyglot empire. . Mert/ternich was his political mentor; but the Austria of Metternich’s knowledge is centuries behind the Dual Monarchy of to-day. Francis

Joseph, half autocrat in a system that he would have called constitutional, raised the throne to a position so high that his people resorted to it as to a court of final appeal, confident in tho kindly justice they wou.d receive. A finer or more statesmanlike uso of tho royal office may not be possible. Amidst all tho warring of factions his scope of view grew wider and clearer, his opportunity and authority for action larger. Ripe in character and experience, he watched his empire as a whole with ©yes unblurrod by nearer disturbances. Parliaments and Cabinets have passed, in the kaleidoscope of national politics only' tho Emperor Francis Joseph endured. Great tragedies darkened his private life; yet as the years passed Francis Joseph taught himself to be moderate and impartial, thus raising himself immeasurably above the politicians of his coun try. His sorrows -brought him tho sympathy of his subjects; his scrupulous justice gained for him their implicit trust.

And noW he leaves his country facing tho greatest tragedy in history, in the shadow of which the whole world stands silent. With his own hand Francis Joseph, King-Etnperor of Austria-Hun-gary,, till lately regarded ns the guarantor of peace among the Great Powers, kindled, little more than two years ago, a blaze which threatens to dismember his Empire and to change tho political face of Europe. Realisation of the magnitude Of the; disaster thus brought about .seems to have, imposed a burden too great" td be borne, and tile fine old soldier-monarch,' who had nobly retrieved so many errors of statecraft, lays down his sceptre in the midst of an international convulsion which will go down in history as the result of the crowning mistake ot a great career.