AUSTRIAN EMPEROR'S JUBILEE

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 10015, 4 December 1908, Page 1

AUSTRIAN EMPEROR'S JUBILEE

[TiT ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.—Coi'YRIGHT.] (Per Tress Association.) .Received December 4, at 8 a.m. Vienna, December 3. The joyous celebrations at the Emperor Fraijz Josel's jubilee were overclouded by the fast that four persons were killed and 106 injured while witnessing the illuminations. The Emperor's grandchildren gave a fairy play at Sclioenbrimn Oastiie. After Mass at the Cathedral the Emperor received the congratulations of the prince.;, ambassadors, and officials, and' finally a brilliant performance was given in the Opera House. A WONDERFUL RlilUN. Comparing the two marvellously contrasted aspects of history united by these three-score years, it is dillieult lor any imagination" to realise Hilly the sigmncance of a reign like that ol tlie Kmueror Fran/ Josef. Isothutg in European or other annals in any wise resemoles it, writes the -Morning Post, in prolound or original interest. The experiences oi tniu long perod, well-nigh spanning t«u generations, must count among tue _ precedents rather than the repetitions of history. . in March of 1848 the populace of \ leima, headed bv students, rose in open rebellion. Milau led the uprising in Luinbardy; Venice within her sea cincture became a citadel of revolt; Trague made itself the centre of a Pan-Slav crusaoe. Lnder Kossuth the "rious of Arpad sprang to arms. Jellachich, the t,an o Croatia, raised an army of Slavs, and struck into the heart ol Hungary against the Magvars. Civil war was raged throughout the Empire. Rebellious \ lenna was stormed by an Imperial army. Less than a mouth alter this terrible prelude Ferdinand 1. had at last been persuaded to abdicate, and Franz Josef became sovereign of the people who now idolise him. In the whole of human history there are few examples of a reign beginning amid darker or stranger circumstances. One of the most remarkable characteristics of the venerable sovereign who has now been nearly three-score years upon the throne is his prodigious memory. He never forgets a face, and hardly ever a fact. His experience in dealing witn men, and his accumulated stores of detailed knowledge are worth more than the counsels of all his Ministers put together; and when he looks back, what a Pisgah-sight of contemporary history is embraced in his personal retrospect ! i'he first shot fired in the insurrection at Prague killed the Governor's wife, the Princess W.indischgratz, in her own apartment. While . she lay dead, Prime Windischgratz addressed the mob in front of his house with superb sell-command; but he was seized in blind fury, and would have been hung at the next lamppost but for the arrival of a rescue party of grenadiers. A little later came the ghastly murder in Vienna of Latour, the Minister for War. The national risings in Italy were swiftly trampled out, but. '"in. Hungary the desperate brilliancy of the Mao-'-ar campaign prolonged the struggle for many months after the accession of Franz Josef, and not until Russia had poured 150.000 men through the Carpathians was a quiet as of death restored These opening episodes are often forgotten. We recall them because they throw into full relief the whole magnitude of the work of pacification and healing which has been accomplished in the interval. The young sovereign, whose name was held at the outset to the execration of all ai'es bv democrats throughout tne world, has lived to introduce universal suffrage upon his own initiative, and to base the Hapsbur- Throne at last upon the loyalty, of his peoples. All the races are.aware that for the integrity of the uanuoian Empire there is no imaginable substitute,a:id that its dissolution would be the greatest political disaster, not only to the ctevoted Austrian Catholics represented with intemperate zeal,by Dr Lucger, but to the Magvars, Czechs, and Poles. But nothing in connection with the opening oi Franz Josef's sixtieth year upon the throne is so interesting as to compare with the fortunate situation of to-day the words with -which he opened his reign. In that moment of blood and tumult, the concluding passage of Ins first proclamation was as follows :-vTeopU> of Austriait is an awful time in which we mount the throne of our fathers. Oreat are the duties of our office; great is its responsibility. May God protect us." A thou"sand times that aspiration has been oreatued by the Emperor-King in the profound and sincere piety of his heart, and alter blow upon blow, sorrow upon sorrow, Providence moving in its own way, has hoard that prayer at last in spite ot all.