AUSTRIA.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 343, 1 February 1861, Page 4

AUSTRIA.

The Austrian government has just adopted a new measure of rigour in Venetia. The Official Gazette of Venice publishes a decree ordering all fathers of families to recall their sons from abroad, even if absent for their education. The parents who shall persist in leaving their children in foreign countries will be punished with a fine of from 20 to 200 florins. The following surprising statement was made from Paris in the Morning Herald of November 23:— "The negociations for the cession of Venetia have been commenced. , A long conference took place on November 21, at the Foreign-office, on the 'subject, between M. Thouvenel, Prince Metternich, and M. de Kisseleff. There was nothing drawn up, and, in fact, the conversation, it I am correctly informed, rolled chiefly on the means by which Austria might get rid of that costly appendage with profit to herself. The inhabitants of Pesth did not receive the emperor's concession with a very hearty welcome. An illumination was proposed; it could no 2be had, because the authorities feared a riot. In fact, a mob did on the 23rd and 24th create disturbances, by attacking houses where lights appeared. The soldiers charged and roughly handled them. A letter from Vienna tells this sitory:—

Before setting out to his new post in Italy, the freedom of the city of Pesth was offered to Count Benedek by a deputation of the Town Council. The gallant general rejected the tender with these words—" I dp not care for the freedom of your city. You have had a series of most; disgraceful riots, even after the benevolent, concessions of a most gracious monarch. It cannot contribute to the honor of any one to be numbered among the citizens of such a town. I tell you what, gentlemen, you do not half know me. If ever I return to Pesth, and another occasion should arise for the military to charge your mobs, it will be a matter of -perfect indifference to me the number of the dead."

According to the latest accounts from Trieste, the Austrian government, in addition to the fortifications which it is having constructed along the coast of Venice, Croatia, Dalmatia, and other possessions in the Adriatic, has just terminated the establishment of a line of semaphoric signal stations. When all these works shall have been completed, they will be. so formidable that, in order to execute any combined offensive operation on the Venetian, and Dalmatian coasts, it would require a double •army and a double fleet, both amply provided with the most modern and most powerful means of attack.