ring the long peace that followed 1815, have made of Austria a
state as powerful in fact as the world believed her to be. Nothing could
have been easier, as her undeveloped resources ever have been vast; but
they did nothing of the kind, their sole aim being to get over the
present, without any regard for the future. Hermayr says of Thugut, who
was chief Austrian minister in the closing years of the last century,
that "his policy knew neither virtue nor vice, only expedients"; and
these words describe the policy of Metternich completely, and, with
perhaps a little modification, they describe that of all his successors.
So that when the Prussian war came, Austria was in the same state that
she was in 1809,--seemingly very strong, actually very weak; and she
fell in a month, with a great ruin, much to the astonishment of almost
all men. But the difference between 1809 and 1866 is this,--that the
light let into Austria through chinks made by the Prussian bayonet will
prevent the game of deception from being renewed.

It is assumed by most persons, that the house of Austria has at last
reached the turn of its fortunes, and that, having been beaten down by
Prussia, it never will be able to rise again. This is the reaction
against the sentiment that prevailed so generally at the beginning of
last summer, just before the first blood was drawn in that war which
proved so disastrous to Austria. In America, as in England, not only was
it assumed that the Austrians had the better cause, but that the better
chances of success were clearly with them. Black and yellow would
distance black and white, and the two-headed eagle would tear and rend
the single-headed eagle, thus affording another proof that two heads are
better than one. Now, all is changed. In England, opinion is setting
almost as strongly Prussiaward as it did in 1815, though the Prussians
and the Prussian government have made no apologies for those ungracious
acts against Englishmen which it was the fashion to cite as evidence of
the dislike borne to the islanders by the countrymen of Bismarck.
Captain Heehaw, of the Coldstreams, who thought--really, 'pon
honor--that the Prussians would not be able to look half their number of
Austrians in the face, has wheeled about, converted by the fast flashes
of the needle-gun; and the gallant Captain, who would fight like an
Achilles should opportunity offer, is a fair type of his fellows. There
is a complete change of front. The E