Excerpt from Austria and Its Policy: A Lecture, Delivered at Astoaria, N. January 21st, 1853

Emperor, that of any other monarch of the world. Its aggregate of men' in nations, presents a population of about forty millions, over an area of two hundred and fifty thousand square miles. Its name, Austria - has sometimes been derived from the barbarous tribes of the Avars - who held their ground on the Danube against the Roman legions, and were only subdued by Charlemagne in the eighth century; but it is equally probable that the name is derived from the German Oesterreich, or the Latin Auster, the kingdom of the East or South given to it on the conquest by Charlemagne, and his successors and by which name it first appeared in the world of kingdoms in the year 996, under the title of Margraviate of Austria; being the present hereditary archduchy of Austria, of which Vienna is the capital and centre. Suabian and Bavarian families who colonized the country, introduced the first germs of civilization, and the territory, though limited in extent, (scarce one hundred miles in length along the Danube, ) formed the nucleus, around which, during the lapse of centuries, there have been gathered sixteen great states, besides nume rous small principalities, inhabited by four of the seven different races of Europe, among whom are spoken twelve distinct languages, and count less dialects, and between whom the only bond of union has been the sway of a common sovereign. What were the different countries that formed this empire, the period, and manner of their acquisition, in the brief limits of a lecture, I can hardly be expected fully to describe. But in order to afford a summary view it is convenient to divide its history by that great modern era - the Congress of Vienna - that august gather ing of kings in 1814 and the following years whose influence upon Aus tria and upon Europe seems immortal. With a few words on its prior history, we will turn to the conventions of those memorable congresses, as its outline of modern history and the sources of the strength of many of its institutions.

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