Mr. Seward to Mr. Motley
Sir: The despatch which you addressed to Mr. Hunter on the 29th of June, No. 111, was duly received, and the very suggestive parallel between the Austrian financial situation and that of the United States deserves especial acknowledgment and appreciation. It is, however, hardly necessary for me to mention how uncertain any continuing foothold in the department has been rendered for me during the summer, by ill health and other casualties. It seems to me that the encouraging view which you take of our fiscal prospect is quite correct. We have been able already, since the capitulation of the rebels, to disband, pay and discharge a force of eight hundred thousand men. We still retain a force believed to be adequate for any domestic or foreign exigency that can be reasonably apprehended. But this force is far less than the standing army which Austria maintains in time of peace. It surprises many, of our countrymen that thus far no great financial reaction has resulted from the sudden change we have made from civil war to what, as yet, continues to be profound peace. While political economy is so very imperfectly understood as a science, prudence in regard to expenditures is very obvious policy.
Like yourself, I find it difficult to conceive how Austria is effectually to reorganize her financial system, and yet at the same time reduce the large military force upon which she depends for securing the integrity of the empire. But, in this respect, her situation differs only in degree from that of other transatlantic [Page 39] powers; it seems probable that the whole system of armed independence, which prevails throughout the European continent, must at no distant day receive a shock which may open the way for beneficent modification of government.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
J. Lothrop Motley, Esq., &c., &c., &c., Vienna.