The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-20 00:00:00

id

()MEM 20, 1855.

satisfactory evidence of an awakening spirit in the
better classes of the people, it leaves it to the future
to show in what direction these rising energies will
be exerted. Count Schwerin has been elected five
times, Herr Von Patow, Herr Otto, and Herr Rhodew,
each three times; and seven others, among whom is
the Minister of Finance, have been elected twice.
Looking solely to the known principles of such mem-
bers of the former Chambers as have been elected
on this occasion, it would appear that the future
House of Deputies will be split up into fewer so-
called " fractions" than has hitherto been the case;
the main divisions of the Right side and the Left,
which are styled respectively Conservative and Liberal,
but which are, in fact, Reactionary and Conserva-
tive, will for the future form the sole hostile camps.
The fractions that formerly took up middle ground
between these two camps have lost most of their ad-
herents ; thus, the Carl fraction (an intermediate
between the extreme Right and the Right) brings in
only eight out of twenty of its members ; the Beth-
mann•Hollweg party, whose ground was between the
Right and the Centre, has brought in only eleven out
of thirty-three. It has been mainly against this party
that the machinations of Government officials have
been directed—its little band containing exclusively
men of talent, respectability, and fitness for office, to
which also they openly aspire. The so-called Wilden,
or savages (members who have not attached them-
selves to any fraction), have only brought in twenty-
one out of fifty-eight, while the Polish fraction, which
was always shilly-shallying between its duties to the
Catholic Church, its fealty to the Prussian throne,
and its leaning to its own nationality, has procured
six out of eleven to be re-elected. The yet outstand-
ing returns of elections that have already taken place,
and the supplementary elections that will have to take
place, where various districts have elected the same
man, will, doubtless, somewhat vary the figures already
obtained, but the main features will remain unaltered.
The Right side has brought in forty-nine out of
eighty-five of its former members, the Left side
twenty-nine out of fifty-seven ; the Catholics, how-
ever, have succeeded with forty-three out of fifty-
three of their former strength, and the extreme Right,
the Gerlach party, has only lost two out of twenty-
four. However satisfactory the awakening spirit
may be, and the earnestness that has led to the re-
jection of men who have taken up undefinable inter-
mediate positions, it is already put beyond doubt that
the future House of Deputies will be Conservative in
its majority. Of those already elected there are six
Ministers, seventy-three Landriithe or high sheriffs,
twenty-two other officials of the Government, four
military officers, thirteen procureure du Roi, forty
judicial persons, five counsel, eighteen bailiffs, twenty-
one clergymen and clerical persons, five professors
and physicians, twelve retired military officers, six-
teen retired civil employes„ ninety landowners and
farmers, twelve manufacturers and men engaged in
trade, &c. The first ten of the above categories con-
tain men directly or indirectly in the service of the
State, and compose two hundred out of the enti:e
number of 350 ; the first five, however, which con-
tain the Ministers and exclusively officials in active
service, men under the ferula of discipline, compose
one-third of the whole. With the exception of about
ninety, all the provincial elections are now known;
but the difficulty Worming an opinion on the proba-
ble constitution of the future Chamber is increased
by the circumstance that of the 280 elections pub-
lished 121 are of men as yet unknown to parlia-
mentary lire. The general opinion seems to be that
the result can hardly be other than a great gain for
the liberal cause, it not being in the slightest degree
probable that of the remaining ninety elections,
chiefly in the Rhine provinces and Westphalia, any
additional superiority will be gained by the Right
side. The Catholics have almost to a man sided with
the Liberals, who, it must be borne in mind, are the
real Conservatives, whilst the other party, who have
arrogated to themselves this denomination, are the
real disturbers of the constitutution in a retrograde
sense.
AUSTRIA AND GERMANY.
The Vienna papers have been filled with articles
upon the new financial measures of the Government.
Baron Bruck has been in attendance on the Em-
peror at Ischl to obtain a settlement of the Credit
Mobilier, but nothing definite has yet been pub-
lished.
The text of the concordat recently concluded be-
tweeh the Pope and Austria has appeared in the
Oazeita di Venezia. It &obtains twenty six articles,
which more or less seriously, interrere with or abolish
the rights and privileges of the Austrian Crown.