The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-19 00:00:00

L'EMPEREUR ET LA PRUSSE.

THIS is the' age of pamphlets. If the French
press has been deprived of the birthright of
liberty, it has had conferred upon it the honour-
able task of expounding the destinies of. Europe.
A pamphlet has become a necessary prelude :to
the enactment of every great French scheme for
the regeneration of corrupt governments and the
salvation of oppressed nationalities. The Dicta-
tor of Europe never acts until the programme of
his performance has been set in type, and duly
printed and published. The imprimatur may not
bear the real author's name ; but that is a trifling
matter of detail arranged to suit imperial
convenience, and deceives nobody. When
the name of M. DE LA GUERRONIERE or of M.
EDMOND ABOUT is appended to one of these pro-
ductions, we all know the oracle by whom they are
inspired. The "Pamphlet" has become a French
institution. It serves the purpose of the Chorus of
the ancient Greek stage, and supplies information
that is requisite to make plain to all spectators the
actionsand intentions of the principal performers.
The famous "Le Pape et le Congres " was the
programme of the Italian play. " L'Empereur
et la Prusse," without the shadow of a doubt, is
an authentic explanation of the new Napoleonic
drama which we have just seen opened. We
have been wont to hear a great deal about Louis
NAPOLEON'S inscrutability. He has been pro-
nounced an impenetrable mystery ; and, if he but
nod, wink, or bend his body, the act must be
carefully scanned and amply discussed in the vain
hope that, perchance, some profound meaning is
to be extracted from the most insignificant move-
ment of so great and yet so inexplicable a personage.
If we will but " read, mark, learn, and inwardly
digest" the latest pamphlet we shall find that
there is no mystery whatever about the plans or
intentions of Louis NAPOLEON. M. ABOUT
has been employed to set them forth so plainly
that all who run may read. To affect further
blindness to, or ignorance of, French imperial
designs on Germany and the Rhine would now
be little short of crime. Let us hear no more of
doubts and difficulties as to Louts NAPOLEON'S
views. He has taken the best means of enlight-
ening us. Let us avail ourselves of them, and
act according. Hesitation were folly ; the path
is clear ; and action, prompt, decisive, and well
aimed, is our only remaining duty. It is a part
of the high destiny of England that, from her
wide dominion and universal interests, she canno

be indifferent to the concerns of any State—
certainly not to those which affect Germany and
the peace of Continental Europe.
"L'Eatpereur et la Prusse" has already pro-
duced a profound sensation in France, and there
can be no doubt that it will create an equal

amount of excitement in Germany and England

GARIBALDI, and the wretched Bourbon, are no
longer the paramount topics of European inte-

Sicily _ ha; been dethroned, and the

" Rhine
of frontier" has. taken the uppermost
interest, in the public mind. The inter-
view at Baden-Baden has eclipsed the capture of
place
Palermo. There is nothing now so much talked
of as M. ABOUT's remarkable pamphlet, the
faithful exponent of the object of that memora-
ble mission. It opens with an elaborate attempt
to flatter the German nation. The great wars of
the first empire have left no rancorous feelings
in the bosom of France and the EMperor. France
confesses an adoration of German philosophy,
literature, poetry, and music. In French esti-

mation, the masters of, these departments reign
unrivalled. The French people have all, for the
mass of the people of Germany, an affection founded
upon esteem. Do we not know that German hood
flows in the veins of the French people ? France
desires to manifest her love for Germany, not in

- -
words, but by acts. Have we not seen her gis-
interested love for Turkey and its Christian popula-
tion; her unaided deliverance of the Moldavians 'and
Wallachians ; her liberation of Italy. Faithful to
her generous traditions, France will sacrifice her

private susceptibilities to the general welfare and

for a peaceful future; for European order will not be

firmly established Until the day% which there shall
be neither nationalities oppressed nor kings insup-
portable to their Subjects'. France groans in sym-
path&ithVerrnany in her preVnt abnormal state
is'inte a 10.41orable multitude
of govornments. 'E veiything in.thai great nation
which should be homogeneoua laeing unlike and
discordant, she sighs, like Italy, for unity and
centralisation. Can France help deploring the
unavailing efforts of that noble nation•tO assert
her united greatness, thwarted as these have been
by the now imbecile King of Prussia ? Then let
Germany be re-united ; France has no more ardent
or dearer wish, for she loves the German nation
with disinterested love..
Whom does France elect as her chosen instru-
ment for the accomplishment of so grand an
object as the regeneration of Germany ? Under
the influence of such generous affection, she can
only choose disinterestedly the agent most likely
to be successful. Is not Austria moth-eaten—a
piece of artificial patchwork 'under the patronage
of Rome, and an object of disgust to the mass of
the German people ? Could there be any better
proof of the indifference of Germany to the des-
tinies of Austria than their neutrality in the cam-
paign of 1859, when Austria was fighting single-
handed in Italy against France and Piedmont ?
On the other hand, is not Prussia the greatest of
Germanic monarchies ? Is not the Prince Regent
adored ? In him, has not German unity found its
centre and rallying point ? If he will only con-
sent to play in Germany, the part of VICTOR EM-
MANUEL in Italy, will not all Germany flock around
him? Could diplomacy raise any objection to the in-
ternal reform of the Germanic nation ? The people
of Germany love Prussia, and so does France ! The
granting of a few liberties, the manifestation of
a few good intentions, a certain resistance opposed
to the squirearchy; nothing more is wanting, the
national impulse contributing its aid, to place
this Prince on a pedestal.
But his Royal Highness the PRINCE of PRUSSIA
would make a dangerous mistake were he to
suppose that the national movement is powerful
enough to dispense with any assistance. Prussia
to succeed must become democratic, like France,
and adopt the principle of Universal Suffrage.
If the PRINCE REGENT entertains the noble
ambition of reigning legitimately over the whole
of Germany, let him begin by recalling those
exiles whose only crime was to have proclaimed
the will of the nation at the dictation of Universal
Suffrage. Let him do still better. Let him be
the testamentary executor of the Parliament of
1849, as• the NAPOLEONS are the testamentary
executors of the French revolution !
Is France then such a model of freedom and
independence that she is entitled to tempt the
liberty-loving, free-thinking, and out-spoken
Germans to follow her counsel ? Oh, yes ! It is
a mere ill-informed fancy that the French nation is
reduced to slavery. Louis NAPOLEON'S unlimited
power is exercised in virtue of the universal
suffrage of the people. Do not the French already
enjoy more substantial freedom than the Prussians ?
It maybe true that the French army is very devoted
to the EMPEROR, but does not the Prussian army
belong, not to the people, but to the KING ?
Liberty of opinion may have been suppressed in
France while it is free in Prussia. But does not
the difference consist in the Trench people having
voluntarily ceded or lent their liberty to the
EMPEROR, while the Prussians only borrow
theirs from the PRINCE OF PRUSSIA. If any one
shall insinuate that France has been cheated out of
parliamentary institutions, is it not enough to
state that the Corps Leg islaqf is elected by
universal suffrage, like the Emperor himself ?
The Prussian Constitution not yet having;reached
this degree of perfection, it is clearly the preroga-
tive of France to tell her that it will be wise to
modify it if it is desired that the Germans should
throw themselves into the arms of Prussia.
If affectionate sympathy and righteous example
will not induce Prussia to awaken to a sense of
her duty, and to recognise her high calling, there
are reasons which may force France to use
stronger arguments for her conversion. The
violence of the German press is not, such as
France would tolerate; and the threats directly
addressed to France by political men in Prussia,
in a constituent assembly, are scarcely endurable.
Then again German
.publicists, perhaps even
princes themselves, will have it that the Emperor
harbours the design of annexing the Rhenish pro-
vinces, and encroaching upon the soil of Germany.
It is certain, says Lotus NAPOLEON, remon-
stratingly, to Prussia, that, if you address in the
public street the meekest and most harmless indi-
vidual in the world and say—" Sir, you wish to
give me a slap in the face ; don't attempt to deny
it ; I know that you wish to give me a slap in the
face. Don't swear ; I wouldn't believe your oath;
you want to give me a slap in the face, but I am
stronger than you are ; I am not in the least afraid
of you. I would crush you like a worm, and I dare
you to give me that slap of the face;" the meekest
and
.most inoffensive man in the world would in
the end find excellent reasons for giving what he
is asked for, and his hand would spontaneously
fall on the cheek of the man who had provoked
him. But, of course, we know that even " the
meekest and most inoffensive man in the world "
is as nothing compared with LOUIS NAPOLEON.
He is not to be so provoked; natural frontiers are
atihlitnhkOswaantdercsoauyis.setlsiialti
Europe
are frontiersunaottuhrinalgtohim ; h
and eare not worth, for the defence of his territory,' a
stream of Zouaves and foot chasseurs with levelled
bayonets.. This is your mild, peace-loving Emperor!
But above and beyond all this, Prussia has per-
mitted the existence of an evil conspiracy that
has endangered the life of the Emperor and the
peace of Europe, with the knoWledge, and under
the auspices, of a repulsive bureaucracy, the
memory of which can only be effaced by an entire

reformation of the present state of matters. A
certain Prussian bureaucratic trio are demon-

strably charged with having conspired to destroy
the present French dynasty, and to set all Europe
in a blaze. They are pretty directly charged with
having patronised the ORSINI attempt, and with
having distinctly, though covertly, urged a second
conspiracy of the same diabolical nature. What
then remains for France to do with Germany in
general, and Prussia in particular, but, in the
most friendly and affectionate, and at the same
time most undeniable, manner possible, to insist '
upon " reforming it altogether."

Such is the argument of " L'Empereur et la
Prusse." The attack upon Austria is intemperate,
and easily explained. The language held towards
Prussia is a mingling of flattery and threats.
Touching the "liberal" institutions of the French
Empire, the pamphlet is replete with boastful
falsehoods. What could more plainly indicate
the wicked designs of Louis NAPOLEON than the
hints given to Germany, lest it should provoke
the wrath of the French despot ? There is now
but little time for mere talk. Is it not 41e
imperative duty of all who wish well to
the German Princes and the great German family
firmly to unite for the resistance and overthrow
of the treacherous foe who has gone to meet thdrn

•
with a deceptive smile ? Shall the friends 'of

Germany and of true freedom act at once; or await
the next final fiat which is to issue from the lips

of the Imperial Sphynx ?

BETTING HOUSE CASE.

MRS. SMITH'S APPEAL.
Mr. Temple appeared for the appellant, Mrs. Smith,
and Mr. Mansfield for the respondents, the justices..
Mr. Mansfield stated that au arrangement had been
come to between the parties that the conviction should
be quashed on the appellant undertaking not to keep a
betting-room at the Albion in future, and to pay the
respondents' costs. _ _

Mr. Temple, on behalf of the appellant, consented,
and the conviction was accordingly quashed.