The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-21 00:00:00

THE POSITION OF PRUSSIA.

LORD Drama/an is a greet artist in bit way.
It is the old punctilious way of deliberative discus-
sion ; classical iu its apparent simplicity and direct-
ness of ostensible purpose; in °kermess reaching
almost to perfection ; but sometimes cold, and often
narrow in the scope of its eloquent logic. According
to the terms of the notice given by the ex-Chancellor

in the House of Lords, nothing more was intended
by him than to direct attention to the. past and pre-
sent position of Prussia with reference to the
Eastern question. Everybody knows, however,
that these are the oonventional terms in which Par-
liamentary warning is clothed, whenever the spirit
of admonition moves some independent member of
either house to give the Ministers of the Crown
the benefit of his thoughts, in the shape
of a pubic lecture. Conveotionalties apart, it
may perhaps be said with truth that it is
the attention of the publics out of doors, rather',
than that of the faltering and finessing politicians
who assemble to listen on the oat:igloo, that the Le-
gislative Tribune seeks to direct and fasten upon the
subject he has in hand. No man understands the
tribunitien arts better than Lord LTNDHURST. In
the course of hie long and varied career there are few
of the great springs of national emotion which he has
not touched with power, and with effect. Sectarian
feelings, prejudices of race, personal antipathies,
party passions—there are none of the deep impulses
that govern political men that he his not by turns
appealed to, sometimes in the tone of lofty yet per-
suasive deprecation, sometimes in order that he might
fan them into flame. But it is curious to observe
bow, upon all occasions, the texture and hue of his
singular style are the same. It is singular for its
seeming simplicity to the eye of the superficial--sin-
_ _ _

gulsr for its real subtlety to the judgment of the
discerning. Every great speech of Lord Lutrawairr's
that we can recall, might be described u a mere
narrative of facts, a consecutive statement of details.
a careful enunciation of particulars seldom ressoillas
and for the most part undisputed and indisputable',
Yet herein lies the muter-power of the man, whist
may be defined u being the craft of concatenation.
Every item in the amusing account is placed in the
position where its value is enhanced extrinsically by
that which preceded and that which is to follow it.
In dramatising the facts he has to deal with, Lord
LYNDHURST seldom allows himself that which is the
advocate's as well se the poet's license with reference
to time and place. With a great eye to the political
picturesque, he can at will foreshorten the chroaology
of

and the intervening epics that lies
between altered sentiments and motives; and in the
ample chiaroscuro of omission keep oat of view all
that could tend to qualify or impair the impression
he desires to produce.

Thd speech delivered last night in the Rouse of
Lords by this wonderful old man—for assuredly he
is without a rival or an equal in the power of address-
ing a great assembly at the age of eighty years—
will be naturally read with no little 'interest abroad
as well as at home. Age has not furrowed with a
wrinkle that gifted mind. For upwards of an hour,
without a pause, a hesitation, or an inaccuracy of
phrase, Lord LYNDHURST held enchained the atten-
tion of the Peers while he recited the diplomatic
history of Prussia during the last year and a halt. It
was like a piece of asta.t:sr, something of imagine.
Live colouring being perhaps wanting. The
precise object was not very distinctly avowed.
unless we take the expression -towards the
close as some indication of the immediate
purpose, in which the inveterate veteran expressed
his earnest hope that under no circutostaness shall
we place any confides°e in the Prussian Government.
But it is impossible not to ere that the tendeacy, and
we fear-re meat add the -minffeit citation, of this
elaborate invective, if to irides the alienation already
unhappily aubsistiog between this *country and the
chief state of Northern Germany. The incidental
profession of a desire to discriminate between the

eossitry sad the court, the people and the Ling e(1
Palau*, is net welting to blunt the edge of the
" "

polished sarcasms in which the noble and learned
avatar thought fit to indulge at the historical
expense of Prussia. Far be it film us to
palliate or justify the political sins of our neigh-
bor in pit times; but are we ourselves na-
y so free from sin that we should wantonly
go invidious reproaches rmd recriminations P
Vb Vilma good purpose can it tend to rake together
Alb floor of Parliament tk, records of every mis
iNi committed by a usighlaour with whom we have,
law all, so many points of congenial sentiment and
Intend as Prussia? at is plain enough, we think,
from the draft Satirise agreed to by a Committee of
the Second Charemr at Berlin, within the last few
days, that the mpresentatives of the nation Are not
ingestible to the European duties we ask them to
perform. Lit, if we would stimulate their generous
impulses, arid strengthen their liberal intentions, we
must not forget that they are Prussians, or trifle
with their national susceptibility and pride. To
what purpose, other than that of unmixed mischief,
is it that a man who hes filled for thirty
yeah the great position of Lord LYNDHURST in
this country should amuse the British Senate with
sardonic cavils at FREDERICK THE SECOND'S title to
be called the Great P NAPOLEON has often, and
justly, been reproached for despoiling the hero's
tomb of the-sword with which he won so many vic-
tories, of which every Prussian is proud. We own
we think it a paltrier theft to try to maks away with
the epithet with which national history has invested
the name of that celebrated man. Still emptier,
idler, and, we must say in all honesty, more unjus-
tifiable, is the reckless stroke upon the death-bell of
Poland. We are as ready as most men to grapple
with that subject whenever we have reason to believe
that any party or any statesman in this country is
prepared to enter upon it resolutely, honestly, and
practically. But we look with feelings we had rather
not be forced to express upon the moot Poland's victim
name, for the mere rhetorical purpose of the hour, by

men who have never in their lives devoted a serious 1
thought to the rescue or rsolseeption of the Polish
people. Lord LYNDHURST has more than MKS been I
a Minister of the Crown : did he ever while in that I
capacity do, or try to do, any act for the recuscits-
tion of Poland ? Beside the years he spent in the
House of Commons, he has for eight-and-twenty years I
occupied a distinguished place in the House of Lords :
did he ever originate any substantive proceeding on
behalf of that injured land during all that time?
For our part we shudder as we look back and think
how the sufferings and the hopes of the Poles have
been traded on and trifled with by politicians
amongst us of every degree. In our •iew
it is a very solemn thing to excite expec-
tations in the unfortunate which there is no
reasonable certainty of seeing realised ; and
a very cruel and cowardly thing to resort to the too
ready discontent of an oppressed community when
we happen to be at war with their oppressor, unless
we are prepared to stand by those whom we stimu-
late to arm along with us. Above all, we are compelled
to ask what is the meaning, where is the sincerity, of
observations like those we have referred to, while
the whole course of our present foreign policy confess-
edly tarns upon an Austrian alliance ? As if to mark
the hollowness of aristocratic professions of sympathy
for what are called " oppressed nationalities," it so
happened that at the very time Lord LYNDHURST
MSS speaking in the House of Peen, Lord PALMER-
sTos, in the House of Commons, was formally
repudiating certain expressions attributed to Sir
ROSERT PEEL on the occasion of his re-election
the other day for Tamworth. A question on the
subject having been put by Lord WILLIAM GRAHAM,
the PROM MINISTER thought fit to state that the
Austrian Government had the best reasons for know-
ing that the Cabinet of England were fur from
desiring or countenancing any projects for the dis-
turbance of the Austrian empire, whether in Hun-
gary or elsewhere ; and that the only light in which
they could ever contemplate the revival of questions
regarding Poland would be that in which the German
Powers might possibly some day be led spontane-
ously to originate them. In other words, Italy,
Hungary, and Poland have nothing whatever to
expect from our lordly rulers that have been or that
are.—Daily Newt.