The Express.
London, England, 1863-08-15 00:00:00

BRITANNIA,

THIS !TIMM THE ANGEL OF PF..I-F. AND PARDON.
Introducing CDR GREAT 6 110, C E Professor Petilmel
adaptation of Mr. Dircks's intention.—Mesirs. Woodman and
Ban.l4l.—With LUG DUNG Wli.L.— %lid liIXX ISLAItD.

HIGH WATKR AT LONDON KRIM&
TH3II DAT finrulne. . Anemone. 24. &S.&
1,-,IIIOIIIIOW-.Morbilg, . Afteruom. Sh. 22m

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 15.

Tills day the citizens of the ancient Imperial Free
City of Frankfort are invited to witnessone of those
historical solemnities which have so profound a
meaning for an imaginative and enthusiastic people.
The entry of the young Emperor of A usraia,
attended by a brilliant retinue of Princes and
diplomatists into the metropolis of the Confedera-
tion,is something more than an imposing pageant ;
it is an event that will make its mark in the annals
of our time, though history may treat it as
nothing more than a spirited episode in a.some-
what tedious drama. At all events, the stage is
not unworthy of the actors, and to politicians of
the romantic school the scene can hardly fail to
be suggestive of great epochs and great men. If
nothing else comes of it, the German ima-
gination will be struck by the presence of
the descendant and representative of the Em-
perors of Germany in that old Town House
in which the Emperors of Germany were attended
by Kings and Princes ; in the Cathedral where
the Emperors were chosen and crowned ; in the
Elective Chamber where the famous Golden Bull
of CHARLES IV. is preserved ; and in the Market
Place where the German Emperors walked upon
scarlet cloth to the Cathedral. These are
memories and associations which the welcome of
a young and ambitious KAISER to the
grand old city will recall with • thrill of emotion
to many a meditative patriot. Few will be san-
guine enough to look for the sudden satisfaction of
their most fervent hopes in as many ceremo-
nial processions, banquettings, and speechmaking,
as an Imperial visit of forty-eight hours may per-
mit. FRANCIS JOSEPH Will come and go amidst
much firing of cannon, and orchestral music, and
popular cheering ; he will besplendidly surrounded
by Archdukes of his House, by his ablest minis-
ters, and by eminent diplomatists. Some five-
and-twenty or more Sovereign Princes will l e
there in person to answer to his summons. The
visible effect of such a demonstration as this
will be worth more to Austria, if not to Germany,
than any possible action of the Congress. It will
impress upon the imagination and the reason of
thousands of thoughtful eyewitnesses the image of
an Austrian Emperor, who but yesterday was the '
type of the most bigoted and obstinate military'
despotism, now declaring himself • convert to
liberal principles of government, and a partaker
in the generous aspirations of his fellow-country-
men. The Congress of Frankfort, however im-
perfect its operations and inadequate its conclusions
may appear, is undoubtedly in its conception and
design a conspicuous homage to the ideas of the
age. It is • sovereign testimony to the strength of the
national instinct which in 1848 sought the unity of
German power in the liberty of the German people.
FRANCIS Joespri appears in Frankfort not only as
the historic and hereditary representative of the
Germanic Empire, but as the willing leader of the
German people. Whatever may be the personal
incentives to his present course of action, the effect
must be to give an impulse to a l►rger move-
ment, which no Congress of Sovereign Princes can
resist or divert. As to the deliberatins of Princes
who respond to the invitation from Vienna, no
illusion is possible. In the absence of the King of
FRCESIA, who, under M. DB BISMARCK'S advice, is
content to renounce, in the face of his own people,
of all Germany, and of Europe, the leadership
which no Prussian King can claim by any right of
his own, the Congress of Frankfort can do abso-
lutely nothing. The German Federal Constitu-
tion requires unanimity for the adoption of mea-
sures of organic change. It would be necessary
to abolish this article of the Constitution
before the present Congress could move • step
towards any practical result. To begin by cancel-
ling an article of the Federal Constitution is •
mode of proceeding which the statesmen of Vienna
certainly do not contemplate. The one thing
certain is, that the Emperor of Ai STRIA will state
his objects in summoning the Congma, and leave
to public opinion throughout Germany to decide
between the Power that constitutes and proposes
and the Power that obstructs and prevents.