The Express.
London, England, 1864-06-24 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 24.

Sous of the Prussian journals affect to regard
the prospect of hostilities breaking out between
Germany and this oountry with complete itdif-
ferenoe, if not with positive exultation. If this
feeling really exists to any extent amongst sober-
minded Germans, they may be assured that it is
not shared by any section of reflective and re-
sponsible opinion in this country. If we are at
length compelled by the supreme claims of
national honour and public justice to talcs any
part in the struggle, we shall do so with a feeling
of the profoundest reluctance and regret. But
this regret would be founded even more in the
causes which may render interference necessary
than on the mere fact of the interference itself. !thee '
been • severe shock to all established principles of
civilization and progress, • distress to all en-
lightened and liberal minds, to find a great nation,
proud of its cultivation and advanced ideas, sud-
denly giving way to a lust of mere conquest, and
pursuing a war of vindictive aggression, worthy
only of barbarous and medieval times. The Prus-
sians do not seem to be aware of this, do not yet
understand apparently the pain, surprise, and
disgust their conduct has excited in every free
community. Amongst ourselves especially it has
been a bitter disappointment to find, not only the
ignorant and bigotted, but the more liberal
and intelligent sections of German society,
either actively encouraging this miserable war
of sixty against one, or silently acquiescing in its
lawless prosecution. We have been accustomed,
for example, to regard the Prussian nation as at
the head of the German peoples both in general
intelligence and political advancement, and to look
forward with hope to the liberalising effect of its
steady constitutional progress on all the smaller
German States. There were, apparently, good
grounds for entertaining such • hope in relation,
at all events, to the constitutional and liberal
party amongst the Prussian people. This
party, feeling apparently, what all intelligent ob-
servers at a distance had long felt, that in order
to become really strong and prosperous the nation
Deeded above all things internal development,
laboured for • time with commendable zeal and
singleness of purpose to secure its steady progress
in the path of constitutional freedom. They
carried on this great and necessary work in •
thoroughly legal and pacific manner, resist-
ing with equal firmness the efforts of mere
revolutionary violence on the one hand, and the
resolute encroachments of arbitrary power on the
other. Englishmen, of all parties, naturally
watched the struggle with peculiar sympathy and
hope, and were delighted to see the patriotic efforts
of the constitutional party supported by the body
of the nation. The apparent firmness of the
nation and its representatives in maintaining their
rights against the illegal measures of Ministers
and the arbitrary action of the Crown, produced •
confident expectation that the principles and party
of freedom would ultimately triumph ; and
it was naturally anticipated that the triumph
of constitutionalism in Prussia would prepare the
way for the political emancip►tion of Germany,
by rousing the smaller States to the necessity of
internal reform.

These brighter hopes for the future of Germany
were at their height immediately before the out-
break of the war. But this violent and ignomini-
ous crusade against Denmark has destroyed
the fair prospect. It is not simply that the
mere fact of the war has for the time being
arrested the constitutional struggle and given
a disastrons ascendancy to the military element in
the Prussian State. This must have been the
temporary effect of any foreign conflict, even the
most necessary and legitimate in which the
country could have engaged. It is the
motives from which the war was undertaken, and
the spirit in which it has been waged, that are so
fatal to the prospects of freedom in Germany, and
that have of necessity alienated the regard and dis-
appointed the hopes of her truest friends in every
free country. In this country we have witnessed
with mingled pain and amazement the humiliating
spectacle of • whole nation swept by a mere gnat
of childish vanity and passion into • complete for-
getfulness not only of their own rights, but of the
rights of others. In reply to a crafty and delusive
appeal to • false sentiment of nationality, the whole
Prussian people has at once condoned the highly
political crimes of M. Itisusece and his associates.
There seems absolutely to be no exception to this
disastrous ruin of every constitutional hope. Even
the more liberal and patriotic membersof the consti-
tutional party appear to have been ready at once
to sacrifice the substance of domestic liberty to the
mere shadow of foreign conquest. They actually
supported the worst enemy of constitutional go-
vernment which Prussia has ever known in a war
undertaken avowedly to destroy the constitutional