The Press.
London, England, 1854-12-16 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Madrid journals of the Bth have arrived.
General Kos de Olano was generally spoken of as
likely to be the new Minister of Marine in the room
of M. Salazar ; General Prim and M. Corradi were
also mentioned.

A conspiracy at Cuba has been suppressed.
Two United States packets have been siezed at
Havana, for having conveyed arms and seditous pro-
clamations.

TURKEY.
The Presse of Vienna has the following from Jassy,
of the 21st ult. :—The Porte has recompensed the Jews
of Moldavia for the loyalty which they have always
shown. All the Jews whom the Russians had incor-
porated by force in the Moldavian militia have been
liberated, and have had a part of their taxes remitted.

RUSSIA.
The Empress of Russia is reported to be dying.
It was not even certain that she was alive when the
last Vienna account was transmitted from St. Peters-
burg.
The barrage of the approaches to Riga Harbour,
by sinking masses of stone, has been so effectual
that even merchant vessels drawing an ordinary
depth of water cannot enter or depart with cargoes,
and all such vessels must be loaded and unloaded
outside this artificial bar destined to prevent the ap-
proach of hostile cruisers. There being no prospect
of attempts being made to remove these impedi-
ments until peace is signed, the barrage will gain
solidity from accumulations of sand and mud, and
many months and a large expenditure will be re-
quired for its ultimate removal.

UNITED STATES.
The latest intelligence from North America is of
the 25th ult.
It was rumoured that a naval demonstration
would be made in the Dutch East Indies, s hould
Holland persist in refusing Captain Gibson's claims.
The British consul as Honolulu has protested
against the annexation of the Sandwich Islands.

THE ABSOLUTE.
(From a Correspondent.)

[lt is proper to state that the following paper is compressed
from a memoir drawn up by the Sovereign of one of the minor
German States, who, under an aspect of indifference w poll.
tical affairs, conceals great peuetratiqn and sagacity.]
THERE are three principles of governmental policy
militant throughout Europe—the absolute, the re-
publican, and the constitutional. Even in the two
last, traces of the first may be more or less detected.
The insidious encroachment of the absolute is the
imminent danger of the present age, and feeble is
the sophist who, without discriminat►on, would seek
to confound that term, and to determine its properties
by the word autocrat. The autocrat is only the re-
alisation of the absolute in a particular phasis, and
is a consequence of a prevailing cause which ensures
a state of despotism. The despot, or autocrat, does not
create himself by himself—he is only obedient to the
generic power of the absolute, whereby he is placed in a
position to represent the principle by which be is him-
self ruled. A disobedience thereto would cause his
removal for a trustier representative. The essential
for the ascendancy of the absolute is a blind obe-
dience in the governed and the extinction of all
rationalistic process which might suggest an analysis
of the qualities of good or evil in the governing body.
To dispute the will of the official act, or the moduli
operandi, is to attack the vital principle of the system
itself, and consequently is judged to be the most
flagrant of all possible crimes. Blasphemy against
the absolute of God may be atoned for by acts of
penitential severity, but blasphemy against the abso-
lute of Government can only be expiated by death.
Now, there are two necessities for the conservation
of the absolute, viz., that the governed should
be debarred from au association with other sys-
tems, and that the ruling principle should be
extended. Both these essentials are antagonisucon
the main, to a state of peace. An intimacy with
other systems of political government more germane
to the rationalistic begets reflection leading to a
comparison that is immediately detrimental to a po-
licy which degrades man to the level of a brute.
Therefore isolation or slender habits of foreign
intercourse, and only by official permission, are the
dictates of a despotic prudence. But as foreign will,•
ance by princely marriages must, to a certain degree,
beget association without let or hindrarce, even by
receiving the foreigner, it is of the first importance
that the principle of the absolute should be sought
to be enlarged everywhere, by foul means or fair, in