The Express.
London, England, 1853-05-31 00:00:00

GERMANY.

BERLIN, 11AT 27.
You will excuse me if I leave you to glean from
the li..rtnan new.papers the pecital of royal visits and
marriages, sivompli.hed or promised, of banquets.
car ou#ol., and torch dances. which make up so much
of the history of our two primary courts fur the last
month, mid occupy the space you can afford me with
some remarks upon the recent meeting of the rulers
of Austria and Prussia, the event which to serious
politicians appears to characterise and partly to
change our political situation. You will well re-
member the circumstances under which the Emperor
Francis Joseph paid his visit to the Kin: of Prussia
last scar. Since Is-IS the policy of the two court"
hai been opposite, sod almost hostile. The " punc-
tuation" of Olmertz, which averted war, had not
restored friendship ; and at the beginning
of 1532 the drfferences between the courts of
Prussia and Austria entered into the calculations of
the crowned and uncrowned conspirators of Europe.
But a cloud arose. The President Louis Napoleon
became Emperor. 'timid people feared war ; pa-
triotic fireman' had their apprehensions for the left
bank of the Rhine; and, above all, the monarch' of
the Continent dreaded plebiscites and appeals to the
people on vital questions of state. Immediately, the
Austrian Emperor and the Prussian King were
friends, exchanging uniforms and embracing each
other in the sight of their troops.

The visit of the Prussian monarch to his imperial
brother is now paid under parallel circumstances. To-
day, it is not the French but the Russian Emperor
who darkly looms in the future, and whose shadow
frightens the German potentates into • concord
long unknown. The spectacle of the Czar openly
busted among the Greco-Sclave populations of his
neighbour the Sultan alarms both Vienna and Berlin.
The young Francis Joseph distrusts now the council-
lors who canting perpetually about the " modention"
of Nicholas, made him the dependent of Russia, and
returns to the foreign policy of Metternich--com-
mon action with Prussia for the maintenance
of German independence.

Much has been written for English readers about
the bonds which hold Austria and her ruler to the
policy of the court of St. Petersburg. We are told
of the ascendancy exercised by the Czar over Francis
Joseph—of the filial reverence with which the Aus-
trian regards the Russian Emperor—of gratitude for
the Hungarian intervention—and so on. All these
notions may be safely put aside in the present con-
juncture of affairs in Eastern and Southern
Europe. Seutimeutal and secondary considera-
tions may decide the conduct of monarchs
where sentimental and secondary matters are in
question, but will not turn away a jealous and ambi-
tions sovereign, such as is the young Emperor of
Austria, from defending his interest now obviously
at stake. Public affairs are not to be weighed in a
private balance.

The Russian alliance is not a natural alliance for
Austria. The coalitions of the twu powers have
hitherto tended uniformly to extend the frontiers
and augment the resources of Russia, which is ant
the natural ally but the natural rival of her neigh-
bour. .

The appearance of Prince Menchikoff at Constan-
tinople, demanding a personal headship over the
Greeo-Sclave races of the south, more destructive
to the Ottoman government than the lea it
a territorial district, has given these consideredeee
weight at Vienna. Not that they are apprehmeled
in all their significance, still less that the i!iirs4l
cabinet is -
mate -

of jar=

NO &

But the

atteafe
rival.
which may
The rejectaas
the 'amen
Russia •

the BAN'
hemmed f

military
the Czar can tamperlsilL tits loTaky of Austrian pro-
faning the Greek &i', Aetna would be so tear-
fully miaowed that all fresimmorietiom would be
bet, and she would become the laeresittiVof Russia.
The danger is felt. The signs of it are apparent in
the ministerial organs of the press of both capitals.
The Turkish empire is no longer prellairoed Is be
the opprobrium of Christendom, nor As its wills&
eagerly dismissed, as it was three or four temodis
Ner It Is now discovered that a real deepalion
were worse for the Greeks and &laves at
the Danube, and a powerful military monarch at
Coostantinople much worse for his neighbours than
the quiet reign of the Sultan over provinces practi-
cally self-governed. I had wished to notice the
pleasure with which the close alliance with Austria
ceganled at this court, and the influence which,
for good or evil, it may exercise on Germany. But
this letter is already too long.

THE SARAH SANDS.

(IT ILICTMC

PLYMOUTH, MAT 30.

- - -
The Sarah Sands, steam-veseel, which arrived
.here on Saturday from Australia and the Cape of
Good Hope, sailed this afternoon for Liverpool. Two
hundred of the three hundred passengers that came
elms in her landed here. The largo nugget of
gold, weighing one hundred and thirty-fire pounds
tine ounces, was landed here, with fifty-one boxes
of gold and thirty-eight boxes of Barer, and for-
warded for London by the express train, in charge
or (Xptain Thompson, of the Sarah Sands, and Jolr,,
HoPlmu, boatman of her Majesty's Customs.
H.M.S. Hope left to-day for Portsmouth,

tet is mitred to carry them out toiberri;lii:
consequences. On the contrary, in the delay
larva Bruck's deperture for *nople, we
proof that Alums is held'', mit •
the Emperor perceives plahat4lha itia
le to remain longer in depositions: Istni!vra
War is no longer melt yildes traipses,
la may be safel %ft_lar a momenta at of ' tit.
ejection of the. shielding nmy
4
sateen question to a irrhin*and 'oaths .
.1
is could not fail to prove I,mnritiks.rjacos .
is foe. Should liana succeed in iptaiasepee-'
aof the Lower Danube, the Melo • age of
ialkan and Custitantineple, MIA" would-be
led in by the Remiss terstorkse_t hole
I of her eastern frontier, shd cora-
?, both in the Bluth Sim and ipp Um Adriatic
l be under Russian 000troL bllaaeed by the
iry position ofttsseia pld thetfacipy with which