The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-08 00:00:00

GERMANY.

PRUSSIA.
BERLIN, SEPT. 5.
Despotism is generally accused of being short-
sighted ; but I am about to-day to give you an
instance of the long-sightedness at least of its fears
and precautions. I am informed from very good
authority that a radical change in the constitution of
the Prussian army is in contemplation, as both the
Frankfort Diet and the Prussian government think
its present constitution may be eventually dangerous
to authority. To show whence this fear arises, I
must remind you how the Prussian army is actually
constituted.

Every able-bodied man in Prussia is a soldier.
Thom who have received a collegiate education are
obliged to serve one year in the line, and all others
three years. Of these one year and three year
soldiers the army of Prussia, excluding of course
officers, is entirely composed. After the expiration
of their tams of service these soldiers are sent to
their home to follow their respective civil callings,
bat they ewe not to be soldiers; they belong then
to the Landwehr, are every year drilled and ex-
noised in military manoeuvres, and continue in this
suet etimilitii service till they arrive at the age of
fifty, when they are transferred to the " Sturm "
veterans, who can only be called upon to take arms
to repel invasion, or on some equally pressing
I emergency.
Now, you see, by its present constitution, the
soldiery of the Prussian army undergoes almost a
complete change ever.), three years. But in these
three years the recruit has become expert in all mi-
litary exercises, has acquired much military know-
ledge, and, when thus accomplished, the government
loses his services, and the people, it may be, not the
state, gains a stout soldier. The danger incurred by
despotism is thus two-fold : Ist, it possesses no phy-
sisal-force arm on which it can confidently rely;
and, 2ndly, a military population is formed with
which it may have to contend.
Hitherto, however, the army so composed has been
found thoroughly effective, both in war and in peace.
The government has fully relied upon it, and its con-
fidence has never been deceived, whilst, owing to its
Marcitizen character, it has ever been held in
na fond estimation by the people. Its consti-
tution has been an object of admiration to the whole
world ; and its moral character, arising therefrom,
so mtperior to that of eve other military force, has
been universally acknow Of no mob-fratcr-
ideation has it ever been gni ty, and its patriotism, of
which his Majesty of Prussia and his ministers boast
so much, has ever shown itself on the side of go-
vernment and of authority.
The distrust which the Prussian army is now pros-
pectively awakening must originate, therefore, in
some prospective policy much more stringently de-
spotic than Prussia has as yet ever known.
A standing army hie that which other countries
pm = will be substituted, I am informed, for the
gamma military organization. But exceedinghadine-e
wows will be even the attempt to effect this e .
flied of this the government are aware, for it is to
brought about by gradual, almost imperceptible,
steps. Nevertheless, however desirable, however es-
modal, for the purposes in view, a mercenary anti-
sYim ms, be, I doubt about the enterprise
bike leek undertaken. The hazard is too great.
The whorls army and Landwehr, which constitute the
milatres whole strength, would declare against it.
Aweerious mention of the project would raise a nest
edlnensts about the ears of the court; and with a
Eespeoppressed discontent, wide spread throughout
the nation, to alienate the affections of the army, to
delve them to make common cause with the people,
is what I think no cabinet will be found sufficiently
isualated to do; though it is hard to say what the
idlimpeseselli cabinet will not Es or where they will
, in their headlong beelloperd course.
A reflection hos dams mm. With • citizen army,
eed a military paradise Prussia has guns
,ugh a gnat rwssindis. The dew army
angpsting aeilliority, and the militia,
tip showing no disposition to rise aphid it.PIIM
•tlll.lhst bete the world, who can say that Primula
ima sevebeimesty stantry ? On the contessy, after
the INC mehrialt. the Prussians have eseeied the
spirit of sabsoissits and of obedience to excess.
All parties here who have ever been capable of exert
bee the sights* Whence would have been perfectly
matist had ets government only kept to the son-
stational mad, however slowly and cautioady it
might have awed thereon. Never were a pee*
more moderate in their demands, never could a peo-
ple be morewilly and many, by gradual temperate

indlillisd into all the advantages of
Ilea freedom. Yet the great body of the nation—
Asftding every lady opposed to the court—arc de-
eeMed by the goverment as dangerous revolutionists
—es entettaining doctrines subversive of all order
sn4 all soeiety—and dealt with accordingly. A
standing army in place of a citizen army—will that
be the end of this Cossack calumny of Prussian pa-
triotism ?
A petition of four ultra-conservative Hamburgers
to the Diet is somewhat curious, and not a little sag-
nifieant. These humble persons apply to the Diet to
know what is to be done to hinder the subversion of
the legitimate city constitution, which certain evil-dis-
posed parties contemplate. They am in great per-
plexityto know towbat authority to applymtheirclis-
tress ; they do not know whether thecompetency of the
Band reaches their case, &c., and yet they place it
with all humility before the consideration of the
Band, and pray for its protection. The meaning of
all this is of course to show the necessity of a federal
interference in the affairs of the free cities, and these
persons have no doubt been put forward with this
petition, in order that the subject may be thereby
advantageously introduced.
There is a report of a congress of princes, in which
the /taperers of Russia and Austria and the King of
Praida will take the lead, during the autumn. Thk
elarsas will deliberate upon general European
alms, as much as upon the state of Italy and of
Germany.
AUSTRIA.

The imperial edicts of August 20th, by which the
constitution of March 4,1849, is cancelled, have been
transmitted to all the ministers representing Austria
at foreign courts, together with a circular written by
Prince Schwarzenberg, with the object of explaining
theircharneter andeffect. ThcAustrian premier com-
mences his circular by rapidly sketching the situation
of the empire in the twat months of the year 1849. At
this epoch, he says, the revolution was everywhere.
After having suddenly broken out in Vienna, it
spread into Hungary, and extended to the Loin-
bardian provinces; and this perilous situation of
Austria was aggravated by the troubles of the
other Germanic states. In time, however, the
imperial armies obtained great advantages, and
made considerable progress. It then seemed
to be, before all things, the duty of the
administration to find a certain site on which again
to rear the unity and indivisibility of the empire and
the authority of the throne ; it was thought that a
constitution dealing with the country as a unit,
might prove such a site, and for this reason his im-
perial Majesty issued the letters patent of March
4,1849. !But affairs pressed, and time was wanting
to study, select, assemble, and arrange the funda-
mental principles on which such a constitution should
repose. Those principles were borrowed from the
charters or the constitutions which had been promul-
gated in other European states, and to speak the
truth, the constitution of March 4, was nothing but a
copy of foreign models. Such a work could not suc-
ceed; it has not succeeded. Very soon, and
from all quarters, the mistakes and defects of the
new scheme were made obvious. In proportion as
order was re-established in the monarchy, it became
more evident that the executiou of the constitution
was an impossibility, that its realization could not
be attempted with impunity, or, indeed, without ex-
posing the state to the greatest dangers. Such is
the conviction of the Emperor himself, who has con-
sidered that the time has come for putting an end
to the general incertitude, by abolishing the fiction
which the act of March 4th has been nourishing, by
suppressing the series of provisional measures which
have accompanied that act, and by taking the de-
cision of the whole question to himself, to whom
it exclusively belongs. The Emperor, who gave
the letters patent dated March 4th, of his own
free will has never bound himself to them, whether
by an oath, or by any concession or abandonment of
his imperial authority. lie is not, therefore, under
any obligation to maiutain the letter of the constitu-
tion, which, on the contrary, is to be ranked among
those measures R hich the sovereign, in the exercise
of his plenary power, adopts, modifies, or abrogates
after his own conviction, and for which he is respon-
sible to God alone. His Majesty, resolved to put a
period to a state of things full of trouble and
anxiety, has issued the ordinances of the 2nd ult.
The circular then goes on to explain the meaning of
ministerial responsibility, as understood by the Vi-
enna cabinet, and why the constitutional institutions
of the empire are to besettled according to theparticu-
lar views of the Emperor. Prince Schwarzenberg,
concludes by declaring, in the most explicit and for-
mal manner, that the Emperor does not intend to
enter upon a policy of reaction ; he protests against
any such idea. His Majesty proposes nothing but
the establishment of a system of government strictly
and perfectly legal ; neither will he seek to re-esta-
blish any of the privileges, exemptions, or excep-
tional positions which have disappeared within these
few years, nor attack the material rights which have
been acknowledged since 1848, as fur as concerns
persons and property.

Ens Electric Tegreyb.]

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THE LEVANT.