The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-01 00:00:00

the •xlrefio.

TO CORANS PON DENTS.
• Pained Wilma of " ripre". 0•11•1111•• •oo mom ',woo
- Gowns," lo pobilohoi every toooday wad Milo oisfoo, gboo
Syr Fa
ahem..west, bawled kg • The Isprook•Loodos lloodoof rp,
mom be o: the 411..5, IN llosoorio•otroot, VI Two ✓Vasil se as
ay of paaan.

mon WATER AT LONDON BRIDOE
T_. 44w............akn0wb0w,N.11.
Twarenow—limilia Y. 57•, ft Ma.

LONDON, MONDAY, DECBDIBBR 1.

Tile royal speech read at the opening of the sea-
lion of the Prussian parliament is so far satisfactory
that it indicates the utmost limit of re-action as hay-
ing
been reached, and bespeaks the wish of the go-'
ventment rather to palliate its hitherto backward
steps than to persevere in or extend them.
The struggle in North Germany amongst that not
soy numerous class which still retains interest and
influence in the march of politics, the people having !
withdrawn altogether in despair and disgust, I
is carried on between the violent aristocratic,
reactionary part and the more moderate of the
ri functionaes and professional politicians, who would
adhere to constitutional government, and who seek
to win back the middle classes and the people to put I
trust in it. Ruth parties admit the necessity of re-
siding Austrian encroachment and Russian dictation.
The more suitable perceive that this can be done but
is one way, that of gaining some degree of consti-
tutional, liberal, and popular support; although it
must, at the same time, be perceived, that this can-
not be proceeded with so far as to provoke the abso-
lutist lords of a million and a half of soldiers.
The means and the extremes to which the aria' to-
cratic and reactionary party in North Germany pro-
peed to have recourse, are to abrogate all central '
assemblies and national suffrage, replacing them
provincial estates and such a franchise as se
make participation in elections to be a privilege. It
has been now for some time feared that 31. MANtiter-
IrEL himself had consented, or would be obliged to go
this length ; and his resummoning some time since of
thine provincial assemblies, to which the events and
the constitution of the late years had put an end, cor-
roborattel the suspicion. Now, however, the central I
parliament, as decreed by the last constitution, has
been summoned. and, in the royal speech opening it,
the provincial states are alluded to as temporary, and
their deeps. as provisional.
The events of Hanover have had a very great in-
fluence upon the conduct and the spirit of the Prue-
Wan government. Those parties, which we have
represented as struggling at Berlin for mastery, have
bad an equally fierce strife in Hanover. Were, as
in Prweaa, liberal men and tendencies had so far pre-
vailed, as to establish a central parliament, and to
piney the administintion in the hands of a moderate
and liberal constitutionalist party, headed by :snit:VV..
To this party King Easirsr gave his confidence, or
at least his support. And one of the most important
acts of this party was to conclude with Prussia the
important convention of the 7th of September last,
by which the am-ohm of Hanover to the Zollverein
in 1841 was stipulated and concluded.
It has been plainly seen, that Prussia, defeated by
Austria and Itussia in its endeavours to found a poli-
tical and constitutional Germany of its own, has
fallen busk upon its old project of knitting together
and extending a commercial league. But of the pre-
sent Zollverein, the southern States, such as Bavaria
as well as Saxony, are more in Austrian interests than
in Prussiun, and Prussia was therefore threatened
with either being left commercially isolated,
or else absorbed in the overpowering vortex
of the Austrian system. To avoid this, Prussia has
sought the commercial alliance of Hanover, for which
she was impend to lower some of her more exor-
bitant duties—Hanover, in return, raising its cum-
owl to the Zollverein standard. The true aim of
arch an accord between the two protestant, and, it
was hoped, constitutional states of North Germany,
was certainly political even more than commercial;
and therefore the aristocratic party in Hanover have
been strongly opposed to it, as they have been to
&reeve. 'this Juuk.er-partei, as they are called,
denounce the treaty of September 7, as they de-
nounced the constitution of PSIS, and insist on the
restoration of the old political an well as fiscal sys-
tem. For the central parliament of Hanover they
would substitute the old provincial states, and instead
of an assembly sprung from popular and general repre-
sentutimi, tiny would nature the little feudal and
local senates of landed nobler,. Such a counter-revo-

lution as this has ahcady been accomplished in Meck-
lenburg, as it was hoped for in Berlin. King EKNENT,
however, would not listen to these plans of reac-
tion. His aristocracy did not the less appeal to the
Frankfort Diet, that assembly where Austrian inte-
rests and ideas dominate uncontrolled. The old
King maintained his constitutional and North Ger-
man principles, ;dung with M. STRUVE, who repre-
sented ahem. Hut his blind successor, GEORGE
THE Firm, has already declared his adhesion to
the ultra-aristocratic party in Hanover, and to the
Austrian mastery in tho Diet, by dismissing :-.TRUVE,
and forming a new ministry under befiratii, who
was under Wisiortioner, the leader of the ultra
party, in the Lower Chamber of Hanover. Such
a ministerial revolution and reaction in Hanover must
prove a death-blow to Prussian hopes and a bar to
Prussian efforts at national revival. It is scarcely to
be wondertst that at the news the King of Ptiessf.i
should have run away from the solemn duty of
opening his purliament, in order to hasten to Han-
over and remonstrate with the new and blind
King upon the first re-lectionary measure of his reign.
How far the King of Pitessa's influence and ad-
vice may prevail, remains to be seen. Avert the
political catastrophe he cannot. But whether he
may not succeed in preserving intact the agreement
of the 7th of September, is as yet doubtful.
The demise of King Ensom of Hanover occurred
too late to he alluded to in the royal speech, on
opening the Prussian chambers. That speech in-
deed. iierserves a discreet and almost an obliged
silence on the subject of foreign policy. Few of
even the most ministerial Prussians would be forward
to defend all that MANTEINFEL has done. His only
excuse is stern necessity ; and that is as idle to
discuss, as humiliating to lament.
The Prussian finance's are represented as in a pros-
perous state. They are so, indeed, compared with
those of ally other European country. A loan hail
been contracted for by the minister, ON DER HEYDE.
But the three or four millions, to which this loan

amounts. are to be expended Ih.usa file in completing
the railroad between Berlin and Konigsberg. It is
• work, for military and commercial purposes, indis-
pensable, and it is rendered still more desirable to
execute it at present as the harvest has failed in the
provinces through which it passes ; and them pre-
vail much misery and want in consequence through-
out them, to the relief of which government is
anxious to come.

Alt event has just been announced in all the
newspapers, which has probably escaped the atten-
tion of ninety-nine out of every hundred of readers,
and yet has thrown into consternation one of our
most celebrated towns, and carried dismay into
the midst of one of our most time-honoured institutions.
The Oxford class lists have been published, and it is
discovered that not one man has distinguished him-
self sufficiently to be placed in the first class. The
claws, arranged atter a somewhat Irish fashion,
begin with the second, which follows no first. And
yet this event, which is the subject of mournful com-
ment at every table in every hall in the university,
falls seareelv heeded upon the ear of the great
English public. Surely this circumstance must
of itself be sufficient to administer some consola-
tion to the lions in the midst of their af-
fliction, as it tells them that they are as far
off from the sympathies of the great mass el
their countrymen WI they have always wished to be.
It is sonic satisfaction fur them to know, that
although they were battled at last in their long
struggle against the union of Oxford and London by I
means of a railway, this union has done nothing
towards producing a communion of thought and
action. No; the railway and the electric telegraph
have done much, and will do more; but something
more than the railway or the telegraph is wanted
to create a sympathy between the soul of the world,
and the small spirit that lurks amidst the medieval
mummies of Oxford.

To return, however, to the fact : Oxford has no first
class. That is to say, one of the two great uni% er-
lilies which profess to be sufficient for the wants

of the higher education existing amongst thirtain *daughter of allia*
millions of people—for it is well known with what mother, the nodal
contempt these universities look upon the few modern 1 has KW isasosi.to
institutions which rejoice in the same name—one pi bill on reaorm•-`
these two universities, conisected advantageously wit] 0,--
mucli of the history of the country, reposing epos
amaktat traditions, supported by the great aruitocrati-
1,..
Obi 61111.61, enjoying almost a monopoly of the edu- I
fain of men intended for the church, and in the I 1
pleseesion of privileges which attract a majority of :
ass, intended for the bar, and a large number , i
a humus intended for higher branches of the ; 1
pied= at medicine, having irresponsible control 1 1
OWN andowments,—one of these universities
these privileges, and others too numerous
mention, is yet not able to attract men within its 1
iZatoi
Malls, or to hold out sufficient inducement to those
within them to overcome the difficulties with which 1
it chooses to surround the admission to a first-class. •
The fact cannot be paralleled in the history of any pub- 1
lk institution in the country that lays any claim to
utility. Look at any society which embodies any-
thing of the spirit of the age. The British Associa- •
tion increases in numbers and utility ; the :
Queen's colleges in Ireland arc making head •
against the most rabid opposition : associa-
tions of engineers and artists are flourishing. and 1
sending out new shoots ; the great cattle show is one 1
of the great events of every year, and new space 1
has just been appropriated to it ; institutions of all
kinds arc making their claims felt by the public;
but Oxford, which can reward its distinguished
alumni with such solid pudding as it falls to the lot
of no other corporation to be able to bestow, has no
first class. Oxford, which frequently rewards its
men for the labour of four years more liberally than
the Admiralty or the War-office rewards its best
i servants for thirty years service, can tempt no men
into its first rinks.
Can we be far wrong in assigning as the cause for
such an anomaly the utter absence of everything real
in the education at Oxford? Is it not evident
that the best men,—those who would be able to dis-
tinguish themselves in any branch of learning,—are
beginning to feel that there is something else to be
done with the best four years of a man's life, than to
employ it in the fabrication of Greek and Latin
I, prose and verse, after certain models. We have the
best reason for knowing that this feeling is upper-
most in the minds of numbers of men of the kind
who would formerly have rushed to distinguish
themselves in the class lists. They see that the
world within the walls of the university is a dif-
fivent world entirely from the world without.
They recognise that the great principles which are
metamorphosing the world,—which arc introducing
new elementsinto its government,—are precisely those
which are banished from the consideration of students
hi the university. They feel that to become distin-
guished in their Alina Mater they must shut their eyes
upon what is parsing in the outer world. The effect
of this is to disconnect them from the prevalent
stmlies around them, and to cause them to under-
take the charge of their own education, both in phy-
sics and metaphysics—to depend, in fact, upon their
own resources. The consequence of this is, that in
Oxford at the present moment there are numbers of
men of good intellect and the best intentions strug-
gling manfully, but unfortunately, and in many cases
hopelessly, in the vast ocean of German thought,
without pilot or rudder or skill to use one. Many of
these are landed upon the barren shores of Panthe-
ism, or arc stranded upon the shoals of Atheism.
They have undertaken a voyage without any of the
necessary preparations; nna the result is too often
disastrous. Any one well acquainted with Oxford
will hear testimony to the truth of our description.
And the great cause of the shortcoming is this—
that Oxford has neither been faithful to its old tra-
ditions nor to its modern professions. It has been
false to its old traditions, for all those traditions show
that it obtained its fame and its privileges because it
conferred on the students within its walls the best
education which could be procured. If it encou-
raged, as did all the universities of the day, the
study of Latin and Greek, it was because those two
languages claimed a monopoly, not only of all the
elegant, but all the useful literature of the world—
because the whole miss, of scientific knowledge then
known was contained in those two languages. The
idea of cultivating these languages for their own
sake,—of spending years in acquiring the mere power
or writing correct Latin and Greek,—would have
been scouted as ridiculous by the great masters
of scholastic science. It was because these
languages were the keys to open the doors of all then
existing wisdom that they werecherished. But Oxford
cherishes the keys for their own sakes, and has left
off even pretending that these keys open the doors
to many chambers of treasures. She has been false
also to her modern professions. Beaten out of the
field of learning, she has fallen back upon a vague
claim to a general power of forming the character
and modelling the mind. The customs, forms of
society, and modes of thought prevalent at Oxford
are supposed to be necessary forces in giving to
youthful scions of English families the unmistakeable
impress of the English gentleman. In carrying out
this idea Oxford has failed most miserably. She
1 teaches nothing of the English literature, modern or
i 1 ancient, which nfluences the minds of Englishmen,
and forms the subject of discussion in the better
classes of English society—she ignores all the won-
derful array of new forces which have been at work
for the last quarter of a century, acting so powerfully,
directly upon the physical constitution, and indirectly
upon the mental constitution of the nation. She has
thus been false to her duties in two ways. She has
lost her connexion with the old or mediaeval world,
and has failed to establish a connexion with the new.
She has endeavoured to satisfy the curious inquiring
into the validity of the title that she puts fordi as
LM g oper instructress of English youth, by a Arte-
rial flourish on the amount of the influence she
ezerte over the minds of our youth, and an assertion
'that she alone can induct pupils into a scientific
knowledge of the mysteries of composition in two
dead languages. To the first of her pretensions we
lave &may replied, to the latter she replies herself
—she los as first clam

FRANCE.

PARIS, SATURDAY EVININO.
Revision is once more the order of the day. M.
Jules Migeon, an old conservative, has laid the fol-
lowing proposition on the table of the Assembly.
Considering Art. 111. of the constitution, which states
t►at "When in the lest year of a legislature the National
Assembly shall express a wish that the constitution should
be modified, either wholly or partially, that revision shall
be proceeded to in the following manner The. wish
ex by the Assembly shall not be converted into a
nitive resolution until after three consecutive delibera-
tions taken at a month's interval between each, and with
three-fourths of the votes expressed. The number of voters
must be at least .100. The assembly of revision shall only
be named for three months. It cannot occupy itself except
with the revision for which it has been convoked; but,
nevertheless, in cue of urgent necessity, it may provide fur
legislative necessities." Considering the numerous petitions
which have been presented from every part of France—con-
sidering the recent and almost unanimous wish expressed by
the Councils-eeneral—coosidering, lastly, the proposition
presented on the 31st May last by a great number of repre-
sentatives, for the purpose of restoring to the nation the
fall exercise of its sovereignty, we have the honour to pro-
pose to the Assembly to express its wish that the constitution
should be revised.

You may remember that the Assembly decided last
session to refer all propositions of this nature to a
special committee to be elected in the bureaux. The
report must be presented to the Assembly within a
month from the appointment of the commattee.
Last night the Club of the Rue des Pveamides
"held an important sitting, to discuss the course to
pursue on the revision of the constitution. M. de
Broglie took the chair. M. I)aru was of opinion that
they ought to come to an understanding on this sub-
ject with the legitimist party. This opinion having
been strenuously opposed by several members, M.
I Daru leg the sitting. M. de Broglie then spoke in
favour of a conciliatory attitude. The meeting then
decided that the motion of M. Jules Nligeon shoWd
be deposited in a committee-room of the Assembly,
in order to receive the signatures of as many mem-
bers as possible.
Strange to say the D'lnts is the only journal
, which discusses this subject, grown now of such
overwhelming importance. It contains an able
article on the mischievous contradictions of the con-
stitution. and pronounces it completely impossible to
regulate the relations of the great powers of the state
with the existing charter. The constitution, it says,
becomes worse the closer it is adhered to. The two
powers have been brought to the verge of civil war
without either having outatepped the rights assigned
them by the constitution. According to it this

----tliiiiiiZaiglZgiaef tha ...rennet Perrot, - el Na-
.tional. Guard of Paris; has resigned lie sciaillailt
ig
The mode • ned for this step is the dismissal of
the head of his stag who has been replaced
by M. Vie iissjor of the Ist legion, who was on
duty when t printing establishment of Boole was
pillaged. You may remember that this disgraceful
riot, directed against the presses of the People, was
the inauguration of the excesses of the reatitioaary
partin 1848.
committee on the Council of State's Bill has
adopted to-day, by seven votes against six, the fol-
lowing wording of the second paragraph of the first
article: "The President of the Republic shall be im-
peachable of high treason if he make use of his au-
thority to instigate (provoluer), to the violatieekof the
43th Article of the Constitution."
M. de Broglie has undertaken a visit to the Birk°
with the view to effect conciliation. Louis NaTo-
icon was willing to listen if the Responsibility Bill
were adjourned.
The Assembly, in its sitting of to-day, rammed the
debate on the Lyons and Avignon Railway Bill. An
amendment was morel by M. Lebeeuf, tending to
secure compensation to the shareholders of the old
company fur their confiscated caution-money, by an-
thortstng them to enjoy a preference in taking shares,
and allowing them to pay in coupons of caution-
money. This amendment was rejected.
A long debate ensued upon an amendment pro-
posed by M. Sain, in favour of a public adjudication
and competition, instead of a direct concession of the
line. This amendment was adopted•-by 360 votes
against 186.
M. Lacrosse proposed, in consequence, to add that
the upset price should depend upon the propor-
tionality of the subvention from the treasury. This
amendment was taken into consideration, and the
debate was adjourned till Monday.
The Assembly then proceeded to discuss the third
reading of the Communal Electoral Bill. General
Lamoricii'ar, president of the committee, explained
that the present bill applied simply to the municipal
elections. To regulate the franchise in regard to
political and departmental elections, there would be
separate bills brought in. M. Cremieux would take
note of this new declaration. Lamoriciere replied
that it was by no means new ; he had made the same
announcement quite as categorically on the second
reading. After this the house proceeded to the dis-
cussion of the articles.

M Monet brought forward again his amendment
to Article 9, which proposes to reduce from two years
to one, the term of residence required for electors who
have a domicile of adoption in the commune. This
amendment was defended by M. do Laroehejaquekin,
and opposed by M. de Vatimesnil. On being put to
the vote it was rejected by 328 votes against 327.
The Mountain voted. The sitting was suspended to
verify without delay this division. The verification
gave a majority of 321 against 320, against the amend-
ment. The same relative majority of one appeared,
although the numbers were reduced in consequence
of several members having neutralised their votes by
a second ticket of a different colour. A fresh ballot
was then demanded, and for that purpose the amend-
ment was moved again with the substitution of
" year and a day " for " ono year." But this was
rejected. M. Morin proposed eighteen months, which
was also rejected. the paragraph of the committee
was then adopted. The remainder of the sitting
presented no interest.
The extensive changes in the prefectures which I
mentioned yesterday have spread consternation far
and wide in the ranks of the Orleanists and legiti-
mists. It is understood that a second batch of dis-
missals will speedily follow, and that nothing but
unreserved and zealous devotion to the principle of
the President's re-election can secure any functionary
in the quiet possession of his office. The most
striking instance of the uncompromising spirit of
Bonapartism which has dictated the dismissals is
the case of M. Meunier, the prefect of the Cher.
This gentleman is the brother-in-law of MM. Odilon
and F. Barret. lie was appointed to a sub-pre-
fecture immediately after the revolution of 1830,
was afterwards promoted to a prefecture, and has
remained in office ever since. The recollection of the
I services of MM. Barrot to the Elysee, aided by the
active exertion of M. F. llarrot's personal influence,
twice saved M. Meunier during the Baroche and
Faucher ministries from the fate that has now over-
taken him. M. 0. Barrot is said to have been so
much affected by the event that he was unequal to
attend the Assembly yesterday. M F. Barrot re-
' monstrated with M. Thorigny, who told him that
the blow came from a higher quarter.
The new prefects and sub-prefects, as may be
supposed, owe their elevation to their proved or
presumed devotion to the person and personal policy
of the President.

At the Bourse, the Five per Cents. fell 15c., and
closed at 91.35 ; the Three per Ceuta. fell 5e., and
closed at 56.35.

SUNDAY EVZNTNO.
Notwithstanding the sinister rumours that pre-
vailed, according to wont, on the eve of the Paris
elections, these are proceeding to-day, amid the mast
stagnant tranquillity, in a fog worthy of London. I
have just returned from visiting the poll of the 2nd
arrondissement, one of the wealthiest quarters of
Paris. In the court-yard of the Maine I found a
company of national guards, with their bayonets
piled. Fusing into the interior I followed
a solitary elector to the apartment where
the juge de pail ordinarily holds its sittings.
Here the votes were taken. I never saw anything
so deserted. There was not a soul in the room but
the electoral board, consisting of four persons seated
at a table, and an individual, of more dignified preten-
sions, in a white neckcloth, whom I took to be the
mayor. The elector advanced to the table and deli-
vered a card attesting his identity to the chairman of
the board, distinguished from his colleagues by the
red ribbon in his button-hole. The chairman read the I
number 386, and the card was checked by one of
the clerks. The elector then presented a folded ticket
which the chairman took and dropped through a
slit into a box about two feet square, place upon the
table. The elector then retired. I was asked to
vote, but, although I for good reasons declined, was
permitted to look on unmolested at the operation.
was struck with the ease with which you could read,
the printed name of the candidate Devinck inside the
ticket. The electors came up very slowly, not above
thirty presenting themselves in the course of half an
hour, between twelve and one o'clock. They were
all well-dressed, respectable-looking people.
The Arenement states that the votes of the army
for the election of to-day are nearly all blank.
The adoption of M. Sain's amendment upon the
Lyons and Avignon Railway Rill completely upset
the whole system of the scheme of the committee,
which the government supported. In order to un-
derstand the present state of the question, it is neces-
sary to explain that, whereas the government pro-
posed to lease the line to a company for 99 years,
with a state grant in aid of 60 millions francs, and a
state guarantee of interest upon 30 millions besides,
the resolution of the Assembly throws the lease open
to competition, with the expectation of obtaining an
offer more favourable to the state.

M. Lacrosse, after this decision was come to, ob-
served that it would be necessary for the Assembly
to decide whether the competition should relate to
the offer to accept a shorter lease, or a smaller govern-
ment grant, as it might otherwise be impossible to
calculate the relative value of otters that companies
might make. lie proposed that the term of 99 years
should at all events stand, and that the reduced
offers should relate to the amount of aid from the
state. This point is to be decided on Monday.
After the verification of the division of yesterday,
in which Monet's amendment, substituting one year
instead of two for the domicile of adoption, was only
lost by one vote, the Abbe Coquerel, whose name was
found on two cards of opposite colours, solemnly de-
clared at the tribune that he had only put one ticket
into the ballot box, and that in favour of the amend-
ment. M. Rey, in whose name two blue cards and
one white one was found, declared that he only put
in one white one, that is, that he had voted for the
amendment. Thus, .Monet's amendment, without
these extraordinary adulterations of the ballot,
would have been carried.

At the sitting of 1; yramid 4 Club on Friday
night, the Duke de Broglie declared against revision,
in consequence of the President's last message.
'4. Leo de Laborde presented yesterday a propo-
sition for returning to the legitimate monarchy; but
'l. Dupin refused to take it.
It was reported last night that M. de Morncy
would take the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs,

biftisai taint Turgot would be made Commander-
ifi-Chier el the National Guard in place of General
Perrot.
General Lcevestine is officially named Superior
Commandant of the Garde Nation.ale de la Seine.
The official list of those who won prizes in tke
gold ingot lottery has been published. The great
prize of 16,0001. was won by a vine-dresser at floury,
where the finest champaigne is grown. Only one
spurious ticket claimed the prize, and that was so
gross a forgery as to be instantly recognised.

SPAIN.

MADRID. Nov. 25.

The Chamber of Deputies has, at the request of
M. Bravo Murillo, granted leave to M. Moyano to
bring in his motion for impeaching the ministers for
the illegal indemnities accorded to the house of M.
Bertran de Lis.

ITALY.
PI hIMONT.

TURIN, Nov. 27.

The Minister of Finance has presented a bill for a
treaty of commerce and navigation with Austria.
General Lamarmora, Minister of War, has replied to
the interpellations of M. Brofferio.

.
TWO SICILIES.
The rumour that the King of Naples was going to
Vienna is not confirmed. Changes in the cabinet are
talked of, owing to the expected retirement of the
Marquis Fortunato, who is more than 80 years of
age. Prince Satriono is said to be likely to succeed
him.

GERMANY.

EXTINCTION OF ANOTHER CONSTITUTION.

An ordinance of the Grand Duke, " given at
Biebrich, Nov. 23," announces that the constitution
of the duchy of Nassau, promulgated after the events
of 1848, is abolished. fhe present assembly will
bo replaced by two chambers. Ihe election will take
place according to the Prussian law, and will hold
good for six years.
HANOVER.

The subjects of King George V. have been again
thrown into alarm; this time by an announce-
ment that his Majesty assumes personally the
supreme command of the army. As the monarch
is hopelessly blind, it is necessary. to state the
sense in which this determination is understood
in Germany. When the prince of a German
state declares himself commander-in-chief of the
armed force, he signifies that the army ceases to be
placed under the authority of a responsible minister ;
and it ceases to be within the action of constitutional
government ; becomes a facile instrument in the,
hands of the only individual in the state not respon-'
sible to another for his conduct. In the unfortunate
situation in which the king finds himself, the com-
mand of the army will now be exercised by his first
aide-de-camp, or, more probably, by the camarilla
which cannot fail to surround a prince reduced to see
only through the eyes of othcrs. The disposition
and employment of the troops, as well as all promo-
tions, arc now no longer under the direction of the
Minister of War, who is thus stripped of bis most
important prerogatives.