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

Elie erpretso.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
Istesied frw "The gapes." Issas Eveslag piper.
ts=tts (Mos 10, ilosen.strest. boy Two 9%lmb .. tbs
isy of pstsiestios.

MOH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins Dar—blarbiog. lb. la--.....Abibus" lb. 24E.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 1.

Tae Eorooean events and results of 1850 will on
doubt be celebrated with the greatest exultation in the
palaces of despotic kings, in the offices of their retro-
grade minirers, as well al in the cloisters of the
soaks and the balk of the inquisition. The great
absolutist and bigot principle in politics inn in
religion his triumphed every where. National rights
have been swept away, conseittitions of all kinds, how-
ever moderate, however old as monarchy itself, have
been crushed. Theetuding up of even an aristocracy for
their order has been treated with the same relentless
vengeance as the rising of the mob; artillery have
quelled both, and military executions, followed'
by confiscation, have borne both down to a com-
mon level. The cuntotions of these three years put
awakened the hope that such agitation might
end in the establishment, at least here and
there throughout Europe, of eoostitu'ions like our
own, in which all climes would enjoy their rights
and in which the throne might have found a sup-
port less costly and tyrannical than a million of bayo-
tete. All the.' hopes have disappeared. Far from any
more countries having emerged from despotism to
representative rights, those who already enjoyed
them have been flung back under absolutism ; and one
gigantic system of military rule, avowing intimida-
tion and brute force for its only principle of govern-
ment, sways wide Europe from the :Mediterranean to
the Baltic, and from the English Channel to the
Black See.

It is not that Europe has relapsed to the state of I
things in 1817, but rather to that of 1800. It bu
rear egraded at least half a century. And in examining
the two periods, we shall find great similarity in
the principles which govern, the interests which
struggle, and the powers which prevail. Thee, as
now, a great military autocrat weighed upon Europe,
and d:cated to it laws Every liberal inatitutioe, all
freedom of thought and action, he strictly proscribed.
He planted new monarchs, and tolerated or patro-
nised old ones, not indeed over nation@ (fa he
abhorred the idea), but over districts. And they
were to role despotically, with a view to the
support of his great military system, and without
one thought for the contentment and develop-
ment of the people under them. Such were the
governorsued the governments that NAPOLEON im-
posed upon Germany at the beginning of the century ;
such are the governors and the governed that NICHO-
LAS, with all the absolutist srrogauce, and without
the military glory of NsroLzox, imposes on the
MUM errantry at the doss of 1860. If NAPOLEON
presided over the meeting of kings at Dresden half a
century beck, NicuoLAs equally played the stmrain
at Warsaw. The Autrian Emperor reigns solely by
the grace of the CZAR, and the King of Peunsta by
his permission. And Russian armies were not more
triumphant in Hungary, than Russian policy is now
in Heise and in Holstein.
The wretched politician, to whom is mainly attri-
butable this prostration of Germany at the feet of
Rude, is Prince ..—svnwsueseesto. He it is who
called on Remise troops to destroy the constitution
and the nationality of Hungary, and who has since em-
ployed the same means for thesubjugation of Germany.
Prussia a short twelvemonth silica maintained an
attitude of resistance, hoisted, however doubtingly,
a constitutional banner, and still inspired all the
minor princes with that confidence which made
them cluster round the court of Berlin for support in
their independence. Rut the Austrian minister has
fought a ye tee diplomatic campaign, intermingled
with military menaces and court intrigue,
Latest the patriotic, the German, and Coll-
@taut local party in Prussia; and the conclusion
hag been the intimidation and surrender of the king,
the defeat and evinction of the constitutionalists, and
the enthronement of a minister who is the avowed
valet of the two absolutist courts, and the incarna-
tion of all that is illiberal, retrograde, and treache-
rous.

- -
i.
There s nut in the whole range of European his-
tory the example of a great country consenting to
play so vile a part as that which Prussia has con-
sented to in Hesse, whither the Prussian envoy
went first with the pretence of protecting the Hessians,
making use of this character to persuade them to
submit; and no sooner is their submission to the
Frankfort Diet obtained, than the Prussian PEUCKER
comes forth In his real character of a mere clerk, sent
to do the work of Austria, and to receive its kicks.
History has not on its records an instance of such
unfathomable meanness.

%A post mesh sf 1860 is, indeed, the degradation
of Persia to the rank of • second-rate power in in-
fluence, whilst to measure the depth to which it has
fallen in dignity and honour is past all possibility of
calculation. Although those who have thus de-
graded Prussia number, perhaps, not a score of
individuals—fur every party, every class, every
man of honour and spirit, would repudiate
them—still that such mean and pusillanimous
wretches should have been allowed to trifle away in
their vile intrigues, their viler lies, and vilest
cowardice, the honour of • great country, is an in-
delible blot upon Prussia. Never again, we flew, can
either the niquarch or the name of Prussia stand in
the front rank of nations. It has belied every pro-
mise, betrayed every principle, destroyed every hope.
As a coastitutional country it no longer exists. After
the events of Hesse, and the taunts of SCIIWARZEN-
BERG'S letter, what minister with such brands upon
his front, thirst meet an sic mbly of honourable men,
except with a certainty of being scouted? The free-
dom of Prussia at home, as well as its dignity abroad,
have both become a mockery. The court of Berlin
has taken, after that of Vienna, its place as the mere
satellite of Russia, to do its bidding, further its
policy, and crouch before its might. All the edi-
ices that even the late king and his states-
men so patiently and cautiously built op,
that commercial union and intellectual lead in
Germany ,—even these are overthrown. Prussia will no
more be allowed to head a Zollverein than a German
parliament. It is Austria henceforth that will dictate
its tariffs and impose its revenue officers upon Ger-
many.
Bat whilst Prussia and Austria have thus sunk
into the rank of secondary and subservient powers,
betraying and weakening Germany and every German
interest, instead of 'trey gthenio g and protecting it, an-
other power will infallibly cep in to take that place
which Prussia has abdicated. Already Bavaria, in
understanding with the other minor kings, has per-
ceived that Austria was betraying them, in return for
Prussia'. betrayal of her ducal allies. And these
minor princes of Germany, comprising, be it re-
membered, the greater portion of the German popula-
tion, are already looking oat for a powerful pro-
tector spinet the despotic dictation of the
triple alliance. For this protector they have
nowhere to look but to France, whose hereditary
feeling it is, indeed, to act guardian to that group
of independent states nearest to her frontier, whom
it helped to emancipate themselves during the thirty
years' war, which it raised to the rank of kingdoms in
the days of NAPOLEON, and which it grouped together
under its especial suzerainty at the epoch of the confede•
ration of the Rhine. The court of Bavaria has sent a spe-
cial mission to Paris, to demand of the nephew of the
gnat NAPOLEON protection and aid. 8o that we are
to have • French and a Russian party in Germany.
Both is the charge of tendencies and alliance which
1851 is introducing to take the place of the Austrian
and Prussian, the absolutist and constitutional
struggle, of 1850.
In all this we can discover not a gleam of hops,
sot one guarantee of independence. As to upholding
German constitutions under the joint dictation

at Austria and Prude, the very idea is a mockery.
The eld iron cage of the Frankfort Diet will no
doubt have its iron bars restored, and the
little powers and their little people most creep in
like so many mice to feed and crouch in silence. As
sacs as ems commences, we, for oar parts, shall bid
good bye to Germany. We shall consider it to have
pat on its night-cap and gone to sleep. That night-
cap, however, we know to be the red one of the
galley slave, the symbol of degradation and prostra-
tion for a time, but also the ready signal later
Ise the people to ries and reclaim their rights, and to
take, we few, most sanguinary vengeance upon the
I oow;rds who betrayed, sad the tyrants who enslaved
them.

Some rather caustic criticisms upon the statistical
returns of agricultural population and produce made
by order of government in Ireland have recently ap-
peared in the periodical preps peculiarly devoted to
the subjects in question. Elaborate counter-state-
ments and ingenious inductions have been set forth
for the purpose of invalidating the accuracy of
Captain LARCON'S account of crops of different kinds
said to have been sown in each particular county and
poor-law union. We do not protege to pronounce any
judgment on the points in dispute. A far more per-
fect mode of collecting information would be neces-
sary in order to enable one to do so. We have
no reason to doubt the good faith in which the
official data have been compiled ; and in the absence
of anything better we are willing to acc,pt the tabu-
lar results quantum raknnt. They are at all events
approximations to the truth ; crutches on which those
must hobble who don't think it safe to run along in
the dark.
Bat more than this we fear these .0i-dip-ant autho-
ritet ye documents cannot be justly deemed. The
closely-printed volume consists almost entirely of the
undigested contents of the constabulary log, made in
each electoral division, when or how nobody can tell.
Supposing every unit and decimal in this huge mass
of figures to be literally correct, it does not very
distinctly appear to us what its practical use
in the raw state can be ? Historically it will no.
doubt be exceedingly curious and perplexing to
analysts of the kingdom of Ireland in the year 1870.
Bat for legislators, philosophers, philanthropists, or
chroniclers of the present year of grace, we fear we
should be somewhat at a Ices were we asked to say.
There is no conceivable crotchet in social speculation
for which circumstantial proofs might not be gathered
from such a volume as this. It is a vast jungle of
unpretending facts, any reasonable portion of which
you may do what you will with ; but when you have
done, there is such a trackless extent of like under-
wood around you on every side, that the exploring
band is cut down in despair.
A semblance of a msp of the entire is indeed
prefixed to the unreadable, nnrememberable, and
consequently nnuseable volume. Four widely printed
pugs contain Captain L.oRCOM'r general im-
pressions of the whole materials that have passed
through his hand.. We say his handy, for evidently
his head has been otherwise engaged—better en-
gaged probably—usefully, we have little doubt. lie
is, we believe, a man of talent and integrity, very
competent to do well what he has been appointed to
do as one of the Commissioners of Public Works in Ire-

land; and poslibly very well fitted for being placed at
the head of a sub-department of at/viatica were any ouch
in being. In that eau he would undoubtedly find
full occupation in the various duties of testing,
arranging, analysing, comparing, and coral:our:ding
the elements of his investigations, from New Year's
Day till Christmas time. We dare say he would
make many useful discoveries—or at least aff,ird
others an opportunity of doing so, by putting in order
a statistical museum. But nothing can be more unlike
such a repertory of facts than the scramble-jumble
heap before us.. Captain Lancom has other avocations;
and all he can pretend to do is to have the (Adieus-
bulary Returns weighed and lab, lied, and then show
his courage by making some three or four off-band
guesses at whit it is all worth.