The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-05 00:00:00

GERMANY.

HAMBURG, Dec. 2.
It is not often that an English journalist is able,
from personal experience, to descnbe the nature of
the proceeding which the German police term an
answeisting, or expulsion. Within the last three
weeks I have experienced it twice. I was yesterday '
expelled from Berlin, and exactly a fortnight pre-
viously was expelled from Vienna. It is right that
the English public should know how your corres-
pondents on the Continent are treated, and that pub-
lic opinion should be brought to bear upon the te-
nants of Dowuing-street, in order to secure for Eng-
lishmen abroad greater respect and civility than the
arbitrary and ignorant police are inclined to bestow.
In narrating my adventures I shall take the last
first.

Yesterday morning at half-past 6 I was disturbed
by a sergeant of police, who ordered me to get up in-
stantly and accompany him to the bureau of the
police district within which I lodged. Arrived there,
the district captain politely informed me that I was
expelled from Berlin, and must leave within four
and twenty hours. Of course this gentleman knew
nothing of the motives of the measure, and all
inquiries were therefore in vain. His politeness was
however, very great. To my astonishment I found
that my affair was not settled by the communication
which I had received; but, as I too soon learnt, my
troubles had only just begun. Having made some
marginal note on an ominous-looking sheet of paper,
which I suppose were his instructions from the head
office, the district captain sent for a policeman, and,
still most urbane, requested me to accompany his
subordinate to the prefecture of police. Curious to
know whether I was in custody or not, I in-
quired of my conductor, the moment we got
into the street, whether I wee in his custody,
or whether I was at liberty. The constable,
as polite as his officer, intimated pretty plainly that
the former was the case. In his company, therefore,
I quietly walked to the prefecture, where I was de-
livered up to a double guard of the same nondescript
animal, half-policeman, half-soldier, whose politeness
was less remarkable. After waiting two hours on a
hard bench, in a small, damp room, the higher officials
at last made their appearance, and the further steps
in my case were gone into. An individual, dressed
in plain clothes, most carefully scrutinised the docu-
ments which were handed to him by a constable,
and after turning down several corners and writing
mysterious memoranda thereon, with an enormous
waste of sand, at last gruffly informed me that he
was instructed to order me to quit Berlin at once,
that I was not to be allowed to go to my lodgings, or
to the English embassy, or to the Prussian Ministry
for Foreign Affairs, or to write to anyone. He also read
to me some kind of unintelligible document, the only
part of which I understood, was the threat of four
months' imprisonment in the house of correction if I
ventured to return. No remonstrances were listened
to—no appeal was allowed. I was told that Herr
von Ilinekeldev, the president of the police, would
not see me, and ust as my temper was most tried, a
superior kind of gentleman entered the room, evi-
dently for the purpose of reconnoitering the wild
Englishman. At first he was most rude and bearish,
but on a polite appeal, in which I stated that I had
the honour to represent the Daily News, that I was
not unknown to more than one of the ministers, and
that I knew the English elworyti cruffaires, • slight
delay ensued. Several conferences were held with
another still higher official, and eventually I
was admitted to the latter. This gentleman sur-
passed all the rest in politeness. He heard
my appeal, took a written notice of it, and seemed
inclined to allow me to use whatever personal influ-
ence I possessed in Berlin to procure the remanding
or delay of the measure. However, he did not dare
to do it on his own responsibility, and a certain'
police director, whose name I know not, would only
allow me to remain one short hour in Berlin to pack
my baggage; the constable to whose custody I
was confined having strict orders not to allow me to
visit any one, nor to write a single letter. I luckily
met a friend on m road home, who undertook to do
what be could for me, and before 12 o'clock my
constable carried me off to the Hamburg railway
station. There I was confined in the watch-house,'
not allowed to speak or write to any one, and, only
by courtesy, allowed to procure a dinner. In this
kennel, treated I must say again with civility, I was
obliged to remain until six o'clock in the evening,
when the constable mw me into the train and handed
me my
upor
passt.
To sum p this came, I was kept in custody full
eleven hours, without being allowed even to attempt
to procure a merciful consideration, provided I really
bad been guilty of a serious offence, still km to pro-
cure justice from the ?rumba authorities or protso-

tion from the representative of the English govern-
ment. What were the grounds of such an unjust
and most tyrannical proceeding ? The only ground
assigned—not the slightest accusation was made
against me—was "polizeilirhe grande," anglire, police
considerations. I was informed that my passport
was out of order, that the Prussian police did not
respect the passports of British ambassadors, that
every Englishman must be provided with a foreign-
office passport. Apart from the fact that I have been
on the Continent long before the alteration was made
in the price of foreign-office passports, when English-
men were allowed to travel with Belgian passports,
I was provided with an English passport, given me
by Lord Cowley, our minister to the German confe-
deration in Frankfort, which contained every visa
that was necessary. burely it is unheard-of pre-
sumption—nay, even violence—on the part of the
police, to refuse to respect the passport of the British
ambassador; and Lord Palmerston will not be doing
his duty to his representative, Lord Cowley, or to the '
British public, if he permit such an act to pass un-
reproved.
To show, however, the absurdity of the reason as-
signed by the Prussian police, I need only mention
that the very first visa on this said passport is that
of the Prussian embassy at Frankfort-on-the-Maine,
whose duty it most assuredly would have been to re-
fuse to riff,: an improper or insufficient passport.
The insufficiency of my passport is, I suspect, not
the reel motive of my expulsion. It has ansen from
the police alliance between Austria and Prussia; the
police authorities of the latter country being too
willing to fulfil the wishes of the madmen who rule
in Vienna. I believe that there is a perfect recipro-
city between them, and that the Vienna police are
equilly ready to expel any one the Prussian autho-
rities may have removed from Berlin. It was my
misfortune, last Monday week, to receive orders to
quit :Vienna within twenty-four hours, without
either the police or the ministry condescending to
inform me or the English ambassador (as far as I yet
know) upon what grounds. From a private source
I learnt that the icnnese police were acting under
the orders of the prime minister, who felt personally
displeased with the nature of my letters from that
city. It is true that I wasnot entirely unknown to the
police of Vienna, having once used plainer language
to the police officials than their arrogance was accus•
tamed to. The Earl of Westmoreland, who repre-
rents England in Vienna, was unable to do any-
thing for me before my expulsion, and I have heard
nothing from him since. From the soft and timid
manner which his lordship adopted, I am inclined to
believe that he never will get any satisfactory
answer. Ido not profess to know exactly what the
duties of an ambassador really are, but I have always
understood that the foreign ambassadors or diplo-
matic representatives of every kind could only comm•
nicate with the foreign minister or the sovereign himself.
fho Earl of Westmoreland in my case thought proper
to send one of his attaches to the police, who of course
learnt nothing more than I did, and, if all I have
heard be true, met with no more civility. The Earl
of Westmoreland certainly knows his own duty best,
but I must confess that I felt most deeply humiliated
when I contrasted the difference between his conduct
and that of the American minister in an exactly si-
milar case. Mr. McCurdy, the Minister of the
United States, simply wrote to Prince Schwarzen-
berg, when an American subject was ordered in the
same way, and without any motive being assigned,
to quit Vienna, inquiring for a written statement
of the grounds, and, if possible, the withdrawal of
the measure. Mr. McCurdy was successful. The
Earl of Westmoreland has as yet been unsuccessful,
and the consequence of his mildness is that the police
of Berlin have had an opportunity of showing their
slavish inclination fur their Austrian colleagues, that
a British subject has been unjustly arrested and de-
prived of his liberty in the most odious and tyran-
nical manner.

I have submitted my statement to Mr. Howard,
our chary' d'affaires in Berlin, and be has already
informed me, verbally, that he will do all in his
power. Perhaps an English minister may succeed,
without the intervention of Lord Palmerston, in pro-
curing the withdrawal of an unjust measure, and
some kind of satisfaction for the arrest of a British
I subject. It surely, however, will be for Lord Pal-
meiston to demand from the Prussian government
some explanation of the insult offered to the British
ambassador in Frankfort-on-the-Maine.
BERLIN, DEC. I.—The correspondent of the Daily
News, who had just arrived from Vienna, was arrested this
morning at an early hour, and kept under arrest till the
departure of the Hamhurgh train, at 6 in the evening, oy
which he was compelled to leave Berlin and the territory of
Prussia. No reasons were given, except that the order
was issued on poll:ciliate grumlen, or " reasons of police."
A representation was made to the foreign-office through
the English Embassy, but no answer has vet been received.
—Times, Dee. 4.