The Express.
London, England, 1866-09-08 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8.

Avow; the difficulties through which Count
BISMARCK has to clear his way is a King seventy
years of age, a venerable sentimentalist who has not
yet learnt the judge's lesson of experience, never to
state his reasons fur a judgment. King WILLIAM
has lately received a small deputation of Hanoverian
noblemen, who very respectfully entreated him to
preserve their own Sovereign on his throne, and the
integrity of his kingdom. This loyal deputation—for
their loyalty was heartily acknowledged and com-
mended by tho KING to whom they respectfully de-
clined allegiance—appealed as fervent royalists
to King WILLIAM'S monarchical sympathies for a
brother in distress, and pleaded the right divine of
Ring GEORGE as confidently as if the fortunes of
one branch at least of the House of HANOVER had
not been made by a revolution which postponed
the right divine to political expediency and na-
tional convenience. They refer with artful pathos
to a gushing declaration of King Wirmasm's late
brother, at the funeral of ERNEST AUGUSTUS, that
he would be the friend of Gizmos, a sentence
which King WitLism may perhaps interpret in
the sense of relieving him from the burden
of Kingship under difficulties. But these Harm-
verians, while addressing a susceptible and senti-
mental Monarch, seem to have borne a man
of sterner stuff in mind. They take care to
assure the KING that Hanover, forming a part
of the new Northern Confenleration, and under
Prussian military protection, can never again be
obnoxious to Prussian policy and preponderance ;
so that, in fact, the question of Hanoverian inde-
pendence and autonomy would resolve itself, ac-
cording to these respectable courtiers and func-
tionaries, into nn affair of the heart between a
merciful father and a prodigal son.
The reply of King WILLIAM to this affecting
address, as we read it, is a document which, out
of respect to misfortune, must not be placed
among the masterpieces of serious comedy
which a dramatically barren age has pro-
duced. There are evident signs of what our
neighbours call el,7l(tboration in its style. The
royal JACOB does the sentiment, and the Esse of
the Cabinet does the business. Like the member
of the firm, who, when he refused a favour, al-
ways pleaded the severity of his partner—a mo-
dest and timid gentleman in the back parlour—in
excuse, King WILLIAM admires and values the loyal
spirit of the Hanoverian noblemen, and almost
deplores the political exigencies which have made
him adopt the resolution of annexation as a duty.
He feels acutely this painful obligation towards
a royal House to whom he is bound by
ties of relationship, and he protests most
earnestly, in spite of the scoffers, that his
aim.; and intentions concerning the position of
Prussia in Germany have never gone beyond
" moral conquests," and that only the force of cir-
cumstances and the increasing hostility of pre-
tended allies have driven him in his old age to
such material instead of moral conquests at the
point of the sword, or more strictly speaking at the
breech of the needle-gun. So far the royal JACOB ;
but now the Ministerial Esau steps in, and gives
his reasons, which are so terribly conclusive,
that the Deputation can only resign themselves to
the will of PROVIDENCE, and do their best to per-
suade their fellow-subjects to accept their destiny
with resignation. As to the justice of the claims
of Prussia in the late war, it seems to this bene-
volent Monarch to be proved by the simple fact
that " without their accomplishment Prussia
" could not last, or have a prosperous develop-
" went." Moralists perhaps will scarcely accept
this very royal and revolutionary idea of
" justice between State and State." It is
neither more nor less than that enlightened self-
interest which, after accomplishing its ends on
any and every pretext, has no further need of
dissimulation. King WILLIAM is entirely per-
suaded that his prayers have been heard,
and that PROVIDENCE has favoured the bold-
ness of his Minister's designs, because they
have succeeded ; and he asks for no other
proof of the public equity of all his proceedings
than their results. It was hardly to be expected
that these loyal Hanoverians could appreciate the
simplicity of this Prussian idea of international
justice, even while they bowed to the decree of
PROVIDENCE. But when the KING reminded them
that the Court of Hanover had deliberatelyeepoused
the cause of Austria against its nearest and natural
ally, that in reply to an offer of neutrality and friend-
ship it had taken up arms for Austria, these un-
fortunate gentlemen may well have felt that their
Sovereign had honestly earned the penalty of sub-
jection to the Power he had defied. Their pre-
sent supplication, it is true, was very modest ;
they only wanted a court to themselves ; as for
all the essentials of the royal prerogative they
cheerfully consented, on the part of King Games;
to all the conditions of vassalage---to be
garrisoned by a Prussian army, represented
by Prussian diplomatists, and in short to
be part and parcel of Prussia in all but
the royal family and palace. It nays much

for the authority of Count BISMAICIE that he bag '
managed to convince his Royal Master of the
obligation he owes to his subjects and to GetmalaY,
not to sacrifice their interests NO the interim* of
the common country to sentimental scruples and
family feelings. Nor need any but the most
fantastic English loyalty be disturbed by very
violent emotion at the spectacle of the not un-
merited misfortunes of the Hanoverian dynasty,
who have reigned long enough to show how sin-
cerely bigoted and honestly reactionary princes,
in personal character most amiable, are apt to
become, when retransplanted from St. James's-
parg into the good old German soil from which
they sprang.