The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-03 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JAN. 3.

Kim; Frederick William IV. of Prussia, whose
mental mod physical tot/dation has made him for
the last year or two the object of the couspession
..f Al Europe, has at length been mercifully with-
drawn from this earthly some. As the acts of his
twit yeah of government cannot he justified, the
duty of candour to the dead may be best discharged
by reiiesiug the groom', of excuse which may he
allegod iu hw behalf ; and the pence.s may be
useful, as y ieldinlp warnings to his successors, who
are neovueirily subject to some of the liabilities
which nook the public career of the deceased Kin
as contemptible as the opinion .f the whole world
declare" it b. i.e.

Every Prussian monarch :wends the throne umier
the evil condition that the Prussian State in its pre-
sent form is a wholly artificial our. Why the
Prussia of our geographies exists as an Suropeau
State, uo one seems able to say. There are
no natural n4llollll like thone of structure and
conformation. On the map, Prussia looks like the
Mr. Nobody of the Nursery—all limbs and no
trunk—all outline and no mass. Never before was
there such a frontier to such a paucity of square
miles. The natural weakness of Prussia in a terri-
torial sense, is n neat depressing oundition in the
furtunes of its ruler. The population u as much
an aggregation of shreds and patches as their
abode. There is no dominating sense of unity
among them, and the heir of any throne which is
hued on a Lame rubble of popular materials,
instead of ou a sound nationality, is much to
be pitied. Prussia in her present limits is an
artificial state, constructed for the convenience of
other states ; and it cannot be well governed, nor
its rulers prosperous, till some one of them shows
genius of that high order which can create • na-
tionality by animating all hearts by a common im-
pulse. The man who can kindle such a tire of •
patriotism as will consume all the discrepancies
which make Prussia the political riddle of the world,
may make her a lend fide state, and bring
her into some capacity of being well governed ; but
this was not dose ready to the hand of Frederick
William IV. ; and ho was not the man to do it ;
and whether any man can do it is as yet question-
able. Thus far, therefore, to say that any King
of Prussia has not made • good ruler is simply to
say that he was not a genius of the highest order ;
and it would be hard to blame any man for that.

Again, the late King wan horn iu 1796 ; and,
during the most impressible years of his life he warn'
in the s.onstant habit of hearing of the protracted
learn, with short alternations of hope, in which the
princess of Germany lived during the brilliant yearn '
of Bonaparte's sway. The boy lived in au atmo-
sphere of panic. He was ten years old when the
Prussian court wail trimming between Bonaparte
and Alexander of RUM* and keeping England
quiet, and Mr. Pitt exhilarated, by promises of '
alliance; while the only certainty in the case was
that Prussia, having deceived all parties, would
be punished by whichever of them should be
victinous. The boy 44 eleven must have
shared moo or less in the distress of his
parents and the court when the true object of the
Confederacy of the Rhine was revealed, and when
it was discovered that Prussia was despised by
every government in Europe, and delivered up by
them all to the mere rapacity of France. He Bed
with his parents when the French swept on towards
Berlin, and he never forgot the misery of renewing
the flight with every fresh arrival of bed news till
they reached Memel, and held themselves ready for
exile beyond the frontier. There news was ince..
isatit/y arriving of the seizure of fortissimos! stores
by the enemy, and at length that seven of the
ministers of state had sworn allegiance to Bona-
parte . He probably witnessed that pathetic sixne
between his parents and the Czar Alexander at '
Memel, in the next April, when they embraced, and
kissed, and mingled their tears, and promised each
other to devote their lives to the task of humbling
their foe. Ile probably witmcseed, too, tbe beha-
viour .1 the exar to his parents at Tthut, but a few
week. afterward., when his father was insulted in
his daily rules, in the face of the aesseabled
multitude, by the two Emperors, and when
Napoleon quailed before the indignation and grief
of the stunted mother of this twelve-year old boy—
au early instructed in the instability of slates, and
the folly .4 putting trust a princes. It wee a ins-
lancle.ly childhood, it must be owned ; but, in the
meld of our cospeasion, we cannot but wish that
the isoy had learned to shun instead of to follow
the example of untrustworthy princes. When he
returned to Berlin, his father's singularly pathetic
proclviristion, releasing the inhabitants of his lust
trireme. from their allegiance, was everywhere
before his eyes and the French language was
everywhere in his ears, from the French garrisons,
who-li were stationed all over the country. But he
was .till very young when the cheering rally took
place which showed what the people were made of,
and opened some brightness of pnspect to their
future King. His father sent him into the field while
be was yet too young for command. He had studied
military science under Scharnhonst and Know-
beck ; and be was present in most of the great
battles of 1813 and 1814.

He had been meantime instructed in philonophy
MIMI literature, which suited him much better than
practical military twittery. He had not nerve,
practical judgment, or Jaya/ion enough for action ;
yet he mud have been endowed with some high
qualitira, for his tutor, Niebuhr, when the
royal pupil was nineteen, declared that he never
wet with a finer uature. It is true, Niebuhr
speaks more of feeling and fancy than of
principle and judgment, but be declares him full
of the eehled gifts of nature. The "dream " of
the Crown Prince in those days (and there was
never a time when he did not dream) was of being
the ruler of Creme, "in order to wander among
the ruins, dream, and excavate." What a pity
that he was born to the throne of Prussia!
He was a member of the Council of State when
the question of the time Was the granting of a par-
liamentary representation. it was a bed training
for him to have heard the reasons fur giving a con-
prirueioa, if reasons there were, or to have seen
what was yielded to fear, if fear W 3,1 the cau* of
the promise ; anal then to have witnexxxd th.e long
delay, and the final breach of promise un the part