The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-05 00:00:00

PRUSSIA

BERLIN, MAY 2.

The statement published by you in a letter from Berne,
purporting to give the contents of the proposition made
by the members of the Neufchatel Conference to both
Prussia and Switzerland, is, I have no doubt, very nearly
correct. The Zeit reprints a somewhat similar statement,
as extracted from the organ of the Swiss Federal Govern-
ment, the and adds the following commentary

to it :
We must for the present leave it undecided whether the
above statement is in all respects correct ; we will only
say, that if it were so, we should be driven to the assump-
tion that the arrangement of this affair is not quite so close
at hand as most people assume it to be. We attach little
value to the circumstance that the pecuniary claim which
formed part of the Prussian demands has been reduced to
the half, for it is sufficiently well known that his Majesty
the King did not demand this sum as an equivalent or as
an indemnity for rights to be given up by him; the two
millions of francs demanded would never have flowed into
the state treasury or into the privy purse, and Prussia
will still contrive to find the means of fulfilling the objects
for which that sum was destined, even though the entire
pecuniary demand should be dropped, The whole affair
does not turn, as the Bund seems to understand it and to
represent it, upon the driving a more or less advantageous
bargain, but on the contrary, upon bringing about the
settlement of a pending question in the interest of Euro-
pean order and European public law, in a way that it may
not involve any danger to the former or any grave results
1 to the latter in future. It appears to us, therefore, easily
conceivable that one or other of the less important points
should be given up on this side ; but we look on it as very
improbable indeed that the fulfilment of the obligations to
be undertaken by Switzerland should be left dependent
simply on the goodwill of the authorities there for the
time being, as would appear to be the case stated by the
Bund.
I have no positive information on this subject, but I
believe that a communication was made to Count llatz-
feldt on the matter of Neufchatel in the early part of this
week; and that the King, while expressing his acqui-
escence in the greater part of the conference proposal,
nevertheless urges that the mere undertaking of the Swiss
Government that the revenues of the church property,
secularised in 1848, shall not he employed for other than
church purposes, is a far less ef3cient security than the
restitution of the property itself by the church would be;
and he raises a further object ion to the revision of the Neuf-
chatel constitution being entered on so early as proposed,
before the excited passions an i political animosity have
had time to cool. For the purpose of obtaining an altera-
tion in these two points of religious and political impor-
tance it appears, also, that the' kin,* is willing enough
to waive the money payment which Switgerland was
to he le quired to make ; for, as I mentioned to you
in a former letter, whatever money was obtained
from the Federal Government towards the arrears
of the Domain revenues was destined to go towards
indemnifying such poor Royalists of Neufchatel as
have lost house, and;_honee, and livelihood, in con-

sequence 'of the late unsuccessful attempt of a few
patrician families to throw off the Republican regime; and
whether he gets two millions or one million traces, or
nothing at all, the King will still fulfil, the obligation he
feels incumbent on him to provide for the poor people,
whose loyalty to, him has caused them to be Misled to
their ruin by self—seeking persons.
I mentioned to you'recently that some portions of the
poisoned bread. which had nearly produced so much mis
chief at Ilong Kong had been forwarded to Baron Liebig,
at Munich, for analysis. The sample consists of two oblong
loaves that have been baked in a mould, probably a tin
form. They have been enclosed in a tin case, hermetically
soldered, but, owing to the bread saving been put up in a
moist state, the loaves were covered with a thick mould
by the time they arrived. The. analysis made by Baron
Liebig leaves no doubt that arsenic was the poison-
ous ingredient used on that occasion, and more-
over, every portion of the bread. crust and crumb,
contains that poison so, thoroughly and so equably
distributed, that most Undoubtedly it must have been
kneaded into the dough, if it were not Oren originally
mixed with the flour. According to one analysis 50
grammes of bread contained 260 milligraturnes.of arsenic,
which, in 1 lb of 500 grammes, would make from 38 to 39
grains of our apothecaries' weight ; according to another
the 1 lb of bread yielded 2.8 grammss, or 42 grains of
arsenic. The quantity here found is evidently
quite enough for all lethal purposes, supposing the
whole quantity of arsenic thus introduced into the
stomach became at once active ; by its intimate
mixture with the bread, however, it was brought into
contact with the coats of the stomach, or introduced
into the secretions only gradually, according as the bread
itself was digested ; ,the vomiting, caused by the first
g adual exhibition of the arsenic in very minute quantities,
r; is the means of preventing the remaining larger quanti_
ties, already received into the stomach, from producing
rhe result intended by the perpetrator of this wholesale
crime. The samples of bread are understood to have been
forwarded to Munich by some of the persons whose lives
were thus endangered, and who were not satisfied with.''
the results attained in the examination of February 15.
Last Wednesday, the birthday of the preseht Emperor
of 'Russia, the King's nephew, was celebrated at Chariot-
tenburg, as is usual here. The Russian Minister and the
entire personnei of the Russian Embassy, were, according
to custom, Melted to the royal table, at., which the two.
Princes of Leuchtenberg, sons of the Grand Duchess
Marie, who have within the last, few ' days arrived
here on a visit, also were present. Yesterday the
Prince of Prussia arrived here, for the. purpose of
attending the spring inspection of 111(0 Gaards. The
various Princes and Princesses of the Roy4l family now
present inßerlin dined with the King and Queen at the
Schloss here, and this tr,ornitigttie Prin+e left tier Potsdam,'
to commence with the Ist Regimentpf Foot.Guerds.
Last—Saturday evening Prince Alfred arrived in
Leipsie, en his way from Switzerland to Gotha, and
after devoting a few hours to, the inspection of the
observatory, museum, and other, sights of the town,
proeeeded onwards the next day to his destination,
where he arrived. on Sunday evening. The. Duke of
Saxe Coburg Gotha, accompanied by _our, Charge
d'Affaires,-Mir. Barnard, went to receive hinn at the
railway station. Alter spending about -a week there,
Prince Alfred was to proceed to Coburg for a longer stay.
A week or two back, on the authority of the Rhenish
papers, .I informed you that a house had been taken for
the Prince of Wales-at Bonn, who would soon arrive there
to pass a few terms at that univa rsity, as his father had
done before him and 'it was also added that -Prince
Alfred was subsequently to join him there. Since I have
had occasion to remark with what pertinacity the Swiss
papers persist in calling Prince -Alfred the Prince of
Wales, the first statement, about the. Prince that is to
study at Bonn has become very apocryphal in my eyes,
and the more I hive enquired' into the truth of it, the
more convinced I am how very much it stands in need of
confirmation, if it is to be received as true.
The Committee that was formed about a year ago in

Halle for erecting a statue to Handel in that,. his native
town, on occasion of the approaching .centennial anniver-
sary of :his death, has: already made such satisfactory
progress in the all-important work of collecting subscrip-
tions to that end, that it has empowered the sculptor,
Heidel, of this town, to proceed with ,the elabOration of
his colossal model of the great,masfer, A. smaller. study
thelarger -work; which has been finished, about two to
three feet high, has already met with- the greatest ,appro-
bation from all those interested in the work, and more
particularly from the King of Priissia Sand the Duke of
Saxe Coburg, two•of the best.judgetrof art in Germany.
As I believe there is a branch Committee in London fur
advancing the same object, it may be satisfactory to some
of your readers to know that the general affair is makina
progress.
The Executive Council of the Manchester Exhibition of
Treasures of Art in England has taken a most proper and
gracelul step in inviting Dr. Waagen, of this town, to be
present at the opening solemnity, and in franking him to
and from BA-lin and the scene of their labours. What-
ever merit may be due to the gentlemen composing that
committee for the execution of their grand and aAmi.rablg.
plan, it will be admitted by all that no one has furnished
them with so admirable a catalogue raissonnee of the trea,
sures of art in England as the German professor has done.
The consciousness of possessing these treasures has led
Englishmen to contemplate the possibility such an exhi-
bition, and the existence of such a work as Dr. Waagen's
has made it both possible and easy to find nad select the
necessary works.