The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-03 00:00:00

PRINCL tFREDEI?ICIr OF PRUSSIA AND
THE PRINOESS ROYAL.

(From the Times of this clay.)
After the , first outbreak of the great revolutionary
war Press' a contrived for many years to keep herself
free from ei itangling alliances, and, by a vacillating and
discreditabl but, up to a certain point, successful policy,
to preserve to her subjects the blessings of a dishonour-
able peace 1 mg after the rest of Europe was weakened
and desolat, id by war. But all this caution and turn-
ming availe I not. The wheel of destiny revolved, and
Prussia coil! dno longer avoid confronting those dangers
, which she 1 tad so meanly and pusillanimously avoided.
The great r lilita,ry Power of Germany—the school of
heroes, the Oysium of tacticians, whose reviews were
visited from every part of Europe by all the students of
high militar r art—fell prostrate at a single blow, like a
giant withoi et a heart, on the field of Jena, and cur-
fenciered. wig 1 in 15 days all her etrong places into the
heeds of ti2e s conqueror. But we doubt if even this
disastrous rt 3 erse, and all the unspeakable humiliation
that succeod ey i if, so effectually lowered the character
and prestiol , of the Prussian monarcky as the course
adopted by• the degenerate successor of Frederick
the Great eAs ring the last three years. His con-
duct has is °claimed to the world that the Royal
family of I •ussia regards itself as the mere leader of
the van of I ti tssian aggression,—satraps nominally inde-
pendent, be, a use it suits the purposes of their master
that they sh y 1/(1 be so, hut really speaking the language
and doing tL e will of a foreign and hostile Power. The
effeet of this ; has been twofold; it has completely de-
graded Prin s 'a froth the rank of a first-rate Power,
making her pi •esence in the councils of &mine a users
fraud, whirl y under. the semblance of eqiiality, really
gives two vo :e s out of five to Russia. The secend effe(t
is, unless we 1 ,e much mistaken, to establish a wide and
impassable 1 m each betwen. the Court and people of
Prussia. E% re ry feeling of the nation—its patriotism, its
independence s, its Spartan courage, its highly developed
intelligence— -4 las been hurt and lacerated to the very
quick by the t disgraceful spectacle of the last few years.
The namess, if the itoyal.,lly. are associated in tbu
-minds of the people'vritili-Wilettbna'orforiii4iiltirtjedz
tion, national degradation, and the systematic sacrifice
of Prussian in tereets to Russian influence. The nation
neither ioves :aor fears its King, and views in bin and
his family th, a representation of that which it both fears
and bates.

We make 0 lege remarks, not with a view of exciting
any ill feeling between this country and Prussia, but
because they enappen to have an immediate bearing on a
very delicate and interesting subject. On the very day
on which we announced the capture of Sebastopel it also
transpired 1.1 are Prince Frederick William of Prussia had
arrived at 'auroral for the purpose of "improving his
acquaintance with the Princess Royal." It is under-
stood, so far ese a matter of this kind can be understood,
that in the year ISSI, when her Royal Highness had
attained the mature age of ten years, a kind of prelimi-
nary underst ending was entered into that she was one
day to becon ks the bride of this young Prince, the heir
presumptive to tie Prussian Crown ; and now that the
Princess has attained the age of fifteen years it may he
supposed tha t the negotiation is about to advance an-
rther stage. It is the misfortune of Royalty that these.
domestic tram !sections, which iu private life are concealed
under so much : reserve, must inevitably bo treated as
matters of ptzi dic concern, involving as they do not
merely the hs,pr. VIM or misery of two young people,
but questions of policy and alliance most important to
the future destise v of empires and of kingdoms. Is it,
then, or is it not expedient, that a daughter of England
s'sould take :her place upon the throne of Prussia;
and, iu forwar ding such a match, are the parties princi-
pally concerns el consulting the happiness of the young
Princess, or th.e safety, honour, and welfare of our So-
vereign and hi it dominions ? We lay no stress on the
fact of the raj lid and visible decay of Prussian power
and influence tierce 1851 ; nor, following the precedents
of former times, should we regard it as any substantial
objection if Kin; g Frederick William should succeed in
placing what war once a great Power on a level with
the petty kingdo ms of Saxony, Bavaria, or Wurtern-
berg. It has ne, ser been the policy of England to seek
the alliance of firs t-rate States ; and whenever she has
.deviated from that policy she has seen reason to repent
it. In one as nse, however, an alliance with Prussia
may be conside red as a step towards an alliance with
Russia. The 'two Royal families are inextricably en-
twined in the Inds of relationship, of sympathy, and
of mutual interest ; and it needs little argument to
prove that the present is, at any rate, an ill-chosen
time for bringinl e us into contact with the Court
of St. Petersburk a or raising a suspicion of its in-
fluence over any p ortion of the Royal family of Deg-
land. In humblireee Russia we are not only redriting a
barbarous and egg essive power, but plucking up from
the very depths of the ocean that mighty anchor upon
which all the anti-popular dynasties of Europe hops to
ride out the storm of public indignation and contempt.
Why should we place a daughter of England in a situa-
kion in which .deesotion to her husband must be treason
to L'er country—v shy distract her mind between wishes
for tine welfare of • the family which she has left aed that
into which sh eis to be received ? Nor is this all. Who
is there that does not see that the days of these paltry
German dynas ties are numbered, and that it is as im-
possible for thi te' survive the downfall of Russian in-
fluence as for the branches to outlive the trunk that
gives them sap and nutriment ? Upon what, indeed,
do they rest wilen deprived of these alien and exotic in-
fluences? From their subjects they have withheld the
liberty they pr•ernised, and made its loss only the more
keenly felt by at ldiag foreign degradation to internal
servitude. They await but the first blast that shakes
the forest to fall, prostrate, bearing down with them in
their ruin the lea ser plants that have sought shelter un-
der their shade. The banishment of the Royal.family
seems an indispa usable step in the course of freedom.
It has been reo in England, in France, and in Spain ;
how long may it be until it is so in Prussia also ?
Suppose this m. erriage to take place, who can tell how
soon we may see e`he Princess whose betrothal to a mem-
ber of the house aic Hohenzollern is now being hurried
on with such ill-oneened haste return to these shores,
etript of the pomp anti dignity with which she departed
from them, to find as an estele and a fugitive in the home
of her ancestors that asylum which already receives with-
in its arms so many of tbegreest ones of the earth ? Or,
far worse, why may it not be Ore fate of this Prussian
Prince, as of so many others of Royal and noble lineage,
to enter the Russian service, and to pass those years
which flattering anticipation now destines to a crown in
ignominious attendance as a General officer on the levee
of his Imperial Master, having lost even the privilege of
his birth, which is conceded to no German in Russia ?
Why link the fortunes of a daughter of England with all
this uncertainty—all this danger ? Why embark anew
on the troubled sea of internal German politics, from
which the devolution of lianover to the male branch has
so happily relieved us ? Surely, the same considerations
which would render it most imprudent for a private citizen
of assured position and easy fortune to unite his daughter
to a man engaged in hazardous speculations ought to apply
with tenfold force to an union with the bankrupt dynas-
ties that yet for a little while encumber the central
thrones of Central Europe. What is his Prussian Ma-
jesty to us, or we to him ? We never seem to agree to
do the same thing at the same time. When in 1850 he
armed against Austria we were anxious for peace, ; now
we are involved in war, he in protocols. What synipatby
can exist between a Court supported like ours on the
solid basis of popular freedom and national respect, and
a camarilla just engaged in the interests of a foreign
patron in trampling out the last embers of popular go-
vernment which a revolution, resisted with perfidy,
yielded to with cowardice, and quelled with insolence,
had left behind it ? For our part, we wish for the
daughters of our Royal house some better fate than union
with a dynasty which knows neither what is due to its
own dignity, to the rights of the people over which it
presides, nor to the place it occupies in the great Euro-
pean confederacy ; and we regard it as a poor sequel to
the efforts which have broken the strength of Russia
that we should ally ourselves with Princes who are only
too happy to be ranked among her pensioners and sup-
porters. The people of England, at all events, have no
wish to improve their acquaintance with any Prince of the
house of liohenzollern.