The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(Prom the Morning Herald of yesterday. )

Lord Lyndhurst's lucid and masterly statement
last night on the policy of Prussia, and her position
with reference to the negotiations going forward at
Vienna, goes a long way towards setting both in
an intelligible light, and towards disembarrassing
the whole question of the perplexities in which it
has been the study of the Cabinets of Berlin and
St. Petersburg to involve it. There can be no
doubt that the position of Frederick William, ever
since the Western alliance has been consummated,
and those powers committed to a war with Russia,
has been, to a man of his irresolute temper, one
of the most painful, we might almost say intoler-
able, that can well be conceived. His sympathies,
and those of his Court, are, and ever will be, Rus-
sian, while those of the decided majority of his
people are against the grinding despotism, of which
they are sufficiently near to witness the effects, and
so far as they understand it, they go with a policy
which aims at the repression of an overgrown
power, whose influence .on the councils of their
Sovereign they have long regarded with deep
aversion and ill-concealed impatience. Tile King
of Prussia does not possess the strength of
will to overbear the public opinion of his people.
The memory of '4B is ever present with him. He
dare not pronounce for the Czar ; and the moral
influence exercised by the late Emperor of Russia
—the influence that the resolute ever possess over
the "infirm of purpose," held him aloof from the
overtures so frequently made to the Court of Berlin
to pronounce in favour of the Western policy.
Hence the apparent shuffling and vacillation of
Prussia in the events of the last two years, which
has placed her at a disadvantage she cannot redeem,
and has ended in her isolation at this remarkable
and eventful juncture.
The position of Prussia at the peace of 1815 was
sufficiently strong to have insured her against the
condition of vassalage to which her Government has
been reduced by the oppressive influence of Russia.
Prussia has been rising in importance and in power
ever since Frederick had left the impress of his
great genius upon the military organisation and her
internal polity. He found her little advanced from
that congeries of unsettled communities, called
Prussia, which the close of the 30 years' war had
brought together in a corner of Europe. He left
her a flourishing and powerful kingdom; but he
resigned his sceptre to irresolute, if not to faithless,
hands. The armies of the French Republic and of
the empire had overrun Europe. A league was
formed to arrest the progress of Napoleon in the
third year of the present century. Prussia was
invited to join it on terms alike safe and honour-
able ; but, instead of giving in her adhesion with
promptitude and decision, she adopted that unsa-
tisfactory and evasive policy which ended then, as
it has now, in her being abandoned by the confe-
derated powers. She had then the temerity to
declare war against Franco, and to advance to the
conflict single-handed ; but the battle of Jena
taught her a lesson to be remembered, and opened
the gates of her capital to the French army. The
consequences of her weakness and presumption
were yet too fresh to be forgotten when, in 1814,
she was once more and for the last time invited to
join the league which overthrew Napoleon, and
procured a lasting peace, and for her services
Prussia was rewarded with Saxony as an apanage,
together with a share of the ancient kingdom of
Poland.

We cannot help thinking that Prussia got better
out of the last European struggle than she had a
right to expect ; and it is but truth to say she has
devoted the interval of a long peace to the improve-
ment of her internal condition, and to extending
and perfecting her military power. It is said she
can bring 300,000 fighting men into the field, and
she does not want commanders of high reputation
in their profession. Such is the condition of a
power that is content to be the vassal of the Czar
of Muscovy, and by v course of policy every way
unworthy of an independent state has been ejected
from the community of the great powers now re-
presented at Vienna.