The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-12 00:00:00

GERMANY AND DENMARK.

(From the Times Special Correspondent.)

PRUSSIAN HEAD QUARTERS, HADEtSLEBEN,
March 7.

Mach to the disgust of the army, and especially
of the officers, to Nvom this country offers few re-
sources for passing their time, inaction is' still the
order of the day ; but we hear that a part of the
heavy artillery required for the siege of Duppel has
come up, so that there are hopes of something been
done before long. There were changes of quarters
yesterday, the troops that lay here having marched
north-west, in the direction of the Jutland frontier
—a move which gave rise to reports that Fredericia
was shortly to be attacked. The change of place
may have been merely from motives of convenience
in the matter of quarters, or it may have been con-
sidered. desirable to cover that part of the frontier
whence the troops had marched which lately lay
there. To replace the departed we have now in
Hadersieben the Gondrecourt brigade, which fought
and distinguisted -itself-in the principal action of
this campaign, the fight at Oberselk.
My last letter from Bolding was written under

pressure of the post, and contained no mention of
the ceremony Which occurred the same day at
Wonsild, a small village two miles on this side of
that town. Early in the forenoon seven battalions
of the Guard, three squadrons of hussars, the Bran--
denburg Cuirassiers, and three batteries of artillery
(all Prussians) formed a square in a &ill near the
road. Into this square rode the Crown Prince, who
then dismounted and proceeded to the distribution
of the medals which the King has bestowed upon
soldiers who have found opportunities of distino-
tiun in this campaign. As you know, the Prus-
sians have not yet had much to do, and the
number of the decorated could not be very nu-
merous. Twenty medals were to have been given,
but one of the intended recipients died the day be-
fore, and five were in hospital with wounds. On

the breast of each one of the other 14 Prince Wil-
liam fastened the medal, then shook the newly-
decorated man by the hand, and rejoiced him with
words of praise and kindness. He then remounted,
ihe troops closed in, and he spoke to them as fol-
lows !---

arks of honour upon several among you,
sure at being able to celebrate this
64 comradeS j—His Majesty the King has been graciously
pleased to bestow
and I feel particular plet.'.
day with you. It is true that what you have done has as
yet been but little, but already you have had opportunities
of showing that the old Prussian soldierly spirit inspires
you, and that you are worthy of the confidence placed in you
by our military chief. In company with our old accustomed
brothers in arms, our comrades of the Imperial Austrian
atmy, we have now been for a month in presence of the
enemy, and whatever may be in reserve for us, you will, I
am certain, fulfil the expectations of the Bing, whose heart
is ever with us."

A soldier, eager and vigilant for opportunity of
distinction, may, if fortune aids him, find them in
a petty skirmish as well es in a great battle, and
doubtless the medals given on Saturday were well
deserved, but it is a delicate mailer to address
eulogiums to troops before the victory, leot with the
intention only to encourage one should ,seem to
overpraise. The Crown Prince got over the djffi-
culty with his usual judgment and good taste. The
few words he spoke were exactly what the occasion
required, and his prais3 of the good spirit that ani-
mates the Prussian troops was perfectly well
merited. They have had a month of great hardship,
which they have borne with the utmost cheerful-
ness, the only complaint heard from them being
that they had so little to do in the way of fighting.
The Prince concluded his short speech with a cheer
for the King and the Emperor, and, turning to
General Gabienz, the Austrian commander, who had
ridden over from Hadersleben to witness the cere-
mony, he shook him by the hand. The troops then
marched past, and the parade was over.

Fair play is generally considered to be a particular
characteristic of Englishmen, and, however Danish
their sympathies may be, I wonder to see certain
English journals accepting gross fabrications as
truths, and making them the groundwork of unjust
and insulting attacks upon the Austro-Prussian
army now in Schleswig. As a general reply to such
attacks I beg to state in the most positive manner
that no cruelties or misconduct of any kind have
been committed by either Prussians or Austrians.
We do not see many English papers up her; but
we do see a few, and now and then some kind
friend sends a particularly abusive scrap to some
officer whom he thinks it may annoy. So far as
I have observed, the Prussians are comparatively
spared, but the Austrians are set down as barba-
rians, plundering Croats, and bloody Pandoure,
going about, doubtless, with little children spitted
on their bayonets. Ido not believe there are any
Croats in the Austrian army corps now in Schles-
wig; but it matters very little whether there are or
not, for if Croats there be they form no exception
to the rule of good conduct that prevails among the
troops under Marshal Wrangel's command. I be-
lieve that in no garrison town in England is there less
disorderly conduct and less crime in proportion to
numbers than there is on the part of the Geaman
army now in Schleswig. I need not say that Ido
not speak merely from my own observation, and
that I do not take my accounts of the behaviour of
the military from the military themselves. I ask
the inhabitants; especially those whose sympathies
I have reason to think Danish, and others who
have repeatedly had numbers of troops quartered
upon them, and they all give the same account, and
speak highly of the good behaviour of the men. It
is the rarest thing possible to flee a drunken soldier.
As to offences against property, I have heard ex-
tremely few alleged, and those of the most trifling
description. The only well authenticated outrage
that has come to my knowledge was committed by
a Hungarian corporal and four soldiers, who de-
manded money from a peasant, and, as he had none,
took his watch. Punishment followed quickly on
the crime. The corporal was shot, and the men
sentenced to terms of imprisonment. With such
rigorous justice as this, there are not likely to be
many infractions of discipline or injuries inflicted
on the inhabitants. In no way do the Austrian
troops merit the name of barbarians, which I saw
lately applied to them in an English paper. They
are as orderly and well behaved as any troops I ever
saw. I hear they have been taxed by the Danes
with cruelties and atrocities, but I doubt if evidence
could be adduced in support of such charges. What
amount of quarter they may have given on the
battle-field I know not; both at Oberselk and Over.
see the bayonet was freely used, but in both Com-
bats prisoners were taken, and in former letters I
deposed to the kindness with which the Danes were
treated, no difference whatever being made in the
hospitals between them and wounded Austrians.
At Oberselk Gen. Gondrecourt was near losing his
life by the hand of a Danish prisoner. The man was
wounded, a handkerchief bad been given him to
serve as a temporary bandage, and none were paying
further attention to him, w nen he took up a musket
and fired it at the Genera;, who was within a few
pices of him. Fortunately, he missed his aim. The
me by an officer who wit-
nessed it.

A number of German newspaper writers who had
distributed themselves in the district occupied by
the army received orders yesterday to depart within
three days. It appears that there exists at Flens-
burg a regular committee, with the object of sup-
porting and furthering the cause of the Prince of
Augustenburg, and that in connexion with it a num.
ber of correspondents have been writing to German

Since I began this latter the order itroeilltge4
bee/ given. 'Headquarters are on dble/16Si
in another hoar will have left for Wonsilaihata. S
to say, Marshal Wrangel and his staff—the Aus-
trian General going, as I hear, to some other village
in the direction of Kolding. Of the object of the
move nobody knows anything, unless it be the
Marshal himself; but most people seem glad to got
away from this place. Of course,this move north-
wards induces people to think the army is going to
penetrate into Jutland, perhaps to besiege Frederi-
cia ; but this is mere conjecture, and on Binh
matters you are likely to be informed at least as
soon as we are. I fear there will be great difficulty
for quarters at Kolding and in that neighbourhood,
for already on Saturday there was no room.
ot
Englishmen certainly manage to make their way
about foreign countries in 'the teeth of difficulties
which one would suppose insurmountable. Brack-
floaartdi,nwghtohwe otherwas
sinth In
e rn
bar-room
-roo intu w
thiethcothffe dee-orooormopeant
Apenrade, I suddenly hoard a voice., say to the land-
between us, " Can you speak English ?" The
words were spoken in Evglieb, and, few though
they were, a something in the accent brought to
my memory pleasant days passed amid the green
lanes of Devonshire. lit so happened the landlord
could speak English, as is the case with many of
his class in this country, and he replied to some
inquiries addressed to him by the stranger,
who presently came into the room where I sat, and
looked well pleased to find a countryman there. Re
had just come from Denmark, he said. I ventured
to suppose that byDenmark he meant North &hies-
wig or perhaps Kolding: Not a bit of it ; he came
from the Island of Funen, whither he had been sent
from England on business connected with a wreck
that had there taken place. He had been at Fanen
the day before, had come across to Jutland, and
then southwards through the Prussian linee. He of
course had been speedily laid hold of by the out-
posts and conducted to an officer. But be could
speak neither German nor Daniel', and had no pass-
port. What could be done with such an inexplicable
wanderer ? Had he spoken a little German it might
have been his ruin, for he then would have been
examined and probably detained for further investi-
gation and for the decision of the higher authorities.
Ignorance in his case was decidedly bliss, as far as
bliss can be considered compatible with night travel-
ling at this season in this part of the world. He
had no papers, he could give no account of himself,
but ho was manifestly an Englishman, for besides
that his external man testified pretty strongly to
that fact, only Englishmen run themselves into
such predicaments. He had had business in Fu-
nen, and wanted to get to England by way of
Hamburg, and the shortest and quickest road was
through Schleswig. It was no business of his if
Greeks and Trojans, Danes and Germans, stood in
arms against each other across the line of his pro-
gress; their quarrels were nothing to him, and he
had learnt at school that a straight line is the
shortest way from one point to another. So he
walked into the embraces of a Prussian picket, and
seemed to think it rather good fan than otherwise
that he had been marched for 20 miles between a
couple of Dragoons, with drawn pistols, prepared to
scatter the contents of his brainpan on the first sus-
picious sign. He did not consider that travelling in
foreign countries with whose language he was to-
tally unacquainted was particularly inconvenient;
and in this respect, considering his recent emporia
once, I was really inclined to admit that he was not
far wrong.

METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS.

The ordinary weekly meeting of the members of the Metro-
politan Board of Works was held yesterday at their offices,
Spring-gardens, Mr. J. Thwaites, the chairman, presiding.

The cash statement showed that the cash balances in the
hands of the treasurer were—On current accounts,
£106,815185. ; on deposit accounts, £82,800 ; and on Go-
vernment securities, £96,732 Bs. 7d.

MHE THIRD EDITION OF " THE SUN,"
jt. Containing the Latest SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,
gen be had Every Evening of
G. R. GLENIE, NEWS AGENT,
No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park.

COALS.—The LILLESHAL I, COMPANY'S
COALS.
Direct from their own Collieries.
Marquis'. 265. per ton. I Double.. 21g. per ton.
Top 255. „ Nut 5........ 10s. „
Deep 22s. „
Well screened and delivered within five miles of their De-
pots, Westbourne Park-road, W., and 17, South Wharf,
Faddington, W.
Best Coke lss. per chaldron.
Terms cash.
JOHN SCOTT, Sole Agent

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
r Mal DAY.—lioraing, 4h. 51m.—Afternoon, sh. 10m,
ro-moßalow.-Morning, sh. 29m.—Afternoon, sh. 50m.

The Weather—Sun Office, March 12, 1864.

THERMOMETER.
This day at Two o'clock 45
Barometer-30.03.—A the of half-an-inch since yesterday,
Wind—S,W. ; light breeze, and fine.

:44
‘fr;

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 12, 1864.

Another breathing time has been allowed to the
Government. The Cabinet is permitted to tide over
the Easter vacation. Immediately the Houses
shall have assembled again after the recess, it is as
plain as a pikestaff, that the Contest of Parties, the
contest so long looming up and so often postponed,
rust at length come on in earnest. And the Signs of
the Times as to the result of that contest are but too
apparent. Never have the so-called champions of
Liberalism so systematically fooled away their op-
portunity as our present Administration have done
ever since, now nearly five years ago, they were
inducted into office. • They came in, it will be re-
membered, by what billiard-players would clll a
fluke, by what Sir HuGil CAIRNS, in racy idiomatic
phraseology, bluntly called a dodge. They will go
out as those same billiard players would say " off
the spot,"and this, as the penalty not of one dodge
bat of a series-of dodges—every one of these latter,
unlike the first, signally and disgracefully un-
successful. They came in ostensibly to further
of Reform—bat, Reform they,
the interests
more effectually than any one else, more com-
pletely than any one five years since could have
supposed possible, have shut up altogether. They
came in for the inauguration of a rational system
of economy and retrenchment at home—instead of
accomplishing anything of which they have
steadily, during all these four years last past,
maintained a war expenditure in a time of peace.
They came in to maintain unsullied the fair fame
of England, to preserve undiminished the mighty
inflaence or prestige of England in the affairs of
Europe—but, in lieti of realizing either of those

noble ambitions, they have virtually caused England
to abrogate her influence altogether, they have
rendered the name of England at the Council
Board of the European Powers far worse than a
mere nullity, they have made it an object of
jealousy and suspicion, here and there, even
actually of derision, That such should be
the indisputable results brought about by a
Cabinet presided over by Lord PALMERSTON
appears to this moment a thing almost incredible.
It would have seemed a few years back incom-
prehensible to us that such should ever prove to be
the case, with the Foreign Department placed under
the governance of a statesman like Earl RUSSELL,
But that it should absolutely turn out to be thus not
only with Earl RUSSELL, as her Majesty's Foreign
Secretary, but with Lord PALMERSTON, as Prime
Minister of Bngland, is, we repeat, a thing just
nearly incredible even now. Still, incomprehensible,
almost incredible though it is, that the fruits of this
yet surviving Administration of so-called Liberals
should be precisely what we have, point-blank, de-
scribed them as being, is a fact wholly and abso-
lutely undeniable nevertheless. It is so undeniable
that the simple force of the recognition of it has of
itself—without any extraneous effort whatever
being made to bring about such results in the
way of internal and external penalties—the
simple force of the recognition of the truth
of its being so has so operated that it has led inside
the House of Commons to a distinct change in the
Balance of Parties, and outside the House of Corn.
mons, among the electors, and not simply among
the elected, to the setting in steadily and strongly
of a positive reactionary movement. Call it what-
ever you like, it is impossible to deny any longer
the reality and the almost universality through-
out the United Kingdom of that reactionary
movement. But, for something indubitably
of that character we should not have been
witnessing, what we have for some time past
been witnessing, again and again repeated,
the rejection of the Government candidate, and the
triumph of the avowed candidate of the Opposition.
An incident so often repeated, that the small majo.
rity originally appertaining to the Ministerialists,
upon the first formation of Lord PALMERSTON'S
second Government, has long since faded out alto-
gether, giving place on the contrary to as clear a
majority to the Conservative Opposition. During
the last four sessions, in effect ever since
the transfer o' Power from the Derbyites
to the Palmerstonians;the Opposition has remained
almost wholly apathetic and inactive as an instru-
ment of Party—upon the whole, so inactive, so
apathetic, that the old parrot cry directed against
them in preceding sessions, by way of reproach,
usque ad nauseam has dropped almost entirely out
of parliamentary phraseology, the old monotonous
taunt about a Factions Opposition. Loyal consi•
derations of an affecting earnestness have,
during half of the interval, during two out
of the four sessions last past, led the leaders
of the Conservative Opposition to foregoing
the often very tempting opportunities before them,
the opportunities more than once clearly upon the
cards, for assaulting the position of Ministers, with
every reasonable prospect of worsting them in the
encounter. Those loyal considerations no longer
interfere between the confronting parties, between
her MAJESTY'S Government and her MAJESTY'S
Opposition. Besides which the powers of endu-
rance without the walls of Parliament, the
powers of toleration within the walls of
Parliament have long and long ago been
utterly exhausted. Nothing whatever of any
kind of interest or value is being even attempted by
the Ministers of the Crown in the matter of our
internal administration—everything that is intoler-
able, vexatious, and gelling to the national spirit is
unhappily being done by them only too sedulously
in regard to the making the already visible and
flagrant confusion of the Foreign Policy of the
country, worse confounded. There is no earthly
consideration inducing us to wish further to retain
in power these do - nothing Reformers, these
meddling and muddling Diplomatists. The
signal for the change that is looked for has
become more and more audible at almost every
hustings to which the electors, whether borough
or county, have for a long while past been summoned.
The assault upon the Treasury Benches can nu
longer be delayed. Something in earnest is ex•
petted—not merely by their own party, but by the
country at large, immediately upon the reassem-
bling of the House of Commons after Easter—from
the:resolute Leader and the serried rank-and-file of
the Conservative Opposition.

There appears to he in some quarters a strong
opposition to the Government Annuities Bill, not-
withstanding the forcible arguments urged on its
behalf by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
evidence which he adduced in support of them
Setting aside interested opposition, however, it is
difficult to see what reasonable ground for corn-
plaint or antagonism can exist. The Government
are not interfering with private business in any
arbitrary manner. They are not suppressing the
existing Friendly Societies or preventing the esta-
blishment of new ones. They are imposing no new
tax upon their incomes, nor are they compelling
them to publish an annual balance-sheet. The
Government insurance department is simply to enter
the field as a fair competitor, possessing the one
great superiority over all others, of possessing un.
limited capital and credit, it is true, but labouring
also under several disadvantages which will enable
more daring or more unfettered rivals often to out-
strip it in the race. Mr. GLADSTONE asked very
reasonably what cause good and sound industrial
societies had to fear the competition of the Govern-
ment, and proceeded to point out many points in
which the chance of moneymaking is all in favour
of the private societies. One main feature of the
Government scheme is, that it is to be entirely self-
supporting, since none of its shortcomings can with
any justice or propriety be charged upon the public
revenue. Consequently, while it is proposed to offer
liberal terms to those who are compelled to drop their
policies, for a time, that indulgence must be charged
for in the premiums. Then, again, the lives of young
persons which form one half of the lives assured by the
industrial societies are excluded by the Government,
who limit their assurances above sixteen years.
The Government, too, will of course be unable or
unwilling to employ those commission agents who
secure so much business to this class of company,
while a still stronger argument in favour of private
insurances with many persons will be the difference
in the investments of capital. The Government
cannot invest their premiums at a higher rate of
interest on the average than 3 per cent., while
private companies, as Mr. GLADSTONE pointed out,
can with safety obtain 4, 41, or even 6 per cent.
This difference of income must, of course, make a
corresponding difference in the rate of the pre-
miums, and when we remember the many collateral
and incidental advantages which private societies
can offer besides effecting assurances at a cheaper
rate, we shall see that there is no reasonable ground
for anticipating any overwhelming preponderance
of Government influence. The claims of Mr.
GLADL,TONE'S scheme to support are not numerous,
We have alluded to the
but they are powerful.
favourable terms offered to those who, from illness,
Acoident, or loos of work, are compelled temporarily

to suspend their payments. We may see a striking '
instance of the benefit which this arrangement
would confer on the labouring classes by what is
now going on in Lancashire. Supposing that the
cotton hands bad insured for any number of years,
and paid their premiums with undeviating regu-
larity, no providence or self-denial would have en-
abled the most industrious of them to maintain such
payments during the dire distress of the last two
or three years—a distress bronght on them by no
fault of their own. If they were insured in the
best and most liberal of private societies their
claims would be irretrievably forfeited ; whereas,
had the Government plan been in existence a few
years back, they might have recovered their
policies, or at least obtained some compensation
for the loss. The working class are always liable
to such contingencies, not, perhaps, on such a
gigantic scale as in Lancashire; but what has
happened there to thousands upon thousands is
of daily occurrence in our large cities and towns
to tens and units. The savings of the insurer go
to the insurance officei and a working man is
never likely to be able to pat by enough to pro-
vide for illness or enforced idleness to such an
extent as to enable him to continue his payments
at such a time. Therefore this is a very sub-
stantial advantage of the Government scheme,
and we should be glad to see it extended to an
insurance for sickness or temporary distress from
loss of work as well. Another advantage to the
poor ie, that in the event of their moving from
one part of the country to another, they will
know where to pay their premiums, and bs able
to receive their insurances without the delay or
expense of travelling in search of them. These
are really all the special advantages which the Go-
vernment plan can lay claim to, and it will be seen
that they are all advantages to the insurer, not to
the insurance office, The perfect security will, of
course, induce many prudent artisans to avail them-
selves of it in preference to all others, but prudence,
as we know, is by no means an universal possession,
and more specious promises, reduced premiums, and
other advantages will still prevent large numbers
from insuring with the Governments The small
amount of the sums insured for, since it must be
remembered thin Mr. GLADSTONE'S limit is £lOO,
entirely prevents the project from clashing in any
way with the interests of the large established
offices. Many of these, indeed, have expressed
themselves most favourably about it—the words of
the chairman of one of the Scottish Institutions
being quoted by Mr. GLADSTONE in his address.
This gentleman considered that the new scheme,
would increase rather than diminish the prosperity
of the Life Institutions of the country, and spoke
in earnest language of the advantages it offered to
the poor. This is, indeed, its true claim to support.
If it is really for the benefit of :hat poor and hard-
working class which insures for such a limited sum,
it would be most unfair to withhold it from them
if they are likely to avail themselves of it. If they
are not likely to do so the scheme will soon fall to
the ground, so that in either case the opposition to
the measure is unreasonable and ill-founded.

Those who averred so confidently a short time
back that whatevermischance attended the Ministers
in the House, they would have an unfailing source
of strength in appealing to the country, will, it is
to be presumed, now change their tone and mode-
rate the zeal of their partizanship. The results of
so many important elections have unmistakeably
shown that the general feeling of the country is
against them. It is many long years since so many
Conservative triumphs were recorded. To find a
parallel we must take a retrospective glance at a
period prior to the time which Mr. DISRAELI called
the days of their " dreary Opposition," and survey
the party as they were in their palmy days when
Sir ROBERT PEEL was still their leader. It is quite
absurd for some politicians to declare, as they
always will persist in doing, that these elections are
all chance. One here or there may be carried in
consequence of the influence of territorial posses-
sions, or the effect of a chance irritation against
the other candidate, but so many important
places in town and country declaring against
the Government of the day is a striking
proof of their unpopularity. One cause
or another has kept them in office for some time
past; but they have no right to arrogate to them-
selves that they hold office through the expressed
wish of the nation. Where it has had as oppor-
tunity of declaring itself, with very few exceptions
the voice of the people has been against them.
Only very ignorant or very infatuated statesmen
can close their ears to such rumours, or remain
impervious to the dictates of such teaching. The
Hertfordshire election, which took place yesterday,
resulting in the return of the Conservative by a
majority of 2:55, comes strangely in contrast with
the bombastic language of Earl RUSSELL in the
Lords and of Lord PALMERSTON in the Commons.
While they ars declaring against all interruption,
and inveighing against impertinent interference,
or deprecating the inconvenience of publishing facts
which should remain State secrets till it is too late
to do any good in the way of fault-finding, one by
one the ranks of their opponents are swelled by the
candidates who have been appealing from the
Minister to the people whom he affects to repre-
s:nt. When the Brighton election took place, it
was argued that the Conservative got in because
there was such a division of interests on the Liberal
side ; but this specious plea cannot be put forward
on this occasion, when there were but two who con-
tested for the privilege. Ic every sense of the word,
this must be considered as a great party triumph,
and it will certainly be found to be such whatever
envy or spite may manufacture in the way of faint
praise or open abuse. It is well that such should
be the case, for it is evident to all who study politics
as a science, and do not take them up as a party
cry, that there is great need of a change. Toujours
perdrix is a well known source of complaint ; it is
inimical to the best interests of the country, which,
after all, should be the chief consideration that
one set of men or one band of politicans should
want power and place, and monopolise all the
functions of the State. Human nature rarely if
ever can stand this trying test, and certainly in the
present instance the experiment has been tried
quite long enough. There is every reason to sup-
pose that things are now much changed sinoe the
old days of Whigs and Tories. One who took a
survey of parties as they were when Sir ROBERT
PEEL left the ranks of his friends and assumed the
policy of his quondam opponents would have
been surprised to hear that in so short
a time comparatively, as it were, the
scene would be changed, and the parties take each
other's places in the opinion of the nation. The
Conservatives have gradually gained in strength,
and that must be mainly attributed to their in-
creased growth in enlightened and popular
views. The Liberals, on the contrary, have rapidly
fallen in public opinion. Through their fancied
security they have become reckless, and regardless
of those principles the profession of which won for
them their former mighty position. It remains to
be seen what will come of ail this, but at least it is
satisfactory to know that if the Government attempt
anything particularly unpopular or inimical to the
spirit of the country, they will not now be able to
boast with impunity of their majority, and point

with lofty scorn to the thin ranks of their oppo-
nents. The best way of estimating the real worth
of this Hertfordshire victory, as indeed of all similar
contests, would be to ralect upon what opportunity
it would have afforded to the Government had they
won it, and what political capital they would have
made of it.

The Peace Society and the Emperor of
the French.

The subjoined Memorial from the Peace Society
has been presented to the Emperor of the French:—
To HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF THE
FRENCH—THE MEMORIAL OF THEiCOMMITTEE OF THE
PEACE SOCIETY.

May it Please your Majesty,—The Committee of the
London Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Uni-
versal Peace ask permission most respectfully to express
to your Majesty the extreme satisfaction with which they
have observed the proposal recently laid by your Majesty
before the various Sovereigns and States of Europe for as-
sembling an International Congress to adjust by mutual
counsel and concession the unsettled questions that seem to
jeopardise the peace of nations, and to concert measures for
the mutual and simultaneous reduction of those great arma-
ments which have proved at once bo burdensome to the re-
sources, so dangerous to the peace, and so detrimental to
the morals of Europe.

Your memorialists represent a body who have been en-
gaged for many years in propagating the doctrines of peace
on the broad grounds of humanity and religion; but neither
have they failed to urge upon the attention of Governments
and peoples such practical measures for averting war and
consolidating peace as have now happily received your
Majesty's sanction. But to your Majesty belongs the signal
honour of having taken the initiative in proposing to the
States of Europe to substitute the arbitration of reason and
justice for that of the sword, and to unite in relieving the
people from the grievous 'Auden of those warlike prepara-
tions from which unhappily the nations of Europe have so
long menaced each other. The general and cordial re-
sponse with which the overture was greeted by the Go-
vernments to whom it was addressed sufficiently proves
how entirely in harmony with the conscious wants of the
age was your Majesty's generous thought. It is seldom that
great innovations, however wise and beneficent, succeed on
the first endeavour. But your memorialists cannot doubt
that your Majesty's idea is destined to bear fruit at no dis-
tant day, strictly in harmony, as they believe it to be, with
the dictates of reason and justice, the spirit of Christianity,
and the tendencies of a progressive civilisation.
And should your Majesty succeed in leading the Powers
of Europe into the path of arbitration and disarmament, it
will confer upon your Majesty's reign a glory far brighter
and more enduring than any that can be reaped from the
most brilliant military achievements, because it will be a
glory derived from the gratitude of nations and the well-
being of universal humanity.
And your Memorialists will ever pray, &o,
JOSEPH PEASE, President
SAMUEL GULNEY, Treasurer
HENRY RICEARD, Secretary.

The following is the Emperor's reply :
To MR. JOSEPR PEASE, PRESIDENT OF TILE LONDON
PEA.CF, SOCIETY.

Sir,—Your committee, in the address which it has for.
warded to me, congratulates me on having proposed a
European Congress. The exiression of its sentiments
touches me all the more because your society, occupying
itself, with an enlightened zeal, with tie means of main-
taining the general peace, is on that very account better
able to appreciate my constant solicitude for the attainment
of that end.

" Will you be my interpreter to you honourable col-
leagues, and offer them my sincere thanks f
Believe me, sir, with all sentiments, &c.,
NAPOLEON.