The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

1,--cze—lt has long seemed as though the Greek
stilled never to progress beyond the
question svas,
ptance of Prince William.
..."
formal election ana 1.2"
to be able to denote the
We are glad, however, now
stages of its further advance, and to see our way to
the definitive establishment of the new Greek Go-
vernment, more promptly than the apparently le-
thargic state of what is called the " Greek question"
seemed at one time to warrant. The work of recon-
ciling its difficulties of detail has been one of extra-
ordinary complication. There have been at once a
dynastic question, a territorial question, a finan-
cial question, and a question (hardly less im-
portant than any) in regard to the general prin-
ciple and character of the new King's adminis-
tration. Nor was this all. There have been
various parties to be consulted in each of these
questions. Even the title of King George
has been a matter in which the views or wishes
of the Porte, of the Bavarian Court, of the Danish
Court, and finally of the three protecting Powers,
have had to be considered. The cession of the lonian
Islands, again, has involved the lonians themselves,
the protecting Powers, and the eight signataries of
the Treaty of Vienna. 'Where there are several
questions to be dealt with, and several parties to be
consulted—often with diverse views upon each
question—it car, not be surprising that these prelimi-
naries of the King's departure for Athens should
have been slow and tedious. We are glad to be
able to say, however, that they aro now pretty
nearly surmounted, and that King George has, in
consequence, become anxious to take formal posses-
sion of his crown at the earliest possible moment.
We understand that his Majesty will ascend the
throne by the title of King of the Hellenes. It
appears that, had he assumed that of King of
Greece, he would have perpetuated a designation
which had become as odious to the Greek people as
that of King of France was found to be among our
neighbours in 1830, when Louis Philippe chose in
preference the title of King of the French. That
was also a title vainly insisted on by Otho. The
distinction between this title and that of " King of
the Hellenes" was without material difference,in-
deed ; but hencefor ward, in political diction, the
name of "Hellenes" will be exclusively applied to
the subjects of the new Greek and lonian monarchy.
We mention this by way of example of the various
difficulties of detail with which the'protecting Powers
have had to contend, and which, we believe, they
brought to a close so lately as during the present week.
It will, as we understand, be the first principle of
King George's administration to throw himself
with confidence on the Hellenic people. He wishes,
as he is advised, to merge his foreign extraction,
and to become a Greek in heart and in spirit. His
assumption of the Government is to be, in almost
every respeet, as much as possible the reverse of all
that marked his predecessor. He is to have no such
Danish Court as Otho's court was Bavarian. He
will be attended only by a small Danish suite, and
he will for the most part reserve his political confi-
dence for the leading Greeks whom he will find
around him at Athens. In conformity with this
general reso ution, it is further determined that
there shall be no foreign army of occupation ; and
it is believed that this conclusion has been arrived
at with the concurrence of the young King himself,
as well as of the protecting Powers. Our object, in-
deed, has been throughout the negotiations of the
last eight or nine months, to give the Greeks a free
and native Government, instead of a despotic and
foreign one. We have found them a king who
appears in a striking degree to impersonate that
idea, The Greek subjects of Otho long complained
that they had themselves never had a trial. Their
new King has evinced, by his ready concurrence in
these arrangements, that he is desirous that they
shall have this trial. He goes accordingly to
Athens, placing his entire dependence upon them.
He wishes for no foreign army, and for no great
train of Danish followers. Count Sponneck is the
only statesman of distinction who will accompany
him. The financial capacity of the Greek leaders
having been doubted, and all parties being resolved
to repair the honour and credit of the Government,
selection has been made of the ablest financier
in Denmark as the special adviser of the King.
Count bponneck held the office of Minister
of Finance at Copenhagen for eight years, from 1848
to 1856. He was appointed to it in consequence of
his admirable works on finance and taxation in the
Danish language; and his political career was not
less successful than his literary antecedents. This
is the only important exception to King George's
unconditional reliance on his new subjects. The
vote of the lonian Parliament will now take place.
It appears to have been the original intention of the
protecting Powers of Greece to have first taken the
formal consent of the eight signataries of the Treaty
of Vienna—or rather that of the five others than
themselves. This consent, as we need not repeat,
refers to the abandonment of the British protectorate
over the lonian Islands, and to their combination
with independent Greece into what is to be termed
the new Hellenic monarchy. But the remaining
signataries of the treaty having waived their objec-
tions to the amalgamation, took, as we learn, the
common-sense view, that the lonian Parliament
should first pass the vote, and that they would then
give it the formality of their ratification. This is,
therefore, the course which is now about to be
taken ; and the vote of the lonian Parliament, the
conclusion being already forgone, will probably
be unanimous. This is, accordingly, the only
step which now intervenes between us and King
George's plenary possession of the throne which
he is anxious to assume. The completion of this
remaining step is apparently so near at hand that
it would probably make litttle difference in point
of time whether the King awaits or not its formal
announcement to him before his departure from
Copenhagen.
TIMES.—On the 3d of the present month the
Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia had
their long expected interview at Gastein. It is
officially announced that the German question was
discussed, and that the various Princes have been
invited to meet in conference. Certainly it would
have been strange if these two Sovereigns had come
together and joined in confidential intercourse with-
out being possessed by the most serious thoughts
concerning their own position and the fate of
the dominions entrusted to them. They must in
such a case have learnt but little from the
political troubles through which they both have
passed. Seldom has there been a more momentous
hour for both monarchies. The two rulers have cow
to make their choice between good and evil. The
course of events, the aspirations of their own or
the neighbouring peoples, and the influence of
brother potentates are drawing them one way or
the other, On the one side is the Russian Emperor,
who, however much a reformer in his own native
regions, is, and must be, an upholder of kingly and
military power in the German States. To back him
there is an able and wealthy aristocracy, exercising
great influence upon those brought in contact with
it, and there is also an immense population devoted
to the Czar, and ready to defend to the utmost the
provinces which they think their own. Russia, as
a conservative or retrograde influence, is almost as
powerful with some of the German Princes as she
was ten years ago, and, unhappily, this influence
has been strongest in the families which, from their
traditions and the character of their subjects, should
be most inclined to liberal government and the
policy of the Western Powers. But, on the other
hand, the forces which impel in an opposite direc-
tion are becoming so powerful that we cannot won-
der that one of these two Sovereigns has allowed
himself to be carried by them into the path of
liberalism, while the other plainly shows the un-
easiness which his domestic tyranny and his unfor-
tunate Russian alliance have brought upon him,
and, by his organs in the press, sometimes indicates
a doubt of his policy during the last few months.
Several matters were indicated as likely to be de-
bated at the august interview, but one alone pro-
bably was in the thoughts of the two Sovereigns.
Reforms in the Customs may wait for a season, but
the Polish question and the question of German
defence will not. It is strange to see the compara-
tively young Emperor of Austria, a Prince brought
up in the narrowest doctrines of Viennese priests
and women, rousing himself to a consciousness of
the State's danger, and to the necessity of averting
them by a wise and courageous policy, while the
old King of Prussia, who remembers every disaster
of Legitimacy from Jena to the present day, can
scarcely be made to understand by the remon-
strances of his subjects and his son that the safety
of the Prussian Monarchy is now at stake. But
slowly such a conviction must come over him. A
Bismark may have his influence over the old man's
mind—an influence kept up by constant watchfulness
on the part of his party, and, in fact, by never leaving
the King alone. But the ominous utterances from
all quarters must induce reflection. Domestic dis-
content and foreign menaces are increasing together.
The King of Prussia may have been assured at the
late interview that it was quite impossible for Aus-
tria to take the same views of the Polish War as
those to which be had committed himself. Although
the Emperor would have as much to lose by a
reconstitution of the old Polish Kingdom as the
King of Prussia, though Galicia might he demanded
by the National Government as well as Posen, yet
Austria had felt it her duty and her interest to sup-
port the Western Powers in their remonstrances.
Though herself, like Prussia, bordering on the in-
surrectionary districts, she could not bring herself
to make conventions with the Russians, or to per-
petrate acts like those which have been sufficiently
proved against the Prussian military authorities.
The Emperor might have informed his brother
Sovereign that though not prepared to go to war in
support of the six points, or to admit a French
army to a passage through his territory,he would

give his whole influence in support of the Western
demands, and if war came ho would throw all the
,responsibility on the pride and obstinacy ei
the Belssian Cabinet. This, and much more,
may King William have heard it he was
patient enough to listen and Francis Joseph was
1;ot too polite, to speak. Everything declares
that, in the highest questions of European as well as
Germa' polities there is a complete opposition
between the views of the Emperor and those of the
Bismark Mie:istry. • Austria, which has, however
late and haltingly, tried the experiment of a Con-
stitution in her hete:ogeneous States, is not disposed
at this time to peril her tranquility and expose her-
self to another disastrous war to gratify the fancies
of an aristocracy. But how far Prussia has gone in
the other direction may be learnt from the current
news of the day. First, there is the undoubted
participation of the Prussian authorities in the work
of repression in Poland. One paper publishes an
order of General von Werder, addressed to Count
Waldersee, the Commander of the sth Army Corps,
in Posen. The authenticity of this document has
been denied, but, we believe, erroneously. It is
dated as late as July 21, and orders that, in uese of
need, the state of siege shall be proclaimed in all
the districts of Posen and West Prussia whicts
border on Russian Poland. This step is to be
taken in accordance with the Convention of the
Bth of February, which stipulates that the Prussian
troop "shall commence operations in the trrritory of
the Kingdom of Poland" as soon as circumstances
render necessary the withdrawal of the Russian
forces from the frontier—in other words, that
wherever the Czar is not strong enough to repress
his rebellious subjects, Prussia shall step in and do
it tor him. It is astonishing that even at this crisis,
at a time when the defiant answer of Prince Gort-
schakoff is known, when the three Powers have
signified their dissatisfsction with it, when the
French Emperor is suspected to be meditating some
great blow, when the French people are beginning
to couple the ideas of the reconstitution of Poland
and the recovery of the Rhine, the Prussian Govern-
ment should commit such an act of folly as an at-
tempt to carry out the scandalous Convention of
February. Are these men blind to the signs of the
times, deaf to the voices of warning that are sound-
ing in their ears ? Can they not see that one of the
greatest inducements to an ambitious Bonaparte to
make an European war is the prospect of having
Prussia for an opponent ? The reward of victories
over Russia alone would be small indeed, and we
know that in 1855 Napoleon did not think it valu-
able enough to warrant a continuance of the war.
The reconstitution of Poland is, no doubt, an "idea,"
and the realisation of it would be glorious ; but the
Frence Emperor is now old enough and prudent
enough to look for something more solid. Do M.
von Bismark and his colleagues believe that Prussia
can stand by the side of Russia in a continental war
for the maintenance of such a Government as exists
in Poland without danger to herself and Germany?
Will such a tempting opportunity to realise old
schemes of ambition be neglected by the French
Ruler and his army ? When Prussia is caught in
the fiarant crime of hunting down the Poles, in
whose behalf all European States, great and small,
have protested—when she stands without a friend
in the world except her distant and powerless
tempter, what likelihood is there that France will
forbear from making her pay the cost of any cam-
paign on which the Emperor may decide ?

COUNTRY MARKETS.

I.

MANCHESTER—AUG. 6.
At our market this morning there was a moderate at-
tendance of buyers, and there was only a limited demand.
There was little English wheat offering, with no material
change in prices from this day se'nnight. American rather
more inquired for. Flour generally in favour of buyers.
Oats sold slowly at late rates. Egyptian beans and Indian
corn each 6d cheaper.