The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-03 00:00:00

THE PRUSSIAN ELECTIONS,

A letter, dated Berlin, October 31, says:--Those elec-
tions of which the results were not known when my last
letter was despatched have strengthened the Conservative
minority, which is now estimated at 40 deputies, including
some of the most notable members of the party. Among
these are Count Blankenburg, a man of some ability and a
fair enough speaker, who enjoyed a certain popularity in
the former Parliaments in which he sat, the last of these
being that which expired in the Spring of 1861. Ho was
was one of the 40 or 50 feudal deputies who survived the
great defeat sustained by that party at the elections of 1858.
M. 'Wegener, formerly editor of the Kreuz Zeitung, and
still an active and influential member of the party, has also
been returned. He is a lawyer and a fluent speaker, and
particularly noted for sophisms, a species of argument which
no one who defends that side of the question can afford to
do without. Then I find that M. Wantrup, notwithstand-
ing his ultra views and tendency to buffoonery, is thought
a great acquisition by his party, which is also indebted to
this general election for the return of Count Pfeil, whom
people here declare to be crazy. It is to be observed that
no town of any importance has returned Ministerial candi-
dates, and that most of those have been elected in the
rural districts of Pomerania and Silesia, where the Junker
influence is powerful, and Government pressure has full
scope. Letters from Pomerania mention the most outrage •
ous examples of the manner in which that pressure has been
applied. From various parts of Prussia we learn that in-
ferior public functionaries, those whose sole choice was be-
tween obedience to the will of Government and a dismissal,
which in most cases would have been tantamount to starva-
tion, were driven to the voting places like sheep to the
market. Everywhere the screw was pat on to the utmost
possible extent, and the result has been such as to show how
completely without support in the country the present
Government is. In a few electoral districts which may
be looked upon as close boroughs, in others where the
population is of mixed nationality, and in some so remote
that even the telegraph wire does not reach them, the sup-
porters of Government have secured 39 or 40 seats, the oc-
cupants of which the semi-official organ declares to be " de-
cided Conservatives." Forty followers for M. Bismark-40
gentlemen prepared to refuse to the nation the right of con-
trolling its own expenditure. The Absolutist and Anti-
Constitutional party has not yet quite got up to the mark
down to which it dwindled in the elections of 1858, when,
deprived of the Government influence and coercion, previ-
ously so liberally exerted in its behalf, it suddenly sank
from a commanding position in the Chamber to a little group
of 40 or 50 members. Its position has decidly deteriorated
since then; for now, with every engine put in motion in
its behalf, it obtains fewer votes. The Kreuz Zeitung of this
day admits a defeat, and that the decided Liberals have an
overpowering majority, but, nevertheless, it declares the
result of the elections to be relatively favourable, and that
this general election was not to be considered as a decisive
conflict, but merely as a political reconnaissance en force,
Doubtless the Absolutists will be quite satisfied with the
result if they are thereby enabled to persuade the King that
the country
is coming back to its loyalty, and that the 40
Conservative deputies in reality represent the flower of the
nation. If his Majesty is to be convinced of this, it will
certainly not be by the perusal of the names of those dis-
tricts which returned the gentlemen in question.
With respect to the manner in which the new Chamber
will divide itself, exact numbers can hardly bo given until
it shall have sat a short time, but an approximate estimate
may bo ventured upon. The Fortschrittt and Left Centre
will reckon 240 members. With this compact and united
majority will vote several small fractions--Dr. Lette and
three members of the "Parliamentary Association" (as it
was called in the last Chamber) ; President Grabow and
three or four entirely independent members, and (at
least on all constitutional questions) the remain-
der of the old Liberal party, Count Schwerin, M.
Simson, &e. These bring the Liberal majority up to 260.
With it the Poles, 26 in number, may also be expected
usually to vote ; while, on the other hand, the Ultramontane
fraction, or at least its majority, will habitually support the
Government. The greatest success has been, as was anti-
cipated, for the Party of Progress, which will have 150
votes, just three-sevenths of the whole Chamber, and which
under present circumstances is quite sure to find at least a
hundred other deputies voting with it on every question
that can well arise in the course of the session, likely to
commence within a fortnight, and destined, according to
the prevailing belief, to be but short-lived. At the previous
elections it can scarcely be said that in Berlin and the large
provincial towns there was anything like a serious conflict,
but this time it has been a hollow thing, and the rr ajorities
have been enormous. North and south, east and west,
wherever the largest populations are, Fortschritt deputies
have been chosen, and in those towns of any importance
where they were not returned, the seats were almost inva-
riably taken by the men who fight under the equally popular
banner of Bockum Dolffs, the late and present allies of the
Party of Progress. Probably no electoral district has re-
turned more thoroughgoing Liberals than the four districts
of Berlin. Indeed, not all the changes that have taken
place in the representation of this capital are much to be
applauded. Although M. Twesten may not have pleased
his party by his speeches in the last session, it is difficult
to consider that Berlin gains by the substitution of the
ultra-Radical Professor Temme, and the name of Jacoby is
one to which strong objections are raised even by very stanch
and sincere Liberals. Schulze-Delitsch and Waldeck, two
of the best of the nine chosen, will sit for other places for
which they have also been elected, and where there is less
certainty, should they decline the seats, of members
of the same party being again returned, than there
is in Berlin. The loss of M. Von Saucken-Julion-
felde will be regretted. He is considered to belong
to the old Liberal fraction, highly unpopular, and
which has been almost entirely turned out by the Conser-
vatives and the men of progress ; but he is an enlightened
and sincere politician, and one of a class and position daily
becoming scarcer in the Prussian Chamber. It cannot be
said that the absence of M. George von Vincke from the
Diet will be equally deplored, unless it be by the Berliner
Allgenteine, which declares it a scandal that he should
have been defeated by a coalition of Progtessists and Poles,
hie supporters being the combined Conservatives and old
Liberals. That the Conservatives should have voted for
him is not surprising, for he repeatedly showed Ministerial
leanings towards the latter part of last Session, and was
also addicted to attacks on the Liberal party, which is
heartily sick of his fantastical freaks, his bad temper, and
of that uncoatrollablo pugnacity which forms a prominent
feature in his character, and often induces him to fall foul
of a friend rather than have no fight. The Ultramontane
party has lost several of its most prominent members.
There have been eight candidates elected twice over. Of
the more prominent members of the Chamber, besides
Vincke and Saucken-Julienfelde, Patow, Kuhne, and
Ronne have lost their seats ; also Aurswald, brother of the
former Minister. Three of the Polish deputies elected are
now fugitives in foreign countries, and, did they return
hither to take their seats, would probably be sent to keep
company with about a hundred of their fellow-countrymen
now lodged, on charges of political offences, in the prison
of the Husvoigtei, in Berlin. Their names are Count
Dzialynski, von Guttry, and Bentkowski—the last-named
the companion of Langiewicz in his unfortunate enterprise
in Southern Poland. Of the 40 votes claimed by the sup-
porters of Government two or three are at least doubtful.
Ex-Minister von der Heydt, for instance, can hardly be
confidently reckoned upon as the supporter of a Cabinet
some of whose suembers he disagreed with to the point of
resignation, while others came in to pursue the policy he
declined to carry out. If M. von der Heydt be as adroit as
some believe, he may yet find a prominent part to play in
those troublous times of Prussian politics.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—HoIIoway's Pills and Ointment:—
Indigestion, Disorder of the Liver.—No fact in medical
knowledge is better established than that the chief source
of all morbid states, whether of body or mind, is a deranged
state of eigestion, usually originating in the liver. Hollo-
way's Pills speedily regulate this function. In cases were
delicacy of constitution render it unadvisable to take many
Pills, the same healthtul effects may be carried out, with-
out debilitating, by rubbing Holloway's Ointment
thoroughly over the pit of the stomach and right side at
least twice a day; no pain or inconvenience attends this
treatment. Its merits in vanquishing pain at the stomach,
flatulency, and imperfect digestion, have been fully appre-
ciated by the public in all parts of the glebe for the lest 27
y641'6,