The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-19 00:00:00

PRUSSIA.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
BERLIN, Oct. 15.
The King returned to Berlin yesterday morning, and
was received by Marshall Wrangel and the Commandant
of the city. M. von Bismark and the chiefs of the
civil and military cabinets had arrived the preceding even-
ing. A meeting of the Ministers took place at noon at the
Foreign-office, and afterwards a council was held at the
Palace, which lasted three hours. This, and the King's
sudden return, gave rise to fresh reports of a change of
Ministry, for which, however, there appears to be no better
foundation than for others that have arisen at intervals for
some time past. The Kreuz Zeitung says, and it is pro-
bably true, that the council was bueied exclusively with
foreign affairs—Poland and Austria. The attitude of the
French Government with respect to Poland causes uneasi-
ness here. It is believed that the Emperor Napoleon
entertains the idea of a recognition of the Polish insurgents
as belligerents. It is not doubted that Prince Czartorvski
had been authorised to communicate to him the arguments
of the Polish National Government to that effect. Of the
moral force of the insurrection there can be no doubt, but
I have it from Polish sources that its material force in the
field is very small, and that it daily finds greater difficulty
in maintaining itself. The seizures of arms and supplies
sent to it have been so numerous and extensive, that every
weapon now in the hands of its supporters, may be looked
upon as having cost twenty times its original price, and the
frontier is so strictly watched that a rather considerable
corps, which had been formed outside of it, was lately com-
pelled to abandon the idea of crossing. Information that
reaches me from Warsaw tends to show, that the whole in-
surgent force under arms does not number more than
15,000 men, while fully ten times as many Russian sol-
diers are engaged in restraint and suppression. Still, the
determined spirit of the population seems in no degree to
gag, even under the unexampled rigours of the Russian
military Government, of which we have just had fresh
examples in the confiscation, at Warsaw, of the Grabowski
house, and in the imprisonment of the Bernardino monks,
in whose convent a chest of gunpowder was alleged to have
been found.

To return to domestic matters. The King's non-
attendance at the consecration at Cologne is to be
accounted for only in one way, although attempts
are here making to put a less unpleasant colouring
upon it. The Official Gazette of this date gives an account
of his Majesty's passage through Cologne, of his reception
by the civil and military authorities, of the speech he there
made, regretting that his late broth©r had not lived to wit-
ness the completion of the work he had ordered, of the con-
gratulations he offered to the Cardinal Archbishop, and of
the further regrets he expressed that " urgent business of
State" prevented his remaining for to-day's ceremony. The
whole took place, as the French say, entre chien et loup ,
just as twilight was setting in ; his eminence the Arch-

bishop conducted the King through the church, a shun

choral was sung, and the official journal adds, there was a
loud hurrah from the crowd as his Majesty left the build-
ing for the railway station, where he dined, and whence he
_ _

departed for Berlin, Urgent affairs of State are of course
just as good an excuse for a Sovereign as urgent private
affairs for humbler individuals. It is, however,
well known, that M. Pommer-Esche, Over-Presi-
dent :of the Rhine Province, and M. Moller,
Government-President of Cologne, were ordered to
report on the state of feeling of the population of that city,
with a yiew to a decision being come to as to the Royal
visit. It was proposed to get up a procession, which the
clergy and certain Ultramontane societies were quite ready
to promote ; the charity children, the workmen employed
in the cathedral, &c., were to be paraded for the occasion.
But cuch efforts would have had but poor results in the ab-
sence of co-operation and sympathy on the part of the po-
pulation, and those, it was ascertained, would positively
be wanting. The people of Cologne would have remained
at home, the Royal visit would have been a failure. As it
is, the break-down is sufficiently annoying, and it would
have been far better to have declined the invitation in the
first instance. As the King sleeps away, the princes of
the blood do the same, and so does the Duke of Mecklen-
burg-Schwerin, who was to have been present on the occa-
sion.

The publication in the Kreuz Zeitung of 'this date of a
letter from the King to the Corporation of a little place in
Silesia called Steingrund is, perhaps, intended as a refuta-
tion of the reports above referred to, that a change of Mi-
nistry has been in contemplation. The worthies of Stein-
grund had addressed his Majesty in somewhat fulsome
terms, saying that, wore it possible, they would have se-
lected him as their Wahlmann—their delegate to vote in
the election of a deputy to the Chamber. As this could not
be, they begged to know whether, by choosing men who
support the present Ministry, they should be doing what
was agreeable to the King, or whether it were true, as
some would fain persuade them, that his Majesty was nor,
fundamentally agreed with his advisers. The extremely
loyal but undecided Steingrunders had but one wish, and
that was to do what their Sovereign desired, and to go up
to the elections with the old Prussian cry of " Long live
the King!" To this application the King replies, that, if
Steingrund desires to testify its fidelity to him, it can
do so only by electing such men as are firmly deter-
mined to support his Ministers in the carrying out, of the
tasks assigned to them by him. "A hostile bearing to-
wards ray Government," he continues, "is incompatible
with fidelity to my person." And he insists, above all,
upon the necessity of fixing the military institutions of the
country on a firm basis, as essential to the security of the
country, and declares that the exertions of his Ministers to
that end are in perfect accordance with his wishes and in-
tentions. The letter or declaration is ono of those which
are written for the King, which he is prevailed upon to
sanction, and to which he not unfrequently afterwardshervee-
grets having affixed his signature. It will hardly
cord-
much effect upon the result of the elections.
inu to all the information that reaches me, arlehleiskeel acto be
of original
in a very radical sense. The frequent meet s
in
electors (urwahler) held in Berlin prove this g
as far as the
capital is concerned. Everywhere the Fort!chritt is in the
ascendant, and uncompromising opposition is shown to the
moderate Liberals. It is pretty certain that the Chamber
will not gain in respectability by the new eleenttr to abbe
elections. As
actle
for the next Assembly being found mo
than the last, that is not fortes b® omre
e
the upshot
anticipated. What, then,
is l
between K.,ng and
of this long and painful
people ? Assuredly the present condition of the Prussian
State is not one that can be viewed otherwise than with the
deepest regret by the friends either of the nation or of the
the immediate future of
dynasty. At a moment when. t
Europe is enveloped in uncertainty and even in gloom, one
and general discontent,
beholds in Prussia divided coillaiiing,
a Parliamentary
a detested Ministry, an unpopular
Opposition most violently entesed, a general sentiment
of profound irritation throughout the whole country, At
what a disadvantage does not Prusaia thus
drift on towards
the chances of an European war in spring. Rent and en-
feebled as she is by her internal quarrels, what respect can
she hope fur her power abroad, and what value can she ex-
pect to be set upon her alliance? Those who, as must
with English politicians,
only desire to see the Prussian be generally the case
esian
people prosperous, happy,
and free, and the house of ' Hohenzollern beloved, respected,
and firm upon its throne,
cannot but grieve to remark what
injury the present state of things is doing to the prospects
both of the country and the dynasty. The defiant bearing
and arbitrary acts of theta I3ismark Administration have
aroused in the Liberal party a feeling of irritation border-
ing on fierceness. Many of the things one daily hears said
aro bettor left unpublished.
The arbitrary restrictions im-
/wed upon the press by
thecourediirngr a host of epigrams and
ces of the Ist June have
had the Pree usual effect of 1
lampoons, !sassed from mouth to mouth. One may trace in
that public feeling has made in a
individuals the.
"Most persons (not of the small party
democratic direcatiT.
resent regimen) are disposed to ro
which still upholds tiSe3
Pere six months ago, and it is de-
farther now than, they
conciliation scouted by many
plorable to find the ielte‘ists'vs.e;;:
recent date, desired no better
who, up to a coroPara
than to behold it realised.
ian agent, murdered in the
e spy, or 11" The reported
Avarss,w—the crime which caused the
1 -easel del' Europe, at
at ea of the house and its confisca-
te. •en of all the int" e
ears to have been a singular
expulsie_ entherities—appea
tion by the u_ ,„see. According to letters in the
-e1 man, and his name was
and mysterious adveu.- - such a person
German papers, he was a mew,-
Dr. llermani. Some two or three years ass,
was seen in Vienna and its environs, and was repot._
be the correspondent of an English journal. It appears
that there, as elsewhere, he gave himself out to have served
as surgeon with the English forces in the Crimea, and also
to have taken part in the Italian campaign of 1859, A letter

`^'l to