The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-02 00:00:00

T_HE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 2, 1863.

the Federal Assembly, or plenum in the Bund.
The twenty States that have only one vote in the
Federal Assembly are to have two in the Directory.
So far the proposition seems feasible enough, and
likely to impart satisfaction to the several different
parties in the affair. It appears that this change
was sudden, for it was considered that the matter
was settled, but some of the Princes expressed their
disappointment of the arrangements made, and con
sequently the alteration was made. On Thursday
some very important business was transacted at the
meeting. Objections were raised to some portions
of the Austrian Reform, and the Congress has re-
moved some of them. In article eight a decisive
change has been made. A simple majority in the
Federal Council will not have the right to empower
the Directory to make war against a foreign Power
" which may attack .a Federal State having terri-
tories that do not belong to the Bend." This is a
very wise arrangement, and contrasts favourably
with the somewhat harsh and arbitrary plan at first
proposed, and which could not have failed to mili-
tate against the wishes and hopes of those Princes
who were comproraised in the affair. They would
not have liked to have been compelled nolens volens
to take up arms against foreign States, in defence
of the territaties of Prussia and Austria. Some
modificatioris were made likewise in article nine, so
that the Directory will not have the right to inter-
fere for she "prevention of disturbances in a Federal
State." Some "reactionary Princes," as they are
Ptylej,
take umbrage at the proposition which re-
to the attributes of the National Assembly.
One of these objectors urged his views on the ground
that the consequences would be eventually unpleas-
ing to those who designed its formation. "If the
Chamber of Deputies have the privilege of legislat-
ing in matters connected with the public press, with
the rights of association and domicile, &c., it will
gradually become a kind of Constituent Assembly,
a body which none of us can possibly wish to see
formed." This is a most impolitic argument, and
one which if carried out is likely to be pro-
ductive of great mischief. Little enough in
all conscience has been granted by the Im•
perial act of Reform, in the style in which
these faultfinders would make out, and it is
as absurd as it is unjust to put forward all these
objections, and compromise the success of a mea-
sure that might be better, but that might be far
worse in every way. The Duke of COBURG ap-
pears to have acted in a most sensible manner in
this awkward affair. lie made several propositions
to the Assembly, to induce them to allow the Ger-
mans to be represented by men of their own choice.
It is not surprising that he should be one of the
most popular men in Germany. He certainly de-
serves to be on many grounds"; and, if unsuccessful
in these endeavours, the people will not be the less
grateful for the energy with which he fought their
battles, and kept his own cosnsel, when so many
were against him. All honour is due to those who
thus pioneer the path of progress, and hold out
examples of a class that all might be proud to fol-
low. The Frankfort Journal, it appears, is very
indignant that the Emperor of AUSTRIA should
preside at the Directory. This is a very uncalled-
for fault to find. It seems that the EMPEROR has
the best right to that place of privilege, and on the
principle of Palmam qui nzeruit ferat, he has cer-
tainly more claim than any man, Whatever good
may come from this Ac,aembly of Princes and
Ministers at the Congress of Frankfort, will
certainly belong to the man who planned and
proposed the augrAst assembly. If, on the other
hand, the termitratrLon should not be so auspicious as
the orening, ihe blame will rest with those who
haveneed trleisnso,
u 'Ace d
apposition, useless
t o t
hceh apnl ga
ne sa, f
oarn
ad m presentedeli
o r
atin g
the ee,adttion of a time-honoured nation, that has
lon g
waited for the dawn of a brighter day of free-
f JOM than she at present enjoys.

CARLYLE'S FATHER AND CARLYLE'S SADNESS !
An American periodical has lat 31y published from
the report of a blind interlocutor a conversation of Mr.
Carlyte's,in which he paints with his usual force and quaint-
ness of style the portrait of his father, and deplores the ono
error that that sagacious man committed in giving his son
what is now called a good education I—" I think," said
Carlyle, " of all the men I have ever known my father was
quite the remarkablest. Quite a farmer sort of a person,
using vigilant thrift and careful husbandry; abiding by
veracity and faith, and with an extraordinary insight into
the very heart of things and men. . .He was an
elder of the kirk ; and it was very pleasant to see him in his
daily and weekly relations with the minister of the parish.
They had been friends from their youth, and had grown up
together in the service of their common Master. That
parish minister was the first person that taught me Latin ;
and I am not cure but that he laid a great curse upon rue
in so doing. Ah I sir, this learning of reading and writing
—what trouble and euffering it entails upon us poor human
creatures I He that increaseth in knowledge increaseth
sorrow ; and much study is a weariness to the flesh I—l am
not sure but that we should all be the happier and better,
too, without what is called the improvements of the modern
ages I For mine own part, I think it likely that I should
have been a wiser man, and certainly a godlier, if I had fol-
lowed in my father's steps, and left Latin and Greek to the
fools that wanted them.

LA NOURRICE !—After the nurse has had her
parting weep over her disappearing progenitare,
..he is summoned to the bedroom to offer a first repast to
Henriette or Gaston. The details of the operation aro not
ordinarily publishable, nor are they indispensable to the
subject—they may therefore be passed over in mute discre-
tion. But, at whatever cost to nervous ears, something
must be said about another scene which produces itself
soon afterwards, and which is too essentially inherent to
the question to be left in silence. A nurse, like everybody
else, must go to bed, and as in France she generally sleeps
in her mistress's room, it is under her scrutative eye that
she innocently undresses. The outer contrast between the
coarse clothes and awkward ways of the peasant nurse and
the pretty interior of a Paris apartment is always rather a
shock to the feminine proprietor of the latter, but the sen-
timent so created in her mind is carried to utter disgust by
the process of going to bed, which forcedly brings out the
personal peculiarities of her new domestic. It is a fact worth
the attention of so-called students of living colour that cer-
tain portions of an arriving nurse invariably present a tint
which, though it is evidently a consequence of perennial
unwashfulnees, is difficult to accept as a credible condition
of the human pellicle. A pair of naked Burgundy feet,
fresh from their native vine slopes, present to the asto.
nished eyes of the Parisian spectator a shiny metallic
mottled dark grey—they look exactly as if they were oxy-
dised. This curious hue, which is supposed in France to
be a special personal attribute of the wet-nurse, intended
by nature to distinguish her from her fellows, just as her
cap distinguishes her garments, disappears the next morn-
ing under the dissolving influence of the inevitable bath, into
which the terror-stricken woman is remorselessly plunged
moment
gmhleeernirntusttthhaelnehts,istatlitartahreeeess
h,s oeesf hthhoethus wantonly destroys, in a
ptp
itrnreatnnet cf
transforms
previous. filth. From that
un-
less she is an incorrigible brute, rsnahisp,hewrhiincht,hre
months from a gawky village lot
intelligent servant. But, even in the
evernetasoofnsaubclyeesssm, athrte,
process is laborious—not only is her
physical nature to be
thoroughly changed, but, which is more difficult still, her
language and habits must alter too.—Bentley's 111iscellany,
for Septenzber.
ONE REASON FOR FORSAKING ATHEISM. Mr.
J. B. Belabingtou, an Atheistic lecturer, and late
editor of the Propagandist, has embraced Christianity. In
a lecture, giving his reasons for the change, he stated that
in the month of September last he went on a lecturing ex..
pedition to Scotland. The first place at which he held forth
was Glasgow. There he saw the churches all crowded on
Sundays, and even on week days when there was service in
them, and it struck him as strange that he, as the apostle
of infidelity, was obliged to hide his head in a small room
street, and even there had but a thin attendance. From
not capable of containing more than 100 people, in a back
Glasgow he went to Greenock, and there the ease was worse.
All the infidels he could muster were some half-dozen
working men. He could not get a printer to print his billy
announcing his meetings, nor a bill-poster to paste them
up. They were accordingly printed at Paisley, 12 miles
off, but they were of little use, for no one came to hear his
lectures, and he began seriously to reflect that playing the
infidel prophet wrts something very like playing the fool.
On coming back to England these reflections took a prac-
tical effect, and after much consideration God revealed him-
self to him, and he saw the errors of the course he had been
Pursuing. Ile warned young men who, like hiniself,might
be led away by the statements of infidel writers, to weigh
them well before they embraced them,