The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—A few days ago an event occurred at Bonn,
the results of which will furnish a critical test of the
institutions and manners of the Kingdom of Prussia
in the 19th century. A Frenchman named Ott, a
native of Strasburg, and a cook by profession, was
passing through Bonn on his way to Coburg. He
had attained such eminence in his calling that he
had been for some time in the service of our own
Royal Family, and was, indeed, proceeding at the
time to join the Queen's establishment during her
Majesty's stay in Germany. After this he was to
be chief of the kitchen in the household of Prince
Alfred, and it appears that in celebration of this
appointment he had been entertaining a few friends
at supper on the evening of the occurrence to be now
related. At 10 o'clock at night, in company with
four of his guests, he left the tavern, walking arm-
in-arm with two of them, while the other two fol-
lowed about a hundred yards behind. They pre-
sently encountered a party of students, including a
soldier in uniform, and some words occurred be-
tween them which produced a scuffle. The students,
who are represented as being some twenty in num-
ber, laid about them with loaded bludgeons, and
soon stretched M. Ott's two companions on the
ground. In the meantime the soldier drew his sabre
and dealt poor Ott two tremendous cuts on the head.
This done, the party all ran away, and when M.
Ott's other two friends came up to the spot they
were just in time to catch him in their arms and
take him to the hospital. There his wounds were
dressed, but the next day locked-jaw set in, and the
poor victim at last expired after a period of most
horrible suffering, which the very strength of his
constitution only served to prolong. That the public
may receive a fair and unprejudiced Nersion of this re-
volting narrative we will now recount all the circum-
stances which can be discovered or suggested in ex-
planation. It is not alleged that M. Ott and his
friends were intoxicated, while it is positively denied
that they gave their assailants any offence. Still it
is stated that they left the tavern " singing," and as
the occasion had been a convivial one, they might
perhaps have been a little excited, and might have
claimed to take or keep the wall to the prejudice of
the students. We are, indeed, informed that the
dispute, such as it was, did originate in the offer of
M. Ott's party to take a certain side of the way,
though it is not insinuated that they did so against
rule or without right. The students had probably
been carousing also, so that the original character
of the affray may be conjectured without difficulty.
The presence of the soldier in uniform admits, too,
of ready explanation. He was actually a private in
a regiment of Hussars quartered in the town, and
was acquitting himself of a year's service in the
Line, preparatory to a commission in the Prussian
Militia. By a favour not unusual under the cir-
cumstances, he was allowed to pursue his studies at
the University at the same time, so that his appear-
ance and equipment are easily accounted for. We
may also add that according to the military laws of
Prussia soldiers are permitted, under certain con-
ditions, to resort to their arms in self-defence.
These details contain and exhaust every plea which
can be urged in mitigation of this cowardly outrage,
and to what, let us ask, do they amount ? It is
utterly improbable, considering the characters of the
two parties, that these three civilians, even if a little
the worse for wine, should have offered the students
any offence. It is absolutely impossible that the
students could have been compelled, in self-preser-
vation, to have recourse to the violence which they
used. They outnumbered their opponents by five
to one, and they were armed with formidable wea-
pons. We are expressly assured that M. Ott him-
self had not so much as a stick in his hand, and yet
it is upon this poor, single, unarmed man, standing
helpless before him, that a Prussian cadet draws
his sword. We must now state that the name
of this cadet is Eulenburg, and that he is a
nephew of the Prussian Minister of the Interior.
We observed that the public morality of Prussia
would be judged by the conduct of the Govern-
ment and the. action of the laws upon this occur-
rence, and we are willing for the present to con-
sider the question as open. Still, we cannot
omit to state what has already been done, or,
rather, left undone. Our readers will, of course,
conclude that young Eulenburg was at once ar-
rested and placed in custody to take his trial for the
homicide. Nothing of the sort, He remained at
large and unmolested in Bonn till the very day of
his victim's funeral, when he betook himself to Ber-
lin, and it is only just now that we hear of his being
" put under arrest." Nor is it certain that this will
lead either to his trial or his punishment. On the
contrary, the universal impression in the country is
that he will be allowed to escape unharmed. For
this assumption, too, the most damaging reasons
are openly given. It is not that life is held cheap
in Prussia, or that assaults are regarded as beneath
the notice of the law. So far are the Prussians
from holding these opinions that when some time
ago an Englishman, under circumstances of almost
irresistible provocation, struck a railway servant a
harmless blow with his fist, he was imprisoned for
months, and ultimately brought to trial as for a
most heinous crime. It is not in the law nor in
opinion that young Eulenburg is expected to find
his protection, but in the privileges of his class. He
belongs to the aristocracy, an it seems that in
Prussia young nobles assume a licence which in
other parts of Europe is two centuries out of date.
We may read in the pages of Swift or St. Simon
stories greatly resembling this affair at Bonn. In
our Queen Anne's time a young gentleman sallying
out of a tavern thought it no derogation of his
honour or his courage to run a poor watchman
through the body, and scenes of a similar kind were
then of no infrequent occurrence in the streets of
Paris. We connect such doings with bygone days
and principles, but it appears that in Prussia they
are practised still. However, there is a chance that
on this occasion retribution may follow. The vic-
tim was a French subject and in English employ.
It is reported that her Majesty has already inter-
ested herself in the case, and the Emperor Napo-
leon may not improbably think proper to prefer his
just demands for redress. That such redress may
be both speedily and amply obtained will be the
earnest hope of every Englishman who reads the
story.
POST.—The committee of the so-called Emanci-
pation Society have announced the dissolution of
that association in an address which, as regards al-
most every one of its statements, is, we regret to
observe, inaccurate. This society was, it appears,
established about three years ago ostensibly to " en-
courage the united States Government in the pro-
secution of an emancipation policy," but in reality
to co-operate in the prosecution of the civil war be-
tween the North and the South. It was formed, as
the address affirms, to counteract the " erroneous
and mischievous views of the origin, the nature, and
the objects of the war" which were entertained by
the " leading journals" and the " public men" of
this country ; that is to say, for the purpose of di-
verting the current of English opinion into a Fede-
ral channel. The highly rhetorical compliment paid
to certain " names which are illustrious in the in-
tellectual world," may be passed over as a pardon-
able exaggeration ; but the assertion that the
" movement" was " sustained by the enthusiastic
support of the masses" requires confirmation. It is,
however, in describing the " result of our united
labours" that the committee have made the absence
of fact most conspicuous. They take credit to
themselves for having been the means of preventing
her Majesty's Government recognising the Con-
federate States ; the seizure of the famous steam
rams was, they pretend, owing to their interference ;
and the sum total of their efforts is represented in
the dissipation of the " dream of a slave empire,"
and the collapse of the "pro-slavery Government
established at Richmond." So many mistakes, in-
cluding such a wide departure from historical
veracity, were never perhaps brought together in
any address of equal length. The suggestion that
the common policy of the Governments of England
and France was in the smallest degree influenced
by the action of the Emancipation Society is sim-
ply preposterous ; and, in point of truth, no
" slave empire" was created in the South, nor has
any " pro-slavery Government" collapsed at
Richmond. Slavery was an institution of the
Republic from the beginning, and North and
South were equally answerable for its existence.
Mr. Wendell Phillips advocated in one sense
the measures which Mr. Jefferson Davis, as the
elected President of the Southern States, carried out
in another. The antagonistic ideas met at the same
terminus, and both led directly to dimtnion. Negro
slavery, it is assumed, has perished ; every slave
is emancipated, and therefore the " peculiar work"
of this society is practically accomplished. Whether
the liberated slaves die of starvation, or how they
exist—whether they improve their freedom or abuse
it, does not concern the Emancipation Society. Its
"peculiar work" is done, and it is formally dis-
solved. Of course it would be uncharitable to infer
that the committee imagined they could, by the dis-
solution of the society, relieve themselves from the
responsibility which, according to their own account,
they have incurred. We may think that the Eman-
cipation Society exercised no more influence over.
the Government of Washington than it did on the
Governments of London and Paris, but inasmuch
as the committee profess to believe that their asso-
ciation formed an important link in the chain of
events, they cannot be allowed to run away from
public observation through the convenient plea of
peculiar work." Having interfered so far, they
might, at least, propose a subscription to alleviate
the misery of the freedmen, and send over a depu-
tation to confer with the President on the subject.
They must know that in the United States the
gradual extinction of the coloured population is re-
garded as the only feasible solution of the problem

which the emancipation of the slaves has pro-
pounded. The " miscegenation" theory is con-
temptuously scouted, and quite recently one of the
organs of Mr. Johnson's Administration took the
trouble to prove by a formidable array of figures
that ere long the negro difficulty would die out.
It is said to be merely a question of time, that
the blacks cannot hold their ground, that they
have been cut off by thousands in the war, and
that disease and deprivation will continue to
sensibly thin their ranks. The Emancipation
Society may conceive that it is better for the negroes
to perish in freedom than to subsist in slavery, but
on that supposition it might not be easy to justify a
tremendous sacrifice of human life. To emancipate
the slaves, to abate a nuisance, to get rid of a stum-
bling-block is intelligible enough, but it is not
philanthropy. The Federal generals, as the rule,
threw their black troops first upon the Confederate
bayonets, and it would seem that in so doing they
were acting up to the spirit of the emancipation
policy ; but to associate the names of Clarkson and
Wilberforce with such proceedings exhibits more
than a disregard of accuracy. The committee ven-
ture to express a hope " that the great republic may
long enjoy peace and prosperity, and that equal laws
may be re-established ;" and the aspiration is not
only proper, but exceedingly opportune. Peace and
prosperity depend, however, upon the re-establish-
ment of equal laws, and the equity of things must
be admitted before the hope can be reasonably en-
tertained. The Emancipation Society may satisfy
its sense of justice by mildly intimating an expecta-
tion, but the public conscience will not be pacified
so easily ; and if it was moral and expedient to
form an association in this country to co-operate in
the emancipation of slaves in the United States, the
morality and expediency of expressing an opinion on
the action of the Republican Government on cognate
questions cannot be disputed. If it was right to en-
courage the Americans in what was assumed to be a
work of humanity, it cannot be wrong to remind
them that their conduct in other respects appear to
be averse from humanity. We might say, for exam-
ple, that to subject the Southern people to the bon-
dage and oppression from which the slaves have been
emancipated would not consist with a humane po-
licy, and that Mr. Jefferson Davis was also " a man
and a brother." The English nation has, we appre-
hend, no special call to protect negroes in foreign
countries. We are not aware that they have any
peculiar claims upon us, and we cannot be insen-
sible to the sufferings of persons who, if their com-
plexion be fair, possess human feelings. For our
part, we do not complain that the Emancipation
Society intervened to encourage the North to pro-
secute the war against the South ; but the right, if
it was one, might be equally exercised on the other
side, and, so far from being awed by "games
which are illustrious in the intellectual world,"
whatever may be referred to, we still think, with
Mr. Gladstone, that the Southern people virtually
conquered their independence. But if the Emanci-
pation Society could influence the Government or
the people of the United States, it is remarkable
that it has dissolved itself at this moment. We are
not disposed to believe all, or nearly all, that is said
in the Republic of its relations with England and
France, or to suppose, as some do, that sentiments
of hatred and aversion are taking root in the Ame-
rican mind ; but when an English association
makes a merit of having assisted in the prosecution
of a war in which England stood neutral, it may
be thought that its labours could be profitably ex-
tended in the interests of peace. Those who claim
to be peculiarly the friends of the Republic might be
warranted in expressing more than a faint hope
that the sober sense and reason of the American
people would 'regulate their policy both at home and
abroad. We have no wish to disturb the Emanci-
pation Society in its retirement, but while the negro
question is not settled, there are other questions
in which philanthropy and humanity are not less
concerned. The slaves have gained nothing by
their enfranchisement that they are in a condition to
appreciate, and the Government which has achieved
their emancipation is fairly at a loss how to treat
them in freedom. But, quite apart from this and
every other embarrassment, it should be distinctly
understood that in abolishing slavery the American
Republic has only followed the example of other
it
s
own The measure was and is exclusively
own affair, and the merit accruing, whatever it may
international
position does not in any degree affect the
position of the United States.